Photo: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
New head coach for US Soccer:
🚨🇺🇸 Mauricio Pochettino will be the new coach of the USMNT and will lead the USA to the 2026 World Cup.
After contacts with several managers, the former Chelsea and Spurs head coach has agreed to the proposal and the project, according to reports in the US overnight.
Poch is back. 🤝🏻 pic.twitter.com/e6JmmU2AGz
– Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) 15 August 2024
That’s a “big damn deal,” as Joe Biden once told Barack Obama. Pochettino is probably the most successful person to ever lead the USMNT, depending on what you think of Jurgen Klinsmann’s resume before his time in the US. We’re talking about an Argentine international with a 17-year playing career at clubs like PSG, Espanyol and Newell’s who, at age 52, has already coached teams in Spain, England and France. He’s just coming off a brief stint at Chelsea but is best known for his time at Tottenham, a five-year period in which Spurs finished in the top five of the Premier League five times in a row and reached the Champions League final. His teams have historically been attack-oriented, playing 4-2-3-1 during that time, a formation that suits the current midfield-heavy US squad. Poch is praised for his way of managing individual players and we could use some of that to take these guys to the next level.
But really a brilliant signing. If you told someone last year that we were going from Gregg Berhalter to Mauricio Pochettino, they would have told you to stay away from the Greyhounds. And the other thing about Poch is that he’s South American, he played in Argentina and has 20 caps for his country. He will have an understanding of the ridiculous crap that is CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, with the constant fouls and fouls and the tactics that define football in both Americas. Everyone knows that Argentinians love to go all out and if he can combine that grit with classic American determination, we could have a great team here.
If nothing else, this new signing should refill the USMNT’s gas tank, a tank that has been running on reserve for some time. This is exciting. If this guy has turned the Spurs into a respectable club, imagine what he can do for us. Hey! (PS – nothing against Spurs, I just had to make a Tottenham joke at some point because I have bashed Arsenal so many times on this site that people have emailed me asking if I am a Spurs fan (which I am not)
