Mauricio Pochettino Defends Brenden Aaronson After Wedding Causes USMNT Absence Before World Cup
With the World Cup approaching, the next few days are crucial for many national teams to fully prepare for the tournament, which starts in less than a week.
The USMNT only has one friendly game left, which is against Germany tomorrow at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.
Ahead of the Germany friendly match, the USMNT forward Brenden Aaronson left the USMNT camp to get married to his partner, Milana D'Ambra.
Aaronson missed a USMNT training session to get married and quickly returned to the camp only hours after his wedding. Aaronson is currently with the USMNT camp training ahead of the Germany match.
USMNT head coach Maruicio Pochettino was asked about Aaronson's departure from the camp for his wedding, and he defended his absence and made no big deal about the situation.
Mauricio Pochettino on Brenden Aaronson
Mauricio Pochettino spoke about Aaronson missing a training session for his wedding and explained why he let the player go. Pochettino revealed that Aaronson's wedding was planned way before.
Pochettino said, "The human being is always at the front of my mind. Players need to plan their lives, and the decision [to get married in late May] was made more than two years ago, before I took charge. At the time, FIFA didn't allow a national team to play a warm-up game before 1 June, and that was why they planned [the wedding]."
Pochettino recognized that coaches before would be very strict with players during national team camps, but he wanted to allow Aaronson to go to his wedding.
Pochettino said, "I wanted to allow Brenden to go. I know the type of professional player he is. It's a good thing to let him celebrate... In the past, maybe people thought we [coaches] are all dictators. Maybe when I was a player, it was impossible. My old coaches would have said, 'I don't care about you and your kids' [laughs]. But today's society has evolved. Now we think about these things in more human terms than in the past. We were all happy. I am happy. He's happy. His wife is happy."
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This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 2:02 PM.