Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #203: Office Hours, Vol. 1 — Live roster reaction, the golden age of piracy, etc.

Episode Date: September 29, 2021

Chris Russell (aka @watke_) joins for a live roster reaction on the Discord, a dive into the philosophy of little brothers, a look at the first ever pirate and the ballad mongers who made him famous, several listener questions, several soccer-adjacent topics dealt with. Pretty good episode.contact: [e-mail] drop us a question at this link and we’ll try to answer it: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJdevo3myfLQuaH5LwZRmahNTSimCwP3VQLLXu5I_yxZWfvg/viewform?usp=sf_linksupport Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedjoin the Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU buy our merch: 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 scuffed podcast. I'm Adam Bells in Georgia. With me is Greg Velasquez in Iowa. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. Welcome to office hours. Hey, Waki. How are you? I'm doing very well excited about the second qualifying window. Yeah, the roster comes out in three minutes, and we had a whole show planned even before that release was scheduled, so we're going to have to really battle to keep this under an hour. I think we can do it. Can we? We'll see. Well, we'll just stop at an hour. Just stop more abruptly than ever. Just a quick reminder, this show is recorded on the SCOFD podcast Discord.

You can listen live and participate with us in the moment by subscribing to the SCOFT Patreon. The link to Patreon is in the show notes, and we do these shows on Wednesdays at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. Let's get down to business. Rosterology. There's at least one among us, Greg Velasquez, who reads the USMNT Inhouse Player Pool TV Guide, very carefully and weighs it as evidence of who will be called up. Do you do that, Waki? I do, and I actually think I disagree with Greg on he thinks it's Buccio, I think it's Luca, or he thinks it's Buccio and maybe Luca.

I think Luca is the stronger case to be called up for me based on the palace intrigue. Okay. I would agree he has a stronger case to be called up as a solution for this player, I mean for this window. I wasn't even thinking in terms of soccer. in terms of he posted a comp to Twitter and it was liked by the USM&T official account. Right. That's a big signal.

That's a big flag in the ground. Well, we'll see. We'll see. What do you think about, well, two players who aren't in the watch guide or weren't over the past weekend were Paul McCall and O'Raho. So the thinking would be that they're not going to be in this roster. I guess that thinking will be tested shortly. I think that's probably the case. I can't imagine why they wouldn't be in the watch guide, but then they would be on the roster.

I also can't, I don't really understand why they wouldn't just be in the watch guide anyway. But. Right. Yeah. But I would be surprised if either time I'm on the roster. Yeah, same. What do you think of Luca posting his own comp? And for the uninitiated, what's, first of all, explain what a comp is.

A comp is basically you just take clips from a soccer game and compile them in order to make a, normally it's a two minute 20 second video on Twitter I don't know how long this was I think it was shorter yeah it was but normally what it happens is a a Twitter account who makes videos does that but in this case Luca de la Torre just posted it himself which I like I like that he did I was surprised by it but I appreciate that he is I met he's he's there editing comps of himself which is kind of a nice thing to imagine unprecedented though yeah it is it is It's a little awkward, right? It's... Yeah, it's weird. But, you know, if it gets them the call-up, then great. And it's a, I would say, a historic moment in the national team, Twitter scene. It's not the...

I mean, usually the self-cops are coming from the parents of 15-year-olds or older brothers. He's in the Dutch top flight. Yeah. He really... He felt like he needed to get the message out there. And who can blame him on that front? He just woke up one day. I can progress the ball from the midfield and I want to make sure everyone knows this.

And that's great. He's been watching all the tape. He's like, dude, we really need me in this roster. He must be just really online. People would eat that up. If I just show myself progressing the ball from the midfield, that's it. I'm in the camp. I was in the first touch, you know, Spaces last night with Gideon Sutherland and Jay Hernandez and Concaf Edgar.

Those guys have a lot of fun, like, almost every night, it seems like. I've been meaning to, the thing about spaces is I see it and I want to listen, but you can't listen without like, you're like in the space now. And it seemed, I just want to be able to listen without having to do that. So I've never done it before, but I've always wanted to listen to them. I like that group of folks. They're exciting. Yeah. Well, they were saying, I think it was Edgar who said that it was a boring comp.

He said it was a boring comp. And I have to disagree. I actually thought it was a pretty useful comp from a quote-unquote analysis perspective. Well, it was it boring or you said it wasn't boring and then just described it as useful? That sounds like it could still be boring and useful. Yeah, I guess so. Maybe it's a thing, things can be two things situation. The roster came out.

Okay. Rosters out, as Jordan would say. I'm just going to read it. It's probably what you should do, right? Could you please read it? Yeah, since you have it pulled up. Goalkeepers, Sean Johnson, Zach Steff and Matt Turner.

So there's the, that's a surprise that Horvath isn't in. Yes. I'll just burn through the defenders here. Bello, Brooks. Desd McKenzie Shaq Moore Tim Ream

Chris Richards Anthony Robinson Miles Robinson D'Auntry Yedlin All right midfielders Kelan Acosta Tyler Adams

Gianluca Busio Luca de la Torre There we go There we go Leggette McKennie Musa Woldon Fords

Aronson Ariola Hoppe Ricardo Pache Tim Wea and Giazi Zardes. No Scali. Yeah, Scali's the omission.

I'm about to fire off a tweet about that. I'm sad about that. I'm not. I'm actually, well, go ahead. Speak of your sadness. Well, my sadness is not related to soccer. It's just when you start following these players a lot, you know how excited they would have been to come.

And then, so I'm just kind of sad that he's not there. because he went he's all the stories in germany they cover him they always mention his trips to the store like he recently ordered two meats at the grocery store and he went to the candy store with rena so you just you kind of get to see what their life is like a little bit so i would have liked him see him been there yeah it would have been nice to hear him uh explain his his international window in sort of clipped english for a german audience that would have been fun this is this is what we did this we went to this place you know i can't you would he could give an it he could give an it he does have he he shortens off the ends of his words but we don't we're talking about

someone who isn't on the roster right right well i just think it's i just think it's kind of uh it's like we're lucky scally he doesn't have the same agent as julina rajo and david ochoa because after two months of standout play on both sides of both a four-man back line and a five-man backline so he's been a, I think he's been a right and left wing back, a right and left fullback, and played well. Yes. He still doesn't get the call up. If he had the same agent as those guys, he'd be filing one-time switch to Ireland right now. Yeah.

Henry would have him in Ireland. What'd you say? Say it again? Henry would have him in Ireland. Henry is the name of the agent of Rojo, right? It doesn't matter. He'd be in Ireland. Yeah.

It would be over. Yeah, it'd be all done. Okay. let's see who anything else surprised i guess we should check in on the thread let's do that see what people well that we have busio and lucca and otherwise oh and no no sergeant yeah so that doesn't surprise me too much but it doesn't but it's interesting interesting to see it actually happen i think it was kind of maybe the writing was on the wall a little bit there but It has now happened.

Is there anything in the midfield that's interesting? Other than there's a lot of interesting. I mean, Greg was right about there being both of them, both Busio and Luca Deletori. I don't know that there's anything super surprising. Yeah, Shackmore over Scali is a surprise. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Yeah, not on paper.

I guess the argument for it would be familiarity. You know? Yeah. I'm excited to see Pepe and Wea play together. I think that could be a potent tandem. Waye had a pretty good weekend. Yes, he did. Yes, he did.

That was probably the best. The best weekend he's had in years. Like, yeah, I was going to say, I don't remember a better one other than maybe like U20 World Cup. Right. Conrad's absence is a little sad. I agree, Timbo, but is it that sad. I don't know. I don't think it's that sad. I don't, this will probably be the least popular thing I've ever said. I don't enjoy watching him play that much. I don't know what. It's maybe just like a play style preference I have, but I don't get excited to watch him play. Yeah. Why would you say something? controversial and yet so brave.

So it's very brave. That's why I said it because I knew how brave it would be. I do consider myself a brave person. No, it's, I don't, I, yeah, I think I agree with you. Although we, you know, we may. I don't like dribbly wingers in general. I don't, I'm not saying they're not useful, but I don't, I'm not going to, I don't go out of my way to watch them play.

Yeah, I have to check myself sometimes. Do I, do I really just want everybody on the team to be John Stockton, you know? So I like you probably do want everyone on the team to be John Sacken. But you shouldn't. No, I shouldn't. I don't. I wouldn't cop to that. I'm just saying I have to do a gut check.

Anything else on the roster? Burrhalter speaking to the media at 12 Eastern Time, I will, I'll be missing that, I think. Are you going to deliberately miss it as you. that you don't want to hear him. No, I just have zero faith that we are going to stop after one hour. Oh. I think we can do it. Okay.

I was wondering if you don't like listening to Burrhalter speak about things. No, no, I have, I don't have a strong feeling about it. I'm neutral on listening to him speak about stuff. I really like the Bobby Warshot interviews he does. It might be I just really like how Bobby asked questions. Yeah. But I really do enjoy those. Bobby asks above average questions.

I don't think there's any way to disagree with that. I think it probably because he was an actual professional soccer player. I think that helps a lot. He's a thinking man too. And he's a smart guy. Yeah. Now, let's not get it twisted. It's not like this is, it's not, there's no.

He's not better than you. That's not what I was saying. You're doing a great job. Bobby Warshot is not better than you. I'm not bringing myself into it. I was just going to say it's not confrontational. I took a little flack on Twitter the other day for praising that last interview. It's crazy.

People were like, you're, you know, this is just softball question. Well, yeah, it sort of is. But that's okay. Yeah, but why this isn't, we're not like setting public policy here. It's a soccer team. So just maybe ask the soccer court some questions they can talk about. how he thinks about soccer. Yeah, Burrhalter's not going to finally reveal the truth about his brother getting him the job

as the coach in an interview with Bobby Warshaw in the middle of World Cup qualifying. So, you know, this is just not going to happen. I really liked it and other people did not. Yeah, some people didn't. But I don't know if they actually didn't like listening to it or it's just more just they want to say something on Twitter that's reactionary. Yeah. They, I think there's some who perceive me.

as like, you know, the big media guy. Me with my, I do. Me with my little part-time. We can get into that. Yeah. Well, we are going to talk about media later. So let's put the roster on hold for a second, unless there's anything we need to discuss.

I mean, I'm good. Miazkin Sands are left out. I don't really mind that. And then Roldon and Legette are, there, of course, which is going to be frustrated. I do feel bad about having not mentioned Sandsville's left out. But I didn't notice that's how, kind of what he, his personality though. Yeah.

Yeah. But he didn't play well in the last window in the last window. And he hasn't had a good last few weeks either. Okay. All right, let's get to some listener questions. We'll talk about the roster more as we go. I think we can sort of unspool that over the course of the hour. the questions have started to come in on this form that I have created, a Google form,

and that form will be in the show notes. So if you want to ask another question, just please put it in there. We can't get to all the questions today, but don't lose faith if we don't ask yours this time. There is always next week. All right. So Sabrina. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Sorry. Sabrina asks, thoughts on Paxton Aronson, potentially fulfilling America's little brother's little brother role. and what that entails. I'm going to clarify here. Brendan Aronson just has the general manner of a little brother, and since he plays for the nationally, he's kind of America's little brother, I think that's what Supreme is referring to there.

Yeah, she's referring to the video you made about this where you called him America's little brother. Let's not, let's not band you about. Yeah, so it is a problem that immediately arose that he has a little, he does actually have a little brother, but I think I think we kind of treat

Paxton independently. He could be a little little brother, but we don't know yet. But it's also just a kind of a complicated issue because I don't think that, I find that generally people who are actual little brothers don't make as good as symbolic little brothers

as oldest children do. That's kind of the little brother paradox we've talked about a little bit. But, yeah, So for me, I'm not overly concerned about it, but I do appreciate the question. Yeah, I do, I agree with you. I don't think Paxton, it is a paradox because I don't think Paxton is as little brothery as his older brother. Yeah, well, when you're a little brother, you learn to, you get a little chippy.

At least that's my impression of Paxton. I haven't watched all of his games. But he strikes me, he has a little bit more of an edge to him than Brendan does. Yeah. And that comes from being a little brother. And so then you can't really be America's little brother if you're Brendan's little brother. No. Plus he has a stronger jawline, I believe, than his older brother.

So, you know, a strong jawline. There's this, back in the heavy days of the pandemic shutdown, I got into watching Philadelphia Union Academy games. Oh, brother. And there's this one game in Brazil where there's a great shithousing moment from Paxton where he's past the ball. Or there's a free kick, he rolls it back, the player who's going to take it rolls it,

he rolls it back again, and the guy comes up and just shoves him and he just flops onto the ground. And that's kind of the lasting image I have of him. So I hope to see him carry that energy throughout his career here. He gets, to be sort of serious about it for a second, he gets minutes for the union on occasion right now,

which is a good sign for a player of his age. And then he had that incredible goal earlier in the season. I've lost track of how old he is. I think he was born in 2003. Okay. So he's a young... Let's call him 17 and a half. Yeah.

Well, that's good. Let's move to the next question. Beto, in Houston, I erroneously said that he was in San Antonio a few weeks ago, and I feel really bad about that, Beto. You're obviously in Houston. You told me that yourself. Beto asks, do you guys think these young players respect Greg as a coach? I mean, I think it's fair to say they like him as a person, but as a coach, I'm not so sure, especially the stars like Pulisik Adams and Gio.

Chris? I, well, I guess we could, I would, we would get into what we mean exactly by respecting as a coach, but my immediate answer is I suspect that they do while still disagreeing with his decisions in the same way that we do, probably even more acutely because they have to, they're the ones that have to go in the field and expose themselves. but I think they probably just like how good he is at communicating and creating a culture because that's kind of an important thing. And just in my experience, if you are working with someone who's good at that, you are going to respect them. But I think the question is more about tactics, right? Yeah, I guess I feel like every soccer team I've played on since high school has,

there were a lot of players who didn't like the coach. You know, players are hard on coaches. in general. I mean, especially if they're good. So I'm sure there's, I'm sure there's some disrespect privately and maybe even some slight disrespect publicly. But it's hard to know. I think that's the only honest answer for me is I don't know if they respect him around. Nobody would signal publicly that they don't respect him unless things were totally on the rocks. And I think some people would argue that in 2016 for Cleansman, Mexico at home when we lost 2-1 and Costa Rica away when we lost 4-0.

it started to look like we like that players didn't respect cleansmen and um you know think that that feeling of sort of chaos and give up was i thought i i whiffed it in the air in the late part of the first half of that honduras game after they scored a goal thankfully we pulled out of that tailspin or what appeared to be a tailspin and we're in decent shape now so that's a long answer to say I don't know the answer to the question. I was I I had kind of given up on following this team at the end of the Honduras game. I just had him I just I can't do this anymore but they kind of saved it there but it did feel like they'd given up yeah but they but they maybe they hadn't soccer is just a weird noisy game so yeah and then we project our own feelings onto the what we're

seeing on the television screen at least I do for whatever reason I never had I guess I only had like a couple coaches when I was a kid. So I never had one that people didn't respect. I think I just might have had good coaches. But that's kind of not that important. It's just something you mentioned that occurred to me. That might have impacted my answer. I had a coach, my college coach, I was not a very good college soccer player. I played sparingly off the bench. But my coach was, he was a winner. He knew how to win, but he had a very high voice. And he had poor social skills. and he just got made fun of all the time, nonstop. Lots of people didn't like him.

High voice and bad social skills. I can see that being a recipe for disaster. Yeah. I think he's an okay guy. I always got along with him, but several of the good players on the team had a hard time with him. Let's move to the next question. Nata es Imposible asks,

what's the best regional stadium food? Walking tacos, skyline chili, some artery-clogging monstrosity in the south? But my first reaction is probably some artery-clogging monstrosity in the south would be my preferred thing. But, and I look into walking tacos, that's taco meat dumped into a Frito bag. So I don't think it's that for me.

That doesn't sound good. I've never had it. It is good. And then Skyline chili, is it good? I mean, it sounds gross, but it's actually pretty good. I mean, I think maybe it should be fine, but I don't think we should call it our best stadium food in all of America. I don't know.

We can get into that. And Skyline chili is very regional, but I almost don't want to even. I feel like whenever you talk about Skyline chili, you're letting them win. Cincinnati, I mean. So I'd just like to move on. I don't want to get into it. It's fine. It's chili on top of spaghetti and cheese.

Yeah, no thanks. Did you not know what that was? I mean, I hear people talking about it, but it's like, it goes in the same category for me as like crest design and like critiquing the Seattle Sounders kits. I just don't really. I just set it aside in my consciousness and move on to the next thing. So it is spaghetti with chili on top. Yeah, but like a very specific Midwestern type of chili that I couldn't actually describe. But yeah, it.

I know you don't really want to talk about it. You can move past the skyline chili. I don't want to talk. We've talked about it more than anything we've talked on the episode so far, so I failed at not talking about this. Let's move on to cheese steaks, which I wrote down because it struck me as a regional food. But I think you have to be in too specific of a mood to want to eat that, so I wouldn't put that top of the west here.

Okay. What's the mood? What's the specific mood you have to be in for a cheese steak? A drunk, I think. Oh, that mood. Okay. I wasn't even thinking that when I said mood, but I just occurred to me. that's probably when you would have it.

I think they're fine. I have, you know, people from Philadelphia have a certain personality. I also don't want to encourage them by liking cheese steaks. So there's all these biases that come into this whole conversation. Do you have any specific things that you really like a lot? You're from a different part of the country. Well, I see in the show notes here, you're saying that you don't want barbecue at a sporting event. And I think, you know, if I could get, um,

you know, the right pulled pork or something like that at a sporting event, I could go for it big time with the right sauce and the right, you know, whatever. I'd want a very neat pulled pork on just a bun, a simple bun. Sure. But that's really not the best way to have barbecue for most of the variations of it. Right. I think that's a good, great way to have North Carolina barbecue. That's which is my favorite. it.

Well, I mean, I guess my meta-analysis here is I never feel good after eating stadium food. Like, I never, I've never, I don't know that I've ever had a great stadium food experience, you know, a comprehensively good stadium food experience. So what I find myself doing is thinking like, okay, what's a specific dish I had at a specific restaurant once that would make a good stadium food? And then that's like, you know, that's just fantasy land. Come on, bells. Yeah.

It is a big problem. I don't like going to, I don't like stadium food, mostly because I don't like eating and not, it being like a difficult way to get back home. And stadium, it's always like a logistic debacle. Also, once I went to a Seattle Sounders game and had food poisoning kick in while I was there, it was a nightmare. So that's ruined the stadium food experience. I didn't eat, it wasn't from food at the stadium, but that colored a lot of my thinking,

has not making this list. Yeah. Yeah, it's so hard. It's so hard to find good stuff. And you always feel like I'm making the wrong decision. That's the thing. When you go, you feel like you should try to get something special. But I really, I always end up just getting a hot dog.

Which is a good choice, I think. Yeah. So if there were regional variations on hot dogs, I would probably try that. Like I imagine there's a, you know, there's a, you know, There's a Chicago hot dog. I know that. And then I have to assume there's other ones, too. So that's my answer.

Okay. Well, somebody says, Ramadan agrees with me that walking tacos are great. They're great state fair food. Just Ralph says Kevin Gillespie's closed on Sunday fried chicken sandwich at Mercedes-Benz Stadium is an elevated chick-fil-hage sandwich. That sounds good. That's good. Also very well-named.

Somebody, going back to the roster real quick, somebody said, does no call here mean sergeant is playing for Mexico? That'd be funny. Yeah, I don't think he is. Well, I guess we'll see. Bill Midd says PayPal Park has high-end food trucks in the stadium, so that's a stadium food cheat code. Is that the San Jose one? I assume so. I lived in San Jose for a while, and that is almost certainly true.

It's pretty high-level food out there. because they've got, you know, a lot of stuff. Yeah, so California's, California is a wonderland. Frigand dingus says my local independent minor baseball team has the Bear Claw burger, half pound of burger topped with pulled pork, mac and cheese, and coleslaw between two Bearclaw donuts. Yeesh. I don't know, man. I, is this, am I remember it correctly?

You once said that you don't like hamburgers. No, no, no, I did not say that. If I said that, it was a little. You said a version of that. Maybe you said they were overrated. I just said burgers in general are overrated. I think you said that in a group chat. If you didn't say, you didn't say it.

Well, I say a lot of stuff. Maybe you were trying to make a point to someone who said something. I'm glad to hear if that isn't the case, though. Yeah, no, if I said that, I retract it. Let's move to the next question. Mike says, movie spoiler, all caps. I recently watched The Tomorrow War, starring America's hunk, Chris Pratt.

Without giving too much plot away, he's going to give the whole plot away. The main character time travels to help out humanity in a future war. That's actually just about the whole plot, sorry. What current USMNT player do you anticipate will be sent forward in time to join the 2074 U.S. World Cup team, and why? What past U.S. men's national team player

should be time traveled to the present and brought into the 2022 World Cup, where do they slot into the lineup? This past player can currently be alive, and you would time travel them at their prime. Okay, so I watched, for some reason, I thought, I saw the question, it's like, I should watch this movie that will help me answer the question.

It doesn't help me answer the question at all. But I have like this impulse to like, whenever a movie gets mentioned in the show notes from a question or something you read, I end up watching it. So I like watch, you know, Ocean's 11 last week. There's no reason to do that. I watched Pirates of the Caribbean this week, too, just because there was a topic we might talk about.

about pirates. Anyway, I watched this movie and I wouldn't send a player to the future. Like, they're going to be better in the future. We don't need to send players to the future. I don't want to, I mean, I would like to hear your answers, but that's my honest answer. I agree with that. They're just going to be so much better. And then in the Tomorrow War, I think that probably where this question came from is it kind of opens,

there's a shot of Qatar 22 in it. And I think it's the World Cup Final against Brazil or between Brazil and they're playing kind of a generic country. I guess they couldn't get the rights to another country. And soldiers from the future burst in to the World Cup Final through like a weird laser gap beam and they tell them there's a war now in the future and you're all going to get conscripted to it.

I don't know why I'm sharing the plot here. But I guess I spent somewhat time watching the movie. I just wanted to kind of share that experience with you. Thank you. So there really is a World Cup soccer scene in the movie. Yeah. It's the beginning. It's actually branded as, if you look at the screen,

it's Qatar or Qatar 22 on it. And the only Brazilian player is last name Peralta, which I didn't strike me as a Brazilian name. But I guess that's not that important of a point. Those Brazilian names will, will surprise you sometimes, I think. That's true. They've got, like, Fred.

The live chat is much more serious than us right now. They're talking about who can play based on the Panama restriction from the UK. Looks like the confirmed via U.S. soccer that barring a change or an exemption being granted, the UK-based players will not be permitted to go to Panama. So buckle up for a George Bello performance in Panama City at left. So is that just Anthony Robinson? That matters? Yeah.

Anthony's the one that really matters, yeah. I think, oh yeah, Tim Riem as well. I think the player that I would time travel to now, you know, from the past, has got to be Claudio Raina. Because, you know, Prime Claudio Raina in June of 2002, He's a bit of a maestro, and we need that on this team.

So that's my serious answer for that question. Those were the first games I've ever watched, but I never re-watched them. So I just don't actually know what Claudia Rino was really like, but I just know from hearing that he was very good. Game, a bit of a game controller. And, you know, John O'Brien from that same era is a decent shout too before you got hurt. but um so i i'm sorry are we not sending players to panama are we not sending anthony i wasn't quite i didn't quite catch what you said there i don't think that he is allowed to travel to panama boris johnson has stepped in and he says anthony can't go to panama no i'm just kidding about that

but um yeah okay so is that does that mean it is george bello well yeah well yeah yeah Yeah, I think so. Or maybe, you know, maybe Dest at left back in that game. Who knows? Who knows what Burrhalter is going to do on that front? Yeah, it would be annoying, but I bet I'll just go test at left back again. I mean, Shaq Moore is there. He can also play left back in a pinch.

Plenty of options. We brought five full backs. Let's move to corrections, clarifications, and amplifications, which I believe is going to be a robust section in this. in this podcast series over the coming weeks. Although there is a risk it being a little bit light on soccer stuff, so maybe interject any good things they're saying in the chat, so we keep it.

But, you know, sorry for giving a note there. But it just occurred to me. Should I just get into the first one I had? Well, I'll just say there's some dark humor in the chat right now. Somebody talking about Adams at fullback. Somebody saying it's love its season. and, um, Hey.

Bob Morocco just came in and said, hey. Was that Bob Morocco? He's the only one whose mic isn't muted right now. I've never, I did, that is not what I thought. Bob Morocco sounded like it. For anyone who doesn't know Bob Morocco is a Twitter person who tweets things that are impossible to understand on purpose. I like how you said he merges his range. Yeah, he merges his range.

So you're not meant to be able to know what his point is. I don't know why he does it, but I really appreciate it. And he's my favorite Twitter account. Him just sticking his head in and saying, hey, is very on brand for, you know, for this whole thing that we're talking about. I thought his voice would be deeper, though. No one's voice ever sounds what you think it's going to sound like. Yeah.

Speaking of deep voices, Jordan's is deeper than I would have expected to be. Let's go to corrections, clarifications, and amplifications. First on Taiwan. please continue so last week we were talking about El Salvador's foreign policy

relations with China and I said I was not familiar enough with China's one China policy to have a personal stance on Taiwan and I've looked into it I do

I do have a stance and I recognize the sovereignty of Taiwan I don't know why I kind of waffled on that but I fully recognized Taiwan as a person so I just wanted to say that

Yeah, I'm glad, you know, I'm glad for that, Chris. I actually, I got an annoyed message from someone. Oh, really? Yeah. I didn't like that I. I didn't get an annoyed message, but I didn't even really say anything about it. That's probably why. Nobody noticed except like one person.

Yeah, I mean, those are serious things. I'm not, yeah, let's move on to the next correction, clarification or amplification. This one's going to be fun. why don't you take it away okay yeah so well it's we were talking about pirates

last week I don't remember why can I say why can I explain why yeah sure okay so I mentioned Sir Francis Drake because Ronnie Brunswick the vice president of Suriname was a maroon and I had a brain fart

and I forgot like what a maroon was and then somebody explained what it is and it's a descendant of a community of escaped slaves, you know, like a long time ago. Escape slaves. Yes. It was from many, many, many years ago. And I remembered right then that Sir Francis Drake allied himself with Maroons in Panama,

which is maybe a thread we can pick up again next week. Yes. And we talked about how he was a pirate. And I said, well, I said, no, no, he's a privateer, which is a sort of, it was facetious. It's a facile distinction, right? What is the distinction between a pirate? Well, so I didn't know at the time, so I thought there was a hard distinction.

There kind of is. It's basically whether a state recognizes them or not. Right. So if you have papers to be a pirate from a government, you're a private team. If you have official papers. And so I started looking into that. And really kind of the first big guy. And the reason I kind of got into it is it struck me that having read about it for a while that pirating in the Caribbean could be important to understanding Conca Calfa.

It's kind of a vague idea I have. But it's something that could be. I love it, though. It could be worth pursuing. So I kind of dove in onto kind of the first pirate. He's not literally the first pirate, but he's kind of close. His name was Henry Avery or Every. And so I just wanted to share a little bit about what I learned about.

him. Please do. If that's okay. So it was in 1693, and what he does is, first of all, this is not a great guy. He's like kind of a bad guy, and he did some terrible things throughout this whole thing. But I'm just going to tell the story. So he steals it. He's the first made of a ship off the coast of Spain, and he leaves a mutiny.

And he says, all right, we're going to turn pirates now. And he sails all the way around Africa to steal. the emperor of India's treasure ship, and the ship is named excessive treasure, because it's like, it's basically the equivalent of the Ocean's 11 heist. Like, that's how much money was on there. It's like the most famous treasure stealie ever.

Wow. And he commits grotesque crimes along the way, and just to kind of imagine the worst on that. But, like, what, I'm trying to imagine the worst. Can you give one example? Okay, well, before he became pirate, he was a slave trader. Oh.

So that kind of gives some idea of, like he was, he basically became also a slaving ship, a slave ship. And also when they robbed the, the excessive treasure ship, there were, there were like women and children on it. And they did terrible things, like violent acts. Awful. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. No, it's not.

So that's what I was thinking of. We'll tell just like a fun pirate story. but it's a nightmare of a story. But it was like, well, I'm just going to have to keep talking about this pirate. Yeah, let's keep going. The ship was really called excessive treasure? Yes. Or it was exceeding, it was either translated to exceeding treasure or excessive treasure.

It's just a little too much treasure. But the main part of it was because it was the emperor of India, and this was right as the British East India Company was kicking off. The emperor said, well, we're not going to. trade with you anymore, but she's an indie company, and we're going to kick you out if you don't catch this guy. So it turned into like this, the first global manhunt in human history. Hmm. And they're just hunting this guy. So did they ever catch him? No, he disappeared. Wow. He disappeared, but he became very, very popular because what was happening during that time,

the way that media worked was there wasn't, there was some print, I think, but, but, it was mostly something called ballad mongers and what ballad mongers were where there was these men who would go out and sing tabloid news in the street and the most popular news back then was like it is not it was crime yeah of course so while all this was happening

he was going off doing these terrible things he was becoming very very popular in england and the entire world because word was getting back to the ballot mongers and he was becoming just a very famous person and that's what inspired all the future pirates in the caribbean that disney would make a movie about later so this is kind of like the first guy because all because of the ballad mongers you you said you have uh the the lyrics of a song you told me that yeah i can share that i can just share my favorite parts of it can you can you sing it oh i hadn't i can try

i'll do my best i've never sung before i just is actually that first time I ever sung. Well, then let's not then. Or you could, but don't feel any pressure. Come on, all you brave boys, whose courage is bold. Will you venture with me? I'll glut you with gold. Make haste unto Corona.

A ship you will find that's called the fancy will pleasure your mind. Oh, the ship he stole was called the Charles Second, and he changed it. He changed the name to the fancy. So they were sailing around the world at a ship called the fancy. and it was very fast. It was a very fast ship. So he stripped all of this stuff off of it to make it faster. And that's what made them so successful.

I'll keep going. Okay, please. Captain Avery is in her and calls her his own. He will box her about boys before he is down. French, Spanish, and Portuguese, the he isn't likewise. He has made a war with them until that he dies. Huh. Do you like the song so far?

It became very popular. I do. I think I'd like to hear the, you know, the original tune. I bet it's pretty good. Oh, I knew what tune it was, but I forgot to write it down. It was based on a popular tune at the time. Can I just say something about ballad mongers real quick? And then we'll, you know, we'll start talking about soccer a little bit more. But the ballad monger phenomenon was, I first learned about that, listening to that Jad Abamrod podcast about Dolly Parton. Have you ever listened to any of that? The guy who did Radio Lab? That's why I did not hear that.

Well, he did like this eight-parts series on Dolly Parton, which is really quite good. And she talks about this song she learned as a child in, you know, East Tennessee, Appalachia, about like a woman getting pregnant and then her lover throwing her off a bridge in Knoxville Town. And it was like, it was a really horrible song. but a pretty, a pretty song. And he sort of dug in on it and he figured out that this was a, this was originally a ballad monger song from England. Same phenomenon.

Like there was some horrific crime in some town in England and the ballad monger wrote about it, sang about it, sold the song, and then changed the name of the town based on which town he was in. Like that wouldn't, that wouldn't have been necessary with Captain Avery. but if it was a crime that happened in say New York if you went to Philadelphia and nobody in Philadelphia knew anything about what was going on

in New York you could just pass it off as a song about Philadelphia and sell a few copies and um so you would just tell the same story yeah use the same tune both it just changed the name of the town so they so that song migrated across the ocean and they changed it to Knoxville town and there were a lot of songs like this up in the mountains

of Appalachians I didn't know that they, because this was a very long time ago, the ballad mongers were in England. They were replaced by actual the newscriers. They were kind of the forerunners to newscriers where they would kind of sing the headlines, but then just sell newspapers. But you're saying that ballad mongers just moved over to Appalachia. Or maybe somebody, you know, people brought the songs with them, the really,

the really popular ones, because the main. migration of you know of scotch irish into the mountains of appalachia was in like the 1680s 1690s oh okay and then it kept going yeah and then it just got passed down passed down passed down until we got to dolly parton and she like learned it as a girl didn't really know what was where it came from but pretty cool i didn't realize they moved in the mountains that early i guess that makes sense though Yeah. Yeah. You kind of live down there a little bit, right?

Yeah, I live on the tail end of Appalachia. It's a vibe for sure. You like it? I do. I do. Yeah, I do. I found that people are, yeah, I don't know. That's a lot to get into it.

Let's talk about it in another episode. Okay. So, Matt says, Hill people will sing some crazy stuff, man. Big Albian seed legacy. And man, do I appreciate it? him shouting out Albion Seed because that's that's a book that has shaped my view of our country. I don't know what that book is. Oh, it's a book about the four British migrations to the U.S. in the 1600s and how distinct

they were and how they shaped American culture. To this day, to this day, it's an ambitious thesis. They call it the persistence of folkways. that like you establish a folkway and it really um blasts it sounds like a pretty serious academic type book yeah it's it's it's more than popular it's it's a mix because it's not like it's not it's very readable but it's not like a page turner you know it's more of a reference so they'll have like they'll have a section on marriage customs among the the scotch Irish who settled Appalachia and then a section on architecture, a section on food, section

on child rearing. And then he does the same thing for the Puritans, the same thing for the Virginia Cavaliers, and the same thing for the Quakers. So those are the four groups. And you see just how very different they were from each other, even though they all came from... Probably going to end up reading that now. So I just want I'm saying, just like, be careful with mentioning things. Now I have to read an entire, sounds like a long book, too. Yeah, you don't just sit down and read it all the way through. I'll I have it sitting on my desk here right in front of me actually Should we move on to the next

The next topic here? Sure We The next topic is Canada and I This is also a clarification I incorrectly asserted that the Canadian election was about to happen last week And it had already happened when I said that My apologies

I definitely can do better And then I wanted to talk about it anyway But I just don't find it that interesting I've tried to research it. But the basics are that Justin Trudeau called the election, and some people thought it was unnecessary, and then his party lost some ground in parliament. Sounds just like a bunch of first world problems to me.

Yeah, the idea of calling election is so foreign to me. I don't understand how do you decide when to do that. I mean, it's something we should figure out, because we are going to play Canada. Again, when is that November? Or do we not play them until the spring? Brian. Either way we need to figure it out. It's not until the spring, I don't think. Yeah, well, we'll, we'll get right on that. Matro asks, why do you hate Canadian success so much? Is it because deep down you want us, you want to be us, but can't? I assume that's directed at me because I once tweeted that I'd hate Canadian success, basically. It's not because I want to be like you. I'll say that much. First of all, I don't have an answer to this question. I think I was just doing a joke. Yeah, no, I assumed it was directed towards me.

We had to perform some disciplinary action on a loquacious Canadian in the Discord. Oh. And I just assumed. I think I know that Canadian was, by the way. Oh, really? I just assumed that this question came from him, which would be great fun, but maybe it didn't come from him. I'm mostly rooting for Canada, honestly, except when they play the U.S. I don't want them to be better than us, though.

I don't think that's a real risk, but I also don't. I don't want them to finish ahead of us in this qualifying table. Yeah, I don't think they're going to be better than us. I mean, they can play us to a draw by packing it in in Nashville against an impotent Burraterian attack. But I... No, but again, across 14 games, they could get enough points that it's possible. It probably won't happen, though.

But I would not like it. Yeah, that would be on us, though. I mean, we just thought it. The ball is on our quarter. court, I think. Yes. All right, we have a... Go ahead, go ahead.

No, I was just going to say another thing about Canada. We can move on. They're not worth the time. Somebody's talking about calling a snap election to replace me in scuffed. Just like Justin Trudeau called a snap election in Canada. And I got to say, I don't like the idea of that. It doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I don't know who would call that election either.

I guess Greg. Well, it might be. objectively be a good idea, but I don't like it. Well, who, I don't know who, there's no one to replace you. I mean, I'd be happy to get rid of you, but there's no one who can replace you. Yeah, I guess you could replace me. No, I couldn't, I can't talk about soccer at all. We're talking about pirates and shit.

Sorry for cursing. No, that's okay. Should we, yeah, well, we'll keep an eye out for a replacement for me. Soccer adjacent is another category we have here. We love to use the word adjacent in the scuffed universe. I have noticed that. Yeah. Everything is something adjacent.

The password for the hypothetical scuffed speakeasy is alcohol adjacent. So if we ever do get a speak easy, that'll be the password. Anyway, soccer adjacent, what do you, well, we already talked about what you think of players posting their own comps to Twitter. We handled that right up top. I noticed Christian Strike and Freiberg saying goodbye to the, the dry some stadion. And I thought that was pretty cool because that Freiburg is,

it just seems like a really interesting place, doesn't it? Yeah, it's in the black forest is really the only thing I knew about it. And black forest is a place I think I'd like to go just to know what's going on there. Because I don't know anything about European forests and are they like American forests? Are they smaller?

Are they older? I don't, lots of questions there, so I'd like to go to the Black Forest. I always imagine. You ever been there? No, I haven't even been to Germany. I'd like to go. I sort of imagine the Black Forest is being full of witches. Yeah.

It can't be true, though. Probably. On the few pictures I looked at, it does seem like it would be a place that witches go. It's also possible that just fairy tale art was based on the Black Forest. It would be another explanation for why. It feels like that's true. Yeah. Isn't...

I didn't... Go ahead. One thing I didn't realize about the old Freiburg field was that it was... The one goal was like a full yard lower than the other goal. So it sloped south to north. That's crazy. It seems like... I'm surprised the Germans allowed that.

I guess, you know, you play two halves, one going each way, so it evens out. but I wonder if there's been any analysis of like one team being more likely, you know, the team going downhill more likely to score goals than the team going uphill. There should be. There should have been. They've got at least, I guess they'd have to, the new stadium was fully built in like the 90s, so they should go at that and run the data nerd should do that. I wonder, you know, when you're playing uphill,

you can sort of measure your through balls a little with a little more, there's a little more forgiveness on those that so maybe the yeah I could see the the uphill through balls sort of making the downhill advantage less severe somehow

but I have to assume downhill is better right yeah it's just easier to go well who knows this is why we need the data nerds to do it yeah somebody's somebody's done it certainly it's in a website that's all in German though

I am sad when I see a stadium like that decommissioned. And people are always like, well, the bathrooms aren't that great. Or, you know, you can only get one kind of schnitzel in the, in the concession stand. But those stadiums with the, you know, where the, where your view is blocked by a pillar, there's something, there's something really nice about that, I think. Yeah. I think I would prefer, if I, if I were going to go, I would, to Germany or something, or I would rather go to this very, very old decrepit stadiums than a new one. Yeah.

And they don't really exist that much in the U.S. anymore because we build new ones so quickly. Yeah, I guess maybe minor league ballparks. Yeah, and Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah. Those ones. Yeah. Rigglyfield is so cool. And I hate the Cubs.

I've never been to either of them. Ian says he'd love to go to Germany and revisit the roots, really connect, you know. I'm off for that. Bill Mid says downhill side is always going to win. He's played pickup on fields with a slope downhill, and it's definitely plus XG. So there's some input on that. Well, I mean, they do switch sides at halftime, don't they?

Yeah. It just occurred to me. Yeah, they do. Jackie says RFK Stadium is a good, you know, old-style place. Is it still? Is it still? I think it's still, it stands still, I'm sure. Okay. I went to an MLS game there once in the 90s.

That's my one. It was pretty cool. Oh, yeah. Jordan says RFK Stadium was condemned. It still stands, but it stands in a mist of condemnation. One last thing about that Freiburg setting is I watched a lot of Alex Mendes. U19 video. Do you remember those days?

Those the, that was 2019. It was a different, it was a different time for all of us. It really, it really was. And I always loved that low, the low mountains as a backdrop and then,

high speed train going by now and then. So it, it gives the lie to my whole, like I believe there are a lot of witches in the black forest because I think probably it's more just a lot of high speed internet and, um, Instagram.

I didn't know about high-speed rail. Influen influencers and stuff. Yeah. Greg Burhalter refers to subs as solutions. Did you know that? I learned that just from listening to the Bobby Warshire interview with him. But I didn't know it before. And I'm a little bit confused about the...

I understand why you would do that. I can see why players would like that. But if I were a player, like, well, you don't need to call me that until I've actually been a solution. until I am, I'm just a substitute. But I probably wouldn't have, I don't really have the mindset of an athlete or a coach anyway. I would just prefer to call it a substitute. Yeah, I'd be too self-conscious too.

It's too technocratic for me. But it seems like to be a successful coach, you need to be willing to say things like that. And just be confident with it. I don't imagine Burrhaler is too troubled by it. I think probably most normal people aren't troubled by it either at all. Yeah. I don't know if I'd call what I am troubled, but I'm just going to, you know, I'm going to be critical about it.

I think if I was a player and Greg was like, you guys are going to be the solutions today. I'd be like, uh, okay. All right. If you were on the team, you would be causing all sorts of problems. you would be leading the the do not respect per halter ring.

Would I? Sorry, say that there. No, I mean. Well, it sounds like it. You don't like the word solutions. I mean, I also said that, but now you put yourself in the situation.

So I think you would. Maybe. Maybe so. Oh, and it came, it is worth noting from Nate that solutions came from an Omar Gonzalez suggestion, which. Yes.

it in a little bit of a perhaps more troubling light. Well, he got it from, that's what they say in Mexico. So it could just be like, it makes more sense in Spanish. Although it makes sense in English, too. I don't know why I'm really complaining about this. It's not something I would actually be upset about. It just became a topic. So now I'm saying things about it.

But I don't like it. I would prefer a substitute. I'd prefer us not to need a solution at the hour mark in our games this window. Let's let's put the solutions Let's bake the solutions into the starting lineup and the tactics It would be really cool if we just scored two goals in the first half every game Oh, good grief I would give anything for that Ian said, Ian posted a picture of Monterey's stadium background and yeah man it is

Oh yeah That place rocks I'd love to see a game there Is there a really great mountain view in the U.S. stadiums? I imagine Colorado would, but I don't actually have a picture in my head. No, because Commerce City is like, Commerce City is like 300 miles east of different.

No, it's not. It's far enough away that you don't have anything close to that dramatic. Salt Lake City one's pretty good, but it's kind of in the distance. In the Academy games, they have some awesome mountains. Yeah. Just because of the low angle of the camera. Ramadan says that Solutions is the lamest thing

he's heard from Gigi so if you're looking for someone who'd be a locker room problem there's your guy there yeah well I feel better about my that's yeah that's I would say that so far that's my biggest criticism

Burrhalter generally I'm very in favor of him but the solution thing I don't know Nate who if I'm not mistaken has some knowledge of corporate sugar coating says it just sounds like a corporate sugar when your baseline understanding is substitutions. I think Barry Burhalter might read a lot of corporate management type stuff. What's the hot corporate management book these days?

I don't know. It's probably a podcast. Yeah. Cook the book says RSL has a nice view. Yeah. I think we have, you know, we might do it. We might do this in one hour. We've already gone it.

We've done it. We've made it an hour. Well, we have one more thing to get into. which is Ibaianos, this Twitch streamer from Spain, who is getting all the scoops in soccer. Like he had the first exclusive with Lino Messi. He plays video games with Emmerich Laporte and Sergio Ramos, and he's buddies with all these guys.

And it just seems interesting to me that it's like another example of a non-journalist being sort of like getting a free, pass from people who would generally be very skeptical of a journalist. Yeah. It sounds like one thing I like about him is he's just not good at interviewing. Yeah. So he's just not going to ask them anything. They're just going to kind of sit there and play video games.

I haven't actually watched any of the interviews. You haven't? You haven't? No, but I just, I read the article. And it sounds like that's the way to do it. Just like I'd like to learn how to play FIFA and then try to become friends with like Gior Rain and stuff. that's that's the path forward yeah i don't see any reason i i couldn't do that he's you don't even

have to be good at interviewing so right the article is a is a new york times article about this guy um but yeah i don't i don't i don't play video games or really have much interest in them not that i'm opposed to them yes do you have journalistic objections to this this trend no no no i don't i don't Um, no. Yeah, I don't think of journalism as, I think of journalism conventions as provisional, you know, I was, culturally specific. I was going to suggest you could do the BFIT thing, but also Giorand, are they probably, Giorina probably doesn't like you for instance.

If he is aware of me, he, yeah, he probably doesn't like me. I mean, like, I'm pretty confident he is aware of you and does not like you. Well, okay, that being, that being, that being as it may, I think likeability is going to be an obstacle for me here in, in general. I don't have the strength of personality. So this guy, you know, he doesn't ask great questions when he's playing video games with these soccer stars. But he also must have a certain panache, you know, that keeps them coming back. And I'm pretty sure I don't have that panash. I can be, I can be tedious company.

I don't actually think you would be good at playing video games and talking to them. No, I can't. It doesn't seem like your strength. I can't multitask for my life. So, okay. Bill Mid says I don't have to, I don't need to play video games. I just need to watch videos of other people playing. Okay, well, that's an option.

Yeah, that's... I'd say start a Twitch, I'd start a Scuff Twitch stream, you know? Why not? Boy, I can't even figure out how to... You should start a TikTok, by the way. It's another world. I started a TikTok. It's wild.

Yeah, you know, I had a, I have a TikTok for scuffed news. And I got like... I saw that. One of my videos said... You had like 26,000 followers. Yeah, it blew up pretty fast. Which things tend to do on Skype, on TikTok. Yeah

Somebody's talking about we should get We should start playing chess to become friends with Christian Pulisic We did discuss this a few weeks We actually already talked about that Yeah Somebody figured out his screen name You know actually it was

Figo It was just yeah it's a Figo screen name And it was Justin in Nashville One of those smart Vandy kids Figured out a screen name And I think Requested to play with him and got turned down So

Okay so we need to keep pursuing that We made it an hour here, so we've succeeded. He said, Nate says, how do we know that he's sugar, he knows something about corporate sugarcoding? He said, is it the profile picture? Do I just type like a corporate attorney? You can just kind of tell with folks sometimes, can't you? Yeah, it's a certain, certain diction in the way he speaks. You know he's been in, you know he's been in a Zoom call with somebody important.

Let's call it a day, Chris. Okay. This is going to go on the public scuffed feed. Again, you can get in on this chat and talk to us while we record and, you know, all that by joining the Patreon and figuring out Discord. And I'm, if you need to get in touch with us, don't know how to do it any of those ways. Email me at scuffedpod at gmail.com. Uh, yes. And just like, questions are great. Just don't try not to mention too many movies. Because Waki's going to have to watch them all.

Yeah. I mean, he doesn't really have to watch them all, but apparently he does. Yeah, I do. Thank you, Chris. Thank you everybody for listening. We'll see you.