The Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino He will debut this Saturday on the bench of the United States team in a friendly match against Panama, the executioner of his predecessor, Gregg Berhalter, by triggering the elimination of the hosts in the group stage of the last Copa América. The match will take place in the Spanish early hours of Sunday at the Q2 Stadium in Austin (Texas).
It will be the first of two friendly matches for the United States, which will face Mexico in Guadalajara on Tuesday.
Christiansen, US executioner
Panama, led by the Spanish-Danish Thomas Christiansen, It prevented the Stars and Stripes team from advancing to the quarterfinals of the Copa América that was held in the United States.
Their 2-1 loss in the group stage against the Central Americans, combined with the following one against Uruguay, left the United States out of the Copa América, of which they were hosts.
Pochettino relieves Berhalter
Pochettino took over from Berhalter with an eye on the 2026 World Cup, in which the United States will once again host.
“It is a team (Panama) that is good for us because it is going to demand us in all aspects of the game,” Pochettino said this Friday in a press conference from Austin, where the players have been concentrating since the beginning of the week.
“Panama is an athletic team. It is a team with a very palpable identity, where you can see the imprint of its coaching staff. It is a team that travels well, that travels the field well“he added about Thomas Christiansen’s men.
Adapt to new ideas, the objective
The objective that the Argentine coach has set for this first call, beyond the results, is to “get to know each other and establish principles for the future.”
“Football is about competing and winning, because our fans, without a doubt, want to win. But at the same time they need to understand that it is our first contact with the entire organization and we cannot put too much pressure on the players. They need to adapt to our new ideas” , he explained.
Jesús Pérez and Toni Jiménez, on their staff
This week it was announced that Pochettino has recruited his usual team of collaborators to the national team’s coaching staff, with the Spanish Jesús Pérez as second, the argentinian Miguel D’Agostino assistant and Spanish Toni Jimenez as a goalkeeping coach.
In Pochettino’s call-up, with a majority of players in European teams, his captain stands out as the maximum reference, Christian Pulisic of AC Milan of Serie A.
From his first call-up, however, two of the best American players have fallen: Juventus’ Tim Weah and Monaco’s Folarin Balogun both with recent injuries.
Panama, with midfielder Adalberto Carrasquilla as leader, He has not played since he lost in the quarterfinals of the Copa América against Colombia with a severe 5-0.
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Panama is experiencing a sweet soccer moment. With Christiansen, the former Barcelona player and former international with Spain, on the bench, the Central Americans had a good Copa América despite the corrective against Colombia and in 2023 they reached the final of the Gold Cup, losing on penalties against Mexico.
