‘Anything short of that would be a disaster’ - FOX Sports' John Strong sets USMNT World Cup bar, says MLS team must win 2026 Champions Cup

GOAL: You call the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Why can't MLS teams succeed in it?

STRONG: It depends on how you define success. I think this is a really interesting thing, because we're at four-straight years now, where an MLS team is in the final. I think over the prior 20 years, there have been four MLS teams that made a final. The way they've done it, particularly in the way Columbus did it, going down to Tigres and going down to Monterrey, the way that Vancouver did it, they were able to succeed without taking a lead with them down to Mexico and they advance, and they rip apart Miami. 

Something's happening in the final. And something is happening in those four weeks between the semifinal round and the final. There's some sort of weird dynamic. It's happening there where you're getting this "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" version of these teams. Vancouver were unrecognizable from minute 1 in the final against Cruz Azul. So were Columbus the year before, and then they come out and say, half their guys had food poisoning. LAFC like they never got a first year. So something weird is going on there...

 And so this is the nature of tournaments, that what happens in a final becomes magnified to such a degree that it sort of wipes everything else out. So I would make the argument that MLS teams are doing much better now than they once did...Yes, sometimes it gets away from MLS teams for one reason or another, but the level of competitiveness has closed significantly...And so I do think it's hugely, hugely important that an MLS team wins it this year. I think it is massively important because you can't keep having this happen over and over again. 

But I do push back a little bit on the idea that, you know, MLS teams are still miles off. They're right there. It's coming down to one match. We're seeing that gap close. It's just something weird has happened in these finals that I think has sort of obscured the picture. 

GOAL: That's interesting. It's kind of a similar thing. You look for parallels, just across the game and across sports, especially in finals, it's like, "Why can't English teams win the Champions League? Or why is it that Spanish teams always win European finals?

STRONG: Right. Like, no one would make the argument about the overall depth of quality of the Premier League over the French league. But even the Club World Cup, I think, you have to remember that MLS is just fundamentally, structurally different in how it approaches competitive balance. If you were to take all of the players currently in MLS, and you were to redistribute them and have four teams be able to select whatever players they wanted and enter those teams into the CONCACAF Champions Cup or enter those teams in the Club World Cup, it's a different conversation. But by the way, that's exactly how the Mexican league works. That's how the Saudi league works. There's a much greater concentration of that talent in certain teams, and so again …that’s where it's hard, because we draw these big conclusions, because what else are we supposed to do? But the circumstances surrounding the ability to build quality depth in MLS, it's just different. 

And I think there's very legitimate reasons behind it. This sounds so disrespectful of phrases, but the worst player on the field for an MLS team, as compared to the worst player in the field for League MX team, or the types of players that are able to bring off the bench that they can sign and have on their squad, as backups, as squad players, as rotation players. You simply cannot do that in MLS. In MLS, if you have a competent backup option in every given position, you've done a really good job. You've done incredible work. But it's a lot harder. 

GOAL: So, if someone has to win it from MLS... who?

STRONG: I think Miami have the best chance for sure. There's no doubt. And they continue to make improvements to their team in very smart, clever ways. [Team owner] Jorge Mas was telling everyone, us included, before the kickoff of the MLS Cup, our No. 1 goal next year is CONCACAF. We're all in on it.

They have made no hesitation of the idea that they are all in on winning the CONCACAF Champions Cup in the first half of the year. So I think they're absolutely the likeliest candidate. But, in saying that, they ran into a Vancouver Whitecaps buzzsaw a year ago. I don't think the same thing happens again, because I think that it was so early in [manager] Javier Mascherano's process. He was still figuring out his team. I think it's a different scenario now, but it's not going to be easy. 

But I also think, you know, LAFC, when they get rolling, they're fun. I'm fascinated to see what the Whitecaps are like this year. And San Diego, they got to figure out Chucky Lozano and some of those pieces. But that's what's fun. We're in an area in MLS now where there are some really good teams, and they have very distinct identities and distinct ways they want to play. They're able to express that. And so that's why I love CONCACAF Champions Cup. I always have. It's a highlight of my spring. These matchups are fun.

GOAL: With Pochettino, people were excited, and then he started losing, and people got scared. And then he won a few games, and people got excited again. Is that fair and where do you stand on him?

STRONG: I think one of the things that's so interesting about Pochettino, and I remember this with [former manager] Gregg Berhalter, it was the same thing where, because Greg was a guy, he loved the process. He loved being on the training field. He loved building a team. You cannot do that in the international game. It does not exist. It's a different sport. 

And I remember when Gregg hit his first wobble, and it was September of 2019, and he said, 'Holy smokes, this is so much harder than I thought it was.' Not that Mauricio and his staff aren't the smartest dudes in the world, because they are. But just until you're in it, until you're experiencing it, you don't get it. 

There's a reason why most successful coaches in the modern era of the international game have come from the international game, either as youth national team managers or assistants. Because you get that, if you think about it, from his appointment in September 2024, through to the beginning of the September camp of 2025, with the end of the Gold Cup, he, probably, in those 11 months, had as much actual time on the training field with each individual player in his squad as he would have had in a standard preseason at a club - if you really think of the actual amount of days. 

GOAL: So where does that leave us now?

STRONG: So, it took him a full year to do the same thing he would have done in a preseason, which is to go, ‘Okay, now I know what I have in my squad,' and I think, absolutely, the challenges ran a lot deeper than anyone realized. I think that was a very naive idea that was existing in the hive mind of like, ‘Oh, the problem is just Gregg Berhalter.'Just change the coach. Everything's gonna be fine.' Clearly not. 

And I think it took a while for Mauricio to kind of really diagnose what was going on and try to make changes. Yeah, he had to take some big risks, but this is something that makes him a wonderful manager. He's willing to take risks, he's willing to bet on guys. And I think you started to finally see that come together in the fall. He was really building a squad. I mean, that's what I think makes Mauricio. 

His success came in Espanyol, Southampton, and Tottenham, where you're having to build a squad and do more with less. That's what made him his name, and that's what he's good at. It takes a lot of time, and I think we finally saw that come together, and I love it. It's been wonderful to see that process. 

GOAL: The USMNT have two massive friendlies in March. How significant are those in your eyes?

STRONG: This March camp is massively important because it can go one of two ways. You can continue good results against now, legitimately, world class opposition in Belgium and Portugal, and now the train is running. Or you can struggle, and maybe it's just because guys get banged up coming in and whatever - it's the international game. You don't know if you're going to have your squad...That's just the reality. But, you know, I'm such a big fan of Mauricio and his staff, the way they work, the way they operate. We got to see it up close every day at the Gold Cup, and what they've done to be able to build a larger squad, build some depth pieces. 

You've got versatility now, both tactically and also personally. You've got some safety nets. I mean, for a long time, it was like Antonee Robinson, you know, every single minute it's like, well, what if he's getting banged up, as he was at Fulham? You know what? What are your other options when you have these pieces? And so that's what's been really exciting. Yes, even though sometimes, (in) some unintentional ways, we've gotten to a point where, you know, there are a number of players that I would have no hesitation seeing on the field at a World Cup...You know they're hungry. I am super excited where we're at.

GOAL: How far do the USMNT go at the World Cup?

STRONG: What would move the needle is a quarterfinal appearance. That's what would move the needle. That's what would push it forward. It's very possible it's Belgium in the round of 16, who they will have played here in March. That's my hope. Anything short of that would be a disaster...

And listen, Paraguay are not going to make it easy. Australia's not going to make it easy. Whoever the third team is is not going to make it easy. You know, there are 100 different teams that you could face in the Round of 32, so it's hard to predict that. And it's sports, you know, Tim Weah throws an elbow early in the Panama game at Copa America, and it changes everything in an instant. That's the reality. But that is my hope for this team, and I think they are perfectly, perfectly capable of achieving...a quarterfinal spot. And at that point, now, you've moved the needle forward. Now, you've made some history. Now, you're playing with house money, and it would be very exciting to get to that point.

GOAL: And to round things off, who wins the whole thing?

STRONG: I mean, until I actually see someone beat Argentina in a competitive match, I can't say anyone else. My concern with Spain and France is that those are the two teams that I think are most susceptible to the larger-scale player burnout we talk a lot about in Europe right now, because Spain and France are stocked with dudes who are at clubs that are going deep into competitions. And so they're going to be playing 60 matches this season. You're already seeing with Lamine Yamal, all the little muscle injuries, little things here or there. 

Only eight nations have won the World Cup. It's crazy on the men's side. I'm all in on Morocco. I love the momentum they have, the support they're going to have. But can they do with the target on their back? Can they do it when they're expected to win games? What intrigues me about France is that no one's talking about them. The attention is on Argentina in South America. All the attention is on Spain because, France had a disappointing Euros. They couldn't get past Spain in that wild game in the Nations League finals. Mbappe has had this kind of weird year. But if they are healthy, with the pieces they have, let's not forget, they've been in the last two finals. 

But I've learned long ago never to be dumb enough to come into any match or any tournament thinking I know what's going to happen. That's a fool's errand.