Landon Donovan Talks USNMT & World Cup with Kirk Morrison

The United States men's national team has done something it has never done before, and Landon Donovan is having a hard time believing the whole moment is real.

Two games into the World Cup, the U.S. has clinched a spot in the round of 32 and clinched first place in its group. Donovan, joining guest host Kirk Morrison on the show, did not undersell how rare that is.

"They've done everything they needed to," Donovan said. He had expected the U.S. to win both matches, maybe drop a tie in one. He did not expect it to come this comfortably and this emphatically. Finishing first after two games, he noted, "is never heard of on the U.S. men's side. The women do it all the time. They do it in their sleep."

That success creates a strange next step. The U.S. plays Turkey on Thursday in a match Donovan called "now meaningless" because Turkey is already eliminated and the Americans are already through. His advice for manager Mauricio Pochettino is blunt: rest everyone who played the first two games and field an entirely new eleven.

The logic is partly about avoiding injuries and suspensions, and partly about chemistry. Donovan pointed out that bringing in the other eleven players makes them "feel like they are participating and a part of it," after Pochettino largely rolled out the same lineup for the opener, minus an injured Christian Pulisic.

On Pulisic, Donovan was measured. A calf injury is "really hard to deal with" in soccer because you run on your calves, he explained, and he had warned at the time that a return within a week to nine days would be a stretch. Now the rest works in Pulisic's favor. Sitting Thursday lets the muscle "completely heal," and Donovan believes Pulisic "will be more than fine by July 1st," when he expects the round of 32 match to land in the Bay Area.

How far can this team go? Donovan framed it as a momentum ladder. The U.S. should be favored against a likely third-place opponent in the round of 32. Win that, get a coin-flip matchup in the round of 16, and "all of those factors take you over." String it together and a quarterfinal is suddenly an even match. "The fact that we're already a massive part of the way there is huge," he said.

Donovan also spent time on the bigger picture of an expanded 48-team World Cup, a format some traditionalists, including his podcast partner Tim Howard, have called the worst thing ever. Donovan disagreed. He called Germany-Curaçao, noting Curaçao "never ever ever could have dreamt of being in a World Cup" under the old format, and described the party in the stands as insane. Cape Verde drawing two strong teams was the same story.

He marveled at Lionel Messi, who scored a hat trick in his opener and is tied for the all-time scoring lead, and compared watching him to watching Michael Jordan: enjoy it while you have it.

Mostly, Donovan kept circling back to one feeling. After the first Los Angeles match he texted Howard, "I can't believe how cool soccer is." For a player once mocked for dribbling a ball around, the vibe in America this summer still amazes him.

His pick to win it all, outside the U.S.: Spain, especially with Lamine Yamal back and the team looking dominant in a 4-0 win.