U.S. Soccer might have high hopes this coach with connections with Chelsea is as good as the other.
Yesterday, Tuesday, Aug 25, more than a month after he was rumored to have taken up the new role, Mauricio Pochettino was finally appointed the head coach of the United States men’s national team. Pochettino now has less than two years to lift the underperforming team’s fortunes before the 2026 World Cup — you guessed it — in the United States and other locations in North America, including Canada and Mexico.
The news was made public just a few hours before the match between the USMNT and New Zealand, a friendly that took place with Mikey Varas as an acting coach. The USMNT’s next game is scheduled for Oct 12 at the Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas, and that will be Pochettino’s first as the team’s manager.
This is Pochettino’s first-ever international job. However, he has been among the most successful European club coaches in the recent past. He reached the Champions League final as a manager with Tottenham in 2019 while achieving the French league title with Paris Saint-Germain in 2022.
“Mauricio is a serial winner with a significant passion for developing players and assembling unity throughout coherent and competitive squads.” U.S. soccer sporting director Matt Crocker, who worked together with Pochettino on the Southampton team, says: “He is the one with quite an impressive record, and I am sure that he is the one who is ready to inspire the future of our talented team giving them a worthy coach.”
Pochettino won’t come cheap. His contract at Chelsea earned him over $13 million annually, a figure way higher than the $2. In the year 2023, Gregg Berhalter earned $ 3 million.
On Saturday, the USMNT lost to Canada on their home soil for the first time in a record 67 years.
This year’s instruction will also need to build around a defense that needs to be rebuilt and, amazingly, for a side that boasts of Tim Howard and the legendary Kasey Keller, among others, come up with a top-quality goalkeeper.
Like Hayes, however, one thing going for Pochettino is his experience. The Argentine is undoubtedly the most führtätige trainer the USMNT has ever hired. Apart from managing some of Europe’s best clubs, he has worked with the best talents in world football, including Harry Kane while at Tottenham and PSG, Lionel Messi, and Kylian Mbappé other and Mbappe at PSG. He is the person that is capable of building players, as well as to inspire them.
Pochettino also played professionally in Argentina, Spain, and France. The central defender first started his European adventure within Espanyol which was also his first venture into the managing position.
