The current edition of U.S. men's national team looks considerably different from the one just four years ago. From the coach to the players, there has been drastic change within the program.
Only three of the 26 players from the 2021 Gold Cup-winning team remain on the 2025 roster for the tournament: Matt Turner, Walker Zimmerman and Miles Robinson. The USMNT have won the Gold Cup seven times, but the most recent was that trophy lift in 2021, as the Gregg Berhalter-coached team stunned Mexico, 1-0, in the final.
And those winning memories remain vivid, and special, for those remaining U.S. players.
"For me, winning that Gold Cup in 2021, I'm not really sure I was in a period where I could process exactly the gravity of what we achieved," Turner said this week. "If you look at that, that team and the Mexico team that we beat in the final, the Qatar team that we beat in the semifinal, we just really enjoyed it. I think looking back at that team, the joy that we played with - the passion, the energy, the way we started games, I think all of that kind of stuff are things that I look back upon and think that we could bring towards the future.
"From there, I've grown a lot. I'm pretty sure that Gold Cup is essentially what launched me to get my move to Arsenal. And I'm now fighting my way through Europe, and trying to make it work over there right now. Since then, I've been through a lot. I've had two kids, I've moved to three different teams, so I've had a lot of change. But yeah, it's definitely an experience I hold near and dear to my heart."
The 2025 Gold Cup starts next week, the final continental tournament ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup that will be hosted by the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Mexico, Gold Cup champions in 2023 and winners of the 2025 Nations League, will look to remain to the top, but they'll be competing with a red-hot Canada side and a USMNT squad with a chip on their shoulder.
Beyond Zimmerman, Robinson and Turner, a number of names from that squad have dropped out of the player pool. It was an entirely different group, and a team that pulled off an upset with a relatively young roster.
GOAL revisits the 2021 squad and what happened with them in the years since.
