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Okay, Nick and Andy, let's preview and give our predictions for Turkey against the USA in LA on Thursday, the final group stage game for the US kicks off at 10:00 Eastern. You can watch in Spanish on Telemundo and Peacock in USA and in English on Fox. Andy, going to come to you first. USA already through as the group winners. This is all about just getting through this game, resting the players who are on yellow cards, right? A lot of key players there. And the good news is that Christian Pulisic is back in team training, so that's a big positive.
Hopefully getting what, 20-30 minutes or something like that, just get his rhythm going again. So, so far so good at this tournament for the USA, but what are you expecting in this game against Turkey? Yeah, it's it's all kind of going so well and according to plan and how you might have Where's it going to go wrong? Is kind of where my head's at the moment. But no, there's been a lot of promising signs from the first couple games and like you say, Joe, the opportunity to do a little rotating because this certainly has the feel of a US men's national team that could make a run.
More so than any other team during our lifetime. The all the pieces are there. They're on home soil and everything. And that can get a bit long if you're in the tournament for that long. And so the opportunity to and it's key players as well. It's Chris Richards, it's Anthony Robinson, it's it's Balogun and it's Tyler Adams. Four players, they're those might be the first four of the first five names that go on the sheet every time Pochettino makes a team along with Pulisic assuming that he's healthy. And so the opportunity [clears throat] to protect them from yellow card accumulation suspensions, to protect them from injuries because, you know, all four of them have had some of
those during their careers as well. And have them fit going into the knockout round games knowing that you're probably going to have a fairly favorable opponent in the round of 32. It's just it's all lining up very, very well. And so we'll see really it's an audition for who's going to be the impact player off the bench in these games as they get more important. I would imagine we see a good bit of Sebastian Berhalter in this game if he's able to go although it sounds like there might be a bit of an worry there and so it's just the whole squad has earned the opportunity to be on this roster and
now for a handful of them to get a meaningful moment in this tournament on home soil. You know, it's nice but you still have to take care of business. Nick who's going to come in do you think? I mean obviously Austin Trusty is probably right up there to come in at the back. In midfield like Andy said if it's not Berhalter then there's a lot of other good options there to come in and then up top I suppose Pepi to start maybe in that role or do you start Wright? I'm just trying to look at the options. I'm of a different not a different mindset I have the same mindset as Andy but I would rotate like crazy.
Tim Ream's 38 years old so I would so I could go you could convince me to roll with Scally at right center back, McKenzie at center back and Trusty at left center or however you want to rotate that. Dest has essentially been playing as a winger so [clears throat] maybe I keep him in or maybe I play him on the left side for a different look and I put Yeah, Waye's going to start. I would start Matt Turner for sure. I think you're going to get Turkey's Turkey's best chance and yeah, Wright for sure also who has played in Turkey. So you know, I would roll out almost an entirely different 11. I would bring in guys for you know, 25 30 minutes or as you see fit. Make sure everybody gets
their World Cup appearance and have the vibes be as high as possible and again not that anybody's going to miss out on interest or showing you know, No one's expecting the Gio Reyna of 2022 situation. Oh, you think But I think every single player will be invigorated by, "Hey, I played. I got out there. Maybe I'll get in the next game." And Yeah. That's That's key, isn't it? In this tournament that's been, you know, so long. You need that kind of togetherness and people feeling like they're part of it. And this is a great opportunity for Pochettino to create that. And you saw when Alex Freeman scored in Seattle that all the subs how they celebrated that unity togetherness.
And Nick's right. If they are able to rotate as heavily as that, and you know, seven, eight changes, then that just brings the whole group even closer together and really feeling part of it. Um, but I think there is also a bit of an argument of over rotation in terms of round of 32 game, right, Andy? When you come to it, like, you'll be like, "Oh, the rhythm wasn't quite there. I don't know. I can just kind of already see that as maybe a bit of a storyline, like, "Ah, I shouldn't have rotated as much." But it's a real fine balance in that for Pochettino. And I think look at it in his club management career.
Yeah. Did I can't remember. He didn't rotate much, did he? He was never big on that. No, famously pretty against the idea of doing so because every game was, you know, so important. Every minute was so important. And the best players were typically out there. I would I think in most circumstances, I would agree about being worried about the over rotation, the continuity that you might lose. But this group has looked so good through two games with and without Christian Pulisic. Um, and they just they turned it on at the two pre-World Cup friendlies. And they have just really not missed a beat since then. And so it feels like um, not just from a performance standpoint, but from uh, everybody just understanding what their
role is. It doesn't feel like there is that uh, you know, there's any bad feelings or selfish feelings, you could say, within the squad at the moment. And so, to keep everybody happy and to keep everybody sharp and to keep everybody ready for the big games in the knockout rounds, I think is the real benefit that you get here. And who knows, you know, maybe somebody steps up and has a great game and gives Pochettino something to think about for the starting 11 for the game in the round of 32. Yeah, I thought that it was clear starting 11, but there's a couple of spots in there where the level doesn't really drop. I think you could say across a lot of the spots there. So, there's there's opportunities there for
the US players. Nick, in terms of Turkey, I mean, what the heck happened? Because I think for most of us they were going to be the group winners with the talent that they had, but um just unlucky. I mean, they had so many shots in both of their uh defeats to Australia and then Paraguay. Um Arda Güler's come out and said, "Oh, we're really sorry. We're so disappointed." And it's just kind of a hard luck story, right? When you look back at the highlights of those games, it was just um just never seemed like it was their day and the ball just was never going to go in. Um they created a lot, but it was always very scrambly and rushed and always had the pressure of getting back to the World Cup for them.
Just became a little bit too much, but um yeah, a really like kind of soul-searching tournament for Vincenzo Montella and this Turkey team. Yeah, where [snorts] was Cenk Tosun? You know, you know, like the these guys that we got used to saying could be there. Like they were at a point in their program where even the six, seven out of 10 striker would have been worth it. And again, sometimes it is performance and the performances don't come off. I wonder if Montella was Pep Guardiola, if you wouldn't be saying, "Look, we just we didn't score.
Did you see us out there? We outshot Australia. Was it something like 33 to 9?" And it was all against the counter and um we're seeing that in this tournament. The value of the striker is always the same, but sometimes it just screams a little bit louder. And you know, Austria can make this argument. Belgium right now because Lukaku looks so rusty can make this argument. If you don't have a guy there, it's a question mark. And so I do think it's as simple as that. I think they have they're still the toughest game of the tournament on evil even footing for the US if that were the case. I it's you can't mimic the emotion now. But it was always going to be the toughest game of the tournament until this happened.
Yeah, to your point there, Nick. You talk about having a guy not having a guy. How different does the US look to any team ever at a World Cup that we've had with Balogun playing the way that he is? yeah. Yeah, just be being a star. And now they're talking about well, he's going to move to somewhere major in Europe this summer for 50 million. Yeah, not bad. But again, it just shows you the uh the importance like we said of having that key striker and that's what Turkey have really have been missing. And a bit of luck as well. It's been really tight uh in this group, but I'm excited to
see uh the USA kind of make those changes, how those players adapt. And I think Turkey obviously playing for a lot of pride. They'll want to get a win on the board against one of the co-hosts. And uh like Nick mentioned, technically a lot of great players, especially in midfield and attacking midfield areas. So think it'll be a really good uh test and kind of um preview of Pochettino of what's to come uh in the early knockout rounds. Hopefully there's plenty of knockout round games for the USA at this World Cup. Um Nick, prediction-wise, well, it's a hard one to predict cuz we don't know the team in terms of uh the changes, but feels like a draw for me. Um
I don't know, maybe go like 1-1 um just purely out of like uh it will be maybe a bit clunky for the USA, but um still expecting a really good tight scrap with Turkey. Yeah, I am upgrading to a draw. I'm I'm what I Look, I think it's going to be 1-1, but if you if I was going to say 2-1 until you said 1-1. I think that this is a game where they slip up a little bit. Partially because I think their depth has to be rotated and I think Adams is just so important and um credit to Pochettino for the way he's built up his men, but what when you see if it's Aaronson and Berhalter or whatever it is, you're just going to see
how valuable the Tyler Adams is. Um and we saw it when he was out for Bournemouth. Uh he is a special player and it's special it's especially hard to describe how special he is because he does all the little things. Yeah, very special. Andy? Uh my brain is agreeing with everything you guys are saying here, but the heart at this point I'm fully bought in after these first two games and I know it's going to look like they made seven or eight or nine or 10 or maybe 11 changes in this game and it's not going to be pretty, but they'll find a way. 1-0. It is at home and we can't Guys, the crowds have just leaped off the screen.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, it's going to be fun the scenes in LA as USA take on Turkey to close out the group stage. Of course, the USA's already the group winners. They can chill, make changes and prepare for the knockout round, so it's going to be a lot of fun. We'll have you covered on Pro Soccer Talk on nbcsports.com with all the latest on this USA team. Uh it's going to be great and I think like you said, the scenes are going to be magnificent as they have been for all these US games so far at the World Cup. Pro Soccer Talk we have writers across games at the 2026 men's World Cup and we're so excited to take you on this journey with us.
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