The biggest sign of difference for Mauricio Pochettino’s U.S. men’s national team was the smile on Yunus Moussa’s face in the 49th minute of a meaningless game.
Although it was just a friendly match against Panama, it was the USMNT’s first step toward the 2026 FIFA World Cup with Pochettino as head coach. The performance as a whole didn’t look like it was designed by The Six Million Dollar Man, but then came Moosa’s moment, which began to look more and more elusive with each appearance.
He finally scored.
His first international goal was the winning goal for the United States against Panama at Q2 Stadium in Austin, making it Pochettino’s more captivating debut than on the field in the team’s history.
Yunus Moussa scored the first goal of the Mauricio Pochettino era!
his first #USMNT!! pic.twitter.com/bMd6ANOJhf
— U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team (@USMNT) October 13, 2024
Pochettino said he was “very happy…really, really happy” with the efforts of players and staff to quickly adapt to each other and new ideas about how to play. The practice period leading up to this first match was only four days.
“I think their concentration and focus and the way they tried to follow the plan was amazing,” Pochettino said. “Obviously we wanted to dominate, but we know the team we played is a very athletic, very good team, but it’s going to be a difficult game. We didn’t give ourselves any chances in the first half. We created some chances.
“I think it was a very professional performance. It laid the foundation for the first steps to grow from that and start getting better.”
The USMNT needed a goal from Musah as it wasn’t easy to create chances throughout the game. They possessed the ball just 55 percent of the time, low for an American team against a CONCACAF opponent excluding Mexico, but scored on two of the three legal chances they created. The second goal came in stoppage time and sealed the victory. The goal was scored by substitute striker Ricardo Pepi. The other goal came from a beautiful feed from Giancarlo Busio and shot starter Josh Sargent crossed the goal.
Panama created two great chances but whiffed on both and spent too much time clogging up the space in front of U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner, conceding nine shots from inside the box. I was hit. Immediately after, in the 53rd minute, he made two brilliant saves to preserve the shutout.
Musah’s goal was a moment of beauty that made the remaining 89 minutes worthwhile. Still just 21 years old, Moussa earned his 41st cap for the United States, but this one was different in more ways than the most obvious. After playing more centrally for most of his early career, he was assigned as a right midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 formation, and initially as a ground-biting, ball-control midfielder in a 4-3-3. and most recently as a holding midfielder in the absence of injured star player Tyler Adams. Moussa didn’t play badly, but he didn’t play like Yunus Moussa either.
Pochettino said he wanted to re-energize Musah, who was one of the best players in the United States at the 2022 World Cup despite being just 19 years old most of the time. Giving him more offensive responsibilities did just that.
Three teammates worked together on the left to create a chance, with left-back Jedi Robinson evading a defender and delivering the ball to Christian Pulisic on the left of the penalty area for the goal. He rolled it to Brenden Aaronson, then cut toward the end line and was given the ball back. Pulisic made a powerful strike in front of goal, and Musa jumped out from the right side and made solid contact with his boot. The ball flew into the back of the net.
An hour later he was still smiling.
“I’m very happy,” Moussa told Turner Sports. “I’ve dreamed of it for a long time.”
Musah was pleased with the opportunity to play his entire shift on the right side, one of the few, if not the only, time he was deployed to the right side position for the USMNT. Pochettino recalled his time coaching Tottenham Hotspur when Moussa was in the youth ranks of London’s arch-rivals Arsenal FC.
Pochettino specifically took this action to build Musah’s confidence.
“First of all, it turns out that he knows a lot about my background. He knows everything about my academy days, how I played at Valencia and all that – that’s why I played wide today. ” Moussa said. “It’s great to have a coach who knows me and has a lot of faith in me because he knows I can play out wide.”
