The good, the bad and the ugly of Mauricio Pochettino's USMNT tenure

The good: intensity, cultural shifts and an expanded player pool

Pochettino's calling card as a coach has always been his insistence on physical intensity. With national team camps lasting just a few days at a time, many wondered if he'd be able to translate that intensity into the USMNT's training environment.

They didn't wonder for long. 

"The training has been real intense," Christian Pulisic said somberly after his first few sessions with Pochettino in 2024. "It's been good, a lot of work, a long time on the pitch to show how we want to play and getting some ideas across."

That intensity kept the USMNT fit and competitive throughout its World Cup preparation process—and it also shifted the team's culture into one of competitive parity. Gone were the days of guaranteed call-ups for players based in Europe: if a player based abroad got smoked by a Major League Soccer prospect in Pochettino's training sessions, he could kiss his position on the USMNT roster goodbye. (Just ask Josh Sargent.)

When Pochettino first took on the USMNT job, there were fears that he'd under-index on MLS because of his lack of familiarity with the league. Those fears turned out to be not just unfounded, but utterly ridiculous. Pochettino platformed dozens of MLS players and spoke eloquently and often about the growing value of the league. Some of the biggest 'discoveries' of his tenure—right back Alex Freeman, midfielder Sebastian Berhalter and attacker Cavan Sullivan—came to him as hungry MLS debutants.

That kind of league blindness greatly expanded the USMNT's available player pool. Pochettino gave a whopping 75 players minutes during his tenure and never hesitated to spotlight young talent. He leaves a massive roster of USMNT hopefuls for his successor.

The bad: flash judgments on key players

For all of his talk of parity and league blindness, though, Pochettino did make snap long-term judgments on a few players throughout his tenure. NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freese impressed him during the 2025 Gold Cup and earned a spot in his starting eleven; frequent poor performances after that weren't enough to convince Pochettino to drop him, and Freese's errors wound up being a huge part of the USMNT's World Cup exit at the hands of Belgium. Defender Miles Robinson and striker Damion Downs also overstayed their respective welcomes within Pochettino's USMNT: they had potential, yes, but never showed enough to justify their spots on his roster.

The ugly: big flops in big games

On a basic level, Pochettino was brought to the USMNT to do two things: win trophies and get the team past the Round of 16 at the World Cup. He managed neither. Pochettino is, in fact, the only USMNT manager this century to fail to win a single trophy during his tenure (his side crashed out of the 2025 Nations League in the semifinal stage and lost the 2025 Gold Cup final to Mexico).

As for the World Cup...well, the less said, the better. The team had a stellar run through the group stage—and even picked up its first knockout-round win since 2002 thanks to the expanded tournament pool—but still found itself eliminated by Belgium at the Round of 16 just like it was in 2014. Pochettino's USMNT delivered plenty of heart, energy and skill, but it didn't deliver consistency in big games...and ultimately, that lack of consistency will hang heavy over Pochettino's USMNT legacy.

The USMNT will face Haiti in a two-legged Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal on Saturday in Miami, Florida, and Tuesday, Nov. 17, in Cincinnati, Ohio.