Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #295: Kings of Concacaf! U20s v Dominican Republic recap

Episode Date: July 4, 2022

Joey, Vince, Hartman and Belz break down the action from the championship game, and try to step back and analyze the U20s as a group, stock up/stock down, where it all fits in.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. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Scuff Podcast's continuing coverage of the Concaf U-Cath U-20 championships. The U.S. made it all the way to the final, and we got the job done. A 6-0 decisive victory over the Dominican Republic. It sees us be the Kings of Concaf, both at the senior team level and now at the U-20 team level. On the 4th of July, it's a party. And so we have a few people here to help me share in the party. We have Vince.

We have Matt Hartman. And all the way from South America, we have Adam Bells. Bells, how's it going? Welcome back to your ship. And let's just live it up while we can. Going so well. I got to say it's just so much fun to see our teams play this way, see one of our teams play this way.

You know, even in the final, which you've got to expect us to win. you got to expect us to beat the Dominican Republic for us to come out and play just immediately with that relentlessness and sophisticated understanding between attackers of how to pass and move and the quality to execute all those ideas. Man, this is just so much fun.

And this is a better U20 team than the ones I think we've covered in the past. So credit to the players, credit to Mikey Varas. Happy Fourth of July. Yeah, happy Fourth of July. This is one more reason to celebrate today. And Vince, we know that you're great at celebrating. We know that you're great at partying.

How did this one come through you? I mean, yeah, I'm just extremely happy. It's extremely happy to see, you know, the way these kids played. I mean, like I didn't think that 2019, U-20 experience can be topped. But yeah, they smashed it essentially. I mean, you know, it's still got to do it in the World Cup or whatever,

but yeah, this is, I mean, it's just fun. It's fun to see the kids do this. And then number two, it's just, it's refreshing and encouraging to know that we have like a uniformed system throughout the entire, throughout our entire setup now.

You're like, you can see, Bear Haltrow ball being played by these kids. And by watching them play, you can kind of learn a little bit about what the senior team is supposed to be doing. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. 100%. And last but not least, Matt, how are you? And some of these U-20s that you've watched from, you know, a while back growing up are now, you know, ruling the region.

Yeah, yeah, it's great to see. Yeah, like you said, I've been watching some of these kids for a long time. So to see all the pieces come together like this is exceptional, especially the brand of soccer they're playing. It feels almost surreal that it was less than a decade ago where I was watching this team and be like, okay, everybody just passed the ball to Louis Gill. Louis Gill. It's the only guy who could potentially make something happen. And now we have a team where the technical ability is just off the charts. So yeah, I couldn't be any happier right now.

Because, you know, the thing is, the thing is, like, you know, it's not guaranteed that these guys, that these players would be able to play this way, you know, at the elite level. You know, Jack McGlynn, for instance, what a joy to watch him play soccer. Can he do it at the speed of play that he needs to be able to do it at to play, you know, do it at, like for the senior international team, for senior national team? I don't know. But the fact that we have this baseline of U-20s who can play this way together is still remarkable. You know, and I feel like it's maybe I'm getting carried away, but I feel like it sets a tone for how everybody is going to play. And I guess that's the part that's really exciting to me. Yeah, like 100% I feel you on that.

And I think you can additionally say it wasn't just the fact that these guys got the job done. you know, in Central America where we saw even the senior team struggle a few times during Oracle qualifying. They did it in style. No game was really ever in doubt as it got toward the end besides that Canada game. That was kind of the fluke. Like it was pretty awesome the entire way through. And that was pretty special to see.

So I will just dive into the timeline. I'll give the lineups and we can kick it off. The U.S. lineup was more changes, I think, than we had anticipated. Brady started a net all but one game. he started for this team. Noah Allen on the left, Brandon Craig in the center, Jaylen Neal, the other centerback,

and Mauricio Cuevas on the right, finally. In the midfield, Alejandro Alvarado was kind of that six. Diego Luna and Nico Chkaris were the eights, and then up top. It was Tyler Wolf on the left, Paxon Aronson, at the nine, and Jackson Hopkins on the right side. So the back line that we wanted and Matt, everything else from that point,

on got a little interesting when you say yeah yeah um very much not the team that we said at the end of the last pod that we wanted to see in this game um i think it's our best possible backline um and that's really where the team kind of stops and making sense um from a pure you know you're gonna attack try to get win this trophy perspective um and the only explanation i think is that varis knew that the dominican republic was going to be out matched and saw this as an opposite opportunity to get some guys who hadn't played all that many minutes involved. The midfield three doesn't make a ton of sense if you were expecting a competitive game, just because there's no true six here, especially with how well Edelman had played in the last game.

I think it would have made some sense to play him. And then Hopkins and Wolfe are capable professionals on the wing, but they're clearly a step down, at least in what we had seen so far in the tournament from Quinn Sullivan and Kate and Clark. So at the end of the day, I agree with Varus that any 11 we throw out should have got the job done. It was just

interesting to see that he basically went full rotation. Yeah, and my thing is like, so I kind of like it because it's just, like, if you were going to rotate, then I would do it this way where like you're keeping really like your

four like leaders of the team in each line. keeping Paxson in, you're keeping Alvarado in, you're keeping Craig in, and Brady. Right? So it's like you got your spine there and then rotate around them. And, you know, people have been talking about this on the Discord with regards to like Tyler Adams. It's like if we're playing a team that's going to sit back, should Tyler Adams be on the field?

And I like Mikey doing something a little bit. creative here and putting Alvarado at the 6th because it's like, you know, you know, there's not going to be that much danger coming from the, I don't know, Dominican Republic. Do they have a soccer team nickname? But it's not going to be a lot of, you know, danger coming from DR necessarily. So, so I kind of like the move. And I think it's something that maybe, potentially I would like to see from Greg Burrhalter,

but we don't got to get into that. I was going to say, I'm fantasizing about that. about Alvarado. Alvarado as the backup six for the national team. I mean, we're a long ways from there, but we'll get into it. No, I think we won't touch on Alejandro Alvarado's future prospects. But no, I do think that there is something there, Vince. But I would say if it wasn't on Friday, like the last game,

I would have started Danny Edelman again because he hadn't played much in the tournament. Like, if it's on a three-day rest, I can see it. if it's on a two-day rest and he was tired, I think that's when it starts to get a little iffy. Because I thought Edelman's passing last game was pretty superb. He had a few highlight real balls too, but I think that he, like, because of the two-day rest, if he was tired, I can understand, you know, sitting him for Alvarado.

And I don't think that Alvarado had a massive impact in this game, but I'm sure we're going to get into it. He had a few nice passes, but not much there. Matt, you kind of want to hit on some, you know, major points in the Dominican Republic lineup. Yeah, sure. So I'm not going to go player by player, but I'll mention the key guys that they had out on the field. So they were captained by Sebastian Manon, who plays for Black Rock, FC, and USL League 2.

Izzy Boatwright, Edson Ascona, and Anel Montez de Oka were the Dominican Dangerment throughout the tournament. Only Montez de Oka started this game, Boatwright went off injured in their win over Jamaica. and it sounds like Ascona wasn't ready to go after playing every single minute of the tournament for D.R. coming into this game. Both Ascona and Boatwright are Americans, and I think pretty easily could have made our roster, so it was nice to see them show out in the tournament. Montez de Oka is a midfielder who is good at arriving in the box to make himself an option on Dominican attacks, kind of like a true number eight. And the other player I want to call out is Charwell Wabe

who is a defender for Rialo Vieto who is capable of making stuff happen so they came out in a 5-3-2-5-2-3 perhaps it kind of switched around a little bit and once I saw that they were playing 5 at the back

which basically guarantees that their game plan was going to be to sit and counter I kind of felt like any any pessimism I had about not getting the W going into the game was over was gone because as we've seen over the last couple of games i think the way to play against this u.s team is to make possession uncomfortable and you basically just can't do that out of such a defensive formation and uh the d r had played in a foreback the entire tournament until now

and i don't think we're the team to test the new shape against i i agree with that you saw um in the coaster again honduras games their best moments came when they were really pressing when they were trying to possess and i don't think the dominican republic tried to do that even you know, once in the first half where they really tried to string anything together. It was all trying to hit quick in the moments that they could. And so as the game kicks off, there wasn't a ton to talk about, but Bells, you saw some encouraging stuff? Yeah, I just thought that opening couple minutes was a statement from the U.S. once again that was pretty instructive and encouraging. The Dominican Republic got the ball first and tried to possess out of the back, but couldn't really do it.

and they ended up lumping it a couple of times. The goalkeeper, Bello did. And the second time he did it, it went out of bounds, and we got to throw in before 60 seconds had elapsed. And from that throw in, I didn't count up the passes, but I think it was like a 20-pass sequence was basically our opening possession where everybody touches it. Pretty much Craig, Alvarado, Securis, Cuvas,

Alvarado, Luna, Wolf, Alan, Luna, Alvarado, Neil, then Neil switches it wide to Noah Allen on the left side, and then it's back to Alvarado and we're cycling it again, Luna, Craig. Craig drives into the middle and switches it to the right to Cuevas, who then slips it to Hopkins, making a little in-out run into the corner, which is a little bit of a theme in the first half. And then Hopkins then lifts a pretty decent ball across the penalty area and draws a goalkeeper out to claim it. And there's a little bit of a collision, no shot registered, but still, just for us to come out out of the opening kickoff and immediately just dominate like that is, man, it's so cool. It's so cool to see us do that, even against a very, you know, with all due respect, inferior opponent.

So that's my thought about the opening minute. And I made a point similar to that where I, you know, comparing it with the senior team can lead you to, you know, down some rabbit holes. But I think that one good comparative issue that at least with favors the U-20 here is the senior team would start slow sometimes. Often we would be in the attack and not really be able to, you know, make anything happen. In this case, it was defensively for the U-20s. Even though there wasn't a goal in the first 10 minutes like we had in the last two matches, they came out and they pressed. and they worked on the ball, off the ball, and especially defensively to win it back.

And they were absolutely suffocating. And we've seen this for a couple games now. And basically the entire tournament is this team being ready from the opening whistle and just raring to get after it. And that really, really was impressive to me. And you saw it here. And this is really what set the tone, even though it didn't create a goal.

And so a few minutes in, I think you mentioned it fails. The Dominican Republic Keeper rolls it out to their, left center back. And he kind of, he sees Hopkins in front of him and he clearly panics. He just kind of hits the ball right at Hopkins. And then it just rebounds back to him, luckily, I think. And then he just plays it softly in the direction of the left back. Securus easily steps in front with no pressure and drives toward the end line. He crosses it into Hopkins. It somehow found its way through the defenders. Hopkins is basically open at the penalty spot. If he's able to get it down, he has a one-on-one with the keeper. And his first touch is kind of all

over the place. You know, like we said, added early, good pressing, and then Hopkins just needs to do a little bit better, but a really encouraging moment, three minutes then. Yeah, it was like Bell's mentioned, it was similar to the Honduras game and that our early energy just seemed to catch the Dominican Republic sleeping. It's great stuff by Securus to drive with the ball, and Hopkins probably just has to do a little bit better with with his touch. But it was the first of several moments where it was clear that Hopkins doesn't

quite have the ability to control the ball to the same extent that our attackers do. But overall, just exceptionally happy with how this team just steps on the gas pedal from the first minute. It kind of flash. It was a quick chance. You know, I'm not going to say that it was easy because of the way that it got to those two defenders. It was lucky to even get to him in the first place.

but I think when it gets to him, you expect him to do a little bit better than like a 10-yard first touch. But yeah, I'm with you on that one. Yeah, in the six minute, we kind of get our first taste of what Alejandro Avarado doesn't kind of bring us the six. He gets beat to a 50-50 ball, and the Dominican Republic is off running on our back line. Got an AVP situation. The players just basically running in our back line and tries to slip a pass between. between Neil and Craig and Neil does a good job to step and clear that ball away and falls to Luna, who brings it down well and holds off a defender, lays it back to Alvarado, who then

punches the ball up to Hopkins, who lays it back. And then we have actually a nice attack that ends up in our box and kind of fizzing out at the end. But it was just kind of like the yin and yang of what you get with Alvarado as a six. He lost a duel, which, you know, I mean, I mean, it is what it is. But once we got the ball back, we were able to transition quickly through his feet. So it's just, you know, both things that he brings. Right. I think it's maybe a little harsh on Alvarado just because it's a poor touch by Tyler Wolf that kind of makes its way to Diego Luna.

and then Diego Luna pokes it straight to a Dominican player. And the whole sequence kind of just catches Alvarado off guard, who, like most of us are, is kind of used to the guys in front of him doing some cleaner stuff on the ball. But I agree that maybe a more natural six like Danny Edelman kills that play sooner. Yeah. But like I said, this is something that I'm kind of okay with. Right. No, I agree.

It's the give and the take, right? Like if you're going to have Alvarado there, this is going to happen. He's very skinny. In the 8th minute, some more great pressing by the United States. Chakaris wins it again, gets to Alvarado. And this is where we see that passing events. He has a perfect 50-yard ball kind of towards two attackers that are making the same run, you know, vertically threatening the back line.

Wolf touched it past the last defender. and it's basically him and Erinson who was right, the goalkeeper is kind of coming out at him, and he decides to take the bouncing ball to try and chip it over the keeper and have it fall. The keeper gets out in time, gets his hands to it. With Paxson, it was right,

I'm not sure that this is the right move. Paxson wasn't really wide enough for me on this one, too, so there's a little bit of, you know, that kind of blame to go around, but I feel like he could have created a higher opportunity chance just by passing the ball, to Aronson, but Matt, what's your take on this one? Yeah, I'd start off by agreeing with you that it's an exceptional ball from Alvarado,

and this is what you get from him when he's on the field and why I think that, you know, he's basically one of our two best players over the course of the tournament. And you'll also love to see both Wolf and Aronson making that run for him, even if in the end, I think it might have complicated things that both of them ended up up in the same space. If we're going to Monday morning quarterback it, I think Wolf, he probably gets the most ex-G out of this

by trying to round the keeper to Wolf's left, which will kind of create a triangle with Paxton and the goal mouth, give him the opportunity to take the shot if the goal he follows him or lay the ball off the Paxton, who wasn't as wide as he maybe should have been after realizing that Wolf was going to be the one who got the ball. But I think in the end, it's a relatively good shot and good save by the DR goalkeeper.

Yeah, just an outstanding pass from Alvarado. That's a dime. I thought, I just want to credit Wolf, agree with everything you guys have said. Also, just want to credit Wolf for getting to that ball first. The way he stabbed it out of the air to beat the defender to it on the bounce was awesome. Not a given in a situation like that. I'm always for him to lay that off for Aronson, though, you know, that's... Yeah.

Wolf's guts limits. I'm kind of like holding hands a little bit, though. Like, I think he should have laid it off too, but I would have liked to see Aronson get wider because if something goes wrong, the goalkeeper is kind of there and he can just make two steps to his left and probably cover a good part of the goal mouth. But I'm with you on that one, Bells. We move on a couple minutes later, about 13th minute. US wins the ball back again in the attacking or attacking third or so. Some more really good pressing. It's a theme.

It comes to Chakaris. He plays a one-two with Wolf on the edge of the box and fires a shot. It is caught by the keeper, but I wouldn't say it's a terrible shot in the end. More pressing by the United States. Again, it's really, really good stuff from our guys. Yeah, and it's a great moment that shows what this team is really good at, right? The DR tries to play the ball out from the back. And our pressure forces a series of 50-50 balls and we come out on top.

And that hard-nosed soccer immediately becomes champagne football once we've established possession. And it's a quick one-two that leads to a decent chance. And this is basically everything that we love about this team, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. And at this point, Vince is basically playing our Alvarado tracker. Do you want to take this one, Vince? Yeah.

In the 14th minute off of a gold kick in the ensuing scramble that comes of it, we get another 50-50 loss from Alvarado that ends up leading to a Dominican Republic's set piece from 30 yards away. Yeah, so like I said, I'm just pointing these out to illustrate the tradeoffs if Ars made. Like I said, multiple times, I'm good with it, but just pointing out where. a true six would maybe do better in these situations, which is obviously not a given. Obviously not a given that somebody else would do better. But yeah, that's it. And the thing is, there are no real limitations with Alvarado as a defender, I don't think.

He presses like a madman. There's multiple times in this game where he's just running around, like covering the entire width of the field in sequences. I don't really see any athletic deficiencies or anything like that. Like he'll be fine. He's just playing in a uncomfortable place for him. Yeah, I think, yeah, he's just not instinctive at that job just yet. But not all that bad at it either. I guess I caught, I don't know if they're exactly the same moments,

but I caught two moments of him getting caught a little upfield in the first half. That probably wouldn't happen to an Edelman. But I'd like to see him try to keep trying. the position and it'll be fascinating to see how you know where he plays and how much he plays in portugal this season yeah i want to watch him more he just seems like an fun player to watch man he seems awesome um again vince you pointed out and uh and bell's another good ball uh to quavos his passing is undeniable him and mcglin if those two in the midfield are just uh chef's kiss um and then in the 17th minute uh here's when the u.s really kicks kicks it into gear so we swing

the ball around the back, gets to Quavos. Quavos on natural position now on the right. He played pretty well in this one, I thought. Hopkins is making a run down the right channel and Quavos hits him perfectly, so perfectly, in fact, that Hopkins is able to, you know, slow his run when he gets to the ball and hit a first time cross, just pings it along the six. Wolf makes a run, gets his head on it. Between two defenders, nobody really on him. It's a free header. And the U.S. US leads 1-0, and it's a really good sequence in the United States pretty quick in the build-up, and U.S. leads 1-0, and this was the sign of things to come. It's an excellent ball from Hopkins, but I don't know what the left back for the DR is doing

here. He just gets caught napping a bit, pretty straightforward knocking around from the U.S. Before Cueva slides it into the channel for Hopkins. It has a very good ball. It gets to the spot fast, so the keeper doesn't really have a chance to come out and claim it. It's just hit so sharply, but also not so sharply that it's difficult to head in, and Wolf punches it in from point blank.

Great for us to get the opening goal. We certainly deserved it, but it's a little bit of some soft defending there from the DR for sure. Yeah, definitely. But I just want to highlight the ball in from Hopkins, because it really did get to the spot fast. It was basically like the perfect ball. And it's great to see that from Hopkins,

who has largely been a central player for DC over his youth career. So it's always cool to see guys who aren't necessarily used to being in that situation show that kind of quality. And the Hopkins inside out run behind the fullback is also excellent. Even if I'm also a bit confused as to what the Dominican Republic fullback is doing there. He left way too much space in behind. and it's a pretty simple ball in from Kuevas in the end that basically puts the whole Dominican backline behind the play. Yeah, I love the ball from Kovas.

I think the ball that really made, like the one playing the sequence that really made it count was Hopkins. That ball was absolutely unbelievable, like right to the head of Wolf. And it was an easy task in the end for Wolf. So when I was watching this play and thinking about like Hopkins, making this pass. I just thought to myself, like him being like a replacement player that just got called up

once Obed was injured. And I was thinking to myself about the last U-20 cycle. And I'm like, man, can Justin Rinnix make this pass? Like even right now? You know, I was just sitting there like the depth that we have in this age group. Yeah. People were mad to see Hopkins play

and then he pulls that out of the bag. Like that's pretty incredible. And so we move on The U.S. continuing to press, continuing to basically dominate field position at this point. D.R. has a throw in their defensive third. Pax presses the center back right after the throw-in, and he wins the ball.

He drives along the 18 and waits for teammates to kind of join in the attack. Chakaris makes a big run from the midfield, and Pax's beautiful chip over the two defenders. He takes it, or Nico takes it off his chest, down to his left, and fires a volley over from about six yards out. It was a good touch. Probably should do better in the end, but it's a tough chance.

Yeah, it's a tough chance. And he does a good job to even, like, kind of get it off in the fashion that he did. And by this point, like, I hadn't watched the curious up to this point. And, yeah, he's a pretty talented player. And then I was, while I was watching this game, I'm like, they're supposed to be a kid better than him in his same academy. So it's just, I mean, once again, you know, just marveling at how the system is working now. Yeah, I mean, this is not an easy technique at all from Securus to chest this pole down and then hit it first time with his left foot on the volley.

Securius has really impressed me in this tournament. I've always had him as kind of one of the higher, one of the better prospects in his age group. but never really at the top of his age group. And I think he's started to change my mind in this tournament. And that age part, man, is so crazy because he doesn't look like he's playing up. He hasn't looked to me like he's playing up in this tournament. And he's just a kid compared to most of these other guys that we have out on the field. He's eligible to play in this same tournament two years from now,

which is a crazy thing to think about. Yeah, that's absolutely incredible. And I was interested because you guys have been talking on previous pods. He's a young guy. You know, what's it going to look like? And so for him to come into a game of this magnitude and was one of the better players on the team, I thought that was a really, really solid performance and, you know, extremely encouraging for the future, I think. Bell, do you want to take this one? I just feel like he's growing up in this tournament.

and Vars really didn't know what he was doing, putting him on this roster. Because I was a little critical of him in the early games, how he was playing. But there's some real grace to his understanding. I'm talking about Sekeiris, his understanding of the game. And he has this really good motor and work rate. Like there's a lot of times in this game. We mentioned a couple of the instances already in the timeline where he's just, he's technical, he's confident in that technique, and he loves to just pass a move.

like the final shot and pass have been pretty uneven and were you and were uneven last night too. I would say this instance, notwithstanding because this one was like you guys said, a difficult technique to pull off. But just the fact that he had the idea to play that pass and then and then run in behind, burst in behind for Erinson to hit him with the scoop duop was, was really, I was really impressed with Securus. And I feel like he's got that, I don't know, elite mentality or something.

He's playing hard all the time. He's talking to everybody. He does not look like he is only 16 years old or whatever he is, born in 2005. He's a gym rat, a coach's son. Yeah, his dad is Sean Securis. He used to be, Matt, wasn't he a scout and also an assistant coach? He coached the U-16. I think the U-15s, but something like that.

He was a scout-turned youth national team coach. Securus is like a much, it's like a big blinking dot on my radar now, for sure. Nico, that is. And then the other thing I want to mention is Alvarado, who had been caught up field at least twice before this in the game, showed some good defensive instincts to jump a counterattack right before this chance. it was him closing at the right angle to win it back, which led to the ball falling to Paxton's feet for him to play Securus that pass. So just got to notice the good with the bad defensively for Alvarado.

Yeah, yeah. So that was a nice instance. Got right in the player's blonde spot that was receiving the ball and just took it right from him. Yeah, yeah. And speaking on Securis, I'm extremely excited to see if he's able to, you know, come back for the next U-20 cycle. Will he be the leader of the team? How will he have developed?

It's going to be a good before and after comparison that we can make. And he looks like a heck of a player even now. And so 25th minute, I have a long spell of U.S. possession. And then Pax gets his ball with his back to goal. Somewhere around the 18, I think. Makes a quick half turn around a defender and slips in Hopkins. Hopkins is making his run from the top of the box. On the right side, Hopkins touches toward the end line.

He cuts back and sends a defender. And this is really where his real opportunity comes in. He takes a few touches, maybe a few more than he should have, at the right side of the 6th and fires a shot right into the keeper. Defenders have been closing at this point. The keeper makes the save. This was another really, really good chance for the U.S. This time it was Hopkins, and I think this is another squander chance.

he has the ball about six yards out and he just he puts it right at the keeper with players in the middle of the box that could have received a pass um i wanted to see him do a little bit better here yeah he could definitely could have done a little bit better but i just want to highlight the move as a whole again because um everybody on the team except tyler wolf touches the ball and the buildup and it's just another example of brilliant team soccer and what what this team is is you know On a timeline, we don't really get to talk about the minute-to-minute stuff, right? But the team is basically doing stuff like this throughout the game that it doesn't necessarily always end up in a shot. And we get to talk about it.

But it's just amazing stuff. And a good save in the end. I think Hopkins hits it pretty hard and low. And it just happens to be right at the goalie's hands who was kind of like already spayed out on the ground, ready to try to stop a low shot. Yeah, these sweeping, probing sequences of possession against a completely low block are, I feel like it's a new era all of a sudden, you know? Like, what's going on? Yeah. It does have to be said, right, that we didn't play Mexico.

That's true. Right. This tournament. And we've had other U-20 tournaments where we were dominant in possession, not to, not to, this extent. But it really, the test is Mexico. And it is a little bit of a, not too much of a bummer, but it is a little bit of a bummer that Mexico is just, they're just choke artists, right? Couldn't get there. Maybe that's all I care about. But if you have the trophy. Bells, if this was you on this chance, do you square it at any point or do you just go all the way

with it? I don't mind it. I don't mind him going for it here. I think he, I think he, I think he, I like the way he cut onto his left. I think he, like Matt said, he got good contact. It's just, you know, variance, variance, bro. Yeah. Yeah. The correct answer there is if it spells on that,

it's out for a gold kick. I mean, I'm not getting in the spot in the first place. Let's be honest. Bells isn't sending the defender on the cut. I'm dribbled out of balance when I try to cut it onto my left foot. That's what happens. And I'm like, My bad guys.

You got to put up the hand. The good old hand to chest, that's on me. So good. I highlighted Securis missed shot just a minute later because I think it continues our theme of Securus. He drives, or he picks up a ball from Luna just over half. He has green in front. He drives hard. and sends a ball pretty well over.

The only reason I wanted to mention this is just he continues to show that he's ready at this level. And honestly, now I'm kind of sad. I didn't see more of him for longer stretches in this tournament because I feel like that would have been fun. He didn't start a game. I don't think of the entire knockouts. But yeah. Can I jump in on this one real quick? That started with like, I think it was like Craig to Avarado to Luna to Sequeuris, right?

just this absolutely disdainful two-touch passing sequence right up the middle. That was really nice. And then, yeah, Secura should have passed it to Wolf, who was darting in from the wide on the left, but got a little, got stars in his eyes. Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to critique him that much. He had a great game. 33rd minute. D.R. is starting to possess a little bit more in our attacking third at this point, but it's not, it's not threatening possession, not like Honduras. kind of level of possession, where they

looked kind of threatening with the ball at times. This wasn't. Their left back, hooks a ball in the air, kind of. He was being pressed and he just kind of kicks it. And the striker leaves it because he was off-sides. And so you think at this point, Craig's just going to head it back to the keeper or do something.

But he lets it bounce in front of him. It bounces over his head and a DR attacker is able to head it down and then hit a volley low toward the near post that Brady is able to get down and make the save. But I think this was just a moment of Craig being a little bit asleep. You can tell me if I'm wrong, but I feel like he should have done a little better on this one.

And it was good, by the way, from the DR attacker, ended up heading it and, you know, staying alive. But yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's a bit of a weird ball from the Dominican fullback that has back spin on it. And then the bounce kind of spins the ball back towards the midfield. And Craig isn't really sure how to handle it and ends up deciding to get goal. side instead of contesting the header for the ball, which was still bouncing in the air. And it's probably not the right call, but in getting goalside, he kind of leaves the Dominican attacker in a situation where it would have taken a wonder strike to fire the ball past Brady from there.

And if the Dominican player even takes a touch in that position, Craig is well positioned to prevent anything dangerous from happening. So, you know, only, kind of only notable, right, because this was one of the very few times the Dominican Republic got, even put the ball in the general direction of our net. That was Charbel Webbe, right? Who got that, who hit that? Yeah. I thought it was, I think Charbel usually plays right back. But Boatwright, so, and that was the left back that delivered that ball, but it might.

It have been because Boatwright, who is the usual Dominican left back, is out injured, right? So they might have flipped their fullbacks around. I'm not sure. I'm talking about the one who took the shot. But whatever, it's just like, I thought it was a little bit fluky. The way the ball was so unusual and the spot where it landed so unusual. I wish the centerbacks would have dealt with it, one of the two of them, but it felt a little unrepeatable. Yeah.

Yeah, 100%. That ball kind of spinning back. sideways kind of that allows the attacker to even have a shot at it yeah that's not going to happen every day um 37th minute uh us gets a corner it gets recycled the ball comes to luna um as the d r lines getting up he picks his head up and he hits erinson who is open on his side of the field there's not really any defenders that are within you know like armed distance of him but because defenders on the other side of the box were stepping up um late he was on side still so he able to be able to to turn, basically walk it in to like the PK mark, get a one-on-one with the keeper, and he

buries it. US is up 2-0. This one was pretty straightforward after the corner got recycled. A good pass by Luna, but, you know, I think the defender, the defending was still a little suspect on this one. Yeah, it was a very sad defending. But I still like the quick pass from Luna, and it's a good finish from Pax. Kind of catches it on maybe the bounce to hit it over the goalkeeper, about head high.

I feel like, you know, we're starting to get into celebration mode already at this point. I don't want to put that down, but like, we really should be able to see this one out just in the way that we were playing. Matt, what do you have on this one? Yeah, so the Dominican Republic probably had their best defensive spell of the game in the 10 minutes preceding this goal. But eventually the constant pressure and tracking, we force them into doing was always going to kind of force a moment. this basically what happens is off of the off of the corner on the ball kind of resets out and two Dominican defenders just kind of point at Paxton Aronson and it's just a little moment of miscommunication but nobody steps and Luna finds Paxton and Paxton makes no mistake

about it and it's just kind of that like super aggravating thing for the Dominican Republic where they did such a good job tracking our players for for a decent amount of time and then you just make one little mistake and we make you pay and it's two nothing yeah then this is the future that uh gregg burrhalto wants right here you know you see you see you see paxton winning the uh the golden boot golden ball you know what i'm saying just just just just uh take this and then the hazoo hazes ferrera's face on it and uh we're playing in the world cup also yeah you don't don't you kind of wonder how paxton erinson is feeling about does he like think of himself as a nine now?

Is he like, is he going to put that on his Tinder profile, false nine? He's better not as a union fan. I mean, we need all the midfield help we can get. But I think he's like probably a tenant at the best. But I think if you can play the nine, I mean, that's kind of cool as well. You know, he's, you're telling me his mind about what kind of player he is hasn't changed at all after winning golden boot, golden ball playing as a false nine. I would beg to differ. Yeah.

Yeah. If I were him, I would be like, yeah, you know, put me up at the nine, give me the ball all the time. But I mean, hopefully not. I don't know. You didn't already have a bunch of strikers. So hopefully he can slot back in in a productive role nonetheless because his creativity, like even at the senior, like in, you know, the lead play. And then in this was off the charts. I want to see Ferreira, though, like, you know, kind of step into that Paxon and Erranton role.

Now we have like a comp of what. Like, how is the comp somehow the U-20s? But, you know, hey, I love the idea of Hesu, of Brerholt going to Hesus and saying, like, you need to fill the Paxon-Arens in role. There's some Paxon here, it's some film for you to watch. No, I mean, Paxon did amazing this tournament, walks out with the golden boot that was secured a little bit later in this one. A few minutes after the goal, U.S. is possessing.

Lumin gets the ball. He's under pressure immediately, but this is where, you know, we love our Degsters, because he gets the ball on the left touch line, about 40 yards from goal. He keeps his balance to get past the first defender, kind of cuts him between two-layed tackles on the edge of the 18. He's moving a pace at this point and plays Kuevas wide. Kovas kind of toys with the defender a little bit, cutting him left and right.

That second cut, he frees himself and lifts the ball into the six, a really dangerous ball, but it gets headed away by a D.R. a defender. Noah Allen's kind of lurking in the box about the PK spot a little out from that. And he hits the rebound, a little low half-fally. He hits it right into a defender, but it rebounds off that defender, deflects up and over the keeper. And at this point, the U.S. cruising, it's a 3-0 lead. And at this point, we should be lifting the trophy, barring a disaster. Yeah, so Luna, we haven't we haven't mentioned them that much yet in the timeline, but he was, he was pretty much balling most of the game. And yeah, his run here and then the ability to get that pass out to Quabas was very nice.

And then Quavos with the, so I didn't know he had this end of my guess because I've just been watching him play right back, I mean left back. but yeah on his on his preferred side you see we got to get a little bit more from them and that's kind of what we haven't had necessarily in these last two matches even though they've went our way but yeah some some width from our fullbacks and the attack not not always there necessarily and basically for this entire game luna was like the little flicks and stuff like he was feeling himself the entire game and i think he has a few more moments that we'll touch on um and quickly on kuevas map uh you can kind of hit on this goal But also, you were mentioning about his attacking acumen on the last pod. He showed it in this game with a couple really nice moments. Do you have anything on his kind of attacking talent? Yeah, I mean, he's like, you know, going back years, we've known that he's like an exceptional attacking fullback, right?

He's done it for these youth national teams before, where when he's on his natural right side, and he just loves to combine up that sideline and is fully capable of delivering the final ball. So, yeah, like, I think if you're looking to, if you're looking to, like, this team making a run at the U-20 World Cup or something, I think that it's kind of super important to find a left back that we're comfortable with, maybe even a backup left back if that main guy is going to be no Allen,

because I basically just want Maricio Quivas playing on the right. he just feels so much more comfortable with him there but um yeah getting to the goal i think that it's again a little too easy the dominican republic is ball watching all over the place on this one when allen hits the ball uh there are seven dominican players behind their six yard line and alan hit the ball so hard that the dominican centerback uh who got a foot to it couldn't make clear contact and it deflected off of his boot and looped into the net. And it's just the type of thing where it's like, you know, they're basically just shell shocked by the offensive pressure that we're putting on them at this point.

And if it wasn't already over, this is pretty much this is the nail in the coffin. Yeah. This was certainly the nail in the coffin. After the second goal, I didn't want, you think it's kind of over, but you don't want to say it because it's only a two goalie, but after the third one goes in and we, weren't showing signs of letting up. That's when you kind of knew. Around the 42nd minute, really the last major thing before halftime,

I don't even know whether they call this major, but are one shaky moment in, you know, defensive possession. They try and spring a quick attack. Quavos, good on him, intercepts it. And it falls to, you know, Secarus. He plays the ball back to Brady, but the ball was hit with a ton of power. It's bouncing. With an onrushing defender, Brady just kind of slides it clear to the other side,

where then again, it's also picked off by, a DR attacker. Alan's able to get goalside and force a tame cross into Brady's arms, but this was like the one moment where we really didn't look that comfortable in possession. That happened a lot more in that Costa Rica game. But I wanted to point this out because this was another okay chance for the Dominican Republic and really one of very, very few chances that they got in the first half at all. Yeah, a little over-excited from Securist trying to play it back and shows that Brady, you know,

He's been perfectly comfortable with the ball at his feet, but whatever. I mean, that's going to be the question. Like, when we play teams like Costa Rica, are we going to be able to handle that in the future? And because we, you know, we won that game, but we did, we did get punched in the mouth pretty hard on a, like, moment by moment basis by the physicality and speed of play of Costa Rica's, the way Costa Rica closed on us. And some people got just totally marked out of the game. We can boss these smaller teams now, which is awesome. I want to see us play more teams like Costa Rica and try to eliminate these types of mistakes.

I'm grateful that we had that game when we did because it was a wake-up call as we entered the semifinal in the final that we can't be as sloppy in possession as we were in that game. But yet again, the U.S. is up 3-0 as we head to halftime. Um, this, just some basic thoughts. The pressing was really the story of this, uh, this half, the counter pressing. Um, keeping, uh, the Dominican Republic basically pinned in their own half for the vast, vast majority of this, um, the first half. Again, impressed with our ability to get up from the opening whistle, uh, like I touched on earlier.

We didn't get a goal in the first 10 minutes, like I said, but our work rate set the tone. We squandered a few chances, but our finishing was largely good, good enough to have us, uh, if we have three holes at halftime, really not too much for the centerbacks and Brady to do besides basic possession and a well-deserved lead, I think. I wanted to see a better second half, and that was the only thing that I was kind of, you know, slightly concerned about, is that we hadn't really played a good second half versus Costa Rica, hadn't really played a good second half versus Honduras. But in the end, it is a final, so we just kind of need to see it out. And we'll get into that, but we definitely did. Yeah, I feel like I'm sort of, as we're talking here, I'm thinking of the player. on the field in sort of a binary way, just zeros and ones, baby.

But it's, it's, it's, you're either, either you can combine in, in an intricate way, or you can't. And we, we have more players on the field now with this U20 team who can do that, which is, I think, why the soccer has been so beautiful. But like, if you look at the, who's on the field right then, I sort of exempt the centerbacks from it from the, from the formula but quavos alvarado securis luna and erinson are definitely in the can combined category and then you know hopkins is sort of i think kind of in the cannot and wolf is wolf is closer to that than the can and then allan is you know kind of more in the cannot than the can so man i don't know hopkins i can's at some already moments i think in my opinion yeah yeah he did he did i did i agree

agree, but like that like pink, pink stuff. I mean, yeah, his moving off the ball was really good. I just thought like Matt said his first touch was a little bit. You know, you gotta have that first touch. It's got to be good. And I don't know. So I don't know. Like I thought he kind of cleaned it up after that,

after he fluffed that ball from Securius. But, you know, we're arguing over, you know, spilled milk at this point. But, man, just wait until we get, you know, Jonathan Gomez on that left because you talk about combining and possession. Yeah. That man loves to do that. He'll do it. You know, he'll wake up fresh out of bed and just and give you some one-touch football. Just wake up fresh out of bed and combine some toast and some jam just right off the back.

Easy money. Hartman, what are your thoughts in the half? Not really much to say other than it's game over and it was another dominant half of attacking soccer from us. Our ability to win the ball and turn possession into chances continues to be outrageously impressive to me as somebody who's watched this team for a good long while now. And to talk about adding Johnny Gomez back in like we went over early in the in this podcast series, the list of guys who aren't here. And looking at that list now and just doing some plugging into this team just just feels unfair. Let's do it. Let's do it right now because that's that's the thing is the, the, U20 World Cup is in about a year.

And where do we need help on this team? We need a, we need a little bit better left back. We probably need a little better winger play. Yeah. No, actually, if we're just talking about eligible players, you would go first to Ricardo Pepey, but like, Paxson-Arensen won the Golden Boot at Stryker. Like, I don't, it's almost hard to be like, Ricardo, we need Ricardo Pepey. In-Cat. Yeah, but still, like, I would love Pepey.

Don't get me wrong. But, like, the way that Aronson is played, it's almost like, here's a better player than you, but also, you've also done everything you can, we could have asked from you, I guess. That's kind of my thought. Yeah. And I guess my thought on Pepe is if he doesn't make it to Qatar, if he's not on that roster for the World Cup, then the U20 World Cup is, you know, it wouldn't be crazy to call him up for that.

Who knows if he'd be released or anything. We are also Justin Che, eligible. Yeah. He's a guy I think could help the team. Brian Gutierrez on the wing, potentially. We have Luca Kalesho. you know we're still in a dual-natt battle with him but he he's in preseason with a la league of first team at the moment as a true winger um moses niman potentially if he comes back to health

there's some there's some really great options god gas linnina yeah josh joshua winder from louville city at centerback could probably make a run at a spot here damn right Caleb Wiley at Atlanta United has been impressive lately at left back. Kevin Perretti's of course is probably the probably, you know, I would guess the first choice left back right now. But who knows? But so Tony Leonie's Mexico phase might be over. He just, he just added a bunch of U.S. photos to his Instagram. Didn't you like take off all Mexico stuff as well?

Yep. You took it out of. Grief. What a mercenary. A little bit way. Bro, oh, just nasty. Just nasty for Mr. Leon. Jeez.

It's just so decisive. He got off the plane. He might have did it all the play, man. I mean, yeah. I thought I did you like Jay Hernandez's tweet about, like, like, we'll accept anybody with open arms kind of thing. Like, he literally, like, he seems to have made a quick switch. Like, it wanted to take him a week.

He took some borderline xenophobic abuse for missing a penalty too, right? Yeah. So why we're talking about social media. So I got a like from Jonathan Gomez's dad where I bait. Well, he came back to Louisville to like visit training session. There were some pictures or whatever. And he was all Nikeed out. And I was like, this man loves Nike too much to choose El-Tree.

And his dad liked it. His dad liked it. That's all I'm saying. You to get us, you know, Joe go. Because, I mean, would you guys see Jogo, like, just quickly to touch on the Jogo fantasy, would you see him, you know, being a member of our senior team or are U20 team right now? U20 team for me? Yeah. No, I don't have a ton of disagreement there because I don't think he's going to take over Jedi's role, but I.

Yeah, I'm going to say probably U20. I mean, if he gets up to associate that soon. Yeah. been a senior team time, but he does have some things that he needs to work on. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. That was our extended halftime thoughts.

Halftime subs, we only had one. It was Jack McGlink coming in for Alvarado. Alvarado, his last action of the tournament was, you know, not in his natural position, but I mean, I can't really think of too many moments where he did poorly in this tournament. and he was, if not our best player, I mean, pretty darn close. He's unbelievable guy. I want to see more of him. This is your guy, Bell.

Do you want to touch him quickly before we move on? I just think the athleticism is a little bit of a concern for me still. Because, I mean, I'll say it like this. I thought Chris Durkin and Alex Mendez were excellent. Excuse me. In World Cup qualifying. Well, Durkin wasn't involved, but Mendez was. And then we went to the quarterfinals of the U-20 World Cup.

We faced Ecuador, and those guys got exposed. Excuse me. Those guys got exposed because they weren't fast enough. And, you know, that's at a certain level, that's going to be tested for Alvarado. And that's my only concern. Otherwise, I just think he's a really special player like everybody's been talking about. It's just a matter of candy hold up physically when we, face like in Ecuador or one of the elite teams, even at a U-20 World Cup, where that midfield

is just going to get tested. And the jump from this to playing alongside, even that to playing alongside Eunice Musa at the World Cup, you know, or at the 2026 World Cup or something, it's just massive. So I just got to keep watching and see how he does. Sorry, Vince, go ahead. Oh, yeah, I was just going to say that as long as he doesn't have an agent in his ear telling him that athleticism doesn't matter, he'll be fine. I love it.

But no, if he's able to develop the athletic side of the game, too, it's the same with McGlynn. I know, like, it's... It's less pronounced with Alvarado than it is with McClint. Yeah, not, not... No, yeah, that was going to be not quite as much, but also, you know, I think McGlynn getting the experience with the first team as well, like, both those players, if they're able to get that athleticism,

And just like that basic kind of, you know, strength that, you know, sets aside pros from kind of even second team players. Boy, their ability on the ball is, that's out of this world. That's stuff that, like, we have guys on our senior team who can't pass the way that they do. But Glenn is disgusting. The way he was passing ball last night was out of control. Yeah, it's like every. Every touch. Every touch, man.

It's just like, bro, stop it. Why God. He's my favorite player. He's my favorite player. I want to see him more for the union because he plays a lot for union too. But Union, you're going to need him, especially as they hit the summer. But man, he's something special. But I obviously not take away from Alvarado, who's basically there too.

And his passing was superb as well. So hopefully we can see him more in Portugal. What a player. Coming out of the half, 47th minute, we're on the front foot again. This is when we start to, at least for me, be some. slightly satisfied that we might be able to come out and have a better second half than we've had in the last couple games. Brandon Craig hits a beautifully way to ball to Aronson on the left about the 18. Erringson wasn't really being tracked. It was kind of a weird run across the defense, but he stayed

on side. Pax uses his body to get a DR defender. The DR defender had position, but he was able to body him out of position. He touched toward the end line and fires the shot. Really, really tight angle. but it was really good stuff nonetheless. And for Pax, like we were talking about the flip side, he's not the biggest guy, but his strength on this play showed. And obviously, Craig is an amazing passer. Enough about that. Let's get to the Luna incident.

Come on. Yeah, yeah. I mean, because I, listen, I was prepping for it now because the very next minute, a D.R. throw in is headed to McGlynn at about midfield. He kind of no-looks side-foots it, like backheels it. It's It's one time

He'd be back here On the volley It's unbelievable man Between two defenders Right to Luna He no looks Rolls it to himself

Like around a defender I mean at this point I'm just smiling It's one of those Where you just need this To end the goal But he kind of Rolls it to himself

He flicks it off to Pax Pax does like a turn Like a one touch turn And you know Kind of volley it back to To Luna Luna

Luna gives everyone the hips And plays Wolf in through the middle. Wolf's one-on-one. The keeper, you know, credit, he's been playing well. He closes Wolf well.

He makes a big stop, but this one 100% deserved a goal. And once again, it's Luna just absolutely falling out. What a sequence. This is like the type of thing where it's like between the McGlynn, no look at back heel, Paxton controlling a ball that the ball from Luna where it was like a waist-high fastball and Paxson just controls it perfectly and plays it right back to him. Extremely difficult. Extremely difficult.

And Luna basically working his way through the entire team. There's three things done on this sequence by three different players that I couldn't do once out of a hundred times. It's just insane that like, again, we keep saying it, but like this team can just make hard soccer things look so easy. And the fact that they do it so consistently is just wild. The technique was out of this world. Vince, your boy Luna, I mean, this was the moment, right? Like, this is his kind of, his high-level moment from the game. Yeah, yeah, his Mona Lisa, if you will.

Sure. But yeah, man, this is when you really appreciate having Moa do on the call a little bit just to make sure that, you know, we get some emphasis, added to the sauce that we see on the field. But yeah, you know, Diego doing Diego things. So I really just can't wait to see him for R.S. It's about to be appointment viewing. It's a show, man.

RSL is already really exceeding expectations. If Luna comes in there with that kind of, you know, champagne-esque, there was nothing sparkling grape juice about this. This was the real stuff, man. This was champagne. And McGlynn, Aronson, as well, that was, what a sequence. That was the one where I was just like laughing, literally just laughing because out of this world. I just want to agree with you, Vince, about Moe-Doo, because he really appreciates this kind of stuff more than your typical color commentator.

It did get a little awkward. He was like really annoyed with costing him for trying to get him to answer some questions about like what this team's chances were at the World Cup and stuff. I was like, come on, Mo, just like take a, make an opinion here, you know? Oh, did you hear the part when, okay, so Movedoo said like, you know, oh, so I think it was after this play and Costigan was like, is this the sauce that you're talking about? And Mo's like, yes. And then like, Costigan's like, my word for this game is swagger. And Mo was like, that's not your word. He said it like three times.

Yeah, he was scared of. Yeah. It's getting a little testy It's going to a little testy in the booth But yeah Yeah we we had Mo for the Geo run in the Azteca We had Mo for this

And yeah Those were That so I appreciate it That's all The past The final pass here too The what like disguised After all that

To play a little disguised Left footed Through ball Cutting through two defenders I mean I almost don't want to move on For the sequence But I mean seriously man

It's out of this world just giving everyone the hips and slipping wolf in. Man, that was insane. 49th minute, so literally one minute later, Kovas wins the ball on the edge of our defensive third. He wins the ball back, rather. And it falls to Wolf, Wolf, who's dropping deeper, I think for some reason here.

He won touches to McGlynn, who won touches to Paxon Aronson, who sells and flicks it off to Alan, who's making a run down the left. This is some more really, really good stuff from the U.S. Alan holds it up along the touchline and waits for his teammates to join them. Wolf is making that run from deep, so we flicks it into him down the left.

He has space to drive it into the 18. Hopkins is making a run, and Tyler just kind of touches him in. The defender makes a last second sliding intervention. I guess it was clean. I'm not sure. It didn't really show a good angle of it, but again, the U.S. is combining so well. I haven't seen this from the senior team. It's McGlynn-Arensen involved again, and this would have been another amazing goal

if this is gone. Yeah, it's a bit more of like a traditional like fullback and midfield combination up the left-hand side that you typically get out of a four three three. That, you know, this team didn't really need to do a whole lot of that through the tournament because we've been so well, we've been so good at playing the ball with the ball through the middle of the field. But it was good to see that they're capable of combining like this up the wing with the fullbacks as well. And yeah, just another another moment of great combination play, like you said.

Yeah, 53rd minute then. A few minutes later, U.S. wins the ball back in possession. We're in our own territory still at this point. Craig has a long ball out right to Hopkins. Hopkins hits McGlynn who's checking. He turns and finds Paxton on the edge of the 18. Paxon drops it back to Jack. Jack splits defenders.

He touches it to Nico. Nico does his own little thing and gives it back to Jack McGlynn. So McClint has basically gone touchline to, you know, center of the 18 combining all the way through. he touches to draw defenders to his left, rolls it back to his right, and strokes it past the keeper in the bottom left. This is Jack McClend at his finest. It's 4-0, and our boy Jack gets on the score sheet.

What a player man, and yeah, it's pretty special. Outrageous. So fun to watch. Like that pull back onto his right foot, the calmness of the finish, can he play like this against adults when he doesn't have as much time on the ball? I think that's the question. Yeah, I mean, the other concern, in addition to that, I'd say, is that Philly doesn't really play like this, right? They played against the Columbus crew yesterday and had 35% possession with Leon Flack and Ali Badoia in midfield, who are not exactly like for likes for Jack McGlynn. So I remain a little bit skeptical about McGlynn's ability to break into the starting lineup at Philly and thus the senior national team, but man oh man, is he talented? This goal is all him.

Yeah, the union are definitely more inherently a defensive team. But also, if McGlynn progresses physically, you can't sit him if you're Jim Curtin. And certainly when he gets back to the union, his legs are going to be needed because those Philly guys need some rest. They've been playing basically the same lineup for a couple straight weeks now. But yeah, it's outrageous. It's absolutely outrageous. And he did the little, like, too hot to handle, you know, handshake. Man, he's got it all about him.

Yeah Yeah A 55th minute Luna gets absolutely Destroyed in the middle of the field To win a free kick from about 30 yards out Secaris and Craig are standing over it And as soon as the referee blows his whistle

Craig quickly hits a ball hard on the ground to Aaron Soon he's kind of at the top of the 18th But no defenders are marking him I guess So he just takes a touch in It's one on one again with him with the keeper He makes no mistakes Slides it past the keeper it's off the training pitch to absolute perfection.

The boys ran over to the, I think it was one of the assistant coach and we're hugging him and celebrating with him. So clearly this was designed. It's a coronation and it's 5-0. Yeah, it's such a good set piece that I'm kind of bummed that we used it to go up 5-0 against the Dominican Republic. Save this for the U-20 World Cup quarterfinals against France. But seriously, perfectly executed free kick.

great stuff all around and the Dominican players didn't even really realized what happened most of them were like shrugging their shoulders looking around the the near the guys that uh near camera side were like asking to their coach asking what happened a couple guys asking for off sides it was just great stuff yeah man uh erinsen this was the goal to put him over the top of solvin solvin came in and the golden boot race was six and now erinson has seven he would end up the golden boot. We'll just kind of hit the last goal. Joey,

before we do that, why don't you tell you, how are you feeling about all this as a union fan? I know you got the... I feel like we've talked about my boys a lot, but it's awesome. It's so much fun. Because I've seen these guys basically since last summer.

That's really when they made their full introduction. You know, I remember Quinn hitting a bike kick in Chicago. Like, there's been traces here for these guys, but it's, It's interesting because I don't know how to see it exactly. They're playing at a lower level in terms of age, right, the U-20 level, and these guys

don't always get the time for the union. And I think that some of that's deserved. Like the union have other good players and the union have a set system. And none of these players fit exactly well into the union system, but still the fact that these guys can develop and I get to see them, you know, on a week and week out basis, it's so much fun. And I think for these guys, like, it's an amazing learning experience because you come in, you succeed a ton in this tournament.

And, you know, these guys are national team players now and they can take this forward and learn from it. I think it's good vibes all around. And clearly these guys have had such an impact on the team. You know, not getting on the score sheet, I don't think at all, maybe. But Brandon Craig also with his delivery and his presence in the back was massive as well. And he's not going to probably get mentioned enough in the, you know, run down from this tournament. So all of it is so good.

Yeah. Yeah. Pretty cool. So, and then we fast forward to the 60 first. minute it's it's it's off of replay that this whole sequence starts the DR center back has the ball and is 18 and kind of plays it straight to McGlynn with no one on him so mouglin has all the time to use walk it forward find Clark on the left edge of the box no one on him either I don't know where the defending is at this point I think Dyer kind of

lost the will to play Clark touches toward goal he's you know side foot's a centering ball to the PK spot the the Dominican Republic defender's in position he gets there he makes contact on the ball, but it's so unsubstantially that just kind of falls right through him to Nico, who deserves his goal. Secura's taps at home, past the keeper. He's one of our better players. I don't really know what was going on in the defending, but hey, at this point, it's 6-0, and we're cruising.

Yeah, some defenders had clocked out by this point. But still, that ball from McGlynn to Clark is quality, you know, and we don't have, we don't have everybody. not every midfielder can play the ball with that pace and that weight to just release him into the box from 25 yards away. Can't say enough about Obama Glenn's quality. And Clark kind of gets lucky here. I don't know what to make of Caden Clark at this point. Like, you know, I mean, he does, does he get credited with an assist?

I don't even know. He tries to side foot it. It gets deflected. And then some other guy whiffs on it. And then Securis has a chance to, you know, tuck it home from. from point-blank rage. But, boy, Clark didn't really make much of an impact in this game. I didn't seem like he made too much of an impact outside of the assist for the third goal against Honduras.

And that was reliant on a mistake from a Honduran defender. I'm not sure how he fits in here. But maybe that's a discussion for later. I think he was a little, I think his performance was a little underrated versus Honduras. I was a little higher on him than some people were. But, yeah, I can understand that indecision. He wasn't a standout in a tournament where we had a good few standouts on this team. So, yeah, I'm with you on that.

I completely agree. But Clark, I think, is also a guy who, and I mean, there are legitimate reasons to play him on the wing, right? But I think that if you axed him, he would say that he's more comfortable playing in those central spots. And it's just like a situation of roster construction that. he has to find himself on the wing so i don't know if it's like totally fair to say that you know it was a bit a little bit of a disappointing tournament from him but i i agree with you guys that for a guy that of his pedigree of his talent of his situation and the number of professional men he has under his belt and the level of club that pays him um that he could that he maybe didn't

impact the tournament as much as we would have hoped. Here's the one thing I will give him, though, is that, like, he clearly has the physical attributes that not all of our guys have, and obviously that's down to our boy Chris Clark, but no, I think his, like, his strength and his, you know, power, I guess, is something that we don't have everywhere on the pitch. Yeah, but if he can't beat somebody 1 v.1, how much, it doesn't matter how much strength. Oh, yeah. I will say, I wish maybe we'd gotten to see him as a false nine, because if,

feels like to Matt's point that he he kind of would have fit that role pretty well but you know it's hard to gain say that too much since paxon erinson won the golden boot and we were absolutely dominant throughout the tournament so sure you like different looks but in the end you wouldn't change anything because we just won the final six no uh nothing much uh for the rest of the game a few d r moments. You know, a few Luna, Luna had another shot that went over the bar, but, you know, from this point on,

last 30 minutes or so is basically nothing. The referee blew his whistle on basically 90 minutes on the dot. And the United States are champions of Concaf at the U-20 level. We did it in style. And here's where you start to, you know, reflect about the tournament as a whole, not just this game, but the entire tournament, what we learned, stock up, stop down, and all that kind of stuff. So Matt, do you want to kick us off?

with kind of our full-time thoughts yeah so so first of all big stock up on mikey varus right we've had other we've had other coaches go into this go into you know youth tournaments with with similar talent advantages and kind of lay an egg and the way that varis had these kids playing throughout the tournament man you really can't stay enough i also i also like the on being on his haunches in the corner of the of the coaching uh uh zone where you're technically stays there yeah the technical area yeah like the ball ball goes past him towards our own defense and he no it doesn't move not worried not going to go to the other side of the technical area to see what's going on just wait waits for the ball to get back to midfield to be in position to watch what's happening uh yeah just for i think

varis was was a bit of unknown for all of us coming into the job and I wouldn't be surprised if he kind of isn't in this position for all that long. And he gets, he's getting some looks from, from club teams based off of what he's done so far on the job. This big stock up there, right? To your point about him being on his haunch is just kind of quietly watching the action. Very calm, very collected. Not a lot of, not a lot of wasted motion from him.

I admire that quite a bit. I'm like Greg who's walking around bounce passing. I do think Mikey needs to learn the part of the bounce pass but hey that's just me. Greg with the Greg is kind of the definition

of wasted movement right? Needless bounce passes. What are we doing? Love to see it though. I think from a tactical side like he and not just like a tactical side he got it right there weren't too many ways to get it wrong right it would have been a bigger

disaster if we hadn't won, then, you know, like the success that we did win, I think, just kind of giving the opponents and stuff. But credit for him, and especially for building the locker room culture. It's clear, like, after every win, you see like the videos come out of them, you know, celebrating, having a good time. I just love the culture that he's built. And it makes it really fun to watch these guys because, you know that, like, after the game, they're all chill with each other as well. It just seemed really cohesive the entire, the entire tournament. And it's not just that we won. It's very much how we won, right?

That's the impressive thing. Yeah. Yeah. Got achieved all the objectives and played champagne football for large stretches. Just a giant. You couldn't ask for anything more. You couldn't ask for anything more. Well, real quick.

Just the thing that really stuck out to me is like, not just the champagne football because like, I mean, we mentioned, well, I've mentioned the 19. a few times, but like the speed that we were able to do this set was just different from anything I've seen. Like even, I don't know, and football around the world, like the speed that we were able to transition with and just do these amazing technical things. Because like with the past cycle, it was kind of like the tempo was a little slower. And like Alex Mendez was kind of like sitting on it a little big dictate and play. But yeah. Yeah, that he was able to get, the virus was able to get them clicking like this so fast.

And I mean, I'd look, where's it behind the crest? I want to see the behind the crest on the U-20. I think something came out with Craig yesterday, right? But we need the full behind the crest because it looks like they're having a great time in there. Even the players who didn't always see the field seem to still be loving it. They were holding up Cowles jersey after the, the semi-final. It's hilarious. But yeah, Matt, do you have any more thoughts on kind of this team as we see it now?

Yeah, so I think let's quickly just go like player by player or like position group and just say like what we thought of their tournaments. So the goalies, Chris Brady and Antonio Carrera, kind of like not stock up, not stock down, right? They made a few saves that I thought that they should have, but I mean, largely untested. did right outside of the Canada goals, which I'm not sure that Brady could have done all that much. Didn't really see. There was like Brady had to make one save in this game. Carrera towards the end had one nice save down to his left, but not all that much doing for them. Agreed.

So, Maristio Quivas, I thought that he had a great tournament. He had a long layoff since the last time we've seen him play for the youth national teams. Still looks like a great fullback prospect. I think he's basically my locked-in starter at right back. I think even with Justin Che, if he comes into the team, I think with Justin Chey has some work to do maybe still on the defensive side of the game where I'd still like to see based on what we saw in this tournament, Quabas, get the minutes there.

So I'm stuck up on him. Love Quabas, man. And I think his Maybe his physical sharpness Seemed like it improved as the tournament went on a little bit I don't know if I'm just imagining that But still I guess the The main issue is how much

How much playing is he going to do for club brouche And You know how does he stack up against professional athletes Adult professional adult athlete Soccer wingers in Europe Yeah I think for quickly on Kuevos, we were a little rougher on him in the recent pods. But I think in the large part, that was him put in a bad situation.

You know, playing a right back on the left side, you're going to have moments like he had overall a really good tournament, especially when we saw him go back to the right defensively. His interventions were on point and attacking wise. He created much more on the right and was a solid player throughout the entire tournament. I thought I saw his, um, his lack of the comfort show up a little bit more against Honduras than Costa Rica necessarily. And you can just tell that like with the way he just wasn't, you know, I mean, we've all said it, but he's just not used to being on the left.

You could tell with the way like his feet were set up in defensive situations sometimes. But yeah, at least he got the experience doing it. Right. Okay. So Michael Holiday, I'm going to go stock down on him. I think he was pretty clearly the worst of the three fullbacks, in my opinion. And I think he's a good prospect, and hopefully he gets some minutes with Orlando. But more than anything, I thought he just kind of didn't really fit the team.

Good athlete, you know, wasn't going to get outmuscled on the right back. But yeah, more or less agree. He didn't fit the can-combine formula. that that quevas very much does which is what makes quavas so nice yeah we basically brought three fullbacks and one of them's a left back and one of the and two of them are right backs and holidays the second on that depth chart right back i think that's because that kind of explains it like in a our perfect back line he doesn't start so i mean there's not much to say there yeah that one cross but yeah the was that the one the one for uh clark to nod back for erinson to

the second against Costa Rica yeah yeah yeah it was a good ball yeah so the final pullback is no alan um i i'm stuck up on him as well just because i didn't really expect too much uh coming in there's not a player that i had rated super highly and was kind of surprised that he was the left back that we decided to bring to the tournament but he he's a solid left back i don't think he's gonna light the world on fire or anything but he showed that he belongs on this team after being one of the question marks coming in. And teams like this need solid players who are just going to do their job

and not get caught out. So it's a good tournament from him. Yeah. Shades of Daniel Lovitz. He was a successful professional left back. Come on. No, you're right. Little Allen would be happy if he gets to that level. I mean, I'm not going to say he's at that level,

but he's he has MLS appearances at the age of 17. I mean, I have a little more hope for him. Not that there's anything wrong with Lovitz. Just like Lovitz is kind of set in where he's out now. I feel like Alan Sillow's room to grow. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I.

So maybe Sam Vines would be a little more charitable. Yeah. What do you think? Maybe. It's funny because, right, to this point, Sam Binds is not as accomplished. a professional player as that you love it so it's it's kind of

people just don't like when you comp when you comp people to players who like you know don't aren't super flashy and stuff like that I noticed that even in like you know when people will occasionally ask me for like a comp off of like a player that's

in their favorite teams academy and I'm like when I'll be like oh this guy can be Will Trap Plus people are just like ah it's like no That's a good thing. Will Trapp has like 40 national team caps. So Will Trap Plus is good, but people just don't like that. I don't know.

Yeah, you can be Will Trap of four piece. I don't know, man. Like, like Daniel Levitts is fine left back. And Alan, yeah, I don't know. Alan will. I feel like we just have to get over the MLS bias on it all. That's just not my MLS, but not my MLS, talking that just like generally when we talk about these players and we go ooh like they're all

mLS players right i combs i comte quince olivin to justin renex which i still kind of stand by and um got like one person on twitter was very very upset about that but like you know you basically beat up the you beat up the small teams you look like serviceable against the good teams which is i think what describes sullivan basically that was justin rennix in 2018 you know and No, come on, bro. Don't do that. Please. I'm sorry.

I mean, big shout out to Justin Renix. I'm sorry. Justin Renix scored a game-winning goal against France at the U-20 World Cup. I mean, that was the most Johnny on the spot. That's what Sullivan's goal was against Honduras. It's the same thing, except against a much inferior opponent. I don't know, man. Sullivan got a little bit more to him.

He got a little bit more. He probably does. but like he also you know how about that time he shot when he should have passed the errandsons come on bro get your head on straight i think Sullivan's kind of like I think he's he's kind of stuck in between in large in many respects like he can play centrally he's played as an eight for the union he's also played up top for the union like you can play winger he can kind of he's kind of a unicorn but not like he's very much a jack of all trades and i don't know how far that's going to get him because right now he's at the ls level he can he can he can tomahawk the ball i agree

i think he that's that's really cool and he um and that's a little different from rennicks and he uh his off ball movement you know is really like there's a there's a bit of innovation and industry there that i i'm not sure or intelligence that i'm not sure i ever saw from justin rennix So I'm not saying they're the exact same player. I do acknowledge Sullivan's got more to him. Sullivan's slightly less conventional for me, especially than either Aaronson or McGlynn, because he's just not quite set, I think,

in his exact position, but he has time. Also, I think one of the big things about Sullivan teaches his, is teaching his little brother how to play soccer really well, right? Where's Paxton Renix, right? I'm not here. Yep, exactly. Exactly.

So let's talk about the centerbacks really quickly. Brendan Craig, I'd say stock up, one shaky moment against Canada and in the game today with that bouncing ball. But aside from that, I thought he was probably our best defender and distributor over the course, over the length of the tournament. Yeah. No problem with any of our centerbacks for me. I mean, Craig was the best.

I think Neil I like the way Neil is on the ball but you know what kind of test did they face basically throughout the tournament yeah we didn't even concede a goal while Neil was on the field in the tournament and so it's kind of hard

to be anything but stock up on him and then Per Krannis kind of viewed him as the third centerback coming in and while he was solid He didn't really show me what Neil and Craig did with the ball at his feet. Had a couple of shaky defensive moments with the early goal from Canada. But again, a perfectly serviceable centerback, I thought. Yeah, I have to say, I'm pretty big on Neil, man.

He showed a little bit more with the ball this match than I had seen previously. and he's just like a fluid a fluid athlete that time, I think the first Alvarado instance where he lost the 50-50 where they were driving in our back line and to get the step to clear the ball, Jaylon was like backpedaling facing Quavos, basically on right back, flips his hips, is able to stop and step to clear the ball away

in like a second really. And that was pretty impressive to me just from like a athleticism and movement standpoint. And Craig, of course, all the set piece deliveries and everything, like that's probably one of the more unconventional things I've ever seen, I guess. I got a little dive with Louise in him. Yeah, Craig was more adventurous passing between the lines in general, I thought, than Neil, even though I feel like Neil has. has that ability. And Neil, Neil was,

but I do love how casual Neil is on the, on the ball. He really trusts his technique. And I know that got him in a little bit of trouble with some back passes in one of the games, but, but like he is not, you know,

he looks comfortable on the ball. And that counts for a lot for me. Yeah. For me, Craig was most stock up, I think, for me, just because it's not,

not only set pieces with him because, you know, set pieces, that's kind of an art. It's also the, you know, in the run of play where he was ping and balls left and right. We saw it a few times in this game where I think just in terms of passing and in terms of, I don't know, maybe how we want to play, right? We want to play a more possession-based style. I think he's the one who can probably benefit us the most as it stands now. Because also he has the height and he has all those physical attributes as well. So I love Craig, but all three of them, you know, not, didn't really set a foot wrong.

much, especially not really during the knockout stage games. Right. So let's talk about Edelman and Putskas. So I thought that Edelman had a really good tournament for, I mean, he didn't play a ton early, but in the big games where we did start him, I thought he had some really smart fouls to kill counterattacks. He's pretty mobile in that midfield and had a couple of tremendous highlight real passes in the Honduras game, which was the toughest game of the tournament.

and Pookskas, he just didn't do enough for me to care, for me to care if he's on the U-20 World Cup roster. He's good in the air, but outside of that, I think Danny Edelman is an improvement. And I don't necessarily see Edelman as like a lock-in starter on the team either. So I think I'm going to go Edelman stock up, Puska stock down. Vince, I know that you were in love with this passing in the last game, especially the highlight real ones. Um, yeah, and supposedly, like, Edelman was, was supposed to be the one that was, uh, less talented on the ball, uh, compared to Puskas, I guess. But, um, yeah, like the couple passes that y'all pointed out in the recap from last game were just like, they were absolute dimes. And, uh, yeah, I'm, you know, I'm, uh, I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued.

Yeah, certainly jumps to the top of the depth chart. now you know surpassed surpassed pookstess right great i agree let's on to the attacking mids so alvarado mcglin uh luna let's throw secure us in there as well um i think it's going to be pretty hard to be anything but stock up on all of these guys right um alvarado i think he has a shout for a player of the tournament if if you want to take that from Paxton Aronson showed out after being a little bit of a wild card coming into the tournament because he got stuck in Portugal, that weird situation with him not being able to come to camps in the United States after moving over there. I'd say if I'm going to be maybe like if I had to

rank them I'd probably put Luna last just because even though he's capable of some ridiculous things. I kind of, you know, was super familiar with the player that Luna is coming in. And he just kind of showed me he is that player still. Like, he's capable of some ridiculous stuff on the ball. But against the better athletes, I think he's always going to be a bit of a question mark. He just needs Chris Clark's business card, man. That's all he needs. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that's a, I understand what you're saying with Luna, Matt. I feel like that's a I don't know if a little harsh is, because we just pointed out

that he was involved in some of our best moments, right? So it's like, it's one of those, like he can produce great moments from nowhere. I think now that he's moved to RSL, it's seeing Kenny do it, you know, with, you know, 30-year-olds who are 100% of the way they're physically, right?

Like, he has room to build and he will probably need to do so. But I think for him right now, at least technically, like he'll be fine, I think. I want to say these four players are the reason we played the soccer we played in this tournament. It's these four guys. And yeah, I'm stock up on all of them with, you know, the physical caveats for basically

all of them. And we'll see what happens with Securus. Although I guess he seems like he's going to be, he's going to be decent in the cage as he gets an eye on to 20 years old. I was just going to say, just going back to Alvarado. like he's that dude he's that dude and and gets the official uh the official tim tilman award of uh being extremely extremely nice oh but yeah man like and i'm happy he played as a six this game because like we we saw him like receiving the ball a lot and just his abilities on the half

turn or whatever i didn't i didn't know he had the ability to spray it the way that he did So, yeah, man, he's He's Nice Did you guys see his interview after the Honduras game too? He's just like the nicest, he's the nicest kid. Just like, yeah I didn't see it, but that seems like his personality.

Like he just seems like a super cool guy. They all do for the most part. I think even seeing Luna and that Like the get to know your teammate thing, that was funny as well. But I think I hate using the term Euroready because I feel like that's kind of weird and can often be misused. But I think in terms of just a passing point of view, both Alvarado, who's already in Portugal and McGlynn, have that kind of like European-esque passing about them. Like it's not just like the conventional, you know, traditional stuff. They can do stuff that is on another level, I think.

there's a Twitter account called it's called soccer that posted a video comparing McGlynn's disguise passing to Mizirozol and Sergio Buscetz. And it's like the likeness is remarkable between the way he passes the ball and the way those guys do when he does it at his best, when they're at their best. It's just the difference of level, you know, that's what we got to see. Yeah, like I said, I think on an earlier pollic scene, but Glenn Live in person was like a different thing for me, just in like the way that he uses space and, you know, it's just it's next level. I think just obviously those, the athleticism part of it, like we said, that's the difference. Yeah, he's also, he also definitely leads the team in shoulder checks per 90.

His head is constantly moving. Same with Alvarado is pretty good at that too, right? yeah yeah totally it's man it's like you take the player for what they are right but man it's it's just like such a bummer that mcglin isn't like 10% more athletic he'd just be like a world beater at that point but you know he still might be yeah we'll see so let's move on to yeah we'll see let's move on to the wingers um at least the guys who played primarily on the wing in this tournament that it being Cating Clark, Cade Cowell, Tyler Wolf, and Quinn Sullivan. I guess we could throw Jackson Hopkins in there as well.

Hopkins didn't really have to do much in the tournament. We talked about him a little bit in this game, and this is basically the entirety of his minutes. Clark, Cowell, and Sullivan, guys who were a little bit more known quantities than the others going in. What did we think about the tournament that CCCC, C, C, C, C, C, C, C, Call together? Oh, you know, so C, C, yeah, yeah, C, yeah, C, yeah, C, yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to say too much, but the stock is down, all right? The stock is down.

And, uh, I mean, yeah, I don't, I don't know. I mean, if you,

if you gave me a Jackson, Jackson Hopkins K-Cal pick for, for this youth 20 team, I would have to think about it. Hmm. I'm going on to you. Yeah. I think it's the tough thing because the expect,

it's the expectations versus reality. The expectations were there for Kade because we know like his physicality is just, it's unbelievable. Um, and he's just kind of, I think verticality might be a good word for it. I also think not playing in his natural position a ton for the quakes so far this year probably

it's not helping anything for sure. You mean right back? He plays left back. He might have played on the right too, like left wing back. My gosh, man. I agree stock down on cowell. Stock unchanged, maybe slightly down for Clark for me.

just because I can't figure out, I can't figure out how, like, what he, I mean, I know he excels at arriving in the box and, like, finding a way to get a good shot on frame. But I don't know that his offball intelligence is quite what it should be. Like, and he doesn't, he doesn't find the ball enough. He's not going to cook anybody on the left wing. I'm with you on that. I want to see more from him because we know that he has that big move queued up.

We'll see if that ever comes to fruition. But I also want to see him more for the first team for the Red Bulls. And really, when he starts getting consistent time there, I think starting time, that's when we start to look at him and start to evaluate that move to Europe. Moving on to Tyler Wolf and Quinn Sullivan. Tyler Wolf is kind of a guy who I didn't really get on the roster, kind of viewed him as like I could probably name five kids and other MLS academies are on getting minutes in MLS Next Pro, who I kind of view as more highly rated prospects.

His younger brother Owen, I think, potentially being one of them who is getting more MLS minutes than him so far this season. But I think that given what I thought of him coming into the tournament, I think Tyler Wolf had a pretty good tournament, clearly not the level of prospects some of these other guys are still, in my opinion. And I think the move that has lined up kind of shows that where he's in talks right now. I forget what team it is exactly, but a second division team in Belgium, is it? Or the Netherlands?

Yeah, yeah, Belgium. Okay. Yeah, but I mean, I thought he had a super solid tournament. And one of those guys I always appreciate who, even though he may be technically limited, compared to some of his teammates, totally, like, understands his role and is able to, able to fit the system and get moved the ball around to his teammates effectively yeah yeah that wall family is that's that's a success if success could be embodied in a family man that's crazy but yeah i i'm with you i think he the the thing with me is like he could that role could have been filled with

like a traditional nine that was the only thing for me like he doesn't really he's not a big body if you know what i mean but i think that he played well and obviously in the final scoring the goal i think that'll write a lot of the, you know, concerns that people might have had because, you know, goals fix everything, I guess. What did you think about, as a Philly fan? What did you think about Quinn Sullivan's tournament as a whole? I love when our guys score goals and assist goals. Like, that warms my heart, but at the same time, Quinn also did it against teams that aren't, you know, the top brass, I guess, at this level. So I like him. I think he's a good player. I think it will continue to contribute for the union.

I feel like that that goal number, if you're just looking off that, is slightly inflated. But at the same time, like, he's a solid player. And I'm not going to degrade him at all, I think. Like scoring six goals is still scoring six goals. I would have liked to see him do a little bit more as the tournament got later in terms of just like his total actions. But I still love him. Yeah. Right.

I think he's a useful player for this team, obviously, and Sullivan is an even more useful player. I just, you know, I'm not that excited about either of them. Just excited for them to be useful for this team, which they are. Yeah. Right. Last but not least. Yeah, very much last but not least,

our starting number nine, Paxton Aronson. basically impossible to be anything but stock up here, right? Golden. They will score. Golden boot. Yeah. Exceptional player in the final third, I think, capable of putting the ball in the back of the net at a pretty high level

and a pretty tremendous presser and counterpressor as well. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of those tournaments where, you know, you put them up top as, as a slightly undersized. I'm not sure undersized, but he's not a traditional nine, but you trust the pure soccer instincts to kick in.

And, you know, he showed why we love our false nines. That passed to Sechiris last night where he just scooped it over the back line. Yeah. That's it in a nutshell. Absolutely class.

Vince, you got anything on Aronson? No, I mean, he's just a baller, man. He's just a baller. Definitely. I mean, as high as I am,

Alvarado, definitely cool with, you know, it being a co-player of the tournament situation, because, yeah, I'm probably going to end up as high on Paxton as I am on Alejandro. But supposedly he goes by Alex is what I'm hearing. Is that right? Really? No. Supposedly.

Don't quote me. I'm still fascinated with this Costa Rica game where, you know, nobody really, nobody looked the same in that game as they have in the other games, you know, in our ability to possess and combine through the middle. Space was getting closed down and, you know, some player, like, McGlynn was just, like, non-existent in that game, right? Yeah, and Luna, too. And Alvarado wasn't his sharpest.

So I'm fascinated by that. performance and, you know, whether it was a wake-up call to us or whether that was that was just the hardest test and we couldn't pass it, I'm not sure what the answer is. But I'm just asking questions over here. I'm just asking questions over here. It was certainly the highest level midfield we played into, right, where that Costa Rican number eight, I forget his name, but the one who had played minutes with the senior team. That kid is a legitimate talent.

And there's a couple. I think that sounds right. So yeah, I mean, it makes sense for things not to be, not to have been so easy in that game, I guess. But it also kind of points to, you know, that this thing where it's like, is this is the football we saw in this tournament repeatable, right? Against higher level of competitions. And that's what I'm mentioning like Mexico falling out of the tournament earlier. If there's any downside to that, it's that we didn't really get to see. We didn't really get the challenge that I would like to have going into the U-20 World Cup.

So hopefully we get some good friendlies. Mexico's not a challenge anymore. Hey, it's kind of hard to disagree, right? Winds are piling up. Yeah, we keep having success. Any final thoughts broadly for anyone or we can kind of just wrap this up?

Yeah, couldn't have asked for more from the tournament. Super happy. Yeah, thank you guys so much for joining me and yeah, these last couple pods. Thank you all so much for listening. Yeah, it's a good time to be a U.S. soccer fan.

Our senior team for on the men's side or champions of Concacaf or U-20 team on the women's side, World Cup champions, the youth teams as well, man, there hasn't been a better time. to be a fan of U.S. soccer than now. Happy Fourth of July, everyone. Thank you all so much for listening.

And until next time, we'll see you.