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Reaction to Belgium, What Went Wrong and How We Bounce Back · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

0:00
Speaker 1: We scored in the thirty ninth minute, and between the
0:02
Speaker 1: thirty ninth minute and the forty eighth minute when the
0:05
Speaker 1: half ended, Belgium could have scored three times. Right, the
0:09
Speaker 1: game changed. The game completely changed when we scored, which
0:12
Speaker 1: means the opponent changed too.
0:16
Speaker 2: Greetings, folks, and welcome to Inside American Soccer. I'm Matt Doyle,
0:20
Speaker 2: the armchair analyst. I'll be filling in for new dad
0:23
Speaker 2: Tom Bogert for just a couple more shows. He's back
0:25
Speaker 2: soon and he'll be joining my friend in yours. Tab
0:29
Speaker 2: Ramos one of the greatest players in US men's soccer history.
0:33
Speaker 2: Veteran of three World Cups, not a veteran of any
0:36
Speaker 2: beatings like the one the US took on Saturday. Actually, yeah,
0:41
Speaker 2: you had that Czechoslovakia game. That was a learning experience.
0:44
Speaker 2: Let's you guys came back better from that in nineteen ninety.
0:48
Speaker 2: Let's hope we see the same thing from the boys
0:53
Speaker 2: on Tuesday, because it was a humbling five to two
0:55
Speaker 2: loss to Belgium in front of a big crowd in
0:58
Speaker 2: Atlanta that was ready to celebrate. Honestly, after the first half,
1:01
Speaker 2: tab it felt like they had reason to celebrate and instead,
1:06
Speaker 2: things went completely off the rails in the second forty five.
1:11
Speaker 3: What do you see, man? What happened?
1:13
Speaker 1: Well? You know, first of all, obviously it's great to
1:17
Speaker 1: be on with you once again. I was watching the
1:19
Speaker 1: game here with a buddy of mine, and you know
1:23
Speaker 1: what you just said about the Czechoslovakia game in nineteen
1:26
Speaker 1: ninety is exactly what I thought towards the end of
1:30
Speaker 1: the game. And the reason I'm mentioning that is because listen,
1:34
Speaker 1: in sports, sometimes you just have a bad day, right,
1:36
Speaker 1: and you just have to deal with it. It is
1:37
Speaker 1: what it is. You know, even the best players I'm
1:40
Speaker 1: George Jordan got hammered a couple of times in his life.
1:42
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, you don't forget it, right, And
1:46
Speaker 1: so I didn't think that at this point, this late
1:50
Speaker 1: in the game, being this close to the World Cup,
1:53
Speaker 1: we would have a result that we're not going to
1:55
Speaker 1: forget for a long time. And because that's what it
1:59
Speaker 1: looked like, you know, I still remember, and I think,
2:02
Speaker 1: by the way, I think I've left at it with you,
2:04
Speaker 1: right like we I sat here and said, hey, we
2:06
Speaker 1: didn't belong on the field that day. We were we
2:09
Speaker 1: were just kids playing with men. And you know, like
2:11
Speaker 1: they just hammered us every you know, last night, the
2:14
Speaker 1: second half had a little bit of that feel to it,
2:17
Speaker 1: and this close to the World Cup, but you know,
2:20
Speaker 1: it's here's the thing here, I will leave it at
2:24
Speaker 1: this is my first assessment of what I see. I'm
2:27
Speaker 1: I'm disappointed at the at the fact that this close
2:31
Speaker 1: to the World Cup we got deflated yesterday, not just
2:35
Speaker 1: the players, but I think the fan base, I think
2:37
Speaker 1: everybody that watched the game. We left the game, by
2:40
Speaker 1: the way, not necessarily thinking that we can't recover from this,
2:45
Speaker 1: but the way we're all walking off the field. Let's
2:48
Speaker 1: face it, we're deflated at this point.
2:50
Speaker 2: And that's disappointing, especially coming after the previous three camps,
2:55
Speaker 2: which had produced so many good performances and a couple
2:59
Speaker 2: of good results, and then a great result the five
3:01
Speaker 2: to one over Uruguay, which is the mirror opposite of
3:05
Speaker 2: this one. The vibes were so high, and to come
3:09
Speaker 2: into this game and play really well in the first half,
3:12
Speaker 2: I honestly thought the US played out outplayed Belgium in
3:15
Speaker 2: that first half, and then to have it all fall
3:18
Speaker 2: apart so completely in the second half, I think deflated
3:22
Speaker 2: is the right word.
3:24
Speaker 3: Before we jump in into the.
3:26
Speaker 2: Specifics, we should talk for a second about the jersey issue,
3:32
Speaker 2: because the US were, you know, breaking out for the
3:35
Speaker 2: first time the kind of the flag Waldo, which I
3:39
Speaker 2: thought looked sharp, really great jerseys. The Waldos are my
3:42
Speaker 2: all time favorite US jersey, and Belgium had a very
3:48
Speaker 2: similar color palette on their own jersey. My understanding is
3:54
Speaker 2: that there was communication between the two team and men's
3:57
Speaker 2: but maybe not enough, and then once it got close
4:01
Speaker 2: to game time and they realized that they were wearing
4:03
Speaker 2: essentially the same look in jersey, Neither team had backups
4:08
Speaker 2: on hand, and the players, you know, Christian, Polistic, West, McKenny,
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Speaker 2: a few others said it was an issue. Politic says
4:17
Speaker 2: it's not an excuse at all because both teams dealt
4:19
Speaker 2: with that, but it's just it can't happen. McKenny says,
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Speaker 2: I won't put that at all for an excuse of
4:26
Speaker 2: the game, but definitely it was a little bit difficult
4:28
Speaker 2: whenever you do a quick glance to tell which is which.
4:31
Speaker 2: It was almost like a fifty to fifty thing. I mean,
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Speaker 2: Belgium didn't have many problems with it to that but
4:38
Speaker 2: it was it made for a tough watch.
4:40
Speaker 1: No, it's difficult. It's difficult for players on both teams.
4:43
Speaker 1: There's no question because I think I think I'm going
4:45
Speaker 1: to go back to one of Christians quotes maybe and
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Speaker 1: he said something about sometimes you look up and you're
4:51
Speaker 1: just looking for the color, right, because it's normal. The
4:53
Speaker 1: game moves by quickly. It's not like you're necessarily aiming
4:57
Speaker 1: for a certain player, but you're looking at the color
5:00
Speaker 1: and you know that's your player. And sometimes when you
5:03
Speaker 1: especially when you play quickly, you're looking for the color
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Speaker 1: and that has it has a big effect on that
5:08
Speaker 1: type of on that type of path. So I do
5:11
Speaker 1: agree with the players in this case. And you know,
5:13
Speaker 1: taking into consideration that now we're dealing with timeouts and
5:16
Speaker 1: everything else with the you know, the the quarters that
5:19
Speaker 1: we're playing now, in all of these things that we're
5:21
Speaker 1: implementing to I guess make the game better. I think
5:25
Speaker 1: this is this is something that shouldn't have happened.
5:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the timeouts tabs referring to there were hydration
5:34
Speaker 2: breaks in this game, one about the twenty five minute
5:38
Speaker 2: mark and one about the sixty five minute mark in
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Speaker 2: the second half, even though the game is played indoors
5:44
Speaker 2: in a climate controlled dome.
5:47
Speaker 3: Essentially.
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Speaker 2: Look, man, I'm all for hydration breaks when the weather
5:52
Speaker 2: gets dangerous it's outside, you're in the Florida sun or whatever.
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Speaker 3: When you're playing in a dome and.
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Speaker 2: It's seventy two degrees, that was a little weird to me,
6:01
Speaker 2: But all right. On today's show, we'll discuss where things
6:05
Speaker 2: went wrong versus the Belgians and what we can learn because,
6:09
Speaker 2: as Tab said, you have to learn from situations like this.
6:12
Speaker 2: It's a bad day, bad forty five minutes, but you
6:14
Speaker 2: got to figure out a way to make yourself better
6:17
Speaker 2: because of it. What Mauricio Pocheccino has to say after
6:20
Speaker 2: the match and what it all means. Will also acknowledge
6:23
Speaker 2: the few things that did go well, shout out Weston
6:26
Speaker 2: McKenny and give our starting eleven for the Portugal match
6:29
Speaker 2: on Tuesday. Plus we'll talk about the roster and what
6:32
Speaker 2: we think the Belgium loss means for guys on the
6:35
Speaker 2: bubble for the World Cup. So Tab, let's get into it.
6:40
Speaker 2: I mean, we should start with the negatives. You've been
6:44
Speaker 2: banging the drum for months since I've been on the
6:46
Speaker 2: show about the matchup with Jeremy Doku.
6:51
Speaker 3: Tim Reim was not.
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Speaker 2: Quite on an island in the first half, but it
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Speaker 2: was close. And then in the second half Belgium realized
7:01
Speaker 2: we weren't pressing their back line, so they had they
7:05
Speaker 2: had time to pick their heads up and hit these big,
7:08
Speaker 2: long switches directly to their wingers and tim Weya went
7:14
Speaker 2: straight into the torture chamber and that was to me
7:17
Speaker 2: the story of the game.
7:20
Speaker 1: Well, you know, this is where I sound a little
7:22
Speaker 1: bit like a dad, because I hate to say I
7:24
Speaker 1: told you so, right, but I think I wasn't the
7:26
Speaker 1: only one right. You know, we've been saying you can
7:29
Speaker 1: go back on these shows for you're right, two or
7:31
Speaker 1: three shows where I said, okay, we're thinking of playing
7:34
Speaker 1: Tim waya right back, which is okay. By the way
7:38
Speaker 1: he does it at Marseille. He does a good job there.
7:40
Speaker 1: They wouldn't put him there unless he could do the job. Now,
7:43
Speaker 1: let me start by saying this. You know, I went
7:47
Speaker 1: to Madrid to the Champions League game to watch Real
7:49
Speaker 1: Madrid Manchester City. As we know, both top teams in
7:54
Speaker 1: the world still being top teams in the world, still
7:57
Speaker 1: having Alexander Arnold, Mark King Doku. Madrid still needed Alexander
8:03
Speaker 1: Arnold to delay to allow Valverde to come back and
8:08
Speaker 1: Pie Tarts to come in from midfield to triple team
8:11
Speaker 1: Doku before they challenged the ball. So I'm thinking over
8:16
Speaker 1: the last three weeks, if Real Madrid has to play
8:19
Speaker 1: Doku with three players on him, why would we be
8:23
Speaker 1: thinking that we can do the job with one. And
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Speaker 1: this is so, this is why I'm not necessarily blaming
8:28
Speaker 1: Tim Wea for it. And maybe something broke down on
8:31
Speaker 1: the way right, but he was left one v one
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Speaker 1: with with Doku too many times, and Doku at this
8:40
Speaker 1: point can be anyone one v one.
8:43
Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: So Pocheccino said afterwards that it was quote a lack
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Speaker 2: of understanding from the midfield. He said, he pointed to Tanner, Testman,
8:53
Speaker 2: Johnny Cartoso and Weston McKenny. He said, we had we
8:58
Speaker 2: had three midfielders arrived to the same line as Tim,
9:02
Speaker 2: but they never went to help him. And you know,
9:05
Speaker 2: he said he wasn't upset because he told his midfielders
9:09
Speaker 2: they needed to help weya on Doku and be aware
9:13
Speaker 2: of Doku cutting inside and shooting, which is what happened.
9:16
Speaker 2: The problem we had Pacheccino said, was no one helped
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Speaker 2: in the areas you can help and are really important
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Speaker 2: to help.
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Speaker 1: Tim.
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Speaker 2: That's almost more worrying than the performance, because if the
9:27
Speaker 2: coach is saying, we drilled this again and again and again,
9:30
Speaker 2: or I told the players this again and again again
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Speaker 2: and then they didn't execute.
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Speaker 3: It at all, but that is a massive issue.
9:39
Speaker 1: Well yeah, because okay, so you mentioned obviously it's part
9:43
Speaker 1: of your tactics of the week. Okay, be careful with
9:45
Speaker 1: Doku when he get Let's say, and I'm gonna make
9:48
Speaker 1: this up, but let's say this is exactly what happened.
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Speaker 2: Uh.
9:51
Speaker 1: You know, us team trained to know that when the
9:53
Speaker 1: ball goes wide to Doku, Weeya goes there, he delays
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Speaker 1: a little bit and wastes for help before he challenges
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Speaker 1: the ball. Let's say that's not happening. Let's say, way,
10:02
Speaker 1: I forgot about it, and let's say the rest of
10:04
Speaker 1: the team forgot about it. But that's what you're there
10:08
Speaker 1: on the sideline for, to remind the players that this
10:12
Speaker 1: is supposed to be happening. And by the way, I
10:14
Speaker 1: just made fun of soccer now having timeouts after minute
10:17
Speaker 1: twenty two, you have the full team in at the
10:20
Speaker 1: twenty second minute where you can talk to the whole
10:22
Speaker 1: team and correct that. Right then you have the rest
10:27
Speaker 1: of the half and you have half time to correct that.
10:30
Speaker 1: So I think, look, I mean there must have been
10:34
Speaker 1: a breakdown somewhere in communication there, but I think there's
10:37
Speaker 1: plenty of opportunity as the game is going to correct
10:41
Speaker 1: that as well.
10:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's Yeah, that is the frustrating part. I will
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Speaker 2: say there will be ample film to use during training
10:54
Speaker 2: over the next hopefully starting today ahead of the Portugal game,
11:00
Speaker 2: because there's so much that needed to be corrected. But
11:04
Speaker 2: I mean you're right to have, like, what's the point
11:06
Speaker 2: of those twenty five minute you know, water breaks if
11:09
Speaker 2: you're not going to fix what's going wrong. And I
11:12
Speaker 2: will say in the first half it felt a little
11:15
Speaker 2: bit better because I think that was because Belgium were
11:18
Speaker 2: trying forcing it really through central midfield, and the US
11:22
Speaker 2: did a good job of making that really difficult. As
11:26
Speaker 2: I said, in the second half, because of the lack
11:28
Speaker 2: of pressure from the US front line, they were just
11:32
Speaker 2: able to skip the midfield. One way they were doing
11:34
Speaker 2: it was by those long diagonals, the other one was
11:38
Speaker 2: by playing directly up the gut and challenging the center
11:42
Speaker 2: back pairing of Tim Reem and Mark McKenzie on long balls,
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Speaker 2: first ball, second ball. Stuff not really what you associate
11:49
Speaker 2: with Belgium, but they realized if the US had a
11:52
Speaker 2: little dislocation between central midfield and the back line and
11:56
Speaker 2: two kind of undersized center backs, that was something that
11:59
Speaker 2: they could take advantage of. So I think the second
12:02
Speaker 2: Belgium goal was diagonal. Third Belgium goal was long ball,
12:06
Speaker 2: over the top, win the second ball and off to
12:09
Speaker 2: the races. And again the US never really adjusted for that.
12:14
Speaker 2: In fact that I think over the final half hour
12:15
Speaker 2: the game tabit, it actually got worse.
12:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, there's a couple of things. So I'll
12:20
Speaker 1: start with some positives, right, and if I look at
12:23
Speaker 1: the game overall, I think some of the things that
12:26
Speaker 1: I saw from Tim Waya in the first half, in particular,
12:29
Speaker 1: a couple of balls that he got over the top,
12:32
Speaker 1: this is something that I can you know, if I'm
12:33
Speaker 1: looking forward now, and obviously you know in the World
12:36
Speaker 1: Cup we don't play Belgium in the first round. We're
12:38
Speaker 1: playing Paraguay and Australia as our first two games. You know,
12:42
Speaker 1: I can see Tim Waya playing that position and actually
12:45
Speaker 1: having an important effect on what's going to happen with
12:49
Speaker 1: us offensively. So I like that. I like what he did.
12:52
Speaker 1: I like him coming from behind. I don't I personally
12:56
Speaker 1: don't see that working without us playing three center backs.
12:59
Speaker 1: I just don't think we have enough quality at the
13:02
Speaker 1: center back position to play with two. I think we
13:05
Speaker 1: have to play with three, which would free up Waya
13:08
Speaker 1: to go forward a lot and Robinson to go forward
13:11
Speaker 1: a lot. So a lot of that movement that I
13:13
Speaker 1: saw both from Weea early on and from Robinson early on,
13:17
Speaker 1: I think it's positive and I think that's something that
13:19
Speaker 1: we can do during the World Cup. I also, on
13:23
Speaker 1: the positive side, saw Johnny Cardoso that got involved in
13:27
Speaker 1: a good way, right. I mean, I think this was
13:29
Speaker 1: a positive outcome for him in this game. And by
13:32
Speaker 1: the way, we said before this game, we said this
13:35
Speaker 1: last week on the show that you're never going to
13:38
Speaker 1: see a flashy Johnny Cardoso. That's just not the player
13:41
Speaker 1: he is. But I think he completed the right passes.
13:44
Speaker 1: I think he supported the right players. I think he
13:46
Speaker 1: made a couple of very nice passes moving forward. And
13:50
Speaker 1: although we're not asking for a lot at this point,
13:52
Speaker 1: I think he, if anything, helped himself with yesterday's game.
13:57
Speaker 1: Not saying a lot, I know, because not a lot happened,
14:00
Speaker 1: but I think he helped himself with the game that
14:02
Speaker 1: he played yesterday. And then I have to go to
14:05
Speaker 1: the to the negative side. First, I'll start with why
14:09
Speaker 1: Turner and goal Freeze has been playing in goal for
14:13
Speaker 1: the last twelve months and has done a great job.
14:15
Speaker 1: Why why create for me? Why create that doubt at
14:19
Speaker 1: this point, like with one being the last camp going
14:22
Speaker 1: into the World Cup. If there's if there's one position
14:25
Speaker 1: that could make or break your team is the goalkeeper position.
14:29
Speaker 1: And we've lived it, fortunately on the good side in
14:32
Speaker 1: this country for the last thirty years, from Tony Miola
14:35
Speaker 1: to Brad Friedel, to Casey Keller to Tim Howard to
14:40
Speaker 1: all of those guys right we've had we've been on
14:42
Speaker 1: the right side of that. We had been struggling coming
14:45
Speaker 1: into the last six eight months in this position, and
14:49
Speaker 1: I thought Freeze had done a pretty good job to
14:52
Speaker 1: earn that position and for us not to worry about it.
14:55
Speaker 1: I didn't understand that. I again, I don't think Matt
14:58
Speaker 1: Turner played a bad game. I don't think he helped
15:01
Speaker 1: himself in terms of becoming a starter for the World Cup.
15:04
Speaker 1: But why create that doubt. I thought Free should have
15:06
Speaker 1: gotten the game. That's just me. Then you know salamachers
15:11
Speaker 1: in the middle of the field. We could not track
15:15
Speaker 1: him like he was alone. He played alone. He ran
15:19
Speaker 1: the show for me. Other than Doku. He was the
15:22
Speaker 1: best player on the field. He ran the show from them.
15:25
Speaker 1: Anytime he had the ball. He played as if he
15:28
Speaker 1: was alone, really impressed with his game and disappointed with
15:33
Speaker 1: the lack of us putting pressure on him and allowing
15:36
Speaker 1: him to turn time after time when he was creating
15:39
Speaker 1: so much in front of our back four and in
15:42
Speaker 1: front of our midfield. You know, other than that, I'd
15:46
Speaker 1: have to say, and I'll go back to this, I'll
15:48
Speaker 1: finish with this, because sometimes it could be a little
15:52
Speaker 1: bit of fool's gold when you start to think, hey,
15:55
Speaker 1: you know, we were good for thirty nine minutes until
15:58
Speaker 1: Belgium scored, and then I'm sorry, until we scored and
16:02
Speaker 1: then Belgium changed. Let's not forget because we scored in
16:06
Speaker 1: the thirty ninth minute, and between the thirty ninth minute
16:08
Speaker 1: and the forty eighth minute, when the half ended, Belgium
16:12
Speaker 1: could have scored three times. Right, the game changed. The
16:15
Speaker 1: game completely changed when we scored, which means the opponent
16:18
Speaker 1: changed too. And this reminds me of one thing. And
16:20
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I'm going too long on this, but it
16:22
Speaker 1: reminds me of one thing. When I coached in Houston.
16:25
Speaker 1: We were in games all the time. The players worked
16:28
Speaker 1: hard all the time, and you know, and we could
16:31
Speaker 1: always go back and say, yeah, we lost two to one,
16:34
Speaker 1: but up until the eightieth minute, we were the better team.
16:37
Speaker 1: The bottom line is the good teams can just pound
16:41
Speaker 1: you until you have nothing left and they will beat
16:44
Speaker 1: you either in the ninety second minute or they can
16:47
Speaker 1: beat you early. And for us, I feel like we
16:49
Speaker 1: lost early when we really in this game. If anything,
16:53
Speaker 1: although Belgium is a better team, we should have lost
16:56
Speaker 1: to them really late instead of early.
16:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, to your point, Belgium could have scored three goals
17:03
Speaker 2: from the thirty ninth minute to halftime. The US could
17:05
Speaker 2: have scored three goals from the whistle to the thirty
17:08
Speaker 2: ninth minute.
17:08
Speaker 3: They had their chances. Christian Polisic in.
17:10
Speaker 2: Particular, had a beautiful one that he put into row
17:14
Speaker 2: thirty and Fochccino said afterwards that has to be a goal,
17:18
Speaker 2: and I don't necessarily disagree with him. I'll add one
17:23
Speaker 2: of the positive things you didn't touch on. I thought
17:26
Speaker 2: set Peace delivery was really good from the US today.
17:29
Speaker 2: It was Malik Tillman and Jedi Robinson. It was Anthony
17:35
Speaker 2: Robinson who had the assist on Weston mckennie's goal, which
17:38
Speaker 2: was actually a really well worked set piece and not
17:41
Speaker 2: in the style of the meat wall that Arsenal have
17:45
Speaker 2: been doing this year that makes the game unwatchable. It
17:48
Speaker 2: was actually just a really good set piece, so that
17:50
Speaker 2: was nice to see. Weston mckennie overall playing is kind
17:54
Speaker 2: of a right winger. I thought was the best player
17:59
Speaker 2: for the US. There weren't a ton of other outstanding performances.
18:07
Speaker 2: I don't even know if I could call Weston's performance outstanding.
18:11
Speaker 2: I will say that Christian Polistics performance was concerning. It's
18:16
Speaker 2: now I think he's got one goal in his last
18:18
Speaker 2: ten games for the US, going back about two years,
18:23
Speaker 2: all the way to the start of Pachtino's tenure. He
18:27
Speaker 2: missed that chance. He didn't create any chances to speak of.
18:32
Speaker 2: He has now been taken off set peace duty, thank goodness.
18:36
Speaker 2: And it was his lack of pressure to the ball
18:40
Speaker 2: early in the second half that allowed Belgium to get
18:45
Speaker 2: out on the run and to open the game up
18:48
Speaker 2: and to put Doku into one v one situations either
18:51
Speaker 2: with Weya or even skipping Weya who was pushing up
18:55
Speaker 2: on the right side and dragging Mark McKenzie out. And
18:59
Speaker 2: Mark McKenzie is a good player, but one v one
19:01
Speaker 2: in spa. I don't like any center back in the
19:03
Speaker 2: world one v one in space against Doku. What do
19:07
Speaker 2: we read into this into this performance from Christian Polistic?
19:11
Speaker 3: And do we read.
19:12
Speaker 2: Anything into the fact that the best US camp under
19:18
Speaker 2: Mauricio Pochettino was the November camp that Christian Polistic was.
19:22
Speaker 3: Not a member of. Is there anything in that tab?
19:25
Speaker 1: Well? I mean, you you, you can't help but to
19:28
Speaker 1: read something into it.
19:29
Speaker 4: Right.
19:32
Speaker 1: Having said that, I think that, you know, Christian just
19:35
Speaker 1: doesn't look as comfortable on this team for whatever reason.
19:41
Speaker 1: He still had a couple chances to score. You know, sometimes,
19:45
Speaker 1: especially against good teams like Belgium, is difficult to to
19:47
Speaker 1: create those chances. I thought he created himself a great
19:51
Speaker 1: chance dribbling in the box and a left footed shot
19:53
Speaker 1: that went over the top that normally you would think
19:56
Speaker 1: he tucks that in the corner right, and it just
19:58
Speaker 1: didn't happen for him. I'm not as negative about Christian's
20:02
Speaker 1: game as I've heard other people be, only because I
20:07
Speaker 1: still think he looks to me focused to want to
20:10
Speaker 1: do well, and I think he did create some chances
20:13
Speaker 1: for himself. You know, still we need a lot more
20:16
Speaker 1: from him. But you know, in general, when I look
20:20
Speaker 1: at the performance of Christian Polisic and the performance of
20:25
Speaker 1: Flow Balogun at the same time and see that they
20:27
Speaker 1: were not in the game much at all, I think
20:30
Speaker 1: this becomes more of a more concerning as to why
20:34
Speaker 1: in midfield we didn't have the ball and we didn't
20:36
Speaker 1: create enough to put them in good position to make plays.
20:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, the US were able to really get a rhythm
20:45
Speaker 2: in possession. They were still dangerous at times with the
20:48
Speaker 2: ball going forward in that first half.
20:53
Speaker 3: A couple of good overlaps I.
20:55
Speaker 2: Think Jedi Robinson got four twice in about the first
20:58
Speaker 2: ten to fifteen minutes or so. Faded out of the
21:00
Speaker 2: game a little bit after that, but he did look
21:03
Speaker 2: up for it physically, and of course Weea had his
21:05
Speaker 2: hands full on the right, but he did provide some
21:08
Speaker 2: with in the attack at times. But this actually speaks
21:12
Speaker 2: to a little bit of a change in the tactical
21:15
Speaker 2: approach that we've seen from the US over the previous
21:19
Speaker 2: half dozen gamestaf because we've talked about it on this show.
21:22
Speaker 2: How it's a back four, but then one of the
21:25
Speaker 2: full back slides in and becomes essentially a full time
21:28
Speaker 2: center back while the other just pushes forward. And you
21:30
Speaker 2: think about Alex Freeman what he did against Dorguay. He
21:34
Speaker 2: was nominally the right back, but he was basically playing
21:37
Speaker 2: as a right winger.
21:38
Speaker 3: It wasn't that approach in this game.
21:40
Speaker 2: It was a back four and the fullbacks would take
21:44
Speaker 2: turns pushing forward, and which is not unusual. We've seen
21:50
Speaker 2: that a lot over the past thirty years as tactics
21:53
Speaker 2: in the game have evolved. And then when they wanted
21:56
Speaker 2: to form a back three, it was either Johnny Cardozo
21:59
Speaker 2: dropping off off to left center back, making Tim Ream
22:02
Speaker 2: the sweeper, or Tanner Testaman dropping into the middle of
22:05
Speaker 2: the back line, pushing Reim out to the left and
22:08
Speaker 2: McKenzie out to the right, and then both fullbacks would
22:12
Speaker 2: go up and honestly, I don't mind this, but the
22:16
Speaker 2: rotations have to be crisp and everybody has to be
22:20
Speaker 2: on the same page. And I think what.
22:22
Speaker 3: We saw is that they really weren't.
22:24
Speaker 2: Because Malik Tillman, if Tanner Testament's dropping out of the
22:28
Speaker 2: back line, Johnny Cardos is dropping out of the back line,
22:31
Speaker 2: Malik Tillman has to drop in and form.
22:33
Speaker 3: That double pivot so that they have outlets.
22:36
Speaker 2: And he just didn't do that, and so the US
22:38
Speaker 2: didn't have a way to progress the ball.
22:41
Speaker 1: No, And that's right because Tilman really was not in
22:43
Speaker 1: the game at all yesterday, and that's unfortunate. That's why,
22:48
Speaker 1: you know, I keep saying that at this point, I'm
22:52
Speaker 1: sort of seeing our team succeed if we add another
22:55
Speaker 1: center back and have three permanent center backs there. I
22:59
Speaker 1: think that would be the best solution to what we do.
23:02
Speaker 1: It would be the best solution in terms of allowing
23:04
Speaker 1: both Way and Robinson to give forward all the time
23:07
Speaker 1: and to keep the center of the field steady without
23:11
Speaker 1: having you know, one of the midfielders dropper or the
23:13
Speaker 1: other midfielders dropped. You know, you keep three in the back,
23:16
Speaker 1: you keep two defensive mids, and then you let everyone
23:19
Speaker 1: else attack and no matter what happens, no matter when
23:22
Speaker 1: the turnover happens to come the other way, you're in
23:25
Speaker 1: good position in the center of the field and well covered. Uh.
23:30
Speaker 2: Mauricio Pocheccino, I think we'll like with this. Marcio Pocheccino
23:33
Speaker 2: after the game said we need to keep going with
23:34
Speaker 2: the plan and that's not going to change with the
23:38
Speaker 2: result today, and Western McKenny kind of echo that.
23:40
Speaker 3: I said.
23:40
Speaker 2: I don't think it's a worrisome result for us because
23:42
Speaker 2: within the team, we know we can do better, we
23:45
Speaker 2: know what went wrong, and we also know and believe
23:48
Speaker 2: fully that we can play with a team of this caliber.
23:53
Speaker 2: We have seen it before against Uruguay. They're top ten team,
23:58
Speaker 2: just like belgiumar We've seen the US beat Paraguay and Australia,
24:03
Speaker 2: teams that they'll have to beat in the World Cup.
24:06
Speaker 2: Hopefully that is the real version of the US and
24:09
Speaker 2: not the team that fell apart so completely in the
24:11
Speaker 2: second half of this one. We should mention shout out
24:14
Speaker 2: to big pat Agiamont. He came off the bench, got
24:17
Speaker 2: a goal, I thought. Ricardo Peppy came off the bench,
24:19
Speaker 2: helped himself set up the goal with his pressing. Both
24:22
Speaker 2: those guys did some good for themselves. Not a lot
24:27
Speaker 2: of US players can say that. After this one for US,
24:32
Speaker 2: I think it's time for a break up. Next, we'll
24:34
Speaker 2: discuss what we want to see the US do against
24:36
Speaker 2: Portugal on Tuesday, and we'll give our starting eleven for
24:39
Speaker 2: the match.
24:40
Speaker 3: Please rate, review and subscribe to Inside.
24:42
Speaker 2: American Soccer with Tom Boger and Tam Ramos wherever you
24:45
Speaker 2: get your podcasts. All right, folks, welcome back to Inside
24:59
Speaker 2: American Soccer and TAB. Let's just get right to it.
25:02
Speaker 2: We got another game coming up on Tuesday against Portugal. Uh,
25:06
Speaker 2: let's go through your starting eleven. Let's go line by line, right,
25:11
Speaker 2: We'll start in goal. You made your case for Matt
25:15
Speaker 2: Freeze earlier in the show, and I assume that he's
25:17
Speaker 2: your starter for this game.
25:19
Speaker 1: Uh, yeah, he is. And and only because you know,
25:22
Speaker 1: why change more than anything else, Why add doubt to
25:25
Speaker 1: that position? I think you know, Uh, Matt had done
25:28
Speaker 1: a Matt Freeze had done a good had done a
25:30
Speaker 1: good job, and and I thought, you know, for his confidence,
25:33
Speaker 1: would have been better to stay on and get more
25:35
Speaker 1: minutes with the national team. So he'll be for me,
25:38
Speaker 1: he should be back in goal. Again, this is this
25:40
Speaker 1: would be my lineup, not what I think Pochettino is
25:43
Speaker 1: going to do. I would have three center backs, I
25:46
Speaker 1: would add considering the injuries we have, so I'm obviously
25:50
Speaker 1: thinking that you know, uh Richards is not going to
25:53
Speaker 1: be available and so because of and Miles Robinson's not
25:57
Speaker 1: going to be available. Because of that, I would start
25:59
Speaker 1: free Men as the right center back, with Mackenzie and
26:03
Speaker 1: Reem as a three center back way on the right side, Robinson,
26:11
Speaker 1: Jedi Robinson on the left side. I would have McKinney
26:14
Speaker 1: and Tesman in the central two central spots with Aaronson,
26:19
Speaker 1: Pulisick and Balligan. And the reason I'm gonna add Aaronson
26:22
Speaker 1: is because I think the team, without a doubt, will
26:25
Speaker 1: be a little bit deflated, as we mentioned before, and
26:28
Speaker 1: I think the energy that Aaronson brings, I think and
26:31
Speaker 1: have a really positive effect on the team at the moment.
26:34
Speaker 1: And I think at this time, although I think normally
26:38
Speaker 1: at the World Cup this is not one of the
26:41
Speaker 1: players that I would put on the starting eleven, I
26:43
Speaker 1: think the team needs Aaronson a little bit at this time.
26:47
Speaker 3: Yeah.
26:48
Speaker 2: I've never been a huge Brennan Aaronson fan, but coming
26:53
Speaker 2: off that game where I've already said it three times
26:55
Speaker 2: on the show, but the US sproatline was not doing
26:58
Speaker 2: the work to get pressure to the Belgian back line.
27:02
Speaker 2: But let's you never have to worry about that with
27:04
Speaker 2: Brendan Rison. He is going to do that work defensively,
27:07
Speaker 2: and the US badly needed that one. And against teams
27:11
Speaker 2: of that caliber, you can't take your foot off the
27:14
Speaker 2: gas even if you're one hundred yards from goal, and
27:17
Speaker 2: I think Aaronson can maybe set the tone a little bit,
27:20
Speaker 2: so I don't hate that.
27:22
Speaker 3: Let me ask you about Tanner Testament. He's a player
27:23
Speaker 3: I really like.
27:25
Speaker 2: He almost scored a goal and it had a really
27:27
Speaker 2: good shot from about twenty two yards early in the
27:30
Speaker 2: game of a well worked set piece. Didn't do much
27:33
Speaker 2: else other than that except end up being about three
27:36
Speaker 2: yards behind the play for the entire game. When asked
27:39
Speaker 2: about him afterwards, Rise, which kept it really short, said
27:44
Speaker 2: he can do better. What did you see from Tanner Testaman,
27:49
Speaker 2: Because tab he's a guy that you and I have
27:51
Speaker 2: both consistently had in our best eleven for the US,
27:54
Speaker 2: and he looked nothing like that in the game.
27:56
Speaker 3: Against Beltium.
27:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he struggled with having to come back
28:01
Speaker 1: and put himself in between the center back, so let's
28:04
Speaker 1: say in between Robinson and reim right in that spot.
28:08
Speaker 1: He struggled with being able to do that and getting
28:11
Speaker 1: into that line, which he did at times, but then
28:14
Speaker 1: at the same time to then be able to take
28:17
Speaker 1: six or seven, you know, steps forward, to be able
28:20
Speaker 1: to receive both, to be able to create for us,
28:22
Speaker 1: and he didn't do that. I did notice that in
28:24
Speaker 1: the first half when we were attacking and Belgium had
28:27
Speaker 1: some some turnovers and recover the ball and try to
28:32
Speaker 1: play through the middle. He did intercept a couple balls,
28:34
Speaker 1: so he was in the right place. I just feel
28:37
Speaker 1: like the game, the game didn't help him at all,
28:40
Speaker 1: and I don't want to make excuses for him, but
28:42
Speaker 1: I'd like to see him again because I think he
28:45
Speaker 1: can do better.
28:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly what Mauricio Poccino said. And you're not
28:50
Speaker 2: you're not dropping wesn mckennye back a line into that
28:54
Speaker 2: double pivot with Tanner Tasman, and I understand that because
28:58
Speaker 2: West has played there a lot for the US, He's
28:59
Speaker 2: played there a lot for Juventus. I thought he was
29:02
Speaker 2: really good in the attack for the US against Belgium.
29:06
Speaker 2: But is it just a case of like, Okay, he's
29:08
Speaker 2: probably this team's best player at this point, so you
29:11
Speaker 2: want to have your team's best player in the heart
29:14
Speaker 2: of it all, stirring the drink and give him the
29:16
Speaker 2: responsibility to set the tone. Probably have the most touches
29:20
Speaker 2: on the team.
29:20
Speaker 1: Well, you know, the one thing you can always count
29:22
Speaker 1: on with Weston is that he's going to make that effort,
29:26
Speaker 1: you know, to get around the field to try to
29:29
Speaker 1: recover the ball. I think, if anything, what didn't help
29:32
Speaker 1: him yesterday was getting that early yellow card in the
29:34
Speaker 1: first half and he lost a little bit of aggressiveness
29:38
Speaker 1: at that point. But I think we can't I wouldn't
29:41
Speaker 1: take him off the field. I think he was still
29:43
Speaker 1: one of our best players yesterday and he needs to
29:46
Speaker 1: be on the field. And in order to fit Aaronson,
29:49
Speaker 1: that's the player that I have to drop a little bit.
29:51
Speaker 1: So I wouldn't mind doing that. I think that would
29:54
Speaker 1: be that would be the right solution for me.
29:58
Speaker 3: Let's talk about.
29:59
Speaker 2: The back, the center backs in particular.
30:01
Speaker 3: Now.
30:01
Speaker 2: Alex Freeman did get on for a late cameo We've
30:05
Speaker 2: talked about his move to via Real quite a bit
30:07
Speaker 2: on this show. It's a move that both of us
30:10
Speaker 2: like in macro level micro level. We worried about playing time,
30:14
Speaker 2: and it turns out that was justified. He's played about
30:16
Speaker 2: fifty minutes I think since the.
30:19
Speaker 3: Move in January.
30:21
Speaker 2: But he's been good for Manicio Pocheccino, and he's played
30:24
Speaker 2: it either as a you know, really attacking fullback, but
30:27
Speaker 2: sometimes he's played as a third center back. In this setup,
30:31
Speaker 2: you have him as kind of a true center back
30:35
Speaker 2: in that back three tab and walk us through that.
30:38
Speaker 1: Yeah. I what I like is he's he has the speed,
30:41
Speaker 1: He's able to defend one v one. I think he
30:44
Speaker 1: would be a good addition to way Aside because he
30:48
Speaker 1: can cover Way and at times he can go forward too.
30:51
Speaker 1: I think he's a he would be a great addition
30:53
Speaker 1: to the three center backs. I guess you know. What
30:56
Speaker 1: I would say is, obviously we don't have we don't
30:58
Speaker 1: have Richards, and we don't have Miles Robinson. Although Miles
31:01
Speaker 1: Robinson is not in great form at the moment, I
31:04
Speaker 1: think for what we have in this current roster, I
31:08
Speaker 1: think I think try and Freeman in that position would
31:11
Speaker 1: be helpful.
31:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's done it before. Hopefully he'll get a chance
31:17
Speaker 2: to do it again. On the other side, left center back,
31:20
Speaker 2: you have Tim Reim who had moments with the ball
31:25
Speaker 2: where he looked like the Tim Reim of old. His
31:28
Speaker 2: line breaking passes, he puts guys in better positions than
31:32
Speaker 2: any of our other center backs. Like he still has
31:35
Speaker 2: that to his game. But one of the things that
31:38
Speaker 2: Belgium was able to take advantage of was his lack
31:42
Speaker 2: of size and athleticism. And if you go back and
31:44
Speaker 2: look at that second half, they made him challenge a
31:48
Speaker 2: lot of aerials and he has never.
31:51
Speaker 3: Been great in the air, and they were able.
31:53
Speaker 2: To go first ball, second ball, and off to the races.
31:57
Speaker 2: But we still have him out there. I think I
31:59
Speaker 2: would probably start him too. Is there any argument in
32:02
Speaker 2: your mind for Austin Trusty getting this start at left
32:05
Speaker 2: center back instead?
32:07
Speaker 1: At this point, I would say no, you know, I
32:10
Speaker 1: think and I've been critical of Tim and not critical obviously.
32:14
Speaker 1: Tim is a great player, has been a great player,
32:17
Speaker 1: you know, But I've been a little bit critical because
32:19
Speaker 1: I think we can do better in that position. I think,
32:23
Speaker 1: considering where we are today with the roster, that we
32:25
Speaker 1: have and the guys that are injured. I think that's
32:28
Speaker 1: the best solution. And to be fair to Tim, I
32:30
Speaker 1: don't think he played a bad game. I think you're
32:33
Speaker 1: right in the fact that you know, Belgium try to
32:36
Speaker 1: take advant advantage a little bit over the top, but
32:38
Speaker 1: you know that's what you do as a team. But
32:41
Speaker 1: this is the reason why I would play three center backs.
32:44
Speaker 1: I would pair him with with other guys who can
32:46
Speaker 1: help him in that position, and by and by being
32:49
Speaker 1: a third center back. I have to say, you know,
32:51
Speaker 1: Tim was excellent in distribution in this game. I don't
32:54
Speaker 1: know that he missed the pass. He may have, but
32:57
Speaker 1: his passes were Chris. They were sharp between lines that
33:01
Speaker 1: were right to the perfect foot. You know. He actually
33:05
Speaker 1: with the ball, he did really well.
33:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's always been gifted with that. It's a weapon
33:11
Speaker 2: for the US and you can see why so many
33:13
Speaker 2: coaches have trusted him club and country to be sort
33:16
Speaker 2: of the main distribution hub for the teams that he
33:20
Speaker 2: plays for. Let's go back in the other direction up top.
33:23
Speaker 2: We've talked about it a lot on this show. For
33:25
Speaker 2: ac Milan, Christian Polistic plays as a second forward. He
33:29
Speaker 2: doesn't have the responsibility to make the plays. It's more
33:33
Speaker 2: just finishing plays off and that's kind of what we
33:38
Speaker 2: have him as here. The way you have it set
33:41
Speaker 2: up is this sort of a you know, a three
33:44
Speaker 2: to five to two with Aaronson dropping deeper almost as
33:47
Speaker 2: a as a playmaker, and Pulisic and Baligan up top together.
33:52
Speaker 2: Or is it more of like a three four two
33:54
Speaker 2: one with Pulisic and Aaronson kind of on the same
33:58
Speaker 2: line underneath Balligan.
34:00
Speaker 1: I have it more as a three four to two one,
34:03
Speaker 1: only because I think Aaronson can help a lot more
34:05
Speaker 1: in an early bowl recovery. I wouldn't want to see
34:08
Speaker 1: him deeper in midfield.
34:10
Speaker 3: Well we will see.
34:12
Speaker 2: You know, Mauricio Pocchettino has not hesitated to to to
34:18
Speaker 2: throw stuff at the wall see what stakes And sometimes
34:21
Speaker 2: it has and sometimes, as in the second half against Belgium,
34:24
Speaker 2: it has it. With this lineup, tap, do you have
34:26
Speaker 2: any subs in mind? I mean we saw gi Arena
34:30
Speaker 2: come off the bench. He didn't really do much. There
34:33
Speaker 2: are obviously a couple of defensive midfielders you could choose
34:36
Speaker 2: from anyone in particular that you would want to see
34:40
Speaker 2: at say the hour mark, if this is the lineup
34:43
Speaker 2: that the US trots out on Tuesday.
34:46
Speaker 1: Well, first I have to say that I had one
34:48
Speaker 1: doubt on the roster I put together, and that was
34:50
Speaker 1: whether I would start Testament or Cardozo, right, because I
34:53
Speaker 1: think Cardozo likely deserves another start at this point. And
34:57
Speaker 1: if you were to put him to McKinny and make
34:58
Speaker 1: them that true defensive mid I think that can work.
35:02
Speaker 1: So I would say that that that's one place. But
35:05
Speaker 1: then up top, really you have a lot of different options, right,
35:08
Speaker 1: because you could potentially go you could take Aaronson out
35:11
Speaker 1: and go to two forwards and just have Christian polistic
35:13
Speaker 1: play uh sort of a ten behind those two forwards.
35:17
Speaker 1: I can see that happening. If that's gonna be, let's say,
35:20
Speaker 1: uh Ajimon or you know, or or Peppy, if one
35:24
Speaker 1: of those two guys comes into add to Balagun being
35:26
Speaker 1: up top, I didn't really see Raina as being he
35:30
Speaker 1: didn't look fit to me. He'd looked like he was
35:33
Speaker 1: sort of roaming on the outside, not really connecting. He
35:37
Speaker 1: didn't look ready, he looks he looks like he hasn't
35:40
Speaker 1: been playing.
35:42
Speaker 4: And then other than that, I I you know, I
35:45
Speaker 4: would say that you know, the only other thing you
35:47
Speaker 4: could do is potentially adding Arstin to the left side
35:51
Speaker 4: instead of Robinson if he's not doing well, because obviously
35:54
Speaker 4: this will be two games in a row and he
35:56
Speaker 4: hasn't been playing as much.
35:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, or excuse me.
36:00
Speaker 2: Robinson played sixty minutes in his final game for Fulham
36:03
Speaker 2: before this camp. He played sixty minutes against Belgium. We
36:09
Speaker 2: will see how much he's got in the tank. And
36:11
Speaker 2: this one, Johnny Cardozo should be noted, came off at
36:14
Speaker 2: halftime for Christian Roaldon. Pochettino said that Johnny had picked
36:19
Speaker 2: up a little bit of a knock or maybe just
36:21
Speaker 2: some tightness, so he wanted to be careful with him.
36:25
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll get to see Iden Morris, he's also in
36:27
Speaker 2: this camp. Didn't get in the game this past weekend.
36:30
Speaker 2: Might be a good thing for his chances to have
36:32
Speaker 2: not been on the field for that one.
36:34
Speaker 1: And Matt before we go. I'll add this to that,
36:37
Speaker 1: the fact that we're gonna have twenty six players at
36:40
Speaker 1: the World Cup. But I think, you know, yeah, we
36:42
Speaker 1: can give other players opportunities, but the fact is we're
36:45
Speaker 1: gonna play the World Cup with about seventeen or eighteen players,
36:48
Speaker 1: and so I think it's time to narrow that down
36:50
Speaker 1: and to now just start putting in the guys that
36:53
Speaker 1: are actually are going to get the playing time.
36:55
Speaker 2: Got two three friendlies left to go, starting on Tuesday
37:00
Speaker 2: against Portugal.
37:01
Speaker 3: We'll see time for one more break.
37:03
Speaker 2: Next up we will talk roster and who needs to
37:06
Speaker 2: play well Tuesday to save their spot for that World
37:09
Speaker 2: Cup squad.
37:10
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to Inside American Soccer.
37:12
Speaker 2: Please rate review as subscribe. Welcome back to Inside American Soccer.
37:26
Speaker 2: All right, Tom, I mean, let's talk roster. In your eyes,
37:31
Speaker 2: did anyone play their way off the World Cup roster
37:35
Speaker 2: with their performance against Belgium.
37:39
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be as cruel as to say that anyone
37:42
Speaker 1: necessarily played themselves off of the roster by what they
37:46
Speaker 1: did yesterday, But I think guys that had an opportunity
37:49
Speaker 1: to help themselves didn't really help themselves, right, And so
37:51
Speaker 1: I look at guys like, maybe, you know, maybe Rain
37:55
Speaker 1: you know, because he did come in with about twenty
37:57
Speaker 1: twenty five minutes and we didn't really see him do anything.
38:00
Speaker 1: And by the way, it was a difficult situation that
38:03
Speaker 1: he comes in. But this is maybe your chance to
38:06
Speaker 1: make the team, so you probably need more than what happened. Yeah,
38:11
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say that there was a player who eliminated
38:14
Speaker 1: themselves from the World Cup roster, but I just think
38:17
Speaker 1: that just guys who got an opportunity late didn't help
38:21
Speaker 1: themselves at all.
38:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, Geo in particular, and I'm a big Geo fan
38:26
Speaker 2: and I would take him basically no matter what because
38:29
Speaker 2: he has that special playmaking talent. But he looked indecisive
38:33
Speaker 2: when he came off the bench, which is not what
38:37
Speaker 2: you want to see from a guy who's supposed to
38:39
Speaker 2: be your late game match winner. The Sebastian Burhalter really
38:44
Speaker 2: struggled obviously, had a colossal error that led to one
38:48
Speaker 2: of the Belgium goals. Max Arston, after being really good
38:51
Speaker 2: for the past year, was really bad.
38:54
Speaker 3: In this one.
38:55
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody played their way off the roster
38:59
Speaker 2: from one game or one half. But we all know
39:03
Speaker 2: Diego lun is coming back and where he is in
39:05
Speaker 2: Pochettino's eyes. We all know Tyler Adams is coming back
39:08
Speaker 2: and where he is in Pachectino's eyes. And we know
39:11
Speaker 2: that Virginia Desk is coming back and where he stands
39:15
Speaker 2: in Pachettino's eyes. Those are three guys I think that
39:18
Speaker 2: are going to be in the twenty six man roster.
39:20
Speaker 2: So that means three guys who we saw on the
39:23
Speaker 2: field or at least in the squad, you know, probably
39:30
Speaker 2: not going to be there this summer. So we'll just
39:33
Speaker 2: reiterate once again, this is a chance to prove it,
39:38
Speaker 2: and coming off that loss against Belgium, I think there's
39:42
Speaker 2: got to be a little bit more urgency in the
39:44
Speaker 2: group and tap that'll bring us back to how we
39:48
Speaker 2: started this show, mentioning that five to one loss you
39:51
Speaker 2: guys took at the World Cup in nineteen ninety against
39:55
Speaker 2: Czechoslovakia and the immediate bounce back that we saw from
40:01
Speaker 2: you guys with your performances in the next two games,
40:04
Speaker 2: particularly the Italy game, which was again for those who
40:07
Speaker 2: don't know or don't remember nineteen ninety, Italy was the host,
40:12
Speaker 2: one of the favorites. The US one nil loss could
40:16
Speaker 2: have been one one if not for walters Anga's rear
40:19
Speaker 2: end really a borderline I think legendary performance from you guys,
40:25
Speaker 2: the guts that you showed in that moment. What was
40:30
Speaker 2: the discussion like in the group after that five to
40:35
Speaker 2: one loss, and how did you spin that together into
40:39
Speaker 2: that performance against Italy?
40:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we could put a show together on
40:43
Speaker 1: what happened in between the Czechoslovakia game and the Italy game,
40:47
Speaker 1: But there were fights in practice. I mean, the tension
40:51
Speaker 1: in the group was incredible. I mean we you know,
40:54
Speaker 1: I always say I was fortunate to be part of
40:56
Speaker 1: that early generation that started in nineteen ninety because we
41:00
Speaker 1: were just guys that kind of refused to lose. We
41:03
Speaker 1: refused to accept that we were not as good as
41:05
Speaker 1: the other teams, and by the way, we weren't even
41:07
Speaker 1: close as good to the other team, but we just
41:10
Speaker 1: refused to accept that. And I think that's what it was.
41:12
Speaker 1: It was really just a strong mentality, and I think
41:15
Speaker 1: that's why that started to show the very next day
41:18
Speaker 1: in practice, with guys fighting in practice. And then by
41:21
Speaker 1: the time we got to the game, we were on
41:24
Speaker 1: the bus on our way into the Olympic Stadium in
41:28
Speaker 1: Rome and people on the sides were showing us the
41:31
Speaker 1: two hands for the ten goals that Italy was going
41:33
Speaker 1: to score on us that day, and the newspapers were
41:35
Speaker 1: saying that records were going to be broken. There was
41:38
Speaker 1: a Hungary nine to one win against El Salvador as
41:41
Speaker 1: the record and the newspapers were saying that Italy was
41:44
Speaker 1: going to break that record that day, and so we
41:46
Speaker 1: had a lot to prove that day and we did.
41:50
Speaker 2: You're talking about the mentality and the fights, and how
41:55
Speaker 2: much of that is from guys being like, I might
41:58
Speaker 2: have lost my job, I have to fight, I have
42:01
Speaker 2: to really get stuck it in practice because I want
42:04
Speaker 2: to hold onto my starting spot or I want to
42:06
Speaker 2: win a starting spot. Is that the or is it
42:09
Speaker 2: just embarrassment because of what happened and you need some
42:15
Speaker 2: sort of escape hatch for that, some way to let
42:19
Speaker 2: that out and to take it out, and you actually
42:21
Speaker 2: end up taking it out on your teammates.
42:23
Speaker 3: But it ends up being a good thing in the end.
42:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, because don't forget you're playing for your
42:28
Speaker 1: I don't want to say you're playing for your life,
42:29
Speaker 1: but you're playing for your job. And at the at
42:32
Speaker 1: the same time, you don't you don't want to be
42:34
Speaker 1: This is a team sport, so it doesn't only depend
42:36
Speaker 1: on you. It depends on everybody else. But it's important
42:39
Speaker 1: for you to go to practice and for the other
42:41
Speaker 1: guys to understand that I'm not accepting this. This is
42:44
Speaker 1: not good for me and my career. I want to
42:47
Speaker 1: have a career at this and if you're not on board,
42:49
Speaker 1: you're gonna pay for it this week because we're we
42:52
Speaker 1: all we I want to be on the field against
42:54
Speaker 1: Italy the next game with guys who want to win
42:57
Speaker 1: the game. And that's and that's what happened.
43:00
Speaker 2: Does it have to be Christian Polistic and Weston McKenny
43:03
Speaker 2: the leaders of this team who set the tone like
43:05
Speaker 2: that in practice for the US?
43:07
Speaker 1: You know. The other thing is it's different much different times, right,
43:11
Speaker 1: and so players are different Now there's you know, a
43:13
Speaker 1: different way to approach players, different conversations to be had.
43:17
Speaker 1: But I think players will realize that, regardless of where
43:21
Speaker 1: they are in the great clubs that they're at this
43:24
Speaker 1: summer is an amazing opportunity that they all can be
43:27
Speaker 1: losing if they don't, if they don't get together on this.
43:30
Speaker 1: So I think after taking this loss, I think, if anything,
43:33
Speaker 1: would be a good time for a team meeting for
43:35
Speaker 1: guys to kind of hold each other accountable and say, hey, guys,
43:38
Speaker 1: that's it one more game and they name the team
43:41
Speaker 1: it's all or nothing right now, and I think it
43:43
Speaker 1: would be a good time for something like that.
43:46
Speaker 2: Well, that seems like a good time, good place for
43:49
Speaker 2: us to leave it on this episode. Thank you all
43:53
Speaker 2: for listening to Inside American Soccer. Please rate, review, and subscribe.
43:59
Speaker 2: Will be back midweek for our reaction to the Portugal match,
44:04
Speaker 2: hopefully a less somber show.
44:06
Speaker 3: We'll have more happy things to talk about.
44:09
Speaker 2: In that one, and so please rate, review, and subscribe
44:13
Speaker 2: wherever you get your podcasts.
44:16
Speaker 3: We'll see you in a couple of days.