Mauricio Pochettino has framed a clear objective for the U.S. men\u2019s national team with the 2026 World Cup approaching in less than four months. When asked about the team\u2019s ambitions he posed a simple question: \u201cWhy not win it all?\u201d<\/p>\n
On the mindset behind that statement, Pochettino was direct. \u201cTo me it wouldn\u2019t … because we want to win [the World Cup], we are winners\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cIt\u2019s complicated for every team to win the World Cup, it won\u2019t be easy. It\u2019s also a different experience with different circumstances, we\u2019ll see, surprises can always happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s true that nobody in the world puts the USMNT among the favorites to win the World Cup, I\u2019m conscious of that. But internally, when we took on the challenge of going to the World Cup, we considered: \u2018Why not? Why not win it? Why not make it to the final stages of the World Cup?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we have a lot of work to do and that we\u2019ve been working now for a year and a half to achieve being at the level that a World Cup\u2014the most important event\u2014will demand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pochettino also addressed the expanding profile of the sport in the United States, citing the influence of high-profile players. He singled out the role of Lionel Messi in helping to accelerate soccer\u2019s growth and described the co-hosted tournament as a significant opportunity. “The World Cup is a massive motivation for everyone,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cInternally [as a staff] we always felt that pressure to compete and to win. We\u2019re trying to transfer that culture and philosophy to the organization [U.S. Soccer], of course, but also to the players, about the way we must prepare to compete.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pressure is there because we are one of the World Cup organizing nations and also because the U.S. always wants to be first, in everything it wants to be first and that idea is there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s true that the sport [soccer] isn\u2019t the first like in other countries, but I think it\u2019s up to us to handle it in the best way and transform that pressure into energy, to then compete in the best way we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
With his focus on a historic summer, Pochettino was also asked about links to Tottenham Hotspur after reports tied him to the job in the aftermath of Thomas Frank\u2019s dismissal. \u201cThey\u2019re rumors,\u201d Pochettino said, denying any contact. \u201cThe always associate me with Tottenham, like they did at a certain time with Espanyol or other clubs. In the end, especially because I have a past with these teams, when things aren\u2019t going well, people fall back on emotions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pochettino challenges USMNT to aim for the title at the 2026 World Cup while denying Spurs contact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961,1464],"tags":[1499],"class_list":["post-7144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-tottenham","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}