Coaching the U.S. was a big test for Mauricio Pochettino. Then his World Cup opener went ‘amazing’

Pochettino, a 54-year-old Argentine, has been on the job for 20 months, but Friday’s game was unquestionably his biggest opportunity to make an impression on a wider fanbase tuning in to watch the U.S. for the first time.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — As motorized carts drove back and forth inside SoFi Stadium late Friday night, their noise interrupting a postgame news conference, U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino did not try to hide his annoyance.

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“Call FIFA,” he told a moderator.

It was, remarkably, about the only thing that did not go his way during an otherwise dream debut coaching the U.S. in its first World Cup on home soil since 1994.