Pochettino on USMNT’s September surprises: "We need to give MLS the value" | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

As is almost always the case, surprises and subplots bubbled as the US men’s national team released their latest roster on Tuesday, the squad that will face South Korea and Japan in the September international window’s friendlies as the countdown to the FIFA 2026 World Cup continues.

Yet above any single snub or unexpected name rose an unmistakable overarching theme: The heavy presence of MLS-based players – 12 in all, more than half of the 22 called in by head coach Mauricio Pochettino, with one final unknown participant still to be revealed in the coming days.

That’s a striking development, particularly compared to the final camps of Pochettino’s predecessor Gregg Berhalter, who included just three MLSers in last year’s Copa América squad, his final event at the helm. For Pochettino, though, it’s simply the product of his coaching staff’s ongoing evaluations of the player pool.

“For me, I think we need to open another way to see things,” he told reporters on a virtual press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “We need to give MLS the value, because I think competing there, I think the player can show that they can perform in the national team.

“It's not necessary to move from MLS to Europe, because sometimes MLS, under my assessment, maybe is more competitive than some leagues in Europe.”

Poch's perspective

The United States’ top-flight domestic competition has been a vital engine for the national team since its inception in 1996, though USMNT coaches have taken a variety of approaches to it over the ensuing decades. Some have blended MLSers in with the steadily-growing foreign legion of Yanks abroad; others have explicitly urged players to move to one of Europe’s top leagues to maximize their prospects for selection and playing time.

Somewhat ironically, it’s a London-based Argentine with no prior experience in MLS who is now taking a fresh outlook, having noted the competitive balance that poses different sorts of tests from the more top-heavy composition of some circuits on the Old Continent.

“We have some players maybe competing in different leagues that maybe are not so competitive, or in every single week compete in the same way that you compete in MLS every single week. But that is my assessment,” Pochettino explained.

“‘Oh, if you play in a team in Europe, you are above the players that are in MLS.’ That is not the way to assess the player.”

Earn your place

For a program that failed to meet expectations at last summer's Copa América, lost its Concacaf Nations League crown and fell short of a title in the last two Concacaf Gold Cups, there are no sacred cows.

“At the moment, it’s open. I don't have the number one. We don't work in this way. We don't work with player A, player B, player C – list one, list two, list three,” said Poch of his desire for constant competition.

“We have plenty of respect, full respect to all the players and all the players that can be called for us. I think all need to feel that with the possibility to fight for a place. If we want to be a really competitive team, we cannot nominate, OK, 13, 14, 16 players – these guys for sure are going to arrive at the World Cup and the rest, they need a few places to fight. Come on, that is not the real sport.”

World Cup looms

Every player is viewed in his own specific context, Pochettino added, nodding to MLS’s upward trajectory following the arrival of global stars like Lionel Messi and Son Heung-Min, as well as rising young homegrowns – including USMNTer Paxten Aaronson, the Philadelphia Union academy product who just returned from Eintracht Frankfurt to sign with the Colorado Rapids in a deal reportedly worth more than $7 million.

And what matters most of all: What they show once they get that coveted call into the national team.

“One thing that we are good with the coaching staff is to see and to project the players, how they can perform with us,” he said. “This way, the balance is the most important, and the players need to understand that they need to perform in various ways.

"After, when they come to the national team, is to perform in the way that we want to perform. But that is in the way that we have the plan or our strategy is, and in the way that we compare players.”

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