EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsThe 100-day mark until the start of the 2026 World Cup is upon us. In some respects, it seems like the end of a long journey for the U.S. men's national team is finally in sight. In other ways, it feels like time has flown by.Was the 2024 Copa Amrica debacle, and subsequent hiring of Mauricio Pochettino, really 20 months ago already? Was it just last year that the nadir of the USMNT was reached with the anemic performances at the Concacaf Nations League? Did the team's subsequent recovery really happen?All of those questions can be answered in the affirmative, but now the real pressure cooker begins. There is the final pre-World Cup international window at the end of the month. There's also plenty of jockeying among the players to see who goes to the World Cup and who stays home.It is how the U.S. handles those situations that will ultimately determine how the team does. But at present, there are still plenty of additional questions to be answered. ESPN put together a roundtable of former U.S. international defender Steven Cherundolo, former USMNT standout Landon Donovan, former U.S. manager Bruce Arena, former World Cup goal scorer Eric Wynalda, former U.S. forward Herculez Gomez and three-time World Cup goalkeeper Kasey Keller to assess where things stand, and how the World Cup might go for the Americans.Editor's note: These responses have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.How far does the U.S. have to go for 2026 to be considered a successful World Cup? Using the old 32-team format as the barometer, you might've said the quarterfinals, but with this new 48-team field, it will take two knockout wins to get there. Is that feasible for this group, and is that a realistic expectation?Cherundolo: I do like the team's form right now. The trend is our friend. So I would say yes, I believe that the team can make it to the quarterfinals. But I would say if we make it to the round of 16, I think if we're playing against a really good team and lose after a good performance, I think we should be proud of them.Donovan: My view of success is Does the team captivate the nation? and I know that's subjective. Do they make a significant run into the knockouts? Meaning for some crazy reason, if they get drawn with France in the round of 32 and you bow out in a really well-fought game, that's OK, that's respectable. Or are there one or two or three iconic moments that really move the needle? So I'm sort of viewing it through that lens vs. we have to get this far.Wynalda: Semifinals. Yes, it's realistic. Worst-case scenario, third-place finish. I know what the 12th man will do for you, and these guys are good. Folarin Balogun just scored two goals against Paris Saint-Germain. I think we're in a good spot.Arena: I don't anticipate us winning the World Cup, but I think at a minimum we should probably make the round of 16. I think being a team, playing at home and being seeded, the group play is going to be a given. And then you're in round of 32 and we should win that game and be the in round of 16; from there, anything goes.Gomez: The margins are so small here, so thin. Two very likely scenarios here, and if the U.S. wants the best scenario, it has to win the group. If you win the group, the most likely scenario, if everything goes to plan, is a third-place team that you should most likely get by; and in the round of 16, Belgium; and after you beat this version of Belgium, if you can do that, a quarterfinal appearance against Spain, and that's the end of the road. But if you come second in this group, it's Argentina in the next round. Quarterfinals if they're lucky, and that's gotta be the bar.This is perhaps the most talented U.S. team ever, but how does it compare to successful sides of 2002 or 2010?Donovan: There's no doubt that this is the most impressive group of players based on the club teams they play for. That is unequivocal. How do they compare to other teams? They don't have a signature win against a real team, ever. We beat a Spanish team (in 2009) that hadn't lost in 35 games. So I don't know how you could say with a straight face that they're better than any of those teams until they do that, and hopefully this summer they do.Wynalda: It's amazing how we just eliminated '94 completely. I think it should be compared mostly to '94, because that's the determining factor of how well we do, and because we'll have the opportunity to be playing at home -- that home advantage will certainly kick in. But when you talk about the other teams, it's going to be very hard for somebody to convince me that Robbie Findley is better than Roy Wegerle and Herculez Gomez is better than anybody. In 2002, we got lucky.Arena: In my selfish opinion, yes, 2002 was better, simply because obviously at the time, we still had pretty elite players, not only in Europe, but in MLS and probably more experienced. I think hardened from qualifying, not only for 2002, but previous to that. So they went through a lot, and when they went to South Korea, they were prepared for tough games. And I think this group in 2026 has the advantage of playing at home, so maybe that's not as important, but I think the group in 2002 was challenged before they even got to South Korea, and they were ready for the battle.How much pressure will the team be under to perform in a World Cup on home soil, and how hard will it be for the players to cope with that?Cherundolo: I think that's where Pochettino has to do most of his coaching or managing. It's not so much the tactics, the X's and O's or the fitness; the guys will be ready to go, they're going to be motivated. It's really going to be about controlling emotions, managing emotions and expectations. How well can you manage all of those emotions and feelings and expectations within the group is going to determine how focused we are on game day, because these games and these tournaments are decided by moments, and those moments are always decided by focus.Donovan: The way personally I was built, it was like 99% excitement and then a little nerves right before kickoff. But a lot of players are built differently, and so Pochettino's job will be to skew those percentages more toward [excitement] because it's the same energy really. It's all about how you manifest it.Wynalda: They'll be fine. They'll be inspired. I think it was difficult for the '94 group because we played in small clubs. But in essence, our guys are playing at clubs like Juventus and AC Milan and in the Premier League, and I just don't think that that aspect will make them nervous. If anything, it'll inspire them to be better.Gomez: There is no pressure in the United States like there is in other countries. The reality is that the U.S. can crash out of this home World Cup and maybe it's in the news cycle for three, four, five, six days nationally, and after that, [those in soccer circles] will still be talking about it, but that's it. These guys will go out in the streets, they may get recognized, but they're not getting tomatoes thrown at them, they're not going to have threats made against them, they're not going to be in an uncomfortable setting. Whereas if you're in another country, if England bombs out of this World Cup, those guys aren't going to go outside. They're going to read about it, hear about it, see it for the next two, three, four, five months, and then the next international tournament, it's going to be brought up again. It's going to be one of the biggest failures of their lives; not sporting, just in their lives.Keller: I think if you look at where the players are playing, individually, you've gotta look at this current team and say, "OK, I expect good things from that group." But they haven't had to play two years of competitive matches. If you've never played a Honduras or an El Salvador or a Trinidad and Tobago, you play them in a friendly and then you play them in a World Cup qualifier, in their country, where if they win the match you know their president is going to declare a national holiday, it is a completely different level of pressure and of commitment. And I think that is one of the worries that I have.How has Pochettino turned this team around since September?Donovan: He's made it an honor to play for the national team again. And it's crazy to say that that was never ever an issue with a U.S. national team, but now there's real pride again in playing for your country, and I don't think any of those guys take it for granted, and I think that's been the most important thing he has done.Wynalda: By thinning the herd. I think he had to go through a trial process where had a bunch of people that shouldn't have been there and they're no longer with the group, and he's slowly but surely building a mentality of a group that is now realizing that it's going to be a hell of a lot harder than they thought to make this team.Arena: They've won a couple of friendlies, right? I don't think it adds up to a whole lot, but I think you'll find out when they have some real games to play at the World Cup. But he has done a good job with the team. I just think giving them a little bit of confidence, and it seems like they're a team that has grown together and that's a credit to the coach and his staff.Pochettino has repeatedly talked about changing the culture within the national team. What about that culture needed to change, and how much of a difference will Pochettino's efforts make this summer?Cherundolo: When it's only friendlies, it makes the national team maybe less influential and less important at moments. I think you saw that on the field, but again, I think of late I've been very impressed with the mentality and the performances of the group. And what I always look out for in a team is: Does the team have spirit? Does the team have an identity? And it looks like they've formed an identity just in time.Donovan: Through 2022, everything seemed fine and even a little bit after, and then some bad results happened and you saw everything got exposed. The entitlement to play for your country, the sort of laissez-faire attitude coming into national team games because friendlies didn't feel that important. Reluctance to come into some games, you didn't feel like it. That sort of stuff had crept in, and we didn't really realize it until there were some bad results. The light was shone on it and then it came to light, and then just speaking to Pochettino a bit over the course of the last year, he saw it early on and it was important for him to implement the changes necessary.Wynalda: He is teaching us something that we should have been more accepting of all along, that it's a real soccer culture. I think Pochettino doesn't focus on the things that we've always focused on. Do these guys get along? Do they need to get along? What are our common goals? What is the collective goal? And can we accomplish that without worrying so much about who's comfortable or who's happy? We don't have time for that s--- anymore. It's time to focus on a singular goal of competing and winning.Gomez: This team, before Pochettino, was soft. It was a team that, if you got in their face, they'd back down. It was a team that, when the moment got great, they buckled. And in the past five or six friendlies, that's changed, the message changed, the culture changed. Last summer, when Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah don't show up; when the group is divided between Gold Cup, Club World Cup and those who weren't there, a line was drawn in the sand: you're with this program or you're not. I don't care who you are, if you think you're a household name or not, you gotta show up, you gotta put in the work, you gotta be here for the group.Keller: It was the biggest change that had to happen because players took their foot off the gas, and that's inexcusable. We had this situation where he had to build competition because the guys that should've been competing, weren't, and that worries me a little bit. The fact that we had no competitive matches, that we had somehow lost this competitive edge, that frightened me. Yes, I'm relieved it's emerged in the past couple friendlies and we've seen a little bit of an edge, but now it has to continue.How do the sacrifices this generation of players make (leaving home at an early age in order to chase the dream of playing at the highest level) compare to the grind that previous generations had to endure (fighting and scrapping for any opportunity to play internationally)?Donovan: There's no financial pressure anymore on the players. [Before], there were financial pressures. Forget about playing in front of home crowds. They were trying to put food on the table, and that was very real. That wasn't like, 'Oh, you're making a half a million dollars, quit your whining.' That was like, 'No, we're trying to scrape together 60, 80, a hundred grand a year to survive and feed our families.'The difference now -- and what makes it harder on this generation, in my opinion -- is the invention of social media. And so everything is magnified, especially for players of color, I would imagine, just because of all the crap that happens.Wynalda: Well, I don't know how much these guys have sacrificed. I think they've been given an easier path. I mean, we were hacking through the jungle with a machete on a dirt road, and they've had a paved road with a lot of gasoline in that car, so they were able to move quicker than we were because when we talk about the growth of the game, a lot has been done to make their road easier. So I don't think they've really persevered. I think they've embraced the resources that were afforded to them, and we expedited the process.Arena: Well, I think the reason why Pulisic and Weston McKennie can go abroad and be as successful as they are is because the development system in our country is much improved now. We have very good young players. Guys like Pulisic and McKennie are recruited to go abroad. They're not going there trying to catch somebody's eye and work their tails off to make a club. They're sought after and they're sought after because they're coming from a good environment.The U.S. has a three-decade history of producing elite goalkeepers who have shone overseas. How confident are you in the domestic-based options (namely Matt Freese and Matt Turner) who look likely to start this summer?Cherundolo: Just to be blunt, we had better goalkeepers in the past, but I think Freese is definitely capable and Turner and whoever has been in goal recently and who will be in goal during the World Cup, I think is definitely good enough to fulfill our potential as a team, but they certainly won't be the star of the team. Hopefully.Donovan: Freese has grown on me a lot. The problem is we just don't know with Matt Freese. So going into every previous tournament, we knew that we had, at least the ones I was involved in, we had a top, top, top goalie, like world-class goalkeeper. And so that was never even a thought in my brain going into a tourney, it was like, 'Goalkeeper is easy. We got that one sorted.' So we just don't know with Matt. Matt could put himself in that conversation with a phenomenal tournament, but the challenge right now is we don't know.So am I confident? No; I'm hopeful, but you can't be confident. We just don't know yet.Arena: Freese and Turner are solid goalkeepers. No one's ever going to replicate Brad Friedel's 2002 World Cup, nor probably Tim Howard's in 2014. Those are great goalkeepers, not only for the U.S. team, but probably recognized globally as outstanding goalkeepers. So that's not easy, and I'm sure it's going to be difficult when Lionel Messi retires and Argentina is looking for their next playmaker. So those things happen.Keller: Pochettino kept a lot of things open, gave a lot of guys opportunities, but the one thing he didn't do was change the goalkeeper. I would've been OK with that if Freese would've been playing brilliantly, but that wasn't particularly the case. Freese did fine, but it wasn't a case where I looked at Freese and thought, "Wow, that was a great performance." So that's why it surprised me that Pochettino didn't give more opportunities to maybe Turner or maybe Zack Steffen or maybe somebody else.Inconsistency at striker has been a theme of past World Cups for the U.S., but in the run-up, there are at least four No. 9s (Balogun, Ricardo Pepi, Haji Wright, Patrick Agyemang) who are operating at a high level. Which one do you think gives the U.S. the best chance at success this summer?Donovan: [Balogun] does for sure. I saw him play in person against Ecuador, and he's just different. And I'm not saying the English Championship's the top, top level, but the way Wright and Agyemang are performing, the way [Balogun] is performing, the way Pepi when healthy performs, that is as deep a striker pool as we've ever had. No question. I think [Balogun], he is different than the other three.Wynalda: I think it's clear, and I think that's beautiful. I think it's Balogun. His movement to the right and left is equal. He's good on the link-up. He's a smart runner. He's not someone like Brian McBride, he's just going to rely on an aerial duel. He's not somebody like me that likes to drift wide or even Pulisic who likes to drift wide. And he's not a guy who's basically going to let us down in the three facets where we need him: shooting, passing, holdup play, that's it. I mean, he's fast enough, he's sharp enough and he's motivated. So as long as he's healthy, I think we're in a really good spot.Gomez: You're going to be defending a lot, you're going to need a No. 9 that is mobile, you're going to need a No. 9 that is good in transition, you're going to need a No. 9 that can create his own space, you're going to need a No. 9 that is opportunistic and at times, when you do have the ball, knows how to link up. He's the one player that has that package.At Qatar 2022, it looked like a trio of McKennie, Musah and Tyler Adams was the midfield of the future. Now you have Johnny Cardoso playing for Atltico Madrid, you have Tanner Tessmann starring for Lyon, you have Aidan Morris putting in man-of-the-match performances for a Championship promotion contender in Middlesbrough. What does your ideal U.S. midfield look like?Cherundolo: Certainly you want some consistency in there, but I do think we have a lot of good players. Tessmann has been quite impressive and Cardoso as well, but right now the one name I'm writing on the sheet first is Tyler. Weston is very versatile as we've seen now in Italy, over the past couple of weeks and months. So maybe he isn't in midfield or maybe we use him as sort of a fake winger, if you will. There are plenty of ways to use Weston.Donovan: I think Tyler, if healthy and playing well, needs to be on the field. Weston's in the form of his life, and he needs to be on the field somewhere in there. And then the next question becomes: If you're playing with three in there, who makes sense on the day for a matchup? So can Christian play in there? Of course he can. Do you play Malik Tillman there? Do you play another No. 6 next to him like Aidan Morris or Cristian Roldan or Tanner Tessmann or someone like that to be more solid next to Tyler? I think that is probably the one position maybe, with wingbacks as well, that will vary in the World Cup based on what Pochettino and his staff think is the best matchup.Wynalda: Depends on who we're playing. I think that's the one thing that everyone discounts. We all celebrated the consistency of Musa-Adams-McKinney, but Tessmann brings a different element to the game. Cardoso doesn't have great games with the national team, but he's clearly talented and clearly an option. We have enough talent in the midfield now where we can get through a tournament without running our guys into the ground if we can manage it. And I trust Pochettino to figure that out, and we have the trust in each other.Gomez: Our logic has told us that McKennie needs to play in the center of the pitch with Adams, but I don't think Pochettino feels that way. I don't think Pochettino trusts McKennie tactically to have that discipline. And then there's the emergence of Tessmann, which cannot be ignored. He would be the guy I'd slot next to Adams, and that's what I think Pochettino is going to go with.Which player did you consider to be a lock to make this team 12 months ago who you now wouldn't be surprised to be left at home?Cherundolo: I think it could be Gio Reyna or it could be Joe Scally. I think Joe less off the field and maybe more on the field. And then Gio for the other reasons, I think Pochettino has to look at how the team has been with [Reyna] recently and how the team was without [Reyna]. Does he want to roll the dice with that dilemma again because it's going to be made a topic in the media and everybody's going to do their job and ask their questions and that can disturb a group and you don't know how players will react.Donovan: Probably Matt Turner. I think he will still be there, but it wouldn't surprise me if for some reason he wasn't, because now that he's not the starter, I don't know how they view him. So it wouldn't surprise me. And I would've said a year ago he is going to be the starter. So that would be my quick choice.Wynalda: Well, 12 months ago it would've been Musah. I thought he was going to continue to progress as a player, but he has really dropped off since he has moved to Atalanta. With his age, with his experience, with something to build off, he's got to be immensely disappointed that things have gone this way. I mean, the other one is obviously Reyna, who is struggling to find time. I still bring him, but I, for the first time, could see a world where Pochettino goes off players' form and keeps Reyna off that selection.The U.S. has not always enjoyed home-field advantage while playing at home; are L.A. and Seattle the right markets to give the team the best chance at success?Cherundolo: I think so. I really do. I mean, I think they're not the only markets, but I do think we're going to have spectacular crowds for our games there, but I don't think those are the only markets by any means. I think there are many cities that could have been chosen for a U.S. crowd, which is great to see, which wasn't always the case, but I think those are two excellent choices.Donovan: I think L.A. will show up in a big way also because it's a place that people want to travel to. Off the top of my head, a market that would probably easily help the team would be Kansas City. It's just harder to get to for other fans, and it is like true America. So if people were showing up that way in '94, you have to imagine that it's going to be the same here. And also Paraguay is not going to have some massive contingent, they'll have fans there for sure. Australia the same, and Trkiye or whoever it is, it's going to be the same. So we're going to have a massive, massive home-field advantage, for sure.Arena: Well, I don't know who's buying the tickets, but we're playing at home. We're not going to be at a disadvantage. Common sense tells you that Paraguay and Australia are not going to be the dominant supporters in the stands. I think we're going to have an advantage.
