The performance wasn’t exactly perfect. Yet the vibes were downright euphoric as the US men’s national team delivered their new boss a victory in his debut on Saturday evening on Austin’s northwest side.
Mauricio Pochettino got a warm welcome and flashed some early hints of what his tenure may look like on the field. The USMNT exacted a small measure of revenge on Panama for wrecking their Copa América campaign over the summer. And the program and their fanbase looked re-energized after spending a good chunk of the last year and a half in the doldrums.
The new boss can justifiably be billed as the biggest name ever to lead the USMNT. And with hand-crafted signs paying homage – a Ted Lasso-inspired “BELIEVE” number behind one of the goals was particularly eye-catching — loud cheers in his direction during pregame introductions and even chanting of his name after the final whistle, the excitement about Poch’s arrival was palpable in Austin FC’s home ground.
“Thank you to the fans. They were amazing,” he said with a grin in his postgame press conference. “And of course, it was a massive shock for me to see my face behind the goal … I am so happy, very good connection with the fans; that's really important to translate this connection to the team with the fans. That is a thing that is really important. Players need to feel the support.”
The Argentine himself is the first to admit it’s highly difficult to enact anything too revolutionary with just a few training sessions in his first camp on the job. Much of his lineup and game model was based off what he inherited from his predecessor Gregg Berhalter, albeit with a few notable tweaks and evolutions.
At the start of a momentous voyage, however, it’s always better to have a W and some resulting wind in your sails.
“I’m so happy, because I think the start is always a process when you don't have the time to work a lot. I think in the way that staff and the players apply all the, maybe, another [set of] ideas — no better, no worse, different [from Berhalter],” said Pochettino. “Really happy and very grateful, because I think the welcome is amazing. And yes, it's only that increase our responsibility to deliver a very good show for everyone here.”
Many newly-arrived bosses have to engage in a sort of triage in the early going, assessing what areas need to be addressed most urgently and what’s useful to carry over from the previous regime. Poch has clearly decided one of his first jobs is to gauge his players’ mental and physical state when they report to camp and endeavor to send them back to their clubs no worse off than when they arrived.
That, he said, is why Juventus midfielder and FC Dallas academy product Weston McKennie, a USMNT mainstay for most of the past five years and a key personality in the locker room, did not play against Panama, and probably why Christian Pulisic was limited to 67 minutes on the pitch.
“We want to protect him,” said Poch of McKennie. “He arrived a little bit, some — not big problems, but some uncomfortable situation, and we didn't want to take a risk. That’s why he was training after the match. If he believes that he's 100% and without risk, could be he starts the game against Mexico [on Tuesday, or] start the game on the bench and maybe play a little bit. But I think we didn't want to take a risk.
“We need him 100% in his club. And of course, next time, Tuesday or in the next camp, to be 100% to help the team to achieve the things that we want.”
It also became clear Pochettino has already done plenty of research and analysis on his new squad. It was mildly surprising to see Yunus Musah, who’s spent most of his USMNT career right in the heart of central midfield, take up a position on the right flank, yet it paid off richly when the AC Milan man ghosted in at the back post to finish Pulisic’s low cross for the opening goal.
“I could see, first of all, he knows a lot about my background,” Musah said on the TNT postgame show. “He knows that in my academy days, playing at Valencia and everything — that’s why today I played wide, because he knows I used to play wide as well. So it's nice that the coach knows about me, has a lot of faith in me.”
It was an unexpected, but winning, solution to patching the hole left by Tim Weah being out injured.
“We tried to build his confidence, maybe from starting in a different position that he was starting in the past. I think that was a good decision. I think it’s always worth trying to build his confidence and to feel again, a player that can perform on the pitch,” said Pochettino of Musah, noting he’d had an eye on the player since his teenage days at Arsenal’s academy.
“I think it was an important moment for him, to trust in him, but maybe not to give too much responsibility in the buildup. It's only to be in a position that can help the team and look there, he arrived in the last third and scored. Fantastic for him and fantastic for the team, and now maybe he starts to perform and behave in a different way, full of confidence. That is an important thing in our decision, is trying to help. We are here to help the players to find their best.”
While the Yanks were generally superior to Panama in most areas, their inability to convert scoring chances left them in danger of fumbling away a late equalizer, just as they had in their last game out, a 1-1 friendly draw with New Zealand last month.
Enter Ricardo Pepi. The FC Dallas product calmed everyone’s nerves with a clinical late finish of Haji Wright’s delivery to secure the W, his latest in a string of supersub outings for both club and country.
El Tren clearly enjoys playing in Austin: He scored 2g/1a in a breakout performance for FCD at Q2 back in 2021, helping the North Texans claim that season’s Copa Tejas, then scored three goals in two subsequent USMNT appearances there, the most memorable a brace in a 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Jamaica that set the team on course for Qatar.
“Crazy for me, to be honest, just being able to do it in all this crowd, of course, and being in my home state and in front of my family is the best feeling ever,” said Pepi.
And like a true striker, the El Paso native could quickly recall exactly how many he’d netted at the venue, politely correcting the postgame show, who were only citing his four USMNT goals in Austin at first.
“Very excited, of course, with the new manager, and just having my family here, and with the record that I have here in Austin, I have, I think, six goals in four games or something like that,” he said. “So just being happy to be able to be back in the state.”
