The countdown to the 2026 FIFA World Cup is on, as just 134 days stand between now and the U.S. Men’s National Team’s opening group stage match against Paraguay on June 12 in Los Angeles, Calif.
Prior to the tournament, the USMNT will compete in four matches, starting in Atlanta, the new home of U.S. Soccer. The U.S. will face ninth-ranked Belgium, presented by AT&T, on March 28 at 3:30 p.m. ET at Mercedez-Benz Stadium, followed by a match against sixth-ranked Portugal, presented by Bank of America, at 7 p.m. ET on March 31.
The team will then head to Charlotte, N.C. for a match against Senegal at Bank of America Stadium on May 31 with kickoff slated for 3:30 p.m. ET. The USMNT’s send-off match against Germany will be on June 6 at 2:30 p.m. ET at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill.
U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Mauricio Pochettino spoke with the media on Thursday, Jan. 29 ahead of the upcoming matches:
USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino
On having four months in between the team’s last match and the next one …
“How we finished 2025, you want to play the next week again, to take advantage of the form and the belief and the energy from the group and the team. Being very honest, it’s tough, really tough to spend all this time watching football, assessing players, having meetings, doing different things, but not coaching. That is the most tough situation that we are living because we love to coach. We love to be on the grass. But at the same time, it's about going back, analyze different areas, trying to be much better because that is most important when we meet the players in March, to be very clinical and trying to provide and to simplify things to the players to understand what we want to do, if we want to change things. I think it's a good opportunity for us to review us, the team, everything that is related to us, and at the same time, exciting and waiting for the moment to start again, to compete.
On what he has reviewed and taken away from last year during this break...
“We made a review about how the players impact the team. We were trying to see every single performance, the combination, the relationship on the field, the relationship off the field. I see the energy that we create with some group of players, with some rosters, with another roster. We analyze every single roster pattern that maybe we repeat, because when we talk about the World Cup, it's about building a team that wants to perform without egos, to perform for the badge, not for the name on the back of your shirt. You can have an amazing, talented player, but if he doesn't want to play for the team, for the badge, for the group, it's only a player that is not going to add real quality. That is why I think we spend a lot of time seeing the relationship when we win, when we lose, when we draw. If we want to be successful in the World Cup, we need to be sure that the 26 players are going to be very united and fighting for each other.”
On if there are difficulties when players arrive to camp at different points in their club seasons...
“When players arrive, they come from different environments, different backgrounds, different ideas of soccer, but the most important is, when they arrive with us, is to have everything very clear, in the behavior that we want to share, like respect, discipline. That is why we are not worried, because I think it's clear, our rules. They already know that when they leave their clubs and they are here, they know how they need to act, because it's in the way that we build our philosophy, our culture.”
On his message to the players and the public regarding roster selection ahead of the March camp...
“For us, it always is about bringing the players that are fit, the players that we really believe can provide a very good balance on the team. And of course, we deal with some situations like injuries or not being ingood form that affect the roster and building the squad. Now, we are close to the World Cup, it's true that it is going to be difficult to bring some new players, because we don't have time. We already assessed more than 70 players that we saw during the last year and a half. I think we have a very good idea. Now, it's about which of our players are fit and will be in a very good form for us to select the right players to try to compete in our best way.”
