Mexico Opens the World Cup With a Bang!

21:49Mauricio Pedroza:With what the USA have, Jermaine, how far realistically do you think they can go in this tournament? Oh, I think it will be how they go with the first game. because I think if they lose that game, then it's already a lot of pressure on them, especially then to now go to the second game, and then you have to win. So I hope that we get out of the group stage, but to add to that what Herk said, for me it's important that a lot of games I see in the U.S. is working and playing good is when Christian Pulisic has a good day, and I think that is a big problem. So I think in general as a team, you have to step it up.

22:29And I think there's Weston, there's so many guys. They all have to step it up. Like we said, you play in a World Cup. So there's no hiding anymore. Everybody dreamed as a young boy to play at this stage, enjoy it, have fun. But I don't think that it can only be Christian Pulicic. Because if it's only him, we will get in problems.

22:50Mauricio Pedroza:Yeah, Jürgen, if it's not Christian, then who? Well, for a coach, the hope is always, you know, who's capable to step it up in a tournament? So a tournament is a completely different story to the normal kind of seasonal games, you know, qualifying games or friendly games. So you rely as a manager, as a coach, you rely on those couple of personalities that you have in your team, and you are desperate to look for them. So obviously Christian Pulisic is the leader of that pack, you know, but it cannot only be him. It needs a Tyler Adams, it needs a Vesti McKinney, it needs three, four, five guys.

23:25I was lucky to coach them in 2014 in Brazil, but I had a Tim Howard in goal in sensational form. I had Jermaine in midfield. I had Michael Bradley. I had Clint Dempsey up front. I had DeMarcus Beasley. I had personalities where I knew if they have an issue on the field, they will take care of it. They talk it out. They keep each other on their toes because what Hook says, these individual small mistakes, when you know that your teammate doesn't allow you to do those mistakes you are right there you're not making that mistake like the two red cards from South Africa totally unnecessary yeah damage now the team for the next next game they're already on their edge so you need to have that discipline but that discipline is given to you also by your teammates and when you look around and maybe you know you are a younger player like a John Brooks in in Brazil Still, you know, he looks around and Jermaine tells him something or Demarcus Beasley or Tim Howard tells him something.

24:21Then he's spot on. He's not making any mistake anymore. So this is leadership. And I hope that they define their clear roles of leaders in the next couple of weeks. It's not only Christian Pulisic. It's the other guys to step it up now because this opportunity is not coming again.

24:38Mauricio Pedroza:Casey, and just speaking about leaders, another one who is a leader as well is Chris Richards. Of course, we know he has been dealing with an injury, according to our Jeff Carlisle. He has been looking good in training, looks fit enough to play. We will ultimately see. But if he is, do you start him? I think so. I think to the points made, you need your stars to perform. You then need your role players to play their role. And then you could also use that odd surprise where you're like, wow, I didn't expect that from that player to perform that well. Chris Richards is one of your stars. He's your defensive leader.

25:11a guy that has done so well in the Premier League, has then really established himself. And to have that foundation, you have a goalkeeper that's probably going to be untested in Matt Fries. And when you can have a leader who's come across the way he has, not only for country, but for club as well, and to be in the situation that he's been in, to have him, I think it's paramount. But only if he's to the level that he can. What that level is, because we all know you don't go into how many matches do you go into where you were 100%. I mean, yeah, I mean, I would have felt weird at some stage of a season to go, oh, I'm 100 % today.

25:55No, there's always something you're feeling. And so I think he's got the experience to be able to battle through it.

26:01Mauricio Pedroza:All right. Well, we are 100 % into World Cup mode and international football. But believe it or not, there's still some club football matters that need to be settled over in Spain with the segunda playoff final Malaga up against Almería. That's Sunday, 3 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN Plus.

26:21Mauricio Pedroza:Well, coming up next, we know there's been tensions as it relates to Iran in the World Cup. We'll hear from some of their players next.

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27:24Learn more at windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last, ends June 30th. Terms at aka.ms slash college PC.

27:36Mauricio Pedroza:Well, Iran's World Cup participation has been front and center of many headlines heading into the tournament. They opened their campaign on Monday against New Zealand in Los Angeles. They have two games in Los Angeles before heading to Seattle for their final group game against Egypt. And despite playing all their games in the United States, they've been forced to move their camp to Tijuana, Mexico because of U.S. visa issues. Well, our Jeff Carlisle managed to sit down and catch up with a number of the players. I was wondering if you could answer this next one in English, or at least give it a try.

28:10How difficult has it been to focus on football?

28:18You know, it's our family involved the situation right now. So the important thing is the family in all the world. That's why it's so hard to focus on football, just football. But as professional players we have to do it. We are here to do our best job. So that's why we are looking for it to be focused. actually every single person has another situation to fix it so about myself I just put the phone away don't read the news which is so hard actually which is helped me is the different zone time because when we are here awake they are asleep. When we are asleep, they are awake. That's help. But as a mental, mental, no, it's not.

29:26Because end of the day, your brain goes there, thinking about the situation in Iran. And that's unfortunately, is it not good for us? Are you, is there fear of playing the games in the U.S.? Are you concerned at all for your safety? For sure we are safe. This is responsibility of the USA and they have to do that. Why not? Are you sure about your country? I'm not the one experiencing it though. I mean, I'm not the player of a country who's at war. I have a question. Very from USA, yeah? Yes. Okay. But you sure we are safe there? Well, Donald Trump has said at times that he wasn't sure he could guarantee your safety.

30:18But how do you see us? As politicians, guys, or we are a sportsman? Yeah, of course. Trump has to see the same things. But we are a sport. The Iranian Federation has accused the U.S. of vindictive behavior in terms of denying visas for some of the support staff. How do you think that will put Iran at a disadvantage? We have also a lot of people, logistic people, who have to look after us outside the pitch, which unfortunately, yeah, it hasn't been fair to say that everybody can be involved because of the visa situation. And I think that can also affect our preparation in a way. so hopefully same as other 47 teams that it's quite normal that there are people who look after the team and they should be involved and part of the group as well we can be one of those 47 teams to have everyone who can play a part in our preparation and of course in our journey throughout the World Cup can be with us as well so these things of course playing a big part

31:38It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal.

31:56and it's unfortunate that the United States is presenting itself by these actions that reflect bad upon the US It's a bad joke for the world because of the news right now, everyone is talking about all these negative things that the United States is doing exactly, affecting the US negatively this global event, there's 3 or 4 billion people watching this game It's 4 million people. And given the focus and attention, the U.S. show a much warmer, friendlier gestures and create a better image for itself in this unique opportunity. This visa thing, when you look back at the last few months, there's been a lot worse things that have happened to our country.

32:37It's almost such a small thing in comparison to what's happening. And FIFA in the United States, they could have handled this, both our visa issues and the other issues much better to promote unity. At the end of the day, 15 visas are denied. What effect does that really have? What are this trying to accomplish with that?

33:07This is my third. I've been to three World Cups. and they always say once you get off the plane you enter the close country there's just a unique atmosphere of friendliness and globalness and unfortunately he's not feeling it right now there's a lot of tension right now in this World Cup, you feel it in the atmosphere and unfortunately because of actions like this basically

33:33Mauricio Pedroza:our Jeff Carlisle there catching up with members of the Iranian camp, Jeff Carlisle is joining us right now. Jeff, just listening to all of them speak and you communicating with them, it must have been a very surreal and interesting experience to sit down with them. Yeah, it was a long day. It was interesting to have to go into Mexico and attend one of their practice sessions. But I think overall, the mood within the team is relaxed. Certainly, there is still concern about what is happening with friends and family back home in Iran. But, you know, they were happy to be in Mexico. They're very satisfied with the facilities that Club Tijuana is providing them.

34:17And granted, it had only been about 48 to 56 hours that they'd been in the country. So I think there was still a little bit of jet lag that they were trying to deal with in terms of having their practice. But, you know, certainly, you know, they're very much looking forward to the games. They're certainly aware of everything that is going on, both back home in Iran and in the United States as well. And they're very eager to make an impact on this tournament. I think this is the seventh time that they've qualified for the World Cup, and they've never made it to the knockout round. So that is a goal of theirs that they are very intent on achieving.

34:57Mauricio Pedroza:And besides some of the challenges that they spoke about there and what we have seen publicly, What are some of the other challenges that you're facing and they're facing? Well, I think one challenge that they've recently started to face is that their allocation for tickets has been revoked by FIFA. Now, this allocation is 8 % of the stadium capacity. That many tickets get given to the federation and they are allowed to distribute them any way they want. But the problem is that there are economic sanctions that the U.S. government is applying to Iran and the Office of Foreign Assets Control is the U.S.

35:34entity that controls and limits what business transactions can take place between the U.S. and Iran. And granted, FIFA is an international organization, but FIFA 26 is a U.S.-based entity. So the Office of Foreign Assets Control has kind of put their foot down and said you cannot distribute or sell tickets to people in Iran. Now, not all of the Iranian people who are interested in purchasing tickets live in Iran. You know, some of them live in the United States, some are abroad elsewhere. And so what FIFA and the Iranian Federation are trying to broker right now is a situation where those people that live outside of Iran would be able to get tickets.

36:12But it's unclear at the moment whether that's going to happen. All we know right now is that the allocation of tickets has been completely revoked by FIFA. but.

36:22Mauricio Pedroza:And Jeff, after speaking with them and with all that's going on, do you feel like they're actually able to concentrate on the game itself, on the football, or is it just all a bit too much? I think it's a little bit of both. I mean, there's no ignoring what's going on, especially with the resumption of hostilities that has taken place in the last 48 hours. I think it's impossible to kind of completely put that aside and not think about it. But But certainly, like Mehdi Tarami said, they're there to do a job. And they're very intent on achieving their goals in this tournament, making the knockout stages, and giving some hope and some happiness to the people back home.

37:04So granted, they can't ignore everything that's going on, but I think they're doing their utmost to focus on their football and focus on this tournament and try to be as successful as they can possibly be.

37:18Mauricio Pedroza:well Jeff Carlisle thank you so much great work as always

37:25Mauricio Pedroza:all right now let's remind you that there is a double dose of ESPN FC coming to you throughout the World Cup every single day be sure to join us for our morning show tomorrow 9 a.m eastern time on ESPN2 well there were celebrations all around Mexico after their 2-0 win over South Africa, but none bigger than from our Mauricio Pedrosa. He joins us next.

38:15are you waiting for? Get the card that flexes with your spending every month. Terms and points cap apply. Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash business-gold. MX Business Gold Card, built for business by American Express.

38:28Mauricio Pedroza:I am one of Mochanui. On July 10th. Maui, you will board my boat and restore the heart of Te Fiti. And here we go. The journey begins. See her light up the night in the sea. She calls me. The ocean chose you. Let's go save the world. I got your back chosen one. Disney's Moana. Boats neck. His name is Hey Hey. His name is Yum Yum. When he goes in my tum tum. Game theaters July 10th. Rated PG. Parental guidance suggested. Welcome back to ESPN FC as we are 24 hours away from the U.S. men's national team playing their first game right here in Los Angeles at the SoFi Stadium. So you know we had to pitch up a tent right here and get ready for the Vize.

39:16Mauricio Pedroza:But let's switch focus back to Mexico right now, who have the perfect start to their World Cup after a win over South Africa. It's something that they know how to do well. They are unbeaten in eight games in World Cup openers, and they've managed to win six of those. Well, he may not be the biggest Mexican, but he certainly is the loudest. Our Casey Keller tries to put him on mute on a regular basis, but he fails miserably. Let's welcome in our Mauricio Pedro Samau on a scale of 1 to 10. How happy are you with what you saw from Mexico today?

39:51Mauricio Pedroza:After South Africa saw their second red card, it was time for Mexico to go for the yoga alert and find the third goal. In the end, that goal might be the difference, trying to decide who wins the group. I know I'm thinking way too ahead of myself, but I feel like it was probably the cherry on top if Mexico had found that third goal. But overall, I was very happy with what I saw. I was very happy with the team selection. We spoke a lot about this on the show. And I feel like Javier Aguirre nailed it with Israel Reyes, with Brian Gutierrez, Álvaro Fidalgo, Julián Quiñones, who was the best man on the field.

40:28Mauricio Pedroza:So in the end, it was a really, really, really solid performance by the team. All right, Mau, thank you so much. I'm going to let you go and festejar like Mexicanos know how to do, and that's with a couple of cervezas. I'm already on it. I just wore a sports jacket. I'm already partying. He's already on it. He has a show later, okay? So maybe not too many cervezas or tequilas. Mauricio Pedrosa there. All right, let's switch focus right now and talk about former champions. Germany, shall we? Here's a look at their group. They have Curacao, Ivory Coast, and Ecuador. to contend with. Sunday they opened their campaign against Curacao.

41:07Mauricio Pedroza:Curacao who took out my Jamaica, but I'm actually glad I'm not going up against Germany. Oh stop, let's not do this guys. I'm still not over it. All right, well Jurgen, I have to come to you first on this one. How confident are you in Germany's team for this World Cup? I'm fairly confident, to be honest. I think it's a great bunch of young players, of quality players that can prove their point. They can go far. They can go all the way through to the final. They can also exit earlier. Anything is possible. What I'm curious is to, a little bit similar to the United States, is, you know, who's going to be the leader of the pack?

41:43You know, I have obviously as a captain, Joshua Kimmich, and Manuel Neuer came back after, you know, rethinking the whole situation. And also after having really a need, you know, Germany has a need of him. really to come back and go into goal because he's still top five in the world, even if he's 40 years old. So there are some question marks there, but overall I'm confident it's a high quality group of players. And yeah, very curious.

42:12Mauricio Pedroza:Germain, you feeling as confidence as well in Germany? Yeah, I would say yes. Especially now when you look at the team, the spine is Bayern Munich, so they all know each other. But then even the pieces around, like Jürgen said, it's a young group, but you can see. There's Havertz who played in the final for the Champions League, then you have Sané. It's a young group and you don't know exactly what you get, but I think we don't have to talk about the individual quality. quality. Sorry. And you can just see the team, I think, need that first game. So Germany is a tournament country. So they showed always when they get into the tournament in a good run with the first game, then it would be tough.

42:57And I think nobody wants to face them. But I'm with Jürgen.

43:01Mauricio Pedroza:All right. Well, we're keeping Jürgen and Jermaine very close to us after that first Germany game to see if they're feeling just as confident after it. All right. Well, there's a break in the NWSL coverage on ESPN for now, but it will be back July 5th, Boston Legacy, up against Bay FC. Make sure to join that game, 12 p.m. kickoff on ESPN.

43:23Mauricio Pedroza:All right, well, if anyone was living under a rock, there was a big comeback win in the NBA, and the U.S. men's national team loved it. We'll talk about that next.

43:42Mauricio Pedroza:Pitch Preview is brought to you by DraftKings Sports.

43:49Mauricio Pedroza:Well, Mexico already got off to the perfect start in their group at this World Cup, but there's still another matter to be settled as South Korea go up against Czechia later on this evening in Guadalajara. And it just so happens that we have a former South Korea coach right in our midst, Jürgen Klinsmann, what did this man not accomplish? Jürgen, speaking about South Korea, especially going up against Czechia in this match and in the group, what are your expectations? Our expectations are high. You know, it's a team that has all the qualities to go, I would say, at least to a quarterfinal. You know, we coached them to a semifinal in the Asian Cup until, unfortunately, we had a fight between two players the night before the semifinal.

44:34And that was in the tournament for us. but there's a lot of quality in South Korean football and they expect a lot from their team now in this World Cup they want to see how far Son is the captain of the team obviously with LAFC how far he can take his team now because they are not happy how the last 20 years went in their history so yeah I'm very curious to see them

45:00Mauricio Pedroza:curious to see them alright let's get some predictions now and put these boys on the spot Casey let me start with you South Korea, Czechia, what are you thinking? 1-1 draw. Oh, exciting. Jermaine, what about you? I go 2-1 South Korea. 2-1 South Korea. Herc? Yeah, I'm with JJ. It's not in Mexico City. It's in Guadalajara, so altitude won't be a factor. But the Czech, they're going to get their goal. That's the tallest team in the World Cup. It's going to be a physical presence on set pieces. They'll get theirs as well. All right. Juergen, finally. I go with a 2-2. 2-2. You're going for a draw as well.

45:34Mauricio Pedroza:Yep. All right. Okay, so two draws. That's about four goals. And now the big one. The U.S. men's national team, Paraguay, in less than 24 hours. Casey, how do you see this going? 2-1 USA. As you do. JJ? I'm going with 3-1 USA. 3-1, big win. Herc? It's going to be a draw, a low-scoring draw, 0-0-1-1. That's the way I see it. Very, very physical battle. I'll go 1-1. Such a beacon of positivity, our Hercules Gomez. Juergen, what about you? We're going to win 2-1. 2-1. All right. So three wins, one draw, say the boys. Indeed. Herc, by any chance, did you manage to see a little comeback win from the Knicks?

46:17No, I saw the Spurs choke yet another lead. 29 points and Wemby and the Spurs choked another one. Why? Why do you ask?

46:24Mauricio Pedroza:Well, I ask because the U.S. men's national team, that's exactly what they were doing last night. We saw some clips there of them celebrating a number of them New York natives like Tyler Adams and Tim where just have a look at their reaction

46:56Mauricio Pedroza:Oh boy just two nights away from one of the biggest games of your lives but you're watching a game together and celebrating together Juergen this is what you want to see this is what you want to see from your team that have a good time that they have high energy. Wonderful. It's really fun. It's a lot of New Yorkans on that team. Yeah. Any Texans? Weston's a Texan. I don't think he follows other sports, but Weston's from Texas. Pepe's from Texas. There's a few Texans. I think Pepe was in that clip, probably hiding, going back. San Dejas from Texas. JJ, you guys did any team bonding, stuff like that?

47:29Yeah, I think we did. We always had a good group, But I think under Jürgen, we had to do a lot of riding stuff. He put us to work. He put us to work again. Yeah, we always went sightseeing in every place we went to. Oh, that's a good vibe. But really fun. It was fun.

47:46Mauricio Pedroza:Casey? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think team spirit is a huge component to being successful in any tournament. And the more the team is together off the field, the more together the team will be on the field. So it's great to see a chance to kind of loosen up a little bit, to kind of take some of that pressure off, celebrate what was a pretty fun final, particularly if you're a New York Knicks fan. But even as a neutral, kind of cool to see. And the team obviously enjoyed themselves. Yeah, Casey, Mauricio Pedrosa, and our producer Beto Pedralta and I, we went out to the bar to watch it. And it was just an unbelievable comeback, Juergen.

48:23Mauricio Pedroza:I think you were watching as well. What did you think of it? One of the greatest comebacks in history. Yeah, it was fantastic. You know, nobody thought, you know, almost 31 points down. And then the last second play, it was just fantastic, you know. And even if I'm not a basketball freak, I mean, I'm almost 30 years now here. I went to many, many Lakers games. I had season tickets for two years with the Lakers. Oh, balling. But, I mean, watching stuff like that is just exciting. Eric, you didn't take it in? I took it in, absolutely. You watch the game, you enjoy it. History being made. It's been a long, long time since the Knicks were in this position, a position to actually win it.

48:59It gets you thinking. Pochettino's always said, why not us? The Knicks are on the verge of history, maybe the U.S. Men's National League, of getting deep. Let's not get carried away, but of getting deep. I know.

49:08Mauricio Pedroza:You're saying that stars are aligning something in the air over here. JJ, did you watch it? Yeah, I was watching it at the hotel room. It was a good game, yeah. I think even for not a basketball fan, I think it was really exciting. You're a bit of a New York boy, right? Me? No, this guy's Cali. Oh, he's straight West Coast, best coast. Laker. I'm German. Easy throw. All right. Well, thank you so much. That's pretty much we're going to wrap things up here on this special edition of ESPN FC. Remember, 24 hours to go before the USA are in action against Paraguay in their World Cup opener right here.

49:43Mauricio Pedroza:Make sure to join us again tomorrow. We'll see you then.

49:59Mauricio Pedroza:Welcome into Extra Time. We are coming to you live from our set here right at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California. What a squad I have assembled today. Juergen Klinsmann, Hercules Gomez, Jermaine Jones, and Casey Keller. Guys, ready to dive into some questions? Of course. Let's do it. They're a bit thirsty. Don't worry. We won't stay too long. All right. First question. When you're at base camp, how often, if ever, do you watch the other matches? If any teams in any group were watching today's match, what would they take away from it? Well, you take a lot. I mean, you watch all the games. Whatever comes up on TV, you watch it with the other coaches, other players.

50:40You always gather and you're going to watch what happens, what's going on. Today, you can take a lot away from the fact that South Africa let themselves a little bit go. you know two red cars that's not okay you know you carry that into the next game so you gotta avoid that don't make these individual mistakes that that they did and uh and obviously mexico is extremely happy to start positively into the tournament and calm things down now the nerves settle and yeah you you watch the other teams and and you learn always something jj did you watch all the games too when you were in camp yeah yeah i think we had in the hotel we had downstairs We watched all the games there when we were not playing.

51:20And I think it's always good to see the other teams too, what they're doing. And it's interesting. It's the best tournament in the world. And I think you can play part of it. And we all love the game. So it's interesting to watch other countries and see what they're doing.

51:34Mauricio Pedroza:Herc, what do you think some of the other teams should take away from the game we've seen? Well, it's exactly what Jurgen just said. You can see what not to do. All of a sudden you see a team unraveling right before you. you could be damn well sure the coach is going to be we can't allow this to happen. Emotional intelligence. I think sometimes people think how great it is to play in a World Cup and it's amazing. You're one of the select few, a select percentage of the population that will never get to do this. But you don't experience the World Cup. You're in a hotel, you go to the stadium, you watch it on TV, you don't really feel like you're there until you consume it as a fan.

52:10And when you consume it as a fan, you see how great of a celebration it is. But when you're a player, you watch the games because that's all you're allowed to do. You can't really do anything else.

52:18Mauricio Pedroza:Oh, woe is me. Hard life. I got to represent my country at a World Cup. Casey? Yeah, I think you are a little bit isolated. This is a little bit different, I think, because you didn't have that process of qualifying. Because I think when you have those 16, 18 matches that we used to have qualifying, it was all part of the process of getting to that point. Then you finish that qualifying, you celebrate that, and then you kind of come back. And I think when you are isolated, I think it's when the bus drives up to the stadium for the first match. And then you see your fans. And that's what I thought really about 2006 was, for me, that was the first time I really saw a large section of U.S.

53:04fans traveling to a World Cup. and feeling that when your bus comes into the stadium, that you're very, very well represented. And that was when you know you're in the World Cup.

53:15Mauricio Pedroza:All right, next question now, because I think it is a very good one. And this is for everyone. If you could add one player from the past to the current U.S. men's national team, who would it be? Juergen, let's start with you, because you're the gaffer. Maradona. Oh! I mean, why not? Does he have a passport? Can we get him a passport? I don't know if we can convince him. Well, Ronaldinho would have a passport. I'm just throwing that out there. What about you, Herc? From the U.S. men's national team, there are two players. One is in the goalkeeper position. I would put either a Casey Keller, Tim Howard out there, one of those two guys.

53:54And the other one is I sometimes look at this national team, and I desperately think they need some bite. And the guy to my left, if there was anything he had, was some bite. So a player like that, a player like Jermaine or Michael Bradley, somebody in there that was just...

54:08Mauricio Pedroza:Cut that dog in there. Just somebody with the dog that could make Tyler feel like the whole pressure isn't on him, I think that could greatly serve the U.S. Men's National Team. JJ, what about you? You putting yourself in? Yeah, I would put myself in. Hey! You got excited, huh? Hey, it's right here. You have your boots? Hey, I'll be honest. I think we all can feel that when you turn around, you see the stadium, Of course, I will put my boots on and to go back out there and enjoy the time with the boys. A full 90? Yeah, not 90. Maybe give me 15 and then the rest can take over. Easy to it, right?

54:41Easy to it. Easy to it.

54:42Mauricio Pedroza:All right, so JJ's picking himself. Casey, what about you? Picking yourself too? I think we have an array of more experienced goalkeepers that could have played in this match. Also, I mean, we've had a lot of questions about the number nine position. So I think having a Brian McBride to give yourself a little bit more of an option if you have to go aerial and that experience of playing Premier League and scoring in multiple World Cups would help this team a lot. I mean, 100 percent. You always want to have the experience of what everybody else has offered with that. But those are a couple of positions I think would sure us up a little bit.

55:20If we can't get Maradona, we take Clint. We'll take Clint.

55:23Mauricio Pedroza:Alright, well that's a solid team right there. Imagine if you did have Maradona. Alright, next question now. Which host nation will go the furthest? Juergen.

55:36I think the US has the chance to go to a quarterfinal. And when you're in a quarterfinal, anything can happen anyway. You know, in the knockout phase, anything can happen. You will go through one or two penalty shootouts. That's just the way it is. but I think they can surprise a lot of people positively. Herb? You want me to be positive? They'll all end up at the same place but who has the possibility of going the furthest? Given that they are the closest to winning the group it would be Mexico and they would have five games in Estadio Azteca if they win the group potentially going through. It's Mexico who has the possibility of going the furthest but I ultimately think all three nations may bow out in the round of 16.

56:18Mauricio Pedroza:What a positive man. JJ? I will go with the US. You know, at the end it's really because I'm, you know, I played for this country and I want the best for them. I know it's not easy playing on the home turf. There will be a lot of pressure for all of them three countries. But I think if the US gets good into the tournament, I think they will be the one who will go the farthest. Case? Yeah, I think in a lot I agree with Hurt that I think it could be a round of 16 for all three. But I think if the team has the best chance of getting out of that, it could be the U.S. And then once you get to a quarterfinal, you never know when a bad handball call off of the line in a quarterfinal comes out.

57:02Brought 2002 back.

57:05Mauricio Pedroza:All right, final question now, and it's for Juergen. Juergen, what would you say your greatest moment was during your time coaching the U.S. men's national team? There were a lot of great moments emotionally, but I think the opening game in Brazil when we played in Ghana and Clint scored after a minute, we all freaked out on the field, off the field. I mean, it was such an extremely emotional moment for all of us. We just couldn't believe it. Yeah, I think that was a very, very special moment. Well, the 1-0 win in Estadio Azteca. The only one who did it. And that one too. I have to say, they won too.

57:44We had a winner at Steka as the first ever team. And last minute, and they were Olympic champions. And they were honoring that team. And at halftime, we spoiled the party at Steka. I have to say, that was probably the day we had the most text messages ever from coaches all over the United States. They said, finally, we won in Mexico. Yeah, that was a special moment. I didn't definitely bring that up because I started that game either. Of course you did.

58:10Mauricio Pedroza:JJ, what was one of your favorite memories after being coached by Jurgen? I would say playing the World Cup, you know, because it's the whole process. Like, you're having the families there. We part. Like, we had the hotel here. They had the hotel next to us. Going to the game, seeing all the American fans. Just this combinedness with everybody together. It's just it's beautiful because you dream as a young boy to play for a World Cup and then see your kids happy See the families happy and enjoy that together. It was for me that the special moment with wearing this jersey Casey do you have a favorite moment?

58:48For me it was probably 2006 against Italy in Kaiserslautern where you know we get two players sent off They get a player sent off we find a way to take the only points away from the eventual champions and, you know, a little bit different luck here or there. It could have been a special World Cup for us, but that was a pretty crazy night. In Kaiserslautern with, you know, with Rammstein there and so many Americans, and that was the first time with, and also Kaiserslautern being so close to the Italian border where you really had, you know, a stadium that held, what, like 45 ,000 and having, you know, 20 ,000 Americans, 20 ,000 Italians, and just a tremendous experience and atmosphere.

59:31Right.

59:31Mauricio Pedroza:Well, we'll see if the US national team can add to some of Mauricio Pochettino's favorite memories right here tomorrow. Like I said, less than 24 hours away till the US starts their World Cup against Paraguay. We will be back tomorrow. Remember, ESPN FC is available seven days a week and twice a day on some parts during the World Cup. Join us.

1:00:04The Stanley Cup Final on ABC is more than a quest for the cup. It's 134 years of putting it all on the line and the heaviest 35 pounds ever lifted. It's broken curses and broken hearts. But for those chasing it, it's everything. The only question is, who will take it? You just have to watch the Stanley Cup Final presented by GEICO on ABC and the ESPN app.