Defiant Pochettino ready for ‘even bigger’ test as USA takes on Portugal in pre-World Cup friendly

US football coach Mauricio Pochettino expects Tuesday’s pre-World Cup match with Portugal to be an even tougher task for the tournament co-organiser than the recent 5-2 defeat to Belgium.

But the manager insisted he is happy his final chance to assess his players before announcing his World Cup squad will be another tough friendly against top-ranked opponents.

«We never thought it would be easy to play against Belgium or Portugal,» Pochettino said after Saturday’s crushing defeat to Belgium in Atlanta.

“We knew we would have to dig deep and it would give us a bit of a reality check.” PaiuS7.

“We still have a lot of things to improve… Portugal will give us the same challenge – or maybe even bigger – and we need to take our game to the next level.”

The pressure is on for Pochettino’s men to deliver results this summer.

The US will face Paraguay, Australia and Turkey or Kosovo in their World Cup group, which is seen by experts as a relatively friendly draw for the co-host.

All of these matches will take place on US soil – as will all knockout matches, should they go ahead – raising expectations even further.

When choosing the opponents for the final friendlies of the World Cup in the United States, there was always a fine line to be walked between building trust among the players and rigorously challenging them.

For example, unlike the Americans’ elite opponents, Pochettino’s native Argentina this week played a friendly against 115th-ranked Mauritania, which they won 2-1, and 91st-ranked Zambia.

«We need competitive games to come to the World Cup at our best,» Pochettino told reporters.

“I think we can come up with the wrong idea: that we are so good, so handsome, so well dressed, and that we are Americans.

«It’s good to feel that. But if you want to win the World Cup, you want to go to the next stage of the group and beat Paraguay… do you think they won’t fight?»

– ‘Could be better’ –

Injuries aside, Pochettino picked a team that was almost at full strength against Belgium.

The US lined up with stars like Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie.

After the defeat, Pochettino said his team had been superior for the first half hour but would learn an important lesson about reducing intensity against such elite opposition, going on to score five goals.

“Losing a game … in my mind, that’s never really a good thing,” McKennie said.

Nevertheless, he expressed hope that the team would be “stronger against Portugal”, who are fifth in the FIFA world rankings.

With injuries to defenders Sergino Dest, Chris Richards and Miles Robinson, as well as midfielder Tyler Adams, Pochettino was forced to experiment with Timothy Weah at right-back.

Weah struggled mightily in defense against a rampant Jeremy Doku.

Pochettino also played at the base of midfield Johnny Cardoso – who excelled for Atletico Madrid but is often missing in an American shirt and was substituted at half-time – and Tanner Tessmann.

Pochettino admitted that Tessmann «can do better» for the US defense, adding: «I saw him play better games than today.»

It is a midfield selection issue that the manager must resolve quickly.

After Portugal, the US will play its final warm-up matches against Senegal – whose victory over Morocco in the African Cup of Nations final was recently overturned – and another top-10 side in Germany.

But Pochettino insisted he would “not change the approach because of the result” against Belgium.

“We must continue with the plan.”

Published on March 30, 2026