It is perhaps easy to hear Mauricio Pochettino say his new players must “believe” they can win the World Cup and roll your eyes.
It’s the sort of flashy soundbite in first press conferences that ambitious managers often produce.
What else could he say after all those months of international courting from his new employers, the red wine and steaks, the unprecedented financial package? “We need to look good in the group stages and maybe get to the round of 16”?
No, the Argentine is a winner and he talks like one. He is also aware that he faces two jobs with the United States men’s national team — not just the task of transforming the quality of the side in a relatively short time but also changing its mindset.
Asked about that limited time (just 10 international breaks and no tournament) before the U.S. co-hosts the World Cup in 2026, he said: “Everyone thinks that there is no time to prepare and arrive in the best condition at the World Cup.
Pochettino talks to the media in New York City on September 13 (Timothy A Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
“I’m on the opposite side. I don’t want to give an excuse. I don’t want to create an excuse for the players to say, ‘Yeah, but don’t have time to buy the new ideas and the new philosophy’. No. We are talking about football and the players are so intelligent and talented and can play differently.
“We have time and we need to really believe in big things. Believe that we can win not only a game, we can win the World Cup. If not, it is going to be very difficult. We want players that show up, day one at the training camp, and think big.
“That is the only way to create this philosophy or this idea to perform and put your talent in the service of the team. That is going to be our massive challenge.”
The crop of players he inherits are, by and large, an intelligent, realistic bunch. They’re also used to questions about what represents progress for this group. Interviews before and during this summer’s Copa America saw the topic arise frequently.
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“Getting past the quarter-final,” said midfielder Tyler Adams when asked in June what a positive outcome would look like. “We need to, in a pressure situation, win in a knockout (game). That’s going to measure a lot of our success.”
It was maybe not what some fans wanted to hear; a temporary lift from a war cry that promised silverware at the competition, widely billed as a dry run for the World Cup.
But if Adams was trying to set reasonable expectations, he was right. As it transpired, winning a knockout game would have been genuine progress for a team thrashed 5-1 by eventual Copa America finalists Colombia in a friendly on June 8.
Instead, the U.S. crashed out in the group stages, victims of an individual error from Tim Weah in the loss to Panama and then of lacking the quality to prevent that from proving fatal. Charged with beating Uruguay to progress, they just did not have enough.
Adams and the USMNT could not progress against Uruguay on July 1 (Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
So the scale of the task ahead should be of little surprise to Pochettino. It may sound nice but speaking, as he did, of emulating the serial success of the U.S. women’s national team seems fanciful too.
Deep down, he will probably know that as well. So, instead, he is publicly challenging his players from the very beginning to stop hiding. No excuses. No buying into the narrative that there just isn’t time.
It’s a gamble for the 52-year-old because the reality is the narrative is probably true and he will eventually be judged by his words and results. The U.S. has just lost to Canada and then could only draw with a New Zealand team 78 places below them in the world rankings this week.
Confidence is low and Pochettino knows that building some sort of collective belief is a crucial part of climbing off the ropes for this team and arriving at 2026 in the frame of mind to win big games.
It is unlikely he actually believes the USMNT will win the World Cup at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey in a little under two years. But a team often accused of lacking enough fight when it really counts needs to start thinking bigger and that’s the point.
The other part of his job is adjusting quickly to the entirely different demand of managing in international football, when the opportunities to build a team who will run through brick walls for you, as he did at his best at Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur, are limited.
“Every time we have the facility to be with them, we will be very clinical in giving them the information,” Pochettino added on Friday. “We need to be clever enough in the way we approach training to get the best from them.”
But even as he preferred, understandably, not to alienate some of his new players by listing the squad’s weaknesses in his official unveiling, another reality is that Pochettino must be ruthless.
He needs to find an elite goalkeeper fast. He needs to build a defence with the aggression and smarts that teams from his South American homeland display.
A better balance in midfield must arrive too, for a squad well-stocked with clever holding midfielders but short of consistent creativity. How long, for example, will he spend trying to unlock the puzzle of Gio Reyna?
Then he must unearth the striking solution that will drive a team that fluffed its lines in front of goal all too often at the Copa. Which of the promising group of youngsters that performed well at the Paris Olympics will he fast-track into his setup?
And he has to do all that while getting enough results along the way to take a partly sceptical U.S. fanbase along on the journey with him.
So don’t roll your eyes when Pochettino talks about believing the USMNT can win the World Cup. Maybe close them, instead, and offer a silent prayer for the divine intervention he might need to meet all his objectives in less than two years.
He will need every bit of help he can get.
(Top photo: Dustin Satloff/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)