HOUSTON — In the 21st hour of the 36th day of a nine-city summer camp that sapped everyone, Tyler Adams looked around a locker room here at NRG Stadium, and pride swelled inside him. He saw sunken shoulders and glum faces, psyches etched with the disappointment of a2-1 loss to Mexico. But he saw two dozen U.S. men's national team players who "got so close over these five weeks," he said. "So many guys sacrificed so much to be here, spend time away from their families, spend time away from their clubs … and come together." They all felt connected, bound by taxing training sessions and downtime, by arun to the Gold Cup finalthat was so much more than just five wins. As that run came to a close, players glowed about what they'd built. It was "very genuine, very authentic," goalkeeper Matt Freese said. They felt like "family" who'd chat over meals, thenfight for one another on the field. They also bonded with head coach Mauricio Pochettino, who, as Sunday's final approached, glowed too. "From Day 1, they created an unbelievable atmosphere in the team — never one problem, one issue between them," Pochettino said last week. He felt he'd found "a very good group of players with the desire … to learn and to improve." And then, on Sunday, he found that this "very good group of players" wasn't quite good enough. That, in a nutshell, is the dilemma that will now dog this USMNT. Two dozen players are "very connected," as Pochettino said. Others are more talented, but wereeither injured, with their clubs or on vacation. The "connected" group "sacrificed," as Adams said. They demonstrated their commitment to the national team. "At the end of the season," Adams said Sunday, "I was drained. But mentally, I wanted to grind and be a role model for so many of the guys here. Because I love playing for this team and this country." The absentees, though, hold the keys to this USMNT's potential. The question is how Pochettino will reintegrate them into a group that grew without them this summer. I asked Pochettino on Sunday night whether he'd thought about that yet. "Which players?" he asked. Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Antonee Robinson, Sergiño Dest. "You already made the list?" he responded. "Or you ask artificial intelligence and you do the roster for next time?" He laughed. "I don't understand that question," he continued. "Because for different [reasons], we have the roster that we have. All the American players have the possibility for September to be on the roster. It's up to us, now, to analyze. All the names that you told me — all are under scrutiny, and we follow them. … We need to analyze every single player, see the circumstance, see the situations, performance, fitness level." Whereasother coacheswould've used their absences as an excuse, Pochettino didn't want to talk about them. When I asked if he wished he'd had them for this summer of building and learning, he shook his head. "No, we are not going to complain," he said. "This roster that we built is the roster that deserved to be here," he added. Now was not the time "to talk about the players that should be here or [shouldn't] be here, or maybe in the future yes or no." He was, instead, "proud" of this understrength team, and "so happy in the way that we work." As for the future? "Don't worry," he said. "We are people that are very open, and not closed. [The players who] deserve to be will be." The context, of course, is that even beforePulisic opted out of the Gold Cup, the U.S. A-teamlost to Panamaand Canada, andPochettino seemed displeased. A chorus of critics questioned the stars' hunger and desire. The summer, therefore, became "an opportunity," as captain Tim Ream said, "to create a culture and a togetherness that we've maybe lacked in a lot of moments in the past six months to a year." In many ways, it was also the last opportunity before the 2026 World Cup. It was the only camp longer than nine days. It was the only chance, as Pochettino said, "to feel the pressure, to feel the stress" of a tournament. "For a coaching staff, it's important to have this type of period with them," Pochettino said during the fifth of five weeks together. "They need to know us, our demands." That, players said, is part of why these 36 days were so valuable. The "coaching staff and players are starting to really understand each other," Richards said Saturday. When Pochettino and his deputies first arrived last fall, "they kinda come off as intimidating," Richards explained, "because they havesuch a good CV, and they've coached some of the best players in the world." Ream could "see it in the way guys were behaving a little bit differently," as they adapted to "different ideas, different standards, different values, different everything." "It was a learning process, for sure," Ream added. "But," Richards said, "once you finally get to meet them, you understand that they're all just big teddy bears." Players grew comfortable with them this month. Veterans and newbies took on their tactics and teachings, in a way that's darn near impossible in the short international windows of September, October, November and March. The problem was that several key players weren't present. Pulisic chose to rest and recuperate. Yunus Musah missed out for what Pochettino called "personal reasons." McKennie, Tim Weah and Gio Reyna were at the Club World Cup. Robinson, Dest, Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi were recovering from various injuries. A few other regulars were left out for "football reasons." So the culture was built, or rebuilt, without them. Will they absorb and embrace it when, or if, they return? "If I'm being honest," Adams said Sunday, "I think it has to translate right away, or I think Mauricio probably just won't call people in. Because the culture that we have — it doesn't matter who you are. If it's guys here that played well, if it's guys coming back into the group, if you're coming back from injury — whatever it is, the culture and the emotion is the first thing that [Pochettino] wants to see. And I think that's gonna lead to positive results." Pochettino's problem, though, is that without Pulisic and others, the results almost surely won't be positive enough. The player pool simply isn't deep enough. The group he repeatedly praised over the past month wasslightly better than Costa Ricaand Guatemala(FIFA ranks: 54 and 106) andworse than Mexico(No. 17). To reach a World Cup quarterfinal or semifinal, the stated goal, he will need almost all his most accomplished players. So can he afford to send messages, and reward the players who contributed to the culture-building this summer — but who couldn't hang with Mexico's Marcel Ruíz and 16-year-old Gilberto Mora? At some point, surely by October, Pulisic and Co. will be back. "And it's down to us players to kinda drive home the ideas that [the coaches] want, the culture that they've created," Ream explained. "It's gonna be important for whoever's in camp, from these five weeks, to make sure that that continues moving forward in every single camp." And what do the coaches want? In a word or two, they want togetherness and fight. "There's a few non-negotiables from now on," Richards said. "This camp was kind of a game-changer. ... When the guys come back into camp, I think there's some things we have to hold each other accountable for. And hopefully, moving forward, if we can add a little bit more quality to it as well, I think that we're gonna be a really tough team to beat."
