USMNT’s Mauricio Pochettino gives ‘guarantee that we are going to compete’ at Gold Cup
The U.S. manager said he has "faith in the players who are here," while critics continue to lament how many big stars are absent.
CHICAGO — In Mauricio Pochettino’s native Spanish, the word is garra, or in some places grinta, borrowed from Italian.
In German, where strength grows with syllable count, it’s grobkörnigkeit. In French, they say victory belongs au plus opinâtre, to the most tenacious.
In Philadelphia, of course, Gritty is a name, not just an adjective.
And over this way, Bears fans might shop for intangibles on Amazon when its Prime Video broadcasts the Black Friday game against the Eagles.
You get the point, and the U.S. men’s soccer team does too. Pochettino has said it as much as fans and media have. You know it when you see it, and it sure wasn’t seen when the Americans flunked the Concacaf Nations League final four in March.
Now, Pochettino faces an even bigger moment. This month is one of only two stretches before the World Cup where he gets to work with a group of players for more than the few days of a usual FIFA international window.
On top of that, many big stars aren’t available this summer, forcing the Argentine manager to call in unproven players from MLS. But it’s an opportunity for those newcomers to show the stuff their more famous colleagues haven’t.
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What has Pochettino seen after the first week of practice?
“I think the atmosphere is good,” he said Friday in his last news conference before the first game of the summer, a friendly against Turkey on Saturday in East Hartford, Conn. (3:30 p.m., TNT, Telemundo 62). “I think we are happy in the way that we are training and in the way that the players arrived.”
‘Faith in the players who are here’
He said it’s “not fair to compare the two situations” of March and now, because “the circumstances are completely different.”
But Pochettino was firm that the last games made for “a good point to try to realize that we need to improve in different areas,” and mentality “is one of the areas that we need to improve.”
He also said his team would start the upcoming Concacaf Gold Cup “with a guarantee that we are going to compete.”
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Asked how much of a problem it is for him that so many stars are absent — particularly the injured Christian Pulisic, Antonee Robinson, and Sergiño Dest — Pochettino said “it’s important to not to pay too much attention” to that.
“The circumstances we find ourselves in make us have faith in the players who are here,” he said. “There are players who could be here and aren’t — it happens. … The United States will go out to play, and it’s the U.S. national team, with all the responsibility that entails.”
Veteran midfielder Tyler Adams made that point even more emphatically when he was asked about the subject.
“Those guys are such important players to our squad and every single person knows that,” he said. “They’re some of my best friends, guys that I talk to consistently, but the focus can’t be on guys that aren’t in camp. It has to be on the guys that are in camp, and the opportunity that’s at hand for a lot of these young players.”
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He then spoke specifically about Pulisic, who controversially asked out for the summer after a second straight 50-plus-game season with Italy’s AC Milan.
“I think it’s unfair to players that have gotten called in that we’re talking about Christian and the reasons that he’s not in camp and taking the focus away from the team,” Adams said. “He has personal reasons and needs, maybe, a break or just to decompress a little bit from all the football that he’s played in the past couple of years. And we need to focus on the guys that are here in camp and the expectations that we can live up to.”
Key opponents to know
Most other teams are bringing their top squads to the Gold Cup, especially 2026 World Cup cohosts Canada and Mexico. The tournament is the last official competition for all three nations before next summer.
Beyond them, Haiti could be tricky in the group stage finale, with the Union’s Danley Jean Jacques in midfield. Jamaica could await in the knockout rounds, with the Union’s Andre Blake and English Premier League stalwarts Michail Antonio (West Ham United), Leon Bailey (Aston Villa), and Ethan Pinnock (Brentford) .
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And from a karmic perspective, it feels like there must be another matchup with Panama. Los Canaleros have beaten the Americans in four of their last six meetings, including the recent Nations League semifinal. Over the last decade, the U.S.’s record in the series is just 6-5-3 across friendlies, World Cup qualifiers, the Gold Cup, and the Nations League.
Given that, when Pochettino was asked if he thinks his team is good enough to win the Gold Cup, he started his answer with “I will let you know after.”
“Good enough to win the Nations League? We were not good enough,” he said. “I think we cannot judge or analyze in this way. I think we need to wait, and then if we win, [we’ll be] happy.”
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If not, he knows what will come.
“If we don’t win, the critics will appear,” he said. “I think [we] understand perfectly the situation, but I think this is a roster that is the best roster today to defend our shirt and try to translate to people good emotions and enjoyment. I think we have quality players, and, of course, now we need to build a team — a team that fights for each other and shows that we have the quality.”