USMNT routs Uruguay 5-1 as young stars shine and Mauricio Pochettino's World Cup build gains momentum

TAMPA, Fla. — A year that began with acute growing pains, with questions about the coach’s acuity for international soccer and with doubts about a trumpeted generation of U.S. national team players ended in emphatic fashion Tuesday with a masterful, goal-filled performance against a celebrated opponent.

Seven months before the World Cup, the United States scored four times in a 25-minute stretch of the first half and routed Uruguay, 5-1, running its unbeaten streak to five.

True, it was just a friendly — a far cry from the high-stakes rumbles staged across North America next summer. But for a U.S. team still finding its way under Mauricio Pochettino — and missing six probable starters — the stunning result at Raymond James Stadium was thrilling and uplifting.

“What I really, really appreciate from the team … is in the way we start to connect together,” Pochettino said. “And that is most important if we want to arrive at the World Cup and to have the chance to challenge the big teams. That is the way we need to play.”

Sebastian Berhalter, who has been with the national team for all of five months, scored a terrific opening goal. Alex Freeman, a defender who’s also been with the national team for five months, scored the next two, the first assisted by Berhalter. Diego Luna, a young midfielder who’s excelled under Pochettino this year, added the fourth before halftime.

Substitute Tanner Tessmann added a goal midway through the second half in the program’s highest-scoring outing against an opponent from CONMEBOL, the South American confederation. The victory tied the largest margin of victory against a CONMEBOL team and the unbeaten streak is the longest against top-40 opponents since 2013.

“We showed the world what we can do, especially going into these games with a lot of doubts about the U.S.,” Freeman said.

Coupled with the 2-1 victory over Paraguay three days earlier in greater Philadelphia, the results and performances are sure to buoy a team seeking to continue growing ahead of next summer’s spectacle on home ground. After finishing the set of fall friendlies against World Cup-bound teams with a 4-1-1 record, the Americans will not regroup again until March for reported high-end tests against Portugal and Belgium. Pochettino will name his 26-man World Cup roster in May.

“We know we have the quality to have performances like that, but it was about the DNA and the mentality going into games,” Luna said. “That was the biggest shift there [since earlier in the year]. Finding that, and I think with whatever players we have on the field, we have the quality. It’s just making sure we bring that mentality and that hard work and mindset into every game.”

With the next camp four months away, Pochettino’s plan for this get-together was to start almost all his outfield players over two matches. He made nine changes Tuesday, meaning every non-goalkeeper except striker Ricardo Pepi, who doesn’t play major minutes for PSV Eindhoven, received a starting assignment.

The only holdover starters from Saturday were goalkeeper Matt Freese and right back/winger Sergiño Dest. For Dest, who has gradually returned from a 2024 ACL injury, it marked his first back-to-back U.S. starts since November 2023.

Among Tuesday’s starters seeking to improve their standing in the field of World Cup candidates were left back John Tolkin, center backs Mark McKenzie and Auston Trusty, midfielders Berhalter, Aidan Morris, Timothy Tillman and Luna.

After the match, Pochettino took issue with suggestions that he didn’t have his “regular” players, such as Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie.

“I hate — I hate — [people saying there were] no regular players,” Pochettino said. “This is the USA playing. This is the national team. Stop with that mindset. Every time that our decision is about [picking] the starting 11, this is the U.S. national team playing. After one year, I think you need to really know me, that 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 and [against] Paraguay too.”

For Pochettino, the match brought special meaning because he was coaching against his mentor, Marcelo Bielsa. They’ve known each other 40 years, dating to when Bielsa helped recruit him to Argentine club Newell’s Old Boys. Later, Pochettino played for Bielsa on the Argentine national team.

“He’s a person that was really important in my young journey, when I started to play football,” Pochettino said Monday. “My respect is massive. … He inspired me to keep pushing, trying to be a coach.”

Pochettino also said he expected his team to “suffer” against a Bielsa-led opponent, especially a strong South American side that arrived on a six-game unbeaten streak. The lineup featured Barcelona’s Ronald Arajúo, Manchester United’s Manuel Ugarte and Tottenham’s Rodrigo Bentancur but also included goalkeeper Cristopher Fiermarin in just his second appearance.

From the start, there was no “suffering.” The Americans set the tone and scored early on a pair of set pieces.

The first goal was a gem. A set-piece specialist, Berhalter sent a premature free kick from the side edge of the penalty area into the 6-yard box, with the ball eventually ending up in the net. Referee Julio Luna instructed him to take it again.

Expecting a similar delivery, Uruguay did not mark Dest near the top of the box. Berhalter played it short to Dest, who touched it back to Berhalter for a sensational, 16-yard one-timer to the far side-netting — his first international goal in nine appearances.

“I looked at [Dest] and he knew to set it,” said Berhalter, whose father, Gregg, the former U.S. coach, was in attendance, along with other family members. “And from there, I just trusted him to put it right in my path. It was a perfect set and, from there, just let it fly.”

Three minutes later, Berhalter was at it again, this time on a corner kick that found Freeman leaping above Bentancur on the back side of the 6-yard box for a header into the left corner for his first goal in 13 U.S. games.

After Uruguay hit the crossbar, Freeman scored again in the 31st minute. Tillman’s brilliant tackle forced a giveaway. Trusty touched the ball to Freeman, who, with quick and clever footwork, cut inside one defender, got inside another and struck a 6-yard shot that deflected off a defender and into the net.

Since calling Freeman into camp before the Concacaf Gold Cup this summer, “We create a platform for him to show the quality, but the credit is for him,” Pochettino said.

Eleven minutes passed before the Americans scored their fourth goal. Tillman’s cross was deflected into the path of Luna for an easy, 12-yard one-timer. The last time the United States scored four goals against a team from outside CONCACAF was October 2023, against Ghana in Nashville. That, too, featured four goals before halftime.

Amid U.S. sloppiness, Uruguay answered just before the halftime whistle on Giorgian De Arrascaeta’s spectacular bicycle kick from 7 yards.

Uruguay went down to 10 men in the 64th minute when Bentancur was shown a red card for a studs-up challenge on Berhalter. 

In the 68th, seven minutes after entering, Tessmann headed in substitute Gio Reyna’s pass for his first international goal.

“Of course, the World Cup is going to be different,” Pochettino said, “but I think we need to prepare ourselves to be there and to really believe in our chance.”