Diego Luna Goes Hard, Zack Steffen's Clean Sheet, USMNT's Centerback Pairing & An Extended Mailbag

Keep the ball out of the net because there's a lot of goalkeepers that I see today who are brilliant footballers, but they might as well have their gloves on the other hand because they couldn't save the stand. 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 the past five years.
LD, bloody heck, I have seen you so many times. You've seen this beautiful mug a lot lately.
I usually don't enjoy that, but we've been knocking out a bunch of episodes recently, giving the fans what they want. Yeah, it's been fun.
We're traveling a bit for the next few weeks, so we're doing a lot here, getting some interesting episodes out for you guys. Won't be as time sensitive, but I think you guys are going to like it a lot.

You know what's funny, LD?

I love how much we talk about the US Men's National Team because it's what everybody wants to hear.

And so the challenge of always making sure that we're getting up-to-date episodes after every U.S. Men's National Team game

is fun and challenging.

And I'm looking forward to this.

And our producers hate it.

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And from what I hear, what you hear, Tim, people are enjoying it yep i saw a comment someone said the other day i can't believe landon who is the most boring guy ever is actually bringing me entertainment on this podcast wait i think i think i wrote that you wrote that okay i'm not known as the most entertaining but i think people are enjoying what we have to say so but also if you bad things to say, send them in. We like reading those, too.
No problem. All right, let's get right in, Timmy.
USLNT on USMNT 3-0 win yesterday, as we're recording this on Thursday, against Costa Rica. Give me your overall, I guess, just takeaways from the game, the camp.
Let's dive into this. Yeah.
Success. Huge success.
I mean, we've been talking about January camp. We dove in in a previous episode.
What does it mean? What are the takeaways? What are the hopes? You tell me. I think this was like a 10 out of 10 January camp.
Yeah, I agree. From performances, which we'll get into from results to the positivity that we see in the players' performances, the positivity that Pochettino is showing us in the press and the media, this feels like it couldn't have gone any better.
And so, again, hats off to U.S. Soccer, to Pochettino and all the players.
I mean, I think about like Diego Luna. This is how you impress your new manager.
You and I talked about it. Like, what are you going to do to just get into the manager's view? Like, what are you going to do? I mean, he takes an elbow to the face, breaks his nose, blood everywhere, literally pleads with the manager to stay in the game.
Medical staff clears him and then he goes back in and sets up Ryan White's goal, you know? So like that, I mean, again, couldn't be more proud as a, as a fan watching the game, um, as an analyst, as, as you and I analyze the game, this is perfect. I mean, the manager couldn't talk highly enough about his players.
Fantastic. Well done.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know, like if you just take the overview, you say this was an absolute, almost perfect camp, right? There was a few guys he probably would have liked to have seen, you know, Jesus Ferreira, Tolkien left, maybe Jalen Neal. But other than that, everything went well.
And I, you know, the Diego Luna thing is so funny. So the first thing that reminded me was Brian McBride in, in 2006, uh, in the Italy game in Kaiser slaughter and getting elbowed, his nose bloodied, broken, whatever.
And he's just out there like a war and people love that. And to your point, the last thing you want to be in this camp is anonymous.
Yes. Right.
So even if you're terrible and they thought you were better, at least you are something and you're on their, you know, on their radar in some ways. But Diego Luna now did something memorable.
And I just want to remind people, we played against Diego Luna a few times when we were in USL with San Diego Loyal, it was El Paso. El Paso.
Yeah. I think El Paso.
And this kid is, he's hard, dude.

Like where he grew up and where he came from,

a broken nose and nothing to him.

And the reason I'm bringing this up is,

you know who else is from a pretty tough place?

Argentina is Pochettino.

Like when you grow up playing soccer and you're around soccer,

they really respect guys who just get on with it and are tough and can handle it. And I give Diego so much credit.
Pause for a second because you bring up a good point. This is not for this episode, but God, we need more players like that in America.
Amen, dude. We do.
Our players, because of the youth system, which we continue to promise we'll get into, our players are so pampered. And they are so...
i i my daughter god bless her she is the most amazing little girl in the world she knows get up don't matter get up when all these other parents are going referee that's a purple card or a yellow card or a red card get up get up the next time someone hits the ground it ain't you and and and she's tough as nails and and and this isn't about my daughter but it's, and, and she's tough as nails. And, and, and this isn't about my daughter, but it's about young athletes, soccer players being tough as nails.
You need it. And they're pampered in this country.
So well done to him. It is really good to see him.
And look, I think on the game, when you do the job you're asked to do, you give yourself a chance. Like if you're a striker, score the goals.
If you're a goalkeeper, keep a clean sheet. If you're a defender, head it and kick it, connect passes, like do what you're asked to do.
And you'll have, you'll have an opportunity. You know, I think of Ajermang, Patrick Ajermang.
He's got, he's gotten, gets put in the game, gets a goal, right? Gets put on late, gets a goal. And I'm like, that's two and two now.
Yeah, two and two. So by the way, is he going to start in the world cup? I think the odds are against him, but you know what he does? He gives himself a really good opportunity because when he has, as you know, we hate these individual meetings, no matter what they say to him, you can say, okay, I'm going to work on it.
But by the way, when you put me in, I score. We see this with Ricardo Pepe, which I love.
I in a sub, put me in, I score. So players really put themselves in a good place.

And you know what it does, LD?

It gives them an opportunity to compete with the best, right?

These aren't, this isn't the A team.

Well, some players are, but this isn't the A team for the US men.

But what it does do is it gets them into an A team camp.

That's right.

And now they can compete and show themselves. And so, yeah, there's a few of these guys tim now who will get called into the next camp when it's real and then guess what you got to do it again totally and you got to do it a level up and you gotta keep going uh we're gonna we're gonna read a lot of quotes because pochettino had a lot to say after the game uh to tnt after the game so he said regarding diego luna this is great i was because it was broke, you know, but I didn't want to say nothing with too much drama because it might scare him.
I was like, nothing's scaring Diego Luna, bro. Don't trust me.
He said, how do you feel? And Diego said, please coach, let me keep playing because at least after the half, I go out. The doctor said, yeah, okay, okay.
You go in and the first first action, assist. Big balls, said Pochettino.
Unfiltered. Poch is unfiltered.
He is unfiltered. We'll have him on the pod.
So good. And then another guy, Tim, I thought who was great.
Zach Steffen was great. So just talk me through, he's been out of the picture for a while.
So what does that mean for him? Zach, Zach is, who was brilliant last night,

man of the match.

It's interesting because

Pochettino is showing me

what I think I already knew

is he's not lazy

when it comes to

player selection.

In this,

in this country,

we get lazy.

I see it.

You see it at every level.

A guy has a falling out

with another coach

and then the next coach

comes in and just kind of

follows suit.

I've said all along, the U u.s has one and a half top level international goalkeepers if matt turner and zach stefan are both playing at the highest possible level they can compete at then we have two that's it we've got some good goalkeepers in the pipeline sure but none that can start in a world cup plain and simple and for me i've always said zach stefan in his toolbox possesses more talent than any u.s goalkeeper in the history of the u.s men's national team putting that that all together is the challenge for any goalkeeper.

And I just love, LD, that Pochettino gave him an opportunity. He took the opportunity.

And when I start to look at things that Pochettino said, it speaks to Zach being in that window. He's going to get opportunities.
Look, I do. I think Matt Turner's very good.
He's not playing. What happens between now and the World Cup, I think he'll have to make decisions that will impact his international future.
But Zach, when you talk to the goalkeeper coach at Man City under Pep, and I've said this before, he talks about goalkeepers playing big and playing small, right? Zach Steffen, he said, plays big. He naturally does things that keeps his team in the game.
And Pochettino said that. I feel like we can trust him.
He made big saves, amazing saves. And I think that's what Zach does.
I even think about the minutiae of goalkeeping, right? They want to play. You saw they take the ball at the back.
They play to the goalkeeper. They play through the center backs.
They take risks. There were moments where I'm watching the game and teams overpass.
There were moments where I thought to myself, this ball's coming back to him. I see angles.
He's getting closed down. He's probably going to be asked to play another pass.
And he made a bold decision. And he said, I'm putting, put my foot through it.
We're going to move our lines. That might not be the perfect pass that the manager wants, but I'm going to play mistake-free football.
I thought it was a fantastic performance. When I speak to Chris Sharp, uh, at Colorado, his goalkeeper coach, he says he's in a great place.
His training has been good. He speaks to him every day.
This performance doesn't surprise me. You know, he wasn't making those good decisions under Greg.
He just wasn't there. He just, he got caught out a lot of times giving away bad passes and, you know, he was trying to do what Greg wanted, but there is an element of like, I'm danger here this is going up the field and pochettino said after game he said for me and for us i think the keeper needs to save on the goal i think you know keep the ball out of the goal basically and today was great and then we can add different areas to work with the keeper but the most important is the clean sheet the keeper needs to save and he showed his quality and I'm happy for him.
Thank you.

Pochettino's also saying,

just keep the ball out of the damn net.

We'll work on the other stuff, but we obviously can score enough goals.

We scored three goals.

We don't need you making

every little silly pass.

Listen, one caveat

to end the goalkeeping part.

I think I know a lot about goalkeeping,

but there's a lot of people

who continually beat me over the head

and they try and tell me, no, you have to be good with the goalkeeper. And you just heard it from a genius in football terms, Pochettino, keep the ball out of the net.
Yes. Connect passes when it needs to keep the ball out of the net.
Cause there's a lot of goalkeepers that I see today who are brilliant footballers, but they might as well have their gloves on the other hand. Cause they can't, they couldn't save a, end of story.
Pochettino said it. All right, one last guy I want to give some credit to, Emeka and Nelly, who it's a name a lot of people never heard of because he plays in Salt Lake.
Young kid played lots and lots of minutes, played almost every game for Salt Lake this year, gets no attention, no credit. They clearly, like you said, Pochettino's not lazy.
He's done his homework and his staff has done his homework, their homework. Bring him into camp.
I mean, you said Zach was the man of match. I thought Emeka was the best player on the field.
And just a name I want people to keep at the forefront of their mind. That is the type of kid.
And I know a lot about him because of Nate Miller's at Salt Lake and with Pablo as an assistant coach. And I've heard a lot about him and followed his progress this year.
That's the type of player who could find his way on a World Cup roster if other people slack at all. So congrats to Emeka.
Probably never imagined he'd be playing for the national team this early in his life. And it's just fun to see people take advantage of their opportunities.
So I don't know if we got sent this by someone from U.S. soccer.
Yeah, we did. Mauricio Pochettino was asked to name his three all-time favorite U.S.
men's national team players. And what did he say? What did he say, Tim? He said, well, for me, the goalkeeper, the goalkeeper must be Tim Howard.
Yeah. And then he said, and I think Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey.
So I just want to give a little shout out to us. We're old, Tim.
We suck now. But some people respect us still.
And look, if that doesn't change in the next five or ten years, your soccer's not doing its job. Listen.
But let's take the credit for now. Pach, thank you.
Thank you, Pach. I've always said he's a genius.
He's a genius. Thank you.
But no, I thought the same thing. I have a feeling that after the 2026 World Cup, Poch is going to have, at a minimum, two favorite players to displace us.
But, because he's got some fantastic players. Well, it ain't going to be a goalie.
So it's got to be me. So you're out.
I'm still in. I like this.
I like this segment. Fair enough.
All right. All right.
Let's move on to UEFA Champions League performances.

Really interesting couple days in the Champions League. So, Eunice Moussa, CCV, Cam Carter-Vickers, Austin Trustee.

With them starting, Americans have now made a total of 34 starts

in this season's UEFA Champions League,

equaling the most in a single season in the competition ever,

which was in 21-22.

So, it's just so fun, Tim.

It used to be like a huge deal when someone was playing in the Champions League.

Thank you. league equaling the most in a single season in the competition ever, which was in 21, 22.
So it's just so fun, Tim. It used to be like a huge deal when someone's playing in champions league and now we're littered throughout.
I mean, I'm just proud. I'm proud.
And I think we have to say, um, there's a lot of things broken on, on, on the machine that is soccer in America, but we got to give credit all the time when, when, when great things happen. You're right.
I when a guy would play in champions league right and you're talking about claudio reyna played and and and bees was playing and it was like it was like oh my god it's amazing it was such a novelty it was christmas morning one of our guys was playing and now like it's old hat for these guys 34 appearances by by american players 34 starts starts. I mean, to those players who are starting and playing in Champions League, like hats off to you, man.
What an incredible achievement. And by the way, for it to, the greatest compliment we could give to American soccer is that, yeah, you're going to turn on Champions League midweek and you're going to see a U.S.
player. You're going to see Americans.
And that's just normal. Like for celtic let's dive in a little deeper so cameron carter vickers and austin trustee were the center back pairing yeah and they've done very well they beat young boys 1-0 in advance to the playoff round so it kind of begs the question they're obviously building chemistry they're playing together and this is a deeper topic totally guys playing together have an advantage when they come into national team camp yeah yeah and is that you know and and i think so i mean like i there were times with uh i'll remember with brian ching yep so when we were playing together at the earthquakes we played together every week so when we went into national team camp inevitably if there were four strikers five strikers we were looking for each other playing each other understood each other played off each other well totally and next thing you know there were games where we were starting together because bruce was like well why would i not play these two so do you i mean i look there's an argument for them right now there's an argument yeah as you as you mentioned football is about partnerships all over the pitch like how do you link up withker, the midfield, the six and the eight, the two center backs, the wingbacks pulling in.
It's always about partnerships, left and right side. And what I would say is, yes, this helps Carter Vickers and trustee.
I would be shocked because in today's coaching, nothing gets past you. I would be shocked if in the upcoming games, I don't know when, I can't name the game, that if CCV and Austin Trustee aren't partnered together in the center of the U.S.
defense. Because I think Pochettino will go, well, I see it there.
I want to see it here. Because by the way, if I see the same thing, this is good.
It's a no-brainer at that point. Yeah, I think we will see.
I'd be surprised if we didn't see that partnership. Yeah.
Okay. Well, good for them.
And, um, after scoring last weekend against AC Milan, Tim way, I got to start again for you, Bay, uh, no, and they'll draw with club Bruges. Um, it'd be interesting to see how champions league now develops.
A few guys have real chance to play in the next round,

in the playoff round, and it's just going to be fun.

Christian Pulisic played a few minutes off the bench, which was good for him.

So we'll keep an eye on that.

Regarding Tim Weah, there have been some rumors,

and we don't talk too much about rumors because they are just that.

But there are some thoughts that Everton might be interested in. As we know, Moisey loves an American.
What do you think about that? Good move? Yeah, look, it's always interesting because I think he's at a club. Juventus is one of the most historic clubs in world football, right? That's not overstating it.
it and yet the Premier League in and of itself the prestige and the money is so high that players it's so tempting it's so tempting so do I think but you remember he also as well as he's doing at events he also goes to Everton and straight away, he's the main man straight away. Right.
And so, yeah, probably. So, so that is tempting as well.
Probably more money, probably really easy to be tempted. I sat in a, I sat in a hotel lobby, um, an unnamed hotel lobby with, with David Moyes back in 2006.
And he convinced me the place for me to be was everton and i was playing at a historic club at manchester united in and out and he said here's the keys to the car you're gonna play 40 games next year and i went all right like what do i sign so i would if it's if it's a rumor it'll stay that as as now but uh i think it'll be interesting yeah i i always hesitant when things are going well, especially ahead of a world cup. You know, the grass isn't always greener on the other end of that spectrum is when things aren't going well, we've talked about this, Tim, you've got to make a move, right? You have to make a move and do something to change your career.
One national team player who's been on the fringe in and out was in, was part of the last

roster was Luca De La Torre. He went from Salta Vigo to San Diego FC right here in my hometown.

Really interesting 12 month loan. I think this is a fantastic move for a million different reasons.

Number one, he needs to play. Number two, he wasn't playing at Salta Vigo.
He gets to come

to his hometown. He is going to be absolutely beloved here.
People are so excited that he needs to play. Number two, he wasn't playing at Salta Viga.
He gets to come to his hometown.

He is going to be absolutely beloved here. People are so excited that he's coming.
He only made two appearances last year for Salta Viga. And this was, I think, necessary for him if he wanted any chance of playing in the World Cup next year.
Well, look, there have been outspoken critics of you and I on this show. wrongfully so but Alex Logan critics that will

you know when we talk about There have been outspoken critics of you and I on this show, wrongfully so, but outspoken

critics that will, you know, when we talk about when you go to Europe and you're not

playing and you should be one of the better players in the U.S. Men's National Team, a

move back to the MLS makes a ton of sense for a ton of reasons.

And so we will probably be seeing this over the next 18 months in the lead up to the World Cup and uh look i'm excited for him and for the u.s men's national team i think in the summer we'll see a lot more of this right for guys who are right on the cusp matt turner's a guy to keep an eye on there are guys who need to be playing i just want to we'll touch this later but when we get into our mls preview later just san diego fc really interesting i've been following obviously closely. It's here in my hometown.
The beginning of part of their roster build, I was like, eh, not great. There's not a lot going on.
It's interesting. I know there's something, there's a shoe to drop somewhere, but between Luca De La Torre and then they just signed this guy, Anders Dreyer from Anderlecht as a DP, paid $5 million for him.
They're starting to look quite interesting. So now with Luca De La Torre, Dreyer, Chucky Lozano, now you're looking at a front line where you go, oh, that's interesting.
So we'll get more into that. But good week, Champions League.
Good week for the U.S. men's national team.
This was a very successful January camp, Yeah. Excited to see Nations League in March,

to see how the team progresses and see who's on the field.

Now Pochettino has some difficult decisions, which he wants.

He wants difficult decisions,

and guys are starting to make it hard on him.

All right, bud, we'll take a quick break.

When we come back, it's the AT&T Fan Connection

on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim,

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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. is to keep asking questions and keep talking about the sport we all love.

At AT&T, connecting changes everything.

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Jordan, where you at?

Get on in here.

You got questions for us.

JR.

What's happening?

JR.

Well.

Well.

Last week, you asked me for some spicy feedback.

I sure did.

I don't know if anyone's prepared. Hey, you come at the king.
Don't miss. Okay.
So before we dive into our questions, because we've got a really long mailbag this week, here's some feedback from YouTube. Please don't shoot the messenger.
Oh, geez. Usually tune out for the last segment, but the discussion on NIL was fantastic.
Well done. You made for ABS? Yes.
That's great. Here's the thing.
We're both very well-rounded and huge sports fans. And it's funny because when you get certain personalities who play a sport, people think that they don't have opinions on other sports.
Anything else. And they do.
I've got friends in the NBA and NFL, and I get a lot of inside scoop on a lot of those things. And I'm a fan more than anything.
So we have an opinion. We're going to give it.
But always appreciate the feedback. Well, there's a little more.
It says get rid of ABS and the constant mentioning of other sports to explain things. It's not needed.
Other than that, the pod is great. Well, there you go.
There you go. Well, let me, let me, whoever that came from, there's, there's this thing on your desk.
It's called a mouse. And on that that mouse if you scroll as you're listening on youtube or if you're listening to a podcast on your phone if you just

touch the screen on the little two bars you can either pause it or you can double click and scroll

up and you can just stop the recording right there but we don't want you we want we want you

listen all the way through well Well, I have a little

bit of feedback that I suspect

is geared toward

Landon.

It says, it's good to see the

LA Galaxy podcast seems to have

moved on to other soccer teams.

Still always glancing

over my Chicago Fire who

beat the Galaxy this season.

Hold on a second.

Hold on a second. If you want me to talk about the Chicago fire.
Be good. Be relevant.
Don't even be good. Just be relevant.
Good point. It's good.
Who sent it in? I mean, look, I love. I want Chicago to be good.
Yeah. I want them to be good.
Who sent that in? That was Greg Greg Berhalter. Not everybody includes a name.
That old chestnut. Hero behind the keyboard.
No, but listen. No, listen.
To be fair, they are more relevant now that Berhalter's there. So you want to be good.
Let's go. Whoever wrote this question or comment in, you stand a fair chance to get mentioned more on the podcast.
They are. So like you want to, yeah, be good.
Let's go. Whoever wrote this question or comment in, you, you stand a fair chance to get mentioned more on the podcast.
Listen, I, I, Jordan, I lived the days when, when Bob Bradley had the world beating Chicago fire in 1990. I mean, they were incredible.
And they said, you know, Bob Bradley set an amazing standard for that city and club. So, um, yeah, be better.
And we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll get in, we'll get into it. Landon will mention the galaxy for sure.
And I'll try and talk him off that, but. Well, there they are the champions.
Here, here's a piece of feedback that also includes some questions. Why do you guys have an EPL segment? I'm aware of your history at Everton, especially Tim, but given your U SS.
men's national team history, both of your involvement with U.S.-based youth soccer and your desire to grow the game here, why not have a segment on U.S.-based players in the USL or even up-and-coming college players?

I like it. I mean, I think this, and we love all the feedback and what we do on this podcast is we try and service what most everybody wants to hear.

Now,

you know, And we love all the feedback. And what we do on this podcast is we try and service what most everybody wants to hear.
Now, your point against up-and-coming USL players is well taken. And certainly, we can touch on that.
But the fact of the matter is, most of my life was spent in England with Everton and Manchester United. And the fact of the matter is the English Premier League is the most successful, most watched league in the world.
So we have to touch on that. And it's exciting and the world-class players and drama.
So most of our fans do want to hear about that. But that's certainly a really, really well taken point.
And finally, my personal favorite last piece of feedback. All caps.
Nobody cares. Nobody cares.
That's it? That's it. Is that anything? That's all it says.
Nobody cares. Ratings would say someone cares, but this person, let me guess.
They care enough to write this comment on YouTube.

I'm sure they put their name.

Of course they put their name.

Every review is an engagement.

I'll say that a couple more times.

But thank you.

I do.

I think the smoke is important.

Good and bad feedback.

So that's what makes us, that's what challenges us.

So appreciate that.

All right.

Let's start with what I think could be a tough question. This one's via Josh, via email.
Who do you guys think the Mount Rushmore of U.S. soccer would be? Great question.
Josh, well done. Boy, are we talking men, women, both? He didn't specify.
So I say whatever you guys want to do, put your own parameters on there. Or no parameters.
I would say this one's pretty easy for me to get three. I would say men.
Mount Rushmore is Landon, Clint, myself, and four is harder for me. I tend to lean towards Claudio Reyna.
I tend to lean towards him. So that would more than likely be my four.
Bs, Demarcus Beasley certainly.

I was going to say Bs, yeah.

In that conversation.

But if you're asking for my four, it's Landon, Clint, myself, and Claudia Reyna.

Yeah, I would agree with that. And if we're doing women, I would say Mia, Abby.

Oh, geez, this gets tough tough now Probably Carly Lloyd And Michelle Akers Shout out to Jersey Shout out to Jersey Who did you say? I said Carly, Mia, Abby Wambach, Michelle Akers Yeah But I'm sure I'm missing Let me say this I feel's way women are way harder they've been so much more successful and you've had you've had our u.s women have constantly been in the world's greatest player conversation year on year right like yeah we haven't we haven't earned that right as the men so like i think i think of isn't just a goalkeeper for me, but Hope Solo. What she did on the field for the national team, astounding.
Alex Morgan. Alex Morgan.
Just so many names. It's really, really difficult.
Michelle Akers has to be on there. Mia Hamm has to be on there uh mia has to be on the mia ham has to be on there um yeah carly yeah i mean carly for sure do you think there's a world in which christian pulisic is one day oh yeah oh yeah yeah definitely i think if i think of christian pulisic even yeah if he even just rides out the rest of his career doing what he's doing now.

But then who does he replace?

You're looking at him, pal.

I'm looking directly at him.

He's in San Diego right now.

Right at him.

That little golden cap behind you.

Big forehead right there.

That's a good conversation.

Love that question.

Here is a question that's for Landon and it is from Brendan via email. Ricky Pudge.
No, it's not about Ricky Pudge. Brendan says, I read Grant Wall's book, The Beckham Experiment, and I saw Beckham's series.
The relationship between the two of you was a major part of the book, but did not get much time in the documentary. Can you describe how your relationship changed over time and what it was like having him on the team? And I just want to include one thing.
He gave us some feedback on the show too. He wants to hear more about youth soccer in the U S and he wants to hear less about Manchester United.
And he wrote in parentheses, sorry, Tim. So there you go.
That's great. A great question.
So I'll try to keep this somewhat short,

but I will definitely get into this more if anyone wants to hear it.

So when David first came to the Galaxy in 07,

we were a terrible, terrible, terrible team.

We were either second to last or last in the league.

And so if you put yourself in his mindset,

he was playing for, he had played for

United, Real Madrid, he hadn't played for AC Milan yet, and England. And if you think about

the success of those teams and what he was used to, and then he came to an inferior league with

inferior players, and we were the worst team in the league. So in the beginning, he was committed,

he was dedicated, he was there, he was energetic, but he soon realized this is a bad situation,

Thank you. the worst team in the league.
So in the beginning, he was committed, he was dedicated, he was there, he was energetic, but he soon realized this is a bad situation, bad. And I don't blame him for this, but it frustrated me that he started distancing himself.
So he would show up, you know, we were supposed to be there at 9.15, he would show up at 9.14. Minute training was over, he was off the field and gone.
And that really bothered me, but my big mistake was I didn't just pull him and tell him this is not okay and this is bothering me and you got to be part of the solution, not just being here. I instead said it to Grant Wall, rest his soul, who was writing a book.
And in my vulnerable moments, I shared more than I should have. I didn't keep it off the record.
And it got put into that book. And so when the book came out, as you can imagine, it was pretty uncomfortable.
So that day the book came out, Bruce sent us. Can you imagine how uncomfortable that was? I'm uncomfortable right now.

I know.

Bruce sent us both a message and said,

we need to meet in my office in the morning and speak.

And when we got into his office in the morning,

Bruce started speaking.

And I said, Bruce, just let me stop you.

I said, David, I'm sorry.

I should have never done that publicly.

I stand by what I said, but I should have just told you

and just been a man and just told you about it.

And to his immense credit, he said, no problem.

I get it.

I know it's frustrating.

And let's move on and just make this good.

And from that day, I mean, it sounds crazy.

But from that day, we started trending upward again.

We were successful.

And then ultimately, we won three championships in four years.

That's crazy.

And I realized we wanted the same thing we wanted to win be successful but we i did it in a bad way but ultimately it worked out where we were all just honest with each other and then we were successful communication is key i mean you just hit the nail on the head so often in a team in any business or even family but in a team the lack of communication communication, when it all gets said and done, you're like, wait a minute, we do want the same things. It's crazy.
That's right. It's crazy.
Great story. Now I have one for you, Tim.
This is from Luke. Thank God.
The email. I try to keep a balance, you know.
Appreciate that. Luke wants to know, is Brandon Austin still eligible for the U.S.? He looked pretty decent starting for Spurs in the Premier League earlier this month, a game you obviously watched.
So given the drought at goal, it seems like we ought to be considering him if he's still U.S. eligible.
Yeah, that's a good question about the eligibility. I'm going to lean on one of our other producers in the chat to tell me that but the interesting part about it is uh i was on the i was in studio during that game and i remember coming away from it thinking this kid's really good like he has he based on the background he hadn't played a lot of football you know for for being i think he's 25 he hadn't played a lot of first- You know, for being, I think he's 25, he hadn't played a lot of first-team football, like at all, not even at Spurs, like just hadn't been on loan or like normally like a younger keeper who's maybe third or fourth will go on loan.
And it does look like he's eligible and they'll get games at a lower division. I think he went to Orlando at one point and played a bit, but irregardless of that, steps in with no sort of notice, plays in the Premier League, and I remember thinking, wow, he's given a really good account of himself.
His movement, his saves, his aerial ability, distribution, all in this 90-minute snippet. I'd be shocked'd be shocked even given Pochettino Spurs connections that you must certainly be on the radar, but time will tell.
So this one's from anonymous via email. I know we'd love to hear from anonymous when they write into the show.
Annie. I would love to hear about the USA versus Mexico rivalry from both of your points of view.

Having grown up on the border very closely in San Diego, I lived in both worlds and follow both national teams closely. It's actually complex for me because I grew up with Mexicans.
in Ontario where I grew up it was a lot of

Pacific Islanders, Samoans, Tongans

a lot of black people and a lot of

Hispanic where I grew up, it was a lot of Pacific Islanders, Samoans, Tongans, a lot of black people, and a lot of Hispanics, Latinos, Mexicans. So Hondurans, El Salvadorans, Costa Ricans.
So when I started playing professionally and I was playing against Mexico, there was a natural rivalry between me and all the guys I played with that would come out. And then there was the rivalry that started to be created by playing them, winning games, losing games, saying stupid things, getting in the press there, and how that all evolved.
So for me, it was way deeper than just a US-Mexico thing in general. I actually lived it and grew up with it and have many Mexican friends.
So it's always been this unique kind of love-hate relationship. But the beauty is when I'm home, even I was in New Orleans recently, and a lot of Hispanics, a lot of Mexicans there, and they always say the same thing.
They're like, God, I hated you on the field, but I respect you so much, and it was so fun to watch those games. So it was fun to be a part of for all those years.
Yeah. I think my history with the rivalry dates back to being a young kid and being a fan.
And watching our men's national team, 1989 like i remember i remember paul calger's goal in trinidad like a grainy tv i either watched it or watched some sort of vhs replay of it um and those u.s teams were my heroes and they got steamrolled everywhere they went they got steam steamrolled and Mexico, they weren't just the best. They were, they were a dominant beast in this, in, in the CONCACAF region.
We couldn't touch them. We couldn't touch them tactically.
We couldn't touch them technically. They were so superior to us.
Their football IQ was another world. We, we, we couldn't, we couldn't touch them.
And then, and then late into, you know, I'm thinking of Claudia Reina wearing a captain's arm band. I'm thinking like Foxborough, I'm thinking of different games, but like, we started to, we started to punch above our weight a little bit.
And we started to not be dominant, but leaving a foot in the door and feeling like we can win some games. And so my love for that rivalry started early on as a young soccer player and as a fan.
And then when you're immersed into it, if you're me or if you're Landon, you realize playing for your national team is amazing. That first U.S.-Mexico game, you'll never forget because you remember thinking, we have to win this game.
This is how we'll be measured. And I grew to hate the Mexican team and the players.
And I needed to put myself in that headspace in order to compete because that game was nasty. They would leave something on you.
They would be nasty and physical. And what you realize is they felt us coming.
They felt us gaining an advantage, and they didn't like that. And when you're the best, which Mexico was for a long time, you don't like that.
And so they tried everything to subdue our progress and which is natural. And in, and in the time that I started my national team career and finished it, the U S became the dominant team in the region.
And that balance of power shifted and they didn't like it. And I think what I learned probably towards the back end of my career is in sports, in order to hate something so much, you lose sight of the fact of how much respect you have for that.
And I was able to get myself to a place on the surface that I hated playing Mexico so much. And I hated the, I made myself hate them and their fans and their players.
And then when I took a step back, I realized it's because I had so much respect for who they were, for the way they wore the green Jersey, for the way the fans supported, supported their team. And I love it.
I'm getting goosebumps now thinking about playing in Columbus, playing in Azteca.

I mean, there is nothing, and I'll speak for my end on this,

there is nothing you can do in life that gives you that feeling,

that fear, that anxiety, that joy, that pain.

Nothing.

Nothing.

I mean, it was, you know, there's famous memes of me crying

after a Mexico loss.

That's how much it meant to me.

They should have memes about all the times I whipped up on that Thank you. It was, you know, there's famous memes of me crying after a Mexico loss.
That's how much it meant to me.

They should have memes about all the times I whipped up on that butt.

But it brought me incredible joy as well.

So, yeah, it's a special ride.

Awesome.

Love that.

Jordan, you stay right there.

You're not leaving.

We're going to take a break.

When we come back, we'll have more questions.

More questions to answer right here on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim presented by Volkswagen. There's a lot in life that feels like it should be guaranteed that just isn't.
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Okay, I have a question from Jack via email. He said, I am a mental health professional.
He's a social worker and I am interested in hearing about how mental health is perceived, talked about, and considered by players, staff, agents, coaches, et cetera, on a regular basis. Like, do teams hire sports psychologists? Do players go to therapy? Do players talk about the fact that they're in therapy? Great question.
I've seen this evolve, and I think Tim has too, a lot, a lot over time. So there was a long stretch of history, not only in sports, but in American society where it was deal with it, get on with it, pull yourself up by the bootstraps.
and you know as a parent now there's some level of that that I think is valuable

right in the right moments

however up by the bootstraps. And as a parent now, there's some level of that that I think is valuable in the right moments.
However, sports are really hard. Professional sports are really hard.
And in society today, they're infinitely harder than when we played because the feedback and criticism is instant and it's nasty. And you see it.
And so it's really hard. I mean, people think the equalizer in all this is, oh, well, you make them a lot of money.
So you should just have to deal with it. And it's like, hold on a sec, man.
Nobody comes to you when you mess up a report at your office and there's not 10 million people watching and hammering you because you made a spelling mistake on a piece of paper. You didn't account for something and something at work.
So that argument is just bullshit. And just because people make a lot of money or are famous or whatever, it doesn't allow you the opportunity to just berate people.
Now, it's going to happen. So what's happened over time, I saw this in NWSL.
I think it's happening now. Tim's alluded to it, and I think in other leagues, as well as there are people now on staff who are there to help.
And it's become a role within a club that I think is really important. And those people are crucial because there's a fine line, very fine line between, okay, what's going on? Let me help you.
Let's talk about it. But I also want to start building resilience in you so that that doesn't hit you the same way.
That's their issue, not you can go out and perform and then the other side of it is just anxiety around playing there's a lot of players who i didn't realize this in my career tim i learned this at everton we had a player one time and you know who he is and he was always at home games he would right on Friday before the game, in training, he would say, oh, my hamstring's bothering me. Oh, my back's bothering me.
When he knew he was going to start because he was anxious about playing in front of the home crowd. And that to me was crazy, but that was a real thing for him.
And so David Moyes was so clever. One time he started to walk out to training and he said, uh-uh, turn around, go back in and get treatment.
You're going to start tomorrow, but you're not training today because he knew what he was going to do. But that was a real thing for him.
And that was, he had real anxiety about performing in front of a home team. So I think it's evolved.
Again, there's a fine line. You don't, there is an element of professional sports where like, you got to get on with things.
It's hard. But then when you get off the field, having someone there to help you is really beneficial.
Yeah. Really thoughtful answer.
I'm on, you know, I think mental health is important. I went through a long stretch where I, I didn't believe in using a sports psychologist and I never did.
I respected certain sports psychologists that worked within our team and our framework. And I was a part of group meetings, but I would never go to a sports psychologist.
I just went to a dark place and I don't think that that's healthy, but it made me successful. And so there's a balance.
And if I could do it all over again, my career, I would probably, I would probably do it the same way. I, again, I, in order to perform at the level that I did and to hear the criticism and block it out, I had to turn into somebody different.
I had to disassociate and I, and, and I went to, I went to, you know, mentally a lot of dark places to get myself on the field. I don't mean dangerous.
Well, I don't mean dangerous, harmful places per se. I just had to, I lost a lot of friends.
I blocked a lot of people out, lost a lot of, a lot of family and, and, um, but, but it, it's, it hardens you and LD, you said it right. Like it's, it's a balance because a lot of that does create resilience.
And I know, I know 1000%, I was more successful in my career because I had that mentality. And look, I think the mental health side of society has gotten better in terms of help and the ability to have the conversation openly.
And that's crept into sports, which is a wonderful which is a wonderful thing. You know, I, this is, this isn't right or wrong.
I oftentimes say if we looked at the best team in the Premier League or best team in MLS and you had a player who in certain moments wasn't necessarily always available mentally in the big moments when you know that there's going to be 50,000 people and you're going through a tough spell, that manager might say, hey, please go, you know, absolutely go speak to the psychologist and take the time you need, but I'm not picking you. I can't pick you.
And that sucks to hear, but that's also a part of the conversation. So I think there needs to be resources at clubs, and there are, that help players get through challenges.
But, yeah, when push comes to shove, it is about managing. And, man, you hit the nail on the head.
Like, this isn't, for the faint of heart, like sports, when we sign up for it, that part of it is they ask us to deal with it. They ask Landon to deal with it.
No one ever says to the press, I want you to stop writing bad stuff about Tim Howard. They don't.
They don't regulate that, right? Because the press is freedom to do that. They say Tim Howard deal with it, right? So if you're going to want to become a professional athlete, we had this question, I think, in the mailbag a few weeks ago.
If you want to become a professional athlete at that level, it's daunting and it's scary and it's not going to change, right? And so you have to try and look after your mental health, but that can be in a multitude of ways um here's a more light-hearted question michael via email wants to know did tim and landon ever swap jerseys with their opponent and if so who would be their favorite swap they ever did many many many many great ones yeah i have a um i have boxes full um honestly my favorites are the guys I played against or played with, sorry, guys I played with growing up.

So I have a lot of guys from my under-17 team when they became pros.

So I have, you know, Bees, Nelson Aquari, DJ Countess.

I don't know if I have a Gooch one, Kyle Beckerman.

I have guys that I played against. And those, honestly, those ones are the most meaningful because those those are special to me did you and I ever swap yours? I don't know I was just thinking that I didn't really want yours to be I I yeah I've got I've got quite a few I think I swapped one with I like you was I love the tradition that, that soccer started years, hundreds of years ago about swapping jerseys as a sign of respect.
I swapped with Wayne Rooney in the world cup, which was pretty awesome. Cause he was an Evertonian.
I played with him at Manchester United. And so that was cool.
You know, I swapped with, I think, I think Clint Dempsey when he was at Spurs, I Carlos Bocanegra, who's one of my best friends, when he was at Fulham. So, yeah, the American guys, particularly over in the Premier League when we were playing, was fun.
But, yeah, certainly Rooney's is up there. Okay.
One last question. This is from Mario via email.
What kind of car was your first car? And do you have any funny memories of when you first started to drive? I know my first car. I do too.
I had. Go.
I'll go. I had a BMW.
It was used. I can't remember what.
I'm not a car guy.. So like, I don't, I don't know.

I have some memories.

I don't know if they're safe for this environment, but I have some memories of that car.

Yeah.

I know what my first car, you know, you know, people are like wrap their cars now LD where like they'll get a matte finish.

Yeah.

Well, I had a 1984 Nissan Sentra and it had a matte finish, but it wasn't a wrap.

It was like, that was the color. It was gray.
My dad, my dad got it for me. I think he paid like 800 bucks for it.
Seriously. 800 bucks for it.
Stick shift. No one knows how to drive stick shift anymore.
It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing.
My only memories are like getting locked out of it because I didn't have, there was no remote key. It was just like somehow figure out how to get a hanger in the door and unlock it that was about it that's so ghetto yeah that's where i lived the first car actually that i drove drove what i didn't know it was my mom had a um mazda mpv like minivan oh yeah and so in california you can get your license you can get your permit at 15 a half, and then you have to drive with an adult until you're 16,

and then you can drive by yourself.

So I'll never forget.

It was nighttime.

It was my first drive.

My buddy and I were going to just turn 16.

We were going to drive somewhere.

So I turn.

We're in this little community.

I turn right.

I turn right.

And as I'm going, this is my first time driving a car by myself.

All of a sudden, this car was honking, beep,

flashing lights coming from the side as I was going through an intersection. And I like slammed on the brake stop and like started crying.
And I'm like, what the hell is going on? I didn't even, I hadn't even turned on the headlights. So they didn't even see me.
I didn't even have my headlights on. They even occurred to me.
And I was like, this is not for me. Follow up.
Follow up. What's the, what's the first car you bought yourself? I bought a Maserati when I was in San Jose.
Jesus. What an idiot.
Good for some. What a waste of money.
Good for some. That's amazing.
What about you? Yeah, Eddie Bauer edition Ford Explorer two-door. It was gorgeous.
It was orange. What a car.
Amazing. That's so good.
All right, that's it for me. All right, JR.
Thanks, guys.

Appreciate it.

All right, guys.

Thanks for being with us today.

Remember, as always, subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your

podcasts.

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That was a lot of fun, guys.

Yeah.

Thanks, everyone, so much.

Always enjoy our time with you.

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and our fan connection sponsor, AT&T.

Have an amazing week.

We'll see you all next Tuesday for another edition of Unfiltered Soccer.