U.S. Coach Mauricio Pochettino’s Biggest Achievement Has Been Cultural

The most revealing moment of Mauricio Pochettino’s FIFA World Cup campaign may not have come during the group stage. It came back in 2024.
When Pochettino accepted the U.S. coaching job following the team’s disappointing group-stage exit at the 2024 Copa America, he assumed he was inheriting a program desperate to maximize a once-in-a-generation opportunity. At the time, the U.S. was preparing to host a World Cup at the same time that a talented player pool was entering its prime. The country’s biggest soccer moment was approaching.
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Instead, Pochettino said he discovered a culture that lacked urgency. His most striking comments at this World Cup have not been about tactics or player selections, but about mindset.
By his own admission, Pochettino said he and his staff “misjudged the situation” when they arrived in September 2024. Rather than finding a team driven by the pressure of a home World Cup, they encountered players that had become comfortable with potential.
“We were so naive when we signed our contract,” Pochettino said. “I think what we find after we sign, we misjudged the situation. It was worse than we really believed.”
For years, the U.S. men’s national team had been primarily evaluated through the lens of talent. Analysts debated whether this was the most gifted generation in American soccer history. The assumption was that better players would naturally produce better results.
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Pochettino’s assessment challenged that premise. His argument was that talent was never the primary issue. After all, the team featured European-based players like Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie. The missing ingredient, he said, was competitive intensity.
This perspective reflects the worldview of a man who has coached some of Europe’s biggest clubs. At every stop in his career — from his playing days to managerial roles in England and France — Pochettino has operated in environments where jobs, reputations and trophies were constantly on the line. His teams have historically been defined by intensity, pressing and emotional commitment as much as tactical sophistication.
What shocked him about this U.S. team was not a lack of ability but a lack of collective desperation. The challenge, he said, became cultural rather than technical.
The significance of the phrase “Why not us?” in response to whether the USMNT could win this World Cup illustrates this shift. On the surface, it’s a simple motivational slogan. In reality, it represents a direct challenge to one of American soccer’s longstanding psychological barriers.
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“‘Why not us?’ It was like a motto for us,” he said. “To say, ‘We can. If we believe we can, we can do. If we work hard, we can do. If we change our mindset, we can do.’”
For decades, the U.S. has approached major tournaments as an outsider hoping to compete respectably against established powers. Pochettino’s message reframed the conversation. Instead of asking whether the United States belongs among elite nations, the team is being asked why it should not aspire to join them.
That matters because international tournaments are often decided by belief as much as talent. Countries with fewer resources and less depth have routinely outperformed expectations because they possess a clear identity and collective conviction. Pochettino appears to have recognized that the United States would never maximize its talent until it changed how it viewed itself.
Winning Group D, and passage to the round of 32, is a sign that this message has started to resonate.
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This progression highlights an underappreciated aspect of international management. National team coaches have limited time and relatively few chances to implement complex tactical systems. Their greatest influence often comes through establishing standards and creating a collective identity.
Pochettino’s success so far appears to stem less from reinventing how the United States plays and more from redefining what it expects of itself.
Clemente Lisi is the author of “The World Cup: A History of the Planet’s Biggest Sporting Event, 2026 Edition.”
This article was originally published on Forbes.com
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