‘If you take Mexico out, what’s the moment?’ - Herculez Gomez questions this USMNT generation and says Ricardo Pepi’s World Cup spot isn’t secure

Mic'd Up: The former USMNT striker talked about the pre-World Cup mindset, the U.S. striker situation and why Mexico will always be the team under the most pressure.

There was a debate going around on social media recently, and, if you know Herculez Gomez, you know he's not one to shy away from debate. The discussion centered around Weston McKennie and his place among the U.S. men's national team's all-time great midfielders. In some ways, it was bigger than that; it was about where this USMNT group currently stands when compared to their predecessors, and where they might stand when all of this is said and done.

Gomez, of course, has his thoughts. A former USMNT player himself, Gomez played alongside some of the biggest names in American soccer history. He grew up idolizing some and, in this post-playing career phase, he's covered some, too, as the USMNT have tried to take things to new heights. Have they, though? Right now, heading into the 2026 World Cup, Gomez has some thoughts about where they stand.

"Now, I'm not trying to be unfair, because let it unfold and let's see what they do," he tells GOAL. "When their career is finished, it's easier to gauge. I'm not talking club career, because Michael Bradley didn't have 200 games for Juventus, right? Like Weston McKennie, that's very different. These players today, in my opinion, have already surpassed them in their club career-wise. But when we talk about U.S. Men's National team careers? We do have to separate the two. Christian [Pulisic] is an exception to the rule, so I try not to include him but, the rest of the lot, I'm sorry, but if you remove Mexico [in the 2021 and 2024 Nations League Finals] from the equation, what do we have?"

It's why the 2026 World Cup is so vital. For the current generation of USMNT stars, legacies will be defined by this World Cup. Fairly or unfairly, this is the chance for players like Pulisic, McKennie and Tyler Adams to earn their places among the very best American soccer has ever seen. Their predecessors all had moments; this is theirs to seize, and Gomez is eager to see them seize it.

But that's not the only thing on Gomez's mind. The former striker, who now works for ESPN, talked about his own World Cup experience, the state of the USMNT striker pool and the pressure on the three host nations in the latest edition of Mic'd Up, a recurring feature in which GOAL taps into the perspective of analysts, announcers, and other pundits on the state of soccer in the U.S. and abroad.

NOTE: This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

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ON THE WORLD CUP
GOAL: We're just a few months out from the World Cup, and you're someone who knows exactly what that's like as a player. You were not someone whose spot was ever guaranteed with the USMNT. What were those weeks and months leading up to the World Cup like? How did you approach it, knowing what was on the horizon?
GOMEZ: I've been on both ends of the spectrum because, in 2010, I wasn't part of a single camp, so I didn't play a single minute in the lead-up to that World Cup. I did well with Puebla six months before the World Cup and won a goal-scoring title. Then I was invited to the 30-man camp and eventually earned my place there. My whole mantra or mindset was "house money". It was just have fun, do your best, and what will be will be, because I'm already further than I should have been. That's your mindset, and then you play free.
When the last seven were cut from that camp, I kind of felt like I didn't belong, but I just had to have fun and prove that I belonged, and what would happen, would happen.
Then in 2014, I had a string of like 14 games where I was starting for Jurgen [Klinsmann], and then I had a knee injury, which derailed not only my season at my new club team, but probably my career. I was out of the picture, but there was always this thing on the back of my mind where I wanted to get back to the national team. Time was against me, and I needed to prove something. It was a much different pressure, so I understand both mindsets, both sides, and how one could maybe deal with it. But the first go around, there was no pressure, and the second go around, there was pressure because I knew that I could. If I were fit, I could get it back there because the coach had confidence in me, but I could just never prove my fitness.

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ON THIS USMNT GENERATION
GOAL: There's been this debate recently about how this U.S. generation stacks up with prior ones. 'Are these players the best at their positions?' 'Is Weston McKennie better than Tab Ramos because he's starred at Juventus?' Obviously, things have changed for the better. These players are earning chances to play at the best clubs, which wasn't always the case previously. Christian Pulisic is the face of Milan, which, for anyone who grew up in a certain era, is crazy to say. Has there been a big step forward, though? What does it mean to have these guys playing at that level, and what does that mean when you put it through the lens of American soccer's past and future?
GOMEZ: Things definitely have changed. I'll take Mexico into consideration. Mexican players have had more success at the world level than American players. Hugo Sanchez, Rafa Marquez, and Chicharito at Manchester United - they've had more of those players. Costa Rica has had more of those players, like Keylor Navas. El Salvador had El Magico Gonzalez. The U.S. has never had that type of player until Christian Pulisic, so that's great, but all of Mexico's previous players opened the door and it doesn't mean that more players come through it.
We see more American players coming through it now because of the Christian Pulisics and the Weston McKennies, because these players have proven that they can do it and also the market is more viable for the American player than it is maybe for the Mexican player, for lots of reasons. There are players now who are abroad and ply their trade consistently, and that is an amazing feat. It is no small thing that Christian Pulisic is the face of one of the biggest global footballing brands in the history of the game.
That is one thing. The national team is another. Weston McKennie is being labeled in Doug McIntyre's tweet as the best U.S. midfielder of all time. We have to separate a club career from the national team. Christian, I think, is in a league of his own, and is the exception to the rule because I firmly believe that, when it's all said and done, we will consider him the best American player, club and country, ever, but he's got a long way to go to catch Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan in goals [with the national team] and he's got an even longer way to go to catch Landon Donovan in assists. He also hasn't had the moments in multiple World Cups and Confederation Cups and big wins. For this generation of players, if you take Mexico out of the equation, the worst generation of Mexican footballers that I've ever seen, and I know because I've been part of that world and I cover that world. If you take these guys away from the equation, their crowning moment was a draw versus England at a World Cup?
Tab Ramos was your favorite American footballer's favorite footballer. He and Claudio Reyna, who still has the best run the U.S. has ever had in the modern era. He was labeled as one of the best 16 players at the World Cup! You can go back to Michael Bradley and the 160 games that he played for his country, him captaining his country, playing at a World Cup, scoring at the Azteca. There are players of the past with big-time moments that this generation just hasn't had yet.
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ON THE STRIKERS
GOAL: You know better than most that a striker's spot can fickle. One run of goals can get you right into the picture, and one dry spell could be the end of your USMNT hopes. Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi seem to be at the top of that, with guys like Haji Wright, Patrick Agyemang and Josh Sargent behind them, but even someone like Brandon Vazquez could get back into it if he can prove his fitness. Having had your own experience in that spot, how do you look at the striker position?
GOMEZ: I don't think Ricardo Pepi is safe. This is very much like Jozy Altidore in 2010 where he was the only clear-cut nine. You had other guys in the picture in that camp, like a Brian Ching or Eddie Johnson, I believe Jeff Cunningham was there as well. Then you had Edson Buddle, myself, Robbie Findley in that cycle, so there is no clear-cut nine.
You're talking about a player [in Pepi] who, in my mind, has done well and has earned equity within the USMNT over the last seven years, but he didn't go to the last World Cup, and he had major equity then, too! He saved Gregg Berhalter's job and, besides Christian Pulisic, was the leading scorer of the team. I'm not talking about, he didn't start at the World Cup; he didn't even go! It was Josh Sargent, Haji Wright, and Jesus Ferreira. He's kind of there again because there's some equity that he's proven, but the only clear-cut nine right now, I believe, in the eyes of Mauricio Pochettino is Folarin Balogun.
Wright, Pepi, Agyemang - that's, right now, the core striker group. I think there is no clear pecking order now. If you want to include a Brandon Vasquez, who's been nowhere near the picture, or a Darrell Dike or a Josh Sargent - those are guys who are very much so on the outside looking in, but it's the World Cup, and we've seen crazy things happen.
I think we've seen this in the past, that you have to have certain profiles when it comes to players and you have to have a player that could be multifunctional, offer something different, a player that can play different positions, because there are so many games and it's a reduced tournament and injuries can happen....Pochettino is going to think they're not going to always be on the front foot, or maybe they'll be down in a game and maybe you need somebody that could either create something by himself or be able to handle something in a moment of panic, like a ball into the box. Maybe the intangibles of size and presence come into play.

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ON 2026 WORLD CUP PRESSURE
GOAL: All of the World Cup hosts are under pressure, right? There's always pressure on Mexico. The U.S. wants to take the sport a step further. Canada wants to prove it's a soccer country to the rest of the world. Who is under the most pressure to perform, though?
GOMEZ: It's not a debate: it's Mexico. Listen, I work at least five days a week for ESPN and I'm on a show that's got a two-hour window Monday to Friday. If Mexico bows out of the 2026 World Cup in the group stage, we're going to be talking about it for almost a month every single day, and that's just us. In Mexico, it'll be every walk of life. Every content creator will be talking about this failure. These players will not be able to go out. They will be labeled a national humiliation and a failure. People will lose jobs, the economy will take a hit. Their football will be taken aback in development, not one generation, but maybe more. It would be a collision course that Mexico would never want to see and it would be trajectory-altering for them.
If the U.S. bows out of the group phase here, we'll talk about it for a while. I'll talk about it on my podcast. Maybe it makes a SportsCenter...A couple weeks later, it's done. The NFL comes back. Christian Pulisic is back with Milan. Maybe there's a move or two from one of these players, and that's it. We saw it with the 2018 World Cup.
This is a footballing country. I repeat: the U.S. is a massive footballing country. That's why these countries and why these teams from different countries come and participate in the United States. That's why there's all this money to bring soccer to the United States. We really consume it in this country, and we are a footballing country; we're just not necessarily a U.S. Men's National Team country, and that is the difference. There is no debate. It will be Mexico, yep.
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ON USMNT IN LIGA MX
GOAL: We've recently seen a new wave of American players try their hand at Liga MX and, while that has happened before, it has been different this time around. You've seen younger Mexican-American players head to Mexico to really kickstart their careers, and you've also seen Americans get the chance at Chivas, which has never happened before. What do you make of all of it? As someone who went to Liga MX, how valuable can that leap be?
GOMEZ: Times have changed a bit. The one constant is, especially for a club like Chivas, that those players are valuable because of their self-imposed regulations of Mexican players only. The lack of opportunities or development in Mexico as a whole today give these players on the other side, the US side, a distinct advantage. There's also the money factor. You're talking to a guy that by the time I came to Mexico, when I was 26 or 27, I had won three titles in the States, two MLS cups and an Open Cup. I played, I think, in five finals and had debuted for the national team in a Copa America. I think the most I made was $52,000 in a calendar year. Then I go to Mexico, and 2010 was a year that changed my life because you break seven figures. It's different, very different.
Yes, the amount of money but the attention is, too, and it just, if anything, opened my eyes to football and the rest of the world. These players are in a situation where that attention is going to bring growth in a good way or a bad way. You learn the good way, or you learn the bad way. I think there is a development that comes with it, so I think it's beneficial to these players.
Now you can say they're getting a chance, but they have gotten their chance at the club level, but maybe they're not being taken seriously enough or earning their place on the national team level. This could be a stepping stone for them, because I could tell you the tug and pull as a dual national, the love and appreciation for two different countries, maybe they represent Mexico at a bigger stage. That, to me, is one of the most beautiful things I've ever done: representing my country at a World Cup, experiencing a World Cup. So if these players can achieve something like that, where they're maybe valued more on the other side, it's fair game.
GOAL
PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF MIC'D UP
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Dec. 12: Bradley Wright Phillips: Apple TV analyst on why MLS’s fall-spring switch is a game-changer, Lionel Messi’s MLS Cup impact and LA Galaxy’s threat in 2026
Dec. 5: Dax McCarty, Part 2: Apple TV analyst on Javier Mascherano benching Luis Suárez helped elevate Inter Miami, praises ‘must-watch’ Thomas Müller and Vancouver ahead of MLS Cup
Dec. 3: Dax McCarty: ‘I feel pride watching this team again’ - Apple TV’s Dax McCarty on Mauricio Pochettino
Nov. 15: Kacey White: ESPN analyst and NWSL legend on the hectic college soccer season, why UNC may struggle to repeat, and who could win
Nov. 14: Taylor Twellman: Apple TV analyst breaks down MLS schedule change, Son Heung-Min’s rise with LAFC, playoff upsets, and Inter Miami’s Luis Suárez dilemma
Nov. 4 - Geoff Shreeves: CBS Sports Golazo analyst on Arsenal's depth, Liverpool's struggles and Wrexham's Championship reality check
Oct. 29 - Kaylyn Kyle: Apple TV analyst on Thomas Muller and 'amazing' Vancouver Whitecaps, reborn Inter Miami, and Canada's 2026 World Cup ambitions
Oct. 24 - Steve McManaman: ESPN analyst on Xabi Alonso's Real Madrid, El Clasico, and why 'excellent' Jude Bellingham must be in England squad
Oct. 20 - Alexi Lalas: FOX analyst praises Mauricio Pochettino for adding bite to USMNT, but says 'jury's still out' on World Cup success
Oct. 17 - Herculez Gomez: ESPN analyst backs December Barcelona-Villarreal match in Miami, but warns 'if you allow La Liga, you're allowing everybody'
Oct. 16 - Herculez Gomez: ESPN analyst unconvinced by USMNT's Mauricio Pochettino, but calls recent results 'his most impressive window'
Oct. 2 - Clive Tyldesley:CBS analyst on Americans in the Champions League, 'big year' for USMNT at the World Cup and protecting young footballers
Sept. 30 - David Villa: Spain legend and DAZN analyst on Barcelona's Champions League hopes, 'amazing' Lamine Yamal and 'great opportunity' for U.S. to host World Cup
Sept. 17 - Stu Holden: FOX analyst on Gio Reyna's revival, Christian Pulisic’s AC Milan future and how Mauricio Pochettino can form 'U.S. team that makes us excited'
Sept. 11 - Maurice Edu: Apple TV analyst grades Mauricio Pochettino's first year as USMNT boss, wonders where Weston McKennie has been?
Sept. 9 - Sacha Kljestan: Apple TV analyst urges USMNT's Mauricio Pochettino to stick with core group, weighs in on MLS and Inter Miami's Luis Suarez
Aug. 28 - Keith Costigan: Apple TV analyst on Arsenal's need for a trophy, why 'writing off Liverpool is absolutely silly' and how Club World Cup can spark MLS growth
Aug. 21 - Marcelo Balboa: Apple TV analyst calls out fellow former USMNT players for vitriol toward Christian Pulisic, hails impact of Son Heung-Min in MLS
Aug. 15 - Nedum Onuoha: ESPN analyst on why Antonee Robinson is 'as good as any' defender in Premier League, concerns over Alexander Isak, expected Man City rebound
Aug. 6 - Kasey Keller: ESPN analyst calls out Mauricio Pochettino's underwhelming record with USMNT, hails Matt Turner's 'brilliant' return to MLS
July 31 - Andres and Nico Cantor: Father-son analysts on Mauricio Pochettino's chief challenge with USMNT, and Inter Miami's Leo Messi 'completing football
July 29 - Dax McCarty: Apple TV's Dax McCarty on why MLS was right to suspend Lionel Messi, the new Leagues Cup format, and why Club America is favorite
July 25 - Derek Rae: ESPN commentator on Gio Reyna's flawed fit at Dortmund, why 'nobody knows' how good 22-year-old USMNT midfielder can be
July 7 - Callum Williams: Apple TV, world soccer commentator on the impact of Brazilian teams at the Club World Cup
June 27 - Kyle Martino: TNT analyst on USMNT goalscoring void, the state of the program and the return of Showdown to NYC
June 23 - Dax McCarty: Apple TV analyst on the opportunity, pressure facing Mauricio Pochettino and USMNT ahead of World Cup
June 19 - Herculez Gomez: ESPN analyst on why he's bullish about Club World Cup, memories of playing in CWC, how 2026 World Cup could be 'biggest sporting event ever'
June 17 - Herculez Gomez:ESPN analyst on Christian Pulisic controversy, state of USMNT, fractures in fan base and his admiration for 'highly relatable' Diego Luna
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May 21 - Taylor Twellman: Apple TV+ analyst on 'exciting' matchups in the Club World Cup, why a top European team will win, and how Inter Miami can benefit
May 13 - Kay Murray: ESPN FC analyst on Americans supporting Club World Cup, European teams vying for trophy, and whether an MLS team can make a run
May 9 - Luis Garcia: ESPN Analyst on Barcelona and 'fantastic' Lamine Yamal, why Real Madrid lack a philosophy, and Trent Alexander-Arnold leaving Liverpool
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April 28 - Christina Unkel: CBS Sports rules analyst on VAR challenges, 'visibility' in refereeing, former players becoming officials
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Dec. 17 - Stu Holden: FOX Sports analyst on the evolution of the American game, why Christian Pulisic will be 'best U.S. Soccer player of all-time'
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ON THE WORLD CUP

ON THIS USMNT GENERATION

ON THE STRIKERS

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ON 2026 WORLD CUP PRESSURE

ON USMNT IN LIGA MX

PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF MIC'D UP