U.S. men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino has indicated that he is open to the possibility of replacing Matt Turner as the starting goalkeeper.
Turner has held the position since 2022, but his limited playing time at the club level has paved the way for possible contenders.
This week, Pochettino included six goalkeepers in his preliminary roster for the Gold Cup, featuring Turner alongside Zack Steffen, Matt Freese, Patrick Schulte, Diego Kochen, and Chris Brady.
During a press conference on Tuesday, the Argentine coach emphasized his readiness to provide one of Turner’s competitors an opportunity during pre-Gold Cup friendlies against Switzerland and Turkey, or even in the tournament itself.
“Of course, until now Matt was our number-one choice, but that can change,” Pochettino remarked. “It’s open now in our mind, it’s open for another player maybe to challenge in between [the goalkeepers] and maybe to try to give the possibility to play [to] another player.”
Pochettino made a similar statement ahead of the Nations League Finals in March, yet Turner ultimately started in both the semifinal and third-place match.
No matter who occupies the goalkeeper position for the U.S. this summer, Pochettino underscored that Turner must resolve his club situation swiftly if he hopes to be a starter in the 2026 World Cup.
“It’s true that [Turner is] not playing, and we were talking with him and we conveyed the idea that for the future, in one year’s time, I think he needs to find a way to compete every week,” Pochettino noted.
Turner made only four appearances this season while on loan at Crystal Palace, with his last games for either club or country occurring in March.
The New Jersey native is set to return to Nottingham Forest following the season’s conclusion, but the chances are slim that he would be anything but a backup, given Matz Sels’s notable performance throughout the 2024-25 campaign. Turner is contracted with Forest until 2027.
Image Source: Mauricio Pochettino @ Instagram
