{"id":89925,"date":"2025-11-27T19:28:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/pochettino-usmnt-aims-to-win-the-2026-world-cup-no-excuses\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T19:28:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:28:56","slug":"pochettino-usmnt-aims-to-win-the-2026-world-cup-no-excuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/soccer\/pochettino-usmnt-aims-to-win-the-2026-world-cup-no-excuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Pochettino: USMNT aims to win the 2026 World Cup, no excuses!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pochettino aims high: United States dreams of winning the 2026 World Cup<\/h2>\n\n\nThe United States men&#8217;s national team coach, Mauricio Pochettino, maintains his firm goal of conquering the 2026 World Cup. The Argentine coach insists that his players must &#8220;think big&#8221; to achieve success in the tournament.\n\nAlthough the USMNT hasn&#8217;t reached the World Cup quarter-finals since the 2002 edition, their best result in the modern era, Pochettino believes the team should aim to win the tournament that will be co-hosted with Canada and Mexico next year.\n\nPochettino cited Morocco as an example, who surprised many by reaching the semi-finals in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Pulisic will miss the Milan match due to a new injury.<\/li>\n<li>USMNT 2026 World Cup Big Board 3.0<\/li>\n<li>Predicting the USMNT starting lineup at the World Cup.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<p>For me, it&#8217;s about winning. I believe that if you don&#8217;t win, what does it matter? If you come in second, nobody remembers.<\/p>\n\n<cite>Mauricio Pochettino<\/cite>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\nIn an interview for &#8220;Futbol de Primera&#8221;, Pochettino stated: &#8220;I think we must aim to win it. Then you tell me &#8216;you reach the semi-finals, you reach the quarter-finals, you have a great tournament and, due to different factors, well, you can&#8217;t win&#8217;. I think we must give ourselves credit and merit, but I think if you look at Morocco in Qatar, I think they get where they get because they always had the mentality of saying: &#8216;I&#8217;m going to go for it, I&#8217;m going to win'&#8221;. \n\nThe coach highlighted the importance of &#8220;thinking big&#8221; and establishing football as a constant in the country.\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F1127%2Fr1581703_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg\" alt=\"Mauricio Pochettino ha construido un impulso positivo con el USMNT, incluyendo una gran victoria sobre Uruguay.\" title=\"\"><figcaption>Mauricio Pochettino ha construido un impulso positivo con el USMNT, incluyendo una gran victoria sobre Uruguay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\nSince taking office after the disappointing participation of the USMNT in the Copa Am\u00e9rica last year, Pochettino has emphasized the importance of a strong mentality and culture within the national team, constantly working to improve on and off the field.\n\nPochettino referred to a turning point when losing the 2025 Gold Cup against Mexico, falling 2-1 on July 6. Since then, the team has found a way to compete and raise its standards.\n\nAfter the defeat against Mexico, the USMNT has achieved a record of 4 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss. Recently, Pochettino led the Stars and Stripes to a surprising 5-1 victory over Uruguay.\n\nDespite this, there have been criticisms of Pochettino&#8217;s mandate with the USMNT.\n\n&#8220;There are coaches here in the United States who have criticized me completely unnecessarily. I would never have criticized a coach,&#8221; Pochettino said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t criticize because I know how difficult it is to be a coach.&#8221;\n\nThe USMNT is scheduled to play against Portugal and Belgium in March, in what will be the last two matches before Pochettino names his roster for the World Cup.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pochettino aims high: United States dreams of winning the 2026 World Cup The United States men&#8217;s national team coach, Mauricio Pochettino, maintains his firm goal of conquering the 2026 World Cup. The Argentine coach insists that his players must &#8220;think big&#8221; to achieve success in the tournament. Although the USMNT hasn&#8217;t reached the World Cup [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2661,2075,10782,522],"class_list":{"0":"post-89925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-pochettino","9":"tag-usmnt","10":"tag-winning","11":"tag-world-cup"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}