Sitting at a table in Columbus, Ohio, Mauricio Pochettino let expletives fly in the wake of a U.S. men’s national team’s defeat.
It was September, 2025. His team had fallen to South Korea just days before. And less than a year into his tenure as U.S. manager, the Argentine’s frustration was growing. That frustration wasn’t directed towards his players. No, it was directed towards outsiders amidst criticism about his roster selections and his team’s on-field performance. While some dwelled on friendlies, Pochettino was eager to look at the bigger picture, one that showed a team marching towards a World Cup on home soil.
“The most important thing is to arrive [at the World Cup] in a very good condition and win the first game, the second game, the third game, go to the next round,” Pochettino said. "No one is going to remember this press conference if that happens."
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Pochettino, it turns out, was right. With the U.S. sitting in the Round of 16 with only Monday’s matchup with Belgium standing between the men’s program and its first quarterfinal appearance in more than two decades, onlookers haven’t cast their minds back to the early difficulties of his tenure.
Last summer’s public back-and-forth between Christian Pulisic and his manager hasn’t been dredged up. Neither has Pochettino’s decision to leave Weston McKennie home in the fall. The same goes for a surprisingly deep exploration of the player pool, one sparked by his team’s disappointing attitude and performance early last year. In all, Pochettino used 72 players en route to the World Cup, going well beyond the outer limits of the United States’ primary talent pool for the sake of delivering a message about effort and culture. Pochettino was so committed to prioritizing those two things over chemistry and reps that his go-to starting lineup at this World Cup had never been used prior to the tournament.
Sanjay Sujanthakumar
