Football General Manager
- Lalas surprised by Pochettino’s emotion
- Says USMNT didn’t deserve to win the game
- Appreciates coach’s passion, even if still skeptical
Mauricio Pochettino struggled to contain his emotions while addressing the team in a behind-the-scenes video following the USMNT’s 2-1 defeat to Mexico in the 2025 Gold Cup final. The USMNT head coach praised his players’ resilience in what he described as an adverse situation and highlighted the growth they’ve shown since the previous camp.
Former USMNT star Alexi Lalas said he was surprised to see the outpouring of emotion, and described his initial reaction to seeing Pochettino’s response as “jarring.”
“Immediately following the game you’re always emotional,” Lalas said on his State of the Union podcast. “The gist of it was that you deserved more. But he’s doing it through tears, and you can see that this hurt him, that they had lost. And I’ll be honest with you, it was, for me at least, it was a little strange, a little jarring. Not that crying or a coach or a player crying is necessarily that, but again, this is the official documentary of the team.”
Lalas said the video made Pochettino “much more sympathetic” but still maintains that Mexico were deserving winners in the Gold Cup final.
“You know that Mauricio Pochettino had to approve this coming out, understanding how people were going to look at it,” Lalas said. “I do think that there is an argument to be made that this makes him look much more sympathetic. I would disagree in that he said you deserved more. I don’t think that you deserved more. In that final game against Mexico, they were thoroughly beaten by a better Mexican team. So I didn’t think that they deserved more.”
Lalas said he was of two minds when he first saw the video of the emotional USMNT coach.
“There is the part of me that is the cynic and says, ‘What is this? Why are you bawling and in tears?’ ” he said. “And then there’s the part of me that’s the romantic and says, ‘I love the fact that my national team coach is brought to tears’ because the pain that he feels of failure and not, you know, getting it across the line in a Gold Cup that everyone else seemed to think – or not everybody, but a lot of people seem to think – was inconsequential anyway.
“And that it meant that much to him, so much that when he’s talking to these players, the emotion is just pouring out him in the form of tears. Yeah, I think that, to some, that will endear him… a lot of people will point to this and say, ‘Well, there is a graphic illustration of how much it means to him, how much he cares, how much he put into the Gold Cup’ ….But when all is said and done, I would rather have somebody who is emotional. I would rather have somebody that is passionate and, in that moment isn’t afraid to show it.”
Mauricio Pochettino has been in charge of the USMNT since September of last year, and led the team in 16 matches, including five straight wins before the loss to Mexico in the Gold Cup final.
The USMNT will regroup during the September international break, where they will face South Korea and Japan as they prepare for the 2026 World Cup.
