United States

At twenty-seven Freese has, almost without anyone quite deciding it, won the post that haunted American sides for a decade. He has started thirteen of the last fourteen matches and held the gloves through the Germany dress rehearsal, and his standing was made at the 2025 Gold Cup, where he saved three penalties in the quarter-final shootout against Costa Rica and turned a coach's hunch into something close to settled policy. He keeps for New York City in MLS, which makes him part of the first United States World Cup squad of the modern era to carry three home-based goalkeepers, and the timing of his arrival is the story in itself: a player who was a fringe name two years ago now guards the back of the side in front of his own country, with the experienced Turner waiting behind him should the nerves of a first finals show. The job is not glamorous and the reputation is not yet large, but he is the man Pochettino has chosen to begin the most-watched tournament the country has ever staged.

The keeper who held the post through Qatar, and who now finds himself the experienced hand behind a younger man rather than the certainty he once was. Turner started every match at the last World Cup and remains, at thirty-one, the one goalkeeper in the group who has stood in a finals, but a move back to MLS with New England and Freese's steady rise have shifted him from first choice to insurance. He started the Senegal warm-up before Freese took the Germany night, the clearest signal yet of the order. For a player whose calm shot-stopping once felt indispensable, this is a quieter tournament than the last, the reliable deputy whose value is measured in what does not happen rather than what does.

The youngest of the three keepers and almost certainly along for the education rather than the minutes. Brady is twenty-two, plays for Chicago Fire, and carries a single cap; his selection makes him the first uncapped player named to a United States World Cup roster since Juergen Sommer in 1994, a small marker of how thoroughly Pochettino has rebuilt the back of the squad around men of his own choosing. He debuted in the second half against Senegal. The tournament is a grounding for a goalkeeper the federation rates for the cycle ahead, not this one.

On talent the most valuable defender in the group and, when fit, the man Pochettino wants on the right of his back line, but the past three weeks have turned him into the squad's largest open question. Richards, twenty-six and entering what should be his strongest years, tore two ankle ligaments for Crystal Palace against Brentford on 17 May, missed both send-off matches and did not dress against Germany; he returned to full-contact training on 5 June, says he feels good and expects to be ready for the Paraguay opener, and was retained on the roster submitted to FIFA on 1 June. Pochettino has aired his irritation with Palace over a recovery timeline he felt kept shifting, telling ESPN he was a little annoyed and not happy with how the club handled it. A Premier League centre-back with the pace and aerial presence the United States lacks elsewhere, he is shown in the projected eleven with a fitness ring beside his name; if he is not risked, the deputy becomes its own argument between Mark McKenzie and Miles Robinson. Either way this is the defender whose body, more than anyone's, shapes how brave the side can be.

The captain and the elder of the whole project, a thirty-eight-year-old centre-back playing what is unmistakably a last dance, and one few would have predicted he would reach. Ream organises the left of the defence and brings the ball out with a left foot that has always been cleaner than his reputation allowed, the calm voice in a young group, and the armband sits with him as much for what he steadies off the pitch as on it. He left the Premier League and Fulham for Charlotte in MLS, a move that read as a wind-down and instead delivered him a home World Cup, eighty-one caps deep into a career that began long before most of his teammates were taken seriously as professionals. The worry is the obvious one for a man of his age against the pace of a modern finals — Germany found the gap behind him for their opener, Havertz slipping in as Ream was caught a half-step high — and the side is built to shield him from precisely that. For the bridge between the program's lean years and this gilded pool, there will be no more tournaments; this is the one he gets to lead.

At twenty-eight Robinson is in the strongest stretch of his career, a relentless overlapping left-back who is the engine of the side's best side of the pitch and, on the evidence of a fine Fulham season, one of the more complete full-backs in the Premier League. He gave Pulisic the high outside runner that lets the winger drift inside, sat among the league's leaders for defensive actions, touches and aerial duels from his position, and reminded everyone he is an end product too with a left-footed volley against Germany, his first international goal since 2023. His one league goal in twenty-two appearances undersells a campaign measured in recoveries and overlaps rather than numbers. He is the tactical tell of the whole team: if he can climb without leaving Ream isolated against pace in behind, the United States look expansive and dangerous down the left; if the game forces him to stay home, one of their clearest advantages quietly disappears. After years as a steady international, this is the tournament where he arrives as one of the best in his position.

Nominally a right-back, deployed in the warm-ups as the high, narrowing right-sided attacker who gives the side its variation away from the Pulisic flank, and at twenty-five entering the prime years that a serious knee injury once threatened to swallow. Dest plays his club football for PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the country of his birth and the league that made him before Barcelona came calling, and he started both send-off matches advanced on the right, scoring the opener against Senegal — his third international goal. His gift is on the ball, the dribble and the underlap rather than the defensive cover, which suits a system that asks Freeman to hold behind him while he pushes on. Germany squeezed him and Pulisic down the touchlines and showed the cost when the right side cannot get free. A Qatar starter back for a second finals, he is one of the technically gifted men in the group, asked here to be a creator from a defender's shirt.

The breakout of the cycle and, at twenty-one, comfortably the youngest man likely to start, a right-back who has gone from unknown to the projected eleven inside a single season. Freeman started both warm-ups in a deliberately restrained role, holding the right side of the rest shape so that Dest can attack ahead of him, the disciplined half of the partnership rather than the adventurous one. He moved to Villarreal in Spain, where minutes have come in measured doses, but the national-team trust arrived quickly under Pochettino, who tends to back young players he believes in. A first World Cup, on home soil, before he has established himself at club level — the kind of stage that can make a career or expose a player still learning his trade, and the side is asking a great deal of someone with sixteen caps to its name.

The athletic centre-back who becomes a probable starter the moment Richards is not risked, and who started the Germany night in exactly that role. Robinson, twenty-nine and now back in MLS with Cincinnati after a spell chasing a European move, brings recovery pace and aerial command that suit a side defending in transition, and he carries thirty-nine caps and a tournament pedigree from earlier camps. The Germany game showed both sides of him: the legs to cover, and the lapse in separation that let Havertz arrive for the opener. Whether he starts or deputises, he is one of two answers to the Richards question, and on the harder, faster examinations of the group he may be the one Pochettino reaches for regardless.

The ball-playing centre-back who started the Senegal friendly and stands as the other candidate to cover for Richards, a calmer, more constructive defender than Miles Robinson if a touch less explosive. McKenzie, twenty-seven, plays for Toulouse in Ligue 1, where a steady season abroad kept him in the frame, and his comfort bringing the ball out fits a side that builds from a back three in possession. The local lean for the deputy's role is split between him and Robinson, the choice likely to swing on the opponent. Squad depth with a real path to minutes, in his peak years and at a first finals.

Left-sided cover for a back line that is right-side heavy, the kind of pick that earns its place by balancing the group rather than by pushing for a start. Trusty, twenty-seven, moved to Celtic and a season of regular football in Scotland, which kept him sharp and in selection, and his left foot offers an alternative profile alongside or behind Ream. Seven caps mark him as a relative newcomer to the international fold despite his age. Honest depth at a first World Cup, in the side largely to make the ten-defender architecture hold together.

A versatile full-back who can fill either flank, valued more for that flexibility than for a settled role, and at twenty-three still very much in the emerging tier. Scally has been a Bundesliga regular for Borussia Mönchengladbach for several seasons now, a young American who took the European route early and stuck it, though the national-team pecking order on both sides of the defence sits ahead of him. He came on in the second half against Senegal. This is squad depth and cover, a tournament to be around the group and ready rather than to start, with the better years plausibly still in front of him.

One of Pochettino's own intake, an attacking left-sided defender from the MLS pipeline who offers a different shape to the flank if the game calls for it. Arfsten, twenty-five, broke through with Columbus Crew and forced his way into the cycle on the back of energetic, forward-leaning form, entering against Senegal among the wave of second-half changes. With nineteen caps he is still establishing himself at this level. A first World Cup as cover behind Antonee Robinson — a player whose place reflects the manager's faith in the domestic game as much as a clear route to minutes.

The single specialist holding midfielder in a twenty-six-man squad, which makes him, in plain structural terms, the most irreplaceable man Pochettino has, and at twenty-seven he is squarely in his prime. Adams anchors in front of the back line, sets the pressing cues that let the full-backs and wingers gamble, and provides the counter-insurance that allows the side to commit numbers forward; he put in a strong Premier League season for Bournemouth, two goals and two assists across twenty-five appearances, twenty-one of them starts, and sat among the league's busiest midfielders for defensive work. The numbers are not the point with Adams — the ground covered and the spaces closed are — and his importance is sharpened by the absences around him: with Tessmann, Morris and the injured Cardoso all left at home, there is no like-for-like behind him. A yellow card carried into a knockout, a tired hour in the North American heat, a knock, and the whole shape of the side bends. He captained the team in Qatar and remains the beam the structure rests on; the United States can rotate almost everywhere except here.

The advanced central runner of the side, the body that arrives late in the box, presses the first defender and offers a target on every set-piece, and at twenty-seven a survivor of the Qatar core now in the thick of his peak. McKennie had another season of relentless positional flexibility at Juventus — five goals and five assists across thirty-six Serie A appearances, much of it improvised at right wing-back when the club asked — which is the through-line of his whole career: a player who does whatever the system needs and does it with force. Used high against Germany, he gives Pulisic the runner the attack so badly needs, and the question with him is always the same as the appeal, because roam too far and the midfield loses the spacing Adams is trying to hold. How Pochettino balances that licence against Paraguay's likely low block is the live tactical call of the opener. Sixty-five caps and twelve international goals deep, he is one of the players this generation is built around, the link between the side's control and its chaos.

No longer a promise but a starter, the deeper-lying creative midfielder who sits beside Adams and steps into the pockets as possession settles, and at twenty-four a player whose stock has risen sharply since the last cycle. Tillman partnered Adams against Germany in the role the side seems to have settled on for him, the man asked to receive between the lines and turn the team upfield, and his move to Bayer Leverkusen marked the jump from prospect to a midfielder trusted at a serious European club. He carries twenty-nine caps and is one of the candidates, with McKennie and Reyna, to be the second source of invention when Pulisic is doubled — the very thing the warm-ups left unresolved. German-developed and a relatively late convert to the United States, he is part of the future that has already become the present, and one of the quieter keys to whether the attack can vary itself when the first plan is shut down.

The most divisive name in the group and, on the evidence, a bench creator rather than a starter, a player of obvious gifts whose place is a bet on talent over rhythm. Reyna, twenty-three, gathered only around 520 league minutes at Borussia Mönchengladbach this season, a fitful campaign that left his sharpness an open question, and yet Pochettino kept him, telling the LA Times he trusts the talent and that the roster needs a player like him. The pattern points firmly to an impact role off the bench against a compact block: he did not start either June friendly and has begun just one of his last five appearances. The arc is the poignant part — a player once spoken of as the most naturally gifted of his generation here, with the residue of the Qatar fallout and a run of injuries behind him, asked to be a substitute's spark rather than the centrepiece many once assumed he would be. If he comes good for twenty minutes in a tight knockout, the gamble looks inspired; if not, his minutes become a referendum the moment a match goes flat.

The high-energy attacking midfielder whose value is in his pressing and his running, a rotation option who started in Qatar and now competes for minutes in a deeper field. Aaronson, twenty-five, has been a fixture at Leeds United, a season of hard, willing work in English football, and his game has always been about intensity off the ball and quick combinations rather than a settled goal return, though fifty-seven caps and nine international goals show what he offers over time. In this side he is cover and a change of tempo, a player Pochettino can send on to lift the press. A second World Cup, in his peak years, in a role reduced from the one he held three years ago by the strength of those around him.

A late riser who forced his way in on Vancouver form and the quality of his set-piece delivery, a tidy central midfielder who was the only starter Pochettino held over at half-time against Senegal — a small sign of the trust he has earned. Berhalter, twenty-five, made himself an MLS standard-bearer with the Whitecaps, and his selection carries an unavoidable subplot: his father, Gregg Berhalter, coached the United States through Qatar and immediately preceded Pochettino in the job. He has handled the scrutiny by playing well and saying little. Rotation depth in midfield at a first World Cup, with dead-ball ability that gives the manager a specific reason to use him.

A veteran squad presence whose worth is as much in the dressing room and the work rate as in any expectation of starting, and at thirty-one one of the older heads in a young group. Roldan has spent his career with Seattle Sounders, a one-club loyalty that makes his inclusion resonate in a host city the United States will play in, and his forty-six caps span the long rebuild that delivered the present pool. He came on late against Senegal. Squad depth and a steadying influence, in all likelihood a final tournament for a player who has given the program years of unglamorous, reliable service.

The public face of American soccer and the player every opponent designs an afternoon around, the left-sided attacker who starts wide, drifts inside and becomes the chance, the man the whole plan is drawn toward. At twenty-seven Pulisic is in the middle of his best years, and he carried that into a strong season at AC Milan — eight goals and four assists in thirty Serie A games — before ending a long international scoring wait against Senegal with a goal and an assist, his thirty-third goal and twentieth assist in eighty-five caps for his country. He is the genuine game-breaker earlier American sides never had, and the best version of this team is not Pulisic against the world but Pulisic with a runner making the next pass count. That is precisely what 2026 has yet to prove it owns: Germany doubled him, squeezed him down the touchline, and the threat went quiet, and the whole tournament may turn on whether anyone else can answer when they do it again. He has been the country's most important footballer for the better part of a decade, and this home World Cup, in his prime, is the stage his career has been pointing toward — the one chance to turn a fine individual reputation into a national memory.

The lead striker and the clearest sign that this generation carries penalty-box threat its predecessors lacked, a channel-runner who stretches the last defender rather than standing and holding, which is exactly what Pulisic's game needs in front of him. Balogun, twenty-four and at a first World Cup, had the strongest club season of his career at Monaco — thirteen goals and four assists in thirty Ligue 1 games, among the division's leading scorers, roughly nineteen across all competitions, capped by a long scoring run late in the campaign — and brought that into the warm-ups with the winner against Senegal. The qualification is the one Germany exposed: when the service dries up he can drift to the margins, reduced to twenty touches in seventy-two minutes that afternoon, so the second-creator question is in part a question of supply aimed straight at him. The son of the choice between three nations who picked the United States, he is the striker the country has spent cycle after cycle wishing for, finally arriving in his own right at the tournament that matters most.

A direct, pacy wide forward who started every match in Qatar and now finds himself behind the Dest-Freeman right-side arrangement, a rotation option whose speed remains a genuine weapon off the bench or in a reshuffle. Weah, twenty-six and in his peak years, moved to Olympique Marseille and a season of French football, and he carries fifty caps and the bloodline of a footballing name — his father George won the Ballon d'Or — without ever leaning on it. His running stretches tired defences in a way few others in the group can. A second World Cup in a reduced role, still one of the more reliable changes Pochettino can make when a game needs pulling open down the flank.

A natural penalty-box finisher whose numbers make him far more than ordinary backup, and at twenty-three a striker entering his best years with the worst behind him. Pepi scored sixteen Eredivisie goals for PSV Eindhoven this season — a remarkable rate for the minutes, often from the bench — part of the goal glut that lets the United States carry a striker contest rather than a striker worry; he started the Senegal friendly and set up Pulisic. His is a story of perseverance, a teenager hyped early, then stalled and rebuilt abroad until the goals came in a flood. He is the most ruthless box presence in the squad and a redemption arc made good, kept out of the first eleven only by Balogun's better fit for a side that wants its nine to run the channels. A second World Cup, and the kind of substitute who can win a tight one late.

The tall, awkward centre-forward who gives the attack a different shape entirely, a target option and aerial presence to change the problem if the smaller, runner-led front line is not working. Wright, twenty-eight, had a productive season at Coventry City in the English Championship — part of the trio of strikers whose combined club goals turned a historic American weakness into a strength — and his height and physicality offer Pochettino a route the side otherwise lacks. He completes a forward group deep enough to be a genuine asset. A first World Cup at a relatively late stage of his career, more change-of-plan than first thought, but a useful one to have in reserve.

A wide attacker who won his place on Liga MX form rather than recent national-team minutes, a selection that reads as much in Spanish as in English. Zendejas, twenty-eight, had a strong season for Club América — U.S. Soccer lists twelve goals and seven assists in thirty-three matches, including three in the Clausura playoffs — the standout campaign that made him impossible to leave out despite limited recent caps; he is one of several players whose careers ran through the Mexican game before settling on the United States, a tug-of-war the federation was glad to win. He entered late against Senegal. Squad depth with a real attacking edge, at a first World Cup, in the side because his club output demanded a seat.