The United States men’s national team roster for World Cup 2026 has been unveiled officially.
The 26-man group, highlighted by international stars Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie, will be asked to deliver a breakthrough World Cup finish on home soil.
But there were several roster snubs who didn’t make the cut.
Diego Luna, the firebrand midfielder with MLS team Real Salt Lake, was left off.
Luna had emerged as a national team regular under Mauricio Pochettino, his signature moment coming in January 2025 when he played through a broken nose against Costa Rica, and had featured in several of the USMNT’s pre-tournament marketing campaigns.
Tanner Tessmann was considered a possible starter as a defensive midfielder alongside Adams. But the 24-year-old Olympique Lyon player was left off the roster entirely.
A muscle injury kept Tessmann out of Lyon’s last three games, but wasn’t expected to affect his availability to play in the World Cup.
Yunus Musah was a prominent part of the squad at the 2022 World Cup, but he fell out of the mix this time around.
The Bronx-born midfielder recently failed to nail down a starting spot for Atalanta in Italy’s Serie A.
Jack McGlynn, a Long Island native who plays for MLS team Houston Dynamo, and Aidan Morris, a fixture in the lineup for Middlesbrough in England’s second-tier Championship, also were left out of the midfield group.
Zavier Gozo, a 19-year-old winger who is teammates with Luna at Real Salt Lake, didn’t emerge as a roster contender until very late in the process with a torrid start to the season in MLS. It was evidently too little too late to earn him a surprise call-up.
Tristan Blackmon was a snub at the relatively thin center back spot. The 29-year-old, who plies his trade for the Vancouver Whitecaps in MLS, was in contention for a spot late despite having just two USMNT caps, both coming last September.
Roman Celentano and Patrick Schulte were bypassed in favor of Chris Brady for the No. 3 goalkeeper spot.
— With Ethan Sears
