'Seventy-five to 80 players will believe they can make the roster' - USMNT's Mauricio Pochettino on the competition for spots on the World Cup roster

Since Pochettino took over in the fall of 2024, the Argentine has made it his mission to really expand the player pool, offering opportunities to different players to show why they should be in the USMNT squad. That allowed Pochettino to get a better grasp of which players, young and old, could contribute to his USMNT squad while also putting more pressure on the more-established players to keep hold of their place as that pool expanded.

 Heading into the World Cup, a total of 56 players earned USMNT caps during the 2025 calendar year. There were also 17 different goal scorers in 2025, with 11 of those 17 netting their first international goal.

"Before we arrived, it was easy to guess the roster," Pochettino told the U.S. Soccer Podcast. "What we create is the competition between them, between 75-80 players, with the possibility to feel that they can get on the roster for the World Cup. What we are going to do is to try to be fair with our values, our way to see things, and to try to create the best roster, the roster that is going to fight, believing that we can win."

He continued: "I think what we have, after one year and a half, is the advantage of knowing that we manage a pool of 75-80 players and we know that if someone is not ready or someine is not in the best form, I think we always have a player that we know how they are going to perform and behave in the dynamic that we want to create on the team."

One of Pochettino's other big tasks was to build belief that the U.S. could, in fact, compete at the top level. He joined the team at a low point following a Copa America group stage exit and, over the year and a half that he's been in charge, Pochettino has looked to rebuild the team's confidence.

It all came to a head in the final games of 2025. Coincidentally, the year finished off with a 5-1 win over Uruguay, the same team that knocked them out of the Copa America. Wins over Japan, Australia, and Paraguay also boosted spirits heading towards the World Cup.

"We are so excited. I think we arrive in a very good moment," he said. "We are in a situation that we planned, and I think that the plan has had its ups and downs during the year and a half. The plan for us was to arrive before the World Cup with the possibility that we could really believe that we can beat any team, that we can win the World Cup, because that is our objective: to win the World Cup."

The World Cup kicks off this summer, with the U.S. facing Paraguay, Australia, and a to-be-determined qualifier from Europe in the group stage. Before that, though, the U.S. still has four friendlies left to build upon, beginning with March matches against Belgium and Portugal.