Latest / Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos / Pulisic Injury, Gio Scores a Goal, & USMNT World Cup Scouting Reports

Transcript

Pulisic Injury, Gio Scores a Goal, & USMNT World Cup Scouting Reports · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Twenty fourteen in the World Cup Brazil. You know, we
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: had not only a helicopter following the you know, the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: team bus. So you have a helicopter, and then you
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: have a number of police cars and police motorcycles, you know,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: leading the bus in front and also behind the bus,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: so you have all of those. Then there was there
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: was a couple of trucks full of soldiers, maybe twenty
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: five thirty thirty five soldiers.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Incredible. What's going on?
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Everybody? Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. I am USMNT
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: insider Tom Bogan. I'm joined by one of the greatest
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: players in US soccer history, a veteran three World Cups,
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: my good friend tab Ramos. Tab We're gonna be talking
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: about injuries and stuff high ankles and glutes and other discomfort.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: So I want to get to started with how are
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: you feeling?
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I actually feel pretty good. You know. I wish that
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I could feel the excitement of the World cuple a
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: little bit more, because I personally feel it just not
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: feeling it around me as much as I would want
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: to at this point. But I know that it's going
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: to gear up as soon as we name the team
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: in about two weeks, I think the excitement will certainly
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: start gearing up a little bit more.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: I will say one thing that trut lyad to excitement.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: HBO on Tuesday, May twelfth, releasing the first episode of
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: a five part documentary series called US Against the World.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Four years with US.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: Men's national soccer team, and I've gotten screeners. It's very
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: very good. So if people who have HBO, I think
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: that'll be a good way to really increase the excitement
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: and get you a taste of some of these guys
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: into their personal lives. They were very vulnerable with the
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: camera crew has been there since May of twenty twenty two,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: literally every single camp, every single day, inside of the
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: locker rooms, all that stuff. Like I was pretty fascinated
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: by the halftime and full time speeches, like we don't
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: really ever see that. You see sometimes sanitized versions of it.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: But I'm very excited about that, And I would say
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  Speaker 3: for fans that might be struggling with excitement, like you,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: I think that'll be a good watch for whoever's interested.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: But today we've got a busy, busy show and a
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: big one. We're gonna discuss the latest US seven ten news,
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: particularly the injuries Johnny Cardoso was out for the World Cup,
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: Christian Pools sick missed the game this weekend with a knock,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: and Giorana playing for Musson Gladbach and he scored his
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: first goal of the season. Then Tab is gonna give
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: us his scouting reports of all three Group sage opponents
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: at the World Cup, and reminder that's Paraguay, Australia and Turkey.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: A plus, we're gonna go inside the locker room with
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Tat for one of the best behind the scenes stories
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: from the ninety eight World Cup. We're gonna talk about
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: security and how to secure a World Cup and everything
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: fun there with him looking forward to it. But first, Tab,
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: the news has been confirmed. Johnny Cardoso is out for
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: the World Cup. He's undergoing ankle surgery for injury sustained
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: in training for Atletico Madrid. How big of a blow
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: is this for the United States?
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I think it's significant. And although I've heard other let's
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: say pundits, but former national team players actually not even
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: have them on the roster. I was really profiling Johnny
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Cardoso to potentially be a starter on this team, you know.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I think he and Testament were very close for me.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: At this point. And I think considering how Johnny Cardozo
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: has been playing and the type of games he had
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: been involved with, in the speed of play with which
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: he was playing, I think he was profiling more to
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: be a starter, certainly than than of course than not
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: being on the team. So I think this is a
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: little bit of a blow for us.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like he started a Champions League semi final and
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: he played in both of those legs. Like any idea
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: that he wasn't going to make the squad I think
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: was a little bit far fetched. Whether or not he
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: was going to be integral, I think to your point
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: was the better discussion points. But now he's not an option.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Tanner Tessaman, you say he missed. He's going to miss
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Leon's last game of the season with a bit of
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: a muscle strain. It is an abundance of Carston front.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: I've been told pretty much like if this was the
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: opening game of the World Cup, he'd be playing. Like
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: there's no point to risk it given where he is
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: in the season where Leonez and going towards the World Cup,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: and he'll be fine for the for the pre World
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  Speaker 3: Cup camp.
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  Speaker 2: So you have tarre Tessman, who you.
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  Speaker 3: And I I think we're leaning a little bit for
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  Speaker 3: him to be a starter, just because of the way
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: he compliments Tyler Adams better in that midfield pairing. This
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: opens up whether Malie Tillman is going to be dropped
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: further back. Again, I think we both think Wessell McKinney
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: is going to be further forward. And then in terms
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: of the roster, this gives a boost to the guys
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: like Sebastian Buralter, Christian Roodan, Aiden Morris. Those are three
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: of the guys I think that are fighting on the
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: bubble and now there's one less center mid in that
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  Speaker 3: rotation and somebody who is ahead of all three of
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: those guys. So I think in terms of the roster,
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  Speaker 3: those are a few people who may benefit or a
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: few people we should be talking about without Johnny Cardoso.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. I think you know, Sebastian Berholtzer for me,
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  Speaker 1: was one that was really on that bubble, right on
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  Speaker 1: that verge as the next next one in, and I
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  Speaker 1: think this benefits him and so and so I think
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  Speaker 1: I think it's it's a good spot to be in.
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  Speaker 1: I think Aiden Morris is finishing the He's strong at
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Middlesbrough as well, So I think he has a real
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: good shot of being part of this final team.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: And then elsewhere with injuries. Christian Poolisic has a bit
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: of a glute injury, which a source says is completely precautionary.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: They agreed with why ac Milan held him out this weekend,
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: again a similar situation to Testaman. There is not any
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: worry about his World Cup and is not I don't
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  Speaker 3: think any worry about him being feeling really good physically
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: going into camp. The Italian media calls it day to day.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: We'll monitor that, but I can think we've talked about
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  Speaker 3: Poolistic enough and his struggles on the field, and now
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: he's been held out with a bit of a knock.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: I think he'll be fine and we'll pick that up
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  Speaker 3: as we move forward. But tab Giorana scored his first
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: goal for Bruce and Motion and Gladbach after making a
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: summer transfer to the club. He came off the bench
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  Speaker 3: he scored in stoppage time in a three to one loss.
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  Speaker 3: Do we think it's meaningless or do we think it's
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  Speaker 3: a confidence Booths or Giorana.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: No, it's definitely not meaningless. I think it means something
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  Speaker 1: but I think I started to notice last week if
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: you remember on the show, and I said, you know what,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: his body looks a little bit different. And what I
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: liked about the way he played last week, although he
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: had played I think it was thirty three minutes last week.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I think it was the way he moved. I think
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  Speaker 1: he was involved. He wasn't just a passenger. I think
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: we've seen gi Arena the passenger for a long time now,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and I think last week I saw someone that was
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: committed to trying to defend, to getting to the ball
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: on both sides of it. And I think this week
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: had paid off. So hopefully that gives him a lot
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: of confidence and puts them right back in the picture.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: I got to speak to Giorana this morning in Joe
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  Speaker 3: Scally and one of the things I enjoyed about when
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: he was asked about the goal and he said, like, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it didn't really matter in terms of result,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: and I appreciated that that was his first response, and
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: the question was about him individually physically, personally, and he's like, yeah, well,
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: I mean it didn't really matter to the result. He
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: continued to say, like I felt good physically, obviously, it's
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: nice to score, but those little things I like, particularly
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  Speaker 3: with the play who has the history of what happened
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: at the last World Cup that has been regularly discussed
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: him complaining about his playing time. This morning, when speaking
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: to him, he made it a point to say things like,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I'm just quote, I'm just trying to do
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  Speaker 3: whatever I can help the achieve it help the team
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  Speaker 3: to achieve something great, whether it's starting and playing ninety
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: minutes or being on the bench not playing at all.
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  Speaker 3: I think we all have this mindset is one of
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: our strengths. Obviously, he's saying, I hope to make the team.
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  Speaker 3: I feel ready all this stuff. I want to play
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: a bigger role than I did last World Cup. But
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: he did make it a point to say, you know, hey,
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: we've all grown, We're all in it for the team,
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: and Giorna. I'm assuming it's going to end up on
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: the roster, but I guess we'll find out in two
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: weeks now.
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  Speaker 1: I think at this point we can't assume anything, but
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  Speaker 1: I think he certainly is putting himself in a better
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: position by the last two weeks, at least getting the
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: minutes in. You know, earlier in the year we both
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: were saying how he would benefit so much from getting
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: you know, twenty or thirty ninety minute games. That certainly
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: hasn't happened. He is not a player at this point
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: that will start for us at the World Cup. But
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: I think by taking that approach and by saying how
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: much he wants to help the team coming off the bench,
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  Speaker 1: I think that's exactly what we need for the World Cup.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: If he can do that for us this summer, I
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: think it'll be you know, he certainly will have a spot.
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  Speaker 3: I put that question to him into Joe Scally directly, like, hey,
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: do you think that you've done enough to make the squad?
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  Speaker 2: And he gave a pretty real answer.
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  Speaker 3: He rolled his sides a little bit because it's a
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: tough spot to be and he goes, quote, if I
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: say no, I'm not backing myself, but if I say yes,
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  Speaker 3: it sounds arrogant.
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  Speaker 2: It's a hard question to answer. It's simple.
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  Speaker 3: I love the staff, the players, the national team. Whatever
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: happens happens. I really want to be there, but the
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: decision is out of my hands. I'm just hoping and
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: waiting for the call up. It would be an honor
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: so Geo again has struggled for minutes this season. Despite
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: the transfer to Muchin Gladbach was four minutes to be
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: able to play more, He's played less than five hundred
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: league minutes. This is I believe five straight seasons of
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: him playing less than seven hundred league minutes in a campaign,
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: which is really disappointing and really unfortunate for a twenty
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: three year old. With the injuries that he struggled with.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: He's got a goal in the sist for glodback again.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: The goal came this weekend. And you know there was
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: a time in February and March where he didn't He
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: didn't play in like eight straight games. The first few
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: were injuries and the rest he was just unuse sub
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: off the bench, and he was called into the March
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: friendlies and he played for the United States while he
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: wasn't playing for Globbak. So again we're always going to
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: be looking at his physicals. That he also said quote,
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: I feel ready to play ninety minutes and to give
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: my max you can say a few one hundred percent.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: I feel very fit and sharp. All I want to
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: do is show that on the pitch.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: So with Geo, it's always going to be this kind
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: of question of his physicality and like this hypothetical of
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: is he ever showing what we know he's capable for showing.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: But the other hand of like, well, there is what
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: maybe two players in this school who can do the
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: top end of what he does, but he doesn't really
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: show it all that much now because the physicals it's
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: just just an age old quandary.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And in the end, it's also about how other
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: guys are doing, right, because Riza Pachettino has to pick
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the best out of you know, where they are, you know,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and I think you know, those last couple of spots
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: in that area. You know, we're talking about Sindjas, who's
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: who's playing. Well, we're talking about Aaronson who is also
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: playing all the time. And I cannot imagine this team
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: without Aaronson with this type of season that he had.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: And so he's fighting against a couple other guys that
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: also deserve and let's not forget Diego Luna, right, because
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Diego Luna is also contributing an MLS and and I
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: think between those four guys, likely three make it, you know,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: And so it's not easy. It's not easy, that's for sure.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: A good weekend for some of these guys. I think
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Aaronson's a little bit ahead of the others just for
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: his season performances and and you know exactly what you're
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: getting from him all the time. But Diego Luna, Sebastian Burhalter,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: alex In Dejas twice, all of them scored. Giorana scored,
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: So it was a good weekend for attacking midfielders on
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: the roster bubble tab I had one more thing that
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: I wanted to talk to you about from the Georreana
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: availability this morning. He was kind of asked that Claudio
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: didn't play at the ninety four World Cup, and the
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: question was to the effect of that was a home
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: World Cup. Now you're coming to a home World Cup.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: Do you kind of feel like it's like unfinished family business,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: like in a positive way of you know, do you
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: talk to your dad about that and he's like, I
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: mean not really. He goes, you know, yeah, he didn't
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: play there, and then he had a lot of great
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: tournaments for the United States after that, and he goes,
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: you know, I didn't really play much at the last
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: World Cup. So hey, I'm hoping that maybe I could
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: follow in his footsteps. In that way, and tab I
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: just thought that was something interesting.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: First of all, those are big shoes to fill. I'll
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: start with that. But yeah, Clodia was a young player
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: in ninety four. He had been coming off i think
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: an ankle injury, so I'm not even sure if he
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: dressed for games, but he was there. And no, I
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: don't think I don't think GEO would be. And again
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: you spoke with him and he just said this, I
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: don't think it. I don't think it's a time to
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: think about. Hey, I'm going to pick up where my
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: father left off because it was the home World Cup,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: So I think he's got his own work to do,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and the work that he has to do has to
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: be for himself.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and then to be fair to Geo, like, it's
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: not as if you was seeking out some of these
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: questions sometimes, I'm again, I'm glad that you even brought
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: it up, because sometimes these quotes come out and people
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: maybe don't have context and think, like, why is he
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: talking about this? Well, it'd be a lot weirder if
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: you just sat on the call saying no comment, no comment.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: Oh I want to answer that one. Yeah, I want
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: to be called in the national team, no comment, no
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: comment right, Like I thought, it was very normal within
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: within the run of the conversation. But again Giorana. Joe
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: Scalley is another one. A lot of the questions were
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: framed to Geo, but Joe Scalley, he just became a
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: few weeks ago the youngest non German player to ever
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: reach one hundred and fifty Buonsigue appearances. He's been at
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: both of the last US M and T camps. I
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: think he's another one that's on the roster bubble. He
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: didn't play at the twenty twenty two World Cup, but
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: he was on the team, so very very interesting decisions
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: to be made at the bottom of the squad, which
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: next week we're gonna give our final roster projection. So
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: we're gonna talk about all of this and much much deeper,
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: and next we are going to go in to the
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: US World Cup group stage preview. We're gonna talk about
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: tricky a Paraguay and Australia. So we're gonna take a
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: quick break and we'll be right back. Please rate, review
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: and subscribed Inside American Soccer with Tom Boger tab Ramos,
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: where you get your podcast. Welcome back to Inside American
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: Soccer and TAB again. We are a month away from
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: the United States kicking off their journey at the twenty
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: twenty six World Cup, and this is a unique one.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: This is the biggest one ever. There's forty eight teams,
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: which means more games, more travel, more host countries. There's
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: a lot of new aspects of this tournament.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: TAB Yeah, there is, and I'm glad you mentioned the
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: forty eight teams because this is the first time we're
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: going to have forty eight teams. So although the World Cup,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I always feel like that the number one ingredient that's
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: important for teams is experience, sort of having to be
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: there playing that game for your country that you have
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: to win, where your whole country is watching. There's a
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: lot of pressure on the players from all over the world,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: and I think with forty eight teams, we're gonna have
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: quite a few that don't have as much experience. And
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I think there's other there's a couple other components to it.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: I think the distance between games. You know, obviously we're
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: playing the World Cup in three different countries, so the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: pressure on the managers is going to be a little
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: bit more this time, and not just because of the
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: recovery of traveling from place to place and playing games,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the different weather, potentially different time zones. All of those
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: things come into effect probably, i would say, for the
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: first time for most of the people that are going
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: to be at at this World Cup. Right, if we
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: were going to take experience into the account into account,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: this very little experience in terms of what we're gonna
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: see this World Cup. For managers, also, let's not forget
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: that it's the first time that the roster is so big.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: This twenty six players and we think, okay, twenty six players.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: If you're looking at it from the outside, you're thinking, well,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: more options For a coach, Let's not forget when you're
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: a coach sometimes having a big roster is not necessarily
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: a good thing, right because now you have twenty six
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: players who are hoping to play, Right, If they're not
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: hoping to play, then why would they be there in
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: the first place. And this is something that for managers
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: it's not easy to manage. Right now you have a
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: bigger roster. You have potentially six or seven guys out
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: of the twenty six who will not see a minute
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: of the World Cup, and that's not easy to manage.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: It's not easy to manage in the locker room, even
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: though everyone's happy to be there, as soon as things
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: maybe don't go well. Having a big roster could could
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: be negative for a team. I'm just I'm throwing out
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: there all of the things that can be different in
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: this one.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so a few things that are particularly interesting. One
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: the distance between games, not just in like miles covered,
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: but like USA Paraguay kicks off the group stage, they
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: play Australia a week later, a full seven days later.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Because there's more teams and more games, everything's a bit
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: more spaced out. That wasn't what it was like in
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: the past. And then you talk about the roster. They
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: did end up changing.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Guitar like late. It was like I think they called
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: it like a COVID especially whatever.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: They made the squad twenty six, one, two, three, four
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: five six players did not play, only two of which
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: were goalkeepers. Then there's Jordan Morris who had four minutes,
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: Shaq Moore had twenty two, Deandreyeedland thirty three. There was
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: like Giorana at fifty three was somewhere near the middle
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: of the squad. That's like, you know, half of your
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: team is playing a half of soccer or less at
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: this tournament. So it's it is interesting to try to
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: manage all of the people and all of the Yeah,
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: we're happy to be here, We're happy to do whatever
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: we can for the team, and sometimes that means that
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: I'm just need to be training really well and be
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: a positive influence on the group. But everybody's there wants
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: to play right like, so it is interesting for me.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: I'm a little old school. I really don't think the
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: squad needs to be twenty six players.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: But that's again I'm gonna sound like like an old
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: man complaining about that.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: So it is.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: It is a different kind of aspect for this group
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: where you know who the seven or eight key key
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: players are. Even under Mariso Pochattino, who has had so
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: much change, maybe we'll see more players play under him,
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: just because of the nature of Pochettino, But I don't know.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: There is a lot more to go into it, and
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: most importantly tab that we haven't spoken about yet. At
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: the World Cup, it was the top two in your
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: group get through. It's that simple. You know exactly it's
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: contained to that one group and you know what you
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: need to do to finish. Now, about three quarters of
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: the third place teams we'll get through, and that makes
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: it difficult. So we think three points could be enough,
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: should be enough. Four points, definitely, I think is going
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: to be enough to get through. But tep, we don't
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: really know because it's the first time.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're right, which means that every team is
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: alive going into the last game. So winning winning your
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: third game and getting three points will likely put you through.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Because I'm sure there will be plenty of teams that
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: tie just one game and get one point, or tie
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: maybe two games and will be knocked out. There's a
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: lot of groups that are that are a little bit
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: tighter and and they will have you know, potentially some
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: teams will have trouble winning winning a game. So with
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: three points, I think you're right, some teams will go through.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: I'll go into some other some additional things that are
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: coming into this World Cup I think that are important.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Let's not forget the hydration breaks. These are mandatory, right commercials, Yeah,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the hydration breaks are mandatory now so too. You know
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: they are called hydration breaks. But the reason I mentioned
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: them is because it's a great opportunity for coaches to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: sort of fix their tactics. Right, there's really no excuse
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: now that the players can't hear you because the statement
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: is full, which is by the way, it's not an excuse,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: it's a reality. Players can't hear coaches on the field.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Normally you'll have to talk to the player that's closest
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: to you, who can relay a message to other people.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: But in this case, I think with the hydration break
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: there there can be some important tactical adjustments that will
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: come into play, and that's certainly part of the uh,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: you know, part of the thinking when it comes to
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: coaching in this World Cup.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: The go ahead, keep going, keep going, No, I think
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: One of the things that the fans will see and
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: that has been implemented to a certain extent, but not
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: everybody is aware, will be the eight seconds for the
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: goalkeeper in the goalkick, right if you don't if you
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: can take the goalkick within eight seconds, it will be
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: a corner awarded to the opposing team. So I know
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: that we've seen this already, but I think for people
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: that are not directly connected every day to the sport,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: this may be something new, wondering, hey, what just happened,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: you know, how come it's kind of corner. So just
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: so you know, the goalkeeper has eight seconds to take
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: a goalkick, otherwise there will be a corner awarded to
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the opposing team. There will also be the five second
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: rule for the throwings. Okay, so when a player gets
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: the ball on the sideline and he's ready to throw,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: normally the referee will put his arm up and sort
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: of signal to take the throw. At that point, you
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: have a five second countdown. If you don't throw the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: bull in within five seconds, the throwing will be awarded
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: to the other the opposing team. So this may happen.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but be ready if
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: you know, for fans, if they see that that this
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: is something new that that that will be happening. As
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: well as the substitution. And we've seen some of this
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: before obviously with you know, MLS and and but I
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: think it'll it'll be the first time I think for
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of fans to see that when you get
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: subbed out, you have ten seconds to come off, and
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: if you don't come off within ten seconds, the player
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: coming in will have to wait a minute before they
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: come into play. So it will be a minute plus
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: next stoppage, so they don't automatically come in in one minute.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: And I and I say it this way because it'll
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: be you know, the I think the fourth official will
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: keep the one minute and then next stoppage will allow
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the player in. We'll call the referee and allow the
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: player in. And I say it this way because it's
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: different than when you have an injury. Because during an injury,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: when you come in and you're helped, if the medical
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: team has to be called in, you automatically have to
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: sit out for one minute. But when that minute is up,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: even if the player is running, the referee can signal
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: for you to walk on the field. So that's that's
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the difference between those two.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, those rules, like you said, they are all implemented
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: in MLS, and even still, as somebody who watches just
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: about every second possible of that league, sometimes it can
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: be a bit confusing to me too. So I'm looking
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: forward to fans getting caught up on this. Yeah, it's
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: a lot, it's a lot to handle, and this will
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: be historic will Cup for a number of reasons.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: But let's get into our group stage.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: There are two there are two quick things that I
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: that I want I mentioned before we go into the teams,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: because I'm actually more excited to talk about the teams
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: and I have to talk about rules. I had a
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: three hour meeting yesterday which I couldn't wait to get
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: off my zoom. But you know there's gonna be some
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: VAR help on corners. So if there's an obvious corner
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: where the VAR where the game doesn't stop it all
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: so it doesn't go into review, but if the VAR
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: can help, Let's say there was a deflection obvious deflection
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: and the referee called the goal kick instead of a corner,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: and the VAR can fix it immediately. It will let
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the referee know and it will be fixed for a
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: corner or vice versa. Right, So if if the referee
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: called the corner and it's obvious that it's not and
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the VAR cain picked it up without wasting any time,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: they will they will let the referee know. Just so
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: that that's something that was discussed as well as the
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: VAR review on a second yellow. So when there's a
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: second yellow that can go to review. VAR just want
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: to make sure that the fans are aware that that
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: can happen. Now as well.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: Now that was a very good and important information, even
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: for me to be reminded of some of these things,
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: particularly the var with the corner kicks and the yell cards. Yeah,
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: there'll be plenty of stoppages, which I'm sure the corporate
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: FIFA aren't gonna hate, a lot of opportunities from more advertising.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: So the bottom line of the nonprofit always wins. Let's
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: get into the opponents at the Group States. For the
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: United States, We're gonna go in order here. I'll just
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: lay out again June twelfth, that kicks off against Paraguay,
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: June nineteenth against Australia, and then June twenty fifth against Turkey. A.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: We'll start with Paraguay. Tap the news around the team,
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: star midfielder Brighton hov Albion midfielder Diego Gomez. He hopes
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: to be back for Brighton's last league game, but he
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: won't risk it if he's not one hundred percent ready.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: All that is to say he'll be good for the
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: World Cup, though he did fear the worst when he
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: went down with a non contact knee injury about a
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: month ago or six weeks ago. Happy for him just
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: personally to not miss the tournament because of an injury,
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: but so tab Paraguay also has Miguel Morone who's had
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: a little bit of an injury. He's he's gonna be
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: completely fine for the World Cup. So they are in
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: pretty good shape in terms of injury news. But tell
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: us tell us more about Parkway.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, So this is obviously a team that's been through
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: a few wars in South America. Let's not forget that
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: they've beaten Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay and not many teams
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: have ever done that in South America. So this is
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: a team that knows how to play without the ball
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: in South America. Although they qualified for the World Cup
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: and they did well and they deserved it, and they qualified,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I think with two games to go, they still had
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the ball only thirty eight percent of the time on average,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: So not a lot. Let's start with the coach. I'll
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: say Gustav Alfaro, who has been really a great coach
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: and many different levels. If you remember, he coached the
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Ecuador team in the last World Cup and had to
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: you know, I think the neat part of that is
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: that he was able to play against Qatar in the
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: last World Cup, who was also the host, so he's
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: sort of used to now he has that experience of
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: haven't played against the hosts, which I think is important
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: if we look at the Ecuador squad as a whole.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: This is their eighth World Cup, the last being in
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: two and twenty ten in which they made it sort
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: of quarterfinals. That was Paraguay's best showing ever at the
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: World Cup, and they were two times South American champions,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: So it's a team, it's a country that's won the
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: South American Championship a couple times. In terms of lineup,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: they're they're likely going to go with Roberto Fernandez and goal.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: They'll go with Casseres on the right side, Gustavo Gomez
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: will be the captain, and we'll play the right side
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: of the center back, pairing with Aldrette on the other
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: side Junior alone, so we'll play the left side. In
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: the center of midfield, they'd likely go with Bobadillas, Cubas
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: and Diego Gomez with al Maron sort of that left
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: sided four to four to two guy, because they played
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: more of a four to four to two and we
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: know that al Moron makes that effort. And then up
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: front and Siso will be a little to the ripe
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: of roaming into the middle of the field, Sinabria be
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: in the nine. That's sort of that's sort of the
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: lineup that in general we think that we're gonna see
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: from Paraguay. Obviously, a couple of things I'll say right
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: off the bat Alma Run is really not the player
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: he has been in the pass, so I think not
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: not a huge danger in terms of defending that side.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: But overall this is this is a solid team. This
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: is a team that likes to play without the ball,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: will play without the ball, and will cause trouble on
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: the counter attack.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so that that's where I was going to go.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: In terms of their general playing style, we would expect
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: defend deep, defend like hell, defend really really well, I
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: should continue to add, but they want to hurt you
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: in transition. Surprisingly, they had forty four percent of the
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: ball when the US played and beat them in November.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: I believe it was two to one. Gi Arena scored
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: in that game, so Baligin. But that was just a
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: feisty game. There are no friendlies when those two teams play.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: If you remember, at the end of the game was
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: when there was a bit of a melee where the
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: teams came together. Richo Pochatino went down near the near
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: the camera banks, Miles Robinson was putting a headlock and
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: and everything kicked off from there. So I'd expect a
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: little bit more of that. This team is very, very
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: difficult to play against. And Ken Hurtuin transition's have i'd say,
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: and Siso Diego Gomez or are the two players to
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: watch and al Maron to a lesser extent, depending on
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: if he can rediscover a little bit of magic for
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: a month. But are those the three guys that you
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: would talk about as well?
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no doubt. I mean, I look, you know,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and I'm glad you mentioned that Diego Diego Gome is
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: going to be back for that for that last game
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: for Brighton, because I really look for this player to
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: have a great World Cup and you know, if you know,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: for all the for those of us who will watch
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: him play in MLS and then watch them play, you know,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: for Brighton, we see a player that's just getting better
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: week to week, and I think this World Cup will
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: be a good show for him, will be a great
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: opportunity for new people to watch him play. And then
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: in Siso, we've we've obviously seen he's playing Strausburg right now.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: That's one of the Chelsea club So there's a possibility
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: that you know, that's the next connection and that's the
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: next club that he goes to. But but I think
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: this is gonna be one of those players that could.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: But if Paraguay is gonna do well, it's going to
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: be because Ncso at some point we'll have to put
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: this team on his shoulder and make the plays that
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: win the game. Because we know that this team has
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: great chemistry, they defend well, they're extremely organized, but it's
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: what they do with a few chances that they get
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: at the other end that's gonna dictate how how this
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: team will finish.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: What do the United States need to do to pick
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: up three points in this game? And what do you
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: think will happen?
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Well, I think I think you know. And this is
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: this is where we go into us being patient because
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: we're gonna need to be patient with with Paraguay. We're
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: not we're not a great team in terms of holding
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: the ball when when the other team gives it to us,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: and I think that's gonna be difficult for us. We're
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: gonna need play, We're gonna need polistic to break this
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: team down through the middle. We're likely gonna need Way
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: if he plays on that side, or so Jenior Desk
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: if he plays on that on the on the right side,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: to go right at Junior Alonso on that side, because
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: I think that could be that could be one of
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: their weaknesses in terms of the defensive side to break
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: them down. But I think ultimately this is going to
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: be a scrappy game. But we're gonna have to be
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: crossing balls into the box and likely going to have
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: to bring a second striker late in the game if
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: the game is not going our way. Because I see
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: us getting a lot of crosses and putting the ball
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: in the box.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: I would agree there so that that'll be what needs
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: to happen against Paraguay. This is a game that I
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: think fans will be expecting to win. I will reiterate
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: what I've said on the show probably fifteen times, but
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: this is no disrespect to Paraguay or Australia to leus
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: to another extent, there are no easy games at the
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: World Cup, but there are certainly games that are harder,
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: and in this group, three points against Paraguay would set
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: this team up off to a really really good way,
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: both obviously on the field in the standings, but also
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: the the atmosphere around the group and within the fans
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: and everywhere else.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: So, but Tom, I will add this about this game. Obviously,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: first game of the tournament. It is difficult to have
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: a good tournament if you don't win the first game,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: and it's and it's sort of easy sailing if you
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: do win this first game. And so I truly believe
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: that this game is key for both teams. I think
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: I think, who if the US wins this game, I
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: think they'll end up first in the group. I think
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: if Paragua wins this game, they will end up first
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: or second. But I think there's no question for me
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: that whoever loses this game will end up third.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's it's a really really pivotal match. If
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: the last World Cup of the United States drew Wales in
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: the opening game and it created a very very tense
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: third game against Iran that they just squeaked by to
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: get through, again, things are different now the third place
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: team could or should be able to get through as well.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: That's Paraguay. Game two is against Australia. They don't have
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: many injury concerns. They have a right back plays for
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Blackburn that is out, which is unfortunate, but I don't
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: know if he was going to be a starter or not.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: There's Nashville midfielder Patrick Yasback who just picked up a
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: quad injury. He will not play for Nashville over the
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: next three games before the World Cup, breaking MLS. His
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: participation at the World Cup the summer is this summer
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: is in doubt. I think he would have played a
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: decent role for the team, so they're gonna have to
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: monitor whether or not he can play. But he's not
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: one of their you know, three or four most important players,
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: but still he may be out that as an injury
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: to watch. So tap tell us a little bit about Australia.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, we could start by saying,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: first of all, Australia is ranked twenty seventh in the world.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: They're Asian champions one time, so they won the Asian
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: the Asian Cup in twenty fifteen. I will also they
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: say this about Australia. Australia used to be on that
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Oceania group and they decided to go into Asia to
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: get more competition. So a lot of respect for that,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: because they easily could have been qualifying to every World
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Cup by having stayed in the area where they actually belong.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Right they went into Asia, much more difficult. They get
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: to play the likes of Japan and all of the
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: other Asian teams so much more difficult. So they've done
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: a good job. They won the Asian Cup in twenty fifteen.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I will say this overall, for what I know, although
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: they've been to the round of sixteen at the World
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Cup twice in two thousand and six, in twenty twenty two,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: this is not the old Australian teams that we've seen.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: This is not k Hill and Vaduka and those guys
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: that could really hurt you if you weren't let's say,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: if you weren't at the top of your game for
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: ninety minutes. This is a little bit difficult. I don't
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: rate this Australian team as much. Of course, they're organized,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: they're disciplined, they're physical, they disrupt the opponents. They do
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: a really good job with that. They also, let's say,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: their coach Tony Popovich, has done a really good job
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: in terms of picking apart the lesser opponent tactically. You know,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: he did a really good job, you know, whether he
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: was playing you know, at even New Zealand and friendly games,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: he knew how to pick them apart tactically, and so
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: this is a very smart coach. But I think he
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: realizes that he just doesn't have the weapons to go
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: all out against all these other teams. So having said that,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: they play out a three four two one, that's what
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: they like to call it. I call it more of
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: a five four to one, but they call it at
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: three four two one. So let's just let's just go
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: with that. In general, I think, you know, having said
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: all the things that I just said, they can beat anyone.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: You know, they really can because they're athletic and they're
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: physical and they're not going to give up for ninety minutes.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: So you have to beat top of your game they
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: you know. In terms of lineup, I think, you know,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Matt Ryan will playing goal. I think he's getting ready
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: to bake break all the records of Caps. Yeah, and
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: so he'll play, uh in the back. They likely go
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: if we're gonna call this a three, they're probably gonna
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: be probably gonna be a Jeria with Cherkati and Burgess,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: although that could be Harrington as well. You know, they
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: could be they could be a switch there. They could
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: be you know, Jeria could play right back instead if
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: they wanted to go more of a four to four
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: two at some point. But likely on the right side
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: will be Jacob le Telliano. On the left side will
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: be will be Jordan Boss who's one of their better players.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: He will get forward all the time. Uh. And I
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: say one of their better players because I didn't want
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: to say their best player, but he is dangerous coming
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: out of that left side. He's a good player middle
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: of the field, I think, because they're gonna go a
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: little bit on the defensive side. Uh when they play
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: all of these matches and uh, they'll play with Aiden
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: O'Neill and and and Jackson Irvine that will be the two,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: with O'Neill stain more obviously and probably staying all the time.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: And then on one side they'll they'll have on Thestoria
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: and Kunda who's their young up and come in you know,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: break through play lay that I think they're counting on
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: for the future, no doubt. But I think as a
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: player that in the present could could make a difference.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: And likely Riley mcgree on the other side. That could change.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: They have a couple of Martin Boyle could go there.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: There's a couple other options. Motri will be on top.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: There's not a whole lot of more many more options
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: for them to go in a different way. Although you're
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: on Kunda could end up playing the nine just as
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: a loan striker up there because he's got the speed
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: to do it. I think in general that will be
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: that will be the Australia lineup.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and Torre has been very good since joining Norwich
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: in the January transfer windows, scoring a bunch of goals.
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: He got injured, came back immediately with scoring goals again.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: He would be the danger man. Riley mcgree for Middlesbrough
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: also in the Championship has been very good. Bowse is
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: an outlet, a very creative outlet down the left flank
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: for them. Again, while they were going to be playing
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: with what what we both think is more five at
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: the back than say three at the back, He's going
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: to be somebody who had more licensed to get forward
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: than his opposite fallback. You mentioned Lucas Herrington. I'm expecting
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: to see a role from he. He's got a chance
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: to be like a breakout player and this World Cup
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: he plays for the Caldile Rapids eighteen unless he turned nineteen.
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: It's a teenager, very young player, very athletic, very comfortable
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: on the ball, very exciting. This is a player who'll
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: be in Europe before long.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: So and they like them a lot. So this is
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: a player that's definitely on the verge of being a
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: starter on this team because they really feel like that's
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: the future for them in that area. So, yeah, you're
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: absolutely right.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: And with this team, I think that there are connections
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: to be made with Paraguay. I think Paraguay are a
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: little bit more dangerous in transition. I think Australia, while
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: Paraguay is very physical, I think Australia is a bit
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: more physical. Australia can hit in transition with a couple
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: of those plays again, particularly Torre, but they're gonna be
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: a worry on set pieces in particular. This seems more
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: like a defend deep play really hard. When the United
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: States beat them to one in the fall, they just
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: kicked the crap out of Polistic until he had to
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: be subbed out in thirty first minute.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: Expecting a lot more of that, Righteah.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: No question and I think you know, and I think
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: it's a good comparison in general to say, Okay, Australia
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: and Paraguay both will sit back. I have to say
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: I think it's a little bit more difficult to prepare
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: for Australia than it is to prepare for Paraguay. And
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: the reason I say that is not because they're better,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: but because I think they could likely hurt you with
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: guys that you're not thinking about. I think Paraguay's pretty straightforward.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: We know it, right, we know and see Soo, we
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: know al Maron, we know what they can do. I
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: think with Australia it's a little bit of that old
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: American sort of like who are we playing today? You know,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: like this is the way we used to be, let's say,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: in the nineties, right when we started to surprise people.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: I think it was more because they didn't know us, right.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: So I think this Australian team has a little bit
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: of a component of that of whoever they play against,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: sort of guessing as the game goes on, what.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: Would you have for prediction for this game? Do you
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: think the United States will get the three points?
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: I would give it a final score of two to one,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: but I think only because I think Australia may probably
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: score on a set piece late in the game. But
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: I really don't. I don't think that this is going
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: to be a problem game for us.
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is again when you got to beat who
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: you're supposed to beat, every point matters, and I think
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: so this is the second game. The third game is
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: against thir Ka. Going into the thur K game with
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: feeling like you need a result to continue on in
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: the tournament is not going to be a good spot
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: or feeling like it's not guaranteed without a result. I
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: will say going into that game against tir K about
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: who's going to top the group. That's where this team
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: wants to be in. So let's talk about tur Key
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: a tad before I even give the overview. Do you
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: think that this is the hardest opponent.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Well, there's no question there the hardest opponent. Player by player,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: you could argue that they are better than we are.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: I think if you went on every position on the field,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: you know they They certainly have the talent.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: And ironically, this was a team that was pot D
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: this so as the draw went Pot A, the host
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: plus the best nations in the world pot BC D
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: D is where Cabo Verde is D is where curas
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: How is D is where Haiti is D is also
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: where Turkey came through. So if there was the only
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: part of unluckiness of the World Cup drop the United
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: States was this one. But around the team, they've got
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: some big injury concern sab Arti Gulair, their superstar. He
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: got injured for Real Madrid and very quickly was ruled
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: out for the rest of Real Madrid season. And this
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: was after he scored two goals against Byron Munich. I
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: believe it was the next game he played is when
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: he got picked up. I think a hamstring injury. He
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: should be available for the World Cup. But tab you
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: know that available and fit and firing are two very
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: very different things. Getting on the field, doing enough to
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: get on the field versus are you one hundred percent yourself.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: That's gonna be one to watch at the early part
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: of the tournament. The hope for Turkey a is that
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: Gulair will be himself completely, hopefully by the first game,
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: but if not, definitely by the third game against the
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: United States. Same goes for Hakan Chinoglu, who's out for
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: Inter Milan as well, he won't play again another minute
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: for his club team before the World Cup. He's in
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: the same spot as Gulair where they don't think his
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: World Cup is in doubt. But again there is there
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: is a vast difference to being available to give it
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: a go. So as available for minutes and I am
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: one hundred percent and I am the max version of myself.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: No doubt that this is This is an issue for Turkey,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: and it's unfortunate because Arda Gulaer I think was playing
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: he was at his height of his career at this point.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: I think he you know, although this real Madrid has
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: been a little bit of a mess this year, Guhler
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: was one of the bright spots. And not only that,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: I think he was carrying them a little bit through
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: the last few games that they played. So no question
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: that Arda Guhler is not only their best players, but
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: one of the best young players in the world. Uh
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: and so and so I think this this will be
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a miss I I think I
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: think having said all of those things, I think he'll
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: be back. I think this will be a complete team
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: by the time, you know, this will be the third
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: game of the World Cup, when we play them, uh,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: and so I think they'll be in good shape in
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: terms of you know, having all their players for to
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: play against the US. So I'll start first, you know,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: go ahead.
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, I like I was going to ask
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: for what what their lineup is going to be, what
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: the style is?
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: You beat me to it?
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I was. I was getting to that. So
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: they play in a four two three one, which is
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: which is pretty clear.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Their coach Vintensa Mantela has done a very good job
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: with this team, you know. And I'll say this on
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: a side note. You know, I was working for Besiktas
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: a couple of years ago with Brad Friedel. So Brad
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: and I have talked a lot about this team, and
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: I think if there is one thing where they can
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: break down that happens to a lot of the Turkish teams,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: is is if things aren't going well for them, there's
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: a lot of sort of in fighting, and then the
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: game has become a little bit of a little bit
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: more of a war than they become about soccer. And
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: so this could be one of the disadvantages and something
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: we may be able to take advantage off in in
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: our game when we play them because it's likely that
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: both teams will want to take that first place in
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: the group by that game. And if I read if
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: I'm reading this correctly, I think that we'll we And
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: when I say we, I mean the US will be
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: going into the third game with six points. But I
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: don't think that Turkey will be going into that third
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: game with six points. I think they will drop a
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: point somewhere in the first two games, and so I
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: think that game will be really big in particular for them. Now,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: this is an experienced team. They have good players in
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: every position on the field. They have good substitutes that
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: come in and make a difference. This is not this
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: is this is a This is a soccer country that
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: has a true culture that will be you know, they
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: will have a lot of responsibility to their fans. They
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: made it in terms of their success. They made it
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: to the Euro Semis in two thousand and eight, they
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: made it to the World Cup Semis in two thousand
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: and two where they ended where they ended third and
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: third place, and they're currently ranked twenty second in the world.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: In terms of lineup, I think they'll go with check
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: here in goal. He has been really their mainstay and
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: although they've had byan Deer who's done really well and
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: is coming along, and they've had Kunos who was the
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: bestes before and has the experience, I think there's no
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: question that chak here will be their number one on
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: the right side, will likely be Chellicked in the center,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: and this is I'll get into this because they have
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: a couple of different options in terms of center back,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: but I'll start with Kadioglu to be the first one
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: from Brighton. I think he's a young player that's coming
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: along really well. He's a good player, he's got great fee.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: He's certainly the future for them. I think he will play.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: Opposite of him will likely be Demirol on the left side, Kabick.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: In the center of the field, I think they'll have
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: yuk Sik and Challanoglu, which you've you've already spoken about,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: who right now is not one hundred percent fit, but
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: I think he'll be playing because he'll be more of
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: that eight that ends outside the box and he's extremely
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: dangerous doing that. And the three in front of them
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: will likely be koach You on one side from Roma
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: in the center of Beagu Lair on the left side
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: will be Eld's which Keena Yelds is someone we've been
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: talking about on this show. Because that's that's that's a
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: player and a half. I mean, that's that's some player.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: And then up front they'll go probably karr At Koglu,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: who I think I think will be there nine. They
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: have some other options, but in general, I think he
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: will be the ninth. So in general, that's the beginning
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: of their lineup, and we can go into some options
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: they can have because they really can't. Kadiogul could play
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: left back and he can get forward well and and
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: be inside. This is what they did against some of
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the weaker teams. He played on the left side, but
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: then went inside into midfield, so he was actually an
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: extra Midfiel learned. They kept three in the back, so
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: they have that option to add players forward, and he's
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: one of them. Uh So that's one of the options
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: that they have.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: Tab let me just interrupts you to say, well done
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: on all those pronunciations. That is a pro right there.
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: Not a man who worked for Bashiita's for a little bit. Yeah,
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: that's just what we expect on this show.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: So Turkey qualified through the European playoff. They beat Kosovo
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: one zero in that final game. In that one, it
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: was Gulair and Yieldez off off the wings or to
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: Koglu up Topkuku as an attacking midfielder. But Chanoglu again,
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: he's gonna have the freedom to kind of go where
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: he wants as long as he's fit. So how would
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: you expect this team to play? I'm I'm assuming vastly
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: different than the first two opponents. And what kind of
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: what will the United States team to do in this
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: game that is going to be much different in the
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: first two.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: I think, if I'm reading this correctly, Turkey will worry
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: about Turkey. I think I think they I think they
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: think they can win this group, and I think they'll
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: play with the lineup that they feel is best for them.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: And of course, you know this is Mantel as a
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: smart coach, and he will he will worry about some
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: of you know, some of the potential that we have.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: He will worry about polistic Roman in between lines. He
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: will worry about potentially way at speed on the right side.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Of course, you have to worry about Baligan because Baligan
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: can you know, in one play he has great timing
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: and he can beat you. So these are all concerns
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: that he will have. But overall, I think I think
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: Turkey will worry about about Turkey and about making the
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: changes that that's going to allow them to win the
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: game when they play US. I don't think they'll be
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: looking at anything else but winning the game against the US.
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: I would agree. So what do the US need to
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: do to get a result? And do you think that
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: they will get a result?
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: I do. I think we can. I think if I
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: had to predict a result in this game, I will
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: say zero zero. I think this is going to be
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: This is going to be a little bit of a
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: cagy game because it'll be a last one. I think.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: If anything, I because I think that Turkey will not
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: get all six points in their first two games. I
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: think that they will likely be chasing this game a
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: little more, which will be different, will be a totally
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: different game for US than the first two games, where
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: we're gonna be the protagonist, will have the ball the
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: whole time. I don't think it'll be the case in
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: this game, but I see it as a little bit
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: of a cage game and likely as zero zero.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: So my worry is that two goals conceded against Portugal
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: five goals conceded against Belgium. Was it four against Switzerland
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: and two against Turkey.
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: A last summer. If I'm remembering that off the top
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: of my.
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: Head, I don't trust this team to keep a clean
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: sheet against a high level European opponent, particularly one with
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: Arta Gulair on the field, if he is indeed close
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: to one hundred percent. But usually when we look at
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: these games, we never really think about zero zero, So
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: I think to have your ears might be closer to react.
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: If you remember last World Cup the United States played England.
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: That game finished nil nil. If they're able to conjure
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: up that kind of defensive performance, it's on the table.
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: Though I will say I'm dubious just because of the
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: recent history of some of these high level teams really
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: putting a whooping on this American defense.
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: But that is the group stage preview. But don't worry.
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: When we're getting closer to the games, we're gonna have
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: podcast episodes previewing and recapping all of these games, so
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: we're gonna talk more about each of these three teams.
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: We just wanted to set the table so you guys
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: are all ready for these opponents. But we're gonna take
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: one more quick break. Next up, Tab takes us inside
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: the locker room for a story about security at the
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: recent World Cups and what that means for twenty twenty six.
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: So please stick around for that. Thank you for listening
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: to Inside American Soccer. Please rate, review and subscribe. We're ready,
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. Let's get inside the
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: locker room with Tab Aromas and Tab. We're gonna talk
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: about security at the World Cup, something that I don't
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: think a lot of people are thinking of though. News
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: items are popping up with all the cities kind of
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: complaining about just how much money this costs. So Tab
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: is somebody who's played in a number of World Cups
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: and coached at a few more. What what can you
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: tell us about security at the World Cup?
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, I mean I can't go into the specifics
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: of security, but it's good. It's good.
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: It's good.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: I can't say anything. I can't, you know, I can't,
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: I can't say no, you know what. It's sort of
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: I started to hear of the last couple of weeks
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: about you know, cities and the difficulty they're having, you know,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: with you know the cost of what it costs a
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: secure World Cup, And I just wanted to give sort
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: of an overview of what it what it takes just
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: to manage one team. Right. So you know, most fans
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: would think that the teams are staying in a hotel,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: and then when it's time to go, when it's time
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: to go to the stadium, you know, there's going to
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: be a police car in front of the bus, and
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: and you know, and and the team walks out, and
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: they'll get in the bus, and they'll go to the
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: stadium with a you know, sort of a police car
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: leading the way, and and there's so much more than that, right,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: So I'll give an example that's a little bit more recent,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: not when I played, because obviously that's a long time ago.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: But I'll start with this example. So in twenty fourteen
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: in the World Cup Brazil, you know, we had, of course,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: we had not only a helicopter following the you know,
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: the team bus. So you have a helicopter, credible, and
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: then you have a number of police cars and police motorcycles,
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: you know, leading the bus in front and also behind
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: the bus, so you have all of those. Then there
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: was there was a couple of trucks full of soldiers,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: maybe twenty five thirty thirty five soldiers, all arms that
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: just you know, hopped into two or three different vehicles
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: that were also following the bus. So, you know, I
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: wanted to mention that because you know, obviously there's a
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: great cost of all of those things. Not that we're
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: going to follow you know, in this twenty twenty six
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: World Cup, that every team will be followed by a
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: ton of soldiers, but the cost of security could be
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: humongous for any city with all that they have to
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: provide to any one team. Obviously, of course, you know,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: when the team goes to the game, they have to
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: close all the road so the team's not in traffic.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: There's all of those added added things. But I wanted
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: to go back. The reason I started with this is
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: because I wanted to go back to nineteen ninety eight
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: and sort of the debacle of that team that many
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: people know just as you know, this was one of
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: our worst World Cup teams because we just didn't do
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: well and there was a number number of things that
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: happened in that World Cup, starting with obviously we had
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a locker room scandal.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: Then we had you know, team chemistry because of it.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: There was there was you know, it was the team
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: chemistry was just was poor. There were you know, big
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: tactical changes going into the World Cup, and then there
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: was the place where we stayed, which I think the
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: team had to suffer a little bit from that isolation
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: of being alone. So I'll go a little bit into
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: that team, so, you know, and the reason I say
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: that is because you know, teams can fall apart right
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: before the World cuple though things may look great, it
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: only takes a couple of injuries or a couple of
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: different scenarios potentially off the field that can change the
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: team mentality. And when you're and when you're in a
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: group like this and you're going to be together for
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: one month, you know, things can get magnified really fast.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: And I'll have to say that our nineteen ninety eight team,
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: if you went player by player, I think was one
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: of the most talented teams that we've sent to a
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: World Cup, but actually ended up losing all three games
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: and we went home as a thirty two out of
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: thirty two teams, So that was not good. But I'll
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: say this so and you know, as part of you
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: know what I talked about security. What was a little
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: bit different than the nineteen ninety eight World Cup. We
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: it was in France. Our games were in Paris and
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: in Leon, and when we were we opened up again
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: Germany in Paris and that game, I can tell you
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: that obviously we had helicopter, more than one helicopter following
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: the team. We had police in front, we had police
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: in the back, we had police motorcycles on the side
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: of the of of of the bus. And then we
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: get to the stadium and in the stadium as the
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: game goes on, you have sharpshooters all the way around
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: the top of the stadium on the roof, sort of
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: pointing down in case something happened. You know, these are
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: all things that are going on while you're just trying
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: to play, you know, the game that you love, that
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: you've been playing with your buddies on the street, and
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: now you realize, you know that that all of these
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: components go into it. To add to that, I think
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: our team we were staying at this chateau outside of
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: outside of the of Leon, where we were playing two
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: of our games. It was called to the Pizza. It
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: was a winery from the twelve hundred that we were
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: staying at. But we were completely isolated, so like there
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: wasn't even a banner of the World Cup anywhere near us,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: So the team was completely by itself. The coaching staff
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: wasn't even staying there. There were staying i think in
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: a better hotel than the rest of the team. So
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: the team, I think the team we were isolated in
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: this one place with if you looked out the window,
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: you could see sharpshooters all around the winery, like actually
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: actually laying down on the ground all ready to go
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: twenty four to seven. So it was really a high
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: alert tournament in which we suffered not only from having
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: an incident starting that World Cup, you know with you
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: know John Harks and Eric Wunella, which forced Steve Sampson
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: to leave John Harts off the team, which of course
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: you can leave any player off the team at any time.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: I mean we saw it with Landon Donovan in twenty fourteen.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: But the effect of leaving Hearts out of that World
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: Cup is Hearts had been our cap and for about
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: three years leading into this World Cup, and so that
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: had an effect on sort of the leadership of the team.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: So now the team's leadership changed from you know, being
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: potentially harks and and Lexi Lalas and myself and Eric
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: Guanalda and the guys that had been there to now
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: sort of a little bit of a new a new
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: generation of players. And now I recall, because I wasn't
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: one of them, but I recall sort of being a
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: little bit of a fight about captaincy, who's going to
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: be the leader, who's going to wear the captain's band,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: because obviously that's a big honor, and I think it
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: ended up being duly. But then it created a separation
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: from you know, the guys who played in Germany and
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: the guys who were at home. So there was you know,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: that was part of the That was part, I would say,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: of the locker room drama that the team had but
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: now magnified into being isolated in just one mansion, all
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: of us together. Also add to that the fact that
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: Steve our last warm up game going into that World Cup,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Steve Samson played out of a three to six to
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: one formation which we had never seen and we were
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: successful and Austra by the way, I didn't play that game.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: I actually hadn't played a game for the national team
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: in six months when I went to this World Cup
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: because I had an acl so, but the team went
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: to Austria and won in a three six to one formation.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: So now all of a sudden, this was the new
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: formation going into World Cup. It was a formation that
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: the team was not familiar with. So now you add
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: locker room drama, you add isolation to where we were
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: staying not really participating in any World Cup events. We
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: were all alone. And then on top of it, now
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: you have a change, a tactical change, and then the
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: chemistry not being great. So all of those things added
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: up to us being nowhere near one hundred percent to
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: be able to compete. So I wanted to put all
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: of those things into frame because the World Cup there's
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: so many components to it and so many things have
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: to go right for you to be successful.
• 57:00
  Speaker 3: One of the things that was a strength of the
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: twenty two team was until the gi Arena incident, was
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: the locker room. This is a group of guys that
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: are very tight. Going to twenty twenty six, it's still
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: that way, though it's a little bit off. It's a
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: little bit different. Maricia Poschettino is described as somebody who
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: like it has can develop and does develop emotional connections
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: with the players. He's they they love them, But like
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: under Burhalter, it was more of a hey, these are
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: our guys that were moving forward. And Pochettino it's it's
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: he creates insecurity by design. It's I don't care if
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: you earned your roster spot today, If you earned your
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: spot on the field today, that's cool. You have to
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: go do it again tomorrow because every day I wanted
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: to beat competition.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: Every day.
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: I want you to be feeling that you need these minutes.
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: And at its best, it's a hyper competitive group that
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: is still very very tight outside the field, within the field,
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: all of that, but everybody's fighting for every minute. But
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: at the worst it could be tabbed something like you're
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: kind of referring to of a little bit of infighting,
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: whether it's about the captain's arm band or it's about whatever.
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: And by the way, I don't think that we definitely
• 58:01
  Speaker 3: haven't named the captain for the World Cup, and I
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: don't think Pochattino has had a defined captain all the time.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: Tim Reem has worn the armband the most.
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: Tyler Adams was a captain at the twenty twenty two
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: World Cup, which by the way, would be my choice.
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: And I don't think it's particularly close. Tyler Adams has
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: not worn the arm band for the US national team
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: since the World Cup. That is mind belding to me.
• 58:20
  Speaker 3: But I think that this team is very close and
• 58:24
  Speaker 3: it's one of their strengths. But it also was going
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two and they had to deal with
• 58:27
  Speaker 3: the situation with Urina and then obviously the fallout got
• 58:30
  Speaker 3: worse and worse with Raina's family and Greg Burhlter and
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: Greg Burhlter's family, And that's a hopefully a once in
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: a generation, once in a lifetime kind of story. But
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: it goes to show even when you have the raw
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: as tight as you are and you feel like it's
• 58:45
  Speaker 3: one of your strengths, like like you said, it's one
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: or two things away from unraveled.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: And here's the other component. I think that's important. There's
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: gonna be, without a doubt when when the US team
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: travels to World Cup in a foreign country, there is
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: not sort of the attention that that other countries get
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: Let's say Brazil, Let's say Germany or Spain or Argentina. Right, so,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: but this is our home World Cup there's gonna be
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: a lot going on. Players will have a lot of obligation,
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: there will be there will be a lot of press
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: everywhere they go. There's this is gonna be a little
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: bit more than ever before. And I think if if
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: for somebody, and by the way, I agree with you
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: on this group, there are a great bunch of guys
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: I have to agree one hundred percent. I know most
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: of them. They're all good people. I think, you know,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: one of the issues could could be that we still
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: don't have a true captain on the team. And you know,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: and Tyler Adams may be that that person, but but
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: I think you know, it's you know, you normally need
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: a leadership in the group. I think it's more by
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: I think they do it more by group than they
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: do it by by one person in particular. But in general,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: I think that that this World Cup has a lot
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: of had a lot of different areas in which if
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: we don't get it right, a lot of things can
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: be added to the team that could potentially make it
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: go wrong.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and within that, obviously there's this side of the
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: world that we don't see. And again, which is why
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: I think I encourage people to watch that HBO documentary.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: It's like I was talking to Tim Waya about the
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: documentary for something I wrote about it, and he was like,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: I'm just glad that people are going to see how
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: much we love each other and what this brotherhood is.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: And you can really see that in the little moments
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: that again previously TAP you'd only be privy to if
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 3: you were on the roster, if you were within the squad.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 3: So I think that's interesting. And then there's the stuff
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: that you can't control either, like the ball, it's the
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: post and rolls one way, a bad call, a questionable call,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: a moment of brilliance from another team, a mistake from
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: another team, right, like So it is just truly fascinating
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: how these are the things that legacies are made off of.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 3: These are the things that careers are defined off of.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: And we all want to have control over everything if
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 3: we can control, particularly coaches by nature, you're a control
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 3: freak when you're trying to get every detail right, do
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 3: everything you can and put your team in the spots
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: and succeed. And it's this reality is we can't control everything.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: It's gonna be incredible rolling towards the World Cup. I'm
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 3: so happy that we're about a month out now tab
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 3: the shows. We're only gonna keep getting better and more
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: important as we get close.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: To the World Cup.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: So again, next week we're gonna do our final World
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 3: Cup Ross projection and we're gonna talk through all of that.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: I cannot wait for it.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: So please tune in to Inside American Soccer rate relf,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: you subscribe, whatever you get your podcast. Thank you again
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: for listening to this week tap. Thank you as always
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 3: for being here. We'll be back next week.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: We talk to you very racon