Is the USMNT anywhere near ready for the World Cup challenge?

A year from now, the U.S. men's national team will take the field at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, for its first group stage game at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. As cohosts of the tournament, alongside Canada and Mexico, the match will present an immense opportunity to move the U.S. program forward on the world's biggest stage.

The expectation is that the USMNT will be well on its way in terms of preparations. The core of the team will be identified. The style of play will be defined and only require some fine-tuning, with confidence building.

So is the USMNT meeting those expectations? Does it look ready to make the most of next year's festivities? Not even close.

One only needs to look at the past 12 months as proof. There was last year's group stage exit at the Copa América in an utterly manageable group, as well as a fourth-place finish in the Concacaf Nations League last March that witnessed home losses to Panama and Canada. The former competition resulted in manager Gregg Berhalter losing his job.

His replacement, the highly regarded Mauricio Pochettino, hasn't been able to arrest the slide to any great degree. The USMNT is in the throes of a four-game losing streak, all of them at home. The last time the USMNT lost four consecutive games at home was 1988. The past two setbacks have come with a youthful roster with several stars being omitted for various reasons, but the U.S. has also struggled with its first-choice lineup.

The good news is that the USMNT only needs to be ready next year, not now. But there are enough warning signs to cast doubt as to whether the U.S. can deliver even a respectable showing. Instead of being primed to deliver a performance for ages, one that would galvanize the country's sporting populace and provide the sport of soccer with another shot of adrenaline, the USMNT's engine is idling and the team seemingly bereft of momentum.

There are deeper issues plaguing the team as well. There is a perception that some players are apathetic about suiting up for the USMNT. The performances at the Concacaf Nations League were listless, with captain Tyler Adams and Pochettino strongly suggesting that players aren't as committed to the USMNT as they are to their clubs.

This summer's Gold Cup was supposed to do plenty to cure the team's ills. The squad would be together for over a month, with plenty of time to iron out wrinkles on the field while getting to know Pochettino better away from the training ground. Those best-laid plans have been shredded as a combination of fatigue, injury and club commitments have seen over a dozen players from the higher end of the player spectrum rendered unavailable.

"There's just so much uncertainty of what the starting 11 is, and the big positions within that 11," former U.S. international forward and current ESPN analyst Herculez Gomez said. "The center back pairing, the No. 9, the team's DNA, the lack of battle-hardened actual games, signature games that don't include Mexico.

"You're looking for some positives here. They've not had them."

The FIFA Club World Cup has done the USMNT no favors either, by preventing three players -- the Juventus duo of Weston McKennie and Tim Weah plus Borussia Dortmund's Gio Reyna -- from playing for the U.S. in the Gold Cup. But that was only the beginning.

Star midfielder Christian Pulisic of AC Milan announced he would skip this Gold Cup in a bid to recover from a grueling club season. Fulham left back Antonee Robinson underwent knee surgery, while AS Monaco forward Folarin Balogun was ruled out with a bum ankle. Then, after training camp had begun, the U.S. staff decided that right back Sergiño Dest, who spent much of the club season recovering from a torn ACL, wasn't sufficiently recovered to play in the Gold Cup. The absences have sent portions of the U.S. fan base into varying states of apoplexy.

It has left Pochettino to soldier on in the Gold Cup with a patchwork roster filled with young players. The group has not looked ready to meet the moment, especially after a brutal 4-0 defeat to Switzerland on Tuesday that raised further doubts about how deep the U.S. player pool is. Come September, Pochettino will bring the entire first-choice team back together for the first of four international windows before the 2026 World Cup in order to build chemistry.

Not everyone believes the sky is falling because of these circumstances. But it's close.

"The only reason to not completely panic is because I've been on World Cup teams where guys who played 90 percent of the qualifiers don't play in the World Cup, and guys who didn't play in any of the World Cup qualifiers then played in the World Cup," former U.S. international keeper and current ESPN analyst Kasey Keller said.

"So how much can you really gauge on who's going to be fit, who's not going to be fit, who's part of this?"

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Pochettino 'guilty' for the USMNT's 4-0 loss vs. Switzerland

Mauricio Pochettino speaks after the USMNT's heavy loss against Switzerland.

What is compounding matters, however, is that in Keller's time, there were maybe two to three players who fell into each of those buckets. Pochettino's dealing with something far more severe. The coaches that Keller played under, from Steve Sampson to Bruce Arena, had a full cycle to sort out issues. Pochettino, who was only hired in September, hasn't had that luxury. For him, the cycle has been conducted at warp speed out of necessity.

"I think the part that probably gets me the most nervous about it is that it really doesn't look like the coaching staff has any idea who their player base is," Keller said. "[That's] from the coach's side. From the player's side, it looks like from the outside looking in that there's a group of players that don't really give a s---, and that's a bad combo."

Of greater concern is the lack of fire that has been on display from the USMNT. Following the Nations League, Adams spoke of how players were giving that little bit extra for the clubs -- be it winning duels, going in for tackles, making that extra run -- but not for the national team. U.S. defender Chris Richards was even more blunt.

"I think coming off the March camp, I think we all kind of went back to our clubs. We all kind had it in the back of our mind that was, 'Sorry my friends, but that was s---,'" he told ESPN following Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Turkey.

It hasn't helped that the U.S.'s role as cohosts means there has been no World Cup qualifying slog in which this group could forge bonds in competitive fixtures. Those matches, even against the region's presumed minnows, force a team and its players to perform with an edge. The team absolutely has to get results and the players have to deliver solid performances, otherwise they'll lose their spot. Without those matches, and with there seeming to be a distinct stratification between starters and reserves, a lack of competition within the team has set in.

"When you feel like your position can be in jeopardy if you're not there, well, you do everything in your power to be there and to do well. Then you don't get complacent," Gomez said.

"Most players don't have the luxury on any team, let alone a national team, of feeling their place is safe. And it seems like a lot of these players feel like that. Their position is safe. So that breeds complacency."

But Pochettino and his charges must carry on and with the start of the Gold Cup approaching, and that brings us to the team. The personnel issues start in goal, where incumbent Matt Turner played a total of four matches this season for club side Crystal Palace, none of them in league play.

The rust showed itself in the Nations League with some shaky positioning on the late winner by Panama's José Fajardo. USMNT fans got another reminder Tuesday against Switzerland, when Turner left a juicy rebound for Breel Embolo to convert from close range. Turner's reported move to Lyon could be the answer to his quest for more playing time, but for now, the door to the starting keeper job is still open.

The problem is that none of the possible replacements have stepped up. Ethan Horvath had a poor season with Cardiff City. The Columbus Crew's Patrick Schulte is injured with an oblique strain. The Colorado Rapids' Zack Steffen is out after knee surgery. That leaves the relatively inexperienced duo of New York City FC's Matt Freese -- who made his debut Saturday -- and Chicago Fire's Chris Brady to challenge.

"You either got it or you don't," said Keller about the team's goalkeeping situation. "And unfortunately, we don't."

The center back situation isn't much better. Tim Ream was among the feel-good stories at the 2022 World Cup, but the fact that he's still a starter at age 37 is a sign that the younger positional prospects haven't done enough to push him out. Richards now has a winner's medal following Palace's FA Cup triumph, but his play with the U.S. has been uneven over the past year. Toulouse's Mark McKenzie has been just as inconsistent. FC Cincinnati's Miles Robinson has yet to reach the heights he enjoyed since tearing an Achilles right before the 2022 World Cup.

Then there are the forwards. The hope is that Balogun could get past an injury-riddled 2024-25 season and find a semblance of form this summer. It was not to be. With PSV Eindhoven's Ricardo Pepi still recovering from knee surgery and Norwich City's Josh Sargent not called in, Pochettino has been left to rely on several MLS players in Charlotte FC's Patrick Agyemang, Vancouver Whitecaps' Brian White, Coventry City's Haji Wright and FC Cologne's Damion Downs.

"Nobody has really taken a hold of that saying, 'This is going to be my opportunity. I'm going to make it mine,'" Gomez said.

"Pepi has come the closest. But that's it. It's not really been too many positives with the nine. You've got to go back to Brian McBride as the last serviceable No. 9. So it's not been a good situation historically for the U.S. men's national team and the nines."

Can Pochettino and the U.S. turn it around before the World Cup? Sure, if the team's luck with injuries changes. And if some young players can pressure the incumbents and create competition for positions. And if Pochettino can find a way to connect with the players in a way that has so far proved elusive. That's already a lot of ifs.

There are 365 days to go.