Why isn't the USMNT producing elite goalkeepers anymore? | Listener Questions

Ryan Bailey (0:20)

Welcome to the Total Soccer Show, it's our latest batch of Listener Questions! On today's episode, we're talking about USMNT dual nationals, the relative importance of coaches and sporting directors, and the curious case of American goalkeepers. My name is Ryan Bailey, joining me for a chat today, Taylor Rockwell. Fancy seeing you around these parts, hello.

Taylor Rockwell (0:42)

Hello, it's been what, almost 12 hours since last we spoke? It's good to be with you again, Ryan Bailey.

Ryan Bailey (0:48)

Likewise, Taylor, let's never take longer than 12 hours again.

Graham Rutherford (0:52)

Deal.

Taylor Rockwell (0:53)

I think eight, I think really, let's just keep checking in, we'll just record shows in the middle of the night, it's the only way to stay closed, Ryan. The other two, they don't have to join.

Ryan Bailey (1:02)

Sadly, we do have two others on this show though.

Graham Rutherford (1:04)

They're here? Oh, no.

Ryan Bailey (1:05)

Yeah, they're here. Joe Lowry is here. Hi, Joe.

Joseph Lowery (1:07)

Hey, guys. Yeah, it's good. Graham and I are actually doing every four hours, so it just speaks to the relative closeness that he and I have compared to what you two have.

Graham Rutherford (1:17)

Actually, Joe, we just have a constant conference call open, it's like an Uber driver. Every so often, there's just a words, like, get spoken into the office.

Joseph Lowery (1:25)

Graham, why do I hear the sound of a fishing line, but also the sound of hair cutting scissors? Oh, well, Joe, the reason for that is that I'm at the haircut bait and tackle shop. Of course, we just have that open dialogue, so we can do that 24-7.

Taylor Rockwell (1:36)

Yeah. I didn't realize you all were in a young love relationship. Do you go to bed with FaceTime on every night and wake up together at the same time?

Ryan Bailey (1:44)

No, Graham doesn't go to bed.

Joseph Lowery (1:46)

I go to bed with FaceTime on, Graham goes to the football on his TV screen, number four, with a football on.

Taylor Rockwell (1:53)

Graham just pans over to FIFA Plus.

Joseph Lowery (1:54)

Yeah.

Graham Rutherford (1:55)

This makes it sound like a pet surveillance cam. What's Joe up to? Oh, he's sleeping as I'm at the football.

Ryan Bailey (2:04)

Wow. Creepy.

You've also highlighted, Graham Rutherford, one of the modern annoyances or inconveniences when you're in an Uber and you think the driver is talking to you, but he's on that call he's been on all day long. That's a tough one.

Graham Rutherford (2:17)

I just never know who they're calling. Who has the time for just a never-ending conference call? Well, apart from Joe and I, as we've already established. Correct. It's you two.

Ryan Bailey (2:25)

I don't get it. Is it just other Uber drivers, I'm guessing?

Graham Rutherford (2:29)

Yeah, maybe.

Ryan Bailey (2:31)

They're all doing the same thing. Maybe it's that. Yeah. Okay. We'll get into it. Maybe if someone asks a question about it one day, we can answer it on this here show. We've got plenty of other questions to get to on this episode. Before we get there, we can has Patreon.

patreon.com/totalsoccershow is where you get bonus content including but not limited to bonus listener questions. We've got a bonus Lissy Quessie from Kalan Jurak this week who says, if you could move any team from one of the top five leagues and put them in another top five league, who would you move and why? If you want to know what we think about that one, bonus feed for you, patreon.com/totalsoccershow.

But plenty of questions to come on this here feed as well. AlabamaFooty26 has been on our Discord, which you can also access on our bonus feed, and asked us this question. What's it more important to have, a good coach or a good sporting director? And does the size of the club matter in this choice? I feel like I want to go to Joe Lowry first for this one, as being someone who values both positions higher than any player on the field. Is that correct?

Joseph Lowery (3:41)

Most of the sporting director, I'm not quite sure about the coach.

This is a fascinating question, and honestly, I'm really curious to hear what you all think about this.

I would like to open a third door just at the very start of this conversation, and so we can all agree, at least, and start from this point. I would like to create an option C. If we have an option A, being the good coach, option B, being the good sporting director, C would be any currency that will cash. That's my option C. That's what matters most, right? We know that money is the thing that most closely equates with success in leagues that do not have a hard and fast salary cap, like Major League Soccer. Outside of that, we know that money is the thing that matters most. So you can probably get by with a pretty crappy sporting director if you have more money than everybody else, or a pretty mediocre coach if you have more money than everybody else. I recognize that's not the question, but I just wanted to start there because I think that is so clearly the answer. And it's oftentimes quite difficult to discern exactly what happens between the margins, because a lot of these other things really are margins, right? It's whether Brighton finished seventh or thirteenth in a season, not whether they finished first or eighteenth, you know? So it's difficult to actually parse through these things. But I think to answer the question, at a tiny club, and I do think the size of the club matters here, at a tiny club, both matter a ton because they don't have a lot of resources to sign bad players. Like, Graham, I don't know what the Sterling Albion structure is when it comes to this sort of thing. But I'm thinking about Phoenix Rising, small club. Now, there is a front office staff, there's a coaching staff. It's not just one front office member, one coach.