Mauricio Pochettino has urged patience as the United States continue their build-up to the 2026 World Cup.

With the tournament set to be co-hosted by the USA, Canada, and Mexico, preparations are gearing up for next year’s showpiece event. Pochettino’s team will face Ecuador on Friday before taking on Australia next Tuesday.

The USMNT are looking to build momentum after bouncing back from a 2-0 loss to South Korea with a 2-0 win over Japan in their most recent outing.

As automatic qualifiers for the World Cup, the US will meet an Ecuador side that has also secured their place, finishing second in CONMEBOL qualifying.

"I think we need time. We need to spend a lot of time, because of our knowledge and our capacity through our experience to take decisions to change," Pochettino said in his press conference.

"The only way we are going to see the result is by taking time because it's not a magic touch where you can just change things. 

"It's completely different from a year ago to today. I don't want to say if it is better or worse, it's just different.

"I promise, all the guys feel like they need to fight to be at the World Cup, and that is priceless. They know they need to be out of their comfort zone."

The USA, who were without both Christian Pulisic and Antonee Robinson during both their Gold Cup campaign and September internationals, have received a major boost with their respective returns, though they are both potential doubts going into Friday's clash. 

"We have some issues with some players like Christian, who didn't train today, and Antonee Robinson," Pochettino said.

"We have to assess tomorrow if he'll be available. Alex Zendejas is also facing something, some issues, and we don't believe Alex will be part of the game tomorrow.

"That is the circumstance that we have and we need to deal with it, but I'm not going to play about that. The players who are going to play, for sure, they are going to perform."