AUSTIN, Texas —
If there was any doubt the nationwide soccer workforce was underneath new administration it pale Saturday when followers arriving at Q2 Stadium for Mauricio Pochettino’s first sport as coach had been handed a poster bearing his face, the identical face that stared out from a purple banner behind the south objective.
“It was a massive shock for me,” mentioned Pochettino, U.S. Soccer’s $6 million man, who additionally obtained a rousing ovation/welcome from the near-sellout crowd.
For a lot of the sport that adopted, nonetheless, Pochettino’s workforce performed very very like the one which gained simply as soon as in its remaining 5 matches underneath his predecessor, Gregg Berhalter. This time it did simply sufficient to win, getting a objective from Yunus Musah 4 minutes into the second half and one other from Ricardo Pepi 4 minutes into stoppage time to beat Panama 2-0.
So whereas the arrival of a coach who has loved success in three of Europe’s prime 5 leagues has impressed hope and power — to say nothing of posters and banners — it should even be tempered with the data that change doesn’t occur in a single day. It definitely didn’t occur Saturday.
“I didn’t feel too many changes,” Panamanian coach Thomas Christiansen mentioned. “He will need time to adapt his ideas to the team.”
Time, nonetheless, is brief. The World Cup is returning to the U.S. in lower than two years and Pochettino is reportedly being paid $6 million — almost double the file for an American soccer coach — to make the workforce aggressive for that event. The win over Panama, he mentioned, was “the first step to start to grow and be better.”
Pochettino took the USMNT job a month in the past and mentioned the objective of his first camp, which is able to finish with Tuesday’s pleasant in opposition to Mexico in Guadalajara, was to introduce himself and his workers to the gamers and to start to implement a mode of play. That’s why the coach scheduled particular person conferences with every participant and used coaching periods to ascertain “a few principles, a few concepts.”
Towards Panama the brand new coach went with a brand new look, opening with a 4-2-3-1 formation that featured 22-year-old midfielders Gianluca Busio and Aiden Morris as a double pivot. And for the primary 20 minutes it labored, with the U.S. dominating possession and creating three harmful probabilities, but failing to place a shot on objective.
However, Pochettino added, he gained’t be a slave to anybody method. If his gamers can’t adapt to him, he’ll attempt to adapt to them.
“People sometimes say ‘that’s my philosophy, my idea and I’m going to die with my idea’,” he mentioned. “No, I want to live. I want to be clever. Sometimes we need to find a different way to put our players in a comfortable zone.
“If a player doesn’t have the conditions to do something, why would you force him? It’s about creating the dynamic, the possibility.”
U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino calls over Malik Tillman earlier than placing the midfielder into Saturday’s sport in opposition to Panama.
(Rodolfo Gonzalez / Related Press)
That adaptation is prone to stay a piece in progress, particularly since Pochettino is lacking greater than half his possible starters — defenders Sergiño Dest, Chris Richards and Cameron Carter-Vickers, midfielder Tyler Adams, forwards Tim Weah and Folarin Balogun and attacker Gio Reyna — who had been left off this month’s roster due to damage.
Christian Pulisic was current, nonetheless, and the brand new coach went out of his technique to lavish reward the AC Milan ahead, calling him “one of the best offensive players in the world.”
Pulisic, who assisted on the primary objective Saturday, returned the praise, saying he loved his first week with the brand new workers.
“The training has been real intense and good,” mentioned Pulisic, whose 5 objectives ranks third in Serie A. “A lot of work and a long time on the pitch to kind of show how we want to play and get some ideas across.”
One concept Pochettino has emphasised since taking up the USMNT is confidence. Captain Tim Ream mentioned Saturday that message has gotten via.
“He’s been speaking about confidence all week,” he mentioned. ”When he tells guys to go and be themselves, you recognize it’s an indication that he has confidence in you.
“Knowing the caliber of manager that he is, the caliber of players that he’s that he’s managed, for him to come in and give guys that license to be themselves, it allows guys to express themselves more and more and more. And be confident doing that.”
“’Believe’ for me is a word that is so powerful,” he mentioned then. “In football you need to believe that all is possible.
“We need to really believe in big things. Believe that we can win not only a game, we can win the World Cup. We want players that show up and think big.”
“The potential is there. The talent is there,” he added. “It’s only to create the best platform for them to express themselves.”
It’s a theme he returned to final week when he once more talked concerning the problem of getting ready for the fast-approaching World Cup, one which has the potential to alter the game’s trajectory within the U.S.
“That is our responsibility. It is a massive, massive responsibility,” he mentioned. “We need to build that confidence and trust that we can arrive in two years and be really competitive and feel proud about a sport that maybe wasn’t born here, but starts to belong here.”
The countdown clock for that mission is already ticking. And Saturday’s win over Panama was a optimistic first step.
⚽ You’ve gotten learn the newest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a highlight on distinctive tales. Take heed to Baxter on this week’s episode of the Nook of the Galaxy podcast.
