# Colin Cowherd & Landon Donovan react to World Cup Draw: USA Is Group D favorite

An episode of [The Colin Cowherd Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1551365571), 9 Dec 2025, 16 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/4013d28e-5f67-4885-bff1-ae3300346830/264f4829-2172-4884-afd3-b3ae0029303a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=e829cf60-fc06-4d61-8691-ae330034683e

Colin is joined by U.S. Men's soccer legend Landon Donovan and host of the “Unfiltered Soccer” podcast with Tim Howard to preview the 2026 World Cup. They start with the current USMNT and their more extensive experience in playing overseas, at a higher level than prior teams and the advantages it provides in preparing them for a cup. Landon argues that due to their early superstar status & big contracts, they lost some grit, but if they are focused can exceed expectations (1:30). They discuss the tension between star player Christian Pulisic and head coach Mauricio Pochettino after Pulisic declined an invite to the national team, and how Pochettino has brought a real sense of pride and accountability in playing for USMNT(3:30). Finally, they preview Group D and discuss whether the U.S. got a favorable draw, and the enormous pressure that comes with being a favorite and playing at home during a World Cup (7:45). They discuss how the expanded field of 48 teams has changed the definition of success for the United States (10:00), and debate whether the U.S. will play a more conservative defensive style or whether they’ll be aggressive and looking to attack (13:30). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: The volume. Today's World Cup draw reaction is presented by Haleon,
[0:06] Speaker 1: the maker of Advil, Centrum, Toms, Censedine, and Voltaian. They've
[0:10] Speaker 1: teamed up with US Soccer for the Assist the campaign,
[0:13] Speaker 1: celebrating all the moments of support that make the big
[0:15] Speaker 1: goals possible, because every goal starts with an assist. In
[0:24] Speaker 1: the history of the United States men's national team. The
[0:28] Speaker 1: man you're looking at has the most goals and most
[0:31] Speaker 1: assists in the history of our country. And we have
[0:35] Speaker 1: ourselves a World Cup on American, Canadian and Mexico's soil.
[0:41] Speaker 1: It will shatter every record from television revenue to television
[0:46] Speaker 1: ratings ever Landon. You and I've talked multiple times before,
[0:52] Speaker 1: but I think the thing that's exciting to me is
[0:56] Speaker 1: you were one of the rare Americans that could go
[0:59] Speaker 1: overseas and be prominent and dominant in the States. This
[1:05] Speaker 1: group of players and they've grown up in a different reality. Right,
[1:11] Speaker 1: We've got multiple players playing overseas. It's the most intense soccer.
[1:16] Speaker 1: Most of the best basketball is in the States, most
[1:19] Speaker 1: of the great soccer is in let's say Europe. Does
[1:24] Speaker 1: I believe you're just more battle tested? I feel like
[1:28] Speaker 1: this group of players has faced greater competition. It's almost
[1:36] Speaker 1: like they're more mature kids than you had the opportunity,
[1:40] Speaker 1: Clint Dempsey or Alexi. Our soccer has grown. It does
[1:44] Speaker 1: feel like a little bit more European. Take me to
[1:47] Speaker 1: your history that how you changed as a player the
[1:51] Speaker 1: more you faced international players. Because I feel this group
[1:55] Speaker 1: they have an advantage over your era is that they've
[1:59] Speaker 1: been more or international consistently, and I think that helps
[2:02] Speaker 1: us in bigger stages, in bigger tournaments like the World Cup.
[2:07] Speaker 2: So theoretically for sure, and they've they've played, they've played
[2:13] Speaker 2: at a higher level more often than we ever played.
[2:17] Speaker 2: The challenges Colin, And you know this generationally that when
[2:23] Speaker 2: you grow up with million dollar contracts when you're eighteen, Yeah,
[2:28] Speaker 2: soccer on TV. Everybody knows your name, you're famous, you're popular, whatever,
[2:33] Speaker 2: you lose a little bit of the grid that the
[2:36] Speaker 2: previous generations had. And I'm sure this happened in all
[2:39] Speaker 2: sports over time. The NFL in the seventies and eighties,
[2:42] Speaker 2: it was just hard and rugging. Now you get guys
[2:44] Speaker 2: coming out of college, actually in college, already making bazillions
[2:47] Speaker 2: of dollars. So theoretically, yes, what we've seen the evolution
[2:52] Speaker 2: of this group of players is a bunch of them.
[2:54] Speaker 2: We're twenty one, twenty two, twenty three, and katar in
[2:56] Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, and over the past six months.
[2:59] Speaker 3: Or so, you saw a bunch of them.
[3:02] Speaker 2: I don't know if entitled is the right word, but
[3:04] Speaker 2: expectant that they were going to be part of this
[3:07] Speaker 2: national team and that things were just going to sort
[3:09] Speaker 2: of fall into place. And then they went through like
[3:11] Speaker 2: a six or seven game losing streak with the national team.
[3:15] Speaker 2: And it's over the last few weeks, few months it's
[3:18] Speaker 2: changed back to where guys realize that it's time to
[3:22] Speaker 2: get your stuff together because you don't want to get
[3:25] Speaker 2: embarrassed during a World Cup on home soil. But if
[3:29] Speaker 2: all of it comes together, yes, what you've said is
[3:31] Speaker 2: absolutely right.
[3:32] Speaker 3: They are more battle tested in all the ways. Well.
[3:35] Speaker 1: Maurizio Pocutino is demanding and so he walks into this
[3:42] Speaker 1: group of players and he wants to establish a culture.
[3:45] Speaker 1: And part of the culture is I want to see
[3:48] Speaker 1: you play. I really don't care what you did with
[3:51] Speaker 1: Greg Berholter. I totally respect that, and I'm a polistic,
[3:58] Speaker 1: devoted fan. I think he's about his good skill wise
[4:02] Speaker 1: as we've had. He's a really clever player. It you know,
[4:07] Speaker 1: he feels global in any league against any competition. But
[4:13] Speaker 1: I don't like the word entitled. But I do feel
[4:16] Speaker 1: like I almost want to defend him and go Willie.
[4:20] Speaker 1: Lebron's a bad comp but he is our global star.
[4:25] Speaker 1: Should he have not expected? Sort of a dude, we
[4:29] Speaker 1: understand you got stuff overseas or do you think Marisio
[4:33] Speaker 1: had a right to say, hey, I'm establishing a culture.
[4:35] Speaker 1: Everybody's even I mean, if you took over the Lions job,
[4:38] Speaker 1: you'd be like, okay, Amoran Saint Brown is our number
[4:41] Speaker 1: one receiver. It's sort of understood in the room, right Like,
[4:44] Speaker 1: So I think it's a very I think it's a
[4:46] Speaker 1: tough call Landon. I think I think the United States
[4:51] Speaker 1: men national team job is a hard job. Brazil has
[4:57] Speaker 1: higher expectations, but you're not. They're at a different time
[5:02] Speaker 1: and place. What do you make a Mauricio's relationship handling
[5:07] Speaker 1: of polistic in the early stages.
[5:10] Speaker 3: So I think both can be right.
[5:12] Speaker 2: So from Christian's standpoint, he has done a ton already
[5:17] Speaker 2: at twenty seven years old and by the way, I
[5:18] Speaker 2: think he just scored two more goals today in Italy,
[5:20] Speaker 2: so he just keep racking them up. But there is
[5:25] Speaker 2: a level and this is challenging for players in all sports,
[5:28] Speaker 2: where you feel like I've done the work, I've proven
[5:31] Speaker 2: my I should be on the team, I should be
[5:33] Speaker 2: a starter.
[5:34] Speaker 3: This should be the way it is.
[5:36] Speaker 2: And unfortunately not so much with Christian, but a lot
[5:40] Speaker 2: of his colleagues with the national team sort of took
[5:43] Speaker 2: that same attitude and mentality and then they got their
[5:46] Speaker 2: butt kicked a while during the beginning part of this
[5:48] Speaker 2: year in the summer, and so Pochattino. By the way,
[5:52] Speaker 2: Pochettino has coached Imbape, Harry Kine, Neymar Messi, some like
[6:00] Speaker 2: random American player isn't going to bluster him, right, So
[6:04] Speaker 2: what he's had to do is say, listen, guys, where
[6:06] Speaker 2: he comes from. In Argentina, if you declined an invite
[6:10] Speaker 2: to the national team, it's like sacrilegious, like you might
[6:14] Speaker 2: as well never show up in Argentina again because the
[6:17] Speaker 2: people there would cut off fingers to play for their
[6:19] Speaker 2: national team. Right. And so when a few players at
[6:22] Speaker 2: different times, and I'm excluding Christian from this argument because
[6:25] Speaker 2: he's a different case. But when a few players have said,
[6:28] Speaker 2: well I'm a little tired, I don't want to go
[6:30] Speaker 2: into the national team, his mind is just like, what
[6:32] Speaker 2: are you talking about?
[6:34] Speaker 3: I don't want to play for your country.
[6:35] Speaker 2: And so what he's done over time, very successfully is
[6:39] Speaker 2: brought real pride back. And it's crazy, I'm even saying this.
[6:43] Speaker 2: Do you call him real pride back in playing for
[6:46] Speaker 2: your country and for your national team? And I think
[6:48] Speaker 2: he's done a fantastic job of it. And now every
[6:51] Speaker 2: time someone comes into camp, they have to fight and
[6:55] Speaker 2: earn and scrap for every minute.
[6:57] Speaker 3: And I think it's good.
[6:58] Speaker 1: Yeah, and and I think big pictured is good. But
[7:01] Speaker 1: I think it's more difficult than maybe soccer writers and
[7:05] Speaker 1: fans understand, is that there's a fine line in dealing
[7:09] Speaker 1: with global stars music entertainment. It can be singing, it
[7:12] Speaker 1: can be soccer, it can be basketball. The world's changed
[7:15] Speaker 1: the money. I mean, like you said, college quarterbacks make
[7:17] Speaker 1: five million. We have separated from Europe financially over the
[7:21] Speaker 1: last two decades. America has like this is where capitalists come.
[7:25] Speaker 1: So I do think our athletes it's I mean, you
[7:28] Speaker 1: know again, I'll go to London and I'll be in
[7:31] Speaker 1: a restaurant and I'm like, you don't have air conditioning.
[7:34] Speaker 1: This is London, the financial center of Europe. Sometimes and
[7:38] Speaker 1: I hate to use spoiled or entitle it's the reality
[7:40] Speaker 1: of the life here. And if you're a premier athlete
[7:44] Speaker 1: and any sport, it is different. Group D is interesting.
[7:47] Speaker 1: The sense is it's a great draw. Australia always a
[7:52] Speaker 1: little underrated, Paraguay and then potentially I guess Turkey is
[7:56] Speaker 1: what many believe could be a favorite. Coming out you
[8:01] Speaker 1: say to yourself, well, it's a favorable draw. But let
[8:05] Speaker 1: me ask you about playing in the States. You see
[8:09] Speaker 1: this in other sports sometimes playing at home brings enormous pressure.
[8:14] Speaker 1: Do you think, all right, now you're a favorite Australia,
[8:19] Speaker 1: you're the favorite. Well, Australia knows that they would love
[8:22] Speaker 1: to ruin your World Cup. There's a duality in that,
[8:27] Speaker 1: I'd love to play at home, but shit, I've got
[8:29] Speaker 1: to win. Your takeaway on playing at home favored probably
[8:35] Speaker 1: in a group that's new, that's foreign territory for their
[8:38] Speaker 1: state expands national team.
[8:39] Speaker 3: Very foreign.
[8:40] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[8:40] Speaker 2: So the interesting thing is there are three countries who
[8:43] Speaker 2: are hosting in this World Cup. The Canadians at home
[8:48] Speaker 2: will be rabid, intense, amazing support no matter what happens.
[8:52] Speaker 3: And it's based on expectations, right. Sports are all about expectations.
[8:56] Speaker 2: Mexico on the other end of the spectrum, if they
[8:59] Speaker 2: go ten it's in their first match without scoring.
[9:02] Speaker 3: There would be some like, some.
[9:06] Speaker 2: Thoughts of maybe booing, some hesitation about cheering. They go
[9:11] Speaker 2: forty five minutes without scoring against South Africa and their opener,
[9:14] Speaker 2: you're gonna hear a lot of booze, right, And that's
[9:15] Speaker 2: where it turns from like support to pressure of you
[9:19] Speaker 2: better perform or else. Soccer in America is somewhere in between.
[9:23] Speaker 2: It's mostly supporta will be mostly scored. But if for
[9:26] Speaker 2: some reason lose the opening game to Paraguay, now there's
[9:29] Speaker 2: like ramp and pressure that turns up. And that's a
[9:31] Speaker 2: whole different element. So it's an interesting dynamic and one
[9:35] Speaker 2: that to your point, it's a great point we have
[9:37] Speaker 2: not dealt with before. We have never gone it was
[9:40] Speaker 2: talking to Tim Howard this morning. We've never gone into
[9:42] Speaker 2: a World Cup expected to win our group.
[9:45] Speaker 3: And not even close.
[9:46] Speaker 2: I mean, it's right, and it's a very different dynamic
[9:50] Speaker 2: because we were one of the seeded teams this time,
[9:53] Speaker 2: the other three teams in our group are significantly quote
[9:56] Speaker 2: unquote worse than we are. And so it's going to
[9:58] Speaker 2: be a really interesting thing to follow during the World Cup.
[10:02] Speaker 1: What's reasonably appropriate success? Let's to you, what does.
[10:08] Speaker 3: It look like?
[10:09] Speaker 2: Okay, So the analogy I was thinking about Colin is
[10:13] Speaker 2: in college basketball, if next year the NCAA went from
[10:17] Speaker 2: sixty four teams to one hundred and twenty eight teams,
[10:21] Speaker 2: your expectations of what successes would change. If you are
[10:25] Speaker 2: a mid major, or if you're Duke or Super Kentucky
[10:29] Speaker 2: North Carol like they want to win. But if you're
[10:30] Speaker 2: a mid major or you're a seat in Hall or
[10:35] Speaker 2: in the past, maybe and I'm just making this up.
[10:37] Speaker 2: You know better than I do. Making an Elite eight
[10:39] Speaker 2: is wildly successful, wildly successful. But now you have one
[10:43] Speaker 2: hundred and twenty eight teams in the NCAA. Now getting
[10:45] Speaker 2: to a round of sixteen is the comp that's the
[10:48] Speaker 2: actual comp. But in your mind you're saying, oh, it's
[10:50] Speaker 2: only around to sixteen. We should have got to NELLID.
[10:53] Speaker 2: So my point in all that is, in the past,
[10:55] Speaker 2: there were thirty two teams in the World Cup. Now
[10:57] Speaker 2: there are going to be forty eight teams. So if
[11:00] Speaker 2: you get out of your group, now you're in a
[11:02] Speaker 2: round of thirty two. Last time in Qatar, if you
[11:05] Speaker 2: got out of your group, you were in a round
[11:06] Speaker 2: of sixteen. So I don't exactly know, and it's going
[11:10] Speaker 2: to be interesting how teams deem success. And this is
[11:12] Speaker 2: where all the spin doctors will get I'm sure if
[11:14] Speaker 2: US Soccer, if we make it out of the group
[11:16] Speaker 2: and win the round of thirty two game, they're going
[11:19] Speaker 2: to say, well.
[11:19] Speaker 3: This is maybe the most successful.
[11:21] Speaker 2: Ever, even though our team in two thousand and two
[11:23] Speaker 2: got to a quarterfinal. So I don't know exactly how
[11:26] Speaker 2: that's going to play out, but my opinion is winning
[11:29] Speaker 2: the group is a success winning a first knockout stage
[11:32] Speaker 2: because if you win the group, we would play a
[11:34] Speaker 2: third place team from another group. Winning that game I
[11:37] Speaker 2: think should be an expectation, and then from there a
[11:40] Speaker 2: lot of it's based on who you play and the
[11:43] Speaker 2: way it's set up now is likely that team would
[11:45] Speaker 2: be Belgium, and that's a team that on paper is
[11:48] Speaker 2: probably a little better, but absolutely a game we could win.
[11:52] Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I kind of feel like I've said this.
[11:56] Speaker 1: In professional American football, most Super Bowl champs have seven
[12:00] Speaker 1: elite players in their prime, going into it or still
[12:03] Speaker 1: clinging to it. Kansas City now Chiefs too old, argue
[12:09] Speaker 1: greet Seattle little too young. So we have an interesting
[12:14] Speaker 1: I would say currently if I and for the first
[12:17] Speaker 1: time I can ever remember, I'm not sure our goalkeeping
[12:22] Speaker 1: is in our top seven players, like for the first
[12:24] Speaker 1: time in my life, I don't think. So okay, let's
[12:28] Speaker 1: take the best seven players. I would say all seven
[12:34] Speaker 1: are either going into their prime or just entered it.
[12:38] Speaker 1: Now we're still on the young side. We were the
[12:40] Speaker 1: second youngest team in last World Cup. When we faced Netherlands,
[12:43] Speaker 1: it felt a little bit like the dads and the
[12:46] Speaker 1: oldest son. You could the physicality, you know it. Just
[12:49] Speaker 1: they were a bit bigger, a bit stronger, more experienced.
[12:54] Speaker 1: I don't expect us to go toe to toe with Argentina,
[13:01] Speaker 1: but I usually feel there's ten to twelve teams going
[13:03] Speaker 1: into a World Cup that will play a more defensive style,
[13:06] Speaker 1: less attacking, more defensive. I don't see it this way.
[13:10] Speaker 1: I think there's maybe three to four teams that we
[13:15] Speaker 1: would be underdogs, but I do feel.
[13:19] Speaker 3: We can be aggressive. I mean you know this.
[13:21] Speaker 1: There were times you play Brazil, you don't go in attacking.
[13:24] Speaker 1: What you're looking for is a late goal to win it,
[13:27] Speaker 1: tie it. That's how we played forever. I don't feel
[13:32] Speaker 1: that way with this team. I think our team speed.
[13:35] Speaker 1: I think we can be a more attacking style or
[13:38] Speaker 1: is that a very myopic American view?
[13:42] Speaker 3: Well, it is a myopic American view. That's what we
[13:44] Speaker 3: love about America. I believe we can.
[13:47] Speaker 2: And but what more importantly is this team is set
[13:50] Speaker 2: up to attack. And I don't mean attack with the ball,
[13:54] Speaker 2: I mean to go and go after it. And that
[13:57] Speaker 2: is they are young, athletic, yes, physically durable, and in
[14:02] Speaker 2: the previous regime under Berholter, at times it was a
[14:07] Speaker 2: little too tactical, and let's be cagy and what these guys.
[14:11] Speaker 3: Are like, they're like lions ready to get out of
[14:14] Speaker 3: the cage. You got to let them go. And Pochatino
[14:16] Speaker 3: likes to play that way.
[14:18] Speaker 2: Yes, in world soccer now it's become way way way.
[14:23] Speaker 3: More tactical and cage and all these things.
[14:26] Speaker 2: And so now if you're a team that really goes
[14:28] Speaker 2: after teams, you can really surprise teams. And we saw
[14:31] Speaker 2: that we played Uruguay a month ago and beat them
[14:33] Speaker 2: five to one, and that's a very good team, and
[14:36] Speaker 2: they were just stunt. I was watching the game and
[14:38] Speaker 2: I couldn't believe how unprepared Uruguay was for a team
[14:42] Speaker 2: that just came after them and got in their face.
[14:45] Speaker 2: And So if you can play that way, with the momentum,
[14:48] Speaker 2: with the crowd, with the energy of tens of millions
[14:50] Speaker 2: of Americans, it doesn't really matter how far you go.
[14:54] Speaker 2: You are going to inspire and put a product out
[14:57] Speaker 2: that people are proud of.
[14:58] Speaker 3: And I think that's what fans most.
[14:59] Speaker 2: Were on it.
[15:00] Speaker 1: Yeah, So when you talk about the way soccer has changed,
[15:04] Speaker 1: what you're basically saying is the analytic part. Just like
[15:07] Speaker 1: baseball in basketball, You're saying soccer has gotten a little
[15:11] Speaker 1: bit more analytical and action. Okay, so this is this
[15:16] Speaker 1: is a global reality of all the sports. And I
[15:19] Speaker 1: I always say I like analytics. Analytics plus let athletes
[15:26] Speaker 1: be athletes. Like sometimes landing the clock says eight minutes,
[15:31] Speaker 1: do your thing, let's get out of the end. I
[15:33] Speaker 1: think analytics has an absolute role, especially in volume sports
[15:36] Speaker 1: and regular seasons. So I imagine you, like the Americans
[15:40] Speaker 1: to get out of Group D fair yes D Yeah
[15:43] Speaker 1: Big Thanks to Haleio and for the assist, reminding us
[15:47] Speaker 1: that no one scores alone. To learn more of is
[15:49] Speaker 1: it Halian assist dot com and follow at for the assist.
[15:52] Speaker 1: Every goal starts with an assist.
[15:57] Speaker 3: The volume

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