No Mauricio Pochettino yet, but USMNT still hoping for ‘new coach bump’ this month

United States

Updated Sep. 3, 2024 9:58 p.m. ET

Fans of the U.S. men’s national team aren’t the only ones wondering when Mauricio Pochettino will finally, formally be named the squad’s new coach.

“We know as much as everybody else,” veteran defender Tim Ream said during a Zoom meeting on Tuesday from Kansas City — where the Americans face fellow 2026 World Cup co-host Canada in a friendly on Saturday — when asked what exactly he and his teammates knew about the situation.

“We were updated a few weeks ago that the search was moving in a positive direction and, at this point, that’s where everybody’s at,” Ream said. “We have been told that when something happens we will know, and everybody else pretty quickly after. So we are updated, but we have not been told anything is final up to this point.”

USMNT fans’ anxiety is, therefore, completely understandable. It also appears to be unfounded: While the deal for the former Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur manager remains unsigned, it is still on track and still inching closer to being completed, multiple sources told FOX Sports early this week.

Whether it happens before Saturday’s exhibition and another next Tuesday, against New Zealand in Cincinnati, the 24 players currently in camp under interim boss Mikey Varas can’t concern themselves with that. There might not be a full-time replacement for the fired Gregg Berhalter on the sidelines, but there are two games to play. And after the humiliating group stage exit at the Copa América in July that cost Berhalter his job, the USMNT — both as a group and individuals — has plenty to prove. The squad seems to know it as it assembles for the first time since the debacle.

“After the Copa ended, there was a mutual feeling within the dressing room of disappointment,” forward Folarin Balogun said. “As always, when we have the opportunity to wear this jersey, it’s about putting on a show for our fans, giving it a hundred percent. So we’re not treating [these September contests] as friendlies. We want to make a statement and remind people what we’re about.”

What they’re about under Pochettino remains to seen. Even without him present, there should be the normal “new coach bump”, a phenomenon with which the 36-year-old Ream — who has now played for his country under seven different men, including interim hires — is well acquainted.

“I think I’ve had 10 different or 11 different managers over the course of just my club career,” said Ream, who recently left Premier League Fulham for Charlotte of MLS.

“Naturally, you kind of lift the intensity and lift the focus. And you put a little bit more into it. But at the same time, you do have to understand that you have to play your own game and do what has gotten you to that point, while also adjusting and adapting to a new voice,” he added. “There’s a fine line and a balance.”

That feeling will only ramp up when Pochettino is eventually introduced. Ream played often against the Argentine’s teams in England over the last decade-plus, so he saw first hand how the 52-year-old might be able to help the U.S. in the lead up to 2026.

Mauricio Pochettino: Who will benefit most from his coaching style?

“He’s a high-quality, high-level manager, Ream said. “They were teams that were really well organized and really strong in the attacking sense, so always difficult to play against them. I don’t think I was on the right end of any of the matches that I played against him.”

With any luck, they’ll be on the same side soon enough.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports. He was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports before joining FOX Sports in 2021, and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.