Newly-appointed United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) boss Mauricio Pochettino has called for patience after losing 2-0 to Mexico in his second game in charge.
There were high hopes for the Pochettino era heading into the international break, but goals from Raul Jimenez and Cesar Huerta on either side of half-time gave the Mexicans victory. The loss will no doubt prove to be a wake-up call for the U.S. team.
The appointment of Pochettino had been lauded, with the Argentine bringing in a plethora of experience having managed Tottenham Hotspur, Paris Saint-Germain, and most recently Chelsea in his career.
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And things started well for the former Argentine international over the weekend, after goals from Yunus Musah and Ricardo Pepi gave him a debut win over Panama. He and his team were issued a wake-up call on Tuesday night though, after being eased aside by Mexico.
Fans were clearly left unimpressed with the performance, with many taking to social media at full-time to criticize their new boss. “How did we get worse under Pochettino?,” one frustrated fan tweeted, before another added: “That was a brutal performance for the USMNT. Very disjointed.”
The criticism did not stop there, as another wrote: “I know it takes some time but that was a terrible performance from the team tonight,” whilst a four fan posted: “USMNT is putting on a clinic right now… on how to not play soccer.”
Mauricio Pochettino’s team endured a tough evening
Despite the concerns, Pochettino has insisted time is required for him and his team to get things right. “Overall, I think Mexico was a little bit better than us and fully deserved the victory,” the former Premier League manager told reporters in a post-match press conference.
“But for us, it’s a process that we started 10 days ago and today was a great opportunity for our player to visit a very difficult place to play. I think only we can improve and learn from this experience.” He went on: “We wanted to win. I think we need to be positive about this type of game. We need to play more games like this to improve the knowledge that we have.
“Give us time, let us evaluate all the players, have them, know them, and from there I will give you a better opinion about what is much more fundamental than what I see.” The USMNT were however without some of their big hitters, with the likes of Christian Pulisic, Ricardo Pepi, and Weston McKennie all returning back to their clubs in Europe early.
“We all feel disappointed because I think we didn’t have all the players that we wanted to have when we started,” he added. “We lost some players for different reasons and we arrived a little bit short here. I say thank you to the players [that were here] because they were amazing, and professional and the behavior was amazing. And that’s it. It’s only a game that we lose, of course, in Mexico.”
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