USMNT World Cup notebook: Why Mauricio Pochettino chose Tim Ream as captain, and will Chris Richards play vs Senegal?

Tim Ream could hardly keep it together. To start Saturday's press conference, Pochettino had a statement to make. Ream was going to be the team's captain, as decided by the Argentine and his staff. Immediately, that fact seemed to hit Ream hard as he grappled with the gravity of the distinction he'd just earned.

"Wow, I'm sure what to say," Ream began. "Thank you. This is more than a dream come true. I've done everything possible to be a part of this group, to help this group along, and I'm just really, really grateful to be sitting here to have this honor.

"At the same time, it's not going to change what I do or who I am, and how I help the group, so thank you. It's the highest honor for me with this group and for the World Cup, and I'm not going to take that for granted."

That last part of Ream's response was why he was selected, Pochettino said. As part of the announcement, the USMNT boss meant that being captain didn't mean there were guarantees. Ream is not necessarily a starter and won't necessarily be on the field at any given moment. Part of the reason Pochettino chose Ream is that he knew that the 38-year-old defender could handle that possibility, and that he would handle it the same way whether he was the first guy on the team sheet or the last on the bench.

"If you are on the pitch, you are going to have the armband, but if you are not, whether you are on the bench or on the field, I know that you are going to act like a captain, too. Sometimes, with captains, when they're on the field, very good, very happy, so nice, so helpful, but after they don't play, they don't act like a captain. I think that it's so important."

In total, Ream has captained the USMNT in 16 of Pochettino's 23 games in charge. He now looks set to wear the armband for a few more.

Chris Richards arrived at USMNT camp on Friday, fresh off a whirlwind Conference League trophy-winning week. Everyone was glad to see him, glad to celebrate his achievement and glad to welcome him to the group.

His status, though, is still up in the air. Pochettino confirmed on Saturday that Richards would not travel with the team to Charlotte to face Senegal. He also said that the evaluations of the centerback are ongoing and that the team wouldn't have full clarity on his fitness for a few days.

"I was asking from yesterday when he arrived," Pochettino said, "I said to [USMNT assistant] Jesus [Perez] 100 times, 'What do you think? What do you think? What information do we have?' The answer was 'Wait, wait, wait, wait'. Yes, it's too early. We need to see.

"The next few days are going to be key to see the possibilities of being ready or not for the World Cup."

The USMNT has until June 1 to submit the team's official World Cup roster to FIFA. After that, the team could make a change up until 24 hours before the June 12 kickoff against Paraguay to make an injury-related replacement.

Pochettino told reporters this week that he knows Christian Pulisic will score at this summer's World Cup. He's not worried about goal droughts or anything that comes with them; he believes wholeheartedly in the AC Milan star's ability and mindset.

Speaking to media on Saturday, Pulisic says, drought or no drought, that mindset doesn't change. He's no less prepared to perform now than he was six months ago when everything was seemingly going his way.

"I feel that every game, to be honest," he said. "That's just how I prepare myself. That's how I feel. No matter how bad things are, I like to look at things in that positive light, and absolutely, I've had this happen before in my career. There are difficult times, and then sometimes one will bounce off your knee and go in, and then it seems like everything goes in after that. That's just the way things work, and I feel pretty confident."

For Pulisic, it has been something of a whirlwind over the past few days. After a rough end of the season in Milan that saw the team miss out on Champions League qualification, Pulisic flew to New York for the USMNT's World Cup roster unveiling. Then, it was straight to Atlanta and straight down to business.

Those quick transitions have been a blessing, he says. They've also been a lot.

"Going straight there to New York and doing the reveal and everything, it's been busy with media stuff and doing all that," he said. "It's been nice the last couple of days, for sure, to just get back and get into a training routine, preparing for a game tomorrow now. It feels much more relaxed, more normal now, going into actually getting training in and getting with the team.

"I think the vibes are good and I'm ready to get some games in and get started."

When Ricardo Pepi recieved the bad news from Gregg Berhalter ahead of the 2022 World Cup, he reportedly hung up the phone. He was heartbroken. After playing such a big role throughout the cycle, Pepi was left off the squad for the biggest moment, largely due to a rough run of form with Augsburg.

There was no rough run of form this time around with PSV, and there was no bad news from the USMNT coach. Pepi is in this time and, in some ways, the fact that he wasn't last time makes it mean more.

"It was definitely way different," he said. "I just shared that moment with my father, having so many emotions that I can't really explain. It was a nice moment. I got the message and I showed it to him and he immediately started crying a little bit. Just sharing that emotion with him was nice."

Pepi enters this World Cup playing some of the best soccer of his career. He scored six goals in his final five games for PSV, ensuring that he could not be ignored like he was last time. That wasn't in the back of his head, but it has set him up for a real chance to compete this summer.

"I was just really focused on trying to play as much as possible, staying healthy," he said. "It was a difficult season with a lot of injuries, but everything can change in one second. It can be bad and it can be good as well. I just really focused on helping my team out back at my club and preparing for the World Cup if I got the opportunity."

That opportunity has arrived for Pepi, and it's a few years in the making.

At the start of the week, much of the outside noise centered around who wasn't in the camp. There were debates and discussions about Pochettino's decisions, how they would work and why those who were left off weren't included in the team. Throughout the week, though, that page has surely turned, which means the focus is now more on the 26 players that will have their dreams come true this summer.

That label applies to everyone, from the oldest, Ream, who got a second dose of that with his captaincy announcement, to the youngest, Alex Freeman, who couldn't have fathomed a moment like this last year. Pochettino says he's noticed a difference in the players this camp, too, as they've all come to terms with the fact that they made the team.

"They are in a very natural way now," Pochettino said. "Before, you never know if they are acting, if they want to pretend to be something, or I don't know. Now, you can see that it is a big relief, because they know that they are going to be involved if nothing wrong happens. That is an important thing.

"It's true that they are more open, they are more relaxed, they're happy. They love to train. They are so open and very focused on all the areas that we need to improve to arrive in the best condition to compete. I think that is the big difference from other camps."