USMNT penalty kicks plan: How Mauricio Pochettino prepared for World Cup's ultimate shootout tie-breaker

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – U.S. men's national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino said Tuesday that he and his coaching staff have selected the group's penalty kick takers should any of their World Cup games go to a shootout.

The USMNT open play in the knockout stages on Wednesday at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco suburbs, where they will play Bosnia and Herzegovina, a tournament newcomer that is looking to extend their run.

"It's going to be our decision, the No. 1, the No. 2, the No. 3, the No. 4, the No. 5," he said. "We tried to arrive in this moment and not to ask the players if they feel confident or [do] not feel confident."

Pochettino will have most of his World Cup roster available to him, though there have been question marks on a few players building up to Wednesday's game. Defender Auston Trusty returned to training on Tuesday after missing the previous two sessions with a small ankle issue, while defender Mark McKenzie and midfielder Crisitna Roldan missed the session. McKenzie has received treatment during the last three sessions for some irritation, while Roldan has not trained since June 20 after picking up a small quad issue but has been doing individual work for several days.

>Call It What You Want is your front-row seat as the USMNT takes center stage at the 2026 World Cup. The crew delivers live reactions, analysis, and debate before and after every game. Catch new episodes live on the Golazo America YouTube channel

> Player fitness at the time of the shootout, though, will dictate some of Pochettino's selection process if they have to take penalty kicks.

"It depends [on] your performance – if you came from the bench, if you played 120 minutes, if you are tired, if you are not tired, if you feel something in your body. It is impossible when you practice penalties to have the same feelings, but we try," he said. "[What's] important is, how we say, [to] know each other, personal relationships, feelings, psychologic[al] profile, character, personality – always, we were working. In a national team, the normal thing is [a] four year cycle [of] work because in that four years, you can see the players in all different situations – with pressure, without pressure, in official competition, non-official competition, when they are tired, after one season when they were injured, plenty of things that we didn't have time [for] and maybe we arrived so rushed but I think we tried."

Pochettino said he has been working on penalties for much of his spell with the national team, while they also won a dramatic shootout during the Concacaf Gold Cup a year ago. They beat Costa Rica 4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw last July, goalkeeper Matt Freese making two stops as he built a successful case to be the team's starter before the World Cup. Pochettino said he has worked with some outside consultants and the team feels as well-rehearsed as possible heading into Wednesday's game.

>"We've been doing a lot of work on penalties," defender Tim Ream said on Monday. "I won't go into that. That's something that we've been working on throughout the weeks together, even before the tournament started, so that's taken care of."

>Date: Wednesday, July 1 | Time: 8 p.m. ET Location: Levi's Stadium -- Santa Clara, California TV: FOX (Eng), Telemundo (Spa) | Live stream: Fubo (Try for free) Odds: United States -263; Draw +400; Bosnia and Herzegovina +650