Mauricio Pochettino is the manager of the U.S. men’s national team for another four years. Well, maybe.
There are plenty of reasonable arguments for nearly any reaction to U.S. Soccer and Pochettino’s continued marriage. In terms of style and the ability to attack a game, the USMNT put forward one of the program’s most compelling World Cups ever under the Argentine.
Detractors will correctly point to the clear emotional letdown of the Belgium loss that followed all those positive performances — in that loss, the team failed to meet the moment on just about every level. Those that feel more listless about the state of the U.S. program can simply see another Round of 16 exit as more of the same and be wary of an international manager’s second World Cup cycle. Glass-half-full types are probably looking at available managers and not seeing much in the way of improvement.
More than just performances and results, though, Pochettino’s rehiring will also shape a U.S. player pool that’s more malleable than it’s been in years. And he’s going to need to reckon with what’s become a calling card of the USMNT: courting dual-nationals.
In his tenure with the U.S. so far, Pochettino hasn’t really had to worry about that part of the international management game. Hired less than two years before a World Cup the team was auto-qualified for, Pochettino first worked to expand the player pool and introduce a bit more competition and urgency within the ranks, and then ultimately brought a very familiar group of players to the World Cup. This isn’t a knock against him: the run-up to a World Cup your team is hosting with a player pool that impressed despite their youth four years prior isn’t the time to go on a recruitment tour.
