Mauricio Pochettino makes admission after first defeat as USA manager

10/16/2024 03:42 AM

Mauricio Pochettino admitted that his USA team did not deserve anything from the game after suffering a 2-0 defeat to Mexico in Guadalajara on Tuesday night.

It was the former Chelsea and Tottenham manager’s first loss since taking up his new role in September, with goals from Raul Jimenez and Cesar Huerta enough for the home side to pick up the friendly victory.

Pochettino did win his first game in charge, beating Panama 2-0 on Sunday, and was keen to downplay this setback against Mexico.

The 52-year-old admitted that the winners were the better team and deserved to prosper, but reminded fans that this is the start of his project and he had players missing through injury and fatigue.

‘Overall, I think Mexico was a little bit better than us and fully deserved the victory,’ Pochettino told a post-match press conference.

‘But for us it’s a process that we started 10 days ago and today was a great opportunity for our player to visit a very difficult place to play. I think only we can improve and learn from this experience.

‘We all feel disappointed because I think we didn’t have all the players that we wanted to have when we started. We lost some players for different reasons and we arrived a little bit short here.

‘I say thank you to the players [that were here] because they were amazing, professional and the behavior was amazing. And that’s it. It’s only a game that we lose, of course, in Mexico.’

Pochettino suggested he wants more of these competitive, difficult fixtures in future to improve as a team.

‘We wanted to win. I think we need to be positive about this type of game. We need to play more games like this to improve the knowledge that we have,’ he said.

‘Give us time, let us evaluate all the players, have them, know them, and from there I will give you a better opinion about what is much more fundamental than what I see.’

USA are back in action in the Concacaf Nations League in November as they continue their preparations towards their home World Cup in 2026.

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