Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #218: Monday Review — Big win for Adams, Tuchel wants Pulisic to control his emotions

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

A run through roughly the Top 20 players in the US pool and how they did over the past week with Chris Russell and Jordan Boddie. 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. Light a flare, warm up your vocal cords. It's Mexico Week. Welcome to the Monday review. Hey, Waki. Hey, Jordan. Hey, hi, Adam. How are you doing? I'm good. Anything we should get to before we start? Yeah, I think we should, just because there's some camp arrivals coming in and just maybe address the bare facts of those quickly and then we can get it in the view. I think the big news is Aaron Long has come in just to kind of hang out, which I like. We do have to figure out exactly how he's going to fit into the group socially. But beyond that,

it looks like hoodies are in. There's a lot of black hoodies, white hoodies, and Scali is it appears to me to be a gray hoodie, which is a common mistake that the first time call-ups make. You really want to go with the black or white. And then the other big thing is Christian Polisick came in holding a big box of Walgreen photos. And we're kind of a lot of in the dark at what those are so far. The gray hoodie is really kind of an NYCFC rookie mistake too, right? Yeah. Well, Sands came in with a gray shirt.

It was earlier in the year. Shambolic. Yeah. So, you know, we'll see. We'll see how that goes. All right, here we go. Let's start at the top. Tyler Adams.

You went 75 minutes in a 2-2 draw on Wednesday against PSG in the Champions League, and you went 90 in a 2-1 win on Saturday. against Barusia Dortmund. Leipzig looking like a team that can beat anyone and lose to anyone, sometimes in the same afternoon. It carved up PSG for the first half hour, but by the time the half arrived, they were down to one.

Yeah, and then, of course, they beat, like you said, they beat Dortmund on Saturday, which is a big win for them. Oh, I mean, a lot happened in those games. We don't have time to talk about all of it, but Adam's, first, he almost had an assist against Dortmund, which would have been really cool. And then he also almost had a goal. But he kind of got way up there in a situation

he never been in before. And it was a little bit of a weird one. I don't even know exactly how to describe it. But he was one-on-one with the keeper, right? Is that how it went? Cobol made an error and it fell to Adams and then he took a heavy first touch and the goalkeeper was able to scoop it back up. But overall, he was really good against Dortmund. And then again, against PSG, I think the big moment was when D. Maria, I think it was, did a really, really obnoxious job of getting him a yellow card. And then there was this interplay with Namar where Neymar was putting his head around, his arm around his neck and giving a little bit of a too familiar, hey man, don't do that. And at one point Adam's backed out. So that was a, that was an

interesting moment to analyze. Yeah, it's wonderful to see. our players shit housing with the best players in the world. Yeah, that was great. Pretty naive from Adams on the DiMaria yellow. It was a mistake. This is a little bit of a trend. He's no Calin Acosta. Let's just be honest.

No. He, yeah, he got baited into that. He also got a yellow card against Dortmund, so we need him to not do that against Mexico. Otherwise, he's out for Jamaica. He had the yellow card against Dortmund, and he also had like one very bad pass in the center circle. But outside of those moments, I would say it was a fantastic performance from him.

And the thing that makes me most excited is his comfort and progressiveness in tight spaces. There was one moment in the early going where he did a kind of a stop start on the ball and left both Marco Royce and Danielle Malin for dead. He also was very tidy for the most part with those bang, bang, bang, passing combinations that Leipzig uses to dice people up. I don't expect him to look that good for the U.S., but the thought does occur that if he's layering that little bit of on-ball mastery into his game, by golly, what's stopping us from putting a show on in Cincinnati?

That little moment that stop and go is one of his nicer things he's done. And also another good thing, I guess, about the Dormick game, is Jesse Marsh really, he's got a swagger back. you started to see it against PSV. He did that really great, underarmed, underhanded fist pump, kind of a bowling style when they scored their first goal, where he brought it down and up

and right in front of his face. That was really good. But it got overshadowed. But then he kind of carried that over in the next game and was good. Just a very active sideline presence. And I'm glad he's going to be, it seems like he's pretty safe now.

Right. That fist pump was kind of like he was uppercutting someone in the groin a little bit. It was right at the house. Yeah, he got, he did a deep knee lunge too. It was one of the better forms I've seen on that one that I can remember. Yeah, it's a huge win for them. I mean, so Champions League is a lost cause now, but the win over Dortmund means they're one point out of fourth place, which is a Champions League spot in the Bundesliga.

And if they, you know, if they keep playing like this, they should be, I would think overtake Wolfsburg and Freiburg. Christian Pulisic. Should we move on to him? He was a 74th minute sub in a 1-0 win in the Champions League on Tuesday against Malmo

and he was an 85th minute sub in a 1-1 draw on Saturday versus Burnley. Yeah, I thought so I didn't catch his cameo against Burnley but I thought against Malmo

he was awful, fresh and sharp and I always forget how good he is until I watch him the next time. Anyway, he was sharp and he did miss that big chance 1V1 with the keeper rounded him and then missed the target from a not that difficult angle

may have been offside but who cares he and Wes are going to be back together on the field I'd say it's a similar level of sharpness in the Burnley game and on the miss you know last time he missed a sort of easy goal

not the only after that we went on to beat Mexico I don't know if he's savvy enough to have done that on purpose I kind of doubt it but in case. I think we're set up pretty well for the Mexico game. Actually, overall, this weekend, went kind of well. Oh, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I guess the one issue is now Tugel's talking about how he has some pain in his ankle. And then his quote is, hopefully the U.S. team and he himself are responsible and he does get carried away with emotion. So, you know, there's some discourse happening around that right now.

How do we feel about that? Interesting words from Tuchel. I don't think they mean anything for us, but I do also want Pulisic to release the ball faster and not get hacked so much. And I feel like we're sort of globally. Humanity as a people is coming to consensus on this. Yeah.

That's what he should do. And on the getting carried away with the motion side, I mean, that's going to happen. That's just kind of how he is. So I don't, I'm not quite sure. what Tuchel is getting at there, but... Just turn that emotion into a well-weighted pass to someone on your team.

That's all I ask, of course, a young Christian. Yeah. Yeah. Sergino Dest. He was an unused sub and a one to win in the Champions League on Tuesday against Kiev. And then he was not in the squad in the 3-3 draw on Saturday against Selt de Lvigo.

Big loss. I would say he's, what, the second-most, second-least fungible player on the roster. You should do a ranking of fungibility Or maybe that should be a separate scuffed pole Just a pure fungibility ranking Yeah Joe McGregor is going to come in and say

I'm using the word fungible improperly Because it's not Because we're not talking about stock certificates Come on Well let him let him All right Number four Gio Raina He is still out with injury

Missed both their Champions League game And their game and their game And Slipzig and the latest news seems that he might not play until the new year. Yeah, that's a bummer. He has been getting Chinese food with Joe Scali once a week. There's been some reporting on that. I've been trying to figure out which type of Chinese food.

I don't know yet, but I'll keep at it. I heard also that, you know, after we mentioned that he was going on walkabouts at Austin FC's stadium with his dad, somebody DM'd me and said he was actually in the States for a funeral, like a funeral in his family, like an uncle or something. So just a note there. condolences to the reign of family. And then number five, Weston McKinney. He went 90 in their 4-2 win in the Champions League on Tuesday against Zenit.

And then he went 90 in their 1-1 win against Fiorentina on Saturday. Dude is playing well, man. Big performance in Champions League, not directly involved in any of those goals, but was, I thought, an efficient facilitator in the middle, a force in the press and counterpress, got his head on some crosses and made that weaving 50-yard run before snapping a shot off the crossbar, drawing the deafening sound of pent-up release from the crowd.

He had three untidy moments, one particularly egregious, that YuVe fans can and will point to as examples of his deficiency, but whether it's for YuVe or the USM&T, he is a big asset. Can't wait to see him play against Mexico. I predict he scores a goal and turns the ball over five times. What do we think is the cutoff for untidy moments,

and obviously we need to mix in how egregious they have. are for what's what will work against Mexico and what won't i have it maybe five is a little bit too harsh what where are we on what we think we need from him in that department i think it's a kind of a results over process type of question like if doesn't the number doesn't matter as long as none of the giveaways results in a goal for the other team i agree with that emotionally i feel like that probably not right though okay yeah i mean it's definitely probably not right And the other big thing that I liked from Fiore and Tina was he did a double 360 at one point. He received the ball spun around the guy, pulled 360 on it, dribb it a little bit, spun around the next guy.

The guy was still a little bit ahead of him, and then he jumped ahead of him. And it was one of his best moments in the past, as long as I can remember. Yeah. And then one of us, Lucas Torres from Arsenal. who was on the receiving end of that disrespect. And then I had, when I was researching this, I found I just want to share this piece of information. Fiorentino should not be confused with Fiorentino,

which is not in Italy. It's a municipality of San Marino. So if you start reading about that team, you've gone down the wrong path and you're going to get bad information. Also, kind of down that path, I learned that Abraham Lincoln and got honorary citizenship from San Marino, way back when, which I had no idea about. Well, good.

I had never heard of Fiorentino. They're in Florence. That's another thing. I guess you can look at the word and kind of get it, but I didn't. No, no, no, no. I thought you said Fiorentino was the one that was a municipality of San Marino.

You're right? You know, that's what I was saying. It's very confusing. And I just got confused again. Jordan, were you going to say something? Yeah, just after the final whistle in their Fiorantino game, game. When the U.A. fans were singing their victory song, like, amongst the crowd shots, there was a guy with a McKinney poster, and it had, like, a lightning bolt, and the background

was an American flag. And it was there for, like, five seconds, and I didn't get a screenshot. I was hoping to get one when the Paramount Plus replays, but it cuts off, like, almost right after the final whistle. So, unfortunately, the McKinney poster by a Italian Uvei fan has lost a time. Okay, well, you've got to be just a little bit... It was a good picture. You've got to be a little bit sharper on getting those screenshots because it would have been really good to have that, you know? Yeah.

I'll do better next time. Maybe you should do a webinar on hotkeys and, you know, Google... What's that Google plugin you use to speed things up? Yeah, oh, yeah, if you want to watch soccer games faster, we're going to do a... We'll put the webinar together, but it is... This is an important piece of information that maybe some people listening don't know about and could use. If you're ever watching a replay of a soccer game, watch it in Chrome, and there's this Google Chrome extension that allows you to watch it at like 1.5 speed or 2 speed.

It's just as good. You get just as much out of it. It's just a little bit faster. And then you can get on with your day. So I highly recommend that. I can't remember what it's called. You can also skip ahead five seconds, which, which, which, is the hotkey that I use a lot

when I'm doing a replay, you know? Yeah, yeah. You get to it, the ball goes out of bounds in a USL game. You're not, you know, you don't need to watch the guy go pick up the ball. Although, get ready to throw it in. Sometimes the weirdest stuff happens

in the dead ball moments. So that's why I slow it. I just keep it going fast. That way I'm not, I don't miss some weird thing happening like a ball kid throwing out of players' knee. purpose or something. Because you just never know.

Yeah, that's true. Fair point. All right. Number six, Eunice Musa. He was a 65th minute sub in a 3-3 draw on Sunday against Athletico Matrid. You know, he subbed on for a number eight and made a lot of stuff happen in the middle of the pitch. The pass is a little iffy when he finally releases it, but it seems like the kind

of thing he will iron out once he graduates from high school. Also worth noting that Ace Ache Ache, Hector Herrera, for those of you living on her Rock came on for Luis Suarez in the 87th minute to see out a 3-1 lead, and that didn't work out well for the Mexico linchpin. So, you know, a little shot in Freud to be dipped into there. And big result for Valencia. It was a very exciting and very exciting comeback. For anyone who doesn't know, they were down 3-1 going into injury time and then two goals.

And Musa, he had a bunch of really good dribbles, but yeah, some of the passes didn't connect at the end, but otherwise he was good. He's a good player, I think. I guess the question is it's going to be between him and Buccio for Mexico, I assume, or maybe not. Maybe it's, well, we don't need to get into that now. Yeah, I feel conflicted about it because, you know, I have strong emotions in both directions. Yeah.

Number seven, Matt Turner. He went 90 and a 1-0 loss on Sunday against Inter-M Miami. This also means that the MLS point record remains at 73, and it's been broken four times in the last four full seasons. So I guess the race is on to decide who will break it next year. I assume that he did some long throws in this game that were pretty good. But other than that, I did not watch this Matt Turner soccer game. kind of not that pleasant watching a game just to see a goalkeeper play, if I'm being completely

honest with you guys. Yeah, not going to do it. It's not going to happen. Sorry, I'm not turning no offense. It's not personal. We're not going to watch your soccer games. It'll never happen. Number eight, Anthony Robinson. He went 90 in a 7-0 win on Wednesday against Blackburn and 90 in a 1-0 win on Saturday against Peterborough. So he just continues to be good at left back is the main thing. And then in terms of details, in the Blackbird game, he could have had a goal, but he hit it wide. But he made up for it with a really good assist.

It was the seventh goal they had in that seven zero win. But it still had some emotional import to it because when they were up 6-0, the visiting Fulham fans were chanting, we want seven, we want seven. and then he went and did it. So that was really the highlight of the game for me. And then against Peterborough, which by the way is what's called a cathedral city. What's a cathedral city? It's just, it's a distinction.

It's an official distinction, first of all. It's not exactly clear what the practical implications of it are, but it basically just means that the town or city has a cathedral in it. which Peterborough does. There's not that many of the cathedral cities. There's surprisingly few. For some reason, I think there's 60, but I could have just be misremembering. And what's interesting about...

60 in all of Europe or 60 in all of... In England. It's a... It's a... Or United Kingdom or whatever they're calling it these days. Who knows? But the Peterborough Cathedral, what's interesting about it, is it's the only cathedral in England to have the distinction of having two queens buried under it.

it was Mary Queen of Scots and the another one I don't remember they did eventually move Mary Queen of Scots but I mean just to have had two ever was pretty cool and even just one is still kind of impressive we were talking about Anthony Robinson though I guess I was gonna say I feel like isn't that the whole point

of a town in Europe is to have a cathedral in it and collect money for the Pope isn't that what all the towns came you know whenever yeah whenever you whenever I see a player is playing a new team that I don't know that much about, I always want to know about the cathedral in the town. It's always the most interesting thing for me. And then the one other thing against...

You're a good Catholic, too. So, you know. Yeah. Just kidding. Yeah. Just kidding. Go ahead. There was one other thing against Peterborough,

just to get it back to soccer, because this is a serious soccer conversation, is Anthony Robinson had one really good dead cat maneuver or ploy sometimes it's where he

pretended to have lost control of it then the defender comes in and he goes right by him which I really enjoy when he does that sometimes the line's a little bit blurred on whether it was completely intentional or not but I think this one was well Anthony's very high in the

non-fungibility rankings perhaps perhaps number two in competition with desk for number two in McKinney, I would say. Number nine, Miles Robinson. He went 90 in a nil-0 draw on Wednesday against the Red Bulls

and 90 in a 2-1 win on Sunday in Cincinnati. Yeah, he got a lot. Yesterday he got a goal. He got a somewhat friendly deflection, but it was a goal. And I was amazed to learn this was his first career, MLS goal. Yeah, because he's been fairly goal-dangerous for the U.S.

Yeah. That has me worrying. Maybe he was just, you know, running hot. But also the game was in the stadium that we're playing Mexico in. So that's kind of another good omen there. I'm worried I'm jinxing at this point, but things are looking good. Yeah. I mean, I'm very optimistic, but also terrified about Friday.

Yeah. Speaking of which, Ricardo Pepi, number 10. He went 78 minutes in a 1-1 draw on Sunday against San Jose, and he missed a penalty off the cross. Crossbar, but also MLS legend Chris Wondolowski scored his 171st and final goal in this game. So hats off to a great career. He announced his retirement on the field after the game. Well, congratulations to him.

Yeah. Very, pretty cool. Very cool. I thought it was a great goal, too. It was Jackson Ewell sprays it out to Cowell. Cowell slips it to Lopez with a well-weighted little lead-in, and then Wando connects with the back in a lovely casual sort of left-footed way. It's side-netting.

Unstoppable. Obviously, the one more, the person we're more interested in here is Ricardo, and the miss penalty is kind of a metaphor for his form right now, I'd say. He's not looked sharp since his, in my opinion, quite good performance against Costa Rica and Columbus. Ferreira got an assist on a jail break after a corner kick with, you know, um, San Jose putting 10 men in the box on the corner kick sort of inexplicably. What did they do?

They put 10 men in the box? I guess, well. Yeah, they just completely sold out to try to, I don't know, get a goal on a corner kick. Towards the end of the first half, up 1-0. I like it. It doesn't make that much sense, but they did it. And then Ferreira just kicked it as far as he could. And, I mean, it was a good pass, but it was just into wide open space and Hadeer.

O'Brien was 1-V-1 with the keeper. without having to do very much unlocking at all. I assume Pepe will start up top on Friday, but if we struggle to get a good performance out of him, there will be, as they say in England, as they say in cathedral cities, there are 42 of them. There will be an inquest about Burhalter's roster choices here.

Yeah, he's the only one. He's the only striker. I guess, Jesus, it'll be fine. We'll just do a false nine. People are not going to be happy about that, though. Yeah, he's the only target nine. There is no second option. It's going to be fine.

Yeah, it's going to be great. I mean, I'm fully expecting a peppy brace, and I'm going to release a shorter radio edit of my peppy song in an anticipation of that. They'll get it ready. Okay. Number 11, John Brooks. He went 90 in a 2-1 win in Champions League against Salzburg, and then 90 in a 1-0 win on Saturday against Alksburg.

I was too distraught to watch this. Also, it's just such a divisive issue. The centerback situation right now with John Brooks not being called up. I'm nothing to say. Yeah. Yeah, we'll get into it a little bit with Chris Richards, but he is, um, his absence is, it looms larger by the hour, I believe. Seems like a mistake.

Mm-hmm. If I'm being completely honest and I generally, generally do not care about that type of thing. I thought you were going to say, I'm generally completely honest. And I was like, well, that sounds like something somebody would say who's not generally completely honest. I would say it's also true, though. I'm generally completely honest. Yeah, Richards, well, we'll get into Richards in a second here. But yeah, let me just leave it at Brooks's absences.

It looms. Number 12. Brennan Aronson. You went 90 to 2-1 loss in Champions League on Tuesday. against Wolfsburg and the 90-0-0 win on Saturday against Austria, Vienna. I remember him being good in the midweek, although it's been so long ago, who's really to say at this point? And then the main notes from the weekend, he had a hockey assist too, where I would encourage everyone to look it up how it happened. he popped the ball up over a very short pop-up that somehow just cleared the defender

who diving deflected and then in. It was a pretty lucky play for being honest, but it was really cool looking is why you should check it out. And then beyond that, what I really enjoyed, we saw a new, not a new type of protest, maybe a continuation of his normal type of protest with a slight variation on it. He did one of his wordless disbelief ones where he's going to the ref and just has his mouth agape. But at this one, he put his hand straight up in the air like a touchdown symbol and just held it there for a while. Which is a really, it's a slightly new look from him.

Yeah. I hadn't noticed. I mean, I hadn't verbally identified his wordless disbelief protest style until you mentioned it. Yeah, well, yeah. It's just, it's, he has, obviously sometimes he's saying stuff, but sometimes he's not. And I personally enjoy the ones when he doesn't say anything. It's probably less effective, if we're being honest. But, yeah, it's a big part of this game.

It's a projection of little brotherness, really, is what it is. Yeah, yeah, it is. Just from the chat, let me say that Alex points out correctly that the Peterborough Cathedral is Anglican. And so my mention of Catholicism was completely off base, and that's true. And then Vince said, you know, when we were talking about, I think when we were talking about the hot keys you use when you watch soccer, he just holds the Apple TV remote and stands up like a football coach. So, number 13, Timothy Wea.

Went 72 minutes in a two-one win in the Champions League on Tuesday against Sevilla. And then he was a 75th minute. in a 1-1 draw on Saturday against Angiers? That sounds... I'm not good with French names. That seems pretty close. Actually, there was... It's always tough knowing how to pronounce it

because the commentators normally English and you don't know if he's saying it in a weird way. How is an American supposed to say it? But, so the thing from Sevilla that was... I really liked is he took a shot from like 35 yards, which was great, because we don't... As a people, we don't score quite enough bangers, in my opinion. so you got to be going for them.

So I really like that. And then he was just genuinely, generally, I'm going to miss generally and genuinely are words I'm going to mix up through, I think always. But Leo had a really strong rebound goal, one of the best I've ever seen in that game. Yeah, it was like, I mean, Way I didn't have any involvement in it, but it was like the crossbar played, not the crossbar, it was the post played a cutback to the penalty marker,

and Nanitamo Iconi took it first time with all the confidence of a young Stephen Gerard. It was really a nice, nice goal. It was a bam, bam thing. And then against Anjeres, he, Wea nearly pulled out the wind at the end with an assist, but it didn't quite work out.

because Yomaz fluffed it a little bit. And then the one other thing I would say, and I don't know if it's something I just haven't been paying close enough attention to, but in the midweek game, he was wearing his socks very short. And then in the weekend, he was wearing them very long.

And it's, which strikes me as a little bit interesting because normally a player will stick with one thing, but it seems like he might be switching back and forth. I just haven't been tracking it closely enough. We're going to need to do a better job of that. Yeah, please, please look into that. I've always liked short soccer, short, short, short soccer socks.

I've always been a fan of those. They just, they project sort of cat, like a devil-may-care attitude, you know. Yeah, I probably could do an entire episode on that. I somewhat disagree with that, but I don't, I understand people see it different ways. You want, you want, you want players to wear their socks like, like, like, all. way. Garters. Roll it way up the thigh.

That's what I, if I, in a perfect world, that's, thank you. That is how I would have the national team just, just all the way up. Yeah. When I see that, I'm not, I don't like that at all, honestly. Yeah, to each is out. Yeah, fair enough. Number 14, Chris Richards. He was a 64th minute sub and a 2-0 loss on Saturday against Bokham.

this is the second straight game that he's come off the bench. So I'm not sure if he's dealing with some sort of nagging issue or if he's just out of favor. But both goals were scored with him on the field, although the second goal was from 70 yards out after Hoffenheim's keeper came forward on the late corner in stoppage time. Yeah, there were some keeper shenanigans in this game,

which we'll get into a little bit more. But this coming off the bench stuff is not ideal. I don't think the first. goal was really something Richards can be blamed for too much. But he also was not a calming presence back there in his, you know, roughly half-hour cameo, headed the ball to Bokom's Takuma, Asano for a big chance late. Would have made it 2-0 even before the 70-yarder. And, you know, I feel like Berlter's going to start either McKenzie or Zimmerman

next to Miles against Mexico. This is what I'm preparing myself emotionally for. And, you know, it just harkens back to the bro. Rooks situation. But what a goal that was from Milos Pontovich from 70 yards? And that Bochum atmosphere was electric.

It was amazing. It was so loud. Yeah. That's one of the, it was one of the more enjoyable, I only watched from Richard's Lent, but it was one of the more enjoyable times I've had watching a crowd in a while. That first goal, the crowd.

Go ahead, Jordan, sorry. I was just going to say, I have something unrelated to Richards, but late in the second half, Bocham drew a penalty, and their goalkeeper decided to take it. He, of course, skied it because goalkeepers are not penalty-taking experts. They're the ones who save penalties. But it was weird that the goalkeeper decided to take the penalty that would seal the game. That whole exchange, that whole part of that was weird, because the penalty was weird. I don't even know. Someone fell down, and then a defender shoved.

someone after the play. And isn't that where the penalty came from? It was chaos. Also, Bochum sounds made up. It sounds like a made-up place. But it's actually way, way bigger than Hoffenheim. There's like 300,000 people in Bochum, and Hoffenheim is just a village with 3,000. It's where the founder of SAP is from.

That's why they have a team there. I learned that last week when we, sometimes we hang out after these recordings and talk about German cities for whatever reason. Yeah, totally a natural thing to do. I think Bochum is Leon Goreska's Boyhood Club, I believe. And, you know, it's right there in that

West German, I don't know what you, the, the Rur Valley or where Dortmund and Schalka are. Like almost all the people in Germany are in what used to be West Germany. Like, something like 75% of the population, something like. that. A lot of the soccer clubs too. Dead center right in the mix of it. Number 15 is Zach Stephan. He was a unused sub in both their Champions League win against Club Bruges

and their Premier League win against Manchester United. Okay. Not much to say by him. Very good. Number 16, Walker Zimmerman. He went 90 and a 1-1 draw on Sunday against the Red Bulls. Nashville ended the season in third place in the Eastern Conference, which I think they will be happy about. Incredible. Now they're moving to the Western Conference. Is that true? Next season.

Why would they do that? This was also Nashville's 18th draw of the season. What? Yes. And it was a draw that kept D.C. United out of the playoffs, so I'm mad about that. Sorry, my condolences. I know that at one point during this game,

I didn't watch it, but Walker Zimmerman apparently was flat-footed on a run behind him and it sparks some really great debates on Twitter about the centerback situation. So I would seek those out if anyone likes Twitter arguments. Let me just mention a couple things from the chat. Tim Sullivan says Zimmering came down awkwardly on his left knee and was limping badly for a bit but finished the game

and head coach Gary Smith implied postgame that it was more a scare than an actual injury. He left for Cincinnati this morning and was paged over the PA because he forgot his carry-on at security. What? Apparently, that's out in the tabloids in Music City. Wait, hold on. If that's making the tabloids, soccer is really arriving in this country. I was joking.

I don't think they have a Nashville specific tabloid. I wish. That would be cool. I guess now it doesn't make sense that would be in a tabloid and I feel just like a real a real goof over here, a real goof at him. No, I mean, it's it's gotten out somehow, right? 17. Joe Scali He went 90 in a 1-1 draw on Friday away to mites.

Not his sharpest performance this fall, I would say, but he remains a lock-star for a good Bundesliga club, San Amore. For me. He's extremely coherent and physically up to it out there. Is it kind of my main thing. He also had a really good dive. He also had this weird thing.

I don't quite know how to describe where he was on the ground and it was in a bit of a scuffle. And he decided he was going to kind of lunge out and headbutt a player out of the way. And he got away with it. He's very good at that sort of thing. And then we were talking about earlier about him getting Chinese food with Giorina in Dusseldorf is where they get it. It looks like from the reviews it's either a Cantonese style dim someplace or a Sichuan place probably with a hot pot.

Just going on context clues from the things he said to the reporters. The first is in September it was first reported they had gone there the past Monday, which I saw that. I thought it was really interesting. I didn't follow up on it because, you know, it was just I thought it was a one-time thing. And then in November, Roger Gonzalez reported that they had been going there most weeks to the same restaurant every time. And that's why I've been trying to figure it out. And I'm kind of leaning toward Hot Pot because he specifically says, or this is how it's characterized by Gonzalez. He says, we really enjoy it.

That implies it's. it sounds like an experience to me. So that's sort of where I'm leaning. But, you know, we don't know. That's all pure speculation. Maybe you should do, maybe you should do like a guided tour of restaurants that 18-year-old Americans go to in West Germany someday. I'm thinking about putting together a series called, here's what American soccer players

have to say about food. Because there are, for whatever reason, first, Joe Scali talks about. about food and about 80% of his sit-down interviews. It's partly because he likes food. It's partly because there's just not that many things to ask an 18-year-old or however old he is. So, yeah, I'm thinking about that series. But we can move on to the next player.

No, I mean, we should, it's, it is interesting. Food comes up often, even in the Discord. You'll be like, you'll jump into the striker channel and somebody will be talking about the curry they made just the night before. So, you know, it's, well, you said it was interesting. So I'll go ahead and tell you what I know about Joe Skelly, what he has to say about food. His dad is a co-owner of a pub in Long Island where he the thing Joe Sky likes to get there is grilled chicken and he puts Frank's red hot on it because he can't get the wings because

they're not healthy enough. But his favorite dessert there is a fried Oreo, deep fried Oreo. And then in he lives in Dusseldorf. What he likes to get there is snitzel with a fried egg on it. I think that's the main point. actually beside the Chinese food. But I'll try to keep on top of this. Okay. Please do. To your point about him looking coherent and physically up to it, I do think when I turn on

those games or watch the clips from them, he looks very much like a sort of, what's the word? Just like a normal German right back. Not normal. Normal's not the right one. Sort of just like a median German right back. like totally comfortable in that setting totally yeah like up to the up to snuff he seems like a very adaptable human being like he's totally adapted to that club he does there are some good

he seems to have a he seems to be good at judging some of the cutback passes into the middle maybe it was just a small sample size but he seems to have a knack for that and then cutting them out No playing them, but also cutting them out too. Oh, okay, okay. You're talking about it in the offensive third. Yeah. Okay, let's move to number 18, Jean-Luca Buccio. He went 90 in a 3-2 win on Sunday against Roma.

This was a huge win, obviously, and Buccio was a big part of it. That touch in the 20th minute where he pulls it down out of the air while facing the touchline, pulls it back to the middle of the field, and wrong foot's the nearest Roma player, and then just taps it to one of his teammates in the center circle was enough to make a grown man cry, I tell you. I got emotional for sure. I mean, when do you see that kind of thing from an American? Yeah. What's he, it's amazing that he, he seems to have become maybe a likely national team starter

by making a move to a club that we didn't even know existed like six months ago. It's a very strange situation, but I'm very excited how it's going. Yeah. But my one thing is, if he plays against Mexico, he should definitely do the set pieces. He had some really good corners in this game. And if he doesn't, I don't know if we organize a protest or what. We do something because it just needs to happen. Yeah.

I feel like I'd be excited to see him start against Mexico, but also worried. You know, maybe that's how everybody would feel. I guess it's Musa other than him. Yeah, I think I prefer Musa. Buccio's still not that great in the cage. I know he's getting better. No, he's not, yeah. But Burrhalter did make a point to say he's competing for a starting position.

I wonder why he would say that otherwise, unless he was seriously considering it. But we don't need to try to psychoanalyze Berhalter here. Not today. Anything else on Bouscio? He had this one pass. It was a pin drop pass. It was probably a little bit lucky,

but it made him look like a psychic or something where he played it long. He got one defender to fall down, and the other defender just turned around and kept running toward the goal, and the ball dropped right on the foot of his teammate. Like, you know, died from goal. It was a little like that Aronson one

you mentioned earlier, from a farther distance away. It was a longer version of the ERISA pass. Neither of them completely on purpose, but both fantastic. Yeah, both would have been cut out if Miles Robinson was playing centerback for the other team.

Yeah, he would have kicked that into the stance. Number 19. Kalan Acosta. You went 90 in a 5-2 win on Sunday against L.A.F.C. Believe it or not, he played left wingback. in this game and got a not right wing back, left wing back

and got a lovely assist on the game's opener. Berhalter can't believe his luck that another opportunity for something odd and distasteful about the lineup has emerged. But Acosta is fine. I think he continues to demonstrate his versatility.

Cole Bassett had a nice goal in this game too, skip to his right at the top of the box to evade a defender and hit a rope into the side netting. So that's what I got from Colorado versus L.A.FC. Anything else? I'm just enjoying thinking about what would happen if it cost of started left back on the internet.

It would be chaos. It would all meltdown. It would be over. That's obviously not going to happen at all, but. I can't shake the suspicion that Bertholder likes that doing that kind of stuff. Yes. Number 20, Luca Deletore. He went 90 in their one-note loss on Friday away to FC20.

Perhaps looked a little soft in his duels to my eye, but typically efficient with the ball at his feet. Had a nice sequence in the 20th minute where he split two guys up the right touchline and then played a clever little pass, cancelling them both out again for the second time into the channel and then received it back from his teammate on the right wing.

And his ball across was good, just didn't quite find anybody. Uh, so kind of sad he's not in this camp. Yeah. It's not as big of a deal as Brooks, but it's... Would you have taken him over Buscio? I assume you actually already talked about this with Greg, but I did not listen to the other guy. I can't remember if we talked about it or not.

I, I would probably have just brought him in addition to the other guys. Yeah, you're a big roster guy. I'm a big tent. Just call me big tent bells. Revival tent, pals. What else? What else should we discuss? Jordan, you got anything else?

I don't think so. Yeah, speaking of big tents, go ahead. Go ahead, Wachie. No, you go ahead. Oh, I was talking with the owner of Rinehouse, one of the owners of Rinehouse, a bar in Cincinnati, about perhaps joining up with them.

We still have not finalized our tailgating plans, and hopefully we'll have something to announce in the next couple days, but he wanted to know how big our tent was. And I said, I don't know the exact dimensions. He's like, but he just wanted to make sure it wasn't a big. You just say, I'm, hey, I'm a big tent bells. It's big. I wanted to reassure him that it was a small tent. Hey, this is a small tent bells. It doesn't roll off the tongue the same way. Right. It does not. But it is a small, it's a pretty small tent. Joe Lenoir knows exactly how

large of a tent it is. And, but anyway, we'll have details on the tailgate, you know, sometime before Friday. We'll figure it. I'm going to this tailgate. I'm very excited about it. Yeah.

Very excited. Jordan, you're going to make a last second trip? I don't think so. Do you want me to swing by and skip you up? I can do it. I can't do it. I don't have a car. But in spirit.

You could just get the pilot to stop in D.C. Yeah, can we run by D.C.? at Jordan. All right. I can't think if I have any other announcements. Wachie, do you have anything else to say? No.

Okay. All right. John Arnold, John Arnold joins the podcast tomorrow. That's always a good time. And if you have any questions for him, find that Google form on Twitter. I'll put it in the Discord too. Thanks everybody for listening.

We'll see you.