Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #206: Office Hours, Vol. 2 — Jamaica gameday, Busio song, legislatures, etc.

Episode Date: October 7, 2021

Almost too much to summarize. Edgar Moreno and Watke join Belz for a sprawling conversation and the release of a new song about Busio.https://twitter.com/watke_https://twitter.com/ConcacafEdgarcontact: [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. Waki, how you doing? I'm doing very well, Adam. Thank you for asking. Good. We've got a third guy in here today. Edgar Moreno, he's based in Dallas, and he's one of the guys running the first touch Twitter spaces that go down late at night. A very cool get-together of USM&T folks from all over the country. I kind of like to call it the late show with J.N. and Edgar, but nobody asked me. How are you, man? Yeah, I'm good, man. Thanks for having me here. Yeah.

I've been Twitter buddies with Jay for a long time, and I really like him and I'm a big fan of what you guys are doing. How did it get started? Can you tell us that real quick before we get into this? It was after the Salvador game. That draw, we just, I just started one, and I started cursing at Greg, and we had over, like, 200 people joining to do the same thing.

Some of the best things come from you're just cursing at Greg. And the next thing you know, you got a Twitter spaces. Yeah, and then that's sort of how we came up with the idea to do it. And, yeah. Nice. Yeah, it's, it's cool. I mean, I'll just say it straight out. It's cool to see a bunch of Latino dudes who are, like, experts on the USMNT and, like, big fans, you know?

Yeah, yeah, we got a lot of them. A lot of people talk Spanish in that space, too. Even get some El-3 fans in there sometimes. Yeah, sometimes. We get some Jamaicans in there, too. Oh, that's good. I'd be interested to learn more about the Jamaica situation because we're planning them today.

Let's do five or so minutes on Jamaica. It's obviously game day. Game is at 7.30 p.m. Eastern time, actually 7.45 p.m. eastern time, I guess. Jamaica's reeling a little bit from the last window. They've got some absences in the midfield. West Ham legend Michael Antonio hasn't quite locked it in

How are we feeling? How are we feeling? I think we should win comfortably. Well, from what I hear, it sounds like Jamaica is just in complete disorder. So, I would be pretty unhappy if we just didn't vary completely when the game.

I have some other thoughts about the window, though. The first is that I'm just really glad that Weston is back and that it wasn't almost a reputable situation like Donovan described. So that's my main thing. Donovan's still going.

Donovan's still going with that line of thinking though. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what's going on with him. Why won't he stop doing this? Can you just leave Weston out of it in my opinion? I tweeted about it, but if I'm Weston,

I'm looking at, I'm reading the internet, scrolling through it, and then Donovan is talking about, like, the problem with the younger generation, let me just give Weston as an example. Like, why is he doing that? What's going on here? We just call Weston, if you want to talk to him about this. Is Landon Donovan a journalist? What's going on?

Or is he a coach? That's my thing. Do deal with your problems one-on-one with the person you have a problem with? It's not clear. Is he doing, is he a pundit? I don't even know what I'm supposed to think about it. Also, when he says almost irreparable, that's just not correct, it turns out. So it seems like Landoneman doesn't care about words that much.

How am I supposed to take the rest of his word seriously? This is something I'm very emotional about, so I'll stop there. Oh, no, it just seems more like a personal problem than anything now. Because he brings it up a lot. Two times, at least, very forcefully, very publicly. Oh, so Antonio stayed in England. Forgive me on that front. Is that true?

He's definitely not on this roster? Yeah, well, we had a Jamaican talking there, and he talks to one of the reporters from Jamaica. And I don't know if it's true, but he said that they didn't book his flight on time, and the club decided to just not let him come. Man, that really brings up, yeah, somebody posted the John Arnold tweet from two days ago. I'm sorry, I missed that. That really brings up the point that John Arnold made on the podcast earlier this week, that, you know, this like the incorporation of these, of the dual nationals from English. England has a little bit, has been a little bit hard for Jamaica. I think it's probably another example of that.

There's just so much logistical stuff involved in getting people to camp too. But like with the flight. It sounds, it's a lot of stuff. And it seems like Jamaica maybe hasn't handled that as well as they might have. I'm obviously late to the news, but that really reduces my anxiety about tonight. Yeah, it's not just him, though. It's a lot of players. Yeah, Daniel Johnson, too, right?

Daniel Johnson, Ethan Pinoc, Liam Moore, and the whole midfield. Is that all their good players? Yeah, they're all playing in England. Well, that's good. I mean, not for them. I wish Jamaica would get it together. But against us, I'm pretty happy with that. And I do normally approach these games with the deep anxiety,

and I don't really feel like that right now. Yeah. And of course, Bailey's out as well. That's been known. You had a couple other thoughts, Waki. Go forward. Yeah, so my main other thought for the cycle is I don't want Dust to play against Panama.

Like, I don't really, I've seen, I think you've actually said it, that you, at some point he's going to have to prove himself in Conccaf. I don't care. I don't need him to prove himself in Conccaf. I'm fine with him never proving himself in Concaf because I think, for me, qualifying is just kind of a prelude to him proving himself in

like in like a weird air condition stadium of Doha I don't and not just I don't see how we doesn't make sense to me that we should expect him to perform well at a way game

wherever where there's like the light balance on the TV is wrong and it's a bad sound mix like that's not really what he signed up for and it doesn't really seem like the right environment for him. So play him in the home games. I don't want to see him in Panama.

I was told not to ask your opinion on Desk, Edgar. So naturally, I'm going to ask that. What's, what? Yeah. What do you got? Well, a lot of people think I have an agenda against him. But the only thing I don't like about him is his defending is pretty lazy. That's really his only flaw.

I mean, he's a good player, but it seems like every time he plays with the U.S. he's like too confident on one-on-ones and he always he always becomes a liability yeah i don't want him to play i think he's maybe not that good a defense i'm i'm wondering if the confidence he's projecting that out and actually he's not that confident i mean we'll have to see that could be yeah i feel like he plays good defense when he has to when he absolutely has to and when uh but he can he can definitely defense. It just, it seems like he decides not to at times. Yeah. Let's

move on to the most, my, my favorite player right now. Probably yours. Did you guys read that Ricardo Pepe profile on ESPN's website by a guy from El Paso? Yeah. I did. Yeah, yeah, I saw it. I cried several times during, I didn't I couldn't even figure out exactly why I was crying,

but it was very good piece. Yeah, it was a good one. I teared up about the parenting stuff, you know, like his mama talking about him leaving home at 13. A factor that I've heard many times, but somehow hearing Annette Pepe talk about it was different for me. I want to hear your latest thoughts on Pepey.

You're an FC Dallas guy. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I go to the stadium every game. I just go watch Pepey score because the team always loses. I kind of do the same thing on TV. Yeah, that is my experience watching them. TV. My favorite part of the piece where he said, apparently before every game he says to his family,

I'm going to score, I'm going to score, I'm going to score. Apparently, he does it three times in a row, which I felt was really powerful. I don't know why. That's how you make things come true. Pepey, I, he just kind of has this aura. So pretty much everything written about him is very good. This was like by far the best thing. but even the things the normal things written about them

they always have this energy that I feel a little bit knocked over by because he has just this way of saying very little within the piece itself and then there's a reference to him taking out the trash or just like a normal thing or like standing next to his Camaro and somehow from reading I'm just always convinced like this guy is going to be a superstar I don't understand how he's able to accomplish this in just like this written piece where he just has a couple quotes

that are really good. I guess it's the backstory, but I think he just also just has an aura to him. Yeah, that was also my favorite part of the article. The picture of him with a Camaro? Yeah, I don't like Camaro's. Yeah, I didn't... I mean, I don't like Cameras either,

but him standing by his Camero. I did like that. What's the... Why... Yeah, it's... Funny, him and he has a Camero and then Jesus Ferreira has a Mustang. Huh. So you prefer the Mustang?

Yeah, I have a Mustang. It's like a race car. The interesting about Mustangs is I know people when they're driving down the road and they pass someone else in a Mustang, they do a little Mustang wave to each other. Maybe it's not a special way, but I know there's like kind of an in-crowd reading you give to each other. Yeah, something like that. I don't do that with my minivan. What kind of meaning do you have?

I have a Toyota, Sienna. Yeah, you're not going to do it in a Sienna. Yeah, we're all just sort of vaguely embarrassed by the vehicle we drive. Well, you know, PEPI's, so I see that piece. Like, the other thing that struck me about it is a 10-hour drive from El Paso. It's like, that's a long way. I didn't realize it was. I had no idea Texas was that big, Edgar.

Yeah, it's really big. I was actually looking at a meme that says Europeans say that they could spend a day in Germany and then go, you know, the same day they can be in Italy, but you drive 10 hours here in Texas and then you're still in Texas. Yeah, 10 hours, that's like from, I guess I don't need to give an example of how.

But it's a long way. I was going to try to think of two cities, but everyone listening to this lives in America and knows that. Can you give us, you know, Pepi's obviously the good one, not the good one. He's the happy news because he chose the U.S. But we got A Raho choose in Mexico, and what's the latest on, well, Edgar, I want to hear your reaction to that. And then also, can you give us the rundown on what you're seeing about Gomez and Ledesma?

I know the Discord lit up over some of that stuff. Well, Ledesma, he came out in that, I don't know if I saw his interview in the Kooligan. and the Kooligans. He said he wasn't committed to the U.S., and he's been liking all of the posts about Mexico when they tell him to go play for them. And David Ochoa now it's commenting Mexico flags under his comments like he was a fan,

so I don't know. It might be that he's going to move. How much impact do you feel like the Mexican flags being posted or American flags have on these players, just in your experience? That depends on the player. I feel like they make more of an impact on a player that lives abroad and never lives here like Destin Musa than a player that, you know, grow up here, especially a Mexican-American. Oh, that's a good point.

Are there things about... Yeah. Yeah. I guess my... It seems like... It seems like there's all this tension around what a team, which player teams... Which team a player is going to play for? and the best thing to do

is to be to stop considering Mexico arrival and that would completely solve the situation. You just think of them as more of a partner in soccer. Because I'm just thinking forward, I'm imagining David Ochoa and Julian Arajo playing for Mexico on the team. At that point, it would seem to be impossible to actually root against them.

So, like, how, how, how, How about they're just not a rival anymore? They're just another team I root for. I think that's the solution for me. I come at it from a little bit of a different perspective. And then our rival should be either candidate or England. Yeah. Well, it's always been that rivalry since I was a kid.

Because I lived in Mexico like for nine years when my parents split. And when Mexico played in the U.S., all my family would tell me, oh, no, you can't root for Mexico because you were born here. So that's how I started rooting for. for the U.S., but there's a saying that if there's anything a Mexican hates, it's if they lose to the U.S. at something. Where in Mexico? Where in Mexico did you live?

I lived in Guerrero, Mexico. It's all the way down south. Like south of Mexico City? Yeah. No, no. Like, it's a state, but it's really far. It's actually the second poorest state in Mexico behind Chappas. it's like a 28-hour drive for me

from where I am to over there. I think Jay told me you served in the U.S. military too. Is that true? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I got discharged because I got injured. Which branch? Back the army. I don't know.

I don't really know that much about the military. But I do know the difference with the Army and the Marines and the Air Force. I do know those four. Yeah, you didn't say Coast Guard. You left out Coast Guard. I don't know why you did that, but that's the fifth one. That's the chillest one.

So you feel like, so you feel kind of, um, worried about Ledesma. What about Jogo? Well, Jogo's dad, uh, I think somebody, because I'm in a couple of U.S. chats and somebody messages dad and his dad said that, uh, Jogo wants to try out like a U.S. camp, but they haven't been in contact with them since like early 20, 2021. Yeah. The problem is they don't have the any. youth camps.

Well, not even for like a senior camp, like just to train. Because Mexico took them to a senior camp to train. Yeah, I think we should try to have some youth camps. Yeah, we should. We need some donations to get that going. Yeah, I saw that. If anybody who missed this, the USMNT account, so the men's national team main account put out a call yesterday for donations for the youth national teams

with an accompanying piece on Gabe's Lundee. Nina, the goalkeeper at Chicago, who was pretty good. And it was, so it was almost like an Amnesty International advertisement or something. Yeah. And I was, I was perplexed by that. I think a lot of people were. Yeah. Yeah.

But I did. Yeah. Yeah, it's like a bake sale or, you know, like a, I don't know. The local school where I live, where my, where my oldest kid goes to school, they sell like butter braids, these bread things that they sell, you, you're like, it's your responsibility to sell as many as you can to everybody you know. So it reminds me something like that.

That was kind of the vibe I was getting. Yeah, something like that. I always, whenever, it's always weird to think about when something like that happens when they're asking for money because whenever I think about the national team, I kind of slip into thinking that the team is just the United States.

And so why would the United States need to be asking me for money? But they're not actually the United States. they're just a nonprofit that has the United States in their name. A relatively small one for the profile that it has, I would argue. And also in my experience, non-profits, they're just kind of obsessed with getting revenue.

So, because I can't, I guess they can't get people to invest in U.S. soccer. I don't actually know what I'm talking about in terms of, like, organizational structure of nonprofits, but that's kind of my impression. How else am I supposed to think about this? Do you have any ideas around this? I don't know if I should be sending the U.S. National Youth National Team money right now.

I guess what I'm asking. Yeah, I don't know. I clicked on it just to see how it was, and they had the option to send it weekly, monthly, or just one time. If I were going to send them money, I would not set it monthly. I would do it a one-time thing.

First off. Yeah. I'm all about monthly donations. for the record. But, um... I mean, yeah, if you're doing scuffed, yes. Yeah, I did, I did have somebody, um, come in to my DMs and say that they've been donating to the youth national teams for like, like, decades.

So apparently this has been going on. It's not like totally new. Oh. It's just, uh, a sort of new thing. Let's, let's move on. Let's, well, I just want to say quickly, um, thank you, Ricardo for choosing the USA. And, um, um, um, um, that's it for me on that.

I, you know, somebody, quick note, somebody said we should talk about Robert Carrow's epic biography of LBJ. It's like five parts, I think, and there's still one part yet to come out. And Carrow is just, you know, kind of hanging on by a thread in his late 80s. But we can't get into detail. The reason is because LBJ, the theater of Lyndon Baines Johnson's shenanigans, was Austin, a lot of them, before the theater moved to Washington, D.C., of course. but we're not going to be able to get into it

even though it's a good idea to get into it so we'll get into that more I know a lot of people are probably really disappointed about that but we just, it's just a really long book series and we just didn't have time to read it we should have thought it that sooner but we couldn't get to the whole thing. I've read parts of like two of them.

It is incredible. The work, that whole work is incredible. Yes. All right, before we get to questions, which we will get too soon, I have a little something that I'd like to debut. I think you two know what it is. But let me give it a little backstory.

You saw that? Did you see that little analysis video from USM&T Stan on Buccio? I did, yes. Yeah. Very good. I saw that and I was like, dang, there's a line in there where he goes, Buccio's getting better fast, so fast. And I was like, hmm, maybe he is getting better.

The video talked about him checking his mirrors, a phrase I loved, and finding pockets of space and making quick decisions. and I was sitting on my back porch on Sunday. The baby was taking a nap and the older kids were doing something useful and it was a perfect time for me to sit down on Wy Scout and watch all of Buccio's involvement in the past three matches.

I did that and as many of you know, I've been a Buccio skeptic or at least I've withheld praise and I was, but I was sitting there, the breeze blowing across my face and I found myself having a change of heart. And I opened up voice memos and I sang a few lines.

And here's what I landed on by Tuesday morning. Oh, John Luca, I'm so sorry that I didn't understand. Didn't understand you are the future of America. Burr-Halter needed someone who could drop in, someone who could drop up in on the other touchline. Oh, John Luca I'm so sorry that I didn't understand You are the future of America

You went to Venezuela Little Italian club A little Italian club And now you're playing in the top flight Playing in the top flight Now you look so good Playing against A.C. Milan In the top flight,

Mm-hmm, in the top flight, mm-hmm. Burrhalter needed someone who could drop in. Burr-Halter needed someone who could drop a pin on the other touchline. Oh, John Luca, I'm so sorry that I'm. Didn't understand Didn't understand You are the future of America In Italia

You've gotten better to be fair in my defense Fair in my defense But you were pretty Good at a lot of the same things back in Kansas City Kansas City Oh, John Luca I'm so sorry that I didn't understand

You are the future of America It's such a good song, Adam First of all, I just don't want to say that And I have a really, I was listening to that It was really difficult to not start singing along with it And it's like That's a good rhythm It's just like when it opens

Oh, G and Luca, I'm so sorry I didn't understand. It's like, you know right away, everyone listening, it's like, this is going to be a really vulnerable and emotional song. And I just like, so it was just like, I really enjoyed it so much. And but even at that point, you like, you kind of don't anticipate how powerful it's going to build throughout. It's going to be like this richly layered thing.

So I think it's just a really great job. Thanks, man. And I should say, I'm not even entirely sure that I believe the song, you know? You don't need to. It's like you could hear your voice. that you were committing to it emotionally is the more important thing. Well, that's the debut of the song.

Edgar's like, what the hell is this podcast? No, no. But, no, it was a good song, man. I mean, Edgar, we can admit, it was a pretty weird song, right? Yeah, it starts this purpose. But it's like when it hits, that little Italian club line,

that's what it really all starts to set in for me. Yeah. And then it goes, like, down a couple octaves. They play in the top plate. And that's what I kind of keeps it contained. Kind of like it's guarded reserve to it. But then it's also letting it build. That's how I kind of, I've listened to the song quite a few times.

So I've already developed some thoughts about it. My favorite part is the big falsetto on the big climax, you know. And I, if you watch the video that I put in the chat, which hopefully nobody puts anywhere else because I do want to tweet that out eventually. I have the slow-mo of John Luca jumping, you know, after his goal celebration, as it builds on that big apology. And that's the part that I really like the most. Do you think this song will help?

Because Gian La Cibousio is another player I consider that probably doesn't like you that much, just because you really went pretty aggressively against this U-17 World Cup team. Do you think like this could help build that bridge? a little bit because it would be good to get eventually I'd like to have Giorina to come on office hours and I think just because he's friends with Boussi that could be a good way to get to him. I'm hoping he hears this song is kind of overwhelmed by it because it's so, like I said, it is so vulnerable and I think it could help reach him. But, you know, we'll see.

Yeah, we should note that as a matter of policy, the goal of the podcast of office hours from here on out is to get Gio Raina on it. We will have to make sure that he understands discord before we start. That is like pretty much the first time I came here. I kind of thought like that is going to be the goal. And I'm just glad to hear you say it. Yeah. And I think maybe I don't think it's going to build a bridge between me and John Luca. But, you know, ultimately it's not about that for me.

It's about self-expression. You know what I'm saying? And in that regard, I think you really did a fantastic job. Are you thinking of doing more songs like this? I was thinking maybe this gets turned on a whole album. I do want to write something about Peppy, but I got to, you know, it's, you never know when it's going to, you know, when it's going to come down on you. Well, the advantage is you're making a first album right now. And so you can just let it happen as it happens.

The pressure is going to come after that on the second album where it's like, all right, you got a year and you got to put one out. But you're not in that situation right now. So I would say just organically make a bunch of songs, put them out. I think in this one you've got a serious hit on your hands as far as I'm. Yeah, I'm like crash test dummies before. Exactly. Kind of like happened. All right.

Should we move into some questions? Yes. Guys? Yeah. Car wash comrades says, if you had to import one player from outside concaf into the USMNT, purely for concafri, S-H-I-T-H-I-T-H-Rie vibes

Who would it be? Bonus points for fitting it into the tactic. Let's let Edgar take a swing at this first. No, does he mean like somebody that's like, you know, Conca-Cath material or just anybody in general? Yeah, I think Concaf material is what we're looking for. And I know the type... Maybe...

Maybe Argentina's goalkeeper... Ah, that's a great answer. That's the best answer for Edgar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that dude is crazy. Of course, that's who. I was thinking about it, but that's obviously the best answer.

I don't even know that I want to give my answer now. Yes. I was just thinking, like, I couldn't think of the perfect one. Of course, that's the correct answer now. So I was just thinking in terms of a type of player, which I would just want a complete maniac type. But now that you say that Evie Martinez, that's the type I want. I was thinking maybe we could, like,

you could also have like a John. Brooks type who's kind of a more of a steady as she goes shit house depth type option as a compliment to the maniac but I think Evie Martinez is what I would go with now that I think about it

yeah you could also have like a second you could go with a second wave guy the guy who kind of fills in he's higher energy than the Brooks type and he's more combative but he's not the instigator

but when you see a scuffle it's guy who's running late. So I was trying to think of a good guy for that. But really, it's your answer, and that's just such a very good answer. Yeah, I'm going to stick with Edgar's answer to. Jake says, why do people hate Zardis and Ariola? Is it the dyed blonde hair? I don't want either on the plane to Qatar.

But with some injuries like we have, I don't mind them on the October roster. I think there will be some answers to this, but I don't even feel like people hate them that much. Maybe I'm listening to the wrong people. I don't know. I can see a lot of areola slander. I think they softened up on Sardis now. But ariola, not so much.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I took hatred as to people saying mean things about them. Sure. Yeah, sure. And normally when I find myself getting, when I tweet angry things, more often than that, I can just trace it back to maybe I'm not feeling great at that moment. maybe I'm secure about myself

I think that's kind of what's going on when you see a tweet that you don't like it's like they're just not they're going through a difficult time in their life at that moment and it's important to keep that perspective for me and it's just like another thing it's also hard to come up with interesting things to tweet

and sometimes you just want to you just want to put off a negative tweet so that's kind of my main thinking there also Ariel is isn't that good so I can understand being not wanting him on the field He's fine. He is what he is. He's what he is.

I think anything I get angry about, I can sort of trace to my own insecurity. Should we get a psychiatrist in here? I would love to do that. Yeah. Owen, if you had to make a four-person boy band of USM&T players who would be in it and what would their personas be, this seems to be a popular form of question. Yeah. I like this.

I like it. I think we've talked about an escape room. Actually, there's another question about escape room. With boy bands, there are these particular personas you do need to hit. For me, I have Wea in my boy band. He's the talented one, also kind of the heartthrop. That's kind of a no-brainer. He's also an actual singer.

He's definitely in. Then he won a goofball character, so Weston. And I have Hoppy as the bad boy. And then this is, you know, I have Ledesma as the boy next door, baby face. I know that's maybe not the standard player to put there, but I do like Ledesma for that. And then if you have a fifth member, you want to go with kind of an older brother persona. So for me, that's either Turner or Stefan, and I don't want to get into just setting with it to do. I have Stefan just because I want to shade the boy band a little more bad boy.

So that's kind of my rundown of what I'm thinking. I don't know how you can leave Legit out. Yeah. I mean, honestly, Legit didn't even occur to me to put in. And I know you've talked about this with Greg quite a lot. I don't, I'm not as struck by Legit as you guys are. I kind of get it just looking at his face, but I don't actually think it translates to the boy band for me anyway.

But this is too, like a contentious thing. So. People are going to have their different opinions on. Yeah. Edgar. I go with the same thing, but instead of Ledesma out for Musa. Oh. Why are you taking Ledesma out though?

Yeah, Musa brings that, I don't know, that smile, that hype. And he can dance. I don't know if he's seen his videos dancing. I haven't. Yeah. So it's not, you're not, it's not a shot against Ledzma. You just really like what Moose is bringing. No, no, no, I love Ledesma.

Okay. Somebody, Grover in the chat says, Buccio for the hair. Let me just read a couple other things. Trace said, going back to the Concafrey question, says Suarez would fit in well in Concafayette, Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan, of course. Uffizio says,

doesn't Geo have to be in the boy band somehow? And I sympathize with that. I think you got, I would replace Hopiope. with Gio as the bad boy. Now that you say that, yeah, I would switch this out too. I got that one wrong. That's on me hand up here.

Yeah, come on. Own your mistakes. I don't know what I was thinking. Of course, Gio needs to be in the boy band. I would replace Weston with Legit. Wea is indisputable. Weston with the Jet. Weston is the goofball character.

You have a completely unbalanced boy band at that point if you're replacing legit with it. If you're putting Legit for Weston. I get what you're saying with legit I don't think you switch them out for Weston I do We do agree that Ledesma is tailor made Chris and I agree that

Ledesma's Taylor made for a boy band I just hope he's in our band And not Becky G's band For me you would need to switch legit in for Waya Which I'm not going to do that But you know This is why I don't want to get into too much who this is kind of a contentious thing.

David asks, on the next question, David asks, how is Matt Turner so good at stopping penalties? This is a kind of difficult question. Because, I mean, with keepers, just kind of impossible to know. But I was thinking it's a combination of instincts, mechanics, and, like, psychology. But I'm just kind of guessing,

because I don't think anyone I really understands. I mean, it's his style as a keeper. He's a pure shot stopper. You know, there's keepers that, well, I've seen a lot of keepers and on penalties, they don't wait for the person who's in a kick to shoot. They just die for their instinct.

And it seems like Turner waits for the kicker to, you know, show where he's in a shoot and then he died. Oh. So that's a... He's like a... He takes a gamble. And it works for him, so... So you think it's down to the instinct? Yeah.

I never know with keepers. I like that. I can go with that. My sense of... This isn't exactly about penalties, my sense of good goalkeeping is you have to get so automatic with the proper motions. This is mostly from listening to Greg Velazquez for the last three years. Talk about it. And get your feet set to explode in the direction you want to go in, which fits very much with

what Edgar said, that you do it all the time, like in front of the dishwasher, as cars go by on the street, whenever you turn the page of a book. And I think, you know, Turner's really good at getting his feet set before the moment of explosion, and I think in order to be so good at that, you have to have a few screws loose. It does seem like it helps to be a little bit of a crazy person. Whenever I'm listening to the scuff podcast, I feel like Greg's about to go on a big, say a bunch of stuff about being a goalkeeper, but he just doesn't. He holds it back, and I'm like, well, I want to know because it's all kind of a mystery to me.

But I understand why he doesn't, because no one really cares about goalkeeping. Yeah. No, that's not a shot of goalkeepers. I think that's kind of a situation. Well, that's one reason that... Go ahead, Decker. Sorry. They don't get the attention they deserve, in my opinion.

Yeah. But as a result of that, it was much more important for Pepey to choose the USA than David Ochoa. Just to sort of bring things full circle here. Much would rather have Pepe than Ochoa if we have to choose between the two. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I do wish David Ochoa had played decided to play for the U.S. But that kid does not know what he got himself into. What do you mean? Oh man. Over there, in Mexico, like, because most of the people

that won David in Mexico are the Mexican Americans, like me, right, but they're rude for Mexico. But in Mexico, like people that live there, they don't like people born in here, man. Yeah. Like, one out of ten people might, but

the rest, you know, the other nine don't. And especially when you don't speak Spanish well, whenever he messes up. Because you know how he messed up in the Olympic qualifiers? Yeah. If he does that in Mexico, he's not going to see the end of it. You mean mess up with his goalkeeping, not with Mexico, or with speaking Spanish? No. No, his goalkeeper.

Oh, even, no, even speaking Spanish because back in 2007, they had a player that was born in Mexico, but his parents are from Eurowife because that he used to play. later that's why and he played for Mexico and whenever he would have messed up they would always, the first thing they would talk bad about was his voice because he had the Euro-Iian accent. It wasn't even about his football or nothing so. Do, um, just, David,

Desma doesn't speak Spanish very well at all, right? That's my understanding. No, he, he doesn't, yeah. He can't say a whole sentence now. What? He ends up talking in English when he starts talking in Spanish. It's like after he starts stuttering, he says the word in English.

also ladezma just said on the scuff podcast he was going to play for the u.s so i'm i've taken him foley as a word on that i would hope so those kids that switch to mexico they don't know they don't really know what they're getting themselves into because they've never lived it hmm but it was that's a little bit your story right you chose to play you chose to root for the u.s because your relatives in mexico were making fun of you from for being from the u.s. telling you you had to root for the yeah yeah yeah basically Yeah, I mean, that's a dynamic I think a lot of people don't talk about. I mean, basically the only person people have ever heard talk about it are you, Jay, and Beto, you know.

Yeah. There was a mention of it in the ESPN story about Peppy. It seems like this player is just like, I don't know if I read the articles about David and Julian when they switched. Yes. What I got from them is like, I just played for the U.S. just because it was convenient at the time, but I've always wanted to play with Mexico. That's what it seems like. I definitely gather that from Ochoa. I feel like Araujo.

Yeah. But Julian kind of said the same thing. He said his heart was always with Mexico that he dreamed of playing there and whatever. How, yeah. What percentage of Mexican Americans do you think will end up playing for Mexico? We'll probably get two out of ten. For the U.S., you mean? Yeah, the U.S. would get two out of ten.

I've kind of adjusted that seems to make sense. I wish that, I wish it were more than two out of ten. I'll confess. It's because you, as a Mexican-American here, especially with like Mexico families, you grow up watching Mexico, you know? And I had somebody comment something on one of my posts one time said that either you grow out of it

or you just, you know, keep that same mentality. Like support Mexico because of family and how you grow up. So, yeah. I was hoping for like three out of ten. But, so was Pappy just kind of an unusual situation? Because it seems like, just from reading that piece, it was everyone was like surprised he actually chose to play for the U.S. Didn't he just say, my dude just saw an opening. He saw that they needed a striker and he was like, that would be me.

I was like, he talked about, he saw it as a better opportunity, but also he's so confident. Why would, he's not worried about getting a starting spot on either team, I would think. It felt like he was talking about something else. I couldn't, I didn't know exactly what he meant. by opportunity. Yeah, he came out in Univision with like in a Spanish interview and he said that he made the choice

since he was 15. Like when he switched from Mexico to the U.S. He made the choice to like stick around. That's why he never accepted Mexico call-ups because they tried to call him up

a few times for like camps but he didn't. Somebody asked on the Discord why did Richie Ledesma Hammer asked why did Richel dezma tag bells in his pro-contract signing when he signed

PSV I know. I think it's mostly because I noticed how good Ledesma was before a lot of other people and I made some comps when he was playing for the Ra'L Monarchs and I mean he appreciated it.

I didn't he didn't give me any money or anything like that or there was nothing we didn't even talk that much but I did not make a song for him in private no. Well you should probably make a sign it's like probably do need to

to make a song for him now that you say that. You know. I feel like you really put yourself in a situation where you need to be making more songs now. Otherwise, players are going to be thinking like, why didn't Adam Bells make a song for me? I've tried to talk to Richie over the last few months. He has been cooler toward me than he used to be, for sure.

So read into that what you will. I would say Richel de Zemma deciding not to play for the U.S. would be the most difficult emotionally to deal with. That would really be something. Yeah, at this moment. It would be so difficult, I would actually kind of just enjoy the spectacle of how shocking that one would be. Well, I'll push back a little bit and say, you know, I am like the most famous

Ledesma Stan in the country, but, and I promise this isn't like sort of proactive sour grapes, but watching him at PSV, I did start to have my doubts that he was going to like, I mean, he was going to break in and get his chance, right? We know he was getting his chance when he got hurt. But I don't think he, there's no guarantee he's going to be a PSV Einhoven player, you know, just because he got his chance there, I guess is how I would put it. Yes.

I would still be sad. It would still be sad, of course. If he's good enough to actually play for the Mexican National Team, but it would be really funny if that actually happened. Mexico's just sort of rating the U.S. I wonder, Edgar, if they, you know, if Ochoa, like, never really gets a chance, which is, which, you know, is possible if he never,

that he will never get a chance. Yeah, well, if you really look at it, they called them up to the U-21. Like, he went from getting dinner call-ups to Mexico, U-21, which it's like a massive downgrade, if you ask me. Yeah, and I wonder if, like, other players are watching that and they say okay uh maybe i or you know say something really bad happens like

where they get uh criticized a bunch in in the media or in social media for not speaking spanish well enough or whatever it is will that would that change the two out of ten equation to something more like four out of ten or it could be because i mean they they need those examples you know to know what's going to happen to them because mexico has done this type of things before, but not as much as now. Like, I don't know if you had no. I made a list of Mexican-Americans in both sides, and the USS had, like, a lot more than Mexico in the past.

But recent years, they've been, like, raiding the U.S. youth systems to get them. And it's not because the players are good. Some of them are, of course. But I feel like they just want to take talent away from the U.S., like even if they're not going to play for Mexico later on. I was thinking, and I guess I was wrong, that what's happening is the players are actually better than they used to be. So that's why.

But is there something else going on is what you're saying? Yeah, because in Mexico, they don't really like people born outside. It's a thing, man. In the national team, they get criticized by the legends, but I don't know if you have seen the slander on Funes-Mori because he was more. in Argentina. Yeah. Yeah. So they've had, I believe, six Mexican Americans in their squad, like through a whole history,

and two of them switched over to the U.S. And the other, and two of the other ones only got capped when the U.S. approached them. You know, so it hasn't been, you know, they don't really, they never really cared about this until now, which is pretty weird to me. They're even after Mendez, which he's a bench player in Portugal's. worst team, which I don't know. It does seem like it's not necessarily first and four. I was thinking of it primarily as a career-related decision.

It doesn't quite seem to be the case. It's actually, you might just want to play for Mexico, which I completely understand. All right. Kumar Ashish by asks, what are your thoughts on switching to a back three in allowing Destin Robinson or a different left back to push further forward? Edgar, what do you think? Well, I think that's the ideal position for Desk, but that depends on the opposition.

I wouldn't go on a back three versus Jamaica. I don't think it's necessary versus this type of Jamaica that we're facing. Well, what do you see as the advantage of a back three, like say if we're facing Mexico, you know? Well, better coverage on the wings, of course, because you know they have Losano and Tecatito, which are. pretty fast players. You don't leave Desk one-on-one with one of them

when you don't leave Robinson one-on-one with one of them. So that's a pretty good advantage. That way they can give boss to Jimenez. That would be a pretty good thing. I don't quite understand tactics well enough to defend a detail, but I would go with a 433 just because it seems to be working. But if anyone had a really strong argument, I would switch. but you would like you would like

you would have to be a really strong argument just because like yeah I mean no you go ahead I would like to I would like to no I said it I guess it just depends on the team

I'm not a fan of keeping the same formation all the time me personally because I see Tata Martino do that like he's he's been with the 4-2-3s and he can see got to Mexico and like I feel like his tactics

got a little old Edgar do you consider Greg or a good coach? Not for the U.S. Okay. That's what I'm not sure about. That's why I struggle with these formation things so much. I don't know what to think about.

He's okay. I don't think he's a national team material coach. If that's what I mean. Well, in that case, you know, whatever you're thinking I'd go with in terms of formation. Edgar wins the debate, I guess. I still want a front six rather than a front five, you know, however you slice it. I'd rather I'd rather us try to figure out a three-man midfield that makes sense or like some other way of doing it rather than adding another centerback in general. So that's my position on it.

But, you know, I do see the value of having a back three to prevent like Takedito or Lazzano from like destroying us. I just don't, I just can't think of that many other situations in qualifying where that's, there's even an argument. for it. Yeah. I mean, it worked on Nation's League. We played them with the back five. I mean, it kind of worked. I mean, we did win the game.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I feel like we kind of accidentally won the games against Mexico this summer. Like, that could have very easily gone a different direction and would be really sad about it. The Nation's League one or the Gold Cup? Both. I feel like, both.

Well, I think the Nation's League, we were lucky. If I'm being honest, we, we just, you know, we were just good on set pieces. And we, you know, we got it. done. On the Gold Cup, I feel like it was a little more of an even game than the Nation's League one. We have more chances. Just the Riola kept missing. It's hardest. But, you know, it wasn't as bad as the Nation's League one. Archetype says Funis Mori bros are both FC Dallas Academy products. Good point. Scotti says maybe Mexico wants Mendez because he was U.S. Youth National Team Player of the

year. Mexico wants anybody that's played with the U.S. Just as a sort of, uh, punitive thing. They even, you know, you know, I don't know if you know, but you know they even approach, uh, Covey Foster Fernandez. And he's not even, they thought he was Mexican-American. Where, where is he? Is it, I can't remember where. He's, uh, his mom, his mom is from Guatemala. His dad is from Honduras. I spoke to his dad and he's the one that told me about that. Okay. Huh. So you're like out here doing reporting, man. Yeah, you're like sources and,

Matt, I just message people and they're, I mean, someone will reply someone and don't. That's the thing I found out about sort of, you can kind of just message to anyone, and they might reply to you. Daniel Smith's been doing that for years. And he's, you know. That's what, that's what Hugo Perez, you know who that is, coach of what Salvador? Yeah. Him and his brother, they just message players to see if they want to play for them, and someone will reply someone. I saw him and don't.

Crazy. Yeah. Do you, okay, so let's try to do a few more questions. Matt, Matt asks, you two are escaped, you three, it would be us three. You three are trapped in an escape room with three U.S. men's national team players. Who do you pick to join you? What's everyone's role in the group?

And do you make it out in time? Waki, can you make it quick on this answer? Yeah, I mean, we've talked about escape rooms before. It's tough if we're just adding one. Add three. I think, however many you want. Well, so I think about this kind of thing a lot. I'll try to move quickly here because I know other people aren't as interested in the escape room.

If there's no stakes at all, I'm just going to, you know, I want to take my time, actually. Because this is something that's important to me. If there's no stakes, I think my team is Dest, Hoppy, and Miles Robinson. and I'm just putting them on my own team. I don't want to really have you guys on my team. It's not personal. It's just like, but that's mostly just because I want to watch those three interact.

And then, but if it's like a really serious situation, I would probably go Adams, Turner. And this is a little bit counterintuitive, but Pulisic. For me, Adams and Turner seem like just kind of the two smartest guys. And then Pulisic,

I don't think he's as dumb as he seems and I don't think he's going to mess up the dynamic and that's the kind of for me with escape rooms because I've done quite a number of these at this point you don't want your fourth man creating problems or distractions you don't want them to bring a big personality

and with Polisik you don't really have to worry about that because he basically has a very he has very little personality so I was like he's my fourth man for sure I'm just kind of my team. I think he seems pretty dumb though so I'm not sure I agree about like he dude

I know he seems He seems very dumb. And then tried to ride it like a horse. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, that was weird. Yeah, no, I'd say he seems very, very dumb. But just based, I have this intuition. He's not quite as dumb as he seems.

But, you know, we could argue all day about that. Yeah. He's obviously not dumb, to be clear. But, in my opinion. But, you know, he did try to ride a fish. I'm not very good at escape rooms. So I'm just going to do my best to avoid them. No contingency plans.

Yeah, I'm not, I'm not good at that either. It's like, I'm always like looking for, I'm always looking for like real clues. I don't know. Clues that are interesting. And then it's always like, it's always like something really obvious and dumb that you have, that is the solution. I'm just too smart. What I'm saying is I'm too smart for escape rooms. Yeah.

There's all sorts of problems with how these escape rooms are structured. And we could, we could do several episodes just on that, but probably not what we should get into right now. But it's just a mess. The whole, the whole structure of them is a mess. Nate asks, what lessons did you learn from the first iteration of your live show last week? So he asked this before we did the one that went in the public feed. So before we did last week's episode. And I know this is kind of a meta inside baseball question,

but I do think it's kind of interesting. We learned early on that we should be better prepared. And I think, you know, that's a lesson we'll continue to learn. But then we learned that we should stick to soccer after the first. We thought we learned that. We should stick to soccer or soccer adjacency. But then we learned that maybe that wasn't the thing we should have learned. And we should just kind of talk about whatever.

So I'm not sure we've learned anything yet. We haven't learned anything. We have not learned anything yet. But we're committed to continuing to learn things is the key. But so far we've learned absolutely nothing. Like last time, people seem to respond positively to us talking about. about pirates for a while. So why do they like that?

But, you know, it's an ongoing process. U.S. Mensch national team says, if you could conjure one 25-year-old player of high-level Europa League quality, so like Everton, Sevilla, what position and style of guy would they be to most help the national team over the next few years?

A free eight and a half, a reliable centerback, a left back, a reliable number nine. Edgar, you take this one, please. A 25 year old That's a difficult one I gotta remember Players ages

It doesn't have to be a specific player Just like a type Like what position they are basically Like conjure up A player that is at that level And is about 25 Unnamed sort of hypothetical player What position would you want them to play?

What type? Oh, a striker Yeah That's what I was thinking to Yeah you kind of just want someone who's closer to goal I just want somebody that can score goals and be like a threat like all the time I know we're probably going to have that with peppy but you know

just in case it's like it's nice to have that backup yeah mm-hmm yeah I was thinking also a possibility would be like a creative midfielder type but I would also go with a striker we have Ledesma which is got a hope for him not to switch Patrick Keir says we didn't call our Europa League striker Ha ha ha Jordan Piffa He's talking about Pfeck

Pefick I would love to get a completely straight answer about how to pronounce his how to pronounce Pfeck Pfac It's Piffok See we said three different things That's what I'm saying

Yeah yeah And I can think of like seven more ways to pronounce it It's like he I think it's a lot easier to just say civet you. Yeah, like why? Come on, we'll just say sip at you. But he doesn't want that. That's not his preferred name.

We could just call him P.E.F. Okay. How about Jordan? Sure. Some jokes about verticality in the discord. Verticality is a legitimate strategy in an escape room. Says. Hold on. How is that a lit?

How is that a strategy in an escape room? For Greg, it would be... You just fire up the jetpack and you get out of there, you know? Break through the ceiling. It is so hard to create verticality in an escape room. Old Greg Burhaler says, Dioson. Tim Sullivan makes the point that if we call Jordan Pfeck Jordan, then people would confuse him with another more prominent athlete named Jordan.

Oh, Michael Jordan. Yeah, that's a good point. I forgot about Michael Jordan. And then the last question I have here, there are more questions to dip into next week, but the last question for this week is a simple one. It's from unknown, and it's just simply the words, great detective. And obviously that's not a question that we can answer, but I just thought it was a funny thing to find in the Google form. So I saw that. Is that a response to us talking about Charlie Kennan?

Could be. I mean, could be many things. Oh, you know, Tim was talking about Jordan the moderator, so people would have confused Pevok with Jordan. I did first get Pfeffic or Piffick confused with Jordan the moderator. And that's why I completely forgot about Michael Jordan because Jordan is just such a prominent moderator. Yeah.

I've been haunted by this great detective thing. Yeah, it is a little haunting. I read it as Charlie Kennan Because we talked about him Either that or someone from the detective chat messing with me They want me to think that Dude Charlie

It's Charlie Charlie just dropped a question in the form To screw with you, Chris What did he say? Oh my God This is so exciting Charlie I can't see the Well let's move on to corrections clear

and amplifications, which we have no obvious corrections to make, except for me not knowing that Antonio was already not in the roster for Jamaica. We could have hours and hours of amplification, but it's just a matter of editorial discretion. And that, you know, that for us, as we've mentioned, is a bit of a work in progress. But I do think you have some things to say about legislatures, Waki. Do you want to do that? Yeah. Well, it's just like we

Last time, maybe the time before, we talked about the Canadian Parliament and we didn't really have a hole on that. So I was just going to run through just some basic legislative facts about the different countries. Although now that I look at it, it's kind of a lot. So I'll just move through it really quick.

And please do jump in with any questions as you have them. Jamaica is a parliamentary constitution monarchy and they have the legislator, it's by cameral. So it's two, it's two houses. And their Senate is 21 senators, but they're appointed by the Governor General, who's appointed by the Queen of England.

But 13 of them are from the Prime Minister and the aid from the leader of opposition. And then they have a House of Representatives that's made up of 63 members, and they're elected directly through five-year terms. You have any questions about that part? That's Jamaica. This just seem like weirdly specific numbers, 23, 21, 63.

Yeah, I would have, I would like to maybe next week we can get into why those exact specific numbers, but then we wouldn't. We'll see, we'll see. And then with Panama, it's just a unicameral legislator. That means it's just one house of the legislator, and they have 71 members, and they serve five-year terms. and a little bit, a thing that's a little bit different with them, they're legislators from the outer rural districts. They're chosen by what's called a first-past-the-post election method.

That's the one we're more familiar with in the U.S. Where the district's located. I don't know, what is the most past the post mean? It's just like whoever gets the most votes went. Like how it works in here. where the more in the more populous towns of Panama all the votes go in

and then the seats are allotted on a proportion basis you know like if one party gets a bunch of votes that's how many seats that party will get in their legislature so that's kind of a distinct from Jamaica are there are there any questions you have about that so far yeah I'm just struck by the complexity of self-determination You know, it's what a hard, what a hard thing to govern oneself as a people.

I do, I just need to hit Costa Rica now so we have all three done. Okay, please do. Also, it's a unicameral legislative assembly. They have 57 members. They're called deputies. And they're elected by a direct universal popular vote on a closed party list that's on a proportional representative basis. So that is more like a parliamentary thing. I don't completely understand that.

I would have loved to have done more research on Costa Rica legislator. That's kind of the area where I would like to look into more. But I could not explain what I just said there. But they do have a thing where they're going to switch. They're talking about maybe switching to the system that Germany uses, which is more of a mixed system. And in that one, every person who votes gets two votes. One is for an actual person,

and one is for a party. And first they award the seats by the people they get the most votes. The next is by party. That's what they're talking about. So that's kind of the legislature. That's the scenario with the legislatures of the teams were playing this window. Hmm.

Interesting. Do you? I felt like you didn't actually think that was, you said interesting, but I felt like you didn't actually. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to say. Well, I felt like you did not think it was,

I felt like you didn't really mean it. It came across a little bit insulting. No, no, no, no, no. I personally do,

I do think the legislatures of these teams we play are interesting. And I think it's an important part of, it's important to understand the democratic process in these different countries. Okay. So, you know, I, I was sorry to get my backup,

but it's like you said, it's like, I don't want to, I just like the tone of your voice. I don't want there to be a rift. between us. I just don't know what to say. And I do think it's interesting sort of in an objective, sort of abstract way. But in this very moment, maybe because of my deficiencies as a person, I couldn't quite. So you're thinking, and maybe this is something we aren't, interesting from a

standpoint on a soccer podcast, it might not. Like, we might not actually need to know the legislative, how the legislators work in all the countries were playing. I personally think it's good to know. But just going through it, I was thinking, well, maybe people don't actually care about this. I think it's going to be a personal thing for everybody. Edgar, I mean, do you care about it, Edgar? It's interesting to learn about it. You don't need to lie, Edgar. You don't need to pretend that you enjoyed hearing about the legislature.

I like learning from other. Did you like hearing about the legislators of these countries? Calm down, walkie. Calm down. Yeah, man. It was nice to know. Sorry. All right, let's see.

I think we should probably wrap it up. Yeah, I do appreciate the stuff about the legislatures. I do, really. You know, listen, I'm sorry about getting so defensive about it. Just like... The Panama... It's okay. You know, tensions can run high.

I would like to get into the Panama Canal, but maybe we can do that next week. And there is more to say about pirates. There's definitely more to say about Freiburg. Edgar, thank you for joining us and putting up with some of these shenanigans. I hope we can have you back. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see you.