Pochettino urged his players to approach the match with the mindset of a final.

Uncle Sam, the United States, will host Bosnia and Herzegovina at Levi's Stadium in the Round of 32 of the 2026 World Cup. At a press conference, Pochettino stated that the team must approach every match with the mindset of participating in a final.

In the third round of the group stage, the United States lost to Turkey 2-3 after goals from Austin Trusti and Sebastian Berhart, but still advanced to the round of 32 as the top team in Group D.

U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said, "If we lose, there will be no second chance. This is a do-or-die game, and we have to treat it like a World Cup final. If we can advance, then the next game will also be another World Cup final, and I think that should be our mentality and game philosophy."

“We are finally starting to see what we hoped to see, and we are seeing our expectations for the players being met. I think the team has made great progress.”

Furthermore, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which the United States will face, advanced to the round of 32 with a record of 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss in the group stage, and their strength should not be underestimated.

Pochettino also said, "This is a very big challenge for us, and the pre-match preparations have not been easy. Austin Trusti's recovery is going much better than we expected. I hope he can make it to the bench. As for Christian Roldán and Mark McKenzie, the situation will be more difficult, but we will have to wait and see, because the situation can change a lot in 24 hours."

“We didn’t feel like we had a sure win; we were just confident in our performance and believed we could win. But we always respected our opponents and knew that if we wanted to win the game and advance to the next round, we had to play at our highest level.”

Image source: Internet