Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #170: Nine U.S. players to watch this MLS season

Episode Date: April 15, 2021

OK we talked about more than nine, but we tried to keep it pretty focused on players who have a chance to contribute to the USMNT in this World Cup cycle. Competition ahead of them, and fit in Berhalter's system are key considerations. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuffed podcast. I'm Adam Bells in Georgia. With me is Greg Velasquez in Iowa. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. Hey everyone. Thanks for tuning in. MLS kicks off this weekend and we're going to try to identify a few players in this league, most of them young and with a high upside who have a chance of breaking into the national team and contributing in this World Cup cycle. Whether that's in one of the three-match qualifying windows or the World Cup itself, we'll leave that to fate. just looking for some kind of contribution. Greg, how are you? Bells, I appreciate that you just said a few players and didn't, didn't like put it, like nail us down to a specific number because that is not our strength.

No. It's sticking to a specific number. No, no, it's not. Our off-air discussion has been rife with controversy. We don't know. We don't know how many names we're going to put on here. And we haven't even really settled on how to characterize this list of names.

So let's get a little meta here. one thing we're going to try to do, from my perspective, is not fall into the throw every name at the wall trap that longtime listeners will know we have sometimes fallen into. Now, that's mostly me, not you, Greg, because Matt Hartman and Joey Anton and I did some episodes way back when, some old school scuffed episodes where we covered 50 or more young players, say in like the U-20 cycle for 2017 or 2019.

Even 50s conservative. Yeah. It was a lot. It was a lot. I'm not knocking at, by the way. A lot of people listen to those episodes. I don't know how much of the episode they listen to, you know. Anyway, you could argue there's enough young talent in MLS to warrant that sort of thing these days.

Because there just is. There are a lot of players who could break through. But we're trying to focus on players that could actually break in to Burrhalter's system in the next 12 to 18. months and that that bar is pretty high at several spots on the field like for instance wing like how we have four good wingers we have jordan morris who is not in that list of four right now because he's hurt you have to be pretty good to break in and you have to fit there's also the question of fit do you fit burrhalter system i think that matters a lot yeah and you're talking about that trap of naming a bunch of guys i'm actually i'm actually going to be uh on

your side, on the other side of this one for once and say, I actually think the trap here is trying to narrow it down the way we're going to try because I think, if anything, what we've seen recently, and this is all sort of speculative since we haven't played a real competition that matters. So we don't know exactly how these players are going to perform at that level. But in sort of the fan bases, in all of our sort of spreadsheets that we all put together of the national team. I think we've seen over the last four months that there is actually a pretty low bar to jump into the squad. I think, you know, like a Kelana Costa, who wasn't really on anyone's radar in a meaningful way going into the December camp, even when he was named in that camp,

I don't think anyone was jumping like, oh, Acosta's for sure, you know, going to be a guy that's going to play a big part in qualifying. That was four months ago. And now I think people are like, okay, that could happen. Luca de la Torre, who most people would basically, written off when he wasn't playing a minute for Follum for three years, moves to the Aere de Vissier and was a never-game starter, still wasn't really breaking into non-Daniel Smith, like, minds. Suddenly. Yeah, I was going to say, Daniel Smith deserves some credit here.

Daniel deserves a lot of credit. He's been on the Luca Deletoria beat for faithfully. I would watch him every once in a while because I was like, can I take this guy off of the playbill? Like, is he really doing anything, you know, once he started? playing for Heracles. And I was like, I'd check his clips out and I was like, you all right, the guy actually like plays.

He's a decent player. So he's not so bad or so nothing that I'm dropping him. But he never really did anything to stand out. Anyway, he comes into a camp and now like suddenly one camp where we weren't really even sure that his name would be on the list, has a couple of good showings. And I think people at this point are like penciling him into the, the Nations League 23 or the, you know, the first qualifying window, at least being a body. And so for me, while there are some positions that are going to be very difficult to break into as a new player,

there are going to be other slots like that fourth number eight or maybe that back up six, back up left back, that really, it's just, it's going to be anything goes. Like it's a wild, wild west and there's going to be a huge bottleneck of 20, 25 players that it wouldn't shock me if their name becomes that fourth number eight. And there can only really be one or two guys that do it. Well, and then there's the question of, is it really just a fourth number eight that we need? Or do we need six or seven number eights for some of these World Cup qualifying windows? We probably do need more than four when we have three games in, you know, 10 days or whatever it is.

Right? Right. So I promise I won't do it. We won't do it here. But I do think we could run an entire episode that's just like the 25 players who could be the fourth number eight. And I don't think any of them would be super, super far-fetched. Wow, 25. That's a lot. Well, a lot of the names in this that I've put in here, this list is mostly mine with one very notable exception.

And Greg, you know, because Greg, like he just explained, doesn't really believe in the whole exercise. But a lot of the names are eights. So I guess that sort of squares with what you've been saying. I think that's the most central midfield, I think, in whether, you're calling it the eight or the six, which I think are somewhat interchangeable, not to rehash the whole Olympic qualifying thing, but I think the way we're going to be playing,

it will be easier to shift an eight into the six spot than to take like a pure six and try to play them as an eight. But yeah, I do think that those two spots are going to be sort of the most, the heavy, the most heavily contested spots in the pool. Yeah, and just to as a refresher, we've got a likely,

the likely two starters at the eight are McKinney and Mousa. And then Adams would be the six behind them, but he has plenty of eight-ish qualities. And Moussa can play as a six, so there's a lot of interchangeability there. I mean, McKinney can do that stuff too. And then we'd have Legette as an eight. I think he's probably the fourth name in the midfield.

And then it gets a little messy, right? It's a costa. And if you want to call Acosta the guy, I'm just saying no one was calling him the guy in November. I'm not calling him the guy. But for the folks outside who do. Yeah. I think it's pretty squishy. And like you said, Acosta and Delatore suddenly look like viable options there.

That doesn't mean they are the, you know, fifth and sixth names on the list. And if we need 10 names, you know, there's room. There's room for that. There's room for some of these guys to break in. So, so number one player, speaking of six is six eight hybrids, number one. player who's ready to break into the national team picture in major league soccer this season Michael Bradley masterclass down in Orlando just kidding just kidding yeah there's been there was a lot of talk on twitter.com about this last night um what did you think i did not watch that game you

watched it what did you think of Bradley well so i didn't watch the games and now i'm in a i'm in a bit of a bind because you actually booted me off of wiscout don't tell anyone please but we we share a Y Scout account might violate some Y Scout rules. So I only got to see him through like the first 50 minutes of the game yesterday. But I'd heard about how well he played. So I was going and expecting this masterclass. And it wasn't really that much of a masterclass. It was I thought what happened was it was notable how much ground he was covering relative to how much ground he would expect Michael Bradley to cover.

And I think that got a lot of people's attention. I thought he was mostly fine. but I think if anything it kind of says how narrow of a position he had he's played in the past couple years that this is sort of the game that people are if people are going to point to this game as being like revelation I don't know I mean again I'm someone who's not going to root right off anyone at any point so when we're talking about how squishy the six eight position is if Michael Bradley is playing is like this true box to box eight again like like back in the day and he's doing it well then sure again that bar for that fourth spot is is pretty low i don't i'm not ruling him out of that if he's showing an ability to do it uh i'm not super um i don't particularly expect that he will do this at a really high level uh to cover this much ground every game uh so i'm not i'm not like

i'm not ready to leapfrog him over a bunch of other players in that squishy depth chart well before we get into the dream scape of young players who you know are sort of like that's up that's the scuffed podcast playground. Let's go, let's talk, let's really talk about Bradley a little bit. Like, is there, do you think there's a chance he gets to play in some of these World Cup qualifiers? And is there any reason he shouldn't? I don't, I really don't think there is much of a chance.

I don't, the only reason he shouldn't is because he's not good enough to. Or he's not the right fit of the kind of player. And, you know, the player he's been the past three years for, for me, does not fit into the Burrhalter system at all anymore since we've sort of shifted to a much more aggressive defensive stance. So the only way it does is if he reinvents himself, re-reinvents himself, I guess he'd say, into the player he was from 2006 to 2012 to 2000, maybe going into the 2014 World Cup before he kind of had an injury setback.

I don't think there's a place for him if he's just going to sit in the deep spot and spray balls around. Yeah. I got to say I worry a little bit about his fit culturally with this new guard. You know, I'm all for, you know, raw masculinity, but, but like, you know, his reputation is like he's sort of an alpha and he comes in and he kind of like tries to run things. Or just like naturally that's his way of interacting with people is by bossing them around. And I don't know, man, I don't know if I want that. I don't know if I want that coming in, him coming in.

trying to boss around Tyler Adams and Weston McKinney. And they're young guys, you know, they're still young, impressionable guys. Like, maybe that's, maybe that becomes a negative influence in some ways. I don't know. It worries me. It's a total, like, contrast between Sebastian Legit, the cool uncle coming in, coming to the locker room and, like, just going along with things and Burrhalter coming in, or I'm sorry, Bradley coming in and saying, this is,

is the way it is. Toxic Thanksgiving uncle. Toxic Thanksgiving uncle. I don't know. I don't know, man. Yeah, we're definitely into like a combination of speculation and rumor and hearsay for what Michael Brad, like just saying Michael Bradley's not a guy who would sort of disappear into the leadership background. I don't think he would. I can't imagine that where he'd just be like, okay, you guys, you know, I'll just take a back seat. Anyway, let's get into the list. No, Bradley not officially on the list. Right, but definitely. On this up and coming list of up and coming MLS players.

Michael Bradley's not quite fitting that description. But here there are some names who do fit the description, and I think also have to admit here, Concaf Champions League is ongoing, and players who are active in that are higher in the mind than players who are not. So again, that's going to be a factor here. First name I've got is Eric Williamson.

the Portland Timbers, central midfielder, famously left off the Olympic qualifying roster. They were talking about it on all the radio talk shows. He looked quite good earlier this week against... Twice. He looked good twice, right? Both games? Yeah, I think so. I mean, the one I paid more attention to

was the more recent one against Marathon. And, you know, he created a lot of chances. He's composed. I mean, very almost like casual, so casual in a way that I like. Sort of got a little bit of that Keaton Parks vibe where it's like he doesn't, Langwood, Languid is the word I think you use. There you go. It's that combination of confidence and being so casual because you just know you can do it.

You know you're about to pull this off. It bit him a couple times, but they did win the game running away. It's just stepping past guys with the ball. very smooth broke I think was able to break down the opponent in the middle of the park pretty easily I could see him competing with Kel and Acosta for a spot for minutes in qualifying if he keep you know if he continues to look this good I'm not I'm not an expert on the opponent in that game so I don't know if they're just like

really really bad but well crank cranks uh threw out a couple of clips of him and I was impressed with not just his his ability on the ball but his ideas off the ball, manipulating space, whether it's moving forward, moving backward, or side to side. So that's all the directions you can move. You rarely move up or down to manipulate opponents. But he was doing those things really well. And again, it's just that it's a nice contrast to what we saw in Olympic qualifying where there were very few ideas in how to do that to sort of see those laid out. It was really good. Watkey had the definitive, I think, tactical breakdown of Williamson over those past two legs. So if you haven't seen that,

find that and watch it and just reflect on on williamson and what he can contribute in your own mortality yeah uh and then it it really is going to be interesting to see whether or not burhalter just flat out doesn't rate the guy because again he's been in a couple of camps or at least one burrhalter camps or just one i think it's just one but i don't quote me on that okay but in in january did not make the yeah i think that's right he was left off in December because he'd just been injured in the in the MLS playoffs. And maybe that was still lingering issue in January because he did not make the final match day roster for the friendly.

So it's one of those things where it's just like with Oba say, like maybe Burralter just doesn't rate him, doesn't think that what he brings helps the team enough. And I don't know, man, maybe I don't know if he has a way into the squad at this point. Yeah. I mean, you know, Berlter's been pretty, I think he's been. open to changing his mind on players, you know? I mean, Legette is one example. I don't know. I don't know. I'll be keeping an eye on Williamson. I know a lot of people are really high on him, people we respect. And he did look good.

He did look good. And if nothing, if nothing else, every Williamson success he has this year will be another like knife in the Olympic qualifying failure's heart. Yeah. Yeah, boy. That's, that's, it makes it more depressing. And speaking of Watke, man, that is, those videos he makes are, like, he's invented a genre. It's real, it's remarkable. The, the, um, I mean, there's, there's some precedent and have you ever heard of John Boy? John Boy media? Yes. So, of that, so those are like, it's kind of like that, but, but Watkins are more winsome somehow, you know, you know, really something. It's good. I'm looking for, I mean, every, every, every, like, Every video he releases is a masterpiece, but I'm looking forward to his like opus, his whatever he's putting together.

I'm sure he just, his vision's incredible. Yeah, it's good. He would have been number one on this list if we'd really want to do it right. He's going to contribute more than any one player to this World Cup cycle. Yeah, it's going to be fun. It's going to be fun to watch. Number two. But as far as players go, number two is Aiden Morris.

Yeah. I got to say, I mean, I'm affected by Susayetta on this, and Susayeta is really high on Morris, but I'm really interested in his development. Still very inexperienced. We definitely need more data, but I think he's kind of underrated in the intelligentsia for his work on the ball. And, I mean, he's very secure, difficult to dispossess. And yes, he's mostly safe with his passing, but it's not sort of claustrophobic, you know,

which you can get with some young players. and defensively he is outstanding. He's the prospect who most closely mirrors Tyler Adams for me. Just very responsible, committed to covering ground, snuffing out danger. He's a good athlete and really strong in the tackle. I think arguably stronger in the tackle than Adams was at this stage of his career. Wy Scout has Adams winning 45% of his duels in his last season for New York. Morris won almost 60% of his duels last season.

It's a small sample size, of course, but It matches the eye test. He does tend to come away with the ball. And I'm excited about the way he'd fit in a national team lineup. You know, as usual, I'm getting ahead of myself. But the way he'd fit and play a complimentary role behind McKenny Musa or Legat or maybe even Adams, you know. I mean, I think he brings a lot of solidity to a midfield. And I'm excited about him.

Well, and again, that door, I feel like, is totally. wide open if he can fill in behind Adams. Some of the guys that we were wondering if they'd be stepping into that job did not shine down in Guadalajara, whether we're talking about Johnny Cardoso or Perea. So again, at this point, the guy to beat out is probably Jackson Yule, potentially. And Aid Morris feels like a very different player than Jackson Yule and probably feels more of a kind to Tyler Adams, as he said. So it's interesting.

So for me, Aiden Morris is going to be more along the lines of like Brian Reynolds. I feel like he's in that class where we don't have very much data on him. We didn't have a lot with Reynolds. And then suddenly he's selling for 10 million to Roma. Whereas Williamson for me feels more like the Brendan Aronson track where Brendan Aronson, we had a year of him going into 2020. He'd already played for a year in 2019. And then we get that real like breakout year in 2020.

And then he moves for $6 million to Salzburg. so I feel like we're kind of going to be talking about these guys in this list as either being like Reynolds types or Aronson types. And Morris feels like he could be a guy who could be a Reynolds type. Yeah, I mean, if he puts together, you know, if he stays healthy all season and gets, you know, a start every other game, I don't know if that's even possible because of the log jam in midfield at Columbus. But, you know, a full season of action would put him more, I think, in the Aronson category. but right now he's definitely in the Reynolds category category. Yeah, and just like Reynolds, he just has a player, a couple of guys in his way on the depth chart.

So Reynolds had to wait for Cannon to be sold to get into that starting 11. And I think it's going to be the same with Morris. He doesn't have a clear way into the 11 yet, and it doesn't feel like Columbus is going to be selling either of its center mids the way FC Dallas was looking to unload Canon. Yeah. I feel like there could, and I feel like there could be whole books written about this subject, but, and maybe there are, I just haven't read them. But, you know, Morris is a physically dominant midfielder. I think, I think it's physically, he's physically impressive and, you know, has a potential

to be dominant physically in MLS. He looks that way when I watch him play. And there's like, you know, this idea, this much discussed idea of the Jackson Ewell type, who is not physically dominant, but, like, can disguise his passes and maybe hit diagonals, although that's a little bit debatable with Ewell. But like which one is better, you know? Which kind of number six is better? I think is a really interesting question because you see with Morris that he,

you know, he's not hitting like huge passes with a lot of range, but still managing to sort of like help his team control the game. And I don't know. I don't know. I tend to think it's sort of the falsest of dilemmas to, to think that, you know, the other end of the technical spectrum is athletic. Like, it's a, again, it's a quadrant where you have technical and athletic up on the top right, and you have not technical and not athletic down on the bottom left.

And, you know, I don't know what Morris's passing range is or how it compares to Eules at the moment because we just need to watch him play more. And again, we don't know what he's being asked to do with his ball distribution. You know, you don't want this guy turning the ball over constantly. We have Darlington Nagby on the team who you can feed the ball to and know that he never turns it over. So, you know, it's just what roles he being asked to play? What role could he play for the national team if he's going to play that role? And we will just wait for his inevitable gold cup call up and evaluate him then.

Sweet. Yeah, I hope that's the case. I hope he performs well enough to get that call up. Number three, George Bello. Left back for it. Lanny United. Want me to just launch? Go ahead.

Feels like an inevitable Gold Cup call-up as well. Yeah, and I think he's a player who really benefits from the position he plays in this discussion because there's still plenty to criticize, especially his 1V-1 defending.

I think he's gotten Bambied quite a bit in his first two matches of the year in Concaf Champions League, but the bottom line is he's still a high-quality prospect, and he plays a position where the door is wide open

for someone to step up and stake a claim. And he plays for a coach. I didn't know this until recently. I mean, I knew who the coach was. Gabriel Henza. Is that how you say it? Henza.

I'm not sure. It's spelled like the ketchup with an E on the end. But he's from Argentina, who seems really serious about defending and himself played left back for the biggest clubs in Europe in the middle of the aughts, PSG, Man United, and Real Madrid. So that's a good guy to learn from. And Bello has always been praised for his teachability.

including on this podcast by his, by his former USL coach, whose name escapes me at the moment. So there, all right. So there we go. Bello is hoping to break through that, uh,

much lower, uh, window, much lower ceiling, we should say, uh, at left back because it's just, again, it's just so,

so artificially lowered because there are only, literally like six existing American left backs in the world at the moment. Right. And one of them is Sam Vines, uh, who I think a lot of, of people had as the number two behind Robinson. And he maybe still is, but he's not, he didn't go into Olympic qualifying and like plant a

flag on the moon with his performance there. Well, it's tough, man. There can really only be one next Marcello. So this is like one of the things that makes me mad about Twitter. I'd never said George Bello was the next Marcello. I said he's the, he's the closest thing we have to a Marcello type, which is, you know, everybody who criticizes me for calling him the next Morsello is smart enough to know the difference between those two statements. So this is a bad faith. This is a bad faith thing. Tye,

final third. Disagree. This is, this is stuck to you for life. Should we go to number four? Yeah. Let's do that. Let's go to number four. Number four, I feel like, is a reach to include on this list, but go on. Paxson, and Palmacall. And I think he's got that. the talent to push for one of those spots at the eight. In fact, he'd be a fantastic fit as a more or less like for like Musa replacement, but he's just got to get healthy and stay there. That's all on Pomacall for me.

Yeah, I guess it's not too much of reach to have him on the list because he missed the whole season and he's essentially really only had the one full MLS season that he played as a real contributor. So that was enough for me to be like, oh, we can't really call him up and coming, but we still really have. haven't seen him certainly make the national team, any national team breakthrough because of the missed year. No.

So yeah, so we're basically just saying, will he get healthy and will he maintain the level of play that had us so excited through 2019? And I guess if we're being realistic, even if he is healthy and playing at a high level, is it wise for the, you know, for Berhalter to call him in for the Gold Cup? and like considering he could there's a precedent for him to just get injured again and then be out for another two years you know maybe he should be treated with kid gloves

by all involved I don't know no I don't want that I want him to get called in because if you if you can't call him in for this then you're basically saying we just can't bring it we can't use him I think I feel like we got to find out if we can use him this isn't like a I don't know I don't know enough of the particulars of his injury but you know you could you could bring him into camp

and use him sparingly or evaluate in camp how much you can use him. But we got to find out if he can play if he's going to have a national team future. And Gold Cup is basically the last chance to do that. Yeah. Let's move to number five, his teammate, Tanner Testman. You're the leader of the Testman contingent. He's going to be very much in the Brendan Aronson pathway, where he was a on and off starter last.

year. So this would become his second sort of full season. And that's what Aronson moved after his second full season. So the question here is going to be, does Tanner Testman go from like a prospect whose name you know to like a prospect who you're eager to see make a $6 million move to a Champions League team? Yeah. And by, from the rumors we're hearing like Burrhalter rates

Teseman quite a bit. Okay. Jason Christ less so, but Burrhalter really seems to like him. And again, that squares with Testman making it onto the match day roster for the January camp friendly and now again it's just about watching him to see if he really does elevate his game and become

like an MLS best 11 player in just his second season. I'd love to see the text messages between Burhalter and Kreis after the game. Can we get those with a freedom of information act request? I don't think so. Again, what's funny about

this is testman might not even be a starter for FC Dallas. So all I'm talking about being MLS Best 11, like, is he even, is he nailed on to their starting 11? Lucci hates America. That's all I know. No, I'm just kidding. It is, it is, it is, there's a lot of veterans who seem like they're in line to get a lot of the minutes in Dallas. Yeah, this list could have been six FC Dallas players, and all six of them would be 50-50 to be starting by the third week of the season. Yeah.

as it is, it's three FC Dallas players. The next one's not an FC Dallas player. This is one that Greg insisted I put on the list. Gianluca Busio. Yeah, this is total bait. This is me just making Bells admit that he hates Busio the same way he hates Gio Raina,

the same way he hates Brendan Herenson. And I want him to just have to put it on the record. I hate the word hate in this context so much. But, yeah, I don't think Bouscio is, it's hard for me to see him fitting with the national team. I know a lot of people rate him and, you know, he's going to score some bangers probably this season. He's got a, like, he's got a thunderbolt for a right foot. And he's, and he does make some nice plays as a playmaker. And, you know, sometimes he plays as a six for Kansas City.

He did that mostly last season, right? A deep-lying midfielder spreading the ball around. But I just don't, you know, I don't see him as, as, as. athletic enough to be one of those midfielders for the national team. I know you don't necessarily agree with that, but like he's not an, he's not an athlete on the level of Musa or McKenny or Adams or even Pomacall, I don't think, or Legette. He's just, he just moved a little slower.

And it could be he's just, just because he's been so young. I also don't see him as like, I mean, you see him as a tucked in winger, right? That's what he could be. Well, I honestly am not sure yet. Unlike with Aronson where I feel like, you know, we pretty much moved on to him having to just be the winger rather than the center mid. I'm not sure on Boosio, but I feel like he's versatile enough and he is flexible enough. And we're seeing that with sporting Kansas City too because he kind of plays as like a 10 for them sometimes. And that's what our wingers will often play as.

So he could play in that sort of 10 role or he could play, in my mind, as that pressing 8 or even potentially if he really settles in and gets. minutes as that sort of deeper player, he could be a potential six. So it's, it's sort of like he's a bit of a blank canvas. Yeah, I have to admit it's all possible, you know. So, and I, you know, I will be paying attention, of course. And it's just like with Testman, he might also not even be a starting player for sporting Kansas City. Right. It does seem like Vermeys really likes him and is really invested in him, though. I think, you know, Hermes used to get a lot of crap for not playing Eric Palmer Brown. Do you remember those days when Eric Palmer Brown?

I do. But he's, you know, he's somewhat redeemed himself in that, I think, should have redeemed himself with that crowd because he's been, he's been patient and committed to Busio's development. I think that's fair to say. I'll take it. I mean, he had Ike Opaura and Matt Beasler running centerbacks for a while, so it's not like it's not like he had a bunch of washouts for sunback.

I'm not saying the criticism about EPB was totally justified. I'm just saying there was definitely some criticism back then. That, you know, in our very small world, I'm talking about this stuff like it's this national conversation. It's really like 17 people talking about it. Number seven, Ricardo Pepe. I'm, like we mentioned earlier, I'm not super optimistic that he's going to get a ton of minutes,

at least or at least a ton of starts he'll probably get minutes. But he is the big upside young domestic striker now that Barnsley legend, Darrell Dike, appears headed off to Europe permanently. So if anyone is going to break out and be that combination of contributing in the buildup and able to get on the end of chances, it's going to be probably him. That's what it feels like to me is that out of all the sort of MLS strikers now, now that DK's gone, that sort of MLS Hydra, I feel like he is the, the one with the most potential.

So for him, I mean, he had very good underlying stats last year. And so we're just waiting to see if the sample size sort of catches up to him. Or if he can maintain it over another thousand minutes. He didn't have a thousand minutes last year. I don't know the number off the top of my head, but I don't think so. No. No. Because that's where he starts to say, oh, right, he's doing it reliably.

So we're waiting for him to sort of get to that thousand minute milestone. And I don't know if he's going to get minutes. right away, but the hope is going to be that he puts himself on the field and it's impossible to leave him out of a lineup if you're trying to make your strongest FC Dallas lineup. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, and it's not like, you know, I don't think Sergeant and D.K. are in, like, our bad options. Of course, I like both of those players a lot.

So it is going to be, it's a little bit of a high bar because Zardis is, you know, you've got to imagine Zardis is in that top three somewhere. I don't know what the situation is with Josie Alton. But he's, you know, he exists in this in this player pool. So, I mean, Pepe's going to have to be really good to break in, I guess. But, you know, he's got a chance. He's got a chance of that. Yeah, he's going to, Pepe's going to have to produce, I think.

I think he's going to need goals. It seems like Jesus Ferreira is another guy who we're not putting on our list, but who Burrhalter seems to rate. Again, it's hard to tell with all the different restrictions placed on callups over the last two years, but it seems like Pepe is going to need to, like, again, force his way into the conversation with getting on the stat sheet. Top line stats, goals. Number eight, Kate.

This guy's had no problem getting on the stat sheet. Yeah. Sorry, some jump on the over. Yeah, please do. Yeah, go ahead. He scored a couple of bangers late in the MLS season. What else? What else you got on Clark?

So on Clark, what I have is that he also is super limited sample size. So again, we're in Brian Reynolds' territory here. And, you know, the goals were fantastic. He gets himself in a good spots. He seems to have a cannon of a strike on him. Both feet. But he's also... Both feet.

One of those bangers was with his left foot. But we're very much going to have to see if his expected goals catches up to him. because, you know, those bangers aren't something you can necessarily reliably hit. There aren't too many players who reliably score those chances. When we were talking on Ricardo Pepi, it was his underlying numbers that are super impressive. And so we just have to wait to see if, if, like, the sample size is sort of fooling us there. With Caden Clark, it's like his, I mean, he's fine. He's doing fine.

He's not like he's doing poorly. But the goals that get everyone's attention aren't necessarily repeatable, the way he was, you know, getting him in those. super limited. Right, right. Another thing about, I love how we're having a super like hype, like we're doing a hype list episode and all I'm doing is throwing cold water on every single name. I'm happy with it so far. The other thing about Caden Clark is he's very, he's a good fit at least on paper for one of those tucked in winger jobs. Now he would have to, again, it's much like Pepe, he'd have to really, really produce for New York to get, you know, to make a serious push to be a serious contributor come work of qualifying.

But it's possible, you know. Yeah, it's possible he could blow up. It's possible he could have, I want to say, like, a Jordan Morris level of statistical production. Morris didn't, Morris's year in 2019 came out of nowhere. I mean, he missed all of 2018 with an injury. His 2017 wasn't particularly good statistically. So none of these things would be unprecedented that you could have that kind of year

and immediately lock yourself into the fringe. You can definitely lock yourself into the fringe of the national team within a year. And Clark is kind of a 10, so he would be comfortable in that half space, receiving the ball and doing stuff. And he can definitely press. He can get up there. And from what we understand, he's headed to Leipzig come January of next year anyway. So he's got one year of MLS left,

and then he's off to Leibzig. And the question is whether he jumps right in the way Tyler Adams did, or it's more of like a Joe Scaliad Gladback situation where he's just going to settle into the reserves for a while. Okay, speaking of NYCFC, our last name, so this is a nice odd number, nine names to look for in the MLS season is James Sands. Now, he's not a Burrhalter favorite, but he is a good, defending, destroying midfielder who is safe, if unspectacular, on the ball.

I think it's very unlikely that he breaks in, but it's possible. That's like the catch line for the whole episode. Sands is like Pomacall, but without any of the hype that Pomacall had in 2019, missed most of 2020 with an injury. I mean, he kind of just missed the last, I don't remember when he got broke his season. like something like that yeah yeah so missed the back half of the season after firmly establishing himself as a starter for new york city a decent new york city side so so again he's not just racking up minutes on a on a bad team uh he's an important piece on a good team uh and just

really hoping that james hands and keaton parks can do the same thing and maybe get a little bit more love this year from u.s soccer yeah so there's going to be a lot of names here a lot of names omitted here that people are going to wonder why and ask us about. So I have an honorable mention list that I want to plow through kind of quickly and explain why I don't think they have that great of a shot of contributing in this World Cup cycle. So hold on. So hold on.

If the tagline for the first nine was anything can happen, like probably not, but who knows, then what's the tagline for these guys? Probably not. Yeah. But who knows more? Yeah. The tagline for the first ones was what now? Probably not, but who knows?

I think he said probably not, but who knows. Yeah. The tagline for these guys is like even less of a chance, I guess. But we're still excited. That's what's wild about it. This is how much the picture has changed. These guys have very little chance of being on a roster at any point, even despite the bulk of qualifying games.

But we're still excited to watch them. I'm excited to watch this first guy that you're about to talk about. Yeah. No, I mean, this is not to say that they aren't good soccer players or won't be, you know, fantastic soccer players. Or if we had a different coach that they couldn't, you know, break into the national team in a different system. But the first one is Kate Cowell. There's a lot of buzz around him, a San Jose player.

And he does look, you know, in the immortal words of Bill Walton, looks the part of a full-grown man. I haven't seen him in the locker room the way Walton did LeBron James. but do you remember that? That was so funny. Walton didn't mean it as double entendre, but it sure came out that way. When LeBron James was still in Akron, you know,

not even drafted yet. Anyway, moving right along. So he plays as a wide forward for Matthias Almeda in San Jose and seems poised for a big step forward from the 16 appearances, appearances one goal, one assist he got in 2020.

Problem is, he is not a good fit for really any of the front three roles in Burrhalter's system, don't you think? I haven't seen anything suggesting that he would want to come into the half space and operate as like a Georrena-style 10. I mean, or Pulisick even. Pulisick doesn't necessarily play like a 10 when he gets in there, but he's totally comfortable receiving the ball and then doing a bunch of crazy Pulisick shit with it. Cowell seems like he wants to use the sideline as sort of protection to receive it out there.

and then, like, trick a guy to blow past him. Is that fair? That's totally fair. I think that's what he does. And he's like, he's much more of a Jordan Morris than Brendan Aronson. I don't think he's comfortable at all receiving the ball in traffic. And, you know, he could end up forcing his way into the picture by just dominating MLS, you know, doing, like you said earlier, having a Jordan Morris level year, Jordan Morris in 2019 level year. But it's not a, it's a, it's a, it's a.

square peg and a round hole when it comes to the national team for him, I think. Right. And kind of like what you said, I don't even want this to come off as courtesy as saying he can't operate in that half space or anything. It's just more like he doesn't need to to be a successful soccer player. He just might need to, you know, to play successfully for the U.S. men's national team in this current cycle. Yeah, I mean, there's every reason to believe he's going to use that sideline as protection and then turn outside backs to powder throughout this season, you know? I mean, it's, I think he's, he's probably going to have a good year. Number 11, I had to put him off the list.

So not really number 11. This is just another honorable mention. I'd take him off the list at Greg's insistence. David Ochoa, who went from hero to goat, the bad kind of goat at the Olympic qualifying tournament. But I still think he's a big personality goalkeeper who can distribute with his feet. And if he can win the starting job in Salt Lake, he could edge his way into the picture. Greg, what's your response to that? So my response here is for David Ochoa to work, even if he works his way into the picture,

we're talking about working his way into the picture as like the third string goalkeeper for the national team, which, you know, for me, carries like much less weight than the fourth number eight. So even as tedious as we're getting with our rosters, like the third string keeper here means very little to me. And Ochoa doesn't, as far as I know, sound like he's won the Salt Lake job yet and no guarantee that he ever will. So he just feels like more of a reach because it's different.

You know, Kate Cowell doesn't have to win a starting job for San Jose to rack up a lot of appearances for San Jose. We've seen Jonathan Lewis play a lot despite never being a starter. If David Ochoa is not the starter, he's not playing. I mean, that's the world of goalkeepers. Yeah, the goalkeeper's dilemma, I guess. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I'm really rooting for him and hope he can overcome the Andrew Putna dominance at Rail Salt Lake.

But like you said, no guarantee, no evidence to say that he will right now. I haven't, you know, I haven't checked with the Rail Salt Lake beatwriters. All right. Let's talk about some recency bias picks. Anthony Fontana, looking very bright for Philadelphia right now and has been, was a Golato machine last year in the, COVID shortened season. Again, it's just hard to see. So, I mean, he's going to score goals for Philly. I think Philly looks like they're going to be a good team this year.

But it's just hard to see him fitting in either role for Burrhalter up front. I mean, maybe he could be an eight, maybe like a legit type of eight. I don't know. But he's not going to be a tucked-in winger, I don't think, and I don't think he's a pure number nine who drops in and, you know, contributes in the buildup. it's kind of the same as Kate Cal, you know, if he comes out and has like 15 goals, five assists by June, that would be a lot. That's a crazy number.

Let's say 10 goals, 10 goals, three assists by June, something like that. Then I think it might change the equation a little bit, but he doesn't seem like a good fit. Yeah, that's the same thing for me. He's not an Aronson type. He doesn't play the same way Aronson plays. So it's hard to see, it's hard to visualize. visualize how he'd play. But again, we have, we blend positions pretty frequently with the national team. So, so I think, I think we've said a lot of times, probably not, but who knows?

There are a lot of other names who are exciting and worth watching. Cole Bassett in Colorado, Moses Nyman is a huge upside as a midfielder at D.C. Miles Robinson at Atlanta United. I think he is pretty close to the picture. Don't you think, Greg? Yeah, yeah. And again, that's where we get into like, what is even the criteria, what's the cut off for up and coming?

Miles Robinson already has an MLS all best 11 season to his name. So, you know, Sam Vines, we can't really, I feel like it's not, you wouldn't call him an up and coming player. Right. I don't want to get too hung up on that. Players who can't,

players who are not currently in, like firmly in the picture who could be in the picture come September. There we go. But who knows? Yeah, there's Paxton Aronson, Brendan Aronson's younger brother, Frank Yamaya and Cameron Harper at Red Bull in New York, Edwin Sirio, another possible six at FC Dallas. Yeah, and I'm sure I'll put together a crib sheet for everyone so that they can just add a glance see which teams have which U.S. relevant players. Because again, that's where we are, where there are so many that there's no way to really narrow them down with any real specific criteria or you or your criteria has to be incredibly specific yeah well i so everything we've just i think my list my list of nine

is bulletproof so thank you very much i just i i just entertained it for the for the fact that you let me put busio on it once you put once you let me do that then i was like all right anything else you can do what you want bells but you're going to have to answer for your crimes All right, I think that's it. I mean, it is exciting. MLS season starts tomorrow night. We're recording on Thursday afternoon. Friday night is when the first game kicks off.

And, man, there's going to be a lot more soccer to watch. That'll be fun. It's going to be so fun. We're going to have afternoon soccer. We've got evening soccer almost every day after that. NWSL's Challenge Cup is going on, so there's games every few days for them. It's an insane amount of soccer to be watching. And it's fantastic for super nerd.

like us. And by the way, we're less than 45 days from the camp, the Nations League camp. So it's not that far away. Do you have a little calendar that you're putting X's on? No, I just know that it's April 15th and that the first game is on June 3rd. So I assume they're going to be getting together before the actual game. Bells, they're playing on May 30th against Switzerland. Okay, so it's in Europe.

Well, shame on me. We're like 40 days from... You don't have to do the math here. You don't have to... I'm not going to make you do that calendar math. And by the way, the Nations League Final Four is going to take place in Denver, Colorado. We saw earlier today that announcement made by Concaf. That...

Go ahead. And the Gold Cup final will be in Las Vegas just down the road? That's right. It was reported that on Twitter by... I forget the name of the guy who did it. He used to write for Yahoo before that ESPN. Oh, geez. Before that ESPN.

He's big time. Anyway, he said U.S. soccer is not happy about the choice of Denver as a location for the final four of Nations League because it's at altitude. And the games are like, what, four days apart? Yeah. So I've seen some people saying that gives Mexico an unfair advantage. If it does, I don't know that it does give Mexico a competitive advantage because some of their players play in Mexico City. Even if it does, then I feel like that's useful for us to play in

because that will exist for a couple of qualifying games. So if nothing else, the whole point of this is a rehearsal for qualifying windows. Burhalter is set as much. That's why we were playing Switzerland on the 30th so we can get through those, go through those motions of play a game, fly, play a game, fly, play another game. So even if it does give Mexico an advantage, then it's even more important for us to learn how to go through the motions of playing a game at altitude coming off of another game. So I'm actually happy that that's the case.

Okay. Yeah, I like it. I like your way of looking at it. I'm not, yeah. Who knows who at U.S. soccer was mad about it, but it does seem like good preparation. And, you know, the best Mexican players are over in Europe anyway and are not playing at altitude on a regular basis. That's a little bit of an outdated thing, right? This idea that Mexico has this huge advantage when they play in the Azteca because of the altitude. I mean, obviously they have an advantage. It's like one of the most fearsome places to play in the world, but it's not because

of the altitude necessarily. All right. Enough chitter chatter. You good? Greg, anything else? No, it's a great list of players that we've assembled. Nine, precisely nine players. Precisely nine.

Okay. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see.