COLOMBUS, Ohio -- United States manager Mauricio Pochettino doubled down on his assessment that his team was the better side in Saturday's 2-0 defeat to South Korea, and that he's pleased with the progress the Americans have made.
The USMNT plays Japan at Lower.com Field on Tuesday in the second friendly of this international window, with the aim of getting back to winning ways following the South Korea match.
Pochettino said that upon reviewing the tape of the South Korea match, he was "even more positive" about the performance.
"Because I think we performed, despite the result, in a very good way," Pochettino said at Monday's news conference. "The players tried to do, they did what we wanted. I think I am positive because the players trust in the process, because they know that we have a plan, know here inside that we have a plan and we stick with the plan."
He added: "Of course, I'm the first guy that is interested to win because...we are very competitive. But in the same time also is the process and the plan that we have, we stick with that still.
"If we play the same game again, [and] we should learn in the way that we need to learn, we'll be closer to [winning]. That's why I'm happy and looking forward to tomorrow."
Pochettino said he will make several changes to his starting lineup on Tuesday in a bid to give playing time to some untested players. He explained that is part of his plan in order to have options when the time comes to name his World Cup roster.
"We need to understand too that we need to have [a complete] roster," he said. "Because if we only work with few players, but the moment after I write the roster and some guy arrived with injury and cannot play and cannot be in the roster, the World Cup is not a moment after to make tests or to give the possibility to get the experience."
Pochettino said he might experiment further with the five-man backline that was used for the last half hour against South Korea, with some success.
"Maybe yes, maybe we see that tomorrow. That is the plan [to try it] sometime," he said.
He then added, "We will see. We know, but we cannot tell you."
Prior to Pochettino's news conference, a U.S. Soccer spokesperson said that midfielder Sean Zawadzki had sustained a knee injury in training prior to the South Korea match and had returned to his club, the Columbus Crew. No details on the severity of the injury were provided, and no replacement player has been called in.