Pochettino says US have time to put things right before 2026 World Cup

LOS ANGELES – Mauricio Pochettino called for patience after the United States slumped to a 2-1 defeat by Canada on March 23, insisting there was still time to turn things around ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

After an abject Concacaf Nations League semi-final loss to Panama on March 20, Pochettino had called on his team to show greater urgency and take more risks in the third-place game against Canada.

However, those pleas appeared to have fallen on deaf ears, judging by another lacklustre display from Pochettino’s side, who failed to muster a single shot – on or off target – in the opening half hour at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

It marked another dispiriting performance from the World Cup co-hosts, who will return to the same venue on June 12, 2026 for their opening game of the tournament.

Tani Oluwaseyi and Jonathan David netted either side of half-time for Canada, with Patrick Agyemang scoring for the US.

Pochettino, who was appointed in 2024 after the ill-fated second reign of Gregg Berhalter, is confident that by the time the global showpiece comes around, his side will be in much better shape.

“There’s a lot of examples in different years of teams that were building to play in a World Cup that were not good until they arrived at the World Cup,” Pochettino said.

“So I want to send a message to the fans, ‘Don’t be pessimistic, don’t get bad feelings’. It can happen. But the main objective is the World Cup. It’s always painful when you lose, but we need to accept it. But I don’t want people to feel pessimistic.

“We are all disappointed that we didn’t win, but I’m not going to allow us to feel pessimistic because I think we have good players. We are