The Argentine coach signed a contract extension in August that keeps him in the job through the 2030 tournament in Morocco, Portugal and Spain, giving him a full four-year cycle after a rushed build-up to the home edition.

“The headline needs to be a new start, a fresh start,” Pochettino told reporters in a roundtable earlier this week.

“The project is 2030. That needs to be our aim.”

Pochettino confirmed the 26-player camp roster will be named on 17 September, nine days before the team meets Peru at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando. Kick-off on 26 September is at 4:30pm local time.

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A mix of experience and youth

Pochettino said the squad will blend senior names with the next generation of players coming through, and framed the fall window as a chance to identify who can be part of the four-year run to 2030.

“The next camp is going to be an opportunity to bring in players that can be involved in that four-year process with the possibility to arrive to 2030 in the best condition,” he said.

He also underlined the tone he wants set from the first session.

“We need to create a group of players that [is] professional and compete in the way that we expect that they need to compete.”

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Four cities, four opponents

After Orlando, the schedule moves to Energizer Park in St. Louis for Chile on 29 September, State Farm Stadium in Glendale for Mexico on 3 October, and closes at Allianz Field in St. Paul against Canada on 6 October. Kick-off in each of those three fixtures is at 7pm local time.

The meetings with Mexico and Canada, the tournament’s two 2026 co-hosts, carry the sharpest edge in a slate that is otherwise built for experimentation. It is Pochettino’s first chance since July to test who fits into a squad he intends to rebuild rather than restore.

The bar he set at the summer tournament is not a low one. His United States side won a knockout-round game at a World Cup for the first time since 2002 before falling 4-1 to Belgium in Seattle on 6 July.

The 26-player squad list is due from US Soccer on 17 September.

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