Meola expected Scally to make October’s squad based on his consistent performances in the Bundesliga. The American defender has started in five of Gladbach’s six matches, notching two assists in that stretch.
“Joe Scally, that’s the one that surprises me,” Meola said on CBS Sports Golazo. “This has been a sort of a merit-based roster. Guys have earned this. Joe Scally plays week in and week out in the Bundesliga. And I’m getting the sense that could it really come down to a golf cart ride, in the end?”
Meola could be referring to comments made by Pochettino in May when he announced his roster for June friendlies and the Gold Cup. Following the U.S.’s disappointing fourth-place finish at the Nations League Finals, the Argentine questioned some habits of some players on the squad without naming anyone.
“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?” Pochettino said in May. “No, no, no, no, no. What we want to 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 to be good in one year’s time, we need to think that today is the most important day.”
Meola speculated that Pochettino potentially doesn’t see Scally as a fit into the culture he’s trying to build.
“Maybe it can, maybe that’s a sign for a manager that says ‘this guy is not good enough for my locker room’ or something, I don’t know,” he said. “I’m just throwing ideas out in my head because the Scally one to me is the one that ‘you don’t bring him into this camp when he’s played already, essentially, in a back three for you?’
“That one I’m a little bit surprised, I think if he doesn’t come in in November, Joe Scally, and he’s still playing at his club, I think then maybe we can start to read that he’s not a Mauricio Pochettino guy.”
Meola was also critical of Pochettino’s handling of questions revolving around the omissions of Scally and Atalanta‘s Yunus Musah, stressing it is typical for national team managers to explain their squad decisions.
“His answer’s a little bit odd to me,” Meola said. “We’ve seen managers, including Mauricio Pochettino, who have answered that question before this camp. I think he kind of said now it’s time to talk about the guys that are here moving forward, that’s kind of what I got out of it….I don’t know if he caught him in the moment, I don’t know if he caught him at the time in his career where he said enough was enough. I was a little bit surprised.”
While Meola questioned Scally not being a part of the squad, he was aligned with Pochettino with leaving Musah out of the October friendlies.
“I’m not surprised about Yunus Musah,” Meola said. “Because he hasn’t really settled in just yet to become the player we think he can be at Atalanta. He’s still got some work to do, although he’s getting some minutes now.”
Despite questions over some of the omissions on the squad, the U.S. are full speed ahead with their October friendlies starting on Friday. The U.S. face Ecuador in Austin, Texas, before flying to Colorado to take on Austin in Commerce City.
