Soccer by 3four3

The USMNT’s World Cup ended with a humbling defeat to Belgium. Predictably, the mainstream American soccer media immediately went to work. Some blamed Mauricio Pochettino. Others blamed tactics, substitutions, Pulisic, Matt Freese, mentality, youth development or pay-to-play. They’re all missing the point. In this episode, Gary explains why Belgium didn’t expose a tactical proble...

Balogun Red Card Reversal, VAR Controversy, and US Soccer’s Closed-System Problem Sports are never just sports. Football reflects the society around it — the incentives, the politics, the corruption, the culture, and the values people choose to defend when the pressure is on. That’s where this episode begins: with the Balogun red card being rescinded. […]

Gary Kleiban joins Kirk Kinsey on the Playmaker Fútbol Academy Podcast for a conversation about one of the biggest obstacles facing American soccer — and it isn’t happening on the field. Using Mauricio Pochettino’s press conference as a starting point, Gary explains why the reaction from much of the American soccer media missed the bigger […]

The USMNT is through to the knockout stage after winning its group, but the conversation coming out of the loss to Turkey tells a much bigger story. Recorded live on YouTube the day after the match, Gary Kleiban and Benny Rogers react to the result while taking questions and comments from viewers throughout the show. […]

What does a world-class central midfielder actually look like? In this episode, we break down the three midfield roles in a 4-3-3: the 6, the 8, and the 10. Rather than relying on buzzwords or coaching clichés, we examine the specific technical, tactical, and mental qualities that separate elite midfielders from everyone else. Using players […]

Most youth coaches never get to see the full arc. They get a team for a season or two, maybe three, and then the team changes, the club changes, the coach changes, or the players scatter. That makes it difficult to truly understand what development looks like over time. In this episode, we speak with […]

What does it actually mean for a national team to have an identity? Brazil has samba. Germany has precision. Argentina has emotional fire. Spain transformed from La Furia Roja into a possession-based powerhouse. These identities didn’t come from a marketing department. They came from the people, the history, the streets, the clubs, and the culture […]

Everybody in American soccer loves to say we don’t have the right soccer culture. But what happens when someone like Mauricio Pochettino actually brings a higher-level soccer culture into the room? That’s where this episode begins. The backlash against Pochettino — over emails, roster decisions, media comments, job rumors, and even who he names captain […]

Tab Ramos joins the podcast for one of the most honest and layered conversations we’ve had on American soccer development. Most people know Tab as a U.S. national team legend, a World Cup veteran, and one of the most technically gifted American players of his era. But what makes this conversation especially valuable is what […]

Roster prediction shows are usually bubblegum content. Fun, clickable, and mostly speculative. But with Pochettino preparing his USMNT World Cup roster, Benny forces Gary into the exercise anyway. Who should go? Who should be left out? Who actually belongs on the field when the World Cup starts? We go position by position: goalkeepers, center backs, […]

Playing time is the issue. Not “one of” the issues. In youth soccer, it is often the issue that drives the most tension between coaches and parents. A player is not getting the minutes the family expected, and suddenly the coach-parent relationship starts to fracture. In this episode, we get into that dynamic directly. We […]

Coaching licenses are often treated as a necessary stamp of legitimacy in American soccer. But what actually happens inside one of these courses? And more importantly, do they make coaches better? In this episode, we sit down with Paul Spacey, a longtime coach who recently went through the U.S. Soccer C License, to unpack the […]

American soccer has a way of selling people the dream while hiding the machinery underneath. In this episode, we sit down with Kirk Kinsey to unpack what he calls “McSoccer” — the fake development pathways, the tournament-win marketing, the college-scholarship sales pitch, and the closed-system incentives that keep parents, players, and coaches trapped inside a […]

This one cuts deep. Gary Kleiban goes straight at Landon Donovan’s latest round of youth soccer criticism and explains exactly why it misses the mark by a mile. Donovan, like many former American pros, points the finger downward at youth coaches, parents, and clubs. Gary, drawing from decades of real experience across every level of […]

We just wrapped one of our favorite episodes with Rory O’Neill, a passionate 14-year veteran coaching youth soccer in central Pennsylvania. Rory came on fresh from the emotional grind of tryouts for his U13 MLS Next team — evaluating 150 kids and delivering tough news that no one enjoys. We explore why tryout season feels […]

We just dropped our first-ever live show, and the questions came flying in. Gary opened by addressing Landon Donovan’s recent comments about youth players building out from the back instead of getting thousands of touches. We explain exactly why that take misses the deeper structural problems in American soccer and why former pros who never […]

USMNT March FIFA Window: Belgium and Portugal Losses, Pochettino Criticism, and World Cup Roster Priorities Episode 421 focuses on the USMNT’s March FIFA window and the reaction to losses vs Belgium (5-2) and Portugal (2-0), arguing the fan base and mainstream media swing wildly based on scorelines and shallow stats. The discussion says the real […]

We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: a fancy license on a coach’s Instagram bio is rarely a sign of quality — often it’s the opposite. In this episode we dig deep into credentialism and why so many coaches lean on paper qualifications instead of proven results on the field. We also tackle one […]

This episode cuts straight to the heart of the endless American youth soccer argument: winning versus development. The tired line that “it’s all about development, not winning” gets dissected here as what it so often is—a convenient shield for coaches who can’t deliver and clubs that have no real accountability in our closed, MLS-and-US-Soccer-controlled monopoly. […]

We dive deep into the gritty side of professional soccer transfers in this special extract from the 3four3 podcast. Focusing on Josh Sargent’s high-profile saga—from his refusal to play at Norwich City to force a move, to ultimately joining Toronto FC in MLS—we expose the power dynamics at play. Clubs and players often have opposing […]

We sat down for a very practical episode focused entirely on coaching knockout games — semifinals, finals, and any high-pressure elimination match. Whether you have a full week to prepare or you’re in the middle of a weekend tournament, we cover the mental side of the game first because that’s usually what decides big matches. […]

Jimmy Obleda on Keeping Your Coaching Values, Restoring Competitiveness, and Why U.S. Soccer Is Soft In episode 416, we talk with nationally renowned Uruguayan American coach Jimmy Obleda about staying true to your values, refusing to compromise standards, and not “selling your soul” to parents, players, clubs, or owners. Using Tab Ramos’s comparison of Uruguay […]

What a Great First Touch Really Is (and Why the U.S. Still Struggles) Episode 415 focuses on what “first touch” actually means, why it matters, and why it remains a major weakness in American soccer. A good first touch is defined as controlling the ball exactly as intended in any scenario, with biomechanics that look […]

We dive deep into the structure and incentives behind Major League Soccer in this episode. We explain why MLS academies exist primarily to maintain monopoly control over the elite youth pipeline rather than to develop first-team talent, how homegrown rules provide cheap labor while designated players serve as the real attraction for casual fans, and […]

We unpack three critical current events that mainstream media continues to misrepresent or ignore. First, we analyze Wilfred Nancy’s short and unsuccessful stint at Celtic, why Celtic fans saw the writing on the wall immediately, and what it teaches us about the massive gap between MLS coaching environments and genuine high-stakes European football. Next, we […]