Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
USMNT Nations League Semifinal vs Panama Preview
Tue, 18 Mar 2025
The U.S. Men’s National Team head to the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals. On Unfiltered Soccer, Landon Donovan and Tim Howard preview the Nations league semifinal game where the USMNT face off against Panama. The two cover Mauricio Pochettino’s first big tournament as head coach, the strength of Panama as an opponent, and what the Nations League has come to mean for U.S. fans. Our hosts break down the announced squad, including some returning favorites and a few surprises from January camp. Tim and Landon also dream up their preferred Starting XI, and look toward what they hope will be a USMNT vs Mexico final on Sunday. Plus, the guys discuss their favorite USMNT kits, national anthem memories, and contemplate if the CONCACAF nations should be competing with CONMEBOL countries. New episodes of Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim drop every Tuesday. Subscribe to the show on YouTube and follow on all your favorite podcast platforms. For bonus content and to send your mailbag questions in to the show, follow on all social media platforms @UnfilteredSoccer. (https://www.unfilteredsoccer.com). Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard is presented by Volkswagen. Learn more at https://bit.ly/4g8bZG3. Thank you to our additional sponsors: AT&T. Connecting Changes Everything. Visit https://att.com/guarantee to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the excitement around the Nations League semifinals?
Now it's a real game, real competition, FIFA competition, trophy at stake. Now it gets real. God, I'm so excited now for this. I can't wait for this weekend. Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim, presented by Volkswagen. Volkswagen has long been a supporter of soccer in America and has proudly been a partner of U.S. Soccer for the past five years.
LD, what's happening to my band?
How's things with you? Yo, we just talked yesterday. It is Tuesday, March 11th. We recorded a pod yesterday, but we are doing a special recording today. When this drops, we will have recorded this six days prior. But just got off. I listened to the press conference with Mauricio Pochettino for the Nations League. Um, yesterday I was really tired cause I just finished my Vegas trip today.
I feel great. More energy today. Good. I'm still sick.
I'm still sick of seeing you, but it's fine. Cause I actually was, I was on, I was on a, you and I were on a phone call as well earlier today.
So it's a bit too much of me. I get it.
That happens.
It happens.
But I don't mind it. More importantly, I don't think our, I don't think our listeners mind it.
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Chapter 2: Who are the key players for the USMNT squad against Panama?
If you're going to dominate the ball, then Tim Ream's a good guy to have because he's a really good, he's the best passer of all of them.
So, yeah. Okay. I mean, I think so. I think so. I, you know, the, I think if it's not Tim Ream, it's probably Kim and Carter Vickers, but again, we'll see. But I, I think that back four that I, that I said will probably be the ones that end up playing the first game. But overall, I, Look, would you say it's an incredibly strong defensive unit? I'm not sure.
No, no, no. Serginio Dest did not get called in. He's just coming back from injury. So that would have certainly strengthened it. But we'll see. I mean, Chris Richards playing at a really, really high level. So maybe it's enough to get by both games. Okay, let's move into the midfield. Tyler Adams! Welcome back. Thank God. Really happy for him. Bournemouth Player of the Month.
That team is playing so well, and He is just one of those guys, Tim, you almost can't put data on it or stats on it. He just helps you win. He just helps you win. So welcome back. Johnny Cardoso at Betis. Diego Luna gets a call back in. Weston McKinney. Gio Reyna called in. And Tanner Tessman, who's been playing and playing well now at Lyon.
I like... I do really like Tanner Tessman. Get to him in a second. Look, let me just say... Tyler Adams is brilliant. And I often talk about players, football players, having that dog in them. And they ask me what that means. And it's just like that, I'm going to take your head off. I don't care. And I was watching this weekend, and he was effing somebody off after a foul.
And I just thought, this kid's brilliant. He's absolutely brilliant. Diego Luna is an interesting one. You know, three caps, still young. You had him right in San Diego.
Didn't have him, but played against him.
Yeah. Yeah.
And so he, it's interesting. So this is what I was thinking about with you. So we talked about earlier guys who were in January camp and there were six of them. Diego was one of them. And if you remember in January camp, he broke his nose, stayed in the game, made a play. And I want to remind people, Pochettino's Uruguayan, Argentinian? Uruguayan. They love that, dude.
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Chapter 3: How does player travel affect readiness for international matches?
It's a Mecca. And you have to show up two hours before the game. And the bus pulls in. And as long as I live, I will never forget it. Someone can tell me how many San Pedro Sula holds. I don't know, 50, 60,000, whatever it is. It's this big concrete structure. The bus pulls in down a tunnel and it opens up. The locker room's here and it opens up.
And all you see is the stadium filled with people and music and horns and loud. And you get off the bus and you go again, it's a tunnel. It's just like concrete tunnel. And you get in the dressing room. And I remember thinking, I'm not going to enjoy this. What I said about Azteca, like I'm nervous, but I'm going to enjoy this. I just kept thinking, I ain't going to enjoy this.
This is like, this is horrific. The second we come out, because goalkeepers come out first form, they're going to boo and whistle and throw things. And that, by the way, does not stop for the next two hours. And as the LD said, you just cannot wait to get on the bus home.
Hey, you know what I didn't realize, by the way? But I don't know if it was San Pedro Sula or Tegucigalpa, one of those two places in Honduras. It's the second most dangerous airport in the world to fly into. Like the most difficult landing or whatever. And thank God I never knew that. I mean, as if it wasn't bad enough.
Appreciate you not telling that until 2025. Oh, just for the record, I did play at Saprissa. It wasn't that difficult. 1-3-1.
We didn't win.
We never won in Saprissa.
Oh, that might have been. You know what? That might have been a game where I scored. I might have scored a penalty right at the end. How the hell did they give us a penalty, by the way? That was pre-VAR. They weren't giving us any.
Oh, I kind of remember that. I got pumped that game. Oh, we got destroyed. Destroyed. Pre-VAR. Good question.
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