Varas: USMNT lacked the right “mentality” in historic defeat against Canada

Mikey Varas, interim coach of the U.S. men's national team, said his players lacked the right mentality during their historic 2-1 loss to Canada on Saturday at Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.

It was Canada's second victory over the USMNT on U.S. soil and the first in 67 years.

“The players are convinced of this mentality. They know it,” he told reporters. “We tell each other the truth. I love these guys. But they know they have to fight, run and make sacrifices. I can't take that away from them. That's up to them.”

When asked why the corresponding mentality is missing, he has no answer.

“I'm not a psychologist, so I don't know,” he said. “I felt the training sessions were intense. They were aggressive. But when the game comes, you have to go for it. And the players are the ones who do that. Coaches can only take you so far from a mental point of view.”

After defeats to Panama and Uruguay at the Copa América, the USA have lost three games in a row against Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica for the first time since 2015. A defeat to New Zealand on Tuesday in Cincinnati would be the Americans' first four-game losing streak since 2007.

“Today our mentality across the park just wasn’t up to scratch,” said defender Chris Richards.

Varas was promoted from assistant after Gregg Berhalter was fired following his team's disappointing performance at the Copa América, which saw the USMNT eliminated in the group stage of a home competition for the first time in history.

In front of 10,523 spectators at a slightly more than half-full Children's Mercy Park, Jacob Shaffelburg put Canada ahead in the 17th minute after Tim Ream's pass bounced off Johnny Cardoso. Jonathan David scored his 29th international goal in the 58th minute when Ream lost the ball in front of his own net.

Midfielder Luca de la Torre reduced the deficit with his first international goal in the 66th minute.

“Sometimes we just weren’t intense enough,” said de la Torre.

Given his short time at the helm, Varas took responsibility for Saturday's defeat by trying to introduce new tactical ideas.

“I think with the ball it's on my account,” he said.

“Because I want to present them with some ideas and you never know how that will translate from training to the game after three training sessions. And I've asked a lot of them, you know, and if there's a goal, then that's on me. Both goals, because when you don't have a lot of time to work and you want to play a certain way, it creates confusion.

“The players will take responsibility for the quality of the actions. The implementation of the ideas was not clear enough, because you shouldn't be static and you shouldn't pass the ball just for the sake of passing. You try to speed up the game as quickly as possible.”

Varas is not expected to lead the team for long. ESPN reported that Mauricio Pochettino has agreed to become the new coach of the USMNT. An announcement is expected in the next few days.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.