The U.S. men’s national team might only be two training sessions in under new boss Mauricio Pochettino but the players have already noticed a major change in the overall atmosphere.
Tuesday marked the second training session for the USMNT as they prepare for Saturday’s home friendly vs. CONCACAF rivals Panama. The full squad was in action as all 25 players aim to impress Pochettino and his coaching staff for a chance to start in the first match under the Argentine.
While there is always going to be added energy when a new manager takes over, left back Antonee Robinson admitted the squad jumped right into training on Monday which was a change compared to former head coach, Gregg Berhalter.
“Yeah, straight away it seems a little bit more intense,” Robinson said in a press conference Tuesday. “Usually lads getting in on a Monday or getting in on Sunday and training on the Monday. If you’ve played on Saturday, it’s kind of like you’re not doing a lot of your recovery on the bike.
“Yesterday we were kind of straight into training and it was a tough session. So we were kind of right away we were here to work. So, it was definitely intense.. and then he knows that we’ve got a short period of time to kind of understand the principles he wants us to play with and tactics and whatnot, which we’ve not really gotten into yet. So, yes, obviously small steps, but it definitely feels like camp’s going to be a period where, we’ll have time to enjoy it, but we’re going to work hard and really build towards success.”
Robinson is one of several players back in USMNT camp this month after not being part of the September pair of home friendlies vs. Canada and New Zealand. Zack Steffen and Gianluca Busio are also part of Pochettino’s first squad while Alex Zendejas, Brandon Vazquez, and Tanner Tessmann were added as injury replacements for Folarin Balogun, Tim Weah, and Johnny Cardoso.
U.S. Soccer’s hiring of Pochettino is ultimately one of the largest in federation history, providing the USMNT with a major chance to grow as a program before the 2026 FIFA World Cup. With over 15 years of managerial experience to the table, Pochettino’s has already excited his new players including veteran centerback Tim Ream.
“There were a lot of individual conversations, understanding us as people and they’ve continued throughout,” Ream said about Pochettino’s first days on the job. “Obviously, I had my conversation [with the coaching staff] right when I showed up on Sunday. Then as hours have ticked by, you see certain guys getting pulled to have sit-down chats. I think it’s great.
“They want to get to know us and obviously we want to get to know them,” he added. “The message is that he wants to win. He has his principles, he has his ideas, but at the end of the day it’s about winning. It’s important to have that mentality. It’s important to have that mindset going forward leading into these games and beyond that.”
“Just win baby!”
– Al Davis
Funny and all but not true. If it was the coach with highest winning percentage in USMNT history (with more games coached than BJ Callahan) would be revered and respected by the Fandom. There are so many things that qualify just winning to this fan base – for better or worse. But old Al Davis wouldn’t last in soccer with that attitude.
I don’t know sure there were never Berhalters but for the most part thru Qatar a majority was “content” because we had won NL and GCs. When Berhalter stopped winning consistently is when the ship sailed. Same with Arena, he could only live so long on winning in 2002, 2006 took away some of that credibility and not qualifying in 2018 wipes out the rest.
MotO,
“There are so many things that qualify just winning to this fan base – for better or worse.”
That’s because winning soccer games vs. decent competition has been a pretty alien concept to this USMNT. You can’t win? Make excuses.
National teams need to play games to get better.
They either play friendlies or participate in tournaments.
Tournament games can be more useful for developing your team.
Most tournaments have some sort of group or preliminary stage.
Advancing requires that you put together a positive amount of draws and wins. If you can’t get out of the preliminary stages, you get minimal # of games and minimal benefit from your participation.
The more you win, the more games you get to play and the better a team you are likely to be. And in big tournaments, winning just one extra game can be significant.
Yep, that was the point of my post
MotO,
One thing we did not address is the changing nature of the expectations of the ever expanding fan base.
Beating Mexico used to be the Gold Standard. It’s not enough anymore.
Gregg’s winning our CONCACAF tournaments was great for a while but as they became more educated I think the fan base realized the minor league nature of those tournaments. The fact that Gregg never had an upset and that the team generally looked unorganized did not help.
It’s like college football. You can have a winning record but who did you beat? There is winning the National Championship and then there is winning the Poulan Weed-Eater Independence Bowl.
In terms of bringing the awareness of the game into the mainstream, the most important soccer team in this country was the 1999 USWNT. They pushed soccer into the public awareness in a way that that the USMNT has never been able to. And that’s because they were the best team
they could be. They were dominant serial winners. And Americans love that.
Fast forward to today and it may have been a coincidence, and it may be unfair but you see the USWNT and Emma once again putting pressure on Mauricio and his USMNT to match them.