Is the 2026 World Cup the most important in USMNT history? With Tab Ramos

[@Hollow4O1]

Whoever becomes the coach needs Tab Ramos as their staff member.

[@lavs8696]

we need him in the USSF

[@tacticalmanagerbabymommaak5825]

Tab Ramos. A respectable man. I see I like the video!

[@masatoshik870]

I really feel like what you & Pete do on KZbin does help grow soccer interest in the US. I was born and raised in Hawaii and played numerous sports growing up (baseball, (American) football, track, wrestling, bowling, & karate). Though there was youth soccer in my area, I was never into soccer at all. I would have some passing interest in the national team during World Cups, but I was mainly a NFL (Dolphins) & college football (Michigan & Hawaii) fan. I still love American football, but watching Tactical Manager TV & 11 Yanks has really got me interested in US Soccer (and soccer in general). Keep up the good work!

[@chrisfrank2664]

That’s a major difference between growing up in US and around the world: playing multiple sports as they grow up. Today with Internet giving access to any sport for anyone to watch any kid can watch professionals playing and helps them learn the game/sport. Or as you said about yourself, just becoming a fan of a sport! How did you become a Michigan fan ? Just curious how growing up in Hawaii and becoming a fan of any team in any sport? How do you choose? Is there any reasons or links to Hawaii for any college or professional sports teams?

[@masatoshik870]

@@chrisfrank2664 I grew up a Hawaii fan & I had a co-worker back when I was in college who got me into Michigan football (even though I started following them just as they were going into the awful Rich Rod era, I was fascinated by their rich history so I stuck with them). Back in the mid-to-late 2000’s, Miami picked up a number of players from Hawaii (Satele, Mauia, & Bess) as well as a couple of guys from Michigan (Henne & Long) so I began to follow them as my pro team (& stayed with them despite them being pretty mediocre for a long time).

[@chrisfrank2664]

@@masatoshik870 Cool !! I was just curious. I liked watching Hawaii when they had the late Colt Brennan at QB who put up amazing numbers in College, then came here when drafted by Washington Redskins and was well liked here in Washington area, despite being 2nd or 3rd QB. His picture with the Hawaiian Islands in his hair will always be iconic in college football!

[@Chicagofellow15]

What a guy Tab is 🫡🇺🇸👍

[@Chicagofellow15]

One thing i will say about MLS fans is that they love their Homegrown players. Im a Chicago Fire Fan and when you go to games you barely see any Shaqiri or Hugo Cuypers Jerseys, But you see Tons of Brian Gutierrez jerseys. There is something special about rooting for Somebody from the same place your from.

[@yangguangmianbao]

The ONLY way MLS can hope to ever compete (which by the way, I don't agree with Ramos that MLS is a "good" and "competitive" league) with other top leagues is to get more big name players and finally start marketing the league to the casual sports fan in the US. This means letting teams spend more money. The MLS also needs a handful of SUPER teams, similar to what LAFC is becoming now. This will get more eyes on the league and make certain matches more appealing to watch.

[@CullenJowell]

When I lived in Sevilla and played they called every American Tab. #muchobetis And I’m glad you realized how great us Seattlelites are

[@EtotheLtotheP]

Great interview! Best line was at the end when Tab was talking about how people (Americans) still come up to him to talk home how the 1994 World Cup turned them into soccer fans and how 2026 is the next opportunity for that kind of impact… so true! We will truly be in the world stage and hope we get as many people watching and then converting as we can!

[@mvpalumb]

Nice work Tac & thank you! 🇺🇸⚽️😊👏🏼

[@timpreston4996]

Great episode. So much respect for what the 94’ team did for US soccer. We wouldn’t be where we are today without their efforts and leadership. 👏🔥

[@anlerden4851]

It will be more important tournament for us Dear Filippo I love and respect Tab Ramos so much.

[@1972dsrai]

Football in the US is very different to most countries where club football dominates, but in the US it seems a lot depends on how the national team performs.

[@AR-io8fv]

It’s the most important cycle ever and we wasted 2 years of it because USSF was stupid enough to rehire a mediocre power point presenter who kicked his wife.

[@samogotamo]

Keep up the good work Tac! 🤙

[@BALOGUN2026]

Amazing interview!

[@levikonn]

There’s a laundry list of reasons why MLS is not popular amongst the masses. The playoff system means inherently each regular season game doesn’t mean as much, so there’s less on the line. The teams are also incredibly held back by overbearing roster rules that basically incentivizes to have a couple exciting attacking players with very little left to fund the rest of the team. I’m an absolute diehard US national team fan, and I watch European soccer all year, I may watch two or three MLS games a year. if they did away with the playoff system and had a league table, I personally would be far more interested, it would just be way more exciting.

[@lennyjenkins9931]

Also a big issue is that tons of MLS Franchises have 0 connections to the local populace. If you look at most other big soccer clubs(or hell, even small ones) they all have some connections to the locals. Either through community outreach programs or through vouchers for talented youth players and extensive marketing. Not a lot of MLS Franchises do this.

[@DominicanStud101]

I wish the MetroStars were still the MetroStars (with Red Bull as a sponsor just like Leeds this year).

[@BrandonLeviskas]

Need Pro/Rel in MLS and they need to have games that are not hidden behind a pay wall.

[@GaryMyers-g4g]

This is way before your time, but you should look into the early history of the American Football League (AFL) before the first Superbowl and before the AFL and NFL leagues merged. This was a competitive alternative football league that expanded American football into many “smaller” markets. As a Buffalo Bills fan, I can remember listening to Bill’s games on the radio with my dad and following the team without knowing anything about what was happening in the NFL other than the Cleveland Brown being the closest NFL team by distance. The AFL opened up professional football to many of these cities. Analogously, I may be over reaching, but it would be great if the USL could continue to increase it competitiveness and investment as a league to build the cultural fan bases independent of MLS to the point where it can draw or develop talent on par with the MLS.

[@asnark7115]

@34:34 You need the facilities first, Tac. If teams move up or down in the EPL or any other league that lacks competition from other sports, they need stadiums to fit the base.

[@1972dsrai]

Part of the reason why the PL and other European leagues are so exciting with a global fanbase is partly to do with the fact we have promotion and relegation and on any given day the top teams can get beaten. It ensures the league is exciting to watch throughout the season with top teams fighting for the title and the lower teams fighting to stay up. Having a franchise system might make it hard to convince owners to adopt a similar system if it means they could get relegated and possibly end up losing a large part of their fanbase.

[@brianbunker2150]

The 94’ World Cup was the first time soccer was promoted on TV. I was in elementary school then and that World Cup got me playing.

[@RickyRicardo84]

Did u go pro?

[@brianbunker2150]

@@RickyRicardo84nah, became a pro dentist instead, more money and job security.

[@RickyRicardo84]

@@brianbunker2150 lol that’s awesome.. I played in college then went to med school instead. MLS used to pay peanuts back in the day.

[@giodhuha6771]

Tac, you should do an interview with Emma Hayes and convince her to coach USMNT.

[@1972dsrai]

You can’t have a woman coaching the mens team. They’re very different sports in my opinion. Tactics and systems employed in the women’s game just wouldn’t work in mens game.Its a lot slower where players having a lot more time and space on the ball.

[@nahyoudontsay7537]

Ah haaaaa you're such a comedian.🙄

[@robertbush4808]

She would be better than GGG…

[@gandalfgreyhame3425]

​@@1972dsrai That is such total BS. John Herdman coached the New Zealand and Canada women and had great success and then coached the Canada Men's team to their first ever qualification for the World Cup. They finished FIRST in CONCACAF, while Berhalter limped the USMNT into the WC in third place in CONCACAF. TACTICS ARE THE SAME for both the men and women's game. The execution is not as fast or precise because, yes, women are shorter and slower and can't jump as high as men, but the tactics are the SAME. The difference between the success rates of the US men and women is that Title IX flattens out the financial stresses of the pay to play youth development system in the US for young female athletes. Culturally, a HUGE pool of girls are encouraged to do sports in the US compared to every other country in the world, and many of the BEST girl athletes in the US choose soccer instead of other sports, and Title IX is a big lure for many families to support that decision, because every university with a big men's football and/or basketball program has to provide equivalent numbers of scholarships to women's sports, and a so big chunk of that goes into women's college soccer. This just isn't true for the men, where football, basketball, and even baseball scholarships and the professional leagues are far more attractive and lucrative than MLS. The best US male athletes do not choose soccer, and the level of play in MLS STILL SUCKS, MLS youth development STILL SUCKS, and so today, the USMNT is STILL DEPENDENT on foreign trained soccer players for its best talent (and that includes Pulisic, who went to BvB at age 16). As for coaching, Emma Hayes utilized an aggressive pressing mid-block defense together with fast counterattacks with through passes. This tactic produced the winning goals while strangling the opponents' offenses in all the knockout matches and final against Japan, Germany, and Brazil. THIS IS THE SAME TACTICAL SCHEME used by a lot of top level European MEN'S teams!!! There is NO difference! Antonio Conte plays the same way, and won league titles with Chelsea and Inter Milan and Inter still play like this post-Conte. This is a tactical scheme that the USMNT could have also used to great effect, and done much better with than the idiotic Berhalter Ball - building out from the back to nowhere, pass to the wingers/overlapping fullback and crossing almost every single time. Trying to play with a high back line and getting burnt time and again. Losing the ball trying to play from the back and leaking cheap goals. Gregg's Great Idiocy was thinking he was a Genius and that he could get the USMNT to "play like Pep", when in fact the USMNT DOES NOT HAVE PLAYERS the quality of Barcelona, Man City, or the Spain Men's National Team. No, the USMNT SUCKS at playing out from the back, SUCKS at slow buildups, SUCKS with the predictable pass wide and cross game, SUCKS with the high back line. The USMNT doesn't necessarily need Emma Hayes so much as they need an Emma Hayes clone who UNDERSTANDS THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES of the players, and plays a tactical scheme that the USMNT can actually succeed at and would produce far better results than Berhalter Ball. The old USMNT was mostly a mid to low block with fast counterattacks. The old USMNT was able to win a number of high profile matches against great teams with far more talent playing this way. Then Gregg came along and there was this great conceit that the US players could now "play like Pep" and win even more. At the same time, he had no ability to coach defense and he played favorites with the players, continuing to call in players who were clearly not performing. That is where getting a coach like Emma Hayes, who picks players at the top of their form, drops out of shape non-performers (such as Alex Morgan, and on the men's side the injured Tyler Adams and the sluggo version of McKennie who should have been dropped), and instituting tactics that are within the capabilities of the players on the team to maximize their ability to win is the very defining characteristic of a Great Coach. That's why Emma Hayes could very well succeed with the USMNT as well as the USWNT, just like John Herdman did.

[@FutFiles]

Tab Ramos 🎉

[@gusbus9000]

I think the push to expand really diluted the MLS product. I used to know at least 5 players on each team in the 90s MLS days. Now I couldn't name you a single player on 2/3 of the teams. Ramos hits it on the head when they need the fans to discuss the league year-round rather than just attend a home match on a pleasant day. MLS will start progressing when a fan not only follows his/her team but also consistently tunes into a rival's game simply to root against the rival when their own team isn't involved. Similar to like me watching the Dallas Cowboys and rooting for them to lose since I'm a Washington Commanders fan.

[@BryantLopez224]

I've always like Tab Ramos since I believe U-20 but I would love to see him back with the national team

[@kelvinloyola6070]

I was 13/14 in 1996 when MLS kicked off. The 1996 MLS season is unlike ANY soccer season I have ever watched or been a part of. And am A River Plate fan. 1996 was a celebration that soccer had returned. The games were at times insane, from 3-3, to abysmal, to really electric. The feeling was just joy that people were watching soccer. It was truly unique. In a way MLS lost that feeling and became just another sports league in the US.... But really it was a lot a lot of FUN.

[@TonyBrasunas]

I was 21 that year and went to several matches in different stadiums to take it in. It was a wild and exciting time, and yes the games were sometimes thrilling and sometime painful to watch. But I remember that sense of celebration too. It was like every fan you saw in the stadium you knew that that person too didn't really care about the teams but just wanted to support and enjoy soccer. Very special time. (Painful parts were that the huge stadiums were mostly empty, jock jam music during the game, weird shoot-outs, count-down clocks, etc., and of course the level of soccer wasn't high.)

[@kalvinjones8216]

Please interview my favorite player Sean Johnson

[@lawrencedockery9032]

In the 90's it wasn't just the World Cup that really pushed soccer to another level (though, yes it was the biggest art of it). You had the 1994 World Cup, soccer at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and then the 1990's Women's World Cup. It's much the same during the 2020's. You had the 2023 Gold Cup, 2024 Copa America, 2025 Club World Cup and Gold Cup, 2026 World Cup, and then soccer at the 2028 Olympics in LA. But I agree with Tab: if it doesn't happen for soccer now, it never will.

[@thomaspatton4626]

I wonder if Dunga ever apologized to Ramos? I was sitting in the Stanford Stadium at field level maybe 15 yards away that day in 1994 and what happened was really nasty?

[@kylecorman7859]

It is very hard not to say that the ‘26 World Cup isn’t the most important in USMNT history. This is because of three reasons: scope of the sport in the U.S., player development, and fully establishing the soccer culture of the United States. With the World Cup, there is a full and honest chance for soccer to take over the fourth, if not the third place among sports for fan engagement in this country. Hockey and baseball have been hemorrhaging fans for years and this will be the biggest opportunity for soccer to make that jump. In player development, the World Cup will be the cultural gateway to expose another generation of young people to the game and possibly getting them to consider soccer as a primary sport in their life. Finally, the World Cup will help crystalize the fan culture for the country. It is the opportunity for the grassroots of the game to finally spread and fully ingrain itself into the sporting culture. This will help not only MLS, but especially the USL in all of its divisions, but also the local clubs in the UPSL and other “minor leagues”.

[@hengineer]

without watching first I will say winning the right to host 1994 in 1990 was the most important moment, and that includes Caliguri's goal to qualify for 1990, so by extension Mexico being disqualified, allowing us to qualify lmao.

[@jonjohnson422]

If this team under performs it'll set back the sport again

[@1972dsrai]

That shouldn’t be the case though, but understand its very different in the US where club football isn’t so dominant. In most countries the performance of the national team is important, but success is not relied upon to maintain growth and fanbase, its just a given. If the US fails theres a fear among some it will have a detrimental affect on the expansion of the game which shows its still not seen as a major sport there.

[@lennyjenkins9931]

​@@1972dsraiIssue is Club football doesn't exist in the U.S. They're franchises. And many of those franchises do fuck all to reach out to the local populace.

[@DominicanStud101]

The 1994 World Cup is still more important than the 2026 World Cup. It brought us MLS (even though it’s not the best league it’s still important for our soccer landscape).

[@Capt.Magnitude04]

All I'm going to say is, it starts with being free. How can we grow the sport if it's not even available to the public.

[@ricopo3522]

I gotcha- 100% not a lover of pay to play as well, but also: I say- don't wait for organizations interested only in profit to go against their perceived self-interest. Be the change. It is free. A ball, some grass. Get some friends and go play. A lot. Have fun. Play free. Work/play work/play work/play the game... obsess on that joy the first 14 years of your life and you will stand out, be well ahead in the game and in demand.

[@Capt.Magnitude04]

@ricopo3522 yea that's great and all, but not really. Most Americans have no passion for the sport. The main reason for that is the poor stigma with the sport. In order to grow passion with the sport and get more interested to begin with is being exposed to the sport as a youth, when you're 5 through television. But how can young american show any interest when they can't even watch their own local team play, unless they pay to watch. Now the issue comes of a very few americans having let alone passion in the sport to play, and then in order to play in a team you have to pay too. That's excessive. The passion for the sport is at an all time low. Even if you get other friends to play, the chance that they prefer to play another sport is high. It's honestly a miracle that we managed to develop players like Pulisic, Reyna, Mckennie, and Adams, etc.

[@almostnorris623]

​This doesn't explain why the women's team are breaking headlines and the fans too are into the popularity trend. When looking at the spectators who won't " fold their arms" but jump around in contast to the men's side. They show up and the fans watching wouldn't let them down in return. That is all, and they got there by sweating and facing adversity and diversity. The men have no such hurdles but lament about gaming off season. These ladies athletes aren't gaming and also lamenting about it to the media. The ladies have a higher bar especially the coaching staff. My comment is derived from the current Olympic champions press conference involving the women's coach who shared her experience heading to the U.S position as a woman and a club level heading to America from toxic British taboo experience as a coach.

[@johnny83746]

Starting with the Escobar goal is dark

[@j.frankparnell]

Exactly what i was thinking. Brutal!

[@asburyfox]

I have an MLS apple tv subscription to watch my team, LA Galaxy, but there are so many games at the same time, it's hard to get into other MLS games. I believe you can get more eyeballs on MLS games if they were spread out during the week at different times. The Mexican league does a better job of scheduling. Another big problem is the apple tv app itself being exclusive to apple products. Android users are 40% of the U.S. population. Apple tv needs to make itself available to android.

[@chuch723]

I was their in 19996 at spartan stadium clash vs united I was 12 years old. We filled spartan stadium the energy was electric but the owners never made it so that the team incorporated itself to the community. San jose has a huge Mexican community that's what they should have targeted I played soccer growing up but they didn't target that demographic and they still don't. They have a nice stadium now but it never sells out and I don't watch the games anymore just snips on you tube. The owner now is the same as the athletics of mlb and it shows. And I'm perty sure most mls teams suffer from the same thing. The teams never ingrained themselves into their communities. Kids love to go to games but once they get older they stop and maybe when their adults and have kids they comeback but not with same passion of when they were children. Mls can be a great league but their is still so much work that it must do the world cup will come they will get some hype but will they be able to bottle it up and make it last thats the thing

[@matttyes]

'94 was the most important at that time, now '26 is b/c it is sustain by all evens that occurred before hand and future the sport in the US will be based on what happens there.

[@Tokubrother]

A prerequisite to hosting the World Cup should have been implementing promotion relegation

[@silenced8630]

Shoutout Nebraska lmao

[@PerpetualAbidance]

30:39 We get our games on all the tvs by having the best players in the world which means money, which means tv. Chicken, meet egg.

[@PerpetualAbidance]

Getting a minor team in Omaha to have a shot in an open pyramid is fine but it is not going to convince Mbape, Neymar, and Ronaldo to join a US side. I think what you want is for teams to be able to spend an unlimited amount of money and you are saying that an open pyramid will do that. Maybe. That means shut down MLS and starting from scratch. We can talk about that after we discuss starting new league on the moon. In the meantime can we pressure them to have 5, 6, 7, 10 DP’s plus a 25 to 50 million salary budget.

[@jefffch]

US has ZERO pressure. That's why it will only be an average soccer country.

[@markrubio1286]

We are in trouble if the usmnt does not get a coach by now

[@mattchristopher2039]

Tab you want fans to hate teams, I hate red bulls, revolution and lafc, how's that lol? But you make a great point, wa na hear more public chatter

[@wrenangles5455]

Really enjoyed the interview. Please get Alexi on the show so we can witness the most uncomfortable interview ever.

[@FlyFoxPro]

I am not a casual soccer fan I follow the goings on game to game for multiple clubs around the world and my local USL championship Club. When it comes to these teams, I watch games, I follow transfer dealings and I buy merch. I have never watched an MLS game in my life, and don’t plan on it, in fact I want them to stay far way from me and my state because the only thing that would happen if they came here is the death of my club. So all that to say that the only way the MLS could get my attention is if they had an open pyramid and my team got promoted. Otherwise all efforts are in vain.

[@TonyBrasunas]

Wow, that's a high level of dedication. The open pyramid is needed. Agreed.

[@kaijusportsclub5440]

I believe Pulisic’s youth club chose not to pursue receiving the solidarity payments due to the hassle trying to pry them from MLS (the payments go through MLS somehow). The lawsuits would have resulted in breaking even, in their estimation.

[@TonyBrasunas]

Wow, do you have a link or facts on that? Would be a great story to cover here.

[@1829glct]

I understand the equality of ownership payment statement, but isn’t every pro sports league in the United States like that? Warriors were bought in 2010 for $450 million and is now valued at $5.6 billion

[@handlenumber707]

Honestly. It's unimportant. It's just a gold plated object. Still, I could help you lift that trophy and do so without match fixing.

[@TrainerAQ]

Of course it is man! But they are gonna f it up! I wish we had Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey there. Not the Gio Reyna and Tim Weah drama team!

[@j.frankparnell]

And get off his lawn!

[@samuelshaw2661]

Can’t have it only streamed on an apple app for 15 dollars a month no casual or “general fan” is going to pay that

[@moloko5]

Why do people watch MLB and not AAA baseball in the bar? Why do people watch Big 10 college football and less so the local FCS team? Same reason they watch Premier League. It's not complicated and it has nothing to do with pro-rel open pyramids or anything else. It's the quality of the players and the that has mostly to do with the money in the league, television contracts and so on. There was "grassroots" soccer for 100 years before MLS came along and it never went anywhere until money was put into a league, but expecting that league to catch the Premier League is just as unreasonable as catching the NFL.

[@djknox2]

YES the 2026 WC will be most important for the USA, and I fear Canada will outshine us...

[@1972dsrai]

All the pressure does seem to be ob the US tbh. Copa definitely didn’t help and people are realising CONCACAF dominance doesn’t mean a lot in the grander scale.

[@djknox2]

@@1972dsrai Frankly we make that pressure. The US is slightly albeit consistently better than the rest of the top tier in CONCACAF, and that is good enough to be say top 20ish in the world (noting there isn't a big difference between 20th and 30th). However top 20 isn't the same as top 5 or top 10. To win the World Cup, one must be top 10 and the US isn't there. AND, we may never bet there. So we set expectations far too high. Yes we're a little better than Canada or Mexico or Panama, But not so much better than we can play a man short and still expect to win. So we got edged out in the Copa America. Disappointing? Hell yes. But surprising? Not really. I could imagine that an Argentina or Spain could play Panama 1 man down and survive, but not necessarily the USA. That is no different than asking Senegal or Japan to play a man down and win. Possible but not assured. I think better coaching would help, but we still lack certain ingredients that make a top 10 team. Could we get there in time for 2026? Maybe possible, but it should not be expected.

[@jefffch]

The NFL will never allow MLS to grow too big. NFL wants to play a few games in Brazil. HMMMM I wonder why

[@OldBrenda]

MLS comes off like a corporation.

[@j.frankparnell]

There is a Jingoistic/ Nationalist element to all this that is part of the reason. The most popular sport is NFL. Almost 100% of players are American citizens, and America is the best league and players of American football. NBA has dropped significantly in percentage of American citizens, but Americans still dominate most lineups. And NBA still considered best basketball league in the world and usa basketball still the best team. MLB probably less than half are American citizens its still the best league but usa not best team anymore. And hockey. The last two have been in steady decline in popularity . If soccer is gonna surpass a couple of these and get into the culture it will require MLS to become a top league and USMNT to become a consistent winner and top 5 team in the world.

[@ep330]

Chill out. MLS needs to constantly win the concacaf champions league and compete against the South American teams. The Brazilian league is the best league in all of Americas

[@danimorales6453]

W

[@ChristopherJamesG]

20th🎉

[@thomaspatton4626]

Why does it take US SOCCER SO LONG TO MAKE ANY BLOODY DECISIONS? Glaciers melt faster!!! 😮

[@jefffch]

MLS will grow but it will always be the rest home of world football

[@omgronny9572]

The obsession with being just like South America or Europe is getting embarrassing my guy. European clubs are becoming more like US teams, and South America is finally getting private ownership investing.

[@PerpetualAbidance]

No. 1994 was. Hands down. It’s kind of like asking what is more important, your birth or your high school graduation.

[@andh2627]

Fans talk about NFL and NBA because they are the best leagues. MLS isn't the best league in the world. People do talk about EPL.

[@cjmcaulay]

Short answer: No…nothing will be more important to USA 🇺🇸 soccer than 1994; Caliguiri’s 1990 goal, and (USWNT…it helped everyone) 1999; but this is next.

[@mvpalumb]

1st! lol 🤪🇺🇸⚽️🙂👍🏼

[@TacticalManager]

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@greggberhalter8781]

GGG > TAB RAMOS

[@MrHiguy1989]

the reason there is no culture aorund the MLS is bc its a hollow league. half the games dont mean anything, no threat of relegation, no title races and now no serious domestic cup. you want the US fans to get behind soccer in the states? either tear down the structure of MLS or get rid of it. a bunch of NFL owners milking the sport for as much money as they can hord is the doom of the game. MLS as it is now, is poison to the game in the US

[@DM48858]

Bro go get a blood test. You are always sick