"It f*cking hurt, and it still hurts to this day." That's Zack Steffen — former USMNT No. 1 — talking about the call from Gregg Berhalter that told him he wasn't going to Qatar. Not an injury. Not a form slump he could rationalize. A decision. And those are the ones that don't leave.
On Friday, Mauricio Pochettino named his 26-man squad for the 2026 World Cup. Diego Luna was reportedly among the high-profile omissions. Twenty-six players got the call. Others got silence. That gap — between the players who board the plane and those who don't — is where some of the most significant moments in a footballer's career quietly happen.
How coaches deliver the worst news in football
Pochettino drew on his own experience. He was "on the radar" for Argentina's 1994 and 1998 squads but didn't make either. He finally got his World Cup in 2002. He knows both sides of the phone call, which is why he decided to contact only the 26 players who made it — not those who didn't.
His reasoning was blunt: "When you are not on the final roster, I am going to call the player and say what?" In his view, a player in that moment of devastation doesn't want an explanation. They want to be left alone. If they want to talk later, they know how to reach him.
He also decided against a pre-tournament camp with open competition. The 26 heading to Atlanta would be the 26. No stringing anyone along. "To be involved and then to go home? I think it's more cruel in that situation," Pochettino said.
Jurgen Klinsmann took the opposite approach in 2014 — bringing 30 players to Stanford before cutting seven in person, face-to-face. Landon Donovan was the most famous name on that list, joined by Clarence Goodson, Maurice Edu, Brad Evans, Terrence Boyd, Joe Corona, and Michael Parkhurst. Twelve years on, Klinsmann still describes those conversations as some of the hardest of his career.
"I was exhausted myself after those talks," he told GOAL. "If you were a player yourself, you never want to hear that decision of a coach."
The players who lived it
Paul Arriola didn't even see it coming. Berhalter called him into his office and told him he was "on the outside looking in." Arriola didn't ask questions. He just left. At 31 now, with only two caps since that moment, he never really got another shot.
"I called him back a few days later," Arriola said. "I didn't really understand how I wasn't part of the team after everything I'd been through over the four years with him. It definitely hurt a lot. I cried at home."
Mark McKenzie was 23 when Berhalter left him off the 2022 squad. He's reportedly on this one. The four years between those two decisions weren't straightforward — he admitted the 2022 snub "ripped me apart" and that he'd tied so much of his identity to making it that missing out forced a kind of reset. Ricardo Pepi and Malik Tillman went through similar processes and are also reportedly back in the fold for 2026.
Then there are the players whose hopes were ended by injury before any coach's decision was made. Miles Robinson's Achilles went in April 2022 while playing for Atlanta United. He knew immediately. Chris Richards missed Qatar by two weeks — fit enough to play in the tournament, not fit enough when the squad was named. "I did all of the hard parts," Richards said. "Then it got to the part where you're supposed to reap the benefits, and I got injured right before it."
This cycle, Johnny Cardoso, Patrick Agyemang, John Tolkin, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Benjamin Cremaschi all saw their World Cup windows close through injury before Pochettino made a single selection call.
- Zack Steffen — omitted from 2022 squad by Berhalter's decision
- Paul Arriola — cut from 2022, effectively ended his USMNT run
- Miles Robinson — Achilles injury ruled him out before Qatar
- Chris Richards — injury two weeks before 2022 squad announcement
- Mark McKenzie, Ricardo Pepi, Malik Tillman — 2022 cuts, reportedly back for 2026
- Johnny Cardoso, Patrick Agyemang — injuries ended 2026 bids before final selection
Robinson watched the 2022 World Cup from outside a bar, cheering on his teammates. Richards watched from a London pub, rehabbing alone while his squad played knockout football. "It was lonely," Richards said. "I didn't want anything to do with soccer."
There's no clean resolution to most of these stories. Pochettino put it plainly: "It's going to be really sad to make some decisions. Because there are only 26, but this is football." That's the whole thing, really. Twenty-six spots. Every player left out carries that number with them, sometimes for the rest of their career.
Steffen already said it best: it still hurts.
