The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - USMNT Coach Gregg Berhalter on Pulisic Pressure, England Smack Talk, World Cup Expectations

Episode Date: April 6, 2022

First, (3:00) Colin explains why soon to be fired Lakers HC Frank Vogel is the least of the Lakers problems, what's behind Kareem and Magic greats teeing off on LeBron in the press, and the glaringly obvious reason why the Bears and Rams are headed in opposite directions.Then, United States Men's Soccer Coach Gregg Berhalter and Colin discuss what he changed when he took over following the teams disastrous 2018 qualification failure (13:00), if this talented young team has a legit chance to win it all (21:00), if he's offended by the English media dismissing the USMNT as a Group B lightweight (23:00), why Weston McKinnie is such a difference maker (25:00), if this team can win in hostile road environments (28:00), what similarities this team has to the 2002 team he played on that reached the cup quarterfinal (30:00), if he's concerned about opposing teams targeting Christian Pulisic (32:00), which players are the "glue guys" (34:00), and how he'll use the pre cup friendlies to fine tune his Qatar strategy (36:00),Make sure you follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates and check out FanDuel for the best wagering and daily fantasy action! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Deep Sea is closer than you think, at Monterey Bay Aquarium. Into the Deep, exploring our undiscovered ocean, open Saturday, April 9th. This new exhibit will give you the experience of descending from the ocean surface

through the dark abyss to the seafloor, and a rare look at the animals that thrive in the depths. Into the Deep feature species displayed for the first time anywhere. Some, so new to science, they have yet to be named. Don't miss it. Buy tickets and reserve your day at Monterey Bay Aquarium.org. I'm Jacob Goldstein. I used to host Planet Money. Now I'm starting a new show. It's called What's Your Problem. Every week on What's Your Problem, entrepreneurs and engineers describe the future they're going to build once they solve a few

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If you are new, just download the Fandul Sportsbook app, get started now, sign up promo code Colin so they know we and I sent you, the Colin Coward podcast presented by the Fandall Sportsbook. Hi, everybody. Wednesday morning podcast. Greg Burhalter, head coach U.S. men's national soccer. team they have officially qualified for the World Cup is going to be joining us today. For a lively interview, I am a defender of all things Greg Burhalter fending off the radical

sports fans of soccer in America. He'll join us in about 10 minutes. So reportedly, Frank Vogel, a good guy who's won a title, is out of a job with the Lakers at the conclusion of the season. Listen, this is an unwinnable task. When I can identify by the third game of the season, your primary weaknesses, no elite three-point shooters, too old of a roster to defend the three, and old expensive rosters mean more injuries and longer to heal. If I can identify that, three games in, Frank Vogel has no shot here. Let's be totally honest what the Lakers are asking the next coach to do.

It would be asking an accountant to fix the books at Enron. There is no easy out once Russell Westbrook, whoever okayed the deal, no easy answer for the next coach. Now, we know one or two things. Vogel is going to be out and so is Westbrook. But you could put Eric Spolstra in this. You could put Ty Lou in this or Greg Popovich. There's real limitations here. Coaches, as you know, have no leverage and virtually no say in this league.

I watched for years in Indiana as Frank Vogel took Roy Hibbert and Paul George and gave Chris Bosch, LeBron James, Ray Allen, D. Wade, coached by Eric Spolstra, fits in the Eastern Conference playoffs. I watched Frank Vogel go into the bubble the only time in league history that young teams flourished in the playoffs and old teams eroded win a championship with old LeBron and frail Anthony Davis. Don't tell me Frank Vogel can't coach. It's interesting what's happening in sports. Kevin Durant had ultimate leverage in power. and look at what he's created in Brooklyn. Since the day he and Kyrie arrived with the Nets, they have won 54% of their games.

That's 13th best in the league. Aaron Rogers, ultimate power in Green Bay. They now have the worst receiving core in the league. And LeBron James, as much power as any NBA star, and he and his camp won at Westbrook, Now he doesn't want to leave L.A. His family doesn't want to leave L.A. And there is no short, quick fix to this mess of an aged roster.

Be very careful about demanding power because people with it generally use it much to their downfall. Listen, same shit different day. You've heard about that? You've heard that saying before? same shit different day. This is same shit different coach. There's no fix here. The NBA forces you to make trades with virtually equal salaries. You're just taking on bad contracts the minute you get rid of Westbrook. And so, you know, I've told people there was an old comedian named Jackie Gleason. And at one point, he was as powerful as anybody on television, like Johnny Carson in the 80s powerful. And Jackie, Gleason used to say, if you've got power, you don't really need to use it. People get out of your way. Kevin Durant had power. Aaron Rogers had power. LeBron had power. Think about this. LeBron and Kevin Durant probably missed the playoffs. On any given night, the two best players in the league.

Janus lets his front office and his coaches and the culture do their thing. He comes to play every night as a great teammate. He has the best team in the league. Said it before. Give people power. They're going to use it and often to their own peril. Speaking of the Lakers, I don't think it's a coincidence that both Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson have attacked LeBron in the last week. I think the Lakers upstairs are tired of taking the majority, the overwhelming majority of the heat in this season. last season and have encouraged maybe a couple of their own to have opinions.

I don't think it bothers the Lakers one bit that Kareem and Magic have come out to land blows to LeBron James. Listen, very few people get a career like a Kobe or a Jeter where you play for one team. I mean, good God. Farb at one point played for the Jets. It's sad. Elway, very unique. At one point, though, Patrick Ewing was part of the Orlando Magic and Akema Lajoan, a Toronto Raptor, and M.J., a wizard. It's sad.

I will say this, though. LeBron's career has been unique. He really put jet fuel on mobility in the NBA. The upside of that, you make a lot of money, you have a lot of leverage, and you end up playing with a lot of great players. You don't have to go through long-down cycles like Kobe did with the Lakers. but there is a downside of that and that you never really have a team you call home. I mean, he's bailed on Cleveland twice. He grew up in Akron.

And so you would never find the Lakers trying to trash Magic Johnson like this or Kobe Bryant, right? Like there's an understanding Jeter is a Yankee forever, even if at one point he owned part of the Marlins. the downside to being really mobile, and I can attest to this because I've bounced all over the country, what do you call home? What's home? I don't have a home. Home now is in L.A. I just moved here seven years ago. And so LeBron has had this leverage and this mobility and this power, and it's got clear upsides. You just get to play with more great players. You don't have to go through long down cycles. But the counter to that is who's really got your back? Pat Riley felt burned. The owner of the Cavs twice felt burned. Members of the team, D. Wade, felt a little burned. And now the Lakers, back-to-back,

ugly seasons, feel scorched. Mobility, the highs are high, but you can feel abandoned very quick if things go sideways. Nobody truly has your back. It apparently made a few people upset when I suggested the reason the Rams have so many high-priced stars and other teams can't afford them is the Rams have smarter people running their organization. Let me give an example. The Chicago Bears, my sources have told me for years that upstairs the Bears don't know what they're doing.

So the Bears don't pay their quarterback just in fields. They don't pay Mooney their best young receiver. They don't have a top five highest paid offensive linemen, yet they had to let go of Alan Robinson, Kyle Fuller, and Khalil Mack in the last couple of years. Who are they paying? The Rams have top of the market, Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Donald, Matt Stafford, Bobby Wagner.

And they're still, still trying to make deals. They bring in Alan Robinson, despite that, who will now be one of the higher paid number two receivers in the NFL. Well, guys don't like to hear this. So much about guys is respect and their professional success. 5% of guys are smarter. Elon Musk is smarter than anybody in his industry. Steve Jobs was.

Read Hastings at Netflix. I know it drives people crazy. The Rams have a smarter owner, a smarter GM, a smarter coach than virtually everybody in the league. you start looking at the Giants and the Chicago Bears. They're not paying their quarterbacks and they're not in on any top free agent signings. Think about the Bears. They had to let their best receiver, their best pass rusher, and their best corner going in the last two years. Who in the hell are they paying?

It's all jammed up in their front seven defensively in a league where increasingly linebackers are a limited leverage unit. I mean, the Rams and Bengals get to the Super Bowl, both the weakest parts of their teams were linebacking cores. And in the Bingles case, O-line and linebacking cores. I know it drives people nuts, but the NFL has very few elite front offices and quarterbacks and O-lines and owners and GMs. The Rams have hit the trifecta, coach GM owner,

all top 2%. Use the bears as an example of the gap between how each franchise can manipulate the salary cap. It's got a hard floor. It's a hard cap. Look at how the Rams manipulate it

and how the bears are overwhelmed by it. So Greg Burhalter does not need my support as head coach of the U.S. men's national soccer team since 2018. but I often find myself in the crosshairs of the crazies on the Internet. We have a history in this country is when the U.S. wins, the players are amazing, and when they lose, the coach is a bum. And Greg has to have seen some of this.

And I have come to his defense many times. And again, he doesn't need it. But one of the criticisms that I find really remarkable is, and I do think you've done a remarkable job with this, but you inherited a culture that was adrift, a roster that was aging. And I didn't feel like outside of Christian Pulisic, I didn't know what we were. So let's go to this. When you first take it over, your first six weeks, what was your primary mission? Just like you're taking over a college basketball or football program.

What did you identify is a problem that you needed to fix Greg? quickly. It's a great question. And, you know, I spent a lot of time before my first meeting with the players, just doing background and talking to a number of players, talking to a number of coaches and trying to figure out exactly what was wrong, reflecting on my own playing days with the national team. And what it came down to, Colin, it was pretty clear that they just lacked a vision. the program lacked something to latch on to and say, okay, you know, through good and bad, we know through sacrifice, through hard times, you know, we can always just align towards achieving this vision. And they lack that. So for us, as a staff, it was creating this vision

of where we want to take the program and then say, okay, guys, if we say we want to do this, what is it going to take? What are you willing to sacrifice to do it? And I think that was, impactful and we've been really intentional about, you know, hammering home similar messages and, you know, creating values and things that we stand for as a group. And that process has been gratifying. And I think that process has helped us in qualifying for sure. Like any sport, you need your star to buy in. How long for Christian Pulisic that you felt a buy-in? You know, I think with Christian, you know, my initial meeting with him, I immediately saw a spark in his eye and there was, you know, there was acceptance. But like anything, it's easier

said than done. And I think it did take a while just because everyone had a hangover from 2018 and everyone wants to win right away. But I knew it was going to take some time before this group could really get to where it needed to get to because of our age, because of our inexperience. So, you know, he's the first thing I'd say about Christian for being. such a big star, he's the most humble, down-to-earth, you know, well-meaning person that you can come in contact with. So that's a great starting point. But like anyone, he wants to be successful, he wants to win on the field. And so, you know, I think that the real change started, I guess, in last summer when, you know, when we won the Nations League that the players believed it was

possible. Wolf's first major is a tradition unlike any other. Right now, Newcastle. Customers at Fandoul can get 30 to one odds on Jordan Spieth, four-time major winner Rory McElroy, 2020 champ Dustin Johnson, to make the cut at Augusta. That's right. If any of those guys make the cut, you win big. I'll take, yep, Dustin Johnson as my pick to stick around for the weekend. Obviously, the story of the weekend is Tiger's return.

I like him to finish. How about top 20? There's no better time to get in on the action with Fandul's Sportsman. It's easy to use. So many different betting options. When you win, you get paid fast. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle ground. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for Raw. unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes,

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And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of Tontons and Wampas on the ice planet hot. or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole Your Mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs?

Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s.

To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now, so. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's download the Fandall Wall Sportsbook app, 30 to one odds on Jordan Speath, Rory Macalroy, or Dustin Johnson, to just make the cut at Augusta. Fandle Sportsbook, official betting operator of the PGA Tour. 21 plus and present in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, and Louisiana. permitted parishes only. Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia, or West Virginia.

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It's called What's Your Problem? Every week on What's Your Problem, Entrepreneurs and Engineers Describe the Future They're Going to Build once they solve a few problems. How do you build a drone delivery business? from scratch. Our customers, they want us to do this unbelievably reliably in the storms no matter what hundreds of times a day. How do you turn a wild dream about a new kind of biology into a 10 billion dollar company? We didn't have a particular technology. We didn't have a way of making money. It was a great way to start a company. I highly recommend it. How do you sell millions of dollars

worth of dog ramps for wiener dogs in the middle of a pandemic? We're working with 400 influencers and the majority of them are actually not a person, but it's actually a dog. I can tell you right now, the dog ramp guy has some very interesting problems. Listen to what's your problem on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Greg, I feel like there's four stages in my opinion, and you can slice and dice these up and push back, but four stages in soccer. The first stage was my childhood. Kyle wrote Junior's a star.

We don't have elite international players. We're welcoming the sport to America. We have some athletes, but we don't have high skill. The second stage to me is Landon Donovan, Clinton Dempsey. It is tough. Some guys getting international opportunities capable of making the World Cup and winning a match. I do think we've moved into a third stage. Multiple players good enough to play internationally.

can occasionally be very effective internationally, the fourth stages can win the World Cup. I don't think we're there. I think as Winston Churchill said, too bad youth is wasted on the young. I think we're really young. How concerned are you about that? Now, you got some pushback because you would play some older MLS players.

And my takeaway was, well, you're doing that for the obvious reasons. Your skill levels really good by U.S. men's historic standards. but we've got kids here. When I talk about stage three, as skilled as we've ever been, but boy, we lack some World Cup experience. Do you, is that a concern? Not really, because we've gone all in in this generation of players. And, you know, we'll be the youngest team in the World Cup. And it's going to be about gaining valuable experience while trying to compete and while trying to

to go as far as we've ever gone before. And the good thing about it is we have guys, young players that are playing in the Champions League, they know what it's like to win. They know what it's like to win big games. They have high demands from their clubs to win big games. And it's not, it's no different with us. We're going to be in a very similar situation. So I think that, you know, this, this World Cup, I think, is going to be a great experience

for the group. You know, we're going to be pushing. Sometimes I think if you don't know any better, you can go out and do it, right? But once you realize what it takes, it's harder. Right. So that may be in our benefit as well. But, you know, it's going to be fun. It's going to be exciting for sure.

Listen, you're in a group with England, Iran. This may be Iran's best team, a Euro playoff winner. The English press said it was the easiest group, kind of a shot at your team. How did you take that? I think it's typical. You know, when you actually, if you look at the FIFA rankings, if Wales makes it as well, we'll have the hardest group by FIFA rankings if you add up all the numbers. Right.

So, but it's, but I can understand, you know, the English press are what they are. You know, we don't have that respect yet from the English press. And that's fine, you know, because we're going to have to earn that respect. And the World Cup is a platform to do that. You know, you have, you know, Giorayna, Christian Pulisic. You know, Weston McKinney. McKinney had an injury. I know a handful of people in the soccer press here in the States, but I'm going to rely on you on this.

As somebody who watches from outside the bubble, sometimes my interpretation of West and McKinney is he is viewed as more difficult. And I think to myself, well, what does that mean? I mean, I got six kids in my life. They're all difficult, okay? Give me the straight skinny on Weston McKinney. Where is he at injury-wise? Will he be on the World Cup roster? Is he difficult?

And that may not be a criticism. Most great players come with a sense of power and a point of view. Yeah. So Weston, you know, barring any re-injury, you know, he's, he has a very good chance to be on the World Cup team. He's an absolute star. When you talk about the, you know, the difficult side of it, and this is something common, you know, I'm happy we're talking about it. But because we have such a young team, you know, there's bound to be some mistakes along the way, right?

There's bound to be times where these guys mess up. And that's all part of it. And in Weston's case, you know, it was a mess up in the first window of qualifying. And we moved up. You know, I think he showed how valuable he was after. that in qualifying, how, how dedicated he was to the team. And, and, you know, we're not the type of staff to just cast players aside with one mistake. That's not our style. You know, we work with the players. We give them opportunities. We have clear, you know, values that we represent as a group.

And players are in line with that. They're lying with that. But we also understand that people are going to make mistakes. But Weston, you know, he's coming back from his injury. I had a video. I got a video yesterday of him walking without, without a boot. He's making good progress. and we absolutely need him. When he's at the top of his game, we're a much better team. Why? What does he do specifically? So if you can think about just an engine, you know, the engine of your car, when he's on the field, we go to 500 horsepower.

I mean, he's powerful. He's one of those examples. You know, when you hear Americans talk about, oh, if we had an NFL guys playing soccer or if we had NBA guy, he's one of those guys. Yeah. That's how elite of an athlete he is. I mean, we're at the Cleveland Browns training facility. He's throwing a football, you know, 60 yards running the opposite direction.

He's kicking 60-yard field goals. He's, you know, like, he can do everything. He's an absolute elite level athlete. In qualifying, I felt that in home matches or when we took a lead, we play with a great deal of confidence. But you have to persevere when you trail. or you're away from a more friendly environment. I didn't always feel that in qualifying. And part of that, to me, it's like the NBA.

Young teams do not win playoff series. They don't. The crowd has an effect. You get these older guys that have been around the league forever. Kevin Durant's going to drop 30 wherever he plays. But it's a young team. How concerned are you? And maybe I'm misguided here.

But I did feel like getting that next level, Greg, is, oh, we're down. We're struggling. This is choppy. I got to make a substitution. We're tight. I felt at times in qualifying, when it was uncomfortable, they didn't quite have the push or the fight.

Am I misguided? Do you sense that at all? You know, that's a tough one. I mean, the record speaks for itself. We had 19 points at home and six points on the road, right? So it's hard for me to defend, you know, the team in that respect. But what I would say is when push came to shove in our last window,

you know, we had to go down to Esteka and we had to play in an extremely hostile environment at altitude. And, you know, we're the third team ever to take a point on U.S. team to take a point off Mexico. So what I'd say is that, you know, and we had chances to win the game. I don't know if you saw that game, but we had number of chances to win that game. So I agree with you at times. We should have been better on the road. And there's always circumstances that I can give.

You know, it sounds like excuses and it probably is in some regard. But what I'd say is that the group got to a good point where when we needed a result, we got the result we needed and we did it, you know, our way. Yeah, listen, it's cyclical. I feel you have surpassed Mexico over the last 18 months. I feel Canada is surging. I feel you are surging now. You know, we saw this with Germany.

They got old fast. We've seen this with England. What can you do, Greg? So you qualify. You feel good. You cross your fingers on health. Can the team get better from today until the World Cup? How do you tweak it going forward?

Yeah, absolutely. We have six more games before the World Cup. You know, four of them are going to be against opponents that we picked specifically. because of the World Cup that we could meet style of play similar to what we're going to see in the World Cup. But it's just time together. Again, the more, so if you think about

between now and the World Cup, there's about eight months left. And so we have young players who are going to develop in those eight months, right? At their clubs, they're going to keep improving in those eight months.

And we're going to be together for six games and that's going to make an impact as well. But, you know, I think we're always, as a staff, we're always looking to improve. We're always looking to get better. We analyze our game and say, okay, what can we get, what can we improve on?

And so we're doing that right now, and we're going to implement it in June and then again in September. You know, Greg, you, 20 years ago, you played on the national team, made the deepest run in the quarter finals. And you lost, if I recall, to a German team that ended up in the finals.

Am I right on that? Okay. Take me to that team. Give me an experience with that team that this current roster is capable of matching. A secret sauce with that team beyond just skill that there was something there in the room that you think you're trying to, by the way, create and give to this team. Yeah, no. So I have it right off the bat because I thought a lot about it. And the 2002 team loved each other.

They enjoyed being around each other. We cherish every single moment we had in camp together. And this team is no different. That's the parallel right away. Like this team is so close together. It's crazy. And that's how you overachieve, right? I mean, you're in sports world, time and time again,

you see stories of teams that they're super close as a group and they achieve great things together. So when you add the level of skill we have, even though we're young, and you add the togetherness of the group. I think we can do good things to work up. Greg, there is a balance of having a star player and then being overly reliant on a Messier Rinaldo. And one of the problems of that is your opponents can identify that.

I noticed Panama got very chippy with Polisic. You smartly, I mean, I literally tweeted it. Get him out of it. Boom, you pulled him out so you saw the same thing. how do you create a synergy on the team where you need and can rely on Christian in big moments but are not overly dependent on him because it's very clear to me over the last since you took this team over he's a target people are coming after him physically yep and part of that has to do with his skill set and how he's most effective you know a lot of times he likes the ball to feet he

likes to dribble with the ball. So by nature, you have the ball longer and by nature you can be fouled easier. But with him in particular, it's just us understanding the team, the coaches and his teammates understanding what makes him special and then utilizing him in that way. He's very good at arriving in the penalty box. He's very good at scoring goals when he does. And that's what we need to focus on. And I think, and then him understanding that he does, there's no extra pressure on him to do more. He just needs to be himself because that's good enough for us. And I think once he comes that to that realization, um, and then his teammates know how to utilize him in the best possible way, he's, he's going to, he's going to shine for us. Greg, every great team has a glue guy.

Baseball football. It doesn't matter. That 2002 team, you may have been a glue guy. If I said, you in your locker room, who gets no press? Who do we not discuss? This person may not score a lot of goals, but there is a quality about this player that is so vital to you as a coach. Yeah, I mean, we talk about that all the time with the group, but Anthony Robinson is definitely a glue guy. You know, he has this way to relate to people that just, you know, he endears them. Christian Old Dan is another guy who just brings everyone together, brings everyone around him. He's great at that. And overall, what I'd say is the group gets along really well together.

And so you have a mix of the glue guys and then you have the stars with not big egos. And it makes for a really good atmosphere and a competitive but fun group to be around. You know, soccer fans are going to pick apart my interview. So I'm going to be a real novice here. but I was an LA FCC season ticket holder Walker Zimmerman was on the team. And I was watching a couple of matches. And I turned to a friend and I said, they have to figure out a way to get him on the World Cup team. I said, his size is unique.

If you look at many of the really good high quality, Germany often has size. And I said, I feel like he's just a different body type for us. So as I say that, again, as somebody who loves the sport but is a far and way, I feel like an outsider to the sport. Did that constitute any importance to you that he just is a different type of athlete for you? You know what it came down to was his domination in duels. So when there's loose balls, when there's balls in the air, when there's challenges, you know, he's winning them convincingly. And what it does is it gives the team this freedom them to play higher up the field and be really aggressive moving forward because you know anything

that comes out, he's going to win the ball and win the ball cleanly. And that's really important for center defenders. And Miles Robinson does that really well. Chris Richards does that really well. And the guys that we have gone to late, there are center defenders that we've gone to have had those qualities. And Walker certainly embodies that. Not only that, but I think he's a very good leader. You know, he's a guy that people get behind and people, you know, he can inspire people with his performances. During qualifying, you can still experiment, although there's an urgency to win.

Do you feel like you're past the experimental stage, or will you take these next six matches and tweak and keep tweaking up to the World Cup and perhaps in the World Cup? I think leading up to the World Cup is a time where we can look at alternate formations. We can look at alternate personnel, how they're fitting together, because you want to have variation going into the World Cup. You know, you never know what happens. You know, the story I'll give you is, you know, with Bruce in 2002,

that was the team that went the furthest of any team in the modern day. And in the second round game, we completely change formations. Then we've done something that we hadn't done before. And, you know, we were able to execute it and then we did the same thing in the Germany game. But the point being is that you want to have this stuff rehearsed, that when you go into the World Cup, when you need to vary your game plan, you know, the guys know what to do. Greg, finally, if I said to you,

the United States men team is at its very best on the field when blank. I think when we're aggressive, when we're running behind the opponent, when we're on the front foot, I think those are the things. Like, when I look at all our games that we're really strong in, you know, those are qualities that that we have. We need to be, we're a team that needs to be aggressive attacking. We need to get behind opponents. We need to threaten the opponents at all time.

I think that's a quality that we need to have. Do you have the confidence level now with this young team that you could play that attacking style against top four or five World Cup teams? That's a good question. That's a good question. You can get burned very quick. No, I think we, you know, it's something where, you know, we need, I think in any type of top level international soccer, you need to be balanced.

There needs to be, like, you need to control the transition moments, right? When you lose the ball, you need to be able to control, right? And when you win the ball, you need to be able to control that moment that you can attack right away. So that's really important international soccer. And for us, you know, that's still something we're getting better in, we're improving in. But, you know, the top four in soccer is a high level for sure.

But on any given day, that's why you play the game because you can. You know, they need to show up and we need to show up. What a pleasure, Greg. Thank you so much for time. I love this. Thanks for having me. It's great talking to you. Greg Berhalter.

The volume. Make sure to check out the Dremont Green show. I brought Dremont Green into the volume because one of the more entertaining voices in sports, unique perspective, understands behind the rope. Also chops up with guests like Gary Payton, Zach Levine, Tracy McGrady. Make sure download the Dremont. Green Show, wherever you get your podcast, only on the volume podcast network. Gorgeous gaming, stunning streams, unbelievable bandwidth.

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