Mauricio Pochettino will finally coach his first game in charge of the U.S. men’s national team against Panama on Saturday when expectations will be high as a potentially transformative period begins for the 2026 World Cup co-hosts.
The Argentine will be tasked not only with rebooting the team after a disappointing group stage exit from the Copa America over the summer but also following in the footsteps of his predecessors. New USMNT head coaches are on an unbeaten run that goes as far back as 1998, each of them leaving a fairly strong first impression. Since Bora Milutinovic’s 1991 hire and including the returns of Bruce Arena and Gregg Berhalter after long spells away from the team, USMNT coaches have won four times, lost once and earned three draws in their opening game.
Though Pochettino’s predecessors enjoyed varying levels of success, the new head coach is expected to keep the 20-plus year unbeaten run going on Saturday, especially as he and the team target newfound heights ahead of a World Cup on home soil.
Ahead of Pochettino’s first game in charge, here’s a look back at USMNT coaching debuts in the program’s modern era.
Bora Milutinovic
Before Pochettino there was Milutinovic, with the context around his hire very similar to the process U.S. Soccer underwent to recruit the new head coach. Milutinovic was tasked with leading a tactical transformation of the USMNT ahead of the 1994 World Cup in the U.S. and notably after a group stage elimination in the 1990 World Cup. He took charge of his first game on May 5 at Mile High Stadium in Denver, picking up a 1-0 win over Uruguay thanks to a 26th-minute goal by Peter Vermes. It was a strong start for Milutinovic, who went on to lead the USMNT to their first World Cup knockout game in 60 years.
Steve Sampson
Steve Sampson succeeded Milutinovic as the USMNT head coach in April 1995, though first on an interim basis. He is the only USMNT coach in the last 30-plus years to lose his first game in charge, and also the only one to lead the team for the first time in an away game. Belgium’s Gunther Schepens scored the game’s lone goal in the 44th minute, and Sampson had to wait until his third game – a 3-2 win over Nigeria – to collect his first victory. Though he shed the interim tag after leading the team to fourth place at the Copa America that year, the team’s group stage exit at the 1998 World Cup meant he was out of a job soon after.
“My first game was vs. Belgium with a ‘B’ team and we lost 1-0 but played well,” Sampson told CBS Sports. My advice would be to not worry about the short-term results but to truly develop your culture with the team and to build on your personal tactical approach. Furthermore, I would advise Pochettino to select his team and work with a core of 25 players with whom you can build quality and consistency. Pochettino will not have a lot of time to accomplish his effect on the team so he must be patient and take advantage of every second he has with his players.”
Bruce Arena
Bruce Arena coached his first USMNT game in November 1998 at San Jose’s Spartan Stadium with a 0-0 draw against Australia, the start of a period that included the team’s most memorable World Cup finish – the quarterfinals in 2002. Arena would last longer in the job than any coach in the modern era of the team’s history, but his first spell in charge ended after the USMNT were eliminated in the group stage of the 2006 World Cup.
Bob Bradley
Like U.S. Soccer did with Arena, the federation dipped into the MLS talent pool and hired Bob Bradley in late 2006. He coached his first game the following month, becoming the first of a few coaches to make his national team debut during the annual January camp. An MLS-heavy roster beat a depleted Denmark 3-1 at Dignity Health Sports Park, with Landon Donovan, Jonathan Bornstein and Kenny Cooper scoring. Bradley went on to coach the USMNT to a second-place finish at the 2009 Confederations Cup, a round-of-16 exit at the 2010 World Cup and the final of the 2011 Concacaf Gold Cup before he was fired.
Jurgen Klinsmann
As the USMNT’s most high-profile head coach before Pochettino, Jurgen Klinsmann promised a tactical revolution of his own after leading Germany to a third-place finish as the 2006 World Cup hosts. He got off to a decent start in August 2011, securing a 1-1 draw at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field against arguably the hardest opponent any new head coach faced in his debut – Mexico. Substitute Robbie Rogers scored a 73rd-minute equalizer in a match that the visitors dominated, though it offered little in terms of a preview of the Klinsmann era. The head coach became a divisive figure during his five-year spell, in large part because never quite delivered on his tactical vision. Though a run to the round of 16 in the 2014 World Cup was a highlight, things began to come off the rails with defeats to Mexico and Costa Rica in World Cup qualifying forcing U.S. Soccer to fire him in Nov. 2016.
Bruce Arena’s return
Arena returned to the national team in January 2017 with the hopes of correcting course on their World Cup qualifying campaign. He marked his return at that year’s January camp, which concluded with a 0-0 draw against Serbia at San Diego Stadium. Arena worked chiefly with a player pool based in MLS for that game, making this game less indicative of how his second tenure would play out. Though the USMNT went on a 14-game unbeaten run and won the Gold Cup, World Cup qualifying losses to Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago that fall meant the USMNT would miss out on the 2018 World Cup. Arena resigned from the job days after the defeat to Trinidad and Tobago.
Gregg Berhalter
After a year-long hiring process, MLS recruit Gregg Berhalter was hired to lead a youthful refresh of the USMNT in Dec. 2018. He took charge of the team for the first time the following month, again in a January camp setting, beating Panama 3-0 at the University of Phoenix Stadium. Djordje Mihailovic, Walker Zimmermann and Cristian Ramirez scored that day, while starters like Zimmerman and Cristian Roldan later being named to the 2022 World Cup roster. Berhalter’s young USMNT reached the round of 16 in Qatar, but he briefly left the post at the end of the year upon the expiration of his contract, which followed quite the controversy.
Gregg Berhalter’s return
After nine months away from the team, Berhalter marked his return with a 3-0 win over Uzbekistan in September 2023 at St. Louis’ CityPark. By then, the look and feel of Berhalter’s USMNT was well-known and so the usual suspects started and excelled that day. Timothy Weah, Christian Pulisic and Ricardo Pepi scored, while all but two players who played that day went to the Copa America the following summer. Berhalter’s time in charge came to end following the expanded South American championship because of the team’s surprisingly early group stage exit, though the roster from that tournament mostly remains intact for Pochettino’s first game.
