Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #265: USA v Panama recap (WCQ13)

Episode Date: March 29, 2022

A dreamy spring evening in Florida. Godoy gets handsy. Pulisic sinks the dagger. We have mostly qualified for the World Cup. Recap from Orlando, XIs v Costa Rica discussed at the end.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 Belles in Georgia. With me is Greg Velasquez in Iowa. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. All right, let's celebrate. We needed a win and we pasted Panama. And now, unless we lose by six goals to Costa Rica, we will have qualified for the 2022 World Cup. What a wonderful day in American soccer it was yesterday. Greg, how you doing? Bells, I'm all right. Yes, we are one formality of a soccer match away from a nine-month party. It almost hasn't totally sunk in, you know, how badly I wanted this and now it's here. It's been a journey. Yeah, sure has. I think you used the words dreamlike earlier when we were talking on the phone to describe the game itself. And we can get into that.

We will get into that. But I will say it was just a perfect night in Orlando, warm, breezy, cool in the evening. and I before we go any further I do want to thank everyone who came out to play pickup soccer and tailgate we had a marvelous time and three people in particular i want to thank Nate from Oregon he just did a lot of little things that helped that whole thing come off smoothly and um Nick from DC for bringing 80 hot dogs even though he said he felt like he felt like an insane person checking out at the grocery store and then um and then Dave the firefighter from Dallas who who I'm who I met and then immediately asked to cook the hot dogs and then he cooked all the hot dogs for everybody so there are many many more people to think but that would get kind of boring but i wanted to mention those three guys and uh it was a great day it was a great day in uh Orlando for sure yeah well well done bells well done everybody who who had a part to play in that uh it meant a lot to me just to see that soccer game happening that morning at the futsaw court i was really just it just brought a lot of

joy, tons of expected joy, tons of actual joy, to see that game actually happening. And I want to make it a real, like a tradition for all, all U.S. men's national team windows. We should do that, honestly. And I should also mention, you know, Charlie Bone was there, Paul Tenorio and Sam Stay School, Taylor Rockwell, and what a handsome man, Taylor Rockwell is. So handsome. And we did, we did miss you, Greg. So we should, we got to do that for some summer friendlies.

Give me the G plus on all those media guys. Who racked up the highest G plus? Boy, I don't know. I mean, Staiskel scored a goal. Charlie was sneaky good. He had this one chance on goal where he did the little faint to make the keeper sit down and then took his shot. He didn't finish it.

But that was like a, that's kind of like a high level. moment of attacking calm and quality. And he was also a really high energy in the press. Look, all that other white noise, just, I'm drowning it out. Sam scored the goal. He wins. That's how it works, right? No, I mean, I was trying to come up with a more sophisticated metric.

No, goals drive the narrative. We're going to get into that in the next 30 minutes. Yeah, let's do it. And I also just should say, got to meet Jay Hernandez and tactical manager. That was really fun for me. And the tactical manager was making like a vlog of the day. And he was really, he really wants to meet Bob Morocco. He was convinced that Bob Morocco was somewhere at the tailgate.

And I had to tell him, no, he's not here. So to the game, to the soccer game. Should we start with the lineups? Yes, we're talking about the United States soccer game now, right? Yeah, yeah, the important one. Yeah. The more important one. So for the U.S., the lineup was Stefan and Goal, Shack Moore, Miles Robinson, and Walker Zimmerman, and Jedi Robinson across the back line.

Tyler Adams, Eunice Musa, and Luca Deloere in the midfield, Ariola, Ferreira, and Pulisic up top. So not a ton of rotation here. Shackmore obviously in for the suspended Yedlin. He'd just flown in from Tenerife, like a couple of days. days before. A very quick turnaround for him to just jump into a most important match of the cycle. Miles Zim, Jedi, and Stefan all repeat starters from the Azteca. Adams and Musa and midfield repeat starters. De La Torre in

for for Kelan Acosta, who's rotated out, and then Ariola in for suspended Tim Wea. And it was Ferreira for Pepe as a coach's choice. And then Pulisic repeat starter from Azteca. I guess the only thing that I maybe didn't like about it was Raina not starting but if it wasn't going to be Raina I think Ariel is the right choice and maybe was there something about Raina having a stomach illness or several players having a stomach illness I don't know whatever it was that was mentioned but also just the fact that you know just because reina played 90

minutes for for Dortmund before the break doesn't mean that he's just magically like always 90 minutes fit. So he played 90 minutes there, but then he had to fly across the ocean to Houston, then he had to fly to Mexico City, and then play a game and then fly to Orlando. So it's not like he just can always be counted on to do it because he did it once. There could be plenty of good reasons to bring him back in on a limited basis. Yeah. And, you know, the way I see it is if, if he can start on Wednesday against Costa Rica, and maybe he can't, but if he can't, then it's, You know, this is all coming up roses, all the decisions, really. I'll give the Panama lineup.

I guess I was also a little surprised Pulisic just came right back into the starting lineup. And then he went, you know, most of the game. Did he go 80 minutes, 75? Yeah, I think he was a 70-minute sub. I'm in a parking lot. Can we also, I was going to say, can we just establish where you are in America right now? I'm in a parking lot south, off the interstate south of Atlanta. and a big food truck just pulled up.

And it looks like it's going to be here for a while. So maybe we should, maybe I should move, change locations. No, I want to conduct the podcast. I would like you to place an order while we are recording. It's not that kind of food truck.

It's like a truck full of food that's dropping it off at Chick-fil-A. It's a completely different kind of truck. All right. Give us the Panama lineup. Okay. Mejia Engel. Michael Murillo, Escobar, Andres Andrade, and Eric Davis across the back line, Godoy and Karaskiya in midfield, and then Barcenas, Quintero, and Gondola,

across the sort of band of three, and then Rolando Blackburn up top. And, man, Eric Davis plays a nice left-footed ball, doesn't he? Every single one of his balls across is just has a lovely shape to it. We also punished Eric Davis for vacating the left back spot a couple of times. Not letting you just give him a bunch of credit. Well, fair, fair. We did some punishing. I listened to a bunch of podcasts on my drive today.

And I feel like one thing I want to say is I don't think, I think perhaps the quality of the performance was less good than people are saying it was. I didn't know if you were going to have that, have that takeaway as well, but I also thought that. But, I mean, it's just one of those things where the stakes were extremely high. And the fact that we just blew the doors off on the scoreboard, I mean, that's going to overshadow everything else. And that already happens. Like, in any game where you score goals like this, everyone's performance gets inflated. And I think the reason is because, like, just psychologically, like emotionally, it's impossible, I think, to treat like individual actions the same way if the game state's so different.

Does that make sense? Yeah. So when it's zero, when it's zero, if Shaq Moore makes a mistake at zero zero in a game like this, that registers emotionally for people watching it like that. Right. It like stings to see it happen. When he makes a mistake at four zero when we're 30 minutes into the first half, it disappears instantly. Like you don't even, you don't even think about it until until you're. rewatching just on like a player by player basis.

And we definitely had some nice, some nice passages of play for sure. But through 20 minutes, we're up one zero on just because Annabal Aga doi is getting awful handsy. You know, I mean, what was he doing? Like,

why is he doing that? It was a gift and I'll gladly take it. But I will, again, just kind of go going back to the overall sort of a color of the narrative so far. I also think it makes sense just in that for this game in particular, like the outcome here was so important to the big picture of the campaign. Like it also makes sense to sort of have that be the main focus and the fact that this was the outcome and it was so convincing and so early. It was decided so early. I think it just makes sense to consider it just a like a fantastic performance in that sense.

Yes. And it was a lot. like throw a wet, throw a wet blanket on there on anything. Like it was incredibly meaningful to have even like the good performance that we had. And then to have the score like be so dominantly one-sided, even with given that performance. Like that is, that's always going to be the story. Yeah. And it kind of should be.

Yeah. Well, I mean, a couple of podcasts, Allocation Disorder was talking about was this the best performance of the Burrhalter era. And Paul and Sam both seemed to think absolutely it was. And I was just sitting there thinking, ah, I think the. But I don't think so. I think I'm going to agree with something Paul Tenorio said in the podcast too. But on this, I don't agree. I think the win over Mexico was a better performance than this one.

I'm trying to think. I mean, it's hard to put the Honduras game into any sort of category. It's such a unicorn. The Honduras away match? The Honduras home match. Oh, okay. Yeah. So performance-wise, but I think that it's good.

It felt to me just like of a kind. with our most recent home performances. I thought it felt like Honduras. I thought it felt like El Salvador. And I think it's kind of the perfect study in reactions because the El Salvador game was so nervy because it sat at zero zero for so long, even though we were just getting big chance after big chance after big chance.

And this game was the exact opposite. We scored on like our first, I mean, we got the gift from Panama on the penalty, and then we score this nothing half chance from Paul Ariola on our first real look at the goal. And then that's it. done and dusted. You know from right then, nothing else is going to affect it. We're getting the result we needed. Did you watch, I'm sure you did, but the Carl Carpenter video on, the

Carlin Carpenter video on how we were pressing? Yeah, with our, with our, uh, the work our front three we're doing. Yes. So the idea is basically our, we would, our, our nine would drop behind the two wings and then in general, we would try to trap the, you know, trap Panama in their buildup with the wings further ahead than the striker. And I guess I wonder, is that something that was in, that you think, is it your sense that that's new from this game or that's just kind of how we've been doing it? I think that's basically been the Burrhalter approach since January 2020 from Ferreira's first cap, actually, has been similar to that, where it is that pincher movement from

the wings to get ahead of him. And I remember somebody, I think it might have been the Canadian Doyle. basically was calling it a diamond press. And I was like, oh, yeah, of course it's a diamond. It's our nine drops almost to the point of a diamond in front of the midfield three. And then you have two ahead of him. So it looks like a four, four, two diamond when we're pressing. And I think that, you know, either one of those makes sense.

I always think of it still as a front three. I know when Joe Lowry breaks it down going all the way back to that 2020 January friendly, he was calling it like a front three in a middle three. Carpenter was using front three language too. that has basically been how we do it. Burhalter had mentioned when Pepe was going a little bit AWOL and his pressing that we don't press with the striker. And he didn't mean the striker doesn't have any job or does any work. He just meant the striker doesn't go.

Right. And the ball's up field. The striker doesn't go press it. The striker sits back and denies passes into the midfield. Okay. Any other? But it's still a great explainer from Carlin and a great visualization of how that works. and it shows how coordinated it has to be.

You see that instant recognition and coordinated movement from Ferreira to drop into the space vacated or shade to the space vacated by the pressing winger. And it goes into why it isn't going to be easy to just like if you're a new striker who wants a shot, certainly not to just jump in in a short World Cup qualifying camp and be able to do that. Yeah, I guess that's that was the discussion. That's something you said on the Discord earlier. or somebody said that and I think that's pretty interesting like

maybe that helps explain why PFF doesn't look so good in the press or there might be there's probably other explanations for that too but you do wonder if like how how central is that to the job and can somebody who doesn't already know how to do that job learn it before the World Cup

yeah and I think they still could I just don't think it could have happened like in a camp like this. And so Pfok, I think it'd be like one of the, I don't think he's necessarily looked bad in the press because when he has been in the games, we've never really been pressing. He played against Canada. That was his only start in the World Cup qualifying campaign. And we couldn't press Canada because they didn't want the ball.

Right. And then his other appearance against Mexico was when we were basically done running as a team, so we weren't doing any pressing anyway. It was all just like thankless work that we were just lumping it up and he was kind of chasing. But it might have been the reason why we were, We didn't start Pfok. That might have been the reason Pfok wasn't in the January camp because he didn't have as much value to go into those games since we weren't going to be, we couldn't use him or rely on him as a pressing player. Or at least why he wouldn't be a good candidate to start a match.

Okay. All right. Any other big picture thoughts before we get into the timeline? Let's do the timeline. Okay. I thought first 10 minutes or so, Panama were the better team? They were on the front foot. They definitely did not come to Orlando and sit back and hope for a draw or something.

They came to play. Karaskiya had that volley from outside of the box in the eighth minute. It looked definitely closer in real time than it did on the replay, but it was kind of scary. And I don't know. That's all I've got for the first few minutes of the game. it was one of those scary ones because again, even though I was confident we are a much better team than Panama, like if we're going to lose to Panama, it's going to be on one of those like worldies, right? It's going to be on that kind of a strike where a guy just hits the shot of his life. And all you can do is go, oh my God, not again.

So I was nervous. As he was winding up, I was like, oh, my God, this is going to be the shot that does it. He hit it sweetly. He did go about five yards over the bar. Well, let's see. two yards over the bar. But I do think that, I do think that Panama edge was real.

I feel like we were a little bit tight going in, like whether it was the pressure of the moment, combined with a little bit of leginess from the Azteca, Anthony Robinson had a couple of really tough giveaway, sort of inexplicable, like no, unforced it felt like giveaways. And to me, that reads as just like your legs aren't quite behaving the way you're used to them

behaving because maybe they're still coming down from 7,500 feet. Yeah. Yeah. No, he had three pretty bad giveaways in the opening stages of the game. Around 850, we get a good entry pass from Zimmerman to Ferreira, and he lays it off for more. It goes down in a challenge, but no foul is called.

Just a slick little, a good entry pass, and then a slick little layoff from Ferreira. And that begins of what I thought was a good little passage of play from the U.S. Moments later, Miles Robinson wins it back just inside our half, just big brothering a guy. And then Aureola taps it wide to Shaq, Shaq back to Ariola. And then this is, this is, I noticed this on the replay. In this moment, the crowd starts to really sort of rise up. As Shaq passes it to Ariola sort of in front of the goal outside of the box, and then Ariola plays it over to Pulisic.

There's like a rising crescendo of noise in the stadium. And, you know, because it's Pulisic 1v 1 with the guy. He's got this nice little, everybody knows what AVPs are now. So the crowd is going crazy because they're like, Pulis, it's got an AVP. AVP, I'm sure there was a giant shout from the crowd. They chant that now. And his shot is blocked. But what happens next is it was discussed well, I think, by Paul Tenorio in their podcast.

But Tyler Adams comes flying in to try to recover the ball. and then he and he and he and pulisic combines to win it back Pulisic wins it back and the crowd just exploded like everybody was super happy and the they love the effort and the you know the fight there and you know it did feel like a little moment in the game where that edge that Panama had was taken away the US players decided at that point oh we can get this crowd going

if we just like, you know, try hard and do, not that they weren't trying hard before that. But you know what I mean? We'll let loose a little bit, right? Yeah, the crowds love AVPs and they love recoveries and they love players going to ground. No, it was for as leggy as Jedi Robinson looked in the first 10 minutes. Like that there from Tyler Adams was like a statement of intent on the leginess of his own legs. It's like he was totally, he looked unaffected by the fact that he just went 60 minutes in Mexico City. Yeah.

What a champ he is. So then the next few minutes are just a bunch of set pieces. There's a Pulisic free kick that nicks the wall and goes over after ariola gets chopped down by Kataskiya. And then in the 13th minute on the ensuing corner, Miles gets a little contact on it flying at the near post, but not enough. and then Brera blasted off a guy's shins into the side netting. And then, I mean, Ferreira's just trying to zing it across the mixer. And then on the next corner, Zimmerman is fouled by Anna Bogadoy and play continues. And sitting in the stadium, I thought Eric Davis could have been whistled for a handball on that Shackmore cross shortly after that.

But that apparently had nothing to do with what the ref was looking at. Because in the next stoppage, VAR intervened and the ref awarded a penalty. Everybody went nuts. And then Pulisic puts it in the, you know, hits it hard and high just left of the keeper. And the keeper goes the wrong way. We're up one zero. Massive relief. Like that was, that was, that felt like more like relief than anything for me.

It's totally the same here. And again, it just felt like a gift. Like, what a, like, it wasn't a situation where that needed to have happened if you're Panama. I don't, I don't buy anyone saying that it's a soft call. Like, if you put your hands on somebody's face, you're risking that. Like, I mean, that's, that's by far the most notorious slap of somebody's face that happened that night. And it was just totally, like, just so without need. So I'm glad that Zimmerman sold it.

I'm glad that Pulisic did his business. I'm glad that Ferreira was savvy enough. I'm sure that was pre-planned, premeditated to have him take the ball and stand at the spot and absorb all the gamesmanship. And there you have it. JJ Devaney on the caught off side podcast called it the penalty butler. He played the role of the penalty butler because he, yeah, as a decoy and then, and then Hans, ball over to Pulisic right before the shot. And he did that both times, right?

Were you assuming that's what was happening? Did you know? No, I was like, M, Ferreira's going to take the penalty. I didn't even bother me. I was like, I'm sure he's going to make his penalty here. I was the same because for me, like the best player, the leader of a team in no way needs to be your best penalty kick taker.

Like if somebody's just an excellent penalty hitter, let them take it. I don't care where they are on the overall depth. chart. But it had it had to have been pre-planned that because I mean the way Ferreira handed the ball off to him it was like it was totally choreographed, you know. Oh yeah, for sure. 100% once we once like the exchange happened. That's that's that's now a trend, right? We've seen it in a bunch of different places. Really? I don't know. I didn't know. Yeah, there was a there's a big like Chelsea did it in the club world cup. It was a big deal. Somebody did like a 12 part tweet

threat about it and I think it had been done maybe in South America like the half season before. I don't know, but I know Chelsea did it pretty famously now. It's not a U.S. invention. Oh, dang it. It's still well executed.

In the 20th minute, we got a poor giveaway from Antony and this leads to a pretty good Panama chance. So it's just a bad back pass and barciness or a bad square pass in our own third. and then Barsanus crosses it to Blackburn. I think maybe Stefan got a fingertip to it.

Did you? Could you tell? He did. Oh, he absolutely did. Yeah. I can always jump in here since I had access to instant replay. I didn't realize that on first watch. So as soon as it happened, I was like I'd already fired off my like,

Stefan went walkabout again post. And then on the replay, it was like, no, he actually got a hand to it just ahead of. Panama's head. So if he doesn't do that, it's probably a goal. So big play by him. And then I don't know if he was just like caught up with Zimmerman on the ground and that's why he was so slow getting back into position or if he managed to tweak something while he was doing that. But he was incredibly slow to get back in any kind of like a defensive posture after that. Well, it gets some, I mean, Zimmerman tries to clear it from a seated position and gets a little bit of a foot on it. But it goes straight to a Panama. player and then Luca has to dive in and does just enough to put Michael Marillo's shot off, I think. And then it pings off of Shaq's leg back right into the goal mouth and Miles clears it from there.

So kind of scary, a little bit fortunate. Again, thinking about the kinds of goals that would knock us out of a World Cup, that one's up there. Yeah. 23rd minute, a good long ball from Zimmerman into the channel for Pulisic, into the left channel and he chases it down and corrals it and goes away from the goal, you know, dribbles away from the goal and drops it to Anthony. He probably gets fouled by Murillo in the process.

And then Anthony plays a good first time cross into the area for a player not known for his aerial prowess. Paul Areola, who rises and nods at far post, just honestly a towering header from a short guy. And all of a sudden we're up to zero. and it didn't at this point feel it to me that we had played that well. This is exactly what it is when the God's variance smile on you. Like this is what it looks like because that play that leads to Areola's goal is not like an outstanding play or anything, right?

We do that fairly routinely. Pulisic gets on that ball very well. Like that's good. He gets it back to Anthony Robinson who has some daylight to hit his cross. But it's like, I think it's two on four in the box. It's Ariola and Ferreira and maybe day. Elatorre is in there. So it's not like we've got this excellent attacking position or any huge advantage to leverage into this chance. It's just like clipped in. It's a, you know, a decent

inviting ball in from Anthony. But it's still just like when that ball leaves his feet, you're not putting your money on Paul Arroyo to go up and get it. And so credit to him for timing it everything well. And even as he's about to head it, you're not like, oh, well, this is a sure goal. It's still a ton to do with the header. And it's just like it ends up being this kind of low percentage chance. that gets converted and now it now because it is converted now we've been playing excellent now it's been like a transcendent opening to the game even though performance-wise it's again just look very similar to our other home matches uh from the past couple windows yeah i mean that was trying and again i'm not trying to wet blanket this i'm actually almost trying to say like we've

been really good in our home games the past four home games yeah basically the past six home games And since Canada. Yeah. I mean, it was a wonderful goal. It was a, it was a very good cross. You got to see that the ariola is a very good athlete and like the dude can jump. And then he, you know, he puts the header into an unstoppable spot. You know, that's not, that's a very high degree of difficulty header.

And, uh, yeah, I don't think, I mean, I think people who listen to the podcast know, we're not wet blanketing anything. We're just, uh, you know, getting in the wee. I do think after that second goal, we did, we sort of, we turned the screws for a little while. A long spell of possession in Panama's defensive third leads to our third goal. It started with another long ball to Ferreira. So I guess that seemed a little new to me, us just like dumping it in the channel and trying to run onto it. Like, it doesn't seem like we'd been doing it that much up to, up to now.

No, that struck me as really a different approach because it was kind of like not sustained pressure from Panama at all, but Panama like we're pressuring us enough in that moment. I mean, with Panama having the ball where we had like nine guys back, right? We win that ball in our box and someone just kind of helps it over to Paul Aureola just outside our box and he looks up and he doesn't see anyone upfield except Jesus Ferreira with two centerbacks next to him. and he still just hits the ball up into that space, one on two for Ferreira. So that wasn't like, that is a very different from that more deliberate approach that we tend to favor in those situations. Yeah. Like, all right, well, let's build and get our big shape and see what we can do now, now that we have the ball. I mean, that was like, again, kind of a nothing situation to test Panama in.

And again, credit, Ariel put the ball on a spot where Ferreira could go after it. And Ferreira used a little bit of speed and leverage to maintain possession. And suddenly it's 2v2 with Pulisic chasing on. Ferreira does such a good. He did this a few times in the game. But he does such a good job of weight. Like if he's up there by himself, he always waits for attackers to join him before he. And that's what he did in this case.

I think he played it. He played it. He played it. He played it across the middle to Pulisic, who plays it back to him. And Ferreira tries a shot and it's blocked. but we recover it almost immediately, or maybe we do recover it immediately, and then we just patiently work it around Panama's box,

maybe 14, I think it was 14 passes, I heard, until it comes to Luca Deloere, who is showing in a little pocket of space in Zone 14. He plays a very nice little slipped pass in behind for Shaq Moore. Shack Moore is, you know, racing in behind the Eric Davis, who, you know, deserves, plenty of criticism in this podcast episode. All right, all right, but I got to interrupt you now.

Okay. Because he didn't race him behind Eric Davis. This was the beauty of the sequence was we were moving the ball around so well on the right, on that right side with Shaq Moore and Eunice Musa and Paul Ariola. And then even Tyler Adams was out there. So we had this little four-man game and Panama had four. We were kind of rotating. And it felt like a little bit of like basketball.

where you're creating mismatches, right? You're getting them to make switches. And so you do create these imbalances or you do disorganize the opponent because what ended up happening was through all our movement and passing. Eric Davis wasn't the left back anymore. Gondola had sort of shifted back and now he's sitting in that left back spot. And this is the goal, right? You move them around enough that you get guys in unfamiliar positions making decisions

that they're not like really trained on making. So after all that tidy little clean passing, Luca Dela Tore recognizes that he can jump in and add the fifth man. And suddenly it's five on four. And he gets it in that pocket. And you're testing now you suddenly are putting a ton of pressure on their decision making and their spacing. And Gondola falls asleep for just like half a second because he's not a left back. He's a left winger sitting in the left back spot.

And that's when Shackmore recognizes it and he races behind. And that's the difference, right? I didn't realize that it was gondola who got beat there. So, yeah, thanks. After the ball has slipped into shack, then he plays it to Ariola, as you guys have all seen. He turns and shoots in the shot, is deflected off. The defender deflects it back off of Ariola's shin, and then it just bounces straight to Jesus Ferreira right in front of goal.

He thrashes it in and, you know, trots over to the corner flag pointing at the crest. 3-0 And if it wasn't done at 2-0, man, is it done at 3-0? Yeah. It felt, the game did feel over at that point. So, Stefan comes out to, I mean, not to belabor the point,

but there's a little bit of variance in that, too. Like, you know, Ariel didn't mean to pass it to Jesus, but it was a perfect, it was a perfectly weighted ball to his feet. Right. It's one of those where the deflection actually benefits us in a huge way. If Ariola gets that shot off, it's probably a harmless shot from that angle with, you know, Arlo, he's not able to put that much behind it.

And it's probably nothing, but because it gets deflected directly to Ferreira, keeper reacts late, can't come for it. And now it's, it's the easiest finish in the world. Yeah. Point eight. Which doesn't mean that it has scored 100% of the time. 85% of the time. But it's still about the easiest finish you will get in a soccer game. Yeah.

29th minute. Stefan has a little bit of a moment. He comes out to claim across and drops it right in front of Barsanas. And Barcinus, you know, is kind of Johnny on the spot, tries to shoot it under Stefan. And Stefan stops it with a pretty magnificent kick save if it looked to me like in slow motion. but you know he shouldn't be he shouldn't be coming out to claim across and dropping it in front of an attacker like that in my opinion no that's that's definitely a mark against him and again so even though i was wrong about him going walkabout and in blowing that first uh situation he definitely did you can only say this is going walkabout he should have just comfortably caught this ball uh but he made a bit of a meal of it yeah and it's it's just you know it's something to to keep mind of yeah as we continue this

Yeah, something to put in our little private caches of memories and biases. Decent chance for, no, okay, 37th minute, we get a good run and struggle dribble to borrow a term from Waki, from Luca Delo Tore, to tilt the field. And then he played Antony out on the wing. The cross is cut out. I mention it just to say that it's nice to see that Deletore doesn't seem to have any trouble. with the physicality of international soccer and is he's good. He's a good player. He is. And I do, I mean, I love what we've seen from him so far. And I, this kind of, I put Ferreira in the same boat because both Ferreira and De La Torre have now had a little bit of added benefit

of the only sample size we have of them is these home games against bottom half Concaf teams, right? So we're going to have to still wait to see. And I don't know when we will see this now, but like the Luca Delatori performance curve could come crashing down. Doesn't mean it will, but we just have to sort of take that into account that Honduras is bad and he looked good against them,

which is good. But, you know, Panama also is not actually that good. That's kind of the thing that I want to keep remembering is they are the fifth ranked team in Conccaf, and that's generally not considered a great side. Yeah. I mean, I feel like

they've played better soccer throughout the cycle than Costa Rica has like, you know, beginning of the cycle to the end so far or to now. So just even a note on that. So can so I feel like we have thought of Panama as that team throughout qualifying, but they've played Costa Rica twice. They've played Mexico twice. They played Canada once. And out of those five games, so that's 15 available points, they have two points. They've, so they've tied Mexico once and they tied Costa Rica once. And that's it. They lost to Costa Rica, lost to Mexico, lost to Canada twice. I'm sorry, once, no play Canada again.

So they haven't really done good against the teams ahead of them, other than us at home. And that's why they're the fifth ranked team in Concorda Caff right now. Table doesn't lie in this situation. Well, and they drew at home to Honduras, which was a really bad result for them. But I don't know. I think even that game against Costa Rica where they lost to Costa Rica, I have to look up the stats, but I feel like they got the better the chances in that game. I'm not trying to totally disagree that they're

and say they're like a really good team, but watching them play is not, you know, they got footballers on their team. And like there's a pleasing rhythm to the way they play. No, I don't know. I mean, they might have some of that element. Like even El Salvador plays with that at times. But Panama didn't create much against us,

even in that win at home. They weren't doing much to create in that opening spell, even when they had a little bit of an edge. In this game, they didn't get much until it was 5-0, and we had a case of the 5-0s. But overall, like, I don't know. I'm not saying they're a terrible team,

but they don't strike me as anything that was, like, particularly threatening or very good. Okay. I can agree with that. There's a decent chance for Panama in the 41st minute when Quintaro pulls one back for Godoy and he just scuffs it and puts it wide. So up to that point, a pretty not great night for Godoy and it's about to get worse. It's about to get worse.

42nd minute, there was a Ferreira, Jesus Ferreira bike attempt and I just want to check on you. How were you feeling during that moment? I'm going to be harsh a little bit on my guy, Ferreira here, because it was the correct decision to bicycle it. and I always applaud a bicycle attempt. But man, that is about the best setup you can get for a bicycle kick. And frankly, like, he probably needs to do a little bit better that I don't usually say he's got to do better there. But like, Frera has got to do better there. This is the one time I'll say it.

If you're going to be the guy who's attempting the bicycle, that's the attempt you've got to connect there. And I'm not saying you've got to, like, score it. But that needs to be like nailed at the goal. He hit it with his shin. He did. He did. He jumped too late or wait, too early? I don't know.

No, it's just poor, I mean, it's just poor timing. I mean, not even timing. Like it's just poor connection, poor foot eye coordination. Right. Well, shame on him. He'll get another chance. The food truck is leaving. I think we may be in good audio shape from now, from now on.

It's McLean. I've never heard of them before. I'm more of a Cisco guy. Yeah, of course. Yeah, you're from the Midwest. Just do not edit out my, my, my, my, my, Paul, or I'm sorry, my, Ferreira criticism on his bicycle kick. That needs to, that needs to be a staple this. Okay.

I definitely am not going to edit that out. 40, so deep into first half stoppage time, there's a second penalty against Godoy. You've all seen it. This time he puts his forearm into Miles Robinson's face and neck on a set piece. And Pulisic hits side netting to the right, beating Mejia, even though the goalkeeper guessed correctly, which side he was going to. I mean, I've heard people say this was a soft penalty, and I just, I don't, I don't think it probably was. You can't, you can't do that. You just shouldn't.

I hope our players don't do that. that's not something you do and then complain that you get called for a soft penalty. And that's like my one VAR, like hope is that VAR actually cracks down on that kind of thing more often. Because I feel like that's the easiest way possible to get defenders to stop wrestling everyone to the ground on set pieces. And I feel like the more freedom of movement attackers have, the more exciting the product of soccer will be. Yeah. So like I don't entertain any of those complaints. I'm just like, no, don't grab people.

There's a camera watching you that's ready to call fouls. Like, what do you expect to happen here? It's four, and now it's, it's four zero. And it really did feel like, is this real? Is this really happening? Well, this is where we got into, I mean, at 2.0, we were like, yes, we did it. We beat Panama. At 3.0, it's like, whoa, it was an awesome celebration.

At 4.0, it's like, we are now unreachable from Costa Rica at Co. Costa Rica. They can't make up this goal difference. Yeah. And we kept our four goal difference, obviously by full time. So at the half, Raina comes on for Paul Ariola and Acosta comes on for Musa, who gets much deserved rest. He didn't even mention him. He looked tired, I thought.

And, you know, he did well with the minutes he had, but he was not a highly influential player, I don't think. It's one of those words, tough to tell. I feel like he did control the space that he was in, which I bring that up because I feel like later in the second half, we'll talk about someone who didn't control the space as well. Yeah. No, that's true. I just mean he wasn't, you know, heavily involved in a lot of chance creation.

I guess as a more precise way to say what I'm saying. All right, but he was part of that little fun triangle of death instead of the horseshoe of death. Like, this is a triangle of death that causes death. the opponent on that frere goal where we were just pinging it around until he hit shack more behind that's true and i noticed he did he did uh like a subtle little something subtly kind of nice to to to play that pass to lucca delatore like he had to he had to like side foot it in a certain way at a certain angle just to just to get it into him he did there was a lot of good subtlety there because then lucas i know we're backtracking but then lucca had a little subtle

double touch. Yes. To buy the time and create a tiny little change in the angle for him to hit Shaq Moran. Exactly. If he tried to do it with his left foot, I don't think it gets through.

So he drags it from his left to his right and then pops it through like kind of in one motion. Rondo merchant. He's a Rondo merchant. I love that stuff. So immediately after the half, Giorina gets a big chance. Does a quick little give and go

with Jesus Ferreira? Ferreira springs him with a looping return pass and Raina is in on goal he drags it wide left kind of scuffs it honestly he did yep it was a scuff more than drag and it was a brilliant

connection with Ferreira once again we left like their left back was nowhere to be seen it's because we had just stolen the ball from Panawa they'd gotten like spread out to try to play and it's 4-0 and they probably have not they don't care anymore but they did kind of spread out and Ferreira snuck in from behind with Luca Deloori to steal that thing.

And Panama never got their shape back. So it was one of those again where it shows how important it is to attack before a defense can get organized. And then you have to re-discorganize them. And I think that was a bit of a trend as well. And I'm hoping that continues that we keep hitting teams before they are organized. Also, just, like, Gio Raina just oozed quality in this game. I mean, he kind of does all the time. But it really showed in this game.

He can kind of do whatever he wants out there, obviously, within some limits. But I can't wait to see him at full strength and, you know, doing what he wants for 90 minutes. Panama, again, a little bit on the front foot in the second half. I mean, the game felt like it was over, but I don't know, still Panama looking pretty good. And then they get that gorgeous through ball from Eric Davis to Blackburn. Stefan gets kind of caught in no man's land as Blackburn pulls it back. But Tyler Adams rides the rescue and blocks the shot. I think it was from either Murillo or Godoy.

I can't remember. Yeah, and this one was a full Steffen walkabout. And at this point, like, I know I got the first one where I was off, the dropped. cross that he had in the first half. And then this, like, we just saw him do this for Man City, right? The guy doesn't play in that many games. So it's strange how often he finds himself like vacating the goal and then having the opponent shoot the ball at that vacated goal.

Like that's not something that happens to goalkeepers very often. Generally, even keepers who are playing every weekend. So it is strange that Stefan has so many of these on his highlight reel for how little he plays to the point where I have no idea at this point, like, how we can really consider him our number one, if that's what he is. Like, it's got to be, we got to be getting to the point where he's, you got to consider that a bit of a liability. Yeah. I'll, I'll, I'm going to, I, I generally defer to you on most things. I'm going to really defer to you on this. Like I don't, uh, I, I'm going to retweet whatever you say about the goalkeeper's just, it's just, it's just,

at the point now where this is like a big deal. He did it and was it the F.A. Cup semifinal last year against Chelsea where suddenly Chelsea's just scoring in an open goal. He left the goal wide open against Honduras a couple of weeks later in the Nations League. This is just a strange thing that is happening

a lot. It's just a, it's like a judgment thing, right? It's a decision making thing. Yeah, it's when to go. And so I think you and Vince and Waki talked about it on the last one where he came out in that Man City game and got to the ball but didn't collapse on it.

And I saw people defending that and saying, well, he couldn't collapse because the attacker got there and it would have been him going through his legs. But all that does is shift the mistake then. So then the mistake isn't that he didn't go on the ball. It's that he went at all. Like you don't go if you can't beat the attacker to the ball. So he didn't need to go out there to stop. Like he was out defending on the end line.

You don't need to be out there, Zach. Like you can just stay in your goal and let some of those other fellas in the same color shirt is you go do that work and you protect the goal because you're allowed to use your hands. Like that's the whole, that's the whole gimmick for a goalkeeper. No, I know there's value to being able to be keeper sweeper, but that value is instantly like flipped on its head if you constantly fail at the sweep part and leave your goal open for the attack. Yeah.

Somebody was saying that if like, I think it was on the Paul and Sam's episode, the word from the men's national team camp is that he is Stefan's the number one by a wide margin at this point. Yep, I'd heard that too. I just, I don't see what it is because it's definitely not like the stats. The stats aren't helping him because he doesn't really rack any up. And the ones he did rack up for Dusseldorf in Germany and for Columbus and MLS were not very flattering for him. So then I also don't know how it's the eye test because again,

what we're seeing on the eye test are like some really big mistakes. And even like the possession side, the distribution side, he had some big like questionable decisions on those in Mexico and then again in this game so i'm not sure exactly what it is that would make him the far and away number one but that seems to be what it is so that's what that's what we'll have all right to positive stuff back to positive stuff in the 57th minute we get uh ranna driving and playing a slip pass to an onrushing Pulisic so down the left channel Pulisik's running in from

from wide and this is a pretty big chance Mahia comes out and Pulisic tries to clip it across to Ferreira I think that's what he was trying to do I don't know was he trying to shoot maybe first time I saw it I thought he was shooting because he

missed the pass by kind of a lot but I think on replay I do think he was trying to pass and I think he just missed well yeah I thought maybe he was passing it to the only place he thought he could because there's a defender between him and Ferreira, a little bit between him and Ferreira. I don't know. But it takes Ferreira way down, way wide of the goal. And then Ferreira, but, you know, Ferreira maybe could have still shot from that angle. I don't know. What he did is pass it

back across the face of goal. Or maybe shoot. I don't know. What do you think he was trying to do there? I think he's cutting it back just because he actually hits it back away, like literally back away from the goal. Okay. I think if he's shooting and he misses, it ends up going out of bounds at the near post would just be my guess.

And then it just gets cleared. It just gets cleared from there. There's, Pulisic isn't in that spot. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't do the forensics to figure out where Pulisic ended up at the end of the play.

He was just behind the defender who cleared it up from Ferrer, when Ferrer sent it across. So I'll use this to sort of use, to talk about Pulisic overall, if that's okay. I kind of felt it was similar. to what the U.S. discussion is.

Like the U.S. was, everyone's talking about the U.S. just having this incredible performance. And it was like a pretty good performance. And then the goals just outweighed everything. Like, for me, that's kind of what the Poulosick Knight was. I didn't think he was like transcendent. We'll get to the goal in a little bit. And the goal is transcendent as like the goal's outrageous.

Yeah. It's like one of the best goals I've ever seen a national team player score. And if we're just talking about that goal, there are no adjectives you can use that are unearned. but his overall performance, I didn't think was anything particularly, like, outstanding. I'm not trying, again, I'm not trying to just be contrarian here. Like, he missed a couple of those chances. Like, he missed that ball into Ferreira.

He kind of misplayed another one into Anthony Robinson or in the first half. Like, there were just, like, nearly dangerous plays that we just missed on. He wasn't bad, of course. No. But it wasn't like, oh, man, everything he is doing is gold right now. No, I just scored two penalties and scored that outrageous goal for that. Patrick. Yep.

I mean, he also, you know, he helps set up the ariola chance, which, you know, is just him passing it backwards to Robinson. But I think, I think what people are most excited about is him, like, this sort of, like, Pulisic taking charge kind of narrative. And I don't know that that's totally wrong. You know, it's good to see him, it's good to see him step up and, like, put those penalties away without much, you know, without much fuss at all. And then, you know, he's, as Waki pointed out in a video earlier today, he's, he was mean on the field, which is not normal for him, you know. I mean, that is, that, Waki says he deadpans it like this is a major development. It actually is kind of a major development to see Pulisig getting in a Donnybrook at midfield and, like, being kind of petulant. He's, I don't think I've ever seen him be like that in a game like this, like being the instigator.

Yeah, no, I think you're right. I think those are real things. I think the fact that he was like the captain. He is, you know, I do think those things probably matter for how you, how you evaluate, you know, this game. And you can also compare it to the games past at home where he hasn't been very effective at all. Like, he's actually kind of been like a net negative just with his decisions and his dribbling and his almost being like dead ends at time. And he wasn't that. Like there was no way you look at it and say, oh, he was a dead end for the ball tonight.

It was things that just didn't quite come off when it was. when it wasn't on. And then, and then obviously, you know, you do have the goal that is just it is,

yeah, worth its own entry in, into the discussion. Its own entry in the what? In the, I mean, it's in the pantheon of U.S.

goals. But again, even if that was the only thing, even if that was the only time he'd even touched the ball in this game, like that puts him, that's man of the match stuff.

Yeah. It was so, so we will get to it. Just a second, just a second. And I, and I want to return that question of like whether it was a good performance like it was whether it was a transcendent

performance from Pulisic because I do more or less agree with you on it um anyway in the right at the six 60 minute mark we get another lovely pass from geo this one lovelier than the first he's just he's just sauntering across zone 14 with a guy a defender on his back like just totally secure in the knowledge that nobody can take the ball from him and then he plays this no look pass to uh deletore who's in a little pocket of space just inside the box and it you know it's it's gorgeous the way he did the way he did that i mean just zips it across the grass to him and uh lucidilatoria opens up and then squares it for ferrera right in the right in xg land and it um he hits it over the bar and i'm gonna file

that away in my private cache of memories and biases i think i said i said forer he's gonna miss sitters probably against Panama. No, I think it's perfect that you used the word saunter for Gio, the way you started that description across the top of the box because that's literally exactly what it was. And it wasn't just, you know, it wasn't him going unchallenged. This was coming off of a set piece. And Panama had kind of cleared it and Adams kept it and went back to Gio. And Panama came out to meet him and a guy actually like met him with like a stiff arm, like a

hand check. and Geo just like battered the guy away so the defender actually bounced off Geo rather than him knocking Geo off the ball. And so then at that point he did just cruise across the top of the box, like completely untouched, unbothered. And it's such like a contrast between some of the other players that we have who might get little brothered in that scenario where they either immediately get knocked off the ball or, you know, they're forced to put their head down and ride the challenge and dribble backward until they can find a little brothered in that scenario where they either immediately get knocked off the ball or, you know, they're forced to put their head down and ride the challenge and drivel backward until they can find a release valve and instead Gio gets to like push the defender away, keep his eyes downfield, like a good quarterback

and again recognize that Panama is still disorganized. So because he can do this and we don't have to recycle and let Panama reset once again they don't have a left back like their left back is just not in the picture Eric Davis or whoever it would be at this point is not there and there's

this giant gap that Luca de la Torre has set up in and that's how he hits this awesome no look pass. And that's what creates this great chance for Jesus Frera. So it is a huge, like, skill of Giorina's to just be totally unbothered by these physical challenges. Yeah. And, you know, it was a big gap for sure. But it was also, the window to pass into was pretty small.

So he kind of had to make it be a no look pass. You know, I mean, the nearest defender, I can't remember who it was. you know, it was just out of his reach by the time he realized the ball was being hit in that spot. Very sexy. And a good decision from Ferreira just to put it right in that prime scoring position. You're saying from Luca, right?

Who did I say? Ferreira, yeah. You said Ferreira is the one who botched it. And again, this goes back to like, we can just sort of repeat every time we record no one who plays soccer converts all of their chances. So this is me defending Ferreira instead of defending someone else. This is me defending all strikers who miss chances, including PFAC against Mexico.

They will always keep missing chances. They will also make a lot of chances, including very similar ones to the ones that they've missed. That's how it works. Yeah. Okay. I think we're getting there on that discourse. I think we're making some progress. Yeah.

I think there was like a pretty unfair tweet about you. on that front that was just like a i don't know not a didn't seem like a good faith reading of the moment but um but i think that highlighted that most i think most people are kind of getting the sort of like grasping it i don't mean like it's people weren't like figuring out before but there is there is sort of that sense of like if you had to pick one player to convert this chance you know who would it be and it's like we don't have any sense of which of those players it would be for us. Like they will all be equally likely to convert the chance or not. Who will be in the right spot to convert the chance? That's sort of the question I want to ask. Yeah. And in like the latest,

in the latest edition of Bells needs to do better with his life, I was so, I was so annoyed by that tweet that I made a mental note of everybody who liked it. And I, and I, and I, and I ran into one of those people yesterday and lashed out and lashed out at him in person. And I apologize. I apologize. But it was my, it was my one bad moment of the day, one of just a handful of bad moments, I suppose. That's amazing. That's an amazing, uh, he introduced himself and immediately I was like, oh, you're one of the people who liked that tweet. You think, you think Velasquez was happy that Pevok missed that chance that would have beaten Mexico at TESTECA. All right.

Aaron Long came on at the hour mark for miles. Worth noting that his, you know, him getting back on the field. And, and then here's the goal. For me, the nicest goal of the qualifying cycle.

Maybe, I don't know, maybe my favorite goal. What's in competition? It's up there. What's in competition? I mean, some goals, it's not a goal at a World Cup. So it's like, it loses that battle.

But just the sheer, like, the poetry of it is just, I think is unmatched. Again, I'm trying to think of goals from U.S. players and U.S. uniforms that match that level of grace. And just like, it's every single part of that goal was amazing. All right. Go ahead. Take us to right. Well, it starts. We will have to brainstorm.

Maybe that'll be, that'll, maybe, uh, maybe, uh, the Tuesday review or the Wednesday review from you fellows can figure out what better goals there have been. Yeah. It's, so it's Raina bringing down a Zimmerman header at midfield and quickly tapping it to Luca Deloire, who races past a guy and taps it wide to Antony. So again, there's just a fluid quality to the soccer when those two are playing together, it seems like. Luca and Gia.

Yeah. Yeah, because this is one of those Luca first touches that. It's just fantastic. Like it's not a, it's not a, it's not a, it's not like an obvious touch to make that we would expect everyone who has played for us to make that, like, touch to eliminate that first man and create this runway to run downhill. So with the instep of his right foot? Was it the instep of his right foot that he touched it with?

Man, I don't know now. But it was just like, it's one of those where he almost like, because of his execution here, he invites the Panama player to run. himself just at a position to then beat him and be off to the races. Yeah. And then he taps a wide to Anthony. Anthony plays it back to him. And he plays it back to Anthony.

And Anthony, again, hits like what, you know, he gets in this situation a lot. He hits a lot of crosses in a game. Usually they don't result in a goal. But the one, the one he played to Areola did because of like a very fine headed finish from Ball, Arola. And this one is taken down. It's about waste. tie, it gets to about waist high.

By the time it gets to Pulisic, it's probably like, you know, thigh high. He brings it down with the inside of his left foot and megs himself as he does it. And I don't know that he. Amazing. Did he mean to do it like that? I don't know. Probably not, but there's a chance he did. This is one where I think even trying to say that he like would have scripted the whole

thing is unnecessary. It might even take away from actually the beauty of it because of how like how, how, how, well he reacts to every single thing that happens in this fraction, like these fractions of seconds. Well, in any case, the touch is, the touch sets him up heading towards goal as he turns towards the goal. As he pirouettes. Yeah.

It's not even a turn. This is a pirouette. Right. And as he's turning to goal, Andres Andrade, the centerback, the young centerback, is, is, you know, running at him. And he just takes the slightest little touch with the outside of his right boot to push the ball down and through Andrade's legs. And that's called a nutmeg. And then tucks it in, side netting, inside of his right foot.

It's a beautiful goal. You guys all know that. But it needed a description. And again, going back to the Anthony ball in, this is another situation where Panama should have felt okay about the fact that. that they got back. Like, Luca beat our man, and so we're running at him. But they stopped, they stopped Luca, made him go backwards back to Anthony me. Like Panama had numbers back.

I think when this ball went in, I think this time it was legitimately two on five. Panama had three deep plus two stacked on top of them. They were in fine position to defend. And this is just Pulisic doing a bit of like demigod stuff. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. It was so nasty. And I think, and I think because.

It was so nasty, and he scored two other goals. And he seemed to play with like a fire that we haven't always seen from him. That's why people are talking about it being a transcendent performance from him, you know? Yeah, I'll actually retract. I'll give it that. And again, even just to give him more credit for like the decision making was much better than what we've been accustomed to in some of these qualifying games, which, again, is enough for me to be like, that's a. between that marked improvement plus the goal plus the,

I mean, he still converts the penalties. Yeah, I'm willing to say that this is a pool of sick his back moment. For sure. I do think people are forgetting that Tim Wea exists and was our best attacker for, you know,

seven tenths of qualifying so far. I'm just thinking of all the podcasts I listened to. And like, I don't know that his name, ever came up. He has been our most dangerous player throughout the qualifying cycle. It sets up, like, before it was kind of like a question, well, what's Raina going to look like when he gets back? And then it was like, because if Pulisic is playing

like he has been, then are Raina and Waya the guys? And now it's very much a different question. If Pulisick is playing in this mode and Raina looks like Raina looks, and Waya is giving us what Waya has given us. now what do we do? Yeah. Put Raina in midfield or I don't know. I guess. I don't know.

That's what the summer's for. Morris comes on for Pulisic and Busio for Adams. And really the last 20 minutes of the game were we were just content to let Panama have the ball for most of that period time. And to borrow a Gregism, our pitch control started to suffer. immediately when Buccio came on. I noticed in the 72nd minute he tiptoed into a challenge. It's tough to say you should have won this challenge,

but this was a challenge he should have won. The guy took a loose touch right in front of Buccio, and he managed to be just timid enough to not get the ball. And then he couldn't bother the guy as he was driving into the box and laid it off for a teammate. It might have been Eric Davis again that I'm thinking of. So that's a bit of data, I think, on Busio sort of confirms what we've already know about him. It's definitely something that I'm waiting for him to sort of like overcome.

And I mean, like, show us that like, no, he can he can take this space and make it his defensively playing against the ball. So I'm hoping that we maybe get to see that a little bit in Costa Rica this week. I'm not hoping for that, but. Well, I want to be proven wrong. I wanted to just have like a masterclass of like savvy box like central midfield control where he does up a bunch of these grownups to play for Costa Rica and just looks completely in control of the of the field. Because even in this little cameo, he looks good on the ball. He's he's got quality and he's pretty clever. But yeah, against the ball, he's too easy to play through and pass.

And again, the context here is we do have a bit of the five o's about us at this point. So it's like we are. Yeah, that's true. We are, it's absolutely an exercise and just going through the motions for everyone on the field. It shouldn't be because like some of these guys, long, Buzio, Morris, need to kind of prove that they can play because they have to know that they're like at best right there on the fringes. Right. Yeah, I don't understand that why it would be a going through the motions thing for him at that point. Like he's he's got to know.

And so I don't know if that's true because he's got to know that a World Cup spot is, you know, hanging in the balance here. Right, because he has to, he's got to look at it and say, okay, Luca's ahead of me, like based on what has happened in the last couple of games, I got to be, I'm going to have to either like do something to beat this guy or there's only one center midfield spot left for me to fight for. Right. So I should say at least everyone else on the field.

is probably going through the motions at this point. Panama's still trying to score. I mean, they were coming at us. We got a decent effort from Giorina at the top of the box. He tries to kind of finesse it. It comes after a giveaway to Ferreira. Ferreira kind of slow walks it again, waiting for people to join him,

and then squares it to Raina, takes a touch, and tries to curl it somewhere in the goal, and it just goes over. 86 minute Acosta gets a little sloppy and gives it away In our half long gets whistled for a foul

on Cantero trying to run him down And on the ensuing free kick Eric Davis Shapes yet another dangerous ball into the box And Anabagodoy Glances at home

I can't imagine that Panamanian fans would say that he redeemed himself in this moment But he did score a goal It's a nice goal I think Zimmerman was marking him

but seemed of two minds about who he should be tracking because he kind of seemed like he maybe felt responsible for another guy too, and he lost track of Godoy before the ball arrived. Yeah, that's what I kept trying to figure out on the rewatch, and had a hard time doing it, figuring out who was attached to who. No notes for Stefan.

There's nothing he was going to do on this one. All right, we're getting close to the end here, guys. Raina had a little spat with Gabby Torres that I didn't fully understand. but you're glad I'm I mean what a cocky kid he is uh and what's good reason either uh the haircut right the haircut came in so I I jumped back into the game right as it was starting from the second half and see Hesu's Ferrer Springer guy like 30 seconds in and I'm like how in the world is James Sands playing right half space for because I swear Sands wore number 11 or I at least think that he wore number

I'm not going to find out if he ever did for the U.S. And he had the James Sands haircut. And I was like, holy Lord, we are really getting, getting fun with this 4-0 lead. I thought it was James Sands. I thought James Sands was in on goal. Yeah, I mean, Rana had like sort of a classic, you know, rich kid haircut. And now he's, now he looks like a Marine, a Marine at boot camp. And 91, in the 92nd minute, Jack Moore started clutching at his hamstrings.

a little bit after a couple long clearances. I mentioned that because we are going to talk about the coast, like I want to talk about who I want to see play against Costa Rica. And I kind of want to see Shaq Moore deputize it left back on Wednesday, if that's in the cards. And seeing him clutch his hamstrings made me nervous. I haven't heard anything about him actually being injured. Have you?

No, I haven't. But he was definitely out of the play, as well as Jesus Ferreira for the last five or six. minutes where, again, it's 5-1 and there, Ferrer spend the last five minutes just stretching on the field. And then I guess we should mention we rolled out the qualified banner and then rolled it back up. I'm going to need it behind the crest on how that all went down. Like who brought it out to the field?

I think it was, I think it was Dewey, right? Dewey? I don't know. Oh. Historical reference. Good. I'm smart. Or yeah, I mean, it does have shades of the mission accomplished banner on the aircraft carrier, but not really. We did basically qualify.

It's just you can't quite say it yet. Yeah. I think, as people pointed out, we would have to lose 6-0. We have conceded eight goals through the first 13 games of qualifying. It's a tall order for Costa Rica here. Also, we'll repeat what I'm sure all of our listeners would have already seen. Costa Rica have like eight or nine players on yellows throughout the qualifying campaign, who if they pick up a yellow against the U.S.

and still just finish fourth and don't overcome that goal difference, which they won't do, those players would be suspended for the playoff against the Oceana side, which is nuts, but that's a, that has to like factor into some of their decision making. Yeah, what's the, what is, what are they going to do? They're going to just, they're just going to sort of throw the game, basically? I mean, no, it'll be another one of those. It'll be a weird exercise, right? Like, it's going to be this weird thing where it is essentially a dead rubber,

even though technically it's not, because I just don't think they'll be so unconventional as to run out like an all-out attack lineup, even though that's what like the situation demands. Like, the only way you can do anything is to win this game six zero. Otherwise, losing 10-0 is the same as win. winning 5-0, so you have to win by 6. But no team will ever play like that because it's just too weird to do that. And honestly, if they did try to beat us 6-0 or 10-0, that's not how they play.

That's not how they know how to play, right? I mean, we would probably end up winning if they did that. Right, right. That's what I mean, if they go all-out attack from the first whistle, as though they're losing by two goals, like, you know, in that sense. scenario where you just send your goalkeeper up for every corner. Yeah. Like, we would definitely end up scoring four goals on them.

That makes me optimistic about that game. And it'll be nice to finally be able to say, finally be able to say we have qualified for the World Cup. Who would you like? And that we got three points in Costa Rica, which is what's going to happen. You think so? I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. Um, tactical manager asked me to predict, and I, you know, I didn't want to do that.

But, um, he said 4-0. And I was like, sure, you know, that sounds reasonable. For us to lose 4-0? No, he asked me to predict the, the Panama game before it started. I said, sure, 4-0 sounds reasonable. I saw, I saw Bob Morocco throughout what I actually love and would be willing to get into. I hate predictions, but he threw out his XG prediction, which I'm like, oh, I'll do that. Now on. Huh.

Yeah. Not for Costa Rica because this game is going to be a mess. Well, let's talk about the starting lineup for this game. And I'll just give mine and then you can, if you want to give one you can, if you don't, then you don't need to. Zach Steffin and goal, I think is what's going to happen. It doesn't really matter what I think about the goalkeeper situation. And then Yedlin, Zimmerman and Miles and Shaq Moore across the back line, assuming Shaq's hamstrings are okay. I think he and Anthony Robinson can platoon it, you know, each take a half. And then

Kellan Acosta. You remember George Bellows in camp. I'm just checking. You're just like, you'd rather not see Bellow. I guess hearing you talk about how there's just really, there's just no feasible way for this game to end in a 6-0 win for Costa Rica. It just doesn't, it doesn't make sense, right? Oh, that for me was like, oh, that's why you throw Bellow. Right. No, so I'm going to say that sways me a little bit. I made this lineup before I heard you say that.

Oh, so you're actually building a lineup to prevent Costa Rica from getting that six goals. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, if anybody's going to like make mistakes that lead to goals, it's probably George Bello, right? All right. That is fair. Or Zach Steffen. So it doesn't. But if it doesn't matter, then, yeah, let George Bellow.

let us get some data on the young man. Give him the second half. Get Bello the second half. We're not writing off George Bello, by the way. He's a 19, year old, is he 19, 20 year old soccer player? He's no. He's got a future of soccer ahead of it. Absolutely. I mean, he's already playing in the Bundesliga. He's a, he's a soccer success. But our national team is getting better all the time. So there's

two things. Things can be two things. uh... Kellan Acosta at the 6 Eunice Musa and Luca Deloire at the 8s um I think Musa having come off at the half

can probably start this game and then you know do you not agree with that? I hate it I want him to just be on ice okay Tim and then Tim Wea uh

if Ferreira's you want Ferreira on ice too or you want him back in the 11 no I'm icing Ferreira too this is Pepe's game okay yeah I was gonna say Waya Pepe and Rain out across the front line.

I think that'd be a fun game. I want to start watching. Yeah, I'm like, I'm way too cautious. I'm just way too cautious of a person here. I'm like, no, keep Raina for the second half again. Just no reason to test him for 60. It's not like we need to see if he can go 60 here so that three months from now we can do it. And it's like three months from now, of course he'll be fine, you know, if he's healthy.

So we don't need to like see if he's got 60 minutes in him. I want him to play 45 max. Okay. So you've got Areola starting the game? Either Areola or Morris or throw Christian Rodan in. It doesn't matter to me. But Wea and one of those one of those three guys, Ariola, Morris, or Rol Don. Give me Ariola.

Give me Ariola. I'm very much in like this is an exhibition. So we won't concede six with any of those guys on the field. So if Ariel is healthy, the report was he came off at half. Not necessarily as like a pre-planned Raina for Ariel's situation, but because he had like a minor issue. Okay. What do you do?

So you want, you don't want Musa in the 11? Who do you want? So you want it to be Buccio? You want Buccio and Bello on the field? I've got, I've got Sands Luca Buccio as my midfield three. You see where I am with this game. You're like, suddenly six, six goals have been played in the last well. You want to win, you want to lose four to zero and qualify for the World Cup.

I think someone who was saying that if we lose four to, zero, that opens the door for Mexico to finish fifth. Huh. If Mexico loses bad in their last game, Costa Rica could actually jump Mexico. Which Mexico's not going to do? Not fifth. I'm sorry. Mexico would finish fourth.

The one through four spots are locked up. Panama can not finish higher than fifth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that would put Mexico fourth. They're not going to lose to El Salvador in Mexico City, I don't think. All right. Hey, let's talk a little bit before we go about just about what this, you know, since the qualifying cycle is, you know, more or less over. I mean, it feels more over to me now that you're talking about running a, running a Sands, Luka, Busio, midfield. It's all over, but it's over, but the dancing for me. Yeah.

What do you think of Burrhalter now? Do you feel, um, I'm feeling better about him. I mean, I just needed him to qualify us for the World Cup. Yeah, and throughout all this, I don't think we ever were like, we probably aren't going to qualify for the World Cup now. It was always like we keep squandering like more and more of our cushion in some of these moments. And I think that that's about what happened.

And then, you know, we get to the last window and we get that result against Mexico, which preserves just the tiniest sliver of cushion to then win the Panwall game to avoid, we basically won a game to avoid a must-win game against Costa Rica way. So I feel like that is like, that is the narrowest cushion that we had to not have to get a result at Costa Rica where we've never gotten a result. So this is like, we did just enough to do this like in the most minimally comfortable way possible, which is not terrible. But it was, it didn't feel like it was any kind of change from any of the non-2018 cycle. goals.

Yeah, but I guess like in terms of the way we play, changing the way the world views American soccer, it does seem to me like we're playing, like we're reliably playing pretty good soccer now. We're defensively pretty sound.

We, I mean, we've, we've got more XGD, that's goal differential, expected goals differential, than Mexico or Canada in qualifying. So like we're, we're putting the chances together. It's been a really, it's a young team.

And I know that that was used as sort of an excuse at the beginning in some ways, but it is a young team and it is a lot of players who hadn't played together very much. They'd all been playing together in our minds, you know, for years, but not really having played together much. And now it's a pretty consistent, reliably pretty good product on the field. even away in Mexico City it was pretty good you know so I'm I don't know I'm feeling higher on him and not just because we qualified I'm just saying like this is yet another example of a pretty good a pretty good performance that we can sort of

expect at this point yeah like I just said earlier we we ran off six straight good home games like very good home games after the Canada game and it's not just like we did little tweaks we We jettisoned some players from that Canada 11, from that home game in Nashville. And since then, we've been very good at home. And then we've kind of had some intermixed road games. The Mexico away game was probably the best away game we have of a cycle in my mind. Like, I don't think it's even close. Yeah.

So for me, it's a matter of like what was common in some of our good games was that we got to play against the ball. You think it was way better than the win at Honduras? Oh yeah, way better. Like that Honduras game was a, like a real messy game overall. Even the second half was kind of just like messy. Like the Mexico game felt like we were controlling things. Honduras felt just like an added control situation for a long time. Yeah.

What was that last point you made before I interrupted you with that? Oh, just one of the common themes is that we've been sort of at our best when we can play against the ball a little bit. And now that's, you know, the Mexico game in Mexico City, we get to play against the ball. Even in that Panama game, like Carlin showed, we had some real ability to play against the ball, and that can create some chances for us to attack quickly. I think that sets us up fairly well for a World Cup-type tournament to be defensively stout and have the ability to play against the ball. there's this lingering doubt I have, and it goes back to the Switzerland game, that, like, actually competent teams will carve us up even as we think we're good at playing against the ball.

Yeah. But that's not going to be like a Burrhalter issue. Like, at some point, we're just going to run into teams that are going to be like, oh, you guys are pretty good. But you are really young. You are a little green. You're not that great. Like, you have some good players, but we all have Champions League players, too. You're not unique in that sense.

and we know how to kind of just do you up. Yeah. Well, let's cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm good for that. Again, I think we're just going to be celebrating for nine months, getting ready for this tournament. Yeah, totally. And thanks again to everybody who came to the tailgate.

I'll say here we are a listener-supported podcast. So if you are able, please consider supporting us on Patreon. We appreciate it a lot. Anything else, Greg? No, we, I think we'll have the full, full wrap up after the actual official last game of the cycle. Yeah. And I'll be doing it from my house instead of a car. And I think things will slow down a little bit for us.

And, you know, we'll have a lot of good episodes coming in the next few weeks. Greg, thank you. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.