USA manager Mauricio Pochettino says being the manager of a host nation of the World Cup finals is ‘amazing’ and he can’t wait for the tournament to begin.
The former Tottenham, Chelsea and Paris St-Germain manager took the USMNT job last year and sees his side take on Panama in the semi-finals of the Concacaf nations league this week.
They open next year’s World Cup campaign in Los Angeles on 12 June, 2026 and the boss is eager to get going.
“Being the national coach or head coach of the USA with the World Cup in 2026, it was a great opportunity for us to challenge ourselves, to know how to discover and to learn doing things in different ways,” he told Sky Sports.
“It was a great opportunity and that is why we started to pay attention and when the offer arrived, I think it was easy to say yes.
“To host the World Cup is an amazing experience. Then with the country that we are talking about, the USA, I think it’s amazing.
“Too many good things appear in this moment and of course one of the reasons to take the job was because hosting the World Cup is very close. It isn’t waiting four years to play the World Cup, it was less than two years.
“I am so excited because I think the decision was good, I am enjoying it a lot and I think it’s so exciting to discover every single day different things to work on and different emotions.
“It’s a completely different job than in the past, a mystery because it’s a completely different world but I think we are really, really enjoying that situation.”
Pochettino has won five of his six matches in charge so far.
