Jun 2, 2026 · 20 min · 5 segments
USA TODAY Sports' Jon Arnold is joined by USMNT legends Landon Donovan and Jozy Altidore on the Sports Seriously Soccer Show to break down the U.S. Men's National Team's win over Senegal. The trio…
John ArnoldHost
Landon DonovanGuest
Jozy AltidoreGuest
[upbeat music] Hi, everyone, and welcome in to the Sports Seriously Soccer Podcast by USA Today.
I'm John Arnold, your host, and typically, I'm joined by Lori Lindsey and Seth Vertelney.
But as we all get prepared for the World Cup, packing, doing laundry, trying to see our family for maybe the last time in two months, it's just gonna be me today.
But not really, because I'm gonna be joined by two great legends of the United States Men's National Team, with more than 270 caps between them.
They certainly linked up a number of times during those kind of glory days at the US Men's National Team.
But the enthusiasm around the US is high after a win over Senegal in a friendly, where the US not only was able to get a result, which I think is easy to sort of dismiss in a friendly match, but also because of how they performed.
I know Landon Donovan felt like they had the necessary energy and fight and emotion.
That should be the starting point for the US, but too often in the past decade plus, it just hasn't been.
We haven't seen that same sort of clawing and biting and pushing and shoving that we saw from the US against Senegal.
That has Landon Donovan energized, and I think it has a lot of the fan base energized as well.
And maybe the bad vibes that were coming out after the March matches from Mauricio Pochettino took two heavy defeats, but didn't seem too concerned, and fans were a little worried.
And then Pochettino getting a little more heat for the email moments that we talked about last week, that you can read about on the playlist, uh, that you can hear us talk about on the playlist here.
Now, still a test against Germany, a top, top team, but at least the US will be able to point to one victory leading into the World Cup and getting the good vibes going.
I know that Landon Donovan was excited to see the attitude that the US team played with, the enthusiasm they played with in that game against Senegal, and hopes to see that carry throughout the tournament.
Read the full transcript.
Create an account to read the whole episode, search across every transcript, and follow the shows you care about.
[upbeat music] Hi, everyone, and welcome in to the Sports Seriously Soccer Podcast by USA Today.
I'm John Arnold, your host, and typically, I'm joined by Lori Lindsey and Seth Vertelney.
But as we all get prepared for the World Cup, packing, doing laundry, trying to see our family for maybe the last time in two months, it's just gonna be me today.
But not really, because I'm gonna be joined by two great legends of the United States Men's National Team, with more than 270 caps between them.
They certainly linked up a number of times during those kind of glory days at the US Men's National Team.
But the enthusiasm around the US is high after a win over Senegal in a friendly, where the US not only was able to get a result, which I think is easy to sort of dismiss in a friendly match, but also because of how they performed.
I know Landon Donovan felt like they had the necessary energy and fight and emotion.
That should be the starting point for the US, but too often in the past decade plus, it just hasn't been.
We haven't seen that same sort of clawing and biting and pushing and shoving that we saw from the US against Senegal.
That has Landon Donovan energized, and I think it has a lot of the fan base energized as well.
And maybe the bad vibes that were coming out after the March matches from Mauricio Pochettino took two heavy defeats, but didn't seem too concerned, and fans were a little worried.
And then Pochettino getting a little more heat for the email moments that we talked about last week, that you can read about on the playlist, uh, that you can hear us talk about on the playlist here.
Now, still a test against Germany, a top, top team, but at least the US will be able to point to one victory leading into the World Cup and getting the good vibes going.
I know that Landon Donovan was excited to see the attitude that the US team played with, the enthusiasm they played with in that game against Senegal, and hopes to see that carry throughout the tournament.
