USMNT Nations League Roster Shows Pochettino Serious About MLS Talent | OneFootball

From the beginning, U.S. men's national manager Mauricio Pochettino has insisted playing in MLS wouldn't prevent players from earning high-leverage minutes for the Yanks if he thought they were the best option available.

Now he's putting his money where his mouth is with the roster the Argentine is bringing to the Americans' upcomming Concacaf Nations League matches later this month.

Six players in Pochettino's 23-man squad are currently plying their trade in MLS. And maybe even more notably, most of that half-dozen are faces who are relatively new to the USMNT fold.

Of course, Steffen and Ream have been USMNT fixtures long before they made their moves back to MLS from Europe. But Luna, Agyemang and White are all faces who gave relatively strong performances during Pochettino's January camp consisting of mostly domestic-based players, in friendly victories over Venezuela and Costa Rica.

To be clear, there is no sign this is part of some pro-MLS agenda from the manager. And Agyemang and White in particular probably owe their call-ups mostly to injuries elsewhere.

Ricardo Pepi was having his best European season at PSV Eindhoven until he was forced to undergo season-ending Meniscus surgery early last month. Monaco's Folarin Balogun isn't expected back from shoulder surgery until at least next month. His club teammate Malik Tillman has also been out since January with an ankle issue, and Haji Wright only recently returned to action for Coventry City following an extended layoff.

Maybe it's not so notable that it's MLS players filling those gaps, but rather the profile of those MLS players.

At age 29, White is a relative veteran, but he is relatively unproven at the international level. If he plays for the Americans, either in the Semifinal against Panama or the final/third-place match that follows, it will be only his fourth MLS cap.

Agyemang is five years younger but also with a similar story -- his two January camp appearances were his first in a USMNT jersey. And he scored in each match.

There are arguably more in-form American strikers Pochettino could have selected -- Seattle's Jordan Morris comes to mind -- but Pochettino is still in the fact-finding stage of the job less than a full year from assuming the role.

There is plenty of tape already on what Morris can and can't do on the international level. It's entirely possible White and Agyemang will be less effective than Morris -- whose results were middling -- in meaningful international games, but there's also an unknown. And international soccer history is full of players who often struggled to reach elite levels of club competition but could get it done in big spots for their national teams.