By EFE
11 Oct 2024, 3:01 PM EDT
The Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino will debut this Saturday at the United States national team bench in a friendly match against Panamaexecutioner of his predecessor, Gregg Berhalter, by unleashing the elimination of the Americans from the Copa América.
Americans and Panamanians will face each other starting at 8:00 p.m. (01:00 GMT on Sunday) in the Austin Q2 Stadium (Texas), home of MLS Austin.
It will be the first of two friendly matches. Pochettino’s men will face Mexico in Guadalajara on Tuesday.
Panama prevented the Stars and Stripes team from advancing to the quarterfinals of the Copa América that was played in the United States.
Their 2-1 defeat in the group stage against the Central Americans, combined with the following one against Uruguay, It left the United States out of the Copa América, of which they were hosts.
Pochettino took over from Berhalter with an eye toward the 2026 World Cup, in which the United States will once again host.
“It is a team (Panama) that is good for us because it is going to demand us in all aspects of the game“Pochettino said this Friday in a press conference from Austin, where the players have been concentrating since the beginning of the week.
“Panama is an athletic team. It is a team with a very palpable identity, where the imprint of its coaching staff can be seen. It is a team that travels well, that travels the field well“He added about Thomas Christiansen’s men.
Objective: adapt to new ideas
The “objective” that the Argentine coach has set for this first call, beyond the results, It is “getting to know each other and establishing principles for the future.”
“Football is about competing and winning because our fans, without a doubt, want to win. But at the same time they need to understand that it is our first contact with the entire organization and we cannot put too much pressure on the players. They need to adapt to our new ideas“he explained.
This week it was announced that Pochettino has recruited his usual team of collaborators to the national team’s coaching staff, with the Spanish Jesús Pérez as second, the Argentine Miguel D’Agostino as assistant and Spanish Toni Jiménez as goalkeeping coach.
In Pochettino’s call-up, with a majority of players in European teams, his captain stands out as the maximum reference, Christian Pulisic, from AC Milan of Serie A.
From his first call-up, however, two of the best American players have fallen: Juventus’ Tim Weah and Monaco’s Folarin Balogunboth with recent injuries.
Panama, for its part, with the midfielder Adalberto Carrasquilla as a leader, they had not been called up for their national team since they fell in the quarterfinals of the Copa América against Colombia with a severe 5-0.
Panama is experiencing a sweet soccer moment. With the former Barcelona player and former Spain international Christiansen on the bench, the Central Americans had a good Copa América despite the corrective against Colombia and In 2023 they reached the final of the Gold Cup, losing 1-0 against Mexico.
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