The USMNT supporters are in no mood to compromise. The Stars and Stripes men’s team will feel that they’ve underperformed all these years despite possessing some skillful players. While the recent performances have called for a change in manager, and brought Mauricio Pochettino in, do they indicate the real picture of the USMNT? While Pochettino doesn’t feel so, he is now expected to emulate USWNT manager Emma Hayes and Canada’s Jesse Marsch leading into the 2026 World Cup at home.

After the excitement of having Mauricio Pochettino as the USA’s coach, Herculez Gomez finds no reason why the Argentine cannot scale the team to greater heights at the 2026 event. “I love that he’s not using time as an excuse. Often when coaches come in, and they’re not the originally hired for a cycle coach, they say it’s going to take time to implement their style. He’s not using that as an excuse and it shouldn’t be an excuse,” praising and attesting to the new manager’s thought process on Futbol Americas podcast.

However, Gomez adds additional burden by citing Hayes and Marsh as an example. He further said, “Emma Hayes, and what she’s accomplished in a matter of days, almost 40 days. Jesse Marsch in the Canadian national team, what he’s accomplished in a matter of windows of a tournament, that should not be an issue.” Meanwhile, Mauricio Pochettino is already confident about his chances for the World Cup.

Citing time to be enough, he believes that the team needs a winning mindset that can modulate the existing players’ approach. The 52-year-old is already aware of the talent pool in the country. Spearheaded by Christian Pulisic who is thriving at Real Madrid, he also has other players who are excelling in Europe.

Players like Weston McKennie, Antonee Robinson, and others are a few, MLS is also producing some incredible sets of youngsters who can be molded. Paxten Aaronson, Djordje Mihailovic, Benajmin Cremaschi, and quite a pool of skillful athletes will be at Pochettino’s disposal. Hence, Gomez expects Pochettino to pull off something similar to Emma Hayes and Marsch.

Emma Hayes and Jesse Marsch push the bar higher for Mauricio Pochettino

While Mauricio Pochettino would love to win the World Cup, he aims to reach the quarterfinals at least. However, with the recent achievements of Emma Hayes and Canada’s manager, Gomez set the expectation high. The amount of encouragement available is significant as Gomez claimed. Hayes arrived in the USA with less than 75 days remaining for the Olympics. Yet she helped the USWNT to gold in Paris without dropping a single result. However, the Englishwoman was already an established winner with Chelsea. Moreover, she had been given an iconic team with a proven track history.

But more impressively, Marsch joined Canada only in mid-2024 after being rejected by the USMNT last year. In little time, he took the Canucks to the semifinal of the Copa America against formidable teams. Canada which was 48th in the FIFA rankings before the tournament jumped 10 spots up to 38 within months. Nevertheless, in promising news for Pochettino, Hayes is ready to collaborate. Moreover, Marsch also backs him in doing well for the USMNT as he has the experience of grooming rising players. But whether the Argentine manager’s plans and management be effective in a World Cup will be intriguing to witness.