Mauricio Pochettino said it is “neither an advantage nor a disadvantage” that the United States' World Cup group consists of two – and possibly three – teams that his side will play in friendlies in the year or so before their first game.
The U.S. drew with Australia, Paraguay and the winner of a European playoff involving Turkey, Romania, Kosovo and Slovakia. The United States played Australia in a friendly in October, winning 2-1 in Commerce City, Colorado. In November they played Paraguay in another friendly, a game that marked Gio Reyna returns to form with the national team in a victory with a score of 2-1. Türkiye, if it reaches the playoffs, will have an advantage in preparation. beating USA 2-1 in a friendly match before the Gold Cup in June 2025.
A lot can happen in a year. And Pochettino, like his colleague Tony Popovic from Australia, emphasized that the circumstances of friendly matches are completely different from World Cupwhich the whole world will be watching, and the stakes could hardly be higher.
“The reality is that circumstances will change,” he told reporters. “That's why it will be completely different games, perhaps with different squads or different players.”
Pochettino was praised a lot for stellar, sometimes strange eventwhich unfolded with the pomp, circumstance and considerable duration typical of any draw for an international football competition. Now that the matches have been decided, Pochettino said his main task in communicating with the players will be to convey the weight of expectations and the urgency with which he believes his players will act now that the path has finally been paved before them.
Recalling his only World Cup experience as a player for Argentina in 2002, Pochettino said that after returning home from the South Korea-Japan tournament he fell into a “massive depression”, having achieved a childhood dream and now seemingly having nothing to look forward to for the rest of his career (which, at Game 31, was coming to an end).
“Your biggest dream disappears and then you feel there will be no other opportunity to be involved,” Pochettino said. “That's the biggest energy I want to give to the players. It's the most incredible event and the most incredible feeling you can experience. We can work on physical preparation, we can work on tactics, but we need feel. Place everything. This is today. The whole country will be behind us.”
To that end, Pochettino said that as intensive as preparations have been for the group stage, he and his staff aren't looking too far ahead: Discussing potential second-round matches (which could include a rematch of the 2014 playoffs with Belgium, as well as several other intriguing possibilities) in the car between the Kennedy Center and the site of his press conference is about as far as it gets.
“If you are Argentina, the best team in the world, maybe you can see what happens next,” Pochettino said. “WITH USAThe first game is the World Cup final. The second game should also be the World Cup final.”
