After two years at the helm, Mauricio Pochettino has left the U.S. men's national team.
As he heads across the Atlantic to take over Manchester United, the Argentine leaves behind a complicated legacy.
It isn't easy to deliver a final verdict on Pochettino's tenure, which was filled with enough highs and lows to fuel legitimate arguments that it was either a success or a failure.
The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between. Let's look at the biggest highs and lows from Pochettino's time at the helm of the USMNT.
Highs
The late 2025 turnaround
Morale was low after a 2-0 friendly defeat to South Korea in September 2025, the team's first match after losing to Mexico in the Gold Cup final. But Pochettino made a halftime adjustment in the loss to Korea that sparked a revitalization.
After switching to a back three, the USMNT had an improved second half and rode that momentum through the remainder of 2025.
Pochettino led the USMNT to four wins and a draw in its final five matches, capped off by a 5-1 throttling of Uruguay that raised expectations heading into a World Cup year. It was the USMNT's largest-ever win over a South American opponent.
Integrating new faces
Pochettino may be leaving, but his legacy with the USMNT will live on in the key players he integrated into the team. Last year, Pochettino gave debuts to the likes of Max Arfsten, Patrick Agyemang, Matt Freese, Diego Luna, Alex Freeman and Sebastian Berhalter. The latter pair has become especially vital for the U.S. and will form part of the team's core moving forward.
Before departing, Pochettino also kicked off a new era for the program in the September-October window. In four matches, he handed debuts to 13 players including several teenagers who figure to be front and center in the years to come. Cavan Sullivan, Adri Mehmeti, Neil Pierre, Mathis Albert, Julian Hall and more will always be able to say their first USMNT cap came under Pochettino.
The World Cup (pre Belgium)
Pochettino took the USMNT to heights it had never seen at the 2026 World Cup, becoming the program's all-time winningest World Cup coach by leading the team to three victories — as many as the USMNT had secured in the previous four World Cups combined.
It wasn't just the wins though, it was how the U.S. won. Pochettino's side played stylish, front-foot soccer and blew a defensively sound Paraguay side away in its opener. Then it dominated an Australian team that tried and failed to stifle the U.S. by sitting back. The win over Bosnia and Herzegovina was equally impressive, as the U.S. won just its second World Cup knockout game ever by scoring first, then weathering the storm after going down to 10 men following Folarin Balogun's red card.
Lows
Nations League disaster
The USMNT went into the 2025 Concacaf Nations League Finals having won all three previous editions of the competition. It left with its tail between its legs after losses to Panama in the semifinal and Canada in the third-place game.
The two defeats led to plenty of criticism of Pochettino's project and introspection from the coach, who later called the matches "painful but necessary" as he attempted to reset the team's culture. But after losing the 2025 Gold Cup final to Mexico, Pochettino would eventually exit without any trophies.
Pre-World Cup friendly defeats
Pochettino's last chance to evaluate his players before the World Cup came in a pair of friendlies against Belgium and Portugal in March. After the U.S. lost 5-2 to Belgium and 2-0 to Portugal, Pochettino called the games a "reality check."
The defeats continued a theme for the USMNT that predates Pochettino's arrival: its continued inability to beat elite opponents. Neither Pochettino or his predecessor Gregg Berhalter managed to defeat a top-10 FIFA ranked team from outside of Concacaf. Pochettino lost all four such matches including....
Belgium
The low point in Pochettino's tenure was one of the low points in the entire history of the USMNT. Faced with a chance to reach a World Cup quarterfinal for only the second time in its history, the U.S. laid an egg on home soil. From the opening whistle against Belgium in the round of 16, Pochettino's side looked timid and overawed by the moment.
Did the controversy around Balogun's overturned red card suspension affect the team? The striker himself said it did. Is that an excuse for how poorly the USMNT played in one of the biggest games in program history? It can't be.
Pochettino was hired to take the USMNT to new heights. Instead, his lone World Cup ended at the same stage as the team's previous three tournaments: the round of 16.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The biggest highs and lows of Mauricio Pochettino's USMNT tenure
