LOS ANGELES: An experimental United States line-up crashed to a 4-0 friendly home defeat to Switzerland on Tuesday, deepening the gloom around Mauricio Pochettino’s squad one year out from hosting the World Cup.

A game intended as a morale-boosting send-off before the USA take part in the CONCACAF Gold Cup unraveled in a disastrous first half that saw Switzerland 4-0 up after 36 minutes in Nashville. Dan Ndoye, Michel Aebischer, Breel Embolo and Johan Manzambi scored for Switzerland to leave a disgruntled home crowd at Geodis Park in Nashville raining boos down from the stands.

The defeat was the fourth straight loss suffered by Pochettino’s side, the first time the US has lost four in a row since 2007. Pochettino is planning for the USA’s Gold Cup campaign, which kicks off on Sunday against Trinidad and Tobago, without several key players who are unavailable.

AC Milan star Christian Pulisic was excused duty from the tournament after requesting a rest while Juventus duo Weston McKennie and Tim Weah are unavailable due to the Italian side’s participation in the FIFA Club World Cup.

Those absences left former Chelsea and Tottenham coach Pochettino having to dig deep to gauge the depth of his resources as the US builds towards next year’s World Cup finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico. On Tuesday’s evidence, the return of his European-based stars cannot come soon enough after Switzerland ran riot in a lopsided first half. Pochettino said he bore responsibility for picking the inexperienced line-up that were outclassed by the rampant Swiss.

“First of all it’s my responsibility the choice of the starting 11. I wanted to give minutes to certain players, but we were never in the game,” the Argentine said. US defender Walker Zimmerman attempted to put a brave face on the mauling, insisting there was still plenty of time for the side to improve before next year’s World Cup.

“It’s easy to look at one half and think this is all going to pieces, that we can’t come back from a result like this,” Zimmerman told TNT television. “But look at the build-up to 2022 -- we took down Morocco 3-0 and they made the semi-final. Things change. That was six months apart.

“So it’s not the end of the world. We accept that it’s not good enough and we realize that. That’s where the disappointment comes in, but we have to flip the script and we’ve gotta make sure we do not come out like that ever again.” – AFP