Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #358: New Zealand v USA recap (the second leg)

Episode Date: January 22, 2023

A better performance from the USWNT, the real test comes in February. Greg and Belz talk it through, including that lovely sequence for Hatch's opener.----Scuffed is an ad-free podcast. Support that and get exclusive episodes (more than 50 last year and already 5 this month in 2023), plus access to the Discord including live call-in shows, 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. The U.S. women beat New Zealand 5-0 late on Friday, U.S. time, and it was a little better, I thought, than the first leg of the New Zealand series. What did you think, Greg? Yeah, I thought it was much better. Lots of encouraging signs, which there need to be. Because as we said, this is a weekend New Zealand team, very limited on who they could call up. And maybe we didn't talk about this enough about our opponent. New Zealand isn't that good of a team to begin with. We played them last year full strength in the She Beliefs Cup.

So that was like their real team. And we wax some 5-0 in that as well. And they aren't necessarily any better, I think, in their last 14 games, they have like six goals. They don't threaten. They're not, I don't think they're particularly well-coached. Their coach is a former U.S. staffer, Jika Klimkova. she had her U-20s in the 2018 U-20 World Cup and that was when I don't know if you remember this

but like when we were watching that game I was very I was legitimately worried about the future of the program but I think mostly have a memory of that they were probably just poorly coached it was a team with Germa Jalen Howell was on that team actually Sanchez and Sophia Smith Savannah de Malo like this was a there was a lot of young attacking power on that team and we were totally like we just looked like we had no idea how to play soccer. So maybe those players have all taken huge steps forward in the last several years. But I mean, Klinkova was very unimpressive to me at the time.

And this New Zealand side that she's helming now is not creating a lot of attack either. I think shots wise, again, I know that this isn't their full strength side. But over the two legs, I believe we outshot them 37 to 2. Yeah, they never looked like they're going to score. goal in either game. Yeah. So we don't know, we don't really know a lot about, uh, it go, it all goes back to sort of, uh, how much of a test this really was, what you can really take from it.

And so this was a much better performance in that at least we can't take anything away, whereas the first half of the first game, like we had to actually worry about our ability to play soccer for a little bit. Yeah. It seems like it should be a, it should be thought of as an attacking training exercise, both of these games because there is, I mean, The defense just has to not make mistakes, not make, like, catastrophic mistakes. They could still make mistakes that aren't punished easily.

They could easily do that. And anyone, I mean, frigging dinks could easily do that. But this was one where, I mean, they literally couldn't make mistakes in this game. There was never a time where they were put under even the kind of pressure where they could make a mistake, which again is fine. We knew that this was supposed to be a training exercise, which going back to that first half of the first game was what was so discouraging is that what we weren't even getting. training, attacking training reps in the first half of the first game. And I guess, right, it was, it was different at times, but I would say even in this game, there wasn't, I don't think you could look at it and say there's like, definitely we were

focused in this game on doing good attacking patterns and, you know, to use a Velazquezism, you know, soccering through it. Like that was, I, I didn't do, I know somebody on the Discord said you guys should do like a score. card. How many times are we are we settling for the lofted ball into like a speculative area? How often are we trying to soccer through it? I didn't do that. I didn't keep track. But my, but my eyeball sense of it is there was still a lot of us just lofting the ball into a speculative area. Sometimes we scored that way. You know, like the, the, the, the,

the, the, the Belle volley for her first goal. That was just, uh, I'm sorry. I don't think she was aiming for Lavel. I think she was just hitting it into the mixer. And the defending was bad. So I, you know, yeah, it was better. I mean, the first goal we scored was gorgeous and almost cathartic in its beauty. But I think the prevailing pattern of the game was still a lot of just kicking it long and hoping. So I absolutely 100% agree that there was clearly not an intentional move away from lofting balls into the box as sort of, I don't want to say our default, but as a reliable mode. of attack. Like it's clear that we see that as like a perfectly good idea to do even when we're not like forced into it. I feel like a lot of times now in the modern age, crossing is sort of

seen as like a last resort. Like, oh, I don't have anything else. I'm running out of time about to get tackled. I'll hit this into the mixer. The bad crosses, you know? Right. But we just, we tend to cross our way, cross ourselves out of good attacking situations. And we have been doing that for a long time. And there was still plenty of that on display. But I do think there. There were a ton, a ton of encouraging sequences, even if it wasn't necessarily the final third, but the approach play into the final third showed a lot more cohesion and coordination, which I think is important as we maybe test out. I've been one saying the midfield isn't necessarily like the biggest problem,

and I still think there's areas we can improve. But I think we saw that there might be some room to improve the midfield just by personnel. Just by moving some personnel around, I thought the coordination of the group looked much improved. Yeah. So I assume you're referring to Sanchez over Horan? Kind of. Like Sullivan wasn't the silver bullet. No.

So I actually think the big takeaway for me in this game, and again, you got to be careful with takeaways against a really depleted New Zealand side, was that Lavelle was a huge improvement over Horan because it wasn't. Sanchez in for Horan. It was Sanchez in, but Lavel moved into the Horan role and Sanchez was basically playing the Lavel role. Okay. And I thought it was Lavel, I think, did a much better Haran than Huran does. Hmm. Okay. Well, should we... Yeah. Let's get into the lineup so we can

everyone can get the context of what we're even talking about. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Casey Murphy and goal. And then Sophia Huerta, Alana Cook, Naomi Germa, and Crystal Dunn across the back line. And then it was Andy Sullivan at the 6th instead of Taylor Corniac. And Rose Lavelle, as Greg just mentioned, in the sort of Horan role and Ashley Sanchez in the Rose Lavelle role. Fun to see a Lavelle Sanchez midfield out there. And then across the front line, it was Trinity Rodman, Ashley Hatch, and Mallory Swanson hatch a late ad because Alex Morgan got hurt in training, I guess, or in warmups. Yeah, some tightness. So probably

precautionary, hopefully precautionary. Some tightness sounds fake to me. No, that's a, that's a, I won't even explain it. All right. New Zealand was Aaron Naylor and goal across the back line. It's Green, Riley Green, and Anton. Allie Riley plays for Angel City FC. And then across the band of four in their 4-4-2,

the midfield band, it's jail, Daisy Cleverly, Chance and Collins, and then Gabby Rennie and Paige Satchel, The two strikers, you know, they didn't really do anything all game against us. It's kind of not that important to talk about them that much, I don't think. No, they defended in their 4-4-2 again. And can we touch on that briefly? Yes, please. Because I think that was a huge reason why our attack was so neutered in the opening half of the first game,

was because they sat in a 4-4-2, and I was really stingy about the credit I was willing to give New Zealand for being organized and resolute because our scheme was to simply, we built up out of a back two with our centerbacks. And then our fullbacks just drifted upfield one line into their wide midfielder's. And our center mids just stayed by, our double pivot just stayed by their two center mids. And so we had this like, we marked ourselves just by the shape we took.

And we never really like. They embraced their shape. And we never did anything to really make them make decisions or make them have to rotate. or, you know, again, make those soccer choices to see if you could get Domino's to fall. And in the second half of the first game, we switched to a three in the back and that solved everything. This game, we didn't. We still stayed with the two with just sort of a Germa and Cook back there. But we had so many more variations in our buildup to create little numerical advantages in the back and building that, like, New Zealand just looked like they were completely lost.

So we destroyed them in our approach play. And I was really happy about that. That's what I consider most encouraging. Final third, still a mixed bag. But our approach play here was so much more sophisticated and intelligent, which again, it needs to against a very baseline test of New Zealand's backups to their backups. Yeah. Cool.

Well, I mean, there's plenty of stuff to sort of note. There's a Sanchez Longball early on. So, you know, as much as I love Ashley Sanchez, I feel like she's just as willing to hit the long ball as everybody else on the team. In the second minute, there was a lovely turn from Rose Lavelle that, where she feeds it to Swanson in the box for a shot. It's blocked. And then...

And that's where we're already seeing there. Like that Sanchise's a long ball you're talking about within like 30 seconds. It was encouraging not the long ball, the home run ball, that we kind of tend to be like down on those attempts. But the finding of her, like we just found her so easily in a huge space. And again, that's a schematic thing that was just missing early in the first game. And I don't remember if who was Germa or cook or even Sullivan who found her, but it was just done with such ease.

And she could have done a lot of things, but she chose to go for the home run to hatch. But that was promising. And then the Lavelle turn that we're talking about that created the really decent looking Swanson shots. I think Swanson lost her footing. That was Lavelle sitting back a line. And so you can see how effective she can be or you get some sense of it in sort of that deeper role where she can still cook people.

and then pick out a just absolutely devastating pass on the floor into Mallory Swanson in the corner of the box. Yeah. Yeah, Lavelle, I mean, no news to anybody, but what a joy to watch her play soccer. Anyway, two minutes and we're seeing, again, we need to see really good stuff. We need to see that kind of, we need to see us just take a team apart with ease. And so that was at least right away, like, okay, this isn't going to be a replay of the first game. So I'm interested in Sanchez because, like, yeah, I'm curious what you think about this, but she's in a battle, essentially in a battle with Haran for minutes. Or I guess you could say she's in a battle with LaValle, too, but I don't, I don't know.

That battle's not going to go well for her. I don't think either battle is going to go well for her, honestly. As much as I wish it would go well for her in her battle with Iran, I just don't, she doesn't, she's not as technically precise as Lavelle or Horan. generally, wouldn't you say? Yes. Well, I don't know. I don't know if I'd agree with Lavelle. I don't think there's any even discussion to half. Like, Lavelle's going to play over her if it comes to that. With Heron, I don't know that I would say she's not as technically precise. I think Sanchez is a very technical player. I think she tries a bunch of stuff that's low percentage on its face.

So she comes off kind of looking sloppy and loose when she's playing. You know, there's a lot of turnovers where it's like, but you saw what she was trying to do. She probably has the technique to do that sometimes. It just was a little bit ambitious of a choice. You know, it gets intercepted because it wasn't really on to do that. There was no technique that was going to let you get that ball into the window because the window is just too tight. So the reason Sanchez is on my mind is the eight minute mark.

We have this counter where Swanson collects it after a clearance and then plays a really a clearance off a New Zealand corner and plays a really nice ball to Rodman on the run. Robin then plays a really nice ball to Sanchez, who's making a good run right up the middle of the, like right up the gut. And she's sort of in a 1v1 with the defender and just gets tackled in the box as she shoots.

It turns out to be fairly harmless where, like, you know, if Sophia Smith gets that ball in that spot, she's, she's cranking one on frame. And I don't know. Yeah, the pass from Trin puts Sanchez in. And it's just Sanchez's touch as she enters the box shows the ball a little bit, right? She doesn't let her body keep the defender off where the defender would have to foul her to get to it. She puts it right in between the two of them.

And the defender doesn't have to worry about getting her legs set or her feet right to take a shot. She just has to disrupt it. And so it's an easier job for the defender who disrupts it pretty easily. But yes, Sanchez, I think, added quite where I want to say like she was, she had a lot of turnovers. What was your general sense of our entire game? If we can do a little Sanchez bit right now. It's tricky because I do love the way she moves around the ball. The flick for the first goal, which we'll get to in a moment, is just wonderful.

And, you know, she does a lot of good stuff, but I don't know. She gave it away a lot, right? Yeah. And that's where I... Some of them were kind of silly, like a back heel attempt on like a in a moment where you didn't really need to or... Exactly. I didn't see what the upside was. This is where I'm like, I can see how a coach watching that is going to be like, nope, we just can't have it too unpredictable.

Like too inconsistent is probably better than unpredictable. And I'm totally sympathetic to that. Also, I would just, I still want to see this midfield in she believes because I think there's just domino effects. Like I think by putting Sanchez higher, her movement like you're saying, I think is much more effective with her. and Lavelle in the midfield than with Lavelle and Horan. I feel like Horan isn't nearly as mobile, isn't as quick and shifty off the ball

to move into gaps, which when one player moves out of their space into a gap, there's a whole knock-on effect for other players. So what we ended up seeing in this game was Mallory Swanson kept coming central into spaces that Sanchez vacates because it's so easy to read those movements.

And this is also keyed by Lavelle moving deeper into spaces. So you have this really good full-team interplay on so many of our different sort of approach sequences that I don't think we get with Iran in that central midfield space. So even if there's things that Sanchez individually needs to clean up, I thought the whole team effect was noticeable. Yeah. Well, let's get to a really good example of some of what you're talking about, which is the first goal. Crystal Dunn, it's the 22nd minute. Was there something you wanted to touch on in between those? I'll just also throw in while all this movement is

happening. Naomi Gurma ahead of them. Naomi Gurma and Alana Cook can ping a ball around. And that's huge too. So when we're getting these midfielders in these pockets, they both have the confidence and the ability to execute flipping balls through that first line of pressure into our little little tricky players in the midfield to do all their little tricks. Like that's it's a big deal. They can be quiet looking passes. They don't necessarily jump off the screen, but they're so important when you have players of Lavelle's quality to be able to hit her in those spaces that it'd be so easy to just look her off and work it around the horseshoe and instead being like, nope, I think I can get this ball into her and then we do it. So that's a

huge, huge deal. Well, the really, the really good pass into one of our tricky players comes from Crystal Dunn on the goal. And it is, it's quite a good pass. She has to beat like four defenders to get it to Sanchez's feet. No, they're not all right in front of her, but they're all there. Because New Zealand's just kind of pressing up at this point. They're kind of trying to apply some pressure. And Rodman's, the right back is on Rodman,

but like even higher than Rodman. And Sanchez sort of bursts back to the ball and gets to it just before Ali Riley, who reads it a little late and is trying to close it down. Sanchez flicks it past, Ali Riley into the space that Riley had just vacated and Rodman kind of collects herself, runs onto it. She has all the time in the world and hits an inch perfect first time teasing ball for

Ashley Hatch to side foot into the far netting. It's a perfect ball. It's also a perfect finish, not an easy finish either. And that's four moments of quality strung together in a way that I feel like we haven't seen much from this team. It felt good. It was nice. Yeah, it was every execution was quality and every decision was quality.

you know, we talked about how we didn't change our buildup shape to go to three. We kept it as two with Cook and Germa. And one of the variations in our buildup was to just bring the ball side fullback deeper. So we did that here, right? So Dunn kind of dropped off a little bit instead of drifting upfield into their midfielder. She drops off. And as the ball goes to her, that midfielder has to then step forward, which creates a gap between her and the right back. and that's where we can try to that's where we can move

I think Trinity right you said had switched over to the left side yeah yeah yeah yeah so yeah they were that was kind of cool how Rodman and Pugh were switching at times but yeah so Rodman can kind of drop off or into that big gap forces the right back to come into that space and so you saw that variation and we got a lot of joy out of that too in our buildup so this was one of those moments where we did that Trinity comes back the fullback drifts upfield creates more space between the full back and center back which is the pocket that Sanchez shows into to receive it. And then because that fullback had come upfield with Rodman,

there's no way she's going to win the foot race back against Rodman when Sanchez makes that awesome flick. So just really good coordination. You know, that is disorganizing the opponent with the ball and movement. The flick from Sanchez was so good. I don't even think Rodman initially read it. You know, she was kind of like, what's what? And then she's like, oh, okay. And then comes up and plays an absolutely perfect ball.

for Hatch. And so we just kind of had been dinging, you know, Sanchez for the giveaways, but it's like she tries stuff. And that flick is not a flick that everyone on our team tries. So it's like you're going to, with her, it's very much going to be a, is a coach willing to take some of the looseness with what can be just, uh, defense opening touches. Yeah. And, and again, we have to find out if you can open a, uh, Canada defense or a Canada's

wrong thing to use at this point. I feel like they're no longer a standard setting defense. But, you know, a much better opponent. We got to see if Sanchez can open those defenses up. That's why I bring up technical precision, because I do think she tries stuff, but I don't know that she always, it always does even what she's trying to execute. You know, the ideas are fantastic.

But, yeah, anyway. 26-minute, Swanson just glides past Ali Riley for the ball in the corner. It's a it's kind of a broken play. It's just rolling back there. And I don't know. Swanson looks, we used to talk about the cheat code. She really was looking like a cheat code in this game. It's just twice as fast as everybody else out there.

So the speed is apparent. And then what you have now is her decision on this one, fantastic, right? Like rather than just trying to force a ball across and hope something good happens, like she reads the New Zealand defenders, their entire momentum is all going towards goal. I think the centerback who's trying to help cover literally starts her slide as Swanson is about to deliver it across. So Swanson instead just leaves it in like a 45 degree angle

back towards the penalty marker for Sanchez, who's alone, can do whatever she wants. And Sanchez proceeds to smash it directly into the, you know, the scrambling goalkeeper. Yeah. Not an easy, I would not in my experience, an easy finish necessarily, but, you know. Yeah, it's not an open goal. Like she just has to, she just has to hit it where it doesn't hit the keeper. And she hits it at the keeper. Yeah. But the, what I care about. She hit it hard at the keeper. Yeah. I care about, I care mostly about, uh, Mallory's decision and execution there. And again, that's, that's what we want to see. That's what I want to see so much of from this group because they have the talent to get into these spots, pick out that shot creating pass. and we're going to get a lot of good chances.

Yeah. Lots of aerial balls played in this passage of play in the first half. There was one where Rodman, you know, was looking for a pass interference flag and didn't get it. It's a spot foul anyway in the international game. And in the, around the 38 minute mark, we get our second goal. And we alluded to it briefly earlier, but it's Rose Lavel on the volley. Swanson is trying to come, she comes back to the ball, collects it, and sort of tries to move across the top of the attacking third

to get something cooking. Her clipped ball for Rodman is blocked back to her, and then she taps it wide to Huerta. Huerta just tease up a speculative ball, it looks like to me, into the box. Two defenders are drawn to Ashley Hatch, you know, near the penalty marker, and Lavelle darts in behind the trio,

and the ball also goes over that trio, and she volleys it past Nail. A high level of difficulty strike, but the defending is second rate. No way a ball like that should fall to waste high when two defenders are in the vicinity. Yeah, so we just appreciate the aesthetics of it, appreciate Lavelle's technique. And I think the HBO crew pointed this out at the halftime show. It's also important to note that despite Lavelle playing in that deeper role, she still obviously is free to make these kinds of runs as she sees fit as she reads the game.

So that's the other important thing here. I agree this goal isn't necessarily going to be the kind of goal we'll score in February. But to see Lavelle have the freedom to make these kinds of runs forward, I think is important. So that's what I'm going to take from it. All right. Before we get to the second half, you know, if you want to hear it, there's a lot of men's national team news over the weekend. Giorana had a banger this morning. Chris Richards, his second straight, extremely credible start in the Premier League against the top four team.

and a clean sheet against Newcastle. Josh Sargent scored. Brian McBride is out as general manager. Lots to talk about. But you're going to have to pony up for the Monday review. It's all going to be on the Monday review tomorrow. At the half, we get Emily Sonnet on for Germa at left centerback and Emily Fox on for Crystal Dunn.

It's probably still fair to say Dunn is working her way back to full full fitness. Yeah, I think Rusty at times. I thought, but again, I think our scheme was a much better in this game. And so Dunn got to do a lot more of her. I mean, she just showed some guile, like, in our buildup, a lot more often than she got to in the first half of the first game. Yeah, I mean, like, for instance, the past that keyed the move for the game's opening

goal. So let's get right into the goals because they come fast and furious in the second half. Well, first a chance. a nice sequence in the 40, around the 48 minute mark. It's a good pass through the lines from Sonnet to Sanchez. The reference those pockets of space Sanchez was finding. Sanchez out to Swanson on the run. And then Swanson plays a good left-footed ball across for Hatch.

And she just, she just misses from the six, doesn't get her foot right. Makes good contact. It just goes left to the post. Yeah, it was, the decision making was, felt to me a lot like that open, our goal opener where it was just a lot of really good decisions. Everyone's sort of doing the optimal thing, starting with Sonnet's entry pass into Sanchez. So this is what we want to see. This is what you want to see in sort of the meaningless friendly is this kind of like we can just toy with this team execution. Yeah. It was very, it was crisp the whole sequence. There it is. That's a good way of

putting it. Fifty second minute mark. We get our third goal of the game. Foxx receives a good long ball from Alana Cook, so one of those pings you were talking about from Cook diagonally to Fox on the left side, Fox takes it down and beats somebody and then just fizzes it a ball across the six. It gets to Rodman actually, who tries to kind of side or kind of outside of the foot

push it into the goal from close range. That shot is blocked off her foot to Swanson, who is just standing near the penalty marker and pounds it into the upper right corner. At this point, the game's sort of, we're just kind of rolling. Yeah, same thing. I like the buildup here because it was this deliberate play from Sonnet, Sullivan, and Cook,

until Cook can stretch the entire field with that long ball. And then, again, the aesthetics of Mal just hammering this into the top corner. It's very pleasing. It is. Pleasing, yeah. Oh, pleasing is a word. I know there's a Norwich City podcaster who I watched some of his post-game reaction. actions sometimes and he uses the word pleasing all the time.

Must be an East Anglian thing. Don't sleep on the movement either from Swanson. It looks like the ball just falls to her easily, but she puts herself, she starts out like wide of Rodman, which again is another interesting rotation because it's like these are the two wingers, but they both end up on the same, you know,

weak side post. But Mal starts out wide of Rodman and the ball's coming in. And rather than just sort of going aimlessly at the goal, like some players will do at times, she really cleverly sets herself up. at sort of, you know, the point where dead center of the goal, where a ball might fall and just in case it does,

I'll be here all by myself. And sure enough, she's there all by herself. Yep. We get some subs in the 62nd minute. Courtney Xx on for Sullivan and Lynn Williams comes on for Rodman, Christy Mewis for Sanchez and purse for hatch. We've got two more goals to talk about this. In the 74th minute, we get another Lavelle goal on the volley.

Swanson kind of comes back to a loose ball to poke it to Corniac. Corniac over the top to Lynn Williams, who crosses it for Lavelle arriving kind of right in the goal mouth. And Lavelle swings and does just enough to usher it into the side netting. Not as emphatic of a volley as the first one. But they all count the same. Yeah. That's it. Great, another great one for Lynn Williams coming off the bench and having an immediate impact again.

So a goal last game and I would assist here for for Lavelle. And this is just another one of those where like it's not exactly the prettiest goal. So it looks like some touches and part of the sequence that will need to be ironed out against better teams. But it's still, you know, a decent little up back through where we get it up to Swanson, the layoff back to Corniac. And then if you have a Lynn Williams who starts even on a foot race, even against, you know, good teams, that's a good. situation to be in. So the ball over the top to Lynn Williams to let her just try to outrace the New Zealand back line. It's a good, that's a good attack. Yeah. Okay. And then the 80th minute, we get the fifth goal. Again, Lavelle on the score sheet. It's a, it's a header on a corner

kick from, I mean, the header is from Cornec. The corner kick is from Lavelle. Cornec is, as you, most of you know, six foot one. But she headed it down and hard, made no mistake. Good, a good aerial finish from her 5-0. Height is a skill. I think this settles it right here. It is useful, right? Like this is a useful player to have,

not just because she's tall, but that is a huge set piece mismatch. So if we can take decent set pieces in a competitive game, not a lot of teams are going to be able to just, you know, and if they do have to put their best header on Corniac, then, you know,

everyone else gets a slightly worse player to attack. against. So we talked about it at the beginning of the show, but you think you were happy with the improvement in our sort of the start of the buildup and how we found people in pockets of space in the midfield, at least. Yeah. Yeah, I thought the rotations, the fluidity of it, I think, was it was night and day.

And again, some of that, it was schematic. There were very clearly little rotations we make. We already talked about how sometimes the ballside fullback would just drop into a creative back line. a back three, which really stretched out the wide midfielder and wide fullback for New Zealand. But other times it was, it was, you know, the fullback would drift high. And then even Lavelle at times that one of our center mids would drop into that wide back three to create that. So I don't know.

My sense is that Heran is just a little bit too static in the center midfield. Like doesn't make those sharp little movements continuously that I think we got with this group of personnel. Yeah. And I know that that's, you know, that's a high, that's a somewhat controversial subject in the fan base. Like, you know, there's some people who are really big on Heran and think she can do stuff that nobody else can do. And I think there may be some truth to that in some ways. I don't know. It's, uh, what do you think Vlako's going to do, though, you know? He's going to, he's going to, he's going to start her ran. So the question will be, I think, I don't think anyone changed Vlato's mind entirely in this game. Like, it's, you can't really do that in a game against the game. opponent that we just played. But it might open the door for a test in February.

And we've got three games in that window, fairly tight turnaround time. So maybe we can get one of those games with a rotated midfield. Yeah, that'd be great. And then hopefully that rotation is Lavelle and Sanchez with Lavelle in the Horan role, Sanchez and the Lavelle roll. Let's see what it looks like. Okay, I'm for it. Those are the real tests coming up in mid-February.

She believes Cup. Of course, we'll be there on February 19th in Nashville against Japan, 2.30 p.m. Central time. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see you.