Mauricio Pochettino on defensive struggles and Portugal challenge

Two days on from a heavy loss to Belgium, USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino insisted that he is taking the positives from a difficult night for his team. Speaking at a press conference in Atlanta, Pochettino said there were “positive things and things to improve” after watching back the team’s 5-2 loss to Belgium on Saturday.

USMNT took a first-half lead against Belgium and looked dangerous in attack at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. However the team was unable to deal with the livewire Jeremy Doku and the Belgian wideman sparked a comeback that ended in a 5-2 loss for USMNT. Speaking on Monday, Pochettino said: “We did better than what the result says, that is the truth.”

“The thing that we need to improve is being much better in the defensive phase, the whole team,” Pochettino explained. “We need to be more aggressive and have more intensity to recover the ball as quickly as possible. We [gave] too much time to Belgium, time to build the attack. It was too easy to move the ball from their box to our box, with no aggression.”

Room to improve for Portugal challenge

USMNT had set up two games against top international opposition for the March fixtures, the final chance for Pochettino to look at his players before naming his squad for this summer’s World Cup. The United States will take on Portugal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Tuesday evening, another tough test against the No. 5 team in the world.

Having not played together since November, the Portugal game will be a chance for USMNT to build familiarity ahead of the World Cup. A serious knee injury has meant that first-choice left-back Antonee Robinson had not featured for the US since November 2024 and he impressed on his return against Belgium.

Pochettino said that Saturday’s game “was the first time in a long time that this combination of players had played together,” describing that as “very positive.” He conceded that the team was “a lot better in the offensive phase than in the defensive phase” against Belgium, and wanted to see defensive improvement against Portugal.

That will be the final chance for Pochettino to work with his team before naming the final 26 players who will go to the World Cup. The US will play two final pre-tournament friendlies against Senegal (31 May) and Germany (6 June) after the squad has been announced. After that the real work begins as USMNT take on Paraguay in their World Cup opener on 13 June.

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