Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #264: Mexico v USA recap (WCQ12)

Episode Date: March 25, 2022

Greg and Belz gradually recap the World Cup qualifier in the Azteca. 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. We got a zero-zero-zero draw in Mexico City, and it was a fascinating game. Historically, the result is great. Historically, the performance is quite good, especially sort of in a vacuum. We created the two best chances of the game and missed them. We'll get into all that. But now all we need is a win on Sunday in Orlando and not to, you know, not to allow Costa Rica to make up an eight-goal goal difference gap. And we go to the World Cup. So, Greg, how are you doing? I'm all right. I'm all right, Bells. It was exactly what you described. Like, it was a good game when you're used to watching the U.S.

go down to Esteka and really be, like, hanging on. This felt like a game where we kind of did mold our various approaches that we take in these games and created a little bit of, like, a successful hybrid. Say more about that. What do you mean? Well, I think we, I think I'm very comfortable saying we went in there to play against the ball or we were very willing to play against the ball. And I think we were opportunistic with the way we set up our shape and our press. We weren't like guns blazing going pressing them, but we were looking for little moments to go and trap them and cause them some issues to the point where I think they were responding with some caginess of their own to not, you know, extend themselves too far and leave themselves open.

which is a, I see that as like a positive for us. Like that's a compliment to our team that we were able to do that and get them to respond the way they did. But then also a couple of our chances did come from like these lightning quick combinations. There weren't a ton of them. But it wasn't all just like turnovers up to the press led to a chance. There were our best moments, our very best moment came from us undoing them with four or five really well executed passes and movements.

Off a throw in, which whenever we get a throw in in the, other teams half. I'm always like, oh, this isn't going to result in anything. So that. And it wasn't even a quick throw-in. Like, we've had some of those like, almost like trick throw-ins of taking super fast with McKinney. And this was, we'll get into it, but this was like a 30-second long DeAndre Edlin

throw-in, of which there were many. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, that's, that's what stood out to me is that we were able to effectively shut Mexico down by playing against the ball. They had very few, uh, clear-cut chances. And we were able to create some. chances of our own. So it felt like, I know you could call that like an old school U.S.

performance, but I thought some of the chances we created were just really pretty. Absolutely. Yeah. And just to go back and check, I went back and looked at some of the clips from the 2017 draw in the Azteca. And obviously we had that Golazzo from Michael Bradley, the chip from, it's hard to call it even a chip. It was a driven. It was a thump. Yeah. A punch. Yeah. from 35, 40 yards, of course, was amazing. He also rang the post late in the second half from distance,

you know, like really uncorked one. It's possible that Cho had it covered. But I bring all that up to point out this was better, this was better than that performance. Not that that performance was so terrible. I think on XG, which of course single game sample size, you shouldn't talk about too much. But just as a general reflection of the chances in the game, XG was about even in that game,

possession was more lopsided in Mexico's favor. It still felt like in this game, the one that happened last night, we were a better team than we were in the draw we got in the Esteka in 2017. I'd agree with that. And again, I'll kind of get into more of the particulars why I kind of felt like that that we weren't hanging on, even though Mexico did at times sort of defeat that opportunistic defensive shape. defensive press that we had. But because of the cast of characters we have now, we can very quickly get ourselves back in a shape even once we're beat momentarily.

Yeah. Okay, we got to talk about overall window management from Burhalter. You're a well... Yeah, before we do that, let's talk about what happened in the window that kind of adds to this context, right? So the other two games that matter in a big way were Panama Honduras and Costa Rica, Canada, Panama tied Honduras, which is a devastating result for them, not just to catch us, but to even stay in fourth place because Costa Rica beat Canada in Costa Rica.

So two huge results for the third and fourth placement. It's a little bit of help for us on the Panama side. Not anything close to the help we kind of were wanting on the Canada, Costa Rica side. It's sort of the opposite of what I expected. I expected Canada to get a draw in. San Jose. It's hard to do that. I feel like that is also a lesson that we should take from that because a lot of people

are like Costa Rica's been terrible. Canada's on this role. They still need, Canada still need the point to clinch. I don't know if they still do now after the Panama result. But like Costa Rica is good at playing in Costa Rica. We should not at any point just take for granted that because of the way the campaign has gone so far,

that a match in Costa Rica is a gimmie for any side. Right. Yeah. I guess Mark Anthony Kay got a red card in the first half in that game. And then Kelso Borges scored a goal in the stoppage time of first half. Canada kind of made a push in the second half, but couldn't get over the hump. Yeah, and then thank you to Los Catrachos, because that is a huge result for us for Panama to drop points there. At home.

Did some part of you want the – some part of me wanted Panama to win and Costa Rica to win. not because I want the U.S. to fail, because I wanted the U.S. to succeed, handling their own business and not needing any of this sort of assistance towards justice. I'm past that sort of Victorian sentimentality. I just want to qualify however it happens. But I respect it, Greg. I respect it. Well, let's do the lineups and then use that as an opportunity to talk about window management, I think.

We had Stefan and Goal, DeAndre Yedlin, Walker Zimmerman, Miles. Robinson and Anthony Robinson across the back line. Tyler Adams at the six, Eunice Musa, and Kalan Acosta at the 8th, and then Tim Wea, Ricardo Pepe, and Christian Pulisic across the front line. These were the rumors that were going around on, you know, Thursday earlier in the day, that it would be pretty much an A team. And it pretty much was, minus Gio Raina, who, of course, is coming off a long injury layoff. Yep, Raina and obviously Ferreira rotated for this one. Yeah. I mean, he could very well be the first choice striker. I mean, he probably is in everyone's heart at this point, not just yours. That was my big prediction for the window, is that whoever starts the home game, whichever striker starts the home match is going to be the one that is viewed most favorably by the public at the end of the window.

It's almost like there's an incredible advantage to playing in the home game. But, you know, an implication of that is that you're not going to get any chances as a striker in the away game. and there was a chance for the striker. And then Mexico was Memo Ochoa at goal in the goal. Jorge Sanchez at right back, I guess it's a little bit interesting that he started over Juliana Rao. Not like a surprise or anything, just interesting. And then Cesar Montez, Johann Vasquez, Gerardo Arteaga across the rest of the back line, Edson Alvarez, and Ache Ache Ache and Charlie Rodriguez in the midfield.

And then it was Tecateo, Lozano, Tecateo on one wing, Lozano on the other. And of course, Raul Jimenez at Stryker. I know there was talk about O'Raho coming in, and he wasn't in the squad at all, I believe. I don't think he was in uniform. So part of me was like, I wonder if he's got something he's dealing with that we just didn't know about. But I haven't seen anything to that effect, so it's wild speculation. So what's your biggest problem with, you know, you're sort of a famous rotation truther at this point. What's your problem, explain the problems you have with, or you had with,

you know, playing the A team in the S-TECA? So my big concern was simply the risk associated with the outcome combined with, you know, the probability of securing an outcome, even with the A-team, combined with the toll it would take on those players who would give us the best chance to win against Panama and Orlando, which is the match. we have to have to win in this window. You know, if you think about it as like a model running a bunch of simulations, the only simulations that are absolutely catastrophic that result in the U.S. not qualifying for the World Cup involve like losing to Panama.

Anything else, any win against Panama means that we are guaranteed the playoff at worst. So it was like, okay, well, if we can just concentrate and put as much as our, of our firepower as we can towards eliminating all of those outcomes, that would be catastrophic. That's, to me, felt like the best way to go and then work backwards from there. I don't think that's what went on here. I definitely don't think we backed into this lineup. I think this lineup was chosen to give us the best chance that result in this game in Burrhalter's mind. Yeah.

Which is kind of, it is a little odd that he's not trying to optimize our chances of qualifying in the way that you're describing. I mean, it's not, I mean, Matt Doyle has also gone on record basically saying a similar version. of the same thing. And it is weird. Again, it doesn't have to mean like full B team, full rotation, anything like it can just mean you start with that Panama 11. And then you go, okay, now what can we try to get away with to give ourselves also a shot in Mexico City?

And we don't have to rehash the whole argument on both sides. I do think there's reasons to go with the Burrhalter approach here and to go all out for the Mexico point, even from like, the competitive psychological aspect of it. You mean it sends a message to the team of confidence and we're confidence in you, confidence in our program if we're going to go into Mexico and try to win. Yeah, absolutely. I think that is a real thing.

My heartless side, like full calculation spreadsheet side is like, okay, well, that's the player, do you want the players to have that mentality? The coach needs to like, you know, be thinking about the odds. But the other thing is these are all still just like we're just sort of eyeballing the percentages, right? We're just eyeballing what the probabilities are of getting that point or those three points. And what is the delta if you rotate or if you don't rotate? And so, you know, other people are going to have different ideas of what those deltas are to the point where, no, it makes sense to actually try to maximize our points in the Mexico game and then the Panama game and then Costa Rica, if need. And to an extent, like, I think this would definitely vindicate Burrhalter's idea that points were there in the Azteca because they very obviously were.

We took one and we very easily could have taken three. Yeah. I know we don't like the word should on this podcast, but we should have. We should have taken three. Like we had it. We had it there for the taking. And we can get into that whole, you know, that whole debate a little bit later as we talk about the chances we missed. But it feels to me like just as a human being who watched that soccer game.

and has played a fair amount of soccer and feels like he at least understands the game better than your average person, we should have won the game. It would not have been an injustice if we had won the game. Pulisic actually disagrees with me. He said in the press conference he thought it was probably a fair result. The draw was fair. And I, you know, I can't disagree with that too much, but I do disagree with it a little. I mean, you can run the models on this one game too

and all the chances that were created and say, all right, it will end in a draw roughly this many times out of 100, US win this many. I get the eye rolls from everyone listening and from bells across the screen. But that, I mean, that really is what soccer is. Like there's a lot of results that can be considered fair because there are a lot of different results that can come from a game that plays out that way.

I've seen two XG estimates for the game, the one that Paul Carr tweets out, and then the one in Y Scout, and they're both running about three to one for the U.S. You know, somewhere around one for the U.S., somewhere around 0.3, 0.4 for 1 to 1.2 for the U.S. Everybody's so bored. 0.3 to point 4 for Mexico. And just to take that even further, I think, so Paul Carr tweets it usually right after the game. And that's where those numbers are right after the game. He doesn't adjust the numbers, but those numbers are then adjusted by, I don't remember it's Opta who he's using.

But then if you wait a couple hours, Bill Connolly at ESPN will tweet out his big spreadsheet of all the cool trends and things. And that will have the updated opta numbers. So I think they actually came out, both teams ended up a little bit higher. So like 1.6 to 0.6, something like that. but in any event, like it was, I think it was, again, clear even by the eyeball test, the actual chances that materialized, like, way in favor of the U.S. The one caveat is the is that poor first touch from Tecotito on that.

That's the big one. Yeah, that's the big Mexico miss. That's the big one. That one gives you zero XG for what it's worth. But we'll talk about some of the other issues that we, that Mexico sort of had. I mean, I thought Mexico were just very wasteful. generally with their AVPs. Very wasteful with their AVPs, wasteful with the ball in the middle of the field.

Not an encouraging performance if you're a Mexico fan, I don't think. Right. I think some of it was like a, I think there was an element of that caginess where I think they were taking fewer risks building out of the back because they didn't want to get turned over the way the U.S. are good at turning teams over. But also, there were times again where they did defeat that first two lines of pressure that we had and they were behind our midfielders. And they found those soft spots that are sort of built into our zone, our 433, where they were able to switch to that sort of weak side fullback or that weak side player in front of our fullback or even like with our fullback out of position.

And now they're just like running down a wide open flank. And this is where I think they were wasteful. I think they made some really poor decisions in the final 22 yards. But also this is where our personnel can really step up and help sort of paper over, if you won't even call it papering over. it's by design. I think this is the design. We can get back so quickly that if they don't make the right decisions right away, the chance

is gone. The number of situation, the advantage is gone and we are now back in good shape and that's a credit to our centerbacks. That's a credit to our fullbacks. That's a credit to that midfield trio of just the outrageous amount of work that they are putting in. Yeah, it never felt

there were a lot of times when Mexico was galloping up on open flank. just explained. But it never felt that dangerous because, like, I don't know, I just didn't feel like Arteaga or Sanchez were going to beat the fullback that they were, you know, squared up against. And if they tried to lump a cross in, it felt comfortable that Walker Zimmerman or Miles

Robinson would deal with it. And then Tyler Adams is coming to cover. So. And we had good weak side coverage, like DeAndre Yedlin up to contest headers early on, Eunice Musa back at one point contesting headers on that weak side and they would get it over our centerbacks. So that's what I mean about just like,

you can just take that for granted because as they're, we essentially eliminated the necessity for all of the scrambling defense because of the work we put in ahead of time in those moments to get ourselves back. And that's, that is a, that's a huge deal.

And it's just something that again might not pop on screen. But if you're, if we do a comp of those Mexico breaks, you'll just see, just how incredibly committed we were to getting back to protect that goal. Stefan didn't have anything to do. Yeah. He tipped that one Lozano shot over the bar.

And I do think you're right that Mexico left something to be desired with their decisions in the final third. I don't know, like there were some shots from distance that didn't trouble us very much that seemed a little premature. It was Lazzano, right? Lazzano was taken like they'd get impatient. And again, I think that's partly Mexico's decision making. and partly how resolute we were to not overcommit, to not scramble, to not give them like easy ways to exploit our defensive decisions that Mexico might be more used to seeing from their opponents. Because Mexico are very clever. They are very savvy.

And if you do open yourselves up, they're patient enough to exploit it. If you don't open yourself up, then suddenly you have these, you know, weak shots from distance that Lozano was hitting. We should mention some of the challenges we'll have against Panama as a result of the. the choice to run out of first choice lineup against Mexico. What are they in, what are they in your opinion at this point? I mean, it's not really that much of a matter of opinion, is it?

Well, we've got, we've got the cautions, right? And those were, to an extent unavoidable. I'm willing to say, like, I don't think you should,

you know, penalize players for getting into it in a match at the S-TEC if they're on the field. So D'Andre Edlin picks up an early yellow. He is going to be suspended for the Panama match. We don't have, we didn't have another right back on the bench.

So he had to play. He was going to start anyway. But now we were already scrambling because Reggie Cannon tested positive for COVID. So we were already scrambling to get a guy in for the Orlando game. Now I don't know if we'll get two players in. In my mind, we should because, again, part of roster building is planning for contingencies. So, okay, we get Cannon in. That's great.

If something happens to Cannon in Orlando, what's the next plan? So again, that for me was a bit of a foreseeable issue. The fact that we only brought four fullbacks and only two on each side, no sort of swing man to play to give us coverage at either fullback spot. That was an issue that, you know, I think everyone has been kind of wondering about. It didn't, it certainly didn't bite us necessarily in the Mexico game, but we'll have to see how it's addressed for Panama. Well, Cannon's out for the window, right?

I mean, he can't get through his quarantine. before we play Costa Rica. Right. So it's Shaq Moore's, Shackmore was already in Orlando, apparently, as a result of the canon COVID situation. So he's got to be the starter on Sunday, right?

I mean, I'm assuming so. And so that's where I'm like, you got Shack Moore there. You need to bring in a second right back now, a new guy to be his backup. Because I'm glad it worked for that 10 minutes, but I don't want Eric Palmer Brown

to be our designated backup right back. It did kind of work, you know? I was like, what the heck? Eric Palmer Brown at Wingback, and he did all right. The other thing is, I mean, of course, Way I got the yellow card, so he won't be able to play in Orlando. The other thing, which I think is bad but not horrific, given that we have, you know,

we have other options at Wing. I know Way has been our best attacker, but it'll be exciting to see Geo Rana start a game. I assume that's what's going to happen. And then, you know, we'll have ariola off the bench. So it's not like a disaster that way isn't in this game. Do you disagree? You think it is a disaster? I totally disagree.

Now, I don't think it's necessarily going to be a disaster in the sense that it's going to lose us the game. But it's, again, running through all those like models and mental simulations, if we lose to Panama, if we can't create against Panama, it's going to be, it's not going to be because we ship five goals. it's going to be because somehow we can't break them down. In Tim Wea has been by far our most effective breaker-downer of opponents. Even in this game, like it was his ridiculous ball. I mean, it was a nice, sexy team buildup. But it's that technique he has to put a ball across that we've seen time and time again that feeds Christian Pool Sick for a tap-in.

So anyway, I think Tim Wea out is a huge deal. But you would have played. him in this game anyway, right? Against Mexico? Yeah. No, I had him not touching the field because of the yellow card situation. And he's kind of, he's not super like disciplined with his yellow cardedness. I'm not just talking about the red he picked up over the weekend, but like he kind of lashes

out. He kind of gets, uh, gets into the intensity, gets into the emotion of the game. Not necessarily a bad thing, but he had, he had like a swipe at the back of a guy's leg. even before he got his yellow card in this game. Really? I didn't see that. And his yellow card against Honduras in the home match last window was for like a kickout after the ball was gone. It's interesting because the yellow card he did get was not,

it's interesting because the yellow card he did get was not, I don't know, there didn't seem like there was anything malicious in it. He just stuck his foot out, didn't see Raoul coming, and Raul went right through his leg. I'm not saying it was an unfair yellow card. just I don't know that it fits the lashing out. No, part of me thought it was like an accumulation thing where he had the earlier one.

I think he had another foul in between and then it picks up that third one in somewhat of a short time span. And it's not, you know, a referee trying to do a good job to manage a heated rivalry game. No surprise that a card comes out there. Okay. Anyway, so yeah, so that is a loss.

Now again, easy to easy for anyone to defend Wayas inclusion based on what we saw happen in the game where he nearly got us the three points with that ball to Christian Pulisic. Right. Well, and then the third one is Anthony Robinson, for me at least, is that Anthony Robinson is going to probably be at least a little bit gassed heading into the game on Sunday. I hope he can recover quickly. Because you, you aren't comfortable rotating it left back? I'm not. Are you? No, I'm the same. I feel like, as soon as the original lineup was announced when it was just Dest at Leftback, it was like, okay, Robinson is definitely playing the first two games.

Adding George Bellow doesn't change anything for me on that front. What I would actually add is that I don't think Anthony Robinson is the only player who I worry about being a lot gassed going into Orlando. And that becomes a big question, right? It's going to be hard to really assess the level of risk or the worthiness of the risk we took in Mexico with the players until we see how they actually look in Orlando if they play or if we're going to rotate

and how the rotations work because Pool Six is going to be gassed, right? Eunice Musa is going to be destroyed. Kellan Acosta, I don't know what he's going to be looking like. Tyler Adams is the only one who came out early. We were covering ground. We did a lot of real work in that game. It was a very open game.

I mean, it was up and down the field, basically the whole you know the whole game uh before we get to the timeline i would ask that you consider supporting us on patreon we are an ad-free podcast and we generate our revenue through patreon becoming a patron gets you access to the monday reviews and the discord and some occasional video stuff although the promises on that are very thin um thank you to everyone who already supports us there we appreciate it a lot just also talk about uh what's coming on sunday i mean we're We're going to try to be real clinical and, you know, discriminating in what we say about all this stuff.

But, like, for me, at least, I'm just ready to have a big party and qualify for the World Cup on Sunday. And I think that's very likely what's going to happen. So I feel like the expected joy is very high for this trip. I hope so, man. I feel like you, for a lot of the home games, have been overperforming expected joy. I'm hoping that doesn't regress. I have some disappointing news to already cut into it. I actually will now no longer be able to attend the event in Orlando or the game.

Some family friends suffered a loss. And so my priority is to be there for them over the weekend and the next, you know, several weeks. But I will be there in spirit and I will be, you know, I will be pretty loud, I think, in spirit. Yeah. We'll have a lot of fun with your spirit, Greg. We will carry on without you. We got 100 plus people coming to the tailgate, and we're going to do our best. Yeah, man, it's going to be an awesome time.

I can tell already from the energy, from the people in the Discord talking about it, from what you all have had in the past, it's going to be, I'm excited to hear about it and to sort of witness it secondhand. To the timeline, to the timeline. So I would say right off the bat, we got a decent cross from Anthony Robinson. Musa goes up for it and Memo plucks it from above his head. Acosta in the third minute draws a foul dribbling in Mexico's half, but his set piece went way out of bounds. That was kind of a disappointment for me.

I'm like, all right, we got a set piece right away, and it's Acosta on it, and he just drills it way over everybody. Well, it's because we had the Nations League final where our set pieces were dominant. We had the Gold Cup final against Mexico where we won on the set piece, and then we just came off that Honduras game. where it was like three set piece goals. So I was in the same boat. Every single free kick.

I'm like, oh, man, this is going to happen. This is going to happen. We got Walker's Zimmerman up there. This is happening. So, so yes.

It's a thin air is what we're going to say. That's what we'll say. The jabbulani and it's the thin air. A nice, Stefan diagonal to DeAndre Yedlin in the fifth minute. Just to note some quality distribution from the goalkeeper. Can I point something out here on this fifth minute one? Mexico getting

and eventually knocked this ball out of bounds after it gets to Edlin and I think this maybe it happened earlier too but like this is the one I picked up on the broadcast this was like a statement of intent by the US in this moment

of what our approach was going to be to clock management like the ball rolls out of bounds and I think at 435 4 minutes 35 seconds and DeAndre Edlin makes no pretense even of like jogging after this ball

to get it. You and Watkin Vince, we're talking about the linemen jog on the Monday review, which I loved. When I was coaching, we actually would, when I was coaching, we would like coach this technique actually. The soccer jog is what we called it because in the U.S., so many kids play soccer and never watch it, so they don't actually absorb some of these behaviors that you see, like the gamesmanship stuff.

So we would like have to teach them this. And so we were teaching them like on recovery days, we would not just do, you know, boring recovery stuff. We would do a lot of like dark arts. Those were our dark arts days. And so we would teach the technique that Vince is talking about where there's a lot of like up and down bounce, but there's very little horizontal movement. So that way it's like you're at least, you know, convincing the ref.

No, no, no, I'm hustling. I'm not just walking because as soon as you start walking, the game's up, right? You're telling them right away. You're broadcasting that you are stalling. And we did not even try to like hide it. DeAndre Edlin just walks at like the slowest walk you can have to go get the ball, walks back, up field and takes it so. And I was actually really nervous, especially after he got his yellow, that he was going to get a time wasting yellow and get sent off. So anyway, that's just something

I picked up on the broadcast. Like we were very obviously trying to turn this 90-minute game into a 60-minute game at altitude, which, again, very, I think that's absolutely the right approach. So it wasn't just about disrupting Mexico's rhythm. It was more about just shrinking the clock. Absolutely. Why play 90 minutes at 7,500 feet? If you can play 45 minutes. And to be honest, there were times where I honestly thought Mexico were kind of in the same boat. They would usually do it on the ball, but they did not necessarily have like any urgency when they were knocking around the back. We'd set up our, you know, line of confrontation, three quarters of the way up the field, two thirds of the way up the field rather than really going after them. And we would just

kind of let them have it. And they were a lot of times content to just sit on it for a while. And I wonder if, you know, that same calculus is going through their head. We've got three games this window. even if we end up with just a point here, that's not the end of the world. We get a point against the, you know, toughest team we have in this window. Pick up any other points anywhere else in the window. We're home and free. So let's not, you know, over-exert ourselves here. If a point, if we get a chance, great, we'll take it.

If not, we walk out of here with our lungs intact. And it worked out that way. It worked out for us to get a point. But also a lot of people ended up cast, as you mentioned before. Um, seventh minute, I just noticed that Pulisic recorded his third giveaway of the game up to that point. I will not pick on Pulisic any more than I, than is appropriate here. And I just want to say, hey, the word slander, people are going to accuse me of Pulisic slander after this episode, as they always do after I talk about Christian Pulisic.

The word slander means, it has to be false. What you say has to be false and damaging. Not just damaging. It also has to be false. And so I'm, so I'm, uh, so I'm, uh, so I'm, um, so I'm, um, so I'm just, I'm just going to say, I don't think this is slander. He gave the ball away three times in the first seven minutes. Now, on to the eighth minute, Mexico mounts their first decent attack,

thanks to Tecateo doing some nice stuff to bring the ball from left to right and, you know, in the midfield. And he plays it out wide. And then it finds its way to Lozano, who hits a low ball across that's cut out by Zimmerman. Tecateo then sets up another cross from the right side. and that ball is headed away by Miles. And this sort of leads to a good five-minute spell of pressure from Mexico. I mean, Miles Robinson gets a yellow after getting megged by Raoul in the ninth minute.

In the 11th minute, there's a good set piece from Tecotito that Vasquez can't quite make contact on. And then in the 13th minute, there's that Montez header on a Tecotito cross after a corner. Good contact, but right at Stefan. So I think a couple of things to note here, Takedito is at the center of basically everything Mexico is doing in the attack. And they created some chances, but nothing too threatening. I think that header was Mexico's best chance of the game, their best shot on goal of the game. Yeah. And I think this kind of is what I was kind of seeing was that they looked to be getting some joy, right?

Especially down this right side. and they weren't able to turn any of that initial opportunity into clear-cut chances where it was like, oh, no, we're beat here and we've got to scramble. We never were at the point where it was full scramble mode. Right after that five-minute spell. We get to do a little bit of a scramble mode. Well, I was thinking of the chance for Musa. It starts with Miles clipping a nice ball to the sideline to Antony, who beats

Sanchez, the way he beats him is a little bit clumsy, but he does beat him. Struggle dribble. Does that count it's a struggle dribble? It's kind of like he dribbled right into him. Yeah, that's more of a slop. That's a slop dribble. Hey, I like it. Slop dribble.

And then he gets into space, so he leaves him on the ground. And then he gets into space and teases a ball across just inside the edge of the box. Waya kind of leaves it and Eunice Musa meets it with his left foot, but does not make good contact. Hits it soft, hits it wide. Achoa palms it further wide for good measure, but it wasn't going on frame. But still a good chance for the U.S.,

better than anything Mexico had created to that point. Yep, and a nice little, again, nice little sequence for Anthony. He was getting up that left side early and kept doing it. So that's what he offers. So glad to see him still doing that, even on the road, even against a team as good as Mexico. Something I wonder if you have an opinion about is how good Tyler Adams was in this game

Because the next thing I have is he snuffs out an attack that's going up our right side Seems like he was doing some snuffing in this game I thought he was I thought he was very good I mean he had a giveaway that's probably gonna make the timeline But otherwise he was he was always Again covering that ground where that I still think that is a huge reason why those Seemingly dangerous Mexico moments never really materialized in a real danger and he did hit a couple of nice balls.

I know he got one up to weigh on a nice little split that way I drew a file on. So he was offering, for me, in this kind of a game, he is a perfect player for us. Yeah. Yeah, it's hard to always pay attention to what he's doing, at least for me. But when I did notice,

it was always, it seemed like it was always positive outside of that giveaway and a couple of other maybe slightly not great moments. From the 16th minute to the 19th minute. I have several peppy moments. He gets body by Montez and loses possession over on the on the left side line. I thought he looked a little flat-footed when Yedlin won the ball off of somebody at midfield, didn't get to it. And then he and Yedlin connect kind of awkwardly where Yedlin takes that like 30-yard touch because the ball comes in a little hot to him from a short distance.

So I, you know, Pepe, Pepe obviously played a key role in the most impressive moment of the game. and I think I'm going to continue to put my hope in that kind of moment for him because he can do it and he's continuing to do it. But I think largely not great night for him outside of that. I wouldn't disagree, but I think I would call it like a very acceptable night. So I don't think he was great either. I just don't think this was a game where anyone we have at Stryker was going to look great. And I don't even mean that because I think our strikers are fairly mediocre.

which I do think our strikers are pretty mediocre. But it was just going to be, again, this was going to be a work rate game. It was going to be a discipline game, an organizational game, about keeping our shape against the ball. And then can you just offer a few things in the attack? And he did. Like there were plenty of like hold up moments where he didn't spring anything. I mean, we're going to talk about the one where he did spring something.

There were plenty of other ones where he just at least kept it for us, kept it alive. Maybe it would lead to something it didn't. But I didn't think there was anything. where I was like, oh, he had the one really rough giveaway, if you want to call it that. But that's the life of a striker getting the ball with his back to goal. So I would say, I thought Pepe was perfectly adequate in his time on the field. Okay. And I know that that probably counts as being high on him compared to some of the other reviews I've seen him get.

But I didn't think there was anything where I was like, oh, this is where we're hurting. This is where we needed somebody else on the field. Yeah. I just wish he'd be a little stronger, a little stronger in the holdup. Because it's true he didn't get a lot of opportunities to influence the game, and one of the key ones he executed to perfection. But anyway, Pulisic got horse-collared by Alvarez in the 20th minute. Should have probably passed away at three beats earlier,

but I'm not going to be too mad about it. And then Acosta tries a free kick from 35 yards. Not a bad hit, but it was right at Achoa. Yeah, it's like a vertical free kick, so it's hard to get a good service in for a half. header. It's worth a shot, worth a crack. Yeah. I don't think, I mean, did you notice that Poole, that way I was running in like a 20-yard circumference of space when Poulosick, right before Pulisik got that, got fouled?

I didn't catch it. So I'm going to have to re-watch the, the moment there. Well, let's not belabor it. It was a good foul. I knew right away it was a very good foul by Mexico to bring it down. Yeah. Like that's what you do to not let Poulsix see that pass that maybe you should have seen a beat earlier. The 23rd minute, we get that nice step and dribble and pass from Adams to Spring Wea, who's felled by Vasquez, and then we waste the set piece.

That's, that was a, I guess at this point to summarize, it's a pretty, it's just a pretty even game, you know. but it does feel like the U.S. is up for it and I was feeling pretty good. And I didn't think Mexico looked that sharp. No disagreements there. And to me, I take that as a positive. When you're playing in the Azteca in World Cup qualifying, like when you've prevented Mexico from looking sharp,

that's a 25-minute victory. Yeah. People were talking about there being like a wine and cheese crowd at the Azteca. and it didn't seem that loud in there, at least on the telecast. I can't speak for Paramount Plus's production value, but it didn't seem like, you know, like I said, I went back and watched some of the clips from the 2017 game, and, you know, that's a full stadium,

and it definitely felt different. Definitely felt different than that game last night. I don't know, man. I don't have the decibel levels either, but it wouldn't surprise me because, again, we didn't, they never built into that rhythm, right? They never built where the crowd could really start allaying. I think they did it once early on and Mexico promptly kicked the ball out of bounds.

Like there was, there was no real rhythm for either team. Everything was kind of disjointed and, you know, no one was really taking the risks that you would need to take to build those kinds of rhythms. Yeah. They did build a little rhythm in the 25th minute, broke our press comfortably working from our right to our left. And then Sanchez crossed it and got deflected to Stephieff. feet. That felt a little bit nervy. And then Yedlin gives the ball away and dives in and gets that

yellow card, which is very deserved for scissor tackling. That's in Alvarez. He therefore misses the Panama game, as we mentioned. And then we get the big chance for Mexico. Zimmerman gives it away in the 20, this is in the 28th minute, gives it away in our defensive third a little carelessly. tries to bring it in on his left foot from the right side line, and his clearance, I guess you'd call it, is deflected. And Alvarez slides to poke it to Charlie Rodriguez, and he plays in Tecotito right at the top of the box, a little to the right of the goal.

And his first touch is just way too big. And he does, no shot materializes. We did discuss this earlier, but that's when it happened. It was scary. Yeah, so Stefan puts Zimmerman in a bit of a spot here. with the initial pass. Like there's no pressure. We've got our base buildout.

And Stefan just hits the eight yard pass to Zimmerman, but puts it ahead of him. And so it rolls past the rim, he can't even get a touch to control it. And so he has to chase it out to the sideline. And the whole time he's chasing it, Mexico realized that this is a good time to make up ground. So they're going to attack him here.

And then it's on him, on Zimmerman to be like, okay, well, we mess this up somehow to get to this point. The absolute last thing I should do now is create like a worse situation. by doing what he ended up doing, which was kicking into the guy's shins and having it deflect to a Mexico player while he is on the sideline.

Like our counterpress or our rest defensive shape is based on not having these players wildly out of position while we're possessing. And so Zimmerman so far at a position that that's how we get to a wide open, wide open Tekitito receiving the ball and just absolutely bottling it. Thank goodness. Yeah. What an interesting player, Takedito is, best creator for them on the day and then he bottles this chance. Also should note there was an inquest between Adams, Stefan and Zimmerman. I'm not sure what was said, but things were said. Stefan was very upset. It's something that Zimmerman did, which I think, you know, we talked about how that pass from Stefan is what took Zimmerman to the sideline. And so somehow there was definitely some disagreement about what should have been happening there, I think. A poor Raul giveaway to pull the six feet.

I just noted it because there were several of these. I think I mentioned this earlier, but Mexico was more than a little sloppy in I think basically every part of the field. That's fair to me. Certainly what we are accustomed to seeing from Mexico, which we describe it as that incredible overall full field level of competence that they sort of always seem to possess. They were not that yesterday. No. No, and it was even good players who were not that, like Takedito with that poor touch,

Raoul with that, with this giveaway. Anyway, Pulisik springs Pepe by chesting down a long Yedlin throw in the 33rd minute and Pepe gets fouled by Montez on a sliding challenge, advantage not given by the referee. A decent set piece from Acosta ensues, but is knotted away by Montez, I think. And then here comes the big sort of moment of the first half for the U.S. in the 35th or 36th minute, I can't remember. Just that lovely move up the right flank off a throw-in from Yedlin. Like we said earlier, not a long throw-in, not a quick throw-in either. And it goes to Acosta.

Acosta plays it right back to Yedlin, who is already moving up field, and then he passes it sharply, like, square across the field to Pepe's feet outside of the box, and he just, this is where things start to get slick. Just a very nice first time pass to spring Wea right in stride. And then Wea takes a few touches and zips it across to Pulisic on the ground, running at the goal mouth to take it on his left foot. And he just scuffed it. He hit the top of the ball.

He drove it into the ground and it bounced up off of Memochoa as he's diving to his right. Looking to me like a goalkeeper who knew he was in a somewhat hopeless situation. He definitely was. And that's, I mean, that's a, that's a standard goalkeeper situation to be in where the cross is going, you know, you were at the near post for where the ball was. As it's getting fizzed across, you work your way back to the middle. You basically just lay out and you hope that the ball hits you. And that is, that is what happened. Right.

We, I guess I have two things to get into. One, when, when Wea plays the ball across here, it megs Vasquez, the centerback. And how does Waya always get those through? like that. Is it just luck or like what's going on? I don't think so. I honestly think there's some kind of a technical thing where Wayas delivery

like throws off defenders who are used to closing down crosses and blocking them because he gets them off really in situations where it doesn't seem when you should get one off. In the home game it gets Mexico. It's the same thing. Only you put it in the air. But like it happens quicker than the defenders expect

or like doesn't quite have the normal wind-up and execution. I feel like that most players hit their cost. Maybe he has a quick release. Like they talk about with quarterbacks, like Damarino, you know. It's his little hip swivel that he does. But then it's the hip swivel and then also the just the kicking motion must be just very fast. And then, you know, we had a pretty vigorous debate that I was a part of. Usually in the Discord I try to stay above the fray.

this time I was very much in the fray arguing that Pula's six miss was worse than Pfox miss and why don't we just talk about Pfox miss so that we can because I do want to get into this I know you don't but no let's have it Pfox miss was I'll just skip ahead to the second half we'll cover some other things that happened in the interim but it was another pretty lovely sequence Pula six driving up the left side he manages to get it inside to Acosta who takes a touches and then drops a dime on Raina at the backpost. He has enough time and the technical ability to do it. And then Raina cushions it beautifully across for Pfok and Pfok makes a meal out of it. I mean, he kicked it out for a throw in from, you know, five yards out.

I think the two chances were, I think the Pulisic chance was easier because it was on the ground to his feet in stride running at the gold mouth like all his momentum behind him um people I think I think maybe the Pfok chance the Pfok miss is worse in people's minds because the end result is so much uglier and I can't I can't disagree with that I mean Plyssick put it on frame Pfok put it out for a throw in but in terms of the difficulty of the chance I don't know what the XG models are probably different on what what the They're almost the other ones I've seen basically lists them as identical for likelihood of being concurrent.

Because YSkout does it, but, but you know, John Mueller would say the Y Scout data is historically unreliable. And in any event, like any model, like at that level, you, I think John said this too, you're probably better off eyeballing it, quite honestly. Like, just know that it's not a 90% chance. Like that's what that's what the XG is really helpful for. is when people think that is something that people put in nine times out of ten, that's probably not the case.

You don't think people put the Pulisic chance in. How many times out of ten? I mean, well, the XG model would say it's five out of ten, right? Yeah. I don't know. Maybe six, maybe six out of ten. I tend to agree with you. I think the Pulisic chance is one that is repeated more often.

It's more routine of a sequence. Yeah. That makes sense. whereas the PFOch chance requires a certain level of improvisation. You know, there's more like quick reaction time to decide how you're going to go about striking the ball. They still get finished a lot. It's just, again, if he had just put it over, if he had just like gotten under it and put it over slightly, the way Jesus Ferrer did against El Salvador, then I think that I honestly think like you're saying,

the narrative around the mess would be different. but because he literally hit the ball in a direction away from the goal, that totally is going to, you know, change in people's minds how bad of a miss it was because it was so, so poorly executed. And we've gotten in the discord, we got into the details of, like, how high was the ball when Pfeck tried to strike it and was it rising or was it falling? And I guess I have to admit it was sort of beginning to fall. But, yeah, I don't know.

when I find myself in soccer situations, which are obviously nothing like any of this, but a ball that's in the, a ball that's in the air or is bouncing, especially when you have to, like, when you have to direct it very precisely in a certain place, it's, it's much more difficult to, uh, to deal with, even if it's only knee height, you know. Now, that's not to say, like, Pfok shouldn't, Pfokpac probably should have been more prepared for that cushioned ball back across. He clearly was a little surprised by it. And I don't like that either. Like it's his job not to be surprised by that.

Like it's his job to expect the ball to come to him. And if it doesn't, no worries. That's great. Celebrate with Raina for Raina scoring the goal. But you're always expecting it. And I kind of find it hard to believe that Pfok wouldn't have been. This is a guy who makes his living six yards away from goal. All of his goals are within like six yards.

So, you know, I think that is like a skill of his is that sort of knows for the goal stuff means you have, you are in those spots because you're always expecting a good thing to happen. And then when it does, you're there. Right. He is, that is his game. But like if he was expecting it, he plants that left foot and then he just swivels and pounds it in with his right foot. But he kind of, yeah, he couldn't quite figure out what he wanted to do.

And then he did the, he did the wrong thing. So those are, those were the two big chances. You can turn the podcast off now. Can I just throw out? I mean, again, we're not going to relitigate finishing. overall. But I honestly was like, because I'm always watching a little bit late, you know, so I've not seen the discourse as it's happening, whether it's on Twitter or on the discord, wherever. But in my head, I was like, just like with Ferreira's hat trick for Dallas, I was like,

oh, good. This will like work against people who are always insistent that like we need finishers. We can't play Jesus for Eric because he's not a finisher. We need this guy who all he does is score goals. Scoring goals is all that matters. Jordan Pfeck scoring every, every weekend comes in, and he also misses chances. And the reason that happens is because everybody misses chances. And there is no such thing as like an automatic finisher. So in the U.S. discourse, when you're talking about who do you want to be there to finish that chance, there just is not a player.

And it's not because they're all bad finishers. It's because none of them are, whether it's pepsey, whether it's Pfok. We saw Zardaz do it for Columbus over the weekend. Like all of our players will miss chances because that's just the nature of shooting. Yes. But this is a, this is, this is sports entertainment. And like big chances in big games are fun to talk about. They're fun to, for me at least, they're fun to analyze.

And, um, and I look at, you know, the, you mentioned the Ferreira miss. I don't think that's close to as like, quote unquote, bad of a miss as either of these two. that ball was that ball was like belly button high and you know some people would say well he should have you should have come at it with his left foot I don't know man it's it's it's uh that's a that's a harder chance than both of these to me and I think if you know if we're going to take the john Mueller theorem and say at some point you just have to eyeball these chances I'm eyeballing them I'm saying Pulisix is the easiest Pfefox is the second easiest and Ferreira's is the is the least easy And I'm not, I don't, I'm not sure where the peppy chance goes in there because he just missed it completely.

Against Bosnia. We're talking about Bosnia. Yeah, right. So, so I think I'm totally on board with this. I'm totally on board looking at like each individual aspect in the techniques chosen and all of this stuff. I think you should totally do that. I think the issue becomes trying to make any kind of conclusion about their ability to finish based on that. So because. A predictive conclusion. Yeah, like we can talk about these and we can enjoy how consequential or. you know, the miss is, not in joy, but we can, you know, think about what it meant to miss this as far as the outcome of the game goes. But it doesn't do anything to sort of govern future call-ups. So now Pfeck missed his sitter. People are like, that's it. We shouldn't call him up anymore. If we were right to call him up in the first place, we should still call him up. That miss shouldn't somehow rule him out of future call-ups. There are other things in the game that might have convinced people that he isn't a good fit for the team, but him missing that chance. the only reason, you know, that would, that should change your mind about him is if you thought that he was some kind of like automatic finisher. And that's why you thought he belonged because of all the goals he scores in Switzerland. And now you have to like adjust for that and say, well, I guess he's not. And but we already knew that. He had a chance against El Salvador in the opening game of the qualifying. Like we got a good header for him. And he didn't finish that either. Like that's just there isn't a player. And I'm not saying this to say he's a bottler. That's just what the, that's just what the game is. If Jesus Ferrer starts, if Jesus Ferrer starts.

against Panama, he will probably miss some chances. Hate to see it, but yeah, I mean, that's true. We talked about this already, but way I got the yellow card in the 38th minute, felt to me a little bit unlucky, just like the U.S. on the night, missing these chances unlucky. I mean, look, we're going to, let's say we're going to convert them six out of ten times. That's still more often than not. It's still a little bit unlucky to not convert if it's a 40% chance of not converting.

So I'm okay with saying a little bit of. I think we were, I'm okay saying we were unlucky to finish that game zero zero. Just like we were unlucky to finish the El Salvador away game 0,0, and the El Salvador home game 1-0. Yeah. And we were lucky to have a goal called back against Jamaica and save us a point. So, look, comes around and goes around. By the way, to your point about Conca Calfe, I thought the referee, you know, the referee was a little loose with the yellow cards, I thought. early on, but, you know, there's these two penalty shouts late in the game that could have,

particularly the Zimmerman one, could have gone against us and we didn't get coca-calfed. Praise B, yeah, because that Zimmerman one with the, I actually, can we jump ahead to that one? Yes, yeah. So that was a huge deal because I thought it was one of those where, in the VAR era, I thought it was going to be one where it comes back to bite us, because Zimmerman clearly did catch the guy, his foot. But because he stayed on his feet and like dove super awkwardly after the fact, like he, the foot contact didn't bring him down. He took his, he got that same foot back on the ground like he was running and then was like late and deciding like, oh, I could get something out of this,

then went down. That's why the referee doesn't call it in real time, because it looks like such a dive. I was worried VAR was going to be like, yeah, that part was a dive, but he really did get clipped. So we got to give the foul. I was terrified. I was a little scared too. I And if it had been whistled a foul on the field, it seems very unlikely VAR would have overturned it. It just seems like the VAR evidence wasn't quite enough to overturn the call on the field as it stood. The sequence itself came from, I'm going to call Stefan out again a little bit because this was his pass to Musa. Stefan gets the ball at his feet under no pressure. And Musa is like checking back.

So he's kind of coming back at a run. And Stefan, like, pings the ball at him while he's on the run coming backwards. And then, like, Musa intercepts it, you know, like he has to get to the past, he has to run onto it. And he's put under immediate pressure because that's an obvious cue to any opponent that he's going to have a hard time dealing with this situation. So Mexico jumps on him. We lose the ball there.

And they end up with Zimmerman faced up in the box. Yeah, I mean, Musa was put under some duress by Stefan, but he also, I mean, the past, the back pass was, very poor. You know, like he scuffed it the way, almost the way Pulisik scuffed his chance. Good time probably to also say that Musa was dying out there. Oh, he looked so tired.

Yeah. He really did. He would have these swings where he would, I mean, he was walking like around the field. And then like when it was right on top of him, when the play was right on top of him, he'd jump back into full, full speed and like be just as strong as he sort of always was. But there were so many times where it was like,

We are not getting up and back anymore. And I think that's why you saw us start to fade in our ability to create anything in attack as a team as a unit. Yeah. It started to, I mean, we weren't creating a lot of chances before the subs came on, before Raina came on for Wea. And I think, you know, I criticized a little bit the decision to take Wea off based on the sort of yellow card, the coming yellow card suspension. But a bunch of people very rightly pointed out, he looked gasped. Do we need to talk about anything else from the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half? There's a lot of little stuff, but it looked like Mexico's,

it looked like the crowd in the Azteca only started to really arrive towards the end of the first half. It seemed like the second half the stadium was fuller and louder than it was in the first half. I think the atmosphere was better in the second half. there were there were some half chances on both sides from you know through the through the first part of the second half we just talked about the penalty shout we've already talked about the Zimmerman one we've already talked about the the Pfock chance um I guess we didn't really mention how incredulous rena looked on the replay oh we also didn't give reina I don't think full credit for the for the past the setup yeah just fantastic gorgeous yeah excellent go totally going back

He's back. Yeah, he's totally back. It totally goes against the narrative that he's a, you know, selfish glory hound. Promoted by some. I don't know. I don't know who. And then in the 77th minute, 78th minute maybe, we get the Gio Raina dribble. Let me play a little clip from February.

This is none other than Greg Velasquez talking about Giovanni Raina. So I absolutely think it's worth trying testing out who. to the right way on the left. And then the last thing I'll add, I know I've kind of covered Doyles and my take on that flip. I think Gio Raina is a totally different player, though. Even though he likes to come in and play on the ball, he can do that in the midfield. Whereas Poulisit can't.

Poulsoc comes in the midfield, tries all his fancy stuff and just gets wrecked over and over. Sometimes it's a foul. Sometimes it's not. When you dribble into three bodies, a lot of times they can muscle you out without fouling you. Giorina is not that. Giorina will go into that, you know, forest of body. and he will come out the other way with maybe the defenders on the ground.

The defenders on the ground. What an apt description of what happened there. I think he put four guys on the ground. Acey, I think one guy twice. It's a different, I mean, it's a totally different element, right?

Totally different skill set than what Christian Pulisic is doing when he's on the wing, when he's coming inside. I mean, it's different than any winger we have. No one we have is doing that anywhere. So it's going to be, It's going to be interesting to see this. I'm super excited.

I'm hoping he starts against Panama on Sunday. And that is a crazy ability to disorganize opponents with no buildup needed. I wonder how often that's going to result in, like, incisive pass at the end of it. And, you know, that's the criticism that people are leveling on Twitter that it came to nothing. And I just enjoyed it. I just thought it was super fun. Aesthetically, it's amazing. there are plenty of caveats like one

all of the players on the field who had been running for 70 minutes by then are dead tired two he was totally by himself right I mean Pfeck was kind of up there the rest of the US is standing at the top of their own box just walking up the field because we're all dead tired

and so it created this like kung fu movie like context where one guy at a time runs in because they don't have any other responsibilities like they don't have to they don't have to defend anything else because there are no other U.S. players on the screen. Right. So it's just like, okay, I'm going to go. All right.

Well, I'm going to kind of half asco because I'm exhausted. And even if he gets by me, there's seven other Mexican dudes back there. And one of them will take the ball from him. He can't get by all of us to get to the big boss. So Pfog didn't even look super interested in combining with him. I mean, it was, it was weird. Yeah. So it was a, it was a wide.

situation to have occurred in a World Cup qualifier against our biggest rival in the Azteca. But I don't know. I don't know what it's going to mean for other games that are in more like actual game settings than that felt like. Is that why? So you would have liked to start way against Panama. I assume Pulisic against Panama and then Raina in the middle. Is that what you were thinking?

That's what I'm hoping for. Because our eights are. Yeah. Yeah, our eights are not my favorite crop of players. I was good running Musa in this game if we could run like Luca Dela Tore and Gio Rana as eights in Panama. And since Raina started in his Bundesliga match and went 90, it's like, okay, we can for sure start him and get 60 out of him in Orlando. I still think we will do that, but I don't know where he will start now, whether it'll be the wing or in central midfield. Okay.

And it might be dictated by who has anything in the tank. Yeah. Because let's say, I mean, Way is out. Let's say Pulisic just doesn't have anything left. Then you can put Areola in there? But then who are you going to go Areola and Morris? Are you going to go? Or do you go Morris and Raina?

There's a lot of options. Yeah, I was thinking either, I was thinking Pulisic would start no matter what. Maybe come off at the half. after we're up 3-0. And these are the question marks that go into it because of this decision to play these guys. And again, it doesn't necessarily mean that we got it wrong. It's just like we got to give it incomplete

until we actually see how they perform in Orlando. And then it'll just be like a hindsight call. Like clearly they could not run two games in a row. Or yes, they're golden, mind over matter, et cetera. One last thing on the geo-dribble. I do think it's going to be the most memorable thing about that game for, for both fans of both teams.

You could tell the crowd in Mexico was actually really enjoying it by the time he had gotten past Ace Ache the second time. So yeah, that 12 seconds will probably do more to change the way the world views American soccer than anything else we've done. Damn right. All right, 78th minute, big chance for Mexico, probably their best clear-cut shooting chance of the game. Some pretty basic passing after a high Adams giveaway

leads to Chuckie getting the ball to our left of our goal and firing one on frame that Stefan tipped over the bar. It's still a pretty tight angle and you back Stefan to stop it, but a little scary in the moment. A little scary. He did well to get his hands up that quick because if he doesn't, that could be enough off the underside of the crossbar. So then Long comes on for Adams.

So I forgot to mention that Raina had come on for Wea and Pufoc for Pepe. you all know that. Long came on for Adams and EPB for Yedlin. That's Eric Palmer Brown in the 80th minute, right around the 80th minute. And we went to a back three with EPB as a wingback. So it was Miles Long in Zimmerman, across the back line,

and then EPB as a wing back. He did okay. I think we mentioned that already. Yeah, so our 325 that you might kind of expect was very much more like a 541, 521, 52, 2,1. with Musa and Acosta as a lone two midfielders. That big chance and the dribble sort of obscured the fact that we were gradually, you know,

curling into our shell at this point in the game. And Mexico got two good chances right after those subs came on, a pullback that trickled across the gold mouth and was cleared by long, and then a Lozano blast from 20 yards that went pretty well wide. Morris came on for Pulisic. in the 84th minute and then we're just

and then we're just hanging on for dear life from then on to get the draw. So I'll just quibble a bit and say, I don't know that we were hanging on for dear life. We were just sitting back and absorbing. There was no intention of going forward but it didn't feel like Mexico, it honestly didn't feel like Mexico had a goal coming.

It felt like we were going to just park and sit and be fine and see the clock out. I really just never, it never really felt like. like, oh, Mexico's going to get one more great look. So, I mean, for what that's worth, I think, I think at that point, it's the right play. We don't have, we didn't, I don't necessarily think we had the players left to sub in for our midfielders to go after it. So I'm like, okay, bring on, bring on the fifth and sixth defenders and just, just, again, run this out.

Yeah. Hanging on for dear life is not exactly right, because it, but, but it did feel like, you know, if the game went on another half hour, Mexico probably would scored to me. They were, they were, they were, they were barren down a little bit. That's fair. That's fair. But it was, again, just because we weren't interested in scoring at all. So if anyone was going to score, it's going to be Mexico.

And on the Pfok, the matter of whether Pfok deserves to start again and play again, he didn't play well outside of the mischance, I didn't think. And I, I want to hear what you have to say about what he did in the press, or maybe we weren't even trying to press by the time he came on. I would say he was basically put in kind of, of a hopeless situation. And he didn't do anything to rise above that. He wasn't, like, I feel like best case, what he could have done was challenge a little

bit more intently for some things and maybe, like, draw a couple of fouls. But it wasn't going to be a situation where he was going to hold the ball up while the rest of the team arrived. Like, there was just none of that happening anymore. It was very much just, like, lump it forward, PFAC, do what you can. you're going to basically be a nuisance up there, but I don't think he was that much of a nuisance. No.

You know, like I think he was essentially invisible. And I mean, I think that was his cameo. I don't feel strongly one way or the other about him getting more minutes or not getting more minutes. If he comes on in the last 20 minutes of a game, if we need a goal,

I think that would be just fine. But I mean, I'm a Ferreira guy, so I'm hoping it's Ferreira Sunday. Yeah, I don't. I want PFOC to succeed, and I do think he, you know, he gets some more chances. He will score some goals. That's just math, folks.

That's just frigging math. And, well, if anyone wants to solve it, you got to make a comp of every shot he's taken for his club team so far. That's what you got to do, because I don't think he's getting like five chances a game and missing and bottling four of them and scoring the one. Like, I'm guessing he's converting it about the rate you'd expect. Isn't that about, yeah, I don't know what the rate, what's the rate you would expect. But I did make a, I did make a comp of all his shots in one game where he did score to sort of just pump the brakes a little bit on him. And on my own podcast was called a hater by Vince Irvin. But no, I'm just kidding.

I don't feel grieved about that at all. Let's do some closing thoughts and then get out of here and maybe talk a little bit about the Panama game. Why don't you start since you're the smart one? My closing thought is that that was an enjoyable game. I enjoyed watching the U.S. do what they did to Mexico there. There were times where, you know, from a pure excitement level, I get that it's kind of boring and ugly. But for me, from like the competitive side of like,

I enjoy watching the U.S. make life difficult for a good opponent. And I think we did a lot of that. So I was good with that. There is that looming specter of the Panama game, though, that was hanging over all of it, right? Like I'm literally watching Jedi make whatever run he's making forward going, man, that's really going to take a toll on his blood oxygen level. Like I wanted to see like Pulse Ox readings throughout the game.

Because I'm just like, man, that's one less run. That might be two fewer runs in Orlando. So that, I couldn't get to shake that from my mind. You know, with some of the guys that we know we need to be key contributors on Sunday. The Antony part, the Anthony thing is the most. I mean, because I can live with Jack Moore over over DeAndre Edlin.

I think it should be fine. But I'm worried about if George Bello gets a start in this game. And I'm... They should all be fine. Like, we will not beat, no matter what lineup we put out there, there's no, like,

even overly cute lineup that's going to turn us into underdogs at home against Panama. It's just going to be like, will a guy miss a run? Yeah. You know, when you're that, if you're fatigued, do you not track back one time? Like, it probably won't come to my guy.

I'm just going to take one playoff. And then that's the one. You know, like, that's the worry. I thought it was an encouraging night of soccer from the U.S. And I think we talked about this at the top. But if you had said 12 months ago, we would go to the Azteca and leave two big chances on the table and come away with a zero zero draw, I think most people would have been like, yeah, I'll take that. And I think part of it has to do with Mexico being just a.

really in some doldrums as a national team. But part of it's about us getting better. And I was, you know, I sort of follow your lead on the rotation stuff. So I was sort of team rotation quietly to myself. I didn't want to get into that on Twitter. But once they went out there, I'm rooting for them. And I'm excited about the game. And I thought it was a fun game to watch and a good performance.

Against Panama, give me your starting lineup real quick. Okay, so just, I don't care, Stefan or Horvath, either one, throw him in there. Give me any two centerbacks, same thing, I don't really care. I've been fine with Aaron Long's inclusion. I want Jedi to go again, and I just want him to be made of steel, just he's made a metal. And then on the right, it's going to be Shaq Moore. Midfield is where it gets a little crazy, right? Yeah.

All right. So I think it's, I think it's going to be Adams, Luca, and Giorina. Do you think Moosa's just going to be too gassed? That's my guess. To start him, like, that's asking 60 minutes of him. He was gassed at 60 in the game yesterday. So I just don't know how you would trust him. Not because he's, you know, he's weak mentally or anything, just like, I don't know how you can trust his ability to perform for 60 minutes. So I think you have him on hand if you need him for some reason, but I also don't think you will. I think Luca and Gio are perfect setup for this opponent at home

in a game that I think we're going to totally dominate the midfield to create chances for us. And I know I prefer Raina closer to goal as well, but there are ways you could keep, you could shade him upfield as you're building, assuming Panama can't put us under as much pressure as a Mexico could. so that's just that's kind of what I'm going for okay Pulisic and ariola uh on the wings and Jesus Ferre up Frera and Ariola have been cooking uh they've they've been cooking in the past uh so let's let's see what they got

I think if Musa can go even a half I would start him I mean I don't I'm no physiologist I don't know how he's done that so we can see that he did it with the Aronson, Ariola, and he did it with Musa and Tyler Adams in the Panama Way game. Okay. I do, I hope for that. And then, and then Luca, and you got, of course, you got to start Adams in a game that would qualify us for the World Cup, and he did get a little, a bit of a break.

If Areola gets on the field, so then that would be in Adams, Musa. My backland be the same as yours. Whoever. Well, Robinson, Moore, and that. And then I think I, I don't know, I don't know who I want. Walker Zimmerman should be on that. Yeah, Zimmerman should be in the starting line. And then Adams, Musa and Luca Deloere, and then Raina starts, and then Pulisic, if he can go, he's going.

He's going to play. He's going to start this game. No doubt about it. But, you know, if Musa can't go and it's rain in the midfield and then Areola at right wing, I'm going to be fine with that. Ariel is playing pretty well right now, and he's going to bring a lot of energy to the game. And of course, yeah, I agree with Ferreira up top. I think he could have a big day. There's basically nobody who I'd be upset about seeing in the lineup.

It would just be like a concern that they have anything left from Mexico City. So it's just if any of those guys are repeat starters, I'll be like, I hope they have it in them. But there's no one who I'm like, oh, we need to not play this player. we need to play this player here. So I'm pretty optimistic that we're walking out of Orlando with a win. Yep, me too. Okay, let me just say one more time. Pick up the Greg Velazquez Memorial Five Aside Tournament of Roses,

which will not enjoy Greg Velasquez's presence, will be at the John H. Jackson Community Center. You can Google that. It's a few minutes drive south of the stadium. It's an Orlando City Futsall court So bring your flats And everybody's welcome

We're going to play from 10 a.m. Until, I mean, we have the place From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., but I'm probably going to leave a little bit afternoon To go set up for the tailgate. And then at the tailgate will be Just a block south of Broken Strings Brewery. Again, everyone is welcome.

There will be a scuffed flag Sitting on a homemade flag stand on the top of my car. So look for that and come join us. Vince will be there. I will be there. Lots of people will be there. I'm going to miss it. I'm really excited, though, for this whole event, whole weekend. Thanks, Greg. And good luck to you taking care of your friends. Thanks, man. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.