According to multiple reports, including The Athletic, Mauricio Pochettino has agreed to become the new head coach of the United States national team and everything indicates that this will be a very successful appointment for the United States Soccer Federation.
The Argentine coach is a big name but also the perfect combination of the right coaching philosophy and qualities to take this young and talented US national team to the next level.
But why is he the perfect man at the moment?
Famous for training young talent
The former coach of Espanyol, Southampton, Tottenham, PSG and Chelsea is renowned for developing young talent and, over the past few years, the United States national team has had plenty of them. That’s the main reason he was hired, and US Soccer Federation technical director Matt Crocker knows this first-hand, having worked with Pochettino at Southampton in 2013.
Over the past 11 years, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Cole Palmer are just a few examples of youngsters inspired by Pochettino’s demanding but nurturing style of coaching and personnel management.
And if you look at the two jobs where he really made his name at Southampton and Tottenham, Pochettino’s focus was on nurturing young talent, being a father figure to them and making not just individuals better, but developing a team of losers to consistently perform better and excel.
The USMNT must take this next step and this current team is very similar to Pochettino’s previous projects, as they resemble Southampton who was struggling to stay in the top six or Tottenham who was struggling to stay in the top four and then for the title. The USMNT has the potential to make it into the top 10 and go very far in international tournaments, but they need to work harder than ever to take that final step. Pochettino can take them on that journey. He has shown he can do it.’
The USMNT has Christian Pulisic, Folarin Balogun, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Sergino Dest, Yunus Musah and Gio Reyna, all of whom are 25 years old or younger but need a new chapter and challenge with the national team.
Pochettino will demand that they step up, push themselves to the limit and provide a highly demanding and difficult work environment. Adams recently said that this young team needs to take the next step and join the top 10 teams in the world, and the style of play will be exciting to watch and in line with the physical and destructive nature of teams from past United States national teams.
The pressure is off, for now
With the United States national team two years away from the 2026 World Cup on home soil, Pochettino knows he has job security and that will help his project to rejuvenate a talented but faltering US team.
Whatever happens in the next two years doesn’t really matter. There will be no calls for him to be fired.
Pochettino has two years to prepare his team to compete in the 2026 World Cup and the first time they will be judged based on results is in July 2026. That’s extremely beneficial for him, but it also reassures this young team from the United States national group.
Of course, the United States national team will want to perform well at the 2025 Gold Cup next summer and go into the 2026 World Cup with positive momentum. But the truth is, Pochettino has two years to prepare his team for June 2026.
It benefits both parties
When a coach is hired, it sometimes seems like the coach, the club or the national team has won the deal. Everybody wins in this movement.
While high-level jobs are rare in Europe for a coach of his caliber (Real Madrid seems to be his next logical step), Pochettino has two years to work on his training methods, fine-tune what he wants to develop and use the time he spends outside of daily training in club soccer to really focus on his message and his philosophy.
The fact that he accepted his first national team job relatively early in his coaching career is really interesting, as he follows in the footsteps of his mentor Marcelo Bielsa, who was a club coach for many years, then managed Chile and Argentina before returning to club coaching and is now back in international coaching with Uruguay.
Many coaches will coach a national team at the end of his career, however, Pochettino could follow Bielsa’s example and turn to international football for his next step and, if successful, he will have plenty of options after the 2026 World Cup, whether it be with the Argentina national team or football at the club level.
Make no mistake, the fact that Pochettino has agreed to become the head coach of the United States national team is a huge achievement for the American federation and will benefit both parties.
