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Jeff Carlisle, U.S. soccer correspondent
Mauricio Pochettino started his tenure as United States males’s nationwide crew coach saying his gamers ought to aspire to realize as a lot because the American ladies.
“We’re right here as a result of we need to win,” he mentioned Friday at his introductory information convention. “We’ve got many examples subsequent to us we have to comply with.”
Whereas the U.S. males have not reached the World Cup quarterfinals since 2002 and have by no means received the game’s high match, the American ladies have received 4 World Cups and 5 Olympic gold medals.
“We have to consider we will win the World Cup,” he mentioned.
Pochettino mentioned his causes for taking the reins because the supervisor of the U.S. males’s nationwide crew had been “too many” to call, however when requested to distill them into one sentence, that was the one he settled: “We consider.”
“‘Imagine’ for me, it is a phrase that’s so highly effective,” Pochettino mentioned. “You may have an unlimited expertise and you’ll be intelligent. In soccer, it is advisable to consider that it is attainable. [If] we discover the way in which collectively, I feel for certain we’ll obtain.”
A 52-year-old Argentine, Pochettino can be teaching a nationwide crew for the primary time, changing into the tenth U.S. coach in 14 years and its first foreign-born chief since Jurgen Klinsmann from 2011 to 2016. He was employed to switch Gregg Berhalter, who was fired from his second time period on July 10, every week after the People had been eradicated within the first spherical of the Copa América.
Emma Hayes, who coached at Chelsea earlier than changing into the United States ladies’s crew coach this yr, helped recruit her former membership colleague.
“I did not must ask. She defined all the pieces,” Pochettino mentioned.
Sporting a darkish jacket, a white gown shirt with no tie and a pocket sq., Pochettino was flanked by U.S. Soccer Federation president Cindy Parlow Cone, CEO JT Batson and sporting director Matt Crocker, who knew Pochettino from their time collectively at Southampton a decade in the past.
Longtime assistant Jesús Pérez was additionally in attendance. And whether or not Pochettino realized it or not, his ideas echoed the cheer “I consider that we are going to win!” that’s typically heard at USMNT matches.
Recreating that perception, which was as soon as a staple of U.S. sides, can be a tall order. The crew has struggled mightily of late, which included failing to get of the group stage on the Copa América. That has led to loads of questions. Is the present, extremely touted era of gamers nearly as good as was thought beforehand? Pochettino answered within the affirmative.
“I feel we now have very gifted gamers,” Pochettino mentioned. “I consider course the boldness was a little bit bit low after the Copa América. However we have to work into restoration. We’ve got an excellent skilled not solely in ways or in physicality or in psychology. However we’re going to work and to create the proper sample to comply with, to get the boldness, to get better the boldness and begin to carry out collectively. However in fact I feel it is an excellent era of gamers.”
Within the wake of a disappointing September worldwide window, one by which the U.S. misplaced to Canada on dwelling soil for the primary time in 67 years, in addition to tied New Zealand, captain Christian Pulisic was amongst these saying {that a} cultural shift was wanted. When requested about his ideas on tradition, Pochettino demurred.
However he did shed some gentle on the type of environment he hopes to foster.
“I feel a very powerful [thing]is to create one thing particular,” Pochettino mentioned concerning the tradition inside the crew. “To really feel one thing whenever you going to the nationwide crew isn’t as a result of the participant come and [says], ‘Okay as a result of they name me and we’re going to play.’ No, we’ll compete. And compete is totally totally different than you play and it is [the] duty from the participant and naturally our duty to create the platform for them to carry out.”
Pochettino added that his fast precedence is to get to know the gamers, which he’ll do no matter whether or not they’re taking part in in Europe, Liga MX or MLS. And whereas the 2026 World Cup — which the U.S. is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico — is on everybody’s thoughts, proper now Pochettino is on the lookout for enchancment.
“That could be a principal goal for us is to enhance, present an excellent platform for them to carry out, to really feel snug each time that they had been becoming a member of us. After which for me, it is not a pleasant sport for me, or it is official. Once I was participant with Argentina, Copa América, World Cup or pleasant all it was the identical. To go and to indicate that you’re the perfect and win the sport to your nation or crowd and all the pieces as a result of meaning to be aggressive.”
The second capped of a whirlwind two months for Crocker, whose prior relationship with Pochettino from when the 2 had been at Southampton proved important. Bringing the Argentine on board is a coup for the us, and whereas it has been over a decade since Crocker and Pochettino final labored collectively, Crocker insisted the Argentine hasn’t modified.
“I feel you possibly can spend a whole lot of time within the sport on the high degree and it may well change some individuals by way of the kind of individual they’re,” Crocker mentioned. “And I feel Mauricio’s impression, after I was at Southampton many, a few years in the past when he got here in with Jesús and his employees, the most important factor that everyone remembers about Mauricio isn’t solely is he an awesome coach, however he is what I name a connector of individuals.
“So someone that may construct excellent relationships, not simply with the gamers who’re beginning, however the gamers who both not within the crew, to the employees throughout the membership from someone that may work within the ticket workplace to someone that may work inside the administration crew.”
Batson recalled the primary assembly the us had with Pochettino in Barcelona. Given Pochettino’s status, the us was not sure how receptive he could be. What was speculated to be a two-hour assembly become 5.
“It was clear from second one which they had been actually and I feel the connection with Matt and their bond was very obvious from the second we walked within the door and it simply constructed and grew from there,” Batson mentioned.
Cone referred to as U.S: ladies’s crew supervisor Emma Hayes — who crossed paths with Pochettino when the 2 had been at Chelsea — “our secret recruiter” in that she might present Pochettino with an insider’s view of working for the us.
“I feel it helped Mauricio to have somebody on the Federation that he might discuss brazenly concerning the federation and determine, ‘Are these individuals for actual, proper?’ As a result of we spent a whole lot of time with him and simply being as open and sincere and clear concerning the good, the dangerous, the ugly of U.S. Soccer and what he was moving into as a result of we wished, if he selected to return right here, we wished him to know precisely what he was moving into.”
Cone additionally famous that the deal would not have gotten achieved with out the assistance of federation donors, together with Kenneth Griffin and Scott Godwin.
“I feel as a nonprofit, as a federation, generally we now have to get a little bit inventive,” she mentioned. “And I am simply so grateful for everybody that stepped up and helped deliver ‘Poch’ to our males’s nationwide crew.”
And by all appearances, Pochettino is happy to be on board.
Whereas some have proclaimed the present group probably the most gifted the U.S. has produced, Pochettino was barely extra restrained in his evaluation, calling it a “superb era of gamers.”
“We have to present that we play like a collective on the pitch,” he mentioned.
Pochettino arrived within the U.S. on Wednesday, a day after his deal was introduced, and dined Thursday evening with American soccer stakeholders.
His information convention — on Friday the thirteenth, for individuals who are superstitious — was in a Warner Bros. Discovery screening room at 30 Hudson Yards on the far west facet of the Manhattan borough of New York Metropolis, simply eight blocks from the place Berhalter was launched at Glasshouse Chelsea on Dec. 4, 2018.
Pochettino has led Espanyol in Spain (2009-12); Southampton (2013-14), Tottenham (2014-19) and Chelsea (2023-24) in England; and Paris Saint-Germain in France (2021-22), leaving after profitable a Ligue 1 title.
Pochettino has 637 days earlier than the People’ World Cup opener in Inglewood, California, on June 12, 2026. His first video games can be friendlies towards Panama on Oct. 12 at Austin, Texas, and at Mexico three days later, and his first aggressive matches can be in a two-leg Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal in November.
Pochettino is more likely to have his full participant pool accessible for simply eight one-week coaching durations earlier than the crew gathers forward of the World Cup. The People are skinny at goalkeeper and central protection and have had issue sustaining on-field self-discipline.
Info from The Related Press was used on this report.
