The 11 clubs Mauricio Pochettino has faced and never beaten

Mauricio Pochettino is the new USMNT head coach. We did not think we’d be typing that sentence at the start of the year. We also weren’t expecting the news to be broken by a Fabrizio Romano regen with a knock-off catchphrase, but this is the world we live in now.

The reason this appointment comes as shock, at least to those of us based in Europe, is that, well, Poch is a really good manager and international management didn’t seem on the cards for him at this stage in his career. Especially at USMNT, who have not been great recently… Or ever, for that matter.

We truly mean no shade by that statement, it’s just that Poch took Tottenham to a Champions League Final, and PSG to a semi… He’s a pretty elite coach, and the best USMNT have had by a mile. By a hundred miles. In fact, he’s only failed to beat 11 sides he’s come up against in his managerial career. Let’s take a look at those sides.

Villareal

The Yellow Submarine are truly Poch’s bogey side. It’s weird. He faced them seven times, all as manager of Espanyol, and did not prevail as victor on a single one of those occasions. Poch’s Espanyol lost three of those encounters without scoring a single goal, and drew the other four 0-0.

Zero goals scored, zero wins.

SPOILER ALERT: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico etc. are not on this list, so the fact that Poch never managed to get the better of Villareal is bordering on curse territory.

Juventus

Okay, this is a little more understandable. Juve are a strong side and Poch has only faced them twice—home and away in the Champions League Round of 16 with Tottenham in the 2017-18 season.

Spurs managed an 2-2 draw away in Turin, but they’d already lost the home leg 1-2. A 4-3 aggregate loss put Poch and his Spurs side out of Europe, but there’s no shame in losing to a then domestically dominant Bianconeri.

Besiktas

In 2014-15, Poch and his Spurs team were battling their way through the Europa League. The group stages pitted them against Besiktas—no easy opponent—and the Turks did them 1-0 in Istanbul, and managed a 1-1 draw in London.

Cenk Tosun scored the winner in the first leg. Deary me.

Bayer Leverkusen

Nobody but Atalanta beat Leverkusen last season, but Pochettino didn’t face Xabi Alonso’s side—he faced a totally different Leverkusen back in the 2016-17 Champions League group stage, when Kai Havertz, Julian Brandt, and Bernd Leno were all still playing for Die Werkself.

Kevin Kampl scored the winner in a 1-0 win in London, whilst the return fixture was a 0-0 bore draw.

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player Mauricio Pochettino signed for Tottenham?

Brentford

Brentford v Chelsea is sort of a West London derby, even though there’s probably more animosity (and slightly less distance) between Brentford and Fulham.

However, it’s a fixture Pochettino will have been desperate to win as Chelsea manager in 2023-24.

It didn’t work out that way for him and his Blues. A 2-2 draw at the Community Stadium was followed by the Bees doing a number on Chelsea at the Bridge.

A 2-0 win for Brentford, with goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Ethan Pinnock. Less than ideal for Poch.

Xerez CD

Back in his Espanyol days, a younger Poch faced Xerez twice in La Liga 2009-10. Couple of draws. Jose Callejon was still playing for Espanyol in those days. Life goes by so quickly, man.

KAA Gent

Tottenham came up against Belgians Gent in the 2017 Europa League “intermediate stage” — that’s what Transfermarkt calls it. We’d call it the Round of 32 because we’re not insane.

Spurs played pretty much a full-strength team: Kane, Walker, Trippier, Mousa Dembele etc. Eriksen and Son came off the bench. It wasn’t enough, though.

Gent drew 2-2 with Spurs in London—a game in which Dele Alli got sent off for very nearly snapping Brecht Dejaegere’s leg in half at the knee.

The Belgian side then got the better of Spurs in Gent and that was that for the North Londoners’ European campaign that season.

READ NEXT: Where are they now? The 8 signings Mauricio Pochettino made at PSG

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player Mauricio Pochettino used as Chelsea manager?

CD Numancia

Poch faced Numancia once, in the season he took over as Espanyol manager. It was a 0-0 draw in La Liga, and we’ve never heard of a single player who took to the field for Numancia that day.

Poch never came up against the side from Castile and Leon again. That’s all we have to say about that.

Wigan Athletic

Wigan and Pochettino only locked horns once, in the Premier League back in 2013. Wigan were fighting for their Prem lives, as were Southampton who had recently hired Poch.

This one ended in a 2-2 draw, with goals from Rickie Lambert, Morgan Schneiderlin, Franco Di Santo, and Gary Caldwell.

It was the season when Wigan won the FA Cup and therefore qualified for the Europa League despite getting relegated from the Premier League, finishing in 18th. A crazy season.

Olympiacos

Champions League group stage 2019-2020, a 2-2 draw away to Olympiacos in Piraeus. The goalscorers for Olympiacos? Mathieu Valbuena and Daniel Podence. A combined height of 10’11”. Think we’ve found Poch’s Achilles heel—tiny attackers.

Recreativo Huelva

One of Pochettino’s first-ever games as a manager, shortly after managing a 0-0 draw against Pep Guardiola’s terrifying Barcelona.

This one ended 1-1 and Huelva went down at the end of the season. It is what it is.