Mauricio Pochettino defends Gio Reyna selection, U.S. World Cup roster selection process

7 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. Mauricio Pochettino knows the joy of making a World Cup roster. But he also knows the misery of being left off one. In the first case, you want to celebrate; in the second, you want to be left alone. The U.S. coach said he kept both emotions in mind when informing players they had — or had not — made the roster for next month’s tournament, a roster that was formally announced Tuesday during a sun-splashed, made-for-TV rally in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, about 13 miles from where July’s World Cup final will be played. “The most important event is to be in any single roster,” said Pochettino, who made Argentina’s team for the 2002 World Cup after being passed over four years earlier. Had to add 26 guys into the group chat. 📲This is what it means. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/N3IO3ru1Fy So when Pochettino decided which 26 men would be on his team this summer, each of them got a WhatsApp message, followed by a video, sent out at 1 p.m. Eastern Time Friday. Defender Tim Ream said he received the message as he walked to his car after training with his club team in Charlotte, N.C. “It made me stop in my tracks and immediately call my wife to let her know,” he said. “We both had been anxious and excited for the announcement. “I’m not overly emotional, but it was definitely a relief and there was a little bit of bit of quivering, for sure, with my family when I found out.” Christian Pulisic was alone in Milan, where he plays in Italy’s Serie A, when his phone lit up. The Orange County Soccer Club has moved out of its home stadium, allowing crews to renovate Orange County Great Park for U.S. soccer’s World Cup camp. “I was just relaxing. Then I saw the message pop up and got excited,” he said. The 29 players from the provisional roster who didn’t make the cut? They each got a simple email. And no explanation. “I know it is so painful. It was so painful for me,” Pochettino said. “When I didn’t make the roster, I didn’t want my coach to call me,” he added. “Because we care a lot, we don’t want to say nothing to confuse the player. A player who didn’t make the roster, they don’t want to hear me say, ‘Oh [too bad].’” Christian Pulisic holds up his U.S. jersey during a rally Tuesday in New York. (Adam Hunger / Getty Images) Ream and Pulisic are two of 13 players who are returning to the World Cup after making the team in Qatar four years ago, part of a list that includes midfielders Tyler Adams, Gio Reyna and Weston McKennie and defenders Sergiño Dest and Antonee Robinson. They will be joined by defenders Miles Robinson and Chris Richards, both of who missed the last World Cup because of injury, and forward Ricardo Pepi, one of the final cuts in 2022. Richards was chosen despite tearing two ligaments in his left ankle playing for Crystal Palace earlier this month. Pochettino had no new information on the injury Tuesday but said the final World Cup roster doesn’t need to be filed with FIFA until Sunday; after that, teams can replace players up to 24 hours before their opening match in the event of injury or illness. Reyna’s inclusion was also a minor surprise since he has played just one full 90-minute game for club or country in the last four years. In the last World Cup in Qatar, he was nearly sent home for a perceived lack of effort in training after he learned he wouldn’t be a starter in the tournament. But Pochettino said picking him was an easy decision. “I really trust in him,” Pochettino said. “He’s a different player. A different talent. The roster needs to have a player like him.” There were also notable omissions, among them midfielders Diego Luna and Tanner Tessmann. Luna, who plays in MLS for Real Salt Lake, has been a regular under Pochettino, playing in 17 of the U.S. team’s 18 games in 2025. But he missed time earlier this season with a knee injury and sat out of his club team’s last two games with a muscle problem Tessmann had been called into six training camps under Pochettino and was seen as a potential starter for the U.S. before being shut down by his French club, Lyon, at the end of the season, leaving his fitness for the World Cup in question. Pochettino declined to talk about either player — or anyone else left off the team. Several Los Angeles-based artists have been taking part in public events to create artwork celebrating community and welcoming the World Cup to Inglewood. “We are not going to talk about the players that are not on the roster,” he said. “That’s disrespectful to the players who are on the roster.” Raising questions about who should have been included, the coach said, necessarily leads to questions about who should have been left off. “That was my decision to pick that 26,” he said Pochettino said he

Mauricio Pochettino defends Gio Reyna selection, U.S. World Cup roster selection process

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Mauricio Pochettino defends Gio Reyna selection, U.S. World Cup roster selection process

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