How Pochettino has US believing they can be World Cup winners

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When Mauricio Pochettino walked into his first United States training camp in October 2024, he inherited a squad that had crashed out of the 2022 World Cup in the last 16 and limped through a Copa America group stage on home soil. Eighteen months on, the Argentine has done something no American coach before him managed: he has convinced a nation that the trophy itself is not a fantasy. “We are not here to participate,” Pochettino said this week. “We are here to win.” For once, the players are not flinching at the size of the sentence.

From damage control to genuine belief

The turnaround is measurable. The US went unbeaten through their final pre-tournament window, dismantling a strong opponent and grinding out results when the football was ugly — exactly the trait major-tournament football demands. Christian Pulisic, the captain and talisman, has spoken openly about the shift in the dressing room. “Before, we hoped to do well. Now we expect it,” he said. Weston McKennie, never short of a quote, put it more bluntly: “He made us angry at the idea of just being happy to be there.”

Pochettino’s method has been part tactics, part psychology. He has hardened the spine of the team around Tyler Adams and McKennie in midfield, freed Pulisic to drift inside from the left, and demanded that Folarin Balogun and Tim Weah stretch defences vertically. But the larger project has been cultural. He has reminded a generation raised in Europe’s elite academies — at Milan, Juventus, Fulham and beyond — that their individual pedigree means nothing if they do not carry it as a collective. The home World Cup, he argues, is not pressure. It is the greatest advantage any of them will ever be handed.

The weight of history — and home advantage

No United States men’s side has gone beyond the World Cup quarter-finals since 1930, when the tournament was an eight-team affair. The semi-final run of that inaugural edition is a historical footnote more than a benchmark. The modern high-water mark remains the 2002 quarter-final in South Korea, when Bruce Arena’s team were a contentious handball away from eliminating Germany. Everything since has been measured in last-16 exits and group-stage heartbreak.

That is the context that makes Pochettino’s messaging so audacious — and so important. Host nations have history on their side: every World Cup host has reached at least the last 16, and several have ridden the crowd deep into the knockouts. The US will play in packed, partisan stadiums from coast to coast, with the logistical and emotional comfort of home. Pochettino, who reached a Champions League final with Tottenham and managed at Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, knows precisely how a tournament’s momentum can be seized. He has been telling his players that belief is not arrogance when it is built on preparation.

What it means going forward

Realism still matters. The United States are not among the bookmakers’ favourites, and a single bad 90 minutes can end any campaign. The defence, marshalled by Antonee Robinson’s overlapping runs and Adams’ screening, will be tested by elite forward lines the moment the group stage ends. Balogun’s finishing remains the swing factor: if he converts the chances Pulisic and Weah create, the US become a genuinely dangerous side. If he does not, the margins shrink fast.

But the significance of what Pochettino has built runs deeper than any bracket prediction. American soccer has spent decades selling potential. For the first time, the people inside the camp are selling expectation — and meaning it. Supporters who once travelled in hope now arrive convinced, and that feedback loop between a believing crowd and a believing team is exactly the energy host nations weaponise.

Last deep run: 2002 quarter-final, the best by a US men’s team in the modern era.
Manager: Mauricio Pochettino, appointed October 2024 after spells at Tottenham, PSG and Chelsea.
Spine: Pulisic, McKennie, Adams, Robinson and Balogun anchor the side.
Edge: Home advantage — no World Cup host has ever failed to reach the last 16.

Whether the United States lift the trophy will be settled on the pitch over the coming weeks. But Pochettino has already changed something that statistics cannot capture. He has made a country that hoped now believe — and in tournament football, belief is where every great run begins.

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