It is now just 11 days until Mauricio Pochettino names his World Cup squad, while the USMNT's opener against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium is only 29 days away. Throughout his tenure, Pochettino has regularly made surprising roster selection decisions; who could forget Matko Miljević's call-up out of nowhere that one time? Now though, with the serious business about to begin, will his 26 player group be made entirely of familiar faces, or could he throw in a curve ball or two?
Well, regular Major League Soccer watchers believe that Zavier Gozo should make the cut at the last. Born and raised in Utah, he has been on Real Salt Lake's books since the age of 14, starting out with their MLS Next Pro team Real Monarchs. He has also represented the U.S. at various age levels, most notably at the under-20 World Cup in Chile last September and October.
Gozo started four of USA's five games at that tournament as Marko Mitrović's team reached the quarter-finals, registering a goal and an assist during a 3-0 group stage victory over France in Rancagua. 2025 was also his breakthrough year at club level, accumulating 31 appearances across all competitions, scoring five regular season goals as RSL snuck into the post-season.
Well, this year, the 19 year old has been on fire, racking up five goals and three assists in 13 MLS appearances, which works out at a goal contribution every 132 minutes. This means he ranks very highly across the league for a wide-variety of attacking metrics.
Zavier Gozo's 2026 MLS statistics
Statistics | Zavier Gozo | MLS rank |
|---|---|---|
Goals | 5 | 28th |
Assists | 3 | 22nd |
Shots | 38 | 12th |
Successful dribbles | 20 | 7th |
Big chances created | 7 | 9th |
Average match rating | 7.36 | 29th |
Note: All statistics courtesy of SofaScore.
On top of just standard goals and assists, Gozo ranks highly when it comes to plenty of underlying metrics in MLS. Only six players, one of whom is Lionel Messi, have been successful with more dribbles, while his seven big chances created means he ranks ninth. This is only one fewer than Son Heung-min, on par with Marco Reus and one more than both Thomas Müller and James Rodríguez.
So, could Gozo actually make a late push to be included in the USMNT roster? Well, he is surely under consideration. Pochettino's long-standing assistant Jesús Pérez was in attendance in Frisco during Real Salt Lake's recent 3-1 defeat to FC Dallas. U.S. international Diego Luna started and scored in that game, so Pérez may have been there to watch him, but surely would've kept an eye on Gozo.
Meantime, Pochettino has previously bemoaned USA's lack of proper winger options. He has previously tinkered with Tim Weah on the left, due to his eye dominance, because why not, as well as Sergiño Dest in a more advanced role. Meantime, Christian Pulisic, Brenden Aaronson, Gio Reyna and Malik Tillman all like to drift inside, while Álex Zendejas is little more than on the fringes.
So, not only is Gozo an elite-level talent, he offers this squad something they don't have, a true width-provider who, as the numbers show, is capable of taking on and beating a defender 1V1. According to Goal, RSL believe their most prized asset to be worth $20 million, which would shatter their club-record sale of $11 million, when Andrés Gómez departed for Stade Rennais two summers ago. So, can the U.S. really afford to leave such a supreme talent watching from the sidelines?
Add us as a preferred source on Google