A Tough Test Awaits the U.S. Men’s Team. What’s the Bar for Success?

MORRISTOWN, N.J. — It’s been nearly two months since we last saw the United States men’s national team in action. Expect one thing to remain the same.

Back in July, the USMNT narrowly lost the Gold Cup final to Mexico in front of a sold-out, heavily pro-El Tri crowd of almost 71,000 in Houston. On Saturday, the Americans are likely to be the away team on home soil once again, with most of the full house at 26,500-seat Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey, expected to be rooting for Korea Republic and superstar forward Son Heung-min.

It comes with the territory for the USMNT.

“Whatever stadium we play in … We should be able to perform,” U.S. fullback Sergino Dest said Friday.

Perhaps it will even help.

With no grueling, marathon World Cup qualifying slate to help prepare them for next summer’s 48-team fútbol fest, Mauricio Pochettino’s team needs all the adversity it can get. Add in the fact that the Koreans, who advanced to the round of 16 at Qatar 2022 before being eliminated by Brazil — boast a deep and talented squad beyond Son.

Saturday’s contest in the shadow of New York City represents an invaluable opportunity.

“South Korea is a very good team, a good challenge for us,” Pochettino said at his pre-match press conference.

Dest was one of several U.S. stars left off the Gold Cup roster for a variety of reasons. He’s back, as is Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah. So are forwards Folarin Balogun and Josh Sargent. And with the planet’s biggest sporting event just six more tuneup matches away, they need to get into the habit of winning as soon as possible.

The last time a full-strength U.S. team convened, for the Nations League finals last March, they were upset by Panama and Canada in Los Angeles. Yet for Pochettino, winning on Saturday and in another exhibition on Tuesday (against Japan in Columbus, Ohio) is secondary to team-building.

Results now don’t count. The plan is to use these games to gain information that will help them beat whoever they’ll face next June and July when it does.

“The most important [thing] is, in these types of games, is how we are going to compete,” Pochettino said. ” It’s always good to win, because that gives you more confidence and trust. But I think the objective is to try to add players and new faces that really start to buy the ideas that we started to build when we started the Gold Cup.”

So far, so good.

“You see their quality,” Houston Dynamo midfielder Jack McGlynn said of working alongside PSV Eindhoven’s Dest, AC Milan’s Pulisic and Marseille’s Weah. “You see why they’re at the teams they’re at. So it’s been a great week of training. Obviously, getting to build connections with them, both on and off the field, has been amazing.”

Pulisic, who got into an unfortunate public spat with Pochettino over the summer after he asked the coach to rest during the Gold Cup, has been particularly impressive this week, according to McGlynn.

“He’s a leader for us,” he said of Pulisic, adding that the USMNT star has been beating defenders and scoring goals at training almost at will. “You can give him the ball,” McGlynn said, “And something will happen.”

On Friday, Pochettino again insisted that he and Pulisic have moved forward.

“We all make a mistake sometimes because we read the situation in a different way,” the coach said. “Christian is happy to be here.”

Good thing. For if the Americans are to make a deep run on home soil next summer and win over millions of new fans in the process, they’ll need Pulisic and the rest of the usual suspects to be their top players. As Pochettino noted, “we don’t have too much time until the World Cup.”

“The main group is starting to understand what we want, and if we want to arrive at the World Cup in our best condition, they need to know each other and, at some point, we need to start to cut and…increase the players that we believe that we’re going to be in the World Cup, but always keeping that mentality.

“That, for me, is going to be success in the next two games.”

Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has coveredUnited States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.

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