Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #291: U20s v Nicaragua recap with Bob Morocco

Episode Date: June 26, 2022

Luna shines again. Sullivan as a (slightly trigger-happy) interpreter of space. xG piling up and we close out the soft part of the U20 Concacaf Championship in some style against Nicaragua. Bob Morocco joins to talk about the game, compare this side to the one that won the title in 2017, and give his preferred lineup for the Costa Rica match on Tuesday.support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedScuffed listener survey: https://forms.gle/sBXXSaJ8jnP6RZDY6 join the Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU buy our merch: https://my-store-11446477.creator-spring.com/drop us a question at this link and we’ll try to answer it: https://forms.gle/rfzSEZJwsvnWSCxW7 Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the U20 Concaf Championship. Bob Morocco has graciously agreed to return to help me recap the USA's 50 win over Nicaragua in the round of 16. Bob, how are you doing? I'm doing good. I'm really excited to be back. You know, really want to figure out what happened in the 12 minutes my feed went down. What are you watching on?

Fix? Is that what it was? Yes, I was. What 12 minutes was that? I don't know the Spanish for it, but it turned into the wheel of buffering for about 12 minutes there. Couldn't find any other feeds, but I got back right before our first goal. Oh, okay. So kind of like the last, basically the last 15 minutes of the first half. Yes.

Luckily, a lot of that showed up in highlights and comps. so. Okay. Well, thanks to all our comp makers out there doing the Lord's work. Yeah, I've got a lot of stuff on that part of the timeline. The, I mean, so, you know, stepping away from this game a little bit, we've left the, it seems now we've left the easy part of the tournament, which is, that's always the dynamic with these, these concaf championships at the youth levels.

They're sort of the easy part that you have to get done to get to get, to the harder part, which is the path for us now is probably, we're in the quarterfinals now, so we face Costa Rica, we'll probably face Honduras unless Panama upsets them. And then, you know, most likely we face Mexico in the final. Three pretty, you know, much more difficult games than the games we've played so far. How are you feeling? How are you feeling about the team and its chances? Yeah.

speaking of chances, we're creating a decent amount of them. So, you know, that's always the worry with a U.S. team that comes into these tournaments as favorites is how are we going to deal with smaller teams making it hard for us to operate in the final third? And so far, we've had enough players able to create solutions in that part of the field that, you know, we have a chance in any game. Yeah. Well, to put some numbers on that, Wy Scout, Y Scout is publishing some XG estimates for each game. And, you know, the best game we've had so far was the St. Kitt's one where we created 7.07. in XG that was helped by three penalties which are typically around three quarters of a goal

and then but the game last night against Nicaragua was the second best game for us so far in XG we had 5.31 which is a you know by XG standards is an astronomical number we barely underperformed of course with five goals against Cuba we had we only generated 1.53 according to Y Scout and against Canada we generated 2.58.

We've won that, obviously we've won the XG battle in every game we've played in this tournament. I imagine that will continue against Costa Rica, but who knows? Let's get to the lineups and then we'll get into the timeline and do some analysis. Our lineup, I'm not going to do the Nicaragua lineup. I think the goalkeeper Miguel Rodriguez deserves mention. he was quite good for Nicaragua, but otherwise we don't really need to talk about those players. Yeah, only thing, you know,

it kind of looked like they were in a 4-2-3-1 at kickoff. There were times when they had three on their backline building out. And overall, it seemed like they were, you know, applying some more high pressure, especially than our last. opponent yes although wouldn't you say it was more that was more of that in the second half than there wasn't the first half I thought there was but I could be wrong yes yep our field's right our goalkeeper was Chris Brady again the

Chicago Fire kid and then across the back line Michael Halliday Marcus for Crannis Jalen Neal and Noah Allen Maricio Cuevas got a little bit of a break he did come in as a sub later in the game I thought Scott Halliday was, this was his better, best performance of the tournament so far, pretty solid. Edelman was the six, Jack McGlynn and Diego Luna were the eights. And then we had Quinn Sullivan, Tyler Wolfe, and Cade Cowell across the front line. Any thoughts on the lineup, Mr. Morocco? The midfield again, it has Luna on the left, so he can cut in, even though.

you know he's shown he's great going to his left and then mcglin on the right um and he played some good balls from kind of that right half space area with his left yes and overall you know it seemed like we weren't as direct as the last game you mean more just more a little more patient trying to build stuff yeah it didn't well it didn't seem especially from the back line you know without Craig back there we weren't playing in behind yeah or into the corners as much from the back line yeah that's that's that seems right to me too I mcglin McClain despite his limitations as a as a ball hawk is very pleasant to watch on the ball and he's he's a great passer great vision great technique and I thought

Edelman was better in this game than he'd been in previous games. I can't quite figure out who I like better between him and Pookstas. But Edelman was good in this game. Yeah, you had a couple nice moments with loose balls where he played them back up accurately quickly. Yes, exactly, yeah. Intercepting and playing it forward in one motion. Yes. I didn't know whether to get into this later or to get into it now.

but I I I I I want we do it right now I watched the you know we as I said this is the this is the easy part of the term the end of the easy part of the tournament I went back and watched the U-20s from 2017 because I think the big question we're all trying to figure out is how much better are we now than we were then or you know even if we are better and I went back and watched the four one win over St. Kitts at the 2017 concaf championship which is a pretty good comparison for the the games we've seen so far. And I do think it's fair to say we are a better soccer team now, even though we may not even have as many high-level talents on this team. I'll give some of the names on that lineup. It was Ibobesei at Stryker, Salcedo and Brooks Lennon, Sebastian Salcedo and Brooks Lennon as the wingers, a midfield of Luca Deloere,

Eric Williamson and Tyler Adams, and then Danny Acosta at left back, Aaron Herrera at right back and then Justin Gladden Eric Palmer Brown at centerback I think everybody on that roster is at least a good professional now

except for Acosta Danny Acosta and he I'm not trying to smash him I'm just saying he's not like he's not like an MLS starter now no and and I believe in that tournament

he got a lot of good notices yeah he was good and seemed like a potential left-back solution going forward. And then his things in his life happened in his career blew up, I believe. Yeah. Yeah, he was, I thought, I was really excited about his future as a left back. But even though we created a lot of chances in that game and obviously one-handily,

there was there was much more we were much more satisfied with just like ripping it from 25 yards if we had a little window there wasn't when you look at the you know you go through the shots there wasn't nearly as much of this like ping ping ping lovely combination play that we've been seeing from our u20s over the last week or so two weeks so i do think i do think we're like at least as a unit this mikey vara side is playing much better solidly. than that Tad Ramos side. And I guess I don't know 100% what to attribute that to, but I'm not saying it's just, I'm not just saying it's Varus is better than Ramos.

Yeah, I mean, there has been five years with maybe more exposure and influence to possession tactics. That team was in roughly the exact same shape. Yeah. as this squad, but, you know, outside of Luca, those guys are kind of, you know, a little more two-way. I don't think there was the type of understanding in possession movement, in stretching the field with width and positioning, exploiting the half spaces, you know, dropping mids off to the sides to the backline and the full back spaces, all those sorts of rotations and things you and Velazquez have talked about with a full team.

We were not doing that at the U20 level then. It was, you know, kind of more of a standard straight ahead, 433, a little more physical. physical. Yeah, I think that team, Eric Palmer Brown won player of the tournament. And spent time at D-Mid as well. Yeah. And I think that U20 side kind of stood out for having a solid defense and ability to make it very difficult for teams. to play out and play through us. Right.

And we're less cultured in possession. We allowed in our win over Mexico in that tournament, we allowed only three shots zero on target. Oh, wow. 0.18xG. And we won on a set piece header from Eric Palmer Brown. So yeah, I think we could just run, we could run people over a little bit more with that team

than we came with this. We had probably, I mean, I think pretty clearly better centerbacks on the roster. And, you know, we didn't have the American Thomas Mueller, Quinn Sullivan, on that team. So should we get to the timeline? What's not? At the 130 mark, we get some good buildup from the U.S. It starts from the back, Brady, the goalkeeper to Fricanus, forward to Jack McGlynn. up the line to Sullivan.

And I mean, we were able to do this up both sides of the field very easily against this Nicaragua side. And then Sullivan plays it to Luna at midfield, who takes a poor touch, but it falls to Edelman, who does one of these first time passes forward that you just mentioned between the lines to McGlynn, who then passes out wide to Sullivan, who takes a low percentage shot and hits the side netting.

That's our first shot on goal. or it's actually not on goal, but our first shot. I mean, it hit part of the goal. Yeah. Right. We get another good combo up the right from McGlynn and Sullivan, and Sullivan the Sullivan Cross almost yields an own goal. Nicaraguan defender heads it up,

and it kind of arcs towards the goal, saved by the goalkeeper. A little bit scary moment for Nicaragua. Yeah. On this play, I liked, it kind of started when, for Kranes was, he took space playing out of the back and then played up to Diego. 1230 mark, we get Luna nabbing the ball from a Nicaraguan defender after a loose pass from Cade Cowell in, you know, kind of adjacent to zone 14.

And then he just sizzles forward and uncorks a big hit over the crossbar and a little wide from just outside the box with his right foot. 1415, another good Luna action plays a through ball for Wolf. Wolf can't quite get to it. 21 minute mark. A good action emerges from a scramble on our right wing when McGlynn hits an intelligent ball across the top of the box to Luna. Luna dribbles left and pushes it wide to Cowell.

And Cowell's ball across falls to Halliday after it gets headed away. And McGlynn and Halliday can't figure out who's going to take the shot or get to it so they kind of they kind of work at cross purposes with each other and it goes it goes over the goal um i was going to say luna this is this is one example of many of luna i love the way he can receive a ball at a difficult height and take a good a good positive first touch from it seems like he does he does that every he did that every time he had a chance too. Yeah, we're going to see that later on one of his shots.

Yes, yeah. 22 minute mark. Another good sequence. Sullivan finds Edelman to break the press. I mean, so Sullivan is kind of pinned on our right sideline, and he plays an outside of the boot pass into Edelman that sort of curves into the center circle. Edelman bursts through the middle, slides it wide to Cowell, who cuts back onto his right,

and kind of comes back away from the goal, chips Luna toward the top of the box. And I think this is the moment you were talking about, right? Cowell, he was driving in towards the corner, and he drew a triple. He cut inside and then cut back to get an angle for this pass, and he just dinked it, slightly cut back to Luna. Luna collect the bouncing ball, carried it forward,

going to his left you know got space on the guy tracking him who you know has to respect his right and his ability to dribble by him and is able to hit a you know a left footed shot

high near post that's well saved and then on the resulting corner kick I think he takes it and it runs through the sick and unfortunately we don't you know no one gets a touch on it yeah it felt like only a matter of time really as even even this early in the game well i was going to mention this later but we got i want to talk about it now luna luna took he did get a penalty goal later in the game took it with his right foot he obviously can shoot well with his right foot he obviously can shoot well with his left foot then he takes some take some corner kicks in the second half and he's he's

He's taking the corner kicks with his left foot. This is unbelievable to me. Yeah, love to see it. Like, what is going on? I don't even know which is a stronger foot. I can't tell. I mean, I think it's his right foot, but I, but he's taking corner kicks with his left foot and they're good one.

He's like hitting good corner kicks with his left foot. What a guy. 29th minute we get, uh, please interject if, you know, if you got something here. Cowell and McGlynn are both are, pretty resourceful in the box after a hot entry pass from Luna that Cowell can't control. It goes from Cowell to McGlynn. And then McGlynn, you know, cuts onto his right, cuts back to his left,

pushes it wide to Cowell. And he has a shot from a tough angle, about the same spot that Luna had just taken his shot from. And it goes, this one's not quite as sharply hit right at the keeper. And then moments later, in the right before the 30-minute mark, a wonderful McGlynn. My feet dies. Okay. Okay, okay. We get a wonderful McGlynn diagonal to Cowell at the back post.

It's gorgeous. Yeah, thanks to Sanjav's comp for putting this in. Okay. It's shades of Hakeem Zyik to me. And Cowell can't hit it. DeBriene ass. Yes. Can't hit it well on the, Cal can't hit it well on the volley, which I don't blame him

too much for it. That's a difficult one. Maybe you should have tried to redirect it into the gold mouth. 33rd minute. If you think this is tedious, then it's probably not the podcast for you, for you. 33rd minute, we get another good chance for the U.S. Halliday pumps a ball into the corridor of uncertainty, and Rodriguez spills it as Wolf challenges. I don't think Wolf, Tyler Wolf, had much of a game, really, but, you know, he's active.

He's a body in there. Yeah, he had the, what was it, the McClint slipped him in down the right side right before this and he played a cutback, but it was behind the runners and cleared before it got to our late arriving guy on the opposite side. But yeah, he was peripherally involved and it's tough out there for American strikers these days. Play, is it ever? Yeah. Well, after it spills, Cowell collects it around the penalty marker, dribbles to his right, and takes a good low strike on goal that's cleared off the line just inside the near post by a defender, goalkeeper and no man's land at that point. Cal got to be feeling a little hard done by at this point. And we get another Edelman interception slash volley forward to Cowell in the 35th minute.

and Cald does a nice first time flick to Sullivan wide. This was, you know, Sullivan took a lot of shots in this game. I don't know that all of them were well advised. This one was, and he takes it on the volley and hits it, it curves just wide of the far post. But he had a lot of the goal to look at. This is a good shooting opportunity, and he hit it well, just wide. I'll take your word for it on this.

Okay, yeah, I better keep going since the first. feet, your feet is still dead at this point. Like I said earlier, Edelman was, I thought, pretty good in this game, a determined and responsible defender, but more incisive with his dribbling and passing than he seems like he was in previous games. And we're just shelling the goal at this point. We get a McGlynn set piece. Why to Sullivan?

He takes an ambitious folly. I don't know that this one was a good idea, but he misses. He misses the goal. Probably should have sent it. back across to face a goal. This set piece was, wasn't it like 30 plus out pretty central? So not really a shooting opportunity. I always feel like these set pieces are some of the lowest percentage because it's, you know,

really hard to hit a nearly straight ball into the box onto someone's head while they're running forward. Right. And get anything good out of it. So you want to shift it wide, but in doing that, then it has to come back in. Yeah, I mean. You know, but shoot or shoot. Right.

Sullivan's a shooter for sure. He, you know, if he hits it, if he connects perfectly, then it's a wonder strike and we're all going crazy. Yeah. And he connected pretty well, just, you know, it's a very, it's a difficult thing. I'm sure they've done it in training. Right. at some point either here or with Philly. Well, we get nice work from Luna in the 43rd minute

to spring Allen down the line on a gentle overlap. Alan wall passes with Cowell and then tries to fizz the ball across the six, but it's cleared out low back to Cowell, and he takes a shot with his left foot that goes over. So we're just racking up XG. And then we finally get the goal in the second minute of stoppage time in the first half. What a relief to get the goal before the break.

I assume your feed was back at this point. What a relief to be able to see it. Yeah. What did you think? Tell us about the goal. Sure. So we were playing it across the back line, switching it from right to left, finds Luna, who's kind of deep out on the left.

Allen is overlapping. Luna starts to drive in at his man. He goes wide past him. Then he goes wide past the next guy. As he's doing this, getting closer to the end line, Sullivan peels off his run, comes inside. Luna chips it into the middle. Blind. I don't think he was checking inside.

just put it into a good area. Quinn stooped ahead it in. A sliding defender gets a foot to it on the line, but can't clear it and just roofs it. Too much velocity on that header. It did remind me of a mere slough-closa header. You know, just perfect German technique. Yes.

Hard and right at the goal line. Very difficult to stop. Luna looked awful fast on this play, didn't he? Yeah, it's the change of pace. You know, in the Discord, we've been talking about pace a lot. And, you know, those first couple of steps are super important, especially when you're facing down a more set defense or your intents. space is being able to just lull a guy and blow by them is a dynamic attack or is bread and butter.

And Luna's got that. Yeah. And he can go left or right. So he's a freaking nightmare to defend. I really appreciate the movement from Sullivan here too, you know, that's not a, I think. even though he's shooting a lot maybe sometimes when he shouldn't and I don't know that he's always as elegant in the in possession as he could be um he's he provides a lot of a lot of value in these games because he's he's getting on the end of chances you know he's getting on the

end of uh he's getting on the end of attacking moves seems like a lot of times he's things are coming up through the left and then he's on the end of it on the right rather than than the other way around. And I don't know if that's because nobody's being a Rom Deuter on the left the way he is on the right. But this is good movement from him to flare back towards the penalty marker instead of just, you know, sort of blindly crashing the back post. One of the major things I think Cowell needs to work on is that he is unlike Sullivan or, say, unlike Morris, he is not a guy who is making those crashing backpost runs or rotating into the striker position and doing double moves.

It seems like, you know, when he's on the ball, he's alive, and then we're not getting a ton of value from him off the ball so far. Right. I agree completely. And if he wants to be an attacker, even in MLS, he's going to have to work on his off ball play. Yeah, because he has, you know, he has physical tools that you can't teach. So if he can do that, if he can become more alert to his off ball opportunities, that would be great. So the half comes, no subs. I think it was fantastic that Luna and Sullivan easily,

they do two best attackers in the first half for the U.S. were the ones who got that chance and converted it. I think they've probably been the best attackers for the U.S. throughout the tournament, though Pax and Erinson is close. You know, with kind of the profiles of most of our attackers and a lack of a striker, whoever is that good off-ball runner, in the front line is going to be very valuable and important for finishing moves.

And, you know, the theory of it is that you're sucking out centerbacks and leaving space for your inverted wingers to cut in and hit those spaces. Yeah, and I tweet, I think I tweeted earlier in the tournament that maybe Cal should replace Sullivan on the right wing and I retract that completely. I think we need Sullivan. I think we needed Sullivan to start in these big games coming up

for exactly the reason that you just said. Like he's clearly the best off the ball of anybody on this team in the attack. And that's absolutely critical right now. 47 minute mark, we get a good left-footed diagonal from Danny Edelman to Sullivan, who again has one on the volley, he just crushes it, but, you know, like 10 yards

over the crossbar. Sure. Slight, slight quibble, I thought in this buildup, Edelman had a chance to kind of play inside forward to McGlynn and weighted a bit. But, you know, all credit to him, he spot a Quinn, you know, on the opposite side and hit him with a good pass. I didn't catch the McGlynn opportunity, but. I do believe you.

I guess I'm just impressed by the technique there because he's a right-footed player and able to hit that long left-footed ball. I wasn't really thinking I was going to see that from Mr. Edelman. Yeah, I think even in one of the comps, one of his passes got attributed to McGlynn because of that reason. Really? Yeah. Was that a, does Sanjeev need to issue a correction? That is, that is not, not Sanjav.

It's one of our other, one of the other cop guys out there. Oh, what's his name? Sorry, I don't know his name. I know, Jack Stephen. Yes. I did think Nicaragua was pressing and causing us a little trouble in the second half early. I think maybe it just caught us by surprise more than anything, but there was, you know, a five or ten minute stretch where we were, we were flailing a little bit in our own defensive third trying to get out.

Yep. What's your next item? Yeah. In my notes, I just call this a slug fest up and down the right side. Up and down our right side? My next thing, yeah, down our right side. Okay. my next thing is it 40 sorry is it uh 50 fourth minute um Sullivan is played in wide by

halliday down the right side of the box um he's grabbed while writing pressure obvious pk um Luna takes it um you know it seems like uh to me when I'm watching a penalty kick taker. I'm always watching their eyes. And it seems like quite often the shooter is going to look to the side he's going to take it right before his run up.

And on this play, it seemed like Luna looked to his left a little. And the goalkeeper bot went that way and he rolled it in at maybe three-quarters speed to the right. Yeah. I didn't notice the eyes, but it wasn't, had Rodriguez guessed to his own left to Luna's right, he would have saved it, but tricked him. Yes.

Yeah. I wanted to say about Sullivan winning the penalty, he, you know, he kind of flared inside towards the top of the box to get open and then and then made a decisive kind of darting run in behind that left back and that is just that's really clever movement and I love it so

yeah and the pattern from the kind of wide deeper full back curling a ball in behind is you know pretty common for the full team Yeah. It's a good pass, a good pass from Halliday, but totally made possible by Sullivan's industry and intelligence off the ball. So then in the 57th minute, we get Paxson Aronson and Marisa Cuivas on for Tyler Wolf and Noah Allen. I think Wolf had a fairly anonymous day, as we talked about earlier. Allen was fine. No major complaints. and then in the 65th minute we get our third goal.

Sorry. Before this, in the 58th, there were two incidents where I think Nicaragua left a boot in on Sullivan and then they took out Luna and it seemed like it was getting chippy, which is something you're kind of worried about when you're up a couple goals in Conca Calf. There was also a chance or a couple chances for Nicaragua before we scored. Yeah. Yeah. And the 60th, there was like a scramble in our left corner.

I think it was a 2v2, but Nicaragua were able to break through Quavis and Edelman. and there were complaints for a penalty kick probably McGlynn's worst moment he hit a panic clearance that almost looked like it could be on goal and but it hit Neil in the pack it deflected back to Nicaragua, Neil closed and smothered their shot, it went back outside the box, and they hit kind of a weak shot wide of the earpost. But two quick chances in succession.

Yeah, that would have made it too much. In the 62nd, they pressured or, they were really, trying to get back in the game, pressing our buildup on the right side. We played it back. I think it was McGlynn played it back for Crannis, and he stepped on the ball, and he turned it over. They got in on the left side of the box and had the chance to kind of do a cross like Luna did, but it didn't connect.

but the worries any worries anyone had were quickly assuaged in the 65th minute where we get our third goal is a good sequence that starts with Chris Brady and it goes up the right side to McGlynn Sullivan Luna Luna to Aronson Aronson dribbles across the top of the box and taps it to Quevas who makes a pretty straightforward pass wide to Cowell who then does what I feel like he has not done enough of, which is just make a couple decisive touches going right out of guy and gets to the end line and hits a firm low ball with his left foot across the gold mouth. Sullivan this time arrives at the back post and tucks at home.

You know, he's totally unmarked, 3.0 USA. Yeah, on this play, I think you described what Cal does perfectly. You know, when you can burn your man like that, we should be seeing a bit more of it and being decisive is

kind of pay off. I liked, you know, Quavis was kind of sitting a little narrow in that left half space when he played that pass up to Cowell. And then when Cowell got free, we also

had Aronson and Luna covering the near post and the central run. So I think they were each bracketed by two defenders

and that left Sullivan free on the back post for a near tap in. Yeah. As is his custom, Sullivan hit it with pretty much everything he had. Yeah, he's not tapping anything.

He thumped it. 66 minute we get Alejandro Avarado for McGlynn and Caden Clark comes on for Cade Cowell. 67th minute, Alvarado wins the ball in Nicaragua's defensive third. And surges forward kind of pushes it forward to Sullivan, who settles it and rips one from 16. cards saved 6930 Erinson played Clark

into the left corner kind of let him a little long but then it gets back to Edelman who slips Luna Ann on our left side he cuts it back to the top of the six to Alvarado who

maybe the ball was a little behind him and he pops up his touch with his left by now Clark has come back into the box and they both you know swing at the ball neither really gets it

I think it was Alvarado who got most of the contact and he's like half-fally pops wide harmlessly. Bit frustrated with Caden there I think I mean Alvarado was that because he

you know he wanted that for himself I will say a minute and a half earlier than that there was a Another good sequence from the U.S. Edelman wins a goalkeeper clearance and half-follies it down the channel for Sullivan, who kind of like scorpion kick passes it to Luna. And then Luna leaves it for Alvarado,

who I think tries to hit it with his right foot outside of the boot, tries to, you know, Roberto Carlos it. Yeah, he sliced it. Yeah, he scuffed it or whatever. And it's blocked right back to him. But then he taps it inside to Paxson Aronson, who's ready to have a shot. And his curling shot beats the keeper but rings the crossbar.

So we're, we're shelling the goal again. Yeah, that was some good, good pressure. And, you know, Edelman showed his speed of thought on that pass up to Sullivan. Sullivan's pass to Luna was unorthodox but effective. Yeah. And this is when Luna starts taking corners with his left foot and we all have to, boy, I really hope he pans out as a legit national team player. It'd be awesome.

Sunnyvale, California, native, Diego Luna. He offers something different. All right. Can you describe the next ball? I mean, the next goal? Yeah, so the ball is played up to Luna. He's kind of deeper in the left to half space. He turns really well to his left.

Plays in Clark. Clark is left-footed centering pass to the two runners. Aronson in the center channel. Sullivan Farpost is deflected off the defender over the goalkeeper. into the side netting for nothing. Perfect placement. I do think... Yeah, the goalkeeper can only stand there helplessly.

Had it not been... Had the defender not gotten a foot on it, it is scored either by Aronson or Sullivan. I like the choice from Clark. So, you know, people will say it's an own goal, but... And it was, but it was also a good mom. moment, I think. Sure. Having those runners behind the defender facing up Clark forces him to make a play.

All right. Well, you know, there's some other stuff here, but we've already gone 45 minutes. And we get another good rip from Paxon-Earinson after another feed by Alejandro Avarado, draws a good outstretched save from Rodriguez. Jackson Hopkins had come on for Diego Luna in the 74th minute. What did you make of Hopkins? I mean, it's a small cameo, but... Yeah, you know, he looks more like a traditional striker. He, you know, took a couple long touches, needed some additional striker.

adjustment time to get up to the speed of play. Yeah, that seems right. His probably most notable moment was the goal in the 86th minute. It was just a set piece from the left side, Justin's just outside the box. And there's a bunch of a big scramble. Caden Clark ends up on the ball, drops it to Danny Edelman, who hits a nice little pass into the heart of the area to Hopkins. Yeah.

who's facing, you know, the backline is pretty ragged for Nicaragua at this point. So he's facing a defender and a goalkeeper. And his shot is blocked by the goalkeeper, but the goalkeeper prostrates himself in the process. And Jalen Neal, it falls to Jalen Neal to the goalkeeper's left and he bundles at home. But I don't think, you know, Hopkins could just as easily have just passed it to Neal. And I understand when you're that close to goal, a lot of people say you got to shoot. but yeah that's the that's the traditional number nine yeah we're going to shoot my only other thoughts are uh i didn't think avarado was quite as sharp as he had been in previous appearances in this

tournament and then there was a nice moment from kaden clark in the 82nd minute where he goes one v one gets himself a little window and hits a pretty good shot from a tough angle and draws a an outstretched kick save from Rodriguez. Yeah, I think right before that Clark shot, Pax had it at the top of the box and it was bouncing and a challenge came in and he just dinked it over the challenge and then played wide to Clark.

He had a few saucy moments in the... Yeah, yeah, and I think he, you know, a couple minutes earlier, he had another good shot going to his left, left-footed near post that was saved. And it resulted in a corner that for Kranis had a pretty clear run at, but headed over at the far post. Yep. Just couldn't quite get over top of the ball. For Kranes is going to score a header on a set piece before this tournament is over, I think.

It's, it's, it's bound to happen. What's, before we get out of here, what's your, I mean, if you have any, if you have any wrap up thoughts, we, we want to hear them, Bob, but also what's your, what's your starting lineup against Costa Rica? Ooh. You know, overall, a enjoyable game, especially when those missing 12 minutes were added back. So, you know, it kind of started, obviously started slower than the last game. But, you know, we were able to get through the Nicaragua defense pretty much at will.

Maybe they had one 4V6 counter that ended with a bad shot and then, you know, that scramble moment. with those two shots in the box and the one turnover when Forcranus stepped on the ball where we still had numbers back and they didn't really get any good service. So being able to have this kind of attacking talent, these technical players in midfield,

and cut through their defense, and create all these chances in the way we were creating it was a really good sign. And still not really yield much at all in their attack.

Yeah. We aren't fully clicking in this somewhat rotated lineup. There's more that they can bring. So in a must-win game, I would definitely start Clark at left

wing Aronson as the false nine. I think Aronson brings added on the ball and passing and seems to be doing a better and better job of making those runs through the middle that you don't want to completely lose when you're playing more of a false nine. then on the right Sullivan is the obvious choice in midfield

you know it's tough I would probably go Luna at the left 8 Alvarado at the right although he and McGlynn are pretty close for me

the D mid it's also close to a coin flip you know what do you What do you think Pookstis has over Edelman? I don't know.

I don't know if he has anything over Edelman. I think they seem very similar. Yeah, maybe he's a little better in challenging and closing down. Perhaps. I was going to say maybe he's a little more elegant in combination than Edelman, but I don't. Honestly, it's a coin flip for me between the two. I think maybe I slightly prefer Edelman because of. of recency bias because he looked so good in this game against Nicaragua.

But that... Yeah, he... Yeah. He had three very key passes that, you know, you don't... Can't take for granted. No, I mean, that... When your six is doing that, you know, turning a... Turning momentum going towards our goal immediately into a chance going the other way,

I want to keep doing that. I want to keep getting that. Yeah, and then the backline, it's Allen on the left, probably then Craig and Neil and then Quavis on the right. And it seems like Brady's won the goalkeeper job. Yeah. I think, you know, I don't know what virus is thinking, but the midfield is probably the biggest. there are a bunch of questions there. I don't know if Luna's going to be able to go right away for the next game.

I wouldn't be shocked if Securus got the start just for rotation purposes. Yeah, Luna did take a couple knocks and was, wasn't he down before he got subbed? Yeah. Yeah, he was, but I don't know how seriously to take that. So I guess I wouldn't be surprised by almost any duo of number eights against Costa Rica. But we'll see. Thanks again, Bob. Thanks for doing this.

What a weekend. Yeah. Yeah, you two bells. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.