The USMNT’s quest for World Cup glory is currency in the attention economy

It took Mauricio Pochettino a little while to understand that he had accepted an innately vibes-based job. If club soccer boils down to managers exerting control and fitting their players into an intricate system, buttressed by cutting-edge tactics, ultra-modern analytics and first-in-class sports science, international soccer demands a different job entirely. And it tends to take long-time club coaches who are managing in the international game for the first time a bit to catch on to the difference. Namely, that their new job description boils down to finding a simple tactical setup that fits a plurality of their best players, working out who plays well together and keeping their charges happy and healthy. Also: feisty. In the US men’s national team job, however, there is a second priority: keeping the country interested. On the first count, Pochettino diagnosed the vibes deficiency in the USMNT about six months into the job. That’s when the US faceplanted in the 2025 Nations League finals with a pair of losses to Panama and Canada. Pochettino’s predecessor, Gregg Berhalter, had been told the year before by his senior players on the way to a humiliating group-stage exit at the 2024 Copa América that they desired more intensity from their coach. Berhalter would later admit that he’d let his squads get stale and relied on the same players too much, even when they weren’t performing. …