Seattle, July 7 (IANS) United States manager Mauricio Pochettino said he was proud of his team’s World Cup campaign despite Tuesday’s 4-1 defeat to Belgium, insisting the tournament had laid the foundations for future success.

The Argentine said his side had failed to reproduce the form it showed earlier in the tournament, but insisted its overall campaign remained a source of pride.

“It hurts to be eliminated. We didn’t perform well today, and that’s the reality. Sometimes, during a tournament, you have one day when things don’t go your way. Unfortunately, that day was today. It’s not the right moment for it to happen, but we didn’t reach the level we had shown before,” Pochettino said in a post-match news conference after the round of 16 match, as quoted by Xinhua.

“At the same time, we should recognise what this team has achieved. We are very proud of our campaign together. We enjoyed the journey, and today’s result hurts because we believed we could go further,” he added.

Pochettino, who took charge of the United States in September 2024, said the World Cup had been a learning experience for his team.

“Improvement is never like a rocket going straight up,” he said. “A year ago, if somebody had told us we would be playing Belgium in the World Cup round of 16, everyone would have said we still had a lot of work to do.”

“Progress is not linear, and it’s not realistic to expect everything to happen quickly. We have shown that we can improve and compete. We have a generation of young players coming through, and they just need to stay on this path and keep improving.”

He praised his squad for maintaining a professional mindset throughout the competition and refused to appraise the performances of individual players.

“I’m happy with every player who was involved because of the way they behaved, their attitude, and their commitment,” he said. “We didn’t have a single issue over 40 or 50 days because everybody understood the ideas and showed respect.”

“This is not the moment to judge individuals. We are happy with the whole group,” he concluded.

–IANS

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