Mauricio Pochettino: USMNT aiming for surprise World Cup semifinal berth
USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino says his team will look to replicate success of surprise World Cup semifinalists Morocco and South Korea this summer.
U. S. men's national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino has said his team will look to replicate the success of surprise World Cup semifinalists Morocco and South Korea this summer.
The USMNT will go into a World Cup on home soil aiming to make a deep run and inspire the country to back the team on its journey. That would be very similar to what South Korea accomplished in 2002, when it went all the way to the final four during a World Cup that it co-hosted with Japan. Twenty years later, Morocco became the first African World Cup semifinalist during the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
The Atlas Lions played close enough to their home country to provide a home-field advantage for many of their games. Backed by a partisan crowd this summer, Pochettino is dreaming of his team putting together a similar run. "In football, logic rarely holds," the USMNT coach said in an interview with L'Equipe.
"There are no mathematical equations to predict a result. That's also why it's the most beautiful sport in the world — because it can be unjust. It's about being competitive, but also mastering the emotional factors.