Mauricio Pochettino on his absence from the English Premier League and the reset of the American cultural aspect

In September 2024, Pochettino is tasked with challenging to lead the United States to the World Cup, which it will co-host with Canada and Mexico.

However, things were not all easy.

Pochettino won 11 of his 20 matches at the helm of the team, and defeats against teams such as Mexico (twice), Panama, Canada, Turkey, Switzerland and South Korea also sparked criticism.

He also reportedly faced issues around changing the culture, external and the mentality of his players and he was not happy arriving at home matches to find the visiting fans significantly outnumbered, external American fans.

All this while adapting to the different demands placed on an international coach.

“The intensity is completely different because you need to arrive for a few days to prepare for the match and play, prepare for another match, play, and come back,” Pochettino continued.

“After November, we will have three months until March to prepare for another match. In the national team, you urgently need to train players.

“You feel empty because after the second game you can’t communicate and you can’t keep working on improving things.”

The United States has only reached the World Cup quarterfinals once, in 2002.

Major League Soccer was founded in 1995, one year after the United States hosted the 1994 World Cup, and has improved and grown significantly since then, with the arrival of Lionel Messi in 2023 evidence of the changing landscape.

“I think players like Messi help children, not only when children want to play basketball, American football or baseball, but now they want to play football as well,” Pochettino added, stressing that his employers had asked him to use the term soccer instead of football to avoid public confusion.

He added: “The motivation is huge. Sometimes you feel that people do not understand much.

“You find some coaches saying: ‘Oh, you know, you need to know the culture of the American player.’ I say: ‘No, I know the most important thing – the culture of football and soccer. “We need to translate the culture of soccer to the American player.”

“I think after one year, we’ve made great progress. We’re building [ideas] With people the language of football is only one language and it doesn’t matter if you are American, Brazilian or English. Our football is [to] “Compete the way you need to compete, if you want to win.”