Mauricio Pochettino began his tenure as United States men’s national team coach saying his players should aspire to achieve as much as the American women.
“We are here because we want to win,” he said Friday at his introductory news conference. “We have many examples next to us we need to follow.”
While the U.S. men haven’t reached the World Cup quarterfinals since 2002 and have never won the sport’s top tournament, the American women have won four World Cups and five Olympic gold medals.
“We need to believe we can win the World Cup,” he said.
Pochettino said his reasons for taking the reins as the manager of the U.S. men’s national team were “too many” to name, but when asked to distill them into one sentence, that was the one he settled: “We believe.”
“‘Believe’ for me, it’s a word that is so powerful,” Pochettino said. “You can have an enormous talent and you can be clever. In football, you need to believe that it’s possible. [If] we find the way together, I think for sure we’ll achieve.”
A 52-year-old Argentine, Pochettino will be coaching a national team for the first time, becoming the 10th U.S. coach in 14 years and its…
