USMNT fall roster reaction! Poch picks Cavan Sullivan, no Christian Pulisic

Ryan Bailey (0:21)

Welcome to the Total Soccer Show! This is our in-depth look at the USMNT roster for the upcoming International Window. Yes, we're going in-depth on Mauricio Pochettino's selections. All those young guns! Maybe we'll talk about those guys who didn't make the cut as well. We're going to get into it over the next 45 or so. My name's Ryan Bailey. Joining me today, oh, Taylor Rockwell. Fancy seeing you here. Hello.

Taylor Rockwell (0:43)

Hello, Ryan Bailey. It's lovely to see you. Are you excited to talk about another International Window, another US roster? Is it your favorite thing? I know that it is, but I want to hear you say it.

Ryan Bailey (0:52)

Yes.

Yes, it is my favorite thing. Thank you for asking. Yes. Good.

Taylor Rockwell (0:58)

Oh, Christian Pulisic is not in Italy anymore. He's at Ryan Bailey's house, threatening him to say positive things about this window. Otherwise, there will be consequences.

Ryan Bailey (1:08)

Rolled up in his Mustang Shelby. We have conversations. Very good indeed. Is that where he drives? Hello, how are you?

Taylor Rockwell (1:14)

Yeah.

Ryan Bailey (1:14)

Yeah.

You don't want me to tell my Pulisic Mustang story, do you, right now? Do you want that?

Taylor Rockwell (1:20)

I think, especially before Joe gets to speak in any elaborate way. Yes, please.

Ryan Bailey (1:25)

Joe, Larry, shut up for a second.

Joseph Lowery (1:26)

I'm telling my Mustang story. Good call. Always a good story.

Ryan Bailey (1:28)

So there were pictures of him at Chelsea with a Shelby GT Mustang, which you cannot buy in the UK, which he obviously had shipped over. And when I met his dad, I asked him about it, and he's like, yeah, it's with me, because you basically can't import any cars like that to Italy, because that's a struggle I had, not being able to get my one into Italy a few years ago. So we had kindred spirits there. Yeah, we both love Mustangs.

Taylor Rockwell (1:49)

So it's his dog.

Ryan Bailey (1:50)

And not bringing him to Italy.

Taylor Rockwell (1:51)

His dog at one point, I'm assuming still, and his car are both in Pennsylvania, or are they still in England?

Ryan Bailey (1:58)

Pennsylvania. Okay. Yeah.

Taylor Rockwell (1:59)

That makes more sense.

Ryan Bailey (2:00)

Or Florida, wherever they, I'm not going to dox anybody here. Let's talk to Joe Larry. Hello, how are you?

Joseph Lowery (2:05)

You're not going to dox anybody or dox him? I mean, either way, really, it can go either direction. I'm great, man. I am thrilled with so much of this US roster. I am actually genuinely stoked to get into this. This is the core sports fan experience, right? The core US men's national team experience, especially, of going through the cycle of, these guys can save us. Oh, no, never mind. And then you repeat it all over again. We're at the start of the cycle, literally the 2030 cycle, but also that cycle of fandom. This is great. This is what gets me juiced, fellas. Let's go.

Ryan Bailey (2:32)

Excellent stuff. Well, plenty to discuss. And I'm going to give you a little polite golf clap, both of you, for the discussion we had on the feed yesterday, naming a lot of the players who've turned up in this here roster. So, well, we'll get into it very shortly indeed. Before we get there, before we do though, patreon.com/totalsoccershoweveryoneloves a URL at the top of the show, particularly that one. It's where you'll get our bonus materials, bonus episodes, access to our Discord, and the warm, fuzzy feeling of supporting the Total Soccer Show, patreon.com/totalsoccershow. Thank you to everybody who is part of that community. Come say hi. We're talking USMNT and so much more. Okay, so Joseph Lowry, we had the big drop of the roster today on this very Thursday as we record for these four games that are upcoming. As a reminder, we've got Peru, Chile, Mexico, and Canada coming up in this window.

The key headlines here is that it was more than 26 players, as we suspected, as we discussed on the yesterday show. 28 players called up. Cavan Sullivan made the cut, as we've outlined as well. Christine Pulisic did not. Western McKennie also not there, and Fallon Baligan also absent. Baligan yet to serve as a moniker this year. McKennie injured as well. Thirteen of the 28 players are new to the senior setup. Thirteen uncapped players brought into this window. That's terrific. Four of the five forwards are new kids on the block for the senior team as well.

Joe, you seem quite pumped about this. What's your big picture overview of the selections here?