A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For the first time in decades, the U.S. men's soccer team gets to play on home turf during this summer's FIFA World Cup. Hopes are high, and now we know which 26 players are shouldering those hopes. NPR's Becky Sullivan was in New York on Tuesday when the squad was announced.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Last Friday, Ricardo Pepi was running errands with his dad at home in Texas when his phone screen lit up.
RICARDO PEPI: Just grocery store. You know, we were just in the car, and then all of a sudden, I just hear my phone, and I check it and it's a email.
SULLIVAN: On Friday morning, every player on the team got a video message from coach Mauricio Pochettino congratulating them on making the World Cup roster.
PEPI: My first reaction was just a lot of chills going through my body. I couldn't really believe it. And then I showed my father, and he had the exact same reaction. So this is something special, man, something that - I can't really describe how it feels, to be honest. There's just a lot of happiness.
SULLIVAN: This moment was especially sweet for Pepi, the 23-year-old forward who was left off the roster last time. Half of this year's squad are, like him, new to the World Cup this year. The other half are veterans who made the trip in 2022, though even some of them were nervous on Friday as they awaited their own fate.
TIM REAM: I'm usually a pretty cool customer, but yeah, there was definitely some anxiety, some nerves.
SULLIVAN: Defender Tim Ream is the oldest player on this World Cup squad. He's 38 and has been team captain for many games over the past few years. And it's been a bumpy few years, by the way. There was a lot of optimism around what was then a really young team at the '22 World Cup who tied England and reached the round of 16, but then things fell apart. In 2024, the squad got bounced in embarrassing fashion from the Copa America. They fired their coach in a panic amidst a storm of drama and then hired the big-league coach Pochettino to right the ship. Even now, the jury is still out on whether he has pulled it off. Ream says all of that is now in the rearview mirror.
REAM: It's a World Cup. It doesn't matter what's happened. It's all in the past. Yes, you can learn from it, but it's not going to change what the intensity and what the level of play is. And we are a group who understands that.
SULLIVAN: There is a key difference this time, of course. The World Cup is here. Eleven U.S. cities are hosting games, including the three group-stage matches for the U.S., which will play in Los Angeles and Seattle. Here's midfielder Cristian Roldan.
CRISTIAN ROLDAN: When you think of the 2026 World Cup, you think of pressure, right? But pressure comes with privilege. We have the opportunity to really motivate and inspire the next generation at this World Cup, and I think everybody holds that responsibility to their heart.
SULLIVAN: This World Cup has been circled on the calendar for years now because a whole generation of American players are now in their prime. Three key guys are all 27 years old - midfielder Tyler Adams, who plays for the English team Bournemouth, the Swiss Army knife player Weston McKennie, an Air Force brat who spent some formative years growing up in Germany, and of course, forward Christian Pulisic, the quiet Pennsylvania-native-turned-AC-Milan-star. For months, Pulisic has been peppered with questions about whether he feels the pressure.
CHRISTIAN PULISIC: No. I feel like I've been asked this question so many times, so I'm not going to get into it anymore. I mean, it's - there's pressure. It's a World Cup. I understand.
SULLIVAN: Now the whirlwind has begun. The messages on Friday were followed by flights to New York and now to Atlanta to train. The team has just about two weeks to gel, with a pair of international friendlies that will serve as tuneup games. Pulisic says this is what he has been waiting for his whole career.
PULISIC: You only have a World Cup in your home country once in your life. So I'm going to take advantage of these opportunities, and I'm grateful I get to do this.
SULLIVAN: The World Cup begins June 11. The U.S. will play its first game the next day.
Becky Sullivan, NPR News, New York.
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