Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #215: Monday Review — Wes scores again, Scally shines, Brooks gets a new coach

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

A deep dive review of the USMNT player pool in action (or inaction) over the past week with Chris Russell (aka @watke_) and Jordan, the moderator of the Scuffed Discord (@NatFan9). We start with Tyler Adams and end with Sam Vines. Most of the detail comes in the Top 20.Top 40 spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f7csULrdMlqu090Nt4V_mXodtLCklGVX02Ackswem2c/edit?usp=sharingcontact: [e-mail] 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/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. Hello, we're kicking off a new feature here, a weekly review of the club games played by U.S. men's national team players. I'm joined as usual by Jordan Bodhi, moderator of the scuff Discord. And now Waki is with us too. Hello, gentlemen. Hello, Adam. Hi, Adam. Hey, guys. At least for a while, instead of office hours, Waki, you're going to do a weekly review of Yanks abroad and in Emersonable. MLS with us, kind of a pivot away from whimsy and towards substance. Is that fair to say? That's correct. I mean, there could be some stray whimsy every now and then, but primarily substance.

November is a month of substance at SCUF's global headquarters. Let it be known. Our point of reference for the weekly review is the SCOFT Discord top 40, a ranking of the players in the US pool conducted in a Google spreadsheet on the SCOFDiscord, of course. Most recent rankings closed on Friday, so they're fresh, and we had 37 participants.

It's closed now, but the link to the sheet is in the show notes. The criteria for the rankings, which is kind of confusing to people, is deliberately vague, but I think most people think of it as who is most valuable to the USA and a must-win game tomorrow.

Bears are then ranked from 1 to 100, all the scores are average to give us the top 40 players in the player pool. So this episode serves as both, a highly debatable ranking of the player pool and an update on the activities of the player pool. Christian Pulisic has been the top ranked player for most of the last three years, but Tyler Adams has surpassed him this year in the minds of scuffed listeners. So he's our number one player for the second straight month.

Tyler Adams, what's he been up to Jordan? Midweek, he played 90 minutes in a one-no win, the DFP Placal on Tuesday against Babblesburg in the regional league. he was an unused sub in a 1-1 draw against frank right yeah so in the midweek one big thing you notice is just how drastically better he is than german fourth division players i think that was the main thing but he got to do a bunch of those skip-byu dribbles he does where he keeps it kind of close into his feet and then later he did a bunch of big diagonals which was nice to see and then saturday it wasn't

heartbreaking he wasn't in but it's you know probably not the way we would have chosen to start the weekend if we're being honest. You know, them dropping points against Frankfurt? Him not playing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They gave up a 94th minute goal to drop those points, which makes me nervous again about Jesse Marsh. I guess we're all kind of nervous.

But anyway, it doesn't really matter what Adams does for Leipzig, to me, is the most indispensable U.S. player. We have a lot of lawyers in the Discord who use the word fungible. Increasingly, they're using the word fungible. which means like replaceable. He's not. He is not fungible. Very non-fungible.

Easily are Leif's fungible player, I would say. I think so. Number two, Christian Poul is sick. Gordon. He's still out with an injury, missed both their midweek game and their weekend game, although the news is that he's going to be in the squad against Malmo this week. I supposedly going to get a lot of minutes against Malmo.

There's a bunch of other people are hurt. Oh, I very badly want him to be fit in form against Mexico. Probably won't be informed, but then, you know, if you go back to the fungibility concept, he's relatively fungible. Which is strange because he's one of our better players, but I guess that's just one of the nuances of soccer, isn't it? Why is he so fungible? Because we have Brennan Aronson and Timi Wea and Giovanni Raina.

Okay. No, even Conrad de Lafonte. We should move into a player who played. Number three, Serginio Dest. What's he up to? He played 90 minutes in a 1-0 loss on Wednesday against Ryo Valcano, and he went 90 in a 1-1-drae on Saturday against Al-Avez. And this is, he's continuing to be played at Winger,

which I'd be interested to get your thoughts on, but he was basically fine against Alavez. He did a few nice things, but otherwise he was, I would say he was just confident. His crossing was a little bit better. And then I guess one other issue on the Alva's goal, he was the first one of I think four players from Barcelona that got dribbled by to give up that weird goal. But generally I would say he should probably play fullback.

He was the first domino to fall in that. It was a beautiful sequence really. That sort of two-touch Kroyf threw ball from the other, from the target striker, the goal score. Yeah. It was pretty nice. It probably wasn't really his fault. And then just on the winger front, I think he's just not quite as practice

as making those runs into and about the box. And then he has the thing where he's missed the white-up in goals, which doesn't help his case. But I think the Ryo one was more difficult than it looked. And he may have even tried to no look at. He kind of looked away. It's hard to say for sure. I don't know that we have a clear consensus

on whether people think he did that or not. I think it's just going to be one of those things we debate for a long time. talking about the goal, the shot he missed against Riley. Yes. I didn't notice that he tried to no look at. I guess I just feel like watching him at Winger makes me appreciate his role with the U.S. even more as a playmaking fullback. He's just perfectly suited to do that. And yeah, I'm not sure, like, to your point, I'm not sure he has enough cutting edge in the final 12 yards to be a winger, Barcelona, even a,

sort of weakened Barcelona. One thing I'd add on the winger front, he didn't do any robonas or any other elaborate trick, so it could be he's not quite confident there. So just that reason alone would be another reason to have him at fullback. Because we do want to see him do that stuff every now and then. Yeah, we need like at least one Robona every three matches. Robona, Robana, potato.

Yeah. People pronounce it a lot of different ways. However you want to say it's correct. It's kind of the feedback I've heard. Number four, Giovanni Raina. He's still out with injury, miss both their midweek game in the polkaal against Ingolstadt and their weekend game against Cone. Going on walkabouts at Austin FC's stadium.

His dad is kind of sad. Yeah, for me to see that. Jordan, I've had just about enough of this injury, so if we could get him back. Number five, Weston McKinney. 90 minutes in a 2-1 loss on Wednesday against Sasuolo and he was a 58th minute sub in a 2-1 loss on Saturday against Hellas Verona. And he scored UA's only goal in both losses. Okay, so the way I see the goals were kind of a gravy situation.

And then the rest of the games against Sasuola, he did have a couple sloppy giveaways. But then he won the ball high up a few times, so I kind of saw those as canceling out. And then he just kind of did his normal run-up play thing where he's kind of lean drifting from central to high into the right, kind of going into that space. And then the one other thing in that game, it was tied at the very end. And then Sassala scored, for whatever reason, West McKinney was the last defender. I guess they were pushing up to try to win the game, and the ball got kicked over his head. It seemed more like a team failure to me, but I wasn't exactly sure how to judge that situation. but another key is after the game, Allegri said that he no longer wants to get rid of Weston,

which is fantastic because before it's like, you had kind of like maybe they don't even want him there and then I'm feeling sad, but this kind of kind of lifts that white off. It's not about me, but you know. It's a little bit about you, about all of us. I would, I just think for, even for you, he's sloppy, you know, as he is for the U.S. I noticed like a way too casual giveaway trying to lead DeBala into a lung busting run up the right wing.

I'm talking about in the game against Hellas Verona. Just got to know your friends a little better than that, I think, Wes. But, and he makes stuff happen. And it seems like he's being more comfortable in the final third all the time. When it comes to fungibility,

I think there's a strong argument that he is the second least fungible there in the player pool. If you look at how we played against Panama, without him. We played against Canada without him. I would play against Honduras in that first half without him. Yeah, it would be difficult to imagine playing Mexico without him.

That would be very difficult. Good shot, too. I mean, both finishes were that he, as I think Vince Vesot on the Discord said, he baptized his man marker. And that first goal against Halasperona, sorry, the one against Sasuolo, when he headed it in on a set piece, and then he hit like a kind of a banger just inside. Seave the ball in a little tiny pocket of space top of the box,

and took two tidy little touches and then just banged it past the goalkeeper, caromed it off the bottom of the crossbar. Good shot. Yeah, and reportedly before Weston went on, Allegri said, I'm fascinated by what coaches their relationship with Weston. He said to him, you are a Mazzala. You're to score a goal right before he came on. And then Weston went and did that.

I kind of looked up what Mazzala is. It means half-winger. It's a little bit confusing beyond that. But I think the important thing is the goal part. He did what he was asked. For six, Eunice Musa. He was a 60th minute sub in a 4-1 loss on Wednesday against Real Batisse, and he was an unused sub in a 2-1 win on Saturday at home via Real.

So the game you played, the midweek, I felt he had an above-average number of promising moments for his club team. It's normally not that exciting. And they tended to involve these medium-to-long, fast dribbles. And he'd often go past someone his own, but he also had a little short combination of stuff with teammates. And he did two neat layoffs. And then he dribbled it straight into someone in the box. But overall, I felt positive about it. Yeah, I didn't watch the game against Rayal, but Betees.

I feel like Musis a little like Adams and I guess McKinney, so valuable to the U.S. right now that it doesn't really matter what happens week by week in Valencia. I mean, it matters, but it doesn't matter that much. And he's kind of playing out on the right there too, so it's a little weird. But, yeah, I don't think it matters that much. Number seven, Matt Turner. He went the full 90 and a 1-0 win on Wednesday at home against Colorado.

Okay, so in this game he had this one very impressive looking save. It's one of those kind of bending shots that come across the keeper's body. So he's diving over and he paws at it with his top hand. And I think I checked with some goalkeepers. They say it's one of those ones that's not actually that hard, but it looks really cool and it's very satisfying to do. And then he had these two other saves that were probably more technically sound, where it's kicked out of really hard and low, kind of at or near his body.

And he saved those too. And then he didn't really do any playing out of the back because they don't do that. And he can't really do that either, if we're honest. He's not able to do that, no. Number eight, Anthony Robinson. 90 minutes and a 3-1 win on Saturday at home against West Brom. So in terms of watching Anthony Rombs, he's gotten to the point he's good consistently enough that his game's all pretty much seem the same now to me.

Like he'll take space quickly on the left. and then connect it to an attacking player by kicking it in. And then the only other thing that occurred to me was very sunny at the beginning of the game in the second half, it was cloudy. But that's my main recollection. We have a little bit of information on the Mazzala from Patrick Delaney.

I think it's a... Sounds like a half-space merchant a little bit. Central half-winger. I guess you said that already. Yeah, there's a TIFO video about it that I started to watch. It just started to get very tacticky. But basically, it used to be, there used to be a WM. You know that formation, that old school one?

It's the two behind the front three. So it's the midfielder that pushes forward, and it's not the holding midfielder. Basically, it's just a description of Weston McKinney. It's just a word uniquely for him. Yes. Back to Robinson. I just love him. Feel bad for all the times I accused him of having chaotic energy.

I'm not going to write a song about it, though. Number nine, Miles Robinson. Went 90 in a 2-1 win on Wednesday against Into Miami and played the full game in a 1-1 draw on Saturday against Toronto. So this is kind of similar situation with Anthony. This is kind of a Miles or Robinson situation where a lot of his games, they all seem the same now. And you watch it like, you don't necessarily need to be watching it.

Especially because watching centerbacks is boring if we're being completely honest. But he did have one dribbling foray. That was pretty exciting. I think that was on the weekend. But then he lost it. It didn't quite get the final ball right. It would have been really cool if he had done that.

And then in the midweek, he did a big recovery run on Higwa'een. That was kind of reminiscent of what he did to Brian Ruiz. Those are the only notes I have on him. Igwa'een, the one who smokes cigarettes? The older brother, or the younger brother? The older, the younger brother, yes. Okay. The older brother just retired, which, and he was, he has, they're both good players, obviously,

but I have a bit of a soft spot for Federico. Number 10, Ricardo, go ahead, Waki. No, let's do Ricardo. Okay, number 10, Ricardo Pepe. He subbed on in the 82nd minute in a 2-1 loss on Wednesday against Real Salt Lake and played 89 minutes against Austin in a 2-1 win on Saturday. Yeah, I thought I

thought he did not look great against Austin, even though Dallas did win the Tejas Copa, the Copa Tejas. I don't know that he's been sharp since the international break, and I guess that we could be chalked up to his foot injury. He had to get

stitches because he got a cut on his foot. Maybe his mind is elsewhere now since Dallas's season is completely lost, and he's almost certainly headed to Europe. this winter. But he wasn't, like, even basic, like, receiving the ball, taking clean touches was not, not going well for him on Saturday.

Yeah. Most of the, yeah, he was flat. Most of the runs he made, there were kind of these slow runs directed toward just the penalty spot looking for a cutback. And I don't know, maybe, I don't know if that's the right thing to do or not, but he just never connected. And then his runs in behind, he didn't ever get one connect on. lose either. He did play for Aaron once on goal from midfield. That was kind of probably the best

thing. Do you think he's too high in these rankings? He's 10, that seems. Maybe a little too high, yeah. But you know, you score two game winners and three starts. As an 18-year-old striker, you're going to benefit in the rankings. The striker rankings are, they're always going to be pretty volatile, aren't they? Because once you score, you do jump into that top 10. Right. We don't care how noisy goals are. No, no, not at all. Number 11, John Brooks. Went the full 90 and a 2-0 win on Saturday against Leverkusen.

He did some good scuffle work after a teammate took a cheap shot at a Leverickhousin player. He kind of did the arrive light thing. It was some light hand-to-hand stuff and then just some remaining calm and talking shit, which was good. But I think the main takeaway from the game is Florian Colfeld is coach of Wolfsburg now. And listeners probably remember her from where to Bremen.

So I think we're just going to be watching him probably for the rest of our lives. He could even one day manage the national team. I don't know why I think that's just kind of a feeling I have. It feels possible, doesn't it? I have this lingering sense that Kofel brought, you know, a whiff of the future when he came to Bremen. similar to Domenico, Tedesco at Shalca.

You know, they both were kind of of as bright young talents in the coaching ranks. Boy, the future got grimmer as time went on for both of them. I'm still interested to see how Kofeld does and glad to see him get a big win away against the club in the top four. I mean, this was a big win for Wolfsburg. They're quietly just two points off of fourth place now.

So things are going okay there, even though they've flailed about in Champions League. And I thought Brooks looked okay. I did notice in the 21st minute on a counterattack that after he had sort of rambled forward with the ball, he just let Alario beat him to the back post. You know, he's sort of trying to keep up, but he doesn't, he knows that he can't keep up. So if Alario gets the square pass, that was in the 21st minute, it's a tap-in. So I feel like it's a little lucky.

But it was all hunky-dory between him and the goalkeeper after that, which is, It's case to me that they're all kind of aware he's not going to be able to keep up with anyone over 50 yards and they're just okay with it. I'm not sure I'm okay with it, a World Cup qualifier, but maybe I am. He is very good on the ball and in the air. Although I think I'm confident in the moments that it does happen, we will not feel okay with it. I do always look to that relationship between the defender and the goalkeeper after something happens to kind of judge what to think about it. But any situation where Brooks gets high up field, there's probably not going to be a full recovery. No.

Yeah, I was struck by how happy the goalkeeper was to, you know, have him on the back of the head. And we're all like, yeah, that was all, everybody did well. Everybody did well there. Good, good stuff, everyone. Number 12, Brendan Aronson. He was a 62nd minute sub and a 3-0 win in the OFB Cup. against Ulianez's St. Poulton. And then on the weekend, he went 90 and two to a two draw on Saturday against Reed.

And he assisted in both of those games. He also hadn't assist right at the beginning of Reed. And I wasn't sure how to pronounce Reed. So I've been saying it read in my head too. I was concerned it might be Ryad. I didn't either. I just went with it. I did look up where that word comes from.

It's middle German for. a swamp grass, which is a reed. They called it a read. So we'll call it a read. In any case, he did a bunch of really good passes in this game, and he's kind of their creative leader. And then I think my favorite part of the game was he got it in the box and he turned to take a shot, which I kind of like the selfishness of it. But he had two teammates really upset about him, but he wasn't too bothered by it because he's so confident. And one team had actually got on their knee and to punch the ground. So that was a highlight for me, that kind of dramatic moment. But it was like, man, he's been doing all these great passes all game.

Like, relax, man. He just wants to shoot once. Just, like, be more reasonable here. But that punch in the ground was a great moment. Was it Christensen the right wingback? The right back, right wing back? No. One of the, I think he was one of the upset players.

He was not the one who punched the ground. I don't know the name of the player who punched the ground, unfortunately. I've seen that guy, a toe-headed bullback. get very, very mad when he doesn't get the ball after a long run. Not necessarily Aronson, but others on the team. Yeah, I think he just did the arms down. Like, why did you not lay the ball off to me? It was the other guy who, you know, he really got down there and smacked that ground.

But that wasn't really the whole point of the game. Aronson, he was good. It's tough to know how, if it's not a Champions League game, it's kind of, he seems to be kind of above the level of the Austrian League. at this point. But I also don't hear about him moving or anything. Let's go to the next one. 13.

Timothy Wea. He was a 79th minute sub on Friday in a 2-1 loss at the Park de Prons against PSG. Yeah. I thought, again, he was bright and incisive in combination in his limited minutes. I noticed something I've been noticing for a while. Not only is softball movement effective,

but the lines of it are nice and curving and circular, you know, very pleasant to look at. It's almost like he's on the end of a stencil or on the end of a pen writing in beautiful cursive letters. Yeah, I've always, I've never, that's the best way I've ever heard it put, but I have always thought of him as our most relaxing winger to watch. Because a lot of times with wingers, their movement can get all fidgety and jagged, which is probably good,

but it's not as, just from a purely aesthetic perspective, it's not as satisfying to watch. It's kind of a little bit stressful sometimes. I mean, Way is pretty unique in this way, I feel like. You don't see a lot of people. Yeah.

I think he is unique. There are some parts of the smoothness that Raina might have, but I wouldn't call Raina's not moving it cursive. it's more just like a smoothness. I mean, the distinctions that we could get more into those at some point,

but yeah, I do think way it stands apart. 14. Chris Richards. He went 90 in a 5-1 win in the DFP Polka on Tuesday against Holstein-Keele in the second Bundesliga. And then on the weekend, he was an 85th minute sub

and a 2-no win against Herta. So he, and he played, he was playing left center back, both when he came on, and then he also did that in the week, which the one thing that I noticed watching, it's just a far different position than a normal centerback than I had originally imagined.

There's like this high frequency of falling an attacker up into the midfield. A couple of times he's having to even man mark a guy all the way across the right side of the field. And if anything, it seems, it's like, it's more work than if there's just two centerbacks, which seems counterintuitive for me. But he did seem to be,

he probably had a below average game in the midweek. And maybe that's not why he didn't start Friday. It was just so soon after Tuesday, but that was kind of my read on that game. It's interesting that the three-man centerback setup does, in some ways, requires a lot more of those outside centerbacks. That could explain, because it wasn't Brooks in a three-man backline? Yes.

Yeah. So I could explain maybe a little bit of his struggles in the moment I highlighted because he's working his way all the way up near the other team's box and then can't get back. But yeah, I agree. Richards was not not look great in the middle of the week. He was involved in several messy moments. There were a lot more chances for that pull-call opponent, Holston Kiel, than probably the Hoffenheim coach would have liked.

Yeah. He just, he did not have a good game. Really? That's okay. That's okay. He's young. It happens. 15. Zach Steffen.

He played the full game in a penalty loss in the Carabelle Cup on Wednesday against West Ham. And then he was on the bench in a two-no loss against Crystal Palace on Saturday. So I think the highlight is he very calmly received a couple passes to his feet under reasonably serious pressure where he's basically just standing exactly. on his goal line. And then he plays just a neat little pass out, which was kind of impressive. And then I think beyond his play, the larger issue for the game for me was it went to penalties. But the way it was shot by the TV people, they would be using just these player closeups for no wide shot at all, then cut straight to, we are seeing the penalty from behind the goal for just a few seconds right before it happens, and then they cut straight away to more closeups

until the next penalty. It was incredibly disorienting. So that was, for me, that was, that was the big issue from that game. But Stefan was very impressive with his feet. That is an advantage he has over Turner, as we all know. 16 Walker Zimmerman. Wednesday away to Cincinnati, he played 90 and a 6 to 3 win, scored their first goal and assisted on their third.

and on the weekend he went 90 and a 1-1 draw away to Orlando. So his goals and assists were both headers, so it was good set-piece stuff. Beyond that, I don't know because I kind of... I'm not going to watch the Cincinnati play. I just kind of have to draw the line there. I don't know exactly how he did in these games. His set-piece, Brett, is something we got in mind.

17, Joe Scali, Joseph Scali. He went 69 minutes in a 5-0 win in the DAPA Pocal in their big win against Byron Munich. And then on the weekend, he went 90 to 2-1 win against Bokom on Sunday. I think the main thing, first of all, he was pretty good. And he had an assist, obviously. The other thing, I think he's showing pretty impressive signs of developing into a high-level, I want to say maybe Goon-style Dark Otter assist strong, but that's kind of the general type.

He did a great thing where he puts his head down into a place where opponent was kicking up and there's no contact but he goes down like he got kicked in the head. And then he did some sort of surreptitious knee bumping into folks later and did some more dives. So that's the one thing I'm tracking that

I wanted to point out here. He's surprisingly savvy. Yeah, he is the soul of a 25-year-old or so. Yeah. Looks like he has an office job somewhere. 18. John Luca Busio.

He went 90 and both their 2-1 loss on Tuesday against Salernitana and in their nil-nil-nil draw on Sunday. He's good with the ball, I thought, especially, I mean, in the game over the weekend. Seems to be a theme with his play lately. A little lacking in focus when it comes to defending and controlling space. People are going to just, damn, just sort of. of doubling down on my, you know, whatever I, whatever I do. But it does seem like a little bit of a problem.

It's a similar thing with Luca Delatorre. They just not, they don't have that, like, instinctive desire to shut things down that that Tyler Adams seems to have. But, man, he's, Busio's fun to watch with the ball. And Venetia is fun to watch. I think my sleeper pick for most fun, Yanks Abroad team to watch right now, even though they're not they good. Yeah.

One thing Bousio did do, he did put in a few nice little tackles. But yeah, the controlling space is probably the area where he needs to improve. And then the other thing from the Genoa game is there was a flock of birds that was on the game, on the field a lot, that kept getting involved in the action. And I kind of started really tracking that. So if you, if you, they were involved in like three consecutive transitions because the ball would come down one side and they'd be there, so they have to get up and leave and go to the other side. Now the ball's going the other direction, so they get up and leave and go the other one.

It was a great moment. It was kind of in the beginning part of the second half, if anyone wants to check that out. And there was, to a certain extent, it probably affected my viewing of the second half of the general game, because I was mainly focused on the birds. I don't notice that kind of stuff as well as you do. I would highly recommend people check it out. It was probably the best bird moment we've had all year. It was Seagulls. From the Gulf of Genoa? Yeah, they're just a mile. The stadium's a mile away from the Gulf of Genoa.

It was the Sted Stadium, by the way. It was built in 1911. Number 19. Kellan Acosta. He was not in the squad for either of their games on Wednesday or Sunday. Someone in the Discord said he's out with injury, but I couldn't find any word on what that injury is or how long it's going to keep it out for. I might understand we don't currently. have a backup six. Yeah, I guess so.

If he is in fact out with injury. We still haven't given James Sands a chance as a six in a regular 433. He hasn't looked great, but maybe he can fit in that very narrow way in that role. I don't know. I'm not confident at all. We're going to see that. It'll be fine. Most likely, it'll be fine, yeah.

420, Luca della Torre. On Tuesday, Heracles played ASWH, a Tweedy Division team, and Delo Tore went 90 in a 3-1 win in the KNVB Cup. And then on the weekend, he went 90 in a nil-no draw against Iax. Watch a fair amount of this game. And it was fun to watch. So it's right up there with Venetia, Heracles'Al Mello.

And I just love the way Luca turns and plays the ball forward when he gets a chance to. I think he's got a little, like I said, a little bit of Buccio's defensive lack of interest. It's not as acute of a case as Buccio's. And long story short, I just want to see more of both of them for the national team, even though they probably can't be Tyler Adams' replacement,

given his non-fungibility. Yeah, it's an unreasonably high standard to hold people, too. I guess he's just also sort of not that type of player. He's a passing player. He's a nice passing player. His defensive cover shadow is a bit narrow. You know that thing where it's like the area they cut off behind them? It seems like there's a little bit more space you can pass to if you're passing by Luca De La Tori.

But I don't know why I don't need to criticize him. I thought he had a good game. Heracles could have won that game. It was gone either way. against a iax team that beat dormant 4 to 0 not too long ago 21 conrad de lafonte he was an unused sub in their one-one draw on wednesday away to nice which was the replay from that game that got stopped because fans stormed the field and then on the weekend he played 57 minutes in their one-nill draw or one-nill win against Claremont Foot.

I didn't think it was terribly involved versus Claremont Foot. Got a good chance on a ball in behind. Quite 1B1 with the keeper, but close had a guy bearing down on his left shoulder and kind of scuffed his shot. Might have been deflected and it was a pretty easy save. Yeah, I don't have anything to add on that. I do want to look. I'm going to look up what Claremont Foot means where that name comes from.

But I can do that offline. 22. Jazi's artists. He is still out with injury, missed both their games on Wednesday and Saturday. Okay, yeah, he's likely to be out for the coming window to, I believe. 23, Mark McKenzie. He played 90 in a 6-0 win in the Belgian Cup

against a third-tier team on Wednesday, and then was an unused sub in a 6-2 win against Solte-Varicum. I salute you for not trying to pronounce that team that they beat 6-0 in the cup. Jordan wouldn't try to do it either. 24. Jordan P. Fafock. He was an unused sub in a 2-1 loss in the Swiss Cup against Lugano and then went 90 in a 3-1 loss on Saturday against St. Gallen.

25. Josh Sargent. he went 77 minutes in a 2-1 loss on Sunday against Leeds. I should say I didn't watch any of the rest of the players. You have to, you know, it's a lot of players in this top 40, you know. Yeah, Norwich is bad. They might break Darby County's record of fewest points in a primary league season, which coincidentally that 2007,

08 squad also had a young American on it in Benny Fail Harbor. Oh. So maybe the arc of history bends towards sporting Kansas City, Sergeant as well. It may. Although, I guess the talk is he, there's going to be a St. Louis team. Hopefully he doesn't end up there. It's going to be all right. He's going to turn it on.

He's not going to turn it on. I don't know why. I'm just saying words. There's no chance he's going to turn it on. He's washed. Well, no, no, no. Okay, I went too far. You're right. He's going to be fine. He's going to turn it on.

He may turn it on. 26. Matthew Hoppe. Majorca played two one-one-one draws, one on Wednesday against Sevia, and one on Sunday against Cadiz. Hoppe did not feature in either of them. It's frustrating. I would like to have him out there doing some stuff. You know? Get into people's faces. It is a little frustrating that he's not.

eight minutes for Mallorca, but well, 27 DeAndre Yedlin. He played 90 and a 2-0 win on Sunday against Gaziantep. I think we can imagine how that he did

probably perfectly fine if at times, you know, he's not maybe moving the ball forward as well as we like. I don't, probably not fair to comment on a game we didn't watch though. He's, I mean, the reality, The main thing is he's absolutely locked down the starting job for Galatasarai,

which is no, you know, no small feat. Yeah. 28, Ethan Horvath. Still on the bench. They played a 1-1 draw on Friday against QPR. 29, Matt Miyazga. Unused sub in a 1-0 win on Tuesday against Elche, and an unused sub in a 1-1 draw on Saturday against Barcelona.

Seems like he's lost his starting spot at Alavez. That's too bad for Miazga. He sort of is like the definition of a journeyman at this point. 30, Darrell Dike? Played 90 in a 3-2 loss on Wednesday against Columbus and 90 in a 1-1 draw on Sunday against Nashville and scored a goal in both games. I know in the midweek game he scored on a penalty.

And he had the first one saved, but the keeper came off the line, and he hit it exactly to the same spot again and scored that time. And then there was a controversy last night. I didn't watch it. I don't know exactly what happened, but it was a referee controversy involving a goal. It was called for a foul that was, I think, a ridiculous call on a, like, running into the mouth of goal to try to bundle something home. he didn't get there.

He got kind of pulled down. He got called for a foul for pulling down the defender, I believe. And even though Orlando did score on the goal, I think it was Anders. Hea, who scored. It was called back on that foul call, which was bad. I just saw the clip on Twitter, that's all. 31. Team Ream. Played 90 minutes in a 3-0 win on Saturday against West Brom.

Yeah, so that, and Jordan, you point. this out that the Fulham fans, they really like Ream and they scream his name out or chant his name. And then there was another fan in the stands holding a sign that said, Tim Rine, can I have your shirt? So I'm just, I feel, I'm not sure how to feel about these English people treating one of our players a little better than we do. But it's a different circumstance, obviously. It probably doesn't feel great for Tim to go, to have that happen, then log on Twitter and have some 18-year-old talking about how he doesn't deserve to live, you know. He's perfectly, he's pretty good.

He's like a very successful professional soccer player, and he is a pretty good centerback. Going back real quick to D.K., I mean, he sure does seem like he's put on his shooting boots lately. You know what I mean? He's got a lot of goals in the last two weeks. I think it's like six and eight games. No, no, no. I think he probably, do you think he's going to be in the next camp?

I'm not sure who else it would be at this point, right? So he's got it. He's probably going to get it over PFOC because of the MLS bias, you know. Yes. Exactly. All right, 32. We're going to get out of here pretty soon. 32.

Reggie Cannon. He played 18 minutes in a 4-1 loss on Saturday against Porto. I watched this and he subbed off with injury. It looked like a calf injury. He had gone down around the fourth minute, which was right when I turned it on, tried to tough it but then slipped, making a run towards the Porto goal, re-agravated it, and had to come out. So that's unfortunate just as he was getting back into the team. Dispiriting.

Very dispiriting. He, I mean, for those not keeping close track, he was pretty much frozen out of the Boavista game day rosters until two weeks ago, right? And he's made his comeback and just got injured. Did he look good before he got injured? Jordan? Sort of. It was hard to tell because I turned it on right when he first got that injury.

So after from the like 15 minutes or so after that, he was kind of walking gingerly, got a little bit better and more involved and then reagravated it and came out. All right. Well, another right back who hasn't been playing a ton. 33, Shackmore. He, Tenerife, play today against Borges CF, and he did not play a midweek game,

so nothing really to report on him. 34 in the rankings is Jordan Morris. He is still coming back from ACL injury, but the reporting that I saw was earlier in the week is that he's expected to make his season and debut today against the galaxy. Not sure exactly how he fits in what is going on with the national team right now,

but he's got some kind of role maybe. 35, Paul Areola. He played 45 minutes in a 1-0 win on Wednesday against Red Bulls and 61 minutes in a 3-1 loss on Saturday against Columbus and scored the only goal for D.C. in the Columbus game. It was a really nice goal too.

Yeah. It was like a hammer blow with his left foot from the volley, half folly, I guess. And it seems like he's still recovering from the injury that took him out of the Costa Rica game. I'm pretty sure the 61st minute sub was a planned substitution around that time.

Okay. 36, George Bello. 90 minutes in a 2-1 win on Wednesday against Inter-M Miami, and 90 minutes in a 1-1 draw on Saturday against Toronto. 37, Sebastian Legette. 72 minutes in a 2-0 loss on Wednesday, away to Sport in Kansas City, and then they play away to Seattle today.

Three more names, 38, Jesus Ferreira. 90 minutes. a two-one loss on Wednesday against real salt lake and then 90 minutes in a two-one win on Saturday at home to Austin and he scored Dallas's first goal and that came yeah and he had a secondary assist on the second one although he didn't have a ton to do with that second goal he's been he's been dealing for the entire second half of the season like playing really really well he's not the guy you want running in behind but you do want him on the ball in the middle of the park. I think his outing versus

Austin was less spectacular than the one against RSL, but like we just said, he still scored a goal and was involved in the second. What do you think his odds of getting called up are? 50%. I don't know. Okay. He seems

close. Yeah, I think he's well, yeah, who can know the mind of Greg Berhalter, but it's it's weird because Berthelter loved Ferreira as a nine back in, you know, pre-pandemic days. And he wasn't playing particularly well at the time, if I remember correctly, and now he's been playing better, but...

Not getting call-ups, yeah. It's a, it's a, the time, the timing is a little more fraught now than it was. It's always complicated when you have a pandemic in the middle of a, of a qualifying campaign. Always is, every time. Yeah. 39 James Sands. 90 minutes in a 1-0 win on Wednesday against Chicago and 90 minutes in a 3-1 win on Saturday away to enter Miami.

And I didn't watch either of these games, but Fott Mops said he played right back in a back four both games, so that seems to be a new development. He's versatile. We'll call him versatile. Number 40, rounding out the top 40, is Samuel Vines. He was an unused sub and a 2-1 long. in the Belgian Cup on Thursday against Westerlo, second division team,

and then he went 90 and a 1-0 win on Sunday against Circle Bruges. He seems to have gotten himself a spot in the starting lineup there, which is good. That's that, that's, go ahead, Wachie. I'm saying maybe he can make a charge on that, you know, back up left back spot. Although I have to imagine he's a ways out now. Yeah, I hope it's, I hope,

Galley gets called in before him. I do feel like we all soured on all the players on that Olympic qualifying team. Understandable, you know, they looked bad. But it's a good lesson that, you know, a player, just because a player has a bad tournament under a bad coach, doesn't mean they're a bad player. Yes. We also learned that with the U-17 World Cup a couple years ago. Yeah, I was just about to say that.

I think we all really We learned that lesson really hard apparently I think we have four players from that team in the top 40 now Yeah It's tricky It's tricky making player assessments isn't it Let me make a couple programming notes

This podcast is going on the The normal podcast feed We're not going to do office hours for a while This week we're going to I'm going to do a U-17 U-20 maybe U-17s, but definitely U-20 episode with Matt Hartman. And then Greg and I are going to do a reaction to the roster later in the week. So, you know, stay tuned to everybody.

And thanks for listening. We'll see you.