Two days after the U.S. men’s national team suffered yet another deflating loss to one of FIFA’s Top 25 teams, coach Mauricio Pochettino on Monday doubled down on his post-match contention that the Americans had actually outplayed South Korea in Saturday’s 2-0 loss.
Speaking in Columbus, Ohio ahead of Tuesday’s friendly against Japan, the former Chelsea, Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain manager said he was even more pleased with how his team played after reviewing the match.
“We performed, despite the result, in a very good way,” Pochettino said. “The players did what we wanted.”
The highly-regarded 53-year-old Argentine has come under increasing scrutiny as the one-year anniversary of his high-profile hiring approaches on Wednesday. He has posted a record of nine wins, six losses, and one draw in 16 matches.
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Mauricio Pochettino is approaching one year in charge of the U.S. men’s national team. (Photo by Howard Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)
But two of those defeats came against chief rival Mexico. And after a full strength USMNT was upset by Canada and Panama in March’s Concacaf Nations League finals, Pochettino summoned a mostly MLS-based squad for the Gold Cup in June and July.
This month, he again left several European-based mainstays — 2022 World Cup veterans Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah and Antonee “Jedi” Robinson among them — home, opening the door for criticism if results suffered as a result.
It came swiftly in the wake of Saturday’s defeat.
“Of course I want to win,” a notably defensive Pochettino said on Monday. “I wanted to win against South Korea. I want to win tomorrow against Japan.
“You know very well that we are very competitive,” he went on. “But at the same time also is the process and the plan. We have to stick with that, and the players know very well that’s what we are doing.”
He also noted that in March, the Americans badly underperformed despite having what looked on paper to be almost all of their top players.
“We all remember March, and I think you [the media] were all agreeing with me, with the roster, with everything,” he said. “That was a wake up call…we needed to start a different process and a different approach.”
That process, he insisted, is ongoing.
“Normally, the process starts to work after three, three-and-a-half years,” he said. “In less than one year, I think that process started to work. Maybe not in results. But maybe tomorrow starts to work in results.
“We have a plan, he added. We have no worries. We have no worries about nothing. Only we stick with the plan. We are with the player. We are very, very strong group now.”
Christian Pulisic had a quiet outing in his return to the U.S. men’s team. (Photo by Stephen Nadler/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
McKennie, Musah, and Robinson aren’t the only USMNT mainstays left home this month. So were attackers Malik Tillman and Ricardo Pepi who, like Robinson, returned from injury for thier clubs just before the current international window opened on Sept. 1. Pochettino explained his thinking in omitting them this month.
“Malik Tillman was really important,” during the Gold Cup, he said. “After the Gold Cup, he starts preseason and gets injured.
“He played the last game before [camp opened, for Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen]. But it’s a risk to call him, and I think we all agree that it’s a player that’s good for us,” Pochettino continued. “It’s not because we don’t want to call him or to play with him.”
In the meantime, another player can use those minutes to make a case for inclusion on the World Cup squad next summer.
“Tillman needs to know that there’s another guy in behind, pushing [him],” Pochettino said.
The U.S. coach also took the opportunity to address the Americans’ naysayers directly.
“If people sometimes want to talk about bull***t, they can talk about bulls**t,” he said. “To be critical is one thing, because I like the critics when you say things that are right. But when it’s criticism for criticism?
“You are damaging your country and damaging your players,” Pochettino said. “We need to be positive. We need to be all together, because the country deserves that we are all on one side trying to help arrive at the World Cup in the best condition and be competitive, to do something that makes our fans proud.”
“I want to win tomorrow,” he added. “But the most important thing is to arrive in a very good condition and win the first game, the second game, the third game, go to the next round.
“No one is going to remember this press conference if that happens.”
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.
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