Mauricio Pochettino is off to a good start as the United States Men’s National Team manager.
With a few matches under his belt, he’s still working to familiarize himself with the player pool. Core members such as Christian Pulisic, Tim Weah, Antonee Robinson, and Weston McKennie figure to be shoe-ins for future fixtures. The depth within the team can always stand to improve.
If everyone available were healthy, here are five names we’d like to see get an extended run with the squad.
Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake)
The 21-year-old is unlike most in the U.S. player pool. He doesn’t fit the prototype athlete commonly seen with soccer players from this country. He’s roughly 5’8″, and doesn’t boast elite straight-line speed. Stylistically, Luna’s game is something the national team is sorely missing.
He plays with an ‘f you’ attitude on the field. Luna takes no prisoners and is rabid in fighting for the ball. He’s not robotic on the field — rather he’s spontaneous, creative, and brave when taking players on. Being low to the ground, Luna’s quickness and physicality often puts defenders on their heels. He’s accrued eight goals and eight assists for RSL this year. If he were to hail from South America, clubs in Europe would be lining up for his services. He fits the mold of a feisty, technically gifted CONMEBOL player.
As such, Pochettino would be wise to bring him — perhaps as soon as January to try and get him acclimated. There’s a reason why Luna was named 2024 MLS Young Player of the Year.
Damion Downs (FC Cologne)
Downs has an outside shot to perhaps break into the striker pecking order. At this point, with Ricardo Pepi and Folarin Balogun entrenched one-two in some order, Downs would be battling the likes of Josh Sargent and Brandon Vasquez.
There are a couple things benefitting Downs. For one, Sargent can’t stay healthy. Despite showing good form in Liga MX, it hasn’t translated to the national team for Vasquez. He looked rather pedestrian in the last two fixtures versus Jamaica. Downs, a dual-nat with Germany, is only 20 years of age. He offers a different profile as a physical 6’4″ striker with good skills in the air, and better-than-you’d-think athletic ability. He’s played the United States u23 team, and that should help his transition to the senior squad assuming Pochettino rates him. Downs has five goals and an assist as a practical full-time starter in the 2. Bundesliga for Cologne.
Anrie Chase (VfB Stuttgart)
Chase might be the best dual-nat prospect out there at this point. The Japan-born Chase has an American father, and spent nine years of his childhood in Texas before moving back to his mother’s native Japan.
He’s featured exclusively for Japanese youth sides. Ultimately making the move to VfB Stuttgart at age 18, he’s broken through to the first team earning eight appaearances thus far in the 2024-25 campaign. The United States has a shortage of options at centerback. Chris Richards is a bit injury prone, Tim Ream will be 38 by the time the 2026 World Cup begins, and the rest of the group (sans perhaps Mark McKenzie) offers much in the way of uncertainty.
Chase is a gifted player, and there’s little doubt he could be a full-time Bundesliga-caliber starter within the next year. He’d immediately be one of the most promising young players in the pool should he decide to represent the United States.
Luca Koleosho (Burnley)
Winger depth within the pool is a bit cloudy at this point. Koleosho is a rare player eligible for four national teams (Italy, Canada, Nigeria, United States).
He’s been a fixture with Italy over the last year — primarily being called up to the Azzurri u21 team. I say ‘called up’ specifically because depite being called in, he’s rarely played.
Looking at Italy’s player pool and the mass amount of young talents coming through, it would be a relative shock to see Koleosho be a meaningful senior team player for that country’s program. On the other hand, Koleosho would be a nice fit under Pochettino as a pressing, energetic, high-tempo winger.
At Burnley in the Championship, Koleosho is locked in as a starter. The 20-year-old is a dynamic player with the versatility to play either wing. While Pochettino has been public about not chasing any dual-nationals, making a call to Koleosho seems like a prudent thing to execute.
