The opening salvo kicked off pitchside at Wembley – not between the Australian and USA World Cup teams, but between players turned pundits Mark Schwarzer and Mike Grella. The former Socceroos goalkeeper, with 109 caps on his CV, was on-hand for the EFL Championship promotion final and stationed alongside Grella, who had a fine career in MLS and the EFL but never cracked the USMNT. It’s unlikely Schwarzer arrived with an axe to grind but he took umbrage with Grella’s post-draw reaction that playing Australia was “a lay-up” for the co-hosts.
“Host nations are always difficult to play against at any World Cup,” Schwarzer said. “We always knew the USA was going to be a tough, tough opponent. What we like to do is let our performances do the talking.”
“Talk” isn’t quite a hallmark of the roster summoned by Mauricio Pochettino, as the group boasts a few headline introverts led by Christian Pulisic. What this generation has managed, however, is to be the first to grow into their careers with great fanfare and social media intrigue. Some speculated this could be a golden generation. Others suggested this was a new normal for a nation that has finally established a meaningful academy structure within MLS over the past two decades. A more sober assessment than Grella’s is that Group D is there for the taking, without an obvious giant lurking among the USA, Australia, Turkey, and Paraguay.
After the initial shock of individual picks and snubs subsided, the dust settled to reveal an imbalanced squad. Pochettino picked 10 defenders and four holding midfielders, with two of his three toughest omissions coming in the engine room: Tanner Tessmann of Lyon and Aidan Morris of Middlesbrough.
Some of this is defensible given how the team has played. Pochettino spent much of his first year in 2024 operating out of a base 4-2-3-1, offering the optimal attacking numbers with a structure that’s easy to tweak to opponents’ gameplans. But the lack of top-end talent at center-back left them overrun far too often once opponents bypassed the central line.
By September 2025, Pochettino seemed to crack it: an extra center-back at the expense of an auxiliary attacker. On occasions, he has deployed true wingers on either side of his striker; more often, he follows the current tactical zeitgeist with a pair of attacking midfielders pulling strings in the half-spaces.
Then again, the setup hasn’t gotten more than a half dozen runouts in earnest. This is where the hosts’ free berth into the tournament without the otherwise mandatory qualification process hurt the team, as those games provide the kinds of tests that clarify partnerships and player usage alike. The results from the March tests against Belgium and Portugal were grim, a 7-2 aggregate walloping that begged more questions than answers. Given the players Pochettino has picked surely five at the back is mandatory to make sense of his squad balance.
At the other end, goalscoring largely comes by committee these days, as it does for most national teams. Pulisic hasn’t scored for the national team since November 2024, nor has he for any team since late 2025. Pochettino tried getting his star back among the goals in March, giving him a rare shift at centre forward against Portugal, only to pull him at half-time. Nonetheless, he’s likely to command the most attention from opposing schemes.
That would be welcome for Folarin Balogun as the striker readies for his World Cup debut. Balogun was a prized commitment after weighing interest from England and Nigeria, the successor to Jozy Altidore with proven quickfire shooting prowess and a knack for accuracy when off-balance or operating at pace. The 24-year-old bagged 13 goals from 30 Ligue 1 games with Monaco, and arrives in full fitness and good form.
When playing with two attacking midfielders, service to Balogun flows more freely as players work through-balls up the channel. If operating with wingers, there’s often too much space between the midfield and forward to adequately create centrally. All of which is often remedied in a very modern way: the overlapping wide defender.
Antonee Robinson and Sergiño Dest haven’t been healthy often enough for Pochettino’s preparations over the past 18 months, but arrive at the World Cup in full fitness and decent form. Robinson advances upfield with downhill dribbling and give-and-go passing. While on the right, Dest is more prone to taking the initiative with mazing dribbles and taking opponents on one-v-one. Each also has a proven mobile understudy (Max Arfsten on the left, Alex Freeman on the right) who thrive as wing-backs.
Australia, Paraguay and Turkey will need to be vigilant for Robinson and Dest cutting inside to supply crosses. Likewise being drawn in by Pulisic when Balogun can strike in the briefest of windows. The USA’s concluding World Cup cycle has been typified by chaos, but they arrive with determination to justify their hype. With a clarified squad, the players should finally be better able to focus on refining Pochettino’s vision. Will they catch opponents unaware, or be caught underrehearsed?
