The World Cup is coming to the U.S. in 21 months. And although the national team still doesn’t have a permanent manager, it does have a roster, with interim coach Mikey Varas calling up 24 players Sunday for friendlies with Canada and New Zealand.
The U.S. will play Canada on Saturday in Kansas City, Kan., before meeting New Zealand three days later in Cincinnati.
The team has been without a manager since Gregg Berhalter was fired in early July, shortly after the U.S. was eliminated in the group stage of the Copa América. U.S. Soccer reportedly has reached an agreement to give the job to Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, the former manager at Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, but Chelsea is holding up a formal announcement.
The London club fired Pochettino in May with a year left on his contract, and some details of that split remain unresolved. U.S. Soccer said the decision to have Varas coach the team in the September friendlies was “determined weeks ago … while the process for determining the next head coach has continued.”
In the meantime Varas, the former U20 national team coach, has embraced the job.
“The opportunity is once in a lifetime,” he said. “At the end of the day, though, it’s more than an opportunity. It’s also a massive responsibility.”
The roster Varas called up includes 18 players off the Copa América team and 11 from the 2022 World Cup team, including forwards Christian Pulisic and Haji Wright, midfielders Gio Reyna and Yunus Musah, and goalkeeper Matt Turner.
Yet there are some big names missing. Midfielder Weston McKennie has only recently returned to training with Juventus, his Italian club, while midfielder Tyler Adams, forward Tim Weah and defenders Cameron Carter-Vickers and Sergiño Dest are dealing with injuries. Defender Antonee Robinson was passed over after undergoing a pair of minor offseason surgeries.
“What we talked about were different visions for this upcoming opportunity,” Varas said. “The long-term vision is we’ve got to move the program forward, and we’re approaching that in two ways. The first is that we’re going to make it a really competitive training environment. The second thing is we’re going to play our way — aggressive in the press and brave with the ball.
“Ultimately what we want to do is set up these players for success to make sure that they have an easy transition with a new coach coming in.”
The young squad Varas called up averages just more than 24 years of age and has an average of 20 games of international experience. Two players, defender Marlon Fossey and goalkeeper Diego Kochen, will be looking to make their senior national team debuts.
Twenty-two of the 24 men called up play for European clubs.
“September is always a tricky window,” Varas said. “You have players coming off international tournaments and then straight into preseason, players who are trying to establish themselves and their places at clubs and you have a lot of movement in the transfer window.
“The vision is to make sure that this is a really competitive training environment during this camp. All the boys know that there will be no starting lineup set. What they do in training is going to matter.”
U.S. Soccer has not said whether Pochettino’s situation will be resolved ahead of the team’s October friendlies with Panama and Mexico or whether Varas will remain in charge.
The roster:
Goalkeepers: Ethan Horvath (Cardiff City), Diego Kochen (FC Barcelona II), Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew), Matt Turner (Crystal Palace)
Defenders: Auston Trusty (Celtic), Marlon Fossey (Standard Liege), Kristoffer Lund (Palermo), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse), Tim Ream (Charlotte FC), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Caleb Wiley (Strasbourg)
Midfielders: Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis), Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo), Aidan Morris (Middlesbrough), Yunus Musah (AC Milan), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven)
Forwards: Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United), Folarin Balogun (Monaco), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Josh Sargent (Norwich City), Haji Wright (Coventry City)
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.