Pochettino to Hostile Press: USMNT Won The Group, Where's The Credit?

USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino called out hostile press questions after a 3-2 loss to Turkey on Thursday, pointing out that no journalist had even congratulated him for winning Group D — a first-place finish sealed by two historic victories earlier in the tournament.

This is how the institutional press operates: never satisfied, always spinning negative. The US opened with a 4-1 win over Paraguay — the most goals the team has ever scored in a World Cup match — and followed with a 2-0 victory over Australia, the first six-point start in US World Cup history. The Turkey match was a dead rubber. The group was already won. But reporters walked in with their narrative locked.

Pochettino wasn't having it. "At the moment, no one congratulated us for finishing first in a very difficult group," he said, according to The Guardian. "I congratulate the players, the staff and USA and the fans to finish first in a very difficult group."

When pressed about whether the loss would cost the team momentum, Pochettino dismissed the premise. "What is momentum?" he asked. "To play with the same team that we played against Australia? And to take the risk to receive a yellow card and not to play the next game?" He noted that Germany also lost their final group match and asked whether they'd lost momentum too.

The Guardian framed Pochettino as "chiding" the press and called his reaction "incredulous." The New York Post, meanwhile, buried the match entirely, running a story headlining Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff's attendance and implying their photo op somehow jinxed the team. Emhoff posted "Goal!" just before Turkey grabbed the lead, and the Post treated that timing as newsworthy. This is what passes for coverage when the press would rather chase celebrity than report what happened on the pitch.

Pochettino saw through the game. "It cannot be possible that Turkey finishes celebrating the three points, Australia is celebrating the qualification, Paraguay celebrating the qualification, and I come here, and for you not to say congratulations, that we won the group," he said. "That is a little bit sad. I need to remind you and everyone that we won the group. You guys, we won."

The US faces Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday in the knockout stage. The real question isn't whether the team has momentum — it's whether the press can ever bring itself to acknowledge an American accomplishment without immediately hunting for the angle to tear it down. If this is how they treat a soccer coach who just made history, imagine what they do to anyone who actually challenges the narrative.