First Things First - USA beats Australia without Christian Pulisic & Advances to Round of 32, Bob Bradley joins

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

(0:00) USMNT beats Australia 2-0 without Christian Pulisic (21:30) Bob Bradley joins (31:26) USMNT poised for deep World Cup run? (40:56) USMNT impress without Pulisic? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm Danny Parkins in World Cup Corner, joined by former U.S. men's national team midfielder, Dax McCarty, and we are closely monitoring the U.S. Australia game. The vibes, as you can tell by the jacket, are very good right now. The U.S. is up to nothing at the moment. We are not going to go full post game until it's official. So let's start with Christian Polisic. The story of the game coming in was the star player for the U.S. men's national team going to be available?

He was not. Manager Mauricio Poitrino announced Polisic would be out about 90 minutes ahead of kickoff. Yet Ricardo Pepe gets the nod in the starting lineup. There's a lot of debate about whether or not it would be Raina, who would fill in for that spot. But the U.S. kind of picks up

exactly where they left off. This is now a full game without Polisic after another half without Polisic against Paraguay. What did you make of how the U.S. played after getting this news about Policic? Yeah, well, first of all, I'm not surprised that Christian Polisic did not play in this game. I think it was really prudent of the U.S. men's national team and Mariso Pocetino to play it very cautiously with him. Anytime as a player, you have a week in between

games and you are only a part of modified training sessions, that is not a good sign. That signals to me that it was very clearly more than just a kick to the calf. It was very clearly more than just a bruise. And so I understand U.S. soccer, not wanting to cause a bunch of panic, not wanting to cause a bunch of headlines and really want to keep things close to the vest. They were pretty coy about the injury. But it was pretty clear from his modified training sessions that in the lead up to this,

he would not be available for the game. I think the U.S. men's national team handled it really professionally. But at the same time, the replacements, it could have been two or three different players. It ended up being Ricardo Pepe, which was a little bit of a surprise for me. It's not a like-for-like replacement. It changed around the personnel

and some of the positioning, if you will. but Ricardo Pepe did a very good job in the first half, playing against a really deep block in Australia, occupying their centerbacks, helping combine with Bolligan. His presence really allowed the U.S. men's national team to stay high up the field and really have a dominant performance in the first half like we saw against Paraguay.

Also, they're not just the top heavy team. Correct. Like the fact that they are able to do what they did against Paraguay, win for nothing, be up to nothing against Australia, without the guy who we talked about ad nauseum in the weeks, months, years leading into this thing and not miss a beat. I know we think they are better than Australia. Sure, that's fine.

But the depth of the roster, the ability to do this without Polisic, I think that has to send confidence just to the strength of the overall status of U.S. men's national team. There's no question it gives you confidence that you can go and win a massive, well, if they win, when it goes final, a massive World Cup game without your best player. And this is why I was pushing back a little bit earlier today on Nick Wright saying, well, Pulisic has to play. He has to play if it's just a bruise. Well, you know what?

If it's going to hamper him for the remainder of the tournament, you really have to be careful with how hard you push a player, especially one, quite frankly, as fragile as Christian Polisic. He has dealt with little injuries, little nagging injuries throughout his career. You need him 100% if you are going to do something historic in this World Cup. And that's why you have a squad of 26 players. You have a lot of other talented players who are waiting for their moment to step up. It was Ricardo Pepe today. It could have been Gio Raina.

It could have been Tim Wea. But that's why you see the camaraderie and the trust that this coaching staff has by putting a player like Ricardo Pepe on the field who absolutely played a role, even though he didn't score. Also, Pochitino did not guarantee that Polisic would be back in the next game. We all hope that he will be. But at this moment in time, we do not know. whether or not he will be. There will be further opportunities for interviews after this game.

And throughout the week, the game against Turkey A is six days from now. But the idea that Polisic is a guarantee to be back for the next game, we don't know that at this point. But what we do know is that the U.S. has just defeated Australia to nothing, which means that the U.S. will advance to the knockout round. And with a win tonight by Paraguay over Turkey A, the U.S. has a shot to win the group, which would be a fantastic occurrence. That is for tonight for the here and now. That is six points through two matches for Team USA.

And the first time since 1930, 1930, that the US men's national team has won back to back matches in the World Cup, a spectacular dream start to a World Cup on home soil. And this is what we were clamoring for. This is what we were asking for with this US men's national team in the lead up to this game. Yeah, it's wonderful that you won your first game.

It's fantastic that you absolutely dominated Paraguay and got us on the right foot to start this. But how do you back it up? That is the sign of a mature team. That's the sign of a team that has experienced. 13 players from the 2022 team coming into this team, making sure that they stayed humble. And I love the comments coming out. The buildup to this game was really fun because there was a war of words between media members, the Australian players felt a little bit disrespected.

And yet the messaging from the U.S. men's national team, inside the camp publicly about Australia was that we haven't achieved anything yet. We're happy with the performance, but it doesn't mean anything if we don't follow it up with another good performance. And that's called humility. That's called learning to respect your opponent and do your talking on the field. We knew the game would be physical. At the last count, it was about, I think about 27 fouls, really chippy end of the game.

It was how do the U.S. men's national team manage the emotion of the moment? How do they manage the emotion of the game? And you're going to see exactly what we talked about before the game with Australia, how physical they wanted to be, how they wanted to disrupt the U.S. men's national team's rhythm by being really chippy. And it got even worse towards the end of the game. I'm assuming the U.S. men's national team did not get any red cards at the end. There were a lot of dust-ups.

That is the sign of a mature team and a team that is growing in front of our very eyes. In a really hostile environment, by the way, for Australia, but a really mature performance. It feels like a reflection of their manager, too. Pocetino is very demanding. He is very tough. All the interviews in the lead up to it. I watched the documentary produced about this team in the lead up to it.

You have to be tough. You have to be physical. You have to be gritty. You have to represent. You have to reflect American values and all these things that he was talking about there. And this match was very physical. You mentioned the friendly against Australia where Chris Richards was like, you know, if there wasn't for that bad yellow card, I wanted to kill somebody, right?

Like he tried to like walk back that quote. It was like, no, you said it. Yeah. And it was a super physical match. We knew it was going to be. We knew Australia was a very defensive oriented team. They kind of try to bully you and intimidate you. So I just love the fact that the U.S. came out again, played from out in front.

Yep. Met their physicality. Didn't back down. Australia made their runs towards the end of the game. There were some dicey moments for a goal. A couple of chances. A couple of chances late. But overall, the U.S., I thought a legitimate question mark going into this game was,

is there going to be any letdown? Yep, exactly right. Because everybody in the world said, well, the game against Paraguay, well, that's the best I've ever seen Team USA play. Yep. That's the best I've ever seen. They could go on a deep run. Yep.

Forget the knockout round. Forget the quarterfinals. They can go to the semis. If you get to the semis, you can get to the finals. That was all of the discussion for the last six days. And then you're playing Australia. and your favorite against Australia, were you going to be able to meet the moment?

100%. And they did from Jump Street. They were up 1-0 again 10 minutes into the game. And that is exactly the way Maricio Pochitino has been coaching this entire tournament. And even in the build-up to the tournament with the performances in the friendlies, Marisa Pochitino deserves a ton of credit.

There was criticism levied his way from a lot of people in and around U.S. soccer, myself included, for being confused about why the U.S. looked so inconsistent, why the lineups were so inconsistent, why the tactics were so inconsistent. And yet, he was consistent in his message saying, we have a plan.

We know exactly how we're building this team. They hadn't had their full complement of players, their best players together, until the lead up to this tournament. And you saw against Paraguay how effective it can be when Marito Pochitino gets time with his best players and implements the style he wants to play. There was no letdown.

In fact, we are looking at a team right now that a lot of the talk was about the attack. They've scored six goals in two games now. Bolligan with two, own goal with two. I wonder who's going to, they're going to be fighting maybe. I think that was the first time ever in the history of the World Cup that an own goal had been scored in back-to-back games by an opposition team, which is incredible.

But let's not lose sight of the fact that defensively, there were so many question marks about the U.S. men's national team, and they just got their first clean sheet. Look at those own goals. It's incredible finishing, by the way, by the opponents. Remarkably similar. And I'm excited. We'll break this down a little bit later.

in terms of the movements. But the U.S. men's national team hadn't gotten a clean sheet since September of last year. I believe it was against Japan. It was. And so there were plenty of question marks defensively going into this tournament about how the U.S. was going to be able to manage transition moments specifically against Australia. I think one time, I counted one time in the 61st or 62nd minute with Irankunda, where the U.S. tried to play an offside trap and he gets in behind.

And there was kind of a scramble at the back in the U.S. They put out the fire. It went back to an Australian player who shot it over the goal. there were no other moments that were really that nerve-wracking from a U.S. men's national team defensive standpoint, just a really comprehensive performance yet again. So you mentioned, do you look at this as you play from out in front, you meet the moment, you get the own, you create the situation for the own goal, then you have another goal yourself, you get that shut out. They had allowed at least one goal in 11 of 12 matches coming in all against World Cup caliber opponents. Do you consider this? Because people talk about dominance in game one.

This is just a complete clean game. This wasn't dominance. This certainly, in the first half it was, because Australia was, I think, shook by the moment. Their head coach. The own goal seemed to rattle them. Well, absolutely. But that's down to the U.S.

And how they started the game on the front foot, the different movements that they had, the pressure that they were putting on Australia. And it was a strange decision from the Australia head coach coming off a great performance. I think it shows the two, changes that he made to his team, both of his wide players out of the team coming off the win that they had against Turkey, and bringing in two new players that are more defensive-minded

players. I think that shows the respect that he had for the quality of this U.S. attack, and it actually hampered his team. They were bereft of ideas in the first half. They could not get out of their own end. The U.S. counterpress was fantastic. The U.S. was not bothered, not troubled at all. And then when you get a goal and then you continue to attack and you continue to put pressure on the dam is eventually going to break. And that second goal right before halftime was so important for the U.S. men's national team to go into halftime up to two goals, knowing that Australia offered very little going the other way. All right. So if we said in the opener, this is the best game that Team USA has ever played in the history of the World Cup in the modern era,

which is what everybody said in Dreambick. Let's dream big. They now just won back-to-back games in a World Cup for the first time since 1930. Yep. They have played four halves of soccer, three of the four halves without their star in Christian Polisic. Yep. They are up six to one. So it's a plus five goal differential.

They are advancing out of the group stage. They will play in the knockout round on home soil. If they win the group, which happens with the Paraguay, a win or draw tonight against Turkey A, they will get a third place finisher from one of five groups. It's way too soon to know who that would be. It's a third place finisher of one of five groups. Correct. If they end up finishing second in Group D, it's much simpler.

They will play the runner up from Group G, which is Belgium, Egypt, Iran, or New Zealand. Yep. They could beat any of those teams. Too soon to know who that would be because there have been two draws so far in that group. So everybody has one point. So not to look to the knockout round and try to guess who they are going to play. But when I look at this team, dominance against Paraguay, complete game against Australia, clearly room for improvement if you're hoping that Polisic is going to be back and going to be healthy.

And now you can maybe even slow play the injury even more. Absolutely. Now that you know that you're going to advance to the knockout round to give him extra time, it feels like the expectation is quarterfinal, semi-final, or just don't put a cap on it. Anybody can win. This team has a legit shot to go all the way. I couldn't agree more.

There's nothing that I can push back on you with regard to the perfect storm of circumstances that is occurring right now for the U.S. men's national team. Now, you come into a situation. Let's talk about Christian Pulisix injury. There isn't as much pressure on him to get back in a quote-unquote must-win game depending on the result tonight so you can be a little bit more cautious with him.

We're all big Paraguay, of course. And you can be more careful going into that third, third game in the group. You do not have to rush him back. You can make sure he's fully recovered, make sure he's fit and raring to go, because the depth is important. But Christian Plissick is our most important player. If we are going to make a deep World Cup run, he has to be on the field for this team,

and he has to be 100% fit. So I'm glad that the depth players, a couple of different scenarios have played out where the US men's national team knows it can win games with. without him, but he needs to be on the field. If we are going to make a deep run, he needs to be on the field. And the other thing that I really liked about this performance from the US men's national team was that it was gritty. The US never really had to be gritty and never really had to show a level of gamesmanship

against Paraguay because of the comprehensive performance of the dominance and the result. They had to show a little bit of resilience in this game against Australia. Australia really put on a lot of pressure on the US men's national team in the second half. And you rely on players like Tim Reem, like Chris Richards, like Alex Freeman, by the way, who was brilliant, the youngest player on this team scoring that second goal. But it's why Chris Richards' health was so important. He was a man mountain in the back in those last 20 minutes, winning every single aerial duel, winning tackles inside the box, getting landed on his knee buckling. And yet he still gets up. He's an absolute warrior.

And that is exactly the type of player that you want leading your backline going into these really important knockout round games. Because the U.S. men's national team dare to dream. Why not? Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves because two things can be true, Danny. The U.S. men's national team has been comprehensive. They've been dominant. And that is particularly why their opponents haven't looked as good. But Paraguay and Australia have looked really poor.

Now, playing against the U.S. men's national team, I think that was the worst version of both of those teams that we have seen in a number of games. But let's take nothing away from the dominance of the U.S. men's national team. Fun to watch. Can we talk about Alex Freeman for a second? Please, would love to. Well, so it's funny. We do all of this pregame talk.

And we've been hype in this tournament for literally years. And so much of it is about Pochitino and Polisic and wow, they got Balligan. Alex Freeman is the youngest player on the team. Yep. He's 21 years old. Two years ago, the idea that he would have been on this team would have been unfathomable. Unfathomable, much less a starter on the team. But he takes it.

advantage of the fact that a lot of the guys, including Polisic, were not participating in the Gold Cup when they were the runner up to Mexico. He plays all six matches in the Gold Cup, catches the eye of Pochitino and the coaching staff, makes the roster, has an assist in the first game, a goal in the second game. And if you watch the celebration of his teammates that come off the bench, that come off the sideline from this goal, you can, tell that this guy had been a bench player. Like, you know, that he was, he is such a favorite of the guys on the team. Yeah. And the camaraderie of 1 to 26, the contributions from everywhere, I just thought it was a very cool moment for him.

And now he's 21 years old. He's a key part of the future of Team USA. His story is the story that dreams are made of. Danny, 18 months ago, we were talking about Alex Freeman playing an MLS Next Pro as a teenager. And yet he plays one great season for Orlando City in Major League Soccer. He's an all-star. He gets a big money transfer to a team in La Liga in Villarreal, who's now challenging for the Champions League. They will be in the Champions League next year.

And he is a massively important part of this U.S. men's national team. I think it speaks to, first of all, his mentality, his mindset, him challenging himself at a young age to go overseas, but also Major League Soccer for developing him and helping him reach his potential right now, which is absolutely through the roof. And it's not just the goal that he scored tonight that I'm so happy with. Towards the end of the first half, there was an Australian player that went one v1 with him.

And he won the ball and he kind of bullied him out of bounds. And then he celebrated. He celebrated like he scored a goal and the Australian player didn't love it. But all of his teammates came over again in that moment and basically dapped him up and said, we love that type of energy. It's like you would used to see with the Italians.

Back when the Italians were better and made World Cups and they used to celebrate defending. Sorry, Italy. I apologize for the shot. But the point still stands. The Italians used to celebrate blocks defensive things. Like, the U.S. men's national team defensively, they need that type of energy. They need that type of mentality if they are going to go far in this tournament.

And Alex Freeman embodies absolutely all of that. All right. It's the question on everyone's mind. You would think it's how far can Team USA go. But no, it's where, Dax? Will they be on your big board? Jeffrey, Dax's Big Board, please. Come on in.

It's another result against Australia. Six points. They are making the knockout rounds. They can win Group D tonight. Thank you, Jeffrey. With a Paraguay win or draw. I cannot imagine you're putting them above Spain, but it's your board. Go ahead, sir.

I will say, with all the great things we just levied the U.S. men's national team's way, there are six teams in front of them that are all world powers and have all had varying levels of performance here. But the U.S. men's national team on home soil, playing the way that they are playing, six goals scored, one goal against, on track to win their group and have a very favorable path towards a quarterfinal or a semifinal. The U.S. men's national team is moving up. Relax. Relax.

Okay. We have to stay grounded here. The integrity of the big board is at stake, people. This is how I'll put it. I do not think the U.S. men's national team is more, quote, unquote, talented than Portugal. But Portugal, I'm so disappointed with their performance in their first game of the tournament. The Portuguese men's national team is moving into seven. Spain, Germany, England, all moving up.

And the U.S. men's national team, when my big board comes out with an updated version, is going right here at number six. Okay. And I think that's a totally fair, perfectly logical and rational place to put them. But for now, we're not doing all the moving and shaken until Monday. They will be moving up to six. and in their last group game, depending on how that goes, who knows how high they can go.

I mean, listen, the idea of them being in front of Portugal is pretty exciting. Well, Portugal, show me something. That kind of goes back, though, to, you comment and it's like, okay, Spain is the favorite. And France, they're co-favorants in the tournament. But this is single elimination soccer once you get to the knockout round. It is. And the favorite doesn't always win. Correct.

And so the question that has been on U.S. soccer fans' minds for forever is, have we closed the gap? Like, are they within the margin of error where on any given day on the pitch, can the Team USA win? And if they're in that kind of company, it feels like the answer is yes. And the great equalizer in this conversation is the fact that the U.S. men's national team is on home soil. It's been an advantage throughout World Cup history. First game in L.A., unbelievable crowd. energy off the charts. Second game in Seattle, a very soccer rich history, a mecca of tremendous support and an excellent fan base.

Incredible. The U.S. men's national team has to ride that wave of momentum each game. Your former coach, Bob Bradley, going to join us for his reaction to the win coming up in just a little bit. And the countdown is on to Brazil and Haiti. Three hours and eight minutes in counting. That's coming up tonight, 8.30 Eastern on Fox. The 2006 Chevrolete Equinox awarded the most dependable compact SUV in the U.S. by J.D. Power is designed for your everyday. And with available all-wheel drive, you can handle your to-do list with total confidence.

Start your build at Chevrolet.ca. Details at J.D.Power.com. The countdown continues. And Brazil fans, shockingly, they're pretty excited. Brazil taking on Haiti tonight. Heavy favorites. Expecting lots of action in this one. Catch it tonight. 8.30 Eastern on Fox. Now we're very excited for this. Dax McCarty is still with us, but we are now joined by former U.S.

men's national team head coach Bob Bradley, catch coach on Fox Sports FIFA World Cup now, the award-winning digital show, delivering pregame, halftime, and post-game coverage all tournament long. Bob, thank you so much for joining us. So the U.S. has advanced to the knockout round. We do not yet know if they,

have won their group. They will if Paraguay gets the win or draw tonight against Turkey A. But let's talk about the match against Australia, a 2-0 victory. What was your biggest impressions from the match? That after a really big game against Paraguay, which was not only three points, but a big statement, we followed up in the first half against Australia. We saw many of the same ideas, the coordination, the timing, the speed of some of our movements, our ability to create in those half spaces, also moments of really good reactions and counterpressing. We're a very athletic team, and in both games you see our athleticism put teams in really bad positions. We're competitive. The mentality seems good, so I saw a lot of really good things

In the first half, second half changed. They pushed a little harder. It was choppy, not as much football, but we handled most of the situations pretty well, and we take a shutout, which we needed. Bob, first of all, before I get to my question, I've never actually gotten a chance to thank you for giving me my first U.S. men's national team caps.

Obviously means a lot to me. I want to know, Bob, what you made of Pochitino's tactical decision? Obviously, the news Christian Pulisick was. wasn't going to be able to play. He brings in Ricardo Pepi. I was a little surprised by it, but it turned out to be a very effective tactic in the first half.

As a manager, as put on your coaching hat, is that the same thing you would have done? And how did you feel like Pepe repaid that faith? On paper, the idea of having two strikers, both dangerous with balls getting into the box, made a lot of sense. But what I really appreciated is that the ideas that that Pochitino builds in

to his teams in terms of wide triangles and the two and three man game type situations that we create over and over. I saw it again tonight. And so the way we ended up playing tonight was very much of like a 3142 or in some ways almost 316. And you saw on both sides of the field on the right side that was a really good understanding between Dest and Weston and then one one of the strikers at times moves over or Freeman moves up to make three. On the left side between Anthony Robinson, and now you get the situations where Tillman is moving over there. And again, we saw it on the first goal.

Balligan becomes part of that. And all that completely manipulated their back line, made things really difficult because the spaces between the wing backs and the centerbacks became big enough that we could take advantage. And it's a lot harder to do that against the five-man back line than it is against the four. So that shows some really good preparation. And it's a continuation of some of the same things we saw against Paraguay. So what I was saying was dream a little bit.

Like, the idea here is you're hosting a World Cup. You dominate Paraguay. You have a shutout against Australia. You're advancing to the knockout round. You've played four halves of soccer. and three of them have been without your star, Christian Polisic. They were tough in this game. They've found the back of the net.

They've created chances. They've won possession. They've done all of these nice things. Maybe they'll be a winner of the group by the end of the night. We don't know. But the idea of how deep this team can go and where expectations should be, I think it is rising. I think expectations should be rising. I'm curious what type of context you would have on it, Bob, because I think U.S.

soccer fans are very excited right now. Yeah, I think there's two parts. The U.S. soccer fan that's excited. And the way this team kicked off the World Cup, that part is awesome. And, of course, that just creates so much attention and so much momentum. So we're all on board with that. Then you step back and you look at it from the coaching standpoint. And you go into a tournament.

and you have clearly established a mentality and an identity, and now you want to make sure that right from the beginning that part comes through, and it did. And then when you have a good first game, you look at everything, you see the positives, you want those to continue, you look at some of the negatives, you start to work on those, and now you do everything to go through group play, win the group, and feel like you're ready to go as far as you can.

because the team is growing half by half. And so with all the talk, I think it's quite clear that Mauricio's got a really good grip on what he wants in terms of mentality, what he wants in terms of all 26 guys being part of something. And I'm enjoying seeing that, and I think that lends to a really good rest of the World Cup with a lot to play for. So let's dig into that a little bit because this was, we know the friendly was not very friendly against Australia. And there was, you know, a fight.

And there was a lot of trash talk. And then this game was very physical at times. And it certainly seems like Team USA is taking on the personality of its manager in Mauricio Pochitino. But I'm curious if that is overstating it, like if that's more of like a media narrative. thing if they're just tough physical American athletes or like what you make of Pochitino's role

specifically in how this team met the physicality of the Australians. Pochitino has clearly established that we want to compete at a high level and he when you look at the team that he picks he

appreciates that we've got athleticism. If you look at his team's Espignol, Salisism. If you look at his team's Espignol, Hampton, Tottenham, they were athletic physical teams. They could threaten behind. They worked very hard. So these are football ideas.

And certainly you can see that as he got to know the pool of players, and as he started to figure out what each guy is about, that kind of profiling of players so that you understand not only how to use a player, but how to put them on the field around others where they can combine and there's good relationships. And I think that those things are really moving in an excellent direction. And that's what you want to see when you start a tournament. Bob, you coached in the 2010 World Cup. And if I'm not mistaken, you needed a result to advance in that third game.

Now the U.S. men's national team is in a position where they've won their first two games. And depending on what happens in the Paraguay-Turkey A game tonight, could have potentially the group locked up by the end of the evening. Let's say that they do. Let's say they win the group at the end of the night. Put on your coaching hat. What would you do in terms of managing your squad, player rotations? Would you prefer to give your depth pieces a runout so they're fresh and sharp?

Or would you still want to give your main group, your starting 11, your preferred starting 11, another game to prepare for the knockout rounds? I think it's a little bit of both. One thing that comes into play in this World Cup is that the days between games are, bigger. Right. So there's also a part that guys that don't play against Turkey, it's going to be actually a long time before the round of 32. So I think they'll look at everything. They do a very good job of the sports science side in terms of loads and understanding where each player is physically. And I think we can all see that there's a real team mentality. Everybody is in right now. And so when you are able to get guys on the field,

look at when Gio came on the field against Paraguay and was able to score what that meant to the team. And so today a few more guys get in. And that just helps because guys get a taste of the World Cup and then when needed, it makes them even more ready. And I just think that they're doing everything in a fashion where there's a real sense as a group that they can do something big.

Well, we want to pick that conversation up with you, so Bob Bradley's going to hang out with us, and we will discuss whether or not this team is poised for a deep run in this World Cup on home soil. And we are just under three hours to kick off, though, till Brazil taking on Haiti tonight. That game in Philly, 8.30 Eastern on Fox. Fox has got you covered today and every day during the World Cup. catch shows like Chef Nick, FIFA World Cup now, and James Winston, our FIFA World Cup correspondent on YouTube. And of course, the countdown continues. Vinny Jr. scored with that strike in Brazil's

draw with Morocco. He will be looking to do it again. Brazil takes on Haiti tonight at 8.30 Eastern on Fox. We are back now on first thing's first overtime, Danny Parkins, Dax McCarty, and Bob Bradley still with us. We appreciate that. The news of the day, of course, the U.S. men's national team advancing to the round of 32 after a 2-0 win against Australia. It was a very physical game, but the U.S. came through. Mauricio Poitruchatino after the game on the pitch with Jenny Taff, though,

talking about something that he's been talking about ever since he got this role with Team USA about the role that the crowd needs to have for Team USA going forward. Amazing. I was saying yesterday, Argentina has amazing fans, but I think we are matching Argentina. It's amazing. Our fans. I think so happy for them. I can tell you guys, I've watched a lot of the interviews with Poach in the lead-up to this. He has not always been that effusive in his praise. He has talked about how they've played games in Houston, and it felt like they were in Mexico. He's talked about how his team was playing on home soil, but it's felt like a road game in some of these tournaments leading up to it. So that is very high praise from Poach.

And so, Bob, if we're talking about if the U.S. is poised to make a deep run in this thing, there is a history of host countries. exceeding expectations and going deep in front of their home fans, kind of a two-parter here. Do you think they're poised to make a deep run? And if so, how much of an edge do you think being able to do this on American soil would give them as an advantage? When you look at the crowds in both of these first two games, it's incredible. I had some friends at the game today, and I was getting text messages,

and they were just telling me starting really early this morning. that was just such a buzz. And having that type of support, and then when you put that together with the way we've started in these first two games and how now it starts to get more attention and it starts to create just a real big momentum snowball, then it sets you up. But there's one thing you always keep in mind is that when you get out of the group,

then the knockout phase comes, and now it's one game at a time. And so there's going to be a real focus on finishing group play, coming out on top, and then seeing what opponent we have, and then prepare it in all the same ways so that we can continue the run. Do you buy it?

The idea that they have that little extra edge playing at home and it could be the difference to have them make a deep run? Yeah, there's no question about it. Anytime you play at home, it is always an advantage. And especially with what they did in that first game, The fact that they were able to galvanize the casual fan, maybe not the diehard soccer fan that was always going to support this team, but the way that they played with excitement, with passion, with flair, with ingenuity, that brings in everyone else under the tent to say, you know what, this U.S. men's national team can potentially do something really special. And then when you get to the stadium and the stadium's already half full, or you see on the bus ride there that all the red, white, and blue jerseys that are there to, support you. I think on the pregame, we saw a guy wearing a bald eagle outfit flapping his wings.

I mean, that type of stuff gives you goosebumps and it motivates you to maybe find that extra two or three percent inside you to go and play for your country even better. Bob, earlier before you joined us, we talked about Alex Freeman. And I just thought the story was so cool. Youngest guy on the roster, 21 years old. No one would have dreamed that he was going to make this team 18 months ago, much less be a starter on this team, much less. have an assist in game one, a goal in game two. His teammates, they ran off the sideline. They were so pumped in the celebration.

You know, I don't know if you think that that speaks to the depth of the talent on this roster or just his story specifically, really wherever you want to take it. But he's kind of been an out-of-nowhere surprise impact player so far through two matches. He's a fantastic player. And he got his chance in Orlando and he took advantage. then move quickly to Europe via Real. And it's just exciting when you see young players come through and they're ready in all ways, ready physically, ready mentally. And he just grows in every game. So it's a fantastic story. We all love seeing young players take their chances and move forward.

and when you can become a top player on the national team early in your career, that speaks for itself. Bob, I love this play from Alex Freeman right here, because more so than the goal, I know you love a player with personality. I know you love a player that is willing to celebrate like a big defensive play like Alex Freeman did. And for him to do it at such a young age is so impressive. There's so much personality on this U.S. men's national team.

I just wonder, because of the issues they had defensively coming into this, tournament, how important getting that clean sheet is for just their confidence and their mindset going into this big Turkey A game and then the knockout rounds? It helps for sure. What I actually love most about that play was not the celebration. It was the way he took a good angle and got across the attacker so that now he could ride the ball out of bounds. Now, the celebration at the end, the fact that his teammates were so pumped up for him also shows this team mentality that we're seeing. and over and over and over.

So I think that that part is, we see it. Bob, we have one of the best coaches in U.S. men's national team history with us. I want to, you can see the screen here. You can see what we're seeing. Let's go through three of the goals here. But there's two repeatable patterns that I'm starting to notice, which you referenced a little bit at the top of the interview where the U.S. men's national team in Pocitino, they really love little overloads on the right side of the field.

But if we go to that left side of the field with Anthony Robinson, I think he's been so impressive in being able to take his game to the next level with his passing forward, the relationship he has between either Christian Pulisic in the first game against Paraguay to put him in behind that back line, the relationship and understanding between those two that sets up this goal for Flo Boligan. And then even today, you saw him play a great ball into Boligan's path, who flared out to that left-hand side to be able to create the own goal. What are you seeing from Pochitino in this U.S. men's national team with their pattern play that is so impressive in actually mixing up their game so many different times?

How difficult does that to defend? It's very difficult. And what I spoke about at the beginning is the timing of the runs and the coordination of the movements and the fact that they are done at real top speed, that is so hard to defend. and we've managed in both games to really run the deep runs into those channels, into those half spaces. We do it a lot with the coordination of three players. And so it was really impressive today because in the first game on the left side, it was Anthony, it was Christian, and Tillman floated over into that part of the field, and those three made different combination plays. And while all that was going on, of course, Balligan is waiting for the moment to move in the box.

And so today, you take Christian out of that. And now you're thinking, all right, let's see how this works. Well, it was still Robinson and Tillman, and that was quite good. And then on that first goal, you see Balligan move over to become the third man. And then when their wingback steps out, that opens up space. In both games, even against Paraguay, it was so obvious. The two centerbacks stayed very narrow, very close to flow balligan. And the distance between centerback and outside back was incredibly big.

It was easy to take advantage of. It's a little trickier when you do it against the back five. But when the wing backs jumped today, the center backs right and left were slow to move out. And that's where we were able to really threaten and get into those deep spaces. Bob, thank you so much for joining us on the OT. Bob on Fox Sports's FIFA World Cup Now, the award-winning digital show throughout the World Cup.

Coming up, the latest from Pochitino on Christian Policic. And we are just under three hours to kick off. Brazil taking on Haiti. The World Cup action rolls on that match tonight in Philadelphia, 8.30 Eastern on Fox. When you're a mid-sized business,

you need every competitive advantage you can get. Like an AI solution that works for you, not against you. SAP Grow is built with AI embedded at its core, working across every system, and it's ready to go from day one so you can hit the ground running. Bring it with SAP Grow, AI Cloud ERP for any size business. We are just under three hours to kick off when Brazil will take on Haiti tonight in Philadelphia, 830 Eastern on Fox. Welcome back to the OT. I'm Danny Parkins here with former U.S. men's national team midfielder, Dax McCart.

and we are back in World Cup Corner. The UN, US men's national team, wow. 2-0 over Australia, 4-1 over Paraguay, but they did it without Christian Polisic. He was ruled out about 90 minutes before the match with a calf injury. Everyone is waiting anxiously for an update. Here is Pochitino with Jenny Taft on the latest.

We want to have all the players, no, fit. It's an important player for us, Christian. But that is a team and it's a team, And it wasn't possible today for him to play. We hope that next game will be available. But if we want to win the competition, we need the whole team, no? And all the players need to be important.

But of course, Christian is one of the best player in the world. And I hope that he can recover as soon as possible. Okay, so that's what they did against Australia without Christian Polisic, which is impressive in its own right. It shows that they are deeper than him and that they are convincingly. better than Australia. What's your reaction to that update from Poach? Because maybe they will look at this and say there's not a huge difference

between if Paraguay doesn't help out tonight. Sure. Maybe they will look at it and say there's not a big difference between winning the group and being the runner up now that they've locked in advancing and be even more conservative with Policic going forward. Because he did not sound at all convinced that he's playing in this game against Turkey. That was my biggest takeaway from that interview was that that is not a definitive he will be ready to go.

That is very much we are being cautious. We are going to wait and see exactly how he reacts to treatment, how he reacts and how he recovers. It's a great sign for the U.S. men's national team that they are able to get the job done without him in the lineup. But let's make one thing abundantly clear. The U.S. men's national team has started this tournament in a great fashion. They have dominated the opponents that they have played against.

They will, as this tournament progresses, continue to play more difficult and more difficult and tougher opposition. Christian Polisic, I do not want him on the field if he is less than 95%. I want him 100% to be ready to go in the knockout stages because you will not advance far in this competition. If he is not 100% fit, we need him. If you win the group, you get a third place finisher. If you are runner up in the group, you get the runner up of Belgium, Egypt, Iran, and New Zealand.

So that's the difference here. Paraguay fans tonight. Just rude for Paraguay tonight. Take it easy. and Policic and the U.S. can be the winners of Group D. Thanks for watching the O.T.