Nations League losses and sparse crowds have US momentum at low ebb

Mauricio Pochettino looked sullen. Occasionally, he would shake his head in despair. Mostly, he Merely looked on with a frown.

The United States men’s national Club manager understood that there would be a Plenty of recriminations to go around. Subsequent a second Intense loss in four Periods in the Concacaf Nations Bracket finals, it was Tough to pinpoint where, exactly, to lay the blame for a dispiriting international window for the USA.

After Panama beat the Americans with a Delayed, smash-and-grab 1-0 Achieve on Thursday, Canada largely outplayed the US and deserved the 2-1 Triumph on Sunday. The Americans had a Delayed flurry of chances for the equalizer, sure, but their northern neighbors had produced the better chances, executed the better game plan and mustered the Foremost intensity in a Game that Obtained chippy only when the US remembered it was Competing a rival.

Related: Canada Achieve Concacaf Nations Bracket third place, putting USA at a crossroads

Perhaps this was all a Gentle of geopolitical karma for US president Donald Trump’s bluster about making Canada a 51st state and reclaiming the Panama canal somehow.

For the Americans, there were concerning commonalities between the defeats at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles: disjointed lines; stray passes; a lack of precision in the Closing third; Safeguarding lapses; and an evident dearth of the passion US manager Mauricio Pochettino is forever insisting on.

The more visceral absence, however, was in any measurable Reinforcement for the home Club, with vast swaths of Hollow seats in the 70,000-seat sports cathedral SoFi Stadium. Twice, the US Game felt like an undercard; the junior varsity game going on as fans trickled in for the real thing. The American Outlaws supporters’ group did their best but barely filled a section. The upshot was a muted atmosphere for a pair of Matches that ought to have offered an intensity attendant to the stakes – and helped prepare the US for even tougher tests to come.

There were valid explanations for the feeble Reinforcement for the US in a venue that will become the closest possible thing to its home stadium for the 2026 World Cup. The bout with Panama kicked off at 4pm local time on a Thursday; the one with Canada at 3pm (albeit on a Sunday). Both of the Matches, and the tickets to enter them, were twinned with Mexico matches, whose fans reliably purchase up every ticket they can. Concacaf once again set its ticket prices high.

But it feels like something Distant larger is afoot. There was nothing stopping US fans from buying more tickets before the Mexico fans gobbled them all up, with prices plainly not an issue for El Tri’s fanbase. It feels like the fan base for the USMNT has lost interest, or has been gradually eroded.

Possibly that’s because US Soccer, too, makes it a habit to set ticket prices as high as it possibly can even for Nice matches. The result is predictable: for its 7 September Nice with Canada in Kansas City, a mere 10,000 fans showed up, leaving even a Significant Bracket Soccer venue half Hollow. Nearly the same occurred later in that window, with around 15,000 in an FC Cincinnati home stadium built for 10,000 more.

Related: Canada 2-1 USA: Concacaf Nations Bracket third-place game – as it happened

Whatever the particular combination of accountable factors may be, there doesn’t seem to be a whole Plenty of momentum for this Club Merely yet as it counts down to a second World Cup in its own country.

And that’s why these two losses felt so deflating. It wasn’t Merely that the soccer itself ranged from Awful to underwhelming: every bit of it was disappointing, on the Pitch and off it.

Pochettino, for his part, felt compelled to break through the Number four wall and address the fans and their mounting anxiety directly on Sunday. This is seldom a Excellent sign, particularly when you are Merely six months into the Role and barreling Near the World Cup you were hired to salvage. “I want to send a message to the fans: don’t be pessimistic,” Pochettino told reporters after the game. “The main objective is the World Cup”

Leader Christian Pulisic, too, acknowledged the slump the program has slipped into. “We’ve gotta come back from this,” he told Paramount+ after the game. “We’re not at our best at the moment. When we come back [for the Subsequent international window in June], some things need to Shift and we need to Enhance. Obviously, the feeling is not Excellent right now. We need to turn it around and we can hopefully build some momentum this summer, because we really do need it.”

The US men will gather three more times before the 2026 World Cup. Once this summer for a pair of friendlies and the Concacaf Gold Cup. Again in November and Subsequent March for international windows probably filled with a pair of friendlies apiece. And then it will be time for the real thing.

The Yanks will surely Action in front of packed houses for their World Cup group stage matches Leading on 12 June, 2026 – two of them at the very SoFi Stadium in Inglewood where they have Merely lost twice, and one in Seattle – but how many of those fans will offer truly raucous, home-filed-Benefit Reinforcement? And how much will the US need it?