Call It What You Want: A CBS Sports Golazo Network Podcast · CBS Sports, USMNT, U.S. Soccer, MLS, World Cup, UCL, Americans Abroad

Best of 2025: The Year That Tested - and Lifted - the USMNT (Soccer 12/25)

·57 min·3 clips

Marcelo Balboa says he learned he was starting the 1994 World Cup opener the night before, after ACL rehab.

1. Call It What You Want looks back at the USMNT’s 2025 calendar, from the CONCACAF Nations League Final to December results against Ecuador, Australia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. 2. CheckChase, Chuck, Big Tones, Marcelo Balboa, Christian Pulisic, Ashley Cole, and Jurgen Klinsmann all appear in the episode’s year-end roundup. 3. The episode asks what 2025 revealed about Mauricio Pochettino’s player pool before a home World Cup in 2026. 4. Marcelo Balboa describes being seven months from the 1994 World Cup after tearing his ACL in 1993. 5. Balboa names Tony Meola, Cobi Jones, Tab Ramos, John Harkes, Marcelo Balboa, and other roster locks from that U.S. team. 6. He says he learned he was starting the opening World Cup game after a team video and a private moment with Bort. 7. Balboa says assistant coaches had talked about replacing him, and that negativity fueled his rehab work. 8. He lists three-a-day treatment, knee injections, mountain-bike work, and sessions with Rudy Rogowski and Dr. Mandelbaum. 9. Christian Pulisic says his body started talking to him near the end of the season. 10. Pulisic says he wanted to play the two friendlies, but the coaches wanted only one roster and declined that request. 11. He says he chose rest over eight more games, preseason, and an immediate run into the World Cup. 12. Pulisic says he had one phone call with Mauricio Pochettino, who understood his reasoning. 13. Pulisic says people compare his situation to Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, and Lionel Messi, but he is focused on his own decision. 14. He says he has not missed national-team games for anything other than injury and that he wants to support the team. 15. Pulisic says the U.S. still has a long way to go to make soccer as embedded in the culture as basketball or football. 16. He says the country has made major growth, and he points to his move to Germany at 15 and time in Italy as examples of a different football culture. 17. The episode turns into a tactical argument about whether Tim Weah, Sergiño Dest, or Malik Tillman fits Mauricio Pochettino’s preferred shape. 18. Ashley Cole says managers must balance style, in-form players, star selections, club demands, and youth pipeline choices. 19. Fans tracking the USMNT’s 2026 World Cup roster will find detailed lineup debates and player-role arguments. 20. Listeners wanting celebrity-style soccer banter may skip the long tactical and selection digressions.

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