🇺🇸 Pochettino's USMNT passes the vibe check ... how long will the good times roll?
Longer than they lasted when Mexico changed managers, that's for sure.
Written on a flight between Texas and Jalisco
Soccer is about physical ability and skill, plus the collective understanding of how best to work together to score goals and keep the other team from scoring on you.
But, especially at the international level, vibes enter the equation, too. Whether it’s frustration with a certain coach’s style of play, anger at recent results or even national mood spilling into the sporting sphere, what’s going on around a team often has a big affect on a team’s form, even when it seems superior in the ability and skill sector.
That may be even more true in the Concacaf region, where the depth of any given national team is unlikely to match that of counterparts in UEFA or CONMEBOL1. My friends at the World of Concacaf podcast say that Concacaf is a vibes-based economy.
While hiring Mauricio Pochettino - or Jesse Marsch or Javier Aguirre - is designed to take advantage of a coach’s experience at the highest levels of the club game, they’re also intended to change the vibes.
No one would argue the vibes were good at the end of Gregg Berhalter’s tenure leading the U.S. men’s national team. And no one will argue they’re anything but good one game into the Pochettino era after a 2-0 victory over Panama.
It doesn’t matter that Panama had great chances to equalize in the second half, with goalkeeper Matt Turner making a sparkling double save to deny two of Panama’s best attackers and Jose Fajardo missing the target when it appeared he’d score.
It doesn’t matter that the game means little, less than Tuesday’s rivalry game with Mexico, less than the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal contests the U.S. will play next month and less than any game the Americans will have until September 2025 - barring the January camp.
The vibes are good.
“It was special,” U.S. midfielder Gianluca Busio said after the contest.