Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #236: Monday Review — Puli v Liverpool, Pepi to Augsburg, Dike to West Brom

Episode Date: January 3, 2022

A transfer window and listener question-heavy episode with Watke and Vince and Belz.0:30 intro and Puli v Liverpool10:20 transfers of Pepi, Dike, JoGo, etc., and news44:00 listener questions——— support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedsign up for our weekly newsletter: https://scuffedweekly.substack.com/ join 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. This is the Monday review. We're 322 days from the first match of the Men's World Cup, and we are here to take stock of the American campaign to qualify in the state of the player pool. Today's episode is going to mostly be about the transfer window and the listener questions. But first, let's talk about Pool 6 performance in that 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Stanford Bridge. Vince, what's up? he got a goal he got a goal which was very nice to see started out started uh for Chelsea on the left

um the front three um I'm not gonna lie for for about 40 45 minutes exactly there I was like uh saying it's ain't looking it ain't looking too good for our boy but um put out the goal in the extra time of the first half

and then he was kind of he was kind of cooking from there yeah I mean it was it was a really nice goal so for for those who didn't watch, what was the problem in the first 45 minutes? He just wasn't sharp, man. He just wasn't sharp. You could see it like in the, I think, the six minute. He's one-on-one with the Kanate, I think, one of Liverpool centerbacks. And.

Yeah. And then Sadio didn't do him any favors by having a really similar version of that opportunity that he scored right after. I think that really made it all seem. worse than it was. Right. So he had the take on that, I mean, just basically didn't get completed.

It didn't really do much with it. And then right after that, he gets the chance that comes from a Liverpool Gaff. And then he had a couple loose touches. But other than that, he know, he was moving around a bunch. So maybe it wasn't quite as

bad as everyone thought. I wasn't all over the place. It was like, it was just like a cumulative effect. I feel like, because it was just like he. So I mean, I mean,

the take on is what it is. Like you're not going to beat everybody off the drip. But he gets the chance. And I wasn't like that big, that big on the chance really. I mean, it was like, you know,

the other team makes plays too. And the goalkeeper made a pretty good play on that. I felt like he could have chipped it because he did settle it with his first touches with his left. So he could have easily, I think, just brought the right and chipped it over the goalkeeper. But he chose around him.

made the wrong decision. You know, we see attackers mess up opportunities all time. So it wasn't that. It was just like, and then like the touch was off. He gets a, he gets a ball on the right side at some point in the first half where he just, his touch just takes him into a defender. I think that's when he got his red yellow card. Yeah, and that drew even more attention to it, which there's another thing that made it seem,

seem worse. There was a conspiracy of events against him, is my take on it. Well, so, I mean, and then he had the, uh, he had the giveaway in the center circuit. that kind of led to a chance. That was bad. That was a bad one. I can't really. I can't like.

The one on like the one like a sky ball that fell next to him and he couldn't he couldn't corral it. Yeah, which I mean, it should have been pretty easy for him to just be able to turn and drive with that one. How about that goal, you know? How about that goal? No, yeah, yes, but definitely. So, I mean, all in all, it was, it is what it is.

Because, I mean, I'm a big, I, soccer to me is a, is a moments game. It's all about moments. So, I mean, the performance was what it was, but he pulled out, he pulled out what he had to pull out, man, at that point in time. That way he chested it down. That was really good. You're not going to see a chest better than that. And that's not easy. You're like, bam, straight down there, right off his pectoral.

The top spin on the finish, too. I mean, look like Jimmy Conner's out there, you know. And then another big piece of news is it looks like his beard is coming back, which I think is a really good move. for him. Yeah, he's putting Mason Mount to shame with the facial hair. Mason Mounts is, uh, it's pretty rough. My boy Christian looking good though. Yeah. It's good. He's different different himself visually more. He changes his shoes to. Mason's rocking like the chin strap deal, right? Like yeah. Yeah, yeah, but it's a, it's a shaggy chin strap too. Like a, like a young Amish man who's not quite a man. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah.

He also has a real strong beard fundamentals. I'm hoping last time he shaved it because his grandma said he looked handsome without it. But I think she just needs to stay out of it because he just plays better with it. My new business, grandma. She came from a different time. She came from a different time, different era. She's just wrong. He looks better with a beard.

The thing is, go ahead, Vince. This can be the Croatian grandma. I'll be honest. I'm not sure what's going on. So I'll try to find out. But she needs to stay out of it. The thing is, the thing for me is, like, that's the, you know, that's the biggest game of the weekend in world football, right?

Liverpool, Chelsea. And we're, and we got a, we got a player who scored like a, I mean, it's not, wasn't a goloso, but it was a really friggin' nice goal. No, he definitely did his thing. I mean, I was, I checked in on the Discord. I didn't watch the game live, but I checked in on the Discord. checked it on the Discord and it was completely unhinged. It was like people were jumping out of 13-story windows.

Yeah, people had, Daisley had Chelsea releasing him at halftime and letting him go on a free to Canada or something. Yeah, to go set up Darrell Dike at West Brom, which I'll be in. Yeah, I don't know, man. It's been this way for a while with Pool of Square, where every, like every little move is, is scrutinized.

Every move on game day is scrutinized. I mean, but he was legitimately not playing well. Yeah. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, it doesn't mean anything as far as like, for me, my assessment of like, fully in his talent level or anything, but he like, he just wasn't playing well. And then, of course, he put out the moment,

which I think goes back to last episode as far as, um, we were talking about like our, uh, our lack of faith in Christian taking a pin there in that Nations League final. Yeah. And with that, with that strike there, man, you can just see that the improvement that has gone on in his game. I think mostly since he's been, he's gotten to Chelsea. I thought it kind of started in the Gold Cup leading up to Chelsea, but we've really

seen it specifically for Chelsea, just like his, his ball striking has really kind of, kind of taken off. I never thought he was much of a, much of a ball. strike and I thought his like goal scoring exploits would kind of suffer because of it but he's really improved that part of his game I agree I agree especially within like 12 yard radius of the goal still not I still don't back him to hit like a 20 yard shot right that much but um yeah finish finish the game at wing back again we should mention somehow that that always happens oh yeah and then uh too cool after the game was like you know basically he doesn't necessarily

like to do it, but it's something he has to do with the, with the current injury situation at Chelsea. So, I mean, I get it, I guess. But I saw somebody say, like, wouldn't Mount be like a better, like, profile to like play wingback? And I, and I agree with that 100%. Yeah. Well, I'd rather he'd be doing it than Mount. Oh, Mount stayed in. Never mind. They could have switched. I'm with you. I think like Pulisic you know he said Pulisik was not playing well in the first half he hasn't played well he hasn't really played well for the national team for a while now and um I guess I think go so I'm a little higher honest performances than the most I think for the national team it's just like

I mean I think Greg Velasquez said in this court the other day but like every every attacker needs their shot with MMA they're they have a very they have a just been a transformational force on this side. And like without like all the stuff as far as with Christian just doing too much on the ball, like I think it's rectified. Once he, once he gets to run out with with the MMA midfield, I think. Because I feel like before with like without Musa in the Nations League and

what was that, Honduras. and like he was the he was the one dribbling from midfield I felt like he was the one coming back from the ball coming back for the ball um getting it and yeah and trying to progress it to our final third where with musa doing that it takes just a lot more off his shoulders and I think he's going to be able to well I think we'll see better from him um

without all that responsibility on his shoulders yeah I agree with that um Anything else on Pulisic? I mean, he's, we got a few questions about him in the, in the listener question segment at the end of the show, but. Um, just a, I mean, like, all this stuff I've said, like, it's not, it's not surprising, especially considering that he hasn't, he had, when's the last time he's been on the left, left wing, um, for a start.

I feel like it's been a minute. And so hopefully he got his goal, you know what I'm saying? He, he, and he gets a run at that position. and then we'll, like I think we'll see some vintage Christian performances. Yeah, other than that, just keep the beard and I'm pretty happy. Yeah. Okay. Transfer window opened a couple days ago, and boy, has it been busy on the U.S. front.

I guess the headliner for us is Ricardo Pepe to Augsburg. Wolfsburg and all the concerns about that club and that city, poof, gone. And he's at a relatively small Bundesliga club about an hour. an hour's train ride from Munich. The fee was, according to Kicker, $18 million with some incentives and stuff, which seems crazy high for Pepey, doesn't it? Seems high. He's a striker, I guess.

What's the deal with this American owner supposedly paying for it? I don't understand how that works over there, doesn't the club? Yeah, two of my favorite sources on Twitter, Dr. Manuel Veth. and Jordan Gardner, that is the owner of that one Danish club. They say that it's almost certainly this, yeah, this was it David Blitzer? And apparently Blitzer is about to become an owner of Rail Salt Lake as well. Seems weird to have a, he's a new American owner come in and fund the transfer of an American player. it has kind of Venetia vibes for me

but I mean who knows if it's true who knows if it could become Bavarian Venetia that would be fine with it yeah that would definitely that would definitely be nice I don't know where like where do y'all want to go

well first off with the the guy what's his name Blitzer right? Yeah this is kind of gives me pause I'm not going to lie just the fact that he was like Augsburg came out of nowhere, right?

Like we hadn't heard their name. Mentioned any of the rumors, anything. I think Veth said it was basically... Dr. Veth. Yeah, Dr. Veth said it was basically signed sealed and delivered to Wolfsburg until they just hopped in. And I don't know. Like I saw some quotes from Augsberg saying they laid out their development plan and everything.

But like, was it half-cocked? You know what I'm saying? Did he just like drop the hammer and say we're doing this? Like, you know what I'm saying? It's just, it just seems hasty. It seems a record. It should be noted. It's a record, a record transfer for, for Augsburg, like, by far.

Right. Record transfer. I mean, and that's, and that's part of the reason I'm optimistic, just as far as, like, he's going to play. There's no way he's not going to play. But, uh, yeah. Because he's just, they made a bunch of money, huh? It just, it just seems weird. I don't know.

Might be some collusion going on. there with the hunts and Mr. Blitzer. It's just, it's a little fishy. You're going to have the hunt sue us. You're going to blow up our, uh, now we're probably fine. Yeah.

Do you know what Dr. Beth is a doctor of that's not really relevant? It just occurred to me. Probably a doctor of philosophy, I would imagine. Okay, that makes sense. But I could be wrong. He could be a medical doctor. I don't know. I doubt it.

So let's talk a little bit about who is playing striker for Augsburg right now. You know, they're close to the relegation line. Their strikers are, it seems to me, a three-man rotation, you know, with some others kind of moonlighting here and there. But it's Andre Hahn. He's got a thousand plus minutes. He's 31 years old. And from what I can tell, he's a pretty, he's a workman-like striker

who makes a lot of good decisions and just works his butt off. But he's 31. And then they have a guy on loan from Brighton, Brighton and Hov Albion, Andy Zakiri, who's 22. He's, I think he's left-footed. He seems not that different from Han, all things considered, obviously a lot younger. And then there's Michael Grigorich, an Austrian who is, he was gotten the least minutes of the three. But it kind of came on in the last few weeks, had a couple of goals in back-to-back games. the three of them each have two goals on the season so none of them is lighting it up

the underlying numbers for han and securi you know uh non-penalty xg uh per 90 are roughly in line with what peppy put up in mLS so you know we'll see i guess according to daniel smith augsberg are second to last in the league and touches in the attacking third so that could be Yeah, we could, we could, that could be a potential issue. Yeah, Han and Zakiri, if you go through their like, Y Scout catalog, are not getting a lot of touches, period, in the games. You know, we're talking low double digits, 10 to 15 per game, something like that. I really like him and Gregorich.

Yeah. It's a two-striker setup, so they generally are playing with two strikers up front. So I imagine we'll get to see Han and Pepey up there together. And I'm intrigued to see how that works out. Yeah, I mean, basically that's it. I'm just intrigued. I got faith in the talent. I thought you made a really good point last week, too.

You have faith in the family. Faith in Pepe and his family, I think that was when I was listening back to the episode. I thought that was one of the, you know, one of the good, sincere points we made in the episode. Yeah, I mean, definitely. So, yeah, with all that, I'm still back in Ricardo. I mean, because they were problems with Wolfsburg as well, right? Especially pertaining to, like, being ready for, like, World Cup 2020. As far as, like, having a, what's the big guy's name?

Wow, Wegghorst. Wakehorse, right, right. Having wake horse there, potentially blocking time and just having co-felt there as well. So, I mean, my overall view on him going to Germany hasn't changed. Like, we'll see what happens, man. We'll see what happens. I'm excited to watch it, though. The fact that he's probably more or less guaranteed some playing time is probably the biggest deal here, I think. And in theory he could play this weekend, right? Yeah, he's already out on the training pitch. I may be training alone, but he's out there in his gear. People in the Discord were saying it's possible he got there in late December under the radar so he could get his quarantine out of the way.

Yeah, and then somebody else said you only need a negative test after five days and you're clear. So it seems possible. We're learning so many new rules and regulations with the COVID. how much more sensible everyone is than us. Yeah. All right. Darryl D.K. Daryl D.K.

D.R.D.K. to West Bromwich, Albion, they had a beautiful video out of him going out on the pitch in a full stadium. So I guess on the sensibility continuum, perhaps England is a little lower than Germany. He rejoins. So it's interesting to note. I know most of you know this, but he rejoins his coach from the spring at, Barnsley, that's Philarian Ishmael, who's obviously now at West Brom. So, D.K. should be comfortable and get a lot of faith from his manager right off the bat, you know, given the tear he went on in the spring.

And it seems like West Brom fans are ecstatic about the signing. They're so happy. Yeah. It seems a little, you know, I kind of want to tell them, hey, you know, take it easy a little bit. Well, I think it just points out, it just raises the point that, like, most people don't care about non-penalty XG per 90 you know what I mean? That's not a thing for most people.

They don't care that his expected goals for Barnesley were actually just five and he got nine. Right. They don't like that. You say that to somebody and they just give you a look, you know? All about results on the board, baby. Yeah. This may be the first time that a club has been

more excited about getting an America player than we already are about the player. Maybe. Yeah. Probably. Maybe. I can't think of anyone. No, I mean, this has to be a record. It has to be a record. Because, I mean, I feel like the overall feeling within the fan base is kind of, I mean, I feel like people are excited, yes, but they're not that excited about D.K. in general. Well, the good news is he got that some time off.

He's going back to a coach where he was just begging him in. And this seems like a good situation. Right. It does. And it does seem to be the, I mean, of course, I mean, it's almost a given with the same coach. but it does seem to be the same type of style of ball that he was playing at Barnsley. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's not as much pressure because what did you go for like 7 million? Pepey went for 20 million. Yeah. Maybe that's just how I think. Maybe they don't feel that same type of thing. I mean, seven for a yo-yo English club is not a lot of money, to be honest. They're good too, right? Aren't they in second?

Hold on, let me check. I had their expected goals pull up on football. They are number two in the championship. Okay. Currently. And then table. They are fourth currently. I do think also that D.K. is,

D.K. is kind of like the perfect guy for the championship. You know, like English, English fans love that kind of striker, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And he adds that just being likable either way. So if he does well, he's going to become the most popular player. Yeah, it's kind of his MO. Yeah, regarding DK, I was on the Discord.

And on the Discord, of course, the illustrious place that you can access through becoming a Patreon, through scuffed. It's probably the best value out there. Definitely. Because you can ask questions like this. So Carlin Carpenter's on there. I feel like everyone knows him. Works for stats bomb. Is that correct?

Yes, I believe so. All right. First of stats bomb. And he used to coach at Virginia, and he was there with Darryl D.K. And I just asked him one day if, like, there was anything that we were missing as a fan base that maybe is like in his, in his bag or just what are we missing with him as a player, possibly? Because I think it's easy to typecast a Darryl D.K., just like a physical Marvel. You know what I'm saying? Who can bully whoever.

But yeah, so he said, number one, he helped recruit him, which was, I had no clue. But his first point, teams and people that want to use them as a target man, Barnsley, are not using them correctly. And it's one of the reasons that shot numbers are so weird and becoming a focal point of the attack. It's resisting his ability to get free in the penalty area and use this movement to score, which is something we worked with. with him a lot on. And then the second one, while he's incredibly jovial, funny, et cetera,

he's also incredibly driven, wants to watch players. He compares himself to, cares about in-depth analysis, et cetera. It's one of the reasons he has such a crazy rise and that he didn't think that he would be at this level in a million years when he recruited him. So I thought that was good information. The first point, it's seems like nothing's going to change about his role at West Brom compared to his role at Barnsley. So we won't be able to get to see him exhibit some of that movement in the box.

But yeah, I just felt like I was good background again. Why not both? Why not be the target guy and be somebody who can use your movement to get free in the box? I mean, isn't that the golden chalice of a true number nine? I mean, of course. But, I mean, if you're just lumping the ball up to him, then you don't have any opportunity to be anything else about a target man, I guess, right?

For the most part. I mean, of course, you have opportunities, but... Yeah. Be a target man for the first five seconds of the sequence, then give free in the box after you spray it wide to one of your wingers. The last point on Darrell, you know, like people want him to improve his hold-up play, right? I assume.

Yeah. And just with the particular type of a striker that we use in the national team, he needs, people think he needs technical work that he's not going to get playing at West Brown. So, so what are you all feelings on that? I imagine if he's on the World Cup team, it's for a special reason to just do what he's really good at. Yeah. If Mr. Coach Greg Burr-Halter thinks he needs that. That's how I'm imagining the UK situation.

No, man, you've got to get it right. It's coach Mr. Burrhalter. Coach Mr. Burrhal. Yeah, I'm not too worried about it, honestly. That, that dilemma. I think the strike a position for the U.S. Men's National Team remains very unsettled. If he's scoring goals for West Brom this spring,

and I don't know, I think he's, I think he probably gets a call up. You know, he's just such a, I don't know. He's kind of he just feels unknown but mostly because I think in that in that gold cup

we would know a lot more about him but he was just clearly kind of compromised at that gold cup so it's just injury, right? Yeah, yeah, through entry, through entry, yes. So we'll just see, man,

but I feel comfortable about the striker position, man. We got a lottery tickets quite a few of them. So we'll see what happens. Yeah. I'm not, to be, just to be clear, I'm not saying the striker position is hopeless or anything.

I'm just saying unsettled. It's not. Oh, yeah. I'm just saying, Darrell joins the rest of our group of lottery tickets that we have. Yeah. I mean, it is crazy that we have, we had two strikers in the last three days moved to Europe for fees that, one that nearly is double what Altador went for back in 2009 or whenever it was

and one that is about equal to what Altador went. You know, forget about inflation. This isn't an economics class, all right? But, um, but, you know, that's two and one, two in like one day and it's a crazy times. It's crazy times to be a U.S. men's national team fan. Yeah.

And one note on West Bromuch means broomtown. So, um, so, the room's a type of shrub. So, so, What is Albion? I feel like you went over this once.

It's another word for England. Okay. But it's also a district of Bromwich. They are used to be. So it's not really clear exactly what they're. Yeah. Albion's like the sort of like mystical name of England is how I look at it. Yeah.

Anyway. That's all the facts like that. They were a cold town. They had a bunch of recessions. Pretty much every decade. They got one. So where is West Brom which from London like if if straight north is 12 o'clock? You know, I was so focused on the name of their town or what it meant.

I couldn't exactly tell you where in England it is. It's a bit of a mystery. Okay, fair enough. Jogo, Jonathan Gomez is in training with Rayalsosocid B, which is nice to see. I saw some pictures of him listening to Jabi Alonzo. So the first game for them is January 8th. And now it feels like maybe he can get into the match since he's already

training with the team. Yeah. And I saw I saw associate that B game on ESPN Plus other day. So hopefully they're just on there. So we're expecting him to play with them for a while, right?

The reserves are definitely. Yeah, I feel like. least for a few weeks, yeah. Because they're actually pretty good. They're pretty high up in the... They're near the relegation zone, or they may be in the relegation zone in the second division,

but second division is, you know, it's pretty good. Matthew Hoppe is talking about... They're talking about sending Matthew Hoppe from Mallorca down to Hirona, which is like one of Man City's satellite clubs. So, and Hirona's in the second division. It's a very solid level.

I mean, if he's playing, you know, It's not even guaranteed that this will happen, but if he's playing like 90 minutes regularly in the second division of Spain, that's the same level as Jack Moore. It'll be the same level as Matthew Hoppe. I think it's not a disqualifier for getting called up that he'd be playing in that level.

Oh, I didn't realize they were, I guess I assume since Germany has that role of the second division or the reserve team still playing in the third division, that it was going to be stuck down there. But that's a good situation. Yeah, very good. And just looked it up. They are seven points from getting out of the relegation zone.

They're on 17 points right now. The first team clear of relegation has 24 with a game in hand. So, yeah, they got some work to do. Yeah. We'll see. And then Caden Clark is, it turns out staying in New York, at least until the summer, Billed reported this from Germany that he hasn't even traveled to Leipzig.

So his job, the job in front of young Caden is to be more influential, more consistently in Major League Soccer. He's got the world in front of him, but that is the first challenge. And, you know, time to just put your nose to the grindstone and do it because he was pretty inconsistent.

I know he had the appendix surgery and everything, but pretty inconsistent last season. And it does seem like the hype has a little bit outpaced the reality, with Clark. So here we are. And I wish he'd develop into a box-to-box midfielder.

I mean, I don't think the hype outpace the reality until the appendix issue, right? Like, he was bawling before it. He was coming to the Gold Cup and everything, right? Wasn't that the case?

Yeah, he wasn't quite bawling. He had, like, I think Bob Morocco put it really well. Like, he has an ability to conjure up a goal in remarkable ways when the in certain moments but like game like moment by moment influence i don't think he was doing that even in the beginning of the season i mean you know i'm not going to die on a hill

about that vince but yeah he had some really nice instinctive goals right they were very good but that's just my whole like thing with young players in general that i talked about i don't know a few episodes ago or maybe last episode i don't know who knows but like the young players man, you're just looking for, you're looking for the talent and you're looking for that talent to flash. And then you just hope the consistency and the application builds upon that. Sure. So, yeah. But we'll see, though.

This is definitely, I feel like probably the best move for him in his development. So we'll see what he got. Man, he's been challenged from some quotes from him. It seems like he has a mentality. So see what he's on. He backs himself. That's for sure. Yeah.

Kyle Duncan to Oostend in Belgium that is now official maybe it was it's beneficial for a while Any thoughts on that guys? No I mean no he he talked he did talk about his cousin Tim way over there they'll probably do some fun trips together right um and I'm I referred to the urban pitch interview before with Kyle and Tim but through watching that they were like they have been like in several bowl their entire life pretty much like even to the point of where when Tim went to France

initially Kyle went too um so yeah them being back together um not too far from each other it's probably definitely a good thing for both of them what hell is he 23 24 I can look at that sounds right yeah

I'm not even going to look it up then he's in the he's in there um and then some news kind of non-transfer, well, transfer-related, but no transfer to report. Nothing doing for Miles Robinson.

I guess the prices that are being offered for him, the rumor prices offered for him are not enough to let Atlanta United feel comfortable getting rid of their best centerback. Sergenio Des, go ahead, go ahead, Vince. Yeah. Oh, hey, it's Miles Robinson thing, man. Because, I mean, the more I think about it,

the more frustrated I kind of give it this. Like, bro, MLS, you got to play the long game, man. It's the same thing you've done with, with all these other players. And you see the transfer value starting to go up and up and up. Like, okay, you get two mil, three mil for an error long or whatever. If Red Bull sells Aaron Long, maybe Atlanta gets a suitable offer for Miles Robinson. You know what I'm saying? It's just like we, like you got to, I feel like you got to.

I feel like you got to see the long game here. And like get the ball rolling on these defenders. You just can't keep him in MLS purgatory. The bummer for Miles is he's getting underpaid right now. Yeah, he's getting sued. Just from a finance, I think he makes $600,000, which is a lot of money to a lot of people, but he's probably, you give him, at least he, at least he doesn't put,

Frank O'Hara, you know, Frank O'Hara dollars. Yeah. Yeah. And especially like being a good center back in MLS, like they, I mean, that's like, almost invaluable. Especially domestic traded by L-AFC and then L-AFC fell off a cliff

and Bob Bradley lost his job. What a bunch of ding-dong. They've been searching for centerbacks. Ever since they let this man go, they've been like just turning through him. It's like, I mean, and of course we just made the case for why Atlanta wants to keep him.

But yo, you got to, like I said, got to play the long game. got to play the long game here. Like, let him go. Let him flourish. You know what I'm saying? Because he's going to, I don't care what league he goes to as far as defending. Like, it's not going to be a-

Shout out Robo Street who told me that I wasn't going to bully. I wasn't going to bully Atlanta United into selling him for $5 million. But maybe I will, you know, maybe I will bully Atlanta United into that. Like, come on. It's not good. It's not good. What are they hoping for? a wild card spot in the playoffs.

Yeah, they're going to become. They've got to be one of the least liked teams at the moment. And then of course, all there, I mean, well, so the bellows kind of hit now. But like all the promise that the academy had and that hasn't really been producing too much. So it's like you got a guy that you drafted here. Like, get your profit, man. Are we giving up on Angel Carlton? All those hopes for the Academy of all died in the Rotunda three, three days from now a year ago.

I mean, ask an academy, like the minimum I ask is you train your players not to get involved in any coup attempts. Yep. You're going to end up in playing for a little team in Costa Rica. He's not playing either. I think that's where he is. He's not even in the squad. Who knows what he's doing? Okay.

You know, that reminds me like the, my thing with my beef with MLS, it's not even a beef. It's just a confusion for me is like how teams can be so good one year and then not good the next year. It's like, I know everybody complains about how the title races are, you know, almost decided in Europe right now. But at least we kind of know who's going to be good and you have like a framework for the season. as it goes on. There's, there's no framework in MLS. It's like,

it's like who, I mean, Seattle's usually good. That's the one that's like that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah,

everybody else is just, it's like, you roll the dice and who knows what's going to happen. Yeah. And I thought, uh, it kind of looked like Columbus was,

was, was kind of building the juggernaut after the, after the, uh, the cup win. Yeah. And 2020. Then Aiden Morris got injured and it all fell apart.

2019, right. Right. Right, right, right. I mean, and it, and it just hurts. Champions League success, everything. It's just like, bro. I guess it's because of the,

it's because of all the Tam Gam and salary cap stuff just is like designed to make it that way. It's designed to make it random. Yeah, yeah. It's designed to be a league of parody. And I don't know how I feel about it. Do you all enjoy that? I guess Bells doesn't.

I only watch it for watch. Regardo Pepe, you know he's gone. Waki. Yep. Huge snob. All right. So Gino, Des,

not in the roster for Barcelona over the weekend. Apparently, he has indicated that he wants to stay in Barsa

rather than go anywhere. I don't know what the latest rumors are, but... The latest rumor is Juventus.

And that's literally just a blog saying it, so... But didn't he have COVID? Maybe. Did he? Yeah.

Yeah. I thought he tested positive for COVID. I didn't know that either. I didn't know that. Yeah. I'm almost positive with this. Okay. I thought he had, I thought that he always had some fake injury.

Well, well, that was before he went to Miami. Oh, I see. That was before he went to Miami. Yeah. Okay, okay. Okay. Okay. Here it goes from Barcelona.

Yes. Yes, he has COVID. Okay. All right. And then, okay. This was a. Tweeted out four days ago. Oh, we mentioned Bob Bradley got fired from LIFC.

They have a new coach. It's Steve Chirondola. That's kind of exciting. Although he was coaching Las Vegas Lights last season, and they weren't even that good in USL. I don't know. I mean, Chirondolo is a U.S. legend, but we'll see, I guess.

I was hoping he would stay in Hanover and become a coach there. I like that they just like, that's where he was, right? Yeah, I was about to say that my main, yeah, yeah, he was there. He was there coaching. But yeah, that's my main reason for faith in this move. If you know, he got his, he got his bars up coaching over in Germany. So we'll see what happens. The lights performance, you can throw that in the trash, man.

I mean, it seems like they have, they have like a rotate cast of characters. As far as who LASC sends him and whatnot. Yeah, maybe he can convince Samuel Leone to play for the USU20s. He coached him in Las Vegas. Vegas. That's a dual national centerback in a pool of centerbacks that is very thin at that age group. Gio, Giovanni Raina appears to be back in full team training. Yeah. And they tweeted about it, Dortmund. And they're still trying to get us to call them American Dream. I just don't think it's going to work. I just doesn't bring true to me.

It just seemed like some some nicknames you don't got to run with. And that just doesn't. just feels like a nickname you don't have to run with. And when I saw the tweet, I was just like, oh, so they're really doing this. It's not as bad as Captain America. I will give it that credit, you know. Yeah. It makes less sense of as a nickname. I don't like Captain America either, but American Dream is a nickname that a non-native English

speaker came up with first. I'm sorry. We already have it as a concept. Have we talked about this a lot? It was a while ago. I talked about it briefly. I think about it a lot. What's the problem with it, guys?

I mean, let's get cards on the table here. Because American Dream is already a, it's a concept. It's its own thing. So one person can't be the American Dream? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Fair enough. Fair enough. Someone could be an exemplar of the American Dream.

Now, if he earns that, I'd be fine with calling him that. I mean, it's a bit wordier. It's just not creative. Like, my man Erling was like, what was the first? American dream. Maybe that's why I don't like it. Can't be Captain America. I was taken.

So what's the next thing you thought about? Blue, American Dream. And it's just, Dortmund, you didn't have to do this. You didn't have to run with it. This is why you don't win big games. It might just be, I don't think Erlon Holland should be the one nicknaming our players.

Erling is one of those rare Europeans who really does believe in the American Dream, I think. So that's probably where he's coming from. That's true. But I'm not going to defend the nickname. Uncertainty continues about Wayas return date. What do we know about that? Yeah, they had him at one point listed earlier in January.

That doesn't seem to be happening, and there is no hard date that appears to be floating around. So he, I don't know if he's going to be ready for the, I guess there's still enough time, but it got to be pretty soon. I was just sitting here like, oh, early January, we got a few more weeks and then I looked at the date on my computer. It's like, oh, we are in early January, huh? Clock is ticking, and then who's going to play there? Don't we get a question for that? Jordan Morris, probably. We got a lot of lottery tickets on the wing, too.

So let's keep positive here, boys. Oh, yeah, we'll be fine. I'm sick, though. Don't get a twist it. I mean, you know how I feel. It's a, it'd be a big loss if we don't have him at the end of the month. You know what? As a matter of fact, since he's been involved in 100% of our last five goals,

I don't know how we're going to score. I didn't know that he was involved in our last five goals. Just kidding. I was made aware of that. Rumored interest in Jesse Marsh from a new club. Who, who's that, Waki? Monaco, which is in, I guess it's its own country, but it plays in France. It's where a lot of Formula One drivers live.

I think it would be cool if he got in with that crowd. Killeen Mbapé's first, the club where he first became a very, very, very famous player. Yep. Traditionally, team has a few names you know. have you ever watched a game at monaco like uh it's very very weird atmosphere it's like it's COVID all the time in their stadium

yeah it was just like uh it was a huge track around the around the pitch um not a lot of people I think the one match I did watch they were playing marseilles so the Marseilles ultras got in but if it went for them it would have been crickets in there didn't Arson vanger coach at Monaco too

I think he did That sounds right to me. So good place. Good place to land, I think, if that's true. Let's go to some questions. But before we do, let me just do my usual plug. This is, you know, happy new year, the beginning of the year. We're hoping 2022 is going to be a big year for the podcast.

We are listener supported. We don't have any advertisements, even though we do kind of ramble on sometimes. And the only way we make money is through the Patreon. So we would like to ask you to consider supporting us on Patreon. All right. All right, questions. Brendan from New Hampshire. And by the way, if you send a question and you don't give your name and your location,

there's just a lot less likelihood that I'm going to ask it because I like doing names and locations. So Brendan from New Hampshire says El Salvador's anthem in the first game of qualifying or the USA's in Cincinnati. I mean, definitely El Salvador. Yeah. I mean, since he was nice, don't get me wrong, but I mean, like Osavador was different. Yeah, since he was nice, it did not get in your bones.

Right. And that just goes back, like, we're just, you know, we're not really singers like that. That's a different level of singing. At, that's singing, if you will. Yeah, it was ferocious in San Salvador. And Cincinnati was transcendent for me, but it got a,

a little in my bones, but it didn't blow the stadium microphones out the way the El Salvador one did. The other good thing about the El Salvador National Anthem is they really did a good job getting in our heads with the planning of ours because they delayed it and then they set out fireworks right to the beginning of it

which is a really nice touch. Really spooked, Geo. And I'm going to keep it real. I was at Sensi, but I don't remember that national anthem. Serious? Yeah. I mean, I guarantee I sang it. I guarantee you I sang it.

But yeah, I don't remember, man. I was pretty drunk at that point. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, like, I remember the Columbus one a lot more clear. I don't know why. Well, I do know why. I wasn't as drunk. But since he was fun.

Yeah. Since he was fun. Greg in New York City says, this is a long question, but I think you have to bear with us here. I coach college sports at the mid-major level. I'm immediately curious. which sport and which college, but I won't ask. In a lot of ways... I spent some time looking you up, I couldn't figure it out.

Sorry, go ahead. Oh, really? In a lot of ways, I see the USMNT as a mid-major program in terms of the world soccer hierarchy. A lot of what we talk about as a staff, he's talking about his staff, is developing a play style that can win our conference and simultaneously give us a chance

versus the best teams in the country. That way we don't have to drastically change styles from game to game to game. I don't coach soccer, so I'm aware that this may be in apples to oranges comparison, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts and how Burrhalter's preferred style helps us qualify through Conca Calf

while also allowing us to beat the best teams in the world. What a good question. It's a good question. It's too hard for me, so I'll leave it to you guys. I mean, basically my whole take is just like, look, as long as we got MMA, I'm going to take our chances against whoever. So I don't think the style that we like play in,

Conccaf will have any negative effects against a better team in the world. I feel like we put our midfield up against any team's midfield. We got a shot. So I don't think we need to even like switch styles or anything like that. And isn't the 433 kind of how we play it a pretty flexible thing? That's kind of the standard. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I agree.

I think the MMA midfield is the key to us doing both. And we haven't really seen it as much against the weak. competition, at least in the games where we've dropped points against weaker competition, we haven't had the MMA midfield. But it seems like Burrhalter's system is preventing the other team from scoring and generating a lot of chances for the most part, which is kind of, I think, a baseline thing for what Greg is talking about, this Greg in New York City. You need to be able to prevent the other team from scoring.

So that part's in place. We just aren't consistently generating a lot of chances. in most of our games. And yeah, I think the MMA midfield is probably the main antidote to that. And soccer is just such a high various game just and just naturally that it's like, I mean, whatever style we were playing, it's like, man, just keep playing it. Because I mean, it is what it is. Like you never know what's going to happen in any particular soccer match.

But with the talent, with the talent we have, we got the athletic, The athleticism will be at the technical level. Like I'm, I'm ready to go heads up with any team in the, in the land, which is the earth. It would be a little more encouraging if the system, we didn't have to keep referencing three specific players for saying why we liked it. But that's just the way it is. Yeah, that's the way it is. I'm not going to lie. Like, I think we just need M&M.

And maybe, possibly, if Tyler Adams isn't in there, we'll be okay. But I'm going to have to see it. That's just a hypothesis I have in my head for now. What is, what do we need? Musa and McKinney. Just Musa McKinney. We really need. Musa McKinney and I think Musa McKinney and Kellan, that's a decent midfield for me.

It also works as an MMA midfield too. So it's got that going for it. Right. Exactly. Yeah. But I think the way we played against Mexico, which is the only team really that has come out and played against us in World Cup qualifying. I mean, really, really come out and played against us. The way we played against them makes me think we have a chance against a team that, like a big team that comes out and plays against us like that.

Right. And even like just national international football in itself is just like, it's kind of jammy. Like it's not it's not often as free flowing as. you'll see in like a club match or like like you won't see many international matches like that Chelsea Liverpool match that we just saw yesterday you know what I'm saying like so yeah next question a couple people asked about Richie Ledesma I'm reading the questions despite the fact that they did not give their locations and names because I'm a big Richie Ledesma fan here's a question here's a summary of the questions if he becomes a regular sub for PSV and is playing

fairly well, what's the likelihood of a call-up, and also is he a better fit as one of the eights or as a half-space merchant? I'll jump into this first. If he starts getting regular minutes for PSV, I'll start clamoring for that call-up for sure. But so far, since his return from the ACL injury and four possible matches, he's gotten a total of 10 minutes or so in games that were already decided. They were both, it was both, they were both late game cameos, PSV up to zero. That's not enough minutes to count as regular for me. So we, got some work to do on that front. And he needs to put in some consequential performances.

But I do think, to answer the second question, I do think he's a better winger slash half-spaced merchant, like a tucked-in left winger, than he would be as an eight. I think as an eight, he's sort of the, he doesn't fit as like an MMA midfield type. He's not athletic and physical enough. He's a small guy.

He's a small guy. So I want to see him on the wing for the U.S. Yeah, I mean, agreed. Yeah, you're the Ledesma expert. I think that is spot on. Not pretty much on that answer. Fair enough. Elizabeth from Texas asks if Pulisic should consider a move.

And Cameron from Aruba asked where we'd like Pulisic to go if he leaves Chelsea. And Randy and Maryland asks if we'd rather Pulisic go on loan and get more playing time or play sparingly for Chelsea and reduces chances of getting injured. I assume these questions came before. for him scoring that goal. Yes, he did, but I mean, because now we want him to stay.

We would have wanted him to go anywhere. I mean, I probably would have wanted him to stay regardless. Yeah, no, I think he should stay. Dude, every time you count this man out,

he comes back, finds us up in the team. He's got, this guy, trust him, man. This is life at a big club. It is what it is. Yeah.

I can't improve on that. I think the Pulisic-Dabarsa rumor is somewhat appealing. I don't even know if it's still a rumor. But I don't have a great reason for that. And mostly, I just want him to stay healthy. And if he's playing, like, every other weekend for Chelsea or starting every other weekend and getting, like, a 30-minute cameo on the off weekends, man, that's perfect.

Okay. This is for Vince. What's your favorite club? We know Bells can subsist on the meager fare of the occasional USMNT match. Yes, that's correct. But presumably, our Monday review co-host need greater nourishment. Yeah, so I'm an Arsenal supporter. That's it.

I mean, yeah, I support Arsenal, man. I think they're kind of like watching the U.S. Miss National team and watching Arsenal with all their young kids come up. They're kind of analogous a little bit. So I've just been watching all my sons grow up and flourish from the Kayao Sight. to, you know, Sir Gini Odess. So it's been a good time. Yeah, you got, you're having a little bit of a renaissance in North London, aren't you?

Do you feel like you get a different type of nourishment from that? Um, no, I don't get it. Yo, I don't feel like I need more nourishment. I feel like there's already too many games. No, uh, so this is where I get my pain. Okay. Like, Arsenal, Arsenal is where, is where I get the gut punches. Um, like I, I, I've never felt more pain than I have, uh,

as an Arsenal fan. It is true when you only care about the national team. On a normal weekend, you're getting no emotional. Like, I'm not going to get a high or a gut punch from watching a game. Yeah. So I can see that big nice. I mean, I've been doubled over on the floor. Like, but it's just a drug.

It feels so good. I don't even know how to explain it. But like, I mean, shit. just this weekend the Manchester City match it was pure pain it was pure pain it was a stoppage town winner for Man City right

or something like that yes yes we were so close going out of point with 10 men but uh yeah all right well it does seem like all the cool people like Arsenal it's been that way for a while so kudos to you on that phone Osama bin Laden is he cool Osama bin Laden's an Arsenal fan

or was? Oh, he was. He passed away. You did a raid on him? Oh, good. Nick in Royal Oak, Michigan, asks, if you can only bring two strikers to Qatar using Tim Wea as the third, if needed,

and you had to submit the roster right now without knowing what's going to happen in the next 11 months. Who are you rolling the dice with? Two strikers. Peppy? Yes. Number one.

Okay. then number two i'm remembering sergeant as a fullback so let's take him out of consideration for the other striker spot man i mean i have no clue with the with the with the with the rest of them i'm gonna probably i'd probably say well not go ahead go ahead bills i would just say dk i mean just because if we're talking about rolling the dice um yeah i don't know but it's a it's a I do not know who the second striker should be. Well, the thing about Zardos, you pretty much know exactly what it's going to be. Yes.

So do we want to play it safe? How much do we want to gamble here is the question? Yeah, I'm a, so I'm a gambler. I'm good with D.K., let's do it. But definitely Sergeant has a fullback. So if Sergeant starts off in the championship, you know what? I'm a back Sergeant in the championship, so I'm going, I'm going Peppy and Josh. Oh.

Well, I'm going to be it, Josh. Just because, I mean, dude, it better be a big year for me. It better be a big year for Josh next year, man. I mean, Jesus. Yeah.

So, so hopefully, hopefully. Yeah, okay. Mike in D.C. asks, is Richards, is, quote, Richards isn't good in the air,

end quote, still true, changing, or was it never true? Shots fired, Mike and D. Shots fired. Didn't we talk about this

for about half an hour? Yeah. It's true. True. Yeah, it is true. It's true. It's not something that's really worry about for me as far as his development. But currently, it is true.

I watched his aerial duels against Bayer-Levacuzzi in the last game before the break. He got out-jumped three out of five times, once resulting in a goldmouth scramble. When he did get ahead on it, it wasn't convincing. U.S. fans who've grown accustomed to the aerial tyranny. of Walker Zimmerman and Miles Robinson will be disappointed in the way Richards plays in the air. But that doesn't mean he won't get better at it or that there aren't other aspects of his game that compensate in some ways relative to those, his competition at centerback.

Right. I mean, and the buyer game is the exact game that started the whole discussion. Yeah, it's not good. Marcus in Sonoma, that's Sonoma, California, known as Don Chesco on Twitter, asks which players do we want to get a January transfer the most and Clay in Tennessee wants us to discuss ideal landing spots for Desm McKinney and Pulisick I think we can deal with this one very quickly Vince Ethan Horvath

Yeah it would be nice it would be nice Because I mean I still believe in his talent But yeah he's in the mud But yeah other than that I mean it would have been peppy. Pepe's gone, so. I still would like, I still would like to see Desk go to Byron. McKenny and Pulisic just need to stay put, is my view.

Jake in Southern California, who are on your Mount Rushmore, your top four players of all time, not USMNT specific? I don't, I don't have a, I just know Messi's number one. That's all I got. I just think Paley and Maradona get stuck on everybody's top four. and just to make it more interesting, I'm going to leave those two out and say,

Croif, Zedon, Ronaldo Phenomeno, and Messi. Do you guys ever been to Mount Rushmore? As a child, I was, yeah. I went, it was just sort of underwhelming. I mean, I can imagine. I can imagine. It's a, it feels like a very American structure there. It's fine.

I had plans with scuffed news of going there with a video camera and asking people who were visiting it what they thought of the fact that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington owned slaves. But I didn't. I could never pull that off logistically. I have three small children at home. Yo, Bells, I got to say, the best moment from scuff news was at the Trump thing where you asked the, you asked the two, where you just sat there and you were like, So hold on, you all have three kids? They both had a lot of kids, yeah, both of those ladies. He kills me every time.

Anyhow, I don't know that I would even go through the trouble of carving four players into a mountain. It's kind of my thing, but. Yeah. I think I would want Ronald Eno on there for sure. Maybe I just might just have him on it. Yeah. Like a crazy horse. Ballotel.

statue. Coach in D.C., Coach Beard, I believe this is, says, Gio and Wea's injuries have provided some house-based merchant opportunities in the next window. Conrad, Ledesma, Morris, which options excite you and which would have you worried about our ability to score goals? Conrad has fallen out of the lineup. I don't know if he's, what's going on with him.

That just occurred to me. Is that true? Um, he wasn't in, he wasn't in the lineup for the cup game that they just played. Oh, I thought he'd only play like twice this in December. Maybe it's not true. I didn't, I didn't realize it was a cup game. I apologize, Conrad. Let me look it up.

Let me look it up. So the most exciting is probably Ledazma, right? Yeah, but I mean, what Greg is going to do is, uh, you're going to get a nice dose of Jordan Morris, which I read Jordan Morris, so that's cool. But Paul Ariola, his music is playing if these injuries hold up. So, I mean, the one that would excite me is Paul Ariola. I know he gets a lot of flag. I'm sorry, Paul.

You seem to be a decent man. But when we're talking about scoring goals, yeah, it worries, me a bit. I assume Aronson is still kind of a starter right now. Yeah, it'll probably be Aronson. Particularly if Y is out. Starting if

if Way is out. I would think. Which yeah, which I mean, that would be following me. You were kind of right, Waki. I mean, he's played he didn't play on December 12th

and then he didn't play on January 2nd. But according to according to a transfer market he had coronavirus and you know they do have doctors on staff at transfer market oh okay um yeah yeah at this point whenever you see somebody missing i mean it's just it's probably cool tom and grand rapids asks how much consideration should balance be given when determining the best lineup seems like the middle was too congested when pulisic and rena were playing on the wings and with deaths joining the attack would a formation with a creative attacker and traditional fullback, that'd be like Anthony Robinson on one side,

and a vertical threat with Dest on the other, be better than playing all of our best guys, regardless of balance. I think so. I actually do think Wea on the side with Dest and Pulisik on the side with Robinson, as long as Pulcick's tucking in, does make more sense than, you know, not giving it any consideration whatsoever.

I mean, I guess, but I just, I just, I just feel like, I mean, if we see Gio and Pully with the MMA, it'll all, it'll all form itself out and we'll be fine. Like I said, I just think our lack of a true press-resistant, progressive midfielder was causing G-1-Pulley to feel like they had to do it. So without without but I did have you ever listened to Weston on the crack podcast his interview? I feel like I did. Yeah. They asked him a question about him building his like ideal midfield for the, uh, the US out of,

out of like our current player pool. And I think he ended up putting geo in there, but he was talking about just geo in general. And I mean, this isn't going to be a surprise anyone, but he, he said, And Gio likes the ball at his feet. So if anyone's going to be, I think the clogging presence is probably Gio, man. Just trying to come back to touch, you know, every once in a while. Because, you know, I mean, like we said, he's young. He can be kind of petuling at times.

So, you know. But other than that, man, it's not something I'm worried about too much. just I mean it really just speaks to speaks to how MMA has transformed this team that I'm just like you know yeah they they they cure all ills yeah I mean I think there's probably

I mean I agree there's a lot of truth to that but that when you bring up Rana and you say like when he plays on the wing he kind of clogs things up you know who doesn't clog things up on the right wing and just makes everything harmonious Timothy Wea so I think there's yeah but but I will say we've seen Greg do different things with

MMA too like in that Costa Rica match like Eunice was like in the touchline a lot so that's a I just don't know I think I think Greg will figure it out I mean you know and God forbid our coach do some coaching Dust and Raina play on the same side

if they did it would have been against El Salvador yeah and they definitely did not. He played with Conrad on that side. Oh, that's right. Yeah. He played left back in the camp. I think he intends to,

maybe it's just a coincidence that Raina was in, played those games that he was playing left back, but it seems like he's always on the left and Raina's way over on the other side. All right. Last question comes from Matt in Bayer, Delaware. Why can't there be a European equivalent of Camp Cupcake during their off season?

Well, it's in the summer. So basically the Gold Cup Cup is Camp Cupcake. Yeah. Yeah. And if there were a free time that was not in an international window, you can rest assured most European clubs of any consequence would not release players for it if it's not in the FIFA window. MLS plays nice with the U.S. MES national team in the offseason for various reasons. Yeah. I mean, it's basically that simple. I mean, the Europeans, I mean, they have the biggest influence over the schedule. just in general, like everything's catered to them, to those leagues there. So, yeah, they don't have to, they don't get to finesse things like we do on this side of the. Right.

Also, there's just a big MLS off season, so it's not even, it's not that much of a problem. But, I mean, you know, Mexico does their camps. They play that game in Charlotte recently or whatever. Like, you know, it feels like it happens a lot more often over here. I was speaking of schedule and winter, the old American soccer leagues from like 100 years ago, they were trying to make it a winter sport. So they played a bunch of games in really freezing temperatures. And so we're kind of getting back to our roots there by playing in Minnesota. I'm glad you brought that up, which I don't think we've talked about in a few athletes.

Yeah, I just wanted to do we still think it's too cold? Oh, yes. It is definitely too cold. Yeah. Okay. Did you guys see the pictures from the, they call it the outdoor classic or something, an NHL game. They play at the Twins Stadium. Oh my gosh.

I didn't. I didn't see the pictures, but I saw where they had to heat the ice in order for it to remain playable because it's so cold outside. I didn't, I don't understand the physics of that, but what is it? How does that work? I mean, I don't know, man, maybe the, maybe the skate's don't glide as well in a, in a freezing block of, you need a little bit, you need a little bit of moisture, I guess, yeah. And you need the Zamboni machine to be able to, to be able to smooth it out. Yeah, it was minus nine at, uh, face off for that game at night. And Jesus Christ. There's, it's been like, so my, so as many of you know, my family moved from Minnesota to Georgia, uh, a little over a year ago. And my wife, in a fit of pettiness, continues to check the weather in Minnesota every day.

She does it every day. She told me about that. I love it. And she, she, she keeps me, she keeps me abreast. And they are, they've had like several days in a row of minus temperatures, which it's possible. It's possible there'll be, as she put it, it's possible there'll be a hot flash at the beginning of February.

but there it's also possible it'll be minus 10. So we pray for a hot flash. Oh, one other tidbit of this, from this book I was reading I want to share because it's the best shithousing I've ever heard of. It was when we played Italy in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, which maybe we shouldn't have gone to in retrospect. But we played Italy. And an Italy player did a really heinous foul.

And the ref was about to give him a yellow card and he pulled it out. But they took it, the Italian players took it from it and put it back in his pocket, wrapped him up, and one player put his hand over his mouth until he would do the card. So, like, we think, you know, we think we've got some pretty good shit housing, but like the game has gone so soft. You couldn't get away with that anymore. No, man, lifetime ban's all around, right? Look, all I'm going to say is keep your eyes out.

Afcom 2022 is coming up, so we may see it. We may see it. Yeah. When does that start? I think like the ninth, eighth, something like that. Okay. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.