Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #231: How to solve the midfield sans MMA, plus a look ahead to Bosnia

Episode Date: December 16, 2021

What do you do if McKennie, Musah and Adams are unavailable? We run through a lot of the possibilities, settle on some pretty clear (and perhaps obvious) favorite options, and then talk about what we'd like to see vs Bosnia on Saturday.0:30 intro and a bunch of alternate midfield setups (hint, Gio)36:00 Bosnia look-aheadsupport 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 a contingency planning episode. Greg, how are you doing? I'm all right, Bells. I feel like this game this Saturday has kind of snuck up on us. All of a sudden, here it is. We will talk about that. We'll talk about the game on Sunday. But first, we're going to talk about ways to solve the midfield when the full Musa McKinney Adams' compliment is unavailable. I think it's correct me if I'm wrong, Greg, but I think it's widely agreed upon that Adams at the 6 and Muson McKinney at the 8 is our best midfield right now.

I don't know that anyone would object to that. Now, I'll take that back. There's going to be a couple objections and it's going to usually come in the shape of a geo-reina. Yes, for sure. And we do want to talk about that. We just want to give this subject sort of its full, a full treatment, or at least as full of a treatment as we're capable of.

that midfield Musa McKinney Adams they downed Mexico but there will continue to be matches where not all three are available that has been the case and it will continue to be the case

so what then and I'd say we've been approaching this topic in different ways over the past several months we've talked about a second six and a fourth eight kind of made jokes out of those things Acosta seemed to solve

the second six problem over the summer he played really well against Mexico in Nations League and played pretty well in Gold Cup. And then we, on this podcast, we kind of thought of Sebastian Leggett as the third eight, right? I mean, that's what we, that's kind of where we were coming from. Yeah, it felt like he was a safe choice there until some youngster just, you know,

flew past him on the depth chart. Right. And then Leggette continued to disappoint, I think, throughout the summer and the way he played. And then he and Acosta had a very, very poor game against Panama, where we were. we lost 1-0 and looked totally ineffective. And so now we're kind of back to the drawing board. And it shows that we're back to the drawing board when we don't have McKinney and Musa, when one of them is missing, as McKinney was in our last game at Jamaica,

that we really need some kind of other solution. So we're going to talk about some possible solutions. We're going to talk about the way Burrhalter is likely to solve these problems. And, I mean, do you want to... start by ranting about the fact that there aren't enough eights on this Bosnia Bosnia roster? Well, we got a little bit of update on that in the form of some reporting that, one, Taylor Booth has been training as an eight, which we kind of speculated that Booth and

Clark are sort of those in-betweeners. And so Booth apparently getting reps is an eight who drops deep specifically, like so even more specifics about his role as that eight in training. And I am very interested in seeing that. I thought Booth had a really good loan spell in the Austrian First Division last season. I was putting up kind of silly numbers, like better numbers than Aronson in the minutes he got. Yeah. Domestically.

But was kind of still under the radar. I mean, it's Austria. I get it. You're not playing for Salzburg. You're under the radar here in Austria. Right. But then, like, he just kind of fell into obscurity because he didn't get his loan move through Bayern Munich this fall. and he's obviously not cracking Byron Munich's first team.

So he's one that I'm actually really curious about. I'm curious to see what kind of player he is, whether he can do that role. He's one of the definite like definite possibilities for like a surprise in this camp. Yeah. And I think, I mean, he's one that I, I mean, I'm definitely interested to see him there too. And I think as a general rule, we should be trying everybody who could conceivably fit in that eight role at the eight role.

but there are a lot of other options that aren't anywhere near this camp right now. And you mentioned, you mentioned earlier one of them, Gio Raina as one of the eights. Raina as an eight. And should we just get right into like the MMA replacement scenarios? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Please.

So I think Raina, for me, Gio Raina as the eight is the obvious scenario that continues to put the best players we have onto the field. Like I don't think there's any question that. putting, if you're missing Eunice Musa and you have everyone else available healthy, putting Raina into that spot and then bringing in our third winger, who in my opinion would be a Tim Wea, to play opposite Pulisic, puts by far like our best, our most talented 11 on the field out of any other combination. Right.

Yeah. And then just on the narrow question, like in a vacuum of whether Raina fits the parameters for that position. I mean, he has the athleticism. He has the cage match ability. he probably brings he definitely brings more of a cutting edge than uh musa or mckenny i mean like in terms of his profile as a player so um you talking are you talking there cutting edge like within 20 yards a goal is that kind of what you're yeah like you like you see i mean we talked about this a little bit on monday but you see reina winding up to take a shot from 20 yards you

think it's probably going to go on frame you know um you don't i i'm a huge fan of unis musa but you don't necessarily have that feeling when Musa is winding up to shoot from 20 yards. He brings so much to the table, but I think Rayna's a little more refined in the last 25 yards. Well, and that's why we use them there, quite honestly, right? Right. Like that's one of the reasons that he feels like he needs to stay up as a half-waite merchant is because that's a one line closer to goal. So that's the reluctance to drop him.

But then what we've seen from Tim Wea over the last two windows is somebody who can absolutely play that spot and not be like a tremendous liability in attack. Boy, that's an understatement. I mean, I was going for understatement, but, you know, we're comparing him to Gio Raina, who's, you know, one of the most talented players that we've seen play in these attacking roles for us since I've been following the national team. I know it's early and people don't like to make people making those sorts of proclamations when a kid's 18, but just the talent we have seen him display for.

Dortmund and at times for the U.S., he has boatload. So I do want to be careful about saying it's not a drop-off to go to somebody else. But Wea has been fantastic and fairly consistently fantastic so far for the national team. Another reason to drop Raina into one of the eight positions is because that's what he played for Dortmund at the beginning of the season. You know, he was a central midfielder. And it's kind of easy to forget that because he's barely played for Dortmund because he got hurt in that first interviegain. national window and he hasn't been back on the field since. But, you know, that's the role he's playing for his club.

It's not exactly the same role, but it's more similar than a winger role or a, you know, whatever. Yeah, and this is where a lot of people were already saying, even before the Tim Wea emergence, people are already kind of saying, hey, Raina should definitely be one of our eights. This was also before we saw Musa dominate the way he did against Mexico. So is Dominate the right word? Can I use that? Can I throw out Dominate? I think you can. Yeah, I was just watching a few more clips about it, you know, from that game earlier today.

Yeah, he dominated. He really did. So we had that, between those two things happen, like Musa dominating makes it like, oh, well, maybe we don't have to drop Raina into the midfield. And then Wea, looking as good as he did, makes it like, oh, we totally could get away with dropping way or Raina into the midfield. So we have, this is, again, why I think Raina as a possible eight or a backup eight. is like a obvious solution now. Yeah. Is it so obvious that Greg Berhalter is considering it?

Is there any evidence that he is? I definitely think there's evidence that he is because in that first window, when the roster was announced, one, we barely had any eights. We didn't bring any eights in that first World Cup qualifying window either. And one of the takeaways everyone had immediately, it was speculating about, was Burhalter's going to try Raina as an eight. And then I think Berhalter even said something to that effect. of course he then torpedoed all those expectations by starting

Aronson as an 8 and Raina on the wing in game 1 against away to El Salvador. Yeah. Yep, yep. But I think there's, I think there is some indication that Burhalter's open to that idea. And again, it just seems like Raina could really do that job with minimal drop-off if you're

putting in Timway, Oregon or Brendan Aronson. If it's Poole-Sick and Aronson, that's still two pretty good wingers by our historical. standards. Okay. So Raina as the eight is, I think, is it fair to say it's your favorite alternative to the MMA midfield? It's my.

100%. Do you have one you like better? No, I do. I do not. Okay. But we're going to have to go down the list because there are other possibilities. Luca Dillatorre as one of the eights. Now, he got to play as an eight against Jamaica, I believe, right?

Jamaica at home, he got about 15 minutes. In a game that was killed off at that point. So it's kind of hard to take too much from it. But he looked pretty good. And as we've talked about in this podcast many times, he looks good for Heracles-Almella in the Eridivizzi. And he has sort of, you know, the counting stats and the passing percentage in the opponent's half to show that he does bring some ball progression.

But he has not been in favor with Burrhalter. Like he wasn't called up for the last window. So I don't know. What do you think about this as a lot? a number two as a second option or plan B. So yeah, I'm going to be super boring and, you know, Raina by far my favorite replacement in that, in that trio,

like everything else tied for second. And Luca Dela Tore is, would be, I'd be perfectly fine to see him in the roster for this next window. And if he starts one of the games as a rotation guy, uh, I'd be like, okay,

let's see what he can do. This will be interesting. This could be kind of fun. Uh, it, it's not like, by, I don't think, of it in any way is like, oh, he would for sure succeed. Like, he has been a decent for Heracles.

He had a decent cameo for us in that Jamaica game. He also, like, clipped a guy's heels in the box, and it could have been a penalty in the 90th minute. So, like, I still have the similar concerns that I have about a lot of our other untested ates that, like, defensively, they could be liabilities. So, you know, I don't know. Where are you on Luca? Like, are you like, no.

He's for sure going to make us better. Are you like, all right. Well, I got to ask. I guess I have to gauge these things by the level of how intriguing they are to me. That's a fair way to rank them after that. Because, again, it's just everyone else is so outside of legit, like, no one else has gotten these extended roles. Like, it's been legit in Acosta. Even when we get to Busio, like, he's had the one start as a real eight for us, I think, in his time.

Yeah. And that was a, that was a game where, I mean, I think there was some debate. Like, well, let's just move right on to Buccio. Because I'm intrigued by Luca Deloere. I think it's fun to watch him at Heracles. I do agree. I mean, he gave up a penalty just this past weekend by pulling on a guy's shoulder. There's a tiny little foul, but it was a dumb one in the box.

And it resulted in the game winner for Heracles' opponent. So that's a, that's, you know, he can't do that. Got to stop doing that. So next is Bousio. What's your sort of assessment of his performance at the 8 against Jamaica? I know we've talked about it before, but let's just try to rehash and summarize a little bit. So I thought he was when he got the ball, he was pretty safe with it. There weren't any, I didn't think there were any, like, mind-blowing passes.

And I'm not saying that he missed, like, a bunch of mind-blowing passes. I feel like overall the team was kind of stale with the move. movement in the decision making. So he was safe when he had the ball, which is not, again, it's not a terrible floor to set. Yeah. But he wasn't someone who, like Musa, like we've seen for Musa or McKinney, can like sort of just make something happen.

That's like my advanced analytics framing of it. Like, Busio is, and I haven't really seen that from Venetia either. So I know a lot of people are really high on his Venetia play. I'm super stoked that he has gone into the Italian First Division. like seized a role as a starter on a, you know, mid-table-ish team and doesn't look at a place. But also, like, he isn't a guy who just will, like, make huge things happen. That just isn't him, right? He's sort of an accumulation guy where over 90 minutes, he might have a couple of passes

that sort of advanced their position a little bit and sort of help them minimally. And I don't mean to sound like that's a harsh criticism. There's nothing wrong with having that be your existence as a, 19 year old playing in Saria. Right. And I think, I mean, I guess maybe I think you're being a little bit, withholding a little bit of praise that's justified. Like he does the, he does that thing where he plays the right, like as Kroiff said,

plays the right pass with the right weight to the right foot very consistently in a way that is, that I think is more than just sort of playing safe and sort of progressing the ball. I don't know. Sort of progressing the ball probably does kind of catch it. But so he plays he plays safe but very well like right he plays he keeps the rhythm going he he isn't like oh the possession doesn't stop dead in its tracks when it's uh busio's feet no certainly not but he's not like oh man i did not think that pass was gonna be made i didn't realize that pass was even on until busio hit it no you know what i mean he doesn't do that he's he's more he got murky delgado vibes in terms of uh rhythm building yeah and so if you're not hitting those passes which again is i'm not saying that has to be the pass you hit. But you're also definitely not giving us the Musa and McKinney. Like suddenly I've dribbled three three grown men and like managed to actually put

them on their ass while I'm dribbling. Like then then it's sort of you know, what are you giving us? And if it's just well, you don't hurt us in the way an alternative American midfielder would that could be enough to carve out a role in the team. It's just going to be not quite as exciting as what we've started to get excited about. Yeah. Yeah, he seems to have some kind of role under Burrhalter. Now, what are the other options here?

We already talked about Booth. I guess we can throw Caden Clark in the same category, even though there's no evidence that Caden Clark is being played at the 8 right now. There's no evidence one way or another. We'll find out Saturday. Right. But I guess Clark really falls in that category of this is a good athlete. He's becoming a big kid.

I think his dad tweeted the other day that he keeps growing. So he's like over six feet tall now or six feet tall now. I don't know if he has the sort of the tactical acumen to play in that role or whatever. But he is, we should try him there. I guess that's as much as I'll say about it. Do you have any thoughts on Clark at the 8? I guess I'm hoping to see Clark booth or we'll get into it in the preview, I'm sure. But yes, I hope Clark sees some time at the 8.

I shouldn't even say that. I don't really care if Clark sees time at the 8. eight in this camp. I hope Clark gets time and looks good. If Clark plays in the half space and looks fantastic, I'm not going to be like, ah, too bad we didn't try him at the eight. I'll be glad to see him look good somewhere else. But I would be interested in seeing him play the eight. So then there's another option, which we've bandied about here on this podcast and elsewhere, Josh Sargent is one of the eights.

He's a high energy player. He's a decent physical presence. he can play with his back to goal he can find a pat he can find feet he can solve a little bit of a problem in tight space why not why not try him as an eight eventually is it too crazy at this point I mean it's a little cute but like again we we talked about it last pot

I think we said it's a lot of squiggly shapes that we're putting into squiggly shaped holes so that wouldn't be too much different like let's get like legit is kind of this guy right when we play Kalana Costa there. Like we're playing guys in these roles who don't necessarily fit exactly from what they do with their clubs.

And we just kind of roll with it. So, like, you can't necessarily rule anyone out. I'm not, like, super eager to see Sergeant in that, in that position. I have no idea. I don't think he has ever touched that role for his club. But, yeah, no, he has. Sure.

If we were, if we were running a game in June this summer that has no consequences. and I don't know, man. I don't see that being a priority to test out. I know you're very curious about it, so I want you to have it, but I'm not sure when we would try it. It's definitely the part of the field he's most familiar with

as an attacking player in the Bundesliga and Premier League, the middle third. But there, again, and I agree with that, yeah, he rarely sees the ball in the attacking third. So it's like, oh, he should be right at home. But then there are also like the considerations of the way he sees that space is as a forward coming in. Like he hasn't had to see that space

or work in that space as a midfielder in all of sort of the knock on context that goes with that of like, oh, well then there's a whole another layer of defenders around you that you have to be accounting for in this like 360 degree awareness. So it's not a priority

for me and I'm very hopeful that we will have already solved the problem before we even have a chance to test sergeant there. So I'm hoping we solve it in in December and January and we aren't like come March still being like would sergeant work is one of the eighths yeah I hope not to I do want to see Josh sergeant succeed as a player though and I do wonder if he is going to succeed as a player at the at the nine position I mean it's not

he doesn't play as a nine for norwich but that's not our main concern our main concern is the success of the national team which sergeant is not really a core member is not a core member of right now maybe not a member of at all at the moment Christian Raldon. He's another one. We have some big Christian Roldon fans in the Discord. And what do you think about Roldon as an eight? You've weighed in on this subject before, but why don't you do it again?

I don't want to see Christian Roldan play the eight for the national team. I could see it in this camp as just a placeholder, which again, frustrates me because I feel like this would be the perfect camp not to use a placeholder there. This could be the camp where we do the most searching for. an eight that can be a real backup. Raldon, I think, played the eight in the last 30 minutes against Mexico in the Gold Cup final. And it's sort of the same thing I always kind of pick up on is that I don't think he controls the space well.

And that worries me. So I don't think he has a real, like, future with the national team as an eight. Did you follow the reporting on Roldon? I think I mean, it wasn't even reporting on. It was direct quotes from Roldon. Yeah. I mean, what do you say? He said basically he's been a little confused about.

his role. But frustrated. Yeah, he said frustrated about what position they think of him as. So I don't think it's like he's confused about what he's supposed to do when he's actually on the field. The frustration is like, they tell me I'm a midfielder, but then they only play me as a wing as a sub off the bench. Yeah.

I mean, you know, I'm not going to second guess his frustration there. No, not at all. I just read it and I'm like yeah man like that's that's kind of they might be seeing the same thing that some of us are seeing like you you can't quite do that job or you're a bit of a risk of exposure in central midfielder that risk is substantially mitigated defensively by putting you out on the wing and you still are like a good hustle you know definitely establish a medium floor by putting you in that half space yeah Yeah, you know, Jeremiah O'Shan, the guy who does Sounders at heart, that podcast, wants to have me on to talk about how Roldon and Morris are viewed by the national team fan base. And I said absolutely, because I like Jeremiah. But it's going to be a, I'm going to have to really think about what I say about that. Because they're not super popular, you know, with the fan base. I mean, Morris more so than Roldon, but anyway, it's partly because of the,

you know, unfairness of the fan base and stuff, but, but also, you know, I get a heavy dose of Velasquez in my life. I'm trying to tip your scales as well. No,

so, I mean, give me your, don't feel like you got to speak for the, the entire U.S. men's national team fan base here. What's your feeling on Roldon then?

I mean, I'm heavily influenced by you. I mean, this idea of pitch control is a good way to think about it, I think, and we don't get a lot of pitch, pitch control from,

from Roldon. on the wing I can see it I mean I know he has success in Seattle but if we have our full compliment of wingers I don't think he's on the roster he doesn't break into the roster so I think he's a good soldier

for the national team and an excellent guy but I would not be surprised or disappointed if he weren't on the World Cup roster you know when we go to the World Cup All right there you go So, yeah, so if we're talking about the MMA contingencies here, like, for me, Roldon doesn't basically, like, doesn't exist on the depth chart. Like, I would probably be like, now just run legit back.

I know he had a shocker against Panama, but, like, knowing that he's going to have a few weeks off now here, and then knowing what we have seen him do, I'd still just be like, if we have to roll the dice between those two, just give me legit back. But I'm hopeful that we, again, have other options emerge that make either of those choices, not like forced upon us. Not that they even are. I think you could definitely say those choices already aren't forced upon us.

We're electing them at times. Yeah. So for you, it's number one, Raina and a landslide here as a replacement for Moose or McKinney if either of them is not available, followed by LDLT or somebody else, Clark,

tied for second, basically. So it'd be Luca and Busio and then I'm just going to have to do my obligatory, like I'd rather play Dwayne Holmes out of position there. Yeah. And I know that he just doesn't exist for a lot of people in their mind and their U.S. men's national team mind.

But he, for me, would be like the, he would do the legit job that Legette used to do fairly well, that he's not doing very well anymore. Where he's probably better suited, Holmes would probably be better suited higher up the field individually, like if you're trying to max out his individual talent. But he could give us some of the things that, that ball progression and that like mentality to get the ball forward. He doesn't get little brothered. Like, that's just a guy who I think could step in

and fill that squiggly shaped hole in midfield for us. Yeah. Capably. And it's probably not going to happen. Don't see it happening. So Burhalter, what will happen, do you think? Burrhalter's just going to sort of ride with Legette Acosta and Busio, unless, like, you know, unless Clark or Booth just absolutely plays lights.

out in this camp. Yeah. And we should throw, I guess, Cole Bassett in that mix, too, as an age. Yeah. And they'd have to, right? And that's why when we talk about the Bosnia game here in a second,

like, they would have to look really good to, I think, get a shot. Because, again, Luca's looked good, and he seems to be in the cold. So I'm not sure what it would take in this extended camp for them to actually, like, elbow their way into the depth chart.

Because I kind of agree. I think Berlter feels fine, not necessarily thrilled, but, I mean, Lijet's been left out of, he was left out of the squad against Costa Rica after that Panama performance. And then he didn't see the field in the other two games in the following window. So Beralder, and that is definitely unusual for what Lajette's job has been in the year and a half previous, where he was in every single camp

and starting or playing significant minutes in basically every game. So to see his role diminish means Burrhalter clearly is not as happy with him at the moment with his soccer showings. Yeah. So I don't think, I don't think, you know, we can say he wouldn't let the guy go. Yeah. Well, it feels to me like, so I, Buccio's not tied with LDLT or some of the other options for me, because we have seen Buccio.

And I think there is reason to think that he didn't, you know, that we could get something more out of that position on the field, uh, from somebody else. So hold on. So you're saying, so you're saying Bousio. might be lower than then Bousio wouldn't be tied for second In my mind In my mind, yeah

Just because we've seen it And it's not like he played terrible or anything He was He was, I think we described it adequately earlier He was okay But we didn't control that game The way we control the game against Mexico And you know, people are naturally going to say

Well, what's the difference? Well, we were missing McKinney and we had Buccio In McKinney's spot So yeah, I'm more more curious about LDLT at this point, Luca Delatore, than I am about Busio, given that we've seen a Busio start in a World Cup qualifier. Let's move to, go ahead, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, I think that's totally fair. And I also think, you know, even going back to the Gold Cup, I don't think Busio did anything terribly impressive in the

Gold Cup either. So while, again, I'm not riding against Busio here. There hasn't been anything for the national team so far that, like, demands that he remain the national. number two sort of option after MMA. Right. So curiosity demands that we see someone else. Now those are all... Can I also caveat the entire discussion we just had with like, it's not necessarily the case that the midfield drop off is the issue.

Like we might solve it other ways. And I hope we can because it's also kind of would also be a bit of an indictment of our ability to perform as a team. that with all the talent we have everywhere else on the field, we can only do it with these three particular midfielders. Well, yeah, I'm not ready, as a judge, I'm not ready to throw that indictment out just yet, you know? So those are all possibilities if Musa or McKenney is missing.

Now, what about if Tyler Adams is missing? Why don't you give, what's your number one alternative? So it's still Raina, right? It's still to, it's not rain at the six, obviously, but it's to get Raina into the midfield, get way on the wing, and get the most talent we have on the field. And for me, that means moving West and McKinney to the sixth. I know already that everyone's going to balk and say,

or there will be balking because Wes is very good at, you know, driving the game forward and you sort of, you totally undercut that ability by dropping into the six where you might have to be a little bit more disciplined. But I think with Musa on the field, you can still have some ability for Wes to go forward. forward, you know, when he sees openings. And Musa can cover temporarily, right?

Like, it's not like, oh, no, Wes is gone and now we're completely unable to protect our back line. Like, these guys can do it for short spells. So, Wes, for me, move him to the six. I don't want anything else to be the first choice. So my guess is Calan Acosta is the choice. That seems to be Burralthur's choice. So, yeah, I would agree.

Wes at the six is my number one. option. Not because I think there's reason to worry about it. Like he will probably, he will probably switch off every now and then and miss a runner, and it might cost us goals. You know, I mean,

that's, that's what Adams is so, so, so good at. And Wes is not as good at it at that. So there's some... Or he wasn't. He used to not be,

right? We haven't seen him play like a real six or even one of like a double pivot for the US. Or his club, really since 2019 right he was playing it a little bit he played the six for shulka in that spring season so that would have been spring of 2020 right right before he went to uveh uh he got a couple of games in a row as the like pure single six okay i guess that's true and he was fine yeah he wasn't he wasn't amazing but he was he was totally fine looked mostly comfortable yeah yeah i guess i i just want to acknowledge the the the anti part of the argument before i say uh

Like, he's good. He's a good soccer player. He can figure it out, you know? I mean, it's not, it's, it's not impossible for him to do this. Well, and look, there was a reason, there's a reason that Shulka was able to play him at, like, seven different positions on the field, right? He is versatile. He's incredibly versatile. So, while it might not be our favorite thing that that was going on, and we wanted some consistency for him, there's, there is a reason that, like, oh, you need to plug a hole somewhere at Weston McKenie.

he can basically do anything. Yeah. Yeah, I was just listening to Harrison Perez, Harrison Perez, Harrison Perez talk about Weston's, how Weston changed MLS by leaving Dallas when he turned 18. And I was just like, man, this dude is probably the most influential national team player in a lot of ways.

Like he changed the model for development, not the model for development, the model for selling young players in the United States of America, plays at Juventus, arguably our most indispensable player right now. I know that's very arguable, but. I'm just laughing about like him being the most influential, because I'm like, dude can do everything.

The dude will hit a bicycle kick against Barcelona and the championship. Yeah. Well, there you go. Exhibit C, Exhibit F. So the other options, what about Moose at the 6th? I wouldn't bulk at that either. There aren't a lot of things I'm going to bulk at here, but I don't have any reason to think that he would be really good at it. How's that?

Yeah, no, that's fair. So, I mean, I guess if Adams is missing, you don't have to move Moosa to the 6th. You just move West there. That's what I'm thinking, yeah. There'd be no reason for me to be like, oh, well, we'll put Musa there and play Wes and Rain ahead of him, rather than be like, that doesn't make sense.

Put Wes there and let Musa still be Musa. But what if Wes and Musa are both missing? Then like we said, I mean, Wes and Adams. Wes and Adams, I mean, yeah. Okay, so at that point, again, like, okay, Acosta or, or, you know, like the guy you have next up here on your list, James Sands. You know, if we're into our third choice here, we're not going to be thrilled with it. We're going to be like, okay, well, I guess this is what we'll do. but it's nice to be able to say that we're settling for a guy in Calanacosta

who absolutely had the best game in recent memory against Mexico in the Gold Cup final. I know he was not good against Panama, but we've seen that as a third choice guy, he can beat a good team. That's not nothing. Yeah. Why did he play so badly against Panama? I don't understand it.

It looked like he was asleep. So the other option here, other options I have here, Sands gets a real chance as a six behind Mousa and McKenny. I mean, he hasn't really gotten that opportunity. And you disagree with that? No, that's totally true. He was basically like locked into centerback for the Gold Cup once Zimmerman went down. So most of his minutes in Gold Cup were at centerback where he did pretty well.

He hung in there. And then in that Honduras road game, he started as a two, which I basically throw out completely as a way to rate him other than saying he should definitely. not play in a two in the central midfield. And then in the second half, when we switched back when a legit came on and we went back to three midfielders, he looked fine. He was fine at that point. And again, that's not a huge endorsement either because Honduras are not very good.

But it's still at least like some data that, yes, he can do some kind of a job. I'm still a little intrigued because I think he brings that same Tyler Adams' sense of responsibility defensively. And like he's just, he's just locked into that job of like following runners and preventing danger from developing. He is not, I mean,

he has limits for sure, but I'd like to see, I'd almost rather see, well, would I rather see him than Acosta? I don't know. I don't know about that. Yeah.

I'm kind of like back to where I was with Legit and rolled on. I would still rather, if it came to it and we had to use Acosta or Sands at the six, I'd be like, give me the guy who actually like beat Mexico for 120 minutes. Okay. And then another option is Bousio, have a true deep lying playmaker. That's not for me. I'm a hard pass on that one.

Where are you on that? Yeah. Hard pass is maybe a little strong, but I'll pass. I'll pass. I wouldn't want to start a game like that. I think we've talked about this. If you're playing a team that is like totally chosen to sit deep and defend and bunker, I think you could maybe make like a mid-game or late-game switch and be like, okay, well, there's no threat coming out of us the other way.

We're going to just put in Buzio to see if he can sort of carve teams up. But again, I also don't think Buzio has been any kind of like teen carver-upper-upper with the national team as of yet. Yeah. I really appreciate your contrarian view on this because he's been an okay passer, but you know what I mean? I do. He's not hitting like, uh, he's not hitting like, uh, Your jaw doesn't drop. Like we've seen like John Brooks hit passes where your jaw drops.

And we aren't really getting those from Busio yet. Weston's hit passes that make my jaw drop in the past. There you go. All right. And I'm not saying he can't do it either. I'm just saying there's nothing right now that I've seen that I'm like, oh, we got to get him on here because he can really dice a team up. Right.

Well, Burrhalter's choice is probably going to be Acosta. It seems to be the move from coach Burrhalter. So as the pure like backup, right? Like anything happens to Adams Acosta comes in? I think so. And again, we got to throw more caveats in here because we haven't seen Burrhalter make any choices with Raina available and Pulisick available and Waya available. Not that we're going to have that happen in January, but we've yet to see that because so many of these guys have missed so much time. Well, here we are.

Having spent more than half an hour talking about many things that are. probably never going to happen. Welcome to Scott, the podcast. We'll get into Bosnia here real quick. But first, let me just say this podcast is listener supported. It is ad-free. We would like to ask you to please consider supporting the podcast. You can find a link to our Patreon in the show notes.

And if you join the Patreon, you become part of the Discord, which is both blessing and curse. You have the option to me. You don't don't feel like you're suddenly like whisked through an interdimensional portal into the Discord as soon as you click on that. And you're stuck in there. You can't get out. No. So the Friendly versus Bosnia. Can you tell you've been doing a little research on the opponent?

Can you tell us about the team that they're bringing? I mean, I've done minimal research on the opponent. And it was basically just like, oh. I mean, they are bringing. This is not about, if you have been following Bosnia, at all for the last 10 or 12 years at any point, you will not actually recognize anyone on this roster even still, because out of the 19 players, I think, that are on their list,

they have eight total caps. It's totally experimental. It's almost entirely domestic base. So the Bosnian League is supplying all the players to this team. I went back to their last World Cup qualifying roster from November, when they were still alive to advance as like the second place team out of their group, going into the first game of the November window, that 11 that they put out on the field

and that World's Cup qualifier had like 200 caps between them. So they have, you know, this is just nothing close to what a Bosnia team looks like. There's no overlap between this roster and the group that played in November. This is like, I'm really curious a year from now how many guys who play in this game for Bosnia will have gotten another cap for Bosnia

ever on their senior team yeah yeah so it's it's not a powerhouse that's rolling into carson California um Burrhalter made it clear in the behind the crest video that came out recently that the point of this camp is to keep guys fit and to try to expand the player pool but i thought it was interesting how he said it's not guaranteed to expand the player pool that is up to you to make that happen was he talking to us is this smoking The bear? What's happening? It's Uncle Sam.

Yeah, it was, it was, uh, he was talking to the players. And I think that makes more sense. It's up to you, Greg. I, and I, I like that because it's like, um, it's a kind of, I like that sort of laying the cards on the table thing where it's like, you got to, you got to, you got, you basically got a breakthrough. You can't, it's not going to be handed to you. Um, and with the group, with the group named here, like that, that makes sense.

Like, there's, there's, like, there's, like, nobody on here that isn't already in that sort of floating pool of World Cup qualifying players that I'm like oh this guy's in

it just he just hasn't had a chance yet you know like there are a lot of there are a lot of names that you can be hopeful about but nobody that that is like we already know he's in based on what he's done for his club and it was just a matter

of finding the right window to call him up yeah right well I'm I'm engaging the success of the camp on that, really. I mean, will someone emerge as a legitimate aid option? Or will one of these young left backs get to start and look good? And one of those young left backs is winnowed down to just Jonathan Gomez because Kevin

Paredes is out with a minor ankle injury. So it's either Bello or Gomez starting. I think there's, go ahead. That one, that one hurt the most because out of all the, like, from the description I just gave about no one's really done anything with their club to, like, demand, demand a call-up. Perretus was probably the club. closest one. Yeah, well, so much shade thrown at USL, all defensive team. Jonathan Combs. No, yeah, I mean, Paredes is, that, that hurts to not be able to see him. So I guess,

my wish list, I'll jump right into that since it is the holiday season. What's that? Jump in, but we're going to, we're going to alternate. I don't want to, I don't want to have to try to follow your list. That'd be too much pressure. Okay, why don't you go first? then you give you your first one. Oh, oh man, he just slipped from me. All right, well, the one I'm stealing then is I want Jordan Morris to look like a man amongst boys. I'm, I want, he's back from injury, played like two games for Seattle. And I don't think he's going to be like quite ready, ready yet.

But I want him, I want him to like come out and just be dominant in this game. Dominant relative to our, his own teammates, dominant to this Bosnian amateur team that's coming out. I know that's overly harsh, but dominant against this totally any, experienced Bosnian team. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, great. I love it. I hope that happens too.

I'm like, I'm thinking ahead. So where does he fit into the 23? I guess we'll find out. We'll find out of the next few months. Mine would be for Jonathan Gomez to show out and get some momentum heading over to Ray Alsosocidate. It feels like the odds are more in George Bellow's favor for a start. Like he's been, he's, he's started in a World Cup qualifier for the U.S.

U.S. under Burrhalter, he's gotten two, two World Cup qualifiers, two away World Cup qualifiers. Oh, yeah, he started Panama too, didn't he? Yeah. Wow. Wow. And then, you know, he also started in the Gold Cup final against Mexico. So he has some real experience under his belt. Maybe this is the time to give the inexperienced guy a chance, though. So who knows? That's kind of what I'm hoping. Unless Gomez just looks way off the pace, I'm really hoping to see him get the run out. Because, again, I feel like that's what the camp should be for. Yeah. I mean, he, like I've said other times on this podcast,

he's the aspirational, like he's the aspirationally profiled left back. A player who can really play intricate combinations and get forward and do interesting stuff with the ball. I mean, we'll see. From what we've seen against the competition that he's played so far, which we have to throw that in there every time we talk about him, though. Yeah. To date. Yeah.

I mean, fair enough. I have to accept your caveats at this point with my not so sterling track record. What's your next thing on the wish list? Okay, so my next thing is that we see two brand new eights start the match. So I don't want to see Calan Acosta start as an eight. I don't want to see Christian Rodd on start as an eight. I want to see two new ones, which would be Bassett, Booth, like Clark. That's probably the only three that it could be.

I don't know who else could do it. So two of those three, I really hope to start. But I'm sort of resigned to that being almost like unrealistic because like you'd just be almost any coach would be too wary of the midfield totally falling apart in the game by doing that. So it's like you got to give them some stability, whether that's Acosta or Roldon. You got to give them something, you know, to work with. Yeah. Some anchor. Yeah.

I mean, that would require, we need Acosta to start at the 6th because if we don't have a Costa starting at six, then we've got a cost of starting at one of the eights and Ewell starting at the six, you know, or Cardoso or something. So we need a Costa back at the six. I don't know. It's like, it's weird to talk about a coach being wary of putting out a midfield that's going to fall apart because like we talked about earlier, you put Roldon out there, you know it's going to fall apart.

At least put the guy out there, you know, you don't know if it's going to fall apart or not, you know. So I won't even go that far. So even though I was the guy super critical of, you know, idea of Roldon as an 8. It won't fall apart if Roldon's the 8, I don't think, because it's a Bosnian U23 team that won't even be, that probably isn't even their best U23 team. Like if they were going to actually build their best of U23, it probably wouldn't even

be this cool. Yeah. It's like their version of Olympic qualifying in Guadalajara. So I think Roldon would probably be just fine as the 8 in this game. It's just like we aren't going to learn anything from that because we already know enough about Roldon for me and apparently for Burrhalter as well. that doesn't really trust him in that role against upper levels of competition. Yeah.

I think it wouldn't surprise me at all for a done or whichever of Roldon or Acosta start Z8, which is what I'm expecting. I think they will probably, like either of them will look fine in the game against Bosnia. Okay. Put me down for that one. Okay. I don't want that I, my wish list is to see neither of them as the eight, but I'm expecting one of them to do it and to look totally fine.

And it wouldn't surprise me if they are our double-eights, if they both start as the eight. Yeah. And then I, my, so my next one is I need Ricardo Pepey to score a goal just for the, just for the narrative, just to increase the narrative strength, you know? Two would be better than one. Okay, can I piggyback off yours then? Okay, then I want one of Pepe's goals to be, at least one of his goals, to be assisted by Jesus Frera. because that would mean that Ferreira is starting not at Stryker or is on the field not as a striker

if he's on there at the same time as Pepe. And I really want to see Ferreira mixing it up with more freedom to like go wherever he wants to go. Yeah, I'm with you. I want Ferreira starting on it as one of the half space merchants for sure. And if Rodon starts as an eight, that could open up one of those spots for him.

So yeah. Mine is going back to the eight stuff. I just want Clark to get a run out as an eight. He seems to me, seems like the one with the potential to actually have an impact. I'm not saying he will. I'm just saying he's the one with the potential to have an impact on this World Cup qualifying cycle and maybe even go to the World Cup, you know, if he plays all

his cards right, you know. Definitely easier to get to the World Cup in this group as an eight than a, than a winner. I think that's, I'm totally comfortable saying that. My last one is going to be, because I feel like you've already covered Gomez. So my last one is going to be Brian Reynolds having a standout game as an attacking right back. Okay. Interesting.

I was kind of ambivalent about whether it's Lenin or Reynolds who starts on the right, that right back. But I mean, we do have high hopes for Reynolds still, don't we? I kind of do. Yeah. I kind of not. Same with a lot of the guys who find themselves in tough situations for club. Like I'm kind of just like, well, let's wait and see if his next situation. is tough. Or if this is just like a flu slightly too close to his son, that that son also

supernovaed when they hired Josie Marino. So it's kind of the double whammy. So I'm just really curious because there are a lot of outcomes where Brian Reynolds is still a very good right back, just not Roma good. Yeah. Where he could help us. Yeah. Okay. I mean, just awfully odd that a player, I mean, we've talked about this already, but a player that went for $10 million to Roma is allowed to skip town when it's not an international window to go to a national team camp. Roma have cratered his transfer value if they're trying to sell him later on. I assume they're going to loan him in January, right?

That's the scuttle. Hopefully, yeah, it has to be the case. I should also have just thrown in Aaron Long when I was talking about Morris. It would be cool to see Aaron Long play in this game, too. whether he starts or not just to have him get on the field would be a really cool moment. I think it seems like a lot to ask of him. Like his first,

this would be his first time back from that Achilles injury, but it would be cool to see him, yeah. I was thinking a Zimmerman trustee centerback pairing. That's my latest thought here. Gomez on the left, I'll say Reynolds on the right, fine. And Acosta Clark rolled on in the midfield. I do expect rolled on to start. I'm just hoping.

He's been the media guy. He was on there. He was the graphic on their tweet about the game being four games, four days away. So yeah, I'm definitely expecting him in the 11. And since they said they see him as a midfielder in that report, I feel like that's where they're going to play him in this game because it's a zero-stakes game.

You don't need to worry about any liability. just fine. There's no negative consequences that can follow. And then Ferreira Pepey Morris across the front. And that would satisfy every single one of our wishes except for your wish that 2-8s be

new faces. I think that's... I would still I would be okay with that. I would live with that. Yeah. Yeah. The half-space gets a little strange, doesn't it? If you take Rodd out of that and put him in the midfield? Yeah. It could be Clark. Like, Clark could run

there. I'm saying that because Burhalder's made it clear that he views Ferreira as a forward. That obviously doesn't mean that he, since he specifically said Roldon's a midfielder, even though he's played him in a bunch of spots. But with Ferreira, he's only played as a forward, and Berlter has explicitly said, we see him as a nine. So if he's not on that wing, it does kind of make you wonder who would fill that spot. And it could be like Cowell on the left and Morris on the right, or what do you kind of see happening there? Yeah, I, I, if it's Ferreira at the nine, if Ferreira, or just, just Ferreira not at the, though, on the wing. So I'm basically Ferreira on the bench, Pepe's starting.

Yeah, I don't, I'm not super wild about Cowell. So I guess, uh, I mean, I, he's a young player. He's got a lot of talent. But anyway, um, I would say, uh, if, if Rodon's out on the wing, or if Ferreira's not on the wing, I think I'd like to, I'd almost like to try him as an eight. I don't know. Something just to get him on the ball? I don't know. You're talking about Ferreira again?

No, well, that's great. I want Ferreira anywhere on the field. But I'm saying he's on the bench. Pepe's on the field. Who are your winners? Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I mean, I guess it has to be Cowell.

Clark, right? Can it not be Clark? I know. I want Clark as an eight. I want Clark as an end. All right. Just to throw a little more gas on your cowl fire then, I think in that behind the crest video where they were playing

5E5 to big goals, whatever, 77 to big goals. I think it was Cowell out on the right side. There was that really nice combination play on one of the clips. Yeah. Where it ended with a zipped pass to the right to the right winger to the far post. And it was Cowell over there collecting it. I think scoring, but I couldn't tell you. He missed.

He missed. Okay. Saved. It was saved. Yeah. Yeah, that was a move that started on. That could be Cowell. That could be Cowell on the right.

Okay. I mean, he's a, you know, he can make stuff happen. happen, that's for sure. He dribbles out of bounds a lot too, but he can also make stuff happen. What else we got? Anything? Just not expecting like a crazy awesome game of soccer Saturday. That's fair.

I want to say that. But I'm also not, it shouldn't look terrible. Like, I don't think we should look terrible. There are enough players who have been in enough camps that this isn't just like a total hodgepodge the way that January camps have been in the past. the guys aren't so far into the off-season that it should be like, you know, they've got their their full dad bods going. Like they should be fairly still fit from the season.

A lot of experience with Burhalter and his, as Roldon called it, super complex system. So I don't think we should look terrible. And I know there's going to be like, oh, well, it's a December friendly. What do you expect? But like some of these guys should look somewhat in rhythm. Oh, yeah. It should look pretty good, I think. I mean, it's just a little competent at least.

I was going to say... I'll be disappointed if it looks terrible. I'll be disappointed if it's just an absolute slog against an opponent who also doesn't look good. I'll be really disappointed if, like, we somehow make this Bosnia team look good. Yeah. That'd be, that'd be like nightmare stuff for what a December friendly can be. I should say, you know, you mentioned dad bods earlier. And there are dad bots and then there are dad bots.

There's like, two, you know, different kinds of dadbods. You're saying professional soccer players one month out of the season might be a different dad by than say me three weeks after Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, or me. Yeah. Exactly. Fair. All right. We're going to try to review the Bosnia game on Sunday, midday, somewhere in the midday region.

Until then, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.