ESPN’s Taylor Twellman: What the USMNT Must Do to Reach a World Cup Final 8

Every four years, the same conversation shows up on schedule, gets loud for a few weeks, and then disappears until the next World Cup. Taylor Twellman is tired of it.

"It's crazy, Rich," the ESPN analyst told the show when asked about the hand-wringing over the state of men's soccer in this country after the U.S. men's national team's run ended. "I feel like we talk about pay-to-play every four years and a bunch of people come into the conversation that don't pay attention and then all of a sudden come in and say, pay-to-play this, pay-to-play that."

His frustration isn't with the critique. It's with the shelf life of it. Twellman said he is always open-minded to people on the outside who pay attention and offer ideas, but the same idea recycled on a four-year loop stops being an idea.

He also made clear the problem is bigger than his sport. "Pay-to-play is a massive issue not in soccer, in youth sports in our country," Twellman said. He and Rich had touched on this at the American Century Championship. AAU baseball and basketball. Gymnastics and cheerleading. Hockey and lacrosse. Even Little League baseball has a price tag now.

"We've kind of lost the plot here," he said. "Now, youth sports is now a business and it's not a development."

Twellman also addressed why the American women have stayed ahead of the men, pointing to full resources, Title IX and a college system that outstrips most of the rest of the world. But that edge is shrinking as France, England, Colombia and Brazil pour soccer minds into their women's programs. The gap, in his words, has been bridged.

Which brings him to the fix, or at least the start of one. The U.S. needs a bigger fishing net. "So, when the World Cup comes, we have 48 to 50 players capable of playing at the highest level, not relying on one Christian Pulisic, one Weston McKennie, one Tyler Adams," Twellman said. Without that depth, he and Rich are having this exact conversation again in four years, which he flatly called the definition of insanity.

Rich admitted the whole thing can feel like howling at the moon, and copped to walking away from the AYSO sideline culture himself because he couldn't stand what his kids were absorbing from screaming parents. He circled back later to say plenty of those parents mean well and do well.

Twellman's proposal is unglamorous, which is probably why it might work. Raise the lowest tide. "I would make sure the lowest level coaching in the United States of America for men and boys is raised exponentially," he said, so a kid who can only play town or town travel still gets a real education in the sport. His alternative is the current setup, where four clubs in an area each run seven teams per age group and everybody hands over seven grand for a promise nobody can name.

He also wants perspective on the result itself. Norway got celebrated for reaching the final eight. The U.S. reached the final 16. Twellman's line in the sand is clear: get to the final eight first, then talk about winning it.

On whether Mauricio Pochettino should stay, Twellman is open to it, with a caveat. Nobody can convince him Pochettino got a full cycle to install his fingerprint, and he believes the hire should have happened right after the 2022 World Cup. The real question is whether an international job suits a coach Twellman describes as a guy who loves the daily grind of a club team, though he hasn't spoken with him since the World Cup.