Latest / Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos / Top-5 MLS Players Who Need to Impress Pochettino, and The Next Step for U.S. Soccer's Evolution

Transcript

Top-5 MLS Players Who Need to Impress Pochettino, and The Next Step for U.S. Soccer's Evolution · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

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Speaker 1: I think although ninety four was great, I think it
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Speaker 1: was the culmination of the beginning of soccer being back
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Speaker 1: on the map.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 1: It was eighty nine through ninety four and it was
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Speaker 1: great and it was exciting.
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Speaker 2: And now now we need.
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Speaker 1: To play with the big boys.
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Speaker 3: Greetings, folks, and welcome to Inside American Soccer with Tab
0:22
Speaker 3: Ramos and Tom Boger. Of course, I'm not Tom Boger.
0:25
Speaker 3: I'm Matt Doyle filling in for Tom for the next
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Speaker 3: couple of weeks. He's on baby duty for a little
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Speaker 3: while longer with his new son Theo, who I'm told
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Speaker 3: is already holding a hockey stick. Tab We might have
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Speaker 3: lost one to hockey already. Man, Like I thought, he's
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Speaker 3: gonna be a future soccer player. Tab of course, is
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Speaker 3: one of the great soccer players in US history, three
0:47
Speaker 3: time World Cup veteran original member of the Metro Stars.
0:51
Speaker 3: And are you planning to recruit young Theo Boger back
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Speaker 3: to the fold, get him onto the pitch instead of
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Speaker 3: at the rink?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think there's time. I think grabbing
1:03
Speaker 1: the hockey. I mean, who didn't grab a hockey stick
1:05
Speaker 1: this weekend?
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Speaker 2: Really?
1:06
Speaker 1: You know, obviously we're rooting for the USA got a
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Speaker 1: big win, first one in however many decades, right since
1:13
Speaker 1: was it since Saint Miracle?
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Speaker 3: Right?
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Speaker 1: So, yeah, so we're all happy about that. We're all rooting,
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Speaker 1: and I think it's really nice that he grabbed the
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Speaker 1: hockey stick and then you know, let's just go him
1:24
Speaker 1: a week and about a week from now, it's time
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Speaker 1: to put the hockey stick down and get back to
1:28
Speaker 1: the soccer ball already for THEA.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, hopefully there'll be some grafts to play on, though
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Speaker 3: it's all buried under two feet of snow in New
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Speaker 3: Jersey and all the parts in the Northeast where we
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Speaker 3: both are. I thought it was great in that hockey
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Speaker 3: game that the US won by bunker encountering, Like it
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Speaker 3: gave me some flashbacks if you watched that the two
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Speaker 3: minutes that was the entirety of overtime. It was three
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Speaker 3: v three and it was just like one break after
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Speaker 3: another by the Canadians until the US stop and just
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Speaker 3: countered in the other direction. Like it felt like watching
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Speaker 3: some of you guys in the nineteen nineties, because there
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Speaker 3: were so many games that where you guys had to
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Speaker 3: just absorb and then hit.
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Speaker 1: That's right, I think they went with long ball, which
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Speaker 1: I had not seen in hockey, so.
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Speaker 2: It was very effective. They went route one.
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Speaker 1: I think the Americans have one of the older English coaches,
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Speaker 1: I believe. I don't know much about hockey, but it
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Speaker 1: was effective and at the end of the day, you know,
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Speaker 1: as always, what matters in sports is to score one
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Speaker 1: more than the other team, and that's what it's about,
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Speaker 1: and that's what they did, so.
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Speaker 3: That is the best important data. Yeah, forg rest to them.
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Speaker 3: It is of course awesome to watch international competition in
2:48
Speaker 3: basically any sport. I'm a sucker for the Olympics. Were
2:51
Speaker 3: both suckers for the World Cup, which you know is
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Speaker 3: coming this summer. And the whole point of this show
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Speaker 3: is try to tease apart what's happening with the US
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Speaker 3: and who has the inside traffic spots, and what we'll
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Speaker 3: see from Mauricio Pochettino's tactics, and what the chances are
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Speaker 3: for the US to have a moment in soccer like
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Speaker 3: the US just had in hockey. It feels like a
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Speaker 3: long shot, but crazy things have happened in this world
3:16
Speaker 3: of ours, and on the Show of Ours, we'll be
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Speaker 3: discussing the latest news around the national team, including Josh
3:24
Speaker 3: Sargent with a big move flow. Baaligan, who we talked
3:27
Speaker 3: about last week was in a bit of a goal
3:28
Speaker 3: scoring slump. He heard us Tab. He has had a
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Speaker 3: very good week over in France. Ricardo Pappy back on
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Speaker 3: the field score and a beauty of a goal. Tyler
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Speaker 3: Adams back as well. We're also going to have a
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Speaker 3: new segment where we rank all things US men's national team,
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Speaker 3: and this week, with the start of the MLS season,
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Speaker 3: we'll rank the top five MLS players who need to
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Speaker 3: impress Muricio Potchettino. And it's actually harder than it sounds like,
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Speaker 3: because pac has been very open to bring in MLS guys,
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Speaker 3: using them in crucial spots, including over some European based counterparts,
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Speaker 3: and so it's a long list, like I could go
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Speaker 3: ten deep on the MLS guys who need to impress
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Speaker 3: Punch for various reasons. And of course we will go
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Speaker 3: inside the locker room with Tab and talk about the
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Speaker 3: ninety five team. Everybody focuses on ninety four and how
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Speaker 3: that changed American soccer, but don't forget about what happened
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Speaker 3: in the aftermath when he took all the glory and
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Speaker 3: all the accomplishments of ninety four and spun it into
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Speaker 3: something really professional. I'm looking forward to hearing those stories
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Speaker 3: from TAB and I think it's one that is important
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Speaker 3: for our listenership because I don't think everybody knows about them.
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Speaker 3: But first, let's start with the US national team news.
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Speaker 3: Let's start with Josh Sargent TAB. He signed with Toronto
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Speaker 3: FC this week. Tom reported, Of course, congrats on Tom
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Speaker 3: for another big scoop twenty two million dollar move with
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Speaker 3: the incentives that could bring it up to about twenty
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Speaker 3: six or twenty seven million. I think he has been
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Speaker 3: in season though he has not been playing for a while.
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Speaker 3: He has been training. Toronto FC badly need the help.
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Speaker 3: Like how fast do we think this gets done for
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Speaker 3: him to get over here and get Like if you
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Speaker 3: were coaching Orld, you just put him in the eleven
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Speaker 3: next week if he's good to go.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, first of all, obviously always Tom
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Speaker 1: is always reporting first, so I can see. I'm trying
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Speaker 1: to picture Tom at home with a baby in one hand,
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Speaker 1: on one arm, in.
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Speaker 2: The phone on the other right.
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Speaker 1: This is I would imagine that's what Tom looks like
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Speaker 1: every day. But yeah, you know, the the Josh situation
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Speaker 1: is obviously took a while. It's been a month over
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Speaker 1: a month now since Josh has played. Because he's been out,
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Speaker 1: he's sort of you know, left a side by the
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Speaker 1: coach there, with which obviously the coach has is right.
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Speaker 1: You know, if a player is not happy, he doesn't
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Speaker 1: want to have a unhappy player on the field or
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Speaker 1: sometimes even in training, right, you want to have positivity there,
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Speaker 1: as in particular in the situation that Norwich has been in,
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Speaker 1: which is you know, battle week to week to avoid
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Speaker 1: that relegation. Right. So now Josh finds himself in in Toronto.
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Speaker 1: You know, I think it's obviously a good move for
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Speaker 1: him because that's what he wanted. So you know, you
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Speaker 1: we would assume he's going to be happy there and
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Speaker 1: that he's happy to be back back in MLS.
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Speaker 3: Uh.
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Speaker 1: In terms of the coaching side, and do you put
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Speaker 1: him in, I mean, I think Josh, you know, played
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Speaker 1: most of the season at Norwich.
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Speaker 2: Uh, he has been training.
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Speaker 1: You know, let's not forget MLS has just played one
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Speaker 1: game so far. So I can't imagine that where there
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Speaker 1: would be a way where Josh is further behind than
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Speaker 1: really MLS players at this point. So if I were
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Speaker 1: to coach, if I were to be coaching Josh at
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Speaker 1: this point, I would I would put him in. He's
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Speaker 1: number nine, he's ready to go, he knows his job
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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, with a week of train he
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Speaker 1: should be ready to go. So I expect him to
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Speaker 1: see him right away.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I think his biggest strength as a number nine is
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Speaker 3: his ability to combine with the rest of the attackers,
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Speaker 3: and that's something that we saw throughout his career. I mean,
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Speaker 3: I remember watching him with the twenties when you were
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Speaker 3: the head coach, and his ability to bring the other
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Speaker 3: attackers into the play and then create something out of
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Speaker 3: that as a group, and that's something that Toronto desperately need.
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Speaker 3: They did score two goals this week, and both of
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Speaker 3: them were just very direct off of turnover as a
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Speaker 3: bad rebound on one of them from the Dallas goalkeeper.
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Speaker 3: It wasn't stuff that they were sort of creating as
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Speaker 3: a unit. Josh Startin's ability to help teams create as
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Speaker 3: a unit is his greatest strength as a center forward,
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Speaker 3: and it's something that kind of ties a team together
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Speaker 3: and we saw that with him with the twenties back
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Speaker 3: in twenty nineteen when he was such a big part
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Speaker 3: of that team as playing up an age level, right,
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Speaker 3: he was seventeen, and you still brought him to that tournament.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, he actually played.
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Speaker 1: He played the Under twenty World Cup before he played
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Speaker 1: the Under seventeen World Cup, so he went he went
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Speaker 1: backwards on that one, just to get you know, John
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Speaker 1: Hackworth and I had a number of conversations about that,
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Speaker 1: but it was the right thing, and I think you
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Speaker 1: framed it. You framed it correctly. You know, I would
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Speaker 1: simplify that by just saying Josh is a soccer player.
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Speaker 2: He really is.
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Speaker 1: Like he's a number nine, but he's not just your
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Speaker 1: box nine. He is a soccer player, so he can
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Speaker 1: he makes.
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Speaker 2: The team better.
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Speaker 1: That's why I had no I had no issues at
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Speaker 1: all in moving him up two or three age groups
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Speaker 1: right away because I felt like he really understands the
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Speaker 1: game well and and for me, one of my favorite,
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Speaker 1: one of my favorite forwards that I had through my
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Speaker 1: you know, eight or ten years on the youth national teams.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, he really has that gift of, like you said,
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Speaker 3: being a soccer player and not just a box nine,
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Speaker 3: like being able to make something more functional on a
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Speaker 3: collective level. It hasn't translated for the US national team.
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Speaker 3: It like that is not the version of Josh that
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Speaker 3: we've seen. I think people have focused it rightly on
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Speaker 3: the fact that he hasn't been a goal scorer for
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Speaker 3: the national team. He hasn't scored since twenty nineteen. Why
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Speaker 3: do you have any like having watched all of it,
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Speaker 3: do you like, can you pinpoint anything in particular, so
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Speaker 3: why it hasn't worked worked for this kid who is
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Speaker 3: obviously so talented.
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Speaker 1: Well, you know, obviously, you know, we can say all
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Speaker 1: the way back to you know, twenty nineteen, but it's
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Speaker 1: really not that many games that he played in the process, right,
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Speaker 1: and not that many times or he was actually a
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Speaker 1: starter and got you know, got the full game. Havn't
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Speaker 1: said that I did, you know, we did watch Josh
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Speaker 1: miss miss a couple of important chances with the national team,
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Speaker 1: and that you know, with a forward sometimes you get
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Speaker 1: very limited opportunity. And let's not forget that the number
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Speaker 1: nine position has been one which has been very competitive
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Speaker 1: for the last you know, five or six years too,
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Speaker 1: So we've been looking for that nine that kind of
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Speaker 1: takes over and if you can recall It was only
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Speaker 1: about six months ago when we all started to say, okay,
10:16
Speaker 1: well we think Baligan is the guy. Right, So it's
10:19
Speaker 1: been it's been five or six years of not actually
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Speaker 1: having the guy, and because of that, any time forward
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Speaker 1: would make a mistake, it would sort of set him
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Speaker 1: back to be in on the being third now and
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Speaker 1: now you've got to build yourself up again to get
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Speaker 1: another chance. What I can tell you is this, Josh
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Speaker 1: is a good player. Josh could help the national team
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Speaker 1: today if he had an opportunity. But of course, you know,
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Speaker 1: he hasn't been played now for a little while. You know,
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Speaker 1: I think if he can get some consistency in Toronto,
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Speaker 1: I think it's you know, he could be back in
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Speaker 1: the fold and why not now?
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Speaker 3: And Toronto need him to live up to that. They
10:57
Speaker 3: need him to be great in MLS. He can't just
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Speaker 3: be very good. He needs to be great, one of
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Speaker 3: the best center for US in the league. That's what
11:05
Speaker 3: he's being paid. Like twenty two million dollars is a
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Speaker 3: very very big number for an MLS team, for any
11:13
Speaker 3: team really for a transfer. But he's in the prime
11:16
Speaker 3: of his career. Family reasons one of the big reasons
11:20
Speaker 3: he wanted to come back to North America. I was
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Speaker 3: almost about to say the United States, but no, Toronto's Canada.
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Speaker 3: But wanted to come back to North America. And here
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Speaker 3: he is, and he's got it all in front of
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Speaker 3: him and a lot to prove. He's been really, really
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Speaker 3: good for Norwich. He had Bundesliga interest. He's obviously a
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Speaker 3: really talented guy. But the hope is that his best
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Speaker 3: years are ahead of him because the guys in front
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Speaker 3: of him on the depth chart for the number nine
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Speaker 3: for the US. We saw what Floebaalagan did this week,
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Speaker 3: three goals, two of them against PSG. He has laid
11:56
Speaker 3: down a marker for club and for country. It's gonna
11:58
Speaker 3: be a hard man to catch. The number one guy
12:01
Speaker 3: at Demid. I think on everybody's depth chart for the
12:05
Speaker 3: US national team is Tyler Adams. That always comes with
12:08
Speaker 3: an asterisk, It always comes with a caveat if healthy.
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Speaker 3: Tyler Adams, if healthy, is the clear choice to be
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Speaker 3: the starting defensive midfielder. It is just a massive load
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Speaker 3: bearing if and the good news to have. This week
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Speaker 3: Tyler Adams returned to action for Bournemouth. Were you concerned
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Speaker 3: about his recovery and do you feel better now, and like,
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Speaker 3: what's your confidence level going forward in his ability physically
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Speaker 3: to stay where he needs to stay well.
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Speaker 1: First, it's a little bit alarming when players continue to
12:47
Speaker 1: get hurt, right at the same time, I think this
12:51
Speaker 1: latest injury was more unlucky than anything else. To be fair,
12:56
Speaker 1: It's not like it's your normal player, you know. I
12:59
Speaker 1: remember it. Towards the end of my career, I kept
13:00
Speaker 1: getting muscular injuries, right, So once you start to get hurt,
13:04
Speaker 1: and you get muscular injuries, it's almost like, man, there's
13:07
Speaker 1: just no turning back. There's just there's always something. I
13:10
Speaker 1: think in this case, it's not one of those. I
13:12
Speaker 1: think it was unfortunate this time that he got hurt.
13:15
Speaker 1: And I think we mentioned it on this show that
13:17
Speaker 1: they said, well it's going to be you know, two
13:19
Speaker 1: to three months, likely March, and we said, if anything, okay,
13:23
Speaker 1: if they said March, Tyler Adams will probably be back
13:25
Speaker 1: in February, which is exactly what happened. Right. He's a
13:28
Speaker 1: hard worker, you know, he will beat the expectations in
13:33
Speaker 1: terms of work required and then getting onto the field,
13:38
Speaker 1: and he did that and by the way, jumping into
13:40
Speaker 1: the EPL cannot be easy. He played I think sixty
13:44
Speaker 1: or seventy minutes and he did well. He looked like
13:47
Speaker 1: he belonged and he was ready for that level, which
13:49
Speaker 1: is not easy. So so yeah, am I concerned about
13:54
Speaker 1: the World Cup? You know, I'm always a little bit
13:57
Speaker 1: concerned with Tyler because of the history of the last
14:00
Speaker 1: few years, but not necessarily because of this injury. I
14:03
Speaker 1: think he'll put it behind him.
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Speaker 3: One of the big concerns for me with Tyler is
14:07
Speaker 3: if he does get injured, it changes the way the
14:10
Speaker 3: US have to play, because nobody in the pool, a
14:14
Speaker 3: few players in the world man match what he brings
14:18
Speaker 3: as a front foot defender. He reads those moments so quickly,
14:23
Speaker 3: and you know, we think about it as defensively being
14:26
Speaker 3: you know, lines of banks of four and you know,
14:29
Speaker 3: put pressure on this pass, force that wide get, you know,
14:32
Speaker 3: cause a turnover over here. But what Tyler is best
14:35
Speaker 3: at is those transition like those red bull moments, right,
14:38
Speaker 3: those energies drink soccer moments where he reads the incipient
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Speaker 3: turnover or chance to cause a turnover before anybody else
14:46
Speaker 3: and he blows up one counter attack after another after another.
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Speaker 3: Without him in there, it's a cascade effect, because nobody
14:54
Speaker 3: else in the pool is anywhere close to as good
14:57
Speaker 3: as Tyler Adams about those moments that not only stop
15:01
Speaker 3: an opposing potential counter attack but also have a way
15:04
Speaker 3: of creating chances for the US if you're forcing a
15:06
Speaker 3: high turnover like that.
15:08
Speaker 2: Well, let me.
15:10
Speaker 1: Put tactics aside a little bit on this one, because
15:13
Speaker 1: the player I'm gonna say that's the closest to Tyler
15:15
Speaker 1: Adams when it comes to that type of playing is
15:19
Speaker 1: Weston McKinney. He if I had to pick one player
15:23
Speaker 1: who's always front foot, trying to win the ball, going
15:27
Speaker 1: for every tackle that he's gonna win and the ones
15:31
Speaker 1: he's likely not going to win, I think Weston is
15:34
Speaker 1: the closest thing. But Weston has not really played that
15:37
Speaker 1: defensive midfield of a role, right. He's been wide for Uventus,
15:41
Speaker 1: he's been the ten for events, he's been a withdrawn nine,
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Speaker 1: He's been and everything in between there, but not that role.
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Speaker 1: So that's why I said, let me leave tactics at side.
15:50
Speaker 1: I was just thinking, you know, if I think only
15:52
Speaker 1: about the mentality of the player, the closest to have
15:56
Speaker 1: the mentality that Tyler has is Weston to me, that's
15:59
Speaker 1: the closest. Now, let's say let's say, you know, Tyler
16:03
Speaker 1: goes down, I don't think Poschettino necessarily goes to someone
16:06
Speaker 1: who hasn't been playing there in that position. So now
16:09
Speaker 1: that opens the door to guys like Johnny Cardozo, who's
16:12
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit closer to just being a stay
16:15
Speaker 1: home although at Athletico Madrid he steps forward a little
16:18
Speaker 1: bit more. He can't do that role. And the reason
16:20
Speaker 1: I'm saying that is because although he's another player player
16:23
Speaker 1: who has not done well with the national team, he
16:26
Speaker 1: did it a Raal Betty's last year, the whole year,
16:29
Speaker 1: and he did it really well, that holding in front
16:32
Speaker 1: of the in front of the back four, winning the
16:34
Speaker 1: ball and playing it and not losing it and doing
16:37
Speaker 1: it in that which is not easy. And that's the
16:39
Speaker 1: reason why Athletico Madrid bought him. Now, from the average
16:43
Speaker 1: American fan, we haven't you know, we haven't seen that,
16:47
Speaker 1: But I think that would likely be the closest thing
16:50
Speaker 1: to someone.
16:50
Speaker 2: Holding that position.
16:51
Speaker 1: But from a mentality standpoint, I think Weston is really
16:55
Speaker 1: the only one that comes comes close to Tyler Addams.
17:00
Speaker 3: So let's turn back to the center forwards. We mentioned
17:03
Speaker 3: it at the top flow. Balligan had three goals this
17:06
Speaker 3: week across two games and two different competitions, and Ricardo
17:10
Speaker 3: Pepi returned and scored a gorgeous goal for PSV. That
17:14
Speaker 3: was good to see because that return was a little
17:17
Speaker 3: bit ahead of schedule. I think he wasn't supposed to
17:20
Speaker 3: be back until March as well. I think it's time
17:24
Speaker 3: to just say, all right, what's your current number nine
17:26
Speaker 3: depth chart? What does it look like for you?
17:28
Speaker 1: Tab It hasn't changed for me because even last week,
17:32
Speaker 1: I think when we saw Augimunt score and we saw
17:35
Speaker 1: Hajji Wright score, I think it was three to one game, right,
17:38
Speaker 1: we're all thinking, okay, you're going to be battling. But
17:41
Speaker 1: we did say on this show, you know, Balligan is
17:43
Speaker 1: playing against the best defenders in the world and the toughest,
17:47
Speaker 1: you know, competition in the world, which is the Champions League.
17:50
Speaker 1: You know, his club is very competitive and and you
17:53
Speaker 1: know at the top of league in France, so you
17:58
Speaker 1: have to take into consider the competition. And then Baligan
18:02
Speaker 1: goes out and scores two goals in the Champions League
18:04
Speaker 1: and adds another one on the weekend in the league.
18:06
Speaker 2: So I think I.
18:07
Speaker 1: Think At this point, I think it's pretty clear who
18:09
Speaker 1: we have as a number nine, and that's that's Bawigan
18:12
Speaker 1: and everybody else is really fighting for two and three.
18:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'll say everybody else for me right now
18:17
Speaker 3: is still pad Agimon number two. And I think there's
18:20
Speaker 3: not just goal scoring reasons for that, but there's tactical
18:24
Speaker 3: reasons in the way that teams press now. Teams have
18:29
Speaker 3: over the past three years gone back to almost strictly
18:32
Speaker 3: men oriented pressing. So there's been an uptick in playing
18:37
Speaker 3: long especially in the Indian international game. There's plenty of
18:40
Speaker 3: data to show it, and so you need to have
18:43
Speaker 3: sometimes a center forward who can just man handle opposing
18:47
Speaker 3: center backs and win that first ball. There's nobody in
18:50
Speaker 3: the pool who is better at that than pat Ogimon.
18:54
Speaker 3: The rest of his game needs plenty of work. He's
18:57
Speaker 3: not I don't think there's any chance to of him
19:01
Speaker 3: usurping Flowballigan as number one. But I think just because
19:05
Speaker 3: he brings an elite trait that is so salient in
19:09
Speaker 3: the modern game, I think he's the clear number two.
19:12
Speaker 3: And then for number three for me, it's still Hodgi
19:14
Speaker 3: right Peppy. I was really happy to see him back
19:18
Speaker 3: I think he's a more natural goal scorer, really a
19:20
Speaker 3: more natural number nine than Hadgi. Right, I need to
19:24
Speaker 3: see him do it against better competition. I need to
19:27
Speaker 3: see him do it against I X, I need to
19:29
Speaker 3: see him do it against Fayenord. I need to see
19:31
Speaker 3: him do it more consistently in the Champions League and
19:35
Speaker 3: international competition. And he's had some moments like that a
19:38
Speaker 3: couple of years ago, but it hasn't been consistent. And
19:41
Speaker 3: the other thing is I need to see him go ninety.
19:44
Speaker 3: This guy's only gone ninety a dozen times in the
19:46
Speaker 3: past three years. So the talent is there, the opportunity
19:50
Speaker 3: is there, hopefully the health will be there, and then
19:52
Speaker 3: if the goals start coming on top of that, he
19:55
Speaker 3: can climb those charts. But for me still, Ricardo Peppi
19:59
Speaker 3: is number four on the center forward death chart. Everybody else,
20:03
Speaker 3: including Josh Sargent, behind those guys trying to catch up,
20:08
Speaker 3: and for us, it's time for a break. We'll be
20:11
Speaker 3: right back with our first Inside Rankings segment this week.
20:15
Speaker 3: It's top five MLS players who need to impress Pochettino
20:19
Speaker 3: right now. Please rate, review, and subscribe to Inside American
20:23
Speaker 3: Soccer with Tom Boger tab Ramos wherever you get your podcast,
20:38
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. Tab had a great
20:41
Speaker 3: idea for a new segment called Inside Rankings, where we
20:44
Speaker 3: rank our top five for all things US men's national
20:48
Speaker 3: team related. So this week, in honor of first Kick
20:52
Speaker 3: the start of the MLS season, we've got the top
20:54
Speaker 3: five MLS players who need to impress Mauricio Pochettino right now,
21:00
Speaker 3: and Tab, I'm going to grab the ball. I am,
21:02
Speaker 3: I'm going to kick us off for me. Believe it
21:05
Speaker 3: or not. It's Matt Freeze, and it's for a different
21:08
Speaker 3: reason than I think most people would consider for these
21:12
Speaker 3: top five lists. Matt Freeze, I think if he plays
21:16
Speaker 3: well over the next month and into March camp, he
21:19
Speaker 3: can shut the door. It's his job. If he continues
21:23
Speaker 3: to play like he did the second half of last
21:26
Speaker 3: year when he won the job for the national team
21:28
Speaker 3: and when he was excellent for NYCFC, there's no more
21:31
Speaker 3: discussion about who's starting in goal this summer for the
21:35
Speaker 3: US national team.
21:37
Speaker 2: I mean that's a good call.
21:38
Speaker 1: I would I would disagree that. You know, if this
21:41
Speaker 1: is someone who needs to impress, you know, you know,
21:44
Speaker 1: looking to impress. I would say that if Matt Freeze
21:49
Speaker 1: goes on cruise control between now and the World Cup
21:52
Speaker 1: and has sort of average games, I think the position
21:57
Speaker 1: is really his to lose. I don't think Matt, you know,
22:00
Speaker 1: with with as well as he's played for the national
22:03
Speaker 1: team and the consistency that he's had over the last
22:07
Speaker 1: you know, ten twelve games in which he started, I
22:12
Speaker 1: don't think he's going to lose that position unless he
22:15
Speaker 1: makes some big, big mistakes. So I I like that
22:18
Speaker 1: you choose him as your number five, But I think
22:22
Speaker 1: he's got his position pretty well, pretty well locked.
22:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so too. I'd like to see him
22:29
Speaker 3: shut the door. I'd like to see I would like
22:31
Speaker 3: to just feel really really good about what's happening in
22:34
Speaker 3: goal and we're getting there. I don't think we're quite
22:37
Speaker 3: there yet. We're not there on the back line. And
22:42
Speaker 3: that brings us to your number five pick. Yeah.
22:45
Speaker 1: So my number five is one that you can certainly
22:49
Speaker 1: argue with. And the reason I will say that is
22:53
Speaker 1: because a little bit like Matt Freeze is this is
22:56
Speaker 1: someone who needs to be on cruise control between now
22:59
Speaker 1: and the in the end the year, and this is
23:01
Speaker 1: Tim reim for me, the first day of you know,
23:05
Speaker 1: the MLS has only had one game so far, and
23:09
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was a great one for Tim,
23:11
Speaker 1: to be fair, and I wish I could tell you
23:15
Speaker 1: it was a one off, but this is what I
23:17
Speaker 1: saw at the end of the year last year too
23:19
Speaker 1: in MLS.
23:20
Speaker 2: For Tim Reim. I think Tim Reim.
23:23
Speaker 1: Although I believe sort of like maybe like roll down
23:27
Speaker 1: and to a certain extent, you know a player I'll
23:32
Speaker 1: name later, I think Posatino is going to pick them anyway.
23:39
Speaker 1: But I do think that at some point we have
23:42
Speaker 1: to think about his position at Charlotte, because what happens
23:46
Speaker 1: if Tim Reim all of a sudden doesn't start at Charlotte.
23:49
Speaker 3: What does that do?
23:51
Speaker 1: Right? But because this is and by the way, I
23:53
Speaker 1: love Tim Reim. He's a great guy. He's been an
23:56
Speaker 1: old time national team player that represents there so well,
24:00
Speaker 1: all of those things, right, But I'm looking purely at
24:04
Speaker 1: the soccer part. I mean, there could be a possibility
24:07
Speaker 1: that at some point, if Tim Reim doesn't really going
24:10
Speaker 1: on a solid cruise control where he's playing well, I
24:14
Speaker 1: think he could lose his spot in Charlotte. And if
24:16
Speaker 1: he does, what happens next.
24:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, what we saw this weekend and down the stretch
24:24
Speaker 3: and specifically then in the playoff series against NYCFC and
24:29
Speaker 3: Charlotte were eliminated. He father time has got up to
24:34
Speaker 3: him in terms of his speed. He is just not
24:37
Speaker 3: able to stay with most attackers in the open field.
24:42
Speaker 3: And Simon Betcher this past weekend looks like Gillian and
24:46
Speaker 3: Boppe at times. Man just sort of blowing by Tim Reim.
24:49
Speaker 3: And to me, Reim is still the best ball playing
24:54
Speaker 3: center back in the pool by a mile. Just got
24:57
Speaker 3: the classiest left but he reads the game well, but
25:00
Speaker 3: physically it's a question of whether or not he can
25:03
Speaker 3: keep up. And I think, like you, I think he'll
25:06
Speaker 3: be there anyway. I will be scared if Tim Reen
25:10
Speaker 3: is a starter for the national team this summer. I'm
25:14
Speaker 3: gonna say I would not be scared if Christian Roldan
25:16
Speaker 3: was starting for the US national team this summer. That's
25:20
Speaker 3: my number four pick. When we were talking about Tyler
25:24
Speaker 3: Adams before, Rodan is the guy I was thinking of
25:28
Speaker 3: who was closest to Tyler Adams in terms of defending
25:31
Speaker 3: on the front foot, creating those turnovers. And then he's
25:34
Speaker 3: also so good at tilting the field right. He reads
25:37
Speaker 3: the game really quickly and is able to dump balls
25:40
Speaker 3: into channels or hit those third line passes to feet
25:43
Speaker 3: into the half spaces. He's the only field player to
25:46
Speaker 3: have played in all six games during that great stretch
25:49
Speaker 3: last autumn for the US national team. And look, you
25:51
Speaker 3: could just tell how much Mauricio Pachettino loves him, and
25:54
Speaker 3: you could tell how much the players around him, for
25:57
Speaker 3: both club and country, love him. I think Christian Rodan
26:02
Speaker 3: over the next month has a chance to claim for
26:06
Speaker 3: his own that backup spot to Tyler Adams. Given Tyler's
26:10
Speaker 3: health issues, man, that might as well be a starting spot.
26:14
Speaker 3: So Christian Roldan very high on my list of guys
26:16
Speaker 3: who need to continue to impress Mauricio Pochettino.
26:20
Speaker 1: This is a good call, and I think he probably
26:24
Speaker 1: doesn't need to do a lot to impress Pugettino because
26:28
Speaker 1: of all of those things that you just mentioned, and
26:31
Speaker 1: above everything else, the value that he has to the
26:34
Speaker 1: group in general. He's very well like, he brings guys together,
26:39
Speaker 1: he allows the team to be better, He makes the
26:42
Speaker 1: team better on and off the field, and he has
26:45
Speaker 1: huge value. And besides that, you know you can always
26:48
Speaker 1: count somehow on us soccra on giving things away, Right,
26:51
Speaker 1: they don't send them to the.
26:52
Speaker 2: Super Bowl to do all that stuff.
26:54
Speaker 1: If they're not picking them this summer, that's just not happening, right,
26:57
Speaker 1: So you can always count on who's done on commercial
27:01
Speaker 1: to see who's gonna make the team, because this is
27:03
Speaker 1: actually how things work.
27:04
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously you're not gonna pick.
27:06
Speaker 1: Roll don to go to the super Bowl and then
27:09
Speaker 1: leave him home this summer.
27:10
Speaker 2: That's just not gonna happen. So you can count.
27:12
Speaker 1: And that's one pick the other twenty five guys you want.
27:16
Speaker 2: Right, and that's one.
27:17
Speaker 1: But but anyway, no, I agree with you that he
27:20
Speaker 1: has all of all of those qualities, and I think
27:23
Speaker 1: that's that's that's a good pick. But but you know,
27:26
Speaker 1: having said all that stuff, let's not forget you play.
27:28
Speaker 1: The games have to be played, and he has to
27:31
Speaker 1: continue to play well like he's done for the last
27:33
Speaker 1: how many years, thirty years. I don't even know he's
27:36
Speaker 1: going to Seattle forever, so but he has to continue
27:39
Speaker 1: to do what he's doing and it's gonna be He's
27:41
Speaker 1: gonna be in good shape.
27:43
Speaker 3: Tod, bring us to your number four guys. I so
27:45
Speaker 3: you have listed two guys at number four.
27:48
Speaker 1: I have a category, and this category will be the
27:52
Speaker 1: category of these guys are in, but be careful, right
27:56
Speaker 1: and and one is Diego Luna and the next one
27:58
Speaker 1: is Miles Robinson. Okay, these are two guys that I
28:01
Speaker 1: think if we had a big twenty six today, I'm
28:04
Speaker 1: pretty comfortable in saying that both of those guys are going.
28:07
Speaker 1: Now we need to play, and now we need the
28:09
Speaker 1: three months of impressing Maurico Bochettino so that no one
28:13
Speaker 1: that's playing in Europe will take their spot, right, That's
28:16
Speaker 1: that's really what it is. Let's not forget that there's
28:18
Speaker 1: a young there's a young Banks playing in Europe right now,
28:21
Speaker 1: No Kai Banks, who's doing really well and who likely
28:25
Speaker 1: will take a spot, and let that not be Miles
28:29
Speaker 1: Robinson spot. I think Miles is in a good spot.
28:32
Speaker 1: I think if he continues to play well for Cincinnati,
28:35
Speaker 1: he will be there.
28:37
Speaker 2: But I think he needs.
28:37
Speaker 1: To impress, no question with his ninety minute games. And
28:41
Speaker 1: by the way, for a team that's I think highly
28:43
Speaker 1: competitive and that will be at the top of at
28:45
Speaker 1: the top.
28:46
Speaker 2: Of the East, competing for everything on.
28:48
Speaker 1: Luna's side obviously didn't play the first game, but I
28:52
Speaker 1: think he needs to continue to do what he does,
28:55
Speaker 1: and that's make plays in the final third. If he
28:58
Speaker 1: continues to do that, that is a position where in particular,
29:02
Speaker 1: now that we haven't seen Giorna and I don't know
29:04
Speaker 1: how long again, I think that that becomes a position
29:09
Speaker 1: that's a little bit more up for grabs, and I
29:12
Speaker 1: think Diego Lunad needs to continue to do his job
29:14
Speaker 1: and make things happen in the final third.
29:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to see him be a little bit
29:18
Speaker 3: sharper in those moments. Miles Robinson was actually my third
29:21
Speaker 3: guy on the list, so I'm going to expand upon
29:23
Speaker 3: the point you made really strong ninety minute performance for
29:28
Speaker 3: him this weekend for FC Cincinnati and not just doing
29:32
Speaker 3: the stuff that Miles Robinson we all know is good at.
29:35
Speaker 3: He's devastating in the open field, running down opposing attackers
29:41
Speaker 3: and maybe our best center back in the box just aerially,
29:45
Speaker 3: and that's really important. Like we all know that this
29:49
Speaker 3: past two years, set pieces have had There's been a
29:52
Speaker 3: kind of a revolution in coaching set pieces and more
29:56
Speaker 3: and more goals coming off of set pieces. So we
29:58
Speaker 3: need guys who are good in the air on that
30:01
Speaker 3: back line, and Miles Robinson is really good at both
30:03
Speaker 3: those things. What we didn't see from him and from
30:05
Speaker 3: Cincinnati last year was real pitch control, using the ball
30:09
Speaker 3: and using your spacing to dictate terms. And we actually
30:13
Speaker 3: saw some of that this weekend. Granted it was against
30:17
Speaker 3: Atlanta's a bad team, so you don't want to read
30:19
Speaker 3: too much into it. But if Robinson can sort of
30:24
Speaker 3: take some of the chaos out of the game and
30:26
Speaker 3: replace it with control, which I think he did in
30:30
Speaker 3: Week one, that will go a long way, especially obviously
30:33
Speaker 3: if it translates to the US national team. And to
30:36
Speaker 3: me to have just intrinsically a pairing of Robinson and
30:41
Speaker 3: Chris Richards makes a whole hell of a lot of
30:45
Speaker 3: sense for the US if they're both sort of firing
30:49
Speaker 3: on cylinders like those guys seem like natural partners to me.
30:53
Speaker 2: Yet I agree with that.
30:55
Speaker 1: You know, there was one particular play, you know this
30:59
Speaker 1: this week in MLS where a ball was sent to
31:02
Speaker 1: al Maron. I think you'll remember the ball they sent
31:05
Speaker 1: out Moron, a little bit of a longer ball and
31:07
Speaker 1: you see al Moron running full speed and here comes
31:09
Speaker 1: to Miles Robinson at three quarter speed and stick his
31:12
Speaker 1: arms out and is a lot faster than that. Sort
31:16
Speaker 1: of I think that is the situation that we'll see
31:19
Speaker 1: in the World Cup, in particular in the first round,
31:21
Speaker 1: where the field is going to be opened up and
31:23
Speaker 1: in an open field. You know, Miles Robinson is hard
31:26
Speaker 1: to beat. You know, Miles has has good speed, uses
31:29
Speaker 1: his body well and I think that was sort of
31:31
Speaker 1: the perfect play. And you know, it kind of took
31:35
Speaker 1: me into the summer into saying, hey, you know, this
31:37
Speaker 1: could happen against Paraguay against the same player, right, or
31:40
Speaker 1: it could happen against others. But for the most part,
31:43
Speaker 1: in the first round, it's likely that we'll have the
31:45
Speaker 1: ball on the opposing side of the field and our
31:48
Speaker 1: in our our field will be wide open, and I
31:51
Speaker 1: think that's where i'd like to see a player like
31:52
Speaker 1: Mike Miles Robinson.
31:55
Speaker 3: All Right, I started this list with Matt Freeze, the
31:57
Speaker 3: guy who we both think will beware of the number
31:59
Speaker 3: one kit. You got a whole list of guys who
32:02
Speaker 3: are desperate to catch him. Yeah.
32:04
Speaker 1: I had to pick as almost a category because I
32:07
Speaker 1: do feel like Matt Freeze will be a lock and
32:11
Speaker 1: I do feel like if Turner does well in the spring,
32:15
Speaker 1: I think he will be a lock also, and mostly
32:19
Speaker 1: because I think we just can't throw his experience away.
32:22
Speaker 1: He's coming from playing the the last World Cup and
32:25
Speaker 1: I think that'll be important to the team.
32:26
Speaker 2: Now when it.
32:27
Speaker 1: Comes to the number three, I put a list of
32:30
Speaker 1: you know, Patrick Salty, you know Brady Celentano, and I
32:35
Speaker 1: think all those guys, and I mean, you could potentially
32:37
Speaker 1: throw Stephan in there if you wanted to, but but
32:40
Speaker 1: I just think we are looking for a number three.
32:43
Speaker 1: Don't forget Clinchman has been doing really well in Syria,
32:47
Speaker 1: b in Italy playing for Chase and I and I
32:52
Speaker 1: and I and I think he's a He's a legitimate
32:55
Speaker 1: contender for the number three spot. So I think all
32:58
Speaker 1: three of these guys, Salty, Braiding, Selling Tano are they
33:01
Speaker 1: have to show and if there is there is any
33:03
Speaker 1: position what we need to impress this is the position.
33:07
Speaker 1: And those guys have to be fighting at this point
33:09
Speaker 1: for me for the third spot on the roster as
33:12
Speaker 1: a goalkeeper. But they definitely have to show this spring.
33:16
Speaker 3: Are you disappointed that Gaga Slannina isn't in this discussion,
33:20
Speaker 3: given how good he was a few years ago at
33:22
Speaker 3: such a young age for Chicago, and then he makes
33:24
Speaker 3: that big move to Chelsea and he's he's kind of
33:27
Speaker 3: dropped off the face of the earth.
33:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, those moves to Chelsea, they're not always great.
33:32
Speaker 1: You know, we have a lot of history with that.
33:34
Speaker 1: Me Aska, There's a bunch of guys who made that
33:37
Speaker 1: move and it didn't necessarily pan out. I am surprised.
33:42
Speaker 1: I'm surprised because you know, five, six, seven years ago
33:46
Speaker 1: we thought of him as the next great right and uh,
33:49
Speaker 1: he had that potential, not saying that he couldn't be.
33:52
Speaker 1: You know, goalkeeping is one of those positions where you
33:55
Speaker 1: can get you get better as you get older, and
33:58
Speaker 1: you can potentially potentially play into your late thirties and
34:02
Speaker 1: play really well into your late thirties. So I do
34:05
Speaker 1: think there's still a chance. I just don't think he
34:07
Speaker 1: put himself in position right now to battle, and that
34:11
Speaker 1: is a disappointment for me.
34:13
Speaker 3: Yeah. Two guys who did put themselves in position to battle,
34:19
Speaker 3: one who I think is very clearly in the pool
34:21
Speaker 3: and one who's a reach. Jack McGlenn for the Houston Dynamo,
34:25
Speaker 3: who has been part of Murcio Pochettino's camp has one
34:30
Speaker 3: of the best, like the best left foot in the world. Man,
34:33
Speaker 3: Like he's in that discussion, you know, non Leo Messi category. Anyway,
34:39
Speaker 3: just absolutely devastating set piece delivery. Played one of the
34:43
Speaker 3: best passes you'll ever see this weekend for Houston's opener.
34:46
Speaker 3: Was playing deeper as number eight. Has also played as
34:50
Speaker 3: a number ten. Incredible vision hits, those disguised passes across
34:55
Speaker 3: his hips through ball artist. And then there's like a
34:58
Speaker 3: Jack McGlenn clone in San Jose playing for Bruce Arena
35:02
Speaker 3: named Niko Chakiris, who was a product of the Quakes academy,
35:07
Speaker 3: who was arguably the best player on the USU twenty
35:10
Speaker 3: team this past year. He's wearing the number ten for
35:13
Speaker 3: the Quakes. Had an assist this weekend, was involved in
35:16
Speaker 3: all three of their goals. He's a true number ten.
35:21
Speaker 3: McGlenn is in the picture. I understand shakirass a reach,
35:25
Speaker 3: but we have seen this from Mauricio Pochettino. Before young
35:29
Speaker 3: player gets his opportunity. Young player impresses, young player gets
35:33
Speaker 3: called into camp. Do either of these guys have a
35:36
Speaker 3: chance for you?
35:37
Speaker 1: Tab I'll start by saying no, that they don't, but
35:44
Speaker 1: I'll follow I'll follow that by saying that I love both.
35:47
Speaker 2: Of these guys there. These are good players.
35:50
Speaker 1: You know, Jack McGlenn, I think he's played in a
35:53
Speaker 1: better position for himself. Now if you recall, you know
35:56
Speaker 1: he did it. It seemed like for a bunch of
35:58
Speaker 1: years in Philadelphia playing that sort of with drawn number eight,
36:02
Speaker 1: but on the left side, right serving balls. You know,
36:05
Speaker 1: Jack is just such a great player. He's fun to watch.
36:08
Speaker 1: He does everything well. If there was anything that Jack
36:13
Speaker 1: lacks is getting into the box a little bit more.
36:16
Speaker 1: He's not a guy that gets into the box. He
36:19
Speaker 1: always ends up about twenty yards out. I'd like to
36:22
Speaker 1: see him do that more. But I certainly feel like
36:25
Speaker 1: I know I started by saying no, they don't have
36:27
Speaker 1: a chance, but I do feel like if they, If
36:31
Speaker 1: he in particular got picked for the national team, it
36:34
Speaker 1: would not necessarily surprise me because he deserves to be there.
36:37
Speaker 1: He's a good player. So Jack being on the field
36:40
Speaker 1: in the World Cup this summer, number one would not
36:43
Speaker 1: scare him, and number two he belongs. So I'll have
36:47
Speaker 1: to say no only because of the numbers we have
36:49
Speaker 1: in front of them. But not because he doesn't belong
36:54
Speaker 1: in terms of securities. I agree with you that this
36:57
Speaker 1: summer or last summer in the World Cup, he and
37:01
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Reigns were the best two players that we had
37:04
Speaker 1: who were consistent pretty much every game. I think Nico's
37:08
Speaker 1: a little bit more of an attacking player than Jack is.
37:12
Speaker 1: He's a little bit more of a creator. He's a
37:15
Speaker 1: little bit more technical in terms of getting out of,
37:19
Speaker 1: you know, tight things and being more of a true ten.
37:24
Speaker 1: I think he's he's a creator. I think it's a
37:27
Speaker 1: little bit late for him to get on this. But again,
37:31
Speaker 1: I will say that you know you have a twenty
37:33
Speaker 1: six man roster.
37:34
Speaker 2: Out of the twenty.
37:35
Speaker 1: Six players, it's likely that you will play your whole
37:38
Speaker 1: World Cup with eighteen or seventeen or nineteen, right, So
37:43
Speaker 1: maybe you want to add a couple of younger guys
37:45
Speaker 1: in the end to give him that experience. I know
37:47
Speaker 1: I would, and I would not be against you know,
37:50
Speaker 1: Securia as being one of those, because I think he
37:52
Speaker 1: has the talent for that, and he's one of the
37:55
Speaker 1: guys in the next generation coming along. So I agree
37:58
Speaker 1: with both these players on you that with you that
38:01
Speaker 1: they need to impress, and they will impress because they're
38:04
Speaker 1: good players. I just think that they're they're they're a
38:07
Speaker 1: long shot.
38:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so too, but I felt the need
38:10
Speaker 3: to mention them because they are two of my favorite
38:13
Speaker 3: players to watch in MLS. It's nice to see MLS
38:19
Speaker 3: academies producing really classy, sort of almost South American coded
38:26
Speaker 3: attacking players. It reminds me of the Tabromos days a
38:30
Speaker 3: little bit. For the longest time, tab US soccer fans
38:33
Speaker 3: gonna say, why is tab the only one we've ever
38:36
Speaker 3: produced who plays like this? And now is a bit
38:38
Speaker 3: by bit there seems to be more from your lineage,
38:41
Speaker 3: like this is your legacy as a US soccer Great
38:44
Speaker 3: to see players like this coming out of our academies.
38:48
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, obviously can't take credit for any of that,
38:51
Speaker 1: but it's nice to hear those things sometimes. I am
38:55
Speaker 1: happy that that we do have a bunch of creative
38:58
Speaker 1: players coming along who can who can make plays out
39:02
Speaker 1: of nothing, you know, and and that's that's encouraging. And
39:05
Speaker 1: certainly the two players you just mentioned are are are
39:08
Speaker 1: this way.
39:10
Speaker 3: Let's move a little bit deeper into midfield for your
39:14
Speaker 3: next pick.
39:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, so my last two picks, and I'll start with
39:17
Speaker 1: the number two would be for me, it would be
39:22
Speaker 1: Sebastian Burrholter because I think, you know, with the way
39:26
Speaker 1: the central part of midfield is is laying out, he's
39:32
Speaker 1: becoming a little bit of a long shot and he
39:34
Speaker 1: has a shot at this right but but it goes
39:37
Speaker 1: you know, part of him having a shot is exactly
39:40
Speaker 1: what this list is about, which is impressing Marisa Putchettino
39:44
Speaker 1: over the next three or four.
39:45
Speaker 2: Months in MLS.
39:47
Speaker 1: And I think he needs to do that, and he
39:48
Speaker 1: needs to do that game in and game out. And
39:50
Speaker 1: by the way, I've never seen the kid take a
39:53
Speaker 1: day off, so it's not like he's not going to.
39:55
Speaker 1: I expect him to do exactly what he's doing and
39:59
Speaker 1: continue to do that.
40:00
Speaker 2: He is a good player.
40:02
Speaker 1: There's a lot of ways in which he can help
40:04
Speaker 1: this national team. And I hope he just has that
40:07
Speaker 1: consistency through the spring that he has always had. But
40:11
Speaker 1: he's certainly won the NISSA impress.
40:14
Speaker 3: All right, and why don't you give us our number
40:16
Speaker 3: one and then I'll bring us out with my number
40:19
Speaker 3: one pick.
40:20
Speaker 1: Okay, so I'll go right to the number one. The
40:22
Speaker 1: number one is one that I think is a long shot.
40:25
Speaker 1: But if there's someone who needs to impress, that would
40:27
Speaker 1: be Josh Sargent. I think as we mentioned, and you
40:30
Speaker 1: started the show by saying, hey, if you're a forward
40:33
Speaker 1: and you score goals, you always have a chance.
40:35
Speaker 2: Right.
40:36
Speaker 1: He's a forward and he scores goals, and he will
40:39
Speaker 1: score goals, and I think that he is the number
40:43
Speaker 1: one guy that needs to impress this spring to get
40:46
Speaker 1: into that picture of being one of likely four forwards
40:50
Speaker 1: that Mauricio Pochettino is going to pick.
40:52
Speaker 2: I think he has a shot at it.
40:54
Speaker 1: I think it's a long shot, but if there's someone
40:56
Speaker 1: out there that needs to impress, it certainly is Josh Sargent.
41:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel bad for him because it almost feels
41:04
Speaker 3: like the door was closed on his opportunity last year
41:08
Speaker 3: when he did get into camp and he didn't impress
41:11
Speaker 3: and agimn did and like it almost feels like it's
41:16
Speaker 3: too late. But as you said, as you know, over
41:20
Speaker 3: the past month i've been hosting this show, I've got
41:22
Speaker 3: to talk with folks like Marcello Balboa, Clint Mathis, who
41:26
Speaker 3: knows a thing or two about scoring goals for the
41:28
Speaker 3: national team. If you get hot at the right time
41:32
Speaker 3: in the two months leading up to the World Cup,
41:35
Speaker 3: in the six months leading up to the World Cup,
41:37
Speaker 3: whatever it is, you are a consistent goal scorer as
41:40
Speaker 3: a number nine. Everybody pays attention to that because that
41:43
Speaker 3: is the job. It's what I was talking about with
41:45
Speaker 3: the crowded Peppi before. It's what we're talking about with
41:47
Speaker 3: Josh Sargent. That's what I'm going to talk about with
41:49
Speaker 3: my number one pick, seventeen year old Julian Hall. MLS
41:54
Speaker 3: Player of the Week from match Day one. He had
41:57
Speaker 3: a brace for the Red Bulls down in Orlando. They
42:00
Speaker 3: were the only road team to win this weekend. He
42:04
Speaker 3: was awesome in combo play and he was I thought,
42:08
Speaker 3: really polished and patient and smart in front of goal
42:12
Speaker 3: to find those tappens that the Red Bulls patterns of
42:15
Speaker 3: play was creating. The number one skill for a center
42:19
Speaker 3: forward is to find easy chances. If you can do
42:22
Speaker 3: that consistently, then you will keep scoring. We've seen that
42:26
Speaker 3: again and again and again. It translates up. Julian Hall
42:30
Speaker 3: is just seventeen, probably not there physically, but if he
42:35
Speaker 3: plays like one of the best center forwards in MLS,
42:41
Speaker 3: is there any reason for Mauricio Pachettino to ignore him.
42:46
Speaker 3: Is there any reason for him to say, oh, this
42:48
Speaker 3: kid said, well, he's gonna turn eighteen next month. Oh,
42:51
Speaker 3: this eighteen year old kid, he's too young. He's not.
42:54
Speaker 3: If he's doing the job, you have to pay attention.
42:57
Speaker 3: Isn't that the rule?
43:00
Speaker 1: Wow? I really like this pick actually because as you know,
43:03
Speaker 1: I'm not a I'm not a stats guy, but I
43:06
Speaker 1: believe he's averaging two goals a game in his professional
43:09
Speaker 1: career and first visit. So that's pretty good, right. That
43:13
Speaker 1: will put him up with anyone. Right, So, no, I
43:17
Speaker 1: I agree with all those things, Matt.
43:20
Speaker 2: I have to say. His movement is great.
43:23
Speaker 1: When you talk about you know what what makes up
43:26
Speaker 1: a great forward, and that is someone who gets in
43:28
Speaker 1: front of in front of goal at the right time.
43:30
Speaker 1: He does that, he combines, he has good feet and
43:35
Speaker 1: uh so he has all the tools to be you know,
43:38
Speaker 1: if we were going to put him into I would
43:40
Speaker 1: take him back into that that that U securies category
43:45
Speaker 1: where you say, okay, maybe the back of your roster
43:47
Speaker 1: you have some guys for the future.
43:49
Speaker 2: Obviously, what we have to think about.
43:51
Speaker 1: With with him at this point is that it's only
43:54
Speaker 1: been one game, right, so we have to wait and
43:56
Speaker 1: see what the consistency looks like. But he certainly as
44:00
Speaker 1: an opportunity to impress. Uh And and you know, I
44:03
Speaker 1: think he was named the player of the week this week,
44:06
Speaker 1: so so because of that, the eyes are going to
44:08
Speaker 1: be on him. So he's not going to be a
44:10
Speaker 1: surprise any longer. Teams get the scouted scout him a
44:14
Speaker 1: little bit more. So, let's see how he reacts to,
44:17
Speaker 1: you know, people sort of playing his strengths a little
44:20
Speaker 1: bit more, right, because that obviously happens by other teams.
44:24
Speaker 1: In terms of the physicality, which you mentioned. You know,
44:27
Speaker 1: this always happens with young players until young players are
44:30
Speaker 1: really good and then at that point physicality.
44:33
Speaker 2: Doesn't matter anymore.
44:34
Speaker 1: Right, I mean, you know, you got to give you
44:35
Speaker 1: a perfect example Pedria Barcelona. Right, He's the little guy
44:39
Speaker 1: that if you see him at the at the bakery tomorrow,
44:42
Speaker 1: you would never think this guy is like a world superstar,
44:46
Speaker 1: the best player, yeah, the best player, potentially the best player.
44:49
Speaker 2: In the world. Right, and he looks like he.
44:51
Speaker 1: Should be working in the bakery actually instead of going
44:54
Speaker 1: to bike bread. But so so the physicality that's something
44:58
Speaker 1: that I think great player payers overcome because you know,
45:02
Speaker 1: let's not forget defenders are not faster than the ball,
45:05
Speaker 1: So if you and the ball are gone by the
45:07
Speaker 1: time defenders get there, it really doesn't matter how.
45:10
Speaker 2: Small you are.
45:11
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, young players eventually the good
45:14
Speaker 1: ones get to that level.
45:16
Speaker 2: But I do like, I do like this call.
45:19
Speaker 1: You know, Hall was great the first week, and I
45:22
Speaker 1: think he I don't see a reason why he's not
45:25
Speaker 1: going to continue to be great. But let's get with
45:27
Speaker 1: him through his ups and downs, which I think he
45:30
Speaker 1: will inevitably have.
45:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess we'll start a Julian Hall monitor for
45:36
Speaker 3: the rest of the show, for the next couple of months,
45:39
Speaker 3: to see if he has any chance of cracking Mauricio
45:43
Speaker 3: Pochettino's twenty twenty six US World Cup roster. It would
45:48
Speaker 3: be quite a story. I think he is pretty clearly
45:51
Speaker 3: the best center hord prospect the US has produced since
45:54
Speaker 3: Ricardo Peppi, maybe even longer than that. It's exciting to
45:57
Speaker 3: see a seventeen year old play as well as he
45:59
Speaker 3: did this week. One of multiple kids on that Red
46:03
Speaker 3: Bull team, by the way, who played excellent ball this
46:05
Speaker 3: week and Adrian Metti, the sixteen year old defensive midfielder
46:10
Speaker 3: arguably even better than Julie All in this one. And
46:13
Speaker 3: by the way, he's a dual national. Morocco are all
46:17
Speaker 3: over him, so we have a real dual national Panic
46:20
Speaker 3: for the first time in a couple of years. If
46:22
Speaker 3: you are a US men's national team, Sicco, the Red
46:24
Speaker 3: Bulls are probably your team of choice to start watching
46:28
Speaker 3: this MLS season. And we'll be all over on this
46:31
Speaker 3: show in the coming weeks. And for now, though, it's
46:33
Speaker 3: time for one more break and we're gonna hear from
46:35
Speaker 3: tab on a pivotal moment in the US national team
46:39
Speaker 3: back in nineteen ninety five. Thank you all for listening
46:42
Speaker 3: to Inside American Soccer. Please rate review, can't subscribe. Welcome
46:56
Speaker 3: back to Inside American Soccer, where we're gonna take you
46:59
Speaker 3: inside the locker room a little over thirty years ago. Actually, now,
47:04
Speaker 3: we talk a lot about the nineteen ninety four World
47:07
Speaker 3: Cup on this show. I think everybody talks about that
47:09
Speaker 3: because it was such a seminal moment for soccer in
47:12
Speaker 3: North America, and I think we all see this coming
47:17
Speaker 3: summer through that. Lens hope that twenty twenty six can
47:20
Speaker 3: do for the US in Canada what nineteen ninety four did,
47:25
Speaker 3: at least in part. But there also needs to be
47:28
Speaker 3: some thought about what comes next. And the guy I'm
47:31
Speaker 3: with right now, Tamravos, was a huge part of what
47:34
Speaker 3: comes next. And really, tab you were talking and it
47:38
Speaker 3: was sort of the professionalization of the game here starting
47:43
Speaker 3: really in nineteen ninety five, after all the confetti and
47:47
Speaker 3: all the you know, going on a letterman in Leno
47:50
Speaker 3: and whatever else happened for you guys, stickers commercials. It
47:55
Speaker 3: was a different era starting in nineteen ninety five. So
47:58
Speaker 3: take us back to that time and what you guys
48:02
Speaker 3: were doing and what it meant.
48:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I always, I always have fun going
48:08
Speaker 1: back to these stories, although I feel like i'm you know,
48:11
Speaker 1: I'm telling everyone the bedtime story and I don't know
48:13
Speaker 1: how many people want to hear it, but uh, but
48:15
Speaker 1: you know, there are Here's the important part about this.
48:18
Speaker 1: I really I've had the you know, I've been fortunate
48:23
Speaker 1: enough to have seen sort of the development of the
48:26
Speaker 1: sport of the last three thirty forty years. You know,
48:29
Speaker 1: that's that's probably the only advantage to being old, because
48:32
Speaker 1: I can't think of anything else. But I but I,
48:35
Speaker 1: but I can tell you that there are certain moments
48:38
Speaker 1: that I think were I could see the evolution of
48:41
Speaker 1: soccer in this country coming along right. And and one
48:44
Speaker 1: of those moments, obviously, is late nineteen eighty nine when
48:47
Speaker 1: the team qualifies of the World Cup for the first
48:49
Speaker 1: time in forty years, and then the next five years
48:51
Speaker 1: become hey, you know, we host the World Cup and
48:54
Speaker 1: now we're competitive, and now we beat England and we
48:57
Speaker 1: be you know what are Italy and or Brazil or
49:01
Speaker 1: you know. You get all these friendly, great results that
49:04
Speaker 1: you're happy about, and then work up ninety four comes
49:07
Speaker 1: and all the lights are on and everybody's paying attention,
49:10
Speaker 1: and like you said, everyone's going out all the morning
49:13
Speaker 1: shows and everything else that has to do with the
49:15
Speaker 1: publicity of great moments. And then and then that goes away,
49:20
Speaker 1: and now we find ourselves with the reality of okay, well,
49:25
Speaker 1: now we got to keep moving the ball forward.
49:27
Speaker 2: How do we do that?
49:28
Speaker 3: Right?
49:28
Speaker 1: And so I look back in nineteen ninety five as
49:31
Speaker 1: a pivotal moment because I think although ninety four was great,
49:36
Speaker 1: I think it was the culmination of the beginning of
49:39
Speaker 1: soccer being back on the map, right it was eighty
49:41
Speaker 1: nine through ninety four, and it was great and it
49:43
Speaker 1: was exciting. And now now we need to play with
49:46
Speaker 1: the big boys. And now we need to play with
49:48
Speaker 1: the big boys for real. Now it's not just showing
49:51
Speaker 1: up and being the underdog and you know, and and
49:54
Speaker 1: and showing everybody that you know, us play soccer, and
49:57
Speaker 1: now it needs Now we need to become competitive. And
50:00
Speaker 1: I think nineteen ninety five was the year where that
50:03
Speaker 1: started to happen. We and that's US Soccer selected to
50:09
Speaker 1: go to Cope America, which they they don't always participate in.
50:12
Speaker 1: We've only been to you know what four or five
50:15
Speaker 1: in the history, right, we don't go every time. That
50:19
Speaker 1: was only I think the second time that US had
50:22
Speaker 1: participated in the Cope America.
50:24
Speaker 2: So it wasn't happening.
50:26
Speaker 1: And and we go the Cope Americas in Uruguay nineteen
50:29
Speaker 1: ninety five, and we go there and the first thing
50:31
Speaker 1: that happened when we got there is we had a
50:33
Speaker 1: player's strike. We decided that we had been hearing about, Hey,
50:38
Speaker 1: you know, there's hundreds of millions that this World Cup left,
50:42
Speaker 1: and you know, and you know, like like player unions,
50:47
Speaker 1: players unions usually do is they try to say, well,
50:50
Speaker 1: you know, what's in the in for the players, because
50:52
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, we're the ones on
50:53
Speaker 1: the field, right and we sort of need to get
50:56
Speaker 1: compensated for that as well.
50:57
Speaker 2: So we went into the first game.
51:00
Speaker 1: We started the Cope America that year by playing Chile
51:04
Speaker 1: the first game, but we didn't practice before that game
51:08
Speaker 1: because we were on strike, so we're in Cope America,
51:11
Speaker 1: didn't go to practice and actually play the game and
51:13
Speaker 1: beat Chile in the first game, but it.
51:15
Speaker 2: Was the first time. But we had negotiations with.
51:19
Speaker 1: The federation where we just basically said, if if we
51:22
Speaker 1: don't get X, Y, and Z, then we're not playing.
51:25
Speaker 2: And at that point, you know, there comes to negotiations.
51:28
Speaker 1: Of course, agents are always involved because they're always involved
51:32
Speaker 1: in this stuff. I would say to make this, to
51:35
Speaker 1: make things worse, but let's just keep that between us,
51:39
Speaker 1: and it became a negotiation. Obviously, we all agreed to
51:43
Speaker 1: move forward and we played in that Cope America, and
51:48
Speaker 1: not only did we play in it, but then we
51:50
Speaker 1: showed that we really could compete. Because if nineteen ninety
51:54
Speaker 1: four can always be chalked up to, yeah, you played
51:59
Speaker 1: some good teams and you knocked out, you know, Columbia,
52:02
Speaker 1: which was a great opponent, but at the end of
52:04
Speaker 1: the day, it was the underdog, you know, getting the
52:07
Speaker 1: big result. I think cope America now became hey, we
52:11
Speaker 1: have our feet on the ground and we know we
52:13
Speaker 1: can play, and we have a full professional squad with
52:18
Speaker 1: players playing everywhere, and now we need to compete toe
52:21
Speaker 1: to toe with big countries in South America. And we
52:24
Speaker 1: went down there, beat Chile the first game, lost to
52:27
Speaker 1: Bolivia second game, but then beat Argentina the third game
52:30
Speaker 1: in one of the great victories of US soccer three
52:33
Speaker 1: zero took first place in the group and ended up
52:36
Speaker 1: in fourth place. We lost to Brazil later on in
52:39
Speaker 1: the tournament, ended up in fourth place. But also so
52:42
Speaker 1: that was the beginning of us being okay here we
52:45
Speaker 1: are really competitive. But there was another side to it
52:48
Speaker 1: that I think was it was the birth of the
52:51
Speaker 1: truly good young players coming along.
52:54
Speaker 2: Right.
52:54
Speaker 1: It was the first time we got to see like
52:57
Speaker 1: a Clodia Arena and his skill set and what he.
53:00
Speaker 2: Had to offer.
53:01
Speaker 1: And for all of us having been on the national team,
53:03
Speaker 1: let's not forget there's a little generation of players of
53:06
Speaker 1: you know, myself and Eric Ranalo marself about Boa and maybe, well,
53:10
Speaker 1: I think Tony wasn't on the team by then already,
53:12
Speaker 1: but those guys we had been together since like nineteen
53:15
Speaker 1: eighty eight, so I had been seven eight years of
53:17
Speaker 1: being on the national team, so that's sort of a
53:19
Speaker 1: long time. And now we started to see these young
53:22
Speaker 1: players like Claudia, who's we were really impressed by because
53:27
Speaker 1: they had all the tools. We saw Yovann Korovski all
53:30
Speaker 1: of a sudden signed at Manchester United and he was
53:33
Speaker 1: on their youth team and he was coming along. So
53:36
Speaker 1: I think that I think nineteen ninety five, If nineteen
53:40
Speaker 1: ninety four became the birth of let's say, soccer fans
53:44
Speaker 1: following the team, nineteen ninety five became the birth of
53:48
Speaker 1: what we now know, all of our players starting to
53:51
Speaker 1: go overseas and seeing that's when we started to see
53:54
Speaker 1: players like, you know, obviously Claudia, I mentioned Yovann Korowski,
53:58
Speaker 1: who was great, Brad Friedel who came along to the
54:01
Speaker 1: national team and then became you know, think about it,
54:04
Speaker 1: who can match Brad Friedel's career. I don't think anyone
54:08
Speaker 1: can ken in US soccer yet with what he did
54:11
Speaker 1: in the EPL, So I think in a bunch of
54:14
Speaker 1: different ways it became a sort of a professional national
54:19
Speaker 1: team for the first time.
54:22
Speaker 3: So let's let's make an analogy then, right, So if
54:26
Speaker 3: the twenty twenty sixth version of what you guys did
54:31
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety four, now you guys made it out
54:34
Speaker 3: of the group nineteen ninety four, people didn't expect you
54:36
Speaker 3: to played really well against Brazil in that round of sixteen.
54:43
Speaker 3: Brazil obviously went on to win, but it was it
54:46
Speaker 3: was a brave and gutty performance from you guys won
54:49
Speaker 3: a lot of respect. The twenty twenty sixth version of
54:51
Speaker 3: that for the US men's national team would be what
54:54
Speaker 3: making it all the way back to the quarterfinals, going
54:59
Speaker 3: up a against the Brazil or an Argentina, maybe even
55:02
Speaker 3: making it to the semi finals, and laying down a
55:05
Speaker 3: marker and saying, Okay, this is where we are now,
55:08
Speaker 3: this is what we can do when the stars align
55:11
Speaker 3: and everything is clicking. This is who we are as
55:13
Speaker 3: a national team. Then the twenty twenty seven version of that,
55:17
Speaker 3: the step forward professionally for the national team that you
55:21
Speaker 3: guys experienced and really drove in nineteen ninety five. What
55:25
Speaker 3: would that be for the US in twenty twenty six
55:29
Speaker 3: or twenty twenty seven, in twenty twenty eight and beyond, Like,
55:32
Speaker 3: what from your perspective, needs to happen for the US
55:38
Speaker 3: to make that next professional jump.
55:42
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I think now we're at a point
55:45
Speaker 1: where you know, we have a great team.
55:48
Speaker 2: We're no longer the underdog.
55:50
Speaker 1: At the World Cup, which is already a big, big
55:53
Speaker 1: task to go there as favorites to win our group
55:57
Speaker 1: and to advance let's say at the very least around
56:00
Speaker 1: the sixteen is It's sort of that's assumed by everyone
56:03
Speaker 1: at this point, right, because if we were not to
56:06
Speaker 1: do that, that means that we likely lost the teams
56:09
Speaker 1: that we were not supposed to lose to. So it's
56:12
Speaker 1: a more difficult situation to be in. But now to
56:15
Speaker 1: answer your question, you know, I've picked some moments of
56:18
Speaker 1: evolution of the game. So what would be the next
56:21
Speaker 1: moment of evolution? And I think now for US, I
56:26
Speaker 1: think we can put ourselves in this World Cup by
56:28
Speaker 1: potentially participating in a quarterfinal or in a semifinal, where
56:33
Speaker 1: we can cement sort of the competitiveness of our program
56:38
Speaker 1: number one worldwide because I think we already have a
56:41
Speaker 1: lot of respect worldwide from other countries. I don't think
56:44
Speaker 1: there's a country out there right now that can say, hey,
56:47
Speaker 1: we play the US. This is going to be an
56:49
Speaker 1: easy game. There isn't a single one. And you can
56:52
Speaker 1: pick France, you can pick England, you can pick Brazil.
56:54
Speaker 2: Or Argentine or anyone.
56:56
Speaker 1: They know that they're in for a battle that they
56:58
Speaker 1: have to give their best, can they when Yeah, of
57:00
Speaker 1: course there's a good chance that those teams will beat us,
57:03
Speaker 1: but they will only beat us at their best. It's
57:05
Speaker 1: unlikely that they will beat us with anything else. So
57:08
Speaker 1: that's a good place to be. But I think Matt,
57:10
Speaker 1: if I were to say the evolution and our next battle,
57:14
Speaker 1: I think the next battle is more at home. Our
57:17
Speaker 1: next battle is how do we become a bigger sport
57:21
Speaker 1: in our home? And that's I think that's the toughest
57:25
Speaker 1: obstacle at this point, because as you continue to see
57:28
Speaker 1: the numbers, and you continue to see MLS grow, and
57:31
Speaker 1: you continue to see our players doing better and our
57:33
Speaker 1: players being more competitive overseas, how are we making sort
57:39
Speaker 1: of that? How are we making that shortcut? And I
57:43
Speaker 1: do see the numbers that obviously you read as well,
57:46
Speaker 1: But it's hard for me to believe now when I
57:48
Speaker 1: look at the NFL and I look at, you know,
57:50
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball, and I look at the NBA, and
57:53
Speaker 1: then I look, are we more popular than golf?
57:56
Speaker 2: Are we?
57:56
Speaker 1: Really?
57:57
Speaker 2: I don't think we are.
57:58
Speaker 1: Are we more popular than college football? College basketball? I mean,
58:03
Speaker 1: you can name seven or eight sports that you can
58:05
Speaker 1: legitimately go to a bar and say those sports are
58:09
Speaker 1: a lot more popular than soccer. Those sports are what
58:12
Speaker 1: people talk about. So I think our next evolution has
58:16
Speaker 1: to be how do we get to become one of those?
58:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, And if you have the answer to that, you
58:23
Speaker 3: might be the next MLS commissioner, because I think the
58:26
Speaker 3: guys in charge they've been looking for that as for
58:29
Speaker 3: the long time. Obviously a ton of progress with the
58:32
Speaker 3: league a long way to go. I think the keyword
58:37
Speaker 3: is culture. Culture wins on every level in every sport.
58:42
Speaker 3: If your country has a good colt Tavas, Uruguay, and
58:45
Speaker 3: and in terms of culture, everybody asks how doesguy punch
58:50
Speaker 3: above their weight so consistently for such a small country.
58:53
Speaker 3: It's because of the culture of soccer there gave us
58:56
Speaker 3: one of our greatest players of all time. It gives
58:58
Speaker 3: us one of the favorites watch in the World Cup
59:01
Speaker 3: every four years, and he gave us a great talk
59:05
Speaker 3: today on this show. So thank you all for joining
59:09
Speaker 3: me and tab on this episode of Inside American Soccer.
59:13
Speaker 3: Will be back next week. I'll still be hosting. We
59:17
Speaker 3: will give you an update on Young Theo Bogert's progress
59:20
Speaker 3: on the for check if he has started beating Tom
59:24
Speaker 3: in the head with the hockey stick that he is
59:26
Speaker 3: trying desperately to master already. So thank you for joining us,
59:30
Speaker 3: and don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, do all the
59:34
Speaker 3: things on all the socials TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
59:39
Speaker 3: And thank you for joining us, folks. We will see
59:41
Speaker 3: you next week.