SANTA CLARA, Calif. – U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino said Wednesday’s round-of-32 match against Bosnia-Herzegovina will be like “the final of the World Cup,” and that if the U.S. is to progress to the round of 16, “we need to perform at our best.”
The USMNT looked sharp in its first two group stage matches against Paraguay and Australia, before falling to Turkiye while playing a heavily rotated lineup.
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But with the World Cup now entering the knockout stages — and with presumed heavyweights like Germany and the Netherlands already eliminated — the USMNT knows there is no margin for error, especially against a disciplined Bosnia side.
“We don’t have another opportunity if we fail,” Pochettino said at Tuesday’s pre-match news conference. “It’s all in, knowing that that game is the final of the World Cup. If we were capable to go through, the next one is going to be another final of the World Cup. I think [that] needs to be our mindset and our mentality.”
Yet Pochettino added that he feels the mentality of his team “is perfect” heading into the match, and has been building since the World Cup roster was announced on May 26. The momentum the team has generated is the culmination of what he hoped for when he took the USMNT job in September 2024.
“[Now], we start to see what we wanted and [our] expectation from them and I think it’s a massive, massive improvement,” he said.
Pochettino lauded Bosnia, which finished third in Group B behind Switzerland and Canada, for its physicality, aggression and individual quality, as well as the team’s ability to change formations mid-game.
“That is really challenging for the opponent,” Pochettino said about Bosnia tactical flexibility. “For us it’s very challenging and was very challenging to prepare [for].”
On the injury front, Pochettino said that defender Auston Trusty, who trained with the full squad for the first time this week, “is much better than we expect.” The U.S. coach seemed to have doubts about midfielder Cristian Roldan (quad) and defender Mark McKenzie (foot irritation).
“I hope that [Trusty] can be on the bench and being available,” Pochettino said. “Roldan and Mark McKenzie is going to be difficult, but we need to wait, because in 24 hours things can change very quick.”
The U.S. is widely viewed as being favorites in the match, especially since as tournament co-hosts they will have the support of the home crowd at Levi’s Stadium. But Pochettino downplayed such talk.
“We don’t feel that,” Pochettino said. “We feel that we have the confidence to perform well and of course the belief that we can win, but with full respect and thinking that if we want to win and go to the next stage, it’s going to be that we need to perform at our best.”
Pochettino recalled how Jorge Valdano, a World Cup-winner with Argentina in 1986, once told him that “Relaxation brings concentration.” That is the message Pochettino wants his players to absorb.
“They need now to be relaxed, and not to think, and tomorrow play with intuition and with the confidence that all that we were preparing [for] is going to appear on the field,” he said.
