The Mauricio Pochettino era of the United States Men’s National Team is officially underway. On Friday, US Soccer presented the former Tottenham and Chelsea manager to the media for his first-ever press conference as the USMNT head coach.
Pochettino’s press conference came off the back of the United States Men’s National Team failing to beat Canada and New Zealand in the most recent international window.
While Pochettino didn’t dwell on those results – he said it was unfair to judge them after the disappointing summer the US Men’s National Team had at the Copa America – it was clear that he felt the US was lacking motivation in those matches.
‘We need to believe that we can win the World Cup’
Pochettino spent a lot of his inaugural press conference addressing the need to instill a winning mentality in the US Men’s National Team.
The word “believe” was said so much that it felt a bit like a Ted Lasso episode at times. It was obvious that Pochettino was sincere though.
The Argentine is a motivator who has a clear idea of how his players should act. He stressed that when players are called up to the squad, they need to do more than just play. They need to throw away all the excuses and just focus on improving and competing to the best of their abilities.
“You are here to play? No. You are here to compete,” Pochettino said, “Everyone thinks there is no time to prepare…I am on the opposite side. I think there is enough time. I don’t want to create an excuse for the players…
“We have time, and we need to really believe in things, in big things. We need to believe that we can win the World Cup,” he continued.
Pochettino added that Emma Hayes and the US Women’s National Team are a good example of the winning mentality that he would like to see with the US Men’s National Team.
“Emma is the best women’s coach in the world, the women’s team have won everything in the world…(the…
Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/mauricio-pochettinos-mission-to-make-the-usmnt-believe-again/
Author : Cody Aceveda
Publish date : 2024-09-14 13:30:00
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