"We were so naive." That's Mauricio Pochettino's own summary of his early months with the USMNT — and it's the most honest thing a national team coach has said in years. Three gut-punch setbacks later, his side have topped Group D at the 2026 World Cup with two wins and a 6-1 combined scoreline. The path from naive to dangerous is worth understanding.
The first blow landed in March 2025: a Concacaf Nations League semi-final loss to Panama, in an empty stadium, where the only noise came from Mexican fans warming up for the next game. Panama's fourth win in six meetings. The US threatened almost nothing. Pochettino called it a "big bang, punch" — the moment he realized the program's problems ran deeper than tactics.
The Gold Cup gut-check
Setback two came at the Gold Cup final in Houston. The US lost to Mexico in front of a hostile crowd — in their own country. Pochettino's tears afterward weren't just about the defeat. They were about realizing his players were essentially playing away games on home soil, something he described as unfathomable, like Spurs hosting a derby with the stands packed in Arsenal red.
But the tournament did something useful. It forced Pochettino to draw a line in the sand. When Christian Pulisic asked to skip the Gold Cup but rejoin for friendlies, Pochettino said no. All-in or out. That kind of clarity tends to shake a squad loose from its comfort zone, and it did — Malik Tillman stepped up as the team's main creative force, Matt Freese cemented himself in goal, Alex Freeman became undroppable, and Sebastian Berhalter worked his way into midfield rotation. The bones of the current side were assembled under pressure.
Then came the September pivot. Watching 70,000 fans pack a stadium in Columbus for an Ohio State college football game, Pochettino started asking: why not us? It wasn't rhetorical. It became a team mantra, and with it came a new shape — fluid, quick side-to-side, fearless in transition. The results followed: a 2-0 win over Japan, a 5-1 rout of Uruguay to close 2025, credible draws and wins stacking up through the autumn.
March nearly unravelled everything
Setback three: two defeats in March, conceding seven goals across both legs to Belgium and Portugal. Worse than the scoreline was how they looked — disorganized, reverting to old habits at the back. A Pulisic center-forward experiment against Portugal went nowhere. The familiar USMNT discourse returned: good result, bad result, no consistency, no ceiling either.
Pochettino stayed the course. His defense of the results was blunt: "Belgium and Portugal have, in the top 100 players, a few or some players in that top 100. I think we don't have any." Not spin. Just an honest framing of where the US actually sits in the global hierarchy — and why winning this World Cup group matters as much as it does.
A 3-2 win over Senegal and a competitive 2-1 loss to Germany in pre-tournament friendlies settled nerves. Then the tournament: 4-1 over Paraguay, 2-0 over Australia, group won with a game to spare. They're one of only four sides to clinch top spot after two matches — alongside Argentina, Germany, and Mexico.
Defender Mark McKenzie put it plainly: "It's not going to be figured out overnight, it's not going to be figured out in one camp, or sometimes in six months, or 12 months, maybe not as fast as everybody wanted to." He's right. But with the group stage done and a favorable knockout draw potentially ahead, the odds on this USMNT making noise deep into the tournament deserve a second look. Pochettino's naivety is long gone.
