Latest / Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos / Marcelo Balboa on Playing with Edge, Beating Argentina & Building the USMNT

Transcript

Marcelo Balboa on Playing with Edge, Beating Argentina & Building the USMNT · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And yes, people can say it all they want. I
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: was an asshole on the field. I wanted to win.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: I would go through the ball, I would go through
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the player. That was my mentality. I didn't care.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Greetings, folks, and welcome to Inside American Soccer. I'm your host,
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Matt Doyle, filling in for Tom Boger, who is still
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: on baby duty. I am joined, as always by one
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: of the greatest players in US soccer history, a veteran
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: of three World Cups, tab Ramos, the original Metro Star.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: And we are joined by another US soccer legend, another
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: veteran of those same three World Cups, another Metro Star
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: for a very very brief moment but had his best
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: club moments elsewhere, and the US Soccer Hall of Famer.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Both these guys are Marcello Balboa. Gentlemen, it is a
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: pleasure to be joined by the two of you.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I don't even know what to say about the Metrostar thing.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Every time somebody brings it up, it hurt. It hurts
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: my heart. Man, because they traded me injured, I didn't
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: get to play, but like fifteen minutes. I got to
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: hang out with tab a lot that year. But I
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: felt so bad when they traded me to New York
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: and I was injured and couldn't play, so I apologized
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to all the New York Metro fans.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: So it was a lot of stuff.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I was a MetroStars fan, and back in the day
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: that was those were not the best times. From about
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: ninety eight or ninety nine to about two thousand and two,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: it was. It was pretty gnarly, other than when Clinton
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Mathis got on that heater and he was so much
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: fun to watch. But so were you guys, of course,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: two guys who brought a lot of joy to this game.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: And on today's show, we're going to talk about that.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: We're going to interview Marcelo and ask about the most
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: memorable moments of his career and also his upbringing, his
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: path to becoming a professional soccer player when that wasn't
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: really a path that was available to a lot of
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: folks back in the day.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Plus, as always on.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: This show, we're going to get a best eleven a
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: US men's national team all time eleven. Marcello, You're gonna
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: have to hurt some feelings with that one.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: That's a tough one, because that's a that's ah, there's
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a few players, you know, and uh so we'll see.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I'll try and I'll try to spare people's feelings and
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: explain why.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: So one of the things you have to do is
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: figure out which of your former teammates will actually be
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: listening to this one. And if they're listening to it,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: then you got it.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: Right now, right now, I'm the best player on your
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: team and captain captain of your team right now.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I know you know these coach captain.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: No. One of the things I did when they asked
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: me to do, you know when I did the same
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: thing for the show is I decided to make the
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: old time team, but I made it of guys that
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: I had played with, so I didn't include anyone after
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: and that that actually makes it a little bit easier.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: But you can certainly go anywhere you want. But anyway,
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: it's great to have you on Marcelo. And and yeah,
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: your time at the Metro starts?
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Was that?
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: Did you go somewhere else after the Metro Stars? So
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: was that the end for you too?
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I went I went home. No, that's it.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: You know, it's funny we talk about how like we
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: started on the national team together and then we ended
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: at the Metro stars together and somehow so.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: We ended perfectly. We started the way we started, we
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: ended it perfectly with them. Now, listen, I get back
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: to Colorado after the doctor here in Colorado screwed up
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: my knee, and then went to New York and the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: doctor says, he didn't fix your knee, you still have
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the same problem. So I had to fix there. I
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: got a bone bruise from the first doctor, so I could.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I almost sat out for almost eleven months. So I
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: came home and I called the Rapids and I told
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: him that, listen, can you get my rights from New York.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I'd love to retire as a Rapid. I don't really
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: not interested in really playing because knee wasn't great. I
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: just want to if you need me coming off the bench.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: They said great, great, great, And two days before I
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: was supposed to go to practice, Steve Tritchu calls me
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: and tells me Tim Hankinson doesn't want you anymore. I
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: was like, wow, okay, thanks to him, and I'll due respect.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: You know, he's passed away and no, but it was
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: just a decision he made. So I retired that that
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: year and just called it quits. I just I just
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: wanted to retire because where I started with a rapid
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: I wanted to end as a rabbit and it didn't
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: turn out quite the way I wanted it to. But
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: everything happens for a reason, so.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: That So does that mean we both ended our careers
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: in Foxboro?
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Where both ended in Foxborough as the New York MetroStars,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: right and so yes, And.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: Like you said, that year you only played about fifteen minutes,
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: which is probably about an hour less than I played.
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: That year, but your tennis game was rocking that year.
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: YEA tennis game was good? Good, Yeah, it was. It was.
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: It was a rough year to end my career that way.
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: It was not the way I envisioned it, but it
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: is what it is. I ended it with a good friend.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: That's all I can say.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: We had a good time.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And you guys laid the groundwork for the league
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: to grow into what it's become today, where received is
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: getting sold to the likes of Athletico Madrid, the likes.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Of Via Real and you know, the og.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: MLS fans still have a big place in their heart
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: for for what you guys did and building this thing.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: But let's go back even further. Marcella let's go back
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: to you, your days as a youth, you grew up,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: You were coached by your father.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: It was a my cousin Vinny the other day, I'm sorry,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I saw it and you just hit it on the head.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Honestly, it still holds up. It still holds up. Still
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: a funny movie. Man.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: You were coached by your dad, and your dad was
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: a professional player in the old NASL, which is somehow
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: I did not realize that. So what is the big
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: biggest thing that he taught you about the game?
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Listen? It was a love hate relation. So my dad
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: was an asshole to me sometimes because he saw and
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: with all respect, because he saw potential in me of
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: what I can do. He used to tell my brother
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: was listen, my brother played like Claudia Arena. Didn't run
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: like Claudio, but he played like Claudierine. That's how good
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: he was. And his name happened to be Claudio. And
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: my dad would always say, if there's a brick wall,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: your brother will find a way around it. He'll dig
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: underneath it, he'll do everything possible. He goes, you're the
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: dude that'll run through the fricking wall until you get
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: to that ball. And that's kind of the mentality he
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: gave me, is hard work. Every day. Somebody's out there
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: every day trying to take your job. Every day, somebody
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: wants your position. Every day someone's going to try to
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: steal it from you. How hard are you willing to
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: work every day to keep your job. So he gave
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: me the mentality of working hard and if I wanted something,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: then I had to work for it every day. And
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: he was willing to come home from grave. I mean,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: my dad worked graveyard chifts, so he had a few
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: hours of rest. We'd come home, he would take us
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: out we were doing and you know, it wasn't the
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: typical all right, let's shoot on goal. It was okay,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: you're gonna defend me. My dad's the next player. So
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: I would have to defend my dad. I'd have to
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: defend my brother. So I learned different aspects of the game.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: And then we would go into corners. He would throw
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: the ball up there, timing heading the ball. So he
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: laid a very strong foundation to who I am as
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: a person. Who I was on the soccer field. And yes,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: people can say it all they want, I was an
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: asshole on the field. I wanted to win, I would
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: go through the ball. I would go through the player.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: That was my mentality. I didn't care, you know what
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I mean. So and what Paul Gardner wrote that I
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: was rambo a soccer I was going to self destruct. Well,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: thank you, Paul Gardner, thank you for writing that article
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: because it fueled my fire even more to fight and
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: scratch and to prove people wrong. So yeah, I'm here
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: as who I am as a player because of my dad.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: You know, it's really interesting how we you know, although
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: your background in mind, you're obviously you're born in Chicago,
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: I believe right, I was born in Uruguay. But yet
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: you know, our parents are you know, South American, so
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: but we still we have such a different background. So
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: my dad also played. But yet when it came to
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: like taking me out and you know, and showing me stuff,
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: my dad was always like work was always more important
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: to him, and it was more in my home. It
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: was always like I come home and tell my dad
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: have practice on Thursday. My dad would be like, well,
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: I got to go to work, so.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: You know, you gotta get there.
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: However, so you know, you know, different ways. Although you know,
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: soccer was soccer was a conversation at my house more
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: than anything else in the world. That's the only thing
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: you know, in my house we that would ever be
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: discussed was soccer. But yet it was sort of like, well,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: if you have soccer is what you want to do,
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: you kind of you have to go find it on
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: your own. So a little bit different than yours, Yeah.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: For sure, Yeah, a little bit different is critic. Pops
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: was the hardest critic I'll ever have. That's just who
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: he was and his his philosophy was always putting me
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: in an environment where I wasn't happy, or I wasn't comfortable,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: or I wasn't the best player, because he always played
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: me with my brother, who's a year and a half
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: older than me, and he would I've never played at
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: my age group. Never once did I play with my dad,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: and I always played with my brother, So that was
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: not comfortable for me. But putting yourself in an environment
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: where you're not comfortable strives makes you strive to be
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: the best player possible, you know, I mean, because you
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: don't want to be the you don't want to be
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the fifteen year old playing with sixteen year olds and
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: you're the worst player. So that drove me and pushed
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: me to always work harder than everybody else, to be
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: better than them. So that's what I always tell my kids.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Put yourself in an environment where you're not comfortable, where
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: it's awkward, and you have to fight to be the
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: best player.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: So that translated.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: That fight, I think translated to the US national team
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: back in the late eighties, where I believe you guys
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: met for the first time, or did you know each
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: other before the national team called you both in?
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: The only one I knew was Tony Miola because we
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: played in the under twenties, you know what I mean.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: But I didn't know Tab. I've heard of Tab once
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: you start going up the ranks because Tab, I think
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: we're close to the same age. And I think Tab
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: was already on the national team, him and those guys.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: So when we got there, I kind of already knew
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: who Paul Crumpy was, I knew Tab, I knew knew
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: them as people, not as people yet, but as names
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: that I've heard. So it was it was a little intimidating,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: not gone.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah he read and you know back then you had
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: to read in the papers from you know, a couple
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: of months back. Yeah, or Soccer America from the week before.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: But the under twenty prodigy, right.
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so anyway, but yeah, I think that was
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: that was the first time we met. It was a
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: trip to Guatemala, I believe right. That's where we started
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: January nineteen eighty eight and uh and the beginning of
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: January Camps, Matt, that's where they originated back in the eighties.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: At some point we started the January Camps.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: What was it like, did you guys get along from
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: the jump or was the defenders over here at midfielders
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: over there?
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Never the Twayne shall be Oh.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I didn't play. We played two games in Guatemala. I
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: didn't play the first game because I just came from
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: the under twenties, and the second game I played and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: didn't really know anybody. It was kind of that we
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: just got together for that trip and played. But as
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: more time went on, I solidified, you know that I
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: could play center back. You know, I didn't really feel
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: comfortable playing out of the back right away. So every
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: time the ball kind of came in a funky situation,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I would just kick the ball up field, just put
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: it up to the foreward and just we'd push up
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: and I remember one day we're sitting there and why
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: do you fucking kick the ball so much? Play me.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm like, okay, I'm sorry. The next ball
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: I got, the next ball I got played in the tap,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, hey, this. I didn't realize it was
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: going to be this easy tap. I'd have known this sooner.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: If we would have communicated, it would have been easier.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: But you know, initially, when you're a little nervous and
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: you're trying to make a team, it was more comfortable
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: back in the old day with long ball, so it
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: was hit it, hit it, and Tab just wanted to
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: make sure I understood, as a young American Argentine that
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: I could play a urge one, I could trust the
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Urope line, you know, with the rivalry we have. And
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: from there our relationship got better little by little.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the rest, as they say, is history, right. I mean,
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: you go and you know, now you start to look
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: at you know, we started in January nineteen eighty eight
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: and we kind of played our last game together and
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: October of two thousand and two. You know, so fourteen
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: years later, three World Cups together, a couple of Cope
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: Americas together, you know, Gold Cubs and everything else, so
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: you know, a long relationship. But I can say is
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: you know, of all the people that I've played with
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: on the national team, you know, Marcella and I were
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: likely always on the same page. We always had a
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: great relationship. Marcella was always great to get along. You
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: knew you'd get one hundred percent out of him every
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: single time, and it was a great.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: I'm really happy that we were able to share such
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: a long career together.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Listen, I've only had two people yell at me,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: and I'm so proud of the two people that yelled
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: at me. One was Tab give me the damn ball
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: and Valderrama because when he came to Colorado, I had
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: a ball to play me. He was between three guys
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: and I didn't play him. I played a wide. He
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: comes up to me after that play and basically in
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Spanish did the same thing that Tab says, next time,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: give me the fin ball, no matter where I'm at, whatever, dude,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: next time you have three players on it. I played it.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: He played wide, we crossed, we scored a goal, and
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: he looked at me. I'm like, okay, sorry, I'm okay.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: But Tab and Valdorama yelling at me.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good two to have yelling at Yeah.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: But let's talk about You mentioned three World Cups, right,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: and let's talk about that first one, because I think
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: a lot of fans know the story of the ninety
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: four World Cup, and of course the ninety eight World
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Cup is well documented.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: The nineteen ninety World.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Cup gets sort of lost in time a little bit.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: The story is told.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, everybody remembers calla Jerry's goal and the fight that
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: it took just to get there, the end of the
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: forty year drought, but then the story of nineteen nineties,
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: and then they lost all three games and they were out.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: But it was different than that because it was the
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: first game you guys got punched in the face, and
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: then the next two games it was different. The mentality
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: seemed to change. You were more competitive. Can you talk
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: us through what happened over the course of that group stage.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Well, listen, I was lucky enough to be on that
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: World Cup team too, because I tore my against I
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: think it was Bermuda, so I was fighting my way
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: to get back on the team. But I remember sitting
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: there with Ganzer one day right before the World cup,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: and he says Tomicello Marcelo with his voice and he
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: said very clearly to me, he goes, you know you
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: deserve to start, but you're not going to start. And
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: I just kind of looked at him and I was like, why,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: he goes, because you know why, because there's a group
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: of players here that helped us get here. There's a
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: group of players that deserve to start this game. And
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give them the first opportunity to start
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: this game because they deserve it. And you know what,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: after that moment, I had so much respect for Bob
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Ganzer because how many coaches would do that? How many
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: after forty years, how many coaches would take the time
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: to let the players and start the players who helped
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: them get there, who helped us qualify. Forty years is
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: a long time, and we finally qualified with Cole's gole.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: So that first group that played was Ganzers. This is
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: who deserved a starker. They've been here and uh and
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: let's be honest, scouting back then, did we even have
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: scouting tab Did you get a scouting report against checks?
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: Now we we heard that the checks weren't really that strong.
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: That was the scouting emember.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: That Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember walking out when they
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: told us the scouting report. We'll be just you know,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: we'll be bigger, we'll be more physical than them. And
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: we walk out of the tunnel and we stand next
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: to each other and we were like, we just kind
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: of looked at each other, going we got the wrong report.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: And from there, listen, I got to play the second half.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: He started making some change. I think Doyle started the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: next game, and you know what, I just think that
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: we we we realized that we weren't gonna be able
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: to play one hundred percent soccer the way we want.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: So we're gonna have to fight. We're gonna have to
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: fight for ninety minutes. We're gonna have to push people,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: We're gonna have to kick people. And uh, look at
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: what we did against It'll, you know what I mean.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, we had a chance to score. I think
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Bruce shot shoots and then I think Peter Ermeis hits.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: It on Herbie saved it.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: He didn't have such a big ass back then that
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: would have gone in. But it's fine whatever.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: Nah.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: All I'm saying is I think from that day forward,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: and my memories off sometimes with all the concussions. But
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: if I remember after that first game, the next two
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: weeks of training were a freaking battle. There were fights
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: that broke out. We were kicking the crap out of
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: each other. I think our mentality changed right away of
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: what we needed to do to compete in this World Cup,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: and from that day kind of forward setting the same
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: group into ninety four and ninety eight. I think our
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: mentality changed, and we really that that World Cup opened
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: our eyes of what we were capable of doing and
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: what we could do.
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: Hey, Marcella, I don't know if you remember this, but
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: after that first game, and you're absolutely right about how
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: things change after that first game, because and I think
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: this is what happened normally with teams. You know, you
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: lose a game big and then you have a twenty
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: two man roster or whatever it is, and now everybody
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: thinks they should start, and because of that, every training
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: session is now to the death.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: But I don't know if you remember this. There was
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: a ball.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: I remember like it was yesterday.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: By the way, I have a horrible memory, but I
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: remember this like it was yesterday. Ball goes up in
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: the air and training we're at that military academy goes
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: up in the air and Bruce Murray and Eric Eikman
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: are going to go for it, and they don't go
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: for the ball. They let the ball bounce and then
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: they start fighting right to keep it, and long story short,
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: they start pushing each other and they end up inside
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: the goal because it was like we were playing inside
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: the eighteen yard bucks or something, and they end up
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: inside the goal against the net, throwing punches.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: At each other.
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: It was an absolute fight, like a fist fight.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Between Eric Eikman and Bruce Murray.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: It was crazy.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Good times, man, I'm telling you. After that loss, everything changed, man,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: everything changed. It was. It was probably one of the
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: feistiest battles you name it environment I've ever been and
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I loved it. Absolute defender, to get physical, to kick people,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: to push people. We were we were in heaven, man,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: we we Yeah, it was, it was, it was And really.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: That became the future of the team. Yeah, that became
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: the future of the team whose fight every day.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we saw it on the way in ninety four.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Obviously I saw it in the World Cup. But you
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: guys were both part of the ninety one and ninety
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: three teams that played in Copa America.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: Correct, Yes, I didn't play ninety one. I played ninety three.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: You didn't play You played ninety three. And the ninety
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: three team is the one that made it all the
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: way to the semifinals.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: Ninety five five.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, And that was that, Like that's a
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: that's a team that took what was built in ninety
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: four and spun it forward a year. I think it
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: was a win over Argentina, right, there was a three
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: one win over Argentina. And you guys were both on
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: the field for that. Ye tell us about that, because
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: that's a game that I think a lot of fans
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: don't know about in the twelve months after the great
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: ninety four World Cup.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I being in Argentine when you realized that Argentina
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: played their second team, we'll say, second slash and even
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: there was out there yeah yeah, yeah yeah. And And
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: it was funny because I got to talk about the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Stuta the other day at the World Cup draw and
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: they they had no clue who we were. We had
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: no clue who they were. They thought that they watched
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the first game and they thought, okay, yeah, you know
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: what I mean. So they came out with a mentality
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: that they were basically run through us, and little by little,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: when you looked at the way we started playing, people
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: didn't give credit to what we had, or what we did,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: or how individually we were okay, But I think as
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: a team is what our strength was. We fought, we scratched,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: and we actually tried to play soccer, which I don't
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: think a lot of a lot of teams really try
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: to give us credit for. But that's what happened back
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: in the old days. When you decided to play a
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: B team and you played against us, you know what,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: we're going to prove to you that we were going
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: to show you that we're here to fight, scratch and
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: look at the goals we scored. Look at the movement
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: of the ball, look at the feistiness of getting in
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: behind their back line. You know, I mean it was
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: it was a special moment. Unfortunately for me, I tore
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: my growing that day that night and they cold and
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I got taken out of the game later on. But listen, man,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I don't think anybody ever gave credit Listen to this,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and people don't get it because there was no social media,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: there was nothing tab not. Because you're here I've said
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: this for years. Tab he is the best player USA
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Soccer ever produced, playing to no doubt about it. I'm
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: so I apologize to land In and those guys, but
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: if people watch Tab play at his prime, no freaking chance.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Him and Dempsey to me are the moose, two creative,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: most talented players we've had on the national teams. But
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: people didn't get to see what Tab got to do
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: because there was really that we weren't on TV. The
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: only time you got to see was a ninety four
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: World Cup. But there wasn't a player that can do
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: what Tab can do, and there still isn't a player
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: that can do with Tab do, But no one ever
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: saw it. So people always go to the reference of oh,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: whether you know, like somebody said to me, oh yeah,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: I started watching the World Cup and it really started
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: in two thousand, and I'm like two thousand, are you
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: kidding me? I go back a little bit, my friend,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: go back in. But like I said before, people didn't
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: realize what what Tab could do or what how the
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: quality he had when he was on the ball. His
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: first two steps explosive if they're run by people, hopping
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: over people, cutting people back and watching people fall. So
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: it's a shame that people didn't get to see that.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: But like I said, when when you talk about that
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: ninety World Cup and you talk about ninety four, you know,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: when you say tab Ramos one of the best players
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: US had, he's the best player we've ever had, well,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: I mean I can't listen. And that's not because he's here.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: That's not because he's here, I promise you ask people
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: all over a little bit talk it's about that A
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: little bit. Not even close, man, not even close.
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: You know that. Well, I mean I appreciate obviously, you know,
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: I can't comment on that, but you know, I really
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: appreciate that. Having said that, I think we were all
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: very fortunate to come up with, you know, in a
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: generation of players that had just a different mentality altogether,
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: you know, like we you know, because Matt. Back then
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: it was normal for us to play England and in
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: Scotland and Italy.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: You know, and during the week, you know, like we
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: we would.
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: It was constant big games. We were never I don't
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: recall ever being in awe of any team we played
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: at any time, whether it was Brazil or Argentina, or
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: whether it was for something where it was just a
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: tournament or it was a friendly. We were never in
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: awe of any team, and I think, you know, and
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: by the way, it may have been because we didn't
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: know any.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Better, you know.
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: So so let's just say that we you know, we
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: can't always take credit for things. We were also always
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: the underdog, which is a little bit easier than where
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: we are now, of course, But at the same time,
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: I think I'm very fortunate because I knew I was
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: surrounded by guys who who just wanted to fight all
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: the time. And regardless, if you know, it's not like
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: we lost and put our heads down. We lost with
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: our with our heads high, because we always gave everything,
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: so there was nothing to worry about. Ever.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Listen, Boris said it the other day. When he
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: we took over to when he left, we played eighty
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: games as a national team. That's a lot of games
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: for nationally. I think a period of what three years
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: with Bora somewhere there two and a half three years,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: so that's how much he believed that we needed to play.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: And listen, we weren't playing. We played Fiorentina with Botti,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Stuth and the other guys. We got our rears handed
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: to us, but the fact that we were learning how
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: to cope with those kind of players, We were learning
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: to deal with those players. We went to Turkey, we
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: went to Russia, we went to China, we went to
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, We played Argentina, we played Ivory Coast, we
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: played I mean you, we played some of the best.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: We played England, Brazil, we played the best teams in
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the world when Bora was here. And that's let's be honest.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: What's there to be scared of? Once you faced Brazil
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: in Brazil, what's there to be afraid of? Saudi Arabia
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: and Saudi Arabia, you know what I mean? You play
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: England in England, what's there to be afraid of? Now,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: it's just a matter of just going out and trying
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: to get try to find some sort of rhythm. When
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: we started playing, I'll tell you one thing you can
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: be afraid of.
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: I was matched up against Roberto Carlos that.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: He was the left back.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and he was the only guy I've ever played
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: it against that where when I faked and I took
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: that touch and went quickly, he got there first. Every
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: time I was like, Wow, this is not good for me.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, only the best left back ever to play the game.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: He's a matchup on the night. Guys, excite for us
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: to take a break. When we come back, we're gonna
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: ask Marcelo about his greatest individual moment in a US jersey.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: And before we come back, please take the time to rate.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Review and subscribe to Inside American Soccer with Tom Boger
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: and Tabramos wherever you get your podcast.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: Okay, welcome back to Inside American Soccer.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: I'm Matt Oyle here as always as tab Ramos and
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Marcello Balboa. Guys, We're gonna go through a list of
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: questions that I think our fans want answered. Stuff that
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: you've experienced that the rest of us only get to
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: dream of.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: So let's just get to it.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: The craziest environment you ever played it, and we'll start
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: with you, Cella, because you are the guest.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Wow, there's I mean environment as a hostile environment as
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: in yay.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Dealer's choice, dealer choice that you think of you If
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: I say to you, you know what, playing the game
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: gives goosebumps?
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: You your head goes to this environment. You know there's so.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Many, but I'd have to go back to the first
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: time we stepped into Asteca. You know, I mean ninety
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: seven was a big game. We had ten players and
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: we got a result. But that day, you know, when
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: we walked out to that field, one hundred and twenty,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: they didn't have seats, so there was one hundred and
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: twenty plus thousand people. The stadium was already full and
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: packed by the time we got there, and that was
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: two hours, an hour and a half, two hours before
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the game. And we were walking out of the tunnel
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: and you go down the hallway because it kind of turns,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: you go down the hallway and the stairs that go
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: to either side, and we walked out to the right
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: and from the top tier you saw this thing flying
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: down towards us. In about one hundred feet from us,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: there was a mannequin being hung with the US jersey
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: on it. So you know, that just kind of like, yeah,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: this is what And it wasn't done in like in
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: a mean way, but you know, every time you drive
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: up when you go to Reshteca, you always see three nothing,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: two nothing, We're going to beat you, four nothing. So
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: the mannequin kind of fit in. But I gotta say
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: that was probably one of the one of the coolest
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: environments of one hundred and twenty thousand people that apps, well,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: maybe one hundred and nineteen thousand, five hundred, cause we
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: had a few fans there. But it's it's it's intimidating
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: when you walk out on Sunday at one o'clock, the
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: factories are on, you can't breathe, the grass is thick
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: when you play it at Steca Stadium.
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: So yeah, so I would say, so there's been a
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: few environments I'd like to think of the quality of
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: the environment, right, And I think you know Trinidad nineteen
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: eighty nine game when we qualified to the World Cup.
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: The environment of that game was just so heavy with
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: pressure that you know, as a player, you love it.
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: And by the way, I will say this, and I'm
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: not sure if Marcelo feels the same, but you know,
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: the thing is sometimes that fans don't realize is when
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: you're a player and you step on the field, once
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: you have anywhere any any more than fifteen or twenty
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: thousand fans, it really doesn't matter if it goes to
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: one hundred or one hundred and twenty. It's really all
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: the same because you really, you don't really hear a
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: lot on the field, so you're just focused on the
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: game anyway. Right, But so this is why I'm going
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: to pick the game that I'm going to tell you
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: the games that I'm going to tell you. But you know,
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: there's been a few select games like that Trinidad game
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: where there was a lot of pressure. There was the
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: There's the game in Rome against Italy in the World Cup,
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: which that was heavy. There's our game against Columbia the
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: Rose Bowl was extremely hot and that was heavy and
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: packed with like one hundred thousand people. So but but
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: I'd have to go back and say, like the most
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: difficult games for me where the environment really matter would
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: have to be playing away at Costa Rica and World
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: Cup qualifying. They would throw anything at you. I mean,
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: it was all on. It was before the var it
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: was before there were any suspensions for anything. Those environments
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: were really difficult to go play in Central America for
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: World Cup qualifying in the eighties and nineties.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: You don't like the batteries being thrown at it.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right, it's a rite of passage.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: So that is a big difference between soccer the way
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: you guys experienced it thirty years ago and the way
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: I think it happens most of most all over the
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: world today. What do you guys see is the biggest
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: difference between the ninety fourteen that laid so much of
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: the groundwork, really ran the hard yards, and this twenty
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: twenty six squad.
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: I think the.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Difference is is there's a lot of differences. You can
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: go back to where we were playing and now where
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: they're playing. I mean, you can't really compare the two
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: squads just because of the fact that you've got polistic
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: plan at ac Milan, you can got guys in England, Germany,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: You've got them all over the place. We didn't have
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: that opportunity because in ninety four, unfortunately, it was very,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: very difficult to take an American to your team because
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: you just didn't know anything about the American players. You
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: didn't know if they were you know, it was still
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: a recreational sport, we'll say here in the US for
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of people around the world. So the advantage
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: they have now is they've played in big games. Listen,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: we didn't play with The biggest game we played in
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: was probably, you know, if they played Copa America ninety three.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: I didn't play it because I was hurt. So my
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: biggest game was Stecca in ninety seven. You know, I
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: mean there was there was games like that. Ninety three,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: we play mean ninety two, so there were big games,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: but it was nothing like what it was at the
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: World Cup. So ninety I think was probably the biggest
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: thing we probably played before the ninety four World Cup.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: So for these kids, the advantage and the difference is
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: they've had way many opportunities to play in Champions League
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: games to deal with that kind of pressure. So now
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: when you get to a game like the World Cup,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: there's still pressure. Don't give me, you get the jitters,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: and if you don't, there's something wrong with you. Because
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: you hear the national anthems being sung by ninety thousand people,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean, it's going to be packed
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the environments there. If that, I mean, if that doesn't
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: boil your blood, nothing nothing will. So I don't think
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: you can compare what was ninety four and what's now.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: The only difference is maybe more pressure. Now they have
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to change this sport in this country and
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: take it to a different level. That's where they're at
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: right now. They can take it. We took it to
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: a level they're now, that opportunity is they can make
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: it a huge impact in the United States men and
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: women's soccer around the world about American players. So to me,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: that's that's their biggest challenge right now.
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll just I'll just add a little bit to that,
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: and yeah, I would say the same. It's experienced. This
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: team is a lot more experience, a lot more ready
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: for this World Cup then we could have could have
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: ever been in nineteen ninety four when we when we
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: had a host and like Marcel said, there was there
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: was very few of us at the time that that
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: that had to that came back from Europe to play.
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: It was at a time it wasn't just the fact
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: that we didn't have a league here so people couldn't
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: take a chance in American players, but also in Europe
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: you can only play three three foreign players in the
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: in the league at one time. So I remember I
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: was coming back from Betty's and we had five foreigners
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: on the team and when one of us was on
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: the field, if we got you know, the only way
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: that another foreigner could come on the field was this
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: if one foreigner got taken out, So it was you know,
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: it was really difficult. You were fighting actually against Brazilian
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: players and you know, in African players, and to get
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: one of those spots. It was really difficult to get
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: on a spot on a on a foreign team. But
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: I think havn't said all of those things. You know,
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: I'm really excited about what this team can do this summer.
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: We really have a great opportunity, with the setup we
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: have and with the experience our players have to do
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: something that's never been done before. And I truly believe
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: that we can. So I'm excited about that.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we all are.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: This team has a lot of talent, a lot of
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: opportunity to take it at least one step farther than
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: we've seen previous groups take it. In the previous segment,
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: Cello tab was talking about Roberto Carlos and how that
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: was probably the toughest opponent you ever faced.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt yet, no doubt. Yes, Yeah, you faced Ramrio.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: We already talked about Batistutta a little bit, you faced
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: Roberto Baggio. Some of the greats, all time greats. Who
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: is the single toughest opponent you ever came up against?
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Ooh, you know, I could say about the Stutta because
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: he was this.
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: He was that.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: But I like the physical matchup. So when you they
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: were bigger, this better for Adamosijo Zagi. Those kind of
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: guys were good. But uh, frickin ro Mario man Mario Beveto.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: You take your pick. I don't care either one. It
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: was so difficult to watch the ball, read the play,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: keep an eye on them. And when they got the ball,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, look at the goal. Ro Mario runs at me.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, please just pass the ball to the right.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Pass the ball, just pass it, you know what I mean.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: And he passes it the Veto and I was like, okay,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Lexi your turn, you know what I mean. So I
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: would say, when you look at players like that he was.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: He was very difficult because he was very crafty. He moved,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: he didn't run. He's like, you know, I'm not going
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: to compare to messy. But he had the same kind
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: of activitch. He didn't run all the time. He just
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: kind of walked and got out of your peripheral and
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: as a defender, once he's out of that, now he
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: makes a run and you're like, oh crap, here he goes,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: you know, what I mean. So he was his movement
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: was very difficult to watch him to predict to where
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: he was going to go and how he was going
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: to do with the ball, So he was probably. Romerio
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Babeto were probably the two that was most difficult for me. Too, smaller,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: the more difficult for me. Guys like tab are difficult
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: to mark because set gravity doesn't help me helps them
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: their balance of how they can run and keep moving,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: you know, closer to the ground center of balance. So yeah,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Romerio and Babeto were probably the two difficult guys that
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: I had to mark.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: That was a great goal that they scored to eliminate
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: you guys in the round of sixteen. It was kind
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: of just a textbook what they did throughout that tournament.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: A heartbreaking end to I mean, anytime you get eliminated,
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: it's going to be a heartbreaking end. But a great
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: tournament overall for the US, but specifically for you two guys.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: And feel free to go first with whoever wants to
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: go first. What's your best individual moment in the jersey?
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: What's your best individual moment as a US men's national
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: team player?
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: Oh, if I had to go first, I mean I
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: could as far as because you said moment, you didn't
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: say game, So I'm gonna say as moment, I'm going
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: to have to pick a goal because I didn't score
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: that many. I actually, you know, it's funny because I
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: scored World Cup qualifying goals in three separate decades, so
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: it would tell you that I just scored all the time,
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: and I really didn't.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: I just I spread them over decades.
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: You chose a spots pretty so I had about.
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: A goal for decade in me. So no, but I
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: think maybe the goal I scored against Costa Rica in Portland, Portland,
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: and I think maybe nineteen eighty seven, ninety seven, only
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: because you know I had I was coming back from
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: an ecl It was my first game back with the
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: national team and we really needed to win that game
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: because we were struggling a little bit in our group
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: and that kind of that gave us the oxygen to
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: kind of to qualify for France.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: And that was a banger that was from outside the box.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: I remember was a Marcelo pass yep right, and it
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: was it was midway or late in the second half,
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: and it was a it was a scoreless game, and
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: if I recall you guys had all the possession for
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: about the previous half hour. It hadn't been able to
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: to to create any truly great scoring chances, and suddenly
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: tabbed from way downtown.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Pricky did a nice job. Pricky does all the
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: work done inside. He lays it back to me. You know,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: I thought for challenge, I was going to lay it
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: to taps left foot, but I'm like, you know, we
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: need the goal today. We need the goal. So I
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: laid it to him and he hit the crap out
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: of it nice and low into a corner, and like
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: you said, we needed we needed that win. That was
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: we struggled. We went to Mexico, we got that one point,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: which was huge. Then we had to go to Canada.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: But that that if we wouldn't have won, that we
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: would have had. I think it was after that we
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: went to Mexico. We needed to beat Mexico. If we
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: didn't get that those three points or something like that,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: it was. It was a close call that day. God,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, I mean so many wonderful
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: moments with the national team, you know what I mean.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: But I'm gonna say, God, my hundredth cap, my hundredth cap,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: because when I started playing soccer, I'm not gonna lie,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't know what a cap was. So I didn't
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: know what a cap was until I made the national team,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: you know, because you never who who back in the
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: in the eighties and nineties talked about caps, you know
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: what I mean. So when you made the national team,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: they explained what a cap was. But to be the
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: first player to to wear that jersey, you know, for
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: a hundred games, all the hard work that my dad
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: put into me and my mom, the sacrifices they'd made
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: of driving us as a kid, and all the sacrifices
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: they made, they got to celebrate that day with me.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: And to be able to thank Pops for a hundred
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: games with the Nash, which back then was unheard of,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: it meant the world to me. So I would say
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: I could say this, I could say the bicycle kick,
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: I could say the first World Cup. There's so many moments,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But I think reaching one
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: hundred caps for a player, the longevity of being able
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: to do that and being able to celebrate it with
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: mom and dad, we don't get a lot of those
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: moments sometimes, so that was probably my best moment in
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: that national team jersey because I got to celebrate with
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: mom and dad.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, special moment for you, special moment for the program,
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: and in time for us to take one more break.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: We will be back in just a minute with Marcelo's
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: all time US men's national team starting eleven.
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: You just write Tab's name in penn Okay, you know
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: that one.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Is going to be in there.
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to Inside American Soccer. Please rate,
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: review and subscribe it. We'll be right back.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, welcome back to Inside American Soccer. Tabramos and Marcelo
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Balboa here with me, Matt Doyle. We are going to
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: get Marcelo in trouble with friends he's had for forty years.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: That's that part of the show. So all respect to
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: everyone who's ever played for the US men's national team,
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: but it is time for you, Marcelo, to pick your
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: best eleven. Everyone is in their prime, right. You know
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: you have to win one match in the World Cup.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: This is the US team that you're putting out there.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I tell you what. My bench is loaded, loaded,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: But no, I'm going to stick to my era of
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: because it's unfair to put the guys that are playing
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: now you know what I mean and stuff like that.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna put Mule and goal. Okay, okay, I'm
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: going to put tabas right back. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: You know what.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: I'm a sentimental guy. So I'm going to take Fernando
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Clovico at right back because he is my dearest friend
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: who passed away of cancer, but playing in a World
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Cup at almost forty years old, playing against Columbia, the
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: way he played, I gotta take him. I got Lexi,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: I put myself, and I put Steve Tarundelo because I
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: thought Tarundelo for me, it was probably one of the
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: best left sided backs we've seen right side. He can
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: play either side. I got Thomas Dooley and John Harks
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: as a double six because I do like players are
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: going to attack, and they both can attack. I have
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: protection for Tab between hearts and duly because tabs the ten.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: I don't want Tab wide. I want him in the
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: middle creating. Then I've got to Eric went all out
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: on the left because of his pace and I've seen
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: what he can do. Ernie Stewart down the right, and
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: I have Brian McBride up top.
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: So you got a four two three one. How do
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: you feel about that?
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: I like it. I like it.
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: I was usually, you know, kind of I don't want
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: to say stuck on the right side, but I never
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: really got an opportunity to play on the left side
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: cutting inside. But I think this will, this would give
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: me that chance, So I'm excited about it.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I'll let you float. I'll let you float.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Find the game, baby, find the game. That's all I was.
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: And McBride, by the way, hard not to pick McBride, right,
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, you know that such a good nine.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: You can do everything well. Eric. Listen, Eric can get
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: in there. If we needed to slide into a four
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: four two, we can slide Eric up top with Brian McBride.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: There's there's flexibility if I wanted to go three in
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: the back between Ernie and Tarndolo's wing backs, please. So
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: I went for the kind of multi kind of I
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: can switch formations and have the same eleven. So anybody
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: else I didn't pick. I am so sorry. I apologize.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: How much talk was there thirty odd years ago about
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: having that type of flexibility you're talking about now? Built
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: into an eleven. Is that something that Bora would say
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: or something that Bob Gansler would say, like, we're getting now, yeah,
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: you shouldn't, absolutely not.
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: Huh.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: My name is Bora br A. We played four four two,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: we play now, listen, I don't. Before Bora came in
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: and we went into a sweeper with gans we went
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: to a four, But there wasn't really much talk about
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: switching formations. Bora liked his four four two. It gave
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: him opportunity to push and it was advanced because when
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: you look at a four four two, the two wingers
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: could push up, you know what I mean. So, and
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: it was maybe a four to two four, you know
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: what I mean. But Bora's basic formation was always playing
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: out of before four two.
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: And the scouting was very little, you know. So, and
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: you know, Matt, because you're you're involved in this all
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: the time, you know. And now coaches have not only
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: their own way to play, but it's about exploiting, you know,
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: opportunities on other teams and and and that wasn't so
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: much part of the picture back then. It was more about, Hey,
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: this is who we are. We're going to play four
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: four two? Are we going to play four three three,
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: or it's going to be four five one. But it
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: was just this is who we are, and if you're
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: if you're on the right side, that's your position. And
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: if I have to take you out, I'm replacing you
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: with someone else who can play that position. And so
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: there wasn't a lot of tactical, let's just say, tactical
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: adjustments at any point.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: I was talking to bar this weekend with all the players,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: and he asked, he asked Clay Coleman, why you know
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: play against Columbia and he's like, I don't know. He goes,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: because you were criminal. He says to him, you know
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: what I mean. We're laughing at going like, okay, where's
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: he going with this? He goes look up the lineups.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: So he had everybody look up the lineups, and he
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: goes look at the difference between the games that he
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: played and the game that we were getting ready to play.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: He goes, Valencia played every game, and that game Valencia
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: didn't play, he put in Avila, and with Avila, who
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: was much quicker because they saw us play, he switched
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: Clay Coyman and put in Fernando Clavico that day because
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Fernando was twice as fast as Clay Shorter quicker, so
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: that was his tactical move.
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: That was it.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: There was no changing of four to four two. It
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: was tactically changing one player for another. Because Columbia saw
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: that they could take advantage of our outside, so he
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: put in Fernando. So we didn't have tapes. Bory just
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: had to adjust when he saw who was going to play.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: One of the things that I remember of your career, Marcello,
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: is that you sort of floated. Sometimes you were a stopper,
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: which is a position that basically doesn't exist anymore. Sometimes
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: you were a sweeper, which is a position that basically
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: doesn't exist anymore. And then Dora comes and you're playing
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: a flat two with Alexi, you know, as a sort
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: of a traditional center. That just speaks to how much
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: the role of the defender has evolved, especially in the nineties,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: but we see it even more I think today, or
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: at least the remnants of that today in how defenders
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: are playing the game.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I started off as a sweeper and then went
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: to a man. Marker Ganser came in. The Ganser had
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Mike Wendischman in the back with Tritchie, so he put
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: me as a six, so versatility for me was good.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: I played right back. In certain MLS games, I played
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: as a center forward. But the flexibility I think of
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: being able to play in a three man system of
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: four man system bill in the midfield was something that
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: was important. I think for for Bora, he wanted to
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: make sure that the two guys in the middle were
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: comfortable man marking, but they're also covering, comfortable covering for
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: each other and reading the game. The flexibility. You don't
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: see that too much anymore. You don't see that you're
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: a year either three or you're playing four, but you're
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: man marking. There's no sweeping, there's no it's just a
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: flat four or flat three. And I always liked the three,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: to be honest with you, I don't know why, but
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: I felt comfortable with the three guys at times that
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: you were in the back with you know what I mean.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: And I remember I think it was Samson tried LEXI,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: myself and Pope back there in a three man system
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: and listen when you got Eddie Pope sitting behind you
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: as that guy in the middle, or I've got Eddie
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Pope to my right, and I know the Pacy has
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: to help me cover in the mark space. I think
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: it comes down to is the trust you have in
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: the person next to you and the person that if
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: the more games you play, the more comfortable you feel.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Like I knew Lexi's routine like there was no tomorrow
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: because we played so many games together, and then Pope
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: started coming in. I started understanding how Pope liked to play.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: So I think that's what we kind of we We
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: don't have that much that much anymore because there's so
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: many changes in club soccer. There's not you don't have
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: a peg. But when was the last time you can
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: remember a pairing that lasted more than three or four
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: years in an MLS? You know what I mean? It's
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: it's difficult.
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: So I'm going to put you guys on the spot
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: to take us out, and I'm going to start with you. Marcello.
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: You're now the coach.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: You're now the coach of the New York Red Bulls,
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: and you have just signed nineteen year old Tabramos. Where
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: on the field does he play? How are you going
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: to get the best out of him?
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: Wherever the hell he wants to I've seen tab plays,
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: so wherever the hell no, you know what, I think
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: that would be a conversation I would have with a
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: nineteen year old I try to understand him little more
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: where he's comfortable, where he feels safe, where he can
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: be creative and he can play his best. Because when
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: you play a player in a position where he's comfortable,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: he's used to playing it, then you can get the
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: best out of him. So at nineteen years old, you're
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: not going to put the weight of a New York
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: Red Bulls team on him. So are you comfortable out
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: wide where you can run at players one on one?
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Are you more comfortable to the middle so you can
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: go side to side. I think that's a conversation I
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: would have with Tab at nineteen, And I think at nineteen,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: knowing Tab and watching him play at that ear, I
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: probably would have played him on the outside. I would
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: have played him at the outside, let him isolate himself
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: against one on one because you know what Tab does well.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Tab slows you down as a defender. And when he
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: slows you down his first step, boom, he does a
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: little he does a little dip and then the other
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: one is like see y'all. So I would I would
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: probably have played him on the outside at nineteen, just
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: so he can use his pace and as athleticism to
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: run out players.
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: Play him inverted in a in a four three three
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: on the left side.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just let him play even you know what, four
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: two three one. Let him sit out there, let him
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: isolate himself. Anytime you get Tab at that at that
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: young age, I remember how well and how quick he was. Yeah,
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: I would. I would just put him in a position
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: where he is comfortable, where he's where he can isolate
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: himself one on one and he has space to run
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: out of a guy, because when he does that, you're
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: not stopping Tab.
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: What do you think Tab, coach?
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: I think I can do that.
• 50:55
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: And by the way, I'll tell you.
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: I'll tell you a little story. So when I'm went
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: to Spain, my first coach in Spain said to me,
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: ay Ramos, you know why we signed you here? And
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: I was like, no, coach, and he's like, well, you know,
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: we play in a four four to two. This was
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: Figuera is a small team that I signed with over there.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 51:14
  Speaker 4: And by the way, next to me on the four
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: four two, he goes, well, you're gonna play all the
• 51:17
  Speaker 4: way wide on the four four two, and next to
• 51:19
  Speaker 4: me was Tito Villanova, you know, so that's but anyway,
• 51:22
  Speaker 4: he goes, we're gonna circulate the bowl really quick to
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: get you to get you the ball on the right
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: side as quickly as possible. If if we get the
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: ball to you at a point where you can be
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: one v one without coverage, I want you to take
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: him on. Right, You're gonna take him on every time.
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: You're gonna beat the You're gonna beat that guy. And
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: you're gonna cross the ball and put it between the
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: six yard box and the nine in the penalty spot.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Can you do that?
• 51:47
  Speaker 4: And I go, yeah, coach, coach, I can do that,
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: And he goes, because if you can't, I'll find somebody
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: else who can do it.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: That That was life there.
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: That was like my first day there.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: All right, I'm feeling pretty good.
• 52:01
  Speaker 5: I can do it.
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: I can do it. At least I knew the job.
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: But now now it's time to do this in reverse.
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: Right, you have you're the coach of the Colorado Rapids,
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: and you have a twenty one year old Marcia. Because
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: center backs developed a little bit later, so you have
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: a twenty one year old Marcelo Balboa. How are you
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: gonna line up? Where is he going to play? What
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: is the what are the instructions going to be for
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: this twenty one year old, precocious bicycle kick in center
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: back you suddenly have on your hands.
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: No, yeah, well I'm gonna I'll say this that I
• 52:36
  Speaker 4: it's pretty easy to pick a position. I would pick
• 52:38
  Speaker 4: them on the right side of a four to four
• 52:39
  Speaker 4: to two as a as a right sided center back.
• 52:43
  Speaker 4: I what I would do, though, is give them give
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: him an opportunity to get forward in certain situations. So
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: I would want to have a stay home number six
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: because Marcello, if anything, proved throughout his career, in particular
• 52:55
  Speaker 4: later in his career, as he got more comfortable and
• 52:58
  Speaker 4: obviously that comes with experience, he got to go forward
• 53:01
  Speaker 4: a lot more. He was a lot more freedom to
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: his game. So I would play him definitely on the
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: right side of that of the two center backs, and
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: I would have it stay at home number six. I
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: could potentially cover for him when he gets forward, and
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: obviously then use him as a weapon on set pieces
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: because he continues to be I think in terms of
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: MLS and what we've seen in the history of MLS
• 53:23
  Speaker 4: for the last you know, thirty years. I don't think
• 53:26
  Speaker 4: there has been a match in the opposing backs for
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: what Marcello in the opposing box, for what Marcello could
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: do on on set pieces on the attack.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, coach, I can do that.
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: I can do that. I think you guys, I'm glad.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: I'm glad we didn't play when there was var brother.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm gonna say.
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: Hallelujah, hallelujah a different time, at a wonderful time. Talking
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: to the U, to the two of you, taking a
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: trip down memory lane. I think all our listeners will
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: really choy this one for what it's worth. I think
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: both coaches made the right decision with how to employ
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: their new prodigies on their team. And to all our listeners,
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: thank you so much for listening to Inside American Soccer.
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: Please rate, review and subscribe. And once again, Marcelo, thank
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: you so much for joining us today. Absolutely wonderful.
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: Thank you guys for having me