Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #294: We're going to the Olympics! (U20s v Honduras recap)

Episode Date: July 2, 2022

Joey O and Matt Hartman recap the U20s' historic win to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. All hail Mikey Varas, and the Philadelphia Union, and Alejandro Alvarado. Quick note from Belz at the beginning of the episode.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. Hey, this is Bells. I'm on a long planned trip with my wife. We're out of the country. We're with some old friends, helping them connect with some other old friends. It's been very meaningful and fun. And there's just no way I could recap the game last night. But I just want to say,

Mikey Varus for president. much, much appreciation to young Joey and Matt Hartman, a long-time friend of the pod for doing this, for helping me by taking on the responsibility to do these recaps. I'll be back with the podcast very soon, but in the meanwhile, here's their recap. From last night after the U.S. beat Honduras 3 to 0 in a explosion of champagne football.

and then qualified for the Olympics. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the SCuff podcast rolling coverage of the Concaf U-Caf U-20 championships. We are here to recap the U.S.'s semi-final match versus the host nation Honduras. If you haven't been paying attention, the U.S. has already qualified for the U-20 World Cup coming to this match, all four semifinalists qualified. The two finalists would be qualified for the Olympics and obviously the champion at the end of the tournament.

So this being the 70 final match, this was essentially the Olympic qualification match. And I'm happy to report that the U.S. got the job done. A pretty, pretty decisive three-no victory. I am here with Matt Hartman, who you have heard if you've been listening, especially at the beginning of the coverage, the pre, even before the tournament he had been on talking about this team. So Matt, how's it going? And hey, I mean, I'll take the Olympics. Yeah, it's going great.

nice to be on a pod with you. How could I be anything but good, right? First time qualifying for the Olympics in a very long time since the Obama administration, right? It's like that old joke. Like the last time blah, blah, blah, happened, Obama was in office. Literally the last time the U.S. qualified for the Olympics.

The Obama administration was in office. And, man, it does feel good to be back because, you know, I guess we'll maybe just touch on this quickly now. You know, people will often say that the Olympics isn't, you know, a big thing because it is in many respects a U-23 tournament, but it possesses some significance, especially for a country for the U.S. that, you know, has missed out on the Olympics, has missed out on the World Cup. It is good to at least get that validation that we're back on the global stage, even if it is mostly a youth setup, wouldn't you say? Oh, yeah, for sure. I've questioned

whether, like, with bells, whether the Olympics is as big qualifying for the Olympics is as big a thing as maybe the national team Twitter makes it seem. But for no other reason, it's clear that the players care about it. And having another tournament where we get to see our guys play is a great thing. So I'm excited that we qualify, definitely. Of course. In many respects, like a lot of things in the USM&T sphere, it's a narrative thing. But hey, it's never a bad thing to qualify for a major international tournament.

So 100% take the Olympics. So listeners, if you have been. And, you know, engaged in the past with scuff, you will know that we hit the timeline hard. Every major event, we cover it and kind of just discuss the flow of the game. I'll first, you know, briefly hit on the lineups for the U.S. A few changes from the quarterfinal victory. Three, basically all straight swaps. I'll read the U.S. lineup first.

We have Brady and Net. That's been the case, basically, the entire tournament. Quavos on the left, Brandon Craig. And for Crankus, back in the side, in the center, Michael Holliday on the right, Daniel Edelman in the holding midfield position, Alejandro Alvarado, Jack McGlynn as the eighth. And up top, Caden Clark on the left, Paxton Aronson again at the nine and Quinn Sullivan on the right. So Matt, I guess I'll just start by saying those three changes, kind of those straight swaps. What do you think on those? and also you can kind of just roll into all four of the union guys starting,

most namely, you know, McGlynn being that change from the quarterfinal. Yeah, I mean, I think that the lineup made a lot of sense. I think the changes make some sense. I think the midfield in particular makes a lot of sense. I'm less on board with the backline. I think that our best back line for, our best back four probably includes Noah Allen and Jalen Neal. And if you start those guys, you get the added benefit of having,

Maricio Cuevas in his more natural position on the right side. If you start Noah Allen instead of Michael Holiday. But overall, I like the team. Front three is basically forced because of the Cade Cowell suspension. And Nico Securius and Tyler Rolf are good players, but don't necessarily have the experience against a team like Honduras that the guys with more MLS minutes do. So I think I like the lineup.

like having all of the union guys in there, would have made a couple of small changes on the backline, but really happy with it overall. Yeah, I will 100%, you know, I'll sit up front. I'm a union fan, so I love that. But I was going to touch on the backline then in the second because that kind of rolls into the only thing I really wanted to, you know,

talk about in terms of like broader picture with the U.S. lineup, especially as it relates to last game. Obviously for Grannison there, you know, solid player, but, you know, looking at that, with Jalen Neil. You know, Neil performed pretty well last game, had a few iffy moments in possession, but it was pretty solid throughout the course of the game. The real issue, though, is Quavos on the left, who had been, you know, taken advantage

of, especially in the beginning of last game, getting played in behind, looking a little lost. Like, he's a right back playing on the left side, you know, that's going to happen. But why did you think that Mikey went back to this, especially when, you know, a lot of thought that Noah Allen, there must have been something wrong or something up, but then he comes in in the second half. So do you think that Mikey is looking at something specific there, or do you think it's just, you know, he felt comfortable with this? Yeah, I'm not really sure to be honest. I think that like Kovas on the field is a no-brainer, right? So then it comes down to

Noah Allen or Michael Holiday. And I think against the team like Honduras, he might have been thinking that holidays size and athleticism may make a little bit of sense. especially since Honduras went a little big with their lineup up front. But maybe like something that we don't know about, small injury, tired legs played into it. But yeah, not not super sure why Farras went this way. Yeah, especially because, you know, Allen seemed to have been doing well, you know,

for most of the tournament didn't seem to be anything. And then he was out last game. And then this one too. Thankfully, he seems to be okay and came. in the second half and, you know, hopefully he'll be good for the final if, you know, Mikey chooses to go back to that, Alan on the left, Quavos on the right. That's basically for the U.S. lineup, but, you know, you are the expert, Matt, so I guess I'll throw it to you for the Honduras lineup. They were forced, by the way, later in the first half to change it up,

kind of, but, you know, what did they start out with? You know, I'll just kind of throw out to you for that one. Sure. They did a lot of, like, emergency defending even early on, so it was kind of hard to get an exact sense of the shape. I think they came out in a 4-4-2, and I'm going to try my best to read off these Honduras player names. In goal, it was Yergen Garcia. Across the back line, it was Jason Contreras, Aaron Zuniga,

Yermie Rodas, Javier Ariga. The midfield line was Miguel Carrasco, Tomas Sarto, Edson Rocha, and Odin Ramos, with Exxon Arzu and Maricio Aquinto up top. That's only one change from the lineup that they played against Panama, and that change is that they brought Arzu in

for another player, and Arzu was like the big number nine in this game, and the player that he came in for was more of like a small, shifty attacking mid. So I think that points to them the way that Honduras wanted the game, to go where they kind of viewed this as more of a they'll sit kind of deep and then play it to their big their like two-man partnership up top who could hold up the ball a little bit

and then wait for the rest of the team to get forward maybe hit us on the counter but it very much did not play out that way yeah uh not at all and we'll get into that in just a minute um just for those who don't know i know that you've been watching a good bit of honduras especially in this tournament you know what what's their kind of playmaker you know like who are they looking to really orchestrate any moments in attack that they would generally have. Yeah, so basically all of their goals in the tournament, or all the ones that I saw, at least were keyed by Marco Asento, who's basically the, you kind of played like off to the right side in this game.

Up top, though, who he's kind of like a shifty, good with the ball at his feet, just one of like the few guys in this tournament that I saw that, like, had actually had the talent in the, like, Zone 14 area to beat a man and then put a shot on goal. But outside of him, basically all the Honduras, all of their good moments and attack kind of came from, like, your more traditional, like, long ball, get the ball to, off to the wing and put in a cross type of stuff. They definitely aren't playing at the ball. around on the four like we are yeah thanks so much for that and especially um i think the overlying you know theme especially pregame and what we thought you know uh finishing up on last match was the u.s

is the most talented team here they should win these games but it is hard to know with honduras having you know that crowd they look the crowd seemed into it they seemed ready to go even though it was only you know, only in quotes the U-20s. They, how was the U.S. going to adapt to, you know, a true Concaf environment? That was really my concern is if something doesn't go our way, how do we react to adversity? Because, you know,

especially in the group stage, we didn't have much adversity. For the most part, easier games, obviously, besides that Canada game. And we didn't necessarily fare 100% how we wanted to when we were kind of punched in the mouth in that game. Costa Rica, we had, you know, done well, enough with, but this was a game, especially with that home crowd that I wanted to see what was up. And so as we take it into the timeline now, our question was basically answered about two minutes

in. The U.S. jumped in front very, very early in this one. It was 100% the start that we had all dreamed of. It started by Craig, Brandon Craig, are kind of ball playing centerback. He's one of the union guys clipping a ball in. It was off a free kick, kind of next to the Honduran wall. multiple U.S. runners had their men be, you know, basically right from the jump. And, you know, it was Paxson Aronson, getting a light to the ball, poking it beside the keeper.

And, you know, basically, you know, in a blink of an eye, the U.S. were on top. And Matt, I don't know if we could have anticipated a better start than this. Yeah, it certainly wasn't a bad start. Like you kind of mentioned it, but this is Honduras being asleep more than anything. the ball is put into a really good spot but man like a number of guys basically could have scored this goal just because we were on our toes and running from kickoff and Honduras really wasn't really wasn't in the game yet it didn't seem like there's like a number of guys that basically just don't do their job on this play and Aronson totally takes advantage of it and is able to

to poke it nicely past the keeper. Yeah. I have not sure there's much that the keeper could have done at all. He's kind of stuck between, you know, which if he was going to close down a man at all, who do you take? Because there were, again, multiple U.S. guys that if the boss was past, excuse me, slips past Aronson, maybe it's Sullivan. You know, like, there were a multitude of players that could have scored.

But, you know, good calm finish from Aronson, who had the goals last game, has shown in this tournament that he's ready to, you know, if it means being a nine, he can be a nine, he can play the 10, he can play the eight for the union as well. So I love the versatility from him, and he's been finishing at a pretty, pretty good clip in this tournament. Moving on, the U.S., you know, we're on the front foot this entire first half, but it was the U.S. who first got in the referee's book. And it was the player who we had talked about on the last pod, talked about in this pot as, you know, being out of position, like Kwayvoss was, he had gotten caught a few times. And, you know, early in this game, he had got, he got caught out, resulting in the yellow card at

first. He pulled down the Hunter and attacker after getting turned. It's right back playing on the left side, but Matt, I don't, I don't know what else to say, but if we play a different lineup, we probably don't have to get in the situation. I think that's kind of where I'm at personally. Yeah, right. So, I mean, Maricio Quabas, as far as I know, at least in his youth career, doesn't have a ton of experience playing on the left-hand side. He's just kind of forced to do that here because Michael Holiday doesn't play on the left-hand side. So it's kind of a hard thing, right? Because you don't know how much blame to assign him because this isn't his position. He's doing us all a favor by playing it. But this is a bit of a shaky start from him. Like you said, he's. pull down the hinder and a attacker after getting turned down the sideline um and he you know basically just it's a cynical shirt grab to stop the hundering attacker from from breaking free down

the down the wing i appreciate the willingness to take a card to kill the attack but this is the seventh minute and we had our centerbacks behind the ball uh so i just i just questioned whether it was necessary here. And yeah, if there was any worry in the first half, it was about Quabas being on a yellow card this early. And, yeah, I think it's clear that he's just not the same player on the left, that he is on the right. And the number of minutes he's had to play so far in this tournament certainly can help.

Yeah, yeah, he's got to be absolutely exhausted. I wouldn't blame him at this point. He's played, you know, most of the matches. But this was, like I said, you know, the first incident in, I'm not going to say a string, because it really wasn't that bad, but in a few moments of shakiness. But, you know, that came a little bit later. First, 10 minutes in, U.S. wins a free kick on the right side, about 35 yards or so from goal.

Jack McGlynn with his, you know, peach of a left foot, drops a ball, you know, in kind of that sweet spot between like the 6th and the PK mark. Sullivan got up, but not high enough. But it is one of those weird plays where the goalkeeper has to, you know, know, stay planted because if Sullivan redirects it, he has to react. If Sullivan doesn't hit it, he's still got to be able to make the play. He does well enough because Sullivan doesn't touch it, and he manages to get to his right and push it away.

But I think this just continue to show that U.S. was on it from the jump. And for some reason, I don't know what reason I can possibly think of in a soccer sense that Quinn Sullivan should be standing with no one around him, you know, about nine yards from goal to potentially flick home a goal, you know, 10 minutes in. I don't know what, you know, situation that should be put in besides the fact that Honduras just wasn't really awake from the jump, and that showed. Right. Yeah, I basically agree with all that.

It ends up being a great chance at the end. If Sullivan gets anything on this ball, just like any sort of redirect whatsoever, I think the Honduran goalie is in a lot of trouble here. But he does a good job of tracking the flight of the ball. and reacting to it. And I thought that by now we've had a couple of free kicks like this, and it's a bit reminiscent of our summer 2021 games against Mexico, where like every set piece basically looked like was catching the opponent off guard

for like no reason, even though it wasn't. There's nothing special about this delivery or anything. I mean, McGlynn does a great job of delivering it, but it's a really bad angle for a free kick, basically, to put it into a dangerous spot. It's like on the right side, but not far enough on the right side where he, McGlin, was able to whip it in or anything.

It was just kind of a lob to the penalty spot. And yeah, I mean, we be, this just shouldn't happen, you know. So this is another sign of Honduras not coming, not coming to play, basically, early on. And I think if somebody tracks Sullivan there, it not only does that, you know, basically eliminate the threat,

because it wasn't like it was a particularly dangerous ball where Sullivan could attack it. He had to generate all the power, but he definitely had to get something substantial on it to really flick it on, basically back to goal. The issue is like if the keeper, you know, knows that there's a defender there to potentially snuff out that danger, he's not, he doesn't really have to worry and stay planted. But it ends up being a pretty acrobatic save in a situation that really didn't have to be if anybody just, you know, tracks Quinn Sullivan. and I don't know why Honduras wasn't awake. You'd think they would be, you know, full of adrenaline because of that home crowd especially, but apparently not good for us. This is this moment now moving on to the 14th minute is basically the one really bad moment for Kuevas is,

you know, kind of, again, the theme from last game translating to this game. Carrasco wins a battle in about the midfield. He slices through. Nobody really tries to stop him, basically just lay challenges and he easily gets through. He slips to Arzu, who, you know, found some space on the right, but it's wide open because Quavos has stepped way out, but he's not, he's kind of in no man's land. So it's a, you know, easy ball. I could have played that pass to Arzu, and he cuts towards the end line, holds on Quavos,

who's basically just trying to, you know, play catch up at this point, tries to slip it back towards the top of the six, and Craig, thankfully, is there to clear. but you know this is honduras's first real dangerous moment at least um in terms of you know creating uh a dangerous opportunity nobody was there on the end thankfully but man i again it comes back to quavos kind of being way out of position here and thankfully nothing came up nothing came of it but yeah he needs to do better there yeah definitely this is on quivasa maglin mcglin is the one who loses the duel in midfield and then um he can't recover to put any sort of pressure on the Honduran player dribbling forward.

And then Kuevas gets beat far too easily. A better ball into the 18-yard box, and we could have been in trouble. Brandon Craig is positioned pretty well here and manage just to clip the ball out of bounds with his trailing leg. And this was the first real Honduras chance of the first half, and I think in the end it would end up being the best Honduras.

his chance of the first half. Yeah, I am interested in, like, why do you think on this specific chance that Kuevos got so high, do you think it was just, like, not knowing whether to step to that defender or not, or do you think it was, you know, just kind of, like, lost in space? Yeah, basically, he steps to the defender late, right? And then after that happens, he just doesn't get back behind the play. I think it's just a attention thing. He's just, you know, another thing where it's like,

He's trying to limit his running somewhat, thinking that the central players might have this handled here or just, you know, another moment of him not, you know, field looks very different from that left-hand side than it does from that right-hand side. So, yeah, not a thing I think he would do, he would do from that on the right. But, yeah, it's a moment where, you know, this ball goes, this ball, there's a slightly better delivery. you know there's like three basically three hondoran players kind of free at the top of the box here crashing and uh it could have been one one in a very different game and it's it's really a simple hondoran move in the end but won't get too caught up on this because this is just like you know it's a moment these things happen yeah obviously not completely on kuevas there were stuff that happened in the midfield like minglingling losing the duel obviously leads up to that and puts

Quasas, excuse me, in a bad situation, but at the end of the day, like, got to do better. You know, thankfully, nothing came of it. And it would have been a much different game, I think, if they score that. But, you know, because it's not, U.S. few minutes later, 21st minute, give or take, they work the ball around the back. And this is really where you start to see the U.S. 8s shining is McGlynn takes the ball. He looks to go forward. He finds Alvarado. So Alvarado on the half turn is like, I'm not going to comp him to Mousa on the half turn,

but like he is that level of dangerous when he gets the ball with space and, you know, starting to drive forward. He hits Clark. Clark lays it off to Aronson, kind of top of the box. He swings it wide to Quavos. Now Quavos, thankfully, has tons of space. And at least from an attacking sense, he delivers the perfect ball to Alvarado, who continued his run.

and it's kind of an awkward finish in the end. He kind of like side-foots it into the keeper. A shaky moment, I think, from the Honduran keeper on this one. He lets it kind of go right through him. It finds its way over the line somehow. You can see even Alvarado was surprised when he saw it go over. He thought that that thing was saved. But US will take it.

They're up 2-0, continuing that rapid start and, you know, not really looking back. Right. Yeah. I mean, this is what you can't really say, much here other than it's just terrific team soccer. You can absolutely call the defending from Honduras into question at various points in the move, but this will be the first time in the Honduran kids' careers that they've faced a team capable of playing soccer like this. It's just high-level stuff all the way around, and the Alvarado Twitch reaction flick to put

the ball on target is just the cherry on top. And man, you can't really say enough about like Alvarado not a player that I knew a ton about going in. I haven't seen him play. He hasn't been in the U.S. for a little while now, so I didn't really know what to expect going in. And if there's anything different about him on the half turn than the newness Mooseitz, that he's much better at getting his eyes upfield immediately after taking that turn and looking for a teammate. And he would continue to do that to great effect multiple points in this game, even though he's not, he's clearly not the the athletic dribbler that Eunice is. Yeah, for those who would, you know, slay us for talking about, you know, moose in the same breath as Alvarado. Moose is obviously a great player. He's, he's, you know, a senior player for a reason.

But, you know, Alvarado, and the danger that he can create is at something special. And you can tell it now, even just at this level, he's been dominating throughout the tournament because of his ability to create real good progressive action from, you know, just simple turns and stuff. and he makes it look so pretty. I think this was, you know, Kuevas's bright spot, if you will, of the first half,

because not a ton of defending to do, got cut out a few times, but at least on this one. And maybe you, Matt, can speak to his kind of attacking credential, but the ball was, you know, basically picture perfect and put it in the spot where it needed to be for Alvarado to, you know, clean up. Yeah, I mean, like, Kuevas' calling card from when he was a young player was. that he's a fantastic crosser of the ball. And apparently he's a fantastic

crosser of the ball from the left side even as, you know, not his natural crossing foot. But yeah, he's just one of those guys where we have great fullbacks for the national team, right? But not necessarily great crossing fullbacks in Anthony Robinson and Sergenio Dest.

And I think that if you're looking for a way in a guy, like Marisa Quivas is a little refreshing. It's that he can certainly deliver a ball. And this is a prime example. Yeah, this was a dime. And, you know, it created, you know, even though Alvarado had to take it kind of weirdly, kind of like a Twitch, like you said, it made it easy enough and it made the keeper kind of,

I don't know, scared enough. I don't even know what it was because I don't know how that ball gets through, but it does and the U.S. is up two-nill. I do want to point out that Alvarado, like, he had been creating. so much in this tournament, hadn't really gotten this chance in front of goal in any big game up to this point, and he took it now, which is, you know, exciting to see for a player who's, you know, done so much for this team, but he finally is able to, you know, get his name in the lights. Very shortly after, about 23rd minute, Honduras is looking sloppy at the back,

the Honduras keeper. It's a pass, like, right to Quinn Sullivan, like just telegraphs the ball right to his right foot. Paxson Aronson is pretty wide open. All Sullivan has to do is just slip him in, and it's one-on-one for 3-0 at this point for the U.S. He like cuts right outside of like the goal frame and hits a shot like a few rows deep. I'm not 100% sure what he saw. Matt, can you help me out with this one? Because it seems like they should be on the same wavelength, but they most certainly were not on this one.

Yeah, I mean, like this is just. to Quinn Sullivan wanting to get on the score sheet. Basically, there's no, there's no explaining this one from a, this, like, they're cutting outside onto your right foot there. Cutting onto the right isn't, that's not, definitely not an improvement on XG from having Aronson basically standing at the top of the 18-yard box for you to receive the pass. this is the type of situation where the score was zero zero at this point we'd probably be killing quinn Sullivan for it especially if like the game made it to

zero zero to half time but you know this is just one of those things that some attackers are gonna goal scorers are going to do weird things occasionally and this is a moment from from queen of that where he's he's fully capable of scoring from where he took the shot um it's just you know you absolutely absolutely got to pass it to the higher um higher yield uh shooting position there yeah yeah i mean arinson was he he would have been in at that point it would have been a one-on-one um definitely trying to get his name on the score sheet it was one of those where because i was like i don't know riding off the high i think of that goal uh just a few minutes earlier it was one of those just like

come on quinn and you chuckle and you move on but if that had meant something boy i would be mad right now um and arinson certainly was you could see him just kind of like doing in that gesture kind of like just pass me the ball um but hey it's it you know all as well that ends well uh a few minutes later um i think i'll just you'll do the floor even though i kind of went on my little mcglin thing and in the last pod man he is such a player if you give him time and space you can pick out any pass on the field and he did it here yeah so by this point in the game like around a 30th minute um we're basically in full control um can't really in a timeline uh mention every three, four pass combination. That is beautiful, but we had a ton of them in

this like 15 minute period around here. And McGlynn's ability to consistently put the ball right on his teammates' foot is just incredible to watch. It's unmatched like not only in this team, but maybe in the history of the U20 program. And it was by no mean a perfect game for him today. but with somebody that is somewhat limited in an aspect of the game like McLean is it's it's games like this that show you like man he's basically got to be you do whatever you can to get him on on the field because what he what he can offer you in possession is just incredible and I'm just so much higher on him now than I was heading into the tournament I still have those questions about his transition to the professional game,

but just an absolute showing from him in the first half today. Yeah, and I guess we kind of had our moment on Alvarado. This will be our moment on McGlynn. He's not the perfect player. He has those athletic deficiencies that everybody's talked about. That's known at this point. And that's going to stop him from having a perfect game most of these, most times, because if you're playing teams that are big, strong athletic,

he still has to develop that side of the game. And again, he's young. He'll get there, I think. But, you know, it's one of those things where if he continues to, you know, show that he can pass the ball at such an elite level and can dictate a game if given the time, he'll be as successful as any eight can be at this youth level because Honduras wasn't on him most of the time.

and that's when he was able to produce the magic like we saw here and some of our most flowing moments came through him if he's able to develop that athletic side boy watch out because I haven't seen a player period who can pass the ball like him at such a young age for a long time in the U.S. kind of system so I'm super excited to see what he can do and I'm glad that he had the game in the tournament up to this point that we can kind of point that out and be optimistic.

A few minutes later. So McGlynn and Alvarado having a great game to this point, right? A guy not having a great game to this point, the Honduran goalkeeper, right? Because it's him again in the 33rd minute. Yeah, it's, it's him again. He plays it this time right to Craig. And Craig is able to spring along U.S. attack. US was deep in the Honduran zone because of a free kick.

Goalkeeper gets the ball. literally telegraphs a deep ball just to, you know, to Craig, where Craig's easily able to, you know, pick his head up, find Alvarado in a ton of space. He lays it off to Aronson. And then Alvarado, or sorry, Aronson finds Alvarado again. Alvarado kind of plays it into like a kind of like wide channel on the edge of the 18. Clark with a beautiful flick on our boy Paxon Aronson, who I don't know like what, I don't know if it was deflected off of the soul of it.

but he kind of hits a ball low. It gets saved somehow. There's a melee. The ball is like bouncing around. It heads towards goal and a Honduran defender kind of just bicycles it off the line. This was, you know, another big chance for the United States that kind of went wasting. But Matt, again, just some brilliant possession leading up to that. Right.

Yeah. I mean, this is just crazy good combination play down our left wing. like you said ball found its way to alvarado after like kind of extended possession the kating clark flick to pax and arinson was tremendous and it you know kind of ends in that in a scramble around the six yard box that eventually gets cleared by that uh bicycle kick but it's only 30 seconds later that alvarado finds the ball in midfield again and drives to the top of the box he tries to play the ball centrally to quin sullivan but it gets deflected by a hundra and defender to paxon araneran

who hits a solid shot from distance that isn't quite placed well enough to beat the goalie but the goalie kind of clumsily parries it back out to his defenders and I think at this point it was pretty clear that Honduras needed to change right I mean absolutely I think that was pretty obvious I mean even after the second goal because it wasn't like there was ever of reaction it was just kind of more of the same U.S. possession U.S. chance, U.S. possession, U.S. chance, into Honduras. Besides that one pass, they got him behind Kovas, they really didn't have anything to speak of in the attacking end. So I think it was pretty clear that they needed a change.

Not 100% the change that you wanted to see that in the 36 minute, you know, due to, you know, an injury he was down. But Castillo comes on for Rocha, and, you know, do you want to kind of just touch on what this meant tactically for the Hondurans? Yeah, sure. So Castillo comes on for Rocha. Rocha's their number six, and Castillo is an attacking midfielder. So, you know, a little bit of an attacking change, which necessitates a formation change. But I think, you know, even pre-injury, this was pretty necessary because Rocha was as culpable on the Honduran's not being able to string passes together as anybody. He was really struggling to play the ball out. of mostly his 18-yard box when he managed to get a hold of it. And yeah, the change for a more defensive midfielder, for a more attacking midfielder is probably a little bit of an admission from the Andoran midfiel manager that he got the lineup wrong because we are basically slicing them up all over the field at this point.

And I think it makes sense for them to do whatever they can to bolster their ability to counterattack. and for the rest of the first half the Honduras falls into a 4-2-3-1 shape Yeah, I think It was clear that they needed something But like also Just that one switch

Clearly wasn't going to be enough Just because like it can ignite a fire It can change the way that you play tactically But it looked like not only just a tactics issue It looked like a Like an energy Just kind of like the US was feeling it At this point in the game

And when a team with the U.S.'s talent feels the game, it's kind of an intangible thing that you have to just see by watching the game. But the U.S. wasn't just ready to, you know, oh, Honduras's different tactics, now we have to play completely differently. They were on fire. And it was clear that they weren't really going to be stopped. Yeah. It kind of looked to me like, like, you know, we score very quickly in the game in the second minute. And it kind of looked to me like Honduras was just like waiting for that moment for, the U.S. to stop the pressure in order to like, you know, truly start imposing themselves and

using their game plan. And it basically just didn't come. The whole first half was just straight domination for the most part. It was just attack after attack after attack. And at this point, it's 2-0. They say that 2-0 is the most dangerous lead in soccer. Like, that's a cliche. But 2-0 can sometimes, maybe it can be the most misrepresented scoreline in soccer. know, at times, you know, two-nil can be two fluky goals, it can be two dominant goals. In this case for the U.S., it was two dominant goals where the U.S. could have scored more. If, you know, again, if Sullivan slips to Aronson, maybe it's three, the U.S. was in control of this game, and two-nill was, it's a respectable score line, but Honduras was really never going to score in the first half,

and the U.S. had all of the ball, at least in, you know, the threatening areas, and looked so much more the dangerous side. So at this point, even though it's only two nil, it looks at the U.S. kind of has this thing on lock. And so as we move into like kind of the last 10 minutes of the first half, I guess we can call this the Danny Edelman show because it starts in the 37th. He's kind of getting pressured from his back. He's kind of going a little back towards the centerbacks, his hip facing the right

sideline around midfield. And he hits one of the more ridiculous. passes I've seen in a long time kind of falling down, kind of stroking a ball to Quinn Sullivan out on the right to really jumpstart the attack. He kind of flicks it over to McGlynn. McGlynn does a little three juggle and then plays Quinn in behind. Quinn cuts the back of the end line. Finds Quavos on the back pose with absolutely no one around him, kind of at his feet, so he has to volley it. And man, love Quavos. He got this one all wrong. It was an attack that could have been a goal, a tough chance, especially XG will tell you that this was a really tough chance

for Cuevas to finish. But, I mean, yet another brilliant attack, this time sparked by Daniel Edelman, who I guess we have to give him his moment too. He really started to ball out around this time of the match. Yeah, Edelman, another player that, like, you know, there are questions about coming in. If you don't watch a whole lot of Red Bull 2, you're not going to be familiar with the type of player he is. And just the way that his tournament has played out so far. He hasn't really gotten the opportunity to really show what he can do, mostly because Rokas Puskas has been playing more of the minutes in this position. But, yeah, no, just a great ball from him. And I think it's a little harsh on Kuevas, because that is definitely a hard,

would have been a super finish if you put the ball in the back of the net. But, yeah, the key moment here is the Edelbin pass. And he certainly got some confidence in it because he played and even more ridiculous ball just a few minutes later, right? Yeah, it was a ridiculous ball. I guess quickly, if we could comp that Kovos chance to kind of anything, it was a little bit like the Luke Shaw in the Euro final. That kind of took a skip, but it was that same kind of like attacking the back post,

have to hit it really clean or else you're going to just, you know, either send it skyward or just scuff it in this one. He just kind of completely missed it. But hey, it was okay because then a couple minutes later, Danny Edom was back at it U.S. kind of had their normal, you know, start in the back, pass around a little bit, but then he

turns up field, which, you know, when the U.S. midfielder is, you know, took that string of backpatch, or not backpassing, but he's possession in the back line, and then really looked up field, it was off and there was acres of space ahead. This was the case.

He has time and space to pick out Caden Clark, making a really good run kind of across the center back. He finds him basically perfectly, just kind of caresses the ball in behind. Clark takes the ball around the keeper, shoots. At this point, it's basically the backtracking right center back or the left center back rather and the left back kind of the only two, I guess, blocks in between Clark and the goal.

Clark shoots. The left center back clears it, but not well enough because the, the ball. ball kind of just hangs then in the six. The left back seems to take his time getting in the ball for Honduras, which gives Quinn Sullivan, you know, ample opportunity to round him and then slot it home from like a yard out. It seemed to me a little bit like the Honduras left back was sleeping on this one, but, you know, for Sullivan, it was still a really good effort play, getting around that, getting around that left back and slotting it home into the wide open net.

good stuff all around from the U.S. Spring, you know, especially from Edelman Spring Clark, but man, you know, the U.S. at this point, 3-0 up and look to be cruising on their way to the Olympics. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think the second half got a little dicey, but like when this ball hit the back of the net, I was thinking game over.

Just, you know, a pinpoint perfect ball from Danny Edelman. Basically couldn't have played it any better. I think, again, you could maybe ask questions about the Honduran centerbacks here a little slow to flip their hips and get behind to challenge Kate and Clark for the ball. But, you know, Clark rounds the keeper gets that good shot off. I'm not even positive that, you know, Quinn Sullivan definitely did a great job to get to the ball before his defender.

I'm not positive that it was even necessary. The ball might have crossed the goal line before either he or the left back could have gotten to it if he reacted a little slower. but again, a tremendous, like, can't draw it up any better piece of team soccer. And by the time the half-time whistle blew, I was questioning whether that was the best half of soccer I've seen are you-20s ever play. Which is saying something, especially, like we said, in the magnitude of this match and the environment that they were in, showing up in, like, in the way that they did was, I mean, you could not have asked for any. anything else. Literally, you could not have asked for a better half of soccer. There were mischances, sure, but those mischances were few and far between, especially if we look at,

you know, some of the group stage games where those mischances were flowing. We look at that, you know, Nicaragua game as well. And this one, they scored probably their three biggest chances for the U.S. defended well enough. The midfield pressing was on point, really not allowing Honduras to produce anything. And basically each of our three midfielder's had their time to shine in different parts of that first half, which was beautiful. I guess for my, you know, just broad first half thoughts, it was possessing for fun. Center mids with plenty of time when they turn to just pick out those passes.

Each of those passes that we talked about becomes a little harder if they have someone, you know, on their back or on their shoulder. that didn't happen. The forwards were looking to get in behind, which was at times a problem in the last match, not a problem at all in this one. And, you know, again, given the stakes, couldn't be happier.

I think it's pretty clear at this point that Honduras needed to change something, Matt. And I guess as we begin the second half, did they come out showing something different to you? Well, they certainly came out, and I think the weather, or not it was said in the Honduran locker room, they certainly came out a lot more aggressive and willing to

to chop down our players, right? Yeah, 100%. It got pretty chippy, pretty early. They were not, they were afraid to, I guess, they weren't doing anything so abrasive, but they weren't scared to stay in a challenge a little longer than it need to be, you know? Right.

Yeah, I mean, like, it didn't really take effect right as, right as the second half started, but by around the 55th minute mark, they were closing down passing lanes by squeezing us into our half with a high line and fouling us on the occasions that we broke through. I don't know. It was a really good tactical change. I think it was necessary, and you yell at players enough for that first half performance. I think this is how they're going to want to come out and play. I kind of question, if they could have played like they did for like that kind of like middle section of the of the second half for the full 90 but um you know it wasn't it didn't take all that long into the second

half where i was starting to feel a little thankful that honduras didn't start to game with these tactics yeah yeah it could have been a different game right because we've seen it before when the senior team goes down to central america where they don't have time to literally do anything because when they get the ball and they break a line, they're going forward. It's immediately, you know, they're pulled down. It's a foul. It's a yellow card. But whatever, because the U.S. doesn't have time to actually make anything happen.

It could have been different. But I think it was clear that they were reverting back to if we're going to win anyway, the U.S. cannot score again. Obviously, if it's a four goal deficit or a three goal deficit later in the game, that's impossible. So we're going to try and create everything we can by throwing numbers forward. And the U.S. isn't going to get him behind. It didn't work to perfection, but it was better for Honduras.

And that showed right off the bat, basically to the second half. Contreras for Honduras gets a ball on the right side. And it's basically just, you know, stabs and late challenges. He easily works his way through the U.S. midfield. That's where I think the U.S. needed to come out of the locker room with a little bit more energy. It seemed like they were just a tad of sleep because he gets through easily when he really shouldn't have. there should be a body in there somewhere. He finds Castillo, you know, 20, 25 yards from the goal, basically, top of the box,

not really anyone on him. Pretty lucky from the U.S. point of view that he kind of just rolls the ball right to Brady. But, hey, I guess crisis averted a sign of things to come, though. Yeah, certainly a sign of things to come for the rest of the game. A couple minutes later, we take off Maricio Quivas for Noah Allen, which I thought was a needed sub. One, because Quayvoss was obviously tired, and two, because, like you said,

it was a very chippy start to the second half, and there was no need to risk a second yellow card since Quayvoss picked up that first one early. Right. Like, I don't, if we run out that Quavos on the left, Holiday on the right in the final, you know, no matter what the formation is, I guess, it's still a good idea to have a player of Quavos's level

and talent in there because he can produce stuff like we saw on that second U.S. goal. But I think smart from Mikey, take him off, bench him, no second yellow, whatever, and we'll just move on because at this point, US is up 3-0 and you really should hold out. Also good to see Alan get some time back in because, again, like we were saying in our perfect world, he probably starts. so if there was any kind of injury bug, anything holding him back, maybe give him a little bit of a chance to get back to fitness. And so I like that sub as well. 54th minute, some more Honduras pressure. Rodas, the centerback picks off one of Craig's long balls.

He drives forward. Again, the problem that we saw a few times is no year aspire really want to get into his way, put in the challenge, basically just waltzed through the midfield, hit the shot wide. but, I mean, he basically single-handedly progressed the ball, I don't know, 40 yards, and that should never happen. US, I don't know, starting to go to sleep just a little bit. Yeah, I mean, this was the beginning of a series of Jack McGlynn being unathletic moments.

A couple, like just before this, he got beaten on the sideline and was left grabbing for air, trying to get a hold of the Honduran players to Jersey who went by him. And then on this one, he basically just got battleshipped in Mishfield by Honduran centerback, who looked very incapable stepping up into Mishfield, we may add. And, yeah, a Chris Brady short goal kick to Danny Edelman right after this, forced Edelman to hold off a couple of pressing Honduran attackers. And, yeah, this series was the first real sign of nerves that we showed in position. session and it was the beginning of a short period of hundar indomance on the ball yeah i mean i'll

say a little easy on my boy jack but this is kind of when you start to see the other side of jack mcglin which is like he's still you know such a young player that he needs to develop physically um he needs to be able to get stronger um obviously danny edelman you know that was a nervy moment he did well in that situation. But this is when as a fan, we start to say, let's make life a little easy for ourselves. Let's try to get out here with, at least if there's going to be any, you know, danger caused in favor of Honduras, let's let's not give them that danger. Let's make them create it themselves because up to that point, they had started to do it a

little bit in the second half, but nothing super threatening up, I guess, yet. So, yeah, not what we wanted to see. I also just put down that I think it was like a throw-in for the U.S. deep in, you know, Honduran territory. A random sprinkler just started going off. I don't know. That was just kind of pure Concord Calf and I loved it. Kind of continuing, you know, we had construction workers last time with the stretcher.

Now we have random sprinklers going off. I somehow missed this. Where on the field was the sprinkler going on? It was like very momentary, but I think it was. It just started going off like in the bottom of the screen. I'll find it and clip it if it really was. but it was kind of, I just laughed. I'm like, huh, that's funny.

In Europe, there would probably be a full-scale investigation. In Conccaf? It just went off and it stopped. Whatever. You know, next minute, U.S. is building out of the back. Brandon Craig once again finds Alejandro Alvarado. Alvarado has signed a turn, but he's being pressured from, you know, the back by a Honduran midfielder.

he's basically hips to his own goal here and hits again one of the more ridiculous passes i've ever seen he kind of like flips his hips as he's hitting the ball but puts it perfectly to pacts and erinson who's running him behind um erinson maybe with a little bit of tired legs doesn't really ever round his defender get you know ever in a real one-on-one situation he flashes a shot just wide of the far post. U.S. showing that they can still cause problems on the counter, maybe a little bit of tired legs, but again, just praise

for Alejandro Alvarado and what he's able to do with the ball of his feet, because I think you can back me up on this one, Matt. Like, that's not a pass that you see every day. No, it certainly isn't. And the Honduran player that's pressing Alvarado in that moment, you know, like he

again quickly, like, kind of reshapes his body to get that pass off. And the Honduran player just like turns to see where the ball went and just immediately hangs his head. It's like, what am I supposed to do in that situation? It's just, you know, a moment of great, brilliant soccer. And I think now's the time to really say, like, the second half hasn't been great from the US to this point. I'd probably say it was a pretty even game.

And we're going to kind of get into a little bit more better Honduran moments right now. but for the change from the first half to the second half in terms of some of our players kind of disappearing from the game, Alvarado wasn't one of those. I think he was clearly our best player over the course of the 90 minutes. And on a team with a lot of guys that have a lot of great traits, he's the one that stands out to me as the most well-rounded pro-ready soccer player. I was going to touch to that because, you know,

first of all, what can you do when he hits that kind of pass? but also what can you do when we're almost an hour into this game hot, humid, you know, the tropics in the summer is no fun place to be if you're playing a soccer game. And yet, you know, the way he was able just to use his endurance, just like, you know, just full out the fact that he could continue to play soccer in those conditions. When other U.S. players, you know, seem to fade. And that's natural. but for him to be able to hit that pass under those conditions, that's where that pro readiness comes in where he can play, you know, 90 in a lot of different circumstances.

That was really professional, a really professional performance overall from him in this game, and this pass was kind of the cherry on top. But, yeah, like you said, this is really where we start to see the U.S. fade in midfield at places in the attack as well. where at this point it was all counters from the U.S. because Honduras had a good bit of possession,

especially if we're talking to the more dangerous possession. It was in favor of the Hondurans. We have a string of a hinder in corners and possession deep in U.S. territory. No clear-cut chances, but this is really, like I said, when they start to assert their dominance. And this is when we start to see the first U.S. subs kind of out of that backline into those mid-few-fews. old workhorse situations. It's Diego Luna for Jack McGlynn, good sub, Tyler Wolfe for Quinn Sullivan,

also good subs. And, you know, what did you see here, Matt, at least in terms of these subs and how the U.S. was wanting to play the last 30? Yeah, so, I mean, super necessary subs, I think. Quinn Sullivan was kind of invisible in the second half, and McGlin was, had clearly faded. Honduras are kind of like flying around the field at this point just making everything uncomfortable just forcing as many 50-50 balls as they can I like the substitutions like this is the type of game that I think Tyler Wolfe excels in

so I like bringing him onto the field and then giving Diego Luna a chance in this sort of game as a guy who can kind of make things happen so I like the substitutions but I wish we were, the game state was a little better for us at this point. Definitely not subs that show that we're backing down out of the game at all to, you know, attacking players for an attacking and kind of a midfield player. So yeah, it was just the last 30 minutes was basically,

we kind of turned into the counterattacking team, at least for a little while here. So yeah, what do you got next on the timeline? Yeah, again, more Hunter and pressure. I think there was the left winger. I think it was Macias, I think. At this stage, I couldn't really see the number. They never really showed a replay, but he gets kind of played in behind,

kind of driving endline, cuts a few times on holiday, and basically creates his own space through those cuts. He fires a shot right at Brady, but this is really when they start to not just be, dangerous in that they have good possession or they're serving balls in the box where they're actually starting to threaten Brady and get shots on net. This wasn't, you know, Holiday's best moment, I guess I'll say. No, not a great moment from Holiday who didn't have a lot of defending to do in the first

half. Rest of the game would see the Honduran attacks coming down our right side. I don't know that that's necessarily because they, They saw something in Holiday in this moment. But, you know, one thing that was on that right-hand side of the field was the, was the Honduran crowd who had kind of worked their way back into the game at this point and were basically willing their attackers forward. Again, I kind of view Holiday as the odd full back out in a full-strength 11,

if we want to play our full-strength 11 in the final game. I think moments like this are the reason why we're holidays, you know, kind of a bigger kid, not necessarily the most agile keeping up with tricky wingers. And he just flat out gets beat here. Yeah. Not his best moment, but, you know, not to discredit from the attacker because the attacker, you know, create his own space, you know, was cutting left and right on him. And, you know, that still shows, I think, at least that,

Honduras was ready to show something in the last half hour. But the U.S. backline has to do better in that position. Thankfully, again, right at Brady. So not much in terms of actual threat at goal. The U.S. was at this point, it's kind of that weird thing where the U.S. was just the better team. So they were bound to have chances. but Honduras was having, you know, most of the obsession, most of the dangerous chances. This was one of those U.S. moments where a U.S. corner got served in, got recycled to the left

touchline. Luna's kind of being pressured by two, but slipped a good ball into Craig. Craig finds Paxton kind of on the top of the 18, who completely scuffs the shot, but it ends up right at Wolf's feet. It was just so bang, bang, that because he's one-on-one with the keeper, but in such tight proximity, I don't know, maybe, I think he was on the 6th and the keeper was maybe three yards from him. It would have been a really, really tough finish on, you know, such quick notice. He puts it the keeper, keeper makes a good save. But, you know, it was another fine moment from the U.S. in the second half.

Aaron's getting a little lucky. Yeah, it was kind of a moment where like we had like 10 of these in the first half and just like didn't mention them because we had better chances. Yeah, this is one of like the few moments where we where we kind of got the ball into the danger zone in the in the, in the, uh, Hunter in like around the penalty spot and just couldn't make anything of it. Yeah. But, you know, Honduras, you know, regains the pressure. Uh, ball gets played to Aronson, you know, coming from, I think it was Brady or Craig. Uh, he gets kind of push in the back. it should be a foul, but referee doesn't call it.

Play goes on. I think it was Macias again, drives forward, goes down to the box, but on replay it was clear. It was simulation all the way. The yellow card would come straight out. No need even for a VAR check. Good call by the referee. Yeah, I mean, with the Paxson thing,

I think this was a case where it was a foul, but Aronson trying to sell it by kind of falling. dramatically kind of did like that half twirl to the ground that soccer players like to do earned him the no call and the on dora player would basically do the same thing a couple seconds later but far less contact referee was right there and love to see the yellow card come out for simulation it's my favorite part of the sport yeah i mean he it was an absolutely a drag leg i mean there's that was textbook um and you know sometimes referees will have the quick point to the spot there especially with the crowd but uh you know it was so clear you almost you couldn't miss it uh more

honduras possession um in the u.s. and then in about the 74th minute or so but u.s. gets the ball back and you know continuing kind of that counter attacking trend that we were talking about they play a long ball in the direction of Tyler wolf down the u.s.'s right side the goalkeeper is what it's one of those moments where the goalkeeper has to come a long way out but he should get there except that he plays it were right into Wolf. The ball rebounds toward the Honduras kind of endline. Wolf gets there first. The keeper's just kind of chasing him down,

almost like, you know, a left back would be chasing down, that right winger in that situation. And he kind of goes through the back of him, but no call, I guess, and I guess danger averted for Honduras. I mean... Yeah, yeah. I mean, just another awkward moment from the goalie here.

like you absolutely the goal first i mean i think the goalie has time to settle the ball and play it to one of his own players but once he doesn't you totally just play that ball out um but no the game state maybe calls for a little bit of try to make stuff happen and he basically but just plays the ball right off taylor wolf's uh tyler wolf's face and uh ends up in a foot race against wolf um to the corner flag for the ball for the ball um and it actually looks like their feet get tanked up to me. I kind of watched it on replay at like quarter speed a couple of times to try to find out what was going on, but it wasn't obvious to me that the goalkeeper pulled him down and the linesman was right there. So I'm assuming it was the correct call, but just another, another weird

moment of Hunter and goalkeeping where, you know, maybe we, maybe if we were up against the goalkeeper from Costa Rica, we might have, this game might have been a little closer or certainly a little less strange. Man, yeah, I mean, first of all, that goal goal, that Costa Rica more, he was insane. But yeah, I agree that this was, this was just another strange moment. Like, this shouldn't happen, but I, even if they're feet get tangled there, generally, like, at least because, you know, the goalkeeper's on his heels, clearly trying to, like, get anything, but not in a good defensive position.

often if it's a tangled feet situation, they're just going to give the foul and give it to the attacker because it's one of those weird scenarios. But at this point, again, it's still 3-0, and it's late enough in the game that we're like, okay, whatever, the U.S. has this thing basically locked up. But, you know, it would have been interesting to see if the referee called a foul, you know,

what the card would have been, all that good stuff. But, you know, hey, we move on. 75th minute, 100 on the left wing, and maybe was Maseas again. I'm not 100% sure. they didn't really show a replay. Nothing that we could see the number, but he uses some fancy footwork.

There's two U.S. defenders right on his back, but he kind of L turns his way through them. He drives in the box, cuts around Danny Edelman, flasped the shot, you know, just wide, kind of, you know, from a very tight angle. He was tighter to the end line than, you know, most attackers would want to make this a very high, you know, probability scoring chance,

but some more really good work from the Honduran attackers when under U.S. pressure. And, you know, a tight finish would have been a really, really good if he had ended up scoring from here. But more Honduran possession, more pressure. And I would say that this is maybe the first or second really dangerous chance that they had insider 18 when you say. I think I can't remember too many that were this high quality, at least in terms of position on the field. Yeah, totally. I mean, this is this is a moment where, you know, definitely like,

I think the last like 15 minutes were kind of like this, where a lot of our defenders were just kind of like looking to get out of the game, not necessarily like go in for any crunching tackles or anything like that, just kind of like try to stay between the ball and the goal and let the Honduras run themselves out. Yeah, it was just some good for work, basically, to cut through our defense and get the shot off. And then, like, a minute or two later, Honduras almost scores while we're in replay. So I still haven't seen what happened here.

I don't know who's at fault or anything like that. But we basically come out of replay into a Honduran goalie, like, one-on-one with Chris Brady. at least a couple of Honduras chances can be chalked up to us turning off either mentally or physically at this point. Like in our last game, our clean possession play and passing triangles have kind of like devolved into hero ball going forward. So, you know, I think it's just tired legs and whatnot.

Three-nil lead you could kind of afford this type of thing. But this was a weird moment, huh? Yeah. and they never showed what happened. It was one of those, it flashed on. They had their chance and it went. It looked like a high probability chance. They're not high probability,

but one of the better chances that that Honduras got in the second half. But what actually happened leading up to that point, I guess we'll never know because they never showed anything about it. So it was one of those ones that just kind of left us scratching her head. But again, like this is when I made the note that like, we're lucky that we had a three gold advantage at this. this point because if we didn't, I would be pretty nervous. Like, they shouldn't be getting these chances in such quick succession.

And this is one, again, where U.S. is lucky, but you just her hands off and you move on because at this point, just get out of the game, no injuries, no stupid red cards, and we're free to the final with the full squad. This might sound a little negative to, you know, people that didn't watch the second half, maybe. Like, we have a three-no lead. Like, what's the big deal? This shot that came up after this replay fiasco

actually pulled Honduras ahead of us on shots for the game, and they would finish the game ahead of us with 21 shots to 17. We put far more of those shots on target. We put eight of our 17 shots on target. They only put two of their 21. But it just kind of shows that Honduras totally got back into the game in the second half. And if they had one or two more players that could hurt us,

this the score line would not have finished 3-0. No, it could have been 3-1 on a multitude of occasions just in the second half, or even just in the last kind of 15-minute stretch that we were talking about. And this is when Rodas kind of makes his reappearance. We talked about that shot that he flashed wide earlier in the game, I started the second half or first half. I am interested because he seemed to have a really good willingness to get in the attack. This was an opportunity where he stayed high after one of Honduras's attacks,

gets the ball kind of like in between or midfield and attacking line, slips behind an attacker for Honduras, and it produced another good chance. He just seemed to stay high. And I was interested in, you know, what is his kind of history just in this tournament match? Matt, like what are we looking at when we talk about a player in Rodos? Yeah, I mean, so definitely an interesting player.

You don't, you don't, especially centerbacks that are playing in a two-back, you don't really see them charge forward and get into the final third as often as Rodas did. And, you know, it wasn't only against us. He scored a header against Kurosau earlier in the tournament where he was just kind of hanging out in the final third at the end of the game. and he delivered across, you know, from the side of the 18-yard box against Jamaica that ended up finding the back of the net. So, yeah, like a weird player, I kind of looked into him a little bit, and he kind of plays for like a middle table team in the Honduran League.

He's a 2004, so a little bit on the younger side for this tournament. But definitely wonder if he's like a converted forward or something like that, or a midfielder. he just got pushed pushed back there because of his size. Yeah, he's massive, but he seems to have good feet and seems to at least have the situational awareness. Because, you know, you see it from time and time. Like if a centerback stays high, they'll, like, look for the most ridiculous shot or something, like, so low probability or do something just stupid. But he seems to know exactly what he means to do when he gets high.

So that was interesting. I just wanted to mention him because he played well enough to, you know, produce a couple chances for a Honduras team that didn't have too many but um you know he had that shot he had uh this attacking involvement where he plays them in behind so yeah interested in that thanks um for you know giving us some more insight and an interesting player in rhodos um the only reason why i mentioned as many u.s chances as we got is because look we really looked behind the eight ball in the second half but we still had some of the higher probability chances because it ended up being like two-on-ones in positions that, like, if we got ourselves into, like, those positions when we

had the possession, it would have been, you know, really good, you know, we created this. In this case, it was just, we try to bring a quick counter up the right side. It's a U.S. throw. It's taken quickly, and that, because it's taken quickly, I think it was by Chakaris or one of those right-sided players. It produces a two-on-one with Paxson and Erinson kind of driving up the right side of the box. Clark, you know, kind of behind a defender, and it's a two-on-one. and then the keeper just kind of hanging around in the net.

Aronson kind of rainbows a shot at the keeper. The keeper punches it out. But then Clark turns over the Honduran player who's trying to advance the ball right after at the top of the box. He has a good opportunity to shoot and he puts it just wide. We're still danger adjacent though, even though we've dropped in energy and Honduras is having the ball.

But I don't know, Matt. I think this still shows that you know, despite our lack of energy, we still have the quality to threaten teams of basically any game state at any point in the match. Yeah, totally. And I think, I think, like, right around here, there was also a chance where Diego Luna picked up the ball

and kind of had, like, the length of the field to run in a 2V2 situation. I forget who the other American player was, but it was just against the Honduran centerbacks, and he, you know, not the fastest guy in the open field, then he just kind of gets caught by a retreating Honduran player. And thinking like this is the kind of game state where losing K. Cowell kind of hurts because having him just as an option to get rid of the ball would have been very useful. But we totally have the talent to threaten a team like Honduras,

even when we're up against it in terms of like the minute-to-minute possession. I think a player who was pretty underrated in this game was Clark and that like he didn't do much wrong at all. He just wasn't on the score sheet and wasn't like the recipient of any of these chances. But he did well here and, you know, did well on that flick to Aronson in the first half. Just a very solid player that I think there was a lot of hype when we heard about, you know, the move to Leipzig. Then he gets blown back to Red Bulls. He had the injury. So he's, it's kind of been stop start since.

he kind of broke out last year, but a really solid player. And I guess maybe we can give him his moment here. He contributed a ton to this U.S. team, even though he wasn't kind of on the score sheet or, you know, one of those players that was producing any of the highlight real moments, I guess I'd say. Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. It was definitely one of the better games that he's played for the youth national teams, especially when he received the ball kind of like in this spot that were at the top of the 18-yard box.

He had some really nice flicks to teammates in the first half. And this, just to take that touch to set up the shot and, you know. Yeah. Was that that that that's it. Just, you know, solid player. And this was his, you know, one real moment to shine. And, you know, he could have scored, but he still did it pretty well. And he also, three minutes later, wins a free.

kick after you know Honduras looks a little it looked pretty nervy passing around the back you know flashback to the U.S. last game at points that's what it looked like here um u.s wins the ball then and going forward clark's driving at the 18 driving at the back line and wins a foul um this is kind of that perfect free kick distance you look at that 22 yard range where there's time to get it up and down it's only brandon craig standing over the ball he hits it it looks beautiful it gets up and over the wall the keeper's not really there as a courtesy dives they would say and it hits the post yeah i mean what this was just a tremendous free kick this is like the goalie had absolutely no shout at this i don't know if there's a goalie in the world that has a shot at this

if it if it were a foot um inside the post instead of outside and i i thought it was in when it left his foot brend and crag clearly did too because he started to wheel away to celebrate and you You know, it's unlucky. Yeah, super unlucky. Especially for a player who has been, you know, dropping dimes all tournament. Like, if he would have scored this goal, it would have been perfect. And it was like that kind of beautiful free kick shape. Like, he, I mean, he could have hit it more, you know, cleanly.

He could have scored. But in terms of just, you know, the technique, it was all there and it just, you know, hit the post. Very unlucky. Kind of, you know, we're at the end here. Um, the last real moment of this game that there is anything to talk about is that Honduras actually finished with 10 men, uh, Macias who had been playing really well, especially in the second half and created some Honduras's most dangerous moments, just leaves in a stamp laid on Chakaris, um, on the ankle.

It's a red all the way. Um, but as a referee, you see the game starting to get a little chippy and, and you see just, it's hopefully not starting to get to a point. where you have to take more action or where it devals, even like what we saw last game in like a fight situation. This was a preventative measure that said, I'm not allowing anything even borderline, you know, at this point in the game. I think it was really good refereeing, Matt.

And I think not only was this a red card anyways, but there was going to be, you know, harsher action from the referee at this stage just snuff out any chance of anything happening. Yeah, I mean, I think it's just a straight red card. I'm sure that maybe that might be. might play into it a little bit, but yeah, like red card all day. Unfortunately, this is on the side of the field with the wall of Honduran fans who would proceed to start pelting us with the U.S. players with an assortment of beverages.

It's a Coke bottle maybe? Yeah. There was definitely some bottles of water, maybe some other stuff. Who knows? kind of actually kind of impressive because that was like a it was like a 10 12 foot fence that they have on that side of the tall fence

yeah the tremendously tall fence that they were the Honduran fans were getting the bottles like up and over and then still not still you know close to the players since they were like hugging the touchline on that side of the field just great concaffing out of the Hondorans

yeah they're always good for that Yeah, them, the Panamanians, we saw like the ball boy thing. If you haven't seen that, check out Wauke's video. That was some pretty pure Concordcaf stuff for the World Cup qualifier last year as well. But Honduras is always so good at it, man. They're just, they're, they're vets in the game. And I think the bottles would proceed to fly onto the field for the remainder of the game. And I think even the ref has enough because he calls full time at 89 minutes and 52.

two seconds. I mean, at that point, just end the game. Just get the players out the field. You know, Honduras is not scoring three in any kind of stoppage time that you're going to give them. And with that final whistle, it means that the U.S., actually, I looked it up, Matt, since the first time since the George W. Bush administration is going to the Olympics. First time since 2008, which is kind of crazy.

But U.S. came into this tournament with, obviously, the the goal to win, but, you know, there were benchmarks along the way, make the U-20 World Cup. We did that coming in this game and then make the Olympics. And after 90 minutes, it wasn't perfect. It wasn't always beautiful, but the U.S. made the Olympics and they did it with really only having to show up for 45 minutes of soccer. And that in of itself, I think, is pretty impressive. Right. As George W. Bush would say, mission accomplished, right?

We got it done at the end of the day. I think Varus, for the most part, got it right. Another performance where we weren't able to match our first half brilliance, in the second half, which is a little concerning, but on the whole, I think, was a great team performance. Can't complain, I don't think, when we generated as many chances as we did today. My stock is up on everybody after this game, except maybe Diego Luna, who we looked great without,

and Luna was a little frustrating when he came on, his inability to impact the game when the ball wasn't on his feet. But I think that's maybe even a little harsh. I'm really happy with this team right now. Super happy. Is there, and I think I know your answer, I think I can guess it, but what would your man of the match be if you had to pick one for this game? I think it would be Alvarado.

Yeah, it has to be, right? Like, just, I mean, the kid is such a player. And I hope he continues to develop well, but I almost want to see him move just so we can watch him more on TV because he looks so fun. Like, I want to see more of him. But yeah, what a player. I think as we look forward to the final now, is there anything that you want to see more out of this team? Or is it a situation of it's us versus the Dominican Republic? it's not even going to be the crowd that we saw today,

show up, play the best that we can play, and we really should be walking out here with a trophy? Yeah, I mean, if we lose to the Dominican Republic, you would think that's, that would be the upset of all upsets. And not that the Dominican Republic isn't a good team. I think that they've clearly proven that they are a good team, but even in the games that I've seen where they've been,

where they've been competitive, like in the Guatemala game earlier today, it's a lot of, like, their emergency defending for a lot of the game. They don't really have, like, professional caliber centerbacks in this team. And then today, I think, you know, they were, they were in bad shape until American national Edsonazcona kind of scored a wonder goal to get it to extra time and eventually penalties. So, you know, anything could happen, of course, but this should be, this is on paper is the most difficult. This Honduras game was the most difficult game with the tournament for us. I don't think we'll have to change very much to get the win against the DR.

No, no. And I think that's also good news and just that like we've basically played every kind of game that we can play so far. At our worst, we're a team that can get body off the ball and yet can still produce chances. We saw that at times in this game. we saw that at times in previous matches, but we're a team that's set up to succeed. I guess as we kind of wrap up this pod and, you know, I'm sure that we're going to, you know,

look back on this tournament in full at some point, but I guess what does really impress you from this team up to the stage, something that maybe you didn't see coming into this tournament that has left you positively surprised? I mean, we've, I've been around for a little while and watched these youth teams for a while. don't think maybe, I should say, above the U-15 level, we've ever seen a team, at least in the last, like, 15 years of American East soccer that is capable of playing soccer with the ball on the ground as consistently well as this team does. And I think that the roster is kind of set up for us to play that way and for us to succeed in that way with, you know, the lack of a true number nine.

so you kind of get like an extra midfielder in the group and more attacking midfielder winger number 10 types than maybe there should be on a roster that is looking to compete at a higher level than this. But it's just awesome to watch just because if for no other reason, then, you know, this is just new to us, right? We just, we haven't gotten to see this too often over the years. And it's an exciting brand of soccer to watch. It's super exciting to see. And especially like when we talk about those. players like McGlynn who are just so, you know, they're exquisite passers of the ball.

We haven't seen that really come through the U.S. system ever, really. And I guess as we, you know, see Greg trying to transition the senior team into more of that possession style and some of those limitations being like our players for that team are just built more around. We can win with athleticism. We can win with our pace and just our directness and our verticality, as he likes to say, do you think that as we start to implement players from this team into the senior team, we can see even more of those kind of possession, I guess, dreams realized for the U.S.

on the top level now at World Cups and such. Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting question, right? Because, like, with even though, like, all of this praise that we've heaped on the U-20s today, and, you know, a few players specifically, or we're certainly very worthy of it, it's hard to plug any of these players into the, into the full national team. just because, I mean, some of those guys that we have are just so good, so established on the professional level that you look at a player like Alvarado and you kind of wonder like, man, if this kid was like four years older,

you know, does he walk straight from this camp into the national team? And it's just that weird thing where it's just like we're unfortunately, in one sense, we're good enough at soccer now where even the better players on this team, It's hard to gauge how much of an effect they'll have on the national team. Yeah. That is crazy to think about. And is he in the camp to begin with? I mean, because what a player.

And I'm glad that we've been able to identify this scope of talent, seeing kind of these different skill sets and how they flourish. Because there's different players in this team, but I think they're all talented enough to contribute. And the funny thing is that they would have been talented enough maybe to contribute to the senior team if this was four years ago. So that just shows, you know, the difference now. You know, we'd miss three straight Olympics.

And now we're back for the first time since 2008. We've kind of hit that second benchmark. And now all that's left is walking out of Honduras with a trophy. That'll go down on Sunday. I guess it's 7 o'clock Eastern. Unless they decide to change. I guess. Yeah.

We'll see if there's a time change. Who even knows? Do you, let me ask you this, do you make any changes from this 11 going into the DR game? I mean, we talked about that Allen change, right? Like, I want to see that just because Kuevas' only thing right now seems to be he looks a little loss on the left. Put him on the right in his natural position, he'll be fine. I have, I'm a little, it's still raw for the Puscus thing because he just didn't look good with a ball against Costa Rica, straight up, like he just didn't.

And now moving forward, teams that are going to see that are going to try and probably press them harder as a result, what happens then. So I would be pretty okay with keeping Danny Edelman in there. And I'm kind of a toss-up right now between Luna and McClint, because I'm just not versed enough in what, like, Dominican Republic is going to want to do versus us, keep the front three the same, keep Alvarado in there, and probably bring Neal back as well. So I'd say closer to the Costa Rica lineup, maybe, and maybe just a lot Edelman in there. But no changes massively and certainly nothing that would change anything tactically.

What about you? Yeah, yeah, I'm mostly in agreement. I think that I don't know that we've seen, correct me if I'm wrong here, if you remember, but I don't know that we've seen Neil and Craig play together because that happened. Costa Rica game. Oh, Costa Rica. Okay. Yeah.

I'm not sure before that, though. I'm 100%. I think that was the game. So, yeah, I think I'd like to see a reversion to that. And then obviously, like you said, I prefer Noah Allen to play instead of Michael Holiday. I think I'd keep the front six the same, though, from this game. And not to say that for Karanis did anything wrong in this game specifically, just like, I like Craig and Neil.

And I think at least defensively, that pairing worked pretty well in the last game. Again, clean up the back passes, please clean up, you know, kind of messing around with the ball at times when we shouldn't. But besides that, there's not much for me to touch on besides, you know, let's just pass the ball better and we'll be fine because in all reality, we shouldn't lose this game. But, you know, thankfully this time, it won't keep us out of a major tournament or anything like that, whereas, like, we lost the Honduras last summer. Or, yeah, I think it was like June or whatever, didn't make the Olympics, you know, whatever.

And we just had a bad day. this time if we have a bad day versus the Dominican Republic, we won't walk out as Concaf U20 champions, but we'll still be in the 2024 Olympics. We'll still be in the U20 World Cup held next year. So all those things are extremely positive. But I think up to this point, so far in the tournament, I can say it seems really good.

And they've given me even more confidence in the youth setup. And the players that we have coming up, maybe they'll benefit the national team. Maybe they won't because we have such a good national team, a senior team at this point. But it's just a testament to how this program's kind of rebounded from Coova to now. And super excited to see what these guys can do moving forward. So, Matt, thank you so much for joining me.

For the listeners, I'm not sure what we're going to have moving forward for the final, but there will obviously be a recap pod. It will be the U.S. versus the Dominican Republic coming up on Sunday. And, hey, if the U.S. is able to walk out with a trophy, it'll be check, check, and check. And I'm not sure I can have imagined a better tournament than this. So thank you guys. And if I don't see you guys again, thank you so much for the positive comments. I'm really excited to, you know, be able to fill in for bells and host.

And obviously a big thanks to Matt for all he's done so far in our coverage. And, you know, he'll probably be on. You'll see him for the final probably and, you know, for the recap pot after that. So thank you guys so much for, thank you guys so much for listening. Thank you, Matt. Yeah, thank you, man. Thank you, man, for doing this. Yeah, no problem.

No problem. Until next time, we'll see you.