Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #337: Monday Review — league play wraps, the World Cup is upon us

Episode Date: November 14, 2022

Dest looks fully back, lotta smiles at camp in Al Gharrafa, Vince beseeches us all to enjoy ourselves, Weah's team playlist unearthed on reddit, Sargent scores (so does Pepi), team jersey numbers assigned, and a lot more with Vince, Watke and Belz.----support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed 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. All I can think about these days is our boys pinballing off each other after one of them scores a banger next week, way maybe with his wings outstretched, skimming along the end line, or Poulosick with that angry look of vindication,

getting mobbed and just sort of impassive. The vibes seem very good. Everybody thinks we're terrible. I'm talking about our opponents. We've got everybody healthy. Everybody, I think we need to be healthy right now. And if you're not daydreaming about U.S. goal celebrations now, what's wrong with you?

Get on board. I'm day dreaming about them. Oh, good. Tell me what your daydream is like. Yeah, just the basic. I don't have a great imagination for celebrations. It was just the basic jump up and arm pump most of the time. Okay.

Yeah. And if you can read between the lines from a bell, it says, U.S. Ms. National team members, potential goal scores, you better not pull out any coordinated dance celebrations. Or are you going to, this whole podcast will be stricken from Stitcher, Apple, Google podcast. You won't hear Bell's voice ever again. Yeah, that's what Adam would be disgusted by them. I didn't, I never, look, I have never said I'm disgusted by coordinated goal celebrations.

I just said they're a tier below. Yeah, Bell's is going to be under the, under the tweet of the, of the video like a, uh, like a reply guy. This isn't a USB. Guys, stop it. This isn't appropriate.

So, you know, I've been on the side of sometimes a coordinated one is not as good as in the moment, you know, just a passionate one. I'd like to see both. I'd like to see a really good coordinated celebration and then just some,

just some wild ones. Right. We need a lot of goals. I mean, look, I'm not, I'm not going to prescribe anything. If they have a coordinated goal celebration ready to go,

I'm not going to complain about that at all. Okay, Vince. Yeah, I hear you. Are we clear? I hear you. This is not a group that does large-scale organized group celebrations. It's normally a pocket of them working on it. So I think that's more likely to see.

If they do do one, bills, I'm going to change my profile pick to the scuff logo, pay Elon $8 for Twitter Blue. So everyone knows it's the official scuff podcast. Yeah. And then I'm going crazy. Please don't. You're going on. They've actually all arrived in Doha now. They're training at the Elgaraffa Stadium.

That's their home base for the thing. It's good to kind of get to see that. And it's kind of going to be our home base here, too. Yep. We won't literally be there, but we feel it. I feel like I'm there right now. It's kind of on that north edge of Doha, so overlooking the desert. looks dry, looks dry there.

The field is nice, though. Yo, I have to say, it's still, at my big age, it still blows my mind that we can inhabit the desert. Yeah. I don't know why, but it gets me. Every time I'm just like, because I just think of the desert as some like, you know, desolate, isolated place, not a lot of natural resources or at least one's necessary to human survival. Right. And yeah, I don't know.

Every time I see like, I got a friend that lives in Mesa, Arizona. Every time he sends me a picture, I'm just like, bro, how? How do we do that? Yeah, it's incredible. It is. The team seems happy there. They put out a picture saying,

no case of the Monday's here. And it was all them smiling in their new places. So they seem to be adjusting well. And everyone's there except, I guess, you know, Weston's still flying, Haji, Wei, who's the last guy to him. arrive of desk of course yes put in a great performance yesterday

for you see milan why i wonder why haji is you know not one of the first ones there oh did you see they they had an tallyaspor had their game canceled yesterday because there was an explosion in Istanbul oh i did not see that

so number one he was supposed to be playing yesterday and number two um who who knows with what an explosion in the Capitol did to flights? Yeah. So that's why I guess. And then Jordan of the Discord, the king of the Discord was monitoring his flight from Istanbul. So it's all being looked after and he will arrive if he hasn't already.

We also have the numbers for the players set that was announced this morning. No major surprises. I guess it's good to see that Matt Turner is wearing the number one. not a surprise that Ferreira is wearing the number nine, but it is, for me, at least a little worrisome. The story for me is the consistency of these numbers. A lot of guys have their club numbers, and then a lot of consistency from one camp to the next.

There's been some mix-ups along the way. But Raina has seven now. I think that's the key. Right. Like everyone has a number that you thought they were going to have. Well, at least the main ones. I don't know. I don't know who was out there guessing what, actually we wear bells, guessing what Christian Rodd's number would be.

Oh, yeah, and the roster drop. But, yeah, everybody got the number that I would have thought that they would have had. And everyone that bought a kit from like the U.S.S.S.F shop or whatever the hell, yeah. The number is, the number is correct. And we got to give credit to the number and like the guys in the 20s. Because if you look across them, Yedlin 22, Acosta 23, Sergeant 24, Johnson 25 doesn't really count because he's a keeper.

That's Scally 26. Those are all numbers that they're really accustomed to. And when you have those bottom of the numbers guys taking those, everyone else feels a little bit better about maybe they don't quite get the number they want in the teens, but at least they're not in the 20s. But the 20 guys are already happy, so it's not a big deal. Right. Yeah.

Right. Like, Hajie, being a striker, you know what I'm saying? He couldn't get nine. 19. Exactly. And Sergeant wears 24 for Norwich, so he gets 24. Scali wears 26 for Gladbach. Isn't that right? Acosta's been on the 23 for as long as I can remember. I think Joe where's 29.

Oh, that's right. But we didn't have a 29 available. That's the next best thing. Yeah. But the thing is, Wea, Yedlin, Acosta, Sergeant, those are, I mean, perhaps with the exception of Yedlin, those are guys who are going to play. and I hope Scali plays too. But in this case, being in the 20s is no, there's no, there's no shade to it. Nope. Nope.

It's looking good. It's looking good. It's just a nice continuation of the vibes, you know, carried over from this weekend. The numbers, everyone's going to be looking good. Yeah. We're rolling here. Per Meg Swanick, the team Barber arrives today. then the Italian chef is already here

which we didn't even know about she broke that story apparently in the first trip to El Salvador we met the chef who liked him when they went back over the summer it sounds like they just kind of crossed paths with him and signed him up to come

here for World Cup this is a crazy story how do they run into a chef in El Salvador this sounds like Weston's doing for sure I mean This is Weston McKinney just ridden all over it All over it man

It couldn't be a more Western thing That's true Because a team of people Doesn't cross path with a chef An individual Someone crossed past with one chef And that would be it would be Weston Although was he there

Yes he was there Yeah he was there Because that was there both trips He helped Eunice get the mud off of him Right exactly He was there And the first You know that was the first game of qualifying

Right before the horny activities in Nashville. Yeah, he was riding high after securing the services of a chef. He's made some bad decisions, you know? Right. So yeah, this is Weston McKinney. I mean, we all know him and food. Yeah, well, he hadn't, and we should be clear on this to get the reporting right.

He hadn't secured the services of the chef until June. Right, right. He had a good lead on a World Cup chef. Yeah. still very curious how they ran into this chef but we'll find out more later i'm sure weston's a man of the night a man of the night

uh tim way uh his his locker room playlist came out on the internet on spotify did you guys get a chance to look at it it's 61 songs not a ton of big surprises i got drake travis scott conier kendrick and the list goes on and on. What was your impression, guys? I liked it.

I liked the playlist. I listened to about half of it this morning. I noticed he made it on October 15. So this is a pretty recent creation of Tim Weas. Yeah, when I was looking through the songs, there are a lot of songs that were released recently. They were on the playlist. So when I was thinking about it, I was like, this can't be, you know,

what was what they were listening through throughout qualifying um but yeah but that raises the question is is he trying to introduce a new playlist right now and i wonder if that's even a good idea um it's well go ahead Vince oh so i mean it seems like it it seems like it but but i mean assuming you know tim being tim he probably got feedback from everybody yeah it did look like a group playlist just because whenever we there's an artist and there's normally three songs from them and I feel like if it were a really

just a purely individual playlist there would be a little bit more variety within it. It seems like a group effort to me. Some pacing where you don't have the same artist three times in a row every time you know. Well I mean you just put it on a shuffle.

Oh there you go. Yeah but uh fair But yeah This playlist isn't necessarily for me Because I don't I don't listen to a ton of Stormsy I list to a little bit of Stormsy

Not a ton Central C I don't know the Central C is I don't listen to a ton of Central C But I do like Doja I don't listen to a ton of Drake specifically Like I don't listen to Drake at all Having listened to them since probably like 2012

I think that's one I think that's when take care of dropped. I mean, you know, it's impossible to fully get away from him because, you know, he's Drake. But as far as me, like, actually turning on a song made by Drake that hasn't happened in 10 years now. I don't list to a ton of Jay Cole or some Jay Cole on there. I don't listen to Travis Scott either. Oh, yeah, you're not going to, this isn't for you then. Which is okay, you know, not, you know, the team playlist doesn't need to be for everyone.

Yeah. And it does need to be for everyone who is on the team. Right, right. It doesn't need to be for the team. It does need to be for the team. Which, you know, you didn't get any any Luke Combs on here for Pully, which which might be a slight. I don't know. I don't know.

But I think that, you know, he's friends with Jack Harlow though and Jack Harlow is on there. Yeah, that's what that's just what I was about to bring up. We got 61 songs, 11 songs with Louisville artists on it. with Jack and ESTG. That accounts for 11.4% of the playlist. Wow.

I like that. I just want to let y'all know that. Yes. Yeah. And the thing about G's music, ESTG, um, we kind of grew up in the same area.

And so I know a lot of the people that he that he runs with. Like I played, I played basketball in high school with his, with his manager. Um, A ton of the people that, like, you'll see in his videos or whatever.

Like, I know all of them. He's a little bit younger. He's a little bit younger than me. So he knows, he knows my brother for sure. Good. And my brother grew up playing against each other. So we've got a little bit of a connection to this playlist. That's just.

Exactly. Exactly. Bringing everyone in. That is exactly what I'm saying. And yeah. So just to know that the team has a little bit of, it's carrying a little bit of Louisville in there with him. You know, that's, that's how I know they're going to be right when it's time to face whales. We're going to come out.

We don't come out against Wales and just smack the hell out of them. Well, Burrhalter is out in the media now beating the drum that whales is actually underrated. Yep. Which I guess it's a standard move from him. I love that. Making that little chess move right now. He's on top of it. They got all these Premier League players.

They're being overlooked. We are going to smack the hell out of whales. We're going to tear them apart. I feel like... Go ahead. The thing is they... They... Their players actually have been performing pretty...

well here lately like kefir more has been scoring goals pretty consistently uh ben davy scored against leads right yeah ben davy scored against leads the second goal but they also gave up three goals so i don't know how to take it you know he's a defender he's giving up three goals at the same time he scored a goal uh actually now i think about it let's say that's a l that's an l for wells because he's not scoring on us Mm-mm. No, I'm just, maybe it's because I've been listening to this playlist all morning, I'm just feeling,

I'm just feeling great. And it's the, it's, yes, okay, maybe Wales is underrated. But so I think are we, because everybody thinks we're way worse than we are,

because the way we played in September. And everybody's healthy. I feel like we're going to play pragmatically. Go ahead, sorry. I was just saying one thing, one thing I am a little bummed about is this as Scott Jorick pointed out that, you know, we had this thing where we've been the youngest team

and we thought we're going to be the youngest team that's World Cup, but Ghana is younger than us. Okay. Well, as a man who follows a Ghanaian sports journalist, let me tell you what happened here, Waki. Okay. So basically, this all happened within the goalkeeper group. They had two goalkeepers have to drop out. one was 26 years old, one was 29. And they replaced one with a 25 year old.

So, you know, went from 26 to 25. But then they went from 29 to 19. Well, one of the goalkeepers that they called in, yeah, to replace one of the dudes that was hurt is 19 years old. So, I mean. Okay. And if we're talking about nearly three tenths of a point here, 25.50. to 25.3. And yeah, that 10 year, that 10 year drop made the difference.

Made the difference. And, you know, we, we dropped peppy. Right. Drop peppy. We add ream. I'm not opposed to adding ream, but we did add ream. That's going to affect the numbers too. Ream is the real problem here.

But it's not a problem. So, yeah. When it comes down to actual minutes played, I'm almost positive. We're going to be, because, I mean, this 19 year old can, name goalkeeper is not playing. We have 19 year olds that will play or just one 19 year old now and GEO's 20. Yeah, and that's what's more important is the players that are actually on the field. We want to see the minutes totals and the age by minute.

That's how we'll decide who is the youngest in this World Cup. Yeah, I did a quick calculation of that the other day because I saw a lot of people saying this on Twitter like, oh, actually the U.S. isn't that old. and then I calculated the people that are actually going to play. We're just like a starting lineup. And we're looking at like an average age of like somewhere between 22 and 23. That's with Tim Ream and the 11? Yes, that's with Tim Ream.

Yeah. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. Tim Ream should probably start at centerback even though it hurts even that measurement of our age. I do think we should kind of don't care anymore. Yeah, we should sacrifice. the age measurement to probably just try to put the best team on the field we can. For me.

That's, that's, I think that's, I agree with that. But you can have the best of both worlds, like I just showed you. Yep. Yeah. So we're good. We're good, baby. But also, oh, oh, I'm happy you brought Tim Riem up. I'm happy you brought Tim Riem up Waki.

Because Tim Riem has a podcast. Did y'all know that? No. Okay. Tim Reme has a podcast. It's called Indirect. I think. And he had Josh Sargent on there.

After they, I don't know if the rosters were announced or not, but after they had received the news that they're going to the World Cup. Oh, really? Yeah. And it's a decent little podcast. Y'all should check it out for sure, for sure. I will. But the thing, the most juicy tidbit of information that I really took from there is

Willian, a former Chelsea. fame and Arsenal Shame was talking to Tim Ream in the dressing room. Y'all know he plays for Fulham now. Yep. Was talking to Tim in the dressing room and was like, yo, is England in y'all's group? And Tim was like, yeah.

And apparently William was like, you know, their attackers are looking good. But you see that defense in that midfield? Eh. It was something along those lines. And so, I mean, William, former Brazilian national team player, nose ball, understands levels, like, you know, understands talent.

Yeah. Has seen the best talent. Still quite a good player himself too. Yeah, I feel great hearing that. Right. Right. Because this is something that, I feel like we all have, we all kind of feel like this about England.

If you're going to get a power, give me, give me England. Because like, like William said, you know what I'm saying? Don't quote me. Quote William. Mm-hmm. That midfield and that defense is there for the taking a little bit if we can, if we can show up and play our game. Yeah. Another reason we want England, just the psychology of it is how embarrassing it would be for them to lose to us specifically.

So I think that gives us an edge. Right. Yeah, I think this is all good stuff to file away, but we guys, we got to take this one game at a time. We got to talk. We've got to think about whales. I mean, that's fine. Okay. But we know we're going to smack them.

Right. You already know we beat whales. We're going to get out of the ass. We're going to get out of the ice. We're going to bust that ass. For sure. For sure. Like Bill got it all out with the MLS Cup.

You know what I'm saying? He only had the energy to blow it on one competition this year. And he decided to do it in the MLS playoffs. Hey. Yeah. Let's hope so. Let's talk about a little bit about the action from the past week, not a ton, because mostly what we're concerned with is people staying healthy. And they did.

Everybody who was healthy going into the weekend came out of it healthy, which is what we wanted. But there's still some encouragement to be drawn. Sergenio Desz came on as a sub against Fiorentina and helped Milan get a late winner to win to one. played with high sauce out there. I still think he's just getting his kind of sauce base down, but I can sense he's just about to hit a different level from what he did this weekend and then carry that to Qatar. I know he had some people worried about him.

There towards the end of the match. And they were like, oh, did he just pick up a knock? Because he was kind of like, he was extremely chilling, you know? He was walking around, didn't really pull out, pull up anything more than like a light jog for like the last 15 minutes of the game and the game was in balance very much so until they scored in like

I don't know what was it 90th minute or something it was stoppage time yeah yeah so but he was just chilling though it right it turned out I'm almost positive he was especially you know we got Greg this week on the Men and Blazers podcast talking to Raj and when he was talking to

about, I don't know, just basically this last week and watching these players in these games hoping they don't get hurt. He said that that Surge was almost kind of scared to get back on the field from Milan because he didn't want to have something happen that would keep him out the World Cup. So when you take that into account with the fact of what he was obviously doing towards the end of the game yesterday, I think it all, I think it all lines up quite nicely and he's fine. Well, great job, search and good decision on taking it easy toward the end of the game. Great decision.

He even played the pass before the pass. It was kind of, you know, a fairly straightforward pass. Yeah, right. But, you know, he drew attention going one way, turned and played it the other way. He also beat a bunch of people on the dribble and created some moments of danger. Yeah, that's the thing. That's the thing. His first 15 minutes or whatever, like he was.

he had to make sure he still had it. And once it was confirmed, that he does in fact have it, he was like, right. Yep. Yeah. Put it back on the shelf. Mm-hmm.

Put it back on the shelf, man. All right. Yeah, I mean, that's maybe the best news of all at the moment that he looked this good in his last game before the World Cup. He's going to be difficult, I think, for our opponents to handle. Josh Sargent scored a nice goal. Played pretty well in a loss for his side.

The goal came on a bit of a scramble. and then a nice find from McLean, one of the midfielders for Norwich. Sargent's first touch and the strike itself were good. He beat Zach Stephan from kind of a tight angle, just ripped it past him. Back Stefan. Former U.S. goal. You know, interestingly enough, did you guys notice this? Sergeant had another rip on goal that got deflected,

and then Stefan made a good save, and they had a little moment with each other, Stefan like kind of like gave him a fist bump and a big smile. So yeah. Yo, so what's crazy about this whole Stefan situation is number one, number one. And most importantly, you probably heard that he was asked first from the scuff podcast. Okay. And when you talk about, you know, the value and that of the information that you're getting from any one source, just remember that. Just remember who told you first.

Okay. I don't think Zach Steffman in his ass. I mean, I'm just going to let you keep that there. Waki, so you can have that as your party line for when you run for office and somebody tries to pull it up. Yes, it was me who said it. It was me who said it. Waki said he is not ass. And that does not reflect the, you know, the greater mindress of Scuff Goebel.

I mean, Greg is able to say that someone is ass. in a very great. Yeah, I actually don't think we want to say certain way. I don't, I think we should not.

I mean, he already didn't make the roster. I think we should maybe, yeah. I mean, he's a professional goalkeeper. He, he's,

I guess he's been playing all right for middle. He's been playing all right? Oh, and number two with Stefan. I don't know if y'all saw the, the collaborations that, uh, the U.S.

Mids National Team. did with a few certain streetwear brands. You don't see this? No. Okay. Well, one of the, it's very cruel, but one of the, one of the companies that ended up making some USMNT gear in preparation for this World Cup was Zach Stephens Foundation. And it was actually very, very nice gear, some of the, some of the better US-based stuff

that you'll find around. and the fact that he you know that that the USSF got him in here got him to design this it was a hoodie t-shirt scarf and a hat uh all very nice all very nice but um yeah he designed it for a world cup that he's not going to be able to play in like i just know he's i know he's sick right now i know he's it's unfortunate it's why it's why i mentioned his smile uh and moment with sergeant because it seemed very, like, good-natured and natural, you know? What can you do? Yeah, I guess that's what it comes down to.

Speaking of people who aren't going to be at the World Cup, Ricardo Pepe has, like, he's the face of part of Nike's ad campaign for this World Cup. Did you guys see that? I did. I did. So that apparently wasn't much coordination with Nike on the roster choice, but, which there shouldn't be, you know. he scored a decent goal over the weekend and played very well, I thought, for Grunning getting a loss to Fortuna Sittard.

Just a tidy little pass into the side netting from close range. I'm not going to go on too long about him, but he was good. And he won't be in Qatar, which is kind of a bummer. Imagining him at the Olympics, for which he is age-eligible, the 2024 Olympics. It gives me some comfort, though. where is the 2424 Olympics at you know

is it Paris that sounds right that sounds right Rico you just got it you just got to take it you got take it and go on man and get better

which it seems like he's doing yep gave a little press conference after the match got to ask some questions about it and handled it very well he did handle it well

he said he said essentially I am happy that I put myself in a position where I had an opportunity to go. I can't control the coach's decision. So that's that, basically what he said, right? Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's that, man. It just, you know, we say it all the time, but, you know, it just is what it is.

You got to take it, let it fuel you, get better, and just, hey, keep going, man. You're 19 years old, man. You got a long way to go. Yep. Let's see. Oh, and the other thing about Sargent is just how physical and comfortable on the ball he is. He didn't get a ton of touches in that game, but he is dragging that big old wagon all over the place. And seems like he wants that ball at his feet.

See, and that's another. I'm happy you brought up the wagon because, you know, Rico, you might want to invest in a wagon. You know what I'm saying? Might want to go down to the DR. DR get you a BBL. Hey, hey, you know what I'm saying? Whatever you need to do to do it. Hey, yeah, get right.

Because that's one of the things that triple G cited. Yeah, was just his... Why he's the side his wagon? Well, he talked about, you know what I'm saying? Just like a lack of physicality within RICO and within the competition that he's playing. And Greg said, you know, when we look at our group, you know, we're going to need some... We're going to need people that are able to, you know, getting these street fights. and come out of them on the other side, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah. People that if they got into a fight with the bear, you need to help the bear type of deal. And, you know, I don't know if Rico's there yet physically. Minally, we all know he is, you know what I'm saying, the boys from El Paso. But yeah, you know, just put some weight on, get some weight on that frame. You know what I'm saying? Josh is dragging that wagon to the World Cup because he invested his time. and, you know, building a wagon.

Yeah, he had a pretty good wagon frame to begin with. But, yes, he's gotten more physical. Let me play a question. Go ahead. What? Let me play a question from Jack T. which is related to this. Hey, got to Jack T. in Cincinnati. Something Burrhalter was really fixated on last night was the amount of players that we have in England

and how having that familiarity is really going to help us in the group. What did you get your guys' thoughts on that? How much you think that stuff actually matters? And then how well do you think he actually abides by that logic? Is he planning it all running out? Tim Rieme and Josh Sargent, who haven't really been a part of the national team for the last year. In my opinion, I would.

But I just don't really see him doing that. So is he just blown smoke or what? Berhalter's tricky on this kind of stuff because I didn't take him at his word when he was saying back in September. that the people who weren't in camp were still very much in contention to be at the World Cup. I didn't really, I was like, yeah, that's just something you say.

But then he absolutely abided by that when he brought in Hadji Wright to come to the World Cup and left Ricardo Pepi at home. So I don't know what to think. I've got to think that both Ream and Sergeant will be getting some playing time. For sure. At that point, we'll have quite a bit of England out there.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're starting anyway. You think Sargent's going to start over Ferreira? I think so. I think so. I would be better. I would put a lot on it. I would put a lot on it, I think.

We're going to need, really, and that's the thing about if I had one quibble with a selection here, it would probably have to be, you know, Greg said the decision was Jesus or, or peppy. And I don't know, man. If you're saying that the whole reason why you're making these decisions is to see who can, you know, who can throw their body around and slap meat with these big, beefy boys,

then why'd you bring Jesus? Even less physical than peppy. I mean, makes Pepey look like a grown man. Yeah. So, I don't know. But what I will tell y'all to do is make sure y'all watch Jesus Ferreira's 26

stories video. You know, we, we dropped all the stories. Yeah, there's some, so it, it depends on what you're looking for. It depends on what you're looking for. And I'll leave it at that. Okay. It's like a two-minute video, though, right? Yeah, it's too many video.

It's too many video. But if you're, if you, if you are so inclined. All right. I'm going to check that out. It's going to check that out. Who among us is not so inclined? Well, the thing is, okay, if you're listening to this podcast, you probably have already watched it. But, uh, and the, did you see what I see in that video?

And I don't know if you did. And if you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about. But I'm just going to leave it at that. Okay. That's really in excess. I don't know. I have no idea what you're talking about it. Yeah, well, we'll have to, we'll have to look at it.

And, um, see if he saw what Vince saw. Did you see what I. What is the, how are they, how are they supposed to check with you once they've decided what they saw? Look, you can, you can get at me on, on Twitter, Twitter.com, before it implodes. And just let me know if you've seen it or not. Yeah. And then maybe we can do a reveal next week where you reveal what it was. Possibly, possibly.

This could be kind of a fun game we do as a series. I don't know if I want to put this over the airwaves. Okay. Wow. Okay. I didn't know we were stepping in something like that here I started to regret and turning into a game Nothing illegal, nothing illegal

Pulisic Pulisic he had several encouraging little dribbles and lost to Newcastle. Chelsea's not very good but that's not really our concern right now, is it? No, don't give, don't care. Definitely not. But he's looking good though.

He's looking good and that's all we need to know. And you know what I'm saying? Like if we are going to be getting that England's midfield and defense Christian's going to be the one leading that charge Yeah I think that's probably right Raina nearly scored and nearly got an assist

But was kind of blah for Dortmund In a wild 4-2 loss to Gladbach Scali was also on the field I watched this game with you at a bar And you made I think a mistake with your first beer order But then fixed on the second one You get like an orange flavor thing.

But you got a normal one after that. I didn't really notice as much in this game as I normally would because we were at the bar. Yeah. It was some kind of nitro IPA and it was not good. But I drank it. I puckled down and I drank that thing. Let's see. Yeah, we sat next to a couple German guys.

One of them looked like a warlord. But like a new one, like a younger warlord. Yeah, long hair. Like a gun. runner. Okay, fair enough. I was thinking more like died at the hands of the Roman Legion back in the second century. I was thinking like kind of a war dogs type thing.

Like, he probably fits both. He'd probably fly around the middle. He was selling weapons. I think he actually would be, but he could have been both. Yeah. He's lived in Miami, but he was in New York to, I don't know, for something. Big Dortmund fan. Did they have good things to say?

They, we didn't really press them on anything. Oh, okay. Okay. Were you scared? Just didn't want to be, were we scared of what? His word lordiness. Oh, no, he was really nice guy. I did ask, there was a woman sitting behind us who was watching the Dortmund came really carefully, and I asked her, I don't know, I struck up a little conversation with her. She was German.

I asked her if she had seen the German national team beat the U.S. women's national team the night before, and she kind of scolded me. She's like, I don't pay attention to international football. I only pay attention to club football. You know what? I'm pretty sure like that's a thing in Germany. Eric Ray was tweeting about that. What was he?

What do you say? He was saying particularly this year, folks are just not feeling it. Yeah, I am. In Germany. Yeah, I've seen this before. I don't know why. But like I guess it's because it's, you know, they're still the remnants of their past there

and they're scared to be you know even with a national team it's like uh you know rooting for germany is just pushing that a little bit too far i don't know that that is how they think about it but that's pretty you know that's probably happening too you know i don't know it it seems like they've went pretty pretty strong in their you know in their efforts to erase the past yeah but yeah i think there's a discomfort with an extra discomfort with nationalism. They have won four World Cups,

so easy for them to not be, they just be like, oh, no, we're not going to pay attention this time. Anything else on Raina? No. He's healthy. He's healthy. And I will say, I will say,

you know what I'm saying? We've been giving him a pass on these performances. We've given him a pass on these performances because he's like, yo, he's chilling. I've had the same thought, yeah. He's chilling, let him. get right. But if he,

if he pulls this out against, against, uh, Kymru, uh, I'm, I'm, I'm not going to be having it.

I'm not going to be having it. Yeah. He's got to play harder than that. Yeah. But, yeah, especially if you putting, if you putting Tim on the bitch for Gio,

which, which I'm fully behind. Don't get me wrong. I'm fully behind, but. And, and, and,

are you fully behind it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If, if, if,

if, if, if, uh, I, I rate him higher than Tim without a doubt. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Even, you know, are you fine with putting Tim on the bench for Raina? Waki, I'm sure you are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I would be wildly against Jirin and not being in the game. Even, you know, I don't need another player to start ahead of them.

You should be playing, yeah. Yeah. Let me just say, even though he was kind of mailing it in, it seemed, against Gladbach, when he does get the ball in the final third, there's just a calm to him, you know, the way he played that ball into, was it Malin for that shot that was really nice save from the goalkeeper for Gladbach? Oh, the one, yeah, yeah, the one that the dude came out where he almost had to tap in, right? How does he, how does he do that? He just sort of calmly assesses all the angles and then just plays, it just effortlessly plays it to the right spot.

It's crazy. Yeah, most people, even like when they get that much, just having that much space that close to the goal, you can normally see players start to, you know, press a little bit. He doesn't do that. And this goes back to what we talked about in the earlier renditions of the Monday Review. The difference between quality and class, you know what I'm saying? like quality is basically can you execute the action like yeah like tons of people can make that pass but the the the class point comes in it's like yo can you really execute that pass and

place it in a place where you're getting a shot off or you're creating a goal score and opportunity and can you do it like over and over and that's the thing with geo like he seems to have the game slowed down to that point um in an area where nobody seems to to have the game slowed down. Really? I mean, yes. Yeah. Yeah, and just the ability to make those plays.

So excited to see it. Me too. Eunice Musa, he played in that 3-0 win on Thursday for Valencia over Real Batisse. I don't know that there's that much else to say he's healthy. Yeah, he's healthy. That's it. And I would say just shout out to La Laleigha. for ending their

end in their fall campaign in like the middle of the week instead of making people play on this weekend which was just, I don't know if anyone had fun watching these matches. Yeah, they lost, they lacked some of energy.

Although, yeah, that Dorman Gladbach game was crazy, though. The Weeds game had some energy as well. Yeah, that's true. 4-3 loss at Tottenham for March, Aronson, Adams. I thought Aronson was bright and busy as usual.

He also seems to be getting a lot better at like receiving the ball in traffic and not losing it. You guys agree with that? I would say, yeah, yes. And he's able to like ride challenges a little bit better. On his assist, he rode two challenges from one defender. First he turned him and then he held him off again to slip the ball through. Cresenzo Somerville was the one running down the crease that he passed it to. and Cresenzo did a lot from there, but still it was a good play by Aronson.

Good strength, good balance. For sure. I thought Adams was a little untidy here and there, and then he got sent off. It was a good sending off. That's exactly what we need. But you just can't get me to care about these games for this past weekend. He didn't get a whole lot of body into either yellow, which I think is part of why it was good. No risk there.

Okay. Two very soft yellows. And the point just still stands about Leeds in general. So after the World Cup is over, you know, Leeds is going to be our World Cup from here on. You know what I'm saying? Like, if you're listening to this, you probably are getting people that don't usually watch soccer to watch the World Cup. And we got to carry that momentum through the World Cup and just make sure they're watching Leeds play football because they give you a banger. Every week.

They give you a banger every week. It's exhausting. It's exhausting. It's good we have the break. Yeah. So if I was hanging on like as hard as some people are, yeah, I wouldn't be able to do it. It's just too much. It was just too much ups and downs and all that going.

But yes, we need people to watch leads. And, you know, they're probably going to be disappointed when they branch out and watch other soccer games that are not. as fun and as up and down with as many goals. But this is, like I said, you're not going to get a better entry point. Yeah, there's nothing else like it on soccer television right now, for sure. Let me play a question from Danny in the Panhand. Well, I mentioned Weston was not in the squad for Juventus. It does not appear to be a big problem.

I guess we'll see for sure, but I back him. to be healthy and play on Monday, a week from today. Let me play this question from Danny in the Florida Panhandle to close us out. What team you guys would be watching at the World Cup besides the USA and outside the conch cat that you'd be kind of wanting to do well and watch all their games. For me, I'm definitely going to be rooting for England. Just kidding for that. Oh, who.

Yeah, that was a joke. He's not rooting for England. I think he said he's going to root for, he's going to. He's going to watch Argentina. Thank God. He got me. I'll be interested in, like, any soccer fan. I'm going to perk up when I see that Brazil, Argentina, or Germany is playing in Uruguay.

I'm generally rooting for the Western Hemisphere. So it's kind of like, for sure. USA, Conca Calfe, Western Hemisphere. For sure. I'm looking up what the other groups and what the other teams in the tournament are. We aren't in our group right now. Look, I saw... Go ahead, Vince.

I'm going to tell you this right now. You better be locked into Serbia, Switzerland. You better be locked into Serbia and Switzerland. They ran a group last World Cup. I think I've talked about it, just the... How Switzerland was home to a lot of Albanian refugees. And they have some Albanian players on their team, Granite Zaka, Jernan Shakiri.

who fled their native homeland of Kosovo due to, you know, Serbian aggression, due to Serbian aggression. And when they faced, and they kept that same energy when they faced Serbia in last World Cup. The goals were scored by Jaka and Shakiri, and they threw up the Albanian Eagle as they were, as they celebrated both goals,

which is doing that in the face of Serbians, is almost like spitting in somebody's face. And so the fact that we get these two in a group again for this next World Cup, like I can't wait. I cannot wait. Yeah, that's a good one. I'm looking, I think the team I'm going to root for,

I'm looking at it now is South Korea. I like that in their group is Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay. I don't know how good South Korea is. I'm going to have to look into that. I guess they're just called the Korea Republic. I think they can get out of that group. They're my team. Okay.

Yeah, I'm rooting against Portugal, I think. So I'll go with you on that. Belgium, Canada, and Germany, Japan are both next Wednesday. So two days after the USA Wales game. All right. Anything else, guys? I don't know. I just can't believe the fact that we're here.

We've made it. You know what I'm saying? I've been looking forward to this very month for, you know, a solid four years. Yeah. A solid four years. We made it through a pandemic. We made it through just all types of things, man. And the fact that we're here and the fact that the World Cup is upon us, we're healthy.

Like, I just couldn't be feeling better, man. I just couldn't be feeling better. And I know there's a lot of things going on, a lot of pointed contention, whether you're against the inclusion of Christian rule down on the roster or angered that RICO was left off. But it's time, man. It's time. It's time for us to rally around these boys. And today is the five-year anniversary of the Portugal game when a bunch of people debuted.

Full circle. Full circle. Let's see if we can do something. Let's see if we can do something special, man. Because I really believe that we can't. There's nobody. If we play our game, man, I don't think there's anybody that can stop us. So let's get to it.

You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, the really good teams and stuff. Like, they might be able to stop us, but no one else. Maybe, uh, so maybe Vladko Andanovsky. Maybe he stops us. But, but as long as we keep him at arm's length, what we'll be all right. Did you see he's going to go scout for the U.S.? The U.S.

Yes, I did. Yeah, I did. Which, and you know, it made me think about this last night. But Blackcoe is without or doubt a worse coach than the triple G. Oh, no doubt. If you, I mean. This is a thanks, but no thanks. situation.

This is a man that's been able to have like, like just, you know, untold riches at his disposal, at his disposal. And he's, and he's wasting them. Yeah.

By and large. He's wasted. The women's national team is not clicking on all cylinders right now. But yeah. Triple G. That's my coach. You know what I'm saying? I'll die for that man.

I'll die for all 26 players on that roster. You know what I'm saying? It's, it's time. dog it's time it's time to fly your but fly your american flags in the air you know what i'm saying we we putting we put in freedom on the map on the map dog we're putting freedom on our shoulders on our shoulders did you notice how timway speaking of sort of americanisms tim way as uh social media announcement when he said like he's happy to play play for the u.s in the world cup he said

it's a culture of work. I did see that. I love that. Yeah, that was pretty funny to me. Because that's one thing we're going to do is work for sure. You mean in the USA? Yeah.

Yeah. But the World Cup is coming, guys. The World Cup is coming. Let's go. I'm excited, man. Let's go. I'm ready. I'm seeing too much arguing on Twitter. Like, bro, please put that on

hold until we at least draw a game or something. Put it on hold. It's time. It won't be put on hold. It won't. It won't. But hopefully, if you're hearing this. We, like the players for the U.S.

Men's National Team, can just choose not to pay attention to it, you know? Right. They are not out there on Twitter testing ideas. You know, they're just living their lives. They're living. They're making a playlist they want to make. make and enjoying it. Put all your neuroses to the side.

Enjoy this moment. Enjoy this moment. So many people didn't make it here, man. So many people didn't get to see this World Cup. Please just enjoy it. I'm ready. I'm ready. For sure.

Are you ready, Chris? Let's go. Are you ready? Yeah. I'm ready. To everybody that's been rocking with the scuff podcast over these years, like I have before I hopped on here, you know, I couldn't have.

had a better, you know, better captains leading the ship than Greg and Bells. Appreciate it, Vince. By the way, appreciate all you listening. And for everybody who's made it this far in the episode, who listens to us and supports us on Patreon, very, very appreciative of that. Thank you. We got a lot of stuff coming. Probably going to do an episode every day.

Let's go. Starting Monday. Let's go. And Greg and I are going to try to do a little 15-minute episode that you can send to your friends and family who are cats. casual soccer fans as a primer. Let's go. World Cup and other stuff too.

So thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.