Donald Trump looked at him and, while shaking his hand, asked: “Coach, do you think we can win the World Cup?” The United States national team coach snapped to attention: “Of course we can, Mr. President!” At the World Cup draw ceremony, Mauricio Pochettino fulfilled his duty. The host’s optimism overrides the national mood. But Pochettino knows the odds of lifting the trophy are remote.
It is not for lack of tradition. The U.S. has played in 11 World Cups, but when it comes to soccer, its men’s professional competitive culture is weak at the grassroots. The top division, Major League Soccer, is a closed-league system that undermines the survival instinct. The business is secure. Many clubs and players succumb to complacency. Pochettino has tried to stimulate internal competition by introducing inexperienced youngsters into an apparently sealed circuit in which the vast majority of those called up felt they had a guaranteed place. Christian Pulisic, known as “Captain America,” topped the list of those questioned. Blessed with superb qualities, the AC Milan player behaved like the archetype of a top-level American footballer. When it came to making the necessary effort to make the leap that separates the excellent from the merely good, he decided life was not worth so much suffering. The same happened to Timothy Weah, the swift midfielder at Marseille, and to Antonee Robinson, the enigmatic full-back at Fulham.
Endowed with admirable athletic and technical potential, the great drama of the USMNT is amateurishness. To awaken the players’ consciousness, so unaccustomed to major international tournaments, Pochettino staged two warm-up friendlies like electric shocks before naming his final squad: Portugal and Belgium. Belgium routed them 5-2 and Portugal won 2-0 without great fanfare.
Pochettino achieved what he wanted. He showed his players that only by following the example of hard-working leaders such as Chris Richards, Tyler Adams, and Weston McKennie, could they shake off the daydream. Faced with the threat of national ridicule, adrenaline and a permanent state of alarm can turn them into a team capable of making their country proud at the World Cup.
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