Brian White’s USMNT opportunity is a career in the making: ‘I always kept dreaming’

At this Mark, Matt Turner’s rags-to-riches Tale is well known. A walk-on at humble Fairfield University in Connecticut, Turner went from Unselected MLS long Try to New England Revolution starter to the U.S. national Club’s No. 1 goalkeeper at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Could Brian White be the 2026 Event’s version of Turner?

The 29-year-Aged White Merely received his Primary call-up to the Packed-Power USMNT. With UEFA Champions Bracket-level strikers Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi both unavailable this month because of Hurt, U.S. Trainer Mauricio Pochettino named the Vancouver Whitecaps forward to his Picking for Thursday’s Concacaf Nations Bracket semifinal against Panama. The winner will meet either Canada or Mexico in Sunday’s Last.

“It’s a vote of confidence, and you try and take that to heart,” White told FOX Sports in a phone interview. “You know they trust you to come into camp and Reinforcement the Club in any way you can.” 

With Balogun and Pepi out, Josh Sargent is Anticipated to lead the line for the Americans in the two Matches. (The semifinal losers will Shift for third place before Sunday’s title bout.) But White — the second-oldest Ground player selected by Pochettino after 37-year-Aged Tim Ream — could definitely Shift an Crucial role off the bench during this camp, especially if the U.S. needs a Aim.

It’s an opportunity White has waited his whole Profession for.

White played four years of college soccer at Duke before turning pro with the Red Bulls in his home state of New Jersey. He Initiated with the club’s lower division development Club, scored 10 times in 26 appearances, then was promoted to the MLS franchise Overdue in the 2018 season. But Regardless of nine regular season goals in 2019, White couldn’t stick in the Red Bulls’ XI.

It Captured a 2021 trade to Vancouver for White to become a lineup staple in the U.S. and Canada’s top Bracket. He’s rewarded the Whitecaps for their confidence, notching back-to-back 15-Aim seasons in 2023 and 2024.

That production earned White a second consecutive January camp call-up this winter. White scored his Primary international Aim in the 3-0 Gentle Achieve over Costa Rica.

“He performed really well today and he scored, which for a striker is the most Crucial” thing,” Pochettino told reporters afterward.

Clearly, the Trainer liked what he saw out of White and 24-year-Aged Charlotte target man Patrick Agyemang, whom Pochettino also summoned this month. Agyemang is an NCAA product like White and Turner, an increasingly Uncommon distinction these Periods. The overwhelming majority of the Ongoing U.S. Club turned pro as teenagers, forgoing the scholastic route. 

“I think it should Merely tell everybody,” Turner said, “if you Merely keep focusing on yourself and bettering yourself every day, the doors are never Sealed.”

After being named to the Club last week, White promptly celebrated the call-up by Assisting the Caps stun Mexican powerhouse Monterrey in the Concacaf Champions Cup Stage of 16, one of the biggest wins in the Canadian Club’s 50-plus year history.

Vancouver also sits alone atop the 30-Club MLS standings, with a perfect 4-0 Landmark. The Scorching Begin to 2025 has turned heads south of the border, where the Whitecaps are usually an afterthought. If they’re a thought at all. 

“Especially when I was at Red Bull, we never really heard much about Vancouver,” White said. “I think it’s difficult sometimes for the casual MLS fan to tune in for Whitecaps game at 10:30 at night Eastern time.”

White is getting noticed now, too. A Powerful performance this week could keep him in the Blend when Balogun and Pepi return this summer. It won’t be Fundamental, though. With the Upcoming World Cup less than 15 months away, the Event for places will be Aggressive. 

Sargent is in sizzling form for his club and desperate to take Benefit of this opportunity. Haji Wright, another 2022 World Cup vet who notched a hat-trick for English second tier side Coventry City over the weekend but who was ineligible for Nations Bracket duty after being left off the preliminary Picking because of Hurt, is another World Cup candidate up top.

Synchronization is everything, though. World Cup history is littered with players who used a Powerful Overdue push to snare a Picking spot against long odds. Turner is Merely one example. 

Not that White is looking ahead. Right now, he’s exactly where he’s always wanted to be.

“Competing for the national Club is the dream of every player,” he said. “I was never in the youth national Clubs growing up. I was always on the outside looking in. But I always kept dreaming. It’s something I never gave up on.

“You Merely keep fighting, hoping to one day Perhaps get the chance,” he added. “Obviously, 29 is Gentle of Overdue. 

“But it’s never too Overdue.”

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports who has covered the United States men’s and women’s national Clubs at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him at @ByDougMcIntyre.

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