March 10, 2026 • 32 mins
This week on Inside American Soccer, Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos welcome back USMNT legend Tony Meola. Tony reflects on his unlikely journey, from playing center forward at Kearny High School in New Jersey, to attending the University of Virginia on a dual baseball and soccer scholarship, to the disappointment of being cut from the 1988 Olympic team.
He opens up about the greatest performance of his national team career, the life-changing impact of the 1994 World Cup, and the emotional pump-up video the team watched inside the Pontiac Silverdome the night before their opening match against Switzerland.
Plus, Tab and Tony reveal their All-Time USMNT Starting XIs, and Tony shares the story of becoming the unlikely star of a “Broadway” play.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I was interviewing Christian Polisic a little while back and
someone had asked him on our Someone on our panel
asked him like, do you know how like how impactful
this is gonna be? And he was like, uh, yeah, well,
you know we all playing Europe And I said, no, no,
you have no idea what the World Cup playing at
home is going to do for you. Man. It's a
(00:20):
completely different animal and it changes your life and it
will forever.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
What's going on, everybody, Welcome back to Inside American Soccer.
I'm your host, Tom Boger, joined by my friend one
of the greatest players in US soccer history, veteran of
three World Cups, Tap Ramos, And as we promise, we
are bringing back another US soccer legend, also a veteran
of three World Cups, an NCAA champion, MLS Cup Champion,
MLSMVB Hall of Famer, New Jersey Royalty, Tony Meola, Uncle
(00:50):
t Tone, thanks for joining us again. They have all
this valuable time. How many favors while oh you know none?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Man. I love coming on with you guys, love chatting
chatting this game with you guys.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
On our last episode, we had Tony saying a ton
of nice things about Tap, and these are long, long friends,
and it was funny to watch Tony say to you know,
the best midfielder in US soccer history, and just having
to watch Tab sit here and listen and be polayed
without knowing how to take a very very top compliment.
So I'm gonna turn that to you, Tony, Tony you,
(01:22):
and and again Tap, I've said similar things you as well.
But Tony, there are there are I think few people
when I'm just talking to agents and generally people around
when your name comes up, it's always a smile, it's
always a laugh at somebody you can. Oh you talk
you talk to Tony. Oh you talk to Big Ragu
and then insert any other nickname that anybody will give you. So, Tony, you,
You've always been great to me. So thank you. Thank
(01:45):
you for taking the time. Tap. How are you doing?
What was that like to uh sit there and make
Tony feel uncomfortable?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Listen?
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I'm doing great. I'm doing even better to have Tony
here here with us. Although Tony and I have multiple
conversations every day about some things we're really happy about
and about some things that we're struggling with. But but
we do have some deep conversations. Listen, I'll start with
(02:11):
this about Tony. Is you know I've said in episodes before,
how you know, when you're on the team with somebody
and you go through difficult moments, you really get to
know who's somebody.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
What somebody's like.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
But at the end of the day, you're on the team,
you go to practice, and then you go home. You know,
Tony and I have developed a really close relationship over
the last few years, working on a number of different
things that, by the way, we don't have to do together.
We chose to do together. So it's a little bit
different than someone picking you on their team and then
you have to go fight together. Right In this case,
(02:46):
we're fighting for a lot of things together because we
chose to do that.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
And you know what I can tell you. You know that
although I've known Tony.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Since he's you know, in his teens and before that,
I can tell you that I've been able to find
out more about the person Tony Miola, and that is
you know, somebody who's patient, somebody who's super smart. And
I think I think in the place where we match
is that we're both planners, right, and so we we
are always looking at what we have to do next
(03:15):
and how to put it together, and we really we
really compliment each other in terms of like planning things
as to what the next steps are for everything that
we're doing. But it's been it's been a real pleasure
for me over the last few years to really get
to know Tony much better as a person and to
have developed a really close relationship.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
That we now have. Having said that, I don't want
to get too sentimental.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Right at the end of the day, Listen, I you know,
the one thing that we'll all remember about Tony, and
this is more as fans than anything else, is obviously
Tony in the nineteen ninety four World Cup and what
he did for the team, and of all the wins.
You know, because sometimes we compare teams and we compare generations,
you know, why is this generation not getting the huge
(04:01):
wins that we had in the nineties, Because that's true.
You know, we beat a lot of big teams in
the nineties in the nineties that we weren't supposed to win.
And probably the most important reason we did that is
because Tony Meola was standing on his head and he
we were able to take on the kind of pressure
and we were you know, thank god EXG didn't exist
(04:24):
back then because we would have broken all the negative
XG records.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
But we still won the games.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
But you know the good thing about not having the
XG is no one talked about it.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Is we just won the game. But yeah, you know,
on the field, it's something else.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
And I think, you know, I think Tony was the
kind of guy that marked an era, you know. I mean,
when you think about the nineteen ninety four World Cup,
you know, even me, and even though obviously I played
in it, I think of Tony Meola. I think of
the Tony Meola, Tony Tail and Tony being in the
goal and being the captain of the team. So Tony
has had a big effect for me personally in my life,
(05:02):
and I think he will continue to have it, hopefully.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Wow. I don't even know what to say. I talk
to Tab. I talked to Tab ten times a day,
and I'm speechless right now. For any one of us
to be speechless, thanks man. I appreciate that. Yeah, I
appreciate it. And I think he knows me, knows how
I feel about him. It's all the same things. I'd
(05:26):
just be regurgitating all that stuff for me when when
the team part forget our personal relationship is what it is, right,
and I don't think that's ever gonna change the team
part of it all. All I ever wanted in teammates
was to know that the guy next to me wanted
to win as bad as I did, Right, that's all.
That doesn't mean you're gonna win. There's gonna be crappy
(05:48):
games and you're gonna suck some games, and you're gonna
be great some games, and that's just the way the
sport is, right, that's the way life is. I just
wanted to know that you wanted to win as much
as me. And I didn't have a teammate. There's a
few I had tabs certainly at the top of the
list that wanted to win as much anybody that I
ever played for. So that that's why I think, right
(06:10):
from the beginning, aside from the fact we were from
the same town and all of that stuff, that's why
I think we kind of we hit it off right
from the jump.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
It's a pretty obvious one from the outside. And again,
it's just really cool when you meet your heroes for
them to be actually good people. As well, because you
guys could have been a holes and it wouldn't have
changed anything. But it's even a bonus. You guys are
good people. But anyway, let's get right into it. On
today's show, we have an interview with Tony. His memorable
moments is Crew, the Hides and Low's and I'm gonna
see if I can get them get him off balance
(06:40):
with a couple of random questions, and we're gonna name
our all time best starting eleven for the US men's
national team. I think that we've got a lot of
different answers. It's it's great for debates, it's great to
go down memory lane. It's great to talk about some
of the legends of this program. I always enjoy that.
But first, let's tart with Tony. Tony, as we covered
on the last time you were on the show, the
Carnie all all of that to come from New Jersey,
(07:01):
Tab was talking about it as well. He hinted at
you were not just a great, great soccer player again,
one of the best goalkeepers in this country's history. You
were a basketball player. You played college baseball. I believe
if your Wikipedia is right on my on my a
little bit of looking into this. You made All State
in New Jersey both as a goalkeeper and as a
(07:22):
center forward in high school.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, well, my senior year about some of my best
friend soros Amilia. For three years we rotated either games
or hat. He was a goalkeeper. He went on the
place I've heard, I know, I know. But a week
before our our senior year was about to start, our
center forward got in a car accident and couldn't play,
(07:46):
was out for the entire season. And mister Miller, our coach,
legendary coach and car and he said, man, we really
need a set, We need a center forward. Does anyone
know anyone, because like it was a town you could recruit.
And I was like, literally, I just come back from
the youth national team. Was the on the nineteenth at
the time, and I was like, I'll do it. I'll
do it like I always wanted to do it. I
did it every day. So I ended up I led
(08:08):
the state in scoring and I made first team and
it was I think I like thirty three goals or
something like that. It wasn't certainly tab scored like one
hundred and thirty three in a season, but but yeah,
I did it just because that's what the team needed
to win, That's what we needed to do to win.
That's so I ended up doing it. And actually, Tom,
it was preemptive to what the game became, right, like
(08:31):
goalkeepers having to play with your feet. And I still think, man,
it was. It was And at the time I didn't
know the benefits I was getting out of it, but
it benefited me down the road when I needed it.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Most your benefits was learning how to celebrate goals and
was probably like, man, this is a whole lot of
fun being on this end of the field, right, like
tab It's funny, like this has come up randomly, like
like I've said this on the show before too. Just
look up your goalscoring record in high school. I can't
possibly imagine how much fun that is.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
It was a little bit just for one person. It
was fun for one person. Everybody else was miserable.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Kidding me, how manuny assists could you get by just
rolling a ten yard past sideways?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
And yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
It was different times, Tom, It was different times, Tony.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
So, again, with all of your wider athletic accomplishments and abilities,
did you ever consider not going soccer like going towards
basketball or baseball.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Well, no baseball, right, I played half My scholarship in
Virginia was a baseball scholarship, so I only played in
the fall. I missed the first fall because me and
Jeff Agus and that team went to the Youth World Cup,
so we had the red shirt my first year. So
my first college, my first college sporting event was a
college baseball game at Virginia because I started in the spring,
(09:49):
and I used to during soccer season. Bruce Arena will
tell you. I used to during soccer season at nighttime
after we went to dinner, some people went to study.
I want. I had a key to the gym and
I went into the batting cage during during soccer season
and I stayed all night and hitting the batting cage
with the baseball guys and vice versa. I would go
hang out with the soccer guys during baseball season because
(10:10):
I had to. You know, there would be days off
with baseball, and I trained in the spring soccer season
like That's how I had to do it, because I
didn't really know any other way, and my parents couldn't
afford for me to go to UVA. So if I
didn't play both sports. I mean I had I had
a dual scholarship. I was just trying to keep up
with all of it. But that's kind of what college
was like for me.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Again, just another different era, and I think that's why.
So for baseball was that ever again, you got drafted
by the Yankees out of high school?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Right, that that's great, like my that's I was getting
there when I got I got tought from the Yeah,
when I got cut from the Olympic team. Tab do
you remember eighty eight Olympics. We were in a hotel
in El Paso, Texas, I think, playing our last game
(11:00):
before the Olympics, and I'd just come on late in
the site was it was only one camp. And I
remember because Ricky Davis refused to play because there were
so many young players. He came on the bus. He
refused to play because there it was just going to
be a young team, right, and they wanted him to
captain the team at the time. And I went back
to the hotel and they gave they gave tickets out
(11:21):
and these guys were literally going to the Olympics. If
your ticket said you were going to Soul and my
ticket said I was going home, And I kind of
knew it, right, I knew it. Oh No, Bart Barrick
was nineteen ninety four, not nineteen eighty eight. The yeah,
in nineteen niney four. But that's how I and then
I thought, you know what, I'll go to coll I
(11:42):
have to play soccer in college because it's paying for
my school. But I'm gonna play. I'm gonna play baseball. Yeah,
I had to because my parents wasn't gonna tell my parents, right.
So anyway, it turned out differently. Once we qualified for
that World Cup.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I do remember that we all became honorary citizens the
city of Alpaslo.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I think I still have that certificate somewhere here.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
It might be behind that some here.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Actually fantastic, that's fantastic. Yeah, so I again there is
if we had three hours, I wouldn't run out of questions.
But you know, there was plenty of time between. But
I do want to get to the ninety four Walk Cup.
So so Tony, what were you what were you alluding
to there? That was barbark Well.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
We had so we we would run on the beach
like we had double days, literally every day for eighteen months.
And the guys that were in Europe like tab They
they were living their their beautiful life while we were
living in California doing double days and chasing soccer balls
all around with one player, one ball from Bora Miltanovich,
which was a legendary a legendary drill he used to do.
(12:47):
So that we get down to the end and here
we had released a couple of guys. Borahead couple cut
a couple of guys probably about two months before the
World Cup, but there were still four guys that needed
to be cut because we knew Harks. I mean the
guys that were coming back Ernie Stewart and I know
I'm missing a couple, but the guys that were coming
(13:08):
back from Europe, I think there were like seven of
those guys. We knew they were making the team. Essentially
Roy Weggerley was in that group. I can't remember off
the top of my head, but anyway that we knew
the numbers. So four guys had to be released. And
we're a week out from playing that Mexico game, which
was the last warm up game of the World Cup,
and Bora makes us, has us run at the beach
(13:31):
in the morning, right, Tom, when I tell you my
biggest freaking nightmare ever running at the beach right like
that was. I hated it more than anybody in the world.
And anyway he leaves, he leaves the facides one thing,
I really I respect Bora, but I've told him, like
I told him at one point about ten years ago,
(13:54):
that that needed to be done a little bit differently.
But four guys got phone calls and said go over
to the facility. And the gal, her name was Melissa,
the gal that was at the front desk, was tasked
with telling those guys that they didn't make the World
Cup team. He's her job.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
She was.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Didn't do it himself. He was a secretary. There was
a secretary at the front desk, and Bord left the
training and the documentary that's coming out, I think you're
gonna hear from some of those guys about how that
all went down. If they agreed to do it, I
know they were, they were being asked to do it.
And and so when I when you talk about Barbaric
(14:37):
in nineteen eighty eight, No, that was really good. At
least you knew you were getting a plane ticket home,
like you knew you could get home. At least you
know the other way you didn't know how you were
getting home. You just knew you weren't going to the
World Cup. So yeah, guys like Domin Kanier was one
of those guys. I think Chris Henderson was one of
those guys. Yeah, I'm trying to think of the other two.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
One of those guys.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Jenny Fagus was one, really and there was one. There
was four that day. But anyway, so when you said barbaric,
I'm like, no, no, you have no idea.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
So so finally getting to the World Cup again, man,
that I can't imagine being one of the last guys cut.
That's just so so brutal.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Dominiclayer was my roommate from the first game after the
nineteen ninety World Cup, which was in Portugal. We played
in Portugal to the last camp before the ninety four
World Cup. Every single camp in between, Dominic Kinnear was
my roommate and then and then got released from that team.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
You know what, I remember, Dominic caner at some of
some of the trips.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Didn't you have like a PlayStation game or something where
you played hockey all the time, right.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, yeah, well it's probably NHL ninety or ninety one
or something like that. But Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah,
he was. He used to bring that so funny either.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Way, that's just brutal. But getting to the ninety four
World Cup again, we're talking so so much about this.
That was the last time the World Cup was here
and all of the legacy that it created Major League Soccer,
everything that you guys did and everybody on that team
did to help build and create a foundation for the
sport in this country. So Tap, maybe i'll start with
you on this one. Your first game, your debut game
(16:22):
at the World Cup in ninety four, when the national
anthem is playing, What's going through your mind? What are
you feeling?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Well, besides being extremely hot, it.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Was because you have to remember, and I want to
answer your question properly, but we were playing at the Silverdome.
Silverdome was obviously it's closed, it's in the middle of
the summer, and it has no air conditioning. It was
the first time that they put these grass fields inside
inside of a bubble, so it was extremely hot. Still,
(16:54):
I think the hottest game I was ever involved with.
And that's even though obviously I later on I played
four pm games on Saturdays in Dallas in MLS and
those are not fun, but the hottest. It was incredible
at the at the at the Silver Dome. But having
said that, it was it was just really an incredible
(17:16):
feeling to have been part of that team because for
the first time, I think we felt like people cared
about soccer in the country. As we're sitting there with
the national anthem and you know, the stadium is full
and it was a pro American crowd really for the
first time where we had tens of thousands of pro
(17:36):
American fans. I think it was It was certainly a
day to remember and an incredibly proud moment.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Tell what about you, Yeah, I remember it being hot,
for sure. It was muggy and uh. One story that
you'll again you'll see in the documentary It's coming Out.
We were there the night before and we realized, you remember, Tad,
We went there and Bora took us just wanted to
take us to this stame. We had already trained in
the afternoon. We we had dinner and he wanted to
(18:06):
take us to the stadium. So they drive us to
you know, right into the stadium and we walk out
to midfield and they turned the lights out in the
whole stadium. It was pitch dark, right to have and
they put a video up on the board just for us,
and I think we're going to see that video for
the first time coming up here in the next couple
of months. It's a really quick video. Everybody on the screen.
(18:27):
It was like a pump up video. Yeah, yeah, there's one.
I did see one picture circulating recently of that group
just at midfield with the lights on, just like like
a team photo type thing, which is really cool. But
I I remember that night and remember, uh, you know,
(18:49):
like not we're ready, like now's the time, right, we
were going to play a World Cup at home, because
when you think about World Cups, there's very If you
really think about the number of people that play in
a World Cup, it's it's so the number is minuscule, right,
compared to how many people have ever played soccer. And
then to think about the the guys who get a
chance to play at home, right, that number is even smaller. Right,
(19:12):
that's in a couple of hundreds, right, maybe in a
few thousand, if you will. And I was interviewing Christian
Polisic a little while back, and someone had asked him
on our someone on our panel asked him like, do
you know how like how impactful this is gonna be.
And he was like, ah, yeah, well you know we
(19:32):
all playing Europe And I said, no, no, you have
no idea what the World Cup playing at home is
going to do for you. Man. It's a completely different
animal and it changes your life and it will forever.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Getting pumped up just thinking about. But we got to
take a very very quick break. We're gonna ask some
rapid fire questions with Tony about his favorite teammates, his
biggest difference is his best performances, and a couple other things.
So please rate, review and subscribe. It's Inside American Soccer,
Tabaramas wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back fin South
(20:08):
American Soccer. Let's do a little rapid fire with the
legend that is Tony Miola. Tony goalkeepers have to learn
to deal with mistakes. What was the one time, maybe
the most time that your confidence was actually shaken in
a game, if at.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
All shaken in a game. I'd have to say for
about thirty seconds after giving up the goal against Romania
and the World Cup, and then I had to really
just turn around. But I was I thought I had
it right, and I didn't have it right, so that one,
but I like how it reacted from it.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
There you go, story redemption. What do you think your
personal best performance was in a US Sure?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I always looked at my career in a hundred caps
I had, I had five really shitty games I had,
I had five really super good games in like ninety games.
It all looked the same. That's like the thing I'm
most proud of. But my best one was probably the
performance against England. And what was that tournament called the
(21:10):
US Cup? It was?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah, it was a US Cup?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, US Cup? Yeah, against the against England to zer
win tab Actually an incredible assist on the Duley's goal, right,
was it Thomas Dooley.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
On Duley's goal.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
But I'll add to what you said before. You know
that when you look at your career, you look.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
At five shitty games and five great games. Well, I
don't remember any of your five shitty games. I can
tell you that.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I think that those two numbers were even. I mean
the great games was much much higher.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah. Yeah, but that's kind of how I looked at it.
But because my my the pride of for me of
the career was like just being consistent, knowing that you
could you could depend on me when you needed to
depend on me.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
What was the craziest environment you ever played in? That
can go all the way back to childhood, to high school,
to college, to pros to indoor soccer to a media
game with me with.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Without Yeah, the media game was second. But the craziest
one by far was a game I didn't play in
but I was in the state, but against Morocco in Casablanca.
I have never ever heard anything like that in my life.
(22:23):
That that was, uh, that was incredible, incredible. I mean,
the the way the noise went through like it was crazy,
the way the stadium shook. And then the other one Actually,
another game I didn't play in was he maybe maybe
that's the familie didn't recognize when I was playing locked
(22:43):
in was South Korea World Cup in two thousand and two.
That when Clint Mathis scored that goal, but that stadium,
the entire day was But I guess you notice things
to have more when you don't.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Play when you play your because your you're I guess, yeah,
but it was those two.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, favorite US men's national team teammate besides them, Oh.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That's a tough one, I'd have to I'd have to
say because I was with him. Probably the longest is
Marcello Babo.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Legend, legend, most difficult opponent that you played with for
the national team?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Played it played against? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh easy one
for me. We played a C. Milan in my my,
my team we played AC Milan in Chicago. Marco Van
Boston my hands down. I shouldn't say hands down because
Ramrio and Bebeto we're also pretty pretty good. But Marco
(23:50):
van Boston and Rude Houllett. But Marco van Boston, he
hit a ball to score a goal by my ear
and I could still hear it going past meeting. But
he was a beast man. Justj just injuries cut his
career short. He was a monster.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
What's the biggest difference between your nineteen ninety four team
and this upcoming twenty twenty six to US national team?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, I would say one thing. We're seeing it now
with this team, so it might be we're but that
ninety four team was so tight. I mean, we were trying.
We had a different mission in ninety four, right, We
were trying to conquer the world in nineteen ninety four,
where these guys have the world that they're at their
feet right now. It's just no matter what they do
(24:37):
with it.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
What is the most annoying non soccer question you get
asked in interviews like this by idiots like me? Because
I have two guesses. One is either hey, are you
gonna go back to the ponytail? Or two is gonna
be tell me about the time when you were on
the Jets, because I think it's one of those two,
But tell me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah. Look, the Jets thing was like just a childhood
like dream that I was living out right to play
another professional sport. But you it's number two and you
nailed number one. So I don't know. How did we
have this discussion before?
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Okay, Yeah, by the way, I didn't know anybody had
dreams that playing for the Jets, But I.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Guess some people said, I said, another professional sport.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Lastly a rapid fire. Maybe this could be a new
annoying one. What can you tell us about your nineteen
ninety five off Broadway appearance in Tony and Tina's wedding.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Oh man, it was awesome. It was so awesome doing anything.
I went to school theater, theater and and uh, and
communications was my me. Yeah, in college and I and
I thought, man, this is the only way I can
convince my parents that I actually went to some of
the classes. I got to take a job.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
But were you Tony and Tony and Tina's wedding?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, it was the Star. Yeah, no, it was I
wanted we do. We extended it four weeks. What happened
was MLS. MLS was supposed to start. They ended up
pushing the league back. And then I got this call
because they were doing all these like Lee Mazzilli and
X Mets player, like all these guys were doing this role.
So they called there, like my guys, if he didn't
even have to change his name, it's Tony, you know,
(26:15):
he doesn't even have to fake it. And then it
was so tom there were people waiting online. There would
be soccer fans waiting online to get tickets the night
the night of the show that couldn't get in, and
they'd be back the next night. And they extended it
like four weeks after that, and uh, and back in
the day, I'll be honest, it wasn't a bad paycheck
(26:36):
for what I was doing, better than the Brooklyn make money.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
I'm sure better than Brooklyn Italians.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I can't speaking of money, I can't tell you how
much money i'd pay for a time machine to go
back and watch one of those performances. But thank you
for that sone. We're gonna have one more quick break
and we'll be back for the all time US men's
national team starting allows. Thank you for listening to Inside
America Soccer. Please rate, review, subscribe forever he gets podcast.
(27:10):
Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. We thank Tony Mioa
so very much for his time, expertise, laughter, friendship, everything.
So we want to go back in time and talk
about who our all time starting elevens is with the
US national team.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
TAB.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
This was very hard for me to put together. I
can't imagine how difficult its view, given that you've been
in the locker rooms, you've been part of all of
these teams, and a lot of guys that you've seen
both in training and in games, and then currently coaching
or watching all of that. So Tab, I'm gonna let
you kick us off and go first.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
All right.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
I made up my own rules a little bit for
this selection, so I didn't I picked an old time
team that I would want to play with. But I
only I did it only with guys that I played
that I actually played with, guys that I spent time
in practice and in games with.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
So this is my line up. Tony would be in goal.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
In the back I selected, I'm going with three in
the back, as you know the new US lineup. But actually,
if I could pick only one or two defenders, I
would have been better off.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I didn't want to pick any, but I'll be I'll
be clear with that.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
I would have picked more attackers, kind of like an
MLS All Star game where they picked like gold the
number tens.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I would have done right. So I picked three. So
I went in the back.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
I went with the three center backs being Alexi Lalas,
Kevin Crowe, and Marcelo Balboa wide on the right and
the left. I went on the left side, Hugo Perez
on the right side, Landon Donovan. In the middle of
the field, I went with John Harks and Rick Davis.
(28:44):
In front of them, I have Clint Mathis and up top,
Eric Guinalda and Brian McBride.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
My gosh, that's quite a team. That's quite a team. Man.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
I'm gonna show you I haven't made any changes I
wrote him down. I'm just gonna read them as they are.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Wow. Yeah. So I went with Balboa, Alexi Lass and
Eddie Pope in the back. I went in the center.
So I went three four three I'm using I'm stealing
Murcia Pochettino or three four two one I'm stealing the
stealing Pochettino's lineup or formation? Uh tab on the right
hand side, uh, John Harks and Thomas Dooley in the
(29:24):
middle of the field, and Landon Donovan on the left
hand side of the field. And then I went went
Alda on the left, Mathis on the right and Brian
McBride up top.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Who did you say in Golden On miss that? Or
did you skip over goalkeeper?
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Yeah? I didn't put a goalkeeper in. Come on, Tony,
I put myself in. Yeah yeah, damn shit. Yeah. So
we had all the same attacking players. Amazing man.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
That's so I'll give mine. And I thought it would
have been funny to just dead pan and only do
guys that have played like twenty ten and after, just
to see if if you guys would be raging through
the through the computer screen. Mine is is a bit
more comprehensive, though maybe not all the way back towards you, guys,
I went four to three to three Uncle Tony Meollen
goal uh, Steve Tarndolo, Claus Bocaneaga, Alexi Lallis and DeMarcus
(30:10):
Beasley on the back line, central midfield trio that you
can only dream of, Michael Bradley, Claudia Arena, tab Ramos
and a front three you could also only dream of
Christian Poolsick, Clint Empsey and Landon.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Wow, that's hard to be. That's hard to beat.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
And my manager would probably be Bob Bradley, very very
close over Bruce Arena.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Yeah, had I played with a couple of that Again,
I stole tabs rule. I actually thought that was the rule.
Only guys that I only guys that I had played with.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Was how I I looked at this one man, this
and this this is good because I think and I
think MLS has a worst problem of this than the
national team. But we're pretty bad at like being proud
of our history and really being like, like you stacked
out eleven up listen man, any maybe it is in
Brazil with Lea and Ronaldo and everything, but like that's
(31:02):
a lot of world class, top quality players for me,
so I always do enjoy going back down.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
You know, I always, I always, I always feel bad
if we put like an old time team together and
we don't know the Walter Barrs and the Harry koh Yes,
and you know, then beating England in Brazil in nineteen
fifty like that counts, you know, And so I always
feel bad if you're going to put a best eleven
that you know we never saw them play, you know,
(31:29):
so how could it be?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Right? And and again how different everything was back at
that time, not just the game itself, but the preparation,
the being scouted and selected to the team, all these things.
Like I forget what movie it was, but you know,
it seemed like that nineteen fifty seamed it was like
just the best players in Saint Louis, some guys from
from the northeast as well. Man, what a different time,
(31:51):
but what a legendary, legendary team. I think that does
it for our time. Totomiola, You're a legend. Thank you
so very much for joining us, that you're giving us
your time. Again, everybody listening to this, I'll say it again,
he is the best, one of one. Please listen to
him CBS, Sports, Galazzo, Serious XM. Anywhere he's doing work,
you should be listening when he's talking. TAB Same to
(32:11):
you as always, but I'll get to talk to you
again next week. Thank you all for listening. We'll be
back very very soon.
I was interviewing Christian Polisic a little while back and
someone had asked him on our Someone on our panel
asked him like, do you know how like how impactful
this is gonna be? And he was like, uh, yeah, well,
you know we all playing Europe And I said, no, no,
you have no idea what the World Cup playing at
home is going to do for you. Man. It's a
(00:20):
completely different animal and it changes your life and it
will forever.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
What's going on, everybody, Welcome back to Inside American Soccer.
I'm your host, Tom Boger, joined by my friend one
of the greatest players in US soccer history, veteran of
three World Cups, Tap Ramos, And as we promise, we
are bringing back another US soccer legend, also a veteran
of three World Cups, an NCAA champion, MLS Cup Champion,
MLSMVB Hall of Famer, New Jersey Royalty, Tony Meola, Uncle
(00:50):
t Tone, thanks for joining us again. They have all
this valuable time. How many favors while oh you know none?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Man. I love coming on with you guys, love chatting
chatting this game with you guys.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
On our last episode, we had Tony saying a ton
of nice things about Tap, and these are long, long friends,
and it was funny to watch Tony say to you know,
the best midfielder in US soccer history, and just having
to watch Tab sit here and listen and be polayed
without knowing how to take a very very top compliment.
So I'm gonna turn that to you, Tony, Tony you,
(01:22):
and and again Tap, I've said similar things you as well.
But Tony, there are there are I think few people
when I'm just talking to agents and generally people around
when your name comes up, it's always a smile, it's
always a laugh at somebody you can. Oh you talk
you talk to Tony. Oh you talk to Big Ragu
and then insert any other nickname that anybody will give you. So, Tony, you,
You've always been great to me. So thank you. Thank
(01:45):
you for taking the time. Tap. How are you doing?
What was that like to uh sit there and make
Tony feel uncomfortable?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Listen?
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I'm doing great. I'm doing even better to have Tony
here here with us. Although Tony and I have multiple
conversations every day about some things we're really happy about
and about some things that we're struggling with. But but
we do have some deep conversations. Listen, I'll start with
(02:11):
this about Tony. Is you know I've said in episodes before,
how you know, when you're on the team with somebody
and you go through difficult moments, you really get to
know who's somebody.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
What somebody's like.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
But at the end of the day, you're on the team,
you go to practice, and then you go home. You know,
Tony and I have developed a really close relationship over
the last few years, working on a number of different
things that, by the way, we don't have to do together.
We chose to do together. So it's a little bit
different than someone picking you on their team and then
you have to go fight together. Right In this case,
(02:46):
we're fighting for a lot of things together because we
chose to do that.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
And you know what I can tell you. You know that
although I've known Tony.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Since he's you know, in his teens and before that,
I can tell you that I've been able to find
out more about the person Tony Miola, and that is
you know, somebody who's patient, somebody who's super smart. And
I think I think in the place where we match
is that we're both planners, right, and so we we
are always looking at what we have to do next
(03:15):
and how to put it together, and we really we
really compliment each other in terms of like planning things
as to what the next steps are for everything that
we're doing. But it's been it's been a real pleasure
for me over the last few years to really get
to know Tony much better as a person and to
have developed a really close relationship.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
That we now have. Having said that, I don't want
to get too sentimental.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Right at the end of the day, Listen, I you know,
the one thing that we'll all remember about Tony, and
this is more as fans than anything else, is obviously
Tony in the nineteen ninety four World Cup and what
he did for the team, and of all the wins.
You know, because sometimes we compare teams and we compare generations,
you know, why is this generation not getting the huge
(04:01):
wins that we had in the nineties, Because that's true.
You know, we beat a lot of big teams in
the nineties in the nineties that we weren't supposed to win.
And probably the most important reason we did that is
because Tony Meola was standing on his head and he
we were able to take on the kind of pressure
and we were you know, thank god EXG didn't exist
(04:24):
back then because we would have broken all the negative
XG records.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
But we still won the games.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
But you know the good thing about not having the
XG is no one talked about it.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Is we just won the game. But yeah, you know,
on the field, it's something else.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
And I think, you know, I think Tony was the
kind of guy that marked an era, you know. I mean,
when you think about the nineteen ninety four World Cup,
you know, even me, and even though obviously I played
in it, I think of Tony Meola. I think of
the Tony Meola, Tony Tail and Tony being in the
goal and being the captain of the team. So Tony
has had a big effect for me personally in my life,
(05:02):
and I think he will continue to have it, hopefully.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Wow. I don't even know what to say. I talk
to Tab. I talked to Tab ten times a day,
and I'm speechless right now. For any one of us
to be speechless, thanks man. I appreciate that. Yeah, I
appreciate it. And I think he knows me, knows how
I feel about him. It's all the same things. I'd
(05:26):
just be regurgitating all that stuff for me when when
the team part forget our personal relationship is what it is, right,
and I don't think that's ever gonna change the team
part of it all. All I ever wanted in teammates
was to know that the guy next to me wanted
to win as bad as I did, Right, that's all.
That doesn't mean you're gonna win. There's gonna be crappy
(05:48):
games and you're gonna suck some games, and you're gonna
be great some games, and that's just the way the
sport is, right, that's the way life is. I just
wanted to know that you wanted to win as much
as me. And I didn't have a teammate. There's a
few I had tabs certainly at the top of the
list that wanted to win as much anybody that I
ever played for. So that that's why I think, right
(06:10):
from the beginning, aside from the fact we were from
the same town and all of that stuff, that's why
I think we kind of we hit it off right
from the jump.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
It's a pretty obvious one from the outside. And again,
it's just really cool when you meet your heroes for
them to be actually good people. As well, because you
guys could have been a holes and it wouldn't have
changed anything. But it's even a bonus. You guys are
good people. But anyway, let's get right into it. On
today's show, we have an interview with Tony. His memorable
moments is Crew, the Hides and Low's and I'm gonna
see if I can get them get him off balance
(06:40):
with a couple of random questions, and we're gonna name
our all time best starting eleven for the US men's
national team. I think that we've got a lot of
different answers. It's it's great for debates, it's great to
go down memory lane. It's great to talk about some
of the legends of this program. I always enjoy that.
But first, let's tart with Tony. Tony, as we covered
on the last time you were on the show, the
Carnie all all of that to come from New Jersey,
(07:01):
Tab was talking about it as well. He hinted at
you were not just a great, great soccer player again,
one of the best goalkeepers in this country's history. You
were a basketball player. You played college baseball. I believe
if your Wikipedia is right on my on my a
little bit of looking into this. You made All State
in New Jersey both as a goalkeeper and as a
(07:22):
center forward in high school.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, well, my senior year about some of my best
friend soros Amilia. For three years we rotated either games
or hat. He was a goalkeeper. He went on the
place I've heard, I know, I know. But a week
before our our senior year was about to start, our
center forward got in a car accident and couldn't play,
(07:46):
was out for the entire season. And mister Miller, our coach,
legendary coach and car and he said, man, we really
need a set, We need a center forward. Does anyone
know anyone, because like it was a town you could recruit.
And I was like, literally, I just come back from
the youth national team. Was the on the nineteenth at
the time, and I was like, I'll do it. I'll
do it like I always wanted to do it. I
did it every day. So I ended up I led
(08:08):
the state in scoring and I made first team and
it was I think I like thirty three goals or
something like that. It wasn't certainly tab scored like one
hundred and thirty three in a season, but but yeah,
I did it just because that's what the team needed
to win, That's what we needed to do to win.
That's so I ended up doing it. And actually, Tom,
it was preemptive to what the game became, right, like
(08:31):
goalkeepers having to play with your feet. And I still think, man,
it was. It was And at the time I didn't
know the benefits I was getting out of it, but
it benefited me down the road when I needed it.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Most your benefits was learning how to celebrate goals and
was probably like, man, this is a whole lot of
fun being on this end of the field, right, like
tab It's funny, like this has come up randomly, like
like I've said this on the show before too. Just
look up your goalscoring record in high school. I can't
possibly imagine how much fun that is.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
It was a little bit just for one person. It
was fun for one person. Everybody else was miserable.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Kidding me, how manuny assists could you get by just
rolling a ten yard past sideways?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
And yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
It was different times, Tom, It was different times, Tony.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
So, again, with all of your wider athletic accomplishments and abilities,
did you ever consider not going soccer like going towards
basketball or baseball.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Well, no baseball, right, I played half My scholarship in
Virginia was a baseball scholarship, so I only played in
the fall. I missed the first fall because me and
Jeff Agus and that team went to the Youth World Cup,
so we had the red shirt my first year. So
my first college, my first college sporting event was a
college baseball game at Virginia because I started in the spring,
(09:49):
and I used to during soccer season. Bruce Arena will
tell you. I used to during soccer season at nighttime
after we went to dinner, some people went to study.
I want. I had a key to the gym and
I went into the batting cage during during soccer season
and I stayed all night and hitting the batting cage
with the baseball guys and vice versa. I would go
hang out with the soccer guys during baseball season because
(10:10):
I had to. You know, there would be days off
with baseball, and I trained in the spring soccer season
like That's how I had to do it, because I
didn't really know any other way, and my parents couldn't
afford for me to go to UVA. So if I
didn't play both sports. I mean I had I had
a dual scholarship. I was just trying to keep up
with all of it. But that's kind of what college
was like for me.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Again, just another different era, and I think that's why.
So for baseball was that ever again, you got drafted
by the Yankees out of high school?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Right, that that's great, like my that's I was getting
there when I got I got tought from the Yeah,
when I got cut from the Olympic team. Tab do
you remember eighty eight Olympics. We were in a hotel
in El Paso, Texas, I think, playing our last game
(11:00):
before the Olympics, and I'd just come on late in
the site was it was only one camp. And I
remember because Ricky Davis refused to play because there were
so many young players. He came on the bus. He
refused to play because there it was just going to
be a young team, right, and they wanted him to
captain the team at the time. And I went back
to the hotel and they gave they gave tickets out
(11:21):
and these guys were literally going to the Olympics. If
your ticket said you were going to Soul and my
ticket said I was going home, And I kind of
knew it, right, I knew it. Oh No, Bart Barrick
was nineteen ninety four, not nineteen eighty eight. The yeah,
in nineteen niney four. But that's how I and then
I thought, you know what, I'll go to coll I
(11:42):
have to play soccer in college because it's paying for
my school. But I'm gonna play. I'm gonna play baseball. Yeah,
I had to because my parents wasn't gonna tell my parents, right.
So anyway, it turned out differently. Once we qualified for
that World Cup.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I do remember that we all became honorary citizens the
city of Alpaslo.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I think I still have that certificate somewhere here.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
It might be behind that some here.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Actually fantastic, that's fantastic. Yeah, so I again there is
if we had three hours, I wouldn't run out of questions.
But you know, there was plenty of time between. But
I do want to get to the ninety four Walk Cup.
So so Tony, what were you what were you alluding
to there? That was barbark Well.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
We had so we we would run on the beach
like we had double days, literally every day for eighteen months.
And the guys that were in Europe like tab They
they were living their their beautiful life while we were
living in California doing double days and chasing soccer balls
all around with one player, one ball from Bora Miltanovich,
which was a legendary a legendary drill he used to do.
(12:47):
So that we get down to the end and here
we had released a couple of guys. Borahead couple cut
a couple of guys probably about two months before the
World Cup, but there were still four guys that needed
to be cut because we knew Harks. I mean the
guys that were coming back Ernie Stewart and I know
I'm missing a couple, but the guys that were coming
(13:08):
back from Europe, I think there were like seven of
those guys. We knew they were making the team. Essentially
Roy Weggerley was in that group. I can't remember off
the top of my head, but anyway that we knew
the numbers. So four guys had to be released. And
we're a week out from playing that Mexico game, which
was the last warm up game of the World Cup,
and Bora makes us, has us run at the beach
(13:31):
in the morning, right, Tom, when I tell you my
biggest freaking nightmare ever running at the beach right like
that was. I hated it more than anybody in the world.
And anyway he leaves, he leaves the facides one thing,
I really I respect Bora, but I've told him, like
I told him at one point about ten years ago,
(13:54):
that that needed to be done a little bit differently.
But four guys got phone calls and said go over
to the facility. And the gal, her name was Melissa,
the gal that was at the front desk, was tasked
with telling those guys that they didn't make the World
Cup team. He's her job.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
She was.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Didn't do it himself. He was a secretary. There was
a secretary at the front desk, and Bord left the
training and the documentary that's coming out, I think you're
gonna hear from some of those guys about how that
all went down. If they agreed to do it, I
know they were, they were being asked to do it.
And and so when I when you talk about Barbaric
(14:37):
in nineteen eighty eight, No, that was really good. At
least you knew you were getting a plane ticket home,
like you knew you could get home. At least you
know the other way you didn't know how you were
getting home. You just knew you weren't going to the
World Cup. So yeah, guys like Domin Kanier was one
of those guys. I think Chris Henderson was one of
those guys. Yeah, I'm trying to think of the other two.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
One of those guys.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Jenny Fagus was one, really and there was one. There
was four that day. But anyway, so when you said barbaric,
I'm like, no, no, you have no idea.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
So so finally getting to the World Cup again, man,
that I can't imagine being one of the last guys cut.
That's just so so brutal.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Dominiclayer was my roommate from the first game after the
nineteen ninety World Cup, which was in Portugal. We played
in Portugal to the last camp before the ninety four
World Cup. Every single camp in between, Dominic Kinnear was
my roommate and then and then got released from that team.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
You know what, I remember, Dominic caner at some of
some of the trips.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Didn't you have like a PlayStation game or something where
you played hockey all the time, right.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, yeah, well it's probably NHL ninety or ninety one
or something like that. But Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah,
he was. He used to bring that so funny either.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Way, that's just brutal. But getting to the ninety four
World Cup again, we're talking so so much about this.
That was the last time the World Cup was here
and all of the legacy that it created Major League Soccer,
everything that you guys did and everybody on that team
did to help build and create a foundation for the
sport in this country. So Tap, maybe i'll start with
you on this one. Your first game, your debut game
(16:22):
at the World Cup in ninety four, when the national
anthem is playing, What's going through your mind? What are
you feeling?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Well, besides being extremely hot, it.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Was because you have to remember, and I want to
answer your question properly, but we were playing at the Silverdome.
Silverdome was obviously it's closed, it's in the middle of
the summer, and it has no air conditioning. It was
the first time that they put these grass fields inside
inside of a bubble, so it was extremely hot. Still,
(16:54):
I think the hottest game I was ever involved with.
And that's even though obviously I later on I played
four pm games on Saturdays in Dallas in MLS and
those are not fun, but the hottest. It was incredible
at the at the at the Silver Dome. But having
said that, it was it was just really an incredible
(17:16):
feeling to have been part of that team because for
the first time, I think we felt like people cared
about soccer in the country. As we're sitting there with
the national anthem and you know, the stadium is full
and it was a pro American crowd really for the
first time where we had tens of thousands of pro
(17:36):
American fans. I think it was It was certainly a
day to remember and an incredibly proud moment.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Tell what about you, Yeah, I remember it being hot,
for sure. It was muggy and uh. One story that
you'll again you'll see in the documentary It's coming Out.
We were there the night before and we realized, you remember, Tad,
We went there and Bora took us just wanted to
take us to this stame. We had already trained in
the afternoon. We we had dinner and he wanted to
(18:06):
take us to the stadium. So they drive us to
you know, right into the stadium and we walk out
to midfield and they turned the lights out in the
whole stadium. It was pitch dark, right to have and
they put a video up on the board just for us,
and I think we're going to see that video for
the first time coming up here in the next couple
of months. It's a really quick video. Everybody on the screen.
(18:27):
It was like a pump up video. Yeah, yeah, there's one.
I did see one picture circulating recently of that group
just at midfield with the lights on, just like like
a team photo type thing, which is really cool. But
I I remember that night and remember, uh, you know,
(18:49):
like not we're ready, like now's the time, right, we
were going to play a World Cup at home, because
when you think about World Cups, there's very If you
really think about the number of people that play in
a World Cup, it's it's so the number is minuscule, right,
compared to how many people have ever played soccer. And
then to think about the the guys who get a
chance to play at home, right, that number is even smaller. Right,
(19:12):
that's in a couple of hundreds, right, maybe in a
few thousand, if you will. And I was interviewing Christian
Polisic a little while back, and someone had asked him
on our someone on our panel asked him like, do
you know how like how impactful this is gonna be.
And he was like, ah, yeah, well you know we
(19:32):
all playing Europe And I said, no, no, you have
no idea what the World Cup playing at home is
going to do for you. Man. It's a completely different
animal and it changes your life and it will forever.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Getting pumped up just thinking about. But we got to
take a very very quick break. We're gonna ask some
rapid fire questions with Tony about his favorite teammates, his
biggest difference is his best performances, and a couple other things.
So please rate, review and subscribe. It's Inside American Soccer,
Tabaramas wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back fin South
(20:08):
American Soccer. Let's do a little rapid fire with the
legend that is Tony Miola. Tony goalkeepers have to learn
to deal with mistakes. What was the one time, maybe
the most time that your confidence was actually shaken in
a game, if at.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
All shaken in a game. I'd have to say for
about thirty seconds after giving up the goal against Romania
and the World Cup, and then I had to really
just turn around. But I was I thought I had
it right, and I didn't have it right, so that one,
but I like how it reacted from it.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
There you go, story redemption. What do you think your
personal best performance was in a US Sure?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I always looked at my career in a hundred caps
I had, I had five really shitty games I had,
I had five really super good games in like ninety games.
It all looked the same. That's like the thing I'm
most proud of. But my best one was probably the
performance against England. And what was that tournament called the
(21:10):
US Cup? It was?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah, it was a US Cup?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, US Cup? Yeah, against the against England to zer
win tab Actually an incredible assist on the Duley's goal, right,
was it Thomas Dooley.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
On Duley's goal.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
But I'll add to what you said before. You know
that when you look at your career, you look.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
At five shitty games and five great games. Well, I
don't remember any of your five shitty games. I can
tell you that.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I think that those two numbers were even. I mean
the great games was much much higher.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah. Yeah, but that's kind of how I looked at it.
But because my my the pride of for me of
the career was like just being consistent, knowing that you
could you could depend on me when you needed to
depend on me.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
What was the craziest environment you ever played in? That
can go all the way back to childhood, to high school,
to college, to pros to indoor soccer to a media
game with me with.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Without Yeah, the media game was second. But the craziest
one by far was a game I didn't play in
but I was in the state, but against Morocco in Casablanca.
I have never ever heard anything like that in my life.
(22:23):
That that was, uh, that was incredible, incredible. I mean,
the the way the noise went through like it was crazy,
the way the stadium shook. And then the other one Actually,
another game I didn't play in was he maybe maybe
that's the familie didn't recognize when I was playing locked
(22:43):
in was South Korea World Cup in two thousand and two.
That when Clint Mathis scored that goal, but that stadium,
the entire day was But I guess you notice things
to have more when you don't.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Play when you play your because your you're I guess, yeah,
but it was those two.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, favorite US men's national team teammate besides them, Oh.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That's a tough one, I'd have to I'd have to
say because I was with him. Probably the longest is
Marcello Babo.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Legend, legend, most difficult opponent that you played with for
the national team?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Played it played against? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh easy one
for me. We played a C. Milan in my my,
my team we played AC Milan in Chicago. Marco Van
Boston my hands down. I shouldn't say hands down because
Ramrio and Bebeto we're also pretty pretty good. But Marco
(23:50):
van Boston and Rude Houllett. But Marco van Boston, he
hit a ball to score a goal by my ear
and I could still hear it going past meeting. But
he was a beast man. Justj just injuries cut his
career short. He was a monster.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
What's the biggest difference between your nineteen ninety four team
and this upcoming twenty twenty six to US national team?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, I would say one thing. We're seeing it now
with this team, so it might be we're but that
ninety four team was so tight. I mean, we were trying.
We had a different mission in ninety four, right, We
were trying to conquer the world in nineteen ninety four,
where these guys have the world that they're at their
feet right now. It's just no matter what they do
(24:37):
with it.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
What is the most annoying non soccer question you get
asked in interviews like this by idiots like me? Because
I have two guesses. One is either hey, are you
gonna go back to the ponytail? Or two is gonna
be tell me about the time when you were on
the Jets, because I think it's one of those two,
But tell me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah. Look, the Jets thing was like just a childhood
like dream that I was living out right to play
another professional sport. But you it's number two and you
nailed number one. So I don't know. How did we
have this discussion before?
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Okay, Yeah, by the way, I didn't know anybody had
dreams that playing for the Jets, But I.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Guess some people said, I said, another professional sport.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Lastly a rapid fire. Maybe this could be a new
annoying one. What can you tell us about your nineteen
ninety five off Broadway appearance in Tony and Tina's wedding.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Oh man, it was awesome. It was so awesome doing anything.
I went to school theater, theater and and uh, and
communications was my me. Yeah, in college and I and
I thought, man, this is the only way I can
convince my parents that I actually went to some of
the classes. I got to take a job.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
But were you Tony and Tony and Tina's wedding?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, it was the Star. Yeah, no, it was I
wanted we do. We extended it four weeks. What happened
was MLS. MLS was supposed to start. They ended up
pushing the league back. And then I got this call
because they were doing all these like Lee Mazzilli and
X Mets player, like all these guys were doing this role.
So they called there, like my guys, if he didn't
even have to change his name, it's Tony, you know,
(26:15):
he doesn't even have to fake it. And then it
was so tom there were people waiting online. There would
be soccer fans waiting online to get tickets the night
the night of the show that couldn't get in, and
they'd be back the next night. And they extended it
like four weeks after that, and uh, and back in
the day, I'll be honest, it wasn't a bad paycheck
(26:36):
for what I was doing, better than the Brooklyn make money.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
I'm sure better than Brooklyn Italians.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I can't speaking of money, I can't tell you how
much money i'd pay for a time machine to go
back and watch one of those performances. But thank you
for that sone. We're gonna have one more quick break
and we'll be back for the all time US men's
national team starting allows. Thank you for listening to Inside
America Soccer. Please rate, review, subscribe forever he gets podcast.
(27:10):
Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. We thank Tony Mioa
so very much for his time, expertise, laughter, friendship, everything.
So we want to go back in time and talk
about who our all time starting elevens is with the
US national team.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
TAB.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
This was very hard for me to put together. I
can't imagine how difficult its view, given that you've been
in the locker rooms, you've been part of all of
these teams, and a lot of guys that you've seen
both in training and in games, and then currently coaching
or watching all of that. So Tab, I'm gonna let
you kick us off and go first.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
All right.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
I made up my own rules a little bit for
this selection, so I didn't I picked an old time
team that I would want to play with. But I
only I did it only with guys that I played
that I actually played with, guys that I spent time
in practice and in games with.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
So this is my line up. Tony would be in goal.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
In the back I selected, I'm going with three in
the back, as you know the new US lineup. But actually,
if I could pick only one or two defenders, I
would have been better off.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I didn't want to pick any, but I'll be I'll
be clear with that.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
I would have picked more attackers, kind of like an
MLS All Star game where they picked like gold the
number tens.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I would have done right. So I picked three. So
I went in the back.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
I went with the three center backs being Alexi Lalas,
Kevin Crowe, and Marcelo Balboa wide on the right and
the left. I went on the left side, Hugo Perez
on the right side, Landon Donovan. In the middle of
the field, I went with John Harks and Rick Davis.
(28:44):
In front of them, I have Clint Mathis and up top,
Eric Guinalda and Brian McBride.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
My gosh, that's quite a team. That's quite a team. Man.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
I'm gonna show you I haven't made any changes I
wrote him down. I'm just gonna read them as they are.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Wow. Yeah. So I went with Balboa, Alexi Lass and
Eddie Pope in the back. I went in the center.
So I went three four three I'm using I'm stealing
Murcia Pochettino or three four two one I'm stealing the
stealing Pochettino's lineup or formation? Uh tab on the right
hand side, uh, John Harks and Thomas Dooley in the
(29:24):
middle of the field, and Landon Donovan on the left
hand side of the field. And then I went went
Alda on the left, Mathis on the right and Brian
McBride up top.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Who did you say in Golden On miss that? Or
did you skip over goalkeeper?
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Yeah? I didn't put a goalkeeper in. Come on, Tony,
I put myself in. Yeah yeah, damn shit. Yeah. So
we had all the same attacking players. Amazing man.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
That's so I'll give mine. And I thought it would
have been funny to just dead pan and only do
guys that have played like twenty ten and after, just
to see if if you guys would be raging through
the through the computer screen. Mine is is a bit
more comprehensive, though maybe not all the way back towards you, guys,
I went four to three to three Uncle Tony Meollen
goal uh, Steve Tarndolo, Claus Bocaneaga, Alexi Lallis and DeMarcus
(30:10):
Beasley on the back line, central midfield trio that you
can only dream of, Michael Bradley, Claudia Arena, tab Ramos
and a front three you could also only dream of
Christian Poolsick, Clint Empsey and Landon.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Wow, that's hard to be. That's hard to beat.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
And my manager would probably be Bob Bradley, very very
close over Bruce Arena.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Yeah, had I played with a couple of that Again,
I stole tabs rule. I actually thought that was the rule.
Only guys that I only guys that I had played with.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Was how I I looked at this one man, this
and this this is good because I think and I
think MLS has a worst problem of this than the
national team. But we're pretty bad at like being proud
of our history and really being like, like you stacked
out eleven up listen man, any maybe it is in
Brazil with Lea and Ronaldo and everything, but like that's
(31:02):
a lot of world class, top quality players for me,
so I always do enjoy going back down.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
You know, I always, I always, I always feel bad
if we put like an old time team together and
we don't know the Walter Barrs and the Harry koh Yes,
and you know, then beating England in Brazil in nineteen
fifty like that counts, you know, And so I always
feel bad if you're going to put a best eleven
that you know we never saw them play, you know,
(31:29):
so how could it be?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Right? And and again how different everything was back at
that time, not just the game itself, but the preparation,
the being scouted and selected to the team, all these things.
Like I forget what movie it was, but you know,
it seemed like that nineteen fifty seamed it was like
just the best players in Saint Louis, some guys from
from the northeast as well. Man, what a different time,
(31:51):
but what a legendary, legendary team. I think that does
it for our time. Totomiola, You're a legend. Thank you
so very much for joining us, that you're giving us
your time. Again, everybody listening to this, I'll say it again,
he is the best, one of one. Please listen to
him CBS, Sports, Galazzo, Serious XM. Anywhere he's doing work,
you should be listening when he's talking. TAB Same to
(32:11):
you as always, but I'll get to talk to you
again next week. Thank you all for listening. We'll be
back very very soon.
Popular Podcasts
Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb
Joy is essential. And it's also elusive. You can't order it, borrow it, or simply hope it into life. But now, there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence: The Joy 101 Podcast with Hoda! Best known for her Emmy-winning work and co-anchoring Today, Hoda Kotb infuses her authenticity, curiosity, and warmth into conversations with the world’s most fascinating people. Entertainment legends, sport icons, wellness experts, and everyday folks will share how they find, allow, and experience joy. Hoda will offer her own tips and takes on seeking a more balanced, harmonious life. If you're craving inspiration, support, and useful tools to maximize your joy, tune in to these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Joy after a breakup, joy as an empty-nester, joy after loss, joy as a caretaker — Hoda's new podcast will speak to you. Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb, an iHeartPodcast.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com