Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #177: USA-Honduras recap

Episode Date: June 4, 2021

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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. Thanks for downloading this episode of scuffed, a nail biter in Denver. The U.S. left it late, but Jordan, Theison, Sibichu, Pfok came up big with a headed goal in the 89th minute to stave off penalties and advance to the Nations League final on Sunday against, it turns out Mexico, barely. Lots to pick over here. Greg, how you doing? I'm all right, Bells, a little bit on the worried side. A little bit on the worried side. Do you want to say anything about that right now or should we wait? I mean, I don't, yeah, I don't think I need to really explain why right now. I think everyone probably gets it. But yeah, we'll let's talk about the game and we can,

and we can figure out how positively or negative or a little bit of both, we both are. Yeah. I want to say to, you know, we're going to, if we're super, negative. We're going to get some negative Apple reviews about it. This is always the case. People didn't like what we said after we lost to Canada back in the fall of 2019. And I just want to say there are positives from this game. And it's not, we're just trying to be as precise as we can. But you know what? We got to call balls and strikes to use a really good soccer metaphor. It actually, you know, it reminds me a lot of people were negative after the Canada

lost. But we were also like, I think one of the more. negative reviewers around after some of the Gold Cup wins in 2019 and it was I feel like it's a similar

situation where yes we won but there were just some like there were some flags raised I felt like in some of those games

and I feel like there were it's hard to say there were no flags raised in yesterday's game definitely some definitely some flags

raised okay let's let's go through the lineup real quick for the U.S. it was Zach Stefan and gold

no surprise there and then Dest at right back, McKenzie and Brooks as the center back pairing after they played pretty well against Switzerland. And then Anthony Robinson starting at left back. And then we had Jackson Yule at the six. We will talk about this at length. West McKinney and Sebastian Leggett as the eights, pushing very high for big points, big parts of this game. And then front line of Raina, Sergeant Pulisick from right to left, although Raina and Pulisick did switch sides some.

For Honduras, it was Luis Lopez and goal, Kevin Alvarez, Marcella Pereira, Minor Figueroa, and Rodriguez across the back line, and then Flores and Lopez as a double pivot, you know, nominally. And then Revis, Rubio, and Albert Elise across the front line. Some formations had at least as a, in a two-striker formation with Anthony Lozano, who was the number nine, the big number nine. Okay. Any thoughts on the lineup, first of all? Well, Bells, what would you think about just going from back of the lineup to the front of the lineup and kind of talking about each sort of group and what you kind of took from them?

Can I throw that at you? Yeah. I'll say I thought the back four played pretty well with a couple of exceptions. Des, you know, Desd held the guy on side for that big chance. Bells, you're kind of skipping a guy here. And I feel like that that's telling. Oh, yeah. I mean, I always forget to talk about the goalkeeper.

But yes, Stefan, okay, you're kind of leading me where you want me to go here. Stefan, I'm worried about Zach Stephan. Let's see. Yeah, let's start right there. What the hell was he doing on that set piece that Sergeant had to clear off the line? And why do we have to ask what the hell was he doing so many times that Zach Stephan plays games? such a high percentage of the times, I guess, we'll say that he plays games.

Yeah. I have Ethan Horfoth's uncle or somebody related to Ethan, even, it's Ethan himself, who knows, coming at me on Twitter about this all the time. And I have to admit that he was right after this game where he said, you know, he's arguing that Stefan Horvath are on an equal footing. And like, I'm, you know, I've come around.

Like, Stefan, I don't like, I don't, you know, that's one of the weird things about U.S. SMNT Twitter. You never know when you're talking to dad or mom. But in this case, man, Stefan, Stefan stresses me out as much as anybody on the field. You're the goalkeeper here. Why don't you say something about it? I'll just say what I've been saying since like 2018. I think it's strange that Zach Stefan was basically just like installed as the as the number one guy. And I don't think that his status as being a bought by man city should necessarily like

elevate him to that sort of untouchable realm. And I don't even really buy into the fact that like, oh, he's just rusty. He just doesn't play a lot. That's why we should worry. Like, I just don't know that he is necessarily all of that good at being goalkeeper relative to some of the competition he has. Yeah, you know, the reason I thought I was telling that you skipped over him is just because, like, it's just so taken for granted and has been so taken for granted

that he's clearly the number one. and really all we have seen from him is good to or mediocre to good performances with Columbus crew. He was never like exceptional for Columbus crew outside of like penalty kicks where he is. I was actually like, oh, at least if we go to penalty kicks, we've got Zach Steff in there. He's excellent of those, but he was never an excellent shotstopper in MLS. He makes the move to Man City immediately loans to a Bundesliga outfit where they get relegated. And he was not an exceptional shotstopper for that outfit.

And I know people thought he was or talked about him like he was because he had a lot of highlights. But that was just a like a consequence of his team being really bad in allowing a lot of shots. When he got hurt halfway through the season, his backup came in and performed basically exactly the same that he had performed. The team won the exact same number of points. So the argument that Stefan was keeping that Dusseldorf team like alive longer than it should have been didn't really play out. they didn't earn any extra points with Stefan in and the backup and they basically finished with identical shots expected goals uh over post shot expected goals goals goals allowed over post shot xg yeah i mean most people are going to hear that sentence you just uttered and be like okay but

suffice it to say he you know there's no evidence that he is he should be the number one at this point uh that Manchester city pedigree does go a long way i think with the fan base just the fact that he's, you know, he suits up for that team under Pep Guardiola. He's training with, you know, Pep Guardiola every day during the regular season. But you know who else was bought by Manchester City? Eric Palmer Brown. And he's, you know, languishing in Austria. And we'll see where Stefan ends up on, you know, presumably on loan this year,

unless he's going to be a backup for another year. I don't know. I guess I don't know what the truth is on that. Anyway, this set piece where he comes flailing out way late and it takes a, legit miracle from Josh Sargent to prevent a goal. I mean, that is an incredible clearance by Sergeant. Off the back of his head, charging full speed into the goal, keeps it out.

Unbelievable. Otherwise, we're down 1-0. We probably lose this game. Yikes. And then also, Sergeant, I mean, Stefan, there was that one play early in the first half where McKenzie played it back to Stefan. And Stefan just totally missed. judged the speed of the ball and the speed of the onrushing attacker.

I think it was Lazzano and it was almost kind of like a David Ochoa situation. Yeah, that's totally a mark against him. You don't hit that clearance through the onrushing defender. You hit it well, well wide of him, even if that means hitting it horizontally straight out for a throw in. Like you just do not take the chance of a deflection, not just going in your own goal, but going anywhere that you can't predict. So that was a mark against him.

Now, he did come up with a couple of big plays, really big plays. There was the one view, and part of it will be like, okay, Stefan did a good job. What in the world was the Honduras player doing when he's 1v1 with 45 yards of space known around him and somehow bottles it? But Stefan definitely made a play to prevent that. And that would have put us down 1-0. So while Sergeant saved him once, he definitely bailed us out later in the game. Bailed out Sergenio death specifically. So let's move up to the back four.

Because I mean, the Stefan questions are like, we got to, you know, as the headlines from BuzzFeed used to say like three years ago, we need to have a conversation about Zach Steff. I think that's been John Mueller's conversation for the last two years now. Right. So I think, I think Desd outside of holding, I think it was Lazano again, it might have been Revis on side for that huge chance that Stefan did come up big on. I thought Desk played pretty well. And I thought McKenzie, outside of that time when he got absolutely done by Elise, and this is what I've been talking about with McKenzie's lateral quickness, where Elise just pushed the ball past him and, you know, created like 15 yards of separation

almost effortlessly. That's a little bit of a problem with McKenzie. But other than that, I thought McKenzie played very well. And Brooks was magisterial, I thought. I loved everything about. Brooks's performance. I mean, not everything. There were a couple of shaky moments. I mean, you're not going to have a perfect game. But he was so good. He played the ball for the goal. He played that like incredible worm burner 60 yards across field to Raina early in the half.

And he was really, really reliable defensively, even one B one for the most part. The thing I love the most about Brooks is how how much of a man he was in this game. You know, now I know you're you're saying, you said on the time, timeline last night, don't complain about Conccafhing because that just means you're playing kind of bad. It's like, I'm not complaining about Conccafying. I'm down with it. Yeah, I was glorying in it. And I think so was John Brooks last night. The way he backed down Albert Elise after that, and we'll get into this in the timeline, but that moment with where Raina ran over and, you know, pipe some hot abuse into the ear of Toro. And then there's a screener

Grumman sued. Brooks was just, I mean, he's just the big man on campus in that moment. And he never crosses the line, right? He never crosses a line where he's going to put himself or a teammate in danger of getting tossed, which is huge. That is actually like the nature of concacafri for me. He seemed untroubled, you know, languid in his shithousery. So I loved the performance from Brooks. And I thought Robinson, you know, Robinson's not a plus player in possession necessarily, you know, moving the ball forward. But it was a, it was a welcome relief in terms of just a little bit more defensive stability on the left side than we had with deaths there against Switzerland. And I think also, you know, he played a couple nice balls

across, like that cross for Sergeant late in the first half was a delightful, a delightful pass. Could have been a goal easily. So I thought Robinson had a positive, outing too. So I'm pretty happy with the back four. One thing I wish I would have seen more from Robinson, and this probably applies to most of the team, and it's kind of a carryover from Switzerland. I thought he was still a little bit too safe for what he offers. And in that sense, I mean, like, he would get the ball sometimes on the edge, and he'd be looking at one Honduras defender, and he would just sort of stand up on the ball, wait, watch our players sort of move around him and develop, and then just sort of

make a simple pass, not an incisive one, just a simple one. And it's like, no, we've got you there, you will have this ridiculous pace. You can beat this guy. This guy isn't an elite defender. Honduras don't have elite fullbacks. You could do this guy or you could do them often enough, a high enough percentage of the time that it is well worth it for you to try. But he didn't really, he didn't really ever do that.

He never really went out on that limb. And it was just, again, it was really, we just had a really conservative outlook, I felt like. Yeah, I think, I mean, he did it once, right? and beat a few guys and then and then tapped it out to I think legit who then just recycled possession backwards which is not necessarily a bad decision in that moment but yeah I think that his ability to carry the ball forward we saw it I think once in the game so I agree with you I would have like to see that more should we move up to Yule all right the great Yule test two games now we've had we've had of what I think would be considered real tests

Take it away, Professor Velasquez. I would say that I don't think Jackson Ewell has passed the tests. And what I think is kind of interesting is, you know, against Switzerland, I think there was a lot of sort of watching him to see how he'd hold up athletically. And I don't think he necessarily did great. He didn't, he wasn't a complete disaster. But I don't think he necessarily like, he doesn't impose himself in that area. You know, he's not like, oh, this area is controlled because Ewell's there. And then yesterday, I think it was actually pretty rough.

and I think even that might be being a little bit kind. But the other big thing, and I asked this after the Switzerland game in our little group, I was like, hey, does anyone remember any passes Ewell made that like James Sands or Tyler Adams doesn't make? And he didn't really have any of those against Switzerland. And then he didn't really have any of them against Honduras too. And that is like the big test because if you're going to carry Jackson Ewell, it's exactly to make those passes and be incisive and be unpredictable and find players

in better spots than we would have gotten with a more conservative center midfielder. And if he's not doing that, then why would you risk the athletic shortcoming? So he didn't pass a test for me. Where do you have him? Yeah, same. I mean, I think the athletic shortcomings are kind of the root of it on actually on both ends of the ball because he had, I clocked him. I have the timestamps.

I can share the receipts if you want. he had three pretty like not great giveaways in the first half simply because he wasn't quick enough or not athletic enough or maybe you could argue maybe not alert enough to what's going on around him and I think he got those things happened I think he got the yips and he was just he wasn't even trying to play forward after that he was he was he was Mr. Sideways or backward and there are some moments in this game that are really frustrating to watch in retrospect from him I mean, I think you, you clocked one where, do you want to describe it? Because I think it's really telling.

Yeah. It was, it was a, it's one of those great John Brooks balls where Brooks is like just casually holding it in the back and suddenly like he pings it up to immediately up to Josh Sergeant's feet. And we have the ball in the attacking third like in space. And Sergeant has a perfect layoff like takes all the sting out of the ball, puts it right in Ewell's path, Ewell's facing forward. Sergeant has drawn like the right centerback with him with his check back.

And Pulisic is now in the space between the right fullback and where the right centerback has just vacated. He is all alone. Like he's literally all by himself. Not only is he all alone. There is a clear window to pass to him. Oh, yeah. Like there's no one in his way. There's no vision required.

You're looking directly at Christian Pulisick. And like you will just does not clock it. He sort of like takes a scuffed pass directly back to Sergeant who's. you know, checked back into that area. I mean, he also could have hit McKinney another lineup. So the whole idea is like up back through, but we didn't do that. We had like up back and then kind of like scuffed sideways. And now Stafford, now Sergeant has to like solve it. He actually gave Josh Sergeant a problem to solve instead of springing us in on goal. And that's again, that's the whole thing. That has to be Ewell's bread and butter. And if it's a one off thing, okay, you're not going to hit every single

window that opens. But you got to hit some of those windows. Like, That's your whole job. And I just looked it up. This was in the 14th minute. So it's too early to say that he had the yips at this point. It's just maybe who he is, you know? And that's a pattern of play. You know, we're trying to get the ball to Sergeant to lay it off for Yule to then, you know, hit that next line pass.

Didn't happen, you know? This wasn't the only time it didn't happen. There were like there were a couple of like attempted through balls that were just rockets over the end line from Yule. it's not it wasn't working and then you know the I put something on Twitter this morning from the second half early in the second half where Robinson has the ball he kind of does a guy and then plays it into Ewell you will has you is facing the sideline from about 10 yards away he has the entire field behind him and and and rain is standing wide open and he passes it up the line I think to maybe pull a sick I'm not sure and then it comes

it comes back to so at that point you know rain is kind of like oh wish you would have turned and seen me and then it comes back to you a moment later and he's in that he has even more room to turn and play the ball and he doesn't even turn he just taps it back to robinson and reina is jumping up and down in the center circle in frustration and brooks even bruce even remonstrates you know he goes he kind of like drops his fists real fast like good grief jackson turn around and that's everybody. We're all watching that getting frustrated. I had,

you know, people are telling me that they were almost through their TV, their remote at the TV in that moment. And that's just, that has to be better. That has to, we are, the person in that position has to be able to play on the half turn there.

And it looks to me like Jackson needs to go back to Alameda University for a couple semesters, you know, pick up some credits and let's see where he stands. And I'd even, I'd even say that they don't necessarily have to do that, right? Like if they can't find that pass, if it's not in their wheelhouse, uh, you could forgive it if it's because they are like a plus plus plus player somewhere else. Like, okay, they can't, they don't

quite have that in their toolbox. So we're going to have to rely on John Brooks to do all the, all of the progressive passing, which is what kind of we were doing yesterday. But, but they, but they're also flawless at taking away angles in transition, you know, or they're amazing at defending in pursuit in a scramble. But you will is none of those things either. So he's got to give us something to get to get on the field. And in his two big tests, I'd say he probably has not done that. Yep. And he did win some physical battles against Switzerland, you know, defensively. I'm not sure he did against Honduras last night in a game that was, that had a little bit more of more intensity to it. So I'll be really frustrated if you'll

starts against Mexico on Sunday. And I don't know if he won't, you know, I feel like it's a toss-up. He might start. Don't you think? It would not surprise me at all. And it would just be one of those things where if he starts and suddenly, like, looks great and is hitting all these passes, then he and Burrhalter have figured it out behind the scenes. And he's been Burrhalter's prepared him to do what he really wants and what he's good at. And if he starts and can't do those things, then I think it has be a gold cup debutante who ends up sort of taking that job come September. Yeah. I mean, again, we've been looking for that second six for a while.

So, again, maybe Kalan Acosta starts and looks great. Yeah. And I'm not saying, I want to be clear, I'm not saying Kalin Acosta. I'm convinced that Kelan Acosta is going to be super great in that role. If he plays that role against Mexico, I still think it should be Eunice Musa. I do, man. I think he can do all the stuff, all the other stuff. He may not play on the half turn with, you know,

Pierlo-esque elegance, but neither is Ewell. So let's play somebody who brings, like you said, gives us the other stuff. And we know that Musa can pick up the ball and step past a guy. And you'll definitely cannot do that. So since we're talking about Musa, I don't know if I want him there, but I certainly want him on the field.

So let's talk about the eights. Yeah, okay. Because Musa didn't play as an eight yesterday either. Musa didn't play at all. Didn't come into the game. Weird. So the eights were McKinney and Leget, and I would say neither of them had a very good game. Isn't that fair to say?

I would tend to agree with that, yes. I don't know. Now, I'm not sophisticated enough to know if that's just they didn't have a good game because they ate the wrong cereal in the morning, or if they didn't have a good game because the tactics were all wrong. But a couple observations, if you'll allow me, they were both not in the whole game, but for big portions of the game,

they were both really high. So we were like emptying out the center circle, basically to give, I think, Yule room to operate or maybe to bring Pulisick and Raina into the center circle to receive the ball. I'm not sure exactly. But they were both really high. And that role does not fit McKinney very well.

I think we've seen this for the national team for the last two, three years. When he's in zone 14, receiving the ball with his back to goal, it just, it doesn't work. He's not a high cog in a rhythmic attacking machine. That's not what he's good at. Now, with all due respect to Andrea Pirolo at Juventus, I mean, even there he's not a cog. He's just like a chaos merchant running all over the,

the front of the field. So we can't, I don't think we can rely on McKinney to be that cog that high up the field. And we tried to do that for a lot of this game. That didn't work. Yeah, to take that and get it, strip it down to like it's very basic, like youth coaching stuff. It didn't allow us to really create any triangles. It kind of reminded me of the Olympic setup we had where the attacking line was just too high and too horizontal. Like everyone's on the same level.

You don't have these little triangles. There was very little like combination. interplay. So when there finally was on a couple of those buildups on Raina side, especially, like they really stood out. Like, oh, man, this is slick, like all this passing. And there was nothing Honduras was doing to prevent us from doing more of that, in my opinion, for basically every possession. Like, I don't know how every possession didn't have more of that. I don't know why we looked so lost for so much of our possession time. Yeah. And so I don't know if I'd go that far that we looked so lost for so much of our, I mean, we had good stretches of.

possession. We had some good attacking sequences, but, but yeah, the McKenny, McKenny was, you know, not, well, he was part of some of it, but he just wasn't consistently in, in sync, in flow with the game. And I would say with Jet, uh, who I was a little disappointed in his performance against Switzerland. I was also disappointed in his performance to last night. I thought he was again, pretty timid when he got on the ball in attacking spots. Um, he wasn't terrible or anything. And I don't know if it's just the contrast between him and like Pulisic and Raina, just watching them on the field and how they interact with the ball.

That contrast is so stark. But it does make me come around a little bit to the point of view that, you know, Legit maybe spot starts good off the bench, but he's not quite up to that level. I don't know. I'd rather see Musa there. I'd rather see Musa play the 8 and the 6th.

I'd rather see Musa there. I mean, I'm the same. There wasn't anything legit did in that game that stood out even to the point of like, again, just sort of being a good final third facilitator. There wasn't a lot of, for me, it didn't feel like there was a lot of that facilitating going on generally.

So, and I'd say it was similar against Switzerland. So that's two games in a row now where there hasn't been a lot of good attacking combination. And I know you might push back and say that there were moments and there were good moments. I thought even in that game, though, a lot of the moments turned into a little bit of like Hero Ball. That might not be entirely fair.

Oh, I think that's fair. For some good Hero Ball moments. Yeah. And I mean, Hero Ball is, it turned into like, we were talking about on Twitter last night, it turned in a lot of times it turned into give the ball to Christian or G.O. And let them dribble. And those guys are happy to do that. That's what they love to do.

That's what they were born to do. struggle at people. But we had there has to be some, uh, there has to be a mix of hero ball and team. Yeah. And it'd be nice if, if the team unbalanced the opponent, disorganized the opponent slightly so that they were doing their hero ball against a, a scrambling defense instead of a, uh, very set up defense. And I think, you know, I, uh, I think that 31 past sequence leading to the Giorina, the Giorina missed just why. that was a good example of team. I think the team creating disorganization for Honduras.

There was a lot of intricate movement down the right wing. It did end up with Raina doing a couple guys in the box, but he received the ball running with a full head of steam into the box. Like he received the ball in the box heading into the box from desk, a very nice pass. And those guys are kind of scrambling to come cover. So he is in a good position to do hero ball. That I think that was a lot easier,

a lot easier to dribble people when they're, they're desperately scrambling. Yeah. There's a lot of overcommitting, a lot of that kind of thing. Right. And I think, you know, the camera paned to Burrhalter right after he missed that just wide. And, you know, Burrhalter was like, ah, because that was, that would have been a real big vindication of the whole program.

And, you know, I wish it had happened. I'm not trying to be negative. I wish, I wish Raina had either finished it or squared it to Sergeant having a lively debate about that over the last 12 hours. Should he have squared it? Should he have shot? I think it's understandable that he shot in that situation. Sargent was on side when he struck the ball and he was standing right in front of the goal five yards away for a tap-in.

So, you know, take with that what you will. I won't wait into it. Okay. I think you know where I stand. No, I don't. Where do you stand? You got to square it for the, for the 0.9 expected goal tap in. Yeah.

Yeah. But I guess I, that's my point of view too, but what I understand is that the game comes out too fast. You just did two guys. You see the goal. It's not a bad, bad shot, you know, necessarily. Right, right. It's a good, it's a good scoring chance from Raina. You know, if you're trying to optimize your, your chances of scoring goals, you trade that chance for one extra pass and a much, much higher chance of finishing. Yeah. But it's not something where you're going to, you're going to get too down on Raina about it. Yeah, it's not a computer game. We're all hot-blooded human beings. And I guess I'm curious, what do you think, what do you think we were trying to do

by pushing the eights so high and leaving the middle vacant? I really don't know. I mean, I'm not sure what it was. Like, I think we would have had far more success, creating a little bit more layered attack. And I thought this was kind of, again, similar to the issues against Switzerland. and like we didn't have a lot of this interchange. Like the whole idea of this positional play is to have this free-flowing interchange.

But I don't think it should just be when Poole-Sikorana get the ball at their feet and start trying to do people that we start moving around them. I really thought that we missed a lot of chances again to combine and drag defenders on every possession. We kind of just conceded that we weren't going to do that, and it was just going to be this, it just for me feels a lot more stagnant. Yeah. I mean, some of that, a lot of that has to do with Ewell, I think. You will missing those opportunities to hit that second pass between the lines. But also, like you said, Robinson wasn't super risk-taking.

Risk-taking is nervy for the U.S. Because I think as Matt Hartman said, a lot of times when we give the ball away, we have like six guys ahead of the ball. and it turns into like, you know, what should, what is like a routine giving away of possession turns into this like really scary moment, all the, like constantly. Going the other way? Just like a jail break the other way, right? Yeah. I don't, and I don't under, I think that could be solved by dropping one of the eights deeper

and having somebody a little more defensively responsible. I think, I think McKenny would, McKinney was not very good defensively. You know, he didn't win his battles. So, I mean, that's why I really, another reason I wanted, really wanted Mousa in there for just for that, just for the cage match. And a guy, I get $1,000 if I say the words cage match in every episode for the rest of the year. Well, we harped on that for since Musa has been in the, I mean, since those November friendlies, it wasn't just Moussa either. But the ability to get a challenge in and win the ball with the challenge that your team now has it, not just disrupt it and blow things up. But like, blow it up in a way that we keep it.

and when we don't do that, like everything suffers, our ability to hit back the other way, quickly suffers to take a scramble and suddenly be like in-space attacking, disappears. And it's more like, okay,

now we're doing a lot more defending, pursuing back to our own goal because, I mean, in part because Jackson Ewell couldn't do that. He couldn't blow someone up and have us go the other way. Right.

And then Brooks, I noticed late in the first half, Brooks started like pushing up and engaging those, physical battles as far up as the center circle or even in the other team's half in Honduras's half, while you will kind of like retreated and like conceded that job to Brooks. Not saying that's necessarily bad, but it is kind of telling that our big lumbering centerback had to be the one to sort of run all over and blow things up.

And then he did, you know, he also did try to blow up Albert Alise's back by kneeing him in the back, which I thought was also good conca cacuffing. I mean, I'm not a proponent of dirty play, but Elise had, at least had, you know, was seeing red from kickoff in this game. Right. You got to let a guy know you were there, right? Yep. All right.

Are we, do we still talk about Sergeant? Are you good on pool sick and rain? Have you sung their praises enough? Yeah, I thought they both played. They both showed that they're like, obviously the two most talented players on the field. Well, I mean, possible exception of des. They did start flagging in the second half. I think both of them,

Pulisic in particular, got pretty sloppy in the second half. But he was great. It would have been nice if he would have finished that one where he tried to Meg, Meg the goalkeeper. It almost got through. The goalkeeper caught it with his heels.

So yeah, that's what I got to say on Pulisic and Raina. Anything from you on them? No, I think they should be in a position to succeed where they are basically given complete freedom to go wherever they want, whenever they want. I mean, things should happen when they do that,

and we have reeds off of that. But they definitely are not. I don't think those two are in like a rigid system where we're underusing them. I think we need to find solutions earlier in the buildup to put them in better positions to succeed. I do think, Rayna, you know, you could argue you should have been more unselfish

on that one play. But he is probably, better than Musa in the cage match. Like he just like wins the ball every time. And I love that he's, I love that he's ready for Conca Cap. And it's such a contrast. You know, we think of Pulisic and Raina as sort of similar players in some ways. But, uh, if you look, if you look at the scrum that happened after the sergeant goal line clearance, you know, Raina makes that B line over, says something probably very nasty to Toro. And then, uh, and then he's, you know, everything goes into chaos. And it was, I don't know if he meant it this way, but it worked out well because it took attention off the penalty shout.

And it got everybody sort of thinking about this other stuff. Meanwhile, Pulisic is just like standing, you know, 30 yards away watching. He is not interested in that kind of stuff. And Raina is. They're very different in that way. And I like that about Raina that he's going to get involved. And, you know, he's kind of mean-spirited too, which I think is not the worst thing to have on your team. He's applying that body language to the opponent as well.

well. Yes. Yep. Yeah. It's not just, he's not just mad at teammates. Yeah. So let's talk about Sergeant. What are your thoughts? I thought, I thought he was mostly good if he wasn't used that often. And I feel like he was so close to him used twice where it would have been tap-ins to the rain one. And then even the Pulisik one that Pulisik tried to score on himself, which again, it's his call to make, but there is a path there to slide it across for the tap-in. And in 2021, every attacking player knows that that's something to be aware of. You know what I mean? Like, you see those last extra passes so often now and on the best teams. You know, when we grow up, we all grew up watching Barcelona. That extra pass is not like a novelty anymore. Right. Yeah. I thought the window for

that pass was pretty tight, but maybe he could have gotten it in there. Yeah. It was, it was not as open as the rena one. No. The rena one, I'd almost forgive him more if it was like, I, I thought there'd be a risk he was offside. He was so alone. Yeah. There was a risk he was offside earlier in the sequence because he was offside early in the sequence. Anyway, we don't need to litigate that. But yeah, so Steve Chu comes in and scores a great goal, awesome for him. But it came when somebody did square the ball to him when he got himself free in front of goal. So it's where this, this narrative of like, oh, see what you should start because he scored. It just like suddenly there's a circumstantial bit of like his teammate got it to him. Sergeant's teammate did not

get it to him when he's in the scoring position. So how do you, Eddie, decide which guy's more likely to give you the goal in the next game? Yeah, I don't know that I've seen that narrative so much, like, Cibchew ought to start because of that, but. I mean, I don't think it would be crazy to start him anyway. I mean, regardless of that sort of debate, like, I don't know that Cibichu's not going to give you as much or more than

Josh Sargent, but it's just, again, part of the whole judging a striker's performance. Did Sergeant get in a couple of good spots to score? Yes, did he get the ball when he? He got into those spots, not every time. How's he going to do next time? That's what we've got to try to figure out. I still think he's a little soft in the buildup. Like he's not,

he's not 100% reliable to get to that pass to him and then to be able to hold onto it and find somebody's feet. But, you know, he had a great, a great-headed chance off of the Robinson Cross as well. And then that sidewinder in the second half. That was probably my favorite moment of his, to be honest. Really? Yeah. Well, the goal line clearance was clearly the best one.

But I really liked that strength and the technique. Yeah, just didn't quite connect with it the way he wanted to and it went over. But that would have been a hell of a goal. Hey, but I want to emphasize too that point you just made. It does feel like a ball into sergeant's feet has to be like perfect for him to really get to it. Does that kind of, were you kind of? I would definitely echo that. Yeah.

he's not going to necessarily like create an additional yard of space to collect that ball and play. And I don't know if that's like lack of awareness or lack of athleticism is probably a little bit of both. But he probably needs to get a little stronger. We've covered a lot of the timeline elements already and we're already, what, 40 minutes in. So let's let's let's let's, I'll try to do an abbreviated timeline, famous last words. So I do want to mention that Elise did that conca caffing in the first minute, 30 seconds in that bit of gamesmanship where he drops the floor in front of Brooks. And then Brooks urged him to get up and tries to help him up in a probably not entirely friendly way. And Elise just turns on him furiously.

And a little scrum ensues. I thought that, you know, that was a sign of things to come from Elise and Brooks who were at each other's throats the whole game. at each other's throats is not the right word at least was theatrically at brooks's throat brooks was sort of calmly backing at least down throughout the game um that lovely pulisic dummy in the third minute on that brooks pass remember that oh yeah yep yep so that gets legit sprung yeah and this is an example of legit being i think a little timid he you know if that's pulisic getting on the ball there he's cutting inside and just like running full speed.

Same with Raina at the goal. And Leget, just, you know, he plays kind of a safe pass out wide for Sergeant. Sergeant isn't able to really do much with it. Even if his cross had gotten through, I don't know that it would have found anybody, but it was cut out by the first man. And then, you will, the fifth minute, you will a little slow on the ball, gets eaten up in the counterpress. Same thing happened in the 11th minute.

And I haven't. done a full rewatch or even gone in like player by player yet because I don't think the clips were up yet on Y Scout. But I'm hoping that like the full UL compilation, I haven't seen cranks or false fullbacks, Yule clips yet. I'm hoping to be wrong. I'm hoping that like a couple of these early mistakes just stuck with me and he was better than I remember. But I'm not optimistic. No, I, so yeah, we're really getting off the timeline here, which is fine because it's so, so exhaustive. But the only really positive moment from Ewell in the first half on the ball that I noticed was in the 30th minute when that sergeant header that on the cross from Robinson.

So there's a little bit of combination play between Robinson Legit and Ewell that does give Robinson space to operate. and Ewell was involved in that. So it was like slightly positive. The thing is it's space to operate from with his feet on the chalk, you know, from like his the touchline. So it's not like it sprung anything. But, you know, Ewell was involved.

That's the only positive passing moment that I clocked from Ewell in the first half. All right. I don't have the timestamp of this one, but he did hit like a left footed swooping ball out too. I think Leget on the right flank and Legett didn't bring it down just like whiffed a bit. maybe, maybe, like sunlight in the eye situation, but the ball made it harder for Legette than it needed to be too.

I totally agree with that too. That's what I was going to say is it didn't put him in the best spot that the ball, a better ball would have been better for legit. Yeah. I mean, easy for me to say from the closet behind my one year old's bedroom. But like, you know, that's the ball. That's what we're doing, right? We're grading against the optimal play. Yeah.

A lot of Raina dribbling in transition. And I think that's a good situation of being. I would like to see him release the ball with a little more intentionality. And I don't know if you could blame the off ball movement for him not having great options. But it does seem like when he gets the ball in transition, he's as likely to dribble to the corner flag as he is to do anything else. That great chance that we've talked about sort of at length, like I said, did come at the end of a 31-pass sequence.

that's that's in the 10th minute. We had the ball for 90 seconds. I want to, I want to kind of emphasize this. It came off a goal kick, you know, Stefan to McKenzie. And then basically everybody touched the ball,

except Sargent, I think, in the passing sequence, 31 passes. It's unlocked. The moment of unlocking comes from Sergenio Des. And I think that's why, you know,

people who are criticizing Desk for being like a zero in this game, who else is going, if it's not a Brooks pass to Sergeant's feet or or Dest combining up the flank, how are we going to create attacking moments? It's so much of it has to come through Desk because he has that, he has that mentality to like, to get going and play a couple quick passes, make a run. And that's what he did in this moment. He made a run that kind of disorganized that little section of Honduras's defense.

And then he played the pass into, into Raina into the box. So I just want to make sure I point out that Dest is crucial for our attack. and as long as he doesn't hold somebody on side for like a 1v1 versus a keeper, there's like really nothing to complain about, you know? Right, right. If death literally just is a neutral defender and does you no harm, the tradeoff is immense. Yeah. And he mostly is.

Certainly, certainly he's neutral defender, again, relative to whose other options in the pool who are by no means like lock down, flawless defenders. Yeah, I've in the past criticized Robinson for his chaotic body language, but I'm starting to see that with Canon. You know, he comes on and it's just chaos.

It's like comes on in like two foot's a guy in our defensive third. Like, what are you doing, Reg? He had a couple of bad moments against Switzerland too his last two right before he came out where like a bad turnover on the ball. So he's supposed to be our safer player on the ball.

And then he, you know, you just got rinsed on. on his very last action to get beat in the box. So I mean, if he's going to be the safe guy, he needs to be the safe guy. Yep.

He does. The right, you know, almost right after that Sergeant header that he gets good. I think decent power on it. It's not, it's not a super difficult save for Lopez. I don't think.

But that was a good chance. Almost immediately after that, Raina runs on to an errant backpass from Honduras. This is also in the 30th. minute and slips Pulisick into the box full speed ahead. Pulisic can't quite get his feet right. And this is the moment where you know, you were saying he could have skittered it across the face of goal for sergeant

at the back post. And he tries to shoot and almost makes the keeper, but doesn't. And, uh, yeah, I'm, I think at this point in the game, 30 minutes in, I'm thinking we look decent other than the set piece where Stefan acquitted himself shamefully, uh, that results in that goal line clearance from sergeant. We were totally dominant. Four very good chances for us, one okay chance, and a few more moves resulting in danger for Honduras,

danger against Honduras. On the other hand, Ewell had been very ineffective in the things he's supposed to be good at, but also bad at the things that he's supposed to be bad at. I think that's exactly what I felt like 30 minutes into the game was that we've done some good things. You will seem like a wasted position, and Anthony Robinson had been mostly invisible.

I know he had that really solid cross, but I don't even know if that was within the first 30 minutes, but that was my sort of take on the first 30 minutes as well, in the Stefan Howler. Yeah. And in Robinson's case, I'll sort of take invisible, you know,

after, you know, from that left side, because we need his, the protection of his, his athleticism and, you know, to the extent that he's able,

his commitment to defend to help protect Brooks. So I would, I was not displeased with that level of invisible, invisibility. All right. So we're 30 minutes into the chronology here. Yeah, but we're going to go fast.

37th minute, Pulisic does a guy and then plays what looks to me like a very clever through ball that almost wrong foot's Pereira. You know, he kind of reaches back with his left foot and cuts it out. But it was a, if he had not been able to reach back and cut it out, it's legit running in on goal, perfectly timed. And then another dangerous sequence right before the half from Honduras. and this one Yeah, this one is the one where McKenzie gets left for dead by Elise.

Brooks plays a loose pass on the ground. It's intercepted by Honduras. And then just dumped into the corner for Elise. This is often how Honduras created its danger. Just dump it in the corner. And he gets their first, stops on the ball, and then pushes it past McKenzie and zips a ball across the face of goal. Anthony Lazano, the striker for Honduras,

just misses it with his outstretched foot darting behind none other than Jackson Ewell. I'm not trying to pile on Ewell there. I don't like whatever. A little bit though. Like I mean, I watched that one a bunch of times too. And a little bit like not, he gets beat to that spot when it's definitely his job to protect that spot in that moment. Pile on. Pile on.

I hope he just has it. I hope he has an absolute banger against Mexico. I hope he just like shuts everyone up and, uh, carves Mexico to pieces. Yeah, we want everyone to succeed. I'm not. I think, I think the. Ewell experiment should be over that now, though, just to be clear with everyone. I'm not trying to be overly negative.

I think the Ewell experiment should be over. You mentioned something earlier today about how many minutes O'Halter has given to certain kinds of sixes. Right. He gave all of 2019 to Bradley and Trap and then gets a whole do-over, I feel like, after that year. And in that do-over, he's given about 400 minutes now to Jackson-Ewell. So when people are like, we just don't have a backup for Adams, like we haven't, we haven't

We haven't tried anybody, you guys. We haven't actually run any auditions for Adams backup. We've always gone with, like, players who are the polar opposite of Tyler Adams. So I don't know if there's a good stand-in out there. We've never tried. It's frustrating, man. What's going on, Greg Burhalter? Like, why can't we be a little more open-minded about this?

That's where I say, you know, people are saying, like, well, it's the system and the system. But if we're looking for Adams' backup, then it's not the system. If the system can succeed with Tyler Adams in there as that player, then clearly the system doesn't require like a supreme passing player. Which Ewell is not. Like bottom line, that's the fantasy that we're living under that Ewell offers this supreme half turn passing component to his game. And he just doesn't.

It's not there. Well, we're going to find out because he's going to get a good talking to between now and Mexico. go and just be like, hey, you've got to hit these passes. This is your whole, this is your whole bit. Yeah. All right. All right. We got to get off of that. We got to keep going on the timeline. I mean, I would say before that big chance for Honduras, we were knocking on the door. There was a legit ball, the McKinney at the back post that got cut out by the keeper, Pulisick turn and attempted through ball to legit. Another one in the 39th minute. The legit maybe just doesn't receive properly and it gets cut out. Do we already have the McKinney header on the corner? A few set pieces. No, I didn't mention that. That was a, that was one of

of our really good chances. It was just a corner after Raina dribbled into transition and sprayed it to Pulisic. And Raina gets tackled by Kevin Alvarez and Alvarez pumps his fist. He's super pumped that he got. He got the better of Pulisic there. And then yeah, and then suing corner kick. Kenny is all alone at the six and he heads it over. Timing was slightly off maybe. I don't, I'm not sure. That's the guy I want with that chance with his head. So they're difficult because he's very good at it. Yeah, he is good at it. And then we should also mention just going backwards in the timeline, everybody, in the 15th minute, a good chance when Pulisic scoops legit in behind and he cuts it back. And I give a little mark against Sergeant here for not being quite decisive enough,

quick enough to get to that cutback because he, Sergeant is smart to break off his run and come back near post, you know, for the cutback rather than the ball across the face of goal. He just doesn't get there, you know right right so yeah so in that case it's like can your forward just power it through the block and fucking bundle at home and he he didn't he couldn't quite get there which is i mean frankly it's a theme with sergeant he's not an elite striker by any stretch of the imagination and that's who that's what he is he's got potential 46th minute uh you'll too slow in the buildup giveaway just got to clock that uh and then the 51st minute a huge chance for losano and alice on the break. This is that straightforward forward ball over the top where Dest holds him on.

I don't know what Sergenio was doing in this play because Brooks and McKenzie are holding the line at the half line and Dest is a good three yards behind them, just kind of leaning and watching. Like, what are you doing, man? Don't do that. And Brooks was mad at him. I saw it. That still frame shot of him doing the like long, the ski jump lean is fantastic. And if we lost that game, that would, that would have been the defining moment. Yeah. Got to cut that out. It would have been that and it would have been Stefan.

We would have had a couple of defining moments if we've lost that game. And then, you know, I mentioned Raina jumping in the center circle in frustration at Ewell, that happened in the 56th minute. Mentioned the sergeant sideliner in the 58th minute. Let's see. What are you thinking at this point in the game? We're an hour in and Honduras is about to make three subs and we make none. So it's the same thing. I guess the pile on continues.

I was surprised that Eul wasn't off at half. I think I'd actually been talking to you guys about like, do we, does anyone think Ewell comes off before halftime? Because again, he just wasn't adding anything and he was sort of a repeated liability. And again, he wasn't the only guy having a bad game or a neutral game. but when the other guys have like very obvious upsides, it's like you keep him on there. But when Ewell's not having that upside,

that it surprised me that he stayed on beyond halftime and then beyond the first wave of subs as well. Yeah, we didn't even get a wave of subs until the 78th minute. So we played everybody in the starting lineup played 78 minutes. I would like to see some kind of change, some kind of switch it up where it's zero zero. We're going to penalties right after regulation is over. This is a little bit of an earth.

urgent situation and it didn't feel that way from the sideline. People will say we're too negative because up to this point other than the errors by Stefan Dest and McKenzie, we dominated the match. And I do think I just want to be fair to those folks and keep them from being too mad at us by saying, I think there's a decent case for that. You know, the XG is in our favor. Dramatically, the chances that we created were were more like, you know, actual built chances than Honduras. Honduras created chances on errors by Stefan and Dest. And then, you know, I don't know if he called McKenzie getting beat by Elise an error.

But he needs to be a little more aware of his own physical limitations and stay a little wider. And he did that actually later in the game against Elise. He was one-on-one with him late in the game. Right at the end, right? I was shocked that we even allowed that to happen and disappointed, shocked and disappointed. I'll push back a little bit on anyone who might push back on us for our negativity, but I didn't think we really controlled the game. Like it didn't feel like we were in total control of the game.

We definitely had more possession, but it felt like that was like Honduras's way. I honestly thought it was like Honduras' tactic to concede possession, so our press couldn't create any chances. I don't think there were any chances we created off of a press or like turning them over and breaking up field. controlled the game as kind of a subjective phrase like a little bit of a subjective phrase i use it all the time so i know how subjective it is but but i but i yeah i on rewatch i felt like there were large portions of the game where we just we had the ball and we were occasionally threatening it wasn't like we were totally ineffective in the attack and i do think there's like you know there's

there is a little bit of a meltdown down going on on social media where people are just going ballistic and I just want to say I'm not totally on board with that that's all I'm I'm I'm threading the needle in the perfect middle ground as usual I'm actually I'm actually with you I think at the moment but I think the I think the other side is also I think there's a lot of like sort of apologizing going on and and sort of some overcompensating the other way because like I'm prepared to get kind of worried if we if we go out and get like waxed by Mexico like if we go out and don't look sharp at all and get done, then I feel like all of the apologizing for this Honduras game, like, oh, it's conca calf. It's just, you know, it's so difficult, the conditions.

I think all of that evaporates because it's like, okay, well, if we can't be, if we can't control teams and dominate teams that were much better than, and we can't do the same thing against teams that maybe are at our level, then what are we left with? And this is, again, in Denver, this isn't on the road. This isn't sort of that famous like, oh, it's hard to win on the road in Cogacaff. These are the home games. We have multiple Champions League players. It can't just be like men's national team. Better things aren't possible. Like we have to be able to do something. We have to be able to prepare to beat one of the some group of teams. The ones were better then or the ones where we're the underdog. Yeah, that's a good point. It's not like our system

doesn't seem to be working against either type of opponent. I mean, at least on the sample size of last two games. Again, that's, that's like my preemptive way of saying, like, if Mexico just completely obliterates us or sort of plays us in a way that doesn't have to be obliterating, like, if it looks like the Canada game in Toronto, then I'd be really curious what sort of the, the, the, the apologists would say at that point. Let's get Bruce Arena on the phone. I'm just kidding.

Obviously, yeah. Okay. Let's get to the goal. Because there were some nervy moments. There was some sustained pressure from this. the U.S. in the last 20 minutes, I thought, for a little while. Two more subs from Honduras in the 74th, I believe, and still none from Burrhalter. In the 78th minute, we get Aronson for Raina, Siebechu for Sargent, and Cannon for Robinson. And the goal comes from

Siebichu, a player who's been mostly just talked about on big soccer for the last five years. He gets on the end of a header, obviously. It starts with a throw-in in the in the in the far right corner from Cannon to McKinney. And McKinin does it nicely to sort of get out of a little pressure and then play it backwards. And then it finds its way to Brooks in sort of on the edge of zone 14. Brooks plays a really nice diagonal ball to McKinney. McKinney heads it across just like they say in the textbooks. And, uh, and I guess Aronson got a touch on it.

So he's credited with the assist, which seems like a something of an injustice. And then, uh, and then Cibich. you, you know, heads it in. I think it's actually a more difficult finish than it maybe appears because the ball's like rising as he off the ground as he heads it. And he keeps it down just enough to get under the end of the crossbar. And he has to add a decent amount of power to it, I think. Yeah. So he can man, dude can score with his head. And I mean, he's been doing that in Switzerland all year. And that's the, you know, it's a game winner. And great relief to me. I would not have been happy if we had gone to penalties. And then we did give

up a chance, another just sort of simple ball over the top down the left. Dest is a little, maybe not too much, but a little high. And Brooks ends up 1v1 with Elise. And he does get done. This is probably the, if there's a mark against Brooks, it's this moment. And he gets, he gets beaten by Elise. And then Elise tries to hit it across. And Stefan, with his foot, cuts it out. And that's really the sort of like the last major action of the game. And we see it out. And we're off to play Mexico on Sunday. Mexico had an even more difficult match against Costa Rica. I didn't watch it.

I'm just going by the scoreline. Don't have time to watch this game twice and record a podcast the next day and watch the Mexico game. But anyway, I did watch the penalties. It went to like the sixth or seventh penalty in Memo Cho, came up big for Mexico. What's your take on the idea that, well, the U.S. 1-0 win looks better because Mexico also struggled to get through to this Concaf Nation's League final. Well, I mean, I think we're getting ahead of ourselves there because, for all we know, Costa Rica could wax us in a game too.

So, you know, again, I don't know. And I'm not saying that we're going to go in and get pants to buy Mexico. But I definitely, like, feel less optimistic about it now than I did before the Honduras game. It just, now here's where I'm going to get a little negative. It just doesn't seem to be working, like what Burrhalter's trying to do. it doesn't feel cohesive. It doesn't feel overall, like rhythmic. And I don't, you know, I'm not enough of a brain to diagnose exactly what's going

wrong, but it's not, it's not working. And this is where I felt like some of the coverage I was reading where it was like, why is everyone so worried? We created a couple of good chances, like, you know, good performance. And for me, it's like, that has to be like the bare minimum. when you're playing a home game against a team that, again, on paper, you're much better than. This isn't like some Honduras team that is, you know, totally weathered up and down the field. I think there were five guys on that starting lineup for Honduras that had single-digit caps.

They're like very young too. This isn't like a battle-tested group outside of a few guys. So to say like we couldn't break them down more frequently. Like, you know, you can't say, well, if we just finished our chances, that doesn't happen. You have to create a lot of chances to get your one goal. So you can't say, well, if we just finished all our chances, it would have been a different game. Like, of course it would have.

But it doesn't work like that. So the idea is we needed to have created more chances than we did and pointing to one or two good ones just isn't enough when you're playing on home soil against a team that you have a significant talent gap over. And I don't think I'm being disrespectful to Honduras to say that our five Champions League knockout players constitute a talent gap. Yeah. It's the whole sum.

The whole is less than the sum of its parts. Clitche. Seems to kind of just be a consistent theme. Yeah. I mean, I'd like to see, like we've said probably 40 times in this podcast already, I'd like to see Musa in the starting lineup. I'd even be okay with him at the 6th. I'd prefer Acosta over Yule just to see what he offers.

I'm not saying that I guarantee Acosta is going to be a huge upgrade over Yule in that spot. I think you'll be a little bit of an upgrade though. And yeah, I just worry about how susceptible we are defensively. And then maybe that's the main thing because we are creating some chances against a team that was trying to defend resolutely. We got some chances. And we did end up winning the game. did end up winning the game one to zero we got enough chances to put one away we got lucky that they didn't score too so and and where i'm where i'm what i'm hopeful of against mexico is actually

that we get more opportunities to create chances off their mistakes in the sense of like they'll play through a press you know they'll hold the ball deep and build uh and i'm hoping that our press actually gets to create some looks because some of our players are i think better in that mode than they are actually playing with the ball. So I'm hoping that that adds another sort of element of chance creation in the final. We do have to find a way to get Raina and Pulisic comfortable in a role that is in roles that are like part of a system of attack, you know, not just, not just hero ball. We got to find a way to get McKinney in his best spot.

And that is not, I don't think, standing next to the opposing centerback. hoping to receive the ball. No, he was great. I think one of his best games was against Wales, where he was just kind of circulating in front of the back line, picking up the ball constantly, and then interchanging with anyone who was around him. And he was able to help create those overloads wherever he went.

He was everywhere. He was in front of the back line. Then suddenly he was out in the right corner, playing with Dest and Raina. And it doesn't seem like he was free-flowing like that in the last couple of games. I want a free-flowing McKenny. I feel like that would help solve things.

And maybe a more defensive-minded six would allow him to do that. I don't know if he feels like tethered to that central area of the field because we can't leave it unguarded. I don't know. I'm definitely not in this case trying to be like everything is somehow traces back to Jackson. I don't think that's necessarily the case. But obviously Tyler Adams was the six in that game against Wales.

You think Adams is going to play against Mexico, Or is he just not healthy enough? So my guess going into it was that, but I've been wrong about all of Burrhalter's rotation decisions so far. So this is basically meaningless. But I kind of assume that if he was going to get played against Mexico, they would have played him for 15 or 20 minutes here against Honduras. And because I don't know that you can just start him after what's it been like five weeks of not playing soccer.

Yeah. So I'm pretty, pretty. pessimistic on that front. I'm again, I'm hoping Eunice Musa gets a start somewhere in the midfield. And after that, I don't have a lot of hard and fast preferences. Acosta

got the 15 minute run out at the six in this game. So maybe that's a signal that he'll be the six. He's the one who slid the ball over to John Brooks to set up the ball into McKinney. So come on. Just so

everybody knows, that's a joke. We're not crediting Acosta for some plus plus pass there. But I guess let's end, let's come full circle on just taking things for granted. Should Ethan Horvath start against Mexico? Oh boy, man. I'd probably, I'd probably start him. I don't want to be, you know, yeah, yeah, I'd probably start him. I don't think that Burrhalter's going to do that, though.

Yeah, I think it'd be an overreaction if you really thought like Zach Steffen is way above Horvath, but I didn't go into the, I haven't gone into any of those games thinking that. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't necessarily hesitate to put in the guy who's looked outstanding versus the guy who was a bit shaky, bit wobbly. Well,

and I'm also hopeful that, you know, Musa's been rested since his cameo against Switzerland. Hopefully that means he's, he's ready to go 90 against Mexico. But, you know, if you're betting man or woman,

do you think, Would you bet that he starts against Mexico? No, because for me, the rotation, if you're trying to prep Musa for Mexico, the rotation isn't to play him 20 minutes against Switzerland and then not play him against Honduras. Like, you would have played him 15 or 20 minutes against Honduras. If he thought he was your strongest guy and you were just saving him, you wouldn't not play him at all. You'd actually want him to get, like, a certain amount of workout in.

So it wouldn't make sense to rest him entirely. I think right now Burhalter just doesn't have Musa. as part of his strongest group, if he's going for a result, it apparently isn't necessarily Musa. Hopefully I'm wrong on that, and hopefully he's in the 11. Or we've adjusted and changed our minds a little bit

since we've seen these games. Well, we've got to brace ourselves for Sunday. The last thought for me, the 4-2, you know, our Slack channel is really, you know, vibrating right now. There's a lot of different opinions, a lot of different takes, which is nice because not everybody agrees.

about everything. But some people are saying we got to go to a 4, 2, 3, 1, just a more straightforward 4, 2, 3, 1, have essentially a double pivot that allows Musa. And you could do a Musa McKinney double pivot and then, you know, put maybe even make Legat the 10. I wouldn't hate that. Maybe make it Raina.

What do you think about that? That does appeal to me. Does it like blow up everything Burrhalter's trying to do, the whole project if he does that? maybe a little to have it. I think a dedicated 10 wouldn't work very well for what we've been doing so far. So I think that would be a big switch. But I think, again, going back to that Wales game, like those three center mids, Adams, McKinney and Musa were so fluid and there was so much interchange.

And, you know, if Adams was up a little bit, Musa would just immediately drop in. In the buildup, McKinney would drop in to add a second center mid and then sort of that double pivot. And you'd create it in the flow. And I just, I think there's no reason we couldn't do that. it wouldn't necessarily have to be a rigid 4231 or a nominal 4231, but you could get the same effect by just having more of an interchanging center mid. We've gone on at length about interchangeable center mids. And then when Jackson Newell gets thrown in there, that that's impossible.

You can't do it. He's going to sit and be the sort of static six and you can't have all of that fluidity. Yeah. Okay. So if it were Costa, Musa and McKenney, you know, if you needed to have another guy set up to help protect Acosta or whatever, they would just naturally be able to do that a little bit better. Yeah, I've liked the fluidity. I mean, there was a lot of fluidity against Jamaica, too, when it was, I guess, who was it,

Musa and Acosta. Acosta, Legett and Musa, yep. Yeah. Let's list off some positives before we get out of here. I want to list off some positives. I thought, I think these last two games have shown us that Mark McKenzie is very much national team centerback. I think he's got some weaknesses, but he is, he's,

legit, you know, I think we can rely on him as at least a depth piece and a spot starter at centerback going forward. John Brooks is the concaf king. No doubt about it. That's a huge deal. Raina is a high impact player. He's going to be frustrating. He's young. He doesn't, you know, he doesn't always pass the ball when he should, but he is a, he's a tough kid, a tough competitor, and he's going to fight like hell. And Pulisic is like pure class. That's, I guess that's not really a positive from this game. It's just a reminder of a truth.

Right. And again, I'll go into Mexico braced for disappointment, but also knowing that we could see some like absolute like highlights from from Pulisick. You always, at least we know we have that sort of always in waiting. We could get at any moment, Desk could do something special. Poulisic could do something special. Raina. Like we have guys who it can happen.

The ceiling is there. So we're not just resigned to let's, let's hope for the best with Christian Pulisic like we were last cycle. Yeah. It's let's hope for the best with Christian Pulisic or Gio Raina or Serenio Des. That's better. That's a better, that's a better floor. It is.

There we go. That's our positive note. Yeah. I mean, we're not going to, obviously, we're not going to be able to preview the Mexico game. You know, preview it in your own mind. Think about it. and we'll record on Monday after the game, which is at 9 p.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. Central on Sunday night.

Give the local time. It's a mountain time game. Come on. They deserve that. I don't. I can't do that math. Seven? Is it seven mountain time? Yeah, seven mountain time. It's sunnertime. It's sunset mountain time. They only do sunsets. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.