USMNT World Cup Outlook: Reyna's Return, Tillman's Struggles, and Midfield Concerns

For the first time in a long time, there was a reason to smile about Gio Reyna.

He finally snapped his club drought at the weekend, curling in a late consolation in Borussia Monchengladbach’s 3-1 defeat. On paper, it meant little to the result. In reality, it was his first club goal in almost 18 months and a rare jolt of confidence at the right end of the season.

Reyna has been drifting on the margins for months. Since his bright November with the USMNT, meaningful minutes at club level have been scarce. Then came March: two brief cameos in friendlies, nowhere near a full audition against top opposition. For a player of his profile, that’s a long time to be stuck in neutral.

And yet, he never quite leaves the conversation.

That’s because Reyna still brings something nobody else in the pool really replicates. He changes games. He has a habit of lifting the U.S. when he pulls on that shirt, and the recent CONCACAF trophies came with him right in the thick of things. The team has generally looked sharper, more dangerous, with Reyna on the pitch.

But strip away the nostalgia and the highlight reels, and his role is clearer. In this version of the USMNT, Reyna is the luxury piece, not the foundation. He’s the flourish on top of a structure that no longer depends on him. If he finds rhythm, the team’s ceiling rises. If he doesn’t, there are other options ready to carry the load in his area of the pitch.

One of those options, Malik Tillman, is wrestling with his own club reality.

No one doubts Tillman’s talent. He’s shown it repeatedly. The issue is how little of it Bayer Leverkusen have actually used in recent weeks. Since the March international window, Tillman has appeared in seven matches but logged only 77 minutes. In five of those games, he didn’t even reach the 10-minute mark. Nathan Tella and Ibrahim Maza have become the preferred support cast behind the main striker.

The timing could hardly be worse. Tillman remains firmly in the starting conversation for the U.S., but that case would be far stronger with recent goals and assists behind it. His last strike came on April 4, a quick-fire contribution in a two-minute cameo against Wolfsburg that pushed him to six goals in 1,615 minutes this season. Respectable numbers. Just not the kind of run that screams “undroppable.”

If his club role stays this limited, the U.S. may have to adjust.

The upside? Weston McKennie is in form and offers a ready-made solution. He can slide into that more advanced midfield slot alongside Christian Pulisic, easing the pressure on Tillman’s situation and giving the U.S. a more battle-tested option in a key creative role.

Pulisic himself is living with a different kind of scrutiny.

He has been open about it: no goals in 2026, frustration building, but no panic. His stance is simple. What matters most is delivering when the biggest games arrive this summer. The grind in Milan, the missed chances and quiet outings, are just part of the build-up.

Still, the reality is stark. You want your stars humming when a World Cup comes around, and Pulisic has not hit that level so far this year. The U.S. do not rise or fall solely on his shoulders, but he remains one of the faces of the team, both in quality and personality. They need his end product. They also need his edge, his willingness to grab a game and dictate the tempo and tone for everyone around him.

There is time. The calendar still offers weeks, not days. But every scoreless outing nudges the volume up on the concerns. It shouldn’t become hysteria, given the context and his broader influence, yet the question lingers every weekend he walks off without a goal.

If the attack is a puzzle of form and roles, the defense is something more worrying: a genuine unknown.

Chris Richards looks locked in at center back. Beyond him, the picture blurs.

Tim Ream brings vast experience, but that now comes with its own question: has he simply logged too many miles, and how much will his recent injury hang over him? Mark McKenzie is thriving in Ligue 1, yet his USMNT career has included the kind of split-second lapses that can destroy a tournament in one moment. Auston Trusty has settled well at Celtic, but with only six caps, he remains largely untested in this kind of cauldron. Miles Robinson still has to prove he’ll be in top form when it matters. Noahkai Banks lurks as a potential late answer, a wild card who could force his way into the frame.

At this stage of a World Cup cycle, most nations know exactly who anchors their back line. The U.S. do not. It may come down to who is healthiest, sharpest, and most composed when the opening whistle blows, rather than any grand, long-term plan.

And then there’s the real flashpoint: central midfield.

There was a strong case that either Johnny Cardoso or Tanner Tessmann could start this summer alongside Tyler Adams. That argument has been ripped apart for at least one of them.

Cardoso’s season peaked with a Champions League semifinal, only for Atletico Madrid to confirm an ankle sprain soon after. The margins were always going to be tight. In the end, they weren’t tight at all — they were brutal. Atleti announced he would need surgery, ending his World Cup hopes in one sentence.

Tessmann’s situation is less severe but still unsettling. Lyon diagnosed a muscle strain, enough to rule him out for a spell but not the tournament. He is expected to be available for the World Cup. The issue is that even before the injury, his place in Lyon’s XI had started to wobble. Starts gave way to spells in and out of the lineup, just as he was trying to nail down his role.

Put those two stories together and the U.S. suddenly face a glaring question: who partners Adams?

Even before the injuries, both Cardoso and Tessmann carried doubts, though their European performances this season had begun to quiet some of them. Now the debate reopens, and the options thin. Every serious team builds from the middle, and right now the USMNT are staring at a summer where that engine room could be patched together rather than fully powered.

As the squad announcement looms, that is the concern sitting above all the others. Form can swing. Strikers can catch fire. Center backs can settle. But a midfield stripped of its key contenders?

That’s the kind of problem that can define an entire World Cup.