USMNT star player Christian Pulisic is one of several key men who have been left of the squad for next month’s CONCACAF Gold Cup.
AC Milan forward Pulisic, who has scored 32 times for the national side, asked to be given a rest after playing around 120 games for club and country in the past two seasons.
Fellow Milan player Yunus Musah also asked to miss out, Fulham defender Antonee Robinson was dropped because he has been playing with an injury, and Weston McKennie, Tim Weah and Gio Reyna are not involved because they are playing in the newly expanded Club World Cup.
Josh Sargent, Joe Scally, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Tanner Tessmann were omitted in what Pochettino called “football decisions.”
Summer soccer on deck ☀️
Your June #USMNT training camp roster is here: https://t.co/xgTOAkEv3X pic.twitter.com/TaE02OEhNq
— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) May 22, 2025
U.S. Soccer Federation sporting director Matt Crocker said Pulisic and his advisers asked for the possibility to be left off because of the amount of games he has played in the last two years.
Coach Mauricio Pochettino wants the players who are involved to convince worried fans a turnaround is ahead.
“It’s our responsibility to send some signal to them,” he said.
“I think our fans need to see our team fighting and playing and performing and playing well, yes, but fighting for the flag and being always in every single game (to) match the aggressivity of the opponent.
“Many people can say it’s really important for us to be all together for the last time before the World Cup.
“But we decided the best for Christian, the best of the team, the best for the national team is the decision that we made.”
USA lost to Panama and Canada in the Nations League in March. Without saying players had been complacent, Pochettino said “we learned a lot in the last few camps, for sure in March, and it’s about to be — maybe use a different way to approach these opportunities.
“If you arrive to the camp and you want to spend nice time, play golf, go for a dinner, visit family, visit friends, is that the culture that we want to create?
“No, no, no, no, no. What we want do is to go to the national team, arrive and be focused and spend all our focus and energy in the national team. If we want be good in one year’s time, we need to think that today is the most important day.”
The U.S. play Turkey on 7 June at East Hartford, Connecticut, and Switzerland three days later in Nashville, Tennessee, then meet Trinidad and Tobago, Saudi Arabia and Haiti in the first round of the Gold Cup.
United States squad
Goalkeepers: Matt Freese (New York City), Patrick Schulte (Columbus), Zack Steffen (Colorado), Matt Turner (Crystal Palace)
Defenders: Max Arfsten (Columbus), Sergio Dest (PSV Eindhoven), Alex Freeman (Orlando), DeJuan Jones (San Jose), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse), Tim Ream (Charlotte), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Miles Robinson (Cincinnati)
Midfielders: Brenden Aaronson (Leeds), Tyler Adams (Bournemouth), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver), Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis), Luca de la Torre (San Diego), Diego Luna (Salt Lake), Jack McGlynn (Houston), Quinn Sullivan (Philadelphia), Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven), Sean Zawadzki (Columbus)
Forwards: Patrick Agyemang (Charlotte), Folarin Balogun (Monaco). Damion Downs (Cologne), Brian White (Vancouver), Haji Wright (Coventry)
