Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #277: A World Cup year USMNT to-do list

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

The goalkeeper situation, attacking reps and a backup left back. Greg and Belz talk through those and five other things on the to-do list for Berhalter, some more urgent than others.support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedListener Survey: https://forms.gle/sBXXSaJ8jnP6RZDY6 join the Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU drop us a question: 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. Hey, Greg. How you doing? Bells, I'm all right. Hey, I just want to get this out of the way right now,

like the standard home podcast disclaimer. The lull in the men's national team action that we've been experiencing has coincided with a rise in lawnmower action in central Iowa. So you're going to hear some lawns being mowed. Not everyone switched to the rechargeable batteries in their lawnmowers. we got some leaf blower, some situation. Yep.

A lot of two-stroke engines in northwest Georgia, too. All right, but let's motorbikes. Let's dive into this what's been going on during the lull. Yeah. Well, first of all, we should say that the lull

is about to come to an end. There's going to be between the men's national team games at the beginning of June, the women's Cockcalf Championship, and the U-20 concaf championship. Men's U20 Concaf Championship.

There's going to be, I don't know, 12, 15 match recaps at least that we've got to do over the next two months. Buckle up. Are we ready for that? I am. I'm ready and I'm actually really excited that we have the women's games with real stakes, you know, like the World Cup qualification, which is almost a formality, but the Olympic qualification for the women, which is very much not a formality because you have to win the tournament. So you have to beat Canada, you have to beat the host nation in Mexico, at least one of those teams to get to secure a spot in the Olympics. You can get there another way too, but to actually lock it up this summer, the women have to win the thing. Yeah.

And then it's nice that the – it'll be exciting. It's nice that the U-20s can actually get us to the men's Olympics, which has been something that we – Pretty hard for us. Yeah, haven't experienced in barely in our lifetimes. Only a slight exaggeration. These will be the first meaningful U-20 games since the U-19 World Cup. December of 2019. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The Mendez show, Mendez and Pomacall. What a time that was. All right. So before we get into sort of the main thing we're going to talk about, let's talk about Challenge Cup a little bit. That was the final was played between the North Carolina Courage and the Washington Spirit in Kerry, North Carolina. and I find myself really rooting for the Washington spirit these days. I think a lot of people are going to be jumping on that train.

I mean, they're defending champions. And they just have decided to run with an absolute, like, exciting American youth core. That's just going to be a blast to watch potentially for the next 10 years. Yeah. Not that any NWL team can stay together for 10 years, but can keep a run. roster together for 10 years. But like those players, man, they are they are a blast. Yeah, I was going to say I'll have to check with analysis evolved. But the fun per 90 we get from Ashley Sanchez is, I think, unmatched. Any player in who calls himself or herself an

American, she's tops on that list. All right. So that's the top of your, well, I feel like that's a prime topic for a Monday review show is running through the most exciting players to actually watch, who bring you the most joy to watch. Is there another woman who's more fun to watch than Sanchez? Because I don't think there's a man who is. It's going to be tough. So I'm still big on the Trinity Rodman train, which to see them play together is a blast. And then, I don't know, there's something about Macario and just the way she can dominate

play. It might not be quite as like and one mixtape as Sanchez is, but there's still just like a a real enjoyment to what seeing that happen. And then also, Rose Lavelle. Certainly, yes. And on all, on all fronts.

I, I guess, we're spoiled for choice here. Sanchez seems like the kind of player who prefers to get an assist over a goal. Like says that like Kevin DeBreina aspect to her. Anyway.

Anyway, so we, I can see Greg getting uncomfortable right now. That long, Long-winded thing about the Washington Spirit is now immediately followed up with. They didn't win the final. They lost to North Carolina. Yeah, they lost. They lost two to one.

That game was a brawl. It was just like an absolute boxing match. More literally than I wish it would have been. But even within that, that attacking trio of Hatch, Rodman, and Sanchez for Washington still put together some really exciting moments. I know you've clipped one. Now that we know that Y Scout can be run through the women's filter too. just a lovely. How embarrassing.

Just a lovely piece of play there. I should, yeah, I should issue a correction. I said that the Wise Scout doesn't have women's players on it. And I was dead wrong. There's a little Carl Carpenter was kind enough to point out. There's a little insignia up on the right that you just click that says men, you click that. It changes to women. And all of a sudden you got all the women's clips you could ever watch.

So, and I don't know. I had never done that before. I don't know if I gave my, my defense here, but like, it has, like, Y Scout has a search bar, right? So that's how we always get around in it is to like, okay, I'm going to search for this player or you can search for a team. So I'll start typing in United States. And the United States comes up, the men's team, the U20 team, the U17 team, but never the

women's team. So I just thought that didn't have women's players. You could start typing in a woman's name and you don't get any results back. It's just that tiny little toggle up on the top right of like the screen that, And the other thing is we have to stay in a very limited space in Y Scout to not, like, violate our terms of our contract and be, like, kicked out for a month. So I don't usually go exploring too much. It's very much like, get in here. Here's exactly where I can click to watch clips without ruining our account.

So big thank you to Carlin for bringing that to our attention. Definitely. It is true, though. It's like if you make the wrong move and sometimes, sometimes we do, you find yourself unable to do anything on Yscop until the next billing cycle starts. That is crippling for the scuffed enterprise. Here we go. Let's talk about, it's been a week or so since I wrote a piece for Joe Lowry's new soccer publication, backheel.com.

And have you seen that, Greg? Yeah, that's awesome too. So Joe realizing probably within this role, like, hey, we all still like talking about the men's national team, the women's national team. Let's focus some energy on some like content production there. And he's got a nice rather than just sort of just random interactions on social media about it. And so now we've got a nice home to discuss these things. It's good. Yeah.

It seems like I mean, Joe's quite an enterprising fella. And it seems like he's got Adam Whitaker Snavely helping him. So plenty of good stuff on that website. Check it out. Backheeled.com. when he rolled out the website, somebody couldn't write something. So he needed me to help him by writing something laid on. And it was a USM&T checklist before the World Cup, which obviously is in November.

And I wrote it and we're going to go through it. And Greg's going to blow up what I've said. Probably not that much. I'm not. I'm not going to blow it off. I'm excited. Like I said, these games for the men don't have the same stakes as the women's team and the youth teams. It's very much just about trying to like.

ascertain a little bit of extra information going into the World Cup, and I think you did a good job touching on sort of what we can do in this sort of limited information scenario this summer. So let's start with the most boring and obvious point, which is we just got to get healthy West McKinney, Giovanni Raina and Sergenio Dest in particular, and Raina is the biggest worry here since he's faced setback after setback with his hamstrings, and is so crucial, you know, I mean, it's very arguably the most talented player on the team. So, you know, we really want to see him get back to health. And getting people back to health, keeping people healthy,

sort of takes precedent over any information we might glean in June or even in September. So that's my first thing on the to-do list. Yeah. And obviously, there's nothing really that can be done. We aren't getting injured because we're being reckless with our players. This is just going to be a matter of, like, finger crossing, right? Like, I mean, I think even... Prayer.

Yeah, I think even since you posted your article, we lost Miles Robinson and do Achilles, right? So the other part of this is if those guys can't go, it's just like crossing your fingers that one of the guys that gets called in instead at sort of the back end of the roster shows up and plays in a way that it's like, okay, it's not the worst thing in the world. No one's going to come in and be Gio Rana, right? Giovanni Rina. Like, that's not going to happen. but somebody could come in and be like, okay, this is a new player that sets the floor a little bit higher

than what it had been. And that's kind of like the big hope. Now, or that would be the silver lining if anything could happen. It could be like a Cameron Carter Vickers. You know, I know people have some hopes about Georgie Mahalovich. That kind of player,

can they come in and do sort of what Luca De La Torre did and give us what we think is like an elevated floor? So that's... Keaton Parks. Are we going to get into Keaton Parks today? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So that probably comes up later on in your list. But that's like, I think that for me, ties into this injury crisis you're going to call that. Again, we're going to have an ongoing injury crisis up until November because at any point, two or three of our top 23 are going to be injured. So it's very much going to be about what does it look like behind them and which guys are they in particular? For the second thing, let's, let's, I'm going to turn it over to you. What should Greg Burrhalter do with regard to,

to the goalkeeper situation. Okay, so this is number two on the to-do list. It's just sort of in big letters, goalkeeper situation. I think Greg Buraldor should just play one of our good goalkeepers. I feel like that's the answer. And I know there's a lot of worry about it and sort of like almost not quite panic, but I think we have plenty of good goalkeepers. And I think we sort of always have.

They might not be it like they might not be at, you know, peak Brad Friedel level, but they're still good goalkeepers. Matt Turner hasn't done anything that, like, should start a panic for the U.S. The problem I feel like is a very artificial one, and it's that Zach Stephan, who has not actually been very good for us or for his club, his various clubs that he's played in, in his career, if you want to go all the way back, seems to be the first choice. And so the question is, is he still the first choice? because if he is, that can be a problem.

But that's just a matter of choosing the wrong guy. Are you just as happy with Horvath getting minutes as you are with Turner? Or it's kind of Turner 1, Horvath 2 for you? For me, Turner still won. Again, like the guy has put up outrageous numbers for his club over his career, like ridiculous. And for the national team, he has still done an excellent job despite the fact that like his last action for the national team, was a soft goal that we gave up against Canada, where he was at fault for both the sequence that started it

with the poor goal kick. And then it wasn't like an unsavable shot that he conceded. But that, like, I think I'd been talking about that since he'd started playing for us in the summer and doing really well in the Gold Cup in 2021. That is inevitable. Every goalkeeper gives up soft goals at some point. Like that's what they do over a long enough timeline.

The best shot stop. in the world, you'll eventually get a shot that's like, oh, that was saveable. He just didn't do his best there. It's a rate thing. It's like, okay, but how often does that happen? And we've seen Turner already building up to this soft goal that he allowed, just make outrageous saves for the national team. And we see it with this club. So for me, there's still no issue. Like, the fact that now he has given up a goal that you wish he would save more often. Like, that's not, that doesn't incite any kind of worry in me. It's like, oh, okay, there's a softer one. Wish you would have stopped that. he's a really good shot stopper.

We're fine if he's playing. And then Horvath, so it's very much for me just like people taking these insecurities about Stefan and his situation, the fact that he's not, doesn't play very much, and just sort of leaping to conclusions about the fact that like, oh, he's doing that because he doesn't play very much.

And so now Stefan's issues are going to apply to Turner, who's going to go to Arsenal and not play very much. When there's really no reason to think that that's going to happen, Stephen just isn't that good of a goalkeeper, all told. And there's no reason to think that Turner's quality is going to be, you know, somehow drop all the way to Stefan's level just because Turner's not playing. Wishing Turner the best at Arsenal next fall. And I guess if I can editorialize a little bit here, I think that this is a situation where

Burrhalter's loyalty to his selections is going to be tested because he really, you know, has been, he has favored Stefan, sort of against the evidence. Stefan's a former player of his. Burrhalter has had a tendency to stick with guys longer than he should have, I think, especially in retrospect. So, you know, we'll glean some information about Burrhalter as much as anything in June, I imagine. Because I think it's kind of a toss-up.

If you ask me to predict, what's he going to do? it seems as likely he'll keep Stefan as the number one as he'll do anything else. So even his loyalty to his players, like it's not necessarily a matter of him like being blind to performance. I do think like for him that's an important part of like locker room management, chemistry and morale and protecting that kind of thing. To not be seen as a totally ruthless like you make a mistake, you're done.

I know it's not just one game even though Berlter said that, you know, when he was asked about it, It's like it's one game against Costa Rica and it's like it's not and we all kind of know it's not. Come on, Greg. Yeah. But like there's that element that like he doesn't want to, you know, wreck people's morale or, you know, leadership dynamics within the group. But we have also seen that, you know, despite that loyalty, he will eventually move from a guy and he will eventually move like kind of almost. like permanently, right?

Like you have players who've played a long run and then that's it. It's not just like, oh, now they only have a diminished role. It's like they're gone. Like Legette hasn't played since Panama. Going back even to the 2019 end of the year stuff, Michael Bradley hasn't played since the Nation's League lost to Canada. He was a starter for every game and it's not like he got kind of phased out. He was gone.

Yeah. So that can also happen. And so I'm kind of with you. It's a coin toss of how this is going to shake out. but you're optimistic long term that it'll shake out in the appropriate way I am I really am because again I just think we do have good goalkeepers and I think horvath is another one who for me would be well ahead of Stefan and he's another example of somebody who that whole not playing regular first team minutes thing just doesn't really stand up because when he's come in

for the US and when he's come in for big moments for his club despite long spells of not playing like there's you don't see any difference in his performance he's good he's a good goalkeeper um just as long as we play one of our good goalkeepers that's that's enough i mean i'm not saying that we won't give up some kind of a bad goal in the world cup that happens sometimes uh but it's not something i have outsized worries about so long as we play one of our good goalkeeper yeah okay well we'll see what happens uh number three is as much as is possible while keeping everybody healthy, we got to give the first choice team, and specifically the first choice front six or seven, attacking reps together. It seems clear that Berthelter has established a good defensive foundation, and we should all be happy about that.

But with a few exceptions, and I think, I wonder if you disagree with me here, but a few exceptions, maybe the Panama game, although that even has some caveats to it. We didn't put together sort of games where we were just generating bunches and bunches of chances. I don't think it's necessarily lack of talent. I think there's some debate about that. But we just didn't, we didn't quite nail down the attacking patterns in World Cup qualifying, especially when Tim Wea wasn't on the field. Gio Reno played like, started one game in qualifying and Pulisik missed his share of minutes. get those two and weigh up plenty of reps with whatever strikers we think are going to be the strikers

and then Anthony Robinson and Sergenio Dest at fullback and West McKinney, Eunice Musa, maybe Luca Della Torre in the middle. Because I don't think that group of players has that many reps together. I haven't done the math on how much, how many reps there have been, but not that many, I don't think. No, that is definitely the case. And I agree wholeheartedly. For me, that is the number one priority is to as much as possible get that group playing together. And obviously, that's complicated by Raina being out for injury, potentially.

We don't know if they're going to be in camp or not Raina or Dest. Jedi Robinson also seems unlikely to be in this camp. There's been some talk about him having surgery. I don't know what the latest is on that, but he's playing still. Right. But, yeah, it seems like one of those things where there's. They finish the season out. Fullem are done.

They have no more matches left. So the question is, like, if he has a surgery now, I don't think there's any way that he's going to be in a camp. I don't think anyone would, that would be good for anybody. So that's going to be open the door for someone that we'll talk about later on in the list. But it is going to, or some, you know, vague someone's. But I agree with you. That should be a priority. I'm like apprehensive that we aren't going to have anybody healthy,

to go to build those rough. Yeah, it seems a little pie in the sky at the moment, doesn't it? But I'd be happy if we can get MMA out there with like Pulisic, like you said, Pulisik Wea and one of the strikers, some striker, that'd be a pretty good start.

Settle on a striker. Let's talk about this. I assume you feel like we have a striker and we've settled on him and he's going to work. I wouldn't even go that far. But I think we've settled on the striker to test out.

And that for me is still Jesus Ferreira. And it's just a matter of like, you know, people want to talk about the same thing. Like, strikers a big problem. Strikers is a big problem. There's some uncertainty around it for sure. But it doesn't feel like a big, big problem to me. Like if you told me today that Berlter had already settled, barring like some huge outburst from somebody way beyond what Haji Wright is doing.

If she told me that Berlter had settled on Ferreira, Pepey and Pfeck for the World Cup, I'd be like, sure, that works. Let's do that. Like, Frere has been good, very good in the games he's been able to play. Pepe has actually been like, okay, good at times and like, okay, the rest of the time. Like, he's never been like an absolute tire fire out on the field at any point. So I know there's been a roller coaster. He's played a lot better for the U.S. than he has for Augsburg.

I think it's fair to say. So, yeah, so there's been this roller coaster of a narrative around Pepey. It's kind of like the, it's a little bit like the Boozio one where if you just kept your opinion sort of the same on him, then you've either been overrating him at times or underrating him at times relative to the narrative. But like he's mostly been, I'm totally fine with him and what he's given us so far. And I'm very excited about the fact that he was 18 when he was doing it.

But even his 18 year old, his performance outside of his age qualification has still been okay. Right. So I'm fine with it. So I don't, I don't think there's a ton of urgency. I'm hopeful that we can get another name in there that looks good. But mostly it's just like the same thing.

Build some good reps with the attacking players and see if we can, see if we can fine-tune things, see if Ferreira is really able to do this against better competition, or if he kind of disappears against Morocco or Uruguay. So there's a lot of things to watch and sort of see how they develop, but I don't think of it as some, like, huge problem we're trying to solve. No. Yeah, I think that's a healthy way to look at it. And Ferreira, it should be noted, has seven goals, I believe, already in MLS this season.

And, you know, a lot of nice ones. The only striker, I feel like who hasn't been around, who does need to get a look is probably Hajie right. I know, you know, his stat bomb radar is not as broad as some people would like it to be in certain directions. But I don't know. He should get a call up into a camp, just to see. see how he's a different player than he was back when he was just breaking in at shalka. I think it's fair to say.

And anybody else? So I guess Brandon Vasquez, you know, Matt Doyle was on the pot earlier this week, singing Brandon Vasquez's praises. Vasquez's numbers are good enough for me to be in this camp, especially if we bring, I'm hoping we bring four strikers to camp, even if there aren't enough minutes for all of them to go around, just to at least get some kind of an in-person look at them and see if anyone is clearly below the standard. That's sort of been established by the Ferreira Pepepe duo,

and then Pfeck is sort of the third guy. Pfeck might be hurt. He's missed the last two games for young boys with injury. So we'll have to see if he's shut down for the summer as well. And then obviously D.K. is shut down for the summer. I mean, so many injuries that you couldn't even list them all in your injury section. But that would seem to open the door to a couple of new faces, unless, again, we get the Josh Sergeant resurrection.

that one doesn't seem as likely or as urgent to me right now. I mean, he's not even healthy. I was going to say he is also injured at least for the season. I mean, so that's where we are. Bringing right in Vasquez, right in Vasquez.

That's what I'm hoping. Peppy, peppy probably not going to be in this camp. So it's what Burrhalter is indicated. So even though I'd be fine with him and I think he's still in Burrhalter's plans, it's very much one of those where Burrhalter is looking for somebody to to match or eclipse him. So yeah, so if we got Haji, Vosquez, and Ferreira,

and the rest of them are all injured, I'd roll with that. Okay. Hey, before we go on to 5, 6, 7, and 8, let me ask that if you are able, please consider subscribing to the scuff Patreon. We've published two patron-only episodes this week, the Monday review with Waki Invents,

which happens, as you might imagine, every Monday, and a call-in show with Matt Doyle that was on Wednesday. You can get access to those and the scuff Discord and other stuff, including a seven-minute video of West McKinney creating chances in the final third by subscribing to the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. Even at the $5 level, that's less than a vegetarian burrito at Chipotle. There's also a link in the show notes for a listener survey,

which we'd love to hear from you on what we could do better. And that's a good place to leave a comment. that's for anybody, patron or not. That patron not only gives you access to the Matt Doyle call-in show, but it would allow you to call in with a question for the next Matt Doyle call-in show. Which is kind of funny, you know, Doyle takes a lot of written criticism on the Discord from people. You know, people criticizing him,

but none of his most vocal critics was willing to call in and have it out with him face-to-face. So if you are interested in doing that, yet another reason. You can ask him a question or you can drop some scathing accusations to him on the air. Which, to be fair, I didn't want to have it out with him over his assessment of the next player we're going to talk about. He said, I thought he was too harsh on him and I just didn't want to argue with him about it. So I just kind of let it slide. But anyway, the next person we're going to talk about is John Brooks, John Anthony Brooks. my exhortation to the U.S.

men's national team was that we should have a John Brooks redemption tour. And I don't know. It doesn't feel like that's going to happen, does it? No, it doesn't feel like it's going to happen. Like, I mean, again, Burrhaltered said already that he's bringing in CCV and that he probably, that he doesn't feel the need to bring in John Brooks because he already knows what John Brooks has, which again is kind of like a funny refutation to what he'd said in his life.

last press conference about Brooks not being needed for the March camp because he has some holes in his game that couldn't be addressed in a short camp so that he'd be better served in a longer camp, at which point we've decided that we're still going to leave him out of the three or four week, whatever, it will be extended camp in the summer. Now, again, that was before Miles got hurt, but, you know, as I've kind of made clear, I don't think that this is fully soccer reasons for Brooks being left out. It can't be. I don't think that the Miles injury is going to change anything. I think Brooks is still on the outside.

And I don't know if it's even, I mean, Brooks is publicly, you know, certainly made some made comments the effect of like wanting to be in. And so if he's saying that publicly and still not, they're still not cleared internally, it seems like that's not going to happen. Yeah. He's 29 years old. This is the guy who, you know, scored that goal against Ghana in the 2014 World Cup and fell on his face. on the turf and disbelief, you know, one of the great moments in the men's national team's

history, a late game winner. And it looks like he's going to get Donovan pretty much. So, so, I mean, I guess that's sort of that, right? Like, there's not much that can be said. And if it really is behind the scene stuff, then I get it, to be honest. Like, I don't know what would be the cause of it, but if that's what it is and there is like an issue between the personalities, then that's that. Like, you, you, you, you kind of have to roll with that. I mean, France is sort of, I think y'all were talking about the France drama. Like, they left Bensma home. Benzema is clearly a good enough player to compete in a tournament, I think is fair to say. I think like, that's another statement. And they went and won the World Cup

because they had to make a call on the team dynamic. Yeah Probably a little bit more severe Case of team dynamics there As far as we know As far as we know But still like You know there is something where at some point

Without without information on the actual chemistry issues here You know like you kind of just have to be like Okay well I guess that's that And you know at a much lesser scale than that even Like I've been in that boat with Dwayne Holmes forever right Like okay I think he's clearly been good enough To have gotten a shot certainly throughout all the winger injuries

we had been dealing with for the last three years. He never did, and I don't believe that those were soccer issues. But that's like, if there really are chemistry things, then it's kind of like, okay, fair enough, if that's what it is, that's what it is. And there is, I mean, to be fair, there is a soccer rationale for it.

I'm not, I'm not as down on how he's played for the U.S. as Doyle is, but he, you know, he's he's not that mobile he's not that good in the open field defending in space I can see that there are arguments for him not to be in the camp not not to be in the team for sporting reasons I don't agree with them but there's there are arguments to be made I'll go so far the farthest I'll go is that I can see arguments for him to not be in the 11 but I can't get all the way to arguments that he's not in a 23 man roster

certainly in a 2016. Yeah, I agree with that. I disagree with myself and I agree with you. The next thing is we've got to find a backup left back. Do we have to find a backup left back? I mean, this is one that would be nice, right? It would be nice to find a backup left back. Assuming that Anthony, that Jedi does have surgery

and assuming that that surgery goes, you know, as they seem to expect it to go, that he's not so hurt that they stopped playing him. they kept playing him even after the possible surgery was announced. He's going to play every minute, right? He's going to play every minute of the World Cup barring injury, suspension, or us securing qualification a match early. So he's our guy.

But yes, it would be nice to have a backup left back. The worst thing for me would be if Burhalter rolls with Sergenio Dest as the de facto backup left back. Because I hate the idea of blowing up a starter in another position. if it happens where you now have to play your force to play him at left back. So again, silver lining to the injury situation. If Jedi can't go the summer and Desk can't go this summer, he's got to play somebody else at left back. And who's the best proxy for Robinson?

Because even though I think it's important that we have a left back for the reasons you said, it's probably more important that we get attacking reps with a player who's like Robinson. If Robinson's not going to be there. I guess maybe that's Bello. I mean, Bello's the closest. I'll take Dwan Jones on that one. So that's my,

that's my shout. And it's been, it's been my shout since the January camp, I think, where Jones was in it. Berlter gave him some praise, but then Jones was left out of the, the whole camp.

And I think we just didn't carry a backup, backup left back in the winter camp. So Jones is, Jones is my hope. After that, after that, really care. I still think that my goal here is to just find a guy who sets a floor for us. And for me, Bello doesn't set a very good floor. I think he's shown even in the Bundesliga,

but before that for the national team and in MLS. He is kind of a liability defensively in a way that you wouldn't expect from a seasoned pro player or certainly not at the international level. So I'm just hoping that I think DeWan Jones is a guy who could set a floor in the event that Jedi goes down. Yeah. Jones seems like the best floor guy we have for sure. And Bella, it's worth noting Bello. I know you didn't say otherwise, but Bella is still very young, same age as Pepey and Raina. So, you know, he has plenty of opportunity to become that season veteran and not a defensive liability.

And not even just over the long term. Like Bello could make a leap. Like leaps are possible for these guys. Bello, Jonathan Gomez, Red Sociad, like there are big jumps possible. And since the World Cup is still seven months away, like those big jumps could happen in time. And we should get to see it if they happen. It won't be like, hopefully won't be under the radar. Sam Vines has kind of falling out of the picture, hasn't he?

Yeah, I guess. Like, Vines doesn't do anything for me. I don't think he's like a terrific defender. And that's based on what I've watched of him at Antwerp, because I would go back through and watch his clips. And he's not on skates all the time. But he also, for me, isn't as attentive. It's kind of the same things with Bello. Like that weak side defense just isn't attentive enough, where he either leaves too big of a gap between his centerback,

because he's stuck with his man on the sideline, even though the threat is clearly going to come somewhere else. Or just not enough urgency off of the ball to be like, what could become dangerous next? So he, for me, feels also like a defensive liability, and he doesn't offer quite enough in the attack to be like, but he's an attacking, you know, savant, so he's worth it. So it just goes back to that floor issue. I don't think Vines is enough of a floor setter right now for me to really hope he gets on the team. We'll just have to see again because one of these three guys,

one of these four guys is for sure going to be in the June camp, at least. And probably playing significant minutes. And I know you mentioned him already, but I don't think, Gomez quite sets the floor we need in terms of defending either. It's a little bit more of like a physical thing. He loses a lot of, he loses a lot of aerial duels, for instance.

If you want to see if Bello makes a leap this weekend, he plays, he plays against RB Leipzig at 8.30 a.m. Central Time on ESPN Plus. That was an amazing ESPN plus pitch. Just trying to be useful to the listener and, and use the play bill for all it's worth, Greg. Okay, Jim Nance.

All right. What's next? The next thing. The next thing is we've got to identify a fourth and fifth number eight in the depth chart. Under Burhalter, the U.S. plays a three-man midfield, of course, with Tyler Adams sitting deep as number six and two number eights in front of him. Those have been West McKinney and Eunice Musa as the first choice names on the team sheet, with Luca Deletori adding himself to the picture late in qualifying.

He's, I think, widely considered number three. after him it gets a it gets a little less comfortable. Now, I acknowledge this is not like an urgent need. We don't, it's not, I mean, those three guys are going to get most of the minutes at this position. But that's, and that's what I was going to jump in. I was going to jump in on that with my minor modification being like any fourth or fifth eight that shows up and like looks good again at that floor setting or race at the floor a little bit would be gravy.

My big, my big thing is actually going to be really establishing Luca as the number three, which just means getting him more minutes and more reps and making sure that his performance is still similar to what we saw in those home games. And it's just like Jesus Ferreira, right? It's kind of funny because, you know, you can't really be in the U.S. men's national team space without sort of walking along the proxy war stuff of MLS versus Euro versus USSF stuff. And so, you know, there are a lot of people who are still very much like caveating Ferreira and saying Ferrer is not the guy, and he put all these numbers up against the bad teams and the home games qualifying.

But then it very much doesn't seem to be a consistent line of Luca de la Torre, and we've got to make sure that he can do it aside from doing it in home games against the bad team. So I think he will, just like I think Ferreira will be a useful striker for us. I do think Luca DeLotore will be useful for us, but it's really important that we actually see that happen in some more difficult settings. Okay. Yeah. And he'll get those difficult settings, hopefully, against, I mean, even if Morocco and Uruguay don't take these games seriously at all, they're going to be better settings than the ones that he's been in so far. For sure, for sure. Because, again, Honduras was a dead rubber too, right? Honduras had nothing to play for in that game. So that, for them had already a broken mentality, plus they're not very good players. So Uruguay and Morocco, just for, you know, playing for World Cup spots. and being much better players, if he gets some good chunks of minutes in those games, it's already going to be a higher level

than what he saw in half of his World Cup minutes, World Cup qualifying. The names that are bandied about for the fourth and fifth spots are Tim Tillman, Pax and Palmacall. I still hold that hope for Alex Mendez, although I don't think that's likely to happen. Anybody else come to your mind? So I still have Eric Williamson on that list.

I still think he was the best eight end of the Gold Cup team that won a trophy, even though he got very limited minutes in that as well. But though, my big three that I still go back to the floor business would be Pomacall, Tillman, and Williamson. After that, you know, Mendez is not a guy that I think of as setting a good floor. I don't think that's what he would sort of be bringing. In the same way, I don't think Buzio sets a particularly high floor. I think those two guys are kind of similar in what they're trying to be.

and not quite good enough at it yet to warrant a spot. Yeah, Mendez is a ceiling guy, not a poor guy. So that's kind of where I'm at right now. It would be like the Williamson-Pomacall-Tilman trio. And I'd be thrilled if any of them even got a call-up. I don't have high hopes that any of them will even be called up for this camp. Yeah. Right.

But you're right. It's the important thing. The most important thing is Delatoria, again. getting plenty of reps. And then the last thing before we get out of here is we just got to schedule some good friendlies in September. Rerholtren said that the opponents would be out of the Asian Federation. And the implication is that they will be held in Europe because that's where our players are. And the U.S. Twitter account made sure to say that these summer friendlies in Granada match were going to be the last chances to see the U.S. on U.S. soil prior to the World Cup.

So we are looking, the most likely outcome here is the European dates against teams from Asia. Okay. All right. Well, busy few weeks coming up ahead. Mikey Varus on Monday, hopefully. And, oh, yeah, one other thing I should mention is we're going to try to do some historic recaps of USMNT World Cup games, starting with Czechoslovakia 1990. There we go. And we're going to.

The way back machine. Yeah, I think these are going to be fun. There's a lot, a lot to get into. And, you know, we'll roll those out sort of at a metered pace. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Thanks, Greg. We'll see you.