US Soccer says it will continue talks with Mauricio Pochettino

Jul 07, 2026 - 19:05

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SEATTLE — Mauricio Pochettino's time with the U.S. men's soccer team might not be done.

A day after the USMNT was eliminated with a round-of-16 loss, U.S. Soccer said it had had "positive conversations" with Pochettino ahead of the World Cup and those would continue.

"We agreed we would continue those conversations following a chance to rest and reflect post World Cup," U.S. Soccer said in a Tuesday, July 7, statement. "We have a great deal of respect and gratitude for Mauricio, his staff and everyone part of the program. We have shared excitement about our potential and also shared clarity about the amount of work at all levels still required to achieve our ambition."

Pochettino had been a club coach for his entire career before U.S. Soccer hired him in September 2024 to reboot a stagnating USMNT ahead of the World Cup. The assumption was Pochettino would return to European club soccer after the World Cup, but he has sounded increasingly open to remaining in the job.

"[It's time] to rest a little bit, to think, to have conversation, and then see what the decision is from the federation and from us," the Argentine said after the USMNT was eliminated with its 4-1 loss to Belgium.

"But I am so happy, I think we built a very good relationship, but now is not a moment to talk about that," Pochettino added. "I think now is a moment to see, to assess the tournament. For sure, in the next weeks we can start to talk."

Leading the USMNT for an entire cycle could be appealing to Pochettino. During a roundtable with a small number of reporters during the group stage, Pochettino said he and his staff had "misjudged" the task in front of them when they arrived.

"Maybe we didn’t feel or saw how difficult was going to be the process. We were so naïve when we signed the contract," he said then. "We misjudged the situation. It was worse than we really believed."

Pochettino commands a huge salary, $6 million a year, and U.S. Soccer has gotten help from donors to pay it. The federation will have to decide whether Pochettino's contributions have been good enough to continue making such a significant investment.

Pochettino has improved the USMNT's culture; the closeness and confidence of this team was evident to anyone who spent more than five minutes around them. He also had the Americans playing a more aggressive and attractive system.

The USMNT won three games at this World Cup, making Pochettino the USMNT's all-time winningest coach at the tournament. They won a knockout game for the first time since 2002, and scored their most goals ever (11) at the World Cup.

But the USMNT still finished with the same result it had in its last three appearances, and the team looked completely unprepared to play against Belgium.

“I think we put on some really good performances for sure,” Christian Pulisic said after the game. “But I just think we want to have higher hopes than that. We want to be able to go and compete with some of the best in the world and we just still have that next step to climb."

“But we are close,” he added.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US Soccer says it will continue talks with Mauricio Pochettino