Staff and Wire Reports
NEW YORK — Midfielders Gio Reyna and Sebastian Berhalter were included on U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino’s 26-man World Cup roster Tuesday along with winger Alejandro Zendejas, while midfielders Diego Luna and Tanner Tessmann were left off.
The roster includes four Union Academy products: Goalie Matt Freese, defenders Auston Trusty and Mark McKenzie, and forward Brenden Aaronson, as well as Hershey native Christian Pulisic. Pulisic and Aaronson were on the team in 2022, among 13 holdovers from the Qatar World Cup.
Defender Sergiño Dest, midfielder Tyler Adams and forward Haji Wright were added after missing March friendlies because of injuries. Zendejas was bypassed for the March roster after a knee injury last fall.
Players were announced in order of uniform number during a made-for-TV event on the roof of the South Street Seaport’s Pier 17, with the Brooklyn Bridge as a backdrop. The roster had been leaked in a report by The Guardian over the weekend.
“It was so painful for me to make the decision,” Pochettino said. “We cannot talk about the players that did not make the roster.”
Freese and Trusty are both Delco natives. Freese went to Episcopal Academy, where he was the 2016 Daily Times Player of the Year, and Harvard before signing a homegrown deal with the Union. He’s in his fourth season with New York City FC, and he has 14 caps with the national team in the last year, establishing himself as Pochettino’s No. 1 goalie.
Trusty attended Penncrest before finishing his schooling at YSC Academy. The Media native is fresh off winning the Scottish Premier League title with Celtic. The 27-year-old has six caps with the U.S. He was traded by the Union to Colorado after the 2019 season, then transferred that summer to English giants Arsenal.
Aaronson, 25, is one of the holdovers who might have made the team on the basis of reputation. He has 57 caps with the U.S. dating to 2020 and nine goals. He played 37 of a possible 38 games for Leeds United in the Premier League this year with four goals and five assists.
McKenzie gets his World Cup debut after a strong season in France. The 27-year-old native of Delaware played 29 games with Toulouse this season in Ligue 1. He spent three seasons with the Union, transferring to Belgian club Genk after the 2020 campaign and moving to Toulouse in 2024. He has 27 national team caps.
Reyna, a son of former U.S. captain Claudio Reyna, nearly was sent home from the 2022 World Cup by then-coach Gregg Berhalter for lack of hustle and made just four starts this season for Borussia Mönchengladbach — none since Dec. 19. He is viewed by Pochettino as a “special player.”
Sebastian Berhalter, a 25-year-old son of the former coach, made his national team debut last June and became the Americans’ best corner-kick taker.
Players dropped who had been on the March roster included goalkeeper Patrick Schulte, Tessmann and fellow midfielder Aidan Morris. Midfielder Johnny Cardoso (right ankle) and forward Patrick Agyemang (torn right Achilles) were ruled out due to injury, and defender Cameron Carter-Vickers is recovering from a torn Achilles in October.
Luna missed the March matches because of a knee injury after playing in 17 of 18 international games last year.
Half the roster returns from the last World Cup: goalkeeper Matt Turner; Dest and fellow defenders Tim Ream, Antonee Robinson and Joe Scally; Adams and fellow midfielders Weston McKennie, Reyna and Cristian Roldan; forwards Aaronson, Pulisic, Tim Weah and Wright.
Defenders Chris Richards and Miles Robinson were picked after injuries caused them to miss the 2022 tournament, where the U.S. was eliminated by the Netherlands in the round of 16. Richards, who missed the event because Crystal Palace in Wednesday’s Europa Conference League final. is a health concern after tearing two left ankle ligaments on May 17.
Pochettino said he won’t know Richards’ status until he arrives in the U.S. for training.
Among the final cuts four years ago, Ricardo Pepi made it this time.
Players from 2022 left off included goalkeepers Ethan Horvath and Sean Johnson; Carter-Vickers and fellow defenders Aaron Long, Shaq Moore, DeAndre Yedlin and Walker Zimmerman; midfielders Kellyn Acosta, Luca de la Torre and Yunus Musah; and forwards Jesús Ferreira, Jordan Morris and Josh Sargent.
This year’s average age of 26 years, 332 days as of the U.S. opener is up from 25-216 four years ago and the fifth-youngest for an American World Cup roster, also older than 1930, 1990 and 1994.
Just eight players were taken from Major League Soccer, the fewest since four in 2010, and no MLS attacking players were chosen. But of the 26, 17 have played in MLS at some point. Among the nine that didn’t, Richards and McKennie both came through the FC Dallas academy, Reyna played for NYCFC’s academy, Wright was in LA Galaxy’s system and Weah played a season in the Red Bulls set up.
Pulisic, the top American player, ended his AC Milan season scoreless in 19 games since Dec. 28 and has gone eight U.S. matches without a goal since November 2024.
Pochettino’s strikers finished their club seasons in form, combining for 56 goals: Folarin Balogun and Pepi scored 19 each and Wright 18.
Ream could become the oldest American to appear in a World Cup at 38 years, 250 days when the U.S. plays its opener, older than defender Fernando Clavijo when the U.S. was knocked out by Brazil in 1994’s round of 16.
The U.S. opens against Paraguay on June 12 at Inglewood, California, plays Australia one week later at Seattle and closes Group D with a match against Turkey on June 26 in Inglewood. The top two teams in each of 12 groups advance to the new round of 32 in the expanded 48-nation tournament along with the eight third-place nations.
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