Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #249: Monday Review — Reyna’s return, Walker’s goal celebrations, Aaronson’s spot

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

Belz, Vince and Watke run through the weekend's action and take several listener questions.support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedsign up for our weekly newsletter: https://scuffedweekly.substack.com/ join the Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU buy our merch: https://my-store-11446477.creator-spring.com/drop us a question at this link and we’ll try to answer it: https://forms.gle/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 the Monday review. I've got Vince and Waki with me. We've got a lot to catch up on and a few good listener questions. Let's start with the biggest headline. Giovanni Raina, who came on for the last half hour of a beating that Dortmund took at the hands of Bayer Leverkusen. The key thing is he's back. Another key thing is he kept looking to make several runs in behind. He just kept at it. And then eventually he did a very successful one. where he got in and had a shot that just got saved. It's something that Germans have been trying to get him to do for a while. And I guess it eventually just took. They convinced him. They stayed at it.

Yeah, they must have. And then I think the other big thing is he initiated a high five with a teammate after a teammate had done something good, but kind of non-descript. I'm not sure we've ever seen him do that before. If we have, it hasn't been very often. So that's an interesting progression. He can be sparing in his praise, I believe. Yeah, so maybe the injury kind of humbled him a little bit.

You know what I'm saying? He's had to think that he loves most taken away from him for an extended period of time. And now he's just like, you know what? Whoa. I'm going to go out there and give some high fives. I'm going to get some high fives. Why so serious all the time? You know what I'm saying?

I'm just going to go out here, vibe, get some high fives off, make some runs in behind. I'm back. Yeah. It's great. It's great to see. It's very exciting and he's back. The run and behind for the good chance on goal, which he missed is definitely an encouraging sign. It was very much a transition moment.

Who played that through ball? Was that Daoud? It was very good. Very nice. I'm not sure. Whoever. It was very good. It's nice just seeing him again kind of like, yeah, he just kind of glides into space.

and then he as soon he has turned or something and is facing the good part of the field in a way that's threatening that we don't really have a lot of that type of threatening stuff on the rest of our team. It's weird to say but he's just so physically dominant like even in the Bundesliga he looks like he is never going to get pushed off the ball. He's going to glad pass people and just dominate those individual moments.

I'm feeling like a, Christian Pulisic is going to be a super sub at the World Cup, bro. Yeah. At this point, it's kind of looking like it. It's kind of looking like it, man. I mean, you can just see it. You can just see it as soon as he stepped on the pitch. Like, I think the first touch he had where like he received it and, you know,

he received in a half space and turn. And it was just, ooh, it just. Yeah, Pulisics is a super sub. Pulisics is super sub. that point when I saw that. Lock it in. Lock it in. Sorry, Christian, you've done a great job, done a great job for us, but, uh, you know, we're putting you into past. Like off one touch, I was like, all right. We're good. We're good, man. And, and, and I mean, he's, like, I know he's kind of just kept it chugging without him. Uh, yeah, ever since that

El Salvador match, but I mean, it's a huge loss, man. It's a huge loss. It was. Yeah. and man, we're going to need all hands-on deck come the end of March because this is going to be it's going to be queasy I'm going to be queasy until we qualify we can get into more of that later

let's do the rest of the weekend rundown Waki start us off okay so Junior Des subbed on because Danny Alva's got a red card and then Dust he did well at defensive containment

and Danny Alves, I would say, did a really committed job to protesting his red card, which I thought was almost kind of inspiring. Because he first, he stomped on the guy a little bit, wasn't, you know, vicious. But then he protested for a while. And then as he was walking off the field, he shook his head back and forth the whole time. We're talking about 40 seconds of head shaking and just never stop. I've never seen anything like it. He's just a different type of guy.

And that's kind of the mindset we want to get from Dest. And when Elvis came off at the end, Deaths went to high-five him, and Alphas was still upset. So he just kind of bumped into him. And I was like, yeah, that's a serious guy. He's a super human, Danny Alva as is. What is he like 45 now? Dude, so old. Nobody knows.

So old. Nobody knows. All right. So then there's Tim Wea. He was positive in the lopsided loss to PSG. he would drift into the middle and then make runs down that central channel a lot and then he made his normal runs down the flank.

Do you watch that game, Vince? No, I didn't catch it. I'm not going to lie. I was, I think that was in the middle of the AFCON final. And, yeah, I was watching that. It was. This was not the game to be watching. Although, Leal, they were playing well

and then they would just give up a goal on the counter over and over again. And the last 5 to 1, I think. PSG is just a class above in the final 18 yards basically, final 22 yards or something. I thought Wayo was definitely involved in creating some danger. He was offside when he rounded the keeper and scuffed his shot on goal. So the AR's flag definitely saved him some embarrassment there.

Overall, a pretty quiet day for him and for Jonathan David for what that's worth. Like you said, I think Leo was better than the score line, but the other team had Messi and Mboppe and DiMaria. Yeah. Weston McKinney, he came on very late. His main thing was he very enthusiastically celebrated our teammates' goal. Yes, heartily with Dennis Sakariah after his debut goal for Juventus. And that's good to see.

It looks like they're already like best buddies. And McKinney came on late and did a little damage. Put a decent shot on goal with his left. it generated a few other little problems for Hellas Verona. Yeah. When I had heard, when I heard about the celebration, because I wouldn't watch in the game at the time, but I was like, I was like, these guys are kind of hyping it a little bit. But then when I watched it, like, yeah, I would say heartily is definitely the right

word. Like my boy was, he was bouncing up and down. Like, it was like your mom at like your first, your first basketball game. something you get a you got a bucket and she's just she's just jumping up and down got like a hand in the air maybe it maybe a maybe a tear shedding you know what I'm saying it it it looked like that and uh I'd like I guess I mean this is this is a brand new signing and uh Weston's Weston's already in there so I mean like he he makes new friend deep and new friendships very quickly closer than anyone I think anyone certainly our player pool maybe in the entire game yeah I don't

I don't root for my closest friends this way. Like, there's, like, that was, that was, that was next level. It was, it was. Maybe that's like what happens when you're a military kid. You have to travel all around. You learn how to, you learn how to make friends quickly. Oh, that's true. That explains it.

Perfectly, I'm sure. Yeah, or, or, or constantly, uh, on the prowl, if you will. That's another, another thing that it would make him better at it. Mm-hmm. Those are two very good points. Eunice Musa had a good game. His best moments were when he was running up very fast into the attack. And then sometimes when it was less than a counterattack,

he would do a little bit of running in behind that defensive line. Kind of diagonally a little bit way from goal. But it was one of, I would say it was in his top 35% of Valencia games this year. Yeah, he played well. To be honest, I would not recommend anyone watching this game. Like, it was. That's the thing.

What if you get it? What if you get a, like, a good bathrobe on and a cup of hot chocolate? I mean, if, if, look, like us, what I'll say is, if you were expecting to see some La Liga football, you know what I'm saying? Some, some, some, a whole bunch of like G arenas out there just receiving the ball and turning and just. They would do it doing pretty things. Like, this is not it. This was not it. That is, this is not what that.

Not even close. Brendan Aronson, he, I think, had his best game in recent memory. It was all about dribbling and quick passing and instinctive play and vibes. Bives, basically, like he bounces. There are a lot of those that kept going exactly

his way. That's how his assist happened. He had an assist. There was some ricocheting pinballing off a defender and maybe him way at the field and he's in behind. And then later, he nearly pulled off a double neck not make he got the first one and then he went for the second one and a guy just got blocked it's all well and good but like we got to see how he plays in the champions league bro he'd be he be

getting out in austria be acting a fool dog he ran he was running rampant on the austrian cup man uh yeah uh so el salvador be having him in a headlock but when he gets over there to austria you know what i'm saying this a new me speaking of vibes speaking of vibes let me just interject here with a vibe shoutout. Maybe this will be a regular feature. Maybe not. We'll see. But I want to give a vibe shout out to Tara and Joey on the Discord.

If you look too closely, as I've mentioned earlier, at what's coming at the end of March, you might get some bad vibes, or at least some potentially bad vibes. And that's even if you're a generally positive person. So we need good vibes. And there has been a real movement for that on the Discord since last Wednesday. I'm talking, we're talking groundswell, you know? Yeah. And it's just been a vigorous attempt to stem the tide of an often dispiriting online

discourse about this team. And well, I mean, basically everything, everything in the world. So the shoutout goes to Joey, the boy wonder and Tara, who was stuck in the Twin Cities for what seemed like several days after last week's game. They've been absolutely leading the charge and they deserve a ton of credit, just boundless positivity undergirded by real intelligence since they're both pretty smart people. They seem smart to me. Thank you, Tara and Joey.

Yeah, Joey is probably the smartest 16-year-old that I've encountered in my travels. Wow, you got a good vibe shout at at 16. That is hard to do. That's impressive. You know how hard it is for your vibes to be as good as his at 16? No, I've never, I don't know, you know, well, whatever. Yeah, my, my, my, my vibes, aren't that good. I'm going to be honest, you know.

You know whose vibes weren't good is the announcer in the Manchester City game. They characterized the ball, Zach Steffen misplayed out of bounds as sheer panic, and it was not sheer panic. It was at most 40 or 50% panic. Like, sheer would mean it was nothing but panic. How about you don't criticize our goalkeepers like that if you're a commentator, and you don't even seem to know what words mean. I'm sorry for, I hate to do that right after the good vibesite.

Shear, she would indicate 100%, right? It has, if it's sheer, it's 100%. It was 56% panic at most, 70, 80% panic. I've noticed the, uh, the English, they always like to, you know what I'm saying? They, it can't just be panic. It has to be sheer panic. You know what I'm saying? It can't, uh, I can't come up with another example, but I was trying to think of it.

But yes, it always got turning up just a little bit. And it can't be utterly, utterly wasteful. I guess they don't say that. But if this were a cartoon version of a English person, they certainly would. You couldn't say something as just a shambles. You'd have to be an absolute shambles. Right. Right.

And it can't just be scenes. I don't. Absolute scenes. Absolute is such a great word, though. I totally overuse it, even though I'm not English. Yo, yo, can we go back to Brendan real quick. Can we go back to Brendan real quick? Yes.

I just want to ask a question. Like, so it seems pretty clear to me that he's a midfielder. And I don't know. I'll just throw that out and say thoughts as far as it pertains to the U.S. National Team. Well, with what happened last year with the Red Bull team is he started playing, or maybe was earlier whenever it was. He started playing better when he was on the wing.

And now he's gone back. And this game, he was in the midfield. And he did have a good game. I guess I don't have a good response to what you just asked as well. Here's my response. He's, he's, uh, maybe he is better suited to be a midfielder. But I don't know if he's physically up to it at the international level. So maybe he can do it and maybe he can do it against Lask in Austria.

but can he do it against Mexico or Panama? I would be highly doubtful. Yeah. I don't think you should be our midfielder to start against Mexico. Okay. I will say that. Yeah. It's just because he's not going to beat anybody.

He's not going to beat anybody around the corner. I think maybe that's part of what you're saying, right? It's that. And he just seems that like you can just tell him the way he plays. He's a ticker. You know what I'm saying? He'll just, he doesn't want to be somebody around the corner. He'd rather just get and receive the ball, pass it, move a little bit.

You know, like he doesn't, he really doesn't really seem to be that interested in doing winger things when he plays on the wing for us. You've just persuaded me, Vince. Yes, he's a midfielder. If we're going to all agree that he's a midfielder, which I'm not quite ready to agree, then that just means he doesn't play for the national team anymore. more, basically, in my opinion. But we do have a good question about him. We'll get to later. That isn't directly a response to this, but it's, let's save a little bit of

Aronson talk for later. Should we... I'm going to continue the rundown of the action. Please. With George Bello, who debuted for Armenia-Bielfeld, and I would say it went fine. Other than that, the one thing, the director of this game, this happened a lot in the Bundesliga. he used far too many mid-action close-ups,

enough that it's worth mentioning. It was pretty nauseating. But Bellows seemed to, it was a good debut. He looked like he belonged, as they say. Yeah. And then Luca De La Torre, he didn't touch the ball much in his game

against IACs. I wouldn't really say, I wouldn't say it was his fault. He was playing a very advanced midfield role, and his team didn't have the ball. Important thing about De La Torre is he's not the safe. of the U.S.

men's national team. He is just an improvement over Sebastian Leggett and Christian World Don as a midfielder who can advance the ball. It's that simple. Yes.

Yes. He's not a genius creator. Gianluca Busio, he came in at the end of a game. He's gotten a somewhat different haircut that makes him more difficult to track on the field. It's not that he's hard to track.

It's just not as easy as it used to be with him. Maybe I'll get you. to it, but this first game, it was an adjustment. I didn't watch Venetia. Is his haircut, like, much shorter or something? No, it's about the same length. He just took some off the front and side part, which changed his profile.

But once you got, you know, once you acclimate to it, I think it'll be fine. Okay. Well, it's different enough that it's, you know, it was very noticeable. But it's not that important. We don't need it to do. Tracking players on the field is hard to do. In a lot of cases. I mean, we always joke about Joe Scali,

but like I was watching some, some Vizella highlights this morning. Alex Mendes can be a little bit hard to pick out. He's a tough one. There's, you know, there's plenty of examples of this. Yeah, just about someone who's completely distinct looking from their teammates, and there's a lot of way you can accomplish that. Sometimes it's just in your gate.

Yeah. Pulisic can be hard sometimes. if Mount is out there for some reason. Do you experience that? A little bit. I don't often watch a lot of Chelsea, to be honest. It was hard telling Musa, telling Musa from, I think, Mariba,

the guy that just got from Lepa. I just want to say about Buccio, this was his second straight game coming off the bench. You know, he had COVID, he missed one because of that. and Testman remained on the bench for this one. So, you know, it's a little bit, a little bit of a down cycle for the, for the two youngsters at Venetia right now. It's okay.

You know? That's right. It's okay. Got a bit more competition in there. It'll just raise their level on it. That's another thing British people do. They end sentences with the question, like, won't it or didn't? In it?

Yeah. Vince loves that to appropriate in it. Yeah, I love that. I like in it. I'm not going to want. Yeah, it's good. All right. What about John Brooks?

John Brooks. John, he played. I did not watch him because I was waiting for an update that Kevin Perides was subbing in, which he never did. I think if Kofel messes around with us on Paredes, I don't know what we should do, but I would just, it would be kind of, I would draw the line of that with that guy. Yeah, we're going to have to put him on a travel ban or something. You can't come in. Somehow it looks like somebody who's never been to the United States to me, or out of... He does.

Or out of... That is a good, good thing to point out there. That seems true. Probably not true, but he looks like it. Brian Reynolds, he moved to Belgium to a club called Courterich. And he debuted. And he was pretty good, or at least he played in a way that reminded him. me of his potential, which I'd partly forgotten, just because of how hard Jose

Murino had broken our spirits. I'm pretty sure, you know, we love to correct your pronunciation on this podcast, Waki, and I'm pretty sure it's Court Reich. Because I know that because of the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam is where you see all the Dutch masters, you know. Same word, same language. The important thing is he went 90 minutes. Put one very good cross in.

It seemed like he was getting comfortable. somewhat at fault, unfortunately on Santruiden's third goal when the keeper palmed a shot into a dangerous area and Reynolds was just slower than his mark to get to it. So he's not out of the sort of foggy-headed woods just yet, but he's what he looks like, he looks like the real deal when he's moving up the flank with the ball at his feet. I'll say that.

Yeah, and I mean, we know what Jose Marino is about and it's not playing young kids. So, you know, I mean, it was to be expected when Marino got the job and just happy to see he has a place to play now. Yeah, I was a little bit critical there, but it's like it's an unmitigated positive, really, that he was on the field and looks like he's going to keep being on the field. I've forgotten how many long passes he tries. He played some good ones down the channel. Yeah, very, some of a couple very good ones. He cranks that ball.

Jordan Pefack scored two goals. He seems to do that all the time. And these looked a lot like you would think they look like if you're familiar with Jordan. I saw the header and it was, that kind of goal is harder than it looks. And people are like calling him a tap-in merchant and stuff. And I don't know, maybe that is what he is. Yeah, that was one of its better header goals. I mean, that's from like 12 or 13 yards.

Just pounds it into the corner. Yeah, man, I'm just saying, I mean, let's cycle, let's cycle through our strikers, man. Might as well, like, what do we have to lose? What do we had to lose? I don't know, man. Bring like seven of them into the next camp and just let him duke it out in camp. Mr. Coach Greg Burhalter rarely does that, though, doesn't he really keeps it pretty light on the strikers. Yeah, he does.

I don't know, maybe there's a reason for that. Alex, Alex Mendez keeps playing. That's something that's continued to go on. Yeah, it went about an hour in a two-two draw. He wasn't like really good or anything, but they got a draw at Boavista. It's a good result for them against another relegation threatened club. And Vizela, I just learned this this morning. You know, they're a tiny club.

We know that. But this is the first time they've been in the first year since 1985, which is the only time other than this season that they've been in the first tier in their club's 80-year history. And they're currently six points clear of the relegation line. And Mendez drew a red card against an opponent by getting tackled when he played a really nice pass down the line. And he has been an important part of this run for Vizela. Is he there on loan? No, he's just there.

He came on a permanent transfer. Well, permanent is a little bit of an exaggeration, isn't it? Nothing is permanent. Nico Giochini, he had a really good control of the ball this weekend with otherwise pretty solid looking Well, Nico Keene is how you want me to say this It looks like Giochini to me

Giaochini He had a really good control of the ball He did Took it down over his shoulder with his right foot And then What, he played it across the top of the box Yeah, I didn't know he had that in his bag I thought

No, I didn't either either, really. I thought, you know, so Montpellier lost three to one to Saint-Eitienne, but they were winning one zero when Joe Keeney came off, and I thought, I thought he looked pretty good, not just that one touch. Still seems like a long shot to make a World Cup roster, but don't count him out. Then there was Eric Palmer Brown, who is very consistently having very nice things said about him. I don't know if anyone is actually watching him play, but he seems to be, his stock

seems to be going up just from local press reports. Yeah, there's a few clips in the Discord that I have yet to check out. But everyone that's watched him says he's playing pretty well. And he's doing some nice things on the ball, too. So very interesting. Very interesting. Is his, what is his weakness? Is it athleticism?

What is it? Just defensive stuff? We're talking about EPB, right? Yeah. What is his weakness? I think he's not, he's sort of just replacement level with his distribution. And I think he's, at least in the past,

I have not watched him this season, but at least in the past, maybe slightly below replacement value when it comes to defensive instincts and awareness. Now, like, by contrast, Chris Richards, you know, he never looks like he's trying that hard. or moving that fast, but he's always kind of there in the right spot.

I would say EPP, so that, so that, I would say in that regard, Richards is like well above replacement value. And I think that that specific thing, EPP has maybe struggled a little bit in the past. I don't know about this season. There's a clip of Tyler Adams and Eric Parmel Brown from back, I think it was in a U-20 camp. And Eric Palmer Brown claimed to be faster than Tyler Adams. And Tyler Adams is just furious at him.

It's one of my favorite videos. Those 18 and 19-year-olds love arguing about who's the fastest, don't they? Oh, yeah, that's a big thing. Yes. I think it seems to be just a constant topic of conversation among young soccer players. Do you remember when Josh Sargent tried to claim he was the fastest with, like, C-CV and I think Tyler Adamser, and they all just like. That was the same conversation. He tried to butt into the conversation, and they just laughed him out of it.

Okay. Yeah. He just got little brother right out of that, right out of that dinner table. Yeah, that was a nice. I'm fast. I'm fast. That was a nice little setup they had, if I'm remembering that conversation correctly. Were they like on a nice little gazebo or something?

The countryside behind it. Yeah, it was nice. That's true. It was like in like Northern Italy or something or where, I don't know where it was actually. I'd watch a weekly show of Tyler Adams arguing with teammates. Yeah. Yeah. He's got a really biting sense of humor.

Yeah, he's kind of, he's a little bit of a jerk. And I like it. I like that about him. I am also not sure that he's faster than Josh Sargent, to be honest with you. Yeah, I don't know who's. Yeah, he might not have been right. I just don't really care that much who's the fastest, but they do. They care a lot about that.

All right. I'm going to close out this rundown. Pulisick and Pepe, they were recovering from the Great freeze so they did not play. Joss Sargent was sick or he was listed to having an illness and Paul Ariola got engaged. Congratulations, Paul. They congrats to Paul.

Looks like he did it right. He had a photographer hiding in the bushes. He did all the right things. Is that what was going on? They had them hide. I've never thought about that. Maybe they didn't have them hide. I don't know.

I don't know how people are doing it. It's kind of like, wouldn't it be, if you're going to surprise somebody and ask him to marry you, don't you think you should have the photographer be incognito? definitely maybe it wasn't a surprise i would think so maybe it wasn't man because because you know how it goes when you get to late stage uh late stage partnership without without any well you putting the pressure on all that shit it's crazy it's crazy yeah so yeah happy happy that you that you got that done it's the most important thing at that point is just content

and for social, you know, you just need the content. Yeah. All right. Yes. So that's the rundown from the weekend. I'm sure there's other stuff, but that's, you know, that's a lot. Thank you, Waki, for. If I, if I forgot a player, because I do not respect that player or like that player,

if someone gets upset. So I just don't like, I don't like them and I didn't want to talk about it. Let it be known. Yeah. I want to talk about Walker Zimmerman's goal celebrations a little bit because I try to get you to do a video on this walkie but you're saying no which you know you know you know what you know what you know you know how to make a good i had i had done one about his um either thor or act celebration so i i felt like it's it's too soon to do another walker zimmerman celebration video

but i think it's important to talk about well the the thing that's cool about it is he does he has the same you know like full-faced greg mentioned this in the last podcast that he's like this big this primal energy to his goal celebration where he's just like screaming with his whole face. But if you go back and look at all the goals from Wednesday, not just Zimmerman's, but McKinney's, and then of course Zimmerman's, and then of course Poulis, he's making the same face in all three goal celebrations. So he brings this energy, this power, not just to his own goals, but to his teammates' goals, which to me makes him a world-class goal celebrator.

Yeah, and it's very much a, his face, it reminds me of like, it's, it's a football thing. Like, just from like, playing in college, like, that, like, that's the go-to celebration, especially for, for a white man of Walker Zimmerman's stature. That's the go-to. That's the go-to. So, yeah. Yeah, man. I love to see it.

Basically, I'm a big white, I'm a big white man. I'm a big white man. that's that's the message damn i i didn't know we had a big white big whites and then contributions to this to this to this podcast uh propaganda let's be careful i know you adam wasn't saying that he's a big white he was saying that's what walker zimmer is i'm talking about big white as far as like the uh adams is a pretty small small white In terms of like a government lobby. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Yeah. We have nothing to do with that. We have nothing to do with that law firm. Let's just be clear. Yeah. So he's doing that all the time. And it is cool. It is cool that he gets so excited about other people's goals too.

You know, somebody else scores a goal in Pulitzer's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good job. You know, walks over. Walker Zimmerman just comes like, screaming right into their face and head butts them in the forehead, you know? Yeah. On Weston's goal, he celebrated as though he had been the one to score it. He was just running out ahead.

Yeah. And then Weston kind of followed his arc. Yeah. I mean, and I understand. Same thing happened in Pulisic's goal. Walker was way more excited than Christian was when Pulisicic scored his third, the third goal of the night. Yeah. Pulisic, he really tried to play it cool on that whole thing.

Not play it cool, but like he made it a real point. of, you know, I shouldn't be celebrating much here. Yeah. Like anything, you know, there's a fine line. There's a fine line. It's possible that he could end up getting on a, getting on all of his team's nerves by being too overzealous. You know what I'm saying?

It's a line you got to walk. And of course, I don't know their relationships, but. I think that this team needs that from. they need an over exuberant older an older guy I do that's my read of it but I understand that would be a pretty big concern

depending on the team set up yeah if you get a if you get a cut right above that the eyebrow there you know it can it can look pretty bit so that's all I'm saying my one I wouldn't call an issue with Zimmerman it's just something that I think about a lot

that I want to get off my head I don't I don't find him to be as handsome as other people as everyone else seems to he's perfectly handsome but he's not like he's not 95th percent of well maybe he is 95th he's not 98th percentile so he definitely 95th but definitely not 98th I mean there's a big that's a huge difference I don't know I'm I'm have to think about because I feel like he has like the the man's man thing going for him Mm-hmm. He's also tall, which is, you know.

Right. That's a huge, huge factor. I think in about a year, Miles Robinson is going to be far more handsome than Walker's Superman. We'll see. I think he's more handsome than Zimmerman now, but. Okay. I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't die for that take. I just like to see them get a couple more years of experience.

We just need the ladies to stuff to go ahead and weigh in. Yes, please. One other thing about... I feel like I'm a pretty good judge of how handsome a guy is too. One of the thing about goal celebrations for me is, I perhaps have like an over, an over interest in like celebrating with your teammates, you know,

or like, or acknowledging the guy who plays the really good ball that gives you the tap in. You know, I'm like, I'm big on that. And there's this, you know, that goal that Zimmerman scored against Bolivia back in the day, Greg mentioned this.

It was a, it was a really nice ball from Nick Lima, you know, long, you know, long since has exited the player pool for the national team. But Nick Lima used to be a right back and we'd even named a position after him. Yep, yep. I was about to say that. But continue. So he was, he was shunted aside pretty unceremoniously. Has it have so many been. But, but the thing is, so Zimmerman, that was a pretty towering header from Zimmerman.

some distance from the goal. And he, you know, the first thing he does is he does his scream, you know, with his arms flexed in front of him. And then as, as Lima's coming over to him,

he goes, are you effing kidding me? Are you effing kid to me? What an effing ball. And he's just like screaming in his face, headbutting him in the nose. And I love that. I love that kind of stuff,

you know? Like, acknowledge the guy who drops a dime that gives you the chance to score a goal. I'm really big on that. So that's the last thing I'll say about that. Should we go to some questions? I think we have some good ones from around the country.

Yeah. Okay. Charlie from Arizona, but Orlando at heart asks, with Gio coming back, where does Brennan Erinson fit in the squad? Obviously, I don't mean bench or on the wing,

but from a more nuanced point of view, what will his role be? Well, for me, if you would, I just after watching him play Lask. Yeah. My response is not as negative as it was for the one that I planned to give before that, which I think has more to do with short-term thinking than anything else.

But he's probably like a rotation winger or if he gets bigger than a midfielder. But I mean, for me with eyes to the World Cup, I mean, I'm probably going to, Tim Tim Gio Christian and Jordan Morris probably if it gets back up to form I rate what Jordan brings to the team as far as just from a pure

pace and power perspective just being able to just be a bully and just being a load to account for I'd probably take those four over Brendan The interesting thing about Morris versus Aronson is that Morris does bring something else

And this goes back to your point earlier about maybe Brendan's a midfielder. Maybe he should be a midfielder. That's the role he's most natural in. Well, that means he, that is another way of saying he doesn't stretch the back line. He doesn't make runs in behind. That's not his natural state of being. Whereas that is much more a natural thing for Jordan Morris. So you're going to bring a fourth winger.

I mean, we can agree Aronson's the fourth winger at this point. He's probably the slight favorite. or we can agree he's at best the fourth winger we can almost agree we can agree he's not ahead of way of pulisic and raina i mean i mean if it's right now he's on the plane right but if you we can agree he's not the third right right right right so we can agree he's not the third so he's at best fourth and then you got to think like okay who brings you might want to think who's who's going to bring something different who's going to bring a different look that we can throw at people and morris does that and i think you're going to think you're

even Conrad and Paul Areola bring something different a little bit than Aronson. Not that they're better players than him, but. Yeah, but so the one thing that's like giving me a little pause is we're probably going to need, at some point, where we're going to need Brendan that just run around like a, like a chicken with his head cut off. Like at some point in the World Cup, I feel like. that would be like if they're yes i don't know like third game of the group stage or something where we can just unleash this man and like with fresh legs and he'll just wreck everything possibly

um i think this is right i think brandon is for when we went to affect a frenetic game state or we need to shift it yeah it's gonna be such a different these games i was just looking this up and it took me a while to figure it out because i'm not very good at math but The games in Qatar are going to be, the group stage games are going to be, have like 5, 8, 11, and 2 Eastern time, a.m. And then, you know, 2 p.m.

Eastern time. So, so anyway, those games, that's just a side note. And those games, the game states can be so different than it's been in a lot of these concaf games. We haven't been outshot but once in qualifying. And that was by Panama when we played,

like, probably the worst game of the Burrhalter era. We outpossessed just about everybody. We're going to go to the World Cup. We're going to play some good teams. It's going to be totally different. So I guess I was really hoping you had figured out a theory of time of day that Brendan Aronson should be used in. Oh, no, that's beyond me for sure.

Yeah, yeah. I thought there was, I mean, I thought you're going to be like when the sun is out. It's when it's high news, we prefer Brendan out there. I know what was going on. in a noon Katari winter. I think my official position is I would probably like to see

all five of these all five of these players brought with Gio having the added flexibility and Gio and Brendan having the added flexibility of potentially being used in the midfield. I can see that. Is that nuanced enough

for you, Charlie? I was wondering, yeah, because he specifically wants us to be nuanced in that question. I think it's probably okay. I mean, that's a lot of pressure. What we said is probably okay. He's, for me, he's a slight favorite. If we're just bringing those four-wingers, which I think you're right, Vince, we should consider doing all five, but if it's just those four, he's a slight favorite

right now, but his position is tenuous. Chris Jackson and Kansas City asks, if you were preparing to face the U.S. men's national team in a World Cup group stage match. What weaknesses would you most try to exploit? Assume the full health, five subs, and whatever full strength starting lineup you prefer. Waki. Any full strength lineup I'd go with probably Byron or Man City, Liverpool. And at that point, to be honest, I wouldn't meddle with them too much.

I wouldn't do a whole lot of game planning. First of all, who am I to tell that team what to do? And then, second, I think that could be in pretty good shape either way no matter what. If they kept insisting my advice, I'd probably just get frustrated and I just tell them to figure it out. I feel like I didn't necessarily respect the question there. Definitely, I did not respect the question. So I apologize for that. I just don't know enough about soccer to know what are we.

Okay, let me earnestly attack the question and then Vince, you interject, please. It seems like a really good thought experiment to me because it forced me to to think about how we've been beaten. And we've been beaten in transition by teams in low blocks mostly. Beaten slash drawn. Canada beat us last Sunday in transition, punishing our mistakes and defying us to pass through their low block. They also drew us that way in September. El Salvador drew us that way in the first game of qualifying.

Jamaica drew us with Michaela Antonio Galozzo. I don't know that it's fair to say they were in a low block. They definitely came out of their shell. as that game went on and kind of were dominating by the end of it. And I think sort of the same is true of Panama, not dominating us, but they were overrunning our, at that point, second choice midfield. And still needed a Zard's own goal on a corner kick to beat us. We're hard to beat.

I think it's fair to say it was hard to score goals against us outside of us making mistakes or transition moments. So, I don't know. I don't know. that's not a stat that shows us being dominant, but it does show that we haven't been dominated much. And I think a disciplined low block and a counterattack is the way to come at us,

there has been in Kank-Kaf qualifying. How that's going to work in the World Cup, assuming we make it, is kind of interesting to think about. Because I almost feel like, yes, Argentina probably would steamroll us with their quality. but I almost feel like our player pool would be more comfortable in that sort of game where it's more open and there's more space in the in transition for us than it is against those you know disciplined banks of four and five that Canada gives us. Yeah.

So, I mean, it's just like what you would do with any, like against any young team in sports, I feel like you just take away what they do well and then hope they get they get frustrated at some point. time and just and just, uh, I would just take the approach that like, it's easy to, it's easy to break the, it's easier to break the spirit of some young kids as opposed to like a older, more veteran team that's been through it. So if you can just like go ahead and sit back in that low block and not, not let the US be in their comfort zone and play, um, then yeah. Yeah, like I feel like, I feel like that's, that's the way I would do it more than likely. If you were, is Didier Deschamp still the coach of France?

Yes. Okay. Boy, that guy just never leaves. If you were him and you face the U.S., and say you had Project Restart Pulisic coming at you on the left wing, like, you know, full power, Christian Pulisic, and then, you know, the MMA midfield at full strength, playing well. Would they ever drop into some kind of block? mid block or low block against us a minnow on the global stage i mean i mean that's how they play right

yeah that's what i play oh yeah because they're so fast i guess but it's weird because they have they probably have better players than us at every position right i assume i which is why like a lot of people think uh didier de chomp is like a international criminal because of because of the way like he doesn't like he just won't unleash that attack with with all those players that they have but yeah i mean that that that's just international football can you can you imagine how unpleasant it would have to play against that like we're already not good at breaking down a block and now it's uh france on the counter which is like you know 10 deep at every position and like starting in top five leagues yeah so that's the thing frustrate us um so how do y'all feel about the uh the the

the soft argument that popped up after the Canada game. As far as like us being easy to like intimidate or like dominate physically or something. I mean, I guess it was like a Seb Salazar maybe, them at the. Yeah, I think the allocation disorder guys kind of said it too. Like, how do you feel better? I think there's definitely something to it. We're definitely not as tough as Canada. but also I think

it was a weird situation where we were trying to play and so by responding to any stuff they did, we were just bringing more, we would have brought more disorder to it which is what I wouldn't avoid

and it was kind of a tough spot to be in. Yeah. I think if we go into game, like against Mexico, like, it wasn't like that against Mexico just because our approach was different from the outset. Yeah.

I don't know about, I mean, I don't know if soft is, the word for what I think about it, but it's, I mean, we're definitely not as good at managing games. Yeah, it's kind of like naive, right? Yeah, I don't, I don't really like the soft word. Soft kind of like sets me off a little bit because it's like, dude, these guys are clearly

not soft. Like, you know, it's not like ridges out here back and down the challenges. Just like saying here, here you go, you can have the ball, whatever. We fought throughout that entire game, but it is like the naivete. of just like not knowing how to control games and just the fact like when you're a young team and like you're you come up against a challenge like that where somebody's going to like out physical you

it's like you're not even thinking about sometimes you're not even thinking about okay let's get physical back you know what I'm saying they're just like okay we're just going to we're just going to ball you know what I'm saying and it's not always the case where just playing ball is going to get you out of it sometimes you do have to stoop down to their level. You know what I'm saying?

Like if they're doing this, then we got to get stuck in as well. Like, you know what I'm saying? It can't just be triangles and whatever. So I think it's just part of our youth. Yeah. We're just not very crafty.

Outside, I mean, Kellyn Acosta is a little bit crafty. He's crafty. And I appreciated that in the game on Wednesday. But like, we need some cold-eyed cynicism in the, from these youngsters.

And that's the thing. Like talent, talent isn't everything. Like, it's a big thing. But it's still, like, the game is a whole other thing. Like, having talent to play the game and then actually playing the game is a whole different thing. And you only gain this knowledge through experience. So, well, like, we'll see the, we'll see the team get better at it through time. Yeah.

I imagine we're not going to be, we're still going to have a little bit of a deficit on that front at the World Cup if we, you know, assuming we go. It might take a couple more years. Once we, yeah, we'll go once we beat New Zealand in the plan. Stop that, please. We're beating Panama. No, they're just, Vince, they're not a strong, New Zealand is not a strong team. I think we, I think we, if, if we end up in for us, like I'm not tripping, but we're not,

we're not going to end up in for it. That's, that's my official position. Oh, okay. We certainly are taking it down to the. wire, aren't we? I'm just preparing myself emotional. There's no need. There's no need.

And you know what? That's another thing that I want to bring up. Like, I mean, the USM&T fan base is an extremely traumatized people. And as a whole. And you guys has got to relax, man. Just relax. It'll be fine. And if it's not fine, it'll still be fine.

I was going to say, it might not be fine. But if it, that's just a good second point. and it will probably be fine. We're quibling about like the 5% chance that we don't qualify automatically. Yeah, I'm quibbling with it a little bit. Yeah. No need. I'm traumatized.

I'm traumatized. All right. All right. Let's go to the next question. Colin from West Hartford, Connecticut asks, does the lack of any striker to truly emerge as an out-and-out starter? Were you, especially seeing how we struggle to break down teams in the final third? Or do you have confidence in the guys we have right now,

to get the job done. Vince. Yeah, yeah, it does worry me a little bit. It does worry me a little bit. Just because it's international, international soccer, man. Like sometimes you just need that guy to take you over the top and just get you a goal.

And at this moment, we don't seem to have that. So, yeah, it's a worry. It's a worry. It would help to have a very good striker. It seems to be pretty important in the sport. I have a joke I have a joke with some of my friends here in Chattanooga

who are like you know they're much bigger Premier League fans than they are national team fans but they do disgusting they do care about the national team and one of them was like you know all we need is just like

I don't know give me somebody like Olivier Juru that's all we need and I was like what are you talking about bro just somebody like Olivia Jiru he's not the greatest striker

who ever lived but he is like top top tier when he was younger and he still you know He still scored two goals against into Milan over the weekend. Yeah, he's talking about like every game starter for the World Cup champions, Olivia, Juru. There should be a rule in international soccer or once you hit a certain age, let's say at 38, well, actually, let's say 40. Once you hit 40, you're a free agent and you can go play for any country you want. Wouldn't that be cool?

We could just be recruiting the legends to the teams that don't have a striker. I don't actually think that's a good idea. What's like a 40-year-old you want? You want a 40-year-old? Because, you know, Greg, Greg can go switch up. Greg, going to have his 40-year-old ass pressing. Okay?

He's going to be the key to the press. We'll lower the age to 37. Yeah, it would be interesting, Chris. It'd be interesting. It's actually not that interesting. Let's disband the idea. Let's forget it. Let's throw it in trash.

Steve Copra, Steve Copera, in Ann Arbor, Michigan asks, what's the late? latest on Kobe Hernandez Foster and Brian Keio. Haven't heard much about either since they made the move to Germany. So I'll just give a little further context. They were both key players on that U-17 team that had Gio Raina on it and George Bello and John Luca Bousio. It was a very disappointing team.

But in my opinion back then, you know, Hernandez Foster was one of the better players on the team. He was a left back who was being played out of position as a centerback. And Keo was, you know, he was one of the better players on the team too. He was kind of a high-energy midfielder, kind of a box. box-to-box guy. They've both had a rough time. Kobe signed last month with Ham Cam, a club in Norway's first tier. We'll see how he does getting minutes.

Their season doesn't start until April 1st, so it's going to be a while. They play in a stadium with 7,800 seats with artificial turf, which is by far the most common playing surface in Norway. And then K.O. got spot minutes in Germany's third tier for Victoria, Berlin. on loan from Wolfsburg in the fall, but the minutes stopped coming in November, and he's now on loan, according to transfer market, to Nuremberg 2, which plays in the regional leaguea, which is the fourth tier of Germany. So the trend, you know, there's, I guess, a little bit of hope that Kobe can revive things in Norway, but the trend line for Kio, and specifically doesn't

look that positive. So that's the update. Yeah, I remember seeing some, uh, some comps to KO. What was it? It might have been last year. I think it was last year. I used to make that. And he was, I thought he was looking good at that point.

But I don't know what's happened from, since. I don't know what's happened since. But in those comps, man, he was, he was giving me like a little, a little Western vibe a little bit. Yeah.

A small amount. A small amount of Weston. I think that's a good comparison. Yeah. Yeah, it's surprising. seemed to be just good enough that he would definitely be able to get minutes in the third division. But I guess, you know, soccer is a fickle, a fickle little beast, as they say.

Yeah, I mean, he wasn't loaned to Nuremberg, which plays in, I think in the two Bundesliga. I think he was, I mean, he was loaned specifically according to Transfer Market to Nuremberg two. I think one last thing about Kobe is he is he hits a sweet left footed ball and he's a very intelligent like player in possession. But he may just be too small and too slow to be. I'm not saying that's for sure true. I'm just saying it's possible that that's, you know, the challenge he's up against is just the basic physical stuff. Because you've got to be fast and you've got to be strong to play elite soccer. Yep.

Nico Ipa in Miami asks. As someone who watches Vizela matches, it seems like Mendez is the player we hope Buccio can one day be. Is there something he's glaringly bad at like positioning that can't be noticed without a strong soccer background? I'm still not completely clear on what kind of player we hope Buccio can be. It seems like we definitely have a better idea than we used to, but I still don't know for sure where we are on that.

It's not a critique of Buccio. I just don't know what our hopes are. What are your hopes, Vince? We'll get back to Mendez. We'll get back to Mendez in a second. It'd be nice if he could be a six. Like I feel like that's where his traits play out the best as far as like his ability to this passing range

like offensively. His ability to spray the ball and all that stuff. Like I don't see him as much of an aid as far as like being able to receive the ball and turn and drive at defenses, any type of, like, creativity, really as far as, like, an offensive midfielder, an attacking midfielder.

But, yeah, so I think it's still, because, like, Vincia has kind of thrown us off a little bit, right, by playing him at the 8 most of the time. But I do think it's still at the 6th. And I think most USM&T fans that are paying attention will probably say. probably say that they hope he ends up as a six. He just needs to have some teeth as a defender and some,

some, you know, some alertness, I think. So that established now, thank you for helping. Is Mendez, is Mendez that player? I guess it's the next question. Yeah, I think the comparison between Busio and Mendez, it makes sense because they're both, they're both good in possession and a bit of a liability in defense. And I think it's, even though I think Mendez has,

proved a lot, still kind of the case. They're just not naturally inclined to seeing danger coming and running over to snuff it out. It's not where their heads are at. So, yeah, that's the comparison. Mendes, historically more of a risk taker than Buccio in possession. He'll try to hit the assist al-a-lato, but a tad more wasteful of possession than Buccio. I think the upside Mendez brings on the field is higher

um like in terms of what he can do but his glaring weakness has been defensive awareness and commitment and even like I said even though he's getting seems to be getting better I don't think he's convinced anyone that he will not be a defensive liability uh

and he's yeah I think that's that's his that's his glaring weakness um it's still duels and shutting down the opponent and he also men is playing all over the You know, sometimes he plays wings, sometimes he plays as an eight. Sometimes he drops in deep to pick up the ball. Against Boavistow over the weekend, he was, you know, he was going touchline to touchline, box to box. I've noticed you're putting a very nice touch on your pronunciation of Boa Vista.

I know, that's an easy one. It's an easy one, though, right? You just put... Bovistha. Yeah, I think it's a Portuguese thing. It's not easy for me. I'm not even sure it's correct, but I feel like I've heard that. but yeah it seems to be like something like

like Mendez it's just like when you don't have the the strong physical traits you know what I'm saying it like it might it might just take a little bit longer for that part of your game to develop because then at that point it's all about like recognizing the stuff before

you have to like if you're if you're recognized it too late too late then you're not going to be able to make up that mistake you know like you You have to be that one beat faster when you don't have the physical attributes, which we know Alex Mendez doesn't necessarily have as far as, as far as running. Yeah. He is, I've said this twice already, but I just want to reemphasize.

He is getting better. He's, you know, he's winning some duels. And I think the trend line there is positive. It just, you know, he's going to have to get to a point where he's like, he's just an absolute serious man in the midfield, you know, before he takes a step up or, you know, before I'm really clamoring for him to be in the national team. And, I mean, I love Alex, man. Me too. Like, I rated him above, above Ledzma when I was, like, after I had watched that World Cup, I just thought he was, I just love that left foot, man. And it's just so, you just, it's, it's, it's something that you see.

And it sticks in your mind. Yeah. And he does pleasant, he does pleasant things. I'm sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead. I was just going to say, he does pleasant things, like pleasant, sort of surprising things on the ball, every game. Every game for Visella. And I think, yeah, there's a lot to like there.

Speaking of Ledesma, I should mention quickly, he played with young PSV over the weekend on Friday. He is, seems to have, he seems to be at best on the edges of the PSV first team. Not a happy update, but that's the reality. He played 60 minutes. He came off after they went up to zero against Helmand's sport. And he, he looked fine, but not like somebody who's just about to break his way into the first team. Well, that's fine. Just give them some time.

Yeah. I don't have any worries about Richie. I think he's going to come good with PSFE. Good vibes only. Yeah. Good vibes only. Last question. Sternamack in Annapolis, Maryland asks.

I've heard a few people say Zimmerman and Miles are our starting centerbacks. You have to assume that unlike in the Ocho in an actual World Cup, we may not be the ones trying to break down a low block. I mean, unless we're playing France. Perhaps we're the ones playing defensively. If so, do we need the ball playing centerback? need the stoutest defense with an aerial threat. What do you guys think? I mean, do, so first of all, do you all agree about Zimmerman and Miles or no?

Well, I think whether you agree depends a lot on this question that Sternac asks, and I guess that's why I threw it in here. Is that because Richard's injured? I don't know the context of those being our two favorite. but generally I'm I think temperamentally I'm a stout defense kind of guy so you know whoever those players are I mean passing is for passing is for teams that have already qualified for the World Cup yeah I mean at this point look we got the three we got Zimmerman we got we got Walker we got Miles and we got Chris at this point

seem like to be the three that we're they're rolling with for the most part um and if you if you want to say the Zimmerman that the Walker and Chris I mean Jesus excuse me Walker and uh Miles are our best to uh I'm not I'm not gonna argue with you like it is what it is um so yeah I'd be I'd be totally fine with throwing them out again to whoever also we still have we still do have John Brooks. Yeah, but he's still, I mean, he's still there. This isn't me making the team.

No, I'm reminding Greg Burrhalter, just in case he wants to use him. I know you know we have John Brooks. I don't know who our centerback should be if I'm being completely honest. Yeah, I feel, uh, yeah, my disposition is the same as yours, Waki, where I want to, I want us to be really good defensively. And Brooks, Brooks would make me nervous back there, man. I can't lie. He would.

He looks like he's running underwater when he's running as fast as he possibly can. That's not to say, of course he's definitely our most elegant ball-playing centerback. No question about it. That is something I would like to see more of from our team. But man, if we get two or three line breaking passes to one of our sort of replacement level strikers a game, and in exchange, in exchange, we get, you know, somebody leaving John Brooks for dead, somewhere around the 30-yard mark from the goal before scoring a goal to knock us out of the World Cup. No thanks. I won't, I don't want that.

Yeah, you make a compelling case. I mean, it's just, if we're playing a low block, I guess I could see it. It doesn't seem like we're going to do that anytime soon. Yeah, John Brooks having to turn and run is not it. So, yeah, not a strong runner. And I mean, there's been nothing, there's been nothing from Walker and Miles together that would make me go away from it. So, I mean, whether we're trying to, whether we're playing defensively or offensively,

I mean, if those are the two centerbacks, I'll be fine. But also, Miles, just don't do what you did against the beginning of the Canada game. Yeah, yeah, Miles. We don't need to see you torque it while Kyle Alaren scores a goal. Yeah, don't do that. Just everything else. Do what you're doing before that. Let's toss aside that moment.

Forget about it. Keep your feet, Miles. But remember it enough not to do it again. So don't completely forget about it. Goes back to what Vince said earlier. Everything's a fine line. Forget, but don't forget. No, that's fine.

You're doing good, Miles. Oh, oh, and one last thing. about the centerbacks. Greg, like, like this is how I know that Greg is somewhat of an unhinged person. By just coming out and being like, yeah, we think Chris broke his foot. And it turns out, it turns out to not be a broken foot. It turns out to not be a broken foot at all, bro. He got a man got a mild bruise.

And it's like, bro. It's like Chris Richards is dead Because he'll just do his dad We think he might be dead Richard's family like in We think he might die They're hearing this the same time Like I imagine they haven't talked to Chris yet

By the time that Greg is like Yeah we think his foot's broken I mean I couldn't imagine being Papa Papa Richards Yeah so this man's in this man Greg is in Hamilton You know just talking about Yeah we think

we think Chris broke his foot. I don't know. Like usually somebody with a sane person would downplay the, uh, the injury. Like, oh, you know, we got to do our test, get scans back, whatever, whatever. Yeah. And then me and the, me and the kid guy are just looking at it and speculating. Could be broken. No.

We think it could be broken. I actually appreciate the candor. Like, I imagine Greg just being like, it better be broken left us out there with 10 men. It looked like it hurt, man, that on the replay. Ige Ukebo got him good. I assume one of the medical people said to him, it might be broken. Yeah. And then he relayed that information, which I appreciate it.

It's definitely better to have the initial report be worse than the reality than the other way around, for me at least, for my, you know, narrow interests. All right. No? I don't know. I don't think so. I mean, it's nice. It's nice. But what about those two days when you thought Chris Richards foot was broken?

Yeah. That's true. We'll never have those two days back. Should we close it out, guys? Oh, yeah. Yes. Okay. Hey, thank you.

Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.