Not so long ago, there was a man in the U.S. men’s national team dugout that had fans divided. He seemed like a nice guy, wore cool Nike shoes, and his players liked him. He was, by most measures, a perfectly fine soccer coach. But when it came to tactics, the real minutia of setting up a team to win, that man fell short.
And so Gregg Berhalter was replaced by Mauricio Pochettino, one of the game’s finest tacticians. Here was a groovy Argentine, with fresh ideas, and a player pool, he believed, could execute them in full. In three short games in charge of the USMNT, Pochettino is starting to be proven right in his summation. He hasn’t reinvented this side as much as refined it, and implemented some rather basic, but simultaneously significant, changes. In effect, in the areas in which his predecessor fell just short, Pochettino excels.
Through three games – merely three games, it must be emphasized, friendlies against Panama and Mexico and a Nation’s League quarterfinal against Jamaica – something is taking place tactically. The USMNT are starting to do smart things with and without the ball.
Build up structures are present. Players are moving at the right times, to the right spaces. Christian Pulisic, a virtuoso of an attacking player, is at the center of it all – but in a controlled way. In short, this is, in the smallest of sample sizes, looking like the kind of impact tactical setup that was promised. Following a 1-0 win against Jamaica in Kingston Thursday night – a game that was truly dire in the final minutes – one thing is clear: the USMNT have a system again. And it might just work.