“The Copa América result is extremely disappointing and I take full responsibility for our performance,” former USMNT coach Berhalter had lamented in July this year after USA’s disastrous campaign at the tournament led to his firing. Coming off of their worst result ever—USA are the only hosts till date who failed to qualify to the tournament’s knockout stage since the group stage was introduced in 1975—the historic failure pointed a painful finger at their 2026 World Cup’s worsening chances. However, the management has seemed to catch hold of the right person: Mauricio Pochettino. Or at least that’s what his latest decisions indicate.

Hence, as a USMNT soccer fan, I am excited. There are managers out in the open, like Jurgen Klopp and Graham Potter, on the sidelines looking for the right project. With USMNT looking at Klopp initially, the system might not have worked. For years, the USMNT scored goals. But keeping their opposition from finding the net became a strenuous task. And here’s where Poch comes in, striving for a fine balance on both sides of the pitch. And that’s exactly why the Star and Stripes may rise again!

Understood to have a rigid system based on counterattacking soccer, the USMNT has the right tools for Pochettino to unlock the budding potential. Moreover, Gregg Berhalter used the same 4-3-3 system but didn’t pay dividends. Yes, we don’t want to see the ‘Golden Generation’ go into the folklore with regrets and despair. In a media meet, the fans got a chance to understand the system Pochettino adopts, henceforth.

“I think we are going to plan to play twos systems—4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3. And from there to develop our way to play and see how we can adapt and how we can create the partnership in between them to find the best way to create a very good way to play…,” the coach said on October 2 during while announcing the roster for the upcoming game.

He mentioned, “I think soccer needs to be an exciting game to the USA citizen. I think they need to show it every time they go to the stadium and I think we have amazing players. But the most important thing is to believe. Because we can have too many offensive players who can perform.” To go into more detail, ahead of the team’s October 13 friendly match against Panama, the former Tottenham Hotspur head coach brought some changes fans have deemed have optimistic.

He brought back ‘out of favor’ goalkeeper Zack Steffen almost two years after Berhalter left him out of the 2022 World Cup roster. The 29-year-old, who has 29 international appearances till date, started six of 14 World Cup qualifiers before Matt Turner replaced him for the other eight. His last match with the USMNT was in March 2022. “He deserved the opportunity to be with us,” Pochettino said of his decision, before adding, “It’s a good opportunity to see him and analyze.” Also added to the 25-man roster was midfielder Gianluca Busio, Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie.

Talking from a Zoom meeting in London, the coach also talked about what will help turn around the USMNT’s fortunes. “To have the ball, to have the precision is the best way. First of all, to defend. And, second because we want to win either way…We are going to be very, very, very, very demanding. When we lose a ball, we need to be desperate to recover as soon as possible. But we need to work like a team. In this moment, we need to show the real team,” he hoped.

Moreover, players like Christian Pulisic and Folarin Balogun will be critical for Pochettino from the get-go. They have the flair and the finishing abilities to provide goals. Usually, his teams press high and recover the ball by running rings around the opposition defense. They scratch, bite, and claw to win the ball back and set the team up for attack.

But now that we know his game plan, let’s get more into detail about what we can expect…

USMNT fans, assemble!

Let’s talk about the formations first:

1. 4-2-3-1

During his tenure at Tottenham Hotspur and PSG, he adopted these two formations and became flexible with his tactics. He had Harry Winks and Moussa Sissoko, who laid the foundation for attacking players to go forward at Spurs. For the USMNT, Weston McKennie and Yunus Musah become the reliable men in the middle of the park. The two players individually press hard to win the ball back and, with Poch’s coaching, they can knock the ball from the middle of the park. We certainly believe these two players remain crucial to Pochettino’s success.

Likewise, Brenden Aaronson and Christian Pulisic will give the thrust needed from the flanks like Son Heung-Min and Dele Alli did for the Spurs during the glorious 2019 Champions League run. Therefore, this system promises rigidness, flexibility, and counter-pressing, and the team can attack instantly from front to back.

2. 4-3-3

It’s a system most coaches adopt in the game these days. Jurgen Klopp adopted a 4-3-3 system named ‘Gegenpressing’ which dealt with players going in full throttle for the entire 90 mins. Of course, he had top players, and adopting it with the USMNT would be demanding. Yet, that’s a Plan B for Pochettino who can bring in Malik Tillman, an upcoming player for the USMNT, as the center attacking midfielder and can make plays with McKennie and Musah at the base.

To sum up, the system is rigid and depends on counter-attacks to score goals. Both the systems, to be honest, depend on counter-attacking soccer.

Possible line-ups:

GK: Zach Steffen
LB: Antonee Robinson
LCB: Tim Ream
RCB: Mark McKenzie
RB: Joe Scally
DM: Weston McKennie
DM: Yunus Musah
CAM: Malik Tillman
RW: Brenden Aaronson
FW: Folarin Balogun
LW: Christian Pulisic

Therefore, it’s an exciting period to be a soccer enthusiast and cheer for the US Men’s National Team. They have all the right tools to give trouble to the opposition. Whether the players can manage remains the million-dollar question on everyone’s minds.