Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #259: World Cup Qualifying Recap Part 2: November and January

Episode Date: March 13, 2022

In Part 1, Greg and Belz went through the first two World Cup qualifying windows. In this episode, Part 2, they go through the third and fourth windows as a refresher ahead of the final, decisive set of three matches coming at the end of this month. Less time given to the most recent window than the first three, to be quite honest. These two episodes are perfect for anyone newly paying attention to the men's national team, or anyone who wants to go back and try to understand a little better how we got where we are.Details on the March 27 festivities: https://scuffedweekly.substack.com/p/join-us-in-orlando?s=wsupport Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedsign up for our weekly newsletter: https://scuffedweekly.substack.com/join the Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XUbuy 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. Okay, welcome back to part two of the World Cup qualifying refresher series. It's a two-part series that we're putting together. We started off with it just being one part, but realized we were too loquacious. And now it has to be two parts.

So we left off at the end of the October window. And I think we should start with John Brookes. was not involved in the October window, but that was because of, because of injury. Right. He was in the October roster announcement, along with Tim Ream. And in fact, like, I don't think there was a big controversy at any point going into that October window.

Ream and Brooks pulled out. We replaced them with Walker Zimmerman, who would kind of turn into an interesting point, obviously, was that Zimmerman started all three games where the captain's arm band and has been a staple in the lineup since. But at the time, it was interesting. Brooks was injured. Ream, I believe, pulled out for a personal issue that I don't think was ever disclosed, but correct. So, you know, not too much thought given to that because Brooks was injured. But we come into the November window and Brooks is now omitted for, I guess, what can only be called sporting reasons. Well, that's what it was called. Yes. It was referred to as sporting reasons.

I don't know that anybody actually referred to it as sporting reasons, but it was a choice. It was a choice by Burrhalter. So we went into the Mexico game without John Brooks. And it turns out this Mexico game in Cincinnati was the crowning achievement of the cycle so far. You know, it was so it was so crowning, in fact, that I think we did probably our worst recap of a game ever. We were both hoarse. I was hoarser than you. And you obviously in attendance in Cincinnati.

Yeah. It was, I was sitting next to Eagle Man. I was like, it was right underneath the American Outlaws, the capo. And it was, you know,

I was just yelling the whole time. And I, like I said in the recap, I couldn't really see the game. I couldn't see what was going on because I was so close to the field. It was just a, it was just a mass of bodies moving back and forth.

And then suddenly, like, I could tell more from the crowd noise than from what I could actually see with my own eyes, what was going on. But anyway, I did rewatch the game, as is my want. And it was a good game.

It was a glorious win in front of an excellent crowd in Cincinnati. Pulisig and McKinney scored in a two-zero victory. We got the Man in the Mirror thing, which was great banter. And, I mean, we had a first choice lineup, basically, other than the absence of Sergenio Dest, who was also out with injury, right? Destin Raina. Raina also out. Yeah, yeah.

And then Pulsick on a minute's restriction. He came in for the last 20. Waya, by this point, had overcome whatever doubts Burrhalter had about him. And what a blessing that was. He was outstanding in this game. Yeah. I know you like talking about Tim Leah. Why don't you talk about him a little bit more?

A little bit more. Well, since I already covered him in the last one, if you are listening to this now and you have, like, the ability to jump on your smartphone or your laptop and you can find the Tim Waye a cop from New Mexico game, just go watch it again because it's just like an amazing display of attacking skill. Like all around. Intelligence. It's intelligence as much as anything.

Every piece of it. And it looks like a guy who's having fun and it looks like a guy who is just thriving with the players around him. It's great. It's really fun to watch that, to see that kind of a display in a World Cup qualifier against our most hated soccer rival. And again, it's because this is not just a player who's out there surviving minute to minute. This isn't like our other two wins against them where we were just, you know, scrapping.

There was plenty of scrapping going on. But this was not just like anti-football playing against the ball, see what happens on a break or on a set piece. Like Tim Wea is out there balling. Yeah. He was up against Jesus Gallardo, I believe, in this game. Was that who was playing left back for Mexico? I believe it was. Yeah, I don't remember who it was.

was taken to task repeatedly by Timuea. And that was actually kind of the theme of the game, I feel like, was that a lot of Mexican players were taken to a lot of tasks by a lot of Americans. That's true. We should mention, however, that Mexico got two big chances in the first half. There was that, there was that lovely sequence in the 18th minute ending in Chuck Lizano firing it too close to Zach Stephan. So just a ping, ping, ping, ping sequence of passing right through the heart of our defense.

It was gorgeous. Really sexy. Yeah. And then Chuckie, Chuckie had a, had a chance to shoot. And I think he could have done better. I know you hate that kind of language.

So Stefan came up with a huge save on one of those. I don't even remember which one of the two it was. That's the one I'm talking about is the one you're talking about. We're talking about the same thing. Yeah. Okay. And the big thing for me in this, in what a complete like 180 it was from our other games against Mexico.

going all the way back to 2019, was that for Mexico to create those two chances, they had to be super precise, like several times in a row to get those looks. Like this wasn't the case of them sort of casually, take their time, see what's going on, 30 passes,

until they can make a decisive moment. Like, we were on top of them, and they had to execute at a high level seven or eight times with no margin for error. And that's where they got their two looks. And other than those, like they didn't get much.

Yeah. I think that's a good way to look at it because it's not like we it's not like we totally dominated the game. We didn't like we I don't think we played them off the pitch in the first half. And I'll mention the other big chance they had, which was a Chucky diagonal to Takedito. He's running into the goal and he tries to take it first time, you know, sort of right in front of the goal and he just kind of scuffs it. Now that's a difficult, it's a difficult take. But that was the first half. And I don't think we had any really good chances in the first half, even though we,

even though we were very much, you know, sort of pushing the game. Second half, we turned the screws. And in the 49th minute, we got, we got our first big chance.

It was, Yedlin plays it down the channel to Wea. So Wea runs inside the left back and gets, gets in behind him and gets the ball. And then plays a cutback, just a luscious little cutback for Weston McKinney. and Wes McKinney takes it first time and just stings it off, Achoa's palms. It's kind of like the classic if McKinney had put it one foot to either side,

which we'll get into another and a little bit later. It would have been a goal. And then the breakthrough came in the 74th minute. Pulisic came on as a sub and the sequence, do you mind if I just kind of dive into it? Have at it. It starts with the two 18-year-olds at that time. They were both 18.

Pepe and Musa settling it in the middle. and then Musa plays it out wide Dewea who squares his guy up and gets the end line and puts a firm cross into the six. And Pulis just makes a clever darting run past Dominguez, the sort of second choice centerback there. It must be mentioned. It actually might be like their third or fourth choice centerback. They were down some centerbacks, but nevertheless. Okay, okay. And then glances ahead or past Choa, and it's one zero and it's party.

because we all knew we were like we were in the ascendancy at this point in the game. We got the goal and everybody just wanted dos a zero and we got it. Ten minutes later on that, you know, good entry pass from Wayette to McKinney. He dummies it for Ferreira. Ferreira plays it back to McKinney. McKinney plays it back to Ferreira. And it gets deflected back into his path for a nice little 1 v1 against a Cho. And he slots it bottom corner left and then casts a spell on the crowd.

So a little bit of a lot of good fortune for McKinney to finally get the look, but still just a little slick buildup that I have to give some love to because it involves my man, Jesus Ferreira. Yes. In his first World Cup qualifying window call-up and first World Cup qualifying minutes. I was super pumped to see him on the list. Tons of good fortune on that goal for sure. A little bit of bad fortune on McKenny's chance earlier, I would say. So, you know, that's kind of how it works.

And since we're talking about it'll just throw in that Ferreira also had another, in his 10-minute cameo, had another good moment where he created a near goal. Just had his shot flash wide. I'm just plugging Ferreira now. I know you are. I know what you're doing. It was a left-footed strike similar to the one that he put over the bar against El Salvador, except he put it this time left of the near post.

Yeah, and his movement was very good, and his first touch eliminated a Mexico centerback to free up the shot. Just, you know, just offhandedly mentioning that. Hey, Zeus, come on the podcast, my friend. We are, I'm exchanging emails with your communications director. I have a word with her. Jamaica away. Well, and then the last thing I should say is there were a chance of Dosacero ringing through the stadium. This was easily the best sports experience of my life.

and all of a sudden we're feeling like a million bucks and then we went to Jamaica and we faced our away demons in Conca Calf Yeah, one of the events of that Mexico game was a Weston McKinney yellow card that rendered, rendered him, ineligible, suspended for the Jamaica fixture. Also, Miles Robinson

got a red card towards the end of the game. I can't remember if it was two yellows. Yep, second yellow. And which put a little bit more of the magnifying glass on the absence of John Brooks, as that meant we were down to Richards, Zimmerman, and McKenzie as our three centerbacks. Right. And in the game in Jamaica, in Kingston, which had like, you know, a few thousand fans, not, I remember that they were going to have limited capacity at the Kuskatlan, and then it was like totally packed.

So I heard they were going to have limited capacity in Jamaica, and I thought, well, surely it's going to be packed. It was not packed at all. It was a, it was, it was a mostly empty stadium. We had rich, it was Richards and Zimmerman starting at centerback and then Yedlin and Robinson at fullback. Because of the absence of McKinney, it was Busio and Musa as the eights with Tyler Adams as the six and then a front line of Aronson, Pepi, and Wea. I thought Pepe had played pretty well in that Mexico game. I know, I know people were already kind of souring on him after that game. But I thought he played pretty well,

just as I thought he played pretty well against Costa Rica. I'd say Pepey had been adequate. So I wasn't really souring on him at this point. I don't think I ever got as high on Pepey despite the goals. You were never sweet on him. I'm very much in the John Mueller camp of like, I don't care about goals. Goals are obviously important.

Getting in position to score goals is great. I recognize that with his two headers, out of his three goals, those two headers are a very, obvious overperformance of an expected goals model. So I was like, okay, that was awesome that he converted those. Incredible for our World Cup qualifying hopes. Incredible for the young man to do that on that stage.

It does not mean that he's going to be some like automatic finisher that will, that we're just guaranteed to get goals through indefinitely. So I kind of knew I wasn't super high on that part of it. I was just excited to have a 17 year old kid playing at an adequate level, which is kind of where I think he still is. Yeah, I don't know if he's adequate anymore, but why are you not playing along with... He's the same player. He's the same player. Yeah, I suppose.

Yeah, I'm rooting for Pepey as hard as I'm rooting for anybody on the national team. Probably harder. Not having McKinney made a big difference in this game, I think. But even despite that, we started pretty well. And we got the opening goal in the 11th minute. It was all Tim Wea. I mean, it was Tim Wea and a little bit of... of Ricardo Pepe.

It started with that ball up the left side from Anthony to Aronson and Brennan settles it, squares this guy up from the left side of the box, but then loses it, he presses, gets it back, then he passes it to Pepe who can't quite get to it and we keep them pinned back because Adams and Pepe win the ball back. So I don't know

why I told you all that stuff, but it all happened. Ends up with Chris Richards. Right. He plays a little disguised past Dubucio, who one touches it to Wea, who attacks the goal with a pass to Pepe and a run right past him. Pepe just gets his foot to it to lay it

into Waya's path and then this is where the sort of the story really begins. It takes a long touch around some poor defending and swims past Bobby Reed who had a horrific night and the ball skips up off the ground as he tomahawks it off the far post

with his left foot. That's 1-0 USA and I thought, you know, we did pretty well even in the like 10 minutes after the goal We got another good chance on a way a cutback that Pepe hammered off a defender who was not on the line, but sort of within six yards of the line. And then came the McAle Antonio Banger, which we all remember. It came in the 22nd minute. I think in retrospect, I probably spent too much time zaprooting it, just me personally.

Right. I mean, I will always. It is an incredible shot. Yeah, it's an amazing shot. For me, it just sparked more of that sort of theoretical conversation about whether or not you just always lean towards your best shot stopper for goalkeepers. Because if you're, if you will concede that one of the goalkeepers is better at shot stopping, then you're essentially conceding that there is some subset of goals that the better shot stopper will stop, that the other goalkeeper will not over time. So it was essentially just sort of igniting that conversation. Yeah, and it's, it is at least statistically clear that Turner is a better shot stopper than Zach Steffen.

That's what we're kind of dancing around here. But this was just a straight up effing banger. I mean, unbelievable shot. And we wilted it. I think it's fair to say we wilted after that goal. In the 53rd minute, I mean, we didn't, I don't know that we significantly threatened Jamaica after that goal. There was that one Busio strike from distance that went just over the bar. It was a good looking shot.

But in the 53rd minute, Bobby Reed missed a sitter at a slightly complicated height. It was waist high. But it was still, you know, a goal, a shot he should have done better on. It was, we were fortunate to remain at 1-1. How about we put it that way? And it was very much an Anthony Robinson gaff. It was like a ball just lofted into the box that Robinson gets to with his foot. But instead of like putting it anywhere away from danger or to a teammate, he essentially settled it right to Bobby Reed at the six-yard line.

So that's just also to sort of go in to say that Anthony Robinson had by far his worst game of the Ocho in that. And it was bad. When I rewatch that game, what strikes me the most is that Anthony Robinson was really bad. He's been huge for us in this campaign, and he's been a huge part of us being where we are in the standings. But this was all around just a really bad game. In attack and possession and in that key moment in defense, just a lot of, it was essentially an Anthony Robinson Howler. He was absolved by Bobby Dick Cordovo Reed. And then we got, I mean, the other big moment was we got a bit of a gift from the

the ref in the 84th minute. Leon Bailey, there was a series of corners that kept getting cleared out of bounds. And the third one was headed in the goal by Damien Lowe. He gets called for a push on Walker Zimmerman, which, you know, I think he did push him a little bit, but it's the kind of foul that almost never gets called. Certainly when there's like an entire language about getting concaft and U.S. fans talking about getting concaft and going on the road and dealing with concaf referees. Like the fact that this call went in our favor, I feel like should be enough to to put like a moratorium on complaints of conca caffing.

Because if there was going to be any home cooking, you know what I mean? Like it would have been very easy to simply ignore a little bit of physical play in the box. Yeah. Yeah, that was that was fortunate for us. So we can just, we can just end any of the like we're beat. we get persecuted on the road in World Cup qualifying. Yeah, because I feel like it's okay to talk about getting Concaft as a sort of a random force of nature that has no interest in who wins and who loses.

It just kind of, it just sort of visits itself upon us. I'll give you that. Us being all of us. That like that certain element of chaos. Yeah. Okay. But yeah, us being per,

I think persecuted is the key word. Yeah. Us being persecuted as a U.S. men's national team has to be. It's called heavily into question by this moment. Good grief. If I was a Jamaica fan, I would have been irate. I mean, that was because that was right at the death, right?

That was the two points for Jamaica and a point down for us. Yeah, 84th. 84th. 84th, so we would have had some time. Yeah. And with Hayesu's fair air on the field, we would have. We weren't going to do anything in that game. By that point in the game, we were dead.

So the other piece of this game, and I know we've touched on Brooks lot, but I think it's worth it. Like, I know a lot of people are just like, oh, it's, you know, he's being left off. They're good reasons for it. Everyone's overreacting. But it seems like that's a little bit too quick to dismiss it, even if there might be some, like, a wiggle room in the conversation. I mean, he is a player who can perform at a very high level, John Anthony Brooks. And in this particular game, the big issue, one of the big issues in the second half, especially, but throughout the game was our inability to create an advanced platform from our back. line straight away.

And, you know, I referenced that because John Herbman in his presentation made a big point of saying that in their shape and the buildup, they want two of those players in their most defensive line to be high enough to be within reach of creating an advanced platform to their front line. And we do the same thing. We do that often. We didn't execute it at all in this game. And one player who is, I think, unquestionably, our best defender at creating that kind of

situation is John Anthony Brooks. Like, I don't think that could possibly be up for debate. So what you're saying is off with Burrhalter's head. I'm saying that that is a clear example, at least in the World Cup qualifying campaign, of where having a John Anthony Brooks skill set would have, I think, made a clear difference in the likelihood of winning the game. Doesn't mean Brooks guarantees us two extra points, but having a player who could have tried to find softs,

spots in in Jamaica's defense and who is capable of doing it would have been beneficial. I don't know how anybody could disagree with that. That's my big bold claim. Well, so we got, we escaped with a draw from Kingston. Thank our lucky stars. And because Canada beat Mexico and Edmonton, they jumped us in the standings and boy, they have never looked back. And that, so that loss brought Canada to the top.

It also took some of the shine off of our win over Mexico. For me, at least, I know not everybody shares that feeling, but to have us beat Mexico and restore dos acero and then have Canada beat them two days later or three days later, whatever it was, and then jump us in the standings and then never look back. It does, it does, I wouldn't say it ruins it, but it does take some of the shine off. So Mexico were undefeated in qualifying when we played them. So, so I get that. I get that like we were super high on it.

And then over the last five games now, or, you know, the three games following, it's like, okay, well, maybe Mexico are starting to slip up a little bit. And, but again, I choose to believe that we, uh, created that avalanche. We're creating the, the Mexico downfall. That, I mean, I like that. I don't, I don't really think that that's what it is. But I like it. I like it. Then we had the friendly, I'm just going to mention this in a line or two.

We had the friendly against Bosnia in December after the November window, which was basically just a wash. It was, I don't know that. Did we learn anything from that or anything? Did it happen in that game that was interesting? I'll just throw in this in there because I think it'll lead to a discussion point down the road. We definitely chose not to try to learn anything about our central midfield options. like we actively avoided trying to learn more about different players who might play central midfield for us because we started a Costa and rolled on as our eights in that game. So as we're nearing this final window with Weston McKinney injured and a game at altitude in Mexico City followed by the most important game of the campaign in Panama at home.

Like there are some questions about what our eight pool is going to look like. Yeah, 30 matches of Christian Roll Down wasn't enough to get enough information that we could look at somebody else in December. I mean, even if those guys get the minutes, I guess, the fact that we didn't even invite any other ones to the camp, again, just kind of mind-blowing to me. I don't think there was a, Cole Bassett would be the only other player who would be considered an eight in that camp. Taylor Booth, maybe. Are we considering him an eight? Yeah. Now, let me be clear, I don't think Taylor Booth or Cole Bassett is probably going to be the answer.

there, but maybe we could have gotten a little Paxon Pomechol. A little bit of Paxon Pocal in that camp wouldn't have hurt. All right. There's the Bosnia friendly. Then we come to the January-February window. It's very annoying that it happens to occur over two months. There's no shorthand way to refer to it. There's really not.

Can't call it the winter window because people immediately think of Christmas and that's, it wasn't a Christmas window. Yeah. It's tough. It's tough, Bells. Yeah, it's hard. This is hard work. And I, you know, I don't wish it on anybody.

El Salvador at home. We won one zero. It was a, it was a XG ratio of something like 25 to 1. I think it was like 2.9 to 0.1, something like that. Yeah. I have 2.5 to 0.1. But, you know, somewhere in there. So we were dominant.

got a lot of chances and it was and it was you know for you and all the other spreadsheet merchants it was Jesus Ferreira's coming out party yeah I think we're rightfully getting grief about like constantly using single game XG but again it as a way of just saying uh as a baseline of were chances created like and were they good chances I think you can at least start there and then because of what we do where we literally talk about every single half glimpse or pre glimpse that you get I think I think it's okay to sort of fold that in as a starting point. So yeah, that's about right. We had a ton of chances in that El Salvador game.

We were running riot. And the only thing that was working against us was a little bit of variance in that game. Yeah, it was basically, and it was basically, you know, with the exception of Giorina and who else. With the exception of Giorina, it was basically a first choice lineup. I guess you could say Brooks over Richard. would be first choice or Robinson over Richards. But we had our best fullbacks, Robinson and Dest. We had our MMA midfield, McKenny, Musa, and Adams.

And we had Tim Waya and Christian Pulisick on the wings. And, you know, I think you, Jesus Ferre is your first choice striker. And it may be, he may be Burrhorters as well. Well, I can tell you, I definitely did a little bit of a fist pump in my car when I was listening to your interview with John Mueller. Because John Mueller is like a legitimate, it's smart person.

Oh, come on. Don't pump him up. Sometimes I start to think, like, it's hard for me to remember which of my actual, like, opinions are fringe and which ones are, like, somewhat reasonable. And so when he was saying that he thought Ferreira would be the starter against Panama, I was like, oh, my God, like a real human, a real person thinks this, too. So I was pretty excited about that. That was almost like, it was more reaffirming than I, than it probably should be.

It's not just because you and John are in some group chat somewhere talking about it already. I honestly, I feel like, again, I almost like keep that Jesus-Rer side to myself in group chats outside the Discord because I'm like, I feel like it's like a super fringy position. Well, I think it's defensible, obviously. And anyway, this was about as close to a first choice lineup as you can get. There we go. That's where we started. And the big takeaway here was that the right side of the field, once again with our man Tim Wea, absolutely on fire. And in this game, the left side of the field was Christian Pulisic, a bit of a quagmire.

Yeah, quite a quagmire. We created a lot of chances like we talked about with the XG stuff. The goal, the breakthrough came in the 52nd minute when Wea beats his guy down the right. This is, I think, what you were talking about with like a shoulder faint, you know, as an air, a lofted ball from Weston McKinney and way it makes like he's going for it and then he just lets it go past him and then he runs around his guy. I wouldn't say the defending was the defender covered himself in glory here. No, no, with all respect, again, with as much respect to El Salvador as possible, like these aren't very good players compared to the talent level that we have. Yeah. Like there's just,

that that is just the case. So for all the talk you hear about how like there's no easy, easy outs in Concaf, like they're kind of are. And. And, And he got around him and he got around another guy. It kind of met him in a challenge and got and sort of powered through it and then took a shot from a tight angle. And it pops up to Jesus Ferre, none other than Jesus Ferreira. There he is. And he heads it over to Anthony Robinson to thrash at home. Again, the full of man is the hero.

After a not great performance against Jamaica, he comes back and scores the game winner. absolutely critical three points that seemed a little bit in doubt. And then we, you know, we kind of fell off on the rest of the game, too. I mean, I don't think we played that well after that moment either. We got a lot of XG in the first half, but no goals. We got one goal in the second half and then, like, not very much XG. So. Yeah, I'd buy that.

We, I mean, we dropped in, like, a few guys who are super out of season, right? Zardos came on and, like, Jordan Morris came on. on and I think I think the idea was to just run the game out or at least that's how it that's how it played out because they weren't particularly tidy, clean, effective doing attacking soccer things. Yeah. Again, Verar Arzardas hadn't played a game since October. Morris had just come back from his ACL at the very end of the MLS season.

So got like two games in and then he'd been off for two months. So I do think there were like match sharpness. with some of the players in that camp. But in any event, they didn't, El Salvador never threatened. It wasn't like it was a, I didn't feel like it was a nervey one zero win. No, it wasn't, it was the only thing that was nervy was whether we were going to score or not. And then we went to Canada. That was a game that I was personally so excited for.

I thought, surely we can, surely we could pull this off and beat Canada and set things right in the world. And boy, did we not. Boy, did we not beat Canada. The game ended in a two zero loss, but it really came down to three, for me at least, to three big moments. I should mention we were missing Tim Wea.

I was wondering if that was going to be your first big moment was a paperwork issue. Big moment in the, in the administrative side. Yeah, it was a, as a variations in what counts is fully vaccinated in different countries. And you've all,

you guys know all this, all the rigmarole on that. with regard to this particular situation. So he wasn't there, and that did hurt us. I mean, we've been talking about how good Tim Wea is, how crucial he has been to this qualifying campaign. Not having him in Canada was a big factor, I think, in that game. Canada's early goal was a big factor in this game.

They scored in the seventh minute. It was, do we need to zaprooter this again? No, everyone knows. It was the, we don't have to Zapruder. We'll just do it real quick. The Matt Turner botched goal kick. that Greg Burrhalter later said the issue with it was that Weston McKinney

was not in the right position and that just means that Turner shouldn't take the kick knowing that McKinney's not in that position. Right. Boom, boom, boom. Some really nice play from Canada to capitalize on it. Miles Robinson ragdolled a little bit

and it's one zero. On a bit of a soft goal allowed by Matt Turner, not just from the goal kick. So Matt Turner comes in for some serious blame here. But boy, that changed the game. And from then on, it was just whether the U.S. could equalize and, you know, get back into the game. We never could. We did have the miss on, it wasn't a miss.

McKenney's set piece header on a goal kick, a good header just right at Boryon right before the first half ended. It definitely would have changed the game. I mean, Burrhalter said that. I've said that. Everybody said that. But it didn't go in. was a good save from Boyan.

So I'm just going to throw this in there one more time that as far as it being like game changing, obviously both of those things were outcome changing. But I really don't think that the game itself would have played out that much differently. Like as far as what the teams were trying to do, I don't think Canada went like changed into a defensive posture after they got their goal. I think that they were already set up to do that. I think their choice of venue made it clear that their whole point here was to play a really ugly freezing soccer game on artificial turf on a narrow field. Like this is designed to make it really hard to score goals.

So they were happy to take their goal that they got. But I think the whole point was to just ugly things up and play like a non-game of soccer against a team that they probably think is a little bit better than them at doing some of those bigger, more expansive soccer. things. You don't think they would have come out of their shell a little bit more if they were, if it was a draw. I'd just been happy to count it. At zero zero, they were happy to just keep countering.

If something presented itself, they'd take it. And if not, they would walk out of their zero zero and take that point, uh, from again, one of the other better teams in the region, uh,

along with them on what was already a pretty comfortable lead in qualifying. Hmm. Okay. Maybe that's too cynical, but that, that, that's sort of that, I mean, they basically played, I mean, they were on the road,

but they basically played that way against the US too. They weren't playing expansive soccer against Mexico and their home win against Mexico in the snow. It was still just like they took advantage of a couple of Mexico mistakes and took their three points. But they did kind of, I felt like they were a little bit more expansive against Mexico in the Azteca. You know, like I don't know, expansive is not the right word,

but they had, they had, they had, some sequences of possession that were pretty fun to watch and not just like one or two passes and then, you know, in behind. But anyway, I'm not going to, I'm not going to argue about that.

Richard's got, the other big moment is Richard's got hurt. Apparently pretty badly because he's still not back. Right. The broken foot that turned into a bruise, but it's a bad enough bruise that he has been out for a month and a half now. Yeah. I thought Zardis was not great in this game.

at Stryker. Pulisic was not great. Couldn't capitalize on that 1V1 with that 1V1 AVP with Alistair Johnston. We've talked about that a lot on this podcast. Any other closing thoughts on the Canada?

I'll throw in some love for Paul Ariola, because while I was saying that Morris and Zardez looked out of season in their performances, Ariola similarly out of season, but was very dangerous in his 10-minute cameo. Yeah, almost had that overhead kick goal. I mean, it was not far from the post.

So anyway, that was a positive sign because if Aureola can provide some of that on an as needed basis, that's pretty great to get out of your potentially fifth choice winger, especially if Jordan Morris isn't quite back yet. Right. And then the final game that we're going to talk about in this extensive two-part series on the World Cup qualifying cycle so far. is the home win over Honduras and St. Paul. You and I were both there.

We were sitting next to each other. This was the cold one. And kind of a workman-like win in tough conditions against a team that did not want to be there. No, they did not want to be there. I think some of our players probably did not want to be there, but our players are very good compared to the Honduras players who didn't want to be there.

McKenney got his header. Walker Zimmerman was a, grown up in the box on a set piece to get a second goal. And then Pulisic off of the bench, which is a, you know, it was a soccer choice, a sporting choice based on Burhalter's interview, picked up his goal by not doing much at all, which is what you had all prescribed for him to do. So I thought that was fitting. Some other new faces for the cycle got a start for the first time.

Luca Deloire, of course. Jordan Morris, Reggie Cannon, players who hadn't gotten us gotten to start yet. That's right, isn't it? Cannon hadn't started any games. Nope, he'd come off the bench in a game. So I think, yeah, I mean, the goals were nice.

It was nice. So we cruised 3-0. Honduras had zero shots. No, they had one shot from like 45 yards. It looks like their shot map looks like they attempted a shot on the kickoff. And so the big point, there and it's caveat at all the hell because of how bad Honduras was is whether or not

Kellan Acosta, Kelan Acosta's really positive performance is going to mean that he's back. And the same goes for Luca Delatore, whether we can we can sort of take that really good looking, attacking, progressive, dribbling,

showing and extrapolate it to the Azteca or even to Panama at home. Are you extrapolating? I'll take I'll test the extrapolation for sure in either case. I mean, with McKinney not being there, I think Acosta's not generally not been as good as an eight as he has been as a six. So I would love to see Acosta at the six in the Azteca and try to, you know,

win on some set pieces. I mean, his set piece delivery alone is, I think it is a legit question, and how much of an edge does that give him over Adams and does it overcome the defensive edge that Adams has over Acosta? Because also Acosta is like a little bit, a little bit more comfortable on the half turn, a little bit more comfortable distributing the ball

with some distance. He hits some really good diagonals. Actually, that was something that popped up even in limited minutes like at Honduras. Like some of those long diagonals will kind of pop a little bit from him. Absolutely. We're back to the long diagonal conversation.

Full circle. So I, yeah, I, I, a game at the Estesca where we don't really have to get points. I mean, it would be nice to get some points, but we don't, it's not crucial that we get points. Why not give Acosta the keys and see what happens, you know? I mean, he's, he's, he's gotten points there before. He, uh, he, he is by far our best set piece deliverer. So. So really would have.

comes down to, I mean, and this is a comment for the Acosta conversation, and this has been repeating itself daily in the Discord, is like, is he going to have to start with Tyler Adam? So is he going to play as an eight? Can we afford to start both those players at the Azteca, knowing that the Panama game is three days later, and it's tough to play at altitude, and then it's tough to turn around that quickly, regardless, to do it after a game at altitude. Is it wise to play them both at the same time? these are definitely things we're going to get deeper into, I think, in a later episode.

Yep, yep, yep. And now here we are. Three games to play and basically a four-point window necessary. Really a three-point window is probably all we need. We'll do a roster episode next week, and then we'll be into the think of it with Mexico on the 24th, Panama on the 27th, Costa Rica on the 30th. And then we're either going to all be really happy or we're all going to be really sad.

Most likely we're going to be happy. Now, we can be medium because fifth place is still pretty, pretty, pretty unlikely. So we can be upset and still feeling good about a playoff position should we finish fourth in the unlikely event that we finish fourth. Is it ridiculous to talk about, talk about how we'll feel about a playoff position? No, no, I, I. So the whole qualifying roller coaster has once again lined up very, uh, you could graph it basically to our home matches and our way matches. The one home hiccup was the Canada to draw.

Otherwise, it has been mostly flying at home, some outstanding performances, the Mexico performance, the Costa Rica performance, I mean, El Salvador and Honduras, those are bunnies that we need to dominate those games. We did it. So it's always been great at home. And then the hopes get dashed every time that we go on the road. that this will finally be the time that we can actually like comprehensively exert our advantage on the road.

Yeah. So, you know, if you extrapolate that forward, we should be fine. And we won't have to be sad. Well, if you extrapolate that forward, then we need Costa Rica to help to help us out by dropping points somewhere else besides against us. I think they will. Okay. That's the happy, sad extrapolation. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's close it out. So if you haven't listened to the first part, go back and listen to that before you listen to this. I should have said that at the beginning of the episode. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.