United States men's national team head coach, Mauricio Pochettino, has called on his players to adopt the same mentality as the Argentine national team.
Pochettino was hired as the new USMNT coach on Sept. 10, 2024, and tasked with leading the U.S. through the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The stakes are even higher due to the U.S. sharing hosting rights with Mexico and Canada, and Pochettino revealed shortly after being hired that reaching the quarter-finals was the goal set by U.S. Soccer.
In an attempt to change the culture of the USMNT, Pochettino is urging his players to adopt a winning mentality and decided to stick close to home when using his native Argentina as an example. Argentina will enter the 2026 World Cup as the reigning champions, and also won the Copa America last summer.
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The USMNT is in a tough spot – although they bypass World Cup qualification due to being a host nation, that means the team won't face top-quality opponents in a competitive nature until the tournament begins. Pochettino's plan is clear: go to war on the pitch regardless of the occasion and who you're facing.
"When we are seeing different national teams, today we talked about Argentina because it's the [world] champion and they have very good players," Pochettino told ESPN. "But for me the most important difference it's the mentality.
"How they compete as a group and the belief that they have and when they go to the pitch, they go to war and to defend your badge, your flag and that is what we need to create. We need to translate to our players that it's not only going to be a soccer game, we need to go one step forward to compete better."
Pochettino has only coached four games as USMNT coach, winning three and suffering one loss against Mexico. It's been a positive start for Pochettino, but he wants to continue building momentum and look to boost the culture before next year.
"[Right now] the mentality is really good, I think we have a very good mentality, a very good culture," Pochettino added. "Sometimes there's a moment when you go up and down, the most important is to be consistent, to keep your capacity and your mentality."
With the tournament so far away, and qualification already secured, Pochettino is using the initial international friendlies as an opportunity to call up inexperienced players. Pochettino wants to observe the entire pool of talent at his disposal, before making his final roster decision next year.
"For me, the most important factor [in calling up a player] is how they are performing in their club. It's true that we have different situations in which maybe they don't play too much in their club," said Pochettino. "But we consider it before calling them up because they are important for the group. They perform here, even if they don't play too much.
"We always analyze things differently, with different ways for different players. We don't use the same standard of rules to assess players in the same way."
