Mauricio Pochettino believes that the United States has enough time to improve for the World Cup 2026 after their defeat against Canada in the Concacaf Nations League.
Pochettino watched while his team was beaten 2-1 by Canada in the Sofi Stadium in third place of the tournament on Sunday.
Indeed, Canada saw their first victory over the USMNT in a competitive match on American soil since a World Cup qualifying victory in St. Louis in 1957.
Tani Oluwaseyi shot the side of Jesse Marsch in the 27th minute, with Jonathan David's shuffled attempt to find his way to his path in the box before he ended.
But their lead lasted only eight minutes when Patrick Agyemang parity recovered with a strike from close by after good work by Timothy Weah and Diego Luna in the structure.
The goal of AGYEMANG saw him be the fourth player who scored in three of his first four career USMNT performances, member of Eddie Johnson (all four), Bill Looby and Bert Patenaude.
But in the hour, David Canada put in the front again with an excellent finish, cut his left foot into the box and curled the ball outside the grip of Matt Turner.
De Lille Forward now has five career goals contributions against the United States (two goals, three assists), more than every other player since his first match against the Stars and Stripes in October 2019.
1957 – Canada has included its first victory over the USMNT in a competitive match on American soil since a World Cup qualifying victory in St. Louis in 1957. Troost. pic.twitter.com/vxyev6klfu
– Optajack (@Optajack) March 23, 2025
The defeat saw Pochettino back-to-back defeats since the takeover of Gregg Berhalter in September, with the Argentinian lost three of his first eight games.
Pochettino is responsible for leading the USMNT at the World Cup 2026, a tournament that they will be together with Canada and Mexico next summer.
The stars and stripes have never gone further than the quarterfinals at the World Cup, which achieved the performance in the 2002 edition in Korea and Japan.
They were beaten 3-1 by the Netherlands in the round of 16 in Qatar in their last performance in the tournament, because they did not qualify in 2018.
And although disappointed by Sunday's defeat, Pochettino is convinced that the more he works with his players, that connection will help improve his team.
“It is better now (to lose) because I think we have time. Because we will be in this situation in a year, sure. I will tell you:” Houston, we have a problem. SOS, “Pochettino told reporters.
“Don't be pessimistic and don't get bad feelings. We are all (disappointed) and the fans must feel the disappointment that we have not won.
“But I am not going to allow us to feel pessimistic because I think we have good players.
“We are going to find a way to perform and we will certainly compete in a different way.”
The United States will then be in action when they organize Turkey and Switzerland in friendly competitions in June.
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