Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #323: Pulisic, Pepi & Sargent score. Weah, Musah & CCV return.

Episode Date: October 10, 2022

A jam-packed public Monday Review with Watke and Vince and Belz. Full weekend rundown, including Aaronson's mazy, buttery run, volleys struck into the ground, dubious reportage on Scally's place in the XI, and much much much more.Join Scuffed on Patreon for as little as $2 a month: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedPatrons get a private feed for the Monday Review, which is, among other things, a run-down of club action for national team players every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalogue of historic recaps we're working on. Here's what we have so far.#1 Czechoslovakia v USA, 1990, https://www.patreon.com/posts/historic-recap-v-67067301#2 USA v Colombia, 1994, https://www.patreon.com/posts/historic-recap-2-69083229#3 USA v Iran, 1998, https://www.patreon.com/posts/historic-recap-3-70575704#4: Mexico v USA, 2002, https://www.patreon.com/posts/historic-recap-4-72235898 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.

From the USSF approved territories of Georgia and Kentucky, and also from the FIFA approved territory of Brooklyn, this is the Monday Review. It's the five-year anniversary today of the 2-1 loss at Trinidad and Tobago that knocked us out of the 2018 World Cup. Can't believe it's been five years. How are you guys celebrating this anniversary? I'm just finding out about it right now.

So I feel like there were enough positive things that happened this weekend. I didn't necessarily need to be brought down like that, Adam. Oh, yeah, there's going to be a lot of positive stuff to talk about. But I wanted to bring it up. Man, I bet you I were extra sad on that day. I need to go back and soak some of that up. If anybody can send me like a pod. Matter of fact, I think I've seen people in the Discord talk about.

I think the TSS from that day or something like that was legendary. It's a legendary TSS. episode. I need to, I need to, I need to soak a little bit. I should go. I was, I was flying that night and missed a flight, missed a connection. So I had to watch the game from an airport motel. And it was, that's about as grim of a place as you can experience that. What happened that night. Um, yeah. But again, I'm feeling, I've gotten over it. I don't, I'm fine. I, I mostly just wanted to bring it up because, even though it was a bad day, it was also basically the birth of scuffed. And in a weird way, I look back fondly, not on that, obviously, but on the fallout from it

and being one of the people picking up the pieces afterwards. Because that's how we got our start. And there are a lot of you who've been with us since then. And I think there's definitely some camaraderie there. Hell yeah. That's true. We would not be speaking right now, would we? And the thing is, it's like, okay.

Yeah, it was a missed opportunity. I guess we, you know, we could have got more fans by being in 2018 World Cup. But somehow I made my way here anyway. I don't know. I had been building like a little bit of soccer momentum. In 2018 was what I had earmarked. Yeah, I had that one earmarked like, yo, okay, World Cup here. Then after that, I'm going to go ahead and dive in.

Nope. And. But you dove in anyway, though. I was trying to find a club team. Okay. And I had a very academic process. I had like five different criteria on that I was selected for and I was grading each team on it. But and then while I was doing this very rigorous process, I was like, oh, you know, I already got the built-in, the built-in thing with the USA here.

So let me just go ahead and hop all the way in on that. And once I saw they had black people too, then I was like, oh, man, I mean, we're in here. We're in here for sure. For sure, for sure. So, yeah. Yeah, people talk about like we haven't learned it. We didn't learn anything from it. And I don't know, maybe that's true in some ways.

But we did definitely transition to a younger generation. It remains to be seen how successful they can be. But much rather be riding with this crew than with, you know, Michael Bradley and Will Trap and that whole crowd. So Bobby Wood. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So we did turn. did turn the page in the player pool and that just in itself is a exciting thing.

Let's move to the weekend's action because there was a lot of it, a lot of good news. Let's start with one Christian Matae Pulisic. Pulisic for Chelsea. You'll find curling effort in the first half tipped over by Saar and he might get another chance now. Pulisic. Score to goal. Lovely. Did you guys see how close that came to hitting the goalkeeper?

You know? And if it had? Oh, man. Man, he would have had the worst game in the history of a Chelsea player. But what a goal, though. Because he didn't convert on a couple other good chances to write the header and the... Yeah, he had a shot, powered over. He could probably have been a bit calmer on that one.

And then the header one was really hard. That was a really hard one. Heters are hard. That was a far away header. He did do it not great. I think we can admit. You're kind of a student of the faraway header, aren't you? Yeah, it's just, but it was actually kind of similar to the header that Havert scored later.

One of those ones where you kind of got to hit it high and get it over. And then he had after that, obviously the shot that got saved. And that's kind of when the mood started to turn, I think. Well, number one, most importantly, he started at left wing. Or at least he was a left-sided player. I don't know if he necessarily was a winger per se There seemed to be a little defendant involved in that But um

Yeah like in between the chances I kind of thought the game was Was a mixed bag He was he was giving the ball away a little bit A little loose on the carry specifically Sometimes where I mean like we talked about before That he probably Could have released it

Released it before before getting tackled or losing or whatever. He did have some plays that he did release it on though. I guess one in particular when he put Mountain in for a shot. He did. And then you're right, it was very, very much on the left. So it was kind of that repeated thing where he's got the ball and there's two defenders and they're back peddling a little bit and he's got to decide whether to drive in and

play it out. And he's kind of just doing that for most of the first half. I thought pretty effectively. Yeah. Yeah. that same exact situation that same exact situation happened in multiple times

in that first half. But yeah man, I mean, this is what we like to see. It's great. It's great that he's starting on the left. It's great that he scored a goal. Waki,

as you talked about, he had that shot from like 30 yards out. Yeah. Well, you know, we talked about this before, but I just, like I can't really gauge soccer distances. We don't really have any idea

how far away it was. It was outside of the box. I'll tell you that. He also, one of the plays that the TV people got on him a little bit was when the keeper was out and he got it, but kind of in traffic, he came pretty close to megging. He did Meg the defender with a little pass,

but it looks like he just lost it. He actually tapped it through his legs. It just wasn't at the right angle. That could have been a big assist. This game came after a pulley was an unused sub in the midweek. as Chelsea won 3-0 over Milan. And this was why we were always optimistic about playing time. So it's a lot of fixtures, a lot of fixtures going on,

a lot of different focuses for Chelsea. And hopefully, even if he's not like a Champions League starter, you know, at least hopefully he can, you know, he's put itself in contention for sub-appearances out the bench. Yeah, Grand Potter said after the game that he's a human being, he wants to play. Sounds about right to me. and then Eric Winaldah rushed to his defense in the middle of the game,

you know, calling out what he perceived as English bias against Pulisic. I did see that tweet. There were some tweets out there about that. That was kind of the mood. It's always tricky when all the names himself as one of your allies. He called him a homeboy Pulisi. I clocked that. I will say that going back, I was trying to get audio of them being really

kind of over the top toward him because there was complaints that they were being too negative toward him in the broadcast it wasn't that bad I wanted like

really good examples they weren't that good color me shocked it was like yeah it was a bit too negative but as I was watching it was like this is terrible these people are monsters

but going back in the tape it was unfortunately there weren't really clear examples of them savaging him oh oh and before I forget we got to talk about this tiger celebration yeah yeah oh let's talk about this well what do you think about it bro do uh look well well what I think about it is if we get a big goal from Christian Polisick in the World Cup and he does that shit I'm a I'm gonna be ashamed I'm gonna be

ashamed yeah you know I'm I'm not tweeting out the highlight yeah I'm saying I'm not I'm sending this to my friends like like like oh look at this huge moment for you U.S. soccer. You're going to refuse to tweet out the highlight based on this Tiger celebration if he's sports a World Cup? I mean, I appreciate Vince standing by his principles here. I'm not going to go so far as to say that I wouldn't do that. But I think, you know, I think we might actually be locked into the Tiger celebration

though. So it might just be, we might be better off just supporting it at this point. I mean, come home, bro. It's just, it's just not good. It's, it's, you know, I don't use the word cringe often. It can be good. I mean, come on. It can be a good celebration.

I'll say that. That's what I think. It can't. But when you're in the middle of sliding and also you try to hold it up, like you can't be moving. Because, you know what I'm saying? Your forearm placement has to be precise. He should not be, I don't even think he should be doing these slides. He's once injured himself with one, you know.

So let's no more. I mean, score as many goals as you can, but let's, I would trade, keep doing the tiger, let's pause on the knee side. I don't like the tiger either. I mean, if he scores a goal at the World Cup and he's, and he is so full of his own ideas and plans that he slides to his knees and puts his forearm tattoo over his eyes, I'll be really surprised. Like, he should be.

That's interesting. He should be running around. Yeah. Yeah, you should be running like a crazy man. What's interesting is... Yeah, we know, we know, Bills. We know... Yeah, I just want to reiterate my position here.

I think it's really interesting that you and Vince have completely different celebration philosophies, but have agreed on this for kind of different reasons. But I think it goes to, you know, it says a lot. It says something about the human family, I think, doesn't it? Yeah. Well, let's move on to, uh, unless there's anything else on Poulousek from... Oh, no, that's it. That's it.

All right. Pepey scored a brace. One was a penalty. The other was a goal, which I will play the audio from here, because it's a wonderful Dutch call on it. Here we go. Ricardo Pepi, good combination. 2-2.

What a goal, said for Groningen. NB.M. A.m. H.E.M. H.E. Ricardo Pepi. The crowd was going nuts, but the joy was a little bit short-lived because 10-man, Groningen went down 3-2 later in the game. game and lost again. It doesn't really matter that much for our purposes. Peppy is he's scoring goals. The penalty was good. What did you think of the volley, Vince? Oh, it was crazy. I didn't, I didn't expect to see that when I clicked the video. I mean, it was absolutely filthy. Like the

flick that came from, I think this was from a, this goes from a, oh, it was from a long throwin. That's right. Possibly the only goal I've ever seen from a long throwin. So long throwin comes in, somebody heads it in, like, Rico's general direction, and the flick. The flick was so nice. Like,

I paused it last night watching it. And, you know, his back is about, like, parallel to the ground. Getting in a nice position just to softly lay that off,

lays it off to the man that's, that's backboarding. I guess, is that a strike partner? I don't know who that was. I mean, it was, yeah,

I don't know. Yeah, I mean, to the man who was backboarding. and just like from from the flick does just you know just a nice nice movement in the box yep to to be able to receive the return and just smash that thing back into the ground and into the goal credit to the backboard by the way that was quite a yeah yeah for sure placement and then I really I liked his celebration really solid emotion running shoulder bump with a teammate then he kind of kicked an ad board kind of like almost stood on it

type of thing so that was really hot yeah yeah camera pan to a guy who had like six beers in his hands and i that stadium i think looks like that's we should make a trip there gron gron again that would be fun just there yeah yeah they were they were going crazy for sure and i don't know if uh i don't know if rico knew that that thing was not like standable he that that had no but he was really he just did do it really really quickly he got his way off that one hand too yeah That thing started tipping, he was like, ah, I'm, he just meant to knock it over. He played it well. He played it well.

Even without, you know, the goal. And I guess he was probably feeling good just, you know, from already getting on the score sheet with the penalty. But he was, he was busy all match, just popping up everywhere. Just being available for the ball. Yeah. They love him up there, I think. He, did you notice after, so after he scored, he was like chasing a ball down in the corner. It was still two, too.

And he hustled, got to the ball, backheeled it off one of those wall-like defenders and out of bounds want to throw in. And the crowd just erupted. They're like so happy about peppy right now. I love it. It feels great. Yeah. I love it. And, you know, just like this type of performance right here, it's just one of those ones, man.

Like, it's just been a while. It's been a while for Rico. And it, like, it just reminds you. He is that, I don't know if I want to say elite prospect, but like one famous NFL coach said, I don't know his name is, but he is who we thought he was. Yeah. He is who we thought he was. He's only 19. He's still only 19.

Right. Man was born in 2003. It's coming. What about the penalty? Denny Green. Was it Denny Green? Who said that? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They are who we thought they were. That's what. Yeah. What was the question, Adam? Sorry. I just wanted you to talk about the penalty a little bit. Oh, really calmly put into that left corner. And then, again, the celebration, just like a really slow, cool jog, no rush.

It goes all the way to touchline, then does it jump fist pump. But kind of a tight into the body one, all in really good proportion to the moment. Yes, that's exactly what it is. It's a more subtle celebration. But I think it's another good example of really how it should be done. He's a better Celebrator than Christian Pulisic. I'm going to all say that.

Full stop. I have him as our best celebrator. I could be forgetting somebody. I would hear Anthony out. Jeddah, yeah, I'll say Jeddah. I give it to Jeddah. For me, for me. But, man, I just don't know why we couldn't have got this loan a little bit sooner.

Well, he was only at Augsburg for one half season. And Augsburg does sound. like it could have worked, right? It turns out it, we didn't know what we were, we didn't really know what Augspert was, but, you know. Yeah. It seemed like a low enough in the table team.

Is that what you're saying? Like, they're, they're not too fancy down there. They can, they can accept and incorporate a 19 year old. That's exactly the point that they, you know, are not fancy specifically.

Like, their players, their players have to have no cooth to them. This is what we, this is what we didn't realize. No, That's an excellent point Yeah, it was a trap

But it's all good now It's all good now Let's talk about Josh Sargent Because he also scored Here's the audio Shaking off his injury problem Sargent has seized possession on the left

Cuts in towards the penalty area It's Sergeant for Norwich And he scored It has only taken One minute for Norris City To become the first team To score against Preston When they're on their travels this season

jumping finish from Sergeant. A little busy of a commentator there. It's kind of like the AM radio call, you know, for a baseball. One thing I've learned with all these people and all these players in the championship is that, you know, each championship teams in-house announcers, they're just, I mean, the most homer of homers. You know what I'm saying? They're very entertaining, all of them.

If you can ever listen to them at any point, I would recommend it. Yeah, I actually liked his style. You did? Yeah, I don't know. Maybe if not for a whole game. Just let the crowd breathe a little bit is my thought. Go ahead, sorry. I was just saying maybe not.

I would have to listen to the whole game to know for sure. Funny thing is, Y Scout doesn't, have you noticed that when Y Scout puts a championship game up, they don't put any of the commentary? Yeah. I think that's why I've never heard it. Because I don't lie.

That's the only place I was the championship. Well, Norwich lost. So that was the goal from Sergeant, like he said, in the first minute of the game, first very, very early in the game. It was a interesting goal. He put it through the legs of a defender at the edge of the box and then beat the keeper.

I think mostly because the keeper was unsighted because you watch it. You're like, the keeper should get to that, you know. It wasn't in the corner. It was close to the middle of the goal. But he just kicked it so confidently. It felt like it should go in. Yes. And the way he strikes the ball in that and a goal like that.

And the way it kind of spins up in the back of the net, just kind of relax. It has like sort of a relaxing feel to it. I like the way Sergeant puts the ball in the back of the net. Yeah. He also, he also had two. I mean, he had a good game. I would say even more active and progressive than Ricardo Pepe was.

And I thought Pepe had a good game too. But he also had, I think he had six shots in the game, but two of them in particular were really close. to be in goals. One was in the first half right after he scored, a few minutes after he scored, he ran on to like a headed flick. And maybe should have taken a volley on it,

but settled it and then kind of allowed a defender to step in front of him and did some nice footwork to get a shot off, just hit it right at the keeper, drew a good save. And then early in the second half he got another shot. This one was a volley on a, like kind of a deflection that he just punished into the ground. and it's just unlucky that it was right at the keeper

because he hit it so well and he punished it with composure too it was a controlled punishment of that ball kind of into the ground and we don't talk enough about the in the ground into the ground finish it's yeah no we don't we certainly don't we should start talking about it a lot

it's a good good way to finish it's so hard for the goalkeeper to understand the trajectory of that ball yeah I had thought about it until I saw Rico's goal but yeah after that yeah now that we're scoring goals like this then we should first of all keep doing them

and then make sure we're talking about them should we do the whole episode on it yes I think we should let's do it the history of the national team players hitting the ball into the ground and into the goal like that that Norwich was all over Preston they did like they did end up losing

three two but mostly because of some goalkeeping from the Norwich goalkeeper cruel. Yeah, he was pretty damn bad. It's pretty bad. Got beat at his near post on the third, gave it away on the second, leading to the second. Sergeant can't do anything about that. Just like Peppy can't do anything about one of his guys getting sent off for a dog so. So it's too bad they both lost, but it doesn't really matter for our purposes.

Anything else on Oh Yeah Anything else on sergeant? Well, okay So right now Norwich Sit atop the table

The championship table With Sheffield United on 24 points And I have to ask you too Do we actually want them back in the prim? I think for the universe To continue being how it should be They need to keep going up and down Just every year forever

But for Josh Okay Yes Also yes We want him To play him to play Like Why?

Why do we want to do that Especially Because you know He is playing on the wing And all these In all these matches really Ever since Pookie Got back to fitness

So Okay So do we want him playing wingback Again Oh yeah There is that issue We would like him To play striker

I was thinking Do we want That I was thinking you were asking in terms of do we want him to just continue being successful at this level?

Well, yeah, no. Well, that, that too, but do we want, do we want to put ourselves through where we put ourselves through last year? And, not only that, but, you know,

that it could potentially have, you know, the same effects on his national team appearances. that it did last year, you know, how he found itself out of the national team. If he goes back up to the prim and is, you know, just putting in good, good hard shifts of getting dirty

and not creating anything. I think he, I hear what you're saying, and I may agree with you. I suspect that he feels like he needs to give the Premier League another try, you know? It might not work. I think it will work, but.

Unfinished business. Yeah. Yeah, okay, okay. It is a tricky one. I guess my hope is, you know, he's on pace. He has seven goals and 13 games. So I think that puts him on pace for 20 goals, like 20 plus goals. You know, who knows if that'll happen.

But I guess my hope is he does enough to prove himself that like Pookie leaves and he becomes the full-on striker or even better, he gets bought by a bigger team. I don't know how often that happens, but... That would be nice. So I feel like... So we got Pookie leaving. That's one thing that could help.

And possibly he gets so many goals that that just carries him throughout this next prim campaign that he still gets called up by whoever it is. You know, it might not be Greg Burrhalter. Marcelo Bielsa. Ooh. Ooh. Do we... I don't...

Do we want... Yes, we do want that. Of course we want that. We also got to remember that, well, I guess the World Cup cycle is going to be compressed a little bit because of this late World Cup we're having. But even with a compressed cycle, Sergeant's not...

I mean, even if he misses all the games in the first... Say they go back to the prem. He has a similar situation he had. The last time he was in the Premier League, it's not going to really hurt his 2020. World Cup situation, even if he doesn't get called up for a year. There's so much time before the next World Cup. Okay.

All right. Fair enough. I mean, unless the player pool just starts really leveling up in the way we all hope it does, then it gets a little trickier. When do we find out if that's happening, by the way? Yeah, what do we know? Well, we just kind of know next year sometime what's happening with these next group of folks. I guess you guys know

I just don't I should just listen to a podcast about it Never mind Well I don't know I think it's hard to know I mean because we all thought it was happening already And I still do think it has happened Yeah

But Good to know I guess we've hit this level now It's tough We shall see Like I guess we do have Even after the World Cup If he doesn't go

Which I don't know I'm I probably wouldn't put my money on it I guess we have next summer We've got Nations League or something Nation League finals Something we got

Something in the spring or something What's going on? Yeah I guess we've already done some Nations League We have two more Nations League games in March And then are the finals in the summer I don't know man Yeah Does soccer go back to a normal schedule

Eventually or is it just always going to be kind of crazy from now on I don't know when anything is I think it goes back to a normal schedule after this World Cup and the Arabian Peninsula. Should we talk about Pfok? We don't have to talk about him long, but he didn't score. No, he didn't.

He didn't have any chances. He almost created one with defense, but it didn't quite come off. He was pressing and won the ball, and then it kind of got caught up, and he didn't get a shot off. It wasn't that interesting of a game other than that. I mean, no, the game was interesting.

He was not that interesting, I didn't think. Well, no, you shouldn't, you shouldn't have took that back, Waki, because I have to say no Union game is really that interesting. They should be kicking the ball. Right. Back and forth. Back and forth. Be looking like volleyball out there.

Yes, in an absolute sense. This was not interesting at all. But it was, you know, it was a union game. Yep. Chiroldo Becker is pretty interesting when he gets in the ball. Bro, he's nice. He's real nice. If he was the U.S. eligible player, like, he would be my starter immediately.

He is. He's a player for real. Yeah. Yeah, he is. All right. Jesus Ferreira, season's over and Major League Soccer season is over. Decision Day was yesterday. Isn't decision, doesn't decision day make it sound like people are making decisions,

like deciding things? Isn't that normally what it means? Well, you know, people are getting. their fate. Yeah, I mean, I get it. And the thumbs up or the thumbs down. Yeah, we don't need to. I don't need it. You're right. But, yeah, Hazers got an assist to one, Sebastian Leget. What Hayes was

wanted in this game was a goal to set the FC Dallas single-season record for goals in the season. And he did not get it. But, you know, still got on the score sheet. Paul Ariola also scored. Hmm. So. Was Hayes sad about that? That he didn't win the single season FC Dallas scoring record?

I saw somebody on the... I think it was Jackie on the Discord said he was sad. I don't know. I think maybe after the game or something he looked distraught. I don't know what was going on, but...

He'll be all right. Yeah, yeah. He had a great season, man. Great campaign. Yep. Back in mid-August, David and Indianapolis, great friend of the pod.

More buildings and food if you're following on Discord. asked how many goals each striker needed to score before the World Cup to be on the plane. I think we're all assuming Ferreira was a lock back then and probably still are. But here's what I said in this purely scientific exercise. I said Pepey needed two, Pfeck needed four, Sergeant needed seven, Wright needed seven, Hodgiy right needed seven, and Hoppe needed 20. So he had Matthew Hoppy on the question.

So Hoppe is obviously not applicable. I don't even know if he scored a goal yet this season. I think you put the right number on it, 20. Yeah, for sure. But I just want to mention he made his debut yesterday or Saturday. For who? For Middlesbrough. Okay.

He came on like the 75th minute or something like that. That's cool. Yeah. He's one for 20, 26 maybe. So since then, now the updated numbers are Pepey now has four goals. So he's doubled what I thought was his minimum requirement. Pfok has four. I think he already had three when I said that he needed four.

Something like that. And Sargent has seven, which is his requirement. And then Wright has five, but none since August. So how long ago did you, it seems like you did a pretty good job saying these numbers. I think they all sound exactly right. When did you say them? In August, yeah, mid-August. Okay.

Yeah, so. Very nice. Sergeant, I guess maybe that was numbers a little off. He probably needs like two or three more at this point. Yeah, for sure. You guys don't think he's going to get called up? You don't think he's going to be there? Look, I mean...

No, I do. Are we taking four strikers? Well, let's ask a question. Before we get into that, let's ask Max. So this is Max Jersbach, who says he's the guy who had the Burrhalter out sign on college game day a few weeks ago in Columbus, Ohio. He seems to be Burrhalter's guy. and probably Burrhalter starter. But Pepe is playing out of his mind right now in the Netherlands.

He's got five goal contributions in four games. Sargent just scored again for Norwich. Pfeck is playing really well for one of the best clubs in the Bundesliga right now. But you probably can't take four strikers. And based off the last pool, it seems like the guy would be left off is Pfok, which means we don't have a plan B striker. and Burrhalter's plan A hasn't really worked. So what are we thinking of that striker pool?

Do we think it's a possibility that all four go, considering Sargent plays on the wing half the time for Norwich, and is probably a better winger option than some of the guys who keep making the roster, like Jordan Morris? Or do we think they're only going to take three? And if we only take three, who's left out? I think P. Fivok's going to be left out.

That's what I think. I don't know. I don't think Greg's going to leave Jordy out. I hope not. Maybe this is, I'm probably, you know, throwing logic to the wind here. To speak on my heart. But I would hope he brings Jordan P5.

He would just be surprising if he didn't, right? He's just a completely different type of striker that you might want to have at some point. You got 26 players. That sounds like a lot to be. I'd bring like seven strikers, not seven. You know, I'd bring four. Five. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Like, I would probably bring four, to be honest, instead of, I mean, we got 26. I'm probably not going to load up on right backs, as we talked about before. You know what I'm saying? I'd probably just bring, you know, a right back and a back up, right back, left back, back, back, back back, back back. If it leaves Scali out, then it is what it is. But I'd definitely rather get another strike. on here. I'm down with four strikers, especially if, you know, given that sergeant can play the wing, as Max pointed out, you know, we could just bring sergeant leave Brendan Aronson at home.

Just kidding. But, Doran Morris, yeah, he could stay home as far as I'm concerned. First, to allow us to bring four strikers. I don't know that Morris, you know, brings that much to the table. I'm sure he's a great guy. Not saying he's not a great guy Just Excellent man Yeah I don't know that Pfok is playing out of his mind though

Is he is he playing out of his mind No No No he does not I don't think reaches the threshold Of playing out of his mind And really In my opinion he never would I thought he said PEPI was playing out of his mind

Yeah he did But he said Pfok is playing really well For the best team in the Bundesliga Okay okay fine Sargent can be the change of pace guy too He's pretty he's got those big glutes. He's strong.

You do got them glutes. But at the end of the day, like even, no matter how Pfok is actually playing, like I still think. He should come, man. He should come. Okay.

Four strikers. That's our position. Honestly, if I, I know this is, people are going to think I'm crazy for saying this, but honestly, I think if I was going to leave

any of them home of the four, I'd leave Ferreira home. Hey man and you know what? Like as I As I keep watching them more and more for the national team I'm kind of just like Is this gonna work out? Is it?

It's not it's not gonna work out I know that's like scuffed heresy to say that Because Greg's been on the Ferreira Greg's been I think more of a fan of Ferreira than most people for a longer time He's not like an ideologue about it but so it's a little bit scuffed heresy but yeah i don't think it's going to work yeah and and i don't know the the thing is he he he kind of has been like the best player that we've played

in the in the striker position so far in this cycle in my opinion i think he has played the best but it's it's just something about like being able to physically control space when you were a Stryker. Can't do it. Yeah. He just can't do it. And I feel like that's something that we're going to need. And I would even disagree that he, I think Pepey at least challenges him for the one who

played the best for us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not necessarily a cut and drop. Yeah, PFoc and Sergeant basically didn't get a chance to play well at Stryker. So that's where we are. this is as you have probably figured out the Monday review and I think we're going to make this one public we'll see we'll decide once we're done recording

but if you would like it delivered to your phone every week join the Patreon and the link is in the show notes if you're wondering the reason we're going to wait and decide isn't because we're not sure it's going to be good they're all really good and you should become a patron because all of them literally all of them are just incredible you get a lot of other stuff for join the patron

Patreon too. You get access to the Discord, which is kind of like our intelligence gathering and editorial board apparatus. The hive mind. Yeah, it's the hive mind. And then, and it is, it is pretty fun. Also, you get, you can upload sound bites to the sound by upload channel. We can play those and listen to those on the, on the show.

You can also get walkies and my interviews with people in, in their full glory. You know, we put the, we put like 30 minutes on the public feed. We save some of the better stuff for the second half and publish those. We've done. We've interviewed Jimmy Conrad and Jenny Chu, and we've got one with Mikele Giannone coming up. It'll come out later this week. It's also very good. And then the other thing you get is our historic recaps.

We've recapped four old World Cup games, and those are, I think, pretty fun too. So, join us. Should we get to the injuries and returns? There's a lot of news on this front. First of all, Tim Wea. He is back. He is back, ladies and gentlemen. He had 25 minutes at left wing, left wing for Lil against Lens.

I thought he was pretty clean, for the most part, man. Pretty clean. I agree. I thought he was explosive, bright. Yeah, he looked pretty damn sharp, to be honest. And he also, he did flub a chain. A huge chance in the 93rd minute. I think that that thing registered at like point between point 75 and point 85 XG depending on where you're where you're getting it from.

But yeah and it was that big of a chance. Absolutely huge chance. I think it was a long ball like a second ball that came back in Tim's direction that he actually won with somebody on his back, controlled it. controlled it, you know, got it off his feet to a teammate and then continued his run to the, let me think, to the right side of the box. Because the way he grabbed it and controlled it, he was moving towards the right, so he laid it off, did a big looping run. It was actually, it's actually kind of comical to.

It's beautiful. It's like a great backdoor. He just arrives at the back door. It kind of disappears with a loop while the ball goes the other way. Yeah, he almost looked like a, cartoon character, like, doing that run to me. Yeah. It was kind of funny.

But anyway, he found himself on the right side of the box and Jonathan David on the left side, basically in the Man City Zone, crossed across to face a goal for Tim, that all he had to do was meet with a little, maybe like a little side volley. He had some pressure on his back from a lens defender. And he failed. He failed to put in the ball in the back of the net. I'm going to call it unlucky. I think it was a little bit unlucky just from like the...

I mean, you can't really miss from there without being unlucky. It's how close it was. You could do a pretty bad job and still score there. You need some bad luck. He needs to meet that with his head or his pelvis or something a little more reliable than going to ground and trying to side volley it out of the ground from a laying down position.

Yeah, right, right. That was, it was actually pretty ambitious. He made it very complicated. Oh, maybe I need to watch this replay again. I was kind of letting him off the look there. It's a bummer because it would have capped off a really bright performance, his return to the field. Yeah, he bounced it over the, he bounced it over the crossbar from a yard out, bro.

Yeah, it's hard to do. I think it's almost better if you're looking back at your career, you know, when it's all said and done, you almost like to have a few plays like that. Like impossible plays. Who cares? So what? He scores there.

They're already a point nothing. You'd much rather have done this in the long run. Yeah. And I wasn't watching when it happened. But when I saw people in Discord describe it as like a cross that like met his foot and he and he's got it. I thought it was one of those ones. You know, you see like the cross come in to somebody that's like standing up and it comes right to their foot. Like with them in front of goal and they just.

Absolutely sky it somehow. I thought it was one of those, which in my opinion is more embarrassing. But, uh, you know. Also, the ball was just coming in really fast. It was fizzed. It was fizz. But, yeah. And also, him playing a left wing is notable.

Leo has a new manager. I think it's a Fonseca. He used to be at Roma pre-Morino, the Fonseca that Brian Reynolds signed for. Okay. Before he was forsaken. You know, we just haven't seen. seen Tim for him play for him yet so if he prefers like inverted wingers um i can't even remember seeing him play on the ever yeah it's been a it's been a very long time it's been a very long time

played for the there for the u s u 17s scored that scored that banger against paraguay i don't know if you guys remember that but i do i do it was uh featured on his uh his rising video on youtube but if he is playing on the left wing if his manager does view him as a left winger he has a little bit stronger competition with Jonathan Bamba over there than he would on the right so just something to note

yeah and I noticed he he was not very interested in taking the ball of the end line with his left foot he would cut it back and come back onto his right foot it is it is worth pointing out this was a a this was a big win for Lille over Lans, their chief rival, who is also ahead of them in the table,

so good for Liel. Okay, okay. Eunice Mousa is back as well. This is just great news, and both of these things are great news. Let's just pause and acknowledge how good news these things are. This is a good weekend. This is a really strong weekend with the news and with some poor, performances. This is

looking good. We're going to do really what good at the World Cup now. Yeah, we're going to be fine and great. Yep. It goes back and forth each week. Each week is a referendum on how we're going to do. But yeah, the boy is back. 28 minutes off the bench

against Ossasuna. And, you know, he, like, Eunice immediately got busy. Immediately. Yeah. He had a trademark run in, like, one of his first touches. Just left three players in the dust. And just, you know, he basically hit him with a little, with a little hezzy.

Like the ball came into him. He like settled it. Kind of looked away like he was disinterested. Like he was just going to get rid of it. Then boom. Dusted all them boys. Great to see someone aggressively taking that, taking that space in the middle. Mm-hmm.

He did get caught in possession deep once. just trying to do a little bit too much a little bit too much probably trying to get another run going because he actually fainted past the first defender and it was the second one they got him where he was just trying to get extremely busy

like he just should have passed the ball with his left foot there he had a midfielder in the middle just waiting on it but once he got caught in possession he immediately filed I think it was the striker that took it from him

And he almost had an assist. Addaboy Eunice. He did a lot in 28 minutes. Anthony Robinson is back. Fulham lost again. But he's back. Started. Went 90, I believe.

Yeah. And I don't think he looked very rusty. He looked lively, fresh, winning headers, getting forward and so forth. He did sky ball a cross. Hit it really high. But he also had a good cross that went right along the ground and almost led to a goal. I don't think it was peak Anthony but it was the type of

energetic performance that you want to see which is kind of the same with Waya and Musa and Anthony all coming back at the same time and looking good yeah they all looks pretty good yeah which like Anthony like I said before

that was the one I was least worried about like that man can just that man can just wake up out of bed and give you 90 he's built different yeah he's built different He can, you know, wake up from hibernation and just give you a easy 90, up and down the touchline, clamps, all that.

He said Cameron Carter Vickers is back in the lineup for Celtic. He had missed the last two league games and the Champions League fixture with Leipzig because of an injury. So it's good to see him back. And Celtic won, of course. As you may remember, CCV missed. He was called in to the camp in September, that dreadful camp in September. and then missed it because of an injury. So now he's back.

It might be one of those things where he looks good just by not being there. Yep. While we're in Scotland, we should say that our Rangers players didn't play this weekend. Did they? Neither got on the field?

They didn't. I don't believe so. So I was wondering if they didn't have a game. Because I helped on Wiscount and I was like because Malik played against Liverpool in the Champions League and to

do a lot of lineman jogging supposedly that's what I'm hearing but I looked at the stats he had nine passes and 18 touches total so that's probably

to be expected against Liverpool but supposedly you know when you don't have the ball especially against a team like Liverpool you should be running around all the place

all over the place and we're hearing some reports that he was not running all over the place. It doesn't seem like he's, you know, the sense of urgency isn't there or something? I don't know. What else? There's some more important news.

Yeah, we got another piece of good news. Giorana has increased his load in training and is an option against Savilla, which is tomorrow. That's according to the coach. Great news. Very nice. So once he's back, we'll have one player injured who has a chance of going to Qatar and that is Chris Richards.

And he told scuffed a week ago that he was less than two weeks from fitness, so I'd expect him back soon. All right. Speaking of Crystal Palace, they defeated Leeds two to one. And I was camping this weekend. I went up to the bathroom on Sunday morning late, and my phone was full of notifications about how Aronson is not a butter knife. and I see so I got home late last night I investigated why is Aronson not a butter knife he had a he had a very he had a lovely mazy weaving dribble and shot off the post which most of you have seen and he did lay it off once to a surging Tyler Adams

for Adams to play Bamford in on goal good bit of combination there otherwise I didn't see anything notable from him and he did have except for his first shot which he hit 14 miles per hour two yards wide of the post so I'll just say you know butter knives they it's not like they can't cut anything they can do a job they can do a little job you don't see

they can cut butter they make a real mess out of it especially when it's more a piece of bread with one of those things you're going to mash it all up though it's going to be a mess yeah don't try to cut bread with it you could cut some well-cooked green beans with a butter knife. For sure.

For sure. You can do a little job with a butter knife, man. And it depends on the quality too. And you know how long it's been in the family. If it's a family heirloom butter knife, then you know what I'm saying?

You can probably, you can probably only use that for spreading butter. I just want to go on the record. I consider Brendan Arrington an actual knife. You know? I'm not, I'm an opponent here. Okay, okay, okay.

I'm on his side. You're a simp. Yeah, I mean, I don't actually really care. But I don't, I don't people get upset about it. We're not talking about a knife. of the finest of Valerian Steel is all that was

No it was In all seriousness it was a It was a really nice run He got busy with him Yeah He got busy for sure Didn't he I do think Well go ahead

I didn't he I felt that he seemed to be An important part of when it was going well For leads in the first half And then it was terrible In the second half But wasn't he involved Wasn't the team doing well?

Well, I want to give him some credit. Also, you've already said this, but it was a very good dribble run. How come nobody stuck a foot in and tried to take it from it? He didn't actually have to go. He was in the box for most of it. Yeah, he started a little bit out and they just ran in. He didn't have to actually go by anyone because they kind of backpedaled with him as a pack. But that's hard to get people to do.

He gets credit for doing that. And then to get, you know, clean enough shot off that you're hitting the post. That's, you know. Yeah. It was nice. It was nice. It's the first time I've ever seen him do that. Yeah.

Like dribble into the box and get a shot off. And it was a good shot too. Let's be clear. For sure. And that's the thing that I've been trying to make sure that people are not able to twist my words. I want to make my position extremely clear that anything I do say is not an actual indictment of what I think. Brendan could be in the future. We're seeing them get better.

know what I'm saying we're seeing him add little things to his game do things we haven't seen before it's just I'm talking about right now this cycle this World Cup is coming up I'm not necessarily sure necessarily comfortable with him on the wink because I mean when you're talking about attacking output attacking output that you ideally want from like one of your one of your three forwards or whatever like not only do we need uh this run we need it like three four times you know what I'm saying yeah we need three, four, five moments.

Yeah, I do feel like I hadn't seen this from him before so now this sort of gets filed into my idea of who Brendan Aronson is, somebody who can go at a Crystal Palace defense and get a good shot off. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, if you've seen him do this before in other contexts.

He certainly hasn't done it for the national team. Maybe he did it rapid VN. And when he does a dribble type thing like that, He's normally kind of closer to the end line and coming in from the outside so he doesn't quite have the angle on the shot. It's kind of my, the memory of I have, Brandon Ernst, the emotional memory of his attacking. So I think you're right. I don't remember seeing something like this. Because what is any of this?

What is any of this? What is life except an emotional memory? Right. That's what this podcast is about. Yeah. I just think, I just think I'm just a little bit. a little mift that Big Brenda thinks they have some kind of smoking gun because of this. Get out of my face.

And it wasn't, there's no way we'd be this critical, or I'm not being critical, you are being critical, you wouldn't be this critical of the performance if people weren't talking about him so much. It's more, it's, you know,

it's almost an interpersonal thing at this point. I mean, that's harsh of me to say. Oh, is it? I don't think it's harsh. I think it's a little bit of an interpersonal thing. personal. I think people are salty towards me and I'm salty right back at them, you know? So, how was Tyler Adams?

This performance was, I mean, it had to be up there with the Chelsea one as far as his best performances for Leeds. He was balling, man. He was absolutely bawling. He did all the, all the Tyler Adams stuff that you've come to know and love. Plus, you know what I'm saying? You mentioned earlier. Bells that lay off. that Arrington gave to Tyler and Tyler slipped him in, slipped Banford in. That was sexy. With, look, Banford should have did better there. He should have did better there to me.

No doubt. He shot that thing right at the goalkeeper. Like, that could have easily been a Tyler Adams assist. And he had another play too that could have been an assist. It's not really coming to me at the moment, but. He played a really nice through ball. It must have been in the second half. Well, I know that the Banffert one was in the first.

first had. Yeah, then there was a later one that was kind of cut through. I don't know if it led to assist. But it's like, yeah, when he has a normal, his normal type of good game with all the basic stuff and the defending, and then he adds like a dynamic player to, or play or two to it, then he's kind of pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. And this is why we have to, I mean, I'm pretty sure we're going to see it. But when the World Cup comes, we got to have units next to him. So he can do, he can do what he needs to do you know what I'm saying like on defense he can get high he can go up he can hunt

because he has people you know he still has another uh quote unquote defensive midfielder behind him I mean he lost Morocco don't know come in me yeah but uh yeah he's also in the perfect like perfect setup for him too

and it's not the same with the national team no it's not it's not but but if you remember to Morocco and Uruguay. Like, Tyler was cooking. Yeah. Tyler was cooking. And that setup was at least slightly similar

to the one that Jesse Marsh employs where he has, where Tyler has Mark Rocha next to him. Yeah. That's definitely what we want. Let me just say, I think, let me say one more time, I do think Aronson, that run from Aronson was

impressive. The layoff to Adams that set up the even more impressive Adams outside of the boot ball for Bamford was also impressive so I'm not trying to take anything away from those things but like overall

that's it for him in the game I'm sorry Waki I mean there may be this general sense from the first 10 minutes of the game that because Lees was good therefore Aronson was the reason for it or whatever I don't I didn't see that in my research

and also Marsh might be in trouble. This was a toothless leads attack. Go ahead. I don't even think we mentioned that the shot off the post led to a goal. Oh, yeah. The rebound was shot into the. So we, you know, we got to give them that. We got to give them that.

I don't think you mentioned that. It's as good as an assist, for sure. For sure. But after that, you know, so they had six shots in the game. game leads did two of them on that one sequence aronsons and the and the rodrigo rebound and then the third shot was arson's very very poor shot earlier in the game from the right side of the box and then they just they didn't they were toothless the rest of the game and i mean maybe not the rest of the game but definitely in the second half they were toothless it was a serious bummer of a loss

do you that how much did you say he might be in trouble well this i was just a I'm just thinking that 3-0 win over Chelsea is basically carrying Jesse Marsh right now. That's basically what he has to his name. Yep. So, I mean, it is true. They dominate big sections of games and then... They did. I mean, that first, what, 30 minutes, 35 minutes?

I mean, shoot, shoot, the whole first half, really. Yeah. The whole first half, they had them. They had them. But they just don't, you know, They don't got enough attacking talent They just don't What are you talking about?

They have Brendan Aronson Look man You got to pair of Brendan With somebody else too Banford hasn't scored Since like It's been a long time I know that

I saw it during the game It's been a long time And you know I've always actually thought of Banfford as a decent player But yeah They need something They need something

Well Milan beat Juventus now we're coming into the very clearly bad news section of the podcast we're getting close to the end desk was sent back to the bench mckenny came on at the half for eventis yep uh came on for quadrado um so he was playing that uh that right wing uh right mid position yeah he was pretty good right he was fine at least yeah he was fine event is just bad it was he wasn't inspired out there and he had a giveaway But he was generally sharp. Probably not even that much to talk about the performance.

Yeah, no. Yeah, you've got, like, I beat pretty soundly. Pretty soundly. But the real bad news isn't McKinney's performance. It's that Dest didn't even get off the bench. And why was that? Because he was absolutely ass midweek against Chelsea. He got the start, man.

Big opportunity. Big opportunity for him. and he was not very good. He was not very good. And it's one of those ones where, like, during the game, uh, we were, you know how we are, you know, the game threads on Discord or whatever, try to see things through a, through a USM&T tinted glasses, you know. We're like, oh, you know, does he, he's, he's been a little shaky, whatever.

But, but, you know, overall, he's probably okay. But, you know, it's one of those things that, like, if you go back and watch that match, like no no he wasn't good and he had plenty opportunities to be good like the ball found him quite a bit and yeah i think that's fair he did next to nothing with it i was one of those saying like he was you know he was like a step below fine somebody somebody said he was fine he said not fine but you know step step below fine and and he wasn't a step he was a couple steps three or four steps below fine he he touched the ball with uh What do you thought it?

He thought there was a foul called or something? And the ball came to him and he like touched it and settled it. Surge is a funny dude, man. It's funny dude. You know, we talked about the other players coming back from injury or long layoffs or whatever and looking pretty sharp. Have yet to really see that from Serge, unfortunately. Unfortunately. And also

Kalulu Their I mean I guess they brought Destin to be their third right back Which You don't want to be the third right back on a really big team If it's like a really big club you don't want to That's not where you want to be Yeah

Or any one I guess any team Yeah the dude that started against Juventus Kalulu He is also supposed to be pretty good So We shall see You know, they got another Champions League match this week, I assume. So we'll see what happens, but yeah.

Nobody said it was easy. That's for you, Joe, yo. Yeah, it's going to be tough. I mean, we'll see what happens. Maybe there'll be another injury. What about Joe Scali? Oh, man. So we talked about this being the bad news portion of the podcast.

It ends here. No bad news here. Good news is back. Rumors. Rumers. Slander on my man's name of Joe Scally's demise has been highly exaggerated. And, you know, I got a slander, a person who's near and dear to my heart and probably near and dear to everyone that's listened to this pod's heart. Because, you know, as we've been putting out multiple exports to Germany, Derek Ray, Derek Ray has been a friend, a friend to us.

on our side, you know, he's transcribing kicker articles for us. Yeah, I love that part. He's giving us, you know, a little scuttle butt that he's hearing here and there. He's the best. I don't think he likes us that much, though. I think he does this service, but it doesn't actually like us that much. Well, I think he was actually on the call to this game and gave us a little shout-up. Okay.

He said, he said we live vicariously through all of our players. See, that seems like a little bit of a shot to me. Maybe it is. I don't know, but it's right we do. It's a shot out. Well, we should aspire to be more like Derek Ray when we're there. But go on. But, okay.

So on Wednesday, he put out a very peculiar tweet that ended up aging terribly. And let me read it here. Everything pointing to USM&T defender Joe Scali, losing his perfect starts record for Glabock. Unfortunately, in the Derby against Cone, the club's game of the season. Oh, okay, I read this. But the game of the season, period. after last week's horror show in Bremen, change is expected.

And Stefan Liner for Scali is one of the most likely. So I saw this pop up on Twitter. You know what I'm saying? I saw this pop up in the Discord. And I was like, hold on, wait a second. There's just no way. Like, yes, they had a bad match against Bremen. That was their first match after the international break.

But the one right before the international break, they busted Leipzig, I think, 3 now, 3-1. in a very good performance and probably one of Joe's no, that was Joe's best performance of the season actually. And in Bremen, yes, you know, he was at fault for a goal.

But, you know, his left back partner was at fault for two. Okay? You know what I'm saying? And I'm, you know, I'm no math major. I'm a science guy. But two is more than one, okay? Two is more than one.

So I was like, I'm just sitting there thinking, I'm like, Derek, why are you coming for Joe? Yeah. And as I sat there and actually read the tweet, you know, I had to read it four or five times because I was just stunned at this point. And I'm like, bro, this man is not, he's not actually basing this on anything. This is, he's just saying, you know what I'm saying? He didn't cite anything. He just said everything pointing to.

I'm like, everything pointing to. Well, well, everything on my side is pointing to him starting again. And you know what? I should have actually tweeted him back. I should have, you know, be like Derek, you know, let's bet. Let's bet. Let's bet. Your next game check.

Your next game check on if Joe starts tonight. And lo and behold. Unfortunately, I did not. You know what I'm saying? If you want to come in me and say, Vince, you didn't predict this. You did. You were absolutely all over it. I want to make sure you get full credit for this.

You were not, you were all over it. Just like, wow. Vince is really into this. So there's like, there's no question. This is. The receipts are in the discord. Yeah. The receipts are in the discord.

So anyway, Scali did end up starting. Yes. And you were, you were right. I think that it's an unfortunate episode, but I say we lit Derek Ray off with just kind of a pretty light warning because he just does such great work otherwise. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to let him live. I'm going to let him live because, like we said, he's been an excellent resource for us for sure. Well, also sending a clear message to him that if you're going to speculate about Joe Scali losing his position, you had.

Think twice. Adam, you're going to have to bleep this, but you had better be right. think twice my boy think twice but um yeah he started he went 83 minutes and a five to two to two thrashing of cone um played pretty well created a chance with a nice low driven cross defended well and um you know just to really really stomp on one derrick ray's grave one time put him all the way in the dirt um stephan liner subbed in for jos callie right in the 83rd minute And guess who gave up the second goal? Right after that man came on.

Right after that man came on. Go, right on his head, right on his head top. So, you know, Scali, lads, we up 100. We up. We are up, baby. Let's go. All right. Don't you ever come from my baby boy again.

Good, good. Wonder if Greg Burhalter is going to bring him to Qatar. So I'm, I'm still going to say, not I just he's not going to leave the Andre Yelan at home unfortunately well maybe even like I'm not saying Deandre should necessarily be home but Joe's not coming Joe's not coming I don't think maybe he takes Sam Vines a spot I don't know how convinced Greg was of of Sam Vines in this last camp so we'll see but anyway yeah who knows what Greg's going to do honestly all right let's get going. Let's get out of here. Is that cool with you guys? Yeah, I gotta go. Yes.

All right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.