Mauricio Pochettino is standing his ground on one of the most debated decisions of his tenure as US Soccer head coach: notifying players they missed the 2026 World Cup roster by email rather than phone.
The controversy erupted last week when the 26-player roster was unveiled Tuesday afternoon in Brooklyn with all the ceremony befitting a World Cup announcement. But the drama preceded the official reveal by days. News outlets had already published the full roster after it leaked following Pochettino's notification process to the 55-player provisional squad. The 26 selected players received video messages from Pochettino. Everyone else got email.
The impersonal approach has drawn sharp criticism from former national team players and observers who argue that significant life-altering news deserves direct human contact. Pochettino, however, rejected that premise entirely during a media availability Tuesday, painting a personal phone call as performative and self-serving rather than considerate.
"What am I going to tell a player?" Pochettino said. "Am I supposed to lie? I am going to say that another player is on the roster because today, in this period, he is a better option. I am not going to say that he is a better player or that you cannot make the roster in the future." He questioned the logistics of calling 29 players who didn't make the cut, asking whether he should do so during camps or at other times during the qualifying cycle.
Landon Donovan, who was famously cut from the 2014 World Cup squad in an in-person meeting with then-coach Jürgen Klinsmann, offered a measured response. He acknowledged understanding Pochettino's reasoning while noting that his own perspective on receiving a call would have depended on his standing with the team.
"I can understand where he's coming from," Donovan told the Guardian. "Not hearing from him directly might actually be a good thing. It's a shitty situation, it's not gonna change anything. Yes, if I was a part of the team for a long time, I would've wanted a phone call. If I'd not been part of the team for a long time, I wouldn't have cared."
Not everyone was as diplomatic. Herculez Gomez, a 2010 World Cup veteran, called the approach "diabolical" and pointed out that previous US coaches including Bob Bradley and Klinsmann made personal calls. Gomez specifically cited the case of Diego Luna, who was the second-most capped player on the roster and appeared in World Cup marketing materials.
"This is a harsh, harsh way to treat players that have for better or worse given their blood and sweat," Gomez said. "Diego Luna was the second-most capped player on this team. And you mean to tell me you didn't even pick up the phone and speak to him? You look and there's World Cup commercials of him playing the World Cup final versus Brazil. You had no problem milking him for the marketing dollars and the least he deserved was an explanation."
Some observers suggested a middle ground: Pochettino could have called the handful of players who were truly on the bubble, like midfielder Tanner Tessmann. But that approach carries its own risk. Offering different treatment to some players and not others could breed resentment among those who didn't receive calls, particularly if Pochettino remains as coach beyond 2026.
Pochettino drew on his own experience to justify his stance. He was left off Argentina's World Cup rosters in 1994 and 1998 and said he neither expected nor wanted personal notification of those cuts. He also referenced his firing from Tottenham, suggesting that conversations after a decision is made ring hollow.
"When I was sacked at different clubs, one was at Tottenham," Pochettino said. "And Daniel Levy says 'I want to talk to you.' What do you want to talk about with me? After you sacked me? You should've talked to me before you sacked me. Not after, when you make the decision. I have nothing to say then."
He insisted that excluded players don't actually want to hear from him. "The players didn't make the roster, they don't want to hear me apologize," Pochettino said, adding that he lost sleep over the cuts and remains distracted by thinking about those left behind. He characterized a personal call as self-indulgent theater rather than genuine care.
Donovan raised one practical consideration: some players on the alternate list will almost certainly end up on the final roster due to injuries or other circumstances. Pochettino has until June 1 to submit his final roster to FIFA and can make emergency changes until the day before the US opener against Paraguay on June 12.
"I'm not a betting person but I think the odds are that someone on that alternate list is going to end up on the team," Donovan said. "So you want to keep players involved, around and excited in the event that happens."
Players like Luna and Tessmann have not yet publicly commented on how they received notification or their reaction to being omitted. Neither has confirmed whether they remain available if injuries open a spot.
Author James Rodriguez: "Pochettino's logic has internal consistency, but it assumes players are rational actors who view a brush-off email the same way they'd view a constructive phone call, which is naive."
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