United States' Big Belgium Blunder

24:15Like Jürgen said, they needed to be cleaner, they needed to be better, and they weren't. And they got humbled tonight.

24:21Kasey Keller:They got humbled, indeed. When Mauricio Pochettino came in, JJ, he wanted to establish a recognizable identity for this U.S. men's national team. He wanted to change the culture. He wanted individual players to improve to a certain level under him. Do you feel he's done all of that?

24:39Tough. Let's go back. I think when I look at the group stage, right? If you look at the group stage with Paraguay, you have Australia, you have Turkey. We had clearly in mind that Turkey would be the forerunner. They would be the number one. They had a bad one then. Then you go, how we played against Paraguay. I think the Paraguay we saw after the game against the US was not the same when the US played. You can say that was the favour for because the US played that good or you can say Paraguay played that bad. Same like I feel like it's against Australia. So I think that you were able to see, because we can only look at the games what we played now in the tournament and say, yes, we played a better game, a better football than we played before the tournament, what I so far saw.

25:23But he played just with that first 11 in that tournament with the best players together. Then I have to look at it and I go, the teams we should win was Paragrae, was Australia. then we had Bosnia we won but then before that Turkey you lost it's a team from Europe now you lose against a team from Europe again from Belgium so that Belgium team was the big test to say we made a step forward but we don't that is the reality so we have to go back all the other stuff we said good but we said this is now if we win Belgium we can say we made a step forward and we don't We lost 4-1. We talked about it.

26:08We saw the mistakes. We were under pressure. I don't know. Is it maybe the pressure that we lost so many balls that we were not able to compete with Belgium? Because is it maybe in the heads that we thought about it? We never won against them. How we should win today? So, because, yes, when you look at the team, we had a lot of possession. But at the end, we lost 4-1 against a strong Belgium team. So if we ask now, was it good or bad? I would say, no, we get the same. Because we don't win against Belgium. That was the big test.

26:43Kasey Keller:Well, that was a big test, Hurg. But of course, now we knew that US soccer and Mauricio Pochettino were going to wait until after the World Cup to discuss whether or not an extension was on the cards right now. Have you seen enough evidence from what Pochettino has done with this US men's national team to extend him and potentially give him another entire cycle before the next World Cup? We were supposed to wait. Reports have come out that they've already, you know, spoke about an extension to him. I do not know why. You want to see the results. It's a results-based business. This is the highest paid coach in the history of the U.S.

27:15men's national team. A coach they reset the market for. One of the highest paid international managers who's gotten to the same place that every coach before him has gotten. Except one. Maybe two. If you count 1930. What are we doing here? You don't need a World Cup with a round of 16 exit to evaluate 20 months worth of work. 20 months worth of this coach and his people constantly flirting with other teams. Whether it's Premier League or whether it's in Spain or whatever the case may be. I don't even know if Mariso Pochettino wants to coach the international game. I'm sure he had a lot of fun at this World Cup.

27:56And he did a lot of good things with his team in this World Cup. but nothing any other coach before him hasn't done. And yeah, you can win three games. You can do that. That's fine. Bruce Arena went 1-1-1 and made it to a quarterfinal. Was a blown handball away from making it to the semifinal. Juergen Klinsmann got out of a group of death. A much more difficult scenario. So if you're going to judge him, don't judge him off this World Cup. Judge him off the totality of the 20 months and what you felt, what you saw. It took us 20 months to find a starting lineup. So listen, these players today were not good enough.

28:32And ultimately, that's Pochettino's job. I don't want to put all the blame on him today. I don't think he has all the blame. But Rui Garcia made three adjustments and put him in a world of difficulty. That's the reality here. Nothing has changed.

28:47Kasey Keller:Casey, what do you make of it? Extension, yay or nay? Yeah, I think that's tough. I mean, because like you said, I mean, the whole idea was he was brought in to take the team to the next level and he wasn't able to achieve that. And there was a lot of experimentation. What did we joke about, you know, before the tournament started? The only thing consistent with Pochettino was his inconsistency. So we never really knew what we were going to expect. We were so pleasantly surprised in that first half against Paraguay, one of the best halves in American soccer history. But we also said that was unsustainable.

29:25So we were happy to see the pragmatic approach against Australia. You won the group. And then we didn't really get to see anything against Turkey because of all the changes and that it became a friendly. And then we saw another pragmatic approach against Bosnia, which was fantastic. You got the win in that knockout stage. We need to see something special today against what wasn't considered the best Belgian team in the last 12 years, that it was a beatable Belgian side. Rudy made some important changes. Belgium responded, and they were the better team from start to finish. The U.S. just could not come up with the performance they needed against this side.

30:09And look, if we're going to objectively look at the U.S. team, can we say this U.S. team is one of the best eight teams left in the world? And on today's performance, we have to say no. They weren't able to take it to that next level. Mauricio wasn't, and the players weren't. And now U.S. soccer has to make a decision on is this the right guy going forward and be able to do that four years? Pochettino has to make that decision. Is he the right guy? Is this the right environment that he needs to move forward? So a lot of questions, a lot of questions to be had by U.S. soccer.

30:47Kasey Keller:A lot of questions indeed. Well, Casey, I know you're an emotional guy, so I'm going to let you go and drown your sorrows in Seattle. Thank you so much for joining us, though. We'll chat to you again soon. Right, we're going to take another quick break, but when we come back, it was happiness for Spain, but end of an era for Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal. We'll look at that next.

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32:10These were the scenes in Spain as Mirko Marino's late, late goal would see the Spanish side advance to the next round. Portugal are out. Welcome into the ESPN FC studio. Xhaka, Craig and Frank to reflect on what we saw in the round of 16. And this was a tight game. Arguably Spain with a better side over the 90 minutes. We saw both teams creating chances, but in the end, it is Marino's goal. It is the difference between the two sides. Spain advance, Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo go home. We'll talk about Ronaldo and the way Roberto Martinez used him in this game a little later on, but let's focus on the winners first, Craig.

32:54Spain with a better side over 90 minutes. Obviously no scenes from Lisbon. No, there'll be a lot of tears, I imagine. A lot of questions, we'll get to that. But yeah, Spain the better side. Good substitutions in the end from De La Fuentes. Rodri dominating the middle of the park. Portugal had their moments, particularly in the first half. Second half, Spain really wore them down. The two substitutes combined, Ferran Torres and Mikel Moreno. Moreno scores big goals for Arsenal, big goals for Spain. He's a big-time player in terms of coming off the bench, either with his head or with that left foot.

33:26But it was a brilliant ball from Ferran Torres. It was absolutely, they took a quick free kick and caught Belgium on the hop and then that little reverse ball around the corner and then all he has to do, I say all he has to do, it's a big moment because the game's looking like it's going to go to extra time and it was a wonderful finish to give the best team in the day the pathway to the quarterfinal. The team with the most quality in the end, Sean. Yeah, without question, though at times you were kind of begging for that quality to come to the fore, Laminia Mal and Nuno Mendes on that, right for speed and left for Portugal that was an interesting battle between those two because you know how important Laminia Mal is but similarly Nuna Mendes an incredible performance outside of that you were just waiting for the big players, you were waiting for some kind of a knockout punch from either of these two it did come very late on in what was a game that won't go down as a classic but this is what Spain have, those players that you can bring off the bench as well, that can just change the game with one single pass Yeah, exactly.

34:29When you have top-level players, suddenly they can create something that nobody was expecting. And it's what happened with Ferran Torres again and with Craig. The assist is a pure talent assist. And, of course, Merino. Merino has been absolutely fantastic with Arsenal scoring goals when he did it. And today Spain needed him and he produced. That was absolutely fantastic. Yeah, it wasn't even a game, but you have a little bit of something special coming from the Spaniard team. And I think they deserve to go through. I know they're growing into this tournament. And I know you've been a bit critical of them.

35:07But I think now they are definitely up there as one of the heavyweights because of, we mentioned, that quality. It's a bit of a statement, isn't it? Yeah, I think most definitely. Also a statement is Cristiano Ronaldo, who is always going to be at the centre of debate, considering the way that Roberto Martinez was going to use him throughout his tournament. We saw late on against Croatia, he didn't come off initially, Ramos came on, but he did come off in the end and it was Ramos who scored that crucial goal. Ramos didn't play in these 90 minutes. Roberto Martinez made five substitutions, none of them took Cristiano Ronaldo off.

35:42If you're Gonzalo Ramos who has just made a move from PSG to Milan, he's just scored the winner in the round of 32 against Croatia, such an important goal and you don't even come on the field in a game that's tight because he thinks he's saving you for extra time where he gets that added substitute but you don't get the extra time because when Moreno scores then the game is dead and buried pretty much and he doesn't have that substitution and in the biggest of moments the biggest of moments and we talked about this for months about the manager of Portugal yeah he took him off in that Croatia game but this was the biggest of moments against one of the favourites for the tournament and he's left a player on who did basically little in the game.

36:24There was no, Kubasí and Aymeric Laporte, there was no threat. There was no threat from Ronaldo. The threat was going to be maybe the pace of Leal in the wider area, maybe the pace of Neto on the right-hand side. There was no threat of the pace from Cristiano Ronaldo getting in behind. But we knew that. We knew that, so it needed something different. And they'll nail him to a mass back in Portugal about this. they got to. Because it's not about Ronaldo. It's not about him playing the last World Cup. It's not about all that. It's about Portugal and the national team and this multi-talented squad of players they've got.

36:58And he made a decision, Roberto Martinez, for the individual, not for the betterment of the team. And they've paid the penalty. That's what I regret about it. It's not a Ronaldo testimonial. That was a game to please him. That was a game to go through. It was like today, seeing Neymar coming on, that's like, yeah, kind of a tribute. Now, that's a national team game and you want to go through. So it's a regret. Ronaldo had some chances with the half bicycle in the first half, but it wasn't productive enough in the second half. And it would have been, I think, only fair to maybe try something with Gonzalo Ramos to bring something different.

37:36And Roberto Martinez didn't take that opportunity and he would have to pay the price. At the same time, Ronaldo was not the only underperformer in this Portugal team. We came into this workup saying that Portugal arguably had the best midfield of any team in the tournament. Yet you'd not seen anything from that incredibly talented midfield. While I agree, Ronaldo could have been sacrificing, in want of a better word, a whole lot sooner, a whole lot more often during the course of this tournament. You being unable to get a tune out of that midfield three, again, that is as damning a criticism on Roberto Martinez as his unwillingness to make big changes.

38:15And I'm looking at Ronaldo here. Yeah, but I mean, we talked about this the other day, Shaq. You're looking at Vitinha, João Neves and Bruno Fernandes, right. And I talked about this, I think, last week and previous weeks. When they're playing at their club, respectively, Man United and PSG, they have players up front and the front three, particularly through the middle, that they can just bend balls in first time, right? Without looking, we see Bruno Fernandes doing it at Man United. That ball comes into him and he whips it around the corner for Mbemo or Sesko. They don't have that. You know, they've got at PSG, they've got Dembele, they've got Dewey, they've got Cavett Skelly, they've got Barcola.

38:54They can play those balls in. They're almost taking extra touches because Ronaldo's coming short all the time. He can't go in behind. So it completely negates that threat. And Frank will tell you, as a centre-half, if you're not worried about the pace, you can squeeze the game a little bit more. Exactly, you can play higher because you know that you won't have any problem seeing a ball behind you and you won't have to regulate your defensive line as a sweeper that I was to say, okay, we drop a little bit because the guy is running back and he's running behind us and it's going to be hard for us to deal with that.

39:29But if the guy doesn't do it at front, you can go up, squeeze and you create problems in the middle of the park because you're going to push your middle line to go and pressurize, for example, Mitinia and Neves. So that was an issue. That's true. That's really critical about that. And you couldn't put Ronaldo. If you have somebody who does the job, who does on the left side, like Leao maybe or somebody who go behind the defense in the space, but neither Felix or Leao or somebody else have done that. Why didn't he change it? That's the question and more to the point, the concern about Roberto Martinez.

40:11I haven't seen the press conference, I imagine, say, Martinez, he's one of the greatest players. If you need someone to make a difference, he has still got it within him to make that difference. That's why I can't take him off. I'm not sure the latest is true. I was being Roberto Martinez. I agree with what you're saying. Absolutely. Listen, at his peak, the game has not known a better goal scorer than Cristiano Ronaldo. So you understand that. I don't know if he still has it in him. Martinez clearly thinks he does. But that has always been the concern, that Roberto Martinez is unable to make the big decisions in a way that Fernando Santos did three and a half years ago.

40:55We are now three and a half years further on, yet we kind of knew coming into this tournament that Roberto Martinez was not going to make that call. He just did not have the announce about it. It wasn't a difficult call six months ago, three months ago, three weeks ago, three days ago, that Portugal are unlikely to win the World Cup with a 41-year-old up front. That's not a controversial statement. Portugal were not going to win the World Cup with a guy in his 40s up front. Roberto Martinez has facilitated this. He's allowed it because the qualifiers against the Liechtensteins and the Latvias and the Moldovas and whoever the hell Portugal play, and they rack up five, six and seven goals against these teams and they're padding their stats.

41:47The big question was going to be, when you get to the World Cup on this stage against the better quality teams, can you in reality be successful with a player in his 40s as good as he has been? and he has been brilliant. I don't think you'll get anybody arguing that. But it's a young man's game. It's a game of pace. It's a game of getting in behind. It's a game of stretching teams and he can't do that anymore. Yes, he'll score goals in Saudi Arabia that nobody really gives a stuff about and he'll score them in these qualifiers. But that's not what Portugal want. They want it on the big stage in the field.

42:25The question is, who's responsible for that? I don't think we should blame Cristiano Ronaldo. he didn't ask for anything I mean it doesn't seem that last time when he went out he was frustrated but like any striker in the world this is all at Martinez's yeah yeah do make your own choices you know decide for that and the player will have to accept that and I'm pretty sure Cristiano Ronaldo will have accepted that you don't score you're not influencing off the game so you get out but he didn't do it and because maybe he was scared of him but I don't think Cristiano Ronaldo is responsible for that.

43:01When he goes into press conference, Werther Martinez, I'm almost sure the Portuguese press have to be saying, why did you leave the goal scorer from the Croatia game on the bench, scratching his backside? Why did you do that? What's the reason? Why didn't you try and win the game? Were you playing for extra time? They'll be asking those questions. But he's going to say, like he always said, I believe that Cristiano Ronaldo will score a goal. And it's what he said last time. So explain to me this. Is it all... Does Martinez take all the blame for playing Ronaldo? Bruno Fernandes was anonymous. Ronaldo's not.

43:37We're picking on Ronaldo and Martinez. No, I'm not picking on Ronaldo. I'm picking on Martinez. But others still have to step up, don't they? I understand what you're saying. They haven't got a target. But still, there was nothing from the Premier League player of the year. Vitinha, the best player in the world in that position. Is it all a knock-on effect? Maybe because there's certain cogs in the wheel that don't make themselves attractive to those players playing better. I don't know, maybe that's just an excuse. And I'm not blaming Ronaldo. Listen, the desire of that guy to turn out for his country is incredible.

44:09I mean, there's a couple of hundred caps. I'm blaming the manager. And I'm blaming the manager for not getting the best out of the other players. They also lost Nuno Mendes to injury, which we all well know is arguably the best left back in world football at the moment. But this is a huge disappointment for a supremely talented Belgian side. But this is a discussion I almost knew we were going to have. We almost knew we were going to have this discussion about the talent not quite performing and about the manager not making a big decision on Portugal's arguably greatest ever star player in a major tournament.

44:50We knew we were going to have this discussion all during the year. Going back to what you said about Bruno Fernandes, Bruno Fernandes can be good if he has different options and different choices. And he didn't have that. If your only one choice is to give the ball to everybody at front in their feet, you have only one choice. It didn't happen this season. It was good. Somebody was asking the ball in his feet, the other one was going in the space. So he gives you two options. And when you have the talent of Bruno Fernandes, you pick the best one. That's what makes a difference. and the same, and you were eluding it before, for Neves and for Vitinha, it's the same.

45:24When you have Dembélé, Bacola, Garaxchelia and Due, you have different choices. And because of your talent, you can pick the best one. That's what makes you different from the others. But if you have only one option, one choice, from the three at front, it's a problem. Sorry, let's be honest. Rafael Leal is a waste of time as well, isn't he? He's a waste of time. The talent he's got and the pace he's got to be on the fringes of Milan games, on the fringes of Portugal games and spending a lot of time actually on the bench with his talent, his pace and his power. It tells you all you need to know about his mentality.

46:02A moment ago, Craig is talking about this game and Freudian slip says the supremely talented Belgium side. This is exactly the conversation. Is that what I said? Yeah, but this is the exact same conversation we are having about Roberto Martinez with a supremely talented Belgium side. That's what I meant. Yeah, there you go. It's the only one who knows. It's the only one who listens to the league. But to your question, Dan, while, yes, you could offer that midfield the excuse with Ronaldo and not having the options to play in some of the ways that they play with their respective club teams, you don't get a tune out of that midfield, the manager has to take some responsibility.

46:39I fully agree because we, as much as, again, we're offering some excuse for this midfield, We're having this exact same conversation a few years ago with Roberto Martinez in Belgium. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Good stuff. Portugal out. Spain, of course, looking to the European Championship and World Cup double. They are through to the quarterfinals.

47:02Kasey Keller:Thanks to Dan and the boys. And there you have it. Confirmation. Belgium are the ones that have booked their spot in the quarterfinals and will go up against España. What a battle that will be. Time for our final break of the day, but Argentina will be in action tomorrow. They go up against Egypt. We'll give you predictions for that next.

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48:01Kasey Keller:Pitch Preview is brought to you by DraftKings Sports. Right, so the world champions will be back in action tomorrow with Leo Messi and Argentina going up against Mo Salah and Egypt. A true battle of the titans. That kickoff at midday Eastern time. Who will come out on top? And of course, Argentina looking to make it to another final. And Lionel Messi locked in quite the race for the golden boot. Look at that. He's level on goals with the likes of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe with Harry Kane. Just one goal behind those. Right, let's get some predictions now, starting, of course, with that golden boot race.

48:41Kasey Keller:Lionel Messi, do we have him to be an anytime goal scorer tomorrow, or are we seeing a hat trick for the big man? No, we're betting here, right? Yes. So if I bet$10, I'll only make$7 anytime goal scorer. It's not that positive of a prop bet. This is$1 ,600 plus$1 ,600. If I put$10, I am coming up with$160 here. I am betting on the hat trick. is just better value. And Messi is Messi and he's looking to do Messi things. JJ, I know you're more responsible with your money because you said you have five kids, so you have to be. What are you going for? Hat trick? It's not about the kids. It's the German in me.

49:14It's the German in me. We keep our money. We keep our money. I will go that he scores, but... You will go that he scores. Yeah, he scores, yeah.

49:23Kasey Keller:He's scoring in regular time or are we seeing an extra time, maybe? Against CJ? No extra time. No extra time. 90 minutes. You know what? I'm a bit conservative again with my money. Not really. but I'm going to go with him definitely scoring the hat trick. Not sure, not sure. All right, next one now. Pretty much a simple prediction. Argentina, Egypt. Who's going to be happier at the end? Mo Salah or Leo Messi? Herc? Argentina. And the odds will tell you that they're massive favorites in this game. Minus 650, that is insane. They are heavy favorites in this one, JJ, but Cabo Vergi showed us that they can push Argentina and maybe expose some weaknesses.

50:00Kasey Keller:So what do you think? Yeah, but I still think that Argentina after that game they learned from it and I think they would take this complete serious too. I don't say not that they don't take the Capriere serious, but they learned from that game and I think, yeah, I vote Argentina. You're going for Argentina indeed. And you know what? I'm going for Argentina as well. I mean, it's been a great run for Mo Salah and Egypt, but alas, the world champions definitely have what it takes to get over there. All right, Hercules Gomez, I know you're sad. I am. I know you're sad. I've noticed your demeanor. What are you going to do to drown your sorrows?

50:33Kasey Keller:What's your favorite way? My favorite way? Yeah. Work. Just work? Work. You want to talk about the loss for the U.S. more? No, no, no. The U.S. is gone. There's still other teams in this tournament. Oh. My job doesn't stop here. You want to put it back? We'll put what back? Article 27 again? Are we doing Article 27? Oh, not the Article 27. All right. Well, we're going to go and buy Hercules some drinks because he's feeling sad. JJ's buying. Nueva York. But thank you so much for tuning in to ESPN FC. We will see you all again tomorrow.

51:12Kasey Keller:All right, welcome into Extra Time, everybody. I nearly broke a leg running to this side of the set, but we made it. Heels are just not for me, man. Just not for me. Just like today was not for the USA. Herc. I really feel the sad energy from you. I've never seen you this down. I am down because what we love to do is talk about our CONCACAF teams and all three have been eliminated. Yep, yep. That is exactly how I felt waking up after Mexico lost as well. But anyways, we move on. We move on. Let's cheer up because we got Juergen with us. All right, first question now coming in. Which host country did the best and which one has the brightest future?

51:52Kasey Keller:Juergen, what do you think? Well, they all left at the same time. Back to back to back, guys. And I'm sure that, you know, our neighbors in Mexico, they were really, really sad because they had big, big dreams. They have the constant discussion about their quinto partito. Now they got an extra game with the round of 32. So we thought we got to get them further. So they are pretty down, even if I think they played a decent tournament. Canada was fighting but reached their limits in how they did it. I still think that the U.S. performance from the start and especially with the Paraguay game was something special.

52:38Unfortunately, they couldn't keep it. They couldn't keep it on that level and they set the bar too high for themselves. I would not prefer one over the other. It's sad to see the host nations now not going in the next rounds because you need the home fans, you know, to carry a tournament. It's really, really important, but that's not the case anymore. Now, we've got to cheer, you know, for other teams and hope that they have a fantastic time in those upcoming games. And, I mean, we definitely will see fantastic matches. There's no doubt about it. Yeah.

53:10Kasey Keller:What do you think, Herc? Mexico played the best. Out and off the field, they were the best. The host country, Mexico, showcased what they are to the rest of the world. And on the field, they didn't receive a goal until England in that round of 16 match. and they took them to the brink. I thought it was one of the most auxiliary matches of this tournament. They did the best. In terms of who has the best future or the brightest future, I think it's the U.S. pool. I look at the young players coming through who haven't even debuted with the U.S. men's national team. You know, Hall down at Red Bull.

53:39Mehmedy down at Red Bull. Xavier Gosso at RSL. Matisse Albert at Dortmund. I can keep going on and on and on. They have this massive player pool that's not even been tested at the first division level yet. or excuse me, at the national team senior level yet. So I would say that's the deepest or brightest future.

53:56Kasey Keller:JJ, Mexico, USA or Canada? You know, if I go back and watch all three countries, I think all of them made process going forward. But right now, if I look at, yeah, there's Mexico, but I like even Canada. You know, Canada, if you look at the last couple of years till now, they made huge steps forward and nobody looks at them anymore as a small, not even a soccer country, even more a hockey country. So I would say they made a real big step forward. Yes, but I think we can be proud that all three, all three have the potential to go good forward and build on that what they had shown. And we will see over the next couple of years who's bringing it.

54:42Kasey Keller:All right, next question. What advice would you have for Christian Pulisic? Why is he always injured for AC Milan and the U.S. men's national team? Juergen, any advice for him? I wish I would be a doctor. No, I mean, no. Obviously, we all feel sorry for Christian when he picks up, you know, these knocks and these small injuries. And he has then trouble to pick up a rhythm, to be consistent. and it's something that is part of his path, you know, and every time I hear that he got a minor injury again, it's like it hurts me personally. And so we wish him, we wish him just that, you know, he stabilizes that topic.

55:31Obviously now with the hit that he got today, we hope all hope that it's nothing serious, that it's going away as quickly as possible. but it is something that is concerning and I know it's in the back of his mind too and hopefully you know he can get rid of all these knocks there and and and is consistently on the field the entire season through yeah I mean after the year he's had Herc this was the last thing you want to see it's not just this year that's been his MO since Dortmund Chelsea figuring his body out I don't know what advice one could give him I thought he got it under control. When he got to AC Milan, he was flourishing.

56:10For two and a half years, he was the best player in Serie A. Statistically, at least, nobody could take that away from him. And then his body broke down. He didn't come to Gold Cup with the U.S. Men's National Team. There was some sort of hip flexor, chronic injury there, and he just never got himself right. And in this World Cup, was really only healthy for maybe about three halves, if that. He definitely needs to get his body right.

56:31Kasey Keller:JJ, some advice? No, there's no advice. For him, I think one of the things is what not plays in his favour is his style of play, how he plays, right? Taking players on and he gets hit a lot. So, and that's something too, of course, you know, we all, we've been there, we played, we know how it is, especially if you play a lot of games and, you know, and for him is it too, he plays a lot of games. And since he's a young guy or young boy, he, till now, he played almost every game. He's fit. He's on the pitch. So, but yeah, I can only hope for him that he stays healthy because he's he's needed for this country on his best time or best level all right next question and it's about american pundits i wonder if they're referring to you guys we will see jürgen were american pundits too positive about the u.s men's national team's chances to beat belgium no i i think you know we all are you know positive thinking and we all keep our fingers crossed for uh for this u.s team and when you host a world cup you know you have high hopes.

57:34I mean you want the team to do so well so much. Maybe you kind of over expect certain things but I think it's logical. It's logical. You keep your fingers crossed for them. You want them to go far. You want them to excite the crowd, excite the fans. You want obviously push soccer even further and make it even more popular. It's already extremely popular in the country anyway. So I think that's natural. I think it's better that that or this way that we make it far more positive and then maybe get a disappointment like we got tonight. We got a big disappointment, obviously, tonight. We swallow it.

58:14But then I rather have it. We are kind of in a positive general attitude than with negativity.

58:23Kasey Keller:Mark, why were you so positive, man? Yeah, that's how I would be defined as the positive US Miss National. I told you Belgium. Belgium, great chocolate, great waffles, chip on their shoulders. They were angry, had a point to prove. I got laughed at. Nobody laughed at you. Internally. Shaq and I both said, yeah, they can lose to Belgium. That's how good they are individually. They can definitely lose to Belgium. And then JJ accused you guys of waffling of been on the fence. We were accused. Waffling, what intended. Be careful who you listen to. And that's the problem in this country. It's fine to have a laugh.

58:55It's fine to jump on the bandwagon for the goodwill. Our own Alejandro Moreno was dressed up in his, you know, America, America, baby, America. And that's good. And that's fine. But there are people on other networks, on other places who are actually trying to sell you the idea that the U.S. men's national team is there. To go all the way. That it's ready. In a tournament of almost 100 years where only eight countries have ever won. And the last one to break that barrier to get there was Spain. They were twice European champions. and then sandwiched in between that World Cup. A ridiculous generation of world-class footballers.

59:29The U.S. isn't there yet. And there's nothing wrong in saying it. It doesn't make you less American. And that's the problem with some of these people. They think you're less American when you criticize the U.S. men's national team.

59:38Kasey Keller:JJ, you've been having a blast watching all the punditry around here. Yeah. No, I have. He says with a sigh smile. Yeah. For me, I've been here. I came here to play for this country in 2010. And I always said that used to growing up in Germany, I know that there's a lot of criticism when you don't play good. And it's nothing personal. And I felt like always in the US that if you criticize something, it is not personal. It's criticizing about the game to develop and get the game better. So every time you have, and you see that over the years now, the biggest step forward are the fans because they have learned, they understand it and they understand what is told them.

1:00:21So they're not just listening and believing everything. So, and I think that is the most important, that you break down the games, that you talk about it, what you see in, if it's good or bad, to talk about it because that helps the country to grow in the game. So, and I think that's what we need. We are still growing here in this country with football, so, or soccer. And that's why I think it's, you know, it's don't take it with offense that somebody means it personal when we talk about the game or in general people talk about the game in criticizing you because at the end it's just what everybody's seen who watched the game.

1:00:57Kasey Keller:Criticism helps. Constructive criticism. All right, next question. How much should Roberto Martinez get stick for not doing what Rudy Garcia did by dropping De Bruyne and Doku? Big stars holding back the team. Why didn't Martinez? I suppose he's talking about the fact, Juergen, that Roberto Martinez chose to stick with Cristiano Ronaldo. Well, because Roberto has a special relationship with Ronaldo and Ronaldo is a very, very special player that can decide still today at the age of 40 or 41 a game in a split second. And he believed in him. He gave them a trust. He didn't have the opportunities to score.

1:01:35There were no really big chances for him to benefit from. and obviously he also Roberto is a straightforward person he lives with that criticism now saying that he should have brought in other people for Ronaldo or whatever he already stepped down because he said I did not deliver the title to Portugal and took his consequences and that is something that I really admire it is difficult to tell a player at the end of his career when the moment is has come to step down to stop and you can do it during a competition like now in a World Cup or you do it before maybe three or six months before it in a conversation with him or maybe you wait even after the World Cup and and have a sit down with that player and say you know what it's better maybe to to hang up the boots you know I mean I look at the German side where the whole discussion was with Manuel Neuer but there was no better goalkeeper in Germany at the moment than Manuel Neuer and that's why he came to the World Cup and tried to do his best.

1:02:39He did his best but the team was not good enough to go far in the tournament and the critics now obviously end up then with the manager, with the coach and he's then basically responsible for the situation. Mark? You know because their player pool is so expansive and they got so many big names there you really need a coach with personality. There was a coach in Germany who sat that one guy with his name, Oliver Kahn, sat him for his World Cup and said, you're going to be the number two here. They need a coach like that. They need somebody who's willing to make those tough decisions. Stand on their decisions.

1:03:11Yeah, stand on their decisions. You know who I'm talking about? I think I watched him right now.

1:03:16Kasey Keller:Yeah, I think he was there. We need more Juergens in this world. No, but Juergen is right. Let's be honest. Cristiano Ronaldo did so much for this country, right? And yes, we all know it's not the easy, especially I know, and you've been you've been a striker working with strikers it's it's not easy because they're they're they have their mind more on scoring goals and being there and in even if they're not in the game you try always in martinez said that right that i believe still that he can do it you know so best goal scorer he he would do it because it's proven if you look at how many goals this guy scored in in in the world in his whole career is ridiculous so clearly you can say was it better maybe you bring another guy in who scored and brought you to this position where you are right now with Ramos.

1:04:02But it's difficult, you know. So I think, like Juergen said, the coach, Martinez, he trusted. It went wrong. And he was the first one to put his hands up and said, you know what, I'm stepping away. Yeah, it seems like he made a mistake in the timing of it. It looked like he used all five subs and his idea was to use the six sub, which are allowed in overtime, to bring in Gonzalo Ramos to play hero. To see if Cristiano can give you that last breath in that World Cup stage. And it didn't happen. And ultimately, Roberto Martinez is going to be judged by that.

1:04:34Kasey Keller:Yep, and he has been. Final question now. This is for JJ. JJ, how underrated is Belgium's manager? His tactics have been spot on in the knockouts. Any chance for Belgium against Spain? When you see how they played today, how he set them up, it was perfect. from the moment this game started they were in complete control of the game I think I would like to be in the locker room to see what he said because of the whole situation you know how he motivated them so now against Spain yeah he will find a different way I think Doku maybe plays a different role in that game but it will be difficult but it's interesting always to see what coaches do and how they set up against teams and yeah today he definitely won that game Jürgen, final word on this.

1:05:23Kasey Keller:Rudy Garcia, a bit underrated. Well, I mean, obviously, we are watching global football all year long, you know. And so Rudy Garcia is a big name for a coach. I mean, he has so much experience. You know, he has done so many things in the game. So for me, it's not a surprise, you know, the way he coached it today. He's very, very smart to adjust to different games, different opponents right away. and that's why he will give also Spain a lot, a lot of problems. And I don't see them as an underdog going into this game because they take a lot of confidence out of their game today with a 4-1 win over the U.S.

1:06:04And they're going to give them a real fight. So I would not say it's going to be an easy game for Spain at all.

1:06:10Kasey Keller:It won't be an easy game, but it'll be an enticing one. All right, Juergen, JJ, Herc, thank you so much for answering all the questions. Thanks to everyone for sending them in. Remember, you can catch ESPN FC on every single day of the week on ESPN+.

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