USMNT’s shootout win over Costa Rica was a growing moment for Poch’s team

As soon as Damion Downs’ penalty hit the back of the net, Mauricio Pochettino turned to the TV camera on him and screamed in celebration. It was a release of emotion for a US Men’s National Team manager who has faced his fair share of criticism in recent weeks and months, and would have faced more had his side fallen to Costa Rica in the Gold Cup quarter-finals.

The performance against Los Ticos on Sunday was a long way from perfect. The USA were the better team and certainly played a more proactive game on the front foot than their opponents. However, Costa Rica exploited the USA’s inability to defend their own box to score twice and take the match to a penalty shootout.

In that shootout, Matt Freese bounced back from his blunder in the final group game against Haiti, making three saves to out-shine Keylor Navas. The way an inexperienced group of USA players responded to the situation was encouraging with the post-shootout celebrations indicative of a team buying into Pochettino’s project.

Pochettino surely hopes this was a growing moment for his team ahead of their semi-final meeting against Guatemala on Wednesday. It has been a challenging summer for the former Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur manager, but there are signs that he is getting to grips with his squad.

Malik Tillman was arguably the best player on the pitch against Costa Rica. Even after missing a first half penalty, the PSV playmaker who is reportedly on his way to Bayer Leverkusen this summer was the USA’s most dangerous attacking threat, setting up Max Arfsten for the goal to make it 2-1 in the second half.

There were also signs of life from Diego Luna – who had underwhelmed at the Gold Cup this summer until his deflected equaliser on Sunday. The Real Salt Lake playmaker brought intensity and energy to the US midfield and is quite clearly a mainstay of Pochettino’s first choice lineup for the tournament.

From back to front, there were encouraging performances form players in US jerseys. Sebastian Berhalter was effective with his set piece deliveries, setting up Chris Richards for two headers on goal. Tyler Adams was strong at the base of the midfield. Tim Ream and Richards were comfortable playing out from the back.

Most positive, though, was that Pochettino and his players experienced a difficult win together. The character of the US men’s national team was tested and they came through it with a place in the final four of the Gold Cup in-hand. The USA could still finish this summer lifting a trophy. They are now just two games from pulling it off.

“I’m so happy, so pleased for them to show today great character,” said Pochettino. “I think it’s good for this group of players to have this type of experience. This is like I always I said, this is really important, it’s priceless, because that is the reality when you have a big tournament. It’s important that they start to build the experience together.”

Of course, there might not be a lot of carry-over from this experience to next summer when the USA will play on home soil at the 2026 World Cup. Pochettino is without the majority of his best players for the Gold Cup with the likes of Christian Pulisic, Antonee Robinson, Weston McKennie, Sergino Dest and Tim Weah all missing.

The likelihood is that these players will come back into the squad as soon as possible and so this summer is an experiment to discover if any fringe figures are capable of making the step up. As things stand, Tillman, Luna, Berhalter and Freese are the players who have made the biggest impact.

If one or two of those players make some sort of impression at the World Cup next year, this summer’s exercise will have been a success. In a sense, whether or not the USA lift the Gold Cup doesn’t matter. And yet the symbolism of achieving success in difficult circumstances would be profound. The win over Costa Rica could prove to be a turning point.