‘Houston, we have a problem, SOS’ – Mauricio Pochettino, Diego Luna and the winners and losers from the USMNT’s embarrassing CONCACAF Nations League loss to Canada

After another inexplicable loss, Pochettino looked to the World Cup, saying “I prefer that this happen now rather than in one year”

LOS ANGELES – For many who follow the U.S. men’s national team, the sky will feel like it is falling. Less than a year after a humbling Copa America exit, the U.S. were hit with another massive blow in the CONCACAF Nations League final. First, they were flat-out embarrassed by Panama in a 1-0 loss in the semifinals.

Canada then proceeded to kick them a few times while they were down, emerging with a 2-1 win in the third-place game Sunday night. It all led to one big takeaway: this team isn’t as close as many hoped they were.

That’s the negative of it all, but U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino is trying not to lean into the negatives. He, like everyone else, saw the performance. He was disappointed, too. The only good news is that there’s still time, and Pochettino knows now he’s going to have to make the most of it.

Just more than 400 days away from the 2026 World Cup, every moment it counts.

“I think we have time,” he said. “If we will be in today’s situation in one year’s time, for sure, I will tell you ‘Houston, we have a problem, SOS.’ If, in one year, we are still talking about this, it’s because we have a big problem. We were not able to discover or design a better strategy for the team to play better. I think we have time, and I prefer that this happen now rather than in one year.”

That year feels closer than ever. So much needs to improve. Pochettino called for fight, desire and risk after Thursday’s defeat, and he saw shades of all three. It wasn’t sustained, though. Pochettino admitted that players need to be rewired into ones who can play with a certain confidence and attitude. That takes time.

Time, for now, is on the USMNT’s side, but the road ahead is now more dangerous than ever. This summer will be a huge moment for this team, who will play two friendlies and a Gold Cup. It will be Pochettino’s most extensive run with his group and, if the Nations League was any indication, he’ll need every single day at his disposal.

While the likes of USMNT legends Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey voiced their frustration Sunday over the back-to-back losses – Pochettino has already lost to Mexico, Canada and Panama since taking the helm – the U.S. coach tried to remain upbeat.

“Today, you had the floor and tomorrow, you can be up here,” Pochettino said. “I am very optimistic, a positive guy, even when I’m being angry and upset and disappointed. I want to find the positive things we can take from these two games. Who knows? No one knows how we are going to arrive at the World Cup and perform and, for sure, if these games are going to affect us, they are going to affect us in a positive way.”

GOAL breaks down the winners & losers from SoFi Stadium.

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WINNER: Jesse Marsch

It’s not often that the big winner is someone who was sent to the locker room with a red card but, hey, this was an unusual game. It would probably be unfair to say Marsch’s dismissal paved the way for Jonathan David’s moment of quality minutes later but, bigger picture, there’s something to be said about that idea.

Since his arrival, Marsch has fought to instill his side with a sense of determination, grit and attitude. He showed them Canada Hockey’s fights against the USA team in the Four Nations tournament to reinforce it. Then, in a moment in which he believed his side was getting disrespected, he, too, fought back, storming onto the field – and earning his marching orders as a result.

Moment of passion or a deliberate effort to back his team, only Marsch knows, but the players will no doubt have been fired up by their coach’s actions. Since his arrival, Marsch has gone above and beyond to let his players know that he’ll back them and Sunday was the best example yet. Facing the national team he once played for, Marsch might have been the most animated man on the field. That means something.

“I took this job knowing that this was not just a project of building a team – it was a project of building an association, a federation and building the sport around this country,” he said in advance of Sunday’s match. “I’m passionate about it.”

If there were any doubts about that, they’re gone now. Canada are desperate to be more, and their coach is more than willing to lead the charge, even from the locker room if need be.

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LOSER: USMNT veteran players

Pochettino sidestepped his way around criticizing his team, but he offered one particularly damning comment.

“We talk about how to change the automatic pilot,” he said. “You come back to your habits when it’s not your normal habit. When you are conscious, you’re thinking, ‘I need to go, I need to press, I need to change the tempo, I need to go forward.’ But the moment you become tired or some frustration happens in the game, you come back and your pilot appears and is going to drive itself. This is a process that we need to change.”

All of that is to say that this team isn’t yet wired in the way Pochettino wants. They can show moments of the fight and desire he called for leading up to this match but, in his opinion, that hasn’t been ingrained into their psyche. They’re still too calm, too relaxed, too patient as they wait for the game to go their way. In some games, that works. But both the Panama and Canada games needed seizing. It didn’t happen.

Pochettino said he was happy with some stretches of the game, but also called on his veterans to remember what it means to wear the shirt.

Make no mistake: the best players on this U.S. team have good instincts. They show them regularly for top, top clubs. It’s up to Pochettino to figure out how to awaken them but, as he points out, it’s also up to players to re-program themselves after another humbling loss.

“With these two losses, it’s definitely put our backs against the wall,” Weston McKennie said. “The thing about having our backs against the wall is that the only way to go is forward. These two games were a wake-up call in general, for us, for the staff, for everyone to realize that we have to do better – and we have to fight more, finish our chances. We have to come together as a team.”

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WINNER: Jonathan David

A moment of pure quality. It’s the difference a player at that level can make and, on a night in which many of the USMNT’s stars failed to find their level, Jonathan David absolutely did.

Several of CONCACAF’s best were scattered throughout the pitch Sunday. One, Alphonso Davies, was forced out early. An injury took him out of the action early. How would Canada cope without a player as good as Davies? Who would step up and create the magic?

As it turns out, it was David, who tends to do those sorts of things. His perfectly curled winner ultimately decided the match while proving, again, that David deserves his place right up there among the stars in this region. This season has been a breakout with Lille, but he’s vital to Canada, too, as they make their own push towards the 2026 World Cup.

Canada have a match-winner in David. He did just that on Sunday.

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LOSER: Mauricio Pochettino

Just days after saying that he believed that anything is possible for the USMNT, Pochettino had to reckon with back-to-back results that felt impossible. The USMNT had won this tournament three times under his predecessors. They lost both matches this time around to finish fourth among the final four.

It was a sign of how far this team has left to go and how much work Pochettino has to do. His hiring, rightfully, inspired optimism, but much of that positive air was sucked out of this program this week.

At one point, the the stadium big screen cut to Pochettino, and all he could do was shake his head. His team wasn’t reaching the levels many expected. Several of the problems that were apparent against Panama reappeared against Canada, plain for everyone to see – including Pochettino.

“I see that this is the process and it’s always painful when you lose,” he said. “I don’t like that people feel pessimistic or disappointed. We all are, and the fans can feel it, disappointed that we didn’t win. But I’m not going to allow us to feel pessimistic because I think we have good players and we are going to find a way to perform.

“For sure, we are going to compete in a different way and, in the end, we are going to get different results than Thursday and today.”

Now, though, Pochettino and the USMNT will have to prove it. The goodwill that came with his arrival is all but gone and this team is seemingly back in the same sort of rut that defined it in the Copa America crash out last summer. Pochettino must chart a path forward, and that, ultimately, will define his time in charge of this team.

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WINNER: Diego Luna

Heading into the match, Pochettino called on his players to take risks. To turbo-charge that, he turned to the USMNT’s biggest risk-taker. Diego Luna is new to the squad, but he already has a reputation as a game-changer, and he forged that even more with a standout performance amid a sea of poor ones.

WIth one of his first few touches, Luna played a ball over the top, something that was severely lacking against Panama. He created the USMNT’s goalscoring sequence, too, timing his run onto Tim Weah’s pass and then showing the poise and maturity to tee-up Patrick Agyemang. There will multiple other long balls, too. For nearly 90 minutes, it looked as if anything good for the USMNT was going to go through Luna.

“That’s just my style of play, right?” Luna told GOAL. “I like to be creative. That’s what’s gotten me here. I’m not the tallest, not the fastest, not the strongest, right, but it’s the creativity and the risk-taking that’s gotten me here.”

It will keep him here, too. Luna was the USMNT’s standout in a game in which he arguably had the most to gain. He has some ground to make up on the established veterans, made tangible progress. Pochettino was full of praise for Luna, and rightfully so, as he was one of the few who embodied the mindset this team needed.