Mauricio Pochettino, USMNT coach, on women’s soccer in the U.S.: “They are ahead of us in America”
Pochettino says the USWNT sets the global standard, but believes a cultural gap still holds the USMNT back from elite success.
As one of the three co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup, the United States Men’s National Team is under pressure to deliver on home soil.
The USMNT has reached the quarterfinals only once, in 2002 in Japan and South Korea. In each of their last appearances, as well as in 1994 when the tournament was last held in the United States, they were eliminated in the round of 16.
Many believe the U.S. should be targeting at least a place in the last eight this time, even if the team’s achievements under Mauricio Pochettino have been fairly modest so far. Expectations are rising, and the Argentine believes the success of the United States Women’s National Team should serve as inspiration for their male counterparts.
Pochettino points to USWNT as the global benchmark
In an appearance on “The Overlap” podcast with Manchester United legends Gary Neville and Roy Keane, along with former Arsenal star Ian Wright and ex-England international Jill Scott, Pochettino said the USWNT is the leading national team not only in the country, but in the world.
“Emma (Hayes) is doing a fantastic job. She’s great, she’s amazing. They are ahead of us, of the men, in America. And they are ahead of the world.”
In the women’s game, the United States has been the dominant force for decades, winning four of the nine Women’s World Cups, as well as five of eight Olympic tournaments.
Their superiority has been even more emphatic in continental competition, with nine titles in 10 Concacaf W Championship appearances.
Why the U.S. still lags behind in men’s soccer
So how can the United States achieve anything close to that level of success on the men’s side? Pochettino has a clear idea, although it is unlikely to be a quick fix.
“Important people in soccer are conscious they need to invest, they need to create a strategy, because there are more than 300 million people (in the United States),” the 54-year-old said.
“I was at a dinner and people asked me, ‘if the population is 300 million, why have we never had a Messi? Why don’t we have 11 like in other sports?’”
“For me, the key is the emotional relationship with the game, that kids in America still don’t develop until they are 11, 12 or 13,” Pochettino continued. “The difference with other countries, like in my case in Argentina, is that I started to develop my emotional relationship with football before I started to walk, because I started to kick the ball.
“That’s the problem, because you need to go to school and play in private schools (in the U.S.). That emotional relationship is with basketball or American football. Kids take the ball with their hands, first of all. Here, you kick the ball with your feet.”
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