Now comes the U.S. national team's version of "Survivor."
Having expanded his player pool during a CONCACAF Gold Cup that ended with a 2-1 loss to Mexico in Sunday's final , coach Mauricio Pochettino has eight friendlies left from September through March to evaluate players to pick for the World Cup.
"All the American players have the possibility," Pochettino said. "We need analyze every single player, see the circumstances, the situations, performance, fitness level."
Following a CONCACAF Nations League flop with his A team in March, Pochettino had largely a B squad for the Gold Cup. Star Christian Pulisic wanted vacation time Yunus Musah opted out for an undisclosed personal reason Weston McKennie, Tim Weah and Gio Reyna were forced to be with their teams at the Club World Cup Antonee Robinson and Folarin Balogun were hurt and Sergino Dest was regaining fitness.
Defender Tim Ream and Tyler Adams were the only holdovers in the lineup against Mexico from the starters in the 2022 World Cup second-round loss to the Netherlands.