Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #292: U20s v Costa Rica recap

Episode Date: June 29, 2022

Vince, Joey O and Matt Showalter step in to recap the U20s' Concacaf quarterfinal showdown with Costa Rica. Paxten comes up big, and despite some uneven moments in the back, the boys pass their first tough test of the tournament.Vince: https://twitter.com/v_sospiffyJoey: https://twitter.com/joeyo_5Matt: https://twitter.com/matt_showalterMatt and Joey's show is called MLS Benched. Here are the details...Apple: http://apple.co/3pNaDcrSpotify: http://spoti.fi/34x2lxFDiscord: http://bit.ly/3I8B5mZsupport 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. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Scuff's rolling coverage of the Concord Cap U20 Championships. As you have probably already been able to tell, I am not Adam Bells. I am Joey. You might know me in the Discord as Joey O. Bells is taking some much needed rest. He's been a workaholic over the last month or so.

So I'm happy to step in and kind of fill the void as we break down the U.S. This is to no win over Costa Rica that sees them go to the U20 World Cup. Obviously, the semifinals and the final still await. So those should be even more exciting soccer games than what we had tonight. But I am not alone in this pot. I am joined by Matt and Vince. So Matt, I guess we'll start with you. How are you?

And what are your general thoughts on today's game? Thanks so much for having me. I'm doing well. Much, much better now that we're. officially in the U-20 World Cup. I thought it was an all-right match showed some pretty significant limitations for the team as it stands right now.

But hopefully we can, as we run through this match, we'll be able to talk out some of those and some opportunities to really, really keep on growing this team. Absolutely, absolutely. Definitely a whole ton to talk about in terms of team building as far as this game went. And I heard we were getting serious Vince today. So Vince, how are you?

And are we ready to bring the serious soccer analysis that the people need? Yes, sir, Joey, how are you? Yeah, this is Vince coming with the docile tones today. You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to do my best Greg Velazquez's impression. So here it is. Is finishing a skill? I'm going against every cell in my body and say,

that no, no, it is not. And it is only defined by the hard empirical evidence that I have bidweds myself to. Your algorithm. Vince is all serious today. He's all facts. And, you know, we'll see how long he can keep this up if we can get to the first five minutes. Just zeros and ones, baby. zeros and ones. So, as you guys have probably heard, if you guys have listened to any of the U-20 pods, or really any scuffed recap pods,

we'll just sit a timeline, basically, all the events, big events that happened in the game, and kind of discuss them, see kind of the general themes of this game. I'll start by first just delivering the U.S. lineup. Notable that in terms of the field players, only four were the same. from the previous match versus in Nicaragua.

Now, many of the subs in that game did start this one. So Brady and Nett, that's been basically constant throughout this entire tournament besides the first game. Most notably, I think, Quavos on the left, Craig and Neil's centerbacks, left and right, respectively, Holiday on the right. That was really the one big omission is Noah Allen's been really solid on the left for the U.S. so far this tournament. and so to see Kuevaska moved out of his natural position at right back and then Holiday brought in.

Maybe a little to talk about there as the game kind of played out interesting, especially in the back. At the holding mid, the defensive mid was Rokan Pukestas and in front of him, the two-eighths, Diego Luna and Alejandro Alperado. Up top, kind of the half-spaced merchants, Clark on the left, Sullivan on the right, and Paxson-Earinson running point for the U.S. The only other notable thing I wanted to mention in the lineups night, I do want to shout out Autobus 39 on the Discord. He was the first one who pointed this out. Brandon Aguilera, that same Brandon Aguilera, who delivered the absolute dime of the

ball that saw Costa Rica go one no-up over the United States in the last game of World Cup qualifiers. He started this game, Captain Costa Rica in this game. and to have that kind of the interesting, I'm not sure if it's a juxtaposition, but to see Costa Rica who didn't come into this game with the amount of talent that US had, but yet to have this guy who literally,

you know, kind of dice up the United States for a goal during World Cup qualifying was super interesting. And Aguilera had his part to play in the match. That was kind of it. The only other thing Cal didn't start, as many have been saying that he shouldn't start based off, you know, kind of lack of creativity. You guys certainly heard that in previous pods.

So I think the game started, and it got interesting pretty early. A couple seconds in the game, Costa Rica got numbers in behind Kwaivas. They got a shot off. It was blocked about 15 yards away. They were inside the 18. But I think this was not a sign of things to come, but it's certainly a sign, Vince, when you say that this game was going to be. a tougher test than basically any that we had faced up to this point um yeah and and really up until

the the goal that that came pretty early i was like uh you you know we we might be kind of kind of kind of up against it in this game uh you know just just in this in this uh sequence that happens in the opening seconds you know we we get puskas uh losing the 50 50 in the midfield that leads to the breakout and And just like the power, hate to use a cliche, but the pace and power from the Costa Ricans, the peer athletes they had on the field. Like once they basically bossed Puskas there and then got running, you could see that, whoa, these guys are kind of a load on the counter. And so, yeah. It's really interesting. Both of those things that you bring up are two of the things that we saw pretty much all night.

It was pressure up against Bushkas. and it was finding space in behind Kovas when he was getting a little bit further up the field. And they hated us on both of those pretty regularly. So it's definitely, I wish we'd had seen more adjustment to some of those at risks. Yeah, I agree. Go ahead, Vince.

I don't know. I was disagreeing. Yeah, yeah. And Matt, I'm with you there. It's like especially, and that's why I decided to, you know, bring up just the, um, Noah Allen admission is just like, Like, he, he is a natural left back played for Inner Miami, you know, MLS level left back. And so to see him omitted from a lineup for, you know, Holiday, who's a good player, don't get me wrong,

especially in his natural position on the right. But then having to, you know, kind of make that switch while moving Kuevas out of his natural position was the one thing that was like, we'll see how this goes. Like, why don't we just keep it, you know, what you would have normally thought, which is out on the left, Kuevas on the right. And we saw that kind of payoff, thankfully, not to the tune of a goal within the opening seconds. And now, as you were saying, Vince, before the goal, it looked like we might be up against it. And yet we have a good string of possession that started a little rough. We looked like we were going to lose the ball, but we kept at it swinging around

the back. Quivas found Puskas, who found Clark, who found Kuevas. And then this was really the key in that sequences that Quavos opens up his hips and hits a beautiful diagonal to about midfield to Alvarado who just has green in front of him. He drives at the back line, finds Sullivan, finds Aronson, and Aronson slots at home, and it's 1-0 about four minutes in. And I mean, it looked like the U.S. were starting to, you know, come into their rhythm. And up until this point, it looked fine. And I certainly not disappointed, especially with the way that goal worked up. There was a beautiful passing combination. I started to make a comparison to like how Greg wants us to play for the senior team. But Vince, I don't know. How did you kind of see this one play

out especially? We basically hit every player on the field during this goal. Yeah. And I mean, doing like the quick rewatch that I did immediately after this game, I kind of forgot, like, I guess I didn't notice how involved Alvarado was in like everything we did. Like, he was popping up everywhere and he was very dynamic, extremely dynamic. In a game where Diego Luna kind of went missing a little bit, Alvarado picked up that slack man. And so

once that ball makes it to him, he drives lays it off to Quinn. And then, so I think the secret sauce here was Paxton's ability to slow down the moment and keep his calm in the box and just to let that ball roll until it came to his left foot.

You would see a lot of right-footed players probably try to, like, get their feet situated to where they can take it with their right. And, you know, we've all seen these type of players to wear. They will do literally anything to get that, to get that ball onto their favorite foot. And it could have led to him snatching it,

snatching the chance or anything like that. But Paxton realizing that he had the time and space in the box to let it roll and to take that with his left foot, that's just, that's a big time moment right there to me. And I made a note of that specifically, is that like he opened up to his left to find that extra yard of space. shot, I think, was, I forget if it was deflected or it, it got touched, I think, along the way, but it, nothing significant. And clearly he was trying to pick out that bottom left corner,

which is where it ended up going in. I, I think we have a slight disagreement on the involvement of Alvarado, and we can save that to maybe a slightly, you know, not as happy, a point on the timeline. But, Matt, what did you see in, in terms of Alvarado's play on this goal? And, I mean, I think the real action on this really starts from Quavos's switch, which I think that was absolutely brilliant. Absolutely. And the recognition of space, the recognition to have the time to go ahead and drive that ball forward, that really does make that play really come together, which then opens us up

to go ahead and get that into Sullivan, get that into Erins, and get that into the back of the that. I have no quibbles with Alvarado in this moment. It comes a little bit later in the game where I feel like he kind of. kind of starts to fade a little bit, and we'll get into that. But great goal. Good job. And Sullivan continuing the goal contributions, I don't know exactly how many it is up to this point, but getting them with the assist as well as scoring them himself. He continues to make an impact. So that was basically it for that goal. A couple minutes later, this was the start of a string

of Costa Rica free kicks from like the 35 to like 40, 50-yard range. where you can just kind of loft a ball into the box. It's Aguilera who takes basically all of these. It was a free kick, got cleared out, recycled, to about the top of the box, where the play looked like it was about to move on, but it drops to, I don't know who number five on Costa Rica was, but Costa Rica's number five,

who has a few hours of space and swings a shot at the top corner. It wasn't hit with a ton of pace, but Brady gets there in time, no big deal. I think this was the start of Costa Rica they weren't threatening in the way that you would perceive threatening. It's certainly not threatening in the way that we've seen the U.S. threatened their opponents so far in this tournament. But again, like you were saying, Vince,

it started to be the beginning of what we thought might be a tougher opponent. I think we kind of saw that play out. Vince, you have something a few minutes later. Yeah, so this is just, this was the first. first time that I kind of noticed that Caden Clark was on the field, I guess. This is the first time of him, like, coming alive in this game. He wins a foul, gets the ball from Puskas in the half space. And, you know, Costa Rica's playing, like, their mid to low block.

It's really crowding the midfield. And we didn't have much success on the half turn in the half space with the balls from, like, Brandon Craig. Brandon Craig was really pumping them in there, like repeatedly. But we were losing a lot of them. Him, Puskas, we're playing the balls forward a lot. But so Caden does his best on the half turn. Kind of spins to ask two guys on them, kind of spins him, kind of spins him, wins the foul.

And, you know, I just wanted to point this out because there wasn't enough of this from our side, from the U.S. today. whether it was Paxton, Quinn, Caden, we were losing the ball quite a bit in those situations. Yeah, those guys were all having a lot of struggle running into that mid-to-low block. And that's something that we've kind of started to see throughout the U.S. men's national team programs trying to unlock that, which obviously in Concorda

CAF is going to be really, really important. That's something that we've got to figure out. And hopefully we need to start training players younger and younger younger, younger to play with the ball a little bit more, carry that a little bit more. I think that's a big reason why we see them playing so much with the ball. It's like, Mikey, I'm not sure if it's direct orders, but like, also just like to, when you're a better soccer team, you've got to be able to play with the ball more. And I think that's what the U.S. program is looking to do.

And I'm supportive of that because I also like beautiful soccer, and that's generally when beautiful soccer is played. I think 10 minutes in as we move on, that is, that is, that is, that is really, you. really the first moment of a repeated string of incidents where we struggle in possession coming out of the back. Matt, particularly from one player who I think was really good at finding spots on the field, you know, running in the space that he had. But unfortunately, when you got the ball to his feet, it just didn't always come together. Do you want to take us through this one? Yeah. So this is following a couple of opportunities.

that just did not really pan out for Costa Rica, if I'm remembering correctly, we start to recycle the ball. Our fullbacks put the ball back towards the centerback, center backs back towards Brady. And Brady starts to receive a little bit of pressure from that Costa Rican front line. And really does not do well with it.

There are a couple of moments when you get caught in possession. I'll also say this, the particular moment that we're talking about in the 10th minute. The passes back to Brady were really, really rough. The midfield and centerbacks were hanging him out to dry in a couple of instances, and he just does not have the skill set at this point in time in order to play out of the back like that. And that's something that the coach needs to recognize and be aware of moving forward.

Yeah. In particular, I think most of the time it was Jalen Neal. Jalen Neil was setting that man up multiple times. It was just like these passes back to Brady are just not it. I mean, you know you have a keeper that may, you know, he's developing with his feet. And, you know, it's on the center back to give him a bit, a bit of a better ball back to him. I don't remember if I said. Weight and bouncing.

Right. Right. And we didn't mention this, but on the goal, on the buildup to the goal, there was. was a it was a little kerfuffle brewing between Neil and Neil and Brady, where it almost looked like we were going to have a, when playing it out of the back, goes wrong situation. Neil lets it run across his body, plays it back to Chris Brady and Brady, like, I mean, almost fumbles it. He luckily gets it out to Kuevas, but yeah, crisis was averted there. Yeah.

But, yeah. And I was, I was going to try and mention that. kind of halfed on the goal sequence. It was so long. I don't know how to include it, but we almost lost the ball in a really bad spot on that goal sequence. And I think, yeah,

this was rough, especially from Brady and the past back. I was also involved in this sequence, and that was the player who I was kind of alluding to was Rokam Puskas. It just, for him specifically, and I don't know if we have to touch on all this now because we are certainly going to touch on this later.

It just, it didn't see. quite right from him. You know, that was the player I was, you know, talking about in terms of he, there were times where he would have, you know, wide stretches of space to work and to run and receive the ball. And he was getting the ball to his feet and he was being involved. So that was, you know, part one, check. Part two, actually doing something with the ball productive and not, you know, letting Costa Rica necessarily, you know, kind of either jump, jump it or, you know, get it off his foot.

That was the problem for him all night. And not just him, but other U.S. players that was kind of the struggle was playing out of the back and working through those early moments in possession. Obviously, we'll touch on him in just a minute. Jump ahead to about the 14th minute. We have some good interchange. And I made a point that it was apparent at this point. if you could have, you know, gotten this from the lineup just in that we weren't playing

K. Cowell. But our both of our wingers were certainly set up to place half-based merchants coming in and building into the attack, not, you know, Quinn Sullivan and Kaden Clark aren't going to take you in line and cross it back in. That's just not their styles. But I think, you know, that kind of, that showed how we're going to play this match, looking for a little more build-up play, you know, throughout the entire process. I'm not sure that came off at every point. But, and Vince, obviously, you know, this was apparent, but do you have anything more on this specifically? Yeah, this just was what was our one moment of champagne football in this game.

I thought, so we got Puskas who gets onto a loose ball, chips it over a Costa Rican defender to Paxton. Paxton plays Alvarado, back to Paxton, back to Alvarado. who plays it in between the lines to Diego Luna, who's popped in, and who's found a space popped in. He gets it out of his feet to Quinn. So Quinn flicks it to Caden in the box and then tries a back heel back to Quinn that's cut out.

But it was this close. It was this close to pan off to getting us a shot on goal. And that was just a, it was a beautiful move. And Matt, to your earlier point about the U.S., you know, looking how we want to break down the press for the U.S. programs, I think this was kind of in the PowerPoint presentation that Greg Burrhalter will show of how to break down a defensive block and how to, you know, work with those half-based merchants. I think that this was one of the earlier exhibits in that PowerPoint presentation, wouldn't you say? Absolutely. This is proof of concept behind that shape behind the dualates of being able to apply pressure. get into good spaces. And then it, I, we saw this pretty regularly, particularly in the first half, where once you get that ball progressed pretty well, you're spaced out so well now that

you have a lot of very different dangerous angles within the box. And it gives you great opportunities. And we saw a lot of those come pretty good. Right. And also the things that you can do with a, with the false nine type of player. You know, we got, we got Paxton. We got Paxson up there, you know, as the tip of the spear. But like I said, he's back in midfield making this move happen.

And then, you know, we got the space vacated. And here's Quinn Sullivan, taking the space, receiving the pass from Luna. And Quinn combining with Caden, like, yeah, that's going on the training video for sure. Right. And one thing I made a note of that I didn't touch on when I was talking about the lineup is that essentially, when we're playing with, you know, Diego Luna. and Caden Clark and Paxon, Aronson, and Quinn Sullivan. We're playing with four guys who could, you know, in a very theoretical world, be midfielders. Like, they could all play the center mid, and yet we have three of them running the forward line.

Those are the kind of guys who I think, who, especially with Paxson playing that nine, who are really going to be looking for that interchange and buildup, not your traditional wingers in nine by any stretch of the imagination. But, hey, we'll take it. especially on this play because it was absolutely beautiful. And now that I think back, this was the low moment of champagne football, unfortunately so. But you got to take your moment. And it was all good for one minute until about a minute later. Cuevas turned over about 30 yards from goal.

Alvarado gets bodied. There was a shot. It wasn't that dangerous of a shot. But again, we saw kind of the vulnerabilities on that left flank, Kuevas getting beat. Vince, I don't know if this was necessarily repeatable pattern the entire game, but certainly early. It was apparent that Kuevas was having trouble acclimating it left back or reacclimating,

I guess, because he'd play there earlier in the tournament. Yeah, and, I mean, really, I'm going to put most of this. Like, the first incident that we talked about earlier and this one, I'm going to put most of it on Puskas, because he's the one that lost the ball that led to the sequence like you know uh quavos did lose the ball but he was like you he was barely in possession of it you know he was like kind of trying to fight for a 50-50 had it for a little bit and then kind of lost it um like like we were in a scramble situation based off puscus losing it in my opinion no it's fair i mean i i'd agree with that and it unfortunately we

saw that multiple times on the night it just it was a rough night for pushkos in particular and I think that he was getting a lot of pressure, especially coming from, I guess that was Aguilera. He was constantly on, or Aguilara was constantly on Pushkus' back. And if Pushkos is going to progress his game, he really needs to study somebody

and please nobody tweeted me, roll your eyes too hard. He needs to study Dax McCarty, who is checking his shoulder constantly. That's the next step, I think, for Pushkoss, if he's going to play this six role. And I think he can.

I'm not a talent evaluator. I haven't watched this team from the U-13s-up, but everybody who talks about this kid says that he is the real deal and that he can 100% play that position for a long time for this team. So I'm hoping that's the case. And I think that those people are smart people and are probably right. But I agree that if we want that not just a six who wants to play a ball, but a six who can actually play the ball, right?

He's going to need to improve that, which it comes with time. And these guys are 17, 18, 19 years old. They've got, you know, the vast majority of their careers ahead of them. I'm sure he'll be fine. But this game in particular was a little rough in possession. Yeah, and we're talking about the, I mean,

the lone six and a 433, like one of the hardest positions to play in football. Yeah, it's a lone. we position and we're blessed with watching Tyler Adams play for the senior team and he's just he's unbelievable especially defensively so yeah i i think that context is important as well um okay kind of moving along slowly here but here 18th minute um you know kind of jiving with the you know Costa rica started to really play um after i guess in both halves after we score um those early goals. Costa Rica really start to get their flow, I guess. They win the ball. They play past Kwaivas. Kravos. Craig steps out, and this was one of the more dangerous moments of Costa Rica.

That Costa Rica really created this, even though our mistakes also help them along. They win the ball. They play it past Kovas, as I said, but then Brandon Craig steps out and to try and, you know, cut that out. He gets touched him behind, though. So Craig is completely turned. He's in a full sprint back toward his own net. At that point, they get end line. They have multiple runners in the box. They square it. Quavos, with a really, really good recovery run. Gets back, slides in, and clears it away.

But again, he got caught out. Thankfully, for him, he got back. But I think this was the real danger. Like, Kovas getting caught out, whatever holiday, didn't really happen quite as much, or at least in the notable moments, but whatever. It's when that centerback got beat. The one or two times that it happened,

we looked really vulnerable. But I think I can honestly turn this kind of negative moment to a slight positive and compliment. Brandon Craig especially, but Jaylen Yolo as well is that, you know, they did not really get beat much at all in this game. And I think that was absolutely crucial

because Costa Rica was ready to do damage and they nearly did on multiple occasions. Matt, I don't, I think defensively we can talk about the ball playing all we want, but both those guys were as basically as solid you could ask for, save for maybe, you know, this one occurrence. Yeah, they were pretty resolute on the night.

I was particularly happy with Craig because he also had a couple of instances where Alamon was running directly at him after the team had been pulled a little bit out of shape. He was pretty conscious of his positioning. There was only one instance where I thought he was given up too much space. Solid night. Super solid night. And I'm sure, especially if they stick with him. and Neil, again, you need time at centerback. I've always said that's one of the most important partnerships you can develop on the field

if you get him and Neil time together. I'm sure it's only going to be better. In this, in the same pattern of play where they, Quava slides back, clears it, U.S. ends up winning the ball in that ensuing possession. And this was really the first threatening moment for the United States after that early goal. Alejandro Alvarado gets the ball in a little space and kind of out of nowhere takes a shot that was whistling for that top corner, kind of the near post side, and the first occurrence out of many for the Costa Rican keeper, Mora, making a really solid save, especially without much

notice. Alejandro Alvarado showing his creativity early events, but, you know, Costa Rican keeper up for the task. Yeah, and this moment kind of came from, I guess I noticed, like, to this point, we haven't, we hadn't seen a lot of Diego Luna. He popped up in the champagne sequence, but it really hadn't had the effect that he had in the Nicaragua match. And so, like, you see him here just kind of getting a little impatient. Like Costa Rica was sitting back. I mean, there was really no pressure on, I mean, the back five, really. I mean, like once the ball came in, the Puskas, there would be somebody coming up on him.

But so Luna was like, man, let me come back here and enjoy some of this time and space on the ball. And so he comes back, gets it a little bit, and then plays the ball up to Alvarado who gets the shot off. But, yeah, Alvarado, man, he was a live wire. I don't. Yeah, particularly early. He, Alvarado was really good. We know that he's Bell's his favorite player out of this team. that is obviously apparent by the commentary.

The St. Kitts pot, I don't know if that was, you know, kind of a, you know, like I said, a powerpoint on all the good things that Alejandro Alvarado has ever done in his life or as a soccer pod. But hey, he's certainly a quality player. And also he showed in the Cuba match. And this is about the time where I kind of just made a note. And this was pretty obvious, is that Alvarado was going to play as that true age. and Luna was going to be sliding more side to side

and kind of making, I guess, more... He was going to venture away from that kind of that central holding midfield role. Not holding, but kind of that, you know, staying within the box. Sometimes he was even on the left and right touchline in that sequence. He was at both sides of the... Basically on both touchlines. And I don't... It didn't really play out for him because we were saying...

Luna in particular, but both of them weren't that involved, especially as the game went on. But again, when they do get the ball to their feet, they're absolutely dangerous and dynamic and everything you could want. So I think it's one of those things where find the ball first, and they didn't do that quite enough. But when they did, they were quality as always. Moving on, Brandon Craig, once again, with the ball at his feet,

he was, you know, and as we've talked about on previous pause, he is kind of the ball playing centerback defender out of this group. but he plays a good ball in a Clark, tries to sort of the ball in the box, it doesn't quite happen. US started to get a little more of the ball back and started to find a little bit more of the play here, but it wasn't really coming to anything.

This is our first, Paxon-Earinson is actually the Big Brother moment as he gets fouled. Two-hand shoves the defender as he's getting the foul call. And nobody really does anything about it. So I guess, you know, it's all good. but I love Paxon's big brother energy kind of filling in for Brendan.

And it's apparent even when he plays with the union, he is a feisty son of a gun. Yeah, and the game had been getting a little testy. I had a moment that I didn't bring up, but there was like a little dust up on the touchline where the ball was going out. And Costa Rica player took out one of our players, like needlessly, really. and there's a little dust up there and you know and a little bit at the end too

yeah yeah yeah right right yeah yeah so yeah yeah so we we get some some escalating tensions here yeah absolutely and um I guess in terms of uh signs of things to come this look like it was just going to be an isolated incident maybe one two things but whatever okay just just wait till the end and uh we'll get to

that that was an actual kerfuffle moving on you go ahead can I take a quick moment to just say this is this about five minute range between the 20th and 25th minute this is where we really saw a lot of the very very positive side

of Craig's passing he had the ball into Clark that just it was really really well it got the old packing stat it got through several players and took them out of play

and then a couple minutes later, a ball over the top to Aronson, which now that Alvarado has shown that he has the willingness to take it from range, Costa Rica has to step up a little bit higher, forces them to have a little bit more space in behind. Craig recognized that finds a good run. Both of those really, really well-played balls,

just be a little bit kinder to your goalkeeper when you're playing the ball backwards, and then I'd have nothing but praise for Craig's passing. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, he was dropping, he was dropping dimes all night. Yeah, and I think it was, I forget, if it was the Canada pot or the Cuba pod,

but essentially, like, Craig is the best passer on this team, and it's a shame that he is, because, like, his height would be great for set pieces. Like, I will 100% pair that opinion. But, hey, I mean, if he can serve a dime of a ball, you know, not everyone can do that. But as I put down, just a few minutes later, there was somebody else on the field who could do it. And that was Brandon Aguilera, because he,

destroyed the United States the first time we played them the senior team in World Cold Qualifier and he did it here and like there was it two or three corners in like a two minute stretch that he served dimes of balls and really really dangerous opportunities

even the near post ball that he served I just put down why is he so good at set pieces but I think Costa Rica looked this was their set piece danger like we all know conca calf teams are pretty good set pieces this was really their super dangerous moment um besides uh one we'll get two in the second half um from set pieces but those corners you know they they were a little nervy there for a second but our guys took care of them

well um i yeah um he he he oh yeah i i just want to say he he even took a corner from the uh penalty spot Oh, man. Just excellent at dead balls. I mean, I think that thing. You're not wrong. You got to say. That thing will land one of these days.

Zero's and ones, baby. Zero's and ones. Oh, my gosh. Here's about the time where U.S. sees a little more of the ball. You were saying Diego Luna about. 30th minute mark, puts a good ball in a Paxon, Erinson, who's absolutely wide open. And this was really the U.S.'s most dangerous chance of the first half

that didn't result in a goal, probably the most dangerous chance period in terms of XG. Luna finds Aronson, who's wide open, drives in the defense, centers it for Aronson who's kind of coming behind him. Aronson, not Aronson, rather, Quinn Sullivan. Sullivan has, I don't go one-on-one with the keeper. That's pretty fair to say from about seven yards out. It kind of puts it right at the keeper. You know, the keeper made a couple great saves in this period.

This was the one that it was kind of the easiest. Quinn Sullivan should have put this away and has put this ball away so far at this tournament. But I think this was just, you know, finishing, like we were saying, Vince, doesn't always go in, does it? No, no, it doesn't always go in. and it's all about finding the opportunities. You see. You need to find the opportunity. You've got to find the opportunities,

and then the goals will come. Any smart soccer analyst will tell you that, you know. Yeah. So this whole sequence of play came from Costa Rica kind of changing up to shape a little bit. You know, after those three set pieces, they were kind of filling themselves, and kind of came out of that

with a little high press action. that was really should have been successful because Luna kind of got away with a foul there, like pushed the man in the back to get the ball. I think it was, yeah, it was Holiday playing the ball up to Luna. Defender had stepped and was, you know, in position to claim it. But yeah, got away with one there and, yeah, the rest of the chance. Yeah. I wasn't going to put down, but I mean, that looked like a two-hand shove.

I guess we'll take it. And at that point, it looked like maybe the calls were going to go our way. But no, it should have been a foul, but, hey, you know, it also should have been a goal. So I guess there's two things kind of balance out. Off the ensuing corner, because it did go out for a corner, Craig puts a ball in for Pooxtas, and it's a wide open header, not a wide open header, but, I mean, as open a headers you're going to get from a corner, you know, 10 yards out, this was, you know, the second in a line of really, really solid saves by the Costa Rican keeper. I think this one was going toward the top right corner and he, you know,

diving save to Palmwood away. Matt, I don't, we were talking before the pod. Oh my gosh. Do you want to, you know, share our conversation in the world? I'm absolutely stealing this from, I believe it was Sanjiv, uh, on Twitter, but they found another Kaler Navas. and it's really, really frustrating. I don't, Costa Rica seems to be able to develop really, really good goalkeepers, or maybe it was just really, really good on the night.

Morrow was great tonight. Without him, it could easily be three, four, nil at halftime, and we're not having half the discussion about some of the struggles that we faced in the second half. Should we have done better to put some of those chances away? Yes, but ones and zeros, we didn't. Yeah, you know

You were right about the 3 to 4 0 by the way, yeah Go ahead, Vince Well, I was just gonna say He gave us like every type of save You know, the acrobatic diving one from Alvarado We get a little This was a kick save, right?

Yes, yeah, this was Pushka's heading the ball down Oh, okay, yeah, yeah Kick save, we get the you know We get the the hand. Is it later in the match that we get another Quinn Sullivan chance? Yep.

Am I thinking of the... Off of the Bush cause free kick? Yeah. Yeah, right. Exactly. Exactly. Yes. Yes.

So, yeah, he was just, he was bawling out. Yeah, this keeper is a real deal. I was thinking of a different corner. There was a top rate one later in the match. We'll get to that. But no, I mean, yeah, this keeper gave us everything.

He gave the quick close down on Sullivan. Was key on that chance, by the way. It wasn't just a mischance. Like, the cold keeper closed the angle. very well. I wish Greg was here to, you know, give us the ins and outs on, you know, what it's like to be a goalkeeper. But he clearly was on top of his game. And hopefully they haven't found another Navas. But if they do, hey, I guess we're just going to have to live with it. And I, this, again, we go from, you know, our good moment to we're trying to

pass. We're trying to pass. This was one of Pooks-Soss's, you know, beginning moment. And we go getting moments that, you know, stuff couldn't, or wasn't going to go as well as we would have hoped. Craig gives him the ball. He doesn't read the pressure. Um, gives up the ball right on, like, right on the edge of the 18. Like, this is perfect position for a shot. Costa Rica tastes the shot, you know, pretty decently over the bar. But I mean, and I, and Matt, you put this down, you can take it absolutely unnecessary danger that was created just because he wasn't, you know, checking his shoulder. Watching his shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. it's a we're seeing some of that high press the vince was talking about them starting to really come out of that shell and unfortunately we just were not able to really break through that um i think i was i wish we had seen more of one of the eighths dropping a little bit deeper to try to be able to give additional support uh we just it did not work well for for bush gothast tonight and yeah like that could easily have been in the back of the net i i think we can

at times fault of the United States. It's not, we've been hard so far on Pooxas in particular, Neil, on that back pass. The United States was trying to play with the ball, and these mistakes are going to happen. Like, that's soccer works that way. You're going to make mistakes. I think the issue, at least like my opinion, was that, like, we were, at times we were trying to force a little too much.

And it doesn't mean clear the ball, but it can mean, like you said, Matt, you'll get an eight involved, drop, you know, have somebody else drop in there, there. So now the Coast Rican player has to worry about not just, you know, pooks to us and ready to just take the ball off his foot, maybe two players. There are different ways that you can play out. And I think at times the U.S. was pretty dependent on just that lone six kind of being the point of transition. I'm not 100% sure that that was the way to do it. But I, we didn't get scored on. But I would have liked to see a slightly more positive performance because this does, you know, have that little, that little bit of doubt in the, you know, in my

brain now that, you know, could things go worse? Because, you know, Costa Rica, this could have been a goal and it could have been one-one very easily if Costa Rica puts that shot on frame. But yeah, this is clearly what we're trying to do. So hopefully it gets a little better for the next two matches. About 37th minute mark, following a scrum, there's, you know, two yellow cards for Costa Rican players. Quinn Sullivan gets the yellow card as well.

This is really the other good U.S. moment in, you know, I guess kind of live action run-of-play stuff. Craig takes the shot into the wall. The ball bounces out of the wall, and it kind of finds its way through. And Sullivan is right, he bounces right on. And it's essentially him and the goalkeeper. Once again, goalkeeper comes out, gets big,

and saves the shot from about a 10-yard range. This was, again, Quinn Sullivan, as we say, Vince, you know, they don't all go in. And Quinn Sullivan has been on a hot streak. So he kind of got brought down to earth in this one. This was pretty lucky that the ball happened to get to him in the first place. But, I mean, you do have to do better there, right? There's, when you look at it, it's like maybe he could have just played that on the floor and just slotted it home.

And instead of trying to, trying to roof it. but you know you you really can't fault them too much for for just smashing it um but but yeah mora just like we said just playing out his mind so yeah another one that this could have easily been the second goal and wasn't you know lucky again like the ball didn't have to bounce through but it did and solvin is one-on-one and they don't score them all but i think for solven again um you know he's still finding the moments and And he's found him enough recently that I think it just comes back to, you know, he's already scored a ton in this tournament. If he, if you keep him in there, we'll probably score again.

And this one, if he has that chance 10 times, you know, he's going to score some of those times. About 40th minute mark, almost at half. I think, like, at this point, it was really very clear that Costa Rica was a different test than any other ones that we had faced. and then, you know, Bob and Bells had talked about that on the previous pot. It was going to get more difficult from here. And then that showed, like, the difference in the previous games at times was we weren't finishing all of our chances. We just weren't being clinical enough in the final third. That's one way to, you know, make a game tight or not play up to your best.

In this case, it was we weren't, we had those isolated incidents, but it wasn't like we were getting in, like, those high quality positions time after time after time. We were struggling at times to even break down their midfield. We were definitely not breaking down their defensive block as much as we should have. And so it was really that difference, a stark contrast between the previous games where we were basically having our way up until about 18 yards from goal. And this game where, you know, we were struggling at times to, you know, get it 35 yards to goal. I think that was the real difference.

Matt, do you want to touch on that just a little bit? And how do you think we can get that sorted out a little bit as we move forward? I apologize. I don't have a great take on this. You're right that this is a very, very different team. We're talking about a team that has a lot more professional minutes under their belt. This is just who we're going to have to face. We just have to be able to go ahead and adjust a little bit better.

That's my big thing is we need to be able to adjust on the fly a little bit harder. I think at times it just means find the aides in better positions, just try and I don't know if necessarily search for that pass, but at times it's just, if you have an eight in space, find that eight and let Alvarado, Luna, McClint, whoever it is, use their talent and find something up to field. Sometimes you don't have to make it perfect, I think. That was my opinion, at least. Basically at halftime now, but not quite yet, because Brady plays to Neil. Neal plays a good ball to Alvarado's head, heads it to Paxson to Luna. switches it some more champagne football, I guess, and plays a ball to Alvarado making run in the box. He plays it to Clark just can't quite do enough with it.

Costa Rica gets the ball. But Vince, I think this is another moment that we looked pretty good in terms of that kind of those quicker passing in trying to find those kind of third man runs that we were talking about. Yeah, and this was one of the

the better balls from from jeline neal in the game um in my opinion um because he played that he played that thing right right onto salvado's head but um yeah another i i wouldn't quite say it was champagne football but but a very good move nonetheless nonetheless yeah champagne's at a different level i i do agree with that but no i this was we didn't have a ton of these in the second half especially so it's important to point them out when we did um in stoppage time now um we got a set piece from the left. Craig delivers it. It's just over Pustis his head,

but it bounces just in front of Mora. He has to make a save on it. Really last dangerous moment, but I think capping off an absolutely splendid performance from Mora in the first half in particular, again, hopefully they haven't found their novice, but if they did, you know, whatever, he played out of his mind from about this 20, 20, 25th minute

to halftime he was absolutely unbelievable and kept them in the game because at half um matt you put down that we were committed to playing out of the back which i think that was clear for all to see um craig was good um brady pookest us yeah uh Brady wasn't amazing especially at the beginning he started to adjust pookest us again on that turn he was not checking his shoulder agglara picked it off quite a few times um and this is really i think where at the end of that half and going to the second half, our eights start to disappear a little bit. Even Alvarado, as much as we love him,

started to fade a little bit in terms of their involvement, which I don't love to see because, again, he's such a quality player, but I think that was the issue in the game. It just terms of, like, overall involvement. It wasn't all the way. It wasn't all the way there. But at the same time, if Moore wasn't in net and the U.S. had converted one or two more of their chances,

it doesn't matter. It's 3-0, and we are well on our way to the U-20. World Cup. But at half, Matt, what were your initial thoughts? Yeah, it was a little bit of frustration with the shape when playing out of the back because it puts so much of that pressure on the six. I'm a sporting Kansas City fan. I have seen a lot of the struggles of a lone six, and it makes things really, really difficult. Sporting, it's primarily in getting attacked on a loan six in this instance it's trying to play through as that single focal point and it really makes things difficult i really i was pretty happy with the chances that we created uh but

still we just need to be able to finish those a little bit better yeah definitely um now i i agree that like it came down to chances and then moments that it could have been bad and it wasn't always bad so grateful for that. But yeah, I think it would have been a different conversation and we had finished. But those difficult moments continue in the second half, Vince, your halftime thoughts, and then we can roll on in the second half.

Yeah, mainly it's just, you know, it's basically nice to have somebody, you know, put their stamp on the game, finish off the chances the way, well, the chance at this point. the way that Paxton did. And that just, I feel like that severely changes everyone's outlook at the game at this point. I mean, yes, we've had our, we've had our multiple chances.

But yeah, like we've all said, we weren't playing that well. We weren't playing that well. And in my opinion, it was like we need, you know, we need our, we need our Leipzig player to step up. you know, we need our, we need our potential Red Bull Salisberg player to step up a little bit. Just, I mean, you know, he played well, but just give us a little bit more. We have to be able to progress the ball, you know. There weren't many, there weren't many entries into the attacking third from our possession that started off in our half. There just wasn't.

And that was a breakdown kind of all the way through. I'm not going to blame, like, one player for that. It's all the team effort. Yeah, I mean, it's unfortunate that that didn't happen more. Like we said, hopefully future games, we can get that figured out because we are going to be playing tougher teams even than this. And those are the teams that are going to hit on their opportunities. We have to be both more clinical and create more of our own. No U.S. subs to talk about it half.

Costa Rica, I think, made two. But at that point, it was still, you know, looking fine. early in the second half, one minute in. It was very obvious at this point. Pukas was struggling. He struggled basically throughout the first half. And then here he struggles to play out at the back. Costa Rica gets a throw in.

The U.S. turns it over. And then Sullivan, Aronson, Alvarado, combined really well. They open up a counter on the right side. Sullivan serves the ball to Clark and Luna is there as well. But the goalkeeper, once again, blocks Clark shot from close range. And again, Matt, you touched on the fact that we wish that we had Craig, Craig's ball serving ability in somebody, maybe a little shorter stature. but that would have been nice.

Yeah. This, so to go to the counter, this was a really, really well-constructed sequence of passing right along basically the, you know, five yards from the touchline or sideline, rather. Really, really well done from basically all of those players who had a touch on that right-hand side. Clark, or, yes, Clark ends up being able to take a shot

or tries to redirect it from about two yards out, but more it covers his angle well. And then Craig is great. I wish he didn't have to deliver these balls, but he does it really, really well. Yeah, you can't hate on him. I mean, he's doing his job. He's really good at it.

And so that was about it until the 49th minute, when we get a defense free kick, I think from an offside or something like that. Brady plays it to, Neil, Neil finds Sullivan, you know, kind of checking in from that kind of right half-space merchant position, kind of circles around his defender. And I made a point that he was kind of using Pooxas as a pick almost. It wasn't quite that level, but, you know, Pooxas was just kind of standing stationary. As Sullivan runs in a circle around him. Paxton drops off. So Sullivan finds

Paxon Aronson. He lays it to Luna going down the right. And then holidays. making a long overlapping run absolutely scot-free. So he has a, he has all the time in the world to deliver the perfect cross to Cating Clark, who heads it back down towards the top of the six. This is, you know, the most dangerous position, basically get in terms of, you know, in terms of, you know, an attacking move on the field. Alvarado lets it run. Paxton is open.

Slots at home. Goalkeeper almost made another amazing save, but, you know, Paxton got this one past them. It's 2-0. And at this point, we are pretty, pretty happy about how things are going. Vince, wouldn't you say? Yeah. Like, I know I said that one moment was our one moment of champagne football.

But yeah, I think we just detailed two moments. Yeah, yeah. I think we just detailed two that probably are up there. Maybe not, maybe, you know, maybe not champagne. You know, it is what it is. Maybe it's a, you know, sparkling grape juice. But, you know, it's, it's, it's, we're, I mean, we're, we're, we're balling at this point. We came out, we came out of the half, and learned from the chances that we didn't take,

learned from how we didn't play, and kind of, kind of really took Costa Rica to it right here in these, in these first 10 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. And, and we hit them early. Yeah. And I just, like, Quinn Sullivan. other than Alvarado, I think Quinn probably stood out the most of me.

I mean, not even just the chances I fell to him, but he just knows how to play ball. He just knows how to play ball and you can see his class and you can see his intelligence and his movement and everything. And I just really enjoy watching the play. Yeah, he's a fun player, especially as a Philly fan. I'm a massive union fan for those who don't know. I've got to see him play both live and obviously on TV. And he is just like,

he's such an interesting player because it's not like he's set. Like I've seen him play center mid. I've seen him play winger at times. I think I've seen him play striker for the union. So he's kind of a, he's as versatile players you're going to get basically in the modern day. But he is just, he knows how to play.

I think that's the best definition you can say. And by the way, I think that was a hit on sparkling grape juice because I love sparkling grape juice. I mean, is there anything better than just like if sugar was a drink? Anyways, but it was a beautiful goal. And I think in terms of this one, the way that we kind of hit all the kind of points that you were looking for in a buildup with those checking runs, kind of showing why having that not false nine, but I mean, it's pretty close to a false nine in packs and erranton checking in to support that play. If his involvement isn't there, Luna never gets that ball, Holiday never makes that

run. So his involvement was key in the buildup to the goal that he eventually scored. And this was the really the one moment I can point out for Michael Holliday in the attack that, or Halliday, I think, maybe, kind of making that overlapping run on the right and finding, you know, kind of a pinpoint ball to Clark on the back post that he can choose to do a number of things with. This was, Matt, you can correct me if I wrong, but this was really the moment for Holiday to shine in the attack. Yeah, I don't remember too many other opportunities that he got coming up that right-hand side. It generally was of the two fullbacks, Quabas, making a little bit more space, and then Halliday kind of coming over and combining a little bit more with the two centerbacks.

And great opportunity taken, plays the ball in well, and we see what happens. He has a quality player. And I think that he wasn't always able to show. was attacking stuff in this game, partially because we just didn't get in the attacking third that often. But when we did, he sniffed out this opportunity from a long way, made a long run from the defensive side of the field up to, you know, about probably end up being, you know, 12 yards from the end line when he served the ball.

So definitely some good attacking instincts there. And I made a point here. I was contemplating, including this before this goal. And I decided to afterwards, like, we had done a lot of east-to-west stuff. a lot of passing along the back line. A lot of, even when we got to the midfield, you know, playing within the midfield, not necessarily looking to spring our attackers as much as I would

like to see because when we tried to go north and south, when our movement was structured towards good buildup, but that buildup trying to find, you know, those good progressive passes that, you know, increase our chance of scoring goals. That's when we were at our best, especially with this team. You can say the thing about any team in soccer,

you know, not all teams have, you know, great aides who were able to possess amongst themselves. When we got our attackers involved and when it flowed more and when we were looking to try and play those, you know, more cutting balls, was when we were at our best in this game. And sometimes that's just the way it is. Sometimes it doesn't have to be as beautiful. Sometimes it doesn't have to be super champagne. But when we try to find Sullivan, when Sullivan turned his defender, found Erinson, when Holliday made the bombing run, was when, when, we were at our best. So I pointed that down. Hopefully we can see more of that moving forward, because when we saw it in this game, we were at our most dangerous, especially on the counter

and in this chance, which, you know, it wasn't champagne necessarily, but I'll take sparking grape juice. So this is your call for verticality, I take it. Sure. I think it's all verticality, baby. It's not, you know, bomb it over the top. It's as close as you get. This is like, Vince, we all know you're a. fair with Tim Wea, right? But this is, this is, um, the closest, this is like the Tim Wea speech of mine. Like if we could get someone like that on this team who can combine, but also can look to get vertical. That's kind of my, that's what I'm asking for. Yeah. And you know what? That's a, that's a great point to bring it full circle. Because, because that's, because that's exactly what

Quinn is doing in this, in this match. Yeah. When you check it by it. It's like a lot. Yeah. His explosion. like he checks to the ball and he's gone. Yeah, it was yeah, closest thing to Tim Way that we got in this match. Fast forward four minutes and CoSirica gets a penalty and I did not think it was one. I guess we can quick flash around

Matt, was this a penalty to you? Uh, yeah, I think so. Okay. Forgetting Cockcalfe, I still think. I think it probably is. I think it probably was still,

a foul. Vince, was it a penalty? Yeah, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say no, because it wasn't scored. It wasn't, it wasn't on the score sheet,

a ball don't lie. How about that? Fair enough, fair enough. Yeah, I, I think just the proximity to me was probably what did it. Like, I, it is so tough,

like to play defense, period. And if you have to worry about that now, it's just, it was a little harsh to me. I didn't think it was a penalty, but, you know, it's fine. Because they take the penalty. It's Aguilera all the way. He had the ball in his hands, basically since they won the penalty.

Brendan Craig tries to do a little thing with the referee, maybe trying to channel Kellan Acosta. He has to learn a few lessons on that, but, you know, whatever. And Aguilera steps up and sends it well over the bar. This thing was not particularly close to even catching the crossbar. I think Brady went right. It wouldn't have mattered because he put it straight down the middle and straight in the stands. Vince, I don't think we need the hate, but it wasn't the best of penalties.

It could have been a better penalty. It could have. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I mean, I mean, it definitely should have. If you're a, you know, big, big, big, big, big senior team cap fella, you know what I'm saying? You would think that the moment wouldn't be too big for you. But, you know, it is what it is. You know, not everybody's made for these pressure pack situations.

I mean, I guess the U.S. just wanted to go to the U-20 World Cup a little more. No, but I mean, no, Aguilera, he's a quality player. This was not the best moment, but I think he'll be fine. you know off the penalty um i said uh you know paxton channels his inner geo reina um if we remember that walkie clip georina running over to the um player or the hinder and who had flopped in the nation's league last year this was adjacent from paxton is that he he went into the face of i forget if it was aguilera or i think he was just you know talking from a distance and then two two costericans come he takes them on one v two he is the big brother

while being the little brother of the little brother. I don't know how you can swear that, but that's Paxson-Earinson in a nutshell. And I love it. He is... It's got fight. You got to take it. He's got a fire.

And if you watch him for the union, it's... It wasn't as pure as this, but it's pretty pure. He's definitely got that georina-esque fire inside of him. And I'll take that all the way. This is when we see our first subs around the 56 minutes,

a few minutes after the penalty. Edelman comes in for Pookstos. It wasn't a nightmare from Pookstos, but it wasn't amazing in possession. And unfortunately for him, that's where the U.S. was playing most of this game trying to play out of the back. And so he got exposed a few times.

He was running a one-man ship. He basically didn't get any support from the center of midfielder's in possession. But, yeah, he was a little sloppy and led to some pretty dangerous opportunities from Costa Rica that we're going to have to cut out moving forward. But yeah, Edelman coming in as our first sub.

And by the way, this starts a period, maybe not to the end of the game, but there was about a 10 minute area. Yeah, yeah. It was about to the end the game. It was 10 minute period, then a little flurry of action, then basically a 20 minute period. So there was a good 30 minutes

in there towards the end of the game that basically nothing happened. Next thing I mentioned is at 62 minutes. Luna comes off, McGlynn comes on. Sullivan comes off cow comes on, I guess, just to, you know, maybe see if we could provide a little something, you know, different in the attack. The Solovit, I think, did have a pretty good game for getting, like, the two missed chances,

but, yeah, in terms of build up, in terms of chance of creation, he was basically as good as got for the U.S. tonight. Diego Luna was not himself in the way that we had seen him be himself of the Nicaragua game and in the Canada game, but, you know, you have a bad performance in there for once and a while it happens. And I think, go ahead, Vince. Oh, just wanted to make the note that Quinn was on the yellow. Yes.

So that's probably why it was time for him to come out. You know, after Paxson had already screamed in a man's face. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? It was just like, yo, Quinn, Quinn, you need going to come off. We need you for whoever the next opponent is. Yeah. No, I agree.

But that's a good point. I completely forgot about the yellow, because it was kind of like, hidden because I'm not sure what he did to deserve it, but I'm, whatever. He comes off. Cowell comes on. Cowell actually didn't play, you know, he didn't play terrible at all. I think he had some positive moments toward the end of the game. But, I mean, as positive as it gets when the team maybe has max one or two chances for, you know, the last half hour of a game.

But I guess we'll get into that. And he kind of had the, the ultimate, or I guess the penultimate moment of this game. I, because, yeah. Anyways, I think this is my moment to wax a little preretic on Jack McGlynn. I was, I wasn't iffy on McGlynn, but he was, what, 17 years old last year, 18 years old for the union. And so he was fine, you know, basically throughout the summer when he started to make his first team appearances in the fall, even when he threw up the ice in the veins in the playoffs, you know, it was good, but he just happy. He was subbed on, so he took the penalty. It was a good penalty.

but I was at the Eastern Conference final last year for the union and I will be the first to admit and people all over have said this that it's the strength, it's the physicality, it's at times the endurance to play the full 90th with McGlynn. But when he has time on the ball, he can pick a pass.

I haven't seen anybody on the union period. I'm talking, you know, even the first team players, you know, the starters because it was a COVID situation and that's why he ended up starting the Eastern Conference final but he came in and he was picking passes left and right and I was so I was so impressed and I think people have seen a little bit of it with the U-20s but I if he can develop those physical traits he's his passing and kind of that raw ability is so there with Jack McGlynn so I just want to have my little piece on McGlynn because I think he is he could be

something really special. In this one, he never got that opportunity because we never really got the ball because this was part of that, you know, basically 30 minutes of nothing. Really the only really two excited, excitable moments happened toward the end of this one. And one of those was at the 67th minute when falling a called foul, not an actual foul, Matt, you say. Aguilera, once again, serves an excellent ball to the back post. It was headed by Rodriguez, he came on at halftime,

you know, onto, I think it was the right post, but it was higher up the post. Brady could only wash. It almost kind of happened in slow motion. Like, it was one of those ones, but it was a brilliant ball, a really nice header. It didn't go in. Again, the U.S. getting a little lucky with those chances.

But it stayed 2-0. And that was really the low moment of excitement to break up a little bit of monotony. Matt, do you – I know it wasn't a foul, but I guess, you know, as it's been said, and, you know, ball don't lie. So it stayed 2-0. Yeah. On this one, we need to get a little bit better pressure on one of those big swinging balls coming in. we should have done a little bit more defensively, but there's not that you could say too much for Brady.

He couldn't have done anything in that instance. And if it was four inches to the, I think it was right, it would be in. Yeah. But alas, here we are. Yeah. It's still two-nil. And I think from this point on,

they kind of had that point of pressure, but then on 72 minutes after nothing happened and for like the five minutes in between that, Aguilera goes. I basically all of their dangerous moments and certainly those set piece moments that we touched on were through his brilliant delivery. You know, and I think when he left, for me that was kind of the sigh of relief that

it wasn't the perfect game. It wasn't the game that we wanted coming into the game, but we were going to walk away with the win because like he was their point of danger, he was their senior team player in a sense, and he's gone. And the game kind of followed suit because, you know, Costa Rica had the possession of this point.

They weren't really pushing the tempo that much. It was kind of confused me a little bit because you need two goals and passing it around the back 60 yards from goal isn't going to do it for you. But I guess I will take that. We never got the ball for the most part from about, you know, that 70th minute to, I don't even know, like probably around the next. 90th minute. They passed around the back.

Edelman won a yellow at this point. Rodriguez was the recipient. We kind of just took a little time off the clocks, which is, you know, it is what it is. Basically, all of their danger from this point forward came off, you know, just quick attack, you know, looking just for quick action. They weren't able to build into anything. This was one of those moments.

The U.S. turned the ball over. defensively, again, Alcoceris, there's the ball in Rodriguez, who, and I think the announcer touched on this in the broadcast pretty well. He just shoots it right into Brady's chest. He didn't move his arms, basically, at all. It just kind of went right into his midriff, and they don't score. It was another good opportunity kind of coming out of seemingly nothing. And this was really the lone moment, or maybe one more moment in this game where, you know, the U.S. had been sitting defensively really ever since that header off the post and they really tested us here this was really that only moment of that happening Vince I don't I there's not much to talk about

this chance because it just was so bang bang but um I guess still kind of lucky that it's two no because this easily could have been a goal yeah it could have been but I don't know by this point I kind of like man it just wasn't it wasn't much going on man but yeah we had a few nervy moments but

yeah I mean we dealt with it this might be the time to bring up the fact that we probably need to start developing the ability to retain the ball just pass it around the back competently so that we can really kill out a game

on our terms I would love to see that be a little bit more developed because I really don't want to keep on seeing us turn the ball away or over 30 yards from our goal that's that's that's something we need to work on yeah we're like that to be a tad better to tell you the truth um but you know it's fine uh you know on the 83 third minute we did have a little bit of entertainment as we go from stretcher children last year to now construction workers running the uh stretcher this year a little interesting choice in the tire not 100% how i feel about that i think was 81 um degrees

in uh san patro sila at that point so yeah i don't I don't know why we need construction workers, but here we are. A little later, you know, they had a quick chance, quick breakaway. Neil made us slid it out very well. That would have been a danger moment if they gotten past him, but he was good. Basically nothing until the deep and new stoppage time when Cowell, you know, takes it right off the foot of a Costa Rican defender. This is really their moment to be sloppy in possession came when the result was very

much decided at this point. Defender never even looked over his shoulder. Cowell drives cuts along the 18. He lost the ball, but it gets called back for a free kick. You know, not much to talk about. Free kick, I think got blocked by the wall, maybe an easy save. Ball comes out, and that is full time. And that was about when I was going to turn it off, wrap it up, you know, finish my notes. And then stuff goes down, Matt. You want to touch on that? Yeah. So one of the Costa Rican players makes a, gosh, had to have been a 30-yard sprint.

I believe after, I thought it was Aronson at first. And it breaks down into an absolute scrum. Really just the worst side of the game. We definitely saw fists and kicks. Not great. No, no, no. This is where you're wrong, sir. Oh, dear.

This is the entertainment, okay? Oh, fair, fair, fair. No, no, okay. So, so I got, I got this pulled up right now. I was approved with this a little bit. You know what I'm saying? This is a type of situation where I come alive. All right, so here we are, you know.

So, number one, it's Cade Cowell, who's, he's kind of the instigator. Because if you look off to the, if you have the video, you look off to the left of your screen, Kay Cowell has his hands up. You can't really decipher what type of, what type of motion he's doing, but I think it's kind of like a, but I think it's kind of like a bring it on type of thing. Oh, joy.

And, you know, so it gets brought. Kaye Cal, fully turning into the Disney Channel original movie villain that he is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. He looks exactly like, you know, Looks like a bad guy from Brink. So I was going to say goofy movie. I ain't going to lie to you.

Also good. But, so he's waving somebody in, and they all come. And, you know, which, to be honest,

Kay Cow's performance, yeah, I'm going to say, it wasn't that great. And so for him to be taunting after, you know, doing, you know,

not a lot. But it was, I mean, you know, it is what it is. I'm not the type of guy that's going to tell somebody to, you know, you're better than that. Because, you know, you know, we all have our breaking points. You know, we don't know what was happening during the game. And I forgot what happened, but there was a Costa Rican, there was a Costa Rican that was like staring down Paxson and like following him. Like in like the 80th minute. Do you all remember that?

No, I don't. Where he like, he kind of like walked up on him and Paxon was like trying to. walk away to like getting position for the play to start and bro was just like following him like he was really like going to swing or something but anyway tensions they were they were they were escalating to the point to where you know we reached a point and no return um uh so i love chris brady just sitting on the ground taking just sitting on the ground taking it all in he's like man these people are crazy you need it like a ham sandwich or something a picnic blanket honestly

Yeah, yeah, some orange slices or something. He needed some electrolytes. He was done out there. Yeah, no, he looked gas, but he looked, he didn't even have a smile. He was just kind of like, okay, like this is happening in front of me, whatever, which is, I mean, that is one way to do it. Another way, you know, we've kind of experienced Cowell, the instigator, Brady, the observer, Antonio Carrera getting roundhouse kicked completely out of nowhere. Like, what was that?

I felt proud for him. I saw his dad was tweeting on Twitter. Like, afterwards, he's like, who's his number eight? who like he just comes up and just like he wasn't even doing anything this is like pure i guess this is conca cap but it did like resolve fairly quickly then which was i mean good to see i guess i mean because at least in terms of us moving forward we don't need any of this we don't need suspensions i want k kakow like i want katen clark yeah kate and clark was going at them after the words too like i don't know so so so once uh uh kare kare kare's uh kare you

Rera gets roundhouse kicked. Then we got my favorite Costa Rican player, Santiago Vandaputin, double teaming Daniel Edelman with another Costa Rican player. Panamonium has broken out. We got, so I think Cade Cow hit somebody,

and then, yeah, this is definitely Cade Cow. And then he's just running away. Oh, jeez. We got a Costa Rican player trying to grab him by the scruff of his neck. and Cade, you know, he has the fresh legs. He gets away, you know, but, but, but then it kind of, it kind of breaks down from there. But yeah.

Often we see. For me, yeah, go ahead. Oh, just, just for me, this is, this is pure entertainment. I don't think we're going to get, this is conchalf. We're not getting any suspensions out of this. I don't think. I mean, but, there wasn't great video footage to be fair about it. Like, unless you have some camera that saw the entire field the entire time, like,

you're not going to be able to tell much. I know this is when you come alive, Vince. I think, like, when I was watching this, like, you can kind of tell a scrum by how serious it is, by, like, first of all, the limbs, if you see the limbs going, like, the legs and the feet, you know it's real. And there were legitimate hands being thrown in this, too.

But, like, you also know, like, if it's super tight, like, you know that they're not really for real, like, if they're all, like, basically, like, hugging the entire time. But this was, like, spread out. It was, like, like, anybody in, math you know about the range like the max minus the men i think the range was like 40 yards on this like you had people going at it with the entire like center of the field yeah yeah you you had your individual fight cells yeah popping up and all throughout the field yes yes all the while

chris brady sitting on his goal line just taking it in beautiful night and hundreds now i i think this this was like we didn't get too much excitement so this was the only thing that made me walk away from the game, not smiling, because you know, like, you don't like fighting, like, in, like, I know you do, Vince, but like, I know, like, technically, you don't, nobody's supposed to like fighting, but in terms of, like, entertainment value, this game didn't really deliver, so at least we had a little bit to, like, hang her hat on as we finish this one up. I think that was the only positive you could take away from this. Yeah, that's it.

And then, uh, I just checked. Looks like Honduras, uh, pulled it out against Panama. a 2-1. So. I mean, if they're going to have a home crowd, that's going to be something to deal with. If you guys remember,

that was the game, we lost, was it 2-1 Honduras, trying to make him the 2020-slash-2020 Olympics. So we need the revenge. I think Jackson Yule will score in that game. That was, yeah,

that was that game. Yeah, so, hey, we need a little revenge, a little revenge for our past U-20. that is very, very necessary here because it's been two straight Olympics since we have, or yet two, eight years, two Olympics, and we haven't been in.

And so I think for this team, this is a good chance to, we want to be in everything. Olympics aren't as big as the World Cup, but I would love to be in both. So here is kind of that opportunity to make that happen. So. Yeah, because, yeah, go ahead. So, so you know when I,

get hit up when people hit my phone it's it's when we miss tournaments like the olympics like people are like oh god vince i mean uh like i told you we still suck blah blah blah and i'm like man you know and you try to get in the minutia like guys the olympics is a u23 tournament most of the clubs don't even release the best players blah blah blah and and by the time you're doing all that you've already lost you've already lost you've already lost okay it is so real let's just make the let's just make the olympics we don't got to worry about any of that no you know you you're so real. Like you've already lost the battle

when you have to go into the nitty-gritty. Like you have three players over the age of 23 that can participate. No one cares. They care that you're not like the other big world showcase soccer tournament. That's what matters. So Vince,

we kind of got your final thoughts in that game and that fight. Matt, your final thoughts? We saw some of the of the limitations for this team, but I'm still pretty positive. really need more from those from those wide attackers but I think that we'll start to see more

I think that we have a solid chance going up against Honduras and please play Quavas on the left he is so much better in the in his natural position or on the right rather excuse me thank you that would make things a heck of a lot better yeah it's a little bit smoother and obviously work out some of those deficiencies. That can also be due to the fact that these guys are 17, 18, and 19 years old. Like, let's give them a little bit of slack. They have their entire careers

ahead of them. But the US beats Costa Rica 2-0. And we're going to do 20-work up. For the people that don't know Joey, he is in the age range that he's talking about giving slack to. It just could be slightly self-serving on my part, but

cut us all. some slack. We all need it. No, but I think these 17, 18, and 19 year olds are slightly more advanced in terms of their, I guess in terms of their outlook for the rest of their lives than I am, I think. But hey, they're doing good things for the nation, so that's all I can say. But now, thank you guys so, so much for joining me. To recap, the U.S. is win over Costa Rica. will be back. I think the next game that the U.S. plays is July 1st. I could be wrong about that.

So that's the semifinal. If we win that game versus Honduras, Vince did out there, we should. And we probably should, but they're the home team, so we'll see. The win in the semifinal would put us into the Olympics, and then all would be left is just, you know, collecting the trophy at the end of all of it. So, yeah, guys, thanks so much for joining me. Staying up late with me to recap this game. I will be back for the semifinal. We'll see who joins me, but I do appreciate, you know, getting this chance to come on scuffed

and, you know, share our soccer knowledge with the world. And if you're wondering where Matt and I came from, just quickly, we do run a podcast called MLS Benched. It is a weekly MLS podcast. So it's, you know, MLS and then the word benched. That's our Twitter handle at MLS Benched. And then Apple, Spotify, the whole thing, wherever you can find your podcast. if you would drop us a list and a download, that would mean a ton,

because we just love doing it just for the fun of it. We don't make money. We just enjoy it. We just like to talk. That would be pretty awesome. Yeah, we'd just like to talk. Just some nerd talking about MLS. But yeah, guys, thanks so much for joining me.

Until next time, we'll see you.