Start with Argentine intellect and passion honed under Marcelo Bielsa, mix in some English charm, add some soaring ambition reminiscent of the Wilfried Nancy playbook, sprinkle in a bit of Ted Lasso-esque positivity and garnish with a slice of Jürgen Klinsmann-style new-age charisma.
Mauricio Pochettino served up a little something for everyone as he was unveiled as head coach of the US men’s national team at a New York City press conference Friday morning, vowing to bring new life to a program gone adrift ahead of a momentous World Cup 2026 on home soil.
That starts with the very loftiest of goals.
“We need to really believe in things, in big things. We need to believe that we can win, that we can win not only a game: We can win the World Cup,” Pochettino told an audience of reporters in a Midtown Manhattan venue, with thousands more watching the live stream online. “We want players that arrive on day one in the training camp, thinking big. And that is the only way to create this philosophy or this idea all together to perform and to really put your talent in the service of the team.
“Belief – for me, it's a word that is a powerful word,” he later added. “You can have enormous talent and you can be clever. But in football, you need to believe.”
Hit the ground running
A potentially paradigm-shifting tournament that felt so distant when FIFA awarded North America joint hosting rights in 2018 is now less than two years away. The vagaries of the governing body’s calendar mean that “Poch” has just nine international windows between now and then in which to prepare the USMNT for the event, with next summer’s Gold Cup the only extended gathering among them.
But the former Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur manager says that’s plenty enough.
“I believe that is enough time," said Pochettino, who was given the reins two months after Gregg Berhalter's dismissal. "I don’t want to put an excuse, and we don’t want to create an excuse of the players to say, ‘Well, yeah, but no, now we don't have time to buy new ideas and philosophies.’ No, football is like this: to touch the right button and start to perform.
“The players are so intelligent and so talented, and they can play, I think, in a different way. And for sure, I think we have time. We have time.”
A new era
Pochettino hit all the right notes as he fielded questions for the better part of an hour alongside U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone, CEO/secretary general JT Batson and sporting director Matt Crocker, whose prior relationship with him at Southampton FC appears to have been a vital facet in his recruitment.
Poch promised a fresh start without criticizing who and what had gone before him. Confirming that he did indeed pay close attention to the Yanks’ dismal September performances, a 2-1 friendly loss to Canada in Kansas City and a disappointing 1-1 draw with New Zealand in Cincinnati, he declined to push the panic button in the manner that many USMNT observers have.
“Of course, we were watching the games, and it's difficult to judge,” he said of the two games, fixtures the federation hoped to have him in charge for, only for the long-running process of completing his contract and agreeing the terms of a payout with Chelsea, his most recent employers, to scotch that.
“Because I think we cannot be unfair in the way that we are going to judge. The circumstances are so special; after the Copa América, situation wasn't good, really good for the players to manage in the last two games. But the most important thing is to see the potential that we have, the very good players.”
He promised “good football, exciting football, attacking football,” recognizing the importance of not only winning, but doing so as attractively as possible – while cautioning that work rate and tenacity are also vital. And he paid warm tribute to his former Chelsea colleague Emma Hayes and her Olympic gold medal-winning US women’s side, calling them an “inspiration” and expressing a desire to “match” their achievements – words that few, if any, of his predecessors have uttered before.
And notably, Poch made it crystal clear that no incumbent is guaranteed a spot on the USMNT roster, nor will eligible players be overlooked because of where they play their club soccer.
“To send the message to everyone, not only the players that were involved in the last few games, not only the players that play in Europe, but the players that play here in USA and MLS, if not every single player that is around the world: We are going to try to pay attention,” he said. “All, from now, they have the door open. It's only about to perform, and try to show that they are capable to join the national team.
“I think that is one of our first ideas that we want to translate to our players. They need to understand that if they perform, we are going to be there watching.”
"Huge potential"
Flashing the personality that’s helped him connect with some of the sport's elite superstars, Pochettino switched between English and Spanish in an easygoing manner that drove home his distinction as the first Latino head coach in USMNT history.
He acknowledged that this presents the tantalizing potential to connect with the nation’s Hispanic soccer communities in unprecedented ways, and explained why this job, his first in the international game, held a particular appeal to him and his cadre of loyal assistants.
“We are a technical team that looks a lot at the human part,” said Pochettino in Spanish, nodding to his new USSF superiors by his side. “We have felt that nice emotion of being able to work together, and then because behind there is a huge potential here in the USA, and the challenge of taking the men's soccer team to a different level, a level that perhaps there has been or has come close to at times in years past.
“We have lived through many experiences as coaches in different clubs, and I think that this is a challenge that takes us out of our comfort zone. For us, the easy thing is to choose things that we already know and we already have a quick vision and an idea, but here it is a bit of an entrance to what one does not know.
"To get yourself out of your comfort zone, to be able to challenge yourself, I think that it is not only a challenge to achieve things together, but it is a challenge with ourselves, to refresh ourselves again in a soccer that for us has always been attractive when we have always looked at it from afar, but that now gives us the possibility to be here.”
Pochettino’s plunge into those portentous possibilities now provides USMNT supporters with an exhilarating new sense of hope. He and his staff will go straight to work with preparations for next month’s camp, where he’ll debut in a friendly vs. Panama at Austin FC’s Q2 Stadium on Oct. 12 before a rivalry duel with Mexico in Guadalajara three days later.
