TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Mauricio Pochettino should\u2019ve been happy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The U.S. men\u2019s national team manager had just secured one of the most historic wins in the program\u2019s 112-year history, a 5-1 drubbing of two-time world champion Uruguay on Tuesday in one of their final preparation matches for the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n
The victory at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, marked the first time the USMNT had ever scored five goals against an opponent from South America. It also tied its record for the most lopsided win against a foe within FIFA\u2019s Top 15 Ranking.<\/p>\n
More remarkable than the result, or the performance, was the fact that it came with a hugely inexperienced lineup. Pochettino made nine changes from the starting 11 that beat Paraguay last Saturday, a group that was already without bold face names like forward Christian Pulisic, midfielder Tyler Adams, midfielder Weston McKennie, center-back Chris Richards and fullback Antonee “Jedi” Robinson.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s USMNT starters had just 155 combined international appearances coming into the contest \u2014 nine fewer than all-time appearance leader Cobi Jones. Pulisic and defender Tim Ream, Pochettino\u2019s two most senior players, together have 161.<\/p>\n
Yet Pochettino bristled when it was pointed out that some of the regulars were missing. For months now, he\u2019s tried to create a culture where no squad member, however decorated or talented, is above anyone else.<\/p>\n
Diego Luna remains a candidate to securest a World Cup spot. (Photo by Michael Pimentel\/ISI Photos\/ISI Photos via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n That\u2019s commendable, even if it goes against objective reality.<\/p>\n “Obviously, Christian Pulisic is Christian Pulisic, right?” midfielder Cristian Roldan answered rhetorically when I asked him after the game if there was any hierarchy at all within Pochettino\u2019s USMNT.<\/p>\n The former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain manager insisted otherwise.<\/p>\n Asked how much confidence the big win might give a squad missing so many regulars, Pochettino didn\u2019t mince words.<\/p>\n “I hate the [idea of] \u2018no regular players,'” Pochettino said at the beginning of his postgame press conference. “If you know me, I hate to talk this way. It\u2019s so disrespectful. We need to give credit to all of the guys.”<\/p>\n Sergi\u00f1o Dest, left, seems like a World Cup lock. What about Sebastian Berhalter? (Photo by Edgardo Medina\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n More likely, he was using the opportunity to send a message to his player pool as a whole. All coaches do that, in every sport, though few admit to it the way Pochettino did earlier this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n Either way, he made his point.<\/p>\n “At the end of the day, if you don’t bring it, if you don’t have the intensity, the mentality that he wants, or if you’re not setting the tone right, he’s a coach that is going to look somewhere else,” Roldan said. “You have to bring it each and every training session, each and every camp. That’s vital for the success of the group. And the group is always the most important thing.<\/p>\n “I think he’s shown that he has a lot of confidence in the entire group,” Roldan continued. “That’s a really important trait to have as a manager, because anybody could play at the World Cup. Injuries happen. Players might not be called up just because of injuries or form or playing time, so everybody has to be ready. That was an example of today’s lineup, just giving the confidence to the group that anybody can play in any given moment, and he expects all of us to perform when given the chance.”<\/p>\n Cristian Roldan continues his push for a World Cup spot. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Mauricio Pochettino should\u2019ve been happy.\u00a0 The U.S. men\u2019s national team manager had just secured one of the most historic wins in the program\u2019s 112-year history, a 5-1 drubbing of two-time world champion Uruguay on Tuesday in one of their final preparation matches for the 2026 World Cup. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}