No matter the politics, the USMNT lost a game to Panama that it should have won

U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino was understandably upset with his players' lack of intensity. He made his own mistakes too, but this isn't the first time intensity has been an issue.

Mauricio Pochettino had some stern words for his players after they lost to Panama in the Concacaf men's Nations League semifinals.Read moreEtienne Laurent / AP

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published March 21, 2025, 3:37 p.m. ET

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — You can talk all you want about the political clouds over the United States, Panama, Canada, and Mexico at the Concacaf Nations League final four. And yes, plenty of people from all four countries have done so.

But if you’re the kind of person who likes to stick to sports, the Americans’ 1-0 upset loss to Panama on Thursday gave plenty of reasons to do so.

Though the U.S. outshot, outpassed, and outpossessed Los Canaleros, it came up short in two of the most important areas: the scoreboard and the intensity meter. U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino focused on the latter in some pointed postgame remarks, and he had good reason to.

When players show the same problem under two different managers, as this U.S. squad has under Pochettino and formerly Gregg Berhalter, shouldn’t that be on the players? There were too many moments on Thursday when they could have done more — or been better — and failed at both.

“We are [the] USA, but you cannot win with your shirt,” Pochettino said. “You cannot win if you play here or there, or I don’t know. You need to show, and you need to come here and be better, and suffer, and win the duels, and work hard, you know. If not, it’s not going to be enough.”

The Argentine was hired to bring some of his country’s famed fighting spirit to a group of players who have too often lacked it — unlike their predecessors, who lacked the current era’s skill but worked their rears off on the field.

“We controlled the game, yes. We dominated the game, yes. We played in the opposite half, yes,” Pochettino said. “But you need aggression. If you don’t have aggression, it’s impossible [to win], because the opponent always knows that you are going to play [passes] into the feet, you are going to play safe, you are not going to take risk.”

U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams agreed with Pochettino, and offered some pointed words of his own.

“We need to look in the mirror before anything and just realize that when we have these types of games, we can’t wait for something to happen,” said Adams, a player who isn’t officially the captain these days, but is the unofficial leader and maybe should be the official one again.

What Pochettino got wrong

That doesn’t make the boss blameless. In fact, he gets a fair share of it this time.

He lost a gamble by starting Weston McKennie at the attacking midfield spot instead of Gio Reyna. Then he lost another one by trying to wait for extra time to bring Reyna into a game that sorely needed him. That extra time never came, thanks to Cecilio Waterman’s 94th-minute winner.

Reyna sat despite Pochettino saying repeatedly that he wanted to see the playmaker this month, because he’ll be at the Club World Cup this summer instead of the Gold Cup.

And has the manager been right in his choice to bring in MLS players as injury replacements because they could get to town sooner than better talents abroad?

There’s some logic in the argument. Midfielders Brenden and Paxten Aaronson (two names Inquirer readers know well) and other Europe-based players wouldn’t have gotten to town until Tuesday for a Thursday game. Alejandro Zendejas, meanwhile, could have gotten here from Mexico City’s Club América pretty quickly.

Pochettino also wanted to reward Patrick Agyemang and former Union midfielder Jack McGlynn for playing well in the January camp for domestic prospects. McGlynn wasn’t bad, but Agyemang had two chances and didn’t score either.

They don’t come along often in international soccer, especially in games that count compared to friendlies. So Yoda’s old theory applies in this galaxy: Do or do not. (Josh Sargent didn’t either, for the record, though it wasn’t his fault that his finish was negated by Tim Weah being offside.)

‘If we are not able to improve …’

For all of Christian Pulisic’s talent, he can’t win games singlehandedly. No individual player can in a team sport on a vast field, even one like SoFi Stadium’s, which isn’t as vast as others. All players have to bring the mentality and execution required.

“We lose the duel [for the ball], and then we concede. That is a clear example,” Pochettino said. “If we are not able to improve this, we cannot blame the tactics, the strategy, the game plan, that we arrive late, we are tired, we are — I don’t know. It’s enough.”

He praised Panama for “the way they fight for the game. They were hungry. Every single ball was the last one for every single player of Panama. And that, from the touchline, you feel.”

It would help if Pochettino’s players take responsibility for their failures, as Adams did. (It might also help if the public would focus more on them than the idea of a coach fixing everything, as has long been the case in American soccer.)

“I’ve never blamed a coach in my entire career,” he said. “A loss is dependent on players, that’s the bottom line, unless you go out and try something completely random and it wasn’t what the coach was [asking], or there was a lack of communication. There was no lack of communication in what was happening today — we knew exactly what we had to do.”

That was, he said just as bluntly, “to be competitive. I don’t think we were as competitive as we needed to be.”

The message has been sent. Now, to see if it will be received, in Sunday’s third-place game against Canada (6 p.m., TUDN, Paramount+) and in the games that will follow over the 15 months before the World Cup.