AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Antonee Robinson became the first American player to meet new U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino — by chance at a London restaurant during a dinner out with Fulham teammates.
“A couple of the guys walked in and said, ‘Ah, we just walked past your new manager,’” Robinson recalled Tuesday after Pochettino’s first training session with his full U.S. roster. “And a couple of the lads on our team have played for him before, so they went over and said hello.”
Pochettino arrived in the U.S. on Saturday and had a group meeting Tuesday ahead of friendlies against Panama on Saturday and Mexico on Oct. 15. Sixteen players trained Monday, and all 25 were on the field Tuesday.
“They’ve worked in some movement things and connection things with the back line and midfielders, and the attackers all went together and worked on a few things,” defender Tim Ream said. “Just really getting their ideas onto our heads and into our understanding to make sure that we’re all on the same page going forward.”
Robinson noticed a difference in style from Gregg Berhalter, who led the team from December 2018 through December 2022, then returned in the summer of 2023 only to be fired this July following a first-round elimination at the Copa America.
“Straightaway it seems a little bit more intense,” Robinson said. “Usually the lads getting in on a Monday or getting in on a Sunday, train on Monday, if you’ve played on Saturday it’s kind of light. You’re not doing a lot. You’re recovering on the bike. Yesterday, we were kind of straight into training and it was a tough session so, yeah, we were kind of ready to work and so it was definitely intense.”
Pochettino and his assistants have been meeting with players individually.
“They want to get to know us and obviously we want to get to know them,” said Ream, who turned 37 on Saturday and is the oldest player on the roster. “The message is that he wants to win, right? He has his principles. He has his ideas, but at the end of the day, it’s about winning and it’s important to have that mentality, it’s important to have that mindset going forward.”
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