Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #290: U20s v Cuba recap with Bob Morocco

Episode Date: June 23, 2022

Bob Morocco of Big Soccer and USMNT Twitter fame joins to break down the third group stage game of the Concacaf Championship, against Cuba. Plenty to talk about. Bob, as usual, is meticulous and precise.0:30 intro, lineups and timeline48:00 who here has a NT future?Follow Bob on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bob_moroccoAlso follow Matt Hartman: https://twitter.com/MattSHartmansupport 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 scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the U-20 Concaf Championship. The U.S. beat Cuba 3 to 0 on Wednesday night in Tagusa Galpa, Honduras on the strength of a blitzkrieg in the opening 10 minutes. Quinn Sullivan got a hat trick in the first half and we saw out the lead in a grudging second half. As a result, we finished first in our group and faced Nicaragua in the round of 16 on Saturday night. If we win that, we likely face Costa Rica in a game. that if we win that one would qualify us for the U20 World Cup.

Joining me to discuss this game is Bob Morocco, the big soccer legend, a man who obviously loves the game, discusses it with a, I think, pretty unique level of precision. Bob, thanks for doing this. Yeah, thanks, Bells. I'm excited for the chance to fail in a new medium. That's, I mean, that's what we do every week here, pretty much, except I guess it's not a new medium for us.

I'll just go right into the lineups. The U.S. came out with Chris Brady and goal. He had played in goal against Canada. The backline was, I think, the widely believed to be first choice backline. Maricio Cuevas at right back, Jalen Neal and Brandon Craig as the centerbacks, and then Noah Allen as the left back. And then the midfield was Rokas Pukestis, Alejandro Avarado, and Nico Securis. and then across the front line from right to left,

Quinn Sullivan, Paxson, Erinson as the sort of playmaking nine, and Kate and Clark. Did you have any thoughts when you saw the line up? I mean, you know, it was Secarus more on the right, kind of cutting in on the left, and Alvarado more shaded to the left. And I like the terminology of playmaking nine. Yeah.

Yeah, well, it's kind of like how we would be with, typically it's McKinney shading to the right for us, right? Well, is it? Recently, yeah. Alvarado was really good in that game against St. Kitt's, I guess. Not sure how much to take from that in general, but it was good to see him back in the lineup, I thought. Definitely, yeah. In that type of situation, I kind of look to see, you know, how sharp. someone is are they playing down to the opponent or are they able to kind of maintain a higher

tempo and I thought Alvarado did a great job of that against a weak team yeah there are some questions I want to address at some point we don't have to do them right now but I'll just pose them like who from this team is going to be a real national team contributor maybe an unanswerable one but just put that in your back pocket Bob and why was there such a massive drop off in attacking energy from us in the second half. I don't know that I have a good answer to it, but I assume you will. I'll only have an answer. Okay. To the timeline, the first thing I noticed was Noah Allen just barely avoiding getting a yellow card on a tactical foul on our left sideline. He got dribbled around and reached out and grabbed the guy. And he could have, you know,

the ref could have given a yellow there, and he would have been on a yellow for 89 and a half minutes if the ref had pulled the trigger. But he didn't, thankfully. Yeah, you always wonder with those types of things, if it's the classic case of a ref knowing that and keeping it in their back pocket early. It was, you know, I think Craig Long Ball, which is kind of a theme of the game. He spotted Aronson making a pretty good central run, but he didn't nail it. And it got cleared and there was some pinball. And Alan, I think was anticipating of the ball going further upfield and he jumped the pass. But it went to his man and he was out of position.

And, you know, instead of fighting to recovery, he grabbed and he got lucky. Yeah, I was excited to see him on the left and Cuevas on the right. And I don't know that he had that great, that Alan had that great of a game. What did you think? No, it was fairly uneventful. Well, the goal came almost immediately after that. Cuba was up in our attacking third. We had a little trouble clearing it, but Craig clears it down towards Kate and Clark.

and it bounces once and then Clark nods it down to Aronson towards the middle of the field. Aronson does a nice job of hesitating on the ball to let Clark run in behind number 20, who was Romario Torres. And then Aronson slips him in and Clark is, you know, streaming down the left channel and he hits a very good left-footed ball to the back post about belly button high. and Quinn Sullivan chops at it on the volley at the back post. Goalkeeper gets hands to it, but not enough, and it's one zero USA after, you know, 70 seconds, something like that. I mean, basically the definition of a dream start. Yeah.

You know, it totally changes the game, asserts dominance from the U.S. Cuba knows they're going to be in for it for the rest of the game. What I liked about the goal really is just the timing of the passes from Clark nodding it back to Aronson, Aronson waiting for Clark to kind of cut in from wide into the gap. Yeah. And then releasing it so that he's free and Clark not wasting time and getting it across to Sullivan. Cuba, totally out of position, scrambling the entire time.

You know, I think the goalkeeper gets a decent amount on it, but, you know, he had to scramble all the way across the goal, wasn't able to clot out. It was such a good ball from Clark, too, with his weak foot. Yeah, all that gym time pan off. Yeah, right? All that work on explosiveness and balance. And I do think it's interesting.

It was interesting on rewatch that Romario Torres was the defender who was victimized on both of our goals, at least. And he was victimized in this one, but also twice on the second goal in two different parts of the sequence. And, you know, it's not always going to be like that. He's a 17-year-old. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I found, you know, I put it a little deeper on the timeline, but. it seemed like Cuba at kickoff were showing more of a 451 with Torres in DM.

And then very quickly he was dropping into the backline. Yeah. Like a Libero between the other centerbacks making a 5-4-1. That seems like a strange role to give a very young player, you know, something usually where you want your most tactically in tune versatile defender who is able to switch between playing as a centerback or a defensive midfielder. And it did actually help, I think. It helped them to drop him back in the 5-4-1.

I mean, for him to be deeper. They were a little bit less porous, I suppose. It seemed like we wanted to keep them underpillar. pressures so we saw a lot of Craig um you know attempting long balls to runs over the top or in the corners and so at 2.30 he is hitting uh you know trying to pick out paxton again um but you know unfortunately this time it's off sides that was this was a good this was a good one though um better than the first one. I noticed in the around the 320 mark,

a nice little back heel from Clark to spring and overlapping Noah Allen. Alan takes a heavy touch and loses it immediately. But Clark was feeling it early on, playing really well. Yeah, someone during the game in the Discord asked what type of player Clark is, is he a guy who's going to beat people 1V1?

or is he more of a creator? And he's, you know, I think his profile is more of an attacking mid or mid or even a second striker than it is a wide attacker because he's not going to be like Pulisic or way of trying to burn guys in behind. Right. He's going to be using his passing and his touch and his body positioning to roll guys. or do layoffs or find pockets and make those runs. And, you know, this was a good example of his alertness and the variety of techniques he can use to play in balls. Very good in combination.

But, you know, that's a thing we don't really have on this team is somebody who can just square somebody up 1 v.1 and put him on the ground because Sullivan's not doing it. Cal, I guess, is the one who was, at least nominally, supposed to be that kind of player, but he's not been doing it, really. No, Cal, yeah. Okay, Cald. We could have a pretty vigorously the last two episodes, but.

You know, it's out of love. That's right. Tough love. You know, we see there's something there. I think he has a good deal of. the control and obviously the pace to just burn guys. And it's putting it all together. Hey, you know, you can learn a lot after you're 20 years old or 19 years old, whatever he is.

Yeah. What did you think of, what did you think of pookstice early on? Sure, yeah. I think you put in the timeline here. He was doing a great job of closing guys down quickly. you know, our counterpress was really effective in this half. And a lot of that came from him reading things and not letting Cube out. And it allowed us to control space and keep them penned in.

It's really hard to think of anything we gave up. Except I think after the goal, we fell asleep a little bit. the camera crew didn't track the kickoff. So I don't know exactly how it happened, but Cuba was able to get free up our left, leaving Pukst us in a 2V1 in the left backspace. And he picked the man on the ball, and number eight was overlapping free with Allen. about like three to five yards behind and Cuba was able to get in

of a low centering pass that their striker hit near post and Craig blocked almost right off his foot and that that was about their most dangerous moment did that come right after the first goal or right after the second goal? You know what's that the second goal?

That was the second goal. Yeah. They, that, that seemed to me like a little bit of naivete on our part. We score a couple goals. We're feeling really good. And then we just kind of let the, let our guard down a little bit. Exactly. I mean, it's the, it's the most dangerous lead.

That's what people say. That's right. Well, Pukstis, I thought Pukestis and Alvarado were both really good at closing people down. And Securus, too, who's, I believe the youngest, on our team was also full of industry and energy buzzing around. I did think Securis was sort of the odd man out when it came to refinement in the buildup. Like he, a lot of times, those quick passing combinations that Clark and Aronson, and to some extent Sullivan excel at and definitely Alvarado,

a lot of those were, a lot of those were ending when they got to Securus because his pass would be a little off or something. and I'm just noting that I'm not trying to be mean to him that's all sure yeah yeah I didn't put it in in the timeline but there was a time when he got it in the right half space pocket on on the half turn and he just played it quickly vertical you know it's in theory a good idea but um you know even Cuba are going to be able to figure out you know, a vertical pass to a teammate is going to be your next option. And he didn't check over his shoulder before he made and he kind of played a blind. He definitely has quality, as you saw in his shot later. And it seems like when he is at speed, he is able to maintain some control. But maybe the, you know, his feet are moving quicker than his brain.

Yeah. He does. I'm glad you mentioned that because we'll get into it later, but he had at least two really, really nice moments in this game. But just a lot of, a lot of sort of missed connections, I thought. Let's talk about that second goal, because it was so nice, fantastic team goal. Do you want to, do you want to describe it? I want to enjoy it. You know, it was, we were defending deep and I think Clark was on our left and defending wide and he had a failed clearance. And so Q was able to keep up the pressure.

But then he intercepted the next attempt to play into the box and laid it kind of back and square Craig. who then queued the attack. So Alvarado surged forward on that outlet. He beat his man kind of going to the right in midfield,

squared it for Aronson. Aronson then played it back left to Clark who was overlapping. It was a little behind Caden, but he was able to control it and he cut in. Can I just jump?

Can I just jump in and say that that control by Clark, where he sort of reaches back with his right foot to sort of roll it forward into his path? It's a very subtle thing. But that is impressive to me that the way he controlled it. Because a lot of players are going to just, they're going to be like, oh, no, that ball's behind me and then stop. Yeah. He didn't do that. He was facing, was he facing two or even three defenders between him and Alvaria. and he, you know, cut in and he split, split that defense with a really nice disguised pass.

Alvarado controlled it facing left, you know, at the top of the box. Sullivan was basically coming in blind on his backside on the right. And Alvarado had the sense, the anticipation of realize there was going to be a run, there and he cut back and he laid it for Quinn who smashed it in. Yeah. I don't know if Avarado toe poked it to him or hit it with the outside of his boot, but it was a, there was a,

there was a nice harmony to the, to the motion and the pass. Yeah. Kind of one of the things I, I want to emphasize with young players is that not everything has to be perfect. And sometimes just the timing of something is more important than the precision. Because if there's space and there's time, getting the ball where a guy can control it, even if it's not perfect, is going to be more important and valuable than waiting until you can get your favorite technique where you can make the cleanest pass.

Yeah. Yeah, good point. And I have been critical of Sullivan. I think Matt Hartmoan is even more critical of Sullivan than I was in the last pod. But, and I still have a lot of questions about how useful of a player he is in the, you know, moment by moment work of playing a soccer game. But got to give him credit here. I mean, he finished this one. nicely. Yeah, I didn't really know him from his youth days, so I just saw him when he was breaking in with Philly, and I liked him a lot. I thought he was doing a really good job of getting into positions.

He was playing quickly. He seemed to have decent athleticism for his age, playing against grown men. and, you know, he was willing to try stuff. You know, he's scored, I think, at least one spectacular goal for Philly. Seems to have a hard shot. Yes. But has maybe tailed off a bit. Didn't he have like an overhead kick goal for Philly last year?

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for not swearing when you said try, he likes to try stuff. you know for the kids scuffed as for the kids like who's for the children it's for the children uh credit to the boys for their incisiveness i i would say in the first 10 minutes and to sullivan for you know hitting the right end of the variance spectrum with his finishing because because we really killed the game inside eight minutes and given how rugged the field was and cuba's Cuba's determination as the game went on to sit deep and force us to, you know, play in the horseshoe.

It wasn't guaranteed that this was going to be the outcome, I don't think. If, you know, had we not, had we not been so incisive and clinical early, it might have been, it might have been a mess like that Canada game was a few nights ago. You don't have to agree with me on that. I mean, it's just, yeah, yeah, I mean, there's, I don't think you can add anything. So that it's a youth team qualifying tournament in Central America. Yeah, the fields are much deteriorated. So let's start cruising through the timeline here.

What's next, Bob? Sure. So next was that the overlap off of the kickoff where Cuba kind of got their best open-play chance. Oh, yeah. Like, the broadcast didn't show how they got free, but it seemed like we were pressing aggressively up on our left side, and they were just able to dink it in behind us. And had a second runner who got behind Alan.

You know, live, I was a little critical of poopsis for kind of staying tight to the man on the ball and not handing him off to Allen and dropping. But it was a real tough situation, you know, a 2V1 wide. And so it's hard to create a good outcome. I think what they tell you is you just pick a man and you stick with him. And he did that and maybe delayed it enough

that Neil and Craig were able to cover the forward. So Centering Pass was day. dangerous, but we were right on the striker. He wasn't going to be able to, you know, let it roll across and go inside because Neil was tracking him and his first time shot was blocked right away by Craig. In the 14th minute, we get, Quivas almost draws a penalty kick just outside the corner of the box. It's where he kind of, he receives a back pass, I think, or maybe it was a clearance and it

pops way up on him, but he beats, he beats the defender to it. and then gets, I think, a cleat to the shin. On the ensuing free kick, it's taken by Nico Securus, and he hits a nice one, flashes it low across the face of goal. Brandon kind of skipped through Brandon Craig. I don't know if he was even trying to flick it. Maybe he was. And then...

There was some attempt. Okay. And then Jalen Neal can't get to it at the back post. but another little moment of danger. Hit well and seem to be well designed when you have your first centerback running across it at the near post and your other at the back post

and it missed going in by a couple of feet without anyone getting a touch on it. Even though I thought Securis was probably the weakest player on the front six. There were a lot of good things. There's several good things that he did. There was some lovely interplay in the 17th minute up the right side. So Kyrus was also involved in this towards the beginning.

But the key move comes from Kuevas and Aronson. Kuevas is sort of posted up on the touchline. He squares it to Aronson and then Aronson first time springs him in behind to the end line. Quavas gets there and makes the right choice, not always a given in that situation, and cuts it back for Securus, who takes, I think, an excellent first touch with his left foot to open up and then has his shot blocked by a sliding defender. But again, some quality from Securis. You'll love to see it. Ten years ago, you wouldn't expect to see these types of moves from a U.S. youth team. Is that true?

Because I wasn't watching 10 years ago. Rarely. You know, it would be probably just, just then that U-20 team, the first one of Tabs, was one of the first ones where you could expect some slick interplay like this. You would, you know, what kind of keyed this move was the counterpress, which was very active in a way. important all games. So you can see a lot of that, but these kinds of interchanges between a fullback,

a striker, and a center mid, you know, that's not not how we were trying to get it done. And it's a, you know, you've mentioned the counterpress a few times. The counterpress was really kind of our main revenue stream when it came to like a possession in the attacking third. We just bang it, well, some of the time, you know, hit it long and then just win the second or third ball and then go at them. See, kind of what we've been doing all tournament, really. Yeah, yeah, and it was very effective. Cuba couldn't get out.

I bet they got it into a half maybe five times. By this point in. Yeah. Yeah, we're just quick to the ball. We had a good rest defense shape. And the boys were up for it. There was a shot in the 26th or around the 25th minute from Caden Clark with his left foot that goes comfortably wide. How did that start?

Sure. I think Clark and Paxton had a little combo in the middle. and Clark made the return run kind of going to the left side and Paxton played him into that space but unlike on the assist Caden wasn't able to

get the kind of contact he wanted so he wasn't able to hit a good shot on this but you know it's nice to see again this type of quick combo and recognition of space I thought this after this and maybe even before it was kind of a bit of an ugly stretch of the game, a foreshadowing of things to come in the second half, I suppose. Cuba's not able to handle our counterpress, pookest us and Alvarado and Securus doing a lot of ball hawking.

Cuba was going to let our centerbacks have the ball. You know, they were in this half pressing maybe just around. the edge of the center circle with one striker, then the two CMs and two wide players on the line behind that. When they were sitting 20, was that Torres, right? Yep, that's Torres. Yeah, he was mostly dropped on the backline. If we were able to make it through that kind of first line of token pressure,

there was a lot of space to operate between the lines. And, you know, this was kind of a period where maybe Cuba had settled in deeper, kept us from breaking into those spaces, but we were still committed to attacking quickly. And if it's not coming off, that's going to lead to a lot of, you know, 50-50s and lost balls. but nothing really dangerous coming the other way from Cuba. It seemed like we got into the horseshoe a little more towards the, like in the last 15 minutes of the first half.

Before we get to that goal at the end, what anything else notable for you? Sure. There was, you know, a good moment where Pustas had it a little shaded to the right, and he played a diagonal pass up. to our attackers. We saw a nice moment of kind of classic two-man forward play between Clark and Paxton, where Clark was kind of moving towards the ball and he dummied it and let it run to

Pax and made the return run forward in Pax first time, I think, chipped to hook wide to the right to Sullivan, who had a bit of space going into the box. but there was a man between him and the ball and Cuba, you know, they had been dropping deeper, so they had numbers, and Sullivan didn't really have a clear path to goal or any obvious runners because the Clark had come from the left to the right, so Alan was trailing the play on the far post. There was no obvious cross there

and Sullivan decided to just you know kind of put his head down and shoot from a bad angle. It was blocked right away. Maybe he could have driven at his man, faked a shot and cut it back to packs who had peeled off into a little space

but, you know, it was a nice moment forward interplay and then maybe a little bit of impatience at the end. You know, seeing that something is kind of on, but it's not a high percentage play and pulling it back or going to the second option is something that attackers develop as they get more reps. And I found myself in this game whenever we did show a little patience and drop it back, being a little frustrated by that.

Because I knew, I mean, it's like kind of you can't win either way for these guys. Because when we did that, then we would, then Cuba would settle into their, you know, their very low block. And then we'd have trouble making anything happen. It's like those little moments of transition is, uh, even, I mean, transition is not the right word, but those little moments. of opening. I felt, I got to feel that we had to exploit those when we had the chance, even if there

was a lower percentage shot at the end of it. Yeah, I think Vars totally agreed with you because all the kind of quick or direct play seemed intentional. All the passes from Craig getting it forward quickly and it paid off. well we had a we had another one on a quick restart in the 35th minute uh clark throws it must be in the gym working on his upper body because he made a nice uh behind the lines throw for uh for arson who settles himself down by the end line and plays a good pass back diagonally back across to the top of the box for securus who took a touch and then had a decent hit that drew a good save

from the goalkeeper, I mean a solid save. And then it's just, he placed it well. Yeah, he placed it well, that shot. It was, he hit it low to the near post, right? Yeah. Then the goal comes in the 43rd minute. And it, as we're talking here,

I now have my theory on why we weren't as good in the attack in the second half. But it's, it's just a fantastic ball over the top from Paxson-Arensen, and kind of dribbling away from trying kind of dribbling back towards his own goal in the center circle. He just turns and thunks it over the top for Quinn Sullivan, who makes a well-timed run. And he's one-on-one with the keeper, and he just sort of slips it past him as he runs by for a hat trick. Slips it past him near post. I don't know.

I don't even know what part of his foot he hit it with. Do you know? Yeah, I don't know. I assumed he kind of opened it up a little because it did come back in a little bit. Okay. But, you know, a touch finish when the goalkeeper's coming out and not expecting, or I guess our friends in the goalkeeper union would probably have some stuff to say about the footwork and the body positioning. But seeing that opening and, you know,

not trying to hit the best shot, but getting it at the right time into the right spot and makes it look simple. Yeah. Looks so natural as it happens, but it doesn't always happen that way, does it? No, and it was great to see that Philly connection. Yeah. Because the past, you know, Cuba had pushed their back line up here, and we were playing it around her back and in midfield.

They hadn't done that for a while, and Pax was able to read that there would be a run coming in and disguise it with his movement and hit it against the grain. I wonder, you know, assuming we beat Nicaragua and Costa Rica advances to that quarterfinal game, I wonder how often they're going to be pushing their back line up. I mean, if I were coaching against the U.S., I would just be super conservative in this tournament.

I don't know. The half comes and let me take the half as an opportunity to say this is an ad-free podcast. Obviously very nerdy, but if you are able to support us on Patreon, that's how we make money. So please consider that. The link to do so is in the show notes. If you join the Patreon, you get the Monday reviews with Vince and Waki. You're going to, you get our historic recaps, which there's only one of right now, but there will be too soon and there will be many more after that and access to the Discord, which is not for everyone, but it is for a lot of people. So consider supporting us on Patreon. At the half, we get Luna, Diego Luna, who was fantastic against Canada on for Quinn Sullivan.

I mean, who they were on for, it doesn't really matter. Luna on, Michael Halliday on, and Tyler Wolf on, Sullivan, Kuevas, and Aronson come off. I think they all could use the rest and they're probably going to start in the next game, I would assume, all three of them. Sure, I mean, smart management, when you're up three, oh, against a borderline Conca Calf Minnow. Yeah.

What did you think? So I don't want to spend as much time going through everything that happens in the second half because it was a pretty tough watch, I would say. Yeah, honestly. before you asked me to jump on this podcast, the only specific thing I could remember about the second half was that Cade Cowell came in and hit a couple crosses. Yeah.

And that's it. Other than that, it was just, you know, going back to your original question is pretty classic when a team is up 3-0 going into the second half. I feel like you'd see this a lot in Syria where the second half is just dead. And in that case, you know, the winning team just shuts up shop and the other team doesn't have a chance. This one was a little different. This second half was ugly in its own unique way.

Because we didn't shut up shop. They shut up shop. Cuba did. And I think they just wanted to get out of there with, you know, without much more fireworks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think they did a better job of closing us down.

So their maybe first line of pressure wasn't as static. And it kept us on the periphery a little more. But, you know, we weren't really. nowhere close to as intense as we were to start the game. Yeah. Is that your full explanation for why we weren't as dangerous in the second half? Before I jump in with my whole theory? You know, it's the best one I got.

Okay. Yeah. I think that probably explains a lot of it. I also think Paxton Aronson not being on the field without his sort of his playmaking and his ability to combine, we probably, we, we lost

a lot without him on there. It's my, is my only addition to that, to what you said. I can't remember who was it, who was playing the nine most of the second half? I mean, initially, it seemed like Luna

was playing a bit more, central but I don't you know there were times when he dropped into kind of more of the CM yeah because it felt like Wolf was on the right sort of for Sullivan yeah but then you know once Cowell gone on the couple times there were runners when he was making crosses it was Luna okay running through the middle from kind of the striker position there was one time where Cald tried to cut it back through the legs of a defender and he did have Luna wide open around the penalty marker.

That would have been a really nice goal if it had come on. Yeah, there was a, I think a transition in the 73rd where we had a lot of space in behind. And Luna was free in the middle and Cowell, you know, reluctant to use his left, tried to go with the Travella, and the past didn't hook into Luna's run. No. And the, you know, the chance went away. It was just a little too close to the goalkeeper. Yeah, the one I was thinking of was him coming up the right and just like just running at somebody and trying to try to cut it back with his right foot.

he also calis had a cross you know he lifted across to the back post and it was cut out I did think you know you can see what

what is what he offers there's definitely something there like you said earlier sure and this is you know this is the game state where you would expect him to

thrive but maybe more of the other team is trying to Claude's way back in. Yeah. I guess my, I have been critical of him and I've been, you know, people in the discord have been expressing their shock and sadness at my words.

But, but I, but I think the other thing, the other thing I haven't criticized him for yet, which I, which I noticed last night is, you know, if he's going to be a somewhat blunt instrument in the attack, which I think it's fair to say he is, then he's going to need to be a more willing and industrious defender. He seems like there are moments

when he, I don't know, whether it's the press or just marking somebody or something, where he's just kind of dancing around half-heartedly against the ball. And that has got to, that's something that he can,

you know, pretty rapidly improve and probably needs to. Yeah, it's really about commitment there. And you'd want a guy kind of built like him to make his presence known on both sides of the ball. Yeah. Especially, you know, if he's going to be a fullback side. Yeah.

Aeriala Pest School or something. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good business idea for Paul, actually. let's see there was we should talk about the nice uh the nice move from securus in the 55th minute he uh he does some combining and frolicing up the gut and uh kind of makes his way through three or four defenders i can't remember who he wall passed with there might have been Luna. And, um, and, and, but then he, uh, he finds a nice, he finds a nice pass to

Kate and Clark out left. Clark has a shot and hits it right at the keeper. But good from Sekeiris. Yeah. I mean, the quick feed again, um, you know, there's definitely something there. And I have found usually if a guy playing up a cycle at the U-20s, especially, can hang, it's a good sign for their long-term prospects. At least with, you know, being their key player

for the next few 20s and eventually getting a couple of caps. I don't, you know, we're in a different era now because we're going to have a lot of depth. But, you know, he's someone I didn't know a ton about coming into this tournament that I'm going to keep track of to see how he progresses. Yeah. He hasn't gotten any first team minutes yet in San Jose, has he?

No, and I should know that. Not enough that I've, you know, that he's come to my attention. So Cal came on for Clark in the 62nd minute. McGlynn came on for Alvarado in the 76. second minute, solid shift from Alvarado, not quite as, not quite as brilliant as he looked against St. Kitts, but still good. And the game was pretty boring at this point. Before he came off, Clark got into it after getting caught late. And, you know, that's always your worry up three-nothing on the road in Conca Calf is that,

The other team is going to take exception to your skilled attacking players and come in hard or do some macho BS. Yeah. And it's, you know, it seemed like we were taking our time with set pieces and pretty content with the result. And, you know, it's one of the most exciting. moments in the second half was, I think, didn't Cuba sub on a new goalkeeper? Palma Gonzalez on

for Morgado Batista. Not something you see every game and then the first thing he does is handle the ball almost outside the box. Right. It was close.

It was, you know, part of the at least some of the ball had to be over the line. I thought one other thing I noticed from the chippiness of the game was I think, well, both both Pukestus and Clark were complaining the ref that they were getting stomped on. Yep. And there was one point where Securus gets into a little something with some Cuban teammates and Alvarado comes over and pushes him away and points at his ears as if to say, guys, let's just stay focused here.

And I appreciated that from Alvarado. I think we don't need to get into all that mess at this point in the game. Yeah, Cowell had a villain moment later. Yeah. Where he just trucked a guy way off the mall, got a yellow, gotten in it with some guys. And I'm trying to think who someone else also kind of pulled him aside told him.

Who was that? And he was very receptive to the guidance he was receiving. Who was it that pulled him aside? Oh, it was Craig. Yeah, he put his arm around him and then had a nice captain chat. And Cal was like, yeah, man, you're right. You're right. At least that's what it looked like on the video.

And so I asked what, I asked in the Discord, what caused Cal to do that, to truck that guy. And immediately, Casey, shout out to Casey. he said full moon and then OGGB said the thought of the nerds taking his girl so I thought those were pretty good

one other thing I want to mention about that that miss hit Travella or the overhit Travella whatever you want to call it from Cowell is that that was a nice ball from Noah Allen to release him down the left side and I wish we'd seen a little more of that from Alan because I know he's got that

you know he's got that club in his bag and the game descended into injury stoppages and sloppiness for even more in the last 15 or so to the point where I think we all were just everybody including the entire nations of Cuba and the United States wanted there to be no stoppage time but there was four there was four minutes and we saw it out I think the last action was the stretcher coming out for an injured player so that was it before we wrap up what does your gut tell you about who is the

you know who is the most likely from this team to be a national team contributor you know not just somebody who shows up in January camp every now and then but somebody really getting meaningful minutes sure so I think the guys that come first to mind are erinson

um Clark and then to some degree Alvarado. But I think with Alvarado, he's a different profile from kind of our other CMs right now. And so some people can say, oh, that means he doesn't fit whatever system it is. but it can also mean that he's offering a change of pace and a different style. And I do think it is closer to what Greg would want. And so it's, but it's going to depend who's the next national team manager.

I don't know if it is Jesse Marsh, how is Alvarado in, you know, energy, drink football? whereas Clark and Aronson obviously have and are going to have a lot more experience in that sort of tactical framework. You know, Aronson just has those moments of attacking class where he's able to quickly spot things and he can execute. He's good on his left. his only real issue is, you know, he's your little brother's little brother.

And Brendan, in his last year in MLS, it was clear that Brendan had gotten fast. You know, Paxton is still a little younger, but I don't think he has the same turn of pace as his brother. Really? Yeah. Brendan doesn't have a high top end for his speed, but he's very quick. Yeah, yeah. And I don't think Paxton so far has shown that he is as quick over, say, 20 yards as Brendan. So, you know, he's going to have to be a very smart technical attacker if he doesn't become as quick.

a smaller guy like that has to make up for a lack of plus plus athleticism with intelligence and so it's going to be developing into

that type of playmaker that's going to determine his ceiling because it does seem like he has a great technical base and ability to execute the final ball. With Caten Clark, he's a bit more... A bit more of a plus athlete, right?

Physically robust. Yeah. I don't, you know, I don't think he's as quick as Brendan Aronson. But, you know, he seems like he's going to be very solid in the cage matches. and it can be that eight or the eight, ten, or a ten who can fit in physically at a high level and then also has similar to Paxton the technique to pull off some great finishes and high-level play. I don't think either of them are supernatural fits for Red Bull soccer, But enough that I would expect them to do very well at Salzburg if they end up there or at some club at that level and then go on and do well in the Bundesliga, even if that's not at Leipzig, which is, you know, after going back to more of their classic play with Marr.

has gone the other way under Tedesco and in a way that I think would fit both Paxton and and Caden. Yeah. What are your thoughts on them? Oh, man, I, I've become much more cowardly on this sort of question over the years. But, but yeah, I mean, Clark. Clark to me looks like the one with the something special, with the most something special here.

I do agree with you. I mean, it's interesting to hear you talk about Brendan Aronson as being like sort of the pace standard, at least for this little group of players, because even though I'm not disagreeing with you about his speed, he's not often going to beat people 1V1 at the professional. level, Brendan, that is.

So if he's not doing it, then these guys aren't going to do it either. And yeah, you really, like you said, you really need that intelligence. And, you know, Clark's problem has been, at least from what I can tell,

that he just doesn't get on the ball enough. He doesn't influence the game enough because he doesn't find the ball. And maybe that's a system thing in New York and maybe it's some other stuff, but he, He needs to get on the ball as much as possible. But I do think, like, I think you, I often think of you describing a goal he scored for the Red Bulls, kind of like a deflection that came at him at a difficult angle and a difficult height. And he was able to, he was able to put that in the back of the net.

Very, very, very, very difficult finish. And he seems to excel at that kind of thing. Yeah, Clark, in that way, kind of reminds me of Dempsey, of young Dempsey, in that, Clint would try and would do well executing very difficult finishes. And, you know, it's not about scoring them every time we know, we know about the variance guys. but it's that baseline technique to execute it reasonably well and the confidence to do it quickly, no hesitation. And I think that's a really good sign for Clark long term.

He obviously has a lot of self-confidence too. You know, he believes in himself and as much of a cliche as that is, it matters. I guess as for Paxton I'm just I guess I'm in what weight in C mode I think he's important for this team right now in the attack but even in the game last night there were times where I would have liked to see him be more

more decisive more forward minded to steal a phrase from Steve Samson but So I don't know. I do, I think I agree with everything he said, but. Yeah. And, you know, I guess in likelihood they're not in the Pulisic or Raina class, obviously. I think there is a ceiling and there's enough of a comparative advantage in their skill sets.

of being kind of technical, creative players who can operate in the attacking half. And I think that usage point that you made is very important, is if they're going to, both of them, if they're going to take that next leap, they need to be guys who, in addition to these nice attacking moments are able to help orchestrate a little bit more from deeper, do some metronome stuff higher up, set the tempo, keep the ball moving,

that kind of stuff that maybe their current club teams aren't teaching them. Right. And just to kind of put a number, on it. I'm talking, I'm thinking like, you know, completing like 40 or 50 passes a game instead of 20. Yeah, exactly. You know, yeah. Um, I, two other players that come to, well, I, I like Alvarado. I think his, I think his, I think his, I like his athleticism. You know, I don't think he's, you know, he's not a, he's not some kind of elite athlete or anything, but he is, he seems to be pretty decent in the cage. And, um, like, quick to the ball. So I like that about him. And, and, and then,

add that to his, his, uh, I think his sense for how to combine with a teammate is, it's, it's nice. I mean, like,

he really did make that second goal. He, well, several people made that second goal happen, but he was, you know, he was involved twice in it. And,

uh, it was nice. I like, I like, I like Maricio Coivas. Yeah. I thought he, I thought he played better last night than he did,

uh, three nights ago. And he's, he's clearly, he's got a, long ways to go with his club, I assume. But I like his ability to combine his intelligence and possession. I guess I do worry a little bit about his athleticism at the very top level.

And then lastly, Diego Luna, you know, hard not to root for that kid with his neck tattoos and trucker's physique. Because he's so funny. He's so saucy. He's so fun to watch. It'll be interesting to see what happens with him at Rayalsall Lake. Yeah, and just from his club play, it seems like he has real nose and hunger for goal. Yeah.

And being able to play in those crowded spaces against multiple defenders and coming out of it and winning his, you know, cage matches on the ball. Yeah. That's a unique skill. And he seems to have a lot of good ideas in the attack, too. I mean, I've got two assists against Canada. Both of them, you know, nice plays.

So we'll see. Nicaragua on Saturday. Bob, thank you so much for doing this. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks, Wells. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.