What did we learn from Mauricio Pochettino’s first USMNT games?

The temptation to portray Mauricio Pochettino as a real Ted Lasso was irresistible.

US Soccer certainly couldn’t resist. Before the Argentine’s first game as coach of the men’s national team, posters were made with his face and the word “believe” printed on them. The American Outlaws fan group couldn’t help themselves either, hanging a banner behind one of the goals at Austin’s Q2 Stadium that featured Pochettino in another obvious nod to Lasso iconography.

Sure, Pochettino has a certain optimistic, lasso-like energy about him. Spend a little time near it and you will be impressed by its everlasting sunshine. Great head of hair too, like Jason Sudeikis. And Pochettino, like the character Sudeikis plays, appears to be a keen believer in team chemistry.

But the lasso comparison ultimately and obviously falls flat: Pochettino may be a fish out of water in the United States, but the USMNT’s new coach is the ultimate insider – a football man with impeccable pedigree. He was Diego Maradona’s roommate when they played together for Newell’s; a new manager of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé; and an experienced navigator of Europe’s biggest clubs. He was recruited at great expense because he was one of the industry’s most accomplished and admired executives, to sprinkle his insider magic dust on a program that was still emerging from the outside.

That process got underway, albeit unevenly, in Pochettino’s first two games as manager in recent days.

On Saturday, the U.S. marked Pochettino’s debut with a convincing 2-0 win over Panama, avenging an ugly 10-man loss to the same opponents in June that left the Americans eliminated from the Copa Americá group stage. After a disastrous performance at that tournament that led to the firing of former head coach Gregg Berhalter, this was an encouraging start for a relatively young American team dubbed the golden generation but facing difficult questions about its true potential.

On the other hand, the Americans were largely dominated by Mexico on Tuesday with a 2-0 loss, their first against El Tri in five years, although it could have been far worse than the results showed. The big caveat here is that the Americans were missing a number of injured starters in Guadalajara, including key players like Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Sergiño Dest, Tim Weah and Folarin Balogun. Losses to an arch-rival are painful, but the circumstances soften the defeat. All in all, there was much encouraging in Pochettino’s first week on the job. If nothing else, Americans have rediscovered their zest and zeal for life after a disheartening series of pointless achievements.

There’s really nothing particularly complicated or revolutionary that Pochettino has done with the team so far. How could he do that after just one training camp? Stylistically, the Americans weren’t much different from the way Berhalter set up his team before he was fired. Panama coach Thomas Christiansen, for his part, noticed no real development between the fateful game on June 27 and Saturday. “Really, I had no feeling [there were] too many changes,” he said.

The difference lay elsewhere.

While Jürgen Klinsmann, the last superstar coach the USMNT hired with great fanfare, went to great lengths to push his players out of Pochettino would rather keep them if they are outside their comfort zone In It. “He talked about confidence all week,” said veteran defenseman Tim Ream, who captained the USA during this camp. “The feeling in the dressing room, even before the game the boys were confident about what we were going to do. He wants the boys to play the way they feel comfortable and move forward confidently with the ball.”

Quick example: AC Milan midfielder Yunus Musah hasn’t played much for his club so far this season – just 150 minutes in the first nine games. Pochettino noted that the 21-year-old needed confidence. So against Panama and Mexico he positioned Musah on the right, out of position but in a spot where he didn’t have much responsibility for winning the ball back and had the freedom to run at his opponents and express himself. Against Panama, Musah rewarded his new coach with his first international goal in his 41st appearance for the Americans.

It all coalesces into a kind of simplicity that goes back to basics and emphasizes old virtues like running like hell that Americans had somehow forgotten. “We have to evolve as a team in our mentality, our attitude, our arrogance and the way we have to be competitive,” Pochettino said before the game against Mexico.

He revitalized a team that had stagnated. He did this partly by his mere presence, as anyone else would have done. With less than two years to go before the 2026 World Cup on home soil, players are all too aware that there are jobs to be won or reclaimed under a new coach. But Pochettino has also rejuvenated the team by resisting the temptation to tear everything down and start again.

“From the beginning, [it’s important] so as not to cause too much chaos,” Pochettino announced as he declared his first squad, which looked awfully similar to a Berhalter squad. Pochettino was referring to tactics, but he could just as easily have been talking about his overall approach. For now, Pochettino has retained most of the staff that was in office under Berhalter – the performance coaches, sports scientists, analysts and so on.

“I think the US national team had a great time with Gregg Berhalter, full of excitement, and we have to recognize everything he did,” Pochettino said. There were solid foundations to build on. Even if the former coach’s results gradually declined, the closeness Berhalter cultivated in his team continued under his successor.

“It’s the same culture in a lot of ways,” goalkeeper Matt Turner said. “We have a lot of people who have been here for a while.”

“We had a series of tough results and I guess a change was needed – we did that,” Pulisic added. “That doesn’t mean the bond between the boys has changed in any way. We are all still very close, both off and on the field. We’re not too worried about that. Now we have a bit of change.”

Pochettino is a protégé of football expert Marcelo Bielsa, perhaps the most influential coach of his generation and master of a non-negotiable, highly dynamic style, so he is widely believed to be just as dogmatic. But that hasn’t been true for some time, if it ever was. Pochettino has been in the game long enough – and sufficiently hardened by difficult (and short-lived) spells at Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea – to know that imposing an ideology on an inhospitable reality is of no use. This is especially true in international play, which does not provide the time needed to memorize a complicated system. “I am a coach, we are a coaching staff that loves to dominate games,” explained Pochettino. “But we have to work like a team, like a team that wins important titles. It’s not just about playing beautiful football; It’s about being competitive.”

He fully understands that the quickest way to fail at national team level is to ask players to do things they are not allowed to do. “We will try to respect our philosophy, but football is all about winning,” he explained. “Sometimes we have to be smart. It’s about making a decision that benefits the team. We don’t make decisions based on philosophy or idea. Sometimes people say: “This is my philosophy and I will die with my idea.” No, I want to live. Because life is amazing. I want to be smart and win. I don’t want to die.”

But Pochettino will stick to some principles. His new players spoke of some of the longest and most grueling training sessions of their national team careers – which, in Ream’s case, spanned 14 years and nine permanent and interim head coaches. The coaching staff wants the training to reflect the intensity of the games, including at international level, where, due to the long travel and many club games, the majority of training time is usually spent on active recovery. And there were a lot of one-on-one conversations. This is Pochettino’s tonic: hard work and long, sustained conversations. “You have to be happy,” Pochettino said. “They have to enjoy the way they are going to be in camp. It is our responsibility to create a very beautiful environment. The players must be excited when they go to the next camp.”

In the stadium shortly before kick-off of the Panama game, the announcement of Pochettino’s name after the lineup presentation sparked the loudest cheers. After the win, he hugged every staff member and player he could find and walked toward the American Outlaws, who were calling his name. He smiled, clapped along, and then cheered her on.

Pochettino is on a charm offensive and is smart enough to know that a big part of the United States’ preparation for the World Cup is not a tactical reset but a campaign of heart and mind.

“I think we have great players,” he said, “but the most important thing is belief.” OK, maybe he is at least one few Ted Lasso.

Leander Schaerlaeckens regularly writes articles on the subject of football for The alarm clock. The long gamehis book about the U.S. men’s national team, will be published by Viking Books ahead of the 2026 World Cup. He teaches at Marist College.