Cristian Roldan finds calm in competition as USMNT preps for World Cup

Cristian Roldan has seen this film before. 

In the fall of 2022, mere weeks before the start of the Qatar World Cup, he was sitting at home in Seattle, watching his U.S. Men's National Team teammates play out friendlies against Japan and Saudi Arabia on television. He hadn't made the cut. 

But when the World Cup roster dropped after those matches, there he was. He'd snatched the final midfield position available on the team, and he was going to Qatar.

Now, four years later, Roldan's on the opposite side of the equation. He made coach Mauricio Pochettino's final pre-World Cup roster, but he knows that things can change in an instant. Young midfielders can rise. Older ones can stumble. Players returning from injury can reach heights they couldn't previously fathom. 

No one's spot is secure. Roldan achieved his World Cup dream in 2022 because of that very concept.

In 2022, though, Roldan was the MLS upstart, the domestic midfielder fighting for his own standing. Today, he's one of the USMNT's most respected veterans, and he's not just thinking about his own future; he's thinking about the future of every midfielder he's competing with to make it to the World Cup this summer. The spirit of competition is still there within him, but the spirit of support is there, too.

That's what makes Roldan such a compelling figure within the USMNT this year: he's stronger and fiercer than ever, but he's setting an example of empathetic team support that makes all that competition feel like growth. 

Roldan has seen this film before, but this time, he's writing a brand-new ending for everyone.

A "little bit of everything"

The American soccer talent development pipeline is twisted, cumbersome and often ineffective, but when it hits, it pops out players like Roldan: all-around athletes with world-class fitness, indefatigable grit and a winning mentality. Roldan has spent his entire career here in the States, first with the Washington Huskies in the NCAA and then with the Seattle Sounders in Major League Soccer, but his profile has caught the eye of coaches from all around the world — including Pochettino. 

“Cristian Roldan is an example of how if you want to build your perfect player; he has a little bit of everything,” Pochettino said after Roldan's performance against Australia last October.