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INGLEWOOD, Calif. — For Mauricio Pochettino, the stakes of a meaningless fixture against Türkiye were straightforward. Simply come out the other side without any injuries or suspensions.
"Whether we win this game or not isn't going to change anything," the U.S. men's national team coach dismissed. What he found far more puzzling was the reaction from everyone around him following a 3–2 defeat.
"Right now, nobody is congratulating us for finishing top of a very tough group," Pochettino noted during a surprisingly tense press conference. The Argentine tactician made it crystal clear through his team selection that the result of a dead-rubber group stage match held little importance to him, having already secured qualification in first place with a preferred starting lineup firmly established in his mind.