Latest / Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos / Tony Meola on 1994 World Cup, His All-Time USMNT XI & His Best Performance

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Tony Meola on 1994 World Cup, His All-Time USMNT XI & His Best Performance · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I was interviewing Christian Polisic a little while back and
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: someone had asked him on our Someone on our panel
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: asked him like, do you know how like how impactful
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: this is gonna be? And he was like, uh, yeah, well,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: you know we all playing Europe And I said, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: you have no idea what the World Cup playing at
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: home is going to do for you. Man. It's a
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  Speaker 1: completely different animal and it changes your life and it
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: will forever.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: What's going on, everybody, Welcome back to Inside American Soccer.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, Tom Boger, joined by my friend one
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: of the greatest players in US soccer history, veteran of
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: three World Cups, Tap Ramos, And as we promise, we
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: are bringing back another US soccer legend, also a veteran
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  Speaker 2: of three World Cups, an NCAA champion, MLS Cup Champion,
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  Speaker 2: MLSMVB Hall of Famer, New Jersey Royalty, Tony Meola, Uncle
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  Speaker 2: t Tone, thanks for joining us again. They have all
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  Speaker 2: this valuable time. How many favors while oh you know none?
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Man. I love coming on with you guys, love chatting
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: chatting this game with you guys.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: On our last episode, we had Tony saying a ton
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: of nice things about Tap, and these are long, long friends,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: and it was funny to watch Tony say to you know,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: the best midfielder in US soccer history, and just having
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: to watch Tab sit here and listen and be polayed
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: without knowing how to take a very very top compliment.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm gonna turn that to you, Tony, Tony you,
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  Speaker 2: and and again Tap, I've said similar things you as well.
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  Speaker 2: But Tony, there are there are I think few people
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: when I'm just talking to agents and generally people around
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  Speaker 2: when your name comes up, it's always a smile, it's
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: always a laugh at somebody you can. Oh you talk
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: you talk to Tony. Oh you talk to Big Ragu
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: and then insert any other nickname that anybody will give you. So, Tony, you,
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  Speaker 2: You've always been great to me. So thank you. Thank
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  Speaker 2: you for taking the time. Tap. How are you doing?
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  Speaker 2: What was that like to uh sit there and make
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  Speaker 2: Tony feel uncomfortable?
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  Speaker 3: Listen?
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  Speaker 4: I'm doing great. I'm doing even better to have Tony
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: here here with us. Although Tony and I have multiple
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: conversations every day about some things we're really happy about
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: and about some things that we're struggling with. But but
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  Speaker 4: we do have some deep conversations. Listen, I'll start with
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  Speaker 4: this about Tony. Is you know I've said in episodes before,
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: how you know, when you're on the team with somebody
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  Speaker 4: and you go through difficult moments, you really get to
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  Speaker 4: know who's somebody.
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  Speaker 3: What somebody's like.
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  Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, you're on the team,
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: you go to practice, and then you go home. You know,
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  Speaker 4: Tony and I have developed a really close relationship over
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  Speaker 4: the last few years, working on a number of different
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  Speaker 4: things that, by the way, we don't have to do together.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: We chose to do together. So it's a little bit
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: different than someone picking you on their team and then
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: you have to go fight together. Right In this case,
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  Speaker 4: we're fighting for a lot of things together because we
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: chose to do that.
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  Speaker 3: And you know what I can tell you. You know that
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  Speaker 3: although I've known Tony.
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  Speaker 4: Since he's you know, in his teens and before that,
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  Speaker 4: I can tell you that I've been able to find
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  Speaker 4: out more about the person Tony Miola, and that is
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: you know, somebody who's patient, somebody who's super smart. And
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: I think I think in the place where we match
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  Speaker 4: is that we're both planners, right, and so we we
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: are always looking at what we have to do next
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  Speaker 4: and how to put it together, and we really we
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  Speaker 4: really compliment each other in terms of like planning things
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  Speaker 4: as to what the next steps are for everything that
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  Speaker 4: we're doing. But it's been it's been a real pleasure
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  Speaker 4: for me over the last few years to really get
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  Speaker 4: to know Tony much better as a person and to
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  Speaker 4: have developed a really close relationship.
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  Speaker 3: That we now have. Having said that, I don't want
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  Speaker 3: to get too sentimental.
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  Speaker 4: Right at the end of the day, Listen, I you know,
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  Speaker 4: the one thing that we'll all remember about Tony, and
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  Speaker 4: this is more as fans than anything else, is obviously
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  Speaker 4: Tony in the nineteen ninety four World Cup and what
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  Speaker 4: he did for the team, and of all the wins.
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  Speaker 4: You know, because sometimes we compare teams and we compare generations,
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  Speaker 4: you know, why is this generation not getting the huge
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: wins that we had in the nineties, Because that's true.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we beat a lot of big teams in
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  Speaker 4: the nineties in the nineties that we weren't supposed to win.
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  Speaker 4: And probably the most important reason we did that is
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  Speaker 4: because Tony Meola was standing on his head and he
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  Speaker 4: we were able to take on the kind of pressure
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  Speaker 4: and we were you know, thank god EXG didn't exist
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  Speaker 4: back then because we would have broken all the negative
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  Speaker 4: XG records.
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  Speaker 1: But we still won the games.
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  Speaker 4: But you know the good thing about not having the
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  Speaker 4: XG is no one talked about it.
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  Speaker 3: Is we just won the game. But yeah, you know,
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  Speaker 3: on the field, it's something else.
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  Speaker 4: And I think, you know, I think Tony was the
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  Speaker 4: kind of guy that marked an era, you know. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: when you think about the nineteen ninety four World Cup,
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  Speaker 4: you know, even me, and even though obviously I played
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  Speaker 4: in it, I think of Tony Meola. I think of
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  Speaker 4: the Tony Meola, Tony Tail and Tony being in the
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  Speaker 4: goal and being the captain of the team. So Tony
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  Speaker 4: has had a big effect for me personally in my life,
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  Speaker 4: and I think he will continue to have it, hopefully.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. I don't even know what to say. I talk
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  Speaker 1: to Tab. I talked to Tab ten times a day,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm speechless right now. For any one of us
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  Speaker 1: to be speechless, thanks man. I appreciate that. Yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: appreciate it. And I think he knows me, knows how
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  Speaker 1: I feel about him. It's all the same things. I'd
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  Speaker 1: just be regurgitating all that stuff for me when when
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the team part forget our personal relationship is what it is, right,
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  Speaker 1: and I don't think that's ever gonna change the team
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  Speaker 1: part of it all. All I ever wanted in teammates
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  Speaker 1: was to know that the guy next to me wanted
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  Speaker 1: to win as bad as I did, Right, that's all.
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  Speaker 1: That doesn't mean you're gonna win. There's gonna be crappy
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  Speaker 1: games and you're gonna suck some games, and you're gonna
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  Speaker 1: be great some games, and that's just the way the
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  Speaker 1: sport is, right, that's the way life is. I just
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  Speaker 1: wanted to know that you wanted to win as much
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  Speaker 1: as me. And I didn't have a teammate. There's a
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  Speaker 1: few I had tabs certainly at the top of the
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  Speaker 1: list that wanted to win as much anybody that I
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  Speaker 1: ever played for. So that that's why I think, right
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  Speaker 1: from the beginning, aside from the fact we were from
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  Speaker 1: the same town and all of that stuff, that's why
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  Speaker 1: I think we kind of we hit it off right
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  Speaker 1: from the jump.
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  Speaker 2: It's a pretty obvious one from the outside. And again,
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  Speaker 2: it's just really cool when you meet your heroes for
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  Speaker 2: them to be actually good people. As well, because you
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  Speaker 2: guys could have been a holes and it wouldn't have
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  Speaker 2: changed anything. But it's even a bonus. You guys are
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  Speaker 2: good people. But anyway, let's get right into it. On
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  Speaker 2: today's show, we have an interview with Tony. His memorable
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: moments is Crew, the Hides and Low's and I'm gonna
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  Speaker 2: see if I can get them get him off balance
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  Speaker 2: with a couple of random questions, and we're gonna name
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  Speaker 2: our all time best starting eleven for the US men's
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: national team. I think that we've got a lot of
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  Speaker 2: different answers. It's it's great for debates, it's great to
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  Speaker 2: go down memory lane. It's great to talk about some
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  Speaker 2: of the legends of this program. I always enjoy that.
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  Speaker 2: But first, let's tart with Tony. Tony, as we covered
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  Speaker 2: on the last time you were on the show, the
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  Speaker 2: Carnie all all of that to come from New Jersey,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Tab was talking about it as well. He hinted at
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  Speaker 2: you were not just a great, great soccer player again,
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  Speaker 2: one of the best goalkeepers in this country's history. You
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: were a basketball player. You played college baseball. I believe
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  Speaker 2: if your Wikipedia is right on my on my a
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  Speaker 2: little bit of looking into this. You made All State
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  Speaker 2: in New Jersey both as a goalkeeper and as a
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  Speaker 2: center forward in high school.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, my senior year about some of my best
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  Speaker 1: friend soros Amilia. For three years we rotated either games
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: or hat. He was a goalkeeper. He went on the
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: place I've heard, I know, I know. But a week
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  Speaker 1: before our our senior year was about to start, our
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  Speaker 1: center forward got in a car accident and couldn't play,
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  Speaker 1: was out for the entire season. And mister Miller, our coach,
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  Speaker 1: legendary coach and car and he said, man, we really
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  Speaker 1: need a set, We need a center forward. Does anyone
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  Speaker 1: know anyone, because like it was a town you could recruit.
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  Speaker 1: And I was like, literally, I just come back from
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  Speaker 1: the youth national team. Was the on the nineteenth at
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  Speaker 1: the time, and I was like, I'll do it. I'll
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  Speaker 1: do it like I always wanted to do it. I
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  Speaker 1: did it every day. So I ended up I led
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  Speaker 1: the state in scoring and I made first team and
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  Speaker 1: it was I think I like thirty three goals or
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  Speaker 1: something like that. It wasn't certainly tab scored like one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty three in a season, but but yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I did it just because that's what the team needed
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  Speaker 1: to win, That's what we needed to do to win.
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  Speaker 1: That's so I ended up doing it. And actually, Tom,
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  Speaker 1: it was preemptive to what the game became, right, like
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: goalkeepers having to play with your feet. And I still think, man,
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  Speaker 1: it was. It was And at the time I didn't
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  Speaker 1: know the benefits I was getting out of it, but
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  Speaker 1: it benefited me down the road when I needed it.
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  Speaker 2: Most your benefits was learning how to celebrate goals and
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: was probably like, man, this is a whole lot of
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  Speaker 2: fun being on this end of the field, right, like
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: tab It's funny, like this has come up randomly, like
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  Speaker 2: like I've said this on the show before too. Just
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: look up your goalscoring record in high school. I can't
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  Speaker 2: possibly imagine how much fun that is.
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  Speaker 1: It was a little bit just for one person. It
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: was fun for one person. Everybody else was miserable.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Kidding me, how manuny assists could you get by just
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: rolling a ten yard past sideways?
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, it was.
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  Speaker 3: It was different times, Tom, It was different times, Tony.
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  Speaker 2: So, again, with all of your wider athletic accomplishments and abilities,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: did you ever consider not going soccer like going towards
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: basketball or baseball.
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  Speaker 1: Well, no baseball, right, I played half My scholarship in
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Virginia was a baseball scholarship, so I only played in
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the fall. I missed the first fall because me and
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Jeff Agus and that team went to the Youth World Cup,
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  Speaker 1: so we had the red shirt my first year. So
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: my first college, my first college sporting event was a
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: college baseball game at Virginia because I started in the spring,
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  Speaker 1: and I used to during soccer season. Bruce Arena will
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: tell you. I used to during soccer season at nighttime
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  Speaker 1: after we went to dinner, some people went to study.
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  Speaker 1: I want. I had a key to the gym and
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I went into the batting cage during during soccer season
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: and I stayed all night and hitting the batting cage
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: with the baseball guys and vice versa. I would go
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: hang out with the soccer guys during baseball season because
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I had to. You know, there would be days off
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: with baseball, and I trained in the spring soccer season
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  Speaker 1: like That's how I had to do it, because I
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: didn't really know any other way, and my parents couldn't
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: afford for me to go to UVA. So if I
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: didn't play both sports. I mean I had I had
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: a dual scholarship. I was just trying to keep up
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: with all of it. But that's kind of what college
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: was like for me.
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  Speaker 2: Again, just another different era, and I think that's why.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: So for baseball was that ever again, you got drafted
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: by the Yankees out of high school?
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  Speaker 1: Right, that that's great, like my that's I was getting
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: there when I got I got tought from the Yeah,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: when I got cut from the Olympic team. Tab do
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: you remember eighty eight Olympics. We were in a hotel
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: in El Paso, Texas, I think, playing our last game
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: before the Olympics, and I'd just come on late in
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the site was it was only one camp. And I
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: remember because Ricky Davis refused to play because there were
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: so many young players. He came on the bus. He
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: refused to play because there it was just going to
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: be a young team, right, and they wanted him to
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: captain the team at the time. And I went back
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: to the hotel and they gave they gave tickets out
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and these guys were literally going to the Olympics. If
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: your ticket said you were going to Soul and my
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: ticket said I was going home, And I kind of
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: knew it, right, I knew it. Oh No, Bart Barrick
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  Speaker 1: was nineteen ninety four, not nineteen eighty eight. The yeah,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: in nineteen niney four. But that's how I and then
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I thought, you know what, I'll go to coll I
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: have to play soccer in college because it's paying for
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: my school. But I'm gonna play. I'm gonna play baseball. Yeah,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I had to because my parents wasn't gonna tell my parents, right.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: So anyway, it turned out differently. Once we qualified for
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: that World Cup.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: I do remember that we all became honorary citizens the
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: city of Alpaslo.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: I think I still have that certificate somewhere here.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: It might be behind that some here.
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  Speaker 2: Actually fantastic, that's fantastic. Yeah, so I again there is
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: if we had three hours, I wouldn't run out of questions.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: But you know, there was plenty of time between. But
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: I do want to get to the ninety four Walk Cup.
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  Speaker 2: So so Tony, what were you what were you alluding
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: to there? That was barbark Well.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: We had so we we would run on the beach
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: like we had double days, literally every day for eighteen months.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: And the guys that were in Europe like tab They
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: they were living their their beautiful life while we were
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: living in California doing double days and chasing soccer balls
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: all around with one player, one ball from Bora Miltanovich,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: which was a legendary a legendary drill he used to do.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: So that we get down to the end and here
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: we had released a couple of guys. Borahead couple cut
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: a couple of guys probably about two months before the
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: World Cup, but there were still four guys that needed
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: to be cut because we knew Harks. I mean the
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: guys that were coming back Ernie Stewart and I know
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I'm missing a couple, but the guys that were coming
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: back from Europe, I think there were like seven of
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: those guys. We knew they were making the team. Essentially
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Roy Weggerley was in that group. I can't remember off
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: the top of my head, but anyway that we knew
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the numbers. So four guys had to be released. And
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: we're a week out from playing that Mexico game, which
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: was the last warm up game of the World Cup,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and Bora makes us, has us run at the beach
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: in the morning, right, Tom, when I tell you my
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: biggest freaking nightmare ever running at the beach right like
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: that was. I hated it more than anybody in the world.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: And anyway he leaves, he leaves the facides one thing,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I really I respect Bora, but I've told him, like
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I told him at one point about ten years ago,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: that that needed to be done a little bit differently.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: But four guys got phone calls and said go over
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: to the facility. And the gal, her name was Melissa,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the gal that was at the front desk, was tasked
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: with telling those guys that they didn't make the World
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Cup team. He's her job.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: She was.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Didn't do it himself. He was a secretary. There was
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: a secretary at the front desk, and Bord left the
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: training and the documentary that's coming out, I think you're
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: gonna hear from some of those guys about how that
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: all went down. If they agreed to do it, I
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: know they were, they were being asked to do it.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: And and so when I when you talk about Barbaric
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty eight, No, that was really good. At
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: least you knew you were getting a plane ticket home,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: like you knew you could get home. At least you
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: know the other way you didn't know how you were
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: getting home. You just knew you weren't going to the
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: World Cup. So yeah, guys like Domin Kanier was one
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: of those guys. I think Chris Henderson was one of
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: those guys. Yeah, I'm trying to think of the other two.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: One of those guys.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Jenny Fagus was one, really and there was one. There
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: was four that day. But anyway, so when you said barbaric,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I'm like, no, no, you have no idea.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: So so finally getting to the World Cup again, man,
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: that I can't imagine being one of the last guys cut.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: That's just so so brutal.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Dominiclayer was my roommate from the first game after the
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety World Cup, which was in Portugal. We played
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: in Portugal to the last camp before the ninety four
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: World Cup. Every single camp in between, Dominic Kinnear was
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: my roommate and then and then got released from that team.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: You know what, I remember, Dominic caner at some of
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: some of the trips.
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: Didn't you have like a PlayStation game or something where
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: you played hockey all the time, right.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well it's probably NHL ninety or ninety one
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: or something like that. But Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: he was. He used to bring that so funny either.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Way, that's just brutal. But getting to the ninety four
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: World Cup again, we're talking so so much about this.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: That was the last time the World Cup was here
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: and all of the legacy that it created Major League Soccer,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: everything that you guys did and everybody on that team
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: did to help build and create a foundation for the
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: sport in this country. So Tap, maybe i'll start with
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: you on this one. Your first game, your debut game
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: at the World Cup in ninety four, when the national
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: anthem is playing, What's going through your mind? What are
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: you feeling?
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: Well, besides being extremely hot, it.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: Was because you have to remember, and I want to
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: answer your question properly, but we were playing at the Silverdome.
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: Silverdome was obviously it's closed, it's in the middle of
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: the summer, and it has no air conditioning. It was
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: the first time that they put these grass fields inside
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: inside of a bubble, so it was extremely hot. Still,
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: I think the hottest game I was ever involved with.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: And that's even though obviously I later on I played
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: four pm games on Saturdays in Dallas in MLS and
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: those are not fun, but the hottest. It was incredible
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: at the at the at the Silver Dome. But having
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: said that, it was it was just really an incredible
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: feeling to have been part of that team because for
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: the first time, I think we felt like people cared
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: about soccer in the country. As we're sitting there with
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: the national anthem and you know, the stadium is full
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: and it was a pro American crowd really for the
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: first time where we had tens of thousands of pro
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: American fans. I think it was It was certainly a
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: day to remember and an incredibly proud moment.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Tell what about you, Yeah, I remember it being hot,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: for sure. It was muggy and uh. One story that
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: you'll again you'll see in the documentary It's coming Out.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: We were there the night before and we realized, you remember, Tad,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: We went there and Bora took us just wanted to
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: take us to this stame. We had already trained in
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: the afternoon. We we had dinner and he wanted to
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: take us to the stadium. So they drive us to
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: you know, right into the stadium and we walk out
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: to midfield and they turned the lights out in the
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: whole stadium. It was pitch dark, right to have and
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: they put a video up on the board just for us,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: and I think we're going to see that video for
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the first time coming up here in the next couple
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: of months. It's a really quick video. Everybody on the screen.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: It was like a pump up video. Yeah, yeah, there's one.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: I did see one picture circulating recently of that group
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: just at midfield with the lights on, just like like
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: a team photo type thing, which is really cool. But
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I I remember that night and remember, uh, you know,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: like not we're ready, like now's the time, right, we
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: were going to play a World Cup at home, because
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: when you think about World Cups, there's very If you
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: really think about the number of people that play in
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: a World Cup, it's it's so the number is minuscule, right,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: compared to how many people have ever played soccer. And
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: then to think about the the guys who get a
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: chance to play at home, right, that number is even smaller. Right,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: that's in a couple of hundreds, right, maybe in a
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: few thousand, if you will. And I was interviewing Christian
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Polisic a little while back, and someone had asked him
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: on our someone on our panel asked him like, do
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: you know how like how impactful this is gonna be.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: And he was like, ah, yeah, well you know we
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: all playing Europe And I said, no, no, you have
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: no idea what the World Cup playing at home is
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: going to do for you. Man. It's a completely different
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: animal and it changes your life and it will forever.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Getting pumped up just thinking about. But we got to
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: take a very very quick break. We're gonna ask some
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: rapid fire questions with Tony about his favorite teammates, his
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: biggest difference is his best performances, and a couple other things.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: So please rate, review and subscribe. It's Inside American Soccer,
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Tabaramas wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back fin South
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: American Soccer. Let's do a little rapid fire with the
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: legend that is Tony Miola. Tony goalkeepers have to learn
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: to deal with mistakes. What was the one time, maybe
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: the most time that your confidence was actually shaken in
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: a game, if at.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: All shaken in a game. I'd have to say for
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: about thirty seconds after giving up the goal against Romania
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: and the World Cup, and then I had to really
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: just turn around. But I was I thought I had
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: it right, and I didn't have it right, so that one,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: but I like how it reacted from it.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: There you go, story redemption. What do you think your
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: personal best performance was in a US Sure?
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: I always looked at my career in a hundred caps
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I had, I had five really shitty games I had,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: I had five really super good games in like ninety games.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: It all looked the same. That's like the thing I'm
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: most proud of. But my best one was probably the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: performance against England. And what was that tournament called the
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: US Cup? It was?
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a US Cup?
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, US Cup? Yeah, against the against England to zer
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: win tab Actually an incredible assist on the Duley's goal, right,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: was it Thomas Dooley.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: On Duley's goal.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: But I'll add to what you said before. You know
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: that when you look at your career, you look.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: At five shitty games and five great games. Well, I
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: don't remember any of your five shitty games. I can
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: tell you that.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: I think that those two numbers were even. I mean
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: the great games was much much higher.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, but that's kind of how I looked at it.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: But because my my the pride of for me of
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: the career was like just being consistent, knowing that you
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: could you could depend on me when you needed to
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: depend on me.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: What was the craziest environment you ever played in? That
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: can go all the way back to childhood, to high school,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: to college, to pros to indoor soccer to a media
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: game with me with.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Without Yeah, the media game was second. But the craziest
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: one by far was a game I didn't play in
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: but I was in the state, but against Morocco in Casablanca.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I have never ever heard anything like that in my life.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: That that was, uh, that was incredible, incredible. I mean,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: the the way the noise went through like it was crazy,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the way the stadium shook. And then the other one Actually,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: another game I didn't play in was he maybe maybe
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: that's the familie didn't recognize when I was playing locked
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: in was South Korea World Cup in two thousand and two.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: That when Clint Mathis scored that goal, but that stadium,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the entire day was But I guess you notice things
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to have more when you don't.
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: Play when you play your because your you're I guess, yeah,
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: but it was those two.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, favorite US men's national team teammate besides them, Oh.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: That's a tough one, I'd have to I'd have to
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: say because I was with him. Probably the longest is
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Marcello Babo.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Legend, legend, most difficult opponent that you played with for
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: the national team?
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Played it played against? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh easy one
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: for me. We played a C. Milan in my my,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: my team we played AC Milan in Chicago. Marco Van
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Boston my hands down. I shouldn't say hands down because
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Ramrio and Bebeto we're also pretty pretty good. But Marco
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: van Boston and Rude Houllett. But Marco van Boston, he
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: hit a ball to score a goal by my ear
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: and I could still hear it going past meeting. But
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: he was a beast man. Justj just injuries cut his
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: career short. He was a monster.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: What's the biggest difference between your nineteen ninety four team
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: and this upcoming twenty twenty six to US national team?
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say one thing. We're seeing it now
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: with this team, so it might be we're but that
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: ninety four team was so tight. I mean, we were trying.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: We had a different mission in ninety four, right, We
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: were trying to conquer the world in nineteen ninety four,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: where these guys have the world that they're at their
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: feet right now. It's just no matter what they do
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: with it.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: What is the most annoying non soccer question you get
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: asked in interviews like this by idiots like me? Because
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: I have two guesses. One is either hey, are you
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: gonna go back to the ponytail? Or two is gonna
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: be tell me about the time when you were on
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: the Jets, because I think it's one of those two,
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: But tell me if I'm wrong.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, the Jets thing was like just a childhood
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: like dream that I was living out right to play
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: another professional sport. But you it's number two and you
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: nailed number one. So I don't know. How did we
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: have this discussion before?
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah, by the way, I didn't know anybody had
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: dreams that playing for the Jets, But I.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Guess some people said, I said, another professional sport.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: Lastly a rapid fire. Maybe this could be a new
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: annoying one. What can you tell us about your nineteen
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: ninety five off Broadway appearance in Tony and Tina's wedding.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Oh man, it was awesome. It was so awesome doing anything.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: I went to school theater, theater and and uh, and
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: communications was my me. Yeah, in college and I and
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: I thought, man, this is the only way I can
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: convince my parents that I actually went to some of
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: the classes. I got to take a job.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: But were you Tony and Tony and Tina's wedding?
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was the Star. Yeah, no, it was I
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: wanted we do. We extended it four weeks. What happened
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: was MLS. MLS was supposed to start. They ended up
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: pushing the league back. And then I got this call
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: because they were doing all these like Lee Mazzilli and
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: X Mets player, like all these guys were doing this role.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: So they called there, like my guys, if he didn't
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: even have to change his name, it's Tony, you know,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: he doesn't even have to fake it. And then it
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: was so tom there were people waiting online. There would
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: be soccer fans waiting online to get tickets the night
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: the night of the show that couldn't get in, and
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: they'd be back the next night. And they extended it
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: like four weeks after that, and uh, and back in
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: the day, I'll be honest, it wasn't a bad paycheck
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: for what I was doing, better than the Brooklyn make money.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: I'm sure better than Brooklyn Italians.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: I can't speaking of money, I can't tell you how
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: much money i'd pay for a time machine to go
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: back and watch one of those performances. But thank you
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: for that sone. We're gonna have one more quick break
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: and we'll be back for the all time US men's
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: national team starting allows. Thank you for listening to Inside
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: America Soccer. Please rate, review, subscribe forever he gets podcast.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. We thank Tony Mioa
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: so very much for his time, expertise, laughter, friendship, everything.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: So we want to go back in time and talk
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: about who our all time starting elevens is with the
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: US national team.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: TAB.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: This was very hard for me to put together. I
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: can't imagine how difficult its view, given that you've been
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: in the locker rooms, you've been part of all of
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: these teams, and a lot of guys that you've seen
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: both in training and in games, and then currently coaching
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: or watching all of that. So Tab, I'm gonna let
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: you kick us off and go first.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: I made up my own rules a little bit for
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: this selection, so I didn't I picked an old time
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: team that I would want to play with. But I
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: only I did it only with guys that I played
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: that I actually played with, guys that I spent time
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: in practice and in games with.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: So this is my line up. Tony would be in goal.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: In the back I selected, I'm going with three in
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: the back, as you know the new US lineup. But actually,
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: if I could pick only one or two defenders, I
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: would have been better off.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to pick any, but I'll be I'll
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: be clear with that.
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: I would have picked more attackers, kind of like an
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: MLS All Star game where they picked like gold the
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: number tens.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: I would have done right. So I picked three. So
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: I went in the back.
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: I went with the three center backs being Alexi Lalas,
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: Kevin Crowe, and Marcelo Balboa wide on the right and
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: the left. I went on the left side, Hugo Perez
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: on the right side, Landon Donovan. In the middle of
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: the field, I went with John Harks and Rick Davis.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: In front of them, I have Clint Mathis and up top,
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: Eric Guinalda and Brian McBride.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: My gosh, that's quite a team. That's quite a team. Man.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna show you I haven't made any changes I
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: wrote him down. I'm just gonna read them as they are.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: Go ahead.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah. So I went with Balboa, Alexi Lass and
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Eddie Pope in the back. I went in the center.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: So I went three four three I'm using I'm stealing
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Murcia Pochettino or three four two one I'm stealing the
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: stealing Pochettino's lineup or formation? Uh tab on the right
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: hand side, uh, John Harks and Thomas Dooley in the
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: middle of the field, and Landon Donovan on the left
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: hand side of the field. And then I went went
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Alda on the left, Mathis on the right and Brian
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: McBride up top.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: Who did you say in Golden On miss that? Or
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: did you skip over goalkeeper?
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I didn't put a goalkeeper in. Come on, Tony,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: I put myself in. Yeah yeah, damn shit. Yeah. So
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: we had all the same attacking players. Amazing man.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: That's so I'll give mine. And I thought it would
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: have been funny to just dead pan and only do
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: guys that have played like twenty ten and after, just
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: to see if if you guys would be raging through
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: the through the computer screen. Mine is is a bit
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: more comprehensive, though maybe not all the way back towards you, guys,
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: I went four to three to three Uncle Tony Meollen
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: goal uh, Steve Tarndolo, Claus Bocaneaga, Alexi Lallis and DeMarcus
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Beasley on the back line, central midfield trio that you
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: can only dream of, Michael Bradley, Claudia Arena, tab Ramos
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: and a front three you could also only dream of
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Christian Poolsick, Clint Empsey and Landon.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: Wow, that's hard to be. That's hard to beat.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: And my manager would probably be Bob Bradley, very very
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: close over Bruce Arena.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, had I played with a couple of that Again,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: I stole tabs rule. I actually thought that was the rule.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Only guys that I only guys that I had played with.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: Was how I I looked at this one man, this
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: and this this is good because I think and I
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: think MLS has a worst problem of this than the
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: national team. But we're pretty bad at like being proud
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: of our history and really being like, like you stacked
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: out eleven up listen man, any maybe it is in
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: Brazil with Lea and Ronaldo and everything, but like that's
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: a lot of world class, top quality players for me,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: so I always do enjoy going back down.
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: You know, I always, I always, I always feel bad
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: if we put like an old time team together and
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: we don't know the Walter Barrs and the Harry koh Yes,
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: and you know, then beating England in Brazil in nineteen
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: fifty like that counts, you know, And so I always
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: feel bad if you're going to put a best eleven
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: that you know we never saw them play, you know,
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: so how could it be?
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Right? And and again how different everything was back at
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: that time, not just the game itself, but the preparation,
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: the being scouted and selected to the team, all these things.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Like I forget what movie it was, but you know,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: it seemed like that nineteen fifty seamed it was like
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: just the best players in Saint Louis, some guys from
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: from the northeast as well. Man, what a different time,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: but what a legendary, legendary team. I think that does
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: it for our time. Totomiola, You're a legend. Thank you
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: so very much for joining us, that you're giving us
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: your time. Again, everybody listening to this, I'll say it again,
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: he is the best, one of one. Please listen to
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: him CBS, Sports, Galazzo, Serious XM. Anywhere he's doing work,
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: you should be listening when he's talking. TAB Same to
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: you as always, but I'll get to talk to you
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: again next week. Thank you all for listening. We'll be
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: back very very soon.