Latest / Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos / Questions about Pulisic, Weah and McKennie Roles, Major Defensive Concerns

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Questions about Pulisic, Weah and McKennie Roles, Major Defensive Concerns · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

0:00
Speaker 1: I think the only thing I'm looking at with our
0:02
Speaker 1: team at the moment. I'm not worried about polistic I'm
0:05
Speaker 1: not worried about Balligan, I'm not worried about McKinney. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: not worried about any of the attacking guys. My only
0:12
Speaker 1: concern is what happens in the back.
0:17
Speaker 2: Greeting spokes and welcome back to Inside American Soccer. I'm
0:20
Speaker 2: Matt Doyle, the armchair analyst, and I'll be filling in
0:23
Speaker 2: for new dad Tom Boger for a few more weeks.
0:26
Speaker 2: And I'm honored once again to be joined by my
0:29
Speaker 2: friend tab Ramos, one of the greatest players in US
0:32
Speaker 2: men's national team history. Veteran of three World Cups, one
0:37
Speaker 2: that was really good, one that was great, and then
0:40
Speaker 2: one that we talked about last time on this show
0:42
Speaker 2: that we don't have to talk about ninety eight again.
0:45
Speaker 2: Said let's spin it forward, talk about twenty twenty six.
0:49
Speaker 2: You won't be at that one, tab as a player,
0:51
Speaker 2: but you're gonna be watching and we're gonna get an
0:53
Speaker 2: idea this coming a weekend of what we'll see from
0:56
Speaker 2: the US.
0:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, no question. Well, first of all, great to be
0:59
Speaker 1: on with you, once again. It's a good reminder that
1:03
Speaker 1: you said you'll be here for a few more weeks.
1:04
Speaker 1: But hopefully you can stay on. You know, maybe when
1:06
Speaker 1: Tom comes back, it can be the three of us.
1:09
Speaker 1: I'll think I've.
1:09
Speaker 2: Been from time to time. I'll annoy Tom. That's good,
1:12
Speaker 2: good radio. Everybody likes that.
1:14
Speaker 1: That would be great. And I'm imagining that Tom's son
1:17
Speaker 1: now is going into high school or something like that.
1:21
Speaker 1: It seems like Tom's been gone for a little while.
1:23
Speaker 1: But uh, but yeah, no, I'll tell you it's exciting
1:27
Speaker 1: times right now because it's it seems like now it
1:30
Speaker 1: starts to count, right Like we've been going through this
1:33
Speaker 1: whole process the last couple of years, and in particular,
1:35
Speaker 1: you know, we brought a new coach and Puschettino and
1:38
Speaker 1: obviously maybe the greatest coach we could find at the
1:41
Speaker 1: time worldwide, and that's been excellent, and there's been a
1:44
Speaker 1: lot of you know, trials and over seventy players coming
1:48
Speaker 1: to going from the team. But now I think this
1:51
Speaker 1: is the time to start seeing what we have right
1:54
Speaker 1: and I think I think it's really exciting. You know,
1:56
Speaker 1: the World Cup is right around the corner, and I
1:58
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be a great one.
2:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's weird because it's the home World Cup, so
2:03
Speaker 2: you don't get the ups and downs and the tension
2:06
Speaker 2: of that qualifying cycle, and it makes it feel so
2:09
Speaker 2: different than previous iterations. Now, I'm old enough to remember
2:13
Speaker 2: ninety four, and obviously you had a big part to
2:16
Speaker 2: play with that ninety four team, but it was different
2:19
Speaker 2: back then. You guys almost acted like a club team
2:23
Speaker 2: with the amount of games that you were playing and
2:25
Speaker 2: how tight the team was. It's just a very different
2:28
Speaker 2: environment in twenty twenty six compared to what you all
2:32
Speaker 2: went through in that cycle.
2:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I imagine that it was so at the time. Obviously,
2:37
Speaker 1: I was at Betty's in Spain, so I didn't get
2:39
Speaker 1: to live the pre World Cup hype. If there was
2:42
Speaker 1: such a thing at the time. We you know myself
2:45
Speaker 1: and I think it might have been John Harrik's and
2:48
Speaker 1: maybe Eric went, a couple of guys that had been
2:50
Speaker 1: ed Roy regularly, a couple of guys that had been
2:52
Speaker 1: playing overseas. I think we only came in right at
2:54
Speaker 1: the end, so we missed a lot of what was
2:57
Speaker 1: going on beforehand.
2:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, nobody has missed much that's gone on with this
3:03
Speaker 2: US team over the past couple of years, even though
3:06
Speaker 2: it's been like this weird sort of interregnum between tournaments
3:11
Speaker 2: that really really matter. But on today's show, we'll dive
3:14
Speaker 2: into some stuff, the bigger questions that still need to
3:18
Speaker 2: be answered in these March friendlies. That's why they play
3:20
Speaker 2: the game at this point obviously, And we'll rank our
3:24
Speaker 2: top five World Cup dark horse contenders, which is actually
3:28
Speaker 2: really tough because I'm of the opinion that we've actually
3:31
Speaker 2: seen more stratification in the international game. I think the
3:34
Speaker 2: gap between the top seventy eight teams and the rest
3:37
Speaker 2: of the pack is as large as it's ever been. Plus,
3:41
Speaker 2: we'll go inside the locker room with Tab for the
3:44
Speaker 2: ninth excuse me for the twenty fourteen World Cup team
3:47
Speaker 2: scouting preparation. From the moment the drag comes out, you
3:51
Speaker 2: know who you're gonna play, and it's up to the
3:54
Speaker 2: individual teams to figure out, the coaches to go on
3:56
Speaker 2: the scouts to then present that to the players so
3:59
Speaker 2: that they're no surprises. Everybody's prepped, all right, top, let's
4:03
Speaker 2: get into it. US men's national team players over the weekend.
4:06
Speaker 2: Christian Bollizik finally in the box score again he got
4:09
Speaker 2: an assist for Milan and ending his drought. Obviously, it
4:14
Speaker 2: is incredibly important for him to get back into form
4:19
Speaker 2: down the stretch for his club team, but also it
4:21
Speaker 2: would be nice to see him put the ball in
4:22
Speaker 2: the back of the net or at least get an
4:24
Speaker 2: assist over the course of these two matches for the US.
4:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I mean, it's it's great to
4:30
Speaker 1: see that he got on let's say, on the scoreboard,
4:32
Speaker 1: right that he was able to contribute on a goal.
4:34
Speaker 1: But you know, I think what's important is the fact
4:37
Speaker 1: that he's he's playing well. He looks comfortable physically, he
4:40
Speaker 1: looks good, and I think that's the most important part.
4:43
Speaker 1: Sometimes you can have those goal contributions, but if you're
4:47
Speaker 1: now getting home and you're still helping the team in
4:50
Speaker 1: other ways, it still means that you're doing a pretty
4:53
Speaker 1: good job. And I you know, I continue to be
4:55
Speaker 1: amazed by the fact that he's such an important player
4:58
Speaker 1: for such a big club and and of course goal
5:01
Speaker 1: contributions are important, but I see the bigger picture and
5:04
Speaker 1: I think he's in a good place right.
5:05
Speaker 2: Now to talk a little bit about the role he's
5:09
Speaker 2: playing for AC Milan because it's a little different than
5:12
Speaker 2: I think what we've seen of him with the US.
5:15
Speaker 2: With the US, he's dropping into midfield more as a playmaker.
5:18
Speaker 2: With ac Milan, he really is kind of a second forward.
5:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, he plays that secondary role. And I think we've
5:24
Speaker 1: discussed on this show in the past that that's the
5:27
Speaker 1: reason why potentially somebody like Weston McKinney can be a
5:31
Speaker 1: good compliment to him, right, because he can come from
5:34
Speaker 1: a little further back and provide you know, McKinny can
5:40
Speaker 1: go to either side coming from behind because he really
5:42
Speaker 1: covers the whole He can cover the whole field, and
5:46
Speaker 1: that would allow Christian to have the freedom to sort
5:49
Speaker 1: of roam behind Baligan, right, and Baligan to stay central
5:53
Speaker 1: a little bit more so. I you know, obviously, you
5:56
Speaker 1: know we're all this is like a Monday morning quarterbacking, right,
6:00
Speaker 1: It's easy to coach someone else's team. But you know,
6:03
Speaker 1: I've said it all along that I think if we
6:05
Speaker 1: have a chance in this World Cup, we sort of
6:08
Speaker 1: have to build a team. And people disagree with this obviously,
6:11
Speaker 1: but I think we sort of have to build a
6:13
Speaker 1: team around our best player, and I think our best
6:15
Speaker 1: players Christian Politic, and the more comfortable we can make him,
6:19
Speaker 1: the better it will be for the team. Considering that
6:22
Speaker 1: Christian Polisic has not been great, you know, for the
6:26
Speaker 1: national team over the last couple of years, so I
6:28
Speaker 1: think I would be comfortable with us building a little
6:31
Speaker 1: bit around them.
6:32
Speaker 2: So how much do you think of it in terms
6:34
Speaker 2: if you're coaching it right, how much do you think
6:36
Speaker 2: of it in terms of building it around the best player?
6:39
Speaker 2: And how much do you think of it in terms
6:40
Speaker 2: of building around the best partnership. Because the way you
6:44
Speaker 2: were talking about Weston playing underneath and his ability to
6:47
Speaker 2: cover ground actually unlocking freedom for Polisic. I don't know
6:51
Speaker 2: if fans think of it that way, but when I
6:54
Speaker 2: watch a game, I'm often watching how these two players
6:58
Speaker 2: are three players because you work into that work together.
7:02
Speaker 2: And how much does that go into a coach's thinking.
7:04
Speaker 1: Well, I think a lot, because that goes into the
7:07
Speaker 1: player's IQ right of how they read the game, and
7:10
Speaker 1: that's important. And I think when you're looking at Balligan,
7:13
Speaker 1: Polistic and McKinny, I think you have three players that
7:17
Speaker 1: have a really high IQ for understanding space within that
7:22
Speaker 1: let's say a little bit further than the final third, right,
7:25
Speaker 1: So I do see McKinny filling in the holes that
7:29
Speaker 1: that that Polistic would be leaving behind. I see Baligan
7:34
Speaker 1: being a little bit more essential because that's what he's
7:36
Speaker 1: good at. But all three of them can read off
7:38
Speaker 1: of each other. That's I like that a little bit.
7:40
Speaker 1: And by the way, not that Tillman couldn't do the
7:43
Speaker 1: job in that spot as well. I just like a
7:46
Speaker 1: little bit more what what McKinny can offer as a
7:51
Speaker 1: I have to do whatever I have to do. And
7:53
Speaker 1: by the way, that's what he does with Juventus, right,
7:55
Speaker 1: He fills in wherever he can, so I see him
7:58
Speaker 1: as a as a better compliment to Polisic and Balligan.
8:02
Speaker 2: I think that Weston is a little bit more technical
8:05
Speaker 2: than Tilman as well, more likely to unlock the game
8:08
Speaker 2: with a touch, which we've seen for Juventus both in
8:12
Speaker 2: Syria in Syria excuse me, and internet and continental play.
8:18
Speaker 2: I think his best position is as that sort of
8:22
Speaker 2: almost false number ten underneath to forwards who are then
8:27
Speaker 2: given that freedom to combine and attack without having to
8:30
Speaker 2: think about making the game. And that's who Christian Polistic
8:34
Speaker 2: is for ac Milan. So if you think about partnerships
8:36
Speaker 2: and attack and the ability to sort of tilt the
8:39
Speaker 2: pitch in a way that benefits are our most dangerous players.
8:43
Speaker 2: It does seem to all line up also lining up
8:48
Speaker 2: Tim waya right wing back. That's where he played this
8:51
Speaker 2: past weekend for Marseille. It's become come his positions have
8:56
Speaker 2: like he's played all over the field for a couple
8:59
Speaker 2: of teams now, but he has looked at his best
9:02
Speaker 2: at right wing back and I would certainly like to
9:05
Speaker 2: see him get some run for the US in that
9:09
Speaker 2: position over these next couple of games against Belgium Portugal.
9:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it could be a good idea if
9:16
Speaker 1: Bogettino is thinking that's where he can play. And I
9:19
Speaker 1: think in the World Cup, if you look at what
9:21
Speaker 1: in particular what Paraguay and Australia have to offer, there's
9:26
Speaker 1: no question that Tim Waya can play that wide role.
9:29
Speaker 1: I'd be concerned a little bit against Belgium to have
9:32
Speaker 1: him out there if Doku is going to be there,
9:34
Speaker 1: because Doku is just purely out and out winger who's
9:37
Speaker 1: a great dribbler, and Tim's going to need that double
9:40
Speaker 1: team if he's going to defend that. You know, if
9:42
Speaker 1: you watch a little bit of the let's say, and
9:45
Speaker 1: this is how he plays every week Doku by the way,
9:47
Speaker 1: because I think he's one of the more important players
9:50
Speaker 1: in the world in terms of like his his level
9:53
Speaker 1: at this point. You know, Real Madrid double and triple
9:56
Speaker 1: team him in order to keep them away from the box.
10:00
Speaker 1: And I think we're gonna have to do that. I think,
10:02
Speaker 1: if you know, if if we play with three center backs,
10:06
Speaker 1: I think Tim could potentially do the job as long
10:08
Speaker 1: as he delays and waits for help, because there's no
10:11
Speaker 1: question that by himself it would be he would be
10:14
Speaker 1: difficult to Doka would be difficult to handle.
10:18
Speaker 2: Way is listed as a forward the US rosters. Should
10:22
Speaker 2: we read anything at all into that? Or is that
10:25
Speaker 2: just accounting doesn't matter at all?
10:28
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you can't help but read into it,
10:31
Speaker 1: right because you know, in the end, when you look
10:33
Speaker 1: at a roster, you still have Scali there and you
10:36
Speaker 1: still have Freeman there, So those are your really your
10:39
Speaker 1: outside backs or or you know, or wing backs, So
10:43
Speaker 1: you have to read into it. I would like to
10:45
Speaker 1: see one of the other two guys play that position
10:47
Speaker 1: and not Tim Wei, and I would like to look
10:50
Speaker 1: at Tims as more of a secondary striker rather than
10:53
Speaker 1: that wide role for our team.
10:56
Speaker 2: The other two guys have talking about Joe Scalley, who
10:59
Speaker 2: I think is in this camp fighting for a job,
11:02
Speaker 2: like one of the last names of the camp. Got
11:04
Speaker 2: this invite I think in part because Serginiodst picked up
11:09
Speaker 2: an injury. Now he is expected to be healthy before
11:11
Speaker 2: the end of the club season for PSV, but it's
11:14
Speaker 2: worth noting. And then the other one is Alex Freeman.
11:17
Speaker 2: He's played about forty minutes for Via Real since making
11:21
Speaker 2: that move, hopefully a little bit more on his plate
11:25
Speaker 2: in the weeks and months to come close to a
11:29
Speaker 2: lock for me. But nobody's written in penn. Maricio Pochettino
11:33
Speaker 2: has made that clear and we've seen it with the
11:36
Speaker 2: way Johnny Cardoso has been in and out of camps.
11:39
Speaker 2: He plays for one of the biggest clubs in the
11:41
Speaker 2: world in Athletico Madrid. He has gotten his chances with
11:45
Speaker 2: the US, he has not taken them. He has not
11:47
Speaker 2: played well in his I think he has twenty two
11:49
Speaker 2: caps for the US now and I can't remember a
11:51
Speaker 2: single one where I was like, he was really, really good,
11:55
Speaker 2: And that's why he's on the fringes on this roster
11:59
Speaker 2: despite playing for such a great club. Now he played
12:02
Speaker 2: pretty well against Real Madrid over the weekend. This is
12:07
Speaker 2: his chance to have like what are what do we
12:09
Speaker 2: need to see? What do we want to see from
12:12
Speaker 2: Johnny given that Tyler Adams is absent?
12:16
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I think you you know, all of
12:18
Speaker 1: the things you said, You're absolutely right. I think I
12:21
Speaker 1: think the issue here is we because you said this
12:25
Speaker 1: as well, we haven't seen this with the national team,
12:27
Speaker 1: and out of the twenty two games that we've watched
12:30
Speaker 1: that he's played, we only remember, likely the mistake he
12:33
Speaker 1: made against Turkey, which, by the way, anybody can make
12:36
Speaker 1: right anytime. But when you have that as the only
12:40
Speaker 1: play that that fans can remember after two games, it's
12:43
Speaker 1: really not a good place to be. I think we
12:46
Speaker 1: need to turn the page. He's likely in the best
12:48
Speaker 1: moment he's been in his career right now. He's playing
12:53
Speaker 1: important games for one of the top clubs in the world,
12:56
Speaker 1: and I hope that it translates to our national team.
12:58
Speaker 1: You know, in the end, he's not a flashy player.
13:01
Speaker 1: He's a support player, and because of that, I think
13:05
Speaker 1: if we can, if we can get him the playing time,
13:08
Speaker 1: and he gets through these two games Belgium and Portugal
13:11
Speaker 1: really without making mistakes and just supporting people in front
13:15
Speaker 1: of him, ball recovery, spreading balls around, just doing all
13:18
Speaker 1: the simple things, right. I think he plays himself into
13:21
Speaker 1: the picture and potentially into the starting eleven at one point.
13:26
Speaker 2: One of the things that Athletic is good at is
13:30
Speaker 2: compressing the field, and their defensive midfielders don't actually cover
13:35
Speaker 2: as much ground as you see some from some of
13:39
Speaker 2: the other top teams in the world, and that's that's
13:41
Speaker 2: by design. So they put the game Simioni really puts
13:44
Speaker 2: the game right in front of them and says destroy here,
13:47
Speaker 2: win the ball here, play forwards here the US it's
13:50
Speaker 2: a little bit more expansive in that position. And you know,
13:54
Speaker 2: Tap was talking about Doku a few minutes ago. Doka
13:57
Speaker 2: gets an isolation over on that wing. The defensive midfielder
14:01
Speaker 2: has to rotate over and cover that. You cannot let
14:04
Speaker 2: Doku come inside and go direct at goal. That then
14:08
Speaker 2: he beats the wing back. He compromises a set like
14:12
Speaker 2: that is the rotation that Johnny Cartoso or Christian Rodan
14:17
Speaker 2: or Aiden Morse, whoever is playing as the six, that
14:20
Speaker 2: is the thing that they have to be aware of.
14:22
Speaker 2: Against Belgium, it's going to be different against Portugal. Portugal
14:26
Speaker 2: has guys who will set up as that number ten
14:29
Speaker 2: or kind of a free eight in zone fourteen, and
14:32
Speaker 2: it becomes at times almost more of a one v
14:35
Speaker 2: one thing for the defensive midfielders.
14:37
Speaker 1: Tap. Yeah, you know, every team is different and you
14:41
Speaker 1: have to prepare differently for every every one of them.
14:43
Speaker 1: You know. You know, like I said before, Doku just
14:46
Speaker 1: happens to be a very hot player at the moment
14:49
Speaker 1: in good form, so you have to have to prepare
14:51
Speaker 1: for that. And by the way, you know, we we
14:53
Speaker 1: could likely play Belgium in the World Cup and that
14:56
Speaker 1: could happen again. So I think it's a great it's
14:58
Speaker 1: great preparation for us to see where we are. And
15:01
Speaker 1: in terms of having the midfielder rotating there, yeah, I mean,
15:05
Speaker 1: that's that's gonna have to happen. And whether that's that's
15:08
Speaker 1: gonna be Cardozo or someone else that has that assignment
15:11
Speaker 1: to go there, you're likely going to need at least
15:13
Speaker 1: two players. And I think if Waya plays in that spot,
15:17
Speaker 1: or even if Alex Freeman plays in that spot, or
15:19
Speaker 1: Scaley plays in that spot, They're still going to have
15:22
Speaker 1: to give Doku room until they get that coverage to
15:26
Speaker 1: be able to challenge the ball. Once you have help,
15:29
Speaker 1: you can't challenge the ball before. So yeah, these are
15:31
Speaker 1: little tactical things that I think obviously Boschettino is gonna
15:34
Speaker 1: get right because he knows a lot more than I do,
15:37
Speaker 1: so I'm sure he's gonna get that right. And but yeah,
15:41
Speaker 1: every team is different and you just have to prepare,
15:44
Speaker 1: that's all.
15:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, Is there one of these teams? Because the games
15:48
Speaker 2: are really close, right, the games are Saturday and then Tuesday,
15:52
Speaker 2: so we're expecting a lot of rotation in the squad,
15:56
Speaker 2: even within the context of a couple of friendlies. Is
15:59
Speaker 2: there one of these two teams that you would rather
16:02
Speaker 2: see Johnny get his runout against his if we assume
16:07
Speaker 2: sixty minutes in one game and then thirty the next,
16:09
Speaker 2: is there one of these two that you would rather
16:11
Speaker 2: see him get the sixty in?
16:13
Speaker 1: Well, I mean that that's you know, that's that's a
16:16
Speaker 1: tough call because if you if you look at the
16:18
Speaker 1: Portugal team and now you're looking at Nevis and Bettina
16:22
Speaker 1: in the middle of the field with likely Bruno Fernandez
16:26
Speaker 1: there too. Man, if all three of those guys are
16:30
Speaker 1: playing at one time, you know you're gonna be doing
16:32
Speaker 1: a lot of defending because they just don't lose the ball, right,
16:35
Speaker 1: And so do we want to see them in that
16:37
Speaker 1: environment or do we want to see him maybe against
16:41
Speaker 1: Belgium that likely doesn't have as strong of his censor
16:44
Speaker 1: midfield and we can potentially have the ball a little
16:47
Speaker 1: bit more. I would rather see him against Belgium where
16:50
Speaker 1: he has to maybe run that coverage all the way
16:53
Speaker 1: to the sideline, see how he makes that effort. But
16:55
Speaker 1: at the same time, maybe he can have a little
16:57
Speaker 1: bit more of the ball and we can see him
16:59
Speaker 1: on the ball a little bit more.
17:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, either way, it's gonna be a really good test
17:03
Speaker 2: for Johnny, for Christian Roldan, for Ian Morris. And then
17:09
Speaker 2: we also have the two guys who we think of
17:11
Speaker 2: as the number eights in the pool, which are Tanner Tessman,
17:14
Speaker 2: who I think both of us have in our first
17:16
Speaker 2: choice eleven for the US national team. And then's a
17:19
Speaker 2: batsm Burholter who's played really well, who does cover a
17:22
Speaker 2: ton of ground for Vancouver, maybe doesn't cover it as
17:26
Speaker 2: quickly as some of the top players in the world.
17:29
Speaker 2: But he's got an engine so and he's he's shown
17:33
Speaker 2: I think the fight that Muricio Pochettino likes. We're gonna
17:36
Speaker 2: find out a lot about these guys over the next
17:38
Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty minutes. I'm looking forward to it.
17:40
Speaker 2: We found out that Roman Celentano goalkeeper for FC Cincinnati
17:44
Speaker 2: and was on this roster. He no longer is. He
17:47
Speaker 2: has picked up a knock, some muscle tightness, maybe from
17:51
Speaker 2: picking the ball out of his own net. It's been
17:53
Speaker 2: a tough times for since he over the start of
17:56
Speaker 2: the season. He's been replaced by Patrick Schulte, who's he's
18:00
Speaker 2: been in camps before. Columbus haven't been great to start
18:03
Speaker 2: the season. It really hasn't been Shulty's fault. Do we
18:06
Speaker 2: have any concerns about that at all? Or is that
18:08
Speaker 2: just like, okay, the goalkeepers check.
18:11
Speaker 1: I think it's more the goalkeeper's check and I and
18:15
Speaker 1: I did and I did hear Bob Bradley mentioned the
18:18
Speaker 1: importance of a third goalkeeper as if you know, someone
18:21
Speaker 1: gets hurt and then you have to use your third
18:23
Speaker 1: goalkeeper at some point, and he made a couple of
18:26
Speaker 1: good points about that. Yet I the third goalkeeper would
18:30
Speaker 1: not concern me at this point. We have I think,
18:33
Speaker 1: if anything, I think Marico Bochettino's showing his cards here.
18:36
Speaker 1: He's got a top five and out of those five,
18:38
Speaker 1: three will go right and and by the way, the
18:41
Speaker 1: top two will likely be Freeze and Turner. So now
18:44
Speaker 1: it's is it going to be Brady? Is it gonna
18:46
Speaker 1: be Shalty? Is it gonna be Salentano as the extra goalkeeper?
18:49
Speaker 1: And I think that's that's as much as I'd like
18:51
Speaker 1: to talk about goalkeepers.
18:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all about the lives. We can talk a
18:59
Speaker 2: little bit more about striker Ricardo Peppy back healthy again,
19:03
Speaker 2: back in the transfer window, transferred market news again because
19:10
Speaker 2: it looked like his move to Fulham was done, uh
19:13
Speaker 2: and then suddenly it wasn't done. Like, first of all,
19:19
Speaker 2: what's going on? Man? In? Second of all, is this
19:21
Speaker 2: something that US national team fans should be concerned like?
19:25
Speaker 2: Because on off, big move, career defining like that could
19:29
Speaker 2: affect the guy on the field, not just off.
19:32
Speaker 1: I have to, as let's say, as a fan, I'm
19:34
Speaker 1: a little bit concerned about this one because you know,
19:37
Speaker 1: now the numbers that we saw, well, I think we
19:40
Speaker 1: saw latest number was forty million, right transfer to Fulham.
19:45
Speaker 1: You know, now you're waiting until the summer. With forty million,
19:49
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of players this summer that
19:51
Speaker 1: will have a good World Cup that likely Fulham can
19:54
Speaker 1: be looking at. And if and if Peppy is going
19:58
Speaker 1: to be most of the time on the bench for us,
20:00
Speaker 1: he's not going to show as much as other players.
20:02
Speaker 1: And now you start to think, you know, the numbers
20:05
Speaker 1: got so high that for that number, you're gonna have
20:08
Speaker 1: a lot of options if you're Fulham. And so I'm
20:12
Speaker 1: seeing this as a little bit of a disappointment and
20:15
Speaker 1: in a step backwards.
20:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, so think about it on the field right like, like,
20:24
Speaker 2: is this something that you worry? Like if you're coaching
20:27
Speaker 2: Ricardo Peppy right now, how do you approach him and
20:32
Speaker 2: make sure that his head is in the game, that
20:34
Speaker 2: his head is not thinking about that forty million and
20:37
Speaker 2: that move to Fulham.
20:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, so now we can go a little bit deeper
20:40
Speaker 1: about what happened, right, So apparently according to Ernie Stewart
20:44
Speaker 1: and what I read, I didn't speak with Ernie, but
20:46
Speaker 1: for what I read was, you know, Fulham wanted some
20:49
Speaker 1: sort of guarantee if if Peppy were to get hurt
20:52
Speaker 1: between now and the World Cup, and then they would
20:54
Speaker 1: be able to take their money back, right, which, of
20:56
Speaker 1: course if you're sounding a player, you don't want to
20:58
Speaker 1: do that, if you're a PSV because if you're doing that,
21:01
Speaker 1: you're preventing yourself from buying your next forward, Like you
21:04
Speaker 1: have to start thinking forward now, you have to plan
21:06
Speaker 1: in to the future, so you can't do that. And
21:08
Speaker 1: so if you're Peppy at this point, of course you're disappointed,
21:12
Speaker 1: but you also know that there's a good reason for that.
21:14
Speaker 1: It wasn't that the club didn't want to sell you,
21:17
Speaker 1: and it wasn't that the other club didn't want to
21:18
Speaker 1: have you, And so I understand what you're saying. It
21:22
Speaker 1: does have a little bit of an effect. It is
21:24
Speaker 1: likely he would be making a lot more money right
21:26
Speaker 1: if he moved, But I think he has to have
21:29
Speaker 1: confidence in himself that he's going to get another transfer
21:31
Speaker 1: later on, because at this point, I don't think it's
21:33
Speaker 1: either club's fault, to be honest, I think they're both.
21:37
Speaker 1: They both have a right. First of all, Fulham to say, hey,
21:40
Speaker 1: I'm going to spend forty million. I want to make
21:42
Speaker 1: sure I bring a healthy player and PSB to say, well,
21:45
Speaker 1: I can't guarantee that. And because of that, if you don't,
21:48
Speaker 1: if we don't get the money guaranteed, I can't go
21:50
Speaker 1: out in the market and get the substitute for pepe.
21:54
Speaker 1: So I think both clubs are doing the right thing.
21:56
Speaker 1: Unfortunately it doesn't work for Peppee, but I think you
21:59
Speaker 1: should be okay.
22:01
Speaker 2: Was Ernie Stewart this tough negotiator when when you guys
22:04
Speaker 2: are on the team together, because he seems like who
22:08
Speaker 2: state like, I would not want to play cards against
22:10
Speaker 2: this man? It's wild, you know.
22:12
Speaker 1: I always felt that Ernie was very professional, you know,
22:15
Speaker 1: and the way you see him now as the same
22:16
Speaker 1: way he was as a player. He understood the game,
22:20
Speaker 1: you know, he was he was one of those players
22:23
Speaker 1: that you could potentially see be a coach down the
22:25
Speaker 1: road because he really read the game well and was
22:29
Speaker 1: very serious about it as as most Dutch people are,
22:33
Speaker 1: right they you know. But but yeah, he was a
22:36
Speaker 1: He's a very smart player.
22:39
Speaker 2: A smart executive as well, no doubt about that. PSV
22:42
Speaker 2: has done really good work in the transfer market over
22:46
Speaker 2: the past few years. Hopefully they'll do some more good
22:49
Speaker 2: work this summer with Ricardo Pappy. Hopefully he plays well
22:52
Speaker 2: in these games coming up for the US earned himself
22:57
Speaker 2: a bigger role, maybe even a bigger paycheck for PSV.
23:00
Speaker 2: We will see about that for us. It's time for
23:02
Speaker 2: a break. We'll be right back with our top five
23:05
Speaker 2: World Cup dark Horse Contenders. Please rate, review, and subscribe
23:09
Speaker 2: to Inside American Soccer with Tom Buger and tab Ramos
23:12
Speaker 2: wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, welcome back to Inside
23:27
Speaker 2: American Soccer. Tab I kind of tipped my hand earlier
23:30
Speaker 2: in the show when I said that I think there's
23:32
Speaker 2: a larger gap between the top seven eight teams in
23:35
Speaker 2: the world and like the chasing pack, than there ever
23:39
Speaker 2: has been, which is to say, for this segment, which
23:42
Speaker 2: is our top five World Cup dark Horse Contenders, I
23:45
Speaker 2: really really struggled to come up with anyone who I
23:48
Speaker 2: could see actually winning this thing who's not considered one
23:53
Speaker 2: of the favorites. But you're the one who suggested this bit.
23:58
Speaker 2: You're the one who suggested this time five. So I'm
24:01
Speaker 2: I'm passing to you. Man. Take us through your list.
24:06
Speaker 2: You actually, in true Tabramo's fashion, you listed six for
24:11
Speaker 2: your top five and I respect that about you. So
24:14
Speaker 2: take us through. Who do you have at number five?
24:15
Speaker 1: Yes, So let me say first that when I suggested,
24:18
Speaker 1: I did it without thinking, as as a lot of
24:20
Speaker 1: the things I do so which is not a great trait.
24:25
Speaker 1: But but and of course, whenever we put a list
24:28
Speaker 1: of whatever the number is, I'm always going to add
24:30
Speaker 1: to that list. And so I also have honorable mention,
24:35
Speaker 1: right because I didn't put I didn't put Columbia or
24:38
Speaker 1: Morocco on this list. And and I'm gonna say this,
24:41
Speaker 1: the reason I didn't do that is because there's a
24:43
Speaker 1: little bit of a higher expectation for those teams and because,
24:47
Speaker 1: like you, exactly what you're saying, I actually don't see
24:51
Speaker 1: a dark horse winning this World Cup either. I sort
24:54
Speaker 1: of selected. I selected teams that I think can surprise
24:58
Speaker 1: and can't go a lot further or than we could expect.
25:03
Speaker 1: So that's sort of how I picked my list. So
25:04
Speaker 1: as as a fifth place, I had a combination of
25:09
Speaker 1: Paraguay and Turkey. And this is the reason. By the way,
25:12
Speaker 1: Turkey hasn't qualified yet as of this moment. They have
25:15
Speaker 1: to get through it and they may not, by the way,
25:17
Speaker 1: But the reason I'm saying this is because they're in
25:20
Speaker 1: US's group, and in that group, I think if you're
25:24
Speaker 1: a Paraguay or Turkey, you have to be thinking that
25:28
Speaker 1: you also have a chance to come in first place. Obviously,
25:31
Speaker 1: that's how you look at it. The pathway coming out
25:34
Speaker 1: of first place in this group could really set you
25:37
Speaker 1: up in a situation where you could find yourself in
25:40
Speaker 1: a quarterfinal matchup. And because of that, I don't think
25:43
Speaker 1: that pre World Cup we are thinking of Paraguay or
25:48
Speaker 1: Turkey as a quarterfinalist at all. And because of that,
25:52
Speaker 1: I think that these would be dark horses to actually
25:55
Speaker 1: make noise in the World Cup if they can win
25:58
Speaker 1: that group. So that's why came from Turkey.
26:02
Speaker 2: Of course, is in the in the intercomt or excuse me,
26:06
Speaker 2: in the European uay of playoff, Romania, Slovakia, Kosovo the
26:10
Speaker 2: other ones. The US will play one of those four teams.
26:13
Speaker 2: Turkey is huge, huge favorites to come out of that
26:18
Speaker 2: and they have a lot of talent to have, but
26:19
Speaker 2: they traditionally kind of underperform that talent. Other than two
26:24
Speaker 2: thousand and two, for whatever reason, they haven't been able
26:27
Speaker 2: to put it together. US Benz though, should be tuning
26:30
Speaker 2: into those games, should be watching Turkey. Because this is
26:33
Speaker 2: a team, as you said, we are likely to play
26:37
Speaker 2: in this tournament. We have already played your number four
26:40
Speaker 2: team in a friendly last October. That's Ecuador. Tab tell
26:44
Speaker 2: us through what you've take us through what you've seen
26:47
Speaker 2: from that team.
26:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean, I think again dark horse because Ecuador,
26:51
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure if they've ever gotten out of
26:54
Speaker 1: the first round, and if they have, maybe they've won
26:56
Speaker 1: one game. It's not a team that we're used to
26:58
Speaker 1: seeing at the World Cup. But I tell you what,
27:00
Speaker 1: when you look at their roster, and in particular they're
27:02
Speaker 1: they're they're defenders for Ecuador. You know if you if
27:07
Speaker 1: they say you're gonna win tournaments by playing good defense,
27:10
Speaker 1: they have the players at the highest possible level you
27:13
Speaker 1: can have on defense. When you look at Incapia back there,
27:16
Speaker 1: you're looking at at William Patcho playing for PSG, who
27:22
Speaker 1: obviously not only is a great defender, but he's also
27:25
Speaker 1: excellent coming out of the back. You have Caceedo as
27:28
Speaker 1: the number six who can win everything, and then you
27:31
Speaker 1: still have like an older guy like Enter Valencia up
27:34
Speaker 1: top who can get you goals. And I think when
27:36
Speaker 1: you know when you can defend well and up top
27:39
Speaker 1: you have a poacher like Valencia who can win games.
27:42
Speaker 1: Be careful with Ecuador because if they get out of
27:44
Speaker 1: their group, they can make some noise. And that's the
27:46
Speaker 1: reason I put him there.
27:48
Speaker 2: We saw that against the US in that right. Now,
27:51
Speaker 2: granted neither team was at full strength, but like there
27:54
Speaker 2: were a lot of good players on both sides of
27:56
Speaker 2: that field. Ecuador play hard and they like they're a
28:00
Speaker 2: fundamentally sound team that doesn't give you anything easy, and
28:04
Speaker 2: that has traditionally been a path to the quarterfinals or
28:09
Speaker 2: maybe beyond right because you look at that ability to
28:12
Speaker 2: unbalance a game with Pacho in particular, carrying the ball
28:16
Speaker 2: into an opposer like that gives every team trouble. At
28:20
Speaker 2: the club level. Now, there's a difference in terms of
28:23
Speaker 2: attackers between what Ecuador have and what PSG you have,
28:27
Speaker 2: So it was spinning that type of ball progression off
28:31
Speaker 2: the back line into something at the international level maybe
28:34
Speaker 2: a little bit different. But they're a very dangerous team.
28:36
Speaker 2: And I like that pick, and I think everybody's gonna
28:38
Speaker 2: like the pick that you guys, that you have at
28:41
Speaker 2: number three, because we all watch the African comp nations
28:45
Speaker 2: and there's only one champion tab and it's Senegal.
28:49
Speaker 1: That's right, and by the way, well deserved because they
28:52
Speaker 1: were the better team in the final. And obviously we
28:54
Speaker 1: know about the championship getting taken away and all the
28:57
Speaker 1: issues that happen when they walk off the field, all
28:59
Speaker 1: of the things. But I think we have to look
29:02
Speaker 1: at what happens when they have their eleven on the field.
29:05
Speaker 1: I have to say this is this is maybe the
29:08
Speaker 1: deepest African team that I've ever seen. You know, I'd
29:11
Speaker 1: have to go back to maybe Nigeria's ninety eighteen potentially
29:17
Speaker 1: for me to think of an African team that I
29:20
Speaker 1: think had just so much talent at the highest level.
29:23
Speaker 1: And obviously, you know Mani will be there, and Dan
29:26
Speaker 1: and Nicholas Jackson up front. You know, you have three
29:28
Speaker 1: guys that can win a game anytime, and the rest
29:31
Speaker 1: of the team is stacked starters and substitutes. Goalkeeper Mendy
29:36
Speaker 1: obviously he's a good goalkeeper as well. So this is
29:39
Speaker 1: certainly a team that and they're in a difficult group,
29:43
Speaker 1: but if they can get out of the group at
29:45
Speaker 1: second or third and still make a lot of noise
29:48
Speaker 1: in this World Cup.
29:50
Speaker 2: And it's interesting from an American perspective because we have
29:53
Speaker 2: been so good over the years about integrating dual nationals,
29:58
Speaker 2: including yourself, Uruguayanguayan, American, and that's what we see from
30:06
Speaker 2: this Senegal team because so many of these guys were
30:08
Speaker 2: born and raised in France to Senegalese parents, and honestly,
30:15
Speaker 2: we've seen what France has become over the past twenty
30:17
Speaker 2: five years. They're a juggernaut. They produce more top talent
30:21
Speaker 2: than I think anybody in the world other than maybe Spain,
30:24
Speaker 2: and a lot of those guys who are not quite
30:28
Speaker 2: good enough for the French team that has made the
30:31
Speaker 2: last two World Cup finals and won one of them,
30:35
Speaker 2: they're finding their way into this Senegal side and they
30:40
Speaker 2: are overwhelming at times.
30:43
Speaker 1: They are they are and I think really impressive. You know,
30:47
Speaker 1: what they did at the Africans Nations Cup was impressive
30:50
Speaker 1: and I think they can have the same sort of
30:52
Speaker 1: run at this World Cup.
30:55
Speaker 2: Your number two teams surprised me, but then I thought
30:57
Speaker 2: about it a little bit, and I thought about the
30:59
Speaker 2: talent that they had and it kind of made sense.
31:02
Speaker 2: Norway with perhaps the best, well the best striker in
31:07
Speaker 2: the World I'll say that early island, but also more
31:09
Speaker 2: talent down into the midfield and along that back line
31:13
Speaker 2: than I think people realize.
31:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is this is really a complete team. So
31:17
Speaker 1: of course you have Holland uh and of course you
31:19
Speaker 1: have Soreloth by the way, who can score, you know,
31:23
Speaker 1: on his own. You have oder guard who can run
31:25
Speaker 1: the show. But you have a number of players in
31:27
Speaker 1: midfield and in the back who are good players. And
31:29
Speaker 1: all you have to do is look at their qualification.
31:32
Speaker 1: I mean they they breezed through qualifying, they beat everyone uh,
31:36
Speaker 1: and they qualified easily for the World Cup. And I
31:38
Speaker 1: think the results that people will remember is that they
31:41
Speaker 1: beat Italy both home and away. But this is this
31:44
Speaker 1: is a legit team that again they're in that same
31:47
Speaker 1: group with Senegal and France, so they could get out
31:50
Speaker 1: of that group as a second or third and still
31:53
Speaker 1: make noise at the World Cup, because I think they're
31:55
Speaker 1: good enough for that.
31:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the France Norway game might be one
32:00
Speaker 2: of the best games to watch because there is a
32:03
Speaker 2: little bit of a rivalry between him Bape and and
32:07
Speaker 2: aland I think both guys have a point to prove
32:10
Speaker 2: whenever they end up playing each other, and right now,
32:16
Speaker 2: the balls kind of on Bape's foot. If you look
32:19
Speaker 2: what he's done the past two World Cups and what
32:21
Speaker 2: Real Madrid have consistently done against Manchester City, I think
32:25
Speaker 2: it would be I think early aland early Alan would
32:29
Speaker 2: enjoy it greatly if they got one over on France
32:32
Speaker 2: in this one. Odeguard though, is a special player. He is.
32:36
Speaker 2: He is a kid who I remember when he was
32:38
Speaker 2: fifteen or sixteen, he broke through into the first team
32:42
Speaker 2: up in Norway and then he made that move to
32:44
Speaker 2: Real Madrid. Didn't quite work out for him there, but
32:47
Speaker 2: he takes an otherwise unwatchable Arsenal team and makes them
32:53
Speaker 2: watchable with the way he plays the game.
32:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, he really helps the rest of the team move.
32:59
Speaker 1: He's the one that can next all the pieces of
33:01
Speaker 1: that are Arsenal team. You know. Sometimes obviously Edsay is
33:05
Speaker 1: chosen ahead of them. They don't normally play both together
33:09
Speaker 1: at the same time. But I think he's different, much
33:11
Speaker 1: different player than that's say. He's more of a distributor,
33:14
Speaker 1: distributor constructor, you know, he can find that those three balls,
33:18
Speaker 1: he can He's really he's really a player that makes
33:22
Speaker 1: that Arsenal team better, and I think in this World
33:24
Speaker 1: Cup he will help this team make some noise.
33:29
Speaker 2: And then your number one pick, I shouldn't have been surprised.
33:32
Speaker 1: No, well, the number one pick, and listen, I'm not.
33:34
Speaker 1: I'm not just jumping on the bandwagon. The number one
33:37
Speaker 1: team for me is the US because we are in
33:40
Speaker 1: that group. You know, I selected uh, you know, Paraguay
33:43
Speaker 1: and in Turkey coming out of this group because if
33:47
Speaker 1: they could come in first place, and they're thinking about that,
33:49
Speaker 1: they could have a good run. I think the US
33:52
Speaker 1: will be in first place, and I think the US
33:54
Speaker 1: will likely have a good run. Now, of course it's
33:58
Speaker 1: our expectation that our team will make it to the
34:00
Speaker 1: round sixteen at the very least, but I do think
34:03
Speaker 1: that it's not It wouldn't be a huge surprise if
34:06
Speaker 1: our team ends up in the quarterfinals, are potentially a
34:08
Speaker 1: great run into the semifinals. And I think that's why
34:11
Speaker 1: I'm picking the US team out of all those teams
34:14
Speaker 1: that I name, including Paraguay and Turkey. I think our
34:18
Speaker 1: team is the more complete team of all of those.
34:23
Speaker 2: Complete team, good balance. What needs to happen between now
34:30
Speaker 2: and then for you to have the confidence that actually
34:32
Speaker 2: they're going to be able to handle this, and they're
34:34
Speaker 2: going to be able to take it all the way
34:36
Speaker 2: to the summit. Is it as simple as Christian Polistic
34:40
Speaker 2: and Clobe Baligan get hot, stay hot, and it sort
34:45
Speaker 2: of rolls forward from there.
34:46
Speaker 1: I think the only thing I'm looking at with our
34:49
Speaker 1: team at the moment, I'm not worried about Polistic, I'm
34:51
Speaker 1: not worried about Baligan. I'm not worried about McKinney. I'm
34:55
Speaker 1: not worried about any of the attacking guys. My only
34:58
Speaker 1: concern is what happens in the back. What are three
35:01
Speaker 1: central defenders are going to be? If there's three, and
35:04
Speaker 1: if there's two, I'd be careful with that because I'm
35:08
Speaker 1: not comfortable at this point to say that with two
35:11
Speaker 1: central defenders we can make a run at this World Cup.
35:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, I think I agree with that. I actually
35:18
Speaker 2: had I made my own list. I had the US
35:20
Speaker 2: at five, specifically because I'm concerned about that back line,
35:25
Speaker 2: and right now, none of the center backs are making
35:28
Speaker 2: a compelling case that they're the right guy to partner
35:32
Speaker 2: Chris Richards. And that includes partners on either sides, Guys
35:38
Speaker 2: who we've been waiting for them to break out. Haven't
35:41
Speaker 2: managed to break out, but they're still on my list.
35:43
Speaker 2: I went with a different African team. I went with Egypt.
35:46
Speaker 2: I know they didn't win African combinations, but I just
35:50
Speaker 2: really liked the way that they played. It is going
35:54
Speaker 2: to be tough. We all know the season that Masala
35:57
Speaker 2: has had, and we all know that they don't necess
36:00
Speaker 2: sssarily have the type of top end talent that Morocco
36:02
Speaker 2: and Senegal have. But I just I think that they
36:06
Speaker 2: have a way of playing that sort of maximizes the
36:08
Speaker 2: entire squad, and then you just need Mosala to have
36:13
Speaker 2: and Marmouche to have the type of tournament that we've
36:16
Speaker 2: seen from stars of that caliber in the past. My
36:19
Speaker 2: number three team is Japan, not I think unbalanced, the
36:24
Speaker 2: greatest Japanese squad that we've seen, but I watched that
36:27
Speaker 2: win that they had over Brazil a couple of months ago,
36:31
Speaker 2: and to have any time a team beats Brazil, even
36:35
Speaker 2: in a friendly, it ends up being a pretty compelling
36:38
Speaker 2: piece of data that they're really really good.
36:42
Speaker 1: I'm just going to comment on on on Japan right now.
36:46
Speaker 1: I totally agree with you. I felt bad not even
36:50
Speaker 1: mentioning them in the honorable mentioned part of my list
36:53
Speaker 1: that wasn't supposed to be on. But with players like
36:56
Speaker 1: Kubo and Endo and Kamada and they have, they have
37:00
Speaker 1: the talent to make a run. I think a little
37:02
Speaker 1: bit of a concern for me is the fact that
37:04
Speaker 1: Endo is injured and not sure if he'd be back,
37:08
Speaker 1: and I think that would be a huge loss for
37:10
Speaker 1: them because he really he holds all of that together.
37:13
Speaker 1: But there's no question this is a talented team. And
37:15
Speaker 1: by the way, I'd be happy to see him make
37:17
Speaker 1: a run because they play great soccer. They're really fun
37:21
Speaker 1: to watch.
37:23
Speaker 2: They are. And the other thing about them, we talk
37:27
Speaker 2: about the US last time, through being young and sometimes
37:32
Speaker 2: like Egypt I just mentioned, maybe a little bit old
37:34
Speaker 2: in certain places. If you look at that Japanese roster,
37:38
Speaker 2: everybody is aged twenty four through thirty, right, everybody is
37:41
Speaker 2: like right in their prime, and it feels like if
37:44
Speaker 2: they are going to make a run, this would be
37:48
Speaker 2: the right time for them. Switzerland has a group that's
37:52
Speaker 2: a little bit older in certain parts and a little
37:54
Speaker 2: bit younger in certain parts. But every time I've watched
37:58
Speaker 2: them play over the past year to a half or so,
38:01
Speaker 2: they've just looked like a really well constructed team to me,
38:06
Speaker 2: and I don't think they have any super high level
38:09
Speaker 2: match winners. And you know, the central defense can be
38:13
Speaker 2: a little bit if the if a kanji is not
38:16
Speaker 2: really locked in, but they like if it's felt like
38:19
Speaker 2: they're on the verge for a long long time. And
38:22
Speaker 2: then you look what they did in World Cup qualification,
38:24
Speaker 2: like they breezed through it and here they are, and
38:29
Speaker 2: you know, maybe they're ready to go. And by the way,
38:32
Speaker 2: they absolutely killed both the US and Mexico last June
38:36
Speaker 2: in the you know friendlies, but still like they were
38:40
Speaker 2: just a level or three above.
38:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I don't disagree with any of that.
38:45
Speaker 1: I just I considered switching on a little bit, like
38:49
Speaker 1: I see Columbia, which which is, you know, another one
38:52
Speaker 1: of those teams that really wouldn't surprise me as much
38:55
Speaker 1: as they make, you know, if they would make a run,
38:57
Speaker 1: I still don't see them with a potential to win
39:00
Speaker 1: the World Cup. And because of that, I think if
39:03
Speaker 1: I were to see a Switzerland run to let's say,
39:06
Speaker 1: the quarterfinals, it wouldn't necessarily surprise me. I think they
39:09
Speaker 1: have that type of talent. They're also usual customers at
39:14
Speaker 1: the World Cup. They know what it is about, they
39:17
Speaker 1: know what they're playing for, and so yeah, I think
39:20
Speaker 1: it's a good call. The only reason I didn't pick
39:23
Speaker 1: them is because I sort of expect for them to
39:25
Speaker 1: do well, So not much of a dark course for me.
39:29
Speaker 2: Yeah. And then my number one on the list was
39:33
Speaker 2: your team Senegal. I think we both believe that this
39:36
Speaker 2: team is capable of a quarterfinal or a semi final run.
39:41
Speaker 2: But neither of us really believe that any of these
39:43
Speaker 2: teams are going to beat the big boys. Probably gonna
39:45
Speaker 2: be friends, Spain, maybe Brazil, maybe Argentina. Again, we shall
39:50
Speaker 2: see in the coming months who hoists the World Cup
39:54
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six trophy for us. It's time for one
39:57
Speaker 2: more break. Next up, we'll discuss the results we want
40:00
Speaker 2: to see from the US team versus Belgium and Portugal,
40:04
Speaker 2: neither of whom could be considered dark horses in this one.
40:06
Speaker 2: By the way, thanks for listening to Inside American Soccer.
40:09
Speaker 2: Please rate, review, and subscribe. Welcome back to Inside American Soccer.
40:24
Speaker 2: We got games with the US versus Belgium and Portugal
40:29
Speaker 2: coming up. It looks like tab, It looks like Cristiano
40:31
Speaker 2: Ronaldo will not be playing for Portugal during this set
40:36
Speaker 2: of friendlies, and so heading into the weekend, how much
40:41
Speaker 2: do these results matter to you? Do you care more
40:43
Speaker 2: about the results or do you care more about the
40:46
Speaker 2: process and performance.
40:49
Speaker 1: I think it's a little bit of both. I think
40:51
Speaker 1: you want to get results because you want to go
40:53
Speaker 1: into the World Cup with the confidence knowing that you
40:55
Speaker 1: can win the games. But at the same time, you know,
40:58
Speaker 1: I think the coach is looking at different combinations. I
41:01
Speaker 1: you know, when I look at the twenty seven players
41:04
Speaker 1: that were selected this time, is likely that about twenty
41:07
Speaker 1: four of them will be at the World Cup. And
41:10
Speaker 1: because of that, I think this is a World Cup trial.
41:13
Speaker 1: And when the players get on the field, they know
41:16
Speaker 1: that for some of them, this is their last chance
41:19
Speaker 1: and and for most of them it's the last chance
41:21
Speaker 1: to prove that they want to be on the starting eleven,
41:24
Speaker 1: and so that that has a huge weight on the players.
41:28
Speaker 1: And you're also playing great teams. You're playing two teams
41:31
Speaker 1: that could you know, make a run of this World Cup,
41:35
Speaker 1: and so because of that, I think you got to
41:37
Speaker 1: look at both, and you got to look at see
41:39
Speaker 1: when the substitutions are made. You know, you start with
41:42
Speaker 1: your starting team, do you change a whole team going
41:44
Speaker 1: into second half? Like all of those things come into
41:47
Speaker 1: play in these friendly games.
41:49
Speaker 2: What's more important to you then, is it to see
41:53
Speaker 2: how the guys at the top of the roster, or
41:55
Speaker 2: that we perceive to be the top of the roster.
41:57
Speaker 2: We know that Mauricio Pochettino would take issue with me
42:00
Speaker 2: framing it that way, but to see how they play
42:03
Speaker 2: together or to sort out who's in spots twenty through
42:08
Speaker 2: twenty six on the roster heading into June and heading
42:12
Speaker 2: into the World Cup itself.
42:14
Speaker 1: So I'll have to answer that as me and not
42:17
Speaker 1: as what I think Marizio Bocchettino is doing. And if
42:20
Speaker 1: it were me, my last concern is what happens between
42:24
Speaker 1: number twenty and number twenty six. At this point, what
42:27
Speaker 1: I'm worried about is my starting eleven because it's likely
42:30
Speaker 1: that you know, the players who aren't here because of injury,
42:35
Speaker 1: they may not be here in the summer either because
42:37
Speaker 1: of injury, and there may be other ones you had,
42:39
Speaker 1: And so at this point, you know, only a couple
42:42
Speaker 1: months remove from the World Cup and playing maybe the
42:45
Speaker 1: best competition that we've played in years. I'd want to
42:48
Speaker 1: see my starting eleven and see how I can max
42:51
Speaker 1: that out and see what output we have against good squads,
42:56
Speaker 1: and then see how I can correct what I don't
43:00
Speaker 1: like and reinforce the things that I like against good teams.
43:06
Speaker 2: You talked about the defensive side of the ball for
43:09
Speaker 2: the US, and I think I mentioned it as well,
43:12
Speaker 2: finding the right partner for Chris Richards or partners really,
43:16
Speaker 2: because we both think that the US are going to
43:18
Speaker 2: continue that sort of hybrid four to three back system.
43:24
Speaker 2: What else do you want to see clarity on the
43:28
Speaker 2: defensive midfield depth chart? I assume clarity, you know, left
43:32
Speaker 2: wing back, because Jedi Robinson is back and he did
43:35
Speaker 2: play sixty minutes this past weekend for Fulham, so he's
43:38
Speaker 2: just about fit again, even though I don't think he's
43:41
Speaker 2: yet looked like the pre injury version of Jedi.
43:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I would like to see. I would
43:47
Speaker 1: like to leave this camp after having played Belgium and
43:50
Speaker 1: Portugal with a very clear idea in terms of what
43:55
Speaker 1: my starting the leving is going to be, and if
43:58
Speaker 1: I have to make one or two changes because of
44:00
Speaker 1: injury or because now Tyler Adams is back and I
44:03
Speaker 1: can slot him into that spot. Then those are small changes,
44:06
Speaker 1: but I would want to see as a coach, I
44:08
Speaker 1: would want to see my starting eleven. I want to
44:12
Speaker 1: know what that looks like after this camp.
44:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think the spots that are up for
44:20
Speaker 2: grabs are on that back line primarily. But then there's
44:25
Speaker 2: also a little bit of like, okay, how do we
44:27
Speaker 2: use Weston? Do we use Weston deeper as a number
44:31
Speaker 2: eight or do we use him as that number ten.
44:33
Speaker 2: He's played both spots for Juventus obviously, for the US
44:36
Speaker 2: he's played primarily as a number eight in the past,
44:40
Speaker 2: and Tad We've had multiple guests on over the past
44:43
Speaker 2: couple of months saying, okay, give me your give me
44:45
Speaker 2: your US best eleven. We've seen Weston lined up anywhere
44:50
Speaker 2: and everywhere in all of these Where do you have
44:54
Speaker 2: him now heading into camp? And do you want to
44:57
Speaker 2: see him play both spots over the course of these
44:59
Speaker 2: two games?
45:02
Speaker 1: So I would see him as that attacking midfielder. So
45:06
Speaker 1: if you're if you're gonna have let's say Baaligan with
45:10
Speaker 1: a free a freer Polisic running behind, I would see
45:15
Speaker 1: as McKenny the next player to add to the attack.
45:19
Speaker 1: So I see him in that position with in an
45:22
Speaker 1: ideal scenario, Adams and Testament behind them. That's where I
45:26
Speaker 1: would see McKinny at this point. Now if you're saying,
45:30
Speaker 1: you know, maybe we can see them in the other position,
45:32
Speaker 1: because you know, Adams may not be there, and the
45:34
Speaker 1: best way to fix that for US may not be
45:37
Speaker 1: by bringing in a Christian Rodin or or Johnny Cardoso
45:41
Speaker 1: or sebastianball Hurt told maybe the best way to do
45:43
Speaker 1: that is by just, you know, pushing a better player
45:47
Speaker 1: back so that you can add another good player, which
45:49
Speaker 1: would be like a Tilment for example, and a little
45:51
Speaker 1: bit more of an attacking role. Then you can do that,
45:54
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that Pushatino would likely play them in
45:56
Speaker 1: both positions.
45:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be some stuff for him to figure out,
46:02
Speaker 2: for Mauricio Pochettina to figure out. He's done a really
46:05
Speaker 2: good job of it since September, since half time of
46:08
Speaker 2: that game against South Korea. Obviously, it was the worst
46:11
Speaker 2: half the US I think had played other than maybe
46:15
Speaker 2: against Switzerland under Mauricio Pochettino. That first half or then
46:19
Speaker 2: the second half was excellent and it's been excellent since
46:23
Speaker 2: then for the US trying to spin that ahead into
46:27
Speaker 2: these two friendlies against two very very strong teams in
46:31
Speaker 2: Belgium and Portugal. Too strong for them to have been
46:34
Speaker 2: mentioned in the previous segment on World Cup Dark Part
46:37
Speaker 2: since though obviously if either of them manages to win
46:40
Speaker 2: this thing, it would be their first World Cup title. Todd,
46:45
Speaker 2: you have been inside the locker room for the US,
46:49
Speaker 2: both as a player and a coach, and one of
46:52
Speaker 2: the things that sort of maybe the fan base doesn't
46:57
Speaker 2: have an appreciation of them is what goes in to
47:00
Speaker 2: scouting your opposition because once the you know, once the
47:05
Speaker 2: draw is made, well, the US knows two of their
47:07
Speaker 2: three opponents now will know by this time next week,
47:10
Speaker 2: will know the third. It'll likely be Turkey. You scouted
47:14
Speaker 2: for I think it was a twenty fourteen World Cup.
47:17
Speaker 2: Take us through what that process was like and how
47:21
Speaker 2: you get this information to these athletes in a way
47:26
Speaker 2: that is digestible for them.
47:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, So this is really interesting actually, because you know,
47:31
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people will not know like
47:33
Speaker 1: all of the different aspects of being a national team.
47:36
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes you know, I think, and it's normal
47:39
Speaker 1: by the way, as a regular fan, you're going to
47:41
Speaker 1: be looking at the national team and you look, you
47:43
Speaker 1: see it as, Okay, we're gonna call twenty guys this
47:46
Speaker 1: camp with twenty five players, and these eleven are gonna play,
47:50
Speaker 1: and then we select the best ones later on. But
47:52
Speaker 1: when you look at the national team, you look, you know,
47:55
Speaker 1: the national team is it's sort of a corporation in itself,
47:58
Speaker 1: and there are so many any different parts to it, right,
48:01
Speaker 1: and whether that's the high performance department, the medical department,
48:05
Speaker 1: you know, obviously pr and all of those other things
48:08
Speaker 1: that don't necessarily connect to the first team. Now you
48:11
Speaker 1: have a scouting department, and that scouting department, I think
48:14
Speaker 1: is the part that I'd like to focus on a
48:16
Speaker 1: little bit because that part itself, it's almost like it's
48:19
Speaker 1: a company of its own, so you know. And and
48:21
Speaker 1: by the way, this is not how old teams may
48:24
Speaker 1: do it, and this is not how Mauricio Pochettino and
48:26
Speaker 1: his staff maybe doing it. I can only speak for
48:28
Speaker 1: how Jurgen did it back in twenty fourteen. And if
48:33
Speaker 1: Jurgen did in twenty fourteen, it's very likely that this
48:36
Speaker 1: is sort of a German way to do it. Which
48:37
Speaker 1: is which is likely that some of the top, you know,
48:41
Speaker 1: national teams in the world do it this way. So
48:43
Speaker 1: the way Jurgen did it was we waited for the
48:46
Speaker 1: for the draw to come out, and once the draw
48:48
Speaker 1: came out, we already had a plan for sort of
48:51
Speaker 1: a central scouting area and we had groups of two
48:57
Speaker 1: people per team that would be scattered, let's say, immediately
49:03
Speaker 1: throughout the world to actually follow our teams. Right. So,
49:06
Speaker 1: for example, in that World Cup, we had uh we
49:10
Speaker 1: were playing Germany, we were playing Ghana, and we were
49:13
Speaker 1: playing Portugal. And so for example, myself and Javier Perez
49:18
Speaker 1: who later coached Toronto and was assistant coach at Toronto.
49:21
Speaker 1: I think he's in Atlanta now it's like Academy director
49:24
Speaker 1: or something. But anyway, Javier and I had Germany and
49:26
Speaker 1: so we had to follow Germany wherever Germany played and
49:29
Speaker 1: their friendlies. You go there, you sort of immerse yourself.
49:33
Speaker 1: It's not just watching video of Germany. You actually go
49:36
Speaker 1: to the games. You're at the stadium, you're reading the
49:39
Speaker 1: reports that are coming out, you're reading the local press
49:42
Speaker 1: about what they're saying, and you're trying to find every
49:45
Speaker 1: single detail, every single advantage about what every single player said,
49:50
Speaker 1: what every coach said, whatever you assistant coach said on
49:53
Speaker 1: a certain interview, and you try to pull you try
49:55
Speaker 1: to gather all of that information together from all your
49:59
Speaker 1: separate groups of scouts. So I was in the Germany group,
50:03
Speaker 1: then you then we had a Ghana group, then we
50:05
Speaker 1: had a Portugal group. And then once you get right
50:08
Speaker 1: before the World Cup, as you're getting together, you compile
50:11
Speaker 1: all of this information and you put it together into
50:14
Speaker 1: a let's say, twelve to fourteen minute presentation that you
50:17
Speaker 1: have to make the players because you have to. You
50:19
Speaker 1: have to remember, players after twelve fourteen minutes, they don't
50:22
Speaker 1: pay attention anymore. So that's regardless of what how high
50:26
Speaker 1: the level or whatever else. You're lucky if you get
50:29
Speaker 1: twelve to fourteen minutes. So you have to compile all
50:31
Speaker 1: this information of months of travel, reading foreign press, you know,
50:36
Speaker 1: all of these things that you put together in order
50:38
Speaker 1: to have one little scouting report that's about the team.
50:41
Speaker 1: So and once you get to Brazil. Now you get
50:43
Speaker 1: to Brazil. It was my job, for example, in the
50:45
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen team to present each one. So I presented
50:49
Speaker 1: Germany of course, because I followed them, but I also
50:52
Speaker 1: had to present Ghana to the players on a report
50:54
Speaker 1: that another group had done, And I also had to
50:56
Speaker 1: present Portugal to the team because those groups of st
51:00
Speaker 1: immediately after we got to Brazil, they scattered to watch
51:04
Speaker 1: what our potential second round opponents would be. So they're
51:07
Speaker 1: already working. They finished every port, they're already working on
51:10
Speaker 1: the next team. So it's it's just part of the
51:13
Speaker 1: full machine of what the national team is like.
51:16
Speaker 2: Tap, I have bad news that twenty fourteen Germany team
51:20
Speaker 2: had no weaknesses at all? Right, Is that what your
51:23
Speaker 2: scout came up with? Is that what you After watching
51:26
Speaker 2: him for a few games, they're like, oh man, we're
51:27
Speaker 2: in trouble.
51:28
Speaker 1: My My scouting report took about thirty seconds. I told
51:31
Speaker 1: the guys, good luck. No, we were actually, you know,
51:36
Speaker 1: if you think about it, we were actually very fortunate
51:38
Speaker 1: because obviously, you know, I was doing the Germany's scouting
51:41
Speaker 1: report in front of Jurgen Klintchman, who obviously no one
51:44
Speaker 1: knows Germany better than him, and in front of Bertie Voges,
51:47
Speaker 1: who of course won the World Cup as a player
51:49
Speaker 1: and as a coach, so no one knows more than him.
51:53
Speaker 1: About Germany. So I was I have to say, if
51:55
Speaker 1: all the presentations that I made in front of the teams,
51:57
Speaker 1: my Germany presentation at the two thousand and four Team
52:00
Speaker 1: World Cup was by far the most nervous I've been.
52:03
Speaker 2: So during these scouting presentations, how much of it are
52:07
Speaker 2: you just distilling down facts about the team that you're
52:11
Speaker 2: going up against versus how you think the team going
52:16
Speaker 2: up against matches up with what the US has to offer.
52:20
Speaker 2: Are you just like trying to keep it as bare
52:22
Speaker 2: minimum as possible, or you're trying to sort of extrapolate
52:26
Speaker 2: here's where we can go at them, Here's where they
52:28
Speaker 2: might be vulnerable.
52:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that's a great question. Because of the limited
52:32
Speaker 1: time that you have in front of the players, what
52:34
Speaker 1: you do as you prepare for the World Cup. Within
52:37
Speaker 1: the rooms that you have, let's say your training room,
52:40
Speaker 1: meeting rooms, you already have pictures of let's say the
52:44
Speaker 1: opponents players and their tendencies, so that players, let's say
52:49
Speaker 1: Matt you're a right back and you wanted to see
52:51
Speaker 1: what the left winger for Germany was doing, we already
52:55
Speaker 1: have all that detailed in the training room, where you
52:58
Speaker 1: could just go up and read about it for example, right,
53:00
Speaker 1: And then of course you have all the clips that
53:03
Speaker 1: you can watch on video and all those other things
53:05
Speaker 1: that we also send to you. So there's a there's
53:08
Speaker 1: a bunch of information that players are getting at different times.
53:11
Speaker 1: And and to answer your question, the part where you
53:14
Speaker 1: sit in front of the room is more specific as
53:17
Speaker 1: to the tactics of how they play as a team
53:20
Speaker 1: and where you can hurt them and where they could
53:23
Speaker 1: potentially hurt you.
53:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, give them the overview there and then find ways
53:27
Speaker 2: to work specifics into the scout at various times, maybe
53:31
Speaker 2: on the on the training pitch, or maybe in the
53:34
Speaker 2: locker room, and hopefully in a way that gets the
53:39
Speaker 2: US one round further. I've ever got. That's all I'm
53:42
Speaker 2: asking for. One round further then we've gone in recent
53:45
Speaker 2: modern World Cup history. I think we'd all be satisfied
53:49
Speaker 2: with the semi final performance this summer to have, of course,
53:53
Speaker 2: we are going to have to go through a couple
53:55
Speaker 2: of friendlies first. That's what's on the schedule for the
53:58
Speaker 2: coming week for the US, and that means we're gonna
54:01
Speaker 2: have a special edition of Inside American Soccer coming up
54:06
Speaker 2: in between these two games, and then a quick one.
54:10
Speaker 2: After these two games, Tab and I will be on
54:13
Speaker 2: the ones and twos trying to figure out what we
54:15
Speaker 2: just saw on what it means for the World Cup
54:17
Speaker 2: squad this coming summer. I'm excited the games are starting
54:21
Speaker 2: to really really matter. That we're I think less than
54:24
Speaker 2: eighty days away from the World Cup kickoff. It's gonna
54:27
Speaker 2: be a fun time and hopefully historic one for the US.
54:31
Speaker 2: Thank you Taving being here as always, and thank you
54:34
Speaker 2: all for listening to Inside American Soccer. Please rate, review,
54:37
Speaker 2: and subscribe. We'll be back on Sunday for our reaction
54:42
Speaker 2: to that Belgium match. And we also have another new
54:45
Speaker 2: show coming up after Portugal next week, and we will
54:47
Speaker 2: see you with that