Mauricio Pochettino post match reaction after US national team get thumped by Belgium

The US national team was serve as a warning before the World Cup this summer. Mauricio Pochetinno’s team have a long list of things they need to sort before the tournament kicks off in North America in mid June.

US humbled in Atlanta

Their match against Belgium was a tune up before the big show in a could months time, and it was not a pretty preview of what might be in store when group stages start. The home side actually took the advantage in the first half with a Weston McKinnie goal in the 39th minute, but that seemed to awaken the beast as Belgium responded with five unanswered goals. The first of which came at the stroke of halftime by Zeno Debast.

After the match, Pochettino had to face the music, and plenty of questions about his team in the months leading up to their first group stage match against Paraguay. When he was asked if this was a worrying result with the World Cup closing in, Poch answered, “It’s not a thing to be concerned about the World Cup. It’s more about to analyze the game. I think it was a game, of course 5-2 is difficult to accept — it’s painful — but at the same time we can take so many positive things. The first half was really good. We played better than Belgium. We created chances to finish the 45 minutes in a positive way but we concede in the last action and there was an impact.”

He was asked about his team’s intensity throughout the match, the Argentine said that there were moments were they might have been better than Belgium, but the lapses cost them, especially in the second half. “The plan was to keep that intensity. In the moment that we matched Belgium’s mentality we were even and in some moments better but it’s true that in some moments we dropped our intensity and how you can confirm that were in too many actions we were in place with superiority but we did not receive it, like in the way conceded the first goal.”

Portugal up next

Matt Turner got the start in Atlanta on Saturday and conceded five goals, but Poch was not set to point the finger at his keeper after a long spell out of the national team. “When you concede five goals, if we are to blame anyone it’s altogether and at first myself and then the whole team. It’s good to see him perform after a long period. We all know that he has experience in the national team in the World Cup. That’s a point we have to use, whether as a starter or not.”

Atletico Madrid and USA midfielder Johnny Cardoso was pulled at the break, and the manager was asked if that was tactical or precautionary, and the coach aired on the side of caution coming out of the interval. “Johnny was doing well. Good performance but we need to listen to the player and the medical staff. From the beginning of the week he was uncomfortable in some areas of his body. He was to play 45 minutes and not to force it,” said Poch.

The US will take on Portugal on the Tuesday, March 31st, and Pochettino says the result against Belgium will not affect the way his team comes out in a few days time. “The plan does not change because we need to keep going with the plan. It’s not going to change because of the result today.”

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