'A great opportunity': U.S. Men's National Team coach reveals Gold Cup plans

U. S. Men's National Team coach Mauricio Pochettino outlined his plans Tuesday for the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup. 

Hosted in the United States, the Gold Cup — North America's premier international soccer competition — is the USMNT's last competitive tournament before it plays in the World Cup next summer. The World Cup will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

In a wide-ranging media session, Pochettino spoke on everything from prior performances to future starting lineups. 

Here are the key takeaways from his USMNT Gold Cup preparations:

Pochettino knows that his team's Nations League performance was unacceptable. The USMNT lost two games in a row in the Nations League in March, falling first to Panama in the semifinals and then to Canada in the third-place match.

"I think it's important to have a clear idea of what happened there," he said. "I think the circumstances were not great circumstances for us, for different reasons, and I think our diagnosis is really clear.

"But I think it was an important experience, and that this is going to be completely different."

The USMNT didn't just fail to win the Nations League. It failed to establish a clear identity. The two losses were widely reported as a disaster for Pochettino's team.

The Gold Cup isn't just the USMNT's last tournament before the World Cup — it's the team's best chance to bond, too: Perhaps the biggest challenge for coaches of a national team is imprinting their style upon a group of players in a short time period. With his USMNT players scattered across the globe, Pochettino generally has less than a week during each international window to bring his team together and help it gel. He doesn't just view this Gold Cup as a tournament. He views it as the one chance he has to keep his players together for more than a few days.

"It's a great opportunity to be together for a very long time, and that is going to be very useful for us," Pochettino said. 

The USMNT will have three competitive weeks together if it makes it to the Gold Cup final on July 6. That training includes two friendly matches against Turkey (June 7) and Switzerland (June 10). Pochettino hopes to see high player crossover between those friendlies and the Gold Cup itself.

"I think under our consideration, the percentage is going to be high, the players that are going to be involved in the first two friendly games and then in the Gold Cup," he said (h/t ESPN). "I think if you want to prepare [for] the Gold Cup, I think you need your players being fit in the competition and in training."

The USMNT starting goalkeeper position is still up for grabs. New Jersey native Matt Turner has been the USMNT's go-to goalkeeper for years, but he has struggled to find playing time with his club team Crystal Palace this season. He enters this summer with precious few competitive minutes.

"It's open now in our mind," Pochettino said of the starting goalkeeper spot (h/t ESPN). "I think it's, like always for me, it's about how they're going to train ... we are assessing a lot of players."

Pochettino has plenty of options available to him here. He has called up three Major League Soccer goalkeepers (Columbus' Patrick Schulte, Colorado's Zack Steffen and NYCFC's Matt Freese) to his 60-man roster and also found a spot for Barcelona youth team prospect Diego Kochen. But will any of these three start for the USMNT and challenge Turner? Pochettino isn't ready to commit.

"I think we are going to have enough games to try to give the possibility to another keeper maybe to play," he added, "but that is not today the decision." (h/t ESPN).

The USMNT will begin Gold Cup play against Trinidad and Tobago on  June 15.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.