IRVINE, Calif. — Cristian Roldan is not the face of the U.S. men’s national team, not the midfielder around whom Mauricio Pochettino builds his best lineup, not the player casual fans tune in to see.
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But at some point during this World Cup, Roldan may be exactly the kind of player Pochettino needs.
The United States has already won its group and secured its place in the knockout round. Its next defining game will come July 1 in Santa Clara, likely against Bosnia. Before then comes a group-stage finale against Turkey that offers Pochettino a chance to rest his starters and test the depth of a roster that will need more than its best 11 to make a deep run.
It should’ve been Roldan’s best opportunity to see action in this tournament. With Tyler Adams carrying a yellow card from the Americans’ opening match, there is little reason to expose one of the U.S. team’s most important players. But Roldan has been battling a muscle strain, leaving his status in doubt, and may still need to wait his turn.
He’s used to it.
The 31-year-old midfielder’s national team life has often required patience, flexibility and a willingness to measure his value in ways that do not always appear on a stat sheet. He didn’t play a single minute in the 2022 World Cup and has not yet seen the pitch in this year’s tournament.
So when Pochettino called Roldan “the perfect player” in the fall, the phrase felt almost comically oversize. Pochettino, after all, has coached generational superstars. And Roldan has spent his entire professional career with MLS’s Seattle Sounders, and even he didn’t think he’d have a spot on this World Cup roster.
“Obviously, very surprised,” he said of Pochettino’s generous assessment. “Look, this is a coach that has coached Mbappé and Neymar, Messi, and then for him to call me the perfect player — a guy in his 30s at the Sounders his whole career — it’s obviously very humbling.”
But to Pochettino, perfection is not the same as stardom. He was describing something closer to trust. Roldan is not perfect because he can do what the best players in the world do. He is perfect, in a coach’s sense, because he is willing to do what a team needs — in games, in training, away from the field — without needing the role to flatter him.
“I try to do what’s best for the guys in that locker room,” Roldan said in an interview.
Roldan knows his game is not always obvious to viewers tracking goals, assists and highlights. He talks instead about smaller things: getting teammates on the right side of the ball, making sure the team is organized defensively on throw-ins, being vocal enough that the group stays connected. Even this week, as he has nursed the muscle strain that could complicate his availability against Turkey, his value is tied less to one fixed assignment than to a broader reliability — the ability to understand what his side needs and try to provide it.
“A lot of people that maybe watch the game don’t understand the nuances of the game, from a coach’s standpoint,” Roldan said. “They watch, they’re so detail-oriented, so they watch every piece of footage and film that they see. And so, I think the small details — it makes a big difference.”
World Cup rosters are often discussed as collections of established stars and young prospects. But tournaments also reward steadiness. They reward players who can enter cold, follow instructions, survive difficult minutes and accept that their role may change every few days.
Roldan has thought about that part more than most.
“That’s the reality of things,” he said. “You have to be flexible. You have to put your pride aside when you put your jersey on for the national team.”
For a long stretch, Roldan had reason to wonder whether he would ever put that jersey on again. He made his national team debut in 2017 at age 21 and found himself on and off the roster for a decade.
Each roster that came and went without his name made the path back feel narrower. Last summer, following the Gold Cup, he did not receive the preliminary roster email he had been hoping for. He was left off the team that competed in the Nations League tournament in 2023 and the Copa América in 2024.
“My heart sank,” Roldan said.
He was 30 years old. He had a family. He had built a decorated career in Seattle. He had gone to the 2022 World Cup, but the next one began to feel less like a realistic goal than a fading possibility.
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“What really are the chances of me getting called up?” he remembered thinking.
For a while, Roldan turned the uncertainty into a punch line. He would refer to himself as a retired U.S. national team player. His brother Alex heard the humor — and also what was underneath it.
“He probably was using that to deflect that it was actually a possibility that he wouldn’t be going back anymore,” said Alex Roldan, a Sounders teammate.
Then came the late call in September 2025. The U.S. squad had some injuries, and Roldan was invited back into camp. He did not arrive as part of some long-term master plan. He was filling a temporary hole.
But Roldan saw an opportunity. His goal, he said, was to show “something different” — his personality, his work ethic, his ability to compete in training, his “hate-to-lose attitude.”
“And that grit,” he said, “that is infectious, that gets the best out of players.”
He has been called in ever since.
“He’s such an important part of this team and culture and the energy of this group,” said goalkeeper Matt Freese, “really bringing guys together.”
As this World Cup roster was announced last month, Roldan was in a Sounders team meeting when his phone vibrated with the news. Teammates were soon hugging him, perhaps none as meaningful as Alex, who had seen “all the ups and downs.”
To Alex, the call-up was not just another achievement. It was a reward for the way his brother had navigated the possibility that the national team had passed him by.
“He’s put a ton of work to get to this point,” Alex said. “Obviously, to accomplish a World Cup is an amazing achievement. But I think he, himself, would tell you that he’s a little bit more proud about this one, just with the whole storyline of being excluded from the national team and then coming back.”
Alex has also seen, in Seattle, the qualities Pochettino now values with the national team. His work ethic and versatility have become core to Roldan’s soccer identity, and he can line up as a right or central midfielder, as well as a right back.
“He’s always going to put his head down and work very hard, regardless of the situation,” Alex said. “He’s a workaholic.”
Roldan’s return also reflects a notable shift under Pochettino. The Argentine coach arrived as an outsider to the American soccer ecosystem but has shown a willingness to lean on MLS players in a way his predecessor did not at the end. Eight of the 26 players on this World Cup roster play in MLS. On Gregg Berhalter’s final major tournament roster, for the 2024 Copa América, there were three MLS players among the 26, and none appeared in a game.
Thursday’s match won’t alter the United States’ standing in this tournament, but it can show whether the roster has the kind of second layer required for a longer run and whether players who have spent the World Cup waiting can keep the team moving forward.
For Roldan, whether it’s Thursday or later, it would show something more personal: that the national team still has use for him.
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Thomas Floyd contributed to this report.
