Producers for a documentary covering the United States team before the World Cup revealed they had to ‘build trust’ with USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino after his bad experience with the ‘All or Nothing’ Tottenham series.
The Daily Mail was granted an exclusive look at the upcoming third episode of the HBO docuseries ‘U.S. Against the World: Four Years with the Men’s National Soccer Team.’
The episode details the early days of Pochettino’s tenure with the USMNT – from his announcement as coach and through to the frustrating loss in the CONCACAF Nations League in March of 2025.
It’s not the first time that Pochettino has dealt with such a filming, having previously been involved with Amazon’s football series ‘All or Nothing’ when his former club Tottenham Hotspur was highlighted.
But speaking with the Daily Mail, executive producers for the documentary’s filming company Park Stories revealed they had a difficult start due to Pochettino feeling unhappy with how he was portrayed in that series.
His shock departure from Tottenham was featured briefly at the start of the first episode of the series, with viewers surprised more detail wasn’t offered over his sacking, nor any tribute to how much the team improved under his guidance.
The latest episode of HBO’s docuseries on the USMNT covers Mauricio Pochettino’s arrival
Episode Three of the series focuses on Mauricio Pochettino’s unveiling in September 2024
It’s part of a five-episode docuseries covering the United States in the run-up to the World Cup
Fortunately, Pochettino soon understood that this time, things would be different – cameras even had access to part of a locker room outburst at his players after a loss to Panama.
‘Something we combat every day as filmmakers and storytellers is, you know, he really was treated very poorly in “All or Nothing,” the one they did on Tottenham,’ said director and executive producer Rand Getlin.
‘He had five years at that club. He took them to a Champions League final. So many incredible stories that could have been focused on. And in “All or Nothing,” he was given none of that, right?
‘None of the context, none of the dimension, none of the nuance, none of the care that you should have in our medium for the humans on the other side of the camera.’
Getlin says he was unaware of this when Pochettino arrived for the job to continue with the project that his predecessor, Gregg Berhalter, was a main character in.
‘If you could have chosen any other coach in the world – you know, from a storytelling perspective, from a documentarian standpoint – you certainly wouldn’t want one that had such a negative experience with a documentary crew in the past,’ Getlin added.
‘Building trust takes a really long time,’ noted executive producer Janina Pelayo. ‘It was a process, you know, like feeling it out, our words versus our actions and how we respect his space, the little time he has with these guys.
‘They’ve been amazing. It’s been kind of like feeling each other out at the very, very beginning to earn that trust and to kind of gage how we impact his camps.’
Cameras got access inside the locker room during Pochettino’s first game in charge
They also showed his mindset after a heartbreaking loss to Panama in the Nations League
The normally positive Pochettino was captured blasting his team’s ’embarrassing’ play
Pochettino’s level of comfort grew to the point where cameras were allowed inside the locker room in tense moments.
The normally outwardly positive Pochettino was seen criticizing his team after a loss to Panama in the semifinals of the Nations League.
‘If we believe that we are here [higher] and Panama is here [lower], we need to show it, and be aggressive and take a risk,’ Pochettino was seen telling his team a day after the defeat.
‘But yesterday we played 45 minutes all safe, safe, safe, safe, back, back, back, back. Embarrassing. It’s in our country, in our place’
He added, ‘They celebrated like it was the World Cup. For them it was the World Cup, for us, it was only a game. We need to show more… It’s about coming here to the national team and saying, “I need to die for the national team. I need to die for my teammates. I need to die for my competition.”
‘Because if not… It’s not only “Oh, I’m playing,’ … I need to come here and show that I am desperate to come and when I arrive, I’m going to be the best… because I want to compete, I want to win.
‘If we are not able to create that mentality, it’s impossible, it’s impossible.’
Midway through this discussion, Pochettino noticed the cameras and asked the filmmakers to leave before continuing to address the team.
Producers described Pochettino as being a ‘fundamentally positive guy’
Such an interaction is different than how Pochettino normally is viewed by fans and media. Getlin says that the Argentine’s typical positivity is how he normally operates.
‘He is a fundamentally positive guy,’ the producer said. ‘He likes to keep the vibes high. He likes to keep the bad energy away.
‘I mean, these are things that have been reported about him for years that, you know, he feels more deeply than people. And that’s to the upside, right? And he also really feels the downside as well.
‘So I’d say that, like, our experience with Mauricio behind the scenes is he’s a human being. At the end of the day, he has good days and bad days like the rest of us.’
Episode 3 of “U.S. Against the World: Four Years with the Men’s National Team” premieres at 9:00pm ET on HBO
