The Gold Cup Has Arrived 🏆

Plus, Diego Luna is ready for his closeup.

June 16, 2025

Fifth Time’s a Charm for Poch’s Lost Boys 😅

Rog writes: And breathe… After being stung by Türkiye, and humiliated by Switzerland, our United States Men dropped down several weight classes to overwhelm a truly woeful Trinidad and Tobago side 5-0 last night. Despite the fact we were playing a Tomato Can, we needed this. The win summoned feelings of immense relief rather than dreams of future glory.  

📺 Watch Clint Dempsey and me analyze the Pulisic-Poch standoff and the game here.

The game itself was forgettable in terms of the storehouse of footballing memory. T&T are 100th in the world, and played worse, summoning zero shots of any kind in the first half, and imploding defensively on repeat. This summer will ultimately be remembered for the two or three players who stepped up from this shorthanded squad and made themselves impossible to ignore in the absence of the Big Dogs, both absent and self-exiled. In that regard, the charismatic Diego Luna continued to snap, snarl, and create, Malik Tillman showed flickers he can be the force in a U.S. jersey what he has so consistently for PSV Eindhoven, and it was heartening to see the plucky Brenden Aaronson score for the first time in two years. 

Most of all, this was a huge relief for Mauricio Pochettino. Triage on the free-fall of the four-game home losing streak – the worst run since 1988. For him, it will feel so good to have the chance to talk about the players who are there again, and the games they have to come, instead of The Pulisic Distraction™. His quote pre-game, “I am the head coach… not a mannequin,” is the sound of a manager, less than a dozen games into his tenure, who knows he has been sucked into a battle for control with his star player. The agony of all of this is two-fold: It was all so avoidable, the result of a horribly botched communications job surrounding the initial omission which has led to this standoff where no-one—star player, star manager, or U.S. Soccer—looks good. The situation has to be de-escalated and an off-ramp quickly found for the sake of all parties. 

But above all, to have this flailing, shabby soap opera dragging on, less than a year before the World Cup kicks off on home turf, risks being remembered as one of the greatest and most costly own goals in football history. The warning signs were flashing in the emptiness of the stadium at kick-off last night. For all those who love the game in our nation, it is a heartbreaking image to see on home turf, a year out from the World Cup. 🏆

ii. I loved breaking the game down with Clint Dempsey yesterday while taping a live episode of THE DEUCE at the final whistle. Thanks to all of you who joined us when the golf was at its apex. I loved hearing Clint talk about managerial-player stand offs, the way Bob Bradley handled player communications during his tenure, and how Jurgen Klinsmann forced him to wear the No 10. See below for a chance to come to our Clint live tapings in Texas this week. 🇺🇸♠️

iii. Today on our YouTube channel, the final of our Gold Cup Previews, with none other than the manager of Canada, Jesse Marsch himself. An incredibly honest conversation with Jesse… is there any other kind? 🇨🇦

iv. The highlight of my weekend: spending Saturday with Porto and their president/Renaissance man Andre Villas Boas, whom many of you will remember from his managerial stints at Chelsea and Tottenham. Portugal is, pound for pound, the greatest developer of coaches and possesses a stunning youth development pipeline. To talk about how we now live in a world in which 87% of Champions League players are named João, was an honor. As an American, I hope we can learn a ton from what AVB had to say. Thanks to our friends at New Balance for setting up this conversation in such a stunning fashion, in their Portuguese coffee shop-pop up in downtown New York City which made us feel like we had been transported to the banks of the River Douro. 🇵🇹

vi. We had a magical time in LA last week with Ted Lasso duo, Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt, LA Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh, '99 USWNT Legend Brandi Chastain, and USMNT legend Cobi Jones to celebrate the one-year mark until the U.S. kick-off their World Cup 2026 campaign on home soil.  The show was designed to revel in epic moments past in that city, and to revel in this present moment of possibility. With all that is going on in Los Angeles, it felt really cathartic to be there and savor the optimism and the joy and the strength of all who joined us. It is an hour with some really transcendent, optimistic moments. Watch that full show here. 🌴

v. Two things that made me laugh this weekend:

USA 5-0 Trinidad and Tobago 🇺🇲🦅

Diego Luna Will Not Be Denied 🌜👦🏻

In what looks evermore like a wasted summer, no man is using his time more effectively than the 21-Year-Old Luna who reveled in his return to his hometown of San Jose, delivering two assists in a swagger-filled performance. Here is how he did it:

Step one: having the confidence to unleash his own singular-stand out extreme makeover – who else could pull-off 1920s silent movie vaudeville villain better than our Moon Boy? The look screams both “look at me” and “we’re only a monocle away from just trying to tie our opponents to the railroad tracks.” Note to Poch: force every player to go full Rollie Fingers and we gonna win the World Cup.

Step two: Hustle, take chances, and give your all on every play. That is what led to his first assist, his willingness to gamble on a run that paid off and then some. I thought Diego’s running off the ball was one of the scant positives of the Switzerland beatdown. More of this please. 

Step three: “You Miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”  Diego Luna quoting Michael Scott quoting Wayne Gretzky.  PS – Clint told me, that even though Patrick Agyemang had zero idea he had scored this goal, it will still feel great. “No one remembers the style of the finish, just the number you score.”

Haji Wright’s Garbage Time Goal Was Important. Can We Get a No 9 Dance Off? 😵‍💫

Yes, the T&T defending was shambolic. Never mind the quality, feel the width.  And yes, as I wrote above, Patrick Agyemang had as much idea he was about to score as you did. But having even the patina of a No 9 competition through this summer is a massive win. This position has been a piece of flapping skin for far too long. It remains wide, wide open. Agyemang is raw yet physically hungry. Clint loves what he brings. I adore watching Haji Wright week in week out with Coventry and hope he can seize this true opportunity to make himself undroppable.

Brenden Aaronson: I Root for That Man so Much 🙌🏻

The joy of my night, witnessing Brenden Aaronson score his first U.S. goal in two long years. Yes, the goalkeeping was not so great, but its impact can be enormous. Brenden is still so young. Just 24 years of age, yet in that time, he has grown, and soared, and failed, and agonized, and dusted himself off, and gone again.  

If Agyemang and Haji are locked in a battle to show who is the best No 9, Brenden is in as equally as important a fight, to show he is the best Aaronson. At his best, his use of space, and willingness to employ creative mischief, can bring a wizard filth we so desperately crave as U.S. fans. It has been hard watching him soar for Leeds, then be eviscerated by the long-haul grind of a full Premier League season. As Clint Dempsey said last night, “Real pressure is to play week in week out in front of Leeds fans.” Brenden has shown the tenacity to return there and grind his way back into their affections. The option that a fit, healthy, confident Brenden can make to a fully-equipped U.S. squad can be seismic. He can be a difference maker. May he be that again. 

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All Around the Men in Blazers Network 📣

i. I can’t wait to go on the road for the Gold Cup with CLINT THIS WEEK: We are hitting his home state of Texas, doing live shows ahead of the next two USMNT games in Austin and Dallas. Come and raise a glass with us, and ask Clint any question you want about United States football, fishing or life. We want to see as many of you as possible, so RSVP for both events ASAP. 🍻🦅 

🎟️ JOIN US IN AUSTIN on June 18 at 7:30 p.m. at BD Riley’s Irish Pub 

🎟️ JOIN US IN DALLAS on June 21 at 7:30 p.m. at The Londoner Addison

ii. The Women’s Game x Men in Blazers LIVE! in Washington, DC at 7:30 p.m. on June 30, presented by Allstate. Join USWNT legend and World Cup winner Sam Mewis alongside her Good Vibes FC co-host (and World Cup-winning teammate) Becky Sauerbrunn and Rog to celebrate one of soccer’s greatest rivalries, USA vs. Canada, ahead of the Allstate Continental Classico. The trio will welcome football icons to DC’s historic Howard Theater as they revel in the past, present, and future of these two storied women’s programs. Get your tickets now. 🏛️

News, Notes & Transfer Rumors 📰

  • In response to Christian Pulisic’s public statements on the Call It What You Want podcast about not being allowed to play in the USMNT’s two recent friendlies, Pochettino informed everyone that he “wanted to use the friendlies to prepare the team for the Gold Cup, calling it a ‘common sense’ decision.” Well, glad that we were able to get that all cleared up.

  • Amidst all of the back and forth between Pulisic, Poch, and Landon Donovan last week, Tim Howard also decided to get involved, revealing that in the past, “Pulisic had DM’d him privately saying his comments were ‘out of order’ after he had criticized him.” Howard also mentioned that, “I am not a mentor to any of these players and not any of their friends.” That second part has never been clearer.

  • Canada’s manager Jesse Marsch decided to join the conversation as well, and has let the world know that every one of his players wanted to be at the Gold Cup.

  • One positive note in the greater USMNT world from last week: Michael Bradley has been named head coach of New York Red Bulls II.

  • On the transfer front, 20-year-old USMNT and FC Köln striker Damion Downs is reportedly being targeted by recently-relegated Southampton in the English Championship for a potential fee of $5.8 million. Hopefully a strong showing at the Gold Cup will help get this move made for the young No 9.

One Last Note, on Father’s Day 🍻

This was my first Father’s Day without my dad, Ivor. Thanks for all your lovely letters, including one from the great GFOP Mark Dolce, who went to my favorite Chicago pizza place, Pequod’s, for Father’s Day and wrote: 

“I was thinking of your dad, more specifically, Ivor Bennett time, and I had a thought that we should all live our lives as if it were Ivor Bennett time. World events can make it feel like we are living in stoppage time (read: borrowed time), which is all about the dread, but with none of the urgency, which is the thing. It's the urgency.”

To more, Mark. I want to raise a glass to my old man’s memory, and to all dads who are no longer with us. 🍻

Courage,

Rog and the USMNT Only team 🇺🇸 🦅

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