USMNT roster preview and predictions | USMNT Weekly

Ryan Bailey (0:20)

Welcome to the Total Soccer Show USMNT Weekly. It's our regular parade to all things Men's National Team. On this episode, we're looking at the roster for the upcoming international break to see which players will make the cup, who will be welcomed into the fold for the first time in this cycle, who might be stepping back from international duty. Our prediction's coming up over the next 45 or so. My name's Ryan Bailey. Joining me today, oh look, Taylor Rockwell's here. Hi Taylor, how are you?

Taylor Rockwell (0:45)

I'm doing well, Ryan Bailey. It's lovely to have you hosting. Whenever we're doing livestreams, I always enjoy you hosting and me not having to do the introduction and all that good stuff. Nicely done by you.

Ryan Bailey (0:55)

Thank you very much. We are live streaming this episode, as is our want to do. This is our 17th take because I couldn't say the word soccer in the first sentence of the intro. Just so you know, just to peel back.

Taylor Rockwell (1:06)

It's an enduring issue for Ryan Bailey.

Ryan Bailey (1:08)

Indeed. Just kidding. Joe Laris here. Hi Joe, how are you?

Joseph Lowery (1:11)

Hey Ryan, I'm great. I've been looking forward to this episode now for quite some time. I think I am maybe more excited about the US than I've been in a really long time, which is just how you should be when you start a new World Cup cycle. Because if that's not the time for optimism and belief, there literally is no other time. So this is the moment for it and I'm going to use it.

Ryan Bailey (1:28)

So let's dig into that Joe if you don't mind. What inspires the optimism? Is it the clean slate ahead for the 2030 cycle? Is it the prospect of new blood? What are you thinking?

Joseph Lowery (1:38)

I think the clean slate matters very little if you don't have anything exciting on top of it. So I will say the thing that I'm really most excited about now is the level of young talent that seems to be coming through this pipeline. I've talked about this on some recent shows and really since the World Cup ended, there are more promising young players coming up through the pipeline right now than I think there have maybe ever been, at least since I've been doing this job. I think the crop of young talent now is rivaling and maybe, I mean, we'll say it's rivaling at the moment anyway. It's rivaling the Christian Polisig, Weston McKinney, Tyler Adams generation of players in terms of potential. There's a lot of things that have to go right for a lot of these guys to reach that level. I mean, those are three of the greatest USMNT national team players of all time.

But the breadth of talent that exists right now in this pipeline and the number of players that I think we could even see in this window, it's like we don't have to wait for the delayed gratification anymore. We might actually be at the gratification stage and that makes me really excited.

Ryan Bailey (2:33)

Oh, present and delayed gratification, both kinds.

Joseph Lowery (2:36)

Love it.

Ryan Bailey (2:37)

From all sides. Looking forward to taking it to that more. Taylor.

Taylor Rockwell (2:40)

I'm stuck on if I'm willing to give it up that those three are three of the greatest ever US players. That's a tricky one. I don't fully disagree, but for some reason, that rang my bell a little bit. I'm like, wait, what?

Ryan Bailey (2:52)

Really?

Taylor Rockwell (2:52)

Are we saying that? But I could see it. But either way, I think to Joe's point, you go back to 2018 in the failure to qualify for that tournament. If you're looking for signs of optimism, there aren't many from the federation down, but from the talent standpoint down, it's basically like at that point, Pulisic and a lot of question marks, and we hope and see what happens. In that case, we end up getting the next generation and a lot of talent coming through.

But by contrast, you look at the situation at present, and you already have a good amount of talent still there, a good amount of talent that will be like 30 to 31, and maybe that could be an issue, but for the most part, you have established talent there, but then a lot of young talent breaking through. It is a really exciting time because who knows what this roster is going to look like and who knows what's going to happen.

Ryan Bailey (3:37)

I will prop Joe up on that with my long-held belief that a mid-table team in the Premier League now would beat the top team in the 90s because just the way things move on, conditioning, soccer intelligence. So I'm going to vouch for Joe on that one as well. Love it.