MAurizio Pochettino came to the U.S. Men's National Team job with the sterling resume of anyone in charge of the program, and he introduced to the U.S. media that he believes hosting the 2026 World Cup on home soil will allow the team to win. Along with Canada and Mexico.
It sounded like the beginning of a revolution. His first team, named last week, was anything but.
Despite numerous injuries and plenty of opportunities for him to shake things up, the collection of players assembled this international window could be imagined by his predecessor Greg Berhalter. There are no uncapped players in the 25 that will mark the start of the Pochettino era against Panama this Saturday and Mexico on Tuesday. Perhaps the most surprising additions are goalkeeper Zach Steffen, who returns to the team after being a starter for the 2022 World Cup, and Marlon Fossey, whose role in this team is deep at right-back. Sergino Test, on his return from injury. For a window that's all about change, American fans have seen most of them many times before.
What is less visible is revealed instead. With familiar faces on the field, the focus is entirely on what's coming from the sidelines. More than any individual player, this window will be a test of Pochettino and the staff he brought with him from his widely successful stops at PSG, Chelsea, Tottenham and Espanyol.
“I feel like we've learned a lot already,” midfielder Brendan Aaronson told reporters Thursday. “We definitely know the intensity we want to play with. We want to play with more intensity, play in the other team's half, have the ball, and yes, I think what he wants is a confident team.
Pochettino has precious little time to instill that confidence, one of the many new hurdles he faces as a first-time international manager.
Most pressingly, key players are unavailable due to injury, there is no transfer market to rely on for changes and there is no chance of a game-time decision for injuries that are healed and ready by Saturday or Tuesday. Seven players from the 2024 Copa America squad (Gio Reyna, Fowler Balogun, Tim Wee, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Tyler Adams, Luca de la Torre and Chris Richards) will miss this window due to various illnesses, the same as starter Sergino Test. Continues to recover from ACL tear. In a cruel twist, several young and unproven players may have been given a chance in their absence through injury or recovery (among them Kevin Paredes, Kate Cowell and Caleb Wiley).
Pochettino must also work out how to integrate players at different levels of the club's structure into a cohesive whole. Within this USMNT roster alone, he will have the services of two leaders who are currently enjoying strong runs, with Christian Pulisic emerging as a major force for AC Milan and Weston McKenney essentially forcing him to stay despite speculation that he would prefer Juventus. will be sold. Pochettino will oversee players in need of a jumpstart, such as Tanner Dessmann, who has started just once since arriving at Lyon in a big move from Venezia and was a healthy scratch in the recent game against Rangers, and secure a permanent place in the same AC Milan team as the struggling Yunus Musa Pulisic.
Then there are the goalkeepers, either at international level (Patrick Schulte), in poor condition (Ethan Horvath, who hasn't led a shutout since April), second choice for his club (Matt Turner) or still looking to recapture the consistency that made him a national team player in the first place (Steffen). .
If Pochettino takes this short-handed team and leads them to better performances than we saw in the Copa America, the whole narrative and momentum around this team changes.
“Part of the job of being a manager is how to get those guys from different parts of the world, from all different teams and leagues, to be on the same page,” defender Tim Ream said on Wednesday. “They have to manage the travel, the minutes played, the teams playing against the guys, and try to make all those things into a solid team, bring the personalities and the people together.”
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With that in mind, it's either a very good thing or a very bad thing for the US to go up against teams in this window. In Panama, they will face a side that, if not officially, has been effectively seeded in a do-or-die test against Uruguay after a surprising 2-1 win in their second group game at the Copa America. Losing will always be an uphill battle for America
In international football, a one-off decision like this can hold sway over a team for some time – don't see the repeat of Goa's calls in meetings between Trinidad and Tobago and the United States over the past seven years. After T&T blocked the U.S. path to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the U.S. didn't get a chance to get revenge until 2019. Saturday's meeting with Panama comes just three-and-a-half months apart. A victory, decisive or otherwise, will help prove that this is indeed a new era. Any other decision, regardless of performance, will delay the onset of those good feelings for a while.
From there the window doesn't get much less meaningful. Although Mexico's men's national team has been plagued by indifferent-poor performances over the past few years, talent-wise they remain America's primary rivals in the region. Cultural and historical touches are always there, friendships too. The best-case scenario is success in maintaining the status quo. Any other result, and there would be an argument that Pochettino may have taken on a bigger plan than initially thought.
“It's always an important match for us, a rare friendly against a rival,” said striker Josh Sargent of the match with Mexico. “But especially with a new manager, you want to get off on the right foot and get a couple of wins under our belt.
Results are often not objective in friendships – their non-competitiveness usually makes them more of a place for processes than anything else. This window is one where that thinking doesn't apply. It's not about the stakes – it's about the new leader of a high-potential team, and his only chance at his first appearance.
