Cristian Roldan is back with the USMNT, and it feels like he never left

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — When Cristian Roldan was surprisingly called back to the U.S. men’s soccer team last month, he got word of it while having just started a short vacation.

The 30-year-old midfielder had assumed he was out of the picture, having not been invited since the 2023 Gold Cup, and before then the 2022 World Cup. So he and a few Seattle Sounders teammates with young families headed off to the mountains east of town for a few days of rest during the FIFA window.

Roldan didn’t know at the time that the U.S. coaching staff had been watching him well before then. So he didn’t think too much of it when assistant Miguel D’Agostino came to Seattle during the summer, since Roldan was one of many people D’Agostino met with while he was there.

But he did know how well he’d been playing for the Sounders, including an especially strong outing against Lionel Messi in the Leagues Cup final win over Inter Miami.

After the call came, Roldan scurried home from the mountains, flew across the country, then got settled with the team as best he could.

What happened next? He was a substitute against South Korea, then a full-game starter in the Americans’ rousing win over Japan. By the final whistle, it was as if he’d been there all along.

» READ MORE: The USMNT seems on course to do something it hasn’t done in nearly a quarter century

This is how Roldan is, and has long been. U.S. fans know it, and plenty of Union fans do too from his trips to Chester with the Sounders over the years. (If he makes the U.S. squad next month, as seems likely, Philadelphia will get to cheer for him for once instead of against him.)

He is valuable on the field, fitting perfectly into one of the central midfield spots in the Americans’ new 3-4-2-1 formation — as he did again in Friday’s 1-1 tie with Ecuador. And he’s even more valuable off it, with all the program’s changes since Mauricio Pochettino’s arrival.

Roldan now forms part of the program’s institutional memory: he knows what the level is supposed to be, even though it too often hasn’t been.

“Regardless of who’s in camp, I think that’s just my personality,” he said as the U.S. prepared for Tuesday’s game vs. Australia (9 p.m., TNT, Universo). “I want to be involved, I want to be — sorry for my language, shooting the [expletive] with all the guys, right? I want to be involved in knowing what’s going on in their lives, and be able to help in football.”

» READ MORE: The USMNT’s new playing style could give Mark McKenzie a big opportunity

He was quick to add that he doesn’t want to be known as just an “off-the-field guy.” He wants to be known for his work ethic first.

“I think everybody will tell you what I bring competitive-wise: in training, on game days, my voice,” he said. “It’s hard to have that rep, but I enjoy it as well. I want to be a good teammate, but I also want people to know that I’m competing really hard here.”

That has rubbed off on teammates with more famous pedigrees.

“It’s been my second camp with ‘Roldy,’ and he’s made an impression on me,” said striker Folarin Balogun of France’s AS Monaco, who has played his entire pro career at European clubs. “He’s really, I’d say, one of the senior figures and his voice is heard in the team. And he’s a really great guy to talk to, to have around, and if you need any advice or you need any help or anything, he’s a great communicator.”

» READ MORE: Haji Wright has a big opportunity this month to make a statement at striker with the USMNT

Medford’s Brenden Aaronson called Roldan “like a big brother” for all the player’s relationships in the squad.

“The first [U.S.] camp I went to, he was there, and he was always the guy that kind of brought me in under open arms,” said Aaronson, referring to his first senior U.S. callup in October 2019. Five months earlier, he’d shared a field with Roldan for the first time in a memorable Union-Sounders game in Chester.

Roldan’s spirit has impressed Pochettino, too.

“He is very contagious in his capacity to to motivate, to animate, to talk, to communicate,” the manager said. “That is a good thing inside the pitch, to have a player like him. And then off the field he’s in a similar way, no? He’s always very positive, he’s always smiling, always is energetic, always is positive in every single thing, and that is really important.”

» READ MORE: Brenden Aaronson missed last month’s USMNT games. He hopes to make an impression this time.

Pochettino then made it clear he had the priorities in order, just as Roldan would.

“He’s an important player on the field of course — and needs to be, because if not, that is the first reference that we take,” he said. “But I think it’s helping a lot outside, because he’s a very energetic and happy guy that is contagious good energy.”

None of this means Roldan is a lock for the World Cup. There’s a lot of competition for the starting central midfield spot next to Tyler Adams, and the top four contenders all play in Europe: Johnny Cardoso (Spain’s Atlético Madrid), Aidan Morris (England’s Middlesbrough), James Sands (Germany’s St. Pauli) and Tanner Tessmann (France’s Lyon).

They will all be judged not just on their own talents, but on how well they fit with Adams.

“I think we need Tyler to feel free enough to go out there and tackle, and to put pressure on players, and not really feel like a ‘six’ [defensive midfielder],” Roldan said. “So whoever is next to him, I think [should be] allowing him to be a little bit more free defensively, and then offensively, doing what he does, and that’s be in the middle and dictate how the game goes.”

» READ MORE: Brenden Aaronson and Mark McKenzie celebrate the Union, their old team, winning a trophy

But as with the 2022 tournament, when his hard work and team-first play earned him a ticket to Qatar, it means he’s in the race. And on a 26-player World Cup squad, there might be room for him, even if he’s player No. 26.

That’s enough for now, and we’ll see how far it takes him.