Latest / Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos / Pulisic Worry Meter & USMNT World Cup Performances Ranked

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Pulisic Worry Meter & USMNT World Cup Performances Ranked · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Usually when a comment comes from the president or the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: board of a club saying how great the coach is,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: you know you're a week away from getting fired, right,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: That's how that works.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: So I'm not sure.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: About this compliment and the coach being so happy that
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: he doesn't think Polisic is doing so well that it
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: doesn't sound right to me.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: What's going on? Everybody? Welcome back inside American soccer. I'm
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: your host. US men's aational team is out of Tom
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Boger and I'm joined by one of the greatest players
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: in you A soccer history, a veteran of three World Cups,
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: and my friend tab Ramos tab I'm in Washington, DC
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: right now, and I guess the area I'm staying in.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of like consulates and whatever. I can't
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: tell you how many places. First of all, when you
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: see a flag, I'm just thinking about what World Cup
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: group are they in? And second of all, I think
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: I walked by like the Uzbekistan like embassy and it
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: was just like a big World Cup poster. The World
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Cup fever is taking over the nation's capital.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt about it.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: And that's I mean, we're in a great place to
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: be although DC is not hosting any games, right do
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: you see her Maryland? Unfortunately, but that is a great
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: place to be because you can start feeling it. I
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: also just got back from Atlanta doing some work there,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: sort of promotional things for the World Cup. So I
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: got to go to Georgia Tech for the first time.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I had never been there, and there was an activation
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: for the World Cup there where everybody is super excited
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: about it. So, yeah, there's there's a lot going on now.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I think it's starting to pick up. And although I
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: know there's been a little bit of, at least from
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: my side, I've heard a little bit of complaining about Hey,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't hear a lot about the World Cup.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I think it's coming and it's gonna come fast, and
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: it's gonna come.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: You know, it's going to be very big when it comes.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Did you get to see the new US Soccer facilities?
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I did not. I did not get to see.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: So holda, I need I need to cut you off
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: here because I'm just going to be anger in your behalf.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: The US Soccer should have known that you were going
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: to be in the area and rolled out the red
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: carpet so that bothers me.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think the red carpet has been put away.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I think my red arpid was worn out a long
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: time ago, so I don't think that's happening.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: We've got a great show today. Listen. We are a
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: few weeks from Riso Pochatino officially naming his World Cup
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: squad and camp, beginning with a couple friendlies that start
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: at the end of this month in early June. Everything
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: is real. We are again within a month of those
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: games starting, so we're at the business end of the
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: season in Europe and the last couple games for MLS
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: teams before the World Cup breaks. So we're gonna talk
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: about the recent performances like Sogenio bet dest Is back
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: for PSV, Christian Polisik once again struggling for AC Milana,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Johnny Cardoso playing in a Champions League semi final. We'll
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: also have TAB ranking as top five USA men's individual
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: World Cup single game performances since nineteen ninety plus TAB
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: is gonna talk about the five best tournament performances for
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: other countries at the World Cup. I'm gonna assume that
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: there's gonna be no USA players on that top five,
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: but we'll see. So it'll be a good way to
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: get that World Cup fever going. But let's start with
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: the latest news and the latest going his arms around
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: the US national team and Johnny Cardoso. He started the
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: first leg against Arsenal in the Champions League at home
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: when they drew, and he was on the bench to
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: start against Arsenal like too, he came on for the
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: last thirty three minutes Atletic Co Madrid were unable to
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: get past Arsenal. Arsenal win that tie two to one.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: One nothing on the day, but still we have an
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: American playing a serious, serious role in a Champions League
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: semi final.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no question.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: And you know, Johnny didn't play over the weekend, which
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: gave us a little bit of a thought about, hey,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: maybe they're saving him because he's going to start against
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Arsenal and maybe who knows if that's a way for
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Cholo to throw off our Teta a little bit right
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: on in the lineup because he's of course, these things
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: happened just like they happen in youth soccer. You know,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: coaches try to outdo each other a little bit. Although
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: there's not a whole lot of secrets at that level, right,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: because everybody knows everybody. I think what's important about this
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: is the way. So Johnny only played the thirty some minutes,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: but that was a very difficult environment to get thrown into.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: You know, I was just putting myself in his shoes
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: every time he received the ball.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: You know, if you.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Were watching him, he had to run twenty twenty five
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: yards just to get into a spot where he could
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: potentially turn or just play a one touch ball. I
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: you know, I really like how quickly his brain is
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: working at this point, how good his feed are because
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: he didn't lose the ball in very difficult situations in
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the middle of the fielding in an extremely fast game.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Because although you know, obviously when you watch Byron in
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: PSC is a little bit different than watching Athletico and
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: are so little because it's just but the game is hard.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: There's no room for even a little bit of a
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: mistake because any mistake in Johnny Cardozo's area could turn
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: into a goal the opposite way. So very happy with
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: what I see from him and knowing that he's playing
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: in one of the absolute top teams in the world.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Hard for me to imagine a US team without Johnny
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Cardozo in it to be honest at this point.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: So, I've been very impressed with Johnny for Atltico Madrid,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: and that's been the theme of he looks so much
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: better in La Liga than he does with the national team,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: and I've been struggling to like identify why. And one
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: of one theory that I have is, yes, Atltical Madrid,
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: it is a very difficult environment, particularly against Arsenal, and
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: what he's asked to do is not easy, but it's
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: more about preparation and like reaction rather than like, so
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: give you an example, So you talk about those quick
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: touches in tight spaces. He's really really good at that,
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: and I think that suits his game really well. Then,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: like when he plays with the national team, sometimes he's
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: like asked to be the deep line playmaker and okay,
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: give you the ball at the top of our box
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: at to like start a possession, pick your head up,
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: think too much. That's like not his best role and
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: I think that might be why. And also with him
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: and Tyler Adams, like I think Johnny really good, Tyler
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Adams is a better version of Johnny in that like
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: their strengths overlap, and Tyler's just a little bit better
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: at a lot of those things, so it's been a
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: little bit of a weird fit. I'm very very curious
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: to see because again I think it's he's a no
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: brainer to be on the roster. I'm very curious to
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: see him in those two friendlies because if he plays well,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: you should probably be starting. But we we all talk,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: we talk about this hypothetical because we haven't seen this
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: Johnny with the national team, and I'm struggling to explain
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: why and that that's the best kind of analysis I
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: can I can then give you.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Know, and this is a great point of discussion because
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: now we go back to why haven't we had like
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: a solid starting eleven for a while that we can
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: work on now, because because like you, like you said, okay,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: you're so what you're saying, it's sort of the same
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: situation that that every fan is in and me too,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: by the way, because we're all saying, okay, we hope
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: that he does well in these two games, but we
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: haven't had those combinations working together in the middle of
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the field. Those combinations haven't made the mistakes that we
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: can correct. We haven't figured out that maybe, yeah, maybe
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: if Johnny and Tyler played together. Tyler needs to be
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the one that comes to receive a little bit deeper,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and Johnny is a little bit more of the eight
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: out of the.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Two, right.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: So, but these are all things that you figure out
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: on the run as you put the team together. And
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: unfortunately we've seen that the team hasn't been put together yet,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: so we're we're gonna have to wait till June and
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: find out. But I haven't said all of that. I mean,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: he's playing at a huge club, big, big minutes, and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: I just don't think we have another player that can
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: compare to that, because even if you said, okay, Juventus
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: is a bigger club than Athletico Madrid, of course everyone
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: has every right to say that, because they are, but
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: they're just not right now, a bigger club than Athletico Madrid.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: So so I just don't think we have a.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Player playing in a bigger club right now that plays
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: such an important role.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's interesting that we're talking about like probably
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: I don't know if he can make the eleven just
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: because things are different. One little like quick thought with Johnny.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: So he's a dual national with Brazil, and when he
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: was committing to the US, it was like yeah, yeah,
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously he's never gonna play for Brazil. Like
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: that's just how you kind of look at it. I
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: think he would have a really good chance of making
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: the Brazil roster and like maybe getting playing Simont this
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: World Cup. It's just it's just kind of funny to
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: think about, Like a few years ago, it's like, okay, cool,
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: Like Brazil is not gonna be recruiting him, Like obviously,
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: if he wants to play, he should be playing for
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: the United States. And now he gets to the World Cup,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: and like he would have a really good chance to
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: make it this Brazil roster, but elsewhere another dual national,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: because that's the stage of this country. We are in
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: the globalization of everything. Serginio desk he picked us over
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: the Netherlands. He's back on the field for PSV. He
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: returned and they have two games left in their season,
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: so he'll have more chances to get minutes and get
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: a little bit fresh before the camp. He's obviously a
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: player that's going to be on this roster. The question
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: imediately becomes, as long as he looks mostly like himself
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: over the next few weeks, is he the starter at
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: that right wide.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Wolf I think that's exactly right.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I think it's a matter of looking as at do
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: we have Sir Genio Desk at one hundred percent or
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: a ninety five percent, and then that's a spot. At
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: this point, you know, Waya has done a decent job
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: out there, although he didn't play this weekend because I
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: think because of cards, but he's been doing a good job.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: And now you we have Freeman as well, so you know,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I'd like to see Desk be be the one plane
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: in that position, but remains to be seen how he
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: does over the next two three four weeks.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: I would agree, and I think that it's like his
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: to lose, but you never really know with his coaching
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: staff and this team, and again we're at the World Cup.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: It's whoever's looking best, whoever's looking fit in form all
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: of that elsewhere in Europe. I just really quickly Tyler
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: Adams first start back from injury, which is big. He
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: went seventy minutes. Anthony Robinson first start in a month
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: for Fulham, so that's good. I always appreciate to see
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: that Chris Richards wasn't starting, but he did end up
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: coming in because of injuries. That is obviously because Crystal
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Palace has the Conference League semifinal this week, so it
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: was a completely rotated team. The manager gave one of
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: my favorite quotes that I've seen this year. He was
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: kind of asked about it and he goes, it's kind
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: of like, you have your wedding next weekend, but this
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: weekend you have your friend's birthday party. I'm sorry, we're
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: just more excited for our wedding, which is just delighted.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: No, that's great, and it shows you the importance of
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the player, right so, and how well he's doing, how
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: important he is to that club, and the great job
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: that he's done the whole season because he's had a really,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: i think, a very consistent season for them. So no
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: questions there. I have to tell you, out of all
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the players you just mentioned, I'm a little bit worried
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: about Anthony Robinson.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: He did play, like you said, that's a great thing.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: He's not the Robinson that we've seen for the last
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: five or six years.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: He's really not at that point. A little bit concern
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: about that.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping that he gets the next couple of games
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: and that he gets his I just physically, I'm not
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: seeing that coverage that he had before. I'm not seeing
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: him comfortable getting up and down the field, just seeing
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: a different player at this point. I'm hoping getting a
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: couple more games under his belt will get him back
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: to what we're used to.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: I co sign all of that. Further up the field,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: both Baligan and Peppe score again. They are on fire,
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: particularly Bowigan in France. He is getting closer to his
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: career best season. It's been awesome, particularly in the calendar
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: year of twenty twenty six. We've seen Pochettino at times
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: play with two forwards. Particularly last window, there was some
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: really good moments between Peppi and Azimunk on the field together.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: I don't see that being more than like a situational
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: Heyward chasing a goal or something really specific. I don't
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: think that Pochettino will go with that, and if he does,
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: I think it's more likely that it's polistic as like
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: a second forward type of player. But the way that
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: these two are performing, you have to ask a question
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: on if, hey, could they seem more minutes together than
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: just Hey, it's the eighty fifth minute, we're chasing a game,
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: and you know, put them on together.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good point and I don't see that either.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I think that it will happen likely if we're chasing
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the game last ten to fifteen minutes, it's likely that
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: we have the two forwards, because you have to think,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: you know, how do you fix the rest of the
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: team if you have two forwards, So that means Pulisic
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: is not on the field, And if Polisic is, then
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: is mckinne not on the field?
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: And I don't think you can afford that necessarily, So
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: I just I.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Don't think there's another way to sort of fix the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: team to fit both of those guys.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: At the same time, I agree, and this isn't even
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: necessarily a knock on Polisic. So if you're defending them
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: in a four to four to two, he's a left
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: mid and I don't want him extending a ton of
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: energy in that spot. Plus I want him further up
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: the field for when we win the ball to transition.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: So I just, while it could be nice in theory,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: like it too many knock on effects for the players
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: around him, and particularly some of who we're expecting to
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: be the drivers of the performances for this group going
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: to MLS. Diego Luna scored free all Salt Lake, so
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: did Zavi r Gozo. The two of them were rampant
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: against the Portland Timbers. It was I don't know. That
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: team is so much fun to watch and the two
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: of them are performing super super well. And Luna I
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: think he appeared in like sixteen of eighteen games something
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: like that last year for the national team. He had
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: missed some time this year due to injury. He's clearly
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: got fired to try to make this World Cup roster.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: I know that poach Tino trust him. If we're reading
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: into things too much, Diego Luna was involved in Fox
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: Soccer's World Cup commercial in the US Jersey, So maybe
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: I don't want to read too much into that, but
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: I think Diego Luna seems like he's in a pretty
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: good spot right now for the roster.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you have to read into all those things, right,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: It's like when we were talking about roll Down doing
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: all of the going to the Super Bowl, Right, you
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: start to think.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Well, there's got to be a connection there.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: You always think about that because it's rare that the
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: coach is not involved with these decisions when they come,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you know, so they usually consult with the coach and
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: say is it okay if this person does this, And
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying it happened, I'm saying that's how usually happens, right, So,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: which is a good sign. And by the way, besides
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: all that, I think he deserves it. He's playing well.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: He's in a good spot. I think for me, as
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: you saw my roster for me, I had, you know,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: sort of Luna or Raina as potentially the last spot.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: So could could Sindajas and Aaronson be included and you
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: know as three of the four you know, that's where
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: that's sort of where we are. But I think certainly
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Luna is in good position to be on the team
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: and he deserves it.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: In the next few weeks, TAB and I will give
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: our official final roster projections before they are announced, So
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: look forward to that. Here inside American Soccer, a couple
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: more Simy and to Miles Robinson, both of which are
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: still not back. I don't I still think it's all minor.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: But Tim Reeen was supposed to be back last weekend
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: and the weekend prior Miles Robinson. They he got stubbed
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: off and they said it was just a minute restriction
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: and neither of them were playing again. I think that
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: they'll be fine, but it's not ideal. And lastly, speaking
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: of not ideal, we've covered this, I think every week
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: the last few weeks. We don't have to go super
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: long on this. But once again Polistic struggling and still
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: does not have a goal in twenty twenty six, and
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: AC Milan are in a bit of a tailspin. The
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: manager Alegrie said quote talking about Polistic for the future,
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: these difficulties won't weigh when he's strong. He belongs to
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: Milan and players like him are hard to find. You
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: have to evaluate the whole picture, not just the season.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Recently he's lacked goals, but he's done well. This is
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: a better defense of Polistic from the manager than a
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: few weeks ago. He pretty much just said like he's
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: very sensitive. So I don't know if this was that
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: play there, but at least begrudgingly, he's getting the backing
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: of of his manager and again a very very bad
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: time for acing Milana. By the way, I'm not expecting
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: a likely to be the manager next year.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I'm not sure how to take that
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: compliment because you know it's usually and I mean the
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: latest compliment because it's usually and you've heard, you're and
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: you know about this more than I do. But usually
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: when a comment comes from the president or the board
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: of a club saying how great the coach is, you
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: know you're a week away from getting fired, right, That's
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: how that works.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: So I'm not sure.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: About this compliment and the coach being so happy that
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: he doesn't think Polisic is doing so well that it
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: doesn't sound right to me, you know. And by the way,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: as you've known, because you've pushed me on this show
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: about this, I haven't been worried about Polisic because he
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: has been on the field, and I always feel like
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: it's the coach's job to see what he's doing through
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the week and then and then according to that, he
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: puts him on the field, and sometimes you know, just
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: results aren't there or the goals contributions are there. But
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: now he's not on the field. I think I'm starting
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: to worry about this because I think maybe there's some
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: some other issues going on that we don't know about.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: But definitely the coach coming forward and saying that everything
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: is great is not a good sign.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: Having to be asked whether things aren't great. It's usually
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: indicative that there's some truth there. So that's the latest
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: around the current US national team. Let's look back. We're
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: gonna take a quick break, but up next, Tab is
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: gonna rank his top five US M and T single
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: game individual performances at the World Cup since nineteen ninety.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: Please rate, review, and subscribe in South American Soccer with
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: Tom Bogert tab Rabbles wherever you get the podcast, Welcome back.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: It's in South American Soccer again. We are getting so
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: very close to the World Cup kicking off and hopefully
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: we will see some historic type of performance. It'll see
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: some very very memorable ones for the US national team
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: this summer. So let's look back at some of the
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: iconic US national team performances at World Cups since nineteen ninety. Tab,
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: you have a top five? Kick it off?
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I do, and I think you know, I may be
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: a little weighed on these by by just how I
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: remember the moments, right, and so maybe it's not so
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: much the full performance in a game, but those certain
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: moments that I think we remember because they're important to us,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and by the way, moments that are big for US
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: soccer and for the fans in US. As I always
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: do with lists. Whenever I put a list of five,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I always have to name six, and when I do
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: a list of ten, I always have to have twelve.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: So I'll just have his honor and broll mention to start.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Jermaine Jones performance against Portugal in twenty fourteen, and that
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: not just the goal against Portugal, but but just his
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: performance was you know, to be the player in a
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: game with so many great players on the field was
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: really an outstanding performance. So I'll say I'll just name
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: it as an honorable mention, but it's really.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Deserving of something a little bit bigger than that.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: But because of what I just said before about fans
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and the way fans remember, I have other moments that
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: I think are more important.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: So I'll start number five.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: I'll take I'll take Clint Mathis versus South Korea in
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: two thousand and two.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: And by the way, in that game, Brad.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Fried also saved the penalty, and brad friedel saying two
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: penalties in that in that two thousand and two World
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Cup that sort of kept us going in the tournament.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: So I will say Clint math Is two thousand and
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: two scored a great goal where O'Brien sends him a
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: bowl over by the way, a great goal over all
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: with the way that they connected, but O'Brien sends a
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: great bowl over the top. Math Is controls with the
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: right foot and finishes with the left foot.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Great finish, great game for him in one of the
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: old time best performances.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Oh, I'm glad that you've got something from O. Two.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: I was curious kind of which which player, and I
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: think this is the right choice. If we were gonna
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: do top five worst performances, I think the referee against
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: Germany would be in there at that two thousand and
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: two Brooke Cup for missing the handball. But I get
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: like that was the particularly modern times at least like
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: best US national team finished at a World Cup, and
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: when we had more optimism for the twenty twenty six
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: World Cup a few years ago. This with this performance,
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: this team, this run was viewed as as the bar
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: that this group was gonna hopefully be able to clear.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: We haven't had much talk about that given the latest
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: that was going around the team. But yeah, Clint Mathis
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: right of the show. That was a wonderful performance.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Number four, I'm gonna say Christian Polistic two twenty two
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: World Cups. So the past World Cup, we needed a
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: win against Iran to get us to the next round,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: and I think fans will remember it this way too.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: That was a that game was a great effort from
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Polisic and although you can say that, you know, it's
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: not just about the plays that he made in that game.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: It was about the effort and how in particular that goal.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: We will remember how he just dove like headfirst into
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: that play where he could have suffered a serious injury
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: to get us that goal that eventually qualified as to
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: the second round. So I would say Christian Polistic twenty
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: twenty two, yeah.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: Bringing us back to that like that, that was the
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: peak I think of the last World Cup and just
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: the moments, the emotion and going into the game, like
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: World Cups always set up for like geopolitical side like
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: story lines, and there was an like Iranian journalists, I
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: don't know they weren't weren't Probably shouldn't say something dumb here,
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: but I don't know if I would use the term
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: journalists when talking about some of them because of the
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: way that it was just trying to parrot whatever came
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: from their own government. And before that game, Tyler Adams
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: was absolutely grilled in the media, including like I think
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: he said, I ran in an answer and he was
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: being it was a pretty eloquent answer, and like he
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: got caught off midway by Ron and like Tony, thank
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: you very much for correcting me, like I want to learn.
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: So going into that game, not just the on the
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: field pressure, but the off the field geopolitical everything else.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: Like so for Polistic to step up in that moment
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: was something special.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: So number three, I have an iconic moment. I think
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: it's an iconic moment. I think it's more than just
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: whatever happened in that game. Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: in twenty ten, I think I think everybody remembers that
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: moment as one of the great American moments because we
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: were actually I think Tim Howard made a save at
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the other end, we almost lost the game. You know,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Algeria was attacking. God gave yes, they almost beat us,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and we go from a Tim Howard save to him
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: distributing the ball to us running one of the best
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: fast breaks. I haven't seen a fast break like that.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: You're too young for this, But since the Denver, since
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: the Denver nuggets of the eighties. That was a great
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: fast break and an iconic moment with the players celebrating
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: in the corner, everybody, everybody jumping on top of each other.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: I actually can't think of a better moment than that one.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: And because of that, I'm gonna say Landon Donovan Algeria
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: in twenty ten.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: I don't remember a single other moment from that game
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: at this point, because that is all you ever need
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: to know. I can the Ian Dark commentary. I still
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: can have it word for word, every every moment of
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: that play, what the camera cuts were, that was seried
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: in my brain. I think I was like fifteen at
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: that point, so it's particularly around the age where you
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: remember every moment of big, big sporting games. And yeah,
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: Landon Donovan obviously a legend for a billion reasons, but
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: that one might be the top of the list.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'll go with number two.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to say moment that I think, you know,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: most people will remember obviously because that wasn't it wasn't
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: so long ago, so it's more recent, you know, And
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: that would that would have to be Tim Howard's performance
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: against against Belgium and two thousand and fourteen World Cup.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: You know, Tim had sixteen saves that game, basically stood
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: on his head that day to keep us in the game. Unfortunately,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: we couldn't win the game in the end, but it's
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: certainly a performance that even caught you know, I think
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: the ear and the eye of the president at the time,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the whole country really got behind Tim Howard after that game.
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that there's strong arguments for this one
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: to be number one. He like speaking of iconic performances,
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: like not just from an American player, like that was
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: one of the best goalkey performances of any player at
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: a modern World Cup. Sixteen saves, it's still the World
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: Cup record, and we were close to stealing that, Like
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: the chance an extra time that felt to want a Lowski.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: Who knows what could have happened, would have happened. That's
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: a player that buries that chance. Oh he made a
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: career off of it and leading scorer in MLS history.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: So those fine moments the thing that have to kind
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: of come together, and how awesome and superhuman Tim Howard
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: had to be to even keep the team in the
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: game in that moment that was the game. Julian Green
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: scored is one goal.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: Again, these are things that you can't predict, you can't
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: plan for, and just man like that tournament, that run,
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: that performance from Tim Howard is just iconic and unbelievable.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I agree with the way you frame that because I
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: had a tough time not making that one number one.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: And the only reason I didn't make it number one
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: was because my number one is Tony Miola's performance against
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Colombia nineteen ninety four. And I have to say that
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: not because obviously Tony is my friend, so is Tim,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: by the way, it's more because of the significance of
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: that game and the impact that that game had on
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: really everything that's happened since. You know, Tony really stood
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: on his head in that game against a great Columbia
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: team that was one of the FAI riged to win
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: the World Cup.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: And we eliminated them in that game.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: But we would have never done that without Tony's performance
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: in that game.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean again, going being able to look back
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: and talking to you guys, talking to Tony. Obviously, Tony
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: would would never call it the best performance because you know,
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: you know uncle Tony how He'd be humble but well
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: and truly like stuff of legends, the stuff that again
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: all of the promotion for this World Cup, like how
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: many shots of you guys in like the starting eleven
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: with an and national anthem of Tony making a save
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: of the own goal from from Columbia and that win,
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: like it is the foundation that that a lot of
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: this is built on. I would have one one more
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: maybe to add, what about that same game a midfielder
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: named Tabramos. Is that anywhere within the discussion.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: No, yeah, I mean that was all right that game,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: but uh but uh no, I you know, I think
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: you know. And here here's the thing. You know, we
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: talked about Lennon Donovan's goal being iconic. I think the
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Columbia game is an iconic game, right if you took
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: it the whole history. And by the way, only because
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: we're talking from nineteen ninety till now, right, because it's hard.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Obviously none of us saw the nineteen fifty game against England, right,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: we're us upset England.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: So I want to be respectful of that.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: I want to be respectful of the nineteen thirty team
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: that made it to semi finals, although there was only
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: like eight teams in it.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: But you still want to be respectful of that.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: But I think in recent history this is an iconic game.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: It's hard to remember another game that would be more
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: iconic than that one. Maybe US beating Spain and the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Confederations Cup, I think around twenty ten, right, that comes
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: up as like a big, big moment. But I think
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: that Columbia game nineteen ninety four is the one game
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: that everybody talks about.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: For sure, and even like I think that era in
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: twenty ten and around like the Confederation's Cup because I
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: believe that they took the lead of the FI I
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: know as well because this was like, oh my god,
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: like are we actually like have we finally arrived? So
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: like we can go into a games against Spain in
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: Brazil and feel like semi confident. Like again, at that time,
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Spain went won the Euros, won the World Cup, won
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: the Euros, like that was one of the best teams
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: of all time. So but but that is all built
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: off the foundation I think from ninety ninety four that
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: kind of era, and like you said, giving the great
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: respect to the team's a long long time ago, particularly
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: that one in the nineteen fifties that that beat England.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: Some other performances for me. I was trying to think, like,
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: what was the best Michael Bradley performance at a World
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: Cup because thinking about that era too weirdly, like the
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: Slovenia game that the United States drew, Like, I thought
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: he was incredible in that. I thought that was it
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: was a weird one. Obviously refereeing controversy, but like, I don't,
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: I don't. Michael Bradley was always so good. I thought
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: it's kind of hard to pick out what was his
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: best performance because of just how consistent and like he's
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: he's going to you know, the seven and a half
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: out of ten, not going to drop a lo seven,
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: but it's going to be rare that like he has
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: one of those big moments where again the landa Donovan
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: goal or a performance where a goalkeeper can be insane
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: just because of the nature of the position, his style
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: and his role within the team. So I don't know
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: if one comes off the top of your head for
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: a Michael Bradley performance, because he was just always reliable.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with that.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: You know, I would put along the same lines of
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: where you put Michael Bradley, I would put John hark
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Or along. It's sort of that sort of that category
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: where like, maybe you can't we can't think of an
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: amazing John Hark's game, although he's had a lot of
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: good ones. It was kind of the same where like
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: you always got that consistency of somebody who delivered right.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: And Michael Bradley was that type of player who.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: You knew what you counted on, you knew when you
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: had your you put together your starting eleven. Regardless of
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: how you played. He was part of the starting eleven.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: And I agree, totally agree, Michael was just consistent.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: App Before we we talked more about the wider World
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: Cup performances. I'm gonna make you uncomfortable and make you
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: stick into what I think your best World Cup performance
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: was that Columbia game. What do you remember from that day?
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, I mean it was, uh, you know, obviously
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: difficult game.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: This is why we talked about Tony and the significance
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: of the that that game being iconic for for our
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: really for our programmer, national team kids, in the future
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: of soccer in this country. All those things I do
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: remember in that game, sort of towards the end of
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: the game, taking trying to take the responsibility going all
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: over the field to get the ball so that I
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: would have it, so that I could get fouled.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: And that the time would go by.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: So I recall sort of feeling like, man, I I
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: have to do more, uh for us to be able
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: to win this game.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: So it was, uh, yeah, it was uh. It was
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: a good performance that day, and it was you know,
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: it was a great day for us.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: I'm I think that's poetic and perfect that you want
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: talking more about those moments than the assists, because like
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: the those you can tell when somebody's being a passenger
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: or somebody's kind of hiding, and in those the most
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: tense moments when the other team is pressing ferociously, you
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: can tell which guys are like I want the responsibility
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: give me the ball, versus maybe somebody's checking for the
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: ball but not quite as hard, maybe not really trying
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: to lose the defender. So tab, I think that shows
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: a winning mentality that you're talking about that more so
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: than the assist. So I think that goes to show
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: what we all know about you. But we'll see if
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: maybe a couple months from now, we'll be revisiting this
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: top five to see if there's any twenty twenty six participants.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: I hope that we have a few to choose from.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: But now we're gonna take one more quick break and
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: Tap is going to rank his top five individual tournament
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: performances of the wider Modern World Cup since nineteen ninety.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: So stick around for that. Thank you for listening to
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: Inside American Soccer. Please rate, review, subscribe, we'll be right back.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: Welcome back to Inside American Soccer and TAB. We're gonna
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: keep it up with the theme of ranking and as
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: we're getting closer to the World Cup. While we've been very,
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: very focused on the US men's national team because that's
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: what the show is, that's what we know you guys
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: want to be listening to, let's set the scene and
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: talk about some of the iconic performances at the World
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: Cup since nineteen ninety. And again, this is going to
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: be tournament overall performances from an individual rather than the
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: individual games like we were talking about with the national team.
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: So let's set it up TAB Top five.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think setting the scene is a
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: good way to a good way to say it, because
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: you know, we're just a little bit over a month
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: from the World Cup and you know it's getting exciting
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: and it's good to remember the moments because obviously the
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: World Cup is so much bigger than just our team.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: You know, it's been you know, it's been.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Going on for one hundred years and there's a lot
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: of history there. So we have to mention moments, you know,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: as I always do with you know, I will have
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: my top five, but I think, you know, since the
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: top five is only considering nineteen ninety until today, I
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: think just mentioned a couple of things, you know, like
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Maridona's nineteen eighty six run. How can you how can
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: that night be whole? That whole run is iconic?
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Right, Pele.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: From nineteen fifty eight through nineteen seventy, he played in
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: four World Cups, won three of them.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Let's not forget.
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: He might be four of the top five if we
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: went back and then Maratona.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Right, So we'd have to do a full show on
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: those guys alone.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Right, you know, Paulo Rossi in nineteen eighty two, and
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: how that Italy team eliminated so many teams. I'm getting
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: to the final, you know, but this is where I
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: started nineteen ninety. So my number five would be Luka
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Modric in the twenty eighteen World Cup. He led the
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Croatia into the semi final. I mean, you know, and
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: here's a player that has had so many incredible club moments.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: He has had such consistency over the last fifteen in
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: eighteen years, playing at the top, top level, day in
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and day out, always playing the same and in this
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: World Cup he kind of put that team a little
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: bit on his shoulders and let that team into semi finals.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: And by the way, I'm sorry to the final.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: And let's not forget, of course, this was the World
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Cup of France, right, France had a great team.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: You know, Imbappe was just.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: A young kid at eighteen years old led his team
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: to win it. So you could potentially say and babe,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: but I think for what I've seen him of Modrids,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: and knowing that likely this summer is the last best
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: of Modrids that we'll see, I wanted to include him
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: on this list because he's deserving to be in a
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: list like this.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: Modridge won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: that year. I'm really happy that you have him on
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: this list. It is again we talk about at these tournaments.
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: It's moments, it's little things. They won the round of
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: sixteen and penalties. They won the quarterfinals and penalties, and
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: they won the semi final after extra time. Again, they
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: needed every single touch in every single pass that LUKEA
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: Modris delivered for that team.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: As number four, I'm gonna stay Diego four Lon twenty
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: ten World Cup from Uruguay. So that's the World Cup
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: that we all will remember as Spain having an amazing team.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, that team was so good.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: I've done a couple of appearances with.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: Mata. He was representing Man United.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: I was representing Betty's about a year and a half
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: ago when they played each other in San Diego. So
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: we were together and I asked him specifically about that
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Spain team twenty ten and he said, tab he goes,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: that team. Just being in training with that team was incredible,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: he goes. We were all coming from teams like Chelsea.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: He was a Chelsea at the time. He goes, we
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: were all coming from big clubs, but we all realized
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: that being in our training sessions was so much.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Harder than just playing for our clubs.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: So that the same team was truly special, and it's
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: hard to pick one player that kind of led the
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: way because they were all so good. But Diego Furlan
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: really put Uruguay's team on his shoulders. And if there
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: are other things that remember for that from that tournament,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: I think it is Diego Forlan won the Golden Ball
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: that tournament. And not only that, I think we remember
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Diego Fernan and we remember the Jabulani ball that could
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, and Diego Ferllan could really hit a ball
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: and took advantage of that. So on his way to
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: leading Uruguay and semifinals, scored five goals.
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, and they were the team of the tournament.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: That was a younger Luis Suarez as well, but again
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: Diego four Lan leading the way, oh man. Like, when
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: I think of the twenty ten World Cup, you think
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: of the Jabulani. You obviously think of the Spain team
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: and all of that, But you think of the Jabulani,
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: you think of Fourlan's hair and Evertress's goals, everything else,
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: those iconic light blue Uruguay kids. Oh man.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Like.
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: Again, like you said, he won the golden ball at
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: that tournament. While you were talking about I brought up
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: the Spain, the Spain starting eleven from the final, the
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: back line is Ramos pik PuO captain via midfield trio
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: of Chabi Alonzo, Sergio Busquetz and Chabi and attack three
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: of Iniesta, David Villa and Pedro. The players that came
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: off the bench with Cess Fabergas, Fernando Tors and Hayes's
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: not las. I can't believe that the Netherlands got them
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: the extra time, right, And I.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Mean that's what that's what you know. Manta was telling me.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: He's like, you know, it's hard to just get on
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: the field and you couldn't you couldn't blame the coach
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: because everybody was great. So yeah, that that was one
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: of the best teams ever. I'd have to for myself,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: if at some point we do team rankings, it's hard
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: to rank any team above that one. I'd have to
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: go back to the nineteen seventy Brazil team that you know,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: apparently was incredible to won the final four to one
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: against I think it was Italy, but but yeah, incredible team.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: So I'll move on to number three.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Number three would be and since we made us we
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: you know, the idea was to go back to nineteen ninety,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: using you know, recent history. I have to say Salvatory,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: Toto Scilachi and the nineteen ninety World Cup. So he scored,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: He scored in every game against except against US. So
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: so you know Italy. Italy went on to play all
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: seven games in that World Cup. He scored six goals,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: but didn't score against the US and and sort of
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: let his team, you know, coming out of nowhere. He
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: sort of let led Italy all, you know, all the
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: way to making it to the semifinals and actually took
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: third place in that tournament. Let's not forget that's the
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: World Cup with Maradona that you know, Maradona makes it
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: to the final for a second time in a row.
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, total scolote. I didn't I didn't know much about
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: him until we spoke about him a while ago in
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: a previous episode. And yeah, that's that's invaluable to go
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: back and like just rediscover some of those performances and
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: some of these players, like you know, you knew most
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: of the big names from that tour, but that was
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: one that they kind of had escaped to me. So yeah,
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: for him and and for Digo Maridona getting back to
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: the final after eighty six, Like, yeah, there's not there's
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: not too much more to add there.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Just yeah, and then this goes to show this was
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: a player that even within Italy, if you had a
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: name like the top five or six players, he wouldn't.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: Have been one of them going into a tournament, you know.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: And so I I think it goes to show sort
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: of the impact that the World Cup can have for
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: a particular player. And this year, could that be I
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: don't know, Nico Paz, Could it be someone we're not
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: thinking about, you know that all of a sudden comes
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: in scores a couple of goals, and you know, and
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: and turns it turns the whole thing upside down. So
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: at number two, I'm gonna have to go with Ronaldo.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: That's Brazilian Ronaldo. This was the best sort of Joga
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Bonito era where we all thought Brazil was just the
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: coolest team in the world and everyone had a bill
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: jersey and and if you recall back that far, it
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: was all the commercials with the Brazilians and the airport
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: juggling the ball and like all these things are going on,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: and it was really exciting times for soccer. That was
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: the team that had Ronaldinho in it too, you know,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: and that was just that was just an incredible, uh
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Brazilian team, and and and you know Ronaldo's performance, if
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: you recall, he was injured going into that World Cups, so.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: We didn't even that's why he did that night.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: So we didn't even know if he was gonna play.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, he scores eight goals
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: in this tournament. And and you know, and let's not
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: forget that Oliver Kahan won the Golden Ball in this tournament.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: By leading I think he led.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: He led Germany into the final, but he was really
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: standing on his head on his.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: Way on his way into it.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: But but Ronaldo, you know, I think a great tournament
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: and one to uh definitely not forget.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I have I have a guess at
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: what number one is. But before the last tournament, this
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: was like the gold standard of individual performances, and and
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: so he had those photo was of Ronaldo with just
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: the little hair island at the top of his head
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: and not anywhere else. Genuinely, that was because he was
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: coming into the tournament with the knee injury and he
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: didn't want anybody to ask him about it, so he
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: was like, what can I do to distract? And so
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: that's why he did the haircut, which is just adds
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: to the lore. You said, Oliver kan wins the Golden
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: Ball instead of Ronaldo. Ronaldo scores two goals in the
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: final against the Golden Ball winning goalkeeper. Brazil wins. Which
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: we talk about iconic teams, just a front three of
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: Ronaldiniel Rivaldo and Ronaldo, wing backs Cofu and Roberto Carlos.
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: Like man, that that that that era of Brazil again,
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: the the Ronaldo feminine Femino, the R nine, all of that,
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: Like that was some of the stuff that of lore.
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: Like that was the first like Brazil teams that I
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: knew and then you learned about Pele and everything because
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: I was probably seven at this tournament. But those guys
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: are just mythical creatures just for what they could do
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: with it.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think it's likely that no team
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: has had such an effect on sport because I'm sure
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: that Brazil team made soccer and created so many more
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: fans just by the way they play, how fun they were,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: and how those guys always had a smile in their face.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Let's face it, those guys were always you think of
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: the Brazilian that Brazilian team and think of any of
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: those players that you mentioned. It's hard to think of
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: any one of them without a smile on their face.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: That's just always what you're thinking, right, And so yeah,
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: that was a great team. So and that leads me
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: to number one. And number one, I'm gonna.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: Have to say that would have to be you know,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: Messi's performance in the twenty twenty two World Cup in
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: katark because how I mean, you know, and by the way,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: just just you know, and I'm sure you were there
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: and just as you were, and you get inside information
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: on teams as I was working for TV at the time.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: I was working for Telemundo and Guitar, and you get
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: inside information. This was an Argentina team that within the
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Argentinian circles, they didn't really believe in this team. I
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: recall in the first round, people thinking, wow, this team
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: is just like it's going nowhere. They thought nothing of
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: this team until the bulls started rolling a little bit
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: more and Messi started taking over games. And it was
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: not easy for Argentina to win this tournament. Had it
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: not been for Messi, they would have been nowhere near
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: that final even and for Messi to lead, you know,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: this team was really an incredible, incredible performance. And by
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: the way, by doing that, he won the Golden Ball
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: and he was the first player to win it twice
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: and so and I think, well, deserving to be at
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: number one.
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: This list, I would agree. And if you go back
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: to that tournament, Argentina's opening game against Saudi Arabia, they lost.
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: They end up winning the group anyway by beating Mexico
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: and Poland in the next two games. But like they
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: lost their first game to Saudi Arabia, and yeah, it
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: wasn't not a lot of people were believing them at
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: that point. They get to the knockout and I rout
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: that game, he just goes super human.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Actually we went to that game as not not exactly
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: what you're hoping I imagine.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Like, so again he didn't he won the
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: Golden Balls the best player, he didn't win the Golden Boot,
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: killing him. Bape had eight goals and maybe the way
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: that we'd be talking like this game goes to extra
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: time to penalties and and there were trying to think
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: of the timeline. Kolu Mawani had a chance right at
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: the end of extra time, a one on one, an
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: insane save by Deebu Martinez and again then they go
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: to penalties. Messi scored his and Pope scored his and
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: then after that we were talking about two of the
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: best individual performances. We're talking about legacies. We're talking about
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: this France gonna go back to back his Messi get
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: his his first World Cup and elevates him too, and
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: even you know, he was already a god in Argentina,
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: in to the soccer world, but like the Golden God,
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: I don't even know how much higher you can go.
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: And this comes like a kick save by Deevo Martinez
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: and then two France penalties not going in, and we're
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: talking about this Argentina team. Yeah, like that that run
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: through the knockout rounds by Messi, like it was to
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: a point where you'd you'd believe anything that anybody told you, like, hey,
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: you like they rolled him a goal kick and then
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: he dribbled from there and scored. Good. Did you see that?
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: Like people I'd be like, oh, yeah, that sounds right,
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: like I missed that highlight. Let me go find it.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: And hopefully, you know, hopefully all these things and ending
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: it on that twenty twenty two final and gets us
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: all into the spirit of this World Cup coming up,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: because we're only a month away from who knows how
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: many more iconic moments we'll.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: See, right and and oh man being here just really quickly.
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: It's a couple like you didn't have any performances, like
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: obviously there's there's only top five, so there's only a
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: finite amount of space. But nineteen ninety four, like Ro
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: Mario won the Golden Ball Stroycough Baggio, but Bajo had
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: the bad moment end. But those are a couple a
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: couple individual performances. Oh six in Germany, there's the Don
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: but there's that Italian team Fabio Karro. Those would probably
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: be kind of my shouts from that tournament. But I
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: think that your top five is IRONCLADU. I wouldn't I
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: wouldn't take anything off.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it certainly not easy to pick, right,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: But I did skip a couple a couple of World
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: Cups that I thought didn't have sort of the impact
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: that these moments had, you know, nineteen ninety eight.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: I didn't pick anything from nineteen ninety eight either. I
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: think ninety four, ninety eight, two.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: Thousand and six, So there was a couple of World
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: cups that I thought just these moments from nineteen ninety
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: till now.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: If I had to pick five, I just decided to
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: go with these.
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: We'll have to revisit this list after the tournament as well.
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to it. There is for all the
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: correct criticism and disappointment to come from FIFA and the
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: things around the tournament, the way fans are being extorted,
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: the way that at every turn the FIFA president could
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: not be more tone deaf, including he tried to get
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: the officials from the Israel Palestinian federations to take a
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: picture together, which is I don't know what bubble this
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: guy's living in. All of the negative things that again
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: fairly criticize, we should be giving them crowd for Nope, Nope,
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: despite FIFA, despite all of the missteps, the tournament is
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: going to get here and it's gonna be a thing
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: of beauty. And I hope to be learning in many,
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: many years about stories that the next generation will be
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: telling about that twenty twenty six World Couples that was
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: the first one I got to go to a game.
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: All of that, We're almost here and I can't wait
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: to have it.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and by the way, you got to mention FIFA
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: quite a few times for free.
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: So that's a good thing, right. I think we can
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: mention it for free. That's how that works, right, at
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: least for now. At least for now, we can save
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: FIFA for free. So let's enjoy.
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: That all right. On that note, thank you so much
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: everybody for listening to Inside American soccert Please rate, review,
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: and subscribe wherever gets your podcast tapped. We'll be back
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: next week. We can't wait.