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October 15, 2026
The back line

Mark McKenzie has not missed a Toulouse minute. Pochettino has seen that before.

Five center backs played for the United States this fall, and the place next to Chris Richards is as open as it was before. In the first club week since, Miles Robinson got hurt and the defender who was not called kept his run of 540 straight minutes in France.

EG
Eli GuerreroOct 15, 20264 min read
Every call on this site goes on a public ledger and gets graded. The misses stay up.
Chris Richards, in the navy United States shirt, stands with his hands at his sides during the match against Belgium, with Tim Ream, wearing the captain's armband, at the left edge of the frame and a crowd behind them.

Auston Trusty started three of the four fall matches for the United States, two at center back and one at left back, and played 281 of the 360 minutes. On October 11, in Celtic's first league match after the window, he spent all 90 on the bench at Motherwell.

Jeff Carlisle of ESPN wrote on October 8 that the place in central defense alongside Chris Richards was the same question after four matches that it had been before them, and that Trusty still looked short of being the answer. Richards is not the question. He came off the bench against Chile, started against Mexico and Canada, and has started all six of Crystal Palace's Premier League matches, 540 of 540 minutes, the latest at home to Nottingham Forest on October 11.

The United States plays Haiti on November 14 in Kingston and November 17 in Cincinnati, in the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal. Those are the first matches of the cycle that count. Here is the clock on the five who played there this fall and the one who was left out.

PlayerClubFall window minutes, of 360Club league minutes since the window
Auston TrustyCeltic281 (74 of them at left back)0 of 90, unused substitute
Chris RichardsCrystal Palace20790 of 90
George CampbellWest Bromwich Albion16190 of 180
Neil PierrePhiladelphia Union82180 of 180
Miles RobinsonFC Cincinnati6372 of 180, injured
Mark McKenzieToulousenot called90 of 90

Robinson is out, for now#

Robinson's only appearance of the window was the start against Chile, 63 minutes. He started at Atlanta on October 10 and left in the second half of Cincinnati's 3-1 win with a leg injury, Geoff Tebbetts of Cincinnati Soccer Talk reported, and he is expected to miss multiple weeks. He was not in Cincinnati's squad for Wednesday's 3-2 home loss to New England. Haiti is a month away, so the injury does not settle anything on its own. It does take him out of the six league matches Cincinnati has left in which he could have shown he is back.

Campbell and Trusty sat, then one of them started#

George Campbell started two of the fall matches, against Peru and Canada, and Carlisle wrote that he did enough alongside Richards in the Canada win to earn another look. West Brom left him unused at home to Birmingham on October 10, then started him at Wrexham on Tuesday, a 2-1 win in which he played all 90. He has started eight of West Brom's ten Championship matches.

Trusty has started six of Celtic's eight Scottish Premiership matches, 560 of 720 minutes. Celtic play at Benfica in the Europa League on Thursday.

The two who start every week#

Neil Pierre has played more club minutes since the window than anyone else on the list. He started both of Philadelphia's league matches, at home to Real Salt Lake on October 10 and at Chicago on Wednesday, 180 of 180. He was not in a Union matchday squad from February through May. Since his first appearance on July 22 he has started 12 of the Union's 14 league matches, and he missed one of the other two because he was making his United States debut against Peru the same night.

Mark McKenzie was not one of the 28. He has started all six of Toulouse's Ligue 1 matches this season, 540 of 540 minutes, the latest a 2-2 draw at Monaco on October 10. He has 30 caps and was on the World Cup team. On September 30 the Union announced they had re-signed him as a Designated Player, on a deal that takes effect in January. From then he and Pierre will be competing at the same club.

The call#

McKenzie is on the roster for Haiti. The fall window called 13 uncapped players and capped all 28, and Carlisle expects far less room for young players in November. A two-leg knockout asks for a center back who is playing every week at a level above the one he will face, and outside Richards, McKenzie is the only one of the six who has played every league minute his club has had this season.

The case against is that Pochettino has already seen this exact evidence. When the 28 were named on September 17, McKenzie had started all four of Toulouse's league matches, 360 of 360, and he was left out anyway, with Trusty, Campbell, Pierre and Robinson taken ahead of him. He has added two more starts since, and nothing else about his line has changed.

Sources: U.S. Soccer, "Pochettino Adds Damion Downs to USMNT Roster for International Matches Against Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada," September 20, 2026 (the 28 and the defenders listed); ESPN match data for USMNT vs. Peru (September 26), Chile (September 29), Mexico (October 3) and Canada (October 6), 2026, starting elevens and substitution minutes; ESPN league schedules and match data for Crystal Palace, Celtic, West Bromwich Albion, Philadelphia Union, FC Cincinnati and Toulouse, and ESPN's 2026-27 match log for Mark McKenzie; ESPN, Jeff Carlisle, "USMNT takeaways: Youngsters like Sullivan and Hall shine, but XI questions linger," October 8, 2026; Cincinnati Soccer Talk, Geoff Tebbetts, "Preview: FC Cincinnati continue the playoff hunt against New England," October 14, 2026; MLSsoccer.com, "Philadelphia Union acquire USMNT defender Mark McKenzie," September 30, 2026.

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Does Mexico get the eleven Pochettino has not started yet?

The United States play Mexico at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on October 3, the third of four matches in this window. A federation source told ESPN's Jeff Carlisle the team has to beat Mexico, while Mauricio Pochettino has described the camp in terms of the next World Cup. Through Peru and Chile, Pochettino started eight and then six of the 15 players capped before the window, and Gio Reyna was the only man in both elevens. Twelve of the 15 have started exactly once. Six capped regulars who played in both matches have between 104 and 118 of the 180 regulation minutes, and Chris Richards has 27, so no one is worn down. A strongest eleven can be built from capped players at every position but striker, where four of the five forwards were uncapped when camp opened and the fifth, Damion Downs, has 23 league minutes this season.

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Tim Ream, 38, said before the United States played Chile in St. Louis on September 29 that he was retiring from the national team, telling the TNT broadcast that age was the biggest factor, as reported by Jeff Carlisle of ESPN. He finishes with 86 caps. The United States won 4-2 with what the federation called the youngest starting eleven of Mauricio Pochettino's tenure, and Mathis Albert, at 17 years and 131 days, became the youngest scorer in the program's history. Neil Pierre and Miles Robinson started at center back and Chile led 2-1 after 49 minutes. Chris Richards and Auston Trusty replaced them in the 63rd minute, Richards scored the winner, and Chile did not score again. Across two matches of this window the federation has started four different center backs. Richards has played all 450 league minutes of Crystal Palace's season, and he is the one center back in camp whose place looks settled. The open question for Mexico on October 3 is who plays beside him.

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Tim Ream was 35 at his first World Cup and 38 when he captained the next one
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Tim Ream retired from the United States national team on September 29, 2026, in St. Louis, before a 4-2 win over Chile. He finishes with 86 caps. His second cap came against Chile in January 2011. He fell out of the team after the 2011 Gold Cup, again during Jurgen Klinsmann's tenure, and again after the first qualifier of the 2022 cycle, and was named to the 2022 World Cup roster 12 days before the opener only after injuries to Miles Robinson and Chris Richards. He started all four matches in Qatar at 35. Sixty of his caps came after 2018. Mauricio Pochettino named him captain before the 2026 World Cup, where he started and captained four of five matches and became the oldest field player the United States has used at a World Cup.

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On the record

Called Shots →
Held upSep 19, 2026

A center back other than Chris Richards, Miles Robinson and Auston Trusty starts at center back for the United States in at least one of the four fall friendlies (Peru 09-26, Chile 09-29, Mexico 10-03, Canada 10-06). Scored off the published starting elevens. Resolves yes if any other player is one of the starting central defenders in any of the four; resolves no if every central-defensive start across all four goes to those three.

Filed with the Banks piece. Roster and match list from ussoccer.com, 2026-09-17. Ages and the carry-over from the March roster checked against the 2026-09-14 pool snapshot and Goal's 2026-03-17 March roster report.

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