Mauricio Pochettino has reached an agreement to coach the United States men’s national team, with ESPN’s Mark Ogden and The Athletic’s David Ornstein.
The 52-year-old guided Tottenham Hotspur to the 2019 Champions League final and won Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain in 2021-22. More recently, he and Chelsea mutually agreed on component tactics after a season, in which the Blues finished sixth. in the First Division.
Pochettino will succeed Gregg Berhalter, who was fired in July after the USMNT finished third in his organization at the Copa América.
10 questions, one life. Log in to play Streaks, B/R’s sports quiz game.
Once former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp made it clear that he wasn’t interested in the job, Pochettino became the biggest call-up who seemed like a realistic target for American football.
Tottenham, Southampton and Espanyol in La Liga have exceeded their objectives with the Argentine coach on the wing. Although his spells at PSG and Chelsea are not remembered, he is far from the first coach to succumb to wider problems with each club. In the case of the latter, a sixth place finish, an encouraging result considering what he is facing.
Tactically, Pochettino also praised his taste that emphasizes urgency and attack.
However, this rental is risk-free.
As with Klopp, part of Pochettino’s good luck is due to the way he has nurtured and developed young talent. The national team setup sometimes doesn’t allow a coach to have the same kind of influence because he doesn’t work with the players every day for months.
To some extent, the USMNT looks a bit like its last two stops.
Pochettino’s arrival means expectations will be higher than ever. It will be enough for him to win the United States; He will have to do it insistently and attractively.
Think about it, we are a few months away from the entire USMNT Twitter calling for Pochettino’s dismissal.
The poor performance of the Copa América and the dismissal of Berhalter demonstrate how much the team and the American football leaders have failed.
The USMNT has more skill than ever, but something is inherently missing.
Yes, my half-hearted view is that the existing organization has a high-level skill that rarely existed in the USMNT; What they just don’t have is the mentality that America has in the 90’s and 2000’s. These bands were full of absolute mentality monsters and were very tight knit. https://t. co/763VKtreJC
On an administrative level, it remains to be seen if U. S. Soccer will be able to get out of this. The timeline for Berhalter’s dismissal is a tale in itself given that he fired after his contract expired, only to be rehired.
Bringing in Pochettino will be important to American football in many ways, especially if he can allow a coach of this level to thrive.