The USMNT is finally back on track, and Mauricio Pochettino has done what he said he’d do

COLUMBUS, Ohio — After nearly six months of storms, the U.S. men’s soccer team finally sailed into clear skies on Tuesday.

The Americans didn’t just beat Japan, 2-0, for their first win over a major opponent in manager Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure. They looked good doing it: classy goals from Alex Zendejas and Folarin Balogun and a tactical shift to a 3-4-2-1 formation that brought quality offense and defense.

It may send the Americans on a positive path toward next year’s World Cup. But it still was just one moment of many, and there will be many more to come in the six games before next summer.

So as Pochettino passes the one-year anniversary of his hiring, it’s worth taking time to look at the bigger picture.

For the most part, the things he has done so far are things he said he would do. The outcomes haven’t always been ideal, but he has had a plan and has spoken clearly about it.

His tenure began because of the significant decline of the U.S. program following last year’s crash at the Copa América. The Argentine has a history of coaching big-time clubs in Europe and was asked to bring a different perspective to judging the player pool, and he embraced that.

» READ MORE: The USMNT gets a long-awaited big win, 2-0 over Japan

“I think in September, we listened to a lot of people talking inside and outside of the [U.S. Soccer] Federation that something needed to change,” he said after Tuesday’s game. “We needed a new face, a new philosophy, new ideas, and culture. You were talking, no? Here in the USA, about all this.”

There indeed was a lot of talk among fans and media as well as U.S. Soccer itself.

When some of the biggest-name players performed poorly at the Nations League final four in March, Pochettino called them out for it. He saw not just losses, but how complacent they’d become under previous manager Gregg Berhalter.

So Pochettino set out to light a fire under them. He signaled that for the Gold Cup in the summer, he might bring in lesser talents to see if they could outhustle the stars. Then he did exactly that.

» READ MORE: Mauricio Pochettino says the USMNT doesn’t need to win until ‘the World Cup starts,’ but the pressure was rising on him before the Japan game

The point was not to claim the MLS-based challengers are more talented than the big names in Europe. But neither Pochettino nor his critics invented the idea that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. This clearly was the case in March, starting with two of the U.S. team’s biggest stars in midfielders Weston McKennie and Gio Reyna.

It was somewhat surprising that Pochettino decided to continue the experiment for this month’s friendlies against South Korea and Japan, better teams than almost all of the regional opponents in the Gold Cup. With limited time left before the World Cup, the sense from many outsiders was that he was cutting things too close.

Still, he was transparent that he wanted to test some of the MLS-based players he liked at the Gold Cup against higher-caliber teams. He said he was going to do something, and he did it.

That the outcome included Saturday’s ugly 2-0 loss to South Korea is a different matter.

» READ MORE: How Son Heung-Min and South Korea easily beat the U.S.

Now it’s time for Pochettino to keep his word again. When he announced this month’s roster, he said it would be the last one “to see new faces.” If that proves true, players like McKennie, Reyna, and centerback Mark McKenzie should return to the fold next month. So should at least some of goalkeepers Matt Turner, Patrick Schulte, and Downingtown’s Zack Steffen.

We also should see players who missed this month’s games, not by Pochettino’s choice but because they were recovering from injuries and/or settling in at new clubs. That list starts with midfielder Malik Tillman, striker Ricardo Pepi, and left back Antonee Robinson. It also could include midfielder Johnny Cardoso if he continues his strong start at Spain’s Atlético Madrid.

That’s not to say all the MLS challengers should be summarily tossed. A few have proved their worth: attacking midfielders Diego Luna and Union alumnus Jack McGlynn and right back Alex Freeman. Central midfielder Cristian Roldan also showed in his sudden return to the national team that he still has the tangibles and intangibles to be a glue guy.

In the defensive unit, centerback Tristan Blackmon was given multiple chances, but he did not meet the moment. Max Arfsten does well as a wingback in the three-centerback setup, but his defense isn’t as good as his offense, and that gets found out against the elite.

» READ MORE: The USMNT faced an outbreak of bad vibes, not just bad results on the field

(By the way, McKenzie plays in that system often at his club, France’s Toulouse. He could easily fit in the right centerback spot Blackmon played.)

Behind them, Wayne-born goalkeeper Matt Freese has had some highlights in his nine games this year, including Tuesday. But he also has looked too shaky at times. Turner, Schulte, and Steffen are better talents with big-game experience and need a chance to show it.

The time until the next camp will pass quickly. Camp starts Oct. 6, the first Monday of the month, and rosters are generally released approximately a week before opening day. That means decisions will have to be made before September ends.

Not all the burden of that moment will lie on Pochettino. Quite a bit will lie on the returning players, too. Will they take their comebacks as proof that they’ve regained their places for good, or will they play with the fire Pochettino hoped to instill by leaving them out?

» READ MORE: The U.S. men’s soccer team will play at Subaru Park in November

One more what-if might be the biggest of all. What if the U.S. had won the Nations League tournament, and with those stars playing well? Might Pochettino have not felt he needed to blow things up?

“Good question,” he said, pausing to gather his thoughts before offering a long answer.

One of the most profound parts of it was this: “We didn’t arrive in a team that was performing in a way [so] that we arrived and damaged a team that was doing really well.”

Though English isn’t his first language, the point got across. The team was not doing well when he was hired. So while he had to knock some things over to fix the existing damage, he didn’t do it just to break things. And right now, his repairs are starting to hold up.

» READ MORE: Matt Freese is the USMNT’s starting goalkeeper — for now. He wants to try to keep the job.

“We were talking with the players: if all the people agree with me in all the decisions, if you agree with me in all the decisions, why am I sitting here?” Pochettino said. “It’s about the process. It’s about the players really believing in what we are doing, and that they respect us how we respect them.”

If that happens, he continued, “we are capable to build that relationship, for sure we are going to have the best relationship, and players that are maybe not here today will have the possibility to come. Give the process time, and the process is going to work. For sure, I don’t have any doubt.”

Pochettino might not know yet how cursed the word process is in American sports. (Maybe he’ll learn it when the U.S. plays in Chester in November.) But if his work does pay off, March might end up as a “sliding doors” moment for this team, and Tuesday’s win might, too.

“This game, and life, is all about sliding doors and either stepping through them or not — whether you take moments and learning experiences on board and move on,” said veteran centerback Tim Ream, one of the only players who’s been on all of Pochettino’s rosters so far.

» READ MORE: Josh Sargent is a prolific striker for his club, but still hasn’t scored for the USMNT in six years

“It’s a process to to get to a World Cup,” Ream continued. “There’s ups, there’s downs, there’s downs, there’s ups. … There’s always times where you feel like things aren’t going your way, and then there’s times where you feel like you can do no wrong.”

For now, a sense of balance is enough. The U.S. men are back on the right track, and now the task is to stay there until next summer.