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Friday February 14, 2025

Pochettino happy after ‘amazing’ USA beat Costa Rica

By AFP
January 24, 2025
USA goalkeeper Zack Steffen makes a diving save in Wednesday 3-0 win over Costa Rica. —AFP/File
USA goalkeeper Zack Steffen makes a diving save in Wednesday 3-0 win over Costa Rica. —AFP/File

MIAMI: Mauricio Pochettino said he has been handed a welcome selection headache after watching his youthful United States squad wrap up their January training camp with a 3-0 victory over Costa Rica in Florida on Wednesday.

Goals from Major League Soccer-based players Brian White, Caden Clark and Patrick Agyemang completed a confident win for Pochettino´s side at the Inter & Co Stadium in Orlando.

Wednesday´s game was the second of two back-to-back friendlies for the US following their 3-1 win over Venezuela on Saturday. With the games falling outside of the official FIFA window for international fixtures, Pochettino used the friendlies to run the rule over the US talent pool, with most of his Europe-based players unavailable for selection.

White opened the scoring for the US on 21 minutes, latching on to a perfectly weighted through ball from Diego Luna before firing a low angled shot into the bottom corner. Montreal´s Clark swept in the second goal on 77 minutes before Charlotte striker Patrick Agyemang blasted in a third in the 90th minute.