How far can Pochettino take the USA?
6/20/202639 min
It’s Day 10 of the World Cup, and the USMNT are through to the knockouts after a 2-0 win over Australia.
Ian Irving is joined in-studio by Liam Twomey and Liam Tharme as we discuss another impressive performance from Mauricio Pochettino’s side. Henry Bushnell drops in to give the lowdown from Seattle and asks if the USA can actually go all the way.
We catch up with James Horncastle who was in Philadelphia for Brazil’s win over Haiti, and, we analyse Scotland’s chances of progression to the last-32 after defeat to Morocc...
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First 90 secondsIan Irving· Host0:00
[gentle music] The Athletic FC. [upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to The Athletic FC podcast with me, Ian Irving. The USA progressed to the knockouts even without Christian Pulisic. So just how far can Mauricio Pochettino take them? And elsewhere, there was a win for Brazil and a defeat for Scotland. So we're here in the studio today then. We've got the two Liams back, The Athletic's Liam Twomey and Liam Tharm. Um, I know the other day you went for surnames, but I, I thought we'd try middle names today maybe. So Liam Twomey- Is this where- ... what's your middle name?
Liam Twomey· Guest0:33
... we find out we've got the same middle name?
Ian Irving· Host0:35
What's your middle name?
Liam Twomey· Guest0:35
John.
Ian Irving· Host0:36
David.
Liam Twomey· Guest0:36
Okay.
Ian Irving· Host0:37
John and David.
Liam Twomey· Guest0:37
Close though.
Ian Irving· Host0:38
Very close.
Liam Twomey· Guest0:38
That's not too far apart, yeah.
Ian Irving· Host0:39
Similar genre.
Liam Twomey· Guest0:40
We c- yeah, yeah, similar, yeah, Ang- anglicized. Yeah.
Ian Irving· Host0:43
Yeah.
Liam Tharm· Guest0:43
Could that be like a Brazilian player or something? A D- a John David or something, one of like the LATAM names that, uh- I mean, there's a Canadian striker that's pretty close to that- Well, yeah- ...
Ian Irving· Host0:49
to be fair ...
Liam Tharm· Guest0:49
that's true, yeah.
Liam Twomey· Guest0:50
Don't they do like w- be Liam O for Big Liam and Liaminho for- Yeah, yeah ... for Little Liam?
Ian Irving· Host0:55
That would work in a Brazilian sense.
Liam Twomey· Guest0:56
It could do, but it implies that one of us bigger than the other. I don't think that's- I, I don't really wanna make that decision either- No ...
Ian Irving· Host1:01
so.
Liam Twomey· Guest1:01
I think maybe, yeah. Surnames is fine.
Ian Irving· Host1:02
We'll just do Liam Twomey and Liam Tharm, yeah.
Liam Twomey· Guest1:04
That's all good.
Ian Irving· Host1:04
I'll, I'll just look at you [laughing] when I wanna ask you a question. Okay, we've established that anyway, so that's good. Um, day nine then. Scotland lose one-nil to Morocco. Brazil beat Haiti three-nil. Paraguay overcome Turkey one-nil, despite having Miguel Almirón sent off for covering his mouth. So there's the start of that genre as well. Um, and Haiti and Turkey, of course, eliminated from the competition after their results too. But let's start with the USMNT,