Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #697: A USMNT World Cup primer for the general American sports fan

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Seven or eight things you might want to know about this team and its chances at the World Cup, which kicks off later this week. Sanjay Sujanthakumar, Vince Irvin, and Adam Belz on the mics. Details about next week: Media Mixer hosted by Sounder at Heart at Project 9 in Seattle, evening of Thursday, June 18: https://partiful.com/e/BY6NPWAb0JVUagYN2q4y?c=sF2c_4mR Matchday bash at Fast Fashion, 1723 1st Ave S, Seattle, doors open at 8 a.m. local time. Hosted by Scuffed and Sounder at Heart. Oh and check out the World Cup edition of Sounder at Heart's magazine: https://sounderatheart.bigcartel.com/product/iv-world-cup-edition Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedCheck out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/storeAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Scuff podcast when we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, this is a quick primer on the USMNT at the World Cup for the General American Sports fan as we head into a World Cup on home soil for the first time since 1994. This show is aimed at people who may not know what non-penalty XG is, or the Earths Divisi, or the Europa Conference League. Sanjay and Vince are here with me. Sanjay, where are you right now? I'm at Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California.

It's about 50 miles south of L.A. Far away from SoFi, this is where the team is going to be based for a while. And it's awesome to be here. I've lived out here during college coached countless games at this complex, massive sprawling complex. And it's really cool, really special to be back. here for something like this. It's awesome. Yeah, you could, you guys can, earlier I could hear Potch on the loudspeaker, like addressing

the fans. There's 5,500 fans there watching the team train, right? Yep. Over 30K applied for the lottery. And, yeah, there were long lines when we got in. It got in pretty early and there were long lines forming. So it's cool. You start to feel the buzz here.

And, you know, as they say, we got shooters in every area code. Vince just fresh back from Chicago. where you watched the U.S. play pretty well against Germany. How was that? How are you? I'm doing great. I'm about 75% recovered from the trip that I decided to take on last minute. I can't be a poser, Adam Bells. I cannot be a poser. I cannot come on and speak to how much I love Chicago every time the possibility comes up on this very podcast and not go to Chicago, So especially when it's like the World Cup send-off match,

especially when Soldier Field is about to be abandoned here soon in the next five years, allegedly, allegedly. Still a lot of paperwork to get signed, eyes dotted T's to be crossed. It was a long day, it was a long day, but it was worth it. And I had a lot of fun, man. Soldier Field is sick. Chicago obviously is just, I mean, it's Chicago in the summer, brother. But, yeah, I'm feeling good, and I'm feeling,

I'm just feeling great about this World Cup. It's here. and the buzz just in and around Chicago in the stadium. It was different. It was different for sure. Was it? Yeah. That was my first time there too.

And yeah, that felt like a perfect send-off. Yes. Yeah. No doubt about it. Even though we lost. Even though we lost. Better to save the victory over Germany or a team like Germany for the actual World Cup, you know? Yeah.

Yeah. But the vibes are still high. I think every, you know, the vibes did not decrease because of the result of the match. You know, I mean, those first 10 minutes, it was like, I was, you know, we were nervous. I was about to put the paper bag over my head, you know, especially come out so in serious, like, I can see that, you know, in the second minute or whatever.

And then, you know, it didn't pick up any until, you know, probably about 13th, 15th minutes, something like that, whatever. But, yeah, I think. We did enough in that match for everybody that was there to stay on the bandwagon. You know, 64,000 people or whatever that came out for that match expecting a show. I think we fulfilled our obligation in that match. They got a show. Yeah.

And in terms of the casuals bringing them on board, no better way than that Galazzo, right? That went viral. Tyler Adams joked after the game that he asked Jedi to save it for next week to do. it again next week. But I'm glad it happened then because everyone saw that. Yeah, people are talking about that even in northwest Georgia, believe it or not. All right, so a little bit of housekeeping. Well, first of all, World Cup housekeeping.

So this is talking to you, general American sports fan. The World Cup is the greatest sporting event on earth by a extremely wide margin. This year it's happening. And I'm going to list off the cities. Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterey, Houston, Dallas, Kansas City, Toronto, Los Angeles, which is where Sanjay is, San Francisco, Seattle, which is where we will be in 10 days, and Vancouver. So it's a three-country World Cup, but the vast majority of it's happening in the U.S. For the first time, there will be 48 teams in this World Cup. This is a big difference between the last World Cup and any of the World Cups before it.

So there's going to be 12 groups of four teams. And instead of just two teams advancing from each group, eight of the 12 third place teams will also advance to the knockout rounds. And there's an extra knockout round. There's a round of 32 this time. Usually you got a group, you go straight to the round of 16, and you got four games ahead of you to win the title. Now there's five games starting with the round of 32.

Let's be honest, not getting out of the group for the U.S. this year is a disaster scenario that rivals missing the World Cup in 2018. We really shouldn't even mention such things. So we'll move on from that. I'm just going to emphasize real quick. I mean, not getting out of the group in this situation where only 16 teams get eliminated from the start of the World Cup to the knockout rounds. You know, you've got third place teams getting in all over the place. It would truly have to mean that we crashed and burned just something serious in front of our home crowd in L.A., Seattle, and L.A. I mean, it would be a disaster of epic proportions.

Yeah, it would. I don't think it's going to happen. Not going to happen. Yeah. Each team, just a little bit more sort of the mechanics of this whole thing, each team has 26 players on its roster. Those rosters came out over the last few weeks. But typically it turns out to be about 15 or so players who make an impact on the game.

That dynamic is going to be even more pronounced this summer because there's more break between each game. So the U.S. is going to have like six days between each game, six seven days between each game. So it's basically like a normal, yeah, there you go. It's more like a normal league cadence where you just play like on Saturday, you get the week off if you're not in Champions League and then you play on the next Saturday. So that works in our favor because we're not We're much deeper We'll get into this. We're deeper than we have been in the past We're not a team with the depth of a Germany or a France

Or an Argentina or a Brazil or a Spain or a Portugal So this works in our favor because depth was a problem for us in 2022 We played hard, we did well in the group stage We did pretty well in the group stage And then we just ran out of steam when we faced the Netherlands Because it was basically 12 guys doing all the running. That's not going to be as much of an issue this time.

Now, before we get into the thick of it, because we're each going to bring some stuff, like here's a reason to pay attention as a casual sports fan to the USA at the World Cup this summer. The Germany Recap is, I'm going to record that with Greg tomorrow. So a lot of people are wondering, where's the Germany recap? It's coming out on Tuesday. Also, Sanjay and I have been generating a lot of episodes just for patrons. to past couple weeks. And those, plus everything we're going to publish for patrons over the next few weeks,

which I am predicting is going to be a lot. We'll be available to you if you join our Patreon. The link is in the show notes. It's very simple. It's very easy to get set up with your own private feed to get these extra episodes. Also check the show notes for information about our plans the next couple of weeks. All three of us on this show will be in Seattle on June 1819 for USA versus Australia. We're working on putting together some pickup on match day minus one.

There's a gathering at a brewery called Project 9, the night before the game. Hosted by Jeremiah O'Shan and Sounder at Heart, it's billed as a media mixer, but anybody can come. You can come and talk to us, meet other reporters who are going to be in town for the game. That should be cool. And then the morning of the game, we're going to be at Fast Fashion, a brewery that's a 10-minute walk from the stadium. we have pre-ordered I believe it's $1,700 worth of beer. So just come and join us.

The reason we're doing that is it's going to take forever to get in and get out of these places that are close to the World Cup Stadium. So we don't want everybody waiting around trying to close out their tab. We're doing it all together. And you should come join us and drink a couple beers, a couple three, four.

I think that's it for announcements. join the community become a patron for the price of whatever it is it's super worth it I forget off the top of my head

but yeah I mean yeah I went to I went to Chick-filet to get dinner

like get lunch for me my two kids and my wife and my sister and walked out with a $52 bill

yes sir and that that covers basically almost a year year of being a $5 a month patron. So it's not that much money.

Let's go to stuff that you might want to know about the U.S. men's national team. If you're coming out a little bit cold, I want to start with you, Sanjay. What's the first thing on your list? Yeah. This team is being led by one of the highest profile coaches in the world. Argentine manager, Argentine manager, Maricio Pachet. known as Pach in the soccer world.

He took over with less than two years of runway until his tournament. As a player, Potch was pretty well known. He began his career with famed Argentine club Newell's old boys and pretty much spent his whole career with the Spanish, Barcelona-based team Espagnol, as well as French club PSG. And he later coached both of those clubs. both of those clubs, but his resume also includes English team Southampton, Chelsea, and his most successful stint, the one that he's best known for as a coach,

came leading Tottenham Hotspur, a team that is down bad right now, nearly got relegated, but he took them to a Champions League final not too long ago. So it's crazy that someone who coached at PSG Messi and Bapa and Namar and a lot of other stars and egos is now coaching the United States men's soccer team. it's still surreal. And all that said, this tournament is important for his reputation, too. He's not the young up-and-coming manager on the European scene anymore, right? Like about a decade ago, Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary former manager of Manchester United

back in their glory days, he called Potch the best manager in the Prem about 10 years ago. A lot's happened since then, and Potch is expected to return after this tournament to Europe. There's been a lot of discourse about where he might go, what his next step might be. But the biggest job ever isn't necessarily waiting for him. So he's got something to prove in this tournament. But yeah, nevertheless, this felt like a slam dunk higher in the fall of 2024 when the U.S. Federation got him. And he's taken this team on a very interesting journey. It definitely hasn't just been a linear progression since he took over.

last March the U.S. finished in fourth place in a regional tournament, and after that point, Pach decided to basically blow it up. He prioritized competition with the player pool. He sensed complacency, and he wanted a cultural reset after that. He called up 71 players over the course of, I think it was 2025, the calendar year. So that is definitely a rebuild at the expense of continuity. That being said, now we're here with a lot of the guys we thought would be here. and be counted on in this tournament.

But, yeah, it's been a long and winding road here under Potch, and the starting lineup that you're going to see on Friday has probably never played together before for this team. So jump on board. Yeah, it was a big coup for us to get him as coach, right? Oh, yeah. And yet, he will be judged entirely on the next 450 minutes of soccer, basically. like the next five games and we're assuming that there will be a fourth and a fifth game

that's that's that's that's what his you know you talk about it's important for his reputation that they do well in this tournament that he does well in this tournament that's what he's going to be judged on Vince any thoughts on Potch before we move on to the next thing no no I mean you called him you called him a loco at the beginning but then you rescinded that yeah yeah um I I rescinded it just because I didn't want to cross any cultural barriers that I was that I was unprepared to you know but but at the same time at the same time so I think Sanjay got into why we kind of well or why I kind of coined that term you know there was it was just a lot going on with Pach

a lot of ideas he had a lot of ideas you can't you can't fault the man for not trying anything some of them very bad just just terrible out of the hand and some of them good you know the fact that he's found a Max Arfston, Alex Freeman, a Patrick Ajumong to fortify this roster. Now, Big Pat, of course, Torres Achilles. But, you know, the prospecting that he kind of did within MLS to find the fond players to fill out this roster has been objectively good. Without a doubt, there's nothing you can say really to denigrate that.

They denigrate the work that he's done there. So anyway, he still has a way about him. He has ways to him that are foreign to us, you know, with him coming in and changing things around and kind of rebuilding this team anew in his own vision. But as the, as we have this World Cup game in six days or whatever, or five days, his vision, it's looking like there was a method behind the madness. It's about the complacency that he sensed, like you said, Sanjay. I mean, he did feel like he needed to let everybody know they're on notice. You've got to come and bring it every camp, or you're not going to go to the World Cup. And people got the message, you know.

And even if he did end up with a lot of the same players that we thought he should have had. Yeah, he felt they all needed to be pretty much all of them needed to be reminded that the national team is the most important. thing. And I think they got the message. One more thing before we zoom out, in terms of his out their ideas, like what's still noticeable, he hasn't named the starting goalkeeper yet. We found that out today that Matt Fries, who we expect to start at goalie, still hasn't been told that he's starting on Friday. So that's never happened before in the history of this program. But anyway. Okay. So that's one thing. Potch, high profile. high pedigree coach and, I mean, easily the most of those things in our coach that we've ever had as a national team.

Another thing that we have more of than we've ever had with the national team is talent, both on paper and lately on the field. This is the best U.S. men's national team in history. Now, don't get me wrong, this does not mean we will make a deep run or that we can comfortably avoid the disaster we discussed earlier. I mean, we got to stay vigilant. We got to stay on high alert. Soccer is cruel. But we have more talent at more positions than we've ever had. We were good and young in 2022 when we ran into that Netherlands brick wall.

Since then, we've made some additions that make us quite a bit better. One of them is Fuller and Balligan, our starting striker, who plays at Monaco. Another is Malik Tillman, an elegant midfielder who plays not a ton right now, but has played a fair amount at Byer-Levacuzin. And then there's Gio Raina, who is another elegant midfielder who was on the 2022 roster but barely played, you know, for reasons that it could take like several podcasts to get into. But you add those three. You add Alex Freeman, who's that serviceable and athletic young right back, which allows us to push a player like Sergenio Dess further up the field. And what's going to play out as a result of this is that we can attack.

teams, we can attack good teams in a more sophisticated way than we ever have. It can be pretty. It will be pretty some of the time. We saw that against Senegal. We saw it a little bit against Germany. Christian Pulisic and Sergenio Dest can go at world-class defenders 1v1 and strike fear into them. That is not what our 2010 team looked like. That is not what our 2002 team looked like. Gone are the days where when our only way to win against a really good team is to gut it out. We will still have to gut it out, but we have the quality to win with our soccer and do it beautifully. And I think people should go into these games expecting a show, just like

they were in Chicago on Saturday. Dells, you say that we should go into these games, these matches expecting the show. And I think they could all potentially be shows, all three groups, group stage matches. But, you know, when we look at, when we look at two of the teams that make up our group, a Paraguay and in Australia, the two teams that maybe we can, that we can tend to overlook in our group, they are teams that are capable of beating us. And the way that they are capable of beating us is through making these games an absolute total slog. You know, these are, these are teams with a bunch of hard men within them.

teams that, you know, Paraguay made it through the crucible of common ball qualifying. Yeah. Where they shut out, they got clean sheets against Brazil, Uruguay twice, and Ecuador. Then they conceded only seven goals total in common ball qualifying. So this team is, it's a team that's no joke in a team that will definitely be down to bring the fight. And Australia as well. We know, we all know that Australians in general, you know, they just, don't create soft people.

You know, they're going to have a whole bunch of rugged dudes out there ready to fight. I mean, and, you know, another thing about this group stage is we played all three opponents in the past year. And in the matches where we played Paraguay and Australia, first of all, the Paraguay match ended in a, ended in a scuffle, essentially. Um, got a, uh, a sideline brawl where, you know, everybody got into it, big kerfuffle, you know, on the sideline there. a lot of players involved.

And this is, you know, a match that is a friendly, not the World Cup. And then when we played Australia in that friendly, they basically kicked our best player out of the game. You know, just repeated hard fouls on Christian Polisic. Anytime we tried to come back and receive the ball, had to be replaced by Diego Luna, I think, in like 36 minute of that match. So we have the ability and in those friendly matches, we kind of did for a long periods of time,

played those opponents kind of off the park. But, you know, they're going to have the discipline, the grit, and determination to make these games as hard as possible for the U.S. So. Yeah, I just think, like, with Malik, like I think of Malik Tillman in particular, who it's sounding like everybody's thinking he's going to be the starting number eight on Friday. I don't know if everybody's saying that,

but a lot of people are talking about that. because the way he played against Germany, he is the type of player who can put together just a quick combination with another player that just unclothes the opponent, you know? And we're going to be able to do that, whether it always results in a goal. I mean, it's not always going to result in a goal. Most of the time it's not.

But we're going to put those combinations together, I think, with a regularity that we have not in the past at the World Cup. That's fair. No doubt about it. Vince, what's your first one? All right, so one thing to know for anybody coming into this is that we've played, like I just said earlier, we've played all three group stage opponents within the past year, beat Paraguay to one, beat Australia to one, lost to Turkey A two to one.

Also, the Turkey match, well, first of all, we played generally well in all three matches. and in the Turkey A match we filled in a team full of players that will probably not be on the pitch when we play Turkey at this next time on June 26. Right. That was sort of in the peak of the experimentation phase. Yes.

I mean, no disrespect to these fellas, but a front four of Diego Luna, Patrick Ajumann, Jack McGlynn, Malik Tillman, Malik Tillman and Diego Luna as well as we want to game out the whole five, whole front five, that will be upgraded significantly. You know, when we throw Christian Polisic, Balagan or Pepe, Malit Tilman, Weston McKinney, Serginio Dust out there on that pitch. So despite that one loss, it was, like I said,

a team full of people that aren't even on the roster to begin with. and so we should feel very good that we in our probabilities to not only get out of the group but to win the group that is definitely the expectation is to win the group okay Sanjay what's the next thing from you um this team like this is not about soccer this team feels like one of the few things that can and maybe the only thing left. They can truly unite our country. This is the world's most popular sport. So it's the only time it's really us against the world, unlike basketball or hockey or whatever. And unlike those sports, you know, where the U.S. wakes up in the semifinal or the final of the tournament. Like, yeah, we're a lot more talented, like you said earlier, but we're still very much an underdog.

Wouldn't even say we're a dark horse yet, to be honest. Like, we're a lot better. but yeah, there's that underdog, inherently American mentality when this team steps on the field in this sport. And that's very different than the women's national team, obviously, and there, you know, the supporting of the team has been complicated by things off the field in recent years in terms of the political climate of our country.

I think that's unfortunate. But with the men's team, I think you're going to see, you know, more unequivocal united support than we've ever seen for anything in the history of our country for any tournament. So this team is expected to at least match its best run of the modern era, which was the 2002 World Cup when we made the quarterfinals. So, yeah, that probably means pulling off at least one upset against the team that's superior on paper, European or South American team. that is just simply better than this team. But that's where we anticipate the advantage of hosting, hopefully giving them a lift, really becoming a factor.

And that's why the support of everyone, not just the sickos in our little world, but the people listening to this, hopefully the quote-unquote casuals, that's why we need you behind this team because that's where, you know, the galvanizing really happens. The people that are just starting to pay attention this week.

That's what takes us to a different level. that's what, you know, that's the way the players and the team coaches, like everyone feels the support of the country. It's like, you know, the interactions when you go out of your hotel or you're taking a bus ride, like, that can't just be the soccer people. That's got to be everyone, and I think it will be. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, that was striking to see the energy of that crowd in Chicago yesterday. I mean, Saturday.

You know, because we've been to a lot of games, and we've been to games in Nashville. events where, you know, 30,000 seat stadiums are half full and 5,000 of those are Ghana fans. Yep. I mean, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but not that much. So, okay, yeah, let it be so. I got to say this, this is a negative one, but it's something that you should be watching if you're watching for the first time. If this team has an Achilles heel, it is defense. We are currently missing our best centerback.

Chris Richards from Crystal Palace to a lingering injury. Other players, Miles Robinson, Mark McKenzie, and Austin trustee have deputized that centerback with varying degrees of success in his absence. But even in our good performances in these last two matches, the 3-2 win over Senegal and the hard-fought 2-1 loss to Germany, we've looked susceptible. And the reality is that Richards is a good centerback by our standards, but if you watched, like, say, Germany on Saturday and watched. the way Jonathan Taugh just absolutely dominated.

Bro. His father back. Yeah. His, I mean, Ta in particular was just like, everything that, everything that came near him, he just snuffed it out.

Just snuffed it. Yeah, I was on the end that we were attacking in the first half. You know, the end that Jedi scored the goal on. And, yeah, that was my main takeaway. First of all, just a huge dude that can move.

and very calm with the ball yeah very extremely calm with the ball you know there were times when we would catch their centerbacks in like some tight space situations and they just they just handle them as if as if they're midfielder's but yeah I was probably most impressed with jonathan todd anybody on germany's roster for sure yeah and it's to be to be clear chris richards is expected to play on friday but he will have not played in about a month so there's some concern about his rust And Chris is definitely the best centerback in this pool. He's a Premier League starter, but he's not perfect, right? There's no centerback that's on the level of the guy we just talked about on Germany.

And there might not be for a while, but Chris is essential this summer. Yeah, Chris is essential, but I guess that's what I'm saying is there's, like you just said, there are levels to centerbacking. And some of these sort of blue blood nations are able to put a couple centerbacks out there who are just like really, really, really good. Yeah, absolute. Eracers. You know, we talk about business handlers on this podcast, but like, you know, a situation that potentially look promising for the other team. Boom.

In the flash of two seconds, a centerback is over there. He has moved the person out of the way and dispossessed him of the ball. And we're going to the opposite. Yeah, I'm trying to think how to extend the business handler metaphor. He's like a... He's like a tort lawyer, a business destroyer. Two very different analogies there. What was yours? Sorry.

I said strong safety, who just kind of comes in and puts out fires, crushes people. I mean, if you're watching the NBA finals, Victor Winbenyama. You know what I'm saying? Somebody who you think you might have an easy. lay up, getting to the cup, all of a sudden, boom, it comes a seven, it comes a seven five guy. Yeah, rim protector. Rim protector. Your shot is erased, you know, that type of thing. But teams can come at us in the paint is what we're saying.

We do some high, high flying, fun stuff going the other way, especially out of transition. But when teams are coming at us, you might be a little uneasy and it'll be warranted. Yeah, that's going to be something. Not only can we prevent goals, but can we prevent these opponents like Paraguay and Australia? and Turkeye from generating clear-cut chances because we have not done a great job with that lately. And a lot of it's going to come back to Richard's playing, but also Tyler Adams, our defensive midfielder, kind of he's there for his ability to disrupt what the other team is doing on the ball. And, you know, against Germany, he's at least partially at fault for both goals.

Like he needs to figure it out and like play a little smarter, play a little more. more alert because we cannot have him being out to lunch with the centerbacks that we have. Yep. And when you mentioned centerbacks that we have, Adam Bell's, our other starter at centerback is a man who's 38 years old. We'll be turning 39 at the end of this year. Tim Reem, the ageless wonder who, like I just said, he's 38. You know, so it's like we got Chris, we hopefully have Chris Richard.

and he'll play well for us. And then, yes, we have our other centerback who we really can't take off the pitch. Because, I mean, first of all, he's the captain of this team. He's been named the captain's team by Maricio Pashtino. And also his ability to pass the ball helps us a ton offensively. It's the foundation of our sort of work and possession, really. They might be the three most valuable players in this squad. The guys that we just talked about, Chris and Tyler,

for the casual fans, like there's some center mids missing here. So Tyler Adams was already really important. He's even more important now. And then, yeah, Ream, like centerback is a concern. And we really haven't been good defensively at all in the Pach era, not even for like a few games or so. But there kind of just is hope within me that we can kind of turn on switch and maybe clean up some of these mistakes that we've been making and hold hold teams to

a clean sheet or two which we just haven't done in a while now yeah we give up goals give up goals we got to stop sanjay why don't you do what once you do another one i'll do another one and then we'll uh you know just see where it goes from there beyond all the conversation about what this team can do at this tournament uh because you know there this tournament has been anticipated for so long and it feels like the be all and end all. But don't think of it that way because nearly the entire core of this team should also have one more World Cup left in them. And that's why you should come on board now because soccer never stops, right?

Like it feels like this is it because we're hosting and this is everything. But there's going to be another wave of young players who have been developed in an even better way for their whole life. that will continue to lift the baseline level of this team. And I think if you take the current core, minus maybe one or two guys, minus, you know, Ream and maybe Anthony Robinson, who scored that banger against Germany,

you take the rest of the core, you add in a lot of the promising prospects coming up, and this team could have a real shot to do something really special. I don't want to say they have a shot to win it, but yet the expectation is going to continue to climb four years from now. So, yeah, it's hard to believe this World Cup is finally here. We've been waiting for it for decades, but this team is really easy to follow. So when it's all set and done with this tournament, stay on board.

Get on board and stay on board. Because when you compare this team to teams in other major American sports, it's really easy to follow. Just, you know, a few games in the fall. a few games in March, maybe some other games sprinkled in. And then sometimes you get a, you do get pretty much every summer a tournament. That's not always the best team, the varsity team. So we on this podcast make it even easier for you to follow this team in terms of what they're doing with their clubs overseas.

And, you know, the big picture of the macro and the micro of what's going on with men's soccer. But yeah, we want you to come on board and stay with us. throughout this ride to the next one. Yeah, I want to just add that following the players at their clubs in Europe

is actually really fun. Yes. I think everybody would agree. Like you learn all about, you learn about all these different clubs and like different leagues and different places. It's the beauty of soccer.

Yeah. And we got, you know, we got players all over the place. Italy, Germany, France, England. And I say that not to,

it's not like, a dig. It's not like a mutually exclusive thing when it comes to soccer compared to other sports. Like, I love other sports. I grew up a huge NBA fan watching the New Jersey Nets in their glory days. My dad played their glory days.

What was that? When was that? It was like 20 years ago when we were playing the spurs in the finals and the Knicks were presents. Yep. Okay. So, yeah, I grew up watching international sports, too. My dad played rugby at the professional level. I grew

around the Sri Lankan cricket team. I'm a huge New Jersey jet, sorry, New York Jets fan. And, yeah, big college football fan. So, like, I love all sports. I've been exposed to all sports in my life. You know, the Yankees, even lacrosse is big in my town. But this sport is so unique and this team is so unique in terms of how easy it is to follow and the power that it has over this country.

And you're about to see it. I hope you stay, you grab it, you grasp it, and you stay with it through, through this podcast, and other outlets. Yeah, yeah, there's other ways, but none of them is as good as this way. No, definitely not. So I want to say one other thing, which is somewhat related to what you just said. You might hear, like, a post-game interview with Malik Tillman and notice that he has a heavy German accent. Or you might see an interview with Fuller and Balligan and he's, you know, he's like, I don't know, is it a Cockney accent? He's like got a London accent, whatever it is, some kind of London accent.

Or like who else? Serginio, he's got a, he speaks Dutch and English. I'm sure he speaks other languages too. So we are still a nation of immigrants. We are still a nation of dual nationalism. Many people in our country have allegiance to other countries as well because we attract people from all over the world. Our country has historically.

And that is going to be, those players are absolutely critical for this team. Malik Tillman from Germany, Sergenio Desk from the Netherlands, Fuller and Baligan from England. Let's see, who else? leaving out. Eunice, I mean, Eunice Musa was there in the past. John Anthony Brooks was there in the past with that

iconic header against Ghana. He was from Germany. And as we like to talk about on this show, fairly often, the people we have to thank for this are the troops by and large. American servicemen

who end up in Europe and have children and you know, with European women typically. and they're a really big part of this team. We have come a long way as a soccer nation. Our development pathway has come a long way, I believe. I mean, certainly it's come a long way from the 1980s and 1990s.

It's come a long way, but we're still not so good at developing players here that we don't need these dual nationals to commit to us, people who largely grew up somewhere else but have an American passport for one reason or another. Yeah, one thing I'd add to that, first off, salute to the troops everywhere. But in terms of players being developed abroad, it's not just the dual Nats. Like if you zoom in on some of our star players like Christian Polisic, who went to Germany when he was, you know, like 16, Gio Raino also went to Dortmund early because they were able to obtain a European passport.

Weston McKinney, you know, spent some years early in his life in Germany. because his dad was in the military, even though he's mostly raised in the U.S. So there's little examples of that. Christian Bullisic also, by the way, lived in England when he was a kid for a little bit. So there's these examples of these guys being exposed to the world in a way that most American people are not earlier on. And, you know, they're just a really brave group of people. Tim Wea, too, moved to France when he was very young. So these guys, not just the dual nets, but some of the guys who are, you know, born here,

it should really be commended the risk that they took and what they sacrificed early on in life. And everyone should be really proud of that. Yeah. And I think just to bring it all home, like this is a group of kids and men, you know, that we should, that everyone should be proud of. You know, this is a group where, you know, this is a group where, you know, You know, they're just a lovable bunch of fellas. A lovable bunch of fellas.

You can show them to your mom. Your mom end up falling in love with Anthony Robbins' charm or Weston McKinney's goofiness or Tim Weyer's kind of sullenness and cool that he has. You know, it's just this team is really, is really just, to me, just the greatest reflection of America and the country that I think, we all want to be. And frankly, we are.

We are this kind of country. And this is a reflection of that. I forgot to mention Jedi. I mean, Anthony Robinson, I mean, he's like the dual-knat of all dual-nats. The guy who hit the banger on Saturday, absolutely indispensable for this team because he plays left-back, which is the most, you know, it's the most difficult position to fill on a soccer field,

period. so yeah these are these are good good people all bought under this like not no real egos having spent a lot of time around these guys they're all pretty chill they understand who they are as american athletes where they fit in in the broader context and they're just trying to make this this sport really popular i think you know some people uh will come you've heard people say they're not likable or try to nitpick but i think people were just bored frankly without qualifying in this cycle for sure and i wait too much time on their hands uh this is a good group of people and they represent our country really well.

Yeah, there's just no way you can, if you see Chris Richards give an interview, they had Chris Richards on the Vogue podcast, allegedly. I haven't listened. But, you know, I mean, we got Chris Richards really reaching across the aisle doing an interview with Vogue. You know what I'm saying?

And there's no way, I haven't listened to the pod, as I said. There's no way you can listen to that and not come away charmed by Chris Richards. You know, and as you talked about Sanjay with not only our dual nets, but the players that were born here that have went away you know, these are worldly men.

We're talking about people with experiences. Like you said, Sanjay, brave people who went to strange places at 15, 16. In Christian Poliscus case, you know, 10, 11, 12 years old, you know, ambitious people. And, you know, it does for the most part come out when you listen to them talk. You know, these are, like I said, these are just people that I would be proud to show. off to just to anyone. I think I think Chris really epitomizes it because, you know, you're talking about a guy who grew up in Alabama, close to Birmingham, in real football country.

His dad played professional basketball, and he chose, you know, when he was in, like, midway through high school to stick with soccer. And he went from playing in Alabama to, in the blink of an eye, playing with Bayern Munich, like some of the biggest names in the world, you know, That was where he first went in his professional journey. So great guy, really charismatic down earth, funny guy. Can talk about anything, honestly, and directly. And, yeah, there's a lot of good characters in this team.

Chris, I did compare Chris unfavorably with Jonathan Ta from Germany earlier. So I want to make sure I throw my weight behind this, too. He is the most charismatic player on the team. He is the most interesting interview of anybody on the team. If you want to catch an interview with anybody, watch him. And he's also, you know, he's from a part of the country where we need more people to love soccer. I mean, Birmingham's a big youth soccer town, so is Huntsville, Alabama. But that's where it's at down there.

We need more soccer. We need more Chris Richards. Iconic fro, too. That pro is going to be big for the culture of this tournament. Hopefully he's sharp on Friday. And that game is at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, right? Against Paraguay, at Sofi, in the greater Los Angeles area. Yeah, it's in Englewood, close to the airport.

Okay. Well, we appreciate you listening, especially if it's your first time. I shouldn't say that. I mean, we appreciate you to listen no matter what, even if it's your 697th time. So thank you for listening. We'll see you.