USA’s fighting spirit against Germany thrills Pochettino
Mauricio Pochettino was thrilled with the competitiveness that the United States showed in their 2-1 friendly loss to Germany.
The World Cup co-hosts were playing their final warm-up game ahead of the tournament and fought back to equalise through Antonee Robinson after Kai Havertz’s early opener.
However, Leroy Sane netted a 57th-minute winner, with the USA unable to find another leveller at Soldier Field.
Pochettino’s side have struggled for consistency in their preparation for the World Cup, with their last 10 friendlies yielding five wins, four defeats and a draw.
However, the USA showed their fight against the four-time world champions, and Pochettino believes they could not have had a better send-off ahead of their opener against Paraguay on June 12.
“Overall, I think it was a good performance. I am happy with the performance of everyone. We play one of the most important teams in the world,” Pochettino told reporters.
Final from Soldier Field. The FIFA World Cup is up next.#USMNT x @CocaCola pic.twitter.com/gpzAEosfsE
— U.S. Soccer Men’s National Team (@USMNT) June 6, 2026
“I think we need to be happy with that. We compete, [we were] unlucky, I think it was an even game… It was an amazing challenge for us to see how we react, how we show character, how we show togetherness, how we start to play under pressure.
“We were demanding a lot to the players in the last two weeks. I’ve seen [us] overload the players and the team.
“Now [we have] to assess the load and be intelligent in the way that we are going to arrive to the Paraguay [game], in the best condition, fresh with energy.”
The USA will also face Australia and Turkiye in Group D as they look to advance to the knockout stages for the fourth consecutive World Cup.
However, they have the second-lowest win rate among teams to play at least 30 World Cup matches, winning just nine of their 37 games – a rate of 24%, just behind South Korea (18%).
