TAMPA, Fla. – The US men’s national team appear to have turned a corner under Mauricio Pochettino. With Saturday’s 2-1 win over Paraguay, the Yanks are riding a four-game unbeaten streak into their final match of 2025, a Tuesday night tangle with Uruguay at Raymond James Stadium (7 pm ET | TNT, TruTV, HBO Max, Peacock, Universo).
Things look and feel a great deal more promising than they did back in March, when Pochettino & Co. got a sobering reality check about the state of the program when the USMNT’s Concacaf Nations League title defense crashed and burned via unsightly losses to Panama and Canada.
It turns out that low point, Pochettino said on Monday, started this group on the path forward.
“All this negativity, we used to build that journey,” the Argentine said in his matchday-1 press conference. “Sometimes this type of thing can happen, for changing things, and maybe you see the things in a different way.”
Fearless mentality
Beyond performance, the Paraguay result also displayed the Yanks’ collective backbone, with teammates rushing to the defense of Alex Freeman when the Orlando City wunderkind tussled with Gustavo Gómez in the game’s dying minutes, sparking a bench-clearing fracas.
“I’ve lived it,” Freeman said with a smile when asked about the intensity of these South American-style clashes. “It’s crazy, but it’s good. I feel like it’s good that we have that before the World Cup, have that scrappiness, and be able to just see what we’re made of.
“We’re not scared of anything as a US team,” added the newly-crowned MLS Young Player of the Year. “If it was a problem in the past, it’s definitely not a problem now.”
Bielsa ball
The vibes are usually only as good as your last performance, however, and this next matchup offers a full-circle moment of sorts for both team and coach.
Uruguay eliminated the USMNT from last year’s Copa América with a testy 1-0 win in Kansas City, a bitter end to a highly anticipated tournament, and the result that brought Gregg Berhalter’s tenure to a grinding halt.
It’s also a faceoff with Marcelo Bielsa, the cult icon who’s shaped La Celeste into a dark-horse World Cup contender – and also happens to have played a key role in Pochettino’s career, first at Newell’s Old Boys and later with the Argentina national team and LaLiga club Espanyol.
“He’s a person that was really important in my young journey, when I started to play football, when I was 13 years old, 14 years old,” ‘Poch’ said of Bielsa, who famously drove many miles through the night to the Pochettino household just to lay eyes on the youngster when he was scouting for Newell’s. “Always, my admiration and my respect is massive. I cannot consider him like a friend. I cannot consider him like another normal person; it is a bigger respect, no?
“He was key in my career, like a player, and key to loving that game and to inspire – he inspired me to keep pushing, trying to be a coach. Yes, tomorrow for me is a thing to enjoy, to be with him very close. And in the same time we are going to suffer, because the team, under Marcelo’s management, they are so tough to play.”
South American test
Uruguay have always been known for their tenacious fighting spirit, dubbed la garra charrúa, epitomized by the likes of Luis Suárez, and Bielsa’s relentlessly aggressive game model has ratcheted up their tempo and bite to another level.
“I’m a little aware of it because of Kike Olivera, who was a former teammate (at LAFC),” said midfielder Timmy Tillman. “He told me a little bit about the way he plays, and, yeah, we know that it’s going to be an intense game, but also a game where Uruguay is going to play out from the back, just play good football in general.”
It’s both a timely test for the USMNT’s revival and a chance to take lessons from one of the global game’s traditional elites.
“There’s a real raw passion that comes along with that, right? There’s a sense of real pride that South American teams play with,” said Philadelphia Union alum Mark McKenzie. “I mean, you hear it with the national anthems, and the stadium is rocking because the supporters are all singing and screaming that anthem. So I think that’s a great example of what it means to play for the national team, but in the same way for us, the same way we have that mentality.
“It’s not a friendly match, but this is a preparation for what’s to come.”
