USMNT and Colombia Both Face Uncertain Roads Ahead
The USMNT and Colombia are both out of the World Cup — the USMNT following a 4-1 Round of 16 loss to Belgium, Colombia on penalties against Switzerland after 120 scoreless minutes. That part of the story is already old news, with the quarterfinals now underway. The more interesting question for both programs is what happens next, and on that front, neither federation has much clarity to offer yet.
Pochettino’s decision, not just Pochettino’s future
Mauricio Pochettino’s USMNT contract expired with the tournament, and U.S. Soccer had already offered him a four-year extension through the 2030 World Cup before a ball was even kicked this summer. His answer, for now, is that there isn’t one. “Now is not a moment to talk about that,” he told reporters after the Belgium loss, adding that he wants time to rest before resuming conversations with the federation “in the next weeks.” U.S. Soccer’s own statement struck a similarly open-ended tone, describing “positive conversations” before the tournament and a mutual agreement to pick them back up once everyone has had a chance to reflect.
The complicating factor is Europe. Pochettino has been open about wanting a return to the Premier League, and was reportedly in talks with AC Milan before the Italian club hired Ruben Amorim instead — a job that’s now off the board, but hardly the last one that will open across Europe this summer. His USMNT record gives him real leverage in any negotiation: 17 wins, 2 draws, and 12 losses across 31 matches, a points-per-game mark that ranks fourth all-time among U.S. coaches with at least 30 games. He’s also reportedly the third-highest-paid international coach in the world at roughly $6 million a year, behind only England’s Thomas Tuchel and Brazil’s Carlo Ancelotti — which cuts both ways: it’s a strong incentive to stay, but also proof he’s valuable enough to command a similar number elsewhere. If he does leave, at least one report has floated Pep Guardiola, who departed Manchester City this year, as an ambitious dream target for U.S. Soccer, though nothing beyond speculation exists on that front. Whether he stays to coach a talented, mostly young core toward 2030, or a fresh European opportunity pulls him away first, is genuinely unresolved. It’s also the fourth time in the last five World Cups that the USMNT has gone out in the Round of 16, a pattern that will factor into how U.S. Soccer weighs the decision regardless of who’s making it.
What Pochettino did offer was optimism about the roster itself. “A lot of young players with a lot of potential and future,” he said, pointing to a generation of kids coming up behind this squad as reason for the program to stay patient. Whether he’s the one guiding that next generation is the actual headline here — not the Belgium scoreline.
Colombia’s coach faces worse odds, historically
Néstor Lorenzo’s situation carries a heavier weight of precedent. His contract technically runs through July 31, but there’s no automatic renewal built in — a new deal would need to be negotiated from scratch if he continues. History isn’t on his side: in six of Colombia’s seven World Cup appearances, the coach who led that campaign did not return for the next cycle. Only José Pekerman, Lorenzo’s own mentor, managed back-to-back tournaments, in 2014 and 2018.
Colombian Football Federation president Ramón Jesurún offered public support before the tournament, but has gone quiet since the elimination — a silence some Colombian outlets have read as a sign the federation is weighing a change. Names already circulating as potential replacements include Gustavo Alfaro, Marcelo Bielsa, Tite, Abel Ferreira, Zlatko Dalić, and Roberto Martínez, according to Colombian sports media. None of that is confirmed, but the speculation itself signals how open this decision actually is. Even inside the locker room, there’s no clarity: midfielder Jefferson Lerma told reporters plainly that the players themselves don’t know what happens next with the coaching staff.
Lorenzo’s case for staying is a real one. In four years, he took Colombia back to a World Cup after missing Qatar 2022, reached the 2024 Copa América final, and posted a win rate over 70 percent across 44 matches. His critics, including former national team coach Jorge Luis Pinto, point instead to a specific decision: continuing to start James Rodríguez deep into the tournament despite a form dip, at the expense of what Pinto argues should have been a results-first approach. Radamel Falcao, Colombia’s former captain and current ESPN commentator, was even sharper in his postgame analysis, saying bluntly that the team’s wings have been clipped by penalties too many times to call it bad luck anymore — pointing to the same shootout failure that ended Colombia’s 2018 World Cup against England in Moscow.
The technical staff itself is already showing cracks, regardless of what Lorenzo decides. Assistant coach Amaranto Perea has already left to take the head job at Deportivo Independiente Medellín, and Colombian sports commentators have flagged a deeper structural concern: an ongoing internal power struggle within the Colombian Football Federation that could limit whoever ends up in charge, Lorenzo or otherwise, from having real autonomy over the program.
The James Rodríguez question looms over everything
That criticism connects to the bigger uncertainty hanging over Colombia’s entire rebuild: James Rodríguez has signaled this World Cup may be his last with the national team. He joined MLS side Minnesota United on a short-term deal specifically to regain match fitness ahead of the tournament, widely described in Colombian media as his “last dance” before stepping away from international football. If that holds, Colombia loses the player who has been its creative center since 2014 at the exact moment it’s also deciding whether to replace its coach — a generational transition on two fronts at once, with no clear answer yet on either.
Where that leaves both programs
Neither federation owes anyone a decision on a specific timeline, and both have said, in their own ways, that reflection comes before conclusions. But the shape of the next four years for each program is being decided right now, in conversations happening out of public view. For the USMNT, it’s a question of whether the coach who built this young core sticks around to finish what he started, or whether a European opportunity pulls him away first. For Colombia, it’s a heavier lift: replacing a coach with a genuinely strong record, while also planning for life after its most important player in over a decade. Both teams know how this World Cup ended. Neither one yet knows who’s leading the next one.