Bruce Arena believes that U.S. Soccer made the wrong choice when it hired Mauricio Pochettino as the new head coach of the United States men’s national team last year.
Pochettino was considered a big coup for U.S. Soccer when he took over the USMNT from Gregg Berhalter. However, a recent poor run, which included losses to Panama and Canada in the Concacaf Nations League, prompted questions about his fit for the role.
Speaking at the Unfiltered Soccer podcast, hosted by USMNT legends Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, Arena expressed his own reservations about Pochettino.
“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 explained that he believes Pochettino lacks familiarity with the environment he is coaching in.
“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,” he added.
Bruce Arena himself is the most successful head coach in USMNT history. During his two terms at the helm, he oversaw 81 wins and won three Gold Cup titles. Arena also helmed USMNT at two World Cups, reaching the quarterfinals in 2002 and failing to get out of the group stage in 2006.
