Liverpool Lead Manchester City, Messi Steers Miami, and MLS Conference Finals Preview

When you have a players-only meeting, it means you've hit rock bottom. And I have a saying in life, be careful of rock bottom, because rock bottom oftentimes has a trap door.
Hey, everybody. Welcome into Unfiltered Soccer, presented by Volkswagen.
We are your hosts. He's Landon Donovan.
I'm Tim Howard. LD, tell everybody why you kept me waiting today.
Where have you been? Well, I went on a little vacation to Cabo. It's a tough life.
Someone's got to live it. You were working all weekend, right? I saw you at the game, the Red Bull game.
That sums us up. Yeah, well, you know, someone's got to work around here and someone has to enjoy it.
How was that? How was vacation? It was nice, man. Getaway.
Cabo's an amazing place. I love that place.
It's so close to San Diego. For you guys, it's, I don't know, I guess it's the New York Caribbean or something, but like it's an hour and a half for us.
So it's so nice. Just get away, relax.
And it's nice to be nice to be there, but nice to be home. All right.
Before we get into the soccer, make sure as you're listening, you follow us on social media, unfilteredsoccer. Be sure to subscribe to the show on YouTube.
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All right. So we are going to start with MLS.
And in a little bit, we got US national team. We're going to talk about that Pulisic dance a little bit more.
We don't want to beat a dead horse, but some time to think about it. A lot of Premier League talk.
But first, you were at, I guess it was City's home game. So whatever that's called, that stadium and Red Bull City.
How was it? It was good. It was good.
Yeah. City Field with the New York Mets play.
I must say, I must say the atmosphere was awesome. Was it? Awesome.
Yeah. Like you think like, okay, baseball stadium, no one likes playing soccer in a baseball stadium.
We get it. was awesome and it's like really cool i think it was the first time it was a new york a hudson river derby in the playoffs and it's like man if you could get that you could get that every year it was good it was cool um you know and of course the rebel fans weren't weren't outdone because it's right across the river so they they showed up it was it was one it was a weird game FC, at some point in the season, beat the snot out of Red Bull because Red Bull was trying to match the passing orientated play of New York City FC.
And that's New York City FC's bread and butter. So they played them off the park.
They beat them bad. And it was at that game, I heard that there was some sort of internal meeting where they're like, nah, we're going back to the Red Bull way, which is like blood and thunder, charge forward, get it forward, pass forward, run forward.
And in fairness, I think both teams were worried about the other for those exact reasons. And Red Bull didn't have a lot.
They didn't have a ton of chances. They scored on their two real good opportunities.
I thought New York City played them off the park for the most part. Had really good opportunities and just didn't capitalize.
But 2-0, credit to Red Bull, really good game. I have to say, just watching the games over the weekend, it's just fun to watch.
First of all, there were derbies, like real derbies in the playoffs, which make it amazing. But every seat in every stadium is full,

at least in the stadiums where their MLS teams play normally.

And it was just really fun to watch.

Also really fun to watch the stepsister,

redheaded stepchild in LA, get taken to task by Seattle.

I don't like either team, for the record. I had a lot of fun wins in Seattle.
It was just good to see them. On the back of that, we saw the Galaxy absolutely dismantle Minnesota.
And I watched that game closely, Tim. I was thinking something, put you you on the spot here can you remember an MLS team that had a better front four like in their prime than the Galaxy right now between Ricky Puj, Jovalich, Peck and Paintsal I just I was racking my brain all week and I'm like is anybody been better there better? There might have been two, maybe three players better, but four in their prime.
Yeah, look, you bring up a great point. And the fact that the only team that comes to mind is that first DC United team.
Was it Harks, Echeverry, Jaime Moreno, and then might have Roy Lasseter. But to your point, it's been decades, right? And so it's a really good – I mean, watching them is exciting.
Greg Vanney, the way he has them playing, like they are bullish and they are in your face and they know exactly who they are. And they know – by the way, they know they're going to concede chances, concede goals and whatever.
And they're like, if you score three, we'll score four. You score five, we just don't care man they were good but they were good sounders by the way the sounders are their last i don't know if it's 17 18 20 game i think they've lost once maybe they are yeah but they just seem for whatever reason they're like unbeaten they're like the chiefs right now like yeah they can mess up and do everything wrong and they just win so that game next weekend is going to be phenomenal yeah and let's let's you know go back a little with centuron sounders that that lafc game like i know they're your hater rival so i pre i love i love the hate um but there's obviously respect in that and credit lafc for what they've been able to build on the back of you know galaxy's the you know traditionally the best franchise in mls so credit to Lsc but i have to give give people flowers man that's that's something i do and like like seattle is a tough out bro like seattle you go there it's a proper football soccer town they're they're educated they know what they're doing they support their team through good times and bad times there's been a lot of good times and like it's one of those grimy, tough places where, yeah, they can play a bit of football, but they're willing to dig in.
And the amount of big moments they've had in big moments isn't coincidental anymore. Winning the MLS Cup, winning in big moments in Western Conference Finals.
Jordan Morris, friend of ours, Jordy, we played with him.

The fact that he's still doing it, still getting it done, big credit. Stephen Fry, I mean, you want to talk about MLS goalkeeping legacy, hats off to him.
I mean, he plays big. Well done.
Happy for him. And yeah, that game's going to be awesome next weekend.
Sunday, Orlando beat Atlanta. I think it's what we predicted, Tim.
Atlanta just flat.

After that,

super emotional high three-game series with Miami.

I think we predicted this one.

Orlando, kind of comfortable.

Comfortable, but credit to Atlanta.

They've overachieved, right?

They slayed the Dragon in Miami

and Messi

and then looked at 1-0 against Orlando. Of course, they wanted to advance to the finals, account for the finals, but ultimately, they gave a decent showing themselves.
But, I mean, LA Galaxy beating Minnesota. And Minnesota had a very good season.
To beat them 6-2 in that fashion, impressive. Yeah.
I'm not sure the league is super thrilled with Orlando Red Bull, but on the other end, Galaxy Seattle should be a lot of fun. The team Atlanta knocked out made a very, very fast and interesting decision.
Sure did. Well, apparently Tata Martino made the decision.
I think we all know who really made the decision. Who might that be? Yeah, maybe one of the players.
But he's out as a manager. Usually I say to him, when a manager says he's stepping away or she's stepping away, that means the club pushed you out, right? I will say someone as experienced and older in age like Tata Martino, I could see a scenario where he said, I truly just need to step away for a while.
However, that all changed when all these Mascherano links came up. Yeah, because if he steps away and you have a decision the next day, guess what? That decision was being made for months and months ahead of time.
So I think it's pretty clear what happened here. Leo and whoever said, look, it's been great, but if we don't win it, this is what's going to happen.
He's going to resign and we're bringing in our boy. And look, I think from my end, we joke a little bit about Messi making those decisions in the background, but I'm of okay with it like I'm not I'm not overarchingly like in favor of player power right because I think that can like disrupt things but when you lean on Messi and you have the experience you have you almost you almost get a say in having a seat at the table and what I would say to back that up is later in my career,

I went banging on the GM's door and I had all these ideas.

And in fairness to him, he just told me to go sit in the corner because those things weren't happening.

Take a day off now.

I didn't have that pull, but I wanted it, right?

And so when you get a player who's a god,

quite literally a footballing god, I'm okay with it.

I'm okay with that.

Let me give you the problem with that.

Yeah.

So in 2011, I'm going to take you behind the scenes a little bit. Okay.
You were probably involved in some of these too. So 2011, Bob Bradley gets fired, right? And behind the scenes, there are conversations being had with a few of us players.
I was 29 at the time saying,

hey, what do you think about this potential manager,

this potential manager? And one of those was Juergen Klinsmann. And all of us at the time, not all of us, I'm speaking for myself, but a few of us said, oh my God, it's Juergen Klinsmann.
Legend, absolute legend soccer player. So we said, yeah, that would be amazing.
Having no clue, right? And to be fair, I was much younger, less experienced than Lionel Messi making a decision like that or giving input like that. But it turned out to be a total disaster for US soccer and for everyone involved.
So that's the challenge and the danger with that. Like, yeah, as he buoys with Mascherano, yeah, as it seems exciting and great and whatever, but what happens the first time they lose three in a row? Yeah, yeah, it's massive.
And now all of a sudden there's real problems. Now what do you do, right? Yeah, look, I don't doubt that.
What I would say, right? And it's hard when you talk about Messi because, again, I reiterate, we're talking about a God. And I'm not being flippant when I say that.
The difference when you and I, because we had a long career on the Ash team, when there was a coaching change, the right thing to do as someone at the top being president of U.S. soccer or people involved in the decision-making process is talk to the people with boots on the ground, the senior players.
That's normal in the process, right? We didn't pick the coach. We gave an opinion on someone, on candidates that were brought to us.
That's natural. That's part of the process.
This is more of what it seems like to us anyway is Messi probably had a ton of input in this. The caveat to all that is there's one person in all of this conversation that you better keep happy that you don't want to no no that you don't want to go to war with that you don't want to go to war with so so one one part is his boy gets hired in maserano and things go pear-shaped and they have to make a tough decision the other part is going no bro we're not like we're not going to listen to you and we're going to bring our own guy in well guess what my guy downs tools and is like i'm out right so there's a there's issues both ways yeah i mean look they're jorge moss who ultimately made this decision i'm sure david beckham had input in it and messi they're all smart right about the way they went about it right so messi didn't go in and bang on his door and say we we have to hire Mascherano.
He probably said, hey, you know who'd be an interesting one? And Jorge Mas probably said, oh, that is interesting, right? Like, wink, wink, nod, nod. And again, we don't have all the context, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Again, none of these guys are getting any younger. Busquets, Jordi Alba, Messi, Suarez.
So let's hope it goes well. It's great for the league when everyone, when Miami's doing well and they're all playing well, et cetera.
So let's hope it goes well. Yeah.
All right. Those matchups are next weekend, MLS matchups.
Let's move on to your other day job, Tim, the Premier League. Premier League.
So you watched a lot of games this weekend. Yeah.
The biggest one, Spurs, absolutely pummeled City. Yeah.
No one saw it coming. You know, if you had a bag full of money, you wouldn't have put it on Spurs to beat City 4-0.
You just like that. You probably wouldn't have gotten odds on that.
City is interesting because it's very easy where we sit, where everyone sits. What's theger is injured that's the problem yeah yeah that's that's that's a big chunk of it when i start to look at the team for me when when you look at peps great reign there was always one player that he would like dip in and out or he'd change a formation based on on a player tactically but it wasn't wholesale, right's like Grealish comes out voting comes in maybe I maybe I put John Stones at the right fullback and he goes is inverted number six whatever he chops and changes this team feels a little bit like there's four or five things that need changing so Rodri's out got, got that.
Holland, he had a rough game. So, okay, so the Holland thing, missed a ton of chances.
Goalkeeper, Vacario made a bunch of saves. But the thing for me about Holland was he still leads the league in goals and he was in brilliant positions, LD.
You know, he was in brilliant positions. So it was an off day.
So I'm like, if a striker's getting a good position and getting good chances, they going to score so never mind that but they sold julian alvarez right who i think if i remember correctly added like a high double digit number of goals right so like you could play him with holland you could play him play him on his own but they didn't replace him right and then they bring gunduan back from barcelona who by the way god bless him he's a brilliant player doesn't look like himself no. He was slow.
He wasn't charged around the midfield. Kyle Walker at one point, and by the way, Kyle Walker, brilliant footballer for England, for City.
I mean, rarely puts a foot wrong on the pitch. And like, he was out sprinted.
There were times he didn't sprint back. Like, that's not what we...
Dude, Timo Werner ran by him. I was like, what the and for the first goal didn't tuck back and one of his biggest strengths is tucking on the shoulder of the center back so like again not blaming Kyle Walker but there's just a bunch of little things going on and you know this with Rodri he's a he's a he's everything this guy is is is colossal right but what people forget when you and and I stand in the tunnel, and I can say this honestly, when you're maestro, when your main man isn't there, the vibrations are throughout the team.
And we're in a tunnel in a big game. You weren't there.
Clint wasn't there. You start like, yeah, we have a chance today, but we don't have nearly as much of a chance, right? And so big players hold countable and he is pep guardiol on the pitch and so um there's a there's a lot there's a lot to unpack with with city i don't know if you see it the same way but that's a bunch of the things i see one of the things that i think people don't realize about dominant teams or teams that are at the very top is the margins even at the top are still very thin very thin like they still have world-class players all over the field one of one of the takeaways obviously injuries has been a theme and pep went on a big rant about all the things that are that are going wrong and or or that people think are going wrong and why they are when you play this many games over this many seasons with the same players over and over and they're playing for their national teams, eventually you're going to get a stretch where there's a bunch of guys out and they're just going through it.
And I'll tell you what though, like for people who are saying like Pep's lost a step or he's not smart, you know what the most brilliant thing he did in the last two weeks that just kind of got brushed over because of their failures on the field? Tell us. He signed an extension, Tim.
So guess what? He saw this coming. He saw this little slide coming and he said, you know what? Let me talk to my agent.
Let's get this thing done real quick, like real quick. And now you want to, you know, they lose seven or eight or nine in a row and you want to fire them.
All right. You got the, to the tune of 40, 45, $50 million to pay, right? He's not an idiot.
He knows, and he knows they're going to go through a little patch and whatever, and they will be fine long-term. But in my opinion, and you know, maybe you disagree.
I think the title race is over. I can't see them now.

It's 11 points, is it, today?

It's eight now.

They play each other next week.

Sorry, if they lose, then it's 11.

I don't know how...

Liverpool just look too...

They look too powerful to give up that many points.

Yeah, so a couple thoughts.

So, look, on the contract side of things,

whether they go on a bad run or there's no break clause in the contract, the fact of the matter is, congratulations to Pep Guardiola and Manchester City. You have done your business with each other fantastically.
The only thing I can think of is the relationship between Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United and Arsene Wenger and Arsenal. There was never going to be a rift between them between the break.
I was going to say, privately. And privately.
And so, like, if there's no break clause, well, guess what the break clause is? Hey, guys, it's not going anywhere. Right.
Pay me a little bit of money. We'll go away quietly.
This has been an amazing decade. Like, that's the break clause, right? Even though it's not, like, legally not a break clause.
Right. Here's my take on on the title race right now.
Manchester city have given us no reason, literally no reason other than the last five weeks to suggest they won't at some point come good. What it was come good.
Me when the title, not they will get everybody healthy and they will make a charge for the title. Now, hear me out.
It's eight points. It's real precarious because we talk about six-pointers and must-wins and all that kind of stuff.
If City lose, the lead balloons to 11 for Liverpool. You change your mind then? Yes, because then there has to be a capitulation by Liverpool.
Liverpool will have a dip.

Unless they become the invincibles or semi-invincibles,

they'll have a dip.

So with an 11-point cushion, you can have an amazing dip.

You can have an amazing dip, as long as it's not a capitulation.

So yes, at that point, it's done and dusted.

For me, if City win, by the way, City can win at Liverpool. Like, come's still manchester city i know things are things are going i think they're trending in opposite directions if they win at liverpool right number one they still can do the old like pedro martin pedro martina's like who's your daddy right because we're at our we're at our worst in the last five years and we still beat you right but then it goes to five points to five points.
Five points, you sneeze, and you can lose a five point. Yeah, yeah, I get it.
Right? And so for me, I will make a real abrupt final decision. Final.
Got a long way to go. After next weekend, because it matters to me.
It matters to me. If it goes from 8 to 11 or 8 to 5, that to me is a big difference.
All right. We'll follow up after next weekend, and we'll see where we're at.
All right. Let's move to the other team in Manchester.
United under Ruben Amarin for the first time. So they score after whatever, however many seconds.
Yeah. Less than a… Under two minutes or something.
Under two minutes into the game. Yeah.
But from that point on, I would say not real inspiring. I just want to, for United fans out there, take a deep breath.
This is going to take so much time. And I'll tell you why, Tim.
So I watched the game, and I was curious why his lineup was the way he was. It was a old mature seasoned lineup right and yeah not his best and he came out after and said look i want the guys who are here with me all week not away on international break totally get it but the reason manchester united signed him and brought him on board was because of what he did right in portugal what he did in Portugal took a long time it takes time to develop a way of playing and so I'm gonna have a little dig at your your commentators on NBC like I was waiting for them to walk us through what exactly they did besides saying they're in a 3-4-3 okay I can see that with my eyes.
Can you tell me what's going on on the field? And what I found interesting is, so first, just positionally where they line up. Maseralli played as a right center back.
Diego Dalo as a kind of a left center back. They were almost like double width with he and Garnaccio there on the left.
And there were some moments where Dalo would start really high and come down to receive the ball. And it made it tough because Ipswich were basically pressing man to man.
So Rashford, you can see why this will help Marcus Rashford long-term teams come after them because he gets isolated kind of one V one, or he can run into out and run in behind defenses. But their problem early is going to be personnel.
Like he does not have the players that fit the way he wants to play. So I wouldn't be surprised if Maynou comes in, Mason Mount comes in.
I mean, Luke Shaw is a left center back I really like in that. So he needs players.
Xerxe, I think, will help. But I think personnel right now is going to be the biggest issue.
But if you're a Manchester United fan, just take a a breath this is going to take time yeah look manchester yeah manchester united fans are brilliant because they always back their manager they do they're they're traditional for backing their managers sticking with them um ruben almerin as of right now is the is the right guy for the job not and i'm not saying that after one game because here's the thing he's i think he's going from what he says and i really like the way he speaks about the club um he talks about doing it his way right and and you know his post his post game um comments he said like we can try and get through right now and then we get to next preseason and we're starting all over again we're in the same spot he's right so so he's going to implement his ideas there's going to be growing pains they'll maybe bring one or two players in in the window don't know right if they can do that in terms of profit and sustainability rules but obviously as the next big transfer window opens up in the summer they'll get some players out they'll bring his his players in who understand his ideas and his philosophy and i think they'll like at a certain point manchester united need to just and they do they stick by their managers but they need to give him the time he needs the i think the hierarchy structure with inios and sir jim ratcliffe and omar barata and everyone under dan ashworth and the people underneath him is in a really good place. And as long as they give him the time they need, that this will get better.
You can already see the identity. You can already see the identity.
He speaks very well about the club and what he wants from his players. And in fact, so much so that he said, we scored the goal early on.
I want longer possession after that. And what he means by that is in the past with Tenhan, they were a sit, lie, and wait and counterattack team.
And his point is that's natural. So as soon as they scored a goal, what do they do? They set off the ball a little bit.
So he's basically saying that's going to happen, but I want my teams and we're going to get better at this is we score one goal. Then we get on the attack again and we go again.
And so I like where it's going. Curious what you guys think.
Is the title race over? You happy with the direction United's going in? Even after a kind of lackluster first game. I actually, I personally like it.
I like the ideas. Personnel is going to be a big deal.
But is the title race over? I think it is. Tim, maybe not so sure, but we'll see.
Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk U.S.
Men's National Team.

Yes, we will talk about Christian's dance from a unique angle, I think,

that we are uniquely qualified to talk about.

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

We'll be right back.

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I've had a lot to say about Christian Pulisic and the post-goal celebration. So I want to hear, before I speak again,

what you have to say about the matter.

LD, take it away.

Yeah, look,

we don't want to beat a dead horse,

but this is important.

And it all happened really fresh last week.

So he scores a goal

against Jamaica.

He runs to the corner,

does the Trump dance

that's become,

you know, popular in sports culture. And I just want to say, look, this is not, it is about politics, but it's not about politics for me right now.
This is about being a leader and being a captain of a U.S. national team.
I want to take people back, and you remember this, Tim, 2004, February 2004, I'm in Olympic qualifying. You dealt with it with the men's national team.
I'm in Olympic qualifying, and we're in Mexico playing a semifinal game, and Mexican fans are there, and this was after 9-11 and after we we had then started going after Osama bin Laden. And fans throughout the stadium, as we were losing to Mexico, were chanting Osama, Osama, Osama.
And this was one of the most tragic days in the history of the United States, September 11, 2001. And first of all, you're losing a game that you care

about. You're not qualifying for the Olympics.
But on top of that, they're just throwing that in your face, right? And guess who was the captain of that team? Me. I cannot tell you how many things I wanted to say after the game.
I cannot tell you what I wanted to do in that moment, go into the stands and just go off on people. I understood in a hard moment, that was not the right thing to do.
Okay. Now I'm not saying this is exactly apples to apples.
What I'm saying is Christian doesn't have to be, in my opinion, does not have to be a role model. I like my professional athletes to be role models, but I get it, right? Everyone has their own thing.
He does, however, he needs to be aware of what his actions do. And so you said this great in your column that you wrote for the Daily Mail.
You said, and you've said this to me many times, and I really respect this. You say, if you're gonna be whatever you're gonna be, no problem, just own it.

Just own it.

So if you're gonna do the dance,

one, make sure you know what you're doing.

Two, if you're gonna do it, you better be all in

because you're gonna cause a stir with this, right?

But then don't come to the podium after the game and say,

oh, I didn't really know what I was doing.

It was just a cool dance I saw people do. Like that doesn't cut it for me, right? That's not okay.
game and say, oh, I didn't really know what I was doing. It was just a cool dance I saw people do.
That doesn't cut it for me. That's not okay.
If you say, look, I believe Trump was the best candidate and I voted for him and I'm supporting him, fine. No problem.
That's your prerogative. You can do what you want.
Just like we talked about with Joey Bosa and others who are showing their Make America Great Again hat and then going to the press conference and saying, oh, no, no, it wasn't political or I'm not taking questions about that. Come on, bro.
Don't do that. So again, this is not about, in that way, it's not about politics.
It's about being aware of your situation. Guess what's coming in 18 months to the US? The World Cup.
You do something like that on the stage where hundreds of millions of people are watching. You could have a real impact in the world.
Like I'm, I'm getting goosebumps talking about, but you gotta be careful and I'm not saying he will. And this is a learning lesson for him.
And I'm sure he has learned from it because he's a really bright kid and a nice, he's a nice young man, but you got to be careful. Yeah.
Well, I mean, look, LD, well said. I feel compelled because this is a different platform to clarify my comments, but the fact of the matter is in my daily mail column, which I took, I've taken a lot of heat for, and I'm happy to live and work in the kitchen.
So if you have things that you want to say to me, good and bad, bring it on. I welcome all of that.
I don't mind it. But the fact of the matter is, if you've ever been to Walgreens and you get that long receipt, I've got receipts as long as Walgreens regarding Christian Pulisic.
When he was getting torn down by everybody about who he couldn't cut it at Chelsea, there was a ball-headed guy with a beard who went on TV and said, you know what? Don't think he's put a foot wrong for Chelsea. I think he's getting a run to the deal because he's American.
He's getting hooked all the time before the end of the game. And I think it's, I think it's absurd because I think he's that good.
I have more respect for him or as much respect for him than any current or former U.S. Men's National Team player.
I think the world of, and by the way, he's a great kid. I've got nothing bad to say about him.
So like from a clarification standpoint, all I'm saying is the captain of America cannot, and I'll double and triple down on this, cannot do a celebration or a dance that is connected directly to the president-elect, which is political, and then claim after the fact that they didn't know it was a political statement. That's all I'm saying.
So when you write to me and you give me all the hate,

which I've already read and dismissed,

just know,

he is,

Kristen Pulisic can vote for anybody he wants.

We don't have to vote

for the same presidential candidate.

I don't care about that.

I care that,

as you said,

if you're going to do something,

own it.

And by the way,

again, for the record, I've screwed up a lot in my life. I've screwed up a lot professionally.
I've screwed up. And I've had to own some things.
And I've had to look back and go, yeah, I'd have done that differently. So this isn't the pot calling the kettle black.
This is from somebody who made mistakes on a big arena. So love Christian Pulisic.
Love everything he's about. Truly do, except for the fact that i think the captain of america should own it and and by the way i i am putting more onus and emphasis you've worn a captain armband landon for america i've walked out behind you as our captain yeah if someone else did this by the way right and i'm i don't want to name names they wouldn't do it if timothy Timothy Weah did this, you know who I'd blame for that? The captain.
I would. It's just part of it.
That's part of the responsibility. So end of rant.
Listen, and that's well said too. And look, by the way, if I don't agree with some things you say, I'm going to tell you.
So I liked what you wrote in the mail. This is not some love session we do here.
We're honest with each other, which is what I've always respected about us. This is something he needs to learn from.
I am curious, and I think I know the answer. I don't think this could have played well with every one of his teammates in both the national team locker room and for AC Milan, right? And that's another part of it.
Like when you do things that are controversial, when I took a break in 2013 from the national team during a qualifier, I damn well knew that like some guys are going to say, hey, what's going on here, pal? So the point is, and I think we're on the same page here, it's okay. You can do it.
You

do what you want. You live your life however you want, but don't back away from it and just be a man and own it.
And that's okay. So to that point, he then, I mean, we can say benched.
He was benched on the weekend by Paola Fonseca at Milan.

And the public line was, you know, he had some issues going on and he came from, Paulo Fonseca said, he came from the national team with a problem yesterday and today we tried, but he wasn't well. I couldn't let him play more.
So if he's injured, you're not playing him. You're not risking him.
He still played 20 minutes. I'm not saying there was something behind this, but I am a little curious now.
Like, okay, was something talked about? Was this just simply a soccer decision? I don't know, but it seems a little weird that you would bench your best player in a massive game against a huge rival when you're trying to get into Europe.

Well, look, the other side of that is we have to take that at face value for

we know South American and Australian and North American

players, when they fly back to Europe, oftentimes the manager does take that into consideration

that they played two times 90 minutes or whatever and travel. So we have to, we have to allow that to also stand on its own as well.
So sure. Take that.
Um, soccer, soccer. All right.
Uh, on the better side of things, Ricardo Pepe went back to his club and played. Wasn't benched.

Banged in a hat trick.

I loved his quote after he said

people were asking him.

He was out, I think, because DeJong was...

Or he played because DeJong was out.

You think you're going to start the next game.

He said, well, usually when you score a hat trick, you start

the next game. But we'll see what

happens. There are reports

of him making a move in 2025.

One, do you think he should?

And two, where do you think he should go?

Yeah.

Ricardo Pepe.

Love your swagger, man.

And let me say this because I believe it.

Yeah, I do too.

I want, and I'll say this forever as long as we have football conversations.

I, as a player on the pitch, a goalkeeper, I want my strikers to be arrogant and angry

and bold and brash and most of all, selfish, right?

We'll do the dirty work, but if we get you the ball, do me a favor.

Stick it in the back of the net, right?

And when you don't get the ball, yell and scream at everybody because you know if you get the ball, you put it in the back of the net. Be arrogant, be brash.
I love it. I love the comments.
He's in a good vein of form. As we know, flow is out with an injury.
Ricardo Pepe can take advantage of that, continue playing well, bang the goals. And when you get the opportunity, he will.
He'll continue to get the opportunity because like I said, I believe it. If any manager has goal a goal scorer in good form he's gonna he's gonna play him or should play him now if he gets in a starting lineup you stay at psv um because it's a really good club but um you know the other thing is if you're scoring goals people will take a chance on you and if and if he and if a club comes after him i don't know exactly where you should go but if a club comes after him after him and they say, hey, look, here's the key to the car.
Drive it every single weekend, then I think he has to chase more playing time. So we'll see.
All right. Well, you know my answer.
Go where you are going to play. You've got 18 months ahead of the World Cup.
It is the only thing that matters. If I'm him, I would be a little skeptical right now if PSV says, look, you're scoring, you're great, you're going to start because five games without a goal, the next thing you know he's on the bench again.
He's got to be smart and strategic and all of our national team players right now no matter where you are, you need to be really clever in the next few months before the window, the next six to seven months before that window, and then definitely leading into 2026. You have to be playing.
I mean, that is crucial. So, U.S.
will face Panama. We didn't know that last time we were on.
They will face Panama in Nations League in March, and Mexico did not have to wait for a special exemption. They beat Honduras on their own and they will go through and play Canada.
That should be a great game too. Looking forward to those two in March should be a lot of fun.
All right, we'll take another break. When we get back, we will go to the mailbag.
I'm sure there, well, I'm not, I'm sure there definitely were lots of comments, hundreds on the YouTube page. I read through a bunch of them.

Some good, some not great. Lots of interesting insight.
Lots of interesting takes from people.

Lots of questions. So we'll answer some of your mailbag questions.
And then we will finish with

anything but soccer. One of our favorite segments here on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim

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See remixyogurt.com. LD, the biggest sporting news of the weekend, of the week, of the month, of possibly the year.
NWSL Championship. Orlando beat the Washington Spirit 1-0.
Listen, hats off all the flowers in the world to Orlando. They did the double, won the NWSL Championship, won the NWSL Shield for best regular season record.
I mean, Barbara Banda, take a bow. I mean, stand up and take a bow.

It was such an impressive year by the Orlando Pride and everything they're doing.

The game was in Kansas City.

Kansas City current owners, Chris and Angie Long, again, what you've built there in Kansas City is phenomenal.

You've played there.

The crowd was sold out. It's a wow moment.
It's a wow moment for the NWSL. Yeah, I just think about Marta, her mom being in the stands in America.
First time she ever came to see her play. Ever.
And that is literally fairytale. I don't want to say it because I want to try and go get the rights to it but that's a that's a documentary that's gonna that's gonna fly because what an amazing story for one of the best players best football players to ever lace the boots up for for her to culminate that moment with her mom watching in front of a sold-out crowd in kansas city take a bow incredible and what sub hines and orlando did all year was was incredible um i coaching the Wave for the last few months of this season, didn't have the chance to play against Orlando, but got to play in Kansas City.
That stadium, Tim, is phenomenal. And it's, honestly, it's what every MLS team needed 10 to 15 years ago.
I think it held 11,000 people. Every seat, full chance.
They know every player's name. They love that team.
It's a shame Kansas City weren't in it, but Orlando were phenomenal. Marta, look, it's weird when you have players still playing that we're paralleling our careers when we were playing.
I remember Marta 20 years ago about being the best player in the world. So incredible for them to go start to finish, win the shield.
I think they only lost one game and that was a game, I believe it was in Portland or in Seattle and Seb Hines just rested all his players. And so they would have won that game too.
They wouldn't have lost all season. And so phenomenal year.

They deserve it.

And congrats to Washington Spirit too for getting there.

And then obviously you saw the news about Michelle Kang and pledging $30 million to USSF for women's and girls programs.

She is a superstar, by the way.

She has put all her eggs into the women's soccer basket,

and it's really impressive what she's done. I mean, did I see it i barely saw because i was floored once once i saw it like i couldn't i couldn't believe what a what a special moment that is um and i don't mean at all to be selfish but for to to be the father of a of a young woman chasing her soccer dreams going to the university of tennessee to big-time Division I soccer and knowing that she hopes to one day represent this country on that level and play in the NWSL.
It's like that pledge of $30 million to the U.S. Soccer Federation.
It's like, and oh, by the way, Michelle Kang gets the right to have the final decision on where the money gets allocated. Yeah, that's crucial.
That's crucial. And it's just such a wonderful, powerful moment for women's soccer, but soccer.
And by the way, the women's soccer players, young female soccer players deserve this. And it's just such an awesome opportunity for the game.
And the fact that her Washington spirit was in the final, like it just felt enormous. It felt enormous for Orlando, but it felt enormous for, for Washington spirit as well.
And I just, thank you. Thank you, Michelle Kang for, for your generosity, but for your vision.
I think it's a, I think it's a very powerful, powerful moment. And it's going to be a seismic shift globally.
Yeah, I have a six-year-old daughter too. We were just on vacation with her this week and her getting to spend time around some of the Wave players and watch the games and just watching.
She now loves soccer, loves it. And so people like Michelle Kang doing what they do, you know who she is, Tim? She is the equivalent of someone that I had the pleasure of playing for at the LA Galaxy Phil Anschutz.
And he was understated quite literally by himself, kept Major League Soccer alive decades ago when the league was on the verge of folding. An absolute legend in the game, and she is well on her way to doing the same for women's soccer.
So thank you from all of us, Michelle King, and long may it continue. All right, let's tap into mailbag questions.
I am sure, Jordan, they are going to be very interesting after a lot of interesting comments we had last week. Let's go, J-Riz.
Get in here. The floor is yours.
Talk to us. Let's start with maybe an easy one.
Mario on YouTube said, how does Landon feel about Messi getting to 58 assists with his national team? You know, he's a small player. So the fact that someone of that stature matched me, it's not that relevant.
Like someone sent me a text and I believe this or not you guys but i had no idea that was going on but someone sent me a text and said wow what an amazing tweet and i opened it and it was like a it's so stupid it's a picture of me and messy and it was something like tied on 58 assists i'm like this is an absolute joke but i screenshotted the hell out of that thing i'm plastering everywhere um congrats to him i have no idea why uh it took him that long um because he probably really had more i think it's because they used to give me those hockey assists back in the day where you like if you touch it if you pass it 50 yards and a guy dribbles eight guys and then rolls it across the goal i would still get an assist so anyway I appreciate you bringing that up why I know why because he he holds on to the ball way longer than you did because he just keeps on dribbling and then scores a thousand goals yeah yeah he actually had a few more goals than me but uh no it's pretty sweet um but please don't get another one messy let's long let's long forever be tied uh okay how about an email question? Cause we're getting some of those. Like that.
All right.

So we had a very nice email from Steven who wanted to know, why not encourage elite players to push back at the national team organizational faults? In England, Harry Kane may need to captain, but the injuries like like with John Stones recently, showed likely difficulties that are possible. And the history of Roy Keane with Ireland or the Canada women shows how a lack of professionalism infects these national team organizations.
Okay, that's juicy. So he's saying that their national team environment is not good, and so they should push back on going.
The captain should be speaking out about it. Okay, so that's certainly not the case with England, right? Because that environment is great.
But I know, Tim, and you can speak to this too, I know lots of players who would say it was the opposite of what we talked about last week. We loved going into camp.
Standards were high, got to stay in great places, great fields, got to go out, have dinners, whatever. But there are lots that it's a joke when they go back to their national team.
Like the environment's bad. They train on bad fields.
They stay in terrible hotels. They fly economy across the globe.
And yeah, that's a, it's a really good point. The problem is, is federations are bound by their resources, right? And so for the longest time, and actually still to this day, speaking of Canada, they just don't have a lot of resources.
I mean, it's just the reality. So they have to pick and choose, you know, what they can spend their money on.
Yeah. You make a great point.
And let me also put in the human element to that, right? Roy Keane, he's a guy who I love and respect and I'm thankful I have a relationship with to this day. People often use the word one of a kind.
He is one of a kind, right? Most people, and I get your point, push back against your country, dot, dot, dot. And a lot of players do.
But when you're a player and you have the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of going to a World Cup, which is what everyone's goal is every four years, when you've got one hand on that dream, man, you have a look in the mirror sometimes and you're like, maybe I'll just keep my mouth shut a little bit longer because Roy Keane walked out of a World Cup. Nobody's doing that.
That's an amazing stance. And I think a lot of players behind the scenes will do what they can to lobby and try and get things right for themselves and their team, but ultimately aren't willing to sacrifice speaking out over accomplishing their lifelong dream.
And like I said, I couldn't fault that. Yeah, fair enough.
Okay. Speaking of the national team, Christian on YouTube said, I know the Federation won't do it, but it would be nice to hold the September and October camps in Europe and play UEFA nations in friendlies, which would save our players a lot of travel since most of the team is there and get some fixtures against decent European nations.
With the congested schedule as it is, it would be nice to see. Maybe work out something with Ernie Stewart and PSV to have a home away from home.
Yeah, I mean, it's a good point. And that has happened a lot over the years.
There have been camps where you play in Poland and then Germany, play in Switzerland and Sweden. But I think it still holds true what we said last week is most of these teams are either in qualifying or they're playing in Nations League.
So it's still going to be a challenge. The idea is right.
I don't mind that at all. But it's still going to be a challenge, Tim, because they're not all those teams are already teams are already tied up in real FIFA games.
Yeah, look, I think the point of the question is accurate. The fact that everyone's wrapped up in Nations League, time zone, television slots, and fixture, it all plays a part.
I know seems like simplistic um but big shout out to bob bradley because there was a time in 2007 when he was like he took over the team he was like guys pack your bags he loved it but that's just get ready to be uncomfortable we're going to europe we're going to some tough places and we're going to compete on those nights and and to his credit one of the the best teams in the history of the national team was under his tutelage.

So, yeah, I think players will relish that.

Players would relish it to be in Europe, to set up camp there.

So many of our players play there.

It would be a great opportunity for our younger American players to go abroad and experience that. But the fact of the matter is the fixture congestion, the nation's leagues, it's really hard now to find a double match window where you're like, oh, we'll just go over to Europe and camp out.
It just doesn't happen anymore. Bob used to always say before every camp, every camp in Europe, he'd say, look, look, guys, look.
When everybody, he would say opens the paper tomorrow because people used to read the paper. When everybody opens the paper tomorrow, they want to see the U.S.
beat someone big.

All right?

He would say every time.

I'd say, okay, Bob, good.

It's a friendly, it's a friendly.

Look, every time.

It was never a friendly to Bob.

You know that.

No, he loved it.

He could compete.

He loved to compete,

and he instilled that in us, which is brilliant.

Agreed.

Okay, last one.

Give it to us.

You guys did some interviews with your former club everton this past week so chris sent us an email and said as a big everton fan i'm curious what is your favorite memory of goodison park oh you're gonna have a lot more than me but do you have one off the top of your head yeah i've got a few i that's a hard question jesus all right let me start so my last game ever at goodison or maybe it was the first stint we played hull i believe hull was in the premier league yeah um and i'll never forget this because before the game we were on a decent run of formes in the locker room said, guys, it's about time we win one of these games, like 3, 4, 5-0. Let's stop squeaking through these games.
So we play the game. It's late in the game, and we're up 4-0 or 4-1.
And Leighton Baines crossed the ball. It skipped through to me and I hit like the perfect little half volley into the side netting and it was either Fizz, Phil Neville or Rodwell or someone picked me up and the whole crowd was shouting USA, USA, USA and I knew it was my last like we all knew it was my last game and it was just a feeling like that as a soccer player is why people struggle when they stop playing because you cannot replicate that ever again in your life.
Having kids is amazing. Marriage, amazing.
All these things you do, but nothing replicates a moment like that. And I will never, ever forget it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mine, mine is, is the beginning and end. And it's, it's impossible to answer that question question with just one because there was, you know, in 10 years, I had some of the greatest moments of my life.
Everton Football Club, you know, aside from my two children, the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. It saved me on many occasions.
It gave me the greatest highs in life. So, you know, when I left Manchester United, bear in mind, I already had,

you know,

the Manchester United Liverpool games are the things of legends.

And when I went to Everton,

the first thing I was looking forward to

was the Derby.

I was looking forward to Derby week

because everyone talks about it.

Like,

if you've never experienced Derby week

on Merseyside,

you don't know what it's like.

So I was like,

I was hungry for it.

Man,

it was a sunny day

because the Merseyside Derby

always played early. So the pubs don't open and they get everybody in the ground quickly.
Um, and the sun was shining. It was a blue sky.
It doesn't happen very often. And we beat Liverpool three nil.
And it was like, I was like, oh wow, this is easy. It wasn't easy because, um, we had some tussles over the years, but that was an amazing moment to beat Liverpool three-0 in my first Mergerside Derby.

And then my last game.

My last game was spent 10 years at the club.

It was emotional.

It was the greatest send-off that I could have ever asked for, like Landon said.

And just to have a guard of honor of my own players and to be able to speak to the goodison crowd

and have them shower me with love and affection and me to be able to give it back was one of the greatest days of my own players and to be able to speak to the goodison crowd and have them shower me with

love and affection and me to be able to give it back was one of the greatest days of my life. That was lovely, guys.
Thanks so much. You're crying, Jordan.
Yeah, I'm getting emotional. Get out of here.
I'm not crying. You're crying.
All right. Thanks, JR.
All right, Timmy, anything but soccer. What do you got for us this week? Yeah, so an interesting thing happened in the NBA, right?

The Philadelphia 70s, But Timmy, anything but soccer, what do you got for us this week? Yeah, so an interesting thing happened in the NBA, right?

The Philadelphia 76ers, they've clearly been, yeah,

league's biggest disappointment so far this season.

Following a particularly bad loss versus Miami,

the players held a players-only meeting.

Let me tell you, I love and hate but also love players-only meetings i'm what i mean by that is there are times when i'm like yeah let's get everybody in here and talk let's have some real home truths some people need to hear things and other times i'm like oh god who just called the players only meetings um the contents of that meeting were leaked to the media um and in and in particular uh maxi had a go at joel and b and he challenged him for being on time for you know joel and b he's the biggest player there clearly um that he's late for everything and impacts the players and it was a big big issue so um let's talk about one players only meetings and two

leaks from within the locker room

because there's an unwritten rule

okay so let me start

it's not unwritten

I mean

it's written

well I guess it is unwritten

but

how the hell this gets leaked

is crazy

first of all

second of all

when you're having a players only meeting

that means there's dysfunction

like there's some bad stuff going on

right

somewhere in the club

or with the team

whatever

Thank you. when you're having a players only meeting, that means there's dysfunction.
Like there's some bad stuff going on,

right?

Somewhere in the club or with the team,

whatever.

When someone leaks it,

exponentially worse.

I mean,

it is,

it is,

first of all,

it's so disrespectful.

I don't care how pissed you are,

how upset you are.

You have a players only meeting.

It stays right there.

By the way, guess who's not in the players onlyonly meeting? Coaches, staff, nobody. It's just players.
It came from inside. Right.
So it's like, and by the way, a basketball team has 12 players, maybe 15. Really small.
It's tiny. So it's disgusting.
First of all, it gets leaked, but it just tells you the state that that team is in is really bad to him. Like really bad.
And I, I don't blame Joel Embiid right now. First of all, for he's like on a, he's on a mission to go find out who, who leaked it.
As you should. I think I have a few, I think I have a few ideas.
Yeah. But the other side of it is I do blame him in part for the the team getting to this totally right like if you're the lead we just talked a long time about christian pulisic and like being a leader and what that means showing up late for everything the first thing you should be able to do is show up on time minimum yeah this is your job by the way you're getting paid how much 25 33 just show up on not that hard.
Show up on time, right? That's a starting point. All the other stuff, I don't know.
We don't have context. We don't know if he's hurt, if he's not, why he's playing, why he's resting.
But dude, you got to show up on time. That's a starting point.
Totally. I mean, the fact of the matter is, I remember it happening.
And it happens in soccer, right? Where the managers, and you've been a part of this with me at Everton, the manager will have to balance. Like, does he give, does he tell the starters they're starting the night before? And, and normally, sadly, he's like, no, I can't tell you guys the night before because players tell their agents and, and, and they leaked information.
And what happens for the, for, for our listening public, what happens is players are so temperamental and insecure. And I was, and you were, and everybody is.
I mean, you want to see a really insecure human being, show me an athlete. And everybody wants to be loved.
So what you end up doing is you're not in a starting lineup, right? Even if you get told the day of the game, you go back in the dressing room, you've got your boys on the other team, and you text them, and you're like, y'all, I'm not playing today sudden he goes to his manager right and and he says hey so and so is not playing on the right wing so boom all automatically the other team knows and if you get enough players doing that things start to leak it's together the lineup yeah it's stupid people ask questions they get hit up by their agent and i i've literally i love my. He's a mentor to me.
He's a dear friend.

He's a colleague.

I've never given him a team.

Like if he called me and I say,

I'd say,

Dan,

stop calling me and ask me for the team.

Right.

But,

but the other side of it is,

which I always love is when you have a players only meeting,

it means you've hit rock bottom.

And I have a saying in life,

be careful of rock bottom because rock bottom oftentimes has a trap door. Right.
And so like this concept of like the stuff's hit the fan. We're so low.
We're going to get in there and have a team meeting and figure it out. I was on teams and I've said this to people because I was a leader and I rarely called it a team meeting because I'm not a hundred percent sure of them.
People would come to me and say, Tim, we need it. We need a-only meeting.
And I would say to them back, just know that if we have a players-only meeting, we better freaking figure it out. Because what you don't want to do is have a players-only meeting, still suck, and then two weeks later, have a players-only meeting.
And then, by the way, that happens a lot. Look, I spent a lot of years in therapy when I was living in LA.
Seven years, like almost every week. And here's what happened.
Because let's be honest, this is a therapy session, right? When you have a players-only meeting, some people are more honest than others, but some people just let it go. And it's good to some extent.
But what happens is, so you go to therapy, you talk for an hour and a half, some bombs come up, some things happen that you had never thought about. You're like, oh my God, I can't believe I felt that way about my dad and my mom and this and that.
And then you go, okay, I feel better. I let it out.
But guess what happens when you go home and two or three days later you go, oh wait, but what about that? And what about that? And wait, but then my mom said that and my dad did that. And so what you do is a few days later, you go, oh, you know when that, my left winger said that about me not tracking back, but then what did that mean? So what you need is then you need some level of either individual follow-up or collectively like you actually work through the problems.
And now the problem with the Sixers is now there's a leak.

So now nobody trusts anybody now.

It's a bigger problem.

It's a bigger problem.

So to your point, there was a trap door and they all fell through it.

And now it's a big problem.

Man, it's going to be fun for us because I don't have a dog in the fight.

I'm not a Sixers fan.

But it's going to be really fun to watch as this progresses because it's going to be a total dumpster fire. Yeah.
I don't see how it gets any better. So, all right, man.
Well, appreciate it. Appreciate the time, Timmy.
Everybody, thanks for listening. Thanks for tuning in.
Thanks for watching. Please leave your comments, questions again, so we can get to them in the mailbag next week.
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Yeah, thank you everybody

for listening,

for all of your comments

and all the love

and some of the hate.

Listen, enjoy the turkey,

enjoy the sides,

most importantly,

enjoy your families,

love on each other.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

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