Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #185: USA v Martinique recap

Episode Date: July 16, 2021

Classic Gold Cup group stage contest, with a fun lineup in a 3-4-3 of sorts. Check out the Scuffed store, aka Half-space Merchantdeiss: https://my-store-11446477.creator-spring.com/ 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. Thank you for downloading this episode of Scuffed. The U.S. men defeated Martinique, a territory of the Republic of France, 6 to 1 on Thursday night in Kansas City and the Gold Cup group stage. We're ready to recap it. Hey, Greg. Bells, how you doing? I had been led to believe there were no easy games in Concaf, but I feel like that was a pretty easy game in Concafath. Yeah, you were misled. That game has no bearing on our FIFA ranking for anyone who meticulously tracks FIFA rankings because Martinique is not a FIFA eligible nation. I think it's just you and Jordan Boddy who are doing that. The Martinique lineup, I'll give that first, was Mesleian and goal, Dondon, Babine, Crettonois, and Burner. I'm sure that's pronounced Berner.

Across the back line. Are you sure that it's pronounced that way? I'm, no, I'm not sure. And then Camille, Hegel, Marajo, Fortuné, Fortuny, Abal, and Riviere are the front six, I guess you'd say. And we had most of the ball, let's see, let's talk about how we came out. It was a little bit surprising, I think. Three, four, three, or I guess you have some ideas on how to, how to, how to, how to cite those numbers.

Well, my initial instinct is called a three, four, three was like a box midfield. You know, a couple of eights, couple of tens, wingbacks and a striker. But that's, I mean, you can get as arbitrary as you want on your distinctions of how you label a formation. So probably better to just talk about the roles people would play so we can just go through the lineup and do that. Okay. Matt Turner was the goalkeeper.

The centerbacks were Walker Zimmerman, James Sands, and Miles Robinson from right to left. the wing backs were bellow on the left George Bellow and Shackmore on the right and the center mids were Jan Lucobusio and Eric Williamson. Kind of as a double pivot, I think which is definitely a change from what we'd seen.

The last several games, we had seen either Jackson Ewell or Tyler Adams or Busio when he came in for Ewell as very much like a lone six right in front of the two centerbacks. And then the half-space merchants were Christian rolled on and Matthew Hoppe and they truly were half-space merchants

for a lot of this game and the striker was Darrell D.K. who had a brace and played a role in an own goal as well. So, I was happy, go ahead, go ahead. You were happy with what?

Were you happy to see the names on the lineup? You were happy to see how the shape kind of played out? Yeah, I was pretty much happy with everything. I mean, well, I was pretty much happy with the lineup and the names in the lineup. I wanted to see, I thought this is a good chance

to see bellow over vines. I wanted to see Hoppy. I wanted to see D.K. at Stryker. I did not want to see Jackson Ewell in the center midfield role. So, yeah, everything was, and I wanted to see James Sands, and I think he was one of the top performers of the night, too. Yep, and I wanted to see Legitna Costa arrested since we've got Canada on short turnaround. And frankly, I wanted to see Roldon as well, and I wanted to see him not in midfield. I would have been a little bit disappointed if that's where he's.

he'd gone, which he could have, you know, we could have used him there to give guys a break, legit and Acosta break. But I was actually like curious to see how he would look in that sort of free attacking role. We're calling him half space mergent still, but they certainly weren't tethered to that space. There was a lot of interchange, a lot of fluidity. And they're supposed to be. That's that's the, that's the job of those players in positional play. But anyway, I was actually kind of curious to see how rolled down would play out. So I was very happy that that's where he found himself. Yeah.

Global merchants. Multinational companies. Let's see. Let's get right to the timeline. I'm kicking it off. I'm kicking the timeline off this time, Bells. I'm stealing your chronology. I kind of do.

I butt in sometimes. What do you got? I've got a fourth minute sequence that I thought was very good to see. It started with James Sands, just collecting the ball in the back. Again, we're kind of building out of that 3-2, which is a bit of a change. It's very similar to what we were building with through all of 2019, which was like a stay-at-home left-back, two centerbacks, and then you had like a double pivot in front of them, one of Bradley or Trap, and then a lot of times West and McKinney, occasionally Christian Raldon. But in this case, Williamson and Busio. So here it was James Sands on the ball under light pressure from Martinique, and Sands eliminated that pressure defender with just one touch forward, like just a little four-year.

yard touch, which meant that that pressure defender was taking away none of the field anymore, and Sands had his, had like the full complement of the field to pass into. He hit a ball into Hoppy who had cheated into, we talked about how free flowing it was. Hoppy was especially free flowing.

Hoppy had cheated over into Roldon's half space. Roldon, though, wasn't crowding it. He had actually flared out wide to the sideline, which he did a lot. So Roldon, or Hoppy collects the ball from Sands, shifts it out to Roldon. Roldon curls a nice ball down the channel to Shack Moore, and then Shackmore whips a ball in, a great ball in.

George Bello actually has a great move on the weak side on the far post to drive his man inside a step, and then he flares wide to the back post. And this is all that Bellow's whole move is like a two-step move. It's not like over 20 yards. But it freed him up. Two yards out of golf to collect this ball for free. And instead of heading it into the goal, he chested it away from the goal. and then had a shot blocked.

Huh. Man, I missed that one. I missed that. Oh, you got to watch it. It was, I mean, it looked like it should have been his Sam Vine's header goal, like just a free header three yards away that he created the space for the header. Great ball from Shaq Moore. But then just the decision, for some reason at the end, he took it on his chest.

Interesting. Yeah, Bello, I think, may have a very bright future, but he was, he looked nervous last night. Looked nervous. I wanted that one in there because I really liked all of those little movements that led to it. The Sands' decision, the Sands pass into the half space to a guy who wanted to get the ball in that space. Roldon's movement, his coordination with Shack Moore, and then the Witch ball in for more. All of those were great.

And I know you had talked about before the game wanting to see more in Bellow High. And here we had our right back, our right wing back connecting a ball from the N-line to the left wingback, who was basically on top of the goal. Yeah. They were often higher than Hoppe and Roldon. which I'm sure we'll get into more. Take your chronology back. So next item I have is in the eighth minute. There's that Bousio free kick.

And it's created by a slick bit of individual skill from Williamson, who kind of nonchalantly does a guy in the midfield. You know, he kind of turns towards the midfield and then just sort of turns around, does like a little pirouette away from him and he's free. I don't know that you could say, too much good about the defense there, but, but he does, he did have a way of skipping by people, gliding by people and creating space for himself. And then he gets fouled right at the top of the box. And before you, before you talk about what happens on the free kick then, not that there was too

much, but I just want to say that Eric Williamson in that kind of exact movement, like dominated my notes for the first 25 minutes of the match. Like he just kept doing that and what I, what I kept writing down and what I want to see the U.S. do more of against weak opponents, is to press our individual and organizational advantages. And I thought that's what we were seeing from Williamson. Like he doesn't let teams off the hook. He's going to wait to see if you make a mistake. So he had that ball and he was like bringing it to the center of the field

and he was just kind of like waiting for movement around him, waiting for Martinique to screw up to over commit to fall asleep somewhere. And that's exactly what happened. And he did that over and over again through that first 30 minutes. Yeah. He's fun to watch. He's fun to watch. I think he got a little too.

nonchalant at some moments. But it is a refreshing change from some of the other midfielders that we've played over the last two years who just can't do that. You know, haven't been able to, haven't been able to do that against any level of competition. So to have somebody that can make a difference there is nice to see, even if he does need to iron out sort of his sense of responsibility to not lose the ball in dangerous places. Buccio has one from, I don't know, 22, 23 yards. and curls it just high of the near post.

Next item I have is our opening goal. 14th minute. Another Williamson shimmy on the half turn on a nice little entry pass from Sands. I mean a pretty straightforward entry pass from Sands actually, but Williamson receives it into the space, splitting two defenders, and plays up a firmly hit diagonal ball to Bellow in the corner.

Bellow is able to just track it down. Excuse me and tap it back to Hoppy who whips a right-footed ball into the box. It takes a touch, whips a right-footed ball into the box. It's a very good ball. And it hits D.K. right on the head. He rises and redirects it off the post. Unstoppable finish. A pretty nice goal, I think, all around.

Wouldn't you say? Yeah, nice goal. I love the stuff from Williamson. That was like the key sequence for me was what Williamson did. And then I also wanted to point out again. So Bello ends up like collecting that ball with heels. on the end line and then when hop when hoppy hits that ball in for dkay dk is on side because shack more has driven his marker almost into the goal uh so just once again those two wingbacks being

incredibly high i mean you you are they're actually at the end of the field yeah literally the next thing so it's one zero USA the next thing i have in the timeline is 17th minute our wingbacks are often higher than rolled on or hoppy and in this case uh in 17th minute more drifts inside and high as Roldon, you know, drifts wide. And Roldon plays him in behind, and he crosses it a little behind D.K. Who gets a foot to it back behind himself and carams the ball backwards towards the penalty marker where Hoppe meets it with the side of his left foot. And it's blocked well short of the goal.

But we're getting it. We had a lot of like good chances like this, which is what you want to see. And, again, I think that interplay between Moore and Roldon was really good. good all half. I know we're probably going to fight about Roldon here as we get towards the end of the... We're not going to fight that much about it. But Roldon was doing a lot of good things that I think maybe weren't getting picked up

or they were kind of under the radar. So I'm not going to do a full-throated defense of Roldon and his role in the team going forward. But I think I will do a medium-throated defense of Roldon certainly for this game and what he could offer against opponents that might not be as strong. Should I just do my medium-throat defense?

now. Yeah, do it. Since we're talking about him. Basically, I think this game was tailor-made for his strengths. Like, I think Roldon is very good at recognizing what an optimal play is, what the defense is giving you, and how you can take it. I don't think he's always great at executing it against really talented opponents, because I think he has physical limitations that prevented from doing that.

But when you are the more talented, more organized side, I think he was doing a really good job sort of pulling these strings. I just feel like my theory is that he doesn't like diminish in quality linearly as our opponent improves. Like he hits a wall and becomes like a zero as the opponent hits a certain threshold. So I think he was really useful for this game. He could be useful throughout this tournament. But I don't know that he's ever going to be the guy that we can really like rely. I don't know if he's going to ever play his way into being a player at Honduras.

Don't ever give a medium-throated defense of me, please. Because that was all pretty backhanded. But yeah, he was, I get what you're saying. He was effective last night. And that interplay between he and Moore in particular, but also between him and D.K., I think, was, there was some, there was some rhythm building going on and some pulling people out of spaces that we wanted to exploit that I appreciate it. So, and I know I promise a lot of things while we're talking that I never follow up on. but I have the clips already cut out of Roldon in this game, and I'm honestly making a Roldon compilation just to be like,

because I'm seeing people, you know, I think reflexively say that Roldon was a nothing player tonight. I'm like, oh, no, no, he was pretty good tonight. I don't know that he'll ever, like, be useful in a, in a tougher match.

But tonight he was good. Like, we got to give him credit when he does good things. Quick shout out for this, the Discord, and I won't do it again. But some of those clips, if I'm not mistaken, are already in the Discord. There might be a one or two stray rolled on moments.

Yeah. I'll go to bat for guys who have good games, you know, that they had good games on the night. Yeah. You know, the Discord has been pretty rough on Roll-on and Miles Robinson, I would say, after last night. And I'm not sure. I think maybe it's a little over much in both cases.

But anyway, Discord's hopping. Greg's posting clips here and there. Not every day, not even every week. Okay, 19th minute. Training ground set piece, Buccio to Roldon, who chips it up and backpost for Dike, whose header is just wide. D.K. climbs onto the back of somebody and beats him to it and just flashes the header wide. Flashes is a little melodramatic for what to happen. He nodded it just wide.

23rd minute, we get our second goal. This one starts with a good line breaking pass from Zimmerman to Dike, who holds it up and back to Roldon and Roldon crosses for Hopi, who has it taken off his feet just outside the six, but he sticks with it, and so does Bela, who's, you know, as usual right there in the penalty area.

And Bello tackles it off of the Martinique defender to Hoppe, who I thought did a nice job to receive it, to receive that ricochet, like with the outside of his boot, you know, almost like a like reaching out and grabbing it with his heel and then he backheels it to Bousio which is a nice little moment of cleverness and sauce that that totally opened this play up and Buccio has a whack from 10 yards just absolutely smites it and it uh it hits the crossbar

I think because the goalkeeper got a got a hand to it and just push it onto the crossbar and it ricochets directly back downward to Dike, who heads it, sort of on frame. Was it on frame, do you think? It was a scuffed header, wasn't it? Yeah, it was a scuffed header. He scuffed his header a little. It was like glancing potentially wide, like he didn't make great contact.

Maybe it had a ton of spin on it. Yeah, those are tough. And but Samuel Camille, the defender, kind of rainboated in for the goal for the own goal. I just liked Zimmerman's pass to Dike. I thought that was good. And that little bit of magic from Hoppe to Busio and the Busio strike were all good things to see. I notice you're just going to ignore Roddon's great ball into Hoppy. Oh, yeah.

I did. I mean, I thought it was a pretty good. He's very forgettable. He had a like a lot of the things he was doing were very unmemorable. But he was a key part of a lot of good moments. That is true. I apologize, Christian. It was a good ball.

And, you know, a Hoppe could have done better with it to begin with. Yes, he could have. That's what I tracked the first time I saw it, too. But credit to Hopi and Busio for sticking with the play. I mean, and Bello for sticking with the play important. But again, it's that ever-present caveat that Martinique will be a very forgiving opponent. Yeah. Really looking forward to this game against Canada on Sunday.

I think it'll be much more interesting than the first two matches. Before you get to your next one, oh, no, keep going. You're good. I thought I was going to interject again, but that's later. Okay. Interject whenever you want, Greg. 32nd minute, we're having a little trouble building out, and Williamson gets a pass from Robinson,

and this is one of those chances where the moments where he's just too nonchalant, dribbles himself into a giveaway. It doesn't come to anything because Martinique's most of what Martinique didn't did didn't come to anything. But this is definitely a demerit for Williamson. One demerit, Eric. It is. And it's hilarious for me because in my notes, the last note I had before that was Christ, Williamson does not miss. Because he'd just been doing every little thing was just like slick.

And I don't know if, is there a Williamson comp out there yet? I don't know for sure. I want to see it because, or maybe this will be my promise that I don't follow up on. I want to see, I'll put that one together because just like the aesthetics of what he was doing were just fantastic throughout that half up until that giveaway and foul. Yeah. We'll get into that a little bit more. 36 minute, Bello gallops in from the left side and beats a couple guys and then plays, I think, a pretty poor pass to D.K. You know, kind of just slams it at him from about five yards away.

It gets recycled to more and more has a shot slash cross from the right side. Just worth mentioning because Bellow didn't have a great game, but he did do a couple of nice things. He showed some flashes of ability for sure. 38th minute. No, this is my interjection. I'm jumping on like 30 seconds after your 36 minute. So it was in between 36 and 37. Can I sneak one in?

Please. It was like a bit of messiness from Sands and Miles Robinson. But then Sands ends up cleaning it up. This was back in like in our defensive third over on Robinson side. Sandskinskinsed up. And then as we're playing out from there, it's a bunch of short passes. But it was Zimmerman who starts it with this just little like clipped ball to Boozio. And then Boosio clips the ball to Hoppe.

And then Hoppy sets it back for Williamson. And Williamson hit it's like this clipped ball. And all these clip balls are like seven yard passes. So we're doing like trick stuff. And again, it's just this aesthetic of what we're pulling off. when you play a weak team, like this is what I want to see us doing. Even though it's cavalier and a turnover

is like right in front of our box, like have a little bit of swagger when we're playing Martinique. And I don't mean it's disrespectful. I mean it's fun. So it was nice to see these very like confident players doing these things so casually.

I, just a point of clarification, I believe that was all, it was not Busio. It was Williamson to, Hoppy, hoppy back to Williamson. Williamson, Williamson. I'm going to pull it. I'm going to have to pull it.

Okay. Well, we'll agree to disagree there. So the moment that you, that led to that was when Robinson played that hospital ball back to Sands. And then Sands had to tackle the, like, wreck a guy. So I interjected to actually take your bullet point. You already had it on there. That's okay. It's okay.

We don't have to talk about it. And then, but I did notice, I mean, it's worth noting that Sam, Sands did rescue that moment. It was a bad pass back from Robinson. Sands wrecks one guy and then runs down and takes the ball off of the guy that it sprays to. So you do get a little sense of Robinson's shakiness and Sands general reliability, I think, from that moment. It's emblematic, emblematic of both men's evenings. And then you're certain you want to line yourself up for yet another Buzio Mia Coppa

by saying that he wasn't involved in his little sock. soccer tennis that they played after that? Yeah, I think it was all Williamson. All right. Now I'll send you some carbons and some stationary for your apology. Okay, please do. If necessary. Happy to send it.

39th minute, Hoppy goes on a ramble. He kind of like, Croix's a guy, then Meg's a guy, slips Busio wide. And Busio, I think, I was frustrated by this moment from Busio because he's like, he's a little bit wide. All he has to do is slip it in behind for DK. DK. Rons onto it and then all D.K. has to do is square it for, was it Bello who's on the left? Yes, yeah, it was three on two. We had a three on two going. And. Yeah, it was a jailbreak. And Buccio just passes it right to the feet of the defender between him and him and D.K. So. Yeah, it was a frustrating one. It was, it's, then no, go ahead.

Buccio gets wrecked himself after the ball comes back to him. and Martinique is going the other way. And this was an example of Busio just being not physically up for this level of competition. I just think physically he looked overmatched, like repeatedly in this game. I think that's fair. That one-off pass that he missed to DK was like, oh, man, that was a bit wasteful for what the situation was. Those things happen, like those jailbreak where everyone's going full speed, getting the timing right, getting all those pieces right, is still different.

Like those are still low percentage even though they're some of the better percentage chances that you'll get in a soccer game So I don't want to like a You know you don't want to trash Bousio I'm really not also trying to be too careful with Bousio I did think like He was less effective Distributing the ball as he got into the attacking third that even might be too harsh But there were definitely moments where like the things that he was trying to do in the attacking third just weren't coming off But again that's just part of attacking third soccer

Yeah. That one, he had a lot of space to hit D.K. He did. He did. He could have just slipped it in mind. It didn't have to be a perfect pass either. But I'm not trash and busi. I thought, like I said, after the game against Haiti, I thought he had a great cameo.

And I still think I'd rather see him than Jackson Ewell. I kind of hope we see neither against Canada. But we can get into that later, too. 44th minute, Zimmerman has a shot from the right side. It's just notable because Zimmerman's like basically playing right wing at this point. And Raldon plays a ball to him wide. It's not a great pass because it's a hospital ball. But Zimmerman just comes directly through the defender with the ball.

He's one-on-one with the keeper from about six yards out at a poor angle and he has one and it's blocked. That would have brought the house down. That would have been insane. Just to follow up like, because this one didn't make your notes, I don't think, but like 10 seconds later, after that Zimmerman block, the ball sort of moves out to the left wing, and then we went it back, and we shift it back over to Rodon in the half space on the right side, and he's within shooting range, and he does, like, the old pullback, big wind-up for a big shot from distance,

and then cuts it across to George Bellow at the top of the box, and Bellow is, like, the pass would have put him, with a good first touch, the pass put him in. It would have slipped him into goal. And Bello like stumbled on the ball and tripped on it and couldn't get anything out of it. Yeah. That was a that was not a shining moment for Bello. But it was a shining moment for Kirsten rolled on.

All right. That brings us to the half. And since it's halftime, I'll say I'm going to put the link to the scuffed podcast merch store, which we're calling half space merchandise. I didn't clear that. You didn't clear that with me. No, no, definitely not. So half space merchandise, the link is in the,

and the spelling is going to even be more irksome to you, Greg, than the sound of it out loud. But you'll just have to appreciate that on your own time. It'll be in the show notes. If you want to buy like a T-shirt with a trumpet on it or a hoodie with a bike helmet or, you know, any other inside joke that's not going to this only makes sense to like 5,000 people um let's go to the second half 48th minute more cuts one back to rle don for a good hit now this is um a bulk i think

busio played it across the top of zone 14 for rolled on and then roldon slips more wide and and then more just plays it directly back to rle on at the top of the box and roll down hits it well it draws a good save from Messleon. Yeah, and this is where I guess I'll cut in to just say, again, when we're playing weak teams, and this isn't just going back to the Haiti game, and I know Haiti is a stronger team than Martinique. This game and the way we dominated were still like night and day, even from the 2019 Gold Cup group stage where we did put up a lot of goals. But we still, I don't think, ever had this level of control over a soccer game and exerted this much control over the attack, where we could just move the ball at will,

get into dangerous spots at will, and again, without numerous great saves from Martinique here, I actually haven't seen the total expected goals numbers. Have you seen them? I feel like someone did share them with us. So I got a... Okay, hold on, I've got it.

Expected goals looks like it was at 3.1 for the U.S. on the night. Low. I'm going to have to check to see if we had a bunch of shooting chances that didn't materialize, and one of them would be like the bellow header. Instead of heading it from two yards out, which would be an outrageous. high expected goals number.

He chested it outside of the frame of the goal at very little angle and tried to shoot it past a defender, which would be a much lower expected goals. So that's also just a little tangent on the difficulty of applying single game expected goals to performance. But it was, but what you're, but what you're basically saying is that we were better, we were better in this game than we, than we would have been in a similar game in 2019 in the goal cup. Yeah, I think I'd be comfortable saying that.

And remember, that 2019 team was presumably, presumably like our first choice group. Yep. Minus a couple of injuries. Yeah, man. Greg Burhalter. It's all coming together. No, I'm just kidding. I mean, maybe some of it's coming together.

I think there's some things coming together, man. Like, it makes a big difference to put more attack-minded players into your 11. your attack gets a lot better. Speaking of attack, let's move on to the 50th minute. Goal USA. So it's actually one of the corners, a corner resulted from that Roldon hit

that we mentioned earlier. And then there was another corner that resulted from that. And on that corner, the second corner, that is, Bousio's ball trickles through all the way through from our left to our right. Williamson tracks it down on the opposite side

and then clips a ball across the six for Miles Robinson to head home. I mean, not even the six, like the four. And he just puts it in pretty simple finish. Nice ball from Williamson. What's the score at this point? 3-0. 3-0. Robinson's second goal now?

He's got two? Yeah, maybe we should play him as a striker. I just like to add guys who can threaten on set pieces. Walker Zimmerman obviously provides that. Miles Robinson. John Brooks, Aaron Long, if he gets healthy. We've got some goal scoring centerbacks. Yeah, you love to see it.

And so then the 53rd minute, nice bit of combination from Williamson rolled on and more, I thought. More pings. So that's to get out of the back. I think it was Zimmerman who played it to Williamson. Williamson, one touches it to rolled on. Just, oh, so casually. And then Roldon, one touches it to Moore, who pings it down the line for DK. And DK tries to hit Bellow at the back post, but it's cut out at the last minute.

It's pretty close. You know, Bello kind of throws his hands up, like, oh, no, almost. And those were those, those were those sexy balls from Williamson. I'm taking it back to Williamson again, even though I know this is supposed to be the Roldon power hour. But that little, like, almost like this no look little like, he just grazes it to change the angle of the past slightly so it goes to Roldon. He had a couple of those in the first half too. And again, that's the difference. Like, that's the difference between springing in an attack against an unset defense

or what other players might have done in that situation, which would have been to control the ball, shield it from the defender on your back, wait until you can pass it back to a goalkeeper or centerback, and let's just reset and recirculate. And then while you're doing that and getting more stable control of the ball, the defense is getting more stable shape to defend you. So it's a huge difference in how much attack you can create if you can spring those transition moments.

Yeah. I'm not naming any names. No, no names need be named. But yeah, it is, it's really, really good to see that. I worry a little bit with Williamson that, like, against a better team, some of those passes are going to get cut out. And then it's all of a sudden, you know, Tecotito is in the six with the ball.

But, man, it's better to have that risk taking than not have it. and the ability to pull it off, which he did do in a competitive soccer game in a tournament last night repeatedly. Yep. And even the caveat about poor opponents, like in Martinique being weaker than Haiti, we weren't necessarily constrained by Haiti's level of play in that game. Like we were very much constrained by our own willingness to exploit the spaces that they were leaving us. We weren't not at the limits of what Haiti would allow. That's true. Yeah, it's a good point.

54th minute Martin gets a shot on goal here from distance but it's a pretty good shot it's a counter attack that I don't really know what is going on here but Bello gets turned at midfield and Williamson and I think somebody else

I can't remember maybe it was legit no not legit Williamson has caught a little high upfield anyway it turns into like basically a fast break down our right side right yeah yeah i think miles robinson miles rompson was caught up field too maybe it was after a it was a corner it was after a corner and it was really similar to the uh uh was was it the jamaica goal in the friendly where antony robinson didn't commit a foul yeah yeah yeah so he's got to wrap the guy up like he can't and this was at like midfield uh i think bella made a

play earlier in the sequence where he he was he almost had a playmate and then it came back out to his man at like midfield and he went for the ball again and the guy kind of just shook him a little bit just enough to create room to shift it over to that right side where there was a total jailbreak and yeah bellow just has to by any means necessary uh bring the guy to the ground so that he cannot release that ball it shows how how poor i am at the dark arts that i still i hadn't even thought of that possibility until you just mentioned it that's that's a foul immediately and again we've seen calana cost to do that in this tournament i feel like we maybe have seen a couple other guys take fouls obviously we'll get to Acosta's a decision to do like a medium professional

foul later yeah okay let's keep moving here 50 8th minute Acosta's subbed off subs on for more at right back and which is you know good sign that we're going to see more on Sunday night early if we need to be we need to be ready to right that just means that we don't know for sure that can and will be ready so in the event that he's not we've got more we might just see more anyway, but we got to be, we got to have that, uh, ready. And then Joe, yep, and then Joe Keeney on for Hoppe as one of the free wingers. Um, 59th minute, goal USA, a throw into D.K. And he holds a guy off and turns him, you know, I don't know, right about the, the dividing line between the middle third and the attacking third. And he turns him and taps it to Roldon, who kind of rifles it back into

the space. D.K. is running into. to. It ricochets off of D.K. I'm not sure he really meant to touch it where it went, but it bounces favorably. And then he lifts it over two defenders. And this he did mean to do. And charges past them and gets to the ball first and dinks it over Messlein on the bounce. It's a really nice goal, especially the last two touches. 4-0 USA. uses his arms really well as he's as he's running to again and this is what you're you're not going to see this from josh sergeant but he essentially creates like a bubble around himself that doesn't allow martinique to get in and poke a ball away right it's just these little subtle things with his arm where he essentially stiff arms a guy uh but just keeps him like leg length away so that he can't get a foot into disrupt what dK wants to do uh also thought it was funny that when dK lays that ball off and it's going to roll don you actually have three guys making the vertical run you have dkah uh jokini and i think bellow all in a line making that run making the same run basically

and i think rle don's pass would have been behind all three of them but for dk's uh whether it's there's some good fortune or not like a remarkable touch to put it back into his path yeah yeah i mean it's it's a it was a it was a great goal like i said on the last two touches and uh you know his ability to hold up the ball and turn a guy and find feet is again something we haven't always gotten from our striker in the past two years. So 4-0. And the next thing is Acosta getting done at the edge of the box and reaching out and grabbing Fortuna and pulling him down. Its penalty seems pretty clear to me. And Riviere converts it. So it's 4-1. It's a little bit of a shame that Acosta did that because had we not conceded that goal, we would be in first place in the group

right now. Now, I think we should, I still think we should, we should hope to beat Canada. And like, that's sort of like the expectation. But if it, it does end up being a draw against Canada, it would have been nice to be ahead of them on goal differential. Yeah. So Acosta does what you should never do, which is take an intentional foul in the box. The whole idea behind intentional fouls is to eliminate.

the goal scoring opportunity that's going to develop here. And he was probably a little fortunate not to get a yellow card if you're going to call the foul. Like it's, I mean, it's just a grab. He grabs him. Yeah. Because that would have meant he would have been suspended for the Canada game, which could have been good or bad because if he gets a yellow card against Canada,

then he's suspended for the knockout game. So maybe we would have preferred. I think Canada had a player like take an intentional yellow in their win against Haiti to be suspended for the U.S. game rather than risk being suspended in the knockouts. I see. because they're already looking forward to the quarterfinals. Then Zardis comes on for D.K.

Good outing from Daryl, I thought. But I should mention right before he scored that goal, I did say on the Discord, like, I haven't been that impressed with D.K. tonight. And as usual, as soon as I say, I haven't been impressed with somebody, they do something really amazing. That's what always happens.

But I do think he needs. he needs to be I mean he what's how should I say this he did score a couple of nice goals but in the run of play he's still a little bit of a mess I think is that fair to say

like like it's not it's not his combination play is not sharp generally that could be fair to say I don't know I don't I don't know we weren't trying to combine off of him that much we were hitting him a lot in the channels it was a lot of like Roldon

freeing him running down and then then it's going to be up to him to make something of it which he you know it was mixed there but uh i think it's just something where you say all right well he's he's really good at x y and z he's not quite as good at uh a and b so let's just do less of a and b and focus more on on what he's amazing what he's like stellar at yeah fair enough fair and that and that's if he's you know we might even be overstating his weaknesses like he might be fine we again we weren't really trying to combine off of them that much. Yeah.

Well, yeah, it is very, very hard to imagine Josh Sargent scoring that second goal. And a little bit difficult to imagine I'm getting that first one, too. So 70th minute, Zardis comes on and tells everybody to sit down, sit down America, quit criticizing me. It's a rolled on pass, a curling, long through ball for Zardis comes on. Ardis and the defender kind of makes a mess out of it, but he, he, um, he does get a foot to it, not enough to stop the momentum of the ball and it, it gets to Zardis, and he's not one-on-one with the keeper. He has a defender kind of on his shoulder, but he sets himself up and then just, uh, thrashes it

into the far corner, a very, very good finish. Um, I do, I will, shades of his, uh, shades of his, uh, shades of his second goal against Canada from, from the Nation's League back in, uh, uh, Yeah. November 2019, where he just gets one look and thumps it. Buries it, yeah. It's the whole thing starts though with James Sands. I have to mention this, solving a bit of a claustrophobic situation on the left side because Robinson and Bello and Joe Aquini can't really get out of that corner. Sands picks it up from Robinson, picks his head up, takes a couple touches to his right, and then hits a good pass to rolled on in space

in the right channel of our defensive channel and then rolled on turns and plays that ball and for his artist. Man, James Sands, I'd love to hear what your thoughts on him are, but I was really impressed. Well, my thoughts have been like, I can't believe James Sands

hasn't even been getting U-23 looks for the last year. I know there was some time where he was out with injury, but it's not like before that he was ever involved in January camps or anything else. So I hope we continue to see James Sands in some capacity. He looks like he's very focused and reliable and intense. And I like that. Yeah.

And just like for all of these guys who had good games today, we can use it a little bit to compare against other guys who have played in the last week. So we can use it for comparison, I think, even against guys' looks against Haiti. but again you can't in any way say that this propels him above somebody who's not here you can't this doesn't put him ahead of mark mackenzie if you already thought he was ahead of mark mackenzie because you watch a ton of new york city uh i i say totally fair play to you i do know that there's that tendency to use the call-ups as like the the part of your grading rubric um so you're like oh mackenzie's it's definitely a better centerback of course than sands oh but in

less Sands, you know, proves himself. So some people might have already had that. And I know, you know, we're sort of in that mode with like a Matt Turner. But nonetheless, like, it at least gets us excited to see the guy in the next game against Canada. And that's what's really going to be the exciting part. Like you said, now can they prove it against a slightly, or a much better team? Canada's a much better. And then even better teams as we proceed through the tournament.

Yeah. Well, if you compare Sands to, like, say, Miles Robinson. Exactly, exactly. In this tournament, side by side, we're looking at him. I mean, Sands is a much better player than Robinson last night. And maybe you could say, well, that's because Robinson's playing as a left centerback, and that's not his strong suit. But I just think, like, Robinson doesn't look like a player.

He looks like a player who's pretty reliable defensively, and certainly, like, a great athlete and great in the air. But he did not progress the ball. hardly ever from his left centerback position, whereas Sands did a lot of it, you know, in his first, first cap. You know, he hasn't even played in a U.S. shirt since the U-17 World Cup, I think. Right, right. And he was just like, you know, pulling strings. And so, yeah, so Sands has done that.

William, or Walker Zimmerman did that a little bit in the first, or quite a bit in the first game, a little bit last night. But then the question becomes, okay, so against certain teams, you might want, you know, there's going to be more emphasis on that particular side of the game. against other teams, there might be more emphasis on the things that Robinson might be a little bit better than Sanzat. Yeah, yeah, fair, totally fair. Hence the whole excitement for Canada and better teams. Yeah.

Let's finish the timeline and then we'll get into some sort of questions about the formation and individuals. 73rd minute, good work on the half turn from Bousseo. This is maybe the best moment of the game from him to break through Martinique's pressure. he splits two guys with just a very clever confident touch sends it wide to and then he's racing forward we're off sends it wide to bellow bellow plays a good ball in behind for jazzi zardis and zardis gets caught on the ball just inside the box but it sits up real nicely for an onrushing joe akini and he just cracks one unlucky i think it was off the inside of the left shin of mesleine

and it goes just wide. I noticed Joe Keeney generated 0.78 XG in his limited minutes last night. Nice work, kid. Nice hometown, nice hometown performance. I just wanted to say real quick because that boozyo turn, you know, I think has got people's attention. And it's great and it's awesome. And I like seeing it because, again, we weren't seeing anything close to that through the Haiti game. But William, like, Williamson did that like five times in the first 25 minutes.

I think that it's great for both of them. I'm not trying to say like, uh, Buzio is somehow like not, like not as good as Williamson. I'm just saying we should also be really excited about what Eric Williamson could potentially provide this team. Well, you're kind of also saying that he's not as good as Williamson too, right? No.

You're not saying that? I mean, I don't think that's too hard to say at this point. I'm saying that we should really be thinking about we have two excellent candidates for, uh, for our center for adding to our center midfield. All right, governor. Um,

76 minute, Miles and Bellow get beaten in behind. I don't know why I put that in the timeline, but they did. And then 79th minute, pines for Zimmerman and Ewell for Williamson off the bench. So I don't have anything until the good 87th minute, a good cross from Roldon to Zardis.

First touch is okay, but can't get a shot off from the six. Just another moment of brilliance from Christian Roldon. And then in the 90th, minute we get uh he fired hold on roaldon fired that ball at zardes so if if anyone's wanting to like use this as a jazzy zardez lead feet situation like that was tough man i don't think i don't think i don't think rhodon could have hit that ball harder uh if he had wanted to he hit it as hard as he could yeah i'm not i'm not criticizing jazzy too much for that 90th minute also hold on real

quick is that 76 that that that dummy entry you had in here about miles and bellow getting beat is that when turner made his ridiculous safe is that the turner safe no because that's in the the 92nd minute. That's just, I think, Donovan Pines. Let me say the 90th minute one. When Joe Keeney gets his goal, he drew, you know, he had that one earlier. I mentioned that he smiled about when it didn't go in and then a head or on a corner that got saved and then a cross to his feet cut out at the last minute, the last moment.

This time, Ewell tries to shoot from 20 yards and it's a perfect pass wide to Busio when it. deflects off a defender. And then Bousseo just takes a touch and zips it across the six-for and Joe Keeney bundles it in with his right foot, right foot. Martinique not probably exerting superior effort at this point in the game. But anyway, it's good. I'm happy to see Joe Keeney get a goal.

Six-one, and that's how it ends. Thanks to Matt Turner in the 92nd minute. Okay. I think Donovan Pines gets caught a little out of position on a, I don't know, a pretty straightforward ball. to a guy at the top of the box, and then he gets beaten, and the guy takes a left-footed shot

and Turner saves it to his left. The XG, I think we figured out, was about 0.25 on that shot, something like that. Yeah, I think that's about right. According to Instat. It was not a perfect finish, but it did force him to move and dive. It was a real good save.

Yeah. That's a really good save for the distance from him to the shooter. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, totally defer to you on that. Let's talk about Turner. What's your assessment of him? Has it changed at all since the tournament began? I don't think so. He saw a handful of shots in this game, not too many, but more going back to the Haiti game. Haiti hit a couple of balls at our frame, and while none of the saves he made were terribly difficult, He made them very well. There's no rebounds.

We got our taste in this game of sort of his shot stopping, like sealing and how good that is. So to date, he's been beaten on one penalty kick out of two, and that's it as far as goal-scoring chances. Okay. Where are you at? Are you worried about his ability to connect with his feet? I'm a little bit worried about that, and I'm a little bit worried about his control of the box. I mean, we talked about that time at that moment at the end of the Haiti. game where he was probably fouled, but it just didn't look commanding at all, you know,

trying to come out to claim that ball. That's fair. As far as his footwork stuff, I honestly think that that is, I think I made the comment on Twitter that that will be as relevant as Tyler Adams' ability to hit the long diagonal, and it will probably end up being as relevant as Daryl D.K.'s ability to combine in tight spaces in the middle third. Like whether they can do it or not, they can do it a little. regardless and who cares.

They're amazing at something else that really helps us win soccer games. Okay. Zimmerman. Seems like he's showing good signs. And I, I mean, so it's like Brooks. For me, it's Brooks and Richards as the top pairing. But I can understand why someone like Alexei Lawless, who probably doesn't watch a lot of Hoffenheim might say otherwise.

I do think Zimmerman, I feel more comfortable. I would feel more comfortable with Zimmerman as Brooks' partner today than I would have, you know, a week ago. I think I think that's where I stand. I like Zimmerman a lot, man. And I just feel like we're in a really good place where I don't remember when it was. One of our last top 40s where we had like a nine-way tie for our second centerback. I just I feel very good about our options at centerback. Yeah.

Going into World Cup qualifying. Well, I'm happy to let them sort themselves out. I think Zimmerman and McKenzie, for me, are fighting for that, you know, third spot at the moment. But, you know, Richard still has to sort of prove it in a U.S. shirt, that's for sure. Right. It's just you're expecting him to, right? I do. be surprised if he doesn't if he somehow shells up exactly okay i think that's fair um

james sands what do you think you've been you've been calling for his inclusion for a long time i had but but to be fair like at least 70% of that was to test him out at the six so um so here he is as a centerback um and he was very good as a in a three centerback setup and we'll talk i'm sure in just a second about where how he could fit going forward does it have to be as a third centerback could it be in a two centerback system could he potentially play as a six should we just talk about it now yes because I think this this sort of leads into the question of like what do we think of the three man back line and um I mean going forward as an option for the national team

and I don't I honestly don't feel have a real strong feeling on it at the moment I guess like like you were just sort of saying if you have Sands as the as the center the middle center back uh then then you can have two more um you know aggressive a i mean then if you had a healthy tyler adams would you would you play him as one of the eights him and mckenny that yeah asking me that yeah yeah yeah you absolutely would so yeah so if you're going to do this three centerbacks at least gregg burhalter i i wouldn't expect him to run a single six then if he's going to go three centerbacks i think it'll be three and then a double pivot in front of him. We have three, two, which again is what he did. He's, yeah, he's done that a lot.

He's done a ton of that in the buildup phase and possession to build that of a three two for the US. So if we run three centerbacks, yeah, you're getting two center midfielder. So you're dropping a center mid. You're not going to do three in the back and then Buzio is your six and then two eights ahead of him. You would be dropping somebody from center mid and it would have the same effect as starting James Sands as your as your six. So then you put two eights ahead of him. Yeah. But it does, it does give those guys that, license those two eights to go forward the way they you know the way our dual aides do ahead of a single six so we saw that we saw that last night I think within a minute uh there was a sequence

where Gianluca busio was arriving at the top of the box in the attack and you know he's not jackson ewell wasn't going to do that not just because it was jackson ewell against haiti but because our lone six isn't going to be making that run into the top of the box yeah yeah i i guess i i think I wonder if Adams makes sense as one of those eights. I mean, he is one of our best players, one of the best American players. So, yeah, he's going to start if he's healthy. But does he make as much sense in one of those eight roles where the job is to push the game forward? Not as strong as suit.

He does it a lot for Red Bull. I would say that is a closer analog to his role with Leibzig than to be the, like, a lone six ahead of two centerbacks. He's yeah, he's almost always got a center mid right next to him on his line ahead of a back. That's when he's not playing as more of like a right wing player. Yeah, of course. I don't think we're going to use him in that role. So that sort of double pivot is a perfect, near perfect fit. There's never going to be a perfect fit because lives it can do so many, every club does so many things, you know, their own way.

But that's a much better fit for him comparatively than being that lone six. So do you so you like this three two Four one I think they both work I don't think you we need to have I'd be happy to see them both Run out until one Becomes a much better option than you're there

I think on paper I don't have a problem With either one of those setups Yeah okay So long as we aren't getting again too cute And leaving a really good player off of the field To bring on a mediocre player So whoever we add has to sort of earn his keep And if Gianluca Busio is doing amazing over these next games,

like as a lone six and a two centerback setup, then I wouldn't want to drop him for a pure centerback to go to three centerbacks. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. Well, what about Miles Robinson? Do we need to say anything else about him? No, I think we've covered him at length here.

I think I really want to see him, see whether he stands out in a game against tougher competition where he's going to be. test it and to see if he passes those tests because I think that's, for me, that that would be his value that he would add to the team, his ability to clean things up when, when things need to get cleaned. And there just wasn't much cleaning required in our first two games. Yeah. And I guess I'll just say Bousio and Bello both, uh, not, didn't have great games last night, but they're both still very young and I'm not trashing either of them, just for the

record. I think they're, they're, they have a chance to be great players and I'm rooting for them. Williamson, we've covered in detail already, thought he looked great, except for that perhaps over-casualness with the ball on occasion. You've already done your medium-throated rolled-on defense. Yeah, I'll do my medium-throated-roll-on criticism. He wasn't very good in the press, I didn't think.

I thought he was iffy on, like, sealing off areas of the field that it was his job to seal off. And then I don't think he was particularly effective in any cage matches. I thought he actually was dainty going into challenges. And other times got fully little brothered, as we've kind of come to expect. So again, he's much more valuable when we're way better than the opponent once people get close to him in that knife fight.

Like, he's probably going to lose that one. Yeah. And then Hoppe, we've already talked about D.K. a lot. So Hoppe is the last one. I thought he had some good moments, particularly that back heel, and the time when he galloped through the midfield and the lovely ball on DK.'s opener. So he's got some magic to offer, I think. I'd like to see more of him.

I'd like to see more. Yeah, and this will be my time to throw in. This isn't just about hobby. This is for all of these guys that we are talking about as having really good games. Keep in mind, like, over the last six months, eight months now, 10 months, since December. We've seen a lot of guys have really good games. We saw Jonathan Lewis have a great game in January.

We saw Chris Mueller have a great game in November. Jesus Ferreira dominated in January. I might have gotten some of those months wrong. But you get my point, like, that doesn't guarantee that they're going to have a role in the team going forward, not even a guarantee that they're going to be particularly effective the next time they play. So that's my sort of cautionary tale. And I'm not even saying that Hoppe had a great. game. I just said, so there was some positive things to take away from it, and I'd like to see

more of him. But yeah, your point is well taken. And then Zardis and Joe Keeney both got goals off the bench. I didn't notice anything really from Ewell or, and Acosta had that, that yellow, that foul, that probably could have been a yellow card that resulted in the goal for Martinique. If we're going to do the same formation, we'll go ahead. No, no, no. Well, I was going to throw in one little Acosta beat. I hope he's not going to be our like a medium term solution at right wingback. Hopefully it's mostly

more in Canon and Ariel, I don't know, but why do you think Burrhaler played him there? Because you couldn't play Cannon there because Canon's hurt and he didn't want more to be gassed for Canada on Sunday. I think that's all it is. Okay. Just needed a body and

if there's one thing Kelan Acosta is shown it's that when you need somebody to just fill a spot he can be that guy. his versatility is is really i mean it wasn't it wasn't a great performance last night off the bench but his versatility is a real asset i say that every episode just about uh but that whole thing came because i was going to sneak in he had a really one really uh effective pass into raldon it was it was what led to rle don smashing that ball in at zardaz uh just hit it through like a non-existent window to put rle don into that man city assist space um

But again, just he is an incisive passer. I think he has like a reputation perhaps of being more of like a destroyer because we've used him as that backup six and he's not like he doesn't have the same profile as the Yule or as the trap or the Bradley. But like I do think people are underestimating his passing. He's certainly not like a defensive specialist. Like he's a good passer of the ball. I agree. I've always thought that actually.

If we're going to do the same formation on Sunday, who would you like to see in the 3-4-1? You asking me? Yeah. All right, I want Turner. I want Zimmerman, Sands, and Miles. I don't care about right back. It could be more. It could be canon.

I don't care about the double pivot. We have four guys who I'd be happy to see between Acosta, Legette, Williamson, or Busio. Give me any of them. So I'm very non-committal there. I think I want vines at left back. I sure wish we had like a Matt Hollingshead or honestly like I'm very curious how Hollingshead would look in that role. Ryan Ryan Hollingshead.

Oh, sure. Is there Matt, Hollingshead? I think he's a catcher for the Phillies or something. I don't know. Part of the Nixon administration. So I want Ryan Hollingshead at left back if we can make that change. and then I don't really care about the half-space merchants either

it could be ariola it could be legit it could be rolled on it could be hoppy probably one of those probably two of those four and then decay up top so so that was a lot of a lot of dice rolls for those for some of those spots I agree with everything except I want it to be more instead of canon I'd like it to be Acosta and Williamson and the double pivot and then rolled on and legit as the half-space merchants. If it's hoppy as one of the half-space merchants and Legette as one of the center mids, that's fine with me too. And then of course, DK. Up Top. Well, then let me ask you, what's your formation if we do two centerbacks? And do you have a preference between three

centerbacks or two for Canada? Well, if we're going to do four centerbacks, I want it to be sands as the six. So, so essentially like almost in distinguishable, right? I guess, yeah, I guess you could say that. I mean, you'd have Sands pushing a little further forward, maybe doing a little more destroying forward than he does than he did last night. Well, he did some. And, you know, Sands receiving the ball on a, like, in a vertical way from the centerbacks

rather than side to side. But you wouldn't have to. I mean, you could still defend with your four and still have Sands drop back there in possession and build out of a three, two, if you like that better. And again, I feel like the reason that we were having it be Yule is because we were basically trusting him to do all of this line breaking for us when he wasn't very good at it. And so if you're like, oh, well, Sands won't do that. So we won't ask him to. You would get the same effect that we had last night.

If Sands dropping in, bringing your eights back to let them do all these slick turns and combining and interchanging and arriving at the box. So you could still do that and then get back into your defensive shape of a four. Okay, yeah. I mean, just throwing that out there. Yeah, half a dozen, one, six the other. I guess, Sands just had such a calming, to my eyes, such a calming influence in the back last night. Now, we did give up some chances,

and the XG numbers bear that out, but he seemed like a calming influence defensively. I'll give it to you, but I'm reluctant just because, I mean, he definitely was. He looked calm yesterday. You got to look calm in the games that it's really easy to look calm in. Yeah.

Well, just like we said earlier, not everybody did that. All right. I don't know that Robinson looked particularly calm. And Bellow didn't, Vines didn't look calm against Haiti. Yeah, that's fair. Those are all fair. Sands definitely, he, Sands was just as calm against Haiti, I'd say, too.

We're talking a lot about just a tranquil backline. Wait, Sands was calm against Haiti? Yeah, when Sands went in against Haiti, like he added immediate, like, composure to what we were doing when we were passing around the back. Yeah. I don't know, what, for like 10 minutes? How long did he play against Haiti?

That's true, that's true. It's true. Okay. I think we should wrap it up. I'm at a hotel room in Western Iowa for the, for my wife's family reunion. I got to get back to the cabin. What are you, like, four hours from Kansas City? What are you doing?

What are you doing there? You can dip out. Might as well be 4,000 hours from Kansas City. I'm not going anywhere, bro. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.