NEW YORK, NY - On Friday, Mauricio Pochettino’s World Cup roster was leaked to the public thereby taking the steam out of the big roster reveal in New York set for Tuesday. The Guardian’s Jeff Reuter and Pablo Maurer Inglesias were the reporters who were able to unveil the news.

And with that there was a lot to break down. Who was cut? Why? What can we take away from the way Pochettino wants to play from his selections?

Here is the roster along with some big-picture thoughts.

The Roster

Goalkeepers

• 1) Matt Freese
• 2) Matt Turner
• 3) Chris Brady

Defenders

• 4) Max Arfsten
• 5) Sergino Dest
• 6) Alex Freeman
• 7) Mark McKenzie
• 8) Tim Ream
• 9) Chris Richards
• 10) Antonee Robinson
• 11) Miles Robinson
• 12) Joe Scally
• 13) Auston Trusty

Midfielders

• 14) Tyler Adams
• 15) Sebastian Berhalter
• 16) Weston McKennie
• 17) Cristian Roldan

Attacking Midfielders/Wingers

• 18) Brenden Aaronson
• 19) Christian Pulisic
• 20) Gio Reyna
• 21) Malik Tillman
• 22) Tim Weah
• 23) Alejandro Zendejas

Center Forwards

• 24) Folarin Balogun
• 25) Ricardo Pepi
• 26) Haji Wright

Very Defender Heavy

The first big takeaway from the roster is that nearly every heathy defender in the pool made the final roster. The only cuts he made were far down on the depth chart (Walker Zimmerman, Kristoffer Lund, Tristan Blackmon) who were not expected to make it. A case could be made for Noahkai Banks, but he has only played two games and 65 minutes since March 2.  

Chris Richards is dealing with an ankle injury that might keep him out of the Conference League final. Tim Ream is aging quickly. Mark McKenzie and Auston Trusty have been inconsistent with the national team.  Miles Robinson has not had a good 2026 for Cincinnati.

At fullback, Sergino Dest and Antonee Robinson have dealt with significant injuries this season. Max Arfsten is playing well but isn’t even playing fullback as he’s been moved back to winger. Tim Weah made the team and isn’t even listed as a fullback.

Central defense has been a weakness for the team throughout the cycle. Pochettino’s roster likely means he is going to compensate for that weakness by brining in more central defenders (including two fullbacks who have some club experience in central defense in Alex Freeman and Joe Scally) into camp.

By having this many central defenders, Pochettino is giving himself more time to figure out a solution in this final camp.

Attacking midfielder weaknesses

After much speculation, Gio Reyna made the final roster despite having a fifth-straight season where he has been severely limited in minutes for his club. Malik Tillman also made the team despite a subpar season following a $40+ million transfer. In the season’s final two months, Reyna was playing more than Tillman.

One of the big talking points is that Diego Luna did not make the team and it remains to be seen how much Luna’s injury played a part in that. He has not played in Real Salt Lake’s last two games. It is likely something that Pochettino will have to address. 

Pochettino did react to the realities of the player pool by calling in Alex Zendejas, who has not been with the team since September. That gives the team a durable left-footed option who can play wing or play centrally.

Three-man backline looks likely

On of the big takeaways from the roster is that Pochettino might be aligning himself with a pure three-man backline. Following the 2-0 loss to South Korea last September, Pochettino switched things to a three-man backline against Japan. The result was a win and a much better performance that kicked off a nice run for the remainder of 2025.

In March, Pochettino went with a varied formation that switched depending on whether the team was in possession. But it did not work.

This roster certainly plays to a three-man backline more than any previous roster he has ever named since taking the U.S. job.

He brought five traditional central defenders including four (Richards, McKenzie, Ream, and Robinson) who play a three-man formation at their clubs. He has fullbacks who push way up the field and fullbacks who can also shift to central defense in that formation.

Also, with the addition of Zendejas, Pochettino has yet another option who can play out wide in the attack.

This team was built to attack wide, which would suggest a three-man backline. He has an abundance of central defenders, attacking fullbacks, and wingers to make this happen.

Of course, Pochettino can still utilize a four-man backline if he wishes and he has a lineup to do that. But it would not be surprising if Pochettino decided to play with a three-man backline and then picked a roster to fit that approach.

The Tessman and Morris cuts

Every World Cup roster features several painful and harsh cuts. This roster was no exception.

Tanner Tessmann was a regular starter for Lyon throughout the season. Sure, he missed a few games at the end of the season, but reports are that he was for the opening of World Cup camp). Almost two months ago at the start of the March international window, Pochettino was asked about Tessmann and the Argentine was very complementary. He singled out Tessmann’s “brain” as being a key strength. He said Tessmann could play several positions (including central defense) because he knew how to read the game so well.

Flash forward to May and Tessmann is not on the team despite being a key player for a good Lyon team.

While Tanner was the most surprising cut on the roster, it was part of a bigger surprise in that the second biggest cut on the roster goes another central midfielder in Aidan Morris. Morris was a regular starter for a Middlesbrough team that just missed out on promotion to the Premier League.

Their absences make the team very thin in central midfield. If there is a red card or an injury, the team is not well equipped to handle players not able to go. This is coming on the heels of Johnny Cardoso suffering an ankle injury earlier this month that forced him off the roster.

Cristian Roldan and Sebastian Berhalter are good players but aren’t as versatile as Morris or Tessmann in the ways they can backup multiple positions.

If Pochettino is going with a three-man backline, he might not need as many central midfielders. But cutting Tessmann and Morris is extremely surprising given the seasons that they had.

On another note, it seems clearer with this announcement that Weston McKennie will be playing a No. 8 central midfield role. McKennie is versatile and has played a lot of positions with Juventus and with the U.S. national team in recent years but it is hard to see how he won’t start with Tyler Adams in central midfield.

Adams must stay healthy

Tyler Adams has dealt with several injuries over the years. He has missed long stretches of games this past cycle alone. But with no Tessmann, Morris, or Cardoso on the roster, Pochettino must feel very comfortable that Adams will be ready to go a full 90 minutes every game.

But what is “Plan B” after Adams? McKEnnie plays a lot of positions but not really a No. 6. Roldan also plays further up the field and isn’t really a shield of the backline.

 It should be a big concern of this team in how the team can still win games against good teams without Adams?

Concerning form

Whenever a roster is revealed, much of the debate centers on players who surprisingly made the team and the notable players who were cut. But the biggest bellwether for success is the form of the individual players. In other words, most of the analysis is on the wrong things.  

We can analyze every aspect of the roster, but the main focus shouldn’t be on the extra defenders or the backup central midfielders, it should be on the team’s top players.

In that regard, things are mixed.

Christian Pulisic enters camp having not scored since December. He presided over Milan’s spectacular late-season collapse where he fell completely out of the Champions League spots. In December, Milan was in the Scudetto hunt.  

As Soccer America perfectly put it: “The only way Christian Pulisic could enter the USMNT training camp for the World Cup in worse shape is if he was injured.”

If Pulisic cannot turn things around with the U.S. national team, it is hard to see the U.S. national team going far.

Things are also bleak for the No. 10 position with Gio Reyna and Malik Tillman both not playing significant roles for their clubs in the second half of the season.

In central defense, Richards had a good season, but it remains to be seen if he will recover from his ankle injury as quickly as the reports suggest. But none of the team’s other central defenders are thriving.

In terms of other key players, there are positives. Tyler Adams ended his season playing solid soccer for Bournemouth as they qualified for the Europa League (it was the team’s first qualification for a European tournament). The two strikers in Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi both had great seasons.

Also the fullback positions remain solid with Antonee Robinson and Sergino Dest.

The position of goalkeeper is one that requires a lot of attention and in the past few weeks of the MLS season, Matt Turner has outplayed USMNT No. 1 Matt Freese.

While the number of players in good form outnumbers the players in bad form, having Pulisic, central defense, and goalkeeping at issue at the start of USMNT is not good at all.