The 2026 FIFA World Cup is nine months away and it’s a special one for the United States Men’s Soccer team.
While they are hosting the tournament alongside Mexico and Canada, criticisms about the team’s manager Mauricio Pochettino have arisen this year. The team has had trouble producing positive results, lacking team chemistry and inconsistent lineups.
According to ESPN, during a 0-2 friendly (non-competitive) loss to South Korea, Pochettino featured his 14th new starting lineup in 17 games.
Yahoo sports reported on the loss to South Korea, stating that it “marked the fifth straight defeat against a FIFA top 25-ranked team”.
Against Japan a few days later, he made his 15th new lineup and has not used this same lineup in consecutive games. This lack of consistent lineups has shown poor chemistry from the players on the field.
Even though the US beat Japan, they have a record of 10 wins, 7 losses, and 1 tie in 18 games with Pochettino in charge, while losing 4 in a row in between March and June. If they cannot produce wins in non-competitive games, then it will be hard to translate on the big stage, The World Cup.
Ben Love, a sophomore in MBA is an avid US soccer fan. “I think the expansion of the World Cup will be more difficult for the US because we will be competing against better and more European nations [16 European nations can qualify, rather than 13 before the expansion],” says Love regarding the 2026 World Cup, which expanded from 32 teams to 48. “I think we can compete but [the US] recent performances have definitely caused doubt.”
Although the US have already qualified as hosts, preparation for the 2026 World Cup is still not done as they continue to struggle to find the right starting lineup with Pochettino as manager.
