TAMPA, Fla. – As the U.S. men’s national team took to the field for the final training session of 2025 on Monday, they were undoubtedly in the “up” part in a year of ups and downs. The World Cup co-hosts are in the midst of a four match unbeaten run, an ideal trade for the four match losing streak they had as they entered last summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup. It makes Tuesday’s clash against Uruguay a fitting capstone for a year full of trials and tribulations for Mauricio Pochettino’s side. They will have a chance to measure their progress against the very same opponent they lost to in the Copa America last year, which closed the chapter on Gregg Berhalter’s time in charge of the USMNT.
That defeat was essentially the origin story of Pochettino’s project, if informally. U.S. Soccer decided a drastic change was needed ahead of a World Cup on home soil, forcing the federation to change the captain of their ship “in the middle of your travels.”
“Why we are here is because something was wrong, no?,” Pochettino said on Monday. “If not, one year ago, you keep going with the same project because it’s not easy to change in the middle of your travels. You don’t change the captain of the ship in the middle of the storm. No, you give confidence and try but if something was wrong, you need to change.”
How to watch the USMNT vs. Uruguay, odds
- Date: Tuesday, Nov. 18 | Time: 7 p.m. ET
- Location: Raymond James Stadium — Tampa, Fla.
- Odds: USMNT +250; Draw +210; Uruguay +115
A year later and 1,000 miles away from the loss in Kansas City, change is clear to see. Just nine members of the Copa America roster are in camp this month, for starters, but that merely scratches the surface on Pochettino’s influence on the team. His version of the team is virtually unrecognizable compared to Berhalter’s, chiefly in their style of play. Pochettino’s switch to a back three, first implemented in the second half of September’s 2-0 loss to South Korea, continues to pay dividends especially as the head coach names lineups that are markedly different from game to game. Lineup changes are to be expected on Tuesday, too, for a variety of practical reasons, including the quick turnaround after Saturday’s 2-1 win over Paraguay.
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“Tommorow is a good chance for some players that didn’t play in the first half [against Paraguay], for sure,” Pochettino said, “because it’s not only to give the c hance, because there’s not going to be a lot of time after to have the possibility to play.”
Pochettino’s year-long demand for onlookers to be patient has paid off, to the point that it is starting to become reasonable to expect the USMNT to look and play a certain way when they hit the pitch. The high-intensity, attack-minded vision Pochettino has built at different club teams during his 16-year coaching career is now clear to see with the U.S. team, Pochettino sharing a long list of principles for his team regardless of personnel.
“I think the identity is the way that we build from [the] back and the way that we respect the principles of the game,” he said, “the tactical work in the way that we play, in the capacity to rotate and how we use the space, how we build from back, how we, with the medium block, or when we are in the transition to going to dominate the game in the opposite half, all the space that we found and we use in the way that we use [it], in the way that we understand the different movements. We know very well in a team when you work every day, it’s easier to find this dynamic but when you are in a national team, it’s more difficult because [there’s] always different players. You don’t have time but I think that the way that we play, that is the identity that we want to translate in the next games.”
Problem-solving is a key demand from Pochettino to his players, according to defender Mark McKenzie, who watched Saturday’s win from the bench but saw his teammates combat challenges in real time.
“We watched video on them and the way they are very aggressive,” McKenzie said, “and especially when it comes to pressing and building their press so I think we did a really good job of suffocating them, especially after we lost the ball and also stifling them in their transitions, which we knew they really were really strong in. I think those are two areas where the team has shown [that] we know how to solve and even if they do sit back and in a medium block, we were paying for a high press. How to control the tempo of the match, move the ball side to side, playing central passes, trying to break the lines to find our creative players in the pocket and then ultimately allow our attackers to be able to do what they do in the final third.”
Intensity is becoming a mainstay of the USMNT’s approach, too. The fight that broke out at the end of the win over Paraguay is perhaps an extreme example, one that Pochettino hopes does “not need to be the [only] signal of our identity” but harkens back to previous versions of the team. Years before Berhalter’s tenure came to a close with a listless and uninspiring edition of the USMNT, the group were known for a physical, hard-working mentality. Pochettino and company are finding a way to mix style with an aggression, which is especially suitable against opponents like Paraguay and Uruguay, for whom no game is a friendly.
“I think it’s important that we bring that intensity from the start like we did just from pressing, winning the ball, duels,” midfielder Tanner Tessman said. “Those are the main things, definitely, to start with and I think we’ve grown into that over the past year, year and a half with Poch so I think it’s been good. With that, I think that the national team has had that identity in the past and it’s something that we want to have. When the opponent plays us, that they know it’s going to be a difficult game on an intensity level and then how we play – if we have a bad game, a good game, with the ball without the ball, whatever it is, fine – but I think the intensity is the thing that we want to bring to the table, for sure.”
Pochettino is always quick to remind that his reinvention of the team is not complete – and is happening on a truncated timeline, especially after March’s Concacaf Nations League defeats forced him to “destroy the things we need[ed] to destroy” and start from scratch. With just three friendlies left and a single digit number of training sessions before Pochettino locks in a World Cup roster, though, the USMNT’s period of upheaval and transition has finally given way for a phase of stability.
“Yesterday, I showed some sentences to the players: ‘Let’s be realistic and do the impossible,'” Pochettino shared, the latest in a list of motivational quotes for the players that have begun to trickle out in press conferences and Instagram Stories. “I think that was good for us to see the reality. When the reality [hits], it’s not the reality that you perceive or are trying to see or were convinced that was different. I think it’s a good point to do the impossible, to change reality and that is in the way that we start to work. … You need to be relaxed to work, be strong, settle your principles. Sometimes [we] struggled with the result. I’m not saying now we are fantastic. We need to improve a lot. It is not now that we are so good, we are so happy. I think we are settled and changing the mindset and I think that is working.”
