![\"File](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP26146728517061.jpg\")
File photo of United States Men\u2019s National Soccer team coach Mauricio Pochettino, left, talking with midfielder Diego Luna (10) during a match last summer.\nASHLEY LANDIS \/ AP<\/p>\n
INGLEWOOD \u2014 Mauricio Pochettino subscribes to \u201cenergia universal,\u201d or universal energy, a spiritual and philosophical concept that an invisible, omnipresent force flows through the cosmos and impacts everyday life.<\/p>\n
\u201cDecisions, personal relationships and absolutely everything else are a matter of energy,\u201d Pochettino said in a 2017 book about his time coaching England\u2019s Tottenham Hotspurs. \u201cI\u2019ve had the ability to notice something powerful that you can\u2019t see but does exist. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI need data and tests, but what most influences my decisions is my ability to see if the right energy is flowing. I can foresee things that are going to happen and the associated consequences, or which path a player is going to take. I can see it in their auras.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the coach entrusted with guiding the U.S. men\u2019s national soccer team at the 2026 World Cup, starting 6 p.m. Friday at SoFi Stadium. He keeps a bowl of lemons in his office because they \u201cabsorb negative energy\u201d and cleanse the air.<\/p>\n
\u201cDifferent,\u201d star forward Christian Pulisic said of Pochettino compared to other coaches he\u2019s had, \u201cin a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pochettino\u2019s resume is impeccable. He is Argentine, for starters, as are five other coaches in this World Cup, the most of any nation. He played in a World Cup, in 2002, fouling Michael Owen in a move that led to David Beckham\u2019s penalty kick in a 1-0 loss to England. He has coached three of the planet\u2019s largest clubs: Tottenham and Chelsea in England and Paris Saint-Germain in France.<\/p>\n
He has won everywhere he\u2019s been.<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s also lost, and been fired, everywhere \u2014 with the exception of a brief stint at England\u2019s Southampton. And usually just months after his teams seemed to be humming.<\/p>\n
He took Tottenham to the Champions League final in May 2018 and was gone by the following November. He lasted 18 months at PSG. When Chelsea dismissed him after one season, the Guardian newspaper quoted a source describing his training methods as \u201cantiquated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now 54, he has followed a similar trajectory with the U.S. men, showing promise with a run of positive results followed by sudden, rollercoaster dips. Four straight wins, four straight losses, then unbeaten in 10 of 12, then losses in three of the last four.<\/p>\n
Different, in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n
His news conferences in his second language of English are an equally capricious adventure, ponderous and meandering, at once charming and confusing, at once incisive and incoherent.<\/p>\n
He was asked Thursday about his team\u2019s preparations since he was hired in September 2024, succeeding interim national coach Mikey Varas before he took over San Diego FC.<\/p>\n
His answer:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve seen in terms that we designed in between, of course, the coaching staff, the federation, all the areas of the federation in the best way as possible we can, trying to create the best platform for the player not only to perform, if not to set some principles and barriers during the dynamic of the group in the last three weeks, trying to arrive in our best condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think we arrive in a very good condition. If you say to me that you are so happy, if you say to me that this is the best experience that I am living after I was a player or a coach, that the camp has been amazing; time flies. When people arrive to the end of the day and people are happy and say, \u2018Oh, we need to go to sleep, we need to go to sleep,\u2019 that is because I\u2019m seeing we\u2019re doing well. Something is growing in the group what we can tell so far until today, that only conditions are very positive and they\u2019re so happy of the management.\u201d<\/p>\n
File photo of United States Men\u2019s National Soccer team coach Mauricio Pochettino, left, talking with midfielder Diego Luna (10) during a match last summer.
\nASHLEY LANDIS \/ AP<\/p>\n
Pulisic wasn\u2019t so happy a year ago, when he asked to skip some national-team friendlies after a long season with AC Milan and just join the national team for the Concacaf old Cup. Pochettino told him not to bother.<\/p>\n
It was a bold, risky move pitting coach vs. superstar.<\/p>\n
The guy nicknamed \u201cThe Sheriff\u201d from his playing days won.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he came in, he laid the law down,\u201d said San Diego State alum Marcelo Balboa, a veteran of three World Cups and now a Major League Soccer commentator. \u201cHe made it very clear: \u2018This is how we\u2019re going to play, this is my team. If you can fit into this, great. If you can\u2019t, you can\u2019t.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we saw the big battle right before Gold Cup when Christian didn\u2019t get called in, that whole story. He let everybody know right there, this is how it\u2019s done here. I\u2019m the man, I\u2019m the boss, it\u2019s my job on the line, this is how it\u2019s going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been some curious tactical decisions, and Pochettino, a former central defender, appears to have reluctantly scrapped his preferred 4-2-3-1 alignment for three center backs with two wingbacks to bolster a leaky defense. But even in Saturday\u2019s 2-1 defeat against Germany in Chicago, the final World Cup dress rehearsal, there were some flashes that they are arriving in their best condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had that intensity, he\u2019s had that different personality, a bit different passion, I feel like,\u201d defender Alex Freeman said before practice Thursday. \u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys who puts \u2026 his mind into something, and that\u2019s how he wants it. For me, it\u2019s how can I apply that to my game, knowing that it\u2019s a different philosophy than maybe I\u2019ve been used to before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s opponent, Paraguay, offers a scrappy \u2014 if less talented \u2014 foe that is also coached by an Argentine, Gustavo Alfaro. They met in a friendly last November in Chester, Penn., the Yanks prevailing 2-1 in a match that turned contentious over the final minutes.<\/p>\n
Next up is Australia in Seattle. Then back to SoFi for the group finale against Turkiye.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a group that doesn\u2019t present the kind of navigational challenges of a 32-team World Cup, given the safety net of eight third-place teams advancing to the knockout stage. Still, a certain level of anxiety surrounding this team and its $6 million per year coach persists.<\/p>\n
Asked for his definition of success at this World Cup, Pochettino conceded: \u201cI don\u2019t know, it\u2019s difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
What we do know is, fairly or unfairly, he\u2019ll be judged not by the last 20 months but by the next 20 or so days, whether he can steer a nation that has won only one knockout game in its World Cup history into the quarterfinals or beyond.<\/p>\n
Whether his team will have enough positive \u201cenergia universal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether the lemons can make lemonade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they hired the right guy,\u201d Balboa said. \u201cI think he came in with the right mentality, but I think it took us time to understand what he wanted, because we\u2019ve never had a coach like this besides Bora.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bora Milutinovic, a Serbian with wild hair who likewise preferred Spanish over English, was the U.S. coach for the 1994 World Cup. He told Alexi Lalas to cut his hair (he did) in a test of subordination. His practices, like Pochettino\u2019s, didn\u2019t adhere to a punctual schedule. His press conferences were linguistic adventures. He switched tactics. There were questions, doubts, concerns and skeptics.<\/p>\n
Then it all magically coalesced at the World Cup, upsetting Colombia at the Rose Bowl and advancing to the round of 16 before pushing eventual champions Brazil to the brink in the round of 16.<\/p>\n
Pochettino was asked what he\u2019ll tell his players in the locker room at SoFi Stadium before Friday night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI already spoke, I already talked too much,\u201d he said. \u201cI said, \u2018Don\u2019t expect my unbelievable speech Friday.\u2019 No, I am in the opposite. \u2026 If you know the player and the mindset of the player, they need before to get their best, they need motivational speech and inspirational when they need to go to train and improve in every single area.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause tomorrow is late. If they are not ready, they can\u2019t be the best to motivate players with my speech. If you are not ready, sorry guys, it\u2019s impossible to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD \u2014 Mauricio Pochettino subscribes to \u201cenergia universal,\u201d or universal energy, a spiritual and philosophical concept that an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,2558,3,403,99,21,19,22,20,25,24,153412],"class_list":["post-699322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}