Mauricio Pochettino officially has his coaching staff for his new opportunity with the U.S. men’s national team.
Jesus Perez, Miguel D’Agostino, Antonio Jimenez, Sebastiano Pochettino and Silvia Tuya Viñas have been named to Pochettino’s staff, U.S. Soccer announced Monday. Majority of the hires have previously worked with Pochettino during other stages of his coaching career, while Vines is a new hire.
“I speak for our entire staff when I say we are very excited and proud to have this opportunity to work with these players and the U.S. Men’s National Team,” said Pochettino. “Together, we have a lot of experience and a very clear way of working. We’re going to take that experience, get to know these guys as people and players, share our knowledge, and together as a united group help this team accomplish our goals.”
Perez will serve as Pochettino’s first assistant coach. He joined Pochettino as an analyst early in his tenure at Espanyol before becoming an assistant coach at each of Pochettino’s later European stops.
D’Agostino will also serve as an assistant coach after playing with Pochettino at Newell’s Old Boys. He similarly joined Pochettino early in his time at Espanyol before following the manager to his appointments at each top European club appointment that followed.
Jimenez will be the USMNT goalkeepers coach under Pochettino. A gold medalist with Spain at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Jimenez accumulated more than 350 appearances during his professional goalkeeping career. He has worked with Pochettino since 2011.
Pochettino will serve as a sport scientist with the USMNT, as he continues to work with his father. He was one of the Premier League’s youngest sport scientists after working at Tottenham and Chelsea.
Viñas is a new addition to Pochettino’s staff and will serve as the USMNT’s strength and conditioning coach. Earning a PhD in sport science, she most recently worked with FC Levante Badalona in Liga F, Spain’s top tier of women’s professional soccer.
Former USMNT assistant coach Vincent Cavin has also departed the program by mutual consent. Cavin worked under former USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter.
Poch talking specifically about Brendo. Seems to want to take him under his wing.
It’s a tradition
(-:
He said (quoted in the NYT/Athletic, IIRC) that he actually has watched quite a lot of US soccer media coverage, which I assume includes the pointed critiques from ex-players and so on. So I would imagine he’s well aware of the issue, and smart enough to help the media explain to the fans what a sports scientist does and how his son can help the team. At a guess, it might have to do with using data and science to chase those few percentage points of extra performance that can make a difference at a high level in the modern game.
The other thing he talked about was getting the ball back fast when they lose it. Surely every soccer player is aware of that, but maybe he and his staff will have some specific techniques and practice methods that will help.
What won’t help, I’m afraid, is the hot weather. It’s still due to be close to 90 all week.
Tejana,
So far Pochettino seems to be more transparent that Gregg.
And what he is saying seems more honest and straight forward.
Pochettino is more relaxed, more comfortable in his skin. He handles the media better than Gregg did.
Part of it is that the honeymoon is still on.
Part of it is experience vs some of the nastier media anyone will ever face anywhere in the sports world.
The media here is a lot less vicious and invasive than what he has been dealing with all these years in the UK and Europe.
We’ll see how long it lasts but him talking about what is wrong with BA and how they can help fix him seems more credible and transparent than anything Gregg ever said about BA. or any other player.
1) looks like have separate jobs here for strength/conditioning and for sport scientist. the female coach is going to handle the weights and windsprints and such when in camp. our end of the fitness and lifting work. his kid is sport scientists which sounds like the intersection of data science, nutritionist, and fitness coach.
2) TX got a cold front through — hence the hurricane heading to FL — so it’s more of a dry heat that cools rapidly once the sun goes down. 80F ish for kickoff with 30-something humidity and a dew point in the 50s. it’ll feel warm for europeans but pleasant as opposed to sweltering.
3) they then play near monterrey for the MX game which will be 70s highs.
sounds like what the kid would do is either nag players on their eating/numbers when they arrive for camp, or narc them to dad. or maybe help with summer offseason training plans. but when they are in their club team’s orbits how much do you think our nutrition/fitness people have power then.
i still think if we’re worried about overwork, rotate caps and give people some windows off.
i’d be curious how much club info our data guy could get. what you really want to know is when to save someone the trip and give them a break, not to see numbers after you’ve put them on a plane and have them here already.
At Chelsea he was the guy warming up the substitutes, so it sounds like he’s more another trainer than nutritionist. His role might be different this time.
Clearly Poch didn’t do his research. Nothing angers the US fan base more than hiring a family member.
Lol.
hahaha
LoL. And even still the kid has a more impressive, qualifying resume for an ancillary position than the other guy did to lead the team.