Reports are indicating the United States Men’s Nationals Team are very close to an agreement with Mauricio Pochettino. The Argentine has previous managerial stops at Espanyol, Southampton, Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain and, most recently, Chelsea. He was most successful as the manager of Tottenham, leading them to a 2nd place finish and Champions League runners-up in 2016/17. He wants to play high-pressing, high-energy, attacking, physical football with a win-the-ball-back-quickly mentality. He’s also known for trusting youth players and guiding their development. This is the biggest reason the USA wanted to hire him, outside of his CV.

After such a lackluster and underwhelming Copa America, the US had to fire Gregg Berhalter. He wasn’t getting results anymore, and it felt like the players had tuned him out. The ugly incident between him, his wife, Gio Reyna and Reyna’s parent’s over playing time and, somewhat, inappropriate comments by GGG about Gio will forever tarnish all their reputations. It’s a very bad look by Reyna’s parents how they brought to light a domestic violence incident, from decades prior, between GGG and his girlfriend at the time, now wife of 25 years+, as a way to get back at their once family friend. Which made it all the more surprising Matt Crocker and the federation decided to bring him back after the World Cup. It was stunning they decided to rehired him and doomed the moment he signed that 2nd contract.

The 2022 World Cup was a great opportunity to show the world how far America had come in the game of football. Across the 3 group stage matches, the US won once and drew twice, making it to the knockout stage. Where they drew the Netherlands and were summarily destroyed, 3-1. At this point, a new manager was needed. Instead, the program conducted a lengthy 6-month managerial search only to end up right back where they started with Gregg. What utter incompetence!

Many people online, including myself, were up in arms over the re-appointment of Berhalter. How could the sporting director take 6-months, interview who knows how many candidates, end up with the same manager and think it was a good hire??? This is going to sound wrong, but I’m glad the USA sucked so badly at the Copa America, as it forced them to look internally and realized they fucked up in hiring Gregg, for a second time. Thankfully, they fired his ass.

With the 2026 World Cup taking place in North America all eyes will be on the USMNT. It would’ve been embarrassing if we flamed out again at a major tournament, with our “golden generation,” at home in front of our fans. No, I’m not asking Poch to win the next World Cup, although it would be sweet. I’m just asking to get out of the group stage, while playing good, attractive football, get a favorable matchup in the knockout stage and then see what happens. I trust Mauricio Pochettino to mold this team and get them headed in the right direction.