Previewing the USMNT March Friendlies with Daniel Robertson | Sunset SC Ep.11

All right, everybody, welcome to episode number 12 of the Sunset Soccer Club.
I'm Tyler Kern and today on the program, we are joined by elite ball, no, we're Daniel
Robertson, all around good dude.
We are going to talk about the upcoming March friendlies and what we're going to do to
kind of do that is build our preferred starting 11s for the match on March 28th against Belgium.
The US is going to play March 28th against Belgium March 31st against Portugal and those
are really the last kind of tune up games that we have before you get to the games like
immediately proceeding the World Cup.
And so these are kind of the last opportunities that players have to make their case for being
in that starting 11 92 days from now when the US takes on Paraguay in the 2026 World Cup.
And so that's what makes this camp such a big one and makes these rosters and this lineup
such an important one.
And so Daniel, thank you so much for joining me to talk about our starting 11s and kind
of what we would do if we were in a Pachatino shoes or maybe what we think Pachatino might
do for these upcoming friendlies.
Yeah, it's super exciting and it feels like so long since we've had a national team match.
It was like what November when they beat Uruguay and you know, the special thing about these
friendlies is they're both being played in Atlanta in the same stadium.
They're really simulating what a World Cup, you know, group or training camp is going
to be like, right?
Because the US training facility is in Atlanta.
Yeah, they're playing Portugal, playing two really good teams to top of their group teams.
And we're going to learn a lot over the next couple weeks.
We're going to learn a lot because I think there's just so much that still needs to get
figured out as I was trying to kind of go through this exercise and build the starting
11.
I realized that I really feel the impact of they're not being a qualifying that the US had
to go through to kind of solidify that group and all of the weirdness around like the
rosters and who was going to play and who wasn't going to play in the gold cup and all
of that stuff last summer just kind of led to a lot of, I feel like we have a lot more
questions and answers.
I started on a document that you and I were kind of we're using to go through this and
just kind of some talking points and things.
I realized I have like way more questions and answers at this point and the problem
too is it's a very small sample size because you don't want to make decisions based off
of two games.
But when you look at those three windows, they had last fall after the gold cup, which
was a huge success.
But with lots of players that are really on the fringes of breaking in, you think, okay,
they had a horrible window in September where they lost both their games and looked
terrible.
Then in October, November, they look great and you're like, okay, this moved to three
at the back.
Did we change everything?
But also you don't want to make world cup decisions based off of two games and remember
those two games in November also didn't have Tyler Adams, Malik Tillman.
Less than a penny.
Less than, yeah, plenty of guys weren't playing so you're like, okay, that worked with
these guys, but it doesn't have these guys.
So that's another reason why this window is so important.
It did have GeoRena.
What the heck are we doing with GeoRena these days?
I don't know.
Yeah, there's just so many questions and there have been like, since this change has been
made to kind of three at the back, we haven't seen Weston McKenney and then he's had like
this huge renaissance at UV, which you know all about.
You know more about them than any of us talking about it.
Like where does he fit into this?
I think it's a fascinating discussion for all of these reasons.
On a scale of one to ten, like how confident do you feel in what you have put together
for this?
I feel very confident right now.
I think if you're the US, I mean, my confidence level is at an eight or a nine right now because
the only player at this point, I don't think I'm leaving anyone out.
The only key player at this point that's not healthy is Sergenio Desz to picked up an
injury last weekend and he says he's going to be back before the end of the season.
So we'll see on that.
But if you're looking at outside back, that's kind of the one spot where you can actually
afford to probably not have one of your best players.
I know we'll talk about that in a minute.
But you know, I was looking up and down this obviously preparing for this as well and
it kind of hit me just how much depth there is at every position because I was looking
at the starting elevens for the 2022 World Cup.
And I didn't really realize it was the exact same every game at the front or the back seven,
the front three changed, but the back seven were the same every game.
I think there's only one player that changed out of that, right?
And I think you go into this World Cup so completely different of we can build a lineup
to beat Paraguay.
We can build a lineup to beat Australia.
We can build a lineup to beat TBD and a very tough opponent and it gives me a lot of confidence
because in the last World Cup and in previous World Cups, I think you go into it like let's
just get our best eleven, let's get it a big ball, not let anyone beat us score a goal
on the counter, get to the knockout rounds and then lose.
I don't think we need that anymore.
I don't think we need that anymore.
However, I think what's weird about this, what this roster might end up looking like
is that I feel like the places where the US has traditionally had depth or like outstanding
players have been like goalkeeper and like some centerbacks and that sort of thing.
And I feel like less good about those spots now.
And now I feel like we're like four or five deep at Striker which I've never been before.
And so like I feel like there's a weird trade off that we've made where I look at the
centerback pool and I'm like, am I really about to roll Tim Reem out here?
And I'm.
That guy speaking of getting rolled, that guy is getting rolled by the LA Galaxy right
now.
So I'm not sure that he's going to be lining up against Paraguay.
I get you want to dance with the girl you brought in all of those things, but he's
not passing the smell test at this point.
He's not.
I mean, he's 38.
That's that's how old I am and I would get put him on the roster fine, I guess, but you
know, the other thing too is when you're talking about, you know, what centerback do we want
to play next to Chris Richards or what formation to what we want to play or all those things,
we're seeing a big shift in world football in general of like this sexy thing now is
to basically play an outside back at center back.
And we're seeing that like it with FC Dallas, they're playing Shaq Moore as a centerback.
He's not you have that one guy in the middle, which I could I guess see Tim Reem fitting
that, but the one guy in the middle who is a fantastic one on one defender, who's the
guy that, you know, has to put out the fire, but that's Chris Richards like that's that's
you have you have that guy, you know, it's obviously a downgrade to go from Chris Richards
to Tim Reem.
So now you're thinking, okay, if we're going to that three at the back, remember that
five one went over Uruguay, which should be, you know, that's what we're looking for
in two weeks to see, is this the blueprint?
They started Alex Freeman at center back and Serginio Dest at right back and that worked
incredibly well.
Those Freeman's best game, I think he's what do you have a goal in an assist or something
like that?
Two goals, I think.
Right, right, I was like, I know he was involved in two goals.
That's where suddenly you're like, how does Tim Reem, okay, when you're playing fourth
the back, because that's how it was at the last World Cup, it was Walker Zimmerman, either
Cameron Carter Vickers or someone or Tim Reem, and then they had very traditional outside
backs, that's not looking like it's going to be the case right now.
So where does Tim Reem fit in a back five?
I don't see it.
Yeah, no, it's an interesting point.
It's a very interesting one.
Let's just dive into this.
Let's do this thing.
Let's start at goal, in goal, obviously.
I think it's an obvious decision here that Matt Freese has this lockdown, right?
Is there any question in your mind that Matt Freese is the guy for Mauricio Pocchettino?
No, I mean, it's very difficult to analyze goalkeepers, right?
They do so little, it's like, well, he's been fine.
Why would you change it?
And by the way, I don't know if you saw, but in Conquercaf Champions Cup last night, Luis
Malagon, who is supposed to be the number one for Mexico, he tours Achilles.
So Mexico is now looking for a new number one heading into the World Cup.
The US, you have, you just stay with the guy, like it's don't overthink it.
You're not losing in the World Cup because of Matt Freese.
No chance, right?
Probably not.
Probably not.
Yeah.
I agree with that.
So what formation are you going to roll with then in front of Matt Freese?
I know that it was, it was like a three, five, two against your guy, maybe a three, four,
two, one, depending on how you want to characterize where Christian politics, like position was on
the field.
But what are you kind of rolling with, lay out kind of your framework for how you're approaching
this?
Well, I think you have to go three, five, two, based on what you saw.
And again, it's a small sample size, but what else can you do?
Like you have to go on the small sample size, we have no other data points.
So that three, five, two where you have an attacking center back there as well, an Alex
Freeman who showed he was up to the task.
I see no reason why he should not be starting in this now.
If Sergenio desk is hurt, that's where it gets a little bit tricky, but you've got plenty
of outside.
You could even see a West and McKinney lining up at right back.
He's done that before for the US national team.
He does have good, you know, attacking talent.
So that three, five, two, and then, you know, you can pack the midfield and you can go,
it gives you so much flexibility because you can go to defender, to defensive midfielders,
like a testman and an Adams with a Tillman in front of them, who, you know, Tillman's
been playing so well, or you can go and, you know, you can play two up top.
You just have to figure out who pairs best with Christian, but to me, let's, I'm sure
he'll run it next in a couple of weeks, it's got to be three, five, two, right?
I think it has to be, I think you got to, you have to, you have to roll with that formation
just to see like, okay, you can make, I, I always talked about this because this is what
drove me crazy with Jürgen Klinsman is when he would change something, he would just
like throw it all out and then change it so entirely that like you couldn't compare
it to the previous thing.
And so I think like if you want to get like a, a data point on a particular player, you
can't do it in a vacuum because that's not how soccer works, but the closest thing
you can do is to say, we're going to play this same formation with the majority of the
same guys and then swap out like these guys here.
And then you can kind of compare how they look and how they play like with one another
and that sort of thing.
So I don't think you can move away from this formation now because you have so few data
points.
Like you mentioned, it's such a small sample size that you have to be able to compare.
How does this guy look in this spot compared to how this guy looked in this spot back in
November and like, are you able to do that across these two games even?
I think that's, I think that's what you have to do.
So yeah, I think you go three, five, two and so you're rolling with essentially three
centerbacks, but I'm with you.
I think, I think Alex Freeman is one of them.
So if you want my three centerbacks to kick this off, I'm going Mark McKenzie, Chris Richards
and Alex Freeman as my three in the back.
What you got?
Well, absolutely because that gives you that ability also to rotate around where let's
say you do play a Western McKinney at that wingback role, suddenly that three, five,
two and you have Freeman as that right-sided centerback.
You can shift everything, put another player in the midfield, Weston, who's very tactically
minded, very smart player.
He's going to be able to shift that right back straight into midfield if he wants, if he
gets forward.
You can do so much with that position, you know, Mark McKenzie versus maybe some of the
other options.
I don't know that there's that much difference between, okay, Mark McKenzie versus Miles
Robinson or, you know, some of my guests.
Right.
There's a lot of guys that you can kind of work into that role.
Even a guy like, I don't know, maybe Tristan Blackman, like is he going to get called up,
you know, we'll see, right?
But you do kind of want the guys with the European experience at those centerback roles,
guys who have had World Cup experience, of course, as well.
But I think you've just got so much flexibility there, yeah, and that left side, because you're
going to have Anthony Robinson knock on wood if he's healthy.
You're going to have Anthony Robinson, there's a left back.
He's top five left back in the world, potentially.
That spot is, you know, marked an ink, right?
So you don't necessarily need to have as attacking of a left-sided centerback.
I think it makes so much sense what they're doing with Freeman.
Yeah.
I totally agree.
I love having Freeman as that right-sided centerback.
Yeah, I think you could potentially see Joe Scali there in one of the matches.
He really plays more of a right-wing back for Munchen Gladbach in the Bundesliga.
I think you could potentially see him as that right-sided centerback if they're trying
to compare.
But.
If Desk isn't healthy, right?
Because he's just like, he's Desk, but he's not, you know, Desk one has the World Cup
experience.
So, in this World Cup, you're looking for players who raised the ceiling, not raised
the floor.
Because Desk is a guy who can win a game for you.
Scali's not going to win a game for you, but he's not going to win a game for you.
Desk can come up with one of those jaw-dropping moments that wins a game for you.
He can.
I'm just, I don't know what you do, but let's talk wingbacks.
I mean, because obviously Anthony Robinson is your guy on the left, right?
If Desk isn't healthy, if Desk can't go, what do you do?
Because he's not going to be healthy for these friendlies at the end of the month in two
weeks.
Right.
Who do you roll with him?
You trust him, right?
Like, he's been there before.
He's been to World Cup before.
I feel totally confident in a Sergenia Desk if he has been injured until the end of, and
comes back the last week of May.
No issues on my end.
No issues on your end.
I go, I say, like, if Desk isn't healthy, I think I go Joe Scally there.
And I think I want to see Joe Scally in that spot at the end of this month.
Just because.
Sure.
I like that.
I think you're right.
I think he's not a match winner, but he's also not a, not somebody who's going to lose
a match for you.
Right.
Right.
And I think, on some level, you have to have some glue guys kind of like within the starting
11, because like you kind of know who your outstanding players are, like who's, who's
going to be the guy that just like brings some things together and makes it gel and makes
it cohesive.
I agree that if Sergenia Desk is healthy, like I'm starting him every time, just because
he has that ability to do special things, things that like nobody else in the pool is going
to do.
But if he's not healthy, then I just go ask Joe Scally to do a job for me and probably
just leave it there.
Yeah.
No, and I just keep going back to how different the mentality is in this world cup, because as
I'm looking at the games, we're going to be the protagonist.
We're going to be the one on the front foot, which is just simply not how it's ever been.
Okay.
Maybe against Iran.
But besides that, it was like whales and England last time was pretty like even.
Okay.
We saw the USA played Paraguay two, you know, a couple months ago.
We were the protagonist.
We won the game.
We should win that game, and Australia, no doubt the US is going to be.
I'm not saying they're going to win.
I'm not trying to put any bulletin board material out there for the soccer who's listening.
I'm just saying the Vegas odds will have the United States as a heavy favorite in that
game, right?
Yeah.
So that changes your mentality and it changes how, you know, you're pushing things.
And that's again, why I just, I like the formation.
I like taking it to the opponent rather than the other way around.
I, I agree with that.
Who would you have if you don't have Sergenia dust?
Or who would you maybe like to see in March at the end of this month?
You also have to think about simply just moving Freeman out there and getting a little bit
more conservative at center back and just putting, you know, Mackenzie and trusty in there.
Or, you know, something like that or Blackman who can get forward a little bit more.
I think that's probably where you go rather than putting Scally, but again, that's what makes
these friendlies, you know, the two ones in a couple of weeks.
And then of course, the, the Senegal and Germany games, that's what makes him so important
is because you have that time to test that out.
And I think we'll see that in those games.
Any interesting thing Tim way of there?
No, I, I don't think so.
I think he plays so well up front.
You don't want to get cute with it, maybe against teams where you kind of got a shoot
for the stars and hope things work out.
I get it, you know, you can't, you can't know who you're going to play in a knockout
round.
So that's TBD.
But in these three group stage games, not, not where I'm going.
Interesting.
I, but I'm intrigued by it, but yeah, yeah, I, I just, yeah, I don't know that I'm on
the, the, the, the, Timmy way of bandwidth is saying if we're playing a five at the back
also, it is tough, right?
Because way it was so good in the world cup because we were playing a 433.
So you're not going to play a 433 if you have five at the back.
Yeah.
And you don't want way it does not work well as like a 2, 4, what are you going to play
Pulisic and way up top?
I don't think anyone is thinking that, right?
So decisions.
That's why you bring in a coach like Bochettino.
Yeah, to make those decisions.
I think another one of the massive decisions that has to be made.
And thank God Tyler Adams is healthy for now.
Yeah.
Knock on wood.
He could, I don't know, trip walking down his steps tomorrow and be out until, you
know, next to Tim.
How many more games does Bournemouth have like 10 more games?
Like, there's not that many more, right?
So just, they're, and they're not going to get relegated, right?
Like they're, they're well above the drop zone.
So just 10 more games, man, just, I know, I know it's, it is, it is vital that he is healthy
because I just, I don't know who would replace him.
And the fact that he's actually healthy right now anyways for this upcoming window is
massive because I think the, I think one of the biggest questions on the field is who
do you start next to Tyler Adams in the midfield?
If Weston McKinney is so versatile that he could play in like five different spots on
the field.
And so that, I think he is like the, the natural like best other midfielder in addition
to Tyler Adams, but would you rather have him closer to goal because he's been scoring
so much for UVA and looking so good doing that?
Or, you know, like, I guess you just have to evaluate where like the goal is the biggest
and put West, Weston McKinney there.
And so that leaves me wondering like, okay, is he better off somewhere else?
And if so, who plays next to Tyler Adams?
I think that's again where you have, have to analyze opponent by opponent and look at,
you know, again, going back to the last World Cup, it didn't really matter about the
opponent.
It was just like, we're going to play our four, three, three, we're going to try and pick
off a goal.
We beat Iran, what, one nil?
We tied England nil nil and we tied whales, okay, you know, handswipes, good job.
We got to the knockout round, but that's why Greg Burhalter lost his job, right?
Because that was mentality.
I think now you can, you don't have to have that mentality.
You don't have to say, oh, we have to play this one guy here or we have to play this one
guy here.
We say, okay, this is our opponent.
This is what they're likely to do.
How can we counteract that the best?
Daniel, we lost you for a quick sec.
Pick up with like, you don't have to play that way, you don't have to approach things that
way because that's how, that's what happened with Greg Burhalter where you just stuck with
the same 11, gaming, game out, no adjustments.
And then they came up against the Netherlands and that, that clearly bit them in the ass at
that point.
Yeah, sorry, I was grabbing a little, a quick, a quick espresso there for a second.
You know, what you can do is you can look at the opponent, evaluate it.
And so for me though, if I'm saying, what is my two midfielders, I'm a big, I'm wearing
his jersey right now.
I'm a big Tanner Testman fan.
I think Tanner Testman and Tyler Adams, they work so well together.
Testman is a little bit more of a ball winner.
He's playing at a huge clubly on, he has been there for a long time now.
He has the experience.
I want to see him and Tyler Adams play together for 100 minutes of these friendlies coming
up.
I want to see, they need to build that partnership, they need to build that cohesion.
That's what I want to see.
And then Tyler, I am a huge Malik Tillman fan.
I think Malik Tillman, all he does, he did it in the gold cup, all he does is just play
well.
He did give up a penalty today to Arsenal that maybe with a little bit sketchy, but all
he does is play well in big games.
And that middle three, that gives you a really good interchangeable mix of guys who can
get forward, who can win balls, who can have match winning goals.
That's where I'm looking right now.
So okay, so in this scenario, would you have, you would have Tyler Adams being your deepest
lying midfielder, you'd have Tanner Testman kind of testman might be a little bit deeper
actually.
But interesting.
Okay.
A dual pivot of Tyler Adams, Tanner Testman with Malik Tillman in front of them.
And then there is is Wes as your right wing back.
If you're getting all of your best players on the field, that's again.
But see, I don't think that's a, but that's a whole question.
Or is this a get your best 11 players on the field?
Or is this a prepare your lineup to beat the team in front of you?
Because that gap is not there anymore of like, oh, we only have this many good players.
It's not like, you know, in the world baseball classic, right?
Like it's a lot of these countries, it's like get our best nine players out there and
we don't care where they get out there.
That's how it was in the last mission.
Right, right, right.
That's how it was for the US national team for a while.
It's not like that anymore.
So I think you evaluate each game because UVA has been playing Western in that like attacking
mid role, but UVA has had no one there to play in that role.
They've been playing it forward some.
That to me is more a failure of UVA's roster building than, oh, this is like where Weston
needs to play.
I think Western will probably be in above Malik Tillman.
It's just maybe not the decision I would make.
So okay, so in a hypothetical where like the US is going up against Australia and like
you said, like the US should be the protagonist in that match should have an absurd amount
of possession for a US men's national team squad, you know, the likes of which we really
just haven't seen.
So in this scenario, you probably want to have like your most like on the front foot squad
that you could potentially put out there.
Let's say in this scenario, Sergei Noudest isn't available, then it's not so much a get
your best 11 out there, but it is a what is your most like foot on the gas we need goals.
We need to make sure that this is a scenario where we can break down this opponent.
I would I would see that as great.
Let's get Tillman in the midfield and let's have West coming in from like the right wing
back spot because he does provide an attacking threat and then you're also able to get
pull a stick and a striker on the field and feel really good about the talent that you're
lining up with.
Yeah, I completely agree and also it can remain super fluid because Weston can push into
the midfield if Tillman wants to get out wide on the wing as well.
Like that is a combination that and even like testament can kind of drift back to center
back as Freeman pushes forward that's where I think it just gives you that fluidity that
is so different than the rigid 11s that we have seen in the world cup of the past, which
again, it makes it so exciting to watch over the next couple weeks, but also to go into
the world cup of we're not just, you know, I know I keep saying it, but we're not we're
not just this rigid 11 out there.
There can be fluidity and there's a manager that can bring that.
You don't like the rigidity.
It was born.
Well, you look back, right?
And you're like, let's just, and it was okay for the time it got results.
You're trying to get results, but thank God that we've gotten past that, right?
Like I think we are at this point past that as a nation and that's why we got past that.
I don't, I'm not a Greg Burrhalter hate or by any means, he was the right coach at the
time.
Yeah.
If you had tried to put pochettino into that team we had in 2022, I don't think it,
you know, you can only cook with the ingredients you have.
Sometimes you need a good line chef, you know, and sometimes you need a Michelin star.
Yeah.
No, I think that's right.
I see, I see a world where Christian Roldon gets some roll out next to Tyler Adams just
because he's a, do you think he makes the roster?
I do.
I do.
He's played, he's one of those guys that's played a lot under pochettino, you know, like
there's a few guys that have been out there quite a bit.
Flo Baligan is another one.
I think he's like nailed in as the starting striker for this team, but you, you go look
at like the, the starting lineups like, you see a lot of Roldon in there and you just,
you just wonder if he's another like connectie piece kind of guy that like maybe starts a
game in the group stage or something like that.
Yeah.
That would make a lot of sense.
Well, and you look back at, look at a guy like killing a Costa, right, who was on the
last World Cup.
He can play in the midfield.
He can play it right back.
I say only, but you only get 26 players.
So you are going to need players that can fill those roles.
My worry though is like, it just becomes a numbers game with Roldon because yes, Roldon
made the roster, but that is Roldon, not kind of a Western light like where is Roldon
making the roster because Western's not on the roster, you know, and I, I, I, great
player.
Love to have that MLS life or guy that is a good locker room guy, all of that, but when
you count to 26, you know, when you're, when you're making that wedding invite list and
you're getting down towards towards the bottom of it, right, it's like it becomes tricky
and you don't want to leave anyone out, but I feel like Roldon, there's, there's a lot
of players that fit his role.
It'll be really interesting to see though.
You're going to be having to make some, some really hard decisions on that.
I wonder if it comes down to like a, a substancey guy like Roldon versus like a stylish, like
spicy guy like, like marina, yes, yes, no, I think you nailed it.
I mean, what are you looking at in those scenarios?
And then it becomes, what is the scenario where each of them gets on the field?
Because I don't think any of them in a perfect world are starting any game, but you know,
if you're protecting a lead, you probably have options besides Alex Roldon that you're
bringing on the field.
If you need a goal, do you have players that can create that similar to your Reyna?
I would call up Roldon over Reyna, but that's probably a head to head battle.
It might be, and I think that there's just no more fascinating like clash of styles
than like those two guys, and it would really kind of emphasize, I think, where Pochettino
is like, head is at with the roster and with like what he needs from it.
And yeah, I just think that that would be particularly fascinating.
I do, I do wonder if in that scenario you lean towards the guy who does the thing on
the field that just like nobody else in the pool really does, you know, and that's,
that is Jey Arena for all of his faults, you know?
Just put on the ConquerCaf Nations League final tape against Mexico from a few years ago,
and you're like, okay, yeah, you don't, you know, do you want Jimmy Butler on your team
for the entire regular season?
Maybe not, but you know what?
Like when you need something in the playoffs, like that's the guy that you probably want
to have on the court, you know, like it's very difficult.
And when you're making those decisions, if you're a Pochettino and maybe the World Cup
doesn't go as you wanted it to or whatever you're thinking, where did it go wrong?
Are you thinking where did it go wrong because I had you right on the team or where did
it go wrong because I brought Alex Roldon and I didn't have that 90th minute.
We have six minutes, get someone out there and do something crazy.
It's a great question, man.
And we haven't mentioned Aiden Morris as well, who's like, Aiden Morris is doing it for,
he is bang in, bang out, weaken, weak out, player of the match for Mittelsboro in midfield
who are probably going to get promoted.
So there's a lot of names there.
It's a good problem to have.
It's a great problem to have.
And like you mentioned, like this is not the, the US men's national team of 2010, you
know, 2006 or whatever, where you have a lot of role players and you're just trying
to emphasize like the skill of like one or two dudes, this team has a ton of skill and
a ton of depth all over the field.
It's just about mixing and matching the right way.
And obviously we have Christian Polisik and Flo Baligan, who are I think going to be
like kind of the, I don't know if you want to call them like striker tandem, like obviously
Polisik drops a little deeper, Baligan stays a little higher.
But I mean depth, depth there too, because like you have a Brendan Arenson that can do
a little something for you.
I don't, I think he's probably one of those bubble guys also.
And then a bunch of strikers that also do different things whether you're looking at
Haji, right?
Peppy, who's, who's the player, who's the strike I'm missing that was at Charlotte and
is now in the championship, yeah, he's still, he's still around goals.
Yeah, and I, I look at, I think you nailed it of Baligan and Polisik up top and Peppy off
the bench because Peppy is the guy who was very comfortable off the bench.
He's, I think he scored just boat loads of goals for PSV in the Champions League coming
off the bench as that super sub.
I'm sure he wants to start the game, but it's kind of like Baligan is the, if, if it's
a prize fight, Baligan is giving you body shot after body shot after body shot, wearing
you down, wearing you down, and then Peppy comes in and he sneaks behind you and he finds
that goal, right?
Yeah.
I don't think Baligan and Peppy are going to work that well together.
And then Haji, right, you have to trust, Haji, right, should be on the roster.
I feel like Haji, right, he, you know, he's out, he's been at Coventry for so long he's
a little bit out of sight out of mind.
He scored in the World Cup.
You trust this guy, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think you do.
Again, it's a, it's a numbers game, right?
So if you're taking three strikers, I think you're right.
I think you're taking, Balow, I think you're taking Peppy.
I think you're taking Haji, and then Pulisic is just, you're always on the field guy.
Is it, where are you at all at Pulisic hasn't scored since December?
I mean, it just doesn't, like, what are we talking about, like, it just doesn't matter
at this point.
Like, it, it does not matter.
You built a team around him.
He has to play.
He has to start.
Like, if he's healthy, he's starting, and you trust him, he scored in the last World
Cup.
He, you just have to trust him.
Period.
Potentially sacrificed his ability to have kids to score that goal, and we were grateful
for it.
So, okay.
So we have these two matches coming up, March 28th, March 31st, Belgium and Portugal.
Again, two teams that, that, you know, have aspirations of winning their group, at least
getting into the knockout stages, and doing damage once they get there, right?
I wonder, from your perspective, is this a camp more about the result on the field, or
is it more about getting the questions answered, or both, like, can those things happen at
the same time?
Are they mutually exclusive, or can things be two things?
Where do, which way do you lean, result, or actually, like, figuring out what the heck
we're going to do, come June?
It felt like the last November camp, you needed results, because you just hadn't gotten
results in a while, and sometimes you just need to just watch the ball going to the net,
right?
And make a three-pointer.
I don't think the results, obviously, don't want to get killed or anything.
You don't want to lose.
You want to get results.
I don't think results are as important in this camp.
I think you need to confirm the things you saw in November.
Alex Freeman can handle that center-back role against Freken Portugal and Belgium, teams
that you are, these are your round of 32 opponents, right, round of 32, round of 16.
These are the teams you are going to play.
I think Belgium is actually a very potential round of 32 opponent, if both teams finish
second in their group, USA would play Belgium.
So that is what you are trying to do is, for me, confirm the positives that you saw
in November, and at the same time, working in the guys that were missing, those key guys,
and getting those minutes for testament and atoms, getting minutes for whatever your right
back, center-back combination is on that side, who are you playing next to Anthony Robinson
on the other side?
That to me is what makes it successful.
If you do those things, you are going to get the results, because Portugal is probably
not going to have Ronaldo.
I think he is hurt.
I don't know.
It is like a real hurt, or just I don't want to play in Saudi Arabia right now, so I am
hurt.
He is not going to come to camp, and just the whole thing about coming to the United States.
I don't think he is going to be in the camp, but it is still a very high quality opponent.
So yeah, I mean, what do you think?
I think it is more about just confirming the things you saw.
Yeah, I think you have to walk away from this camp, no matter what, feeling like you know
who is playing next to Tyler.
Feeling like, okay, like you said, we saw 100 minutes of Tyler Adams and Tanner Testman
doing it against top level competition.
We saw 100 minutes of Alex Freeman holding down that right center-back spot, and building
some continuity with Chris Richards, because that is something you just need along a back
line that we just don't have, because you just haven't played it together enough.
So I think you have to walk away with questions answered, and if you lose both of these matches,
as long as the score lines aren't like, like Phil Thesad, like three nothing, or something
like that, then like if you lose these matches, like two on one nothing, something like
that, like I think I am okay with that.
As long as it is in the name of learning some stuff that you just have to know going into
going into April, May, you know, leading into June, like you just have to know who, like
you want in center midfield, I think next to Tyler Adams, as much as like, as much as I want
to have some flexibility, like you mentioned, and being able to say like, okay, in a spot,
like this guy comes in or something like that, I think I really want to know like a framework
for who comes out like when you need a goal.
Okay, like whatever the case may be, but I think you have to have an answer to some of these
questions once you leave these two matches. Yeah, and again, like maybe the answer is,
you failed the test, you know, maybe, okay, Alex Freeman cannot handle this. He got torched by,
you know, Gonzalo greatest or whatever, right? Like you got scorched by Bernardo Silva,
and you need to be it out at right back where yes, you're good, but we can protect you, right?
Or, you know, and we just have to go a little bit more conservative with our three center backs
and not get too big for our bridges. Or we have to have a different plan for the group stage
games than we do the knockout round games. I mean, we didn't even mention Weston could just be the
guy to play next to Tyler Adams. Maybe you just don't overcomplicate it. And it's just two guys
have been playing it together in center midfield for a hell of a long time that really understand
what they're doing. And maybe your ceiling is a little lower, but you just know it's going to work,
and you're not going to lose to Australia if you put these two guys in there, right? Like all of
these questions. Yeah, no, I think I think that's exactly right. Yeah, as long as you're we're not
watching Alex Freeman just get mulled by like Raphael Leal or something. That would be quite
disappointing. I have a lot of confidence that he is not going to do that because also that's
where I think having the NFL star as a dad helps you so much in that mentality of having been around
big time sports your entire life. It does, I think it really does make a difference where he went
up against your wife, right? Like that's not easy. And scored two goals against him. It was one
of the best players on the field and got him moved to Europe, right? Probably from that game.
They're looking at it and they're like, why are you in a mess anymore? You know, so
yeah, and then just come out of it healthy, come out of it attacking because at the end of the day,
look, it's still, I'm not worried about seeing like, oh, is the attack jelling or anything like that?
Look, we're still going to be needing to score one of like three or four chances in a game,
needing to pick off one or two set pieces in a game. That's what the world's cup is regardless
of who are. Yeah, I think I think you're absolutely right. Man, this has been a lot of fun,
just kind of talking through the roster. I'm excited. Man, I'm more hyped now than I was before
for these March friendlies. I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be good. Let's get
out of here on a bit of news, Daniel, that you mentioned to me and you were right that we should
talk about this. The fan fest for Dallas, for the World Cup this upcoming summer has been announced.
It's going to be at Fair Park coming up this June. I think that that sounds pretty incredible,
personally. What's your thought? Not just Fair Park. It's actually going to be
Doseki's pavilion. So it's going to be, or, hey, as we used to know, the Starplex, of course,
way back in the day, Tyler, how many Dave Matthews band concerts have you been to at the Starplex?
Amazingly none. We should drop in the Ants marching drop from the ticket.
One of my, I think the second concert, I have big concert I ever went to as a teenager,
was Weezer and Dashboard Confessional at Starplex. Way back in 2004, I think it was a green album tour.
I often play the game of how many of the names that that place has had, can you run down in your
mind? We've already said Starplex, Doseki's, it was Jackson. It was like super pages,
smear enough. That's it. Yeah. Well, now it's going to be known as Dallas fan fest,
arena, because yeah, so they're going, you know, anyone who's been there, right? You've got the
grass berm and you've got the seats that are covered, which even in the summer yet gets hot,
but they've got some fans. It'll be okay. It's going to fit like 15,000 people. I don't think
they're going to get 15,000 people, but there's also those big walkways. They're opening up. I
think they're going to open up the midway as well. Thank you. Yeah, you know, we're used to.
As someone who lives right down Perry from your grand from Fair Park, I mean, I'm pumped for it,
because I tell everyone who is, you know, a Dallas resident, it's like, how do I experience the
World Cup when I don't want to spend $400 on a ticket or whatever. One way, the ticket prices
will go down for some games. You'll be able to, I would be shocked if you're not able to get
into a game for a hundred bucks, at least one of them, right? Right. But to go to the fan fest,
you think with Argentina playing in Dallas, there are going to be, you know, probably 5,000
Argentines that go to watch these games at the fan fest, because that's what you do if you don't
really know where you're going. Like the those Argentines, they're not going to know about Katie
trail ice house, right? So it's like, they're going to go to the the fan fest, go meet people,
make friends, get the WhatsApp numbers of people in Argentina, you'll get to go meet them one day
in their country, make friends around the world that you will never meet otherwise. That is how
you have an awesome World Cup. That's how you celebrate it coming to Dallas is making friends
in other countries meeting people that you can go visit one day because their country will host
an international tournament someday and they will give you a couch to sleep on. That is how you have
a great World Cup. I did see fortunately, they're not going to be showing the 10 p.m. games at
Liseki's. They're going to stop after the 8 p.m. kickoffs. Not a place you probably want to be at
like midnight. So, you know, maybe get out of there by that, you know, 10 o'clock game, it's fine.
So, that was a good decision, but TK, it's going to be, it's just going to be so exciting,
and I love, look, the city of Dallas gets a lot of things wrong. They're getting this right
in making the Dallas fan fest one of the best in the country. I totally agree with that.
Because like, look, like infrastructure and like public transportation leaves a lot to be
desired around Dallas, but like one place you can actually get to on the dark is Fair Park.
That, to me, is already a win. The fact that it's an incredibly accessible place, and there are
some good spots to go to around Fair Park and that kind of thing. You can make a really,
really good day of it, and yeah, it's going to be hot, but the World Cup is being held here
in the summertime. That's just what's going to happen. I was so worried that they were going to
do this fan fest in the middle of, you know, that big area outside of the hall of state between
that and the, oh my gosh. Yes. And it was just going to be like standing there in the sun
in August, and no one would have gone, right? But that's why Dosekis is a perfect place to have
it. It's covered. They can put big screens all over the place. You can fit a thousand people.
You can fit 10,000 people. It has me super excited. I'll probably go there four or five times,
right? I mean, it's going to be a lot of fun. 92 days until the World Cup is here on our shores.
Daniel, thanks so much for joining this week and chatting about all things US men's national team
and getting us ready for these March friendlies. I cannot wait. Yeah, three months. Let's go.
Let's go. Everyone, thank you for tuning into this episode. We'll be back soon with more episodes,
but until then, soccer really hard, everybody.