Pochettino calls for patience after USMNT falls to Mexico

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) — Raúl Jiménez scored on a 22nd-minute free kick and set up César Huerta's goal in the 49th as Mexico stopped a seven-game winless streak against the United States with a 2-0 victory on Tuesday night in Mauricio Pochettino's second game as the American coach.

Mexico had five losses and two draws against the U.S. dating back to September 2019.

Missing Christian Pulisic and several other regular starters, the U.S. failed to have any first-half shots for the first time since an April 2023 exhibition against El Tri.

"Overall Mexico was a little bit better and fully deserve the victory," Pochettino said. "For us it is a process. It was a great opportunity for our players to visit a very difficult place to play. We can only improve and learn from this experience."

Jiménez curled a 25-yard-plus shot past Matt Turner for his 34th international goal. Jiménez created the second goal after he ran onto a through pass, had Tim Ream knock the ball away, then regained possession from the defender and centered to Huerta.

Huerta slid around Miles Robinson and beat Turner from near the penalty spot for his third international goal.

Pochettino, hired last month to replace Gregg Berhalter, led the Americans to a 2-0 win over Panama in his debut last week. His first competitive matches will be next month in a two-legged CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal against Jamaica.

"We need to play more games like this in order to compete," Pochettino said.

Javier Aguirre won his second game since replacing Jaime Lozano and returning as Mexico coach in August.

Fans at Akron Stadium yelled the homophobic chant that led to fines imposed by FIFA, but Costa Rican referee Keylor Herrera did not stop the game.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer