Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #345: England v USA recap

Episode Date: November 26, 2022

An encouraging performance on a huge stage, in some ways unprecedented, but still we couldn't score, and some of our decisions didn't align with the naked math of World Cup advancement. Must-win against Iran on Tuesday.----Scuffed is an ad-free podcast. Support that and get weekly exclusive episodes, plus access to our vibrant Discord server including live call-in shows and round-the-clock access to other reasonable USMNT and USWNT fans online, 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. Proud and excited, as George Way I might say, to kick off our recap of yesterday's draw with England. It was scoreless, but we had a couple chances and our midfield controlled big portions of the game. And we scared them. Greg, how you doing? I was entertained. I was entertained. I'm a little bit lukewarmer, I think, than a lot of people on the overall.

like concept of the game, which we'll get into. But, but overall, like, again, I'm pleased with the way we played. I think, I think I'm doing okay. We're still alive at the World Cup. Yeah, I mean, there's so many ways to get into this discussion,

but I think a couple of things we should take care of first. Let's sort of talk about what England was. They were right up there in the top five favorites to win the World Cup. Now, you can argue about whether that was justified or not, but they do have an extremely famous, talented team.

And we did, I mean, nobody can say we didn't hang with them listening to and reading some stuff from England. I think a lot of people there are very disappointed in the way England played, but they also admit that the U.S. outplayed England for at least big parts of the game. Yeah, England are definitely powers at this point, right? World Cup semi-finalists in 2018, Euro finalists lost in penalties in 2020, 2021, depending on what asterisk says about that Euro tournament. So yeah, they're clearly a team that is loaded with talent

and has been effective in tournament play. And I think we'll get more under their tournament play effectiveness as well for context. Yeah. Well, because they beat Iran 6 to 2 on Monday. The path forward for the U.S. is pretty simple. We just got to beat Iran on Tuesday and we advance from the group. Yeah, so that's the path forward. And we can talk about the context here for both teams.

I think because I think it does matter. The U.S., because of the whales are on outcome, Iran beating whales in that early, early kickoff yesterday, the U.S. knew that against England, a win or a loss and a draw were effectively the same result. Right. You know, there's a very narrow scenario that a tie helps the U.S. But for the most part, like a loss and a draw equivalent. So we go into that game, tournament dynamics-wise, we go into that. game against England half a goal down. For England,

the math was totally different. Because of that outcome of the morning game, England knew that getting to four points, a draw with the U.S., meant that they would effectively be through to the next round already. Because the U.S. and Iran play each other on the last day, both of those teams can't possibly get to 14, four points.

Only one of them can. And whales can only get to four points by beating England, but then they will be well behind England on goal difference unless they win by three goals. That's what Wales would need to do, would need to do to make up the goal difference. And even then they're still behind on the next tiebreaker, which is total goals scored.

So Wales would actually have to beat England by four goals in the last game to get through, no matter what happens in US or Iran. So England can basically now lose their last game by three goals, and they still advance in the World Cup. So when we talk about England being an effective tournament team, a draw in England knew, a draw in this game puts them into the knockout rounds with a game to spare.

So they had very little incentive to like push urgently and stretch themselves out a little bit to try to get that goal. So that's the context and I just like I can't escape the tournament dynamics. That's all that I like been consumed with in these in these competitions. So like you can't for me I can't just ignore that context in the in the overall like big picture of this of this soccer game. Right. And you could see, if you looked closely, you could see those numbers streaming across Jack Grealish's eyeballs

when he came on when he came on. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, I think that's all legitimate, of course. But I also think, you know, England and the USA both wanted to, at least some people on the field wanted to win the game. And England were, by the account of Gareth Southgate himself, the team was dejected by the way they played against the U.S., the way the U.S.

forced them to play in some ways. So I think you're sort of angling towards well, England was happy to get a draw. That's how the game played out, right? Yeah. So England were happy to get a draw. And then the ironic and the thing that left a little bit of the sour taste in my mouth for this game, which was otherwise like a great performance by us, was that we were also very clearly okay with the draw. You know what I mean?

Like we were very clearly like the draw itself is a worthwhile thing. and that's where like that I just can't comprehend that like for me the draw itself is nothing if it doesn't advance our hopes in the tournament but but I guess I'm open to the idea that like the morale of the team and you know I mean like having that in their on their resume now the draw against England like helps their mentality for the last game but but it seems it seems strange to me that that would be the case you know what I mean it's like do everything you can throw everything at them if you concede because you've you've gone all out for a goal fair enough and I don't think I don't think like these players would not understand that

right yeah I think it's just it's just the last five minutes like if we just the last five minutes of the game have really shown that you know like our goalkeeper going up for a corner or the last free kick if we're doing that to at least signal that yes we understand that the goal in the win is the only thing that matters for advancing out of the group, I would have felt fine, but we clearly didn't. So that just was just like, what are we doing here? We just, we're just taking the draw. We've played very well, but we're just, we're just going to take the draw and sort of concede, uh, that we now must beat Iran because a win against England would flip the draw scenario in our final game, where at that point, a draw against Iran would send us through.

So we'd have two outcomes where we could advance. Now we must beat Iran. So that's it. That's my whole, that's my only wet blanket to throw on what was otherwise a very intense and entertaining and, again, pretty much excellent performance from the U.S. And it's a little confusing why a draw doesn't, didn't do anything for us last night, but it's, let me just explain it really quickly. Iran, because they beat Wales was on three points, they're on three points, and we were on one point going into the England game. So now we have two, thanks to two draws.

Even if we draw Iran, Iran, because they have three points, they'll go to four. So they'll be ahead of us no matter what. My family group chat was a little confused by that. So I thought I'd explain it. That's what's going on. And then one of the thing I want to talk about before we get into the lineup and the timeline is just sort of the cultural moment of it. I sort of had, well, I had this whole World Cup circled as a chance for the men's national team to win over more America. And I think for me, winning over Americans is a little more important than winning over the rest of the world.

And I bet if you pin down Greg Burhalter, he would probably say the same thing. I don't know that this game, I think this game may have done more to change the way the world views American soccer than the way Americans view American soccer. Because I think people who watch the game who know soccer and most people around the world are like, do like soccer and know it pretty well. can see that we were, you know, we were going toe to toe to toe with England, and I don't think most people expected that. So that probably did something for the way people view soccer in America around the world. However, it was a scoreless draw. And for like your casual American sports fan,

I don't know how much they care that we, you know, hit the crossbar once and had a 0.2xG chance go begging in the first half. You know, I just don't. We got some anecdotal evidence on the calling show last night. Somebody was in Waukee, strangely enough. There we go. And said they were at a bar where people were, there were some casuals won over. Mario in southeast L.A. said a bunch of, a bunch of his Mexican-American friends were impressed with the way the U.S. played.

But then, you know, Vince was in Louisville and he said his friends that he went and watched the game with at a bar, like, man, this is boring as hell. So who knows? I mean, we have some comparison points even in this tournament, right? Like the way Canada played against Belgium, you know, got a lot of people, impressed a lot of people. And I think, right? Yeah. And, you know, so you can kind of say, was our performance sort of at that level? Was it better?

Was it worse? And then is there really, can you really expect any kind of a long-term payoff from this game? If we don't advance and continue to build on the momentum or will it just sort of faded? of the night. Well, you need to, for it to have a long-term impact, you need to inspire the children. And I'm not sure. I legitimately. I legitimately think that's true.

No, I do too. And I don't know that this did that. Even though I think it was a good, I agree, it was a good performance. I thought I was, I was happier with it than you were. Well, we have now set up a, again, I know I'm the wet blanket here. We've now set up a perfect reenactment of 2010, where we would get, The two draws in early games must win our final game. That's what we need in 2010, half a goal behind.

And we all know what happened in 2010. Let's see a replay in 2022. Hopefully it's a little better game before the last moment than that one against Algeria. That's another thing is we have the benefit of these, of doing these historic recaps where we watch old U.S. World Cup games and review them, you, me, Waki and Vince, this was way better than that. We were more, we had much more control of the game.

Yeah, we were doing things in this game. Like, we did some things. Those things didn't always lead to clear-cut chances, but we weren't doing anything in that 2010 game, and we still weren't getting clear-cut chances. Right. Okay, let's do the lineups. Ready?

Let's hear them. All right. It's actually, Burhalter made only one change to the lineup that faced Wales. He replaced Josh Sargent with Haji Wright in the front line. Otherwise, it was the same Turner and goal, Des, Zimmerman, Ream and Robinson across the back line. Tyler Adams, West McKinney, and

Eunice Musa in the midfield, and then Tim Wea, Hajie Wright, and Christian Pulisick across the front line. England made no changes to their lineup that drilled Iran 6 to 2 on Monday. It was Pickford and goal, Tripier, Stones, McGuire, and Shaw across the back line. Bellingham and Rice, in the midfield,

sort of a, I guess it was a four, no, it was not a four, two, three, one. It was a four, three, three, this is an important thing. It was, so Rice as the six, and then Bellingham and Mount as the advanced midfielders, and then Saka and Sterling on the wings and Harry Kane up front. And then I'll just, I'll do one more mini complaint here, is that we, you know, knowing the dynamics of the group and in running out McKinney and DeSergio Dest, who were on yellows, Tim Rheim as well, with the possibility of another yellow card suspending them for the Iran game, again, makes me think like, okay, then we're going, then we are going to try to win

this game. Like, we're putting out the best team to win. We're not just conceding that, you know, it all just comes down to Iran. But so we're risking those players on their yellows. Absolutely. We didn't actually risk, risk them clearly with like the true intent to go out and get the win that we needed to help us. So that's, that was another sort of, it's just like a disconnect in my brain. that is like we're taking these risks, but not actually taking the risks that we needed to at the end of the game

to get anything worthwhile at it. Well, it's a little bit like the final World Cup qualifying window when we played Mexico at the Azteca and then we had Panama at home and then we had Costa Rica on the road. And the thought was, well, let's just, well, it's essentially not even worry about the Mexico game because our chances of winning are so low.

let's just put all our energy into this Panama game. That's the one that is, that's the one that really matters. And Berthelter didn't do that at all. You know, he like threw the entire kitchen sink at Mexico, like a first choice lineup. And then we got a draw. We could have probably won that game. And then we, and then we did the same thing against Panama. It's a little bit like that, you know.

Yeah, you definitely could have approached it with that, the same mentality of the many hypotheticals for that window. only, of course, in that window, the draw against Mexico proved to be very important because that point kept us level with Costa Rica who pulled off the nine-point window and sat even with us at the end. And so it was goal difference that put us through.

So that point against Mexico vital here, it's just sort of the opposite. Like the point is really nothing. So we had to win, and we were in position to at least go for the win and chose not to. I'm saying I'm going to be done talking about it, but I know it's going to come up again

in the chronology. Well, I think you're thinking about it in sort of cold, ruthless, how do we advance at the World Cup terms? Which I'm not trying to invalidate that. That's important. I do suspect that there's like some morale stuff going on like you alluded to earlier. And I think Burrhalter is just more of a soccer evangelist than you are, you know? That's fair. And that is fair.

So we'll have to see if those good vibes end up being worth something in the Iran game. If we just come out really looking good, then I'll credit it to us earning the draw and not conceding late while we were chasing the game. I mean, there's no doubt that we didn't optimize the percentages yesterday. I clipped these, so I'm going to read them. Let me just read a little bit from the BBC. This is their, you know, it's nice to read stuff from people who aren't buried. in this stuff the way we are and fully committed to the U.S. team.

So this is the BBC recap. Pulisic troubled England's defense with his intelligent running and control and was desperately unlucky to see a powerful first half drive bounce off the woodwork with Jordan Pickford beaten. Leeds United's Tyler Adams was another inspirational figure as the USA fully merited their point and might easily have had all three, Greg. England have a history of trouble with the USA at World Cups having lost in 155. and drawn in 2010.

They again proved to be a thorn in the side here and come the final whistle, England's players and management looked relieved to have escaped with a point. Of course they were relieved. They're into the next round of the World Cup. I don't know. Again, I don't know how to not even address

sort of the context is wild to me. It's the World Cup and the whole point is to advance and England have done it and they'll probably win against Wales anyway and win the group, which is also important. but they're through. They've advanced. Right.

And then a little bit more on the media tour. The New York Times story was from Andrew Keh really leaned into this sort of changing global perceptions about the team idea. And he quoted Berhalter saying, we're chipping away at it. You need games like tonight to be able to do that. Otherwise, it's hard for people to get an assessment of it.

We're not done. Our focus is to keep going. And hopefully by the end of the turn, tournament, we give people something to talk about, which I think is a nice, humble way to talk about it. Totally fair. If we draw against Iran and crash out of the tournament, like the whole, the whole experiment will be considered an unmitigated failure. Right. Let me also play a clip from Barry Glendening on Football Weekly, The Guardians podcast. This is his assessment of the positives that England can draw from the game.

If you're trying to sort of extract the positives for England, there was a lot of good sideways passing at the back punctuated occasionally by some backwards passing well Barry's actually nailed it because the other positive you absolutely take away from that game for England is that they didn't have to expend very much energy like the whole first half looked like an exercise from both teams

in energy conservation which I felt like it was very wise for the US to do for the first 45 minutes and England clearly weren't like in a hurry to, you know, make a bunch of runs bombing up and down the field either. So, so for as sort of sarcastic as he was being, like, it's a short tournament. And so being able to accomplish a goal while also not expending a ton of energy is a very valuable outcome.

Fair enough. I'm stuck in the tournament dynamics. I'm sorry, everyone. No, that's all right. Let's do the timeline. I think we should talk about the U.S. this shape because it was a little bit different. We set up in a 4-4-2 where right and Wea were the two, and McKenny was wide right, wide to

the right, and Pulisic was wide to the left in the 4-4-2. Adams and Musa, of course, in the middle in front of the centerbacks. Right and Wea were working to prevent the English centerbacks, Maguire and Stones, from passing to Declan Rice. And you're saying it was all energy conservation. it did look like they were a little bit confused and unsettled by what was, I mean, they weren't panicked, but they just didn't, they didn't, they didn't, they weren't playing with purpose. I think because the, the U.S. surprised them. They were in a 4-3-decklen rice has a single pivot in possession. We were denying rice the ball with Mountain Bellingham further up. Even when Bellingham came back to try to get the ball, get on the ball, we would basically go man-to-man on Bellingham and Rice when Wright did. And they couldn't, play through the middle so they ended up playing it wide to the fullbacks the fullbacks didn't really have anywhere to go

there were some kicks out of bounds sort of speculative stuff down the wings that we cut out pretty easily and yeah that's it I thought that set the tone for the game did you see anything anything else on the on that on our 442 and how England responded to it so first off I was surprised too and I wouldn't I bet England were surprised by this because we haven't run a 4-4-2 since like the heady days of 2019

with Michael Bradley in the lineup. I mean for real so so this I was like oh man we're 4-4-2 okay Haji's not being asked to press the way we usually do and in my head I didn't I didn't expect it because again of the all or nothing nature of the game I was like oh man maybe we'll come out and press because who cares if we can see like we have to create a chance and our press is pretty good at creating chances

and England won't necessarily just hoof it over our press so they might reward us with by making some mistakes It's trying to do too much stuff. And then we come out in this 4-4-2, that was pretty passive, pretty low-line in confrontation. And I see it, I see us doing it. I'm like, okay, this is fine too, because we can't press for 90 minutes, right?

We saw our team run out of gas against Wales, even controlling the game as much as we did after 60 minutes. So now I'm thinking like, okay, this is like a throwback to the Bob Bradley days, where, you know, the first 55 minutes of the game is actually an exercise and just killing off the first 55 minutes of the game because we don't have the depth to play for 90 minutes with our best players.

So we'll just play with our best players for the last 30 and go for our goal for the last 30. And I really thought that's what we might be seeing here, was that we would sit in our 4-4-2, keep our shape, be disciplined, just eat up the first half that way. And England were playing along with it because, again, they were content with a draw,

or at least I believe they were content with a draw. You know, they're definitely good enough to score, even if they're just playing for a draw. and beat you because they have some really good players. But this is kind of, I felt like I was watching it play out this way, where England were content to sort of do the sideways and backward passing. We were happy in my head, we would be happy for the first 45 to 55, 60 minutes, letting England do that and just letting the clock wind down.

And then towards the end, we'd be like, okay, now we've got to put in some fresh legs, really go for this thing. But yes, the 4-4-2 initially surprising, and I thought effective and smart to do that to start the game. I think that's an important point that we couldn't press for the whole game against Wales. And you said 60 minutes, I don't even know if we could go past, like, make it to halftime doing what we were doing. We were so dynamic early in that game. And I would say, I don't know, basically after we scored, things slowed down a little bit. So maybe this is a tactical shift that is going to be useful for the rest of the tournament.

You know, hopefully the tournament continues after Tuesday. because we can't do that pressing. You're absolutely right. We cannot do it for more than a half, I don't think. Well, and I don't see us doing this against Iran necessarily because I don't think Iran will have the ball as much as England want to have it. The possession stats through the first half were wild, right? It was like 65.

35. 35 is about right. For England. So again, that just shows how content we were to let England have the ball. And England can keep it that long because they're not taking one. risks because they don't care to. The Iran game is going to be totally different. I wouldn't be surprised with the possession is flip. So whatever our defensive shape is

will probably rarely be used unless we've already scored our goal and forced Iran to come back at us. Because I think they're going to sit back in a deep block similar to how we just did. And it's going to be up to us to break them down. Yeah, hopefully we can talk about that more in the coming days because it was, you know, England did score six goals on them. I don't think Wales was very threatening against Iran, though.

No, and I think what we want to do is watch the first 30 minutes of that England-Iran game before England broke through because I feel like that's what we need to sort of expect from Iran. When it was zero-zero, what were they doing? How were they doing it? How can we get in between them? But yes, back to this England game, where, again, I was happy to see our guys mostly stay in their shape and make it just difficult.

Make it, we made it easier for England to do less risky things. We just took away the dangerous stuff and we're like, hey, why don't you just pass it back to this guy instead? And England are like, yes, gladly. We will pass it back for this wide open player who is not threatening at all and we will just keep doing that. I do want to mention a good clip pass from Matt Turner to McKinney at midfield in the third minute. Turner was

adventurous with the ball at his feet in this game and basically didn't put a foot wrong. I mean, it was a little it was a little bit white knuckle there a couple times, but he didn't screw it up.

Oh man, I wish, wish so badly that we were in a position to ride Matt Turner to knockouts, but we can't necessarily. He's been okay for the U.S. in his 20-odd game. Yeah. And he said after the game that he was channeling his inner Jorge Campos, which I felt like I was just a message directly to you, Greg. Had to be because there's no way Matt Turner was watching Jorge Campos, I feel like he would have been, he would have been too, he's not old enough.

Yeah, he's a student. He's a student of the game. Yeah, we're good on him for his history. So England gets a good chance in the 10th minute, which I think was their best chance of the game. outside of the cane header at the very end. I think there's actually an asterisk on it because Haji Wright and Jude Bellingham clattered into each other down on the right, on our left touchline.

Both were slow to get back up and into the game, but the ball never went out of play. It went back to Harry McGuire. And then Declan Rice got on the ball with time and was sort of tapping it around, which he hadn't been able to do up to that point in the game.

And then he plays it sideways to John. Stones and Stones hits a pass into Saka in the channel. Saca touches it to Tripier and Trippier Springs Bellingham who slips it wide to soccer for the cutback to Kane. It's a very quick, lovely soccer sequence. And Kane does shoot from a very dangerous spot and it's just a good block from Zimmerman who gets down, deflects out of bounds. But I thought it was, it was a was kind of interesting that it happened partly because Wright wasn't in position to do the pressing that he had been not it's not pressing deny the passing lanes that he had been denying up to that game and would be denying from then on in the game yep you can see he arrives at England's

distributing back just as he's making that pass up field de Saka so the guy had an extra one and the half seconds pick his head up and let it develop and we probably take that away if if right hadn't been in that in that collision. This isn't the blame right. This is just describing the event. Yeah. We had just beautiful technique from Saka, great movement for England to get then into that space from Bellingham.

And then Saka joins the play. This is fantastic buildup to try to disorganize the opponent with the ball. And it makes me think like, okay, if all they needed was one and a half seconds of us not being in our, in our shape to attack this way. How disinterested were they in attacking? I don't know, man. I mean, sometimes it just comes off, right?

In this time for England, it came off in like five straight touches and movements. And, you know, like they caught us not quite rotating well enough at lightning speed. So like here, I'm just tipping my cap. I'm like, okay, well done. And then good on us in our scramble defense to put the ball, wide of the post. It doesn't make you adjust your position that England was just happy to tap the ball around and get a draw? No, I don't think so. So it kind of reminds me of like friendlies will play against the best teams. Like when we play Brazil and the friendly, remember those

days when we would play the best teams and friendlies prior to all of them jumping into regional competitions. You'd see this, right? You'd see them sleepwalking. You'd see them collecting their paycheck. And then suddenly they would just do like five straight touches where, everyone's touch was flawless and their movement was stupidly efficient and they would just be in behind us. And it was like, oh man, when they want to, they can do it. Yeah, that was that was one of those sequences was when Anthony Robinson got beat and it really, it hurt his reputation for years. That one time when that 2018 Brazil friendly. Yeah.

Yeah. So anyway, I mean, I just appreciated the, again, the efficiency of that England move and then appreciated our scrambling to defend it. They got another ball across in the 14th minute from Saka, and it gets deflected and kind of rainbows down towards Harry Kane, but McKinney gets there first and heads it away. This chance comes from Adams jumping out of position to, jumping out of the 4-42 to challenge stones on the dribble,

and then Stones cleverly slips it into Bellingham in the pocket. Pocket sprays it out. I mean, pocket doesn't do anything. Bellingham sprays it out to Saka. So kind of that in-out thing that we've been talking about that we want the U.S. to do more of. And also, I just noticed, you know, John Stones and Harry McGuire have, I think the general way people talk about them in the U.S. is like they're both kind of crap, especially McGuire. But they're not.

They're good. good and seeing stones do this, you know, and kind of contrasting it with the way Zimmerman was on the ball in this game. I think is interesting. It's almost like centerback is our biggest, centerback and maybe striker are the biggest gaps between us and a team like England. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's not going to stop us banter-wise from giving McGuire the business.

Yeah. But I think, yeah, I think when you have to actually acknowledge reality, I think Harry McGuire might start for the U.S. Men's National Party. And Stone, I mean, just it's hard to imagine Zimmerman, you know, sort of confidently dribbling into, not quite into the opponent's defensive third, but almost, and then playing a pass between the lines to, I don't know, I don't think, I don't think Zimmerman can do that. And Zimmerman's been, aside from the penalty,

conceded against Wales. He's been kind of a rock defensively for the U.S. I think he's been quite good. Adam's jumping out of that 4-4-2 though. Like I noticed that live too because it took me right back to 2010 where our 4-4-2 was not in any way as disciplined and is committed to keeping its shape as we were in this game. So this exception definitely stood out to me because he flashed out of the space and he left he was he was next to right next to was a Bellingham. abandoned Bellingham to come press the ball and the pass went directly to Bellingham. So even as he's pressing it

and knowing that he's leaving this player, he didn't shape his body to like take that pass away. And so there's no way anyone else can rotate into his exact space that quickly. So this time he definitely left us out with that energy. It's almost like he gets, he gets antsy and he like needs to do something or something. And he has such confidence in his ability to do something like that

where he's like, if I just burst out with with my burst. Like, no one can stop me. Yeah, it will surely disrupt their possession. And in this, in this case, it didn't. It just looked a little naive. Yeah, it did. And it created a chance that could have gone differently.

I do think our fullbacks, both Robinson and Dest played quite well. So even when they did, even when Saka or Sterling got on the ball, they were pretty resolute both of our fullbacks. 16th minute or 17th minute we get our first shot it starts with kind of an interesting ball into the box from Shaw diagonal thigh high but nobody really sort of connects with it so it falls harmlessly to Turner who sends antony on a long run just brilliant goalkeeper distribution from Turner I'm just kidding it was it was fine and he sends antony on a long run he rambles forward taps it to pulick out left Pulisick cuts in and then switches it for McKinney on the other side who settles it and plays a ball into the box that Haji Wright latches onto, but heads well wide. So I think this one's important for, I mean, in my mind in the way I'm framing this game, this is an important moment for England because it's a warning shot to them, right? England get expansive and possessed and create this shot.

You know, we talked about Algeria 2010. This sort of reminds me of that. Like, if you really do come out and try to score goals, we can hit you back. Because England get big, they work the ball around, they get their chance on Turner. And then because they've just attacked and they're not back in their shape yet, and some of their guys are just kind of jogging, Jedi Robinson leaves six players behind, and we get to attack England's back four. You know what I mean?

And so that's like the warning shot. Like, hey, if you do this, if you do go for goals, we're good enough to come at you. And it wasn't just a one-off either. Like it wasn't just the transition moment and then the chance. like even when the first threat sort of simmered down, our secondary buildup still was able to create something pretty effectively. So I do think we were like letting England know right here, we're not toothless.

And I think that might have mattered for how ambitious they got the rest of the game. Okay. Maybe, maybe not. Yeah, I mean, it showed us that we're not toothless too. Like it showed us at home like, okay, we can run with these guys. Right. And we, as you'll see over the next half hour, so basically after the, that Saka ball almost falls to Kane, basically until right before the end of the first half, England didn't create any chances. And we created a few.

So let's get into them. 20th minute, Musa tackles it off of Bellingham and we move it not crisply exactly across the field for Dest to race into the final third. and his first ball across is blocked by the first defender. It gets recycled to him, and he crosses it right into Pickford's hands the second time. Especially the second time, there were other options, one of them being to pull it back for McKinney to shoot from the edge of the box.

Not great decisions from Dest in the final third, but again, we're showing England that we can at least threaten them. The threat comes mostly because Musa, can transition defense into attack. It's like he was primarily the guy doing that. Yeah, and this was a great moment for him. The first to tackle, then, I mean, even as he's tapping the ball, he doesn't just stand up from the ground and like,

okay, now let's watch and see what they do. He's up immediately in stealing another 30 yards up field where Poulsick then finds him back. So it's like a delayed give and go where we gain 25 yards. And then his ability to turn with the ball, as he's receiving it. And again, this stuff all has to happen very quickly, or England will rush back and snap into their defensive shape.

But because of how efficiently Musa and Poulsa can get us out of that, go from D to attack, this is how we build the chance. And we committed some numbers to it. And again, just another moment where it's like, yes, we can play in transition. So if England play us honestly, if England play us straight up, they'll get their chances, of course. But we will come back at them and we will put some stuff together.

and we put something together right here. How about Tim Wea too? I want to throw out Tim Wea because he just had so many of those little moments. It was like a nothing, it maybe felt like nothing in the buildup, but he got a ball coming into his feet kind of hot at the top of the box.

And normally, you know, this might be where an American attack breaks down because that's tough to deal with as you have, you know, one defender goal side to worry about another defender tracking back hard from upfield. But Wea just like does a little croix. in a phone booth and

sneaks it out wide to desk. And anyway, I just really appreciated Tim Wea in this context. Yeah. Was that on that, was that on this play? Because I thought, he did it several times.

But on this one, yeah, so it's like Poulsick's driving right at Wea, so it's only like a five-yard pass and Poole-Sick releases it to him pretty hot. And it's kind of bouncing because Poulsick had to get it over

the lunging foot of the defender. So this is perfect. You got the defender lunging. It's coming into Owea. But it's just handcuffs him a little bit. and so way of daintily Croce it right behind him and the tracking back defender

over pursues then towards the box and that creates eight yards of space for way out of then feed desk. So he just had a bunch of those cute little like you barely even notice some technical executions but without them we lose possession right then and there.

Yeah and I think McKinney had a lot of that kind of stuff Adams even had some and Mousa had a lot, had maybe the most of anybody, the most ball progression of anybody. I think in the call-in show, Tara was talking about how

it just looked like they were having fun out there. And those are the moments from like, man, they are enjoying themselves. This is the World Cup. You're playing England. It's a big stage. And we're just pulling off some of this stuff. And yeah, I was like, again, despite being the wet blanket on this particular episode, I was

loving most of this game. Like, that was great. I was enjoying this a lot. I'm going to do a little a wet blanketing myself. No. Contagious. No, not about the performance, but when we talk about changing

the way the world views American soccer, it is kind of important to remember that where would we be without the dual nationals on our team, like players who were not developed in the U.S. And those are the ones I'm

thinking of specifically are Desd, Robinson and Musa, we are probably not a very good team without them. I mean, I'm not sure we're a very good team with them, but we're a much less good team without those three players. Those fullbacks

are crucial. Musa is absolutely crucial in that midfield. So that's my last wet blanket thing. All right, that's fair. And your wet blanket is more just an appreciation post. Yeah. It's an appreciation blanket that's sort of damp.

You could almost say my biggest weakness is actually a strength. Right. I mean, I thought, I think if Matt Hartman ever listens to this episode, he'll appreciate that point. All right. 26th minute, we get our big chance for West McKinney. And I'm going to play the Telemundo clip of it, because it's, It's kind of fun.

Not the whole thing. It's a 14-pass sequence that ends with a, with Weston shooting from, what, 10 yards out? Timothy Wea, Adams, Desk. McKenny, Pieda to right, the center. This part, McKinney's all the way out on the right wing. See, McKinney.

Good, but not in front, Encha. Enganche, Contra, Pellenenka, It's a Tire in the center, much a It's interesting. It's a Marketti

it's going to goles that has been It's just It's It's interesting Because

Well, I'll just start from the beginning It starts Everybody touches the ball In this passing sequence

Except Wright and Robinson Including Matt Turner And Musa cuts through the middle With a little Turn

And outside of the boot pass to Pulisic after receiving the ball, I think from Turner, but maybe from like Team Ream? Yeah. Okay. And then Pulisic turns Trippier and gets fouled, but the ref plays advantage, I think. So good stuff from Musa and Pulisic. And then Pulisic passes it to McKinney in space on the right side.

And then he and Wea and Dest and Musa and even Adams, I think, just patiently pass the ball around on the right corner of. England's penalty area until Wea has space to line up across. Nothing amazing, just a lot of probing and a little dribbling here and there and patience. I'll use that word again. Wea hits it into the area. No, so even after all that, it's still kind of like a speculative cross, wouldn't you say? Yeah, and you know how I feel about them. But no, it's a...

Yeah, I'd say it's speculative, right? I mean, I don't think Wayas even hitting it to McKinney because it's... I don't think so either. I think he is just fired it into the mixer here. He has plenty of time to do it because of all the patience we showed. Yeah, he did a fantastic job probing. Like we were hitting some little short passes into the box. So I'm totally, I was loving this too, right?

We are connecting. We talked about this with the women's team a lot. That lack of patience, sort of not willing to wait and see if you can make the defense stretch or make mistakes just whipping it in at the, the first opportunity. We had England moving around having to change assignments. So, yes, this is another hugely positive moment for the U.S., and it's not strictly in transition.

In fact, not at all transition. We're just starting it with Matt Turner and Tim Ream in a basic buildup shape. So that's, again, that's a telling moment for a team that has had a lot of trouble creating chances from that possession. Right. but he has to put that on frame what yeah he says his Ferreira

definitely would have put it on frame it's a weird one because it goes like inches behind Harry McGuire's back he's bear hugging Haji Wright which I noticed McGuire was maybe I just don't watch centerbacks enough but McGuire was just every time he was near

Haji Wright he would just grab him and hold on to him like both arms around him and I don't know maybe Hodge you could have sold the fouls a little bit more but anyway it goes right behind McGuire and McKinney takes it on the half folly and skies it

and you know maybe he didn't think it was going to get to him because it did pass so close to McGuire McGuire wasn't even interested in the ball I thought he did well I thought McKinney did well here like I mean he times everything pretty

correctly and hits it well and sometimes that just happens on a half volley from a ball. I mean, it's fizzed in. Wayer didn't gently put this ball across. So soccer's hard. Fizzda is a little strong. But I agree it was difficult,

and I think it was unsighted for most of the flight of the cross. Anyway, we don't need to belabor that. Let's go 33rd minute, Pulisick off the crossbar. I'm going to play this clip. It's much shorter. McKenny, this is when McKenny takes the ball and spins in one motion to escape Mason Mount. After some battling from Tyler Adams, McKenney gallops down the right wing, stops and swings it to Musa at the top of the box with his left foot.

Musa settles it and then swings it to Pulisic on the left side of the box. He stands up Trippier and moves to his left for a quick shot that rings the crossbar. generates a lot of power from the one step onto his weak foot. And I think at this point, the neutral is saying the U.S. is the stronger team. For sure. Posts always make people think that you're knocking. And I don't think they were necessarily wrong here. Like this is yet another like display of real competence from the U.S. across the board.

Adam's making a challenge and then being on the ground and like completing the challenge while he's on the ground. McKenney with that delightful pirouette as, he's receiving the ball to eliminate a defender and then not let that defender get back in the play. Yeah, just all across the board here. This is great stuff. So again, if you're, especially if you're a sicko

and you're watching this, I think there's no way you're not like, we are legitimately playing soccer right now. Yeah. I think that's what people were so excited about. Because that has not, that has usually not been the case when we play a,

one of the top five or six teams in the world. 36 minute, there's some English pressure on our right side and then Mount Lofts a ball into the box and Turner claims it and then he tries to hit Pulisic on a fly pattern down the left channel. Just like a sidewinder kick and it's a good pass. 60 yards gives Pulisic a chance to make a play but Stones intervenes.

Pulisic doesn't really make a play on it. Again, some Turner distribution. Yeah, excellent distribution. get another warning shot to England that like, hey, come at us and we're not just going to like let you regroup into your shape before we come right back at you. 39th minute, we get that long throw from West where he wipes his hands on the photographer's penny. Did you notice that? Yes. What a jolly fellow, West of McKinney is.

Yeah, I don't know what the photographer thought of it, but it was fun. We get, how'd you get to a little bit of a 1v1 with stones inside the box on the on the end line but it doesn't it's not really that dangerous and then uh in the 40th minute are you good yeah yeah yeah in the 40th minute

good move up the right from McKenny and Musa McKenny springs Wea with a clever ball with his left foot over the back line and um yeah let's see he waya overcooks his cross a little bit couldn't find anybody I think Pulisik, Wright and McKinney were in the box. Yeah, so this sort of thing is always going to just happen.

But I'm going to go to bat for Wea here. Like Pulisik has a big gap between him and the weak side English defender. So what I think Way was thinking was that Pulisick wouldn't cut into that defender and eliminate that space, that he would stay wide and be able to attack the ball like out wide. That's fair. That sounds fair. Because it doesn't go over him by that much. Coolisick's just a small dude.

and when he's already like when he cuts hard towards the goal, you know, a ball that even goes over him by a foot and a half is going to look like it's way over him based due to his momentum. So I think, I think Way has hit in a ball that could be attacked by Pulisick if Pulisic just approaches it differently. There's no like blame to assign here, right, who's right, who's wrong.

It's just two guys reading the play slightly differently. Yeah. I refuse to believe Timway I actually miss hit his cross. Okay. And then we get the dead. the desk chance. We get the desk chance after that lovely way of back heel

from a throw-in down the line. He desirbles into the box and then tries to take a shot with his left foot after cutting in on McGuire. McGuire does well to block the shot. I guess I don't mind the shot too much, but he could have passed it to Haji. I think Haji was coming open

around the penalty marker. But, you know, should have, coulda, woulda. Monday morning quarterback, yada, yada, yada. Tim Wayne, I haven't fun out there, though. Yeah. I mean, that's, again, that is delightful stuff to see happening in a World Cup game. Like, that stuff we would be celebrating if it was a friendly against Guyana, and we're doing it out here against England in the World Cup.

Like, come on, this is good. There's no wet blanketing that. Nope. But if I had to, I would say if Sir Gino Des had just had a little bit less rust. on him from the last month of not playing soccer. Who knows what our ceiling would be? Right. Right.

44th minute, another good bit of play from the U.S. up the right side to right, who taps it back for Dest and Dest. He puts a cross on Pulisic's head just inside the penalty mark, about 10 yards out, and Pulisic doesn't connect. It comes off his shoulder and goes out of bounds. It was another throwback. It was a throwback to that Altador header against England in 2010. more difficult, much more difficult for Pulisic here.

Oh, because it was further away. Yeah, further away. Yeah. And Pulisic is a little guy. And, but I think there was less risk of, you know, on replay, less risk of him smashing his face into the back of the defender's head on this one. Yeah, more just a classic misjudgment of the trajectory. Yeah.

Because the Altador one, it's like, ooh, that's frustrating that he couldn't get better contact. but also I totally get it. This one is a little less. I totally get it. All right. Then there's a little spell of English pressure at the end of the game. Bellingham whips a ball in from the right, gets headed away by Zimmerman. Then Shaw collects it and runs at desk and megs him and pulls it back for Saka.

And his off-balance shot is off target. And then Shaw plays it to Sterling, who plays a lovely little one-touch pass into Mount's path for a try from distance. and he hits it with venom from about 20 yards. Turner gets down fast to his right to palm it wide, and that's the half. There we go. We stood tall. We were measured.

We took what I was thinking was going to be a time-killing exercise for 45 minutes and generated some real chances that when you're the underdog, you're like, okay, that's those are the kinds of chances that if you can steal one of them, you get your results. So that's effectively like that's all you can ask from a performance in a game like this. This is an ad-free podcast and we would ask that you consider supporting us on Patreon. You get access to the Discord and you get exclusive episodes delivered directly to your phone's podcast app every week. More than 50 this year already.

The link is in the show notes. Okay, so England starts, does a little more pressing early in the second. half it looked like to me, they're coming out and engaging our centerbacks a little bit more enthusiastically. And we get, so that's just sort of the context. Around the 48 minute mark, we get some good transition after Antony takes the ball from Saka and Pulisick drives, which he did a lot throughout this game. He was good at carrying the ball in transition.

Kind of looked like, you know, the old Pulisic. He drives and taps it wide to right on the left side, right cuts in, and it looks is look promising because, you know, when right gets the ball on that right foot or his left foot and has a hit, he can really shoot it well. But he lingers setting up the shot just a bit too long. It gets blocked, I think, by stones. But it falls to McKinney, who's kind of all alone outside the box,

and McKinney tries from 20 yards and hits it way over. that was our those were our sort of XG contributions in the second half there were a couple others but yeah I mean this probably got you out of your seat right this moment where Pulisic gets it to right and then you're like okay okay we're running fast at the goal this is a fast moving transition and then Wright did what Haji Wright I think is here to do which is he can create his own shot he can like get this ball running at defenders and this is what he does in Turkey

and he moves it from his left foot, you know, at the corner of the box to his right foot in a much more central area of the box and gets a shot off. And England's defenders stood well to make the block. But yeah, I mean, that was a moment. That was a really good moment for us to work with. So I thought Haji was pretty solid all game. I mean, he was sort of invisible or he felt like it. But he had three, four, maybe a half dozen little invisible contributions to things to help them along. and then he had a couple other moments in the box,

not many, but where he did a positive thing, even if it wasn't hugely positive or if it didn't end up having a payoff, I thought he was basically just quietly doing his job. I would say from this moment, from that McKinney shot that goes well over the crossbar until the last seven, eight minutes of the game, nothing really happens that's dangerous for either team.

So about a 35, minute period. We did well, well go ahead. Well, this is, this is what my fear was for an England, Wales last,

last day matchup where a draw would get both teams through, was that you would essentially have both teams content to not do anything. And it, it's funny that it played out in this game where one team could use the points, and the other team was fine without them. So anyway, like, this is what it would look like.

where nothing happens for a 40-minute stretch of a soccer. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the question is how much did England care about scoring, which I think is somewhat debatable, but we did well to limit them in the second half, which we did not do as well against Wales in the second half on Monday. So I want to acknowledge that. There's some incredibly good defending from Tyler Adams at one point,

you know, taken out soccer down the last. left wing. I think somebody on the Discord, Wameek, pointed out that Tyler was Weston, he thought it was really smart that Weston was on the right side to sort of use his most recent

experience at Juventus, his comfort on the right side for Juventus, right side of that midfield. And then that, with Weston over there on the right side, helping to control that flank with Dest, then Tyler Adams was more focused on covering for Anthony Robinson whenever he got forward. And this was an example of that where Tyler Adams, this was in the 52nd minute, Tyler Adams tracks back and tackles Saka. Yeah, a pretty vital challenge.

And again, just showing what Tyler can do, even if sometimes he gets a little overly enthusiastic. Yeah. Overall, I think his enthusiasm is a positive. Yeah. I also think just even though Dess was rusty, it occurred to me in the second half. His ability on the ball is just so helpful for us. Even when he almost loses it, he looks like he's in control, or he's like very close to being in control. And we're just not the same team without him at right back, despite his flaws, which I don't think we're very much on display yesterday.

No, what we need from Dest in this tournament, and I'm hoping we get it against Iran. We will need it at some point. Is that actual moment of brilliance, right? Like, he's obviously showing that he's got all these technical tools. But as we've got, we found him in the final third in good spots, and he's run at people or whatever he's been doing. But none of them have really amounted to much so far in this tournament through two games.

So we're going to need that moment. Like, yeah, you have to, at some point. have it all come together when you're the U.S. trying to get out of a World Cup group. So fingers crossed, we get that Costa Rica reenactment Tuesday. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's going to be crucial. I mean, that final ball needs, the final ball just needs to be there or the shot. Pulisic does a maze run in the 58th minute from the left sideline and takes a shot that gets

blocked for a corner. We get several corners in a row after that, and McGuire keeps nodding them away. I in the moment I thought man our set piece our set pieces are terrible what even is our plan because the delivery was better from Pulisic than it was on Monday against Wales but there was nobody there well it turns out we were trying to I mean you can correct me if you think I'm wrong but it seemed like we were trying to scrub Zimmerman loose on the back post and we just couldn't quite connect I think that looked like what we were doing and also I think one of the sort of current flaws of our 11 is that we only have two real weapons in the air for these. So we have Zimmerman,

we have McKinney. And that's pretty much it, right? Those are the only two guys you really bank on to pull something off. And so even if you get one guy loose, unless the ball, you can manage to get the ball, like, directly into his neighborhood, which we aren't always great at. Like, you got to, you got to have three guys getting kind of loose, you know what I mean, or three excellent players so that you just give yourselves more of the roulette table covered up, in effect. Yeah, Hadji Wright really doesn't seem like he's throughout on set pieces. I guess Sargent is a little bit of one, but not great. No, we're just missing, I mean, Tim Rheim just isn't that centerback, right?

Where most teams will have their big centerbacks up and be real dangerous. And then if we had that plus McKenney, like I really do think just one extra big, heading threat of PFOC. I'm just saying I think that would make a difference on set pieces. I don't think we should necessarily throw away everything else we're doing to get that bump in our set piece threat. But that's what it strikes me as is we're one big header short on these set pieces to create enough from them.

Okay. The subs come on in the 68th minute for England. It's Jack Grealish and Jordan Henderson on for Sterling and Bellingham. again, nothing of note from England in the first 20 minutes of the second half. They immediately start putting a little more pressure on us and I think it's fair to say we weren't able to generate much danger from then

until the end of the game. There were a couple of moments which I'll mention but they're not much. Grealish had a little success down the left sideline but I would agree with you there wasn't a profound sense of urgency even from him. Yeah, and again, a lot of the times

urgency is a collective thing, right? It's not like Jack Grilish got it and wasn't going to try to do somebody or wasn't going to try to score. It's what's England's structure with supporting that player? Like, how many players are they committing upfield

making runs beyond the ball so that if Grilish does somebody then the next dominoes fall and they get their chance? And if it's just watching Grilish try to skin desk with not not much else going on. And you'd say, okay, England are not going to leave themselves open to anything coming the other way.

I noticed in the 76-minute England being a little too patient on the ball, and their fans in the stadium started to boo. Well, because now we're getting almost into the end game, right, where you really, really are like, okay, that can be it. We don't have to. We can really shut up shop and totally change our mentality or what our, like, objective is for the last 15, 20 minutes. Wait, what do you mean?

Like, England can change there? You mean it was a point where in the game where the fans were like, well, now we should try to win the game and... No, I guess I'm saying now is when, like, England can, like, you can sense, fans can sense when a team is going to just be, like, taking it to the corner. England weren't, like, taking it straight to the corner. but like showing no initiative to advance the baller to get forward you can start to sense it and that can be where you're like trying to urge them on.

I know I had that feeling for the last 15 minutes of this game for our team not showing any urgency. Yeah. Okay, I got you. Aronson comes on for McKenney in the 77th minute. Shack Moore for Dest. Marcus Rashford comes on for Bukai Osaka in the same sort of subbing sequence.

We get some good buildup of the left side in the 79th minute from Pulisick and Adams. Pulisick gets running in that half space and tries to slip right in, but overhits the pass out of bounds. I think Zimmerman has a couple of giveaways, one in the 81st and then one in the 92nd. The one of the 81st is him just putting Adams in a tight spot and Adams gives it away. But Ream sort of does some desperate defending. Raina comes on for Wea and Sergeant on for right. in the 83rd. I don't think

Raina particularly made an impact in the game. He had the one time when he stepped past Greelish and tried to slip Sergeant in, but maybe should have slipped Aronson in. Other than that, he looked, he looked kind of like he has for Dortmund, which is, I don't know, maybe not entirely fit. Raina's use today is entirely consistent

with a player who is not fully fit. we got four extra days of rest for him by not using him against whales in an incredibly high leverage match where he could have come in for 30 minutes at his full fitness. He would have absolutely helped us get three points from that game instead of one, in my opinion. But I don't think he was fit to. And then in this game again, four days later, let that hamstring get four extra days of rest and still only be able to use him for 10 minutes.

To me, he still screams that Raina is just not quite fully fit. I have an Eric Winald a clip. I don't know that it's, you know, I'm just, I'm just playing the clip. That's all I'm doing. With Gio Raina out of the lineup right now, which has been a massive controversy within the team, even his own teammates are wanting him on the field, and it seems to be some internal strife with the manager, Greg Burhalter. I don't know how much I should comment on that,

but I have been trying to console Gio's father, Claudio, for the last couple of hours and, well, the last couple of days with everything going on. He was fit to play. Burhalter did lie to the media and kind of go along with that story, which caused the rift between the two of them, and now he's on the bench, which is really unfortunate. This situation should have been handled very different. He says, so Juanada says he's been consoling Claudio.

for the last few days. It doesn't sound true, but... Well, I guess my question... Maybe it is. I don't know. If there's a personal rift between Berhalter and Raina, and that's why Raina's on the bench, so he punishes him, but still plays him for the last 10,

like, I'm going to punish you, but just for the first 80 minutes. And then after that, we're fine. Like, he's not, he doesn't have an 80-minute internal suspension here on G-R-R-R-R-Rena and then plays him for the last 10. if there were a true break insubordination here, then you don't just limit his minutes to 10. If there was real mutiny going on here with Raina and Burhalter,

then Raina's not playing. He's going to sit on the bench and frown. But I don't know. I guess that's my jobization. I agree with what you just said. I just think it's crazy that Eric, when all the former national team player, who presumably knows Claudio Raina would just say this.

Rinalda said this in a L.A. Times Twitter space. So. I mean, again, it wouldn't surprise me if there's, if there's frustration here. Like if G. O'Rena thinks he can play, and, you know, like, players will want to play. So if he's, if the staff have decided that he's not fit enough to play without significant risk over long minutes, like minutes' restrictions exist, I can totally imagine Giorina being like, no, nuts to that. Like, it's the World Cup, play me. being furious if he doesn't get those chances. You know, for people who were around following this team 2010, like Charlie Davies was irate that he was not included in the pre-world cup camp, the 30-man camp that Burrhalter had.

He was cut from that before. I mean, after his car accident? Yeah, after his car accident. Like, he was certain that he should have still been in the picture for that camp to prove what he could do. And it was like, only later was he like, yeah, it turns out it was just in my head. Like, I'd convinced myself that I was fully ready to play. And this is a completely different degree than what Charlie Davies was recovering from. But, like, Davies had been on the bench. So I would

put him on the bench for a game in that tail end of the season, almost as like, again, an appreciation moment for him. But like, so he's like, I'm ready. I'm ready to go. convince themselves that they are maybe a little further along than they are. And I still think that's the most likely explanation here. Can't wait to see what Winanda says next. We get some, you know, Sergeant gets little brothered by Kane, which was kind of frustrating to me for me to watch in the 87th minute because Sergeant has just come on the field and he gets a ball kind of played hot.

to his feet. He loses it. It takes a poor touch. And then it gets played to Kane and he takes like kind of a chaotic angle at it and Kane just kind of shrugs him off. And I'm like, come on Josh, you got to like, got to make an impact on the game right now. And he

didn't. And we're conceding free kicks for England in our half. There's more concedes one. Later on, there's one after Zimmerman giveaway where Musa fouls somebody Moussafel is greelish. Well, and even before the set piece we end up getting,

I think it might have been right after that Kane sergeant incident where Kane was a little brother, like England gets a little shot off, tries to curl one around Turner who just laughs as he catches it comfortably. Yeah. But this is where like this is where all of the body language said to me, the U.S. just want the moral victory of the draw here

because Turner like lets us get our shape, just drops the ball at Tim Ream's feet who stands directly next to him, and then Reem and Zimmerman passed the ball back and forth while everyone else stands still for like 30 seconds. This is the 87th minute of a game that the U.S. is effectively losing. You know what I mean? And so this is where like there is no longer any chance whatsoever that we can believe that we were going all out for the win. And it just kind of went that way for the last three minutes of regulation and four minutes of stoppage time where there was no actual intent to go score the goal. despite putting Raina and Sergeant on here for 10 minutes.

There was no intent by the U.S. to actually score the goal. It was like, no, we're going to see this clock to the whistle, and we are going to, you know, brag about getting a draw with England. I'm going to brag about it. I know. I know. I know. I know a lot of people are bragging about it. And a draw with England in a vacuum is an impressive thing. But when you step out of the vacuum, you're like, but a goal would really, really do a lot for our tournament chances.

And giving up a goal doesn't change anything. it's all reward and no risk and we didn't we didn't go for it you know Burrhalter's getting a lot of praise from people who don't people who are not people who don't know our local customs here in USMNT Twitter

where it's like you can't really praise Bertharter because people will accuse you of being a shill or whatever like it's just I saw this one Twitter this one tactics Twitter account from England with like, you know, 75,000 followers way more than us, you know. And the guy is like top, top coach, you know, this is the way they're pressing, the way they're,

the way the fullbacks are arriving to press is like that points at only one thing. Fantastic coach. And I'm like, I'm like embarrassed reading it. It's like, no, you don't you know, you can't say that? It's very, very like, it was like a something from like a message from another planet, almost. But the game plan was great, right? And that's what I want to keep emphasizing, despite the fact that like it's like a tackle

football coach who has a great game plan, but then messes up the clock management in a key moment. That's all. That's all it is. And again, you can differ with me on this and say, no, it's, it's worth it for the draw. It's worth it for the team to feel that sense of accomplishment going into their last game. I just can't. My risk reward calculator just can't comprehend it.

You just, you follow the science religiously, you know, which I respect that about you. I was going to say, I was going to say, Burrhalter, even though I think that seeing that praise makes some sense and that praise of Burrhalter,

it makes sense and it's kind of fun to see as something so different from what you usually see. it does seem like I can't remember a game where we brought on subs and became more dangerous as a result of the subs. Can you? Well, it'd be Honduras away, but that was, I mean, that's because we... Yeah, that was like, that was a crisis. We put a, our starting 11 was just a collection of things we found in the attic that we tossed onto the field and then go do this. Right.

But like, in the sense where you. bring someone on in the 60th or 70th minute and all of a sudden you're like oh yeah we're humming again that i don't i don't know that there's ever been a game like that i mean the gold cup kind of functioned that way uh with the with the backups with the auditioners um but again it might have just been more about our depth could definitely beat out the depth of uh Haiti you know like I don't know that it was necessarily big sweeping changes that the changing I'm not even trying to equivocate here. I thought the game plan was solid for

trying to get a result against England here. Okay. Well, there's a, there's that one more forced pass from Zimmerman where Grealish jumps the route and then Musa fouls him and then Shaw hits a good set piece

that Kane heads wide. Kane sort of rises above Tim Ream. Ream's just kind of tracking him from behind. But the header goes wide. luckily. I'm not sure what, I don't, you know, that's just good strikers mischances, I guess. Somebody told me that once. Unconfirmed. And then we get us that piece, not in the exact same spot, maybe a little deeper.

And I don't know exactly what happens, but Pulisic just taps it down the line for Raina instead of lumping it into the box. And Raina kicks it off a greelish, it goes out of bounds. Are you about to say that Burrhalter instructed them to do that? I don't know. But like, again, you watch soccer, you know what the language, the visual language is on one of these set pieces at the end of a game for a team that's down a goal, right? And effectively we're down half of a goal here. And so even here, I'm still just like, okay, no, we're going to do this. We're going to throw everything at it.

I see Burrhalter doing the calm down motion, right? And what I'm thinking is he doesn't want us to take this free kick until we get every single body into the box. Like, I'm expecting to see Matt Turner running from his goal. up the field to try to score a goal here because there is no reason to leave him back there other than you don't want to have the official record show that you lost by giving up a goal with your goalkeeper out of the out of net because all we need is the goal. The only thing that matters is a goal. So we didn't get that. We did we calmed down. We took 25 seconds to take it. And then we played it into a harmless area of the field so that the whistle could blow.

And yes, like to me that is like it blows my mind. like I am super frustrated by that, even though it's not like it's a high percentage chance. It's super unlikely that we would have actually scored here. It's just the decision-making process to know that we actively chose the result that will not help us rather than pursuing a result that will actually help us.

You know, aside from the idea that maybe drawing England is good for morale, it's also true that Burrhalter has a lot to prove, you know, as a coach, and I'm not saying this is how he's thinking about it or how it's or that it would be appropriate to think this way if he were thinking this way. But it's a resume builder, you know, for him. He was like just wants to, he wants to get a result against England just to show that he can do it. And you could argue that that's like that's malfeasance because it's, you know, optimizing our chances of advancing. I'm sure Bruce Arena was fighting off phone calls from the primary league after we tied Italy in 2006 and crashed out.

in the next game. Well, I'm not sure we changed the way the world views American soccer. Probably did more of that than we did changing the way Americans view soccer. That's my opinion. We really might have changed the way that the sickos view the way we play soccer. Because, again, like, I think the sickos can appreciate the quality of play there and how it has looked, how that game looked different than a lot of games we've played over the past two and a half, three and a half, four cycle.

All right. Iran on Tuesday. Sardar, it looks like Sardar, Osmoon, and Medi-Toramie are both going to be healthy. They cause some problems for whales. Yeah, I think we won. We went three zero. Three points. Three points. Anyway, we get them. Sir, Gino desk banger. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see you.