"People sometimes create debate and talk with no sense, he said on the eve of the USA's friendly against Japan. If people want to talk about bullshit, they can talk about bullshit. Sometimes people want to talk only to analyze the result and want to be negative, Pochettino continued, responding to the swelling criticism of his call-ups and a slew of losses to the stronger opponents he faced when he had his much of his A-team available."
"Look, we started in October, he said. We needed not too much time. Normally, the process [of building a national team] starts to work after three, three-and-a-half years. In less than one year, the process is starting to work. Maybe not in results, but maybe tomorrow it starts to work in results. No worries, we have a plan. We have no worries. We have no worries about nothing."
"The comments rankled that day for their gaslight-y optimism, coming as they did in the wake of a sloppy 2-0 loss to South Korea in which the Americans had looked badly disjointed again. But sure enough, the next day, the US finally got the longed-for result. They looked convincing and coherent at last, defeating Japan 2-0 when the final score could have fairly well been double that."
Mauricio Pochettino showed visible frustration with critics who questioned his call-ups and the team's results after taking charge in October. He insisted on maintaining positivity and unity to prepare the country for the World Cup and emphasized that national-team building typically requires three to three-and-a-half years. He argued the process is showing signs of progress in under a year and stressed that there is a plan and no worries. The U.S. responded with a convincing 2-0 victory over Japan, appearing coherent and effective after a prior disjointed loss to South Korea.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]