INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Mauricio Pochettino simmered with resentment, even after the queries moved in a different direction.
“Your questions are a little bit weird,” he told reporters at the press conference following the US men’s national team’s last-second 3-2 loss to Türkiye on Thursday night, a ‘dead rubber’ match thanks to the Yanks having already clinched first place in World Cup Group D while Türkiye were eliminated, thanks to FIFA’s new switch to a head-to-head standings tiebreaker rather than the more familiar goal differential format.
“I am so happy, and the players are happy, because I think we perform, we compete, and we are first. I was talking with a Turkish channel now, and I said, ‘Have a good trip back to Turkey,’ and we are going [on into the knockout rounds]. But I say now, when I arrive here, maybe I am confused, but the mood is like, the vibe is like, we go home tonight and Turkey stay, you know?”
From Argentina’s feverish footballing culture to the hot spotlights of the English Premier League to the multi-billion-dollar circus of Paris Saint-Germain, Pochettino has worked in pressure-cooker environments for many years as both a high-level player and manager. He knows quite well how to manage the accompanying media scrutiny; in fact he seems adept at utilizing it for his own purposes.
So it feels bizarre, even perverse, when he appears triggered by seemingly straightforward questions from what is generally a measured, respectful USMNT press pack. Thursday wasn’t the first time; he had a similarly peevish presser in Tampa last fall, where he felt the questions posed to him after a stunning 5-1 thrashing of Uruguay were out of pocket, and found himself unable to ratchet down his hackles despite extensive efforts by journalists to clarify their intent.
Here he was asked what lessons he and his group might take from the night’s result, if he was impressed by his reserve players’ fighting spirit, and whether this L sapped any of the tremendous momentum they’d generated with wins over Paraguay and Australia as they pivot towards a round-of-32 clash with Bosnia & Herzegovina in Northern California on Wednesday.
“If you explain what means momentum? The topic is a topic that I don’t understand,” Poch declared. “I don’t know. Too many topics in football, in soccer, that, uhh, I don’t understand. The objective was to finish first, and we are first, and now it’s the next stage, and it’s going to be a final, and we are ready.
“We are much better than before that game, because we have players now with 90 minutes in their legs, and performing, ready to help if we need from the beginning, or after from the bench. I think it’s all positive.”
Poch’s point: Having first place well in hand had allowed him to rotate nearly his entire starting XI, resting those with heavy minutes on their legs and protecting the four regulars carrying yellow cards into the group-stage finale. They’d earned that right, and even a wobbly reserve defense leaking an injury-time winner in the most gut-punchy fashion possible was not going to mar the good vibes.
And the journalists, ‘Poch’ implied, were graceless for not explicitly saluting the accomplishments his side had already wrapped up several days beforehand.
“I'm sorry, guys, it cannot be possible that Turkey finished celebrating the three points, and Australia celebrating the qualification,” he said, “and I come here, and for you not to say congratulations that we won the group. That is a little bit sad, but only that. I need to remind you and everyone that we won the group.
“Sorry, guys, we won.”
Pochettino has turned out to be a keen observer of U.S. culture, eagerly soaking up as much knowledge he can about his adopted country in order to fuel what he and his players hope will be a transformative run at this tournament. He speaks evocatively of connecting on an emotional level with the American people, and clearly understands the power of his bully pulpit in the sport’s never-ending efforts to push further into mainstream culture.
So maybe he’s noticed how easy and popular it is to bash the media here, or sees some power to rally his group by taking an adversarial posture towards the press.
“If we win the next match, it wouldn’t have weighed on us at all whatsoever,” he said in Spanish. “And if we don’t win, well, you can say whatever you want, about what mattered or what didn’t. We’re back to the usual football clichés, of which there are many, and they all depend on the result. So, what do you want me to tell you? Whatever I say won’t convince you, nor will it convince anyone else, because some will think one thing and others another. In the end, what *I* think doesn't really matter; I get asked, but afterwards, everyone writes or thinks whatever they please.
“It strikes me as a bit petty, or rather, thinking too small,” he added. “You miss out on making history. It seems like we get bogged down in clichés, when really, we ought to be talking about the team's magnificent performance in this World Cup so far.”
Could this be a case of media-relations jiu-jitsu? Was Poch finessing some furor in order to shift attention from the ease with which his second-string back line got carved open, and/or establish one of those textbook "we’ve been disrespected" narrative, which so many professional players find irresistible?
A large chunk of those who spoke to reporters in the mixed zone presented some form or another of comparably sunny optimism.
“We’ll be ready to go next game,” said Gio Reyna. “Turkey, to me, have probably the most quality out of any team we’ve played so far. So we’re not surprised that we’re playing a high-level team with players all over the best clubs in Europe. So we knew it wasn’t going to be easy coming into the game.
“It felt a little bit unlucky at times, but no – we’ll recover now, of course this game’s not a great result, but this team is mentally strong and we'll bounce back in training this week.”
It fell to veteran Matt Turner to acknowledge the obvious.
“At this level we can’t give chances away the way we did tonight, and it’s disappointing,” said the New England Revolution goalkeeper, visibly annoyed to have conceded three goals in his first appearance of this tournament. “In the end, when it’s 2–2 at the end there, that probably would have been the more fair result, given the chances both sides had. But this is football, and we know how cruel the game can be, and we let our guard down, and we got punished for it. We were all in positions to make a play, and none of us could make the decisive play.”
As impressive as Poch’s familiarization with the culture and context around his job has been, there’s one angle he didn’t, perhaps couldn’t, perceive on Thursday.
Sounder at Heart spent the pregame and first half of the match wandering the stadium concourses, taking the measure of another huge crowd which at times seemed even more passionate than the one that cheered on the Paraguay win, despite the lower stakes. The degree of excitement was palpable, even from unexpected sources, from Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Paris Hilton watching up in the luxury suites to the stadium staff and police officers from various jurisdictions handling security duty.
Auston Trusty’s early goal sent the entire place into raptures, a tactile collective joy cutting across class, cultural and racial lines. It felt like a microcosm of a vast, diverse nation wanting to be inspired, even the casuals eager to be caught up in USMNT fervor, just as so many catch the wave when the Olympics come around or their local team embarks on a playoff run.
The mood, while hardly sour, was a good deal less bubbly after the final whistle. Leaking that late goal inevitably popped a hole in the hype. The bulletproof aura built in those first two matches got dinged, even with all the valid circumstantial context Pochettino had noted.
This squad is already under real pressure as the host nation, and it’s probably unfair to shift the wider narrative so drastically on a scrappy last-second goal in a dead rubber. But that’s the nature of the beast when you’re trying to charm Main Street.
America loves a winner above all. And for Poch and the USMNT right now, only winning will do.
