The USMNT faces an outbreak of bad vibes, not just bad results on the field

COLUMBUS, Ohio — For all of U.S. men’s soccer team manager Mauricio Pochettino’s happy talk after Saturday’s limp loss to South Korea, the players know the problems at hand.

They know the results are bad, the vibes are worse, and the combination has led a lot of soccer fans in America to simply ignore the program less than a year before the World Cup.

Nothing would fix that faster than winning games against good teams, and the U.S. has lost its last five against the top 25 in FIFA’s rankings — by a combined score of 11-1. In fact, since the 2022 World Cup, the U.S. has beaten only one such team, next-door rival Mexico, whether under Pochettino or his predecessor Gregg Berhalter.

That shows the problem isn’t just based on Pochettino dropping many Europe-based stars to see if players from MLS can outhustle them. It’s a bigger issue, one that dates back to the complacency at last year’s Copa América.

“We are here because something needed to change,” Pochettino said in a lengthy and combative news conference on the eve of Tuesday’s game against No. 17-ranked Japan (7:30 p.m., TNT, Telemundo 62). “That is why less than one year ago, [U.S. Soccer] came and offered being in charge of the national team here.”

Indeed, he spoke two days short of the one-year anniversary of his taking the job. In that time, his main tool for shaking up the status quo has been dropping some of the team’s stars — especially those who flopped in the Nations League final four in March.

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

“I think it was a big wake-up call,” Pochettino said. “We needed to start a different process, and different approach, and everything.”

That was much of why he took a roster full of MLS-based challengers to this summer’s Gold Cup. He brought some of them back this month for what he said would be the last squad before narrowing the player pool for the World Cup.

But for anyone hoping Pochettino would draw the line after the South Korea game, he made it clear Monday that he wouldn’t. This time, he wants to know who can potentially be a backup next summer. And he insisted again that the long-term process toward the World Cup matters more than the short-term result.

“Maybe we can struggle and make a mistake, and maybe we can compromise the result,” he said. “Of course I want to win, but also we need to think in the process and give the possibility to players to perform. … If we cannot win, we need to be positive in knowing that we are doing things [that are] very important for arriving at the World Cup in the best condition.”

» READ MORE: South Korea proves too much for the U.S. men’s soccer team, who flop in North Jersey exhibition

At one point, Pochettino gave an example of a player he could have called in this time, but didn’t. Malik Tillman was one of the stars of the Gold Cup squad, finally fulfilling his potential with the national team after two years of fans waiting for it. This summer, he made a $41 million move to Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen, then suffered an injury in the preseason that cost him playing in the season opener.

Tillman debuted a week later, and scored a goal on the weekend before the national team camp started. Pochettino said he could have called Tillman in, but he thought it was too much of a risk because of the injury.

“We are not amateurs,” Pochettino said in one of his most defiant remarks. “We are professional people that are looking at all these type of situations. It’s not because we don’t want to call him, or to play with him.”

For the most part, the players are pretty good at blocking out the public’s shouting. But they also don’t deny that things aren’t right.

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“Even if we’re progressing from an internal point of view, externally we know we need the results, and that’s the thing that confirms everything,” striker Folarin Balogun said.

Balogun is one of the few incumbents who has not deserved criticism, in part because the team’s top striker missed March’s Nations League final four and the summer’s Gold Cup because of injuries. Had he been around, he could have made a big difference.

“From a psychological point of view, it’s difficult to lose — it’s not what I prepare for, it’s not what I train for,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’re all training to win and to give the fans something to cheer about. Definitely, losing is not what anyone will be satisfied with.”

Veteran centerback Chris Richards was asked if he fears the U.S. fan base tuning out.

“Of course we care,” Richards said “I mean we play for y’all — we’re America, we play for Americans. … Results might not always go our way, but I think one thing that I really kind of hate is, I think there’s a stigma that we don’t care to play for the national team, and I couldn’t think of anything more false.”

» READ MORE: While the USMNT’s World Cup door is open, Folarin Balogun and Alejandro Zendejas aim to run through it

The U.S. program is also often accused of not facing enough pressure. Balogun said he does feel it, even in comparison to his French club Monaco that’s in this season’s Champions League.

“I think there’s definitely more pressure here,” he said. “But it’s nothing to shy away from. America’s a huge country with so many people, so many supporters, and that’s kind of what you sign up for. … When things are going well, you have millions of people behind you, so you can’t take the good without the bad.”