Call it a message, call it a warning shot... call it what you want. Mauricio Pochettino himself called it a numbers game at the time. Now, in the midst of the ongoing Gold Cup, Brenden Aaronson can look back it and call it something different: bittersweet.
Pochettino's decision to leave Aaronson off the U.S. men's national team's CONCACAF Nations League squad in March was considerably more bitter than sweet at the time, but hindsight paints a different picture. Pochettino didn't Aaronson the the chance he wanted in the spring, but he did, inadvertently, give Aaronson something that he didn't know he needed: a blessing in disguise.
"I had five days during that international window," Aaronson tells GOAL, "so I went home, and it was just the best five days. It was just so nice to be home, relax, see my family, because I hadn't been home all year. I just chilled at home, got to be in my old bed, got to see my sister, got to see my family. Stuff like that. Sometimes you just need it and, at that point, I needed to just be able to go home. I was homesick. It helped me so much to just get my head out of everything."
Yes, there was disappointment. But it was also a chance to step back, take a breath and recharge.
"On one side, of course you're p*ssed," Aaronson said. "You want to be a part of things. You want to be a part of your national team. You miss out on chance to win a trophy, and that's just so tough. Looking at it now, though, it really was a blessing in disguise for me."
Refreshed, Aaronson returned to Leeds a new player. He scored a goal in his first game back, sending his own sort of subliminal message back to Pochettino: things were different now. He went on to help Leeds win the Championship and promotion to the Premier League, celebrating on an open bus tour that will live long in the memory of one of soccer's most passionate cities. He was their ironman, never missing a moment of it all.
Ironically, it was that missed moment with the USMNT that really ignited Aaronson in ways he didn't expect.
He's on the squad now, featuring at the Gold Cup and continuing his attempts to prove his worth to the USMNT staff. His goal against Trinidad and Tobago will help. His assist against Haiti on Sunday night - helping the USMNT top their group and advance to next Sunday's Gold Cup quarterfinal against Costa Rica - will help, as well.The first came as a supersub, the latter as a starter. Whatever Pochettino has asked of Aaronson, he's been willing to do it, and it's resulted in goals for the USMNT this summer.
"I don't hold anything against anybody," the 24-year-old midfielder says. "When I don't get called in the camp, it's just part of football. You learn as you go. So, I think for me, it was just about me coming in here and doing the best that I can and just accepting whatever role that I have. Whatever I'm called upon, I'm going to do.
"Sometimes you get picked and sometimes you're not gonna. But all you can do is try your best and keep going. That's what I tried to do, and I think that's why I got the call back."
No hard feelings, he stresses. He gets it and, as hard as it was to sit at home and watch, there's some part of Aaronson that's thankful for it, too. It was exactly what he needed, even if it wasn't what he wanted at the time. Now, he wants this USMNT chance more than ever and - after seeing a spring chance pass him by - he's hoping that his performances this summer can ensure he's not bypassed again.