Inside the money and Miracle influence behind Mauricio Pochettinos USMNT transformation

SAN FRANCISCO — There’s no tangible way to measure this, of course.But it’s not outlandish to wonder if the U.S.national team would be playing in Wednesday’s colossal World Cup Round of 32 match against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara without the vision, want-to and financial aid of two men: Scott Goodwin and Ken Griffin.The transformation of the USMNT to the way we see it now truly began June 27, 2024, when Goodwin, a former high school soccer player from Darien, Conn., who’s become a highly successful businessman, watched the USMNT lose to Panama 2-1 in a Copa América match that was marred by an undisciplined red card on forward Tim Weah.Goodwin was so incensed by it all — underpinned by the bigger-picture direction of the program and the leadership of then-U.S.

head coach Gregg Berhalter — that he started a text chain that ended up changing the course of U.S.men’s soccer.He reached out to Kyle Martino, whom he’d played against in high school in Fairfield County, Alecko Eskandarian, who played at the University of Virginia with Martino and now works in Major League Soccer, and Sean Feeney, who’d worked for Goodwin at Anchorage and also played at UVA.“When Tim Weah got the red card I said, ‘This is a chance to get an amazing coach,’ ’’ Goodwin told The Post this week.

“A couple of weeks later, I saw in the press they were talking to [decorated European manager Jürgen] Klopp, and I said, ‘Wow, let’s get it done.’ Alecko, who works for MLS and understands the economics, said, ‘We can’t afford Klopp.’“My response was, ‘What if I pay?’ He said, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘No, no, I’ll pay.’ A couple of days later he texted me and said, ‘Were you serious?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m serious.Let’s go.’ ’’In the meantime, Goodwin was reading about available coaches and was immediately drawn to Mauricio Pochettino.On July 10, 2024, Goodwin sent Martino, Eskandarian and Feeney a text messa...