Tab Ramos on Berhalter, USMNT progress, youth development & the future of MLS l Part 2 

I'm so tired of that "good try" moral victory mentality in U.S. Soccer. We need to start acting like we can beat any team on any day. Raise the standard. Raise the expectation.

For those young folks: Tab was a great player!

A very good point on viewership. I personally think that MLS needs to make the game more accessible for viewers. For example, I have Fubo and can't watch the MLS games that I want (i.e. game of the week). How is someone that have regular local TV able to watch any game?

Great Interview 🇺🇸 USA Legend Tab Ramos.

Great interview, Pete! Really love how you phrase and present challenging questions in an impartial way, even knowing where you stand on topics like these personally. Would love more content like this when the opportunities present themselves!

awesome interview! You and Tactical manager do great having top level guests on your shows. It is also nice seeing you two have a mini-partnership. I agree, MLS is doing poorly in TV viewership, and TV revenue, but it is doing a decent job drawing people to the stadiums. MLS is easily in top 10 in the world in attendance per game, and close to number 1 in total attendance.

Ingredients for producing World Class Players: 1. Passionate Football culture 2. Loving the Ball 3. Ball Mastery 4. Technical Skills first 5. Massive Promotional Push by Media 6. Upper Level Success for athlete attraction 7. Decreases gap of Pay for Play system and Soccer first families! 8. Successful MLS teams and exciting identity of the American Style!

i grew up around the corner from Tony Meola,Tabs father had a house two blocks from my house and John Harkes father Jim coached in my youth league.

1) Regarding culture change: I recall 40 years ago, when in a park, or outdoors, North Amercians always throw a ball to each other. Nowadays, you see more Americans have a soccer ball when out doors, and not only they pass it to each other, but they also joggle it skillfully while at it. So, the culture change has occured, albeit may be too slow to reach quarter finals, or higher in a world cup. 2) on Skill: south Americans always encourage their youth from early age to joggle the ball, and do all those fancy (really difficult) tricks. If we want to end higher up in the WC, we need to follow suit, and learn from that culture. OtherWise, we remain at the same level as an average level European side, wales, Norway, Denmark, Poland... etc. 3) That 1988-2004 US team trained like a club, which resulted in a team with understanding, and togertherness among players that only club sides can only achieve. Since inception of MLS when it comes to training camps, it looks like we have become more like other footballing nations, and the first team does not train together as much. Also, looks like a large portion of our friendlies are against teams that come totally unprepared (like Ghana being the last), and we field a B, or C team. I think if for January camp 2018, if we had fielded our strongest side, we may have reached WC finals of 2018. Maybe, should have moved the camp that year to Europe, and try to convince the clubs to release the players for those friendlies just for the match day.

Tab is the man...great interview......havent been so impressed with his results as a coach, but he;s honest about it.....hopefully he can get into a good role next time.....an asset to the game in the US, for sure

Pete, Tab does color commentary in Spanish right now too. If you wanna hear him, then you have to watch Univision. He does color commentary with Andrés Cantor. Tab's Spanish is about 1000x better than Marcelo Balboa (Not his fault since he grew up speaking less Spanish than Ramos). As a side note, Ramos' Spanish is super clear and nice to listen to.

Great interview !

Amazing content. Sucha great conversation!

My respect for Tab Ramos just went out the roof. I loved how he has a REALISTIC view of where soccer is in this country and the state of MLS and USMNT. He wasn’t afraid to criticize Berhalter, And he I did it in a classy way. And at the end he took 100 ownership of his last couple of jobs not gone well.

Tab does a great job here... its good for people to see this and understand that he wasnt just a great player but he is also an amazing person. He really has a lot to offer and I hope he stays involved. Fantastic interview, really enjoyed it.

LETS GO

The USSF needs to hold open auditions via the internet. They need better marketing. They need to produce a TV commercial that is seen by prime time TV audiences. It can be an announcement that encourages parents to submit videos of their kids playing soccer. There are a lot of parents around the country that would want to see their kids learn or improve in soccer, or who think their kid might have a special talent. But they may not be familiar with the best pathway to introducing their kids to scouts or development academies.

Good interview Pete. Dunno that I agree with some of his comments due to lack of low income perspective, but there’s not enough room in these comments to say my thoughts fully.

Such a great interview. Losing players to other sports is a much bigger hurdle than pay to play. Some of our best athletes are playing basketball, football, etc.

In Spain sports like soccer is a part of the recreation program by cities or municipalities for its residents. Youth soccer or academies are run by city govts. They delegate a volunteer group or committee to hire coaches and subsidize playing fields. The only thing you have to pay for are uniforms, but bigger club youth academies do have tuition but not the same cost in the US, and you do have to make the roster or recruited in the higher competitive level.

Rather than the question of how do we include more of the Hispanic community at the youth level, I would have been interested to hear Tab's take on the disparity between the number on youth national teams vs the full national team. While I would agree with Tab that 90% of the best kids will not be financially hindered from playing with expensive competitive teams, there are caveats, or hurdles to getting to the point where the club will subsidize. Many clubs don't scout/recruit (seen a lot of rec boys in the club's own system at U11/12 that could be on the top teams in town), a kid misses the tryouts (or a day of), the listed cost scares them off since they don't know about scholarships, family situation (work/finances/location/instability), lack of publicity so families have to do a lot of searching, the qualities the assessors value most, and more.

rehiring Beerholder is ten steps back

It would be great if a reporter would ask Gregg "during your 5 year tenure, what would you consider to be a signature win for you and tour team"? I can see Gregg deflecting the question or saying beating Mexico (the worst Mexican team in a long time). Someone please ask lol

All we need is a coach.

Another great interview! Really enjoying these, Pete! I will say, though, I did find it surprising that Tab Ramos didn't really have any opiniins on how he thinks the MLS can grow towards becoming a top 5 league. Otherwise, I enjoyed his insights on the USMNT and youth development!

Fire berhalter and hire Ramos!

15:06 As a German of course Football is Grassroots in Germany or Europe too like it is in South America. Just the available public money is different. Meaning the City can invest a bit more in infrastructure like a playgrounds with a extra pitch or some nice public weekend greens. Yet my first game was in some Backyards with the other kids after sharing Football cards. Also as kids we were relatively mobile, i never had to rely on my parents to go anywhere. Just a bike, done. Never ever buy this "We are a different country".

Talent isn't the issue. Players aren't the issue. This group is absolutely the best we have ever seen under the flag. IMO the problem is that we (and here I mean US Soccer) are too impatient and unwilling to accept that (even though we have players playing in top leagues) that doesn't mean we automatically rise to the Top 10. The truth is that of all our talent, only a few are difference makers. And none of those guys are difference makers on elite Champions League title contenders. So until we have a team that is comprised of STARTERS on Liverpool, Manchester City, Bayern, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal, etc. we have to temper expectations. And maintain flexibility in formations and tactics so that when we DO play one of those types of teams (eg. France) that we can punch above our weight. Unfortunately, Gregg is dogmatically wedded to his system and naively tries to go toe-to-toe and invariably we come up short because of his lack of pragmatism. I think Tab is being overly optimistic about his assessment of our scouting system. Pulisic, who is our best player today went under the radar with US Soccer until Tab himself just "happened" to see him at a nearby tournament and notified the powers that be that they had to take a look at this kid. How many more Pulisic's disappear because they didn't have the fortune to play at the right tournament? As for "Pay to Play"...it may be the only system that can work here but it needs to undergo serious change. Because as it is now, it sets way too much of a priority on winning at all costs which leads to coaches elevating the kids who are physically developed versus those who are technically gifted, because the bigger, faster, stronger kids are the ones who can get them the goals that lead to trophies. Nevermind that these kids are simply running past others without regard for touch or vision...which ultimately leads to adults who lack touch or vision and can't create offense against other post-puberty adults who have eliminated the athletic gap and are more skilled. US Soccer and MLS need to take the lead in establishing a priority on skill and reward more technical players and not just young burners.

Pete, most "Hispanics groups" in SO CA tend to be over-rated. I grew-up in So CA. Note: "World Class Stars" Latin players are from South America (mainly River Plate countries or Brazil)

Super interview. I’m in agreement with Ramos about the acceptable state of P2P youth soccer. Frankly, the few “F2P” organizations in our area are unimpressive. They essentially collect a large portfolio of entirely volunteer parent-run youth teams then pour all their coaching (and monetary) resources into a small handful of competitive teams from players that they have scouted out by convenience or parent-complaints/insistence. The advertisement of “free” youth soccer is enticing to many of our school friend-families but at least locally, it’s probably only ideal for kids who have no expectation or goal to play competitively.

The Nations league has hurt the USA more than any other country by a wide margin for both the men and women. It would be great to get big victories but when you get to play a European side like one time every two years because of the new schedule and the nations league games it becomes a much more challenging proposition. We used to regularly play euro giants, now we can barely schedule a friendly with Ireland or Croatia. It has hampered the growth of the men’s team, and it has stifled the women’s ability to stay on top.

Mls never should have been on Apple. I think it's killing the growth. The big 3 sports air on regular TV not subscription services.

First!

The problem is the "pay to play". But Usa is not ready for this subject.

Keep pay to play but open up scholarship or donations that can be applied for. Sponsor it like the local kids leagues do where I'm from. Local businesses sponsor the team / leagues.

Great interview. Also this so-called Golden Generation, I think will fall short in Copa America. I see Bolivia putting a fight against them with their Brazilian coach. Panama, who will be the sensation from Copa America, will upset the Us. And during the last game, I see the Us falling short against Uruguay.

It’s not Coné!

Just think about how serious American families are about their kids playing Baseball, Basketball and American Football. It's the same culture that Tab talked about for soccer in other countries. Kids are playing to win at 7-8 years old and the game is taken very seriously in general. Soccer is simply not taken seriously in the US by the vast majority.

That play for play system is what's really hurting US soccer in my opinion. The question is how you do away with it or at least modify it because for the most part these private corporations make tons of money ostensibly as nonprofits but they make a lot of money and there's no way they're going to give that cash cow up. So you have the persistent problem of promoting lesser players because of politics and or money and excluding kids from not so affluent areas that can't afford to play.

You usually need world class athletes to make world class soccer players. McKinney and Pulisic and Reyna are simply not world class athletes. We’re getting to a point where we can turn out Aaronson’s on the regular with some better and some worse, but until our little LeBron’s and Kobe’s and Bo or Dion and Nolan Ryan’s and etc start playing, and sticking with, soccer, it’s gonna be tough to produce truly transcendent players. Great athletes are going to choose to play in front of big crowds at HS basketball or football games rather than in front of a few moms and dads just about every time. We just need one or two, Jordan-like figures, to come through our system to turn the tide though. It’s just gonna take as long as it will take.

The U.S producing a Messi or Ronaldo is possible, but you have to bear in mind, the lat guy like Messi or Ronaldo was probably Maradona in the 80's, I think you guys are capable of producing world class players but Messi and Ronaldo aren't once in a generation players, they're once in every 30/40 year players, we were just fortunate enough to live in an era where we got 2 at the same time, there's world class guys in every generation and they could come from anywhere, you guys could produce a few if the right kid starts to play, I mean you weren't far off with Pulisic, I could easily see you end up with your own world class players like Eden Hazard or Xabi Alonso or guys on that level

The problem in this country rather men or women, it’s pay to play and pay to be better. It’s so simple. We could go and fund those athletes that aren’t seen but we won’t pay( as a country) to find them. I have been in this soccer culture for 20 yrs and we need to fix this. Tad Ramos it is pay to play but dosent mean the parents or parent needs to pay. MLS clubs or even better a uS soccer needs to pay to develop. You are speaking( Tad) like a politician. Yes I understand it’s your living. But really if the USA’s best athletes played soccer the world would be on its knees to us

Tab Ramos dispelled all of your myths, including the myth that people don't let poor kids play in the regional camps.

@15:02, Ramos: "we are just a different country" So according to Ramos, American Exceptionalism means we will continue to be Exceptionally Mediocre! I completely disagree with Ramos' contention that pay- to- play is a necessity. Guys read: Soccer Today, "Training in Germany Benefits Youth and Pro Soccer Players". This article contrasts German vs American approaches to youth development.

People do not watch MLS because: 1- TV does not have a program built around it Like the premier league. 2- Games are boaring and not fast and intense like premier League.

Why do people just brush off the draw against England? If our team is so talented then what the hell is England? Nobody else wants to coach this team why else would we bring Greg back.

Tab Ramos shouldn't comment on anyone else's coaching or player development given his own ineptitude.

MLS can't get there, because it's a top-down league. Once we have clubs built by locals in their own neighborhoods, with pro-rel, we can grow the sport because we grown the lower level clubs. Not all, but the ones that succeed.

Tab Ramos is right. This USMNT coached by Gregg has been an utter mediocrity, just like every one of Gregg's other teams. It's all on Gregg, the most mediocre and useless USMNT coaches of all time. Gregg IS A BAD COACH. As for MLS, the quality of soccer is terrible compared to the top four European leagues. A 1000 year old Messi is NOT the best way to improve the quality of soccer in the U.S. and I have absolutely no interest in watching that dog and pony show.