Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #312: The ever-evolving World Cup roster picture

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

Greg and Belz discuss some news of the week through the lens of the ever-evolving World Cup roster discussion. Pepi perhaps falls out of the picture, but then gets a loan to Holland. Scally's case gets stronger with every minute Dest doesn't play, and now maybe Dest to Villareal? The ReSargence. Etc. etc.Join the Patreon and get the Monday Review every week: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedPulisic's playing time prospectsPepi to GroningenDest in purgatory, but maybe Villareal? Oh wait he's going to Milan, skip this section.BrooooooooksThe ReSargence and its implicationsTillman & Sands & CCV in Champions LeagueReyna back in squadChris Richards' uncertain start to the seasonScally! Scally! Scally!Ledezma back on benchMendez Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody. We're going to do an old-fashioned just Greg and Bell's talking about a bunch of stuff episode. There's a lot going on every day these days. And you can catch up on the weekends action and the previous week's action every Monday with the Monday review. But that leaves a lot out. So let's get right into it. Well, Greg, how you doing?

I'm all right, Bells. I love an old-timey episode. Well, We got Champions League starting next week, and already we're having these busy midweek slates with, you know, the Premier League had a bunch of games yesterday. The championship had a bunch of games. But, you know, starting next week, there's going to be just a lot of soccer for the next three months. It's insane. It's insane.

I posted the Chelsea fixture list through the World Cup, and it puts the championship to shame. Like any of these players we have who are participating in any European competition with those midweek games. their teams are playing two games a week straight through the World Cup with the only break being international break where our guys are going to then go to a camp and play two games during that break. Yeah, fly to Qatar

and play the first group stage game, what, 10 days later? Some of them will get there only seven days before the first game. It's great for us. I don't know how good it is for the players. Hopefully the guys on the super clubs like Pulisic probably will end up benefiting from this.

He's obviously not first choice at the moment for Chelsea. But inevitably he'll have to start some games. He's still going to play basically every game. But I'm sure he'll get some starts, which is better. I feel like that's still going to be better than any of the guys who are going to be relied on to start every game. And in my mind, that would be like Pfok at Union because they're not, they don't have the depth that a Chelsea has of resources. So I'm worried that like they're going to lean on him to start every single game.

and they're in the same boat with two games a week all the way through November. Well, I know from the Discord that you have a take on Pulisik's, that whole Pulisic not being first choice right now, you think that might change in the next few weeks? Well, in my mind, if Chelsea keep doing what they're doing, Dukle's getting canned, right? There's no way you can last through this. This isn't even a matter of Chelsea just being. unlucky against performance. Like their performances have not been good.

The underlying numbers are not good. They are not a team that, you know, is playing like a top four finishing EPL team. So I feel like TUC will probably be gone before we have to worry about, you know, the full, like the full effects of Tucle ball for three months. Right. And getting a new manager is essentially like getting a transfer. I think you made that point. For me, yeah. And I don't think Chelsea are so overloaded with pure wingers that Poulosick would be like,

oh, a new manager comes in, but he's still six on the depth chart. You know, he's struggling to find a spot in part because of the style too cool plays where he doesn't quite have a clear cut position. And so a new manager, if any new manager uses wide players, it's like, okay, pool of sick clearly will fit in on the depth chart here. And because of their glut of games, he's going to play, he's going to get some starts. hopefully he gets to thrive a little bit. Remember what it's like to have fun.

I think he's a resilient guy. I think he'll be fine. And also, like you said, I mean, even if, even if Tuchel, if they do a miraculous turnaround here in the next few weeks and Tuchel doesn't get canned, there's so many games that he's going to get minutes, enough minutes to be ready for the World Cup, at least. The irony is going to be the pool single going to tear and actually save Tuchel's job. And that's how it'll happen. I mean, it totally could.

So the big news this morning is Ricardo Pepe to Groningen, the Dutch club. They play in the Air Divisi, of course. Seems like a great move to me. Yeah, I love it. We have all of these games, an insane amount of midweek games. And the biggest news over the last 24 hours is like three separate transfers. What are the other, well, before we get to the other two, just want to mention a lot of you know this, but Groningen is where Luis Suarez cut his teeth.

Also, Ari and Robin and Philip Costich played there. And Costich, currently a winger at Juventus. So I guess we can say Pepe's the next Luis Suarez. This move, a move for Pepe was absolutely necessary for me if he had any hope of actually playing in the World Cup. Because it wasn't going to happen in Augsburg, right? Even if he's playing, if he's in the Josh Sergeant Norwich situation from last year, the Verder Bremen situation from two years ago where you're taking one shot a month on goal. Like that's not going to be enough to keep you in,

given what the rest of the striker pool is doing. So I don't know if that's what sort of spurred this into action or if it was just a good decision for his development because they realized he wasn't going to be playing that much for Augsberg. But either way, for him to have any chance at the World Cup roster, he had to go somewhere else. And he's going to need to show out, I think. I don't think it'll be enough just to play and get minutes.

he's got to look good in Erdivisi. And there's no guarantee that's going to happen. Growningen aren't a particularly good team in the Dutch League. So you think about going to the Dutch League and high attacking, scoring goals. But that's generally because you're thinking about going to one of the better teams. And then you get to feast on sort of the lower competition. He's going to one of the lower level teams. And so it's not going to be a walk in the park to just score goals for fun, I don't think.

I haven't looked up like how Grunningham plays, but, you know, I will say in defensive lower table, Erdovizzi teams, where Luca Deloori was playing last season, they did play some beautiful soccer a lot of the time. I mean, they didn't succeed. They were relegated, but the soccer was good. And it, you know, maybe growing doesn't play like that at all. But as long as Pepe, like he said, as long as he's not on, you know, playing on the wing, taking one shot a month. It's going to be a big improvement. That's the hope, right?

That's the hope. And it needed to happen. So I'm happy that he's doing this because I want him to fight to be in that picture. Yeah. Because he was fading, I think. We don't know for sure where Burrhalter stood on it. But, man, it seems hard. The last time we recorded Bells was before this absolute explosion of Stryker production.

Yeah. And so I think what we were saying was like, there's just no way Burrhalter can leave him out. And it wasn't, it was never about like a performance. It was just like psychologically or, you know, almost just the way you handle your player, given where the pool was. And it's like, now you've got to just bring him in. But at this point, that is no longer the case at all. And it would be almost like crazy to bring him in over several of these other players.

Yeah. Yeah, that we recorded that episode about we finished recording about a half hour before Sergeant scored a brace against Millwall. Two really nice goals. And, you know, I think I was still kind of in. Well, you got to take Peppy over Sargent still at this point. And that aged poorly very quickly. It didn't take long to age.

Because, yeah, it's totally different situation. Now, Sergeant has four goals in, what, four starts at center forward. And Norwich has won all four games. He looks, I think he looks the part of a good professional soccer striker. And I think a key piece there, too, is that Sergeant for the U.S. is not going to be like auditioning fully. You know, he's spent plenty of time in Burrhalter's camp. So it's not like, oh, we're really rolling the dice on a Vasquez, who we've never seen before.

And so, you know, in that world, for me, it made sense to have Pepey as sort of the floor. But you know who Sergeant is. You know what he can do. You know how he fits your style and your system. So at that point, in my mind, it becomes very easy to bring him in instead of Ricardo Pepi. Yeah. Which we'll get into. Yeah, we'll get more into that.

But let's just talk about Sergeant. I thought he was pretty good against Birmingham City yesterday. He didn't score, and Norwich did have trouble building possession to him, but he was tidy when he did get on the ball. He hit the post from a tight angle on a kind of a broken play, to use an American football term, where he kind of got hacked down in the box, and I think everybody sort of thought it was going to be a penalty. And then it wasn't. And then he got up, and everybody was standing still, and he dribbled forward. went around the goalkeeper and like I said hit the post from a tight angle with his left foot.

It was a good chance. And then he also helped keep the ball alive after a gorgeous free kick from Nunez that, you know, he attacked the rebound and it went up in the air. And then after a scramble, one of his teammates scored for the equalizer. And I thought, you know, maybe my favorite moment of the game from him was he chased down, after a corner kick or a set piece, he chased down Birmingham's counterattack. and when it was when a pass was intercepted and fell to him, he kind of did some quality work on the half turn

and like sort of fainted one direction and then stepped past a guy who was right on his back. Really clever little bit of skill at the end of a, you know, a classic sort of Josh Sergeant hustle play. So I think he's playing well. He may yet have to sit for a pokey, I think that's possible or at least play on the wing. That's not like a done deal.

He hasn't, I don't think he's like destroyed Timu Puki's future. But he's now started four straight games. Go ahead, go ahead. Destroyed Timu Pookie's present. Right. Right. I mean, because Pugie's pretty old. But he, I mean, he's still, you know, he got the assist on the game winner.

He's still a very effective attacking player. And I don't know. It's totally possible we'll see Sergeant on the wing this weekend. You know what I mean? Well, and there's still some fixture congestion in the championship. So he's not totally clear, but it's not quite as bad as all the, all the, fellas we have in the European competitions. But he's, you know, he's still racking up plenty of midweek games.

I think three or four of them, maybe four or five of them still between now and November. So they're playing a lot of games. He's going to get plenty of minutes up top. Yeah. What is it? I mean, just to look at the last two weeks, they played on a Friday. then they played on a Tuesday, then they played on a Saturday, and then a Tuesday, and now they're playing again on Saturday.

So, let me ask this question. Dark Brandon in an undisclosed location, a patron of the podcast said, who can realistically play themselves onto the plane next month, assuming they have a good next month, get called up and shine in our friendlies? And if Brandon, so now get to the meat of the question. And if Brandon Vasquez isn't on that list, should we even be spending time looking at him in September, as opposed to doing so in January.

What do you think? Do we call up Vasquez still after the resurgence? So I'm not going to be mad if Vasquez is called up, but I don't think he needs to be anymore. Like I was all for it when, you know, Sergeant hadn't quite shown his actual height. But now that Sergeant is playing the way he is, and I think Sergeant is a much better fit for how we play,

you know, if Jesus Ferreira is considered our starting striker, Sergeant is much more of that mold than Brandon Vosquez is. So for me, Sergeant makes even the Vosquez audition superfluous. So if our September forward pool was just Ferreira, Sergeant, and Pfeck, I'd be like, works for me. Bring those three guys. Let's get ready for the World Cup. Okay. Is that really harsh on Brandon Vosquez and Haji Wright?

Probably. Yeah. But it's, It's time and we know who we have in some of these players and how they can fit in our system. And I wouldn't be mad at just doing the three and running with it. Yeah. I guess the one thing that comes to my mind is why not bring a fourth, whether it's probably Vasquez for me, but I don't know. Just in case somebody gets injured.

You know, what if Sergeant or Ferreira gets injured? Well, then it's peppy time. You got peppy as your next floor, right? That's right. having scored six goals for groaning in between now and that. Yeah, we're going to have to change our scale of goals. But that's actually going to be another really interesting one to watch develop because he could totally, he could totally, you know, play his way back in if he even needs to.

Again, we're totally speculating on where Burrhalter's pool stands at the moment. Yeah. Okay, let's talk about those other two transfers this week, or at least one is. Rumors. Yeah, rumor. Nothing official. They're both rumors, right? Pepe, peppy, peppy's not even official yet, right?

I mean, it's just, it's just like, so widely reported that we're thinking it's official. Yeah, for, for, for Borgonso, Fubrizio Romano reported it, which is, I think the man hasn't missed, has he? Well, everyone missed on Brian Reynolds, but okay, non-Bryan Reynolds reports he's maybe 100%. Okay. Did he miss on Brian Reynolds? I thought everyone missed on Brian Reynolds several times. Okay. People missed it often enough that they actually reported it correctly long before it happened and then unreported it.

Okay. Well, the rumor on Sergenio Dest, who I think we had some pretty funny bits in the Monday review about this, but he's still in purgatory officially, but the latest rumor is a possible loan to Villarreal, who, you know, made the Champions League semifinals last season. and they're now in the Europa Conference League. But I don't know. We don't know for sure if it's going to happen. But it does kind of make sense. Villarreal right back Juan Foith, the Argentine 24-year-old, is injured. I think he's reportedly out for like eight weeks or something.

He got injured in the last game. He's been getting all the league minutes for them. And their backup right back is a guy named Kiko Feminia, who is 31. and he's been playing in Europa Conference League but only came on for fourth after fourth's injury in the league And he's a classic remembersome guys Fullback I mean he spent like a year playing for Barcelona

So it's not like he's he's a nobody Yeah well I mean he came from Watford And for that at Olivevv I believe So you know I hope he moves It does seem clear that he's not going to play at Barcelona at least Javi doesn't want to play him. I hope he moves too because it's just too much uncertainty.

You know, there's the theories floated that he's just, they're both, both sides are bluffing. And that once the window actually closes, Barcelona will just consider it all water under the bridge and he'll go right back into the lineup as needed. And again, Barcelona in the Champions League, two games a week until November. But we don't know.

And I think Vince has done a great job pointing out that Barcelona's right backs don't attack. the way that best suits Serginio Dest. So it might not just be a, you know, a financial situation. It might be a tactical one where he is tactically surplus. And that could that could lead to some issues for us because I don't know how you handle a player who hasn't played a competitive soccer match in like nine months. Because he was hurt for the end of the season, right? So we don't, he hasn't played since like April.

Yeah. Yeah, we got to get it done in the next, oh, 28 hours or so. All right, so fingers crossed, he moves. Yep. And then the other room, other big rumor is John Brooks to Mallorca. He's back. First off, we don't have Wachey on here, I know, but can you give me your Wolfsburg to Majorca breakdown, geography-wise? Give me the, give me the city contrast. Oh, yeah, Walsberg and Miami. Industrial German city to, I don't know if it's in the former East Germany, but it's, it's close. It's got to be close. Should we look that up?

No, you have to, you have to, you have to just shoot blind. Okay. It's, it's over in that direction at least. And then you go into, you know, one of the most beautiful places in Europe. So that's the contrast. So that is John Brooks's consolation prize for missing the World Cup, right? A new life in Majorca. That's going to spend a year in Majorca.

It definitely has been a fun roller coaster in the, in the discourse, in the narrative. of John Brooks because, you know, in the various proxy wars, he became a flashpoint. And so there was plenty of talk about how nobody wanted him and he's not good anymore. And obviously, this is why he couldn't make it. He stopped playing for the U.S. When he clearly can still play at that level, I mean, we don't know exactly how he's going to shape up for Majorca if he goes there. But I think it was always a little bit premature to say that he could no longer play in a top league. Yes, yeah.

It was, but it was disconcerting to see him not get a deal done all summer. and then, you know, the rumor of him going to Saudi Arabia was out there. So, you know, it was discouraging. It's still all consistent in my mind with the interpretation that his relationship with the men's national team was essentially already fractured to the point where he couldn't know, he wasn't in contention. So I never really thought of it as like he's trying to find a place to play his way back into the team. I don't think his level of play was the issue. so I don't think that there was an urgency to prove himself because that's not what's keeping him out of the team. So for him to have it delayed, it feels like just negotiating stuff where you're just going to wait and wait and wait because you already have one offer or however many offers you have, you know what you're going to take.

And if nothing else materializes, all right, that's where I'm going then. And that would be consistent with an end of the transfer window move. Yeah. I guess I'm just an impatient, impulsive person. No, what you're saying totally makes sense. Well, we just got to watch for Jay Brooks's memoirs. You know, one day it'll all come out what happened between him and Burhalter. I hope he makes it at my orca.

I hope he gets to sit back there. I think they play three back. I hope he used to sit back there and just pick out diagonals for the next 10 months and just enjoy himself. So we talked about this at some length again on the Monday review, which I won't mention again, I promise. but they come out every week and you can get them delivered to your phone by becoming a scuffed patron. The link is in the show notes.

But anyway, what we talked about was Rangers getting back to Champions League and Tillman and Sands, Malik Tillman and James Sands and Cameron Carter Vickers at Celtic, all facing the prospect of six group stage games against just top, top competition before the World Cup.

Actually, let me just read their groups here real quick. Tillman and Sands and Rangers. Go through. What's that? I said let's hit them. Let's go through. Rangers face, Iax, Liverpool, and Napoli. Three very good clubs.

And just a quick note on Tillman and Sands because we've been, you know, hammering on these two games a week situations. I bet Tillman and Sands do not play two games a week. I bet Tillman and Sands play the Champions League games and then get rotated for the, for some of the league games because when, you know, when I was compiling those, those schedules, it's just hilarious to be like, okay, then they've got IACs, then they have hearts, and then they have Liverpool, and then they have Motherwell, or whatever these Scottish teams names are. So it's just going to be total whiplash for these guys. I think they were just playing a third, third division team yesterday in the Cup, in the domestic cup for Scotland.

So it's total whiplash going from like the European royalty to, you know, the United. Yes, with all of the respect possible. Yeah, well, Dundee lost 9 to 0 to Celtic over the weekend. It was not the only 9 to 0 final score in a soccer game in Great Britain this weekend. Anyway, Celtic plays in their group. They're up against Rayal Madrid, R.B. Leipzig and Shakhtar Donetsk. So again. So I'm just going to say it's unlikely that Celtic beat Real Madrid 9.

that's an unlikely score line in Celtics favor for their group stage match against round well i think so i think tillman's definitely going to get rotated uh out of the league games on the weekend he's uh he's uh you know he's a key key player for them at this point um do you i hope sands is in the same situation is do you think he really think he's going to be i i'm guessing he'll see some rotation i don't know it's also you know it's also you know it's also very possible, knock on wood, this doesn't happen, that Rangers get eliminated fairly early on in the Champions League group stages. Yeah.

But even three games against that level of competition is, you know, I guess the question is how much does that help them heading towards the World Cup? Like, I guess it depends on how they perform, but. Yeah, it'll be hard to ignore it. If James Sands goes into Liverpool and, like, puts on a, has a great game, a Tim Ream level game, if you will. I think that that's going to, that's going to like, you know, force some questions to be asked.

Yeah. Same, I guess same goes for CCV at Real Madrid, at the Bernabowl. Okay. Can you give us a centerback depth chart off the top of your head right now? No, no, I can't. Richards hasn't, Richards is still looking like he's getting back to it. So it's even hard to put him as like the clear starter, right?

Yeah, it is. I think he was before the injury, before his transfer, but at this point, like he hasn't been somewhere, you'd be like, oh, this is definitely our starter in the World Cup game. I'm very hopeful that over his next three runouts, you know, he just gets back to even looking like what we're used to seeing him look like. But right now, we just haven't seen yet. I would love to see it. I mean, for the record, my view is I probably still would start him.

But, um, but yeah, there's some concerns. He, go ahead. Yeah, Tim Rieme is right there. Tim Rame is just right there doing things. I know, but yeah, I know. Yeah, it's tough. It's a tough one. For me, at least.

Richards, just to catch everybody up, he played it, he started a cup match against Oxford United, thought he was okay, but maybe a little not great. You highlighted a moment where he kind of lost somebody and he ended up blocking the shot. I don't know. Yeah, it's a tough one, and it's one where it's certainly not a howler. You're just looking at the little like, you know, alertness, match alertness, reading of the play situations and how defenders prioritize things. This came up a lot in the U.S. friendlies in June where it's hard to even pinpoint.

who the mistake is really on. You're just seeing as a team there's a breakdown. And what you're hoping is that the centerback you're relying on for your World Cup success is one of the guys who's solving the problems in real time and fixing it. I don't care about the other guys around Chris Richards for Crystal Palace who are part of the mistake. I just want to see Richards like identify a danger and solve it. This was a situation where he was sort of tracking a man off at the ball who moved off to the sideline. and I believe Palace are playing three in the back.

So he was the center center back, and he kind of moved off to the sideline. His other centerback on the right side on the weak side was staying with another player wide, and the opponent's center midfielder attacking mid just ran right into the space between them. Totally, like nobody was aware of him at all. The Palace Center mid could have been tracking him a little tighter, so it was not like this was clearly Chris Richards' player or responsibility. But Richards never clocked it. You know, it was a slow developing play.

And he just never recognized the danger developing and had to react late. And came back and made a play, which is nice. But yeah, it's just one of those things where it's like, I want to see him solving these problems sooner and with more decisiveness. He doesn't look 100% comfortable yet at Crystal Palace. And that's understandable. You know, he's only, this is the only game he got to start at centerback. I think it's the only game he's actually played centerback. He played, he's played on both sides at wingback.

off the bench in the Premier League, including against Manchester City, which is just an absolute nightmare. So, yeah, we'll see what happens. But centerback has gotten a little bit more confusing. We know Richards can get to the point where he's capable of being our starting centerback. We know that's possible.

And that's what I'm basically, I'm half expecting that to happen in short order. And Ream is the best shout for like direct competition for him for me at this point. But, you know, CTVs, CCVs hanging around and James Sands did have a really good game against PSV Einhoven and a game that the Rangers had to win to get back to Champions League for the first time in more than a decade. I mean, it's a huge game for that club and he's like, you know, I went on some of the Rangers

chat boards. They love the guy. They love Jimmy Sands. So we'll see. Lots to pay attention to. The other groups in Champions League are, you know, West McKinney and Juventus play. PSG, Benfica, and Haifa Maccabee, and then Giorana, who is back in the squad this weekend, reportedly,

according to Derek Ray, the broadcaster, they play Manchester City, Sevia, and F.C. Copenhagen, Pulisic and Chelsea play Milan, A.C. Milan, that is, Salzburg and Dino-Mo Zagreb. And then, Dest, if he stays at Barcelona, we'll face Bayern, Inter Milan, and Victoria Plezen. The geo-reina one's interesting. Again, this is one where it's been like a confusing month for fans of Gio-Rena in the U.S.

Because he's been in the squad on home days and then just not in it at all on the road. And so again, I'm mostly fine with that, hoping there's not anything like really physically setting him back from doing those things. And they're just sort of being very ginger with him. because if they're playing for the long term and looking at that schedule of theirs and the number of fixtures on it, totally makes sense. And I'm very happy with limited time now to get him ramped fully up come mid-October. Yeah, Terzich's quote was something like, we're not going to, it's okay to sacrifice one or two games for the long term. And, you know, couldn't agree more, Mr. Terzich. I mean, he didn't say it, but he's like, Byron's winning the league anyway.

So, yeah, Union, Berlin plays Byron this, this weekend. They share the top of the table. I do not think that will probably be the case by Saturday afternoon, central time. I haven't seen Byron's expected goals, but I have a feeling their underlying numbers are going to be a little bit ahead of Berlin's. They were absolutely mauling glad back over the weekend. I mean, I know I ended in a draw, but it was just. A terrifying display of attacking prowess. Okay.

Speaking of which, Joe Scali, we should talk about him. You know, so much of the energy and the conflict in the fan base centers around Joseph Scali these days, I feel like. You know, a backup. He's going to be a backup fullback for the U.S. at the World Cup if he goes to the World Cup. Well, I think it's because of the dest situation, right? I think that throws a real wrinkle into it because, like, Jedi. is the easy one on the left side. And Jedi is playing every week.

And even if the, Fulham brings in a new left back, it seems like Jedi will get plenty of minutes, even if his are cut down a little bit. But the death situation is different because, you know, Javi is essentially bluffing that Dest will not play soccer in soccer games. And that is a big deal,

right? I don't know how you approach that if you're bringing it, bringing a player to the World Cup, who is not playing at all. The September camp should tell us a lot about that. if Dest is still at Barcelona not playing. If he can come in and look fine for us, I think that would assuage a lot of concerns.

And we'd be like, okay, this is fine. It's not ideal. But look what he did after six months off. The last two months off shouldn't be that big a deal. He'll still come in and do good. But if he looks rough and he doesn't look up for it and he can't put together the stuff that he is very good at putting together that makes him so valuable, like then what?

Then what? Then we're talking about we need a new starting right back. And that's definitely going to be Joe Scally. It could be, right? That's not a total... No, it could be. Yeah. It's not wild that that would be the case.

I mean, it's just the... I feel like we talked about this a lot on our various platforms, but it's just weird for me because on paper, it's his starter at Gladback. He's got an Austrian international on the bench, and he's not hurt, this liner guy. and yet you watch him play it's I don't find his performances convincing maybe I'm wrong about that but it just

I don't know it doesn't he doesn't convince I don't think so I don't know for sure and I'm not telling you how you're how you're seeing things but I think I think his US performances in June has specifically the Uruguay performance has made people really skeptical

or at least you know leery of really trust costing him. And he, he sort of played like, like he was kind of a deer in the headlights. And so my, my hope and what I'm kind of optimistic about is that that was just like first game, Jadros with the national team. It's a big deal. And so he was just a little bit, you know, tight, holding, holding that rope a little bit too tight. Because most of his mistakes were like on the ball, not much pressure and he just doesn't look comfortable. Right. His passes are just a little bit off to players when it's not like even a, he's not threading a needle, he's just underhitting or overhitting or mishitting, missing his mark on a

on a fairly simple path. So for me, that, that feels like nerve issues and we can, and he could get through those just by playing another game for the US. And that's what I'm really hoping it is. I'm hoping he's there in September. I'm hoping he looks good and can make us feel good about just being like, yes, at worst, he's the number two guy behind Serenio Des. I, I'm sure that his his performances for the U.S. do color the way I watch him in the Bundesliga. But I would say even in the Bundesliga, you know, you watch Desk play, even when Dest is not at his best, you know, there's a crispness to his, the way he combines and possesses the ball that I don't, I'm not, you know, it's not a comparison between Scali and Dest.

I mean, I think they're probably, Desk probably going to the World Cup. But just to use that comparison as a frame of reference, I don't see. that kind of crispness. I think his stay at, his sort of stay at home defending chops are pretty, pretty good. He's dogged and determined, but it's not, it's not like he's perfect at that stuff either.

And I think that's, I think that's another big part of the conversation because, you know, if desks can't play, that has, that has some real knock on effects for what we're going to do tactically because, you know, you don't just necessarily replace him with a right back and then continue the way you were doing it before. Like, you have to replace

his to use the the money ball framework like you have to replace his attacking in the aggregate so you've got to you've got to find a way like you you throw reggie cannon up there and that's not the same attack that we had before right so uh you know we have we experimented with some different ways of doing that in june where you use more of an attacking midfielder use a stay at home right back and then you get one of our extra very good attacking players in the lineup but that means sacrificing one of m m ms for the in my mind so So all just to say, like when you're talking about Scali being a possible stay at home right back, that could fit as an alternative to Sergenio Dest if Dest isn't the guy.

So if he can at least prove those chops, that would be something. That'd be something to work with. Yeah, that's true. And then it'd be that asymmetrical thing where Robinson, Anthony Robinson's the piston going up and down, the left side. And we just have a base of three across the other side. All right. Well, we're going to be paying a lot of attention to Joe Scally over the next couple of months. Have no fear.

I think it's possible to trust Shaq Moore to set a higher floor than Joe Scali and not be an insane person or like a person who is taking money from Don Garber today. I still, I think that's possible. I love that that's attached to Shaqmore because I feel like we were some of the only people who are still. talking about Shackmore when he was in the Segunda long before he got his Gold Cup call up. So we're a long time. You're the, you're the Shackmore, OG, for sure.

But it's, you know, what bugs me is when you're sending me these clips of Shackmore and Reggie Cannon, and they're just getting rinsed. Yeah. Cannon especially. And I'm like, oh dear. Like that that makes me think that it'll be safer

to roll the dice with Joe Scalli, despite any misgivings you have. because, you know, at the very least, he's not getting rinsed by worse players. Yeah, I mean, he's playing better competition every week. No doubt about it. Probably need to just dive in on, like, each of their last three games. I'm not probably going to dive in on Canon. I'm pretty sure I don't want him out there, but we'll see.

dive in or just or just wait and see that in September he just holds his own looks totally comfortable solid uh does a job and that's all we need to see okay sounds good richie ladesma is back on the bench for PSV as we speak uh i don't know if he's gotten into the game i'm gonna check that while we're talking here uh any thoughts on Ladesma while i while i look this up Greg um so For me, Ledesma had such a long road back just from his injury a year and a half ago where he did his ACL, right? Yeah. And that with the emergence of the ascension of Brendan Aronson in that attacking role for us, just made it such a long shot for Ledma to get back anyway than to have the further setback. I just don't think it's, I don't think it's in the cards.

The rise of Malik Tillman now making it even more unlikely. Ladezma could prove that he is the better option, even as a. even as a gamble. Like Malik Tillman now, despite his tiny sample size, seems like my favorite pick for the gamble. Like roll the dice on a sample size and trust that what we've seen so far gives us something on that roster for Qatar. Yeah.

I think that's right. I'm glad Ledesma's back. I'm hopeful that he can just, again, continue to make a soccer career of it. I'm hoping that these injuries don't become, you know, Tadaguay-ass. Yeah. No, I mean, it was a tough tackle. endured and I think it was just

seems like kind of a one-off thing and he's not gotten onto the game yet there PSV is up 6 to 1 over Volandam and I agree it would have to be a miraculous run of form here for him to you know make it and even even that might not do the

do the trick the other we have some really good players we have a lot of good players especially in the attack so no shame in missing the cut this this World Cup yeah and I mean there's I don't think think Ledezma is really to be pitied at this point. I mean, he's a first team player for

PSV Einhoven. He's doing all right. Another first team player I want to mention, I don't, again, this is sort of on the fringes again, but Alex Mendez, I still think people are probably sleeping on him. He's playing, he's playing well. I think he was out of the squad for a knock, and they're easing him back in. So that's why he hasn't started a couple games. But what happened over the weekend as he was subbed on in the first half for a young midfielder from Brazil who did not appear to be injured. So I think it was like a tactical decision. Zella was down to zero. They came back to get a two-two draw and, you know, had a chance to win the game.

They just didn't put a couple of chances away. I'm not saying it's all because of Mendez, but he did help. And it is, he's just so fun to watch on the ball. Absolute precision with that left foot. Again, not going to play in the World Cup almost certainly. maybe the next one. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I think it's totally fair to say that people are still are sleeping on him

and that there's no real chance he's going to be playing in the World Cup or really belongs in that final roster. Because I do think people still sort of associate him with like the failed, some of those players who went over maybe too early and failed to break through. It's like Mendez has kind of broken through. Like he's doing it out there. I mean, I think, you know, I obviously have a soft spot for those. two guys let Ledesma and Mendez.

But, you know, Mendez in particular has really grounded out. You know, he went to a newly promoted side in Portugal. And after pretty much, you know, flunking out at Iax, he turned it on. You know, he started to figure out how to play defense, how to be more physical. And he's a different player than he was two years ago. I think that's pretty clear. All right. You got anything else you want to add?

No, I think that's a good, I think that's a good. good roundup of some miscellaneous odds-in-ends. Oh, yeah. Let me ask this question from Ryan in Denver. I think we kind of covered it, but let's just take this on the nose. The idea of a change-up center-forward seems to have centered on P-Foc, and I generally agree. If an injury hits someone goes on a crazy run of goals, who are your alternates at that Welp, this is going bad, and we need a goal position?

So who are the backup P-Fox if we're talking about? that third striker position being for somebody who can help you chase a game. So I feel like I feel like that would still, that could be a Brandon Voskis, who I, you know, had kind of maybe being able to sneak in mostly over Pepey, so having Voskis and Pfok on the roster, but it was it was hedged on Vosquez being able to also be an in-system striker in sort of the primary setup. If he wasn't going to be able to do that, then I didn't think he would necessarily be able to beat out Pfok.

So I think he could be the guy if PFOx not available. I mean, I'm still very hopeful that D.K. gets back and starts playing some soccer games because I think he could absolutely be that player. Where, you know, if all else fails, it's sort of launched it up there and let some guys smash around a little bit. I don't know. I don't know if Haji is really that guy. He's not really. Yeah, he kind of gets grouped in as the chasing the goal.

But I feel like that's just more because he can't. sort of take somebody on, right? He's not going to smash. He's not doing all the smashing that D.K would do and that Pfok is doing a great job of in the Bundesliga. But, you know, Haji can get a ball in a channel. You can hit it up into the channel for him and he can, he can collect it. And then he can try to, like, blow by someone. Yeah, he's not, he has the frame to be a really, like, classic target striker.

But he doesn't like to play that way. I don't think he's almost like he's more of a wide. forward or something and and and you know really good at converting chances over the last 12 months okay so but that would probably that's probably about it right is there i mean is there anyone else in that running well yeah no vasquez and who is the other one you said i was i'm still i'm still rolling with dk if he can pull something off i feel like he's i'd be surprised if he gets healthy soon enough to to make that run i the only other thought i had about it is sergeant Sergeant has shown a lot more physicality at the striker position over the last few games

and might not be a bad option for that late game chasing a goal striker himself. There you go. So that could get, we could end up with three similar-ish forwards or a lot of overlap if Pfok can't go, right? It's between Hesu's Sergeant and whoever might come in as the third. Yeah, I mean, Hesus and Pfok are the, you know, sort of the polar. opposites and then everybody else falls somewhere in the middle. I think that's fair.

Thanks, Greg. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see you.