The symbolism seemed a little heavy, as if the writer had slightly overcooked the plot.
What the US Men's Team Should absolutely humiliating Uruguay 5-1 the same opponent that knocked the Americans out of the 2024 Copa America in the group stage on their home soil, triggering an all-out crisis. That the USMNT's first goal on Tuesday and the assist on the second should have come from Sebastian Berhalter, whose father, Gregg, was fired as head coach of the US team after the US Cup said. Berhalter's successor, Mauricio Pochettino, must restore the honor of the program to his mentor. his “second father”his “football father”, his “inspiration”, Marcelo Bielsa.
This story of retribution and rehabilitation would have to be scrapped. Too obvious. Too cliched. Too neat.
However, the USMNT ended 2025 with its biggest win in history against a South American team – and that victory returned in 2016 against Bolivia, a team trailing two-time world champions Uruguay.
“For me personally, this victory means nothing because we need to build our way to the World Cup,” Pochettino said in an interview. weirdly irritable post-game press conference on Tuesday when he became angry when asked about missing regulars because he felt there was no such thing. “But what I really appreciate about the team, the squad and all the staff is how we are starting to come together. That's the most important thing. If we want to come to the World Cup and have a chance to challenge the big teams, this is how we need to play.”
More pleasing for Pochettino than the score was that he replaced almost his entire team – which was already missing a handful of… stars, let's call them, not regular players – after Saturday's 2-1 win over Paraguay.and that the team seemed virtually unchanged. “Nine changes, but [we kept] ideas, philosophy, faith, struggle, unity,” he said. – All the players on the bench supported the starting line-up. This connection is amazing, it's what we wanted.”
The Argentine's fixation on that continuity has confirmed the focus of his work during a calendar year that has seen him revamp the player pool with 71 call-ups and rejuvenate the team's culture.
Having published a series of confidence-building, momentum-building and stunning results, the co-organizers will enter a new phase World Cup year in a much better place than they could have imagined at the end of 2024.
From a strong second half in what was nonetheless defeat with a score of 2:0 In September in South Korea, the Americans defeated three World Cup teams—Japan, Australia and Paraguay—and tied Ecuador, the second-best team in South American qualifiers. And now, as if to officially announce their intentions, they recorded the defeat of one of the most story-driven teams in the international tournament.
After Pochettino's appointment in September 2024, the entire four-year cycle had to be crammed into just over a year. During this busy period, Pochettino made an encouraging start with a vengeful 2-0 win over Panama in October 2024, after Canaleros – together with Uruguay – doomed the US America's Cup campaign; quickly fell to earth in a loss to Mexico; regained momentum with victories over Jamaica in a pair of Nations League quarter-finals last November; and then completely disintegrated following defeats to Panama and Canada in the Nations League final in March. This caused another reset.
Pochettino saw this as a turning point. “All this negativity has been a positive thing,” he said Monday. “All this negativity that we used to build this journey. I think that's when reality hit.”
However, dismal friendly defeats to Turkey and Switzerland in early June left the World Cup situation desperately grim. But in response, a roster devoid of most people the casual fan might have heard of (again, not the “regulars”) ran boldly to the Gold Cup final, where the US finally lost to Mexico.
“I felt like we had a group of guys [at the Gold Cup] “It really connects on a deeper level,” Berhalter told TNT on Tuesday. “That’s what we really need to build that camaraderie, that chemistry and kind of instill that into the next couple of camps. The guys support each other.”
Around this time, the USMNT finally and fully became Pochettino's team.
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“That's the main thing we've focused on – building that DNA, that grit, that hard-working mentality, because that's who we are,” said Diego Luna, one of the United States' top scorers on Tuesday and a Major League Soccer player promoted by Pochettino this year who has charmed the coach with his boldness. “That's us as a country and that's us as a team. Once you get that intensity and get that DNA, things like that happen.” [5-1 win] could happen.”
“Mauricio has expressed great confidence in us going out on the field and solving problems the way we see fit,” defender Mark McKenzie reiterated on Monday. “It’s not about the X’s and O’s, it’s not about what we always see in the videos. […] It’s just an aggressiveness, a mentality to get the ball back as quickly as possible and just be strong in both phases.”
This, after all, was Pochettino's larger project for 2025: to build a foundation that would withstand the turmoil of the World Cup. The results were merely the remnants of that work, even as the numbers on the scoreboard steadily rose from alarming to impressive.
“After [more than] After a year we are starting to see the identity that we want to convey to our players, I think it is an important improvement,” Pochettino told TNT before Tuesday’s game.[2025] it was really difficult. All projects, when they begin, are about analyzing and observing what happens. But I'm happy. I saw motivation, focus.”
After the final whistle blew at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Pochettino did his best to hug a reluctant Bielsa. Senior trainer who once discovered a teenage defender in rural Argentina in the dead of night about 40 years ago, I was not in the mood.
Something about apprentices and masters could follow at this point, if it weren’t so trivial.
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Leander Charlekens' book about the US men's national soccer team, The Long Game, will be published in spring 2026. You can pre-order here. He teaches at Marist University.
