Mauricio Pochettino started his tenure as U.S. males’s nationwide soccer workforce coach by 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 a 48-minute introductory information convention after agreeing to a contract by means of the 2026 World Cup. “We’re winners. We’re going to compete, and compete is totally totally different than to play. … We’ve 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 that we will win, that we will win all our video games, that we will win the World Cup,” he mentioned.
A 52-year-old Argentine, Pochettino might be teaching a nationwide workforce for the primary time, changing into the tenth U.S. coach in 14 years and its first foreign-born chief since Jürgen Klinsmann from 2011-16. He was employed to switch Gregg Berhalter, who was fired from his second time period on July 10, every week after the U.S. was eradicated within the first spherical of the Copa América.
Emma Hayes, who managed at Chelsea earlier than changing into U.S. ladies’s coach this 12 months, helped recruit her former membership colleague.
“I did not must ask,” he mentioned. “She defined every part.”
Hayes led her first apply on Could 28 and led the Individuals to an Olympic gold medal 74 days later.
Sporting a darkish jacket, 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.
“I used to be teasing Poch that it solely took Emma two months to win an Olympic gold medal, so I am curious what he will do in two months,” Cone mentioned. “We need to set ourselves up for having the ability to win any sport that we’re in.”
Talks started in Barcelona in July.
“We spent loads of time with him,” Cone mentioned, “Simply being as open and sincere and clear in regards to the good, the unhealthy, the ugly of U.S. soccer and what he was getting 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, what he was up in opposition to, the place the alternatives had been. … And Emma performed an enormous half in that.”
Whereas some have proclaimed the present group essentially the most gifted the U.S. has produced, Pochettino was barely extra restrained and mentioned “it is an excellent era of gamers.”
“We’ve very gifted gamers,” he opined. “After all, the boldness was a little bit however low after the Copa América. We have to present that we play as a collective on the pitch.”
Pochettino arrived within the U.S. on Wednesday, a day after his deal was introduced, and dined at a sushi restaurant on Thursday evening with American soccer stakeholders. He plans to journey with USSF officers to Atlanta subsequent week to seek for housing close to the workplace and coaching complicated beneath building in Fayetteville, Georgia.
His information convention — on Friday the thirteenth, for many who are superstitious — was in a Warner Bros. Discovery screening room at 30 Hudson Yards on the far west aspect of Manhattan, simply eight blocks from Berhalter’s introduction 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 French league title.
Pochettino has 637 days earlier than the Individuals’ World Cup opener in Inglewood, California, on June 12, 2026. His first video games might be friendlies in opposition to Panama on Oct. 12 at Austin, Texas, and at Mexico three days later, and his first aggressive matches might 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 intervals earlier than the workforce gathers forward of the World Cup. The Individuals are skinny at goalkeeper and central protection and have had problem sustaining on-field self-discipline.
Pochettino is bringing alongside his longtime employees: assistant coaches Jesús Pérez and Miguel d’Agostino, and goalkeeper coach Toni Jiménez.
USSF officers mentioned they might afford Pochettino’s wage solely with the assistance of presents from hedge fund and asset administration agency heads.
“Until he was keen to work for a lot much less,” Cone mentioned.
Reporting by The Related Press.
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