SAN FRANCISCO — There’s no tangible way to measure this, of course.
But it’s not outlandish to wonder if the U.S. national team would be playing in Wednesday’s colossal World Cup Round of 32 match against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara without the vision, want-to and financial aid of two men: Scott Goodwin and Ken Griffin.
The transformation of the USMNT to the way we see it now truly began June 27, 2024, when Goodwin, a former high school soccer player from Darien, Conn., who’s become a highly successful businessman, watched the USMNT lose to Panama 2-1 in a Copa América match that was marred by an undisciplined red card on forward Tim Weah.
Goodwin was so incensed by it all — underpinned by the bigger-picture direction of the program and the leadership of then-U.S. head coach Gregg Berhalter — that he started a text chain that ended up changing the course of U.S. men’s soccer.
He reached out to Kyle Martino, whom he’d played against in high school in Fairfield County, Alecko Eskandarian, who played at the University of Virginia with Martino and now works in Major League Soccer, and Sean Feeney, who’d worked for Goodwin at Anchorage and also played at UVA.
“When Tim Weah got the red card I said, ‘This is a chance to get an amazing coach,’ ’’ Goodwin told The Post this week. “A couple of weeks later, I saw in the press they were talking to [decorated European manager Jürgen] Klopp, and I said, ‘Wow, let’s get it done.’ Alecko, who works for MLS and understands the economics, said, ‘We can’t afford Klopp.’
“My response was, ‘What if I pay?’ He said, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘No, no, I’ll pay.’ A couple of days later he texted me and said, ‘Were you serious?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m serious. Let’s go.’ ’’
In the meantime, Goodwin was reading about available coaches and was immediately drawn to Mauricio Pochettino.
On July 10, 2024, Goodwin sent Martino, Eskandarian and Feeney a text message that read: “Pochettino is the perfect option.’’
That led to a breakfast meeting with JT Batson, the U.S. Soccer CEO, at Locanda Verde, a restaurant in Tribeca.
Batson, in that meeting, laid out his vision for U.S. Soccer, citing the difference that Emma Hayes had already made since being hired as the U.S. women’s national team head coach.
“Talking to JT about the long-term vision — unifying the youth system, bringing in a coach who can be a real leader, a culture carrier — I thought Mauricio, by everything I read about him, would be incredible,’’ Goodwin said.
About a month after that meeting, Goodwin said he got a call from Batson saying, “We have an agreement with Mauricio. Will you support it?’’
“I said, ‘Yes, what do you need?’ ’’ Goodwin recalled. “They came back and said we need ‘X,’ the commercial side will pay some and then we need more. I thought I was just paying for the head coach, but it’s also the assistant coach, the trainer, the analyst, everything.
“I needed to phone a friend, so I reached out to Ken Griffin, who I know a little from South Florida hedge fund circles. He’d been charitable in the soccer world.’’
Griffin had donated $8 million to the U.S. Soccer Foundation to fund the building of 100 mini pitches in Chicago and Miami-Dade County.
Pochettino was hired in September 2024. According to numerous reports, his salary is about $6 million per year, making him the highest-paid coach in U.S. soccer history.
The progress has not been a linear ride to success. There have been bumps along the way, with Pochettino’s decisions, methods and tactics sometimes questioned, as have some results in the World Cup lead-up.
But, now that we’re here — U.S. vs. Bosnia with a Round of 16 berth in the balance with a first U.S. knockout round victory since 2002 — we see there’s been a method to Pochettino’s madness.
Still, Pochettino’s understanding of American sports culture — particularly with soccer — has taken some time to set in.
This is where Goodwin stepped in after seeing Pochettino’s reaction to reporters’ questions following a resounding 5-1 win over Uruguay in a November 2025 friendly, at which several of the top American players were missing for various reasons, including club obligations and injuries.
“After that game, I was flying back to Palm Beach watching the press conference on the plane and a reporter asked, ‘This is a great result, but what about the regular players? What will you do when they’re back?’ ’’ Goodwin recalled.
Pochettino was exasperated, thinking that this was the best U.S. performance in years against a highly ranked nation and the reporters were asking about players who weren’t there.
“He had been struggling to understand U.S. sports culture — it’s an entertainment culture, whereas [soccer] culture in the rest of the world is a religion,’’ Goodwin said.
That’s when Goodwin urged Pochettino to watch “Miracle,’’ the movie about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, telling him, “It’s going to show you something about a nation coming together behind a national team. The U.S. does have that culture, that capacity for buy-in, to be inspired by a national team.’’
Pochettino watched the movie on his flight back home to Europe and, according to Goodwin, “He stopped about 40 minutes in and recorded a quote where [U.S. assistant coach] Craig Patrick asks [head coach] Herb Brooks, ‘Hey, Herb, this list doesn’t have some of the best players on it.’ And Herb says, ‘We’re not looking for the best players, Craig, we’re looking for the right players.’ ’’
Goodwin said Pochettino sent that clip to him and told him, “I’m crying.’’
Every match of the FIFA World Cup will air on either FOX or FOX Sports 1. If you don’t have cable, you can take advantage of a DIRECTV free trial to stream it all.
Prefer to check out the action live and in person? Shop World Cup 2026 tickets on SeatGeek and make sure to use promo code NYPOST10 for $10 off purchases over $250 at checkout if you’re a first-time SeatGeek user.
“After that, he started to get more into American sports culture, and you could see the team really starting to build a culture,’’ Goodwin said.
Anyone who’s been around the USMNT in recent years knows it’s been a more player-driven operation with the players running the show, not the head coach.
Pochettino has changed that culture, deftly commanding the respect of the roster with a disciplined hand while not alienating the players.
Goodwin recalled saying to Batson in their first meeting together, “I want whoever coaches this team to make the players believe in him enough that they want to sing the national anthem, that they want to feel it. You can see that they’re feeling it now.’’
“The fact that Mauricio is there leading the team in singing along to ‘Country Roads’ at the end of the game,’’ Goodwin said, “that makes me feel like my friend Mauricio is feeling very American.’’