Sacha Kljestan knows what MLS looks like, at this point. He played in the league for a decade, with a European stint in between. He experienced the U.S. college system, moved through the American ranks. Yes, there was the Anderlecht stint - which he is still fondly remembered for. But Kljestan is the model of what an American soccer vet looks like: 300-plus appearances in MLS, four different clubs, 50-plus showings for his national team.

And he has stayed around the game since. Apple TV's MLS Season Pass has offered a new route of exploring the league he loves, where Kljestan commentates on the biggest stories in American soccer. This season, he insists, the highlight isn't Lionel Messi's Inter Miami. Rather, it's the league's newest club: San Diego FC.

"Nearly everybody predicted that they would finish in last place, mainly because we knew nothing about them. They had a 34 or 35-year-old sporting director with no experience on the job, a new head coach who had never been a head coach in first-team football before. I think our expectations were very low," Kljestan says to GOAL.

SDFC are top of the Western Conference, and with five points' worth of breathing room. But they aren't the only decent club on the Pacific coast, Kljestan insists. In fact, Seattle Sounders - winners of Leagues Cup - might just be the team to beat.

"They've got depth, they've got a good coach, they've got experienced players, they've got difference makers," he adds.

But of course, there's other stuff going on here, too. The USMNT are perennially part of the American soccer discourse. And right now, things are tense. Manager Mauricio Pochettino is yet to impress at the helm after almost a year in the job. There are plenty of questions about his squad selection. Kljestan claims it's time to stop messing around with the XI.

"For every camp going forward, I want to see no more experiments, or maybe one or two experiments per roster. The rest of the roster should be 15, 16 core guys that we know are part of this national team that play at the biggest clubs, that are going to be in the team at the World Cup," he says.

Kljestan talked all things MLS, Luis Suarez's suspension, and what Pochettino needs to do to change the U.S.'s fortunes in the latest edition of Mic'd Up, a recurring feature in which GOAL taps into the perspective of broadcasters, analysts, and other pundits on the state of soccer in the U.S. and abroad.

NOTE: This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.