A number of difficult roster decisions await Mauricio Pochettino as his May 26 reveal of the U.S. men’s national team’s World Cup squad gets ever closer, and this weekend in MLS, a couple of those perceived to be on the roster bubble made their cases stronger.
First, Real Salt Lake attacker Diego Luna delivered his best performance of the season in a 4-2 win over San Diego FC. He scored and added an assist – as well as a secondary assist – in what head coach Pablo Mastroeni called his team’s “best half of football” in his time as head coach.
Luna’s goal was off a mistake from San Diego’s goalkeeper trying to play out of the back, but the overall performance was strong beyond that. The 22-year-old missed RSL’s first three matches at the beginning of the season due to a knee injury and wasn’t called up to Pochettino’s squad in March as a result after appearing in 17 of the 18 USMNT matches in 2025. There could be World Cup hope for him yet, though.
Gio Reyna has played only 23 Bundesliga minutes since January 17, 18 of which were this weekend. He was called into the March squad, as was Brenden Aaronson, who has been excellent for Leeds United since the international break and had another assist in helping the club in its quest to stave off relegation. Club América star Alejandro Zendejas, who was at the heart of a heated brawl with Toluca Saturday night, is another on the bubble in that position, though he was omitted last month.
Luna’s teammate and RSL rising talent Zavier Gozo, who just turned 19 a month ago, continued his sizzling run of form with an assist. The winger-turned-wingback could fit very well in a wide right role, but he hasn’t been called into a senior camp before, and Pochettino would be rolling the dice on a player he’s never coached if selecting him in his final roster.
