00:00And I want to focus today on the U.S. national roster
00:04because there have been a lot of, let's just say, cochinadas,
00:08some weird stuff going on.
00:09I'm upset with Pochettino.
00:11I don't like that he did one specific thing.
00:14Diego Luna, a player that lined up 17 out of 18 possible times
00:20in the process to the World Cup,
00:21and he was not called into the final roster.
00:26Disrespectful.
00:29Disrespectful, ignorant, naive, and capricious
00:35are the four words that come to mind about Pochettino
00:38and making this decision.
00:40For me, Diego Luna was the heart and soul
00:42of the next generation of U.S. soccer.
00:44You can have as many European players as you want,
00:47but if you don't have the player that is able to score goals
00:51after breaking his nose and going back into the field,
00:54then you don't have nothing.
00:55The player that was the heart and the example for next generation of players
00:59of what do you need to, how do you need to play when you're wearing that jersey,
01:04is Diego Luna, and he will not be in the World Cup.
01:08Chiba, are you as upset as I am about this situation?
01:11Yeah, I mean, it's sad.
01:14The way he was informed that he's not going to the World Cup is what upsets me the more, right?
01:18Because when it comes to picking the players,
01:22sometimes there's always going to be controversy.
01:24There's always going to be this, you know, it's not fair.
01:27It's fair.
01:27As a coach, I can tell you that sometimes you have to make hard decisions,
01:31like the one he made by not taking a...
01:33Diego Luna that represents the MLS, your league,
01:37the league that represents the United States and a player like you said,
01:40played for 17 matches out of 18.
01:42To me, the most incredible thing is the fact that he went back to an email.
01:47He sent an email to let him know that he was not going to make it to the World Cup.
01:51Para me, as a coach, that just talks bad about you.
01:55Because first, right now in soccer and in sports in general,
01:58it's more than just the human connection with the player.
02:02And the fact that he treated him like an employee or whatever,
02:06he just talks a lot of negative stuff about Pochettino.
02:11And not just not taking Diego Luna as a negative thing,
02:14but the fact that he sent him an email is what I have without words.
02:18Yeah.
02:19Yeah.
02:20It's hard to obviously defend that side of things because I agree with you.
02:23We all saw the split screen of how the Canadian coach handled his calling of players
02:27who didn't make it versus how Pochettino was talking about,
02:30well, if I was a player, I wouldn't care if I didn't get...
02:32I don't need the coach to call me.
02:33Anyways, that's beyond the point.
02:35The point is, I think Pochettino is obviously doing this zero emotion involved.
02:39We, as American fans, are looking at this from an emotional standpoint of view.
02:43There's a broken nose moment.
02:44We all love Diego Luna because he's a regular guy.
02:47You know, he's got the tats.
02:48He just looks like a young, cool guy.
02:49He's from Cali.
02:50So, you know, we got that Cali connection.
02:51It's an emotional thing from Arendt, but there are better players out there,
02:55and I guess that's just how he was looking at it in that moment.
02:57And how did he play in those 17 of the last 18 matches?
03:01He played well, but what about the U.S. team as a whole?
03:03How did we do in the Gold Cup?
03:05We didn't do well.
03:06How did we do in the CONCACAF Nations Cup?
03:08We didn't do that great.
03:09We lost to Mexico.
03:10We lost to Panama.
03:11So, I guess with this new squad that involves players like Pulisic,
03:15who didn't bother playing in those tournaments, by the way,
03:19how is he going to integrate with those players?
03:21And I guess that's the kind of squad that they're looking at.
03:22And, unfortunately, for whatever reason, it doesn't involve Luna, which sucks.
03:25The criteria seem to be arrows-nubbing.
03:28And this is when you decide that a player, just because he's in a European team,
03:33is a better fit than a player that is in the domestic league, meaning MLS.
03:36We did have a good amount of players, important players from MLS, joining the team.
03:41We have Roldan from Seattle, which I feel like is great.
03:44We have several goalkeepers.
03:45We have Chris Barley.
03:47We have Matt Fries, Matt Turner as goalkeepers.
03:49Great players.
03:51Alejandro Sendejas from America.
03:52I think this is the player that was the biggest surprise of the whole call-up.
03:56The player that was not really involved in the process.
03:59Legible.
04:00In the middle of the novela, you know, between, like, picking, playing with Mexico,
04:04picking with the U.S., do you feel like there was some promoter brouhaha
04:10happening for the Sendejas to squirrel their way to the World Cup?
04:14Not with Sendejas, because I think Sendejas was playing on a really good level with Club America.
04:20Sendejas is a player that can play at any position at top.
04:23It's a very dynamic player that is going to help a lot the U.S.
04:26But I think the controversy goes more with Gio Reyna.
04:28A lot of people are saying that, what if Gio Reyna was not called to the national team over Diego
04:33Luna?
04:34The federation will be making some calls to switch that.
04:37But, I mean, ya sabemos que todo esto es polÃtica.
04:41Gio Reyna has not, if he will only have half of the heart that Diego Luna has,
04:45he could be one of the best players in the world.
04:48But he's not.
04:49So, you know, más que nada, yo creo que el problema es con Gio Reyna.
04:52And he took the spot over Gio Reyna.
04:55And I guarantee you that most of the U.S.A. fans, which I'm not,
04:58are going to, they will want Gio Reyna over Gio Reyna.
05:02Because, yeah, Gio Reyna has more talent, but Gio Reyna has more heart.
05:05And sometimes at a national team and a World Cup, that's what you need.
05:08Players that feel the colors and have the heart.
05:10We'll see you next time.
