Miles Robinson was named to the U.S. Men’s National Team’s 26-player roster for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, earning his first opportunity to play at soccer’s global tournament on home soil.
The selection puts the 29-year-old defender — now at FC Cincinnati — on the squad that opens group play against Paraguay on June 12 and will face Paraguay, Australia and Türkiye in the first round of the tournament. The 2026 World Cup will be played across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Robinson’s inclusion adds an Arlington native to the U.S. squad for the first men’s World Cup hosted in the United States since 1994. He has made 38 appearances for the national team since his debut in 2019 and was a member of the U.S. side that won the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup, scoring the winning goal against Mexico in the final.
Club history and early career details underline why Robinson’s selection matters to fans in multiple cities: Atlanta United chose him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft, he played collegiately at Syracuse University, and he joined FC Cincinnati ahead of the 2024 season.
The roster announcement also closes a painful chapter and reopens another. Robinson ruptured an Achilles tendon while playing for Atlanta United in May 2022, an injury that sidelined him for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar — a tournament he had been expected to be a candidate for. That recovery and his return to regular club football set the stage for this first World Cup call-up.
Beyond the headline name, the U.S. roster is a working lineup for June’s group stage: the June 12 kickoff against Paraguay is the team’s immediate focal point, followed by matches against Australia and Türkiye. Those fixtures will determine whether Robinson — and the defensive unit — will have space to rotate or be asked to carry heavy minutes.
What the roster does not answer is how much playing time Robinson will receive in a tournament where match plans and substitutions are determined by form, fitness and the opponents on a given day. The coaching staff’s choices in the opening matches will decide whether Robinson’s World Cup becomes a central role or a depth option used intermittently.
For Robinson personally and for supporters in Arlington, the next dates are concrete: the U.S. first plays Paraguay on June 12, then continues through group-stage assignments against Australia and Türkiye. How the coaching staff deploys the 26 players, and Robinson specifically, is the key unresolved matter heading into the tournament.
The practical takeaway: Robinson’s name on the roster turns a long rehabilitation and a career arc that began at Syracuse and picked up steam after the 2017 SuperDraft into a clear World Cup chance — but exactly how that chance will look on the field remains the immediate question as the United States prepares for June’s group-stage kickoff.
