Trending closer to midnight than anyone would have liked last Thursday in Inglewood, Calif., U.S. men’s national team manager Mauricio Pochettino appeared slightly dumbfounded. After all, his side had put together two of the finest efforts the program had seen in modern World Cup play, featuring back-to-back victories over Paraguay and Australia by a combined 6–1 margin, to win Group D with a match to spare.
He was not going to let a last-minute, dead-rubber loss to already-eliminated Türkiye take the shine off the team’s group stage success.
