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Mauricio Pochettino delivering on promises as USMNT set for Mexico, Canada tests
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- Mauricio Pochettino delivering on promises as USMNT set for Mexico, Canada tests
The United States men's national team has emerged from the 2026 World Cup in fine fettle, as manager Mauricio Pochetitno is pushing all the right buttons to earn praise from even the deepest skeptics.
Pochettino took some big risks in his first action since re-upping for another World Cup cycle, leaving Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie out of the team while calling upon plenty of inexperience and leaning on the player he trusts — some of them far outside the online echo chamber. Any USMNT manager making the same decisions would've raised some eyebrows.
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MORE — USMNT come back, beat Chile
It hasn't been perfect and, of course, it wasn't going to be when a team faces two CONMEBOL opponents — albeit still on home soil as all matches have been since late 2024 — with a host of teenagers featuring prominently in the red, white, and blue.
The Yanks beat Peru 4-1 on Saturday with kids all over the score sheet and lead-by-example showings from World Cup stars Malik Tillman and Tyler Adams . Sebastian Berhalter was also fantastic off the bench, and he dragged that into the Starting XI in joining Antonee Robinson and Sergino Dest in helping the USMNT to a 4-2 win over Chile that featured a quick response to a 2-1 deficit.
Now, as the Americans prepare for friendlies against in-form and eternal rivals Mexico and Canada , Pochettino could lead the Yanks out of a friendly international break with as much institutional strength as it's shown in decades.
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Pochettino's bravery backed by mainstays new and old
Any indictment of the USMNT from their historic 2017 World Cup failure in Couva to Gregg Berhalter's successful qualification for the 2022 edition was pretty ridiculous.
Berhalter used a massive youth movement to his advantage and put the Yanks at or near their CONCACAF pedestal. A colossal clusterfunk followed, with player power past and present leading to his dismissal, rehiring, and second ouster — decades-old off-field stories allegedly leaked by new-age youth soccer parents leading to a cancel culture moment too ridiculous for inclusion in a made-for-TV, after-school teen movie.
There is no perfect revolution, and so what came out of Berhalter's project had some strange aftertastes. Some players in the throne room of the CONCACAF kings came to camp with an off-field entitlement. New boss Pochettino entered from a major club setting and found some things he had to address to move the project to a new level. Some happened early, and some had to wait until the World Cup had left its mark on the country.
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There's been an amusing bit of U.S. Soccer irony in this period. Pochettino is using a Berhalter and a Reyna to construct the next step. Consider the arrogance — not always a bad word — and ambition it takes to back yourself to handle the unwieldy project of leaving out superstars and bringing in kids in this era of American soccer hyperventilation.
When you call in this many kids, you have immense trust in the room because you're essentially saying, "This is the program. Follow the leaders."
Adams, Richards, Tillman, Robinson, Dest, Berhalter. Three dual nationals, two of MLS' best academy products, and a sixth player who's technically a dual-national — born in London when dad Gregg played for Palace — and found an upbringing through Hammarby, Columbus Crew , and even a bit of college soccer.
The USMNT being led (again) by a Berhalter
The 25-year-old Berhalter could've easily been left out of the team after signing for a new club abroad in Middlesbrough, so Pochettino's call-up rings loudly through camp.
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Berhalter was already well on his way to mainstay status but this camp already feels like Tillman's run through the Gold Cup, when he stepped into the void left by Pulisic and showed the attack can flow through him.
Peru and Chile are not Brazil and Argentina , but Berhalter has a goal and an assist against both to go with the same score lines against Uruguay and Turkiye.
It's wild the progression. Who knows the ceiling for Berhalter defending against elite competition but he's just into his prime. Over 20 caps, he's gone from "Wow, you have to love his passion and service on free kicks" to "How does he fit into Pochettino's best XI?"
Along with the kids, he's showing the player pool what's possible.
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Hype/hope train chugs into CONCACAF foes with interesting questions
Up next are two big regional measuring sticks, both of whom reached the World Cup knockout rounds as tri-hosts. Mexico is coming off an impressive 1-1 draw with Colombia and a matching split with Peru. Canada beat Chile 1-0 and will have faced Peru by the time they tangle with the Yanks in Minnesota.
Scorewise, there's reason to believe the Yanks — who've yet to play all their regulars together from the start — could make a confederation-wide statement ahead of next month's Nations League quarterfinals.
The Yanks are going to head into these matches as mildly-favored hosts but with weaknesses that could go either way. They could certainly lose both matches and it could slow the hype, but not the hope. Nothing changes about the strength shown by Pochettino and his staff.
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Pochettino needs to find a No. 1 goalkeeper and the right center back to pair with Richards. Three of the back four is set and the midfield should be fine, too.
He rotated minutes and almost everyone got into the feel-good vibes of the past two wins. Now we may well see more of a Best XI with a TBD goalkeeper behind Robinson, Richards, Trusty, Freeman, Adams, Berhalter, Tillmann, Dest, Reyna, and a TBD center forward.
Friendlies or not, if Pochettino rolls out of this break with an unbeaten mark, the passengers of the hype and hope trains will merge into one car en route to November.
