Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #243: Monday Review — The qualifying window is upon us

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

The Brooks omission, Weah's blessed return, Dest getting scraps from Xavi, and Sargent's move on the parabola with Watke and Vince, all in the context of El Salvador on Thursday to kick off what Belz believes can and should be a 9 point window.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/rfzSEZJwsvnWSCxW7 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 it, guys. This is the window where we can, with Panama's help, lock down, qualification of the World Cup, and exercise the demon of 2017.

It's a very important 10-day period. We have now entered. Waki. What are you seeing as players arrive in Columbus? We're seeing a lot of very exciting stuff. Actually, I shouldn't say. Very exciting stuff. I should say, I'm very excited, and we are seeing some stuff as they're right.

So we got Anthony Robinson, Chris Richards, and Eunice Musa came in together. It looks like they were all on the same flight because they got picked up from baggage clone. Anthony Robinson flew Delta. Eunice Muso was in an all-gray sweatsuit. I liked it. Anthony Robinson, yeah, yeah. Anthony Robinson, gray top, black pants. Chris Richards wore blue.

So that's a nice look. Any thoughts on that stuff? Most importantly, Chris Richards had on some AirmX 97s that I thought were very nice. I'm a big AirMax 97. I'm a I'm big on the Airmax line as a whole. I got some custom 95s that I've created, some custom 97s. So yeah, so shout out to Chris Richards. I mean, I know he's talked about a shoe game before.

Yeah, it looks like he's got some. yellow and blue going on in those. So it goes well with the sweatshirt. And then the other group we had come in, I don't know if they came together or not, but it was Brendan Aronson, Tim Wea, Ricardo Pepe, they were all wearing black. And I would say Tim Wea looks the best of those three,

and Brendan Aronson looks the worst. What did you guys think about those guys? Part for the course there. All I know is Tim, Tim Wea has, there's a picture of him with the black hood on, looking right at the camera with what I would say is a nine-point stare. That's a nine point stare right there. He came to the United States with the right mentality.

He looks ready to go. Yeah. He looks like an absolute killer. You wrote a song about it already. I was very impressed how quickly you turned that song out. Thanks, man. Yeah, I'm happy with that little chant. I'm forever impressed with the composition.

To be able to do that by yourself with the backing tracks and everything, That's some talent, man. That's some talent. Thanks, Vince. And you know a lot, you listen to a lot of good music too, so I appreciate that. I mean, I'm sure you do too walkie. I'm not trying to make any comparisons there. So I'm the son of a musician.

Oh, I didn't know that. I got a tune to the air for this. Well, let's get down to business here. Wea, he looks like he's ready to go because he is ready to go. Did you guys see him on, on, what was it, Saturday? Against Breast. I was funny. Did he have a weird way?

pronouncing that name or is it just breast but in either case he's he's running behind that backline constantly looked sharp as ever i put him i put the game maybe in his top 20% of games he's played for a little maybe i'm too excited there but i thought he was that good i mean timothy tarpe way you know what i'm saying my boy's back you know what i'm saying i i'm just i couldn't be more excited man when i woke up i think i think i like woke up to this news somebody I tagged me on the Discord. I want to shout out Twitter account Yanks

underscore abroad because it seemed like he slash she slash they had the scoop before anybody. This person only has 608 followers. And I say we need to get that up, number one. What is the scoop before I get on?

What is the scoop here? The scoop was that the leo manager said Tim was back in the squad. Oh yeah. He just came out on hour. I was thinking like maybe he'll be back in April. Who knows? You know? And then all of a sudden he's back in the squad. He makes a 30 minute appearance on Thursday. He starts over the weekend. And I know we've kind of already said it, but he was very, very sharp. Basically a perfect setup for the El Salvador match. You know what happened? I think Leal social media, they just have a little bit of a different policy

on injuries. And that freaked us out a little bit. We got nervous and then we overreacted. Maybe we should have just trusted them. when they said he'd be back in January in retrospect. Obviously at the time, we couldn't have known that. And maybe moving forward, Leal, let's try to be a little more transparent. We're getting pretty antsy there. Involved in creating four chances, I would say, four good chances, set up some really good stuff. And like you said, making that run behind the line with that beautiful precision that he has,

beautiful timing. He seems to be really one of our smarter players. exactly that like that's that's the point uh that's what keeps coming to me whenever i watched him like his his brain is a superpower with no doubt about it like the way he's able to set up his runs make his runs like everyone knows he's not uh the guy that's just going to tear you up one on one on the wing uh every time so he he just uses he just uses his runs to make up for it like like that's his that's his dribble move that's his that's his iso ball he He's just going to beat you.

He's going to beat you with the run first. And then when he gets the ball, his touch isn't going to negate his advantage that he's created on the run. You know what I'm saying? Yep. Yeah. He very rarely has obviously bad touch. And I can't remember him ever doing anything dumb looking. He just gets to the end line and crosses it right in there.

Right. And we didn't cover this. But there was like there was some type of interview that came out with Tim that Tim did where he said that he actually prefers the left over the right just because of the ability to cut in on his right foot. And so to be able to play the right wing and just be able to do what he's done on it so far. I mean, we forget. We forget with all these kids, but like this is his second full year. Second full year is the first teamer?

So I should remind everybody, we're recording this live on the Discord. So there's a bunch of people reacting in a live chat. And Bobo Arns says it's going to be wild when Tim and George Wea are both presidents of their respective birth nations. Here, here. Here, here. Let's move from the positive. That's just an unmitigated positive, positive. But to sort of the big negative of this camp, which is the John Brooks O mission.

Greg and I talked about it on Friday a little bit and expressed our dissent. What do you guys, do you guys have anything? because I got some further stuff to get into, but what do you guys think? I would just like to know exactly what's going on, you know? Yeah. Yeah, and the thing is, it's like, Greg, Greg doesn't make it any easier

because he's saying shit that don't make sense. Like, you talk about, it's strictly form-related. We're referring to John Brooks, where it's like, like, well, what could we say? 50% of this can't. hasn't really played too many minutes between like December 15th and now. So, so what form are we referring to? And, and he's been playing, he's been playing well for Wolfsburg.

So what are we talking about? And so, and so because of him not being reliable, this is a, this is an unreliable narrator redelike, Greg Burrholl. So, so how can we, like, how are we supposed to take his word for it? So it leads to other people, you know, make a conspiracy theories and whatnot. It could be simply that Burrhalter thinks Brooks is just too slow to be relied on defensively.

And I know, Vince, you just said he's been playing well for Wolfsburg, but that's not a crazy point of view. Brooks got slalomed pretty good on Leipzig's first goal over the weekend, and he had other struggles throughout that game, 1V1, with that winger he faced, I don't know his name, number 25. And, you know, that's a, that's a common thing for him. In the open field, he's not, you know, we've said this a million times if we've said it once, but, or I have, that he's, he's not to be trusted in the open field against anybody with a modicum of speed.

And, and even in, like, tight space, he can, he can get out quick pretty easily. So it could be just that, you know. I mean, because we, we are dealing with an unreliable narrator, it could be, it could be as simple as that, that Berhaler just thinks Brooks is too slow to be relied on defensively. Going a little deeper, it could be a combination of that and the possibility that Wolfsburg is worried he'll get injured in the freezing cold of North Central North America and then quietly asked that he be omitted.

We know Berhalter is friends with somebody in the front office at Wolfsburg. This is not an insane theory. It's no less plausible, in my opinion, than that Burrhalter just doesn't like Brooks or got into a fist fight with him that we haven't seen footage of. So, you know, just to be charitable to Brawter, those are two things that are possible, you know?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, he definitely gets what was great called it battleship. No doubt about it. But I don't know. I'm out to see it over a larger sample. Like, we have a larger sample size of John. on Brooks being a good soccer player than him being a liability. And so I just err on that side.

But at the same time, like, it's, I mean, it's still not something that makes me too upset. You know what I'm saying? I mean, we may need somebody to deal from the back one of these games. That's the thing. We probably won't. But it's like, okay, we understand his deficiencies, but like his best attribute is far away, like the best in the pool and it's much much much better than the two we're probably going to end up going with for most of this one. Other than Tim, Tim Ream, you mean.

Right. Okay. And then that's another thing, right? So Greg's talking about like Tim Reams. Like Tim Reams is the best centerback we have on the ball. So like, bro, it's just very weird. It's very weird. That was an unnecessary judgment for him to make on the record, I think.

even if he truly believes it in the in light of him leaving brooks off for him to say that seems just seems unnecessary and maybe a little bit of a poke just one more thing i like to imagine him and burhalter having gotten into a yelling argument on the airplane leaving under her it's a really intense one just really like the idea of that obviously we have no proof i mean not only if we not have proof i just completely made it up but it would be nice if that it happened but it is it would be cool. I mean, it would be fascinating if that were the case. So I think, I guess my, where I come down on all of it is, like, I think he should be in the camp. I think he should play in some of these games. But if your only conclusion is that Burrhalter sucks and he's dumb,

I mean, it's possible that this is an example of Burrhalter sucking and being dumb. But if that's the only conclusion you draw from this, I don't think you're being fair. That's my take. We have a breaking news update. Casey in the Discord is saying, Paul Tenorio is reporting several cases of COVID in the Panama camp. I'm just waiting for that to come out about our camp, honestly. It's not going to happen, Bill. It's not going to happen. Because you know what?

We're not going to test. We're going to do something. You know what I'm saying? Like my prophet talked about last episode is coming true. It's coming true. We got you stockio out for Canada. I mean, we got these Panama cases. We really are in a tense few days in the don't get COVID fun, aren't we?

Yeah, definitely. And that was something I had mentioned when I saw these, the photos of their arrivals. Like, man, you got a double mask up in these situations. Like, we can't, we can't afford to be bringing Omicron into the camp. I'm flying commercial, too. They should be wearing those full body suits, you know, those big spacesuit helmets things you put over your head. Something, man.

I mean, like I'm going to need more than the, than just a little surgical mask. I'm need a little bit more, a little bit more for my guys. That's a good shout. We need to be really, really careful. Yeah, it's true, though. It's true, though. Canada's damaged. And that's why I'm thinking, like, even without Brooks, this got to be a nine-point window. Nine-point window, man.

Nine-point window. I don't see why not. People are like, hey, that didn't go very well. Last time, I'm like, you're boring. Quit saying that. It's time to get after it. It's fine for the players to live under this rubric of, like, you know, it's one game at a time, sort of good soldiers, uh, sort of a military mindset.

But like us as fans, I desire nine points. And I'm not going to be afraid to say it. We definitely, we definitely need nine points. I'm not trying to sweat this March window. Like, please. Please. Yeah. Like, um, I, I can't deal with it.

I can't do it. I'm worried. I'm worried about the window after and that long stretch. I think we talked about this. some, but, you know, it's going to be too stressful if we don't get a... You mean, you're talking about the window after the March window? You mean like the playoff or... No, no, no, no, no, the March window.

Okay, yeah. Yeah, that's one to worry about if we don't have, if we don't get nine points, or if, you know, Panama doesn't collapse. There's a lot of different ways the math can shake out, but like, let's take care of business. Eunice Musa scored a very nice goal over the weekend. What did you guys think? it was very nice he did basically like a box to box run brought it down and scooted it right in there scooted it right in there yeah tucked it in at the near post he go ahead now that I think about it that

is an impressive feat of athleticism just the run uh to be able to receive the ball first touch is good and then also put on another like a like after the run a dribble and shot to score uh But, dude, I mean, he's getting playing time now, and he's doing what we thought he would do. He plays a little different position in this game than we have him doing for the U.S., but if he can add that 20-yard shot from outside of the box to his U.S. game, it's going to be a big benefit to us. And it should be mentioned, Valencia blew a 2-0 lead and lost 3-2 at Aletico, Madrid, which is kind of a bummer.

And they did that right after he came out. Is that right? They were up 2-1, I think. I think so. Serves him right. Serves him right. So he's coming in with a head of steam. Wes McKinney definitely coming in with a head of steam,

although his game on the weekend wasn't his best, but like just overall. Tyler Adams is playing well. Tim Way is playing well. What about Ricardo Pepe? He didn't have as good of a game as he could have. I guess he didn't really have many opportunities. They kept turning the ball over

and transition pretty immediately into pretty ugly ways. He wasn't bad, I don't think. He's a striker, so most of the time he's not going to get us all excited by scoring a bunch of goals, unfortunately. I wish he would, but realistically, that's not how it goes. Like, it would be a much more fun viewing experience if he was just on a team that just supplied him with chances of them. Just watching young strikers mature isn't the funnest thing, to be honest.

Yeah. You mean the process? Yeah, yeah, yeah, the process. Like, out of all the positions, I probably say it's the worst. I don't know. I keep tricking myself and thinking it'll be fun to watch a centerback play. Even when I care about a lot, like Chris Fischer's, it's not actually that much fun to watch. I like the idea of watching, you know. But actually watching, no.

I take an attacker over a fullback. Fullbacks aren't that much fun either. It's the entirety of it, though. It's the discourse that comes with it. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's emotionally fraught, the discourse. Right, because it's going to be easy to say blah, blah, blah, he's not on. he's not doing what he's supposed to be doing if, you know, he's not getting goals.

Okay, that makes sense. I'll tell you what's really not fun to watch is Barcelona. They, uh, I was, I switched to the, like, last 10 minutes of each half of that game after, you know, Juventus went to halftime and then the Juventus ASEMilan game ended. And boy, that was brutal, some brutal, uh, soccer to watch. But the good thing is Sergenio Desk got on the field and played 90. I don't know that he played all that well But somebody was calling for you, Vince,

to come up with a new animal Um, animal face for Javi now. Are you, are you gonna do that or do you refuse? Uh, no, because I mean, why? You know, he gave him Yeah, yeah, he hasn't done anything, man.

And he's still like, you know what I'm saying? I got, I got my eye on you, Javi, because, you know what I'm saying? There's just, uh, so, I'm not liking the vibes you give it. I'm not liking the vibes you give it. I'm not liking the vibes you're giving, bro. So until he convinces me otherwise, he's a rat. All right.

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Luca della Torre. Did you guys track what he was up to this weekend? He's in camp by the skin of his teeth. Yeah, that's the, that's, I would say, the tier one rumor out there. Oh, so it's a, it's a tier one rumor. Okay, because, because, I mean, like, I'm not going to, like, like, I figured y'all had pretty good intel, of course. But, like, I didn't, I didn't know how mad to get about this. But if it's a tier one rumor, then, uh, consider me officially upset.

I'm going to choose to let it go. I am too. I'm just kind of, I'm exhausted. Every time I go on Twitter, I get exhausted by all the, so even though I agree, Vince, that it's like, it's not right that Luca has to wait for Gianluca to get COVID before you can get the call up. But I don't know. I'm worn out. I'm getting old. And when I say I'm mad about something, I'm not mad.

Well, he got, Luca got some solid XG on a shot from the penalty marker. A really, really nice couple of touches in traffic to get that shot off, but then the shot wasn't good enough. It was too close to the goalkeeper. And then some XA, some expected assists left unrealized by his teammates. I think he's going to, you know, if he gets a chance in this camp, I think he's going to do some good stuff, and I'm excited about it. What percentage of people who get angry on the internet about soccer are actually angry?

Probably only like half. uh it's probably less than half it's it's definitely lessen i mean think about it how many people do you know in your life that like get for real mad at sports like you know you just i don't know any just mad online that's a whole different type of that i know some people get mad at sports but it's it doesn't last it usually doesn't last through the night i'll tell you what did last through the night is when we didn't qualify for the world cup last time that lasted through the night for me i was mad about that which is why i won nine points i had a watch that that Trinidad and Tobago game on a layover in a motel alone.

Not alone. I was one of my coworkers in Detroit. It was the saddest thing in the world. Just sitting in a motel room. I don't know why I'm dredging it up here, but it was a dark time for a lot of people, certainly for me. Anyway, things are looking up now. Yep. Yep, yep.

Chris Richards, I did not watch him play. Hoffenheim lost. Did you guys have any thoughts on him coming into this camp? The thing about him is he's a solidified. He's a starting Buddhist League guy. So that's great. Yeah. And centerbacks are boring to watch.

You know, he got a spot back. And I think we got some more context on the whole situation when he was on orange slices with Mark McKenzie and how he explained. You know, basically his, I mean, basically his body was tired coming back from international duty and didn't get much of a break. and it took him a while to recover from it and then the person that stepped in did a good job when he stepped in and that's just part of a reality in a top five league so

happy he got a spot back hopefully we can see him quite a bit this one done did you guys talk about the centerback rotation do you think it's going to be two guys starting each game or the same guys or are they going to mix it up we talked about it how much do you think rich is going to play yeah we talked about it by didn't make any conclusions. I guess my view is I'll be happy with any two of the three and any of the three games, really.

I don't think Richards is so much better at distribution. I mean, he's better than Zimmerman and Robinson, but I don't think he's so much better that it's like a, that it, you know, that it's a case closed. He has to start. But I wouldn't be mad if he starts, you know, I'm just kind of agnostic about it. Yeah, the distribution. isn't John Brooks level yet. No.

Yeah, it's not like he's out there splitting lines open all game. Yeah, not really. I mean... Sometimes you might get that impression to listen to people. But he definitely does have like... He definitely does have like a pass a game

that's like, ooh. Yep. At least. Oh, I just got to jump in with some Javi comments from the, from the Discord because they're really good. Bobo Arns again. With another banger.

He says, Javi prefers grilled chicken. I said it. And then Jackie goes, Javi eats his chicken sandwiches with a fork and a knife. And then Jackie said Javi eats his chicken sandwiches with scissors, cuts him in half with scissors. So. Not going flat pop-paz. Casey says Javi skis and jeans.

Oh, I bet he actually does ski in jeans. I can visualize him skiing down a hill in jeans immediately. It seems like the thing about Chris Richards is that's good. and I can't remember, I'm sorry, the username of the person who posted, he's doing visualizations of data. And Chris Richards is the most two-footed passer we have. So he's passing about something like 43% or something with his left foot. And I think that's what, his ability to do that is what makes it, is his asset in terms of distributing. It's a really unique ability.

And it's something he, I feel like he developed. in the past two, three years. Like, he went from playing for the buying reserves and not really using his left foot that much to all of a sudden using it all the time. And, um, yeah, it's a... They were playing, I remember they were playing him at left back. And we, people were complaining,

and then someone pointed out, they're developing his left foot. It's a deliberate thing they do. Yeah. They're a very advanced club. And he was playing, um, he was playing on the, right side center back this

weekend. So he's a versatile guy. He normally plays on the left. It says nice to have two-footed defenders in camp, isn't it? Yes. Yeah. It'd be nice to have one Joseph Scali. So that's the other, so that's

the other big, uh, big gripe with with Burhalter's selection. No Scali. No, no clear backup left back. Although he did say, as we mentioned on Friday, that he thinks, uh, can and yet, and Acosta and one other person, I forget, which one can all deputize it left back.

Oh, yeah, Dest. So that could come back to bite us. Again, I'm not too mad about, I'm less mad about Scali's omission than I'm about Brooks's, but do you guys disagree with that? Well, Michelle Giannone reported that Skelly did not

impressed Burrhalter in the last camp. specifically. So maybe he's just got to be a little better next time he comes into camp. Which, I mean, once again, it is just like, am I just supposed to accept that at face value? Like, like, oh, you don't have to. Oh, Greg doesn't raise Cali. Like, let me, let me side with the all-knowing Greg Burrhalter over. Well, the options are either side with Greg Burrhalter or side with people who weren't

at the camp. So it's a little bit weird. It's just kind of this information imbalance. So there's no winning here. There's no winning. You're absolutely right about that. We're in a tough spot. Okay.

Well, Ryan Ramadden 13 says he's just mad that there's no Scali or Vines. He just wants one of them. Yeah, just bring a left back. Like, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be as upset. Like, we need a second. We need another left back. I mean, I know Reggie Cannon, he's played there at least. once. I know I went back in flip mob.

I think it was maybe Northern Ireland. One of those games in that little area right there. He played left back. And I don't remember that game at all, to be honest. You know, you know what I

miss about that era? Is we went through the stretch where Reggie Cannon would make overlapping runs for Giorana and Giorina would not pass him the ball a single time over a game. We're talking about 20 of those runs, and it's the funniest thing in the world to look at.

It's like, there's no way he's passing you, man. This is not going to happen. I just, I missed that. I missed that. And I would like you to come back and not pass to Redy Canada. I think, I mean, the fact is we are,

we have such a talent advantage over some of these teams we're playing. Oh, basically all three of them. I mean, Canada, Canada, the talent advantages is smaller, but with Davies and Stockio out, it is still an advantage. It shouldn't matter. It shouldn't really matter that much. Regic Canada should be able to play left back just fine against El Salvador and Honduras.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Like, all these quibbles did not change the fact that, like, this is still overall a good, a good camp roster. How hard do we think Canada is going to be bunkering in there? Well, if last time is any indication, pretty hard. Yeah. How, yeah. And we just could not get inside that, that block, that little amoeba that I had going.

Yeah, not really, not for any, no, no real penetration to the amoeba. Maybe it would come out and maybe it would go in and, you know, Sebastian Leggett would pass it back again. We scored our goal in that game, if you remember, on some Brennan Aronson, Enterprise and hard work in the press. And then he was deserved. He was rewarded with the goal. Some people are calling for Crystal Dunn to be called up as our backup left back. I'm for it.

Bro, Crystal Dunn's a ball. It's against the rules, though. It's against the rules. Is it? We're on the rollboat to say, you can't call up Crystal Dunn. Good point. Maybe it's not against the rules. You talk about football geniuses.

Like Crystal Dunn is one of the- She's pregnant. She's pregnant right now. So we'll wait. I don't agree with that. Not good enough reason to use the word penetrate. It's kind of the only reason. only word for that specific thing in soccer?

Pierce? You mean to get inside Canada? Should we do the the thesaurus on it? What are some other words for that besides Pierce and penetrate? Breach. We could breach. Infiltrate. Yeah, probes one.

Breach, I like breach too. I do like breach a lot. Let me think. Cut open is good. Cut open is good. Dissect. Yeah, that's good. We could inoculate the amoeba.

To me, that seems like it means something different than what we're saying. But I do think we should inocate it. Infiltrate sounds to me like you're going in and then impersonating somebody in the amoeba or something like that. Anyway, let's... Yeah, like a clandestine affair. Let's move on. Let's move on. Come back to this next episode, we can come up with some more synonyms for words.

Let's talk about some play. Well, first of all, let's do our lineups for this game against El Salvador. all have to give a lineup. That's my ruling right now. Vince, you go first. You go first. Okay.

Vince go first. I'll just say any differences that I have. So, Alana. No, you have to, no, here's a new rule.

You have to come up with a different one. Okay. Okay. Yo, all right. So are we doing what Greg's going to? No,

no, what you want on Thursday. You're, you're Mr. Coach Vince. Mr. Coach. And you're making it.

I can go first if you guys want. I've got it pretty clear in my head. Pulisic on the left, Peppy up top, way at right wing, the MMA midfield, McKenny Musa and Adams, Anthony Robinson at left back,

Sergenio Dest at right back, and then let's say Miles and, no, let's say Richards and Zimmerman as my centerbacks. Richards on the left, Zimmerman on the right, and then find Zach Stephani, goalkeeper.

It's hard to come up with a different line other than instead of you say Zimmerman, I would go miles at right center back there's yours. Now Vince, you have to come up with something slightly different. All right, I'm going to throw Brooks Lennon right back.

Fucking Brooks Lennon. Yeah, I'm going to put the president of the Alabama chapter of SAAE at right back. Let's see. Wait, what does SAA stand for? it's a frat it's a fraternity a white fraternity

okay Bells you never mind we're not gonna get into we're not gonna get into we're not gonna get it okay it's a

you know you've seen pictures that sometimes come up of you know some white guys and it's like some some shorts you know about white people right I have a little bit of an idea

I have a little bit of an idea. Yeah. You're talking about like guys wearing sparries and, um, salmon color shorts. Anyway, he's your starting right back. Brooklyn and right back to silence all the haters. We got Christian Rodon,

Kellen Acosta, Sebastian Legat, Midfield. Hmm. You know what I'm saying? Give me, Jesus Ferreira up top. That, see that one, that I could see that one working okay. Look, we're gonna.

I think maybe I've just been persuaded by Greg Velasquez that I should. should like him more. Might be what's going on. Look, we're going to silence all the, all the MLS haters here. So we're going to Walker and Miles at the back, uh,

left back. Let's go, uh, Kellen? No, no, Kallens is the midfield. Oh,

okay. Okay. That's our six. Hey, let's go Reggie on. Let's go Reggie on the left. And then, well, well, Tim,

so Tim will get in here. because that's my that's my baby boy Tim's in there um Christian on the right yeah yeah okay and who's your keeper

Matt Turner baby come on okay I see I see the SAE tweet of yours okay I could I think that team I think Vince like team could be El Salvador it could should beat El Salvador

it could it does not obviously does not optimize our chances let's let's uh let's blow through a couple more big pieces of news The big, really the most exciting thing of the past four or five days for me is Josh Sargent's move on the parabola. And if you haven't, you should go check out Nate from Oregon's, the video he made of Vince and Wachie talking about the parabola on the podcast back in early December.

It goes very nicely with the goals he scored in a relegation six-pointer against Watford that got Claudio Renei sacked. So Josh Sargent went from sort of pathetic and you know not very well loved by Norwich fans to basically a hero in one game what you guys think?

The boy is back the boy is back you know what I'm saying did it did it at Watford you know what I'm saying probably in front of Eldon John himself he was probably at the game you know what I'm saying and

you know, he looked good. He really started. So when I was talking about the game on Discord, I didn't get to catch it live. Somebody said, just take the second half. And I was like, all right, I bet. Because I think they understand my sensibilities coming from the last episode. Yeah.

I'm not going to waste another glass of hot chocolate. So I watched the second half and, yeah, he was cooking, man. He was cooking. And more than just the goals, Like he got, he, uh, I think he won a header from midfield and the second ball came back to him. Uh, dribbled the top of the box, got a got a shot with his left foot off. Like, like there were, like there were more shots to be had at other than these two goals. Like, so this is, it was very encouraging just to see him look lively.

The touch was good. Him on the turn was good as, as usual. Uh, the dribbling, all that stuff. So yeah, man, just excited for my boy. The one thing, the one thing, the celebration. The celebrations weren't, weren't, so it weren't up to snuff for me.

No. What would you have liked to see more? Beta celebrations. Bills, can me not? Can me not? We cannot. We cannot. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I'm thinking specifically of the one,

uh, that one goal he's called, he's going for, uh, Brayman, re-took it over the shoulder, brought it down, looped it over the keeper and knocked it in. He hit us with a woe after that one, which if you aren't familiar with the dance moves, it's in the thread. It's in the thread here. But, you know, I... Well, what people are listening can't see this. I'd please describe what a woe is. I also do not know, and I would definitely, I would like to know what a woe is. You just have to see it, bro. If you don't... It's one of those, if you know, you know. just scroll back up a little bit in the in the discord chat but um yeah so the second the second goal

the baby celebration was was good well it was good so i'll give him that i'll give him that one and the first one i mean i guess it just is what it is he was like damn i scored he didn't know for sure that it was in you know to in his defense yeah he definitely didn't know for sure it was and then but but he also there's just there's just it's just it's mostly his celebration celebrations feel like relief to me, you know? He's relieved that he scored. And that's understandable at this point. But we're going to need to see a step forward on the next few goals, you know, where it's, I like a guy.

I like a guy to score a goal and then not be, not look like he's surprised that it happened when he celebrates. He was so happy, happy, like just relief happiness. The reason that celebrations look like they did because it was, it was genuinely. I think also the reason he was able to score those goals. It's because he didn't have time to think about either of them. Like one of the sidewander scorpion kick, pure reaction. He didn't have time to get in his head. Same on the header goal.

He was just focused on leaping over that guy. There was no expectation it was going to go in. And I think he's maybe better when there isn't as much expectation. And so maybe these goals will get him out of his head a little bit. Bells, you were talking about a little bit. Maybe he overran that first one a little bit. to where he had to do the scorpion kick. But I'm just, like, I'm just happy to see him run hard in the box.

You know what I'm saying? He saw the opportunity and he took off. My, just to be clear with everybody, my nitpick on his run on the scorpion kick was that he, there was a certain window that Pookie could play him the ball in. And Sergeant very nearly overran it completely. But, again, it's a nitpick, man. It was a nice goal. Very nice goal.

And now parable theory has. does his improvement exponential from here and out because we know he's hit his trow. So we should be pretty excited to see his next game. Although we know it's going to go really well. Yeah. Well, two squared, you know, four. Look at our four goals. It's over.

Four goals next game after the international break. Yeah. Foregone conclusion now. Their next game is February 5, so three days after we secure our ninth point in St. Paul. At some point, we need to figure out what exactly the turning point was. Do we? Do we need to figure out what the turning point? point was it's for future players it would be good to know the birth of his child well that seems

like the most obvious option yes i think you're right a baby's good for a lot of things but the number one thing is good for is just you you know a token like like it's a it's a sex token i've had sex i've had sex here here is my child uh that's that's what it's what a baby is basically it does prove that you're not a virgin definitely so so congrats job I don't know that his struggles were necessarily that he hadn't proved to the crowd that he wasn't a virgin. I mean, it's just obviously possible I'm wrong enough, was it? I mean, I think it may, yeah, I mean, it could. Actually, I think that may happen.

So Jackie, Jackie in the, uh, in the chat says, uh, something, something proves he can score, which, you know, so that gets a good, I gets a good a good ao. That's a, you know, one of those. sexual innuendo joke. But also, but also it does. I have found, I mean, it doesn't always hold true, but I do find that like when you, once you have a kid, for me, just for me, once you have a kid, you get a, you get a better sense of like the value of time a little bit.

I did. And so you want to redeem the time that you do have because your time starts to run short when you got to take care of a little baby. Like he was dealing with a lot, right? As far as like how his career was going, how his team was performing, how he was performing. And sometimes like when a life event like that happens, it can just focus you in a way. I agree 100%. Also, when your wife is pregnant, you know, that's a big deal for everybody in the household.

So, you know, that could have been a way on. It's also possible to go back to struggling. and it's not actually a harass. Hush. Hush. He had a good game. I'm such a strong believer in parable theory. I forgot the future isn't determined.

Well, according to you. And I would say that, you know, these two wins Norwich has got, right? People are like, oh, maybe they can stay up. I mean, go down, man. Go down and banging goals against the Watford's of the world and have everybody just feeling great. Although it would be a great story if he, you know, if he scores like six more goals this spring and they do stay up. I mean, he'll be a legend forever in East, in East Anglia.

Let's do two quick things. The testament had a pretty good performance against Inter Milan. Yeah, how did this play with the troubadours? My boy was doing his thing. My boy was doing his thing. I'm not going to say, like, it wasn't some, like, incredible performance. But, I mean, I guess Inter Milan, I mean, he was big boy and guys in the midfield. I don't know if y'all saw that moment where I think it was a is it Brozovich Brozovich?

That's a great nickname. I don't know his name, but I do hope it is Brosevic. Number 77, okay? And you can see it in a Crink's comp where like the ball comes in to Tanner and like, I guess Brozovich was going to try and, you know, he was just trying to put a little pressure on the ball, whatever. or maybe he was even trying to win it, but there was no way he was getting around Tanner. Tanner just big boyed him.

You know what I'm saying? Like, you're like a fly on my back right now. Like I got this ball. I'm going to bring it in. I'm going to get it off me. Like, you're not bothering me whatsoever. And then, of course, he had the run right before he got subbed out where he just collects a ball.

First touch was fire and he's off and running. That was impressive, yeah. bro and i and i think like a lot of people say he like lumbers and it's just i feel like it's just because he's tall like bro he can move he moves fine he's a fluid athlete he's good when the ball is like right in front of him he's not like great at getting in ball winning situations really consistently right yeah it seems like he's a step behind on that aspect but i feel like that's just coming that's just going to come with uh with experience man and i just i just feel like like if you can't see the talent, you don't want to see it.

Like, it's there. I see some talent. And Inter Milan was, Inter Milan's obviously a very good team. And he, he at minimum, looked like he belonged. And like you said, did some things to distinguish himself. So that's a, that's a, I think that's a big step forward in the big picture for him. Whether he ever gets called up by Greg Burrhalter, that's another question. But we'll just have to wait and see.

He played in our friendly ones. So it's not theoretically impossible. We're desperate for really all center midfield death. I mean, we're desperate for it, but is Burrhalter desperate for it? I don't believe he is. He said that what happened in Panama was not a problem with the personnel or not a problem with rotation. It was a problem with us just having an off day, which is hard to disagree with in a vacuum. I mean, I pretty much tracks with what he said in the...

The Bobby Worshaw, Bobby Worshaw. Speaking of Bobby Worshaw, give that allocation disorder episode with Sam Staiskel and Bobby Warshall, listen if you're interested in journalism and sports media and stuff. It's pretty good. I should mention that Brian Reynolds signed on loan with KV. Cortreich in the Belgian Jupilar League, Juleper League. So that's good for him to get out of Rome, where he was never. going to play.

So he's, he's over there now. Anything else we should, uh, hit before we get out of here? Uh, just real quickly, some pictures of him training came out on the social media and they're

playing in snow. So it's, it's begun. Wow. The, the winter camp has begun. Yeah. A couple of things.

Oh yeah, that reminds me a couple of announcements. Vince is going to be in Columbus, but he doesn't want me to tell anybody that. So, oh, oh, oh, yeah,

we need to talk. We need to talk about this. So, yeah, I'm going to be in Columbus. There's some other people from the Discord are going to be at Columbus. Well, Columbus is just a difficult place to try and have a tailgate in the first place. Yeah. And in the second place, I'm probably going to be driving up there and driving back on Thursday. So Vince, he's just, he's saying he's not doing a tailgate.

I'm not doing a tailgate, but look, we're going to be in the damn, I don't know what you call that square. So what's the name of that park bells? McPherson Commons. It's a long, narrow park. Yeah. We're going to be in McPherson Commons, drinking beer. If you want to potentially meet up with me, just at me or something. Either at me or hit me on the Discord or whatever.

There will be a small group of scuffians drinking together. Okay, let me just say, Vince is like one of the nicest people I've ever met. and he's pretty easy to pick out in a crowd. He looks like an offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens or something. He's a big guy. So, look him up. And then, of course, Greg and I will be in St. Paul, and we're having a party at Lake Monster Brewing,

starting at 2 o'clock. And I think we're going to have kick it forward, a mini-pitch organization that builds mini-pitches in Iowa. I know you all hate Iowa, but I love Iowa. It's, uh, that's, they're going to be, they're going to be there. I think, I can't promise this, but I think they're going to be buying beers for people. So, um, you know, put that on your calendar. Waki, what's the news?

What's the news? Giorina and Joe Scali went and played golf together. Good for them. Like, maybe Joe pulled up in the camp, like acting like he's Gio, you know what I'm saying? Acting like he's already made it or something with a big head. and maybe that's why because Greg's like I mean I got to humble this guy a little bit

which I would understand I mean we're never going to know but that's one of the scenarios that kind of popped in my head it's possible he asked Gio for advice how to act in camp and just showed up I'm just a huge jerk I don't think Gio is actually a jerk

actually seems kind of nice he's not the guy I would ask for advice no that's a bad idea I didn't say Burhielder didn't rate Scowie I said I didn't impress him which I think are too subtly different but still different things You're talking about the Giannoni tweet.

So, I mean, I'm sure if he had multiple weeks over two months to impress them, such as one Brooks Lennon, he would have been impressed. Yeah, that was neither. They're here nor there, fellas. It's goofy. It's goofy. All right. Let's, I'm going to close this out with my new number, nine point window.

Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you. A nine point window. It's time to lock this down. Oh, we want a nine-point window, a nine-point window. Sing with me now. Oh, we want a nine-point window, a nine-point window. Oh, we want a nine-point window.

Oh, we want a nine-point window, a nine-point window.