Messi Chases MLS Cup & Brian Schmetzer's Toughest Loss of His Career

Can you talk to us about Christian, Raldon?

Look, I've never been involved at you guys' level with the national team, but for me, it's got to be in your DNA that the national team is the most important thing, and Christian has it.

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

Welcome to Unfiltered Soccer. I'm Tim Howard.
He is Landon Don, and we are your co-host. The show, as you know, is presented by Volkswagen LD.

I feel like things are getting like super busy. I mean, things are always busy for us, but I feel like things are getting super busy.
And I had the weekend off, so it's just, it's soccer.

It's all soccer. The World Cup's coming.
Yeah,

there's a lot of stuff all the time. The draws this week.

I will be there in DC. Cannot wait.
Tim, this is one of, there's like five or six best days of the year as a parent.

It's the Monday once your kids have been off for like spring break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, ski week. That Monday,

it's like hallelujah. Once you get them in the car, off to school, drop off, peace.

You come on our podcast, you talk soccer for two hours, and then bang, you're in a golf cart down to the country club, right? Most days, yes. Most days.
But not when they're home all week. No, no, no.

I'm saying now. Now, but I'm going to New York today.
Oh, you are going. You're coming to see me.
I saw it's going to snow, by the way. Tomorrow.
yeah. It's so rainy.

But it won't be, it won't be much. It won't be much.
Just bring a big top. We can't bear to lead.
We have an awesome, amazing guest today.

So we're excited to speak with him, and you guys are going to be delighted.

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All right, let's jump into MLS, Tim. Two conference finals this weekend.
We'll start with the headliner, Inter Miami, battered, NYCFC.

I thought they would get through all of this, Tim. I did not think they were going to just cruise.

And like the game was a little tighter than that, but they've now won 4-0, 4-0, 5-1 in their last three games, and they are flying.

Yeah, I think, and I believe me, I've been on the other side of this, so I can speak well, I can speak well to it.

Inter-Miami have entered the realm now of

mental monsters, right? So what that means is

there were times,

I'm trying to pick one. Like, so I was playing in the Premier League during like the Roman Abramovich

Chelsea days with Josie Mourinho and John Terry and Lampard and all the greats, right?

And you would G yourself up for the game, right, LD?

But you knew if it went 1-0,

night, night, right? Like if it was a stodgy, like 0-0 game, you're like, we'll keep plugging away, we'll keep trying.

And then all they have to do was like score one or maybe, you know, when you're like in a two-nil game, you're like, we can, we can, we can get one back.

It was like, oh, God, oh, God, this is happening to us, right? And I think, does that make a little bit of sense? Like, that's what Miami's doing now.

And the reason why with Miami is because they're actually better when they don't have the ball and teams attacking and then it turns over and they go.

And so in these one-off games, if you have to win the game, so NYCFC has to get back in the game, guess what happens? The whole field stretches opens up more space, more space, more space.

I mean, that's the, you've been making that point for a while that

they are, and Messi are at their best when they're in transition. And to your point, that's, and anyone and people who listen to the show understand, anyone who understands soccer, that's why

the first goal is so crucial. Like the first touchdown isn't crucial.
First points in a basketball game aren't crucial. The first home run isn't crucial.

In soccer, the first goal is crucial because then what you have to decide, and we see this all the time, is you're down one nil, but you're like, we can't open up yet.

We've got to wait till like, we've got to wait till the 75th minute to even pretend like we're going to open up. But the natural tendency is to go hunt for the next goal.

And the second you do that, you just, you just showed us it. Game opens up and bang, they hit you.
Yeah. And I have to say, I think, I mean, first of all, you've called this from the beginning, right?

Because through the

Leagues Cup and Club World Cup and, you know, some of the games that Messi took off along the way, or they rested guys and people were upset and, you know, he's not playing in Houston or he's not,

they saw this coming, right? And they wanted, they were putting all their eggs in this basket. They were.

It's not that they weren't trying in the other tournaments, whatever, but they knew end of the season, whether we're first, second, third, fourth, and the East, doesn't matter.

We can go anywhere and win. And now, lo and behold, now they get to host a final, right? Because they finished with more points than Vancouver.
So now all of it is coming to fruition.

And if my, if Miami win on Saturday, Tim, I can't imagine there's been a better MLS season ever.

By the way, when we were, when Andrew put these stats up, I didn't realize Joseph Martinez scored 31 goals in 2018 and Vela scored 34 goals and 10 assists. That's insane.
But Messi, I mean,

Aside from that, Joseph Martinez, I just think everything he's done and doing, every week he scores or he assists or he's impacting the game.

And if they win at all, you have to say it's probably the best MLS season. Well,

I'm going to lean on you for that because you've been a part of some of the greatest seasons and one of the greatest franchises in this league's history in LA Galaxy.

Look, I am going to accept the fact that you just said, I've gotten this right. I got a lot wrong this year in MLS, but I got this right.
And I called it.

Like I said, having won this,

if they win the MLS Cup,

the best thing they could have done was win the supporter shield last year. Because once they won the supporter shield last year, they put it to bed.
They're like, then this season doesn't matter.

The regular season doesn't matter. We can manage minutes, which they did.
And people don't like that because Messi sometimes doesn't show up. But it was all about winning the MLS Cup.
Yeah.

And

that's the holy grail in our league. And I just,

I love it.

I love Sir David Beckham. I love that he had a vision for this league when he came in as a player.
You play with him. I love that he got in his contract that he'd be able to

buy a franchise. I love that it took him longer than

most people thought to get the franchise up and running and get to stadiums and all the stuff. But he did it.
He did it. And he said he was going to do it.

And Messi comes into the league and the television deal and all the things that go into it. And I don't know.
I just think it's,

I look at the rest of the world. And right now, everybody in MLS who aren't Inner Miami hate Inner Miami.
And I'm here for it. Lynn, I think you have to have a villain.
When you look at

Italy, England, Spain, Germany, there are three teams in those leagues that everybody freaking hates because they always get the calls. They always get more money than everybody.

They think they cheat. They think the referees are on their side.
It makes, it makes for a better league. I love having the haves and the have-nots.
I love having the heroes and the villains.

This This is amazing. This is amazing for the league.
So if, so if you think Inner Miami sucks and you hate them, that's amazing for this league. That passion is awesome.

So I hope they go on and win it. Not that I'm rooting against Vancouver.
I just think from a story, historical standpoint, it's pretty special.

I think what happened over time, and that's really well said, is when Messi first came, there was like this off act, oh, it's Messi. And now, especially teams in the East, they're like, hate this guy.

It's like fans, they hate this guy. So I'm actually curious, you guys listening, do you end up, do you find yourself rooting for Inner Miami, not rooting for them, rooting against them?

Because we do that in all sports, man. Someone be, my kids, every time I'm watching game, who do you want to win? I'm like, I don't care.

But then there's some games where I'm like, oh, I want the Cowboys to lose. Sure.
Right. But some people are like, oh, I love that.
I want the Cowboys to win. It's America's team and all that stuff.

So it's an interesting human.

I mean, the best thing about being a Giants fan, a New York Giants fan, is that Dallas plays football every Sunday.

I'm not even sure I watched one Giant game this year other than the fact that I watch every Cowboy game, desperately hoping they lose. But you get what I'm saying.

Well, Miami, and the last piece of Miami, and we'll get to Vancouver.

It's not been a one-man show. Allende now has eight goals in five games.
He's been absolutely on fire. That is tied with Carlos Ruiz, my former teammate from 2002 for the most than single postseason.

And then just bursting onto the scene, Matteo Silvetti, who's kept Luis Suarez on the bench.

He's got two goals and three assists in the last three games. So they are not a one-man show.
All right, let's move to Vancouver. So I watched, it was Vancouver came to San Diego, actually tweeted.

The first half was an absolute masterclass by Vancouver.

Mike Ivaris, the coach of San Diego, has done a phenomenal job.

They don't have, they have an okay roster. They don't have a great roster.
He's done a phenomenal job getting that team to where they are.

But, I mean, he got outclassed a little bit on the weekend. Sure.
And

he's going to be an amazing coach already is too. But it was like to a T, the game unfolded exactly how Vancouver wanted.
And they were disciplined. They were gritty.
They were nasty.

They knew San Diego wanted to have the ball and they pressed and they won the ball and then they were calm. And San Diego, for a while, just looked like they were chasing shadows.

And that team is good man Vancouver's really really good Sebastian Berhalter

Tomas Muller in there the other guy I'm forgetting his name Sabas Kubas whatever Sabi on one side and Ali Ahmed on the other side they didn't have Tristan Blackman in there Tateoka's really good with his feet so they just they have so much control of the game I cannot Tim honestly I cannot wait for this final It's going to be really good.

But yeah, I think San Diego can build on this now. They need one one or two more pieces.
They would have total miss on Chuke Lozano.

You can't spend $8 million on a guy a year and get that production or that lack of production. What happens with him now? Do you know how long you saw him? How long he saw him? It's a long deal.

I think it's three or four years. It was a, from the beginning, I hated it.
I thought it was a terrible signing. How long was it? I think it's three or four years.
I haven't started trading info.

I'm going to make a phone call today and find out. Okay.

But yeah, I mean, that is a problem because he, I mean, he scored the goal, it was deflected, but he was just not a part of what they were doing.

If you think about what you could have gotten from that position with one or two other DPs or spread that money out, that's like, now you have a real, real team. I have a friend in the MLS

who coaches, and he told me a long time ago, which is crazy that it's still true. He told me a long time ago,

when you construct a roster, you cannot miss on a DP. You can't, because there's no mechanism to, there's no exit strategy.
Like in,

like, like Man United missed on Hoyland, right? The striker, where they pay like 90 million or 100 million for him. They missed on him, and they're like, all right, shop window time.

He's going to play. He's going to play.
And he's probably good enough to compete at the very high level in Syria A.

So someone come have a look at him. We'll take our loss.
And then, but we'll get a bit for him. You just don't have the markets out there and I'm listening.
So you cannot.

And you generally sign these guys to long-term deals, right? And that, yeah, it is a problem. So anyway, Tristan Blackman back this weekend.

But yeah, and then Brian White, who's an absolute stud up front. I forgot about him.

And then they have Ryan Gald, who is, in my opinion, is one of the best players in the league, coming off the bench now because he was injured, but they were winning, winning, winning.

So they've kept him. coming in for 30 minutes or so and he's a killer off the bench.
So

you know, Thomas Mueller is just so hard not to like him. He's, he's, he's a, he's goofy and he's a, he's determined and he's won everything.
Like he's the type of guy. What, one, I love watching him.

He's the type of guy, LD, and you know these players. He's going to retire from football one day.
I don't know, maybe in a decade and a half. I don't know.
But he'll play every Saturday.

Like every Saturday, he'll be in the park somewhere trying to get a pickup game. Yeah.
Like that's just who he is.

And, you know, I think, I think Brian White, I watched him live this year in Houston sometime in, I don't think it was August, maybe September.

And I was just like, watching him, like, I watched him for the national national team a bit on television, but watching him in the MLS live, he's different gravy. And so

I tell you what, I said this to you in our production meeting.

As much as I, as a storyline, would like for Miami to win, given the whole Messi and Sir David Beckham thing, I just like calling him Sir David Beckham, so I'll say that a few more times.

But like Vancouver could win. Vancouver could win this game.
Like it's not, it's not a long shot. It's not like David versus Goliath.
I don't think that that's this matchup. I really, truly don't.

And so, you know, here's the other thing.

And you know, I love Sebastian Berholter. Love him.

I think

he's a type of son of a gun to say, all right, then, I'll have a bit of you,

Leo. Like, like, and I know that sounds crazy, and I'm not saying that Sebastian Berholter is a better, but if you know his dad, Greg's crazy.
And Greg

doesn't care. And when Greg would play, Greg Borholter played, and we were teammates of his, he didn't care.

He was like, give me, give me the matchup, and I'll kick the lumps out of you, and I'll figure this out. And

Sebastian's got that in his DNA. And also, he's, by the way, he's a very good player and he uses the ball well, but like, he's got some tenacity.
And like,

if you got a bag of money, put it on the fact that I think he'll get to grips with Leonel Messi. I don't know why, because he's a little rat and he wants to get under people's skin.

And Sebastian does that. Shout out to Sebastian.
So, like, I'm excited. I love it.
I'm excited for it.

RLD, it's time for the unfiltered refresh sponsored by Coors Light. Choose chill.
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Who you got this week from the MLS? A lot of candidates.

Allende was great. Messi was great.
Silvetti was great.

Sebastian, Berhalter, Tomas Miller were great. But I think the guy who's made the biggest impact for his team right now is Brian White coming back in for Vancouver.

He scored two goals, second goal in off his chest. Like he's just, Tim, he's a pure goal scorer.
I know you love this guy, too. He's a little bit

just like big, old-fashioned target man. He fights, he battles, and then when he's in the box, he's a killer.
He runs and he works.

I talked to someone who's played against him a few times this year in MLS, who coached against him and just said he's a nightmare to play against. He's just a nightmare to play against.
Kudos to him.

Another great performance. And if they're going to win this weekend, he absolutely needs to bring it again.
Yeah, you stole the words out of my mouth.

I mean, I just think the way that he moves and operates within MLS, he's at another level. Like

he's ascended to the top of that. And this weekend was no different.
And he's a difference maker. I tend to think

we're choosing him this week because we think he chose Chill.

He might go to freezing cold if

he bangs one in this weekend and lifts Vancouver to the MLS

title. I just think he's I think he has the ability to be a star and certainly is making the case that he is one.
So, yeah, hats off to him.

He's a little bit of a throwback, like I said, Tim.

And when you play with a guy like that, like someone like me who played sort of off a front, I had a guy, Brian Ching, who was like that, where he took so much pressure off you because he holds the ball, he fights, he battles.

Even if you don't win the ball, the ball gets knocked down down two yards instead of someone heading it 40 yards back down your defense.

And so everybody around him, Tomas Mueller, Sebastian Berhalter, Sabi, Ahmed, they can, he's predictable. Like they know what he's going to do.

So he makes the game way more predictable and it makes it way easier to play. So Brian White, cheers to you for choosing Chill.
Hopefully you do it again this weekend. Good luck.

Reminder, by the way, they played in the Champions Cup this year. And it was actually right when I was starting to do a lot of stuff around my book and the publishing companies in Vancouver.

So I was up in Vancouver and they were so amped about this. And they thought for sure that Messi wasn't going to show up and play in this game.

And so like the fan, like bought us, sold a bunch of tickets, but they weren't sure. They walloped him.
They beat him 2-0 and 3-1. So 5-1 on aggregate.
And I know it's different.

I know it's not apples to apples. It's an MLS Cup final.
Now it's in Miami, but they match up well against Miami. They do.
They match up well. It's going to be a great game.

What's your prediction? I think Miami will win, but I think it's going to be tighter than what most people.

Don't think they'll run away with it. I think it'll be close.
You want to score?

Probably 2-1.

2-1-3-1, something like that. Yeah, I don't know.
Yeah. I think Miami win.
I think in the end, they just got the best players ever played.

But Mueller has played against Massey 10 times and won seven of those. So

the guy wins. You're right.
I will say stats are funny because some of Mueller's teammates were a little bit different back then.

No, no, it's fair. It's a fair point by me.
You're so stupid. All right.
Anyway, he's tilted the balance. So hopefully I get one more over.
Oh, you're so dumb.

Okay. Who do you guys want to win? I think we're going to get a resound.
I mean, if you're Canadian, it's pretty obvious. Who do you guys want to win? Inner Miami or Vancouver?

It's an interesting one because we want to hear, we want to hear what you think because now these are

these aren't, you know, the people listening to this podcast aren't predominantly inter fans or they're not predominantly Vancouver fans. So this will be a really interesting gauge.

Yeah, I mean, obviously those fan bases, but you have to, I mean, just what I was saying, like all the Eastern Conference teams and fans, they have to want Miami to lose, right? Sure.

I would think so. Yeah, we'll see.
But there's so many messy fans.

The whole globe. All right.
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Excellent matchup in MLS Cup final this week in Miami. Vancouver traveling a little bit through Canada, all the way across the country, about as far as they can go down to Miami.

Vancouver has had Miami's number this year. If you remember, they won 5-1 on aggregate in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
They're a good matchup.

Miami is a good matchup for Vancouver, and they've tended to do well. That being said, Inner Miami feel like they're unstoppable.

They had a really long sort of up and down season, all these competitions.

And it seems like they're peaking at the right time. Three straight wins by score lines of 4-0, 4-0, and 5-1.
So they've won by four goal margins in three straight games.

Messi is messy, six goals, seven assists in the postseason. Tadea Allende also been great, as has Silvetti,

the young kid who's keeping Luis Suarez on the bench.

Vancouver, again, really good matchup against Miami, but it's hard for me to guess that Vancouver is going to go all the way down there and beat Miami. So I've got Inner Miami to win the game.

Matteo Silvetti, who I just talked about keeping Luis Suarez on the bench, is going to score. Messi to assist and both teams to score in the game.
I really like this one.

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All right, let's take a break when we come back.

We are joined by none other than the Seattle Sounders head coach, Brian Schmetzer. He's such a lovely guy.
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LD, we always get excited about guests and this is no no different.

He is one of MLS's most successful ever, ever managers, having won two MLS Cups, a CONCACAF Champions Cup, and this year's Leagues Cup,

a man that we both fear and respect, certainly when we were on the pitch, the pride of Seattle, Washington, the Seattle Sounders head coach, Brian Smetscher, joins the show. Brian, welcome.
Coach.

Tim Landon, pleasure to be on here. Happy to be on here.
It's an honor to be on your show. How about that? Wow.

I appreciate it because I hated the sight of you and going in going into that going into that place. I just knew what the outcome was going to be.

I mean, it's really, really nice to have you on because your insight and your experience within this league is second to none, really. So thanks for jumping on.

I'll try and give you as many tidbits as I can. I am getting a little older, so I forget stuff.
You know, Zig had a way better memory than I did.

That's one of the many reasons I love Zig. And God rest your soul, Zig.
But, you know, he could remember details of every single game back to his college days, back to UCLA, all that sort of stuff.

So I'll try and do the best I can and,

you know, help out on the show. Ziggy Smith was amazing.
Yeah, I had, I had the good fortune of playing for him. LD, did you ever play for Zig? I did not.
I always wanted to.

Even though some of the players would always bitch about him and complain about him, I was like,

wins. I want to play for this.

You don't have a good coach if you don't bitch about him. Exactly.
It's a fact. All players bitch about all coaches.
Correct. It's standard operating procedure for the players.
That's right.

We'll complain about it.

Before we start, coach, I just want to say, you know,

this is kind of weird. And I think your goalkeeper and Stefan Fry, this happens too, too.
You guys get overlooked, you two in particular, for how good you've been over how many years.

And I think people always want the sexy new toy and the new this and the new that and the grass is greener. And just reading through your accomplishments, you've just won and won and won.

And I was just thinking to myself, if there's a Mount Rush more of MLS coaches, you're absolutely on it with Ziggy, with Bruce, et So, I just want to say congrats.

Um, just buttering you up because the hard stuff's coming now. No, um, no, just just grateful for all you've given to the game and to Seattle in particular.
Thanks, thanks for that, uh, Landon.

Coming from you, two, you know, obviously top-class players in your own right. Uh, I love talking about Steph.

You know, I don't like talking about myself, but you know, Steph has been overlooked, in my opinion. Uh, best outside of the guy and up right above me up here, best shot stopper in MLS history.

The save in 2016, I mean, the footwork, it's freezing cold. I don't know how he gets himself over there, but I mean, he's been overlooked for sure, in my opinion.

Yeah, it's, you know, the interesting thing about, and I said this about Nick Ramondo as well. And Lenny, you talked about the sexiness.

Nick Ramondo just got boring. Like at a certain point, he should have been goalkeeper of the year every year.
People are like, well, I can't vote for him again. Right.
And Steph's the same way.

And when I look at, when I look at MLS in particular,

every time there's a breakdown in your defense, and it's not often, and a guy goes in one-on-one, I'm like, Steph's going to make the save. He's going to push him wide.
Like, he just plays really big.

So obviously, hats off to him.

I'm curious.

And as a MLS minority owner in Houston and having been around the league in Atlanta, who is the face of the league,

there are special teams.

There are special teams and seattle's one of them and so i kind of want you to take us into that culture so my uncle lives in ballard um like he's a season yeah he's been a season ticket holder for forever when i came back from uh england and i was playing in denver and we went to seattle i remember i remember going to your place and i went back in the locker room and i swear to you i said this i said to our young players i said if you never make it to europe enjoy today

because the atmosphere that you guys have in Seattle, the march to the game, the colors,

how has Seattle done that? How have you and the group there done that? You know,

Timmy, it's a good question. I don't know.
I mean, look, there was a lot of, there was a lot of history here before it changed the MLS.

And when I mean history, I mean, we just had our 50th year anniversary last year. You know, there was a lot of, you know, a lot of activities surrounding the 50-year anniversary,

lots of good highlight reels i mean there was some old black and white film that we used to go through and memorial stadium it holds about it holds about 12 000 it's being demolished now they're going to make a a new stadium for the high school football soccer it's going to be really cool uh but the Sounders used to play there and it held 12,000, but they added seats around the back of the goal.

And those were some of my earliest memories going with my mom, my dad, my sister, going to sounder games there was 18 000 people stuffed into an old stadium and you get to see these you know these old english guys running around and pepe fernandez from uruguay and a couple of guys and it was it was good so we had that little bit of history

but in 2009 that opening game tim

we didn't know what to expect and all of a sudden we walk in there you know we're walking out and me and tommy do our thing and zig comes likes to come last and the players come out there.

The fans were going nuts. I mean, it was like at that time, you know, they held it at like 30,000, I think, for that 2009 season, but it sounded like 60.

I mean, there was like, it felt like there was 60,000 people.

And that was coming off, you know, the USL days when, you know, we get on a good day, you know, if we're playing an open cup or something like that, we get 10, 12,000 in Lumen, you know, normal average attendance, maybe four, five, six was in that range, depending on the season.

So that was a big jump for us. I mean, I was, I was fired up.
Yeah. You know, people have to remember, too, next, I was just talking about this.

Next summer, you've got a USA game coming into the World Cup to Lumen, right? And I can only imagine what this could be next.

It's going to be insane. All right, coach, if we can, so we have MLS Cup final this weekend, and I want to, we want to pick your brain on just how you've been in a lot of finals.

Um, when you talk about a player like Messi, right, when you are

when you're trying to prepare, yeah, what I mean, there, there's so much that goes into it because, like, on one hand, you, you, I'm guessing you, you don't want to give too much attention because you don't want it to be all about him all the, because they have a good team otherwise.

Yeah, but how are you preparing and game planning when you come up against what I would say is probably the best player that's ever played the game?

So if you're Vancouver, how are you, you know, what are you thinking? What are you doing?

Look, I agree with you, Landon. I think he's the greatest player that the, you know, the world has produced.

I can only tell you what we did, and then I try and give Jesper some advice, but he kicked my ass two games this year. So, I mean, I really can't tell him anything.

Look, when we played him in the Leagues Cup final, and then

we went down to Miami, you know, a couple of weeks later, and we lost 3-0 or 3-1. I think Obed Vargas scored a goal.

Our idea was to stay really, really compact and make the field as tight as possible for Messi.

And we didn't, you know, Christian and Obed in the middle of the field, I didn't say to one of them, you know, you guys got to stick to him.

It was by committee because you have to because you're right. They have other weapons on the field that

can hurt you.

So we tried to stay, do the same thing, press higher up the field. So deny him opportunities to get the ball.
You know, they don't like lumping long balls or at that point of the season, they didn't.

Like they were effective, you know, last weekend because they got the two young guys running this way while Miami's in all those soft areas. But we just tried to make the field as small as possible.

Whenever Messi got the ball, you had to double team him. We could.
One guy,

our tactics were one guy has to slow him down, and then we need a second guy coming at all times. And back pressing from our forwards was critical.

And Albert in that position or, you know, Jesus from that position, Pedro on the field in the League's Cup final. I mean, we wanted to back press always because you had to do that.

And then if they did break you down, then look, get 10 guys back because, you know, in front of the goal with their one-twos, their little tricks and, you know, the ability to see all those, you know, intricate little passes,

you know, you need to do that. The only other thing I would say,

because Jordi Alba is just like, I mean, that guy's maybe the left back that the world has ever produced.

He was good. So we tried to force him down to the right side of the field, not the left.
We tried to keep the ball away from Alba as much as possible. Interesting.

When you look at, you know, this is heavy on the messy topic.

When you look at him as a coach, and you said, like, you can't stop him, is there, is there, we talk about how dangerous they are in transition, but as a manager to your team, is there one thing you're like, okay, guys, he's going to do a bunch of things, but we can't let him do this.

I don't know what this is. Is that transition? Is that fouling in and around the box? Like, what's the message? Well, we didn't want him to face forward.

And, you know, his eye, you know, his vision is extraordinary. I mean, he sees the passes that no other players can.

And so we didn't want him to face the goal. We want him to go sideways, this way, backwards, if whenever possible.
But you let Messi face forward, ball at his feet, dribbling at you. I mean,

you're in for a long night.

So on the other side of the field, so obviously you know Vancouver well,

Cascadia rivalry, Cascadia Cup, et cetera. So you played that, I think you had that 2-2 game against them, right, in September, and then you lost 3-0 in June.

What about them is, you know, why have they gotten there? What about them makes them so dangerous? Well,

look, they have a ton of good players. Kubas,

you know, such a player by the way. Burr Halter has just, Burhalter is going like this.
You know, he's just, he's skyrocketing forward.

But the guy who I believe is critical for their success is Brian White. Now, he's back from injury.
They were winning games without him, but that guy is such a...

tough mother, you know, I can't swear on the show, but he's, he is tough and hard and he fights and he scraps.

And inside the 18 reminds me of Brian Shing a little bit, you know, because I had Brian Shing in the USL days and Brian inside the 18 yard box was extremely good and tough and big and strong.

And Brian White might not have the height because I think he's barely six foot, but he plays bigger. He plays like this, you know, and he gets him out of a ton of pressure.

Long balls, he'll fight for long balls. He'll, he'll, he'll be able to knock stuff down and, you know, extend their possession.
So I think that's been one of the keys.

And then, look, we started off talking about Steph Rye. Takahoka makes them a better possession team,

because they can really play from the back. And if Miami wants to press,

okay,

Messi is going to press in certain moments, but not all the game. And if they want to press,

Vancouver might be able to open them up. So I wanted to ask you, so your loss to Minnesota this year in the playoffs.

you said still hurts quoting you yeah that that was the toughest loss i've ever experienced with this club

why you know you've you've coached hundreds and hundreds maybe thousands of games what what about that because that stuff doesn't happen to us

going up a man

having the lead right and having a team fight back

and you know score two goals shorthanded that stuff doesn't happen to us

and i you know i'm still pissed about it because because, you know, it's just those two set pieces, you know, came from a long throw where we weren't totally switched on.

You know, they took it short and he crossed the ball. And Obed lost his guy in the back, but knew who should have done a better job.
And, you know, the other goal coming on a corner kick.

The guy marked, he ran unmarked from the top of the box all the way to the back post.

And we have a guy that's supposed to be back there at the back post covering, but Alex didn't, you know, wasn't there. And Albert lets him run.

And, you know, it was just, it was just unbelievable that stuff was actually happening to the Seattle Sounders.

And then, and then you, you couple that by, you know, there was a lot of, there was a lot of talk in Seattle about the goalkeeping controversy because Steph is coming to the end of his career.

And Andrew Thomas was lights out in the penalty kicks in Leagues Cup. And so there were a lot of people chattering saying, hey, you should put Andrew in for the penalties.

And I'm like, oh, well, I'm a traditionalist. I'm old school.
I'm not changing my goalkeeper.

Steph beat Toronto in 2016 in Houston the year before we won because Steph saved the sixth or seventh PK to get us through in the playoffs the previous year. But look, Andrew is better than Fry.

So I had to manage that situation. And credit to Steph

when I brought the conversation up. You know, I could tell it stung a little bit.
I mean, he's a proud guy. He wants to play, but he's such a team guy.

He said, okay, coach, if it happens again, look, you make the best decision that you think you need to make.

And so we get through all of the game where they scored the two goals, but we get, you know, the equalizer late. We can't, you know, we can't do anything anymore.

We, I mean, we threw the kitchen sink at them. We couldn't get the, we couldn't get the last goal.
Goes into penalty kicks. And sure enough, you know, sudden death penalty kicks.

We've got two chances to win the game. And it's, it's just like, I'm like thinking Obed's going to score because, you know, Dane St.

Clair, look, he's very good at penalties as well, maybe more so on the mind games. He hadn't seen Obed take a penalty because Obed really doesn't take a penalties.
And Obed was lights out in practice.

He was making it all the time. And then, you know, the miss from, you know, young Osase,

Osase DiRosario, I mean, that guy's hungry. And he, he was like, he was in my face.
He was like going, you got to coach. I want to like his dad.

He wanted to be, Landon, he wanted to be in the top five. And I said, no, I got to push out here.

And so just the way that thing unfolded,

you know, and look, credit to Minnesota.

I don't want to take anything away from Minnesota because fair and squared over three games, they went through.

But, you know, that stung.

It stings.

The

losing, those are big decisions um i want to talk to you about sort of like the the season that was right so you have conc champions cup you have the fifa club world cup um

and then you and then you won the leagues cup that's that that's part of being good is that you're going to have this fixture buildups and we see it all the time in europe right and and managers speak about it all the time but how do you that obviously then takes a toll on yeah sort of your league selection or or your league performances right because it's it's just these players can't, these players can't play every game all the time.

And so like, one, how does it take its toll on your team in a tangible way? And how do you as a manager sort of balance between

people don't like to hear this, but you have to prioritize something. You have to figure out where you can manage your players.
And so how does that manifest itself with all of those competitions?

Yeah.

Here's where I might disagree with you for us and my messaging. And, you know, this is something that I hold dear.

This is one of my truths.

Everything matters. Everything matters to us.
Now, the players you put on the field, people can dissect that and say, oh, he's resting some guys and he's doing stuff.

I know where your question's coming from, but the message to the team is every freaking game matters.

And so the way we did that was A number one, Craig, Craig Quibel, he gave me a deep roster. This was one of the deepest rosters.

You know, when Garth was here, we had like 11 or 12 or 13, you know, Tam-level players. And that's the way we operated back then.
And it was successful.

But Craig has given me a bunch of good players and we fed off the, you know, the team being together and we fight. We're going to live and die in the trenches and we're going to do all that.

And I needed that, Timmy. I needed that throughout the long season that we had.
And so

when I think about the season and I reflect back on it, you know, that Club World Cup, we didn't win a game, but we won in the sense that it gave the team the momentum and the belief that we could play with the best teams in the world.

And that carried over,

that carried over into the slog of a MLS season. You guys know what it's like.
I mean, it's hard to get motivated for games in, you know, July and Houston or Dallas, you know, and in the heat.

And, you know, it's hard. But we had that mindset because we could compete.
We could, we competed against Bodofogo. We competed against

all the best teams in the world. And so

that was actually a positive for us. And

look, De La Vega at the end getting injured again in New York the last game of the year.

We took some other injuries with Jordan and stuff like that. We needed the entire roster.
Sure. I mean, we had to use everybody.

I think every single player. all 30 of them played, you know, at least one or two games.

That is, yeah, that is rare. and and certainly when we played

there just wasn't enough depth in this country to do and now you can do that can you talk to us about christian roldon and his i mean i i i'm reluctant to use the word ascendancy because he's been such a great player for so long but getting recognized now with the national team and what that's meant to him i mean He is firmly on the bubble for sure and maybe leaning in at this point to be on the World Cup roster.

And we would have never said that five months ago, right? So can you just talk about him and what that has meant to him?

I think, Landon, I think what happened again is, you know, it's a funny how things go in your career and, you know, positional changes, but normally it's like, you know, okay, a

forward moves back to be a center back or, you know, a

right midfielder might move back to an attacking right back. Or, you know, there's certain areas.

And I always had Christian and on the right in my 4-2-3-1 because he was effective he can get up and down the line he was great defensively for me in that position in that in that formation he did a lot of the defending you know we had nico at the time and raul and you know we we were we were we were doing good things right

So at the end of last year, we toyed with it a little bit because JP came up with some knocks and Christian played a little bit the previous year in the middle.

And then this year in in preseason, we, you know, we said, okay, Christian played a couple good games last year. Let's see what this looks like in camp.

And he and Obed, all of a sudden, we're like, oh, okay, this looks pretty good.

These two could play together, you know? And it was the new position, Landon, that kind of like Christian was like so laser focused and like he was a 18-year-old kid again, learning something new.

That's awesome. And Prekki does a good job with, you know, how we play and we start our possession three, two, and the pivots, the importance of the pivots and how they rotate and where they rotate.

And Christian, you know, he's a tactical guy. He loves all that stuff.
And so he was like just dialed in. And you could see that that was starting to take effect.

But again, I go back to the Club World Cup. He was arguably

best player on the field against some of those teams.

And so that gave him the confidence. So he had the energy from the new position and learning new things at age 29 to

confidence to

the success that you're seeing now. Is he 29? I feel like he's 20 years ago.
He's 30.

No, it's insane.

He's been around forever. I mean, he's played so many games.

I love him because

He's just, you couldn't, as a coach, as a teammate, you couldn't build a better person, player, teammate. And I'm just curious, given his humility,

you guys will obviously have intimate conversations. Where is his mind at with the possible, the possible selection to go to a World Cup?

Is he over the moon? Is he keeping his feet on the floor? What's he been like? He's keeping his feet on the floor. He's obviously excited and he's working hard to get there.

I'll just tell you one little side story. So Miguel Agostino, the national team assistant coach, came and visited us a couple of times during the course of the year.

And he told me, well, we talked about a bunch of stuff, but this one story that stood out. You know, when Christian got the first call up, you know, kind of was out of the blue.

They told me, they told me that Christian came up and said, you know what? Thank you for calling me up.

And it was something that... you know, the coaches, you know, Porticino and those guys, they didn't hear that a lot from players.
Hey, thanks for calling me up.

It's like, you know, a lot of players say, yeah, I should be called up.

You know, but Christian thanked them personally in Spanish and said, you know, gracias for, you know, the

chance, the opportunity to play. And the way those guys operate.
And I love this because it's coming from here. Those guys were talking about not the tactics.

They were talking about the feeling and the feeling in Argentina that, you know, you can play for River or Boca, but you're playing for the crest of Argentina. That's built-in DNA in Argentina.

And they're trying to build that into the United States culture. And Timmy, you nailed it on the head.
Christian eats that stuff every day for a living. He loves committing himself.
He's so humble.

He would work his ass off to do whatever it takes, whether he's on the field or off the field, to make sure that the team wins games and has the right, you know. mindset going into the games.

That's, that's Christian to a T. And I, and I love it.
And I hope he gets there because, look, I've never been involved at you guys' level with the national national team.

But for me, it's all about, yeah, it's about that. You guys really, you can say that and you can look at this and you can score a goal and go like this, but you got to believe that.

You got to understand and it's got to be in your DNA that the national team is the most important thing that's happening to you right now. And no shit has that.
You're nailing it.

Well, thank you for sharing that. I know that's, that's personal to you and him, but you've just taken him off the bubble.
You thank the coach in Spanish for calling the camp.

I think you're on the plane. He's, you know, he's one of those guys, and we've seen him throughout the Chris Armis and Dax McCarty.

They make you better, they make you win.

And you just touched on this, so I think I know your answer, but on the club versus, not, I don't like to even say club versus country, like the club and country thing.

My guess is now, you know, hearing you speak.

Obviously, you have to protect your roster and the sounders and whatever. But when guys get a call-up, my guess is you're saying, yes, of course you're going to go.

This is your country.

We've been really, really good,

I think, as a club, not denying. And it happens a lot more with some of the younger guys that are coming up.

And, you know, they changed the rule and now it's mandatory even for friendlies and all that sort of stuff. But

we've been really good about that sort of stuff. We are super proud that Christian and Jordan got to go.
Jesus was there, you know, the last World Cup.

It's tricky, Landon, because I know what you're saying. We do have to protect the club.
And there's been times where, you know, guys have gone away and gotten injured or they're fatigued or

we get it, but we deal with it. You know, for us, you know, the

time, the worst time it really pinched us was, again, this was like, you know, five, six years ago. We had 11 guys missing because we had Jovan Jones and we had some guys from the Caribbean areas.

And we're missing 11 guys and we could barely field a team.

But, you know, we accept it because, you know, it's just what it is and if the player commits to us he knows that he has the best chance of playing for his national team and then when he plays for his national team that commitment and that effort and everything has to go even higher because you guys are playing one step higher yeah and we try and prepare them for that yeah it goes hand in hand um

I want to talk so so MLS announced big changes a couple weeks ago, right, to the roster and excuse me, to the calendar. Calendar, yes.

And in Houston, we're buzzing about that because, you know, we get to play in some games that aren't in August and July.

But

when we look at the rest of the world, and

it's a two-fold question. The rest of the world, whatever league you're in, you have the same climate, right?

Like London might have one sunnier day than Manchester, but everyone's getting the same climate. Okay.

In America,

and this is why we're delighted to have you answer this question.

You're going to be one of those northern teams where we're saying, wow, wow, the weather in Seattle during some of these months, this is going to be interesting. So one, do you like the change?

Are you for the change overall? And then

how do you as a staff, as a club, prepare for what is to come weather-wise?

So

to me, being German and practical and all that sort of stuff, yes, those were the first things that jump into my head when I heard about the change in the format.

How are you supposed to play a game in Minnesota in January or late December or February even?

And you know there's snow in Kansas City or Chicago or you know New York it's going to be challenging for the weather we're actually we're actually I just I think this is good information

because I heard it from one of our guys upstairs in the office we're actually considered one of the markets where you can play in January and December because we don't get a ton of snow right but look no it just rains every day all year yeah it doesn't matter what you took the words you took the words out of your mouth hey Lena that's one of the reasons why we win in the playoffs because we love those correct october november days where it's pouring down rain it's cold it's freezing cold the turf all that sort of stuff that's when the galaxy came to town well yes okay

he's always got that caveat fair fair comment you and people are very very good uh i will admit that uh so the the Seattle, the market, we will be able to play some games because of just logistics, the weather, the turf, all that sort of stuff.

But yeah, fixing the league as an entirety, Timmy,

I think that I think it's going to be good. I'll tell you more definitively once we're in it,

if I really like it better or not. But right now, it's a good idea on paper, matches us up with the rest of the world.
And, you know, I get it.

I hear the things that you're competing, the playoffs, you know, there's no NFL.

So I mean, I get it. Yeah.
All right. Well, last one here, Coach, and you've been very gracious with your time.
Thank you. As a, you know,

you played both of these teams this weekend, right? And everyone's going to be watching this weekend. Who do you give the edge to? Does the home field matter in that way for Miami?

If you had to pick, I mean, who do you think has the edge? Doesn't mean they're going to win, but.

No,

but I think this is about as evenly matched a

MLS cup final in in a long time in a lot of years i mean look there's been some great finals and look whether you're a guy that only watches european soccer or not some of the playoff games they've been great and i love decision day and so this has been an exciting month and a half for our league for our sport uh here in the states you couldn't have picked a better you know mueller versus messi and vancouver the you know the guys from up here versus the you know guys from way down here

it's like it's like It's like the furthest distance possible.

Opposite teams,

you got the white caps who are gritty, Pacific Northwest grid. I talk about that all the time.
You've got Miami,

South Beach, the superstars, Messi, Alba, Bousquette, all that.

I think it's going to be a tremendous thing. I will give the edge to Miami just because they are at home.
Because I think that

in MLS,

there is a little bit of advantage playing at home. Now, you would say that Vancouver just went down and knocked off a darn good San Diego team,

but LAFC was pretty good, too, and they were the beneficiaries. Vancouver was, they were the beneficiary playing up in BC place against LAFC.

I mean, on another night, LAFC could have beat them for sure.

Well, coach,

We really appreciate this. I always find ourselves like, I just want to sit here and keep talking for hours and pick your brain, but we've got to pay Tim's salary, so we got to take breaks.

You know what I mean, Coach?

Wishing you the very best in your cabin there in Seattle in the offseason and a really successful year next year. It's going to be exciting.
Again, a World Cup match there, the second U.S.

game, which we'll find out who their opponent is this week.

We'll be at Lumen Field in June. I think June 19th.
Does that sound right? Yes,

it's June 19th. So it'll be awesome for you guys and for the city of Seattle very, very soon.
It'll be great. It's an honor to have you on, Coach.
Good to see you again.

Well, you guys can invite me back. Landon, I could talk to you guys forever as well.

Return the compliment. Appreciate that.
All right, let's take a break.

When we come back, we'll get into your questions in the ATT fan connection right here on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim and Coach Schmetzer, presented by Volkswagen. Stick around.

This episode is brought to you you by Airbnb. Tim, nothing like MLS playoff season.
My favorite time of year. End of August, September, it's cold.
You travel to the Midwest or the eastern cities.

The leaves are changing. You get outside.
It's freezing for the game. I love this time of year.
Yeah, totally. LD.
Playoffs are what make American sports unique.

It's how you end up with an underdog team making some insane run for the championship or David and Goliath duking it out in the final.

Yeah, you don't want to miss a second of the playoffs no matter where your MLS team might be playing. In the first round alone, fans from New York are heading down to Charlotte.

Dallas fans making the trip up to the Pacific Northwest to play against Vancouver.

Last year in the final, the Red Bulls had to come all the way down to SoCal, where my galaxy beats your Red Bulls, Tim. Soccer fans in the U.S.

are dedicated to their teams and making the journey to support those teams as they make a run for the MLS Cup, whether it's the first time or the sixth, is a top priority.

Yeah, MLS fans bring the energy everywhere they go, so why not let that passion pay off? While you're on the road supporting your team, you could open your home to fellow fans on Airbnb.

Hosting your home on Airbnb while you travel is an easy way to earn a little extra and keep the spirit of soccer alive, even when you're away. Your home might be worth more than you think.

Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. All right, Tim, it is holiday season, and boy, do I need to choose chill sometimes.
Thanksgiving's an interesting one for me.

I go with the in-laws to a hotel. It's nice.

Most of them I like. Some of them are a bit challenging.

Sometimes I got to walk outside, grab a Coors Light, choose chill christmas is fun i enjoy it i love it all the things that come with it but the kids are home for two weeks and that is brutal sometimes so sometimes turn on the hot tub go out in the jacuzzi watch a football game grab a core's light and chill yeah you're right it's all it's always about family around the holidays and of course big family meals every time i finish eating i'm out back i get around the fire i reach in the cooler grab a cold core's light um and choose chill because as you mentioned it's hectic And then at some point, someone calls me inside to play spoons or card games.

And so I'm having a Coors Light, choose and chill. When you embrace a chill mindset this holiday, it's a good time to choose chill and crack open a Coors Light.

Choose Chill this holiday season and then reach for a Coors Light. Get Coors Light delivered straight to your door.

Visit CoorsLight.com slash USLNT, or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer. Celebrate responsibly.
Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado.

There's nothing better than feeling like someone has your back and that things are going to get done even without you having to ask.

Like your crisp new jersey waiting for you in the locker room or a perfectly set up wall for a free kick.

Yeah, as we on Unfiltered Soccer get ready for next summer, we know that very little in the beautiful game is guaranteed.

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It's time for the fan connection presented by ATT. Every week, we invite you, the listener, to connect with us by submitting your questions.
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And on USLNT, our connections with you will help grow the game.

Welcome back to Unfiltered Soccer.

This is the segment that we all love. It's the ATT Fan Connection.

It's a moment where you get to speak to us, yell at us. Well, yell at Jordan, really.

and send your comments. And so we always get excited.
Jordan, welcome. Hello.
How are you? I'm splendid. You're very Christmassy.
You got your little Charlie Brown tree in the back. That's good.

I just saw that. That's cute.
Cute.

Yeah, I'm trying to get into the holiday spirit, you know. Great.
Spread some joy and happiness, especially now that my football club is winning things again.

Wow. Wow, you went there.
I actually have a vanilla cedar candle burning in my new studio. So I feel festive as well.
Yes, I love that. I love a tree-scented candle.

So we have a lot of things going on in the feedback email. So, let's start with some comments that we have gotten.
So, there's no question here, but just some thoughts for you to noodle over.

The first one is from Aaron via email. And Aaron said, Last night, this is from a couple weeks ago.

Last night, I went to my first MLS game watching San Diego FC versus Minnesota in the second round of playoffs.

It was also the first time for all nine other people I brought, ranging from no soccer experience to those who follow follow mainly EPL.

We tailgated, had great seats for a reasonable price, and loved the San Diego positive energy, especially the Samba drums.

As Landon has touted, Andre Stryers delivered a classy clinical quality finish from a sweet back heel, along with some great saves from the defense in clutch moments that Tim would applaud.

It felt great to see how far the game has come with my son and others in a relaxed local experience. Thank you for promoting MLS and the beautiful game so broadly.
That's awesome. Well written.

Amazing. That was awesome.
Very nice. Yeah.

And to be honest, like soccer, we love soccer. We love it, obviously.
So we're partial, but like, if you have no idea about soccer, it's still a great viewing experience to see live. It's fun.

It's enjoyable. I always say that to him.

Like, TV is one thing, and sometimes a game can be boring if there's no goals and all that. If you go in person, it's so electric.
Totally. Because there's songs, there's drums, there's energy.

It's so colorful. Yeah.
And

we obviously enjoy it because we're partial.

As somebody who we talk a lot about my love of music and live music on this podcast, but I think all the things that make me love live music also apply to going to see soccer live.

Like it's that feeling of being in a crowd of people who are all cheering the same people, you know, doing the same thing. And that's like just really a wonderful experience.

I'm glad that Aaron had such a good time. So did all his friends.

Also, we have a comment from Renee via email who wanted you guys to know that that they just bought four tickets to see the U.S. play at Lumen Field because of the comments on this show.

Watch you guys every week. You are a great resource.
Go USA. Go USA.
I'd like to petition FIFA for a percentage of those ticket sales.

The four tickets that Renee bought. You know, that's probably cost 100 grand.
That might fall on deaf ears, even though you know people in FIFA. All right.
Well, oh, let's get into that.

That's awesome. I'll be there.
Come say hi, Renee. Here's a question from Chris via Instagram.

If you had to start your careers over again and play in each other's positions, who do you think would do better?

I'm world class. I'm world class.
It's an amazing question. It's an amazing thing.
So I would have played for Barcelona.

I would have played for Barcelona of Ecuador. Oh, Landon would have, like, no.

I win. I edge that.
I edge that. Well, I'm 5'8, dude.

6 more than Raimondo. But by the way,

stick the ball up to the big fella.

I'd be pinning people like Victor and Ichibi. And if you don't know who Victor and Ichibi is, shout out to Vic.
Yeah. I mean, the man could pin you and put you in a chair.

Are they saying like we had the same skill, but just different bodies? Or what's the I don't know? Like, imagine he had my level of like skill and all the things. Then we'd be the same person.

Yeah,

in that body, I would have played for Real Madrid.

I give you no goalkeeping credit. So So I'm like, I don't know.

I'm actually pretty good. I would be a pretty good goalkeeper.
You'd be okay. It's too small.

Okay.

Here's another question from Matt via email. If the World Cup started today,

who is the captain of the U.S. men's national team and why? That's a good question.
That's a great question.

Okay, so who? I'm a little bit baffled. I know she knows this.

Is there a rotating system or hasn't it been Ream? Yeah, it's mostly been Tim Ream.

It was Christian very recently. We talked about this on the podcast.
It was Christian

shockingly very recently. But then he didn't play, and then he hasn't had it until there was a game where I think nobody else was on the field.

So he was given, or the other people weren't on the field, so he was given the armband.

It's been Tyler, too. It was Tyler at times, and Chris Richards wore it a couple of times, didn't he?

I think maybe he did. Maybe.
Yes. I would guess Tim Ream, my guess.
Yeah.

My four candidates would be Tim Ream,

Chris Richards, Christian Pulisic, and Tyler Adams.

I tend to think.

Look, here's the thing about Tim Ream. If Tim Ream's on the field, he's going to be your captain, your leader, your father figure.
He's going to be everything, armband or not.

I'm also not in favor of giving it to players to empower them because I think that backfires and never works.

I don't know.

I don't.

It's actually, it's sad that we know, I know, I know, I know, I know.

And, and, and it's sad because in all four cases, there's like, you can make a decent argument as to why they shouldn't and someone else should.

Like, Tim Reem is good, but I think he's a little more quiet, which is fine. That can be Christian, he's, you know, for, he's had some challenges in and out with Pochitino.

Tyler, he's kind of in and out. And, you know, maybe, but Chris Richards, he has all the makings.
He's just so, he's so inexperienced. He will be.

So that's, I mean, that that is kind of an issue so the question is that's a great question it started will be if it started today i would say tim ream i guess i'd have to go with tim ream too wow yeah yeah

interesting

um i have a question for landon from lindsay via instagram landon This is such a strange question, but it's wonderful. You put it in.
Lindsay,

I know, but it's like. Why are you so handsome, Landon? Okay.
Landon, how was the experience of the 1999 Pan Am games in Winnipeg? I was there too. Why didn't she ask me? Were you there? I don't know.

Bro, I was there. Steve Shaq.
In Winnipeg, right? In Winnipeg. Steve Shaq.

That's a hell of a question. Is Lindsay from Winnipeg? I don't know.
Has to be. She has to be.
I'll tell you two things I remember about that trip. One was I flew into Fargo, North Dakota.
Same.

When I ran up. I drove up to Winnipeg.
You what? Go ahead, keep going, keep going. And the second was there was a Casey and JoJo song playing like that came out during that time.

And I mean, I had it on repeat. And it was Aiden Brown.
All my life. It was either All My Life or it was another one.
Maybe it's Tell Me It's Real.

That's what we're getting real deep. Did you want to sing a couple bars? Did you deep? Tell me it's real.

This feeling that I feel.

Jordan's loving this.

Was Aiden Brown on that trip? I played, so I don't know. I want to say Aiden Brown and I were listening to that song like on repeat.
Those are the only things I remember. So it's amazing.

I also flew through Fargo. I'm guessing that's the route you go.
I'm guessing. And I ran into,

I'm going to butcher this. I ran into either Little Richard.

Little Richard. Maybe.
Is that right? Is that a singer? A singer? Singer. Little Richard.
Or there's another one that looks like him who's got the perm in his hair and the makeup. Anyway.

Stevie Wonder. No, it wasn't Stevie Wonder.
Like a Muddy Waters.

I think it might have been Little Richard.

In the airport? Where am I? Yeah. Where am I?

But yes, I was also there. Great question.
Great question.

Okay, well, I included a question specifically for Tim because I thought the other one was specifically for Landon. This one's from Lucas via email.

Tim, I was wondering what it is like competing with your fellow goalkeeper teammates on your professional club and national teams. I imagine that you are friends, but also competing for one spot.

Does the competition ever get in the way of your relationship? Just wondering what that looks like at the pro level. Great question.
Good question. No, no, it doesn't get in the way.

I remember, I remember

like in all of the times that I played like in the Premier League or what have you, like I've been open, openly admitted this. I like Brad Guzan's my guy.

You know, I competed against Casey Keller and all these guys. I wanted them to be so horrifically bad in their games and in their league.

Like when Brad Guzan was on the rise and he was pushing me, he was at Villa, I was like, I hope he gets pumped. Every week I turn, he's my guy, and I'm guessing

he's going to come on this show soon. I'll probably say the same thing because

that's the only way you can compete.

It's not like Tyler Adams and Landon playing in the same midfield. They can play in the same midfield.
They can both be amazing. There's going to be one.
So, in fact, I saved, I remember

Villa Park is one of the most amazing places to play in England. And we were playing, we were playing.
he was, he was down the other end, and they were giving me loads of pelters.

They were like, they were calling Kuzan like U.S. number one and all sorts.
Like, it was crazy. And I remember being so angry.

And I saved a penalty and I started giving it back because I was like, nah, man. But no, I think, I think there's a, but all that being said, you always walk the line.

So like, I never, I never spoke out of turn to Brad. Brad never spoke out of turn to me.

We always had each other's back. We always looked after each other.
We were like best of friends. But deep down, when he gave me a big old bear hug before the the game, I'm also like,

I felt that. I know what that means.
You're hoping that I'm not great today. You know, that's that's normal.
That's what you want.

It's like, uh, it's like a quarterback in the NFL, right? And this is why I always say clarity is so important and knowing your roles, because if

it's too close and there's competition, it can create some issues and it's challenging. Like Tim knew he was the guy.

Now, if he had three bad games in a row, it can change, but like he knew, but he also knew in the back of his mind, okay, this guy's coming. And

to your point, if me and

Clint and Ricardo Clark were all phenomenal in training, it's not like one of us was going to, you can find a way to get a show on the field. Sure, that's right.
Right.

But a goalkeeper, there's only one. So great question.

Tim, I'd like to ask a follow-up question.

So I never really thought about it until you just told that story, but Goalkeeper is maybe the only player on the field that it would be okay for them to like engage with the fans during the game.

All the the time.

All the time. So what is that experience? Do you feel like you need to be funny or like

have a quick quip for them or anything? Or it's just instinctual, like you're reacting to. You're so close.
You hear everything.

And the thing.

I could be thrown in jail for the things I used to say to people because,

and vice versa, we'd be sharing the same jail cell because of what they said to me.

But we used to, people,

they would say things and and it would make you it would make you like enraged and so i would give it i would say some horrific things because i was like i'm i'm getting i'm getting it from you it's not like if you think for a second i can't give it back like do one did i tell this did i ever tell the i'm trying to think i've told it recently did i tell the story on here ld about um i think it used to be one set of fans, but then it kind of started all over where they would make fun of my threat syndrome.

Did I I ever tell you that? Yeah, so you swore at them. So I swore at them and then they just started laughing.
And it was so, it was so funny.

But no, then that was, that was the fun part. But I think overall, like

you would, you would, um,

you would say some things back. Or you should.
I'm not just going to take it on Jim.

Okay. One last question.
I feel like I just want to say to all of the people who write into the show,

I love when you write in with your ideas of how to make soccer better because those I almost guarantee will end up on the show because sometimes they are, I just like the idea of winding Tim and Landon up with some of these suggestions, but I think this one is like an interesting concept.

I talk about man market messy. So like I'm all, I'm all for suggestions.
Innovation. Landon wants to start getting rid of players in

extra time. So totally.
Okay, this is from Tyler via email.

I do my best to convert fellow Americans into soccer fans, but I find that many get stuck on the faking injuries and time-wasting tactics in general.

I think if soccer ditched the running clock and adapted a start-stop clock like basketball, for example, it would disincentivize a lot of the quote-unquote dark arts that are huge turnoffs to the average American viewer.

It's an interesting, I mean, in college soccer, they do that. Like they do.
No, we're not, we're not adopting college soccer rules. We got to get rid of, we got to get rid of half of those.

Just keep going. Keep going.
I'm just saying they do it. Like

the challenge with added time is it's all subjective.

It's just the reference. I mean, there's not, I know they say like 30 seconds per substitution and 30, but that doesn't, sometimes a sub goes off in four seconds.

And sometimes it takes them a minute to get off the field. And so, yeah, there's so much subjectivity.
And I remember during.

Was it in Qatar in the first round games? They had like 12 minutes, 50. They were like just taking the piss out of it.
And so it was like, I don't know.

It's not, I don't know if that's the solution, but doing away with that would be immense. Now, don't they have the rule where you have to stay off for 30 seconds or something? Do they do that in MLS?

It's an MLS rule. Yeah.

I don't, I don't hate that because I'm like, dude, if you really that hurt, I always tell my kids when they get hurt when we're playing soccer with them, I'm like, fine, if you're hurt that bad, go inside.

Otherwise, let's go. Get out of here.

Yeah, let's play. I don't know.

I'm okay with it. I'm okay with,

I think they've done a good job from a rule standpoint of just trying to get things moving and cooking a little bit quicker.

It's also part of the game, you know, some, some of these things. So I think the referee.
I think what they're saying, Tim, is like it's turning people off from watching.

I get that comment all the time.

You're in like the diehards, right? Like people turn on NBC. Those are like the diehards every week.

But like, these are people who are like, I really want to watch, but they're rolling around for three minutes. It's just like stupid.

I

disagree because i've been i've been in the game a long time you know almost as long i think you and i have been the same

and i've heard it as like an overarching comment but people say the darndest thing to me people say anything to me i've never had someone come up to me and go i really liked chelsea and i wasn't really into soccer but i really liked him but i got halfway through the season and this rolling around thing i just never watched again like no one no one's ever said as a blanket statement people will will will excuse me, will call a, call in or write in and say, like, I just don't know if that's, I don't know if that's turning people off.

I don't know. I don't think they're getting deep.
Cause I think if you're deep into the game, then you're not turning it off anymore.

No, but my point is, is like people are like, I'd like to watch, but this is all I watch. Every time I turn it on, this is all I see.
So I know, but

I, I, honestly, I, it boggles my mind that people who are so dedicated to American football, which takes like nine hours to watch 15 minutes of American football. It's like,

and there's no commercial breaks. Like there's one big commercial break in the middle of the game, guys.
Like set aside two hours, watch your soccer, and then go about the rest of your life.

It's better on this side. It's also my opinion.
It's also fandom.

And we talked about this with Messi and people hating into Miami. Like there is part of this where you...

Bro, the best rivalry you and I have ever played in is USA, Mexico. And I'm telling you,

if there was a team who I i hated to play against because that's what they were going to do early in my career they're going to take the lead and then they they were going to bleed that clock and but it creates this hate and this love and it's i don't know i'm here for it anyway fair okay as a reminder if you would like your suggestion for how to make soccer better featured on this podcast you can email me at feedback at unfilteredsoccer.com That's it.

All right, Timmy, another amazing show. Thank you all for being with us.
Remember to subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, anywhere you get your podcast.

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fan connection sponsor, ATT, and our stoppage time sponsor, FanDuel. Also, thanks to Brian Schmetzer.
He was phenomenal.

And a reminder that the draw is this week on Friday, and we will be on afterwards. Yeah, Coach Schmetzer, thank you.

One of the best at do-it-incredible Incredible human, incredible coach, some amazing insights. So thank you for taking the time to come on the show.

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We'll be back next Tuesday with another edition of Unfiltered Soccer.