Mauricio Pochettino did not leave room for celebration after the United States lost 3-2 to Turkey on Thursday. Even with the group wrapped up, he said three wins in group play do not amount to history. “To make history is to win a World Cup, it’s not to win three games in a World Cup,” he said.
That blunt line is why his Mauricio Pochettino Post-match Comments are getting attention now. The United States had already won its group, and the next round arrives in six days, but Pochettino pushed the conversation past the finished job and toward what still has to be earned. “It’s a little bit petty, no, or thinking in too small terms,” he said.
The loss itself came with a heavily rotated lineup, as the United States made nine changes and still pushed Turkey to the end before Kaan Ayhan scored the last-second winner. Auston Trusty also left the match with an ankle injury, a detail that matters because knockout games do not allow much margin for recovery or reshuffling. The result changed nothing about the standings, but it changed the tone around a team that had just completed its first objective.
Pochettino’s point was not that the group stage did not matter. It was that it only matters if it leads somewhere bigger. He said, “You have the chance to make history,” and added, “What’s the point of winning three matches only to lose the next one and miss out on (winning) the World Cup?” That is the line the United States now has to live with, because the tournament turns next into a round where one bad night is enough to end everything.
Tim Ream sounded more measured after the loss, saying the team expected to finish first and did so. He said the group win was the target, and the squad believes it has enough quality and togetherness to move on and win knockout games. Bosnia and Herzegovina awaits in the next round, and the United States will enter it as the lowest-rated opponent it has faced in a knockout tie by the ELO ratings. That should make the matchup look manageable on paper. It will not make the margin for error any wider.
