by A dour local coach, sacked after a long tenure that had become obsolete, replaced by an attractive foreign star who has made a name for himself among Europe’s elite? We’ve seen it before.
The appointment of Mauricio Pochettino as the new head coach of the US men’s national team is exciting, bold and seems close to a best-case scenario given the USMNT’s middling status in world football and the glittering resume of a tactician who has successfully led the English Premier League, La Liga and Ligue 1.
The same thing happened when the US Soccer Federation persuaded Jürgen Klinsmann to replace Bob Bradley in the summer of 2011. At the time, Klinsmann was a very fit player, his reputation somewhat dampened by a grueling spell at a major European club – in his case, Bayern Munich.
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Bradley was a serious coach from New Jersey, hired in his 40s after making a big impression in MLS. He had mixed but generally promising results in Concacaf competition before leading the United States to a World Cup round-of-16 exit after a respectable group-stage draw with England.
Bradley’s main failings were a conservative style of play, excessive loyalty to underperforming starters and unsophisticated tactics. After more than 70 games in charge in over four years, about two-thirds of which ended in victories, a feeling had set in that the team was stagnating and needed a new voice.
Hard-working but never consciously charismatic, Bradley’s personality and experience as a national coach meant he was not too easy on Eurosnobs who yearned for a more illustrious and magnetic figure to take charge of a team that was increasingly looking for its key players in the leading leagues abroad.
And Gregg Berhalter? See above, word for word. The parallel is not exact given the context. In 2011, the big worry was that the United States was falling too far behind regional rival Mexico. Now, the problem, after this summer’s Copa America group-stage exit that cost Berhalter his job, is that the United States can’t seem to progress in tournaments because it can’t raise its level against the world’s best. Whether that’s because of the quality of the players or the level of Pochettino’s predecessor… well, we’ll find out.
Thirteen years ago, the mission was to overhaul the program, with the former Germany and Bayern player and manager demanding total control as he sought to transform the identity of American soccer, intent on marrying European rigor and skill with a positive positivity seemingly inspired by his adopted home in Southern California.
The team’s personality remains unclear: under Berhalter, performances were sometimes spectacular like those of the great nations, sometimes resilient like those of the Americans of old, but rarely both at the same time. Today, as Klinsmann wanted, the center of gravity of the American national team is Europe and most of the players belong to top clubs.
Berhalter laid the foundations by grooming young talents like Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Tim Weah at their peak. Pochettino’s task is clear and simple: get us, by all means necessary, to the quarter-finals – and preferably the semi-finals – of the World Cup we are co-hosting in less than two years. That’s the only way to attract the attention of the general public, to gain respect for the country, to attract significant television audiences and to generate significant sponsorship revenue.
Klinsmann, however, has had three years to prepare for the 2014 World Cup and a schedule that has allowed him to play a judicious mix of regional competitions and friendlies against a variety of opponents. Pochettino has no World Cup qualifying campaign to season his players and a packed schedule of Nations League and Gold Cup games against familiar Concacaf opponents.
Like Pochettino, Klinsmann was an original, likable and popular player (at least early in his reign). This iteration of the U.S. national team, however, needs no friends: one plausible explanation for the Copa América failure is that the predictable lineup had become too settled under Berhalter and lacked the necessary fervor.
And Klinsmann led Germany to the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup. In swapping Berhalter for Pochettino, US Soccer is replacing a man with no club managerial experience but who, by the time he left in July, had taken charge of 74 international matches, with a man with extensive knowledge of the top-flight leagues but no experience of managing a country.
It is clear, however, that the team will be familiar with Pochettino’s work and will show him immediate respect. It is harder to predict how a coach renowned for pushing players to the limit with high-intensity pressing will adapt to the realities of international football, with a limited number of training sessions for players who, given the primacy of club play and long-distance flights, will be unwilling to risk injury or fatigue.
The Klinsmann era was marked by bad vibes and collapsed into rancour. He was sacked in 2016. There must also be a risk that Pochettino’s spell will be an experiment in chemistry with the wrong elements as he tries to adapt to the different rhythms of the international game in a new country. From the UEFA Champions League to the Concacaf Nations League. From working daily with Harry Kane, Cole Palmer, Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, to a few sessions every two months with less bright lights.
On the other hand, Pochettino has a longer history of success than Klinsmann and could thrive away from the internal politics and high-pressure, low-patience work environments of his last two clubs, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. The lack of conflict over transfer policy should be a relief given the differences of opinion within the club hierarchy that marred his brief time at Stamford Bridge. Given the near-universal acclaim that greeted his appointment, the former Argentina defender should relish working for a team and fanbase that are genuinely pleased he has accepted the role. That was not the case at Chelsea given his past with their London rivals Tottenham.
Other notable club coaches who got their first national team job with foreign countries include Roberto Martínez, a Spaniard who moved from Everton to Belgium in 2016, and Sven-Göran Eriksson, the trophy-laden Swedish coach who moved from Lazio to England in 2001. Fabio Capello, a brilliant club manager in Spain and his native Italy, was a prominent leader with England and Russia.
Related: From Tessmann to Reyna: The impact of the summer transfer window on the USMNT
Martinez and Eriksson seemed like risky players at the time, but they succeeded, to a point. They improved on the results of their predecessors, but left with the feeling that they had failed to get the most out of a generation of exceptionally talented players; that, ultimately, they had failed to achieve their goals. And, given the importance of the European Championship, they have had more opportunities to play in major tournaments than Pochettino; no one will be too surprised or delighted if the United States wins the Nations League and the Gold Cup.
As at PSG, Pochettino’s tenure will be defined by a knockout tournament. In Paris, it was the UEFA Champions League, which he failed to win. In the United States, it is the World Cup. Pochettino has gradually improved Espanyol, Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea and has been duly rewarded with league places. World Cups are far more random and far less meritocratic.
For all the stardust Pochettino can sprinkle on the team, for all his pedigree and promise, whether he does better than Berhalter in Qatar 2022 could come down to luck or a split-second moment: an easy or difficult draw, a penalty missed or scored, a chance taken or wasted.
But ultimately, after the Copa failure, it seems less risky to sign Pochettino than to continue to use Berhalter. As with Klinsmann, it is a statement of ambition and a shot in the arm for the system. Whatever happens in the long term, it is what the United States needs now.
