After years of questions around its forward line, the U.S. Men’s National Team spent 2025 delivering answers. AS Monaco’s Folarin Balogun and Coventry City’s Haji Wright emerged as the USMNT’s strongest, most consistent and most reliable goalscorers under the tutelage of coach Mauricio Pochettino.
There’s just one problem: Pochettino is likely to bring three strikers to the World Cup, not two, leaving one hotly contested spot available for another American attacker. Three players look to be in contention for that position. With the World Cup just six months away, here are the questions those players must answer to make it theirs.
Can Ricardo Pepi maintain his fitness?
On paper, there’s no question about who will fill the USMNT’s third striker spot: it’s PSV’s Ricardo Pepi. The Texas-born attacker took a while to warm up, but he’s quietly put together a stellar season in the Netherlands. His eight domestic league goals tie him with Haji Wright as the most prolific American striker abroad, and he’s scored in every single one of his past five Eredivisie starts.
There’s just one problem when it comes to Pepi, and that’s match fitness. He missed the back half of the 2024-25 season — and the majority of the USMNT’s 2025 calendar — thanks to a torn meniscus he suffered last January. And this past weekend, right when he was really picking up steam for PSV, he fractured his forearm in a freak accident on the field.
