England & Brazil Are Taking Way Bigger Risks Than the USMNT

The age of the foreign national team manager will test the power of football dogma.

When I had some fun with Bruce Arena’s take on Mauricio Pochettino’s early struggles as head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team, I anticipated that classic line in response: No nation has ever won the World Cup with a foreign head coach. This is true, of course, and since there have been 22 tournaments in all, there’s a decent sample size to scrutinize. Even in the modern era, since the 1990s or so, you’re looking at eight or nine tournaments where the victorious head honcho always hails from the victorious nation.

I tried to cut these arguments off at the pass in the original piece with a simple truth: The United States is not in it to win it. We’re in it to win a big game or two, and that’s what Pochettino has been hired to do — win a knockout fixture against a marquee opponent, one of the big boys from Europe or South America. If the United States were seriously aiming to win the World Cup in 2026 on home soil, the appointment of a foreign manager would be more of a risk.

Which is what makes England and Brazil’s coaching moves so much more of a story. The former, a massive footballing nation desperately seeking a first trophy since their only major honor, the 1966 World Cup, have hired Thomas Tuchel — a GERMAN! — to bring it home for them. The Brazilians, who’ve won the tournament a record five times but have lately hit a drought since Japan/South Korea back in 2002, have gone for Carlo Ancelotti, the Italian grandmaster of major tournament football.

For all that fans of the USMNT have been fretting over their coach’s nationality and its implications, the English and Brazilian federations are taking way more of a gamble. Both these sets of fans are reaching riot-ready status if their national teams continue to fail on the biggest stages: England’s, because they’ve gotten so close so often; and Brazil’s, because they’ve made just one semifinal in the last five tournaments, and that was when they got historically humiliated on home soil by Germany in 2014. In fact, they keep losing to European sides in the quarterfinals — France in 2006, the Dutch in 2010, Belgium in 2018, Croatia in 2022 — which might speak to their eagerness to hire a European.

But if Ancelotti fails, and perhaps even more so if Tuchel fails, there will be hell to pay back home in a way American fans can scarcely imagine. The English tabloids were surprisingly kind on Tuchel’s arrival, perhaps because they got bored of the statesmanlike stylings of former manager Gareth Southgate, but if Tuchel fails to match his predecessor’s phenomenal record at major tournaments and the German torpedoes the English, you’d better believe The Sun and The Mail and all the rest of them will be carpet-bombing him. The ferocity of the Brazilian media probably isn’t fully appreciated north of the equator, but it’ll be big trouble if Ancelotti fails to win the World Cup, too. For Pochettino, he’ll only face the proverbial guillotine if the USA fails to get out of the group or loses a winnable match in the first knockout round.

But that’s the bar for those other two nations: win it all, or flee for the nearest nuclear bunker. This is a product of passion and high standards, which anchored a common argument in response to the last article: the Americans don’t got ‘em, passion in particular. There is a large segment of USMNT fans who believe that the team’s biggest players — Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, et al. — prioritize their European club careers over the national team.

Those arguments got a big boost over the last couple of weeks as it emerged that many of the most prominent players based in Europe (Pulisic, McKennie, Tim Weah, Antonee Robinson, Gio Reyna, Yunus Musah, Josh Sargent) will miss this summer’s Gold Cup, which is Pochettino’s last chance to have a look at them in a competitive tournament before the World Cup. It’s a problem, even if I personally think that, with his injury record, Pulisic should take this summer off in order to keep his fitness through next season and into summer 2026. There will be a massive health gap between players who got some decent time off during this putative off-season and those who didn’t.

But certainly, this collective non-participation is bad for the USMNT, and it’s hard to imagine it happening with the Brazilian team, where everybody has multiple top players breathing down their necks for a place. The Americans don’t have that, because there just aren’t that many top American players. (Some would argue whether there are any at all.) Is choosing to rest due to lack of competition within the squad the same thing as the Americans lacking passion? Maybe, though it doesn’t matter how much passion you’ve got if you’re sitting in the stands with a torn hamstring.

Regardless, Pochettino does see it as a problem. “The people need to prioritize the national team,” he said on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard on Tuesday. “We were talking about Argentine players, or Brazilian players or English players or Spanish players, they are desperate. Even Messi, even Neymar, even Mbappé for France, these guys are desperate to go to the national team. For them, when they go, they don’t see if it’s a friendly game, if it’s an official game, it’s a World Cup, it doesn’t matter, because the possibility to defend one time more your flag, your shirt. It’s about to feel proud. And that is the responsibility to us to translate.”

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This is a core concept among some U.S. fans, that Americans just don’t care about their national team in the same way because there isn’t the same rich football tradition Stateside. Maybe so, although Americans seem pretty motivated to represent their country in every other sport and the American women haven’t had much trouble getting up for a national team match. Is this really an affliction that only affects American male soccer players? Did this particular batch go to Europe to play at the top level and lose their patriotism along the way? And by extension — in some fans’ arguments — can only an American coach truly understand this and convince them to give a shit?

This sounds like some voodoo stuff to me, and not the kind I can get behind. I sincerely doubt that only the American Spirit of Bob Bradley or Bruce Arena could motivate these players to run the hard yards, win their duels, outwork the opposition, or any of the other basic football behaviors that some people seem to think define American Soccer Culture.

I still believe Pochettino puts the USA in a better position to win World Cup knockout matches than anybody else the federation could have gotten, including the many American coaches who’ve never coached a match against a top team. (Which is all of them bar Jesse Marsch, who’s employed by Canada.) The Argentine has won knockout ties at the very highest level in the Champions League, just like the other two coaches in our discussion here. Unlike Tuchel and Ancelotti, he hasn’t won the competition, but he did guide Tottenham Hotspur to the final.

The more interesting question all along has been whether a glittering club coaching career can truly translate to the international game, and perhaps Tuchel and Ancelotti’s adventures will be the best test of that. In fact, that’s just another dimension to the massive risks that the English and Brazilian federations are taking here. If either can succeed, it will shatter more than one tenet of ancient football dogma.

As mentioned on last week’s episode, the podcast is on summer holiday. There just aren’t many big matches to preview, but look out for some classic clips and conversations from the show’s first 53 episodes over these sunny months.

You might also have noticed a different format for the newsletter this week, and that it’s arriving on Thursday rather than the customary Friday. That’s because Carlo Ancelotti’s first match with Brazil is Thursday, among others:

SPAIN vs FRANCE

Thu @ 3pm ET, 8pm UK

It’s the Nations League semifinal, but more importantly, it’s two great teams. It’s also two Ballon d’Or candidates in Lamine Yamal and Ousmane Dembélé. What do they get for winning this competition? God only knows.

ECUADOR vs BRAZIL

Thu @ 7pm ET, 12am UK

It’s Carlo Ancelotti’s first game as Brazil’s head coach, and it’s a World Cup qualifier away against Ecuador at the Rodrigo Paz Delgado Stadium. The hosts are second in the qualifying table, two points clear of their guests, and both sides still have work to do if they want to qualify.

NORWAY vs ITALY

Fri @ 2:45pm ET, 7:45pm UK

Here’s a World Cup qualifier out of Europe, and it could be a spicy one. Norway’s squad is quietly brolic, with Erling Haaland, Martin Ødegaard, Alexander Sørloth and more showing up for this one. Meanwhile, Italy failed to qualify for the last two World Cups, a gobsmacking disaster for a nation that’s won the tournament four times. They must make it to North America next summer.

USA vs TÜRKIYE

Sat @ 3:30pm ET, 8:30pm UK

Here’s a good test for Pochettino’s alt squad. The Turks were a serious proposition at EURO 2024, only losing out to the Netherlands at the quarterfinal stage. Not quite the kind of marquee opponent Poch was hired to defeat, but getting there.

UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE FINAL

Sun @ 3pm ET, 8pm UK

This one will pit one of Spain or France against Portugal after some guy named Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winner to defeat Germany in the other semifinal on Wednesday. The victor here will be crowned champions of…something. At least there will be a lot of talent on show.⚽︎