Latest / Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos / USMNT Eliminated: Pochettino, Pulisic, What Went Wrong & What's Next

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USMNT Eliminated: Pochettino, Pulisic, What Went Wrong & What's Next · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

0:00
Speaker 1: The quote in the press conference, I'm gonna be fine.
0:04
Speaker 1: That's really not what anyone wants to hear. I think
0:07
Speaker 1: what the fans want to hear is my foot's broken
0:10
Speaker 1: in three pieces and I try to stay on anyway,
0:13
Speaker 1: but unfortunately I had to come off.
0:19
Speaker 2: What's going on, everybody, Welcome back to Inside American Soccer.
0:22
Speaker 2: I am usm and T insider Tom Bogert. I'm joined
0:24
Speaker 2: by one of the greatest players in US soccer history,
0:27
Speaker 2: tab Ramos tab a little bit of a somber voice.
0:31
Speaker 2: The US laid an egg in their first real big
0:34
Speaker 2: test of the tournament, falling four to one to Belgium
0:37
Speaker 2: in the round of sixteen. This is the same place
0:40
Speaker 2: that they exited the twenty twenty two World Cup, the
0:42
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen World Cup, and the twenty ten World Cup.
0:45
Speaker 2: They did it in worse fashion. They were completely played
0:48
Speaker 2: off the pitch by a talented Belgian team that a
0:51
Speaker 2: lot of people were very disappointed by. This whole tournament
0:55
Speaker 2: up until the game against the United States. The US
0:58
Speaker 2: beat Paraguay and Bosnia and they get to Belgium and
1:03
Speaker 2: as they have at this round in all the tournaments
1:07
Speaker 2: and the three tournaments that they qualified before it. They fell,
1:10
Speaker 2: and they fell in disastrous fashion. Tab for to one,
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Speaker 2: lost at home at a home World Cup with what
1:18
Speaker 2: was supposed to be the program's best coach, definitely the
1:21
Speaker 2: most expensive one, and what is supposed to be allegedly
1:25
Speaker 2: the best group of players that this program has ever had.
1:28
Speaker 2: For it to end like this, what is your initial
1:31
Speaker 2: feelings after this game?
1:36
Speaker 1: Well, my initial feelings are, you know, the incredible disappointment,
1:40
Speaker 1: right because we you know, in the end, regardless of
1:44
Speaker 1: what teams we had played, we were gaining some great momentum,
1:47
Speaker 1: you know for soccer, and the enthusiasm across the country
1:51
Speaker 1: was really incredible, and it you know, it's unfortunate that
1:57
Speaker 1: we went down the way we did because we could
2:01
Speaker 1: have gone down the way Mexico did, for example, fighting
2:05
Speaker 1: to the last second, you know, trying to tie the
2:07
Speaker 1: game against England, and it just didn't happen for them.
2:10
Speaker 1: They did the best they could, but it didn't work out. Canada,
2:16
Speaker 1: although they lost three zero to Morocco, it was a
2:19
Speaker 1: game that they actually dominated fully and completely and actually
2:23
Speaker 1: should have won the game. I mean it's hard, I know,
2:26
Speaker 1: it's hard to comprehend, but if you watch the game.
2:28
Speaker 1: Canada should have won the game against Morocco and lost
2:31
Speaker 1: three zero with two goals at the end, right, that
2:33
Speaker 1: didn't matter as much. But but we went down in
2:36
Speaker 1: a game which we likely should have been down four
2:39
Speaker 1: zero at halftime. You know, this was never a game.
2:43
Speaker 1: It was never a game. And I'm not sure. You know,
2:46
Speaker 1: this makes me kind of as an initial reaction, it
2:49
Speaker 1: makes me go back to thinking, you know, you you
2:51
Speaker 1: asked me a couple a couple of shows ago, we
2:53
Speaker 1: talked about, you know, what were some of the hardest
2:56
Speaker 1: things in nineteen ninety four to deal with. And one
2:59
Speaker 1: of the hard things, and I mentioned it on the show,
3:01
Speaker 1: was the fact that, you know, you're here promoting the game.
3:04
Speaker 1: There's a lot of obligations around the game. There's a
3:06
Speaker 1: lot of things going on. You know, you have to
3:09
Speaker 1: do Good Morning America, you have to do Nightline, you
3:12
Speaker 1: have to do all these other shows that are like
3:14
Speaker 1: important because you want to promote the game. But you
3:16
Speaker 1: can't lose focus on the fact that this is the
3:19
Speaker 1: World Cup. This is just about winning games, Like your
3:22
Speaker 1: number one priority as a team is to win games.
3:24
Speaker 1: And I think Tom, you know, and I think it's
3:27
Speaker 1: great that the team went to the baseball game, and
3:30
Speaker 1: that Putchattino through out the first bitch and like all
3:33
Speaker 1: these things are going on. But I think I think
3:37
Speaker 1: the team lost a little bit of focus. We were
3:39
Speaker 1: not ready for this game.
3:42
Speaker 3: For me, it's I think it was just a flat performance.
3:45
Speaker 2: I think that that's probably fair in the way you describe,
3:48
Speaker 2: but reaching a Pochatino was saying this, after the game,
3:51
Speaker 2: we'll talk about the Baligan situation and the whirlwind that
3:55
Speaker 2: the hurricane, sorry that came with that. For thirty six hours,
4:00
Speaker 2: Tinos asked a few times and he started to get
4:01
Speaker 2: a little bit annoyed after like the third time that
4:03
Speaker 2: he was like, there's no excuse Belgium were better than us.
4:06
Speaker 3: We didn't play well enough.
4:07
Speaker 2: That's it's like there's nothing deeper, and it's just extremely disappointing.
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Speaker 2: A gut punch one that this day in Seattle started
4:19
Speaker 2: with so much promise. Honestly and genuinely, they ended up
4:23
Speaker 2: as slight favorites over Belgium. And even if we're just
4:27
Speaker 2: taking it from like the betting world, like you, maybe
4:30
Speaker 2: it's just because there's more money in the US. Whatever,
4:32
Speaker 2: this was not a Belgian team that overmatches the US
4:36
Speaker 2: when the lineups came out, when there's no Jeremy Doku,
4:39
Speaker 2: there's no Kevin de Bruina, there's no ro Lucaku. There's
4:43
Speaker 2: not a talent depposite or not a huge one. You
4:45
Speaker 2: re teelements, Luca Bacchio, it's very good players there. He
4:50
Speaker 2: flamed out. Milan, the the the rotating wheel of players
4:55
Speaker 2: in Italy. I think he's at Atlanta. He's somewhere somewhere
4:58
Speaker 2: in Italy. Christian Polisik the main guy at AC Milan.
5:02
Speaker 2: You go in the back line, Chris Richards, Crystal Palace.
5:06
Speaker 2: They've won two trophies in the last two years. You
5:08
Speaker 2: could argue that that Belgium had a talent advantage, but
5:12
Speaker 2: it's not.
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Speaker 3: It's not objective and a clear fact.
5:14
Speaker 2: So starting the game, this is not a team that
5:17
Speaker 2: should have been over matched by Belgium.
5:19
Speaker 3: Kutwal probably would be the.
5:20
Speaker 2: Best player on the field, right like that's a that's
5:22
Speaker 2: a match winner. All of that, This wasn't a team
5:25
Speaker 2: that should have been over matches, wasn't a team that
5:28
Speaker 2: should have looked this bad. If they were, they weren't
5:33
Speaker 2: up for it. From the first minute. Belgium scores to
5:36
Speaker 2: Kettala again a preventable goal. Malik Tilman equalizes with a
5:41
Speaker 2: deflective free kick. What with the ninety seconds tab Belgium
5:45
Speaker 2: took the lead again. At halftimes Orana comes in. It's
5:48
Speaker 2: two to one, a shocking, huge, disasterrous mistake by first
5:52
Speaker 2: Matt Freeze and then Tim Reim. It's three to one
5:54
Speaker 2: Belgium and the US never looked like challenging at any
5:58
Speaker 2: point of this game from the first minute it and
6:01
Speaker 2: it's just keep on using the word disappointing.
6:03
Speaker 3: It's just it's just the failures happened.
6:07
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, you know, in the end, what you look
6:10
Speaker 1: at as results, right, that's that's what really matters. And
6:13
Speaker 1: and I think there is a reason why we brought
6:16
Speaker 1: this coach in particular. We went, you know, and you
6:19
Speaker 1: have to give you a soccer credit for going out
6:21
Speaker 1: and trying to find whatever they thought was the best
6:23
Speaker 1: coach in the world. And I think I think a
6:25
Speaker 1: lot of us agreed with the with the hire. We thought,
6:28
Speaker 1: with his experience, he would you know, he was he
6:30
Speaker 1: would rebuild what we already had, uh and he would
6:33
Speaker 1: turn us into something that was different than what we
6:36
Speaker 1: had in the past, which is you know, coming to
6:38
Speaker 1: the World Cup and and uh and having the same
6:42
Speaker 1: old okay round of sixteen exit. And I think we
6:45
Speaker 1: were headed that way. Yet over the last two years,
6:48
Speaker 1: when we saw failures like the game yesterday, we were told, well,
6:53
Speaker 1: you got to wait till the World Cup.
6:55
Speaker 2: Uh.
6:55
Speaker 1: And every time the lineup was changed and we were
6:58
Speaker 1: shocked by it. We were told, well, you have to
7:01
Speaker 1: wait until the World Cup. And every window that went
7:04
Speaker 1: by that we were disappointed with because we felt like
7:07
Speaker 1: we weren't building anything. We were told, well, you have
7:11
Speaker 1: to wait until the World Cup. And so when three
7:15
Speaker 1: months ago when we had the March window and we
7:18
Speaker 1: played Portugal in Belgium and we got played off the
7:21
Speaker 1: field in both games, we were once again told we're
7:23
Speaker 1: getting closer. You just have to wait to the World Cup.
7:26
Speaker 1: And here we are now. We played the World Cup,
7:30
Speaker 1: and at the World Cup we saw exactly what we
7:32
Speaker 1: have been seeing for the last two years. The team
7:35
Speaker 1: gets a lot of credit. I thought we played really
7:37
Speaker 1: well against Portugal, I mean, sorry against Paraguay about the
7:42
Speaker 1: first sixty minutes. I thought we played pretty well against Australia.
7:48
Speaker 1: The second game in a different way because Australia is
7:50
Speaker 1: a different type of team, but we did enough to
7:53
Speaker 1: win the game. Obviously, the Turkey game you got to
7:55
Speaker 1: sort of throw out the window because you know, we
7:58
Speaker 1: played with a secondary team. The Bosnia game, we were
8:01
Speaker 1: okay at best. We didn't create many chances, but we
8:04
Speaker 1: won the game as a professional win, I thought. But
8:08
Speaker 1: now we find ourselves in this game, and this is
8:10
Speaker 1: the game that we've been waiting for. This is what
8:12
Speaker 1: we have been talking about for the last two years.
8:16
Speaker 1: And you've heard me time, which I think you don't
8:18
Speaker 1: want to hear me anymore, talk about the press and
8:20
Speaker 1: the first two or three passes to break our press.
8:22
Speaker 1: I think you're tired of hearing me say that. But
8:25
Speaker 1: yesterday Belgium has the skill to be able to break
8:29
Speaker 1: our press. So we see that right from the beginning.
8:32
Speaker 1: We go after them. You can see McKinny going after him.
8:35
Speaker 1: You can see Bowigan trying to press, you can see
8:38
Speaker 1: Polistic trying to press, you can see Tilman trying to press.
8:41
Speaker 1: But you're never going to be faster than the ball.
8:43
Speaker 1: So when you meet a team that can break your press,
8:47
Speaker 1: what is your plan beat? Do we have a plan?
8:50
Speaker 3: Bet?
8:50
Speaker 1: Because it didn't look like yesterday. We had a plan B.
8:53
Speaker 1: So what happens normally when you have a high pressing
8:55
Speaker 1: team is you try to high press, but if they
8:58
Speaker 1: break your press, number one priority is only to get
9:02
Speaker 1: goal side, not to chase the ball. Yesterday, we chased
9:06
Speaker 1: the ball and we could never catch up to the ball,
9:09
Speaker 1: and that's what happens. And we never went into a
9:12
Speaker 1: mid block. We weren't prepared to defend in a mid block,
9:15
Speaker 1: we weren't prepared to defend in a low block. We
9:18
Speaker 1: never trained that, we never saw that. We were told
9:21
Speaker 1: that to wait to the World Cup until we could
9:23
Speaker 1: see these things. But yesterday was the perfect time to say, hey,
9:26
Speaker 1: we're playing against a superior opponent who is constantly breaking
9:30
Speaker 1: our press. Let's go into our mid block, pressing with
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Speaker 1: three or pressing with two, or pressing in a four
9:36
Speaker 1: or five to one in a low block. We didn't
9:39
Speaker 1: have We didn't have a plan B. We played the
9:42
Speaker 1: same way the whole time and Belgium was just too
9:44
Speaker 1: good for it.
9:46
Speaker 2: And as you said, for a team that spent so
9:49
Speaker 2: much with the last eighteen months, changing players, changing tactics,
9:53
Speaker 2: having what felt from the outside a lot of inexplicable
9:56
Speaker 2: decisions and just a complete lack of continuity. At this
9:59
Speaker 2: World Cup, we saw continuity, consistency in the tactics, mostly
10:03
Speaker 2: in the team sheet other than a couple injuries.
10:05
Speaker 3: That that what we can get to.
10:07
Speaker 2: But this, you'd think for a team that has chopped
10:11
Speaker 2: and changed so much over the last eighteen months, have
10:13
Speaker 2: to not have a plan B, as you said, to
10:15
Speaker 2: not have another another club in your bag to go to.
10:19
Speaker 3: It's disappointing.
10:20
Speaker 2: And you started that by talking about Patino And yes
10:23
Speaker 2: they the federation does get credit for hiring them. Whatever
10:26
Speaker 2: whatever we say about this World Cup, like everybody was
10:29
Speaker 2: celebrating that higher right, the resume speaks for itself. All
10:31
Speaker 2: that Rico Postatino was hired to win that game yesterday.
10:38
Speaker 3: Ricial Postatino is paid to win that game.
10:42
Speaker 2: It's it's this didn't happen, like you said, a results
10:46
Speaker 2: of business. But but even more so and later we'll
10:49
Speaker 2: get into more big picture. But but just to leave
10:52
Speaker 2: it at four years ago, this team lost in the
10:55
Speaker 2: round to sixteen and looked better and we had all
10:58
Speaker 2: this talk about a golden generation, a home World Cup.
11:01
Speaker 2: These players, more of them in the prime to get
11:03
Speaker 2: to the same stage and for it to be worse
11:05
Speaker 2: just just really hurts. But if going back to the
11:08
Speaker 2: micro in that game Belgium, I thought it was very
11:13
Speaker 2: interesting that Rudy Garcia that the a lone of decisions
11:15
Speaker 2: he made I'm gonna do. Onana came in in the midfield,
11:18
Speaker 2: so they went more like and I think he should
11:21
Speaker 2: be starting for this team, so they but they was
11:23
Speaker 2: a clear start of Okay, Adams, Tiliman and McKinney will
11:27
Speaker 2: run de Bruyne off the pitch and if Tiliman's is
11:29
Speaker 2: playing deeper, that's not a good combination. Onana gets injured
11:33
Speaker 2: in the twenty first minute, didn't look good. I feel
11:36
Speaker 2: for him there and it wasn't It wasn't Debruna came in.
11:40
Speaker 2: It was it was Hans Vonikan. So I think Belgium
11:43
Speaker 2: made those adjustments, or at least had had that thought.
11:46
Speaker 3: He didn't.
11:46
Speaker 2: He doesn't start Doku, and that turns out to be
11:49
Speaker 2: the right decision. Trussard I thought was really really good.
11:52
Speaker 2: Luca Bacchio was really really good, and from again the
11:56
Speaker 2: first minute, Belgium were I mean technically better, but they
12:01
Speaker 2: were winning fifty to fifties.
12:03
Speaker 3: They had less mistakes. It's habs it fair to.
12:07
Speaker 2: Say that all the goals are preventable or is that
12:10
Speaker 2: too harsh?
12:13
Speaker 1: Well, you know, there's a number of ways to look
12:16
Speaker 1: at it. Right at the end of the day, you
12:18
Speaker 1: just have to look at what you know. Obviously, what
12:20
Speaker 1: we what we saw in the field with just one
12:22
Speaker 1: team completely taking control of a game and another team
12:27
Speaker 1: just sort of following along the best they could. And
12:30
Speaker 1: that's what it was. For me. It was really surprising
12:34
Speaker 1: that there was no adjustments made, you know, through the
12:36
Speaker 1: game because it was clear that we could not we
12:40
Speaker 1: could not chase the ball and try to win it.
12:44
Speaker 1: And and unfortunately, we're really good at that. By the way,
12:47
Speaker 1: you know this is this is probably one of the
12:49
Speaker 1: best traits we have, is the fact that you know,
12:52
Speaker 1: and you've heard me say this, but it's the fact
12:54
Speaker 1: that American players will just run through the wall, you know,
12:57
Speaker 1: like they'll do anything, you know, to try to win
12:59
Speaker 1: a game. But unfortunately, you're never going to be faster
13:02
Speaker 1: than the ball. You're never going to catch up to it.
13:04
Speaker 1: And and yesterday was one of those cases where unfortunately
13:08
Speaker 1: you have to sit back and wait and counter. You
13:10
Speaker 1: have to have a different plan and it just didn't.
13:14
Speaker 1: It didn't look like it was going to happen at
13:17
Speaker 1: any point. And then for me, you know, when when
13:19
Speaker 1: I look at the rest of the game, the substitutions
13:23
Speaker 1: were just really hard to understand. You know, when when
13:28
Speaker 1: you take off Desks at halftime to bring in Jurina,
13:34
Speaker 1: you know, this is probably one of those games where
13:37
Speaker 1: I would have gone with maybe a little bit more energy,
13:39
Speaker 1: with someone that could bring a little bit more energy.
13:42
Speaker 1: I mean, I know, way I didn't play well the
13:46
Speaker 1: game against Turkey, but but someone that could maybe you know,
13:51
Speaker 1: get into space a little bit more, or even Aronson
13:54
Speaker 1: who could win the boat back. You know, I just
13:57
Speaker 1: didn't think that substitution made sense. And then and then
14:01
Speaker 1: you bring on Burholter, which fine, Burholter has I think
14:04
Speaker 1: he has a lot of energy. That's that's the that's
14:07
Speaker 1: the top thing really he brings to the table. But
14:10
Speaker 1: then you take off Tyler Adams to bring Peppy. So
14:12
Speaker 1: then why not just bring Peppy in the first place
14:15
Speaker 1: and avoid taking Tyler Adams all together and not put
14:18
Speaker 1: Burholter in. You know, So it just a lot a
14:22
Speaker 1: lot to me didn't make sense. And of course I
14:24
Speaker 1: always have the disclaimer that it's much easier to coach
14:26
Speaker 1: somebody else's team. So it's easy for me, you know,
14:29
Speaker 1: and for us to say, hey, you should have done
14:31
Speaker 1: this and that. I don't know, you know, in the end,
14:33
Speaker 1: we're all just watching the games and we don't have
14:37
Speaker 1: the full context that a coach can have. But whatever
14:41
Speaker 1: the context was, this didn't work. And you know when
14:45
Speaker 1: I hear in the pres com conference after that, now
14:48
Speaker 1: you know he realized, now he made full assessment of
14:51
Speaker 1: the players we have after this World Cup. Well, that
14:55
Speaker 1: full assessment should have been when you took the job.
14:58
Speaker 1: That's when you need to know your team and then
15:00
Speaker 1: from there you start building it your way. So you know,
15:03
Speaker 1: this is difficult for me to understand how we end
15:07
Speaker 1: worse than where we started.
15:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, that quote was particularly odd to me too. He
15:14
Speaker 2: the context was he was saying, you know, we all
15:17
Speaker 2: know that.
15:17
Speaker 3: It's a four.
15:19
Speaker 2: Year cycle and you know, hey, we didn't even get
15:21
Speaker 2: too well. I mean, I think you had enough time
15:24
Speaker 2: to assess the players like and he said, well, you don't.
15:27
Speaker 2: You don't get to see them in pressure moments. And
15:29
Speaker 2: we tried to create them as best we just didn't
15:30
Speaker 2: have them. And to a very low extent, I can understand,
15:37
Speaker 2: but like it's the World Cup.
15:39
Speaker 3: This is the journal we had.
15:40
Speaker 1: We had a last summer, we had the Nations League,
15:42
Speaker 1: we had like we had other competitions that we didn't win,
15:45
Speaker 1: by the way.
15:47
Speaker 3: And tap so by the way.
15:48
Speaker 2: So now that you know what all these players look
15:50
Speaker 2: like in not got run games, First of all, a
15:53
Speaker 2: lot of them played four years ago. But I digress.
15:55
Speaker 2: What does today Monday night? How exactly so Jim reim
16:00
Speaker 2: or or or maybe it's Matt Free, what does that
16:03
Speaker 2: mean for four years from now in a potential knockout
16:06
Speaker 2: round game like it it? These players are going to
16:09
Speaker 2: be so different in four years. So I just thought,
16:11
Speaker 2: I just thought that was very silly. But I want
16:12
Speaker 2: to I want to focus on Christian Polisic is the
16:16
Speaker 2: face of this team, the biggest star, the biggest expectation.
16:21
Speaker 2: He laid a neck, He was completely ineffective in the
16:25
Speaker 2: fifty nine minutes he was on the pitch, and he
16:27
Speaker 2: leaves with a little bit of an ankle injury. Marisia
16:31
Speaker 2: Potatino after the game said he hopes it's not too bad,
16:35
Speaker 2: and Polistic pretty much said the same in a postgame interview,
16:39
Speaker 2: and I don't think he read the room very well
16:41
Speaker 2: with well, now I get to rest, I should be fine.
16:45
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody wants to hear that he played
16:48
Speaker 2: a really strong first forty five minutes against Paraguay, left
16:52
Speaker 2: at halftime with an injury. Missus Australia comes back for
16:56
Speaker 2: a cameo against Cirki plays against Bossie.
17:00
Speaker 3: Fine.
17:00
Speaker 2: Wasn't special, but it wasn't like bad. He was awful,
17:03
Speaker 2: awful against against Belgium. And when we talk about talent deficits,
17:06
Speaker 2: we talk about the players Belgium would have.
17:09
Speaker 3: The United States are not going.
17:12
Speaker 2: Far if Poo was played like this and he did
17:16
Speaker 2: and they lost. And what did you make of his
17:18
Speaker 2: game of his tournament?
17:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know the quote in the press conference, the
17:26
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be fine, That's really not what anyone wants
17:30
Speaker 1: to hear. I think what the fans want to hear
17:32
Speaker 1: is my foot's broken in three pieces and I try
17:36
Speaker 1: to stay on anyway, but but unfortunately I had to
17:39
Speaker 1: come off. You know, we I go back because I'm
17:42
Speaker 1: old enough, and not that I saw it myself, but
17:45
Speaker 1: I remember, you know, watching highlights of you know, Franz
17:48
Speaker 1: Beckenbauer playing you know, with his arm taped, you know,
17:52
Speaker 1: a whole game because he didn't want to come off
17:54
Speaker 1: the field and he had broken his shoulder. You know,
17:56
Speaker 1: you you you remember great players going through moments and
18:00
Speaker 1: not ever want to be taken out of a big game,
18:03
Speaker 1: like the coach has to, you know, has to pull
18:05
Speaker 1: you off the field. You know, it's hard because you know,
18:09
Speaker 1: right now, we're it's a hot moment, right the game
18:12
Speaker 1: just happened yesterday, and we're just we're just reacting to
18:15
Speaker 1: all of these things. But there, you know, there's no
18:17
Speaker 1: question that if if there was, if this was the
18:22
Speaker 1: World Cup that was supposed to cement Christian Polisic at
18:26
Speaker 1: the top of the soccer pyramid in terms of players,
18:31
Speaker 1: that certainly didn't happen.
18:34
Speaker 3: No, and the context here of.
18:39
Speaker 2: He he went into the World Cup saying, you know,
18:44
Speaker 2: and getting annoyed at getting asked about pressure.
18:46
Speaker 3: The biggest pressure moment he didn't show up.
18:49
Speaker 2: He was getting annoyed that he kept on being answered,
18:53
Speaker 2: being told that this is a huge tournament. Like as
18:58
Speaker 2: much as he could, he would say, it's just another tournament.
19:01
Speaker 2: I've played in a lot of big games. It's you know,
19:02
Speaker 2: this is how I look at a game to game,
19:04
Speaker 2: you know, you try to try to stay feet on
19:06
Speaker 2: the ground, all that stuff. He's just a city to
19:11
Speaker 2: the Gold Cup last summer, asked to not play in it,
19:14
Speaker 2: and then he said, oh, but I'll play the friendlies
19:15
Speaker 2: against the European teams, and Pochatino said no, like you
19:18
Speaker 2: don't get to be half in, half out, Like you
19:20
Speaker 2: don't want to play the summer, you don't play this
19:22
Speaker 2: summer pools Stick publicly was like, I don't understand why.
19:25
Speaker 3: You know, I thought it'd be better to help the team.
19:27
Speaker 2: So he got in a public public argument with head
19:30
Speaker 2: coach and he said, I need this rest to be
19:34
Speaker 2: at my best at the end of next season and
19:36
Speaker 2: for the World Cup. In the calendar year of twenty
19:39
Speaker 2: twenty six, he did not score a goal for Racing Milan.
19:42
Speaker 2: He gets to the World Cup and twice leaves games
19:45
Speaker 2: with injury miss missed the skipped the Gold Cup. For
19:49
Speaker 2: this they were impact injuries. I don't want to be
19:52
Speaker 2: too too cruel, but the optics are terrible. They're tab
19:56
Speaker 2: and for a tournament that started with so much promise,
19:59
Speaker 2: I think for the team, I think he's a good
20:01
Speaker 2: micro Gotham of the team before that, he was the
20:03
Speaker 2: best player on the field in the first forty five
20:05
Speaker 2: against Paraguay.
20:06
Speaker 3: Never reached that level again.
20:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know this, this was supposed to be the
20:13
Speaker 1: tournament in which we're you know, supposed to start considering him,
20:18
Speaker 1: you know, put him up against names like you know,
20:21
Speaker 1: Clint Dempsey and you know and Lyndon Donovan and you know,
20:24
Speaker 1: now I can even think of a guy like Brian McBride,
20:26
Speaker 1: you know, who played a game with like a broken
20:29
Speaker 1: you know, they broke his face and he's still not
20:32
Speaker 1: coming out of a game, you know. And and these
20:33
Speaker 1: are the guys that fans remember, you know, they they
20:37
Speaker 1: remember the guys that bail you out, the guys that
20:39
Speaker 1: stood tall in the difficult moments. That's what fans want
20:43
Speaker 1: to see. But unfortunately we didn't. We didn't see that
20:47
Speaker 1: with him in this World Cup. And you know that's
20:50
Speaker 1: difficult because I'm not sure how how that looks going
20:52
Speaker 1: into the next World Cup. Because at the next World Cup,
20:55
Speaker 1: I think he's already going to be maybe thirty one.
20:58
Speaker 1: You know, there's there's a lot of there's a lot
21:01
Speaker 1: of players that are that are still going to be
21:03
Speaker 1: certainly eligible going into the next one. But there's no
21:07
Speaker 1: doubt that this team from now moving forward will start
21:10
Speaker 1: to change.
21:12
Speaker 3: And we're going to get into all those changes.
21:13
Speaker 2: The big picture fallout from the US is exit from
21:16
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty six World Cup at the hands of
21:18
Speaker 2: Belgium in the round of sixteen for to one.
21:20
Speaker 3: Sign for a quick break up.
21:21
Speaker 2: Next again, we're going to take a look at that
21:23
Speaker 2: big picture, what needs to happen, what's going to happen.
21:26
Speaker 2: But we'll be right back. Please rate, review, and subscribe.
21:28
Speaker 2: Inside American Soccer with Talen Bogan toa Ramos.
21:30
Speaker 3: For Ritre podcast.
21:40
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. We're discussing all sad things.
21:45
Speaker 2: Belgium beats the United States for to one in the
21:47
Speaker 2: US out of the World Cup at the round of sixteen,
21:51
Speaker 2: just like there were four years ago, just like they
21:53
Speaker 2: were in twenty fourteen, and just like they were in
21:56
Speaker 2: twenty ten, but in worse fashion and at a home
21:59
Speaker 2: World Cup. First and foremost, tab this is a missed
22:03
Speaker 2: opportunity for this team, for soccer in America. The country
22:09
Speaker 2: was behind the scene. It was really really special for you.
22:13
Speaker 2: I guess how much of a missed opportunity? Is this
22:16
Speaker 2: or what does this mean to you?
22:19
Speaker 1: Well, it's huge, you know, I think I think first,
22:24
Speaker 1: I think let's give credit where credits due. I think,
22:28
Speaker 1: you know, in general, and you know, forgetting you know,
22:31
Speaker 1: ticket prices and all of that stuff. The World Cup
22:33
Speaker 1: has been great, you know, and it's been great for
22:35
Speaker 1: the sport. And I think there's gonna be people for
22:38
Speaker 1: decades talking about, Hey, remember that World Cup in the US,
22:42
Speaker 1: just like it was, you know, think about it. People
22:44
Speaker 1: still talk about World Cup ninety four and how long
22:46
Speaker 1: ago that was, and and the effect that that had
22:49
Speaker 1: on people's lives, the effect it had on more children playing,
22:53
Speaker 1: you know, all of those things. So this World Cup
22:56
Speaker 1: I think will be exponentially better, you know, and I
23:00
Speaker 1: think the effects of this World Cup we will feel
23:03
Speaker 1: for the next few decades. So, you know, very happy
23:06
Speaker 1: about that because the American people really took it in.
23:09
Speaker 1: And I think there's there's hardly any any television station
23:14
Speaker 1: that you can put on, any program you can put
23:16
Speaker 1: on that's not in some sort of way referring to
23:18
Speaker 1: soccer right now, and that's a that's a great place
23:20
Speaker 1: to be, so really happy about that in terms of
23:24
Speaker 1: the the soccer project in general, you know, because don't
23:28
Speaker 1: forget that, you know, it wasn't It was only a
23:30
Speaker 1: few years ago when we heard that famous press conference
23:33
Speaker 1: in which we heard the word the word project about
23:36
Speaker 1: seventeen thousand times by you know, by Cindy Parlow and
23:41
Speaker 1: by Matt Crocker and by whoever. I also was sitting
23:45
Speaker 1: there on the press conference project project project. Well, this
23:49
Speaker 1: is the end of that project, and and and this
23:53
Speaker 1: is the time to evaluate whether we think that this
23:55
Speaker 1: is this project has been successful or not. And let
23:59
Speaker 1: me go back. Before we decide whether this was successful
24:02
Speaker 1: or not, let me go back to thinking how this
24:05
Speaker 1: whole thing got started. And this really got started around
24:09
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen when we had to wait for a full
24:12
Speaker 1: year twenty eighteen or nineteen, when we had to wait
24:15
Speaker 1: for full year or over a year to hire Greg
24:18
Speaker 1: Berholter for the first time, right, there was no reason
24:22
Speaker 1: for that. Right. So here's here comes what we think
24:26
Speaker 1: is going to be the golden generation that's already starting
24:30
Speaker 1: out in Limbo for a period of time. And then
24:33
Speaker 1: we go through the Burholter comes in and we go
24:36
Speaker 1: through the qualifying in which we were I believe tied
24:40
Speaker 1: with Costa Rica for third place, third fourth place for qualifying,
24:45
Speaker 1: But we did get to a World Cup, and we
24:47
Speaker 1: can just chalk it on. We'll chalk it up to saying, well,
24:50
Speaker 1: you know, we came in third or fourth place, but
24:53
Speaker 1: you know, this is a young team. This is about
24:55
Speaker 1: the future. So then we get to the twenty twenty
24:57
Speaker 1: two World Cup. Somehow, not a great show going leading
25:00
Speaker 1: into it. And then we get to the World Cup
25:02
Speaker 1: and it was okay, I thought, you know, the team
25:04
Speaker 1: competed hard. And then we get to the round of
25:07
Speaker 1: sixteen like we always do, and we were overmatched by
25:10
Speaker 1: the Dutch team, no question. And in the end we're undecided. Okay,
25:16
Speaker 1: well it wasn't great. Maybe we need to bring a
25:18
Speaker 1: new coach, and maybe a new coach will take us further.
25:22
Speaker 1: After another long wait, you know, we hire Burrholter after
25:26
Speaker 1: all these problems, and so now we wasted about another
25:29
Speaker 1: year and we go into the second phase of Berrholz,
25:34
Speaker 1: which ended up in failure at the Copamerica at home
25:37
Speaker 1: and that ended, and then and then we wait for
25:40
Speaker 1: Pochettino for a period of time and then we finally
25:43
Speaker 1: get him, and now we see these two years. And
25:46
Speaker 1: now we finished the two years of Pochettino, in which
25:49
Speaker 1: we were told, let's wait to the World Cup. Everything
25:51
Speaker 1: will be great at the World Cup. Don't worry about
25:52
Speaker 1: that the two years are not great and that we're
25:54
Speaker 1: not getting great results and that we don't look good.
25:57
Speaker 1: Don't worry about any of that. Wait for the World Cup.
25:59
Speaker 1: And now we're at the World Cup up and for me,
26:01
Speaker 1: the World Cup was not successful on the field. So
26:05
Speaker 1: now Tom, before you jump in, Now it's time for accountability.
26:11
Speaker 1: It's time for accountability. And that's not just with the coach,
26:15
Speaker 1: but that's with the people above the coach, right, because
26:18
Speaker 1: this is what happens. It happens in every club, it
26:20
Speaker 1: happens on every team. Somebody is accountable because you brought
26:24
Speaker 1: the coach in and it didn't work out, and what happens,
26:28
Speaker 1: I want to hear. So now I want to hear
26:30
Speaker 1: from the people because I did hear, and you mentioned
26:32
Speaker 1: on the show, on the last show we had, you know,
26:35
Speaker 1: apparently before the World Cup there was a new offer
26:38
Speaker 1: made to Putchetino to continue for four years. Who made
26:41
Speaker 1: that offer? If we don't have a technical director, if
26:44
Speaker 1: we don't have somebody who's running the way. That's soccer,
26:47
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about soccer. I'm not talking about business,
26:49
Speaker 1: and I'm just talking about soccer. If we don't have
26:51
Speaker 1: the one person there who's now dictating what do we
26:54
Speaker 1: want to look like going into the future, not how
26:57
Speaker 1: many shirts we want to sell, now how much we're
26:59
Speaker 1: going to fill the stadiums, how we're gonna play and
27:03
Speaker 1: well that and then we can hire that person so
27:07
Speaker 1: that person can hire the coach, and now we can
27:10
Speaker 1: move in a new direction. So I'm hoping that this
27:13
Speaker 1: is what's gonna happen, that there's gonna be some accountability
27:15
Speaker 1: from US Soccer, that this is not going to be
27:18
Speaker 1: brushed off into Hey, we made four hundred million dollars
27:21
Speaker 1: in this World Cup. Nobody cares you made four hundred
27:24
Speaker 1: million dollars. What we care about is that our team
27:26
Speaker 1: gets better and that we get closer to what the
27:30
Speaker 1: best teams in the world look like.
27:33
Speaker 2: So the informative question who makes that offer, my understanding,
27:37
Speaker 2: would be JT.
27:38
Speaker 3: Batson and Sydney Parlocone. To your point, tab, we're.
27:42
Speaker 2: Talking about accountability, if we're talking about if there is
27:46
Speaker 2: to be changes at the federation what does.
27:48
Speaker 3: That what does that look like to you?
27:50
Speaker 2: Because I was late last night fans who were obviously upset,
27:55
Speaker 2: Like one person was like, we need to tear it down,
27:58
Speaker 2: and you kind of like not. Somebody followed up is like, Okay,
28:01
Speaker 2: tell me exactly what that means to you. And and
28:04
Speaker 2: I don't believe that he gave a huge answer. And
28:06
Speaker 2: it's not his it's not his programs.
28:09
Speaker 3: He's a fan. That's how fans are gonna feel after
28:11
Speaker 3: you lose, for one. But all that is to.
28:13
Speaker 2: Say, what what would a positive change or what would
28:18
Speaker 2: accountability look like in your eyes?
28:21
Speaker 1: Well, I mean there's so many areas to analyze, right,
28:23
Speaker 1: because when a sporting director comes in, you have to
28:26
Speaker 1: also think about just the way you discover players in
28:29
Speaker 1: the first place, because think about the hundreds of millions
28:32
Speaker 1: of dollars that each and let's just say each probably
28:36
Speaker 1: MLS team is spending on youth development, right, and yet
28:40
Speaker 1: we have a team right now in which many of
28:43
Speaker 1: the players on the first team didn't develop here, right,
28:46
Speaker 1: So so you're talking about players that developed overseas. You
28:49
Speaker 1: know Tilman never played here, you know Balligan never played here.
28:52
Speaker 1: You know you Desk never played here, Robinson, Anthony Robinson
28:57
Speaker 1: never played here. I mean, you could even argue that that,
29:01
Speaker 1: you know, Christian Polisic, it's sort of created a little
29:03
Speaker 1: bit outside of the norm of of you know. So
29:07
Speaker 1: so if you're going to say that, then how are
29:10
Speaker 1: we discovering players? How is the funnel that's come into
29:14
Speaker 1: the senior national team? How is that working? You know,
29:17
Speaker 1: how are we finding them? So I think I think
29:20
Speaker 1: what does that look like to me? Tom? I think,
29:22
Speaker 1: you know, after the we didn't qualify for the twenty
29:25
Speaker 1: eighteen World Cup, Saneil had to step down, step step
29:29
Speaker 1: down from US Soccer, Right, That's what happens. That's that's
29:32
Speaker 1: that's accountability. You have to leave and somebody new comes in.
29:36
Speaker 1: You know, I think for me, with what I've seen
29:39
Speaker 1: from the senior national team for the last eight years,
29:42
Speaker 1: you know who who do now that we don't have
29:44
Speaker 1: a director because you know, don't forget that that having
29:49
Speaker 1: the sporting director leave leading into the World Cup, that
29:53
Speaker 1: at some point has to fall with the person above them,
29:57
Speaker 1: which would be to me, the president. So point I think,
30:01
Speaker 1: I think what would be good for you as soccer
30:03
Speaker 1: is is if if we had the president step down
30:07
Speaker 1: you know, vote for a new president in who has
30:09
Speaker 1: new ideas, new ways of of doing things. And I'm
30:12
Speaker 1: saying not saying the business part again, J T. Batson
30:15
Speaker 1: may be the greatest business CEO ever he can stay there.
30:19
Speaker 1: That doesn't really, it doesn't affect, doesn't matter to me
30:22
Speaker 1: at all. What matters is that we need to have
30:25
Speaker 1: more soccer people and I think at this point we
30:27
Speaker 1: likely need a new president. We need a new sporting
30:29
Speaker 1: director who will hire the new head coach.
30:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so formulaically, these processes take time and and Tabli,
30:38
Speaker 2: like you said, the last two coaching cycles two of
30:41
Speaker 2: the last three. Sorry because the Pochatino one was was
30:44
Speaker 2: pretty quick and again they deserve credit for that.
30:46
Speaker 3: Ge.
30:48
Speaker 2: All these things are going to take time, and time
30:50
Speaker 2: is not something that we are all looking to sit
30:53
Speaker 2: around through. Right for the last what the last eight
30:56
Speaker 2: years have been going back or nine years whenever exactly
30:58
Speaker 2: coove it was. So I'm that coach Marisia Pochettino his
31:02
Speaker 2: contract was up after the World Cup. Before the tournament started,
31:06
Speaker 2: there was an offer from US Soccer conversations about his future.
31:10
Speaker 3: They decided talk about it after the World Cup.
31:13
Speaker 2: Will Sheldy last night asked him about it, and he said,
31:16
Speaker 2: you know, now is not the time to talk about
31:18
Speaker 2: his future of the federation. He goes, quote, in the
31:21
Speaker 2: next weeks, we can start to talk if the federation
31:24
Speaker 2: wants to talk. Right now, it's about resting a little
31:26
Speaker 2: bit to think, to have conversations with the federation to
31:29
Speaker 2: see what the decision is. I'm so happy we've built
31:32
Speaker 2: a very good relationship, but now is not a moment
31:34
Speaker 2: to talk about my future. So the prevailing wisdom is
31:39
Speaker 2: Pochattino wants to be back in club soccer after this
31:42
Speaker 2: World Cup, which totally like I think we all thought
31:46
Speaker 2: that when Pochetino was first hired, So I'm not saying
31:49
Speaker 2: that as a negative in any way. The jobs that
31:53
Speaker 2: are open right now, what are they? If are there
31:55
Speaker 2: going to be offers for Pochetino. My very strong suspicion
31:59
Speaker 2: is if he signs a new contract with US Soccer,
32:03
Speaker 2: it's either coming with a contractual buyout in that it's
32:07
Speaker 2: written into his contract.
32:09
Speaker 3: If whether it's all fair for all teams, or if.
32:12
Speaker 2: It's Hey, these Premier League teams and these Champions League teams,
32:16
Speaker 2: they pay X amount of dollars to buy me out
32:18
Speaker 2: of my contract. Basically, when the job that I want
32:20
Speaker 2: more comes up, I'm going to take it. I think
32:24
Speaker 2: that's that's how the conversations will go. I don't know
32:26
Speaker 2: that for a fact. I want to be very clear.
32:28
Speaker 2: There's noter sources. That's just from things I know and
32:31
Speaker 2: things you've heard. If that's the case, tab like I'm
32:36
Speaker 2: I think i'd be open to Pochatino staying. But if
32:40
Speaker 2: there's something next to a zero percent chance that Pochettino's
32:44
Speaker 2: the head coach in twenty thirty for the World Cup,
32:47
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how great it would be to have
32:50
Speaker 2: somebody here for another three months or six months or
32:52
Speaker 2: twelve months or whatever it is until Jose Mourinho gets
32:56
Speaker 2: fired at at Real Madrid or a job in London
32:59
Speaker 2: open up. I'm kind of torn on this in that
33:06
Speaker 2: just moving on without a plan because I don't know
33:08
Speaker 2: who the obvious options are right now tap But like
33:12
Speaker 2: keeping him in the job for something that feels like
33:14
Speaker 2: a short term type of marriage, I'm not sure how
33:18
Speaker 2: great that is for the continuity and the building of
33:21
Speaker 2: the program. But again, there's no sporting director that needs
33:24
Speaker 2: to be a sporting director hired like things would be
33:27
Speaker 2: pretty bare without pushing his head coach, even if it's
33:31
Speaker 2: short term.
33:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, not a whole lot I can add
33:36
Speaker 1: to that because I agree with with all of that.
33:39
Speaker 1: That would that would exactly be my concern that we know,
33:43
Speaker 1: you know, hiring Pochettino would likely be until a better
33:48
Speaker 1: job comes. I mean, that's that's just the bottom line.
33:50
Speaker 1: Let's not forget that we sort of have a year
33:53
Speaker 1: to play with now, in which you know, somebody can
33:56
Speaker 1: come in and start figuring out the team and actually
33:59
Speaker 1: start breaking the team down and figuring out how he
34:01
Speaker 1: wants to play with the players that we have. And
34:04
Speaker 1: and by the way, what young players start to come
34:06
Speaker 1: start coming along, which I hope that we're going to
34:09
Speaker 1: start focusing on on some of these shows, you know,
34:11
Speaker 1: as we as we go into the fall, start talking about, Hey,
34:14
Speaker 1: who are the next guys that are coming along? Because
34:16
Speaker 1: you know, inevitably now we need a new generation of players.
34:19
Speaker 1: We need four, five, six, seven, eight players that come
34:22
Speaker 1: in and and sort of start you know, taking the torch.
34:25
Speaker 1: That's just the norm, right, and uh and so and
34:29
Speaker 1: so I would I would say that, yeah, you know,
34:32
Speaker 1: keeping Pochettino at this point is not something that would
34:34
Speaker 1: that should likely even be considered.
34:38
Speaker 3: Interesting.
34:39
Speaker 2: I'm very curious to see where this goes. Hopefully I'll
34:41
Speaker 2: have news on it, will be reporting out everything that
34:44
Speaker 2: I can over the next weeks or however long all
34:47
Speaker 2: of this take so, particularly with with my guys Paulton
34:51
Speaker 2: Oyo and Henry Bush. Now, I think I think and
34:53
Speaker 2: this show wall have you covered. But talking about the players,
34:56
Speaker 2: I think that that I would say, I think that
34:59
Speaker 2: there's gonna be a lot of carryover from this team.
35:03
Speaker 2: And four years is a long time. A lot of
35:04
Speaker 2: things can change. But Balgan's twenty five, Polus six twenty seven,
35:09
Speaker 2: Death is twenty five, McKinney's twenty seven, Adams is twenty seven,
35:12
Speaker 2: Richards is twenty six, Freeman is twenty one, Anthony Robinson
35:17
Speaker 2: is twenty eight. That's eight starters who end of their primes,
35:21
Speaker 2: maybe depending on which which we're exactly talking about, and
35:24
Speaker 2: the hope is development comes. Players behind them are pushing
35:27
Speaker 2: this team just because that they're all gonna be between
35:30
Speaker 2: what twenty nine and thirty one. It doesn't automatically mean
35:33
Speaker 2: that you're still in the team. But it's not as
35:36
Speaker 2: like somebody like Tim rim he thirty eight, right, we
35:38
Speaker 2: know that this is it for him. This is still
35:41
Speaker 2: a younger team, and I think that there's gonna be
35:44
Speaker 2: a lot a lot of carryover. But to your points,
35:47
Speaker 2: have I think in future weeks we're really gonna break
35:51
Speaker 2: down what's coming or who's coming, or what optimism we
35:54
Speaker 2: can gain from it.
35:54
Speaker 3: But you hope to see as Xavier Goess, you hope.
35:58
Speaker 2: To see maybe it's too soon from atist Albert and
36:00
Speaker 2: Cabin Sullivan, but they're on the horizon. Maybe same thing
36:03
Speaker 2: for Julian Hall, maybe the same thing for Audreamedi. There
36:06
Speaker 2: is a lot of talent coming behind, But like I'm
36:11
Speaker 2: careful to fall into the same tropes that a lot
36:12
Speaker 2: of people did in twenty nineteen and in twenty twenty two.
36:16
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two, this was the youngest team at
36:19
Speaker 2: the World Cup and guitar oh in four years. When
36:21
Speaker 2: there's a home World Cup and you know the people
36:23
Speaker 2: who didn't like Boralton, when there's a new coach that
36:25
Speaker 2: doesn't that doesn't fumble this talent, well here we are
36:30
Speaker 2: the same round, the same exit, with a much much
36:32
Speaker 2: worse performance. So I don't really want to talk about
36:36
Speaker 2: potential of younger players coming through at the moment, because
36:38
Speaker 2: we've heard that for eight years.
36:41
Speaker 1: Right, But inevitably you're gonna need you're gonna need that competition.
36:44
Speaker 1: And now we've been able to see, you know, these
36:48
Speaker 1: players that they're prime, you know where they can go,
36:52
Speaker 1: and so you have to start looking in new directions.
36:55
Speaker 1: And by the way, you know, when you start bringing
36:58
Speaker 1: younger players in, it doesn't mean that they come in
37:00
Speaker 1: automatically being better than what you have. You know, some
37:04
Speaker 1: younger players will need an opportunity, they'll need experience. You know,
37:07
Speaker 1: they need to play in some of the big games
37:09
Speaker 1: before you know what they're capable of. And and then
37:12
Speaker 1: you hope that some of them can surprise you. And
37:14
Speaker 1: sometimes they do. And sometimes the guys that you don't
37:17
Speaker 1: think will play a big role of a sudden you find
37:20
Speaker 1: that they they're the leaders of your team. You know,
37:23
Speaker 1: that's sort of how it happens, you know. I'll take
37:25
Speaker 1: it back to I'm remembering when Tyler Adams came to
37:28
Speaker 1: my U twenty national team. You know, I only had
37:31
Speaker 1: Tyler Adams from you know, on the U twenties when
37:33
Speaker 1: he was on the young side, so he was two
37:35
Speaker 1: three years younger than everybody else, and I brought him
37:37
Speaker 1: in and automatically and I saw him play a half
37:40
Speaker 1: and made them captain of the team. I was like,
37:41
Speaker 1: that guy can be my leader, you know. And he
37:44
Speaker 1: was younger than everyone else. But but you never know
37:46
Speaker 1: until you get there. Like I didn't think that when
37:48
Speaker 1: I brought him. And I had seen Tyler here because
37:50
Speaker 1: he's at the Red Bull, so I knew him really well,
37:53
Speaker 1: and I brought him in and I didn't expect that.
37:55
Speaker 1: I didn't expect that in the big moments he would
37:57
Speaker 1: be the guy to shine. And and so there are
38:00
Speaker 1: other players like that out there. We just have to
38:02
Speaker 1: find them and we have to give opportunities and this
38:06
Speaker 1: is going to be the time. And of course, by
38:08
Speaker 1: the way, of course, we still have good players. And
38:11
Speaker 1: you know, yesterday's performance doesn't by far doesn't give a
38:15
Speaker 1: grade forever to everyone that was on that team. So
38:20
Speaker 1: so they we played a bad game at the wrong time.
38:23
Speaker 1: That's also part of it. But it's something to remember
38:27
Speaker 1: and other players will need opportunities like that one.
38:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It's funny, Tyler, when you
38:37
Speaker 2: were starting that, like Adam is the first player to
38:39
Speaker 2: come to mind for that just I think he embodies
38:41
Speaker 2: so many of the positive mental, own character traits that
38:46
Speaker 2: you would hope for. And he's been like that since,
38:48
Speaker 2: you know forever, right like the fifteen years old is
38:50
Speaker 2: first training sessions with the Red Bull first team. Like
38:53
Speaker 2: you said, the stories that you tell about his first
38:55
Speaker 2: minutes with you at the the U twenties, and hopefully
38:59
Speaker 2: there will be more of those in the future.
39:01
Speaker 3: This has been rightly a very very downdrodden.
39:06
Speaker 2: Episode, because that's what happens when you get played off
39:08
Speaker 2: the pitch in a World Cup to exit. But I
39:11
Speaker 2: want to at least end the big picture side of
39:13
Speaker 2: this discussion with let's look on the positives. What what
39:17
Speaker 2: positives can the US take from this World Cup?
39:19
Speaker 1: Tap Well, I mean, in terms of positives, I think
39:24
Speaker 1: what we can take is, you know, we can go
39:26
Speaker 1: back to what we did against Paraguay in the first half,
39:29
Speaker 1: what we did a little bit against Australia in a
39:31
Speaker 1: different way in the second game, and and and think
39:35
Speaker 1: about you know, when we're at our greatest moments, we
39:37
Speaker 1: can put people under pressure like that and really we
39:40
Speaker 1: can win any game. I you know, I think some
39:44
Speaker 1: players were able to shine. We have. You know, I
39:46
Speaker 1: think we have a number nine that's one of the
39:48
Speaker 1: best number nines in the world. I think that's a
39:50
Speaker 1: good sign. I think we have a midfield that I
39:53
Speaker 1: still believe is one of the best midfields in the world.
39:55
Speaker 1: And I think we need to we need to stick
39:57
Speaker 1: with those guys. I don't think there's a need to change,
40:00
Speaker 1: is there. You don't you know, you don't fix something
40:04
Speaker 1: when it's not broken. And those three guys are certainly
40:07
Speaker 1: three guys that together are are you know, one of
40:10
Speaker 1: the best midfields I can I can think of, and
40:13
Speaker 1: and so I think I think that's the positive. I
40:15
Speaker 1: think you look at that, and I think you you
40:17
Speaker 1: you build around your center forward and your three central midfielders,
40:20
Speaker 1: which is a good backbone. I think we have to
40:22
Speaker 1: rebuild our back line. We have to think a little
40:25
Speaker 1: bit harder about our goalkeeping situation. And certainly, you know,
40:28
Speaker 1: those wing backs are positions in which you you can
40:31
Speaker 1: constantly bring people in and out and try new people.
40:34
Speaker 1: But I think we can if we can get our
40:37
Speaker 1: center back situation sorted, we can have a very nice
40:40
Speaker 1: backbone to build from.
40:44
Speaker 2: I like that, and I like like for all the
40:48
Speaker 2: I think fair criticism that we are are launching here
40:51
Speaker 2: and analysis and breaking down of the way it ended.
40:55
Speaker 2: It's never one hundred percent negative or one hundred percent positive,
40:58
Speaker 2: and I think that is important to look at it.
41:02
Speaker 2: Somewhere in there. It reminded me we never did talk
41:04
Speaker 2: about the Balakan situation, which somehow feels like it was
41:08
Speaker 2: three weeks ago now because all of these these days
41:10
Speaker 2: minutes and hours quickly. Then if there's it's so, I'm
41:15
Speaker 2: sure everybody listening knows. But just just to reiterate, Balgain
41:18
Speaker 2: is supposed to be suspended for the game against uh
41:21
Speaker 2: for the game against Belgium because he picked up a
41:24
Speaker 2: controversial red card against Bosia. FIFA FIFA spokespeople told all
41:30
Speaker 2: the media referred to the rule book, there is no
41:33
Speaker 2: appeals process for this.
41:34
Speaker 3: It is it is a suspension.
41:36
Speaker 2: The day before Balgan's suspension got overturned, US Soccer confirmed
41:40
Speaker 2: to US and said FIFA of confirmed it is a
41:44
Speaker 2: one game suspension, will not be added to all the while,
41:49
Speaker 2: America's best lawyers were on the case parsing through the
41:52
Speaker 2: rule book trying to see if there was any litigation
41:54
Speaker 2: that they could take and in a stunning, shocking and
41:58
Speaker 2: bizarre saga. FIFA an independent committee ruled that the one
42:04
Speaker 2: game ban was suspended, and by the way, Tab, because
42:07
Speaker 2: of course they can't say anything without being confusing, the
42:09
Speaker 2: suspension was suspended aka double negative. He was available to
42:13
Speaker 2: play and Balgan was thrown into the center of a
42:17
Speaker 2: huge controversy. And I feel for Balgin because it wasn't
42:22
Speaker 2: It wasn't him, and I understand why Belgium was furious Belgium.
42:27
Speaker 3: Tab.
42:27
Speaker 2: I genuinely believe if the US beat Belgium with Balgan
42:30
Speaker 2: on the field, Belgium were gonna bring this to cast
42:33
Speaker 2: the same way Morocco did after losing the For losing
42:37
Speaker 2: the Senegal at at afcron that was going to happen.
42:41
Speaker 2: There was a lot of UEFA came out and said
42:43
Speaker 2: this is this is a joke, this is a farce.
42:46
Speaker 2: A lot of federations across the world did the same,
42:49
Speaker 2: and Tab, honestly, I don't blame him.
42:51
Speaker 3: It looked like a farce.
42:53
Speaker 2: Donald Trump inserting himself into the conversation never gonna help.
42:57
Speaker 2: He's taking credit for it, but FIFA and usc OR
43:00
Speaker 2: they all insist it had nothing to do with that.
43:03
Speaker 2: It doesn't look good, and particularly when when this president
43:05
Speaker 2: takes credit for all the things, all these things, including this,
43:08
Speaker 2: doesn't look good. It gives an air of of of injustice.
43:13
Speaker 2: I think around the tournament, France has since they're going
43:18
Speaker 2: to appeal Michael Alisa's yellow card, because why wouldn't you
43:21
Speaker 2: if you set a precedent that these can get overturned
43:24
Speaker 2: when apparently they weren't supposed to be able to be overturned.
43:27
Speaker 2: England is going to do an appeal for the red
43:30
Speaker 2: card for Jerel Kwansa. That red card was very clear.
43:33
Speaker 2: But if you're England, why wouldn't you? And now tap,
43:36
Speaker 2: we're in a situation where I think every single card
43:38
Speaker 2: is going to be litigated. And I use that word
43:40
Speaker 2: literally because we're just going to focus and talk about
43:43
Speaker 2: the lawyers and I think this is just a shocking
43:45
Speaker 2: decision by FIFA.
43:47
Speaker 1: Well but this is great for lawyers. Nobody think about
43:52
Speaker 1: the billible, right, I think about the lawyers, and you know,
43:56
Speaker 1: we have to help the lawyers. You know there's not
43:58
Speaker 1: enough lawyers. Know this is h Yeah, I mean it's
44:01
Speaker 1: bad all the way around, because, yeah, FIFA, you know
44:04
Speaker 1: what you would at this point you would lawyer up
44:07
Speaker 1: to argue anything, you know, why not? I mean why not?
44:11
Speaker 1: I mean I think it FIFA put.
44:13
Speaker 3: The next World Cup draw right, right, I don't like this.
44:16
Speaker 1: Draw, right, I don't like the draw, and I think
44:18
Speaker 1: that ball, you know, but but no, I mean, there's
44:22
Speaker 1: very little to add to that time. I think it
44:23
Speaker 1: was a big distraction. I think for both teams. One
44:27
Speaker 1: team used it as motivation and the other team I
44:30
Speaker 1: think just got distracted by it. I think it probably
44:33
Speaker 1: hurt our preparation a little bit, you know, to have
44:36
Speaker 1: to have flow play the game. Of course, that makes
44:39
Speaker 1: us better, so it's not really an excuse for it.
44:43
Speaker 1: But I think it certainly motivated Belgium because they they
44:46
Speaker 1: probably went thinking, hey, we we really have to be
44:50
Speaker 1: careful with this game because the calls may go against
44:53
Speaker 1: this too. You know, this may be one of those
44:55
Speaker 1: situations where they're trying to just help the host team
44:57
Speaker 1: to get through to the next round no matter what.
45:00
Speaker 1: And as a team. And I'm just saying that, by
45:01
Speaker 1: the way, I'm making this up, so I have no
45:04
Speaker 1: right reason to think that they they did that. But
45:06
Speaker 1: if i'm them, just like I mentioned to you about
45:09
Speaker 1: Inciso's fake injury in Paraguay. Remember that, Like I'd be
45:13
Speaker 1: thinking about that, so I would be thinking if I'm
45:15
Speaker 1: their coach, I'd be thinking, guys, just be careful when
45:18
Speaker 1: you go on the field because I think what's happening
45:21
Speaker 1: here is they're trying to allow the host team to
45:23
Speaker 1: go through to the next round, and so we need
45:26
Speaker 1: to be like, you know, really focused on this one.
45:29
Speaker 1: And I think they use it as motivation and it
45:30
Speaker 1: helped their team.
45:33
Speaker 2: Tibokuchua came out after the game was like, you know,
45:35
Speaker 2: we knew we were gonna win. Senegal was a better team.
45:37
Speaker 2: Like I think it gave something to this group. By
45:40
Speaker 2: the way, a fractured Belgian locker room, a fractured Belgian
45:43
Speaker 2: locker room that had something to rally around. I think
45:48
Speaker 2: it think it was it was a boost to them
45:50
Speaker 2: to be the everybody against us. Rudy Garcia, the head coach,
45:54
Speaker 2: was like, we're not fighting for the Belgian federation, We're
45:56
Speaker 2: fighting for football. And I will say, by the way,
45:59
Speaker 2: balgenham every bit of this with class. I still think
46:02
Speaker 2: that it was a bad decision on the red card.
46:04
Speaker 2: That doesn't mean that this should have gone overturned just
46:06
Speaker 2: because of all that, But after that game, Balgan went
46:10
Speaker 2: on the field shook the ref's hands. He was asked
46:12
Speaker 2: he then he talks to the media, By the way,
46:14
Speaker 2: if you get a red card, you really don't have
46:15
Speaker 2: to write he would have every right to just not
46:17
Speaker 2: do anything. The next day, he's talking to Meter the
46:19
Speaker 2: next training session and saying, I know that there's a
46:22
Speaker 2: lot of people watching. I want to set an example
46:24
Speaker 2: positive of you. You shake the refereece his hand after
46:26
Speaker 2: the game. You just even if you feel something is unjust,
46:28
Speaker 2: that doesn't give you an excuse to.
46:30
Speaker 3: Act like a clown.
46:31
Speaker 2: And he handled all of this with with such grace man,
46:35
Speaker 2: and I hope that this doesn't like become attached to him,
46:37
Speaker 2: like if they won, it would have been and the
46:38
Speaker 2: IRA would have been directed at him through no fault
46:41
Speaker 2: of his own. He came, he approached Rudy Garcia with
46:45
Speaker 2: a conversation, and Rudy Garcia was saying this after the
46:48
Speaker 2: game last night, like I really appreciated that, and he
46:51
Speaker 2: goes like he didn't have to do that, and he
46:53
Speaker 2: like he said, I told him this isn't his fault,
46:57
Speaker 2: and I feel bad for him, but it's just I
46:59
Speaker 2: think another positive. I think to come out of all
47:01
Speaker 2: of this is flow Baligan Man. What a character, high
47:05
Speaker 2: high level in addition to his his technical ability and
47:09
Speaker 2: his finishing ability. But I think that is one thing,
47:13
Speaker 2: one thing to highlight. But it's just again, I don't
47:16
Speaker 2: know how long we are into the show and what
47:18
Speaker 2: was the biggest story for thirty six hours. It almost
47:21
Speaker 2: becomes a throwaway because of what happened in the game.
47:23
Speaker 2: And that's how fast things move in soccer, and they'll
47:26
Speaker 2: keep moving. The tournament goes on without the US, So
47:28
Speaker 2: it's time for one more quick break. Next up, we're
47:30
Speaker 2: gonna look back at Tabs Draft Kings predictions. Thanks you
47:32
Speaker 2: for listening Inside American Soccer. Please write review and subscribe.
47:35
Speaker 2: We'll be right back and after the tournament. Just because
47:37
Speaker 2: the US are out, we're not stopping, so keep on
47:39
Speaker 2: tuning it. Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. Let's check
47:53
Speaker 2: back in on Tab's DraftKings picks to see how he did.
47:56
Speaker 2: The Draft Kings app now available nationwide. The easiest way
47:58
Speaker 2: to get in the World Cup, which just one Canada Morocco,
48:02
Speaker 2: the first of the hosts to fall. Tap said two
48:04
Speaker 2: nil Morocco, you were spot on three nil Morocco.
48:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought this was This actually was an easy pick.
48:11
Speaker 1: I thought Morocco would would be a two or three
48:14
Speaker 1: zero winner. I didn't think that the game would go
48:17
Speaker 1: the way it did, though, you know, Canada actually dominated
48:20
Speaker 1: the game and could have won the game. So even
48:22
Speaker 1: though I got this one almost exactly right, I didn't
48:26
Speaker 1: think that the game would go the way it did.
48:28
Speaker 1: I thought Canada did much better and I think the
48:31
Speaker 1: three zero result doesn't represent what this game was.
48:34
Speaker 2: Paraguay France another one that was tighter than I think
48:37
Speaker 2: a lot of people expected. You said three to one France,
48:40
Speaker 2: it ended up being one no France. They needed a
48:42
Speaker 2: penalty from Killianabape. A very a very gritty and a
48:45
Speaker 2: very physical performance by Paraguay.
48:47
Speaker 1: Yeah. This, on the other hand, was a game that
48:49
Speaker 1: went exactly how I thought. I think the fact that
48:52
Speaker 1: France only got one it was just a matter of
48:55
Speaker 1: time because it was before they would get a penalty
48:57
Speaker 1: or they you know that somebody would make a play.
49:00
Speaker 1: But there was no question that France was going to
49:01
Speaker 1: win this game, and they were gonna win it easily
49:03
Speaker 1: at some point.
49:05
Speaker 3: The next one, Brazil Ver's Norway. What a game.
49:07
Speaker 2: This was tab you said two one Brazil. It ends
49:09
Speaker 2: up being too one Norway erling Holland fires Norway into
49:12
Speaker 2: the quarterfinals.
49:13
Speaker 4: Yeah.
49:14
Speaker 1: I was at this game, which happened to be in
49:16
Speaker 1: New Jersey, and so I went to the game. It was.
49:20
Speaker 1: It was actually a great game. It was back and forth.
49:23
Speaker 1: Brazil dominated most of it, but it was just too
49:27
Speaker 1: much Holland for too little Brazil. And I have to say,
49:31
Speaker 1: as I mentioned on my x account, certainly a Brazil
49:35
Speaker 1: team to forget Tom. This is not a Brazil team
49:38
Speaker 1: that we will remember down the road.
49:41
Speaker 4: Yeah.
49:42
Speaker 3: So, and not Misery Loves Company. The USA is sealing
49:46
Speaker 3: great today.
49:46
Speaker 2: There's a lot of nations at this stage of the
49:48
Speaker 2: World Cup that aren't feeling great about how the team performed.
49:51
Speaker 2: So we're not We're not alone, We're not unique. Next up,
49:53
Speaker 2: the second of the three hosts to go out, mexicover's England.
49:56
Speaker 2: Tab said one to one, but Mexican penalties it ends
49:59
Speaker 2: up three to England. Crazy game. Jude Belling with with
50:02
Speaker 2: a couple of goals, there's a red card and there
50:05
Speaker 2: was a valiant Mexican effort to the end, but England defended, defended,
50:10
Speaker 2: defended like hell and they went three two.
50:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, this game went exactly as I thought. This was
50:15
Speaker 1: gonna be a battle the whole time. That's why I
50:17
Speaker 1: thought it would go to overtime. And I think I
50:19
Speaker 1: said Mexico would win on penalties. But but I thought
50:22
Speaker 1: that it could go either way, and the way it
50:24
Speaker 1: played out, it could have gone either way. But I
50:27
Speaker 1: have to say, what a performance from Jude Bellingham. I
50:30
Speaker 1: I have to think of another player who had a
50:34
Speaker 1: performance at the STEC, by the way, and obviously Pele
50:37
Speaker 1: won a World Cup there. Maridona won a World Cup
50:39
Speaker 1: there and had that famous you know, hand of God
50:42
Speaker 1: game at that stadium, but also dribbled through half a
50:45
Speaker 1: team on the on the other goal, right. But man,
50:48
Speaker 1: that the Jude Bellingham performance puts it right up there.
50:52
Speaker 1: And I don't remember a player running as much and
50:55
Speaker 1: making as much of an effort in that altitude against
50:59
Speaker 1: Mexico in front of that pack stadium. Unbelievable. Blankhemp's for
51:03
Speaker 1: performance was incredible to me.
51:05
Speaker 2: One of the most anticipated games of this World Cup,
51:08
Speaker 2: and it's certainly delivered. Spain Portugal tap said two in Spain,
51:12
Speaker 2: it ends one, no Spain and Christiano Ronaldo's journey at
51:14
Speaker 2: the World Cup forever isn't now over?
51:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, unfortunately we could see the end coming for Ronaldo.
51:19
Speaker 1: Every four years at the World Cup were reminded that
51:22
Speaker 1: some great careers end, and unfortunately his uh did this time.
51:27
Speaker 2: And then the game We've been talking about this whole show,
51:29
Speaker 2: Us versus Belgium, tap said two on us an extra
51:32
Speaker 2: time unfortunately did not quite play out that way for
51:34
Speaker 2: to one Belgium. We spoke about this the whole time.
51:38
Speaker 2: Any parting thoughts.
51:40
Speaker 1: No, I think I couldn't have got this more wrong.
51:43
Speaker 1: I didn't see our team going the way it did,
51:45
Speaker 1: and I didn't see Belgium as good as they played.
51:50
Speaker 2: Listen, I think I think we all we've been around
51:53
Speaker 2: soccer long enough. You know more about the game than
51:56
Speaker 2: you've forgotten, more about the game than most of us
51:58
Speaker 2: will ever ever know. We I think we all could
52:01
Speaker 2: have understood a loss. None of us saw this type
52:06
Speaker 2: of performance, this type of quite frankly and ass whooping
52:09
Speaker 2: that Belgian had, And I think that's just again, what
52:12
Speaker 2: is going to linger and what's gonna feel awful?
52:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, you look at the way
52:17
Speaker 1: Canada went down, you look at the way Mexico went
52:20
Speaker 1: down there when they went down fighting all the way
52:22
Speaker 1: to the end. Canada, all those three zero they lost
52:24
Speaker 1: at the end. Unfortunately, we didn't go down fighting until
52:29
Speaker 1: the end, and that's disappointing.
52:31
Speaker 2: Well, top, you and I we will go down fighting
52:33
Speaker 2: because just just because the US and out of the tournament,
52:37
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean that we're out of the tournament. So
52:39
Speaker 2: thank you for listening Inside American Saga. Please rate, review,
52:42
Speaker 2: and subscriber ever, get your podcast. We're gonna be back
52:44
Speaker 2: very very soon. We're gonna talk about the quarter finals
52:47
Speaker 2: that come and the continued fallout of the US M
52:50
Speaker 2: and t's eliminations with the world up.
52:52
Speaker 3: So stick around. We'll be back very very soon.
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