Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #225: Monday Review — St. Paul in February, new Top 40, leaked kits

Episode Date: November 29, 2021

Quick recap of the latest USMNT news and the action from the weekend with Watke and NatFan9. We covered St. Paul's weather in February, ranch sauce on pizza, Tim Weah's excellent form, etc. etc.support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedjoin the Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU buy our merch: https://my-store-11446477.creator-spring.com/drop us a question at this link and we’ll try to answer it: https://forms.gle/vEatDVE6wsMzekep8 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 the Monday review. Let's start with some news. We've got qualifier locations for January and early February. Columbus, Ohio on the 27th of January, Hamilton, Ontario, which is about an hour south of Toronto for the away qualifier against Canada. and then St. Paul, Minnesota on February 2nd. I'm still just extremely upset about choosing St. Paul for a game in February. I see where you're coming from that, but I also, I just respect how incredibly specific of a decision is. I don't necessarily agree with it, but that they've done something so specific I have to admire. Bold? Would you say it's a bold decision?

I would say it's bold. I'm worried, do they know how cold it is, though? Yeah, I mean, so at risk of boring everyone, I did look up the temperatures on February 2nd in St. Paul over the last 10 years. So just a specific day every year for the last 10 years. And the thing is, it could be fine. The low for the past three years in St. Paul. And let's face it, the low temperature is going to be close. to the actual temperature during the game than the average or the high.

So we got to keep the low in mind. Because it's a night. Yeah, right, unless they play the game in the afternoon, which would be crazy on a Wednesday. So the low for the last three years was 18, 31, and 12. And I think those definitely 31 is fine. The other two are probably doable. They'd be similar to the game in Edmonton.

But the last three years are three of the one. years in the past decade on February 2nd in St. Paul, Minnesota. The low has been zero or below zero in four out of the last 10 years, and that would not be like Edmonton. That would be very different from that Mexico-Canada game in Edmonton. It would be just a wild experience to see the team play in weather like that or to actually play in weather like that. Yeah, just looking at this chart of numbers, I see a minus 7, we don't want that, certainly. Why are you saying 10 degrees would be fine? That seems too cold to me.

I guess you know Minnesota. I guess it was, what was it, like, 13 by the, at full time in Edmonton. Okay. That, I think I heard that. So 10 wouldn't, I don't know about fine, but I guess doable, you know, minus seven. That, like, that actually burns your face. I also just don't think that playing in cold benefits us against Honduras. Like, we're supposed to be the better team.

We want good conditions. Yeah. So the counterpoint to that is, you know, Mexico actually looked better against Canada than they did against us. So maybe playing in the cold as long as it's not, like a safety risk isn't that big of a disadvantage. Let's hope they ran the science on it in either case. Well, Columbus, I think, should be.

probably okay temperature-wise and Hamilton will probably be comparable to Columbus but St. Paul is a different beast so I guess we'll just see we'll see what happens I'm planning to be there

and we're trying to figure out a tailgate situation should we move on to the next item? Yes McKenney telling Keelini about burgers and ranch sauce this was from the from the new Yuvai documentary

and it's just McKinney is so innocently and shamelessly American. It's kind of cringy to me and endearing at the same time. But maybe he should learn about one of the world's great culinary traditions while he's in Turin. Yeah, I was looking up the food in Turin. It's home to what's called the slow food movement, which is about local ingredients and really natural ingredients, which is really the complete opposite of putting Rantz dressing on pizza. So it's a real clash of styles there.

I guess my one other thoughts is, I don't think we necessarily need to be telling Europeans we're putting ranch on pizza. I'm not putting ranch on pizza. Who's doing who's doing that? Weston McKinney. He's not just using it as a dipping sauce. He's putting it on top of his pizza.

No, he's bathing his pizza. He's taking like a piece of pepperoni pizza and putting a ranch on it, which is fine. I mean, it's fine. I've done that. I wouldn't be telling Italians about it. But he's young, and that's part of the problem. The lost generation was bad for soccer reasons, but also we don't have guys who have been there to say stuff like, hey, let's keep some of this under wraps.

We don't need to be giving all of our food secrets away like that. Because if he's telling him about putting a ranch on pizza, he must have just told him everything. We just saw the tip of the iceberg in that little clip. Yeah, Keelini was clearly appalled, too. He said, what are you telling me right now? I think that's what he said. What are you saying? I think it was fun.

It was like I'm afraid of American dressing or whatever. Yeah. Well, they think we all do that now, which we don't. So, I mean, we'll dip a crust in ranch dressing, but we're not all putting on top of the pizza. Anyway, we don't need to get. I have never engaged ranch dressing with pizza in my entire life for the record. Okay.

Well, I mean, Jordan, what about you? No. Not for me. Okay. Well, it's out there. Some people do it. And then another thing is Uve got raided by the financial police. That's not really related.

At least I don't think it's related. Probably not related. But also, Italian prosecutors are always doing the most, man. Who knows what's going on there? Remember that story about the American girl who got charged with murder? Like, maybe she did it. Maybe she didn't. Oh, yeah.

I can't remember her name. That was a weird story. I also think YuVA probably does do so much in an anagance, but... Yeah, maybe so. Did you watch the documentary? Did either of you watch any of it? I've watched the first episode.

I haven't gotten around to the rest of it yet. I watched the first two episodes and then skimed through it to saying what else Weston might have disclosed to them. His storyline, he had a food storyline in the second one where he listed a bunch of other bad foods. but then they kind of went away from that

and there wasn't much more. Maybe the problem, you know, there was like all this talk about him and food in the Italian press I don't know, a few months ago. Maybe the problem is just he talks too much about it, you know? Well, they had a whole scene about him coming in to get his weight checked

and checked his body fat percentage. He was 18% and they told him he needed to do better. That was kind of the main thing. But they didn't really come back to that. later on the season. I need somebody to tell me that it's really good before I'm going to watch it

because I watched that Sergio Romo, a little bit of that Sergio Ramos documentary that was made a couple of years ago it's on Amazon Prime or used to be. And it was so bad

that I thought I'm never going to watch another soccer documentary unless... I think it's not really good. The weird thing about these things is you have the heads of the club

talking as though they're not being filmed even though they're staged to be filmed perfectly by a camera and they're obviously aware of the camera right there so it's kind of fake. All right, well, fourth place Conccaf Finisher plays Oceana in a playoff. That's the next thing.

Yeah, it was a draw. It was a fortunate draw. That means the fourth place team now plays it. It's a single game in Qatar in June. And Oceana hasn't started their qualifying yet. Apparently they have had all sorts of COVID problems. It'll probably be New Zealand and they've only played three games in the past two years. I don't know if that's,

And they're ranked really like 100 and something. So it's a break. They probably really wish they had Tyler Boyd now. Yes. I've always felt bad about stealing Tyler Bowdoin. Me too. I feel bad about it. I still feel bad about it.

We shouldn't have done that. No. But he wanted it, you know? This is, just to be clear, this is the playoff to be in the World Cup. So if we finish fourth, we play Oceana in a playout. Like the second place finisher in Oceana, is that it? No, no, just one. First place.

They have one half of a spot in the World Cup. So it would just be the best team there. Well, that's better than having to face a South American opponent, obviously. But because if you look at the table in that common ball qualifying tournament, there's a decent chance that's going to be either Columbia or Uruguay, who we would have to face if we had drawn South America. So thank goodness we don't have to do that. Yeah.

The Jamaica Behind the Crest video, you know, it's nice, they're always nice to watch. They're a good document, I think, of what's going on or what has happened. The part that struck me as Berlter said he was happy. They looked unhappy after the game. And I just think they looked unhappy because they got whipped in the second half. And I'm not sure what to do about that. Well, I think by the transit of property, It did make it seem a little bit like he was happy.

They went badly. I think the issue is he's just a little bit awkward. So it just sounded like he was saying that. He was just pointing out, it was like an empathy thing. Yeah. I understand why you guys are upset. I'm glad because you should be. You know?

Yeah. Why he needed to say that? I'm not sure. He was being encouraging. Yes. He was trying to be encouraging. Yeah. What else?

A new kit for 2022 has been leaked. Do you care about that type of thing? There's been a lot of debate on it. And it's really one of the most heated issues of the past few days. I know historically you don't want to talk about shirts, but maybe we should address it. Well, the picture I saw, the white one looks like a boring shirt, all white with gray waves and big Nike swooshes on the sleeves. I did see a blue one that came out that I saw this morning. Has that one been out for a while?

I don't know. I missed that one. And yeah, it's like a lighter blue, kind of a more of a bomb pop type blue. Bomb pop. And, you know, bomb pop, the one from 2014. Oh, okay. Yeah. And it's like that shade of blue.

The one thing I know about church is Jordan is he doesn't like the Waldo's, which infuriates everyone. So I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that. Yeah, I don't like this, the leaked white kit either. because I feel like our white kit should have at least some color, like some red or blue accents. But no, I don't like the Waldoz. Well, we dodged the ball at this time on that. Yeah.

Well, the blue, I was going to say the blue that I saw this morning from Alex Calabrese's Twitter account is, I could see it looking nice with white shorts. You know, it would be a little bit of a different look at. Oh, white shorts, that's aggressive. I could get behind that. But it is aggressive. Yeah.

It is true, though. Nobody cares what I think about kits or fashion for that matter. I don't even have nice. My shoe game is terrible. Yeah, we're not the fashion people, really. Let's go to the top 40. We just closed the rankings on the newest, the power rankings for the player pool. And number one is Tyler Adams.

Still number one after the most recent rankings. He did not play midweek in championship because of yellow card accumulation. Leipzig won 4-0 against Club Bruges. And then he was the 73rd minutes up and a 3-1 loss on Sunday at home to Leverkeeson. Yeah, he was already down 3-1 when he came on. I thought he played well. Didn't really matter. Yeah.

Marsh was out with COVID for this game. And in general, it just seems to be, at least in the Bundesliga, is it. or I guess in Europe too. It's not going quite how we had hoped. But they're still severely underperforming their XG, their expected goals. So I don't quite know what to make of this. Is he going to get fired if they don't make the Champions League? They still have a really good chance of making the Champions League, though, don't you?

Yeah, I guess there's a long way to go. Yeah. Maybe we'll see a February firing or something if things don't start really clicking in the results category, not in the XG. category. Number two, Weston McKinney. He moved up three spots from last rankings, and he played 90 minutes in Uve's 4-nill loss on Tuesday against Chelsea, and he played 64 minutes in their 1-0 loss on Saturday against Atalanta. He's risen in the rankings. So let me just be clear, these rankings,

there were 49 participants, so a panel of 49. It's a pretty good turnout for us. I think McKinney's risen in the rankings because we see how we look without him, and it's not nearly as good, not close. I ranked him our most valuable player, and a lot of people still have Adams ahead of him. That's why Adams is still ahead in the rankings, but my personal rankings have McKinney number one, just because of stuff we've talked about on this podcast a lot,

the way he dominates the center of the park and then really goes end line to end line. And I would say he was mostly quite good against Chelsea, despite the score line one of their better players except for the last goal where he misplayed a ball aimed for Hakeem Zayek and Zayek stabbed it into the six

for Werner to tap it in the thing is it was already 3-0 at that point so you know whatever yeah that was a good spot to stash a mistake at the end of the game when it was over

right on Saturday he was again really really good I thought but he did have the the knee injury scare. That's why he came out. But it seems like, here's what Uvae said. I didn't know quite what it means. Weston McKinney was subjected to diagnostic tests that excluded capsular ligament injury in his right knee. His condition will be monitored daily. So that sounds

pretty good. I'm not a doctor. The word is it's a sprain, which makes it seem like he'll be comfortably back for the January window. But it does seem like the different medical terms used in different nations does make it a little bit confusing. Yeah, I looked up capsular. Basically, it's just the little things that connect the bones in the knee area. Capsular, yeah. That's not something the American medical establishment uses. I'll say that. Christian Pulisic. Number three. He fell one spot in the rankings and went 71 minutes in a 4-0, in their 4-9 win against Juventus on Tuesday and then he was a 78 minutes out on one draw on Sunday against Manchester

United. I didn't think he was that great in the midweek contest when he started. It was kind of invisible. I mean, Juventus was totally under duress the whole time so so it was like not an ideal game for him trying to find space in a low block against some big centerbacks. But he was very bright in my opinion against Manchester

United created a goal scoring move from a throw-in right after he came on by beating a guy and finding a little guy in a pot finding a teammate in a little pocket in the channel something he did a few times so dominant right now Chelsea just bossing United down the stretch but couldn't get the breakthrough yeah they crossed to to rudiger at the end that he skied over the bar but he was very good and people were saying he was uh Chelsea's best player out there saying he was a cut above technical-wise. They run very hot and cold, I would say, on the internet. The fans at Stanford Bridge

or the ones, I guess it's mostly the ones on the internet. Yeah, that is the one bad thing about him playing there is Chelsea fans are very much in our lives, you know? Yeah. It's a very good team, but their fans are. I guess all fans are like that, but especially Chelsea fans. Are they the odds-on favorite to win Champions League again? They seem like that.

They seem really good. Number four, Sergenio Dest Fell one spot in the rankings and was an 84th minute sub in their nil-nil draw in the Champions League on Tuesday and you sub in their 3-1 win on Saturday against Vio Reyes. He came in at left wing.

It seemed like he was playing left-wing. Maybe it was just a very advanced wingback or something. Not a whole lot happened, but it's good to see it back. And I assume they're just working him back slowly. which is why he didn't play on the weekend. Yeah. Or maybe he hasn't. I guess he won't need to win back a starting job at either of the full box.

Maybe Javvy doesn't like his red basketball jersey. I guarantee he doesn't like his red basketball jersey. But I hope they pulled him aside and said you can't wear your red basketball jersey anymore. Number five, Giovanni Raina. He fell one spot in the rankings and has still his not. not made his return, missed both their Champions League game on Wednesday and their league game on Saturday against Wolfsburg. He was listed as doubtful for the Wolfsburg game, I think, which to me indicates some progress.

I'm sure it would be nice for him to get a few minutes under his belt before the winter break. Just the next benchmark where he needs to get to questionable. Or at least in American sports, that's what it would be. I don't know if they'd use that in Europe. Yeah. Questionable would be. step up. Isn't that what they do on the IR list and baseball? They do that in NFL and the NBA, I think. I think it goes doubtful, questionable.

And then next thing you know, they're in the game. We need to get Europe on our system. Apparently, Man City is the favorite to win Champions League right now, followed by Byron Munich, Liverpool, PSG, and Chelsea. That does not match the eye test for me. So, oh, Barcelona has to go and beat. iron to advance in the Champions League. So they're basically out now. If they had been able to squeak that one out at the end,

but now they're in trouble. That or they have to hope that Benfica doesn't beat last place, Keogh. Which is unlikely. They're in big trouble. Yeah. I just think back to who's the favorite to win Champions League, it just seems like Man City

never can't quite get it going, at least recently. Yeah. in the later stages. Number six, Eunice Musa. He is unchanged in the rankings and was a 82nd minutes sub in their 1-1-traw on Saturday

against Rayo Viacano. He came on and it was good. He had this thing where the ball came way across the field and then he controlled it well and played it across to an open guy almost had an assist. So he keeps having these spot minutes where he looks pretty good.

And then the other thing, I've become increasingly concerned about is I'm not really clear what Valencia's team colors are. They seem to have, they seem to be red, yellow, blue, black, and white. And their mascot is a bat. And it's all very

confusing because then the red and the yellow blends together looks like orange. It seems like the seats in their stadium are orange. And you look it up on the internet, you don't get any clear answers. I don't think we need to solve that today. It's just something I'm, I wanted to flag. It is a little, I'm a little confused by it too. I guess I just think of them as white, like white jerseys.

Yeah. But that can't be the right answer. No, it's a mess. It's a mess. It's a mess. It's a mess. It's a mess. It's like the opposite of Venetia.

Number seven, Timothy Wea. He jumped six spots this time and was a 80, and played 84 minutes in their one-nale win in the championship against Salzburg, and it was a 76-minute sub in their one-one draw against Knots. Dude, he is so good right now. He obviously rose in the rankings a lot thanks to his performance in the last window. That performance against Mexico was sort of a signature match for him. And then he had that really nice goal against Jamaica that helped us get one point.

He does seem like our most consistent attacking player at the moment. And he was constantly probing against Salzberg, several nice moments. But the best was when he roasted the Salzberg left back with, pace and cut it back to the penalty marker to David. Jonathan David, the Canadian, was bundled down, but no foul called. David scored the game's only goal, kind of a lucky pinball situation that ended with a confident finish. But anyway, it's weird.

Lille has struggled so much in League Aung, but they're leading their group in Champions League with one match left. It's kind of strange. Yeah. And then he came on at the end of the weekend and was really good again. He created a bunch of stuff. He would get down and put across him. He did one to David that was a penalty that he missed.

And then he did it again at the end. So he's really effective out there. He's so decisive and penetrating. It's just not a better word for it than that. He penetrates the defense. Yeah. He does this thing where he'll pass it back, but then move forward immediately way quicker than anyone else does.

Yeah Yeah So so fast thinking Number eight Miles Robinson He jumped one spot in the rankings But his season is finished Yeah

Number nine Matt Turner He fell two spots in the rankings But he does not have He did not play a game this week The Rev start the playoffs on Tuesday Which is weird because Nine out of 14 playoff teams who already been eliminated before the reps that you play the game.

I don't understand how they've scheduled these playoffs. How are we doing watching the MLS playoffs so far? Anybody watching any of that? Yes. It's interesting. There's a lot going on. Some exciting games. But they're all over the place.

I don't know when the next game is because the schedule is so chaotic. That Jack McGlynn finally, yeah, the schedule is awfully chaotic. That Jack McGlynn penalty last night was. pretty nice. I just got finished watching a lot of the U-20 minutes or all of them, really, last week from Revelations Cup and I didn't think much of McLean, but that was a nice moment from him. Are you going to do a recap of those U-20s, or was there not enough, not enough to justify it? No, we are.

We're going to do it for sure. Okay, good. I actually found myself more encouraged upon rewatch than I was initially by the pool of players. And another thing on Matt Turner, he dropped two spots. Why? Why do you think he dropped two spots? Just because Burhalter didn't start him? Probably, yeah.

I feel like people are starting to come around on Stefan maybe. I don't know. I'm struck by how soft the Stefan stands on Twitter are. They're like really soft people. They can't. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, debate. I think it's that their heart's not fully in it.

So, you know, you get a little more defensive in that case. I posted the frame by frame of Antonio's goal just as like a pure educational matter, you know. And I had a few people be like, dude, let's stop being so petty. Let's move on. I'm like, we didn't get three points in that game. That was the pivotal moment in the game. Why are you so soft? Yeah, there's only but so many games to.

focus on. We can't just move on. We have, we have, you know. Yeah, I'll move on when we qualify for the World Cup, bro. Let's hope they don't listen to that, that whole section. Who cares? Number 10, Anthony Robinson. He fell two spots in the rankings and went 90 in both of their draws, one against one nil-0 against Darby County on Wednesday, and one that was one-one-one against Preston

North End on Saturday. So he was basically solid like he always is for Fulham. There was one, he had this really pretty intense tackle that I thought could have been a red card. But I think he didn't get a red card just because of how likable he is. It's partly his body language and his faith and his have accrued goodwill throughout the time. But he got booed intensely by Preston North End every time he touched the ball for this game. that was kind of that was the main storyline there I don't know if other people thought it was a red card but that was

I think he played for Preston North End a few years ago too didn't he I didn't know that double check that I don't think so I think he played for Bolton and then Wiggin okay my mistake and then Tim Riem was the he scored a goal it was his first goal and I remember like 170 games or something and he got man of the match but then he disavowed his man of the match later on Twitter saying he was,

I'm quoting here, otherwise do-do yesterday. But then he went on to tell us, have a wonderful Sunday and give a smile to everyone you see today. You never know who may need it. What a class act, Tim Riem is, you know? That's like a strong dad with zero testosterone left energy, you know,

which I speak from some experience on that. he's a mitch have a wonderful sunday and give a smile to everyone you see today that makes him a minch i don't know i don't exactly sure what i'm inch is we'll have to disagree on that i think john brooks number 11 unchanged in the rankings went 88 minutes in their two-no loss in the champions league on tuesday against sevia and went 90 in their three-one loss against tortman on saturday well on saturday he did some Cool passes, like always, they were of the chipped variety. Had, I guess, a couple of moments where they weren't defensively.

It wasn't inspired relating to them being pretty big and not super quick sometimes. But otherwise, it seemed to have been a pretty standard John Brooks game. He did miss a headed goal opportunity to tie it to two-two, so Dortmund eventually won. Yeah, the Champions League distribution comp is really strong. lots of laser-like diagonals from left-center back to right wing. Number 12, Brendan Aronson. He is also unchanged in the rankings. He went 85 minutes in their 1-0 loss on Tuesday against Leal in the Champions League,

and he went 61 minutes in their 2-1 loss against Austria-Claugnfert on Saturday. On Saturday, he did the thing he normally does where he created. some chances. He had a shot, a couple close assists, but he got subbed out. I wasn't exactly sure if that was related to performance or resting him or what. I don't know.

And Klagenfort translates to Ford of Lament in German, which just goes to show these Austrian names are very strange. Yeah, Klagen is such a good word for Lament. Yeah. Like, apparently the name, it's a kind of a, it's the name of a town. And they're not exactly sure why it's called that because it's such a sad name.

But some people think it relates to translations between German and Slovene, because it's down there on the Slovene border. And it's because it's believed that fairy, bad fairies and demons live in shallow water. which is, I guess there's some bodies of water there that are shallow. And then you would take your complaints to the bad fairies and the demons. Or just a lamentable place. Oh, yeah. Things would like lament because the demons would do horrible things to you there. Yeah.

It also translates to complaint. So that's another ambiguity. But it's not a good name for a town. I like it. I see a lot of possibilities with the word clogging. Like, quit your clogging. Quit your clogging. Number 13, Walker Zimmerman.

Jump three spots in the rankings and went 120 minutes in their 1-1 penalty loss in the conference semifinals on Sunday against Philadelphia. And he missed the decisive penalty that sent the union through to the conference finals. Really one of the more lamentable ways to end his season, isn't it? Kind of about clogging. it was not great but he can take some solace in the fact that none of his teammates made their penalties either

so I can't expect the centerback to be the you must feel like that you've got to be relieved that other people are missing them if you missed one it's like this set I did not watch the game but

it did seem like a little anticlimactic somehow to watch the yeah it's like maybe it's just because I don't care but does Zimmerman even care if they keep going in the playoffs he gets to take a break now I suspect he does care but I that's just my guess also in MLS number 14 Ricardo Pepe

he fell four spots in the rankings but his season on the club side is finished seems to be closer to where he should be about 14 or so so it's a reasonable correction Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Let's see how he does in the next window. Speaking of seasons being finished, number 15, Zach Steffin.

He is unchanged in the rankings and was an unused sub in both their Champions League win against PSG and their Premier League win against West Ham. Does he have some club games coming up? Is he going to play any before we decide who starts in the next window? No, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because he's Burrhalter's favorite and he plays for Man City. He trains with pep cardio. Doesn't matter one iota, friends.

Number 16, Chris Richards. He fell two spots in the rankings and was a 62nd minute sub in a 6-3 win on Saturday against Fort. I found it, I just in general find it difficult to know what exactly to make of a game where the home team concedes six goals. but he seemed to be mostly fine. Yeah, to me it looks like Hoffenheim want to start the game in a back four, and then they switch to a back three later in the game, and he's their third centerback, so that's why he's getting all these sub appearances,

because he's always the one who comes on for an attacker when they change formations. Interesting thing is he's competing with the same, essentially the same group of players that he was competing with for minutes earlier in the season, and last year it's that posh guy P-O-S-C-H and vote

V-O-G-T and then Grillich comes in from defensive midfield to play in a back three sometimes so yeah

I guess he was just a little shaky for a stretch of games and now he has to just fight his way back in when something I guess someone needs to get hurt or have a really bad game or something

yeah I think an injury to any one of four plays players probably gets him right back in the 11. I'm not too worried, but a little worried, I guess. Number 17, Jean-Luca Boussio. He jumped one spot in the rankings and went 90 in their two-no loss on Saturday against intermeline. He completed 50 out of 51 passes, and the one he didn't complete was really more of a half-clearance that almost turned into a really good pass.

So he's very consistently good at passing. and not always just really simple ones. I also just appreciate how pleasant is to watch Venetia, even when they lose. And they were wearing red shirts this weekend, which look good. Pretty much anything they do looks good. Yeah, they are fun to watch.

I did not watch this game, so I'll leave it at that. But you can't expect Finetia to beat Inter Milan. Number 18, Joe Scali. He fell one spot in the rankings and went 81 minutes in their 4-1 loss in the Derby. I guess cool. It was a really good atmosphere in this game. And he was spirited again.

And it seems like the chorus of people thinking he's an upgrade at fullback over, I guess, Anthony Robinson. I'm not exactly sure. They're growing louder and more coordinated. It has to do with his passing and the buildup and combination play. And he's kind of composed in the attack. And he's very athletic. We'll see.

We'll see. Hopefully he gets at least a chance. in the next window, maybe in St. Paul. I don't know if he's actually better than Anthony Robinson, but it is encouraging long term. Well, he's more reliable technically than Robinson, right? Yeah, I think so. Number 19, D'Andre Edlin.

He jumped eight spots this time and went 90 in their 4-2 win in the Europa League on Thursday against Marseille, and went 90 in their nil-no, on Sunday against Yenny Malatiospore. Well done, I think, on that

pronunciation. At least it sounds credible to me. Yeah, he's just a locked, he's a locked-in starter at Galatasarai. I mean, what more can you say? And he's, I think, been extremely useful for the national team. Yeah. He was, from what I saw, he just looked,

like he always looks. A good version of what he always looks like. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kell and Acosta? He fell one spot in the rankings and went 90 in their 1-0 loss in the conference semifinals

on Thanksgiving against Portland. Yeah, I missed that one. I'm basically on the lookout for a replacement for Acosta at the moment. Maybe Tanner Testman? I don't know. We have not figured out the midfield if it's not Adams, McKinney, and Musa.

I mean, I've heard some chatter about switching Judge Sargent to a 6th. I think that's mostly just because he has been doing well with an attacker, but. You know, people are starting to talk about that. I'm really glad you brought that up. I kind of forgot about it. What about him as an eight?

Here's what I think we should do. Move him to an eight when that doesn't go well, move back to a six. And if that doesn't go well, center back after that keeper. Okay. He's probably decent with his hands. He seems good at soccer. He just seems like he could be good in most any position, really. The reason I like eight is because he does like to push the game.

He's pretty good in duels. He's pretty decent in tight space, like with his back to goal or, you know, turning with the ball. He's just not very good at beating people 1 v1 and getting open in the box. Yeah, or scoring. Yeah. Getting so open in the box that his shot doesn't get blocked.

Yeah. He gets a lot of his shots blocked. It is weird to have a player play. lying in the Premier League who we're not that excited about. Well, I'm excited about him as an eight. Yeah, we're excited about him as an eight. All right, I'll go with him as an eight. I like that.

Well, let's read the rest. I'm going to read the rest of the list off real quick, if that's okay with you guys, just so people can get a sense of what the rest of the top, how the rest of the top 40 rounds out. Number 21 is Luca Delet-Tore. You wanted to say something about him, right, Chris? No, I just wanted to be.

He had the, because we heard why he wasn't called up because he talked about it on a podcast. Basically, Burrhalter told him the reason he wasn't called up is he feels like other players are better in transition. And Luca was like, I don't quite agree with that. I feel like that's what I've been good at the past six months or so. I'm not exactly sure where I stand on that. But that's the Luca DeLotory news. It was respectful disagreement, right? Yes.

It wasn't a, it wasn't Matthew Hoppe style disagreement. No. Yeah, so 22 is Pfeck, 23 Zardis, 24, Ferreira, 25, Conrad della Fuente, 26, Daryl Dekay, 27, Mark McKenzie, 28, Josh Sergeant, 29, Reggie Cannon, 30, Ethan Horvoth, 31, Matthew Hoppe, 32, Paul Ariola, 33, Tim Riem, 34, Tim Rieme, 34, Tim Ream, 34, 24, Jordan Morris, 35, Matt Miazga, 36, Shack Moore, 37, George Bello, 38, Sebastian Legette, 39, Georgie Mihailovich, and number 40, Sam Vines. That rounds out to top 40. What else, guys? Anything? I'm looking at that list to think if I have any wild objections that someone should be higher,

but it seems reasonable enough. maybe Tim Rie bumps up a little bit just for being such a nice guy Georgie making the top 40 is interesting seems well deserved after the season he's had the top in the top 40 I mean this this last 20 or so it just changes so much based on like just little slices of information I know Conrad started on the weekend I didn't watch it but that's good

Yeah. For the rest of the week, I'm going to try to get that U20 podcast set up and recorded with Matt Hartman. He's down. We just got to get it nailed down probably later this week. And I'm going to do something interesting, I think on Wednesday. I'm going to get a political scientist named Jose Marichal to talk with me about dual nationalism. Oh, that would be nice. Not dual.

Yeah. He wrote a book called Facebook Democracy in 2012 because he really focuses on how human identity is formed in dialogue with other humans. Cool. And yeah, pretty interesting to me at least. But the thing about social media is it changes the way we dialogue with other humans. so it changes the way human identity is formed. So that's like sort of his main area, or it's related to his main area. But he's also sent me some direct messages about how he thinks that this idea of the politics of recognition,

like being properly recognized by society, is something that plays a lot into the dual national decision. And like, If you're recognized appropriately by society, or if you feel recognized appropriately by society, you know, you feel good. If you feel misrecognized, it can be as a person or as a group. It can cause real damage.

And so we're going to try to get into some of that stuff. Well, I'm looking forward to hearing that. Yeah, that sounds really interesting. He sent me a lot of stuff to read, and I'm going to, I'll put it all in the show notes. Cool. And I'll put it wherever anybody wants me to put. it. Um, anything else? No? No. That's all for me.

Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.