GettyThe new U.S. coach began his tenure with a 2-0 win, and he made a few notable changes along the way
As his team ran off celebrating in the opposite corner, Mauricio Pochettino turned towards the U.S. men's national team bench clapping his hands. He and his players were understandably fired up.
The Pochettino era had finally begun – and it came with a win.
The first goal of the era came from Yunus Musah, which gave Pochettino and the USMNT a reason to both celebrate and exhale. Ricardo Pepi, meanwhile, put the exclamation point on it the match, scoring in the dying moments of what ended up as a 2-0 win over Panama in Pochettino's first game with the USMNT.
Musah's goal was, in many ways, a coach's dream sequence: high-pressing, quick passing, a pass across the box and, ultimately, a tap-in for a player in position to change the game. It was a goal that the USMNT made look easy, but one that felt so hard to come by for most of the last few months.
It was also a goal made in Milan, as Christian Pulisic teed up his club teammate to continue his recent run of dominance on both sides of the pond. And Musah gave credit to his new coach, in part, for how it all unfolded.
"I can see he knows a lot about my background," he said of Pochettino. "He knows about my academy days, playing at Valencia – everything. That's why today I played wide because he knows I used to play wide as well. So it's nice that a coach knows about me, has a lot of faith in me."
Pepi's finish in stoppage time, meanwhile, was valuable insurance. Fed by fellow substitute Haji Wright, Pepi made no mistake, furthering a supersub reputation he continues to build for club and country.
On the USMNT side, Saturday was a very different look from the one over the past few months. That was to be expected. A new coach has come in with new ideas, and that was clear from the start. The USMNT played a three-at-the-back for large stretches, keeping Musah out wide while allowing Antonee Robinson to bomb forward as the other wingback.
It didn't always work, to be fair, as players definitely showed some growing pains in this new system. Despite those teaching moments, though, the USMNT emerged with a win and, perhaps just as importantly, a clean sheet.
The victory snapped a four-game winless streak on home soil for the USMNT, dating back to the Copa America. It also avenged a 2-1 loss to Panama in the group stage of the Copa, a loss that ultimately put the wheels in place for a Copa crash, the firing of then-coach Gregg Berhalter and the ultimate hiring of Pochettino.
And now the Pochettino era is underway. The start wasn't perfect, but it was progress. Onto the next on, in Mexico Tuesday night.
GOAL rates the USMNT's players from Q2 Stadium.
