The former USMNT star said he perceives contradictions between the coach's words and actions
Gomez points to Pochettino's public activitiesQuestions lack of recruiting effortsShow frustration with incomplete squadsGetty Images SportWHAT HAPPENED
After announcing his USMNT squad ahead of the Gold Cup, coach Mauricio Pochettino said veteran and new faces alike should expect a certain tone in this camp. Pochettino sent a warning shot for anyone who shows up lacking focus.
"If you arrive at the camp and want to spend some nice time, play golf, go for a dinner, see your family, see your friends, that is not the culture we want to create," he said. "No, no, no. What we want to do is go to the national team, arrive and be focused and spend all focus and energy on the national team because we need to create this culture about winning."
Former USMNT star Herculez Gomez challenged those comments on ESPN FC, saying he perceives contradictions between the coach's words and actions.
“He talks about the players coming back to the national team and ‘It’s not about golf, it’s not about not about going out to dinner, it’s not about hanging out with your buddies’ and I agree with him," Gomez said on ESPN’s Futbol Americas. “And he says, ‘Your sole and energy has to be on the US men’s national team’. And I don’t not want to be that guy, but it is so hypocritical from this man when all I’ve seen from him is out in YouTube charity matches, when all I see from him is Newell’s Old Boys, hanging out with his buddies. When all I’ve see from him is talking about how much he would love to go back to Tottenham Hotspur.
“I don’t see recruiting trips. I don’t see him visiting the leaders of this team in Europe. I don’t see those things… the spirit of what he’s saying, I am here for. I’m just having a hard time buying it from the messenger.”
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Gomez was critical of Pochettino for having squads at less-than full strength for both the CONCACAF Nations League and now for the Gold Cup.
"They lack mentality, they lack heart, they were soft in the past and you would have hoped they would have grown up,” Gomez said. “But it looks like they still have some growing up to do and unfortunately for Mauricio Pochettino, in his first real test – which was the Nations League – he had an incomplete squad, missing a lot of players.
“And now he’ll have an incomplete squad here. And he’s still yet to get the whole squad to understand what he has at his disposal… A year out from the World Cup, that’s not something you want to see.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
On Thursday, Pochettino's roster was unveiled for the upcoming matches. The USMNT, coming off a pair of disappointing CONCACAF Nations League losses in March, will head into the Gold Cup without many of its stars – including Christian Pulisic and Antonee Robinson – significantly altering the chemistry of a crucial summer.
Getty ImagesWHAT’S NEXT?
The USMNT play two friendlies, against Turkey and Switzerland, on June 7 and 10 respectively, before the 2025 Gold Cup begins. That kicks off on June 14 for the USMNT with their first game against Trinidad and Tobago.