"We Need to Play More Games Like This," Poch's Positives from the Mexico Debacle 🇺🇸

It was Dos a Cero in more ways than one, as two streaks became zero on Tuesday night, thanks to the USMNT's 2-0 loss to Mexico in Guadalajara.

The first streak to end was the United States' recent dominance over our erstwhile "defanged dread-rival" Mexico. The defeat ended America's seven-game unbeaten run (5W 2D 0L) against El Tri, while it also marked the first time the U.S. had lost in Mexico since 2009, winning once and drawing three times since then.

The second streak that also came to a close was the end of Mauricio Pochettino's unbeaten run as USMNT manager. Granted, this streak stood at just one game, thanks to our 2-0 win over Panama on Saturday in Poch's debut in Austin, Texas, but the hope certainly was to get a result in Guadalajara and ride some momentum into the upcoming November international break. Alas, a beautiful Raul Jimenez free kick, as well as the Fulham forward’s amazing slide tackle-turned-into-an-assist, put that notion to rest quickly.

Poch struck a philosophic tone after the loss, telling assembled media that this is all part of a process, both in terms of the team’s overall improvement, as well as him becoming more familiar with his players.

"Overall, I think Mexico was a little bit better than us and fully deserved the victory,” said Pochettino. “But for us it's a process that we started 10 days ago, and today was a great opportunity for our players to visit a very difficult place to play … We need to play more games like this to improve the knowledge that we have. Give us time, let us evaluate all the players, have them, know them, and from there I will give you a better opinion about what is much more fundamental than what I see."

Speaking to the Washington Post, goalkeeper Matt Turner shared Pochettino’s assessment, in that a tough loss does not diminish the progress seen during this international window overall.

“[The Mexico game] was a big opportunity for us. We all wanted it to go differently,” admitted Turner. “There’s a lot of positives to take from this [nine-day international] window. I won’t say necessarily from this game, but a lot of learning.”

So what did Poch learn about his players from these two friendlies, as well as the camp that preceded them? Rog spoke with former USMNT players Herculez Gomez and Alejandro Bedoya after the Panama and Mexico games, respectively, and each talked about what stood out to them from a player’s perspective.

Herc discussed Pochettino’s desire to have high-energy guys who press just as hard as they attack. He mentioned Brenden Aaronson as someone who works well in Poch’s system — his tireless work off the ball only outshone by his vision and attacking intelligence, best displayed by the pre-assist pass he made on the U.S.’s first goal (below) — and he also spoke favorably of Yunus Musah’s performance, the scorer of said goal who thrived in a new role at right wing back for the USMNT.

"We think of Yunus Musah as this powerful, driving midfielder that can go box-to-box,” said Gomez. “Pochettino said, no, no, no. I remember you out wide from the Arsenal Academy. You're very good out wide. The confidence that he gave Musah, not only produced a decent game for Yunus going forward, but he scored his first-ever USMNT goal."

Like Gomez, Bedoya also believes his former Philadelphia Union teammate Brenden Aaronson has a very bright future under Pochettino — though he admitted the current Leeds winger didn’t play as well against Mexico as he did against Panama. Bedoya also discussed Malik Tillman’s role with the team under Poch, and how he was hoping the PSV attacker would make more of his starting opportunity on Tuesday night.

"One of the guys I was really looking forward to seeing was Malik Tillman,” revealed Bedoya. “I've heard a lot of great things about him, he does well at club level, at PSV, but I just felt he couldn't get into the game. I have yet to see him put on a proper, proper performance for the national team. And he's a guy Pochettino gave him a really great compliment before the game, comparing him to [early] Dele Alli."

Bedoya continued: "He's one of those guys that I was hoping would step up and grab this opportunity, to have another guy in the mix there that can really help us control the midfield and bring something to the attack."

Overall, Bedoya still believes that Poch is the right coach to provide this team with the tactics, the mindset, and the development process to ensure they are not "found out" in the future, as they were in the 2024 Copa America.

"Even a team like France, that has so much quality, they even get criticized for not playing attractive enough,” observed Bedoya. “But guess what they're really good at? They're really good at holding their lines, tactically being so self-aware, and winning. You win because you're tactically very aware, and possess the mental aspect of it."

"Winning is the outcome of this process."

The process being one of continued growth, something that Aaronson experienced first-hand during his first window with Pochettino.

“We’re in a good spot,” Aaronson said to the Washington Post. “We were missing a lot of big guys. That’s never easy. We fought and did our best. We’re going to need time to grow, but I think we’re growing already.”

More:

• Rog and Alejandro Bedoya’s USA-Mexico Post-Game Analysis

• Rog and Herculez Gomez’ Winners and Losers from USA-Panama

• Rog on Tuesday’s Streak-Ending Dos a Cero

• The Ringer: What Did We Learn From Poch’s First Two Games?

• The Athletic: Mexico Loss Shows There’s Plenty of Work to do

News and Notes:

• Take a bow, Zavier Gozo and Christian McFarlane. The two American 17-year-olds were included in The Guardian’s list of 60 best young talents in world football. Gozo was born in Eagle Mountain, Utah and currently plays at forward for Real Salt Lake, while McFarlane is a dual-national left back (NYCFC) who was born in Basildon, England before moving to the U.S. at the age of three.

• According to The Athletic, Folarin Balogun is expected to miss two months of action due to a shoulder injury suffered during Monaco’s win over Rennes on Oct. 5. Balo scored in that game, as well as the two league matches prior, making him Monaco’s leading scorer in Ligue 1. He is almost certain to miss both legs of the United States’ CONCACAF Nations League quarter-final against Jamaica in November.

• Good news out of the Netherlands, as PSV right back Sergiño Dest tells SPORT that he is “confident” that he can come back in February (Spanish).

• The Athletic does a deep dive on what went wrong for Bob Bradley in Norway, after the former USMNT manager was released from his second stint with Stabaek last month. The report also mentions that his son and former USMNT midfielder Michael Bradley is “considered to have a bright future as a head coach,” and currently studying for his UEFA A License.