COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – Eight months before the opening whistle blows at the World Cup, every friendly is essentially a live audition for all the world to see and on Tuesday against Australia, U.S. men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino embraced the spirit of experimentation completely. He made six changes to the starting lineup from Friday’s 1-1 draw with Ecuador and was forced to make a seventh when Christian Pulisic came off with an injury in the first half. It was a golden opportunity for those players despite the imperfect situation of playing without the team’s star player, and the results were understandably mixed. Make no mistake, though – a few winners emerged from the USMNT’s 2-1 win over Australia on Tuesday, offering new signs of optimism for the World Cup hosts in the process.
The one indisputable winner in the Denver suburbs on Tuesday night was forward Haji Wright, who scored twice in his first start for the national team since Pochettino took the helm a year ago. His absence was not because he was out of favor but rather the unlucky result of injuries, though he returned to the national team in arguably the form of his life – the versatile forward has nine goals in 11 games for Coventry City this season, hopes high that he would translate that form to the USMNT at a crucial time in the group’s World Cup preparations.
Wright did just that on Tuesday with two impressive goals, ones that showcase his unique instincts as a goalscorer. Wright was on the receiving end of an impressive ball from midfielder Cristian Roldan for his first and opted to almost run ahead of the ball, catching Australia’s defense by surprise as he poked the ball into the back of the net. The second, in which Wright connected again with Roldan on a quickly-taken freekick, saw Wright outrun an opposition player and then slip behind him for a perfect, unobstructed shot on goal.
“I saw Roly looking at me,” Wright said post-match. “He kind of gave me a little head flick. I kind of picked up on it and I was like, okay, let’s do it, so I spun immediately. Then as the ball bounced, I kind of noticed there’s no one around me so I tried to see if anybody was in the box. I wanted to cross it initially but once nobody was in the box, I knew I had to create the chance myself.”
Wright’s trajectory nearly matches that of Folarin Balogun‘s, who himself spent nearly the entirety of Pochettino’s first year in charge away with injury but has two goals and one assist in four games since returning in September. While Balogun may have had a chance to stake his claim first on a starting role, Wright’s performance on Tuesday just might create a sense of competition that has been missing in that particular position for years – and exemplifies the competitive edge Pochettino has fostered within the expanded player pool, a year into the job.
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“That is what we expect when you give the opportunity to the player, no?,” Pochettino said about Wright seizing his opportunity. “I think that is good news to have players that can compete for a spot in the World Cup. I think every time that we can have the possibility to provide the player — maybe they didn’t play too much in the last year with us — I think that is an important thing. It’s to say, ‘I am here and I want to play. I want to be part of this team,’ and with [a] performance like this, it’s for sure a player that performed like that, Haji can be close. It’s possible to be involved.”
Balogun and Wright’s recent contributions lend a real helping hand to the USMNT’s overall attacking efforts, which have yet to fully click in the midst of Pochettino’s ongoing rebuild of the side. Against Ecuador and in September’s 2-0 win over Japan, the U.S. generated promising opportunities but were unable to finish them at times, while against Australia, their meaningful opportunities were almost few and far between as they faced another uber-defensive opponent. Balogun and Wright found ways to overcome those challenges even if there is room for improvement, while the assists from Malik Tillman on Balogun’s goal against Ecuador and Roldan’s pair for Wright against Australia signal that some things are, in fact, working. In October, the group also managed to find goals without Pulisic on the field for all but the 30-minute sliver of time he played on Tuesday, another sign that things just may be trending in the right direction.
Roldan came out as another big winner on Tuesday, charting an unlikely journey back into the USMNT’s good graces. Like Wright, he was a member of the U.S. 2022 World Cup team, but in the years since the 30-year-old’s national team profile faded until a surprise late call-up for September’s friendlies against South Korea and Japan. He returned to the fold for a second international break in a row and has now played an important role in the USMNT’s last two victories, bolstered by the fact that Pochettino’s new-look tactical approach, rooted in building out of the back with three center backs, is exactly how Roldan is used to playing at the Seattle Sounders.
“It’s what we need and then we need players with confidence, with some belief, with a little bit [of] arrogance, a little bit being naughty, being competitive and then maybe Cristian Roldan is [an] example,” Pochettino said. “If you want to build your perfect player, he has a little bit of everything.”
While Wright personifies Pochettino’s desire for competition, Roldan is a perfect case study for his open door policy that saw the head coach treat player pool expansion as a top priority. The compliment from Pochettino was not lost on the midfielder, and neither is his trajectory back into the national team.
“I’m playing, I feel like, the best of my career,” Roldan said. “Unfortunately, it’s at age 30. I wish it was a little younger, but it’s great that number one, I’m getting seen, that I’m getting involved in camps and now feeling like I’m a part of the team. … I never really got the chance to play against the very best in the world. I didn’t play in the World Cup in ’22. I didn’t play in some of the bigger games with the national team. I never left Seattle and played in Europe, played in these [UEFA] Champions League games so [the Club World Cup] was a great moment for me to understand where I’m at, understand that I can compete against the best, understand that I’m playing at a high level and it gave me a whole lot of confidence throughout the second [half] of the season.”
Wright and Roldan provided a lot of upside for the USMNT against Australia, almost making up for the mistakes that the hosts’ defense made at different points during the game. The entire group — this time made up of goalkeeper Matt Freese, center backs Chris Richards, Miles Robinson and Mark McKenzie and midfielder James Sands in front of them — were caught ball-watching on Jordan Bos’ goal for Australia, and they were caught sleeping at the start of the second half. It will perhaps come as no surprise that the USMNT are better with Tyler Adams on the field, even if it is bad news for Sands, while it may be less encouraging that the U.S.’s best defensive performances so far have come when Tim Ream is on the field as well.
A mixed bag, though, is to be expected from a series of auditions, no matter the looming deadline of the World Cup. Pochettino made it clear that the tryouts are not over just yet, either — November’s friendlies against Paraguay and Uruguay mark the next phase in a months-long journey to decide the World Cup roster, the head coach once again underscoring why his focus on experimentation is key to making the tough calls next summer.
“I think both games [in October offered] the possibility to see different combinations [of] players playing together,” Pochettino said. “Today, I think that some players never played together. That is priceless for us. I think it’s important. We still [have] a long time to the World Cup and I think we can. We can assess and it’s open … To be sure that which type of profile, of characteristics you need because not only [do] you need good players, but also you need good teammates, good people, people that can put the interests of our national team [above] your own interests and that is important to see all the details, the situations when you are playing well, when you are not playing well. This type of thing, we take note.”
The players are responding in accord.
“I think I have to continue to perform,” Wright said. “I think if I just shut off now, chances will probably diminish but I’m happy that it happened and I try and build off that.”
