Mauricio Pochettino says his US men’s players should aspire to achieve like American women

NEW YORK (AP) — Mauricio Pochettino began his tenure as U.S. men’s national soccer 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 Friday 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 U.S. 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 U.S. coach in 14 years and its first foreign-born leader since Jurgen Klinsmann from 2011-16. 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.

Emma Hayes, who managed at Chelsea before becoming U.S. women’s coach this year, helped recruit her former club colleague.

“I didn’t need to ask. She explained everything,” he said.

Hayes led her first practice on May 28 and led the Americans to an Olympic gold medal 74 days later.

Wearing a dark jacket, white dress shirt with no tie and a pocket square, Pochettino was flanked by U.S. Soccer Federation 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 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 U.S. 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.”

While some have proclaimed the current group the most talented the U.S. 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 U.S. on Wednesday, a day after his deal was announced, and dined at a sushi restaurant on Thursday night with American soccer 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 Dec. 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.

Pochettino has 637 days before the Americans’ World Cup opener in Inglewood, California, on June 12, 2026. His first games will be friendlies against Panama on Oct. 12 at Austin, Texas, and at Mexico three days later, and his first competitive matches will be in a two-leg CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal in November.

Pochettino is likely to have his full player pool available for just eight one-week training periods before the team gathers ahead of the World Cup. The Americans are thin at goalkeeper and central defense and have had difficulty maintaining on-field discipline.

Pochettino is bringing along his longtime staff: assistant coaches Jesús Pérez and Miguel d’Agostino, and goalkeeper coach Toni Jiménez.

USSF officials said they could afford Pochettino’s salary only with the help of gifts from hedge fund and asset management firm heads.

“Unless he was willing to work for much less,” Cone said.

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