{"id":74201,"date":"2026-05-30T05:57:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/30\/usmnt-world-cup-tune-ups-can-pulisic-end-his-drought-and-who-is-pochettinos-super-sub\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T05:57:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:57:46","slug":"usmnt-world-cup-tune-ups-can-pulisic-end-his-drought-and-who-is-pochettinos-super-sub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/30\/usmnt-world-cup-tune-ups-can-pulisic-end-his-drought-and-who-is-pochettinos-super-sub\/","title":{"rendered":"USMNT World Cup tune-ups: can Pulisic end his drought and who is Pochettino\u2019s super-sub?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The US probably won\u2019t start their A-team for both friendlies against Senegal and Germany, but the games are still opportunities to build momentum<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/mar\/31\/sign-up-for-the-world-behind-the-cup-a-newsletter-about-more-than-soccer\"><strong>Sign up for the World Behind The Cup newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/gallery\/2026\/may\/26\/usmnt-world-cup-squad-in-pictures\">26-man squad<\/a> has been confirmed. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/may\/26\/usmnt-world-cup-squad-mauricio-pochettino-email-players\">disappointing emails<\/a> and uplifting WhatsApp videos have been sent. And so, the US men\u2019s national team\u2019s World Cup campaign begins in earnest.<\/p>\n<p>Much about the co-hosts\u2019 impending tournament feels unrefined, although that may have been inevitable. Hosting the World Cup ensures a spot in the 48-team field, but robs a team of the qualifying gauntlet that can clarify who can handle the pressure and identify a group\u2019s core. These issues were further compounded by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/article\/2024\/sep\/10\/mauricio-pochettino-appointed-coach-usmnt\">mid-cycle appointment<\/a> of Mauricio Pochettino, with his initially thin grasp on his player pool leaving most of his tenure to assess individuals before he could refine a collective.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/may\/30\/usmnt-questions-senegal-germany-christian-pulisic-gio-reyna\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US probably won\u2019t start their A-team for both friendlies against Senegal and Germany, but the games are still opportunities to build momentum Sign up for the World Behind The Cup newsletter The 26-man squad has been confirmed. The disappointing emails and uplifting WhatsApp videos have been sent. And so, the US men\u2019s national team\u2019s &#8230; <a title=\"USMNT World Cup tune-ups: can Pulisic end his drought and who is Pochettino\u2019s super-sub?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/30\/usmnt-world-cup-tune-ups-can-pulisic-end-his-drought-and-who-is-pochettinos-super-sub\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about USMNT World Cup tune-ups: can Pulisic end his drought and who is Pochettino\u2019s super-sub?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}