Players back the coach on his way out
The USMNT dressing room is not hiding its feelings about Mauricio Pochettino. Speaking at U.S. Soccer’s training center on Thursday, several players lined up to praise the Argentine as reports said he was finalizing a move to Manchester United.
United sacked Michael Carrick earlier the same day after the club’s worst-ever start to a Premier League season. Pochettino had been linked with Old Trafford for days, and the timing caught the U.S. squad by surprise. He had only recently committed to stay on through the 2030 World Cup cycle after taking the Americans to the round of 16 in July.
Midfielder Sebastian Berhalter led the tributes. He credited Pochettino with building a foundation the group will keep, and with making the players prouder to represent their country despite being an Argentine coach himself. “I can’t thank him enough,” Berhalter said.
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A story with a twist for Berhalter
Those words carry extra weight. Berhalter’s father, Gregg, was fired as U.S. coach two months before Pochettino was appointed in September 2024. Sebastian had no senior caps at that point. Under Pochettino he became a regular and played all five of the team’s World Cup matches.
Folarin Balogun, the team’s top scorer at the World Cup with three goals in four appearances, was blunter. Given the choice, he said, he would keep things as they are, calling it a no-brainer to want a top coach to stay.
Defender Antonee Robinson said on Tuesday that the news had landed on the players just as it did on everyone else, and that the link to such big jobs reflected the quality of the man in charge.
Two games left, then a search
Pochettino is still expected on the bench for the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal against Haiti: the first leg in Miami on Saturday, the second in Cincinnati on Tuesday. He would leave with a record of 21 wins, 12 losses and two draws from 35 matches.
After that, U.S. Soccer needs a new head coach, barely three months after believing it had settled the question until 2030.
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