“USA must treat the group stage like a final,” says Pochettino | OneFootball

The coach of the American national team, Mauricio Pochettino, stated this Friday that his team should not think beyond the group stage of the 2026 World Cup, despite the enthusiasm generated in the country after what is considered a favorable draw.

The Argentine coach was in Washington to follow the definition of Group D, where the United States will face Paraguay, Australia, and an opponent coming from the European Qualifiers, yet to be determined.

The American team heads into the tournament motivated by recent victories against two of these opponents: a 2-1 win over Paraguay last month and another 2-1 win over Australia in October.

However, although some television commentators, such as Alexi Lalas, have shown confidence in reaching the semifinals, the coach warned against excessive optimism.

Pochettino indicated that his plan is to instill in his players the idea that every group stage match must be treated as a final, starting with the opener against Paraguay, scheduled for June 12 in Los Angeles.

“If you are Argentina, and maybe today you are the best national team in the world and the current World Cup champion, maybe you can think about what comes after the group stage,” said Pochettino. “But with the United States, our first game is the World Cup final. And the second one also needs to be the World Cup final. That’s the mentality, the mentality we want to build.”

The coach added that the recent victories against Paraguay and Australia will have little weight when the tournament begins. “There are still six months to go, things can change,” he said. “It’s a useful reference for us, but also for them. I don’t think it’s an advantage or a disadvantage.”

Pochettino also revealed that he is drawing inspiration from the movie ‘Miracle,’ which tells the historic campaign of the American ice hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympics, when a team without big stars defeated the powerful Soviet Union on their way to the gold medal.

The coach suggested that he intends to build his World Cup team according to the philosophy of coach Herb Brooks, who says in the film: “We don’t need the best players, we need the right ones.”

“That’s what we want to give this team: the right players to build a strong squad, capable of competing against any opponent in the world,” Pochettino concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.