Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #266: Costa Rica v USA recap (WCQ14)

Episode Date: March 31, 2022

We're going back to the World Cup. Greg and Belz recap the game in San Jose and go on a ramble about the end of qualifying and tomorrow's World Cup draw. 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're going to the World Cup. That's the most important thing. It's the only thing, really. The draw is tomorrow and we're all going to be hyped once we know who we are going to play in November. Greg, how's the planning going for the scuffed summit. Man, I think people are excited for that. You know, we've had basically a three-day denouement. Is that how you say it, Bells? I don't know that phrase. I don't know. know of celebrating because we effectively knew we were in after the panel game on Sunday. And then this 90 minutes of actually watching the fellows kind of sleepwalk their way to the actual celebration. Antichlomactic, of course. But that's the way of things.

You know, we kind of, we're used to that dynamic. I feel like now, not with the national team, but we see it now like in Champions League, right, where you have two leg of ties and one team's up four zero going into the second leg and it's academic. but they still have to go through the motions of playing the second game out. Well, usually academic. In the case of IACs a couple years ago, maybe less academic. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was an odd night, for me at least, to be so happy that we're going to the World Cup, but also frustrated about this loss, which once again, we cannot conquer Costa Rica away.

In fact, we were, you know, we were conquered by it again. Well, I honestly think something that plays into that, and we're about to get into the lineups here, is the lineup we chose. Like, that almost set us up for this, like, oh, we're doing it. We're going for it. And then the play on the field didn't match that, like, ambition. So it was like, oh, we're going to go for this win. And then when we kind of got the product, which wasn't always terrible, don't get me wrong. But it just didn't feel like a team that was really getting after it.

So I think that played into how it was a bit more, like, disappointing just in the 90. minutes. I thought the first half was pretty good. I think you're right. We didn't have the look of a team that was going for the jugular, but we did, but, you know, we did create chances and, you know, could have done better on some of them. I mean, then in the broadest sense.

The dynamic that actually reminded me of is also a bit familiar, and it's, it's something we're usually on the other end of, and it's when we would play friendlies against, like, really high-profile teams, right? We'd get Brazil in to come play in the U.S. to take a payday, and you could tell they were very much on the field taking a payday, just kind of, you know, half-hardly doing the things they do. And then suddenly, like, their quality just showed

and they'd be, you know, in doing something outrageous. And we're like, oh, geez, where does that come from? And I kind of thought that was my kind of sense of this game, is we were in the first half just kind of going through the motions, but then suddenly, like, the three guys closest to the ball could snap and do something and they're good enough relative to the Costa Rica rotated side that we could get a chance. Let's do the lineups.

Yeah, let's talk about who those players were doing those things. Zach Stephan, in goal, once again, there will be more to say on that shortly. DeAndre Yedlin, Walker Zimmerman, Miles Robinson, and Anthony Robinson across the backline. Yedlin, of course, was rested in the Panama game because he was out with a suspension. Zimmerman, Miles, and Anthony, this was the third game starting in the window for all three of them, right? Correct. And this would be the third straight. full 90 for Anthony Robinson.

And boy, could you tell at the, you know, in the second half of this game in San Jose. Tyler Adams at the 6, Eunice Musa and Kellan Acosta at the 8. A little bit, you know, a decision there from, in my opinion, a decision from Burhalter to play Acosta over Luca Deletore, who came on later at the half. And then Tim Wea, Ricardo Pepe, and Christian Pulisick across the front line. So it did, like you said, the lineup did have the feel of like, all right, Burrhalter's going for it. You know, he's going to go for that historic win in Costa Rica. I mean, it's the exact same lineup we put out at the Azteca, right?

This was the away lineup at the Azteca. And part of me thinks like, I mean, there's a couple different rationales here that I think would totally make sense. I don't have a beat on Burhalter's exact mindset. But, you know, as much as we were celebrating, it wasn't totally clinched, right? we still had to actually see through this game without conceding six goals. And we don't know for sure what Costa Rica is going to do with their lineup. Like they might, I know they had those yellows to worry about.

And they hinted that they were going to rotate. But we didn't know that. So we put out a lineup that's like, okay, these players are going to make sure we don't give up six goals. And in an away game. And so if the away lineup to do that is Adams, Musa and Acosta, I get it. The other thing it could be is it could just be kind of like, a pat on the back lineup. Like, hey, well done, fellas.

Like, you went out and did the job. You get to start this last game that's a formality. That makes me think that, you know, how valuable was that point in Mexico City, ultimately, quite valuable. We ended, I mean, we didn't say this at the top. We ended the, we ended the, not the hexagonal, the octagonal, even on points with Costa Rica for fourth, you know, tied for third place, but we beat them on goal differential.

So we got to the auto qualification by the slimmest of margins. So I'm going to take some exception there. You know, we talked we've talked all campaign about how we've kind of burned some of our cushion. And at the final day, yes, the cushion ends up. It totally burned and we get through on goal difference. But I think that's a little misleading. Like this game was a dead rubber, right? So it doesn't really tell the whole story because we don't know what would have happened

had we had to have actually gone for a point here. And I also want to make kind of a similar point about the hypothetical about rotation in Mexico. Clearly, what Burrhalter chose to do worked very well. Like he went for it in Mexico, got his point. But I don't think people can point to this performance and be like, see, that's why it was so important to go for it in Mexico. Because it's sort of double dipping because the whole point of people who wanted to rotate in Mexico was to not have this super tired performance by the players who started three games in Costa Rica. So we would have had, you know, if we'd gone through that other universe where we had rotated players ahead of time in Mexico, we would have had some fresher legs here that might

very well have been the difference in a game where we didn't look terrible even with tired legs. It's a good point. And I guess also it's become clear at this point that the Aztec is a much easier place to play than Estadio Nacional. We've now gotten a draw both of the last two times we've played in Mexico. Francisco City. Three straight.

Three straight cycles. 14, 18, and now 22. Did we get a draw in 14? Oh, yeah. You're going to took them down there. Got to draw. Okay. So we've sorted that out.

We just, we haven't sorted out San Jose. All right. Mexico, I'm sorry. Costa Rica's lineup was Kaila Navas, of course, and goal. Martinez, Chaconne, Waston, Vargas, and Escobar across the back line, Moora and Gallo and Brandon Aguilera and Jewellera and Jewellson Bennett. I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that correctly across the band of four and then Contreras as the striker. And that's a very, like as has been reported several places, that's an even younger lineup than the U.S. starting

lineup in this game. Even with Navas and Waston in there as the senior citizens. And I think plenty to be encouraged about if you're a Costa Rica fan. I'm particularly thinking of Bennett and Aguilera. They both seem like pretty nice players and young. Good on Costa Rica, by the way, and we'll talk about it. But the scene after their first goal with the players rushing to the opposite corner from where their corner kick was taken and their entire bench flooding in their vests down to meet them, that was pretty moving.

I was like, man, that's pretty cool. Knowing that this doesn't actually change anything, right? Knowing that this isn't going to get them out of the playoff, like just to be able to celebrate the kids doing what they did, I thought it was cool. I'm a softie. Yeah, no, totally. And ultimately, they played it kind of perfectly.

They spared everyone who was on a yellow card from a suspension in their, what they clearly presumed was a foregone conclusion of a playoff game against a team from Oceana. New Zealand coming up. Okay. And then, and they beat us and gave their home crowd something to be, something to cheer about with a bunch of youngsters. So they got to feel good about what happened. Should we do any big picture stuff before we get in the timeline?

I mean, let's, you want to just, why don't we just take on the whole Stefan thing right away? I mean, that's the, that's the big story from the match. It really is because, because the, because the outwe, the outwe, come was so irrelevant. I think that the big takeaway for us for any future consideration is, is sort of the Zach Stephan trend continuing of him just sort of leaving the goal wide open for the opponents. Do you want to describe the sequence,

bells? Yeah. So, I mean, we're obviously skipping ahead to the second half, but both of the goals happened in that second half. The first one happened in the, like,

right around the 50-minute mark. Aguilera, a left-footed player number 20 on the field, he took all their set pieces, or at least most of them. And they were good. And he hit one, and Juan Pablo Vargas rises unmarked between Zimmerman and Acosta and hits a header that's not incredibly well-placed. It's to Stefan's left, but very much within reach without even having to move. And he doesn't save it. I think before we before we get to Stefan I think

Acosta was sort of I think tasked with putting him off as he was running at the goal and didn't succeed so much at that I guess Zimmerman's task is to rise and get to the ball first and he doesn't succeed at that so but then

Stefan's task is to save it and he doesn't succeed at that yeah that all checks out I mean how bad of how bad of a miss is this if we're going to use striker parlance for a goalkeeper. So this is the one where I actually come to Stefan's defense, at least against sort of the flood of

criticism that I think he's faced on this one. It's savable, right? It's one of those he can do better here. But any ball that is essentially hit that isn't directly into your body from that range gets through sometimes, right? You actually see it a lot like

through the legs, right? That kind of thing. It's almost like a hockey goal at that point where you're just hoping to be big and hoping the ball. hits you. So it's tough. It's tough to be like he has to save that. You know, like I just,

especially on this one, his timing isn't perfect. You can see that as that ball's hitting the head of the attacker, he's still flat on his feet. He hasn't started his little lift. And then he's, so he's not settling into the balls of his feet to then explode. You get a good contrast on that from Keeler Navas on one of the sequences I'm sure we'll

talk about, where he does have like optimal timing. because he's Kailor Navas. But the other, even then, I'm coming to Stefan's defense a little bit because when a ball's hit into a forest of bodies like that, you don't actually know,

the goalkeeper can't actually tell exactly when it is going to be headed. So it's not as easy to time your, your little lift and settle as it is, even on that Miles Robinson chance that he smashes it, where it's just Robinson all alone. You see him wind up, you know exactly when he's going to hit it. So you can do that perfect sort of technique.

So that's me basically kind of given Stefan a bit of a defense. It would have been an excellent save. He probably does make those saves sometimes. Other keepers are also capable of doing it. So I don't know, man, that's the long way of saying those are going to be tough to litigate as one-off plays. And so it's always going to come down to, is it a trend that Stefan gets beat on these or as slightly off footwork? Or is this just a single case and we can't draw too many conclusions from it? but it but it is a trend right i mean his he him not getting his footwork right is is uh is very much a

trend i believe that is the case yeah i think in for the u.s like we can look at a lot of examples uh of him being a little bit off with his timing and leaving him less explosiveness he's a big dude like he's a long guy so he can sometimes get away with that anyway uh but i do think that is a weakness of his game and i think it's been it it was was being pointed out even when he was with Columbus, that he didn't always have these super solid fundamentals. Okay, well, then let's go to the second goal. It happened about 10 minutes later, just under 10 minutes later. Another set piece, this one is not a corner, but a free kick from the left sideline, left from the Costa Rica point of view. And Stefan comes out to claim it,

and he kind of runs into Anthony Robinson, who's jumping for it and doesn't claim it. It's it spills out of his hands. And he's, so then he's sort of like in a standoff. I forget who the shooter is on the second, on the shot, but he makes a save. It's hit right into his body. And then it sprays out wide. And it seemed to me, forgive me for editorializing here a little bit, but it seemed to me that he was a little slow to get back to his goal.

And like, I mean, like, just kind of casual about it. And Zimmerman's, so Zimmerman is there standing very, very, very, deep by the near post because he has to be because Stefan is so slow to return to the goal. And then I think it's Bennett who just kind of like thumps it across the box. I don't know if it was a shot or a pass, but he just kind of wax at it. And it comes careening into the six. And because Zimmerman is so close to the post, there are three guys on Mark who are on side, you know, crashing at the back post.

and one of them thumps it in from point-blank range to zero. And this is just what we talked about from the last game, right? Like it's the walkabout. And this one's a little tougher to, like, put in that same category because he gets to the ball. If he just catches this, the ball that hits his hands, then suddenly it's like good command of his box. But his technique or his decisions off because in that traffic, obviously another very acceptable decision would be to punch the ball away, which gives everybody time to not have to score. scramble to cover for the goalkeeper who's 12 yards out of the goal. But instead, he fumbles, and now he are in this scramble mode.

And like, it is. It's just, it's way too much of a trend that I just don't know how you can ignore this. Again, given the fact that he is not the stronger keeper at the shot stopping, which we can be pretty confident of, given the statistical evidence. And even in his distribution, those decisions in execution have put us in tough spots. So the thing that he is supposed to be so strong at that it outweighs everything else, he hasn't been a differentiator in. And in fact, even his distribution has harmed us at times. So for me, like, this has to have settled the case that he is not the number of goalkeeper.

I don't know if it actually will. But it just is more and more clear each window that there's very little actual rationale for Stefan being the guy. Where are you? The distribution thing is what really gets me, because I do, I do acknowledge he is better with his feet than Matt Turner. Like he is, he is a better sort of with his feet soccer player than Matt Turner. But like, how much better? Like a little bit, like, what's the, what's the, what's the upshot of that betterness? It's not, it doesn't seem significant to me.

It doesn't seem, it doesn't seem like it changes the equation very much at all. And that just gets repeated all the time. I mean, even on Twitter, somebody was telling me his quote-unquote unmatched distribution. Like unmatched in the sense of a snowflake is unmatched. Like everybody's distribution is slightly different. I don't know, man. So I even want to make a distinction again between like the actual, his technical ability, which I'm willing to concede is better than Turner's.

I don't actually know because I haven't watched a ton of like Turner. trying to float balls to players, you know, that Stefan attempts. But Stefan does have that ability, right? But in application, maybe because he has that ability, he tries to do some things that he shouldn't try to do or takes risks that, again, have not been in the big picture in any way helpful and actually are harmful. Like he'll play guys who are in tough spots and put them in, he'll essentially create pressing trigger cues for the opponent.

you know, he hit that ball to Zimmerman where he just missed the execution. So Zimmerman chases it to the sideline against Mexico, and that led to a chance. He put Musa in a tough spot, and Musa then had a bad giveaway led to a chance. Yesterday, I think he put D'Andre Yedlin in a tough spot with an early goal kick. He's playing to a guy who has no options right away. So once Costa Rica makes that pressing decision, we're in a bind. I think in the Panama game, like he took a free kick while he was on the sideline and played it short. and now Zimmerman's getting pressed and we are totally out of shape.

So it's like these decisions he's making aren't helpful. Like his distribution decisions aren't somehow benefiting us nearly enough or doll. So it doesn't make any sense to me, man. And the other thing is we've used the free throw analogy, right? The free throw shooter? Yes. Where basketball you get a technical foul, you get to choose your shooter. And it's like, okay, well, if you have an 85% shooter, in an 80% shooter, you always take the 85%.

percent shooter. It's an obvious choice. It might not make that big of a difference. The 80% shooter is still going to make a lot of free throws. And, you know, I was just in the Discord saying, talking about the World Cup. This was before, I think even before the Panama game. I was like, Stefan probably, it's good, there's a good chance that Stefan probably will not hurt us in the World Cup if he gets those games. It's four games. So it would have to be some really specific goals conceded that like Stefan would concede them, but a better shot stopper wouldn't concede them. Those are the only subset of goals that would make a material difference. And over four games, you might not have any, right? An 80% free throw shooter is probably going to

make his free throws over three games. You might not see the difference. But now it's like, Stefan is adding this new wrinkle where it's like the free throw shooter is like committing a lane violation three out of his last 10 times. And you can't like, you can't even rely on him to stay on the free throw line. That's a head like is a huge change to the experiment. I mean the the reality here is that Burrhalter is extremely loyal to Stefan or you know extremely committed to starting him in the goal and I and I guess I guess I'm I kind of rue the fact that Turner didn't do a better job on that Kyle Laring goal like it would because it because it adds a you know it adds a layer of complexity to the decision and a layer of um I don't know narrow

narrative strength to the to Stefan starting that that Turner did not do a better job of trying to keep that out of the goal but yeah I don't I don't know I if what do you think do you think Burrhalter is is now you know questioning whether Stefan is the number one I do think you will and it's it's in part because he has a lot of evidence that Matt Turner can make you know game breaking saves from the Gold Cup that was a lot of games where he's he had a weaker 11 or 10, you know, 10 in front of him. And he, like, carried us, right? Stefan doesn't have that.

And Stefan doesn't carry us with his distribution. So I do think that Burhalter is going to have to, you know, do that mental math and figure out, like, I might not be able to ride this goalkeeper through, because, especially because of this new added liability. And if he does, he's got to like basically take stephen aside and be like, hey, cut it out. Like this bit where you're going where you're going out of pocket and just kind of freelancing all over the place, knock it off. Otherwise, knock it off. Otherwise, I don't know, man. Like that just, I have nightmares about that for like crashing out of World Cup that way. That would just be brutal.

crashing out of the World Cup on that first goal, like maybe Turner would have had it, but that's, it's tough, those are tough. The second goal, if we go out because of something like that, which has happened in so many games now for Zach Steffen, that's going to be like, yeah, we probably shouldn't have started that guy. Well, you know, I mean, and even in this game, for all the talk of several of our players being gassed

and, you know, us being sluggish, and we will talk about some of that. We out XG'd Costa Rica in Costa, Costa Rica. I can't remember. I didn't check the possession stats. I should do that right now. But I think we outpossessed them at least. I got to hear from foot mob at 6535 in favor of the U.S. Yeah. We out ex-G'd Costa Rica in Costa Rica. We outpossessed them pretty easily. I mean, I know it was a, I know it was not a Costa Rica A team, but we didn't play a terrible game.

And maybe we should, now that we've dealt with with Stefan, gate. Let's go to, let's go back to the beginning of the game and kind of go through some stuff, a lot of which is going to be good. Yeah, that's what I think that's exactly right. I think the timeline, your chronology here is going to show that we, again, I keep saying goals, goals drive the narrative. And the timeline here is going to be like, we created some, some Panama level chances. And instead of, you know, hitting the unlikely header into the corner of the goal, Kailer Navasra defender cleared out. And so now suddenly we, we were bad instead of, you know, being lights out.

Yeah. That's not, that doesn't tell the whole story, of course. We created far fewer chances than we did against him. Yeah, we did. And, um, but, well, let's get to him. So the, um, you know, we have, we got way on the right and I think at least in the first half, he was, he was once again pretty dangerous and a bit of a problem for Costa Rica. Um, I don't know that Pulisic was as much of a problem for them, but, uh,

Let's see. Let me get to the first good chance. The first good chance is in the 13th minute, right after the 12-minute mark. Good link up from Wea and Pepe. Wea slips Pepe into the channel down and behind in the channel, right of the goal, and he takes a shot from a tight angle and draws a good save from Navas. I mean, a pretty routine save for Kailor Navas, but we had some debate about this on all our very,

all our various chat rooms, but I did think he should have squared it for Pulisic. I, you know, and then Travis Clark put a screenshot, sent a screenshot that's, that showed Pulisic behind the guy marking him at the point, at the moment that Pepe is shooting, which is, it's a fair point, but that's kind of how soccer works, you know, you see how, you see where your teammates are moving, and you pass into the space they are moving into, and he was moving, you know, Pulisic was coming near post. Pulisic himself was a little frustrated that Pepey's, you know, he was, didn't square it to him.

And I just don't think, my opinion is I don't think Peppy's going to beat Kailenavos from that angle, unless he hits like an absolute worldly. And he should have played it into that space in front of the near post. Or at least a little bit back, you know, maybe closer to the penalty marker to give Fulisic the chance to run onto it. So I think I agree with everything you're saying and still don't really have a big issue with it being Pepe doing this. And it's not because, like, I think he needs to break his drought or anything like that.

I just think it's almost like an expectation thing. I totally think that the correct play, like the optimal play, looking from the camera angle of like a blimp and being able to see everything. And like you're saying, you see where Pulisik was. And then you see where he's going to be compared to where the defender can be. So where could you put a ball that only Pulisic can get it? It's super doable, I think. Which means that's the optimal play to score a goal there.

and that's what I want to happen. It's so easy for us to see that. And we are really spoiled because a lot of the soccer we watch when we're not watching the U.S. play is like the highest level of soccer. We're not always putting on like Darby County versus Southampton. So we usually are watching Bayern Munich and we're watching Man City and we're watching these outrageous teams who are outrageous because they so often do the exact right thing that you can see from an overhead camera angle. and it just doesn't really work like that from the field level when you're not at that caliber of play. So Pepe just is not going to always be able to know,

have that sense that Pulisic is about to gain half a step on his man and if he can just square it, it's a tap in. So from the play, thinking of it from Pepe's perspective and who Pepe is as a player, as an 18-year-old player at the level he plays at, it's like, yep, he's going to shoot that. Yeah, that's, I, I mean, I'm not going to disagree very strongly with that.

I'm not trying to pick on peppy. I'm just, yeah, I'm just, I guess I'm just talking about what's optimal. Yeah, and we say that all the time. I think we were talking about Tim Wea, and I think he had a similar situation after that really slick move with Weston McKinney and the Honduras home match that got him all the way to the six. And the keeper was rushing out to meet him, I believe. And instead of squaring it for a tap,

and he had his shot blocked as well. So it was peppy. He should have squared it, too. Okay, there you go. So turn about foul play. Oh, my. My goodness, Jinks. Good little movement, though, again, that's one of those sequences where I was saying,

like, we can be sleepwalking and still Costa Rica made a mistake there, right? I think a loose touch from a guy out on the left wing, and Yedlin pounces on it, and on his pounce, he, like, pings it directly up to Pepey, who it's now like two-on-two with Pepe and Wea, and that's where our quality can just sort of shine against a rotated Costa Rica team, and we can create a chance even in a game where we're not super intent on creating anything. Because remember, we come into this game with a five and a half goal lead, effectively, and we have no incentive to really go from anything else. And not only no external incentive, but a lot of the guys don't even have that much of an internal incentive because Christian Pulisic isn't out here fighting for a World Cup spot on the roster. You know what I mean?

He's out here as a victory lap. And I'm sure there's some moments where like the competitive instinct takes over, but there are going to be other moments where it's like, I don't need to make this run. This run gains nothing for me right now. I'm just going to hang out. I suppose. Yeah, I think, I mean, do we want to win the game or do we not? You know, that's the message from the camp that we're going to go on in here. We want to win every game we play.

You do want to. Maybe that's just talk. You want to, but what your brain's telling you and what your legs that have put in 160 minutes, summit altitude are telling you, can just be having a little battle. in the moment. I think also Pepe is fighting for a job in the World Cup.

And you can't fault his effort. The kid plays his hard out. Oh, yeah. And I noticed in the 15th minute some really good 1V1 defense from Anthony Robinson. He gets, he chases a guy down. And you guys all saw it

and he forced the guy to dribble out of bounds, which, you know, after 180 minutes of running touch line to end line for him to do that in this game you just got to we got to be grateful for Anthony Robinson I think

as a fan base and he's another great example too of like the fatigue and how it can affect you because he would like race back to do this right and there were times where he would race up field with the ball and it's because or at least I think it's still related to that idea of like when it's just you

in the picture when it's like you're on the ball, you are going to work, everyone's working their socks off. You're not just going to not try on that play and give up. But also like the fatigue you can see is apparent with someone like Anthony Robinson, once they have to actually have the energy and the coordination to make that last action. So Anthony might make a huge run-up field with the ball like he had a couple of. But when he actually has to get the plant foot right and get the striking foot right as the pressure is coming in, that's where it's breaking down. And I thought that was where the fatigue showed for a lot of players was that last action.

Eunice Moose had a bunch of those too. He does a lot of the things right at the beginning of the play, like the macro level, but then to get the very last bits right, the energy just runs out right at that last moment. Same with Tyler Adams, too. Yeah. It's true that when you have to, you know, when you have to dribble by a guy and then exert yourself to make the, you know, to get your body in the right shape, to make exactly

the right pass, that all takes like explosive effort. and that stuff is that stuff was not coming off for Anthony. I say that in love. Like, you know, the ball was not doing what he wanted it to do, especially in the second half. I should mention, since I, you know, since I often point out Adams is not that great at progressing the ball. In the seventh minute, going back a second, he hit an absolute dime to DeAndre Yedlin in the corner, like a really, really nice diagonal ball. And I think that was like after it had just been reported that he was getting some spray on him or something. something. And so we're all terrified and like get him out of the game. And then as we're all

panicking, he settles the ball and hits that, uh, hits that diagonal. We're like, okay, well, he seems okay for that. That's not be that bad off. Yeah. Um, let's see. Miles got into some messiness in the, around the 18 minute mark and got a, like, foul the guy who, who megged him. He's been megged in two or the last three games, Miles Robinson has. What did you think, what did you make of his performance overall. I thought he just sort of was putting in the shift. I know it's like a lazy way of saying it. Even the foul here is like, okay, that's a good foul.

The guy beat you. It's not good that you got beat. But taking the foul in what probably should have been a yellow card but wasn't for some reason, right? He didn't get caution there. I don't think he did, no. Yeah. So I think, I mean, he like jabbed the guy in the face.

It looked like an offensive lineman drill. And again, that's a smart play once you're beat. I don't know. I mean, it's, again, I don't want to put too much into individual performances here because the outfield players seem so ready to just do the job to get out of there with a not six zero loss. Yeah. Yes. But you tell me, did you have some things where you're like, this is a red flag for me? Red flag is too strong.

I just, I found it. I just thought his performance was a little, a little more unconvincing than Zimmerman's. and I mean because actually I didn't think Zimmerman's was all that unconvincing other than him not winning the header on the first goal that he was more or less fine I don't know mile you know miles isn't as good in the air as Walker is and uh and then you know he had a few moments of messiness maybe indecision I'm not like you know this isn't a screed against Miles Robinson so uh 22nd minutes so good so good from Tyler Adams to track down. You know, Navas saw the opportunity to kick it way long. And I forget who was chasing it down for Costa Rica, but Tyler Adams beat him to it, won the ball, drew a foul, danger averted.

That's what he does. Yeah, no, it's really good. The 30th minute, a really good blow-by from Musa, you know, that sort of hesitation dribble he does, and coming down the right channel. and then he gives it away on the past. So kind of a good example of what you were talking about, where the first action is,

the first action of an action is good, but maybe the third action of that action not as good. Yeah, and even that, I think this is the one where he's like running it through midfield with the ball vertically, right? Yep. And there's a great camera angle of this, which we have to specify now,

because the Fox production for the Panama game was abysmal for tactics nerds, with all the cutaways to crowds and coaches and close. subs. This was great. Everyone's running away from him. He doesn't have an easy pass. Like, if he wanted to maintain possession, he'd either need to continue dribbling forward, which he's not going to have the legs to do. He probably like sees that big open space in front. It was like, that's too much. I can't keep carrying the ball this far. Or he would have had to have like turned back,

shielded it and reset. So I feel like you wanted to get something out of that little shoulder faint. So we tried to force it upfield super easily intercepted. And then they're coming back at us and it's this Bennett. Benet guy, who ends up one-v-one with Tyler Adams. And this is the first time where I thought, oh boy, Tyler is not fully himself because he just gets worked by Bennett, who does a slick little pullback. I think it was Contreras, who tries to croy fit into the goal, doesn't quite beat Zimmerman, I believe, the defender.

And then Tyler Adams clears it off the, essentially off the goal line. I'm not accusing Stefan of doing a walkabout on this one I just think the ball spilled to Adams Yeah good good defending here from Zimmerman And yes the thing here was definitely Adams Just getting kind of shook Just to allow that cross

Yeah And I noticed at this point that There was another good combo from the US And a cross from Yedlin after Pulis It was fouled The ref played advantage the cross went through. But I did notice at this point in the game,

Adam's starting to get battleshiped a little bit. Not a word that I use for Tyler Adams. First time it's ever been done. But yes, I was going to bring that up to that cross he allowed is sort of exactly the kind of cross that John Brooks allows, like in the Bundesliga that people will point out. And I'm just like, yeah, sometimes people give up crosses. But yes, it does seem bigger.

I think Adams even has a couple of those for Leibzig this year. There were some rough moments in the box 1 v1. But yeah, it isn't something that we usually associate with him, certainly in a World Cup qualifiers from U.S. I'm thinking of like in the middle of the field, he would, you know, he would try to step and it was, you know, he was a tad late and then he'd just get eliminated. And, you know, his first touch was really heavy on a few occasions. I thought Acosta wasn't as noticeably sluggish as Adams, to me, to my eyes at least,

but he was playing a little bit slowly when he got the ball. and also not really sharp in his duels. So, and yet, you know, Costa Rica wasn't really threatening us that much. No, I was going to say, that was like that cutback is basically the first time that we've had to worry at all about our goal. I mean, there was very early there was Aguilera having a rip from 22 yards or so. Yeah. I mean, I checked all their shots and, yeah, it was very much just like real speculative. stuff. Yeah, for sure.

41st minute, a nice combo from Musa and Jedi. Then so nice for Musa to beat his guy on the end line and flick it across the goal mouth. It's in, it's in Wea's direction. But good defending from Costa Rica. I think the guy, the defender puts, you know, gets in between Wea and the ball, and the ball skips past them both. and then weigh out in the 43 minute dribbles well after an entry pass from Zimerman

and gets fouled in Zone 14 Acosta takes I think his second free kick from about this area of the goal and it's once again blocked by the wall or in this case it was just headed over by the wall no stoppage time and it's half time and Luca comes on for Adams and Acosta moves to the six

which seemed like a prudent decision to me that was the other thing I kept thinking too even as we were kind of going through these motions It was like, okay, well, we go through the motions, even the referee going through the motions, not bringing yellow cards out after clear yellow card infractions again, had that feel of a friendly. And so then I'm like, well, we got through this and now we can steal it because we'll probably put on several, like, fresher players who might be a little bit hungry for something. So I was hoping that that would be the outcome with Luca coming on.

Well, Luca was, I think, quite sharp in the game. And he was pushing things. Yeah. his first pass was a little errant right to who's trying to play a square pass to Kossin gave it away but after that pretty much I mean you could say he didn't put a foot wrong and I thought he was plenty physical enough for the opponent in this game we get maybe our best chances of the game come right after the half um Luca didn't have anything to do with him I'm just saying Luca was was I mean I think he played the pass before the foul maybe but

This is not about Luca. It's a set piece in the 48th minute from the left side. Miles Robinson rises and heads it and draws a good save from Navas. He's sprawled out to get to it. And then Pepe tracks it down over on the end line, clips it in with his left foot to Wea, who brings it down and lashes one that's cleared off the line by a defender. Really cool the way Wea can do that.

Bring that down and get a good shot. shot off that way. It's basically it's crossing technique. I pulled the replay. I got to post it in the Discord still. I got caught up.

But it's exactly like the technique he uses to cross it. That's so surprising because he is not facing the goal when he does this. He's looking directly away from the goal and just has this outrageous hip swivel and can pack so much power in very little like motion to smash that ball

into the bottom corner of the goal. But for a really intelligent movement from the Costa Rica defense. or who you see you did you already say who blocked it? I didn't. Okay. I don't have that. So he's just not going to get the credit here.

But he's watching it develop. And I love this as a keeper. He's watching this play develop and he's up on the line as peppy dribbles away from the end line with his first touch. So he's doing all the right things to like hold the off side line. And then as it's getting squared to Way on Way is taking his touch. It's not his man. He instinctively like back pedals into the open portion of the goal.

And it's just acting as this extra goalkeeper. I really appreciate those things. Obviously, we didn't do that in the goal we conceded where Stefan went walk about. But to see it on display here just always warms my heart. They were packed. I mean, they had a bunch of people doing that, Costa Rica did. When there was a scramble like this, sometimes they'd have four or five people in the goal mouth. Yeah, I think Musa had one blocked off by six different outfield players too.

But this one was a, this one you can see, it's, novice is still on the goal, right? So this isn't one of those situations where it's like, oh, no, empty net. It's just that real good read of like what is about to develop. And by this player asking, like, how can I do as much as possible to protect the goal? Since I'm not called on right now to defend the ball. That's how they, I mean, it's that kind of thing that has that as well as having one of the greatest goalkeepers in the history of soccer is what has made, you know, Costa Rica a successful soccer nation for the past 15 years or so.

Yeah, because he, so this guy blocks it off the line. then it's still Zimmerman really good actually attacking instincts to have sealed off his man like in expectation of the rebound and then he's racing to the rebound and another like desperation guy coming in to try to block that. Zimmerman hits it over his foot well over the goal. Yeah. The defender did just enough to make it, I guess, make him hit it over the goal. And then we get the goal, that first goal from Costa Rica, which we've already talked about,

Juan Pablo Vargas with his head, rising between Zimmerman and Acosta. And we get a six minutes later, we get a decent left-footed effort from Pepe. I forget, I think it was Musa who passed it to him. Is that right? Yeah, it was a really slick buildup. It was Zimmerman had it in midfield. And this is the kind of thing. We broke in this kind of pattern down a lot because I think it is something we will be

able to offer at the World Cup too. hit way on the half space, right, in that exact pocket that we're looking for him. And he has a really deft layoff to Musa. Still nothing like crazy, but the seed is already there because his layoff allows Musa to step into it on the run and outrace the midfielder that would have been in the space around him. So he's able to cut out his defender and essentially cut out the guy who had tracked up with Wea.

He can run past him too. So now it's just Musa running free. We've got the AVP here. Musa slips in Peppy towards the corner of the box and if we got the full total football effect here, Wea had continued his movement after his layoff and Pepe could have then slipped in Wea

and then it would have been one of those like Arsenal YouTube clips from the early 2000s. But instead Pepe chose to have his shot. I mean even if he'd slipped in Wea there was still a lot to do. I'm not saying that would have been the breakway. There still would have been at least one more pass needed to create a shot. But that was like

again from the high angle bird's eye view that was the next total football move would have been a little peppy to Waya connection. But again, a decent shot. Smart save from Navas, where I honestly think from the reverse angle, you can see just how good he is, where he is actually like intentionally directing his rebound away from the guy crashing the far post.

It's Navas is a joy, and I really hope he is not injured. Yeah, me too, because I do want Costa Rica to beat New Zealand and go to the World Cup. I don't know if Pepe saw a way in this play, but he definitely did not see. pool assistant play we talked about earlier. He didn't, I don't think he, I don't think he perceived him visually at all. And I'm not saying that's bad. I mean, like you're saying, he's down in the maze.

He's like, he can't see everything we can see on the replay four times, you know. Yeah, and even the decision to shoot, even if he sees Wayas, you could definitely argue that Wayas movement is good to open up that shot for, for Pepe to draw a little bit of the attention away, and that's a good use of Wayas runs to have the shot. Then we get I have in my notes that I noticed Acosta was getting sloppier

At this point in the game And then we get the goal for Costa Rica I mean there was a I think Acosta missed Either Yedlin or Wea maybe on the right side It went out of bounds Costa Rica got the ball back They drew a foul

And this was the set piece Where Stefan went on the walkabout And The second goal And, you know, since we just talked about Costa Rica's like Goldmouthed scramble defense, that was also an issue for us here. It wasn't, I mean, Stefan created the fire, right, with his fumble. But then we didn't handle it perfectly, right?

Pepe tried to go out to, well, the overhead kick attempt was, or the acrobatic attempt to finish from Panama or from Costa Rica that Stefan blocked was awesome. Like I love that channeling Paula Ariola there. And then once that's blocked and goes out wide, Pepe's chasing it down. Acosta's closing down from the goal. So he's taking away some of the goal.

Miles gets in there and we're okay. We look okay. Zimmerman obviously has done the work to be the goalkeeper. But then it's Yedlin and Jedi who kind of leave us hanging on the weak side. Yedlin just starts like drifting upfield to not help at all. And Jedi knows the guys are there and just doesn't quite commit to like getting the burst to get goal side of them or even ball side. and so just a little bit lackluster, scrambled defense from those two guys,

and that's how the finish comes about. And I think, you know, it's fair to say, I think some people will say, hey, this game didn't matter. It's like you called it a dead rubber even. And they'll say it doesn't matter, like don't make a big deal out of it. But I guess if we're thinking about the, you know,

changing the way America, change the way the worldviews American soccer, or even changing the way Americans view American soccer, which I think is probably just as important, maybe more important than changing the way the worldviews of American soccer. You can't really say we took a step forward if we can't win any games on the road. And I mean, we did win the one game against Honduras against the historically bad Honduras. But I don't know, just I would, that's why I wanted to see us win this game or because then you could say, yes, we did, we did take a sense.

step forward. I don't know. I think I mostly agree with that. If, you know, if that's a goal, an objective, this game doesn't really do anything to further that goal. But getting to the World Cup, I mean, this is, this is like a tiny benchmark in the overall benchmark. If we're going to change anything, it's happening at the World Cup, right? If we win this game against Costa Rica, you and me are really excited. That's true. But, you know, like that game, you know, what doesn't actually, like, change the actual math of anything, isn't going to be capturing America's attention or imagination? That is very true.

Yeah, but like, you know, for us who are, we are sickos, the, yeah, what am I trying to say? I mean, I'm interested in things that I'm interested in, you know, and I'm interested in us winning, you know, away in Conccaf or, showing that we're a better team in World Cup qualifying than we have in the past. And I think you could argue that we play better now than we have in the past. But I think it gets kind of squishy. And if we still go down to Costa Rica and can't, you know, can't even get a draw. I'll totally give you that.

For me, this game couldn't have done it either way. And it was, I think the pregame crew for Paramount Plus was talking about it. It might have been Gooch being the wet blanket, just being like, this won't do it anyway. Costa Rica rested eight players. It's, you know, there's no stakes and we're not even playing their best side. This is a, this is an exhibition. And I, that, that seems really true to me too. Like, this isn't going to be the game that does it.

It would have been like an a huge asterisk on our first result in Costa Rica for a, for a hex or Ocho. Sorry, I'm, I just have such high standards for meaningful wins. No, fair enough. I got only a couple more items on the timeline here. Raina came on for Poo. Not I'm sorry, Raina came on for Wea at some point. And then in the 71st minute, we get a big chance. Raina gets an AVP off to the left side of the goal.

And he plays a pass to Pooley running in behind. Pooley making that run for his boy, Gio. And Raina megs the guy with the pass. It's really, it's very, very nice. And then Pulisic tries to cross it. Kaila Navas comes, you know, flying out at him and gets a foot to it. This is the play where he may have hurt himself. I don't know exactly what the latest on that is.

And it deflects off of Navas and then it falls to moose at the top of the box. And he has a very decent left-footed effort on the volley. And that is cleared off, like we said earlier, that's cleared off the goal line by one of six red, shirts that is gathered there in solidarity with their goalkeeper. The picture, the still frame I clip to that looks like a children's chorus all standing together in that formation. They're that bunched together in front of the goal. Singing Christmas carols.

Yeah, so one guy clears it off the line and Navas is working, scrambling to get back to the middle, like not being casual at all, like needs to get back to the goal with some urgency doing that. And do it like so urgently that he actually collides with a player who's already standing in the goal trying to protect it, who is moving towards the ball as well once it's hit. That's where the potential injury came from. Oh, it came from the collision with the player.

I thought it came from the way he landed as he came out. For me, it was, I don't know that he collided with the player, but in his, like, it's one of those things where when two players go for that ball at the same time, there's like an awkward body control issue where you're trying to, like, also stop your momentum before you collide. And I thought it was something there where he might have, like, planted wrong. trying to prevent the collision. Yeah.

Hope he's okay. And then our last real chance of the game comes in the 75th minute. When Ferreira drops in to receive the ball from Zimmerman, he one touches it to Raina, still quite a distance from the goal. And Raina weaves down the right channel and has a shot from a difficult angle that goes over. Yeah, I love Ferrer's touch there. I think that's going to be, again, an avenue.

We've seen Ferrer do this with Dallas now and with the U.S. pretty consistently per game. Like it's at least one time where he at least frees a player up towards the goal. I know that's not a super high bar, but that's what this one was. This wasn't as clearly like putting someone in, but he gets the ball to Geo very efficiently for Geo to do some Geo stuff. That's pretty valuable.

Yes. Also valuable is Geo's ability to do Geo stuff. Boy, he still looked really sharp in this game, even though it wasn't, you know, it wasn't that, like we've been talking about, not the level of intensity of, say, the game, even that game against Panama up 4-0 when he came on. Navas comes off in the 79th minute, and there's a, you know, it's a very emotional, pretty emotional scene in Costa Rica. He is truly a legend, and it's cool to watch him play,

even though it's frustrating that we can't score. We didn't even cover the Miles Robinson hit in any detail. I think we skipped over that in the first half highlight timeline. Boy, Robinson just smoked that. So I went through the, I went the super slow-mo from the reverse angle there too. And it's incredible that Navas gets his hands up to it. If he hadn't gotten his hands to it, it would have struck him in the face. It would have been glancing off the left half of his face.

And he would have ended up being like a Batman villain. but as it was, not only does he get his hands there, but he's still able to take a ton of the sting out of the ball. I know it's dicey that he has to get to it before it crosses over, but he still is in like, I can cushion this ball and not just like palm it away. He's pretty incredible.

Yeah, it got through, but just barely, and then he snatched it off the line. At that point, it felt like both sides were just kind of trying to see out the game. We were headed to the world. Yeah, I just wanted to add one more thing on Gio. Please. For the whole window. So I'm very, I'm super open.

I'm curious about seeing Gio in the midfield, especially because we've got Timway and Christian Pulisic already being very effective in these half space areas. And we, you know, if we're thinking of ways to get all three of them on the field, that seems like a pretty obvious one. But also, like, to see how dangerous he has been in his limited minutes as the half space merchant coming in as that winger doesn't immediately make me go, see, this is why he needs to play central midfield. Like, he might be able to do that and it would be cool.

I want to see what it looks like. But also, like, he has been outrageously dangerous by being the winger in our system. And part of that is the freedom that comes with being the winger to go into the middle and be able to be an extra man there to get the ball and then do what you can do. But, like, I am a little bit surprised at everyone being like, that obviously means he should be playing central midfielder for us. Not everyone, but that sentiment. Yeah, I guess I'm curious about it too.

I'm curious to see it. And it does feel like we need to get him on the field and Wea and Pulisic. We want to be at our best. Have you, can I interest you in Gio Raina Falls Nine? I don't hate that either. But it's the same as with Tim Weyer, right? Like there was talk about maybe Wea could play forward for us. And he might be able to.

I would welcome that data as well, but he has looked incredibly dangerous as the winger. So it's like, okay, well, I don't necessarily, I'm not super eager to take him off of there. I'm kind of wondering, like the other takeaway maybe from this game in particular, besides the Stefan bit, to actually learn from for what we can do at the World Cup, is the rotation piece, right? A lot of these guys played three games.

Clearly, we're losing stamina by game three. The World Cup is going to be three games in fairly short order in the group stage. Not quite as a sharp of a turnaround. You get one extra day of rest. So you play a game. You have three full days and then you play your next game. Whereas here it was play a game two full days and then you play your next game. And we won't have the altitude issue.

But we will have, I think, some heat. I don't know exactly what the daytime temperatures are going to be, the evening temperatures. But it's just a matter of like when we're talking about we have geo and Pulisic and Weiheye. and if they're all fit, are we losing out by not having them all in the field at the same time? It could just be where we get to rotate one for each game, so they aren't forced to put all of that mileage on those legs and on those lungs. That's a good point. I feel like I've read that the stadiums are going to be air-conditioned.

Isn't that right? I mean, like... I mean, I read a lot of things about the technology that Qatar was going to invent for the World Cup. Maybe they will be. I don't know. And I also don't actually know what the temperatures. It might cool off quite a bit once the sun goes down. But anyway, like just the effect of the intensity and the, you know, the normal exertion,

even aside from anything else, it could lend itself well to you run two out of the three as a starters each game and you're in good shape to have the entire group stage covered with really good wingers. Yeah. Okay. Well, we qualify for the World Cup, and it was not an unbridled, you know, because of all this that we just discussed, not an unbridled celebration last night. We had a call-in show for patrons, which was kind of fun, but it was kind of weird because, like, you know, some people were kind of mad about the game. And even though we had qualified for the World Cup.

Even if they weren't mad, it just didn't have the full, like, joyousness, right? Yeah. And to be fair, we had the full joyousness on Sunday. Exactly. I think we all did. So it'd be kind of silly to do it twice, wouldn't it? But the draw is tomorrow. I think I mentioned that earlier.

Should we talk about the pots a little bit? Like, do you have anything else to say about this game? I didn't mean to cut you off. No, this, again, it was an academic as a soccer contest. And that was very clear because even after Costa Rica scored their second goal, they weren't like urgently racing to get back to be like, we got it, boys, four more. And you didn't have the U.S. players like pointing at their temples like, come on, fellas,

zero, zero. We got to stay sharp. Like it was clearly like a friendly. And my only worry was that like a couple of U.S. guys might get caught up in like the frustration and the crowd getting into it for Costa Rica after they took the lead and like maybe lashing out. at some point in taking a straight red, which would suspend them for the group stage opener, but we avoided that too.

Yeah. No injuries, no suspensions going into. Who were you most worried was going to lash out in frustration? Probably Poulsick. I always worry about Wayak because I feel like he will just, like, throw a little sneaky foot at someone when he's going to ground or something. So there's always that concern. But I think it was probably Poulisick. Poulisick, I mean, there should have been a yellow given in the first half.

He's getting beat up and he wants to win, even if he doesn't have the legs for it. You know, the guy wants to win. Should have given, yellow should have been given to Chaconne who fouled him like four times in a row. Concaf referees aren't going to be eager to suspend Concaf players for the playoff. I'm not really saying that the SEC official screwed us over here, but. Is that guy Canadian? Is that rough Canadian? I believe so.

I think I saw people saying that. And then My answer to who I was worried Might Get a Red was Gio Raina Because he got He got fouled once And he

There's a little bit of intent In his footsteps As he was running towards the left back And I was like No, no No That's what I'm saying Like a tiny little moment

Of like a little step A stomp or something If the camera catches it That's it Like you can't just be like Ah but it was just a little stamp Like that'd be it And we'd be missing a guy

For a group stage game avoid it Oswell That ends well We're the third best team in Concaf Via goal difference So we're in Pot 2 The draw is tomorrow at 11 a.m. Central Time

I'll stick to Central Time Thank you. Appreciate it And pot two includes Us, Switzerland, Uruguay, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands the Netherlands, Mexico, and Croatia. So, you know, pretty good company in general. And we will not play any of those teams so we can be sure that we don't have to start scouting any of those.

We talked about this on the calling yesterday. I am super excited to get the pot, the draw results, so that I can instantly start looking at like all 22 players for each of our group stage opponents and just cutting endless amounts of clips of where they screw up. Well, looking at, so pot one, let's read who's in pot one. I'll read it real quick. It's Qatar, the host nation, of course. And then Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, and Portugal. Who's your, who's the team you most want to play out of that pot? I think it's Portugal, but it's going to take a while to, again, see if that actually is a good matchup. I also kind of would like England. One, the storylines are incredible. Two, at least from the Euros, they play super conservative, which I think is sound strategy or it can be. be sound strategy in these tournaments, but also, like, I still have this suspicion that lets the underdog stay in the game because their England don't push their attacking advantages

that they have as heavily as they could for fear of being caught out. And so I'm like, that could work for us, even though we don't do well against a bunger. If it's a superior team, then I'm fine just possessing the ball kind of aimlessly in that way that we do sometimes and just letting the clock run out and taking a draw against them in the group stage. A draw in the group stage would be phenomenal against the pot one. team. Yeah.

It would be fun to play Portugal and what, stick it to number seven. As long as RCR7 is there and in uniform, then I'd be, I'd be happy with that. And then pot three is Senegal. Sorry, sorry,

real quick, though. Awesome, even thinking about any of these matchups, right? This is what it's all about. And this is what we haven't had in so long is like a meaningful game against like a real good team.

Like we've been playing, even our friendlies have mostly been Kaka-Kaff teams. We had the one against Switzerland, but we've been playing nothing close to teams of this pedigree since 2018. So I'm just really excited

to see us match up against one whether we stay in the fight in the actual game or not. Like, let's just see this happen. I'm super excited and probably haven't conveyed that through this episode so far. But this is awesome.

Looking at this list of teams and being like, we're going to play one of these teams in a hugely important game in eight months. Yeah. No, every team is going to be, I mean, look at pot four, there's like Ghana's in there, and Ecuador and Canada. So it's like there's no, there's not, there's not going to be really any easy games at least on paper for us. But in pot three, and I should say, you know, to the extent that I'm not communicating enthusiasm, it's just, it's just fatigue on my part.

It's been a It's been a busy week Not complaining It's been a lot of fun But it's been a busy week Pot three Senegal, Iran Japan, Morocco

Serbia, Poland, South Korea and Tunisia Lots of work to do for me To learn more about each of these teams Exactly And that's part of the fun We are so wrapped up in the Men's National Team bubble

That it's been hard to like Even think about what any of these teams play like, their play style, their personnel. And I'm looking forward to getting the three specific teams to really dig into. Anybody you really want to avoid from that pot three group? I don't think so. In my head, I say Serbia, but I don't actually know if that's correct or not. In my head, I say Senegal, but I don't know if that's correct or not either.

We're not going to be paired with Canada, are we? No, can't be paired with Canada. or Costa Rica slash New Zealand. We won't get one of those teams, which actually puts us a little bit at risk for the group of death because we can't. I mean, if New Zealand were to qualify, we can't get them in our draw. So there are some teams here that could create a group of death. And Wales, I think definitely one of those, Ecuador, one of those.

So that's a little bit of a change because of these playoffs happening after the draw. Those teams automatically go to pot four. So whoever draws Wales as the pot four team, unless they've had a ridiculously fortunate draw for the for potter. Like that's going to be a group of death. We haven't had one. We didn't get one last cycle because, because of the way they split the pots up now,

but that Wales will create a group of death. And I'd say Canada will as well. Yeah. So Wales is the UAFA Path A winner? Is that what it is? It must be. I don't know. All right.

Well, we're, you know, we're thinking about doing another live call-in show tomorrow, although that has not been finalized. That was pretty fun thing to do on the Discord last night, although it was kind of a disaster as well. It was a glorious disaster. That was patron only, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just trying to sneaky refer to the patron-only stuff. Oh, I see. Apologies. Apologies. Busted you. No, no, no, no. It's all right. Anyway, I think our work here is done.

Is it? I mean. But our work here is done. You got a lot to talk about. The qualifying work by the team is done. Yeah, I'm sure we'll hit up a time. I mean, there's so much to think about for, you know, the rumors now of the roster expanding to 26.

So update those spreadsheets. And then, yeah, it's going to be an awesome eight months of hypotheticals and speculation. Is the news about the roster size? Is that going to come out tomorrow? Oh, I don't know. It could. It'd be a good time for it. No, I think I saw they were, like, voting on it.

So maybe they'd do that tomorrow. Okay. Hard to imagine anyone would be opposed to it adamantly. I think Vince called us the podcast of hope for the last four years. And it's good to, it's good to not be frauds and miss the World Cup again. Let's touch on that real quick before we go, too, because I do think, like, this has been an awesome experience and an awesome like campaign and you know our our experience started with us talking about how we had to turn the

whole team over from the 2018 cycle not in a punitive way but just in a like most of those guys race had been run and there were no obvious choices of who would fill them in yet other than pool sick and then like weston mckenny and so to see you know we were like maybe we can get the savior by committee maybe we can get seven or eight decent players and then like fill them in with some of these, you know, and to see what we have had happen where we have, we feel like full U23 teams for World Cup qualifiers, like that's the kind of stuff that we would be mocked for, for even suggesting that we could do something like that. Like you can't just play, put the kids out there in a World Cup qualifier.

No one can do that. And like the players did it. They went out there, a bunch of college seniors and some high school seniors. And they qualified for a World Cup together, which is just an unreal thing to have happened. and to have turned this program, like to have turned over the entire team this way. Yeah. And it,

I mean, I'm not even sure I expected it to be this comprehensive, the turnover. But it was. And any, any wrap up thoughts on Burrhalter? I'll say that he seems, I honestly want to say he's gotten a lot of things,

I think, figured out. I think, again, the qualifying schedule created some unique challenges that he didn't always rise to, but they aren't necessarily things that we're going to be faced with in the World Cup itself. So I don't know that his weakness is there will be a liability come Qatar. So it's like, once we get there, we're going to be sticking to our core 14 or 15 players, right?

So barring injury. So I really think that he has got a solid group of players. here. He's gotten most of his selections right at this point going back from the Panama match. And it's just going to be sort of fine-tuning what we can do with those players and maybe the very edges of the roster, you know, who are significantly less important now that we're out of this three-match window stuff. So I think, I mean, I'm excited to see what he does with the summer matches and

sort of what level he can get us to or help us get to? Is that a vague grade? Yeah, we don't need to have like some some definitive take on him. I think, yeah,

his qualifying for the World Cup was the minimum that he needed to achieve to be, to not be considered a failure. So he's done that. And I guess we'll see. You were talking last night about how you want to see,

what you want to see from now on is the core of the team getting better together, right? Yeah, I know there are people saying, well, now we've got the summer to really have auditions for these, you know, like find the backup left back. And like for me, that is way less important now. Like, I didn't love Anthony Robinson running 270 minutes in these windows. But that's, I'm sure that is the plan for the group stage of the world. Cup. So I know injuries can always happen and you want to be prepared for those. But I think the main priority now is to get this core group of 15 or 16 top players, reps, chemistry,

success on the field in the nation's league games in the summer, the friendlies in the summer. I think we'll have some September friendlies. For me, that's like priority number one. Keep an eye on, you know, the fourth center mid spot in the backup left back spot and have a couple of guys in camp who might offer upgrades there, but it's just so much less important now, ironically, going into the World Cup itself. I'm going to miss World Cup qualifying. I'll have to admit. And it is important to point out, as many are doing, that Berhalter has, for no, none of

these windows has he had the full complement of the talent. Like in this last one, we were missing Dest, and that's a big deal. That's a big deal to not have. I mean, the drop off from Desk to Yedlin is large, even though Yedlin has done an admirable job of filling in. And we didn't have McKinney. And he's arguably been our best player in World Cup qualifying, I think quite convincingly, arguably. And we didn't have Aronson. We didn't have Turner.

So the goalkeeper debate was, at least for Stefan Turner, was stalled. I think now there's a new debate about whether Stefan should even be the number two goalkeeper. I don't know. But yes, clearly we were missing some key pieces and we were missing key pieces every window. Yeah, absolutely. So I say all that just to sort of agree with you, to say, one, that's a thing to remember with us achieving the minimum, which was qualifying for the World Cup, thing to remember sort of in Burr-Halter's favor. And then also to agree with you that we need to get that core.

all, you know, to the extent that they're all ever going to be healthy at the same time, get them playing together and cohering a little bit more. Yeah, just one more bit on the Burrhalder thing. I think a lot of people's frustration with him is sort of a lingering, like a accumulation, frustration, from even like going back to 2019 stuff, selections and style. And then the first few couple windows where we made some either poor choices or poor reactions in game to some of the choices that weren't panning out. Because again, like, honestly, there aren't a lot of things since that Pan Amel game

where I'm like, we've gotten this super wrong. I think there are some contingencies that he hasn't necessarily planned well for. Like the fact that we only had one right back on the roster for two of the games. In this window, I don't think is great. But contingencies don't always pop up where you have to execute on them. So we didn't need to. Our right backs were able to play without getting hurt in the first two games. but overall, I honestly do think

we have been really good almost since that Panama game. We were rough at Jamaica. The Canada game, I kind of don't have the Canada away game. I don't have that much criticism, to be honest. It was just going to be an ugly soccer game, and it was,

and we came out on the wrong end of it. But mostly, we've been kind of cruising, and our two performances against Mexico have been very good. So I'm talking about for qualifying. Obviously, the Nation's League and Gold Cup are different scenarios. But, yeah, like, I think he's got the team playing pretty well together. Yeah, I'd agree with that.

I'm a little more annoyed than you are with Luca Deletori not starting last night. I think, I mean, I know it's a small thing in the big picture, but, like, I think Luca gives us a better chance of winning that game. I mean, more than Kellen Acosta at the 8. And that's not a secret in the fan base. Kellen Kala Costa has not looked that good as an 8, by and large, in qualifying. Luca Delatori, you know, he had to wait and wait and wait like Rapunzel in the tower to finally get his chance. And even now, he has to, you know, he doesn't get to start in this game that, by your admission,

is like fairly meaningless. It's an exhibition. and Acosta was tired. So that's, you know, that kind of thing still kind of bugs me. I don't know. Maybe I'm being toxic, but. I'll just say that that level of cutitude, like that level of cuteness, pales in comparison to some of the other cuter things.

So I feel like I'm, like, much happier with the cuteness that we're seeing now than we we had been seeing previously. Yeah. Well, Brooke, are you not frustrated that Brooks continues to be on the outside looking in. That one still bugs me. And again, it's a contingency thing. Like, even when he was left off that first time, I wasn't like, no, he needs to be there.

He needs to be the starter. Like, I get the rationale for playing the two more mobile centerbacks against, like, the Mexico types and really making sure that you can play this aggressive line if it's available to play. And it has been against Mexico. But I don't love the lack of contingency there to be able to bring in a John Brooks if the game calls for that. So that's where, like, I have to lean on almost like the hope if that's, I mean, that's the wrong way to say it, but like that it's not soccer related because I don't get

the soccer case for leaving him off entirely. I could understand, like, locker room cases for a guy who might not be good to have around if he's not starting, when he might not start. Which maybe is the case with Sack Steffen, but in this case, Sackstaffin gets to keep starting. That's pure speculation that I, brought up yesterday. He was like, because he's been the number one, right? The entire time Burrhalter has been in the head coaching position, Stefan has been the number one. It's been defaulted. He defaulted into it. And it seems like that is not changing. So if something has

happened where Burrhalter does have to now, you know, it's not going to be like, it's ridiculous to even pretend like a goalkeeper will be a game day decision. Like, we'll see how they do the night before the game. Like, you know who your goalkeeper is, who your number one is. and so if Burrhalter has made the decision after the last few data points we've gotten that Stefan's not the number one anymore and has to like communicate that I have no idea how Zach Stefan will take that

because you do not want like a I mean you want all the guys to have chips on their shoulders and think that they are the best player that's normal but you also need a certain type to be able to go in and not not wreck things as a backup goalkeeper because the backup goalkeeper is not playing through the world Cup. Like they're going to sit on the bench and they

essentially know that going in. So we have guys we know we'll do that. Sean Johnson will do that. Ethan Horvath will do that. Brad Guzan will do that. Stefan does it for his club. We don't know how he would react if he straight up loses his spot as the number one. Well, like you said, he has the reps. He has the reps for it. All right. Let's

be done here. We'll return to several of these subjects over the coming weeks and months. Big draw tomorrow, though. Let's see England. Give us England. That would be fun. That would be awful fun. All right.

Thanks, Greg. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.