Mauricio Pochettino speaks after the USMNT’s heavy loss against Switzerland.
The United States gave up four goals in the first half and looked unprepared for next year’s World Cup, getting routed by Switzerland 4-0 in a friendly on Tuesday night in Nashville, Tennessee, as the Americans lost their fourth straight game for the first time since 2007.
Dan Ndoye scored in the 13th minute, Michel Aebischer in the 23rd, Breel Embolo in the 33rd and Johan Manzambi in the 36th. The Americans have lost four consecutive home games for the third time and first since 1988.
Switzerland won its third straight match and extended the U.S. winless streak against European opponents to eight games since 2021. Fans at Geodis Park booed loudly as the U.S. gave up four goals by the 40th minute for the first time since Nov. 9, 1980, at Mexico and the first time at home, according to Opta.
“It’s really easy to look at one game, one half and be like, oh, this is all going to pieces; they can’t come back from this,” defender Walker Zimmerman said. “But you look even [to] the buildup to the 2022 [World Cup], we take down Morocco 3-0 and they make it into the semifinal. Things change — that was six months apart. It’s not the end of the world.”
The match was played one year and one day before the 2026 World Cup cohosted by the U.S. starts. Going into their Concacaf Gold Cup opener against Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday, the Americans are 5-5 under Mauricio Pochettino, who took over after the team’s first-round elimination at last year’s Copa America led the U.S. Soccer Federation to fire coach Gregg Berhalter.
Ndoye burst behind Nate Harriel to run onto a through pass for the first goal; Manzambi dribbled past Max Arfsten along the end line to leave Aebischer with a tap-in for the second.
Goalkeeper Matt Turner spilled Ricardo Rodriguez’s shot to leave Embolo an open net for the third; and a mix-up when Quinn Sullivan passed to Sebastian Berhalter as the former coach’s son slipped created a giveaway that led to Manzambi’s first international goal.
The U.S. had not lost four straight games since a five-game skid in 2007. The Americans were missing Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Gio Reyna, Antonee Robinson, Tyler Adams, Folarin Balogun and Sergiño Dest (regaining fitness).
Turner played his first game for club or country since March 23. Berhalter started in his debut, and Brenden and Paxten Aaronson became the fourth set of brothers to start for the U.S. and the first since George and Louis Nanchoff in 1979.
Pochettino made nine changes from the lineup for Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Turkey, keeping only Arfsten and midfielder Johnny Cardoso. The U.S. made five changes to start the second half, and Damion Downs made his debut in the 75th minute.
“It was my decision and the decision didn’t work,” Pochettino said. “It’s painful because you don’t want to improve losing games.”
“You have to take your licks and understand where things went wrong and try to put them right in the next five days,” said defender Tim Ream, among five players who entered at the start of the second half. “There’s some individual errors that we make, and we get punished for them at this level.”
The U.S. also plays Saudi Arabia and Haiti in the Gold Cup’s first round — the Americans have won their group in 16 of 17 Gold Cups, along with a second-place finish to Panama in 2011. They’re group stage record is 40 wins, one loss and five draws.
Only winning the tournament likely will calm supporters.
“I know in this sport you’re not judged on one game, one half, but you’ve got to be able to bounce back mentally, physically, emotionally,” Zimmerman said. “We’ve played hundreds of games in our career. Some are going to be amazing. Some aren’t going to be so good.”
Pochettino isn’t concerned fans will give up on the U.S. team and stay away from matches.
“The fans are going to be there for sure in the Gold Cup and the World Cup,” he said. “I have no worries about that. The fans are going to be with the team.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this recap.
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