Why Landon Donovan is ‘cautiously optimistic’ about USMNT links to Mauricio Pochettino

The United States Soccer Federation is expected to appoint Mauricio Pochettino as the next head coach of the men’s national team this week, a decision that, so far, has been met with heaps of praise due to the Argentinian manager’s experience in Europe with top clubs including Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea F.C. and Paris Saint-Germain F.C.

However, as USMNT legend Landon Donovan knows all too well, a manager with a strong resume doesn’t always equate to immediate success and synergy in the dressing room.

“I would say I’m cautiously optimistic,” Donovan said during an appearance on Alexi Lalas’ State of the Union Podcast. “We have seen over the last decade-plus that a big name — and I’ve seen it in my club career and national team career — means nothing. My personal opinion is that Pochettino’s much more than just a big name and I think he’s a very good manager, but we just don’t know how that’s all going to gel together.

“There are great managers who go into situations and have very little success for lots of different reasons. There are not great managers that go into a situation and have tremendous success, and even though sometimes it’s short lived, they do have tremendous success and there’s all sorts of reasons for that.”

The last time the USMNT hired an international manager with a track record of success in Europe was Jürgen Klinsmann in 2011. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Klinsmann led his country to a semifinal finish as the host nation, which landed him a job (albeit a short-lived one) with Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich later that year.

Unfortunately, Klinsmann wasn’t able to replicate his success with Germany in the U.S., ruffling the players of high-profile players on the team — most notably Donovan, who was infamously left off of the 2012 World Cup roster despite being the team’s captain and all-time leading scorer. Donovan is hopeful that Pochettino will take a different approach with this group of players.

“It’s definitely challenging, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work,” Donovan said. “Bora was here and there are other examples around the world of foreign coaches going into situations and doing a good job, but it’s incumbent upon the manager and the coach to really learn about the players, the culture, the country, and really ingrain themselves in all of that and integrate in a really meaningful way because then you get buy-in from the players really quickly.

“From everything I know and have heard of Pochettino, he’s going to excel massively in that way, but that is a big piece of it. Just like when a player goes to a foreign country, they’re immediately learning the language, learning the culture — fitting in that way is a big, big plus, and it goes a long way to your teammates and coaches when you try to do that. It’s not different the other way around.”

But Donovan also knows that time is off the essence with the 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, just around the corner.

“At this point, I don’t really care which way it goes, I just want us to be successful because this event is the biggest opportunity in the history of the men’s national team’s history to showcase ourselves, and it’s a really big opportunity to gain, literally, tens-of-millions of new fans and players, so it’s a huge opportunity.”

You can listen to the full interview with Landon Donovan below.

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