USMNT balance inexperience with building chemistry as Gold Cup prep begins with Turkiye friendly

Every edition of the Gold Cup comes with the weight of expectations for the U.S. men's national team, a perennial favorite to win the competition, but there is a make-or-break feeling that stalks Mauricio Pochettino's side as they enter their final preparations for the biannual competition – it is the head coach's last opportunity to win silverware with the group before the 2026 World Cup on home soil, where many are hoping the home team will come up with a statement-making performance.

It makes for fascinating timing, then, for Pochettino to work with an inexperienced group. Only six members of his Gold Cup squad have 30-plus appearances, a smaller group than the seven who have yet to earn their first cap heading into Saturday's match against Turkiye, the first of two friendlies that precede the Gold Cup. In some ways, Pochettino has been forced to work a roster that skews young – key players like Antonee Robinson and Christian Pulisic are dealing with fitness issues, while Weston McKennie, Timothy Weah and Gio Reyna will take part in the Club World Cup instead.

Ahead of Pochettino, though, is the potential of having a whole month, should they make it to the Gold Cup final on July 6, to finally drill in the ideas he has for a group that he has only seen for days at a time since coaching his first game in October.

"I think it's a great opportunity for us to settle things that sometimes it's difficult when you only have a few days to train and you need to play," he said during a press conference on Friday. "I think now it's a great opportunity to be together during one month. … Always, it's about the opportunity. You need to provide the opportunity to the player and the player maybe can take it or not, but the important thing now is to trust in this roster and try to compete, believing that we can win."

The opportunity Pochettino spoke about is two-fold. For him, it is about identifying the "too many areas that we need to improve" and actually correct course, especially so after a disastrous fourth place finish in the Concacaf Nations League finals in March, an outing in which the team's mentality was the prevailing topic of discussion.

Pochettino argued that "it's not fair to compare" March's roster with the current group, adding that "the circumstances are completely different." He may have a point – the CNL roster had enough mainstays to make developing chemistry a top focus in March, even if that did not really happen with two poor performances. This summer, Pochettino is affording opportunities to a group of players who are newer to the national team's environment, which could be valuable for a wide pool of players that is still learning how to work with the new head coach.

"I wouldn't say we're quite in a transition period but we're in a bit of a learning period," Tyler Adams, one of a handful of veterans on the Gold Cup roster, said. "We've had to adapt to different things, new principles, new players coming in, getting familiar with each other, finding out each other's tendencies and finding the best way to succeed on the field and I think that always takes a little bit of time, but we have a great opportunity in front of us right now. A lot of new faces and new energy, which I think is going to be great for the team."

It is arguably circumstantial but the list of unavailable players over the last eight months means Pochettino has offered more chances to inexperienced players than one may have expected at the start of his tenure. Some have already grasped those opportunities with two hands – Real Salt Lake midfielder Diego Luna was a lone bright spot during the CNL games in March and is back for the Gold Cup, while Charlotte FC's Patrick Agyemang could really make a case for himself as the USMNT's new No. 9 with the absences of Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi through injury, as well as Josh Sargent in what Pochettino described as a "football decision" last month. Adams, a New York Red Bulls academy product, thinks the MLS-heavy roster is a good thing.

"When I saw the roster, I was quite excited, to be honest with you, because being a kid that came through MLS, had their first opportunity to play with the national team while I was still in MLS, I know how you have to work to be a little bit more respected and all these guys that are here deserve to be here," he said. "All of them have different skill sets and are going to be able to help our team moving forward, but playing with everyone, the vibes are high right now. Everyone here is ready to take their opportunity and ready to prove a point so with these two friendly games before the Gold Cup, I think it will be a great opportunity to test everyone."

Pochettino will now spend the next month navigating the push and pull of vetting new talent while missing an opportunity to work with established players, a reasonable endeavor for any relatively new coach but that comes with a difficult balancing act with just one year to go until the World Cup. The stakes may be high, especially considering the torrid year before that included a group stage exit at the Copa America and a managerial change. For now, though, the team is hoping the challenges behind them are a formative experience and rather than an indication of what's to come.

"Obviously, you wish that you win every game in the lead up to a World Cup and you're flying with confidence but it's a double-edged sword so to speak, isn't it?" Adams said. "You could be winning a bunch of games that don't really matter and get to the World Cup and not have the performance that you want or you can kind of go through a period of adaptation like we're going through right now and struggle a little bit and realize what's in front of you and understand how valuable playing in a home World Cup is going to be so to be honest, I think we're right where we're supposed to be right now.

"We've struggled, we've gotten beat down, we've been pegged back a stone, so to speak and now we need to continue to prove that we are at this level and able to improve. … There's room for improvement for sure, but I'd rather that than to be perfect."