Mauricio Pochettino showed up to the USMNT’s World Cup opener in a dark blue overshirt from Boss. Four matches later, the thing is still impossible to find in stock.
The shirt retails for $499. That’s not cheap. But within days of the team’s 4-1 win over Paraguay in their first group stage game, it was gone. Boss told Front Office Sports they restocked ahead of the Round of 32 matchup against Bosnia on July 1. It sold out again in two sizes within days.
The company won’t say exactly how many they’ve moved, but they did say traffic spikes during and after USMNT games. And that they’re seeing a mix of new and repeat customers. Pochettino has effectively become a walking billboard for the brand, and the numbers back it up.
But the shirt frenzy is just a side effect of something bigger. The USMNT is playing with a kind of urgency that wasn’t guaranteed coming into this tournament. Pre-World Cup talk was full of doubt. People wondered if Pochettino could translate his Spurs success to a national team setup, especially one that’s historically stumbled on the big stage.
So far, the answer is yes. The team has dominated possession when it matters. They attack without hesitation. Christian Pulisic and Folarin Balogun have been the names grabbing headlines, but the real story is how this group moves as a unit. Defensively solid. Poised in possession. Playing with the same composure Pochettino’s Tottenham teams had a few years ago.
That poise has already carried them past their own recent history. The USMNT’s best-ever World Cup finish was a quarterfinal run in 2002. They’ve already matched the energy of that team, maybe even surpassed it in terms of how they control games. Fans are starting to believe this could be the year they finally break through.
Of course, nobody in that locker room is satisfied yet. The players want more. Pochettino wants more. The fans definitely want more. And if they keep playing like this, that $499 shirt might end up being a collector’s item before the tournament is over.
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