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USMNT Must Believe It Can Win The World Cup – Says Mauricio Pochettino
Mauricio Pochettino began his tenure as United States men’s national team coach saying his players should aspire to achieve as much as the American women.
“We are here because we want to win,” he said Friday at his introductory news conference. “We have many examples next to us we need to follow.”
Although the U.S. men’s national soccer team has not reached the World Cup quarterfinals since 2002 and has to secure a victory in the tournament, the U.S. women’s national team has achieved remarkable success, winning four World Cups and five Olympic gold medals.
“We need to believe we can win the World Cup,” he said.
Pochettino said his reasons for taking the reins as the manager of the U.S. men’s national team were “too many” to name, but when asked to distill them into one sentence, that was the one he settled: “We believe.”
“‘Believe’ for me, it’s a word that is so powerful,” Pochettino said. “You can have an enormous talent and you can be clever. In football, you need to believe that it’s possible. [If] we find the way together, I think for sure we’ll achieve.”
At 52 years old, Argentine Mauricio Pochettino will be taking on the role of a national team coach for the first time He becomes the 10th coach for the U.S men’s national team in 14 and the first foreign-born coach since Jürgen Klinsmann, who led the team from 2011 to 2016.
Pochettino was appointed to succeed Gregg Berhalter, who was dismissed from his second term on July 10, just a week after the U.S. was eliminated in the first round of the Copa América.
Emma Hayes, who coached at Chelsea before becoming the United States women’s team coach this year, helped recruit her former club colleague.
“I didn’t need to ask. She explained everything,” Pochettino said.
Wearing a dark jacket, a white dress shirt with no tie, and a pocket square, 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 together at Southampton a decade ago.
Longtime assistant Jesús Pérez was also in attendance. And whether Pochettino realized it or not, his thoughts echoed the cheer “I believe that we will win!” that is often heard at USMNT matches.
Recreating that belief, which was once a staple of the U.S. side, will be a tall order. The team has struggled mightily of late, which included failing to get off the group stage at the Copa América. That has led to plenty of questions.
Is the current, highly touted generation of players as good as was thought previously?
Pochettino answered in the affirmative.
“I think we have very talented players,” Pochettino said. “I think, of course, the confidence was a little bit low after the Copa América. But we need to work into recovery. We have a very good professional not only in tactics, physicality, or technology.
“But we are going to work and create the right pattern to follow, to get the confidence, to recover the confidence, and start to perform together. But, of course, I think it’s a very good generation of players.”
Following a disappointing September international window, during which the U.S. suffered its first home loss in 67 years and played to a draw against New Zealand, captain Christian Pulisic expressed the need for a cultural shift within the team.
Pochettino view on cultural change
When questioned about his views on this cultural change, Pochettino chose to refrain from commenting.
But he did shed some light on the kind of atmosphere he hopes to foster.
“I think the most important [thing]is to create something special,” Pochettino said about the culture within the team.
“To feel something when you are going to the national team is not because the player comes and [says], ‘Okay because they call me and we are going to play.’ No, we’re going to compete.
“And compete is completely different than you play, and it’s [the] responsibility of the player and, of course, our responsibility to create the platform for them to perform.”
Pochettino added that his immediate priority is to get to know the players, which he’ll do regardless of whether they are playing in Europe, Liga MX, or MLS.
And while the 2026 World Cup, which the U.S. is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico, is on everyone’s mind, right now, Pochettino is looking for improvement.
“That is a principal objective for us is to improve, provide a good platform for them to perform, to feel comfortable every time that they were joining us. And then for me, it’s not a friendly game, or it’s official. When I was a player with Argentina, Copa América, World Cup or friendly, all it was the same.
“To go and to show that you are the best and win the game for your country or crowd and everything because that means to be competitive.”
Crocker on Pochettino
The moment capped a whirlwind two months for Crocker, whose prior relationship with Pochettino from when the two were at Southampton proved critical. Bringing the Argentine on board is a coup for the USSF, and while it’s been over a decade since Crocker and Pochettino last worked together, Crocker insisted the Argentine hasn’t changed.
“I think you can spend a lot of time in the game at the top level and it can change some people in terms of the type of person they are,” Crocker said.
“And I think Mauricio’s impact, when I was at Southampton many, many years ago when he came in with Jesús and his staff, the biggest thing that everybody remembers about Mauricio is not only is he a great coach, but he’s what I call a connector of people.
“So somebody that can build outstanding relationships, not just with the players who are starting, but the players who either not in the team, to the staff across the club from somebody that might work in the ticket office to somebody that might work within the administration team.”
Batson recalled the initial meeting between the USSF and Pochettino in Barcelona. Considering Pochettino’s reputation, the USSF was uncertain about how receptive he would be.
What was originally planned as a two-hour discussion was extended to five hours.
“It was clear from moment one that they were interested, and I think the relationship with Matt and their bond was very apparent from the moment we walked in the door, and it just built and grew from there,” Batson said.
Cone called U.S women’s team manager Emma Hayes, who crossed paths with Pochettino when the two were at Chelsea, “our secret recruiter” in that she could provide Pochettino with an insider’s view of working for the USSF.
“I think it helped Mauricio to have someone at the Federation that he could talk openly about the federation and figure out, ‘Are these people for real, right?’
“Because we spent a lot of time with him and just being as open and honest and transparent about the good, the bad, the ugly of U.S. Soccer and what he was stepping into because we wanted, if he chose to come here, we wanted him to know exactly what he was getting into.”
Cone also highlighted that the successful completion of the deal was made possible thanks to the support of federation donors, such as Kenneth Griffin and Scott Godwin.
“I think as a nonprofit, as a federation, sometimes we have to get a little creative,” she said. “And I’m just so thankful for everyone that stepped up and helped bring ‘Poch’ to our men’s national team.”
And by all appearances, Pochettino is pleased to be on board.
While some have proclaimed the current group the most talented the U.S. has produced, Pochettino was slightly more restrained in his assessment, calling it a “very good generation of players.”
“We need to show that we play like a collective on the pitch,” he said.
Pochettino arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday, a day after his deal was announced, and dined Thursday night with American soccer stakeholders.
His news conference on Friday the 13th, for those who are superstitious, was in a Warner Bros. Discovery screening room at 30 Hudson Yards on the far west side of the Manhattan borough of New York City, just eight blocks from where Berhalter was introduced to Glasshouse Chelsea on Dec. 4, 2018.
Pochettino’s coaching career and when he will start working
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 winning a Ligue 1 title.
Pochettino has 637 days until the Americans’ World Cup opener in Inglewood, California, scheduled for June 12, 2026.
His first matches will be friendly games against Panama on October 12 in Austin, Texas, and against Mexico three days later. Following that, his competitive appearances will be in a two-leg Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal in November.
Pochettino is expected to have access to his full player pool for eight one-week training sessions before the team’s gathering for the World Cup.
The Americans are facing challenges with depth in the goalkeeper and central defense positions, and they’ve struggled with maintaining on-field discipline.
