For the more than 70 players who have worn the U.S. men’s national team jersey since Mauricio Pochettino took over with a mandate to produce a good 2026 World Cup showing on home soil, March is the month that counts.
The 48-team tournament — which the U.S. will co-host alongside North American neighbors Canada and Mexico — doesn’t kick off until June. Pochettino won’t name his 26-strong World Cup squad until late May. But with just a handful of tune-up games to play before then – against Belgium and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in Atlanta – those exhibitions are anything but meaningless.
“The idea is that the World Cup will start in March,” Pochettino said Thursday during a conference call with reporters.
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It’s already been several months since the U.S. ended their 2025 slate of games with an impressive three-game win streak against World Cup-bound foes, a run that was capped off with an emphatic 5-1 drubbing of two-time champions Uruguay in November. That result came despite the absence of Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and other veterans of the last World Cup in Qatar, where the Americans reached the round of 16 before being eliminated by the Netherlands.
Pulisic and McKennie are expected to return in March if healthy, but Pochettino has made it clear that nobody’s World Cup spot is guaranteed. And with competition for places for the March matches just as fierce, the former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain manager insisted that whoever is summoned will have to earn that privilege. That goes for those who are currently injured, like defender Cameron Carter-Vickers (Achilles surgery), striker Ricardo Pepi (broken arm) and 2022 captain Tyler Adams (torn MCL).
“If they are not fit,” Pochettino said, “they are not going to be part of the roster in March.”
With just four exhibition games (the two March matches in Atlanta, along with a May 31 game against Senegal in Charlotte and a June 6 rendezvous with Germany in Chicago) to go until the USA opens its World Cup campaign June 12 versus Paraguay in Los Angeles, there is no time left to waste.
“It’s not that we have only four friendly games,” he said. “We have four ‘World Cup’ games that are important to take with the idea that we need to perform.”
Freeman Transfer Gets Pochettino’s Blessing
Fullback Alex Freeman is off to a Champions League participant in Spain’s Villarreal, another huge leap up for a player who was both an MLS and USMNT rookie last year. Pochettino was asked about the risks of players like Freeman and Ricardo Pepi — who is being hotly pursued by Premier League side Fulham — switching clubs so close to the World Cup and possibly failing to settle in right away.
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“When you change, it’s because you are convinced that you’re going to be better in that place than in the place that you are,” said Pochettino, who added that Freeman called him beforehand. “I said you need to be very natural and take what you believe is the best option for you, for your family.
“I am not worried,” he added. “I always expect the best thing, and for sure, always for me, it’s important that the player feels happy.”
Will Pepi Be Back in March?
The 23-year-old striker won’t return to action for Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven until the middle of March, just before the international break begins. I asked Pochettino if he expects Pepi to be fit and available for duty later that month.
“We’ll see how he’s going to come back and start to play and to perform,” Pochettino said. “With Ricardo, we hope that he can be fit and have time to assess him. Of course, we are going to make the best decision for him and for us.”
Poch praises Weston McKennie
In November, after leaving a healthy McKennie off the USMNT’s final roster of 2025, Pochettino said then he wanted the Texan to settle in under new Juventus manager Luciano Spalletti. McKennie has responded with a career-best season so far.
“It’s really good that he is playing in a regular way, being very consistent now in Juventus,” Pochettino said. “We are happy that our player is performing.”
