Arango and Ferreira on the Move, Moyes Returns to Everton, and Arsenal Out of FA Cup

He scored second most goals of any player under the age of 25.

53 goals.

Do you know who's first on the list?

Who?

Landon Donovan, 56.

Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim, presented by Volkswagen.

Volkswagen has long been a supporter of soccer in America

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What's up, LD?

Wow, we have to start the show with all of the news and the fires in L.A., such horrific scenes that we're having to witness. For me, I'm having to witness so far away, but I know you're there, you're in Southern California, you have so many family and friends.
How are you feeling? Yeah, man, it's been a crazy week. We're in San Diego, and you watch on TV, you talk to people, but what's happened in our town is we're just flooded with people from LA.
So you see the devastation on TV, and then you forget people actually have to go somewhere. They have nowhere to live right and so it's we're used to seeing wildfires in southern california but generally tim it's a lot in you know in canyons and big open areas whenever you are not used to seeing big structures just decimated it's crazy to see and it's been pretty crazy like there there are people we know as friends whatever there are famous people all over that people know carlos val ali riley um to mls and nwsl people at their homes burned down yeah it's it's pretty crazy and i think what people forget in times like this is that for a week or two it's on everyone's mind yep and then it'll go away but those people are still dealing with it.
And if you're going to rebuild your home, that's two, three, four years. Or if you're going to find a new place to live, this is a long process.
So I hope people keep either donating or helping in any way because this is going to be a long, long rebuild. Yeah.
I mean, I think keeping the people in the residence of LA and the surrounding counties kind of at the forefront, right? We live in this world where everything goes quickly, man. The news cycle happens fast and you're right.
You know, the donations will continue to help and support whether they're today, yesterday or four weeks from now. So very well said.
And I've actually listened to the LA Rams head coach, Saul McVay. They've had to move their Monday night game to Arizona.
And it's so hard making

this transition from tragedy to sports. But he mentioned like it doesn't fill the void,

but it does present an opportunity to get people to smile in the midst of chaos or talk about

sports and their favorite teams when the world seems upside down. So we're certainly going to try and do that today.
It's one of the things, Tim, we love about sports and we've seen it through my life. I've seen it after 9-11, the Yankees can get goosebumps, like watching the Yankees play again.
And like, there are moments where it helps people start to recover through sport. And let's hope tonight is that a little bit.
But just a reminder, keep everybody at the forefront. And they have a lot of stress and anxiety.
So if you can help, please help. Reminder to follow us, social media, Unfiltered Soccer.
Subscribe to the show on YouTube. Make sure you follow on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
If you like what we're doing, please leave a review review rate us um it really helps other people find our podcast you can also email us at feedback at unfilteredsoccer.com okay um never an easy transition from that but let's move on um barca madrid super cup on the weekend um barcelona absolutely tore madrid to shreds yeah um i'm trying to figure out why Madrid aren't going to and consistently don't invest money in some defenders and strengthen that part of their roster. But Barcelona, I mean, watching La Mignamal, is there a fee that they would even accept for this guy? I mean, you could say he's worth a billion dollars he's 17 right so like i think he's 17 you could any primary league club could justify you're gonna have this guy for the next decade and he just keeps doing it and it's he's one of euros now he's i mean he's 17 it's what's that i mean i would say what's that like you you had you you were playing at the top at 17 it's just so well not that level well it's still insane at a world level and i just think it's um it's good to see some of these these global rivalries back you know like like barca and and and real madrid were selling for a while then they were getting like older european players that weren't like up to par and now this feels like this rivalry el classico if like if there has to be one rivalry in the world that's back it's this one so yeah i'm happy to see that another good rivalry on the weekend let's move to the fa cup arsenal united so i i sent you guys a text in our group chat and i said you know is is our arsenal what's going on with them and then i had to kind of check myself tim because they're still in second place in the premier league they lost to newcastle in the carabao cup in the first leg and then they lose against let's just call it an average united team after being up a man for what 60 i mean a long time a long time right a long time and they couldn't find a way to win the game and then end up losing in penalties so is there something going on there is an anomaly? I know the XG said they should have won the game by four goals, but what's going on there? So I was speaking to a friend in the know about Arsenal, and I've been plugging Arsenal to win the Premier League for the last few years.
I thought they were on the upward trajectory, and they still might be. The hard part for me, because we because we talk about analytics and the XGM we'll get to that.
And I was saying to my friend who's a, who's a in the, in the business massive Arsenal fan. And I said like, sometimes the eye test and the gut has to count for something.
Right. And the eye test and my gut for me, forget statistics for a second.
It's like Arsenal went very quickly quickly like within the course of a year from silky and smooth and sexy and being on top of the game to being completely reliant on soccer and set pieces and i'm like i'm like that's what my eyes sing right and i'm thinking how did that happen now do they need a number nine right that's been kind of in the in the peripheral for a while. Then Havertz goes from the eight to the nine, and he does really well.
And people are like, okay, we can kind of get away with it. But to the point, they've dominated on expected goals in the last two games.
They haven't got the firepower in those games. And now everyone's kind of saying, even those people who I speak to are like, no, we're good.
We're good. We're good with Havertz.
Good with Jesus coming off the bench. Even they're like, yeah, maybe it's time.
Like maybe you have, you have to invest in that. So, but again, out of the, out of the Carabao cup.
No, out of the FA cup. Could be, could be out of the Carabao cup.
And then yes, they're in second, but it's like, you's like, you know, this is going to ebb and flow. If Liverpool drop points and Arsenal can go on a run, then they're in it.
If Liverpool just keep going, then yeah, they're in second, but you know what I mean? They don't feel the same. No, they don't.
And along with relying on soccer and set pieces, they've moved to gritty, defensive.

And I don't like watching it as much.

I'm trying to figure out if it's going to be as effective.

And at some point,

you know Mikel Arteta much better than I do.

I love him as a human.

At some point, and we've been around coaches

who there's a lot of like,

I don't want to say just rah-rah

because he obviously has more about him than that. But I was watching them during the penalty shootout, and it was just, he was so animated and so part of him.
And I was watching some of the faces, and I was like, I don't know if they're starting to like, it's starting to sound a little old to them. You know, it just kind of felt that way.
And so I wonder if there's a bit of that going on well it's an interesting point because he is a disciple of pep guardiola um and one of the things you know there was up until this point there was this theory and pep never tried to debunk the theory there was like a three year four year self-life with pep because he was so hard as players so demanding so in your face every day not on a touch on a touchline every day in training and it just ran its course yeah and so he would then go from barca then he would go to bayern munich and then people were actually thinking you know he's been a decade but like people were like uh three years at city's gone because that's what he always did he's so hard on his players i remember talking to vincent company about that i'm like like, how do you deal with that? It's every single day. And he's like, it's, it's a challenge, you know, it's a, it's a huge challenge, but I wouldn't like to think that the message is, is getting stale quite yet.
But when you have a manager who is so all in, which, which a lot of these newer style managers are it's a really interesting concept to, you know. Are these players, is it starting to get a little bit dull to them is the message.
Yeah. Let's just for people who don't fully understand the FA Cup and what we love about the FA Cup.
So it's a separate tournament from the Premier League where every league and non-league team, right? It starts in the very early rounds with teams in the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th tier of English soccer, and they play a knockout tournament until they eventually get to the round where we're at now, which is the third round of the FA Cup proper. And at this point, this is where the Premier League teams come in.
So you get these incredible matchups where you'll have a team that literally has guys on the field that are plumbers and dentists and playing against Premier League teams. And it's really cool.
For other sports, it'd be like a triple-A baseball team playing a knockout game against, or a single-leg baseball team playing a knockout game against the Yankees and maybe upsetting the Yankees somehow some way and and you get a few of those every year and so it makes it really really fun there was a few really interesting matchups tamworth who were i think they're non-league yeah i'm almost sure they're non-league played a home match against tottenham played them to a draw over 90 minutes and had a chance right at the end to win the game, which would have been insane scenes had they scored. In the end, Tottenham won 3-0.
They scored three goals in overtime as Tamworth just kind of fell apart a little bit, but it's the beauty of the FA Cup. And you've, you played in a lot of those games.
I played in a couple when I was at Everton. It's really fun, man.
Like explain to people yeah what it's like you i mean you know you you hold in this in this podcast duo the dynamic duo of tim and landon you hold most of the records but i think and our producers will tell us in the chat i was the first american to win the fa cup and uh i remember feeling like that was such a badge of honor because i was like one i could win fa cup here and then two being And then two, being the first American to do it. But it's magical.
You hear people say that. That word will keep creeping up.
When you go to England, they'll say the magic of the FA Cup. Can't lose the magic of the FA Cup.
That kind of thing. And it is, you don't quite get it until you either hear us take a deep dive on it or you read the history of it or you go experience it um it's as you said you gave a great you gave a great um comparison like a single a baseball team going to play the yankees in the bronx right but take that a step further because you talked about the tamworth almost getting a winner imagine in the bottom of the night and by the way the yankees are playing aaron judge they're playing oh yeah last year so they're playing all the big guys they're trying to win right you step up to the plate in the bronx and you take a fastball down the middle and bang over the left field wall you're a triple you're a single a kid you try to round the bases walk off and you knock the yankees out and by the way imagine not only you know these guys this is what they In England, so many of these guys are plumbers, are bricklayers.
They only train three times a week, right? They don't have the funding to do that. They have to work on it.
They're not pros. No.
Imagine a G League team going into LA, playing against LeBron, right? Because LeBron has to play and these guys have to play. And you knock down three-pointer at the buzzer and then you got to go back to being a fireman in Chicago somewhere.
Can you imagine? It gives you goosebumps talking about it. And that's what happens in the FA Cup when you get these lower teams.
And it used to be, you know, I played a few replays. The one I can remember was at United.
I think, again, I need some fact checking because I'm getting old old but i think we played against barnett um and barnett at the time was also maybe a non-league team um and they come to old trafford and they get a draw it's one one or nil nil right the scenes were amazing because ld but they've done away with replays because of fixture congestion congestion but these guys were like one of them i'm at old trafford never was never meant to be here two we got a result three i'm about to exchange jerseys with roy keen and rude venice joy and four the chairman's going oh my god we're getting them back to our place we're getting a payday by the way so many of these paydays in the replay which again is null and void it used to like pay their entire salaries for the year. Like there's so much magic in the FA cup.
It's brilliant. Yeah.
It is sad to see the replays done away and for people just to give context. So if you drew the first, if you drew the game, if you tied the game, then you would play at the other team's home ground.
So at, and then if it was tied, then you would go to penalties, I guess, or extra time penalties. Yeah.
But, um, they had to do away with that. It's just too many games, but that was the magic of it.
But it was so fun to just sit on ESPN Plus and all weekend and watch. And the cool thing about this round is that it's early enough for Premier League teams where they say, we're not necessarily going to start all our players, all our real players.
We'll have them on the bench. You know, Todd had Son and Kulisevsky on the bench.
But it gives you a chance if you're a lower division team because you're not playing the top, top stars who are in great form and fit and all that. So as you get later in the fourth, fifth, sixth round or quarterfinals, all that, you get the real squads.
But at this point, the teams are like, you know what? We'd rather lose in this round if we'rechester united or if we're tottenham then lose four rounds later and still not make the final and have all those extra games right so and and part of that ld and remiss if i didn't add this tidbit part of it is and i'm not sure which games you played in but i played in so many of them over the course of a decade and a half in in. When you get that away draw as the home side, it's agony, bro.
I don't care. You mean as the higher, as the better team? Yeah.
So we had it. In our cup run, which I think was the last time Everton went to the final in 2009.
In our cup run, right, when we got to the final, we lost to Chelsea. We started again, Everton versus Macclesfield.
And it was Macclesfield away. And Macclesfield's in, in and around Manchester area.
David Moore, we got on the, trained, had lunch, got on the bus, drove. It's not that far.
And probably less than an hour from, from the Everton training ground to Macclesfield. And before we even got to the hotel LD, we went straight to the ground, straight to the ground.
Cause he said, you will not turn up tomorrow and be shocked because you as soon as as soon as you see this for the first time you will be shocked so sure enough we get off the bus right we walk into the dress room and by the way I swear to god as my witness the corridor is this big we we we walk through we walk through the corridor we go into the dress room by the way dress room's no bigger than this little home office i have guys are looking around like oh my god we walk out on the pitch they have you know in the primarily we have undersole heating they've got tarps all over the over the pitch because it was it was frozen and if they don't get the game played they have to get it played so literally local townspeople from macclesfield they don't have staff bro they don't have staff they don't can't pay staff local townspeople it was on the news were just there helping with the tarp helping remove snow and it was great that he did that because had we gotten off the bus after team meal on the day of the game and saw that we'd have been like nah bro this ain't not having it leon osmond credit to ozzy he got the game winner in the 43rd minute. All right.
Well, speaking of Everton, so a lot going on this week. So Everton played Peterborough at home.
And the big takeaway from that game was 39-year-old Ashley Young was hoping to play against his 18-year-old son, Tyler, who happens to play for Peterborough. At the end of the match, Darren Ferguson, the Peterborough manager, kept Tyler on the bench even though they were losing 2-0.
He had a chance to put him in to play against his father. I have a lot of mixed views on this.
I think you're passionate about it. I mean, I would have liked him to put him in, right? Now, this is professional soccer.
You have a job to do. But if you're losing 2-0 and there's 30 seconds left, put the kid in.
Like, if you have a sub, like, put the kid in. So, your thoughts? Thank you for sitting at the table.
I'm annoyed. I'm annoyed because the most important people here in this conversation are 39-year-old Ashley Young, because I retired at 40, but goalkeepers played forever.
You retired before 39, right? When did you retire? 32. So you know how hard it is.
He's playing in the Premier League at 39 years old. Credit to him for keeping his levels up, for keeping his fitness up, credit to his son 18 years old chasing his professional dream this this reunion should have happened on the pitch it's the thing stories are made of and i know it's the fa cup i do and so you play to win right but they weren't winning they were losing and at that point in the back of your head as a manager not in the back of your head he knows.
You've got to make some sort of concession to think if it gets down to it and we're

out of this game, and I know people say, too, no, you're not out of the game.

Put the kid on.

Here's why.

The Peterborough manager, Darren Ferguson.

You know who Darren Ferguson's father is?

Sir Alex Ferguson, one of the greatest managers in the history of world football.

So Darren Ferguson has stood on the shoulders of giants giants you can make of that what you will when it comes to a father and son reunion he more than anybody should understand what that means and so disappointed just one happy everything went through but disappointed ashley young and um and tyler got it didn't get an opportunity because guess what that opportunity ever come on again. And by the way, this isn't LeBron James having his agent call every NBA team and say, if you draft this kid, my son, I'm sending him to Australia, right? He got an NBA contract when all of the experts know he's not an NBA player to do what? To play with his dad.
And guess what? LeBron earned that right. He earned that right.
And this was happenstance. This wasn't like nobody had to manufacture.
This was a draw out of a ball and like two balls and it's like, yeah, let it happen. Alright, so Everton.
Lots going on. So Sean Deitch gets sacked.
Our old manager more yours than mine. Much more yours than mine.
David Moyes is back at Everton. I am, it's like, I'm trying to separate Tim, the emotional, like thrilled for him and the club and myself and you and us from, okay, what does this actually look like? Is he going to help? Yes.
How much is he going to help? And what's that going to look like? Is this this a long-term thing i know he signed a long contract i think through 27 so is this like a a more permanent thing is this a just get us through the season thing but it seems like it's it's a more permanent thing so i'm trying to decipher all that but most of all just emotionally taking out the practical i'm just thrilled for him i'm thrilled to now go back there and see him and watch the club. I think it's going to be awesome.
So, Kimmy, I mean, you know him a lot better than I do. Yeah, well, I think you have to start with standing up and applauding Sean Dyche.
What a job. What a job he did.
Agreed, man. And there's going to be some people who just blinked when they're listening to this.
What a job he did. PSR, 10-point deduction, having to sell players, not having the quality to maybe stay in the Premier League, and he kept that team afloat.
He kept them in the Premier League. So by the way, anybody, I don't care if you're an Everton fan or not, if you scoff at the job that Sean Dyche did, shame on you.
You're a moron. You're absolute.
Dude, he absolutely deserves so much. And he probably didn't deserve to be fired, to be honest, with what he's done, with what he's had.
Totally agree. And I think from what I was hearing was, look, the new ownership group took over, right? Anytime an ownership group takes over, I think it's your investment.
I think you're allowed to then say, I want this sporting director or I want this coach. That's normal.
So I'm okay with that. And look, the fact of the matter is from what I was hearing, look, the team was just kind of floundering and they don't have a ton of quality.
They've got a couple of good players in decent areas. They don't have a ton of quality.
And that's why they're down near the bottom and they have been for the last couple of years. The idea was going into the new stadium, the new ownership group didn't want to just kind of stumble over the line going into the new stadium.
They kind of wanted to go from where they are right now, which is near the bottom of the table, to kind of like maybe this runway into like the top of the table where you can go, oh, we feel really good about this. Because again, it's an investment, right? They want people to get excited about it.
So the fact that they brought David Moyes back back like that's the interesting move because i think david moyes has been linked over the last couple of years every time there's a managerial change and it was what seven and eight years under um moshiri he always seemed to kind of be linked i spoke to him every now and again and i would just send him a cheeky text like are you in you know this is like you know a couple last couple of years. And sometimes it would be like, no.
Other times it would be like, there have been conversations. So, you know, there's always been kind of talked about.
The Everton fans are amazing. I became an Evertonian at the time that I was there, and that's a lifelong thing, and I know you feel that.
And now I'm an Everton fan. You know, you can't not teams that team that you played for um but the fact of the matter is like even with inside the the fan base there's there's part of them that are like we don't want moise and it's old school and what i would say to people is just stop stop talking let me do the talking because it's our show but you have there's so many ways to play football and to win football matches, right? Everyone thinks you have to do it the Pep Guardiola way and you have to do it the Portuguese way.
That's what, you know, you don't. You don't.
We'll just win the football match. And David Moyes, he showed at West Ham, was a winner.
By the way, here's my rant. West Ham said, we want to play the West Ham way.
David Moyes went in, played David Moyes way and won. You know what West Ham said? We want to play the West Ham way.
They sacked David Moyes. They got Lopetegui in.
Lopetegui played the West Ham way. Guess where he is? Out of a job.
Right? And so what I would say to the Everton faithful is, you want someone who plays progressive football? Marco Silva. You had him.
You had him. He's at Fulham.
You want someone who plays progressive football? Roberto Martinez. You had him.
You called for his name. He got sacked.
You know what he went on to do? Coach Belgium and Portugal. So you just got to be careful.
David Moyes is a brilliant football manager. And the fact that he's still getting these type of jobs is awesome.
And look, I think he is bullish and he knows Everton Football Club inside and out, and he'll restore some glory. Rant over.
I want to remind people, and we've said this before, I've said this before on this show. When I was there in 2010 and 2012, I always heard rumblings when Bill Kenwright, rest his soul, was there about fans would say, we just need more investment, more money.
We're a top seven a top seven eight nine team but we really want to become a champions league team and i always thought to myself like do you realize what you have here just this club to be this high every year is phenomenal so what do you do bring a new ownership more investment and now for the last three four five years you're fighting relegation every year just every year. Just be careful what you wish for, as you just said, about how you want to play, what you want it to look like.
Would you take a mid-table finish right now if you're an Everton fan? You're damn right you would. Absolutely you would.
Correct. So just chill out.
David Moyes knows how to win soccer games. He has shown that over and over and over, and I'm excited for him.
The FA Cup, Tim, this weekend was fun to watch.

There will be some more matchups coming in the future.

A few for people to pay attention to.

Exeter City, who are League One, home to Nottingham Forest.

That'll be an interesting one.

Plymouth Argyle.

This is so interesting.

It's so funny how these things work out.

Plymouth Argyle, who just sacked Wayne Rooney,

who is an Evertonian, are now home to Liverpool.

So imagine he had still been there.

What a match that would have been.

Plymouth are last in the championship,

so that'll be really interesting to watch.

Birmingham City, who are first, now in League One,

home to Newcastle.

That should be.

So there are a lot of other interesting ones,

some Premier League matchups,

but those will be really fun for people to watch

if you like rooting for the underdogs.

All right, we're going to take a quick break.

I'm going to take a quick break. When we get back, we'll be talking U.S.
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LD it's time for us LNT on us MNT.

Um,

January camp,

January camp.

It's so polarizing and complex for so many people who don't quite get it.

Cause they're like,

wait a minute.

There's a national team camp in January,

but where's all our players.

So these are a lot of,

a lot of players.

Um,

you know,

it falls outside of the FIFA window.

I think what people need to also understand is when it comes to,

and I didn't know this for a very long time,

But when it comes to and i didn't know this for a very long time but when it comes to like the television contract over the course of a full year there are a certain amount of slots and two of those happen to fall in january and so those have to be fulfilled um contractually which is obviously part of it but the other part is so many of these players that get called in predominantly MLS type players have an opportunity to get some time under their belt, training, shop window, be in front of Pochettino. And Pochettino, of course, gets more time with his team, right? And some of these players, when you look at LD, will feature at some point.
And this to me is just a great opportunity to shine, right? Like if some of these players when you look at LD will feature at some point and this this to me is just a great opportunity to like shine right like if some of these players were in a full camp they might be on the peripheral but Ned they're probably the best players uh in the in the camp you know the top five or six players and it really gives an opportunity to be in front of manager and go I like this kid I like him even more Let me explain something to people who don't get this camp. This camp is crucial for right now.
Let's start with Pochettino. Every day he gets with these guys, whether they're on the periphery or they're Walker Zimmerman or someone who's going to be in the World Cup or not, it doesn't matter.
Every time you get a chance, when you only have 18 months now to get in front of the team, it's crucial. But for the players, let me take people back, 2001, 24 years ago.
January. I had made my debut three months earlier in October for the U.S.
national team. So I get invited to this January camp by Bruce.
In my mind, I'm thinking, this is my chance. And there's a lot of guys there now in Florida, I think they're in Florida who are saying this is my chance, right? To make a world cup.
I had a good January camp there in 2001, scored a few goals. I think we won the gold cup that year.
Got in, got started playing with the national team because of that. It led me into playing for the national team in 2002.
Same thing. We go in in January and I'm like, okay, I got six months before the world cup.
I got to play well in MLS, but this is my 30 days to do it. So come in as fit as you can.
You're flying ready to go. And I ended up making a world cup team and the rest is history for these guys.
This is crucial. Yeah.
Absolutely crucial. And for people are like, oh, it's stupid.
They're playing and costa rica and these games mean nothing to bullshit dude this is a huge huge opportunity and there will be one or two or three players i promise you in this camp that you weren't aware of that will make the world cup team next year yeah i mean look i i look at the goalkeepers important for zach stefan look at the defenders shack more tim rehmam Miles Robinson Walker Zimmerman important for those guys midfield Diego Luna Jack McGlynn this is an opportunity for them to really showcase themselves up front you know I'm looking there Jesus Ferreira another opportunity we're thin huge opportunity for Jesus by the way yeah we're thin we're thin at that spot that's right and so you know look we look we had we talked about this last week peppy playing well right now okay but who knows i mean we're 18 months away we don't know what's gonna happen brandon vasquez just gets a move to austin fc so he's going to be playing all the time now flo balligan whenever he's back but then it's like okay who's next sergeant is it who's next right and for jesus jesus ferrera now you get a move a fresh start in se. But you get a whole month to show the coach not only what you do in the hour and a half at training, what you're like in the meal room, what you're like in the locker room, what you're like behind the scenes, what you're like in the treatment room, how you treat people, how the group likes you or doesn't like you.
It's a huge opportunity. Huge opportunity.
Huge opportunity. And again, we talk about Hazel for our struggle a little bit last year.

Some injuries, just scoring five goals. But going to Seattle from Dallas, Seattle is a winning franchise.
Seattle knows how to win. They know how to build a team and bring players in the right spots.
This could be really, really good for him. He's, you know, he scored second most goals of any player under the age of 25 with let me look at this 53 goals before turning 25 second on the list you know who's first on the list who my guy landon donovan 56 goals i think you could have done more he only has three he only has three last three more you did a lot you did a lot of the dirty work tracking back in those early days.
Early days.

You know what's best, though, Tim, about this move for him, honestly,

and this is all due respect to FC Dallas.

When you play in Seattle, there's real pressure, right?

They're writing about you every day.

The fans, if you're not doing the job, he was a little comfortable,

I'm sure he would admit, in Dallas.

And this happens with a lot of players when they come up and they start with one team. At some point, you've got to get away.
Especially if you're a homegrown, you've got to go away. You've got to get out of there.
It's not good for you. So I think this will be good for him.
Real pressure on him to produce. And I think this will help him a lot.
So I think the future for him is bright and hopefully gets himself the opportunity now to play in a World Cup. Funny little tidbit about january camps because i was you know i was i was in england for so many of them so i didn't early in my career i did a few january camps which was again great because you can showcase your young talent like not and not have the big guys in and at the end of my career i was so greedy i wanted more caps i remember calling the coach and was like can i can i can i i'm free i'm free in jan I'm free in January.
Can I come in? Yeah. Cause I'm playing back in the MLS.

And I can't remember like getting the phone hung up and just like,

we're not calling you and we know what you can do.

So I'm like, yeah, but I want another cap.

So I'll tell you the worst though, Tim, about January.

I reckon the worst man is especially back, you know,

decades ago is the fitness and we had a fitness coach, Pierre.

Are you?

Who was there?

And dude, every January camp, it was like, it it was hell dude it was like going to boot camp yeah so you come in as fit as you can but i'll i have met i have nightmares about some of these fitness drills we did do just to get because you're just you're if you're there january 2nd or 3rd you have a game i think they play on the 18th 18th yeah you have two and a half don't realize that is not a lot of time, right? Generally, you have six weeks, five or six weeks in preseason. Yeah.
So you're ready for your first game. That's right.
So now you have two weeks to try to play 70, 80, 90 minutes. It's brutal, dude.
And so they're like, well, either we take our time and we build you in and be ready for February or no. Pochettino's like, no, man, we got got to perform you got two weeks we're gonna kill you for the first week and you got sadly you got a lot of injuries and it's not the right way to introduce yourself to a season but it's just the reality so hopefully and I'm sure all these guys came in very fit so they were ready for it a few other MLS notes your guy my guy Robin Frazier you've been beating that drum.
You must have been in somebody's ear at Toronto. At least they were listening to the pod.
Really happy for him. He is the next head coach of Toronto FC.
I think he's, look, you know him better than I, much better. I just, that franchise needs stability.
They've made a lot of bad decisions. They've made bad decisions with their GM in the past.
The GM's made bad decisions with some of the hires who have gone there. John Herdman, obviously, with the Canadian drone scandal, and he just wasn't great there.
So I hope this brings stability. And Robin Frazier, this is the first opportunity that he's going to have financial backing, a club that ambitious remember he's been at teams that were just didn't spend money we're not ambitious so i'm really excited for him i think he's gonna do a great job yeah i'm i'm over the moon for robin i spoke to him uh a lot through this process um you know i i i think toronto fc must listen to the podcast but And hopefully they do.
But look, one of the biggest regrets of my career, and it wasn't in my hands, I only got six months to play with Robin. And I remember Robin was so good to me at the end because I was at the end.
And I just, I remember how great of a manager he was. He's a brilliant football mind.
He connects with his players. As said he'll get backing i think he got the short end of the stick in colorado because he's a very very good manager and i it's funny something sticks out and he's a good he's a good human as well at the end his first game that he took over we played at red bull and my body ld as you know at the end it gets so broken down i could barely finish the game i was was in tears.
We won 2-0, and I was like, this is the end. I was supposed to finish at the end of the season, but here we are in July or August.
I'm like, I'm done. And I remember going to see him knocking on his door and just saying, look, Robin, my ego is not so big.
I'm not going to hamstring you. The fact of the matter is, if you play me, if you start me, you're going to have to use a sub on me and this is just going to get ugly.
And I don't want to do that to you. And I just remember saying like, look, let me try and get fit.
I would love to be fit enough to play the last home game or in the last game of the year and then just, you know, be done. And so there was a couple of week stretch that I just didn't play for about a month because I had to be honest with him and he was brilliant with me.

So, but beyond the personal side of things, he's a brilliant manager.

Given the time and given the resources, which he'll get in Toronto, look out.

He's a really good manager.

Yeah, the key is the time now, right?

Because he's been out of it for a little bit as a head coach.

So he needs time and hopefully clubs are learning that these things don't turn around in six months or a year or 18 months. You need time, and hopefully he gets it.
Yeah, totally. One other piece of news.
Chicho Arango, who was at Salt Lake. I follow Salt Lake closely because my former coach, Nate Miller, is the assistant there.
And with Pablo, he's done a phenomenal job turning that team into just a really fun, attractive team to watch. Goes from Salt to the earthquakes where bruce is so bruce got on the horn they traded for 1.4 million dollars in gam general allocation money which we'll get into that another time about what that means and an international roster spot so i think the biggest thing for salt lake there is getting rid of his salary it was time just watching that team a lot it was for him to move.
He had a tough stretch through the middle of the season. I think sometimes these things happen to him and it's good for everyone.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
San Jose is getting a striker who will now have a fresh look on things. There's good leadership there with Christian Espinosa who's there.
They have a good front four, by the way, Pellegrini, Lopez, Hernan Lopez, now Chicharro Arango, and Christian Espinosa. So that's a pretty nasty front line.
Arango and Ferreira. I mean, change is good.
It's amazing how you get a good player, gets a little bit stagnant, a little bit injury prone, and next thing you know, boom, hit the ground running at the new club. It'll be good for him.
Yeah, it'll be good. All right, one more break.
When we come back, we will dive into questions.

Lots of questions again this week in the new

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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 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. And on USLNT, our connection with you will help grow the game.
Jordan, welcome to AT&T Fan Connection. Get on in here.
What's up, guys? What's up, JR? What shirt do you have on today? Let's see. The FC Simpali third shirt.
Gee, what? Amazing shirt. And it was very, very good to me this year they have three shirts it's great they do yeah it's impressive you get to the bundesliga you know you need a third kit for sure all right what do you got for us jr what do you got okay our first question is from jb via email my youngest son loves soccer how do i support him going pro and one day earning the Landon Donovan MVP award? All right, JB.
Take it away, Landon. Well, we don't know how old your son is.
This is very simple for me, and I'm going to dumb it down for people, and it's never what anyone wants to hear. The easiest way to continue loving soccer and getting better at soccer is by having fun and playing.
And I'm going to break that down because you're like, what an idiot who says that. I now have kids who play soccer.
And a lot of times they have three or four or five organized practices in a week. And it's great.
They get to play a lot. But I watch my kids learn the most about soccer when we go in the backyard and we play or when they watch a game on TV.
And they just love to do that. So, JB, my advice to you is, one, make sure you're backing off a little bit, letting your son or daughter or whoever play, love it, have fun, have the ball around them all the time.
You can learn a lot of other things later. You never get these years back where you're just touching the ball constantly.
But if they're not having fun at some point, JB, they're going to look at you and say, you know what, I don't like this anymore. I want to do it.
And then maybe your dream has crushed, JB, and maybe their dream has crushed. So you need to make sure they're always loving it, enjoying it.
And your job as a parent is to foster that, but not be overbearing. Cause I see it all the time now with the parents who are overbearing and eventually the kids fall out of love with the sport.
Yeah, very well said. This sound, I don't think it is, but this sounds like my, my friend,B.
Bickerstaff, head coach of the Detroit Pistons.

His son, Blade, is a stud, stud goalkeeper, young kid. He's got pictures of athletes on his wall and wants to go pro.
So I'm guessing this isn't him, but I'll hit him after the show. But no, on a serious note, J.B., I think I've just lived this with my own daughter, and she's on an incredible trajectory for herself.
But I constantly asked, you asked a really good question, but, but in all seriousness, I constantly asked her what she wanted constantly. It was, it was all because by the way, I know how to become a professional.
I thankfully have the means to help her become a professional. So, so I kept asking her, what, what do you want? Dad, I want to be great.

Okay. What do you want?

I want to play division one soccer.

Okay, cool.

But if she said to me, I don't know, I want to go to the dance.

And if I miss a couple of training sessions, that's cool too.

I'd say, yeah, fine.

I'm going to support you with whatever you do.

So this was never, this was never about me as a parent.

You know, I, I read something recently.

Derek Rose asked his son, Derek Rose of Chicago Bulls fame. They just retired his number.
He asked his son, do you want to be good or great? If his son says good, then he treats him as if he wants to be good. If he wants to be great, he pushes him to be great.
And so I think that conversation about where your child wants to go, because by the way, and not many people say this because Landon gets his name on MVP trophies and we all get paid a lot of money and the fame, being a professional is hard. It's hard sledding.
It's hard sledding, but forget when the lights come on in front of 60,000 people to get there. It's rough.
It's rough mentally. It's rough physically.
It's rough socially. It's hard.
So ask your son if that's what he wants. And if he does, then you support him in every way you can.
Okay. A question from Katie via email.
I've seen a lot of complaints of women's teams hiring people from the men's game and not from within the women's game. What are your thoughts on this? What are the differences between the men's and women's game that you have learned by joining ownerships and by coaching? That's a great question, Katie.
Okay, so I want to, I'll start tackle this delicately because I want to be really clear on this. My opinion is that the most qualified person, based on whoever's making that decision, is the person they should try to hire, no matter what they look like, where they come from, et cetera.
That being said, having been in the women's game now, there for decades and decades have been a massive lack of opportunity for women to get better as coaches, GMs, technical directors on the business side, et cetera. So it's not as simple as just saying, well, just hire the most qualified person.
Okay, we'll get Pep Guardiola. Well, Pep's had a lot of opportunity that a lot of women haven't had, right? So in the end, whoever's making that decision needs to make the best decision for their team.
There are many men who coach in women's soccer who are great. There are many women who coach in women's soccer who are way better than the men are who are coaching.
And I've seen it up close and personal. So I think the key here is more opportunities to learn and grow.
And now there's better licensing. see when i went through my licensing more women in the licensing courses than i ever saw before so more opportunities there and then given chances to either succeed or fail the way men are and that's that's the only i think that's the only way you can do it but you can't blame people for making a a decision that they think is best for them.
The San Diego Wave is a great example. They just hired a male coach who failed at Arsenal.
So they brought him in and hired him now. A lot of fans were probably like, well, why aren't we hiring a female? Well, okay, but that's their decision, right? And by the way, there's a woman who's running that ownership group, right? So she made that decision.
That's her prerogative but i think we need more opportunities is is and that's not just women that's any type of minority or anybody who's not you know what we're accustomed to seeing on a sideline right in in in professional soccer yeah yeah i mean look i i think for me it's it's i agree with all those things you said. For me, it's cut and dry.
Men have ruined the women's game for so long. Go all the way back to the start of it, right? And there was no women's leagues.
And so when there was a women's league, it was, well, we need someone who knows how to coach a professional team. But women weren't given the opportunity because there wasn't any league.
So who coached those initial all men right and so um that's the starting point and and since then for various other reasons um men have ruined ruined the women's game and i think that there's a big rebuild that's happening and trust that's being built um you know in terms of both financial trust and and otherwise but look there's been a higher fire culture uh in in women's women's soccer. And it does, they don't quite have the same opportunities.
And I think you have to create intentional pathways for women to get in. If you want to hire, be intentional.
I mean, the, the, the Roonies in Pittsburgh were very intentional on hiring an African-American coach. They didn't make any bones about it.
And then the Rooney rule got. And Tomlin has been brilliant at that franchise for nearly 20 years or however long, right? And so you have to be intentional.
And whether you hire a person of color, a male, whatever the case is, a female, that's fine. But at certain point, you have to be intentional in terms of who you put in place and how you help foster that because you can't continue to hire and fire people without building the process underneath, right? So you bring in assistant coaches, you bring in assistant technical directors and GMs and what that might look like, giving them a pathway to say, you know what, when it's time for change, we want to be able to have invested in you so much that boom, you're ready to go.
You're ready to become the head coach, ready to become a GM, or maybe we lose you to another team because you've done so well here. So being more intentional and stopping this like higher fire culture that exists in women's soccer.
And you need to set, you need to set people up for success, right? You don't just hire someone because they, you know, played a few years in the league and now you want to make them a GM. Like you just said, okay, start as an assistant GM and learn and grow so that when they become a GM now, there's a lot of women in women's game in NWSL in either coaching roles or GM roles who had no experience before.
So if you're going to do that, fine, but then you got to stick with them two years, three years, four years, let them learn and grow and get, make mistakes, et cetera, or start as an assistant, let them learn and then give them an opportunity. That way they're, they're set up for success.
Those are two very deep answers to two very deep questions. So I'm going to let you guys move on to anything but soccer, but thanks for that.
Thanks, Jordan. Thank you, JR.
Appreciate you. All right, ABS.
This week, Timmy, I had a conversation with one of my golf buddies the other day after we played on Friday. And we were sitting down, we were talking about NIL.
And for people who don't know, NIL is name, image, and likeness, which has come into collegiate sports, mostly basketball and football. And players now are given money by the universities or by wealthy donors to play for their universities.
And we were talking about this quarterback, Carson Beck, who was at Georgia. They got knocked out of the college football playoffs.
He's a prospective high draft pick at some point when he comes out and decides to go to the NFL. And he said, it's looking like he's you know a prospective high draft pick at some point when he becomes when he comes out and decides to go to the nfl and he said it's looking like he's going to transfer to miami and i said my first reaction was why the hell would the starting quarterback georgia transfer to another school to miami he's like well he's going to get paid i said oh of course he's going to transfer so like all these these guys now, you spend a year, one year and you make a million dollars.
Why not transfer the next year? And why

not transfer the next year? And why not transfer the next year? You're making millions. And what

he said to me, this is why I want to get to, he said, well, you know, he'll go there and he'll

make a million dollars. And I said, no, no, no.
From what I've heard. And I've got someone who's

dialed into the college football game is he's going to make three or $4 million. And's like, get out of here.
There's no way he's making three or four million dollars. I said, dude, he's making three or four million dollars.
So this report came out. Fox affiliate in Miami reported that it was a one-year deal for four million dollars.
Now, The Athletic came out and said it might be closer to $3 million. They're not, nobody's confirming or denying.

Sure, sure.

But just to give people context, and then I want to dive into this.

The starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans this year,

a guy named Will Levis, who was a second-round pick,

made $950,000 last year, this season,

as the Tennessee Titans starting quarterback in the NFL.

Carson Beck's going to go make $3 million to $4 million in college. Go before I rant.
Go. Well, let me say this.
I was initially, for the last couple of years, against college athletes being paid for various reasons, and we won't get into that right now. I was against it.
I am, I am what I'd like to call a insubordinate subordinate. I'm going to ask questions and I want to kick and scream, but I'm eventually going to fall into line.
The fact of the matter is college sports is over. Yeah.
It, this is a second division professional league in no world, I'm 45 years old, so in the last 45 years and beyond, nobody, and there's a guy, Trey Lieber-Rude, out there who's listening, who's literally going to fall off his seat. Nobody would leave the University of Georgia, which is basically the top of the pyramid, second only to the Tennessee Volunteers

Go Vols, the top of the pyramid to go to Miami. Like no one ever.
So this comes down to money. And by the way, these schools, whether it be through alumni or private equity, these schools have boatloads of money, boatloads of money.
Like there's an,

there,

BYU,

Brigham Young University

is one of the biggest NIL

f***s. schools have boatloads of money boatloads of money there there's an there byu uh bring them young university is one of the biggest nil uh funds in all of college sports they kept this all world all all-star kid out of utah they kept him at byu this kid should be going to duke and and all the blue bloods he ain't going he's staying at byu if this is about money the entire landscape has changed so and here here's the problem okay we agree of course the landscape has changed the problem is whenever something new comes into effect people are going to find ways to take advantage or cheat or move and right now it is the absolute wild wild west because there are no parameters no boundaries So in the NFL, you have a salary cap, right? So there are limits.
If Miami said we're going to pay him $600 million because we have it, they can do it. Totally.
It's like, who cares? Go do it then. Yeah.
Right? And this cannot be good for collegiate sports. But like you said, college sports is over.
It's over. So I'm not necessarily, by the way, I'm not necessarily against these guys getting paid because CBS and ESPN and Fox and everyone is making billions of dollars selling the rights or purchasing the rights and then selling ads to these games.
Get it? And for those at colleges i spoke to a woman at usc one time about this issue and she said well they're getting a scholarship i said okay scholarships worth 50 60 70 grand i get it you're turning around and making millions if not tens of million dollars on the back of this kid so like i get it and i get that they're subsidizing for some of the other sports, but the biggest shame in all this, Tim, is somewhere down the line, all the other sports are going to get affected. Totally.
Women's sports are going to get affected. Sports, maybe even like soccer, but like, you know, the water polos and the track and field, they're going to get impacted somehow because there's only so much money to spend, and they're going spend it where the market tells them they should spend it which is on football and basketball and so i don't know what's going to happen long term there's got to be a tipping point at some point where people say this is not sustainable yeah well and look look let me let me just riff for the next 30 seconds on this is the parent parent in me right what something has to change or we just have to all accept that this is going to spiral out of control right because you now have the transfer portal back a few years ago you couldn't transfer without sitting out now you can transfer to any school you want whenever you want they can pay you whatever they want because of the nil i just hope that the adults in the room whoever they are are not only paying these kids boatloads of money, but they're giving them access to financial advisors.
They're helping them with the money. They're helping them make decisions because, as we know, you can give kids money, but it doesn't often end well.
And so, look, I think there's a – do they need a cap on it? Do they need to slow it down? Do they need to go back to having to sit out a year if you transfer? Because even, forget money aside, LD, the transfer portal is changing the landscape. Kids aren't staying in school for four years anymore.
Kids aren't loving a school and staying there. One year and done, they transfer to another school.
And you're creating these powerhouses, which is fun to watch from a sports standpoint. But ultimately, all of these things combined, say goodbye to college sports.
Simple as that. Yeah, I know the last thing here, what I can think of is, you know, when you watch NFL games and at the beginning of the game as they're like introduced, you know, here come the Buccaneers defense and the guy comes out and he says, you know, Levante David, wherever he's from, Ohio State.
In the future, it's going to be like Carson Beck, Utah Valley State, BYU, Georgia, Alabama, Miami, and Texas. You know, it's just going to be like, it's going to be such a joke because they're going to be going to five or six schools.
So, all right. Thank you to AT&T for our new fan connection.
We will, we will be back with this every week. We love it.

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