Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #276: Monday Review — Dad tweets, striker watch, endless dual nat panic

Episode Date: May 2, 2022

Our once-a-month public episode of the Monday Review with Vince and Watke. A selective roundup of the player pool's activity over the weekend, Mark Pulisic's deleted tweet, striker watch, a forecast of dual national panic, and much more.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. This is the Monday review, and it's the first of the month, so it's in the public feed. To get these delivered to your pocket every Monday on a private feed, join the Patreon.

Vince, how you doing? I'm doing great, man. I'm feeling good. I'm looking good. You know what I'm saying? So how y'all feeling? I'm feeling good. I am also looking good as well.

I look great. I got a lot of sleep this weekend, which isn't usually the case, so I'm feeling good. Love it. Waki, what we got? Well, Pulis like subbed in against Everton, and then his dad did a tweet, which he had to delete, and I'm going to read it because I think it's pretty important.

He said, the sad thing is, is he loves this club, teammates, and London, puts his heart and soul into being a pro, onward and upwards my boy, big six months ahead, and then he did an arm flex emoji. What do you guys make of that? It's kind of the shock of the week. It's sort of a glancingly aggrieved message. It's just, it's like a text that I see in my, from one of the parents in my U6 group text

about being mad that practice got moved at late notice. The sad thing is, nobody's like openly mad. It's just, yeah, the sad thing is that I had to pick up, I had to pick up my three kids to be here. Yeah, I guess saw her dad message. really do stay the same as you move up the ranks. They just get a little bit higher stakes and a little bit higher profile, but they're at the end the same type of thing.

Right, right. The passive aggressiveness of it. Yep. Is, you just, you know, chef's kiss, chef's kiss. Vintech Martin Pulisic. Did y'all listen to his podcast? I never have, I have to admit. Oh, yeah, I listened to every single episode of it.

And the Mark Polisick podcast was what, like because at the time that he was releasing those episodes um pullie had just got to chelsea and he hadn't really integrated yet and everyone was kind of worried and and i was worried too i'm not going to lie but then i listened to the pod and it says it kind of eased on my eased all my angst how so kind of just because i heard i like i heard the mentality that that Mark had about the whole thing and the fact that he was relaying that to Christian kind of just put me at ease

to let me know that he was going to be that he was going to be strong through and he was going to fight and he wasn't getting discouraged. Sounds like you're a pretty big Mark Pool's that guy. I mean... So how would you rate this tweet as a soccer dad tweet? Look, I mean, we've seen, you know, tweets from family across many different sports

and, you know, like, as far as this, this was pretty mild. It's not a standout, is it? No, it's not a standout. We've seen parents go like full scorched earth, like while the kids still on the team. Like, parents just do very irresponsible things sometimes. On an irresponsibility scale, this wasn't a big deal. Like, this isn't even going to get back to Tommy. Up the intensity or don't send the tweet.

That's probably why I deleted it because it wasn't intense enough. Yeah, I don't think that's why. but I do think it's interesting that maybe you have to be a little passive aggressive in your messages to foster the elite mentality that Pulisic has because I think, you know, in all sincerity, Pulisic does have an incredible mentality. We've talked about this before. His resilience is unbelievable. And maybe that's how you get it is by, you know, telling other authority figures in your children's life

that something they're doing is kind of sad, you know, when you mean like I disagree with what you're doing. So he's talking to Thomas Duckel. He's saying it's sad. The sad thing, Thomas, is that he loves this club. And teammates and Loney and loves everyone but you, Thomas. You're really, you really, I hate to use, you know, S-Roe, he really effing this up.

Right. He's on the S list for sure. You're on the S list. Mr. Tommy is. So is the takeaway here that Pool Sixth is leaving? Yes. He's gone. probably.

Where's he going? Where's he going? Folham. I don't know. I saw someone say Fallam. I'm like, yeah,

that'd be pretty cool. Yo, on the passive aggressive thing, um, like I feel like Christian is the type of guy that that doesn't, that they probably responds to that better than anything else. So Mark has like a, you know,

a, a master's in that, in that type of communication. Because, because, because, police seems like type of guy or like, if you yelled on his face,

he would just like, you know, look at you and just walk away type of thing. But you really, you really got to get under him. You really got to get underneath him with, with, with the, with the comment that might not hit him right away. But once he, once he marinates on it, it's like, oh, this, this man just, he's just going to stash it away. Just try to bury that anger. Barry it.

Yeah, it's like one of those, it's like one of those little sticky burrs that get stuck in your socks and you realize five minutes later that it's there. Yeah. That's what this is about. Oh, also one more. more thing. Just how, I don't know if Pennsylvania is the Midwest or not. Is it the Midwest, guys? It is not.

No. Well, whatever it is, great planes? No, it's not Great Plains either. I mean, I'd argue. It's the Pacific Northwest. It's the Pacific Northwest. All right. Well, it's the most, you know, Pennsylvania thing ever.

As far as, like, not, like, he's not going to be disrespectful to Mr. Coach Tommy. But he will. voice is displeasure. That does raise the question of Mark Pulisic's cultural underpinnings. Like, is he a man of the Balkans or a man of the Pacific Northwest, otherwise known as Pennsylvania? It's a melting pot with him, isn't it? I read a bit of both. I read a bit of the Balkans and a bit of the Pacific Northwest in this tweet.

You notice if he not had the sad thing is at the beginning of the tweet, it would have just been a very pleasant tweet. Yeah. It would have just read. He loves this club. Teammates on London. puts his heart and soul into being a pro. Onwards and upward my boy. Big six months ahead, arm flex.

But the sad thing is really changed the tone, doesn't it? Yeah. I do like the phrase, my boy from him. Yeah, it was good. It was really strong. I like the tweet. He shouldn't have deleted it.

Right, right. He should have kept that up. He should have kept that up. Without a doubt. Should we move on to, you know, the aforementioned Fulham. Yeah. Reports that Jedi

Robinson may need surgery on his knee, but he's also in the starting lineup today. What do we make of that? It's a mixed messaging there if he needs a surgery and then he's also in the starting lineup. I think he should not be in the starting lineup if he needs surgery. It's also possible. He doesn't actually need surgery.

If he needs surgery, he should be undergoing surgery right this moment if he needs surgery in my opinion. Right, right. Please, uh, wake up, Jedda, if that is the case.

I know you're, you're a good lad in it and, and like to just, uh, you know, get out there with the lads and have a little kick around, but go ahead and, no,

it's not about the lad right now. I'm going to the knife if you got to, please, please, I'm begging you. You got to put yourself out of the lads. If it, if it is something that minor,

like just a little cleanup. Like he really won't be out for any significant amount of time anyway. So need I remind everyone he is our only left back in the top 25 or 30 players for the national team. So yep, we need him. So that's the thing. It's like, I mean, we're probably looking at 50 full 90s that he's that he's went through this season, maybe. He's been... 40?

40 at least. Marathon runner. Yeah. Incredible. Hopefully we'll get some more clarity on this knee situation. Luca Deloiree started. And for me, he's my official player of the weekend. Your official Monday review player of the weekend?

He was my official Monday review player of the weekend. He was outstanding. He was connecting the ball. He was doing long dribbles. he was given a little bit of sass to the referee. There was one time he got called for a foul and he went up to the referee. He was holding the ball in his hands and he just threw it over his head behind him. The referee didn't even dare give him a yellow, even though it was an obvious yellow situation.

He was just so confident with it. So he's my player of the weekend. He was also named the player of the week in the Netherlands in their league there. So it wasn't just me. It was people noticed that this is a big game from Luca. This is the most decorated player of the Monday review. By far. He's gotten so many awards from us.

He's gotten like five or six awards. He got a nice trophy cabinet. He also actually has probably been our best player all spring, hasn't he? I mean, you talk about weekend, week out, playing and playing well. It's been Luca and not many others since, we're talking about February maybe? It's been a little bleak. more bleakness in the offing here. It looks like Leeds and Jesse Marsh are in trouble.

There are two points above Everton and the drop. So Everton is currently in the relegation zone. And Leeds is two points ahead of them. But Leeds, but Everton has a game in hand. And Leeds is going to face Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton, and Brentford for the last four matches of the season. I didn't look up Everton's schedule, but it can't be more difficult than that. Well, maybe it is. In any case,

Leeds is going to need some results to go their way, both in their games and in Everton's, I think, to stay up. And then we're looking at Marsha probably hitting the road again, right? Like he's not going to keep the job if they don't stay up. Is he? Probably not. I think Chelsea owes him a loss, though. That was ridiculous what they did.

That's not a good schedule. The game in hand, the game in hand that Everton has is against a fellow relegation candidate Wadford. So. But they, but the rest of their schedule is somewhat difficult. I think they, I think they,

they have Arsenal last game of the season, I'm pretty sure. Um, I think they have Brentford to and Crystal Palace instead of Brighton or something. So, so it's not, you know, it's,

it's, it's going to be a fight. It's going to come down to the last, to the last match week. What happened exactly? I, I, I remember not two weeks ago,

Jesse Marsh just won a bunch of games and everything seems safe all of a sudden it turns you like that. It's similar to how we beat Mexico and it felt like it was over but then it wasn't so he's just going to have to gut it out and he's going to have to do

like what we did with the Western qualifying. I think he's going to stay up. I believe in Jesse Marsh. He was so excited after the game, the loss pumping up the crowd. He was excited after the loss to Manchester City? I wasn't excited. He wasn't happy, but he was, he was, you know, he was exuberant in the, you know, in an encouraging type of way. Oh, yeah.

That's Jesse, isn't it? In it? Very much so. Alex Mendez hit an absolute banger, and I don't use that term lately. This was a really nice goal. Zella did lose to Porto four to two, which is what can be expected, but Mendez got the start and went 90 and scored this left-footed goal where he beat a guy. The defending could be, I think, criticized there,

but he beats a guy and then just curls it around a defender from 20-ish yards, unstoppable for the goalkeeper. And I think another thing worth noting in this game is Medita Rami, the Iranian forward scored a brace. One was a penalty and the other was an impressive reaction on a rebound to volley it out of the air. He has 20 goals and 13 assists on the season. And I think I say that and people are, they don't care that we're going to face a striker. who has 20 goals and 13 assists for Porto,

the best team in Portugal in the World Cup. I feel like I'm just speaking this and nobody is listening, but he's good. This guy is a good player. So I would have to say it's time to wake up because a striker like that is just somebody that can send you home.

Yes. It doesn't matter if we outplayed Iran or whatever. Like a person like that who's capable of a moment of brilliance. that's that's something you should be afraid of what are what are I supposed to do about that you know you're telling me there's this great striker that I don't I there's something I can do you know look man we we worry about everything else people people are worried about chance cow getting dude I was just going to say chance cow chance cow I didn't know there was a chance cow

I didn't even know about him chance cow playing for Mexico maybe playing for Mexico people are going crazy about it on Twitter and uh nobody even cares that Iran has a first-class striker. And look, this is no slight to chance. Okay, I'm just saying it. Chance Cowell, man, I do not want to lose him, though. That's a strong name. Is it a strong name?

No, it's not that guy of the name, to be honest, but he's 13, so it shouldn't be, I shouldn't be criticized the name of a 13-year-old. Cade and Chance. Knocked it out the part. I'm suspicious that they're going to play for Mexico. I am too. Did you, I mean, do you guys have anything to say about the Mendez? Banger?

I'm sure you saw it. It did. It was a very good goal. I think a banger should go straighter and not have as much curve as that. We've talked about that before. We don't need to get into that. So I wouldn't. It's a very good goal.

It's not an eight of a banger for me. Which I know is probably crazy, but that's just kind of where I stand on it. It was a left-footed shot. I don't know if you mentioned that. Yeah, I didn't mention that, but he is left-footed, so. Well, it's nice to see. Yeah. It's, you know, how, like, lefties look better.

When I'm, like, shooting a basketball or, like, kicking a soccer ball is just one of those things. I prefer if you haven't watched it, go watch it. I prefer a left-footed shot to a left-footed, or a left-footed soccer shot to a left-handed basketball shot. I was going to say the same thing. I think a left-footed pitcher in baseball is more aesthetically pleasing. Now, Bear and I haven't watched any baseball for a decade, but I used to watch a lot. Yeah, I'd go pitcher, soccer, shooter, and then to basketball. That's my...

Do you think a left-footed jump shot's more aesthetic than a right-handed jump shot? No, I was just ranking left-handedness. No, I'm asking Vince, because he said, he mentioned basketball. Oh, yeah. It's like a commonly known thing amongst real hoopers out there That the lefties just look better And it's true when I think about the smoothest players I play with They look better than Steph Curry who is right-handed

Maybe that's unfair But he's a different It's a different person That's just It's not even He's an extraterrestrial It's just a different thing Entirely

I'll think about it. I never knew that. Let's move to the striker watch talk about the players in the hat. Once again, it's Haji Wright, Jordan Pfeffach and Hases Ferreira making noise and everyone else languishing.

That feels like it's been a theme for the past couple months. So Wright scored again an 80th minute goal and a 2-2 draw with trabs on spore and boy, what a night on the north coast of Turkey on the Black Sea.

Trabzon Spore only needed a draw to clinch the title and they got it. And so they're the champions of Turkey for the first time since 1984. They rushed the field and the celebrations in the street afterward. I'm sure many of you have seen those. Amazing. Like pretty remarkable. Also, Haji played well. He had a good goal call back in the first half for being just offside,

set up a good chance for a teammate. he was struggled dribbling after receiving the ball in the middle of the field and linking with teammates in the attack was also involved in the buildup to the first goal for his team and then scored himself on a ruthless moment of opportunism late in the second half I don't really have anything to say about Haji I would just like to see him at this point okay no that's fair I mean he did a really good job of his teammate kind of shot the ball and he controlled the shot. He just took it and then kicked it in.

You'd like to see that. Yeah, it was opportunistic. And I'm just fascinated with Turkey now, and it's all thanks to Haji Wright. I want to go to... I'll tell it, yeah, Al-Tanya's for. Yeah, I want to go to Al-Tanya, and now I want to go to Trabbs-Bahn.

Trabs-on. All right, P-Fox scored on a 97th-minute game-winning penalty. Josh Sargent came on as a sub in the 67th minute for Norwich and then got hurt and subbed out in the 81st. Did we hear anything about his injury? No, you don't want to... I haven't heard anything. You don't want to do that, though.

It was not... That's not the comeback you want. I know I'm not saying anything. Everyone doesn't know, but... Yeah. You don't want to do that. Yeah, I'd have to say the parabla... The parabola talk might be dead.

I don't know. it seemed like right when we were going up it's come crashing down like immediately after he scored those two goals I don't know that there was ever a parapola if we're being honest with ourselves yeah yeah I was like I was trying to make stuff not a nothing I'm not going to lie

but we all wanted it we all wanted it to be true and it looked like it might be true when he scores a brace like I don't know a week after you said that or two weeks after you said it also just kind of unlucky that he got hurt He'll be back. He's going to be fine, and he's going to be in the World Cup. It's also possible that a baby sergeant has bad vibes.

Well, we were giving this baby a lot of credit before. We were saying he definitely had some good vibes, because that's what led to the goals, right? So maybe it's the baby sergeant parabola we need to be paying closer attention to. Babies are taxing. I bet people don't know what a parabola is in this context. It's just tracking the performance of the player and predicting using math what their trajectory is going to be based on how badly they've done before.

So if the parabola is going down, it eventually needs to go back up as that's the whole idea. Yes. It's an exact science. I feel like you need a lot of mental toughness in the house to deal with a baby, you know? And it could be, it could definitely be taxing. on everybody. You know, it can be. We all know this, right? Babies are annoying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. But, but don't you think Josh got like some type of nanny or something, you know? Yeah, probably. Like a night nanny. I remember when I was working as a business reporter in Minneapolis,

I was having, I was interviewing somebody, you know, making like 18 times as much money as me, which is what you do when you're a business reporter. And we were talking about both having little kids and talking about getting sleep at night and he told me that he had a night nanny and I was like you mother do they call it a night nanny yeah that's what he did he called it a night nanny i can't remember who it was or what job he had but i ain't gonna lie that sounds nice sergeant does sergeant's got to have something like that anyway i'll stop speculating on his family life uh ricardo peppy did not play for augsburg two games in a row now.

You would like these do not play us to be a little more spread out. We got Hay-Zus scoring. Yes. Why is Hay-Zus not in this list? He's in the list. We just mentioned him. Well, to pull the curtain back, he's not in the dock. Guys, I can't be expected to write down every single thing we're going to talk about.

Let me just get from showing me feeling so sad about Peppy. Yeah. Jesus scored a nice goal, too. He scored an amazing goal. goal. He got it and then he dribbled by a guy and kicked it in the top part of the goal. It's amazing. Great job. He's our striker, isn't he? I think so.

Seems like it. I think six goals and an assist and eight starts in this young MLS season. I mean, he's doing everything that you would want to see. But I feel like people are still like, but we, you know,

people are like, yeah, that's nice, but we need a striker. you know, a capital, in all caps, you know, STRI, K-E-R-type of thing. I don't know. I just don't feel like, Hey, Zeus is invoking the type of response that it should at this moment. Right. It's kind of the opposite of what Jonathan Liu said about Zach Stephan,

you know, how he said he was the, he looks like a Hollywood actor playing goalkeeper. Ferreira, you know, would never be mistaken for, like a classic line leading number nine. Right. But, you know, doesn't matter, right? It's about how you play.

Also, if I can ask you about this goal, um, it, it seems like he has the ability to get the, the ball out of his feet pretty fast when he, when he's intended to shoot. Did you, did you all pick that up? It kind of seemed like,

even though he created the space with the dribble, in the box that he still also got the shot off in a way that kind of maybe wrong-footed the keeper a little bit. Like, like, even though the keeper, the keeper wasn't going to save it, but it kind of caught everybody off guard.

They kind of thought he was going to take like another half step or something. He's very good at the quick shot. He does that a bunch at the top of the box, too. He'll just quickly tap it into one of the corners. He's good at quick passes too. He has quick feet. I think it's,

Clear like he can get a shot off or get the ball out from under his feet to a teammate in tight space very well because he had a defender flying in from his right right before he shot right and You know a lesser man I can think of a couple that we've just discussed might not have gotten a shot off Correct correct Well Josh isn't a lesser man a lesser yeah lesser man is not correct a lesser uh soccer player. I was hoping you would stand by it. Well, I just don't know any of these people.

Should we talk about Brooks? John Brooks? He scored a goal on a header, on a corner. That's the crux of it. There was a lot of camaraderie in evidence after the goal and throughout the game, right? It was a big,

a nice post-goal huddle. They were slapping him on his head. In a nice way. He seemed really half a. about that but he'll he'll need to find a new team coming up here so this is kind of his last few games there is his farewell and hopefully it's returned to the national team yeah hopefully hopefully he's coming back hopefully we see him the summer and i mean there hasn't been a single trickle about what type of club he might be going to after so we also have to hope that it's i don't know i mean

if he can hopefully can land at like fryberg or something. I don't know. I don't even know what the John Brooks market is looking like right now. Fryberg would be cool. They got a great forest around them. Right. We can't talk about Freiberg's forest every episode. It's called the Black Forest. It looks like a fairy tale. There we go. Yeah. There's witches in it and stuff. Nico Schlaugherbeck, their big time centerback signed with Dortmund and then Matthias Ginter was just signed by Freiberg like this morning. morning, I think.

I forget who he's playing for, but he used to be at Dorman. I was thinking Shalka would be a good landing spot for Brooks. You know, get some intensity in his life. Wolfsburg is too, it's too sleepy. Just come to the, come to the rural valley where soccer, you know, soccer is a really big deal. Play for Shaka after they come up from the two Bundesliga next season. That would be cool. Place is going to be lit, man.

The, the Nordkir. they'll be so happy to be back they'll demand 100% effort from there from everybody it'd be good I would be in favor of that yeah I think that's what we should push for maybe he'll also go to Berlin he's from Berlin

he could go back to Berlin oh yeah weren't they going down maybe well they were I don't know if they are anymore but Derek Ray would be upset at us for not knowing enough about the

Bundesliga. Did you see he's been tweeting about that and getting into arguments with Alexi Lalas about it? Really? That's good. Well, I mean, I'm exaggerating. But Derek Gray likes to tweet that if you don't know enough about the Bundesliga, it's because your mind isn't open. You should open your mind. And then Alexi is like, well, they should just become more popular. They should promote their league. It's not really our responsibility to know all about Freiberg's Black Forest. They should be promoting that themselves. I feel like it's our responsibility. So it's just an interesting meta debate going on around the Bundesliga.

Well, Bells, let me ask you a question. When the Bundesliga flew out multiple soccer personalities, like two or three years ago, did you get the invite? No. No way, man. Oh. No.

I mean, I was wondering, because, you know, got Taylor Rockwell out there, you know, the cooligans. They flew out people. Yeah, they went to Stuttgart and they had like lunch with the sporting director there who is now the sporting director of Charlotte I believe or some one of these young MLS clubs or St. Louis the guy who's the guy who's in charge at St. Louis now I forget his name. You don't get flown on you know. I'd like to get flown so.

No man we don't get anything like that the emails I get the emails I get are from people I got like seven emails in a row from a guy who wants to help me sell merch. That's what I get not invitations to join Bundesliga junkets damn unfortunate but but if we do we'll let's

connect on that I want to go to Turkey if we can get ESPN sport to fly us out appreciate you imagine how bad the food is across Germany I mean we hear about it from every American player

that goes there is it but they they don't know about food though. These are like 20 year olds who do not have very sophisticated palates. There's probably good food in Germany, right? It's not England. England, it's got to be better than England. Yeah, marginally so. I mean, but we can agree Turkey has better food than both of them, right? I think there's a bunch of Turkish food in Germany. Oh, there probably is, of course, yeah. And cheap flights from Germany to Turkey. I noticed that when I was trying to plan the

Smokey Davos and Talia. Did you? First I checked out the facilities. Did it look like they had enough space for us? Yep, yeah, I think so. Might be a little tight.

We should get that roll and get that sign up. It's going to be expensive, though. Speaking of which, these friendlies, I mean, if the scuff Discord is any sort of barometer, the friendlies coming up, In June. A dud.

Not a lot of people are going to those. Dudd. Yeah. This does not seem that like there is a lot of interest. It seems like U.S. soccer played themselves, essentially. That's why they put it in the smaller places, right? Maybe that could be the argument, but. I don't know.

I feel like it would be less of a dud if you gave people that didn't get a game of a game. I don't know. Well, I do know. like I bought tickets for Cincinnati and the section that we're in is now sold out at least that's good to hear like the with the with the American outlaws like right behind the goal like section 108 is sold out but other than that just not a lot of people in general on the discord talking about going Kansas City I think there are like two people go two people go so far And, you know, flights are kind of expensive to Kansas City these days.

They have a very, very small airport there. And, you know, I don't even know if I'm going to go now. I'm not going to drive 10 hours to set up a tailgate for five people, you know. Well, guys, if you're listening to this, this isn't going to be behind the paywall. So we should, you know, everyone, if you're going, let us know. Let us know. because we're not feeling the energy that we felt around the qualifiers, which makes sense, of course.

Of course. But just let us know something. Yeah, speak to us. Is there a pulse? Brendan Aronson, you're always very closely watching Brendan Aronson, Wachie, what's going on with him? He won the Austrian Cup. He's a two-time champion because last week I guess he won the Austrian Bundesliga

and now he's won the Cup as well. He's extremely decorated. And I guess he subbed it at the end. He's still coming back from that injury. And he could have scored a goal, but he kind of kicked it out over the goal. So do we know what the injury was? I don't know. I don't know.

Now that you ask, I realize I have no idea. Transfer Market says knee problems. I know that's not always gospel truth, but he missed four games as a result of them and then started the last two. Tim way I started, but I'm going to make an executive decision and say that I'm just going to be the only one who speaks about it. He was fine. They lost. He fell down too many times. He kept slipping.

He needs to get different shoes. Yeah. I know you said you're going to be able to know what to say anything about it, but I just had to say that. No, I encourage insubordination. Well, let's just talk about it. Last week I was like, I don't care if he scores goals or gets assists. Now this week, all of a sudden I feel like, could he just score a goal for once? just once

well it would be nice his team did kept getting a bunch of red cards so I think by the end of the game there are like six of them on the field players field players

Eric Palmer Brown was on the other side of the field got a 3-0 dub and I think Twas is a big deal for them in escaping the relegation risk so is that how you pronounce that name that team

Yeah. Twas. Never would have guessed. I've been saying Troy in my head for years. Troyes. Yeah. The Troyes. The fight in Troyes.

I mean, French is easier than German, I feel like. I mean, I still don't really know how to pronounce the club that Tim Tillman is at. Man. Man, I don't know where it is. I don't think it's in the black forest. French is not easier than German. It's harder. to say clearly harder than German.

That's just an outlier, Grutherferf. The rest of them are easy. Like Gladbach, Moken Gladbach. Mocchin. Yeah, I guess that is hard. No, okay, because it, well, if you saw, if you saw the other club in Berlin's name, and then you heard it pronounce, I mean, that's like a whole thing out of left field.

I would have thought for sure it was Union, Berlin. Not Union. Union. Yeah, but... Un something. Okay. That's the good thing about the German names. You don't have to take their pronunciations that seriously.

You can just say it however you want. With France, you feel like you're supposed to say it like them. Because they're a bit haughtier about it. Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. You can say Union, Berlin. Only Derek Ray is going to get upset with you.

Who cares? I just feel like the French sound. sounds are once you learn them more predictable than the German sounds, but I won't die on that hill. I did my son, my six-year-old son was watching some Philadelphia Union highlights with me the other night or like a game. And he goes, is their name really the Philadelphia onion? And then he just was giving me, kind of teasing me the rest of the night, kept calling him the the onion so good on him well it's just i mean he's he's wrong it's not the onion it's just incorrect that's just not that's a union is a word he's still you know he's he's working with

phonetics on a basic level fourth eight watch got a couple names here i know vince you watch some pomacall this weekend yeah and and and and now i'm because okay like beginning of the season i would check in on on pack scenario once in a while And there wasn't a lot getting me excited, to be honest. It was just, you know, just it was basically a lot of shuttling. It was what I was seeing. But when I turned this game on, he was cooking. He was definitely cooking.

He was aggressive on the half turn. He was getting forward. He was dribbling. He was looking to ping passes. He was looking to play people in behind. Um, like overall, it was, it was a very good performance. And then also, I mean, when you talk about cage matchability, like, like if you, if you go into cage of Paxton, like, you, you are not coming out with the ball. It's true, man. It's weird that he is that good at that, but he is.

And the, and the way he, like, dictates the whole, the whole duel, too. It's like, he is in control this whole thing. Like, you see, like, where he puts his arm out a little bit to, like, make sure he's in contact with whoever he's in the cage with. Like once Paxson gets that arm on you, like you are in hell, buddy. You are in hell. And good luck getting out. Like it's over.

He's getting to a spot. You're not knocking him off his pass to the ball. And he's going to come out with it. Yeah. So I would say it's time to ring the alarm. Everyone who wasn't watching FC Dallas. it's probably time. We got our starting national team nine who is performing and then.

Ariel is playing a while too, I feel like. Right, right. But yeah, I thought this was Palm calls one of his better performances of the season, maybe his best. Yeah, I mean, the question is, is he better than, is he worth, is there a chance he's better than John Luca Bousseo, Christian rolled on, Sebastian Leggette at the 8? And, I mean, yes, there's a chance.

there's a chance he's not better than Tim Tillman but if Tim Tillman isn't gonna be coming in for whatever reason then Paxton Paxton that Paxton is next up

in my opinion Tillman's still somewhat committed to the German program right like that he was in their U-21 camp most recently is that right? Really?

I don't know but I know there were rumors coming out this week about Greg flying to Germany to potentially recruit Malik Tillman, right? Yeah. But everyone with the scoop was like, yeah, he's going after Malik, but not Tim. And I'm just like, I have no clue what's going on there.

Did you send him your video? Yo, so I may have to get with my Chicago contacts and see if they can, if we can just get somebody to run up on Greg with a cell phone. I bet Alex Calabrese can figure out how to do it. Yeah, or he can just pull up, you know, pull up, just walk up to the ring doorbell and just hold the phone in the... Yeah. So we can get me saying Tim is nice over like some type of speaker in his house.

Whenever you see Burrhal to do like a Zoom call or an interview from his kitchen table or something that does look like a nice row house in South Chicago, I assume that's where he lives. I mean, what else? Aidan Morris, he was really good in duels, got another start for Columbus crew. I think he's just watching him. I feel like he's kind of just replacement level on the ball.

And, you know, unless we see some improvement on that front over the next few months, talking about him is not even a thing. But what about as a sixth candidate? Yeah, for 20. 2026, you know. Fair enough. He's like, he's a little bit like Palmacall.

Like he goes into a challenge and he is either going to come out with the ball. I mean, at minimum, the other guy's not coming out with the ball. It might spray into a 50-50 ball. But both these kids, they're kind of tanks in the way that they, yeah. Which is so weird. Like I said, so weird about Pomacall because back in the day, you know, he would come on for like 10 minutes at the end of a game, play the wing and just get trucked before he sort of turned that. corner um but he did so yeah uh one one more thing was while while i was watching aden morris

i just started wondering myself like why why haven't we produced another another Tyler at one not another Tyler Adams but why do we not have a backup six like i just feel like we can easily produce tank midfielders i don't know i do feel like morris if morris hadn't been gotten his knee injured last spring. He probably would have been, I don't know, that's a wild thing to say. I don't know. Maybe he would have been in the conversation.

It might be that it's just kind of hard to be really good at being a six. Yeah. Yeah. That does seem to be the case. But, I mean, like, like, not even a destroyer. Like, just appear, just go out there and just, you know. Make it tough to play against you. Yeah, we should have more.

We should have more. I noticed Chris Durkin's back in D.C. I didn't even realize that until like a week ago. Yeah, I didn't realize that until I was watching Aiden Morris. And I was like, is that Chris, is that Chris Durkin on the field? And yeah, it was him. Coming out at the wrong end of some of those challenges against Morris, if we're honest. More dual national panic, I think, is on the way.

We briefly mentioned this, but Kate Cowell and Chancell. are in the process of getting their Mexican citizenship per Fabian Renkel, a freelance reporter who covers the quakes. They want to keep their options open. Fine with me. Yeah, they should keep them open. Go ahead. Use every bit of leverage that you have.

You also don't need to do that. You could just play for the United States. I did notice. Just do you have two out. That's another. another route you could take. Yeah, but I feel like if you're in the American market right now as an agent, it would almost be malpractice for you to not advise your client to, you know,

to do these things if you have the opportunity to. It's like paragraph to line one of the playbook at this point, you know. Yeah. If you have dual nationality, leverage it. Zezar Hernandez, who reports for ESPN, said, and I quote, I'm hearing that the FMF will be hosting an 18 player U.S. camp this upcoming week with Mexican-American players born 2007 and 2008. Nearly all of the players are associated with MLS clubs.

So there's going to be more. There's going to be more of this. Probably a bunch of the players that we talked about in that U20 episode last week will be there. And it's going to keep happening. I think, you know, I did get a message from Beto, my friend, in Houston, who I once interviewed him about how he became a U.S. men's national team fan, and it was all about him trolling his mom and dad back in 2002 when the USA played against Mexico.

Yeah, I remember that. And he was, he, he messaged me earlier this week that the, like, it seems pretty clear to him and to, it seems clear to a growing number of Mexican Americans that this last camp was kind of, I don't know, a little bit insulting. to some of the dual gnats that were there. Like Tata didn't show up. As we know, Gomez was Jonathan Gomez was in that camp. I don't know.

Something's got to give. Delicious. So this should have led the whole, the podcast. I mean, it's, so I double check because I'm like, is this something a lot of people are saying? And he's like, you know, it's like more like Mexican Americans than just fans of Eltree in general. But I don't know. I don't feel like I should throw him not under the bus, but under so much scrutiny like that. But I think there's got to be something to it.

If they're just bringing players in and cap tying them and then casting them aside if L3 is doing that, it's not going to just keep on going like this. Equilibrium has to be reached at some point. Yeah. I mean, basically the amount of thirst that's coming from the FMF in regards to Mexican-American. and do nationales is really incredible. So thirsty.

Because, I mean, they're, you know, we're talking, we're talking about players that may or may not be something. And, and, and, and we're talking about Mexico. You know, we're talking about Eltree. Yeah. You know, like, it's, it's, it's truly crazy how far they have fallen. I know I've said this before, but, but just look at them. Just take a step back and look at the state of their program.

the only thing they're better at than us currently is scheduling friendlies and they also finished ahead of us in qualifying but oh just those two that's neither here nor there neither here nor there they could have kept us out of the world cup if if they would if they could have beat us once so I don't want to hear it I love this debate can you guys keep going with it Waki your turn well I know I know I don't I agree with Fence I just wanted to point, it feels necessary to point out that they did finish ahead of us

in the qualifying table. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, who cares about when it gets El Salvador on a Tuesday afternoon, okay? You know what I'm saying? Do it in the big, doing the big matches. That's all I'm saying.

The big matches is where you will stand up and be counted. I'm going to side with Vince here. Mostly in retaliation for you signing with Vince last week. Waki. That's right. I did do that.

And we'll close with a question from Owen in Youngstown, Arizona, Youngtown, Arizona. And this is for Vince. In an alternate, I mean, Waki, you can try to answer it too, but let Vince go first. In an alternate reality, can you pronounce his name for me, Vince? His name is Buchayo Saka. Okay. Bukaiu Saka is an American and not an Englishman. would he start for the U.S., and if so, would he start over Raina or Pulisic?

Yes. And all fronts. He'd start over everybody. I think he's, yeah. I mean, he's a better player than Christian. Geo is probably a bigger talent, but. Hasn't shown it. Yeah, right now, I mean, look, Bacayo got Arsenal Football Club on his back at 20 years old.

Like on his back, it's incredible. Like, people don't do these things. I don't know why we're pointing out a player who's better than... I don't know. We have one question. It's whether this great player is better than our players? It just bumps me out. And he's from Arsenal.

It's like the worst of all worlds here. It fits right in with pointing out that Mexico finished ahead of us. in the standings in the... Yeah, but they did. ...topagonal. But he is probably better than Renan Pulisic. Now look, if Owen...

Yeah, but we're having to create an alternate reality to justify it. Hey, a listener asks a question that I think is interesting. We're going to try to answer it. I'm not claiming Owen, but this is... All right. Bro, so if Owen had put Tim Wea in over... either Rainer or Pulisic, then I probably would have had to plead the fifth at that point

because these are two of my baby boys that I just can't pit against each other. But, you know. You're saying that Waya is better than Saka? No, I'm not. I just refuse to answer the question. Okay. Yeah.

I'm sorry for getting upset about this question. It's not about the question somewhat. it's about me putting the question in the podcast. No, no. It's why do we need to say an English person is better than this American person? He just doesn't like the premise. And I guess since we are playing England,

we don't need to be given in this love. Let's start listing some bad English players from now on. Harry McGuire. Yes, exactly. Luke Shaw. Yeah. I don't know. enough about England, but they sound bad.

Yeah, they really do just sound like some guys, don't they? Let's get them. Let's get them. Also, man, I want Weston McKinney to come back from injury. I want a Gio Raina to come back from injury. Giovanni. Giovani. Thank you.

All right. Anything else, guys? Yo, you, R.P. Miroreola. Yeah. I was a little flippant about that in our last episode. I apologize. Waki, anything else? I hope everyone has a great week.

Yeah. If you would like to sign up for the Patreon, the link is in the show notes. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.