When Pochettino was hired, backheeled.com started a series called "Ten Windows" because that's how many windows Pochettino was going to get. Eight of those ten windows were two match camps, usually a little longer than a week. With a day taken for arrival, two for games, at least one for recovery, and two more centered on game prep. At most, there's a day or two in there for anything resembling actual coaching. And that's eight of the 10 windows. For a man who had really never met a single player, that's an incredibly short time. For a team that seems usually beset by injuries, it's a very short time. The other two windows were the Gold Cup and the World Cup camp. I think people forget that we had an intro camp, then the Jamaica Nations League window, then the Nations League collapse and then the Gold Cup camp. That's it. We had three windows before the Gold Cup, and it was only in the third was it readily apparent there was a big issue. So the Gold Cup attempts to be a reset. But no Balogun, Dest, Jedi (injury), Pulisic (rest), McKennie, Weah or Reyna (CWC). There was Adams, Richards, Tillman, Ream, the keepers, Freeman, but that's half the team. The Gold Cup is not a success, but there's inklings of improvement. Then we had three fall windows and the Spring March window. The fall was building success; the March window pressed our luck. Then the World Cup camp -- the only time he had any real time with the vast majority of the players who would play. To be honest, I saw more from Pochettino's tactics than I expected given that there was never really time to work on anything with the attacking core. But we needed a better defensive set up when we didn't have the ball for stretches and we definitely failed there.
That foreign coach thing is likely a coincidence, but its true nonetheless. [There are powers like France, Germany, Argentina, Spain, etc. who haven't had foreign coaches in the modern era] 28 of the 48 managers at World Cup 2026 were foreign. 58%. The nation that really did the best was.......surprise, surprise...........Argentina. Scaloni with Argentina, Pochettino with the USMNT, Marcelo Bielsa with Uruguay, Gustavo Alfaro with Paraguay, Sebastián Beccacece with Ecuador and Néstor Lorenzo with Colombia. So 5 of the 6 made the knockout rounds. France had 5: Deschamps at France, Rudi Garcia at Belgium, Sabri Lamouchi at Tunisia, Sébastien Desabre at DR Congo and Sébastien Migné at Haiti. Spain is next with four Luis de la Fuente at Spain, Martínez at Portugal, Lopetegui at Qatar and Christiansen at Panama Italy and Germany both had three. What we tend to notice is that the powers don't just produce players; they produce managers. They're the powers for a reason.
I didn't remember it that way, and I double checked the box score. He brought on a fullback for Gordon in the 72nd minute, 10 minutes before the change you mentioned above. That was the first step in having no offensive outlet and bunkering… So, against Argentina, with the 9 minutes of stoppage time, they attempted to voluntarily bunker for the last 27 minutes.
Mauricio Pochettino said he'll make a decision on whether he returns to coach the #USMNT 'next week.'https://t.co/Z7T2WoCUwK— Paul Tenorio (@PaulTenorio) July 17, 2026
Every thing you say is true. I will add that progress is almost never linear and that ups and downs along the way are expected. It isn't until "maturity", that you expect more consistency. I believe that the "ten windows", combined with the world cup, also gives a clear example of that type of progress can be expected to look. Obviously, the last part was a disappointment but in my opinion it should be taken in the context of the whole journey. In my opinion, the big question of whether to hire or rehire Poch doesn't rely on the final result. It relies on the total picture, which overall imo was a success, and the question of whether or not he can continue the general trajectory....or does it flatten (or even decline) from here. As far as the curse of a second term is concerned, I think much of it is the result of coaches tending to rely too heavily on or fail to move on from their favored players when better options arise. Poch doesn't seem overly sentimental and after the way we exited the tournament, he might be less averse to moving on from some of the current group...for better or for worse.
Something else that I think is important to notice from that list is the postions played by each during their careers. A quick google search gives me this, so take it for what it's worth: Argentina: Leonel Scaloni: RB/RM Pochettino CB Marcelo Bielsa: D Fustavo Alvfaro: M Sebastian Beccacece: RB Nestor Lorenzo: CB France: Deschamps: DM Rudi Garcia: AM Sabri Lamouchi: M Sebasien Desabre: no professional playing career Sebastien Migne: D/M Spain: Luis de la Fuente: LB Roberto Martinez: DM Julen Lopetegui: GK Thomas Christiansens: CB It doesn't take a statistical genius to notice that the vast majority of the coaches listed above played further back on the field. The anomaly was France who only had one manager that played as a defender and even had one that never even played at the professional level. Ironic isn't it? I know it isn't a new theory that many of the top coaches tend to be former defenders...especially cb's. I strongly believe there are few things that influence this trend: 1. Good defense requires good structure and communication. 2. (all) players in a defensive role are responsible for communicating and directing the players in front and around them. 3. The further back in the field, the more you have in front of you which makes you responsible for directing more of the team. 4. As you move further up the field, (DM, M, AM, F) the directions become a bit more one way...a DM takes instructions from a CB more than the other way around... Additionally, for those players that feature at multiple positions, I have always thought that gives them a strong advantage as well because it allows them to better understand the demands and roles of multiple areas of the field. GK is one position I'm not too sure about. They definitely are pretty far back on the field and do have to communicate and direct the defenders but aren't as well represented as defenders and even midfielders. I don't know if it is due to numbers (there aren't as many positions for GK on a team as there are for defenders) or if the tactical demands on a GK are not as great as those on a CB. I suspect it is a combination of the two...
In baseball, a disproportionate number of managers are catchers, who have to think a lot and interact with both pitchers and catchers. There are actually very few pitchers who manage; they are largely considered playing almost a different sport and even within the clubhouse have their own circle. I think keepers' lack of interaction with the other players and rest of the game may mean less of them manage.
Are you sure about Thomas Christiansen? I'm pretty sure that he was actually a striker. In fact, according to google, he was joint leading scorer in the 2002-03 bundesliga season.
You are right. Thomas Christiansen the Panama coach was a striker. There's also a Spanish defender called Thomas Christiansen who is an active player.
And this for me is why it's a sin we did not start hiring the best managers from the best programs we could long ago. You are not just hiring player selection and game day tactics. You are hiring institutional knowledge and expectations. And that does not move a program over one WC or one GC or even one 4 year coaching cycle. All aspects of a program need to be as good as possible to compete even in the top of the 2nd tier of the best teams in the world. They are all working hard to elevate their programs as well. Every program with ambition needs to try to match that at every level possible. It doesn't mean you can win a world cup without better players, but you have a better chance of performing better with the players you have.
No, I'm not sure. Like I said it was a quick google search and I got an AI answer so take it for what it's worth. I was being lazy. AI is quick but it ain't smart. It doesn't change the main point though. The coaches are/were overwhelmingly from the defensive end of the field.
Two people with the same name completely throws AI. Anyhow, strikers tend to be more selfish, it's the nature of the position, so they probably tend to make worse coaches.
That's definitely true but also some rely more on athleticism. Also they tend to deal with smaller spaces.
I'm all for getting the best managers at the full and youth teams. But who are these "best managers" we ignored in the past? I can't imagine why a SA or European coach would be interested in coaching our youth teams. I might be wrong, but I don't think so. Or are you talking MLS clubs?
I bet Mourinho was begging to come manage the U16s for $80k a year but Real Madrid made him a slightly better offer.
Mourinho waited for an offer from the USSF as long as he could, but eventually he had to accept that he wouldn’t be getting his dream job.
Are you (and Paul and Grumpy) arguing we hired the best, most successful international managers possible at the full and youth levels in every past cycle? Cause the Mourinho schtick is cute and all, but if folks are arguing we, at every turn, hired the best, most internationally experienced coaches who came up through the best programs that we could possibly attract, well, I guess we have differing idea of the USSF's power of persuasion. But sure, maybe the coach of the exceptionally well-travelled Santa Clara Broncos or internationally successful Cavaliers were the best, most experienced coaches the USSF could attract. That sounds plausible. The "but we could never hire Sir Alex!" argument is silly, of course, and not what I'm ar
for the record, every time the USSF gets through a hiring decision without making an offer to Mourinho, they’ve done at least one part of the search well. I think he’d be a disaster as a senior team coach for us, much less as a youth coach.
How do you know who the best youth coaches are? A lot of them are just starting their careers and it's generally not a high paid job. I noticed that some of the European youth coaches coach the same group from U15 through U21. Do you poach youth coaches from other programs or do you put youth coaches under a national coach or technical director and implement a consistent training methodology throughout? I guess a youth NT coach will have the players in camp for a few days maybe 6 times a year, and a week or two at tournaments. I did look at the Wikipedia entries available for all the coaches from the 2019 U17 and U19 World Cups and the only one who's gone on the coach at a high level was Raphael Wicky who has coached in the Europa League.
I wasn't throwing you under the bus. I also did not know of Thomas Kristensen the defender. My line of thinking was to bring up Christiansen as a candidate for the US gig. Unfortunately, he has evidently signed another extension with Panama.
There are lots of ways to do it: Get the best national team coach you can and let them guide your youth team coaching selection (I'm not sure I'd advocate for this, but depends on the top coach and their interest in molding a program. If you were able to attract a top coach who was interested in trying to implement a program starting at the youth levels and working up that would be awesome and interesting, but I doubt a lot of coaches would really want to take on something that big.) Or hire the best coaches at each spot that you can. You could even try to hire the best coaches you could attract out of a specific program/system, if you wanted. Again though, there are hundreds+ of professional and national teams out there. There are thousands of coaches who have come up through different systems - not all are programs are successful and not everyone who has coached in a successful program is headed toward "big time" coaching success, but some are. My main argument is I think we would benefit from having hired (or starting now hiring) coaches who have come out of successful programs and themselves been successful. I believe there is, to use biz jargon "institutional knowledge" that would have/would benefit the US program.
A very small percentage of national youth team coaches become "big time" coaches. The US has >1,000 pro license qualified coaches. There are also thousands of A-youth qualified coaches. I would hope that whoever is hiring U team coaches hires who they believe are the most qualified for the role. They are of course competing with professional teams for those resources.
I for one hope that in 30 years we look back on the Poch era the way Spain looks at Cruyff managing Barcelona...
pochettino WAS outcoached in the belgium game. hes responsible for his teams performance....the collosal collapse is evidence of a severe lack of perspective by poch....he said many things during the cycle that were flat out wrong and exhibited a clear lack of understanding in many of his player preferences and selections...and all of that came home to roost. all 4 of belgiums goals were easily preventable and all 4 were due to poor team and individual defensive mistakes.....if you watch the last 20 usmnt games, it was a clear pattern of similar issues poch is a former defender who doesnt know how to coach and assemble a proper defense he built his formation and team around ream, seeing his passing as an absolute must...yet, in the belgium game, what did reams passing provide? nothing instead of picking defenders based on how well they play defense....poch prioritized being press resistant and passing from his defenders.....of course it would be nice to have players that ecel in both and the usmnt doesnt necesarily have a lot of those....but still....the choice to build around ream and need a 3 centerback formation for that was SEVERELY MISGUIDED i couldve told you it wouldnt work directly after the netherlands loss in 2022 ..as ream was poor in that game as well it was idiocy by poch to pick ream and put all of his chips on him. IDIOCY he couldve selected defenders based on being able to defend furthermore, it was also the zonal scheme...THAT is 100% coaching.. players marking areas passively instead of attacking opponents and closng down space plenty of teams with less talent than the usmnt played great defense this world cup. it was 100% possible for this team as well...but not under pochettino. i dont think he can get this team playing good defense. he doesnt know how...he wants to play his system and nothing else. his system wont work to get this team playing good defense. thats my biggest issue with him. plenty of usmnt of the past played great defense with much less talent......its not a matter of talent. but, yeah,the players did FREEZE vs belgium.....theyre soft af.....but that doesnt happen in a vaccuum ...poch is a big part of that. also that the players didnt even know how to describe what happened after the game and why they lost also shows that poch didnt prepare them well.....the belgian coach scouted the usmnt and made a great game plan that took the usmnt out of their patterns....and they couldnt adjust pochettino really thought he could play the same lineup and tactics every game and not get found out? i always thought he would have a plan b and plan c ready for just that inevitability....but apparently not?!??!?!? THAT to me is another MAJOR RED FLAG i love the way the team played in the groups....bc i KNEW it was always possible with this generation.....but to go out like CHUMPS vs belgium negates all of that for me......beating up on lower ranked teams is nice....but lets not forget this expanded world cup gave the usmnt the weakest world cup opponents theyve ever faced.....paraguay austrailia turkey bosnia.....is weaksauce klinsmann got the team out of germany, ghana portugal.......with way less talent ....and way less coaching ability.... im genuinely surprised so many people arent noticing the flaws in pochettinos performance i like a lot of what hes done and what he brings, but with eyes open, im also highly doubtful he gets the things he got wrong, right....in the future
You seem to think there are tons of highly qualified coaches out there who want to coach the national team. Like who? Who did we pass over last cycle that was of this caliber? I don't think coaching the national team is all that interesting to big time coaches now. I'd love to try to bring Matarazzo in but that he'd most likely prefer to stay at Real Sociedad tells you how interesting the national team job is.