USMNT World Cup Challenges: Reyna, Pulisic, and Defensive Concerns

There was finally a reason to smile about Gio Reyna. Finally.

The 21-year-old scored his first club goal of the season at the weekend, sweeping home late in Borussia Mönchengladbach’s 3-1 defeat. On paper, it was a consolation. In reality, it was a lifeline. His first club goal in nearly 18 months, a reminder that the talent everyone talks about still exists in something other than theory.

For Reyna, it’s the first truly positive club moment in a long time. Since lighting up the USMNT in November, his career has been stuck in a holding pattern. Cameos instead of starts. Glimpses instead of runs of form. Even in March, when the U.S. faced top opposition in friendlies, he was reduced to brief appearances rather than handed the stage.

And yet his name never leaves the conversation.

Because Reyna is different. He changes games. He always has in a U.S. shirt. The numbers and the eye test say the same thing: the USMNT is usually better with him on the field than without, and there are CONCACAF trophies to back that up.

But here’s the truth about this version of the U.S. team: Reyna is no longer the pillar. He’s the flourish. The “cherry on top” of a structure that can function without him. If he catches fire, the ceiling rises. If he doesn’t, there are other options who can carry the load in his role. Which is exactly where the next set of worries begins.

Tillman’s talent, Tillman’s minutes

No one doubts Malik Tillman’s ability. Not inside the U.S. camp, not in Germany, not anywhere he has played. The problem is simpler, and more brutal: he just isn’t playing enough.

Since the end of the March camp, Tillman has featured in seven matches for Bayer Leverkusen. Across those seven, he has totaled only 77 minutes. Twice he’s managed more than 10 minutes; the rest has been scraps. When the game tightens, the club has turned instead to Nathan Tella and the emerging Ibrahim Maza in the roles behind the striker.

The timing could hardly be worse.

Tillman remains firmly in the frame to start for the USMNT. He has six goals in 1,615 minutes this season, a perfectly respectable return. But that argument hits harder when it’s backed by recent goals, recent assists, recent rhythm. Right now, his club role risks dulling his edge just as the U.S. needs clarity.

There is, at least, one safety valve. Weston McKennie is in form and has the versatility to push into that advanced midfield role alongside Christian Pulisic if Tillman’s lack of minutes becomes impossible to ignore. It’s not the original plan, but it might become the necessary one.

Pulisic: no goals in 2026, all eyes on the summer

Christian Pulisic has spoken about it himself. No goals in 2026. He knows it. He admits it’s frustrating. He insists he isn’t panicking.

He’s right about one thing: what he does in Milan is only one piece of the puzzle. The World Cup will define this year, not a spring scoring drought in Serie A. But the reality is unavoidable. You want your best players sharp when a World Cup arrives. Pulisic, so far this year, has not been at his sharpest.

The U.S. cannot escape that dependence. Pulisic is not the only factor in their World Cup fate, but he is one of the biggest. He is still a star, still a leader, still the emotional thermostat for this group. They need his goals and assists, yes, but they also need his edge, his aggression, his willingness to drag games in their direction.

There is time. The calendar says so. Yet with every scoreless week, the volume of concern ticks up a notch. It shouldn’t become hysteria, given the context and his track record, but it’s there, humming in the background as the summer approaches.

Center-back roulette

If there is one area where the U.S. would prefer certainty, it’s the heart of defense. Instead, they have a depth chart full of question marks.

Chris Richards looks locked in. That part is simple. After him, the picture blurs.

Tim Ream offers experience in bulk. Perhaps too much of it now. His recent injury raises the question no coach wants to ask about a trusted veteran: is this one knock too many?

Mark McKenzie is thriving in Ligue 1, playing the best club football of his career. The issue is whether he can cut out the occasional lapse that has crept into his USMNT performances.

Auston Trusty has finally settled in Europe with Celtic, but six caps is a thin résumé for a World Cup. Is he ready to be thrown into this level of pressure?

Miles Robinson remains in the frame, but his form when the tournament kicks off will decide how big a role he plays. Noahkai Banks lurks as a potential late answer, a defender who could arrive in camp and change the equation with one strong month.

Normally, by this stage of a cycle, the center-back hierarchy is set. Right now, it feels like an open casting call. Whoever hits form at the right moment may simply win the job.

Midfield worries pile up

The biggest alarm, though, sounds in midfield.

There was a serious, legitimate case for either Johnny Cardoso or Tanner Tessmann to start alongside Tyler Adams this summer. That argument is now over for at least one of them.

Fresh off a Champions League semifinal, Cardoso sprained his ankle. The margins were always going to be tight. On Monday, Atletico Madrid confirmed the worst: he needs surgery, and his World Cup dream is over.

Tessmann’s situation is less severe, but still unsettling. Lyon have labeled it a muscle strain that will keep him out for a spell, with expectations he’ll be ready in time for the World Cup. Even before the injury, though, he was drifting in and out of the lineup in recent months, never quite locking down his spot.

Those two setbacks leave a glaring hole next to Adams. Both Cardoso and Tessmann had their own uncertainties, but they also brought something the U.S. staff craves: high-level European minutes and recent, convincing stretches of form. Now the coaching staff is staring at the possibility of a shorthanded midfield in a tournament where every elite side is built from the center of the pitch outward.

As the squad selection looms, that is the concern that towers over the rest.

Reyna’s revival, Tillman’s ceiling, Pulisic’s drought, the center-back shuffle — all of it matters. But if the U.S. cannot solve the question of who stands next to Tyler Adams, the entire World Cup plan may have to be rewritten on the fly.