Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #239: The roster for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers

Episode Date: January 13, 2022

El Salvador, Canada and Honduras await, and about half the USMNT player pool hasn't seen a ton of action lately. Greg and Belz talk through it all, with Greg diving into how the spreadsheets on how many minutes each player has played, how recently.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. The U.S.S. men have three World Cup qualifiers coming up, huge games against El Salvador, Canada, and Honduras. The first of those is two weeks from today in Columbus against El Salvador. Greg, let's talk about the roster. Bells, this roster has, like, for me, as many questions as the very first roster that we had going into the very first three-match window. like there's just so many weird variables about the timing of this camp given where our player pool is. Both the domestic pool, who we all know has been off for several months. And then also even the European pools in season, but still like by all manners of contrivance, have a lot of guys who have been off for like four to seven weeks. Yeah, it's not a normal.

I mean, for those of you who don't follow this stuff, you know, super carefully, this is not a normal time to have a World Cup qualifying window. it's a special dispensation made by FIFA in response to the worldwide pandemic. And so it's just a new kind of a new thing that everybody has to deal with. And yeah, like you said, a lot of players haven't played that much lately. And we'll get into that for sure. How, I want to do two quick big picture questions. How much do we trust Burrhalter going into this camp, going into this roster announcement?

I assume it'll be sometime next week. How much do you trust him, Greg? I mean, I don't have a ton. There's a lot of different like rooms in the trust house that we can kind of talk about. In certain areas, I trust him a lot. In other areas, I'm like, oh, man, I don't trust what he's going to do with this rec room. Like, he does a great job decorating a bedroom. The kids' rooms all look great, well-appointed.

And then in this room over here in the house, like, it's a disaster. It's all patterns on patterns on patterns. So I don't know, man. It's a tough one to answer. I think he's going to get a lot of the big pieces right. The John Brooks omission last camp even calls into question those big piece dis selections, though. So I don't know, man. He's edged much closer to like the Yergen-Klinzman territory of like, oh, he's totally willing to just throw a huge curveball

at the last second. Right. And I think you made a good point a few days ago, privately, about how he started, he was going to start Ariola in that Costa Rica game in Columbus. And only in a last second injury in the warmups gave Timway the start. And Timway, of course, was excellent in that game. Most of the offense went through him. And then he went on to have, you know, Timway, probably our most effective attacking

player through the fall, who might not have even gotten to start in games. We don't know that, but. It's definitely, for me, it felt like a really interesting sort of sliding door scenario to think about is, like, is that Paul Ariola injury the actual most important event that has occurred in qualifying so far? Because it did put Wea in the game against Costa Rica. Wea was huge in the attack in that game. that becomes a question that is, without that,

we can feel good, I feel good saying that Paul Areola, had he played in that game, would have delivered like what he sort of always delivers, which is a consistent performance, which means that he wouldn't, it seems unlikely he'd have done anything to remove himself from future lineups. So if he was a starter going into that game in Burralter's mind,

you know, it's not like he would have had a catastrophic showing where then it's like, oh, we have to pull him. even if we hadn't gotten a result, even if we draw against Costa Rica, it's like Paul Arial doesn't usually do things that you pin a loss on him, right? He just, he might cost you at moments, but they're never huge moments. He never has huge catastrophic mistakes. That's sort of his value as a player. So it's like if he just delivers his standard performance, he's probably not the guy who

falls out of the lineup. So then if he starts against Mexico, the next window, you know, we lose out on what was an incredible Tim Way attacking performance against Mexico. And so, yeah, so you start wondering if there would have been, like, a points domino effect if Paul Aureola had actually not gotten injured in the pregame warmup. So Burrhalter's not, you know, he's not out of the trust woods to change the, to change the metaphor completely from the house to the woods. But yeah, I don't know.

It's hard for me to even imagine what the big curveball could be in this window. But I guess there are plenty of possibilities. How comfortable do you feel about World Cup qualification at this point? We're second in the table behind Canada, one point ahead of Panama and Mexico. And for me, that still remains the important thing, is how far are we ahead of the playoff? And so one point ahead of them isn't great, but I still feel pretty good because Panama have two very tough games coming up in this window.

They play at Mexico and they play at Costa Rica. I will not feel comfortable if at the end of the window, Panama have taken nine points from their window. They have a home match sandwiched in between. But that just seems like, no, eventually Panama has to regress to their mean and not just continue to steal points, right? So that's where I'm still nervous.

because we're still, if we have one hiccup somewhere, even a loss at Canada instead of like a draw, and then Panama keeps this unworldly pace going, then it's really nervous because our last window, again, our schedule is backloaded with difficulty because we are at Mexico and at Costa Rica in the last window. So we just don't want to go in there where, you know, Panama, even if they lose to us in that final window

in our home match against them, can make the points back up with their home games while we are down in Costa Rica. Yeah. Well, and I put a little bit of hope in Jamaica, who is visiting Panama in the middle of this window. You know, they're a lot tougher to play against than they were at the beginning of the qualifying cycle, partly because of the introduction of Michaela Antonio, not the introduction of him, but the, you know, his sort of integration into the team. So I'm hopeful that they can steal some points from Panama too.

And that's totally reasonable, right? It's very, like a Panama one point window here is totally possible. And at that point, like, assuming we pick up our points at home, it doesn't matter. Like, nothing else matters where we're through. It's just if Panama somehow, like even if we get seven points, if Panama gets five, if they pull out, if they steal points from Mexico and Costa Rica, even won and win at home, then it's still just nervous enough that we're like still just, that one hiccup away where if we draw them at home instead of beating them, it's really

dicey. Yeah, it's nerve-wracking. My confidence is just based on not believing that Panama can just keep doing this, that they can just keep rattling off winds. Like, it's, that's got to be, they're, I think they're going to be running out of that, that point revenue. Yeah. Well, let's, let's hope and pray for that.

All right. So we should mention right off the top as we get into this roster that Timway, Timwayas appears to be injured with no clear timeline for getting back. I mean, he's definitely injured. What appears is that there's no clear timeline for him to come back. And then we learned this morning that Gio Raina is not in the plans for Dortmund this weekend, which it's starting to look like he's not going to be able to come to the states for this World Cup qualifying window, either. So our two, you know, our second and third, you know, depending on how you slice it, most effective attacking players on the wing are not going to be available for this window.

They might be our first and second most effective attacking players on the wing. Well, wherever they are, they're two very important attackers. We haven't had Raina since the very opening, our opener against El Salvador. So we've been able to piece things together without him fairly well. And there is still that pot. I'm still holding out hope that he is in for like the Pocal match that Dorman have in the midweek. And if he's,

you know, if he's there, if he's on the bench, I feel like we would probably still bring him. Remember, we brought Pulisic back for that opening window, despite the fact that he had not played for Chelsea in six weeks, whatever it was,

three weeks. Yeah, I can't remember now. But we will bring guys in like the moment they're, fit. So I'm still hopeful that we can get Raina in. I'm not I'm not ruling it out just yet. Hopefully Marco Rosa doesn't slow play his return. I mean, if he's looking at, if he's looking at the forecast for St. Paul like we are every couple days, he's likely to be not very anxious to get him on the bench for one of these games. That's true. And you don't you don't want those guys

hamstrings or quads anywhere near Hamilton, Ontario or St. Paul, Minnesota. Yeah. And then one more question before we get into the actual roster. How many players do we need do you think for this camp? Because let me sort of frame the question.

There's pros to bringing a lot of players and I guess there's there may be some cons to it which we could get into. I don't know what the pros are for not bringing a lot of players. I've kind of felt that way

since the qualifying cycle started. But what do you think? How many do we need? Well, we're back to three games instead of two. The travel we've at least tried to minimize with the locations of the matches we've chosen. But I still think, I actually think because of the COVID implications, we should probably have more bodies on like a little bit ready. And for me, that just means like back to 27 or 28 guys.

I think we can do the job, especially assuming that we have balanced who those players are, and not overloaded one position group and shorted another one, which we've done in the past going into the Burr Altered Trust questions. Yeah, yeah. What are you thinking? Are you wanting like a 35 man? Yeah, I'm always in that camp. I mean, like, I guess the thing for me is I don't really care if somebody has to travel

and not play. Like, that's just life. We're trying to qualify for the World Cup. And, you know, you're a national team player. So I would certainly err on the side of a larger roster. I wouldn't object. I think there are plenty of players. I think we have a large number of players we could call in who could help us do the job to have sort of on the ready.

Yeah. I say that, but now I'm about to go into the weeds of how potentially they are not ready at all because of fitness issues. Right. And who, yeah, we can get into it. But when you say that I'm like, well, who in the midfield can help us do the job outside of Musa McKinney and Adams? It remains an unanswered question. But let's start with the goalkeepers. Maybe we could talk about who's already in camp in this two-week January camp and then who's likely to be joining from Europe and who's been playing and who hasn't.

Sure. So we've got, in this camp, we've got Turner, Johnson, and Sonina. Sonina's the kid. And obviously, with all these MLS guys, none of them have been playing. Like, Turner's last game was the playoff game from late November. Solina wasn't playing in the playoffs. And Johnson won the cup, so he was playing late into the playoffs. But there's still, no one's in season. The problem with this, with our goalkeepers and trying to find someone

who is match fit is that Zach Stefan also doesn't play soccer games for his club. I think he's actually played the same number of minutes as Matt Turner since November and Sean Johnson probably has more than both of them. Which is just kind of nuts to think about.

Yeah. But Johnson's last game would have been the MLS Cup, right? You said that. Right. Turner played 90 against Bosnia and the Friendly, which if we're counting that, like, pads is total. But otherwise, they lost to New York City in their opening playoff game.

Okay. And then for Stefan, so you look at Stefan, who's in season, he got 90 minutes on December 7th, and he got 90 minutes on January 7th. And that's it. That's all he's done since the World Cup qualifying window since the Jamaica match. So we just don't have any goalkeepers who play consistently going into this window. Yeah. It'll be, I mean, it'll be Turner Johnson and Stefan as the goalkeepers for the window, right?

And probably Stefan starts. I mean, if we're trying to put ourselves in trying to predict what Burrhalter will do. I imagine so, yeah. That seems realistic. And the other thing is, as tedious as this is, this isn't like doomsday stuff. I don't know that anyone's going to, like, just look completely out of it. I just know that I feel like every year at January camp, once we've watched the game,

which tends to be a slog, sort of the first thing that comes out of everybody's mouth is like, okay, well, there's obvious rust because they're all out of season. And so it's just a bit worrying because we're going to be fielding a bunch of guys who are a bit out of season.

Yeah, I wonder if Burrhalter will favor any European fringe players over MLS players for that. that reason, I, well, yeah, something tells me he won't. I don't think he will either, but this is where we'll, and I don't know, I'm not even saying that that's right or wrong. I'm just saying it's an angle that could play out, and we'll have some candidates here in this, in this, uh, exhaustive list of minutes played. Yeah. Okay. Uh, so I mean, I think Turner Johnson, Stefan, everybody can agree that those are the,

probably going to be the goalkeepers and it's fine. Um, center back. Okay, so our MLS guys in this camp are just Miles, Zimmerman, and Aaron Long. That's it, right? Yes. So we can be pretty sure that like Kessler's not sneaking in here. He would have been in the, he would have been on the list. Burrhalter has basically said that Aaron Long isn't going to be ready and then kind of gave a funny bit about, or is he? But I don't think that's going to happen.

So we have Miles who played in the November window. Miles and Zimmerman both played in the November window. And then both played in a playoff game. Zimmerman played in two playoff games. But they've both been off since Thanksgiving. Zimmerman played 90 against Bosnia. Miles didn't go to that camp. These guys aren't match fit, right?

On the European side, centerback is actually where we have a ton of match fit guys. It's like the one position where we're doing pretty well. We've got Richards and Brooks, Mark McKenzie, CCV and Ream have all been playing pretty much nonstop. I shouldn't say that. So McKenzie and CCV in particular have been off since late December. McKenzie's last game was December 19th. CCVs was December 26th, but they all still have games to play before the window. Is Belgian League back in action on this weekend?

Yep, this weekend. They're all kicking off again. And CCV kicks off Tuesday. in a match. They're just off the weekend, but they play Tuesday again. So they're back in the swing. So we have all those guys who are going to be sort of ready to go.

But I think a lot of people at this point consider Miles and Zimmerman as the starters, as the presumptive starters. Do you think that just by just that curiosity? We haven't talked in forever, Bells, I feel like. It's been a one on air. I think that that'd be my guess for how Burrhalter views it, you know? that that's the starting centerback pairing. Just because he left Brooks off the roster of the last window,

kind of inexplicably, or at least the explanation was never very satisfying. So, yeah, I think for me, it's, I'm conflicted about it. I do think Brooks has some limitations defensively. Obviously, we talked about that a million times, but I don't know. against like a hunt against a honduras as long as he has i mean against el salvador or honduras as long as he has a miles or a zimmerman or chris richards next to him to cover ground i think it's fine you know we want

we want somebody who can pass the ball like he can to to to unlock this defense that's going to be you know they're going to they're going to come in and they're going to pack it in i would think uh in columbus and st paul would not surprise me at all uh bells you're again since we haven't talked on and so long. You're going to have to stop me if I've already said these. It's been a long time. I don't quite remember. But the thing that bugged me the most about the Burrhalter post-game interview with Warsaw after Jamaica was that, like, Warshaw asked him what we needed to do differently. And Burr-Helter just said, we needed to play more direct. And then it was just left there. Like, they didn't do anything else on that. They switched into how we could have defended Honduras better,

which incidentally, I'm sorry, Jamaica better, which was even more frustrating after we didn't explore the other piece because it was sort of Warshaw going on to all these different scenarios we could have tried. And then Berhalter just at the end being like, yeah, but they just gave the ball back to us every time. Like the issue against Jamaica is very much what we did with the ball, not what we did against the ball. And John Brooks is exactly the centerback you need if you want to try to do things with the

ball. So he's a guy who I think would definitely help us in this window in a lot of different scenario. So I'm really hoping to see him. He is playing matches. So, yeah, so... You got to imagine, even if Barth is reluctant to bring him in for whatever reason he has for that, that the match fitness and his ability to pass the ball has to push it over the line.

He's going to be in this camp. You got to imagine. I think so. I think the rationale offered for the last, for leaving him out last window. Like, I get the rationale, even if I disagree with it, in that against Mexico, we wanted the, like, full speed ahead centerbacks to help. help with our pressing. So I really mean full speed ahead, like being able to step up high and press like crazy and being left in island scenarios at times. And we saw that play out

where they were defending on islands quite a bit. And that's not where you want John Brooks. And then playing on the road against Jamaica, like I can see not being crazy about starting him there. It's just, you know, once the game was playing, once the game was in progress against Jamaica, that's where it was like, oh, this is where we definitely need John Brooks. But I don't think those rationales apply in this window because it's three games instead of two. We've got two home games against weaker opponents. These teams, Honduras and El Salvador, playing in the U.S. are not going to take the game to us the way Mexico would try to do. We are going to enjoy a ton of the ball.

And so, yeah, I think that those rationales just don't apply. If Brooks is left off at this point, I really do think it's just a matter of like some kind of friction between Burrhalter. and Brooks. Yeah. Yep. Okay. So. But just to sort of your point, like, this is the big question for me is how much

Burhalter values sort of the depth chart standing if he really has Miles and Zimmerman as his starters over that match fitness. Because how high ahead of their competition do they need to be if they're starting two months cold over guys who are, you know, going to be playing some Bundesliga games this weekend. Yeah. And we say, I mean, I say I don't fully. trust him, but I would not be shocked if against El Salvador, it was Brooks and Richards

starting the game. Like that, I think Burrhalter is somewhat unpredictable on this kind of thing. So who would you bring? Who are your four centerbacks then? Or five? Oh, I'm bringing five. Remember, it's a big camp. So I'm kind of going down, I am bringing Miles and Zimmerman.

I'm certainly not leaving him off. I'm bringing Richards, Brooks. And I think I'm saying CCV, just because. Because I like McKenzie. I think McKenzie was kind of brought in as a camp guy last window to not play. I think Berhalter almost said as much. But I feel like it'd be good to get CCV integrated. Maybe other people are just like, well, he has no role to play in this qualifying window

or in this campaign at all. I just kind of want to test him out. And I feel like being the fifth centerback in a window is a good way to do that. Okay. I mean, I'll be fine with CCV over McKenzie. I think it's between those two, right? Tim Ream could storm back into the picture. Because he's a great camp guy, too, it seems like.

Bring them all. Bring them all, all seven. No, CCV's a long shot. I think CCV for me is like in the Duane Holmes camp. I'm like, oh, I'd be interested in seeing this. It's not going to happen, right? It's McKinsey. It's going to be McKinsey.

Yeah, it's going to be McKinsey. And I'm not mad about Mark McKinsey being in camp. I like Mark McKinsey a lot. Yeah. Okay, so we've handled goalkeeper and centerback. Let's move to fullbacks. So we've got three in camp right now. We've got Bellow.

We've got Brooks Lennon, looks Brennan. What is it? Looks Brennan is what it is. Looks Brennan. And we've got Dwan Jones, who Burrhalter is described as a surprise, right? Is that the word to use? Yep. Which if, I don't know, I don't know what, it's hard to know what Burrhalter means by that.

It could just mean like, oh, it's pleasantly surprised, but we're still just going to, you know, send you home and good luck next season to want. Or it could be, yes, he's going to be in camp. We really like him. And this is, if that's the case, if it's the second scenario, like this is what I feel like we don't do enough of. We don't give ourselves enough of a chance to be pleasantly surprised by some players, specifically in areas that we need to be surprised with, like left back, like center mid,

center mid especially. And center mid is, uh, the, the guys in the camp right now are sort of a bunch of retreads, with the exception of Georgie Mihailovich and I guess Cole Bass it's not really a retread he's a recent addition to the pool but let's go back to fullback

sorry but sorry everybody so those three guys again the MLS guys of course haven't played since since November anything else on those guys that you think is meaningful I mean we talked about Duan Jones a little bit on the Monday review

he's he's fast he's two-footed He seems to be a responsible and effective defender and okay going forward, right? Like, not fantastic, but good enough. Yeah, and again, in these troubling left-back times, like, that can be, that can get you onto the roster. Yeah. Yeah, I guess, so for me, it's obviously Robinson and Dest are locks, and Dest is not playing for

Barcelona right now and hopefully is moving to a city in the south of Germany soon. Dest hasn't played since December 8th. So he's been off. He'll have been off for like eight weeks. These are like, that's an off season. I didn't realize it was that long. He's been in training,

but he, and he's only played a couple of times before he stopped playing too. So he's got 140 minutes since the, I think that actually might be, yeah, since the November window, but it's just he's not playing. Yeah, and he wasn't even in the November window. And then Yedlin,

Yedlin's been playing a lot, right? Yeah, Yedlin's racking up minutes. Although he's been off since December 18th, so he'll be looking at like six weeks without a game. And that is actually coach's choice because he just has not gotten on the field in their last four games. There's speculation that he's on it,

that he's like got a transfer coming up. But, you know, if that was already determined, it seems weird that it would still be going on. Because, again, he hasn't played since middle of December. So if they already knew he was gone, I don't know why they'd be waiting until the end of January to actually ship him off. And that's weird because he was pretty much a lock starter for most of the fall. That'd be strange for him to fall out of favor. He squeezed like six games into the break between November, between Jamaica, between the window, and when he got benched in mid-December.

So he played a ton of minutes and then just benched. There could be other things. I don't know if there's like injuries that don't always show up, but he's been on the bench available, just not playing. Hmm. Scali. Vines and Scali have both Vines and Scali. Scali and Vines, I guess, if you want to put them in the order of likely call-ups.

They've both been off since mid-December as well. So they're looking at five weeks, six weeks without playing. So this is where it's just even our European guys are Could be looking a little bit rusty here But I imagine Scali will be in the lineup for Gladback this weekend He was out last weekend for a red card, right? No, I think he was COVID protocols And I don't know if he had it or if he was just exposed

But I believe that's what he was out of the lineup for So he's got a game this weekend He's got a midweek cup match And then another game on the weekend So three chances to get shake some of that rust off hopefully. Yeah, if those three matches or anything like all the matches last fall, he's going to play. So, yeah, I feel okay.

We got Reggie Cannon. Reggie Cannon has been playing right centerback. In a three-man back line, right? That's right. That's kind of interesting. He started three games in the last couple weeks. That is interesting. I don't know what are the implications of that for the national team.

I mean, he's not going to play centerback for us. I wouldn't think so, right? Like, we just had Walker Zimmerman zoom up the depth chart, uh, adding, so adding another sort of quality player there. We got Aaron Long working his way back. I don't think Reggie Cannon, I mean, I don't know. I'm not seeing it. Yeah.

I'm not swearing anything off ever, but are you, are you, uh, I haven't, I haven't watched much of his clips over the last couple months. So I'm not, I'm not following him closely, but, um, I don't, I don't believe he'll be in the camp, I guess. All right. So who are your fullbacks in this, in this, once the official camp begins? Dest, yeah, Dest, Yedlin, Scali, Robinson. Yeah, sure, Jones.

Should throw Jones in there. I would love that. That'd be a really fun story. So I'm hoping for that, too. I mean, it pretty much, it pretty much writes itself, the fullback selection, right? Yeah, it'll probably be vines, but Vines instead of Jones. That's my guess, but I would much rather have Jones

to just try it out. Okay, midfield. He's not going to play. Anthony should play all three games. Anthony's used to the championship grind. He can play three games. Yeah. He's made for this kind of scheduling.

And Destin Yedlin can split the time on the right. Maybe Yedlin versus Canada. I don't know. That's what I'm thinking to, right? Well, maybe wait until we see the forecast for St. Paul and Hamilton. Give Edlin the colder game. Yeah. All right.

In the midfield, who's been playing? Who's not been playing? I'll tell you one guy who's been playing. Weston. James Earl McKinney. Yeah, I didn't even put him on this. I didn't need to do any research on him. He's playing constantly.

He's amazing. He's in our lineup. Yeah. It wouldn't surprise me if he plays 270 minutes in this window. Yeah, I would I would auger for it. That'd be my vote. That's what I want. I didn't do Adams either because he's also playing.

And again, he's going to probably play all available minutes come qualifying. The guy's in camp right now. It's a weird hodgepodge. So we've got Leget and Acosta and Roldon as sort of the staples. But then we also have Yule back again, who we just, you know, you can't, he's just so resilient. He's going to keep coming back to these camps. I just laugh. Like, again, he should accept every call-up he gets.

It's an amazing experience for any player. But I'm just like picturing him, like, hanging out near the, near the training ground where the coaches are selecting the rosters like, hey, I'm still here. And they're like, oh, if he's already here, let's just, he can stay. Come on in, Jackson. Yeah. It's good for him. And then we've got Georgie, which is strange to me because he's, I don't know that

Georgie is really a center midfielder. He's been more of a wing. His successful season in Montreal was mostly on the wing, right? Or as like a half-space merchant. Do you get tired of saying half-space merchant? Just a little. A little style book question for you. Yeah.

Yeah. What do we need? Do we need to, it needs to evolve, right? Just in the language. Or we could just, we could just, you know, say it in a less interesting way. Mostly he's a guy who tucks in and playmates from wide. I've been starting to call him like more of just front three players. Is he a center mid or is he more of like a front three guy?

Because I feel like in the modern game, that's just sort of what we're evolving to is like you're either part of the real engine room or you're up ahead of him just doing the fancy attacking stuff. But you also have to do a ton of defending because that's how it works nowadays. Yeah. Well, you're in charge of the dictionary. So I'll say I'll call him a front three player. Not a center mid. So digression over. George's listed as a center mid, even though that's not really what he's been doing for his club.

So that's the question of what Burrhalter sees him as and whether he'll play there or not for us. Or whether he'll be in the final group at all. Do you see it happening? I don't know. Probably not, but, but, you know, if we don't have Wea and Raina and Georgie is showing Burrhalter something as a tucked in winger, as a tucked in winger,

it could happen. I mean, it's not going to be doing Holmes, you know? Ah, why'd you have to say? He's on my list. I've got his minutes posted up there, a little higher. That's the issue, though, right? So you're going to bring in Georgie who's sort of on the fridge. I know we just said we want Dewan Jones in, which is the same thing.

But you got George, he's sort of on the fringe, but he hasn't played in forever. So like, what are we doing here? How are we going to gauge him at all? And then he comes in. And if he doesn't look good, it's like, all right, well, we didn't really put him in a chance, didn't really give him a chance to succeed here. I think we can, I think we can comfortably speculate without saying anything, without saying anything conclusive, that there may be some personal friction on that front, too.

You know, I mean, that's been speculated a lot of places or talked about in various ways. But otherwise, it doesn't make any sense that Holmes just doesn't even get a look for a year and a half. Yeah, I'm, I'm like resigned to that at this point because it makes way more sense than just like being left out in favor of some of the guys that have gotten called up even in European specific camps. Yeah. Anyway, sticking with center midfielders. So we have some European guys who are in season who seem like. they would be ready then to do this in addition to obviously McKenny and Adams. And I haven't said Musa yet because Moose actually has not played very much. He finally got a start again against Real Madrid.

I think because there's an injury to the regular starter. Is that right? I think that's right. Yeah. He's played some cup matches and he comes off the bench pretty regularly. Yeah. He well, he has 98 minutes against top flight teams since the November window. That's it. Is that a right? That's it man He only has 345 minutes total since November window and three of those appearance like 200 of those minutes were in cup matches and one of those games was against the sixth tier team. Another one was a fourth tier team and then they just played a Segunda team in the

cup so they haven't played a first division team in the cup yet and those are his only start so he's he's barely playing. But he's match fit I mean you would have to say right I mean he comes in and plays a cup match for 90 minutes, he's match fit. I think so. I'm considering a match fit. Again, he started against Madrid and went 65 over the weekend. I assume they've got three more games before the window,

and I think that injury is going to keep Mousa in the lineup for all three. So I'm not really worried about his fitness. I just still think it's an interesting, almost like a trivia thing, that Moussa, despite everyone sort of considering him a massive part of our lineup now, is an 18-year-old kid who's not really really. playing for his club or wasn't it was barely playing for his club it seems like a case of him i mean i don't know as much as his manager obviously but just seems like he did he's not used properly or maybe he just doesn't fit that what that team is trying to do because he's so valuable to the

us um and it's i it's hard for me to imagine him being on a team where they're like no we don't need somebody who can like be absolutely ball secure and progress possession basically whenever he once on our team. I don't know. Or maybe it's just easier to do that in Concaf matches than we really let ourselves believe. Oh, no. Maybe you just can't do that.

The things that he's doing aren't, you can't do them as well in La Liga. I don't know. Well, he doesn't do that much in the final third. That's kind of, that's how he is both for the national team and for, and for his club. So I don't know. Maybe that's, maybe that's weighted more strongly. at Valencia. But Moosa's going.

Moose is going to be in, he's obviously coming to camp. The other guys, we've got Busio who's playing regularly. We've got Tanner Testman, who's playing pretty regularly. I don't know where he stands on Berhalter.

I think Berthar likes him. But I don't know, I don't know how close he's going to be to a call-up. And this is where it'll be interesting of Bertharter, I think, does like him. Plus, he's actually playing games.

He's got like 400 minutes in the last month. Two more games to go before the window. Do you think Tasman gets a call here? I don't, again, again, I don't know. But I feel kind of ambivalent about him, to be honest. Like, I, yeah, I don't know. I don't, I don't see, like, I don't see that he is excellent at any one thing for Venetia.

Buccio's excellent at like being tidy on the ball. Um, um, but Tessman's not excellent at that. He's okay. He's okay. I don't know. Do you feel strongly about Tessman?

Like, it's, it's one of those where I actually strongly want him to be in camp, but it's just for fun. So I won't be mad if he's not. How's that? Like, oh, that'd be fun. Uh, so I,

I feel like with our, the two home games we have, I feel like it'd be a good place where we could bring him in. if we're if we're again light on number eight options certainly light on number eight options who are in any way like playing soccer so I'm kind of hopeful but I'm not going to be shocked at all when his name isn't on the list yeah I mean I would want I want him in camp because I want you know everybody in camp Musa McKinney Adams Buccio Tessman and Luca Deletore and you know bring in Alex Mendez while we're at it you know so Lucas plays

Yeah, Luca had been playing. Luca played a ton of games, again, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, seven games in that span. But then he's been off since Christmas. So he's got two games coming up. They resumed this weekend, maybe midweek, I don't remember. It's this weekend, I think, yeah. Okay. So they've got two games ahead of the window, but he's been off for a month.

But I think he's back in because we're back to three games. I think his omission last window was in part because Berhalter felt like he could keep a tighter line. tighter roster with the two games instead of three. My guess is Lucas back. I don't think we do see Testman. Okay. And Mendez, that's a great poll. He's played like 10 of Vizela's last 11 games, right?

Or is he played in like all 11 started, started like nine of them? Yeah. I mean, I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head, but he's, I think he's started 10 games this season in all comps, something like that. And he's played in every game since the beginning of October. And you and I have both watched some of his clips. He is, I mean, I'm not, look, I'm not, like, calling for Alex Mendes to be, like, he must be called up for this camp. I'm just saying, like, at this point, he plays for a Portuguese side that is not in the relegation zone.

He's a regular player for them. Regular starter. Yeah. Regular starter at this point. I think he's, he's playing center mid. He's a starting center. They're not sticking him on the wing to, like, limit his involvement in the engine room. He's their center midfielder now.

Yeah. Kind of like if you're watching McKinney at Juventus, he does, you know, he does pull out wide sometimes and do stuff. But, but yeah, he's a, he's a midfielder. And, and he's, I think the thing that's most interesting to us is he, he's, he's getting, like, tougher in the tackle. Like, he's getting, he's getting stuck in. And that was, that was, like, the knock on him, you know, two years ago, year ago, even. No, it's, it's really ironic. I think I may have said this last time we recorded,

but he's getting much more stuck in. He's bulldozing some people. He's not actually like delivering a lot of incisive passes. He's not hitting like the really pretty passes that we, that we really enjoyed at like the U20 World Cup or that we watched when you spotted when you were watching him playing as he was coming up. So he's like shifted the other way at this point

and he's just doing a lot of like trying to do a lot of the dirty work. And I'm waiting to see that next step where he combines that silky left foot that he's got. Yep. Yeah, I think he's, you know, you can see his class, you can still see his class on the field. Like he, he, he has moments of class and he plays, you know, as Kroiff would say, he plays the right pass

at the right time to the right foot of his teammates, generally speaking. But yeah, he's not, he's not hitting those like hero passes that we came to love at the U20 World Cup. You know, maybe that's a, maybe that's just a part of, development, you know, take a break from the hero passes a little bit and then sort of slowly reincorporate them. Yeah. All right. So what midfielders are you bringing? All of them. All of them.

No, I mean, like I said, I don't feel strongly about Testament. I'm not going to be mad if he's there. I'm not going to be mad if he's not. I feel like we're going to see Busio. He just feels like Buccio is one of Burrhalter's guys at this point. I really do want to see Luca Deletore. By the way, we have an interview scheduled with him on Monday. So look for that. I don't... Oh, nice.

You know, sometimes these things fall through, so who knows. But that's the... It's on the schedule for both of us. And so, yeah, McKinney, Musa Adams, Luca, Bousio. I expect Legit and rolled on to be in this camp as, probably as midfielders, probably listed as midfielders. That's not what I necessarily want,

but I expect that to happen. And then, of course, I do think Acosta should be there as a backup six. And anybody else that... No, I don't think so. I think that's it. All right. I'm hoping for MMA. I'm hoping for Busio and Luca, and then Acosta

and Tessman. I feel, again, because this camp could be... There could be some, like, this could be a real chance. I'm not saying like that I'm guaranteeing this or that I'm even really expecting it. I'm just saying it is at least a possibility here that we could have some of our first like real garbage time minutes where we could be, we could potentially be cruising in some of these home games where there is an opportunity to be like, all right, we're going to throw testament out there. We're going to take Adams off and throw testament out there for 20 minutes because we're 4-0 up. Not saying that like I'm taking our opponents lightly, but out of all the realm of like possible.

comes if you're going to say that four zero games are possible this would be like one of those games yeah two of these games what would be what's the what's the dividing line between adams came off early enough in this game therefore he can play he can start against canada like is if he comes off at the 60 minute mark can he can he go against Canada three days later well it'll the gameplay itself matters too right so it's not just the minutes if it's a track meet back and forth and back and forth that's going to matter I don't think it'll be like that. I think it, you know, you think about that Bosnia game and how like slow it was. It's a friendly, but, uh, you know, how much we just sort of had the game, even, even the Canada

game where we played a, uh, the home match against Canada and the qualifier. It wasn't a track me. Super so. Yeah. Yeah. So you're exerting way less energy, uh, in that game. So I, I definitely think like, uh, it wouldn't, I don't think it's impossible at all for some of these guys to see, uh, three starts because of how much I expect us to control. the game the bookend games and and it's really just going to be like in that Honduras match on the third third match day can we can we contain a leash out with the leash or is he going to run is he going to have like a lot of chances to run downhill at us yeah yeah I really want to see the Musa McKinney Adams trio start all three games

really but I know that's probably not realistic but I find if I know one thing about this team, it's, I know I want that. Well, keep mind, Adams is still one yellow card away from a suspension. Oh, yeah. Well, if we have to replace one of them, I think he's, Acosta for him is the one that is the change that seems like it brings the most continuity. All right. All right.

Well, that's my midfield and I've got rolled on. I don't consider a midfielder anyway. And then I've got a little legit twist for later. So, well, let's do the Leget twist. We're doing the wingers now. All right. I feel like if Leggett has a place on this team, and I don't really care one way or another if he's in this group or not for the camp, but I feel like Burrhalter will have him.

I'm kind of surprised that as much as we've seen him kind of flounder at center midfield, that Burrhalter hasn't at any point shifted him over to one of the half-space merchant roles. That's where he looked very good doing the similar job in that Canada game way back in 2019 where he sort of like reemerged as a key person on the team. And so he's just, he played that number 10 role against Canada. And in that game, he had Jordan Moore sort of as a sideline hugging left winger with Tim Riem staying home behind him. So, so Lajette was basically playing that role and he was very effective. And then from that game on,

he got stuffed back a line playing central midfield. And he has not quite like looked as effective since. So I'm just, if we're going to keep him in the group, I feel like he's better served being like depth as a, as one of those wide tucked in winger half space merchant inside wingers. Is that all the, are those all the names we can give them? Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how Burrhalter thinks about that because, um, because I, I, I,

I feel like chances are, Lijette's going to, legit, Lijet could easily get a start in the midfield in this window. you know, from Burrhalter. I like your twist. Well, that's my twist. That's my legit twist. Other wingers. I'd rather see legit out there than rolled on.

If we're having to get into our depth because of, you know, some of the injuries we're dealing with. Yeah. That'd be my preference. Well, so like other, other winger options, like we said, Raina and Wea are out. Almost, it's not for sure, but it seems that way in Raina's case. And then. Can I, can I do a little Wea rant that I didn't notice in.

until today when I was digging up all their minutes. Yeah. So I kind of want to blame Leal's manager for way of being out right now. He played in the November window. He started both our games. The last game was on a Tuesday against Jamaica. And then he played 90 minutes that Friday. Like he flew to France and played 90 minutes immediately on Friday.

And then played another 83 minutes the following Tuesday and then subbed in on the following on that coming Saturday and then started again on Wednesday. So, like, he just was, I feel like he was overused and it's not surprising that he had a muscle injury. That's really disappointing. So I was fussy when I was looking at those minutes. I was like, oh, man, give the guy one, one, like, weekend to recover. Whoever you are coaching, Will. I don't know how to pronounce his name.

Whoever he is, he's a idiot. Yeah, that's too bad. Because we don't, like I said earlier, we don't even know when he's coming back at this point. No, I haven't seen anything about it. All right. Pool sick, though. Poolick's going to be there. Poolick's playing regularly at a variety of positions.

We can use them wherever we need to. Yeah, and then the question, of course, with Pulisic is going to be how do we get the most out of him and not have it just be him trying to make an AN1 mixtape the whole time. So I'm watching for that. I'm watching closely for that. who else do we have Aronson Aronson has him

I can't remember if you said this already but he hasn't played he hasn't played since early December December 11th the snow falls the snow falls earlier in Austria than in the rest of Europe I guess and he won't have a competitive match

under his belt before this window no I was I was half hoping that he'd be in the extended camp but it didn't happen I know Salzberger are playing some friendlies I think I think there's a fun Salzburg, uh, maybe, maybe, maybe they play young boys. I think there's this fun U.S.

friendly coming up here. Yeah. I see. That has two of the guys. I saw. I think it is, I think it is young boys actually. Don't quote me on that. But yeah, so Aronson's probably next up. Obviously Aronson and Poulsick, I think would be the presumed one and two with Rayne with Rayna and Wea out. Uh, I got to imagine Ariola then is Burhalter's next favorite. As, as we know, Burrhalter rates him really highly, but again, so Areoles in camp now. We should, we should have done the camp guys, huh? Areola, Jordan Morris, and is that about it? For Wingers, I think so.

It depends what you consider Ferreira. Yeah. And it depends what you consider Georgie. Yeah, unless, you know, unless something very revelatory happens in this camp that's going on right now, that we, that we don't know. about it's got to be Ariel and Morris who joined Pulisic and Aronson

as as wingers for this final roster and then you know if Perhalter does the legit twist and plays him as a as a winger

or you know thinks of him as a winger that would make five you don't so you don't think Conrad or Nico are going to sneak in here as a

as sort of the in season players I don't. No, I don't think they are. Maybe Conrad. Maybe Conrad. But probably not. We've given up on the Dwayne Holmes call up.

Yes. Sadly. It's a tough day. Every time. I still, I can't actually give it up. I still have him on my roster sheets and I still watch all those involvements after every match. He's scrappy, man.

What is it you say about him? He has, he's a leverage merchant or something like that? Yeah, he's absolutely. leverage merchant. It's got great balance. So that's going to be, you know, what's the, what's your feeling on Morris? Is he, I thought he, you know, he was rusty, maybe against Bosnia, but he did some things that he would be able to repeat against a team like El Salvador or Honduras. Created a little danger.

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like with Morris, I feel like his strengths lend themselves well to like powering through Rust because he is kind of that like bulldozer winger. Yeah. So if he's on, I'm not going to be, I'm not going to be mad at any of these guys. If Raina and Wei are out, like there's no two replacements that are going to be like upsetting to me. For me, it's kind of like a grab bag of replacements at that point. So if it's Morris, it'll just be excited to see if he can, if he's anywhere close to the,

to the effectiveness that he was prior to his injury. And I guess we're going to have to hope that he is because as much as I'm like saying, we could cruise 4-0, we could also be struggling late in a 0-0 game. Did you not think he was close to his effectiveness in that Bosnia game? Or is it just? I did not think so. No, I thought maybe there was a little bit of like hopefulness in like creeping into some of the assessments of him. Like he did a couple of things where he maybe like shook a guy for like half a step. out wide, but not really in a dangerous situation.

So I didn't think, no, I really didn't think he did too much that I was like, oh, yeah, that's, that's going to be something that's going to come in handy in January. Hmm. Okay. It felt, it felt a lot more like a stepping stone towards fitness than he's there. He's ready. I mean, I don't, I don't, I haven't done the background research on the left back he was up against. So it could have been, that guy could have been like terrible.

But it did seem like he, he, he beat him a couple times. beat him two, three times. But I don't want to argue about it. So Morris, so Morris, you're sort of ambivalent about or you don't even have him in your roster. I don't have them in the group,

but it's, again, mainly, like, fitness issues. If he's fit and he's dominating camp or just, like, not huffing and puffing in camp, like, throw him in there. Again, names out of a hat for me after Pool Sick and Erinson. Okay. Well, names, show us who the names out of the hat are.

So, I've got Conrad, Nico, Morris, Ariola, Dwayne Holmes is always going to be in my hat. And then I threw Sebastian Legat's name in this hat rather than sentiment hat. But that's also contingent on, like, has he sort of bounced back from what was a really, like, downward trend of performance from the end of 2020 2021 I'm sorry capped off with that again that match against Panama

in Panama City which was I think his last definitely his last start maybe his last appearance yeah he hasn't been on since then he hasn't played for the national team since then all right let's go to striker

here we go now Ricardo Pepi is blessedly with a club in Europe, so now he's playing. You know, he played 30 minutes over the last weekend, and he's not going to be in that same situation where he wouldn't have played for, you know, 90 days or whatever it would have been,

because Dallas didn't even make the playoffs. So he's at least, you know, he's likely to get on the field again this weekend for Augsburg. He's coming, right? Has to be. And in part because the other options are, I mean, if we're going to bring three strikers, we don't have three who have been playing. We have Sergeant and Pfeck are the only two who are playing.

So if we bring three, we're bringing at least one more who's not playing. And my guess is we could bring three strikers who are not playing. Yeah. Wouldn't surprise me. So why, so who are you bringing besides Pepe? Well, we've got Zardis and Ferrer in camp now, right? Yeah. And they both played against Bosnia.

Frere played more of like a, played a winger with Pepe ahead of him. then Zardes played the final 30th striker. So Frere was playing like Shadow Striker, his sort of free role in the, off the wings. And that's why I'm hoping to see Frere again, just because I really like him, and I just want to see more of him in action.

And after that, if it's Ferreira and Pepe, I don't really care. It's really fickle too. Yeah. Well, my not caring is fickle. Like, I kind of want to see D.K., but if, if he's not, doing much for West Brom like he hasn't played in forever, then let's bring Pfok.

Yeah, and D.K. has not played yet for West Brom. I'm not sure what the latest news on him this weekend is, but did you, were you bothered or given pause at all by the, by what I thought was a not fantastic performance from Ferreira in that, in that Bosnia game? Or you think, like, if he gets played as a nine, then he'll be, he'll be just fine or better than he was as a half-space merchant. I was, I mean, I'm given a little bit of pause, but I just really think that Ferreira still adds like a different type of play

from the nine, and I think he's good enough at it. And even in the Bosnia game, we saw instances of what that can be. So I'm totally open for it. Again, I've sort of been saying any striker is going to be worth a look compared to any of the other strikers we have. So it's just like a personal preference, and it's almost just an aesthetic. Ferreira's so smooth that I just enjoy watching him. So that's my tiebreaker.

Yeah. He's a lock picker. You got to admit that about him, even if you don't like the way he plays. Are there people who don't like the way for the place? Yeah, I don't know why I said that. I like the way he plays. I don't know why I said that.

What about Sergeant? New father. Congratulations to him. Is he, where is he in this? He just goes in the hat for me. I know there are tons of people who just can't, like, can't fathom calling a guy who doesn't score. But, like, we could be looking at our starting striker in the same boat if Pepey, like, has to deal with Augsberg's attack and, like, try to carry it himself. I don't know that Pepe is going to lead that attack to a bunch of goals over the second half of this season.

So that's just, that's one of the difficulties of jumping into a league that might be, uh, too big for you or if the league's not too big for you, the team that you're on isn't going to put you in a position to do anything. And I'm not trying to make excuses. I don't know if sergeant's ever going to be anything. But I just, I don't know that he's not either, just based on what we've seen from the teams he's been trying to do it for.

Yeah. Well, Pfok is not, has not been playing a lot lately either. Right? Right. Just his team's been off since December 19th. So he's been off for a month as well. They just got back into friendlies, but, you know, those friendlies are against, like, just any, I mean, it's kind of like what the U.S. is doing.

I think they're playing, like, Grand Canyon University. So, like, I think that is one of their games, isn't it? Is that right? I didn't know that. In this camp, they're playing some friendlies against just any teams who are within 30 miles of you. So, you know, limited, limited utility there in how much fitness PFOx can be building up. So, again, just he's another name in the hat. I know, I know, like, it probably doesn't go over well

when I'm just like, yeah, pick anybody. Like, our shows are not super opinionated in that sense. Yeah, opinionated about some stuff and not about other stuff. I guess I just wonder if Sergeant could sneak in. And the rationale would be, hey, he's really struggling for a bad Norwich side. But, like, he's a Premier League regular starter in the Premier League. like he deserves to be in this camp. I mean, we know he's pretty good at doing some of the things we need our striker to do.

Like he's good at coming back, dropping in, and, you know, cooking a little bit. He's not that good at scoring goals, either when you talk about top-line stats or underlying stats. But, I mean, who is for us? that's going to be the big question we're still waiting to answer before before November. Zardaz hasn't played since October other than, you know, the Bosnia runout. So that's another one of those things. He was injured for the last portion of the MLS season, similar to Morris.

Morris barely got back. But that's just kind of what we're looking at with our pools. That just nobody is really playing games. So Sergeant is the only guy who hasn't had this uninterrupted break of like playing matches. Pepe's going to hopefully get back, but he's played 30 minutes so far since the end of November. And, you know, D.K. still hasn't. We don't know what he's going to do either.

So if match fitness is a big factor, like it could be Sergeant coming back in. And I wouldn't be bothered. I won't be bothered if he's not there. Yeah. I've talked myself into wanting Sergeant in the camp with just the slightest amount of desire, just a tiny, tiny bit.

What else? My hope, my hope is still that with, with the right midfield in place and like the, the midfield cooking the way it can, uh, whichever strikeer we put up there is going to get the job done. And I'm pretty, I'm actually pretty optimistic about that, certainly for our home games. Do you, do you, do you have any strong feelings about rotation? I know you, you want to, you, you want to get some blowouts, get a blowout against El Salvador and get somebody on to eat some minutes.

Uh, not really. I'd be fine running, I'd be fine starting MMA all three games. It's not ideal, but like, unless, unless they're like, their tests are not, not, not coming out very well for that, after that first game. Like, I'm actually kind of hopeful. Adams did it in the first window. Miles Robinson did it in the first window. We guys can do it.

So if they're coming into camp healthy, that's kind of what I'm hoping to see. And then you find chances to give them breaks. you know, if a game is settled. So for those three, I'm kind of hoping that we do run that engine room the whole time. The wingers, I think you have to plan some rotation. So I don't know, but no, I don't. Do you have like, I want to run, you know,

Poulsick and Aronson and then Arroyola and then Poolecic and Ariola? Or what are you thinking for any specific rotation? There are a million different iterations and none of them really bothers me. Well, I mean, some of them would bother me. bother me, but like, I think Pulisic, I'm, I'm, I'm more bullish on Morris than you are. So I, so I, so I, my initial thought was like, if we're going to play Al Salvador, let's, uh, let's do Pulisic and Morris, let more, you know, not to disrespect the opponent, which is what I'm doing. But, um, uh, you know, let Morris gain his match fitness against us. Yeah, let him,

let him, let him beat up on, on them if he can. And, um, you know, death, des could be behind him and kind of tucking in doing stuff in the in the channel like he likes to do. So I don't know that that appeals to me but I don't I don't feel strongly about it. If it's Pulisic and Erinson starting up top against El Salvador, that's fine. I do think Yedlin for Dest against Canada makes some sense

unless like you said the forecast for St. Paul really falls off a cliff. And then yeah, I think it's, I'm with you. I think it should be Anthony. starting all the games that left back. If we have yellow card for Tyler Adams in either of the first two games, I do want to see, I guess it would be Acosta for him. But there's still a part of me that I would like to see Luca Delatore at some point

because there's going to be games we have where Moose and McKinney are not both available. And, you know, God forbid that could happen in this window for some reason or another. So. Well, even if they start all three games, they probably shouldn't go 270. So even though I was saying, like, let them go too. Like, that's probably going to be too much. Yeah. So no, I don't have specific rotations I want to see.

I would love, love, love if Jordan Morris is back back or even like mostly back. And we could start him in a World Cup qualifier opposite Pool Sick. I think that has a lot of merit with him hugging, hugging wide and desk being able to free to run to the inside. I think that would be great to see. And I do think that he could bully El Salvador if he's even close to being fully back. So that would be tremendous news. I'm just like being conservative with my expectations.

Well, anything else on the roster? Because I got two little pieces of housekeeping. Get into the housekeeping. Okay. Number one. Thanks for indulging me with my ridiculous minutes, like deep dive. Oh, no. Thanks for indulging me, Greg.

Two pieces of housekeeping are one. Please consider supporting us on Patreon. That's where we make money for making this podcast. And we do appreciate everybody who does support us on Patreon. The other thing is Greg and I are both going to be at the game in St. Paul. Who-hoo. And we're still ironing out the veering out the vexed. menu for the pre-party, but we will have a pre-party and we will let you know as soon as we

have that nailed down. It'll be close. It'll be close to the stadium. It'll be along the green line. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.