Galaxy Final-Bound Sans Puig, Pep's 6 Losses in 7 Games, and the Truth About Klinsmann

You're a soccer player. You're not a soccer practicer, right? Or you're not a soccer contracted person.
Like, do you want to play soccer or not? Welcome everybody to Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard presented by Volkswagen. Volkswagen has been a long supporter of soccer in America and has proudly been a partner of U.S.
soccer for the past five years. So thank you very much to them.
LD, look at you. Look at us.
Look at us. Unfiltered swag has come in.
Swag, baby. Swag.
We're proudly rocking it. By the way, I have some extras.
So maybe we'll give some away at some point because I can't wear all of it. How was your Thanksgiving? Great.
It was amazing. Weather was good.
Food was good. Kids are all well.
I injured myself. We played backyard football.
Injured yourself? Yeah. Not backyard.
We went to a turf field and we played football. I tried to stop on a dime, which didn't work.
Popped the old hamstring and I was out of commission. It doesn't work.
Things don't work like they used to, bro. I can't.
Straight lines. I have to be in straight lines.
I can't cut. It's a disaster.
Did you have to stop playing then? I was just a designated QB. I was just hobbling.
It's fine. It's for the cause.
Well, you had physical trauma. I had some emotional trauma.
My mother-in-law, Liz, is listening. So, Liz, I promise this is not geared towards you.
I went to the Outlaws for Thanksgiving. Nice country club.
They had a nice setup. Food was great.
Some interesting people. I love my immediate in-laws.
My father and mother-in-law and Hannah's sisters love. Their extended family is a little interesting.
I love how you're setting this up. Some interesting comments.
We won't get into it too much. Some interesting comments, some interesting conversations.
But it was fun. I enjoy that stuff.
But it's just not what you're used to. So it was fun.
I enjoyed it. A lot of greens.
a lot of healthy. You're from California.
I'm not surprised at that. Yeah.
It was like kale and greens for Thanksgiving. I showed you my plate and I had like zero greens on it, which is unusual for me.
I just forgot my greens. Is it though? Is it? It is.
It is. It's my day to go wild.
And I went wild on the gravy and the macaroni and cheese and turkey. You know, my favorite is stuffing.
I love stuffing. Like I would never eat that.
Like that concoction of things. It's just like celery and bread.
And I'm like, this is weird, but it's so good. So good.
All right. Follow us on social media at Unfiltered Soccer.
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All right, let's start an MLS conference finals.

Your Red Bulls went to Orlando, a hostile confines of Orlando and beat Orlando 1-0.

Yeah, I like how it was my Metro stars.

I don't know if it's my Red Bulls.

Metro donkeys.

Terrible.

We used to have our logo used to be a taxi.

A donkey. If you guys can look up the old MLS logos.
It was a taxi? One of them was a taxi. Stop it.
Absolutely. I mean, listen, there's still people in New York that will have like an old Metro Stars jersey.
And I'm like, you know, you suffered with me. You know.
That's so good. It's amazing.
Yeah. Good times.
Yeah. Look, I think, I think the game played how Red Bull probably it to play.
You know, it was a little bit scrappy. Reyes scores in the 47th minute.
Good time to score. I mean, it's never a bad time, but there's some good time to score.
It kind of gave Red Bull the impetus to, like, go on and have something to hold on to. Yeah, look, I love, you know, when we look at the other side of it which we'll talk about i you know the galaxy has always been and and rightfully so the glitz and the glamour team which of mls which i love and they've they've been brilliant and rebel right now we're just like feisty and scrappy and i i think that contrast you know there's always a team in american sports when it comes to playoffs that you're like they shouldn't be here you talked about it in one of our last episodes like just get in once you get in now the gloves are off and like and and you catch you catch fire and to be in that dress room you you get on these runs as a as the underdog team in the playoffs and you just know you don't know where the moment's coming from but you know it's coming it might be a scra a scrappy goal, a header.
It could be against the run of play, but you have this confidence in your group that you're going to get it done. Yeah, you're just not going to lose.
Yeah. No, congrats to them.
And it's going to be an interesting matchup. Let's get into Galaxy.
They pummeled the Sounders for the first 30 minutes. I was watching with my boys on the couch.
I was just waiting for the goal to come.

It never came. Seattle kind of worked their way back into the game.
They were happy to sit,

defend, and then had some counter opportunities

which the Galaxy dealt with very well.

But eventually

you felt it was going to come. You just didn't know when.

Ricky Pooj,

I don't know

how this guy does this.

He tore his ACL in the game yeah and my first thought was well how the hell did they let him keep playing in the game because you know when they come out on the field they do this exercise you know it like where they they check the I don't know they check just check how sturdy your knee is structure they can usually tell structurally right away if it's torn and not I mean i have never seen a situation where they said it's torn and then it wasn't or it's fine and then it was torn like they know right and so it was just crazy that everybody knew it was torn and i'm wondering if they had the conversation said listen ricky you can keep playing worse you know it probably ain't gonna get worse and he's probably, I'll do it. Because he also knew right after the game.
He was crying with his parents or whatever. Anyway, so 85th minute, he gets a ball, makes a little play on a turnover from Seattle, plays a great pass into Jovalich who buries it.
And that was it. That was the goal they needed.
And I just have so much respect for Ricky, not just because what he'd done as a player, but he's brought some soul back into the galaxy. And that's been missing for so long, Tim.
and I just have so much respect for Ricky, not just because what he'd done as a player, but he's brought some soul back into the galaxy. And that's been missing for so long, Tim.
And I just love the way he cares about the franchise. Yeah, no, that loyalty is important.
And I think for those of you who have never experienced adrenaline at that level, That's what's carried him

To be able to play through an injury like that

To be able to brush that aside

Adrenaline is one of the craziest things ever

Tim, real quick, just talking to that

I don't know if I've ever shared this public

I don't even know how much you guys knew

In the Algeria game

Where I scored the goal At the end, after the game. I threw to you.
Oh, that was you. After that game, I was with Burt Mandelbaum, our doctor, and they were doing some tests.
And actually, it was a very small tear, but I had a tear in my hamstring. And I ended up playing three days later in the ghana game but to your point like when you have that level of adrenaline going you don't even think about it like and like you i'm i'm canadian so i love hockey and these guys play with like broken legs and in the playoffs and like they just you just don't even think about so he got through it man it, man.
Congrats to him. Phenomenal that he got them there.
Now the question is, as we look forward to the final. So you have this crazy, hectic, chaotic Red Bull style.
By the way, on a really big field against a team that loves to have the ball. So I'm curious how that's going to play out.
Because they might just run themselves into the ground if they're not careful. But how do you replace Ricky Pooch? I mean, is it a straight like for like with Delgado or Brugman? Or how do you go about that? Yeah, that's a good question.
And I will say from experience, like I played in some amazing places. And sometimes dimensions of the field are also based on sight lines.
Like some fields feel bigger and smaller. The field in LA is massive.
Like I always remember standing- And it plays big. It plays big.
I remember even my last couple of seasons in MLS having been in Europe and you and I have been to World Cups together. And I just remember like standing in the 18-year-old box and like, how big is it? Like it's massive and the sight lines open up.
It's beautiful to play. But yeah, so, you know, one of the things about Ricky Pooj that I just admire is his ability to create flow for that team, right? Best player or not, he's absolutely the most influential player.
I don't think he's the best player, but he's the most influential player. And I remember when they played in this run, when they played the Colorado Rapids, and, they played them off the park.
And I just remember thinking I'd play two up front. It's easy to say this in hindsight, right? But I, as I watched the playoffs go, I'd play two up front.
I'd sacrifice one of my strikers and it would essentially shadow him, not man mark him. Like the old days were like the coach would say, grab a fistful of his shirt.
And if he goes to the bathroom, you go with go with him that's how we used to man mark but you can like it's so obvious to the trained or untrained eye when Ricky Pooj gets into flow he's going and you can see something's gonna happen you don't know if the goal is gonna get scored or whatever but you can see it happening because LA his team does the same thing they go from first gear to fourth they skip gears. They're walking.
Pooj puts his foot on the ball. He looks up.
He rolls it. He passes it to a center back, runs and gets it from the center back.
Everyone's standing. And then when they go, they just fly.
And so it's sad to say because he's out and he's towards ACL. I would have just spent so much time dumping him, constantly getting niggles at his ankles and making sure he was on the turf because I think that's important to break up the flow because LA is all about flow and they're brilliant.
How does he do it? That's been the question for me as I look and I wonder what's Greg Vanney going to do? You and I would agree. You can essentially go like for like and say, okay, we're not going to change formations.
We're not going to tilt the formation. We're going to put a player in place of him.
Well, same thing happened at Man City. Rodri's out.
We're going to play the same way. We'll just plug somebody in for Rodri.
It doesn't work. They're not the same player.
I mean, to watch Pooj dip his shoulder and dive and duck and make people miss, that's what he wants. He actually wants you to come on to him so that he can spin you and create that momentum.
So the other part is, as you know, it's like, okay, well then tilt the formation and change things. It's like, this is how you've won all season long, playing this way.
So it's a big question. Obviously, Greg Manning knows that.
He's qualified. qualified he's a brilliant manager i just wonder from the psyche of the players because i've been in these i've been in these dressing rooms and it's like when you don't have your ace there when you don't have your main main guy there you're like oh like we can say all the right things in the press next man up it ain't the same no it's not and so from a from a mentality standpoint with the galaxy they're really gonna have to figure out how they get over this hump well tell you who's had a lot of sleepless nights over the last few nights is greg vanney right like normally you would be excited can't wait let's just keep them going a few training sessions let's go right i can promise there's been a lot of anxiety um it's easy to say like like you said, next man up, we're fine.
They can win without him. They can.
My bigger question is how are they going to play the game? They have 600, 650, 700 passes every game, and they're just, like you said, methodical, methodical. And then when they break lines, they break pressure, then they accelerate the attack and bang, they're at you.
And that's how they play. Nobody else can do that the way he can.
And I'm not sure there's anyone in the league who does that in the same way he does. So how do you deal with that as a manager? It can be fascinating to watch.
And we'll know early what kind of game do they think they're going to get into. The other thing that's hard to him in these weeks, and I don't think people realize this, is how you prepare for this game.

It is different.

And everyone's going to, again, publicly,

everyone's going to say, just another game.

Think about it from New York's standpoint.

They've got to travel.

So they're flying across the country.

We used to, when we would go across country for a final,

we would leave at least three days early, maybe four.

I wouldn't be surprised if they're leaving today on Tuesday or tomorrow on a Wednesday, getting there really early. And then the other thing that you have to think about, and this is, I don't think fans understand this.
Playing a game at 1 p.m. is way different than playing a night game.
There's like a visual aspect to it. There's a sleep, like circadian rhythm timing to it.
So for New York Red Bull players, it's going to feel like 4 p.m. unless they get out really early and get adjusted to the time.
But then the question is, do you train at 1 p.m. if you're both teams? I personally loved it.
We would train at 1 p.m. because you know what else changes? All your preparation.
So now you, instead of waking up at 8, training at 10, or waking up at eight, going for a walk, sleeping all afternoon and playing a game at 7 p.m., now you got to play at 1 p.m. And 1 p.m.
kickoff is way different. There's media that happens during the week that's unusual.
There's ticket requests from all your friends and family, which is a total disaster, as you know. It's a total nightmare.
People texting you Friday evening saying, Hey, do you got one more ticket? And you're like, Jesus, dude, I'm just trying to rest for the game. Travel, people's families traveling.
And this is on both sides, right? So there's a lot of things that change and it's going to be interesting to see who handles that better. Yeah.
And I think that, I think the preparation for Red Bull specifically, obviously LA will have its own challenges. And I think about, you know, I certainly don't question the Galaxy tactics, you know, when you were playing because you guys won so much.
I remember playing, you know, playing Premier League games on the weekend and then playing in Europe, whether it be Europa League or Champions League midweek. And I remember managers would bring us in to train at the time we were going to play, like you said.
So that was like we always play, you know, in England, you play in the afternoon or in the morning. And then European games are at night.
So they're under the lights. There's a different feel to it.
So we would train in the evenings. And I remember hating that as a player because I was like, just let me train at the normal time.
And then on match day, I can figure out my routine. You know, we're old enough and responsible enough to do that.
Red Bull, as you mentioned, do they travel on the Wednesday or the Thursday? You know, I was always a proponent of manager managers who would keep us in our own bed and in our own homes and our routine the same. And even if you can buy one more day of that, it kind of takes the pressure off.
But, you know, from the standpoint of being an older senior player, managers used to tell me like, hey, enjoy, you know, enjoy the week leading up to a cup final or whatever, but not too much. And I remember thinking like, I can't enjoy them too tense.
And then the older I got, I would help try and keep the vibe of the team light and enjoy the press conferences and enjoy the open trainings because it was like, look at us. We deserve this.
We deserve to have all the eyes on us. We've earned this.
We'll still be focused on match day, but enjoying the buildup in those, as you know, in the big games because they're so different. Everything about that week is about the final.
And so it's hard. And I think about the game itself.
Any big game, they often say finals are more disappointing than semifinals because semifinals have everything. It's chaos.
And finals are cagey because both teams are like, oh, I'm scared to death to lose this. But I think early on, it's going to be interesting because big games, and you know this, the first 15, 20 minutes are all about establishing battle lines.
And Red Bull do that really well in terms of the Red Bull way, right? They pass forward, run forward, run through tackles, play on the knock, play balls in the channel. It's a bit chaotic.
And they found a way to be comfortable in that chaos, and they've thrived on that. So do I think that Galaxy will get the ball down and play and create tempo? Of course they will.
That's what they've done. That's what they've been successful with under Greg Benney.
It's just about how long that takes them. Do they concede chances early on? It's going to be a fascinating final.
I was just, as you were talking through that, one other thing we had happen in our first final with Beckham. He was trying to get us suits, like matching suits to wear all week.
And for most of our guys, like in 2011, a lot of guys were making $60, $70, $80 grand. So to get like a $2,000 suit was like, they were stoked, right? But the problem is he was trying to get it done and for some reason it wasn't coming together.
So on the Friday before our Saturday game, after training, they said, guys, we need you to go in and get fitted for your suit. Right.
And I was like, okay, that's cool. But now I'm standing on my feet for two hours, trying to get fitted into it.
And they somehow turned it around and got us the suits the next morning. Yeah, it was amazing.
I mean, that's the power of Beckham, by the way. God bless David Beckham for being able to turn around a team full of suits.
Our guys were still walking in with a suit. David probably didn't even wear the suit.
He probably wore his $20,000 or whatever he wore. But he was so pumped.
But the point is, everything changes on these weeks. It is different.
And by the way, cup final suit are amazing. We've been to a few cup finals, and I remember that was part of the – winning the semifinalifinal was like amazing when a cup final.
Also, what color are our suits going to be? What color are the ties? I still have my cup final suits hanging in my closet. It's crazy.
Well, it's going to be fun to watch. I will be there.
So I will send some Instagram clips or some version. I'll be there with my boys enjoying it and it should be a lot of fun.
Go Galaxy. No problems being biased here.
You can root for whoever you want, Tim, but go Galaxy. One other thing in MLS just caught my eye this week.
There have been so many coaching changes. It's crazy.
Chicago, St. Louis, San Jose, Dallas, Austin, Philly, Vancouver, NYC, Toronto, Inter-Miami.
And what came to mind to me is in the past in MLS, you saw very little of this. One, it was hard to find another new manager who was good enough.
Probably one before that, his teams were cheap. So they didn't want to pay people out if they had two or three years left on their deal.
But it just feels now like owners are more emotional

and more invested.

And you see this in other sports

where it's like Iberflus for the Bears

makes a bad decision, bang, you're out.

And now owners are just,

their expectations are unrealistic

and they think they should be doing better than they are.

So they're like, just get rid of the coach. And I don't necessarily like it, but I think it is a sign of maturation for MLS.
I don't like to see people get fired. I don't.
I think these are men and women just doing exactly what we're trying to do, become great. And it's tough to see people lose their jobs.
The flip side to that is, as you mentioned, the landscape of soccer in America has changed. There are better coaching candidates, right? And ownership groups who do care and who do listen to the pulse of the team, you know, whether that be commercially, from a fan standpoint, from the players.
Obviously, you hope that these are all very calculated decisions. You know, it's crazy to think, though, that like nearly a third of the league has had coaching vacancies, you know, either, you know, back into the season or the offseason.
It's more than I've ever seen. I think it also comes down to the fact that, and you mentioned it a little bit,

back in the first iteration of MLS,

there just wasn't a lot of good managers out there, right?

There just wasn't.

Like the good managers, you knew who they were,

and that was it.

But the fact of the matter is,

I look at a guy like Robin Frazier,

who I played under for six months in Colorado.

He's a fantastic manager.

The fact that he doesn't have a job currently, I mean, some of the work he did with Colorado got cut short too quickly, but he would be an absolute diamond for one of these teams to pick up. So hopefully, you know, he's getting a look in as well.
Curious what our listeners think. Maybe who are the top three to five managers they would like to see for their teams or who you think would be next on the list.
All right, let's move across the pond. Premier League.
Big story of the weekend, Liverpool smash Man City. And it's 2-0, but I have never seen, Tim, the mannerisms, the body language of Man City, I have never seen them look like that.
The first 30 minutes, I mean, they were m moping around the field they were all over the place tactically like bernardo silva experiment in the midfield central midfield like that is long over they they are just all out of sorts man and i'm it has to be deeper than just tactical stuff there has to be something going on behind the scenes and it's sad to watch because i love good soccer and i love that pep is always push it's why i'm happy the galaxy not just because the galaxy are back but the way they play yeah versus teams that just sit in and defend and they're ugly and so it's hard for me to watch it's it's i don't know it's it's been hard to watch what's going on the city is bad man it's is bad, man. It's gone from bad to worse as well.
Hats off to Liverpool. I mean, playing it.
For sure. The way that they're playing under a transition of manager from Klopp to slot and leading the league and doing it in the fashion they are, hats off to soft to Liverpool.
It's, it's fantastic. But again,

the bigger or as big of a story is the capitulation of Manchester city.

Like we're seeing it in a real scary way.

Take it to like,

we're seeing body language that we've never seen from these players.

By the way,

this is a team who always overcome nearly everything.

Like,

like they have a points deficit.

No problem.

They'll go on a 14 game unbeaten run. Like they are losing games that you just expect them to win or expect them to show a better account of themselves.
I mean, like Pep Guardiola, you know, he had the other day the scratches on his head and a cut nose and it was bleeding. And he made an uncomfortable joke about self-harm.
And we know self-harm is nothing to joke about and mental illness and he since has walked that back as has the club but it speaks to a bigger moment like we've we've never seen that from him you know and i watch him every week and he always puts his head in his hands and he scratches it but this was like physical harms you know like it's scary it's anger um and i and i just i just look And I just look at City and think like, what is going to come of this team? You know, you think they were, in midweek in the Champions League, 3-3 draw to Feyenoord, booed off at full time. And by the way, it was a draw that felt like a loss.
But shame on you City fans, by the for boo for booing because because i know for a fact i've watched european nights at city and there's been a lot of light blue seats empty so i don't think you have the right to boo a team who's given you the success it's given you um and yet sometimes on european nights you don't show up because you know what it's not really that good of a team and we're just expected to get to the next round. So I'm not buying, I'm not buying those booze, but the fact of the matter is this feels like big trouble for city.
Well, Pep is human city or human. And it's going to be interesting to see how much longer this continues and can they turn it around? Um, we won't spend much time on United, but they beat our old team Everton comfortably.
They look good, but we'll have more to say when they play some teams further up the table. But a good win for Emmerim and looks like they're moving in the right direction.
Yeah. I think under Ruben Emmerim, I think as a player on the inside, you oftentimes talk about processes and information getting taken on board and muscle memory.
These wins, no matter what team they're against, they're important in the buildup because as a new manager takes over, he's pumping these ideas into this team. He's trying to strip away what the last manager brought in and trying to implement his ideas.
And there are growing pains with that. And what makes the growing pains easier to handle is when you win games.
I don't know that sounds simplistic, but this team, this man United team will then go back on the training ground next week and go, yeah, Gaffer told me to make this run and I did it. And I got the cross away and we scored from it.
It makes you feel good. Does it make you feel perfect? No.
But it lets you know, because what ends up happening is if you don't win those games and all of a sudden you're're like the doubt creeps in there's so much doubt because football players are so insecure and so temperamental that they need that that security need that confidence so you know amaran is building and these are these are huge huge building blocks well by the way when when rude van istara was there they i think won four in a row and so they're probably like okay we're doing pretty well yeah so to change things? And they're on, they're on the right path. It looks like, um, speaking of RVN, your former teammate, yeah, Lester city.
He's now the manager of Lester city. Um, is that, uh, earned deserve? Was that just because of his last four games? Probably, which is crazy.
So like, you know, rude is someone who I consider a friend. I, I've, I've him he's brilliant watching his you know managerial career at psv and and and certainly at united he got those four games after tenhag was sacked as the interim manager and the crazy thing about we just talked about this with mls owners and and kind of being emotional and knee-jerky with some of that some of their the opposite.
I don't think Rude, and again, I think he deserves an opportunity because I think he's a good enough manager, but he got this Leicester job because of the four or five games that he managed Man United. I don't sit here and say, even with his CV resume and coaching with PSV and others, he doesn't get this Leicester City job if he doesn't manage those four games, five games for Manchester United.
So when you look at the Leicester City ownership group, they're thinking, we're going to give this guy a job based on that performance. So it works both ways.
I'm excited to see him back in the Premier League for sure. I mean, hopefully it goes well for him.
You have to remember, people forget. It's usually one or two people making these decisions.
True, true. And what you also don't forget, we're all humans.
So whoever the chairman is or the chairwoman or the owner, they might say, I loved watching that guy play. Yeah.
I want to hire him. And that's it.
And it's over. It's done.
Which is bizarre. We'll see what happens.
All right, let's take a break. When we come back, we will be talking U.S.
men's national team, PSV.

What a comeback they had with Malik Tillman and Ricardo Pepe.

Right here on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim, presented by Volkswagen.

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PSV's club colors are red and white, but they might actually be red, white, and blue. Tell us why.
Yeah, midweek Champions League. So Malik Tillman scores off a free kick, a weird angle, 87th minute, like barely crossed the line.
It's against Shakhtar Donuts. They're down 2-0.
That makes it 2-1.

Then Tillman scored an absolute banger.

If you haven't seen the video, go watch it.

Just the way he strikes it is so pure.

And then Mr. Super Sub.

Hates that.

That's why I say it.

Ricardo Pepe gets the winner in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

A little bit of look what I found.

It bounces around in the box, falls to him, but he is in that kind of form by the way he was subbed on again the start

of the second half what else does this guy have to do to start a game well what else does he have

to do yeah i mean i'm just sick of it it's like ridiculous how many times do you have to score

you say i scored i did my job can i start a game now look i i i love what he's doing i love i love

what ricardo pepe's doing i think the fact that he continues to say he wants to play, he hates the moniker super stub, his head is on right. He's saying the right things, he's being bold and brash, and then he's going and handling his business.
And look, people, I live this, and I know you live this. People can question this for as long as we're on air.
American soccer players get the short end of the stick in Europe. End of story.
It is. If you play for a South American country or a European country, and he's banging in goals for his team.
He's starting. He's starting.
I don't know what to tell you. I'm sorry, people.
That's how it works. And so, you know, the mindset is what I love.
You have to have, you have to have this mindset that I'm going to earn it every day. And he's doing, and he's doing that.
So great for him. Also great for the US Men's National Team.
You want players who are informed, by the way, constantly informed, not like informed for a couple of months, constantly informed over the course of a season and an international calendar. So well played to him.
Yeah. Elsewhere, good to see Christian Pulisic back in form.
The whole Trump dance thing seems to be gone and hopefully in the past, hopefully he's learned from it, but right back in form, scored against Bratislava in the Champions League and then had an assist this weekend. So he's right back at it.
So good for him. Definitely.
Definitely. And I think, well, what we already know is how heavily Milan rely on him.
And I think that's a good thing to have that sort of pressure because it's easy to perform when you aren't the main guy. And it's much more difficult when you're expected to score.
You're expected to perform and we expect that from him on the US Men's National Team but the fact that a world powerhouse, a European powerhouse like Aces Milan feels that way about him too and he continues to deliver, hats off to him. Well done.
Yeah, and long may it continue, hopefully. Yeah, definitely.
So, this producers reminded us, this day, two years ago, because the Qatar World Cup was in the winter, was US-Netherlands. The 3-1 loss to the Netherlands.
And it got us thinking as we were chatting through this week, where are we today as a national team? And I'm going to give you the lineup in a second that day. Are we better off? Are we worse off? Are we the same? Here was the lineup.
So Matt Turner in goal. We had Serginio Dest at right back, Walker Zimmerman, Tim Ream, and Anthony Robinson at left back.
We had McKinney, Adams, and Moussa through the middle, Pulisic, Weah on the wings, and Ferreira, Jesus Ferreira up top. So, just walk me through that.
Are we better off today? Worse off? Where are we at? It's funny, you know, I cast my mind back to that game when I saw the rundown and Memphis Depay scored, Daly Blind scored for them, Denzel, Dumfries, I mean, talented, talented players. But I remember thinking on the day, like, this game was somewhat delicately balanced.
You know, gave up the early goal, but we're playing tough, which is what you need to do, as you know, in a World Cup for the US. And then it was just like that, those fine margins, LD, the technical ability of the Dutch.
And I remember thinking, this is the difference. This is the difference when it comes to the US team overall versus like a European team or a South American team that are just like littered with good, talented players where it's that one touch, that final pass, whatever it was.
And I mean, look, overall as a team, I wouldn't say that we're much further ahead than that team, given the step back that we took in Copa America, right? Because we're on a different coach. What I would say is, you know, when I look at McKinney and Adams and Moussa, those partnerships, that development of that midfield is a few years older, which can only benefit the understanding and the knowledge of how they play together.
But that's him. Let me just start.
That's assuming those three, one, will play together, because Musub has been playing wide now with Pochettino a little bit, and Tyler Adams hasn't been healthy. Right.
So now, you know. I would expect, look, my expectation is that they would play together in some way, shape, or form.
That gets a check from me. We know Pulisic and Weah have continued to do the business over the course.
And they're in better form now. They're in better form, both on the club side as well.
They seem to be settled. So that, for me, is, again, a big checkmark.
And then in goal, thoughts are, I don't know if we're better off. I mean, I think you mentioned something to me where you didn't think so.
I think we're probably in the same position. Yeah, I mean, Matt Turner has not been playing.
It's hard to say we're better off there. And then our center backs outside.
Anthony Robinson playing at an elite elite level. Scali on the right.
Okay. Center backs, I think an issue right yeah center back's gonna be gonna be an issue i i think until and this is really hard for for the u.s to develop but like a a center back who wants to be you know when you look at the best center backs in the world which is what world football is asking, you have to open up and be expansive and know how to play.

But you also have to dig in and grind and be tough as nails and be towering in your headers and tough in the tackle.

And I can think of a bunch of players in the Premier League that I watch every weekend.

And I'm like, OK, they have both of those.

And until the U.S. has an ability to develop a player at that level, it's still going to be a struggle to find the right partnership.
Yeah, and when you're playing against the elite teams, right? Like the elite teams. Just strikers will just tear you apart.
I mean, they just will. Eventually they get you one-on-one or they get you in a bad position and they're just going to tear you apart, right? And then the other problem I think right now, but I think this might improve with Pochettino, is the depth element.
The depth element, and I've talked about this as an issue, but now Tanner Tessman came in and played well. Yeah, I like him, by the way.
Now with Pepe and Balogun hopefully doing better and doing well. Hopefully the depth gets better and better.
I mean, Gio Reyna during that tournament and now, you know, just hasn't played. Yeah.
Talk about Gio. What's, what's, well, I mean, Gio's frustrating, right? Because, you know, this is Tim, we have this conversation sometimes when I talk to young players and this is both the men's and the women's side, I hear the same comment all the time.
I want to go to Europe. I want to play in Europe.
I want to play in Europe. Okay, one, what the hell does that mean, right? Because Europe could be Latvia.
Europe could be, you know, like third division. It could be a third division club in Portugal.
You could be in Luxembourg. You know, you're still in Europe.
So what does that mean, first of all? Define that for me. And then in a case like Gio, great, you signed with Bruce Adorman.
Great, you went on loan to Forrest. You don't play soccer.
I used to hate this. You're a soccer player.
You're not a soccer practicer, right? Or you're not a soccer contracted person.

You're a soccer player.

Like, do you want to play soccer or not?

And now I know injuries with Gio,

but I just get so sick of this bullshit.

Like, I want to play in Europe.

I want to play.

And if people crap on MLS all the time

and I get it and whatever,

guess what?

Gio Reyna and MLS would have played 300 games by now.

Hopefully he would have been fit.

He's 20 and he would have been flying.

Maybe then you go to Europe, somewhere in Europe and play. But it's just frustrating because a guy that talented, a lot of people who are inside the camp say that is the most talented player.
Oh, 100%. Geo's special.
I think the frustrating thing is it's hard. Look, from everything you're saying, you and I balanced our careers differently, right? But we both had success.

Balancing your career is hard, right?

Do you go on loan?

Do you take the money instead?

And there is no real right answer.

I think the frustrating part for me is, I mean, case in point, I just talked about the centerbacks, right?

We don't produce Landon Donovans and Clint Dempsey's and these guys every day. I'm talking, you know, and others special.
And Claudio Reina, his dad was a special player as well. U.S.
doesn't have a luxury like Brazil. If you, if you miss on one, so what? There's another one coming pipeline.
And by the way, the guy who's 19, you better hurry up and have your success because by the time you're 23, another Brazilian kid's's gonna take your spot we don't have that luxury so when you get a player like a kristen pulisic or or a timothy weah gio reina is special man he's special he's got he's got magic in his boots he has he has a toughness and a doggedness about him that that not every u.s player has you know he's a physically a… Physically very gifted. He's physically, and he's nasty.
He's got that nasty streak. He's got that dog in him that I love.
And because of that, I want to see him play more. Like, it's a little bit selfish.
Like, I want to see him play more. But again, it's so, so very difficult to manage those elements of your career, and it kind of ebbs and flows.
you know my thought process would would be between now and the world cup um I think that we'll get better for him I think that you know again that he that you know either he moves on or plays more at Dortmund because he is he is grade a talent curious what you guys think leave us comments a lot of good comments again in YouTube this week um Are we better off today than we were two years ago? We worse off? We the same? And tell me why. We want to know why and we can discuss it as we continue to follow US men's national team.
Let's take a break. When we come back, we will get into mailbag.
I'm assuming there's lots of good questions again from Jordan. We also talk about anything but soccer right here on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim presented by Volkswagen.
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See guaranteed details at TurboTax.com slash guarantees. Okay, it's time for Mailbag LD.
It's our favorite segment, I think, of the week, and it's definitely our producer Jordan's favorite segment because she gets to have airtime and take all of the glory. She loves the accolades.
JR, come on in.

You guys are so mean to me.

Wait, where's your unfiltered soccer swag?

Did you not get any?

No, and I don't want to talk about it.

It's coming.

It's in the mail.

It's in the mail.

Just wait for it.

Just wait by your door.

What's up?

How about some questions?

Can we start with that?

All right.

Wait, wait.

Tell me you have some hard-hitting questions for us this week. I do, but I would like to start with a quick clarification if you guys don't mind.
Kata on YouTube asks, Landon, what's the hat in the glass case behind you? Oh, good question. All right.
So that is the in international soccer, when you make an appearance for your national team, you get what's called a cap. I think in the old days, they used to give them a cap, right? Still do.
Oh, they still do. I'll follow on.
So when it was my hundredth game against Argentina at the Meadowlands, that was my hundredth game. They presented me with that cap.
Now the backstory is, although it's cool and I like it, U.S. soccer for the longest time used to give out Rolexes, like nice Rolexes.
Like this one for my 100 cap? That one? So when I was on 99, I was like, I cannot wait for my Rolex. I don't even wear watches, but I wanted to sell it one day, make some cash.
And then they showed up and they gave me a hat so i was like all right cool you were so but i do i was so bummed but i do appreciate it um and that's what that is that's my 100th cap it has all the teams i played against uh inscribed in there it's really special you know what's crazy about that um which you're the only one who got that which is amazing um the caps that, that's where the term comes from. Like not games play, caps.
Because even when you and I were at Everton together and our England national team players would come back from England duty and they would physically get one of those caps in the mail. They would give them a cap? So they would come into the lunchroom and our manager or or director of ops would come in and hand the players the cap so so like phil jagielka or whomever we play with if they had 50 international caps they physically have 50 cat like hats which is i think they put like they inscribe like the day they inscribe the day and all it's such a cool tradition somebody somebody leave Somebody leave us a comment.
Tell us why that started. Totally.
I'm curious. All right.
So that's it. I kept a clean sheet that game against Argentina, and Messi played.
Appreciate that, pal. You're welcome.
He only played 45, but appreciate that. So did I.
All right. How about a little talk about the LA Galaxy, since you guys were talking about them earlier.
So Mario on YouTube said, there are rumors of the LA Galaxy getting Lewandowski next season. So the last couple of seasons, LA has really switched things around by going after young players in their prime.
Do you think they should go for a player like Pepe instead? LA has not had a high caliber US men's national team player since some guy named Landon Donovan retired. What a player.
And I think we need that representation in the biggest soccer city in the world. Who asked that? Mario on YouTube.
Mario, love it. I love Lewandowski, but Pepe would be a hundred times better for a hundred different reasons.
So for me, by the way, Jovo Lech is doing the job. So no need to bring someone in over him, but I love it.
I would bring, I would bring Pepe in all day long. Yeah.
I mean, unsurprising that LA Galaxy are linked to a global superstar. Cause that's just what they do, which is.
It's what top teams do. It's true.
The Pepe argument is interesting because for me, and we both are in some pretty big MLS circles, I do think there's a lot of value, and I've said this for a while, in building your team, your current team, around a current Mexican national team player and U.S. national team player.
And I know that's going to cost, and there's balance in terms of how much that costs. But if you think about the landscape of the league, if you were able to get a current U.S.
player and a current Mexican player and putting them on the same team and building around them, I think that's pretty special. So anyway, we're not there yet, but Pepe would be a great shot.
Okay, who else do we have? Evan on YouTube wants to know, who are the top three players you guys have played with on a club level? One for each general position, defense, midfield, and striker. Ooh.
Club. Okay.
On a club level? All right. Striker for me is easy.
Robbie Keane. Midfielder, I didn't play much, but Frank Ribéry from Bayern Munich he was so elite and Lucio from Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen old Brazilian center back Lucio oh at remember Lucio yeah yeah yeah yeah and he was at Bayern Munich for a while yeah he was he was.
He was a tank. That's strong.
That's a good one. Sorry, Everton fans.
So defensively, Rio Ferdinand. I mean, Rio Ferdinand was one of the greatest defenders in the world.
Midfield, I think when he first came as a midfielder, so Ronaldo. Oh, jeez.
And then up top, Wayne Rooney. I think we could just drop the mic.
Sorry, say that again. So it was Rio Fernandes back.
You know we played together at Everton, right? We did. We did.
You don't make the cut. I apologize.
Serious? All right, pal. Appreciate that.
That is noted. All right.
How about one more? Go on. Can you guys do one more? We can do as many as you like.
We love a mailbag. All right.
So you want me to bring the smoke, right? Bring the smoke. All of it.
We want our listeners to bring the smoke too. I think you got something for us.
All right. Well, I can't put off asking a question like this any longer.
So it's from Ben on YouTube. Ben says, Landon and Tim, why do you guys hate on Juergen Klinsmann so much? From an outside perspective,

he overachieved in the World Cup in 2014. What is your reasoning on how he hurt the U.S.
men's

national team? Ben, it's a great question. It's a great question.
Good question. And I think you

started by saying from the outside. So yes, from the outsidegen klinsman he's a master at that brilliant brilliant show um and i will correct you ben i i i think you probably are a follower of the us men's house team and know your stuff i would correct you in saying that there was overachievement, but it wasn't by the manager.

The overachievement was by the core group of players who drove that team to have success in spite of the manager. That's my take.
We'll have more time to get all into this at some point. I will say, with time, you become more objective and less emotional about things.
So there was a positivity, an energy, and a standards raising that Juergen brought. So we stayed at some better hotels, had better food.
His energy was good. It was infectious.
But you start to realize over time that it's bullshit. So initially, it feels good and it's exciting, but then if there's nothing beneath that, then it only lasts for so long, right? So like that new excitement only lasts for so long.
Let me just give you guys a quick story that I've never shared before. So we were in a camp.
I don't think you were here, Tim. We were in a camp and all week our training sessions were around how we were going to play in a 4-4-2 and with a diamond midfield so for people don't know there's you know a top point of the diamond there's wide points and then there's a lower point in the diamond it's a very narrow central midfielder we had never done it before so all week we had certain guys playing in certain positions and we were really like dialing in on that.
Now the way Juergen used to name the team was on the day of the game about 11 a.m. before we would go for a walk or a stretch he would have the team written in the training room and it was just on the board in in our formation and our names in there.
So we walked in We had all played the exact same position all week in training, worked on it in a 4-4-2 diamond. We walked in.
There were five new players in the team that had not been training with the first team. And we were going to play in a 4-3-3 after we'd been training all week in a 4-4-2 diamond.

And so a lot of us older guys walked in and we were like, what the hell is this?

And we actually, you were there, okay.

And I remember we actually went to Juergen and said, Juergen,

we've been training in a 4-4-2 all week.

We're not prepared for this.

And he said, oh, guys, I'm just trying to keep you on your toes.

It's important we keep you on your toes so you don't know what's coming. And I was thinking to myself, is this guy out of his mind? We're like, I've played 400 games.
You don't need to keep me on my toes. You need to make sure I'm prepared to play the game.
Right? So that's a, to your question, Ben, like on the outside, you saw the, you know, all the BS and the smiles and the fluff and whatever. On the inside, it was just a disaster.
And that's just one small story. Well, we'll have plenty more over the years.
But I know people think, for me, it's a personal thing because I got left off the team. But objectively, over time, the guy was just a mess.
And it's no coincidence that everywhere he's gone, he's failed. Very true.
Very, very true. Great questions.
All right. Good questions.
Is that it? Is that it, Jordan? That's it for this week. Okay.
Well, thank you. We appreciate it.
And the swag is coming. Unfiltered soccer hoodies, hats.
Well, just remind people where they can submit these questions so that I can pass them along to you. YouTube.
YouTube, social media. Feedback at Unfiltered Soccer, social media.
You can send it directly to Jordan. She loves that.
Yeah, send me like a carrier pigeon, smoke signal, whatever. Send LD a text.
I'll put his number in. Put my number up.
Sounds good. Oh, good times.
Good times. All right, Timmy, last thing.
Last thing. Anything but soccer.
Anything but soccer. We like to tie in other sports because we're big sports fans.
So interesting weekend in college football. Lots of rivalry games.
Wow. Lots of shenanigans.
Most notably, Ohio State, Michigan at the horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio. Michigan wins the game.
Oh, I love that. Way back in the day.
MLS. Yeah.
Columbus crew. So Michigan wins the game.
Big upset over number two, Ohio State. After the game, Michigan players try to plant their flag at midfield, to which, as you can imagine, the Ohio State players, and fans for that matter, did not take kindly to.
I guess an officer was injured in it. A lot of players and teams were left bloodied.
There was a big fight after, and it was pretty bad. So go on.
Take it away. Yeah.
I've got a lot of thoughts on this, and I watched nearly all of the rivalries this weekend um i watched the iron bowl you know alabama and auburn my daughter as i uh tell everybody i i see she's going to play soccer university tennessee next year go vols they whooped up on vanderbilt um i think there was was it iowa nebraska yeah usc notre dame usc notre dame by the way there was a punch thrown in that game like this this year's rivalry games were rivalries um texas a&m texas there was i mean this was what epitomizes college football at thanksgiving time and look it's hard for me to say like i don't condone people getting hurt it's the most violent sport in the world, right? People get hurt. Obviously, the afters and police officers and players and coaches, you know, getting injured is obviously not a good thing.
I would never condone that. But what I do like about the rivalry is this flag planting thing, it's AstroTurf, so they actually couldn't physically plant the flag in the ground.
And for everybody who's listening who doesn't know, obviously you have these big, huge school flags in the soft ground of the grass. You can plant it in there like a warrior and kind of celebrate.
And you can imagine people don't like that too much when you do it away from home. And so Michigan, Ohio State is one state is one of the biggest rivalries is that to horseshoe as you mentioned and michigan had you know had had their way and they shouldn't have won the game and they won and they and they danced and they celebrated which like i'm kind of okay with honestly like like you here's why i'm not okay with like with with all the shithousery that goes on, but like people have to understand as players, particularly away from home, we get, we get abused.
Like, so it's really easy for people like turn the other cheek, walk away, hang on a minute. You're getting abused as an opposing player, particularly in a rivalry, in a Derby game.
And so like, I'm'm okay with, like, finally being able to exhale and be like, you know, you gave it to me all game? Well, hang on a second. I'm about to give it back to you.
The issue is, if you're Ohio State, two things. You showed a lot of energy after the game.
A lot of energy coming to defend your home field. Like, you've heard me say this and you've heard Coach say, you might want to put a little bit more energy into the game.
Don't get mad after the game. Don't get mad.
But that being said, I don't mind it because you don't want anyone celebrating on your home field. The one thing I thought right before the chaos ensued, because I saw Michigan, and I just thought to myself, you know what I would have done if I was a coach? I'd have got my team back out of the locker room, and I said, stand there.

Don't do anything.

Stand there and watch this.

Because, by the way, this rivalry is as old as time,

and we're going to have to go to the big house next year,

and we'll get ours back.

But I want this to literally rot inside your soul that they've danced on the O

at the horseshoe.

And then I would have used that to our advantage. But he let the dogs loose and it was chaos, man.
I mean, but like rivalry week clearly is back. You know what I love about college football is to me, it's the closest thing to international soccer.
Professional sports now, there's too much movement within, you know, you go from this team to that team to this team to that team all over professional sports. So now what happens is a lot of guys are friends or they played for that club or they might play for that club next year.
So everyone's a little scared to do anything really stupid, right? Or too in the face of a rival because they don't want to, you know, they don't want to ruin their opportunity to go there next year. Maybe they play there.
Maybe they know someone on the other team who's a close friend. College football, you're there for four years at least.
So you are your team. Yes, correct.
And professional sports used to be that way too. Now, international soccer is that way because you're not playing for another country.
So I love that about it is that they care so much about the program, institution the college and we we need more of that in sports i think because those days i think about the 90s in the nba yeah like the knicks and the bulls and the pistons and the lakers like they hated each other yeah because they stayed there for 10 years let me jump in and say and say this it's to piggyback off that things in sportsries, for all the reasons you mentioned, have gotten nicey-nicey, right? And here's what I hate. Let me tell you what I hate.
So the greatest show of respect started with soccer. You do battle.
You crunch the other player. You do that.
And then you know what? You take off this sweaty, bloody shirt, and you give it to the opposition player who just kicked your butt and you kicked his you shake hands look each other and you walk off the field with their shirt that's it that's bled into other sports which is cool here's the thing i have a problem with i watch nfl players and teams who stink who are like one in 11 and they're at home and they just got blown out again and you know what they do they take their shirt off they sign it to each other they take a picture for for instagram and i'm like yo there was just like 70 000 well-paying people here that most can't afford it it's so expensive right yeah and you stink and you're hanging out with your your buddy after the game exchanging jerseys like that's not what this was meant be. This was meant to be an exchange of jerseys through competitors and go inside.
So this whole concept of after the game, everyone's friends and no, you're not. And so I don't mind the whole rivalry.
It boiled over probably a little bit too much, but I'll tell you what, I was at the gym. I was watching the game and it ended up my workout because I went went right over to the TV.
And I stood there for about 10 minutes. And I watched it.
So, yeah, pretty cool. Can you imagine, by the way, if we had taken an American flag and planted it at Azteca after a win? What would happen? We wouldn't have this podcast.
We wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be six feet under, pal.
Oh, my God. I mean, just be grateful that nobody anything really stupid.
That would, that would not fly international soccer. No, gosh, no.
All right. That's been fun.
Appreciate all you guys. Please leave comments, subscribe on YouTube, Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your pods, follow the show across all our social media at unfiltered soccer.
Appreciate you guys so much, Timmy. It's been fun, man.
Yeah, thanks, everybody.

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Have a great week.

We'll be back next Tuesday

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