\n<\/p>\n
There will be no rousing Hollywood pep talk from Mauricio Pochettino ahead of today\u2019s USMNT World Cup opener. He and his players are trusting nearly two years of work since he took the helm \u2013 plus all of the reasons that got them into the sport in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important [thing] is not to be disconnected with your emotional relationship with the game,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cThey need to think tomorrow and play like they are a child \u2013 with no pressure, with no responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Share<\/p>\n
The likely starter at striker for the United States will be key to how the team builds up in attack. Jeff Rueter on what we saw from Balogun in the pre-World Cup friendlies:<\/p>\n
Share<\/p>\n
Most of the conversation surrounding the United States\u2019 buildup to this tournament centered on the health of Chris Richards. The center-back has proven to be an anchor for the US, and the team has looked defensively shaky without him.<\/p>\n
He is back in full training and available for selection, but will he play? He spoke about his chances this week:<\/p>\n
Share<\/p>\n
\u201cI was talking with a good friend that won the World Cup in 1986 with Argentina,\u201d said Mauricio Pochettino yesterday. \u201cHe said to me, \u2018in relaxation, you become concentrated and focused.\u2019 I think we try to be very professional in every single aspect of our preparation by creating a very good atmosphere where the player can feel comfortable and to embrace and, not to learn, but to understand what we expect\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n ShareAlexander Abnos<\/span><\/p>\n We are here at SoFi Los Angeles Stadium, at long last.<\/p>\n Not that anyone cares about journalist\u2019s struggled getting into games, but the security situation outside is leaving a lot to be desired. There is one working x-ray machine for the entire media contingent, and security staff are individually inspecting every bag that goes through. It\u2019s taking a while, and it\u2019s hot. And there is no water in the media workroom.<\/p>\n \u2026.But we\u2019re here now! And that\u2019s all that matters.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n We\u2019ll be here for live coverage soon. In the meantime, here\u2019s Alex Abnos on the buildup to today\u2019s game:<\/em><\/p>\n Mauricio Pochettino paused. The microphone signal flickered. He tried, for a second time, to say a few things to the 5,500 fans who had gathered in the sun Monday at Championship Soccer Stadium in Irvine, California \u2013 the United States\u2019 World Cup home base \u2013 for an open training session. Nothing. Then something. More choppy audio. By the time things came back online, he had developed a quip.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in the greatest country in the world,\u201d he said in his Rioplatense-accented English. \u201cBut the technology does not work.\u201d<\/p>\n Pochettino\u2019s adaptation to the US soccer scene has not been without hiccups. The Argentinian arrived on a $6m-per-year contract (the largest outlay for a coach in US Soccer history) with a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 featuring some of the most famous clubs and players in the world. His job: to lead a nation more known for excellence in other sports to a historic finish at a World Cup they would co-host.<\/p>\n You can read the full report below:<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There will be no rousing Hollywood pep talk from Mauricio Pochettino ahead of today\u2019s USMNT World Cup opener. He and his players are trusting nearly two years of work since he took the helm \u2013 plus all of the reasons that got them into the sport in the first place. \u201cThe most important [thing] is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10666],"tags":[952,870,20342,746,919],"class_list":["post-30099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reparations","tag-cup","tag-live","tag-paraguay","tag-usa","tag-world"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6460d473d5b1073fd182963a70d79112e71e4c33\/226_0_2261_1809\/master\/2261.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctbGl2ZS5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=6ddc3a5babda0b752c403e567b1e3c28",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"REPARATIONS NEWS<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"There will be no rousing Hollywood pep talk from Mauricio Pochettino ahead of today\u2019s USMNT World Cup opener. He and his players are trusting nearly two years of work since he took the helm \u2013 plus all of the reasons that got them into the sport in the first place. \u201cThe most important [thing] is…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30101,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30099\/revisions\/30101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}