MLS Mid-Season Review, USMNT Finish Top of Gold Cup Group & Club World Cup Impresses

Speaker 1 We are at roughly the midway point of the MLS season.

Speaker 2 I was worried you were going to say that.

Speaker 1 And you said Vancouver, we're going to finish at the bottom. Yep.
Just let me look. I'm still scrolling up.
Oh, there's Vancouver there at the top.

Speaker 2 At the time, it was a great take. Yours is coming, by the way.

Speaker 1 I had the LA Galaxy win.

Speaker 2 You did. You did.
Which, as bad as my takes were, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 Let's go.

Speaker 1 Unfiltered soccer with Landon and Tim, presented by Volkswagen. Volkswagen has long been a supporter of soccer in America and has proudly been a partner of U.S.
soccer for over five years.

Speaker 2 LD, my guy, back for another episode of Unfiltered Soccer.

Speaker 2 I keep laughing at you. You're a very

Speaker 2 busy man nowadays, by the way. Doing doggies back and forth to the studio in LA, covering the Gold Cup, doing our pod.

Speaker 1 How's things, man?

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 It is. It's tiring, you know.
These tournaments are tiring, but it's fun. There's been a lot of

Speaker 2 lot of drama a lot of talking points a lot of stuff to talk about um what is that is that an alabama shirt by the way it's just like alabama fc it's my daughter's ecnl team oh that's cool yeah um what about you you were you were weren't you at the fanatics thing this weekend i was at fanatics fest this weekend which was at the javit center in new york i was there two days friday and saturday um doing a bit of signing i did some stuff for the premier league and nbc bro it is i mean it's the second year that it was, that they did this, and I was blown away, bro.

Speaker 2 I mean, LeBron James was there, Tom Brady was there.

Speaker 2 WWE.

Speaker 1 Oh, I saw the thing about Brady winning something. Didn't he win some,

Speaker 1 he won some like event or something they did on a million dollars. I'm like, that dude needs a million dollars.

Speaker 2 Yeah, please give that away. But it was, it was crazy because there's just mobs of like, so every, every celebrity or

Speaker 2 athlete has like basically

Speaker 2 they're just mob of police and security around them and you kind of move through this crowd and people just are like screaming everywhere like it's lebron it's it they didn't scream my name but they scream other people's name now they're like oh it's okay it's tin i don't know we're looking for joe burrow where's he at you know so it was crazy i mean it was crazy for me to see there was one point i was in the green room and lebron and steve nash were doing their they were doing like a quick pop of their podcast in the corner and then logan paul was getting interviewed in that corner i'm like getting shoved around i'm like i'm getting out of here get a i got a coffee i'm like i'm gonna get me they're like tapping on you and you're like, not right now.

Speaker 1 I'm not going to sign. And they're like, no, can you just get out of the way, please?

Speaker 2 I will say this. This NYPD officer,

Speaker 2 he was like, he's like, yo, my boss is not going to let me get a selfie on a soccer pan.

Speaker 1 He's like,

Speaker 2 never mind. I was like, that's my guy.

Speaker 1 I love when they do that.

Speaker 1 Like, I know I can't do this, but can you please just take a picture? But it was cool.

Speaker 1 Hey, I just forgot. Hold on.
Yeah. Shameless plug, but I've been talking about the book.

Speaker 2 Look, I got the cover. We got the cover done.
It looks great. You look better on the cover.
Look way better.

Speaker 1 Congratulations. I totally forgot I wanted to

Speaker 1 show off today. Shameless bug.

Speaker 2 Is that my signed copy or that's the one for your library?

Speaker 1 Just keep checking the mail. But all right, guys, follow us at Unfiltered Soccer.
Subscribe to the show as always. YouTube,

Speaker 1 Apple Podcast, Spotify. You can email Jordan at feedback at unfiltered soccer.
All right, Timmy, right in US LNT on USMN. Lots going on.
So the U.S. beat Saudi 1-0.

Speaker 1 So they went to their final game yesterday, only needing a point against Haiti. And even a loss, I think, would have been enough in the end.

Speaker 1 It wasn't like a perfect game. Pochatino made four changes to the lineup.
Two of them were because Luna and Berhalter had yellow cards, so he was smart about not starting them.

Speaker 1 Luna came in, but didn't play much.

Speaker 1 It was a, you know, it was a tense game because Haiti still had a lot to play for. But the U.S., I thought, very maturely still won the game.

Speaker 1 And, you know, it'd be easy to just say, oh, whatever, let's save it. but they did well.
Ajamong scored a great goal in the end. Malik Tillman was fantastic again.

Speaker 1 He's been, I think, really the emerging star of this tournament, he and Chris Richards. And a very good win.
And now they move on to play Costa Rica in Minneapolis next weekend.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think they played well.

Speaker 2 I said, you know, before the tournament and then at some point, maybe after

Speaker 2 the Trinidad and Tobago game i said i said to you that like i want them to blow the doors off these teams and that didn't happen and maybe that was a big pie in the sky but it's because look when you play three teams that are going to bunker in and give you the ball it's hard to break them down it just is it is and so you know to to the us's credit yesterday they were they were safe at the back for the most part didn't give a ton of chances away if you know if any real chances and then they had a bunch of you know opportunities there was the balls in the back of the net a couple of times right so uh aside from the two goals, so I

Speaker 2 think they played well. I think they played well.
I, uh, Tillman,

Speaker 2 you know, this is a per, not, he clearly, we knew his name, we knew his caliber and his ability, but this is a perfect example of like,

Speaker 2 not really sure how you keep him out of the team now

Speaker 2 on any goal cup friendly big match. Like, if he keeps going and stays fit, yeah,

Speaker 2 I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm saying his name's on a team sheet. That's got to be a,

Speaker 2 nailed on. And then Ajamang for me,

Speaker 2 you know, I hear different arguments.

Speaker 2 He's a number nine

Speaker 2 that makes things happen. He does.
And you can talk about clinical finishing and so on. He makes things happen.
He drags people along.

Speaker 2 I know there's going to be some people out there that disagree with me, but show me.

Speaker 2 For the people who doubt Ajamang, I would say show me another U.S. nine who is dangerous.

Speaker 2 And dangerous can be categorized a bunch of different ways. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But show me another one. And he can do things on his own, LD.
And as a U.S. striker, we've talked about this over and over and over again throughout the years.
A U.S.

Speaker 2 number nine has to be able to do things by themselves on their own because it's not. These games are comfortable, but when

Speaker 2 stuff really starts flying,

Speaker 2 you're going to be isolated. So, yeah, I like it.

Speaker 1 I mean, interesting stat for Roger. I mean, he gets so much crap from people, and

Speaker 1 people don't understand the sport, and they don't understand that you can be effective without being like this clean clinical.

Speaker 1 If he was a clean clinical, he'd be playing at Barcelona.

Speaker 2 Like, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like, give the guy some credit. He's 24.
He's, he's, he's making a great career for himself. In his first nine U.S.
men's national team appearances, he scored five goals.

Speaker 2 Yep, yep, yep.

Speaker 1 That means, Tim, hold on.

Speaker 1 yeah that means he's tied with a guy who was pretty damn good josie alcador for the six fewest games needed to score five goals like he doesn't need to be a world beater but he's been really effective for this group correct yeah so it's been

Speaker 2 i've been very good and and here's here's let me jump on on your point five goals in nine games right that that

Speaker 2 people who are he plays at charlotte and he's young how old is he 24 i think 24 okay plays at charlotte he's 24 years old

Speaker 2 if if we look at the other side of it, right? If you want to be a naysayer, he's got five goals in nine games. He's missed a bunch of chances.
Okay.

Speaker 2 If he scored those chances and had 10 goals in nine games, he wouldn't be at the Gold Cup because he'd be on the plane somewhere to Europe because someone would pay $50 million for him.

Speaker 2 That's how this works. So is he a $50 million striker that's going to play at Barcelona? Not right now, but like, this is good.
This is what I'm saying to me. Show me another U.S.

Speaker 2 nine who's got that goal record. Right.
That's it. And you can.

Speaker 1 And by the way, and he's available. He's not injured.

Speaker 1 Other guys are injured all the time.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 I like him. I like him.
I think he's. And by the way, all of this, he's growing.
Nine games. He's getting better.
Nine games.

Speaker 2 Like by the time the World Cup comes around, I hope he has 20 games under his belt and five more and five more goals. That's really good for us.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 All right, LD, it's time for the unfiltered refresh sponsored by Coors Light. Choose chill.
Get Coors Light delivered. Go to to CoorsLight.com/slash US LNT.

Speaker 2 If we're talking about the Saudi Arabia match, for me, Chris Richard chose Chill. He was, I mean, Chris Richards was absolutely brilliant.

Speaker 2 There was a block that saved the goal, and then he got the game winner. He's talked about recently, he wants to be him, that he's the guy, give him the pressure, and he'll perform.

Speaker 2 Chris Richards, thank you from all of us for choosing Chill.

Speaker 1 Congrats to you, Chris Richards.

Speaker 2 Brilliant.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's talk about Matt Freeze. So, this, you know, Mo and I on set had a decent disagreement about this.

Speaker 2 So, okay, long Balgitz.

Speaker 2 Tell me before that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, no, I know what happened, but tell me about your and Mo's disagreement because as much as I watch you, I didn't see that.

Speaker 1 Okay, okay. Let me tell you.
So, let me just paint the picture and then we'll. So, Balgetts played over the top.
Tim Ream tracks it down for those who didn't see, which I'm assuming everyone did.

Speaker 1 He plays a difficult pass back to Matt Freeze, and Tim Ream would tell you that too. Matt Freeze, I can't tell.
You can't tell with intent.

Speaker 1 It looks like he's trying maybe to like pass the ball out with his left foot and it comes to him fast.

Speaker 2 Yeah, who is he passing to?

Speaker 1 I think Tolkien, maybe.

Speaker 2 I think it was Tolkien, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 And it kind of bounces on him, gets caught under his foot, and he rolls it right to the Haitian attacker, Luisius, who then takes a touch and smashes it in the far post. It's a big mistake, right?

Speaker 1 I mean, there's no doubt about that. It's a big mistake.
And in retrospect, he would say, just put his laces through and kick it anywhere. I mean, if it goes out for a corner, who cares?

Speaker 1 Kick it anywhere. My point with Mo is

Speaker 1 now the group stage is over, right? Pochatino's objective,

Speaker 1 he has two objectives. He said it, win the gold cup and evaluate players.
You're in the quarterfinal now.

Speaker 1 My point is all the evaluation stuff is going to happen, but the goal now is to win the gold cup. And Mo, you know, Mo's, he's,

Speaker 1 he won't be necessarily as candid as I am on camera. And so, he's like, Look, I'm not willing to throw Matt Freeze under the bus.
He's still, and I said, I'm not either.

Speaker 1 I'm he's a fine goalkeeper, but now you need to win the gold cup. And I know Matt Turner's not been great, he's not been playing a lot, but that's the guy you need to have in the goal.

Speaker 1 We saw what Kayler Navas did yesterday against Mexico. You need the guy who can make the play.
So, that's my opinion. No one cares what I have to say, you're the goalkeeper.

Speaker 1 So, that's that's kind of the back and forth we had. So, I think Matt Turner should start going forward.
I just want to hear your opinion on all that.

Speaker 2 Okay, so, so, let me give you, yeah, so two, so my thoughts on the goal and the mistake that Matt Freeze made and

Speaker 2 whether he should be playing or not. So mistakes happen at the highest level, mistakes happen.

Speaker 2 Here's the problem. Ball comes back.
Tim Ream, who is a footballing center back, like he naturally takes the ball, wants to play his keeper, wants to play between lines. All that's fine.

Speaker 2 So he plays his goalkeeper, right?

Speaker 2 Which is still fine. It's tight, but he plays his goalkeeper.
Matt Frees

Speaker 2 goes to play tolkin okay

Speaker 2 bumbles it it's a it's a bobbly pass he then but he then tries to play a first-time pass off of a bobble from tim reem to tolkin into a tight window makes a mistake okay

Speaker 2 what happens is that ball right as as you he knows it's coming to him so he's shaping he's shaping to receive it one way or the other right when he reads that it's hot and bobbly you lean back you open your foot up with a really big surface, and you smash it into the stands.

Speaker 2 Here's the problem.

Speaker 2 These kids are not taught to think.

Speaker 2 They're taught to be robotic.

Speaker 2 So he would have been taught, and this isn't Pachatino's for the goalkeeper, this is football.

Speaker 2 He'd have been taught to play, to play, right?

Speaker 2 So you have one option in that moment. The objective is to play.
But they don't have enough gumption to say,

Speaker 2 I'm going to play nine times, eight times out of 10. But when there's an opportunity for me to make a decision, I'm going to make the right decision.

Speaker 2 So then what happens is go back in hindsight, lean back, smash the ball into the stands. And

Speaker 2 if you're an older player, right, and you're a senior player, he's not, he's a young kid, right?

Speaker 2 If you're an older player, you look at your captain and go, don't freaking play me that ball, mate. Don't do it, right? But the option B is he's my captain.
Can't speak to him like that.

Speaker 2 So no, you do, put the ball in stands, puff your chest out and go, no problem, we got it. Cool.
Everything's cool. Everything's calm.

Speaker 2 So one way or another, that ball needs to end up in a stands. He can't ever take that risk.
But what I would say is mistakes happen and there's a learning process, LD. And so he'll learn from that.

Speaker 2 I still think you can play in moments, but that ball has to go and he needs to make a simple decision.

Speaker 2 The problem is for all those people at home, football now is taught in a way on the training ground where it's play no matter what. See, for me,

Speaker 2 when goalkeepers make mistakes now, they're just patted on the back and like, oh, play again, keep playing.

Speaker 2 Where before, if I'd have done that and you'd been in the dress room, David Moyes would have absolutely throttled me, right? And so

Speaker 2 that plays a factor. Whether he should be playing or not,

Speaker 2 I think Poch has made his bed now. I think you have to play him.
Because I'm not disagreeing with you that

Speaker 2 Matt Turner is a more experienced hand. What I'm saying is he's ice cold.

Speaker 2 He's ice cold.

Speaker 2 He hasn't played.

Speaker 2 He hasn't played. Now you're going to throw him in.
Do I think he can handle it? Yeah, I think he can. But like,

Speaker 2 this is my point to you. This is my point to you.

Speaker 2 You'd have been better off playing Matt Freeze game one, game two, right? Yesterday

Speaker 2 on the board was a nothing game, right? Play Matt.

Speaker 2 Turner. Turner.
Yeah. Turner.

Speaker 2 You can then actually go back to Matt Freeze because he's cooking and he plays in the quarterfinal. Now, off the back of that mistake, which again, whatever, you win the game and

Speaker 2 those are the best time to make mistakes when your team wins the game. Now, we're asking these questions.

Speaker 1 Now there's a decision.

Speaker 2 Yes. Yes.
So

Speaker 2 if you're asking me, who do I expect to see? And I've gotten this wrong a couple of times. I'm expecting to see Matt Freeze because this is what Pot just said.
And quite frankly,

Speaker 2 you've made a really interesting point because the goal now is to win.

Speaker 2 But I'm saying, i'll throw back at you which i agree i'll throw back at you if we want to if we want to evaluate matt freeze you know i'm the best time to do it no i know right now i know right now because you made a mistake the evaluation of everyone

Speaker 1 is better is easier and better if we get to play two more games after the quarterfinal if you lose the quarterfinal i mean if that mistake happened in the quarterfinal and we lost to costa rica it's

Speaker 2 best right okay right but what i'm saying you're not wrong but if that's the case, yeah, then the evaluation of Matt Freeze is over.

Speaker 2 Because I'm telling you now, if Matt Turner plays against Costa Rica, you know when he's playing again? The semifinal. Sure.
And he wins the semi-final.

Speaker 2 I get that.

Speaker 2 So then your evaluation of Matt Freeze is completely over.

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, my opinion is he's probably the fifth or sixth choice.

Speaker 2 We agree on this.

Speaker 1 So what's the point of,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 okay, right. So then, so, so if we're casting a bigger scope, right? And this could go for all the players, then what's the purpose of

Speaker 2 then? Why is Matt Matt Turner ice cold and bring him in for the I agree?

Speaker 1 And this was my point yesterday. I said on set too, if you were one of the guys who didn't start this game, you should be concerned, right?

Speaker 1 Because he brought in Aronson, he brought in Quinn Sullivan, he brought in Tolkien, and he brought in Tyler Adams, but he's a you know starter.

Speaker 1 But the rest of the guys, this was the game to give them a chance. So, if not, it's like, okay, well, the evaluation is probably over for you guys.

Speaker 2 So, final answer going into the quarterfinal for me, Matt Freeze plays, I think, because

Speaker 1 okay, so and up next is Costa Rica in minnesota costa rica god bless them they did us so many favor i mean two

Speaker 1 they couldn't help ariel lassiter and warren madrigal um both injured so they're not part of the tournament but carlos mora got us got a second yellow yesterday and manfred ugalde so stupid in the 85th minute just just hit a mexican player in the head and got his second yellow so he's and that he is tim that guy's a real player i was watching him closely yesterday he's a real player so um i would expect now i coming into the game if they were full strength coach streak i would have said this is going to be a really good game i expect us to win now so yeah and the the second yellow thing is is one of the one of the most stupid things in sports like i i'm baffled even now every time a player gets a second yellow card or or in a match when they can't afford to get one they get i'm like i'm like this is really dumb it's like a really whether it's the manager or it's the player himself i i it's amazing to me when people get second yellows i know

Speaker 1 All right. So

Speaker 1 the other, let's just talk through the other games. So Mexico is first in their group.
They'll play Saudi Arabia. We're playing Costa Rica.
And then the other games are tomorrow.

Speaker 1 Canada certainly has a lot going on. Your guy, Jesse.
Yes.

Speaker 1 He's still under investigation.

Speaker 1 I don't, there hasn't been any clarity, but he's still under investigation for, I think there were three things. One was he communicate.
He was suspended. So he was sitting up in the stands.

Speaker 1 One was two games. Was he communicating with his bench? Two, he was apparently sitting in a place he wasn't supposed to be sitting, which, you know, who knows?

Speaker 1 And then three, when he was told or asked to move, he had some unkind comments. Yeah, some choice words.
So he's got a lot. He's got a lot going on.

Speaker 1 And then in his press conference, this was the best. They asked him about it.
He said, guys, I don't want this to be about me. I want it to be about the team.
I'm like, you're making it about you.

Speaker 2 What are you talking about?

Speaker 1 Just talk about the team. I'm like, like, you can't have it.

Speaker 2 Jesse.

Speaker 1 It'll be interesting to see Canada tomorrow. Because by the way, Tim, they drew their second game.
There is a scenario where they don't advance.

Speaker 1 Now, I don't think it's going to happen, but there's a scenario where they don't advance. But this looks like it's on track for a U.S.-Canada semi, which would just be spectacular.
Imagine that.

Speaker 2 The current U.S. men's national team coach.
Pachatino against a future U.S. men's national team coach in Jesse Marsh.
What a matchup in the semifinal.

Speaker 1 He said he will never coach for the U.S.

Speaker 2 by the way that's a lie by the way that's a lie he's a hundred jesse will i mean

Speaker 2 if you if you're a soccer person you know that he he he will be a he will be a coach he will be the coach of the ocean's national team at some point in the future i would think so okay i want to talk one more thing before we take a break so yesterday this oh man this this wound me up so hard so i'm calling the mexico costa rica game yesterday okay

Speaker 1 so for people who didn't see it please go google it or youtube it there's a goal at the end of the game i don't know what minute 86 87 88.

Speaker 1 mexico takes a free kick it goes into the box

Speaker 1 costa rican defender jumps up as he's kind of kind of falling backwards and heads it literally heads it sideways across the goal mouth to about seven yards out and santiago santiago jimenez jumps and does like a chilena like a scissor slash bike and smashes it into the roof of the net it's a phenomenal goal just if you go watch it Is that what it's called, by the way?

Speaker 1 Chilena?

Speaker 2 Is that what it's called? Like a sideways scissor?

Speaker 1 You didn't grow up in a, I don't know. You didn't grow up in Southern California.

Speaker 2 You have no flair. Everything's a bicycle kick to me if it's overhead.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you guys, no flare.

Speaker 1 So it's an amazing goal. The celebration, the scenes are phenomenal.
And you know now, like when you're calling a game, you're so excited.

Speaker 2 And then you go, oh no, it's the flag up.

Speaker 1 And the flag was up. And or sorry, I don't even know if the flag was up, but the center referee then,

Speaker 1 you know, the the cameras go to him and they're zooming in on him. And you're like, oh no, what could possibly, what could have happened here?

Speaker 1 So they show a replay, and there is a Mexican attacker who's even and on side with the defender for Costa Rica.

Speaker 1 He doesn't impact the play, but it doesn't matter because he's on side. The Costa Rican defender is kind of a little behind him, jumps and heads it.

Speaker 1 When he heads the ball to Santiago Jimenez, in the first play where the ball was played into the box, Santiago Jimenez was offside.

Speaker 1 And my thing was, this is a different phase of play now. Like once that ball is headed sideways, this is a whole new phase.
And you can't be offside if the defending team heads it to you.

Speaker 1 They take like three seconds, which is a miracle in this Gold Cup. Everything's taken a minimum of three minutes to make every decision.
And he puts his hand up and says it's offside.

Speaker 1 And I just went berserk.

Speaker 2 I'm like, you lost it.

Speaker 1 I was so mad. I mean, you cannot take,

Speaker 1 I mean, if he's offside, he's offside. You can't take a goal away from a guy.
That kind of goal in that moment, it was incredible. And what are we? I'm thinking, like, what are we doing?

Speaker 1 Why are we taking goals like that away from?

Speaker 2 You made the point, there's goal bonuses, and there's all sorts of things.

Speaker 1 There are goal bonuses. And by the way, he hadn't scored in the gold cup.
There's momentum things that can impact his career.

Speaker 1 Now, look, the referee, I'm not saying the referee was cheating. I want to be clear.

Speaker 1 The wording in the law: a player is in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately played the ball.

Speaker 1 So the opponent,

Speaker 1 in this case,

Speaker 1 I mean, I think he deliberately, what they claimed is like it was a deflection. The ball went sideways.

Speaker 2 I mean, he headed it hard.

Speaker 1 He actually wasn't a little nick deflection. So they're saying he didn't deliberately play it.
Yeah. I don't know.
It's semantics, whatever. But I mean, just use some common sense to it.

Speaker 2 It looked like a goal. It looked like a goal.
It looked like a goal. And for the layman at home, it's like offside is difficult enough.
And then this like really

Speaker 2 muddies the water because essentially what's happened is a guy has scored who was deemed to be offside on an initial play, but the plays already then fast forward, moved on, and he scores.

Speaker 2 And so he's like, when was he? He was, it was offside at some point, but yeah, I hear you. I hear you.
It was, it was a spectacular goal that wasn't to be.

Speaker 1 It's really, I, I just, I hate it.

Speaker 1 And, and, you know, like, Tim, if you watch, if you're a NFL fan, you watch a guy catch a ball, fall to the ground, roll over three times, three seconds go by, and then he, it like drops out of his hand.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 And like, by the rule, he didn't complete the catch, or you're like, that's a catch. You can see it's a catch.
And this was the same thing.

Speaker 1 When you're watching, if you've, I've watched tens of thousands of soccer games, it's a goal.

Speaker 2 It's not offside. It's a goal.

Speaker 1 And so it was, it was frustrating, but I digress. I'm off my soapbox.
All right, let's take a break. When we come back, we'll be talking Club World Cup.
It's been fascinating. I've been, I think,

Speaker 1 very, very

Speaker 1 surprised and overwhelmed with how good it's been, Tim. And we'll dig into it right here on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim, presented by Volkswagen.
Stay right there.

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Speaker 2 LG, let's talk more

Speaker 2 major summer soccer competitions. Club World Cup.
You and I have both been pleasantly surprised with it.

Speaker 2 I think a lot of people have been pleasantly surprised with it, given the fact that what two weeks ago, we were like, is anyone going to take this seriously?

Speaker 1 fifa couldn't sell tickets for it right like they're basically starting to give away tickets yeah really pleasantly surprised with with with the product on the field and and the butts and seats yeah i mean fifa made a very smart decision they slashed ticket prices which turned out to be the best thing they could yeah tim you know those walgreen receipts those long ones that come out i you have talked about them before yeah I might be the only person in this country who was saying I was excited for this.

Speaker 1 I thought it was going to be great. Everyone's like, this is a stupid tournament.
No one's going to care. The players aren't going to come.
Well,

Speaker 1 I think everyone's going to eat some crow. This tournament's been fantastic.
Every time I'm sitting at Fox every day, prepping, we're doing the Gold Cup, which has been great too.

Speaker 1 And we have the screens there and we're watching and every, the Rose Bowl, 80,000 people. This stadium, 70,000 people.

Speaker 1 Atlanta, like there's, of course, there are going to be some games that are terrible or studs, right? Because just who the teams are.

Speaker 1 But the South American teams, obviously the European teams, they've come to play and the draws have been fantastic. It's been amazing.
And by the way, it's only going to get better. Sure.

Speaker 1 As we get to the knockout stage, it's going to be better. Some blockbuster.

Speaker 1 Not so humble brag there.

Speaker 1 So let's just talk real quick about where the MLS teams are. So LAFC, I think we can say very disappointing.
Not the Chelsea result. That's fine.
But losing to Esperance was

Speaker 1 not good. And now they are officially eliminated.

Speaker 2 With one game to go. They play.

Speaker 1 Yeah, one game to go, but but they are officially eliminated. Seattle, I believe, played a night.
And by the time this releases,

Speaker 1 they are mathematically still alive, but I think realistically

Speaker 1 not happening.

Speaker 2 Probably not happening.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so those two have been disappointing. On the other hand, Inner Miami have been, I think, revelatory a little bit.

Speaker 1 I think people were expecting them to be competitive, but sitting on four points and

Speaker 1 every opportunity now for them to advance.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 you know, this this whole messi thing,

Speaker 2 it baffles me. Like it baffles me that he can still, and by the way, Inter have, they have some players who have played in like major competitions, World Cup, European competitions.

Speaker 2 And so like, it's not the entire team, but there's enough of them that can like carry the other players, right?

Speaker 2 Like, so if you're, if you're not one of them, you're kind of, you're kind of buoyed by the fact that they're in your locker and you're in the dress room.

Speaker 2 You're not like, they're not scared, so you're not scared kind of thing, right? And like, I guess I'm just,

Speaker 2 I'm just baffled at Messi because he's always,

Speaker 2 he's always kind of produced this magic, but like, at his age, he's, he shouldn't be running the show in games, right?

Speaker 2 Like, when you and I played against him, you could understand why you're like, we're not going near that guy, he's right, but now,

Speaker 2 in every other scene, aside from him and Ronaldo, which we'll get to, like, aside from those guys, every other player, I don't care how good you are, you end up getting the lumps kicked out of you, you end up like you, you, you slow down.

Speaker 2 Like, this guy

Speaker 1 just keeps i don't think he's human it's it's it's awesome to watch like it's just he can still take over a game in the second half like what yeah they play uh they play tonight as we're recording this will be released tomorrow so they play palmaris i so if and when i think we hope and expect that they will get through um they will then have the opportunity to play in a knockout game which i think should be just spectacular.

Speaker 1 So that's going to be really fun to watch.

Speaker 1 All they need is a point and even a loss could be enough for them to to get through other results i think the upside of the tournament so far was i don't know if you saw but this botafogo psg game was so fun by the way i've been in la so everywhere you go tim yeah you're seeing these jerseys you're seeing botafogo i saw tons of river plate jerseys the other day it's been so fun to see the fans are like parking and then driving to whatever the rose bowl and it's been amazing you know it's funny it's funny you say that so obviously i live in i live in manhattan and same here like i'm kind of i'm surprised only because I don't see it every day.

Speaker 2 So like, I'll see these random like Bodafogo jerseys or like pork tote jerseys. Like, you know, that's a cafe in my house.
I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right. Like, of course your fans are here, right?

Speaker 2 Like, but it takes me by surprise a little bit. It's great.
It's, it's, it's amazing.

Speaker 1 And you just, that's why I said, I said in the beginning of the tournament.

Speaker 1 This is maybe the only country you can really have this tournament in because you have people from all over the world who already live here.

Speaker 1 You know, there are cases where people are trying, you know, Japanese fans are traveling or Korean fans or South African fans are traveling, but they just have fans here already.

Speaker 1 They're immigrants and they're in this country, which is beautiful. And so they're just showing up to support their team that they never get to see here.
Otafogo never plays here ever. Of course.

Speaker 1 I mean, maybe once in a blue moon, but it's been phenomenal.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 Let's rant a little bit.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 This is.

Speaker 1 I know I'm a grumpy like old man now, dude, but this was ridiculous. So the Dortmund played Mama Lodi Sundowns the other day.
They're in Cincinnati. It was like 90 degrees.

Speaker 1 There's this tweet that went out from the club's official account, by the way.

Speaker 2 Do me a favor if you're at the club.

Speaker 1 Do me a favor. Somebody, I mean, I don't want anyone to lose their job, but please have a stern talking.

Speaker 1 So their subs watched the first half. of the game from inside the locker room to avoid the blazing sun at TQL Stadium.

Speaker 1 You go first.

Speaker 2 I mean, it's just, I can't. Okay, I'll go first.
I just can't. When you do something dumb, don't draw attention to it, right? And that's what Dortmund did.

Speaker 2 But my rant, I say it's quick, but my rant is this. It was hot as heck.

Speaker 2 The substitutes went inside to be cool.

Speaker 2 Here's a simple math.

Speaker 2 If those same players in that same heat were asked to start the game and play 90 minutes, you know what they would have done? They'd have started the game and played 90 minutes.

Speaker 2 So it's not about the heat. And by the way, it didn't get hot in 2025.
Teams come here every single summer for the last 20 years and play games. And you know what?

Speaker 2 The substitutes don't go hang out in the dress room. And if they do, they sure as heck don't put it on social media.
So like sit on the bench, support your team and drink some cold water.

Speaker 2 I'm baffled by it. Honestly, I'm shocked.
I'm shocked.

Speaker 2 It's borderline stupidity.

Speaker 1 Is it by the way, is it even legal? I don't know.

Speaker 1 I don't even have to be on the I mean, I guess you could, if you were on the bench and you went back to like go to the bathroom or whatever, it was fine.

Speaker 1 i just i just can't the level of stupidity really and to your point if they did it and it was like behind the scenes and they said just spend the first 15 minutes in there and just so you're not whatever sure i think it's soft but whatever yeah but then you're tweeting it like what the hell are you doing totally

Speaker 2 it's there's so many other ways to do that like you can literally if you got a player you want to go on as a sub say like at the 30 minute mark just go in the back go in the dress room cool off put your feet up come back out at halftime and warm up and you're going to go on second half like the whole team hang like it just it was a bit of a piss take i'm not sure

Speaker 1 people people started to like that then started the campaign of like oh my god next summer what's going to be like nothing's going to happen next summer teams are going to sit on the bench and support their team tim you know where else it was hot dude in korea in 2002 it's hard for me to describe how hot it was okay because and the humidity and we trained for a month in north carolina ahead of it where it was equally equally hot and humid.

Speaker 1 But, dude, I couldn't even, I literally couldn't take my jersey off after the game because it was stuck to me. Sure.
Like, you had to have people pulling it off of you.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I'm just like, this is crazy, dude.

Speaker 2 It's crazy.

Speaker 1 Anyway, all right, off our soapbox.

Speaker 1 Okay, so we are at roughly the midway point of the MLS season.

Speaker 2 I was worried you were going to say that.

Speaker 1 So I just want to remind, well, me, but you too. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Of some predictions we had before the season.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And we could pull the video, but I'm going to spare you. So, Tim, you said, and I have the standings pulled up here too.
Okay, good. You said the Houston Dynamo were going to win the West.

Speaker 2 Now I was a little early on that show. A little early.
It's still early.

Speaker 1 I mean, they are 15 points behind right now, and they are 11th out of 15.

Speaker 1 So I appreciate their second half team with the heat. I get it.
They will not be in the locker room in the first half. And you said Vancouver, we're going to finish at the bottom.
Yep.

Speaker 1 Just let me look. I'm still scrolling up, up, still scrolling up.
Oh, there's Vancouver there at the top.

Speaker 2 At the time, it was a great take. Ah, yeah.
So, but here we are. Go ahead.

Speaker 1 You know, is your chance? Go ahead.

Speaker 2 No, look, they've Brian White's got 10 goals at nearly the halfway point. We didn't see that coming.

Speaker 1 Sebastian Berhalter, national team player now.

Speaker 2 Right? Like, I mean,

Speaker 2 do me a favor. It was a great shot at the time.

Speaker 2 Yours is coming. Yours is coming, by the way

Speaker 1 let's go i had the la galaxy win

Speaker 1 you did you did which as bad as my tapes were that's amazing so let me just so people before you look up your own standing so scroll all the way they have they've played 18 games good lord i don't have they've won one

Speaker 1 you can count on one finger how many how many wins they have they have eight points they're seven points behind the next team

Speaker 1 now i will say i did say sporting or St. Louis will finish bottom, and the second and third to last are sporting and St.
Louis. So, I did get those right.

Speaker 2 Fair question:

Speaker 2 this is for our research. Has any people have, I think, there's a worst to first category.
Is there a first to worst?

Speaker 2 Has that ever happened in MLS history? That's okay. Watch this face.
We'll get back to you.

Speaker 1 Okay, so in the east, you said Columbus will win the East. I did.
They are fourth right now, only six points out. All right, that's fair.

Speaker 2 Not terrible.

Speaker 1 Fair. Montreal will finish bottom.
Great shout that was. They are currently bottom.

Speaker 1 I said Inner Miami will win the East. They are, ooh, sixth.
I just saw that. Okay.
But, you know, are we saying, by the way, in the regular season, win or actually win the East?

Speaker 2 No, you're trying to chop and change this.

Speaker 1 But I did say Columbus is the better overall team. You did.

Speaker 2 He did. So you're two places better off.

Speaker 1 And I said New England would finish bottom. They were on their way for a while, but they've hit a decent stretch there.

Speaker 2 No wonder

Speaker 2 the Revs fans hate us. Oh, they must absolutely.
I forgot you picked them bottom. And I said, like, do me a favor and get out of the heating areas and go sit in a seat.

Speaker 2 No wonder they know it's the heating area.

Speaker 1 Everyone's too cold or too hot.

Speaker 2 Listen, if in this country if they write, if they send us tickets, I will go to a revs game for sure. I will.

Speaker 2 I'll go. I'll take it for us.

Speaker 1 Okay, so a few things. Let's do biggest surprise.
For me, I think it's Vancouver. I mean, I don't think anyone saw that coming.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Definitely you didn't.

Speaker 2 No, no, I didn't. Van City is a great place.

Speaker 2 Yeah, they need to be, they need to be good. That's such a good thing.
I will say, too,

Speaker 1 if you remember in the beginning of the year, I said with San Diego FC, I like their first 11, 12 players if they can stay healthy.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 they had a few bad road losses in the beginning, but otherwise they've been very good and they've stayed healthy. And I think crucially that is the key for them.

Speaker 1 They've been, I think, a surprise for me. Biggest disappointment, I mean, has to be the galaxy, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah, I think so.
I mean,

Speaker 2 my biggest surprise, i think is philly because i just think when you when you when you talk about how good jim curran was and no one can deny that right like obviously he got fired and they made a decision but when you bring in a new a new coach and a new technical director or but more sporting director but more importantly a new philosophy i thought

Speaker 2 that's not a bad thing but that's going to take some time And it hasn't taken any time at all. They've been absolutely fantastic.

Speaker 1 You know, those long receipts you get at Walgreens? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Unfortunately, I have one there, too, because I said that was going to be a disaster. They have one.
They have one.

Speaker 2 They've been good. Yeah.
They have really

Speaker 2 good.

Speaker 2 Galaxy, yeah. Galaxy are only rivaled in biggest disappointment by

Speaker 2 Atlanta United. I mean,

Speaker 2 four wins through 18 games.

Speaker 1 They've been bad.

Speaker 2 Latte Lav,

Speaker 2 Amaron.

Speaker 2 Yeah, they spent

Speaker 2 they spent so much money on this. It's just a lot of money.
And they spend money, which is great.

Speaker 2 They had a new manager come in, you know, behind the scenes. They changed a lot in their front office.
So, like, it's a tough year. I mean, it's a tough year.
I mean,

Speaker 2 they have an incredible owner, you know, and

Speaker 2 he backs them with support and finances.

Speaker 1 So, you know,

Speaker 2 they might take this on the chin, but not a great season.

Speaker 1 The beauty of MLS, though, Tim, is like, as long as you're within touching distance, they're eight points back.

Speaker 1 So it's like it's getting dicey, but you win three or four in a row, and all of a sudden you're back in it. So that is, that's the beauty of

Speaker 2 the playoffs.

Speaker 1 MVP candidates. So I've got four here for you, you, and then I want to hear what you think.
So Ty Baribo, 13 goals. He leads the league for a very good union team.

Speaker 1 Brian White, team leads the West, and he's on 10 goals.

Speaker 1 Andres Dreyer, who honestly, if this guy played in LA or Miami or played with Messi or whatever, you'd hear so much more about him. He is

Speaker 1 a real player. He's got nine assists and he leads the league.
And then Messi. It's amazing.

Speaker 1 I haven't even seen him play a league game in so long, but he's got 10 goals and six assists in 13 games. It's incredible.

Speaker 2 But here's how this is going to work.

Speaker 2 Messi is going to be the MVP.

Speaker 2 No, hear me out. I mean,

Speaker 2 10 goals, six assists, and 13 games. Ridiculous.
Now, Baribo wins it, or Brian White wins it if they lead their team in goals and they win either Philly the East and Vancouver the West.

Speaker 1 So Baribo wins it, even if Messi's near the top, Miami's near the top?

Speaker 2 i think messi's already won it okay i was gonna say is there a scenario where he's not gonna they're not he gets award him the trophy so he gets to i think he plays more down the stretch ld so he gets to 20 goals

Speaker 2 right he's on 10

Speaker 2 and then the six assists goes up to what 10. if he's hovering at 20 and 10

Speaker 2 good luck i mean I think he's won it, right?

Speaker 2 And I think there, I think there's some other people who have already put his name on the the trophy and it's just saying it is saying they're etching it's like they got they have the l on there and they're like you know so

Speaker 1 but i think i think baribo uh and white could win it if they if they lead their if they lead their teams yeah and gold i think in my opinion i think i mean messy is the best player in the world one of the best of all time i think the most impactful best player this year has been dreyer i i really if you watch him he is so good tim He really is.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he's good.

Speaker 1 He is.

Speaker 1 We'll get back to MLS more after Club World Cup and Gold Cup are done, but

Speaker 1 it's been a good, exciting first half of the season.

Speaker 1 All right, when we're back, we will get into your questions in the AT ⁇ T fan connection and talk anything but soccer right here on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim, as always, presented by Volkswagen.

Speaker 1 This episode is brought to you by Airbnb.

Speaker 1 All right, Tim, between your work, your daughter, your son, or maybe just your own enjoyment, how much traveling do you think you've done to see soccer this year?

Speaker 2 Honestly, I've lost track at this point.

Speaker 2 You know, just this summer alone, I was all over the place.

Speaker 2 But it is, it's a beautiful thing to see how many soccer fans and how soccer has been embraced no matter where we go.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, I was just in Austin. I'll be traveling to New York.
Everywhere I go, I meet fans. Whether I'm going to see a game myself or just on vacation, I see people everywhere.
I hear stories.

Speaker 1 I hear stories about their pilgrimage to Everton to go watch a game, to go see the new stadium, to go see their favorite team.

Speaker 1 They get immersed in the chants, the songs, that incredible feeling of seeing the game up close and personal.

Speaker 2 Well, I mean, I think that's what that's where the game has changed. These trips have become a big deal for soccer fans.

Speaker 2 And this summer is going to be no different as we'll see the soccer community make their way to 11 host cities here in the U.S. to support their favorite national team.

Speaker 1 It's going to be incredible. I can't wait for it.
And what if those fans could turn their homes into an opportunity while they're away at the game?

Speaker 1 Hosting your home on Airbnb while you travel is an easy way to earn a little bit of extra cash, maybe go towards tickets for your game that you want to go to.

Speaker 1 We know they're not cheap, or maybe to help your kids pursue their soccer dreams.

Speaker 2 Yeah, your home might be worth more than you think. So find out how much at airbnb.com slash host.

Speaker 2 LD for me the holidays are all about connection to family and to friends. We host a lot.
So we got a lot of people over the house.

Speaker 2 Oftentimes when it starts to get chaotic and the turkey or the ham's getting burnt and the kids are running around playing with their new toys. I go out back by the fire pit and I choose chill.

Speaker 2 I crack open a Coors Light.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's my favorite time of year. It gets cold,

Speaker 1 not quite as cold as New York, but it's cold outside. It gets dark early.
Kids are playing. We turn on the jacuzzi, relax in the hot tub with a Coors Light.

Speaker 1 Choose chill, relax, have family, friends, good food, good memories. My favorite time of year.

Speaker 2 When you embrace a chill mindset this holiday, it's a good time to choose chill and crack open a Coors Light.

Speaker 1 Choose chill this holiday season and then reach for a Coors Light.

Speaker 1 Get Coors cores light delivered straight to your door visit cores light.com slash uslnt or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer celebrate responsibly hoars brewing company golden colorado there's nothing better than feeling like someone has your back and that things are going to get done even without you having to ask like your crisp new jersey waiting for you in the locker room or a perfectly set up wall for a free kick yeah as we on unfiltered soccer get ready for next summer we know that very little in the beautiful game is guaranteed but as we prepare to bring our unfiltered brand of non-stop soccer coverage, it's good to know ATT has your back with the ATT guarantee.

Speaker 2 Staying connected matters. That's why in the rare event of a network outage, ATT will proactively credit you for a full day of service.
That's the ATT guarantee.

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Speaker 2 It's time for the fan connection presented by AT ⁇ T. Every week, we invite you, the listener, to connect with us by submitting your questions.
The best way to grow the game of soccer in the U.S.

Speaker 2 is to keep asking questions and keep talking about the sport we all love. At AT ⁇ T, connecting changes everything.
And on US LNT, our connections with you will help grow the game.

Speaker 2 Time for the ATT fan connection. Most of our listeners' favorite time of the week because they get to hear from themselves and ask us questions.

Speaker 2 And also Jordan's favorite time of the week because she gets the spotlight. Jordan, welcome.
Hello.

Speaker 1 Jordan, who's older? You or Kevin Durant?

Speaker 2 Please shut up.

Speaker 2 What's your shirt say? Ask me about my

Speaker 3 podcast. That's what it says.
Somebody gave it to me as a gift, and I don't want to wear it in public because I literally don't want anyone to speak to me ever.

Speaker 3 But I thought I could wear it on a show.

Speaker 2 That's amazing.

Speaker 2 Listen, I just said to you before this, bring the heat.

Speaker 2 It's been too nice. We don't like, well, I like nice, but like, bring some heat.

Speaker 2 We like a good debate. And you said you got some.
So

Speaker 3 I do. Here we go.
So this one's from Steve via YouTube. I want to know why the FIFA club games are on the worst possible

Speaker 3 Don't they want people to watch these games? Soccer is so ridiculous. How many apps people need to have to watch all of these games?

Speaker 3 At some point, the middle finger is just going to rise up and not look back.

Speaker 1 Well, I would say,

Speaker 1 as a general statement, I understand and agree, but it's on Dazone, right?

Speaker 2 I believe that's right. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's on Dazone and it's free.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 I understand the problem here. Now, if you, if afterwards you don't want to keep paying or you don't don't want to pay or whatever, that's fine.
But I mean, literally, they're streaming it free. So

Speaker 2 I will say, Steve, there are

Speaker 2 there's a lot of soccer competitions and there are a lot of paywalls.

Speaker 2 I get it.

Speaker 2 I subscribe to

Speaker 2 some of them because I want to see the games too. Yeah,

Speaker 2 it's a little bit of a headache. So I hear you on that.
I hear you. I'm not really sure of what the short-term answer is, but the short-term answer is just download it.

Speaker 1 It's free. But after that, if you don't want to, I mean, I can get it.
I get it. True.
I don't know, dude. Pete, this is business stuff, Steve.
It's over our head.

Speaker 3 This one's from Leo via email. I was at your live show and really enjoyed the experience.
Thanks for coming, Leo.

Speaker 3 My question to you guys is: do we know why the Club World Cup games are being played at odd hours, like 12 or 3?

Speaker 3 Players are saying that the summer heat is affecting them, which we talked about earlier. Why aren't games in the U.S.
played like in Europe where the games start at like eight or nine?

Speaker 1 So the easy answer is just TV and they want to make sure every game's on TV. So you're going to see this next year, by the way.
Games will most likely, I would think, be like 12, 3, 6, 9.

Speaker 1 And that's how it was in Qatar 2.

Speaker 1 It's just so they can get everything on TV because

Speaker 1 they don't want people missing the games.

Speaker 2 So that's the problem. Right.
And the problem, the problem, it's the right answer, LD. The problem is also when you start to dig much deeper, it's about television slots.

Speaker 2 It's about global television slots, right?

Speaker 2 So we begin to play our games at night so that so that you know nightfall can come and the heat can go down then they're trying to broadcast to the rest of the world and they're you know mostly asleep so it's not always a perfect science but there is a method to the madness yeah it's tricky with time zones like it just it just makes it difficult it's never going to be perfect it's just part of just part of the deal this one's from philip via email first i want to say how much i love the show i haven't missed a single one yeah you both have played with hundreds of different players in your careers.

Speaker 3 I'd like to know who you had the best on-field chemistry with. Who was that player that you felt on the same wavelength with at almost all times?

Speaker 1 It's a great question. I have my, I have two right away.

Speaker 1 One was Bees, Marcus Beasley, and that's literally because we started playing together when we were 15 with the youth national team, they under 17. So as time wore on, we just knew each other.

Speaker 1 I knew exactly how he wanted the ball, where he wanted it, timing, everything. And then the other was Brian Ching,

Speaker 1 a guy I played with at the earthquakes and with the national team a bit. And the way, the reason why is I was

Speaker 1 sort of a, I was classified kind of as a striker, but I was like an underneath striker. And at that time, that was very common to have sort of a hybrid 10 slash striker.

Speaker 1 And Chingy was just happy to be

Speaker 1 big presence, physical presence.

Speaker 1 The ball would go into him and I would move underneath him and run underneath him.

Speaker 2 And he could find me, lay it off and then we could combine and we scored some some amazing goals together but our chemistry was just perfect uh for me phil jagielka at at everchard i played with he was my center back uh and i played with uh sylvan distin and jolian lescott and and for equal amount you know amounts of times joel i think jolian for like four years and and i think sylvan for five or six something like that but i played with phil jagielka jags

Speaker 2 for a really long stretch he he He was an England center back at the time. He was linked to a move to Arsenal, and he, he was everything.

Speaker 2 He would put his body in the, he would defend and block, and he would headballs, um, you know, defensive set pieces. He just was in the right place.
He could take criticism.

Speaker 2 He could give criticism, and it was never an issue. And, and Landon, you play with Jags as well at Everton.
And just, there was nothing I, I could do no wrong to him, and he could do no wrong to me.

Speaker 2 Like, no matter what the case was, we were always on the same page. And

Speaker 2 it was pretty special. But you get that when you play, you know, hundreds and hundreds of games with a guy.

Speaker 1 The thing I liked most about you guys was

Speaker 1 like, if there was a ball that was in between you guys and in the end, you had to come out and clear it last second, you'd tell him what, you know, you'd go off on him and then he'd go off on you.

Speaker 1 But then it was like, you guys were fine.

Speaker 2 You just knew.

Speaker 1 But yeah, you just wanted to win.

Speaker 2 It was best. Great.

Speaker 3 This next one is from James via email and is more of a suggestion of a topic to discuss than it is an actual question. Okay.
Gentlemen, love, love when they start off like that.

Speaker 3 Gentlemen, the podcast is great.

Speaker 3 Being an owner of a soccer team in Rochester, New York, the team is called Flower City Union, we went from, I had to look up these acronyms, the National Independent Soccer Association 2023 champions.

Speaker 3 Well done, to the National Premier Soccer League.

Speaker 3 It would be informative to your audience to delve into the lower levels of soccer in this country and the passion that these second-tier market owners have, losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to try and sustain the sport in these smaller markets.

Speaker 3 It's certainly a labor of love, more so than a business.

Speaker 2 Go, Tim.

Speaker 1 No, no, it was more of a comment she said, but you started off your career playing for one of those

Speaker 2 Long Island something. No, I played for, get your pens out.

Speaker 2 I played for the new

Speaker 2 North Jersey, not New Jersey, we were in the northern part of the state, North Jersey Imperials. And we're in the USISL.

Speaker 1 What a squad.

Speaker 2 USISL,

Speaker 2 which anyone?

Speaker 1 Is that Indoor Soccer League? U.S. Indoor Soccer?

Speaker 2 United States

Speaker 2 something soccer.

Speaker 1 Independent.

Speaker 2 Great. Yeah.
So I started my, so I understand it. And I think that we, again, Landon and I talk about our experience.

Speaker 3 Interregional.

Speaker 2 Inter-regional. Whatever you want.
The INUSISL can stand for anything you want to.

Speaker 2 And we understand the importance of it. But what I would say is more importantly, thank you for thank you, James, for your comment.

Speaker 2 Please, and I am begging you, send me a Flower City Union shirt, kit, jersey.

Speaker 2 I will absolutely wear it on the show.

Speaker 2 So if

Speaker 2 you want to plug, I'll wear it. the entire show.
But we definitely support all levels of soccer in this country because they play a massive part. So thank you for that.

Speaker 1 Agreed.

Speaker 3 There's one more.

Speaker 2 Good.

Speaker 1 She's smiling. Look at her face.

Speaker 3 This one's from Will via email. Landon.

Speaker 1 Oh boy, I knew it was coming.

Speaker 3 Landon, in the aftermath of the 2014 World Cup, did you ever sit down with Jürgen Klensman and attempt to bury the proverbial hatchet? Did you try to repair/slash rebuild bridges?

Speaker 3 How are things between you and him today?

Speaker 2 Y'all cool?

Speaker 2 Tell the people what they want. Give it to them unfiltered.
Like the title. So yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Great question.

Speaker 1 So if you remember, at the end of 2014, October 10th, 1010, ironically,

Speaker 1 I had a send-off game in Hartford

Speaker 1 with U.S. soccer.
Sunil Galati, I'm really, really grateful to him.

Speaker 1 They got a plane. for me and 15 family members, flew us all from LA to Hartford for the game.
I wasn't part of the camp. I wasn't part of it,

Speaker 1 but they flew me in to allow me to have a send-off game in Hartford. And when I got there, Jürgen and I sat in a bar.
Wow.

Speaker 2 I didn't.

Speaker 2 Thank you for the question. Yeah.

Speaker 1 We sat in a bar and

Speaker 1 we just talked because it was obviously it was awkward, right? He never would have wanted me to call in there

Speaker 1 and have that.

Speaker 1 But we sat in a bar. And the interesting part was he came and I was there first and he came and sat down and he had a backpack with him.

Speaker 1 And I was like, This is kind of weird. Anyway, we just talked, and you know, we said, said our piece, and I didn't agree.
And,

Speaker 1 you know, he thought he was doing what was best for the team and whatever.

Speaker 1 And then he said at one point, this was really interesting. He's like, you know, and I

Speaker 1 journaled everything that happened during all of this time and I kept notes on everything that happened. And I'm happy to show you.
And I was like, huh,

Speaker 1 it was really interesting that he like,

Speaker 1 and the takeaway was he, he, he knew what he was doing. It was very calculated.

Speaker 1 Um, and he was making sure he took notes because he either had to justify it to somebody or he felt like he, you know, you only take notes with things or keep recordings of things when you're, you're kind of scared about what the outcome could be.

Speaker 1 So it was interesting, but I, I give him credit for sitting down.

Speaker 1 He also, you know, apologized for his son being

Speaker 1 obnoxious during that time. And then, look, my choices were on the field when I got subbed off.
I think it was the 40th minute or so.

Speaker 1 I was still upset with him. I still, you know, I didn't want to give him any time, but you'd also don't want to make a bigger deal out of it.
And so we had like one final handshake and that was that.

Speaker 2 So let me ask you this. Let me follow up.
So

Speaker 2 you played 40 minutes in that game, by the way.

Speaker 1 I think so, yeah.

Speaker 2 Did I play? I don't remember.

Speaker 1 It wasn't my day. No, I don't think you were there.

Speaker 2 No, I was there. I was certainly there.
Were you?

Speaker 1 It was against Ecuador in Hartford.

Speaker 2 Oh, no, I wouldn't have been because I took that. I took that.
That would be. Oh, yeah.
No, you wouldn't have been there. You wouldn't have been there.

Speaker 2 Here's what I would say: is that by the way, is any of this in the book? Can we tease any of that?

Speaker 1 It's actually not that part of it, it's not in the book, but there's a lot about that time in the book.

Speaker 2 Yeah, well, well, said

Speaker 2 all I would say to

Speaker 2 the general public is

Speaker 2 a manager

Speaker 2 in a decision where a legendary player who still has so much to offer

Speaker 2 that team going into a major tournament could never, ever be making a decision, let me quote him, that's best for the team without asking the senior players on that team for their opinion.

Speaker 2 So you can read between the lines, but you won't have to. The senior players on that team were never asked for their opinion.

Speaker 2 So it's impossible, impossible as a manager to make a decision that's best for the team without gaining that knowledge before the decision.

Speaker 3 So I have to ask the obvious follow-up here, otherwise I'm bad at my job. So Tim,

Speaker 3 you and Jürgen Klensman have not

Speaker 3 had a conversation since he left the national team

Speaker 2 about this, that period in time. No,

Speaker 2 I don't need a conversation with him.

Speaker 2 There's nothing to bury. Sometimes

Speaker 2 hatchets need to stay where they are.

Speaker 1 To stay above ground?

Speaker 2 Keep the hatchets above ground.

Speaker 2 Interesting. Yeah.

Speaker 3 So, okay, so we got a little spicy today.

Speaker 2 Good, man.

Speaker 2 Good questions.

Speaker 1 Jordan, we don't shy away from any questions.

Speaker 2 These are all by the way. These are all easy conversations.
Remember, buckle in and get comfortable when you have uncomfortable conversations.

Speaker 1 Amen. And remember, hell has a trapdoor, Tim.

Speaker 2 I don't think it fits here.

Speaker 1 Oh, rock bottom has a trapdoor.

Speaker 3 That's where hell is

Speaker 2 below the trapdoor for rock bottom.

Speaker 1 I love your saying, so I'm just using one of your truthful.

Speaker 2 All right. Thanks, guys.
They are. Great job.

Speaker 1 All right, Timmy. ABS, anything but soccer.
I think there's only one way we were going to go this weekend. Last night I was at the Fox Studios in L.A.

Speaker 1 working, doing all the things, but on the TV was the Pacers OKC NBA Finals game seven. And the moment I think that everyone.

Speaker 1 talking about obviously congrats to OKC great for them. But Tyrese Halliburton came into the game with a strained calf.

Speaker 1 Of course, he was going to play. It's game seven, but then

Speaker 1 Tor is Achilles in the game. And it was right when I saw it.
Someone was next to me and they said, what do you think he did? Was it an ACL that I said, let me watch the play?

Speaker 1 And I could just see right when he pushed off. It went, oh, that's not good.

Speaker 1 So just sad for him.

Speaker 1 In moments like that, it kind of took us back.

Speaker 1 And Andrew reminded us in the chat when Mosala was forced off in the 31st minute with that shoulder injury in the Champions League final, Madrid and Liverpool.

Speaker 1 It's just a sad moment, and you hate to see it. I think OKC

Speaker 1 probably

Speaker 1 win the game anyway, but like it just, it's devastating. Now he's out for a year.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Look, I've learned, I've learned not to speculate on injuries, and I think that's important. But

Speaker 2 the headline now, aside from, again, massive credit to OKC and SGA. SGA is the king.

Speaker 2 But should he have played? My opinion is that

Speaker 2 they're about an hour give or take from

Speaker 2 immortalizing themselves and championship. As champions, is that worth the risk of the next nine months? 150%.

Speaker 2 It'll take him nine months to get back from this, a year to get back from this. 150%.

Speaker 1 Tim, there's no question. Sorry, let me just.

Speaker 1 If you and I were in that position,

Speaker 1 and I was zero doubt. Yeah, you with your grain.
There's zero doubt we're playing that game or your hair flexor. There's zero doubt we're playing that game.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Of course we're playing that game.
You're going to play.

Speaker 2 And I think, and, and when I, when I tore my adductor off the bone in that Mexico game,

Speaker 2 I have experiences that I can tell you this. Halliburton, I don't remember which game it was, midway through the series,

Speaker 2 he had the calf injury, right?

Speaker 2 There's no doubt these two things are connected. Right.
And what I mean, what I mean by that is he would have gone into game seven knowing things weren't okay.

Speaker 2 Right. They knew he knew he was going to play game seven.

Speaker 2 And he knew that there was more than likely a big risk of something. Now, I probably didn't think he was going to tear his Achilles.

Speaker 2 Probably thought maybe I'll tear my calf or something, but he knew that there was a risk. And he, he, he weighed up, he weighed up the pros and the cons and he went for it.

Speaker 1 And I think most people i know in that position would have went for it too so sad sad for him sad for the pacers but what a what a season they had and hats off to to okc congrats to okc that was uh it was a great year really good year for them they were the best team all year and then it's good when the best team wins it in the end all right tim another great great week uh lots will be happening this week so we'll have a lot more next week uh club world cup gold cup should be exciting now as we get to the knockout stages appreciate you guys.

Speaker 1 Subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Podcast, Spotify, anywhere you get your pods. And as always, follow us at Unfiltered Soccer for bonus content.

Speaker 2 Yeah, thanks so much, everybody. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, VW, and our fan connection sponsor, ATT.
And of course, our Unfiltered Refresh sponsor, Coors Light. Have an amazing week.

Speaker 2 Enjoy all the soccer you can. We'll be back next, excuse me, we'll be back next Tuesday with another edition of Unfiltered Soccer.

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