CHESTER, Pa. – This summer, leading up to and during the Gold Cup, Mauricio Pochettino challenged the U.S. Men’s National Team. It wasn’t a full-strength group, but that didn’t lessen his expectations. He challenged them to build a culture, a brotherhood, and a belief. More than anything, he challenged them to fight, for each other, for their badge and, ultimately, for their own World Cup places.

That fight, on Saturday night against Paraguay, got a bit literal. There was a late-game scrap, not unlike previous ones against Costa Rica and Australia. That fight, ultimately, wasn’t the one that made Pochettino happy. No, he had already seen everything he needed to see between the lines prior to that. When the ball was in play, Pochettino saw a team that, once again, proved that they can and will fight for each other in the right ways, too.

“The good thing was that this was a team performing,” Pochettino said following the USMNT’s 2-1 win over Paraguay. “This was a team with intensity going to press. It wasn’t individual actions with intensity. Sometimes there are individual actions with intensity and players walking, or some focused and some concentrating. I think the good thing today was the harmony. That is what we want to establish. That is what we’ve tried to find in the past. 

“It takes time, but after one year, I think today, yes, was a big test for us, and this was a good test. We need to be happy, but it’s not enough. We need to be pushing, and we need to keep improving.”

The U.S. has been steadily improving. After effectively hitting the reset button this summer, Pochettino’s group has built through the fall. The win over Paraguay, headlined by goals from Gio Reyna and Folarin Balogun, was the USMNT’s third in four matches – with the Americans being undefeated in that span. Players have shuffled in and out while injuries have robbed Pochettino of some of his big stars like Christian Pulisic and Antonee Robinson. It hasn’t hurt the team, though. That, ultimately, is exactly what Pochettino is looking for.

“We need to show that it is not about the name; it’s about the team,” Pochettino said. “It’s about the collective. It’s about the idea that they are all together…Our fans need to think that this team is the most important. Who is the hero? The team needs to be the hero. If we are capable of attracting our fans to support us, we can create a very good bond between the fans and us right up to the World Cup.”

With Saturday’s victory, the USMNT is now one step closer. Individual battles remain, and they’ll go right up until the World Cup, but, at the moment, the team is humming in ways that seemed so distant just a few short months ago.

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