Paraguay friendly a valuable milepost for U.S. men on path to World Cup

CHESTER — The time to next summer’s World Cup is getting ever shorter. For U.S. men’s coach Mauricio Pochettino, Saturday’s visit to Subaru Park represents what may be a full quarter of the game time left until he names the 26-man squad for next summer’s World Cup.

The U.S. have Saturday’s friendly with Paraguay (5 p.m., TNT), then Tuesday’s friendly in Tampa against Uruguay in this window. It will play two friendlies in March, likely against nations who’ll mimic the matchups for the World Cup group stage, as determined by December’s draw.

And that’s about it. Pochettino, in his pre-match press conference Friday, hinted strongly toward a preference for naming a 26-player roster sometime in May ahead of the June 12 World Cup opener rather than the usual convention of a larger roster, say 40 or so, in a camp that’s then whittled down, in the name of reducing undue cruelty to those who miss the cut.

All of which means there’s four opportunities for World Cup aspirants to don the U.S. shirt between now and the tournament that seeks to define a generation of American soccer.

Pochettino’s message Friday was that no player has a place guaranteed.

“No one can feel safe,” Pochettino said. “Or no one can feel that he’s going to be, even the names that you say: (Christian) Pulisic, Tyler Adams. I think the federation is bigger than the names. That is the national team. That is representation of the country.”

With the windows dwindling and a lack of qualifiers for the tournament co-host to vet players, Pochettino has spent much of 2025 widening the player pool.

Players like Max Arftsen, Alex Freeman and Matt Freese have gone from uncapped to frontrunners. Injuries and personal matters have kept big names away: Adams and Pulisic are among those this time around, as well as Antonee Robinson and Weston McKennie. That’s given others opportunities to shine.

This 26-player group includes just seven players who were part of the last World Cup roster in 2022. Of those, both Joe Scally, a surprise pick in 2022 at age 19, and Gio Reyna are back after lengthy sabbaticals. Injuries have limited the amount of soccer played in 2025 by players like Ricardo Pepi and Sergino Dest, but both are in this camp looking to state their case.

Pochettino’s remit, when hired 14 months ago, was change. The U.S. had stumbled mightily under Gregg Berhalter, who wasn’t allowed to complete his second World Cup quadrennial in charge. Pochettino was the stopgap measure, a coach with European club pedigree who could rescue the U.S. with a home World Cup ratcheting up already high stakes.

Four straight losses this spring, including a fourth-place finish in CONCACAF Nations League, dampened that enthusiasm. But Pochettino’s team has gone 6-2-2 in the last 10 since the start of the Gold Cup. They face a pair of World Cup teams from South America in this window as a salient measuring stick.

Uruguay was the team that drove the final nail in Berhalter’s coffin in Copa America last summer. Marcelo Bielsa’s team was fourth in CONMEBOL qualifying, with Paraguay sixth.

“My expectation is to challenge them,” Pochettino said of the matchup Saturday. “I think Paraguay is a very good team. It’s a team that is very competitive, and I know (Gustavo) Alfaro is a great coach, and he’s doing a fantastic job in the qualification for the World Cup. It was really tough. They finished in a very good place. I think it’s a good place for us, even if for us, it’s maybe the first time that we’re going to play with this starting 11.”

This camp is also about challenging his players.

In September, Pochettino pivoted to a 3-4-3 system, looking to cultivate sufficient center back depth, deploy a talented group of wingbacks and obviate the perennial lack of an elite Homegrown No. 10. While the anchor of the backline, Chris Richards, isn’t in this camp, it’s an open audition for former Union Homegrowns Mark McKenzie and Auston Trusty to prove they can defend and distribute in one of those outside positions, alongside stalwarts Tim Ream and Miles Robinson.

Both Scally and Dest will get looks as wingbacks for the first time, while Scally could also audition at center back.

Pochettino is the latest manager taking aim at extracting production from the boundless technical gifts that the often frustrating Dest possesses.

“Sergino is more offensive than defensive,” Pochettino said. “He needs to improve in defensive areas, but I think it’s a great opportunity for us to know him, to see the capacity to adapt to our demands that are completely different than his club.”

Without Pulisic, the U.S. will need a primary chance creator. The door is open to Brenden Aaronson, one of the World Cup holdovers, to try to parlay his Premier League form into the national team. The paucity of options in this camp means Reyna should get a chance, as should Diego Luna and Timmy Tillman.

Up top, the pecking order of strikers is starting to resolve. That position was among the most muddled ahead of the 2022 World Cup. But Haji Wright has consistently produced in the English League Championship with Coventry. Pepi is healthy again. Arsenal product Folarin Balogun, once a proposed savior who fell out of favor, is playing regularly with Monaco again.

“I think Haji is playing at the top of the league, and I think we really know how he’s played,” Pochettino said. “I think Balogun now is playing more consistent. We’ll see the decision, and you will see tomorrow.”

Part of Pochettino’s mission is messaging. There have been squabbles internally about commitment, none bigger than Pulisic passing on the Gold Cup this year.

Pochettino has put much of that in the past and let issues that predate him lie, including the intergenerational Berhalter-Reyna spat that he says has no bearing on what Sebastian Berhalter and Gio Reyna do in this camp.

Much as he has to profess that the roster isn’t set, Pochettino has an idea of his preferences and contingencies. Saturday is a chance to see what they look like against a quality opponent.

“The most important thing,” he said, “is that all the players arrive fit, in a very good condition the day that we are going to start the World Cup.”