Mauricio Pochettino already knows his penalty order. He's not asking who feels confident. He decided weeks ago.
That's the sharpest contrast you can draw after watching Germany get knocked out on Monday — not because their players missed, but because four of them reportedly refused to step up at all. Leon Goretzka, Waldemar Anton, Nathaniel Brown, and Malick Thiaw all declined. Jonathan Tah, who had never taken a professional penalty in his career, ended up with the decisive kick. He missed. Germany went home.
Pochettino's approach is structurally different. His staff formed a working group 18 months ago — before this tournament was even on the horizon as a pressure point — partnering with two outside companies: Neuro11, which uses real-time EEG brainwave tracking to study performance under stress, and Trackman, which uses radar and sensor data to break down ball movement in extraordinary detail. Penalties and set pieces have been a fixture in training ever since.
No volunteers, no gut feelings
"We try to arrive in this moment and not ask the player if he feels confident or not confident," Pochettino said Tuesday. "It is going to be the coaching staff's decision — the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5."
That's not a small thing. The instinct for most coaches is to poll the room, take the volunteers, hope for the best. What Pochettino is describing is a predetermined, data-backed sequence built on months of preparation rather than dressing room bravado in the 118th minute.
The USMNT have the personnel to back it up. Christian Pulisic has never missed in seven senior international attempts. Ricardo Pepi hasn't missed since leaving MLS in 2022. Haji Wright has converted 17 of 19 penalties over the last seven years. That's a credible top three before you even get to Folarin Balogun.
Further down the order, it gets thinner — but that's true of every squad. Defender Chris Richards was refreshingly honest about it: "I'm a defender for a reason, man." At least he knows.
What it means going into Wednesday
The USMNT face Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Bay Area on Wednesday with zero World Cup shootout experience as a program. That's not necessarily a disadvantage — there's no trauma to carry — but it does mean everything they're relying on is built in training, not forged in tournament pressure.
The players watched Monday's shootouts together as a group. Several unorthodox techniques were on display — stutter steps, cross-body strikes, short run-ups — but Pulisic wasn't interested in borrowing any of it. "I don't think you watch and can take so much away, or try and change your style in one day," he said. Sensible. Panic-copying technique the night before a knockout game is how composure falls apart.
If this goes to penalties on Wednesday, the US will be among the better-prepared sides left in the tournament. Whether the preparation holds under actual World Cup pressure is a different question entirely — one no brainwave scanner can fully answer.
