On a winter day in Fresno, California, a group of friends are playing soccer at a local park. It has become an annual tradition for a group of 10 to 12 players, primarily from the United Soccer League (USL), to train together in the offseason as a way to stay fit for the new year. With the energy of cordial competition, these sessions are an invaluable encouragement to those who are setting goals for 2026.
Kicking and chasing a ball on ordinary public greens, many looking for new contracts in the lower leagues, others simply trying to stay fit, but for a key player in attendance?
“Everyone is basically grinding for something,” he said US men’s national team‘S max arfston To ESPN. “For me, it’s about trying to make the World Cup.”
Just a few months before this year’s important tournament, Arfston’s preparations for 2026 begin with his close circle here in his hometown, where columbus crew The fullback was stopped several times by kids to take photos after his practice. with him of MLS With the season ending in early November and not resuming until Feb. 21, the 24-year-old drew a powerful source of motivation for an athlete at any level: not wanting to lose to your friends.
“Every time you play against guys from your hometown… you naturally want to prove your worth,” Arfston said. “You want to be the top dog in the town you’re from.”
Doing so helped boost Arfston’s momentum during a slow period ahead of the crucial 2026 season. In fact, those who failed to qualify for the playoffs last year will have to go through a four-month gap between official MLS matches, with preseason camps now in full swing. Although the league will switch to a more globally aligned summer-to-spring calendar in 2027, pushing the offseason into the summer and shortening the winter break, there is a clear gap in competitive games for now.
Of course, that break is needed to fully recover and regroup, but its timing complicates matters when you consider that just a few weeks after MLS’s 2026 season begins, the USMNT will have one last international window before head coach Mauricio Pochettino makes final World Cup roster decisions. By contrast, the United States’ high-profile stars in European leagues will be in the midst of their campaigns, with match fitness claims unlikely to match that of their home-based compatriots.
With the World Cup around the corner, Arfston is not alone when it comes to extra offseason work. St. Louis, Missouri, Columbus teammates across the country patrick schulte He has his own group that has helped him stay sharp.
“I have four or five friends that I grew up playing with or went to college with, they all live here or are here in the offseason, we get a good group together,” said the goaltender, who, like Arfston, fosters a camaraderie of rivalry.
Schulte joked about his live sessions at home, saying, “I don’t want to be criticized by my friends because I won’t be able to hear the end of it.” “As a goaltender, some of my friends are forwards. I just want them to know, ‘Hey, if we ever play, you don’t have a chance.'”
Schulte and his squad trained regularly this off-season at St. Louis Scott Gallagher SC, where the national team goalkeeper developed his talents at a young age, but similar to Arfston’s group, they also hung out at local parks. The number of players in St. Louis sometimes exceeded 30 in these seasons, which may also include non-professional academy prospects testing the 24-year-old player, Who is in the race to go to the World Cup.
“We have people in MLS, we have people in the USL, we have people [reserve] MLS Next Pro,” Schulte said.
In Florida, fellow national team members alex freeman Spent part of his MLS offseason at SAT Soccer in Fort Lauderdale, a program that specializes in customized training regimens for some of the world’s top players. According to the company, other names with MLS experience such as joseph martinez, telasco segovia, Juanjo Purata And Tadeo Allende Also traveled there before 2026.
“A lot of people come to that place in the offseason,” Freeman told ESPN about Fort Lauderdale. “A lot of people come and message me about training, and we’re able to form a small group and train together, and improve on whatever we need to do.”
Personal work is also important. While Freeman – Who Will Leave Orlando City SC and join Villarreal In LaLiga This winter, A source told ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle – Discussing fitness, Arfston noted improvements in specific aspects of his wingback position: “defending, working on crossing, deep crossing.” Schulte spent more sessions than usual in the offseason with the goaltending coach he grew up with.
houston dynamo and USMNT midfielder Jack McGlynnWho underwent foot surgery in October, focused on a more introspective style of personal improvement.
“A lot of mental work. I think when you’re injured, you have a lot of time to think and reflect on your season, where you can do better,” McGlynn told ESPN at the end of 2025.
McGlynn is now fully fit. Just a few days ago, and with Pochettino still having a lot to prove before earning a call-up, he found the back of the net during a preseason game.
Given that the March international window will likely be the final auditions for the USMNT before World Cup roster selection, the harsh reality for these MLS-based national team candidates is that they will have to hit the ground running once the league begins in mid-February.
In the short term, this could be harmful. For those MLS players who do make the World Cup roster, however, could being in midseason form rather than coming into the tournament after a grueling European club campaign turn out to be an advantage that helps the USMNT?
“I guess you can take it both ways,” Freeman said. “Obviously, you want to play a little more in January, February… but it also gives you time to accomplish what you need to do.”
“I don’t know. It’s a World Cup, everybody’s going to benefit,” Schulte said about the possibility of midseason gains. “Maybe we’re a little more fresh and don’t have as many games on our feet, but I think at that point in life, with the adrenaline and everything else, it won’t matter too much.”
For seattle sounders midfielder cristian roldanThere’s no denying the impact the 30-year-old veteran has had on MLS players, who has been one of the latest surprise X factors for the national team.
“The European players will have pretty much finished all their games… so it’s a very tough spot [for them] to get involved,” he told the media in the winter. “You have to trust your entire team, and we have an advantage [in MLS] To be able to head into the World Cup fresh, taking full advantage of the offseason and then slowly building on that … right when the summer comes, you’re halfway through the season and you’re in good shape.”
If you ask Arfston, it’s a case-by-case basis, but if someone from MLS got an extra boost at the World Cup – even if marginal – he probably wouldn’t be shocked.
“It’s player specific. I mean, it just depends on what kind of form you’re in,” the Columbus player said. “But I think in terms of mental freshness, yes, there’s going to be more freshness from us.”
Perhaps the guy who is leading the USMNT onto the global stage this summer is the guy who was playing at your local park last month.
