Pochettino: US men should aspire to achieve like women

NEW YORK (AP):

Mauricio Pochettino began his tenure as US men’s national football team coach saying his players should aspire to achieve as much as the American women.

“We are here because we want to win. We are winners,” he said yesterday at a 48-minute introductory news conference after agreeing to a contract through the 2026 World Cup. “We are going to compete, and compete is completely different than to play ... We have many examples next to us we need to follow.”

While the US men haven’t reached the World Cup quarterfinals since 2002 and have never won the sport’s top tournament, the American women have won four World Cups and five Olympic gold medals.

“We need to believe that we can win, that we can win all our games, that we can win the World Cup,” he said.

A 52-year-old Argentine, Pochettino will be coaching a national team for the first time, becoming the 10th US coach in 14 years. He was hired to replace Gregg Berhalter, who was fired from his second term on July 10, a week after the Americans were eliminated in the first round of the Copa America.

Wearing a dark jacket, white dress shirt with no tie and a pocket square, Pochettino was flanked by US Soccer Federation (USSF) President Cindy Parlow Cone, CEO JT Batson and sporting director Matt Crocker, who knew Pochettino from their time together at Southampton a decade ago.

“I was teasing Poch that it only took Emma Hayes (women’s coach) two months to win an Olympic gold medal, so I’m curious what he’s going to do in two months,” Cone said. “We want to set ourselves up for being able to win any game that we are in.”

Talks began in Barcelona in July.

“We spent a lot of time with him,” Cone said, “just being as open and honest and transparent about the good, the bad, the ugly of US soccer and what he was stepping into because we wanted, if he chose to come here, we wanted him to know exactly what he was getting into, what he was up against, where the opportunities were ... And Emma played a huge part in that.”

GOOD PLAYERS

While some have proclaimed the current group the most talented the US has produced, Pochettino was slightly more restrained and said “it’s a very good generation of players.”

“We have very talented players. Of course, the confidence was a little but low after the Copa America,” he opined. “We need to show that we play as a collective on the pitch.”

Pochettino arrived in the US on Wednesday, a day after his deal was announced, and dined at a sushi restaurant on Thursday night with American stakeholders. He plans to travel with USSF officials to Atlanta next week to search for housing near the office and training complex under construction in Fayetteville, Georgia.

His news conference – on Friday the 13th, for those who are superstitious – was in a Warner Bros. Discovery screening room at 30 Hudson Yards on the far west side of Manhattan, just eight blocks from Berhalter’s introduction at Glasshouse Chelsea on December 4, 2018.

Pochettino has led Espanyol in Spain (2009-12), Southampton (2013-14), Tottenham (2014-19) and Chelsea (2023-24) in England and Paris Saint-Germain in France (2021-22), leaving after winning a French league title.