Mic'd Up: The former USMNT and MLS star evaluates Pochettino, raves about Alejandro Zendejas' resurgence
As a former U.S. men's national team player, Maurice Edu dislikes talking about the Americans when they fall short of expectations. He’d much rather hype them up and trash-talk to international friends as the world counts down to next year’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Still, like many former players, pundits and fans, he understands recent frustrations, saying this team and its manager, Mauricio Pochettino, should be further along by now.
"If we didn't think anything of these players or this manager, then it would be quiet," Edu told GOAL. "You could have a poor performance and no one would notice or care… We expect more because we feel like we have a group of players and, hopefully, a manager who we feel can really help us to be where we all dream of being.
"This is a home World Cup. That's the extra 10 percent. If you control everything you can control and you work your a** off… that's the extra five to 10 percent that can take you a step further than you believe you can."
Edu, who made 46 caps for the USMNT and was part of the 2010 World Cup squad, has seen it all in a career that spanned playing for Scottish powerhouse Rangers to starring in MLS with Toronto and Philadelphia. Now an analyst for Apple TV's MLS coverage, Edu says Pochettino should prioritize building momentum with the World Cup coming.
"When the 2026 World Cup is over, we're judging this U.S. team based on how they did in the competition, right?" he said. "But to get there, you need momentum. You need to build confidence."
Edu discusses the USMNT following their September friendlies, grades Pochettino a year into the job and asks why Weston McKennie hasn't been more involved with the national team in the latest edition of Mic'd Up, a recurring feature in which GOAL taps into the perspective of broadcasters, analysts, and other pundits on the state of soccer in the U.S. and abroad.
Getty ImagesON THE USMNT'S SEPTEMBER FRIENDLIES
GOAL: Following the September friendlies against South Korea and Japan, what was your overall assessment of the U.S.? What did you like and what are areas of improvement?
EDU: It was a mixed bag. Disappointing collective performances and individual performances. The thing that was important for this group was that they finished on a high – a win and a clean sheet against Japan. These camps are about opportunity. So if you're a guy who's been there, it's about how do you continue to reinvent yourself and continue to dry that cement that you're spot is [locked] into that group for the World Cup. If you're a new guy, a guy, like Alejandro Zendejas for example, he's a guy who's had an incredible run with Club America in Liga MX.
"Fair play to him, in a couple of interviews, he's been asked if he feels like he's been looked over or that he should be in camp – I appreciate that his response has never been "Woe is me." Never a victim mentality… When you walk away from this camp, he's the guy who made the most of this opportunity in this camp. He put himself right back in the conversation and showed that he can carry over the form that he had in Liga MX… I'm glad the results happened in the way that they did. I would I'd much prefer to end on a high note than to have started off with a win and then end the window with a loss.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportON POCHETTINO
GOAL: As a former national team player, if a manager mentioned to the media that you don't necessarily need to win friendlies, how would that be taken in the locker room?
EDU: When I heard the statement, and of course that's the headline that draws you in, I'm going to assume when they're on their own and in camp, there's more nuance to that statement… I wouldn't have expected him to say that outwardly because of how the public opinion is of the national team – there's been a lot of frustration with recent results… I think the point he was getting at is ultimately this team is going to be defined by how it performs in the World Cup. But that being said, no, I want the emphasis. I want the pressure. I want the stress and the importance to be on every single game.
I saw a quote from Tyler Adams, who kind of echoed similar sentiments to what I was saying, but then also ended by saying, "But results do matter, right?" And they do matter. You can have a great performance and you can have a series of great performances, but if you're not getting the results, it makes it tricky because you can buy into a theory, buy into a mentality, buy into an approach. But it starts to seep into you when you start getting results. There's something tangible to attach to that. You can say like "Hey this performance, when you put together this kind of performance consistently, this is what you get out of it, you get the result." We live in a result-driven industry, right?… I would probably say 99 percent of us were competitors, and so the result is incredibly important to us.
GOAL: This week marked the one-year anniversary of Pochettino's hiring by U.S. Soccer. If you had to give him a grade on his performance, what would it be?
EDU: I'm usually a glass-half-full guy, and this sucks because I'll put my hand up. I was one of the people who was excited when I saw his name was even floating around that circle. To date, I would have to say, and this is going to be generous, probably a C-minus… Just look at the competitions we've been in. Nations League? We finished fourth, which is crazy. Gold Cup? We lose to a better Mexico side, a team that you could see the difference. They have the experience in those big moments. So maybe that's where he draws some of his credit, if that's the right word to use. But like that's where I maybe get the passing grade from. Because he introduced some new faces in that camp.
That's where Matt Freese won the position that he's in right now. That's where Sebastian Burhalter emerged. Chris Richards took a step forward in terms of leadership. So those kinds of details, I guess, get him to that position. But the jury is still out, right? At the same time, I wanted to see progress. There haven't been a ton of different faces that have been in this group that played in this year's Nations Leagues, compared to the three previous ones where where we won all of them, right? So, I want to see first and foremost some level of consistency. I expected momentum at this point in time and for things to be a bit more encouraging.
GOAL: What did you make of Pochettino making a change to a three-man backline against Japan? Does the U.S. have enough defensive depth to facilitate that consistently?
EDU: I'm not going to sit here and say that's the home run and that's the system we have to go with. But what it does do is gives us a different look. It gives us some flexibility to whether it's in-game adaptations, whether it's starting with that system. But I would say from the outside, it definitely looked like it was more comfortable for the players, and it suited some of their skill sets a little bit better than the first game.
Getty Images SportON WESTON MCKENNIE
GOAL: You mentioned the need for more consistency. One thing that's been a bit surprising is the absence of Weston McKennie. Pochettino said it was due to already knowing of him, but couldn't the same be said for guys such as Christian Pulisic, Tim Ream, Tyler Adams, who were in camp this month?
EDU: Yeah, it's a strange one because I'm similar in the thought process to you, right? And so trying to just decipher all the different words that have come out around that situation and around the team in totality is weird. You hear one part of it where it's like "Hey, I want to I want to see other guys or I want to see different faces." But if you truly think that Weston's one of the core guys, like you can still see other guys but still have him as part of that group, right? Because you want to see other guys but you want to have those other guys align with who you believe your core is, with whom you believe this team's foundational pieces are for this team. And so if you think Wes is one of those guys, then yeah, to me, it's a no-brainer that he should be there…
I am surprised. And there's other names that have been left out too, where it's like just going along that same vein of you want to see more players. I'm surprised they haven't got more looks. Tanner Tesmann hasn't been called in since the Nations League. Aidan Morris is having a pretty good season with Middlesbrough in the Championship. There's other guys that have kind of either just not had many looks, very few looks. But, you know what? I'm I'm going to hold my tongue, you know, until October and just really see if that window produces a roster that is in sync with what we expect, but also kind of a reflection of what he really, truly believes is his group.
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Getty ImagesON MLS VS. EUROPE
GOAL: Pochettino also made headlines by saying MLS can be just as competitive as some leagues in Europe. As a player who starred both in Europe and MLS, do you agree?
EDU: It's an interesting one, right? Because to me, it's about who performed for the national team, right? Diego Luna is a guy who emerged in January camp, but then in the Nations League, when it was with the European group plus MLS group, he showed his quality. I'd say Sebastian Berhalter showed well for himself during Gold Cup and kind of emerged and put his name in that conversation. Alex Freeman put his name in that conversation. So to me, it's about performing at a high level first and foremost, showing that consistency, and when you get into camp, then it's about, regardless of what club you're coming from, it's about what do you show there?
It's about what you show in those moments. Do I think that guys, if they're playing in Champions League, is that a different level of competition? For sure. I mean, the quality of play in those kinds of competitions, the pressure in every moment in every touch that you take on the pitch, does it have crucial consequences? Of course, it does. And so, I'm not going to sit here and be naive and say that MLS is the equivalent to the Premier League or the Bundesliga or anything like that. But I'm also not going to sit here and say that guys who play in MLS can't show well for themselves alongside guys who play in Europe, or can't and in some circumstances play better than those guys.