Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #267: Monday Review — Iran, Doha, frostbite, Black Friday, England (a little)

Episode Date: April 4, 2022

A relaxing post-qualification stroll with Watke and Vince through the World Cup draw, Iran's best players, England's profound deficiencies, frostbite, and Watke's past life on the Arabian peninsula. First Monday Review of the month, so it's in the free feed. Usually they're for patrons only.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. Welcome to the Monday review. We're qualified for the World Cup, and I've got Vince and Waki here with me. How are you guys doing? I'm doing well. How are you doing, Adam? I'm well. I rested a lot this weekend. I feel much better than I did last week. How are you doing, Vince? I'm feeling great, man. We're officially qualified for the World Cup. I'm on Cloud 9. So let's talk about the draw. The games are going to be November 21, 25, and 29. The 25th of November is Black Friday, and that is the day we're facing England.

And then we'll face Ukraine, Scotland, or Wales in the first game of the group. And the last game of the group on the 29th is Iran. Just give me you guys' high-level thoughts on that draw. How do you feel about it? It's a fairly nuanced group, isn't it? just in terms of, you know, geopolitics. Lots of geopolitics, yeah. Some that could work in our favor and some that don't.

Like, you know, if we get, you know, whales or Scotland, they're going to be focused on England. You can kind of just mosey on end. Maybe they're looking past us and just, you know, make a win. Especially Scotland, right? Does whales have as much animosity towards the crown as Scotland does? I don't know. My sense is no, but I don't have a sophisticated understanding. We'll be working on this over the coming months.

Early days. We've only had a couple days. We're going to know way more about the social attitudes and politics of these countries on that island. Yeah, like everything they have going on over there is kind of confusing to me. But I do know Scotland. It's on site. If it's Scotland and England, yeah, they're not having it. That would really be ideal, wouldn't it?

Because it would take up so much of the energy for both of those teams, both of those nations. Playing Ukraine wouldn't be fun, I don't think. I'd rather not. No, no fun. I don't think we'd be the crowd favorite in that game. I don't think we're going to be a crowd favorite in any games, except for maybe against England. No fun, unfortunately.

But the thing about playing England is, I feel like there are going to be a lot of, there are going to be a lot of conflicted people. Because if there's one thing an American soccer fan loves, it's England and their entire soccer culture and everything that's involved in that. Not this soccer fan. Yeah, that's all the basic, the basic soccer fans out there. Really basic soccer fans.

Yeah, they like I can learn a lot. Yeah, I understand that England is just an abysmal, an abysmal nation. Yeah, we do. We understand that. From a soccer perspective, obviously. Yeah, from, it's like, go ahead. No, go ahead, Bill. I was going to say, it's like, it's like this.

England did invent the sport, but then everybody else perfected it. And they're just languishing over there. Like, they invented it and then can't win. just, and we're supposed to admire them. It just doesn't make any sense. That's the thing. That's the thing. Like I talked about a few weeks ago.

I mean, yeah, there hasn't been an English manager to win the Premier League since the Premier League was formed. Since they separated from the, you know, the football league. I don't know when that was. I think it's like 92 or something. But no dubs. We should compile a list of damning stats like this because I have to imagine there's thousands of them.

Oh, yeah. There's so many. Without a doubt. I mean, of course, you know, as far as, like, England itself, not winning any trophies, you know what I'm saying? They, they haven't. 1966? They've never sniffed a gold cup. You know?

I mean, I mean, like, if England came down here, they would, they would, uh. They couldn't hang. They could not hang. They could, they could. Have they ever beaten Mexico in Las Vegas in the Nations League final? Or Denver, I mean, no. Exactly. No chance.

No chance. They've never seen an Anabal Godoy. I've never seen a I don't know How about the fact that it's How about the fact that we're playing them on Black Friday Which is a It's not you know

It's not historically the sports day that Thanksgiving is But in some ways it's better as a sports day The game's at 2 p.m. 2 p.m. on Black Friday? Oh yeah that's nice That's real nice That's real nice Isn't there normally some college like

Doesn't normally Texas play on that day or something Or like they play A&M? It's not really important. I'm just trying to think about what Fridays normally like. Iowa plays Nebraska lately on Fridays, but that doesn't matter. Nobody cares about that. I don't know. I could be confused.

But I feel like Mississippi, Mississippi State plays on Black Friday. That probably has a little more interest. I could be wrong. But even then, it's like, you know, a prime time game. Point is, a lot of people are going to be off of work for the biggest game that the U.S. has played since 2014. 14. And I think off air, you said, Chris, if we win the first game, or was it you who said that, Vince, I can't remember. Not that. I was lucky. Well, I was just thinking about in terms of the sport becoming popular, just by winning the first game, everyone's going to be excited about this England game. And as long as we just, you know, compete, obviously we're going to try to win. I'm not saying, don't try to win. But if it just goes well, there's going to be a bunch of people really excited about it. Yeah.

Like a whole new 10, tens of millions of people. Yes. Right, exactly. And I got like,

you know, this is my main thing about this group is I just back our players, man. Like,

I think they'll be able to take any, any challenge that comes at them. It may not end in a win, but we're,

but we're going to show, we're going to show ourselves well in that, in that match, I think. Just imagine how crushing it would be for England

if we do win. That's kind of. So delightful. Delicious. I can say anything they want, but if that happens, it's dark times, that's dark, dark times. They're probably a little nervous about it. They don't want to talk about it.

Yeah. Do you remember, I mean, you guys have seen that New York Post cover when we drew them in the last, in the 2010 World Cup. Yeah. USA wins 1-1. Oh, because of a Joe Hart mistake. I mean, that was the softest possible goal. It was Robert Green.

Was it Robert Green? Okay, sorry. Sorry, Joe. Art. Any other big picture stuff on the draw? Because I do want to say some stuff about Iran. I'll just jump in it. I'm interested to know what you have to say about Iran.

So as everyone knows, a longtime ally of the United States. Yes. Very close friends diplomatically. No, I mean, honestly, there's some really, there's some really, if I were Iranian, and I would be really mad at England and the U.S. Both nations have treated them poorly over the last 100 years. No question about it. That's a sincere statement.

It's a nation, so it's a nation of 85 million people, which is bigger than Germany, France, or England. One in every 100 human beings on earth is Iranian. I did not realize that until a couple days ago. Yeah, that's kind of well. Yeah. That's remarkable. I mean, it is.

Exuberance. It's frankly. Well, it's, in the Middle East, most countries are not that big. Pakistan is really big, 225 million. Turkey's about 85 million, too, as well. But, you know, like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, all pretty small countries population-wise. Anyway, Iran's big. It's an hour, an hour's flight from Qatar.

So I imagine that third game is going to be going to feel like a home game for them or maybe all their games. Although I was looking at the ticket sales, a lot of Americans are going to be at this tournament. Okay. What do you mean looking at the ticket sales? I don't know. I saw a tweet. It said it listed them in order and the United States was second. Okay.

I don't know how many of that is, though. So maybe I'm wrong about that. It just would, you know, they are close to Qatar right across the Persian Gulf. As far as they're managed by Dragan Skokic, a Croatian manager who's spent a lot of time in the Middle East since his playing career, which was mostly at, most notably at Les Palmas in Spain. Iran finished top of their group in World Cup qualifying. So Asian qualifying, they have a bunch of rounds, and then they have two 16 groups. six team groups. The top two teams in each group qualify automatically,

and then the third place teams play each other in a playoff, and then the winner of that playoff plays Peru for a final spot in the World Cup. So Iran finished top of their group, qualified automatically. They and South Korea did it in a trot, no problem. The other teams in their group were the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Iran won all their games in this qualifying round, except for the ones against South Korea. They drew them at home and then lost to them to zero in Seoul on the same day we drew Mexico at the Azteca. South Korea could have sealed the group by beating the United Arab Emirates in their next game, but they lost and then Iran beat Lebanon at home two to zero.

So Iran won the group. Let's see. What else? The third place team in their group was the United Arab Emirates by, like, they were back like 12 points from South Korea. So totally not in the same ballpark. They're the ones who play Australia in the playoff. Thoughts, guys. That's good to.

I'm still taking all that on board. But it's all very good to note. Did you see that when we played them in 98 in the pregame, they gave. us a bunch of gifts, like four gifts. You know how we exchange? Yes, that's how you tweet about it. That's how I know about it. Yeah, they gave us like four,

the given like engraved things, little, I don't remember what it was exactly, but tons of things, tons of gifts. So we do need to have gifts ready because you don't want to get outgifted. And you have some ideas about which gifts we should give, right? Yes. Well, I mean, I just quickly tweeted out the ideas.

But I think one for sure is the board of the state quarter Who? That's a good gift. A board of, you know, the boards where you put, yes, eight quarters. I think it would be cool to have one of those. Oh, one of those. Oh, I used to have those. Oh, man, I used to have that. Yeah, they're a little bit out of fashion now, but I think they would appreciate it.

And then just play pretty like Grand Canyon and then stuffed Eagle and what else was I thinking? Oh, someone suggested a VHS set of the Sopranos, which I really liked. I'm about cultural exchange. And then Greg Rerholtter was asked about them if he remembered the game. And he didn't make the squad. He was kind of on the edge of it. So he was back in the Netherlands. And I didn't know this.

He did TV commentary on Dutch television. I've been trying to find that, but I think it's going to be difficult. But that is a project I'm working on. Well, good luck to you. Yeah. So like in Dutch, was he doing the commentary? Do we know? Or did they were just?

I think probably. Pandering and letting him speaking English. I assume he was speaking Dutch but I don't know Yeah I'm not sure they would be pandering to by having young Greg Berthelter on their TV station But Pantering to him by letting him speak English I mean

Oh okay Pantering is not the right word I retract it But they you know the Dutch mostly do speak English Pretty much as well as we do Yeah Well maybe they just need they needed an Ameriown for the game So maybe they would have but I think he probably spoke Dutch.

I want to talk a little bit about some players because I think on Iran, I mean, we're going to get into England. Let's save that for another day, like any sort of deep dive on them. But I think Iran's got some good players. Their captain is Al-Ali Reza Jahanbach. I'm sure that's not correct.

But he plays for Fine Ord and he wears the number seven for them. and seems like basically a free winger, and he's quite good. He scored four of their 15 goals of qualifying, assisted one more. They have two big strikers who are both pretty good

and going to be a test for us. Sardar Osmond is a striker who plays for Bayer Leverkusen. He was on loan to Zen at St. Petersburg last fall and scored a couple goals in Champions League. He's back in the lineup for Bayer Leavrecusen since returning in the winter break, and he's scored three goals and three assists in Asian qualification.

Their centerback, Jose Canani, got the assists on both of the goals in the final game. They were both dimes. One of them was a through ball to Osmoun. The other striker is Medita Remy, who has 14 goals and 12 assists right now for Porto, the Portuguese giants.

Playing at a very high level, he scored four goals and got two assists for a run in their qualifying campaign and did that in six appearances. We'll have more on the Iran national team over the next several months. But also one more player is Ali Golizadeh. And he's, I mentioned him because he made Tarami so mad at the end of a game against the United Arab Emirates.

He's got some sauce. He did this really nice turn in midfield towards the end of the game. They were up one zero. He drives like 40 yards straight down the middle of the field and then takes a ridiculous left-footed shot when he could have just. passed it easily to Tremi in on goal. And Toremi just stops and stares at him. Doesn't stop staring at him until the camera pans away from them.

And then, and then, and then Gole-Zadei, like pretty much in the next sequence, Terrami gets the ball on the left and does the perfect choice and plays it across to Goli Zade. Goli Zade takes a long touch with his right foot and biffs like a really, a golden chance, like worse than what Tecatito did against us in the Azteca. And again, Terremi just turns around. He does like the, you know, like throws his hand up. Not in the way that Gio Raina did when Ferreira missed the chance against.

Who did he miss that against? I was Pfeck that missed the chance. Can you talk about? Well, Pfevok missed one and Raina was like, was incredulous. But then Ferreira missed one. against Panama in the second half. Yeah, when he did the no look. Yeah, after the no look pass from Ren to Deletory.

Yeah. And then Raina is just like, yeah, of course. But in this case, Terremian was like, get, you know, get this guy out of here. It was more of a, it was a more hostile reaction. That's the type of, that's a type of intra-squad strife I like to see. Yeah. We got to be really on top of that type of thing and look to exploit it however possible, you know. Yeah, I think it'll be, I think, I think Gole-Zade is, hopefully he plays a major role in this, in this World Cup for Iran, especially on November 29th.

A couple other things, feel free to, feel free to interrupt me here, guys, but Qatar is a 14-hour drive from Mecca, a 14-hour drive from Baghdad, and an eight-hour drive from Kuwait. As many of you know, it's a peninsula that sticks up into the Persian. golf. I went there once. Did you? Yeah. To play poker? No, I was there.

I lived in Saudi Arabia for a year. And so sometimes I would go there. What's it like? Chris, you used to play poker? Eight years ago. Yeah, I did used to play poker. Before that, I played poker. And then I went to Saudi Arabia.

I didn't notice. What's guitar like? What's guitar like? So were you a good poker play? I was a high volume above average poker player, but not, I would not describe myself as good if I ever met someone who was actually good at poker. You made a living playing poker. I made a living doing that, yes. Like online or were you like on ESPN?

Well, I was doing it online, and then they got rid of online, and then I played in real life in Las Vegas and the Bay Area for a little bit. and then I stopped and went to Saudi Arabia where it was very hot is the main thing I remember What city did you live in in Saudi Arabia? Riyadh Okay So when you went to Qatar, would you fly there

Or did you like Yeah Rent a car Yeah Yeah fly They've got these short little flights To different places in the area So I would do that sometimes

I saw It was there. How was it? King died. I had to... It was good. It was good. It's a different...

It's different over there. It's a different experience. Culturally and all that. That was fantastic. I was there where the king of Saudi Arabia died and I had to stay in my hotel room for a week and a half. I didn't have to, but I got a call from the office saying you just don't, maybe just don't come in for a while. They're just sitting there drinking non-alcoholic beer, eating little candy bars from a mini bar. What were you doing there?

What were you working on? We were making training courses, employment stuff, and some like healthcare training type thing. Actually, it was during, there was a little, I don't know if it was called a pandemic,

but it was like a, that SARS thing? The original version of COVID, yeah. I was there for that. Anyhow. What can you tell us about Qatar from your travel there? Oh, so was it, was it SARS or was it MERS? Because I know MERS was like, I feel like it was.

Oh, yeah, no, yeah. It was MERS. It was MERS C-O-V-D, but they had, but we did things for both. The main thing is they had a really nice airport, the nicest airport I've ever seen. I think I'm remembering the airport correctly. I don't have a whole lot of intelligence on Doha other than that. Okay. I would go at night and there's a lot of fancy lights and stuff.

Is Doha a little more, it's a little more like Western than Riyadh, right? There's more people vacationing there, drinking cocktails, stuff like that. Yes. I think on the, you know, if you go to a hotel where there's people, where there's tourists, then there's alcohol there. Okay, that was my memory of it. I was in a, uh, in a, uh, in my hotel room once, and I was watching TV, and there was a music video that came on, like an Arabic language singer, and he was this really neat video. He's in a hot air balloon.

And then later that night, I go up to the top, the rooftop bar, and that singer is there. The guy I just saw in a hot air balloon. Did you talk to him? Very briefly. That's the only celebrity I ever met. I don't know his name them. Nice. That's awesome. So that's what it's like there, basically. Do you guys have any thoughts on the McKinney-Pulisick Adams press conferences on the draw? I thought Burrhalters was, you know, he's happy to be at the World Cup. So are we.

Yeah. What I like from Burholters is at one point he got asked a question, and then he was so jet-lagged, he put his head in his hands, and he lifted his head up and said, the flight was crazy. I don't even know what day it is. Right. That was his hot moment for me. and then the thing from Weston's was

there was a line of questioning that they asked all the players about what they remember from their time in Bradenton him and Pulisick and Adams but really Puliswick wasn't there that much and Weston was like my memories aren't as good as you guys probably think Tyler Adams just kept getting picked ahead of me

I didn't continue on the trips yeah Weston got snubbed as a youth national team player basically the whole time Crazy Incredible I thought Yeah Berthor recovered from that moment

By saying I'm running on fumes But they're good fumes They're the good kind of fumes Yeah I like that And then Pulisic said He got

His first person he heard from Was Mason Mount And they're you know They're Josh in each other That's good And Kenny said he's trying to hide The fact that he's good in the air In so many words

He actually gave a pretty interesting response They asked him He was just talking about How he prefers He doesn't mind not It being a team he's never played before Because he thinks he in particular Has an advantage

About opponents not knowing him Because it made sense He didn't exactly say this But it's how distinct his game is And he doesn't play like he Like on the air thing He doesn't look like he's the best player in the air on the team Right

I think there's different parts about this game and that are kind of like that. He's full of surprises. And yeah, and people are like, well, surely they're going to watch some video. Well, I don't know if they are. I don't know if they are going to watch some video. Because remember... So, I mean, you would think.

You would think. I mean, they're going to watch video. Well, think about it this way. Andre Pirolo, he wasn't putting McKinney in the box on set pieces for like the first 10, 12 games of his tenure. so was he not watching video or they have like six months these coaches have nothing to do except prepare for three games right yeah i mean i mean like you would like you would think they're gonna watch uh the entirety i hope i hope they don't the entirety of qualifying i mean yeah like like

like i feel like that's what any any sensible coach would do well in that case they'll maybe get the sense that West McKinney is not, you know, he's not always going to be in the game. He's not super involved sometimes. Like, he's going to miss about half the games for whatever reason. I think it may still not click for them that we should mark West McKinney on a set piece the way we mark a big centerback. I think that's still possible. We'll see, guys.

Let's not tip them off. Don't go on to Weiscount and look Weston McKinney goals. You guys You won't find out anything interesting Nations League draw It's tonight I don't think it really matters much But I am curious where the game

Are we going to find out Where the games are going to be As well as who the opponents will be Tonight Who knows Are they're in June right? Yes To May

It's a couple months of no games Yeah what are we going to do I guess we'll just do What we always do every time Now I think about it. We've done it before. We get along without games. We'll find a way.

Yeah, well, like, what? We're going to learn a lot about Iran, first of all. What are the, uh, the possibilities for this, for this nation league, this nation's league draw? We, we, because we, we need some comp, you know? And then, and Greg has said it's going to be, like, he's calling the first team. The first team's going to be there. with us. I don't know, with them, most of the summer.

Like, I saw a tweet with the pots, but then I forgot it. I think the seeded teams are like, us, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada. And then I forgot the other pots. I'm pulling it up right now. Go ahead. We'd have one other, it would be whoever the next level of team is would be the next best thing, right?

So that's... Pot two is El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, and Panama. Pot three is Curacao, Granada, Martinique, and Suriname. I don't think we're going to learn a whole lot about the team in those games that we have not learned through. Well, let me... Right. Okay, if I can pick...

I'll take... Let's take Panama and Suriname. Maybe Curisal, too. But if it... We can get those two. I mean, it'll be better than nothing. Yeah. I guess we're going to play two games, two of those Nation's League games in June,

and then we'll have two friendlies in that window. It's like a two-and-a-half-week window. Something like that. Do we talk about the Argentina? What's the latest on that? I don't know, but I just saw a tweet that said, you know, Argentina might happen. We might get a friendly against Argentina, which would be very nice.

That would be nice. I'm trying to figure out where I want the games to be. I feel like they've got to be on the coasts. The ones in September, I'd like to be cool if they were in New York, honestly. So I did see something where, like, the way we're structuring these Nation's League games and the friendlies, it's going to replicate, like, a group stage plus a knockout game? Greg loves that kind of stuff doesn't he does He loves to structure a window

He was apparently over in He loves logistics Doha Tom was already Talking to folks from other countries about trying to set up a friendly He said that in the Tom King

Yeah I just call him Tom Tom He's the guy responsible for Tim Way as vaccination issue. He's a head of administration, I believe, is his title. And he looks like the cruise director from Succession, the former cruise director, the guy that, I don't know. The guy who gets fired in like episode two.

Oh, you're talking about that guy. He retires and hands off the scandal to, it's confusing about the character named Tom. Yeah, that guy. Okay. But Tom, the administrator, you a soccer, uh, really reminds me of, of that character, of the little I've seen of him. But he's out there just, anyway, anyhow, he's the person that arranges these, these friendlies. I mean, I would have to say a guy that looks like that seems like the type of man that would,

they would, they would mess up somebody's, uh, vaccination requirements. I'm, I said that. I'm not even sure. Now, we should be clear. We don't, we don't, we don't, that was just, that was just a meme. I've forgotten that even happened. Yeah, we don't think it was Tom. Although, you know, ultimately the buck stops somewhere, doesn't it? It sure does. It sure does.

I think, you know, it's water on their bridge, though. It was probably someone else that was responsible. Tom seems like a good guy. Yeah, we're not, just be clear, not criticizing Tom King for that or pending him for blame with that. If we had been, this would be the first time on a podcast, anyone had ever criticized Tom King. Tom King has a thankless job and he's probably an American hero if we're honest. Speaking of succession, that show, not to get too far afield, but like the Tom and the dorky guy.

Cousin Greg. Yeah, Greg. Yeah, Cousin Greg. Maybe this is a common insight, but there really are the core of the show, aren't they? Yeah. Those two. Yeah. Glad we're not.

question, without question. And, well, we can't really say spoilers, but it seems like they're going to take a pretty big role moving forward. Seems like it. Seems like it. It's going to be weird to see how all this works out

in the next season, but. Every episode of this, we do like a 10-minute spoiler-free discussion of succession. I'm down. I think people would be really into that. People would love it, I'm sure. Let's talk about frostbite. What's the latest there?

So it seems like Bruce Serena said he got frostbite. And it said that Matt Turner got frostbite. I don't know if Matt Turner said he got frostbite. Didn't seem like it. Kind of did, but... I don't... Did he? Not really.

He said the tissue got frozen or something. And that caused some tend. tendonitis. And I'll just say that the local news report that tried to stitch this altogether did give the impression that the tendonitis was led, you know, if you read it quickly or not carefully, that the tendonitis was related to the airline fracture that Turner suffered in a, in a preseason game. The reality is it's not.

They're not related. So, no, the frostbite is not what's keeping Matt Turner. off the field right now. We don't know they're not related. We just know they were on different feet. Well, Matt said they weren't related. Okay, so first off, has he given a public statement

other than the Twitter notes post? No, I think that's it. Okay, so he gave the TV interview and then he put the notes up. He says, I gave an interview yesterday and my words have been pulled around to fit certain narratives.

So I'd like to set the record straight. the USMNT game in Minnesota has nothing capital capital letters nothing to do with what's kept me off the field these last few weeks I had a brief bout of tendonitis after that game in my left capital capital letters left foot that was quickly resolved and back to 100%. So notice that he did not use the word frostbite. Okay. No. But Bruce are in a day just because he likes you really. enjoys just being a jerk. And so, and this is my thing. It's like, okay, Bruce Arena says frostbite. Nobody else. Nobody else has said frostbite. And if you

remember, the original tweet that started all this said that Matt had suffered frostbite and that's what was keeping him out. Okay? They had linked. They were saying the frostbite is what's keeping Matt Turner out

from playing currently. Okay? and then everyone debunk that. Okay. And now Bruce Arena comes back and it's like, yo, yeah, you know, he got he got frostbite up there in Minnesota. And people are running with it. And it's like, first off, this is Bruce Arena, okay? Like, this man is not no medical professional. Like, you know, it's like words mean things, okay?

It was like bills. When the Honduras people were saying, that they had hypothermia and Bells you were like I mean did they have hypothermia or were they cold? You know what I'm saying? It's like it's two different things

it's two different things okay and it's like yeah right so it's like bro did he really have frostbite which seems extremely unlikely or was his foot cold and you know

I mean it seems like he did have a minor injury off the bout of off the back of playing in a very cold game where he literally had nothing to do except run back and forth along the box and potentially go over to the bench and warm up in a blanket.

Right. Yeah, so it's just like, because it matters, the degrees matter, okay? Because if he had frostbite, depending on the degree, we're talking about U.S. soccer potentially maiming a person, okay? Right. Like this is very very different the degrees matter and that's what a lot of people want to believe too

They want to believe that US soccer maimed Matt Turner and is keeping has kept him off the field Oh Tom Tom maimed Matt Turner Tom is responsible for this right right he set the game of I guess right But uh Tom I'm joking don't don't don't soos if you sue someone sues scoffed don't not And so but but I will say that this is and I forgot to bring this up last week when I was talking about the toxic Twitter debate. But the thing is, and the thing that nobody wants to take responsibility for is that U.S. soccer is the cause of all this.

Like, if U.S. soccer wasn't U.S. soccer, like if it was just a regular organization that did things in a seemingly sensible way, it wouldn't give rise to all the conspiracy theories and all the things that we see now. Like U.S. soccer is the center of this whole thing, you know? And it's like, okay, so maybe Matt Turner didn't have frostbite. It seems very unlikely that he didn't have frostbite. But you had the game in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was it February 1st?

February's maybe Yeah Either first or second Okay And you know Like this is This is what's gonna come with it This is what's gonna come with it

You know when you take When you take a year To hire a coach Who happens to be the brother Of your CFO Like these type of things are just gonna happen Like this is It's simple cause and effect

Only way to get out of this Is to beat England That's it Yeah probably Tom I mean yeah the only way to get out of it is we're gonna like

Greg's gonna have to do some coaching you know it's gonna have to be a grand gesture from Greg to get everyone on the same page like if we win the World Cup group then maybe we can continue maybe we would consider right

we consider we're not giving any guarantees we might be okay with you then Greg and Tom I thought you were going to say then maybe we would consider dropping the Frostbite narrative Oh yes

That's what I should have said If we win the group Yeah that's the only thing That we're willing to consider Win the group Then Frostbite goes away Okay Yeah

Quarterfinals That we can talk Simple that I mean because they They put themselves in the position To where You got to put the results up otherwise, you know, you're going to have these multiple, multiple factions coming at you at all times

because you just, you created these conditions from yourself through your exclusion, through your shadiness, you know what I'm saying? I mean, you're just like, just the way your faces look. There's just something about it. And we're just got to get crazier and crazier. Okay? Okay, guys? It just is what it is. And, yeah, and that's the thing. That's the main thing. It's like, everyone that, you know, decides to complain about it. I mean, they've been driven to this. Look, you need to look inward. Look inward.

The other thing, the other thing that seems like it's kind of emerging is this idea that our MLS centerbacks, Walker and Miles in particular, whether they'll be good enough in Qatar is an emerging question, feels like on the internet, especially when we're under pressure from opponents who are, you know, going to press us high. And I wonder, you know, what do you guys think about that? That was, like, that was definitely a thing that, like, started coming up in my mind when, like, watching this past window specifically. I don't know why, but I don't know.

It just, I'm just looking at the ball at our centerback's feet, and it's like, these guys are not really going to do, going to do, going to do much with it. They did a good job hitting some long balls in the Panama match. But yeah, I do think they're going to be easy targets. Walker, Miles, Tyler,

plus Anthony on the left side. It's just like, you can easily see a path to like cut off our buildup if you just like, say, Serge is the right back. So, you just cut off the supply on the surge and then we might be just stuck

unable to progress the ball. Yeah. Chris Richards is back. He did a good pass. He did. He did do a good pass over the weekend? He did a good pass, yeah. It was very nice.

Can you guys, can one of you describe the good pass? Yes. Well, it was dropped back to him and it was like, oh, is he going to play? it back to the goalkeeper. It kind of seemed like he might. He was like pretty close to the halfway line, but it could go on the way back. And the defender came at him,

and he kind of cut it in playing across his body to a midfielder who had moved into the middle of the field, maybe like 25 yards up. Yeah, and he kind of even like fainted a little bit, like he was going to pass it back, which like sucked the player pressing them in even more. And then

Chris was just like, nope, right past you to the to the midfielder there was in a ton of space at that point yeah so a faint and then a disguised pass and we're talking you would think from talking about it like this was some genius pass it was just a good pass it just yeah it was just that's the thing that's the thing he said that there was to talk about that's good I mean I love hearing about that he he

didn't watch any of his involvements but he was he came on at halftime they ended up losing two to one to Bokham let's let's let's use that segue to move into a couple other performances from the weekend, not very many. A lot of players didn't dress or didn't play after, you know, that brutal midweek fixture in San Jose. Ricardo Pepe started for Augsburg. It's kind of odd because he did also start in the middle of the week for the U.S.

But he played pretty well, I thought, and a 3-0 win over Wolfsburg. He did a lot of, he did movement that seemed positive. and he was in places where he might have scored. I did a couple layoffs. That left-footed shot of his was a good effort from a tight angle. And then there was that, like you said, he laid it off in the build-up for the third goal and celebrated vociferously, I thought.

It's good to see that. Fist in the air, screaming skyward is how I read it. Yep. Both fists. kind of an X shape. Yeah, a double. Yeah, he says he has some positive momentum going, you know. I thought he was pretty decent

in the two games he started in the window. This performance. I love to see it. John Brooks did a high-fi hug with him, high-five hug with him before the game. Is that right? But it was just an identical high-five hug to the one John Brooks gave to another player that he did.

I feel like if Brooks is trying to get back in the team, maybe give something a little bit special with peppy to show, you know. Yeah. Like, do something to differentiate it. It's just like a standard thing, which is fine. Maybe I'm asking a lot, but I would have loved to see them have already a special handshake

that's just for them prepared. I mean, what? He's been in, like, one camp with Ricardo? Mm-hmm. And then he was exiled. So he's like, look, man, I'll, I'll, You know, you can get personalized greetings when I'm back in the team. I guess that's one way to look at it.

You know? We'd love to hear about all this from John Brooks's point of view. Jay Brooks. Jay Brooks's point of view. Are we ever going to start calling him Jay? Because that's just what he, apparently, that's what his name is. He also needs to find a team for next season. Yeah, I mean.

Still hasn't sorted that, has he? Yeah. So, like, I mean, you know how these things go. Like usually it would be like announced, you know? At some point, like even like during the season, it would be like, yo, John Brooks is going here. Especially in Germany. It seems like that's the way of doing things.

Do you think he's like messaging, I mean, to setting the club thing aside for a minute, do you think he's like messaging Berhalter and saying like, yo, Greg, I know I, you know, I may have done wrong or whatever, you know, even like, yeah. I don't think so. Yeah, I kind of don't think so either. But would that help? Probably not.

I don't think so. I mean, like, well, I feel like, I mean, the one thing we can say about Greg is if, you know, he has something to say to somebody, he's probably said it. Yeah, you know, I mean, that communication with the pool seems to be one of his strong points. so I mean like I guess the you know like whatever has needed to be said is said

and like I imagine that there's nothing there's no real back and forth needed the one thing I guess he could do is post a comp to Twitter but other other than that

he got to keep doing what he's doing I guess Burrhalter did talk about how he talked to him before this last window to explain why. I have to lawyer his language a little bit because what exactly did he say did he make it clear that he spoke to him on the phone? Yeah, he did.

I thought so. Well, it sounds like I had a detailed conversation about the stuff that he wants him to do better, which seems a little bit hard to do when you're already, you know, a fully grown adult in the middle to, you know, stages of your career. I don't think he's suddenly become a different soccer player. No.

That would be a hard conversation, I would think, to execute from Burralthur's point of view. John, another striker, Josh Sargent, rolled his ankle in training on Tuesday and did not play for Norwich. And, um, Adams, McKinney and Musa, for various reasons didn't play. You know the reasons for,

For those, I think the only other than Richards coming on and playing, which is really good news, the only other two players I think we should mention here are Georgie Mihalovich and Cameron Carter Vickers. And Raina did play for 16 minutes in a beat down. Beat down. He didn't do that. He didn't do that good, better job. He didn't. I mean, the game was over.

It was a mess. Georgie scored a pair of goals, a brace, as they say in England, and I thought it looked quite good, at least from the comp that I saw. I'm not sure what it means for him, but worth noting. He's a very good player and has been very good for, I mean, about a calendar year now. Yeah. If you watch the comp, that's floating around. on Twitter. I mean, the man the man's a baller. The man's a

baller. And it's it's it's a, it does increasingly seem like he is definitely a half space merchant probably. But, I mean, like I would, I would try him out as eight. Why not?

We need eights. I always need eights. And you can see just you know, the way he the way he's receiving the ball and stuff. We talked fair about this, Bells. But, uh, and, and he's, you know, he's added some weight. He's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, Saucy seems to not even quite capture what that is.

That's a guy playing with confidence. And then Cameron Carter Vickers scored the game winner against Rangers in the old firm. That's the derby between Rangers and Celtic and Glasgow, you know, one of the best rivalries in human sports. And he scored the game winner in a scramble after a set piece. Vince, you said you checked up on how he played otherwise? Yeah I don't know

He He looked Competent You know He did have some Some decent passes With his left foot That I took note of

Um But nothing Nothing really too crazy You know Just some basic Defending Just looked like Like how he always looks

Yeah But the goal was nice It was a nice Left-footed left footish shot into the corner off a set piece. Yeah, I don't know if he's going to get a chance. Or if he even deserves one.

I don't know what I think about that. Oh, he deserves a chance, I guess. All right, anything else, guys? Well, is, is, are we even going to get tryouts this summer? Because it seems like everyone was kind of planning on it. But Greg's been pretty, uh, pretty clear. that he's bringing the first choice team.

So is it like, is anybody even going to get the chance to play their way into the team? It seems unlikely, I think. There's not going to be mass tryouts, that's for sure. But I imagine there are somebody, you know, a few players here and there will get an opportunity. I mean, we still need a backup left back. The striker position continues to be unsettled. Oh, hold on. Okay.

like about the striker thing like has has hazus not done enough for us to feel pretty good about it well do we feel pretty good do we feel pretty good do we I don't know that I don't think this is what I'm asking yeah I don't I don't think I feel that good

about it I know it's not his fault you know but we don't feel good do you feel good Vince about the striker yeah yeah Yeah, man, I mean, I have to say, like, after watching Jesus, when did he? So, yeah, El Salvador was his first start of qualifying, right?

Mm-hmm. So we got El Salvador, Panama, and is that it? Is that it? For his starts, yeah. Well, he's been good in those two. He's been good in those two. He was decent in that, uh, I think. Actually, he was decent to actually pretty good in his Mexico cameo.

I think he missed a chance. He had a good chance, right, on his left foot. Wasn't his left foot? You're talking about the cameo in November? In Sensee. Yeah. Yeah. But do we feel good, you know?

I guess we've already gotten into that. No, I feel like pretty strongly that I don't feel good. Yeah, I'm not persuaded yet, Vince, but I agree that he's maybe, our brightest. Yeah. So, I mean, like, all I'm going to say is

he's, he's, he's, he's, he's showing me something. He's shown me something to where, uh,

if, if he is the striker going forward, no, like, like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't feel bad about it. I wouldn't feel bad about it.

I wouldn't feel terrible about it. But I would like to see Pepe, you know, build on his performance this past weekend. Let me score a goal or two. Be, you know, 85%

effective when he gets the ball with his back to the goal. You know, Pepe's only 19. He's got, I know Ferreira's young too, but I think Pepey, Pepe has every opportunity for the next eight months to, like, take us big enough step forward that we could feel really good about who the striker is. I know. Maybe that's all just fantasy, but what else do we have? Oh, like, since I see his name on the document right now,

I think Darrell Dicay got hurt again. Did he? Yeah. Yeah, he was listed out for season in footmom. Goodness. Yeah, so we're talking about a... I mean, I've used the term calendar year here a lot. I mean, Darrell's been hurt for about a calendar year now.

Daryl's got to, I guess, set his sights on 2026. Yeah. Seems like it. Seems like a good note to end on. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.