Former U.S. men’s national team head coach Bruce Arena has criticized the appointment of current chief Mauricio Pochettino, saying that the job should’ve gone to an American.
Arena, speaking to USMNT legends Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, suggested that a foreign-born coach like Pochettino lacks a fundamental understanding of the culture and structure of the American game.
“If you look at every national team in the world, the coach is usually a domestic coach,” said Arena. “And I think when you have coaches that don’t know our culture, our players, our environment, it’s hard. And listen, (Pochettino) is a very good coach. (But) coaching international football is completely different than club football.”
Arena, who will turn 74 this year, is widely-regarded as the greatest professional coach in American men’s soccer history. He is the winningest coach in the history of the men’s national team and the winningest coach in Major League Soccer history as well, having won five MLS Cups. He coached the U.S. at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and returned for an ill-fated third stretch, overseeing the tail end of the team’s calamitous 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign. Arena is currently the head coach of the San Jose Earthquakes.
“When you are a national team coach, you need to know the animal you are coaching,” said Arena. “You need to know the environment. And we’re lacking that. If you’re an American coaching the U.S. team, you know the culture, the pride and how important the national team is. When you bring in somebody from the outside, they don’t understand it. Especially in our country, because we’re so different.
Pochettino was given the U.S. job in September of 2024 and has had his share of struggles. Most recently, the U.S. was dreadful in losses to Panama and Canada in the Nations League finals. Pochettino seemed to question the mentality and fight of his players after both losses.
Arena did not disagree. “You’re asking me if we lack that kind of pride,” said Arena. “I’m watching and I’m shocked. I’m shocked that we can’t beat Panama and Canada. It was shocking to me. I don’t want to be disrespectful, I want them to do great in the World Cup. There’s no question about that. But we only have a year left now. Time is running out, and they gotta get going.”
Pochettino is not the first foreign-born coach to lead the USMNT. Former Germany star player and later head coach Jurgen Klinsmann led the U.S. from 2011-2016 and Serbia’s Bora Milutinovic guided the U.S. through its last World Cup on home soil, in 1994. In the half-century that preceded Milutinovic, coaches from seven different foreign nations coached the team for a stretch.
It’s not uncommon globally for a foreign-born coach to take the reins of a national team, especially in emerging nations. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, there were nine foreign-born coaches in the 32-team field. In 2006, there were 14, the highest-ever total. In South America alone, seven of the 10 member nations of CONMEBOL are coached by an Argentine.
Many of those countries, though, are difficult to compare to the United States, with its unique geography, league structure, schedule and host of players playing abroad.
(Top photo: Alexis Quiroz / Jam Media / Getty Images)
