U.S. Men's Soccer Team Struggles Under New Coach Pochettino

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00:00Kyle and I talked last week, week before, about the U.S. men's team.

00:03We knew that this would be a little bit of a work in progress, but Kyle, I don't remember

00:07you sharing to me how poorly that this could have possibly gone for the U.S. men's team.

00:11They lose to Panama.

00:12They lose to Canada.

00:13You know, I know they got a new head coach and everything here, new manager, excuse me,

00:18but I mean, needless to say, I mean, there's not a long period of time for these guys to

00:23get to know each other here and get things going, is there?

00:25No, there's not.

00:27And Mauricio Pochettino, after this disaster week, explained that, oh, we have time.

00:33We have over a year.

00:35But Mauricio Pochettino is new to international management.

00:38This is his first international job.

00:40He's wildly successful at the club level, but there's a big difference between the two.

00:44At the club level, a year and three months is an eternity.

00:49Coaches get hired and fired in smaller periods of time than that.

00:54On the international level, that's not a long time, especially for the U.S., who has

00:58almost no competitive matches remaining between now and next summer's World Cup because they

01:04don't have to qualify.

01:06They automatically qualify as hosts for the 2026 World Cup.

01:10So there is no qualifying matches for them between now and the tournament.

01:14The only competitive games are the Gold Cup this summer.

01:17Once that's over, it's all friendlies between then and the next summer.

01:23So really, he doesn't have a lot of time, and a lot of U.S. fans are feeling that heat,

01:28feeling that pressure.

01:29Pochettino, in his press conference, says, we have time, don't worry.

01:34But I don't think a lot of fans are buying it because I don't think a lot of fans could

01:38have conceived that losing to Panama and then Canada and looking quite bad doing so was

01:45even conceivable this week.

01:47It was rough.

01:48Christian Pulisic didn't show up when the team needed him.

01:51He's still the leader of this team.

01:52He's still a very high-quality player.

01:55But they need him to be there when they need him.

01:59And when you're nil-nil with Panama going into the final 10 minutes, he's got to be

02:05the guy to step up.

02:07And they didn't have him against Panama or Mexico.

02:10And now the question becomes, they've always wanted to be a quarterfinal team at the World

02:15Cup.

02:16That has always been the goal.

02:17They've only done it once.

02:18It came in South Korea back in, I think, 2002 when they played Mexico.

02:24They've never played a non-CONCACAF team outside in the World Cup quarterfinals.

02:29And it would be hard to imagine them doing so, playing like that.

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