Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #238: Monday Review — Thriller in Rome, Pepi’s debut, DeJuan Jones & Alex Mendez

Episode Date: January 10, 2022

A rundown of the action from the weekend with Vince, Watke and Belz. McKennie plays a key role in a huge win for Juventus, Pepi debuts for Augsburg, Dest's camp signals he wants to stay in Barcelona, and lots of other things to discuss.0:30 intro and McKennie's big weekend in Rome7:45 Pepi's debut24:45 January Campsupport 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. We are 315 days from the first match of the 2022 Men's World Cup. Keep knocking on wood. And this is the Monday review. First Order of Business, the seven-goal thriller at the seat of the empire. Roma 3-4. McKenny goes 90 and a comeback from 3-1 down. Juventus is now six points clear of both Roma and Fiorentina. What'd you guys see? I mean, Weston just being Weston, man, who is our undisputed best player on the U.S. Mids national team. He was just doing everything, recovering the ball. He was spraying the ball around.

He was noticeably secure for Weston McKinney. Yeah. He was just doing everything. I mean, of course, Uvae went 3-1 down. That had nothing to do with Weston. he was balling from like minute one to minute 90 in my opinion the uvensis fans on the on the internet love him now if you search his name normally you don't want to do that with an american soccer player sometimes but if you do that it was all really positive and glowing stuff and they like him and they want him

to be in their midfield forever it's funny how those things change over time yeah which is like i don't i don't do it i don't know why people do it it feels like masochism to me But now is a good time if you want to search. If you want to search Wesson on Twitter, go ahead and do it. Yeah, it's safe to do. Today's the day. Don't search for Josh Sargent on Twitter. Don't do that ever.

Don't ever do that. Or don't have tweeted a compilation of all his shots in the Premier League and have the notifications continuing ringing. I saw that someone shared that and you really hung him out to dry there. I was just doing it. I just thought it was like kind of informative, honestly. I'm totally being sincere And I know

People take it as Like me Dragging him And I'm not Yeah it's gonna have to be That's gonna have to be Patreon only From now on You want

You want to see anything negative It's got to be on private Secure and private Enough about him Enough about Sergeant for now Yeah McKinney had 10 interceptions I see

Got into 22 duels One half of them put down, I thought, several nice moments on the ball in traffic, you know, playing on the half turn. Played the pass that led to the game winning goal, which was a clever little one-time chipped ball. Smalling got ahead to it, but it was a clever enough pass into the right space at the right moment that it still fell to Matia de Chiglio, I think is how you say that, who chested it down and slotted it near post for the game winner. So pretty big stuff. And there were sometimes, like some of those times that you were talking about where those nice moments in traffic where like, like he was getting me out of my seat.

Like a couple times he got the ball on the half turn and just was able to turn and do something to it to the point to where I was just, I just had to stand up and applaud, man. I mean, like, like, Bells, you sat with me at a game, like how like animated I get sometimes. It was kind of like that. It's very fun. Yeah. Are you alone in your house getting up in a plotting? Yeah. So I watched it this morning.

And yes, I'm alone. I'm alone in my house. Okay. Okay. Were you pacing back and forth with that Amazon fire stick remote in your hand? Well, well, now that. So that was my old way to watch games. But now that I got the Waki method where I just speed it up two times, then I can, I'm mostly in my seat.

Yeah. I watch all games at three or four times speed. I'm barely seeing it. thing. So keep that in mind of any of my analysis. One thing, though, is if you squinted, you could kind of credit Weston for two of the other goals, too, just because he would be standing somewhere, and then two of the opponents would be near him, and then the other guy would score.

You have to squint. You have to work out a little bit, but it's possible to give him credit for two of the other goals. Yeah. Well, I mean, he played the cross on the first one, right, that got cleared out. It was a dangerous ball cross. Yeah. And I mean, when I was, when I turned the game, like, he led to, he had two passes that led to shots in like the first five minutes of the game. Like, he was just, that's just what he was on this game.

It was, it was magnificent. He really is something else. He's, I don't know how many other players are really like him in the amount of different things he does well. Not many. And not many. Yeah. There was a stretch at the end of the first. I think, where he was just kind of dominating for about five minutes.

And it looked like he was playing into a lower league team or something. Yeah, so I'm pretty sure that's when I got out of my seat. Yeah. When he did like. It was so weird. It was like he was playing on a small field for children. It looked like there's this clip of him playing pickup on the internet. It looked kind of like that.

But then he gave it away. That kind of broke it up. But there was a stretch there. Yeah, that casualness. that he has always played with that, you know, where he's like always ready to do the audacious thing and, and does occasionally, the casualness does occasionally lead to like sloppiness is, um, he doesn't change it. He does that. He plays like that all the time. Right. Whether he's playing against Roma or he's playing against, you know, the 39 year olds at Costa Rica.

And it's always, and it's funny because like, you can see like all the stuff we've been talking about about whether he's cool or not. But like, like, His personality very much, like, shows up on the pitch. Like, how he plays is, like, how he is in real life. And it's funny to me to watch. Yeah, if that's not cool, I don't, you know, I don't know what it is. And the number, and the number one thing for me is, like, that man never hides. He's never going to hide from the ball.

Like, he can give it away 10 times in a row. He's still going to show for it. Like, he just has the ultimate confidence in itself. And that's the guy, like, leading our squad. out. Yeah. Brings to mind Ulysses Grant, honestly.

It does. It does. You know, he was not doing well. And he turned it around. He turned it around and then just supreme confidence all the way through

until Appomatics. But seriously, Juventus still has work to do to catch up to Adalanta and Napoli to qualify for Champions League, but they got a whole half season to do it. The loss of, go ahead, Waki.

Oh, I was just going to say, and it's important to note that he was having a bad year before the Nashville party incident. So I think we probably need to definitely think of that as a positive. I know we already kind of do, but in retrospect, that was the turning point. Yeah. I bet if we, I bet, I bet, I bet John McKinney would say the same, you know? Yep. Sometimes it takes a, sometimes you got to get shook up a little bit. Airborne 69, if you're listening, please come on the pub. Yes. Yes.

Seconded. And then a couple other things about Juventus. So they lost Keisa to an ACL injury, which is a big deal for them. But it does seem like they're going to make a good run at a Champions League spot, which seemed a little far away a couple months ago. The next big news of the weekend was Ricardo Pepe made his Bundesliga debut coming on in the 60th minute of a 2-1 loss to Chris Richards Hoffenheim. I assume everybody watched that.

Waki, what are you thinking? It was just kind of a debut. It was solid, nothing great or bad. And it's out of the way. Yeah. Bro, when he didn't get played in on goal, bro, I like doubled over. I was like

I like fell down to hands and knees And I was like why Why? For anyone who didn't watch it What happened is he kind of dropped way back Laid it off And then B-lined toward goal The ball kind of went to the other side

And it wasn't that the guy didn't see him He just made a technical layer So I'm willing to let it go Yeah heavy touch And that was So the reason why he had all that space Was Chris Richards Who might be

the most front-footed defender of all time. Like, he dropped all the way back with Pepe and tried to win the ball off of him. Didn't get it. And so when Pepey turned and was out, so that left Chris lagging behind a little bit. It would have been, if Pepe would have got played in, it would have been fun to see that Chris Richards recovery speed

and just possibly see what happens there. But, yeah, it would have been a tight one. Richards does get way up the field. I guess it's because they play with that three in the back, so he has to or but he. Yeah, I listened to. I was just going to say this. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I was listening to the last orange slices that Chris Richards was on.

And they were asked if they prefer a back four or a back three. And Chris Richards was very adamant. He was like a back three. He was like, then I can go roam and I can just go go do what I want. He basically said like being in a center back pair and a back four is kind of boring. and you can see it in his play. He likes to roam around and just try and win the ball. Yeah.

I thought that was a very interesting answer because McKenzie was more of a back four guy, right? If I remember correctly. But in any case, Richard's, you know, when you're back through, you can get wide, you can be part of the buildup in more interesting ways. I think you have more chances to dribble forward and find a pass. on the ball. I think I would be it. I think what we've,

I've talked about this before, but back three guy, it just seems like more work. You got to, I would, I would do the back two. I would be one of two center backs if I was a centerback.

Yeah. That would be my preference. Yeah. But there are no rules. He's just everywhere. Yeah, he is, he's very aggressive. He's very,

very, very front-footed. I thought, I thought, Pepe's, you know, it's good to have it out of the way, like you said, Waki. Augsburg did look like,

a better team when he came onto the field. And I don't know, you know, correlation causation dilemma there. I don't know if it was directly related to Pepe, but he did have good energy, good movement. Yeah. On the other side of the field, you know, Richards had some mild ups and downs this season,

but he's gone 90 and four out of the last five games, and Hoffenheim has gotten 10 of a possible 12 points from those four matches. And now they're third in the Bundesliga. So things are going well in... What? Yeah. I didn't know that.

Yeah, there are six points off of Dortmund at second, I think. So... Huh. Good for them. Yeah, definitely. And then some... In the past week since we last recorded, there have been more things to come out about Ricardo's transfer. that I think I put me more at ease

like the main concerns I had with Blitzer seeming to swoop in out of nowhere and everything. It seems that was not the case. Seems that Augsburg was informed for a while. According to the Jason McIntyre piece on Fox Sports that was released over the past week. And then on extra time, Tom Bogart

listed the, he said it came down to four teams for Pepe. It came down to Augsburg, Wolfsburg, Wolves, and another Premier League team. Those three teams all have a connection to each other by just the sound of their names. Augsburg, Wolfsburg, and Wolves. Yeah, yeah. Was this deliberate on his part or is representative's part? Probably not. Probably not.

Oh, but that does remind me. Sorry, you just said Blitzer. It reminded me that Blitzer is an owner of Oxford. And one highlight of this game was, at one point, the commentator said that he clarified that David Blitzer is not related to Wolf Blitzer of CNN, although Wolf Blitzer was born in Augsburg. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Maybe there's a lot of Blitzers from that town. Does David Blitzer have roots? in Augsburg?

I don't think so. I don't think so. I think it's just a neat little fact triangle. Yeah. And also it seems like Augsburg did not have the largest bid for Ricardo is what I gather. Oh. Yeah, I saw that. I saw that floating around.

Can that be true? Can there have been a larger bid? I mean, if you got two Premier League teams in it, I mean, they can, like, like 25 mil is. It's not what 25 mil is to a to a Bundesliga team. Say that. Yeah. I'm pretty glad he didn't go to the Premier League. Oh, definitely, definitely.

Screw the Premier League. Yeah, it seems like he's going to play. And, you know, it would be up to him to make a name for himself. Let's see. Some transfer non-news, kind of. I mean, there's been a lot of talk about death to Chelsea, but then one of his reps, a guy named Michael Reschke,

Reschke, I don't know how to pronounce that, told Build, the big German sports newspaper, that he's most likely not going to leave Barsa. So that was like four hours ago or something like that. It's a wilderness of mirrors out there in transfer land. It sure is.

Well, it does seem to be nice that Barsa doesn't seem to be doing too, too well without Serenio. Like there hasn't been like too much of a new manager, new manager bounce while he's been out of the squad. Is that, is that warming you up to Javi a little bit, Vince? Are you still,

you still feeling pretty sour towards the, he's another person where I don't, I don't like his face. Yeah. He has a, it's a, it's a very rodent-esque face. It's a,

he has the face of a rat. It's just because he's not playing desk. Um, well, yeah. So if he was playing dust, I wouldn't have focused on his face. Like once you slight me, then then I will start looking for flaws. You wouldn't even, it wouldn't have bothered you until he, I think he, he deserves this sort of thing. I'm not. They lost to Granada.

Or they tied Granada. I'm sorry. Yeah, they're basically a loss. Basically a loss, yes. I think he's out of ideas as a coach and he should, he should get fired. If you, if he was playing surge, then he would be a. cute rat. But as of now, he's a pest that you don't want in your house.

Setting out traps. Yeah. Rat-faced people who do what we want are fine, you know, and don't get called rat-faced. But any other transfer news? I think. So we do want him to go to Chelsea, right? I don't know about that. It's not a good situation to be in where you want someone to go to Chelsea, but.

Yeah, I don't know. I'd rather he go to Byron. Yeah. Yeah, much rather that. If he's going to go anywhere, go to Byron. Yeah. Well, Sergenio, if you're listening, we think at Byron. Some other topics here, Eunice Musa, two consecutive starts in a central type of position for Valencia.

The most recent was a 4-1 loss at Real Madrid. Yeah, it didn't go particularly well, but that's okay. It wasn't really his fault, though, right? The 4-1 loss. I mean, he was decent. This is another name you shouldn't search on the internet if you don't want to see fans saying mean things about him. Oh, really?

But I think he was not quite as bad as they were saying. Well, and that came off the back of people saying he probably had his best performance in the cup match that was played. Oh, that one that was played at like a high school stadium. a couple weeks ago? No, no, no, it was like this week. Oh. The Cup of the King.

Which doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Copa del Rey, but. The Cup of the Spanish King. I think that the main thing is, however he played, he's, normally when he comes into camp, he hasn't really been playing all that much, and he's going to have a decent number of minutes, and he'll be rear to go. Because I think that someone's hurt. That's why he's starting. Okay.

So this was a Copa del Rey match, and he played against a Cardagina? Cardagena. Cardagena. Cardagena. And then another thing on that front, I think, people are saying that one of Valencia's players named Woss is going to transfer. And that's one of his main competitors for minutes in that middle there. So that could be good for the rest of the year. Yeah.

What is up with Spanish soccer, Spanish football? and the monarchy. It's just everywhere. It's everywhere in their terminology. Royal Madrid, Royal Sociedad, Cup of the King. I think it's because when those teams were forming, they had a monarchy.

But I would like to know more about this. Yeah. That must be why. But they're really into it. Yeah. Yeah. One thing I noticed, I mean, one thing I read was that, Real Sociedad is named that way because that was San Sebastian was the summer residence of the king.

And so that's why he patronized that club. But I asked Susayeda, who's from that part of the world to explain. I was like, does anybody ever talk about that kind of stuff? And he's like, he made fun of me. He's like, yeah, when we were teenagers, we would like smoke cigarettes behind the train station and talk about the monarchy. And so I was like, if Susayetta is going to be completely incurious. about it, why should I be curious about it? You know, that's what I'm saying.

I think you should be curious and now I am also curious about it. So. Some bad news, Gio Raina was supposed to maybe play a little this weekend, but didn't. He didn't even travel. I think it's fine. They're just being patient, although the clock is ticking, guys. Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. They might be slow playing it, so that Greg doesn't get any bright ideas,

which is not the desired result. If it's no Raina or Wea, because Wea seems even further away than Raina right now, right? Is that fair? Yeah. I think we can say maybe Wea is not going to be in this window. That's how it's feeling. Yeah, basically, unless we just get a splash.

Boom, he's in training now coming over the, I mean, like when's the deadline here? About a week? like by this weekend if they're not training then they're probably up and it's if I'm leo I'm thinking maybe I don't want to send this guy with a bad hamstring to play in negative 50 degree

it's a quad walk in the on ice you know maybe maybe we easing back in a little bit after that window yeah fact check it is a quad right it's quad okay I'm never going to learn the difference between those two muscles yeah that's a really hard one

to understand the difference between. No, come on, guys. I'm kidding. I'm being sarcastic. Okay. Okay. The game against South Salvador in Columbus is 17 days away. So, yeah, if people aren't, if people aren't even training by the end of this week,

no way. No way they're coming. Yeah. Yep. So where does that leave us? That leaves us with Greg Burrhalter being so, so excited to start Paul Areola in this upcoming window on the wing. Yeah. I mean, we're going to get some ariola, hopefully some Jordan Morris, maybe.

Yeah. But yeah, it's like I'm like Paul. Well, hold on. We still got, we still have Pulley and Brendan, hopefully. Yeah, but they can't start all three. They both can't start all three games. Yeah, yeah, true, that, true, that should. Yeah, all our dreamy stuff about way on the wing and Rayna in the midfield is,

it's not going to come to fruition, I don't think, in this window. Wolfsburg have reportedly reopened contract talks with John Brooks and are, quote, confident about reaching a deal. Yeah. There's mentioning, I think. Hopefully they don't be relegated. I think that they probably, is Florian Colefeld still their coach? Oh, yes.

I think they probably will. Where are they sitting in the table right now? I don't know. I'm looking it up right now. But they lost to Bokham over the weekend. They're two points above the playoff spot, which is where Augsburg is right now. Yep. Groyder Firth has six points.

This is a championship league team. Let me remind you. This is a team that was in the Champions League this year that is a, They're sitting on 20 points right now. Yeah, they must, on some level, lack belief. A couple other quick notes. Matt Miazga started for Alaves in a zero-zero draw over the weekend. It's worth noting at centerback.

And then Ethan Horvath did not get to start in Nottingham Forest's cup game. So he is... Why can't he just go to a team where he can get to play soccer games? It's one of the most frustrating things in the world to me that he just never played. It's in like five years. Yeah. We can move on. Well, maybe somebody's, maybe he's really working on the sort of the arc of his story so that it's, he gets beaten down and beaten down.

And then the glory of his, uh, emergence will be even greater later on. That's what I, yes. That's what I thought he was doing the first time. And then he had the gold, or whatever, what nation's slay. like here it is there's his now for his ascendancy yeah i don't know if he's played a soccer him since then he has but it felt like he hasn't he's played one i'm pretty sure he's just he played one he played one he played one uh and uh i think he gave the ball like he passed the ball to the other team for them to score a goal and he hasn't been seen since i i think it's true he hasn't been seen since

that game but i think he played a couple other games before that i don't quote me on that but but but yeah uh so that that that that forest cup game it was against arsenal so i mean of course they were going to throw out their first scene and they did uh end up beating arsenal so i mean like i feel like there was there was no way Ethan was going to was going to play that game okay well i didn't look into the details all i know is he didn't play and i forgot it was arsenal okay all right well let's talk about the january camp roster a little bit um not a lot just a little bit buddy. To me there are, well, can I just run through the names real quick? Because Greg and I didn't do a roster episode last week. Goalkeepers are Sean Johnson,

Gabriel Slanina, and Matt Turner. Defenders are George Bello, De Juan Jones, Brooks Lennon, Aaron Long, Miles Robinson, and Walker Zimmerman. Austin Trustee also was added to him. Right. Thank you. Thank you. And then midfielders are Kellan Acosta, Cole Bassett, Georgie Mahalovich, Sebastian Leggette, Christian Rodon, Jackson Ewell, and then the four words,

ostensibly are Paul Ariola, Jesus Ferreira, Jordan Morris, and Jazi's artists. To me, the two names that are interesting here are De Juan Jones and Georgie Mihailovich. And let me just give a little background on Jones

because we have not talked about him much on this podcast. He's 24. He grew up in Lansing, Michigan played four years, four full years at Michigan State, and then was selected in the super draft with the 11th overall pick. He did really well in the MLS Combine and raised his stock a lot. That was in 2008, late 2018 or early 2019, I can't remember. Same draft that Dejambi Cannon was drafted in. And he played the first half of his first season, mostly as a winger

or a left mid under Brad Friedel, who had sort of a disastrous tenure at the Revolution. And then when Bruce Arena took over in the middle of that season, he moved Jones to left back. And he has flourished ever since. Do you guys have opinions on Jones? I don't have a huge one. But I will say, like, my theory on fullbacks is that you need elite athletes there. And he seems to be an elite athlete.

So I'm excited to see. And being a former winger, converted winger. hopefully he has you know some some comfortability on the ball um I I've only watched him one time and that was in the playoffs this year when they lost to NYCFC

and he he looked to be a pretty good player man it'll be a pretty good player so so I'm excited to see him see what happens yeah and I have never seen him play I didn't even know who's in the picture until until that roster came out if I'm being honest He's very fast. And he's two-footed.

He's, you know, he's a right-footed player who plays on as a left back. There's been, the chatter about him has sort of been picking up, I would say, over the last three months or so before this roster was announced. And the reality is the door is still, the door is still wide open. You know, we love Jonathan Gomez on this podcast, but he's, you know, he's got a long ways to go. There's, it's basically Anthony and. And I don't know. Duane Jones could be easily be better than George Bello or Sam Vines, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. So let's see it. And then the other one is Georgie Mahalovich, who, you know, we kind of, we, we laughed a little bit about how hyped he was back in 2019. Back when DeWan was getting drafted, Mahalovich was getting a lot of hype at January camp. But, you know, he did have a good season. he did have a good season in Montreal and of all the midfielders

on this roster I mean he's the one he's just sort of like newish face and maybe he steps forward I have I have watched a little bit more of Georgie this year and he's been pulling

he's been pulling strings man like every time I watch him he's look pretty interesting and I've been wanting to maybe see him back in the fold a little bit so I'm happy he got called Yeah. And then I guess

otherwise the roster is guys who are definitely going to be in just getting in shape and then I guess another question is on the forwards who makes it through

I guess Ferreira and Zardez will are they guys? Yeah. I mean the actual strikers. Like who makes it through to the actual camp

before the games? Yeah. Yeah. I mean you've got to imagine Morris and Ariola will make it. Yeah.

Oh, so I guess they're just that. Maybe all of those guys will. Yeah. Maybe not Jesus. Maybe not Jesus. I don't know. All right. Let's, uh, any other thoughts on the roster?

It's, it's like, uh, it's two weeks, a two week camp and then basically like the press release from U.S. soccer says they're, they're staying fit and fighting for a spot in the roster that will face El Salvador, Canada, and Honduras. Oh, one of the, um, the, um, the, uh, the, the social media team of U.S. soccer put a picture of legit arriving to camp. It looked like he was carrying a wine tote of some kind. Yeah. And previously Walker Zimmerman and who did he go with?

Jordan Morris went to Napa to have some wine. So I'm wondering if there's kind of a wine culture developing within the team. That would be cool. What is a wine tote? Like it's like a wine skin? It's like a, well, we haven't been able to confirm it's definitely a wine tote. I didn't know what a wine tote was. someone, I believe, at the Discord.

Sorry, I think it was Nancy. So this is a wine tote. This might be a wine tote. It's just a thing you carry a wine in. I googled it. Okay. Just a bag for wine. It's shaped kind of like a wine bottle.

Could it have been also a laptop bag? I don't think so. No, no. Okay. It's very, yeah, we don't think that's a laptop. That's one thing we're willing to have to have a laptop. But it's, like, man, you really don't know what a wine toad is shape big. I don't know anything about wine either, but I don't think a, I don't think a laptop was fitting in that bag.

Okay. Yeah, absolutely not. All right. Let's run through, let's run through, well, anything else? Sorry. No, no. Let's run through the remaining, some of the remaining players in the fringe. Darrell D.K., you know, he made that big splashy transfer to West Brom, but was not in the squad as they lost to Brighton.

in the FA Cup. Jordan Pfeck, no competitive games until the international window in Switzerland. Josh Sargent, we did mention him briefly at the top of the show. Anybody pay attention to his FA Cup victory over Charlton Athletic?

I only paid attention to what I would do now with Josh Sargent games. So they see what people are saying. And if it's positive, then I'll watch it, but it wasn't positive. It did not seem to be positive. I didn't watch the game.

Okay. Well, I watched his actions. And yeah, the game was a grind, of course. But he was, I hate to say it this way, but he was very competent and hardworking from box to box. I mean, I mean, this is him. Box to box, huh? Like a midfielder.

I don't hate to say it that way. I said it that way very intentionally. But, yeah, he looks. he looks very effective from 18 to 18, just not goal dangerous. He had that one decent chance to get a shot off. You guys probably saw the clip of it on a lovely through ball from Rashika,

who comes in for a lot of criticism from our corner of the world, but does have the ability to be a class player. And so it's a great throughball in the middle. Sergeant runs onto it. He cuts back from his left foot to his right foot, which he kind of had to do. I don't think he was going to be able to get a shot off.

and he doesn't even look at the goal, you know, he looks, he's looking back for the layoff. And if you freeze frame it right there, he's got like a, you know, he's got like a one lane highway of a avenue to shoot in, at the goal through. And he's looking, but except that he's looking back the other way,

looking for the layoff. The window closes. He cuts back onto his left foot and tries to shoot it and it, and drags it well wide. And it's just sort of like him in the, him in the penalty area in a nutshell. But Norwich got to victory. And, you know, the day that he becomes a pressing number eight for the U.S.

men's national team grows ever nearer. Yes. Can you believe how exciting that would be if it actually happened? I would be pretty excited. I ain't a lot. I would too. I think it would work really well. No irony at all.

I mean, talk about everything he's good at right now. It seems like those traits would transfer pretty well to the midfield. Yeah. I mean, he'd be much more of an MMA midfielder type than Buccio or legit. Some midfield news, well, some midfield updates. Tyler Adams went 90 in a 401 drubbing of minds. Registered a hockey assist, didn't get hurt. Any thoughts from you guys?

If not, that's fine. it was just one of his I did watch that one just he was one of his normal games yeah it's good to

he's back in the starting 11 and getting 90 and they like handing it to somebody you know I would say

he did he he was very sharp defensively huh he's always like that but I think especially so in this game well it's also

worth mentioning minds is not bad this year I mean they're there's there's sliding down table a little bit but for a while to be any of the season they were in the top six

yeah they are they had they did have an unusually but they had a bad game they had some horrendous goals they give okay they're worth checking out if anyone wants to do that and they went down to ten they went down to ten men too okay busio went 90 or did he go 90 i can't remember he he he started uh for venetia in their um in their loss to a c milan they conceded in the opening minutes of both halves. And even though I thought they were plenty okay for stretches of the match, they lost 3-0 to an efficient A.C. Milan side. He went 79 minutes.

Okay. And he played okay. Yeah. Yeah, solid enough was my assessment of the first half or so. Played as kind of a left-side of midfielder. Yeah centrally left We got

So now Venetia Is You know They got some They got some pressure here As far as Staying up Because for a little bit

It was seeming like they were going to To cruise To being like maybe like 16th in Syria or something But so we asked Spezia That is past them Venetia has a game in hand But

Currently, they are four points above relegation from Cagliardi. You like that? That's very good. Very good. That was nice. That was nice. I ain't going to a lot. But yeah, so Venetica is sitting on 17 points and I'm not even going to say it again because I want that last one to be the lasting impression of me.

They are sitting on 13 points. Salatranah. Salatana. Is that what the team is? I'm not looking at it. That sounds right to me. Yeah, I think that's what I said. Yeah.

I've been watching the Sopranos. I love this. Yeah, it's going to be a dramatic, it's going to be a dramatic finish, I would think, for Venetia on the, whether they stay up or not. Either way, it'll be dramatic. The Dutch League is still not in action.

I guess it's, you know, significantly colder there. than Germany or something. So Luca Deletore and Richel de Desma were off over the weekend. And it doesn't seem like it should be that much colder. Maybe it's like an ocean effect or something. Yeah, but usually the ocean keeps things warmer, doesn't it? I'm not a scientist.

Do you know Vince? Hey, no, no. You're not that kind of scientist. No clue. Yeah, I don't know why. It's right next to Germany. Yeah. I feel pretty confident in saying that Bavaria gets colder than the Netherlands

because it's up like in the inland and near the mountains. Anyway, somebody who is taking a step forward though, I want to talk about is Alex Mendez. I'm not saying he definitely deserves a call-up, but I do think he's forcing his way into the fringes of the player pool. He started four straight matches. and the most interesting thing is he's getting stuck in and hustling back

like he's gotten religion on having to be a defender as well as an attacker. He's not... Go ahead, go ahead. This would be a very exciting development, that was all I had to say. So he followed down Luca Delo Tore's footsteps and he posted his own comp on Twitter.

And so I was watching that. Yeah, I mean, everything he said is true. And you still see that that just left foot of his. And it's just like class on the ball, like the way he can just like play passes and nobody else sees. Like he's just like hopefully we can we can see him at some point. I'm not holding my breath. But it is nice to see that, you know, he's doing well. Is his club situation?

Is he there permanently? He is, I believe, yeah. And they're kind of in the same situation as Venetia, where they're flirting with the relegation line, but not in the zone. You know, if they can stay up, that's going to be a big credit to him, just as it would be for Busio for Venetia to stay up.

You know, I thought about this when we were talking about coolness a few weeks ago, and I never said it. But I think if we want to talk about how players play, being cool or uncool, Mendez is among the coolest players in the player pool, the way he plays. Yeah. It's very smooth. It's almost disdainful at times.

Yes. Yeah, you're right about that. I wonder how much that should factor into players cool. And I think that's what drew me to him initially. Just watching that U-20 World Cup. He still hasn't put in, like, I don't know, a signature performance. for Vizela, like where you'd say, like, okay, he's arrived. So I'm not holding my breath.

I mean, even if he had, I don't know if I'd be holding my breath for him to get a call-up, but we'll see. Keep an eye on it. Keep an eye on it. Pulisic, Chelsea did his whole attacker wingback thing versus Chesterfield in the F.A. Cup, as in he started as a winger and then ended the game as more of a wingback. Got an assist, Andrew, a penalty. the assist was noisy.

He just played it sideways to Callum Hudson-Adoi, and Hudson-Adoi did the rest. Chesterfield was in the 5th Division, so it was just a really weird game, and he didn't really, it was not fun to watch. I'll say that. You weren't taken by the magic of the cup? No.

No, I wasn't. I should get rid of it. I think England should get rid of the FA Cup after that viewing experience. Yeah, I'd never even heard of Chesterfield before. It's my home. I'm from Chesterfield County, Virginia. But that's a different Chesterfield, obviously. But I have heard of the word Chesterfield.

Are they sister counties? Do you know? Not to my knowledge. I think that would be a little bit. Gosh to be sister counties with the same county with the same name. Yeah, two on the nose. You know, you normally want to mix, yeah. Yeah, I don't know if we are.

If our American communities, sister communities with British communities, I mean, we already are even before you make the formal designation. It seems like mostly it's like cities in China and India that I've noticed. So on that point, so Louisville is a sister city with Leaville, it's a sister city with Leads. Oh. Okay. Oh.

I don't know why. Also, I think says Ma Pellier, I think. It's also a sister city with Leeds and Louisville? It's a sister city with Louisville. I would like to know. Dude, see if the Chamber of Commerce will get you some free tickets to go see Joe Keeney, you know? Yeah, I might have to check that out.

They won't, they probably won't know what you're talking about. talking about so just explain it you have to explain it a little bit more Brendan Brennan Aronson still on Christmas break I do think we should you know we should maybe talk more about Pulisic next week but any anyway Aronson's still on Christmas break Karna del Fuente had a decent cameo and a one zero win over Bordeaux Matthew Hoppe's back oh yeah he made an appearance yes it okay it seems like it might be a case where they're just showing he he's healthy he can still run so they can loan him out

looking very disheveled I ain't gonna want to you His hair Like Yeah Disheveled is almost kind For how he looked Yeah I mean

I don't know if it's the If it's a life down there You know If a So life in Majorca is getting to him It felt like It was a deliberate choice As an expression of his inner angst

I guess It felt like he's like a protest No haircut I think we, you know, we have some questions we could get into, but I think we should just end it here. What do you guys think? Oh, me? Yes. Let's do it.

Okay. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.