Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #344: Pre-England final check in

Episode Date: November 24, 2022

Gio Reyna not playing controversy revisited, mea culpas from Belz and Watke. And then shouts from all over the country on how we're gonna beat England.----Scuffed is an ad-free podcast. Support that and get exclusive episodes (more than 50 this year) by signing up for our 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.

Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, this episode is going to be in large part in optimistic look forward at the England game because I think that's what we got to do as a podcast. I mean, for me, it's not even we got it. I'm feeling optimistic. Good. I'm feeling probably better about this game than I've ever felt about a game. Enthusiastically reporting for duty is what I'm hearing from you.

Yeah. Yeah. But first we got to talk about, we got to talk some more about Gio Raina and his health. Don't we? Shouldn't we talk about it? Yeah, we do. Oh, I should also mention Greg and Vince are on vacation. They're not with us.

It's just me and Chris. So Greg Burhalter said again today that Gio was healthy and available for Wales and his not playing was a coach's decision. And I think we have not maybe made everybody happy with the way we've talked about this issue on this podcast. And I want to say from myself to the extent. that I make people feel belittled for having a different opinion than me or a different interpretation. I apologize. I'm going to try to be very straightforward about this issue today. It is important. Geo's health is important because he didn't play against Wales. We could have used him. We could have used him in that last 30 minutes to get more control of the game,

maybe to get a goal. We didn't use him. I think the thought on this, if I'm, correct me if I'm characterizing it inaccurately, Chris, but I think our take on this podcast was basically, there's no way Burrhalter doesn't play him if he's available. There had to be some health issue in play. Well, since then, Berlter has kind of... He's not helping us out here, basically. So now you pretty much just have to cling to semantics, you know.

Yeah. But, you know... I feel like I was probably wrong. I was probably wrong, too. I think... Although, it does seem to me... He's obviously not fully 100%. I still think that.

I still think that, too. I think it comes down to a question of judging what his status was exactly how many minutes he has in him for the World Cup and where to put them. And Wales was such a high-leverage situation. Yeah, maybe that would be a place to risk it. But I don't know what his exact situation is.

And I don't think he's, it's not like he's a 100% healthy. We pretty much know that. I mean, Greg's argument is Baraltors doing gamesmanship. He's trying to keep England guessing about Raina's status. And that, to me, seems plausible, you know, bordering on probable. I think, I guess where I would sort of correct myself is, to the extent that I gave the impression that there was no soccer decision involved in Raina not playing on Monday. I want to retract that.

Of course there was a soccer decision. Like the soccer decision and the health decision meet in a sort of mysterious gray area that we don't know, right? We don't fully understand. And there is, but the point is there is an element of a soccer decision, even if you think a Raina can only go a certain number of minutes or there's a certain risk of aggravating his injury. there's still a soccer decision that says, well, given that health situation, we're not going to play him.

And everything Berlter has said since Monday indicates that the soccer decision was a part of the decision. Does that? I think we covered it. Okay. Probably everyone's complete satisfaction. We want Giovanni Raina to be able to play tomorrow and to play tomorrow. Don't we? Yes, that's correct.

Let's talk about England. They were clinical with a ton of panash against Iran on Monday. They are good at soccer. We are less good and have had trouble creating chances. And I guess I'd add our midfield seems like it's good for about an hour of action before everyone hits the fainting couch. How are we going to beat them? Let's look at some of their weaknesses, I suppose.

Yeah. I've heard Harry McIreys bad. I don't know if that's true. Let's assume it is. Exploit that in some way, you know? Yep. Jordan Pickford's not that tall That's right

I was going to look at which England players have yellow cards to target but none of them have any That's sort of a dead end And then I was wondering Because we found out that Burrhalter I guess we've known for a while Burhalter and Southgate are close

I'm hoping that Berhalter has been sharing less information than he's been receiving And my theory is since he was the first mover on it He made the first contact He has initiative and he might have controlled that. But after this Giorana situation,

I'm not as confident as I was before. Yeah, I don't know. But he might be a sly fox, you know, playing a game. Playing a game here. Well, let's go back to Harry McGuire, because I, I, too, have heard this constantly that he's terrible, and I don't, I have to admit,

I don't watch Manchester United ever. But he looked really good against Iran, didn't he? Yeah. He was good at everything. He was good on set. pieces. He was like a really good passer of the ball. He keyed the move on the first goal. He got the assist on the second goal. Yeah. So maybe he's not so, maybe he's not so bad.

I don't think, I don't, I think that maybe shouldn't have been the first weakness I listed if we're not even confident about it. Maybe I, I'm going to go back to the weaknesses. They're under a bit more pressure than we are. Yes. Where we are the underdogs, just lean into that and use that as hard as you can. And just play with a lot of fight. I mean, that's kind of all that matters. I mean, there's a bunch of soccer stuff too, but from emotional perspective, that's

what I would like to see on the field. We solicited a bunch of clips from listeners for optimistic takes about the England game, and we're going to lean into those. Let me, this one is relevant to the, this idea of England being under more pressure than we're under. It's from New York City.

Hey, it's Cutmaster Flex in New York City. For me, this England game is really easy as a fan because we can only win if we lose even if we get killed it's england you know they looked great they're contenders whatever we'll forget about it but if we win or even draw we'll be talking about it the rest of our lives yeah that's the key that's the key right there we're in a high leverage situation i think you used the phrase a thousand Christmases earlier this week to describe which possible i could have been underestimating the number of Christmases it was we won't know until it happened. It could be more. I don't want to put a number on it right now. Yeah. Be careful about that.

I would be careful about that. Let me play one from Jenny in St. Louis, which she's a historian. Hey, it's Jenny from St. Louis, home of five members of the 1950 U.S. World Cup team. Four of them lived within a five-block radius and grew up there, which is just crazy. But they shocked the world by beating England. And we looked great the first 45 on Monday. And I think we can shock the world again. We have history on her side here. Jenny's absolutely right. Well, of course she's right.

She's a historian. I don't know that she's actually a historian. I think you may be a journalist, but, you know, first drafts. She sounded like a historian. Yeah. And this is something Southgate nodded to too, too, that they haven't, you know, beaten us in a major tournament, which he, I mean, he's just playing a game there, which I don't like, but.

He does the, he does the humble, the humble Englishman act, quite well, doesn't he? There's no one better in the game at it. He doesn't get enough credit for it. And I think that's actually what turned some of his detractors onto him. Burrhalder has a similar thing, which I think increases some of the criticism of him. You think being humble is a way to attract more criticism? Well, first of all, Burhalders nowhere.

I should have been more clear. He's not in Southgate's league in terms of humility on a performance level. Maybe as a person he is, but not in terms of performance. But yeah, I think there's a similar energy going on there. Yeah. Okay. Well, I think we should just keep listening to people's takes, don't you? Yeah.

Let's do Chris in New Orleans, who's just, he's just speaking my language right now. Check, check. What's up, scuff multiverse? Chris Salerno coming live from New Orleans. Optimistic take, we got a massive opportunity on our hands, a win or even just a really compelling performance. has a chance to impact our culture and the perception of this team in a way that no other game that I can remember has. Friday after Thanksgiving, turkey sandwiches. That means butts in seats, TV's on.

It's the red coats. That means people are going to be fired up, liquor flowing. Our lads are easy to root for. The vibes are majestic. We got talent. Adams is a match winner. He's going to be balling. Turner is the type of goal

who can steal us a point, maybe three. England, in their hand, not cohesive, not resilient. McGuire, Pickford, Shaw. That says, X-Gift, high. And we're due for something transcendent from Gio or Christian, I think.

Jedi, Clamps, 2-1, USA. Extraordinary. Extraordinary there. And you're a big culture, guys, so that's really going to resonate with you. Yeah, culture is really important, in my opinion. I do agree that we're due for something transcendent there from especially Gio.

Pulisic gave us something pretty transcendent with that assist on Monday. Yeah. I think, you know, that's, yeah. So we had the moment and we had the spark there. Just keep that spark, keep that energy up and, you know, everything's lined up for us. It is a really big opportunity. Here's something from Alex and Alabama. If you know him from the Discord,

you know him as dope island. Hey, this is Alex in Alabama. My advanced supercomputer model has the U.S. as not even the biggest underdog of the day. The biggest being Ecuador against the Netherlands. They're going to win that game. We're going to win this game. Simple as. Simple as.

So that's one to look. It's important to track that one then. I love the thinking behind it. I think it checks out for me. We will talk a little bit about what the U.S. should do. in this game because Greg can't be with us but he did give me a couple of thoughts

and we'll get into him but let's do one more clip before we do that this is Josh from Pittsburgh by way of Philly this is a 2-0 win for the U.S. England has Jordan Pickford between the sticks let me repeat that Jordan

Pickford 2-0 win Giovanni with a goal and assist and a rare Tyler Adams goal. Huh. Wow. Tyler Adams goal is a big call there and that does win the game for us for sure. Huge call.

Yeah. If Tyler scores, we win. Duh. Let me, I said I was just going to play one more. Let me play Matt in New Jersey. I think he has some commentary on haircuts. Hey guys, this is Matt in the Great Garden State of New Jersey. And this group of players seems to play their best or at least get the best results against

the best opponents. And England is the best. opponent we've played. So I see no reason why that trend wouldn't continue and we won't get a result. Also, England has managed to grab all three podium places for the worst hair in the tournament with Foden, Pickford, and Greylish. So we can't let them win with that. Thanks.

Oh, yeah, that's a good point. And on the haircut front, I think we're in pretty good shape there. Yeah, we're all right. We've got a barber in. and yeah they have a lot of I think some weak spots although there's kind of a similar style because they're kind of a similar group of folks but I think there's some differences that make us give us the edge

Foden is a very strange looking person don't you think did you see him in Grealish doing that thing where they were juggling it and then passing it to each other in the air without it hitting the ground for about two minutes no that was pretty good though but I agree with you otherwise

Like they're that he's Foden's good at soccer Is that what you're saying Kind of? Yeah, highly technical These folks He is good No doubt about that

The two sort of substantive things That I wanted to say About the game Against England is Number one They were not quite as dominant Well they were dominant

Against Iran But it wasn't They didn't score their first goal Till the 34th minute And If you look at their first three goals The ones before that half that pretty much iced the game. They're all, they're all kind of avoidable. There's the

good cross from Luke Shaw and a lovely header from Jude Bellingham. After that nice entry pass from McGuire to Kane and then back to Sterling and then out to Shaw, the interplay was really nice and that interplay was repeatable, but the odds are not in Jude's favor to hit that perfect looping header into the side netting the next time he gets that chance. That's my opinion. Yeah, the odds aren't with him, but that is a, he has this. He has this. calm confidence and charisma sort of in the Giorena school so he's definitely something to look out for

but can you do that consistently? Let's hope not. Well, I mean, I'm leaning a little bit on the ghost stats here like you, that's a shot that doesn't usually go in. Right. Although the interplay was very good.

Hopefully we're going to be a little better at defense than Iran was. And we'll get into that because they were not good at defense. The second. goal was on a set piece and a good knockdown for McGuire who had hit the bar earlier with a header on a set piece. We got to watch out for him on set pieces. And then Saka smokes it. It's again unlikely Saka will hit a shot like that in the next game, dipping to graze the

underside of the crossbar. Could happen. The odds are not in his favor for that either. And then the defending on Sterling's goal was just all over the shop. They're, Iran's back line was ragged. Nobody's marking Sterling. The guy who was marking him didn't really mark him. And then when Kane wax a good ball across for him to volleyed into the net with the outside of his boot, he's totally free. I do think our defenders will do a better job in that situation than Iran's did. Yeah.

So I think it sounds like the key is keep it tight and let the numbers play in our favor. England got lucky. One of those goals and it's not going to happen again. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. And we don't need to talk about the rest of the goals, I don't think, because Iran was, was, they were rolled.

Now, Iran doesn't give us much of a blueprint for attacking England because they really didn't attack until late in the game. But that Tremi goal to make it 4-1 was lovely, a clever little pass from Holesadeh into the box, and Tarrami ran onto it and smashed it over Pickford. I could see us scoring that way, but it does take a little imagination, maybe more than I usually. use. I think we're capable of it. Yeah. I wouldn't mind having a nice little, a little bit of a unlikely magical type goal. Mm-hmm.

We could. We will. We will. One thing Greg said he was going to bring up if he had been able to join us was, um, Greg thinks we should try to do what we did against Mexico at the Azteca when we drew them zero-zero, we had a couple really good chances, including the one for PFO, late in that game. The one where Gio Raina famously sticks his arms out and says, like, what are you doing? Because he didn't score from four or five yards out after Raina cushioned a ball across the face of goal for him.

But the lineup, if you remember, West McKinney wasn't available for that game. We had Zach Steffin and goal, Yedlin Zimmerman, Miles Robinson, and Anthony Robinson across the back line. The three-man midfield was Adams, Musa, and Acosta. and then we had Tim Wea, Ricardo Pepe, and Christian Pulisic across the front line. And we just tried to, as Greg would say, tried to ugly it up. And we did a good job of that. Mexico didn't have, Mexico had a lot of the ball, but they were toothless, which is kind of how Mexico is these days, even in their World Cup game a few days ago.

But Greg is suggesting that maybe Burrhalter will do something similar, especially if McKinney can't go, because it did look like he hurt his groin, despite the official statements from U.S. soccer that he's, everyone's healthy and available. I think there's at least a question over whether McKenny is going to be ready to go. And that game does make sense as the model of the games we played. It's the only one that is even close to an approximation of this, I think. us being, you know, pretty strong underdogs. Obviously, Peppie's not there, neither is Miles Robinson, so maybe it's CCV and

who would you rather see Start Haji Wright or Hazis Ferreira or Josh Sargent? Just from the gut. From the gut. I don't know that I would put, I don't think Haji, I don't know that I would put him out there for the full thing. I still kind of like bringing him on later. So my gut says Sergeant. So he's mine.

Nothing happened with him other than the A couple moments. Yeah, we didn't pass the ball too now. It's a little bit tough to feel really strongly about this one. Fair enough. What are you thinking? I'm thinking Sergeant too. I just like him better than Ferreira.

And that's how I feel about it. I do kind of even though this model makes some sense, I do kind of wonder if we're really going to sit and counter it just doesn't seem like we're very practiced at that, you know? But maybe we're... I'm having this just gut impulse for Haji now. Okay. And it's pure gut, though.

So I feel an obligation to say it. Okay. That's my gut. I don't know if that's a feeling of what's going to happen or... It's just all gut, Adam. Okay. Go with your gut. Let's get a couple more clips in here.

Nick and DC What's up scuff crew Nick and DC with an optimistic take for you Wales was always the tough opener The game we had to play The possession, chance creation soccer Every top international Hell every rich club team

In the world struggles to play But with the shoe on the other foot Against an overconfident Group of Winy Brits My money's on us Frustrating the out of them Getting chippy Outdogging them

And then using our quality Or luck to steal a goal or two Let's go. A little bit blue, working a little bit blue there. But, you know, now's the time to do that. Yeah. Isn't it? So I'm in favor of it.

All right. And here's gruntled in greater St. Louis. So the thing that I've learned about the Burr-Halter era is even though he makes choices that are often frustrating, eventually he does come around and make the choices that most of us want. Specifically, he's going to have the hard conversation with Polisic. He's going to get a new set piece taker. and that's going to lead to a goal and we're going to get a result against England.

Well, I think we're going to get a result too. Yeah, and on post, I guess the hard question was the free kick one, or the set piece one, and that should probably have a conversation that could be had. And his role probably just because how the game is look a lot different than it was against Wales where he got 73 touches or whatever. He got a lot of touches, and he was getting wide and then shifting in. John Mueller did a thing about it.

But that's not going to be what it looks. looks like this time. Is it? No. Where's he going to be started? Like, what? Or is Raina going to start? You know, I mean, if Raina starts, he can be the set piece taker, just to go back to that

part real quick. But, yeah, Pulisic, he's going to get, I mean, he got all those transition moments in the second half against Wales. I would hope he gets a few of those against England, so it'll look similar in that way. You know what we should do? In this game, we should have some go for broke, operative. optimism and confidence on our transition place. Yeah.

I felt like that was a little bit lacking. Be a little more swashbuckling. Boys. Go for it. Don't worry about it. Yeah, there's too much worrying about it. But the deal on R and has to be when they do mess up,

we need to not get mad at them, you know? Yeah. If we're going to say, hey, swashbuckle it. And we're all in on the swashbuckling. Yeah, I agree. It's a, hey, go for it. And then when they go for it and they make a mistake, and then you get mad at them, you can't do that.

I agree. Yeah. You know, the other thing about this game is the defense is really going to have to play well. I know that's obvious, but no crashing into the back of people in the penalty box, obviously. Also, if somebody falls asleep at the back post just for a second, it will get punished. So no falling asleep. Everybody be tight. Hold it together.

the bar is going to be high for that back four. Focus is a big priority in this game. I have one more clip to play. This is from San Diego. Hey, bells, everybody. Happy, happy, happy. Just watched for, I think, the third time our game. Dudes, we are awesome.

Zimmerman was awesome. And Rine was awesomer. I mean, these guys are amazing. So everybody, chin up, let us go and do things against England. It can totally happen. As you guys all said, though, we do need to kind of keep, when we get them in transition, let's go. Let's just go. They are destabilized.

Let's do things and have way of bringing down balls and feed the middle and boom. The mixer, the chaos. All right. Peace out, people. Adios. I really like that. Billy in Golden. So I said one more.

I actually have one more after that. Here's Billy in Golden, Colorado. What up, y'all? This is Billy from Golden, Colorado. I think so Clint's sister has decided that she wants to make it her mission to help the U.S. beat England. And so just like she interfered in the Clint's goal against Rob Green in 2010, I think she's going to come back and trip Jordan Pickford on a corner.

and Christian will not be taking set pieces and we'll be a fox in the box and drive one home 1-0 USA. Do you think there may be some ghost involvement? I hope so. I certainly hope so. And it would be greatly appreciated. What I keep coming back to is just how crazy soccer is

and particularly how crazy some of the games have been at this World Cup, you know, getting the best, getting the most, Best chances doesn't mean you win. Having the ball doesn't mean you win. It's disturbingly random how everything plays out. And so I think that plays in our favor because we're not as talented as England. And, you know, I like all the good vibes and all the messages from everybody. But we are not as good as them.

So I take comfort in the randomness. We're going to use it to our advantage. I mean, not just in this game, but even the, you know, tight three games where I of things happen and it's kind of a you know a coin flip in that at this point and that's fine yep as long as we play with some panash we need some panash so you want haji right starting i want sergeant but neither of us feels terribly strongly about it when you put it in such stark terms as that i don't i i said you know just pure gut yeah do i want hodgey right starting no i don't want on you right and starting.

Okay. Well, Stryker, TBD, I sure hope Raina can start. I don't know exactly how to start him. If Brawler comes out and puts Raina in the midfield with Musa and Adams because McKenny can't go, and McKenny was also quite sloppy on Monday. Boy, that would be fun and a surprise.

Way on one wing, Pulisick on the other. Somebody at Stryker, Raina in the hole behind him. Adams and Musa in some kind of double pivot. I'm kind of mad at Kell and Acosta right now. Well, if we're going to go with the model of the Mexico game. We need Acosta. Maybe, you know, we don't have to be so specific in following that model.

It's more the idea. Yeah. He does seem like kind of an important part of uglying up a game. I wish he had uglied up the game a little bit when that throw-in came into Aaron Ramsey on Monday. The problem is it was tough to ugly it up because it was so chaotic. Yeah. up players need need it to be calm

and need something clear to disturb. Yeah. Which, you know, that could be the setup we're looking at against England here. Because England's going to be a pass in the ball around

and bam, get in there. I've noticed there's not a whole lot of shit housing in the World Cup. There hasn't been. I guess because if you get too yellows, you miss the game and everyone's being really cautious about everything.

It is true that Acosta, I think Acosta's good at creating chaos when the situation is sort of static, like before a penalty kick, but maybe he can't exercise that muscle when the situation is already chaotic. Yeah, which not many people can.

Yeah. Really big game tomorrow. I'm excited about it. 2 p.m. Eastern Time, 1 p.m. Central. Thanks to all the patrons who sent in voice memos, sorry to anybody who's voice memo I didn't get to, We'll do a call-in show right after England. Hopefully that'll be a celebratory affair.

And then we will, Greg and I will do a recap later at night. And then it'll be on to Iran. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.