expectations, at least on the outside. Internally, the group still believed the goal was singular: to win a trophy.

Tonight in Houston, players who have used this summer to try to force their way into the World Cup picture will get that chance against their rivals from Mexico. After two ugly losses in friendlies to start the summer, the Americans can end it with a continental title. To do so, they will have to beat the best team they will have seen since they were beaten by Turkey and Switzerland.

It felt, after those two friendly losses, that Pochettino’s desire to send a message to the wider national team pool was going to be a lost cause. But the U.S. squad’s ability to grind out results — albeit against Saudi Arabia, Haiti, Costa Rica and Guatemala — has given Pochettino enough of what he was looking for from the group. He wanted grittiness. He asked for more fight. It has not always been pretty, but this team has given him that foundational baseline.

Beating Mexico would only reinforce the message that heart, desire and fight can be a differentiator.

After the 2-1 win against Guatemala on Wednesday in the semifinal, Pochettino’s news conference turned into somewhat of an assessment of soccer culture in countries such as Argentina, where he is from, versus in the United States. Pochettino came away impressed by a highly partisan Guatemalan crowd, which seemed to hold an 85-15 advantage over the American boosters. For fans of the sport in this country, it’s not a new phenomenon. But Pochettino has been coaching this U.S. team for less than a year. He is still experiencing these things for the first time.

Guatemala was playing in a Gold Cup semifinal for the first time since 1996 and just the second time ever. That made it a must-attend event for their fans, who came from around the country to rally behind a team that had shown real character over the course of the tournament. The scene around the stadium all day Wednesday was a celebratory one. Blue-and-white-clad fans were out eight hours before kickoff, grilling and partying. When the national anthem started a few minutes before kickoff, the stadium vibrated with the voices of Guatemalan fans singing proudly.

“I loved it,” U.S. winger Diego Luna told reporters after the game. “It was awesome, man. That’s what every game should be like. The Guatemalans should be very proud of the fans that they have and the energy they bring.”

Pochettino loved it, too.

“That is football,” Pochettino told reporters after the game. “When we say the connection between the fans and the team, that is the connection that we would like to see in the World Cup. That connection that makes you fly. Because the energy translates.

“Today, do you think that was a sport, two teams playing, and doing a spectacle? No, you play for something more. You play for emotion. You play to be happy, be sad.

“I saw players of Guatemala crying. I said, ‘Congratulations, because you are in a good way.’ That is the way that we need to feel. And our fans need to feel the same. Things happen because you play for your pride, you play for many, many things. But this is good for our players. Because when we talk about culture, that is culture. To see Guatemala’s team, how it fights, how it comes here and how the fans behave. That is an important thing that we need to learn here in this country.”

It was less a critique of American soccer culture and more an acknowledgment of the reality of the growth of this sport. The 1994 World Cup helped to establish men’s soccer as a legitimate sport in the United States. It launched a professional league. Thirty-two years later, that culture is still growing.

Beating Mexico in the final can be a validating moment, just as it was at the 2021 Gold Cup, when a squad that was similarly missing several top players won a trophy. That win added to the culture and belief within the program. And several players from that group ended up making the World Cup team a year later.