USMNT - 2026 World Cup Cycle

[SJinNewJersey]

Balogun with his first as a national1

Nice to have a striker finally.

 

[Live in the Now]

Keep BJ don't let Gregg come back

 

[robertmac43]

One thing this CMNT team has taught me over the past 2 years is that they are never out.

On the other hand Balogun looks like he could be that true missing piece for you guys.

 

[Chimaera]

Welp, good thing Cousin Gregg will be back to stifle any attack and bench Reyna

 

[John Price]

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Welp, good thing Cousin Gregg will be back to stifle any attack and bench Reyna

I mean, didn't Gregg start him in a Nations League final when he was 18? I feel like people are extrapolating way too much off a narrow window of time when Gio had been consistently battling injuries for the prior year plus.

Oh yeah, good job boys. Left no doubts these last two games at least.

 

[kingsboy11]

Just wow. What a performance over the course of these 2 games. Out scored the other top 2 teams in our region 5-0 without Adams, McKennie and Dest in the final. For the first time in a long time the team is fun to watch and playing free flowing football and the confidence was sky high.

My only fear is when Berhalter comes back in is that we go back to playing a rigid, boring style of play. Credit to BJ for doing what we all saw was best for this team and putting Reyna in the #10 role. As much as I enjoy Musah, McKennie and Adams in the midfield, we probably need to drop one of them to fit Reyna back in.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Just wow. What a performance over the course of these 2 games. Out scored the other top 2 teams in our region 5-0 without Adams, McKennie and Dest in the final. For the first time in a long time the team is fun to watch and playing free flowing football and the confidence was sky high.

My only fear is when Berhalter comes back in is that we go back to playing a rigid, boring style of play. Credit to BJ for doing what we all saw was best for this team and putting Reyna in the #10 role. As much as I enjoy Musah, McKennie and Adams in the midfield, we probably need to drop one of them to fit Reyna back in.

I'm optimistic that won't be the case. BJ has said he's basically just running Berhalter's system and these matches have also given us a pretty good glimpse of everything can work together when the whole squad is (mostly) fit. Who you sit out of that midfield 4 is going to (hopefully) be a consistently tough choice though.

 

[Savant]

I mean, didn't Gregg start him in a Nations League final when he was 18? I feel like people are extrapolating way too much off a narrow window of time when Gio had been consistently battling injuries for the prior year plus.

Oh yeah, good job boys. Left no doubts these last two games at least.

A lot has happened since then.

 

[John Price]

 

[John Price]

 

[Pens1566]

Really impressive 2 games they put together. Good intro for Balogun. Reyna with some nice helpers (hope he's ok, looked pretty hobbled during the celebration). Good to see them keep up the play even without Mckennie/Dest/Adams in the final.

 

[KlausJopling]

Gold Cup starts on Saturday. A few too many old guys who don’t have a chance on being on the team for my liking. I would have been good with Yedlin, Morris and Roldan. But Aaron Long? The good is is Tolkin, Reynolds, Jones, and A Morris.

Jamaica brought there A squad. Them and Mexico(because they need to win) I expect to be favorites. But we brought a worse team last time and somehow won.

 

[Basement Cat]

I agree with your list of "good" and also would add Cowell and Busio. My ideal XI out of this crop:

--------------Vazquez
--Cowell---------------Zendejas
-------------Mihailovic
----------Morris-----Busio
Tolkin---Miazga--MRob---Reynolds
---------------Turner

 

[Canes]

Defense and goalkeeping should be good. But midfield and forward depth is bad.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Gold Cup starts on Saturday. A few too many old guys who don’t have a chance on being on the team for my liking. I would have been good with Yedlin, Morris and Roldan. But Aaron Long? The good is is Tolkin, Reynolds, Jones, and A Morris.

Jamaica brought there A squad. Them and Mexico(because they need to win) I expect to be favorites. But we brought a worse team last time and somehow won.

In BJ we trust.

 

[HajdukSplit]

First time seeing the squad, have no clue why the likes of Yedlin, Long are still around, I get needed "veteran presence" but those guys have no chance of coming close to making the 2026 squad which should be the focus of the US coaching staff from now going foward, especially in a tournament like this where there is relatively little pressure to win considering the success of the NL

 

[bleedblue1223]

First time seeing the squad, have no clue why the likes of Yedlin, Long are still around, I get needed "veteran presence" but those guys have no chance of coming close to making the 2026 squad which should be the focus of the US coaching staff from now going foward, especially in a tournament like this where there is relatively little pressure to win considering the success of the NL

We are bringing the B/C squad, so it doesn't really matter anyway. The Nations League squad is basically going to be what we see in 2026. Likely will be some amount of change, but that squad has youth all over the place, so not many, if any will age out.

 

[John Price]

Berhalter's back: How U.S. Soccer's strange coaching search played out

At one point, the rehiring of Gregg Berhalter as USMNT coach seemed impossible. His path back to the role has been tumultuous and leaves many questioning the USSF process.

www.espn.com

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

First time seeing the squad, have no clue why the likes of Yedlin, Long are still around, I get needed "veteran presence" but those guys have no chance of coming close to making the 2026 squad which should be the focus of the US coaching staff from now going foward, especially in a tournament like this where there is relatively little pressure to win considering the success of the NL

They prioritized the Nations League with the main squad and are sending a secondary (tertiary?) group to the Gold Cup so they can release the A team for a break and back to their clubs for pre-season. They aren't going to realistically manage to field their best roster for every break and tourney.

 

[bluesfan94]

They prioritized the Nations League with the main squad and are sending a secondary (tertiary?) group to the Gold Cup so they can release the A team for a break and back to their clubs for pre-season. They aren't going to realistically manage to field their best roster for every break and tourney.

Yeah, but even then, leave the old folks behind and call up more youth. I'd drop Yedlin, Long, Roldan, Morris, and Gressel and call up Gomez, McKenzie or EPB, P. Aaronson, Sargent, and Sullivan

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Yeah, but even then, leave the old folks behind and call up more youth. I'd drop Yedlin, Long, Roldan, Morris, and Gressel and call up Gomez, McKenzie or EPB, P. Aaronson, Sargent, and Sullivan

The org has a thing about keeping these vets in the mix leadership/character/work ethic/mentoring purposes. I don't really have an issue with it when you're talking about players on the periphery that aren't likely to break into the higher tier anyway, by all accounts they are a help to the younger players and help to maintain a certain baseline standard through their familiarity with the NT set-up and system.

 

[KlausJopling]

Started the Gold Cup with a 1-1 tie with Jamaica.

Long and Jordan Morris just aren’t national team caliber post injury. Long pulled at halftime for 19 year old Neal, who isn’t ready for this level but was still miles better. I want to like Sonora but he hasn’t been good yet for the US.

Tuner stopped a pen. Sands was the best of a bad midfield. Cowell was direct and put Jamaica under pressure when he came on. Vazquez scored the tying goal late.

All in all really goes to show B, C, and in some cases D US players tied Jamaica’s A team with a front line of EPL players.

 

[KlausJopling]

Berhalter 2.0 era. Pretty much our strongest team (for those that are healthy) and then one young player at each position. Messi probably got Cremaschi on the team over someone like Noel Buck who I think is better right now. Buck has since been called up to the England U19 team and complained about how US gives him no respect. Cardosa had to pull out due to injury, replaced by Tessman.

 

[kingsboy11]

Berhalter 2.0 era. Pretty much our strongest team (for those that are healthy) and then one young player at each position. Messi probably got Cremaschi on the team over someone like Noel Buck who I think is better right now. Buck has since been called up to the England U19 team and complained about how US gives him no respect. Cardosa had to pull out due to injury, replaced by Tessman.

Agree with pretty much all of this. Sucks that you might lose someone like Buck, but you can't callup everyone.

Only thing that sucks in this window are the opponents. I mean we couldn't get anybody better than Oman and Uzbekistan? Come on now.