Mauricio Pochettino will sign with Manchester United once the USMNT camp wraps up, ending his two‑year spell that featured a home‑soil World Cup. His last assignments are the two‑leg Concacaf Nations League semifinals versus Haiti – first on Saturday at Miami’s Nu Stadium, then on Tuesday at Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium.
The timing feels odd for the US side. Even though the next World Cup lies four years ahead, Pochettino inked a four‑year extension in August and is currently training at U.S. Soccer’s Atlanta hub. He spent the week with the squad while his agents hammered out the United deal.
“That news kind of got sprung on us, like the rest of the world, I’d say,” Robinson said. “Similar things happened in the past, at the World Cup when big teams lose their coach and start scouting replacements. Having a manager linked to those jobs makes us lucky, but it never distracts us from the work, whether it’s the World Cup or this camp.”
“Even when we first met a couple of summers ago, there were lots of other people interested in having Mauricio and his team join,” U.S. Soccer CEO J.T. Batson said in May. “He had standing offers elsewhere. He chose us because he believes in U.S. Soccer, in growing the sport here, and in this men’s team. Throughout the process he’s been transparent, a great partner, and excited about the summer. The outreach list is longer than reported, and they’ve handled it admirably.”
Pochettino has repeatedly said he wants to return to the Premier League, a goal United will fulfill.
United sit in the relegation zone with just one win from ten matches, the poorest record in the league this season. For my money, the club’s dire form makes this appointment especially risky.
Where does Pochettino leave the USMNT?
His USMNT résumé is modest – 21 wins in 45 games, most against lower‑ranked nations. The team fell at the round‑of‑16 hurdle in the World Cup, a loss to Belgium shadowed by the Folarin Balogun saga. Still, he managed to reshape the squad in his two years at the helm.
The round‑of‑16 exit wasn’t shocking, but the manner of it was. The U.S. pool, though talented, wasn’t counted among the elite, so a deep run seemed unlikely. Pochettino got the most out of the group, deploying an entertaining, high‑intensity, attacking style – a hallmark of his career that’s hard to implement internationally given limited training windows. His predecessor Gregg Berhalter favored a more restrained approach, and earlier U.S. sides relied on grit over flair.
Gradually his philosophy clicked with the cohort Berhalter introduced. He recognized the attacking strengths of forwards Balogun and Christian Pulisic, and revived players Berhalter had sidelined – midfielder Malik Tillman became pivotal, and Ricardo Pepi earned a World Cup start after missing Berhalter’s 2022 roster.
His lasting impact may be the revamped player pool. Defender Alex Freeman vaulted from Orlando City obscurity to a World Cup starter and scorer in under 500 days. Midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, son of the former coach, broke into the squad in 2025 and looks set to be a fixture. Emerging talents like Cavan Sullivan and Adri Mehmeti could become program legends.
The coach’s exit will sting, yet he leaves a stronger foundation than he inherited. He took over after a Copa America group‑stage flop and departs with a clear roadmap to the 2030 World Cup. The lesson: the next hire must fit tactically, not just boast a global résumé, because an attack‑focused system suits today’s player pool, especially the rising attackers.
There’s no reason U.S. Soccer can’t pick the best candidate, but for perhaps the first time the USMNT’s future hinges on its own talent. The successor will need to extract the best from this generation, just as Pochettino did with the core.