With 2026 World Cup a year away, the USMNT is directionless

Yahoo

a day ago

The USMNT has lost four straight games for the first time since 2007, and looked lost in a 4-0 defeat to Switzerland on Tuesday in Nashville. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
The 2026 World Cup has been billed as the opportunity of a lifetime, as a chance for the U.S. men's national team to 'change soccer in America forever.' It will be a monthlong moment to captivate a country and lift an entire sport; a moment that everyone, for years, assumed a rising USMNT would seize with pride.
And yet, with the World Cup a year away, the USMNT is directionless.
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It clunked to a new low on Tuesday night in Nashville. It lost a fourth straight game — to Switzerland, 4-0 — for the first time since 2007.
It failed to record a single shot on target, and it trailed by four goals inside 40 minutes at home for the first time ever. Ever.
It made head coach Mauricio Pochettino sigh, repeatedly, perhaps in disbelief, perhaps with alarm.
And it made a half-empty stadium boo their brains out.
That, astonishingly, is the state of the USMNT with a year to go. Two years after former head coach Gregg Berhalter said "the sky's the limit" for what many believed was a "golden generation" of players, they are insipid and astray, uninspired and uninspiring.
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Many of those prominent players were absent for Tuesday's loss to Switzerland and Saturday's to Türkiye, so there are caveats. But they and their dubious effort were responsible for the first two losses, in March to Panama and Canada.
When they bowed out of these summer friendlies and Gold Cup — either to rest, or to recover from injuries, or to compete at the Club World Cup — the hope was that their replacements would fight and light a fire under those far-too-comfortable regulars. On Saturday, even in defeat, Pochettino was pleased with the newcomers and their passion. A shaky ship had seemingly been steadied.
But on Tuesday, hopefully, Pochettino realized that the newbies, other than Diego Luna, simply aren't good enough.
And as he slumped in his seat, dumbfounded, digesting his fifth loss in 10 games before halftime had even arrived, he looked lost.
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In fact, for the first time since taking the job in September, the highest-paid coach in program history has sounded lost. After months of calling in his top two dozen players, and speaking about how he'd need to "feel" them to mold them into a World Cup contender, he said: "Sometimes we give too much importance to [being] together."
And after months of trying to mold them, he turned this summer, his last potential dress rehearsal for 2026, into something of an open tryout.
He began grasping at metaphorical straws. He called in uncapped MLS players who probably won't sniff the World Cup roster. Perhaps he was trying to send a message to the mainstays who let him down in March. Perhaps he genuinely thought Quinn Sullivan or Nathan Harriel could contribute next summer.
Either way, this is what he should've done months ago. He has gone about his USMNT rebuild backwards. There was, maybe, a time to open up the player pool; it isn't now. Now, in theory, should have been a time to refine the pool, and the processes and systems that will guide the U.S. next summer. Pochettino, his hand partially forced by the absences, hasn't done that.
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Instead, the past four games have been little more than an embarrassment.
Instead, fans are disillusioned. "Apathy" was the word former USMNT defender Alexi Lalas used on a Zoom call with reporters Tuesday.
Instead, the most compelling story swirling around the team is a public spat between Landon Donovan and Christian Pulisic's dad — who seemingly has the support of his son, who opted out of the Gold Cup to recharge for next season.
Instead of rising to meet this unmissable moment, the USMNT plateaued in 2024; and now, it is regressing. Its No. 1 goalkeeper, Matt Turner, looks cooked. Its attack looks toothless. Its roster looks desperately shallow.
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And Pochettino's vaunted fingerprints are nowhere to be found. His lineups seem incoherent. His cute experiments haven't worked. His messages seem empty.
And his task — to lift the USMNT to a World Cup quarterfinal or semi — seems more daunting than ever.