World Cup Success? U.S. Legend Cobi Jones Explains Why 'Timing Is Everything'

How would you describe it when a soccer team is clicking? Do you refer to it as "camaraderie" or "a good locker room"? 

Perhaps it's, as you hear players and coaches call it, a "tight-knit group." Or maybe it's what the younger folk today may refer to as "vibes." 

Whatever the term, some think it isn't nearly as important as just assembling a team with the players possible. The cream, they argue, will inevitably rise to the top. For the most part, they aren’t wrong. Only eight countries have ever won a men’s FIFA World Cup. The last four winners of the UEFA Champions League — Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea — are among the wealthiest, most valuable brands in all of global sports. 

But when players bond and sacrifice for a common goal, they become greater than the sum of their parts. That’s how Leicester City overcame 5000-1 odds to win the Premier League in 2016, or how Greece stunned host Portugal to win the 2004 European Championship. 

How crucial is that sense of togetherness? Take it from the most capped player in U.S. men’s national team history.

"It’s probably the most important thing," said three-time World Cup veteran and first-ballot National Soccer Hall of Famer Cobi Jones.

I caught up with Jones, who'll debut his Cobi Club podcast in 2026, to break down the notion and importance of vibes – especially ahead of next year's World Cup. 

U.S. great Cobi Jones, right, hopes that Christian Pulisic and Mauricio Pochettino can get back on the same wavelength ahead of the World Cup.

USMNT supporters on both sides of the vibes debate have been going back and forth on the topic since the spring. In March, a full-strength American side featuring Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, and Antonee