USMNT vs Australia Reaction Livestream

Welcome into the Unfiltered Soccer live stream.

We are your host.

I am Tim Howard, and he is Landon Donovan.

Boy, what a good win, LD.

2-1 against australia yeah good win um

by the way why didn't you tell me i'm having a bad hair day no i don't dude i've had three things in the work in the last week that i've never had bad hair day well not in 25 years bad head

and hat hair it's all this is all surrounding your hair yeah all in 25 years i haven't had that um how does it feel good amazing it looks terrible right it looks great all right um

yeah really good win and

seeing it in person live in Austin Friday and then watching it on TV last night,

I would say Australia weren't as good a team overall as Ecuador.

Yeah.

And very different, which was good.

A very, very different opponent for the U.S., which that's what you're going to get in a World Cup.

You play someone like Ecuador.

Four days later, you play Australian.

So they.

There were some really, really good things.

There were a few bad things that were not

anyone's fault necessarily that that we'll get into but i think overall a really good win and and as a whole this week i thought was a huge huge step forward huge step forward yeah yeah i mean i think the

result i i'll never go back on my on my word results are are the most important but as you as you get the results then you start to dissect everything else around the team and that sort of feels good coming out of this camp right exactly which

which also, I was, I was, I'm not going to say cautiously optimistic.

I was, I was just cautious about, you know, coming out of September.

It was, no, no, October will be my team.

It will be my squad.

It will, things will, things will look and feel different.

And, and why, why would,

I mean, Pachatino is a brilliant manager, but I'm saying surrounding U.S.

soccer, why would I, why would I

put all my eggs in that basket?

I really wanted to see.

And I, and I think I saw.

I think I saw.

And that's a, that's a huge, huge step in the right direction.

Yeah, you can say now, Tim, you know, these FIFA rankings are all BS, whatever.

But we look now like a top 15-20 team in the world.

And a top 15-20 team in the world can beat anybody.

That is the reality.

And so, all right, we're going to dive in deeper.

As always, guys, follow us on social media at Unfiltered Soccer.

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And then you can email Jordan as always, feedback at unfiltered soccer.

Okay, so let's we'll go in like chronologically a little bit here, Tim.

So the game's going pretty well.

I thought we started the game pretty well.

And then all of a sudden there's this weird play in the box and it falls to Jordan Boss who bounces through three or four of our guys and then ends up in the back of the net.

And can you

help us describe from a goalkeeper's perspective?

You're sitting there, the game's comfortable.

All of a sudden the ball bounces around.

It's in your net.

I think I know what your reaction would have been, but just talk to me, you know, how you're feeling in that.

Well, I think the,

you know, for me, after the game,

it's one of those goals where it's like, it's super correctable.

So like for me, after the game,

whether you're the coach or the back line or goalkeeper, you can have a discussion about like, guys, that's.

That's easy.

Like, like, we can defend that.

We can do better.

Be, be more switched on, you know, and because the ball bounces around.

They don't really, they, boss, who boss think is a really good player.

he didn't have a good handle on it.

He just happens to be taking the risk because he's in the box, right?

So the ball is just kind of bouncing around.

I don't remember,

was it Roll Dan who ends up getting the, I can't remember who, who had like a last-itch sort of effort.

Chris Richards, kind of who's the, who's the leader back there, he actually thinks that the ball...

that the midfielder is going to clear it and he doesn't clear.

So just someone needed to take more charge, probably get an arm across Boss's chest.

And

you don't even necessarily have to win the ball in those moments.

You can just get a body on him and usually you'll nudge him off so it's it's correctable because they didn't really earn that when it comes from a throw in like a bit of a hodgepodge goal in the box it's frustrating because it's not you you you you don't legislate for those you're like we can handle those if they break us down that's different so yeah yeah and those are those are killers like in world cups those are killers goals like that kill you because it's so hard to score and so hard to get results so you know chris richards has been arguably the best player for the us over the last, however, few months.

Hit two moments, one against Ecuador on the goal, and then one here where he knows he can be better.

And their good learning experiences, much better and friendlies than in the real games.

And I'm sure he'll get that cleaned up.

So then we move on.

And it got a little interesting with Christian Pulisic, and this has happened a lot to him.

I've seen this a lot in games.

Teams go after him.

like concerted effort to go after him.

I don't know if that's what the scouting report is.

I don't know if

it obviously because he's the best player, you're going to have this.

The first tackle was pretty bad.

The first tackle was pretty bad on him.

And we don't know exactly.

We think it was, it's been an ankle or foot issue he's had.

We don't know exactly what the issue is, but he clearly was bothered by that.

And then when he.

Then when he spun the guy in the midfield and took off, I didn't realize at the time, and I didn't know this till after that it was his hamstring.

I thought it was his ankle again or whatever.

And so he ended up, he tried to play, but then he goes off.

And that was frustrating because we all wanted to see him again.

You know, when I met so many people this weekend in Austin and the overwhelming comment is,

we want to see Christian with the national team.

Like we haven't seen him in so long.

We want him to.

And so it was frustrating for everybody because people were so excited to see him.

So, yeah.

So did you think the first tackle was that bad?

Because I got the ball.

It wasn't like a, yeah, the follow-through's bad.

But I don't mean bad in like it's nasty or whatever.

It can, that kind of tackle can lead to an injury right but that but but we do see that like if you if you watch a football match the ball is there to be won correct then and then the guy's the guy's gonna get go win it

wait let me just before you go I I'm glad that stuff is happening in these games right because it makes the game real that is gonna happen that in a World Cup that's gonna happen dude and that's why qualifying so valuable right like you realize that stuff you deal with it of course we'll get to chris richards had some comments after the game and you have to then you have to regulate your emotion because you want to kill the guy, right?

Like if you're a teammate, you want to go destroy that guy.

And so it is part of it.

And it sucks that Christian gets hurt from it.

It does.

But that, you know, that makes it a real game, which is good.

Okay.

Here's, here's, here's what I would say.

The

part about,

I like that Matt Freeze and

Chris Richards were basically like, yeah, like you kick our guy, you're going to have a problem.

That's what you want.

That's what you want.

And And I think to a large extent, there was, and I felt this way.

I felt this way

on the different teams I played on, but for us, it was the same.

My expectation was that you, Landon, were going to get kicked.

Also, my expectation was you weren't going to get up and every now and again, get up in someone's face, but you weren't going to be the regulator, regulator of that.

That fell on my shoulders and some of the other senior players, whether that was in the tunnel or in a coming together.

We were going to make sure we looked after you, right?

And so, what I would say is every team's best player gets targeted and kicked.

I always use this example.

Messi's the greatest player in the world.

You ever watch Barcelona game in their heyday?

You know what teams tried to do?

They tried to kick the lumps out of him.

So you know what his teammates did?

Mainly Busquetz, Mascherano.

They were his henchmen.

And so every, so the U.S.

needs to go into these games.

And Jermaine Jones was that for us.

Jermaine Jones would go into a game and he would basically,

he sometimes would say it, but Jermaine was such a, he was so Jekyll and Hyde.

He was so crazy and tough and strong.

And also he was a jokester.

So sometimes he'd say things like, Jimmy, watch this tomorrow.

And you're like, nah, he's joking.

And then he goes in the game and he's like, he lays one on somebody because he knows that they were going to go after you or go after Clint.

And so, and

this team needs to recognize.

Now, you talked about qualifying, which is where you really learn about teams.

But this team now needs to recognize their best player by a million miles.

And anyone who can argue that, do one,

is Christian Pulisic.

They need to know if teams can kick him out of the game, they get a leg up.

So the U.S.

is,

I like what Chris Richards said after the game.

This needs to now happen.

This needs to happen before the game, during the game.

Because by the way, I hope from now on, because by the way, Christian Pulisic will get kicked.

So I hope next game.

And I'm looking at Chris Richards.

The next game that we play, and there's a tackle, it doesn't even have to be a bad tackle, LD.

I want Chris Richards straight in there, right?

You see this, you see this in the Premier League every week.

I want him straight in there to whoever did it and go be careful, create a scrum, create something around it that says you only get one of those, right?

And so I think I like where the, I like the mentality.

I do, I like the mentality, but it's not going to stop.

And so they need to continue to grow in that.

And it looks and feels good.

I also, I hope too, and I learned this over time, and I hope Christian gets there too.

One is the faster you can get up, the better message it sends to

the guy who smashed you.

You get up and you go, Yeah, good one, mate.

Like, good try.

You know, you didn't, you tried, and I'm good.

And sometimes you can't, sometimes you're injured and you can't.

But the faster you can get up, the better.

And two, when you start giving it back, it stops fast.

And let me, let me tell you a story.

So we used to play Salt Lake all the time.

And there was a center back named Nat Borchers.

Nat, wherever you are, I love you, but I hated playing against you.

So whenever we had the ball, one of our defenders had the ball, and I started making a run, he would literally just check me, like through the chest, just smash me.

There was no VAR at the time.

He knew he was going to get away with it.

The ref was looking the other way.

And he did it.

Timmy must have done it 12 times over two games, three games.

And I finally, like, I was like, all right.

So I told the ref, I said, he's doing this every time.

And he's like, well, I can't see it, Landon.

What do you want me to do?

I said, okay, this is what I want you to do.

I'm going to smash him next time he gets the ball.

And you're not giving me a yellow card.

Right.

And he's like, come on, Landon.

I said, that's what's going to happen.

So I'll never forget Insalt Lake takes a ball down the left side.

He takes a touch wide and he's going to hit a long ball.

And I just ran bang straight through him, leg, hip, shoulder, through him.

And I hit him hard.

Like I could hear it.

It just thump.

And he fell and he got up and his look in the eye was like, like a wounded deer.

And I was like, don't ever can do that again and that was it it was done yeah it was done and i'm not like he's he could have beat the crap out of me yeah you know he's twice my size but like i was like i'm not taking this anymore and he stopped he never did it again yeah that's fair and look i i i i tend to agree with you not every player look you had a little bit of that in you not not a lot christian doesn't have a lot of that and some players don't they're just not the

one they don't want to be rough and tumble it's not how that they're they're designed so he needs to do a little bit of that but also his teammates need to do it as well but they are they're doing it which is good so speaking of the injury, and then we're going to, we'll go through chronologically the rest of the game, but I do want to touch on this.

So, Pochtina had an interesting comment in the athletic, and I had to kind of dig into this because he was talking about the weather differential from Austin to Denver.

And I'll quote him.

He said, it's not a criticism, but when you have days in training in Austin where it's 85 to 95 degrees, then you come to Denver with the altitude and it's really, really cold.

It's a massive risk.

He also noted that Malik Tillman did not dress for the game after feeling something in his hamstring that likened to a cramp I don't want to say this is why Christian or Malik felt something but it's tough on the players we're really sad about the situation because it's difficult it's something we need to fix in the future and I would actually like to like sit down and understand a little better that

we're used this is in America you're used to this

one week you're in Colorado and it's 40 degrees and the next week you're in Houston and like that's just part of it and it's um it's a challenge for sure.

But

look, I'm not a medical expert.

I can't imagine that's why someone was injured.

No.

Well, I don't, I don't.

Look, also, when someone leads with this is not a criticism, it's a criticism.

It's a criticism.

But no, I don't

physiologically have things advanced

remember it.

being an issue mainly because I played in a European climate that was terrible.

And

you played in a sunnier, warmer climate, which was amazing.

But like, if the national team had games on each coast and one was a cold weather game, I was like, yeah, kind of used to this.

And the one that was warm, I was like, kind of enjoy this for a minute.

So I don't know if, and yes, I was a goalkeeper, so I didn't have like a million miles on my legs.

But yeah, I didn't necessarily feel it.

But if there's something in that, and yeah, as you said, we have to probably dig deeper.

Just so people understand, too, I know we talk about this a lot, but scheduling these friendlies

is one of the hardest things a human can do.

I can't overstate that enough.

So, first of all, just getting the opponent, right, is such a challenge because some teams are qualified, some are not.

There are games coming in March that U.S.

soccer has told me there will be some big, big opponents, assuming they qualify, right?

And that was a week ago or so.

So, some of them have qualified, et cetera.

But you don't even know.

So, until they qualify, they're still part of their qualifying process.

Then you have this dynamic of like, where do you want the players to fly to?

Do you stay closer to the East Coast?

Do you, you know, all that.

And then when you get on that, then you get, I'm sure they narrow it down to, okay, here are the stadiums in America venues that are available.

They're actually available.

Right.

You're like, okay, there's all these soccer stadiums.

Should be easy.

Well, maybe Austin had a concert that night.

Right.

Maybe Denver had a...

graduation or something, you know, at Dick's Sporting Goods.

I don't know.

It is.

We'll fix this when we have a national stadium.

We'll fix it.

That will fix it.

Yes.

But you can't, I mean, to say like we need to fix it, like, yeah, it would be ideal, but there's just so many challenges that go.

And I know Pochtino understands that.

I'm sure it was just frustration in the moment.

Okay.

So let's move on.

So then it gets good.

And it gets really good.

Luna comes on.

There's like a good energy about him.

As always, he's moving.

And Christian Roldan.

turns into the midfield.

He gets a ball from Weston and he plays a fantastic little ball, slides it along the center back.

And when I was watching this live, when Haji didn't take a touch to his left, and then I thought the chance was gone.

And I was like, oh, it's gone.

And then he did, I put in our chat, like guys who are at the, in top, top form score goals like that.

Like no matter what, it's in the box, bang, I'm going to find a way.

It's like this little, like, almost back spinny toe poke.

And he just buries it past the goalkeeper.

It's a fantastic goal.

Really.

I think it was a really good goal.

I think both, which we'll touch on, were good.

I think the second one was better.

But what I also liked was when I saw the play live and then I saw the replay from the high angle behind our goal, I saw Chris Richards step in really aggressively, right?

And that's the ball,

yeah.

That's the ball that pops into Weston.

He doesn't think plays forward.

Christian obviously gets on the turn.

The thing about the Haji Wright chance, I'm the same as you because the goalkeeper in me was like kind of feeling like, where's the angle?

What's happened here?

So he, what I liked about that is he what, not only was he not caught in in two mines, he had a, he had a couple things in his locker there, right?

He, when he gets sprung there, he wants to hit that left foot across the goalkeeper, right?

As he's shaping his body, the defender then gets basically level with him.

So he, he knows, one, he can't, he won't even be able to get good contact on it, right, with his left foot.

So immediately, like in an instant, he just goes, I'm going to poke it, right?

So, so he's the chance that it was kind of stuck between his feet, the defender ends up getting on his shoulder.

And I think he literally, you can see him going like an NFL quarterback going through his reads.

This is a process.

I'm in.

His head's down.

It's a left-footed shot.

Bang.

As soon as he feels the pressure, right-foot toe poke.

It was, it was a really good goal.

And as a goalkeeper, you're not, you can't set for that, right?

Like you're, you're, tell me if I'm wrong, but it's like you want to get your timing so you can get set and then explode and save it.

And he's just not set because he's not expecting it.

Oddly enough, even though there's, if he hits it with his left foot across the goal, even though there's more goal for him to see it's an easier save to make that's right once he pokes it you you don't you don't he doesn't shape you don't know if that's going over your shoulder if it's going right or left yeah it's right it's a really good goal it's a great goal

um okay so then just after uh halftime another like just a great heads-up play this is why chris this is why the sounders win like this guy

he just wins man so we there's a free kick he and haji are on the same page plays it behind the australian center back uh my kids were watching, and when Haji cut in and the defender slipped, they're like, oh, ankles, ankles, put them on skates, and then buried it with his left foot.

When he cut in, he still had a lot to do and just

buried it, curled it inside the far post.

And another fantastic goal for a guy who's in top, top form.

Yeah, the reason you and I talk about the hot, like the high-level stuff that I'm interested in was encompassed in this goal, right?

Because,

again, go

back,

rewind it from when the ball hits the back of the net.

I believe it's free.

So Freeman gets put in a difficult position.

He's coming back towards his own goal.

Roldan's actually, for whatever reason, is too close to him.

So he can't actually bounce it.

There's a man marking Roldan, and there's a man tight, tight to Freeman, right?

Yeah.

So now

the only successful option he has is to dump himself.

Draw a foul.

That's the only successful option.

And he does that.

So, like, check, brilliant.

Next thing, Rodan has got to basically get that ball down and get his head up and think, I'm going to make this pass.

Check.

The biggest part of this is whether Haji Wright

is up for it.

If he actually is reading that, is he keeping himself on side?

Is he running a little bit?

Is he tuned in?

Yeah.

Is he tuned in?

And he does.

Yeah.

And he does.

And so now I'm like, that's literally the perfect goal.

We go from a bad situation on the touchdown in our own half.

We're not getting out of this.

Freeman gets dumped.

Rodan gets his head up.

Haji Wright makes the run, but then he still has a lot to do.

And

I just think for me, that goal, I'm looking at like, is it of the spectacular variety?

No, it's a good finish, but I'm still thinking like,

that had the makings of a lot of guys being tuned into the situation, to what's being asked.

It was really good.

Yeah, it was a great goal.

So in the end, you know, we end up seeing the game out, win the game.

It was good at the end.

It was professional.

It was just a great result.

Last two minutes of the game, they showed Pochettino and we were about to play out of the back.

And he's like, no, no, no, no, no.

Everybody up the field.

And we just saw it out professionally.

It was a really good win.

Just back on the physical part.

So the

Jason Garia.

for they asked him after the game about the physicality and the tackle he said we're a physical team we're up for the fight, regardless of the opponent.

I wasn't trying to go after him specifically, but we're up for the fight.

And then I love this from Chris Richards because I believe it.

I think some of us say this and it's all sort of huffy-puffy.

But he's like, they're lucky it was a friendly.

I was ready to go.

And if the ref didn't give me a shit yell on the corner, I probably would have killed someone.

So I'm glad.

Like,

you could see it in his face in the game.

And then he said it afterward.

And so like, he's, he knows what it's about.

And that's good.

Totally.

Yeah.

Yep.

So this was a different game to where where we had to break down an opponent, they came after us for like three minutes in the beginning of the press, and then all of a sudden they just dropped off.

They did this to Canada and were successful, and it was frustrating.

Um, what I love about this, Tim, is this is absolutely what can happen in the World Cup.

You can get such

different opponents four days apart or five days apart, like totally different.

Ecuador, physical, athletic, strong, coming after you, Australia, not as physical, not as athletic, not as strong, sitting in

more sort of tactical nouse and nuance.

And it was,

it was the first time I can remember this team, we didn't like really crazy break them down, but certainly on the first goal, there was enough there to break them down.

And it was, it was better.

It was much better.

And that's hard to do to break teams down like that.

Yeah.

Well, you know, I'm going to give you a hot take, but one that I absolutely believe in.

So this is for all the fans who asked the question: like,

why does the U.S.

struggle breaking down a team that plays in a deep-lying two banks of four?

Here's the thing.

We're so conditioned to, when we think about teams parking the bus, LD,

who do teams park the bus against?

Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Man City, right?

That's who teams, the best teams in the world, Brazil, France, Germany.

That's who teams park the bus against.

So when we watch these games, you've got the best players in the world like probing, probing, probing, having 90% of possession in the final third.

It's hard for them to break these teams down, but ultimately they do.

They find a way, right?

There's a breakthrough.

There's just too much pressure.

They get one, they get two.

But ultimately,

this is a tough, it's a tough skill.

It's a tough skill because those, because those teams, LD, the way those teams that I just mentioned create overloads, it actually starts from the back.

Everyone's camped in here.

And Mexico did this to us in the gold cup final.

You and I talked about this, right?

So now your center backs are actually having some of the most dominant possession.

And those are some of the better footballers on your team.

I mean, how crazy is that to say, right?

So

the best teams in the world, the center back can step in, find a pass, link the game together, kind of knit it and stitch it together.

What other teams can do that?

Let's not blame the U.S.

for saying, well, they can't break teams down.

Very few teams in the world can break a team down.

It's like just bunkered in.

Ultimately, go ahead.

No, well, also.

Like, think about the cities and the teams like that.

They buy the players who can do that.

Right.

They know the cardio stones.

Like they, that's the type of player they're buying.

Most of our guys, like Chris Richards, phenomenal player, defender, but Palace doesn't do that to teams.

No, they're not doing that every week.

Mark McKenzie, Miles Robinson, they're not doing that every week, right?

So

we've improved, and the whole world has improved at it, but really only the top, top, top best players can do that.

You're right.

Agree with that.

Let's talk about Matt Freeze.

So again, started both games.

I think that's, well, he had all the gold cup.

11 caps.

11 caps.

And he had the last two friendlies in both windows.

So that's at least nine, 10, 11 games in a row.

Yeah.

So I think we have a question from Jordan.

Has Freeze won the position for you, Tim?

This is from Sam H.

I feel like he's yet to make that save that is game-changing.

He just makes the saves he's supposed to make.

That's great.

Yep.

That's a great question for you.

Yeah, good question.

So Matt Freeze,

for me right now, and again, this goes against a lot of things I've said.

And now I'm just picking at, this isn't now my opinion.

This is just what I'm seeing.

He's the number one by a mile.

You know, I went into this saying, like,

he's played, he's played 11 games.

I thought if he got these two games.

in this window, then I then for me, I was going to say, okay,

that shows me he's the number one.

I would then think, again, going back to my theory of like the one, the one thing that worries me about Matt Freeze, just not him, but that time isn't on his side in terms of like getting the required amount of games to give him experience for the World Cup.

So that tells me there's seven games remaining before the U.S.

start the group stage with all the friendlies in the windows.

So I'm thinking like he has to get

10 of those, well, not 10, sorry, six or all seven of those games to get him to, you know, 18, 18 caps.

It's just the

it's not a lot for a goalkeeper isn't but still it's the most that he can get no no i'm just saying but yeah i know you're saying not a lot it's not a lot and and and to and to sam sam's point and the question like

it's not his fault that he hasn't like no made a ton of saves the games the games dictate how many saves you make but you do

the the u.s is so

is so accustomed to knowing like each goalkeeper that played in the world cup had not just one shiny moment, had these moments where the team was up against it.

And I'm thinking of Casey Keller in Brazil.

What was that?

92.

I can't remember.

It was Ocopa America.

He won us the game.

So that wasn't in a World Cup.

But then you start to think about like, okay, boom, that's boxed off.

If we get in the game in the World Cup and we need a performance, we know a guy can give it to us in the goal.

And again, that's not Matt Fries' fault.

He just hasn't had the amount of games where you just think,

has he had a game where he just stood on his head?

I'm not talking about penalty kicks.

He's done believing with that, but like he's just stood on his head and you go,

Okay, we feel confident that if we get overmatched in any one particular game, he can do it.

That doesn't mean he has to be Superman.

I'm not saying that, but I do agree.

He hasn't quite yet, he's done what's been asked.

So, that's boom, check that box.

So, this is

ideally, and we're spoiled in this country.

We had, we went from Miola to Keller/slash Friedel to you, right?

And you guys had, you guys had all of it.

So when they say, is he just making the saves he has to make?

I personally, when I'm on the field, I will 100 times out of 100 take the guy who makes the saves he should make and not make the spectacular versus the opposite, a guy who lets in a goal here or there that you're like, oh, that should not, but makes a spectacular save too.

I would much rather the sure thing.

Much.

Now we're spoiled because you had all of that, right?

You made every save you should and you made spectacular.

And so I don't know if Matt Fries has that.

I haven't watched enough of NYCFC.

He hasn't had to with the national team.

I can't think of one where you're like, wow, what a save yet.

Yeah.

But he's made some good saves, solid save.

And then he's been solid, except, you know, the one, uh, the one misplaced kicked that ended up in the back of the net in the gold cut.

But other than that, he's been good.

So, yeah.

Can I, can I also say this?

And I'm thinking specifically from a goalkeeper standpoint.

You and I have

constantly talked about Europe versus MLS and all the rest of it.

I would say from a goalkeeping standpoint, you do get that when you play in Europe.

You do get like over the course of however many seasons, three, four, five seasons, you get the opportunity to be in games on a regular basis where you're having to come up like point blank saves, keep your team in the game.

You know what I mean?

So it's not these one-offs like, oh, this is a really, really great opponent and a really good opportunity.

They're not one-offs.

They're every like.

every six, seven days.

And so that, again, from a goalkeeping standpoint, that's what you do get so oftentimes from planning your yeah that's a good point well not going to happen with him so it you know just the hopefully these games give him enough of that so he's confident yeah going into the world cup okay so as we come out of the window um

i guess what are we most encouraged by you can go first

um

I'm most encouraged by, and we'll get to like projected lineups.

I'm most encouraged by,

which I always was hypothetically, was just like seeing a collection of our guys.

Now, by the way, not all of our guys are in,

but like seeing a collection of

our like best version of ourselves are almost getting there.

Because, again, I've been on record of saying this, like that excites me.

That makes me think we'll give as good as we're going to get in the World Cup, right?

With our best.

players on the field.

And I feel like we're getting closer to that.

So again, the attitude, the chippiness, the comments coming out after the game about the togetherness, the results.

Yeah,

I feel good about it.

Now

we need to keep our team fit,

you know, playing at a high level, keep the

intensity

and the energy and camp has to be high.

You know, I think...

You know, I think I've said to you off camera,

my worry is, LD,

I'm not sure that if I had a bag full of money, that I would bet between now and those next seven games remaining, that we're going to see what everyone would feel is like the consensus is like our best lineup.

You know what I mean?

With our best six subs fit and ready to come off the bench in the second half.

I don't know if we're going to see a game.

that we have where we have that.

And when I look across the board, and again, we continue to say this, when I look across the board at previous iterations and generations of U.S.

men's national team, we always kind of knew what the best team was, barring two or three players.

And I don't know, even though in my brain, I'm like, I know who those players are.

I'm not sure I've seen them consistently enough play together.

Yeah.

So, my, you know, what am I encouraged by?

And what am I sort of worried about, still concerned by?

It's kind of the same thing.

I'm most encouraged by more clarity.

We've had more clarity now.

And this was, I don't know how big the roster was: 22, 23, 24.

But I looked down the roster for the most part.

I'm like, okay, that's like a real team.

And if you took the bottom three or four guys from this roster and replaced them with Pepe, Dest,

whoever, Tyler Adams, who was out, Jedi, who, you know, we can get to.

Now you're like, okay, not only are we good, solid 11, we have guys coming in off the bat.

Like the other night against Ecuador, Christian came into the game, right?

Diego Luna comes into the game, who, you know, can still be impactful.

Freeman comes into the game, right?

And you're missing Dest, Pepiano.

So now you go, okay, now we can actually have some good players off the bench, too.

100%.

Right.

So, but, but

at the same time, still not enough clarity.

And, and, because of the injury stuff, right?

And that is, that is still,

it, it's happened so much.

And so it's, it's, it's to a point now where you just have to make peace with that.

I think if you're a fan, you have to assume that two or three or four guys are not going to be available every time we play.

That's what I'm saying.

But that's my point.

That's my point.

And we said on the last episode,

they know how to get themselves fit because come the roster selection, they'll be fit.

Right.

But Tim, there are going to be times where someone gets hurt.

Right.

And this, just for whatever reason, I'm not, this is not, I promise this is not a criticism.

It just is what it is.

This group has not shown that they can consistently stay healthy.

They just, they just can't.

And look, it happens all over the world.

I get it.

But to have this many consistently is it's frustrating.

It's frustrating.

I would also say without saying 46 years old, I'm not trying to sound like the old man in the room.

But the fact of the matter is, this is a cultural thing.

I mean, think about this.

When people start to compare LeBron James and Michael Jordan, right?

Forget the talent.

Some people are beginning to have been arguing for the last couple of years, like,

Jordan's playing like 82 games a year and LeBron has little management.

That's not a knock on LeBron.

But my point is, my point is the NBA actually had to implement a rule that they had to stop load management.

And they did that by, again, you can always implement rules in terms of a minimum amount of games played to become MVP, right?

And I tend to like that because, you know, and this was going back to the summer, you start hitting people where it hurts.

Those, the best players in the world want MVPs, right?

So they're going to play more.

They're going to play more games.

But we're getting off topic there.

But the point is,

it might be a generational thing where you look, previous generations to be,

I remember in my playing days at Everton, one of the biggest things I wanted to do was be ever-present.

I wanted to play every single game in the season.

And there was like one or two seasons where like Sylvan Distin played every game and I, and I, I missed, I missed out by like two or something for whatever reason.

And I would like get angry.

Right.

And

I think I'm not sure that that's like a top priority with just generationally anymore, which again, I'm not sure you just fix in one conversation.

Yeah, maybe just accept it.

Um, okay, so one of the guys, um, that I think was it surprised me a lot, Tim, and we talked about Roldan earlier.

We do have a question

about Christian Roldan

from David Dawid Malan.

Should Christian Roldan be on the World Cup roster?

Okay, simple.

Um,

a month ago, I would have said there's no chance he's going to be on the World Cup roster.

Uh, a month ago, I'm not sure how well Mauricio Pochettino knew or knew who Christian Ralton was that much, other than, you know, let's bring him in.

But in the games I've seen, he absolutely does not look out of place.

And way more than that, I think he's been impactful, really impactful.

And I would just say what I'm encouraged about

between Tessman, who I thought was excellent in both games.

When he came in last night, he was great again.

Weston, who looks engaged and good.

Tyler, who's going to be there.

Aiden Morris, who these were his first two games, wasn't spectacular, had some iffy moments, but I thought was very good and actually got forward way more than I realized.

He was very good.

And Roldan was excellent.

And so now I'm like, okay, and look, it's not the top, top, top level we're playing, but it seems like a group of five guys there that I feel very confident in.

So do I think Roldan should be?

Yeah, I would say right now, yeah.

And Pochettino has said, you play and play well.

You're going to play again.

Don't be surprised him if he starts the next next game.

Don't.

Don't be surprised.

Yeah.

Look,

I say this at the risk of

disrespecting and upsetting Christian Roldan, a player who, by the way, I respect.

In Colorado, I played against

Christian Roldan.

He whipped my tail a bunch.

I said, you know, you and I talked about like Kyle Beckerman and these guys who are like really, really top MLS players, champions.

And

there's just, and you know, this is just a different level on the national team.

There's a, it's a step up.

And I'm always, I keep saying, I'm always thinking about the World Cup.

Yes, it's a step up to play on the national team.

It's a step up to play in a World Cup.

And

I'm not sure

that

he's at that level.

That being said,

I'm beginning to become convinced that he is.

And he's showing that he can be in a game and take the ball and make things happen.

Can he do that against the best teams in the world?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Now, that's not the question that was asked.

The question that was asked was, do I think he'll be?

Should he be?

Should he?

I actually think he will be.

I do.

I think there's, I think, because,

again,

the criticism is this team doesn't have a lot of senior players, right?

So if you create a roster where you have a Tim Reem, you have a a Matt Turner, you have Christian Roldan,

you're able to kind of get away with like, all right, we can put, we can actually implement some experience in here.

That's right.

And the fact of the matter is, Christian, he won't have to, if he makes the World Cup roster, he's not going to play three, four times, 90 minutes.

He's going to be a guy who can come in a game if they need to shift the formation.

He has to sit to advance players to go chase the game.

If we actually end up having a lead in a game where you think, okay, we got to hold on to this, but we need some ball retention.

He's a guy who can who can do it.

So I actually think, should he?

Yes.

Do I think he will?

Yes.

My assistant coach, Nate Miller, our head coach at Loyal for a while, always would say, the right player at the right time in the right place with the right coach.

And that is what he is becoming.

That's what Luna was, right?

When he stepped on the scene.

And that's what Rodan is becoming now.

And it doesn't, you know, I would have said.

three weeks ago, he is absolutely that MLS guy that we've talked about, or it doesn't even have to be MLS.

You know, we talk about Sargent in the same way, right?

That is at an amazing level for his club team, but for whatever reason or because the level is a little higher, whatever, it doesn't work out for the national team.

Again, Taylor Tallman was a guy like that, right?

There's a lot of guys.

Chad Marshall was a defender like that.

But all I can do right now, Tim, is

not have that bias and just watch what I'm seeing.

And when I'm watching what I'm seeing, I'm saying, okay, this is a World Cup team Australia that was was a World Cup opponent in Ecuador, and he's doing the job.

So I mean, I just have to say, okay, then he can do it.

Sure.

And until it proves me otherwise, I've got to say, yeah, he's going to do it.

Yep, agreed.

Okay, let's talk about, this was a disappointing one because the night before the game,

I was sitting with some U.S.

soccer people and I was told Christian was out for the Ecuador game.

He ended up playing.

And they also said Jedi was out and that his knee was bothering him again.

So I think we have a question about Jedi.

from tyler holland do you see a possibility of jedi playing left center back and way up playing left wing back i feel like that pairing would be so smart interesting you go ahead you know what it's it's not a terrible question because it's one that popped into my head and then i quickly said absolutely not

i i think i think we right so i think what we what we all what i did with what i'm guessing this the the the question was designed and a lot of fans are thinking like premier league left back

right?

Can play in a four, can play in a, in a, you know, five, left wing back of a five.

And Premier League experience, top player, by the way, wanted by Liverpool, plays week in, week out for, for Fulham.

Really good player.

I agree with all that.

If you look at Jedi Robinson, and so sorry, so oftentimes when you have that player, you can actually go, yeah, he can play left side of a three.

I'm thinking of Luke Shaw, right?

Luke Shaw is a left fullback and a four.

He can actually play left wing back in a five, but

in a pinch, and oftentimes United use him, he can play left of a three, right?

Jedi Robinson doesn't strike me as a player who wants to play left of a three, and his profile fits that, right?

Because ideally, what I would say, and this is why left footers stink, they're amazing, but this is why they stink.

Because ideally, what I would do is

I'd put a back three of Anthony Robinson, chris richards and tim ring but you can't put tim ring on on the right you get what i'm saying yeah because he's because he's left footed now de lick does it at man united but it's not really our profile so i just don't know if anthony robinson wants to play

left of a of a three now i would say this i'll give you an example so and then i'll and i'll shut up

If we were to play a team where we can assess Landon, right?

You and I are coaching.

We're saying we're playing Australia.

They're going to give us a ton of the ball.

I don't know if we're going to have to really be up against it in our own penalty area.

Now I'm saying, cool, Max Arfston, left wing back, Tim Wayer, right wing back, a back three of Tim Ream, Chris Richard.

In fact, you could probably do that.

You could probably put

Jedi Robinson left of a three, Tim Ream in the middle, and Chris Richards on the right.

And then you're having a ton of ball retention with your back three.

So maybe horses for courses, but ultimately, I don't know if that's,

I think we could see it, but I don't know if I'd want to.

Sorry.

Yeah.

So what we used to do at Loyal when we would build in a three or

we did in games or in moments, maybe the last 20 minutes, you need a goal or it's 0-0 and you're pushing the score and the other team's just bunkered in and pinned in.

We would then play with a left wing back and then a left center back who was more of like a left back by nature, who would then just bomb on beyond him.

So you start as a three, but that left wing back can literally just overlap and can play as a left wing or two.

And so I could absolutely see Jedi in that role.

So now Weya's there, Weia comes inside, which he loves to come inside on his right.

Jedi's overlapping him.

You still have two in the back, and you know, one or two of the central midfielders.

You could see that scenario.

So I don't think it's crazy.

I'm not sure it's something we'll get to see or experiment with, but it would be something I would work on if I were Pochettino just in the event.

You could do the same with Freeman on the other side, to be honest, if you needed to, right?

In certain situations.

So it's not crazy.

No.

Another guy who was not here, Ricardo Pepe.

I believe we have a question about Pepe

from Eddie Gonzalez.

Nice picture there, dude.

Uh, what about Pepe?

What's the latest?

Does he still have a chance to make the team?

Yeah, he's, I can't imagine he's not going to make the team.

The only caveat is we just don't know with the injuries, like how that's going to play out.

So, I imagine he will be on the roster, even if he goes into camp with an injury.

Um, but man, we just so landon roster construction, we think we think four strikers go like four out of the streets.

That's a good question now because there's there will be 26 players.

So you take, you take four strikers.

So you have three goalies.

You might take five.

Oh, I think you're saying out and out, like nines.

Yeah.

Yeah, because

it would be Balagan,

Haji River.

Probably Ajamang.

Ajamong.

And Pepi.

That's what I'm thinking.

So at least four.

I mean, they might take five.

Yeah, you're probably right.

So, yeah, I mean, let's say they took three.

Who's the odd man out?

That gets trickier.

That gets trickier because we know the first two are.

We know who the first two are.

Right.

And then it gets tricky.

So, yeah, I mean,

I don't know.

These things change so much.

I think you take four.

I think there's enough spots on the roster you take four.

Right.

So, yeah, I think he makes it to answer your question.

One other thing to dive into, I thought it was interesting

after the game this week, Pochatino posted on his social media.

And I know how you feel about social media posting.

He put this,

I didn't realize he wrote this on the actual chalkboard for the players to see too.

And I'm going to quote his message here on, I think it was Instagram.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

No matter how brilliant your business strategy is, if your team culture isn't aligned or if it's toxic, your strategy will fail.

Culture is the collective behaviors, attitudes.

beliefs and values that drive a team.

And he got that quote interestingly from the CEO of Chick-fil-A.

So

I guess, just what's your take on that?

Who was that pointed at?

Like, why does he put that out publicly?

He clearly put it for the team to read, which managers do things like that all the time.

So what, yeah, what's your takeaway on that?

Do you think Poch has ever had Chick-fil-A nuggets or like a chicken sandwich?

Probably not, right?

I actually never did until like a few months ago.

My kids got them after a game.

They are so good, those nuggets.

Oh, throw the platter.

I think someone needs to get poched some of those.

for sure.

I'm sure.

He's probably on some.

My take on it is I agree with it.

You know, I agree with it.

I think

some, I think

culture is like a,

you know, being around a lot of different teams and having investment opportunities with teams and talk, like everyone talks culture, culture, culture.

You know, you bring a new, when you interview coach, it's like, how do you create everyone talk about culture, culture, culture?

Like that buy-in is so incredible.

And you and I have had it over the years with our, with, with our different national teams.

We had it at Everton, you remember,

under David Moise, you had that with Bruce in L.A.

You know, I agree with how you, how you create buy-in.

It's harder to actually do it.

I think what he's finding out, and you look at the other quote about like, when you arrive in the camp, you want to have a nice time playing golf, go to dinner, visit friends and family, blah, blah, blah.

He wants you to just be there, to be with the national team.

And you and I both know, and I was a culprit of this.

I obviously never downed tools and I played as many games as humanly possible for my country, but I enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed

because culturally it was so different, but I really enjoyed being back home and doing all those things.

I didn't golf, but I enjoyed going to the shopping mall and having dinners out and seeing friends and family because

I felt like a million miles away in Europe.

It's a cultural thing.

I still think you can have buy-in and be an American player and enjoy coming back to the States and enjoy some of those things.

But my point, well, his point and all that is, but

you still need to prove that you want to be here by your actions and your body language and showing up.

And so

I got no issue with it.

Yeah, they certainly did that the last two weeks.

They showed it their body language.

And, you know,

it's interesting when he came in, he said publicly and privately to us, I'm not here to change the culture.

And at the time, I didn't think about this, but I'm realizing more and more that was a that was a language thing for him because he was thinking like the culture of America.

Like we should eat empanadas instead of burgers, right?

So, but but really what he has done is he's changed the culture.

I mean, it's, it's, if you could say any one takeaway, that's what he's done.

There's nothing unique or different.

in the way we're actually playing, right?

He's actually just changed the culture so that guys no longer are taking it for granted.

So that's exactly what he's done.

So it might have been just another,

not even subliminal, in your face, like the culture is what matters here.

And I tend to agree with him there because the national team, you just don't have time for so much tactics and strategy.

You just need to get guys caring and playing.

And that's what I saw the last two games.

So I thought it was...

I thought it was fine that

he puts it.

It was interesting he put it out in public, but like, he's right.

You know, it does.

But the anecdote there, Landon, just so, so, you know, our listeners can understand what you're saying is when you and I were playing on the national team, we had, and this hasn't changed, we had managers that would try and draw, like literally blood would be coming from their eyeballs and saying,

guys, we get into camp on a Sunday and a Monday after your weekend games.

We've got like three days to implement a game plan.

right to win a football match.

I cannot, as the manager, go back to last month and go, this is how we perform.

This is how we dress.

Here's the the this is how we talk

right yeah that's right so so so the managers we had would literally be like so so angry with us at times they say like you have to come into camp focused on culture done dusted we're not even touching on culture we've got to get to the game plan for ecuador australia and so right that's what he hopefully is trying to build right and if you can do that then next next camp you're coming in you're not even talking about culture culture's there everyone's happy right so yeah yeah and and now it's pretty clear that that yes they will know that going forward right And it's pretty obvious.

Okay, we got a few minutes left.

First thing we're going to do, let's show a graphic I think you guys have of who has qualified now.

The list is growing.

It grew a lot over this

window.

Over this window.

Yeah.

New teams were, I think South Africa was new, Saudi Arabia, maybe Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal.

A lot of the African teams.

Qatar back in, England back in.

Really interesting.

I think there's almost 30 there, aren't there?

Maybe more.

I don't think how many left to qualify.

Yeah, like 20.

Probably 10 to 12, I guess would be my guess.

So like it's starting to round out, and it's pretty interesting because there are quite a few.

I don't know the exact, but I know Uzbekistan's new.

Jordan are new.

I don't know about

Cabo Verde, Que Verde, or Cote d'Ovo.

I don't know if, yeah, Cote d'Ivoire probably has, but there's going to be some new teams, which is great.

I just, I love this.

This is what I love about the expanded format for all the people who hate it.

I think it's great.

So

next two U.S.

games will be, I believe, yeah, Paraguay and Uruguay.

So South American, those teams will be very similar.

Good ones.

And great games.

Again, shout out Tom King.

These are great games.

I believe one's in Tampa, and I don't know where the other is.

Maybe I think that's right.

I think Tampa Southern's right.

Yeah, Tampa.

Okay, so before we get out of here,

let's go back to what we think the 11 is going to be for the World Cup.

It changes constantly.

I think I I have a good grasp on it, to be honest.

Okay, go ahead.

Do you?

Oh,

no, you go first.

By the way, did you realize that England will finally play a World Cup in the U.S.

now?

How great is that?

I forgot they didn't qualify for that.

They didn't qualify for 94.

Can you imagine those games in the U.S.

are going to be wild?

Yeah.

So fun.

Okay, so go ahead.

Give me the grasp of you think you're 11.

No, you go.

I say you go first.

Okay.

I'm going to go first.

This is what I had after September, by the way.

Freeze, Cameron Carter, Vickers, Richards, Ream,

Dest Adams, Aiden Morris, Anthony Robinson,

Tillman, Pulisic, Balagun.

That's what you had in September.

Yep.

Okay.

I'm going to keep the top three the same.

What was it?

Polistic.

Pulisic, Tillman, Balagun.

I'm going to keep Matt Freeze.

I'm going to start.

Now my thinking's starting to change.

So I am going to say.

We're going to play in a back three.

Yep.

It's going to be Richards, Reem, and I'm going to,

this is so dumb of me, but like just at the chance I get it right, and I'll sound like a genius.

I'll keep Kevin Carter Vickers in.

Okay.

And then the midfield five, well, four now, are going to be, man, I'm concerned about Jedi just because I just don't know if he's

fit.

If he's fit, then I know, but you can't, that's a big F.

That's a real thing.

Still a ways away.

Still a ways away.

I'm going to say Arfston.

By the way, this is not what I,

this is just what I think it's gonna be, right?

Okay, and by the way, another guy who kept keeps playing well is Arston, like, he just keeps performing.

So, like, you got to give him credit.

Uh, I'm gonna say

Weston

and

Tanner Tessman,

and then Weya.

Was that 11?

Let's go.

Freeze, Carter Vickers, Richards, Reem.

Yeah.

Got Weya,

Weston,

Tanner Tessman,

Arfston, and then Tillman, Pulisic, Balagun.

This is what I think it's going to be.

Not necessarily what I want, but this is what I think.

And yes, that is correct because I saw it in your face.

No, Tyler Adams.

Okay.

All right.

I know.

It sounds bizarre.

I know.

I just think he is.

This is just my hope.

I just think Pochatino's really high

on some of the guys who are here, Tessman and Roldan, who you never know.

But then I think Weston, when he's, he's just, he's so impactful.

So I think he.

Yeah.

Okay.

Weston in?

Shoot.

I didn't even put Weston.

Yeah, you did, Dave.

You did.

I did.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

So, so my, my, my 11 is this.

Matt Friesen goal, back three of Reem Richardson.

I don't know.

I just, I literally don't know.

That's a good, he's a good player.

I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know.

I have no idea.

So that, that's like the one open spot.

Wing back on the left side, Jedi Robinson, Tyler Adams, Weston in the middle, Weya on the right.

And then up top, Palisic, Baligan, and Tilman.

So if that's our team, Tim,

you can go into it saying, like, that's a real team.

If these guys are all at their best and fit, you're like, that's a real, real team.

And then there's some very, just like good young Freeman off the bench, Arson off the bench, Luna off the bench.

I wrote down the bench here.

I got 10 names.

It's really good.

Pepe and Ajamong and Haji Wright.

And so you have some like maybe Roldan and Aiden Morris.

You have real solid depth now, not amazing, but solid depth.

So but I also,

to that point, you know, we, we, we name different versions of a similar team.

But if, if we, if we were to say, going into it, okay, now we know who our, who our best team is.

And if you, if we put two lineups on the board and, and maybe two, two names changed right prior to the first game of world cup i'd say i'm happy with both of those teams totally i'd say like that team can get a result and i think that team can get a result totally that's great that's great and to your point over and over and you know we'll get out of here in a minute

can we see that before the world cup can we see that let's hope we can see a couple times

amazing don't get greedy

All right, guys.

Thank you.

That was fun.

We like these live pods.

Right before the pod started, I was like nervous.

I saw the clock counting.

Why the hell am I nervous?

It's so stupid.

All right.

We appreciate you guys so much.

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