Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #241: Monday Review — Pepi starts, Dike debuts, Sargent gets a W

Episode Date: January 18, 2022

Vince, Watke and Belz walk through the weekend of the inconclusive American striker, plus McKennie's continued excellent form, a question about whether Pulisic should be considered an elite talent, an earnestly joyful look ahead to the upcoming window, and much more.support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedsign up for our weekly newsletter: https://scuffedweekly.substack.com/ join the Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU buy our merch: https://my-store-11446477.creator-spring.com/drop us a question at this link and we’ll try to answer it: https://forms.gle/vEatDVE6wsMzekep8 Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuffed podcast. I'm Adam Bells in Georgia. With me is Greg Velasquez in Iowa. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. This is the Monday review. We'll get the roster for the upcoming qualifiers later this week, I'd think. And then we play Al Salvador in nine days. How are y'all feeling?

I'm feeling very, very well, Adam. Good. Good to hear it. What about you, Vince? I'm feeling good, man. I'm just ready to go to Columbus in 10 days, 10 days, I think. I'm going to Columbus, so excited to be back there. Hopefully to see a U.S.

men's national team win. It's 10 days, isn't it? I said 9, and it's really 10. I apologize, everybody. Hey, good job keeping Adam on his toes, but offense. Or keep me honest, I should say. All right. First thing we got to talk about is Ricardo Pepi's first start in the Bundesliga.

You guys got any thoughts? I have a few, but let me turn it over to you. So I feel like it went as good as you could. hope for it to go without a goal when you take in all considerations as far as like the team context, the position he was playing, the style of Augsburg plays, and his performance in itself other than the snatch chance that was probably offside. But other than that, man, I mean, like I couldn't, I couldn't, you really couldn't expect more from his first start in the Binda Sleping.

Yeah, I thought I was really encouraging. And then I saw that kicker rated him a 4.5. Which is a very bad score, yeah. It's a bad score. It goes from 6 to 0 and zero is good, right? Or 1, which is a crazy system. That's a whole other issue. But, you know, I thought it looked like he really,

he looked like a Bundesliga striker. He did. And the thing, the most important thing, is he generated a third of a goal in XG. So look, I mean, I mean, man, you can't please them all. You can't please them all. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

You're either going to get the nerds or you're going to get the magazine writers. So one of them are going to have something to say about it. So it is what it is. It should be noted. The third of a goal in XG, which is, you know, about on par with his season long XG at FC Dallas, which was considered not good enough by the spreadsheet merchants. He also scored a goal that was called back because of a foul. You know, I mean, so he gets zero XG for that.

And then he, you know, I think that snatched chance, does that even count towards his XG since he was, since he was offside? I believe he was offside, wouldn't he? I don't know. I don't think they called it offside, though. I don't know if they called it offside. So maybe since they didn't call it. it seems like he should have had actually more than that many XG because he also had that one kind of in the middle

that he also kind of muffed a little bit yeah that one he kind of stomped on it yeah that one and then and then he had the one with his left foot at the near post that he hit right at the goalkeeper right that was that one was probably worth a lot if XG is funny because we don't know what the back end soup is on any of these XG models we know like I know because John Mueller tweeted out

some Dutch guys list of all the best research in soccer a few weeks ago. I know that there is a new and improved XG model out there from a couple of like, you know, economists in Europe. But we don't know if like Y Scouts using that model or anybody else. So, you know, just another, just another mark against statistics in general because of their uncertainty. Math. Who needs it? One more thing, man, because there was a lot of slander out there about Pepe's ability to play the ball with his feet. You know what I'm saying?

Hold up play. Checking back to the ball, whatever. I just want to say, respect Pepe's feet, man. Respect him. Respect him. I don't want to hear y'all keep talking down on this, man. Like, we saw it multiple times in this match. He had some mistakes that he did make with the ball at his feet, but that was more decision.

making than like touch than a touch or anything like that and he had some beautiful ones that that came off so like I said man just trust the talent you see the flashes and then hope he can he can get more consistent with it and he just turned 19 just a few days ago and he's still very young I think I think it all goes back to what you said a few weeks ago Vince about like how him just being a stand-up dude with a with a good family he's going to to figure it out. He's going to figure it out. He was working his butt off on Saturday. And yeah, he also had a thing where he received the ball kind of, I don't know, out of the side of the box. And then he beat a guy to the N-line and crossed it in, which you

don't even see him do that off him. But he got, he got his cross off there. And he almost did a back hill successfully. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that was probably, if he puts, like, I don't know, a smidgen more, a bit of force on it, then it's, then it's completed. And it almost, oh, it almost was anyway. But, yeah, Peppy adding some X-A to the XG, you know what I'm saying? That's right. Yeah, that's right. And if he had put a smidgen more loft on that cross, you know, lifted it at the backpost,

that guy, the guy he was aiming for was wide open. It's just, he got, it got cut out just barely. Yeah. I mean, kicker should have given him a four at the absolute worst. I think they're really out of line there. Yeah, it is. I wonder how those kicker ratings come about. He doesn't look like, I mean, several people have said this,

but it doesn't look like Sergeant at Verde Bremen out there. It looks like he's going to get chances and he's going to be involved in the attack in a way that is going to yield goals, essentially. Sergeant, very beginning of Werder Bremen, he was really good, not to, you know. Remember that? He scored a goal. He knocked a guy over famously. We can get to that.

We could talk about his parabola later. Yeah, yeah, we can have a parabola talk coming soon. But, yeah, when they lost, what was it, Crusa, the player that was, like, really good for them. That was, like, their creative fulcrum. Like, yeah, once he was gone, then it became a struggle. That's true. Yeah, so. Well, let's talk about Sergeant real quick.

Like he, Norwich won a game over the weekend. Can you guys believe it? No, no, I can't. And like looking at the table, man, they still have a shot. I thought they were like, for sure. For sure down. But yeah, there's a lot to play for. Those Norwich fans were so excited during that game.

Very loud. Good for them, you know. Yeah. Dreaming dreams of not getting relegated. Although I still, I'm not going to get over the mean things they said about Josh. you know, so quickly. So there's still my bad books a little bit, so to speak, them and kicker.

He was his usual industrious, pesky self, and, you know, he played a cross that was directed into goal by an Everton player. So it's not scoring a goal, but it's, you know, it's pretty close to scoring a goal. Yeah. Sure. I mean, we'll take all the wins we can get. You have some downsvince? What do you?

So, first off. I like, check the discord to see what people were saying about Josh in the game thread or whatever. And they seemed like somewhat positive about it. So I was like, all right, cool. I'm going to go check out this game. Turn on peacock. You know what's cold here in Louisville got me some hot chocolate robe on, snuggled up. You know what I'm saying?

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I was ready to have a nice evening. You know what I'm saying? And then I turned the game on and I watch a solid like probably 25, 30 minutes and I was, I was disgusted. I was like, bro, I got this is a. Didn't you not see him drivel, but he did drivel by a guy though. That was exciting. Look, so, I mean, disgust was probably a little strong.

But I mean, I was thinking a good game was like going to be a good game. But this is a Josh Sargent, the bar is in hell good game. so I mean I'll say is this when he came out of the field the Norwich fans were applauding it was slightly tepid but they were applauding

so yeah and I mean it's progress you know as they say he he works hard for the badge in it you know what I'm saying he in it he puts in a shift whatever uh English term you want to use but

I mean I would like I just need to see a little bit more, man. I mean, I don't know what the point of me keep continuing to say this is, but... Yeah, I mean, it's like, it does seem like we don't know. I mean, I guess I feel like I watch Sergeant. He's good in the cage. He's working hard.

Like, do I know that Pepey is more likely to score goals for the U.S. than Josh Sargent is? I don't know, man. It seems it seems unclear. It seems unclear. But, but, yeah, I guess I wouldn't be mad if Sergeant gets called in again, like, specifically as a box to box eight. Yeah. And I mean, the thing, I was thinking about the midfield thing, and it's like, this isn't going to happen until, we're in 2022 now. this isn't going to happen until the start of the 2023 season at best because he's going to go through he's going to go through the championship season as a striker hopefully there would be no there's just no urgency to change his position now when they're still when there's still a smidgen of a chance that it could hit well I

wonder, because he didn't, he wasn't playing striker in this game. I wonder if they think that's his position, or is that they just want to play pookie really badly. I don't know. It remains to be seen. But what about sergeant's, what about sergeant's hair, though? I was getting, he's got some real Ronald McDonald energy going on. He's really growing that, that clown, uh, hair out.

Yeah. I mean, as a general principle of mine, I think everyone looks better with longer hair. So it can keep growing up as far as I'm concerned. But I'm just one person. But it's all good. And we should congratulate this man on having a baby. Yes, yes. Right?

That'll change your perspective. That'll get you make more ruthless runs in the box. Yeah. Yeah, so congrats to him for having a kid. And shame on everybody who was dunking on this man, midweek for being out of the squad. Shame on you. Shame on you. I'm still imagining you drinking hot chocolate in a robe and watching Josh Sargent being just disgusted, though.

As you say, shame on you. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. I turn the game off. I switched to another game. I watch a different game. Well, then you missed his long. recovery run where he did a tactical file where he completely wrapped the guy up and flung him to the ground. Maybe I think that might have. I really, I really like that from him.

I might have been in the comp. Maybe. Yeah, that was in the comp. But shout out to Josh for the baby, though. Congrats to him and his, I think he's married, his wife. So, so shout out to them, definitely. I don't ever want to come across as like, like, I hate these people personally or anything. It's weird to think of Josh Sargent having a child. Truly Yeah Truly Yeah you know

You mentioned people dunking on him For not being in the roster And then you know Coming to learn that actually Oh wait He was He was his wife was bringing a human Into the world

You think You know It brings to mind the words Of longtime friend of the pod Ty final third Who said You don't have to tweet You don't have to

You don't have to You don't have to You don't have to say anything. If you were on the stuff discord, you would have learned this way before it was announced. Yeah, because we got some sickos, man. We got some sickos who are deep in the Instagram landscape. Right. Like within, within 20 minutes of that lineup drop, within 20 minutes of that lineup dropping, it was, it was confirmed that, yeah, he's probably about to have a kid. Is it a little disconcerting how clear of a picture of a picture?

sure we have everything that's going on in that discord. You know? Yeah. Let's talk about D.K. Because he also made his debut, made his debut for, well, this was a debut for West Brom, which Albion, I thought he was quite bright and effective, evolved in creating at least three good chances. And I came away from looking at the, you know, his involvement saying, this guy is going

to get fouled a lot and most of the files are not going to get called. every point of conflict confrontation with a centerback ended with one of them on the ground

which is brutal and they weren't calling anything there was a time where you know how when both players go up for a header but one kind of stays down

the other one goes above them and flips over them that happened twice once when DK went over and once the other guy they didn't come close to calling either time they're just they're not going to ever call that foul.

There's no rules in the championship. I'm very excited that Barnsley ball is back, too. Yeah, I think it's, it makes me a little mad. It feels like D.K. gets the short end of the stick on this because he's so big. And, yeah, I think they, I think he gets, I don't know, I think he gets treated badly by the refs. I think he did at Barnesley. I think he feels that way, too, because he put a guy into the sideboards in reaction to. Some of the thousand one face as well, right?

I believe so. Yeah, that's the one part of the game that I saw. And shout out to Daryl, you know what I'm saying? Getting somebody a little checkin to the boards from my hockey fans. Yeah, I thought he played better than most people were saying. Apparently the commentator was really down on him. I didn't watch the English one, but that could have influenced people. he looked pretty good to me

and I honestly would be happy with all three of these strikers getting called up yeah sergeant's the most dispensable at this point I'll have to admit but um all right that's my opinion anyway Matthew Hoppe he got a haircut

he needed it he needed it I mean I mean contrary to what I just said about Josh I mean you know I'm saying he was he was looking he had bed head out there in the matches and anything like it was it was getting kind of crazy it was crazy so I think part of the issue was he kind of got caught in that middle ground between short and long hair and that's always a danger zone and that that was just his first game back but yeah I think he I think particularly he he needs that sharp clean haircut because it's he he was so annoying this game too oh my goodness he was so annoying full fully back to being in He was trying to block a throw in with his hands. You forget how annoying he is.

Yeah, like a basketball, an inbound play. He almost had two different guys throwing fists at him in a span of five minutes. Yeah, the first one he ran out to a guy on the tide line and like wrapped him up and flung him down. And then he did a back heel out of bounds. which is one of his go-to moves and then on that Vescal end on play you can see one of the opposing players has his hands up like what

what hell's this guy doing what's this? He didn't have that good of a game yeah he seems he seems on the outside looking in at the moment which is okay it's okay

yeah it's okay he got time I'm definitely gonna keep following him no matter what though the other strikers in the hopper are Zardis, Ferreira, and Pfefok, and Zardis and Ferreira are laboring in Phoenix at the moment. Okay, let's move on to the, that's the striker situation. Let's move on to the midfield.

Wesson McKinney continues to be in very good form. Do you guys watch his game? Well, he played two games this week, right? This was, he had enter in the whatever cup that was, right? Yeah. And then, right, where, There was a goal from Weston in a heartbreaking loss to Andrew Milan. And they went 120 minutes.

And then this weekend played Udinez. After going 120, he won another 90 and scored another goal. He's played very well. I do think it was not the one against the game against Udnese was not his tidiest performance. But yeah, he's, go ahead. He seemed tired to me, which is understandable, playing the amount of minutes that he plays. Like, he wasn't, there were times in the first half where there were, like, opportunities to break. And you would expect to just see Weston, like, coming in from, like, outside of the screen, like, at some point.

And, like, he just never made it. Like, those long busting runs that he would make, which he did enough of those in the midweek. So I understand. And, you know, I'm not a professional or anything. But he seemed, he didn't seem 100% Western. And he still got a goal, which just goes to show you that, yes, he is in the best form of any U.S. men's national team, not only midfield or player of all time. Up in the any there. Yeah, you know, he scored the goal.

He also got on the end of a few other crosses and could have put him away. As we know, XG on headers is not as high as you might think it is. It's actually pretty low. But he also played the entry pass in the lead-up to the first goal. I'm talking about the pass that goes from outside the amoeba into the amoeba. And obviously there was a lot left to do for DeBala, and I forget who it was he was combining with. But he is playing those like fast, oftentimes one-touch passes in traffic.

very, very well. Even as I say, it was not his tidiest game. There was that combination with DeBala in the 65th minute where it's played kind of to McKinney waist high, and he just one touches it to Dabala. DeBala takes a few touches, plays it to McKinney. He one touches it back to him,

sets up Dabala on his left foot, which is basically, you know, Juventus is bread and butter. And, ah, man, it's so nice to see that. He's playing really good soccer right now. I would just like to say, man, okay, so number one on the, on the debate on if he's in the top form of any USM&T mill filter, club form of any USM&T millfielder ever, the answer is yes. Okay. And the answer is yes because you can't prove it's not yes.

All right. So you can, you can bring up whoever you want to bring up. Okay. But the answer is still yes. And the answer for them for Stu Holden, that's probably yes as well. you know what I'm saying I mean it is what it is there's no way to there's no way to disprove these things so the fact that people are willing to have this discussion means that the answer is yes you know what I'm saying

people like like like like are the Beatles better than the MECOs you can't tell me you you can't give me any empirical evidence that the Beatles are better than Migos so until until you show me that the Migos are better than the Beatles and that's just that's just facts that's just life you got to deal with it and on top of that I would just like to say there's plenty of time. Actually, actually, you know what? I'm not taking it. I'm not taking anymore.

I was going to say there's time for all the McKinney doubt to repent. But you know what? No, I don't want to hear it. There's no time. Your time's out. Your time's up. You can't hop on the bandwagon now. You cannot hop on the bandwagon now. And there was a lot of receipts brought up this weekend. And it was just despicable behavior from all of you. We're on the bad and walking and we're kicking you.

You're kicking your little grubby hands away as you try to pull yourself onto it. I remember. I'm not going to call out any names. Matter of fact, I will call it our name. Gary Clyburn. I mean, I mean, uh, much respect to you for not deleting the suite. But boy, I mean, you in the, you are in the, the mud. You're in the earth's core right now.

I mean, it's, it's looking, it's looking terrible for you. Uh, I saw a man, a man I've never seen before. Uh, Nate Scott. Nate Scott Hey I mean Look look Look I mean

Like ultimately I'm not In charge of forgiveness In this realm So I mean Repent to whoever you need to repent to And last but not least Kim McCauley So it seems Kim McCauley

deleted the tweet But I remember This was during the Gold Cup 2019 I got it right up here in the steel trap The tweet was I have no clue what Weston McKinney's good at. Well, to be fair,

I also did not know what he was good at. But I... Well, why can you got to repent, bro? Well, it's good, you know, that we're calling people out, I suppose. Yeah, that's a game I don't too much want to get into because there's a lot. I haven't deleted any tweets, basically.

And Bell's, Bells, you got it coming to. You got it coming to. I mean, you probably did have some Weston doubt. but more specifically you being the slowest person on the planet to come around on G-R-R-R-A. You got it coming too, bro. So just wait until he comes back, scores his first goal, and tune it to the Monday review. Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it like a man.

The thing about McKinney, which I kind of tried to get into in the newsletter, is that he did, well, for one thing, he did not have a great 2019 Gold Cup. I don't think he was that great in that tournament. and he does, like I said in the newsletter, he's a swing for the fences kind of player. Now, he's been connecting with the ball more consistently over the past year than he did before, but he's always been like a high risk, high reward, kind of on the ball guy, you know?

He plays like he is a world-class midfielder even when he's not actually on form as good. as a world-class midfielder, you know what I mean? So, like, that's, I do understand the skepticism from people sometimes. It's just like, if you didn't see that he could play a delicious throughball when he was 19 at Shalka, then you just weren't paying attention because he could. He always could. He was always capable of the fantastic moment.

That's all. That's all I'm saying. I would like him to not start the next game. We don't need to, he doesn't need to be playing this in the games right now. Don't run into the ground. Please. Please. I think they have a game on Tuesday or Wednesday.

You would figure not to play a that game. Yeah, man, they play tomorrow. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Let's keep him out of the lineup. Well, I agree. All right. Luca Deloere,

allegedly a man of the match in a zero-zero draw with neck, NEC. He, I watched his involvements. He did a lot of his usual, remarkably ball-secure in traffic, always looking to slice into a defense and pretty efficient receiving the ball between the lines on the half turn. Could have had an assist on a very nice run and slid in through ball. I just think he's consistently good for his club and really, really hope he gets the nod in this window. And you just spoke to him? Yes.

Earlier today. Yeah, earlier today. That episode is out on the feed. he's a cerebral kind of thoughtful guy who loves to talk about soccer. And believe it or not, every player is not like that. Not even every coach is like that. And he sounds like he wants to be a coach someday. He loves the game of football and loves talking about it.

So check out that interview. I listened to the podcast right before logging on to here. And the thing that I like the most was Bells asked him about him posting the comp of itself on Twitter. And look who is basically like, yeah, man. That's what I use my Twitter for, self-promotion. Like, I got to get out there. I play for a small club in the, in the, in the, in the, in the air to busy. I got to put myself out there and make sure people are seeing me.

And the most important thing that lets me know, um, that he's my type of guy is, is him saying, you know, I like the way I play. Yeah. So, so I figured other people would like to see me play. And, um, I can't. I can't disagree with him. He's right on the head. I love a person that, you know, knows his self-worth.

You know what I'm saying? He said, you can tell, you can tell after the season he's put in, he's kind of filling this stuff a little bit. And I, and I love that. I love that. Yeah. Yeah, he said his, yeah, I love that too. And he said his, you know, his game really started to flower when he moved to the number

eight for Heracles is apparently how he said, Heracles Al-Mell. I didn't know that's how you say that name. Yeah, that's how you say it. And I think, like, you know, we got into that a lot. His transition from Winger, a position he never felt like he was comfortable in at Fulham to a midfielder where he's been really good for Heracles. And, you know, reading between the lines, it sounds like he's going to get called up, honestly. I mean, he didn't say that.

He's not in a position to say that. Hope so. Well, that's good. We need him. Kellan Acosta to LAFC He was on he was tweeting too Huh Yeah this this brought me a lot of joy this weekend

To be honest with you Because you know we we don't get a we don't get a lot of moments like these First off there were there were a lot of people bringing up his quote to the athletic talking about How once he got exposed to the the full national team and the And all the players that were in Europe he was like man I got to I got to get there like just seeing their mentality, the way they go about training, everything. I got to get there to get to be able to achieve this top level. And then this trade happens and people are like, well, guess his ass ain't going to

Europe. And Kellyn, like, I feel like Kellyn must have felt that. And he came out and said, not so fast, man. Not so fast. I was trying to go to Europe. I let the Rapids know this. Apparently, according to him, he had an offer to go to Europe. But the Rapids just traded them to LAFC instead.

Yeah. Which is, you know, we've talked about MLS before. MLS getting to be good at a lot of things. Player agency is not one of them. LafC isn't the worst place to go, is it? No. No, no, no, it's not. I'd much rather be at LAFC than Colorado.

The main takeaway for me and all of this is like, Players need to be tweeting more and more controversially more often. That's always endearing. Yes. You know, I mean, he has a – Kellen has a dispute with the Colorado front office on what the actual story was there. Bring it out. Drag it out in the open, bro.

Drag it out there. Right. Drag them. Drag them. I completely agree more players should do that. It's not necessarily a good idea from their perspective, but I don't think that should affect Arthur Key on this. No, yeah, we don't.

We don't. And they should tweet more comps of themselves, too. We're not responsible business people. We're just interested in the entertainment of it. Yeah. Right. LAAFC does seem to be a good land of spot. So any, and hopefully he's not playing damn right back, left back, whatever the hell.

Hopefully he's in center midfield playing for a to run to low doing his thing. Yeah. Let's talk about the other midfielders in the pool. Tyler Adams went 90 and a 2-0 win at Stuttgart. That's two straight 90s for him under Domenico, Tedesco, and two straight wins after that disastrous loss at Armenia-Bielafeld, which in which Adams did not start. So it seems to be a positive trend for our captain. Yep.

I always forget how hectic or any Red Bull game is until I watch it, even though I watch them all the time. I'm always surprised, but it's just, it's chaos out there. And he did well amidst the chaos. Dude, this is most, this is most Bundesliga games. Yeah, but they take it to a different level. I've mentioned this before on the podcast, but Rafa Honikstein, the journalist. I think he's based in England, but he's German. in case you were wondering with the name like Honnichot.

He calls it attritional football, where it's just, you know, just destroying each other chaotically. It's really not even that pleasant to watch, if I'm being completely honest. I'm not sure how many people actually watch Tyler Adams because of that. I enjoy it.

I enjoy it, but it's like basketball. But do you get the sense that, a bunch of people are watching Tyler Adams games every week. Oh. I don't. I don't get that sense. No, not really. I think, yeah, I don't know.

Maybe he just needs that bigger move to get people really on it. But, yeah. The most exciting thing is when he starts to dribble a little bit, and he did that a couple times. Did he get anywhere? I think so. One time he did. One time he lost the ball,

but just that he's doing is what's important. Yeah. But he starts skipping by folks. I'm getting excited about the next window, man. I mean, I know we're going to be missing Gio and Timmy, but we got a lot of good players coming in the camera. Me too. I was thinking about this last night.

And like I think our, like as a country, the United States willingness to just be like a bull in the China shop, just barge our way through coaches. through this COVID time is actually going to help us this window. Because apparently like Canada had to cancel a camp, right? So you're saying we should take advantage of this COVID situation. Look. Alfonso Davies is out by the way.

Exactly. I was going to bring up Alfonso Davies, but I didn't want to, I didn't want to bring that up in like, oh, yeah, I'm so excited about it. So I kind of just froze there. but I mean it's not a bad thing for the outcome that we desire, which is a win. We should be clear. We do not want him to have heart damage. No, absolutely not. But it is a fact.

It is a fact now that he has it. Mild carditis. Well, no, well, he has signs of mild myro. Carditis, carditis. Carditis. Which Noglesman said is not. Which apparently is Noglesman downplayed the. severity of it just for what it's worth.

Yeah, I didn't, I didn't mean like permanent. You know what? You know what? We are just bungling this whole. Alfonso Davies, speedy recovery. All I'm saying is the best player in Concorda Calf is not going to be playing. All the signs are he'll probably be okay. Let's hope for that.

But, yeah, Canada was going to have a camp in Florida with its full men's national team and its U-20 men's national team. They canceled the whole thing because. of rising cases in Florida, I believe. So I think that's what you were getting at, right? Vince? Like, we're like, we're going to have the camp in Phoenix. We don't care.

But can't. Hell or high water, man. I mean, COVID, that's old news. That's old news in Phoenix, man. What are you talking about? Oh, old Trudeau over there, worrying about whatever. But yeah, yeah, man.

Like, so I think that's going to come out good because, like, I feel like none of these, uh, El Salvador, I mean, there has to be some type of issue with COVID going on. With the whole Omicron wave, I think we're best equipped to come out of it. I mean, with just no issues, mostly because we're not going to do anything about it. El Salvador was, if we want to talk more about COVID, El Salvador was, as a country, it was extremely strict. They did like a full, full lockdown and were, like, holding people for in, you know, buildings for a while.

Going Australia style. Yeah. Right. But that intensity didn't extend to the qualifier against the USA, which was supposed to be like a limited capacity. And then it was like a total sellout, right? So, you know, there are limits to everyone's principles on this stuff. but but then you combine that with uh with with especially honduras and el salvador having uh players out of season and you can but you combine all of this it seems like it seems like we have we have something nice going

here the one way we could undercut ourselves is by burrhalter starting you know two mLS midfielders who haven't played in two months in the first qualifier here over um you know people like lucca deletore or or Eunice music you know i mean that that fitness issue is a real issue and it'll be really interesting to see what per halter does there let's move on to a few other midfielers jean luca busio he's been a he's been a bench option of late three out of the last four games he started in that three zero loss to ace milan but not since and so now my now my song and now you look so good playing against aces malon is he didn't look that good playing against aces malon this time so

didn't start the last game and then Testman Tanner Testman subbed out at the 35th minute of this most recent game for Venetia He was getting disorganized by the opponent

It seems like What is what happened there And they yanked him Which is trulyish Which I'm against We've talked I'm against pulling someone out Before halftime

You just gotta You just gotta go You just gotta eat As a coach Well but it's hard to argue With the results I mean they ended up With a 1-1 draw

Right Yeah yeah It did seem like They played a lot better when they, when they got Testament the hell out of there. But at what cost, you know? Bruised American egos. Most notably mine, because guys, I'm putting my stamp down. Tanner Testament, that's my guy.

That's my guy. Brother. Because I feel like he was not standing in the right places on defense. Hey, hey, just, just. You need to get him in line on that. Look, man, that's the coach's job. But, I mean, if that's a. only problem, where to stand.

Hey, hopefully we can work that out, but, but I think the, I think the tools are just too good, man, for me to, for me to sleep on this talent. And it seems like a lot of people are skeptical. So I feel like this is a perfect place to just to plant my flag. I can't shake it, man. It just seems like early, early Weston. Huh. It just seems like early Weston where like you can see some flashes of talent.

You can see the tools and you're just hoping he puts it together. And then when Weston puts it together, boom. we got people trying to repent we got people trying to hop on the bandwagon no so isn't he i'm gonna end up having to repent in a few years isn't he old isn't he quite a bit older than early weston um i actually don't know how old he is i thought he was born in 2001 yeah he's a little older than early weston i don't see it i don't see the weston compares i don't see the i don't see that like incredible through ball every now and then or the you know the half folly on the swivel to spray it out to somebody on the wing.

Maybe I'm missing something. He plays a fairly conservative style out there in possession. What kind of style? So he is a... Like he's not taking a bunch of chances out there. He's 20. Maybe that's what they're telling him to do. Look, Vince, I'm no stranger to repentance.

I've repented of many things, and I'll be happy to repent on this one, but I'm not seeing it. Yeah, yeah, maybe. Maybe I'll have to repent. It is what it is. But I just felt like I need to stick my neck out here now. I'm starting to stay in group, Testaments, Trubidor.

If you want to join, if you want to join, let me know. I'm the conductor. You know what I'm saying? I'm leading all the songs. Let's go. How big is? Yeah, the Trub, that's a good name. How did you, the Trubes, the T-T Trobes.

I said, I just, I thought about it for, with the T. You could have said the test men or women. Yeah, I could just have the test men. Yeah. The test folks. They're not getting better, as I'm saying them. Trubadors, right? Yeah.

I like the troubadours. All the people we wanted to be playing, play this weekend. That doesn't always happen. Sometimes there's a weekend that's kind of a bummer. This is a pretty good weekend. Yeah. A lot to watch. Was Weston's the only goal on the weekend for an American?

I believe it was. I believe so. I mean, I want to throw another midfielder in here. I'm really enjoying watching Alex Mendez clips for Vizzella. He's gone 90, the last two games, a cup match lost to Porto, and then a loss to sporting. And these are the two, you know, two of the top three clubs in Portugal. And he's looking plenty good, man. He's on the up.

I've seen you claim he's good at defense now. Yes. Yeah, he is. He's a net positive in the cage. match at this point, which is a complete reversal from what he was as a young Iax player. So I'm just saying keep an eye on him. Where do you think he is in the, if there were a big depth chart? How far out, in your opinion, is he?

I mean, he's, for me, he's right there with Buccio. Like, I don't think, I don't think Buccio is better than Mendes. So you think he should get a call up? Well, if Buccio, and not. in a qualifier. Buccio gets a call up. Yeah, but I'm not sure. Are you guys think Buccio's going to get called up this window?

Probably. I do. I'm hoping that he does, just calls a bunch of people. Yeah, me too. It'd be nice. 45 players. Yeah, 45. Christian Pulisic.

Waki, tell us about what happened for him versus Manchester City. I thought he was okay or solid. Some people were saying it's pretty good. Michael Cox, the English writer, he wrote about them. He was saying that he wasn't pushing the ball forward enough when he had openings up there. That was the main critique of him. I don't know. That take seems pretty terrible to me.

I ain't going to lie. I thought it was good, man. Didn't have pretty secure on the ball. I mean, it's a different type of game when you're playing. No, he was in the front three. I want to be clear that Michael Cox is the only English writer I would ever cite, you know. You have special respect. I feel bad about having cited an English writer.

But he seems to not have, he seems, you know, fine. I don't know. It seemed in the opportunities he had on the ball. It was fine. He was fun. I'm not saying he was like really good or anything. Yeah. It was fun.

His beard is still growing. I think he's going to go full beard for the qualifiers, and he's on pace for it. So I think that's the big takeaway. That'd be lovely. What if he grew a big old Civil War beard? What would you guys think of that? I would like to see him try it.

I would like to see it. I think once I see it I might not like it, but I think he should go for it. Yeah, I'm not with it. So you were saying, you're kind of in a different spot on beards than, Because you're saying hair should hair should be longer.

I mean, I'm talking about a Civil War beard. That's going to look crazy. Yeah. Like, like, so I don't want to see that in the U.S. shirt. It's just,

it's too many trigger warnings. Yeah, that's true. It has certain implications. What? It was a, it was a, it was a style of beard

that was common on both sides of the, of the war, but somehow seems to have. I'm not saying, I think he should, to wear it like a Confederate general. I don't think he should style himself in that way.

But that's the thing is a big full beard kind of signals Confederate General at this point. No, he would just like he would look like a microbrewer or something. Yeah. Wouldn't even, I mean, if he really shaped it like a Civil War beard, I guess. It's a real fine line between a microbrewer and a Civil War general in my. Yeah. And it's about finding that balance. And if you could do that, I'd like to see it.

I got a question from a listener. Drew from Cedar Rapids, shout out the city of five seasons. Outside of Project Restart Pulisic, is there any evidence that Pulisic is an elite level player? USM&T fans complain that his offensive output suffers because Tuckel plays him at right wingback, but Reese James has scored five and assisted six this season. Pulisic's performances for the national team have been underwhelming, and I think it would be justifiable to start Waya, Raina, and even Erinson over him if his performances don't improve.

I'm a huge fan of Vince, but great players have great games, not just great moments. Is there any evidence? I think there's some evidence. Yeah. If I want to answer the question too, literally. Yeah, there's definitely some evidence.

And that being, they paid, I don't know, 60 million for him or something, any place for Chelsea. Those would be the two. Well, he also scored an assist in a two-legged tie against Real Madrid in the semifinals of the Champions League. That's a kind of an elite level fact. But I, well, what do you think, Vince?

Yeah. I'm going to need to see something from you like a consistent stretch, man. I need to see a solid 10, 15 game run. Similar to, I mean, it doesn't have to be Project Restart level because that was just insane. but there hasn't run like that since. Elite, I just don't know anymore, to be honest. He's an elite talent, elite talent. Is he an elite player?

Has he lost a step? Has he lost a step with all the hamstring injuries and everything? So I'll say this. Project restart, like he was just skipping past people. Like, he was untouchable. You know what I'm saying? And I haven't seen that level of like, side to side agility and a burst from him

since, I would say. But also counter to that point, I feel like his game against Canada was really underrated. And if he scores that goal that hits the post, then we're talking about it kind of different. Like I feel like he

stood up to, to be honest, he might have been better than Alfonso Davies in that match, to me. I'm not to have to go back and watch that. I don't. I didn't, I don't. Well, Bills, you're not going to like it because you don't like dribbling.

Oh, come on. Come on. I like when he dribbles. I don't like it when other people dribble. I like it when way of dribbles, too. I don't like it when Conrad Dalla Flinty dribbles. I don't like his dribbling as much. I like it when Pulisic's dribbles to somewhere instead of to nowhere, you know?

That's all I care about. Dribble to do something, you know? Michael Cox also said he was holding the ball onto the ball a little bit. too long. He always has. That's that's that's that's ballistic. Yeah. I mean to I guess to finish off this question I don't know we're just gonna have to see. Let's see if he can get a run in the side at a winger for Chelsea because comparing

him I mean he hasn't played right reimbed but right wing back like comparing to the Reese James seems kind of unfair. Also he's playing on the right wing in this game and right it's he's better on the left is what that's what we all think, right? That's what people seem to say. I can never actually tell what some best position is. I just kind of go with what people are saying. He's definitely better on the left.

And he prefers a left because, you know, you can cut in and shoot. Which he doesn't do that well. But anyway, I digress. I think the thing about Pulisic is he's streaky. You know, he's always been a pretty streaky player. And so we're going to get a streak of him being really good here before too long. Hopefully it starts in 10 days. Some other wingers, we should mention Giovanni Raina,

still not on the bench for Dortmund. What did Marco Rosa say about him? He's saying he's not going to make any promises, but he's targeting after the break is when he wants to work him back in. Now is this him trying to get Greg Berhalter not to call him up? Maybe. But also I think probably he shouldn't go to camp because He hasn't played a long time.

It's going to be very cold out. Yeah. So we're going to be missing him and Wea. Brennan Aronson, still on Christmas break. Conrad Delafonte is hurt. I don't know. How serious is that injury? It's listed as physical discomfort in footmom, and he's out several weeks.

I don't know what physical discomfort means. And then Richie Ledesma, another potential half-space merchant, did not get off bench for first place PSV Einhoven. Maybe a little bit tough for him to get minutes this spring as they fight for the title with Iax. Yep. It's unfortunate. Let's burn through the defenders here real quick.

Scali returned to the field for Bruchel Munchin Gladbach after about with COVID. Got a solid 30-minute run out. Saw a lot of action and I believe a 2-1 loss to Bayer-lever-Cousin. He almost scored a goal. Yeah. You kind of brought it down, cut it across, and kicked it right at the goalkeeper's hand. It's a good rip. But he kicked it really hard.

Yeah, hard. Yeah, it was a nice take from him to be able to bring the ball down, chop it onto his right and get it off. Yo, did y'all see? So I watched this game this morning, and right when it ended, like they showed the XG. they showed the XG for each team. They had, uh, they had levercusing as having 6.8 expected goals in that match.

What? 6.8. So then I was like, no, that doesn't seem right. Uh, well, if,

if you watch that Scali 30 minutes, like, like, it's feasible because if the rest of the game was like that 30 minutes, where they're giving up a shot on goal every time an attack broke down, then I could see it. I mean, and then I was like, that has to be a typo. So I checked footmob.

And footmob had him for like 5.54. So, I mean, it seems. I'll confess, I didn't watch him tell him Scali came in the game. Man, that is a lot of XG. Scali did hold a guy on side for a good levercruzance after he came on. Otherwise, looked like he played well to me. Yeah, well, it was very good.

and was on the left. Yeah, hopefully we see his first cap this window. Brooks was pretty good, right, Waki? Yeah, he also did this really cool header spin where he jumped up and headed it and spun around. It was facing the field again. 360, huh? Yeah, 360.

Did they win? Did Wolfsworth win? They tied. I believe. Zero, zero, which is better than losing. Justin Shea to Hoffenheim is, I don't know, it's official official, but his mom's tweeting about it. An 18-month loan is the report.

I don't know if he's going to see the field, guys, but I'm excited for him. Yeah, I mean, it seems great, so we'll see. Offenheim has traditionally been a good place for young players to develop, so. It's a long loan, so he'll work his way. And also, he used to train there as a child because he lived over there. So it's like his, it's a familiar stomping ground. Serginio Des, he's the last player we'll discuss.

Desk, what's the latest on his potential transfer? Still not in the plans for Barcelona. No, I don't think anything has happened, though. It's more just, it continues to make sense that Chelsea would want him possibly because I need a wing back

and Barcelona clearly don't want him. But I don't know if he's actually going to go there at all. So we don't know. Chelsea just seems like a place a hard place, you know? Pulisic can kind of handle it because he's so resilient, but

can Dest handle it? Probably. Probably. I don't know. I have no clue. So I believe in all our young kids. They seem to have elite mentality, to be honest. But I mean,

like I saw a tweet that said that Javi put him D'Mbele and Memphis, Memphis on the transfer list. once I'm out. I saw you. I saw what you tweeted about that. What did you tweet about that? He was going to look at it, bro. Yeah. Well, people

are, okay. It's not safe for work. Yeah, yeah, I can't repeat that. Did you use swear words? He used. Did you use swear words in a tweet? He's the worst swear word. Not only a swear word, a very controversial one. And you spelled it

in a very specific way, too. I got to see what word do you use. We don't need to talk about that. But do check out Vince's Twitter account. It's V underscore so spiffy. Oh, yes. I think we got it. We need a nine point window, guys.

That's what I'm feeling like. I'm feeling like a nine point window. I feel like we can swing it, man. I feel like we can swing it. And it's just like what it says, well, what was Greg calling it? The, uh, the, the, whoop that ass lineup? Yeah. Yeah.

You're talking about beat that ass, whoop that ass? I mean, I feel like we can really get to whooping some ass with the, with just the pure amount of just the athletes that we can put on the pitch, man. We can just, and players being out of season and all the stuff, like, we can, we can just, I mean, MMA is already, like, a handful to deal with, two handfuls, three handfuls. Like, if you see Acha Ache's face, like after that match, he looked like he's been, he got his girl stolen.

He looks like he lost five years out of his life. Yeah. Right. And so you throw MMA out there with, I mean, surge on one side, Anthony on the other, preferably if we could get, I mean, so I would say Chris and Miles, but I mean, if it's Walker and Miles, whatever, they're both Uber athletes that can, that can press and just smash whoever and get Polly, Brendan, and Ricardo up there, up top.

I mean, come on, man. Yeah, let's go, man. Let's quit messing around. It would also be good if Panama would lose a couple games. Yeah, that's just as important. I would actually, if they, I would, if they would just lose all their games, I would accept really any outcomes in our games. Well, I don't know about that, but.

You don't want to do that. You don't want to say that. But you're going to have to repent as well after that one. I think they don't win any of their games. I'm going to be very happy. And I will not repent. Yeah. If they only get three points this window and we get, yeah.

I mean, we don't need to do the math right now for everybody. But it's, we have the players. We have the players. I mean, we just goes, we went through this long list of players. We talked about what they did over the weekend in Europe. There's a bunch of players we didn't even talk about. We have players. And if I swear, if we go into this window and we see Sebastian Legette and Christian

rolled on starting in the midfield, I'm going to go over and I'm going to swear a fealty to tactical manager in 11 yanks. It's going to be, that's it, you know. It's like, I'm going to lose it. Dude, dude, everything. Like, like, I'm going to be on the MLS quota and everything, bro. If we do this shit, I'm going to go. I don't care.

I'm buying into every conspiracy. I don't. Yeah, I'm going to make a pilgrimage to tinfoil Ted's house and start. I'll do everything. We can't, we can't mess around anymore. It's, it's time to get this done. It's time. Yeah, it's time.

Absolutely. But also Panama, Panama, let's come on. Cut it out. Yeah, we need Panama. Here's what I'm worried. Here's what I'm worried about, okay? The last game of the last qualifier game, Canada plays Panama. Canada, we don't, we don't trust that.

if we're not clear, they could do a real dirty job on us there, those Canadians. I think Canada, I think Canada is going to unravel here. I would like that to happen to, Canada, if you would unravel. But we have, I mean, we got it in our hands, right, because we play, we still have Panama to play at home. And then this next window, Panama has at Costa Rica, Jamaica at home. and at Mexico. So, I mean, I would,

there's a possibility like a lose all three of those. I would like the last window to be relaxing is what I want. I don't know if I can handle these. Two months of thinking about a really tough window where we have to get,

you know, five points or something. Oh, the discourse is good would just absolutely curdle in the meantime. It would be hard on all of us. The United States,

Men's national team fan base is already on edge just like perpetually. So if we're coming into that last window with something truly on the line, like we could truly be subjected to the playoff or not qualifying at all, I just don't want to see it. I don't want to see it. That sounds like a reality. I don't want to experience. Yeah.

The good news is that the playoff is New Zealand and it's pretty much impossible for us to finish out of fourth. I don't, I'm not saying, you know. Yeah. That's a good point. That's a good point. But still, I don't want a playoff. We don't, we don't, we shouldn't be going to playoff. Let's go, man. Let's go. Let's go. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.