Time marches on: what the next three years will bring for the USMNT

There are massive questions lingering around the US men’s program. Mauricio Pochettino’s contract is up, US Soccer has made an extension offer, but both parties are taking some time. Matt Crocker’s abrupt exit as sporting director to take a similar job with Saudi Arabia before the World Cup begs more queries about the direction of the sport in this country. And while most of the 2026 squad’s core still projects to contend for 2030, four years is a long time.

From now, each year offers a major tournament. This is what the US should hope to clarify at every step of the way.

2027: Concacaf Nations League + Gold Cup

The United States next return to regional competition needing to sustain momentum. The Nations League kicks off in September, although the US will probably enter in November as the region’s top-four teams get byes straight to the quarter-finals. The semi-finals and final are held in March 2027.

The US won the first three Nations Leagues but failed to reach the final in 2025, faceplanting against Panama before falling to Canada in the third-place match. The next installment is the first chance for this team to show that the summer’s strong form wasn’t an aberration but, instead, a new normal: effective soccer with plenty of license to entertain.

The Gold Cup follows in the summer, a tournament that has historically been a testing ground for players on the bubble. In 2019, the United States bounced back from missing the previous World Cup by giving tournament debuts to Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie. Pochettino’s only Gold Cup helped him integrate Malik Tillman, Sebastian Berhalter, Alex Freeman, and Matt Freese into the squad.

Players who were among the hardest cuts from Pochettino’s squad – like Aidan Morris, Diego Luna, Tanner Tessmann and the injured Patrick Agyemang – could use it as a launchpad to become a greater part of the core from earlier in the cycle. Those who were too inexperienced to contend for this summer will push hard for an early introduction, including Zavier Gozo, Niko Tsakiris, Adri Mehmeti and Julian Hall.

Goalkeeper could be a position to watch. Even with a Gold Cup under his belt, Freese looked unseasoned this summer and failed to meet the moment against Belgium. Matt Turner turned 32 in June, leaving the door open for alternatives. Getting a backstop installed by next summer would give them multiple tournaments to build cohesion with the team.

The United States also enter World Cup qualifying in November 2027, joining the process in round two with the rest of the region’s top-ranked teams. They’ll be the top team in a group of four, where finishing first or second in the group (with games played in November and March 2028) gets them to the final round. There is simply no excuse for failing to advance from this stage.

2028: Copa América and the LA Olympics

The former is on the calendar in pencil, as there’s no official confirmation that Conmebol will stage its flagship tournament in the United States for a second consecutive installment. However, Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported the 2024 and 2028 tournaments as having been awarded in-tandem, with the USA and other Concacaf nations having paths into the tournament field even if its held in South America.

A more hallowed competition than the Gold Cup, the Copa would be a vital mid-cycle checkpoint to test this group’s mettle. It would be a gut-check moment for starters to reaffirm they should be leaned on with an eye toward 2030, as the final stage of World Cup qualifying looms. Players who are nearing their 30th birthday will need to be especially sharp, as more youthful alternatives will be eager to force themselves into the lineup.

Then there’s another tournament on home soil: Los Angeles 2028, with Olympic soccer being held in several MLS stadiums. This will be a mostly under-23 tournament as usual, with teams able to select three over-age players.

Discount Olympic soccer at your peril. Paris 2024 didn’t unearth any World Cup starters, but did wonders for Tessmann’s stock as he captained the team to a quarter-final. It could be even more informative as the program readies for a likely generational shift of personnel after the 2030 World Cup. Affording a squad of rising players to star in big international games is a great opportunity to broaden and deepen the player pool.

2029: Concacaf qualifying + Nations League + Gold Cup

For the Nations League and Gold Cup, the brief is similar: Play with similar style to the A-team while vetting more rotational or fringe players.

Qualifying is where things get interesting, assuming the United States don’t suffer a historic setback in the second round. After 2028, the US coach will have recent tournament performances to study from 46 players: 26 from Copa América and 20 younger hopefuls from the Olympics. That’s a pretty big pool to start with as players come in and out of qualifying windows due to injuries and form.

As the US learned in 2018, qualifying isn’t a given. But since they last entered in 2022, the expanded field has made Concacaf qualifying a bit more forgiving. Rather than the round-robin “Hexagonal” or “Octagonal” of yesteryear, Concacaf now draws the final twelve hopefuls into three groups of four to play a six-match stage. The top two teams from each group advance to the World Cup, while the two best third-place finishers have a play-in game for a spot at the inter-confederation playoff.

Qualifying is tense all around the world, but keen planning across the entire cycle can foster confidence. A crystallisation of team style and clarity at goalkeeper by the end of 2027. An assessment of the A-team at the Copa and seasoning the next wave at the Olympics in 2028. Refining combinations and building chemistry with a successful qualifying run ending in 2029.

After a cycle without some of these crucial gut-checks, the US has a chance to build a head of steam and momentum well before the 2030 World Cup comes around. It’s up to the program to make the right decisions at coach and, possibly, in the backroom to start on the right foot.