Jack McGlynn has grown his game and himself since his departure from the Union

CHICAGO — It’s only been four months since the Union traded Jack McGlynn to the Houston Dynamo, but it feels like longer.

It’s easy to say why: the Union’s successful first half of the season means they haven’t missed him as much as they would if they weren’t winning. His three goals and four assists this year have been appreciated from afar, but aren’t rued by fans who understand why he didn’t quite fit with how the Union want to play.

“It’s a totally different playing style than in Philly,” McGlynn said Wednesday at a news conference amid the U.S. men’s soccer team’s summer training camp. “I think Philly definitely helped me a lot developing the defensive side, the physical side of my game. But I think Houston’s been more about me attacking-wise — it’s been me on the ball creating things and kind of being the playmaker for a team which I can I know I can step up and do.”

Houston wanted him for that exact reason and paid well to get him: $2.1 million up front, up to $1.3 million more in performance bonuses, and a cut of any future sale abroad. Not everything has gone right, with the team in ninth place in the Western Conference. But McGlynn has done well, and the 21-year-old has grown as a leader in his fifth season as a pro.

“It’s been great maturing into that role, I’d say, and becoming one of the main guys for your team,” he said. “I definitely think I was ready for that, and it’s been good so far.”

The one place to truly wonder what-if is how McGlynn plays with the national team. Could his play for manager Mauricio Pochettino get him to the level he didn’t reach in Chester?

“In Houston, it’s definitely been good playing higher up the field,” McGlynn said. “I think I’m a lot closer to goal and a lot more dangerous. I think [I’m] creating a lot of chances for us. So I definitely think I could step in and do that here if I get the chance.”

» READ MORE: A year from the World Cup, Tyler Adams embraces life as USMNT’s leader on and off the field

Former Union teammate Paxten Aaronson agrees.

“He’s always had that amazing left foot. He’s always had amazing shooting,” he said. “But he always wasn’t the fastest guy. So I think he’s done a good job of learning how to get around that and being smarter in where he moves.”

If Pochettino’s games so far are any hint, McGlynn might get that chance. He has played in three of the U.S. team’s four games so far this year in a role that lets him create amid defensive enforcers to cover his weaknesses.

This time around, in the longest national team gathering of Pochettino’s tenure, McGlynn gets to play with some longtime friends: Aaronson and current Union players Nathan Harriel and Quinn Sullivan.

» READ MORE: Paxten Aaronson and Union’s Nathan Harriel join the USMNT’s summer roster

“It’s been great seeing all the Philly guys — I kind of grew up with all them, so they’re like my brothers,” McGlynn said. “Obviously, we know we’re all competing around the same spots, so we know there’s a business side to it. You want to get on the field no matter what. But off the field, that doesn’t make us any different. We’re all still brothers.”

He was one of nine players with Union ties on the national team training roster, a number that was downgraded to eight after Zack Steffen, a goalkeeper and Downingtown native, left Wednesday with a knee injury.

(Even worse, Steffen came into the U.S. camp shortly after recovering from an abdominal injury. His departure came hours before Concacaf’s official deadline for Gold Cup rosters. It remains to be seen if the U.S. team will make other moves.)

“It just shows, I think, how great the academy system is there,” McGlynn said. “That’s one of the reasons I went there from New York [where he grew up], because of the system they had with the second team, with residency, and their trust in young guys, playing them with the first team.”

It doesn’t have to be his business anymore, and it certainly got attention when he said he “didn’t leave the way I wanted to.”

» READ MORE: U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino wants his team to play with more intensity. Can Brenden Aaronson help bring it?

But he still cares about his friends, and they care about him.

“I’ve played with Jack since I was, like, 7 years old,” the 21-year-old Aaronson said, including last year when the pair competed in the Olympics together. “He has a gift with his left foot, and nobody can ever take that away from him. It’s probably one of the best I’ve ever seen.”

McGlynn will face the Union for the first time on July 19 in Houston. The game will get plenty of attention, but it didn’t come up on Wednesday. Nor did it need to, since most of the questions were about how the U.S. can recover from its flop at the Concacaf Nations League final four in March.

So it was enough for now that McGlynn sent his regards.

“I appreciate all they did for me,” he said, “and it was a great club.”

» READ MORE: Brenden Aaronson and Quinn Sullivan are in, but Christian Pulisic is out of the USMNT Gold Cup picture

As McGlynn spoke, longtime U.S. starting goalkeeper Matt Turner sat next to him. Turner has faced some major questions about his future lately because he barely played for his club team, England’s Crystal Palace, this past season.

Will he move this summer? And if he doesn’t get regular playing time, could his starting job for the national team be under threat? Pochettino already hinted it could be, though the top competitors, Steffen and Patrick Schulte, are out injured. If they weren’t, they’d likely be in line to play.

“I think that’s a fully loaded question,” Turner said with his usual earnestness, not surprised to be asked.

“For me, I don’t see myself as the No. 1 [referring to a goalkeeper’s traditional jersey number] all the time,” he said. “I think that’s my mindset going into every camp right now: it’s that every inch, every opportunity needs to be fought for, and every opportunity that I’ve had under this current staff I’ve earned by my performances within training and the opportunities that I had this past season with Crystal Palace.”

That’s the right attitude to have. And when he said, “I think anybody could attest to the work that I put in to earn each opportunity that I get,” there indeed are plenty of people who would.

» READ MORE: How Zack Steffen earned his way back to the USMNT after missing the 2022 World Cup

But Turner knows the matter won’t be settled until he chooses where he’ll play next season — with an emphasis on play, instead of being a backup.

“Hopefully, I have some news for you in terms of my future this summer,” he said, knowing that really was what the media lined up to hear.