Brenden Aaronson is fighting to make the World Cup squad, and to stay in the Premier League
The Medford native’s club, Leeds United, is narrowly above the relegation zone. He has to put that out of his mind for now to make his case on a crowded U.S. attacking midfield depth chart.
MARIETTA, Ga. — It’s enough for any American player to have this summer’s World Cup in mind, and to be competing for one of the 26 tickets on the plane to Los Angeles.
But that’s not the only thing Brenden Aaronson has to deal with right now. The Medford native is also trying to help his club, Leeds United, avoid relegation from England’s Premier League.
Leeds has been out of the danger zone since December, but right now it isn’t by much. With seven games to go, it is 15th in the 20-team standings, and four points above the bottom three places — the ones whose teams go down after the season.
The soccer analysts at sports data company Opta told The Inquirer that Leeds has a 7.3% chance of falling to 18th. That’s obviously not much.
On the psychological side of it, English headlines are dominated by the current 17th-place team, London giant Tottenham Hotspur. If it goes down, that would be an all-time collapse story. (Right now, Opta gives that a 26.3% chance.)
So while Leeds is spared the spotlight, it feels like the Peacocks are in a place that a Philadelphian would understand. They’re probably safe, but there’s a little seed of doubt.
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This week, Aaronson has to get that out of his mind for a while. The last U.S. national team camp before the World Cup team is set in late May is a huge audition moment, amplified by high-profile friendlies against Belgium and Portugal in Atlanta.
“It’s always tough,” Aaronson said of the jump from club to country. “But that’s kind of where my head’s at: I always tell everybody my game is based on [how] I take day after day — I focus on the day [on] how I can get better, and go from there. So my full focus is with the national team at the moment.”
Leeds came back to the Premier League this season after two seasons in the second-tier Championship. Before then, it had spent three seasons in the top flight, ending with the 2022-23 campaign that was Aaronson’s first in England. And before then, the former giant of English soccer spent 16 years languishing in lower leagues.
Those ghosts haven’t been fully chased off yet. Nor has a bigger-picture matter that’s been on minds across England all season. In each of the last two campaigns, the three teams that came up to the Premier League went straight back down at the end of the season.
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That streak is almost certain to end this season, with promoted Sunderland 14 points above safety in 11th place. Leeds hopes to make it two returnees staying up. (The third, Burnley, is likely heading down: 19th place, nine points behind 18th-place West Ham, and 10 behind Tottenham.)
“I think we’ve had a great season for a team that’s come up to the Premier League,” Aaronson said. “I think we have a really good run of games going in [to the end of the season], where we just need to perform and get the points that we need. But I believe in the group that we have, and I know that we can achieve the goal.”
He was 22 when he first made a senior World Cup team, four years ago in Qatar. At that point, he was just two years past being launched from the Union to Europe. Now he’s a national team veteran with 56 caps, and one of just four Americans regularly playing in the world’s top domestic league.
“The last World Cup, I was young,” he said. “I was more naive in football terms of things. You just learn so much in a four-year period of professional football. … You go through so many ups and downs. So I know mentally I’m much stronger than I was before.”
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The others are all considered locks to make this year’s World Cup squad if they’re healthy: centerback Chris Richards, left back Antonee Robinson, and defensive midfielder Tyler Adams. But Aaronson isn’t, in part because of the deep competition at attacking midfield.
Nor does it help that Aaronson’s form has cooled off since the hot streak he hit in January. He’s still a consistent starter for Leeds, though, and his high-pressing game still suits an off-the-bench closer role at the World Cup.
His job now is threefold. First, he has to play well for the U.S. when he gets the chance. Then he has to keep playing well for Leeds. Finally, he must earn a earn a World Cup ticket with not just talent, but fitting into the bigger picture — especially from an attacking midfield depth chart that’s full of stars.
U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino has said he wants to pick the best team of 26 players, not just the best 26 players. How will Aaronson make his case?
“The biggest thing for us, why we’re here, is we’ve played like ourselves,” he said. “I think that’s what the coach likes about us. And so we’re just going to go out there, do the best we can for the team, and just be ourselves on the pitch, and I think that’s what will make us a really good team.”