Latest / Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos / Tony Meola on U.S. Goalkeepers, Pressure of the World Cup and Kearny Memories

Transcript

Tony Meola on U.S. Goalkeepers, Pressure of the World Cup and Kearny Memories · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I said, the guy that you want kind of run
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: in the midfield for you. You could play the ball
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: at his neck and he's gonna take it down. You
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: can put on his ear he's gonna take it down,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: was Tab. I'm not saying that because he's here. He
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: knows that I've told him. I've told people for years.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: What's going Everybody, Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. I'm
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: your host, Tom Boger, joined as always by my friend
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: and one of the greatest players in US soccer history.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Veteran of three World Cups, Tab Roundless, and today we're
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: lucky to have another US soccer legend, also a veteran
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: of three World Cups, NCAA champion, MLS Champion, MLS MVP,
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: a Hall of Famer, most of all New Jersey Royalty.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Tony Miola is in the program here, Tony, Uncle t.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: What's going on?
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: What's happening? Boys? Good to good to jump on with you, guys.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: I'm just happier here. I mean I need to.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: This is like in the NFL, there's a football Sean
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: McVay was known for having what they called it get
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: back coach. That's my role here on this entire show
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: is just to be the get back coach. Just get
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: out of your way. Let you guys cook.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: But you run up up and down the sidelines, but
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: you know, don't make contact with the referee.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Look, I saw you play indoor, man, I don't know
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: why you're not trusting yourself on the field.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: Man.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Literally saw him playing like a couple of nights in him,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: like we we at all star games and stuff. They
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: get together and they play. My man is ready to go.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: It does if you need shingtguards, they're in the bag.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: If it doesn't matter what the field is. He's got
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: all He's got all kinds of all kinds of boots
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: to go, and he's got a spin move like you
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: can't get the ball off of him when he does
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: his spin.
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: I didn't realize that. I didn't realize about the spin.
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: I saw him play a little bit at indoor down
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: here and uh at at Capelli, but I didn't realize
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: he had the spine.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: I call him Tommy spins skin.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: These sins are calcified.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: No, no, So I put together those games because because
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I like love the community and try to put together
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: the media.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: And Tony was like, you know, I'm gonna come. I'm
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: gonna come now.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I don't want to play though I don't want to play,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: you know, my back or my hit hamstringing my knee
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: was you know, every time you ask him, it was
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: a different thing. And while we're playing, you look over
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: to the right and Tony's just standing your goal and
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: just hitting side punts just.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: A and I'm like to you, sure you don't want
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: to play? He goes, nah, man, my hip in my bag.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I can't And then he turned around and just being
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: like ready, full stance, ready to go.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: So that that hurt a little bit Tony.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: There's no running in the side volley game, no risk
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: of getting kicked.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: Listen.
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: One thing Tony doesn't have a problem with is hitting
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: a ball hard. I remember I was training at Giants
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: Stadium and Tony punting balls into the upper deck after
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: practice just for fun. That's a long way up there,
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: doesn't say time.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Then you you had to do fitness going all the
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: way up the stadium to retrieve the balls for Tony.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: That's what friends did.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: On this show, We're gonna hear to talk about Tony,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: about the US men's national team, about goalkeeping, about everything.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: Should we be worried at the World Cup about the
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: goalkeeper spot. Let's hear from Tony.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: You've heard from Tabinhake enough on this what we think
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: the starting eleven for the but the World Cup game
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: is right now, we're gonna have Tony give his thoughts
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: as well, tell us where we're right, where we're wrong,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: and of course we're.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Gonna go inside the locker room.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: And now we have another person, another another person to
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: be talking about these stories and just fact checking and
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: maybe maybe we'll get some some some new insights in
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: those old days with Tony and Tab. But before we
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: get into anything, we'll talk about our shared geographical connection,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: more so for you guys, being from the same town. Carnia,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: New Jersey, the birthplace of soccer. To me, I love
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Saint Louis, all the history everywhere else, but Carnia, New Jersey. Man,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: that is royalty. So guys, what was it like when
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: you were kids growing up in that area, knowing all
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: the law and just all the quality and the melting
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: pot of different communities that came together to produce so
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: many great players.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess I'll start you know when I when
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I grew up or when we grew up, we kind
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: of we didn't know anything. I just assume we came
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: from a town that was predominantly Scottish in English, right,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: some Irish in there, and two Italian families and eventually
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Erguine family with the last name of Ramos.
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 1: That's that's kind of was the demographic of the town.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: But in our town, we everybody played the game. I
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: mean we If you would have asked me then I
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: would have said, yeah, everybody's doing this around the country, right,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: this is what it looks like everyone. We quickly come
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: to realize that that wasn't what it was like. So
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I suppose that my parents moving there when I was
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: four years old was just kind of pot luck that
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I moved into a place that had a soccer community
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: that had a heritage and a game that loved the game,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: that supported the game was predominatly Celtic and Ranger fans
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: when we grew up because of the how many Scottish
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: people were in town. So I tom I really didn't
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: know anything. I got into other sports because some of
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: my friends were playing and all of that, and I
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: enjoyed it. But as far as soccer was concerned, that
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: that was a way of life that that again I
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: thought we were seeing everywhere in the country.
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and for me to echo some of that, you know,
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: I was very lucky because obviously I moved from Uruguay
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: when I was eleven, and I was lucky enough to
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: move into an area where soccer was important. And again
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: I didn't I remember telling my dad when we moved
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: into the country. I remember telling him, you know, why,
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: out of all the countries in the world, did we
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: have to move to the one that doesn't have soccer?
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: But yet I landed in an area that did have it,
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: So I really I was really lucky. I think we
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: were all lucky to grow up in an area in
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: at a time where, don't forget, we had the Cosmos
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: right down the street too, so we had a professional team.
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: Our town was, you know, had had a long history
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: of one hundred years of soccer already, And it was
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: very lucky that we grew up in an area where
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: we thought we were doing things that other kids around
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: the country were doing, only to find out that they
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: absolutely were not.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: So like, a lot of it was more based on
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: like I used the term street soccer as just a
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: very vague and basic term less so again, and at
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: that time, not just here but everywhere, the ideas of
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: academies and clubs and everything else.
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  Speaker 3: It was. It was less time restrictive in a way,
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  Speaker 3: and a.
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  Speaker 2: Lot more of you guys just going down to a
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: local court and winter stays on. And at that time again,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: like those were I've heard all the stories. I've seen
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: a documentary, So just tell us, tell us a little
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: bit about what it was like in those days to
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: just be like, all right, like I'm out of school,
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  Speaker 2: I'm gonna go play at the court for seven hours,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: and I hope, I hope that I'm on the whole time.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there was no ask in your parents' permission because
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: they were probably working till five o'clock at night. My parents,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: both my parents worked my entire life. They they knew
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: where you're gonna where you were gonna be, right, They
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: knew we were gonna be down the courts or down
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  Speaker 1: the Gunalovo playing soccer. You either hit a training or
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: you were playing. I remember going every single morning to
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: school and we had a Our school was on a
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  Speaker 1: public street and we just prayed that the cars parked
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: across the street from each other, because what we would
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: do was we'd take a tennis ball and we played
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: two v two and underneath the car, in between the
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: wheels was the goal, you know, and we were just
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: hoping that, like the goals lined up when the car
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: sparked crushing. But that's all we did, Tom. We just
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: played every single day. There was nothing. There was nothing
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  Speaker 1: organized going. I know you've you've heard about the courts
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and tab you know, we'll tell you about it as well.
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  Speaker 1: There was nothing organized. You just knew that if the
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: organization was, there were a couple guys in town that
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: wanted certain guys to be on no seriously, that wanted
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: certain guys to be on their team. And they'd call
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: you and go call you on your rotary phone and go, hey, man, wear.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: Black shirt today. Like so we're like, we called like that.
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  Speaker 4: But that's as organized as it was. You know.
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  Speaker 1: There was just and it was winter, stay on. It
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: didn't matter if you were ten years old or fifty
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  Speaker 1: years old, and they didn't care. They kicked the crap
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  Speaker 1: out of you if they had to, and they but
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: we but again it's one of those things like it
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter where you grow up or how you grew up.
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  Speaker 1: You you just that's what it was there. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we didn't know any different. I didn't know what was
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: happening in the next town over because we didn't really travel.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: We traveled on the weekends once. We didn't have three
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: games a weekend for the most part, maybe one tournament
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: a year. But yeah, I mean we again, I still
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: think we were, at least in my case, I was
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: just lucky to be in Carney because we moved from
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: about three towns over and my parents just picked Carney.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think, you know, you think about it
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: when you're a kid, and Tony just mentioned about it
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: didn't matter what age you were, right, you.
• 8:29
  Speaker 6: Could be ten, twelve, fourteen.
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: But there was the most important motivator in the courts
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: was that winner stayed on. And so if you were
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: young or you were younger, if you weren't getting picked
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: for a team, it wasn't because you were younger, because
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: everyone wanted to have the players on their team so
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: that they could win the game and stay on because
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: sometimes they'd be two or three teams waiting to play.
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: So if you lost the game, now you had to wait,
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: you know, a half hour forty minutes to play the
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: next game.
• 8:57
  Speaker 6: And so you wanted to stay on.
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: If you were young and you did well at the court,
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: everybody would want to pick you and you'd played all day.
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: But for the guys that didn't do well, it was
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: it was rough because they played ten minutes and they'd
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: be out.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: I gotta I gotta ask a one quick follow up
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: and feel free to no comment if if you don't
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: want to sell any either of your names. But I
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: gotta imagine that there was some fisticuffs along the way,
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: and more than once. Is there any quick story that
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: comes to mind for either one of you guys for
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: having to stay on your ground.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: Or or should we just move on?
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I yeah, I'm sure there were fights along the way,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: but like it was, we lived in a day where
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I mean it was part of it. Like what what
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: kid didn't fight in the streets, right, Like if you
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: were playing basketball somewhere, you were fighting. You were arguing,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and you were you were cursing each other out and
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: it was all part of winning. Like that's that's what.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: That was the best thing about it. And I don't
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: remember anything in particular, but I guarantee you I mother
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: f somebody along the way, like because I.
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: Just wanted to win. That was just me as a kid,
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, all about winning, and you know, little guys like
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: me would get jacked up throughout the game, you know,
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: so that was not fun because you know, landing on
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: the concrete is not as easy as landing on grass,
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: so that was not fun. But you know, always part
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: of the game. I think for the for the most part,
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: the games were hard, but they had good competitive spirit
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: and I think a great environment to grow really, you know,
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: for us, you know, I'm a couple of years older
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: than Tony. You always not only did we go to
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: the courts and and and hear about the older guys
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: who were there who maybe came back from college, and
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: you knew their names because they were great they were
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: playing at you know, we're in Philadelphia Textile back then
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: or or UNLV like we had guys from Carnie there.
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: But we also heard of the young guys like Tony
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: and Sally and the guys that were coming along after us.
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: So you always kept sort of you know, ears open
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: about who was coming next, because you'd want to have
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: the good guys always on your team.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: I would agree with that.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: And speaking of the places, the place that means so
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: much to both of you guys, and so much to
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: the US soccer and the men's national team in particular. Carney,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: and I want you guys to tell me about the
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: legacy project that you're working on to help grow the
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: game again in a place that is so special to you,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: to me, to all the soccer community in this country.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is special to us, There's no doubt about that.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: We Tabbed myself and initially John Harks. We we got
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: into sort of about about two and a half years ago.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: We started exploring like what can we do with the town,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Like how can we how can we kind of bring
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: you mentioned the documentary, how can we bring the documentary
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: full loop, right in full circle and put a bow
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: on this thing because it felt like we just it
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: just kind of ended. And and of course it picks
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: up every now and then because someone wants to do
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: a story on it. But it didn't have nearly as
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: much momentum, so I don't know, tab right. For about
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a year, maybe a little bit less. We threw around
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: all kinds of ideas, Tom Can't and scholarship programs and
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, you name it, whether it was good or bad,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Like you throw enough fish against the wall and you're
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: hoping that something sticks, you know. And then we kind
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: of got away from it for we said, let's get
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: away for a month and like come back with something
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: that might stick. And I guess Tab it started.
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: You and I.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I had an idea and you and I were sitting
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: in our friend Charlie still Atano, another great New Jersey
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: soccer name. We were sitting in his backyard having he
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: had a get together and I mentioned the TAB. I'm like, Tab,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: you know, I was thinking, like the one thing this
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: town's never had with all the soccer history was professional soccer.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I'm like, let's try and bring a team to Carneye.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: And we and when I when I said it, I'm like,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I see Tab looking at me over here. It thinks
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: I'm crazy, man like, and then it kind of right, Tab.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: It kind of stuck a little bit from there, and
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: we went back and thought about it, and we've kind
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: of progressed it a little bit.
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we started, uh, we started talking, We started to
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: visit the city a little bit, We started looking at
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: some options, and then came the time to meet with
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: the mayor. You know, the mayor had been a fan
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: for a while. Obviously, we wanted to make sure. You know,
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: I have to say we have to give Tom mcgabe
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: a little bit of credit because I think he's the
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: one that put together the documentary, and by doing that,
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: I think it broke back a lot of memories. But
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: not only that, I think re emphasized for us how
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: important Carne has been to soccer in general, because it's
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: not just the fact that we had we've had multiple
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: World Cup players over the years.
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: It was also the fact that, you know.
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: Carnee had been involved from the beginning, that the first
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: the first games in the country were played in our area,
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: that Carne had had games going all the way back
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: to eighteen eighty three, and that soccer continued to be
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: so important in the town for one hundred years that
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: even when groups like Sam's Army got started. I think
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: that was all around the time where World Cup ninety
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: four came along and all the Carnee guys went over. Antonio,
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: you could probably talk much better about this. All the
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: Carne guys, you know, went over to California and kind
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: of took over, and they were I think to me
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: they were the real, the first real fans that started
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: following the almost like hooligans that started to follow the team,
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: and so I think Carney has had a big impact
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: in the sport, not just on the field but off
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: the field. And for us to be able to to
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: bring back a professional team or to bring in a
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: professional team to Carney after one hundred years, you know,
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: a town that has never had it, where soccer is
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: still the most important sport today. I think it's a
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: little bit of a legacy project. It's something that we
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: can leave behind for all the all the generations to come.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's got a little bit of a dare I
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: say a Wrexham feel to it, right, not the same
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: professional history, but sort of the community in the town.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: So what we're trying to ideally, we know if we
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: build this thing Tom that will get people from around
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: the state. We'll get people who are traveling in that
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: we'll want to see it. But ideally our dream is
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: that on a on a you know, Friday or Saturday night,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: there's five or six thousand Carnie people in the stands, right,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: like five or six thousand that are going to games
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: like that would be ideal scenario. Yeah, So so we're
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: in the We're in the land purchased Slash investor phase.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Right now, we've done a lot of work for two
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: and a half years. We're far along the line. We've
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: been we've been in in town hall meetings and the
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: reception has been great so far. So we want to
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: get this thing over the line in the next couple
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: of years, and it's going to take a lot of work.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: It's gonna take a lot of investment. The good thing
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: is that it's not just a soccer project, because we
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: know sometimes in in the soccer world it's a difficult
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: place to make money, let's say, So there's a there's
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: a real estate component that's attached to it. And it's
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: just been for me, I'm about tab it's been a
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: learning project. We got a we got a great team
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: of guys, uh from the business world, from the banking world,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: from the investment world, and man, I'm learning a lot
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: and loving every minute of it.
• 16:16
  Speaker 6: Yeah, no doubt, it's been.
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: It's been great having the guys we have on. You know,
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: we brought in some personal friends who have been really key,
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: who know all the things that I think Tony and
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: I couldn't possibly know about that know all of those
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: things that when you when you look back and you
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: see at the advice that these guys give us. It's
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: really invaluable. So we've tried to bring in as much
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: value as we can knowing what we know. And by
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: the way, I think you know and this is the
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: great thing about you know, soccer, and it's not just playing.
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: And you know sometimes and you have you have a
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: long career, you develop a lot of friendships and and
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: more than anything, I think you developed some trust. But
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: it's been now that you know, Tony and I are
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: on the phone every day and having someone who's been
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: there with you in tough moments, you know, makes it
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: so much easier to do a project like this.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: With and listen for anybody to bring this to life
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: being you guys. And you said John Hart's was involved
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: as well, like how it has to be, and it's
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: always cool to see these things continue through the generations
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: and like you said, legacy project and growing the game.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: This isn't about finances or big time glory or anything.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: It's it's things that you guys care about. And that's
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: always I think the best starting place on a lot
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: of these things. But to go to a starting place
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: towards the World Cup, let's catch up really quickly on
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: a couple of the notable performances for our current US
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: men's national team and guys who impressed over the weekend
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: or the last week or so. So let's start with
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Brendan Aronson. He's been in a great run of for
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: him for Leeds. He scored again this weekend in a
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: drug Manchester United Tony. I'll start with you at this point,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: is Brendan Aerons at a lock to make the World
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Cup roster?
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: I know that's the question. With all of these things time,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: as you know, you and I've worked together, I try
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: not to have sort of recency bias, right, like I
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: try not to go week to week with all of
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: these things. I've seen Brendan Aronson for me as an
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: impact substitute with the national team, a guy that comes on.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Could he potentially start a game in the World Cup?
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: There, I could see a scenario where he starts a
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: third game in the World Cup, right if you're in
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: a position to do that, and hopefully we are, but
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: it won't be easy. But he for me, so we've
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: done everyone's done their predictions, right, I'm sure you've done
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: your full roster and for me, over the last let's
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: call it six months or so, he was in that
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: they're gonna have twenty six guys. He was in that
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: twenty two to twenty six, twenty seven, like just on
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: the fringe. Right now for me, he's kind of moved
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: into like twenty to twenty four, eighteen to twenty two,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: like in that range for me because of his play
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: with attacking players. I mean, what are we looking for.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: We're looking for guys who make an impact in the
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: attack part of the field, and for a while he
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't making an impact. Having said that, he played I
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: think last year at his club he played forty one games,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: which is a lot, and the number ten position for
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: a team, was scored the most goals in the championship,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: but didn't have a ton of goals or assists. But
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: they trusted him right, and now he's starting to pay
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: back the trust that Daniel Fark has had in him.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: So I like, I'm happy for him because he's a
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: good kid. He's got World Cup experience. And if you're
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: asking me today is he a lock for the World
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Cup today, the answer would be yes.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: That's what I said as well. And you talk about
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: recncly bias, I completely agree. I think at TAB we
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: talked about this in very recent episodes as well. I
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: just think what he brings you from the baseline, the floor,
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: the energy, the things that you know you can rely on. Again,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: whether it's a ten. He might not be the guy
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: that could get to a ten out of ten, like
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: a pure number ten match winner guy, but I know
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: if you put him on the field, you know the
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: baseline of what you're get. So I think that that
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: makes for a reliable squad player, right top.
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it depends, and I agree with Tony
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: that you know, at this stage, how can you not
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: have him on the roster with the type.
• 20:09
  Speaker 6: Of season that he's having.
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: And you know, Tony said something really important, and that's trust,
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: and when you have a manager in.
• 20:17
  Speaker 6: The EPL, trust you week to week.
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: I mean, if that doesn't say everything you need to hear,
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: you know, especially for us and for our country and
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: the fact that it's not like we have twenty players
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: playing in the EPL. You know, we have a few,
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: and and he's doing well. So I would agree with that.
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: And I think Aaronson becomes you know, not a starter,
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: but but someone that will depend on the dynamics of
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: a particular game. I don't think he's a half field player.
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: So if you're dominating the game, you certainly have other
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: guys that can break the game down a little bit
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: better than he can. But you know what, if you're
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: taking a little bit of pressure and you need a
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: couple of attacking players who could potentially need to make
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: those thirty forty fifty yard runs to get into the
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: opposing box and make something happen, he's a guy that
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: you could probably count on and there's not many of those.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: And isn't tab isn't the goal that he scored on
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: the weekend. That's what you bring him in for, right,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: not necessarily goal, but the anticipation, Right, he's going to
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: be the first to run in behind somebody and uses energy.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And he stole another ball in the end line where
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: he turned the corner and almost almost connected the pass
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: like it was just opportunistic the ball separated from the defender.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: He goes like, that's what you bring him in for.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I'm with you, Like, if if you're controlling the game
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: and you need someone to break up a pass down,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I think Giorana is probably the guy that plays in
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: that spot, right, Like he's the guy that could pick
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: out a pass for you or Brendan Aronson is his
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: energy energy energy, and that's what and then there's got
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: to be some result at the end, because if you
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: just have energy and then you don't have any goals
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: or an assist after twelve games, it's like you're just
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: you got energy. Now we maybe we bring someone with
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: less energy but has four goals into assist, you know
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: what I mean. So, but now it's starting to pay
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: off for him. I'm happy for him, man, because I
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: was six months ago if you had asked me the
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: same question, the answer would have been for me, no,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: he's not a lot on the national team.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: And it's funny too, like his brother Paxson, who's now
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: with the ColorADD of Rapids, but he was a finalist
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: for Young Player of the Year in the yard of
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Vizier and so people are asking a question of like, oh,
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: like what about Paxton? And again I think that they
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: were both very different players. They're complimentary to one another.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: It's not one or the other. I think that both
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: has a long term future with this program. But like
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: you said, if you go back six months ago, not
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: only would this maybe have been a different answer, we
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: might have been talking about a different Aaronson sinking in
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: the midfield. Though Wes McKinney scored for Juventus in their
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: drug agains. Let's say he's.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: Played all over. We've had that conversation over.
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: And over again.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: My friend Doug mackintire for Fox Sports. Who I'm gonna
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: say on the front end. I respect the hell out
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: of Doug. He's very, very smart. He's an excellent jernos,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: excellent writer. So I'm setting up to say Doug said
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: that Wesse McKinney is the best midfield in US MNT history.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: I love Doug. That is a ludicrous thing to say
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: for me. But Tony, what say you? Is is that
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: a fair argument to even have because I don't even
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: think it's a conversation at the moment.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I did this on our CBS show a little bit earlier.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: We went through this again and I love Doug too,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: and I said I was joking. I'm like, Doug must
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: have been bored that night. Man, He's looking for some clicks,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: you know, or something. But I'd love him to death.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: But I get where he's coming from. If you want
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: to just look at numbers and say, okay, sixty two
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: games with a national team, eleven goals, two hundred appearances
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: with events, have everything in front of me. But we
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: started to rank, like some of the midfielders right and
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: not rank them, but put names out there that could
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: maybe make an argument. And you can go anywhere from
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Claudio to Michael Bradley to I'll get the tab in
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the minute, but Ermaine Jones, John O'Brien, Tyler, I still think,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: is you know it's still on that same John Harks,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Tomas Dooley, who's one of the more underrated central midfielders
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: we've ever had. We did our so we had a
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: bunch of categories, the Goat, the Mount Rushmore, and then
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I think everyone the lad There were five categories, and
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I forget what the third one was. Everyone else kind
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: of landed on the on the third carry was me, Me,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Charlie Davies and Jimmy Conrad, and we we picked just
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: if you're gonna take I said, look, if you're gonna
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: ask me who a guy that is smooth on the ball,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: a guy that looks makes it look effortless, I probably
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: would if if that was the criteria. And that's why
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I wish Doug would have defined the criteria a little
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: bit more out of out of pick Claudia Arena.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: If you asked me a guy to go box to
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: box and break plays up and be on the When
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I say box the box, that literally because I don't
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: think there's a lot of box to box midfielders in
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: the world anymore. But go six yard box a six
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: yard box and do all the dirty work and cover ground.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: It would have been Thomas Dooley, a guy, if you
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: asked me, was one of the best guys of breaking
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: up plays in world football and tab coach them. Romaine Jones,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: like there's different categories of all of these guys. Michael Bradley,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: like a cerebral player, he would have been one. He
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: would have been that guy in covering ground, John Harks.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: If you asked me, like someone who had like the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: total package and the biggest heart in the world. He
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: would have been that guy. Right, could do everything, could pass,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: could tackle, could run, could shoot from distance. And I said,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the other guy who ended up for all three of
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: us being the goat. I said, the guy that you
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: want kind of run in the midfield for you. You could
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: play the ball at his neck, and he's gonna take
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: it down. You can put on his ear. He's gonna
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: take it down, was Tab. I'm not saying that because
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: he's here.
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: He knows that.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I've told him. I've told people for years.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: That's so.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: I wish Doug would have qualified, like he's having the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: best midfield career, you know, with a with a club team,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: and it's the other My last point on this is
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: is people don't. People sometimes forget I think they realized
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: they sometimes forget that Back in the day when we
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: were kind of coming up and Tab was one of
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: the guys that went to your to make a European roster,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: you had to be one of three guys right in
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Setia Like I look at SETI on now I look
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: at like my club Milan or Inter, there's hardly an
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Italian on the field. Right back then you had eight
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Italians and three far that was it. You couldn't even
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: have him on your roster, like that couldn't even be
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: if there was a there became a period where you
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: could have extra foreigners on your roster, but only three
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: on the field. And when you think about it in
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: those terms and think about some of the guys that
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: played in the past, that would have had more opportunities
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: to do this. I think they get sold a little
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: bit short now because of what the game is like today?
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: But is western? Can Can Weston have his moment to
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: get on the mount rushmore?
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: And I joked again today, I hope that moment comes in,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: like somewhere at the end of June this year, like
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: beginning of July. Like I hope he has his signature
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: moment like that we remember forever great player. But I
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: don't know that I would put him as the best one.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Tap would you agree to tab rollis the best player
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: in all time?
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: There?
• 27:01
  Speaker 6: You know, it's hard for me to argue that.
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: No, No, I you know, I don't want to go
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: too long in this answer because I would repeat a
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: lot of what Tony said. I also created different categories
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: and I'd go back to even guys like Rick Davis,
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: you know in the late eighties, who were you know,
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: Mike Fox, Like We've had some great midfielders that aren't
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: even mentioned who would potentially, you know now be incredible players. Right,
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: So I don't think I, you know, I would focus
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: because Tony has said pretty much everything that I would say.
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: You know, you if you're defining a midfielder someone who
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: can get into the box. Well, you know, Landon Donovan
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: came off as a midfielder, you know, coming from behind
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: at times. Clint Mathis could do it. And I think
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: in terms of quality, there's a lot more quality there.
• 27:46
  Speaker 6: But now let's not forget right.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: What.
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: Why we're having this conversation in the first place. We're
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: having the conversation because Wesson McKinney is a great player, right,
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: and he has a lot of qualities where where he
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: is as good or better.
• 28:02
  Speaker 6: Than anyone who's ever played the game before.
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: Right now, when you start trying to decide who the
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: best is, I think it's going to be defined a
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: lot by I think it's generational, right, It's who you've
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: seen and then you put it all together and you say, oh,
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: I like that guy. But I think I think Tony's
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: absolutely right in dividing this into different types of positions.
• 28:22
  Speaker 6: You have your holding box.
• 28:23
  Speaker 5: To box, you have your distributor type like the Claudia Ranas,
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: and then you have your just flat out attackers who
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: are creating plays.
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: And obviously McKinney is not that.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Right and for me, like just to real I try
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: to be pretty sacred when things are the discussion of
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: like best ever things like that. I guess the club career,
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: it is a different time than it was previously, like
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: you said, but still playing at events that's huge, But
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: I can't really get into the best category while he's
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: in his mid twenties. Again, he's got a whole lot
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: of career in front of him and hopefully a whole
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: lot of big moments, And maybe in ten years we'll
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: be talking about this again with less hypotheticals and more
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: up talking points to argue with and point to and say,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: this is what he did at the at the twenty
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: six World Cup, this is what he did at the
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: twenty thirty World Cup. But for me, it's just sacred
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: ground when you're talking about the tab Ramos and John
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Hark's and Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones, Like, with all
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: due respect to West, McKinney was a wonderful, wonderful player.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: I think we revisit this conversation in eight or ten
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: years to properly do it, and we'll probably be arguing
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: about the next you know, twenty three, twenty four year
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: old that's coming through the US national team, hopefully we've
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: won long hopefully we will hopefully hopefully really quickly.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: We have to take a break.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back with We'll talk to some little
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: goalkeepers with Tony our current starting eleven's we'll go.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: We'll go into the inside of the locker room for
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: a story. We got a lot of show left here.
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: Please rate, review and subscribed.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Inside American Soccer Tom Booner, tab Ramos Revue spot. All right,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: welcome back to Inside American Soccer. Since we Tonomola here,
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: just a legendary goalkeeper, we got to ask him about
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: the goalies. We talk about everything else. He knows everything
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: else too, But it feel weird to not talk to
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: Tonamo about the state of goalkeeping for the United States.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: So Tony, Matt Freeze has been the preferred starter in
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: the Mariso Pochattino. I took the job from Matt Turner.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: There's been Patrick Scholti's ex Stefan you can Horbeth a
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: little bit, probably a couple of the guys.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: It's been.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: It's been pretty wide open until Matt Freeze took it.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Or it is wide open I think behind Freeze. So
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: from where you sit and then when you're analyzing this
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Group one. Is Matt Freeze your preferred number one choice
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: for this team going towards the World Cup in two?
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: If he is, what makes him that guy? What makes
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: him the number one for the US?
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: Well?
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think right now he's He's Mauricio Pochettino's guy
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: for sure, right. I think he's proven that there were
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: opportunities even when Matt was coming sort of through this
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: summer in twenty twenty five. Uh, Pochettino had opportunities to
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: play Matt Turner, right, and he didn't. And Matt, Matt
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: was in a pretty bad situation in Europe. He's in
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: a couple of really bad situations in Europe right. As
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: a matter of fact, leading into the twenty twenty two
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: World Cup, he had only played seven matches with Arsenal
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: in that spring, predominantly. I think they were all Cup games,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken. And I was surprised at how
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: well Matt Turner did at the World Cup because it's
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: a rhythm position, right, It's a position, but you're young,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: you're a little bit younger, you're fighting every day and training.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Eventually it caught up with Matt Turner that there wasn't
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: a great rhythm in his game anymore. Right, So, Matt
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Freeze had been the guy, and I think he's going
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: to be the guy at the World Cup. What I
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: suppose what I'm what the biggest surprises. I felt like
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: for years we always had three, four or five guys.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: If you go back to all of the cycles, that
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: there were two or three guys fighting for a starting job,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: and then there were two or three guys behind them
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: fighting to make the World Cup team. I feel like
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: now we're just kind of looking to see who the
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: third guy is gonna be right now, and I don't
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: know that we've ever been in this position before. I'm
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: a little bit surprised that we're in this position because
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: it's always been a fairly strong position for us. A
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: lot of it has to do with the number of
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: or the lack of I guess I'm right, the number
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: of foreign goalkeepers that have come in the league, right
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: that have taken spots from other people, which is normal,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: which you have to compete with. But there's been sort
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: of like a perfect storm to get us to this point.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: I'd like to I'd like to think that Matt Turner
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: is going to come back in the spring and have
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: a say in the end at least push Matt Freeze.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: I do think Matt Freeze is going to be the
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: goalkeeper at the World Cup as of right now, of course,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: just you know, without injury. And then who's number three.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: The only one that really has a rhythm right now
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: is Jonathan Clintman, right, He's the only one that as
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: a rhythm. He's playing in Cetia be every weekend, he's
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: winning player of the week, all kinds of stuff. After that,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Chris Brady's not playing, Zach Stefan's not playing, coaching, I know,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: just at a nice weekend this weekend, and then we
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: got to wait to see what happens with Patrick Scholtzi
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: or Cellantano, which I don't think are in that picture
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: right now. So that for me is like the big
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: goalkeeping picture. The biggest surprise for me is that God
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: got Sloanina is out of the picture when he got
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: when he hurt that hand or the finger last year.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: He was having a tough time in Europe, but he
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: hurt the finger and it took him a while to
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: come back until the summer, and then he gets stuck
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: being the third goalkeeper at Chelsea this weekend he was.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: I think Robert Sanchez was injured, right, so he was
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: on the bench this weekend. But I'm surprised that he's
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: not part of this picture right now. But injuries and
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: a little bit of lack of form kind of killed them.
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: Yeah, hey, Tony.
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: So here's here's something that I think would be important
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: at least for people like myself and likely a lot
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: of the people listening who don't know a lot about goalkeeping, right,
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: because even when you're the head coach, and in my case,
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: I was a head coach at MLS and still, you know,
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: when we gave up a goal, I had to ask
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: the goalkeeper coach if that was a good one or
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: a bad one?
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: Did he do the right thing or did he not?
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: No?
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: You know, when you look at our national team, and
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: obviously it looks like Mauricio Pocchettino has now switched to that,
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: you know, possibly the three in the back right and
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: having potentially three center backs, but it's been sort of
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: a you know, revolving door of center backs playing back there,
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: you know, because you know, and eventually we could potentially
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: end up with you know, Mark McKenzie playing on that
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: left side of the three you know, we could end
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: up with Ream playing so Ream's a left team McKenzie's variety.
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: So like, there could be a number of different situations
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: and combinations of center backs playing in front of the goalkeeper.
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: How much does that affect the goalkeeper? And are these
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: conversations at norm As a goalkeeper, you would feel comfortable
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: with going to the coach and saying, hey, you know,
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: I feel much more comfortable with so and so.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: Well, I think it affects the center backs more than
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: it affects the goalkeeper, right, Because if you think about it,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: let's just assume we're playing with three in the back,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: and I loved playing that way because I just think
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: it's easier to organize. We won a championship in Kansas City.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: We're really good for a couple of years like that,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: you're still given the same instruction. So when you look
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: out on the field, the ball is somewhere and you're organizing, right,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if I'm organizing you or Tom or
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: the next guy right where the defender.
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: What you want to.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: See as a goalkeeper is that I tell you tab
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: go right, Well, you don't. You don't really look at me.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: You trust me, and you go right because I told
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: you to go there. And that happens over a period
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: of time, and that's where I that's where I lasted
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: the longest in my career because I think I was
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: an extension of the coach in a lot of ways
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: where I could get the feedback and say, Okay, this
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: is where the coach wants people. And then after a while,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: when you're you know, thirty five, thirty six years old,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: people are listening right. They tell you to go right,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: you go right, you go left, you tell the you know,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: that's how it works. But I think from a center
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: backs position, like you hear in a different voice right
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: all the time, you're hearing somebody different, and then you're
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: standing next to somebody in a different spot on the field,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: and I think that's where that's where it hurts a
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: little bit more than it hurts the goalkeeper. I think
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: it hurts the center backs a little bit more. I
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: don't know if that makes sense, but that that's kind
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: of how I always looked at because I'm I'm gonna work.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: The coach tells me play three, I'm back or four in.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: But whatever it is, put the guys here, it doesn't
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: matter to me. Who you are. I'm putting you there right.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: The coach told me, I got to put you over there.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: I got to put you there. But Tom, I gotta
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: tell you because Tab kind of touched on it. I
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: coached with Taba. The luck of coaching with Tab and
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Tab being around some of the teams that I was
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: an assistant coach for in the national team, I was
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: there for five years with Tab. If they're if I
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: ever coached with anyone one that, I don't know.
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: If he didn't.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: I think he knows more about goalkeeping than he leads on,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: but doesn't care about goalkeeping. I don't think I'll ever.
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: Because we would we would go to the meetings and
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: and you.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Go to goalkeepers like he's the head coach, and you're
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: always waiting for the head coach to go, hey, okay,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: I think like.
• 37:18
  Speaker 7: Dead silence, like don't you want don't you want any
• 37:23
  Speaker 7: saying this at all?
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: No, No, you don't want any say that like yeah
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: you could.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Look, you're like, man, he really doesn't care.
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: Like we could play whoever we.
• 37:31
  Speaker 7: Want, that's right, anything else the goalkeeper.
• 37:39
  Speaker 6: I was a manager, not a coach.
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: There's the difference. Time.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Now now you can figure it out right, people, It's.
• 37:51
  Speaker 6: Starting to come around to that now, see that.
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: This is what it's like when you guys are you
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: were way ahead of the car, ahead of the game.
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: One more on this front again, everything is geared towards
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: this summery six World Cup to sit here and you
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: guys obviously have the experience of playing in a home
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: World Cup and Tony, we're all we're talking about goalkeepers.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: You know why, why is this going to be a
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: different level of pressure than say even Matt Turner what
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: a guitar at the World Cup? Like, what are the
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: differences to doing this at a home World Cup?
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, we didn't really know what it was going
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: to feel like, but it is completely different. And I
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: think the big from a goalkeeping standpoint. I would say
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: this from a center forward standpoint too, because I look
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: at them the same way. You Sometimes you get one
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: chance and you got to be able to play. Like
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: when I look at just the World Cup and home,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: people are always like, what what was your best game?
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: And there's like I could look at like England and
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: some other games where I played really well. I still
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: think my best game was the game I gave up
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: the poorest goal. In the World Cup where I cheated
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: and I got beat at the near post. But then
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: but then I was able to react because when you
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: think about it, I was we were.
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: At home, it's a big goal. We gave up.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: We were under a little bit of pressure at that time.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: But I played really well the rest of the game
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: and kind of kept us senate for a little while.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: And that's what you have to deal with, right, You
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: got to deal with Look, when everybody's great, Tab will
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: tell you he coached a lot longer than everybody's great.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: When things are going well, like when the team's clicking
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: and you're scoring goals and you're attacking like everybody's a
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: really good player, like at the World Cup, especially at home,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: how do you react when things don't go your way?
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: And that I think is the thing. You don't have
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: to deal with that when you're playing in Germany, Like
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: if you're the US playing in German, you don't have
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: to deal with that pressure. You're home now and it
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: will be a pro US crowd. It wasn't ninety four
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: and it will be here. And how do you deal
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: with all of that pressure? Does Europe prepare you for
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of that?
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Sure, it does, but.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: It's the World Cup and you're gonna feel a little
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: bit different.
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: And that game you're referencing now versus Romania, the third
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: group stage game, right.
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: How difficult was that?
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: I guess on the mental side of things, and like
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: you said, you played really really well. But then you're
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: sitting here thirty years later saying I should have done
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: better if the goal was my fault.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: Oh no, no, the goal was my fault, no, no
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: question about it. The I can remember saying to myself,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Holy shit, man, it can't get any worse than this.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: Like that's I gave up a near post goal where
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: I cheated and for for five years before that, I
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: cheated and the ball ended up in my hands because
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: the guy's trying to cross the ball across the six
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: yard box. But Petresca, the right back, you know, he
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: may have seen all of that, right, Maybe we did
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: have videotape back in the day. It might have still
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: been black and white, but he'd seen it. And that
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: was that. That's how I got beat. So you know,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: you gotta live with it, and you gotta just you
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: gotta deal with it. One thing I learned tap wasn't
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: around Bora as much as as much as I was,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: but I think it was around him enough to learn
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: one thing. He would constantly say, almost to the point
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: where you're like you wanted to shakeboard, like stop saying it,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: you know, but he would constantly say, what, my friends,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: what is the most important play? The next one? You know,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: and like it wrung in my head like okay, I
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: can't do anything. And I think it's such a great
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: lesson for kids.
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: Man.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: I used it when I was coaching. I'm like, okay, yeah,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: you made a mistake, so let's let's talk about the
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: next one, Like what do you do? It's so important?
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: Man, And it was.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: It's a trite saying, right, and you want you know,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: it's like a parenting saying that you never want to
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: hear on the field, but it's so true.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: And how you react, Oh man, that's that's some good stuff.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: We got to take a really quick break here. We'll
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: be right back. We're gonna go through a starting elevens.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: We're gonnadd the wrinkle that what if Tom Adams isn't
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: available or something happens. What was starting elevens? Look like,
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: we're gonna be right back with inside America time. Welcome
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: back to Inside American Soccer. We do this on most shows.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: We like to see how things change over time in
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: our views. For the current starting eleven for the United States.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: If the World Cup, we're gonna start tomorrow and right now,
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: we're gonna do it with Tony Miola, and we're gonna
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: do it with with no Tyler Adams. Again, he's got
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: a torn MCL. He'll be out for a couple months
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: with Bournemouth. We're all very very much hoping that he's
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: gonna be there for the group of the first World
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: Cup game. We very much say the obvious of if
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: he's available, he's just about the first name on the
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: team sheet, if not, maybe the second.
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: So want that out of the way. But hypothetically, if
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: there were more.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: Time missed by ty Adams, or if we get to
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: any of these games and he's not able to play,
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: what would a throwing eleven look like without him? So Tap,
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna let you go.
• 42:44
  Speaker 6: First, Okay, Yeah, you know what I'm gonna do.
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna go in a three to five to two
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: only because I think from now on I'm gonna focus
• 42:53
  Speaker 5: on trying to get polistic who's our best player into
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: the best position possible. Is just how he's been functioning
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: and doing well as a second forward.
• 43:01
  Speaker 6: Uh and and and I think we need to utilize
• 43:04
  Speaker 6: that more than anything.
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: So I'm gonna go with uh freezing goal, Alex Freeman,
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: Chris Richards and McKenzie Mark McKenzie in the back. I'm
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: gonna go with desk On Uh uh In Robinson as
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: the wingbacks.
• 43:18
  Speaker 6: Uh.
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: In the middle, I'm gonna have the three players of McKinney,
• 43:22
  Speaker 5: Tessaman and Tillman. And up front, I'll go with Polisic
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: and flow Balogun.
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: I like that in that.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: It's probably not too dissimilar in the way that that
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: Personne would line up as the three four two one,
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: because Tillman is capable of dropping deeper and this this
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: frees up Wesn McKinney have more freedom to go forward.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: I find that one interesting, Tony, anything on your end
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: or what's your eleven?
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So I stuck with Mauricio Pochettino's three four to
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: two one, if you will, right, matfreezing goal. So I
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: went Chris Richards in the center of the field, Tim
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: Reim on his left hand side, and I've been watching this.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: No Kai Banks. I think he's going to be the
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: surprise at the World Cup for Us as the right
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: center back. But if if it's not him, then then
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: do we see Mark McKenzie, who's been a little bit
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: in and out with with Mauricio Pochettino right the performance
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: has been a little up and down, and Marie, I'm
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: not sure that he trusts them completely yet, but that
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: would be my back for Sir Richards Banks on the right,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: Rima on the left. I think tab and I have
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: the same thing in the midfield Robinson on the left
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: hand side. I have two in the center to park
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: without Tyler ramser Weston and Tanner Tessaman and then I
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: have ser Genio Desk on the right hand side, and
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: it's it's just the twist in formation filming and Polisic
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: underneath Balligan up top. So just I think we have
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: the same ideas in the in the attacking part of
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: the field, and maybe just it looks like two center
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: backs right are are a little bit different.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: Right and and I'll just follow up on that quickly
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: with mine because it is very similar. So the three
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: four to two one as well tone freezing goal, I've
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: got Miles Robinson a right center back, Chris Richards in
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: the middle, and Mark McKenzie on the left. I go
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: back and forth between him and him and Reim. I'm
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: not sure what it's gonna look like in a few months.
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: I want to see how Tim Reim starts the in
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: MLS for Charlotte and what he looks like in March
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: in the Friendlies. But Mackenzie, I think all three of
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: us are big fans of his, and I think with
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: Miles Robinson, just the athleticism is going to be so
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: very important and the way that he can put out
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: fires and got obviously Chris Richards is very very athletic
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: as well, but just that'll help a lot in covering
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: for say test at right wing back, which I have
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: him there, Tessaman and McKinney in the middle, Anthony Robinson
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: on the left, though I can see, depending on opponents
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: and situations, whether or not Max Orson might be there.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: But Anthony Robinson has looked very good since he got
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: back for Fulham, which is great news. And then Pool
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: Sick and Tillman underneath Balgain. And again I think that
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: we're all saying very similar things, particularly from the midfield
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: forward of again, whether you line up as a three
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: four two one or a three to five to two pool,
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: Sick is gonna basically be a ten ish a second
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: forward ish. He's gonna have freedom to find the game
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: and Tillman would be the one to drop deeper when
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: McKenny makes those runs forward. So I do think that
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: this is again it's pretty fluid, and Resa Pochettino as
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: well would talk about how important it is for the
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: players and the competitiveness and their ability to adapt to situations.
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: I think that he wouldn't be so defined with the
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: with the roles and the formations either one really quickly,
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: I wanted to add No Kai Banks Tony. He has
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: been very good continuing to play. He was called in
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: I believe it was September and Pochettino was I thought
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: he gave a very interesting answer and he was asked
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: about No Kai Banks and it was something along the
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: lines of we think he's a very talented player. Maybe
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: he's not ready for this level yet, but we want
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: him in camp because we want to see what he's like.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: It's a person where he's like in training, what he's
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: like with the group. Because young players and a player
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: with his talent very very quickly. They can jump from
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: maybe not right, so oh my god, they need to
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: be part of it. So Pochettino said, like, we cared
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: more about the off the field stuff for the training
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: stuff because I want to know more about him as
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: a person, so that when he's showing the level that
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: he's ready to be in this team, that I know
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: about him off the field and it's not it's not
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: a risk or it's not an unknown when we bring
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: him in the group, and I think we're kind of
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: seeing that happen now.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and keep in mind, in that camp he had
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: only had twenty I think it's twenty six or thirty
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: six professional minutes at that point. He had one minute
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: appearance and then just before that camp he played like
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: twenty something minutes. He's played eleven out of the last
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: twelve games, seven of the last date have been ninety minutes.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: So he for me, he's a different profile now than
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: he was in September camp, right because he's got to
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: completely he's he's in the lineup every day now where
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: he wasn't. So you know, the one thing I'm gonna trust,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: Mauricio Pochettino with for sure is center backs. Right, If
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: Mauricia Pochettino says this guy's a good center back, then
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna trust him. He's a good center backs because
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: he knows that position better than any So that's the
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: only reason. I just always think like there's always one
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: surprise somewhere along the way, and he's the one I'm
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: gonna see. I like where he's going right now. He
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: might not play at all in the World Cup, but
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: he would be my one surprise in there that I
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: think people will will follow, if not at this World Cup,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: certainly moving forward. Tab always mentions and we've had this
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: discussion forever, like ten year goalkeepers and ten year center backs. No,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Kai Banks is nineteen years old playing in the Bundesliga
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: every single week now as a center back. Chris Richards
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: is becoming that guy. It's been like what three years
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: now he's twenty five years old. Like you can see
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Chris Richards playing in three World Cups, right, I mean,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: like we're finding ten year center backs right now in
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: our program.
• 48:46
  Speaker 6: Yeah, that's a good point, Tony.
• 48:48
  Speaker 5: You know, I remember as we bird all the guys
• 48:50
  Speaker 5: through the youth national teams that we always said to
• 48:53
  Speaker 5: them in all the private meetings. Look, we obviously we
• 48:57
  Speaker 5: know you're a good player, that's why you're here, and
• 49:00
  Speaker 5: so we think that you're going to be on the
• 49:01
  Speaker 5: national team. But we're not just looking for players who
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: are going to be in the national team for a
• 49:06
  Speaker 5: couple of games. We're looking for the players who are
• 49:08
  Speaker 5: going to be ten year national team players. And you're
• 49:11
  Speaker 5: right now, we've had we have a couple guys on
• 49:13
  Speaker 5: this team that potentially are going to be those guys.
• 49:17
  Speaker 6: And I think that that's really nice to see.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: I would agree, And there's a lot a lot of
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: soccer to be played, just really quickly. On Banks, I
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: want to say he played I think like two hundred
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: and fifty minutes at the end of the last European season.
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: To your point still remains. He was very, very green
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: in first team professional football, and at that point it
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: was a surprise, a pleasant surprise, when he was on
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: the roster. But yeah, that is definitely when you talk
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: about somebody comes out of nowhere. When I've been asked
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: that question, I've been making educated guesses of usually it's
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: a centerfower.
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: But honestly, the more you think about.
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: It, no, Kyle Banks might be the guy, but that's
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: all the time we have for this episode. Tony Miolla,
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: thank you so much for your time. Thank you guys
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: listening to Tony on CBS Sports, Galaza on Serious XM.
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: Anytime he's speaking, you should be listening to to your
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: a legend.
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much for joining us Films.
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: Thanks everybody inside American SoC Please rate, review, and subscribe
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: and submit your questions from me and Tab.
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: We are gonna do a mail bag.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna put it out on social media as well
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: as a nice reminder, and we're gonna take questions. We
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: want to talk about what you want us to talk about,
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: So please give us your questions.
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: And we'll answer them in an upcoming episode very soon.
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: Thank you, all right,