The USMNT’s 2026 schedule is focused on the World Cup, but Mauricio Pochettino has a few big tests ahead of leading the Stars and Stripes to a World Cup on home soil.
Heavy favorites Italy took a lead but then a red card and couldn’t hold off hosts Bosnia and Herzegovina as Gennaro Gattuso’s men became the third-straight Italian squad to miss a men’s World Cup.
Mauricio Pochettino learned his first ever World Cup group opponents as a coach on Friday when the World Cup draw takes center stage in Washington, D.C. and he will be very happy with it.
UEFA qualifying for the 2026 men’s World Cup is done, with four teams outlasting 12 others in a dramatic March week of second-round, single-elimination fixtures around Europe.
United States men’s national team midfielder Johnny Cardoso will not make a second-consecutive start for Mauricio Pochettino when the Yanks meet Portugal on Tuesday.
The USMNT’s Best XI for this summer’s World Cup remains a question mark thanks to form, a weak spot or two, and the deepest pool of men’s players ever produced by the United States.
Most of the good vibes from the United States men’s national team’s great end of 2025 felt a long way away by the time the final whistle blew on a 5-2 loss to Belgium in Atlanta on Saturday.
A promising first half from Mauricio Pochettino’s USMNT was undone in a second-half Belgium barrage as a three-match winning streak came to a crashing halt via a 5-2 blowout loss in Atlanta.
Let’s take a look at how the USMNT have fared in the last 95+ years before Mauricio Pochettino leads the United States into the 2026 World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
