For the United States Men’s National Team, the 2025 Gold Cup will be the last major tournament before it co-hosts the World Cup next summer.

After disappointing results at Copa America in 2024 and the Nations League this past year, the Americans aren’t exactly rolling at the moment.

With the Gold Cup being their last chance to play super meaningful games, Mauricio Pochettino’s 60-man provisional roster looked to be pretty close to complete.

However, when he whittles it down to 26, that will not be the case, as several key players will be missing.

For starters, Christian Pulisic will not play after a season in which he is 49 minutes away from a career high in minutes. He will likely eclipse that mark in AC Milan’s final match this weekend.

Unfortunately for Pochettino and the USMNT, the Gold Cup isn’t the only major soccer tournament going on this summer.

The 2025 Club World Cup which will be held in the US, will take away several other key American players from the National Team.

Gio Reyna, Weston McKennie, and Tim Weah will all be representing their club this summer, keeping them off the Gold Cup roster.

Missing players of this magnitude certainly does not help the US gain momentum heading into the World Cup.

In fact, something like this summarizes the USMT’s failure to build momentum ever since reaching the knockout round of the 2022 World Cup.

Despite the lack of a full squad, the Americans still need to find some positive results in the Gold Cup to take some momentum moving forward.

If the US can come out on top and have positive results in some friendlies before the World Cup, they could be in a positive position to make some noise on home soil.