Assessing USMNT's World Cup readiness based on Belgium loss is 'quite worthless' according to Portugal boss

Roberto Martinez was blunt in assessing how reliable March's friendlies are when it comes to projecting World Cup performance

ATLANTA -- Friendlies, tune-up matches, tests, whatever you want to call them, the March international break is in a strange place. The United States men's national team lost 5-2 to Belgium on Saturday, and three managers have now said that the match wasn't a fair reflection of how the USMNT performed, with Portugal's Roberto Martinez adding his assessment to USMNT boss Mauricio Pochettino and Belgium manager Rudi Garcia. Martinez offered a different way to look at things in his pre-match availability ahead of Portugal facing the USMNT on Tuesday.

Knowing a thing or two about leading teams to the World Cup after his time with Belgium, Martinez had a blunt assessment:

"Don't take too much into your assessments and valuations in March because they're quite worthless," Martinez said.

This isn't some coaches' coalition of Belgium, the United States, and Portugal getting together to prop up the USMNT during this window, but it is important to remember the point of this final chance to impress Pochettino ahead of naming his World Cup squad. While club play will be important, Pochettino has loved to experiment during his time as national team manager, calling in 70 players to get looks at them since being hired.

Facing Belgium, it was the first time that Pochettino was able to play Antonee Robinson since taking over the national team, and it was also his first time starting Tanner Tessmann as a center back as he figures out what the best roles for players are. If this were a World Cup match, Pochettino might not go that route of testing out something if he has other players to fit that position. But this is still the time to figure out things when the result of a match doesn't matter.

Pochettino learned plenty about his team during that match, and that's why he has stressed the need for intensity, which was a lesson learned while playing Belgium. If the USMNT can't hold intensity for 90 minutes facing Portugal, losses like that will only happen again. And that's where these matches do matter.

"It's to feel that we're playing in the World Cup, I am happy that they happened. I don't like to lose; you saw my face when we scored. Did you see me? I was like this," Pochettino said while replicating a disappointed face. "Do you know why? My gut feeling wasn't good because when we scored, it should've been the third goal, not the first goal. That is what we need."

"I am so happy that happened because it takes time to realize that we need to compete. Look at the game against France [and Brazil]; that wasn't a friendly game, but it was really competitive. That's what I want to translate to you, and it's what I want to translate to the player, and the players need to believe in that. If not, what are we doing here?"

A player doesn't know the feeling of these types of games without playing in them, and it's why how they respond to Portugal will be important. Facing Belgium, Ricardo Pepi is someone who understood that and may have punched his World Cup ticket by pressing later to set up Patrick Agyemang for a goal. If the entire team can show the intensity that Pepi did, Tuesday night may bring a different tune from Pochettino.

That's why the USMNT plays these matches and why they've done serious scheduling, which will also see them face Senegal and Germany before the World Cup kicks off. This will be a battle-tested squad, and if they can learn from facing these sides, it will only help when the World Cup is underway, facing Paraguay.