Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #173: Patron questions on strikers, Berhalter competence and NT logistics

Episode Date: May 14, 2021

We solicited questions on the Scuffed Podcast Patreon and got a lot. Matt Hartman joined to plow through as many as possible. There were five categories: The Number Nine, Berhalter’s competence, Brenden Aaronson, National Team logistics, and miscellaneous. Let’s go.Become a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed 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 Scufft podcast. I'm Adam Bells in Georgia. With me is Greg Velasquez in Iowa. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. Thanks for downloading this episode of Scuffed. Greg is busy grouting his bathroom or something, but not to worry, we have a special guest today, a longtime friend of the pod and our most frequent guest over the years. I think by a wide margin, Matt Hartman. He watches a lot of soccer and his passion for the national team is pure, and he and I often disagree about stuff. So this should be fun. Matt, how are you? I'm doing great bells. I love the idea of Greg just covered in grout messaging you that like, bells, I just can't, I just can't make it this week. So you need to call apartment for this one. I'm glad to be here.

Yeah, well, thank you very much. So we're going to, this is going to be an episode of questions from patrons on Patreon. We got a lot. I solicited some couple days ago. Got a lot and we'll try to plow through as many as possible. A lot of good questions. too, which is always the case. So thank you to the patrons for the questions. I've broken them into five categories and I'll list them now so that you have something to look forward to.

The categories are the number nine, Burrhalter's competence, Brendan Aronson, National Team Logistics, and Miscellaneous. So let's go. Let's start with the number nine category. The first question comes from Jason Beers, and it's got a long setup, but the setup is worthwhile, so bear with me for a second. Burhalter started implementing the drop-in number nine in January 2020. At the time, our striker pool was Altadour, Sargent, and Zardis. Altadour and Sargent both liked to drop in to help with build-up, and Hazos-Ferera had just joined the pool and seemed on the pace to join them. Also, after Pulisic, the top winger were Wea and Morris, two players who had spent a lot of time as forwards and were comfortable stretching defenses when the striker dropped in.

given all of that, the drop-in striker seemed the perfect shape for the skill set of the pool. 15 months later, Sergeant and Ferreira have seen only modest growth. Altador seems to be receding from the player pool, and Morris National Team Future is in some jeopardy, I guess. On the flip side, D.K., Darrell Dike is improving at a meteoric pace, and Sibachu has joined the pool of our top winger's. Wea is the only one with a knack for line-stretching far post runs while Poolecic rain. and Aronson are basically tens who create chances for others. So that's the setup. Here's a question from Jason.

Given these changes to the attacking depth chart over the last 16 months, does a 4-3-2-1 better fit the player pool than a 4-33? And I think what he means is does a true line leading number nine who gets him behind and, you know, doesn't drop in so much to help create. Does that make more sense now? Matt. I didn't catch that question, Bels, can you repeat it real quick? No, it's a hard question to answer.

I'd start by saying, like, when it comes to the 3-4-2-1 versus 4-33, there's a little bit too much emphasis put on formation when we think about how, you know, the team approaches games. There are a ton of teams that play out of a 4-33 shape that have really different playing styles. Greg has been lining the national team up in like a two, three, four, one on his depth charts on Twitter for like the last six months. Greg Velasquez, to be clear.

Yes. Because that's like more reflective of the actual team shape and possession than a four three, three. But I don't think a four three three is an incorrect way to describe the team shape either. It's just kind of how you think about it. So I think what Jason is really asking here is, does it make more sense for us to line up in a shape that doesn't necessarily rely on the nine to help us create space and chances in the attacking third. And I think that's totally a fair point given the state of the nine pool.

Talking about a four, three, two, one specifically, I think it'd be a lot to ask our players to perfect a five men midfield. I think about like the four, three, two one in like the mid-2000s Milan era, like a lot of intricate passing. stuff like that. With so little time ahead of World Cup qualifying to go that route is a little misguided, I think. The reason why so many international teams play out of a 433 or a 4231, if you consider that a different thing, is because those concepts are basically universal. Almost everybody, almost every soccer player will have been used to playing out of that shape at some point at club level. So I think if you're really worried about Sergeant or Zarath's ability to produce a 433 shape

is probably still makes the most sense just with an increased emphasis on playing the ball over the top of the defense to the head of a Darryl Dike, for example, to stretch the opposition backline. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I guess I take the question as mostly what kind of striker does the national team need and we have like he points out like jason points out we have been operating under the assumption that the the striker that we need is the one who drop and can drop deep and combine neatly you know in the middle of the field in the at the you know in zone 14 and even further back

and i i do think he makes a good point that that may not be what we need from a nine right now given the pieces around our nine which are much more more settled in the lineup like reina and raina and pulisic for instance and um right yeah i i hadn't really thought of it that way and i'm i'm glad to be thinking of it that way now now so thank you jason um i think yeah i think dk i think dk in particular uh you know if he continues to wildly outperform his xg and and look look good and gets the move we all want him to get this summer to a Premier League club or maybe Barnsley goes up. You know, if things keep going well with D.K., it's a, I think it would make a lot of

sense to start him and not really worry about that, that dropping in quality. I think he can do it a little bit anyway, but if you're worried that that's going to be a problem for DK, maybe don't worry about it and just let, you know, Rana and Pulsik pick the ball up and play it to Dike who is just on the shoulder of the center back dragging the center backs around getting in behind and attacking the box rather than dropping in to help in the buildup I like that I think it makes sense right D DK kind of offers you like he he does everything at like they're pretty good level so he kind of offers you that ability to like play the number the number nine,

however you'd like him to play it, right? Like, if you're, if you are leaving the system exactly as it is and playing into his feet, that's something that he's shown in MLS

that he's capable of. Maybe he doesn't do it to the same level that a Joss Sergeant does. But with him on the field, you could also, you know, play over the top and he does that at a really high level. He could,

you know, make runs from the nine that Sergeant hasn't, um, doesn't do consistently, let's say. Yeah. But,

I mean, and we'll talk about it a little later, but we just don't know if that's something that Burrhalter is really interested in, is that, like, if this doesn't work, do this. You know, like, we're mostly a plan A team. So I think that we're probably going to stick with the current system, at least through the summer. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Good question. Jason, that's why I let off with it. Question from Sergio Morales. It seems like you guys, along with the majority of the fan base, have pinned Wea to one of the winger roles, and he's no longer mentioned as an option at the nine. Why is that? To me, he's clearly a better player than Sergeant D.K. Orzardis and his combination play and offball movement are perfect for our attacking setup. To me, he would be the nine in a must-win game tomorrow, and I find it bizarre. Most lineups have him out of the starting 11. Yeah.

I think it's hard to hand away of the nine shirt when he, you know, he's been. mostly playing as a wide forward for years now. But I totally agree that I do think that Wea would fit that role well. But I'm not sure that Wea is like double the player sergeant or DKE is. And that I think that that like the choice between the three of them specifically is much closer than most of the people who think Wea should be the starting nine did. But again, I do love the ability that Way has shown as a low nine in the past, either with the youth national teams or in his Celtic days, where I thought a lot of the time watching him at Celtic,

that if his teammates were able to pick their head up, you know, a little bit faster or had been a little better that he was really making some off-ball runs that were stellar. Yeah. And something you love to see from a nine. That's his, you know, that's his strongest part of his game is his, is his intelligence off the ball. And I think in a way, it's kind of the same question that Jason asked. I mean, Way is not as big and physical as DK,

but he is, if he were to play the nine and do it like he did at Celtic, he would be a more of a line-leading, you know, true box attacking number nine. Rather, I mean, he can do the drop-in and help create stuff, but like he would be stretching that line. And I think that could work. So I don't know, Sergio, I apologize. I don't know why I have been so certain that way I would be on the wing.

I'm open to it. I'm open to him at the nine. I don't know if Burrhalter is though. Right. The strongest argument for Waya at the nine, I think, is that the competition on the right wing has gotten so much better. than it was, you know, like a year ago with Raina's emergence and Aronson.

So if you're trying to just get, like, you know, players you can count on on the field, having Waya in the game makes, that striker makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Yeah, well, sticking with the number nine category, a question from Eric Milozo. With Josie being left off the Nation's League provisional roster, have we seen the last of him with the national team? I wouldn't rule out spot appearances in things like friendlies or January camps going forward but at this point using a tournament roster spot on Josie feels like borderline irresponsible

because you just can't count on him to stay healthy so yeah I would say I would set the underover on Josie appearances going forward for the national team at like 2.5 Okay. That sounds fair. I guess my only reaction is, I need never say never, because like you said, there could be spot appearances in friendlies or maybe even in a World Cup qualifying window. You know, you can bring as many people as you want on one of those windows, right? And we may need his services in certain situations, but he does seem to be phasing out of the pool. Question from Richard Glass. So what are the chances that Josh Sargent is the next West McKenney? meaning he is in a tough situation at the club level, but with a change of scenery to a club where there is a decent midfield and some actual service, he will produce at a much higher level.

What are the chances of that? I think a change in scenery is probably for the best at this point. And I think that Sergeant would score a lot of goals in a league like MLS, but moving to a higher level gets tricky because how I view the situation, I don't think Sergeant has the killer instinct to start games at clubs that are significantly better than Verde Bremen, at least in Germany, like is a mid-table club like Union, Berlin,

or Stuttgart going to unlock Sergeant's talent all of a sudden? And then he's going to, with like, 1.5 more chances per 90, become a player that's significantly player than the, a significantly better player than who he is now. I'm not sure. For me, I think the hope with the transfer is that Sergeant finds a coaching staff or situation that motivates him to get better.

And I think that's more likely to help his development than like moderately improved midfield service. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, it's a joke on here that, you know, Sergeant is always turning the corner every weekend. Right. And it just hasn't quite come together.

And I don't know. Like you said, he's not going to, he's not going to start for Dortmund or any, you know, any of the clubs in the top five, top six, seven in the Bundesliga, maybe six, seven, I don't know. And like you said, he's going to get one and a half more chances per 90 at Union Berlin maybe than he does at Verde Bremen. And I would say in a lot of ways, Verde Bremen has been a good situation for him, at least on paper. You know, he got to train with Claudio Pizarro, like a legendary poacher who was basically like a player coach there for a little while. while and um you know florin cofeld puts a lot of faith in him gives him a lot of minutes i know they don't create a lot of chances for him but boy i don't know i don't know what the solution is

i hope that sergeant will look more dangerous if vertebrae can raise its level next season and or if he does end up playing for a better team which does not seem that likely but um i'm not confident about it so i guess that's where i stand and then there's a chance that Verde Bremen actually doesn't raise its level and actually declines and goes to the two Bundesliga next season, second Bundesliga, sorry. Yeah, and I think we have to also appreciate just how rare the Weston McKinney to the UVA thing is likely to be. That situation, like, I can't really think of another case in World Football, though I'm

sure that there are somewhere a player moved from like a relegation threatened a team to a team like YuVe and just immediately looked like double the player that he was before so yeah like expect you know like it's the what do you call it that breaks the rule there I think and we shouldn't be what's the word I'm looking for bills

the exception that proves the rule that proves the rule right I don't think we should be expecting like a West and McKinney level rise every season yeah Okay. I do hope, you know, I have some friends who are big, big soccer fans, but not U.S. men's national team nerds. And I, you know, I get beers with him every now and then. And we were talking about it, Josh Sergeant the other day. And they're all like, nah, he's not it. You know, they're not, you know, they haven't been following his career with bated breath since he was 17, the way I have. And I just thought that was instructive. That, like, yeah. Yeah, go ahead.

I totally get it. You know, like I watch searching a lot of the time and I think the same thing. Yeah. But I do think he will. What I said to those friends and what I'll say now is I do think he'll probably score a lot of goals for the national team over the next 18 months. He should get a lot of chances. If he doesn't, then, you know, I guess it's D.K.'s job or, you know, somebody else. Anyway, enough about that.

Let's move on to the second category. Halter. Greg Burrhalter. Question from Drew Sites. Do you guys think Burrhalter has the tactical chops and flexibility to change his lineup and strategy based on the opponent? For example, maybe a DK-type striker who can run off the shoulder of the centerback instead of the number nine playmaker back to that same idea. Or a lot of people are thinking about this. Or more traditional wingers instead of our channel runners? Or are we destined to be a one-trick pony? Do you want to take this one for a spells? Sure. Yeah. I, I, I, I,

do worry about this. Burrhalter's tactical resume in 2019 was pretty bad. Things have gotten better, but he has a player pool that is on paper the strongest in Conccaf by a wide margin. I mean, I'm not saying that we're better than Mexico as a national team right now. I'm just saying on paper, the player pool for the U.S. is at better clubs. Mexico doesn't have regular starters at Juventus and Barcelona and Chelsea and R.B. Leipzig. Our national team should look good. And it kind of did in the last window. But we'll look. learn a lot about Burrhalter in the next few months. And, you know, I think that Nation's League final, assuming we get there, will be a bellwether game. I suspect Burrhalter sees it that

way too and is really keen on getting it right. But when you look back at 2019, it took us getting our butts handed to us in Toronto in that Nation's League group game for him to sort of sorted out and go away from the 4-4-2 low block and start applying more pressure and trying to create more transition attacking moments and it took a long time it took a long time to

to sort that out for him so I hope the learning curve is faster going forward right you know like pep guadiole is sort of famous for playing without a plan B which has not worked out too well for them in a couple of champions

league games in the past and uh but uh we all know peps man city teams are like clearly the inspiration behind burrhalter's tactical setup um and i do get the argument that like not training a plan b does strengthen plan a you know like if you're just spending time drilling down this system um that you know like plan b isn't necessary if you're if you're if plan a is so good but uh i think i'm with you and drew here that the emergence of geek a specific makes for like a usually intriguing second option as opposed to you know playing directly into a striker's feet and you know with the way that our nine pool and winger pool is shaping out I would love to see a

second look for the national team and yeah like I think that in the past like in MLS Burrhalter has shown the ability to make tactical adjustments So I don't think it's something where it's like we have to be worried that like oh my god this guy just he doesn't have any idea how to play soccer besides this one way. Right, right. It's just going to come down to if he thinks that it's worth training. And that's a good, it's something to worry about, especially with like the limited amounts of times that he has with these players.

Like do you really want to have, you know, to train so many different looks? So it's an open question. I'm kind of of two minds about it, and it all comes back to that to any time we play against Mexico. But I think I've said this on the podcast before, the idea of playing D.K. As like a Barnsley type target man against Mexico

and just lumping the ball up to him and having Pulisic and Wea or Pulisicicic and Raina, however you want to do it, running off of DK, I think is an intriguing idea. You know, I think that would put Mexico under a lot of pressure. I don't think their centerbacks would be able to handle it. And, you know, Pulisic is the most dangerous attacking player right now in Conccaf.

So you get him in space behind the Mexican midfield. Like that, I would be scared of that if I was Mexico. But on the other hand, Burrhalter has this idea. He wants to change the way American plays soccer, American men play soccer. American men play soccer, that is. And I think there's got to be for him some level of like, I am not going to abandon this project. You know, the whole idea is to be able to shred Mexico's press.

That's what we want to get to. And if we just throw D.K. out there in the middle of the field and lump it up to him, we're abandoning that and it's not going to be, you know, we're not going to do the things we need to do as a program. I kind of see both ways, you know. So I'll be very interested in that game, as will all of us, of course. Should we move to the next question? Yeah, let's do it.

Question from Scott Jorick, our former fact checker. He's been off the job for a while. I still have concerns about Burrhalter making personal and or tactical adjustments when things just aren't working as well as set up for a game where we are overmatched. There is a small sample size of matches where he could have done this, and it seems that it just wasn't a priority then. I need to see this. Otherwise, I have little confidence we can match up with quality nations in a World Cup.

I hope we get to see some semblance of this data point during the Nations League and Gold Cup. Thoughts? I wanted to read the question. I wanted to read the question from Scott. But I think we basically answered it in the previous question, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. I agree with him. I hope we see that during the Nations League and Gold Cup.

as well. Yeah. Question from Chris Jackson. One of the issues I remember the U.S. having before Burrhalter sort of used 2020 in the first half of 2021 to overhaul both the way the team plays and the makeup of the roster was how much they struggled to generate anything in transition. This seemed to be both tactical, that 442 mid-block that we deployed, and personnel. The team was older and just generally less explosive.

Are there specific tactical advantages the current setup has to better use transition as an offense? And who are the players you most like to see in those defense-to-offense moments? Matt? Yeah, I mean, I think most of this is personnel-based, right? Like, there isn't a game plan or formation in which a midfield of Will Trat, Michael Bradley, and Christian Roldon, are creating 15 transition opportunities a game. They just don't have that ability to high press and create space for themselves. once they win the ball, if they win the ball. Well, 2009, 2019 Christian Roldon at least.

Have you been watching Roldon recently? I watched the most recent game. He looked really good. He looked like somebody who could create transition moments. But I agree that 2019 Roldon was, I don't know, seemed a little sleepier or something. Yeah, it's a weird, like, mid-career Renaissance. At least it's looking that way. But yeah, like, if you don't have.

the traits in your pool to reliably hurt teams in transition, it doesn't really make sense to press high. And I think that's where the Burrhalter 4-4-2 mid-block mostly came from. And the recruitment of Musa and a healthy Tyler Adams really changed the way that you can approach games and credit to Burrhalter for seeing that and implementing it. Yeah. Yeah, I think I agree with a lot of that. And I think we got a buzzsaw midfield now, thanks to Musa, the addition of Musa with Adams and McKinney. We've never seen the three of them play together, but one can only imagine. And I think this has been a big tactical victory for Berhalter, pinching the wingers in and freeing up the aides to patrol and destroy and create those transition moments. I think McKinney is, you know, he's like tailor-made for this.

He's really, I've thought this since he was, you know, just breaking in at Shalka. He is so good in those transition moments at like making a quick decision and hitting a pass that, you know, put somebody in on goal or down the wing or something. It's very good at that. And I imagine, and Musa, you know, Moosa's just so good in the cage match. So is Tyler Adams. I think we're going to get a lot of chances off of that over the next 18 months. next category is brenden erby salisberg winger winger slash eight question from ian fookes i gotta be really careful how i pronounce that name i really am curious your thoughts on erinson's

rise and now potentially rumored move to leipzig and how he fits into our tucked-in winger dueling eight's personnel situation he's not a guy you can leave off the final roster but is he our starting right wing matt um i mean he's not to starting right winger for me. It's interesting to see people talk about Aronson's rise because he's playing better than he played in MLS against worst competition than he faced in MLS.

It's like kind of what I expected going in. I did see the highlights of his most recent game and he does look like he's playing with a confidence that he didn't have an MLS, which is also something that, you know, just like playing in a worse league gets you playing for that team specifically where you're basically like the globe-trotters will afford you. So, of course, you can only play the team in front of you.

And, like, Aronson is a great fit for the winger roles in the national team set up. But I still have him as a bench option on my depth chart for now. I have him behind Pulisick on the left end, Wea and Raina fighting it out for the right wing spot. Yeah, I do too. And I think, yeah, I think the reason Aronson, people talk about Aronson's rise is how good he looked for the national team in the last window, you know? Yeah, totally fair.

And, I mean, he has, he's scored a lot more in Austria than, at a much higher rate in Austria than he did in MLS. So I guess that's probably part of it too. But like you said, that is at least partly a function of a lower level league. Yeah, for me, he's a tucked in winger and he's on the left backing up Pulisic. I'm, well, here's another question about Aaronson from Robbie April. is Aronson's ceiling the highest of any player in the pool right now, aside from Pulisic? He's just so impressive at the club level and every time he's played for the national team.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not ready to go that far. I think, yeah. Well, I'll let you answer first. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm with you. It's weird because we disagree about, like, so many players. We have questions about Brendan Aronson who are like we're kind of in the same place on.

but yeah i i think i'd probably list like like a good amount of players ahead of arson if we're talking about just like pure ceiling if i'm being honest um yeah i kind of think of arson as more of a high floor player uh you know he's going to do a lot of running and make good decisions uh not too dissimilar from how i view tyler adams coming out of mLS um but i'm not convinced that he has like the one v one ability or comfort in in tight space to become one of the world's best attackers and I do think we have a few players with

truly like world class potential and I don't know Musa, Rina Richards, Che just to name him a few. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think we need to see a lot more from him before we talk about him having the highest ceiling outside of Pulisic is I don't think his ceiling is

Juventus or Barcelona. I don't think he's going to get that. And that's basically, like, if you're talking about being one of the U.S.'s, like, highest ceiling players, like, that's the level you're talking about now, right? You're talking about Uvei Barcelona. Yeah. Let's see how Aronson does in a top five league for a season. So hopefully he does get a move to Leipzig just for the, you know, just for the scientific method to bear itself out. He'll be a great backup for Caden Clark.

Yeah, I mean, I think Clark has a higher ceiling than Aronson. But to be, you know, to be fair, I have to admit, I have underrated Aronson pretty much all along. I didn't particularly, I wasn't particularly interested in his game in Philadelphia. And I thought there was a lot of hype. But then he got sold for like $6 million. Was it $6 million or was it $8 million? I can't remember. Yeah, I don't remember.

A high fee. In MLS, like when the games are more. even he saw less of the ball and he had that annoying habit of shooting directly at the goalkeeper every time and every time he got a shot and in Salzburg where like he's seeing much more of the ball and his team is always like you know in the attacking third of course he's going to look better at those things like I'm still and you know like the national team appearances are a completely fair point I would argue that those weren't necessarily like 50-50 outcome expected outcome games either but that's true um

yeah like i'm excited to see arson play in a difficult environment right like i hope that that comes that that that's why more than anything you know you hope for the leipsic um for the leipsic move yeah well even if and and even if he turns out he can't be a difference maker in a you know, in a high level sort of evenly contested matchup, even if he can't do that, there's still value in having him come off the bench for the national team because we are going to be dominating a lot of games. We're going to have a lot of the ball.

And, you know, absolutely. Having him come on and be able to hit like a beautiful pass to set somebody, put somebody in on goal, that's going to be nice. And I do, I think that that will be a valuable thing. Right.

And I like, when you talk, about sealing like ceiling isn't everything right like having having like five players with a high floor is better for your national team than having like 10 players with a high ceiling because like how many players hit their ceiling at least that like what we think about them like just go back two years ago and think about some of the players that we were we were talking about on this podcast you know like yeah how many of those guys are where we call they would be i deny at all i never never said any of that I um yeah okay let's move on in the next category logistics there's quite a few questions about this and um

i don't always have good answers to them but uh here we go this is from robert brownlee the original the o g patron on patreon shout out to you mr brownlee how do you think our conca calf opposition will approach playing us during these three game windows it would make sense to me that if you're Honduras and you have three games in a window against Canada, Jamaica, and the U.S., you are much more likely to try and field your A team against Canada and Jamaica to maximize your points, basically conceding that you're going to lose to the U.S. Do you agree with this? And if so, how do you feel this will affect the way we use our rotation of players?

Do you want to take this one, Bills? Sure, I don't have a great answer to it. But here we go. I think it might play out like this, at least some of the time. Therefore, we are guaranteed to qualify for the World Cup. Nice. now it's going to be it's going to be interesting to see how everybody handles these windows including us because it is kind of a new era if honduras rolls over against us because they want to maximize points i'd hope we are able to rotate or use subs in a way that prepares us best for the games that are going to be more uh tough toughfully contested i just i just don't have a great answer but i do think it's something we should be watching for right i'm in i'm in the same place as you you know it's certainly something i'm hoping for that all of these teams decide to rotate against us,

but I think it probably won't be as simple as like Panama gets the A team, USA gets the B team. There's probably just going to be players mixed in all over these teams where it's like everybody's getting sort of an A minus B plus opponent. That's right. Because I think, yeah, there's going to be injuries. There's different ways to skin the cat for us in every window and it's got to be the same for Honduras.

Question from Zach Beery. What three cities do you want the U.S. National team to play in during the 2026 World Cup to get the best home field advantage? Zach, come on, we got a whole other World Cup coming up before that. Right. Yeah, I mean, that might be a little bit of a homework pick,

but I say we just play every game in Yankee Stadium. Trash. Trash. No, that's funny. I'd be okay with MetLife. for one of them or what is the best stadium in the in the New York metropolitan area I mean if you're talking about like World Cup level size stadium it's going to have to be met life even though I'm not a huge fan of that stadium it's kind of like cavernous you know in the way that those

like 70,000 cedar stadiums tend to be but yeah I'm not really sure homefield advantage is going to be a huge problem in the in the 2026 World Cup as like at least not as big a problem as it has been historically in World Cup qualifiers or in the Gold Cup because the general public of the U.S. is much more aware and the crowds should be pretty diverse in terms of the support for teams. Yeah. So I'll go with like, I don't know, like Orlando, Boston, Nashville. The only city that I'd really want to avoid is Denver just because altitude and tournaments don't go hand in hand that well. Yeah. classic that you would that you would stick almost entirely to the eastern time zone just just so

you know i don't consider nashville in the eastern time zone it's not i know it's not it's very close to being in the eastern time zone um yeah i think we need to be more geographically egalitarian than that so make it one of the east coast cities uh to satisfy all the provincial people who live on the east coast and then um soldier field in chicago and then the Bowl. When it comes to qualifiers against Costa Rica or Mexico, I'm one of those that says let's do everything we can to maximize our advantage. So that means Columbus, Kansas City, maybe even Minnesota, although Alianz Field is

not as loud as I'd like it to be. Something about the acoustics of that stadium is a little bit like a library. So I know it's been floated as a quality. a qualifier location. That's why I mention it. Anything else? No, I'm still, I'm still, throw them on the East Coast,

people on the West Coast can travel. It'll be a nice vacation experience for them. Yeah. People in California just can't wait to go to Connecticut. Question from Joe Minnick. With these three game windows for World Cup qualifying, will clubs be able to put limits on player usage and thus force increased rotation for the U.S.?

If so, would Burrhalter try to mimic this heavy rotation strategy this summer in preparation for the fall? I'll take this one. No, clubs can't do that. I think, you know, if these are FIFA international windows and the national teams get the players that they want for those windows and they can do with them as they please during the window, you know, within the boundaries of the law. But also to the second part of the question, Yes, it does appear Burrhalter is trying to mimic this heavy rotation strategy in the Nations League window. Greg Velasquez keeps using the word cadence to describe it.

You're trying to replicate or trying to mimic the cadence of those windows by having a game against Switzerland. And then, you know, the two Nations League games we have the semifinal and then either the third place game or the final. And then there's going to be another game. even another game after that, the Costa Rica friendly, all within 10 days. So we're going to practice. Yep, I agree with all of that. Yeah, like, you know, club teams can't stop any of this from happening. If Byron weren't able to keep Lewandowski from going to Poland and thusly destroying their Champions League run,

I don't think Barnsley is going to be able to stop D.K. from playing for the U.S. anything like that. As it should be, as it should be. Yep. Question from Thomas Phillips. With the USA up to 20 in the FIFA rankings, it seems possible to achieve a pot two seating that is for the World Cup draw. Should the U.S. men's national team qualify for Qatar in 2022?

In 2018, Croatia was pot two at an 18 FIFA rank, and Denmark fell to pot three at 19. Are you following so far? Yep, I'm following. So I would assume this is still Thomas speaking. I would assume this hypothetical 2022 U.S. National Team Squad would see a much better knockout round prognosis if they qualify in pot two versus pot three. Is there anything we should do differently in terms of Gold Cup squad, friendly selection, et cetera,

in order to improve our FIFA ranking with this in mind? Or is a strategy simply just win the games that are put in front of you and qualify? He said, P.S., this is bringing back bad memories of reading Paul Carr tweets with the possibility of getting into pot two for 2018 following the Panama win in Orlando. Yeah, like that's the period of time in which I was really into gaming the FIFA rankings as well. And look how that worked out for us. But it's a great question. Thankfully, having a good FIFA ranking is like always better. And you accomplish that by winning games, which is the goal anyways.

I don't really think it's something to worry about I don't worry about it at least The only thing that can really be done to boost your ranking is just play more games and win those games And the international schedule as it stands for the next year is basically as packed as it can be anyways So there's not really room to even do that sort of thing Yeah I I guess the only thing I would say is

It may have some bearing it could have some bearing on how we approach the gold cup, my approach, my preferred approach the gold cup would be very experimental, you know, bring in a lot of guys who are on the fringes of the national team, but have a have an upside.

Players like Bax and Pomacall, George Bello, and just get them a lot of minutes and assess them and see if they can help us in qualifying. But, you know, if we're a few points off of the, of pot two, and, you know, maybe we, maybe we bring a more experience.

roster to the gold cup and and try to just try to get there that way try to get into that way I don't know I don't know that's totally fair all right miscellaneous miscellaneous category we got one two three four more questions um question from Randolph what do we know about what's going on with Alex Mendez what have been the issues that have kept him from getting any real traction with young Iax Matt Yeah, he's just not very good at soccer. Oh, come on. No, I mean, the real problem with him at Iax,

and Mendez is still a player that I believe in, perhaps against my better judgment, but that situation is just not going to work out for him as long as Tenhaug is the coach of Iax because the way that Tenhaq plays soccer is basically, like, Alex Mendez can not be a worst fit for it. You know, he has his midfielder's flying all over the place, high pressing

quick transition and stuff like that and Mendez is really a player that you need to kind of kind of like in like a Columbus Cruz-Zer-Rey-on-way like you have to say like all right for most of this game we're okay with playing

with 10 and a half men on the field and when we get the ball it's going to become like we have 12 right like he's that he's that sort of talent when the ball's at his feet yeah I just don't think I-X is going to work out for him.

It doesn't appear to, it doesn't appear that it will. I just think the physical and defensive side of the game is his biggest challenge and I don't know how much he can change about his body in that regard, but if he can, get stronger, more difficult to play against,

look out because he is very special when he gets on the ball. But we'll have to, you know, we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed for him. I don't know. I don't know. the next step is. Question from Jared Shoalter, fellow Iowan. Are we satisfied with the USSF effort to recruit Ever Alvarez, despite his apparent decision to play for Mexico? Has there been

sufficient change since the Jonathan Gonzalez saga, who is next up in the dual national panic cycle? Yeah, I mean, the answers to those questions are yes, yes, and either Floor and Balligan or Justin Chey, right? Yeah, yeah. And I mean, losing Justin Chee would hurt more than losing Fuller Balligan for me, at least, since he is, you know, essentially a homegrown, not in the, not Capital H homegrown, but a real homegrown talent. Is he a capital H homegrown for Dallas?

Yeah, he is. Okay. He's a homegrown in every sense. And yeah, I'm satisfied with what we did on Efra, with what Burhalter did, a think he gave it a good shot and I'm ready to stop, you know, worrying about it. However that, however that can be resolved. Question from Ben Williams. When I say however that can be resolved, I'm just like sort of resigned to him playing

for Mexico. It's fine. Let's just move on. That's my thought on it. Question from Ben Williams. I don't really see Raina as a winger. That's not a question, Ben. If Reynolds keeps developing, could you see Dest because of his defensive mistakes moved

up to Winger and Rayna moved to Senate? centrally, perhaps to Stryker. Thanks. Matt? Yeah, it's funny how these conversations sort of wrap around scuffed fans from way back in the day that time period being like two years ago. It feels so long ago, doesn't it? Right.

But they'll remember Bells and Joey Anthone and I talking about potentially moving Raina to the number nine in a U-17 player pool episode a few years ago. But anyways, I actually think the weakest element of Dest's game is his final ball. and Dest has looked most effective in the final third over the years when he could cut onto his right foot from the left hand side, and we aren't going to bench Pulizik to make that happen. So Dest is a fullback through and through, in my opinion.

If you want to move Raina centrally, which I don't think is a huge need at this point, you find another winger that can fill that role and leave Desk be in his right back position. We're left back. Okay. Yeah, I pretty much agree with all that. Raina at right wing is for me clearly the best option right now.

And I think there are, a lot of it comes back to Eunice Musa, I think, for people. I think enough people see that he has struggled at Valencia and say, well, I, you know, I'm willing to drop him from the 11 to put Raina in the middle. And I just don't see it that way. When I see Musa with the national team, I see it like a locked starter. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I'm 100% there with you. and I don't really care if he plays for Valencia or not

because he's been so good for the for the US so and I also agree that Dest is 100% of fullback I love the way the way that helps us build out and the you know just the wrinkle it throws at the opponent to have a fullback who can attack the way he can I do not want to give that up and then you're talking about you know taking some somebody off the field who is who's a lot better than Reggie Cannon to move desk forward. So I don't think it makes sense, Ben. But good question.

Question from Shrin Sen. Pick a player not named Kaden Clark who could make a World Cup roster in 2022, but wasn't included on the provisional Nation's League roster. Hmm. I think the smart money would probably be on like a Jordan Morris comeback or or a Paxton Pomico. come back from his injuries. Both of them, when they are completely healthy,

look like they have to be in the national team picture. Then you have players like Testman Cowell, O'Rahoe coming up. Moses and Edmund played a really good game last night. Justin Che and Balligan, as mentioned earlier, might be in the national team picture by them. I'll take Justin Cheye. Why not? Let's make the German-American Predatory World Cup captia.

an American tradition. Nice. Like John Brooks and Julian Green. Yeah, I think I'd love to say Richie Ledesma, but I think I'll go with Pax and Palmacall. But I kind of want to say Richie Ledesma still. I understand. Yeah.

I get it, but it's hard to give up on those players. And he hasn't necessarily done anything to warrant us giving up on him. No, he just got hurt. Yeah. I saw he's back in, back in eindhoven so that's good you saw on instagram how long ago how long ago is that injury now are we approaching comeback season i don't think i think it's i think it's like september would be the earliest he'd be back gotcha and i don't i think it might not be that soon but i don't have any

special info richie's leaving me on reed he's got he's got a lot to think about I think that's it Any closing thoughts? No bum good bills I gotta get back to work All right Thanks man Really appreciate it

Thanks everybody for listening We'll see ya