Austin, Texas – If there was a doubt about the question of whether the American male football team was under a new direction, it faded on Saturday when fans arriving at the Q2 stadium for Mauricio Pocsettino's first game While the coach put a poster carrying his face, the same face that looked at a red banner behind the southern goal.
“It was a massive shock for me,” said Pochettino, The $ 6 million man in American footballwhich also received an exciting ovation and the reception of an almost closed crowd.
For a large part of the game which followed, however, the Pochettino team played a bit like the one that has only won once in its last five games under its predecessor, Gregg Berhalter. This time, he did enough to win, get a goal from Yunus Musah for four minutes in the second half and another from Ricardo Pepi four minutes after downtime to beat Panama 2-0.
Thus, while the arrival of a coach who was successful in three of the top five leagues in Europe inspired hope and energy – to say nothing about posters and banners – this must be tempered with the knowledge that the change does not occur overnight. It certainly did not happen on Saturday.
“I have not felt too many changes,” said Panamanian coach Thomas Christiansen. “He will need time to adapt his ideas to the team.”
Time, however, is short. The World Cup returns to the United States in less than two years and Pochettino would be paid $ 6 million – almost double the record for an American football coach – to make the team competitive for this tournament. The victory over Panama, he said, was “the first step to start growing up and being better”.
Pochettino took the job a month ago and said that the objective of his first camp, which ended with Tuesday evening's friendly match against Mexico in Guadalajara, was to introduce yourself and to stand for players and start implementing a style of play. This is why the coach has planned individual meetings with each player and used training sessions to establish “a few principles”.
“We want to press our stamp on the team,” he said at a press conference that went transparently from English to Spanish and vice versa.
Against Panama, the new coach went with a new look, opening with a 4-2-3-1 training that featured the 22-year-old fields Gianluca Busio and Aiden Morris as Double Pivot. And during the first 20 minutes, it worked, the United States dominating possession and creating three dangerous chances, but having failed to put a hit.
But, added Pocsettino, he will not be a slave to an approach. If his players cannot adapt to it, he will try to adapt to it.
“People sometimes say” it's my philosophy, my idea and I'm going to die with my idea “
“If a player does not have the conditions to do something, why would you like it? It is a question of creating the dynamics, the possibility.”
American coach Mauricio Pochettino calls Malik Tillman before putting the midfielder in Saturday's match against Panama.
(Rodolfo Gonzalez / Associated Press)
This adaptation is likely to remain a work in progress, especially since Pochettino lacks more than half of its probable starters – defenders Sergiño Dest, Chris Richards and Cameron Carter -Vickers, midfielder Tyler Adams, attackers Tim Weah and Folarin Balogun and Gio Reyna – which was left aside the list of this month due to injuries.
Christian Pulisic was present, however, and the new coach set out four to rent the praise of the AC Milan striker, calling him “one of the best offensive players in the world”.
Pulisic, who helped the first goal on Saturday, returned the compliment, saying that he had appreciated his first week with the new staff.
“The training was really intense and good,” said Pulisic, whose five goals rank third in Serie A. “Lots of work and long on the field to show how we want to play and get some ideas.”
An idea of Pochettino has highlighted since the team care is confidence. Captain TIM REAM said this message on Saturday.
“He talked about confidence all week,” said Ream. “When he tells the guys to go be themselves, you know that it is a sign that he has confidence in you.
“Knowing the manager of the manager he is, the caliber of the players he is that he has managed, so that he comes and gives to the guys that the license is themselves, it allows guys to express himself more and more. And be confident to do it.”
Another theme is to believe, a term that Pochettino used several times in its introductory press conference last month.
“” Believe “for me is such a powerful word,” he said. “In football, you have to believe that everything is possible. We must really believe in great things. Believe that we can win not only a match, we can win the World Cup. We want players to present themselves and think big.”
“The potential is there. Talent is there,” he added. “It is only to create the best platform for them to express themselves.”
This is a theme he returned last week when he again talked about the challenge of preparing for the rapid approval World Cup, which has the potential to change the trajectory of sport in the United States
“This is our responsibility. It is a massive and massive responsibility,” said Pocsettino. “We must strengthen this confidence and confidence that we can arrive in two years and be really competitive and we feel proud of a sport that may not be born here, but is starting to belong here.”
The countdown for this mission already checks. And Saturday's victory over Panama was a positive first step.
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