After early struggles with Pochettino, USMNT heads into 2026 riding high

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — After struggling in its first nine months under coach Mauricio Pochettino, the United States headed into a World Cup year with a five-game unbeaten streak and its most one-sided win over an opponent from South America’s confederation.

“We wanted to make a statement. We wanted to show what U.S. soccer’s about,” Sebastian Berhalter said after the Americans scored four goals in a 25-man span of the first half and routed Uruguay 5-1 on Tuesday night. “We had a chance to go out here and give everything we had and show that we’re ready.”

Berhalter, Alex Freeman and Tanner Tessmann all scored their first international goals and Freeman — a son of former NFL All-Pro receiver Antonio Freeman — added his second while Diego Luna scored his fourth. The U.S. led 4-0 and scored five goals against a team outside the CONCACAF region for the first time since beating Scotland 5-1 in 2012.

After getting knocked out in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Nations League in March, losing the CONCACAF Gold Cup final to Mexico in July and then falling 2-0 in a friendly to South Korea in September, the 16th-ranked U.S. ended the year with a 2-0 win over Japan, a 1-1 tie against Ecuador, 2-1 victories over Australia and Paraguay and the blowout of No. 15 Uruguay.

“The main thing that we’ve been focused on is the DNA, building that DNA and that grit, that hard-working mentality because that’s us, that’s us as a country and that’s us as a team,” Luna said.

The U.S. was missing more than half its projected likely World Cup starters: Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Malik Tillman and Chris Richards.

Pochettino took offense to questions about facing Uruguay without many first-choice players.

“I hate that ‘no regular players,’” the coach said. “It’s USA playing. It’s the national team. Stop with that mindset. ... I hate to talk in this way. It’s so disrespectful. It’s so disrespectful because I think we need to give credit to all the guys that today were involved.”

Asked another question about the lack of regulars, Pochettino said: “Maybe I think we need to stop the press conference and I need to go to the dressing room, come back and start again the press conference because it’s like we were the opposite, losing five-nil, no, 5-1.”

There are just two more games before Pochettino selects his World Cup roster, March friendlies likely against Belgium and Portugal.

“We start to feel the World Cup and the excitement,” Pochettino said. “I think it’s important for our fans this type of victory and the result because I think it’s to push them to really believe in the team. We never doubt(ed) because we saw the quality of the players.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer