Mauricio Pochettino’s first U.S. men’s national team roster looks similar to the team summoned in September, a few days before he was officially unveiled as the new coach .
With limited time and several injuries to regular players, Pochettino and his staff leaned heavily on the expertise of U.S. Soccer personnel to put together this first roster.
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, like most other national teams, is dealing with multiple injuries, both long- and short-term, to regular call-ups. World Cup starters Tyler Adams (back) and Sergino Dest (ACL) remain out for some time after undergoing surgeries. Two featured players over the last two years, Chris Richards and Gio Reyna, will also miss this camp with knocks which have kept them out of club action.
Some depth pieces, like Luca de la Torre and Cameron Carter-Vickers , were also unavailable due to injury. Pochettino had to reach a bit deeper into the pool. In a way, it’s a blessing for a new staff to see more of the players at their disposal.
For now, many of the faces have been around the program somewhat regularly: Christian Pulisic , Weston Mckennie and Yunus Musah to name a few. But, the Argentine coach noted, they have already started work on identifying players who have not been as big a part of the program. “We start to follow some very good players we think have the potential,” Pochettino said.
“And maybe they are not now in t.