U.S. men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino isn’t worried about the team’s friendly results ahead of the FIFA World Cup.
Pochettino took the podium on Monday from Columbus ahead of the USMNT’s second and final friendly of the September window, a showdown with Japan on Tuesday night. The Argentine manager has received ample criticism following the program’s 2-0 loss to South Korea on Saturday, a result which marked the USMNT’s sixth overall defeat in 2025.
Despite out-shooting, out-possessing, and out-passing the South Koreans in Harrison, New Jersey, the Americans’ never recovered from a pair of first-half goals from the visitors. Pochettino, who later admitted that the USMNT were the better team on the day, urged the fanbase to support the team, and his roster and tactical decisions in the final nine months before the World Cup schedule begins.
He reiterated those wishes again on Monday, admitting that a collective unity between fans, coaches, and fans are needed for the program to deliver their best performances.
“Sometimes people want to talk only to analyze the result, and want to be negative,” Pochettino said in a press conference Monday. “And I think it’s a little bit (of) a shame. We need to be positive. We need to be all together. We have a plan. We have no worries. We have no worries about nothing. We stick with the plan. We are with the players, we are a very, very strong group now. When people talk, [they] need to think a little bit, that always there can be another way to assess and analyze.
“Being critical is one thing, because I like the critics, when you say things that are right,” he added. “But when it’s critics for critics, I think, it’s not damaging me, [you] are damaging your country and damaging your players. We need to be all in behind them to provide the best platform to perform.”
Pochettino’s hiring as USMNT boss brought plenty of excitement and eagerness for what’s to come, but the results haven’t come as often as many would’ve hoped. In 16 matches as USMNT boss, Pochettino has won only nine of them, suffering a disappointing CONCACAF Nations League exit last March before also losing in the Gold Cup Final to Mexico last July.
The USMNT have also lost friendlies against South Korea, Switzerland, and Turkey, all nations who are below the Americans in the World Rankings, being outscored 8-1 over that span. While the USMNT rosters have been mixed and matches between domestic and international-based players, Pochettino expects everyone to give their all for the program’s overall goals.
“You remember March, no? I think we all remember March,” Pochettino said. “That was a wake-up call because we needed to start a different process and different approach.”
“All that happened helped a little bit to realize that the most important thing is the national team,” he added. “It’s the federation. And this one. This is more important than any single name…We need to all work for this.”
No. 17-ranked Japan will pose another tough test for Pochettino and his players at Lower.com Field. Hajime Moriyasu’s men have already booked their place into next summer’s tournament and overall have only lost three times dating back to March 2023 (once in 2025).
Regardless of the opposition, Pochettino’s hopes for the USMNT are to win, but for them also to take another step towards the World Cup as a healthy and fit squad.
“Of course it’s important, tomorrow, I want to win,” Pochettino said. “I want to win. But the most important is to arrive [at the World Cup] in a very good condition and win the first game, the second game, the third game, go onto the next round, and go on to win. For sure, no one is going to remember this press conference if that happens.”
so was the original plan to try a 3-back formation this camp? cause both mckenzie and richards normally play in a back 3, and this would’ve been a valuable chance to see them together again. maybe mckenzie was injured, i don’t know. i think a back 3 could work pretty well for us.
maybe with different personnel. you just watched ream nearly get burned for another goal, and while arfsten had the assist, it’s a little too easy to create danger up that side.
but i like what a 352 or 343 would probably do giving us triangles to pass all the way upfield, inside and out, which seems to result in more positive play and directness, not everything straight upfield down the sides like the 433, then usually passing backwards, seems to get us.
you just need 3 backs who can hold together and ideally a LB who can play end to end and not just offense.
that and creating a system based on triangles, and where the 9 is getting the ball more, seems to have a positive effect in getting attackers making actual runs and not standing around. as they need to get open at the angles or into space.
or we can send the wings down the line like with freeman early, which is reminiscent of what worked with jedi that one game last year. which were lofted balls if people noticed.
this had just gotten stale, predictable, and standing around.
It’s nice to think about, and would make better use of someone like Dest, but we ain’t got the horses to play a back 3 do we..
i would have it set up with mckenzie as lcb, richards as rcb, and ream staying in the middle. not sure if that would work, but i’m pretty sure it would be better than ream as lcb having to cover a wing. but that’s why pochettino gets paid the big bucks and not me.
could also slide richards to the middle and run scally as rcb.
“ideally a LB who can play end to end and not just offense.”
lucky for us we have jedi (get well soon!), who is exactly that.
you can see on the right side and going forward where a different formation works wonders, some diagonal interior play, some more direct passing.
you can see on the left side where it should not be arfsten responsible for the whole chalk.
you could still fiddle with personnel, yes, but this was not bereft of talent to start with. a lot of it is coaching and tactics.
that’s twice now where zendejas had green space and turned it back. first time he literally turned back into his chase pack and lost it.
just imagine for a second weah, campbell, or luna out there at zendejas’ spot. or switch it to a 352 with reyna, luna, or pulisic as a 10 driving the attack centrally.
that and get roldan off.
Looks like a defensive 5-3-2. Gonna try and keep a clean sheet tonight
Bunker ball. It the new wave that’s sweeping the soccer world.
he correctly reminds fans we sucked in march doing same old same old. (and copa for that matter)
however, beyond that, i will remind people that the poch cliche coming in was “new agey” guy. so it does not surprise me for cheerleader type commentary to emerge.
i don’t get the tactics, the selections are a tad off. initially he wasn’t much of a change agent outside of the jedi/musah tweaks. now he is changing selection but awkwardly.
as i was saying re the U17s, wildly different halves don’t suggest a functioning system and a sharp grasp of the pool. a coach who gets the pool should be able to find several candidates who don’t embarrass themselves. and the system should prop up the unit.
the offensive problems seemed to stem from system plus selecting sargent. the defensive problems seemed to be midfield disorganization and 2 bad CBs. you can nihilistically say the team just sucks, but the Tale of Two Halves performances suggest we can’t identify talent unless it’s obvious, and that when we do compete it’s talent overcoming system. you put on richards and balogun and shift the formation and magically we play the same team even was making us look silly.
last, i feel like i am being offered crap sandwiches and supposed to like it. as of 2002, the US beat korea in gold cup then tied them at the world cup. and that was 2002 era arena ball. for about every H2H i am apparently supposed to accept worse results than 20 years ago when supposedly soccer dinosaurs and cavemen roamed this country.
whatever wannabe eurotrash crap we are trying to do is making this into a 1980s or 1990s level effective US team. by about 2000 we could beat good world class teams sometimes, and the only teams that beat us in the region were mexico and costa rica, at home. this has regressed badly, and not because of talent that is in big leagues.
drop the stupid tactics and just play ball with some aggression and formational common sense.
2001 3-2 loss Honduras at home
2008 2-1 loss at Trinidad
2009 2-2 draw home to Haiti
2009 5-0 loss to Mexico in US
2010 3-1 loss Honduras at home
2011 2-1 loss Panama at home
2011 4-2 loss to Mexico in US
2011 1-0 loss at home to CR
2012 2-1 loss at Jamaica
2013 0-0 draw Canada at home
2013 2-1 loss at Honduras
2015 2-1 loss at home Jamaica
2015 3-2 loss Mexico in US
2015 1-0 loss at home to CR
2015 0-0 draw at Trinidad
2016 2-0 loss at Guatemala
2016 2-1 loss at home to Mexico
2017 2-0 loss at home to CR
2017 1-1 draw at home Panama
2017 2-1 loss at Trinidad
We are who we are. We’ve always dropped games against Concacaf, we’ve almost always lost when we play teams in friendlies on the road (better at neutral sites). 2002 was the product of luck not progress. We’ve had periods in last 25 years where we’ve had good teams and other teams are down, but right now we’ve seen a shift where CR is down as golden generation age, but Canada and Panama have their best teams ever. Mexico was down but has somewhat righted its ship. 2022 was the first team we’ve ever even had good odds to advance out of our group maybe 2010 I don’t remember where Slovenia were ranked at the time. The team needs to play better 100%, but the idea that this abnormal is silly. This is who we are.
yeah the funny part is the 7 YEAR GAP IN THERE YOU FINESSE. there was a point from roughly the 1998 cycle to 2014 where we got globally competitive, high PPG in WCQ, and fewer losses in the hex limited to away games against the best teams. at a point — 2018 cycle — this went off the rails, couldn’t beat guatemala. it ticked up somewhat 2022 but at a level below the best US teams.
last cycle we were T-3 and got in on a tiebreak, after being 5th the cycle before. the lack of need to make the tournament disguises our current quality.
can you just be honest.
How did that 2006 WC go (t25th)? Concacaf goes in cycles only managed 7 pts between 4 teams in ‘06. There was a home draw with Jamaica in there and road draws with Jamaica and Panama that I didn’t include 2004. Home draws with CR and Panama in 2005. Road draw with Guatemala and home draw with Canada. Home draw with Jamaica in 2006 and a Guatemala home draw in 2007. So I didn’t list them on the original because they weren’t losses, but there were plenty of less than stellar results against Concacaf teams besides Mexico and Costa Rica on the road.
IV,
“yeah the funny part is the 7 YEAR GAP IN THERE YOU FINESSE. there was a point from roughly the 1998 cycle to 2014 where we got globally competitive, high PPG in WCQ, and fewer losses in the hex limited to away games against the best teams. at a point — 2018 cycle — this went off the rails, couldn’t beat guatemala. it ticked up somewhat 2022 but at a level below the best US teams.”
“globally competitive” ??? You’re not being honest.
WC qualifying during that period gave the USMNT a huge margin of error that most other nations envied.
In CONCACAF WC qualifying, the Top 3 teams automatically qualified. The fourth place team went into a playoff with another Confederation for the right to go to the World Cup. We failed to qualify in 2017 but otherwise have always finished no lower than third.
Finishing no worse than third was the whole point. After that teams immediately switched to prepping for the WC itself. If they still had a game to play after clinching third sometimes they would clear the bench to give the subs some game time and protect your starters from injury.
And on top of that if you came in fourth, you still qualified for a playoff.
Just compare that to WC qualifying for many other nations and you’ll easily understand why a lot of nations would like to take their chances with our qualification system.
From 1998 to 2014 the USMNT participated in all five World Cups. They got grouped in two, 1998 and 2006, got out of the group and lost the first game in two, 2010 and 2014 and got out of the group won their Round of 16 game and then fell in the quarters to Germany..
Over all second tier, respectable.
“Globally competitive” is exaggerated narcissistic silliness. In the time frame described, they also had an interesting 2009 Confederations Cup but that was a weird one. In the group stage, they lost 1-3 to Italy, and 0-3 to Brazil. They should have been grouped but then behind the Polar Bear they shut out Egypt 3-0 while Brazil ripped Italy 3-0 . And those were the exact two scores and results that the USMNT needed to advance. Then they had Bob ‘s masterpiece in beating Spain and lost the final 3-2 after being up 2-0 at the half.
In the period described the US were solid, respectable , hard to beat but nothing special.
IV,
You’re supporting the wrong team.
In fact you’re fan of the wrong sport.
You’re a micro manager fan. Soccer is the wrong sport for you because it is a dynamic game that resists being influenced by anyone outside of the field of play once the game starts. You’re better off with major league baseball or better yet, the NFL.
And the USMNT, a team that in particular gives the manager very little possibility of actually managing the team, plays the majority of its games vs. teams either in friendlies which bring a wildly unpredictable level of competition to the table or are mostly inferior CONCACAF teams. This is not a formula for consistent success. I see a lot of nostalgia about getting back to being hard to play against and how tough we used to be. In other words let’s get back to aspiring to mediocrity. I won’t support that. Been there, done that. I don’t mind losing but you can be funny and entertaining when you lose but having a team loaded with three center backs and maybe six non descript midfielders and one offensive player wasn’t all that interesting.
All of this means the team rarely has time to develop and reach it’s full potential. So when you go over the record of the USMNT results for them are pretty unpredictable and inconsistent and is just about what any sane person should expect. It is a half ass, semi-professional , mom and pop operation and has long been so.
Pochettino’s operation looks to me like the most professional approach to this abomination that I’ve seen yet. But guess what, I still believe we will get grouped. I say that because I look at the teams we might have to beat to make some noise and all of them are better than us.
A lot better.
Korea for example may not have impressed many of you but in Son they have a player who is significantly better and more accomplished by some distance than CP our best guy. The USMNT can play well, be well organized and be well coached and still get ripped apart or better yet, just lose.
The USMNT mentality, the old fashioned one you have been wanting to get back to was one of fear. Just don’t lose. Be hard to play against and maybe we can sneak in a goal in somewhere. We can get back to that but that doesn’t mean we are going to have any better results.
wow. pochettino’s words are those of someone who is out of their depth and floundering. if we criticize him, we’re being unpatriotic, really? poch, fire your pr guy asap.
i’ve always been a fan of his so i have more faith in him then others, but i gotta say, there’s no reason for people to think he knows what he’s doing with the usmnt other than faith.
and he’s never been the type of person to sit back and collect a paycheck, but i’m wondering if it would look much different than what he’s been doing up to this point.
He is Argentinian and coached in England and he can’t take a little criticism here? That’s hard for me to understand. When you consider that in other countries, there are riots, sometimes barbed wire fences have had to be put in front of stands to stop people from charging the field, there actually was a war triggered by a soccer match, US soccer fans are mellow by comparison. When compared to fans in other sports here, soccer is relatively laid back. A couple of years ago LA
Dodger fans almost beat to death a Giants fan, SF Giants’ fans are known to throw 9 volt batteries at opposing players and once in Philly they actually booed Santa Claus who showed up for a football game. Pochettino has it relatively easy compared to other places and other sports in the US.
U17’s were blasted 8-2 in the second game against Holland. Not a good look for Sagares and the team going into the WC.
Rumors that there is infighting within in the team and parents trying to attack the reputations of other players. If it’s true not a good look. Also, mostly backups started against a team made up of 1/2 to 3/4s PSV and Ajax players so they were very familiar with each other.
the scorelines suggest to me starters 1-2 game 1 then bench 2-8 game 2. this is a recent pattern of the senior team as well. suggests we have basic issues with scouting and/or tactics.
our tactics are fairly useless, but the fall-off suggests maybe we are picking players based on analytics or something. you would call the obvious kids because you had to. but i could see it where the supporting players could turn out scrubby if you grabbed them reading box scores instead of actually watching them for skill sets and quality.
the coach, confronted with a mixed bag of trash as the training camp proceeds, might cobble a half-competitive team from the obvious choices, then be left with rubbish for a bench.
to me results should not vary this wildly. nor should a US team ever get stomped that bad. it suggests you are bringing in unsuitable players for some reason, who then are not bailed out by some functioning system they have practiced.
that being said, it looked like 2/3 of their group games at world cup are easy. the starters are functional “enough.” they likely get out of group. they lose early in the knockouts. and US fans celebrate the knockout round exit.
i thought we were trying to improve but who cares.
last, re unit cohesion (and even selection), when they had bradenton, we would have looked like we’d ever seen each other.
This roster had one guy that plays CB as their first choice position. Chicago withheld Cupps because they had a match with NE so that didn’t help. I’m assuming Hamouda played as CB because he plays CB in a 3 at times. For qualifying we took Cupps and Martinez CBs with Hamouda a hybrid rotating with them.
—————-
The rumor is a punch was thrown at a training session this week. Whether that happened or to the degree happened isn’t confirmed. But allegedly a parent was passing the story around to gain favor for their player or maybe they were just protecting their kid who knows. But the drama certainly had some effect
The roster is a mess. Pick quality players that are experienced, that have played together consistently, that can win. If any of the squads he has coached in the past, were performing in the way that the current team he coaches is playing, there would be even heavier criticism than he is receiving.
“The plan”—- I hope I eat my words. I really hope with my soul that we can turn it around– but based on performance and results— I do not have high hopes. If “the plan” was to put underprepared, and inexperienced players into situations where they are in a trial by fire— I guess “the plan” is succeeding. But look at the results. If “the plan” was to leave our best players out of preparation games with a small window frame to gel prior to the World Cup, then “the plan” is succeeding.
Results matter man. Friendly or official competition. Its been abysmal. Our players are better than the results we are getting. That realization is a huge part of why USMNT-Heads are reacting the way we are. We are not cohesive. We look lost. I don’t want to feel this way. But the things that have happened with the players, and the leadership has resulted in the negative feelings.
I want it to be different, but until I see the experienced players getting called, and the team looking as if they know what “the plan” is—– I have no other choice but to think we are in trouble. Why should we be positive based on what we have been seeing with our eyes over the last several games?
there is no continuity window to window on scheme. he had a couple ideas last october with how to use jedi and musah. gone by next window when jedi got hurt. kind of reverted to berhalter ball for a bit. then june it kind of became hit a square ball to a mid, flick it wide, play the striker (agyemang) behind the defense. that disappeared by the gold cup final. and now back to tentative berhalter ball.
at which point in the movie colonel kurtz asks, “are my methods unsound?” and captain willard, filmed in atmospheric half-shade, responds, “i don’t see any method at all.”
He said it–“But when it’s critics for critics, I think, it’s not damaging me, [you] are damaging your country and damaging your players.” To be critical is damaging the country and the players. So, we all have to be positive and patriotic and say only good things. So, the coach is not going to be a problem, it is only the fans who are the problem. Wow. Somebody once said that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. I have thought for a long time that it is more accurate to say that it is the first refuge of scoundrels. I hope this is the result of English not being his first language or maybe he doesn’t understand democracy or American culture, but on its face this is a horrible thing to say.
Your plan better be a 3-4-3 this time.
He will play
–
–LUNA—BALO—PULISIC–
DEST–LDT–ADAMS–WEAH
REAM–RICHARDS–FREEMAN
————–FREESE——————-
But since Roldan and Zandejas earned max points in the South Korea game I’d love to see:
—-LUNA—BALO—PULISIC—-
DEST–LDT–ROLDAN-ZENDEJAS
REAM–RICHARDS–FREEMAN
—————-FREESE—————-
Pochettino maybe needs to just come out and say he is still just seeing what players on his list can do (whether they fit a 4-2-3-1 or whether they fit a 3-4-3….. And that he doesn’t trust the recommendations of us soccer 🤣) and how they can match up to the elite and intensity they bring for the world cup (picking the team through process of elimination)….then maybe we can relax A BIT thinking there are 8+ games to go before the World Cup..
..Hmmmm….. I think Noahkai Banks for Tim Ream for more speed on the backline
Banks did practice Monday after missing Saturday with a foot injury.
i liked playing a 352 but you need 3 central backliners who can play island defense on their own, as well as calculating wingbacks who will consistently track back. otherwise, you get burned down the wings, and put in 1v1 or numbers down, the marking backs just overwhelm. you literally just watched this CB pairing get burned playing for offsides, with no one bothering to mark. does that feel like responsible iso defenders in waiting?
we have CBs chosen for passing and then wingbacks picked for and encouraged to take risks. that to me doesn’t fit 343 or 352 well.
I’m not sure I’d read too much into what he’s saying, especially since as you said English is not his first language. I think him trying to be positive in general, at least to the media, is really the only choice he has. Anything else risks alienating or damaging confidence of the players, and we just aren’t deep enough to risk that. If you want to cast blame, I’d save it for the players who haven’t taken their opportunities. Or maybe we just need to face realities that we seem to only have one world cup quality CB. And 37 (or whatever) yr old Ream is easily the next best. That all those others that have had chances have made simple and kinda devastating mistakes is not the fault of the coach. Also none of our Dmids, who seem to have the pedigree to play better, just have not for the USMNT in the last year. I think the fact Poch is still experimenting is probably the right thing since none of the others have claimed these spots.
I was thinking about the center back trials the other day. Being up front, I’ve never been a fan of Ream since his RedBull days. So this might be colored. I won’t argue if someone says I’m wrong.
That said, almost all the guys trying out for center back have been WITH Ream and not Richards. Why? How on earth can we tell if a guy will work with Richards if they never play with Richards? Ream is slow, like cartoon soundtrack slow, and I think he kicks a ball forward maybe twice a game. Richards is quick and aggressive. Totally different styles. So, trying to look good playing next to Ream as opposed to Richards is a difficult task to do and to judge as a coach.
Take the first goal the other day. Why wasn’t Ream telling guys to get closer to guys? I was from my house maybe for 20-30 seconds before the assist pass….nobody listens to me a home either 🙂
But to the point, Ream had the visual advantage of seeing things from his view and apparently said nothing to Blackmon. In that same situation I imagine Richards yelling like crazy and Blackmon getting in place and Richards covering someone too…which Ream wasn’t covering anyone then either. I’ve seen Ream do similar things at least once in almost every game I’ve watched him play. Loved when he did it against my Union…hate when he does it in a US shirt.
joe: i agree with you. i think the purpose of the other day’s first half was put the embattled ream and a nemesis out there and have them cage fight for a job joining richards and whoever else.
i don’t think they considered korea might have a quick attack capacity that would expose 2 slow CBs paired together.
i see the scenario as flawed as the likely future is you pair or come off the bench to be with richards. richards can move and recover.
that being said, ideal situation or not, it’s sink or swim. i think CB play has been bad for years and on through this summer we remained complacent. they have to try something and there is a risk of duds. we need to grab ones who play well immediately. we don’t have 10 games to sort out over time that a CB might work but was undermined by having ream as his running buddy.
joe: i also agree that on goal 1 the striker is right in between the backs, ream has the visual, and i thought blackmon was even signalling for ream to take the runner.
then on goal 2, they wall pass around ream to find the runner on blackmon.
i thought they both looked bad. but it could be like the 49ers who sign some lousy camp kicker to contest their struggling injured starter from last year. the starter, given token competition, bests the camp body and keeps his job. the starter then blows 2 FG the first week.
this is why i am like have actual position competitions and not just regime change.
eg in 2006, admittedly a failed world cup, in one of the last friendlies conrad and berhalter ship 4 goals to germany. they make the world cup roster but don’t play. there are too many ream-adjacent goals. at some point it needs to be cut the crap and get me 2 competent CB out there.
IV,
“this is why i am like have actual position competitions and not just regime change.”
That doesn’t really happen with most national teams and it certainly does not happen with the USMNT.
An actual position competition would have you replace player x with player Y and have an extended run surrounded by the same players.
When player x came back he would play with the same players and if he did not do as well as you did then he would lose his job to player Y.
That can only happen with a club team where you have enough games to run an actual competition. One other thing, the level of the competition has to be more or less equivalent.
With a national team you might only get one or two games and the competition can be drastically different. So a national team manager usually has to use different criteria than just actual competition.