Jason Kelce on Messi, USMNT World Cup Hopes & Why Soccer Is Harder Than Football | Unfiltered Soccer

Jason Kelce is such a good guy. Cool to see he is a soccer and USA fan. Go Birds!

As a Mexican Eagles and fútbol ⚽ fan. I loved this podcast. It's nice enjoying Landon Donovan for once . I'm really enjoying that Americans are having serious talks about ⚽

At 19:40 he literally breaks it down.
Also....we are starting younger and younger because we Russia and China dominating everything. They literally produced roided up teenagers taking all medals in every category. So instead of combatting it - We followed route. Grabbed them when theyre small. Sell them a dream

finally finally oh my god finally a channel where american people and more than that professionnal players in their owned sport o like"football" have a real ,serious and realistic conversation about soccer, THANK YOU JASON KIELCE, i am french living near from Philly (Bensalem street road) from 2002 to 2004 and having so good memories...and eagle fan forever now.
Thank you Jason for your undestanding about sports in general you are an great man.

that's really cool of Jason to come on the show. great chat!

i think jason could have been the american gattuso

When the ball hits the back of the net, it's a goal, it's Vialli. (sorry, can't remember from which song this chant comes from)

My goodness, the whole world is saying that the referee that gave red card to baligun is on something and needs to hold accountable

Think about this, think about every NFL players or basketball players that had play soccer in young age or any age, it help them with great footwork with any pro ball game, name it. That's what soccer does to anybody that has played it, cause kelce did play the game in young age and that's why he run a lot, oldel belcham the same, ocho same

Don’t follow NFL but like Jason instantly. Gentle giant, great man 🥇

Messi scored 6 so far

So the answer to the question "if America's best athletes played soccer would America be better at soccer" is absolutely yes. The problem is that the question is always framed really poorly.

Because the people asking the questions don't actually understand what makes a soccer player good at soccer. The question is always framed as "well what if you had Tyreek Hill and Lebron James and DK Metcalf." Wrong type of athlete. It's possible some version of those players could have been decent at soccer but not automatically intuitive. I do think the question is interesting but the way it's framed never invites discussion.

Soccer is not a sprinting sport. It's an endurance based sport. Therefore, only certain very specific categories of players from other sports could reasonably translate to soccer. For example, Alex Freeman's father Antonio Freeman was a wide receiver. Alex is a center back. Even center backs have to cover 5.5-6 miles per game. So some aerially gifted wide receivers, as well as some point guards in basketball, could conceivably have the natural cardio to be trained as center backs, or possibly strikers. That is the type of limited range we're dealing with, because soccer simply doesn't reward added height or mass at most positions in the same way basketball or football do. But good luck winning a header over Tyrese Maxey if he played soccer his whole life.

When it comes to baseball players. I do wonder if some baseball players would make good goaltenders. I've been watching Justin Lebron at Alabama. 6'2" is maybe on the shorter end for goaltenders, but the speed at which he reacts to stimulus, tracks it, and makes a play, he could be a special goaltender.

There are obviously players who could have cardio potential that we're unaware of, but that's hard to prognosticate. The US is also very competitive in distance running. But then the question becomes what of their skills with the ball. A Cole Hocker or Yared Nuguse, Grant Fisher or Nico Young would absolutely tear up the pitch from a track perspective but if you gave them a ball since childhood would they have skills with it.

But I think the main hurdle is framing it with these types of athletes. A Charlie McAvoy is much more likely to be a good soccer midfielder than a Lebron James.

I really do love podcasts with high level athletes from different sports talking like this.

Should consider more guests from other sports.

The collab we didn’t know we needed

Thanks you for bringing the show for more info n different scenarios..

That analysis from 18:21 on is spot on. Wow

The Norwegian fans do the same slow clap that the americans have been getting ripped on for stealing from Iceland. Many european teams use the Jack White song (american) as their chant and copy one another, then say that americans have no culture and that is why our chants suck. We have no culture, yet their biggest chant is an american song lmao. That said, the USA chants are super lame. I'd be embarrassed getting off the bus hearing "we believe that we will win"

I really hope this podcast gets more views. As an English football fan it's really interesting to hear the perspective of American football players and their knowledge of the US system. Keep going strong!

Beating Belgium should not be considered an upset for the USMNT. That team does NOT look cohesive right now. I think Senegal could do it if the game gets chaotic enough.

The Miracle on Ice was not just one game… we weren’t favored to win any of those games and the game with Russia wasn’t the Gold Medal game. It’s a very similar comparison.

As an American how can you like France AKA North Africa ?

You can just use Freeman as an example….dude is son of a NFL WR and 6’2 a pure athlete…..duh not every athlete can have the skill with their feet and technique….but there are plenty who could and play other sports

Malorts 😂, and phila kelce in same chat with donovan and tim is awesome

The conversation you guys have at 27:00 is actually really important. We have got to KILL the idea of athlete "specialization" in youth sports. We should be encouraging them to play a multitude of sports and not subject them to burnout and fatigue at such an early age.

USA, in my opinion, have the best talent pool in the world. You are a country of almost 350M people.
You have players that will give you an edge just by being more athletically gifted than anyone else itw, meaning they are dominant in terms of strength, power, explosiveness, speed, jumping ability....from countries like Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Ghana, Brazil.....
You have hardworking players that would thrive in duels, aerial duels, tackles, sliding tackles, heading, getting 2nd balls, covering large parts of the pitch.... from countries like Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Australia....
You have feisty, "dirty" players, that can get under opponents skin, and that are ready to do all kinds of stuff on the pitch, and walk the fine line between warnings, yellow cards, in order to win...... from countries like Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay......
You have players that are exremelly talented with the ball at their feet. They are the ones that can maintain possesion, escape pressure situations, pass the ball with extreme accuracy, using moves that will make highlight reels..... from countries like Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Croatia, Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Colombia....
You have players with high IQ, that will make it easier to contral matches from tactical aspect ......from countries like Italy, Germany, Spain, Croatia, Netherlands
You literally have a talent pool with kids that have every possible trait for every position in football. Luckily for the rest of us, you are to greedy to get rid of p2p.

Great episode! Jason has some investment in soccer. Landon made a great point on having to string together multiple miracles in a row. Belgium / Spain / France / Argentina not to mention not looking past B & H.) My one comment would be less pure talent seperation between the 32 teams remaining in the knockout round. We are already saw this play out yesterday. Paraguay & Japan absolutely proved they belonged! Home field advantage is huge and USMNT definitely fed off that in the group stage!! USA 🇺🇸 ⚽️!

American treasure is a bit of a stretch 😂

Messi 🐐 is different

Who said Football teams don’t have chants? TEXANSSS SWARMMMM

Jason Kelce is the official Captain America

USA looks AMAZING! But it is SO, so hard to play a series of games at the highest level. As Landon says, how do you win 4 games in a row? France can do it. Messi may will his team thru once again.

How do soccer players not suffer from burn-out playing from a young child?

The trio we never knew we needed!

Is it easier to be a soccer player or American football player?

I'm a white dude who played WR in college. 5'11" 195 lbs 4.49 speed. If I had grown up in Europe or Latin America I absolutely would have played soccer. Would I have been a better soccer or American football player? I don't know. Logically it makes sense that my size and speed would make be suited for soccer because I can only really play two positions in American football. It makes sense that Saquon Barkley or Christian McCaffrey would be great soccer players but who knows. Messi has no chance of a being a American football player. I feel like American football is more genetics based. If you're not born big and strong and fast all at once you don't really have a chance. Soccer isn't that way. Which I think makes it more difficult due to a lager talent pool.

As a person from South Philly who is an Eagles fan USMNT fan since 2014 I really like this podcast.

I know Donovan and Howard the legendary goalkeeper. Let's hear this Kelce guy. I like what Kelce is saying.

Completely agree that American sports need more chanting/songs but that's only gonna be possible when arenas/stadiums stop pumping in loud music at every stoppage of play (even in between pitches in baseball sometimes). It sucks the air out of the building. There's no opportunity for the crowd to get the energy going for an organic chant or song