TAMPA – United States manager Mauricio Pochettino said his admiration and respect for mentor and Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa “is massive,” while warning the Americans to be ready to suffer against his former coach’s side.
The two managers will square off at Raymond James Stadium here on Tuesday when the U.S. and Uruguay face each other in a friendly. The pair’s relationship started when Pochettino was 13 years old, and Bielsa, then the club’s reserve team coach, successfully recruited him to join Argentine side Newell’s Old Boys, starting with a 1 a.m. visit to Pochettino’s house.
Bielsa later managed Pochettino at Newell’s, La Liga side Espanyol, and with Argentina’s national team.
“Always, my admiration and my respect is massive,” said Pochettino at Monday’s prematch news conference. “I cannot consider him like a friend. I cannot considerate him like another normal person. It’s bigger respect. I speak with him like a man that you admire, is your hero. He’s this type of person that you wait [to] talk. You always wait for him to say hello and then you say hello.”
The two sides meet for the first time since Uruguay defeated the U.S. 1-0, in the group stage of the 2024 Copa América, a result that eliminated the Americans from the tournament. In that match, Uruguay’s physical play eventually wore down the USMNT.
Pochettino is expecting more of the same from La Celeste, which finished fourth in South America’s World Cup qualifying process,
“Yes, [Tuesday] for me is a thing to enjoy, to be with him very close,” Pochettino said about Bielsa. “And in the same time, we are going to suffer because all the team under Marcelo’s management are so tough to play.”
Of late, the U.S. has shown a greater willingness to give as good as it gets in terms of physical play, in particular in last Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Paraguay. Late in the match, a full-scale melee ensued when U.S. defender Alex Freeman grabbed the ball for a U.S. throw-in, with Paraguay’s Gustavo Gómez trying to grab it before getting Freeman in a headlock. Both benches emptied, and, while Pochettino is aware of the dangers of a situation like that, it pleased him to see the U.S. players sticking up for one another.
“I think we all feel now very proud about in the way that we act and behave, and of course Alex was good because he was defending and caring about the ball, about the action that was for us because the referee say the ball was for the USA ,and that shows character and that we care,” Pochettino said. “I really was happy when that happened because I think when the aggression is coming from the other side, I think we need to defend ourself, and that was a good moment to say we feel proud in the way that we feel, and the way that we are.
“Of course can be [dangerous] the type of situation, but I hope that [doesn’t] happen again. But if people [mess] with us, okay, we are going to defend ourselves. That is the most important thing.”
Pochettino has also been pleased with the way the other aspects of the USMNT’s identity is developing.
“I see the identity is the way that we build from back, and the way that we respect the principles on the game,” Pochettino said. “The tactical work in the way that we play, in the capacity to rotate and how we use the space, how we build from back, how we play in the medium block or when we are in the transition to going to dominate the game in the opposite half.”
The match against Uruguay will be the last of 2025 for the U.S. Pochettino’s side will play two friendlies in March — likely against Portugal and Belgium — and then two more in late May or early June ahead of hosting the World Cup on home soil along with Canada and Mexico next summer.
