The honeymoon is over. After winning the first three editions of the Concacaf Nations League, the U.S. men’s national team’s fourth-place finish following very forgettable losses to Panama and Canada in Los Angeles erased the optimism about the Mauricio Pochettino era.
Pochettino, though, took a different tone after the two defeats.
“I want to send a message to the fans. Don’t be pessimistic and don’t get bad feelings… I don’t want that the people feel pessimistic,” the manager said after a rotated U.S. team fell 2-1 against Canada on Sunday. “Disappointed? Disappointed, we are all. And the fans need to feel the disappointment that we didn’t win. But I don’t want to allow [them] to feel pessimistic, because I think we have good players. We are going to find a way to perform. And for sure we are going to compete in a different way.”
With the World Cup fifteen months away, it’s not time to panic. Not yet. Pochettino framed the March window as a learning experience and noted there’s time. But he acknowledged, “If we will be in this situation in one year’s time, for sure I will tell you: ‘Houston, we have a problem. SOS.’”
So, where does the USMNT find itself 15 months before their World Cup campaign kicks off at the very same SoFi Stadium where their new era hit a new low? From Los Angeles, Backheeled collected thoughts from Pochettino and his key players to learn the answer to that question.
