The Athletic FC: USMNT, Canada and…. Thierry Henry stunned; what has Tuchel been up to?

New York Times

21-03-2025

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Hello! A bad night for the USMNT. A great night for Cecilio Waterman. A surreal night for Thierry Henry.
Coming up:
🇺🇸 Poch's first U.S. setback
🇲🇽 Jimenez beauty sinks Canada
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The lesser-spotted Tuchel
🇫🇷 Modric scolds Mbappe
Here's a lesson in learning to walk before you go wild and run.
A few days ago, Mauricio Pochettino was talking (hypothetically, sure) about the USMNT winning the World Cup and morphing into the planet's top dogs. Then along came the Nations League Finals to hit him hard with a dose of smelling salts.
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The semi-final against Panama was Pochettino's first test as U.S. boss, the first high-stakes moment for a high-end, highly paid head coach. And last night, the USMNT melted, beaten in the semi-finals by Panama with virtually the last kick. What's the Spanish for 'false start', or 'give me strength'?
A bristling Pochettino let his hands go afterwards. 'You're the USA but you cannot win with your shirt' was not far off a warning about arrogance. The headline from our report — 'Same Berhalter-era woes linger…' — says it all because the purpose of hiring Pochettino was to shake off Gregg Berhalter's limits.
These are early days and there's a long game to be played (Tyler Adams did his best to deflect blame from his head coach), but yesterday's 1-0 defeat won't go down well. It came in the 94th minute via Panama's only shot on target, a goal that generated a lovely moment: Cecilio Waterman threading the eye of the needle brilliantly and then sprinting off to find CBS analyst Thierry Henry at pitchside.
Waterman shouted 'eres mi idolo' in Henry's face — 'you are my idol' — and a hysterical Henry loved it. The pair of them will treasure the evening. Pochettino would prefer not to speak of it again.
The line-up for Sunday's final is the one we didn't predict: Panama versus Mexico after Javier Aguirre's team saw off Canada in yesterday's later kick-off.
If truth be told, that contest was more of a 50-50 on paper and Canada had no way around two Raul Jimenez goals, the first scored after 45 seconds and the second, above, a beast of a free kick. But the 2-0 defeat represents a backwards step for a side who had been making tangible progress.
Realistically, Canada's prospects at the 2026 World Cup are limited. The USMNT, in contrast, hired Pochettino with the ambition of making waves. Their experiences at last year's Copa America and now the Nations League Finals (where Panama beat them both times) are painful punches in a cycle where all roads lead the USMNT back to square one.
There's a train of thought that says the England team aren't broken, ergo they don't need to be fixed. World Cup semi-finalists, World Cup quarter-finalists and European Championship runners-up twice: the past eight years were no car crash.
Scratch below the surface, though, and a refresh was called for. Gareth Southgate looked jaded at last summer's Euros and so did his tactics. The harmony of his squad — the pillar of everything he built as national manager — was sliding out of tune. Time to go, which he did.
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But if the expectation was that his successor, Thomas Tuchel, would rip it up and start again, the German has confounded everybody. He took the job in October. He hasn't overseen a single game. In preparation for his first against Albania at Wembley tonight, he dug up two Southgate favourites who we assumed were permanently buried: Jordan Henderson and Marcus Rashford.
What, then, will Tuchel's England look like? Is he ready to launch? And what has he been doing for the past six months?
In fairness to Tuchel's schedule, there's been no shortage of networking in the background. The range of meetings listed in this overview of his reign to date runs from Prince William to Southgate, and his choice of squad for this evening was a thorough process.
Tuchel, whose tacit target is to win the 2026 World Cup, started with a long list of 55 names before whittling it down. While the group isn't a sea-change, he does intend to shift away from Southgate's maligned, defensive style. He has gone further, claiming England were spooked by the fear of defeat at Euro 2024.
We'll see what happens in practice because Tuchel is hardly renowned as a white-knuckle man, but he was a Champions League winner at Chelsea and he isn't troubled by low self-confidence. Perhaps his light-touch approach reflects an unusual scenario, where a team aren't broken but do need fixing.
(Selected games, kick-offs ET/UK time)
Friday: World Cup qualifier: Group K — England vs Albania, 3.45pm/7.45pm — ViX/ITV.
Saturday: World Cup qualifiers: Group I — Moldova vs Norway, 1pm/5pm — Fox Sports, Fubo, ViX/Viaplay. Group J — Wales vs Kazakhstan, 3.45pm/7.45pm — Fox Sports, Fubo, ViX/BBC Sport.
MLS (all MLS Season Pass/Apple TV): Cincinnati vs Atlanta United, 2.30pm/6.30pm; Minnesota United vs LA Galaxy, 4.30pm/8.30pm; Sporting Kansas City vs LAFC, 8.30pm/Sunday 12.30am.
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Sunday: UEFA Nations League quarter-final second legs (all 3.45pm/7.45pm and Vix/Viaplay): France (0) vs Croatia (2); Germany (2) vs Italy (1)*; Portugal (0) vs Denmark (1)*; Spain (2) vs Netherlands (2).
*also on Fox Sports and Fubo
Concacaf Nations League (both Paramount+/Concacaf YouTube): third-place match: USMNT vs Canada, 6pm/10pm; final: Mexico vs Panama, 9.30pm/Monday 1.30am.
Last night's European internationals weren't much to write home about, although I did chuckle at Thibaut Courtois — fresh from talking his way back into the Belgian camp — reflecting on his life choices as Belgium's defence fell apart in a 3-1 loss against Ukraine.
Elsewhere, Spain went all Arsenal by getting Mikel Merino to bail them out in a 2-2 draw with the Netherlands, and Rasmus Hojlund denied taunting his idol after pinching Cristiano Ronaldo's 'siuuu' celebration in Denmark's 1-0 win against Portugal. I'm sure CR7 was touched.
Kylian Mbappe's return for France, however, did not help them avoid a defeat in Croatia. Not only that, but he also got an old-fashioned dressing down from Real Madrid team-mate Luka Modric for what could be politely described as simulation (above). Tut, tut.