USMNT 2026 World Cup Roster Leaks: Mauricio Pochettino Springs Some Surprises

The U.S. men’s national team will announce its official 26-man World Cup squad on Tuesday at an event in New York City, but the pieces are already coming together for manager Mauricio Pochettino.

On Friday, The Athletic reported that U.S. Soccer had begun informing players of their status, reaching out to those on the 55-man preliminary squad about their World Cup fate.

Friday’s reporting revealed that midfielders Sebastian Berhalter, Brenden Aaronson and Gio Reyna had made the team, alongside defender Mark McKenzie and goalkeeper Matt Turner. At the same time, Real Salt Lake star Diego Luna, who features prominently in U.S. Soccer and FOX Sports’ World Cup promotions, and his 19-year-old teammate, Zavier Gozo, fell short.

Reyna Included Despite Form

Gio Reyna, USMNT — Gio Reyna has struggled for playing time with club and country. | Andrew J. Clark/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images

Reyna is expected to be heading to his second World Cup, despite not playing significant minutes over the last several seasons with Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach nor the USMNT. Still, his talent and potential to raise the team’s top-end potential make him an attractive option for Pochettino and his staff.

While the 23-year-old ended the season having played just 509 minutes, scoring once in a 3–1 late-season loss to Augsburg, he comes into the USMNT after Pochettino previously called him a “very special talent,” after he was named to the roster for March friendly losses to Belgium and Portugal.

Pochettino has indicated that he doesn’t see form as a defining factor, keeping faith in Reyna, who will look to stand out at the 2026 World Cup after nearly being sent home from the 2022 tournament in Qatar due to behavioral issues.

Berhalter, Aaronson Standout Inclusions

Brenden Aaronson has enjoyed a standout 2025-26 Premier League campaign. | Alex Dodd/CameraSport/Getty Images

The rest of the players reportedly named to the roster made for little surprise.

Aaronson of Leeds United cracks his second World Cup squad as he wraps up a standout season on the wing in the Premier League, racking up four goals and five assists in 36 appearances. Turner also returns to the World Cup amid an impressive campaign with the New England Revolution and is expected to compete for the starting role with New York City FC’s Matt Freese.

Berhalter is World Cup debut-bound with six goals and seven assists in 12 games for the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2026, after breaking out last year. The son of former USMNT manager Gregg Berhalter is known for his tenacious defensive efforts, set-piece prowess and long-range shooting. He stood out with a one-goal, one-assist performance in a USMNT win over Uruguay in November.

McKenzie, meanwhile, makes the team as a central defender, having played 30 Ligue 1 games with Toulouse FC this season. The 27-year-old was a late cut from the 2022 World Cup, but now joins the center back setup on home turf.

Diego Luna’s Commercial Spotlight, Gozo’s Snub

Luna had been a key piece to the USMNT under Pochettino through 2025 and was widely regarded as one of the best players in the run to the final at the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup.

While he boasts four goals and three assists in nine 2026 MLS games as well as a unique, close-dribbling skillset, it looks as though he won’t be on the team, in part due to Reyna’s inclusion, as well as his injury-hampered early MLS season, which kept him out of the March camp. In 2025, he was the national team’s breakout star, playing in 17 of the USMNT’s 18 matches.

Still, he will be very present this summer. The 22-year-old played a key role in the USMNT’s World Cup kit unveiling and is central in FOX Sports’ advertisement, which focuses on Christian Pulisic scoring from a corner kick to win the World Cup against Brazil.

While Pochettino and others have indicated that simply modelling a kit does not assure a World Cup spot, the spotlight is often pre-prepared.

“The players that today are on the roster, they cannot think they are going to be in the final roster,” Pochettino said in March, ahead of friendlies in Atlanta, the final full window before the World Cup. “When we go to Atlanta, maybe we can take some pictures, prepare things for marketing or things like this, because it is the last opportunity to make these types of things.”

In the past several windows, both the U.S. and Canada hosted lengthy media days for players, during which they went through a content-capture process for in-house and partner content, resulting in many players being captured who won’t be on the final squad. On the flip side, stars like Alphonso Davies and Christian Pulisic, who have been less available to the national teams, do not feature in as many commercial campaigns.

The photos of both Luna and Reyna in the new USMNT kits were taken in November, a window without Pulisic or Weston McKennie, who had their portraits taken in March.

For Gozo, the story is much simpler. He didn’t have enough time. Despite impressing with six goals and four assists as a dynamic midfielder and wingback this season, it wasn’t enough to crack a deep USMNT pool of talent.

The rest of the squad will be named on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT, with injury replacements permitted until 24 hours before the tournament opener against Paraguay on June 12, leaving the door open to others should players suffer setbacks in training or pre-tournament friendlies against Senegal and Germany.

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