The U.S. men’s national team’s final match of 2025 comes against Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay on Tuesday night and for USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino, the match will be a sentimental one.
Pochettino played under Bielsa during his professional playing career, starting out at Argentinian side Newell’s Old Boys before later working with him again at Spanish side Espanyol and the Argentinian national team. The 70-year-old Bielsa is now in the 15th managerial position of his career, leading Uruguay to a 15-12-6 in his two-and-a-half years in charge.
Pochettino, 17 years younger than his managerial counterpart, is 14 months into his spell as USMNT head coach. He’s led the USMNT to 12 victories in his 21 matches in charge and most recently watched as his squad defeated CONMEBOL squad Paraguay 2-1 on Saturday night in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Pochettino voiced his admiration for Bielsa during Monday’s prematch press conference in Florida while also admitting that facing Uruguay will be a tough challenge at Raymond James Stadium.
“Always, my admiration and my respect is massive,” said Pochettino. “I cannot consider him like a friend. I cannot considerate him like another normal person. It’s bigger respect. I speak with him like a man that you admire, is your hero. He’s this type of person that you wait [to] talk. You always wait for him to say hello and then you say hello.
“Yes, [Tuesday] for me is a thing to enjoy, to be with him very close,” Pochettino added. “And in the same time, we are going to suffer because all the team under Marcelo’s management are so tough to play.”
The USMNT grinded out a good win against Paraguay two nights ago, using goals from Gio Reyna and Folarin Balogun to claim the home victory. Outside of a defensive lapse during Paraguay’s equalizing goal, the USMNT looked fairly comfortable against La Albirroja, out-possession, out-shooting, and out-dueling them for 90+ minutes.
After extending their unbeaten run to four matches against another Top-50 nation, the USMNT are starting to look more composed under Pochettino in comparison to earlier this year.
“I see the identity is the way that we build from back, and the way that we respect the principles on the game,” Pochettino said. “The tactical work in the way that we play, in the capacity to rotate and how we use the space, how we build from back, how we play in the medium block or when we are in the transition to going to dominate the game in the opposite half.”
One thing that Pochettino is not hoping for is a major scrap similar to the one that the USMNT had with Paraguay in the dying stages of Saturday’s match. USMNT fullback Alex Freeman and Paraguayan centerback Gustavo Gomez got into a jostling match before the both benches emptied in a lengthy scuffle on the sidelines.
Both sets of players were lucky to not suffer injuries in the fracas, while Pochettino admitted postmatch on Saturday that he was quickly helped off the ground by a member of the Paraguayan coaching staff.
Pochettino wants his players to avoid needless altercations in lieu of safety concerns, but also voiced proudness in them wanting to stand up for one another.
“I think we all feel now very proud about in the way that we act and behave, and of course Alex was good because he was defending and caring about the ball, about the action that was for us because the referee say the ball was for the USA ,and that shows character and that we care,” Pochettino said. “I really was happy when that happened because I think when the aggression is coming from the other side, I think we need to defend ourself, and that was a good moment to say we feel proud in the way that we feel, and the way that we are.
“Of course can be [dangerous] the type of situation, but I hope that [doesn’t] happen again,” he added. “But if people [mess] with us, okay, we are going to defend ourselves. That is the most important thing.”
The USMNT will be seeking their 11th victory of the year and a first win since 2002 over La Celeste.
Watching Reyna’s performance here, and several of his short shifts for Gladbach, you can see why his playing time is limited and why he will probably never start for a top club: his work rate just isn’t at the level you need for the modern game. Yes, he has touch and vision that absolutely set him apart, but when his team is off the ball, he lopes around instead of pressing.
The Paraguay goal starts with Reyna not pressing the ball, giving him time to pick out a pass. He was walking when everyone else was jogging. Reyna need to understand that it is not what he does that prevents him from getting time, it is what he isn’t doing.
BTW Cudos to Balogun, he put in a lung busting 80 yard sprint to snuff a late attack when the defense was out of position. Not sure that was obvious on the TV broadcast.
I’m caught between thinking he didn’t hustle and that he was also instructed to track one of the midfielders which left him out of position. If you watch the whole game you will see Gio dropping off from his pressing position to following one of the mids quite closely. On the goal sequence he starts the press and then follows the dmid to the ball side of the center circle. Once the ball is denied advancing further down Paraguay’s right side by Arfsten and Aaronson it’s played back to their RB. Gio by following the midfielder had denied the ball being played centrally helping force the ball back to the CB – who then switches play to the left CB. At that point Gio has to do two things. He needs to close the vast space between him and the formally weak side CB (that space due to his tracking of the midfielder) and while doing so still fill the passing lane between the CB and that midfielder he’s leaving. He accomplishes the latter – you can see the CB looked at the midfielder first, which made Gio hesitate for a split second before the CB plays the perfect long ball to Almiron who then plays a perfect one timer.
(Almiron not taking a touch is what ultimately made the goal. Both Scally and Robinson started to slow because they thought he’d have to take a touch to control. They would have had time to set. If he takes a touch Scally is like to be able to square up on him and Robinson would likely have time to look over his shoulder and locates where the danger was)
I totally see where people think he was lazy on that sequence but I personally end up on Gio not being responsible on this goal sequence. Maybe he should have passed on the midfielder he was tracking or maybe he should have run harder at the CB – he does almost get there. But in the end it seems his instructions were to track that midfielder in the defensive half so he was caught between the two jobs – pressing in the offensive half being the other.
If I remember right Balogun’s lung busting run didn’t really prevent anything. But dang was he fast!
I think Freeman gets the start at RCB. And I would like to see a Luna/Reyna combo.
Balo probably starts with Wright coming on in the second half.
I’m surprised Gio played 75 minutes. I thought it would be 60 minutes max, preferably 45 minutes. It was a risk, but on this occasion, it paid off, especially since the second goal came in the 71st minute.
I hope Pochettino and his staff play it conservatively and he is rotated out. It is clear he is a difference maker for the USMNT, so no need to push it with him in this window. If he doesn’t start, but if he does, I hope there is a limit to the minutes he plays…preferably 45 minutes…as it would be best to send him back to Gladbach relatively fresh and ready to increase his role and minutes with them.
Defensively, it was a good performance pressing Paraguay. That said, the goal scored by Paraguay is regularly available and for the taking against us when we don’t close down the ball quickly, or when we are pressing very high high up the field. Good teams will scout that and punish us just like Paraguay did, only more frequently.
Additionally, we are ripe for the counter attack, especially on both of our flanks. Because of that, Pochettino and his staff will need to develop and implement different wrinkles to guard against good teams picking us apart. For context, when Scally ( or whoever is playing RCB ) is so far up the field they are pressing the opponent farther up the field than the RWB, that is a problem and a good team will exploit that.
It will be very interesting to see how Bielsa / Uruguay look to attack the USMNT and if they have success.