Former United States men’s national team head coach Bruce Arena criticized U.S. Soccer’s decision to hire Argentine head coach Mauricio Pochettino arguing that an American is the best fit for the job.
Speaking on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, Arena said that foreign coaches fail to understand the culture of American soccer and players.
Bruce Arena Pochettino comments
“If you look at every national team in the world, the coach is usually a domestic coach and I think when you have coaches that don’t know our culture, our environment, our players, it’s hard,” Arena said.
“When you’re a national team coach, you need to know your environment. You need to know the animals you’re coaching, and we’re lacking that.”
USMNT fans were thrilled with the hiring of Pochettino when he was announced as the new head coach last fall. That excitement has simmered and even come to stand-still after losses to Panama and Canada in the Concacaf Nations League last month.
Arena also called out the fact that Pochettino has never coached a national time prior to joining the USMNT. The Argentine manager was in charge of massive clubs like Chelsea, Tottenham and PSG, but hadn’t been on the international stage before.
“I’m sure our coach is a very good coach, however coaching international football is different than club football. It’s a completely different job,” Arena said. “When you’re a national team coach, you need to know your environment. You need to know the animals you’re coaching, and we’re lacking that.”
In Arena’s eyes only an American coach can truly understand the squad.
“If you’re an American coaching a U.S. team, you know the culture, you know the pride, you know how important the national team is. When you bring in somebody from outside, they don’t understand it. Especially in our country, because we’re so different,” Arena said.
Arena, 73, has been coaching for over 50 years at the collegiate, professional and international level. He has overseen some of the greatest highs for the USMNT like their quarterfinal run at the 2002 World Cup.
The current San Jose Earthquakes boss was also the head coach for the U.S. on that haunting 2017 night in Trinidad and Tobago when the USMNT failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
The USMNT are on another embarrassing run of form in the past year with last month’s Nations League disaster as well as getting eliminated in the group stage of the 2024 Copa América.
Pochettino’s last chance at injecting some hope into the squad before hosting the 2026 World Cup will be this summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup as well as friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland in June.
