Mauricio Pochettino can see the path to the next level, but can USMNT get there? 'It's not about two defeats'

Losses to Belgium and Portugal came with some positives, but showed just how perfect the U.S. has to be to beat the best in the world

ATLANTA, Ga. -- Losing 2-0 to Portugal while only making two mistakes shows that there's a glass ceiling between the United States and some of the best teams in the world. The final international break before the World Cup comes to a close, and the USMNT have picked up two losses while conceding seven goals and scoring two. It's not all bad, as there was improvement from game to game with the USMNT holding Portugal to only five shots on target and an xG of 0.74. That's a far cry from the 5-2 drubbing Belgium hung on them just days earlier

This is a Portugal side that can make a run at winning the World Cup with players like Bruno Fernandes who can make enough of an impact to push them forward, so there's a lot of positives to take away, but it also makes you wonder if this team can break through those ceilings, and, if so, how they can make it happen.

Scheduling these matches against top opposition is helpful. After all, before you beat the best, you have to play them, something that Mauricio Pochettino understands.

"First of all, we need to see our opponent, who they were. Belgium and Portugal, top 10 in the FIFA rankings," Pochettino said. "I think we need to consider that we were playing against teams that are always difficult. That is the first thing. It's not about two defeats; it's about that the opponent has players that have won the Champions League, they are playing for big things in different clubs, and the quality is there. That is why they are considered one of the best teams in the top 10."

"Second point, it's massive for us. It's about to learn. I think we should play more games [like this], because even if it's painful, it's the only way to improve, it's the only way to learn, it's the only way to see how these top players and teams compete," he continued.

More games of this magnitude will be coming before the World Cup kicks off, with the USMNT facing Senegal and Germany before the group stage begins, although in those, the stakes will be different, as Pochettino will have his full squad for the World Cup after wrestling with the agonizing decision of whittling down the player pool into the final 26 players.

He'll have only a couple of weeks after naming that squad on May 26 before opening up the World Cup on June 12th and that will be a time where many questions will need to be answered because again, the gap between the USMNT and the best teams in the world showed, and this summer, even a round of 16 appearance at the World Cup may not be enough for fans to consider the World Cup a success. If that's the case, it will be critical to find a way to break down teams like Portugal and Belgium.

Part of how you do that is relying on your star players to be stars. The stars of the USMNT are trending in opposite directions, and it's fair to question if they can push the Red, White, and Blue to the highest level. It's a different type of pressure at those moments, and one that most players in the squad haven't experienced during their careers. Hosting a World Cup is different gravy to just being there like they were in 2022. During this break, Weston McKennie was someone who showed that he can handle the pressure, scoring the opening goal against Belgium and putting in a good shift in the first half against Portugal, including a nifty backheel pass that, if Tim Weah had kept his shot lower, may have changed the course of the match.

On the other hand, Christian Pulisic's struggles continued, even after he was pushed closer to the goal, playing as a number nine. Having failed to score for Milan since 2025 and sporting an even longer goal drought for the USMNT, not scoring since November of 2024 in Concacaf Nations League play. Pochettino does expect the run to end, but the longer that it goes, the more that concern will grow.

"It's only that, yes, he felt frustrated, but that is what we want, what we expect. He was fighting. He was fully committed to the phases that we demanded more," Pochettino said. "And then with the ball, he's going to score because he has the quality. I am sure that he's going to come back to his club, and then the moment he scores, he's going to start to score again."

Confidence is important for forwards, and Pochettino's right that once Pulisic finally scores, it will be easier to get the next goal, just like when he was finding the back of the net with every touch during the first half of the season at AC Milan, but if the World Cup draws closer and Pulisic still isn't at his best for the national team, that only adds pressure to the other attackers like Weah and Folarin Balogun to find the back of the net and while they can step up, it shows how fine the margins are at the top of the game which is a positive way to look at this camp.

"We could've done a lot of things better, but at the same time, we have to take the positives from this and move forward. Obviously, we lost the game, and it's not ideal, but there are many things to build on," Auston Trusty said. "To see a competition of that level, to see the ruthlessness of finishing, that's a positive takeaway because you can see it, if you play against a smaller side sometimes you don't really get exposed and you don't really see many aspects of the game you're in, but to be put in certain situations in the game today as a squad collectively, there's things to build on because we can see it."

The mistakes that mattered

Two mistakes are what cost the USMNT against one of the top teams in the world. The first goal, you throw your hands up at, and with the marking issues on the second goal, while that's not something that anyone wants to see, those issues don't happen if Pochettino has a consistent back line that has trained together extensively, which will be the goal of the World Cup camp. That's also why, even though Pochettino doesn't view these as "friendly" matches, this isn't a camp that can't be looked at solely on wins and losses. Based on what he wanted to see from game one to game two, the squad did deliver, and it's a point that they can move forward from.

That Bruno Fernandes back heel to set up Francisco Trincão 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/Jk7QATdnjw

— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 31, 2026

"I think we're heading in the right direction. It's hard to say that we're where we want to be with the results like this, but I think we take a lot of positives away from the games that we played, and we see that we can keep up. I think we just needed to figure out how to be able to stay in the game if we don't finish chances that we have early on but I ultimately think as you saw on both of the games with our high intensity with the pressure that we put and the way that we play we dominated the first half and obviously they had some chances but I think we were toe to toe," McKennie said. "We just can't let things slip away, but I think we're happy with the things that we saw because it's things that we trained on and worked on. So we use it as a stepping stone going into that next camp."

In that next camp, players who are absent, like Tyler Adams and Sergiño Dest, could return to the squad, improving Pochettino's options, but for players like Trusty, Ricardo Pepi, Aidan Morris, and Alex Freeman, they're all closer to making the World Cup squad following this camp than they were before it. Also, it feels like for someone like Gio Reyna, who knew that Pochettino was taking a risk in calling him in, that after only 31 minutes in camp coming off the bench, the World Cup may be further away than he was a couple of weeks ago. This is where the tough decisions come into play, as it's both a positive and a point of frustration at how close the USMNT are in some aspects.

Adams wouldn't change everything, but both from a leadership perspective and with what he brings on the pitch, this is a team that's better when he's there, and when he's not, the midfield is far too open. Shifting to three center backs has helped stave off issues when he's not in camp, but mistakes will still happen, which is where they need time together to iron those out. Pochettino has spent the entire cycle experimenting, calling in 70 players to get a look at his final squad, but that period has officially come to a close.

When he calls his next squad to a brand new training center in Fayette County, Ga., it's an appropriate beginning for a new era of the World Cup as a host nation. The expectations are high, but the resources have also been laid out for the players to be successful and to show them how to rise to a level where they can beat these teams. But to do it, they'll need the stars like Pulisic to lead by example on the pitch; otherwise, this World Cup could be a discussion about what could have been. The potential is there to make the final eight, but continuing to make the same mistakes won't be good enough.