In this case, it’s best to start at the end of 15 strange and slightly disorienting minutes in the Los Angeles Stadium underbelly. Clearly perplexed and irritated by the tone of some questions in his customary post-match press conference, after the USA’s last-gasp but ultimately inconsequential defeat against Turkey, head coach Mauricio Pochettino had to get something off his chest. Again.
A matter of moments after voicing his bemusement that nobody had offered his team a token gesture of recognition for finishing top of a group involving Paraguay, Australia and Turkey, the overstimulated Argentinean went into overdrive once more.
“It cannot be possible that Turkey celebrate three points, and Australia and Paraguay celebrate qualification, and for you not to say ‘congratulations’ that we won the group,” Pochettino said to around 25 journalists in the press room. Often such a cool customer, here he was not.
“That is very sad. I need to remember that we won the group. Sorry, guys.”
It was, to use his own response to one question, just “a bit weird.” Nobody is in any doubt about how sparkling a two-week opening this has been for the World Cup co-hosts. Brilliant and clinical against Paraguay, ruthless and intense over Australia, Pochettino’s much-changed XI ultimately lost a match they shouldn’t have in Inglewood on Thursday night. Yet the caveat? With the United States already top and Turkey already out, it did not matter a jot.
But here’s the thing: nobody in the press room was overly negative in their line of questioning.
No doubt a bit miffed after a series of TV interviews, Pochettino seemed baffled from the get-go. Asked what he made of the way his team “fought back” from a goal deficit in the second-half, Pochettino looked at the US media manager to his right with bewilderment.
Was this a language barrier issue? After a bit of back-and-forth, Pochettino’s riposte was sharp: “They fight over 97 minutes, no? We compete over 97 minutes, not only the second-half.”
Then, when a somewhat logical query about whether the squad have lost a bit of momentum after Turkey’s late sucker-punch was put in front of him, Pochettino – a man who knows all about momentum after Tottenham’s improbable run to the Champions League final in 2019 – again seemed confused.
“I don’t understand… what is momentum?” he began. “Is it not to receive a yellow card or risk a player who has problems. Did Germany [who lost to Ecuador earlier on Thursday] lose the momentum too?
“There are too many topics in football I don’t understand. The option was to finish first and we finished first. It’s all positive. I’m so happy, maybe not showing it because your question is a bit weird.
“I’m confused, the mood and the vibes here… maybe we go home tonight and Turkey stay.”
He then, unprompted, added: “No one congratulated us for finishing first in a very difficult group!”
It was all rather strange. We’ve known that the United States will finish top of the group since last weekend; Pochettino spoke about that achievement in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday. His odd request for validation and his sense of under-appreciation here have created a peculiar tone for the US team, ahead of their last-32 clash against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Santa Clara next Wednesday.
In fact, despite the defeat, there were numerous positives from Thursday’s outing. Eight players started a World Cup match for the first time. No players received second yellow cards, ruling them out of the next match. Their best player, Christian Pulisic, returned and looked bright in a 30-minute second-half cameo.
But their world-class manager, for all his tactical astuteness and eye for detail, did not deal with this in a world-class fashion. You could even argue he seemed, completely unnecessarily, a bit rattled.
A leader in America desperately seeking acclaim and validation while responding abruptly to simple questions put to him? That sounds… familiar.
