U.S. World Cup roster revealed by WhatsApp in ordinary places

Antonee Robinson was on the 13th hole of a golf course in the English countryside when his World Cup fate arrived. Gio Reyna was in a Connecticut parking lot beside his wife and dog. Cristian Roldan was inside a Seattle Sounders team meeting, phone tucked in his pocket, waiting for it to buzz or vibrate.

Mauricio Pochettino had told players their selections would come by WhatsApp at 1 p.m. EDT on May 22, and that made roster day feel less like a ceremony than a distributed test of nerves. For Chris Brady, who was chasing the No. 3 goalkeeper spot, the wait stretched through the Central time zone with Chicago Fire teammates before the message finally came through. The scene fit a modern elite sports reality in which career-defining news can land in the middle of ordinary life, far from podiums and television lights.

The 26-player roster was officially unveiled May 26 in New York City in a live event broadcast on FOX, but the emotional reveal had already played out privately in scattered locations across Europe and North America. Once the players gathered at the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center near Trilith, Georgia, and a nearby hotel, the mood shifted from suspense to relief and celebration. U.S. Soccer opened the new 200-acre facility on May 7, and it now serves as headquarters for staff and the home for all 27 U.S. national teams, with 17 outdoor playing surfaces and more than 400,000 square feet of facilities.

Pochettino said the decisions were “very difficult” and that he believed the group was the best he could choose to help the U.S. succeed at the World Cup. The roster carries pressure beyond the usual squad selection because the Americans are co-hosts of the tournament with Canada and Mexico, and the stakes rise from the opening whistle of the June 11-July 19 competition. The U.S. will play Senegal on May 31 in Charlotte and Germany on June 6 in Chicago before opening Group D against Paraguay on June 12 in Los Angeles, then facing Australia on June 19 in Seattle and Türkiye on June 25 in Los Angeles.

For Robinson, the call had particular weight. He had right knee surgery on May 27, 2025, after Fulham’s Premier League finale, and did not make his first Premier League start of the season until December 2025. Still the U.S. first-choice left back, he also carried the memory of starting all four U.S. matches at the 2022 World Cup, when the Americans reached the round of 16. Mark McKenzie described his own selection as pure elation after four years of work and sacrifice, a reminder that for these players the biggest moment of their careers can arrive while they are standing in a parking lot, on a fairway, or in a team meeting, waiting for a phone to light up.