Latest / Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos / Pulisic on Fire, Pepi to Fulham? and Adams Injury Concerns

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Pulisic on Fire, Pepi to Fulham? and Adams Injury Concerns · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is really interesting for me because you know, I
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: think if you're Mauricio Bochettino, you have to be thinking
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I haven't gotten the most out of Christian Politic, and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I think it's it's time to likely look at the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: three five two. I would want to get the best
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: out of them, and I would want to build a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: team around my best player.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: And that's what I question Christian Polisic.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: What's going on? Everybody? Welcome back to Inside American Soccer.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: I'm your host, Tom Bogert, and as always, I'm joined
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: by my friend, one of the greatest players in US
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: soccer history, a veteran of three World Cups, and a
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: former MLS USU twenty head coach, tab Ramos Tab. It's
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: a holiday season. I don't know what day it is.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: I don't know what time this is coming out. It's
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: gonna come out soon from from when you're listening to this,
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: But we are in that malaise of the between Christmas
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: and New Year's where today could be Friday, today could
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: be Sunday, Today could be Monday. I've got no idea, Tab,
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: how's your Christmas? How's your holiday season?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: It's been it's been great, but You're right, it's it's
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: it's confusing because I think, well I do. I feel
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: like I'm in between meals all the time, you know,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: so I'm not sure.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: I know that when when I'm done, when we're done
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: doing this, I'm going to eat something.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: I thought you're gonna say. I was obviously Soccer always
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: always plays a part in these times. Had my Christmas
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Eve kick, which was great, but then immediately you just
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: load up on food and drinks and everything else that
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: comes with this time. I got to play in like
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: a mensley game last night and just desperately, desperately needed
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: to sweat. I'm sure that you don't have that problem,
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: because I'm sure you do things in better moderation than
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: somebody like me. So that's where I was from.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know you have to consider tim that
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I'm an old man, so I have to take care
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: of myself, and the extent of my athletic commitment at
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: this point is just some runs in the morning, which
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I really enjoyed.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: To be honest, I bet you dust me in a
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: run and it wouldn't be close. Tad, what was the
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: best gift you gave or received this holiday season?
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to go with a receive on this
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: only because I you know, my youngest daughter, Sarah gave
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: me a pair of Nike Cortes and those those are
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: my favorite.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Everybody knows, everybody who's following me along.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: When I coached the U twenties, I was always wearing
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the Cortest and now I've gone away from them a
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: little bit, and she thought of of getting me a
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: pair of those. So I was very excited about that.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: That is very sweet. I love that. On my end,
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: I'm also gonna have to be selfish and go with
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: a receive. So my wife got me a tracksuit. I
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: love a tracksuit. I'm I'm a god from New Jersey,
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: of course, Talian America from New Jersey. And we're expecting
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: our first kid in February, and she got an identical
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: little baby tracksuit. And now that's all I want to
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: dress my future child in at all times.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Wow, I liked it. Did she get a Did she
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: get a little mustache for him too?
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: We'll see, We'll see, we'll see.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: If I can't wait to see, I can't wait to
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: see the baby with the mustache.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, everybody listen to this. I hope that
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: you're enjoying your holidays. I hope that you got some
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: time off, some much needed family, friends, or whatever you
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: want to do with your free time. This is the
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: time to take it easy and enjoy the end of
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: the year. But our Americans abroad are enjoying their time
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: here at the end of the year. There's been a
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: lot of players in action for the US men's national
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: team with their clubs, and we're here to break it
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: all down on today's show. We're gonna be talking about it.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Christian Poolsick, Wes McKinney, Brendan Aronson, Ricardo Peppy, Patrick Godjamon
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: they're all doing really, really well. What does that mean
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: for them? What does that mean for the United States
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: as we approach the World Cup. We'll also look ahead
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: to twenty twenty six. What do the team need to
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: do to improve? What are we looking for going forward?
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: As well as the latest injury updates. Tie round with
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Chris Richards and I'm gonna have a little bit of
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: news on Ricardo Peppy, so stay tuned for that as
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: well as tabs inside the locker room story. We're talking
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: about the offseason. We're talking about a little bit of
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: time off. Tab's gonna tell us about one of the
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: one of the many years in which he actually had
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: no time off, So stay tuned for that one. Well,
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: let's get straight into our Americans abroad, and we got
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: to start with Captain America boy Wonder Christian Poulisic. Christian
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Poolisik scored again for AC Milan. He is now second
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: in Syria in goals. He's only one behind Ltero Martinez.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: He's done it in five less games because of the injuries.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: But again he is cemented himself as one of the
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: best players in Syria. And he wasn't named to The
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: Guardian's top one hundred in the players in the world.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: That list came out around two weeks ago. I thought
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: it was pretty dumb when that happened. It looks a
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: little bit dumber now, Tap. So what do you make
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: of Christian Poolsick's form picking up right where he left
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: off post injury.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I agree with you on this because
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: there's no question that Christian is having a great season
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: for a big club under a lot of pressure week
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: after week, and that's just a lot for the form
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: he's in. You know, it's not like we've been We've
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: been hiding on this show, that's for sure, because we've said,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: you know, Christian Polisics is having a historic season, likely
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the best season that any American player has ever had
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: and potentially could have later into the future, because it's
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: really amazing what he's doing in terms of you know,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: in terms of the one hundred, I definitely have to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: agree with that. How can you not put them on
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the top one hundred list. I do know that when
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: they do the voting, though they ask from voters, they
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: ask only for a top forty list, right, so it
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: gets a little bit tighter when you consider the top
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: forty and then you look at teams like Arsenal and
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: even let me just give an example, because I try
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: to go through numbers and say, how is it possible
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: in the world that he is not in the top
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: one hundred, And then you start going team by team
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: and you if you consider that the list, maybe it's
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: only forty that you turn in and you look at
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: teams like Arsenal, and even at Arsenal only if you
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: took names off, like obviously like Gabriel Jesus or Havertz
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: or matt Ueke or.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Ouda Guard and you didn't count those. You still have Edsa,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: you have Chorus, you have Soka, you have rights.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Right, that's just one team, and then you go to
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Chelsea and you look at palmer As de Val, you
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: look at Frenadz Kaseto like, and then you keep going.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of players out there who are good players.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Having said that he has had a great season, it
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily mean that he's not in the top one
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: hundred in the world. He didn't make the list, but
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: he's certainly having an amazing season. And yeah, at this point,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I would agree with you that the list looks dumb.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Well, just not to get it. And we fully fully
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: respect the Guardian, the voters right like that. That's not
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: a pot shot to take away from the list. We're
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: all gonna have disagreements. That's the beauty of this game.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: But one thing that I've found particularly silly is like
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Raphaelau made the list, Polistic plays in the same team.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: He's just unquestionably been better for pretty much like eighteen
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: months now. But I digress on that. Polstic is in
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: I think the form of his life. It's an awesome situation.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: He is so integral to what Malan are doing and
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: they're in this Scudado race. That's been interesting is so
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: they played three at the back. It's not exactly the
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: same system as the United States, but obviously there are
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: there is some over that, particularly starting with the three
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: at the back. So with the United States it's more
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: of like a three four to two one. With Milan
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: it's been more of of like a three five to two.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: So Poolistick is playing as as a second forward. It's
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: not too dissimilar from from the like positional role with
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: the national team, where he's like a ten and a
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: half where he can drift a little bit further wide.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: He doesn't really have to or or need to for
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: this Milan team because of the wing backs giving all
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: of that support, and you have your you're playing up
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: top of another forward and then box crashing rounders behind
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: you in the in the midfield. So POOLI stick. I
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: think thriving in this system is unsurprising given what we've seen,
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: or this is a good foundation or a good look
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: into more ways. I think he could even impact the
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: national team. He has played under Greg bur Alter in
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: a back four. He played as like a ten. It
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: didn't quite work out. I love him in either a
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: second forward role in a three five to two or
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: the role he's playing with the national team or will
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: be playing with the national team as one of those
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: two tenths.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: This is really interesting for me because you know, I
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: think if you're Mauricio Bochettino, you have to be thinking
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I haven't gotten the most out of Christian Polisic. And
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: it was the same case before with Burholter, and I
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: think it's it's time to likely look at the three
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: five to two. Don't forget what the three five to two.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: It now gives you the opportunity to have that triangle
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: in midfield. And so if you go with that, now
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: you have the option of having potentially Adams, Tesman and
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: McKinney behind Pulisic and balaguin So. And I think if
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I were to look at the team now, knowing that
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Christian has not been the best for us at any
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: moment over the last few years, I would want to
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: get the best out of him, and I would want
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: to build a team around my best player. And that's
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: with that question Christian Polisic. And if that's the case,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: I would likely look into the change. But now now
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: that changes your roster right, because now how much room
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: do you have for guys like you know, Raina and
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Tillman and guys that are those ten type players that
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: now you likely are playing without a tent. Now you're
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: playing with three strong midfielders who can win the ball
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: back and with two forwards. But I think that would
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: likely make our team better.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: I think that's interesting. So I still think that you
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: get the best traits from Polistic with the like the
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: three four to two to one, and I think that
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: that'll help with more support as well, because while Arstin
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: and Death are aren't excellent going forward, that is what
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: they're best at. I would like to have, like you said,
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: that triangle, and I'd rather have instead of all three
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: of Adam's McKenny and testament, maybe a Raina, maybe a Tilman,
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: somebody more naturally attacking, somebody more natural for the link up. Though,
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: I think that this is a great option, haending on
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: the opponent, particularly for we're gonna talk about Wesll McKinney
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: and nex like he's playing very well for Juventus and
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: that would suit him very very well. Because we've discussed
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: previous episodes that maybe it's not a perfect fit. If
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: you have to be the double pivot with Tyl Radams,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: and you have to be less energetic or at least
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: less roaming and less freedom in that role. But if
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: you're playing as a third central midfielder, let's say it's
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: Testament and Adams, well, testamentill hold. Adams will mostly hold,
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: but he he'll go win the ball that frees up
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: McKenny to always be joining the attack and playing as
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: like an eight and a half, not maybe not quite
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: at ten because he's not a traditional attempt. But I
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: do think that that's an interesting look. And it's all
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: about over these next six months of finding and fine
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: tuning and optimizing the best eleven and your best players.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: Pool is sick chief among them McKenny. Now let's talk
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: about him. He's returning into that conversation of okay, like
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: do we need to really consider him when building out
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: this team and when building out the principles. So he
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: played a two hundredth game for Events. He had another
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: assist last week. He played right wing back in that game.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: He's mostly a starter. In this day and age, there
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: are a few players like Polistic who are gonna essentially
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: start every game at a club like Juventus, for a
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: player like McKenny starting most of the games is where
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: it's actually it's a big squad, there's a lot of options.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: McKenny has been very, very good for Juventus really quickly.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: There was a rumor out there that you know, he
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: was he had agreed to a new contract, but it
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: fell apart at the last minute. That's just not true.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: From what sources told me, is that Juventus hadn't even
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: really approached mcknny about a new contract, and very interesting
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: with his contract up in the summer, I would hope,
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: I would assume that they're going to try to make
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: a deal given how important he's been to the team,
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: But you never know, because every year they seem to
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: overlook him and his value within the team. But Wes
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: McKinney is back to playing really really good, really consistent soccer,
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: even if he's jumping around position by position wherever they
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: need him.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, going into the summer, I think
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: if Juventus are not making a move over the next
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: month to re sign him, it's not like he's going
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to not have options. I mean there's going to be
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be a lot of teams interested
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: in McKinney.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: He has a lot to offer.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I think the only the only drawback at this point,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: and by the way, playing two hundred games at Juventus
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: is not nothing. Let's just start with that, right that
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: that's uh, that shows consistency, you know, playing for a
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: club that's under pressure every week.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: You know he gets he's.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Right there, you know, ready to be criticized every week,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and he shows up in place well almost every week.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I think the only the only drawback is obviously he's
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: not playing in the position that he would potentially and
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I say drawback in terms of our national team, right
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, that's what we
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: care about. Uh, he's not playing that position where he
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: would play for the national team. His touches are limited
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: to being somewhere in the forties every week, rather than
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: you'd want to be. You'd want to be in a
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: position to having sixty to eighty touches on the ball
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and being involved a little bit more in the game,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: which doesn't seem like a lot, but when you go
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: from forty touches to sixty five or seventy, you're looking
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: at a pretty big increase of like sixty percent more involvement.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: In the game and so he's having less than that,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: which which is not great, but he's you know, you
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: know what, at the end of the day, it's important
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: to be on the field. It's important to compete, and
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: he's doing that well and he's performing every week, and
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: he's one of the most consistent players you'veventus has had
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: for the last couple of years.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: So you have to say, we have to be happy
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: with that.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't matter what the manager is, doesn't matter
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: what the system is. It doesn't matter if they try
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: to say you're going to train with the U twenty ones,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: or they tell his camp in preseason, Hey, he's not
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: in the plans. Every year he fights and earns the spot.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: And what a great quality that is in terms of
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: the positional stuff. Right, we've passed over this plenty, and
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: it's not just the touches, and that's a really good
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: point to even quantify it like that. It's it's where
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: the touches are, it's the quality. It's it's what is
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: the response ability of where you are in the midfield.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: It's obviously in central midfield, it's three to sixty scanning,
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: it's progressing the ball, whether that's ribbling or passing. When
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: you're winging back, it's more about a lot of straight
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: line running and finding the intelligence of when you're gonna
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: kind of cut in or when you're going to crash
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: the back post or when you need to hold and
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: all that stuff. So it is completely different responsibilities. But
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: I would love to see him playing more in central midfield,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: but I don't see that happening on a consistent basis
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: free Ventus. Hopefully he'll get enough time there and then
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: we'll revisit this in March. Hopefully he gets a good
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: run in central midfield. So because that I think is
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: one of the bigger questions of is he locked in starter?
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: Does this make sense? Is he somebody that makes sense
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: next to Ti Adams in this system? Or if Tyle
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: Adams is not ready to go in March, what would
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: he look like next to Tanner, Tessman, Johnny Cardos, so
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: whoever it may be, What are the tweaks and what
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: are the best ways to get the most out of again,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: a really really good player.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, when you put it that way
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: and you try to figure out, okay, what's the best partnerships?
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: You know, as I thought about the you know the
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: three five to two earlier today about how we would
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: put that together. What I really like about McKinney and
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the three five to two being that third midfielder with
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: potentially Adams and Testament behind him is the fact that
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: he gets into the box really well. I mean what
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: he does make those runs at end inside the six
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: yard box, and that's not easy to get those type
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: those number eights that make those runs. And I think
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: if he were to be that support to Pulisic and
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: to boaliguan as being the third runner into the box,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I think he could do really well with that.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: I totally agree. Another player who is doing very well
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: and somebody that we hope to see more with the
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: national team in twenty twenty six is Ricardo Peppy. So
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: he scored five goals over the last month, four in
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: the League, one in the Champions League. He scored in
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: all of those appearances. The only game that he hasn't
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: scored over last month was a Cup game that they
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: won three nil. Ricardo Peppy is somebody who is amired
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: in the Premier League. It's long been that when he
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: was leaving Augsburg there was interest in the Premier League.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Ends up going to PSV. I think that was a really,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: really smart move for his career. Sources have told me
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: that Fulham have made a bid to PSV around thirty
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: million euros that has been rejected. Sources also expect that
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Fulham were going to come back with another bid for
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: Ricardo Peppy. They're not the only team that's interested in
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: him in January. He's somebody that could be on the
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: move and PSV are a club that if you give
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: the right price, they will sell. They will not hold
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: the player back, even though he is very important to
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: this team, So tap your outlook in January for Ricardo Peppy.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: We spoke about the possibility of him moving on our
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: January Transfer Window special episode and now it's even more real,
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: I think than we knew of a couple of weeks ago.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: So what would you make of a potential move to
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: Fulham to the Premier League if it does indeed come
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: to pass.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Well, first of all, I'll start by saying that I'm
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: really rooting for him right because of the last World
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Cup and him not having the opportunity, and I think
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: he deserved it then, and I think you know, he's
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: working hard enough after coming back from the injury to
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: deserve it now. Obviously he's playing well. I think a
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: thirty million offer is a fair offer. I don't think
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the price will go much more than that, and hopefully
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: he and his agent can push this move because him
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: moving to the Premier League will definitely put him in position,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: certainly to make the US roster, but I think more
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: than that, it would put him in position to fight
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: for fight for his starting position if he does well there, Yeah, for.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Sure going to the biggest stage in the world. Fulham
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: has Raul Jimenez, the Mexico international center forward, on their books,
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: but they are in the market to add to those
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: options in the attack, so it told be another interesting
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: wrinkle Mexico versus US. But Ricardo Papy I think that
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: there's no question that he's got the talent, got the forum, mentality,
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: all of that to go to the Premier League. That
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: doesn't always mean it's going to be perfect, it's always
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: going to work out, but he's a guy that I
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: bet on, and again, the worst case scenario, even if
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: even if something wouldn't work out, there's gonna be plenty
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: of other teams interested in him. I do think that
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: Fulham would be a good fit for him. I think
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: he makes sense within that team, within that roster and
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: that coach. It it'd be financially, I'm assuming very very
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: positive for him going from the Dutch League to the
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: to the Premier League just a fact of where things
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: are and it is higher competition and I think it's
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: just all positives if this deal is able to get them.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean I I totally agree with that.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: I think he he would. You know, he's been a
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: PSV for a while now.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: I think he probably can use uh, you know, uh
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: sort of changing changing the ross, changing the competition, being
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: in a in a more competitive league week to week,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: fighting for a position once again. And at Fulham, he's
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: going into a club that's not fighting for relegation, you know,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: it's they're not against the ropes every week. It's a
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: team that consistently has found its way in the Premier
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: League over the last few years and has been consider
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: in the league. So it would be it would be
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: a good situation for him to jump into.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Two more players who have been performing well over this
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: festive period. First, Brendan Ronson, he was man of the
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: match for Leads. He's got three assists in his last
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: seven games, and leads are now unbeaten in the last
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: five matches, which is no small feat for a team
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: that just got promoted back to the top flight. He
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: is a player that has drawn a lot of criticism
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: from Leeds fans, particularly when he first signed, because he
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: was it was an expensive sign. He was, you know,
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: thirty million dollars or something to that effect, and he
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: was billed as a number ten. And when you don't
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: know who the player is that's coming in and you
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: hear a thirty million dollar number ten, you're thinking chance creation,
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: You're you're thinking a different You're thinking at Gio raina
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: high profile or elite tilman, somebody like that. Brendan Ronson
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: is not that. Brendan Ronson has a lot of strengths
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: and I think he makes a ton of sense for Leeds.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: I thought so when he was first signed. Marcelo Bielsa
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: really really wanted him. That that was the driver that
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: was before Jesse Marsh took charge, and he stayed and
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: fought for his place in this team. He could have
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: left and he didn't, and I think that he's enjoying
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: the fruits of that labor, particularly this year with Leeds
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: I think it's a positive story that that kid's mentality
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: is teflon and his work rate, all the things that
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: coaches love, he's got it. And whether or not he's
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: scoring or creating a billion chances, I think is more
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: of a bonus for him. And what he's done over
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: the last month or so with Leeds. He hasn't been
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: starting every single game, but you know, getting man of
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: the match, getting a few assists, getting more of those
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: goal contributions has been very important for him.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's hard to think of any other
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: player besides Christian Polisk who has had had more of
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: an effect on their own team than Aaronson. I mean,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: and you're right, he does get criticized week to week,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: but I'll tell you what, you know, I don't know
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: that there's another American leaving everything on the field week
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: after week like he does.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: And you know, and that's a trait that you want
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: to have on every team.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: And I think because of that, I mean, Marisio Pochettino's
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: has to be thinking how do I make the best
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: use out of this player because at the end of
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: the day, he is not the number ten that most
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: people think about. You know, he he is the number
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: he's He's the number ten that will pressure the ball,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: that will fight defensively. He's a smart player. He gets
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: into good defensive shape, he gets into into the right spots,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: he wins the ball back, he works. You know, there's
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: some sometimes there's different ways of describing players, and one
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: of them that I remember Jogen Klintzman always talking about
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: was that you're you can be a giver or a taker,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: and he's definitely a giver. So Aaronson is a giver
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: to the team. He does everything for the team, and
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I think that's a great quality to have. I think
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: that's one that we we can't pass on. The question
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: becomes how do you fit them into what we're doing?
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Because he is a he is you know, inevitably that's
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: what's going to happen.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Whether you're in a three five two or three for
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: you know, three four two one, you have to fit
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: them into one of those positions, and inevitably it's either
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: gonna be a position from which you're gonna need a
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: lot of creation like Tillman can provide or rain that
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: can provide, or if you're gonna need that defensive role,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: it's likely gonna be a little bit further back, like
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Tyler Adams Ken or like McKenny can. And so it's
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: a very difficult spot to be in if you're the
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: coach in terms of I have to fit them in
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: and how do I do this?
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: So for me, he's not a perfect fit. I don't
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: think at a few of these spots. But Jim Curtin
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: was his first coach the Philadelphia Union, and he speaks
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: glowingly of Brendan Ronson and one thing that he said
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: has always stuck with me. He goes, Brandan's a guy
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: that as a coach, you just can't take off the field,
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: And that's that was true in Philly. They had their
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: highest paid player played his position when he was an
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: academy graduate trying to get his feet in the first team.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: He put him on the bench that he was playing
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: all the time because of that quality. Thing happened at
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: Salzburg immediately. He becomes a key player at Leeds even
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: when things aren't like even when he doesn't have the
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: goals with the assists, he's playing a lot because he
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: does so many good things. Well, I framed that back
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: to the national team, and I just think that you
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: find a spot for him on the roster, and I
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: don't think that he's a starter within this group, but
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: I think that he's going to be a valuable squad member.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: So that's Brendan Aronson's always good to see him playing. Well.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: One more Patrick Godjamong he scored again for Darby County.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: He's got three goals in his last four games. He
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: is the un questioned starter. Despite missing some time when
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: he made the move from Charlotto's seen in the summer.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: I believe he had a hernia injury and he immediately
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: when he returned got in a starting labe. That is
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: not easy for a new signing. That is not easy
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: for a player who had not been to England before,
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: who who came from was playing D three soccer as
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: recently as twenty nineteen, fights his way into the Charlotte
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: team and then gets to Darby, doesn't have a preseason
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: because of that injury, and is immediately starting and he's
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: been a handful. I think that physical profile is something
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: that nobody else within this pool at that can match,
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: and that's always going to put him on the radar
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: from Rico po Chattino and that World Cup squad.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Well, I think you framed it really well.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I have been one of the ones that has not
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: been on this bandwagon over the last couple of years.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I thought he was always very one dimensional, you know.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: I always think that his best comes out of that
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: that curling run to the left side of the field,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: you know, that diagonal run into the left side.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: I think you need a lot more.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, maybe you know, when you
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: see the type of goal he scored, you know, a
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: couple of days ago, and he overpowers everybody in the championship,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: you're thinking, well, maybe we need a little bit of that,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: you know, because you tend to sometimes select the same
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: type of players because that's what you want for your team,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: but sometimes you need something completely different.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: And I think that's why you framed it perfectly.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I think there may be a time where you're looking
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: down the bench and you're thinking, at this time, we're
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: going to be serving some balls into the box because.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: We need a goal in the end.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: And maybe he's not one of the best three forwards
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: that we have at the moment, but maybe he's the
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: one that I would go to on the bench in
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: those moments. And because of that, I think he's gonna
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: have a chance to make this team all the way
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: till the end.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: I think so too, and I think those final roster spots,
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: particularly at center forward or We're gonna discuss a whole
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: lot between now and the World Cup. But it's time
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: for a quick break. We'll be right back as we
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: look ahead to twenty twenty six. Please rate, review, and
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: subscribe to Inside American Soccer with Tom Boger and so
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: Bramos wherever gets you podcast, Please do particularly rating it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: That's how other people find the show. We would very
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: much appreciate that. So time for a quick break. We'll
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: be right that. Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. So
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: a few weeks ago we looked back at twenty twenty five.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: We gave out our best and worst for the national
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: team and everything in between. And now right before New
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: Year's we're gonna look ahead to twenty twenty six, the
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: World Year. So as as always, we're going to focus
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: everything we talk about around the World Cup. So looking
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: ahead to that tournament, what is one thing to have
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: that you want to see over the next six months
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: that will help set up the United States to succeed
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: at the twenty twenty sixth World Cup.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: For me, what I what I'd like to see if
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: is for us to start working on our starting eleven
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: and watch our starting eleven play. I'd like to see
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: sort of the same, you know, the same team playing
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: game after game and building towards the World Cup. We're
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: going to have some great matches between now in June
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: and I and I think we're going to take some
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: hits because of the quality of the European teams that
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: we're playing. But I would like to see for us
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: to to start to project what the World Cup is
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: going to be like by seeing our best eleven players
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: playing together.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: So my answer is similar in a similar vein to that,
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: because it's it's just healthy, right, It's it's making Dropooli sick,
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: is one hundred percent, no more nagging injuries, Tyler him
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: to recover from his torn MCL, Chris Richards. I think
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: those three more than anybody else, but Baaligain, you talk
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: about Peppi Tilman Giorino. Of course, when you talk about injuries,
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: I'm hoping for something that you can't really control. You
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: can do your best to try to mitigate. But for me,
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: it is a lot about health, and I think that
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: works in tandem, tab with with what you're saying, and
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: if those the most key players are always available or
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: mostly available, you can start building continuity that within that system,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: within that lineup, within those partnerships, within the game. Because
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: they the mentality was an issue over the summer, they
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: they've completely fixed that. For me, I think that that
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: Poschatino in the staff deserve a ton of credit. That's
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: something that they've been working on really hard and really
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: trying to instill as a priority. I think that was
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: fixed tactical that was a big problem. I thought in
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: the summer, Well, that's been fixed with the new system.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: It can always be fine tuned, but generally things are
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: in the right direction. It's it's about health for me
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: and the best players being available.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah without and you know, there come moments in a game,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: you know, and this happens, and I would imagine it
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: happens in all sports where you know, you get to
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: that moment in a game where you're like you're giving
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: your max and the other team's giving your max, and
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: it's those small details that are going to make the difference.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: And I think this is why I'd like for us
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: to have our eleven because at those moments when when
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: you're used to playing together, you can react in a
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: certain way because your teammate, you know that you can
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: count on your teammate to react in a certain way.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: So I'd like to see our our eleven together so
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: that we can we can build on that we can
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: build and being enable to figure out those difficult moments.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: In the game where the game can tip one way
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: or the other.
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: I was speaking to current national team player who this
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: isn't like a new idea or anything, but just kind
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: of emphasizing how it's like. It's it's difficult, particularly first
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: when you get back with an asset team, because when
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: I'm playing with my club team, everything is so orchestrated
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: and drilled and train that I could play with with
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: a blindfold on, and I know when I receive the
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: ball in this pocket that I'm gonna have an option
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: to my right to flick or I'm gonna take a
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: touch and play it to the left. With the national team,
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: it's more difficult because you don't have that time on
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: the training, you don't have that many games, you don't
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: things can't be quite as as drilled and choreograph. You
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: can have principles and everything, but then changing your brain on. Okay,
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: like I'm not playing for my club team, playing for
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: the national team. What are the duties, responsibilities and roles,
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: so any having as many minutes as possible to to
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: build that and continue to reinforce those times where you
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: can turn your brain off and know, I can flick
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: it around the corner. I don't need to look. I
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: know that the winger is going to be there. Or hey,
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: if I'm a center back and I want to play
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: a long ball, I know where the winger is gonna be,
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: or I know where the wing back is going to be.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: Something to that effect, where you know at clubs in
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: this day and age that that that stuff is second nature, right,
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: You don't you don't have to think, you can just
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: you don't need to react. Just you just kind of
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: play because you know where everybody's supposed to be at
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: all times.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that would go you know, well, here's a
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: good example, you know, playing with Sergenio Desk or playing
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: without Serginio Deak. Right, if you're one of the midfielders.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: You know Sergenio for example, is very unpredictable, right, so
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: most of the time he doesn't know what he's going
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: to do next, so you know, and this is not
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: a bad thing, right but at the same but at
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: the same at the same time as it's a good
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: thing for your team. Because he can be unpredictable in attack,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: he can also be unpredictable defensively and because of that
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: you have to make up for that. And if you're
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: not used to doing that week after week, you have
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: that disadvantage. Now, I will say this, other national teams
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: have the same issues that we have. They don't play
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: together either, right, But you want to have many of
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: the details already prepared going into the summer.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: That's why I'd like for us to take advantage of that.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: I agree. But also they did have World Cup qualifying,
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: so they did have a lot of games of consequence,
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: which is just straight up different than friendlies. And also,
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: again I haven't run any data here, but I'd be
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: hard pressed to find another national team that has called
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: up seventy one people in the calendar years, so I
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: think it's a little bit a little bit more difficult
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: on our end. Another one, what is your biggest reason
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: for optimism for the World Cup?
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Well, I think just having watched the last four games
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: in particular, three out of those four games and the
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: mentality that we had, because at the end of the day,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: this summer is not going to be all about tactics.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: It's going to be mostly about mentality. You know, the
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: team is going to be under a lot of pressure,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: but at the same time, the team is going to
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: be supported by.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Millions and millions of people.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, people will be excited about this team,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and because of that, that will bring that pressure. But
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I think the mentality is going to be tremendously important,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: and for the first time in years, we were able
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: to see it in the last two windows, and and
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: I think that that gives me a lot of hope
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: for what this team can do.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: Oh exactly. It all comes down to the last you know,
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: four or five games in the fall, when things really
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: were not looking good prior to that. So I think
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: that that's tangible optimism. Those are things that we can
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: point to and look at rather than talking about things
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: in the abstract and like, well, what if this happens
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: and what if that happens. Like I think that was
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: very important for the morale of both the group but
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: more so the fan base. More so, how quickly the
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: crowd is gonna be worrying, or how quickly things can turn,
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: and even the mentality within the group. I think that's
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: all strong. But to give a different answer as well,
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: like I look at these tournaments and maybe it's a
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: little naive, or maybe it's a little bit reductive, but
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: when your best players are your best players, you get success.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: And I think about again, your era, guy like you,
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: I think about the twenty tens, the Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey,
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: Michael Bradley, Like, when those dudes were playing at the
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: top of their games, you felt like we could beat anybody,
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: right Tim Howard against Belgium, Like, feel like you could
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: beat anybody. So I look at Pulisic and he's in
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: the form of his life. Look at Chris Richards, He's
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: in the form of his life. Tyler Adams was before
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: he got injured. And if those three guys are firing,
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: and I've used the same three names over and over again,
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: so apologies for being redundant as well, but man like,
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: as long as the baseline level the rest of the
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: team is there, and it has been in the fall,
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: then you have a chance to let your special players
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: be special.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: And you have other guys in their best form, you know,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: because you're looking at McKinney and we're talking exactly about that,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: right we're looking we're talking about Aaronson and he's in
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: his best form, you know, Peppi is getting to his
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: best form. Baaloguan is in his best form for our
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: national team. So you have a lot of guys, you
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: have a lot of it sort of coming together, and
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: we hope that we can keep that. Six months from now,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: we're talking about this same exact thing.
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: I hope so too. One more here. I know that
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: there's been a ton of players calling up and I'm
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: not sure that anybody quite qualifies as off the radar.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: But is there a player that that maybe isn't quite
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: in focus, that has a chance to break out over
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: the first six months of this year and be considered
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: for the World Cup roster?
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, I'd have to say no, because you know, I
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: have to call so many players. I don't know that
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: anyone's off the radar. Well, you know, normally what you
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: do in these cases is you look at your youth
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: national teams, right, so you look at this point, we'd
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: be looking at like a Brooklyn Range, So you're looking
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: at a Kramowski or you're looking at a Sekiries, you're
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: looking at guys who were successful in the younger teams.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: But I think they're pretty far away at this point
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: from breaking into this team. And by the way, it
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean that they couldn't do it, but I just
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: don't think it's realistic where we are.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: I agree with you there, and I like I did
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: this exercise as well, like going through like the U
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: twenty World Cup squad, and again I think that there's
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: players that project well for the future. But I do
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: think twenty six is too soon in terms of off
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: the radar. I think Brian White would count us off
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: the radar, or at least more so than some of
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: the others. And I just think that any center forward
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: that gets hot has the chance to make a World
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: Cup squad that's in bottle Hercules Gomez or two in
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: recent memory. Heck, even Hodgi right like he kind of
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: came out of nowhere before twenty two. Jesus Frero was
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: within the team, but that was a little bit of
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: a controversial selection and he started some of those games.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: But those are kind of the profiles that I think
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: have the quickest chance to play your way onto the
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: roster if you score a bunch of goals over a
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: few months leading into the World Cup, and then maybe
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: one more like Tristan Blackman. Again, I know that this
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: is a player who was just with the team in September,
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: but m what's spend of the year, particularly if as
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: the back three persists Camra corn Vickers has gotten injured,
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: that was an option in that position, that maybe he's
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: somebody who could play his way onto that last center
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: back spot. But you know, I'd probably still stick with
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: Brian White ahead of him.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean, I think the Jersey connection with
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Brian White, I think that makes sense all together all
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: around as being an option, right, But I would say,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: justin Blackman, I think he's likely, you know, one injury away,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: you know, from someone else getting injured from being but
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: you know, being in the real picture here, you know.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: And I've said this before and other shows. I like
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: the way he plays.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: I think he has a lot to offer, and I
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: think he could offer a lot to this national team.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: So you know, I think that's a good call.
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: All right. With that, We're gonna take one more quick
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: break and we'll be back with another tab Ramos story.
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: Inside the locker room as well as inside the notebook,
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: I'll give you some information that I've got coming lately
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: around the national team. Thanks for listening. As always inside
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: American Soccer, please rate, review, subscribe wherever you get your podcast,
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: and we'll be right back. All right, welcome back. We
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: are gonna go inside the locker room with tab Ramos
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: once again. Tab. We are in the period where again,
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: hopefully if you're listening to this, you've gotten some time off,
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: and if you don't, thanks for listening, and I hope
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: that you'll have some time off soon. But while we're
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: talking about time offs, professional athletes have a little bit
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: of an off season. It gets less and less, it
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: seems like every year. But Tab, back in the nineties,
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: there was a long period where between the national team
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: and a couple of transfer as you made, you didn't
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: have any time off. So bring us back to that
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: time and what it's like as a professional athlete without
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: any type of break.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Well, uh yeah, let me connect it a little bit
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: to what happens now, right, because you know, we're we're
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: very much a world now that focuses on on on work,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: on load and player and management of that load.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: Right, you even see it in the NBA.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: You see it in other sports where load management has
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: become really important. You know, back then, obviously we weren't
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: thinking so much about that. First of all, I'll you know,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: I'll be out there and saying that I don't think
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: more than a couple of weeks rest is needed.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: You know, you don't want to be away from the
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: game for that for that long because it takes you
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: longer to come back.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: But but in particular one summer wherein I transferred from
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: uh from Betty's to Tigris, knowing that I was going
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: into the MLS the following year. I went to Tigris,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: played the half season of Tigris from January until the summer,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: and in the summer we had Copa America. We had
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: some national team friendlies, but on top of that, we
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: had Cope America. And Cope America was in Uruguay, which is,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: you know, a twelve to fourteen hour flight south, and
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: by the way, it's in the winter because you're going
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: into the Southern hemisphere, so you're going to competing in
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: the winter. And we went to Cope America and as
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: you know, many people know, we did pretty well at
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Cope America and beat Argentina three zero, took first place
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: in our group, knocked Argentina at the second place, forced
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Argentina at to goal play Brazil right away, and we
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: played Mexico and advanced all the way to the semi
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: finals of that Cope America. And because of it, we
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: stayed all the way to the end. You know, we
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: played the third place game, which meant we were at
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: Cope America from beginning to end, so it was long.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: And then after that I had to go to preseason
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: with Tigris because the preseason was starting. So had played
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: now the season at Tigris, some friendlies with the national team,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: the full Cope America, and now I go to preseason,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: which I feel like I don't need because I've been
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: playing all alone.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: You had been playing the whole time, but you go
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: into preseason anyway.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: And to top it off, the preseason at Tigris we
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: were doing it half in Italy and half in Greece.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: So I flew from Uruguay to Mexico to start the preseason.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: We were there for a few days and then we
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: flew to Italy, which by the way, in Italy we
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: played we played against Perugia. But the second game we
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: played it was against Patava and Alexi Lalas is on
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: that team, so I got to play against I got
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: to play against Alexi Lalas in Italy with Tigris against Patava,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: which is which is kind of neat two Americans playing
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: each other, and especially at that time. Right now it's
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: not a big deal, but back then it was a
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: big deal having two Americans play each other in Europe
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: in a preseason game.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: But anyway, so and from.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: There we went to Greece, played in a tournament there
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: with US Studiantism, Argentina and Olympiacos, and then we went
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: back back to Mexico a couple of weeks later and
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: then started our season that went, you know, all the
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: way to December. But then the issue was from the
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: then we started the second half of the season in
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Mexico and then I had to rolled right into MLS.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: So MLS was starting in April of that year, so
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: I rolled right into MLS and I was going into
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: really into a league that hadn't existed, that was its
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: first year. So it was really more about the lack
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: of planning, because there's no other way to say. From
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: going from January of one year to December of the
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: following year, playing sort of the whole time NonStop, which
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: was really difficult.
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: Did you stay fit throughout that whole time or did
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: you have any any I guess abnormal minor injuries or
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: anything like that.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: I'm sure I had a couple of injuries, at least
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: at the time, because I was getting injured from time
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: to time.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: I was at that time.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: I think that's the year when I turned thirty, and
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: because of that, I was already starting to.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: Wear down a little bit.
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: Back then, without the var guys like me used to
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: get jack up all the time in cames, so so
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: it was not easy to stay on the field all
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: the time.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: So I'm sure I had a couple of injuries that year.
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: Now, what was that like mentally for you?
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: Well, I actually I enjoyed it. I actually I didn't
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: enjoy having time off. You know.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: I like playing week to week because I felt like
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: I stayed sharp that way, and the focus was not
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: so much on training.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: The focus is more in games.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: You know, when when you get injured or when you
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: know you have time off, you have to focus on
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: training because your fitness becomes a big part of what
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: you're doing. But when you're playing week to week old
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: old that old training does is just sharpen you up
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: for the weekend.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: And you like being in that environment of week to week,
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: just being focused on the games.
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: When you're I again, off is a relative term because
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: it's not as if you're sitting on the couch for
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: twenty four hours a day. But would you would you
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: dabble in in playing other sports with friends and stuff?
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: What what was it like when you did have a
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: few weeks off where you didn't have to go to
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: let's say a two day training session.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, being off a couple of weeks for me
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: meant playing tennis, basketball, you know, every other sport every day.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: So so I really you know, I was always I
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: always played all sports, So I really enjoy that.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: I can see you being really good at tennis. But
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna be honest, I'm a little bit dubious of
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: your basketball skills. What what were you any good at basketball? Uh?
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: No, I mean it depends on how you define that. No,
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: but I'll tell I'll tell you this.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Like for example, in college and NC State, we had
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: an intramural team basketball team and we won and we
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: won it twice with like one hundred teams in the
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: tournament you know we had it was basically all soccer
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: players and a couple of swimmers. A couple of swimmers
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: because they were tall, and uh we won the Intramurro
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: League a couple of years in a row.
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: So I take it back, I was wrong, and don't
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: take it back.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: And don't forget.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: I went to school at Benedict's where like getting in
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: the gym and hitting. Uh, hitting a few shots is
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: important too. And by the way, I took Tony meol
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: that a couple of times, the same Benett's to play
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: with me because Tony is a great basketball player.
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: Uh, I can see that.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: So basketball is a sport I actually enjoyed a lot.
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's funny. I love I love watching huge knicks, man,
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: I love watching basketball. I am useless on a basketball court,
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: and I'll tell you that much. My extent of basketball
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: is playing futsalf. And I'm sure, I'm sure, I'm sure
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: that that's that's likely the case for many soccer for
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: many soccer players, but not you. I was wrong there.
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: I doubt it. JEMs. Yeah, let that happen again. In
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: terms of and we're talking about offseason, and in MLS
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: it is the off season. And there have been several
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: players within the national team that guy like Alex Freeman,
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: he hasn't played since late October early November, Jack McGlenn,
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: even before that, Diego Luna October. Some of the players
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: within the national team, I'm certain that they've been training.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: They've insane fit, doing with the best that they can.
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: Preseason reconvenes in a couple of weeks around MLS and
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: then the first games are in mid February. How difficult
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: is it for those MLS players to lock back in
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: to the start of the season, be at your best,
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: to be able to be to be in consideration to
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: be called up, and then be at your best if
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: they are at the March March camp.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean players have to be doing their homework,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: you know, because they're off for a couple of months,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that they're not playing. I mean, if anything,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: hopefully like they should be is they should be finding
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: their way to somewhere like Florida where a lot of
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: them get together and do their own mini camp and
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: they play a little bit. I know that, you know,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: in our time, whenever we we had time, we would
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: do that. And I know from being at Houston Dynamo
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: that some of the players did get together, you know
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: in in you know, in the offseason somewhere warm where
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: a bunch of them come together and they and they
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: help each other out, They work out together, they play
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: some games, you know, they do some some all sided things.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: But you're still involved in the game. So hopefully the
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: players can do that and are doing that.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: If not, if they can't do that, they can always
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: come here and play for the Brooklyn Italians.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: I can hook them up.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: I can hook them up with the Brooklyn Italians and
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: they can come play here the indoor leagues.
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: I think that's a great call. I think that I
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: think that'd be pretty good for a few of them.
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: That was inside of the locker room. Now we're gonna
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: go inside the notebook and talk about some of the
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: biggest stories around the national team. The biggest one, I
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: think was already the Ricardo Peppy transfer info that we
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: gave you in the first segment. But let's start with
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: some injury news. Chris Richards he left on a stretcher
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: for Crystal Palace and then he missed the team's next game.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: That was the first Premier League game that he missed,
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: showing his importance to this very very good Crystal Palace side.
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: The good news is despite being stretchered off, it's a
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: short term injury. He got stitches on his foot and
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: he's questionable to play in the team's New Year's Day match.
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: That is best case scenario. Because you hear stretcher and
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: somebody being carried off, you don't think just stitches. So
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: thankfully the worst case scenario was avoided. Chris Richards, whether
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: he's back on New Year's Day or not, I think
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: his immaterial because it won't be long before he returns
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: to the lineup, and that is crucial for the national team.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: No question.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: And he's you know, he's a tough player. He hasn't
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: missed any games. I don't think this will this old.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: He won't skip a beat here with this. I you know,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: I recall a situation with the under twenties. We're playing Ukraine,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: and I remember Chris Richards. We came in the locker
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: room at halftime and he and he pulled his socks
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: down and took his sort of his shing guard off,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: and underneath he had a cot some kind of cut
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: he had been kicked and he was looking at it
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, what are you looking at?
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: Said, and he goes, yeah, you know, he's like nothing.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: Coach put the thing back.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: On and when you know, went right back without a problem.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, I think he's a tough player.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: He's shown it. He wouldn't be in the league where
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: he is if he wasn't, and I think he won't
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: skip a beat. So we had nothing to worry about there.
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: I agree, So disaster avoided there. The next piece of
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: injury news Tyler Adams. He is out for around two
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: to three months with a torn MCL, so that puts
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: in doubt if he's going to be able to play
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: in March. It's not good news, but again it avoids
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: the worst case scenario because going down with a knee
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: injury early in the game, you never know exactly what
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: it is and if that was an ACL, that's it
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: for the World Cup, which would be an absolute disaster. Again,
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: torn MCL is not is not a positive thing, but
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: it's something that he'll be able to recover from and
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: be back to full fitness and form. That is the
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: prognosis ahead of the World Cup and again maybe he'll
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: be here in March with the team. But again, this
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: isn't nearly as positive as Chris Richard situation, but content
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: with it to not be the worst case scenario for
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: Tyler Adams.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: In this one, I feel a little bit different. I'm
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: worried about this one because although it's it's an MCL.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: If you know, you know, the MCL is on the
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: it's on the inside of your knee, and because of it,
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: you use it constantly for your your inside of the
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: foot passing, you use it for blocking shots, you use
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: it for winning tackles.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: It's it's very difficult to get your.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: Confidence back when you do an MCL. It's it takes
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: a while. So just because he may be recovered, let's
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: say in two months, it may take on another month
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: or two for him to be fully confident that he
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: can go hard with the inside of his foot. It's
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: not it's a it's a it's a much more difficult injury. Then,
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: let's say, the doctors could say, because it requires your
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: your confidence, requires for your brain to be fully confident
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: that you can make that hard tackle and you can
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: hit that ballhard. So I'm a little bit worried about this.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: I don't see him playing in March. Hopefully he does,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: but I think he should be okay for the World
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Cup obviously.
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and then and at least there should be that
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: time again depending on exactly when he comes back, there
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: should be that time to gain that confidence mentally more
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: than physically, because again, let's say he comes back mid March,
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: late March, like you still have what ten ish games
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: left in the Premier League schedule, depending on again exactly
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: when he comes back, so at least he will have
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: some time there. But tap to your point about being worried,
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: it leaves now it really leaves no room for setbacks,
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: no rooms for you know, another little injury, because just
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: running out of game time. There will be the pre
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: World Cup friendlies, the two at the end of May.
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: But at that point you hope that he's completely fully firing.
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: And again I'll be optimistic and hope that he is.
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: But now we are at a point where there is
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: no room for setbacks or error. But again, if we're
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: going optimistic.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: And if I could add to that, you know, as
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: you're saying, there's no room for setbacks. This is the
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: type of injury where you have setbacks, because all it
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: takes is for you to block a shot where the
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: ball sort of hits your toe and opens your leg
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: a little bit more for you to be set back
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: for a week or two. And that's the tough part,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: and that's what worries me most.
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: It's a good point and good insight. Lastly, here Luca Delatore,
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: per sources, is signing for Charlotte FC. He left San
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: Diego after a one year loan from Southovego. I'm told
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: that this is a permanent deal to Charlotte. He fell
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: out of the San Diego starting lineup by the playoffs.
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: I think in Charlotte he provides something that they really need.
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: They don't have ball progressors and creative technical types in
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: the midfield. But the only worry here for Luca delatory
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: is a prerequisite to getting on the field for Dean
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: Smith and Charlotte is defensive tenacity and work great. And
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: we've seen some other technicals midfielders that either get pushed
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: to play on the as a winger petpiel or just
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: kind of get dropped entirely from the team, which was
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: Eric Williamson. Lucas Delatori is a better player than Eric Williamson.
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: But that is the only worry that if he doesn't
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: if he doesn't play sharp and intense on the defensive side,
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: Dean Smith is a guy that will go for a
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: more kind of industrial type of midfielder. But he's the player.
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: He's a player that Charlotte really need. And and I
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: think this would be a good fit.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm I'm gonna have to disagree with you on
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: this because I think I think Luca is not a
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: great fit for this team. I'm actually surprised with this,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: with this, uh, with this, you know, signing into Charlotte.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: I could see, you know, Luca doing much better in
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: a place like Houston or you know, you know so
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: and and by the way, you know, I have to
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: say this because obviously I have a little bit of
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: insight on some of these players. You know, I don't
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: think Luca Dilettoria's heart rate has gone above sixty for
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: the last ten years.
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: You know, he is as cool.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: He's as cool as player as I've ever seen. Nothing
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: gets to him. He will, he will go to Charlotte.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: He will make a great effort, he will do the
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: best he can, and he won't sweat it because he
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: has confidence in his ability. He has great technical ability
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: to get out of any situation. But I just don't
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: think for some of the reasons that you mentioned, I
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: just don't think he's a great fit for that team.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: But obviously that's just my opinion.
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, I think and I think that that
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: is a fair worry. Charlotte need to evolve, like Dean
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: Smith needs to evolve his game model, and and he
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: has to make sacrifices which probably be the wrong word,
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: but he wants a lot of like he wants a
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: lot of dogs in the team. He wants a lot
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: of ball winners, a lot of all of that. They
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: did not progress in the playoffs because their midfield three
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: were three players who give you nothing in the attacking third.
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: And I liked each individual player, but I was at
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: the game that they got eliminated. I cannot tell you
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: how many times they had good passing sequences that ended
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: at the at the feat of two holding midfielders that
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: were playing more advanced because that's all they had, and
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: that's all Dean Smith trusted at that point. So maybe
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: if if he's able to bend on some of those things,
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: Luca will be a good fit but tab, I think
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: that you have every right to to kind of worry
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: on that front. Over the next week or so, I
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: would definitely keep keep a tight eye on Riccardo Peppy,
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: Fulham or elsewhere. Again, I'm told that there is more
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: teams interested, but Fulham are the first two table A bid.
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: So Riccardo Peppy's future is going to be one to
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: watch and it looks like Fulham is trying to wrap
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: us up as quickly as they can. So over the
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: next week or so, definitely, uh, stay tuned to see
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: what happens next with him.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's exciting.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: It's exciting because I I can't wait for something to
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: happen for him. I think he's got a lot more
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: in the tank that that, uh, than we've seen. You know,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: Peppy has been helping our national team getting big goals
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: for years. I still go back to the goal he
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: scored against Honduras, you know, back you know, when we
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: it looked like it was we were going to be
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: in a tough situation trying to qualify for the World Cup.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: He scored a second half goal in Honduras that I'll
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: never forget because it was that big a goal and
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: I think he uh him not, you know, being part
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: of the last World Cup.
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: I think he's got a chip on his shoulder.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: He's got a lot to prove and uh and I
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: and I think he will make this one and and
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: I think a move at this time will be will
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: be tremendous for him and cutting that uh sort of
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: that that lead into the next World Cup.
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: I agree, And we'll stay tuned and we're going to
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: keep you updated on all of that. So please thank
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: you for listening to Inside American socc Please rate, review, subscribe.
• 54:10
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• 54:13
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• 54:16
  Speaker 3: on social media as well for a quot action on
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: a mailbag episode. We're going to do that soon. But
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: we want your question if we want to answer whatever
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: you want us to talk about. So thank you all
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: for listening. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year. TAB.
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: Best to you. I'll see you in twenty twenty second