Can Christian Pulisic find form and will Mauricio Pochettino’s defense stop Sadio Mane? Five keys for USMNT vs Senegal

Pulisic has repeatedly said he isn't worried. Pochettino isn't either. But it would be a huge boost for this team, and for Pulisic, if he could get a goal this weekend. Few things would raise spirits more than that.

These are the facts: Pulisic has not scored for the USMNT since 2024. He hasn't scored for anyone since 2025. Any way you look at it, that's a goal drought, particularly for a player like Pulisic, who was lighting it up in the fall.

The fun part of a World Cup, though, is that none of that matters. Form carries over, sure, but the only thing Pulisic will be measured on is his performance in this particular tournament. Still, the best way to score goals in a tournament is to arrive confident, which is where Senegal comes into play.

If he can get one, imagine the relief he'd feel, particularly knowing that the next friendly against Germany won't be any easier. He doesn't need a goal this weekend, but for the sake of his confidence, it would do wonders, if only to silence the outside noise and end any talk about his current form.

It may just go down to the wire. Matt Freese and Matt Turner are both in camp. Turner was the guy at the last World Cup, but Freese has been the guy over the last year. Freese has been good in MLS, but Turner has been great. Both will feel they should start. Only one can.

That fact is very real now. The goalkeeping pool has been narrowed down to three, and only one can be named to any particular starting XI. While the one named to this particular XI is not guaranteed the job, there's no denying that it'll be a pretty good indication of who Pochettino sees as the starter.

"It's not the first time that I have not been certain of who's playing," Freese said. "And so it's drawing upon past experiences of dealing with the pressure, being confident and being hungry, being competitive, but also being a good teammate and finding that right balance. What matters is the team succeeding, the team doing well, and I'm a guy that drives a lot of my confidence from the hard work that I put in and the hard work that I've put in for 25 or 26 years.

"Lord knows that I've worked hard, and so it doesn't really change my confidence. I'm very focused on just doing my thing when I get any opportunity, and then making sure that I'm confident and ready to help the team."

Freese has started all but two of the USMNT's matches since the start of last summer. That, theoretically, makes him the incumbent. Turner's only USMNT starts came in lopsided losses to Switzerland and Belgium, although the blame for those losses could not be laid at his feet. Still, the outside perception is that Turner is chasing. He's approaching it that way, too, whether he is or isn't.

"I'm always going to train like I have a chance," he said. "That's how I've gotten to where I am in this current day and age. I don't know why I would ever change that. So, for me, I'm always just going to work as hard as I can and when the coach makes his final decision, he makes his final decision, and I'll be at peace knowing that I put everything I had behind it."

It has been discussed ad nauseam, and it will continue to be throughout this World Cup. It's worth discussing for this game, though, because it gives us our first real look at what the USMNT midfield could look like.

The team has just four "central midfielders": Tyler Adams, Sebastian Berhalter, Weston McKennie and Cristian Roldan. That fact has been a talking point since the moment the roster was unveiled. It's a thin position on the surface, but Pochettino doesn't necessarily see it that way.

"I think, in the way that we understand football, it's about having the quality in the squad to play, and then I think that is the balance," Pochettino told reporters Thursday. "We don't need another holding midfielder, because I think Sebastian [Berhalter] or Cristian [Roldan] or Tyler [Adams] can, and if we play with one holding the field, there is enough. We need to be good and to have more possession than the opponent. That is the idea."

So what does that look like? Is it Adams with McKennie and someone like Malik Tillman or Gio Reyna in front of him? Is it Adams holding, with Berhalter or Roldan roaming and McKennie attacking ahead of them? Does this push Pulisic out wide, or is he a No. 10, either on his own or in a dual playmaker setup? All are real options and, while Sunday's game won't be definitive, it'll provide at least some indication of what Pochettino wants to see.

Chris Richards arrived at the Nations Training Center just before 9:30 a.m. Friday. He arrived after a wild few days of jubilation following Crystal Palace's Conference League triumph. For that reason, and one other big one, it's unlikely Richards will play this weekend. There are bigger games ahead, after all.

On Friday, Richards did not train with his teammates. Instead, he underwent a medical evaluation by the USMNT staff. The defender is dealing with an ankle injury that prevented him from playing in Palace's final Premier League match against Arsenal and limited him to a spot on the bench in the Conference League final. By all accounts, he'll be ready for this summer, but there is an obvious reason for caution.

So how do the U.S. set up without the one center back who, if fit, seems a lock to start? There's Tim Ream, of course, who is a logical starter for multiple reasons, including the fact that the match is in his home stadium in Charlotte. Mark McKenzie, Auston Trusty and Miles Robinson could all start, too. Pochettino could also turn to Alex Freeman or Joe Scally, two players whose versatility could make them hugely valuable this summer.

Because of Richards' absence, though, it remains harder to project what the USMNT will look like, simply because any defense without him is far from the best possible setup.

The history books may or may not show it 50 years from now, but Senegal won the most recent Africa Cup of Nations. That means they're a pretty good team, one that will believe they can beat anyone in the world this summer.

On Sunday, they'll try to beat the USMNT, and they have the tools to do it.

The attack is headlined by Sadio Mane, Ismaila Sarr, Nicolas Jackson and Iliman Ndiaye, among others. Idrissa Gueye and Pape Matar Sarr bring real Premier League experience to the midfield. Defensively, Kalidou Koulibaly spent several years among the best defenders in the world, while goalkeeper Edouard Mendy also has more than enough experience at the highest levels. All of that is to say this will be a big test for the USMNT.

"They didn't win AFCON for no reason, right? I think that's a testament to their ability and their quality they have as a team," defender Mark McKenzie said. "I think for us, we're focused on using this as a test, obviously, but at the end of the day, we also need to focus on fine-tuning our game, fine-tuning what we want to get across to go into this tournament in the best form possible and best way possible. I think that's our mentality.

"Obviously, they're a quality team, so you show respect, but we have a quality team as well, and that's how we're approaching the match."

We'll see the USMNT's quality this weekend. This Senegal team is not unlike the challenges they'll face in the group stage. Like Paraguay, Australia and Türkiye, Senegal can play and have players who know it. As McKenzie said, though, the U.S. does, too. We'll see what that means this weekend.