Retired U.S. men’s national team star Landon Donovan believes the final year before the 2026 World Cup will be crucial for the host team, offering opportunities for the group to correct course before the tournament begins next June.
The USMNT are back in session ahead of this month’s Gold Cup, which marks their final chance to lift silverware before the World Cup. Head coach Mauricio Pochettino will spend the month working with an inexperienced squad, forced in part by injuries to key players like Antonee Robinson and Club World Cup responsibilities for some like Weston McKennie. Star Christian Pulisic will also sit out the tournament to recover from a demanding season with AC Milan. The Gold Cup, as well as preceding friendlies against Turikye on Saturday and Switzerland on Tuesday, offers a valuable opportunity for some of the USMNT’s up-and-comers to make a case for themselves with the World Cup a year away, Donovan argued.
“There’s some players on the brink who have a big opportunity because other players have struggled,” Donovan told CBS Sports. “Diego Luna’s a great example, Brian White in Vancouver, [Patrick] Agyemang in Charlotte. These are guys who, all of a sudden, could have a chance to be on a World Cup roster so you have to be careful when you’re an established player. It can go quickly and you have a few bad games and you have someone else steps in and plays well, that’s it. You have to be careful.”
The opportunity for the USMNT’s fresh faces comes on the back of a tumultuous year for the group, which saw the firing of head coach Gregg Berhalter after a group stage exit in last summer’s Copa America but managed to underperform with a fourth-palace finish at March’s Concacaf Nations League finals under new boss Pochettino. The prevailing sentiment after a pair of defeats in March was that the USMNT lacked a competitive edge, a problem that pre-dates Pochettino’s arrival and prompted Donovan to criticize the group in a tweet. Months later, he stands by his comment that “talent is great, pride is better.”
“It doesn’t matter who’s coaching,” Donovan said. “If you and I are coaching [and] that’s the effort that our team puts out, we’ve got no chance. We’re not getting out of our group. We’re going to get embarrassed at home, so I believe there’s an obligation on the players to show up and play regardless of who the coach is. Pochettino’s a very good coach. He’s proven it, but [former USMNT head coach] Bruce Arena always used to say a coach shouldn’t have to coach effort. That should be a given, and right now, he probably thinks he has to coach effort, Pochettino. That’s not good, so the player’s going to take some responsibility.”
The “obligation to show up,” Donovan argued, is about paying tribute to previous generations of the team.
“I became aware of probably midway through my national team career that there were a group of people before me and before them and before them and before them who sacrificed a lot for us to, all of a sudden, be stars and make millions of dollars and do all these amazing things, and this generation needs to know that my generation and the previous and the previous also sacrificed a lot so they can do what they’re now doing but it’s a responsibility,” he said. “It is. It’s a responsibility, and it’s fun, and it’s enjoyable, and it’s amazing, but it’s a responsibility, and if you don’t want that responsibility, fine. Then just don’t. Don’t put on the jersey. Fine, but if you’re going to do it, you better go home and do it.”
That does not mean Donovan, who is the USMNT’s joint all-time leading goalscorer with 57 goals, has actually soured on the group’s potential. He said Pulisic “is playing as well as he’s ever played” at the end of a career-best season with Milan, scoring 17 goals and notching 10 assists along the way. Every opportunity that awaits USMNT players, both individually and as a collective, will be valuable with just a year to go until the World Cup. That includes at this summer’s Club World Cup, where McKennie and Timothy Weah will compete for Juventus and Gio Reyna will take part with Borussia Dortmund.
“They’re going to be excited to come home and play,” Donovan said. “Anytime you come home and play in your country, they’ll be excited, so they’re going to be super excited. There’s a lot for those guys to prove … it’s another opportunity to be here and impress and play well and there’s not many opportunities left.”
Reyna will likely need to translate this summer’s opportunities into a transfer to a club where he will receive regular playing time in the final season before the World Cup. He only made five starts in 25 appearances for Dortmund this season, though he has only notched 12-plus starts once in his club career since making his debut for the Bundesliga club in January 2020.
“My strong advice is anybody who’s not playing consistently is go somewhere and play,” Donovan said. “Doesn’t matter where. Just go somewhere and play. That is the single biggest predictor of success in the World Cup, if you’re playing consistently and playing confidently.”
Playing time is especially crucial for a World Cup on home soil, with the current group facing pressures unlike the ones Donovan and his teammates experienced at the national team level.
“The differences is they’re playing in America,” he said. “I never did that in a World Cup, and I can’t imagine, especially this world now where your every step and action is monitored and followed, and it’s going to be a massive pressure on them. The best way to deal with that is to be playing somewhere and playing well so that when you step on the field, it’s easy. Just playing well. You don’t have to worry about it. If you’re not playing well, and then when something goes wrong in the fifth minute, 10th minute, now you start to doubt yourself, you’re at home thinking about everything. That’s when it can go wrong.”
For Donovan, the final year before the World Cup will be about the USMNT proving they can live up to the potential that many have seen in this group since they first convened as young players ready to reboot the program after the previous generation’s failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
“The challenge for this group is not in their abilities,” Donovan said. “It’s not, because we’ve seen they can play in big clubs, big moments, big competitions and succeed and do well.
“There’s a little bit of a leadership question, I think, with the group and the way someone described it to me is: we need more guys who are responsible for the result and when you’re responsible for the result, [it’s a] way different feeling and just being on a really good team but you’re kind of a bit-part player. There were a lot of guys who, when I played and previous to that, who, if they played poorly, the team was going to lose and they knew it and you got to play well and we need more days who are not just along for the ride but taking charge and being responsible for the result.”
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