United States trio Christian Pulisic, Antonee Robinson, and Alejandro Zendejas are all fitness doubts for Friday’s friendly against Ecuador, said head coach Mauricio Pochettino.
“We have some [injury] issues in some players like Christian [Pulisic] that didn’t train today and Antonee Robinson, we need to assess tomorrow if they will be available or not,” Pochettino told a news conference on Thursday.
“Alex Zendejas is going to be … if it’s an [injury] issue, we don’t believe that Alex will be part of the game tomorrow.”
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AC Milan star Pulisic has been in fine form to start the season and contributed an assist in the U.S. men’s national team’s 2-0 win over Japan last month. América winger Zendejas also impressed in that win, which saw the U.S. bounce back from a loss to South Korea, scoring the team’ opening goal.
As for Robinson, a possible absence would highlight the gradual return to full fitness for the Fulham defender.
“Still not quite back to feeling 100% on it, as I was a year ago, kind of before the injury first happened, but getting there slowly,” Robinson said on Wednesday about his recovery from a knee surgery in May.
“There hasn’t really been a specific conversation about how many minutes I’m going to play this trip, if any.”
Fulham’s 2023-24 player of the season has not appeared for the USMNT since November of last year.
With or without the star players, Pochettino shared ahead of Friday’s friendly that competition for World Cup spots remains fierce.
“That roster is not the final roster … it’s really open. For everyone, it’s open. They need to perform,” said Pochettino. “I promise you, no one is sure that he’s going to be on the roster of the World Cup 2026.”
That chance for wider squad opportunities and minutes followed an underwhelming finish in March’s knockout rounds of the Concacaf Nations League, in which the U.S. fell to fourth place after winning the two previous editions.
“That was really a wake-up call, because I think it showed why … they called us. Because, Houston, we have a problem,” said Pochettino.
“With all the information, I think from there we start to work in a very intense way with the [U.S. Soccer] Federation and try to change things that didn’t help … it’s not a magic touch that you have and you can completely change things, but I think today, we are so happy.
“I think if you talk with every single [person], player or staff that is here, I think they already start to see the result.”
Since March, the U.S. coach has experimented with different rosters, which has led to a mixed bag of results. The team has suffered four losses in its last 10 games, but also reached the final in the summer’s Gold Cup.
Following Friday’s match against Ecuador, Pochettino and his roster will close out the international break with an additional friendly against Australia on Oct. 14.
After this month, the USMNT has just four friendlies before Pochettino calls in players for a pre-World Cup training camp: against Paraguay and Uruguay in November plus another pair of games in March.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
