The blow-by-blow of how Mauricio Pochettino informed the 26 players they'd made the United States men's national team roster for the World Cup is now known and the controversy around the notification process has only deepened, expanding from email to WhatsApp and now including the coach going on an expletive-filled rant about his approach to communicating news to his players.
The soccer-mad public knew what the roster looked like well before the big USMNT roster reveal event on Tuesday at Pier 17 in lower Manhattan. That's because it was first shared by The Guardian on Saturday, with further reporting from The Athletic noting that the all 55 players on the preliminary World Cup roster received an email Friday informing them of whether or not they made the World Cup cut.
The fact that the news was delivered via email made waves over the weekend, but the Tuesday event brought with it more specifics about how the 26 players going to the 2026 World Cup found out.
At 1 pm ET on Friday, the whole squad got added to a WhatsApp chat by the USMNT's team manager and sent a recorded video message from Pochettino that at a glance appears slightly like a head of state informing citizens of impending military action, but is instead the good news that they're going to the World Cup. They were also instructed to send back videos of themselves in the WhatsApp group chat, which turned into this made-for-social-media video of members of the team finding out.
The fact that the 29 left out received email rejections from the USMNT remained a talking point while Pochettino addressed the media in a press conference at the Pier 17 event.
The Argentine does not accept the idea that he's uncaring or too cold toward the players who did not make the final roster because he didn't call them personally to tell them. Pochettino summed his position up as, "Do you know why I care? Because during two weeks, I didn't sleep and today, I still cannot enjoy the 26 guys in front of me because I am thinking about the players that are out...It's not to call because if I call, it's about myself. I say, I call. I am very human about calling. Come on. That is bullshit. Sorry."
In both acceptance and rejection, though, Pochettino took a completely impersonal approach to informing his players of their World Cup status. Part of Pochettino's response to the debate around his communication methods included referencing back to how he responded to receiving bad news at previous points in his own career as player (missing the 1994 and 1998 Argentina World Cup squads) and manager (getting sacked by Tottenham Hotspur).
As Pochettino sees it, because he didn't want to hear from his coaches or from Spurs chief Daniel Levy after they'd already decided against his services, he could extend that same principle to all the players he was leaving out of the USMNT squad this summer.
It all rings as just slightly odd. Pochettino positions himself as doing players a favor by sending them a digital Dear John rejection letter, but it's not like he's giving the players going to the World Cup such preferential treatment, either.
It doesn't read as particularly personal or special to find out you'll play at the World Cup by being dropped into a WhatsApp chat with an impersonal message from your national team coach addressed to 26 rather than one, yet that appears to be the exact vibe Pochettino is pursuing, for better or worse.
There's also something odd about planning this major event for a Tuesday mid-afternoon but informing all 55 members of your preliminary roster of their fate on an afternoon many days before that event. The Guardian did amazing reporting with the early release of the final roster, but it feels like an inevitability that word would leak well before that event once the entire 55-player pool learned of Pochettino's choices.
All this roster announcement intrigue is extra fascinating when viewed in contrast to how other countries handle their World Cup roster reveal business, as well.
Australia, one of the USMNT group-stage opponents, is an example of a different approach. They've had a training camp running in Florida and have players coming and going, now with 29 players still involved, including two from New York City FC, Kai Trewin and Aiden O'Neill, hence the heightened awareness of their planning. Eventually, before FIFA's June 1 roster-submission deadline, they'll whittle down to 26 players, but it's still not finalized who is in or out.
Then there's the approach of Brazil, who held a similar made-for-TV unveiling of their roster to what the United States tried to pull off, though with Brazil's actually happening in real time. Carlo Ancelotti held a press conference and read out the names for the first time, live for all to see, straight from the source, with players and fans alike finding out at the same time. It's very different than the Pochettino approach and creates things like an emotional reaction video of Neymar finding out he'd been chosen.
Pochettino had his approach and says it's consistent with how he's always operated while leading the national team. Still, sorting the haves and have-nots by whether or not they get added to the exclusive World Cup WhatsApp chat feels a little too casual even for a generation of 20somethings likely fine with conducting any and everything via text.
While there's a well-backed thesis supported by players and coaches both that there's no "good" way for an omitted player to find out, maybe all this controversy could have been avoided. Why not just tell the whole world, players, fans, media alike, what the final World Cup roster is, via email all at the same time?
There's precedent for finding out about your World Cup fate via email, as USMNT legend Clint Dempsey just relayed a version of that exact scenario in a recent Men In Blazers interview.
The "just email everyone all at once" approach might not work neatly in tandem with a big event unveiling the roster like the one just held and aired on Fox, but at least it would be in keeping with USMNT tradition, to some extent.
