Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #273: A USWNT change of guard? Eh! We'll see.

Episode Date: April 21, 2022

The young cohort just blasted Uzbekistan, but now the US women's national team has to get ready for World Cup and Olympic qualification this summer. Greg and Belz check in on an exciting pool of young players and start to think about who might get the call in July. support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedjoin 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. Today we're going to start by talking about the women's national team, which we have not often done and never in much depth. But we're going to try to do more of this in the coming months. It's an intriguing moment for the women. They just finished a couple soft friendlies. They've got World Cup and Olympic qualification ahead this summer. And a lot of new players in the player pool, a lot of exciting new players. Greg, is this going to be a changing of the guard? I don't know that anybody knows. I mean, there's going to be a lot of transition into this group, and it's going to be very interesting to see how thorough that transition is.

I don't know that it's going to be entirely like along the line of the men's where we might see one holdover from the previous cycle. I think we're going to have quite a few more than that. But there definitely is sort of this question surrounding the icons of the past 10 years now, going on like 12 years of women's players who have lifted trophy after trophy, who might be sort of eased out of the picture, kind of a soft retirement for some of them, might be in the cards. We don't actually know yet.

Well, so we know Carly Lloyd retired, right? That's for sure. But like Kristen Press, Tobin Heath, Megan Rapino, Alex Morgan, not necessarily out of the mix yet, right? Right. So we're looking at, I mean, Morgan, I think it's 32, Press, Tobin, 33, I want to say. Repino's 36. I mean, it's just hard to know, right? Like whether Vlato believes that these players are going to still be there a year from now in Australia, New Zealand for the 2023 World Cup. Or if it'd be better to start integrating new faces now. The other thing is we're going to talk about this tournament coming up for them in the summer. this is not going to be a complete cakewalk. There's going to be a portion of it that's a cakewalk. The tournament is in Mexico in July, and it doubles as the World Cup and Olympic qualification,

and the only team that gets automatic qualification to the Olympics is the team that wins the tournament. So you can't, like, you can't just be like, well, I can bring a slightly weaker squad and guarantee and still not worry about, you know, qualifying. To win the tournament, like, He's probably going to say, I will bring the best possible squad, which might mean that he has ideas for who's the best right now

versus who might be his projected player pool come 2023. So Trinity Rodman's going to be really fighting for that fourth winger spot. It's going to be, I mean, yeah, the competition for those attacking spots is going to be pretty insane. Let's talk about that because it's probably the most fun part of all of this. For me at least, there is so much talent. like on the wings and in the attack, even if you leave out those names that we talked about earlier.

So in this last window against Uzbekistan, the presumptive starters on the wing were Sophia Smith and Mal Pugh right and left. And then Katarina Makario was the nine. But even behind them, you got Midge Purse and Trinity Rodman. And then that's not even bring into account Press, Heath,

Rapino, and Morgan. And then, of course, also Ashley Hatch was in this camp. Not, I don't think, not quite as commanding as Macario, but still a quite good number nine. Right, yes. That's a lot to sort through.

It's honestly just nuts. And again, like, you know, we've dove in really deep, obviously, into the men's transition and that sort of changing of the guard that has very much occurred. And this team, this group with the women,

is just into such a completely different universe because they're not, they're not ushering out like a missing generation where these young kids are filling in these spots. Like, again, they're ushering out potentially, like icons, like players who have won so many trophies and appeared in so many international finals.

I was chuckling because for that Uzbekistan camp, they just played Uzbekistan twice like a week ago. And in the press release, it was like highlighting how experimental the roster was, the pool. And they were like, there are only two players with over 100 caps in this pool. And I'm just laughing. Because again, for how deep in the weeds we are on the men's side, for the men's last World Cup qualifying window, there was only one player with over 50 caps.

So it's just like a completely different universe. I think that experimental camp for the women had six World Cup champions in it. So it's like you're just, again, you're just speaking a different language here for what this depth in the, overall quality of the pool is on this women's side. Do you want to talk about the Uzbekistan games a little bit, or what else should we, what should we cover before we get into that? I mean, we're not going to do a detailed timeline on the two games, but we should talk about that. Let's lay out what they're getting ready for.

Let's lay out the tournament that's coming up in July. Okay, go ahead. So it's the, it's the Concaf Women's Championship. It's in Mexico. It's in Monterey. And it is an 18 tournament, two groups of four. the U.S. and Canada were the two seated teams. The other teams all had to play their way in.

So the U.S. and Canada aren't in opposite groups. And then in the U.S.'s group, they've got Mexico, Jamaica, and Haiti. So that's their group of four. The top two teams from each group auto qualify for the World Cup in 2023. So that's the part that is like a cakewalk. Like I'm not saying they're going to win 9-0 the way they did over the last camp against Uzbekistan against some of these teams. but for them to not finish top two in their group

would be like the largest collapse that they've ever had or like that almost any sporting team has ever had. So they're going to qualify for the World Cup. They're going to get in the top two of their group and that's all they have to do, job done there. But then they have to, again, win the tournament to auto-qualify for the Olympics. And if they don't do that, the second-place team in the tournament and the third-place team, there's a constellation game after the semis,

will play each other. And the winner of that team then goes to like an Olympians, playoff. Okay. I should also add, I should also add, even if they do somehow finish third in their group, they're still not even eliminated from the World Cup. They would go to a playoff against another federation. But they don't want to go to any kind of playoff.

They just want to automatically qualify and beat Canada, you know, presumably in the final. So this is where it gets a little dicey, right? So Mexico's in their group and Mexico is hosting the tournament. And you can think like, well, yeah, but we're better than Mexico. it's not at all unprecedented. In fact, it's extremely precedented for a talented U.S. team to have lost to Mexico in one of these tournaments. So back in 2011, or going into the 2011 World Cup, the qualification was hosted by Mexico in Cancun, and we lost to Mexico in the semifinals.

So we lost that game, then had to win the consolation game to go to a intercontinental playoff. Like I feel like people probably don't remember that the U.S. women had to sneak into the 2011 11 World Cup by beating Italy over two legs in a playoff. So they've done that before. So this isn't, it wouldn't be, it's not at all unthinkable, especially for this team that is in some kind of transition and there is some uncertainty around them to have a, have a tough time in the four team semifinals.

And also unlike the men, the men's situation, the Olympics are really, really important on, I mean, they're obviously important for the men too, but I would say quite a bit less important than the World Cup, given that it's, you know, there's an age limit on the roster and stuff. For the women, the Olympics are, are they equal to a World Cup? The only reason I won't say it's equal is because it's still like a 12-team tournament. So you're just really restricting some of the good teams. I think Europe might only get two slots in that tournament.

And they qualify them like in a strange way. I think the last Olympic qualification for Europe was whoever went the farthest in the 2019 World Cup. So there are some sort of like issues that maybe make the Olympics not quite as important for the women, but it is still very much full strength for the teams that go. They're going for it. And it's a big deal. So they're going to qualify for the World Cup.

The real challenge is auto-qualifying for the Olympics. That's definitely how I'd say. And again, Mexico can give them something. And obviously Canada, the defending Olympic gold medal champions can obviously take a game from us. Jamaica's not too bad either, right? No, they're not. And I'm hoping we get the chance to do full previews for the opponents,

kind of like we've done for the men's cycle. They're not. It's just once you're past sort of the big two and a half, the big two plus Mexico, like what you're going to run into is you're just going to have teams that have some good players, some very good players, but they're going to have like just too many gaps elsewhere in the 11 and the, you know, the U.S. women in Canada.

and, you know, for the most part, Mexico are going to be, like, so strong everywhere, or their floor at every position and on the bench is so much higher, that it's, it's asking a lot for any of those other teams right now to really, to really make it make it as competitive. It's going to be more competitive, I think, than it probably ever has been. But, but, no, I mean, it just, it just won't be, it's super unlikely that, that this is going to happen. Okay.

a big upset to keep us, you know, from finishing top two in the group. And we don't know exactly, we both try to look this up, we don't know exactly how many players are allowed on the roster for this tournament. So we'll just have to, you know, leave that question unanswered. Let's run through who was left out of the Uzbekistan camp, because if you're not following the team super closely, there are definitely going to be some names in this list that you might be surprised or not necessarily like in every camp, every match.

So like we said, Carly Lloyd has retired. She won't be in any more camps. We've got Crystal Dunn was not in this camp or I think the last camp because she is due to deliver a child in May. Julie Ertz also expecting, I think later this year. Mazeltov. Yeah. Mazatov again. Yep.

Becky Sauerbrun, who is like the ageless wonder, is injured. But she should be back for the start of the NWSL season coming up in the next. couple weeks. Tierna Davidson, one of the other centerbacks, who's sort of like one of the staples, I think who's one of the core centerbacks. We've got probably a four centerback solid depth chart before we get into experimenting.

She is out for the season now, so she won't be available this summer. Lynn Williams, one of the other attackers, also out for the season with an injury. And then the icons sort of left out would be Kristen Press, Tobin Heath, Rapino, Morgan, and then Sam Mewis, also not in this tournament. in this camp. And the reason given was that Vlato knows what those players have. Again, they have been

instrumental in the success in this dynasty that we've had. And so it's like, well, let's see what we have after this. Like, let's see what the kids behind them can do. And so then the big question is, have some of the kids done enough that Vlato doesn't feel he needs these players back? Or is that crazy talk? And of course they're coming back because they're outrageously talented. Well, if you're If you were the coach of this team, you would want to have some overlap between the icons and the exciting young talent, right? I mean, that's the best practice. I mean, you want Becky Sauerbrun to play centerback if she can play centerback and sort of impart her knowledge to the youths. I think that's where I'd land.

And I think you'd have to really be, like really be outstanding. like Katerina Makario, like that level to, but even then like you, there's still some room, like you're saying, there's still room for a mixture. I don't think that having like a portion of the old guard transitioned out is going to like wreck the chemistry or destroy, you know, the locker room at all. I don't think there's any reason to believe that. So I do. I think they're in really good shape and it's sort of one of those hard to come up with wrong

answers at the moment. I feel like the one argument for. for just eliminating the old guard would be in the attack so that these players can get more reps together and they got plenty of reps against Uzbekistan

it was like an attacking drill attacking slash shooting drill yeah so if you weren't following those games we won the first game 9 to 1 and the second game 9 to 0 and there were goals left on the table in both matches many many goals left on the table but it but it is super fun

to watch, particularly like the way Smith and Macario play together, Malpue as well, Ashley Sanchez, man, she's fun to watch, don't you think? Yeah, and again, we've got, we're still talking like Rose LaVelle, and those could be the players, Levelle, Lindsay Horan, potentially Sam Mewis, Christy Mewis, those sort of could bridge the gap as we usher in the new kids. It's, it is, man, it's going to be like holding your breath to see what that roster release looks like at the end of June for those two Columbia friendlies in June and then the big tournament. Does Vlako insist on having like sort of a six, eight, and ten in his midfield? No, and he's sort of like, like Lindsay Horan has been kind of, we don't really have a great

peer six. Like are we just put in outstanding football players like Haran like Sam Ewe's. I wouldn't call either of them a pier six. Maybe people disagree. But Ertz is a six, right? Yeah, Ertz, I would say, fits that bill. But no, like we've run different players out there to try to, like, I think Ertz took some time off after the World Cup. And so we were trying some other players who aren't, you know, necessarily designated sixes rather than maybe taking a slightly, like, less talented overall player and just trying to fill the role.

I think it's been, and again, our players are basically good enough to do that. You can put Horan there. You can put Mewis there. and still have a really effective midfield. Well, Andy Sullivan got, has gotten, I think, all the starts of the last five games at the six.

And I don't know if she's gone 90, all those games, but she played a lot of minutes at that spot. It seems like she's, she's the one there behind Ertz, right? That seems like the try out at the moment, right? So as long as Vlatko thinks that she is doing that job, it does seem likely that that's going to be the,

that that's going to stick. So if it doesn't, it just means he's like, nope, I'd rather have the, you know, maximum talent of, you know,

of Haran, Lavel and then choose another, me, whoever it is is the third midfielder. Well, I'm biased towards youth. And I'm, I was kind of curious,

where we're going to see Lavel and Sanchez together in the midfield. And we did get to see that in the last game. I don't think Sanchez played her best in the, second it was Beka's damn friendly but I love watching Sanchez because of the way she moves off the ball the way she passes quickly you know she's very like she's interested in combining and in playing nice soccer and we did like I said we did get to see the two of them Lavella and Sanchez in that one game I wonder if

Vlako would do that in a game that matters you know two sort of attacking minded midfielders in front of one defensive midfielder or do you need to have like a I know Lindsay Horan's a good attacker as well, but she's, you know, she's a physical presence, which Sanchez is not. Right. And that's that was sort of the trouble with the Uzbekistan friendlies. And I think they were a little bit hamstrung on who they could get to come over to play games with other federations playing. And with, you know, some of the other possible opponents having like travel restrictions for the pandemic.

But yes, it is really hard to know what we learned. You know, we can't really draw it. ton of conclusions. It was just to enjoy some really fun attacking moments. It was not as sharp as it could have been, wouldn't you say, like in the attacking moments? I mean, maybe you'll lose some of that edge when you're up 6'0. But there were, like you said, at the top, a lot of goals left on the table. I would have liked to see more conversion.

Yeah, there were, there were. a bunch of like, almost like miss tap-ins where we just missed the, like the last pass just missed the foot of somebody. Not that we just shanked a, you know, a chance, but just like we did everything. We had the almost like the open net created and that cutback was just off a hair. So it was, yeah, it was, it was a team just running downhill. It was a stampede. So Alex Morgan would be a nine for this team, right?

Yes. Yep. What are the differences between? the way she plays and the way Macario plays. So Morgan is very much, in my opinion, Morgan is still very much like the leading the line off the back shoulder of the centerback forward, almost like a throwback now.

And Macario will just go anywhere that she wants to go to control the game. Cario's very, I mean, she's very good at like posting somebody up and collecting the ball and then has good ideas on that. to feed the people who were running off of her. It didn't always quite come off in these shooting drills against Uzbekistan,

but you could see that it was close to always coming off. Well, yeah, we're looking good. We're looking like, I mean, I'll be honest. Like, I was wrong, I think, way back in early 2019, when I said that we were going to destroy teams at the World Cup and then potentially have like the bottom fallout. and I think that was sort of based on watching the youth teams

kind of struggle a little bit and it wasn't just like struggling with I mean it was like struggling with ideas it was struggling with organization I just kind of didn't trust the direction of U.S. soccer at the time felt like we were trying to play a certain way that didn't bode well for like the way

the modern game has evolved so I was like I don't think we're going to have like the wherewithal to continue playing at the highest level and then these kids have come in and they are just like brilliant players like brilliant soccer minds playing at a high level at high speed. So I'm definitely like, okay, I was I was off there.

Well, Sanchez. It helped that Macario was able to get her U.S. citizenship. Yeah. Well, Sanchez is my favorite of the young players I saw in these last two games. Who's your, like who are your favorites? So I'm going to go ahead and jump on, I mean, Macario clearly. And then I'll jump on the Trinity Rodman train and hope that she, manages to get a spot.

Over like a purse or... That's why it's so hard, right? No, I don't love that, but I'm hoping purse can like still get on there as a, almost like a utility because she's an excellent attacker. She's really good at getting around the corner for, you know, to get to the end line for a cutback. So I'm hoping that she can add depth, especially, again, I don't know what they're roster size is, so that'll be interesting. But she can do that, and then she can also do that potentially from right back. She is a forward. But when you have like the depth in attack that we have at this point, our right backs are, I mean, Kelly O'Hara's not young for a soccer player. And

then we have Sophia Huerta, who's sort of also a converted attacker who's now playing right back. Good crosser, Huerta is. She's quite a ways back from O'Hara in terms of like the pecking order. though, right? I think I would say yes. And again, I think O'Hare is one that Vlodko might lean on, again, as one of those veterans. But O'Hare is 33. So, you know, I think somebody will probably end up taking that spot from her over the

next year. I don't want to, I don't want to say she's going to be done, but it's just, it's going to be tough. Yeah. Well, the lineup of the first game, I'll just give that real quick, was a listener in goal. O'Hara, Alana Cook, Abby Dahlkemper, and Emily Fox across the back line. There's another player we haven't talked about yet, Fox.

Andy Sullivan, Rose Lavelle, and Lindsay Horan in the midfield. And then Sophia Smith, Caterina Macario, and Mallory Pugh across the front line. And that was the front line in both games, the starting front line. And I think they ran two out of the three friendlies for, or not friendlies, technically. And she believes back in late January, February, early. Let me look real quick because I have the Yeah they They did two of the three

Like you said and then Mitch Mitch Purs was on the right wing in one of the games instead of Pew being in the starting lineup So So Vladko's been giving them a ton of reps And so that's where it's like I mean They've delivered some goals for him

So they're fun to watch Quite fun Future seems bright Yeah. I know, who do you like better, Pew or Smith? Pew. But that's going to be just my bias from like really latching on to Pew back in like 2017, when she was even 2016, 2015 maybe before the Olympics when she was just like a like a child who came in and it was just electric. And so I'm basically like hoping that Pew will be someday like the grizzled veteran in her fifth World Cup. because she's not that young right now she's what like 26 25 26 that's probably about right yeah because it would have been i think her first cap was like 2015 smith is 21 and uh sanchise is 21

i was thinking earlier maybe sanchise could end up getting some minutes on the wing but that's not i don't think that's going to happen um yeah we scored nine goals in that first game uh gave up a goal ended up winning 9-1. I'm getting strong vibes of don't go through all these goals from you. We'll post a link to the highlights in the show notes, I think. Because again, it's hard to even pick out the patterns that we were trying to employ to play. Uzbekistan was like trying to play soccer through us. You could tell that like minimizing the damage was not their priority.

And I guess like full credit to them. You know, they're trying to build to something bigger as well. And it was like giving their players a taste of like, here's how difficult what we're trying to do is when you play against this kind of powerhouse. So again, complete respect for them for sticking to it. But it was, you know, we were punishing them. She mentioned that Makaria, we've talked a little bit about her. Like I said, I think she's really good in the holdup.

She's also, she also took all the set pieces in this camp. So she can strike a ball. And she does like to pass the ball too. So I guess file that in the future is bright category. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like she is a complete player. So I'm not saying other players aren't complete players. But like there is, it's going to be hard to be like,

oh, well, here's where her weakness is. If we can just force her to do this, then we've got her buttoned up. Yeah. She's all over the field too. I mean, she's getting on it. She's collecting the ball in the wings, running into the channels, doing everything. I'm interested in your Trinity Rodman shout because I thought she was clearly the most raw of the wingers in this camp. You just really like her dad or what?

No, no. But she is one, even from the U-17, U-20 Youth World Cups, where I thought our teams tended to like kind of have some difficulty playing good soccer. That's probably what it is. Like she just stuck out to me as someone who was playing like smart soccer, sort of in spite of the head-down dribble mode that I felt like a lot of the youth teams were playing at the time. And so that just sticks with me. So at this point, like I don't, I don't have any idea of who's actually the most likely to to emerge from this group in June as in July as, you know, front. runners for World Cup spots a year from now.

But, uh, Rod, again, just as like a personal favorite, I just really enjoy what Trinity Robin brings. She's just got like great personality too. Um, she's kind of doing fun things in the league and, uh,

she seems to be doing some fun things off the field. So it's, it's just really, I mean, all these kids have a ton of like charisma and they're just really easy to cheer for. Yeah. I think one other thing worth mentioning is, um,

you know, just as I'm, I'm excited. allow, I allow myself to be even more enthusiastic about the men's national team and it's exciting to me that it's such a racially and ethnically diverse group of players. This is, this, this change of the guard if it happens for the U.S. women's national team is going to, it's going to bring the same thing to the women's national team. It's because a lot of those icons you're talking about, they're white.

And no matter who breaks through in this group, it's not going to be a mostly white team anymore after this transition happens and probably never will be again, which I think is pretty cool. That definitely seems to be the trend here. So it is. It's going to be, you know, I know you really like that about the men's team right now, that it's like something that it just feels like sort of the best of us, right?

The best of us and what we can aspire to be and to sort of get behind. And yeah, this women's group really seems like it's going to be an easy group to get behind. Yeah. Smith is What do you think is the differences between Smith and Pugh Like as players Oh man I'm not going to have a good answer for you here

And this is where we're going to need to get some more folks on And part of it is because Like Just the level of tape that I can get through For the women's side is nowhere close To what we can do In the level of detail we can drill into On the men's

and it's mostly, quite honestly, like a Y Scout issue. Yeah, I was just going to say that. Like, I can't just, you know, head over to the computer and type in Trinity Rodman and get all of her touches. Like, you can get plenty of highlights from all of these players. But I can't, like, look at, you know, eight games worth of touches in an hour and a half. Like, it's just two-time intensive tap. I mean, you'd have to, like, watch every game and manually, like, cut things out. And that's, like, really hard to do on a schedule.

So I won't have good answers to this. We're going to need better experts than us. Yeah. And there are some out there and we'll hopefully get some to talk to us about what we can expect, like individual player differences going into this summer. Yeah. That Y Scout issue is going to be, it's going to be an obstacle for us. We're both Y Scout frauds.

And the Y Scout doesn't have women. players on it. So maybe they'll change that. Let me put you on the spot and ask you to give a starting lineup. Your best starting lineup for the, you know, for a must-wing game at the, at this tournament this summer. Okay. So I'll run Sauerbrun and I'm going to run, I'm going to run Atlanta Cook as my centerbacks.

I'm going to put Nair and goal. I think Nair will probably start in goal. Sauerbrun and Cook as my centerbacks Emily Fox at left back Who seems to be Crystal Dunn's deputy While Dunn is out And then I think we will start with Kelly O'Hara At right back again she is I mean again she's

You don't just erase somebody who's won a bunch of trophies So yeah that's a good that's a good floor to set as you're right back I think he will probably go with Sullivan is the six and kind of have like an actual six. Lavelle and Horan, I'm playing it pretty safe here, huh? Rand and Lavelle is my... Definitely not a changing of the guard so far. And then I think, man, it's tough in the attack.

I think he'll run the kids out. I think it'll be Macario Pugh and Smith. Okay. Have them. I don't know, man. I'm like, I... I wonder if he'll platoon them in the three group stage games and run a group of three for one and then run the grownups for one and then the kids again or vice versa.

Yeah. What do you think? I mean, how adventurous do you think Lotko's going to get here? I think what you said is probably right, unless there's some injuries, except maybe he will go with the older players in the attack as well. I mean, yeah, if you ran Press, Morgan, and Heath as your front three, you basically are just trotting out the, I mean, that's the 2019 World Cup Squad almost with Fox in for done.

I would suspect he hasn't yet decided what he's going to do, don't you think? It probably has to do with people's form. I know you love talking about form, form, you know. I don't know. I mean, they're all going to be in like form. These players are scoring, I mean, they are tearing up their leagues. I mean, Macario actually isn't playing that much. We're going to talk about the form.

Like, she's seeing limited time for... Leon. Leon. Yeah. So everyone's guess is as good as anyone else's guess, I think, unless you actually have an inside line to, like, actually Vlokko's meeting room. Yeah, I'm going to plant my flag as an Ashley Sanchez stand and say, I want to see her, you know, get as many opportunities as possible.

She's just for me so fun to watch. But I can't imagine that she'll get to start over the three that you mentioned. So there we go. That's our sort of intro to what the women have coming up. And then we'll dive deeper. I'm sure as we get into the closer to those friendlies. This is a listener supported podcast. We are ad-free.

And the way to support us is on Patreon. The show is in the link is in the show notes. And if you become a patron, then you get. access to a bunch of stuff, which is kind of boring to list off, but it's not boring to listen to, the Monday review. There's some video stuff on Patreon and occasional other stuff. You also get to participate in the live shows on the Discord, which are kind of fun and you get to be part of an experiment. Let's cover a little bit of news before we get out of here. A little bit of other kinds of news. There's a friendly versus Morocco in Cincinnati on June 1st

in Cincinnati. I don't know, man. I don't know if Cincinnati's going to to get a five-aside Memorial Tournament of Roses. Okay. Greg's protesting. I won't rule it out. Or I don't know if I'm going to make it to one. I mean, we can always have one, right? Yeah.

Cincinnati is easy for me to drive to. It's like seven hours away. Closer even than Orlando and I don't have to drive through Atlanta. So I am thinking I might be there. We'll see. But yeah, I think the Ohio thing is, is kind of killing me. Because, you know, I was, I'm a, I like the Midwest.

I think people are too quick to caricature it. But, um, but, but you know, it's annoying to a big portion of the fan base that Ohio gets all these games. And this is a, this is a friendly that they could, they could presumably put anywhere. Why, why do that? It's probably not going to be even, like, it's not even a travel issue because my understanding is the rumored cities at least for the probable Uruguay friendly are not rumored to be anywhere close to Ohio. So it's not like it's going to be, you know, Cincinnati, Columbus, some third

venue for Grenada that's close. I mean, Uruguay has allegedly requested that that friendly be put on the West Coast because that's where they're going to play Mexico. So, yeah. I mean, I, the argument would be we're rewarding Cincinnati for the turnout in the you know the win against Mexico but I don't know I don't I'm not saying that I buy that I'm just saying that maybe that maybe that's how they would say it I'm happy I'm happy that we're playing Morocco though I'm excited to see us play Morocco like it's just good to get it it's exciting to think about a game against a non-concaf opponent a good team too 24th ranked team in the world you know some noticeable stars on that team

Chris Richards is out for the season. Chris Richards has been injured and ruled out for the season. The season's only like four more games. So it's not like, oh, no, that, you know, you hear out for the season a lot of times. You just think of like a six-month injury. But this could just be like a strain and they can't put him out there on it. And they're just going to put him on ice until May 30th. I've never done the math on it on how, you know, how unique our injury problems are with the national team.

but it does feel like a lot lately. I'm not buying it. I feel like we're just tracking 60-odd players. And I mean, the day before every club match, the manager goes out and talks about who's injured, who's like not there for that weekend. And there's always four or five names. That's true.

You get 30 people, four or five, and we're probably in the same boat. Okay, Greg. Several big ups. sets in the U.S. Open Cup. I just think it's worth noting because it's pretty cool. Last night, a third division side, Halestorm FC of Northern Colorado. I had never even heard of them before, had you?

No, I had not. Defeated Rayall Salt Lake. And then San Antonio FC of the second division. So Halestorm plays in USL League 1, and San Antonio FC plays in USL Championship. San Antonio beat Austin FC in extra time, 2 to 1. Pretty cool. Now, this, I feel like this might be the second time that San Antonio Antonio FC have, like, won the Texas round robin.

Are you thinking of that friendly where they were Jose Gallegos was? Yeah. Like, maybe they did that and then maybe like Dallas went on to like beat the other Texas teams. And so San Antonio by the transit of property was actually the best team in Texas. I feel like this might be a similar situation. They put their social media team put out a great video about, you know, getting revenge against Austin FC for getting the MLS franchise.

I don't know exactly what the revenge was for, but. And then a night before, go ahead. Standard, just standard, standard club banter. Yeah. Lower division banter. Pretty much. And then Detroit City FC defeated the Columbus crew a night earlier. And that's pretty cool as well.

Unfortunately, Chattanooga Football Club went down to Kennesaw State University and got beat 6 to 0 by Atlanta United last night. All right. Well, there's that. Well, let's put the, why don't we put the Morocco friendly in Detroit? That looked like a cool place. Wasn't there a train? Yeah, I, yeah, it does look cool.

It was a train. I felt like I was watching like one of my kids' favorite shows where there's just always a train going in the background. Are you talking about Mr. Rogers? I don't know. Kids still watch that? Hundreds of shows, I feel like, have just a train running in the background. Dude, trains are sick. They're awesome.

Everyone loves, every kid loves trains. Yes. Uh, uh, Yeah, let's get out of here. You good? We're done. All right. Thanks, Greg.

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