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Mauricio Pochettino faces plenty of selection posers ahead of the 2026 World Cup, with the USMNT looking to piece together a squad that can be competitive on the grandest of stages. They will need plenty of firepower in order to make that possible, with Brad Friedel discussing a striker pool that includes Folarin Balogun, Haji Wright, Ricardo Pepi and Josh Sargent during an exclusive interview with GOAL.

• Talent pool: Striking options at Pochettino's disposal

  Pochettino has shuffled his pack across a series of friendly fixtures, allowing him to take a look at as many hopefuls as possible. Some of those have staked more serious claims than others, while form and fitness issues also have to be factored into any equation.

  The United States do, however, have a number of proven goalscorers at their disposal. Many of those are plying their trade in Europe – with Balogun and Pepi on the books of French and Dutch giants at Monaco and PSV respectively. Elsewhere, the likes of Wright, Sargent, Daryl Dike and Patrick Agyemang are all turning out in the English Championship.

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  Who will make the USMNT squad for 2026 World Cup?

  Quizzed on whether only one of those will join Balogun and Pepi in Pochettino’s plans, ex-USMNT star Friedel – speaking in association with – told GOAL: “It could be two. When Mauricio came in he knew the players, but he has this incredible ability to say: ‘Show me from now and forward what you can do for me – not what you did two years ago. I know what you did two years ago, I know what you’re capable of, but it’s what’s happening now’.

  “I think he has a depth chart for sure, that’s how he works. None of those names are for sure – who you and I might think are there. We can think Balogun and Pepi might be there, but one of those guys might be really far down the final chart for reasons that we don’t know. I think Balogun is there – that’s my thinking – but I don’t know if Pepi is a certainty. He could be there, he has every chance.

  “Haji Wright’s performances at Coventry have been really good. But when Haji is in, he doesn’t start all the time with Mauricio, so that suggests to me there is something there that he is not fully convinced about.

  “With Mauricio it’s different. You can never just relax. He’s a compassionate man and you can relax around him, but you never really know. I suppose Harry Kane knew at Tottenham. [Lionel] Messi, Neymar and [Kylian] Mbappe probably knew at PSG. I would say that zero players knew at Southampton that they were starting on a day-to-day basis. Your name has to be something quite special to make sure that you are a certainty.”

• Transfer regret: Should Sargent have left Norwich?

  Sargent appeared to have positioned himself towards the front of the queue at one stage, having posted personal bests on the goal front at Norwich, but the Canaries are enduring a tough 2025-26 campaign and their leading marksman has gone 14 games without finding the target.

  The 25-year-old attracted Premier League interest over the summer, but did not push for a move while being tied to a contract at Carrow Road through to 2028. Asked whether Sargent will now be regretting that decision, Friedel said: “Maybe. It might not have been down to him, but I think that would have helped. The more that you can perform at the highest level, the better.

  “Maybe one of the things was that if he went to the Premier League and then didn’t perform as well, then you can see that argument. It may have been out of his hands. I don’t know the full reason why a deal didn’t transpire. Maybe the teams offered him a low contract, thinking that just because it’s a Prem club he will come.

  “Josh knows now the league, the teams and knows where he feels he can play. He could play at a handful of Premier League clubs with his talent. There are a handful that he couldn’t play at, but there are some that he could.”

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  World Cup draw: USMNT to discover group stage opponents

  Sargent is likely to generate more transfer talk in the January window. He will know by then who the USMNT are preparing to face in the group stage of the 2026 World Cup, with that draw set to take place at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC on December 5.

John Campbell, Brandon King, Shai Hope and Roston Chase offered resistance for West Indies, but they slipped from 153 for 3 to 205 all out

Sreshth ShahUpdated on 10-Dec-2025Stumps New Zealand’s patchwork fast-bowling attack delivered a strong show on the opening day of the second Test in Wellington, dismissing West Indies for 205 inside 75 overs at Basin Reserve. But the sight of Blair Tickner being stretchered off late in the afternoon with a suspected dislocated left shoulder took some sheen off their day of dominance.Tickner, playing his first Test in two years and leading the bowling with 4 for 32, was central to turning a bright West Indies start into yet another collapse, while Michael Rae, the 30-year-old debutant drafted into a severely depleted pace unit, complemented him with 3 for 67 in an energetic outing that gave New Zealand the bite they had lacked in the opening hour. That bite mattered because the first hour had belonged entirely to West Indies despite losing the toss, in a match where the hosts announced five changes and the visitors three.On a pitch far milder than the traditional green seamer, John Campbell and Brandon King put on 66 for the opening wicket. Jacob Duffy and Zak Foulkes, burdened with heavy workloads from the first Test after the injuries to Matt Henry and Nathan Smith in Christchurch, bowled honest but ineffective spells that allowed scoring opportunities.Campbell drove through the line, King played compactly, and West Indies looked assured.Michael Rae picked up three wickets in his first innings in Test cricket•Getty Images

But once New Zealand turned to Tickner and Rae – fresher workload-wise, and sharper in pace – the difference was visible. They operated either full or short but always at the stumps or the body, and the tone of the innings shifted dramatically.Tickner was the first to strike when he prised out King in the 17th over. King, playing the Test after Tagenarine Chanderpaul picked up a side strain on the eve of the Test, and opening for only the second time in his Test career, was pinned lbw when Tickner’s delivery from a short-ish length jagged in and hit him on the pad. One over later, Kavem Hodge was undone for a duck by a fuller ball from Tickner that tailed in late and struck him in front of middle and leg. The double-blow helped New Zealand quickly erase an indifferent start heading into the lunch break.Rae, who had leaked runs in his first spell in Test cricket, made an impact after lunch. Coming around the wicket, he angled a full ball across Campbell, who leaned into a drive with firm hands and edged to first slip, and at 93 for 3, West Indies’ position was slipping.Shai Hope and Roston Chase attempted to restore stability with a 60-run stand for the fourth wicket. Hope scored freely but never convincingly; Tickner and Rae repeatedly hurried him with the short ball, and he took two blows to the helmet with concussion checks following as the afternoon surface grew livelier. Hope reached 48, but Tickner finally cracked him with another rising delivery that he tried awkwardly to fend off, gloving a catch to Kane Williamson at third slip. That, Tickner’s third wicket, had seemed almost inevitable given the sustained discomfort he had caused the batters, and Chase followed soon after, cramped by a Tickner delivery that jagged in sharply to catch the inside-edge on to leg stump for 29.Justin Greaves, West Indies’ double-centurion in Christchurch, lasted 52 balls before Rae drew a faint outside edge with a tight off-stump line. Mitchell Hay completed the catch behind the stumps, leaving West Indies’ lower order exposed. Rae then trapped Kemar Roach lbw with a fuller delivery that kicked enough to beat the bat and straighten into middle stump, and at 184 for 7, the innings was in freefall.Blair Tickner had to be stretchered off after he hurt his shoulder•Getty Images

But New Zealand’s mood would sour dramatically in the next over. Tickner sprinted across from fine leg to stop a boundary-saving flick from Tevin Imlach and dived full-length near the rope. He landed awkwardly, stayed down, and the players signalled urgently as medical staff from both New Zealand and the venue rushed to him. After several minutes of treatment, he was stretchered off – sitting up, but in pain – to warm applause from the Basin Reserve crowd. He later left the ground in an ambulance, with early indications pointing to a suspected dislocated shoulder.Glenn Phillips, the most prolific wicket-taker in New Zealand’s XI with 31 strikes coming into the game, then removed the last recognised batter, bowling Imlach with a fuller ball that straightened just enough to beat the inside edge.Anderson Phillip was run out soon after attempting a risky single – first surviving a throw from Devon Conway but then succumbing when an alert Kristian Clarke broke the stumps on the rebound. Duffy ended West Indies’ innings by having Ojay Shields edge to third slip to end the innings at 205. West Indies lost their last seven wickets for just 52 runs.New Zealand openers Tom Latham and Conway batted nine overs before stumps, with West Indies’ seamers asking questions occasionally and inducing a couple of edges that didn’t carry to the slip cordon. The 24 runs they added before stumps gave New Zealand the firm upper hand, now behind by only 181 behind going into the second day where batting promises to be easier.

They have had their moments in most games, but still find themselves at the bottom of the points table

Sruthi Ravindranath25-Oct-2025Almost. It’s the word that has defined Bangladesh’s campaign at the 2025 women’s ODI World Cup. They almost defended 178 against England. They almost beat South Africa but dropped catches under pressure. They almost chased down 203 against Sri Lanka.The what-ifs are many, but for a team playing only its second ODI World Cup, Bangladesh have punched above their weight. Yet, despite the fight, they find themselves at the bottom of the points table – even below winless Pakistan – level on number of wins with New Zealand and Sri Lanka, all three teams having split points because of washouts.The gulf between bat and ball has been evident throughout their campaign, and it surfaced once again against Sri Lanka. After their bowlers restricted Sri Lanka to 203, Bangladesh’s batters stumbled, dragging the chase deep but falling short in the final over. After that match, captain Nigar Sultana had admitted to her side’s struggles in crunch moments but refused to attribute their narrow losses to luck.Related

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“It’s really heartbreaking, definitely, because we came here to win,” she had said. “This kind of match, I think we played three games against England, South Africa and now Sri Lanka. I think we need to think about it and we have to learn so many things. [In] this kind of situation, [we should learn] how we should calm our nerves and how we should get runs. And definitely, the young players have been playing in the middle at crucial moments. So, I think they should learn.”It’s definitely our mistake. It’s not just one match; this is the third time it’s happened like this. I think we’re failing to finish properly in the final moments. We shouldn’t need to take it to the last over while chasing this kind of target. That’s our fault. Maybe there were some miscalculations, and we couldn’t use some bowlers properly in the middle overs.”Bangladesh’s batting has shown promise in patches – five different players have scored fifties, including Nigar’s fighting 77 against Sri Lanka – but frequent collapses and a glut of dot balls have proved costly. Their dot-ball percentage of 66.6 is the second-highest in the tournament, underlining their struggles.They began their campaign by comfortably chasing down 130 against Pakistan, but fell in a heap against England, New Zealand and Australia to post totals below 200. Against South Africa, Shorna Akter’s 35-ball 51 – the fastest half-century in women’s ODIs for Bangladesh – took them to 235, but they dropped several chances in the end to lose the match. Against England, they got their catching right, but the third umpire’s decision to reprieve Heather Knight proved costly in the end.There have been a few heartbreaks for Bangladesh at this World Cup•ICC/Getty ImagesOne of the factors behind the inconsistency has been their limited preparation. Since early 2024, the only top-ranked side Bangladesh have faced is Australia, back in March last year. Apart from the World Cup qualifiers in April, their build-up featured no international cricket, only domestic training camps. Nigar stressed the need for more exposure against top-ranked opposition. In the current FTP running from 2025-29 though, they are set to face India, Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand across formats.”The more competitive cricket you play, the sharper your skills get,” she said. “In ICC tournaments, we face new situations that we don’t often see in bilateral series, where we play the same opponents again and again. A stronger domestic setup or league system would help a lot. If we get to play more competitive games at home, our chances of losing tight matches will go down for sure.”But there have been other positives too, with their young bowling attack standing out. Fast bowler Marufa Akter, just 20, whose hooping deliveries troubled batters in the powerplay, has impressed many. Their spin department, led by veteran Fahima Khatun, has also shone through the performances of youngsters Rabeya Khan (20) and 18-year-old Shorna, who together have taken more wickets than Khatun. Against Sri Lanka, both youngsters were preferred over Khatun – a call that paid off, as they shared five wickets between them.”Among the eight teams in this World Cup, we’re the only one with three legspinners and all three are different types,” Khatun had said before the Sri Lanka match. “As a senior, I always try to collaborate with them and encourage them. They’re very young and crucial for our team. I often tell them, ‘You’re better than me; I have a lot to learn from you.’ Having three different kinds of legspinners is a big advantage for us.”Shorna Akter have been one of the standout players for Bangladesh in the tournament•ICC/Getty ImagesAt home, Bangladesh’s players feature in two main domestic tournaments, the Women’s Dhaka Premier League and the National Cricket League, both often played on spin-friendly, low-scoring pitches. On the eve of the India game, batter Sobhana Mostary acknowledged that while the level of competition can vary, the domestic structure is slowly improving.”Last ODI World Cup in 2022, only Pinky [Fargana Hoque] scored fifty but in this tournament, you can see around six or seven fifties,” she said. “So, I think that’s an improvement. Scoring a fifty is not easy; I also got my first fifty in this World Cup. If I can keep this consistency, it will help me in the next series. Similarly, [Sharmin Akhter] Supta has been performing well for a long time.”Now our domestic tournament is going good. In [Dhaka] Premier League among ten teams, six teams are good enough but four teams are like 50 – 50. Five years ago, two-three teams were good. But now five to six teams are good. Before, most players came from North Bengal, but now we have players from Chattogram and Sylhet as well. Maybe their parents are also watching the matches now. I think most people in Bangladesh are following this World Cup, which is a great inspiration for us. It motivates us to fight against stronger teams. That’s it, everyone is watching and supporting us, and that means a lot.”Bangladesh are yet to see one of their players feature in either the WBBL or WPL. Mostary hopes that changes soon.”In WPL, every time we send our name, they are not [okay to] pick a Bangladeshi. But we are thinking about this tournament – like Marufa [is] doing very good in Indian conditions. And Rabeya is also very bowling good this tournament. So maybe in the upcoming WPL they are [picked].”Bangladesh will leave the tournament with more heartbreaks than wins, but also with signs of growth. Among bottom-ranked sides, few have shown as much promise, or left as many almosts behind.