As of early Thursday morning, USA coach Mauricio Pochettino still hadn\u2019t spoken to the American players about what now seems like his inevitable departure for Manchester United following the firing of Michael Carrick earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean those players aren\u2019t fully aware of what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n
For as they fielded questions from media members before training at U.S. Soccer\u2019s sprawling training center two days before opening their two-legged Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal series against Haiti, Folarin Balogun and Sebastian Berhalter \u2014 key members of the squad Pochettino took to the round of 16 on home soil at the 2026 FIFA World Cup \u2014 looked to be confronting the national team\u2019s new reality in real time.<\/p>\n
“I can’t thank him enough,” said Berhalter, whose father, Gregg, Pochettino replaced at the U.S. helm a little more than two years ago.<\/p>\n
The younger Berhalter hadn\u2019t played a minute of international soccer at that point. A string of stellar performances for the Vancouver Whitecaps later, Poch called him up for the 2025 Gold Cup and then played him in all five games at the World Cup, where the 25-year-old scored in the group stage finale against T\u00fcrkiye. “He\u2019s meant so much to me and helped me develop as a player and as a person.”<\/p>\n
According to Balogun, the same can be said of the U.S. program as a whole.<\/p>\n
“Poch has definitely raised the standard since he’s been in charge,” said the striker, who led the U.S. with three goals in four World Cup appearances, including game-winners over Paraguay and Bosnia and Herzegovina. “The intensity of training, how we approach games \u2014 he’s changed our way of thinking as players.<\/p>\n
“He’s laid the foundation,” Balogun continued. “I think we have the ownership as players to carry that on.”<\/p>\n
“We’re always fighting, always doing little things to make sure we’re representing this country in the right way,” Berhalter added. “He really instilled that in us. Even though he’s an Argentinian coach, he made us even more proud to be American. And I think that speaks volumes of who he is as a person and as a coach.”<\/p>\n
While nothing is official yet, that\u2019s part of the reason that they\u2019ll be sorry to see him go.<\/p>\n
“If I had a vote, I would\u00a0like to keep things the way they are,” Balogun said. “Things have been working well. We have a clear sense of identity. We have a clear playing style, and I think whenever you have a top coach, you’d want them to stay. It’s a no-brainer.”<\/p>\n
Who will replace Pochettino isn\u2019t. While Pep Guardiola is the dream candidate, he might not be interested just six months after leaving Manchester City. There are pros and cons associated with just about anyone else. Balogun remains optimistic about the team\u2019s direction regardless.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m sure,” he said, “that the U.S. will look to replace him with another good coach.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY As of early Thursday morning, USA coach Mauricio Pochettino still hadn\u2019t spoken to the American players about what now seems like his inevitable departure for Manchester United following the firing of Michael Carrick earlier in the day. That doesn\u2019t mean those players aren\u2019t fully aware of what\u2019s going on. For as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7549","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\/7549","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=7549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}