‘My journey isn’t like other people’s’ - Columbus Crew’s Max Arfsten embraces the learning curve in World Cup year with USMNT

As he sat at January's MLS Media Day being presented as one of the faces of the Crew, Arfsten couldn't help but reflect. It was just about a year to the day since he'd earned his first USMNT call-up and joined Mauricio Pochettino's side for January camp. Now, a year removed from that moment, he has a confession: he was scared as hell.

"It was my first ever camp, and I was so nervous," he admits. "I'd never met anybody with the U.S., the players or staff or anything. So to look at it and be where I am now, it's super cool."

The Arfsten of January 2026 is vastly different from that of 2025.  His transition from winger to wing back isn't quite complete, but it is significantly further along than it was before. 

Most importantly, he feels like a different player now. He feels like he is someone that does belong with the USMNT, which wasn't necessarily the case one year ago. It feels that way because Arfsten found a way to prove himself to Pochettino throughout 2025 and that, in turn, proved things to himself.

"It gives me a lot of confidence, especially a coach like that because he's coached at such a high level with the best players in the world," Arfsten says of Pochettino. "He knows the game, and he knows his stuff. He wouldn't put me in a position that he didn't believe I could do well in. I think that's what you saw last year. Obviously, there were some growing pains, but I think, from summer onwards, I was solid in my role. I give them credit, and I'm happy to keep growing."

The growing pains were put on display for all to see in the summer, and for Arfsten, it was in that moment that everything changed.

Even as the game wore on, the USMNT’s Gold Cup quarterfinal clash with Costa Rica earned a nickname: The Arfsten Game. That’s what happens when one player does so much to shape a result - for better and for worse.

Making just his seventh USMNT start, it unraveled quickly. Twelve minutes in, Arfsten conceded a penalty, handing Costa Rica the lead in a do-or-die knockout match. It was the type of mistake that can define a national team career. Arfsten didn’t let it.

Just before halftime, he assisted Diego Luna’s equalizer. Just after the break, he scored a goal of his own - his first with the USMNT. By the end, the U.S. had prevailed, 4-3, on penalty kicks. Matt Freese delivered the heroics from the spot, but there was no mistaking Arfsten’s imprint on the match.

Afterward, Arfsten didn’t shy away. He spoke openly about the rollercoaster he’d just ridden, reflecting on the lows as much as the highs. On a day when he could have been the letdown, he instead emerged as something else entirely. That mattered.

"It was a crazy ass game," he says now, all these months later. "It's not a secret. I committed the penalty, and it was just such a bad way to start, and I remember that Tyler Adams, Tim Ream, these guys immediately came up to me and were like, 'You're good, don't trip.' I felt that was all the strength I needed. When they tell you that, it says that these guys trust me, even when I do something bad. To get an assist, to score, it was such a whirlwind of emotions. 

"That was a sick game. To be able to score my first goal for the U.S., I'll never forget that day, and I think it was a turning point for me in terms of confidence levels."

The Gold Cup wasn't just a turning point for Arfsten, but for the USMNT as a whole. The team entered that group on something of a low, reeling from March's Nations League loss and without many of its star players. By the end, a culture had been built, one that carried on after the tournament ended.

"You're with these guys for like two months straight, nonstop every second of the day," Arfsten says. "The Gold Cup was awesome. That off-field group, it was a lot of MLS guys, and that helped us naturally become close, but even the other guys, it definitely felt like the moment that everything clicked. I think that's why we made a run to the final. When the squad came out, a lot of people didn't expect us to go to the final, but I think our chemistry is a big reason why we did." 

Although the U.S. would ultimately lose to Mexico in the final, Arfsten believes the experience was invaluable. 

"Towards the end of the Gold Cup, playing in that final against Mexico, that's as real as it gets," he explains. "That's a rivalry, and I grew up watching those games. You know how those games are. They're crazy. We lost, but I think just the fact that I played in that game, once the emotions settled, that's when I sat back and really thought about how the whole summer went with the Gold Cup. I really felt proud of myself after all of that."

That pride was very real, and Arfsten still feels it. It also came with some internal adjustments as the 24-year-old defender adjusted to a new life in the spotlight.

Arfsten is no stranger to criticism. It's something every player has to deal with, internalize, and use in the right way - particularly in the age of social media. The best know how to use it and, just as importantly, how to ignore it when it doesn't really matter.

That was a lesson Arfsten had to learn throughout 2025, as he played under a microscope that, for most of the year, was so unfamiliar. The lows and the highs were just so amplified, and Arfsten could admit that it was a different sort of feeling being under the American soccer spotlight.

"To be honest, it was hard at first because I never played on a stage where I was that heavily, I guess, in the spotlight," he says. "When people used to say negative things, people would send it to me, and it would hurt me a bit, not gonna lie. I feel like I've become a bit more desensitized to it at this point. It just is what it is...I can't let good things people say about me and inflame my ego, and I can't let bad things hurt me. It's all about staying in the middle and focusing on myself."

Again, that was something that applied to the USMNT as a whole, too. The noise got loud during the middle parts of 2025, but by the end of the year, the tune had changed. Big wins over World Cup-level opponents to close the year had restored optimism. By the time all was said and done, Arfsten had played 16 games for the USMNT, including the last nine on the schedule as the U.S. began to turn their fortunes around.

"I felt like we progressively played better opponents as the year went on, and it was all perfect timing because we started to get our identity and get familiar with how Pochettino wanted us to play," Arfsten says. "It was such a good way to end the year off."

The calendar has turned now, though, and the biggest games are coming.

Arfsten still has so much work to do. He acknowledges that and so does Pochettino, who continues to empower him to do that work and earn his place with the USMNT.

“I really like him,” Pochettino said in the fall. “From the first day we met, I could see the potential in him, but he does need to improve. Maybe he needs to manage the game a bit better and play a bit more simpler because he had a few lost duels in the final 10 minutes, but overall he is confident, and he really believes in his talent, and we believe in him.”

That’s the key: belief. After starting 2025 unsure of his place in the American soccer ecosystem, Arfsten now believes he belongs. He doesn’t expect anything to come easily - and he knows the World Cup is far from guaranteed - but at his best, he believes he can earn his place.

"2025 was a good year for me, for sure, from a career standpoint, and I'm happy about that," he says, "but now I'm in a state of mind where I have to build off that and make 2026 better. One goal of mine is to always have it so that my next season is better than my last one. It's a good, healthy competition with yourself. That's what I do. Every year has to be better than the one before."

All things considered, it'll be tough for Arfsten to have a more transformational year than he did in 2025. In some ways, though, it'll actually be pretty easy. It is a World Cup year, after all.