ZAPOPAN, MEXICO – OCTOBER 15: Head Coach Mauricio Pochettino of the United States during an international friendly game between Mexico and USMNT at Akron Stadium on October 15, 2024 in Zapopan , Mexico. (Photo by John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF
Try to identify the manager who’s under the most pressure heading into the 2026 World Cup and he’s not hard to spot.
USA boss Mauricio Pochettino may be leading one of an unprecedented three host nations of this year’s tournament, but it’s at his door where the threat of unfulfilled expectation lies.
Hosting the World Cup brings a unique type of pressure that’s hard to recreate. But when you’re the biggest shark among three co-hosts with a hopeful public and a free-speaking president watching on, the prospect of failure ramps up even more.
The US may not be among the favourites to lift the trophy, but anything less than a strong showing during a run into at least the last-16 will be viewed as failure. And you can bet that won’t be swallowed quietly if Poch and co do make a quick exit.
For Canada and Mexico, they’re almost in the shadow of what the US does and their own history.
The Canucks’ boss Jesse Marsch – a man who once thought he’d be leading USMNT into this tournament as manager – leading his side to a first ever win in the World Cup would mark progress and possibly a route out of the groups, while Mexico’s recent decline makes any impact on the knockouts enough for El Tri legend Javier Aguirre.
Should either of those nations achieve more alongside an underwhelming campaign for the US and it would spell humiliation for Pochettino and his squad.
Why psychology is as important as tactics
How the Argentine handles that possibility will probably be as crucial as the tactics he employs. There is enough talent in his ranks to do well, but the human toll of a country and world watching may paralyse some players if not managed well.
“That challenge hanging over the managers and players can interfere with the quality,” former Brazil manager Luiz Felipe Scolari told me in my book How to Win the World Cup: Secrets and Insights from International Football’s Top Managers.
Scolari led the Selecao to glory in 2002 and was back in charge as they hosted the 2014 tournament. Another victory was demanded, with an overwhelming weight of expectation that a team not quite as gifted as the South Americans’ previous champions would triumph again.
“We had to minimise certain situations for our players and provide daily psychological support, so they would feel less pressure than normal,” continued Scolari. “Because today everyone knows everything through the media, we needed to minimise certain situations to protect the players as best we could.”
BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL – JULY 08: Head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari of Brazil and staff console Oscar after a 7-1 defeat to Germany during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Semi Final match between Brazil and Germany at Estadio Mineirao on July 8, 2014 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)
Getty Images
That approach worked until the bubble created was finally punctured, with a shell-shocked Brazil collapsing in scarcely believable fashion to lose 7-1 to Germany in the semi-final.
It’s the starkest warning that Poch needs to understand. He can protect his players and try to take pressure off them by keeping them away from media headlines, but they’ll be aware of the furore that is happening around them. Even cutting them off from the outside world completely – an almost-impossible task in today’s connected society – won’t avoid some awareness of what they need to do.
The best possible situation is for a strong start against Paraguay and Australia in the opening two group matches to create a fervour that the players can plug into to ride the wave.
The added difficulty for Pochettino when trying to create an atmosphere that thrives off the pressure is that he only has a handful of players to have experienced playing at one of the world’s elite club sides. And the work he’s done in less than two years to position the likes of Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Sergino Dest in roles to share their experiences will be key.
A lack of time to prepare
The concern is that Poch hasn’t much time to build this. Things have improved since those early months in charge, but it is still little over a year ago since McKennie said Panama and Canada had “fought a little bit harder than us” as the Stars and Stripes relinquished their Nations League crown.
In the past, the hosts from outside the traditional big nations that have done well are those that spent more time together. Coaches given the full four-year cycle to build a togetherness have a longer-term plan, while some lesser nations – such as South Korea in 2002 – have created more time to train together by finishing domestic seasons earlier ahead of the World Cup.
It’s a technique Mexico have done this time, setting up a training camp outside Fifa’s designated international window and demanding players from Liga MX to join them. This wasn’t an option for USA’s stars plying their trade all around the globe, but something similar was done ahead of the 1994 World Cup.
When Serbian boss Bora Milutinovic took over ahead of the 1994 tournament, he created a US squad almost from scratch, giving players central contracts and taking them on a three-and-a-half-year international crash course to get them up to speed.
They played 91 international friendlies in that time to raise the standard and create an ethos that carried them through to a last-16 tie with eventual-winners Brazil that they narrowly lost 1-0. It’s an approach that won’t ever be replicated, although it highlights the lengths that have been gone to previously.
Pochettino doesn’t need to take such extreme measures this time, but if he can find a way to channel what has worked for previous hosts, he’ll go some way to batting away the pressure that could otherwise swallow him and his side whole.