Hello,

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Total Soccer Show.

Man, oh man.

Did that feel good?

My name is Taylor Rockwell, and the USA is officially the greatest team in Conccaf and also probably the world.

We are recording this very, very, very early on Monday morning East Coast time.

The U.S. men's national team handed Mexico a one-nil loss in the final minutes of extra time

in the 2021 Gold Cup final. That makes it Dos Aceto on the summer when it comes to winning

finals over Mexico with me tonight to discuss Kalan Acosta. If he should probably win the Ballandor and why is my friend

and yours. It's Joe Lowry. Hi, Joe. How you feeling, buddy? I'm feeling great, Taylor. I am still in

shock, kind of. It's also late, as you mentioned. So I'm feeling a whole lot of different things

and I don't really know what to say right now. I am right there with you. What I will say is that I'm very happy because when this game started, I tweeted it out beforehand. I tweeted the question of like the result aside, what would you like to see tonight? I think that's partially because at this point, I think we were still sort of feeling like there's some people who have improved their stock. There's some people who have played their way into contention for maybe the senior roster or as like a replacement spot on the senior roster. But it's still, I wasn't quite there on this feels like a team that's going to beat Mexico, really caused them problems. So I wanted to see some individual things. And then about halfway through the second half is when I really started to feel like they can get this done. There's a possibility. And then as we went into extra time, I just really, really, really wanted to win. And that that ended up being the case and that it happened in extra time, but not having to go to penalties. I don't know if I could have handled a penalty shootout. Joe, how loud was your reaction? Were you muted when the goal happened? Were you just taking diligent notes with a furrowed brow? Or did you allow yourself that moment to celebrate? It was more inward celebration. I wish I could say I jumped out of my chair or whatever. It was a great goal. It really wasn't it. It was a free kick from Kelan Acosta that mirrored a free kick he'd had earlier on in that second half, just really nice delivered from him.

A great header in from Miles Robinson on that goal. It's a great moment. And I don't think my reaction gave it the justice and the credit that it really deserved. But man, just I couldn't stop thinking in this game, really from the start of this game. I had no idea what the result was going to be. I didn't think the U.S. had a real shot to win this game.

But I just kept thinking, the result was going to be. I didn't think the U.S. had a real shot to

win this game. But I just kept thinking, this is such an incredible experience for these guys. The tempo and the speed at which this game was played very much mirrored the Nations League final, which is to say it mirrored a U.S. Mexico game. It was incredibly intense. And even though a lot of the players on the field for the U.S. aren't first choice guys.

They're not.

And we've talked about this all Gold Cup long even before. It was incredibly intense, and even though a lot of the players on the field for the U.S. aren't first choice guys.

They're not.

And we've talked about this all Gold Cup long even before.

What an incredible experience for these players to have.

And for those players who are going to fill out the World Cup qualifying roster,

what a great last chance for them to have right before World Cup qualifying starts.

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