(Reuters) -U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino irately swatted away questions about the absence of regular players in his squad on Tuesday after his side thrashed Uruguay 5-1 in an international friendly in Tampa, Florida.
The Argentine manager was without key players including Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie as the U.S. thrashed two-time World Cup winners Uruguay for their biggest win over a non-CONCACAF team since 2012.
Since taking charge of the team in September last year, Pochettino has frequently been forced to work without his best players, most notably at the CONCACAF Gold Cup when Pulisic opted to skip that tournament.
Asked about playing against Uruguay with a second-string side, Pochettino told reporters: “I don’t want to be negative, but I hate that ‘no regular players’. What does that mean? It’s the USA playing. It’s the national team.
“Stop with that mindset… I hate to talk in this way. It’s so disrespectful. It’s so disrespectful because I think we need to give credit to all the guys that today were involved.”
After being asked about the topic a second time, the 53-year-old threatened to stop the press conference.
“I need to go to the dressing room, I come back and start again the press conference because it’s like we were the opposite, losing 5-0, no, 5-1,” he added.
The win over Uruguay will provide a massive boost in confidence to the U.S. heading into next year’s World Cup, for which they have already qualified as co-hosts alongside neighbours Mexico and Canada.
Pochettino’s side are unbeaten in their last five matches, all of which were against teams that have also qualified for the World Cup.
“What I really appreciate from the team and all the staff is the way that we start to connect together. That is most important,” Pochettino said.
“We want to arrive at the World Cup and challenge the big teams… We start to feel the World Cup and the excitement.
“I think it’s important for our fans this type of victory and the result because I think it’s to push them to really believe in the team. We never doubted because we saw the quality of the players.”
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Saad Sayeed)
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