INGLEWOOD, Calif. – It was hard not to sense some version of optimism as the U.S. men’s national team gathered in the Los Angeles area last week ahead of the Concacaf Nations League semifinal, a tournament that they were the only previous winners of. Head coach Mauricio Pochettino had spent the previous week telling media members in London, the city he has long lived in, that the U.S. could be the world’s best team within the next decade in a refrain that matched the ambitious vibes he has brought to the job since the moment he stepped into it last fall.
By the time the week wrapped up, Pochettino was instead encouraging USMNT fans not to feel pessimistic as they notched two successive losses in the CNL, capping off a rough week with a 2-1 loss to Canada at SoFi Stadium on Sunday. There was an argument to be made after Thursday’s 1-0 loss to Panama in the semifinals that the U.S. outplayed the opposition, but that was not necessarily the case against Canada. Despite facing a Canada side that prefers a more open and dynamic playing style, the USMNT managed just five shots – fewer than the 12 they mustered against a defense-focused Panama – and only strung together 0.74 expected goals. Neither outing was particularly impressive, forcing Pochettino to do some damage control.
“I want to send a message to the fans. Don’t be pessimistic and don’t get bad feelings,” Pochettino said on Sunday after the defeat to Canada. “The process is always is painful when you lose, but we need to accept [it], but I don’t want that the people feel pessimistic. Disappointed, we all are, and the fans need to feel the disappointment that we didn’t win.”
He followed that up with a promise.
“We’re going to find a way to perform.”
Pochettino and his players were in agreement that things need to change, arguing that this week’s results force a period of reflection before they reconvene in June for a pair of friendlies and the Gold Cup, which marks their final competitive games before next year’s World Cup. It was hard to point the finger towards one particular issue, which may not come as a surprise considering how the last few days have panned out for this group.
The head coach, for example, wondered aloud if he may need to try something different during his training camps but he remains focused on establishing a competitive edge before layering in tactical ideas. He said he was “happy with the attitude [of] all the players,” but also accused them of being on autopilot during these games.
“When that is not your habitat, you can stand for a period of time but you cannot be consistent,” he said. “We realize that the way that we competed against Panama wasn’t good, but after, we talked [about] how to change the automatic pilot. You go and to try to survive in the way that you will be safe and you come back to your habit. When it’s not your normal habit, yes, you are conscious. I am thinking, ‘I need to go, I need to press.’ When we don’t have the ball but when we have the ball, I want, ‘I need to change the tempo. I need to go forward.'”
Christian Pulisic echoed that statement, especially as it pertains to the differences in the USMNT’s and Panama’s performances on Thursday – even if he thinks discussion about intensity levels is somewhat lazy.
“It’s just the easiest thing to say after a loss, is to say they were more aggressive and have more heart,” Pulisic said. “I definitely see it, especially in Panama, what it means to them, for sure. It’s like their everything, it’s the biggest game so that’s definitely something that we can honestly learn from.”
Tyler Adams, meanwhile, singled out inconsistent individual outings as something that prevents the USMNT from stringing together impressive collective performances.
“I think there just needs to be a collective of better individual performances. I think when you have good individual performances in international football, usually it breeds something,” Adams said. “You can find someone to support, you can find positivity within the team and I think that when you start to combine those individual performances, it leads to a good team one.”
Pochettino: ‘We have time’
The CNL matches were always going to offer a valuable progress report on the state of the USMNT as they prepared for the 2026 World Cup on home soil, which many are hoping will be a transformative moment for the growth of soccer in the country. The focal point of that growth plan is a U.S. team that puts together a statement-making performance, and while Pochettino’s first months on the job had gone well, this month’s games have forced many to reconsider what this group’s true ceiling is.
This version of the USMNT is meeting a lot of the traditional markers of success in a way that their predecessors have not. The majority of the core roster is based in Europe, with 11 players competing in this season’s edition of the UEFA Champions League – a new record for USMNT players. Some, like Christian Pulisic and Antonee Robinson, are easily amongst the best players in their leagues. Many of the players, though, are squad players for their club teams and a notable handful like Matt Turner and Gio Reyna have struggled for years to earn regular playing time. There’s a real argument to be made that their inconsistency has stunted their growth and that this promising group has not actually made meaningful strides since the 2022 World Cup.
There are some champagne problems that come with the USMNT players’ moves to Europe – they had to deal with the fatigue of lengthy flights from the continent to Los Angeles last week and the scheduling of the first game on Thursday meant they could only squeeze in three training sessions. Combined with the fact that they were missing many key players through injury like Robinson, Sergino Dest and Folarin Balogun, though, these are obviously un-ideal circumstances for a team to build a new identity under a new tactician. They continue to trust the process, however new it may be, because there’s a huge task at hand.
“The journey that we’re on is growing the sport in America,” Adams said. “If you want to be negative about what we want to build and where we’re trying to take it, the sport won’t grow — that’s the bottom line. We’re kind of trying to be the catalyst in doing that and with that, you need to have success so to give people optimism, obviously. I think for us, we need to make a bigger effort and [be] a team where people can get behind and support, whether it’s through passion, whether it’s through an amazing style of play, whether it’s through winning games, scoring amazing goals, whatever it is, but winning breeds that optimism for sure.”
Pochettino also said that dealing with growing pains now is preferable to experiencing them next year.
“We need to change and i think I am not going to say I am happy,” he said. “Don’t take me wrong, but if something’s negative about [the] result, [there’s] something to learn. It’s better now because I think we have time…In this situation, in one year’s time, for sure I will tell you, ‘Houston, we have a problem’…In one year, [if] we are talking about that, it’s because we have a big problem and we were not capable to discover and to try to decide on the best strategy and to provide to the team the capacity to play in a different way. I think we have time and I prefer that happen today and not in one year.”
There is an argument to be made that the USMNT will learn meaningful lessons from this disappointing outing at the CNL Finals, though many years have passed without this group demonstrating that they have moved out of the learning stage. With around 15 months to go until their opening game of the World Cup, the clock is ticking.
Luna makes the most of his moment
Many things went wrong for the USMNT over the last week, but there was one person who earned universal praise on Sunday – midfielder Diego Luna. After stints in the 2024 and 2025 January camps designed for MLS players, the 21-year-old midfielder earned a call-up with the full squad for this camp and started against Canada, notching the assist to Patrick Agyemang’s first half goal. Pochettino singled him out as one of the standout players on Sunday and cited him as an example of what he wants to see from players.
“Diego Luna played well,” he said. “The desire and the [hunger] that he showed is what we want and that is not to say nothing against the rest of the people. It’s only one example. When I told [him] today, ‘You are going to play,’ he was ready.”
Pulisic was just as positive about Luna, who he played with for the first time at the international level on Sunday.
“He’s an awesome kid, man,” Pulisic said about Luna. “He’s got a really bright future. You can see it today. He brings a little something different. He’s got heart and I love the way he plays and like I said, he’s got a big future ahead.”
It is an impressive upward trajectory for Luna, who was left off the U-23 USMNT’s Olympics roster last summer and declined the opportunity to be an alternate while leaving the door open to represent Mexico in the wake of that decision. He came with his own motivation to this month’s games, which resulted in him being cap-tied to the USMNT.
“Not having my name be out there and not playing in Europe yet, stuff like that,” Luna said as he discussed his mindset heading into camp. “I think the route that I’ve taken is very different than a lot of players, from academy to USL to MLS to not playing and now starting and honestly, I think it’s been a different route and I’ve always got a chip on my shoulder.”
He also snuck in a comment that one would guess is music to Pochettino’s ears.
“I think for me, it’s coming from a difficult background and having to fight for everything I’ve earned,” Luna said. “I think it’s easy for me to say that I’m looking for more, working for more and to provide my family, for my son, for my mom, dad, all these types of things so I think it’s just that and to be able to play for the crest. I don’t know what other motivation you need, right? I think it’s the biggest step in soccer to play for your country.”
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