It is quite a name that Mauricio Pochettino brings to the position of United States men’s national team head coach. It rolls musically off the tongue and, more to the point, is familiar to all those who can be said to follow this sport on even a casual basis.
That’s all some who follow the USMNT wanted as coach for the team that will enter the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be played right here at home: a big name --preferably not an American name -- even if that name was established scoring goals or making plays in midfield or looking great on the sideline while losing games at a major tournament.
What they got, instead, is someone who has managed teams successfully in a variety of top European leagues, with a significant variance in terms of circumstance. Pochettino managed the richest team in France, Paris Saint-Germain, and a team in England’s Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur, that does not spend like a heavyweight but wants to be in that company, regardless.
And “Poch” succeeded.
In a sense, the U.S. Soccer Federation and technical director Matt Crocker landed a coach who was beyond the dreams of many fans. What will those people complain about now?
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There is a segment of United States men’s national team followers that reflexively believes American soccer to be inferior. They don't embrace the major pro league in the U.S., they denigrate American voices who call games on television, they assume coaches born or trained here are strategically inferior. How can they support America’s soccer team if they so eagerly reject nearly all of what American soccer represents? It’s one of the strangest dichotomies in sports, but that’s how it is.
One solution to that conundrum, though, is for all the relevant American players to be competing for European clubs. And, now, for the coach of that team to have essentially no connection to the sport in this country. Maybe he changed planes here once or twice?
When Gregg Berhalter was in charge of the USMNT in the early part of this decade and getting them qualified for the 2022 World Cup, any use of Major League Soccer-based players was lamented through social media, even though Kellyn Acosta’s free kicks were huge in a home victory against Honduras and the U.S. was 2W-1L-2D in the five games he started. At Qatar 2022, Nashville defender Walker Zimmerman gave away a penalty kick that led to a draw in the opener against Wales, but he delivered the game’s decisive action in a huge draw against favored England by getting in front of a powerful Harry Kane strike and deflecting it away from the goal.
The great news about hiring Pochettino is that he is not merely international and famous, which would have been the case with a number of candidates who gained public support as candidates.
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Herve Renard was one of the few coaches who failed to medal in a major team sport with the home side at the Paris Olympics. He ran the France women’s squad that lost in the quarterfinals to a Brazil side that had finished third in their group; France's entries in men’s soccer, men’s and women’s basketball and women’s handball all managed silver medals. Renard coached twice in the FIFA World Cup, with the men’s teams of Morocco and Saudi Arabia, and never advanced out of group stage.
Patrick Viera drew wide support from the fan base, despite persistent struggles with the majority of teams he has coached. He was under .500 at each of his past two jobs and compiled a negative goal differential at his past three. At NYCFC in Major League Soccer, his team twice finished second in its division but never won a playoff series; the team that eliminated his squad in Viera’s final full season in the league was coached by Berhalter.
By contrast, Pochettino has an exceptional record as a coach. His first team at Tottenham Hotspur reached the final of the 2015 League Cup. His second contended for the 2016 Premier League title but finished third. By his fifth year in charge, he had Spurs in the UEFA Champions League final, and they eliminated Pep Guardiola’s powerful Manchester City in the quarterfinals.
He coached Paris Saint-Germain to a Coupe de France triumph in 2021 and the Ligue 1 championship the following year. At Chelsea, he took over a squad that had finished 12th in the league in 2022-23, an absolute mess for a club that had spent wildly on transfers in advance of his arrival, and directed them to a sixth-place finish and 19-point improvement in his first and only year.
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He was available to Crocker and the USMNT because he did not agree with club decisions to sell off young talents including Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah, among other disagreements with those in charge. They mutually agreed to part ways, as they say in the business now, which could not have been more felicitous for U.S. Soccer.
Pochettino has no experience in the international game, other than playing. He earned 20 caps for the Argentina national team and appeared at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. He will need to grow accustomed to the extended periods when there are no games, and he’ll have to develop the team in a period when there will be little competitive intensity because qualification for 2026 was assured the moment the tournament was awarded to North America.
There will be pressure upon the players, though, to earn positions and playing time. As a group, the players took advantage of their role in preserving Berhalter’s job through the World Cup controversy involving Gio Reyna and the investigation of the coach’s past behavior that grew from that. There will be no doubt who is in charge the next time the team gathers.
Pochettino, as well, will have the longest of honeymoons in relation to the fan base. Berhalter was rejected by legions from the moment he was hired. Pochettino never will know that feeling. If he succeeds in 2026, he will be forever embraced as a hero among American soccer fans. If the team struggles, he can move onto another club position and never look back.
U.S. Soccer found its ideal candidate. Pochettino found his ideal next job. Such perfection is rare in sports.
