COMMERCE CITY, Colo.— By some estimates, last week’s 1-1 tie with Ecuador was the best performance, if not result, that the U.S. men’s national team has had since Mauricio Pochettino took over as coach just over a year ago.
Whether that’s true or not doesn’t matter. Because when it comes to these two-match tuneups for next year’s FIFA World Cup on home soil — there are only five friendly matches remaining for the USMNT before Pochettino names his 26-player roster, and just seven before the Americans open the tournament June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles against an opponent to be determined at December’s draw — the second match is the one that counts.
Take last month. A dispiriting 2-0 defeat to South Korea that wasn’t as close as that score would suggest. The USMNT beat Japan convincingly just three days later, allowing the Americans to finish the September international window on a high.
Now they have another chance to return to their club teams feeling good. That means quickly forgetting all about Friday’s draw in Austin, Texas, and focusing completely on Australia, the nails-tough World Cup-bound foe they’ll meet here on Tuesday outside of Denver.
“Tomorrow is going to be a different game,” Pochettino said on Monday during his pregame press conference at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. “Australia is a team [that’s] very aggressive.”
The Socceroos have high quality, too. Whereas Australia is ranked twenty fifth to the U.S.’s 16, the Aussies toppled a Canada squad that the U.S. hasn’t overwhelmed in three consecutive house video games in Montreal final Friday. No, their gamers do not play at Paris Saint-Germain or AC Milan just like the Ecuadorians’ high stars, however they play onerous and collectively.
“We have to respect them,” Pochettino stated. “They are going to be one other good check, like Ecuador, for us.”
The circumstances will pose one other problem for the hosts. DSG Park sits a mile above sea degree. The temperature is considerably colder than it was final week in Austin. And Pochettino additionally has to maintain the massive image in thoughts; star left again Antonee “Jedi” Robinson, U.S. Soccer’s Male Athlete of 2024 Award winner who hasn’t represented his nation in any respect this calendar yr due to harm, will sit out a second straight October recreation.
Different USMNT gamers may merely be rested as Pochettino doles out alternatives to different World Cup roster hopefuls. Christian Pulisic, who was restricted to a late cameo off the bench versus Ecuador due to a swollen ankle, might additionally function from the beginning.
Christian Pulisic made a second-half look in opposition to Ecuador. (Photograph by David Buono/Icon Sportswire through Getty Pictures)
Whoever performs certainly will not take the possibility as a right. Not now, a minimum of. Not anymore.
“An important factor within the nationwide staff is to have competitors,” stated Cristian Roldan, a 2022 World Cup veteran who Pochettino summoned for the primary time final month. “That is what all of us need to try for, as a result of now you’ve got an even bigger participant pool to select from.”
“He is he is created an atmosphere so rapidly that does not create certainty for anybody,” striker Folarin Balogun, who’s been one of the best U.S. participant for 3 video games operating, stated of Pochettino.
“No one’s place is assured — he’s created that feeling all through the staff,” Balogun added. “That is what you get when you’ve got a high European coach. He is ruthless in how he goes about issues. And he desires to win.”
Beginning on Tuesday, ideally. The U.S. has emerged victorious in simply one in every of its final 4 video games courting to July’s Gold Cup remaining. One other win might do wonders for the USMNT’s collective perception.
If there’s uncertainty all around the area, although, there’s now a bit much less up entrance. Balogun, given his from, appears certain to start out once more in higher Denver.
“Flo has all the things,” Roldan stated. “He can run in behind, he can play back-to-goal. He has the power to take guys on one 1v1, with hyperlink of play, along with his motion, along with his individuality. He might be the distinction. And when now we have guys like Christian ballistic, like Malik Tillman, they make one another higher.”
For others, Tuesday’s contest may very well be the ultimate audition for the World Cup.
“Whenever you come into the nationwide staff, you’ve received to do what you possibly can for the nation,” reserve winger Brenden Aaronson stated, “It’s about rolling up the sleeves and doing one of the best you possibly can in any state of affairs. After which whenever you get your likelihood, you already know it’s important to take it.”
Spots for the 2026 World Cup roster are nonetheless being battled for. (Photograph by John Dorton/ISI Pictures/USSF/Getty Pictures)
How the Individuals will line up is one other open query. Pochettino has began a three-man again line in every of the USMNT’s final two outings. But he advised that issues might change once more, particularly with the Aussies enjoying model extra entrenched.
“We have to construct one thing, however they’re extra stable of their concepts,” Pochettino stated of Australia. “I do not consider that they will change the best way that they will play. They appear to maintain the identical form and the best way they’re enjoying [over] the final yr.
“We need to progress,” he added. “We need to have this flexibility, with totally different gamers and typically totally different form or dynamics on the sector, to offer the staff higher high quality [opposition].
“I’m completely happy to face a staff like that.”
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports activities who has lined United States males’s and ladies’s nationwide groups at FIFA World Cups on 5 continents. Comply with him @ByDougMcIntyre.
