The United States men’s national team has seen their 2026 World Cup journey come to an end, as they lost 4-1 to Belgium in Seattle on Monday evening. There will be many postmortems about how that match went down as well as looking back at the overall journey for the USMNT, which saw them win a knockout stage match for the first time since 2002 but ultimately played their worst match of the tournament against a team that beat them back in March.
But, one question facing the USMNT and the United States
Soccer Federation is now on the table: Will Mauricio Pochettino continue as head coach? Last week, it was reported that U.S. Soccer offered Pochettino a contract extension through the 2030 World Cup cycle. Pochettino is expected to make a decision on that contract extension now that their World Cup is done.
But, should he stay as USMNT coach or should U.S. Soccer move in a different direction? There are arguments for both sides, but ultimately Mauricio Pochettino should stay on as U.S. Men’s National Team head coach.
Sure, keeping Pochettino would be testing the fences of reality. Since 1990, the USMNT has had four coaches stay on for a second World Cup cycle: Bob Bradley, Jurgen Klinsmann, Bruce Arena (who also picked up a third cycle when he replaced Klinsmann) and Gregg Berhalter. Only Arena lasted the entire second World Cup cycle when he led the team in 2006 to a group stage exit. The other three coaches were fired in the middle of their second cycle. But, the slogan for this 2026 team has been “Never Chase Reality.” And in that, you can find that there are some positives to welcoming back Pochettino for four more years.
The momentum that has been generated by the USMNT during this World Cup run is something that you want to continue seamlessly into the next cycle. There will be the Concacaf Nations League, the Concacaf Gold Cup, potentially the 2028 Copa América, and of course World Cup qualifying. You want the system to continue to build, and you want players to continue to push each other to get better while knowing what Pochettino is looking for in his rosters. Plus, it feels like Pochettino will be more committed to the role with a four year window as opposed to the 22 months he received coming in mid-cycle.
That momentum could sputter if you go in a different direction because the hiring process has taken too long the past couple of hires. U.S. Soccer also has to decide how it will revamp its sporting organization, as sporting director Matt Crocker left in April to take on a similar role with the Saudi Arabian federation. Sporting directors normally make their own hires, but U.S. Soccer would have to decide on the process for hiring both a sporting director as well as a head coach. That would ultimately lead to something that feels like a setback: an interim coach for an extended period of time.
The schedule is too compact now to “waste” time with an interim coach. World Cup qualifying will begin for the USMNT in Fall 2027, which isn’t much time for the federation to get a new coach in and have whatever system they want established to be in place by the time it’s time to hit the road to take on Concacaf.
With Pochettino remaining at the helm, they can focus on the competitions ahead of them knowing that the guys in the player pool understand the system, the tactics, the formations, and the instruction, and there’s no learning curve required. And while one of the concerns of keeping a coach around for a second cycle is players needing a fresh approach, this team is playing better than it has in quite a while. That instruction can still remain fresh, and Pochettino has done a great job of introducing new tactics and other instruction that have kept this team competitive.
So, in this case, U.S. Soccer should not chase reality. They should dream of what could be when momentum and continuity are on their side. Whenever Mauricio Pochettino makes a decision about his future, U.S. Soccer should hope that he chooses to remain in his current role as USMNT head coach. The team’s growth could benefit from four more years.
