New USMNT coach shares philosophy for making team a contender in 2026 World Cup
Mauricio Pochettino has a lot of work to do to turn around the U.S. Men’s National Team before America hosts the 2026 World Cup. “Poch” walks us through his plans.
When we look back at 2024, it could be remembered as one of the more crucial years in U.S. men’s national team history.
The impact of this year won’t be fully felt until 2026, a year that the USMNT has been building towards ever since FIFA awarded the World Cup to the United States, Mexico and Canada in 2018.
U.S. Soccer thought they had their coach for 2026 in Gregg Berhalter, who was brought back last year for another go-round. But after a disastrous showing at the Copa América, the federation was forced into a change.
With Mauricio Pochettino at the helm and the calendar nearing 2025, these are vital moments for a USMNT desperate to make an impact at its first home World Cup in 32 years.
The events of 2024 will likely have a major bearing on whatever happens in 2026. Let’s take a look back at the five biggest USMNT stories of the year.
Pulisic levels up
If the USMNT wants to make noise at the 2026 World Cup, it will have to do what it hasn’t been able to do in recent years: beat some of the world’s best teams.
Winning those kinds of matches will require almost everything to go right, and players who can be difference-makers at the highest levels.
In Christian Pulisic, the USMNT finally has the kind of player who can realistically produce match-winning moments against world-class opposition.
Take, for example, this season’s Milan derby.
To have an American score this kind of goal in this kind of match? It’s unprecedented. For Pulisic, this year saw these kinds of moments become almost routine.
Since the start of last season, Pulisic is the only Serie A player to record at least 20 goals and 15 assists in all competitions. Last season saw the 26-year-old named as one of three finalists for the Serie A Midfielder of the Year award. This season, he’s been even better.
With eight goals and five assists as the season approaches its halfway point, Pulisic leads his team in both categories as he’s become one of the unquestioned stars not only of the Rossoneri, but Serie A as a whole.
These are the kind of levels that American fans dreamed Pulisic could reach when he emerged as a 17-year-old with the USMNT and Borussia Dortmund. With a potentially career-defining World Cup around the corner, Pulisic is at a career high point.
USMNT takes over Europe
When Tim Weah’s cross found Weston McKennie for a sensational scissor kick goal against Manchester City, it made history as the first American-to-American connection for a UEFA Champions League goal.
For USMNT great Landon Donovan, though, the moment was significant for its relative lack of significance.
“When I watch that [goal] and I see the clips on social media, I’m excited, but I’m not like out of my boots, over the moon, I can’t believe this,” Donovan said on his podcast this week. “You know why? Because those guys have gone over now and done it consistently, and so you don’t get overly crazy.
“French players, Brazilian players, Spanish players, people aren’t going crazy when two of them link up for a goal in the Champions League now because they’re used to it, and we’re starting to get to a point where we used to it.”
During Donovan’s career, it was rare for Americans to feature prominently in the Champions League, and even more rare to see them at top clubs.
This season, 11 Americans have participated in Europe’s top club competition. With plenty of games remaining, Americans have already made a record 51 total appearances in the Champions League this season.
As Pochettino continues to build a squad to challenge in 2026, he’ll be able to call upon more players than ever tested at the highest levels in Europe.
Copa America disaster
This summer’s Copa América had a unique significance. Not only was it a chance for the USMNT to test itself against South America’s best on home soil, it was also one of the last meaningful competitions prior to the 2026 World Cup.
There was also a sense that Gregg Berhalter was coaching for his USMNT future, following an underwhelming series of results since he was reappointed in the summer of 2023.
If the narrative coming out of the 2022 World Cup painted a picture of a potential global power on the rise, the Copa América turned that story upside down.
After a shocking group stage exit, the USMNT was rudderless, uninspired, and soon to be without a coach.
It all started promisingly enough. The U.S. wasn’t at its best, but still dominated Bolivia in a 2-0 win to begin the tournament.
Then came one of the most consequential defeats in recent program history, fueled by one of the most inexplicable moments in recent program history.
There is a real argument to be made that absent Tim Weah’s momentary loss of brain function, the USMNT would have advanced from the group stage and Berhalter would still be the head coach.
But there were still chances for Berhalter’s side to rescue a result against Panama, even after Weah’s red card. Folarin Balogun scored just minutes after his team went down to 10 men, only for the USMNT to throw away that lifeline by conceding four minutes later.
The U.S. almost escaped with a draw, but Panama finally found a winner in the 83rd minute.
Even after that stunning 2-1 loss, the USMNT still could have advanced if it achieved the one thing Berhalter’s five years in charged lacked: a signature win against a non-Concacaf power.
But against a fierce and physical Uruguay side, the USMNT shrank in a 1-0 defeat. Tournament over.
As for the coach…
Berhalter out
Nine days after the loss to Uruguay, Berhalter was officially sacked.
U.S. Soccer executives were loathe to fire Berhalter for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that his dismissal was a glaring indictment of their own decision making.
The firing came just one year after U.S. Soccer concluded an extensive search by re-hiring Berhalter, who had already coached the team for four years when his contract expired following the 2022 World Cup.
At the time, the decision to retain Berhalter was controversial but defensible. The USMNT appeared to be on the upswing and crucially, the coach had the public backing of some of his key players in the wake of a salacious scandal involving Claudio and Danielle Reyna.
But Berhalter’s second stint in charge was uninspiring even before the USMNT was stunningly bounced in the group stage of the Copa América on home soil.
Berhalter lost six of the 14 games he oversaw during his second stint, with four of those losses coming before the Copa América. After Berhalter’s firing, we spotlighted five games that cost him his job — one of which was actually a win.
Firing Berhalter was no knee-jerk reaction from U.S. Soccer. Judging even from pre-Copa results, there was a case to be made that a change was needed.
Post Copa América? There was really only one decision that could have been made.
Poch takes over
With two years until a defining World Cup on home soil, U.S. Soccer got pragmatic with its choice of a replacement for Berhalter.
It was simple: Find the best coach available, throw a bunch of money at him (with a little help from some rich friends) and dare him to say no.
That combination led to a title that would have seemed unfathomable just a few years earlier: USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino.
Unlike some of his predecessors, Pochettino’s mandate is simple. The Argentine will be judged solely on the 2026 World Cup. If the USMNT does well, his tenure will be a success. If not, it will be a failure.
That’s it.
Jürgen Klinsmann was not only the USMNT head coach but also U.S. Soccer’s technical director, responsible for overseeing the program’s vision from top to bottom. Pochettino has no such mandate.
It will certainly make it easy to grade the Argentine’s performance, and it will also ratchet up the pressure on a highly regarded coach, but one who is still embarking on his first journey in the international game.
His early steps with the USMNT were understandably mixed. A win over Panama in Pochettino’s debut was followed by a putrid display by a shorthanded side in Mexico.
In November, the U.S. cleared its first competitive hurdle under Pochettino with back-to-back wins over Jamaica in the Nations League quarterfinal.
But these results — and basically the entire year to come — are mere appetizers. Poch’s pass/fail exam is coming in 2026.
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Publish date : 2024-12-19 02:53:00
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