ESPN’s Taylor Twellman Talks World Cup Semifinals & USMNT with Rich

Taylor Twellman came on The Rich Eisen Show with the World Cup down to its final four, and he had already called this shot. Before the tournament started, he said, he had France and Spain in the final. He is not backing off it now.

The France and Spain semifinal was the one he could not wait to break down. "This is as good as it gets," Twellman told Rich. His case for France came down to sheer talent at the top of the field. "If you listed the top 10 attacking players in the world right now, I think they have three of them." He named Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele, then singled out Michael Olise as "arguably the best provider in this entire tournament."

Spain, meanwhile, had conceded only one goal all tournament, but Twellman was not convinced that would hold. He described their style as "death by a thousand passes," a team that will pass you to misery and make you chase the game. The danger, he explained, comes the moment they lose the ball. If Spain cannot swarm and win it back immediately, "France has the athleticism, France has the dynamism to really expose them." His verdict was blunt: "I'll be shocked if France isn't in the final."

On the other semifinal, Argentina against England, Twellman leaned into the drama around Jude Bellingham and England manager Thomas Tuchel, who had called a result lucky. Bellingham's public shrug drew headlines, but Twellman read it as tough love. "He knows this English mentality and togetherness. It's been a long time, if ever, that they've had this," he said, pointing to Harry Kane and Bellingham as a game-changer and a game-breaker who are "really feeling themselves."

Rich pushed him on the conspiracy talk, the idea that FIFA has a thumb on the scale for Lionel Messi and Argentina. Twellman would not go there. He acknowledged a VAR call on a disallowed Egyptian goal "raised a lot of eyebrows," and admitted he thought that goal should have stood, but he refused the larger theory. "Egypt still gave up three goals in the final 13 minutes," he said. "I can't go that far in and believe a conspiracy that FIFA is tipping the scale for Messi to go out with a bang."

The Golden Boot race gave Rich his favorite angle. Mbappe and Messi entered the semifinals tied atop the standings with eight goals apiece, and both had passed Miroslav Klose on the all-time World Cup scoring list during this tournament. Twellman marveled that five global superstars, including Kane and Bellingham, had all delivered at once. "The stars have delivered in this tournament unlike any World Cup that I can remember off the top of my head," he said. Rich noted the almost impossible scenario in play: Mbappe could win the Golden Boot and pass Messi for the all-time record in a final.

Then came the harder subject, the U.S. men's national team and the annual hand-wringing over the state of the American game. Twellman, who lives inside it, sounded worn down by the recurring pay-to-play debate. He argued the problem runs through all of youth sports, that little league baseball and town soccer alike have become businesses rather than development. His fix is to raise the lowest tide, to pour resources into the lowest levels of coaching so kids everywhere get real instruction without a $7,000 club fee. The goal, he said, has to be reaching the final eight of the world before anyone talks about winning it. On whether Mauricio Pochettino should stay, Twellman was open to it, but only if the manager truly wants the international grind over the daily rhythm of a club.