World Cup Watch: MLS Will Be Where USA's Goalkeeper Battle Will Play Out

For the first time in the 30-year-history of Major League Soccer, the starting World Cup goalkeeper for the U.S. men’s national team is expected to come from the domestic league, which kicks off its 2026 season on Saturday. Think about it. The top American keeper at each World Cup since MLS was founded in 1996 — whether it was Kasey Keller (1998), Brad Friedel (2002), Keller again (2006), Tim Howard (2010 and 2014), or Matt Turner (2022) — always played his club ball overseas, usually in the Premier League. That’s where Turner was employed four years ago, having moved to mighty Arsenal from the New England Revolution a few months before he backstopped the USA to a round-of-16 appearance, which included posting group stage clean sheets against England and Iran. But he then lost the main job to New York City FC’s Matt Freese midway through 2025. Turner – who made just 31 appearances for Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace over his three seasons in England – returned to the Revs last summer in an effort to boost his chances of manning the USA net in a second consecutive World Cup. That means MLS will be the stage that Turner and Eastern Conference rival Freese use to prove their case to USA coach Mauricio Pochettino, who will be watching closely. Pochettino will also be getting regular feedback from Toni Jiménez, his longtime goalkeeping coach. "Last season, we began a system of watching live MLS games of the goalkeepers on our shortlist, visiting their training facilities to observe practices, and exchanging ideas with their coaching staffs, including the head coach and goalkeeping coach," Jiménez told me earlier this week. "We're going to use a similar process for this upcoming season." Jiménez will be a busy man. The shortlist he mentioned includes several other U.S.-based goalkeepers, too. It’s entirely possible — and perhaps even likely — that all three keepers who are eventually named to Pochettino’s final 26-man World Cup roster in May will be MLS players. Presumed third-string keeper Patrick Schulte of the Columbus Crew has been called up consistently since Pochettino was appointed to succeed Gregg Berhalter back in September 2024. Schulte, a 2023 MLS Cup winner who started for Team USA (composed of mostly the under-23 team) at the 2024 Paris Olympics, has three senior caps. - 2026 World Cup: USA's Roster Projection: Who Makes The Cut? Roman Celentano (FC Cincinnati) was included in two of Pochettino's final three camps of 2025. Chris Brady (Chicago Fire), was in the one camp last fall and served as the third string behind Freese and Turner during the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup. Brady and Celentano are both uncapped, as is Jonathan Klinsmann, the only World Cup roster candidate who has played consistently in Europe this season. Klinsmann (the son of former USA manager Jürgen Klinsmann) starts for Cesena in Italy’s second tier. So while U.S. assistants Jesus Perez and Miguel D’Agostino have crisscrossed Europe all winter keeping tabs on top American field players like Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie, much of Jimenez’s focus has been on this side of the Atlantic. "There is communication between myself and several of their goalkeeping coaches, as well as the goalkeepers themselves," said Jiménez, who worked with the likes of French World Cup winner Hugo Lloris at Tottenham and Costa Rican legend Keylor Navas at PSG.  "These communications, notifications, and updates are always shared with the rest of the national team coaching staff." - MLS: 5 Biggest Storylines For 2026 Season He knows what Pochettino is looking for. "The first thing we evaluate is whether they have the qualities to operate within Mauricio's playing principles," Jimienz added. "The goalkeeper must establish a connection with the team to contribute to both defensive and offensive play. This defines the profile of the goalkeeper we need." With that keeper in MLS, look for Jiménez at a stadium near you in the weeks and months ahead. "I’ll be traveling two weeks before the March training camp and will be able to attend a series of games and training sessions," he said. "And I’ll be conducting another tour between March and May as we consider the final roster selections for the World Cup." USA Stock Watch The striker battle got even more interesting on Monday, when Haji Wright’s hat trick against Middlesbrough leapfrogged Coventry over their English Championship rivals and back to the top of the Premier League promotion race. It heated up further midweek. Here’s who’s trending up and down right now: Stock Up Folarin Balogun, Forward, Monaco In Monaco’s biggest game of 2025-26 so far, Balogun scored twice against PSG  in the Ligue 1 rivals’ UEFA Champions League knockout round playoff first leg. Although Monaco went on to lose 3-2, it was a big-time performance from the 24-year-old, who now has 10 goals in 30 games across all competitions this season. Tanner Tessmann, Midfielder, Lyon Lyon keeps winning and the Alabama-born Tessmann keeps starting. Last weekend, the former Clemson University football recruit logged 90 minutes for the fourth consecutive Ligue 1 contest, all of them wins. Weston McKennie, Midfielder, Juventus Luciano Spalletti wasn’t kidding when he said that the outrageously versatile McKennie is good enough to play as a striker — Juventus’ manager backed up those words by deploying the Texan up top in Juve’s Champions League playoff opener against Turkish behemoth Galatasaray in Istanbul. McKennie responded by setting up Teun Koopmeiners with a perfectly weighted assist. The best spell in McKennie’s already-career season continues; the 27-year-old has two goals and three assists in his  last four Champions League and Serie A games this month. Stock Down Ricardo Pepi, Forward, PSV Through no fault of his own, could Pepi actually miss out on a second straight World Cup roster? The Texas native and former FC Dallas standout has been injured most of this season and won’t return from his broken arm until next month. This is all while Balogun, Wright and Derby County’s Patrick Agyemang are all scoring goals for their clubs. The popular assumption is that Pochettino will take three dedicated strikers to the World Cup. Could he bring four? Wright can also play on the wing after all, and the USA will need goals this summer. If not, Pochettino will have a hard decision to on who gets cut. Gio Reyna, Midfiedler/Forward, Borussia Mönchengladbach It’s been more than a month now since Reyna has been on the field for ‘Gladbach, and the club has been worryingly coy about what’s keeping the oft-injured 23-year-old attacker on the shelf. Time is clearly running out for Reyna to be ready for the March friendlies against Belgium and Portugal, if not the World Cup itself. Malik Tillman, Midfielder/Forward, Bayer Leverkusen Has Tillman lost his spot at Leverkusen? Or is he just nursing a minor injury? The silky German-born playmaker had been in the lineup for 10 of the club’s last 11 Bundesliga games before coming off the bench last weekend against St. Pauli (and USMNT teammate James Sands). Tillman was a second half sub again on Wednesday, entering after the scoring was over in a 2-0 win over Olympiacos in Athens.