Three takeaways from USMNT’s MLS-heavy January roster
The U. S. Men’s National Team will face Venezuela and Costa Rica in twin international friendlies on Jan. 18.
The two matches were scheduled to help the USMNT’s players and coaches prepare for their packed 2025 schedule. But the games will occur outside of a sanctioned FIFA window international — and that means coach Mauricio Pochettino faced a fascinating challenge when selecting his 24-man squad.
With clubs in Europe not obliged to release their American stars for these matches, Pochettino pulled his roster entirely from a league in its offseason: Major League Soccer.
“We are extremely excited to work with a new group of players and continue to implement our ideas,” Pochettino said in a statement. “As I have said, MLS is very important to the national team project, and these players have earned this opportunity.”
Here are three key takeaways from Pochettino’s all-domestic USMNT roster:
Key dual nationals are making their moves
MLS fans have watched Real Salt Lake’s Diego Luna blossom over the past two seasons, but USMNT coaches haven’t — at least, not until now. The U. S. and Mexico dual citizen has been consistently left out of USMNT rosters and has even made noises about switching his allegiance to El Tri. Luna’s Salt Lake teammate, midfielder Emeka Eneli, spent much of 2024 in the same boat. He’s eligible for both the U. S. and Nigeria, but he’s been largely ignored by the USMNT senior team.
With this January roster, Pochettino has changed that. Both are present in this USMNT lineup and if they get minutes on the field, they’ll be tied to the American program for the rest of their senior careers.
For MLS fans who long championed Luna and Eneli but feared they might one day suit up for other countries, this is a big deal.
The USMNT has more goalkeeping options worth exploring
USMNT captain Matt Turner fell out of favor with his club team this season and looked shaky and unpredictable in his 2024 USMNT appearances. Finding a new starting goalkeeper is a tricky business, but Pochettino is using these January games to test out some unheralded candidates for Turner’s spot.
Two of Pochettino’s selections, Columbus’s Patrick Schulte and Colorado’s Zack Steffen, have made appearances for the USMNT before (Schulte started in goal for the U-23 side that went to the knockout rounds of the 2024 Summer Olympics last July.) But the other two will be new faces for casual USMNT fans.
The first, Miami’s Drake Callender, is a talented shot-stopper whose calm head under pressure helped save Miami from its own woeful defense this season. The second, NYCFC’s Matt Freese, is something of a penalty kick specialist. His shootout skills lifted NYCFC to the Eastern Conference semifinals last season and are not to be underestimated.
The USMNT midfield isn’t likely to change soon
International coaches tend to select more midfielders than any other position when creating rosters, but Pochettino selected just four: the aforementioned Luna and Eneli plus Miami’s Benjamin Cremaschi and Philadelphia’s Jack McGlynn. This feels like as clear a sign as any that Pochettino believes his senior midfield squad is too strong to be challenged by MLS talent: if he felt differently, he’d be giving more midfielders a chance to play.
It’s hard to blame him here. Players like Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Yunus Musah, Gianluca Busio and Aidan Morris have been some of the USMNT’s top lieutenants in recent years. But it still would’ve been interesting to see Pochettino give a few more MLS midfielders the opportunity to strut their stuff in these low-pressure January games. Columbus’s Sean Zawadzki and the Galaxy’s Edwin Cerrillo in particular would’ve relished the opportunity to show Pochettino what they’re made of.
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