Coming from a different coach, after a different result, Mauricio Pochettino’s comments following his team’s 5-1 hamblasting of Uruguay last month could have been dismissed as empty bluster.
“I hate that ‘no regular players’ [question],” he said at his post-game press conference. “What does that mean? It's the USA playing. It's the national team.
"Stop with that mindset...I hate to talk in this way. It's so disrespectful. It's so disrespectful because I think we need to give credit to all the guys that today were involved."
Sorry, Mauricio: it’s not unfair to point when Timothy Tillman starts in attacking midfield and Christian Pulisic is unavailable. It’s fair to note that Tillman received his third cap against Uruguay when Pulisic’s next will be his 83rd. It’s fair to note the U.S. men’s national team isn’t fielding its regular players when it’s not fielding its regular players.
But in fairness to Pochettino, while his program does in fact have regular players and less-regular players, he’s correct to point out that the story of his program’s current upswing in form isn’t about those regular players. The story is how the rising tide of depth developed under Pochettino over the course of 2025 has lifted boats across the whole of the USMNT roster.
