PHILADELPHIA — The lengthy line of soccer coaches and admirers in search of to fulfill the featured speaker final Thursday snaked alongside a wall of the big assembly room earlier than bending towards a small stage.
For some 40 minutes, Roberto Martínez greeted them with a handshake, smile and small speak, by no means exhibiting a touch of impatience or irritation. Portugal’s charming nationwide group boss had simply accomplished an hour-long dialogue on the United Soccer Coaches Conference, sharing his private story and answering questions on Cristiano Ronaldo, the fast-approaching World Cup, tactical choices and the game at giant.
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With individuals within the subsequent scheduled session starting to reach, together with former U.S. gamers Heather O’Reilly and Lori Lindsey, organizers marked the tip of the road. By then, although, Martínez had engaged with virtually everybody.
“Earlier, I noticed him upstairs shopping for espresso for folks he’d most likely simply met,” Lindsey stated.
Lower than 5 months earlier than the World Cup — and 10 weeks earlier than a pleasant towards the U.S. in Atlanta — the 52-year-old Spaniard was a preferred determine at a four-day occasion billed because the “world’s largest annual gathering of soccer coaches.”
A lot of the some 10,000 conventioneers are youth and school coaches, plus directors and product exhibitors, from throughout America.
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Martínez marveled on the enormity of all of it and the depth of engagement in U.S. soccer circles.
“The principle impression I obtained is the sheer potential of USA soccer,” he stated in an interview, bookended by extra appointments. “Whenever you take a look at the numbers and the way they have an effect on so many gamers, whenever you take a look at the fervour that exists and the tradition behind it, you’ll be able to perceive that soccer, with out being the No. 1 sport within the U.S., is kind of scary.”
(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports activities illustration)
(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports activities illustration)
Martínez accepted the invitation to not solely impart knowledge however to achieve a greater understanding of the panorama earlier than the World Cup. He and longtime assistant Richard Evans continued gathering details about journey logistics, time variations, climate impression and plenty of different elements.
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Ranked No. 6 by FIFA and boasting an absurd array of expertise, Portugal will arrive with excessive expectations after successful the UEFA Nations League final summer season. Two Group Okay matches in Houston — towards an intercontinental playoff winner and Uzbekistan — will precede a showdown with Colombia in better Miami.
Earlier than arriving stateside 5 days earlier than his June 17 opener, Martínez stated he doesn’t need to depart something to likelihood.
“It is such a fancy World Cup in comparison with the final one; Qatar was the exact opposite by way of every little thing was very centralized,” he stated. The 2022 match in pint-sized Qatar was Martínez’s second World Cup in command of Belgium, which did not get out of the group stage after advancing to the semifinals and ending third in Russia 4 years prior.
“I do not need to be discovering too many surprises throughout the competitors,” which is able to happen at 16 venues within the U.S., Mexico and Canada, he stated. “I need to handle the sudden as a lot as I can, however it’s the complexity of three nations, big distances and logistics. You’re attempting to keep away from uncertainty — or kill uncertainty — that the gamers and the group may have in a journey like a World Cup.”
Portugal’s Spanish coach Roberto Martinez gestures throughout the 2026 World Cup qualifiers Europe zone group F soccer match between Portugal and Armenia, at Dragao stadium in Porto on November 16, 2025. (Photograph by Miguel RIOPA / AFP) (Photograph by MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
(MIGUEL RIOPA by way of Getty Photographs)
Portugal plans to arrange base camp within the Miami space, despite the fact that the primary two video games are in Houston. It didn’t make sense to acclimate in Texas, Martínez famous, as a result of NRG Stadium is indoors. By advancing to the knockout stage with a first- or second-place end, Portugal would play within the Spherical of 32 in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, or Toronto. One other victory would ship it to an indoor venue in Vancouver or Arlington, Texas.
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To assist put together for the World Cup, Martínez drew from his experiences final summer season following the FIFA Membership World Cup round america.
Martínez will use the March worldwide window to additional preparations with a March 28 pleasant towards Mexico at Estadio Azteca in Mexico Metropolis and a March 31 conflict with america at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. (Each are World Cup venues.)
“We’re coaching at sea degree [in Playa del Carmen, Mexico] and taking part in at excessive altitude [in Mexico City], which is able to enable us to have plenty of info of our efficiency in these circumstances,” he stated. “Then going to Atlanta in a closed stadium to match a bit of little bit of what we will expertise” on the World Cup in Houston.
With the gamers dealing with as much as 50 days on World Cup task, Martínez opted to make use of the March window for intensive work abroad. After no less than per week off in Might, Portugal will play two dwelling friendlies earlier than touring to the U.S.
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“The [club] season is so lengthy for the gamers that it’s essential to cut back to a minimal the preparation to the World Cup earlier than the World Cup,” he stated. “So it’s essential to use as a lot time as you’ll be able to at dwelling to organize. Precedence No. 1 is: How can we kill psychological fatigue for the gamers earlier than a World Cup?”
Martínez is not any stranger on the U.S. scene, which partially defined his reputation on the conference. He was an ESPN studio analyst on location on the 2010 and 2014 World Cup and 2012 and 2016 European Championship.
Martínez stated he accepted ESPN’s 2010 provide partly to organize himself for teaching in a World Cup sometime. On the time, he was teaching Wigan within the Premier League.
“The season is so intense you haven’t any time to look how you can put together to be a global coach,” he stated. “So my thought was [to] do it once I’m on vacation to observe a World Cup, to be a part of the [ESPN] group of breaking the sport down, however internally, to organize myself to see how the nationwide groups would put together for the World Cup.”
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He spent one other summer season along with his Scottish spouse Beth in Connecticut close to ESPN headquarters to research the FIFA Confederations Cup. He has additionally assisted CBS Sports activities’ protection of the UEFA Champions League.
He beloved doing TV, saying throughout his Philadelphia seminar, “This is really easy, is not it? You take a look at what went improper and also you say what may have gone proper? The issues when you find yourself the coach, you need to guess earlier than it occurs. That is the toughest factor, however to be on TV and speaking about it’s the best job on the earth.”
MUNICH, GERMANY – JUNE 08: Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal celebrates victory with Roberto Martinez, Supervisor of Portugal, following the UEFA Nations League 2025 remaining match between Portugal and Spain at Munich Soccer Area on June 08, 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Photograph by Stefan Matzke – sampics/Getty Photographs)
(Stefan Matzke – sampics by way of Getty Photographs)
He’ll embrace the onerous half this summer season with Portugal, which has not superior previous the World Cup quarterfinals since ending fourth in 2006 in Germany. He has a wealth of expertise, that includes Ronaldo, Bruce Fernandes, Vitinha, Bernardo Silva, Rafael Leão, Nuno Mendes and Rúben Dias, amongst others.
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The chemistry, although, must be excellent.
“You do not decide the very best 26 gamers,” he cautioned on the seminar. “You decide the very best 26 members that make the very best group, which is an idea obscure. When you’ve obtained a participant that performs each minute and is the star of their [club] group and he involves a nationwide group and he can solely play 5 – 6 minutes [as] a supportive participant, it is a utterly completely different function. It’s totally, very tough to have a dedicated participant in that function.”
Martínez says there aren’t any such dedication points from Ronaldo, who in 2022 clashed with then-coach Fernando Santos and misplaced his beginning job at a serious match for the primary time in 14 years.
Forward of his forty first birthday subsequent month and his sixth World Cup, the legendary ahead has “the fervour and the starvation of a 16 years outdated,” Martínez stated. “Day by day is a chance for him to develop into higher. It’s very tough, after successful, to rise up the subsequent day with the identical conviction. That is what makes him completely different. I do not know if it is genetics or the habits he has created or a little bit of each, nevertheless it’s an actual instance that could be very uncommon.”
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Whereas Ronaldo stays a key determine, Martínez stated deciding on a beginning lineup isn’t the identical lately.
“We do not work anymore with beginning elevens,” he stated. “That is one thing from the previous. Now you’ve obtained 5 substitutions [instead of three]. When you solely coach the primary 11, you are going to miss an enormous a part of the preparation. … Some gamers will begin; some gamers will end the sport. … There aren’t any substitutes; there are game-changers.”
Since taking the Portuguese helm three years in the past, Martínez has cast a 25-5-6 report. The 2024 European Championship ended with a shootout loss to France within the quarterfinals. A 12 months later within the Nations League finals, Portugal defeated Germany in Munich and outlasted Spain in a championship shootout.
Now comes the World Cup, which has swelled from 32 to 48 groups — an growth criticized by many however embraced by Martínez.
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“A World Cup ought to be for everyone — the extra groups, the higher,” he stated. Nonetheless, he suggests a future format change that might reward the group winner with one fewer match within the knockout stage.
The match will unfold largely in a rustic with which he has grown acquainted. May he sometime need to coach within the U.S.?
“I do not assume anyone may sit down and plan a profession,” he stated. “My solely measurement or goal is to get to the tip of the day and go to mattress and say, ‘Yeah, I’ve performed every little thing I needed to do.’ My focus now’s simply to organize Portugal the absolute best means, and that is it. The day I end my contract, then it’s a new alternative, a brand new problem.”