Mauricio Pochettino is not even one year into his reign as U.S. men’s national team head coach but believes the program could achieve new heights, even after his time in the role.
Pochettino is currently preparing his squad for Thursday’s CONCACAF Nations League semifinal vs. Panama. The Argentine head coach has helped the Americans reach the Final Four of the competition for the fourth-consecutive edition, continuing a recent trend of winning for the USMNT.
U.S. Soccer has continued to provide growing opportunities for its programs, which featured the plan to build a national training center in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank committed in $50 million for the project, which will give U.S. Soccer a central hub for its programs to meet during home international windows.
Pochettino praised the future impact that the national training center will have on the program and how the sport is continuing to grow in the United States.
“The eight countries which have won the World Cup all have amazing training centers,” Pochettino said in an interview with Sky Sports. “When you go to the U.S. now [for training camps], one time you go to Los Angeles, then it’s New York, Chicago, Miami, Orlando or St. Louis. Where is the center for football? If you look at the training centers of the NFL and baseball, you say: ‘Wow.’ With football, it is: ‘Where is the team going to train?’ We need to ask the colleges and universities.
“Before the World Cup, U.S. Soccer is building an amazing training center in Atlanta and that is going to be one of the most unbelievable training centers in the world,” he said. “That is going to be the base of soccer. It is the moment where people can see, soccer is going to be a serious sport because it has a home.”
Pochettino’s contract as USMNT boss will take him through the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted on North American soil. It will be a historical time for the USMNT, who will aim to bring home the trophy for the first time in program history.
Although Pochettino won’t be leading the program into the next decade, he does believes the World Cup impact could lead to major factors for the next generation.
“We need to congratulate the federation, and all the donors involved, who are helping to grow the sport, because it’s No. 1 in the world,” Pochettino said. “Because in five or 10 years, for sure we can be No. 1 in the world. It could be.”
Should Pochettino lead the USMNT to a Nations League title on March 23, it will be his first trophy win as national team boss.
We would need to have strikers better than McBride and Dempsey, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon. One of our current (of many) weaknesses since the Gregg days is that we can’t score against quality opposition.
Porch wasn’t talking about “anytime soon “. Who knows what we’ll have in 5-10 years? There may be 3 15 year olds out there now that no one’s heard of that will be world class by 2034. Who knows what our current strikers are going to look like in 5-10 years?
given our recent penchant for favoring mid-career guys, our 5 year progression would be on at least U17 by now. do you see anyone at U17/U19/U20/U23 who is world class like you want? before you mock using that standard, puli and reyna were both fairly obvious by U17.
i personally think campbell is the next big deal, but we don’t quite accept that yet. do you see others? like a whole cluster? like the 2019 U20s? personally i am worried the age groups since then look more like the meh player classes who led to 2018. i don’t see a bunch of weahs and reynas and pulisics and richards running around.
this is the part people miss. we were down for a bit because we weren’t producing anyone high class but CP. we dug out of that hole with that 2019 team. if you want to be this good or better in 5 years, we need to be starting to produce a similar bunch.
i mean y’all do get this 2026 world cup is prime time for this core and that by 2030 they will be starting to get old? in 5 years turner and horvath are mid 30s, CCV jedi trusty moore miles fossey mckenzie over 30, eneli tillman LDLT adams mckennie over 30, vazquez wright sargent CP weah over 30.
what’s the plan after that? what’s the plan if some of them get hurt or fall off?
i believe in personnel. i want to see names. i don’t believe in this sort of “berhalter dream” stuff.
that and i think we’d be better off under the radar fixing this thing and preparing to surprise people than announcing we’re going to be something to worry about.
IV,
“what’s the plan after that? what’s the plan if some of them get hurt or fall off?…………….i believe in personnel. i want to see names. i don’t believe in this sort of “berhalter dream” stuff……….that and i think we’d be better off under the radar fixing this thing and preparing to surprise people than announcing we’re going to be something to worry about.”
Really? No shit. What was Berhalter dreaming about?
Who are you addressing this rant to?
Pochettino is not Emma Hayes. Hayes took over a championship caliber program that looks like it has even more young quality on the way. She has a good chance of winning the next World Cup and then being a contender for some time.
Pochettino manages the USMNT not the USWNT. He faces a much different bar.
He is here for ONLY one reason, to take an in-the-toilet-team and get them to produce a credible effort in the 2026 World Cup. If he does that 2030 will just have to take care of itself because he’s probably gone after 2026. Between now and the World Cup, even if your discovery Cole Campbell proves to be the big deal most think he will be, this player pool is very unlikely to see a new, significant injection of quality walk into that locker room.
If you doubt that our roster is not on the level with the big boy team roster just compare a Cole Campbell led USMNT roster to those of the big teams, some of whom we will probably have to beat to be taken seriously.
Would Lamine Yamal be able to make a 2026 USMNT roster?
Would Warren Zaïre-Emery, Michael Olise, and Désiré Doué be able to make a 2026 USMNT roster?
Will your discovery Cole Campbell be able to make a 2026 Spain or a 2026 France roster?
Pochettino will have to make it work by upgrading the players that are mostly already on hand.
And that can only be done with better organization, direction, and improving the “mentality” of the players and the team in general, etc., etc..
All of Pochettino’s big happy talk is not addressed to you or SBI. It has only one real audience; the players who want to make the 2026 World Cup. And it is necessary because as a team the USMNT are a bunch of tentative softies who know little about winning. He’s trying to make them a little more ambitious.
In other words, Pochettino is going to have to do the best coaching job of his life.
Y’all seem to take for granted that the USMNT will have a good serious run in the 2026 World Cup. Go three and out and have a disastrous 2026? Never happen, right?
A lot depends on the draw and on injuries, two things we have zero control over.
A successful 2026 World Cup would be a big enough achievement without having to worry that we leave in place an even better team ready to go for the 2030 World Cup.
Strikers better than McBride and Dempsey. If we get Ronaldo Jr. to commit who was born in USA and if Cavan Sullivan switches to striker and lights up Manchester City when he gets 18-21, I could see us having strikers better than Dempsey and McBride in some years. Just playing devils advocate, I know this won’t happen lol 😂
He is the manager today.
He can say “we” until he resigns whether that is tomorrow or five years from now.
The only thing really intriguing about this is that he used “we”. What does that infer? I’m going with he plans to stay for “five or ten years” when the US will then be #1.
He is the manager today.
He can say “we” until he resigns whether that is tomorrow or five years from now.
I wasn’t referring to what he can or can not say. He can say whatever he wants – it’s a free country (oh…uh…wait…uh..) I was referring to his actual quote which was referencing five to ten years into the future.
And anyway I was trying to have some fun. Killjoy. But thanks for keeping it brief.
LOL……I will take that belief any day of the week….and twice on game day!!!
LET’S GOOOOOOO POCHETTINO!!!!!!