INGLEWOOD, Calif. — As motorized carts zoomed back and forth inside SoFi Stadium late Friday night, their noise interrupting a postgame news conference, the U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino did not try to hide his annoyance.
“Call FIFA,” he told a moderator.
It was, remarkably, the only thing that didn’t go as planned in his dream debut as United States coach at his first home World Cup since 1994.
In a dominant 4-1 win over Paraguaythe United States has scored the most goals in the World Cup. Folarin Balogun became the first American player since 1930 to score multiple goals. And the three-goal winning margin is tied for the largest in U.S. men’s history.
“It was a great match, it was incredible for our fans to see, to watch this type of match,” Pochettino said. “I’m so proud, and we’re so proud, because I think we’re gaining a lot of fans.”
Pochettino, a 54-year-old Argentine, may have gained a little more among American fans himself. Although he has been on the job for 20 months, Friday’s match was undoubtedly his biggest opportunity to make an impression on a wider audience watching the United States for the first time.
This exposure, however, had an effect in both directions. If no other World Cup matches took place at the same time, the entire soccer world would be watching the United States’ play.
“I don’t think I’ll be surprised,” said Christian Pulisic, who scored the first two goals while attacking down the left side of the field. “Today, the effort, it was all there. For me, it wasn’t a huge surprise but things were definitely going well.”
Pochettino is not the first foreigner to coach the US national team. In fact, he’s the 22nd to try to take a lifetime of foreign soccer knowledge and improve the United States. But like all his predecessors in his role, his results have been mixed, with a record of 15-10-1 before the World Cup. Before this tournament, Pochettino’s biggest test with the United States was last year’s Gold Cup. The United States advanced to the final, but lost to Mexico.
Coaching in the spotlight is nothing new for Pochettino. He coached Tottenham to the 2019 Champions League final, managed global superstars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé at Paris Saint-Germain and coached one of England’s biggest clubs in Chelsea.
Yet in these jobs, Pochettino could spend long periods of the club season around his players. On the other hand, training a national team requires optimizing the little time they have during the international breaks. Last fall, Pochettino felt the United States had begun to develop an identity during its victories over Paraguay and Uruguay, but he also felt that momentum had faded in the spring. He mixed and matched roster combinations, evaluating 67 different players before landing on a final roster of 26 players.
When the U.S. team gathered in May to prepare for the World Cup, it represented one of the longest, most uninterrupted periods of Pochettino’s tenure — a critical few weeks of preparation that would show whether the United States was ready for this tournament.
“That’s why we were desperate a year ago to work with the whole team, and we didn’t have the opportunity,” he said. “We know very well that if you have the opportunity to work three, four weeks with a whole group, you believe that… this kind of thing can happen.”
He continued: “I think they need to know us, we need to know them, understand what we expect from them. When you only have a few days to come together and play, you only select the players, but you can’t coach. Only in this type of tournament, the World Cup, because you have two, three, four weeks of preparation, I think that’s the only time we can coach.”
As the United States beat Senegal in a friendly in late May and lost to Germany in final preparation for the World Cup last week, Pochettino stressed to the players that “the key was to translate all that expectation and pressure” into energy.
They translated it Friday with a one-sided performance against a Paraguay team that had ranked among the stingiest defenses in World Cup qualifying, beating reigning champions Argentina and perennial contender Brazil.
“It’s a complex team because they have answers to every element you throw at them,” Paraguay coach Gustavo Alfaro said, through an interpreter.
The lack of offense has long been a concern for the U.S. men, but from the opening minutes of Friday, the U.S. kept the ball in Paraguay’s half, guarding until it found weaknesses. The first score was an own goal, a deflection off a Paraguayan defender. But the next three were all American creations, from Balogun’s left-footed shot into the top left corner to lead, 2-0, to Gio Reyna’s trivela, off his outside foot in the final minute.
Former U.S. national player Alexi Lalas, who is often critical of the U.S. team, was full of praise, saying on Fox that the 3–0 halftime lead was “the best half of a group match by a men’s team at a World Cup in history.”
Pochettino repeatedly warned that Friday was just one of three games in the group stage. But it is also the same coach who did not hesitate to show his confidence in the team. During a podcast appearance, he recalls a conversation he had with President Donald Trump in December.
“He asked me: ‘Do you think, coach, that we can win?'” Pochettino said. “I say, ‘Sure.’ Why not?”
