Mo Johnston scored six goals in eight games to help Scotland qualify for the 1990 World Cup in Italy. His international career included 38 caps and 14 goals. Johnston also played 15 years of top level soccer in Europe for such clubs as Celtic, Rangers, Everton, and Nantes before coming to the U.S,. where he played six years for Major League Soccer’s Kansas City Wizards. Now 42, Mo is the head coach of Red Bull New York.

Goal.com: So have you gotten a chance to watch any of the World Cup games?
Mo Johnston: Of course!

Goal.com: Who has impressed you so far?
Mo: Obviously Czech Republic played very well (against the U.S.). Italy played well. Other than that, I didn’t see too much great play on England’s part. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’ll get better as the group goes on. I’m interested to see how Brazil and France do.

Goal.com: What did you think of the U.S.’s performance?
Mo: I wasn’t impressed, like everyone else. Obviously they don’t have anybody that really played well. When you play in the World Cup, you need everybody playing well.

Goal.com: What kind of advice would you give them for the next match [Italy] then?
Mo: Bruce [Arena] has done a hell of a job. The job that he’s done, and the expectations for this team are very, very, very high and they came up against a Czech Republic team that’s outstanding. You’ve got to give them credit: They stopped the U.S. from playing. You don’t become a bad team overnight. Too many people are jumping on the band wagon and saying too many negative things. I don’t like what DaMarcus [Beasley] has said. I really think that’s very negative. If I was one of the guys, I might have said something to him. At the end of the day, Bruce Arena’s done a great job, and being very negative after one game… Let me ask you something: Do you really think the U.S. can advance from this group? To be honest with you, I didn’t think they could. I still don’t think they can, but they’re certainly not a bad team like everyone’s saying.

Goal.com: So what do you think that does for soccer on this country with the way it’s progressed here over four years here?
Mo: We’re still going to move forward. Look, those are setbacks. To take four steps forward, you’re still going to have to take a step back. Maybe this is the right time, maybe it’s the kick in the back side that they need. When I watched the game the other day, there were no positives. For too many people, and all the analysts, and all the experts, to say they’re a bad team after one game… come on. It’s just ridiculous. Can they change? Of course they can. Will Bruce be second guessing certain things? Of course he’s going to be. You always do that as a coach. I’ve got total confidence in Bruce Arena, he’s a wonderful coach. He’s got a great bunch of players. What you don’t need is certain guys on your team speaking out on tactics and how it backfired, that’s what you don’t need.

Goal.com: So as a World Cup Veteran [Mo played for Scotland in World Cup 1990], what did it mean to you to play in the World Cup?
Mo: It’s the ultimate challenge. We only won one game. We lost two games. We never qualified [for the next round]. Obviously it was great playing against Brazil in a World Cup. It was a good experience, but it could have been an even better experience. Just like what the U.S. is going through just now. We lost our first game against Costa Rica and we became a very good team overnight. People started second guessing us, we came out against Sweden and we beat Sweden. Hopefully the U.S. can do the same. The challenge ahead is very, very hard. I understand that, but what you don’t need is certain guys defecting.

Goal.com: What do you think the difference is playing for a team like Scotland and a team like Brazil that’s expected to win every year?
Mo: What kind of question is that? Everybody would have loved to have beaten Brazil. But they’ve got wonderful players, they play with flair. Even their fans are magnificent; they express themselves every day and enjoy themselves. None of the other nations are like that. But listen, this is a different tournament. It’s a tournament where you’re going to have lots of upsets, as you’ve seen already. Like the U.S. has had a little setback, hopefully it’s not a three game setback. Hopefully we get three points from Italy, which is going to be very hard. It’s tough because they’re sound defensively.

Goal.com: Having been a part of MLS for a while [both as a player and now a coach] what kind of improvements have you seen in U.S. game?
Mo: Every year it’s moving forward. It started by bringing in good foreigners. Then they bring their own generation. They’re all starting to [bring in], obviously with the Nike Project, then it was the Adidas Generation, your home grown players, and brand new stadiums. It’s moving forward every day. You’re bringing the likes of Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Man. United. You’re watching soccer 24-7 now. It’s wonderful. My first few years here I could never find a game on TV. Now you’re seeing it every day.

Goal.com: Switching to your club [Red Bull New York], you’ve got some international slots open and have hinted at some high profile possibilities. Can you give us an idea as to who some of those slot might be?
Mo: At the moment, yes, we have got two international slots, we have an allocation, we have certain money to spend. Our team is moving forward and moving slowly. We have too many ties for me. Obviously we’ve broken a record in terms of ties, which I’m not over pleased by. At least we’re not losing games, but I’d like to have a lot more points. Having said that, yes, we have certain spots open, we’re looking at making certain trades -- but every coach is looking to do that. We talk every day to certain coaches, and you try and improve every day. Trying to trade in the league for a good MLS player is tough because everyone wants to keep the good players.

Goal.com: You’ve hinted that a World Cup captain being a possibility, can you tell us who that is at all?
Mo: Yes, it’s a Polish defender/back*. He’s the captain, he’s played in France for 10 years, he’s 33 years old, 6’ 4”. I think it’d be good for our young defense having someone like that helping.

Poland’s Jacek Bak would be the defender referenced by Johnston.

Goal.con: As a Pole, I’m certainly happy to hear that. So he’d work a lot better in the three man back line you’ve been working with then?
Mo: Yes. Actually our defense has been playing pretty well better of late. We’ve been working hard, Tony’s [Meola] been talking to them a lot, Tony’s been organizing them. We have a young backline playing in a three, and obviously we’d be happy to have Marvell [Wynne] playing in the back on a three. We’ve been working on him. It’s a day to day challenge in terms of how you organize a back four to a back three.

Goal.com: Yeah, I think Carlos [Mendes] has played some pretty good games of late myself.
Mo: He’s got to work on his tackling a bit, though.

Goal.com: How about Amado Guevara, how’s the situation with him working out?
Mo: Obviously it’s been well documented, our little bout of trouble that had come up. We dealt with it and at the point it went public it upset the group, it upset the fans, and it upset the organization. I don’t care if you’re the best player in the league, if that happens I’ll certainly have no problem sitting him on the bench.

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