Mauricio Pochettino's USMNT fill the hope tank through friendlies vs Senegal and Germany

Ninety minutes of a friendly should not swing emotions too far in one direction, but forgive United States men's national team fans who feel especially buoyed by the performance of Mauricio Pochettino's men in their World Cup send-off game against Germany on Saturday. MORE —  USMNT vs Germany recap, highlights | Player ratings This goes well beyond the fact that the send-off is simply to the other side of the country, as the USMNT move simply from Chicago to the West Coast for their 2026 World Cup group stage. The Yanks fell 2-1 to Germany on Sunday, less than a week before they open the World Cup against Paraguay. Much like Christian Pulisic's golazo in a 3-1 friendly loss to Germany in 2023 , Antonee Robinson's rocket goal was the highlight of the most recent for American fans. The similarities end there, however, with the opponent and the moment. The USMNT program and the hope tank Switching sports for a second, Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff — arguably the very best in the NHL this season and a previous winner of the Jack Adams Award as the best coach in the league — has often used the term "hope tank." The idea is that players are competitors who naturally pursue greatness and use scientific things like analytics and nutrition to get to their best. Beyond that, though, as any athlete will tell you, is the intangible stuff that seems to reside in the great teams. And part of that is the confidence that comes from hope. It only goes so far — passion won't turn a Sunday league striker into Lionel Messi — but it's real. The USMNT spent the better part of two decades and possibly longer pushing the very limits of the spiritual edge in sports, the gritty underdog who didn't know what it didn't know, found out, and then circled back with a bit of wisdom to go with the fight. Sport changes a lot in 20-25 years, and that feels almost immeasurably stretched by the growth of soccer in the United States during that time period. The U.S. vis a vis MLS academy expansion has become a real player in the youth development game and playing real minutes in MLS is now a real basis for comparison as opposed to an "Aw, that's cute — the rich kids started their own league" or its first decade and more. But the Yanks are now a different sort of underdog. This is no longer about pluck and luck even if those are obviously still elements of tournament play. It's about consistency in play and the marriage of performance and mentality. In short, the science is going to get them into the palace. How many doors can hope and spirit open on the way to the throne room? Germany friendly shows signs of a full hope tank Gregg Berhalter was just three games back into his second tenure with the team when the Yanks lost 3-1 to Germany on the day Pulisic scored his terrific goal, surprising Jonathan Tah with his first step and working between Antonio Rudiger, Mats Hummels, and Ilkay Gundogan to swerve in a gorgeous opener. BJ Callaghan was Berhalter's right-hand man and the previous interim boss so they weren't coming out of the wilderness but there were new faces and — shocker —- they were all much younger than they were today. It was disappointing but hardly notable that the Yanks were worked over the rest of the way as Niclas Fullkrug, Jamal Musiala, and Gundogan led a trouncing of the hosts. There were no USMNT players in that 2023 friendly who aged out of the team in the interim, and Germany's squad is similar and their coach remains Julian Naglesmann. And Sunday's stakes are bigger than the 2013 friendly — players are bidding to insure their status with their managers ahead of the World Cup. It's a pretty big tournament. The 2013 game saw the Yanks well-beaten in both halves and it got worse as the game reached its final stages. It was 1-1 after 45 minutes with the Germans holding 58% possession, a11-4 shot attempts advantage, and 21 touches in the U.S. box to nine in the other direction. The Germans were credited with three big chances while the Yanks had zero, maximizing their output through Pulisic's magic. The second half saw the possession gap climb to 61% as the U.S. took only two shots while Germany put four of their eight shots on target. The Americans didn't win possession in the first half on Saturday but they sure made Germany work and even worry over that first 45. The U.S. out-attempted Germany 11-4, dribbled a bit better, and surprised with their even play in ground duels against a side expected to show readiness in that area. The Germans took the lead in the second half and used the counter to produce more shots in that frame, but Pochettino's men held 58% of the ball and put three shots on Oliver Baumann's goal. They still couldn't produce enough inside the 18, as the USMNT's final third ideas have improved under Pochettino but still remain a shortcoming. And they still needed a stunner to get on the scoreboard while the defending was suspect on Germany's markers. Yet the theory says Chris Richards and maybe another of the current CBs would do better than Miles Robinson did on Saturday's goals, and we've reached a point where Germany's absences — Antonio Rudiger, Malick Thiaw, and Nick Woltemade —feel comparably consequential to the Yanks missing Richards. It isn’t, or doesn’t have to be, ‘just one game’ If you're someone who thinks the Americans should be beating every team.every time, than you can skip this segment of the post and find the descendants of Noah Webster and George and Charles Merriam for a conversation on consult the group or words around delusion in their reference book. But if you're willing to measure the growth of the club in this game versus the past few months, you'll know that claiming the U.S. cannot hang with the big boys is less true today than it was even a couple of years ago. Of course these friendlies have been on home soil, but Pochettinos' recent friendly wins over World Cup entrants Senegal, Uruguay, Praraguay, Australia, and Japan — two of whom they'll face in the group stage — make for impressive readings. Lopsided losses to Belgium and Portugal aren't good but came without seemingly irreplaceable Tyler Adams and with a Pulisic who looked sapped of his energy. The team's best attacker looks reinvigorated now. He'll need to be their best player to beat a Germany-type in the knockout rounds but old heads will remember a much younger American phenom as the best player on the pitch in a World Cup knockout round game that could've been much different in a VAR world. Landon Donovan was sensational in the 2002 World Cup semifinal as the Americans out-attempted the Germans 11-6 and put six shots on Oliver Kahn. A seventh shot — by Gregg Berhalter — was blocked by a Torsten Frings handball that would've put the Yanks on the spot for a great chance at an equalizer. The U.S. shocked Portugal in that group stage, drew hosts South Korea in their second game, and beat rivals Mexico in the Round of 16. The path is more straightforward this summer and expectations are higher — reasonably so. Oddsmakers have the Americans as heavy favorites versus Paraguay and Australia and very mild favorites against Turkiye in their third game. The U.S. are favored over Turkiye to win the group and each of Uruguay, Croatia, Senegal, Switzerland, and Mexico are longer shots to pull off a miracle tournament win. There are many reasons for the USMNT and its supporters to dream of what's possible over the nrext month-plus of soccer. And those dreams don't need to look far for their fuel. Leave the legacy worries for the history books. As for the present, the squad has their best chance ever to make a deep World Cup run. That's not debatable, nor will the "Golden Generation" tag if they deliver that marriage of guts and goals in primetime.