USMNT v Japan Reaction Livestream

LD, welcome in to all of our listeners and viewers for the first ever unfiltered soccer live.

Live stream ever.

Live stream.

What could possibly go wrong?

It's probably not the last, my friend.

It's not the last.

It's live.

I'm sure you guys are going to come over the top with some haymakers about the team, but we're coming to you off the back of a really good performance, good result against Japan, USMNT2, Japan-nil.

We want to dive into that.

So, LD, give them all the important information.

Hit him up to social and dive in.

Yes, sir.

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All right, Timmy, let's dive in.

So

we do our normal show on Monday.

It comes out on Tuesday.

In this case, the U.S.

was playing Tuesday.

So we said, let's try our first live show, which gives our producers tremendous anxiety.

But we're here and we want to unpack what happened last night.

So I'm going to give my quick thoughts and then we'll dive in more.

I say the best way to describe it is good, solid performances all around.

I wouldn't say anyone was insanely good, outrageous, but just good, solid, professional performances.

The Japan team that they trotted out was, it wasn't their best team, but still good players that play in good clubs all over the world.

And we were the much better team.

I thought at times Christian made some really good, like Christian-like plays, especially leading up to the second goal.

Flo Baligan looked good.

Christian rolled on, fit in seamlessly.

The back three, and we'll talk about going to a back three, I thought were great.

Matt Freese,

some of the plays, you know, that were great saves kind of hit him.

And I want to dig into that a little bit, but he was in the right spot and made some big plays.

So it's just great.

I just thought great, solid performances all around.

It was Columbus.

We couldn't have possibly lost, could we?

Thank God for Columbus, Ohio, by the way.

It's amazing.

Yeah, but we need a 2-0 result.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, so much of that.

Well, all of that I agree with.

It was a needed result for a lot of reasons, which obviously we'll unpack.

Yeah, I don't,

that was getting banned around a lot last night that this is like Japan's B team and that they played their best team against Mexico.

It sucks to kind of hear all that stuff, but ultimately, look, I'm a firm believer.

The game is played, the whistleblows, you have to win.

And we needed that performance.

It was a good, good team that they put out, whether it was their best team or not, doesn't matter.

And it looked and it felt really good from

people who have been desperate to see performances like that.

That was a good one.

And I thought in a multitude of areas, Christian Pulisic being one, Matt Freese, Arfston,

a few others,

I thought there were some really good performances.

And so,

again, happy with it.

Happy that we didn't have to come on here.

And

I was worried about the two-and-out scenario in September.

I was worried that it was,

you know, we were going to lay an egg, not get a result in September, and then it just heaps on more pressure and,

of course, consequently more criticism and questions.

So,

yeah, I'm glad for the group that they got that result.

Let's talk about, let's dig into, well, let's start with the goalkeeper.

Let's start with Matt Freeze.

So I always had, I was thinking about this last night.

When a goalkeeper is confident and playing well, and the team trusts him and believes him, the ball seems to hit him.

Yeah.

Out of hair on my mic.

The ball seems to hit him.

Yeah.

Right.

And so there was a chance that Chris Richards gave away in the first half and a ball's played in behind,

I think it's in behind Reem and or maybe Reem is the one.

Yeah, I think it's in behind Blackman maybe.

And Reem makes a good plan, but he gets gets like good purchase on the ball and it kind of hits, it's right at Matt Freeze.

And I just thought from my perspective, and this is my amateur perspective from a goalkeeping perspective, that he looked confident.

His face looked different to him.

Like when the ball would come to him, he was comfortable on the ball.

Everything was safe.

And I was like, that's a goalkeeper that you want behind you.

That's how it felt to me.

You know, that look that you're talking about, you know what that look is?

It's the look of a number number one goalkeeper.

Yeah.

It is someone who knows

currently, someone who knows that he was handed the gloves, given an opportunity in the gold cup, took advantage of it.

And then September was, what's the manager going to do?

Because, which we'll touch on, he's used a bit of experimentation and more evaluation.

So I thought, oh, there'll be other goalkeepers that get this game.

And it wasn't.

It was Matt Freeze who got two games.

And so I would say right now, he is in pole position.

It's his job to lose.

You heard what I said over the summer.

I would be shocked if we go into the World Cup.

And I like everything about Matt Fries.

You know this.

I'd be shocked if we go into the World Cup with our number one goalkeeper having 13 caps because, as I said, and you know this, at the highest level, those windows open and shut so fast.

And you need more than 13 games.

But forget that for now.

He is in pole position to be the number one.

Yeah, he made the other, it was a good save.

The ball that was clipped in, it ended up being offside, but that's such a hard ball when it's in swinging and a guy's coming across to head it.

You don't know if he's going to head it or or not, so you have to wait and then you got to get down.

And he just, he did everything right.

He really did.

And I have to say at this point, you have to give Mauricio Pochitino credit because he has said, I don't care where you play or who you are.

If you're playing and you play well, you get a chance to defend the shirt again.

Correct.

And is there any chance anybody else is in goal in October if he's healthy?

No.

Well,

I think that will be that will be the big one, right?

Like if October comes, if October comes, right now he's a number one.

if october comes and goes and he's played both matches then i'm that's it then that's it for me that's it i i that's well the manager would be telling me that's it so right we'll see yeah okay um so pochino went to a back three yeah very interesting uh a lot of people were not happy that tristan blackman was getting another cap i thought he was great i thought the game suited him well he could use his physicality the game was in front of him most of the game which meant he could go attack what's in front of him defend what's in front of him and he's a good player.

Is he a national team quality?

I don't know.

You know, maybe he sneaks into the World Cup side, but I thought he was great.

I thought they just looked so much more comfortable in a back three.

And I learned this again from coaching that they are much different roles playing with two center backs versus three, but you just feel safer as a center back.

And they would always say, I just feel like I have just more cover, more protection.

And I thought they were good.

They weren't flawless, but I thought they were very good together.

So you think that's the way forward now?

I don't know if it's the way forward.

I agree with what you're saying.

It feels particular, you know, I'm a lover of Chris Richards, man.

I think he's, I just think he's phenomenal for both club and country.

And it kind of

frees up, it gives you more insurance.

In a back three, I always kind of feel like it allows one guy to be uber aggressive, right?

Because you've got this insurance.

You want to stay in your slot, but you have the ability now to go close spaces, to go get tight and get tackled.

Because by the way, if you get spun, you're still kind of safe as houses, right?

You have the insurance policy there.

I liked it.

I think more than more than anything, what I liked, and I think we talked about this just two days ago, you know, when

the way that Poch was playing, it looked really good in the gold cup.

We talked about that, right?

Against opponents that we're supposed to dominate the ball and we're supposed to win.

The big question for me was when we don't have the lion's share of possession, when we're up against it and we have to sit deep in a block

how how do we get out from there right so there has to be like a plan b or or or a plan 1a or 1b or something and i'm just i'm

that was what i liked about it that we're at least trying something and it worked which always is helpful when you're implementing a new system we implement a new system and you win that makes everybody's buy-in collectively just more right if you try something and you get pumped 2-0 you're like this sucks we were not good at this system.

You know that.

And so I was just happy to see, like, okay, that worked.

So now, if we need to be flexible and change systems in the middle of a game or from game to game, that approach is starting to be there.

So I like that about it.

I also like, and this is something you actually said to Arsene when we interviewed him at the all-star game.

You said, I, Landon Donovan, think you are a better wing back, right?

So not a left back in a four, but a wing back in a five.

And

he showed that.

I mean, the assist for the goal was picture perfect.

I have to say, and I'll look back, but like that for me, it's one of the best U.S.

men's national team goals I've seen in a long, long time.

I can't nail that to the wall and say it's the greatest I've ever seen, but like it is what Arsen did on the wing just to get that yard of space, leave his guy in the dust, that cross.

By the way, you and I both know this.

That finish

doesn't usually go.

It doesn't usually go there, by the way.

It's so good, man.

There's a souvenir.

It's a souvenir.

It was brilliant.

So it freed him up to do what he does best.

And he's a winger.

Not that he can't defend, but he's a winger.

No, I mean, he grew up as a winger, right?

A lot of players grow up as attacking players and move back.

But he even said to it when I said, you're a wingback, he said, I'm a wingback in that interview.

He's like, he said it right away.

And so, but not only him, so Serginio Dust.

Yep.

He can play as a right back in a four for sure, but he is naturally like he's a wingback.

Correct.

Correct.

jedi anthony robinson yeah a little more defense but dude he flies and he goes forward and he gets into the attack so i just think when you when you have personnel yeah go ahead no no it's it's the person who's missing right now i mean

in a four

i watch anthony robinson every week in a four his starting position is damn near left wing like that's how good that's how good he is very high he will eat this up if we play in a back three with with robinson as left back

mate listen it's perfect for him it's perfect.

It's perfect.

So he'll eat that up.

And he, I mean, and then covers such good ground.

And so, what comes with that, Tim, as we move up the field is what comes with that is someone else has to be sacrificed then, right?

Because you're putting another.

And in this case, it was Tim Waya was sacrificed.

Yeah.

And they brought Zenday Hasin, they brought Christian Central.

So they had those two under Balogun and they had the wing backs.

And then they had two guys.

And I just, I think this suits our team better.

They had two guys in Tyler Adams and Christian Roldan wasn't supposed to be there.

It was on vacation before this all happened.

But he was excellent.

And not just, look, guys in that position, I was talking this morning with Andrew, one of our producers, and I said, Andrew, you're like a number six.

You're like, you don't get any credit.

I used the word underwhelming, which he didn't really like.

You don't get any credit.

You just do your job and your team wins when you're on the field.

And that's Christian Roldan.

But he was, he was also, he played the ball forward.

He was like clever with his touches.

He was very good.

He's a good player.

He's a good player.

He is a good player.

And I'm not saying necessarily he's going to be starting a World Cup, but he was very good.

I thought he was very, very good.

He looked really comfortable next to Tyler Adams, and Tyler felt comfortable with him.

And he's just one of those guys, Tim, there's a million of these guys that are so that it's like Leon Osmond, right?

Like you just depend on him, and you know you're going to win when he's on the field.

Look, I think of Christian, and just bear with me with this comparison.

There's a world where he sneaks onto this World Cup roster because

his best ability is his steadiness, right?

And although Kyle Beckerman would have had a better national team career, he does feel to me like I can see a moment if he snuck onto the roster, let's say, that the U.S.

are in a big game.

And he's, like you said, that cog that's like, well, I don't even know he's out there, but he's putting fires out, you know, that type of thing.

So it's possible.

I mean, hats off to him.

He deserved the opportunity you know the other thing when we look at like christian pulissic's position i just

one of the things about a

three across the back and your wing backs is it frees christian up to just play in the middle a little bit more find more pockets look we know he's brilliant on the left wing coming inside on that amazing dribble that he does and finding those spaces but there's just there's more pockets of space because your wing backs are occupying both of their defenders, right?

You have your striker having to occupy the two.

Now you try and start outnumbering people in the midfield with

a, you know, a three across the back and then and then the numbers ahead of it.

So I like the position form.

I think, again, you see, he's,

it just seems like he has to do, not that he does less work because he's a hard worker.

It just seems like he has to do less work to find those magical moments, which he did last night, right?

When you, you know, this, when you're central, you're, you're, you're, you're one step closer to that key pass, right?

As opposed to being on the wing, having to manipulate the ball to get yourself inside and find an angle.

Those angles are created kind of by the spaces he's naturally picking up anyway.

So I like that for that reason as well.

It seems to suit the team.

So it's interesting.

Yeah, he's, it's what Diego Luna does well at Salt Lake, and Christian's on it on a different level.

And so what it is, is it's hard to account for him.

Yes.

Right.

So when he's on the wing, it's basically if he's on the left side, it's the right fullback against him.

And you can basically account for him with your right midfielder and deal with him.

When he's central, there were times where he came all the way back to pick up the ball.

Sure.

But he importantly didn't do it too much.

It wasn't like I need the ball, I need the ball.

He would come back, get a touch, he would move forward, find it in good pockets.

I thought it was really interesting.

We have a question about our attack being too conservative.

JR, you throw that up

in a second.

All right, from Mark Leach.

Beautiful family there, Mark.

Do you think we play too conservative on the attack?

Often we would not play through lines more directly when we had the opportunity to do so, or would we have them full pressed up top on the counter and then circle the ball back to the defense when we had them on their heels?

Okay, so this is an interesting, I think, where he's going with this.

So

I want to paint this picture for people.

So there's a real balance, and mature teams do this really well.

Man City does this really well

in building and getting into good spots.

But if you don't have the numbers to go,

what I say is finish the play, get a shot across a corner, a goal, whatever, then it's better to then have the ball and pin a team in there.

So Japan a few times came after us and we did a really good job breaking pressure and now you're out.

And I would always say this with loyal.

If teams come after us and we break the pressure and it's 3v3, go.

Free license.

Don't care what happens, go.

Now, if you break out and you get someone out out wide and it's 1v3 or 2v4, get deep in and then come back and keep them pinned in.

And so I know from a fan's perspective, you're like, let's go, go, go, go, go.

And I used to have this argument with Bob Bradley, who actually texted me yesterday.

I love Bob.

There were times, and it's probably because I was just lazy, but we would break, like I'd be playing as a right midfielder and we would break pressure and be out on the left side.

And I'd be like, patient, keep it, patient, patient.

And he'd be like, Landon.

You know what I'm saying?

Landon, look, it's not just about you we got a chance to go score we go score and i was like no let's just keep so we'd always have this argument but yeah there's a balance right there's a i remember by the way i remember the arguments because bob bob would literally stop training and go what the hell does keep it mean

he'd get so mad we would i i can remember having the conversation with him because we were like well i don't know about we have that that like round white thing we haven't seen it in a while like can we just

defend him for like 30 minutes can we just keep it for a second exactly but his point was right like you don't just keep it, they keep it.

But yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a, it's a great mark.

That's a good question and a good observation, actually.

But the game ebbs and flows.

And what you would say is barring two teams in the world and three teams and Man City being one of them, very few teams can be on the one, keep the ball.

So you have 11 players who know how to keep the ball in the team and 11 players who are willing to press and

stifle other teams.

It just,

the game ebbs and flows so much.

But, you know, I go.

No, Tim, I would say too.

So it's game-dependent, right?

So the Japanese, the way the Japanese team lined up was, for the most part, they let us have the ball.

And then when we got in there, and this is where Tristan Blackman I thought was great.

Like when we're attacking, he went all the way in with their whatever, their 10 or their nine or whatever, and then they couldn't get the ball back.

And so you suffocate them.

And when you lose momentum, is when you sit off, you let them, their forward receive the ball, get fouled or break pressure.

And now you got to run back and defend.

And so he did a great job defending what was in front of him.

And I think that was more effective over 90 minutes.

In one play, you can say, oh, we should have gone and scored.

But over 90 minutes, you just wear a team out.

And we do.

We just wore them out.

Totally.

So all right, let's go up top.

Yeah, let's talk about the big one.

Yeah, Flo.

You know,

I like Josh Sargent, and

I think he's a good player.

I do.

I think Flo is a better player.

I do.

I'll just say that.

But this whole, like, I was almost, I wasn't disappointed that Flo scored, but I was just like, ah, this, I know what's coming now.

Like, he's so much better than Josh Sargent.

He's all, they're different players.

And, and, and Flo is a better player, but this whole Josh Sargent hate has to stop.

It's just ridiculous.

I mean, yes, he hasn't scored for a long time.

I get it.

For whatever reason, it's not worked out for the national team, but he's not a terrible soccer player.

No.

So, Flo was great.

We have a question from the fans about Sargent and Flo.

So, let's see what you guys have to say.

Landon, can you talk about the differences you see, especially in the off-the-ball play?

Sure.

So for in Balogun and Sargent, for the non-strikers amongst us.

So

you have

different types of strikers.

In modern soccer, you have many more solo nines who are by themselves, right?

When I played, it was more often bigger nine, smaller.

Large, yeah.

Yeah, smaller guy like me who could run beyond them, could also receive the ball underneath a lot like Christian does.

Flow is more vertical.

So he on his goal is a great example, right?

Right when Christian breaks, and there was a few times in the first half too, where Christian breaks pressure and he's running and Flo is gone.

He's like,

give it to me.

Right.

And Josh is a little more,

get it wide, get me in front of the goal, serve it in front of the goal.

Let me go make my play like that.

So in that way, they're a little bit different.

I think in a lot of ways, they're similar with back to goal.

I thought Flo was really good holding the ball.

One of the hardest things to do as a striker, and people don't understand, Bruce used to yell at me, like, hold hold the ball, hold the ball.

So the ball comes into you, it's bouncing into you, right?

Someone clips a ball and it's bouncing into you.

You have a six foot four center back like down your back

trying to smash you.

You have a six or two sixes collapsing on you.

And coaches would get mad when you don't hold the ball.

I'm like, what do you want me to do?

I'm trying, you know.

But Flo did a great job of like little first-time layoffs.

in the stride of the player, not behind the player who was running.

And then you're out and you're breaking pressure.

So I thought he did a good job.

I think he's a little better at Sargent than that.

And look, just in the end, I think his quality in front of goal has been better for the national team.

Josh's quality for Norwich is fantastic.

Fantastic.

And it just makes you wonder, like, what is that mental block going on?

Flow is the better option, but Josh should absolutely be on this team.

Yeah, yeah.

Josh's goals are needed in the team.

Look, what I would say is, to your point, holding the ball up is so difficult, particularly for someone of your stature.

When you get these bigger strikers, then that has to be like really in your arsenal.

And we talked about it against, with Ajamang against Mexico, remember?

Saying, look, we're not going to see a lot of the ball.

So when the ball goes up, it has to stick.

In fact, that's actually as good as a goal right now.

Like, we don't need a goal.

We actually need you just to hold the ball and fall over and get a foul, right?

And so you spoke to how difficult of the skill that is.

Fair or unfair, because you talked that, you said that Flo and Josh Sard are two different strikers.

They are but unfortunately strikers only ever get judged on goals and dangerous chances created that's that's the way it is there's no there's no getting around that and so unfortunately for joshua i think is a good striker and his goals or his ability to score goals needs to be in the team somewhere somehow

ultimately dangerous opportunities and goals are really what's going to judge someone and flow right now has the edge so that that's it's a little bit black and white, but that's really how it is.

And the guy waiting in the wings now is Ricardo Peppi and Ajamang a little bit.

But to be honest, if that was, if those were our four, and I don't know if he'll take four or five to the World Cup, I feel pretty good about it.

Like there's different

profiles there.

They can do different things, but I would feel pretty good about it.

And if any of them were in a game or starting a game, you'd say, okay.

I think they can handle it.

They're all different, but I think they can.

I'm not as bullish as you are, but what I would say is

the striker, any one of those strikers is not going to carry this team

as in other iterations of the U.S.

Men's National Team, where you could say, like, we know where the goals are coming from.

They're coming from two sources, three sources, right?

Where this team, the striker is not going to carry the team.

They might chip in with a few, but across the course of a tournament, you're going to get an eight, some wingers, nines.

They're all going to have to pitch in.

Yeah, you're right.

I think big winners from, we'll say the window overall, but Matt Freeze for sure.

Balogun for sure.

I thought Arston was great again.

You know, he's not, he's not going to start over Jedi if Jedi's healthy and fit, but a great backup option.

Awesome.

Zendejas, we haven't talked about.

I mean, he came in the other day and then he started.

All you can do to him is make the most of your opportunity.

He hasn't been in a lot of camps.

He hasn't been on anyone's radar.

Fantastic goal.

I mean, we just talked about

it's, it wins the game, right?

It wins the game.

And I thought he was pretty good.

Otherwise, very clean on the ball.

You could tell the relationship, like, with he and Christian was good.

He and Flo was good.

Tyler felt comfortable with him.

So, is there a place for him?

Yeah, it feels like it.

It feels like he can fit in too.

So I thought those were the big winners.

Um, yeah,

I don't have too many to add to that.

But I have a question for you.

Is there

a world right now?

I would have called myself crazy for suggesting this prior to last night is there a world that arston and jedi can play together

so i don't know what that looks like if that's a four

if that's a four and

i guess we don't really play a four four two like i don't know i just see like they're both so talented on the left you know what i mean they're so so incredibly talented and athletic and they can be ball dominant when it's at their feet

i don't know it's actually not a bad shout and and

because Arston is

he is now a left back, and he's a left-wing back, but he's had enough experience as a left back.

You trust him defensively if he's playing as a winger.

Like, he's going to come back and help.

That's going to be his natural instinct now.

He's not a guy who's stood out on the wing forever.

It's possible, and he's also comfortable coming inside, dribbling inside, which is rare for a left-footed player.

So he can come inside.

Robinson can go.

If for some reason they get flip-flopped, Arston's comfortable playing as a left back.

So, yeah, maybe.

Here's another one.

Okay, so i'm stuck on this now could jedi play left center back three yeah i know he's i know i know naturally he wants to go but i'm thinking

tim reem in the middle yeah chris richards on the right yeah and and jedi i'm just thinking of experience like that those those are three players that are just like premier league experience yeah i don't know it maybe i was having this conversation tim with with someone yesterday about and we did this at loyal we played a guy at left center back yeah and when we knew we were going to dominate a game so this is like you know gold cup um first round opponents you know you're going to dominate a game do you play someone at left center back who is comfortable literally just bombing on yeah so now you have a three five two but you can add another number in the game and if you play with two sixes you have plenty of cover so maybe i don't know if this is in the world cup but maybe the first world cup game you play a a really you know lower ranked nation that you know you should have all the ball yeah maybe you do that and and it i'd like to see poached you know an option yeah i mean look it's probably not a great thing to say at the moment, but Man United do do that with Luke Shaw and Lessandra Martinez, two like

non-traditional center backs playing a left of a three.

Anyway, yeah, cool.

Let's move on.

All right, we have a question.

This is an interesting one.

Was Japan better or worse?

Throw that up, Jordan.

Yeah, so do you feel Japan's quality was better than Korea?

So the Japanese team that was on the field, it's hard to compare like Atlas Dapples, but I felt the team they put out was pretty similar to what we saw from korea the other day yeah korea had a superstar in sun japan it was a lot of japan's b team um and they had three or four or five guys on the bench who are like borderline world-class players so i would have liked to have seen that sure but i think the team we saw was pretty similar and actually the games were pretty similar to be honest um other than defending well in our box and scoring the goals right so it felt like they were actually pretty similar type games

yeah yeah i would would say they're close and their rankings are close but i agree with some of the players that weren't weren't on the bench so and this is a good this is a good test right that level of team 20 25 30 in the world that's a team now i think we comfortably say and we didn't have our best team either by the way yeah no i agree with that we say that's a team especially at home that we should beat yeah okay we're not going to do it every time no but we should beat now when we get 15th in the world, 10th in the world, 5th in the world, now, how do we compete against those teams?

That's what we've talked about.

And that's where we're going to have to, we haven't seen it yet from this group.

We haven't, just being honest.

But you feel like they're starting to get closer.

I also think, look,

this is the game we talked about.

They needed to win.

They didn't play well.

They didn't play well against South Korea.

So no matter

who Japan runs out there, you have to win the game.

And they did that.

And that is also a mental test that I think they passed.

Agreed.

So let's dive in.

I want to talk about some of the post-match stuff because there were a lot of questions for Christian, Pochitino, about their relationship, just about the team in general.

So Christian, when asked about his relationship with Pochitino, he said, we have good conversations, honestly.

Probably what you guys experience and what the media sees is a bit not exactly what we experience.

I mean, I would hope so.

Things are good.

We spoke.

We had a normal camp and everything is good between us, good between the team.

There's probably not as much drama.

I thought that was an interesting one.

Not as much drama as you guys think, meaning, like, okay, there is drama, I guess.

It feels to me, Tim, like

obviously they must have spoken in camp.

And it feels to me like they're probably both a little exhausted just with all of it and they just want to get to playing.

And I was thinking about this this morning.

There are

things that keep you accountable in soccer.

Okay.

Number one, yourself.

Sometimes that doesn't happen.

I think with this team, sometimes that hasn't happened.

Your teammates, we know from speaking to people inside camp, there's not a lot of accountability amongst the teammates.

It doesn't mean that it can't work, but generally that's the best way we both agree on that.

Your coaches.

I think Mauricio Pochitino now is starting to hold these guys accountable in a real way.

And then the fans,

and you see this in England.

Like I felt it in Everton my first game, one of my first games, someone didn't go press, like Louis Saha didn't go press the bullet.

And I could feel the crowd go, oh, it's like, oh, shit.

Like, we better.

And then the media, too.

And you see this a lot in England too.

And I think that, I think their accountability now is coming from a lot of places.

And it's good.

It's a good thing.

In the end, if they have a high level of self-awareness, they'll look back and say, you know what?

We weren't good enough during that time.

And we needed to be either held accountable by ourselves, our teammates, the media, the fans.

And they are.

And that's good for U.S.

soccer.

That's good for the growth of soccer in our country.

They've been held accountable and they were good last night.

And you have to say it.

And this has to now be the way forward.

Has to be.

So, okay.

So my take on all of all of that, LD, is this.

I don't care what Christian Pulisic has to say.

All I care about is that he shows up and he performs.

Because when he performs, he's very good.

Okay.

And so

is there drama with his coach?

Do they speak?

I don't care.

Because here's what I know.

Pachatino knows that he's his best player and Christian knows he's the best player.

So whatever drama is happening behind the scenes, we know if Christian Palistic gets on the plane and he laces his boots up and plays or is in camp, he's gonna play.

I don't care about conversations.

I care about results and performances and he delivered that.

And he told us that, remember?

He stuck it in our face.

He said, when I get back, I'll do the scoring and everything will be fine.

Correct.

Because that's what we know.

And here's the other news flash for everybody involved in the polistic camp.

He's the best player on this team by a hundred miles.

Your best players get held to a higher standard.

Simply put, that's not a Christian politic thing.

That's not a soccer thing.

That's been happening since the beginning of time in sports.

End of conversation.

The other side of that,

when it comes to criticism, and by the way,

at the top of my receipt, I want everyone to hear this.

I love Marcia Pachatino.

I respect him.

I always have.

We've been around him.

We've had lunch with him.

We've interviewed him.

We like him.

I like him.

Here's the thing about the noise on the outside.

You're welcome.

You know why you're welcome?

Because I and you and better players than me that it came before me created this.

Okay?

Because I played in a country where soccer, there wasn't nobody in the stands.

They didn't really care.

We didn't get criticized like this.

There used to be, there used to be a blurb you could barely find called big soccer, and they used to hammer us.

There was nothing.

Nobody cared.

So for everybody in U.S.

soccer, players, coaches, and executives alike, you're welcome.

Now there's criticism.

Now people care.

So this message that comes out of U.S.

soccer, we all have to believe.

We all have to support the team.

We do support the team.

And by the way, everywhere else, in Milan, in Paris, in London, none of these players and coaches would sit up at a press conference and say, we haven't performed.

You guys have questions, but you should just support us and shut up.

They wouldn't say that.

Pochettino, Coach Spurs, he never would say that in a press conference.

So they can't start saying it here.

Well said.

And I want to take you back 06.

So 2002 World Cup, I get named the best young player of the tournament.

I think I'm God's gift to the world.

Okay.

We go into 06,

probably the worst three soccer games of my life.

I got home.

If I had gotten home, Tim,

and it was like, oh, nice try.

We'll keep believing in the team.

We'll see you in four years.

Great job, guys.

I would have gone on that same path.

Eagle would have grown head bigger.

I would have thought, oh, okay, it wasn't me.

Yeah.

I'll never forget, Tim.

I'm getting goosebumps.

I'll never forget.

I landed in LAX Airport from Germany.

I picked up the LA Times on the front cover.

Donovan lets down team slash nation.

Okay.

That's a wake-up call.

And looking back at the time, I was like, F these guys.

Yeah.

And looking back, thank God, you know, because in that moment, I went, I was like fully depressed for a couple of weeks.

And when I woke up one morning, two weeks later, I was like, okay.

I'm never doing that again.

I'm not playing like that again because I don't want to feel this.

And from that day on, I'm not saying I was perfect, but every time I showed up, I was like, okay, let's go.

And so you're right.

You're right.

Like, you're not, it's not like, oh, look what we did.

It's look collectively, everybody keeping them accountable.

And I said it before.

We know that it's not happening teammate to teammate.

Okay.

I hope it starts to going forward.

I do.

I do.

I've never seen one of them yell at each other on the field ever.

In six years, I've never seen it once.

I saw it every six minutes with you and Jaggie Elka.

Okay.

I've never seen it.

So someone's got to hold them accountable.

Hopefully the coach is now.

The media is.

That's good.

The fans are.

Fans are here.

So that's good.

That's okay.

Sure.

Like, that's a sign of.

And

I'll give one quote from Pochtino after the match.

And

it talks about what you just said.

Oh, I'll give two.

He said, we're a very strong group now.

People who talk need to think a little bit.

There always can be another way to assess and analyze things, not only be negative.

I think we try hard to see both sides of it.

I really do.

We speak to a lot of people.

We don't just blindly go on Twitter and rant about all the BS.

And then he said, being critical is one thing because I like the critiques when you say things that are right.

You know, I guess maybe there's only one right way.

But when it's critiques just for critiques, it's not damaging me.

You're damaging your country.

We need to all be all in behind them to provide the best platform.

I would say this to that.

with your children, sometimes they do something wrong and you want to be like,

it's okay.

Don't worry.

It's okay.

You made a mistake.

And sometimes that's okay.

And sometimes they need to hear, you really messed up.

Correct.

And you're going to pay for that.

And there's consequences in life.

And right?

So it can be both, but it can't always be, it's okay, honey.

You did fine.

Don't worry about it.

Let's, we'll still, we're still here supporting.

Of course, you're going to support them.

We do support the team.

We love the team but but that critique sometimes is very good it's just such yeah

i think the example about your kids is is an interesting one i i we see you and i sit in such a unique position and i feel fortunate and lucky because here's the thing

we are we are critiquing a team

because we know what we're talking about yeah don't always get it right but we know what we're talking about.

So so ultimately,

with Ponchatino, he should be defending his troops.

Of course, he should be defending his troops from people on the outside.

He's doing the right thing.

What I would say is, my critique or your critique isn't letting our country down.

Poor performances let your country down.

And they didn't have that last night.

So hats off to him.

But

this team deserves credit when they do the right things.

And yes, not everybody has all the answers on the outside because there's only a handful of people on the inside.

But unfortunately for them, what they show us on the pitch with results and performances is the message, it will always ever be the message.

So, that so

you and me, and everybody else in the soccer world, that's what we have to go on,

and

people who can see it, who know the game and who know how things work, should speak on it, and we do, yeah.

So, interestingly enough, exactly

one year ago today was Pochtino's first day in in charge.

First day?

First game.

Yeah, first day.

He was officially hired.

So let's take a little temperature check.

What have we seen from this group high level?

I said in one of the very first podcasts we had, I said,

someone asked, what do we need to see?

I said, clarity.

It's been a long slog, I think longer than any of us wanted.

And for whatever reason, I think it's taken Pochtino and his staff longer than expected to find out what the clarity is.

Maybe last night was we're going to play in a back three.

Maybe that was, maybe it was Matt Freeze is our guy.

Maybe it was

we're not going to play with wingers.

Maybe it was on certain players, right?

Maybe

Roll Dan is on this team somehow.

So I just think I don't, I have not seen a

discerning style

from Mauricio.

I've not seen that.

And part of that is being a new national team coach.

It's hard to implement.

I'm starting to see some cultural shift towards what he expects.

And one of the big things for him is you play, you play well, we win, you get to wear the shirt again.

And I like that.

There's clarity there.

The players know, Max Arsten, I played well.

I'm going to play now.

Come October.

Is it Jedi?

Or does he have to wait his turn now?

Because Arsten played well.

We'll see.

But I think that's the biggest positive takeaway is cultural shift you're starting to see.

I don't see a sort of style or way of playing that's unique or different.

And that's okay.

I'm not opposed to that.

I'm just that, that's sort of what I've learned.

Yeah,

I've learned in the year.

I'm not surprised.

I still think our best players are our best players.

No one's like, I think the Gold Cup gave us a few more names to add to that.

to say like, you know what?

There's four or five other guys who

we can count on.

So that's good.

That's a, that's a huge positive

to help kind of carry this thing forward.

Look, I said this in the last episode.

And what I have

more clarity on now

than I ever have is when Pochatino was asked about decisions, when decisions will be made over trimming the roster.

And he said, we're not amateurs.

We're professional people who are looking at all types of players in different situations.

You need to bring some players with the possibility of giving them game time.

You asked me why, because if Malik Tillman is injured, who is going to replace him i mean

so i get that and so

what i said the other day stands true that's one hell of a riverboat riverboat gamble that is taking those dice and chucking them down the fell that's fine he's he's basically saying i it is more important for me to nail down the guys I have question marks over.

Right.

And we will then have time to have our best players together enough.

I worry about that.

I worry that

maybe there's not enough because then you're not, you're again, you're not accounting players who are in like, let's get our best team together in November.

Cool.

What if someone picks up a knock and you can't do that, right?

Let's do that in March.

Maybe so.

So I don't know.

I would love to have kind of had the continuity of the starting group together.

And as you kind of know, LD, in a two-game window, you can give guys who you have question marks about 45 minutes, but I would still like to see our best players play 90 minutes together, a game and a half together, something.

But okay, I now know that he's saying, no, I'm evaluating as much talent as I can.

And at some point in time, there'll be enough time to have togetherness.

So, okay.

And it's look, from his perspective, it's fair because

he, again, I've said this so many times.

He didn't know who Max Arston was a year and a half ago.

He had no idea.

So he has to learn the player pool.

Yeah.

He's not at every MLS game every week.

I'm sure he's watching, but he can't be at every MLS game.

So he doesn't know every player.

So he needs to see them.

And that's totally fair.

In our opinion,

it's taken longer than needed.

But, you know, Jordan said there's a few follow-ups on his press conference stuff.

What do you got, JR?

Chuck him up.

From George Kim, I feel Pochtino needs to run his press conference or any press release in his natural, in Spanish, so he can always express in the most natural way.

It's a really, it's a great point, George.

People I've spoken to within U.S.

soccer, they remind me every time English is not his first language.

And sometimes he says things that they just get lost in translation.

And I think it is a challenge because all you can do is take what you're hearing and dissect it.

And if what you hear in English is, oh, that doesn't really make sense or that, that's totally fair.

And I always try to take that context in.

I know you do too, Tim.

It's a challenge.

I mean, it is.

I played in Germany.

I tried to speak German.

I said stupid things all the time.

I speak Spanish.

I say the wrong thing all the time.

And it's hard.

So I understand it because I've been in a

situation.

But when people read comments, they might be like, what is he talking about?

So it's a good point.

Yeah.

Look,

it's a good comment, question, concern, George.

love

my time speaking to Pachatino over the years.

I enjoy our conversations.

English is his second language.

His English is very good.

I don't have a second language.

So

he's well ahead of the game as far as I'm concerned.

Look, I think there needs to maybe be some clarity from someone inside U.S.

soccer who can be front-facing.

They don't have that.

So Pochatino was there left on his own to do that.

The only other part of that, I can say, good God, Lord, can you imagine the comments if he only did

this press conference?

So, you know, damn if you do, damn if you don't.

That's so good.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure he does.

He speaks great English.

And as a second language, some things do get lost in translation.

I appreciate as someone who's been in that absolute shoes trying to speak, you know.

Okay, up next for the U.S., October 10th.

I will be there.

That is in Austin, Texas.

That is coincidentally.

I think it's Mental Health Awareness Day or something, which I've spoken about publicly.

So I'm going to be there.

Big part of my book.

I'll be be promoting my book there.

Big game against Ecuador.

They have qualified now for the World Cup.

They are ranked 25th.

I feel like we're playing teams in that exact range.

Mark Leach with another question.

For me, Ecuador is going to be a great benchmark for us.

In many ways, a very similar team, young talent.

Yeah.

This is what I would say about Ecuador versus Korea and Japan.

Ecuador athletically are so superior.

And so if you take a snapshot of yesterday,

our center backs, Reem, Richards, Blackman, when the ball, when we were pressed in there and pinning them in and the ball came out, we could just go hammer the ball, win the first ball, win the second, keep them under pressure.

That's going to be much more challenging with Ecuador.

Yes.

Strong attacking players.

Athletically, you can't run by them, right?

They're going to be very good.

So that is going to be a totally different test and a great test.

I think it's a great test.

It is.

And it's funny.

Ecuador and Colombia remind me of each other where they're just these

strong.

I'm thinking of players that I play with who are just tree trunk for thighs and they can run all day and they tackle hard and they run well with the ball at your feet.

And yeah, it'll be a good test.

You know, I'm looking at this upcoming USMNT schedule and I just haven't, I get the feeling.

I get the feeling we're going to win both of those games.

We'll dissect them as they come.

I think we're going to win both of those October games, which will be incredible because if I'm right, we'll be on a three-game win streak.

And then we go into Paraguay-Uruguay.

And again, big tests.

So exciting fall to come.

As always, shout out to Tom King and U.S.

soccer.

These have been great,

great games.

Korea, Japan, so unique in how they play.

Even between them, there's differences.

Ecuador and Australia, very different in how they play, but very good teams who have qualified.

Paraguay-Uruguay, more similar.

There's rumors of Portugal coming as a warm-up team either in March or right before the World Cup.

So these are good top quality teams.

Australia hasn't lost in over a year.

Right.

So that's going to be.

They're on a high.

Yeah.

It's going to be very good.

So I anticipate those games are going to be great.

It's going to be great to be in Austin.

Was there for MLS All-Star?

It was fantastic.

They have such great fans there.

Yeah, yeah.

It's going to be, it should be a great game.

And then Australia as well, who's going to be fantastic.

All right, before we wrap Tim, overall takeaways from the window.

We'll do our way, way, way too soon

starting 11 in the World Cup in a sec, but just overall takeaways from the window.

Yeah, it was good.

This win helped.

I mean, recency bias, you always try and shade away from that, but this helped.

There were some good performances

from the bigger players, from

Christian and Flo and Arston gave a good performance,

which he's not one of the bigger players, but he's on the up and up.

Tyler Adams was, again, solid, steady, steered the ship, which is what you expect.

So

good performances, good performances.

And I think with some players back and healthy, and we start to then see what this team looks like.

as

the strongest starting 11 we have, which I think we'll get to see, fingers crossed, over the next four games um yeah i'm certainly more optimistic but again it's i don't want to i don't want to have reason to see bias because how we lost this game i'd be miserable and thinking well you know we need to win at some point so i more than anything perform like you're judged by your wins and losses but performances mean everything they do because because that that that's an indicator of whether you can actually win games and so um yeah feeling lighter and more upbeat about this team you yeah you have many texts i got from people saying we're back we're back we're gonna win the world World Cup.

I'm like, Saddle down, and it was like Japan's like A minus B plus team, but it's still a great win, great win, no doubt.

Um, I want to see hopefully Malik Tillman, yeah, in October, yeah, Jedi, um, Weston if he's fit and playing, and like, see what that looks like.

Now, you start to get to a point where you're like, okay, that's a real team, this is what I'm saying, and real depth on the bench.

This is what I'm saying to you, like, like I mentioned it in the last episode, LD.

Like,

if it's if it's, I'm going to miss some names up, but if it's Flo and Christian and Timothy Weya and Weston of some sort, or Tyler and Jedi and Dest and Chris Richard, I'm like, this is a good team.

Like, all right.

All right, you want to roll your sleeves up and go toe-to-toe?

Let's figure this out.

I would have confidence in that team.

My issue is I haven't seen that team enough.

Well, let's hope.

Let's hope we do.

All right.

One last question here.

Englishman here.

No one's perfect.

Curious to know what you guys and the American fans' expectations are at the World Cup.

Like, where do you expect to finish?

That's a good question.

So we've talked, I think I've talked about this certainly a lot privately to people.

So the caveat here is it's a 48-team World Cup.

And so nobody knows what to expect, right?

Because

getting in the past, getting to a knockout, to round of 16 for certain countries was successful.

That was very successful.

Now you're, if especially if you're U.S., Mexico, or Canada, you are one of the 12 seeded teams.

So presumably the next group of teams you get are teams you probably equal to in the B pot.

In the C pot, you're better than.

In the D pot, you're definitely better than.

So you should get out of your group.

And then it just depends on who you get.

If you finish first and somehow Brazil slips up and finishes second or third in their group, now you're going, oh, shoot, I'm not sure.

Right.

But if you get a,

I don't know,

Cape Verde who might qualify for the World Cup or Uzbekistan or someone like this, and you're at home, you say, okay, that's a game we should win, which gets around 16.

So my minimum expectation out of the group, and I would say we should win a round of 32 game and then sort of 50-50 from there.

That's my sort of expectation.

No, I would, I would, I would be, I would be the same.

Given the number of teams now and there's an extra round getting out of the group for any us team is a prerequisite i mean that's that's the the standard that's been set especially now with 48 teams yeah this team and you've seated this team can do that um i think they will do that then the next round um yeah you hit the nail on the head it's it's going to depend on matchups but again there's still a giant slang that needs to happen right you get to if you get out of your group you got to beat a big boy you got to beat a big boy and and this again the knock on this team is they haven't quite done that So that to me is

would be a large measure of success, no doubt.

All right, let's get into our way, way, way, way too soon.

Starting 11, first game of the World Cup.

I want to tell you your previous 11 when we did this a little while back.

You had Zach Stefan in goal.

I did.

Dest Richards, Reem Robinson.

Tillman, Adams, McKinney, Wea,

Pulisic, and Balagun.

Anybody you want to change there?

Well, I have to change Zach Stefan now, right?

Because

you never know, things change, but

this is not what you want.

This is what we think will be the starting lineup.

Think will be.

Well, I'm saying Freeze is winning the race based on time.

Back four, if we play in a back four, I'm confident with that.

You have the same?

No.

I had Carter Vickers in there.

So who do I have?

Tillman?

Yes.

Adams, yes.

uh

you have mckinny and waya mckinny and we

uh

yeah i i think i still think i'm okay with that and then christian and flo yeah i mean i'd make one change to mine

you think it's freeze instead of stephan everything else the same i think

i mean jesus i mean mckinney's a he's a question mark he's a question mark i i i again

i need to it's all wait and see.

I need to see what Pachatino does with him.

But yeah,

we're a better team when he's on the field.

There's no question about that.

So

go ahead.

You?

All right.

All right.

You also had Zach Stephanie and Goal.

Yep.

Back four of Dess, Richards, Kevin Carter, Vickers, and Anthony Robinson.

Midfield, Adams, McKinney, Tillman.

And up front, way up, Pepe and Pulisic.

All right, I got quite a few changes.

Do you?

Shows what I know.

Good for you.

All right.

So here's what I think.

I think we're going to play in a back three slash five.

After one game.

I'm all in, baby.

I remember U.S.

soccer fans, 90% of whom only started following like five years ago.

Yeah.

Don't remember, but Steve Sampson in 98, 98?

98.

He,

like the game before the World Cup.

Yeah.

Again, I think it was against Austria, played in a 3-6-1, which at that time was like, what are we doing?

And we

battered, I think it was Austria or Germany.

Battered him 3-0.

And everyone's like, we're all in, baby.

And went to the World Cup and got smashed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, but anyway, recency bias.

All right.

So, Matt Friesengo, I think he's going to start Reem on the left, Richards, and still, I think there's a way that Cameron Carter Vickers gets in there.

Wow, you're going to dest on the right, Jedi on the left,

Adams, and Aiden Morris, who still is the one player.

I cannot figure out why he's not there.

Wow.

Has he been capped under Pachitino?

We need to find that out.

Because that's a hell of a shout.

You think the guy's coming steaming in over the top?

If it's either me or Weston, but I think Aiden and Tyler together, I'm like, we can win with that team.

Okay.

Yeah, fair.

Two tens, Pulisic and Tillman underneath Balagun.

That's a nice team, dude.

It's a great team.

So you

and then you go like Arston on the bench, Freeman on the bench, Diego Luna on the bench, Wea on the bench, Pepe on the bench, Sargent.

Now you're like, okay, now we have a real bench, too.

We have a real bench, like, you know, solid options off the bench, which is good.

I'm here.

What you need, you're tinkering.

You're tinkering.

And you have good goalkeepers on it.

You have Stephan and Turner on the bench.

Wholesale changes.

I like it.

I like it.

Who's a Chelsea manager?

It's not wholesale.

Who's a Chelsea?

Who's a Chelsea manager, the Italian who used to be?

They call him the tinker man.

I don't know.

That's me.

That's amazing.

You are.

Claudio Ranieri.

Claudio Ranieri.

You're the tinker man.

Thanks, AG.

All right, guys.

This This was really fun.

We didn't screw it up too bad.

I enjoyed that.

We'll do that again.

I'm assuming we'll do that maybe again after in October after the Australia game because we want to keep up to date with you guys.

So thank you for joining.

Thanks for the questions.

Great questions.

Appreciate all of you being here on today's live stream.

Remember, as always, subscribe on YouTube, hit that little red button, Apple Podcast, Spotify, anywhere you get your pods, and follow at unfiltered soccer on all social media for bonus content.

Yeah, this was dope.

We're going to do it again.

Thank you for

all your attention, for all of your comments, because this is why we did it for you guys.

So much, much appreciated.

Thanks, everybody.

We'll be back Tuesday, September 23rd with a new edition of Unfiltered Soccer.

Have a great one.

Thanks, guys.

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