When Mauricio Pochettino named his USMNT roster for the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals on Wednesday, Jack McGlynn wasn't on it. By Saturday night he was. In between, Gio Reyna scored for Strasbourg and limped off minutes later, and McGlynn scored for a third straight game as Stoke City came from behind to win 2-1 at Portsmouth. U.S. Soccer confirmed the swap the same day: McGlynn in, Reyna withdrawn with an injury.

One game in Toulouse, two roster changes

Both of Pochettino's injury replacements this week trace back to the same Friday night in Ligue 1. Reyna scored Strasbourg's only goal in the 67th minute of a 3-1 loss to Toulouse, then asked to come off about three minutes later with discomfort in his left thigh, according to ESPN. It was his third goal of the season.

On the other side was Mark McKenzie. The Toulouse center back had just been called in to replace injured West Brom defender George Campbell, and he scored in that same game. So Pochettino lost an attacking midfielder and gained a center back from one 90 minutes he didn't coach.

The goal that sealed the call

McGlynn's case was built the next afternoon at Fratton Park. Portsmouth led from the sixth minute through Tyrese Shade, and Stoke barely threatened before halftime. The equalizer, on 59 minutes, was an all-American goal: Ben Johnson's low cross slipped away from the Portsmouth goalkeeper, substitute Luca Bombino — another deadline-day signing from San Diego FC — kept it alive at the byline and squared it, and McGlynn finished. Ben Wilmot followed up on a parried Ethan Galbraith shot for the winner on 77 minutes.

"It was not giving up by Luca, pulling it back into an area that Jack finds space," Stoke manager Mark Robins told The Sentinel. "He does that really well. A fantastic finish."

The win was Stoke's fifth straight away from home, after Watford, Bolton, Derby and Blackburn. "It's not been done since 1947, which shows you how difficult it is," Robins said.

It also capped a week of goals for McGlynn: one in a 2-0 win over Preston last Saturday, a free kick in a 2-1 win at Blackburn on Tuesday, and then Portsmouth. U.S. Soccer lists him with a team-high five goals and two assists in 11 appearances since he joined from the Houston Dynamo on deadline day, with Stoke now level on points at the top of the Championship.

What changes in Pochettino's midfield

This isn't a like-for-like swap. Reyna is a creator who drifts between the lines. McGlynn is a left-footed deep playmaker whose value is in his passing range and set pieces, and right now in his goals. He joins a group of eight midfielders with Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Malik Tillman, Sebastian Berhalter, Mathis Albert, Santiago Castañeda and Adri Mehmeti, which means he isn't automatically going straight into the lineup. Most of those players have thier roles already. McGlynn has to earn one in a week.

There is history with this opponent, at least. McGlynn played in all six U.S. games at the 2025 Gold Cup, including a substitute appearance in the 2-1 group-stage win over Haiti. But NBC Sports notes he hasn't been called in since September 2025 and hasn't started for the U.S. since the second match of that tournament. NBC also listed him, along with Middlesbrough's Aidan Morris, among the surprising omissions from Wednesday's roster. He has 13 caps, two goals and two assists.

The schedule

Camp opens Monday at the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center. The first leg against Haiti is Nov. 14 at Nu Stadium in Miami (4:30 p.m. ET), and the United States hosts the return leg three days later at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati (7 p.m. ET).

No timeline has been announced for Reyna's return, and the timing hurts a player who was finally stringing starts together in France. For McGlynn, the timing is the opposite. A player left off the list on Wednesday arrives in camp on Monday as one of the most in-form American midfielders in England's second tier, and a goal or two against Haiti would make him much harder to leave out next time.

Photo credit: Jack McGlynn, United States vs. Saudi Arabia, 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup, Austin. Photo: u/reepers_hellcat / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0; cropped and resized.