Ex-USMNT Coach Criticizes Mauricio Pochettino for Not Getting US Culture, Pride

Mauricio Pochettino is under fire from former USMNT and current MLS team San Jose Eartquakes coach Bruce Arena, who questioned if the Argentine is the right man to lead the Stars and Stripes.

U.S. Soccer hired Pochettino back in September to develop a talented U.S. men's national team into a real contender ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Despite getting off to a winning start, the Stars and Stripes under the Argentine have once again failed to impress.

The USMNT suffered a shocking 1–0 defeat to Panama in the Concacaf Nations League semifinals and then lost a third-place match to Canada just three days later. The two poor results prompted harsh criticism from USMNT greats Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, and now Arena is joining in the conversation surrounding Pochettino's early leadership.

"You know if you look at every national team in the world, the coach is usually a domestic coach," Arena said on an episode of Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan & Tim Howard.

"And I think when you have coaches that don't know our culture, our environment, our players, it's hard. I'm sure our coach is a very good coach, but coaching international football is different than club football, it's a completely different job."

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Pochettino is not the first non-American to coach the USMNT. German Jurgen Klinsmann was in charge of the Stars and Stripes from 2011 to 2016 and led the team to a second-place finish in a group with Germany, Portugal and Ghana at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. There was also Serbian Bora Milutinović, who got the team to the round of 16 at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Pochettino, though, has no previous experience coaching a national team. The 53-year-old spent his entire career coaching at the club level throughout Europe, most notably at Tottenham Hotspur and Paris Saint-Germain.

"And I think when you're a national team coach, you need to know your environment, you need to know the animals you coach, and we're lacking that," Arena continued. "If you're an American coaching the U.S. team, you know the culture, you know the pride and how important the national team is. I think when you bring in somebody from the outside, they don't understand it, especially in our country, because we're so different."

Arena knows what it takes to coach the USMNT on the biggest stage in soccer. The American previously led the USMNT to the quarterfinals at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the team's best performance since 1930. It is clear that he, along with plenty of other critics, are unsatisfied with the current state of the USMNT, especially for a squad often heralded as the country's "golden generation."

"You ask me if we lacked pride, I'm watching and I'm shocked. I'm shocked that we can't beat Panama and Canada," Arena said. "I don't want to be disrespectful. I want them to do great in the World Cup, there's no question about it. But we only have a year left now. Time is running out, and they got to get going."

Before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the USMNT must first compete in the Concacaf Gold Cup this summer, where they will hope to put in a better performance than their disappointing Concacaf Nations League campaign.

The team's main goal, though, remains on the 2026 FIFA World Cup, unfolding on home soil.