Oct 14, 2024, 11:05 AM ET
Historically two of the biggest teams in the Concacaf region, the United States and Mexico have failed to impress in recent times. In efforts to breathe new life into their programs following their underwhelming 2024 Copa América campaigns, both countries made changes to their coaching staffs, with the U.S. hiring Mauricio Pochettino and Mexico bringing back Javier Aguirre for a third spell in charge of El Tri.
What do those appointments say about each federation’s aspirations? And what are Concacaf’s giants getting in their new hires? A rare friendly in Mexico between the two on Tuesday night will provide us with a first meaningful glimpse at the next chapters for the USMNT and El Tri.
Pochettino tasked with revitalizing stalled-out USMNT
Few things inspire more rose-colored optimism than that of an ambitious coaching hire.
Two months after careening out of the Copa América group stage, which led to the firing of Gregg Berhalter, the U.S. men’s national team then turned a promising corner with the September introduction of Pochettino. Signing the former Chelsea manager was a clear signal of the lofty aspirations held by U.S. Soccer’s power structure. It’s also symbolic of the belief that the men’s roster can one day become an elite side on the global scale.
“Hiring a manager like Pochettino shows that you’re serious about growing the game,” said Crystal Palace‘s Chris Richards earlier this month. “We could have gone down the safe route by choosing a potential coach from the MLS, but I think them going for a coach that might turn them down, and going for coaches of [his] caliber is very impressive from U.S. Soccer.”
In the honeymoon era of Pochettino’s tenure, and with co-hosting duties set for the 2026 World Cup, excitement is undoubtedly high among the players.
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“It’s funny, people ask me when I’m playing for Team USA: ‘How far do you think you can go in the World Cup?’ I say ‘I want to win it,'” Richards added.
Pochettino echoed a similar sentiment in his first news conference last month.
“We are here because we want to win,” said the 52-year-old Argentine, who noted the need to mirror the success of the U.S. women’s national team. “We have many examples next to us we need to follow. We need to believe we can win the World Cup.”
A message like that is undoubtedly music to the ears of USMNT fans.
During the modern era of the men’s national team, supporters have been eager to see the intriguing up-and-coming generation of players reach their full potential. In order to do that and join the upper echelon of the global game, the USMNT required a coach that could match their grandiose dreams. That meant making the investment and putting trust in a figure like Pochettino, who has coached powerhouses in European club soccer. With full respect to his predecessor, that meant looking beyond MLS.
The hiring is a big step in the right direction, but keep in mind, it’s just one of many that need to be made for a team that has taken a few steps backward since 2022. Long gone are the days when the fanbase and those in charge would be appeased by simply defeating another backsliding rival like Mexico. Aside from regional Nations League titles, there has been little evidence to show that the USMNT are more than just a big regional fish in the small Concacaf pond.
The USMNT’s dismal run in the 2024 Copa América, and two winless friendlies against the likes of Brazil and Colombia heading into the tournament, cemented this idea. For all of the promise and hopes of a talented generation of players that have a high ceiling, it became apparent that they remained a work in progress under Berhalter.
Javier Aguirre, left, and Mauricio Pochettino, right, have been tasked with returning Mexico and the U.S., respectively, to their former glories. Illustration by ESPN
For Pochettino, that means there must be an immediate revitalization of a team that needs a jump-start in attitude and confidence. Just a few weeks back, captain Christian Pulisic stated that “there’s a lot of things that need to change” under their new manager, while noting the mentality and culture of the group.
On the field in the coming months, it will also be fascinating to see whether Pochettino will have the players adapt to his system or if he’ll also have to adapt to his players. Playing out of the back, high pressing and using a fluid attack are signifiers of the Argentine’s energetic approach, though one that might not click with the full player pool. Although a more pragmatic system emerged in his days with Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, the initial training sessions for the USMNT hint at the arduous nature of Pochettino’s three-a-day sessions.
“It’s intense,” Tim Ream said last week. “We had a pretty long session, I’d say one of the longer ones we’ve had with the national team setup.”
A similar message was shared by Brenden Aaronson. “One thing that we know for sure that we’ve really rehashed [with Pochettino] is the intensity of what we want to play at,” said Aaronson. “We want to play at a high intensity, we want to play in the other team’s half, we want to have possession of the ball.”
The youthful status of the USMNT player pool can lend itself to what Pochettino did with Southampton and Tottenham, which is where his managerial career took off.
“He was a game-changer,” said Hugo Lloris to ESPN. “He was very demanding but in the right way. He wanted us to play with intensity. We used to train so hard so then games would feel easier. We would press so much, recovering the ball so high to attack straight away.”
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All that said, there are questions about whether the U.S. has the personnel in defense and in net that can comfortably play out of the back — if Pochettino decides to bring that aspect of his style to the USMNT fold. As for the training sessions, the grueling nature of those sessions may become a source of frustration once the honeymoon period is over.
Can he overcome those kinds of obstacles and change the USMNT for the better?
Time will tell if the marquee manager will breathe new life into the group of promising up-and-comers. With a need to alter the USMNT culture and elevate budding stars like Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Sergiño Dest by the time the 2026 World Cup rolls around, the clock is now ticking for Pochettino. — Cesar Hernandez
Mexico turns back the clock in Aguirre’s third spell
Amid a deluge of uncertainty, Mexico opted for the proven commodity that the 65-year-old Aguirre has demonstrated for El Tri in the past. Fresh off a solid two-year showing at Mallorca, Aguirre did not renew his contract with the Spanish side despite shepherding them to safety in LaLiga and, most notably, taking them to the Copa del Rey final.
This isn’t the first time Aguirre has been called upon with the national team in crisis. In 2001 and 2009, Aguirre took over Mexico teams in dire straits, in danger of missing out on the 2002 and 2010 World Cups entirely, and eventually steered them to the knockout stages both times. This time, with Mexico co-hosting the World Cup, there will be none of the stressful preamble of qualification.
Aguirre seems to thrive amid the chaos of the Mexico job. In his first two spells, he quickly turned around teams that seemed lost on the pitch, finding the ideal tactics to maximize the available talent, and coached them toward respectable World Cup finishes.
Following a quick exit from last summer’s Copa América, Mexico again finds itself in disarray. The federation is on its fourth coach (Gerardo Martino, Diego Cocca, Jaime Lozano and now Aguirre) since 2022, and the parallels to Aguirre’s previous rescue missions are hard to ignore.
When Aguirre took hold of the team in 2001, Mexico was highly competitive in the Americas despite having few of its players play for European clubs. Eight years later, during his second stint, it had evolved into a program that prided itself on exporting many of its top talents.
Today, it has notably regressed in that regard, falling behind Concacaf rivals Canada and the USMNT. Further complicating things, the national team’s contract with Soccer United Marketing (SUM) has meant El Tri plays sparingly in Mexico, opting instead for big-money friendlies in the United States. In short, Aguirre inherits a team that is perhaps worse off than the one he managed nearly a quarter century ago.
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Pochettino: No single philosophy will guarantee USMNT success
Mauricio Pochettino says his USMNT will have to be adaptable to bring success in the future.
“To have someone come in for a third time to try and right the ship, don’t you think that means we haven’t done things right?” Ricardo Osorio said in an interview with ESPN this August.
Osorio, a former defender who played under Aguirre at the 2010 World Cup, also played four seasons in the Bundesliga with VfB Stuttgart.
“[Aguirre] isn’t at fault here: he’s here to fulfill a contract. He’ll do what he does. He’s a motivator, but I’m tired of doing the same thing. We haven’t advanced, we’ve gone back in time.”
Opinion is split around Mexican soccer circles with the choice to bring in Aguirre and his particular brand of crisis management. However, it is hard to argue with his history with the national team, as the former El Tri midfielder at the 1986 World Cup is seemingly at his best when tossed into near-impossible situations.
Aguirre’s secret to success stems from coming in and emphasizing order to struggling sides, solidifying the defense and working from there to right the ship. Last season, Mallorca allowed just 44 goals in 38 matches — only four LaLiga sides allowed fewer — as he secured first-division play for another year. The mantra is clear: If they can’t score, you can’t lose. The result is often tight, unspectacular play that emphasizes efficiency and concentration in the back, while making the most of counterattacks and limited buildup opportunities for offensive players.
In his previous World Cup runs with Mexico, Aguirre’s teams have never given up more than one goal in a single group stage match. However, the 2024 version of El Tri that Aguirre walks into is vastly different than the ones he encountered in 2001 and 2009. This Mexico is not a team that needs to figure out a way to defend, rather one that desperately needs to figure out how to create chances for its standout attacker, Santiago Giménez, who is currently out for three months due to a thigh injury.
“[Aguirre] is not a coach who has to play exactly the same way. I think he adapts himself well to what he wants to do to have success,” said Jared Borgetti in an interview with ESPN. Borgetti, who played under Aguirre at the 2002 World Cup, is now a commentator for ESPN Mexico. “I believe his experience will help him identify the players he wants for a system that suits Mexico moving forward.”
At the Copa América, Lozano’s Mexico conceded just one goal in three games against Ecuador, Venezuela and Jamaica. It also just scored once, preventing it from qualifying for the knockout stages. Giménez, a top striker at the club level for Feyenoord, scoring 23 goals in the Eredivisie last season, has not netted for Mexico since July 2023, when he came off the bench in the Concacaf Gold Cup final against Panama to clinch El Tri’s record ninth title in the competition.
Javier Aguirre and assistant Rafa Márquez have a tall task ahead of them to win over Mexico fans with an aggressive and attractive style of playing. Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images
In the past, Aguirre has had undeniable issues with teams that are expected to always be on the attack. At Monterrey, the Liga MX side he coached between 2021 and 2022, the Mexican coach was gifted with a luxury he arguably hadn’t had since he managed Atlético Madrid in the late-2000s: a squad built to compete for trophies.
“I think he adapts well to what he has, we saw it in Monterrey, being able to play a different way than he has with most of the Spanish clubs he’s coached,” Borgetti said.
Although Aguirre won a Concacaf Champions League title at Monterrey early in his tenure, he later struggled. Fan pressure mounted, and after an underwhelming performance at the FIFA Club World Cup, he was dismissed after winning just 43% of his games there.
With Mexico, similar scenarios have played out. In 2002, Aguirre thrived as the underdog by beating Croatia and drawing against Italy at the World Cup, only to lose to the United States in crushing fashion in the round of 16 when all signs pointed to El Tri being favored. In 2010, his team beat France convincingly 2-0 in the group stage, only to again fall short in the round of 16 against Argentina.
The question, then is: How will the notoriously cautious Aguirre muster a winning formula to snap Mexico out of its offensive funk? The answer may lie in how much influence assistant coach Rafa Márquez has over the man in charge.
A youth coach at Barcelona, the club he once starred for, Márquez employed the La Masía way during his four-year stint in Spain, and at Barcelona Atletic, the main club’s feeder, had a role in developing top-tier talent such as Gavi, Héctor Fort and, most notably, Lamine Yamal.
The tried-and-true Barcelona formula, however, is notably difficult to apply outside of the club for players who have not been immersed in it from an early age. Should Márquez and Aguirre be able to apply even a few helpful measures, though, it could go a long way toward nudging the team back toward relevancy and giving Márquez the necessary credibility to take over in 2026.
At the World Cup, the expanded 48-team format and local scheduling for Mexico offers (on paper, at least) a way for it to improve on past showings. For seven consecutive tournaments, Mexico was dogged by the curse of “el quinto partido,” or “the fifth game,” failing to get past the round of 16 from 1994 to 2018. Of course, 2022 was even worse, with El Tri failing to get out of the group stage. In 2026, el quinto partido won’t mean a quarterfinals berth, but it will mean Mexico has won a knockout stage game for the first time since 1986.
Will that be enough to bring fans back into the team’s good graces? A cash cow in the United States and Mexico for decades, El Tri’s current state of futility has seemingly had its effect on attendance and the team’s overall popularity in recent years, with fans and media regularly criticizing it in a manner not seen for quite some time.
Aguirre and the FMF will hope that their third time together is the charm, and that Mexico can not only salvage the opportunity presented for 2026, but launch itself into the future with another legend at the helm. — Eric Gomez
