GOLD CUP Semifinals: What USMNT can expect from Guatemala and which players are stepping up for Pochettino

0:00The one question I get most after all that football memory making we experienced across America this summer is, how do I keep the magic going? I'd start by saying, articulate what you love the most and then build on it. First step, find the team that will most probably break your heart and then add all the supporting necessities to build your weekend tradition. The key to so many of mine, it's Walmart, the place that has it all, the snacks, the coffee, the pies. You can also get the TV at Walmart, the hoodie to wear on your couch. Get the couch if you need it and wait, it gets better. Because their express delivery can get it right to your door so you're all set for kickoff.

0:40Whatever your matchday needs are, you can find them at walmart.com slash soccer. Delivery timing varies by order size, traffic, weather and demand. Subject to availability, fees and terms apply. You're listening to the Men in Blazers Media Network. Suboptimal Radio.

1:05We're doing this. Our US men's national team, G-Leaguers, keep on keeping on the Gold Cup. It's all about surviving events. It's also about prison rules, dark arts, and occasional fleeting moments of football. And the United States lived it all in that quarterfinal. Epic 4-3. Penalty shoes helped win over a weakened, but still quite feisty Costa Rica. A 2-2 draw in which Max Austin had a hand in, well, pretty much every single goal. And I'm not going to lie, it felt so bloody good to see us plummet towards the semifinal in St. Louis Wednesday night against 106th of the world, Guatemala. Could there be an eighth USA-Mexico Gold Cup final of all time?

1:49Or could we have Guatemala-Honduras, Field of Dreams? Who knows? Well, only one man. from ESPN and the mighty Vamos on the Men in Blazers media network. It's incredible to welcome back my friend, a gent, whose analysis is always the one I find most fascinating to listen to and learn so bloody much from. Oh, it's Mr. Hercules Gumes. Raj, my man. Amigo, como estas? How you doing? I'm doing gorgeous, thank you. Just incredible to see you. Is this dripping or tripping what I'm wearing, Herc? We were talking about this before we went on air. That is absolutely dripping. You said you managed to buy like a bunch on eBay.

2:22Do you know how much those would be worth? Now, like, it's a whole culture. The chat's got to let us know if they think it's the 94 or 90, because we're having a bit of a discussion about this. I'm pretty sure it's 90 just by the state of the polyester. It was still an era in which they didn't know about letting the players, you know, breathe. Does it smell more miola? This smells of mullet. This is Balboas. There's no doubt. This is 100 % prime American mustache. Herc, let's dive into the present and not the past. Big picture. Sunday night, we beat Costa Rica on a quite bombastic penalty shootout.

2:57Look, Costa Rica are not all that. We'll break down the different elements of the game in a moment. But can we just talk about the feelings that we all as fans shared in the incredible moment the game was over, the exhilaration, the relief, the Matt Freeze inflected joy. When that smoke cleared, I realized that feeling of happiness. It's been so bloody long since we experienced as American fans that kind of joy. arguably going back to World Cup 2022, felt so good to feel alive again. I didn't expect much out of this U.S. men's national team in this game. You mentioned Costa Rica, maybe not the strongest team, but that's a difficult game.

3:35That's a trap game and a half. You asked me before what I thought the scoreline was going to be, who I thought would advance. I thought it'd be a 0-0, 1-1, and Costa Rica would advance on penalty kicks. I told you that. And here Costa Rica was maybe two inches to the left, and it's a Martinez golazo at the end. And we're having a different discussion, even though the U.S. men's national team, albeit some defensive errors and we'll get into it, they actually played very well. I thought it was their best showing at this Gold Cup. You mentioned that they were G-leaguers. Fair. They're going to make mistakes.

4:07But they got to show you something. And in this game, there were players who showed us something. And also Pochettino who showed us something. So while it's important to note the circumstances of how they advance, they advance. And I think for every American fan, that's an important thing to feeling that pride again. Like, hey, we have something to play for. This is listening to the CONCACAF Gold Cup of Trap Games, as we will discuss. But it felt so bloody good. Really, I read a phrase. I was reading an article today about what Oasis in England felt like in the late 1990s, how culture felt like it was sparking.

4:41And there was a quote that it felt like there was the brightness of things happening. And that's what it felt like in that final whistle. It's what we dreamed of with this squad, this young raw squad. We wanted to see, I think Pochettino wanted to see her. Are you telling me Poch and Pulisic are breaking up? Is that what you're telling me? And then they're going to get back together again like Nolan Liam. They're going to get back on tour together. Get it back. Poch is definitely on guitar, right? Champagne, Supernova. And Pulisic's just banging the tambourine and singing into the microphone. It's got to be what he's doing.

5:13If he's singing into anything, it's definitely the microphone. God, the brightness of things happening. And that's what we want on our men's football side, the brightness, the sense of possibility, the spark again. So let's start where we need to start. Can we praise Matt Freeze? What a performance. Three big saves in the shoe out. He said post-game, penalties are my thing. I love that. It could have only been more American if he said penalties are my jam. But let's start there because his statement was honest, but it's also it could be seen as a tell. On one hand, this could be the moment in which we start to build the mythology.

5:48Matt Fries, a.k.a. Harvard Donnarumma, earned the starting spot for this World Cup in that Costa Rica game. But that phrase, Hurt, penalties are my thing. Is the other part of the job, you know, the consistent goalkeeping, is that his thing too? Or do we know enough about his ability to do that at the international level to even answer the question? We don't know enough. The body of work isn't there yet. Yeah, and that's not a bad thing. I think you need to earn that. And his mistake against Haiti isn't a bad thing. I actually like seeing mistakes because I want to see how players react. That tells me more about a player than the actual mistake.

6:21It's how you react from those mistakes. This is a big boy performance from Matt Friess. There's maybe another player too that he wasn't at fault. There's the Max Arfsten and Luka De La Torre second goal involvement where he maybe wants to give up that rebound in a different place, but you can't pin that on Matt Friess. It was a me-bound. It's what they call it in the WNBA. I'm going to keep that one in the docket there. It's one that he's going to want back. But when you get into the penalty kicks, there was no more confident player in those penalty kicks than Matt Fries and his counterpart, by the way.

6:51It wasn't Siqueta who was the backup Costa Rican goalkeeper. It was a legend of the game in Keylor Navas, a three-time Champions League winner, has an argument, a legit argument for the best player in CONCACAF's history, who was his counterpart, and he outshined Keylor Navas. And that's saying something, Raj. To see a confident Matt Fries, And Matt Fries with no doubts, with no imposter syndrome. It's going to be fascinating watching him for the rest of the tournament. There's no doubt he can build that narrative now. It's in his hands. I do want to give a quick hat tip, but he deserves it to Matt Turner.

7:25Give him some love. It can't be easy being Matt Turner, sitting on the bench, crying out for playing time, getting that much playing time. But when Diego Luna scored the goal, It was just a measure of the man to see who stormed off the bench first, his face beaming with utter joy. Great guy, great team player. Huge respect to Matt Turner. It's not easy. And you could only imagine when Matt Turner's thinking when this game goes into penalty kick shootouts where he's like, Hey, this is what I'm good at. This is who I am. This is how I've made my bread and butter throughout my career. And most notably known in my debut with the U.S.

8:00men's national team is I was this guy in penalty kicks. and he's got to see Matt Fries shine there. It's not an easy thing for any player, but like any good teammate, he was there for his team. So shout out to Matt Turner. By the way, is there anything more American than Matt Fries doing like a thesis, his university thesis at Harvard on stopping penalty kicks? Like that to me is the most American thing about his performance. It's like he was ready for it because he studied it. Harvard Matt Fries. I love it. I love it. The most American thing was when he screamed at Keylor Navas when he did that third save.

8:31How about them apples? You earn the right to do that, baby. I love you, Harvard Donnarumma. Quick question about the defensive side of things. Very quick. One from the Men in Blazers' new Discord channel from at Rainbow Yoda, who wrote in, Herc Timreen, age 37. Is he really going to be our starting center back in the World Cup? It means we either have to sit deep or we're going to have young speedsters devour us. I don't see anybody taking his spot right now. World Cup Qatar 2022 ended, and I thought immediately his time was done. It's time to usher in the next generation. I always had Chris Richards, even though he wasn't there in Qatar, as a starter, as being the guy that's CB1.

9:13Who's going to be CB2? And yet nobody wants to take it away from Tim Rehm, or maybe nobody is capable from taking it away from Tim Rehm. But he is so important. Leadership is a given. He's composed in the way he speaks. The players seem to look up to him. But there's nobody that you want on the ball building out of the back if you're a U.S. Men's National Team fan or pundit than Tim Ream. Now, how do you disguise Tim Ream in what could be a defensive liability? Not that he's not a good defender, but age catches up to us all is you can't allow him to be isolated 1v1. Well, there might be a situation where Pochettino has two defensive midfielders with more defensive responsibilities instead of two-way possibilities sitting in front of Tim Ream.

9:58And the group draw is going to, I think, determine a lot of Tim Ream's playing on this national team. If you think you're going to be constantly tested defensively by players of a certain stature or certain cloth that can stretch you, maybe Tim Ream's not your guy. But if you think you're going to have a little bit more of that lion's share of the ball or need to organize a bit more, Tim Ream's your guy. I don't see anybody right now taking his place. Raj, I can't for the life of me say this guy deserves an opportunity over Tim Ream. And that may be a scary thing. Tim Ream's going to retire whenever he wants.

10:33And I think we'll be after the 2034 World Cup. But before we go any further, Herko, announcement for anyone watching or listening out there. We are doing live shows right here in New York City to celebrate the semifinals of the Club World Cup. It's going to be quite beautiful. It's going down actually at the Michelob Ultra Pitside Club, which is pretty spectacular. I was just there yesterday. It's in Midtown Manhattan. We're going to do live shows Tuesday, Wednesday, before, during and immediately after those semifinals with you. asking Rory Smith, the magical bard of Harrogate, who's coming over to join us for a series of these special broadcasts.

11:13He'll be watching both of those games, hopefully with you, at the Ultra Pitchside Club. July 8th to 13th, that's open, but we'll be there for both of the semifinals. We'll do a live show the night before the final. Details and RSVP link are in the description of this pod and YouTube. Come and be with us. It's going to be quite special. But Herc, let's talk about the big player of the night. It's Malik Tillman. Again, hot Tillman summer continues. GFOP Gil Rutledge wrote me a raven, which he entitled Tillmania. And I love that term because I do think that's what we're living. On Sunday, Tillman was really the heartbeat of the team.

11:52He won a penalty, missed the penalty, but was big enough to raise his game, provide I think roughly 87 % of our forward motion, and then kept his nerve from returning to that penalty spot at the end during the shootout. Yesterday morning, Fabrizio Romano announced Malik's rise in Europe continues. $40 million transfer to Bayer Leverkusen has been agreed. Here we go. But Herc, here's a question. Has he only looked good in this tournament, Malik Tillman, because the quality of opponent is not so much? Is it, I guess I'm asking, akin to me declaring myself to be a really good UFC fighter if I start to organize rumbles between me and a handful of two-year-olds.

12:33Well, those two-year-olds are in trouble because there's a belt on the line. That's all I got to say there. Yeah, my ground game's not so good, though. But what I'm going with that is you can only prove yourself in front of who you have to prove yourself. So it's like saying, well, we're Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey only good because they played against CONCACAF opposition. What's who you have to prove yourself against? And these guys not only proved it against CONCACAF oppositions, but when they got to World Cup, they were like, hey, England, Ghana, you know, Portugal, like these teams, Mexico, I'm going to show you that I'm also good enough.

13:02So take it with a grain of salt of who he's playing against. But if we look at his club level, if we look at his club form, his rise, my God, Rangers goes there and kills it. Two years at PSV, easily one of their best players. Now he's got a 40 million euro plus transfer fee to Bayern Leverkusen, which is a German giant. And he's now finally putting together with the national team, with a coach who has confidence in him. If there's a coach during Malik Tillman's tenure with the national team who has shown to have confidence in him, it's Mauricio Pochettino. I hope people don't confuse Malik Tillman for Florian Wurz.

13:42They don't think he's the replacement to Florian Wurz at Bayer Leverkusen. That's going to be a mistake. And number two, coming from a United fan, I'm hoping Eric Ten Hag doesn't ruin him. But this man has shown that he rises to the occasion at the club level. So I'm hoping he's tied it together and he is who we thought he was. He is who he thought he was, the player of our dreams, the player of Pochettino's dreams. Poch wanted players to rise up, to show themselves in this window. So that when that squad, the full strength squad, please God, Avenger assembles in the next international window, he can shake it up.

14:17He can try and, you know, scrape away the complacency by saying there's new starters in town. There's new starters. So the question for you is in that scenario, if he is, you know, like every manager has them, their player. I remember Kyle Beckham used to say, my God, Jürgen Klinsmann, choose me. I'm like Jürgen's player. You know, you were a Bob Bradley player at the end of the day. Who does he replace? Gio Reyna. And I think Gio Reyna has already been replaced in Maris Pochino's eyes. Think about who can realistically come in. out of this Gold Cup camp and say, hey, next camp with the A-team, I could slide into that 11.

14:54It's probably Malik Tillman and maybe the goalkeeper position because that door is wide open. But field players, Malik Tillman is the only player right now that could realistically slide into that 11. And you would say, yeah, I could actually see that because who else do you have in that 10 position? Where's Giovanni Reina? There are milk cartons with his face on it. I'm still looking for Gio Reina. So unless Gio Reina makes a move and gets on the good graces of Marisa Pochettino, comes in and proves himself, this is de facto Malik Tillman's position to lose. It really is. God bless you, Gio Reyna.

15:27May you honestly rise again. I can't imagine mentally what he's going through right now. But big picture, looking at that game on Sunday, you've already said it, and I do want to acknowledge this, the quality of the performance. Where are you on that? Because as you said, if that Martinez, just that instinctive snapshot in the, what was it, 85th minute? If it had been like a centimeter to the left and not hit the post, we'd be here mourning a wasted summer. We'd be sitting here utterly stunned. When you look at the quality of our performance, what we were able to do, what Costa Rica were able to do to us.

16:07Can you sum it up for us before we dive into the different elements? There's just margins in this game, Raj, that are so fine, just so small that define who you are and define the outcomes. There's a saying in Spanish, my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bicycle.

16:40It's the U.S. Men's National Team who are probably going through to a semifinal. Like, the margins are so thin. And it's the same thing here. The last time I recall an undermanned U.S. Men's National Team winning this competition was the C-Team, where Matthew Hoppe was a starter up top, and Jesse Sardes against Mexico's A-Team. Tata Martino, the downfall of Tata Martino, the beginning of that dark age process for the Mexican National Team, in Las Vegas, Nevada, with a Miles Robinson goal. So the margins are so small. And Costa Rica, such a difficult team to play against. I repeat, difficult team.

17:16And people will never understand how complex. And they don't want to hear it because it's CONCACAF. But it's complex. The refereeing, the opponents, the styles, the travel, the humidity, all these things are very complex. But you advanced. And you advanced, I think, dominating the game in a way that you've not done in Mauricio Pochettino's tenure. So now it gives you hope. And now you have something to cling on to, but now you have to keep it going because the opponent's not going to be easy. By the way, Clint Dempsey, in our post-match YouTube Live that we did on The Deuce, he said something similar to you.

17:53He said, this team in the locker room, he said, knowing they'd taken a punch and risen up nonetheless stronger, he said they'll feel a surging optimism. This was his quote. He said, we learn who's got that metal to emerge when your back is against the wall And when you come out of these moments, it builds chemistry as a team. Everyone's going to be fighting more, understanding they're just two games away from mission accomplished. You need these type of moments. Do you agree? Absolutely. What an opportunity. What a moment to galvanize each other and to take on a mentality of us versus the world.

18:29Oh, we're the seed team. Oh, we're the guys who aren't good enough. But we're the guys who want to be here. And this is the coach who trusts in us to be here. So we're not good enough to win this competition, but we're 90 minutes away from going to a final that nobody thinks we could even get to or win. And what? And in that final, if we get to it, we're going to play against Honduras, who was embarrassed by Canada in the first game 5-0 or one of the worst Mexican teams that we've seen in our lifetime. And you're realistically saying we've got no opportunity. This is an opportunity for them to say the hell with that.

19:05It's us versus everybody. And if they can do that, knowing the fan base, any fan base, they're going to get behind you. If you can prove to the fan base that you're worth getting behind, the fan base is going to get behind you. At the end of the day, it's a trophy. It's what we need. We need that reconnection. We need that belief to kindle again.

19:28The one question I get most after all that football memory making we experienced across America this summer is, how do I keep the magic going? I'd start by saying articulate what you love the most and then build on it. First step, find the team that will most probably break your heart and then add all the supporting necessities to build your weekend tradition. The key to so many of mine is Walmart. The place that has it all. The snacks, the coffee, the pies. But you can also get the TV at Walmart. The hoodie to wear on your couch. Get the couch if you need it and wait. it gets better because their express delivery can get it right to your door.

20:07So you're all set for kickoff. Whatever your match day needs are, you can find them at walmart.com slash soccer. Delivery timing varies by order size, traffic, weather and demand. Subject to availability, fees and terms apply.

20:23I want to shout out a couple of big moments, a couple of big players stepping up. Damien Downs, you know, we joked after the whistle that the Germans always so massively clinical at the penalties. Alex Freeman's penalty, I think was a massive moment by a very, very cool, cool kid. Sebastian Berhalter, I ate for him. He just baggioed that penalty into the Minneapolis night. Costa Rica felt ascendant, upstepped a 20-year-old with not a huge amount of experience at the international level. All that pressure on his shoulders could have easily, the penalty situation could really have spiraled away from us and he coolly, quite calmly slapped it.

21:04It was an extraordinary finish, an extraordinary moment of chill by a young gent with a real potential growth curve. I mean, you were a striker. You understood the art of penalties. That was a remarkable human moment. It's such a mental challenge. It's you versus a goalkeeper. And many times you could say, well, how do you miss a penalty kick? How do you miss something that the probabilities are in your favor against the goalkeeper. But then you're there in the moment under the lights and you hear the fan base. You see the goalkeeper moving. You start second guessing yourself. It's a mental struggle.

21:44And the toughness you have to have to stay composed and not feel those jitters, not feel like your knees are gum, to put it away, it's not easy. and that goes on both sides, the goalkeepers as well. But to be able to do that, even if you miss, to be able to go up there and say, I want to shoot it because the players who miss are the ones who have the stones to shoot, to say, I want to shoot. I want to take this moment. And I repeat, Sebastian Berhalter missed that and it was a moment where they cut to his family, where they would have cut to his family if they made it anyways. So I don't put that blame on the World Feed or the television network.

22:19It was a moment that they saw that his family was there and that they wanted to have a reaction. And most likely it would have been a good reaction, but it wasn't. For him to take that penalty kick and miss it, I guarantee you next game, he's playing even harder. Next game, it's even more tunnel vision for him of what he wants to do and how he wants to achieve it. This is a learning moment for the U.S. players, for the Costa Ricans. It's not easy, but the ones who can overcome those nerves, I mean, the growth from this is going to be incredible. Well, Damien Downs, the next game he plays, after surviving something like that, the confidence level is going to be on another type of platform.

22:58The same thing for Freeman. I think these are growing moments for this team. In general, in this competition, Costa Rica is one of the youngest teams in this competition. The player who missed, he's going to be thinking... 19. Yeah. He's going to be thinking, I take this back to my club team in England. Hopefully, I can make a first-team appearance there, but I'm going to use this to learn from it. But anyway, Sebastian Berhalter is that kind of player who probably out yesterday practicing 100, 200 penalties so that it will never, ever happen again. He's just that. I mean, something about him, it does actually remind me of Michael Bradley, that kind of ferocity.