Projecting USA's 2026 World Cup squad: Tillman, Luna leapfrog Reyna post-Gold Cup

Just because the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup ended in tears for Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t mean the U.S. men’s national team coach didn’t get what he wanted this summer.

Sure, winning the tournament was the priority. After a hastily thrown-together group of Americans — a group that was missing star forward Christian Pulisic and about a dozen other regulars — willed their way to the final before losing a hard-fought match to rival Mexico in front of 71,000 mostly El Tri fans, of course it hurt.

But Pochettino learned an awful lot about his players in June and July — lessons that will help inform the many difficult decisions he must make next May, when the co-hosts’ 26-man roster for the 2026 FIFA World Cup must be submitted to global soccer's governing body. 

Ten months out, who projects to make the cut? Here are our best guesses as things stand today.

(Photo by Stephen Nadler/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)

Starter: Matt Turner 
Backups: Matt Freese, Zack Steffen
Just missed out: Chris Brady, Diego Kochen, Patrick Schulte, Gaga Slonina

Although Pochettino was determined to give another keeper a look during the Gold Cup — Freese became the beneficiary when Steffen and Schulte withdrew from the squad because of injury — Turner projects to reclaim the No. 1 job. He should at least get the chance: The 2022 World Cup starter is expected to leave Premier League Nottingham Forest for French club Lyon before the Ligue 1 season kicks off next month. Turner, 31, would replace Brazilian Lucas Perri, who has drawn interest from England this summer.

Freese probably played his way onto the 2026 roster at the Gold Cup; his three saves in a shootout win over Costa Rica (and legendary Ticos backstop Keylor Navas) sent the Americans to the