Latest / Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos / The Pulisic-Balogun Miss & USMNT Trust Rankings for the World Cup

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The Pulisic-Balogun Miss & USMNT Trust Rankings for the World Cup · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

0:00
Speaker 1: For me, I forgot that we had goalkeepers, so I
0:03
Speaker 1: didn't That's why I didn't difficult, I didn't put a
0:06
Speaker 1: goalkeeper in here.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, what's going on? Everybody?
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Speaker 3: Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. I am US mensational
0:16
Speaker 3: team insider Tom Bogan, and I am joined by one
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Speaker 3: of the greatest players in US soccer history, a veteran
0:21
Speaker 3: of three World Cups, and a whole lot of coaching accolades.
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Speaker 3: Beyond that, tab Ramos tab How are we doing? What's
0:27
Speaker 3: going on today?
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Speaker 1: Very good, Tom, Great to uh to be with you
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Speaker 1: once again. I think we have a lot going on.
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Speaker 1: The excitement I think is building towards the World Cup. Uh.
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Speaker 1: And it's nice now tracking our players because now we
0:41
Speaker 1: think that we have a little bit more of a
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Speaker 1: nucleus that we can focus on going into June. I
0:47
Speaker 1: so very excited about that. I think I was mentioning
0:50
Speaker 1: to you off camera a little bit that my assignments
0:52
Speaker 1: for the World Cup got switched now from being in
0:56
Speaker 1: Houston in LA like I had to now Philadelphia, Toronto.
1:00
Speaker 1: So I'm going to be a little bit more East
1:02
Speaker 1: coast base, which I think will be great because I
1:05
Speaker 1: think I'll be able to get to more stadiums.
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Speaker 2: That's exciting.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, the distance is surely shorter on this side of
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Speaker 3: the country when you're going to different stadiums, but the
1:14
Speaker 3: excitement is for sure building. It doesn't hurt that we
1:18
Speaker 3: are further removed from the March International window that maybe
1:21
Speaker 3: didn't quite go exactly how fans might have hoped. So
1:24
Speaker 3: that hope springs eternal, and that's because we've got a
1:27
Speaker 3: great show today as well, because we've got a lot
1:30
Speaker 3: of players playing well. Let's start first with Flora Balligan
1:33
Speaker 3: his hot streak it continues for Monaco. He's got a
1:36
Speaker 3: goal in eight straight games. Then we're gonna rank our
1:39
Speaker 3: top five most trusted US men's national team players at
1:42
Speaker 3: the summer's World Cup. And lastly, as always, we're gonna
1:44
Speaker 3: go inside locker room in Toamaramos to talk about the
1:47
Speaker 3: culture of American soccer, how it's changed since ninety four
1:49
Speaker 3: to this summer, and what else needs to change beyond
1:53
Speaker 3: even the soccer world. I'm very excited to talk about that.
1:55
Speaker 3: But first let's stay on top of the news. We're
1:57
Speaker 3: we go inside the notebook here and we're starting with
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Speaker 3: that man Flow. He scored again for Monaco. That's eight
2:04
Speaker 3: straight in legund and ten straight across all competitions. This
2:07
Speaker 3: is a player who I think he's shown really positive
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Speaker 3: flashes with the men's national team, particularly when he first
2:14
Speaker 3: switched from England. It was very clear like, oh, this
2:16
Speaker 3: guy's at a different level than the other kind of
2:18
Speaker 3: forwards in the pool, particularly at that time.
2:20
Speaker 2: He's not totally hit this.
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Speaker 3: He's definitely not hit the eight or ten games in
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Speaker 3: a row with the goal, right, he has not hit
2:26
Speaker 3: this kind.
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Speaker 2: Of form with the national team.
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Speaker 3: What kind of needs to change where he can replicate
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Speaker 3: this for the national team.
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Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think first of all, he is
2:37
Speaker 1: he's been hot for a long time now. We said
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Speaker 1: it before coming into the March window, and I think
2:44
Speaker 1: we decided to give him a little bit of a
2:46
Speaker 1: rest during our March window, which which was unusual, but
2:49
Speaker 1: maybe it's helped him to stay hot overseas. Right, No,
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Speaker 1: I think there's not There's not many things that we
2:56
Speaker 1: need to do different I would have liked. I mean,
3:00
Speaker 1: think about this for a second, right, as we continue
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Speaker 1: to to try things with the national team and Marizio
3:06
Speaker 1: Bochettino is still tinkering with what he wants to do
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Speaker 1: and what players have to play. But imagine if we
3:12
Speaker 1: had just played against Portugal and against Belgium for ninety
3:17
Speaker 1: minutes with both Balogun and Polisic right now, you start
3:21
Speaker 1: to build something. Now, you start to build that relationship
3:23
Speaker 1: a little bit better. I mean, I mean, correct me
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Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, but I believe that that's going to
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Speaker 1: be our two guys up top des summer. I mean that,
3:32
Speaker 1: I mean, that has to be the way at that
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Speaker 1: at this point. And I just wish that in this
3:37
Speaker 1: last window we would have we would have gone with
3:40
Speaker 1: we would have given those guys a lot of minutes
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Speaker 1: to work together because because honestly, you know, uh Balagun
3:47
Speaker 1: couldn't be any hotter and and and Christian Politic all those.
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Speaker 1: You know, some people are arguing that, you know, obviously
3:55
Speaker 1: his goal contributions haven't been there. I still think that
3:58
Speaker 1: he's playing well and he's making plays, and had we
4:02
Speaker 1: given the two of them a little bit more time together,
4:05
Speaker 1: they would be a little bit more prepared to go
4:08
Speaker 1: into this summer.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's been my frustration as we've gotten closer and
4:12
Speaker 3: closer to the World Cup. I understand when a new
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Speaker 3: coach comes in. You want to see the pool, you
4:16
Speaker 3: want to see combinations. There's only so much time they
4:18
Speaker 3: can get on the training ground together. So I understand experimenting.
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Speaker 3: Maybe that's not the correct word, but changing things around,
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Speaker 3: giving guys chances and having it more of an open competition.
4:28
Speaker 3: I totally understand that. I get a little frustrated the
4:31
Speaker 3: closer we get to the World Cup, where it's like, okay,
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Speaker 3: so at what point are we just going to play
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Speaker 3: some semblance of our best eleven for one hundred and
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Speaker 3: eighty minutes, shoot even one hundred and fifty minutes. Why
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Speaker 3: is every game a different lineup? Why is there different combinations?
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Speaker 3: If you're at the end of March, the last two
4:49
Speaker 3: friendlies before the pre World Cup friendlies, so now we
4:51
Speaker 3: only have two more and the idea is that that's
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Speaker 3: going to be the full squad when we get.
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Speaker 2: To those two more.
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Speaker 3: At some point, when do we transition to it matters
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Speaker 3: a whole lot more the top eight players on the roster,
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Speaker 3: rather than figuring out who's gonna be the bottom et
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Speaker 3: on the World Cup Bob important though it may be
5:09
Speaker 3: all of our discussions about who's gonna be the fifth
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Speaker 3: center back or the third or fourth forward, or the
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Speaker 3: third goalkeeper or the sixth center mid that's all important.
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Speaker 3: But what's really going to dictate how far this team
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Speaker 3: goes is Polistic and Bowigain in the attack, Richard's in
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Speaker 3: the defense, and whoever's partnering with him, McKinney and Adams
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Speaker 3: in the midfield. And again, I know a handful of
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Speaker 3: these players are unavailable in March, but I just don't
5:33
Speaker 3: know how many different windows we've had where it's like
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Speaker 3: ac Milan doesn't want Poolistic to play too much and
5:39
Speaker 3: Crystal Palace doesn't want Richards to play too much, and okay,
5:42
Speaker 3: let's play nice. We've played nice with these teams.
5:45
Speaker 1: For four years.
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Speaker 3: At what point do you give the middle finger and say, well,
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Speaker 3: guess what, he's with us right now, so he's gonna
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Speaker 3: play one hundred and eighty minutes.
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Speaker 1: Well, you know, and it's not even that to add
5:54
Speaker 1: to what you said. Let's say, for example, during that
5:58
Speaker 1: March window, that against bell and against Portugal, Baligan and Polisic,
6:05
Speaker 1: let's say they didn't do well together, they played the
6:07
Speaker 1: whole time and didn't do well. Would that change who's
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Speaker 1: playing this summer?
6:13
Speaker 2: No?
6:14
Speaker 1: Right, exactly, So that's my point. I think it would
6:17
Speaker 1: have been a great opportunity for the two of them
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Speaker 1: to get a lot of minutes together so that if
6:22
Speaker 1: they do don't do well, if there's some misunderstandings or
6:26
Speaker 1: or or you know, Baligan is making the type of
6:29
Speaker 1: run that that Christian is not comfortable with, can Baligan
6:33
Speaker 1: check in a little bit more, maybe Christian likes that better.
6:36
Speaker 1: Like those are all of the things that we could
6:39
Speaker 1: have worked on towards the summer. That we're not gonna
6:42
Speaker 1: find that in the summer. So even had they done poorly,
6:46
Speaker 1: you just mentioned Richard's being another one, right, So Richard's
6:49
Speaker 1: going to be in there. Just throw him in there
6:52
Speaker 1: as much as you can so that he can figure
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Speaker 1: out who he's going to play with. That That is
6:56
Speaker 1: exactly the point, And this is the reason why we
6:58
Speaker 1: should have played with whatever our best eleven, even if
7:01
Speaker 1: we didn't do well, throw in the best players you
7:04
Speaker 1: have with what you're thinking for the summer, and then
7:07
Speaker 1: now you have two months to correct that.
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Speaker 3: And one more point, I'm not speaking to a player,
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Speaker 3: and if they weren't saying anything negatively in any way
7:14
Speaker 3: by the national team, just the difference between club and international,
7:17
Speaker 3: particularly in twenty twenty six, where the game becomes so
7:22
Speaker 3: determined by little sequences and those sequences are.
7:25
Speaker 2: Drilled, particularly the club club level.
7:27
Speaker 3: It's so much predictability of you check here, the wing
7:31
Speaker 3: back goes there, and you play that one.
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Speaker 2: You don't need to look, you know he's there.
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Speaker 3: It's becoming more choreographed in positive ways. That that has
7:38
Speaker 3: created a lot of positive sequences with club teams, and
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Speaker 3: teams can play so crisp and play out of the
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Speaker 3: back and play through pressure. We go to the national team,
7:45
Speaker 3: it's different and you just don't have the same amount
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Speaker 3: of reps. So why are we wasting opportunities to get
7:50
Speaker 3: those reps? But that's neither here nor there, because that's
7:53
Speaker 3: in the past. And hopefully those last two friendlies before
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Speaker 3: the World Cup, I'm sure that there will be plenty
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Speaker 3: of rotation to give some guys some minute. But I
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Speaker 3: hope at least that first game or the second, whichever
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Speaker 3: one it is, we see what Pochatino and his staff
8:06
Speaker 3: thinks that opening game starting eleven will be, rather than
8:10
Speaker 3: just continuing to change the game by game. But we'll
8:11
Speaker 3: see another forward who had a very positive week. How'd
8:14
Speaker 3: you write congratulations to him in Coventry City. They are
8:16
Speaker 3: officially promoted to the Premier League. It is not a
8:19
Speaker 3: surprise at this point. It is just now mathematically confirmed
8:21
Speaker 3: they're going to win the league, barring maybe the greatest
8:24
Speaker 3: collapse of all time. So Haiji Wright will soon pick
8:26
Speaker 3: up a winners medal in the Championship and be playing
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Speaker 3: in the Premier League. He's got seventeen goals this year
8:31
Speaker 3: across all competitions, and just another strong year for Haidirik
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Speaker 3: no question.
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Speaker 1: I mean, if you said nothing else, but he has
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Speaker 1: seventeen goals, that's really all you needed to say, because
8:42
Speaker 1: you know when you measure and obviously I'm not an
8:45
Speaker 1: analytics person, but when you talk about goals, when you
8:48
Speaker 1: bring someone to your team, you're probably looking at a
8:52
Speaker 1: forward bringing in contributing. Hey can he contribute fourteen to
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Speaker 1: eighteen goals this year? Can he do maybe thirteen plus?
9:00
Speaker 1: Those are kind of the numbers that you look at
9:02
Speaker 1: when you look at her forward, and when you score seventeen,
9:06
Speaker 1: that's a good number to be at. That's someone who's
9:08
Speaker 1: contributed a lot towards their team. So very happy for
9:12
Speaker 1: Hadji and what he's done for Coventry and obviously looking
9:16
Speaker 1: forward to watching them play in the EPL this year,
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Speaker 1: hopefully next year, hopefully he will have all those opportunities.
9:22
Speaker 1: And by the way, another player that comes into the
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Speaker 1: national team I think with a lot of confidence going
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Speaker 1: into this summer, excited about what's going to happen this
9:30
Speaker 1: summer and what will happen after the summer for him.
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Speaker 1: So it's just good all around for us.
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Speaker 3: Hajji is an interesting one too because he's in the
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Speaker 3: Pochatino era. He's missed a lot of time and it's
9:44
Speaker 3: been more injuries, like he had an achilles issue at
9:48
Speaker 3: the Gold Cup. He missed the last camp with kind
9:50
Speaker 3: of growing problems. He was not selected in September, but
9:55
Speaker 3: in his last three appearances, two of which were starts,
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Speaker 3: he scored twice. That was in both goals and in
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Speaker 3: the Australia win in October, so he's almost he's gotten
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Speaker 3: a little bit forgotten for me just because of some
10:06
Speaker 3: of just missing the games, and a small amount of
10:10
Speaker 3: it has been coach's decision, but then it's been more
10:12
Speaker 3: so injury. So as long as he's fit and healthy,
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Speaker 3: obviously very firmly expect him to be on the squad,
10:17
Speaker 3: but it's more about hey, what combinations makes sense an attack?
10:20
Speaker 3: Could he be the third attacker with Poulis and Baligan
10:22
Speaker 3: or is it gonna be Whay, It's gonna be Tilman,
10:24
Speaker 3: It's it gonna be Luna, Is it gonna be Raina's
10:25
Speaker 3: gonna be whoever? And the if they do stick with
10:29
Speaker 3: the system, that in possession ends up as like a
10:32
Speaker 3: three four two one. I think Hajji right makes sense,
10:35
Speaker 3: though Polist likes to play in that left channel like
10:37
Speaker 3: Hoji does. But those are a lot of interesting choices
10:40
Speaker 3: that again, I think we'll see more and more data
10:42
Speaker 3: going over the next six weeks with both his club
10:44
Speaker 3: and then when we get to the pre World Cup friendlies.
10:47
Speaker 3: Another American that had maybe the best week, well all
10:50
Speaker 3: the people we're talking about New Jersey's very own Pelargreno Matterazzo.
10:54
Speaker 3: Congratulations to him. He made history as the first American
10:57
Speaker 3: manager to win a trophy with the club in European
11:00
Speaker 3: Top five leaks as he led Ralso Sia Dad to
11:03
Speaker 3: win the Colpittel Ray over Atletico Madrid after penalties. He
11:06
Speaker 3: took over this team in December. They were in a
11:10
Speaker 3: like the relgates much close with the relegations and zone
11:12
Speaker 3: it was an underperforming team. They immediately going to run
11:15
Speaker 3: a for him after Pilgrim amount US so it takes over.
11:17
Speaker 3: Now they are on the cusp of champions Leage qualification.
11:19
Speaker 3: They were in that fight over the last couple of
11:21
Speaker 3: weeks of the season and they win a trophy. What
11:24
Speaker 3: an unbelievable moment for the American manager in Europe.
11:28
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, truly incredible. And it's his demeanor that really
11:33
Speaker 1: I think catches your eye a little bit more, even
11:36
Speaker 1: because you know he's so he seems so calm and
11:39
Speaker 1: under control always. If you would have seen yesterday and
11:42
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you saw the celebrations of the
11:45
Speaker 1: fans that Ralsoidad in San Sebastian in Spain, you know,
11:50
Speaker 1: waiting for the team and then lifting the trophy and
11:52
Speaker 1: all those things, and he still showed that calmness about
11:55
Speaker 1: him talking in front of people. And by the way,
11:58
Speaker 1: it seems like he just got there right and now
12:00
Speaker 1: he's a son of San Sebastian forever. He brought i
12:04
Speaker 1: think is Raelsosidad's fourth Cup title to the city, which
12:09
Speaker 1: is huge. Obviously a club that's over one hundred years old,
12:13
Speaker 1: and and I think on top of all of that,
12:15
Speaker 1: besides winning the final, which by the way, they won
12:18
Speaker 1: it on penalties, but it was well deserved. They had
12:21
Speaker 1: plenty They had plenty of chances to win the game
12:24
Speaker 1: during the game. I was actually watching it here. It
12:28
Speaker 1: was a great game. But it's the way the team plays,
12:32
Speaker 1: It's the excitement with which the players are playing. You know,
12:35
Speaker 1: Bosque players are always known for giving maximum effort, and
12:39
Speaker 1: you can tell that that team carries the culture of
12:42
Speaker 1: the of the Basque country where they're from. Within Spain, obviously,
12:47
Speaker 1: and since he got there, as you mentioned before, the
12:50
Speaker 1: team just went straight up. I mean, this has not
12:52
Speaker 1: been a slow climb. This has been this. It's been
12:55
Speaker 1: a climb straight up in the in the Spanish League
12:58
Speaker 1: by playing well, and I think other than they're a
13:01
Speaker 1: way away loss at Real Madrid, they may have just
13:04
Speaker 1: one other loss. Everything else has been wins. So congratulations
13:09
Speaker 1: to him. Obviously, another Jersey guy that we can root for,
13:12
Speaker 1: on top of him being American, so we're very happy
13:15
Speaker 1: on this side of the country.
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Speaker 3: A few things. He was very deliberate in what he
13:20
Speaker 3: wanted to do for his next job, very He's a
13:22
Speaker 3: very thoughtful, inquisitive guy. You talk about his demeanor, maybe
13:25
Speaker 3: that has something to do with he got he has
13:27
Speaker 3: like masters in mathematics from Colombia, so maybe he's just
13:31
Speaker 3: going to be really calm because that that's what the
13:33
Speaker 3: mathematics world dictates of you. But that the best players
13:38
Speaker 3: being like like having those kind of traits of work
13:40
Speaker 3: rate and determination and all those positive things fits really
13:43
Speaker 3: well with him. He had some calls from Memos clubs
13:46
Speaker 3: and respectfully said, hey, I think in the future i'll
13:49
Speaker 3: I want to coach Anmals, but right now I'm kind
13:51
Speaker 3: of focused on Europe.
13:52
Speaker 2: He was.
13:53
Speaker 3: He was in the mix for the Brusian Wich and
13:54
Speaker 3: glad Back job. He was interested in that, but I
13:56
Speaker 3: know that he got other calls and he was being
13:59
Speaker 3: very deliberate about I want to pick a club that
14:02
Speaker 3: fits me and I fit them, and this one makes
14:05
Speaker 3: a ton of sense. He was before the USMNT hired
14:09
Speaker 3: mercill Pochettino. Pochettino was for sure, if not the top target,
14:13
Speaker 3: a top target of probably the realistic top target, because
14:16
Speaker 3: you could say, maybe you're gonna clop was the top target,
14:18
Speaker 3: but that there was never going to be any realism
14:20
Speaker 3: there public greenham Marozzo. They spoke to him as part
14:24
Speaker 3: of it, and I think even he he was like,
14:27
Speaker 3: I kind of I get it, and like, if if
14:29
Speaker 3: I was running this, I'd probably be attracted to somebody
14:32
Speaker 3: like Pochettino or like a big manager. We eighteen months
14:35
Speaker 3: to the warder the World Cup, Like I get it,
14:37
Speaker 3: Like I'm more of a project guy. So he's somebody
14:40
Speaker 3: that if Pochettino leaves, like he'll still be with Rios
14:43
Speaker 3: Socidads at the time. He's probably not going to work
14:45
Speaker 3: out the next cycle. But I think this is a
14:47
Speaker 3: guy that would love to see coach the national team
14:49
Speaker 3: one day.
14:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I and I think, you know, likely with
14:52
Speaker 1: what he has done already, that door will be open
14:55
Speaker 1: at some point. However, maybe I'll be the first one
14:58
Speaker 1: to say it, but this is not an unattractive potential
15:01
Speaker 1: target for Real Madrid. I have to say, you know,
15:05
Speaker 1: with the way things have gone and maybe and I
15:08
Speaker 1: haven't read this, but I think with the job he's
15:11
Speaker 1: done at rialso Sidad and in his level of understanding
15:14
Speaker 1: of the Spanish league in such a short period of
15:16
Speaker 1: time and the issues that Real Madrid has been having
15:19
Speaker 1: with getting players going in the right direction. And I
15:22
Speaker 1: know everybody's gonna say, hey, maybe he hasn't coached those big,
15:25
Speaker 1: superstar players, but you know what, It's been difficult for
15:29
Speaker 1: every coach that Real Madrid has had, So I'm gonna
15:32
Speaker 1: leave it at that. But I think that the national
15:35
Speaker 1: team at this point is a little bit secondary for Pellegrino.
15:39
Speaker 1: I think he he will likely if he doesn't stay
15:42
Speaker 1: at rals see Dowd after this summer, he will likely
15:45
Speaker 1: be looking at an EPL job or or a team
15:48
Speaker 1: like Real Madrid because I think they can use him.
15:51
Speaker 3: I would agree, and you is very bright for Pogrim
15:53
Speaker 3: mat Rozzo, and I'm sure he's enjoying his time in
15:55
Speaker 3: Sansabat and so he's probably not thinking about other jobs.
15:58
Speaker 3: In some injury news, Paraguay's key midfielder Diego Gomes limped
16:02
Speaker 3: off with what looked to be a very serious knee
16:04
Speaker 3: injury for Brighton this weekend. He had his head in
16:07
Speaker 3: his shirt, he was emotional, and you fear the worst
16:09
Speaker 3: in those kind of scenarios, but it seems like he's
16:11
Speaker 3: going to be fine for the World Cup. Brighton's manager said, quote,
16:13
Speaker 3: it's not as bad as we expected. We have to
16:15
Speaker 3: go week by week now, but hopefully it's not an
16:17
Speaker 3: injury that rules him out for months. We have to
16:19
Speaker 3: be patient see how it develops, but it's definitely not
16:21
Speaker 3: a big injury. You never want to see injuries take
16:23
Speaker 3: guys out of the World Cup, even when they're your opponents.
16:26
Speaker 3: Diego Gomez his Simon in from Miami. I can just
16:29
Speaker 3: tell you I talk to people who know him very well,
16:32
Speaker 3: know his story, know his family, that it's like over
16:35
Speaker 3: the top in what this kid's character is, how good
16:37
Speaker 3: of a family are, all these things that he comes from.
16:39
Speaker 3: So I was hurting for him when it looked like
16:42
Speaker 3: he feared the worst with that knee injury. But it
16:44
Speaker 3: looks like Paraguay's key starting midfielder, Diego Gomas is going
16:46
Speaker 3: to be good for the World Cup. We will see
16:48
Speaker 3: updates there as we really get into watching Paraguay, Turkey
16:53
Speaker 3: and Australia. When it comes to team news and how
16:55
Speaker 3: some things their forms are going, We're gonna talk a
16:58
Speaker 3: lot more of that, I'm sure in the coming month.
17:00
Speaker 3: On the American side of things, it's it's some positive
17:03
Speaker 3: injury news. Tyler Adams second appearance back from a hamstring injury,
17:06
Speaker 3: which he picked up after he came back from the
17:09
Speaker 3: knee injury.
17:10
Speaker 2: He looks good.
17:11
Speaker 3: Both appearances came off the bench in a win against
17:14
Speaker 3: Arsenal and a win against I forget who they played
17:16
Speaker 3: this weekend, but what matters is to Adams is looking
17:18
Speaker 3: good and hopefully we'll be building him up towards the
17:22
Speaker 3: World Cup opener. He should be totally fine. Boring again,
17:25
Speaker 3: another injury, but Tad I don't want to speak for you,
17:28
Speaker 3: but I feel pretty confident that he's one of the
17:30
Speaker 3: first names on your team sheet. So the question becomes
17:34
Speaker 3: who who is the best to partner with him in
17:37
Speaker 3: the midfield.
17:38
Speaker 1: Well, I continue to think that the best partner is
17:41
Speaker 1: going to be Testament. You know. I think you know,
17:44
Speaker 1: Testaments continues to do well. I think he's a good
17:48
Speaker 1: compliment to Tyler because he has I think his feet
17:51
Speaker 1: are a little bit better than Tyler's feet, and I
17:53
Speaker 1: think he can he can develop plays from from from
17:57
Speaker 1: coming from the back, but he can also win a ball. Uh.
18:01
Speaker 1: He positions himself really well on the field, and you know,
18:04
Speaker 1: and he's playing all the time now, So I I
18:07
Speaker 1: continue to think that that's that's the right. Uh, that's
18:10
Speaker 1: the right partner for Tyler in midfield.
18:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, and and and all these questions are in relation
18:15
Speaker 3: to one another. But is Western McKinnie starting further up
18:18
Speaker 3: the field or is he is he in a double pivot? Right? Like,
18:21
Speaker 3: so all of those things I'm not gone effect, but
18:22
Speaker 3: in a vacuum, I probably say the same with Testament
18:24
Speaker 3: as well.
18:25
Speaker 1: A couple of here and I would and I would
18:27
Speaker 1: say for you know, if likely at this point, if
18:30
Speaker 1: we're gonna discuss a potential partner with Tyler, I think
18:35
Speaker 1: the other one you have to bring to the picture
18:36
Speaker 1: is Johnny Cardozo. How does how does Johnny fit with
18:40
Speaker 1: Tyler rather than Testament? I would still choose choose Testament,
18:44
Speaker 1: but I do see uh uh West and being a
18:48
Speaker 1: little bit higher up the field.
18:50
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:50
Speaker 3: The problem with Johnny is that like his best traits
18:53
Speaker 3: are what Adams does best, and Adams is a little
18:56
Speaker 3: bit better than him at a lot Like doesn't take
18:58
Speaker 3: anything away from Johnny, but like Testman's strengths kind of
19:02
Speaker 3: fit better over Adams's. Maybe weaknesses might be too strong,
19:06
Speaker 3: but you know what I mean, I think that those
19:07
Speaker 3: two pair well rather than I think Johnny Cardoso is
19:11
Speaker 3: just a similar version of Tyler Adams, maybe a little
19:13
Speaker 3: bit less ground covering, but he's a dual winning ball,
19:16
Speaker 3: winning interceptions, really smart, intelligent at a lot of the
19:19
Speaker 3: things that Tyler Adams does well. The other angle you
19:21
Speaker 3: could say is maybe that would free Tyler Adams to,
19:23
Speaker 3: you know, press and hunt a little bit more. These
19:25
Speaker 3: are all, I think, good options, and it's good to
19:27
Speaker 3: have some of these players. A couple more pieces of news.
19:30
Speaker 3: Tim Reim exited Charlotte FC's match this weekend at halftime
19:35
Speaker 3: a little bit of a groin issue, but he's questionable
19:37
Speaker 3: to play on Wednesday night. This is not a long
19:39
Speaker 3: term thing. Miles Robinson was substituted in FC Cincinnati's draw
19:43
Speaker 3: against Toronto. Pat Noonan head coach, called it a minutes limit,
19:48
Speaker 3: something to that effect. I think that they're just being
19:50
Speaker 3: overly cautious with Robinson, even though you don't love to
19:52
Speaker 3: hear the term minutes limit for somebody in his prime
19:55
Speaker 3: and such such a player who is elite with his
19:58
Speaker 3: athleticism at that position. So we'll see how that goes.
20:00
Speaker 3: But it seems those two are fine. In In some
20:04
Speaker 3: really scary news, Jonathan Klintsman suffered a broken neck in
20:08
Speaker 3: a collision in his Serie B match on Saturday, post
20:11
Speaker 3: it on Instagram, thinking the doctors and the fans he
20:13
Speaker 3: will miss the rest of the season, puts an end
20:16
Speaker 3: to any hope for a World Cup spot, whatever that
20:18
Speaker 3: may be.
20:18
Speaker 2: But tab, this is where you think about the human,
20:21
Speaker 2: not the soccer player.
20:23
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, no question. And you and you start thinking
20:25
Speaker 1: about why there are so many rules to protect goalkeepers,
20:29
Speaker 1: right because when goalkeepers go down on the ground, they're
20:31
Speaker 1: alway they're always in danger of injury. And that's why
20:36
Speaker 1: maybe you know, referees and players overreact when anyone touches
20:41
Speaker 1: a goalkeeper, but we have to realize how vulnerable they
20:44
Speaker 1: are when they come out to get the ball, whether
20:45
Speaker 1: that's in the air or or on the ground. And
20:48
Speaker 1: in this case, not sure how many people have seen
20:51
Speaker 1: the injury, but it was, you know, Jonathan Klintman comes
20:55
Speaker 1: out to get a ball with his hands uh in,
20:57
Speaker 1: the in the forward uh in, and slides in and
21:01
Speaker 1: hits them. It looks like it hits them maybe with
21:04
Speaker 1: a knee or a shin and sort of you know,
21:07
Speaker 1: knocks his neck back and it seems like a neck injury,
21:11
Speaker 1: which can be really dangerous. So obviously I had Jonathan
21:15
Speaker 1: Klintzman on the under twenty national team. He's a great athlete.
21:20
Speaker 1: Likely over the eight years I was with the under twenties,
21:23
Speaker 1: he and it was at the top of the best
21:28
Speaker 1: athletic goalkeepers that I had. And so I really feel
21:32
Speaker 1: for him because he's a great kid, great player, and
21:35
Speaker 1: hopefully his recovery doesn't take too long.
21:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, all the best to him. What a scariest, scary moment,
21:41
Speaker 3: and it makes you remember that again, these are human
21:44
Speaker 3: beings and that's just terrifying. All the best to him
21:47
Speaker 3: in his recovery. On another injury front, Daryl Dka returned
21:51
Speaker 3: and he scored for West brom And Top really quickly,
21:53
Speaker 3: particularly without Patrick Godjamong an aerial threat, a really physical center.
21:58
Speaker 3: For Daryl DK, there's a chance that opens up that
22:01
Speaker 3: maybe he could convince Bochettino that hey, if you want
22:03
Speaker 3: a different profile and center forward, I'm your man.
22:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, and maybe that could be a more that that
22:09
Speaker 1: Al Juman presidents that that we're gonna lose right, Uh,
22:12
Speaker 1: could be a little bit of that. I mean, we
22:14
Speaker 1: have to remember, I mean listen, and I've been a
22:17
Speaker 1: DK supporter because I think he does bring a lot
22:20
Speaker 1: to the table, but we have to recognize, you know,
22:23
Speaker 1: this year, he's uh, he's been coming off the bench
22:26
Speaker 1: most of the time. He has only I think one goal.
22:29
Speaker 1: Is he an option? Yes? Is it likely? I don't
22:33
Speaker 1: think so.
22:34
Speaker 3: I'm sure we'll be discussing that plenty over the next
22:37
Speaker 3: few weeks, but it's time for a very quick break up. Next,
22:39
Speaker 3: we'll rank our top five US men's players that we
22:43
Speaker 3: trust the most heading into the World Cup. Please rate,
22:45
Speaker 3: review and subscribed Inside America Soccer, Tom Boger, Tom Brambles,
22:48
Speaker 3: wherever you get your podcast, Welcome backs in South American Soccer.
23:02
Speaker 2: TAB.
23:03
Speaker 3: We're looking at the World Cup and we talk about
23:05
Speaker 3: roster bubble decisions. We talk about starting eleven decisions. We
23:08
Speaker 3: talk about tactics and structures and pressing triggers and whatever.
23:13
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's a bit more fun to just talk about
23:16
Speaker 3: the players and the top end individuals. So this is
23:21
Speaker 3: something that we're gonna do at top five of players
23:23
Speaker 3: that we trust the most, not the top five best
23:26
Speaker 3: players on the team. Who are the top five players
23:29
Speaker 3: that we trust the most? TAB take us away five
23:32
Speaker 3: to one?
23:33
Speaker 1: Okay, uh, and you want me to go continuous five
23:36
Speaker 1: to one, or just start with.
23:37
Speaker 2: The five choicead what do you want to do, I'll start.
23:40
Speaker 1: I'll start with the five and uh and by the way,
23:42
Speaker 1: with what you just said, I think at the end
23:45
Speaker 1: of the day, you know, before tactics and everything else
23:48
Speaker 1: comes into play, I think this is the part that's important.
23:50
Speaker 1: Who are the players that you can trust who are
23:53
Speaker 1: on the field, who you know are doing all they
23:55
Speaker 1: can to win the game every time. And I think
23:58
Speaker 1: my list here will will reflect that. As number five,
24:01
Speaker 1: I have Chris Richards and by the way, I put
24:04
Speaker 1: him at five, that was before watching him play yesterday's game,
24:08
Speaker 1: And yesterday he played a great game. He played a
24:11
Speaker 1: great game, so likely I would put him a little
24:13
Speaker 1: bit higher on the list. But but nonetheless, I mean
24:15
Speaker 1: the list of five is guys that I would trust
24:18
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. Yeah, and and no doubt he's a
24:21
Speaker 1: player that will be on the field and a lot
24:24
Speaker 1: of it will depend on him.
24:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna let you just go run three or five,
24:29
Speaker 3: because I feel like any any analysis that I give
24:31
Speaker 3: is going to give away where mine is, so I'll
24:34
Speaker 3: let you keep rolling here.
24:35
Speaker 1: All right, sounds good? My number four would be Christian Polisic.
24:38
Speaker 1: I really believe Christian will have a good World Cup.
24:41
Speaker 1: Sometimes I think the expectations can be a little bit
24:44
Speaker 1: too much, and and it's normal because if you're if
24:47
Speaker 1: you're the star of the team, you're the guys that's
24:49
Speaker 1: supposed to carry carry the team, You're the guy that
24:52
Speaker 1: has a Netflix show and all of those.
24:56
Speaker 2: Things one of many. I'm assuming it took this way.
24:58
Speaker 3: I guess so, well, U more more more books and
25:01
Speaker 3: documentaries and docuseries than wins over the fast year.
25:04
Speaker 1: I think, well, I mean as a whole, and so
25:08
Speaker 1: because of that, I think I think that, you know,
25:11
Speaker 1: the expectations will always be high for a player that
25:14
Speaker 1: has such uh uh star quality. Let's say, I do
25:19
Speaker 1: trust that he's going to do well for the team.
25:21
Speaker 1: He's going to help this team. I don't think necessarily
25:24
Speaker 1: that Christian Polistic needs to put this team on his
25:26
Speaker 1: shoulders for this team to succeed, But I think he
25:30
Speaker 1: needs to do his job really well, and I do
25:33
Speaker 1: believe that that he can do that and he will.
25:36
Speaker 1: At number three, I'm gonna put Weston McKinney because why not.
25:40
Speaker 1: When you see Western McKinney, he does everything that you
25:43
Speaker 1: want him to do in more. Uh, there's you know,
25:45
Speaker 1: when you talk about trust, you want to put a
25:47
Speaker 1: player on the field that you don't want to worry about,
25:49
Speaker 1: and no doubt Western McKinney is one of those. Regardless
25:53
Speaker 1: of where are you still, Patino decides to play him,
25:57
Speaker 1: which I hope is that a little bit of an
25:58
Speaker 1: attacking role in Mida. I think he's going to do well.
26:02
Speaker 1: He's going to deliver for the team and he's going
26:03
Speaker 1: to make us better when he's on the field. Number
26:07
Speaker 1: two for me would be uh, flow Baliguan. I have
26:11
Speaker 1: no reason to not trust him at this point. He
26:13
Speaker 1: scores every game, so I uh, the only doubt here
26:17
Speaker 1: was whether I would put him in number one. Wow,
26:20
Speaker 1: you know, hopefully hopefully he will continue his streak, if
26:24
Speaker 1: not the same, somewhat the same going into the summer.
26:28
Speaker 1: But I think I do trust him for I trust
26:31
Speaker 1: for Balagun to be R nine. You know, when you
26:33
Speaker 1: see him score the quality of goal that he scored
26:36
Speaker 1: two weeks ago in the league where he chipped the
26:38
Speaker 1: goalkeeper from the side, I mean that's a that's a
26:41
Speaker 1: bird camp, that's a burd camp kind of goal. That's
26:44
Speaker 1: not a goal that happens every day. That's a that's
26:46
Speaker 1: a high quality, high level. Not everyone can do it,
26:50
Speaker 1: not every forward and a great team can do it.
26:54
Speaker 1: I I like that a lot, and I like the
26:55
Speaker 1: confidence of just trying that. I think that shows me
26:58
Speaker 1: a lot. So I trust him and number one, of course,
27:02
Speaker 1: why not. It's going to be Tyler Adams for me,
27:04
Speaker 1: because I don't think there's ever been a game in
27:06
Speaker 1: which you know, Tyler Adams just been in the game.
27:09
Speaker 1: And sometimes the expectations can be too high for him too,
27:12
Speaker 1: because I think sometimes people expect him to do a
27:16
Speaker 1: lot more than he can do. But for what Tyler
27:19
Speaker 1: Adams can do, which is a lot, he can dominate games.
27:22
Speaker 1: He does it just about every single time he plays.
27:25
Speaker 1: No reason for me to doubt that. Someone that shows
27:28
Speaker 1: time and time again and every press conference how much
27:31
Speaker 1: he loves the national team and playing for the national
27:33
Speaker 1: team and how much he loves for the national team
27:35
Speaker 1: to do well. I trust Tyler Adams one hundred percent.
27:39
Speaker 3: Tyler Adams is a gem. I'll say the suspense. He
27:41
Speaker 3: is my number one as well. We've both been very
27:45
Speaker 3: upfront about that in our praise for this player, and
27:49
Speaker 3: that's why this kind of list is like you could
27:51
Speaker 3: just name it the Tyler Adams list. You know that
27:54
Speaker 3: he's going to go out there, he's going to cover
27:56
Speaker 3: more ground than anybody. He's generally going to make the
27:59
Speaker 3: right decision. He's gonna win tackles, he's gonna win duels.
28:01
Speaker 3: He's gonna lead very very well. He's going to be
28:05
Speaker 3: right there for team. It's just like everything that you
28:08
Speaker 3: want both in a leader and in a defensive midfielder
28:12
Speaker 3: and somebody who knows his role too. You don't have
28:14
Speaker 3: to get worried about him trying to put the team
28:16
Speaker 3: on his back or doing something way off script, and
28:19
Speaker 3: maybe that lowers the ceiling a little bit, right, It's
28:21
Speaker 3: just a different a destroyer defensive midfielder versus a creative
28:25
Speaker 3: winger or a goal scorting set of forward. There's more
28:28
Speaker 3: volatility with the attackers because that's just the nature of
28:30
Speaker 3: the game. I know when Tyler Adams is on the field,
28:34
Speaker 3: it's a seven and a half out of ten almost
28:37
Speaker 3: every time, if not eight and a half, and maybe
28:39
Speaker 3: sometimes he's a seven, right, but he could miss. He
28:42
Speaker 3: could not play any like killer forward pass and if
28:45
Speaker 3: he has a game like that and still be one
28:47
Speaker 3: of the best players on the field, just by what
28:49
Speaker 3: he does in defensive transition, defensive work, ground covering, putting
28:52
Speaker 3: out fires before they start. Sometimes this again, this list,
28:57
Speaker 3: it was, hey, I'm starting at one with Adams and
28:59
Speaker 3: then think about everybody else.
29:00
Speaker 2: It was just a complete no brainer for me on yours.
29:03
Speaker 3: I was a little bit surprised, I think, to see
29:05
Speaker 3: Balligan at number two, just because again the nature of
29:08
Speaker 3: center forwards and how those performances can't go up down,
29:11
Speaker 3: And sometimes you may look at it as well, if
29:13
Speaker 3: he didn't score, what did he do?
29:16
Speaker 1: No, yeah, I mean that's a big chance to take
29:18
Speaker 1: on his center forward. But I think, I mean this,
29:22
Speaker 1: this player has done it at every level. You know,
29:25
Speaker 1: he's doing it in Lige and he did it in
29:28
Speaker 1: the Champions League. So at this point, you know, you'd
29:31
Speaker 1: have to look and see, Okay, what would it take
29:33
Speaker 1: for us to actually take Baligan off the field at
29:36
Speaker 1: this point besides the March window where we took completely
29:39
Speaker 1: off the field and didn't play at number nine.
29:42
Speaker 2: Monica might have a minutes restriction at the World Cup.
29:44
Speaker 1: We'll see, Yeah, we will see about that. But no,
29:47
Speaker 1: I mean I think you know, at this point, I
29:49
Speaker 1: think you'd have a hard time finding a fan who
29:51
Speaker 1: wouldn't believe that, even if Baligan didn't touch the ball
29:54
Speaker 1: for eighty nine minutes with us, that in the one
29:57
Speaker 1: minute he can score a goal. I believe in that,
30:00
Speaker 1: and I think that's a good place to be when
30:01
Speaker 1: you're a number nine.
30:03
Speaker 3: He creates danger and if he's not scoring, He's got
30:05
Speaker 3: three goals in his last eight appearances. That The first
30:08
Speaker 3: of that sequence was against South Korea, where I think
30:11
Speaker 3: we hit our rock bottom. Everything started to change with
30:15
Speaker 3: the formation shift and the personnel shift. He was part
30:18
Speaker 3: of that. He looked really, really good at the end
30:19
Speaker 3: of that game. He scores against Japan, and then we
30:22
Speaker 3: started rolling in a positive way through the end of
30:24
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five and Balgin was. You know, it's no
30:26
Speaker 3: surprise that he was at the.
30:27
Speaker 2: Center of that.
30:28
Speaker 3: I'm gonna give my five here. I'm gonna start number
30:30
Speaker 3: five Christian Polisik Again. Maybe it's the expectation, so perhaps
30:35
Speaker 3: it's not fair to put a heir. He just hasn't
30:37
Speaker 3: hit his heights that we know he could hit over
30:39
Speaker 3: the last twelve to fourteen months with the national team.
30:42
Speaker 3: So I think that's kind of why off slit him
30:44
Speaker 3: to fifth here? But when push comes to shove, even
30:47
Speaker 3: if he's not firing, if we have a moment in transition,
30:51
Speaker 3: if we're tied, if we're chasing a goal, I want
30:53
Speaker 3: the ball in his foot and more than anybody else
30:56
Speaker 3: on this team.
30:57
Speaker 2: So while he hasn't necessarily.
31:00
Speaker 3: Contributed the box score numbers of the goals re thesists,
31:03
Speaker 3: which better or worse, it is going to come down
31:05
Speaker 3: to it for him and at the World Cup, his
31:08
Speaker 3: goal contributions are going to be a huge factor in
31:11
Speaker 3: how far how successful this team goes. And that's just
31:14
Speaker 3: the burden, like you said, Tab, So for me, I
31:16
Speaker 3: have a fifth. I think his ceiling is much higher,
31:20
Speaker 3: and I probably his baseline might be higher than the
31:23
Speaker 3: person I have at four. The person I have it
31:25
Speaker 3: fo is Tim Waya because he's like the wide player
31:29
Speaker 3: version of Tyler Adams for me in I know what
31:32
Speaker 3: I'm getting. He had I forget which game it was recently,
31:35
Speaker 3: but maybe against Belgium he was bad?
31:37
Speaker 1: Right?
31:38
Speaker 2: That was that kind of made me think.
31:40
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know that I've ever thought that Tim
31:42
Speaker 3: Waya played bad before today. So hopefully that was just
31:45
Speaker 3: an anomaly rather than a sign of bad form coming.
31:47
Speaker 3: But is running his two footedness, I think, and he
31:53
Speaker 3: could beat his trickery, and like sometimes I take for
31:57
Speaker 3: granted when we're you know, doing our rosters or linus
32:00
Speaker 3: or whatever, be like, oh yeah, I know, he could
32:02
Speaker 3: play winger, he could play wing back. He could you know,
32:03
Speaker 3: have playing in our back four. He could play full
32:05
Speaker 3: back in a pinch and maybe if you want to
32:06
Speaker 3: throw him up top, if you need somebody Like it's
32:09
Speaker 3: just it's just easy to overlook when we talk about
32:11
Speaker 3: that from mckadie as well, it's a nice transition number.
32:13
Speaker 1: Three before before you go to mcknny, I'll add this
32:16
Speaker 1: to tm tim Weya because I don't think tim Weya
32:20
Speaker 1: played poorly against Belgium, and I know where you were
32:23
Speaker 1: going with that. You know, he got beat a couple times.
32:26
Speaker 1: I think tim Weya was a victim of bad tactical
32:29
Speaker 1: preparation for that game. I think there was no time
32:32
Speaker 1: in which tim Weya needed to challenge the ball without
32:36
Speaker 1: getting support, and the support just wasn't there. He was
32:39
Speaker 1: left on an island playing against Doko, who's a player
32:42
Speaker 1: who no one can stop at this point, not just
32:45
Speaker 1: tim Weya, but pick any outside back. No one can
32:48
Speaker 1: stop Doko at this point one d one.
32:50
Speaker 2: I would agree with that.
32:51
Speaker 3: I was I feel like he didn't offer a ton
32:53
Speaker 3: on the balls, like decision making. Was was surprising because
32:56
Speaker 3: he's usually a very intelligent and somebody that you trust
33:00
Speaker 3: to do the right thing or make the right play,
33:01
Speaker 3: whether it's executed or not, because I think he's just
33:04
Speaker 3: a really smart player on top of all of the
33:05
Speaker 3: technical and physical gifts he has, so tim waya slightly
33:08
Speaker 3: ahead of pools, like just on this made up list
33:10
Speaker 3: that we have three West McKinney talked about him a
33:13
Speaker 3: ton over the last couple of months, not so much
33:15
Speaker 3: to add particularly bait beyond what you said he's reliable.
33:19
Speaker 3: What I think is interesting is if we did this
33:21
Speaker 3: twelve months ago, he's not on my top five. He's
33:23
Speaker 3: just not because of the form he was in, and
33:26
Speaker 3: there were so many questions of well, if you put
33:28
Speaker 3: him in that kind of like third attacker role in
33:30
Speaker 3: this system, I don't love it. I feel like you're
33:33
Speaker 3: giving up some creativity or some natural goalscorer right, you know,
33:36
Speaker 3: he's more of a free eight in a midfield three.
33:39
Speaker 3: That's where he's best. I don't know what position is
33:43
Speaker 3: in this system. I don't know, you know, maybe this
33:44
Speaker 3: isn't perfanct for him. I think he's gonna thrive it anywhere.
33:48
Speaker 3: And I apologize for not having that opinion, you know,
33:51
Speaker 3: fourteen months ago and being a victim of the form.
33:53
Speaker 3: Wester McKinney should kind of always be in this top five.
33:56
Speaker 3: The intangible side of things, the work rate side of things,
33:59
Speaker 3: the like, Hey, when things get physical, when things get difficult,
34:02
Speaker 3: when the lights get bright, he's gonna be the first
34:04
Speaker 3: dude to step up to be in the mix of anything,
34:07
Speaker 3: whether it's give me the ball, whether it's I'm gonna
34:09
Speaker 3: kick the shit out of somebody, whether it's you pushed
34:12
Speaker 3: my teammate. I'm gonna get in there, and then I'll
34:14
Speaker 3: get choked by a Mexican national team player three times
34:17
Speaker 3: and there will be no repercussions. But I'm gonna get
34:19
Speaker 3: in there a fourth time no matter what. So Wes
34:21
Speaker 3: McKinney third for me, Chris Richards is who I have too.
34:24
Speaker 3: I was very shocked to see him at number five
34:26
Speaker 3: on your list. He's our best center back and over
34:29
Speaker 3: the last I think eighteen months, particularly as he's excelled
34:32
Speaker 3: with Crystal Palace and really grown into himself as both
34:35
Speaker 3: a dominant center back and the leader and somebody who
34:37
Speaker 3: when he first got to Palace it was is.
34:40
Speaker 2: He gonna play every game?
34:41
Speaker 3: And it's it's difficult to really grow into yourself. Then,
34:43
Speaker 3: like he's a first choice starter for them on a
34:45
Speaker 3: very good English team. He's very clearly the top dog
34:48
Speaker 3: in defense for this team. He's leading by example a
34:51
Speaker 3: whole lot more of this team. I've been very impressed
34:54
Speaker 3: by that. But on the ball, off the ball, he's
34:56
Speaker 3: just a guy I have zero, zero, zero worries about.
35:00
Speaker 2: At any time.
35:01
Speaker 3: This is a better team when he's on the field
35:02
Speaker 3: and a worse team when he's off. So Chris Richards
35:05
Speaker 3: at number two for me, and then like I said,
35:06
Speaker 3: Ty Adams number one, not too much here to expand
35:09
Speaker 3: on given all of the praise that I just keep
35:11
Speaker 3: on him as well. Surprising. I don't know if this
35:14
Speaker 3: came up in your thought process. It was hard for
35:17
Speaker 3: me to live off leave off Anthony Robinson, particularly given
35:20
Speaker 3: you know he's had a lot of injuries over the
35:22
Speaker 3: last year. So maybe we're being a victim of form
35:26
Speaker 3: of that time frame, but before that he might be
35:29
Speaker 3: number two on this list for a while. And then
35:31
Speaker 3: there's there's Matt Freeze. That was another one that I
35:34
Speaker 3: played with. But when there's only five spots, somebody has
35:37
Speaker 3: to be left off.
35:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and that's fair. You know. I think
35:41
Speaker 1: if you went back your fourteen months and I'm just
35:43
Speaker 1: saying fourteen months because that's where you went with McKinney.
35:46
Speaker 1: But if I went back fourteen months, I likely would
35:48
Speaker 1: put Robinson at number one because he had been he
35:51
Speaker 1: had potentially been our best player for the last five
35:54
Speaker 1: six years. There was no reason to doubt him.
35:56
Speaker 3: So the most reliable at the very least right out,
36:00
Speaker 3: like he played ninety minutes every game and gave the
36:02
Speaker 3: same really strong performance every time.
36:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just haven't seen that consistency. And I know
36:06
Speaker 1: he's been injured. That's probably the reason why. But you know,
36:09
Speaker 1: this list is about trust, it's not about who's the
36:11
Speaker 1: best player. And at this point, I I you know,
36:15
Speaker 1: maybe if if there's a number six or seven here,
36:17
Speaker 1: he goes on that list, but at this point he's
36:20
Speaker 1: not a top five in terms of trust.
36:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree Matt Freeze.
36:24
Speaker 3: I think it's just a different level compared to these guys,
36:27
Speaker 3: Like I think these guys are have obviously proved it
36:29
Speaker 3: for longer and and I do trust Matt Freeze, but
36:32
Speaker 3: I couldn't find a way to drop, you know, somebody
36:35
Speaker 3: like Waya or Poolistic from this list for that.
36:38
Speaker 1: But and for me, I for me, I forgot that
36:41
Speaker 1: we had goalkeepers, so I didn't That's why I didn't difficult,
36:44
Speaker 1: I didn't put a goalkeeper in here.
36:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think that he would have cracked you anyway.
36:54
Speaker 2: Well, it's time for one more quick break.
36:55
Speaker 3: Next up, we are going to get into the growth
36:57
Speaker 3: of American soccer and American soccer culture since nineteen ninety
37:01
Speaker 3: four and what needs to happen next. Thanks for listening
37:03
Speaker 3: to Inside American Soccer again. Please rate with you and
37:05
Speaker 3: subscribe wherever you get your podcast.
37:07
Speaker 1: We'll be back.
37:17
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. Let's go inside the
37:20
Speaker 3: locker room with sab Ramos tab You were a central
37:24
Speaker 3: figure at the nineteen ninety four World Cup, one of
37:26
Speaker 3: the faces of that ninety four team. With all the
37:29
Speaker 3: euphoria that came around the country with soccer being here
37:32
Speaker 3: and all of those great scenes that we've seen over
37:35
Speaker 3: and over again when you look at you know, Old
37:37
Speaker 3: Giants Stadium or the Rose Bowl or wherever all these
37:39
Speaker 3: games are being played with all of the fans from
37:42
Speaker 3: all the countries and a lot of fans from here.
37:44
Speaker 3: We started to think more and more about the culture
37:46
Speaker 3: of soccer in this country. So for you, of somebody
37:49
Speaker 3: who's been involved and central to all of this from
37:52
Speaker 3: then through now, where, what have you seen in terms
37:56
Speaker 3: of what the culture was then versus now and how
37:58
Speaker 3: we got here and maybe you know what needs a
38:00
Speaker 3: change and where we're going.
38:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we're going through some really exciting times
38:06
Speaker 1: obviously with the World Cup coming, not just that, with
38:10
Speaker 1: the development of MLS and all of the things that
38:13
Speaker 1: MLS has done over the last thirty years. I mean,
38:16
Speaker 1: you know, when I look at nineteen ninety four and
38:19
Speaker 1: I look at where we are now in terms of
38:21
Speaker 1: the professional game, I honestly couldn't have dreamed of a
38:25
Speaker 1: better scenario than where we are. You know, there's what
38:29
Speaker 1: thirty MLS teams, right, Every MLS team has, you know,
38:33
Speaker 1: pretty much everyone has their own stadium except for one
38:36
Speaker 1: or two right that played their own football stadium. But
38:39
Speaker 1: they have beautiful stadiums, the fans go to the games,
38:42
Speaker 1: Beautiful training facilities in which the players can develop. You know,
38:46
Speaker 1: Red Bulls are getting ready to open up their new one,
38:48
Speaker 1: which is amazing. We have all of those things, but
38:53
Speaker 1: yet the one question that keeps coming up, and I
38:56
Speaker 1: think you sort of pinpointed it was the culture issue. Right,
39:01
Speaker 1: When when will the US close the gap in terms
39:05
Speaker 1: of having soccer culture and the soccer culture actually be
39:11
Speaker 1: part of the American culture, right? And I think I'm
39:15
Speaker 1: not sure. With all of the things that we've done
39:17
Speaker 1: over the last thirty some years and longer, because more
39:20
Speaker 1: people deserve credit than just the last thirty years, I'm
39:25
Speaker 1: not sure how much we've closed the gap. And I'm
39:28
Speaker 1: going to give you an example, and this is one
39:30
Speaker 1: that I think, you know, our listeners will be able
39:32
Speaker 1: to identify with. So, for example, I have three kids,
39:36
Speaker 1: all three of them have gone through the high school, right,
39:39
Speaker 1: I have my last one in high school now. She
39:41
Speaker 1: happens to be a dancer. So she's on the team.
39:44
Speaker 1: She's on the dance team of the school. And you know,
39:47
Speaker 1: obviously every Saturday, the dance team goes to the football games.
39:51
Speaker 1: But so the football team is an event. And by
39:54
Speaker 1: the way, this is New Jersey. This is not Texas
39:57
Speaker 1: I'm talking about because Texas high school football is like
40:00
Speaker 1: the pros, right, so difference that they build eighty million
40:03
Speaker 1: dollar stadiums in Texas for football, so different complete. So
40:07
Speaker 1: I'm talking about New Jersey, which potentially is one of
40:09
Speaker 1: the I would say it's not an exaggeration to say
40:12
Speaker 1: it's one of the best soccer states in the country.
40:15
Speaker 1: Let's just say it, all right, one of the and
40:17
Speaker 1: it's been for decades and decades and decades, likely for
40:21
Speaker 1: about one hundred years. So we're going to on Saturday,
40:25
Speaker 1: we go to the football game because we're in our town.
40:27
Speaker 1: So my daughter's on the dance team. Obviously we go
40:29
Speaker 1: support her, just like the other twenty sets of parents
40:33
Speaker 1: go and support the other girls on the dance team.
40:36
Speaker 1: But there's also the cheerleading team, right, and they have
40:38
Speaker 1: about twenty some cheerleaders and all their parents go to
40:42
Speaker 1: the game. And also there's the band, and the band
40:45
Speaker 1: has their thirty or forty people and all of their
40:48
Speaker 1: parents are out the game to support the man. And
40:51
Speaker 1: then you have the football team and there's about sixty
40:54
Speaker 1: players or whatever they have in high school and all
40:56
Speaker 1: their parents are there and supporting. And but by the way,
41:00
Speaker 1: you also have an ambulance there just in case, and
41:03
Speaker 1: you have maybe someone from the fire department either either
41:06
Speaker 1: a fire truck there or a vehicle from the fire
41:10
Speaker 1: department there. And by the way, you have a couple
41:12
Speaker 1: of different you know, police department cars there. And now
41:16
Speaker 1: you have the director of the school, and you have
41:18
Speaker 1: the principal of the school, and you have like there's
41:21
Speaker 1: a lot of support, right, there's a lot of resources
41:24
Speaker 1: going in. Now. Our football team and obviously I think
41:28
Speaker 1: most people know where I live, but just to not
41:30
Speaker 1: say the town. Last year, our football team, I don't
41:34
Speaker 1: think scored a touchdown. They may have scored one the.
41:38
Speaker 4: Whole season, right year last year, yeah, I think last
41:43
Speaker 4: year twenty twenty, twenty five or twenty four, they didn't
41:46
Speaker 4: even score a touch But my point is people still
41:49
Speaker 4: go because it's an event, is part of the culture.
41:52
Speaker 1: Right. At the same time, the high school won the
41:55
Speaker 1: short conference, which to people around the country may seem okay,
41:59
Speaker 1: it means nothing. And of course you know when you
42:02
Speaker 1: have high regional and local high school competitions, it means
42:05
Speaker 1: a lot to the local high schools to win their area,
42:08
Speaker 1: whatever that is. I think the team made it to
42:10
Speaker 1: the semi finals of the state tournament and won the
42:13
Speaker 1: Shore Conference, which was a big deal. But people don't
42:16
Speaker 1: go to the games. It's not a thing like, it's
42:18
Speaker 1: not an event like it is for football. So where
42:21
Speaker 1: I'm going with this and I think people can identify this.
42:24
Speaker 1: This was the same thirty forty fifty years ago. And
42:27
Speaker 1: I think you know, when you talk about culture, and
42:30
Speaker 1: maybe you know, we can discuss a little bit more
42:32
Speaker 1: about this, but I feel like where we need to
42:35
Speaker 1: make inroads and our culture is to make soccer important
42:39
Speaker 1: at the younger levels, right because this will start so
42:43
Speaker 1: now you have a son and pretty soon you're going
42:45
Speaker 1: to be having the fights that the town about, Hey
42:48
Speaker 1: does my son have enough feels to play on? Because
42:51
Speaker 1: a lot of the resources and I'm not saying this
42:53
Speaker 1: in a bad way, but most people will certainly identify
42:56
Speaker 1: with this. When you go to your town and you
42:58
Speaker 1: see how the rec department is run and how everything's run.
43:01
Speaker 1: The resources go to football and baseball. And by the way,
43:04
Speaker 1: if soccer you have the feel that the park that works,
43:07
Speaker 1: that's good enough. We just throw you over there and
43:10
Speaker 1: I think that's where maybe you know, and this is
43:12
Speaker 1: why now I'm gonna go I'm gonna finish with this.
43:14
Speaker 1: I go back to MLS. We couldn't possibly ask any
43:18
Speaker 1: more of MLS than where it is today. One of
43:21
Speaker 1: the best players ever to play the game is in
43:23
Speaker 1: the league. He just drew seventy five thousand people at
43:26
Speaker 1: a game in Colorado. Right, all those things are there,
43:29
Speaker 1: but I think we need to start to we need
43:32
Speaker 1: to begin to have an effect on the culture, and
43:36
Speaker 1: we're not doing that.
43:38
Speaker 3: It is a really salient point and just a nice
43:42
Speaker 3: way to show that, right, Like it's not. And by
43:46
Speaker 3: the way, what was implied, as you well know, is
43:49
Speaker 3: the students and the fans like people who care about
43:53
Speaker 3: I've got friends of mine who are.
43:55
Speaker 2: They couldn't care less about football.
43:58
Speaker 3: They have younger kids and or not playing football. You
44:01
Speaker 3: know one friend in particular, his kid is four, love soccer,
44:04
Speaker 3: crazy about it.
44:06
Speaker 2: His mother is Brazilian.
44:07
Speaker 3: They still go to the football though they're high school
44:10
Speaker 3: in their town. The kid hasn't started kindergarten yet, he
44:13
Speaker 3: has zero interest in football.
44:15
Speaker 2: They just go.
44:16
Speaker 3: And this is as soccer crazy a person in a
44:18
Speaker 3: family that I can think of off the top of my head.
44:21
Speaker 2: Near me. You talk about it like it happened to work. Well,
44:27
Speaker 2: I feel bad for the kids, of course of.
44:28
Speaker 3: That football team in your town, But even when they're
44:32
Speaker 3: terrible and they have no choice chance of winning, it's
44:35
Speaker 3: still the event, and it's still what draws and still
44:37
Speaker 3: what is the fabric of that town.
44:40
Speaker 2: And as you said, this is at a place where
44:45
Speaker 2: high school and college football it ain't.
44:47
Speaker 3: We're in the bottom quarter of the country, I would say,
44:49
Speaker 3: in terms of caring, right, like, you probably get made
44:52
Speaker 3: fun of it if you were like, hey, do you
44:53
Speaker 3: want in Texas? Do you want to go to our
44:55
Speaker 3: high school soccer game? But sorry, what are you talking about?
44:57
Speaker 1: Man?
44:57
Speaker 3: I think about my own anecdotally, like playing Nobody came
45:01
Speaker 3: to those those short games. Nobody came to our state games. Well,
45:04
Speaker 3: I'm played in college. Man, it would be like my parents,
45:08
Speaker 3: three other sets of parents, like maybe somebody's girlfriend. That
45:12
Speaker 3: was it like that, that was the crowd, And again,
45:15
Speaker 3: nobody would be very, very big. Clear those were not
45:18
Speaker 3: games that were worth attending in your free time. So
45:20
Speaker 3: I'm not even complaining about why people didn't come to
45:22
Speaker 3: my crappy college games. But even when my high school
45:25
Speaker 3: football team was bad, I didn't go a ton because
45:28
Speaker 3: I didn't really care. And I'm like a true like
45:30
Speaker 3: American sports fan as well, but it was like, I
45:32
Speaker 3: don't really care about that.
45:33
Speaker 2: Like they stink. Who cares?
45:34
Speaker 3: Everybody goes to those games, and I like, it's something
45:38
Speaker 3: that I don't think that there's a solve there in
45:41
Speaker 3: American for soccer in America because it's just completely ingrained
45:46
Speaker 3: and there were so many other options as well as
45:48
Speaker 3: like there's a lot of places where basketball is the
45:50
Speaker 3: biggest sport or one of the biggest sports in baseball, right, Like,
45:53
Speaker 3: there are just so many other options. And these sports
45:56
Speaker 3: that have had such such such long runways compared to
45:59
Speaker 3: where you look at Europe or South America. Like let's
46:02
Speaker 3: talk about England, the Football Association or the official clubs.
46:07
Speaker 2: A lot of them are formed in like eighteen eighty.
46:10
Speaker 2: They've got almost.
46:11
Speaker 3: Like the over MLS. Just going from the English First
46:14
Speaker 3: Vision to MLS, it's one hundred and ten year headstart.
46:17
Speaker 3: And yes, there were soccer played in America before MLS.
46:20
Speaker 3: Wherever you want to cut it up, it's like a
46:22
Speaker 3: seventy five to eighty year head start. And I don't
46:24
Speaker 3: know how you breage that gap.
46:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna take out, you know. And it's a
46:28
Speaker 1: good point that you say. And I mentioned that our
46:30
Speaker 1: football team, I don't think scored a touchdown that year,
46:33
Speaker 1: but we were watching in the same you know, And
46:36
Speaker 1: and I listened to the reaction of other parents, right,
46:38
Speaker 1: because there are neighbors and people across the street, and
46:40
Speaker 1: that's that's who they are. And you listen to them,
46:43
Speaker 1: and you're like, you know, so how many times do
46:45
Speaker 1: you watch Okay, you know, first now and it's it's
46:48
Speaker 1: you know, it's run, run, run, punt, run, run, run, punt, right.
46:54
Speaker 5: And then every once in a while, every once in
46:57
Speaker 5: a while, if you're like around the fifty yard line,
46:59
Speaker 5: it's run, run, and let's run one more because our
47:03
Speaker 5: kicker can't really kick, so.
47:05
Speaker 1: It was another run for the turnover. So I'm like, like,
47:09
Speaker 1: you know, I'm you know, I'm not making fun of
47:12
Speaker 1: the team. It's fun. Like I'm just of course, I'm
47:15
Speaker 1: just saying, like it's the culture. It wasn't about the
47:18
Speaker 1: game had nothing to do. It had zero to do
47:21
Speaker 1: with what we were watching, zero to do. It had
47:24
Speaker 1: all to do with the fact that this is the
47:26
Speaker 1: this is a cultural event for our town, and everybody
47:29
Speaker 1: goes there and it's a nice place to be. And
47:31
Speaker 1: by the way, I enjoyed it. I loved going. I
47:34
Speaker 1: really enjoyed going to the football games. And even though
47:37
Speaker 1: we got hammered, we uh, you know, I still I
47:40
Speaker 1: still we we stay there and we supported our daughter
47:43
Speaker 1: and support our kids and stuff like that. But yeah,
47:46
Speaker 1: I think it's, uh, it's important to recognize those things
47:50
Speaker 1: that that maybe, you know, maybe after this summer, maybe
47:53
Speaker 1: after the World Cup becomes you know, certainly for at
47:56
Speaker 1: least a month and a half this summer, soccer will
47:58
Speaker 1: be crazy and everyone will talking about it, and all
48:01
Speaker 1: the morning shows will have it on, and all the
48:04
Speaker 1: shows at night in the news, they will talk about it,
48:06
Speaker 1: and it will be great. I just hope that our
48:09
Speaker 1: next step is not so much to focus at the top,
48:12
Speaker 1: but that we start focusing at the bottom, because I
48:15
Speaker 1: think culture, we have to start working towards having a
48:20
Speaker 1: soccer culture within the American culture, and that will likely
48:24
Speaker 1: take decades. We really have to start.
48:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, from the grassroots. There are obviously improvements on just
48:32
Speaker 3: listen at any point, at any time, you could watch
48:34
Speaker 3: any game in the world, which is awesome, and that
48:36
Speaker 3: is something again going back to your childhood, I know
48:38
Speaker 3: that that was probably borderline not exists. Even my childhood,
48:42
Speaker 3: it really wasn't much like thankfully I grew up in
48:44
Speaker 3: the era of like Premier League on NBC Sports Network
48:47
Speaker 3: when that was the thing. But I you know, the
48:50
Speaker 3: more and more that kids are exposed to it, and
48:53
Speaker 3: it is different too with soccer and tying it back
48:55
Speaker 3: to MLS as well, that I honestly believe the biggest
49:01
Speaker 3: benefactor in terms of fans support and interest of the
49:04
Speaker 3: World Cup this summer is going to be the Premier League,
49:07
Speaker 3: It's going to be an English soccer league, maybe the
49:10
Speaker 3: Champions League, right, maybe League A Mechi's. But the problem is,
49:13
Speaker 3: if you're a football fan, you watch the NFL. You
49:18
Speaker 3: probably don't watch indoor football or the spring football leagues
49:22
Speaker 3: that pop up and fold every couple of years. MLS
49:25
Speaker 3: is obviously beyond that. But it's not like, oh cool,
49:29
Speaker 3: we converted somebody to be a soccer fan and now
49:31
Speaker 3: it's done. It's like, okay, now, but now that you're
49:33
Speaker 3: a soccer fan, there's eight thousand options for you to pick.
49:36
Speaker 2: How are you gonna keep these.
49:38
Speaker 3: People or be the reason like not even keep them, Like, hey,
49:42
Speaker 3: this is worth your time and this is why you
49:44
Speaker 3: should care about this. I think it's gonna be more
49:46
Speaker 3: of the premier league, and we're gonna see a lot
49:48
Speaker 3: of talk about the national team again in the air
49:50
Speaker 3: quote mainstream stuff. The players will be interviews on interviewed
49:54
Speaker 3: on some morning shows. You know, you'll have traditional ESPN
49:58
Speaker 3: kind of thing or Fox Sports or whatever that the
50:02
Speaker 3: topics djure of. Well, this is where Lebron's going to
50:05
Speaker 3: free agency. And oh, by the way, USA plays in
50:08
Speaker 3: a round to thirty two tomorrow. When USA are eliminated,
50:11
Speaker 3: that's gonna go down. And when the World Cup finals
50:14
Speaker 3: forty eight hours after the World Cup final on the
50:17
Speaker 3: next thing. And I don't know how you solve that.
50:20
Speaker 3: I wish I had a better answer. There are a
50:23
Speaker 3: ton of different ways to go. I will leave you
50:24
Speaker 3: just one question or one. I'm curious. You don't strike
50:27
Speaker 3: me as a concession stands at a high school football game.
50:30
Speaker 3: Kind I don't see you, don't. I don't see you
50:31
Speaker 3: walking back with cheese fries. But you tell me if
50:33
Speaker 3: I'm wrong, You're exactly right. I'm not that guy I
50:37
Speaker 3: just sit in the stands the whole time.
50:39
Speaker 1: And every once in a while, you know, you know,
50:41
Speaker 1: my son or my daughter, whatever, I want to go
50:43
Speaker 1: get something, they'll last me. They'll last me if I
50:46
Speaker 1: want a water. So that's pretty much that would be me.
50:51
Speaker 2: Well that tracks. This is a lot of fun. It's
50:54
Speaker 2: always tapped.
50:54
Speaker 3: There are so many different ways that we can go,
50:56
Speaker 3: and we will continue this conversation. I am dead certain.
50:58
Speaker 3: So thank you for listening South American Soccer again. Please rate, review,
51:02
Speaker 3: and subscribe wherever we get to the podcast. We're gonna
51:03
Speaker 3: be back next week and we're only hitting the jetstream, folks.
51:06
Speaker 3: We are getting closer and closer to the World Cup.
51:08
Speaker 3: The time is now. Time is great and can't wait
51:11
Speaker 3: to see now