A Conversation With Jimmy Conrad: A Shift in USMNT Priorities, the Pulisic Gold Cup Saga, and 2026 World Cup Thoughts | OneFootball

Never shy to share his thoughts on the beautiful game, we sit down with former USMNT player Jimmy Conrad to discuss how things have changed with the national team since his playing days and the looming cloud over the 2026 World Cup. 

Landon Donovan, Brian Dunseth, Carlos Bocanegra, Cobi Jones, Maurice Edu, Marcelo Balboa, Eric Wynalda.

These are just a few American soccer players that Southern California has produced. And while the DMV and Texas might have something to say about it, SoCal is perhaps the most successful incubator of soccer talent in the country.

Photo by Ned Dishman/Getty Images

One man who can attest to this is James Paul “Jimmy” Conrad, who enjoyed a fruitful 13-year professional career, and is now one of the most recognizable faces and voices of the sport in America through his work as a broadcaster.

Born in Arcadia, about 15 miles northeast of Downtown Los Angeles, Conrad grew up kicking the ball around with his Danish grandfather in the backyard, quickly becoming obsessed with the beautiful game.

A successful high school career led to collegiate stints at San Diego State University and UCLA, where he won the 1997 NCAA championship in his senior year, yet his college exploits weren’t enough to garner a selection in the MLS SuperDraft.

He instead secured a trial spot for the LA Galaxy, although a breakthrough with his hometown club wasn’t in the cards. Head coach Octavio Zambrano informed Conrad that he didn’t make the traveling roster, and he dropped to the San Diego Flash, the Galaxy’s A-League affiliate. After cutting his teeth in the lower leagues, Conrad received offers from the Galaxy and the San Jose Earthquakes, and with a pride still bruised from previous rejection, he opted to sign with the ‘Quakes as a Discovery Player, going from making $800 per month to $2,000 per month.

Conrad saw success during his stint in the Bay Area, including a 2001 MLS Cup, but it wasn’t until he made the move to Kansas City that he found his true home.

He joined the Wizards (now Sporting Kansas City) in 2003, and he quickly made an impact as one of the best center backs in the league. In addition to four MLS Team of the Season selections between 2004 and 2008, Conrad earned MLS Defender of the Year honors in 2005.

His stellar play gave him a shot with the United States men’s national team, and he made his debut in the 2005 Gold Cup, helping the team win a title on home soil, and was named to the 2006 FIFA World Cup roster.

Conrad would make his return to Southern California in 2011, playing one season for the now defunct Chivas USA before hanging up his boots. In all, his career saw him make 290 MLS appearances and 28 caps for the USMNT, which included appearances at two Gold Cups, one Copa América and one World Cup.

After a few short stints in the coaching realm with Chivas USA and the San Francisco Glens, Conrad has found his post-playing career lane in the media space, working with CBS and Fox Sports in addition to his own streaming channels on YouTube and Twitch.

Today, Conrad spends his time raising his two daughters, Julia Rose and Jane Mirabelle as well as hosting CBS’ “Call It What You Want” alongside fellow ex-USMNT internationals Tony Meola and Charlie Davies.

We caught up with Conrad for a Q&A session, discussing some recent USMNT headlines and the looming 2026 World Cup.

Urban Pitch: You were the first person who Christian Pulisic came to when he wanted to clear the air after deciding to skip the 2025 Gold Cup. What was your take on that whole situation? Do you feel like Pulisic cheated his country by missing out on the Gold Cup?

Jimmy Conrad: That’s a loaded question. Honestly, I really believe it depends on which lens you’re looking through when you are analyzing the situation. From my own personal experience, I had asked for a break from the national team one time for a January camp, three years out from the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It wasn’t as urgent, but I had asked out, and I had some personal reasons that I thought warranted just taking a couple weeks off after a long MLS season and a long national team break in between.

It wasn’t received the way that I had hoped, and I got frozen out of the team for 18 months, and those are the consequences. That’s the risk that he ultimately was taking. But from my own personal lens, I can understand if there’s something heavy going on in your life that’s really nobody else’s business but your own. If you wanted to share that with the coaching staff, and you felt like that necessitated a little bit of a break, I can see where that energy comes from.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Christian Pulisic (@cmpulisic)

Had it been a year out from the World Cup, and I was as key to the national team as Christian is, I don’t think I would have taken that time off. So I can really understand where the fans are coming from. We’re not playing well right now, we need our best players taking the responsibility and leading this team, learning how to win, learning how to play under Mauricio Pochettino. I totally get that energy as well where there’s a lack of understanding, but where I think he really did himself a big disservice is when he posted on Instagram “Just what the doctor ordered,” and it’s photos of him playing golf, hanging out with his family and friends.

That really felt counter to what Mauricio Pochettino had said one to two weeks earlier about how we need to change the culture. It’s not about golfing and going and hanging out with your family and friends. So for him to post that, and then put that caption, it just feels a little tone deaf, and in some ways, it feels like a little kid who’s trying to spite the superior and having a little attitude. If you want to rest, then lay low and stay out of the public’s eye. If I’m a teammate of his, I wouldn’t understand. Why would you even do this right?

You’re just poking the bear with this type of crap, and it’s just unnecessary drama and energy. He then comes on our show and he gets to explain himself a little bit, and I don’t know if you move the needle one way or the other, for the people that are already upset that he’s not there. They’re probably still going to remain upset and going to take bits and pieces of his conversation and his answers to then prove why they’re even more upset about why he’s not in. And then you have the people that understand he needs a rest, and we don’t need him to be peak Christian Pulisic in the summer of 2025, but 2026.

There are a lot of narratives that, when you look at it from U.S. Soccer and Mauricio Pochettino’s perspective, yeah, I’d be frustrated too. If there’s dialogue that was happening behind the scenes and it’s starting to be aired out publicly, that’s not a good look, either. And now you’re starting to sow some discontent, or maybe some mistrust between your best player and the other players.

That’s not where we wanted to be a year out from the World Cup. This is not the crap we wanted to be talking about. The Gold Cup was, in my humble opinion, a really great opportunity for the whole core group, or all the players to be together for 30-plus days. It was going to be as similar to a World Cup as possible, and we weren’t able to get that opportunity, so I’m a little disappointed that this whole thing’s transpiring the way that it is.

Back in your day, it felt like playing for the USMNT was the No. 1 priority for any American player. Fast-forward two decades, and it feels like the USMNT is playing a backseat role to club soccer. Is that fair to say?

I’ll speak from experience. When I played in the 2006 World Cup, and when we came home from that tournament, the two highest rated players for our team were Clint Dempsey and myself. We came home as the two highest-rated players, and at that point, Clint hadn’t played in Europe, only MLS. And all the guys that were playing in Europe were the ones that were supposed to lead us to glory because they were playing in Europe, and the World Cup was in Germany. This should’ve been something they were comfortable with, in an environment they should be comfortable with.

It’s not to say those guys didn’t play well, but what I learned in my own personal experience is that wherever you play before the game kicks off and wherever you’re going to play afterwards, it doesn’t matter. You’re either ready when the ball kicks or you’re not. I’m out there to make good soccer decisions, and so all the other guys, you’re either locked in and ready to go, or you’re not. That still gives me a bit of hope, looking now to the 2026 World Cup, that all this noise and all the drama, and all this unnecessary emotional energy that we’re putting into the team, whether it’s by creation of their own right or by the fan base, you just got to go out and play.

I get some notes from players like, “Dude, Why are you being so harsh? Why are you being so critical of how we’re performing?” I said, “If you don’t want me to be critical, then play better.” It always comes down to that. If you aren’t playing to the standard that I hold you to, that I know you’re capable of, then I’m going to give you a little heat, and if you don’t want that heat, then just play better.

It sounds so simple and easy, but some guys can hit that switch, and I feel like at that level, you should be able to hit that switch a little bit quicker because of the experiences that you’ve accrued over your career which includes playing in Europe. You play in Europe, you have to learn how to hit that switch with a little bit more consistency where they maybe have an edge over MLS. When I played in MLS, we’d lose 10 to 12 players every single year. The turnover was crazy.

There’s still that cutthroat environment, but obviously the stakes are different. More eyeballs watching you over in Europe, and the competition is arguably a little bit better at times, so that’s what I learned from my own personal experience. I do think there’s a there’s a real big role for MLS to play and Mauricio Pochettino clearly doesn’t care, he just wants guys that can play and make good soccer decisions. He’s trying to find the right player profile that can fit into the puzzle that he’s trying to put together, just like I applauded Jurgen Klinsmann when he broadened the player pool.

Photo by Friedemann Vogel/Bongarts/Getty Images

You can see who can step up and perform, and I actually was a beneficiary of that during Bruce Arena’s second time around for the 2006 World Cup. I took my opportunity with both hands, I proved myself that I could hold and be valuable in different roles, even if that means not playing. I’m still a good teammate, I have a good attitude, pushing the standard, pushing the level, and there’s going to be guys that fit into that as well, and they’re going to take advantage of that.

It feels like there’s been a little shift in the priority for the player. When I was coming through, dude, playing for the national team, it didn’t matter where you were playing, you could play anywhere you wanted in Europe, but the national team is the end game. That’s where you’re trying to get. Now, it feels like it’s shifted. Now, the guys that play for big European clubs seem to have the preference over the national team.

I don’t know where that shifted or why it shifted the way that it did, but it feels that’s what’s happened a little bit, and the priority just doesn’t feel the same. Maybe the weight of the shirt feels maybe not as important as it once did. It doesn’t seem like they’re giving the same type of effort that we know they’re capable of consistently. There could be a whole myriad of reasons for that.

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Lastly, are you worried about the heated political climate in the U.S. spilling over and making for a less enjoyable World Cup experience?

I’m not a policymaker, but it’s going to be up to the decision makers to interpret certain interesting situations. If certain countries qualify for the World Cup, how are you going to manage those countries, how are you going to manage their fans that come in if our current political leaders have beef against one of these countries? What does that look like? What I love about the World Cup is how much it brings people together in a really positive way, so having a team not participating would be really disappointing and sad.

We joke that even the most hardcore gangsters and terrorists will put down their guns and want to watch the World Cup…everything just stops, right? You just put that stuff aside, and you just want to enjoy the best players doing their thing on the biggest stage. I think everybody can relate to that and tap into that and be proud of where they’re from, and wearing the jersey and getting into it without having to be assholes about it, or being divisive, or thinking we’re smarter or better than you.

The only thing that matters is what happens on the field, and it’s such a special environment. For anybody who hasn’t been to a World Cup, and if you live in the States, it’s gonna be probably pretty impossible to get tickets, but I actually think you’re going to benefit a lot more from going to fan zones and watching the game on a big giant screen, and you’re just in the middle of a music festival. That actually might even be a better environment than going in-stadium, and it will be a cheaper experience for sure.

When we hosted the World Cup in 1994, I was in high school, and we couldn’t afford tickets, even though we lived 15 minutes from the Rose Bowl. But I would go into Old Town Pasadena, a little area right outside the Rose Bowl, and I just soaked up the culture. I was just drawn to it like, wow, imagine a game having this type of impact on people’s lives that they’re so excited and proud to be Italian or Brazilian or Argentinian.

It’s not in a way there’s any malice or any ill will, it’s just “This is where I’m from,” and I love it. I love these guys are representing me, and I hope they play well, and if they don’t, it doesn’t matter, we’re still going to have a party. I just worry that that politics could impact that in a negative way, and that bums me out because it’s such a great opportunity to showcase what makes all these countries special, and it’s up to America and the other host countries to embrace that and not to push it away.

I hope that when it comes around, the energy is stoked with being inclusive and welcome, as opposed to everybody being treated like, “Well, they’re from this country, they’re monsters.” We have a couple of months to get that shaped up, and I’m honestly hoping for the best, because it’d be a real disservice to the competition itself and what it stands for, and also for us as hosts. If we could meet people where they are with all this incredible energy, that would be amazing. I’m telling you, go to fan zones because you’re going to live it and breathe it in a way that that makes it super special, and I promise you it’ll change your life in a positive way.