IRVINE, Calif. – A familiarly unexciting, if understandable, refrain has come out of the mouths of the U.S. men’s national team players this week and Tuesday was no exception. “It’s a coach’s decision, obviously,” goalkeeper Matt Freese said, the latest in a chorus of his teammates who have danced around the issue of who might play in their Group D finale against Turkiye on Thursday.
This time, though, the uncertainty is a sign of strength rather than a weakness.
The USMNT clinched top spot in Group D hours after their 2-0 win over Australia on Friday, while Turkiye’s defeat to Paraguay that day would ensure it would be a proper dead-rubber game at SoFi Stadium this week since the visitors have already been mathematically eliminated. The expectation now is that head coach Mauricio Pochettino will tinker with his starting lineup for Thursday’s game, even if his usual selection is fairly well-known. The starters for the win over Australia and the previous week’s 4-1 victory over Paraguay were nearly identical – Pochettino made one change in between games, forward Ricardo Pepi starting in Christian Pulisic’s place while the latter dealt with a calf issue that now seems to be old news. The coach, though, now has the flexibility to truly do whatever he pleases before the knockout rounds begin.
There are several meaningful things to take into consideration, chief among them player fitness. Pulisic trained with his teammates for a second straight day on Tuesday after missing all of last week’s sessions, while forward Folarin Balogun also re-joined training after receiving an extra recovery day. Midfielder Cristian Roldan, though, missed out on a second session this week while dealing with a muscle strain that has been described as day-to-day. Four very important players are also on yellow cards – Balogun, midfielder Tyler Adams and defenders Chris Richards and Antonee Robinson – and another booking on Thursday would rule them out of the round of 32 game on July 1.
The fact that the result technically does not matter on Thursday, though, will create a litmus test for the USMNT’s depth. This has not historically been a quote-unquote “stacked team” and over the course of Pochettino’s rocky spell in charge, that has remained glaringly obvious at times. He has spent much of his almost two-year-long tenure developing that depth but by force at times, several high-profile players dealing with injuries at various points along the way. The era of experimentation, though, has delivered several notable results – defender Alex Freeman went from his first MLS start with Orlando City to a World Cup goalscorer in the span of just 476 days, for example, and Freese was also similarly uncapped in June 2025 and is now the starter in goal.
The gears started to turn for Pochettino’s USMNT at last year’s Concacaf Gold Cup, 13 members of that heavily rotated roster making the cut for the World Cup. That list includes nine bubble players who proved their worth and a handful who were otherwise fairly inexperienced at the international level – like Freese and Freeman, midfielder Sebastian Berhalter and defender Max Arfsten went from newcomers to World Cup participants and midfielder Malik Tillman went from benchwarmer to a key figure in the U.S. team’s midfield.
“I don’t understand the discussions that were there before,” ex-USMNT player Earnie Stewart said before their 2-1 loss to Germany in their final pre-World Cup friendly when asked which player on the current team he would most like to play with. Stewart has championed Tillman for years, both as the former U.S. Soccer sporting director and now in a similar role for Dutch club PSV, where Tillman played before last summer’s transfer to Bayer Leverkusen in Germany. “He is one of the most amazing players that I’ve ever seen.”
While a handful have worked their way into Pochettino’s usual starting rotation, there is opportunity for the rest to make their case in the build-up to Thursday’s game against Turkiye – and hopefully during it. Forward Alex Zendejas said Monday that he is training hard in the hopes of his big World Cup moment finally arriving and the same is true for Arfsten, who might be able to slot in for Robinson.
“Everyone’s happy that we’ve already advanced but at the same time, regardless of if we’ve advanced or not, training is still very competitive,” Arfsten said on Tuesday. “It’s very intense and I think that’s the culture that the coach has created and no matter what, everyone’s still trying to prove something so it’s good.”
He, like several before him and a few after, skirted around the issue of whether or not he believes he will have a shot on Thursday. The same is true for Freese, who is likely nailed-on the USMNT’s starter for the knockout stages even if the possibility exists Pochettino might rotate him out completely for understudy Matt Turner against Turkiye.
“We’ve got 26 guys here who all want to play and who all are ready to play and working hard every day in training,” he said. “We, as a group, have full confidence in all 26 of us so really just we’re focused on continuing to prepare and work hard in training and be ready for whatever.”
Some players may have a better case than others. Pepi’s strong outing against Australia – as well as the career-best form he entered the World Cup in – will be something to consider especially with Balogun’s yellow card. Adams’ booking, coupled with a history of hamstring injuries, could see Berhalter fill in though Pochettino’s plans for the midfield could be impacted by Roldan’s muscle strain. Defender Auston Trusty’s appearance off the bench to close out the game against Australia could see him take Richards’ place if Pochettino decides to go in that direction. Then there’s Gio Reyna, who came off the bench and scored against Paraguay and is a player Pochettino has previously said he has placed a lot of trust in.
For the experiment-prone Pochettino, Thursday offers one last chance to tinker with his personnel and his tactics before the win-or-go-home games finally begin. He may have to weigh that habit with the fact that he has repositioned himself as a vibes guy first and a skilled tactician second, so far striking the balance expertly. The distribution of weight seems to be changing over the course of the tournament – the USMNT first convened almost exactly a month ago and between their pre-World Cup friendlies and their opening games of the competition, they have four strong performances as the foundation for what they hope will be a deep run this summer. Pochettino’s tactical acumen is increasingly hard to ignore and is truly just as important as the mood, down to the decision to select Pepi in Pulisic’s place on Friday and go with two strikers. It is hard to understate, though, how important the vibes actually are.
“I think the most important thing is no matter who’s playing, to go out and try to get three points just because I think the momentum of the two wins is what’s keeping the energy high right now,” Arfsten noted. “Three would be even more. At the end of the day, that’s the coach’s decision. We’ll see what happens.”
