Weston McKennie

Uh, Canada and Chile are about to square off in Toronto, and later tonight in Baltimore, Mexico will face Colombia.

It's gonna be fascinating come the November window when the US plays their first competitive matches of this cycle in the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinals, what that squad looks like, because presumably you would have guys like Pulisic, McKennie, Balogun back.

How many of these youngsters stay? What does that starting lineup look like in those games? We'll see, obviously, how these youngsters perform over the course of the next three matches.

We'll probably have a better idea coming out of this window which guys are gonna stick.

I mean, I mean, I guess just going forward, I, that's what I would like to see is, uh, just get back to what we, what we do in the World Cup, right? What we do in the World Cup.

Like y- yeah, Yunus Musah is not of the profile of a Malik Tillman, Weston McKennie, um, Seb Berhalter, et cetera, et cetera.

You know?

Boy, Seb Berhalter looked like a world-class player when he came on, didn't he?

Um, but we do need to begin with who's not here.

Weston McKennie Ricardo Pepi, Flo Balogun, all different stages of return from injury, and Christian Pulisic, who just scored his first goal for AC Milan since December 28th, 2025.

Drought over.

Um, it's actually taken him time to earn minutes on the field at Milan after his microfracture at the World Cup.

Which players who've been starters on the team in the last two cycles and do you see being eased out of the program in this march towards 2030?

Man, this one is gonna hurt, but I said it for quite some time in this last two-year cycle with Mauricio Pochettino that his change of system, there were gonna be a few casualties.

One I thought would be Weston McKennie.

He survived, and he thou- I thought didn't have statistics to back it up during the World Cup, but I thought he was very good in the World Cup.

Um, the first one for me is, um, I, I'm curious where fan enthusiasm is at for a US Men's national team friendly against Peru coming out of a World Cup, because in the past, you know how it is, JJ.

Like, this, this match-up in a, um, in a, a match that is a friendly, so it's an exhibition, and there's no Pulisic, Balogun, McKennie, like some of the headliners.

None- they're not there.

We've seen this movie before, and it's usually a movie that's half full.

You're all out and we're going all young players.

In that next window in November, I believe there were only three players that were age 20 or under.

McKennie, Adams, and Carter-Vickers.

Pulisic wasn't brought.

This kid reminds me a lot of Tyler Adams, with a little bit more to offer going forward with the ball.

So he's gonna have a hybrid role for me as a double pivot, but also that Weston McKennie role where you go forward at times with Tillman, and you're going in these channels and making those movements.

But this guy, Malik Tillman, he's gonna operate as the 10th.

I really enjoyed what I saw of him in the World Cup.

Let's remember, let's recall that Yunus Musah was a big part of this program.

Yeah.

The best this program's looked in the 2022, uh, era, that World Cup, was against England, and it was Yunus Musah, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, that made Jude Bellingham, Mason Mount, and company really suffer.

He's a good player, and a player that I might add was in the boat with Christian Pulisic of not wanting to go to the Gold Cup.

Yeah.

I mean, there's some non-negotiables and there's some absolute starters, and there will be always the conversation about Christian Pulisic and everybody else that's involved, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, you know, on and on and on, which is fine.

That, that's because they've earned the right to be a part of those conversations.

But I love the fact that in this window you're gonna have a bunch of games, but you're also gonna have enough time where, yes, there is the threat of players not recovering in time.

Uh, the only person specifically I think, um, Poch talked about was, was Flo Balogun, saying, "We reached out about the Everton thing, his injury.

We now saw him get back on the field for Monaco this weekend." That one a little bit more explained.

Weston McKennie has had injuries as well.

But what do you make of the decision-

Looking forward to Max Verber's one as well.

Uh, Weston McKennie.

Weston McKennie probably, ha- probably sell more, wouldn't it? I would say.

Mm.

Um, but yeah, we'll, we'll, maybe we'll do a full breakdown of it when it happens.

I bet, I bet Wes-

... is not gonna be extensive.

[laughs] I bet Weston McKennie would have loved to link up with Jersey Mike's.