The Passion For Pochettino Is On Full Display

SEATTLE STADIUM — #PochOut. As recently as late last month, this hashtag could be found on social media with more frequency than any reasonable fan of the U.S. men’s national soccer team might expect. The internet isn’t real life, obviously. But in the wake of another thrilling group stage win at the 2026 FIFA World Cup — a 2-0 triumph over Australia that sent Mauricio Pochettino’s team to the knockout stage with a game to spare for the first time in history — it’s fascinating to think about the sometimes downright toxic negativity that, until very recently, spilled well beyond the way-too-online corners of the fanbase when it comes to the USA’s high-profile coach. Pochettino arrived on these shores in late 2024 with a well-earned reputation as one of global soccer’s top club managers. He’d taken Tottenham Hotspur, the Premier League’s perpetual underachiever, to the only UEFA Champions League final in its history in 2019. The Argentine won league and cup titles with Paris Saint-Germain, where he managed both Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé. After leaving Chelsea by mutual consent after taking the Blues from 12th to sixth in his one season in London, his name was floated every time a job opened at brand-name clubs across Europe. It was considered a near-miracle that the U.S. even landed him; he turned down more money to lead the Americans at their first World Cup on home soil in 32 years. Yet all it took was a few bad results for too many national team supporters to turn on him less than a year into the job. And it wasn’t just fans. What started with dispiriting losses to Panama and Canada in the 2025 Concacaf Nations League finals reached a low point in September, when South Korea outclassed the U.S. in a 2-0 loss in New Jersey. Pochettino defended his players passionately afterward, then finished 2025 with a five-game unbeaten streak (four wins and one draw), capped by a 5-1 drubbing of two-time World Cup champion Uruguay in November. But some supporters were calling for his head again in March following decisive losses to top 10-ranked Belgium and Portugal — the USA’s final tuneups before Pochettino named his 26-player World Cup roster last month. Walled off from the noise by their coach, those players’ confidence in their boss never wavered. Inside and outside the locker room, the 54-year-old insisted that while fighting and competitiveness were non-negotiable, the results didn’t matter a bit until the main event began. “Someone asked me after the South Korea game my thoughts on all that,” USA keeper Matt Freese said after notching his first World Cup shutout on Friday. “Immediately I said: ‘We all have total belief, we’re all totally supportive and have faith in the process that he’s been out outlining.” “Look at his track record — I mean, we’ve seen him do it with big teams,” defender Chris Richards added about Pochettino. “He’s very passionate in the way that he speaks…we take that passion, and we try to apply it to how we go out there.” That passion has been on full display at this World Cup. The doubters are all silent now. The fans in Seattle chanted Pochettino’s name after Friday’s victory during FOX sideline reporter Jenny Taft’s post-game interview. The love is mutual. “It’s amazing, our fans,” he said of the almost 70,000 souls in the building, the overwhelming majority of which were decked out in red, white and blue, providing almost certainly the best home-field advantage the U.S. squad has ever seen. The message was clear: Pochettino is one of us. He knows that the hard moments over the last almost two years helped create this unforgettable one. In fact, he’s known what he was doing all along. Read More

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