Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #204: October Window Rotations

Episode Date: October 4, 2021

Who should play in which of the three upcoming games? Who shouldn't? We sketch out a very malleable plan for that.Meg Linehan piece on sexual exploitation in the NWSL: https://theathletic.com/2857633/2021/09/30/this-guy-has-a-pattern-amid-institutional-failure-former-nwsl-players-accuse-prominent-coach-of-sexual-coercion/Support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedJoin the Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XUBuy 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. Jamaica at home on Thursday, then Panama away on Sunday, then Costa Rica at home the following Thursday. USMNT has the international window. Coming up, Greg, how are you doing? Bells, I'm okay. But before we get into the U.S. men's national team stuff, this World Cup qualifying window, I think we should just address right now what is the much bigger story in the soccer universe. in the universe generally. And that would be the story that Meg Lanahan broke for the athletic regarding Paul Riley and some really predatory behavior in the NWSL and throughout his coaching career. If you haven't read that story, if you're following us, you're deep enough into the soccer weeds that I'm sure you saw the story pop up on your timeline.

If you haven't read it yet, I definitely urge you to read that to get a sense of sort of what some of these players are facing. it's a it's a really bad environment at times and we just want to sort of reiterate it's ridiculous that you have to you know say where you stand on these things but we stand with NWSL players and believe that these women should be safe to pursue playing professional soccer without having to deal with these levels of inappropriateness yeah given the power dynamics that these players face they need the league to be much more responsive to these types of concerns and do a better job of protecting them from people like Paul Riley.

So to the U.S. men's national team, Greg, how are we going to rotate in this window? This is a roster rotation episode. Jump in. So this window, I think, takes a lot of the complications away from what we had to deal with the last window. I feel like the rotations in this window, my thought is, will be much easier to predict and much easier to manage. What do you think? I my feelings about it or my opinions about it are much weaker than they were about the past one.

So I maybe that's the that's where we agree. So the specifics of this window are that we have a home game and then a way game and then a home game. And for me, that means that you can really easily trot out sort of almost your best 11 on paper in both your home games. And take those six points and run with them to the bank and then get what you can out of Panama. I know when I said get what I can, get what you can, I don't think that means settle for draws or just, you know, hope for the best. I think you should be trying to win that game. I just think that the rotation gets a lot easier when you can, you know, play your very best players on paper in two out of the three games at home. Yeah.

So you can see where I'm going to be going with my projected lineups. I guess so. Well, let's do a quick note on the roster. Walker Zimmerman replaced Tim Riem, who was originally on the roster. roster but was, is now left off because of a family matter. And it's sounding like at least the reports out of Germany are that Brooks might not make the trip. Is there anything new since this morning that you've seen? Not that I've seen. I think, I think we've now seen it from Twelman, Sam Steschel, and did I get that right? I listened to allocation disorder, but I can never

remember. It's an impossible name to pronounce. I'm sure he doesn't mind. And Jeffrey Carlisle, or the three that were sort of credited with it so far. So I'm going to assume that Brooks is out and that they are trying to line up a replacement. I guess really quickly, my thought is you replace him with Miazga. And then I think you should replace him. I think you should carry five centerbacks. And then gives you some insurance. And then you also have extra layers of insurance with your domestic pool.

If something happens to one of them in camp, now you've got James Sands. Or you could start getting into Henry Kessler, where, Where are we going? Mr. Lean roster over there coming in with the We Gotta Carry 5 centerbacks line. Well, I think you want to once one of the ones that you were counting on for a lot of minutes has gone down in John Brooks. Yeah. I think at that point, I want to make sure we have some bodies. Okay.

So, yeah, Miazka, for anybody who's not paying attention, is a regular starter at Alaves in Spain and La Liga. And they just beat Alito-Madrid a week ago or so. So, you know, that's... He's game fit. He's game sharp. He's got his match sharpness. So he is whatever player, like, whatever you rate of Miyazga, that's where he is right now. You don't have to worry about whether he's like, you know, he was coming off three months of not playing soccer at all after his loan ended.

And he was back at Chelsea over the summer. Yeah. And I think, like, in general, this podcast comes at Miyazga with a little bit of skepticism based on his mistake proneness. but I guess I look at it like if if you need somebody to throw somebody in to see out a win in Panama and like head the ball away a bunch of times can't think of anybody better than Matt Miazga. There you go. I think he is a bit mistake prone but I also have McKenzie in that camp.

So it's sort of just like I'm pretty indifferent to everyone after Brooks, Miles, and Richards. Okay. Yeah, I'm the same. So let's do the whole roster. So it's Turner, Stefan, and Johnson at goalkeeper. And as it stands right now, it's Robinson, Richards, McKenzie, and Zimmerman at centerback. So maybe Miyazca will be added or maybe Kessler or Sands. And then the fullbacks are Desd, Yedlin, and Moore at right back,

Anthony Robinson and George Bello at left back. And in the midfield, we have Tyler Adams, Kellyn Acosta, Weston McKinney, Sebastian Leggett, Luca DeGette, Luca, DeGette. Alet Tore, Eunice Musa, and Gianluca Busio. And then the forwards would be Tim Wea and Christian Rodon. I mean, Rodon would be a winger slash midfield. I'm going to a forward, yep. Brennan Aronson and Paul Areola and Matthew Hoppe, Jazi's artist, and Ricardo Pepe.

So we haven't had a roster episode so much. It's a pretty good roster, don't you think? I'm mostly fine with it. I think it's a very balanced roster. I think it gives plenty of cover for the window. Assuming we'd bring in that extra centerback, then we would be at five centerbacks. We'd be at, so remember, when I was talking a lean roster, part of that was because I thought Zimmerman was next man up. And I knew that if something were to happen, Zimmerman could be at your destination in an hour and a half no matter what.

So that gave us that layer of safety. Now that Zimmerman's already in the camp, if Miazka's the next man up, that's why I think you need to bring him in now. Because you wouldn't want to just bring him in on an international flight the day after you've, the day after you've, found out you lost somebody. So that's that's sort of my caveat there and how I can contradict my lean projection. But anyway, now you have, if you bring in an extra center back, then you've got your five centerbacks. You've got five fullbacks. In my mind, you've got seven center mids because I count rolled on as a forward type or a front three guy. And then you've got seven for your six front three slots. So I think it's extremely like balanced and covered for basically any

contingency. If you want to debate the quality of the players and whether or not we got the right ones, I think there's plenty of debates that can be had. And I don't think those should be sort of like, you know, dismissed, you know, just because you're on the fringes. We had, what, 22 outfield players who arrived in the camp last window and 20 of them started a match. So whoever is in this camp, like, you could basically expect that they're going to have to come in and make an impact on a World Cup qualifying match, there sort of are no small roles at that point. Right. So what's your view on George Bellow being there instead of Joe Scali as a backup left back? I'd probably prefer Scali to be, to be honest, or to have Scali in over Shackmore.

If Shackmore is the third right back, which stands to reason given prior call-ups, I'd probably bring Scali instead because of the flexibility that he offers on the left side. if someone rates bellow over scally today like fair enough you know there's room for disagreements there i'd probably prefer scally and feel safer with scally i don't think the bellow experience or familiarity matters you know he has his gold cup final start and then he started a road match uh in honduras but the problem is he had a huge massive mistake in that honduras game and it's like okay well we got data on him in honduras and it was not the best in 45 minutes it a complete blown coverage that costs us the goal.

So if you want to talk about who has the lower floor, like we know Bellow's floor involves a pretty big mistake there. So there are going to be worries. Like I'm not going to feel safe with George Bellow. He could get through a game and get the job done for sure. He does it for Atlanta. But there are going to be those questions until he's done it a few more times for the national team. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree with all that. I'd rather see Scali there. But I'm not. my energy for being like really angry about it is is not the same as it was a few years ago but yeah i i don't i don't see how you could make that argument the the opposite argument like the opposite argument would be well bellow like you said did did have does have the experience and well i don't know it doesn't i mean he's an 18 year old kid with like six caps total right like like he's not a returning world cup veteran that got us into the knockouts in in 2018 so

that's where like some of that experience for me kind of falls off. The only justification really I have would be if you just truly rate Bellow ahead of Scali at the moment. So if Berhalter just rates him and at that point in the rotation games doesn't have any minutes for Scali and doesn't think that getting the camp experience is that important. Because I know people are saying, well, it's really important to get camp experience. If that were the case, I'd actually think it's worse to leave Scali out because you're just kicking that can down the road and now you have to bring him in November to get him experience so that you could use him in January. So if camp experience, you could use him in January. So if, if camp experience

is on your bingo card of something that's important. Like that'd be all the more reason to have Scali in now so that you could use him at some future date. Yeah. The other sort of notable omissions would be Josh Sargent, Jordan Pfeck, right? Yeah, that'd be it for me. But we've talked about this, and this is why I'm fine going lean.

Like, you're the coach, you know who you're going to play. So I'm going to play, I guess I'm just assuming. Pepe's probably going to start based on his last performance. If Pepe can't go for some reason, who would you start? Coach Berhalter, would you start Zardas, P. Fawke or Sergeant? And Berhalter will say, I would start Sardez. Okay, bring Zardez. You don't need to bring two extra guys who wouldn't play in that role.

And if you really like Matthew Hoppe and he was very good through the Gold Cup for us, and he was playing out of his best position, then you might say, if we needed a third forward for some reason, we have Matthew Hoppe or we have Tim Wea. So I think I'm fine with Zardez over Pfeck and Sergeant. I think I had PFOC on my projection, but it was kind of a coin toss between those two. Sergeant would have been the next man. I guess, yeah, and I guess Darrell D.K.'s having a little scored a couple of goals in the last week or so and starting to look a little bit like an omission, although that would be

harsh on Burrhalter because nobody was calling for D.K. to be called up a week ago. So he'd be, so, and he also now can serve as one of those domestic replacements, should we have in camp an injury to any of the. three guys who can play forward. Yeah. Okay. Well, um, should we just start? Let's just start with the Jamaica game in Austin, uh, like a 20-some thousand seat stadium.

I think the game sold out who you got starting in that game. Oh, and by the way, I should mention John Arnold and I are going to record a, uh, a preview of the three opponents for this window tomorrow on the discord. And, uh, and then we'll post it in the public feet for everybody to live. All right. I love that. That was a great APO piece ahead of the last window, so I'm really excited for what you and John are going to be discussing. Because anytime you listen to John Arnold or read John Arnold, you're going to learn quite a bit. So very much excited for that. I'm going to start Matt Turner against Jamaica. Any objection? None. None. I'm going to start Matt Turner in all three games. Spoiler alert. So I'm going to start Miles Robinson at centerback with Chris Richards.

Is that the big leap? I think that's the big leap in my lineup. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do too, just because I think I was going to have, I was going to have Brooks there with Richards coming off the bench to get a little bit ready for Panama. But now it's, now it's Miles and Richards. And honestly, I'd like to start the two of them for all three games. I don't know if that's possible, but. I wouldn't hate it. So I think there is a real question here of whether Burrhalter will be comfortable

throwing Richards in straight away. Richards has been in two Burrhalter camps previously, was not in any of the summer competitions where it was like really heated and was not in the last World Cup qualifying window. So this would very much be like a lot of trust that Burrhalter would have to have in Richards, I think, to do that. If he wasn't ready for that, it would be Mark McKenzie, right? Yeah. And I think there's a decent chance we'll see McKenzie or Zimmerman starting this game. It's pretty clear, Zimmerman. I mean, it's pretty clear Miles Robinson will start from a Burrhalter perspective.

unless it's a pre-rotation for some reason because he thinks Miles can't go 270 in the window and would rather have him for games two and three but I think that's a real reach I think Miles is starting to yeah and I want him to start I think Miles is starting also and I want him to start all three matches can I do a bit of a rotation rant right here yes it's not a rant yes do please all right I just want to sort of clarify I have no problem with any player in the pool or in the roster like playing 270 minutes. Like, I don't think we need to rotate for any reason other than, like, a performance drop off or a health drop off.

So if Tyler Adams plays in the first, he played 270 last window, right? I have no problem with that. I've read some things like, I bet Marsh is pissed that we did this. We shouldn't be playing guys 270 and then sending them back to their clubs. I don't care about whether their clubs are upset that our guys played all three games. That's Marcia's problem to deal with when he gets his international players back to figure out who's ready for that weekend. I only care about rotation insofar as it affects us in the window. So if I'm picking rotation,

it's because I think a guy would suffer in performance on the field for the U.S. over three games. Yeah, screw the clubs. Who cares about the clubs, man? I've been saying that for weeks. I don't care if... They can have giant rosters and they can spend crazy money on their bench. So rotate.

Yeah. We're not. No favors will be done for Jesse. Marsh on my watch. So anyway, Miles and Richards, my starting centerbacks, and you're with me still?

Yep. We're three for three. Oh, yeah. All right. Since I said this is best 11 territory, we're running Destin Robinson as of my fullbacks.

Oh yeah. Same here. Same here. I think the question is, I mean, so I want to see as much of Miles and Richards as possible. I want to see as much of Destin Robinson

as possible at fullback. And I guess the, The complicated stuff comes with the midfield for me. Yeah, same same. And for me, it's not that complicated. I have a pretty clear rating. So I want this midfield trio in game one against Jamaica to be Adams McKenny Musa. That's what I'm hoping to see.

Okay. I think I disagree. But very, in a very, very mild way. I want to see how Luca Deletore does. for the national team because I am taken with this idea that he could be the guy who finds the ball and progresses it. Yet another, I thought, pretty solid performance over the weekend, another win for Heracles-Almelow. But I don't know when I would play him if not in the first game, you know? So it becomes like, okay, where do you slot him in?

Do you slot him in against Panama away? probably not. So put them in there with Adams and McKinney and see what happens. If it doesn't work, you know, pull the plug at halftime. It's not your job on the line, right? No, I'm mostly kidding. Well, we can sub them in, right? I mean, if things are, if we're having issues progressing the ball, especially,

and De La Torre is a, you know, allegedly a ball progressing specialist, then that's when you say, okay, 60 minute mark, De La Toro, Luca, you're going in. for whoever's kind of struggling. And I kind of have Busio in the same kind of role, which is don't I don't want to start Busio in any of the three games, but if teams are bunkering in

the way Canada did, which they absolutely should, it would be criminal at this point for any team that's an underdog against us talent-wise to not just sit deep and bunker and make us show that we have some ideas to break them down. That's when it might be like, okay, Busio might be a better option in midfield

than one of these other three ball progressing or not less ball progressing center mitts. And I think Luca would be in the same boat. So you're thinking of having Busio and Luca on the bench ready to go in game one against Jamaica in case? I don't even have, I don't even go that far bells. I just have, I just have Boozio in this one.

And Lucas, Luca's left out of uniform in game one. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, I'm going to say Adams McKinney and Luca as my name. All right. It was bold. I like it.

but you know if it's musa instead of mackinney that's fine too uh musa has started his last two matches uh for valencia so he's got the fitness for it i think he went about 80 and both of them and was kind of uh slowing down so again perfect time to get 60 out of him and then and then bring on uh warner your game breaking center mids if you need to break the game open because luka and buzio are absolutely going to break games open we can say that for sure i feel more confidence. I mean, I have a little more confidence in Luca breaking a game open than Buccio at this point. But I'm going to make you defend that. Go ahead and defend it.

Because he can dribble past people. He can dribble past people and find a, and find a pass. And Buccio can't really. Although I, I'm not here to bash Buccio. I wrote a song this morning apologizing to him. So. Bells isn't lying about that. He didn't just write the song. He's got some, he's got like some early performances of it on wax. Oh, it's pretty close, folks. Don't prepare yourselves. But I like how Busio is playing as a six, as a metronome for Venetia. But that performance of his as an eight for the USMNT is seared into my memory from the Gold Cup.

And it was, he looked like a fish out of water. I don't see him breaking anything open at all. Is this the Canada? Are we talking about Canada at this point? Or is it the whole gold cup? Was it Canada where he played as an eight? He played in that diamond. And that's where everyone soured on him real quick. I was trying to say, let's just ignore this game completely for the midfield and how they played. So I'm just curious. I'm curious if it's mostly Canada or if it's from the following two. It's seared into my memory not in a way that I remember who the opponent was.

But I but yeah, I think I think it was that game. And it was just like basic, like repeatable stuff, like being able to turn in traffic with somebody on your back and make something happen. Now, he's doing a really good job. USMNT Stan, I know it's really hard to keep track of all the accounts on Twitter, but there is one called USMNT Stan. I think that has Tony Moli as its avatar that made a video about Buccio, three things that make Buccio special. And he talked about him checking his mirrors, which is. a great phrase. Like he checks his, he checks his mirrors as he's

drifting through the midfield. And, you know, knows, is able to make good decisions, at least in the moments that this guy's spotlighted. And, you know, I did go back and watch the last three games, Gagliari, uh, Torino and A.C. Milan.

And he's played, he's been playing well consistently, Busio has. Um, as a six. I don't want to, I don't, I'm not super interested in him as an eight. Okay. And I, I think that's fair. I didn't think he was particularly effective as an eight in those later games against Jamaica, against Qatar, even really against Mexico in the final when he subbed on. So I'm totally on board. And I guess what I'd say is I think there is room for a good player who's good at that sort of deep lying role to help us in games. Like you go back to Honduras at home in the Nations League, if there were a player who was good at sitting back and picking out passes, playing in Jackson, you will spot in that game, it would have been a real help for us.

Jackson Ewell wasn't doing it and was not good to a bunch of other things. And that was really kind of devastating for our ability to create chances or to initiate attacks. But if you were to replace him with someone who was more ambitious trying to hit line breaking passes, the window is there for somebody to come in and really help the team out. So if that's what we do with Buzio and he shows up and passes the test that Ewell couldn't pass, that would be a big deal as we play teams who, again, at the moment, should only be bunker. against us. Yeah. That point's well taken. I guess I'm at the point where I don't know what the best combination is in midfield and coming up with a rotation plan for those three spots feels

like pin the tail in the donkey for me. Like I said, I'd like to see Delatoria at the eight at some point and Busio at the six at some point. But to borrow a phrase from Catholicism, the question of what's the right midfield for the U.S. men is a mystery of faith. Okay. That's, I am curious. That's fair. I am curious, but also sort of ambivalent about all the possibilities. Like I see, I want to see different, different formate, different, like, iterations of it. But all of them are also troubling to me at the same time, all the different iterations.

You know what I'm saying? I can totally get on board with that. That's why I want to start. What in my mind are sort of our three best players in that space. Okay. And then if it's not working, we bring on the changeup guys who are completely, different styles. Like, I don't think Legette is necessarily like a totally different style of player than any other three where he's going to do something drastically different than what the

other guys are doing. So that's where I'm like, okay, well, Boozio could come in and actually change what we, what that deep lying player is trying to accomplish. Okay. Bring him in, bring him in for 30 minutes. I'm, I obviously would not mind that too much. I just, I just want to see, like I said, I just want to see Delatoria at some point and this seems like the best opportunity to get him in get him a start there we go okay there so central midfield we have some options that we're at least excited and interested in seeing yeah it'll be very it'll be a very interesting window to see how berhalter does this what do you expect him to do for the midfield do you think he'll do the three best players like you said or uh he i think he might

i kind of half expect like i think it's 6040 that mackenzie starts over richards i think mackenzie's more likely to start uh even though i want richards in midfield i think it's Adams McKenny Leggett as the starters. That sounds right to me, too. In game one. But I'd love Musa, and I'd say that all Musa has to do is play exactly at the level he's played for us in the friendlies that he's appeared in so far

to be a sort of nailed on 140-minute player in the next triple World Cup qualifying window. Yeah. He doesn't have to do anything more than that. Right. Okay, let's go to Winger. I'll say my main framework for the wingers in this whole windows, I want to see as much of Wea and Aronson as possible with Hoppe as well,

since I assume he'll end up playing on the wing more than he does at Stryker. All right. Do you have a starting duo here, or is it sort of just like roll the dice? The loser sits out. Aaronson and O'Sin and Opa. Yeah, same. I feel like if anyone we're going to make the case at Aronson, we'd be better off the bench, it would be this podcast.

but I think you run with your what I think would be our two most effective players in Aronson Wayf for sure for me at the moment are those guys Yeah Hoppe's been Hopi was on the bench again this weekend right Did he not get off the bench again? Am I making that up?

Yeah I think that's twice in a row That he hasn't gotten in Which is not not not But I have him on the bench Go ahead I have him on the bench in this game Because I've also mapped out Who the available subs would be

And who would not be in uniform I have him on the bench here with I think Roldon, I think Ariola could be the odd man out. I think Ariola is a Burrhalter favorite, but I feel like he'd rather have, it seems like this might be a little narrativey, but it seems like he does enjoy the options that Christian Roldon gives him off the bench. And in my mind, like my gut saying, if you absolutely like need offense, like a wild card, then it's hoppy. But if you're just looking for like a stabilizing presence, you'd want Roldon. And so Ariola ends up being the guy who doesn't have a job on the bench. for a game one.

Yeah. And Wea is coming into this camp in probably the best form. I know you don't really like that term, but he's coming in the best form of like the past three years for him. He's had two good performances in a row, including like a really big one against Olympic Marseille over the weekend. Got an assist. Yeah, Wayette just does a lot of good things,

a lot of things that help your team. Like he's good on the ball. He doesn't turn it over. He's good in combination. He can stretch a back line. He can come in and possess and play and link up. So I think he basically has all of the tools that you would want. He's an excellent defender from the front.

So like for me, Wayas is the best winger in this group from like an overall standpoint. Why are you refusing to say the word verticality? He did get vertical on that assist against 10 man Marseille. Yeah. He had a few other near assists in that game, too. One went off the, two went off the post, I believe. So really exciting to see Timmy coming back and roaring back into camp. So we agree on everything except one of the eights so far.

Really fun podcast, guys. And then who's your striker? It's Pepe. Same. Well, can we, then let's drill into the subs. Do you have areola dressing or do you have him left out and rolled? Who do you have as like our available players? Who's out of uniform?

Let's do that. Oh, man. I didn't go that deep on this. I sort of figured out who my preferred subs would be for this game. And they would be, you know, hopefully we're up 3-0 at halftime, bring on Zardis for Pepe and Hoppy for Aronson at the hour mark, Musa for Delatore. maybe McKenzie for Richards, although that doesn't make as much sense as it did when it was Richards for Brooks.

Yeah, you want Richards racking up those extra minutes, right? Yeah. In a three zero game. Out of uniform, I've got Luca for this game, Ariola, because I think he's better served as like a starter than as a sub. And then I've got Shaq Moore as the third right back, or fifth fullback overall. And then whoever the fourth fullback or the fifth center back that we bring in, I'm guessing would also be out of uniform. Okay. Yeah, I'm not ready to list those I don't have in uniform, but those are my subs. Should we move on to Panama?

Let's do Panama. Okay. Same Turner's going to be the goalkeeper for both of us. Who do you have as your centerbacks against Panama? So this one, I'm going McKenzie and Miles. So I am subbing Richards out for this game. Now, if Richards is lights out against Jamaica, the way Miles was and the gold cup and leaves no questions unanswered, then for me, you just run them back again. Yeah. I would agree with that. I also have McKenzie starting this game as the left centerback. And, you know, he was pretty good against Honduras. Wouldn't you agree? Like he had one... Yeah, he was. He, yeah, he had the one bad giveaway when the ball was at his feet where he passed it

directly to the pressure defender, similar to what he did against Mexico in the Nation's League final a couple of times. Sort it out, Mark. Sort it out. But overall he was solid. He had the, he had the amazing big brothering of a Honduras dude to key the second goal. That's true. And then let's see what also I want to say about him. On the goal sequence at Honduras,

like he played it perfectly. So I've been watching that over and over again, in part to just make sure I'm being fair to bellow when I say that he had the biggest blown coverage of the sequence, even more than Brooks. And McKenzie played it perfectly. Like there was a moment of like it could have been panic, but he got tight on his man, goal side of his man,

for his guy to do anything, it would have taken a perfect cross from the wing and a perfect execution from the attacker. And, you know, when you're playing, a lot of the teams were playing against, you don't get those levels of perfection. So as long as you don't just completely blow your coverage and leave a man wide open five yards out from goal,

most teams aren't going to score against us. Yeah. Yeah, so there's plenty of reason to be bullish about McKenzie, except for that lingering feeling that he may make a terrible mistake. kid any moment. Who do you have as the fullbacks? So here I'm rotating both and going with Yedlin and Bellow. And that seems pretty straightforward to me.

Now it's possible Burrhalter just likes Shackmore better and Shackmore would have been ahead of Yedlin last camp. But for his club situation coming off the Gold Cup, I think that's unlikely. I think Berthelter trust Yedlin in these games. Whatever his shortcomings might be, I think he believes Yedlin will get the job done. I don't really have a problem with it either. Where do you stand on it? I was going to play more in Robinson, to have Robinson be the left back again. I do see the logic of Bello starting this game because it's a game where we're,

it's almost like we can say, you know what, if you want to make another mistake, do it down in Panama where we can drop points, you know. And it's like, it's weirdly okay. But, but yeah, I'll take more. Kind of. I'll take more over, Yedlin at right back. Okay. All right.

So, but you're sticking with Robinson because you want to. Because I want to win. Robinson or did you cave? Because I want to win the game. So I'm going with Robinson. All right. All right. Now I'm going to be listening really closely to your Costa Rica projection, too.

But I'm with you. Like, Bello makes me nervous. And I would actually, the way I would disagree is that, I don't think we can really, even though I'm rotating too, dropping points to Panama could be a bit costly. Panama had a good window in the first window. So that suddenly makes them a threat to be our main competition for like third, fourth, that dividing line between auto-qualify and have to go to a playoff. So making sure Panama don't get points could actually end up being a big deal. I think a draw would be fine because we'd be denying them the three points at home.

And I think we can, you know, I feel like the lineup I put out there against Panama can beat Panama. So, and I, you know, we could beat them on any given night with any given iteration of this roster. So that's a fact as well. Just for anyone who's not following all of the windows really closely. So last window, Panama tied Mexico at home, which I feel like for them would be considered like a bonus point over the whole campaign. So even though, you know, that win at home draw on the road is everyone's mantra, like drill down and be like, okay, but in this game, what's the, what's a happy outcome and what's not? I didn't say happy ending. What's a happy outcome?

And Panama getting a point against any point against Mexico in either of their two games, I think, is a good outcome for them. So they're happy with that. And they beat Jamaica 3-0 on the road. So they've basically set the Jamaica narrative as Jamaica struggling because of that 3-0 win. And then they tied Costa Rica in Costa Rica. So Panama had a got two points out of two of the tougher games historically in in the Conccaf region. They annihilated Jamaica too. I mean, the scoreline was not flattering to them.

It all started with a, with their, one of their young centerbacks stepping, winning the ball at midfield, dribbling to the top of the 18 and then just hitting an absolute rifle with his left. put into the bottom corner. A kid who plays in for Armenia, Bielfeld, but never almost doesn't play, you know, he has like 30 minutes on the season. So, so yeah, it could be a tough game down in Panama City. That doesn't mean I want to start Bello, though. Okay, fair enough. And I already have to correct myself, so no one comes after me.

That Coastaligid draw, I'm sorry, was actually in Panama City. Okay. So it wasn't, that's no longer, I mean, it's still probably not. a pushover, but no longer like hardest game in Conca Calf territory. Okay, yeah. Well, this is, so that means this is their only home, their only home game of the window is the one against us

in the middle of the window. Who do they bracket us with? Do you have that? Oh, I've got that. It's not bracketed the same way as last window where it's like a mini league. And I should, you should have pointed this out for Jamaica too. We could see pre-rotation from Jamaica because they have two

other games against teams that they might consider more important to get points from. They play Canada in game two, and that's a home game for them. And then they play at Honduras in game three. That's Jamaica. So they could rotate against us being like whatever we'll tank and we'll save our reserves, our fuel for the next two games, which are going to be more important. I'll believe the tanking when I see it. Interesting. Well, interesting thing about that Panama drubbing of Jamaica in Kingston is that that was Michaela Antonio's only game he played of the window,

and they totally shut him down, like he didn't do anything, which is striking because he's, like, one of the best strikers in the Premier League so far this season. Yeah, I just want to say that. What were you going to say? Well, then I was just going to get into Panama and their opponents.

So they've got El Salvador a match day one, and that's away, which it's not easy to go there and get a result as we learned. and then they've got us in Panama City for game two, and then they're playing in Canada, and I don't know where that game's going to be played in Canada, but that's their third match. So I'm not sure how they will rotate for that.

I know Honduras last window rotated everyone away to El Salvador and still got to draw, so Panama, again, might pre-rotate against El Salvador and think that they can get that point or even three versus us at home. It's going to be really interesting to see what everyone does on that first. match day. Okay, so let's go to the midfield. You've got

Bello and Yedlin as your fullbacks. I've got Robinson and Moore. Who's your number six? This is where I'm running out, Kellynne Acosta, and I am giving Adams a break, and it's just because I want to make sure he's got legs. I know we ran him for 270 last window, but we also did a little bit of right backing with him, which was

ineffective. I want him in the center midfield when he's playing, and I want him to be physically able to dominate the games, and I don't want him fatigued for any of his minutes. Yeah. Especially when I think we have a solid backup and a Costa. I agree.

He's a solid backup and he's getting the nod from old bells too. Costa at the six. Who are your eights? I'm running McKinney and Legette. Okay. So I'm still not ready to throw Luca or Busio into the starting lineup. And I'm rotating Musa because while he has started for Valencia twice in wrong, gone 80, those were a week apart.

It's a different story to, you know, start back-to-back games in short turnaround. So giving Musa a little breather here. Okay. What if we just throw together an accidental recipe and just like try to tank the Panama game, put Bello and Buccio and De La Torre in the starting lineup and just roll the dice? So like a full Ted lasso, but then they prove us wrong and it's a real, real heartwarming story. Yeah, I would love that.

No, I've got McKinney and Mousa starting as my eights. in this game at Panama. Just because I want that toughness in the midfield and ball security. That's all fair. I like what Legit. I mean, Legette was a contributor in that away match to Honduras. So for his 45 minutes of the yacht. So I'm feeling better about him than I was a few months ago after a Gold Cup.

Yeah, I don't feel quite as much better about Legett as I did a month ago or a couple months ago than as you do. Does that sentence make any sense? I feel maybe a little better about Leggett, but not that much better. There's a Delta and how much better I feel about them than how much better you feel about it. There we go. There we go. Let's go to Winger. Let's go to Winger. But I am going to legit, there's good news for the Sebastian Legette team in the Costa Rica lineup. Okay. All right. Can't wait to hear what that is. And it's it's like you said, there's this with this group of center mids, like as long as we don't get cute, there are a lot of iterations that I'm going to be excited to see. Yeah.

I still hold out hope that legit could be a good performer consistently for the national team. Obviously, that was not going to happen in the last window. But anyway, who are your wingers against Panama? I'm starting waya and ariola. Wea and areola? Yeah, waya. and are my starters here, and I'm, uh, I've got Aronson and Hoppy available off the bench. Okay.

So this is this one, Roldon's not dressing and I don't know. I feel like it's one of those like, uh, Roldon's getting to be so underrated, he's overrated situations. Yeah. Um, I'm going to start Hoppe and Arieola. Again, just a, just, I have, just have a, hopefully a scrappy battling, uh, lineup to face Panama and, and scratch out a win. or a draw would be fine.

Yep, and I'm not tied to, like, Waya for sure. I just feel like we're going to have to rotate somewhere, and I feel like Aronson's the guy to give a breather, too, in this away match, and Wea can just, Wea is such a good defender. I know that's Aronson's bit, too, that he can really be a nuisance. Waya just does more Big Brother defending for me.

Okay, yeah. Yeah, well, where do you put Hoppe on the Big Brother defending and continuing? Because he was a handful in the press in Go Cup. right? Yes, no, I would say not really. I wasn't terribly impressed with his defending. And most of it was, I didn't think he was a particularly organized defender. There was a lot of just like, he's a hustle defender and he's going to scrap.

And I don't think he'll back down from any challenges, but he's all over the place. And I feel like he almost like puts you in a bind as far as compromising your shape. And it's not always a huge deal. But like, that's what you see when you're watching him defend is he's a chaser. He's going to chase. Now you're making me feel like a rec soccer parent when I see somebody running fast and I'm like, yay! Okay. And then Stryker, who do you have?

I've got Zardas starting this one. Same. Same. Just a responsible, in my opinion, a responsible and reliable choice for a tough away game in Panama. So I'll just say then who I don't have in uniform and it's it's Boozio rolled on and Shaq Morgan. And I think this is what happens when you bring in that extra player per position group. Whoever that fifth man is or whoever that extra man is, fifth or seventh, depending on the line. I don't think you have to rotate that guy to like give him a consolation prize of starting or of dressing for a game.

Maybe Burrhalter does prefer that and likes to have that, you know, for man-man. management, but I'm just like, you know who your guys are and whoever that extra man is, he's the extra man and he sort of stays the extra man roster-wise as well. No, yeah, that'll be whoever ends up having to be on the bent or not dress for a couple of games, it is going to be kind of sad for them. But, you know, cry me a river. Just deal with it. Let's move on to the Costa Rica lineup.

Sure. Just for a note from last window, Zimmerman was the only outfield player other than Jackson Ewell, who was the late edition, who didn't play in any of the games. As I said, 20 out of 22 got starts. And Raldon was the guy who didn't start but played in all three matches. Yeah. Okay. So for the Costa Rica game in Columbus, October 7th, no, no, October 13th. scuffed is going to be there. We're going to have a tailgate party, so look for details on that. Turner and goal, who do you have his centerbacks? I'm back to Richards and Miles. Same.

And again, unless Richard, you know, if Richards has a shocker in game one, then he's pulled at half and it's McKenzie the rest of the way, right? Yeah, probably. For some reason I don't expect that. So, well, for some reason, I wonder if he'll have as much patience. with Richards as he had with McKenzie, Burrhalter, that is. Because he's had a lot of patience with McKenzie.

Wouldn't you say? Yeah. I mean, yes, he had the luxury of being patient with him in that Mexico game that matters but doesn't matter. You know, like it's a real test, but you have the luxury of letting the guy finish the test. And if he fails over the rest of the 90 minutes, McKenzie had really bottled it for 80 more minutes,

you know, 119 more minutes. which he did not do really right right then you don't make then you don't bring him in for any further tests potentially but he got to stay in there and he got to do well you can't do that if richards is having a howler if if that's happening in the first 45 minutes of a world cup qualifying game that you need points on you pull him and you throw in a guy who who has done a little bit better i just i don't think that's i don't either i don't think he's going to have a holler i think he's going to be fine. Okay, Richards and Miles, that's who I have starting in the Costa Rica game.

Who are your fullbacks? So I'm just going right back to Robinson and Dest, two starts for each of them over the window, both at home. I think that suits Sergenio Dest very well. I think Robinson has shown that he can probably play anywhere, but Homer or away, but this just gives him a break between starts, which I think is best case. Okay. I'll take, I'm going to put, in contradiction of some things.

I've said over the last month, I'm going to put Dest at left back and DeAndre Yedlin at right back. There we go. Okay. So you've gameed it so that you don't end up having to play Bello in a match, right? That's sort of the idea. Was that almost like your guideline here? Yeah.

And I think sort of, yeah. And I think Yedlin, because let's be honest about Bellow, he's full of promise. But his problem in the Honduras game, the mistake he made in the Honduras game is not an isolated mistake in his tape. That's, I think you've made this point before. It's true. He makes that,

he loses runners. I'm not saying he does it all the time, but it happens enough that this isn't just like, oh, that happened one time. So, yeah.

Yeah. I'll, I don't want to say, argue against my own, my own earlier comment. The tape, the one I was talking about was from maybe like two years, like first game of a season two years ago,

just as a, just as a disclaimer on that where he, again, just like doesn't recognize that there's it's the the shape is broken down and now it's defend the goal. That's the priority and you just have to defend the goal. So I'll also just kind of elaborate on why I give him the most blame. I think I may have already done it on the TSS crossover. But it's just, it's not a bang, bang play, right? Brooks gets beat and Brooks made a decision that wasn't necessarily the wrong decision to try to step. And then he failed to execute it and gets beat badly. Everyone else on

that play basically from then on, can see the whole play and make decisions based on it that should be pretty straightforward. Like Adams now has to recover and prevent that man who's who, I'm sorry, like Adams is chasing the guy who gets the through ball, right? And it's very clear that his job is to prevent that guy from dribbling in and scoring on Matt Turner, which he does. He forces a cross from like outside the box. As soon as Brooks gets beat, Honduras have two runners entering the, entering the box.

and the only guys who can get to them to cover them are McKenzie and Bellow. McKenzie does a perfect job getting the nearest guy, the near post run, and he's tight on him goal side. There's basically no ball that that guy can score on. And Bello just does not get anywhere near goal side of his man, even though there's no other decision to make. Like this is as straightforward as soccer decisions get, and he just jogs behind him.

He may as well just sit down. He's not doing anything. And what that allows the guy to do is it allows the server to not have to hit a perfect ball, and it allows the finisher to choose which finish he wants to make and a set of steps up however he needs to set them up and it ends up being like a difficult acrobatic finish on the play. But if Bellow's tight on that guy, none of that would even matter. Like most likely outcomes that he just clears the first ball away

because it's really easy to clear a ball while it's really hard to try to score with somebody draped all over you. Or the guy is super disrupted and can't get a good finish on frame. So if Bellow just does his job there, we probably don't give up a goal. I didn't realize it was so controversial that that was mostly Bellow's fault. I mean, well, I just hear mostly,

I mean, Brooks, we've heard a lot about Brooks's dip in form and, you know, because of that play. And it's not a great play for John Brooks. But John Brooks, you know,

isn't the, for me, isn't like the easiest thing to fix about that play. And I agree with you. Okay. So, Destin, I've got Destin,

Edelin at fullback. Who's your, who, how are you going to set up your midfield? So I'm bringing Adams back. I'm just running back, basically the, first game lineup. So I'll just tell everyone that right now. It's Adam McKinney-Musa.

Okay. I'm going to go Adams. And obviously, you know, if they're good. No, you go ahead. You first. Just the same thing that we talked about, Richards. If there are things in these games, performance-wise, that indicate that changes would help the team. Like, of course, you make them. If Boozio comes in for a sub-showing and totally carves up a defense, that could change the calculus here. And the same for any other guy who just has a light out showing because the data is still thin on a lot of these players. So if Luca comes in and is just an amazing ball progressive with the ball at his feet and then

keeps choosing the right passes to spring guys, like no brainer. You start them in this game. So the third game is going to be based on a lot of what we saw through the first two games, probably. Yeah. This is all of these rotation ideas are pretty provisional, but the third one is the most provisional of all. I've got Adams at the 6

And then Legette and Musa as my 8th So Legett gets his start McKenny has started the first two games for me already And I feel like At least On paper The Costa Rica game is the one where we're most likely To have just a ton of the ball

With them sitting back Do you agree with that? I'm going to have to listen to John Arnold To make sure because I don't know if Costa Rica is still running sort of their 5-4-1 where they sit deep and wait for you to get impatient and then just hammer you on the counter or if they're opening up a little bit better or how good their defensive passive shape is or what. So I'm really going to be banking on Arnold here. So you got to do a real good job leading that interview. Okay.

I'll do my best. I guess I just see I see Legette as, you know, if you look at all of these eights we brought, McKinney, De LaTore, Musa and Leget. The one that it's most, it's easiest to envision arriving in the box with the right timing to like put the ball in the goal. It's, it's legit for me. It's the most likely to do that. And so I want to see, I want to see him in this game because what we're going to need

our, we're going to need, you know, when Burrhalter ball comes to its consummation in this international window, we're going to need, you know, there's going to be that cutback from the man city zone and we're going to need legit arrival. and scoring goals. So one very specific thing in the game that is making me put legit in the starting lineup. Well, if people are listening closely, they know that I've got McKinney starting three games. And so it could easily be legit rotating in for him if he can't do that if physically he's

just taxed. Yeah. And I don't hate it. I don't hate what you're saying. I do think that's a strength of legit. He's an excellent. I think Bob Morocco pointed this out in a online conversation that while legit, you're Legette doesn't progress the ball by passing it spectacularly or at an elite level.

He's involved in a lot of ball progressions because he often receives the ball in advanced areas, which means he's getting into good areas to receive the ball pie, including, like you're saying, from those cutback zones where he can then score goals from inside the box. Yeah, I can't remember when it was that he did a lot of that, but I think it was maybe in the Friendly's last fall or something. Yeah, it was in the European window. where he was the March, well, the March friendlies he was doing it. And then he did it. He also did it in the November friendly when he wasn't playing as the false nine.

In second game, he came in as a midfielder. And I think had a goal and almost a second goal that got, yeah, he almost, he would have had a second goal in that Jamaica game, but for Sabas, or Panama. Sorry, we're all over the place, but for Sebastian Soto blocking it off the line. And then Soto went on to score in the same sequence. That's right. That's right. Okay. Who are your wingers against Costa Rica?

So I'm back to the same. It's Aronson and Wea. So I have Wea starting all three matches as well. But again, that'll all depend on how everyone's holding up. I have Erinson and Wea again, but I'm going to put Waya on the left wing this time. I mean, who cares because they're going to be. It's your world. They're going to end up switching places throughout the game if passes any precedent.

But I like, I do have some concerns about Dest as a left back and how he'll work together. with a left wing. It seems to me that Wea can be more of like the wide winger option. Yep. And DES could work better with that than Aronson, who will like almost automatically tuck in to the half space. Now it's a great shout. I forgot that you had desks there.

So, yep, perfect sense. Okay. And then Stryker, are you going back to Pepey or are you sticking with Zardis? So on paper, I'm going back to Pepe. I feel like if that's who you think, who you think is your best player, that's who you start in two matches. But again, if Pepe is invisible in game one and Zardaz is really active and we've, you know, he's coordinating really well with players around him in the game he starts, then it'd be easy to tip back over to Zardis. Yeah.

Same here. Peppy at Stryker. It's going to be exciting. It's exciting to have all three of these games coming up. I don't know what to think. I don't know what to expect. So what I kind of think about it going into it is, I think the flow. we set in the last window is a decent floor.

You know, like we didn't play great, but we didn't get like, other than that first 40 minutes against Honduras. And even that, they didn't like run through us. You know, it wasn't Matt Turner making save after save or, you know, shot after shot missing target. Like, it was just an even ugly game for 45 minutes. And it felt self-inflicted. And that's why there was so much sort of negative energy around it. But the floor we set as far as how we play last window is pretty fine. Like if that's as bad as we look, we're doing A-OK.

And I think there's just real reason to believe that we have a lot more that we can accomplish. You know, watching past cycles, it never felt like, oh, well, this guy who has, when we watch the team struggle in past cycles, it never felt like, oh, we just need this guy to hit the level that we know he's capable of playing at and it'll all be improved. Like, it never really felt like that. It was like, oh, this is where our players are and this is about as good as it's going to be. And I think now there's no question that there is untapped potential here with the player pool we have and what we've seen on the field so far. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess I just don't know how to tap that potential.

It doesn't like the midfield thing is kind of the key matter to me because part of me says, well, yeah, of course we should play our most talented players as the three midfielder's. Adams and Musa and McKenney. let's just run them off the field and, you know, keep the ball and win the ball and keep the ball and win the ball and just win the game that way. You know, we don't have to do something intricate. But then I think, well, like, if we do want to do the intricate thing and possess the ball, have little triangles all over the field, move the ball up to the field methodically, play beautiful soccer, which by the way, Heracles Almello does do. They play a very nice brand of soccer. then maybe we need Luca della Torre or maybe we need Jin Luca Buccio who looks who looks dare I say elegant in Syria over the past few weeks but like you can't do both you know

you can't have you can't have Mousa on the field and Luca Delo Torre unless you want to bench McKenny you can't have Adams on the field and Buccio unless you want to play Buccio as an eight and bench mousse or McKinney so it's like I don't know I don't know exactly what's going to make it work. And I feel like to go back to Catholicism for a second, I'm just ready to be surprised by whatever, you know, emerges as the solution. Surprised by joy. Yeah, hopefully that that is what's waiting for you. I'm just going to make one more, one more like a plea in regards to like Musa in regards to the beautiful game and what we could potentially see and how we could help us break things down. And it's a clip that Sanjay posted on

Twitter, maybe after the weekend. But it's Musa playing center mid, and it's him receiving the ball in a tight space with a guy on his back, Super Bowl secure, finds a little pass to a guy, like a little layoff, and then immediately bursts up field again. And I still think that is going to be the untapped avenue that we can use to get beyond defenses. And that's going to be the verticality coming from center mids rather than coming from Zardez or Pepe or the wingers.

and it's going to be adding that player who, you know, draws the attention to himself because he has the ball and people, you know, collapse onto the ball and then can release it and then win the ensuing race upfield from the guys who just collapsed on him. And I think that he can do it and I think McKinney can do it and even Adams can do it from the 6th. So I'm still holding out hope that that midfield is what can actually overrun teams who are sitting in a passive block. That it's not going to come from crosses.

It's not going to come from forwards running behind. but it's going to come from just a midfield avalanche racing onto them. You mentioned this in some online conversation earlier this week, but I want to ask you about it here. How do you feel about Burrhalter continuing to stress the importance of verticality when, like, this was in reference to why he didn't bring Jordan Pfeck, as he thought other strikers brought more line-stretching verticality? So I don't think that that's where we're going to win or lose,

so I don't think that's where we're going to increase the number of chances we create. I don't really care that it's artis instead of Pfok. I think Pfok's strength is actually sort of like the old school target man, where he sits up high and you can just sort of like hit a ball from deep into his body and he will hold it and sort of hold a guy off and then find somebody else. But I don't think that that's necessarily or are going to play. I think teams will have already given up a ton of the ground to us in this window. So it's going to be more about movement within that,

coordinated movement with your wingers. I don't know. I don't think that that's necessarily a strength of Pfok. I'm not saying he can't do it because I don't know that it's really a strength of Zardez either. But I don't think that the verticality Burralthur's stressing has been the problem. And it is a little concerning that he keeps harping on that. Like you can't talk about the goals we scored against Honduras and in any way translate them to how the game played out against Canada. Like those goals that we scored against Honduras, none of them came from like breaking down Honduras's block.

They all came from these transition moments, every single one of them. And the Canada goal came in a transition moment. And almost all of our Gold Cup goals came in these transition counterpressing moments. So we've gone so many games so long without actually showing that we can break down a block. That it's, I just, there's no part of me that thinks it's going to be verticality. I think if teams open themselves up, we can punish them with that. And I hope we do. If anyone wants to open up and play that way full on, I think we'll destroy them.

even without Poulosick and without Raina. But for me, it's about how are we going to break down a block. And I do think our midfield three can give us that ability to put defenses on their heels, even while they're sitting already with a low starting position, low line in confrontation. I do think that those midfielder's in the stable can do it. Okay. I'm optimistic. And I don't, I am not, you know, arguing that 100%

Luca del Torre is the solution. You know, it's just a, as a, as someone who's always looking for solutions for this team, it's alluring to think of him that way, you know. But I recognize that he's probably not the solution. He totally could, man. Like, again, going, going through that Canada game, going through the Honduras Nation's League game, it was every bit almost like the mentality of like, okay, how do you push them back and then create just a little window?

You don't have to do it all at once. Can you create a little bit of a window? little bit of this rondo mentality and that's de la tore is totally a rondo player so bringing that mentality into this game uh could 100% be enough to break open a block because you just need that you just need that first dent you got to dent it somewhere and then see if you can make the rest of it collapse and we just weren't trying that against camp yeah all right everybody um we've got john arnold tomorrow uh waki and concaf edgar are gonna and i are going to do office hours on game day Greg, you're welcome to join us. No pressure.

Thursday at noon Eastern, I believe. And then we'll do a game recap on Friday. So a lot of content coming your way. I'll keep this brief. If you like the podcast, leave a review. I never ask for that, but I'm supposed to. I'm supposed to ask for that. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

And then, you know, check out the Patreon. I'll leave a link in the show notes and it's all explained on there. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see ya.