USMNT's Pochettino Wants 'Focus' on Gold Cup in Camp, Not Golf, Family Visits, More

Mauricio Pochettino wants his USMNT players taking an all-business approach to the upcoming Gold Cup camp.

"If you arrive to the camp and you want to spend nice time, play golf, go for a dinner, visit my family, visit my friend, that is the culture that we want to create? No, no, no, no, no," he told reporters Thursday. "What we want do is to go to the national team, arrive and be focused and spend all my focus and energy in the national team. If we want be good in one year time, we need to think that today is the most important day."

The USMNT will have early June friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland before the Gold Cup takes place from June 15 to July 7.

It won't be a full-strength group, with Christian Pulisic, Timothy Weah, Weston McKennie, Giovanni Reyna, Yunus Musah and Antonee Robinson being permitted absences. Pochettino also omitted Josh Sargent, Joe Scally, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Tanner Tessmann and will carry 16 MLS players on the 27-man roster.

The hope, regardless of those absences, is a far better showing than March's dreadful Nations League, which saw the U.S. lose to Panama and Canada.