GUADALAJARA, Mexico — The first loss of the Mauricio Pochettino era with the United States men's national team came far quicker than fans would have liked.

Tuesday's trip to Guadalajara, Mexico resulted in a 2-0 loss, with Fulham forward Raul Jimenez scoring a dazzling free kick in the first half and then setting up Cesar "Chino" Huerta early in the second period to lead El Tri to their first victory over the U.S. in eight attempts.

As one of Guadalajara's favorite sons, boxer Canelo Alvarez, will attest, there's always a rematch.

Whether it's in the Concacaf Nations League Final Four in March, the Gold Cup in the summer or another friendly as the World Cup hosts struggle to find high-level opposition, Pochettino and his squad will get another crack at Mexico in the near future.

Before the rivals meet again, though, let's take a look at some of the winners and losers of the first 10 days of work with the Argentine manager.

Winner: Mauricio Pochettino

Obviously a loss to a rival isn't part of the formula for a perfect start, but Pochettino still comes out of October looking pretty good.

Without a number of his regular starters, Pochettino ended up using every player available to him Tuesday except the backup goalkeepers.

The loss in Guadalajara doesn't take away the ovation he got from fans at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas after the victory against Panama last week. And it doesn't remove the good vibes generated from that game and the way he and his coaching staff are trying to build strong relationships with his players.

"We are happy, we are positive, we will be focused to improve with time," Pochettino said. "The players are fantastic. The behavior was amazing. It's a game we lose, of course, against Mexico that we wanted to win, but with the circumstances we need to be positive. We need to play more games like this to prove we can compete."

The USMNT manager had a simple request when asked why, after falling 2-0 to a Concacaf rival, fans should trust that he can make the team the best in the region and perhaps even a competitor at the 2026 World Cup.

"Give me time," he said. "It's just 10 days with a few trainings and circumstances we've talked about. Give us time. Let us evaluate all the players, get to know them, then I can have a better opinion of what we can create to get into the World Cup in 2026 with the conditions to compete for big things."

The case for believing in Pochettino would be much stronger had the U.S. avoided defeat Tuesday, but what we saw early is a manager who is doing his homework, understands the job at hand and is getting to work.

Loser: Midfield Depth Options

With Tyler Adams and Gio Reyna not fit enough for the initial call-up and Weston McKennie not seeing any minutes, it was a chance for some of the depth options in the midfield to show they were up to the task. They mostly didn't.

Gianluca Busio and Aidan Morris again started in the midfield with Yunus Musah reprising the deep, wide role he played Saturday. It was quickly clear that, against a Mexico midfield helmed by star Edson Alvarez, the U.S. wasn't going to win the battle in the middle.

"For me, they're young," Pochettino said. "For me, they have a good talent and quality there. I think today was difficult. The grass on the pitch didn't help players like them technically. We need to adapt. I'm happy with Busio, Aidan, (Tanner) Tessmann, young players that have amazing potential. It's only a matter of time.

That time is not here yet, though.

Morris ended up playing 83 minutes Tuesday after going the full 90 against Panama just three days before. It's clear Pochettino likes the 22-year-old, but he had a learning experience against Mexico and expects to learn even more from the new manager as time goes by.

"It's tough to have a bigger picture right now after you go through that, but it's been nice," the Middlesbrough midfielder said. "He's such a well-known coach and so nice and so knowledgeable about the game. It's early days, but I'm just trying to be a sponge right now and soak up as much information as I can."

The day may come when the midfielders who got the bulk of the minutes in October's matches are reliable depth options or even pushing for starting berths.

They weren't where they needed to be Tuesday, though, and the U.S. paid the price.

Winner: Getting Concacaf-ed

The confederation is undefeated.

Tuesday night was a throwback to a classic Concacaf night, the kind of game the U.S. rarely sees these days and will see even less of since it doesn't need to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The pitch was weird, the fans were loud, and the referee made several head-scratching decisions.

"It's tough. It's just about being able to control the event, the referee, the field, the fans," Morris said. "It's difficult, but it's the start of a new era, a new journey, and it's good to learn things like this early. It was tough to develop a rhythm. There were a lot of factors in the game that weren't easy by any means: The ref, the field, it's tough to develop a rhythm when that stuff's not going your way."

Oh, and then there was the brouhaha involving Alejandro Zendejas and Jesus Angulo, which resulted in everyone running in to shout, shove and generally try to look as tough as possible.

"It started to get chippy, and we didn't match the chippiness, didn't match the aggressiveness from about midway to the first half through halftime," U.S. center back Tim Ream said. "You go down a goal, and it's hard to get back in a game, especially away, especially in this environment. We dust ourselves off, analyze and look forward to November."

Pochettino started his playing career with Newell's Old Boys and went on to play for the Argentina national team. There's no doubt he's still got the fire in him to get his team over the hump in all types of environments, but they don't have it yet.

Loser: Miles Robinson

The loss isn't on Miles Robinson's shoulders, and Pochettino will give the experienced center back more opportunities. But the FC Cincinnati defender will admit his performance wasn't where it needed to be against Mexico.

To be fair, we don't know what the team sheet looked like before Mark McKenzie was scratched due to injury. Was Robinson even thinking he'd start Tuesday?

Perhaps the 27-year-old was expecting a different number of minutes, but he was burned after being tossed into the fire.

His poor response to the Mexico press in the 20th minute saw him boot a clearance directly to El Tri midfielder Edson Alvarez, who started an attack that ended with a foul just outside the U.S. box. Raul Jimenez converted that into the first goal of the game.

Later, Robinson found himself getting beaten in the air on several occasions and trying to take the ball off Huerta with a lunging tackle in the 49th minute. Huerta simply took a touch to move around the defender and finished off the second goal of the match.

Winner: Pulisic, Pepi and Others Who Missed the Mexico Match

We said it after the first match, and we'll say it again after the second: The U.S. team runs through Christian Pulisic.

So, when the AC Milan star isn't present, the void is notable. There aren't many national teams in the world that would have the same pop going forward without their best attacker, so it was understandable.

Still, it also made clear just how strongly Pochettino will need to lean on the 26-year-old as he looks to build a team that will be the best in the region and can hang with the world's best.

"We all feel disappointed because we lost some players and arrived a little bit short here, but I am happy and of course it was good to see players compete in the way that the high level demands," Pochettino said. "We can only learn from that."

Pulisc wasn't the only player whose absence made U.S. fans' heart grow fonder for. After no shots on target in the first half, it remained clear that the forward position is totally up for grabs, at least while Folarin Balogun continues to recover from his shoulder injury.

Brandon Vazquez registered two shots and was pushing for opportunities, but he couldn't get any traction against Mexico.

Pepi scored against Panama, but wasn't able to play against Mexico due to injury. If the 21-year-old can keep finding minutes here and there amid stiff competition in the Dutch Eredivisie, minutes will come with the U.S. in November.