- Meola questioned the vibe around USMNT
- Davies calls Pochettino’s time ‘major disappointment’
- Meola stressed big changes are needed from Pochettino
The U.S. men’s وطني team are nearing Mauricio Pochettino’s first year in charge, and a 2-0 loss to كوريا الجنوبية has only deepened concerns that the team isn’t meeting heightened expectations. U.S. icon Tony Meola drew comparisons between Pochettino and his predecessor Gregg Berhalter, warning that the team has actually regressed.
“If we’re being fair, this looked better under Berhalter than it does here,” Meola said on the Call It What You Want podcast. “One thing we knew under Gregg is that we know how we were playing and what we were trying to do. I’m going to keep harping on that point.”
Meola wasn’t advocating for Berhalter to keep the job last summer, but added, “That first cycle with Berhalter, this team was going in a direction. When you left 2022, there was a little bit of hope.”
Former USMNT star Charlie Davies said the national team is currently lost under Pochettino.
“This team hasn’t moved forward whatsoever. Major disappointment,” he said. “I know these are مباريات ودية, but this is what we have. We don’t have كأس العالم qualifying. I’m trying to stay positive, but this is a failure. We don’t have a signature win, we don’t even have a signature XI… We have signature sh*t, is what we have.”
Davies was initially patient, but he has been puzzled that after a year it is still appears as Pochettino doesn’t have a full grasp of America as a soccer country or the pool of players that are at his disposal.
“You had a whole summer to experiment,” he said. “You had months to watch MLS and to watch guys in Europe, to say these are the guys who can take us forward. To hear in 2025, the ثقافة‘s not good, we’ve got to get people in here supporting the team? Shut the hell up. It’s disrespectful to all the guys who came before.”
Meola said Pochettino needs to make drastic changes to his approach if the USMNT are to salvage anything from this September camp.
“If we don’t see changes in formation, and his absolute best players that we’ve talked about, this camp was a waste,” he said.
The U.S. are winless in their last seven matches against non-North American top 25 opponents, being outscored 17-3 in that span.
The U.S. will now look to regroup when they face اليابان on Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio.
