Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #229: Monday Review — Marsch out, Gio in training, Konrad v Brenden, Matt v Zack, etc.

Episode Date: December 6, 2021

Belz, Watke and Vince in Louisville convene for a new look Monday Review and we think you'll probably like it. A full rundown of all the news that's fit to talk about with the USMNT this week. 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. We're 350 days from the first match of the 2022 Men's World Cup, and we are here to take stock this fine Monday morning of the American campaign to qualify of the state of the player pool and anything else that interests us. Waki, how are you? I'm doing very well, Adam. It's good to be here. Yeah, good to have you. We've got a new contributor here today and I'm excited about it. Vince checking him. I'm from Louisville. Did I say that right? No, no, sir. You did not. It is Louisville.

Louisville. Louisville, yeah, yeah, you don't let your voice, like, rise at all. It's a downward trend. Yeah, downward trend. Louisville. By the time you get to the Vol, you want to be hitting the bottom part of your... Just falling off. It's really softening out there.

Louisville. I don't think I have it here. I think mine was pretty good, though. I'll grant yours was better than mine. Hey, thanks for being here. Vince. Appreciate it. Let's start with some news. Jesse Marsh has quote unquote mutually parted ways with R.B. Leipzig. The dream of an American coach succeeding at the elite level in Europe remains elusive. It's just kind of a bummer, isn't it? Yeah. It's definitely a bummer.

But my big thing, my big thing here was like what's going on with him going up to management and saying like, you know, maybe I'm not the guy for the job. Like at that point, you should have just resigned then, I feel like. Yeah, apparently he did that a couple times. That struck me as odd. Big, does this dress make me look fat energy from Jesse Marshall? You know? I mean, that's true.

That's true. I get the sense that in Germany, they're blaming mostly the front office for his lack of success. So I don't know why he needs to do that. why does he need to go and ask how the dress looks on him? Right. Right. And like when you're dealing with, I mean, when you're dealing with professional athletes or anybody, really, I mean, even like if your boss is displaying that type of non-assuredness of itself, like, they're going to pick up on that. Like, yeah.

I think maybe the issue was he obviously was not the right fit for the team. So he had to say something in the meetings. Another thing is he's just really open and honest about everything in a way that apparently was making everyone in Germany uncomfortable from the timing out there. I thought it was like when I saw that little tidbit that he went to the management and asked and said maybe I'm not the right guy for the job. I thought of it as like an expression of his sort of management style maybe, you know, where he's like too open, too honest. Honesty is a good policy part of the time, you know. I think the big takeaway here for American coaches in the future is just don't follow Julian Naglisman. Yeah.

Don't go right after him. Go after a bad coach. That way the expectations are lower. Well, so the thing that was intriguing to me this morning before I saw the news about Chris Armis was like this idea that maybe he could follow Ralph Rangnick to Manchester United, which would be like a pretty good. landing spot and assistant for the coach that he used to be an assistant for in the Premier League at one of the biggest clubs in the world. But then we find out Chris Armis got hired for that job. What the...

There's an MLS coach got hired to beat assistant Manchester United. It's not what we wanted exactly. I would rather have had Jesse Marsh go there, but I guess we're getting picky at this point. So Armist definitely takes up the one American coach spot. Like we can't... If you brought two American coaches to Manchester, United after they're already finished with their American owners. Like there will be more riots in the streets outside of Old Trafford.

Like it's just not. Yeah, we can't have that. Which sucks for Marsh. It just makes me even less pleased with Chris Armis in general that he would take up that spot. Yeah, but maybe talk started before Jesse was officially out. Yeah, probably so. Let's move to the next news item, unless you guys got anything. else on Marsh.

Georena back in training. Hallelujah. I went back and looked because it's easy to forget this stuff. His last league game was in August. And if you don't remember, he scored two goals in his first three games of the Bundesliga season. And then, of course, he suffered a hamstring injury while with the U.S. in September, and he's been out since. That's a long time.

And so the sooner he gets back on the field, the better, obviously. Yeah, definitely. I've been missing, I've been missing my beautiful, petulant baby boy. I just, I just can't. Yeah, not having his, his body language in our life has been really difficult. But I was kind of forgot how great it was saying that. But hopefully he's added some new stuff. I can't wait. Just hope his, hope his hamstrings fine, which we've seen from Tim that, you know, you can come back from a couple serious hamstring injuries and continue. and then shoot down Mexico

single-handedly. To put a bow on Gio, he, Dorman has four more matches before the break and it's very possible he won't be able to play until January, but I'm still holding out hope that he gets in before Christmas. So how many matches,

how many matches would there be before, how many January matches would there be before the January window? Good question. I'm going to look that up right now. I think there's more than a, this year than there normally would be because they moved up.

The first one is the 8th of January, so there's a few. Yeah, they'll have four matches, including a DFP Polkal match before the January break. So he's got eight chances to get into a game. Seems if he's already training, and he was,

and Transfer Market changed the way they listed him. They listed him as, you know, muscular injury out for the last three months. and then the last game, the one against Baylor Munich over the weekend, he was just listed as a fitness issue. So, you know, transfer market never question their information, in my opinion. And I mean, they have their feet on the ground in Germany, right? That's right.

That's right. Dr. Veth has his feet on the ground in Vancouver, but there are others who have their feet on the ground in Germany. Lucci Gonzalez. A lot of news this morning. Lucci Gonzalez, this is news from last week, but he's joining the U.S. coaching staff. He's sort of switching places with Nico Estevez,

who is now going to be the coach of FC Dallas. What do you guys think? Does the U.S. get like a transfer fee for Estevez that we can maybe spend on like Balagan or something? That would be a great idea if we could do that. We have to go through the FIFA bylaws. It is kind of difficult to know exactly what this is going to mean for the program. I'm interested in because Lucy Gonzalez is a pretty stylish guy.

I can see him kind of getting in a head button match with Greg over. You know, can we get the assistants dressed up in something a little, a little bit cooler than what they've been wearing? I can see that big one issue. Other than that, I like it. This has to be good news for, it has to be good news for Jogo, right? I feel like Jogo going to make his own good news. You know, but sure.

But it can't hurt. No. I think they were saying that there's a bunch of players that Lucci got the also coached because he was their academy coach for a while. Yeah. Somebody somewhere said he's like, it's kind of a vibes higher. And I like vibes hires. Love them.

I'm not going to lie, man. I mean, the more vibes we can have in the U.S. National team, the better. Yeah. Can't argue with that. Especially a Spanish speaker. I mean, come on. Yeah.

I assume Estevez is also a Spanish speaker. Otherwise, he wouldn't get that job in Dallas, but... I think he's from Spain. Okay. Decent odds speaks the language. Yeah. Yeah, but we had to replace a Spanish speaker with a Spanish speaker. Right.

You know. Can't argue with that. I guess the main thing I feel about it is we need Estabez to bring some sporting success to Dallas. because we, to go with the development success they've had, because they haven't been too great the last couple years. And it's been kind of, you know, it's been kind of a trial for all of us, I believe. We just need to get them.

They need to be good enough to decide not to give up on their academy. They don't have to, like, win MLS cups or anything. Just try to get some fans to show up to the game. Make the playoffs, please, Dallas. It's not that hard. Well, I say that from my, you know, guest bedroom here, but... You've never made the playoffs.

That's true. I've never made... Well, I've made some playoffs, but not those playoffs. The December camp is starting. Yeah. They're arriving in camp, apparently. They started yesterday. They're not putting pictures up on social media yet. They're playing a little close to the vest, maybe a little lower key on promoting it.

But they're arriving in Carson and starting up. I think I saw some pictures. she was this morning. Oh. Of some arrivals. Okay, what was going on at them? I know I saw Jordan Morris in a hoodie. I couldn't tell most of these people's faces, but Jordan has the shoulders.

So I was like, what color was a hoodie, you know? It was like puke green. I'm not going to lie to you. It was a green somewhere in between lime and forest. All right. Well, I'm sorry. I got to go look up all those pictures. and see what's going on.

Hearing that hoodie brings to mind the video of that guy saying, let's go Seattle in front of the, you know, supporter section. You guys know that video? Anyway, Sounders till he dies, I guess. I did get an email from U.S. Soccerceran that Jesus Ferreira and Jordan Morris will be available for interviews this afternoon. So make of that what you will. We'll have, I feel like we should touch on this again,

even though we've touched on it many times, we'll have four of six home qualifiers in the Midwest. Those are the men's national teams, home World Cup qualifiers. There will have been six by the end of the next window. Four of them will have been in the Midwest. Two in Ohio, one in St. Paul. Actually, three in Ohio, one in St. Paul, and then one in Midwest adjacent Nashville.

Is this immoral? Is this immoral? I do. I think it's immoral to have that many in the Midwest. That's mostly just an issue I have with the Midwest. It's not, I don't dislike it, just not my favorite region. And I've been open about that in the past. And I do think we should talk about this every episode.

Yeah, I mean, the more World Cup qualifiers close to me, the better. In my, in my opinion, as far as, yeah, you've really, you've made out like a bandit. Absolutely, absolutely. I'm so happy. And that wasn't, I didn't mean that as a shot against either of you guys, because I realized you're both from the Midwest, but I really, the East Coast got hit really hard by the scheduling. But is Louisville the Midwest? I don't know.

Midwest adjacent. Yeah, extremely Midwest adjacent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, wouldn't you say? Yeah, definitely, because I mean, Ohio's right there. But, I mean, how do you all feel about the racism? The racism allegations? In general, in general, I'm opposed to it. I want to hear what you have to say, but I do have something to say about it.

Well, I'll go first, let you get the last word here. My thought is, and I have a lot of friends like this who say, well, the reason we put games in Ohio, Cincinnati and Columbus, is because we want to keep the games as far away from brown people as possible. And, I mean, you guys have seen that, right? Yeah, definitely, definitely. I take issue with that. I mean, I think I respect a lot of people who say,

this, but I take issue with it because, look, Cincinnati has a lot of black people in it. It's not about race specifically. This is, I think that's a deliberate conflation of two things. There's like fans of certain national teams, Mexico in particular, that we want to keep the games away from. That is, we want to keep the games away from fans of the Mexico national team. and to just say that it's about the color of people's skin. I don't know, man. I don't like that.

I don't like when people say that. That's my take on it. Yeah, and I mostly agree with that. Like you said, Sensi, especially very, very black city. And I mean, we had a game in Austin, right? Austin, which is like right in the middle of San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas. Like, we could have had an entirely brown. crowd if they wanted to show up, I guess.

I mean, like, we, we know that the U.S., I mean, that the, the, the, the, the, that L. Tree is the most popular soccer team in the United States. Yeah. Right. Like, like, these, and that's my main thing is, like, this isn't, like, a boogeyman that, like, U.S. soccer is just making up and, like, just yelling, yelling about it, like, there's some threat, but it's not true. Like, we have seen in this calendar year, other teams, like, take over,

venues in the United States when the U.S. is playing. Yeah, the Gold Cup final, the Nation's League final. And so doing this is just like a part of a part of gamesmanship. And I mean, I guess if you look at it a certain way, it does seem a little gross. But I mean, that's just part of national team soccer, I guess. Like there's no way you can avoid it. And if like we were playing World Cup qualifiers against Ireland or Scotland. I mean,

whatever. Bosnia, I mean, there's a strong, like, Bosnian contingent in Louisville. Like, they wouldn't want to play in Louisville.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So is there really a strong Bosnia? Very much so. Yeah. I got a lot of Bosnia and France that came over from the war, yeah.

Well, and I think, you know, I mean, there's definitely good reasons to question why we're playing the game against Honduras in St. Paul that,

like we talked about a lot on the last episode of the podcast. But another thing that kind of bugs me is this idea that all these Midwest cities aren't diverse. You know, like if you, if you've been to the Twin Cities, you know that it is a, there's a lot of different people there. There's, you know, 50 to 100,000 Somali people in the Twin Cities. There's all kinds of people in all of these cities. Right. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, no offense to you, Bell, but it's not like we putting these games in Iowa. Right. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I mean, there is a good Bosnia. contingent in Waterloo in Waterloo. I was going to ask you, isn't there a good Bosnian contingent in Waterloo?

Yeah. Were you going to ask me that, really? Or are you just joking? Yeah, I was going to ask you that. But I think the main issue is just, not the main issue, my main concern is just how cold it's going to be in Minnesota and February. And that's another thing we should talk about every episode. I just, well, we're really limiting ourselves.

with like the play on grass because like you know like a qualifier in Atlanta would be absolutely crazy yeah like I think a qualifier in Charlotte would be pretty crazy as well like Charlotte has a pretty

large large amount of soccer fans in Charlotte from like I've been I've been in Charlotte a lot I've watched like some games there and stuff but they don't have grass like Charlotte just took their grass out this year they replaced it with turf of course there's turf in Atlanta

Yeah. So. Burrhalter did say a few other locations got rejected. Like they didn't want to host the games there. So I don't think, I don't think St. Paul was their first choice. Which makes sense because it's a terrible idea. So who rejected it? I don't know.

They didn't say. Okay. I think the one, the counter argument that to what I say, what I'm saying that I take the most seriously is like, hey, we should, we should just, especially with Honduras or an El Salvador, we shouldn't have this same, like, overweening concern about maintaining a home crowd. We should just try to expand the game. And I do kind of, I do kind of see that. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. If somebody wanted to argue with me, like, we should just worry about this with Mexico. Like, that's cool. Like, I get that. And I mean, I mean, Bells, you were in Columbus for the Costa Rica match. I mean, like, Costa Rica got in. Yeah. Like, they put, they put it, they put us to shame a little bit.

Do you remember when we were standing on the, on the little grassy, the little grassy knoll? But I think you were getting like, you got something to eat at that little, um. Oh, yeah, man, they were a truck. They were partying. Yeah. And they came down, the, the American outlaws came down the street kind of like, kind of singing in a sort of straggly kind of way, singing some song. And then the, all the. Costa Rica fans by that food truck just started singing back at them and just drowned them out completely.

Do you remember that? I might have missed that because I left on the stroll up to the stadium. I had to pee. And so I had to stop at Betty's and find out that Paul Ariel was starting. Oh, yeah. What a bunch of whiplash we went through in those last 30 minutes before the game started. All right, let's move. Let's move on to, I'm sure we've pissed off a lot of people, probably me the most.

What did we learn from the latest Burrhalter-Warshaw interview? Anything? In terms of soccer stuff, he talked about Weston, all the great stuff he brings to the game, two-way player. He also, we learned that Berthelter has a green egg that he cooked a turkey on. and then the other big thing was he claims to not have a Twitter burner. But he also knew what a Twitter burner was, though, so I'm a little suspicious of that. I was impressed at how Warsaw just like transparently did not believe him when he said that. No, he didn't buy it.

Yeah. You're a Trager guy, right, Vince? Yeah, I have a Trager. It was a gift. Hold on. What's a Trigger? People aren't Trigger guys. A trigger is a pellet smoker that you can use to cook meat to smoke him and whatnot.

A lot of people say it's the easy way out. And to be honest, I wouldn't disagree with them. That's fine. You know what I'm saying? Are you saying the- No, no, the trigger. The trigger is. Because you can just kind of set it.

You can check it with your phone, you know, as an app. You can adjust it from your phone, all this type of stuff. but yeah I mean it's just it's just a pellet smoker man a green egg is as that's top that's top class right there I give a lot of respect to Burlta for that I wish I had yeah definitely definitely really I for some reason I just I thought that was like a not very cool not very cool grill to have and I was kind of surprised by that I thought he would have gone for a cooler grill but I was off base on that I don't know we have this I don't know a coolness of grill ranking, but I would say the green egg is, the green egg's probably up there. I mean, very, very expensive, very cute. If you're just looking at it from the outside. The color's nice, all that stuff, you know. Yeah.

All right. Yeah. I have a green egg. I have a green egg that I inherited from the previous homeowner at my house. and I actually have a pork butt on it right now. It's at 196 degrees. Nice. Because my sister's family is in town.

I was going to ask, you're just cooking a pork butt on a Monday morning. Yeah, this is the only night when she can meet up. She's got a new baby, and she wants a bunch of my aunts to meet, aunts and uncles to meet the baby, so we're having a bunch of people over tonight. And I got a pork shoulder, slow cooking. My goal coming this episode was to get us to talk about the green egg for at least five minutes. And we've got to be getting close there. Yeah, we should move on.

All right. Let's go to another section, which we are going to start calling the 23. I mean, that's subject to change, but that's what we're doing right now. We're going to discuss the player pool with our eyes turnt to the World Cup in Qatar, to which the U.S. will most likely take a 23 player roster. I guess the roster rules haven't been announced, and there's some possibility to be. be more than that, but 23 is what it's been since time in memorial. Let's start with the wingers.

Timothy Wea, he went 80 minutes midweek in a 2-1 win versus Stad René. He assisted on Leo's first goal. Vince, I know you're the Tim Wea guy here. Why don't you talk us through it a little bit? I mean, he's just a baller, man. He's a baller. I feel like maybe he's, Because he's been played all over the front for Lille, right?

Like left wing, second striker, right wing. And this performance came on the right, which, of course, the same side that he busted Mexico on. And so I think we're seeing a place where he plays the best position that he's settling into. Fits really well with Poulosick as being better on the left side. too. I guess the one he did we didn't know he got injured

or he got injured on Friday or something right? Yeah, he got injured the day before the game yeah Friday. Is it just a light little thing or do we know? We don't know. I don't think we really know but it's a quad injury. Can I just go ahead?

No, I was going to say I'm just going to hope that he's all right. Yeah. I'm going to describe the assist because I think it was wonderful. the one from the midweek when it was a perfectly timed run, which we've come to expect from Timothy onto a gorgeous ball from Renato Sanchez. He takes a lovely touch on the short hop right into his path, picks up his head and cuts it back to Sheika, I think is how you say it,

who's arriving at the spot in the middle of a triangle of defenders. It's quite a nice assist, and it shows that knack he has, which Greg likes to talk about, for creating a little window to get a cross off. So he doesn't necessarily beat people and leave them in the dust that often, but he is able to get a little window to make the pass across.

And he did that here. And it was really a game-breaking moment from both Sanchez and Wea. And he was a problem. He was a problem for the left back opposite him all game long. They actually, I think they took him off at halftime and brought on somebody different. Yeah.

So. Like with Tim of course like yeah so like you just said he doesn't really like beat people and leave him in the dust often but he just makes up for it by being like so clean technically to where he's doing everything perfectly to where he's able to create that space like you said like the the touch to bring the to bring the ball down and to give him a little room to get a to get a little bit ahead of steam to get to the end line and then pull it back. that's what we come to expect for my man yeah yeah he's playing well hopefully the quad injury is not too bad like you said another little note on him is Iconi one of his competitors for minutes

appears likely headed to Fiorentina in the winter window and Wei has already started two of the last three well I guess it's two of the last four now since he was unavailable on the weekend so he's he may be carving out a lock starter job anyway but Aconi's departure will help him lock that down. Yeah.

Yeah. To be honest, I've been, I've been kind of expecting Bamba and Aconi to leave for a while now. So with the coney finally leaving, yeah, that creates a lot of space for my man. But the way, I feel like the way the Leo manager talked about Tim's injury, it doesn't seem like it's going to be that long. Okay. Good. Good, good. Christian Pulisic, 90 minutes and 2-1 win on Wednesday versus Watford,

and then he was a 72-minute sub and a 3-2 loss on Saturday at West Ham. Yeah, he came, when he came on against West Ham, he did a few quick combining touches really well, but there wasn't a lot going on other than that. And I just think the important thing is that he did not get injured. Yeah. Also, I noticed he very often has the same haircut as Mason Mount and I want to start tracking which one of them is leading that

who's following who. It's obviously not the exact same haircut because they have slightly different hair but in terms of length they seem to consistently be very similar to me. Like they both had a very high fade at one point and now it's more there's really been an evolution from Pulisic to kind of just a really standard boring haircut to try some interesting stuff

and he's kind of lute back all the way around to that right now but there's just a very short half-life on this stuff somehow so he went away from the fade or what like is this what you're telling me okay yeah I think so maybe I don't know haircuts fall off to know

exactly what a fade is but it's longer in the bottom part of his hair than normal so we'll track that moving forward yeah please do please do Rayne as we mentioned is injured Brennan Aronson on the weekend was a 63rd minute sub in a 2-1 win

on Saturday versus Hartberg Salzburg were down 1-0 when he came on so that's good yeah it seems like he may have very temporarily lost his starting spot but since they won when he came back on maybe he's won it back now

and he probably just is one of their best wingerers or attackers anyway I sure hope so. So I didn't mention this before, but we're talking about wingers right now in case you hadn't noticed. Conrad de la Fuente. He started the last two games, 67 minutes and a 1-0 win on Wednesday versus Nant, and 57 minutes and 2-1 loss on Saturday versus Brest. I thought he got one decent crossing to the six, forcing a desperate intervention from a non-centerback in the midweek match

and had a couple more flashes in the weekend game, a nice combination with Paiet down the left wing and a shot that was blocked. But also some uneven moments, missed connections with Paiet and Gerson. But mostly competent and kind of conservative is my takeaway from his recent performances. Fair enough.

Yeah, I mean, that's mostly what I see, which is good for it. person in this first year, first team football, right, in a top five league. I don't hold back, Vince. Don't hold back. I can tell you're holding back. You feel, you think Adam was a little, little, little on Conrad there. No, no, because.

We don't. Well, Conrad started like four of the past five games or something like that. True. At a much higher level than Brendan. Look, man. See, I'll try and get me in trouble, man. I'm just, I'm just saying. like evaluating Conrad and Brendan as Wingers,

I don't think they're too far apart, in my opinion. I've seen people say that, you know, maybe he's not the best fit in Greg's system as far as being a half-space merchant. But I would like to see it. I think he has it in them. I mean, like how much they're not operating in like super duper tight spaces, man.

I mean, Conrad can receive the ball in turn. Like, I don't think that's going to be an issue. but yeah I would like to see him back in the team man because I thought he was I thought he was pretty good against El Salvador like the whole team was kind of disjointed yes but

yeah what I saw from Conrad encouraged me in that match okay I hear you I hear you I think at a minimum you know you watch him play you watch Brendan play and I agree there's not that much to separate them I guess I wonder if the thing that Burrhalter sees with Brendan or thinks he has with Brendan is like somebody that he knows what he's going to offer. Like, and whereas Conrad has a little bit more, it's a little bit less clear. Even though I think Conrad's probably a more, well, I don't know, has the chance to be a more dangerous soccer player long term.

I mean, I mean, we didn't know what, we didn't know what Brendan was going to offer until he offered it, right? You know what I'm saying? It's true. It's true. I think the fan base, it's funny, it's like, you know, we're so deep in the weeds. But I think the fan base, when they think of Brendan, they think of the guy who scored against Canada and the guy who scored against Honduras. And like that's kind of it, you know, and also it looks like he runs around a lot. That has nothing to do with how Berhalter views it, I don't think.

All right. So we'll just need to keep close. track of that too. And then another guy coming up into the, we don't have him in here because he didn't play this weekend, but Jordan Morris is reentering the, the winger discussion. Yeah. You'll see some quotes from him later today, most likely, because he's going to be, he's being offered by U.S. soccer for interviews. And I'm a big, I'm a big Jordan Morris guy. I think if he gets back up to speed,

then there's going to be some competition. I mean, there's definitely going to be some competition there between, in my opinion, it's going to be him and Brendan, trying to get on the plane. And Conrad, if he forces itself into this mix here. But you think most likely it'll be those two, Brendan and. Yeah, because as soon as Jordan's back up to speed, he's getting called in, I feel like.

Like Jordan's always been a part of our setup. Even when he was hurt, like way back when Greg first got the job, the only two injured players he brought to camp was Jordan and Josie. And yeah, so I think, and he's played well, right? He's played extremely well for us. So, yeah, I think he's definitely going to be in that conversation. He can't really have space merchant that much, but he sure can, like, beat somebody.

you know and out out muscle them plenty of plenty of pace and power and i feel like the on the right is the position where you might not have to have space as as much especially if surge is playing because it seems like instead of overlapping surge has been underlapping more especially like costa rica um and so he he can just be the guy in the higher spaces and like the winger just play a more traditional wing world. That's true. All right, let's do strikers. This will be a real quick section.

Jordan Pfeffach in the midweek. He went 90 in a 3-1 win versus Lugano. Scored the game tying goal on a penalty. Obviously, his team went on a win. On the weekend, he went 46 minutes, so came off at halftime and a 2-1 loss versus Servette. I'll just keep plowing ahead here. Pepi, Zardis, and Ferreira are all done for the season.

They're all in December camp too. Yeah. And then the other two, I guess Darrell D.K., he's done for the season, but he's not going to be in the December camp, right? He's resting. And then Josh Sargent still hasn't quite turned a corner, but he will probably next week. Yep, next week's when he's going to turn the corner.

Are we sure he's not getting farther away from the From said corner To be completely honest with events We're not sure We think that might be what's happening actually Like he maybe he doesn't even know where the corner is It's possible he's not kind of turn the corner It's unfortunate man

Very unfortunate It's just it's sad to see how it's going Like he's He's getting He's getting memed by Norwich supporters now, which is just like... It's the last thing you want. It's less than you want, definitely. Somebody, so we have a question from a listener.

Somebody who refused to identify themselves asked, are we still opposed to Wea at the 9? I can't help but think he'd be our best option there, even over Pepeppy. So tidy in combination, great off ball movement. And like Greg Belasquez loves to say, incredible ability to always find the inch of space. He needs to make something happen. what do you guys think about way at the night? Vince, why don't you take this first?

Because you were talking about how goodies looked on the right wing. I would still like to see it. I mean, just because I'm a big fan of like fluid front threes. And I think they just do a great job of like disorganizing defenses and just not having for a backline to like just not know where somebody's going to pop up on the on the pitch. I love that idea myself. and I think he has like all the attributes to to make it work very strong I mean we saw him I don't remember what match that was but when he completely like obliterated that centerback to get that shot off yeah the keeper make a good save for Lil yeah he got the off ball movement I mean he's great in the air

that's one thing that has really shown up in these past few weeks like any Any ball coming in the air, he mostly wins. I guess we'd have to see him in holdup play, but I don't think that would really be an issue for him. Because, like I said, I mean, just the amount of tech this man possesses is just incredible. And yeah, man, I would like to see it. But supposedly he doesn't like to play a single striker. So, I mean, it is what it is.

And as far as, like, and if he had to, like, drop back and play like a Josie ball to a winger, like running in off of him or something like he could also do that so i feel like it would it would work beautifully but who knows if we see it yeah chris yeah i think we could qualify perfectly fine with him playing striker he can't be that far down our striker our imaginary striker death chart if a bunch of people got hurt i assume he'd be the third person to go in there right now but i would think so yeah i think i think we're going to bring two strikers to the world cup i mean assuming it's the 23-man roster, and then Waya would be the third one.

I've actually never heard anyone opposed to the idea of Waya playing striker. It's possible. It makes too much sense. Well, I'm not opposed to it, but I am a big fan of Ricardo Pepe, and I want him to continue to get chances. Right. Yes. I'm in a vacuum.

Right. And I like the idea of Wea, you know, serving balls, to Pepey. I mean, obviously they've gotten chances to do that and Pepe hasn't scored yet, but I'm really invested in Pepe succeeding as a number nine for the U.S. Men's National team

for a lot of reasons that we could maybe get into another time. Should we move to the midfield? Yes. Tyler Adams. On the weekend, he went 90 and that faithful 2-1 loss to Union Berlin Marsh is out

what's up he was actually pretty good in the game but the marshy out thing kind of clouds the whole thing and um just just a real bummer yeah I mean when we saw that like Jesse Marsh was going to

get the Leipzig job we were thinking like oh man this match made in heaven of course Tyler is gonna he's gonna take Tyler to another level all this stuff now he's out yeah um which is unfortunate. But question for you guys, just,

you know, I was just wondering, because, because, you know, I'm heavy on the Westerners our most important player, uh,

bandwagon, but have we seen a stretch out of Tyler, uh, for Leipzig? Like, has he hit the highs that Western or Christian has hit in Europe yet? I would say not the highs, I don't think.

But the thing that he does have longer stretches of consistency, though. And that has seemed to be, have been a strength with him. I think that's fair, yeah. Fair. Remember when Weston hit that like scissor kick goal at Barcelona in Champions League, there's been nothing like that from Tyler.

I mean, I guess he did score a goal in Champions League, but it was a cheap one, you know, it was a deflection. Still a goal. We'll give it to him. Oh, yeah, for sure. But it's just like, I just want to see the next level from him. I just want to see him take it up a bit. I don't think there is a next level from him.

That's my thinking on it. He's just so important because he fits what we need at the six. Yeah, definitely. Maybe there could be a slight next level. Maybe just like a half level up. I'd be good with that. I'd be good with a full level too, but you might be right. There might not be one.

I don't think he needs to be another level up. as long as he's you know relatively consistent and clean with the ball no we don't need it we would like it we would like but we don't need it you're right we don't need it but we do we would like it agree to agree uh weston mckenny did not play did not play um two wins for eventus so that's good they're kind of getting maybe getting things back on track What's the latest on his injury, his knee sprain? Allegri said he would be back next week, I believe, is the last I heard. Oh, good, good, good.

Yeah, as a man that's had multiple knee problems throughout his life. Once I heard there was no real ligament damage, I was like, we're good to go, we're in the clear. So he's getting some much needed rest, and then I'll be back. Just need him firing on all cylinders in late January. Unis Musa. Midweek, he went 90 in a 3-0 win in the Copa del Rey. That's obviously the Domestic Cup in Spain. Against the sixth tier side,

he assisted on Valencia's first goal and scored their second off a penalty rebound. And then on the weekend, he was an 84th minute sub and a 2-1 win versus Seltavigo. Yeah, he came in at right mid and just did a fine job. Nothing really happened, though. Just closed out the win.

And the team they played in the midweek, the sixth tier team, they're called Utrilla and the town of Utrilla. Their Wikipedia page is only 25 words long, which is the shortest one I've ever seen. Hey, I'maki, what are you doing, man? I mean, the double L in Spanish. It's got to be Uttria. Yeah, yeah, add some culture to you. Come on, man. I was trying to say, how did I not say Utrea?

No. Did I say Utrilla? Yes. I didn't say Utrilla. You absolutely said Utrilla. In my head, I was saying it perfectly. Oh. You should write a children's book about somebody hitting a Robana in Utrilla.

Robona. With Eunice, I feel like Valencia has like five players for like those two central midfield spots and none of them are Eunice. There'll be a time once or twice a game where they'll be. will just be a defensive rotation and I'll be in the midfield. I think, oh, maybe that's where he's going to be from now. But no, he just always goes back to the right. But there's always a brief moment. It's very exciting.

I just can't find it in myself to care that much. Like, he's just so good for the U.S. He can, as long as he stays fit at Valencia, I'm good. Right. And every time I see him play, like, he's doing the stuff that he does for us. He's beating people off the dribble. It just looks like the same old Eunice. Eventually he'll

I would think that his club situation will conform to his national team situation John Luca Busio kind of a event-filled week for him in Venetia he went 58 minutes in a 4-0 loss last Tuesday versus Adalanta

that's a really good team but he and Testman Tanner Testman his teammate also American had a rough outing. I thought he got spun like a top on the one-two for the game's second goal in that one and was just well below what's required in terms of like defensive instincts. This is a problem for Busio. And I would like to get into this in more detail at some point,

but he's the cleanest, most efficient U.S. midfielder on the ball. But he just continues to be a real liability defensively, in my opinion, because he hasn't just locked down the blocking and tackling of the, job. Like, that guy's over there. I got to cut off that angle. I got to, like, make a move to tackle this guy. And then he's also not a great, he's not like an elite level athlete.

So it leads to this kind of stuff. You're going to have to make another Busio song now. Yeah. I mean, the song stands. The song stands. The song does stand you right. Because he is so fun to watch when he, you're not. he has the ball at his feet, I think.

And then go ahead. I feel like, so Syria was like the perfect, the perfect landing spot for John Luca, because he was just going to be able to do his John Luca things. And, like, he'll get exposed a few times, like he did against Azzalanta, like the better teams in Syria. But for the most part, like the level of, I don't, they, they call it a more tactical game in Italy,

but I think that's just like a euphemism for, we don't have a lot of athletes over here, man. Like, we got to, we got to play slowly. That's the only way we know how to do it. So, yeah, I thought it was like, even when it was first announcing he was going over there, I was like, yeah, he's going to do his thing there. And he has so far.

But yeah, I don't know how many answers we're going to get about his ability to do these things in Italy. And I mean, I know the defensive stats look good. I understand all of that. But I mean, I think part of that's just part of playing for a team in a relegation battle. He's going to get a lot of, he's going to get a lot of counting stats on defense. And then they had the crazy game this weekend. We don't need to talk about it much.

Yeah, talk about it a little, though. Venetio was up three nothing. And they ended up losing four to three. but Busio came on, I think it's the 65th minute when they were then down a man but up a goal and then it pretty much immediately fell apart. I don't know if he was how much to blame he was on the goal because someone else made a really bad mistake

about to turn over and they got played in and he if he had been Tyler Adams he would have stopped the goal from scoring, I think. But he's not Tyler Adams. And also Testman came into this game at the end. And he seemed to be do pretty well. It was, the game was kind of already falling apart. I mean, if down a man didn't signal that to you, like they were, they gave a, it must have been a dog sale, right?

And I got sent off and there was a penalty as a result of the sending off that made it 3-2. Busio and Tesman could not stem the tide. It was a handball swatted off the line. Oh, was it? Okay. Which I love. Well, Buzio is an important person to discuss because right now he looks like either the fourth or the fifth midfielder for the U.S. So I don't know, man.

I don't know what the answer is there. That's a question that still has no answer. Like what do we do without the full MMA midfield? So I've seen a lot of people say like maybe Greg should do some coaching and maybe some. switch or formation around or something. But I don't know. Like I just feel like, I feel like John Luca in place of Eunice instead of Weston.

Maybe it's a different story. Maybe. Maybe. But I don't know. Because I feel like I've been trying to, I've been thinking about MMA a lot lately and thinking about like, what is it? Like what's the magic sauce with them?

Where it's like you got Tyler? what is it? I don't know. I don't know. But let me try and test it out a little bit with y'all. Yeah, please. Tyler, Tyler D. made, of course. Does this thing back there, sniffs out all the danger, makes very good plays, stopping attacks for the even start.

Weston, who does literally everything on the pitch. And then I think of Eunice as like, he's an additional, additional dual winner. but I guess he's supposed to be like the more he's supposed to be the more offensive of the three maybe as far as like progression and stuff see this is where it kind of falls apart but I feel like replacing Eunice like I feel like Eunice is like kind of like the free spot

in a way where like if you place Eunice with John Luca and let John Luca just chill in a position where he's pretty comfortable just spraying balls around and letting Weston and Tyler do a lot of dirty work. He is pretty chill. It's very chill. We do need to get him a spot where you can chill. For sure.

Yeah. I don't know. Like I said, I've been thinking about it and I haven't really come, I haven't really came to any conclusions, really. But I just feel like out of all three of them, Eunice is, I don't know, the one spot where we can kind of pivot. it a bit. I like, I would like to try that or I'd like to see it. But the thing that Eunice does that John Luca doesn't do is he's just so flipping ball secure. You know, like he, he gets on the ball and nobody's going to knock him off it.

And that is such a, such an asset. And then in addition to that, you know, he'll dribble past people and John Luca is going to connect some passes, but he's not going to, he's not going to, he's not to do it the way he's not going to do that the way Eunice does. I don't know. I don't know either. Yeah, but maybe John Lucas is then eliminating people through passes through through just getting it between the lines and getting it up to our hash face merchants and whatnot. Whereas Eunice does it. Eunice mostly eliminates people through the dribble, right?

Like maybe John Luca just does it through passing. Yeah. But I don't know. Like I said, this is all. I'm curious to see it. But we need to figure it out. So it must be figured out. Speaking of that, Kellan Acosta's season is finished.

Luca Deloere, another possibility here. He went 90 in a 2-1 loss on Wednesday versus Finord, and then 90 in a 1-0 loss on Saturday versus here in Vien. I got a few things to say about him. thanks to Daniel Smith, Luca Deletore's number one fan. I thought he had a solid outing in the middle of the week.

Seems like a little bit tougher and slightly less elegant version of Busio. I still can't figure out why it wasn't called the last camp. And Daniel Smith, like I said, he flagged some stats for me. In the Aredivizzi,

Luca is pretty highly ranked in a few categories. Top 20 in, complete distance covered, dribbles, and passing accuracy in the opponent's half. And he's fifth among those who've attempted at least 500 passes for passing accuracy in the opponent's half. That's an important stat, I think, more so than distance covered.

He's also 21st in duels one. So all in all, he's basically playing at like a second team all-airdivis level. It would be a mistake to think of him as a guaranteed solution to this problem that we were just describing. But we've got to try it out a little bit. I think more than we have, more than the 15 minutes he got against Jamaica, I believe. So that's where I stand on that. Yeah, I just, we need to get him in, man.

I just feel like none of this, the way he's playing, like, none of this surprises me. I feel like, like, ever since I saw him, I forgot what match that was, but it was the camp in Europe. Really like. Oh, that was against Northern Ireland, I think, where he played pretty well. Yeah. No. Was it that one? Okay.

But yeah, ever since I think I was like my first time seeing him, but ever since then, I'm like, this guy's good. Like, you don't, for some players, it's like, you don't need to see 10, 10, 15 matches before you're like, oh, this guy is good. Like, once I saw Luca receive the ball a few times, his close control on the dribble and all that stuff, I was like, like, he's a good player. And to see it backed up in the Air Divisi, like, this is kind of what I'm expecting. And I mean, does he not seem? like maybe a poor man's musa on the dribble a little bit yeah he does seem like a poor man's musa on the dribble and maybe a little bit a little bit more incisive of a passer than musa you know well burhalter said the reason he didn't get called up was he because he wasn't as good as transition

which is probably true right maybe maybe the key here is i want to make sure we give enough credit to daniel smith for just the incredible amount he the amount and detail he tweets about Luca De La Torre. It doesn't quite make sense, but I really appreciate it. Yeah, man, Daniel Smith's the goat. No, no doubt about it. Why, why, why, why, why so much about Luca? I mean, I love it.

Well, he's just, he's, he's, he's feeling like me right now. He's like, this guy's good. That's probably what I mean. Yeah, he's trying to amplify it up, amplify it up. He's trying to get it on the radar of Greg's burner. That's right. Okay, that's what it is. Of course.

He doesn't think Luca is getting enough attention. So he's making sure that gets done and doing a great job of it. Because if Greg has a burner, he's following Daniel Smith. Like, he wouldn't be doing his job correctly if he's not following Daniel on the burner. Yeah. Daniel provides a lot of value at no cost. I feel like he's been doing Luca tweets for years without reliant. I was going to say we all kind of get in our groove where we like we become like a.

fan of a certain player happened with me to richie le desma so i know how that is but didn't didn't you just tweet about him earlier this morning yeah because he tweeted um that he was a few weeks ago that he was going to be back on december 6 i guess we'll find out in an hour if he's going to be in the roster for the young PSV game but so so since he brought le desma up like if if if if rishi was doing we're doing the same things that that lucid delatori is doing right now like the fan base will be having a connection man like you know same league you know i'm i mean get this man in while we're messing around with it don't make sense it doesn't make sense why he wasn't in the last camp uh it's a and i know you know people get too worked up about this kind

of stuff but come on gregg burhalter all right let's run through the centerbacks real quick. There's not too much positive that happened. But Chris Richards got his first start in a while, first start since October 23rd in a 3-2 win over Frankfurt. Hoffenheim is in a Champions League spot now, believe it or not. I mean, they were in it when Shalko was in it last, right? That's true, yeah.

Or somewhere there. thereabouts. They're only five points from 12th place as well. So the Bundesliga is kind of packed through the middle. I thought Chris was okay in this game. Had a nice galloping dribble up the left wing and the wherewithal to find the feet of an attacker right at the top of the box. He also got bodied a little bit on that second goal from Frankfurt from Gonzalo Paciencia. Just a cracking goal where he chested it up into the air and then volleyed it with his left foot. vote fell down the Kevin vote the other one of the other centerbacks fell down and Richards just kind of was pinned to Passienzias's back um you guys got anything on

Richards I don't I'm glad he's he started yeah yeah I would just I would just like to say it's good to see it's good to see and I mean I argue I was arguing this on the discord when it seemed like he was losing a spot but it was like it says kind of what you want like It isn't all negative as far as, I mean, yes, he's not playing, but then you got to buck up and get your spot back, man. You know? Yeah. And so I'm happy to see that he's done his thing here. Yeah.

And then John Brooks, also not in the last camp, was subbed off at the half and a three zero loss to mines. I think it was tactical, but still not great to get subbed off at the half. you know, they did three subs at once, though, at half, which kind of softens the emotional blow. I don't know if you've ever been subbed off at half, but it doesn't feel good. I was twice subbed off in the first 10 minutes of a soccer game. It's really traumatic.

I've actually never talked about it until right now. It's humiliating. What position were you playing? I was a bit of a headcase of a six. So, you know, I might just let someone dribble right by me or I might lose the ability to control and pass the ball. I see. So. And the coach could tell early.

Like, like, yo, why can you? It's not your day, bro. You got to go ahead and sit next to me. Yeah, it wasn't even, it was two different coaches. So just people can tell. Or like, he doesn't have it today. So maybe that's what I don't think that's what happened with John Brooks. I think it was more tactical.

Yeah, they gave him the full. half, the full first half. Yeah. All right, Miles Robinson, Walker Zimmerman, their seasons are finished. Zimmerman's in this camp. Robinson is not getting some rest. And Mark McKenzie started this weekend,

which is new. Lovely. Hasn't started. Yeah. Fullbacks, Sergenio Dest, got 90 minutes and a 1-0 loss on Saturday versus Real Batiste. There's a lot of zap ruddering going on about the goal

that Barcelona conceded his first start since October 30th. I thought he and looked like he and Demberley might have a little chemistry which is cool to see. Do you guys remember Demberley at Dorman? He was unplayable.

He was so good. I mean, he's a baller, man. Like, the fact, like, he's just, like, so two-footed. Like, he can shoot with both feet just, like, so, exquisitely. I love watching him play, and I wish he could just

stay healthy, which reportedly has a lot to do with his lifestyle. He just like, yeah. He's a character. And that's part of why I want to see this Dembella death relationship really bloom, both on and off the field.

I would watch a documentary just about those two players hanging out. And the goal was not that's fault, by the way. It was a 2V1. It's not his fault. That's my final declaration on that. Yeah, I accept your declaration. Just about Dumbelli and his two-footedness.

You guys remember that video where they asked him which foot is his strongest and he gives two different answers in like 20 seconds. You don't even know which one is a stronger foot. Joe Scali went 90 in a It looks like sounds like a typo, but it's not a 6-0 lost Freiburg at home for Gladbach. They were down 6-0 at the 37th minute mark. Which I don't even know how that's possible. Even just saying it now, I'm worried that's not right.

And I'm miss speaking here. But I think that was right. I didn't. I have to admit, I didn't. I have no information to give about this match. Okay. Well, I better hope that that's right. because if you see that

Gladback lost 6-0 at least in my case I'm just not going to watch that game I don't need to see whatever happened out there I do know Scali got bossed a little bit on a second goal

on a header an attacker kind of jumped over him it'll happen Vince you know anything about that about Scali's performance nah I was going to say in the in the Discord thread I did I did see exactly what

Waki just talked about and that was going to be my only contribution. Okay. Sometimes you do the dunking, sometimes you get dunked on. It's part of life. It was a very dunk of a header. One of the most dunking type headers I've seen. DeAndre Edlin went 90 in a 2-2 draw on Saturday versus Altay for Galatasarai.

I'll just go straight to the question from another unknown person from an unknown location. When will you put some respect on Yedlin's name? And my answer is I thought we did, I thought we kind of did in the last Monday review, pointing out how deserved it is that he cracked the top 20 in the power rankings. I still think he's a limited player, but he's definitely useful and deserving of respect. I'm not putting any additional respect on DeAndre Yadlin's name. I'm not going to want, like, when I rewatch those games, like, when I readwatch those games,

Like when we were like in the stadium right for Mexico and like when we came back to the tellgate spot, we were just feeling good. We were buzzing like, yeah, I don't think anybody played bad. Like we bossed them. Everybody well, and I mean, we were right. Like nobody played bad. But rewatching the game like DeAndre definitely did some like DeAndre Yedlin things as far as like giving the ball away. You know, not being as clean as desired. in possession, all that type of stuff.

He applied the clamps. Yeah. So who was on his side? I think it was Chucky on his side? No, well, I think they switched back and forth, didn't they? Okay. Well, he applied some clamps, which is good. And which is another thing I think about often,

as far as like full back defense, like it's always a problem until it's like not a problem that nobody ever speaks about it again. Like never, like when Dest finally becomes, very good on defense like nobody will ever speak of it again but yeah he was he was good not great against mexico and what would y'all say about jamaica was he bad okay maybe i think i think the way you describe it is is pretty much right i mean he's he he's pretty reliable defensively and he's good for like three or four pretty bad giveaways a game and he's you know we're not going

have a lot of intricate build-up through him. I think, if anything, we actually took respect off of Yedlin's name. Well, since we answered the question. Like, I just thought about this. I was going to say, well, we're not going to put additional respect, but I, no. So not yet is the answer. Not yet. We're not putting respect on his name.

Well, I would just say, like, if he's in the 11th for a game, I'm going to be fine. Like, I'm not, I'm not going to be tripping about that. And I will say that his, uh, recovery. run on, that was Chuky Rake in the Mexico game, put him off a little bit. I mean, that was, yes, that was an excellent play. And so I will give him his proper dues, but no, no additional respect. I already respected DeAndre Yelan, okay? I don't, I mean, nothing he did in this past window makes me not want Scali to come.

Yeah. I mean, I guess unknown just kind of put us in a tough spot there because, yeah. Yeah, we already, maybe already did put some respect on his name. Yeah. I guess that's what Adam said. He just put us on a corner there. Unknown did. But we may have removed some respect from his name in the process of expressing our respect for his name.

I think that is what happened. Yeah. Anthony Robinson on the weekend was not in the squad for a 1-1 draw on Friday versus Bournemouth. I don't know what's going on there. Does anybody? Does he hurt? I don't know. Oh, he got a red card.

No, maybe it was a suspension. Okay. He did not get a red card. He maybe should have. Hmm. Maybe it was a suspension, but I don't know. He's my left back right now. I don't really, don't really care what happens with him at, uh, at Fulham.

Reggie Cannon in the squad for Bovichita did not play. And then, uh, what I would have Jonathan Gomez. I have him taking the left back spot. from Anthony Robinson. He's going to win in this camp, I think. This December camp. Louisville City Zone. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Greg definitely, I saw a quote from Greg where he was like, we think he could be ready to contribute now to the national team. So he's like looking forward to like see it in camp. And I thought that was pretty encouraging, man. Yeah. The fact that he's looking at Jogo like that to where if he's, if he's good enough, then maybe we see him in. January, February?

Probably not, but he is, he yeah, probably not, but he is the aspirational left back in the pool. Like he's the one who could be like really special.

Well, I'm gonna just predict he goes and wins that starting spot. I'm all in on Jonathan Gomez. Oh, and I would just like to say Anthony Robinson, another guy who's in the defense matters until you're actually good good at a camp. Remember everybody was just going on and on and on.

He can't defend, he can't defend, can't defend. Look at him now. I wonder how, like, I'm not going to assign a specific percentage to it, but a large percentage of that position he can't defend is based on him getting roasted by, uh, uh, was it, Douglas Costa, I think. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. Brazil or a very long time. Yeah, in 2018. You know, the, the small, these small sample sizes do have a huge effect. And I wonder, you know, bear with me for a second here, guys, but I wonder how much of the MMA midfield,

how much the rest of the player pool demands an MMA midfield because we don't have, I just talked about Jonathan Gomez being the aspirational left back. We, where like he could, you know, we could really tiki-taka through the left side. with him, you know, ideally. But until we have like a full team like that, we have to have that MMA midfield.

Yeah. Because, I mean, we saw it against Jamaica where the play was going up that left side a lot. And it was just going up to the left to die. Right. At no point did it get to Anthony? And I think he's about to do something here. It was like, it was kind of depressing.

I'm not going to lie. He is sometimes very good at carrying the ball upfield a great distance quickly. He had kind of, he had an off night, I think, because he got the ball. He got the ball in the attacking third like a dozen times, Baker's dozen times, seem like. All right, let's do the goalkeepers and then get out of here. We're not going to do any more questions today, executive decision from Bells. Goalkeepers, the Stefan Turner debate, Matt Turner, in the middle of the week, went 120 minutes. in a two-two penalty loss to NYCFC,

who are now in the MLS Cup final against Portland, didn't stop a single penalty in the shootout, and all Matt Turner supporters had to deal with the victory dance from the Stefan Partizans. How are you guys feeling about this debate right now? It's too heated. I don't even want to keep my powder dry. You know, otherwise they're going to come after me.

You know, it is very divisive, isn't it? Like, it's getting to that point where it's like, like, like, Bells, once you, once you release his pod, I'm going to have to, yeah, might have to lock my account. Be careful. I think, be careful. Like, don't, I would say if you, if you wanted to not have an opinion about something, this would be the place to do it.

Well, you know what, Waki, I'm going to have an opinion. Okay. Because, number one, those pins were very good. Yeah. That NYCFC took at the end of that match. and my thing with Stefan is just I have just not seen him be that good with his feet to where I'm just about to think

we're going to reach some type of new level of the men's national team squad under Greg with Stefan Engold. Like he's just not that good to me. To me he's like below... Oh my God, you're in big trouble here. I know. You really came out hard.

And I'm not, keep going. I'm sorry. Not that he's just not that good with his feet, man. Like he's, he can do some things that Turner cannot. And when you compare them side by side, it's like, wow, he's head and shoulders better than him, which, I mean, he does seem to be. But if you rewatch that USA, Mexico game, you tell me which, which keeper was better with their feet because it was, it was Mimo by a trillion.

Yeah, but that's not the argument though, right? The argument is like he's just, it's... Well, the argument is that he's so good with his... That Stefan's so good with his feet. Mine thing, it overcomes his being not quite as good of a shot stopper, right? That's how I understand the argument of the Stefan. Yeah, well, after spending like an entire day on Twitter arguing about this last week, I do think it comes down to this idea, like the really, really,

the really, really intense Stefan partisans, they do think that he elevates the way the entire team can play. And I do agree with the events that it's, I think that is mostly a fantasy. And what unfortunate is the whole Horvath situation because I think he's pretty good with his feet. And when he, everybody's had an opportunity to play,

it's been pretty good stopping shots as well. Yeah. But yeah, I just think Stefan is like below a replacement level for like a starting top five league goalkeeper with his feet. Which doesn't mean he's not better than Turner. He's definitely better than Turner with his feet. Right, right. He's better than Turner. But the delta between the two is not as drastic as some people make it out of the beat.

I agree with that. And in a certain way, it's just an unending debate because we'll say that and then they'll say, well, then the delta between. Turner's shot stopping and Stefan's shot stopping is not that great. And you're like, well, what about post-shot XG? And they're like, well, stats don't matter. And then you're like, well, okay, let's... Do you think he's below replacement level for just an average top five keeper with his feet? Or like the Champions League level of that league?

He's either below or at replacement level. Yeah. For, yeah, for top five all around. I mean, you see every keeper can play with their damn feet now. I mean, you know what I'm saying? And he's not dropping any Edison passes or anything like that. Not even close. Nowhere close.

Yeah. I watched all his passes in that Mexico game to your point earlier. And he, you know, he doesn't, he didn't really start anything with his pass, with his feet. That wasn't why we won that game. We won that game because of the M.MA midfield. And now I know they're going to come at me and say they had, he had Miles and Walker as the centerbacks. Oh, man. You know the contours of the debate very well.

Yeah, look, look It's like It's like eight mile where you got to lay out Everything they're going to use against you before they use it So then they have they have nothing to say So we we got to Maybe acknowledge That sometimes yeah he's

He's gonna look better passing for Manchester City You know, but that's different I'm just anticipating one other critique there Yeah I think we got our bases covered surely they'll find another way but it's going to be fine you know overall i like to say i'm i'm goalkeeper agnostic really like i don't care that much i just do have an opinion on the differences between these two players but no matter who starts it's going to be like uh all right cool yeah man i'm going to jump i'm going to jump full like all in no matter who the goalkeeper

is and be like ready to go um by the way zach stephen was an unused sub and a 2-1 win on Wednesday and a 3-1 win on Saturday for what it's worth. Let's get out of here. We've already gone an hour and a quarter. I should say for everybody, Vince and Waki and I are going to try to do, I mean, this is something I, this is my agenda, so, you know, they might have some pushback as time goes by, but we're going to try to do some segments at the beginning of the year and like into 22, where we really take on some of these like sort of, sort of.

specific debates or specific developments of specific histories of positions with the national team to try to get people who, you know, aren't as deep in the weeds as we are up to speed on what's going on with the national team, try to get some new listeners. So look out for that after January 1st. Vince, thank you. Thanks for having me. Waki, thank you. Good talking to you guys.

All right, we'll see you.