{"id":2600,"date":"2026-06-21T11:38:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T11:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2600"},"modified":"2026-06-21T11:38:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T11:38:50","slug":"mauricio-pochettino-meticulously-built-usmnt-culture-of-total-belief-in-chance-at-special-world-cup-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2600","title":{"rendered":"Mauricio Pochettino meticulously built USMNT culture of ‘total belief’ in chance at special World Cup run"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

IRVINE, Calif. \u2014 At so many points over the past year, Mauricio Pochettino had to ask people to trust in what he was doing and let his process play out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Breaking down potential foes for USMNT in World Cup round of 32<\/a><\/p>\n

The decision to use last summer\u2019s Gold Cup as a testing ground was, in some part, foisted on him \u2014 Christian Pulisic declined to go, others were injured or playing in the Club World Cup \u2014 but bringing in 14 players with five or fewer caps instead of something as close as possible to his best team was Pochettino\u2019s decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At so many points before and after, the Nations League last March, the South Korea loss last September, this team looked nowhere. The clock was ticking. The identity, as late as this March, hadn\u2019t fallen into place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, after winning consecutive games at the World Cup for the first time in 96 years and clinching its group with one game still to play?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Look through the roster from the Gold Cup. Matt Freese, Alex Freeman and Sebastian Berhalter all came to that camp with zero caps for the senior national team. All three played in both of the first two World Cup games; Freese is the starting goalkeeper, Freeman scored in the 2-0 win against Australia on Friday and Pochettino said he \u201chas potential to be one of the best players in his position in the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tactical growing pains, the culture Pochettino sacrificed multiple camps to instill? It was all done to make sure the USMNT would arrive at the World Cup ready, and here it is: a flexible, versatile group that can lose Pulisic to injury, play in a two-striker setup it hasn\u2019t used before and be at ease.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone had asked me after the South Korea game my thoughts on that, and very immediately [I] said we\u2019re all in total belief,\u201d Freese said. \u201cWe\u2019re all totally supportive and have faith in the process he\u2019s been outlining to us. Our task was to keep believing, keep working hard, keep trusting and we did that. I don\u2019t think at any point \u2014 there was never questions, anything like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pochettino can put Malik Tillman deep in a defensive midfield partnership with Tyler Adams, build his tactical setup around Sergi\u00f1o Dest being on the wing with Freeman behind him as a third center back, and start Ricardo Pepi alongside Folarin Balogun up top.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No one but no one had any of that on their bingo cards a year ago. But this is why U.S. Soccer opened its checkbooks \u2014 or rather, its donors\u2019 checkbooks \u2014 to bring in an accomplished manager with Pochettino\u2019s tactical acumen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Deniz Undav\u2019s two goals rally Germany past Ivory Coast in wild comeback to clinch knockout spot<\/a><\/p>\n

(By the way, AC Milan hired a manager last week, Ruben Amorim. Now would be a good time for Ken Griffin to reach into his pocket again, if it\u2019s not hurting too bad from the mayor\u2019s pied-a-terre tax.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Until now, the USMNT\u2019s potential and talent have always been more of an idea than something truly realized. There was a Nations League win in 2021, a Gold Cup win the same year, a promising World Cup in 2022, plenty of players doing things at their club teams that made you believe, plenty of points where they looked like the top dog in CONCACAF.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But they never looked \u2014 they never came that close to looking \u2014 like a team that could make a real run at a World Cup, or beat some of the best countries in the world. The collection of names was impressive. The collective was just OK.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if we want to win and we want to be one of the good teams, dreaming big, I think we all need to talk about the team,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cAbout the U.S. national team, and not the names.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Pochettino unlocked something on the field that wasn\u2019t there until his 26-man roster showed up in New York just under a month ago. The U.S. still needs that elusive statement win to announce itself, but what this team has accomplished so far in rendering its final group game a dead rubber, beating Paraguay and Australia emphatically and with tactical style, is a better foundation for belief than this program has had, possibly, ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a building thing,\u201d captain Tim Ream said. \u201cThere\u2019s not one specific moment. You take moments from all the games, from all the training sessions and you build with it. \u2026 You start to realize and put things together that, you know what, we have all the tools, all the pieces to do what we want to do and what\u2019s being asked of us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know where this run ends, when Pulisic will be back, whether this team will ultimately fulfill its potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What we do know is that the potential is no longer on paper. We\u2019ve seen it now. This team, under this manager, can do something special.<\/p>\n

Read more Erling Haaland has Sydney Sweeney on his mind during World Cup: \u2018Thinking of her\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was all done to make sure the USMNT would arrive at the World Cup ready, and here they are: a flexible, versatile group that can lose Pulisic to injury, play in a two-striker setup it hasn\u2019t used before and be at ease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer","category-world-cup-2026"],"yoast_head":"\nMauricio Pochettino meticulously built USMNT culture of 'total belief' in chance at special World Cup run - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2600\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mauricio Pochettino meticulously built USMNT culture of 'total belief' in chance at special World Cup run - 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