Just because the next game for the U.S. men’s national team is still more than a month away doesn’t mean that the program is idle.
It’s quite the opposite, in fact.
After a whirlwind first few months in charge for coach Mauricio Pochetttino — the former Chelsea, PSG and Tottenham Hotspur manager was hired in September, debuted in October, oversaw his first competitive games in November and last month convened a two-week-long training camp for MLS players that ended with a pair of exhibition wins — he and his staff have been busy scouting players ahead of the crucial March 20 Concacaf Nations League semifinal versus Panama in Los Angeles.
England, Germany on the itinerary this month
Two weeks ago, Pochettino’s three top assistants fanned out across England. Jesús Perez, the Argentine’s chief deputy, visited Premier Leaguers Tyler Adams at Bournemouth, Antonee Robinson at Fulham and Crystal Palace duo Chris Richards and Matt Turner.
Miguel D’Agostino watched matches involving second-tier Coventry City (Haji Wright) Middlesbrough (Aidan Morris) and Leeds United (Brenden Aaronson) and met with all three players at their respective clubs’ training facilities. On Feb. 6, goalkeeper coach Toni Jiménez took in Turner’s session with Palace. The three men briefed Pochettino in London later that night before turning their attention to Germany — the next country on the list this month.
Traveling the world to keep tabs on players is routine for national team coaches, to be sure. Pochettino also visited Palace late last year. Last fall, Perez went to see Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah at AC Milan and Weston McKennie and Tim Weah at Juventus.
But the extended break between the end of January camp and the March games has allowed Pochettino & Co. to ramp up their scouting lately, and for good reason. The 2026 World Cup on home soil is approaching ever closer on the horizon. The Nations League final four — the winner advances to the championship tilt, the loser to the third-place playoff against either 2026 co-hosts Canada or Mexico — represents the last chance for the full-strength USMNT to engage in competitive games before the main event kicks off two summers from now.
McKennie and Weah, both locks in Pochettino’s first choice starting lineup, are expected to miss this summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup, with Juve participating in FIFA’s expanded 32-team Club World Cup at the same time. Seeing as many players as possible as often as possible will therefore be paramount over the next 16 months or so. And not just across the Atlantic. The 2025 MLS season kicks off this week, with a number of World Cup hopefuls aiming to build on their strong start to the year. A few candidates for 2026 compete in the top leagues in Argentina and Mexico, too.
The best club soccer is still in Europe, though. And that’s still where most of the top Americans play.
“You can see the progress in the national team,” Weah said in November. “Pretty much everyone’s playing in Europe.”
So for U.S. Soccer, having good working relationships with those teams is essential.
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A history of collaboration between clubs, U.S. Soccer
Bob Bradley’s trips to Europe were legendary for the number of clubs and players he saw. Other former U.S. coaches, like Bruce Arena and Jürgen Klinsmann, racked up plenty of frequent flyer miles, too.
But U.S. Soccer’s collaboration with clubs overseas has taken a huge leap forward since 2019, Gregg Berhalter’s first full year at the helm.
Under Berhalter and then U.S. Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart, the USMNT program began working more closely with European clubs. And not just on the coaching side.
The USMNT’s medical staff has shared information on players with clubs, and vice versa. Media teams have joined forces to create content for broadcasters, sponsors and each other. And as the top U.S. players migrated to some of the richest organizations in global sports, the standards changed.
During the 2022 World Cup cycle, several clubs began pitching in to help arrange direct, overnight charter flights back to Europe immediately after qualifying matches in places like Columbus, Ohio and St. Paul, Minnesota, in order to get their players home sooner.
Some European clubs, like Fulham, have employed members of the USMNT for decades. Those relationships are long-established; Cottagers staffers, along with their NBC and USSF counterparts, planned and executed last month’s surprise, on-air announcement that Robinson had been voted U.S. Soccer’s male player of 2024.
Newer partnerships have also blossomed, particularly with AC Milan, which recently helped procure an on-camera Super Bowl prediction from Pulisic for U.S. soccer’s social media channels in the lead-up to the big game.
Berhalter and the Netherlands-born Stewart, both former USMNT players themselves, leveraged their contacts from long careers spent mostly across the pond. Those bonds remain. Stewart left the USSF in early 2023 but now serves as sporting director for Dutch champion PSV Eindhoven, home to Americans Sergiño Dest, Richy Ledezma, Ricardo Pepi and Malik Tillman.
Open doors across Europe for Pochettino and his assistants
The new regime is even more well-connected at the top level.
Pochettino arrived in the U.S. with a reputation as one of Europe’s most respected coaches. Before taking the U.S. job, he’d spent his entire 15-year managerial career on the sidelines in England, France and Spain. Perez, D’Agostino and Jimenez have all been with him since the beginning, or close to it. There’s seemingly nobody that they don’t know.
That can only help the Americans in the lead up to March, and to 2026.
“From the moment that we were in New York for the announcement of that we joined the USA men’s national team, we started working on many, many things — by Zoom, contact by phone, and, of course, watching games,” Pochettino said in October after naming his maiden squad.
“Now,” he added, “We are going to be more in contact, and we plan to visit them — not only the players that are going to be on the roster for this camp, not only the players that we want to see and maybe are thinking [about] for the future, not only the players in Europe.
Four months later, that process is well underway.
“Players with potential, we are going to try to create these links and relationships,” Pochettino continued then. “I’m going to follow them, try to push and to motivate…there is going to be the opportunity if they perform well.”
Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports who has covered the United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him at @ByDougMcIntyre.
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