Mauricio Pochettinos post-loss message doesnt mesh with World Cup tone hes been setting

IRVINE, Calif.— Mauricio Pochettino spent most of his first 18 months as the U.S.

men’s national team’s manager trying, begging and imploring anyone who would listen to treat every game as if it was the World Cup. He insisted there was no first or second team.He was offended — still is, if we’re being honest — that not everyone was interested in last summer’s Gold Cup.

He talked about how in Spain and France and Argentina and Brazil, getting called up to the national team under any circumstance is something players would crawl over broken glass to do, and how he wanted that to be the case here. All of that was important, necessary and, presumably, part of the reason U.S.Soccer reportedly offered Pochettino a contract extension through the 2030 World Cup, as per The Athletic’s Adam Crafton on Friday morning. So it was sort of strange on Thursday night to see Pochettino take offense at questions that assumed his team’s 3-2 loss to Turkey, in which they conceded a winner on the game’s final kick, might matter or affect momentum in some way.

In a sense, all those questions did was take him at his word. “I am happy.Maybe I am not showing because your questions are a little bit weird,” Pochettino said.

“When I arrive here, I am confused.Maybe the mood or the vibe is like we go home tonight and Turkey stays, no?” In fairness to Pochettino, he’s obviously right that the game itself was only a dead rubber.

His decision to heavily rotate was an easy one, almost certainly correct, and he’s done a terrific job managing this team through the group stage. No one’s denying him any of that.Every media outlet in the country spent the last week giving him and his team the most congratulatory possible coverage.

No one’s opinion of this team or its chances of beating Bosnia and Herzegovina should be seriously affected by Thursday night’s performance. But that’s different from acting as though the game simply didn’t happen.The U.S....