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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Sport
Leander Schaerlaeckens

Pochettino’s first full USMNT year started shakily. It ends with real World Cup hope

Mauricio Pochettino greets his mentor Marcelo Bielsa after Tuesday’s friendly.
Mauricio Pochettino greets his mentor Marcelo Bielsa after Tuesday’s friendly. Photograph: Edgardo Medina/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

The symbolism felt a tad heavy-handed, as if a scriptwriter had slightly overcooked the plot.

That the United States men’s national team should utterly humiliate Uruguay 5-1 ,the very opponent who dumped the Americans out of the 2024 Copa América in the group stage on their home soil, precipitating an all-out crisis. That the first of the USMNT’s goals on Tuesday, and the assist for the second, should come from Sebastian Berhalter, whose father, Gregg, was fired as US head coach after said Copa. That Berhalter’s successor, Mauricio Pochettino, should reclaim the program’s honor against his mentor, his “second father”, his “football father”, his “inspiration”, Marcelo Bielsa.

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