In a matter of hours, the U.S. men's national team will officially announce its 2026 World Cup roster.
After 91 players were given international minutes since the last World Cup, the U.S. has whittled its list down to 26 for the upcoming major tournament that will be co-hosted on home soil.
Doing so is no easy task.
For head coach Mauricio Pochettino, who has been in charge since late 2024, the message has been that “no one can feel safe” when it comes to roster selection , highlighting just how open and fluid decision-making can be.
As for the players themselves --- in the current and former World Cup cycles --- it's also a stressful period while waiting to hear if you'll make the final cut.
“Definitely on your mind, it's impossible not to think about it,” former U.S. Jozy Altidore acknowledged on a recent podcast appearance with U.S. legends Landon Donovan and Tim Howard. “It's nerve-racking for all players.
Whether you're somewhat of a shoo-in or one of the guys who you've earned your place, or you're a bubble guy.
It's a nervous time.”
Tough choices are inevitably made when it comes to any national team's World Cup roster announcement, and following the release of the list, there will be plenty of the usual headlines when it comes to the most notable snubs.
This is a good reminder to review those who were also shockingly left out in the past.
Ahead of Tuesday's official squad reveal, let's take a look back at the all-time surprise World Cup roster absences for the USMNT.
Quick note: Any drops due to injury are not listed.
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The GOAT for the U.S., and, for U.S. World Cup roster snubs.
“America is angry,” read the first line of one article that responded to Donovan's 2014 omission. Another called the move the “biggest and most polarizing in U.S. soccer history.”
When head coach Jürgen Klinsmann left off the four-time U.S. Soccer Player of the Year, he was not only overlooking the country's all-time leading goal scorer, but also the face of the men's national team program.
Months after the decision, Donovan was still perplexed as to why he wasn't involved in the 2014 World Cup.
“I didn't agree and I still know I should have been there,” said the U.S. player after his national team earned an exit in the round of 16 against Belgium .
At first, Klinsmann said that dropping the 32-year-old was due to sporting reasons, but later opened up and noted that a winter sabbatical by Donovan in the year before the World Cup had influenced his choice.
The justification could be made that the coach put more value on those who were there when needed, especially during World Cup qualifiers that led to the path to Brazil 2014.
All that said, his absence from that World Cup roster remains the biggest “what if?” for the national team.
It also wasn't the only eyebrow-raising decision for that 2014 roster, with someone like Eddie Johnson also a strong candidate for this list.
It's one thing to drop a fringe player or an up-and-coming name; it's quite another to stun the roster by leaving out one of the biggest, if not the leader, of the squad.
“He took away the captain of the team,” former defender Marcelo Balboa said , regarding then-coach Steve Sampson dropping Harkes ahead of the 1998 World Cup.
Like Donovan, this was a very well-respected name with World Cups already under his belt.
Harkes had Premier League experience and was someone who had scored at Wembley Stadium.
During the 1998 MLS season -- the same year of the World Cup in France -- he would go on to become a league All-Star for a second consecutive time.
The problem? Harkes had an affair with the wife of teammate Eric Wynalda. Later made public by Wynalda, Sampson recognized that the situation had played a role.
“I think he was an exceptional captain on the field, but it was impossible to keep him on the team based on his behavior off the field,” Sampson said.