The United States’ Men’s National Team coach says he wants his team to treat every match like the championship.
The team will play Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday. Despite entering the Round of 32 as a third-place finisher in group play, team manager Mauricio Pochettino said Tuesday that in light of the dramatic finishes and upsets that have already taken place, the United States is taking its opponent, and the stakes, seriously.
“Tomorrow is a final,” Pochettino said, adding that he said the same thing for the pre-tournament friendlies against Germany, Senegal, and Uruguay, or the group stage opener against Paraguay.
“I try to recreate similar feelings and emotion. Tomorrow we want to perform, the approach needs to be like before Paraguay: knowing and respecting the opponent, because it’s going to be really tough. But believing in us, and [going out] there and [transforming] all that expectation and pressure [into] energy, and trying to be natural and play, and all that we were working, it’s the moment tomorrow to apply on the field.”
“The job is done,” he added. “They need now to be relaxed and not to think, and tomorrow, play with the intuition and the confidence that all that we were preparing is going to appear on the field.”
Pochettino described the game as 85 to 90 percent emotional. His goal was to reduce that emotional level to 70, or 60, or even 50 percent. If the team is too emotional, players can get too excited and overrun themselves, wasting energy. But he said the team was in a good mood, and he was emphasizing that practices are preparing for the game, not playing the game itself.
On the other hand, the second challenge is keeping a level head in spite of the energy behind the team. Pochettino said that after the U.S. dominated Paraguay 4-1, then shut out Australia 2-0, and ultimately won Group D, people began to speak highly of the team, likely because they were surprised by their success. He said he wants the team to keep up their energy but also remain humble and respect their opponent.
Keeping a level head is especially important because the United States, as a Group D winner, is a heavy favorite over Bosnia and Herzegovina, which snuck into the Round of 32 as one of the highest-ranking third-place finishers.
“I don’t believe that we are the favorite team,” Pochettino said.
He noted that Paraguay upset Germany and Morocco upset the Netherlands (both in shootouts), while Japan took Brazil to the wire.
Pochettino said that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a “very combative and aggressive physical team,” but one that is also well-organized and well-coached, all of which they showed during the Group Stage. The team does not concede goals easily, and frequently switches formations and tactics on defense. That versatility was difficult to prepare for in practice.
He said that if the United States doesn’t treat the game like a final, they will struggle against their opponent’s style of play.
“We need to be careful when we say ‘one is favorite, another no,’” he told a Bosnian reporter. “I understand that maybe because we are [the] USA, and we host the World Cup, and we are here, maybe we have the fans [on] our side. But I think we have full respect to you guys, and Bosnia and Herzegovina is in that stage because you deserve [it], and I think for us it’s full respect.”
“We have the confidence to perform well, and of course the belief that we can win,” he added, “but with full respect, and thinking that if we want to win and go to the next stage, we need to perform our best.”
If they win, it would break a decades-long losing streak against the entire continent of Europe. The last time the United States defeated a European team in international play was a 2–1 win over Northern Ireland in an international friendly. The last time they beat a European team in tournament play was a 3–2 win over Portugal in the 2002 World Cup. Pochettino did not know why, but he said Wednesday’s match was a good opportunity to rewrite history.
But no matter what, team USA is treating every match like its last.
“For us tomorrow is—because we don’t have another opportunity if we fail—it’s all in, and knowing that that game is the final of the World Cup, and if we are capable to go through, the next one is going to be another final of the World Cup. That, I think, [needs] to be, and is, our mindset and our mentality,” he said.
