The USMNT's supposed "Golden Generation" keeps wasting golden chances, and the players must hold themselves accountable
LOS ANGELES – "We need to play with personality, we need to play relaxed, we need to play with intensity. When we do these things, we're a really good team. But when we don't, we're an average team."
A spot-on analysis of the USMNT's CONCACAF Nations League performance, right?
But here’s the thing: that quote isn’t from Thursday night. It’s not even from Mauricio Pochettino. Indeed, former U.S. boss Gregg Berhalter said those words in September 2022 after the USMNT’s loss to Japan, just weeks before the World Cup. On that day, with so much at stake, the U.S. failed to rise to the occasion. Nearly three years later, that same theme feels more relevant than ever.
This is a talented group of players, for sure, but those words are a cautionary tale of what can happen when attitude and intensity are missing. Pochettino, the U.S. manager brought in to reignite a meandering program, repeatedly bemoaned his side's lack of both after Thursday night's 1-0 loss to Panama in the Nations League semifinals.
Berhalter is long gone, Pochettino hired as his high-profile replacement. The Argentine's arrival was supposed to be the wake-up call this team needed. He was brought in to be the leader, the one that can finally coax a much-needed mentality shift out of this talented group of American stars. It's what makes moments like Thursday's so frustrating: this team is too good to lose these games, yet they seem to find ways time and time again.
At some point, that isn't all down to coaching. That's not down to the rah-rah speeches in the locker room or the training sessions or the tactics. At some point, it comes down to one question: does this team have it or not? And until they discover it, their hopes of even putting in a really good showing at next summer's World Cup look slimmer and slimmer.
The USMNT's supposed "Golden Generation" keeps wasting golden chances and, at some point, the players that make up that generation need to look in the mirror and figure out why. Pochettino is a fantastic coach, one who can help take a team to a new level. He can't save them from themselves, though, and this group's future will be defined by their ability to look in the mirror and reflect that desire on the field.
Getty ImagesAnother letdown
Every player in a USMNT shirt must be weary of seeing Panama. For whatever reason, this team just has the USMNT's number. Even when outplayed, Panama finds a way to win it, and the USMNT finds a way to lose.
On Thursday, the winner came from Cecelio Waterman, whose perfectly placed shot caught Matt Turner flat-footed. Waterman's subsequent celebration with Thierry Henry made the moment legendary, but the goal itself was already historic. For the first time, in this fourth edition of the CONCACAF Nations League, the USMNT won't lift the trophy in the end. They won't even make the final.
"Just lacking a bit of aggressiveness and creativity in the final third," Christian Pulisic said after the match. "We're still building our identity. This is a tough loss. We've won this tournament a couple of times now and it didn't go our way this year, but we just have to keep going from here."
It's not just this loss, though. It's the one in the Copa America in 2024 when Tim Weah was sent off to, ultimately, send the U.S. to their doom. They had a chance to avoid it days later against Uruguay, but couldn't muster much of anything as they were bounced from the tournament in the group stage.
It's the one at the Gold Cup in 2023. That U.S. group was without nearly all of their stars due to the nature of that tournament (with the top teams going with their B squads) but the feeling was largely the same. Penalty kicks were their undoing that time around. Who knows what could have happened if it got there on Thursday night?
To their credit, the U.S. has stepped up to the occasion multiple times. They've lifted this trophy three times for a reason, beating good Mexico and Canada teams to do so. They played hard as hell at the 2022 World Cup, too, showing well, in particular, against England.
That performance against was defined by their intensity and tenacity, but those haven't always been apparent in the years since. They should be non-negotiable but in the wake of Thursday's loss, Pochettino hit on those themes again when explaining away this latest setback.
AdvertisementAFPThe lack of intensity
Berhalter's quote from 2022 fit the theme of Thursday night. And Pochettino essentially echoed the same sentiments after the match.
"I don't think we approached the game or started the game in the right way," he said. "That's why I feel so disappointed and we all feel disappointed. In the first half, we played too slow, too comfortable on the pitch. We didn't show aggression with the ball and there are consequences to not showing aggression with the ball. We also didn't show agression in a defensive way. Even if we didn't concede too much, only two or three shots and one on target going into that last action, but we knew we had to be aggressive with the ball and have a mature approach to the game. I think we didn't show that."
It's about competitive spirit, about desire, about fight. And the USMNT was lacking in all of those areas.
"It's the responsibility of everyone and we need to find a way to compete better," Pochettino said. "I don't like to say that. We are the USA, but you can't win with your shirt. You cannot win because you play here or there. You need to show and you need to come here and be better and suffer and win duels and work hard. If not, it's not going to be enough. We are going to play, but competing demands that level. At the international level, it's not going to be enough."
The stats support Pochettino's words. Panama won 44 duels to the USMNT's 34, which is the most telling stat. Virtually every other data point was in the USMNT's favor except for that one – and that's the one defined solely by effort and attitude. Talent doesn't win 50-50s, commitment does. Panama simply had more of it.
"The difference was the way that they fought for the game," Pochettino said. "They were hungry. Every single ball was the last one for every single player of Panama. That's something you can feel from the touchline. You feel that that was the difference."
It is reminiscent of Berhalter's point. The USMNT has struggled to find the line between intense and comfortable, composed and aggressive. It's something the best teams can do. The best teams find moments to switch on and attack. They bury teams before they get a chance to be buried themselves. It's a skill. The question is if it's one that this group of players can learn.
In fact, after Pochettino's hire was announced last fall, Pulisic specifically addressed what he wanted the Argentine manager to bring to this squad.
"Hopefully a culture that is willing to fight, that is willing to take risks, you know, win," Pulisic said. "There’s a lot of things that need to change, just the mentality and the culture of the group. I think we have the quality, but hopefully, that’s the first thing he’s going to want to change."
Pochettino has to be the one to teach them and guide them, but they also have to be willing to absorb, learn and execute. It's clear that's not yet happened. Yes, of course, the USMNT were unlucky with saves, posts, and VAR calls against Panama, but a better team wouldn't have let it get to that point.
Pochettino, though, wasn't without blame on Thursday. He, too, could have been better.
AFPPochettino's part in it all
USMNT star Tyler Adams made it abundantly clear: when a team loses in the way the USMNT did, the blame doesn't fall on the coach.
"I've never blamed the coach in my entire career," Adams said. "A loss depends on the players, and that's the bottom line, unless a coach goes out and tries something completely random and it wasn't what the coach was following or if there was a lack of communication. There was no lack of communication in what was happening today. We knew exactly what we had to do. We knew what we needed to be competitive. I don't think we were as competitive as we needed to be."
Pochettino was brought in for a reason. He's paid more than any USMNT coach in history for a reason. Every time the USMNT takes the field, Pochettino is expected to make a difference and, on Thursday, he couldn't find a way to do it.
His counterpart, Thomas Christiansen, sure did. It wasn't rocket science, of course, but the Panama coach drilled his players on shrinking the field and limiting the U.S. attack. He kept them hungry and gave them a game plan that worked. There was no big secret to it and, in some ways, that makes it all the more impressive.
Pochettino, meanwhile, never really turned the tide. Yes, the injury absences of top players such as Antonee Robinson and leading strikers Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi also played a part. So, too, did the width of the field – literally more narrow than the pitch will be at SoFi for the World Cup next year. You could question at the roster selection, too.
Still, Pochettino had options at his disposal and he didn't deploy all of them. Patrick Agyemang and Jack McGlynn were thrown into the game in the second half, but Gio Reyna and Diego Luna were not. The game was crying out for them, and Pochettino admitted he was preparing to turn to them in extra time. They never got there, so he never got that chance.
"The last three times that we faced Panama in an official competition we were not capable of beating them," he said. "Why? I think that is a question mark, but it's a question mark that we, all together, need to find a solution."
It's a question that Pochettino arguably could have answered in real-time. Now, he and the players will be left wondering as they prepare for what's next.
ImagnLooking ahead
Chalk this up as yet another learning moment in a long line. Panama and Uruguay in the summer, Canada and Mexico in the fall and, now, Panama again in the spring – the USMNT seemingly has had ample education in what not to do.
"You always learn more from the setbacks than you do from other games," said veteran Tim Ream. "You can say we would have won, but you're just papering over the issues that I think everybody saw in terms of getting behind and aggression and all of that. There are always teaching moments, always learning moments in every game, every training, every day you step on the field.
"We have to look at that and make sure that we take on board exactly what he wants and exactly what he needs. That starts with duels and aggression and intensity."
The good news is that the USMNT will have a chance at some level of redemption on Sunday. Canada awaits in the Nations League third-place match – with Mexico facing Panama in the finale – offering the U.S. another crack at a good team. There will be no trophy lift, of course, but a win could lift morale. There will be no excuses in that one. If the U.S. fails to show up on Sunday, the knives will, rightfully, come out.
In the hours until then, the U.S. will have to dissect this latest loss, just as they have previously.
"We're not going to have the chance to win a trophy right now," Matt Turner said, "but I think you can go one of two ways from a result like this: you either come back on Sunday, put together a good result, and you have a good feeling going into the summer or you can implode, really. I don't foresee that coming… We can't let performances like this slide."
Maybe, on Sunday, those lessons will take hold. Maybe this time around the U.S. will discover that, as Pochettino says, it takes more than just a shirt to win a game. And if these players learn that lesson, they'll learn another one: Pochettino can't save this team on the road to the 2026 World Cup – only they can.
