Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #262: Judgment Day Roster Reaction & Lineup Talk

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

27 men called up for the final window of World Cup qualifying. Dest got hurt the day of the announcement. Brooks not called up. Erik Palmer-Brown back from the wilderness. We talk through all of that and then try to work out lineups for the Mexico and Panama games.0:30 the roster27:45 lineups vs Mexico and Panamasupport 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. Here we are. The final window of World Cup qualifying starts in six days in Mexico City. I do not think it is hyperbole to say that the future of men's soccer in this country hangs in the balance. And we now have a roster.

Greg Berhalter announced the 27-man selection on Thursday, and he held a press conference Thursday evening. Greg, how are you doing? I don't think you're wrong necessarily that it hangs in the balance, but I think the balance, given the players on this roster and the opponents and the situation, are already tilted in our favor quite a bit. So I'm excited with just that tiny little bit of underlying anxiety that will remain until the math is done and dusted and we are auto qualified. Yeah, I know hangs in the balance has the implication that it could go either way. but I mean it in the narrow sense that it hangs in the balance, even though it very likely will go the right way. Still, it's going to be a nerve-wracking couple weeks.

Let's start with the big news. Serginio Desk got hurt yesterday for Barcelona. What do we know about that? I don't think we have a full-time table yet. I think the word was just that his recovery will determine his availability, which is, you know, obviously. I think the language they used was torn. hamstring, which is, I feel like

exactly what it, any strain, any muscle strain in Europe is described as a tear. Whereas in the U.S. we're used to hearing like a strain first and then tear if it's like really serious and terrible. But it could, I mean, it could just be a minor thing that

keeps him out for a couple weeks. It doesn't mean torn hamstring, surgery required. He's out for six months minimum. But I think it's super unlikely that he's in any way involved in this window for the U.S. So George Bello was announced as a late add to the roster after that news came out. But that announcement did not include Sergenio Des not being pulled off the roster, did it? I don't believe so.

Yeah. But I would be shocked if Dest is back and plays any role in this window for the U.S. That's the long story short version of it. He's probably not going to play. And Bello has been added. He coming off his first start for Armenia Bielefeld. last weekend. So a little bit of a little bit of momentum behind young George. Other big news is that John Brooks is not on the roster. Burhalter said it's about how we want to play in this window and

the opponent and Brooks is not out of the group forever. He was even pressed on this. He was even pressed on this. Quite a bit, quite a bit, right? Quite a few questions on this. Yeah. Ivis Gilarsep said, well, do you understand how people might think that he might be actually out forever after all these omissions and Burrhalter stuck to his sort of boilerplate lines about, I'm not saying boilerplate lines in a way that is critical necessarily, just he stuck to hit what he was saying, which is that he's not, he's not out forever. It's just about this window. And I guess that's that, I suppose.

Yeah. And we don't have to, we don't have to do a full relitigation, re-religation here. I think it's a little bit, the reason I think it's crazy to sort of use this as the, the rationale of he doesn't fit the way we want to play in this window for these opponents, which I think he's done a couple of times now. It's just because you don't always get to dictate the preferred. I mean, you can have a preferred way of playing, but within a match, it doesn't always pan out the way that you get to play that way.

It could be something the opponent is doing. It could be something where, you know, the idea here is Brooks is not a great fit. If you're going to play a high press, high line, you know, centerbacks have a tendency or a higher likelihood. to be isolated in space. Right. And that is a totally reasonable justification for leaving out a John Brooks in favor of like an Aaron Long type who's in this group.

The issue becomes like, okay, but what if you play a team who's not interested in letting you press them and just lumps the ball back to you and then sits deep, then you need, or the game might call for centerbacks who are more distributors. So against Canada, you know, when they sit back or when they lump the ball up to a and sit back, we might need that player. I'm bringing Canada up because I'll go back to that Herdman episode again. They are intentional about getting their defenders in positions

where their defenders are one pass away from creating those AVPs because that's a really important thing to do is to get your deep line in position to do that. And we want to be able, I think it is useful for the U.S. to have the option of having John Brooks there to do that. I think when you put it like that, it's impossible to disagree with. he needs to be available for that reason. Brooks's statement, which was relayed by Derek Ray on Twitter,

I'll read it in its entirety. It's kind of interesting that a player would release a statement about being omitted from a roster. That's not usually the case. Here's what he said. Months ago, I accepted responsibility for my play and the decision that kept me off a roster. Now, I'm happy I've regained my form,

but unfortunately I wasn't invited to camp. I accept this as the coach's decision, but I won't accept that I can't change this. before the final World Cup roster selections. There should be no questions about my desire to play for this team. My plan is to fight as hard as I can to make it back to the USMNT. My American identity is at stake. An identity some have questioned over many years.

We, Americans, have all been down and out at different times, but we always fight back and I plan to do the same. So another what I would describe is classy response from Brooks, very professional. It's one of those things where it's a good response whether he feels that way or not. Right. And I'm glad he's doing that. It seems like I hope that he does find a way back into the picture between himself Burhalter,

whether it's style of play, whether it's anything else, you know, the whatever else people kind of whisper about. I hope that at some point we find a way to get him in because, again, he can't offer something that can help us win soccer games. Yeah. It's obviously a pretty well-finessed statement. Like he didn't just come up with that off the top of his head. And it probably got some help from an agent or something.

But it's still a good statement. I agree. It's classy. And it's also interesting that it was pointed out by USSF's press officer, Michael Cameron, in the middle of the Burrhalter press conference, which is interesting. I don't know exactly what that means, but it also does not mean it's not a good statement. It's still a good statement. And I agree with you that he offers something that we could use in basically any of these games.

Next up, Jordan P. Fox's in and not Josh Sargent. I don't know that the not Josh Sargent part is really that notable. I had to throw that in there. Not a lot of people. There are literally thousands of strikers who are USA eligible who are not in this lineup. It's kind of like the two things kind of came up in conjunction in the press conference, I guess, is why I say that. But you're right. There's no real, I mean, there's a lot of people who are not in the roster. 320 million people are not in the roster. Burhalter was asked why Pfok and not Sargent,

and his answer was just goals. And then he went on to say, you know, Pfock's physical presence in the box is going to be useful. We think that's going to be useful in, in Orlando against Panama, which was kind of surprising. I mean, we were sort of thinking of it like the opposite, right? Pfok. That was my hope. And it still is my hope. And I don't know how, How much of this is Burrhalter being cagey because, you know, you don't want to give away your game plan two weeks out. Right. The thing about international soccer is that there is extremely limited time to prepare for your opponent or even to prepare your own team just to play the way you want them to. So, you know, you don't want to give any team's shortcuts for how they can prepare for you.

You want them to have to prepare for a lot of different things. So I'm hoping it's caginess. I also know that, you know, they're out of all the different approaches we're going to talk about. none of them are, I don't think any of them are really like terrible. They're all going to be like within a realm of like, okay, that's a way to try this window. It'd be more than Cajiness. It'd be a deliberate misdirection, which would be awesome, you know, if that's what he's doing, trying to signal that he's going to start Pfok against Panama, even though he has the opposite plan.

But yeah, who knows? Going on about Sargent, he said, Josh is a guy that's going to break through and be a national team number nine in the future. but we just have to wait. He was like, he was like, I don't know, you guys are going to have to help me with this. He said that to the press corps. You guys are going to have to help me with this. I mean, he's playing right wing.

He's not getting into the attack a lot. He's not getting into the box much. It's all true. Everything he said about Sergeant is true. I don't know why we're talking about Sergeant so much. Why am I talking about Sergeant so much? Sergeant stays in the bag. I think that's Burrhalter's paraphrasing of saying

Sergeant's name is in the bag. His name might get drawn at a later date. Horvath in. Ethan Horvath has started five straight games for five straight league games for Nottingham Forest conceded two goals in those five games and that they have not lost any of those games

so it seems like he's in a pretty good position with his club for the first time in many, many months could not have happened at a better time. Right, Turner not involved with the foot injury. Zach Stephan just back. City have an FAA Cup game this weekend so we'll see if Stefan actually gets some minutes before the window, but we made the bench for Citi's last match.

So he's at least healthy enough to be considered for Citi or to be an option in the event of anything happening to their number one. And then obviously, Sean Johnson is sort of the reigning utility third keeper. I'm kind of just assuming that Horvath jumps over Johnson immediately by coming in. Johnson had a little bit of a rough outing midweek in Champions League, I think. I did not watch it. I just saw that people were saying it was a rough outing. No Sebastian Leggett, not in the roster at all, even though he's starting for the New England Revolution.

That's kind of an interesting development. A little, he's been left off of like every, I mean, he has not appeared in the U.S. He has not made it onto the field for the U.S. since the Panama game. So maybe not that interesting. Burrhalter took that performance as negatively as most of the fan base did. And again, this is somebody who Burrhalter trusted a lot leading up to that game. And so no additional wiggle room as far as minutes when he got a lot of call-ups. He was in a lot of camps.

But, yeah, it seems like this was probably coming. Yeah, okay. Jazez also dropped, which I think is another sort of Burrhalter guy. He's got to at least he has scored in league play for Columbus But has not started a match for Columbus and league play He's been passed by Miguel And so you wonder what Zardez's future will be with the national team here And then another interesting inclusion is Eric Palmer Brown

He's sort of in from the wilderness He has started nine straight games for twa A team that's not quite mid-table but is also not in the relegation zone just an incredible renaissance for him after riding the bench for most of the fall. And, I mean, it's worth reminding ourselves that this is a better league than Belgium where Mark McKenzie plays or actually doesn't really play that much. Fair enough. Yeah.

Shout out to, I got to give a shout out to Mack Earhart of Earhart Seed in Albert Lee, Minnesota, who has been asking about Palmer Brown for months. And not really getting many good answers from me on that. I finally went through some of the clips And it does seem like he's kind of turned a corner He was Just really decisive in duels over the weekend And a 1-0 win over Nant

It looks like he has a bit of an edge to him That I did not perceive when he was playing in Austria You know, just like a With all, you know All respect to rule for a hardness to him Like a hardness to his play I couldn't think of a better word honestly It's like just a

like a like a like a like a hard man quality when he sees some. Steel I think is the is the Britishism. He plays with some steel. Yeah, I didn't notice that back in Austria. And it seems like that's how he was playing over the weekend at least. So cool to see him. And he played in a three man back line. They're playing kind of a Costa Rica 541 in twas.

Well, EBB's call up, I feel like he should give some hope to first off like the other players in the pool who might feel like they're being overlooked, but also all of us speculators, because a lot of, you know, there's sort of the line like you can't introduce a new player at this point in qualifying. Well, EBB has never appeared for Greg Burhalter, like never been called up. His last call-up was Dave Serican era. So, like having this happened to him, I think sort of shows that you can't, and you sort of shouldn't dismiss any of these players who are very much on the fringes. And I'm talking like, like, Alex Mendez, who's been playing in the Portuguese First Division.

I'm not expecting a ton of new call-ups going into Qatar, but it just means like, yeah, they would, if they decided it's the right guy, they would bring someone in there. The doors aren't closed. That's encouraging to me, yeah. Should we, so let's go through the rest of the roster. I don't think there are any other big surprises. No, we had a, we had a decently, decent-sized list of, like, locks going into this

where we knew these guys were going to be there, and it would have been total shockers if they weren't, and all of those players made it. And then there were a lot of wide-open spots. So coin tosses is kind of how I thought of them. So the goalkeepers, we talked about Horvath, Stefan, and Johnson. For me, it's in that order, but I'd kind of expect Stefan to probably start between one and three matches in this window.

Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what Barrella has in mind. I think what he said about Horvath and the press conferences, it's definitely a battle now for that starting spot. Of course, Anthony Robinson is there. Yedlin and Cannon are no big surprise. We mentioned that Bella was a late ad.

I guess James Sands, as a defender, is kind of a little bit of a surprise, maybe. Sands is, I think I would also call Sands and EPP as we talked about surprises. I was surprised or at least frustrated again when there was no backup left back originally. When it's the implication, I think, clearly, is that Serginio Dest is considered the first choice left back backup. Is that how you'd phrase it?

Yeah. You could just call it the second choice left back. And it's, I think that could work in like the final roster when we're going to the tournament if that's what we do. But I feel like for these three game windows, I hate the idea of being like forced into using Serginio Dest as a backup left back if that comes up. So if something happens to Robinson, now we have to move Dest over there, which means we can't like rotate Robinson and Dest as coherently as we might like to.

So like that, that always bugs me. It's bug me from the first window on. Like bring a backup left back so you don't have to use Dest in that, in that capacity against your wishes, against your plan. And then when Desk gets hurt, then that all becomes moot and we do just bring in that backup left back. So it's, so it's Sands, EPB, Zimmerman, Miles, and Long as the centerbacks, right? Yep, those are the centerbacks.

I would imagine, my guess is Zimmerman Miles and Long are doing the lion's share of the playing here. We are going to get into later whether we're going to play a 343 against Mexico and whether that's a good idea or not. But do you think Sands could also be here as cover for, I mean, he's got to be there for cover as a six, to some extent at least, right? I think so for sure. I think, you know, you talk about Adams is on a yellow, so there's always the possibility that we lose him for a match, which means you'd need somebody to back up Acosta. You also have the possibility of Acosta having to step in for McKenny as an eight, which sort of thins that those defensive midfield minutes for him as well.

So I think Sands as a third six also makes decent sense. I know people might disagree with him being the guy, but bringing in a third player capable of playing that six for me is important, necessary. Yeah, he at least is a credible option at both positions. I don't know that he's going to be that good as a centerback and a four-man-back line. But you've made the distinction in the past that he looked really, a lot of people will say, well, he was terrible against Honduras in the first half and he was. Why do you think that doesn't necessarily disqualify him from getting called up here?

Because he won't be used in that capacity again. There's no chance even Burrhalter would if we do go 3-4-3 for any games that one of the two central midfielder's in that 3-4-3 would be James Sands. Like he will be a centerback in that or he will be a center midfielder in a three center midfield setup in our 4-33. I was always kind of taken with the idea of him being like a flex option in a 343 where he could play in the middle of a back three and then kind of occasionally be a 6, you know, sort of go back and forth and decide when to do that. We have never seen that, really. No, we saw it. We saw it in the Gold Cup. He was doing it.

And then when Zimmerman went down with injury, we couldn't do it anymore. I think he did it against Martinique, I think, was the game that he was really doing it. But then once Zimmerman got hurt, it was no longer an option. And he was a centerback in a four with the rest of the tournament. Which doesn't play to his strengths either. He's a player that needs to be a very specific setup, I think. But we haven't seen it since, I guess. The last time we saw the only time and the last time we saw Sands was that Honduras first half, first half and first half of the second half.

Adams and Acosta. I assume the primary choices from Burrhalter's comments, it sounds like he will lean on Adams for as long as Adams is not suspended. Yeah, mind over matter. I think were the exact words he used because he was asked like Adams hasn't played a lot for R.B. Leipzig lately, which is a true thing to say. and he said mind overmatter. He'll make it happen. He'll will himself to make it happen. Will that oxygen into his blood?

And then the number eights are Eunice Musa, Luca Delatore, John Luca Buccio, and Christian Roldon. Buccio also struggling for minutes a little bit lately. Is that fair to say? Yeah, he's got like one start in the last month or so, and it was, I mean, he's kind of, for me looked about the same that he has always looked, which is not someone who, again, for me,

demands minutes in the U.S. men's national team. But we are light, right? We're light without McKinney. We're light with some of, I mean, with Legette going, falling by the wayside, we are just light on numbers who have been tried there. It's really difficult to come up with two separate midfields for this camp that you're happy with

if you're thinking that we, that rotation is mandatory, given the conditions, the altitude and the turnaround times. So it's just a tough spot to be in. There aren't a ton of choices that make me really happy to think about. Which is why the 343 comes to mind, right? Yeah, and even then it's tough. Like, I don't love any of the choices, even dropping down to two midfielders

because the ones who can do it, the best probably, you can't play together if rotation is the goal, Adams and Acosta. Right. Or Musa. That's why we're going to need Adams to go mine over matter. And then the strikers, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, bells. The wingers slash half-space merchants are Christian Pulisic, Tim Wea, Brennan Aronson, Paul Areola, and Jordan Morris.

I put way in there twice. That's why Bells was stumbling for a second. Georena is the sixth. Of course, of course, of course. More like the third or fourth, but listed, I mean, makes up six half space merchant just back from injury he's had two substitute appearances hopefully he gets more minutes this weekend without getting hurt and pretty like it's a pretty exciting group of half space merchants we've got our we've got our big four all in one camp yeah we have the full

compliment i have to issue a correction i said i said i said i think last week that kellen acosta is obviously or very clearly our best set piece taker and um i was i was taking a task for that on Twitter with absolute justification. Gio Raina is right there with him. Perhaps better. I mean, I haven't looked at the stats, but Raina dropped a dime on Axel Witzel's right foot

over the weekend. Was that over the weekend or no, it was just a couple days ago for the game winner coming off the bench for Dortmund. So that was really nice to see. He also took a free kick that tested the keeper a little bit. So I like him for set pieces. Burrhalter said,

Berthelder said they're going to have to really manage Raina's minutes carefully because I'm going to try to reproduce how he said it very as best I can. He said the most important thing is sending him back to his club healthy. Wait, wait, wait. The most important thing is qualifying for the World Cup. And the second most important thing is sending him back to his team healthy. And I can't, you know, you can't disagree with that. He's going to, I don't know, is he going to be able to start any of these games or is he

just going to be a bench option? I don't know. Any minutes we get is a bonus for me. So I'm just hopeful that we do like literally have him as needed. Like if we need to chase a, if we're chasing a goal in any of these games that we can bring Gio Raina on for 30 minutes. That's my hope. If he starts,

that would be outstanding. Also asked about Wea's capacity for minutes given he hasn't played a lot lately. So it's basically Adams, Wea and Raina are the players who like we need a lot from, who haven't been playing a lot lately. And Beralta just sort of acknowledged that that's going to be a bit of an issue. But especially, you know, it was interesting. He said about Waya that their his minutes are going to have to be managed carefully too.

I guess I hadn't been thinking of it that way because I thought, you know, he's fully fit. He may not be getting 90 for Lille very often, but at least he's fully fit. Like a lot of this, I just want to chalk up to extemporaneous speaking with Burholt. I know, I mean, obviously he knows what he's talking about. it's his, these are all his decisions that he's put a lot of thought into. But, you know, if we're getting into the point, which we do of, like, dissecting every sentence he makes and picking out all his word choices and who he was talking about in that moment, like, I don't know that any of those things are really going to matter.

Yeah. When the, when the lineups and substitutions are actually made. Yeah, that's fair. I have Phil Sock, eight, going to get a second shout out in a week's time here, but he was, he, in the Discord, he called it downright Talmudic. And that's a good way to put it. Yeah. I was going to do a sad you see reference,

but that's a little too deep, I think. Strikers are Hazes Ferreira, Jordan Pfeck, and Ricardo Pepey. Same question on Pepey, the Talmudic observations from Berthor were, you know, he's, he's also not, he's a little bit troubled by Pepe's performance lately or lack of minutes, but he had a good talk with him on the phone and

he's ready to go and he's a natural goal scorer. He just needs to get in the right spots. Yeah, these are three good names out of the hat. I'm obviously partial to Ferreira and his aesthetic. I'm hopeful that it is Ferreira against Panama because I think I think he's our best like, lock picker. Yeah, best lock picker, best fit in the And the way we can play when we do get sort of dictate terms and home matches have been where we could do that the best. And so that's what I'm hopeful for. But if he gets tossed into the Azteca, like, it's on him to make something happen. Yeah.

All right. So anything else on the roster before we talk about how we're going to line up in these games? I think that's good on the roster. Were there any other guys that you wish had been there, not necessarily shocking omissions, but just that you would, were, like, kind of hoping to see. Let me think. No, not really. Obviously you have an answer. We'll go ahead.

No, not really. I go back to that EPB inclusion, which means that like, we can introduce people. So then it's like, okay, would like Paxton Pamacall or some other eight Tim Tillman from Grazer-Fwith have been like possibilities?

Actually, no, the name I was really the most curious about which is also like projecting my own style of play that I was hoping we would see at the Azteca was actually Alfredo Morales of all people. Because you just want to ugly it up. Want to ugly it up like and we just don't have any other aglifying eights in the pool who have played for Greg Burrhalter. Alfredo's been to several camps for Burrhalter. It was way back in 2019.

But that's sort of his specialty. So that's where I was like, would we bring him back? And the answer clearly is no. But if we're playing that way, like I would much rather see Alfredo Morales in a lineup in Mexico City than Gianluca Busio. I don't have a lot of confidence in Busio. So maybe I need to, you know, apologize again. I think Busio could look really good in the home game against Panama,

but I don't want him in that game because I want that to be our very best 11, which for me would be Musa and Luca de la Torre. I think, but I'm getting too far into how we want a lineup. So should we just commit to that? Well, before we do, on Pomacol, I mean, he does come to mind as somebody I'm curious about. I don't know that he's, like, demanding minutes with the national team at the moment. But, you know, we don't have that many eights in the roster. So, I mean, bringing him along doesn't seem like it'd be the worst thing.

But that's not, obviously not in the cards at the moment. That's, that's what, yeah, same thing for me is, like, I just want some, like, eights who cover a lot of ground will get stuck in and a tackle. and that's that's who came to mind for me was pomacol, Tillman Alfredo Morales. Yeah. And at least with Pomacal, you know he's going to try to push the game a little bit. He has a little bit of that deletore impetus to him. So how do we line up against Mexico?

You going first? I think you should go first. All right. So I'm very much of the school that we should basically start with the Panama lineup and work backwards in how you make this work, because winning the home game against Panama is the most important thing we can do to secure qualification. Well, then maybe you should start with the Panama lineup. There we go.

Good. I'm glad you let me do that because that's kind of easier. So I don't have to keep referring back to the lineup that I haven't announced it. I think we should note, though, it's not necessarily true that Berthelter sees it that way. I mean, again, we're back to the question of how seriously do we take all his specific statements in these press conferences? He didn't say anything that would indicate that he agrees with what you just said. No, and if you are going to parse what he's saying, it would be the opposite.

I think he was saying, like, these guys should all be able to run those games back to back. And he specifically said that they'd been in contact with other teams. I'm assuming, like, other Concaf teams. But it could be MLS teams too have been playing in Mexico City and then coming back to the States. that their players have been okay to play on short turnaround after running at the Azteca. So if you're going by his language,

then I would not expect this leaning on rotation. The other thing is, obviously Anthony Robinson was not going to be rotated because his backup is Sergenio Death. So one of those two guys, at least, was going to be starting both Mexico and Panama. I would still expect Robinson to start both games. I mean, yeah.

Oh, for sure. There's no way. Yeah, there's no way he would then be like, Oh, well, now that I have bellow, I will change my earlier decision about what to do with Anthony Robbins. So that being said, my Panama lineup then. Is that what we're doing? Let's do it. The big game.

The big game, which I think we're going to cruise in, to be honest. I know it's possible that we won't. It's a 90-minute soccer game, and things can happen. But the game, I think we will cruise and end up winning pretty comfortably. Jesus Ferreira up top. I'm going top to back to bottom because I want to start with Jesus Ferreira. He's my guy. Ferrer up top.

Pool is sticking away on the wings. MMA midfield, only it's, I'm sorry, it's not MMA because we're missing McKinney. Mousa, Luca, as my eights. And I actually do have Kelan Acosta in here instead of Adams because I am throwing Adams into Mexico City. Okay. And then I've got, go ahead. Why? Why Adams in Mexico City and not against Panama?

Because I don't want to run them back to back. And I do want Adams to make sure that we get two games out of him. Should we be in a position where the Costa Rica game matters? I don't want Adams to have only played Panama. And if we sit him in Mexico, play him against Panama and he gets a yellow card, then he can't play Costa Rica. Okay. And we would only get one game at him.

Do you not worry that Panama hitting us on the counter is going to be a little bit more dangerous with Acosta as a sixth than Adams as the six? Maybe, but I'm willing to take the guarantee of more Adams' minutes in the window as outweighing it. I think Acosta will be fine. I don't think Panama is very good, to be quite honest. I think we gave them a gift of a three points down in Panama, and I think that Acosta will hold it down well.

Okay. Plus he delivers some set pieces. Yeah. Second best set piece deliverer on the national team. At worst. At worst. Yeah. So my back line here is going to be Jedi, and then I don't care about the right back now that

Dest is gone. it could be canon or Yedlin. It doesn't matter to me. You know what I take that back? It's going to be canon, but this is kind of like Adams. This is a reverse thing where it's actually because I want Yedlin in Mexico City. Okay. So Yedlin and Adams are the two that get chosen for Mexico City first of all, and then you work backwards.

But the rest of the- Everyone else. Panama first. And my goalkeeper, I'm throwing Horvath in here because I do think he's a better shot Starper than Stefan. But whatever. If it's Stefan, we're still beating Panama. Can you tell me the centerbacks again?

I don't care. I actually don't care. It could be any of the four that are here because I think that they, the centerbacks, I'm fine going back to back, Mexico and Panama. And I think all of them will be fine. None of them are going to be guys who will carve it the opponent up. So it's not like we're getting a big boost in that regard. And I think they will all be fine to shut Panama down.

Like I think we will have no problem shutting Panama down in Orlando. So Zimmerman and Rob, you're fine with Zemmerman. and Robinson or Long? I mean, you're fine with Long, too? Fine with Long too. Fine with EPP, fine with, I probably wouldn't put James Sands

in a four-manback line, but any of the sort of four actual centerbacks, start any two of them. Okay. Well, I don't even feel like I need to give my starting 11 for Panama because it's like, it's like,

I mean, I had, I put PFOC there, it's just sort of as a projection of what Burrhalter said, but you're right. We shouldn't take that too seriously. And Ferreira does make more sense, especially if Panama is going to pack it in,

which you imagine they will, to try to nip a 1-0 win or something. So, yeah, basically the same. I would have Adams as the six just to protect against a counterattack, but that would be like Adams going, starting against Mexico and starting against Panama, which might be lunacy.

despite all the mind over matter talk from coach Mr. Burrhalter. I'll also make clear, even though Ferreira is my choice, I think whichever striker starts in that Panama home game is going to have a game. Like I think they're going to be doing a lot. They're going to be dangerous because I think we are going to really control and dominate Panama. We've been really good at creating chances in all of our last several home matches, and I don't think that is going to change. Yeah.

So then that brings us Backward in time to the Mexico Game which is a week from this past Thursday So this upcoming Thursday It's coming up Yeah How are you gonna line up for that one? All right, I'll go top to front to back again

To keep it consistent So this will be PFOC for me But if it's peppy, that's fine too Again, I'm curious about how either of these guys Will work if we're trying to run like a high pressing scheme in working against the ball to try to create a transition attack against Mexico. Because, again, Pepe has been called out by Burrhalter, not in like a super negative way,

just in like he was not quite following the plan defensively. That was way back in September, so it could have been fixed between then and now. But he hasn't had a ton of time in camps to straighten that out. And PFOC just hasn't played that much for the U.S., certainly not where we've been doing a lot of high pressing. Most of his minutes came against Canada, where we weren't really setting up that press. Canada didn't really let us do that.

So I'm curious to see how well those two play against the ball if we end up playing a lot against the ball. Okay. Yeah, I think Pepe, I'm with you where it doesn't really matter to me who starts at Stryker, but I think I can't help but fantasize about Pepe scoring a goal at D.S. Tech. I mean, the drama, the storylines would be unbelievable. All right. And since I gave my, like, the whoever starts at Stryker against Panama, like preemptive credit for having a good game, I think I'm going to do the opposite here. Like, whoever starts against Mexico probably will not look that good at Stryker things because I think we're going to, we could have a really hard time creating things against Mexico.

I hope I'm wrong. But, you know, based on how we have looked on the road throughout qualifying, combined with the fact that we aren't always great at creating moments for this. a striker against good teams. Just makes me a little bit skeptical that any of our strikers in this game will look good. And I don't want to put it on them for being bad in that game. I just feel like that will probably be the case. That makes me say, that makes me lean towards PFOC despite the storylines. Because he will be able to, you know, he is a little bit more capable of being a target,

bringing the ball down, giving us a little breathing room. And then, you know, in the in the counterattack, heading the ball into the goal, you know, or using his thigh or whatever he has to do. And just my obligatory here, like a distinction of not necessarily that he's better at heading the ball, but just that he knows where to get to to where the ball will hit his head. Soccer's a simple game. What about your wingers? Who are you going to put on the wing?

So I'm running Aronson, Ariola here, and they are just going to be just, just, horrendous nuisances for Mexico to try to play against. Just rabid squirrels. Just terriers, yep. So that's my front three. Okay, I have way in Pulisic starting this game, but that's probably crazy, too. I mean, Pulisic is playing so well right now for Chelsea. It feels like it'd be a shame not to play him, but I do.

I mean, of course, we got to win the Panama game. That's the one that really matters. I'll defer to you here, Greg. No, I think I'm going to be wrong here. And I think you're probably right. I think we run more of a first choice lineup out there and then make changes earlier. I hate that because it's like, okay, so at zero zero, you're just going to be like, okay, time to take our best threats off to save them for the next game. I would rather try to kill the first 60 minutes and just eliminate that as a soccer game and then be like, okay, let's see if we can do something in the last 30.

Yeah. I mean, that makes sense to me. So who's your who's it going to be your two midfielders? Or are you going to do a three, four, three against Mexico? Are you doing a four three thing? Yeah, you busted me out here. I guess starting front to back. That's how it goes.

So yeah, I'm only running two. And I got to run, it hurts, but I'm going to run Adams and Luca together. I don't know if I don't know if Luca can do it, but out of the guys available, I don't know, man. Maybe I have to, maybe because of the choices that we've brought with no Alfredo Morales. maybe we have to go three midfielders. Yeah. I have Adams and Acosta.

I mean, if this was a one-off game, that would be the answer in a 343. You know, I think Matt Hartman, even like a couple of weeks ago, through this one out there, and I wouldn't hate it. It would be Sands at the 6 and then sort of any two of the 8s. Because Luca could be an 8 and a 3-man midfielder. Like I said Adams and Luca, I have no idea. if Luca can play in a two or if he would just be hung out to dry the same way James Sands was. So I probably just need to change, given the personnel that's available here, probably do need

to run a three-man midfield. Okay. So you're changing to a 433 here? Yeah, I think I've got to do that. You've got to be flexible. You've got to be flexible to win points in Concord. Yeah, you do. Gedlin and Robinson makes a lot of sense to me, whether it's a 433 or a 343 as the wide

full backs slash wing backs. I think that's what you got to do too. I think it's got to be Jedi and I think Yedlin is just, I think he's perfect for these road matches. And then I guess you're now to two centerbacks, but if I was going to do three centerbacks,

I honestly don't know who I'd start between EPP and Aaron Long. I think, yeah, there's arguments in both directions, but Zimmerman Robinson probably going to be on the field. for me. It's just a matter of who that third one is. Same. And I would actually throw Sands in the mix, too. If you're going to go three, he could be the central centerback. Fair.

Flanked by Miles and Zimmerman, I would be fine with that. So there's no, there's no centerback alignment that I'm going to, that I'm going to be like, oh, no, this can't, we can't do the job with this group. I guess I'd probably prefer EPB over long. although, you know, who knows what that's going to, what that decision would result in when the game starts. Like, EPP might look a little shook in the Azteca. Long might look shook, too. Okay, so I guess I got to clarify for my midfield then. If we're going 433, I think I'm going to actually run Sands as my six, and Adams and Luca as my eights.

So Adams gets bumped up to eight. Okay. All right. And then I would play Horvath at Keeper. I have no idea what Burrhalter's going to do there. Same. Horvath is my guy for shot stopping here. And again, we're just hoping that this is the worst game of football that's ever been played.

And we walk out zero zero. The dream smaller is the motto here. For me, you know, stepping back and looking at the window. a whole. There's a lot of, there's a lot of bad news lately. I mean, West McKinney and Serginio Desk's injuries. The lack of minutes for Raina, Wea, and Adams over, you know, for various reasons. But, but the fact that Pulisic is playing so well is, is a really, really positive thing. And, you know, it's a good, a good time for him to, I don't know, like, show us who he is, show us what he's got.

That's what I'm hoping for. I'm not bothered by Wea's lack of minutes at all. I feel like Wea is a guy who's going to jump right in with the national team and do all the things we've seen him doing. And I just see Raina being back at all as a huge, huge positive. Again, just bringing that guy off the bench, given that the guys ahead of him are also very confident. So it's like, oh, no, we're going to have to play pool sick and Wea

together because Raina can only come in as a sub. Like, that is an amazing sounding rotation to me when you're playing Panama at home. That feels like a group that can score some goals. Yeah, I agree. I'm just acknowledging the sort of like the thing that Burrhalter said and the sort of the thing that's out there about way. But I agree.

He's like he's going to be fine. And I have him starting both games. So both of the first two games. Because I'm assuming we're going to be qualified after the Panama game and we don't really have to worry about the Costa Rica game. The Costa Rica game is getting horrendously short-shifted in the discourse, isn't it? Yeah. Well, because it's,

Because that would be borderline disaster if we needed points going into that game. Nobody even wants to consider that possibility. That's for sure, I think, what it is. It's like, people are afraid to have to, like, concede that that game could matter. I think we could definitely be there, but it'll be by virtue of Costa Rica doing a ton of good things for themselves in the window, namely getting the win at home against Canada in the first day. if they get that win against Canada. All right.

Anything else? I'll just say one more time, no matter what lineup we throw out in D.S. Teca, like we are underdogs to win. We are not going to be the most likely team to win that game, no matter what group we throw out. So that's probably just my, like, pessimism coming through. But there's that chance to do something really special.

So that would be amazing. So that's what I'm hoping for. I'm hoping we go about it by making it ugly and then steal something in the last 15 minutes. I mean, you could totally see that happening, especially with Raina coming off the bench. Raina, I'm Pulisic coming in, coming in, like, together in the 75th minute. Let's do it. Yeah. And then anything to say about Mexico right now?

I mean, they have a, they got Roel Jimenez coming in. I mean, they have some players in good form. Hector Herrera is playing well. lately. So is, um, so is tecotito. I mean, they don't have Chicharito. They don't have Carlos Vela. We've, we've got this. We've got this in the bag. For, I mean, for those of you who are not following the team, they haven't had Chicharito or Vela for like a couple years, I think. Was the World Cup the last time they would have played? I believe so. Yeah. All right. Um, big, big week coming up, guys. Uh, lots of episodes of the podcast, probably too many. And then, um,

And then a big get-together in Orlando. We've got 90 confirmed for the tailgate just in the Discord. And it's an open invitation so anybody can come. There's not going to be enough beer, honestly. So bring a little bit of beer. And then we're doing the Five Aside. I won't try to say the name of it because I always get it wrong. But it's the Greg Velazquez Memorial Five Aside Tournament of Roses.

And that is that is 10 a.m. on Sunday the 27th at the John H. Jackson Community Center just a few blocks south of the stadium. And we might not be able to record the five-aside recap before the Panama game kicks off. So that recap might come later on in the week. I have it on some authority that Taylor Rockwell will be there and Bobby Warshaw.

And then we couldn't get Joe Lowry to do the recap. cap. He refused. Also, I should just say this podcast is ad-free and listener-supported. If you'd like to support us, hit the Patreon link in the show notes. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.