Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #386: The summer USMNT roster episode

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

The U20 World Cup, Nations League Finals and the Gold Cup are all coming up fast, so Greg and Belz sat down to try to fit all the jigsaw pieces together and decide who plays in which tournament. ----Scuffed is an ad-free podcast. Support that and get exclusive episodes once a week, plus access to the Discord and 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. We've got the U20 World Cup starting in two weeks. We play in Mexico in the Nations League semifinals in a little over a month, and then the Gold Cup kicks off in less than two months, not to mention the women play in the World Cup in July and August. But for this episode, we're going to talk about the three big tournaments. The men are playing this summer, and who should play in which. So kick back with a cup of coffee.

Is that not all right, Greg? Yeah, it's a roster jigsaw puzzle. We love the roster jigsaw puzzle. Yeah, I have a feeling it's going to be kind of a slow and relaxing episode. There's going to be so many hypotheticals walked through. That's right. So for one thing, I sort of came into this thinking we'd have three different groups. As early as this morning, I was thinking three different groups.

Maybe some overlap here and there, but not too much. And now Edgar Moreno, you know, the Dallas-based Twitter, Twitter account, he's a person with a Twitter account, who has a pretty solid track record on this sort of stuff, is out today saying that the Nation's League and Gold Cup rosters will be, quote, the same group of players, end quote, with maybe some minor changes. Yeah, so Edgar's an information, haver. He has information. I'm not buying this one, at least in the way he's presenting it.

I just absolutely do not think it's going to be, you know, 18 out of 23 guys being the same. What do you think it's going to be? 13 out of 23? I feel like it'll be like half, yeah. So we're in that area where, yeah, it's not totally two separate rosters. But I think it'd be stretched to say it'll end up that it's going to end up being the same team just moving from the gold, from the Nations League final over to the Gold Cup venue. Well, I'll be interested to hear where you think the changes, you know, are going to be made or should be made from the Nations League to the Gold Cup. I do feel like when you sketch it out with a separate roster, which is what I sort of did for the Gold Cup,

it does start to get a little thin. And, I mean, particularly in the midfield. All due respect to Keaton Parks. Yeah. What are you talking about? Respect Keaton Parks. I do. With all due respect to the entire Los Angeles football club.

Right. But is it a good idea? Is it a good idea to have even 12 people play in both Nations League and the Gold Cup? I mean, should we talk about it? the criteria here, the thought process? Yes. I mean, should we do the U20? Should we do the U20 first?

Let's do that one first because I think we can, that feels like a more separate thing, right? Yeah, I mean, it is not totally separate. There are some players who could conceivably play in a U20 World Cup and then in a rotated gold cup if the, if their MLS GM is feeling extremely generous. Right, but the meat of it is going to be the older, older guys in contention for

Nations League and Gold Cup. Right. This is going to be more of a one-off situation for a lot of these players. Yeah, I mean, if you're a sicko, you've seen some U-20 roster projections floated. I think Marcus Cherez has a good one out on Twitter, and mine isn't that much different

from his. But I guess I'm thinking, so we know Brian Gutierrez and Chris Brady from Chicago are not going to released. Also, Rokas Pukstas, not going to be released by his club in the Balkans. And then just came out earlier today. Jalen Neal probably not going to be released by the Galaxy. He's a center back. And who's the other one? Noobuck, Nobuck from the New England Revolution, who has made a

push lately as a pretty good player, I think. He's been playing well lately. Also not going to be released. So take those guys, those five guys. Sounds like Caleb Wiley will be released. He told Felipe Cardenas and a bunch of other reporters that yesterday. So that's good news for this team. He'll be the starting left back almost certainly. And Kay Wolf playing more of an attacking role if needed pending other releases. But it sounds like with Curtin playing ball, we should have quite a few of our attacking players available.

Yeah, I mean, two, right? Two of them. Quinn Sullivan. And Jack McGlynn probably going to be there from Philly. Let's start at the back. Let's do that. It's going to be Slanina, Gabriel Slanina, you know, sort of in the Chelsea system over there. Former Chicago Fire goalkeeper and Antonio Carrera, younger brother of Nico Carrera.

And then, I don't know, whoever, as a third goalkeeper. You have to have three goalkeepers. It's a 21-man roster. Yeah, Brady would have been the shoe in here probably as 1B behind Slinina. and and now it agreed. Yeah, you're just going to bring a body. Right. So right back, probably going to be Maricio Cuevas.

I don't know, I don't know who the backup right back is going to be. It could be this Thomas Williams fella or I have Michael Halliday on the roster. I don't, you know, it doesn't really matter that much. I'm a, I feel like maybe he's been hurt a little bit at Hoffenheim, but I wonder if Che could be on this roster to deputize as right. back slash centerback to give you a little bit of versatility. You know, I made a mental note in my head to add Che to this roster and then forgot until you said that.

That's what I'm here for. So thank you, Greg. Yeah. Forget Halliday. It's Che as the second right back. Maybe the starter, you know, I guess depends on how Quevas is looking. He's sort of been so-so, I think, in recent camps. And then if you have, if you have Che, you can more comfortably bring three, only three centerbacks.

Right. That's what was in my head. I also feel like you could end up playing like a stay home right back with Che and get into more of like a three three two five buildup shape where you might be able to play more of like a attacking mid type which I think we have a couple of on this roster right right so the so the centerbacks will be Josh winder the Louisville city center back left footed center back he's headed off to Benfica presumably Is that not like solid, solid?

No, it couldn't have been because he just turned 18, right? So, I mean, it's one of those wink-wing things, but he turned 18 a few days ago, and there hasn't been, you know, any kind of official announcement. But it's still expected to be. We went through this with G.L. Raina where he turned, he didn't quite, like, when he turned 16, it was known that he was going to Dortmund, but he still didn't for, you know, a couple of weeks at least. Right. Okay.

Well, Winder, you know, highly touted left back, I think, left center back, I should say. I think Marcus lists him as the top player in his birth year, a top American player in his birth year for what that's worth. Marcus for Kranis would probably be the other centerback along with Brandon Craig. I imagine it'll be Winder and Craig starting together. And we think this is because Jalen Neal is not getting released by Galaxy, or at least probably not going to be released. Because somebody from the galaxy said Kuevas would be released, but with Neil it's a different story because he's, yeah, because he's in necessary. And I don't think Neil's been perfect in his MLS appearances or anything. You know, there's some oopsies here and there.

But he does, he does pass the eye test, I think, in general. He's playing calmly and make playing passes between the lines. Seems to be comfortable out there. All right, left back. like I said, Caleb Wiley, probably Jonathan Gomez is coming to, who's moved to rail, so Cidad has not, I think it's fair to say, has not gone as well as we would have liked at this point. It's probably gone about normally, though.

Yeah. So out of this line, this personnel group in the back problem, how do you sort of compare it? Sorry to spring this on you, but I feel like it'll be relevant to people who've been listening to us for a while. How do you compare this personnel group to the 2019 U-20s? Or we're talking about Dest, Gloucester, Richards, McKenzie? Yeah. I think the centerbacks are a little weaker than Richards and McKenzie.

I mean, if we have Winder and Craig playing, you know, significant minutes for a top of the table, Belgian club and a mid-table Premier League club. And it's debatable that Chris Richards has played significant minutes. But he has played as recently as last week. I think we should be really pleased that they made it that far. And I don't, I would

not put money on that. There you go. And then no... What do you think? I mean, it's just so hard to have a sense of it, right? I feel like they're behind. Dest was doing some cool things for a young Iax at that point. So I feel like, I feel like Dest and Richards alone make that a tough, a tough one to beat

out. And then again, Mark McKenzie being a very solid, a solid pro early in his career, even at the time of the U-20s. So I think, I think the 2019 groups got the edge here. Yeah, I think the only place where this group may have an edge is left back. I think Wiley's a, Wiley, Wiley is on paper ahead of where Gloucester was at this point in his career. We'll see how it goes, though. Okay, midfield. I'm saying Vargas and Edelman as sixes and Jack McGlynn, Owen, Wolf, and Diego Luna as the eights. We'll see you later, but we're going to have Paxton, Aronson, and Caden Clark here, too,

who can both play in this spot and may well. I mean, I don't know what I need to say about these guys. Vargas is at Seattle. Edelman's at Red Bull. I think, you know, Gutierrez right now probably. No, definitely ahead of Luna, ahead of, I would say, ahead of Clark who has been on the bench for R.B.

Leipzig, but it hasn't played yet for them. It's too bad that he won't be released for our purposes. Who's that? Goet. Yes, yeah, yeah. And we don't know. I mean, do you have,

are you working off some more information than I have here? Are you just projecting Caden Clark getting released? I'm just, I'm just saying if he could be released, I would bring him. Yeah. I mean, you know, go ahead. It's going to be interesting to see how we align our midfield because so many of these sort of tweeners exist and you get even more tweenerage if you're going sort of two defensive mids and a 10.

I don't feel real strongly about Caden Clark. But anyway, that's the midfield, Luna McGlynn, Wolf, Vargas, and Edelman. And then, again, this is a projection. That Argentina kid, right, too, could. Make a push here. Right. And that would be cool if he, you know, if he accepts it, he's, he's, he's played footsie with, uh, with the Federation a little bit, which is fine.

I'm not, you know. Yeah. No, it's nice to have your foot rubbed sometimes. He, he, what happened is he was invited to the, to a camp that was side by side with the, the senior national team earlier this year and, uh, and decided, no, I'm going to go with Argentina. apparently he's not close to the actual final U-20 roster for Argentina

but he did go into this Argentina camp and so Varus Vars may call him up Mikey Vars, the coach of the U-20s may call him up here at the end, especially with all these other people pulling out but he hasn't been with the group yet and of course the context here is Argentina didn't even make the U-20 World Cup

but they get to play in it because now they get to host it because Indonesia because Indonesia didn't want to host the Israeli U-20 national team. And the other context on the Argentine kid, if I have this correct,

is he can play in the next cycle's U-20 group, right? I mean, he's a full cycle. He's not just like one year off. He's a full cycle. He's in 05, yeah. Yeah. So anyway, just some, just another possibility,

especially as we get last minute, you know, rejections from clubs releasing players. Right. And then on the wings, I have Cowell, Cade Cowell, Kevin Perretus, and Quinn Sullivan, and like I said, Paxton Aronson and Caden Clark. A lot of talent there, a lot of different skill sets. Cowell, you know, a true winger, Paxton and Clark, less so. Yeah.

Probably a star Perretus kind of being a wild card too. And Predis is one where we have no indication that he will be released. Am I right there? Yeah. Yeah. This is just wish thinking. And he's also injured at the moment. So he hasn't been featuring for Wolfsburg the last couple weeks because he's dealing with an injury.

Yeah. They said mid-May. I think Fottmob says mid-May is his return date. But, you know, that's certainly not gospel. And then strikers, I'm a little conflicted about it. I mean, Pepe has to be a little conflicted about it. but I think PEPI should be called up if he's willing to come, you know? And then Darren Yappi, the Colorado Rapids striker,

who's done some good things this year, I think, him as well. I definitely want PEPI in the U20 tournament. Why do you feel strongly about it? Because for me, it's like free, it's like free Peppy money. I don't see it as like a demotion thing. I see it as his club situation right now is terminal. I mean, like right now it is for the end of this season. So he's not missing important minutes with his club in May to go to the U-20s.

Like his club is getting relegated. He's on loan there anyway. It doesn't matter. He can, you know, jet off and it doesn't affect anything. So I just would like to get him minutes in the U.S. setup. And these are just free minutes to get him. You know, it's not ideal. It's not perfect for measuring.

It's not perfect for even getting like reps because it's not like these are, this is the group he'll be playing with for the rest of his U.S. career. Right. But it's just, yeah, it's just like he'll help us, help us win games that we might not win otherwise in the tournament. And what else is he doing? Right. Yeah. And I feel like, I don't know, it's hard to put myself in those shoes and just, you know, say whether he will enjoy being with the U20s or not. But I, I guess I would, I would think he would, you know, going to a U20 World Cup, boss in a boss in that attacking third for us. Yeah. And just to tip my hand here. I would bring Peppy to this

New 20 World Cup and then also bring him to Nation's League. Okay. And then send him home after Nations League to go sort out what he's going to do with a club next season. Okay. Because he's on the list of players who have to, for whom preseason is going to be important.

Yeah. I mean, you've got to consider unsettled, right? We know he's I mean, we know he's going to be unlikely to be going back to Grown again. So he's going back to his parent club and then figuring out from there whether he stays and has to break in or whether he's going to find a new destination in some capacity. Date-wise, we're looking at the final of the U-20 World Cup is June 11th, so I'm assuming

we will be playing in that final on June 11th. I'm not assuming that. Then he can jet off to the Nations League semi, which I think is June 15th. That's right. Yep. A Thursday night, I believe, or maybe a Wednesday. Let me look. It's a Thursday, yeah, the 15th.

against Mexico. So just to just to sort of wrap that up, I mean, any, any, any, any, do you have any thoughts on the roster? Any corrections to mine besides Shea, which I apologize for omitting him. Well, and again, I don't know if he'll be released and I think he's been dealing with an injury as well, uh, for Hoffheim. So who knows? Um, no, I think, I think we hit, I think all the same names are on here. Uh, I will ask you though, that front six then, how do you think that front six compares to the 2019 team that actually went to the World Cup. So it didn't include Adams and it didn't include Sergeant in 2019. Yeah. Well, I think it's striker. It's better if we've got Pepe and Yapie.

You know, Tim Wea was a big player for this team. I don't know if any of these fellows are going to be a way-a-level talent. Yeah. And I don't know if any of them are currently at the level, Wayo was capable of playing even in 2019, even summer 2019. Right. So Wayeah is going to be a tough bar to clear here. He really dragged our offense up. He did. You know, big players on that team were Richie Ledesma and Alex Mendez. They weren't wingers, I guess, but. They were the engine room with Pomacall doing a lot of the heavy lifting as well.

Right. A lot of moving of pianos and then watching Timway at work. Yeah. And Sebastian Soto shouldn't leave out his contributions in 2019. He scored some big goals. He did. He scored, what was it, two big goals against France? Yeah, I think this front six comparison.

as favorably if you, you know, excluding Wea, which you can't really do. So, but on the balance, like, they might, they might measure up overall? I think so. All right. But we don't have any big contributors from that group except Wea, right? From that front group? Yeah. No, that's, that's, he was, he was the one who, who leveled up to the national team.

I mean, Ullianez was on that team. Conrad. Conrad Del Fuente. Yeah, I never, I was never impressed by him. I remember being not impressed with him in that tournament. Yeah, I think this is a better front six overall. But if Pepe goes, Pepe could tip to scale, right? I think so.

That weigh so heavily weighs down for the 2019. All right, I'll give us that. I feel like that's a nice bow in a scuffed context for this U20 discussion. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, everything goes back to the 2019 U20 World Cup, right? Just about, yes. So the U.S. plays May 20th against Ecuador, May 23rd against Fiji, and May 26th against Slovakia. Those are the three group stage games.

The round of 16 game will likely be on the 31st. And I've got Matt Hartman and Marcus Chares booked to help me with those first two games. So we'll be recapping all of them and check in with us. if you're interested. Should we move to the Nation's League roster? Yeah, let's get to the senior team now, because this is really the jigsaw. Yeah.

How are you, what's the criteria? How are you, what's the Velasquez Matrix here? Well, so we get, we get Hudson's comments, right, about how it's important to build reps with the team. And he's basically, important for his CV. And he's calling it the team, suggests, you know, like there is like an A team that should be playing together. And I think,

we all agree that there's definitely like a core group of players who are very safely considered the A team, or at least, you know, the top 12 or 13 players of it. I guess where I'm coming from is I don't think the priority of the summer should be to play those guys as much as possible. I think it's nice if you can do that, but I think the priority should basically just be case by case, put everyone in the best position for medium term success and long term success. And what I mean by that is mostly like mental breaks for some players, physical breaks for some players, and getting club situations sorted out. And there's no, there's no like magic, magic bullet here that's going to be the perfect thing for every person. You know, if you think about club situations, sometimes it's a long drawn out process where, you know, they might need to be, it might be long drawn out. And then suddenly they have to be at a doctor's office in Madrid. And then other times it's like it's pretty straightforward.

And even if it goes until the last day, like I remember Jedi Robinson a few years back, moving from Bolton back to his parent club Everton and then going on loan to Wiggin. And like it all happened fast. And he, you know, the transfer itself didn't go through until the season had already almost started. And he moved to Wiggin like on Friday night signed to disphysical. And then Saturday was in the 11 playing for them. So it's not like you have to get there for a whole preseason if you move to a new club to succeed. but sometimes you probably do want that to happen. And for so many of these guys in this sort of club uncertainty,

like, man, I just don't want them tied up in the Gold Cup that will butt up right against their new club's preseason where then they're going to get there and maybe have to take a couple of weeks off and then jump in late and sort of not be able to establish themselves

or have to fight upstream a little bit to get into the group, into the squad. So those are the kind of the considerations I'm thinking of that might outweigh the benefits of U.S. reps in the Gold Cup. Gold Cup specifically. Nation's League, I think anyone can play in it

and then still get three weeks off and then go jump into a preseason with, you know, the club they're returning to or a new club. Okay. Just you tipped your hand earlier about Peppy. Did you say you want him back for the Gold Cup or for the Nations League? Nations League.

I think he could play the U20 World Cup if he's amenable to it. But again, I just think it's sort of free money with him. He's not really going to be blocking anyone else who's an immediate contender for the senior team from getting minutes. So get him in there, let them play, evaluate as best you can, playing against other kids, against children, and then bring them over to the Nation's League.

And the other thing to think about with Nations League is there aren't that many minutes, right? So if you think about we have two games, there's no friendly in the window ahead of it. Right. We got 180 minutes and we start against Mexico. We're going to play our very best group against Mexico. It's not like there's going to be a ton of time here to explore some of these up-and-coming players. Yeah, it seems really clear to me that say Pepe does play in the U-20 World Cup final, it wins it, you know? Yes.

Then we just start Sergeant. We just start Sergeant against Mexico, bring Pepey in off the bench if we need to, you know? Yeah, just about it's just going to be Hajie Wright. Oh, it's going to be Hajie Wright instead of Josh Sargent? So, I mean. Man, I disagree with that. I mean, I do too from a, from a, but it's a, this is part of the puzzle, right? Because Hadji Wright probably has a move that he's trying to make the summer.

and I don't know that Josh Sargent does. So Sergeant can afford to miss his preseason or show up late to Norwich preseason. Like it's not that important for him to be there right on time. Whereas Haji, at least it might be. So it might have had like, Haji and Pepe can handle Nations League and then they can both go back to Europe, take care of their business on the club side while we give Sergeant the Gold Cup. But is it necessary?

I mean, Sergeant can do both, right? You think this is where he needs rest or something? No, I don't think he needs rest. It's just opportunity. Like if we don't get Haji into the Nations League, would he get to play all the summer? And do we need him to play the summer? Not necessarily. But man, like some of these players, I think it's worth exploring.

And so this is where I feel like Pepe and Haji can handle the Nations League. And I'm not so sure that Sargent's better that I'm like sacrificing, right? I'm not like, oh, well, we're going to lose our starter to play these backups in this super important games against Mexico. because I'm just not convinced that we know that Sergeant is definitely better. I am. And I feel like the thing with Sergeant is he's, even though he's been around the national team for a long time, he's always kind of been on the fringes, you know? Oh, yeah.

He's never really gotten like a steady run of games because he just either he hasn't convinced or like something was wrong or. And even at the World Cup, I thought he was quite good when he got to play. And then he got hurt against Iran, you know. Yep. So he started against our two most winnable group stage games in the World Cup and did very well in them for what he was being asked to do. You know, didn't blow things away. Didn't have six shots a game with a ton of great chances.

It was just a very workman-like quality performance, pretty mistake-free, kind of a showing for. Which is enough definitely to like move to the top of the list for the U.S. at the moment. But not where it's like we have to have him, in my mind, not where it's like we have to have him for this Mexico game. If we only, if we have to play haji, you know, we're sunk. Yeah. Well, I don't think we're sunk if we have to play haji. I mean, Mexico is really, really suffering right now. But, but, um, but sergeant, yeah, I think he's quite a bit better than haji.

And if, if that's where we're at, I would, I would, I would lean to sergeant. And I don't want to actually like knowingly or willingly jeopardize our win our chances of winning the game against Mexico and the Nations League final to follow. But in my head, if it's a if it's a coin toss, then I'm going to like jigsaw puzzle it for European club considerations for the offseason. My memory is terrible. Did did, how did you start against England? Yeah, he started against England. Yeah. And he was fine.

He wasn't bad. He was never bad. His worst moment was against another. other ones, uh, blowing that gift that they set him up with and turning it into like a not dangerous at all chance, um, that he turned into a corner kick where he immediately scored that ridiculous fluke of a goal. So it was sort of no harm, no foul, but like he was, he was, for everything he was doing in the World Cup, I feel like he, he's gotten a bad rap for being bad in it, but he was never bad. He was, he was just fine. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I just feel like he's gotten,

he, he, he came out of nowhere to join that World Cup roster, got to start. against England at the World Cup. And it's not like he's been, you know, mistreated or something. Maybe he has in some ways. But you're just saying, you're just saying, we need to explore him. We need to explore him more this summer. I think so. I would like to.

I mean, again, he's been doing well in Turkey since and well enough where I think he will probably get a move. I'm hopeful that he gets a move. There was rumors that he was going to move in the winter window, but then he got hurt mid window, so that might have scuttled any chances. Okay. So anyway, that's where I land on the Nation's League strikers. Peppy and right.

Pepe and right for you. Also, we should mention that if Bolligan's, if we're going to do a surprise balligan announcement days before the roster announcement or the day of the roster announcement, that's going to trump everything. And he should be our striker for both tournaments. Okay. What about, I guess since we started at Stryker, why don't we go to? to the wings now just to spice it up a little bit.

All right. Well, again, I'm picking what I think would be our best players here. So give me Poole's second way to start. Okay. Who else are you bringing? So I'm bringing Brenda because I think he's still probably towards the top of the list to back these guys up. And then I'm bringing, this is where I'm bringing Taylor Booth.

And it's a bit of the jigsaw puzzle because Booth is a guy who is definitely being linked to a summer move because his club team want to raise. some money and he's been playing well enough and he's young. So that equals dollars in their pockets. So if he's going to- He hasn't started lately. I mean, just as a matter of- Now he got his face blown up.

It was like bleeding from the face in his, and he had to come out. So now he came off the bench once he returned. Okay. But again, this is all contingent on like him needing to go back to sort out his club situation. If he's just there and I mean, like if there is nothing or some of these guys might literally

have moves already lined up and almost on like inked before these competitions then we don't have we don't have to you know have that be a consideration but if it would make his make it easier for him to get into a good club situation for next season he should go back to europe in my mind okay do i assume you have one giovanni reina as a midfielder yeah without tyler adams who i'm assuming he's going to be hurt for this yeah i'm assuming he's not back but i don't we don't know that for sure either. Again, so many hypotheticals here. Then I think we just go a couple of eights with Gio ahead of them. Okay. Who do you have? Who do you have for the wingers? Well, I have Pulisic-Earinson, Jordan Morris, Giorina, and Tim Wea. And the reason

I have Morris in this one is not so much because I need him there personally, but I think he's going to get called up to something this summer. And it makes more sense for him to come to Nation's League than it does for him to come to Gold Cup. He goes to the Gold Cup. He misses like four games for the Sounders. Nations League, I think he might only just miss one. Oh, yeah. So this is where you and I are completely different then because I see the MLS guys is like,

we have total control. Like we don't need to care at all about how many MLS games they miss for these senior tournaments. Because of the, because of the playoff, you know, the fact that everybody gets into the playoffs. So it's not even that. I don't care about affecting the teams in their prospects at all. I care about their status within the club. So taking Jordan Morris away from five MLS games isn't going to jeopardize where he stands with Seattle Sounders.

He's still going to start every game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, taking like some of the, like a, like, who would be at risk? Even for the European guys, it's less about their status with the club and more about if they're moving clubs. Because I think most of them are pretty much, pretty much settled into where they're, where they're, with their actual clubs. Yeah, I see that. I guess I don't really care where George,

I mean, usually when I see Jordan Morris in the starting lineup, it doesn't, I'm not happy about it, you know. I want someone else to get a chance because we do know who he is. But yeah, I've got Pulisic, Morris, Aronson, Raina, and Wea on the wing. But totally with the understanding that Aronson and Raina might play inside, might be, might play as a 10. Let's talk about our midfields then for the Nations League. All right, you want me to go?

Yes, please. All right. So McKenny, Musa, and Luca, I think should be locked in as our best midfielder's. And then the jigsaw consideration here, I'm bringing Tanner Testman. Oh, because he's going to have some club stuff to sort out, maybe? I'm hoping he does. I'm hoping he's moving. I'm hoping he gets picked up somewhere.

So that's my hope. If he's staying with Venetia for next season, then whatever. He can come to the Gold Cup. Yeah. Did you hear Vince's scouting report on him from Monday? Yeah, it was fantastic. Yeah, I thought it was very good, too. He's been, you know, he's been a leader of, Vince has been, Vince Irvin,

been a leader of the troubadours for many months. But his thought was, Tessman's doing a lot of stuff that makes it into a comp, like a lot of good stuff. But his pitch control and, you know, ability to, break things up. It leaves something to be desired. Yeah. Should also say, I mean, I just kind of talked about the center mids, the more midfieldish center mids.

I also have Raina and Malik Tillman as the sort of attacking mids here. If we run that, you know, almost like a 4, 2, 3, 1 or more of an attacking mid type. And that's in jeopardy because Malik Tillman, I think, is back in Munich about a hamstring. Yeah. But he's another guy who, you know. Going to Munich to see about a hamstring. Yeah. And he's another guy who's going to have to figure out what he's doing for his club next year

because he's on loan right now with Rangers. So obviously that will have to either be, I mean, somewhere that will have to get settled. So I don't want him spending a bunch of weeks in the Gold Cup if he's trying to figure out where he's going to be playing and trying to find the best fit for next season. I'm with that. And I think, but it does seem like him pushing his way into the Nation's League roster is going to be difficult if the hamstring is a problem. And again, we'll just talk here too with with these guys with Booth, with Malick, with

Tesman. You'd be sacrificing a little bit if you can only bring them to the Nations League because, again, they're not going to play very much. Like those minutes are going to be spoken for. We're going to play our top team against Mexico. And we're going to like need them to play for, you know, there's not going to be planned halftime subs in that game. So, and then if we beat Mexico, we're winning, we're going to play to win a final.

So it's not like you can just. you have a bunch of minutes to give away to these players. You'd kind of be losing that, but just trading, the tradeoff being more flexibility for them for their clubs, and then just getting them into a camp with the top team to sort of go through that experience. Okay, yeah.

Well, I do like the idea of just running two-eighths and then a 10 in front of them. McKenney's been doing all that hard labor in West Yorkshire in a double pivot. And, I mean, Luke has been, And neither Luca nor Musa has really been playing a ton of pure midfielder lately, but they're ready for that role, I think. And then it helps us avoid having to start Callin Acosta.

Oh, yeah. I mean, we could definitely get through this two games without Acosta on the roster at all. Yeah. Okay, but you're bringing Acosta in your roster? You want them there? Want is such a freighted word. Yeah, so my midfield for the next. for Nations League is McKinney, Musa, Aden Morris, Delatore, Acosta, and Sands.

So six of them. Plus, you know, I mean, Raina starts in the midfield against Mexico, right? I want them to. I think we can get away with it. I hope, I mean, I want to find out if we can get away with it. I mean, as I, after hearing you talk about it and now looking at mine, I'm like, why do we need Morris, Acosta, and Sands? We don't. Well, again, we could probably play these two games with only using like 14 outfield players. Right. So a lot of these guys are going to be superfluous. Yeah. I'll just sort of concede on the midfield there.

What about fullbacks? All right. So fullbacks, I'm bringing Jedi. I'm bringing DEST as my starters because I think, I don't think there's much question that those are the starters. Maybe there is another other parts of the internet. But then for backups, I'm bringing Scali as my backup left back, even though I don't think that's his best position or he'll do much of that. But it's just going to be to have him because I don't think there's anyone else worth

bringing at the moment. And then I'm bringing Brian Reynolds as my backup right back. Okay. Mine is the same except I'm not bringing Scali. Okay. And this is one where I could see, like, you know, we sub-dests a lot in games, right? So I could see even though I'm nominally calling Scali the backup left back. If Dest is coming out after 70, it could be Scali taking over for him, even though Reynolds is going to be there.

Right. I mean, you know, if Jedi gets hurt in the first, like, 15 minutes of the game against Mexico, under my plan where all we have is Jedi Dest and Reynolds, then we, you know, we're in a little bit of trouble, I think. You slide dust over and put Reynolds on. Right, right. Yeah, in a pinch, at least you have Kell and Acosta there in a pinch. I don't even have that. I was going to say remove Acosta and put. bring Scali in or remove sands.

All right, centerbacks. I'm bringing Chris Richards and Miles Robinson. And then I've got Mark McKenzie and Walker Zimmerman backing him up. Okay. And this is where I'm kind of, I think I'd change this after Edgar's tweet because I would have brought more of a rotation from tournament to tournament. But if we're not trying to do a lot of heavy rotation on the rosters, you can definitely bring Miles and Zimmerman to both of these. And again, just be okay taking them from their clubs.

I have the same, except I'm not bringing McKenzie. Okay. So only three centerbacks. Yeah, that should be fine. Again, it's just two games, right? Right. No friendly. And then goalkeeper sort of, it's Matt Turner starting.

I think we agree on that. and then kind of doesn't matter who the other two goalkeepers are, but Johnson and Stefan is who I have. Yeah, that makes sense. Just real quick again on the defenders, Dest and Reynolds both going to be in club situations. Dest, obviously, not having a successful loan right now with A.C. Milan. And there's no reason to think that Barcelona are that interested in bringing him back

to be a full-time player for them. So he's going to have to figure something out. More rumors of him going to Union this morning. So who knows what kind of? More rumors this morning? I mean, just who knows what kind of echo chamber of rumors we're dealing with there. And Reynolds is kind of the same thing. On loan from ASRoma, probably not going to go back in and jump into ASRoma's first team rotation.

But seems to be wanted or seems to be doing well enough that he's getting linked to some bigger names in Belgium. So fingers crossed for that too. So as a result of that, neither of them is going to be on your Gold Cup roster. Yeah, I send them both home after this. And again, that's with the understanding that that would help them land in a better club situation, if they don't need to, I would love to have Sergenio Dest at the Gold Cup. Okay. Yeah, I mean, if Desd does land at Union Berlin, he's, he cannot come to the Gold Cup. He's got to go there and sort things out.

Get a preseason in, right? Like, for me, it's so important for those guys to get that. preseason and not have it be even like delayed where they get a couple weeks off after the gold cup and then jump into their preseason that's already in progress and the other guys are all farther ahead and they're playing catch up like I just don't see the need I don't think the gold cup minutes are worth it especially with anthony hudson being the current coach of the national team right but we do need to get him a good job after this like that's important Hudson yeah just yeah we definitely do he's going to be our Olympic coach he'll just take the

Olympic team. Well, the thing about Serge is, I think it's especially true for him that he, that he, it'd serve him well to get a good preseason in because you have to imagine at this point, you know, he sort of fell out of favor in Barcelona, now fell out of favor in A.C. Milan, he's not, he's not even on the game day roster. I know we've, I know we've covered this before, but it's just worth repeating. He's not even available for selection. They're just, they're just eating whatever cost he is to the club. to have him in a closet somewhere. Yeah, to have him have access to the wait room.

Yeah, he's not coming in hot to wherever he's going next. So he's definitely not going to like. You have to imagine that there's some, on some level, he has a reputation for being mercurial. I don't know. I don't know what the word, what the correct word is. But like to go in and get a full preseason in and like show you're serious

and get off to a running start in the Bundesliga seems like it'd be really necessary for him. More so than almost anybody. in our pool. Right. And at least that's where I'm coming from. Again, there is no perfect, there is no perfect setup here with these tournaments and all of the different variables.

So it's really, it's just going to be like, do your best for each guy. And then with whatever you can put together the best team you can to beat Mexico and humble Canada. Yep. If they can get past Panama. All right.

Let's do the goal cup roster then. So that starts right at the end of June. and I guess I'm more interested in yours because now at this point my mine are pretty messy I have like a little rotated one and then a heavily rotated one neither is going to be even close I don't think okay well I've got I've got sergeant coming to the gold cup and him being you know unless unless he really drops the ball here basically being the striker for it so uh whoever your other striker is going to be whether that's Pfok whether it's uh Jesus Ferreira or Brandon Vosquez. I don't really care. Pick one of those names out of a hat. But Sergeant should be the guy here. And he gets the slog group stage and he gets the knockouts and you try to see if you can build around him.

Yeah. See if he can build some confidence scoring goals against Nicaragua. I'm not sure he needs to build confidence. He's scored 13 goals in the championship this season. No, I just want to see him connect in a way that he didn't get to in the World Cup because those were tough. tough games, tough opponents, and he hadn't had a ton of reps with that, with those groups, with the personnel that we were playing with. So now I'd be like, all right, let's really see him run here.

Okay, so you've got Sergeant and then just pick a name out of the hat, basically. Yeah, that's where I'm at. But not Peppy and not Haji. If those guys, again, if those guys can settle their club business ahead of time or are already mostly the way there with something, then sure, bring one of them. But I just feel like give them more flexibility to get everything lined up. And again, being able to go through a preseason with their new club, I think, will matter. So I lean towards, I lean towards sending them back to Europe after Nations League.

Okay. So who is your, who are your medium-rotated wingers? Medium-rotated wingers. Brenda gets to stay from Nation's League because I don't think he's in any kind of a questionable situation at Leads. The only question is what league they're playing in. and then I think you can bring Wea back. I don't know that he's, I mean,

you hear rumors about him moving, but I also don't know. There's just something about Tim Wea that seems like he doesn't need like a mental break. He's just like, yeah, let's play. Let's do it. Let's go.

Let's go. When he's on vacation in the U.S., he just jumps into street games. Yeah. He just text him and he's suddenly playing in a pickup soccer game in New York. So I feel like those two guys can stick around and play. Okay. So Aronson and way are back.

And then, but you're letting Poulosick because I guess Poulisic has some club stuff to sort out. Yeah. You know, you see people saying these guys don't need breaks because they're not playing. And I agree that like physically Poulosick, I'm sure, is fine. But I just think mentally he needs a break. And again, I'm hoping he gets out of Chelsea and has a new club to play for this fall. Okay. Do you want J-Moh there for the Gold Cup?

I think he's a good body to bring in. So I've got Morris. And then I'm throwing in Georgie Mihailovich. sort of one of those tucked in players. I think he and Brenda could do a similar job from the left side. Okay. So we got Jamo, Aronson, Mahalovich, and Wea as your wingers. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What are you bringing to this? Well, I don't know. Let's see. I mean, what I initially had was just very experimental, you know. Aronson. I don't mind. I was fine with Aronson being in both camps. just as you are.

And then Sendejas and Brian Gutierrez just to stick it to the Chicago Fire for now and then the U-20 World Cup. And then Paul Aureola. Yeah, I've got Aureola as a body if any of these guys need to bail. I think I have Zendaihas as being injured. We didn't go over the injuries,

but Zendayaas is doing some kind of a nose reconstruction surgery. That's too bad. What happened is the season? He broke it in a game and he's playing through. He just played through the season and they've got like their little playoff coming up and he's playing. And then after that, he's going to have it treated.

So I'm assuming he won't be available for these tournaments. Okay. All right. Yeah. So maybe Cowell, you know, if you want to go really experimental, bring him, bring him in for the Gold Cup. He was good in that January camp game. Yeah. And you'll get a few games worth of information from that U20 World Cup.

Do you think Booth is Booth in your sort of, they have to sort some things out in preseason group? If he's moving teams, I'd rather that. But again, like, if he's here, I'm not going to be sad that we have, because he'll get way more minutes in the Gold Cup than he will be available for him in Nations League. So I would, I would be excited as a U.S. fan to see it. I just would worry that there's going to be a, you know, payoff on the other end where, you know, he was slow to get in at Eutrecht when he moved over there.

Like, it was not, he wasn't, he didn't go in clicking. Like, it took a few months. Right. And we have some months to play with, but sometimes those months turn into a whole season. And then you're like, well, that was a bust. Yeah. So I just want to give them the best chance at success. And I'd rather trade their Gold Cup participation for that if it, if it would matter.

It's hard to know if it'll matter. Right. Okay. Well, I like the, I like the sergeant and then whoever, you know, whoever you like as a striker. Because it would be fun to see Sergeant get that sort of consistent. stretch of games against, you know, varying levels of competition. Yeah. And the note, the striker note is D.K. also injured.

So. For a long time. He's on the shelf for half a year, at least, yeah. We should also mention Tim Riem is injured, broke his arm against Man City, and Cameron Carter Vickers is out for at least a little while. I don't know. Is he going to be out so long that he can't be in the Gold Cup? I'm assuming yes.

I don't, I don't envision them rushing him back from, his knee injury to play in the Gold Cup. So I've got him ruled out. That's why otherwise he'd be at the Nations League too. I had it as Sergeant and Pepe just playing in Nations League

and then not being involved in Gold Cup. So I had Vasquez and Ibobesi as my strikers. I love it. That was pre-Edgar tweet. Yeah, pre-Eager tweet. All right. And again, Balagin's the big, the big, would be the big announcement.

That would be a big, deal than any trophy we would win in the summer turn on notifications for edgar's tweets to find out what happens with balligan uh all right so your midfield because i know you've got your your six midfielers whereas i kind of have four and and mainly just attacking players i yeah i have so i have five actually oh all right we yeah we have to go light in these because it's 23 man rosters instead of 26 like yeah what a what a world do they have to cut cut it all the way down to 23. So I've got, again, very experimental.

I got Sonora, Sonora. People made fun of me for calling him Senora. And then Pomacall, Parks, Sands, and Cardoso. It's a really, I mean, it's a could be a midfield that gets run over. It doesn't seem like a group that gets run over. You know, you think about who he played. in the 2021 gold cup and there was a lot of busio and accostin legit so those guys those guys don't strike me as obviously worse than that 2021 midfield yeah that's true and and if aidan morse

doesn't get into the um nation's league roster which he can kind of imagine he won't then i'd like to see him in the gold cup uh i feel like you do owe all of us an explanation as to how Tim Tillman can't make your experimental gold cup midfield? I forgot about him, honestly. All right, that's fair. So my experimental gold cup midfield was just going to be Los Angeles FC's midfield. I think that would be hilarious to just run out Ili, Acosta, and Tim Tillman. That's already starting midfielder's.

I think that is the best thing you could possibly do with this tournament. That'd be fun. It'd be like trolling all of Concorda. but that was pre-Edgar tweet as well. If we're keeping more guys the same, then I think we're going to, I would like to keep Raina's at my attacking mid and just get him more time.

And let's see if he can really clown some people in games like this. I'm bringing Gooty, so I've got Goody in this group too, since he can't play in the U-20s. Because I think he could be an attacking mid, right? He would be okay in that role. Yeah, I think people, you know, he's, he's playing quite well right now. And if he's not, I still have Brenda and Georgie who could kind of cycle through.

We have all those sort of in between guys. So Goody could play in more of an attacking three and Brenda could back up Raina or Georgia could back up Raina as an attacker in the midfield. And then my actual midfielder would be Luca doing double duty. I've got Tim Tillman here, even if we aren't going to bring Los Angeles's old team. And I am refusing to budge on my Keaton Parks. Sobock, so he's on here as well. and then James Sands.

So it's more New York cities than L.A.'s, even though L.A. is probably the better midfield. Okay. Yeah. No, Ritchie Ladezma for you? No, Ledezma. Oh, that would be fun. So we could do that.

We could do the full L.A. starters and then the full New York City for backup. There's honestly no better way of doing it. So I would be willing to give up Gio Rana minutes. Now, just bring Rana instead of Jordan Morris or instead of Georgie and do that full Los Angeles, New York City midfield. Yeah, let's go. Just let them solve their, like, let those clubs solve their remaining season issues without them. Is it even the league, is it even like league games or is it the ridiculous crossover with Mexico?

I don't know, man. It'll be, yeah, I mean, the most exciting part about the Gold Cup roster discussion so far for me has been the prospect of Giorana passing the ball to Josh Sergeant. And then Sergeant scoring goals. I'd love it. I would love to see that happen with Tim Wea making the dummy runs for them. Wait, is Wayas in your goal? Oh, yeah. You got Wea in all the comps.

Yeah. All right, let's go to fullbacks. I'm very curious who yours are. So Scali can stay around and he'll actually play right back now in this tournament since I just kind of have him as a backup either fullback in Nations League. Now he gets to play because I'm sending Dest to Europe to debut as this club and I'm giving Jedi the summer off because Come on, like that guy needs to just rest at some point, doesn't he?

Yeah. He needs to work on some magic tricks. So let, let, he doesn't seem like he really needs to rest, but you, but, you know, he does need to rest. Yeah, I just feel like, as he, like knowing that he is, in fact, a human being. Like, you got to give him a fine two weeks somewhere on the calendar to give him a break. I'm getting experimental here, though. So since we're sending Dest and Reynolds home, I'm going to go with Scali and Fossi. Marlon Fosse, just because what are these tournaments for, if not for a little bit of fun?

Yeah. I don't know. It's a reach, but like who, no one else is blowing your socks off to be like, oh, we got to have Shackmore there. No, yeah, I mean, more would be my option. If it's Fossy instead of more, I'm not going to complain one bit. Yeah. I mean, Fossi was kind of in the role. Moore would have been in the last Gold Cup where it was like, oh, Shack, like, that kind of came out of nowhere.

The Shackmore call up for the Gold Cup. It is kind of crazy that Jack Moore got to play in the World Cup It's amazing, dude It's all because of my propaganda It's all because of my rhetoric Hey, like I feel like you're shortchanging me Because I was still

I was still like checking him out In the Segunda every week No, you were To see where he was crossing the ball at Yeah, you were You're his most faithful friend But I was the one saying that I would take him over Scali Oh yeah, that's summertime

And then you got your wish You got that to actually play out And then Scali decided that the tactics were too complicated. This is perfect for Scali to play in the Gold Cup, you know, because he, you know, he has earned, well, I don't know what he's earned, but he is a regular starter in the Bundesliga. That is definitely something.

Well, he can play that little, like, stay home right back and just be a solid defender as he's needed to defend. And we can, you know, if we have that attacking mid set up, then you get to keep Tim Wea out wide on the sideline and Geo Raina can move into the half space and Scali doesn't have as much. attacking responsibility. Sounds pretty complicated. It can work.

It's a lot of rotations that he's going to have to deal with each time. I need it to be easier. The left side, though, gets really weird if you send Jedi home, right? And you don't have scally or desk to go do that. I mean, not weird, but just like, we don't have, there's nobody left. Yeah. So there's the kid playing for Pachuca, Esai'se's, right? Yeah, that's the exciting option.

Yeah. He's Olympic eligible, so I say bring him in, and then I'm going the other extreme age-wise, and I'm bringing in, Hollingshead is finally going to get his cap, too. Okay. I thought you're going to say Timmy Chandler. Oh, that'd be something. That would be something special. Timmy Chandler, player, coach.

Yeah, bring him in as a mentor. More of like a- Take that in heartbeat, too. It's the Gold Cup, like more of those kinds of things. Please, the entire L-AFC midfield, backed up by the entire New York City midfield. His record as a mentor, too. is more of as like an advocate, right? Like, don't play hard in the Gold Cup because...

Easy here, guys. Take it easy out here. Yeah, take it easy. Yeah. He's like an agent. I think he's basically in a mentor role for Frankfurt. I feel like they've basically signed him as a player coach. Okay.

So you're bringing Assayas, though? Yeah, I'll bring Assayas in Hollingshead. Okay. I watched some Isais last night when, went a little deep on him. He is quite comfortable with the ball at his feet and good at combining. And also pretty good in the air. He can deputize as a centerback if need be.

He's not short. He's kind of tall. He does lack foot speed a little bit, I would say. What's your impression of him? I have barely watched him. So it's just knowing that he's an Olympic eligible left back. And that's all you need to be to get a crash. for the U.S. at this point.

Well, he played, uh, he started against San Luis a couple weeks ago and had this like lovely, I put the clip in the discord, but it's this lovely like move where he played a one two, then played another one two and then, uh, put a defendant, put a desperate defender on the ground with a touch from his left foot to his right foot. And then he had a right footed shot from just, just left of the penalty marker and drew like a very good kick save from the goalkeeper. It's lovely. There we go.

But then you see, like, they play the ball in behind him and he's not catching up. He's not going to catch up to a fast winger. Okay. So is that concerning for us, son? It's a little concerning for me. Yeah. Okay. So just a quick note on this, since we'll get a little bit of, you know, crossover matches between MLS and League.

I'm actually, it's after the Gold Cup. So the Gold Cup final is July 16th. Just, again, calendar note, most of the big European club. begin their seasons August 11th that weekend. So that means their pre-season will be will probably butt up right against the gold cup. So if you're doing Gold Cup, you're not going to get a ton of time off between your European club season. If you play for Pachuca, you're going to do the Gold Cup and then get right into this League of MECD's MLS crossover. Okay.

Well, I'll say I'll take Paredes and vines if Kevin Paredes is healthy. and I mean, particularly if he does, if he's not healthy enough to go to the U-20 World Cup, bring him in as a left back for the Gold Cup, his club situation isn't really in doubt, right? I guess he needs a good preseason to, to solidify a spot with the squad, but he plays almost every game. He's healthy for Wolfsburg. Yeah. Yep. He seems like they're taking good care of, they're building him up.

I don't just mean from an injury, just as a young player, they're building him up into a real solid pro. Yeah, did I say Paredes and Vines? Yeah, you're going. I meant Paredes and Isais. Okay. Okay, good. No, Vines hasn't been, Vines is back. He made the bench one or two times.

Yeah, no Vines. And then he hasn't been making their squad last few matches. So not sure if it's just he hasn't fully recovered from his injury or if, like, he just can't quite get to the level again. Antwerps right on the heels of Gank for the Champions League spot. All right. So who are your centerbacks? I'm still bringing Richards, Miles, and Zim.

They're all going to be at both tournaments. I'm sending McKenzie back, hopefully, to go do his Champions League qualifiers, because I think they go to the qualifying round. I'll have to double check that. So he might, he's got to get ready for that. And then I'm bringing Brooks in for the Gold Cup. Same. You know, Brooks.

Get in there. I'm also bringing Brooks. I have McKenzie, Neil, and Palmer Brown as my centerbacks. All right. I mean, Palmer Brown. If Richards is available and it's not going to hurt him with Crystal Palace, definitely bring him instead of Palmer Brown. Yeah, Richards could be one that needs to be it as preseason two because hopefully Palace sell off one of theirs. And so he might need those preseason reps if he's going to be, you know, the new installed starter.

So I can definitely see that. And that would be more important for me than any Gold Cup minutes. Okay. Yeah. But if that happens, I'll just bring trusty into replace him. You like trustee? I mean, I think he'd be fine. He seems like, again, a solid pro.

I feel like he's less prone to disaster than Eric Palmer Brown, who when I watch him, is very disaster prone. Okay. And then the goalkeepers basically the same? I mean, not Turner, though, right? Well, if Turner, if Turner's okay staying, I'd say just play Turner. Like, he's so far above everyone else that I'm totally fine just giving him all the minutes, especially because I think that gives us the best chance of beating Mexico and the Gold Cup and humbling Canada, should we get to play those teams. And that's my second priority.

After taking care of each player over the medium term and what's best for each individual player, second priority is beating Canada and Mexico, just humbling them a little bit more. Yep. Canada especially needs a humbling. But yeah, who are your goalkeepers? I just don't think we have to see Horvath or Johnson or Stefan or. Drake, Collander, like, or, you know, it's, it's Turner's job. None of them are at his level, so just keep playing him. Well, if Turner gets loaned or something, you know, something happens to Ramsdale,

and he, you know, he has a shot at getting that starting job at Arsenal. You know, I'm not wishing for anything to happen to Ramsdale. I'm just saying it's possible. Yeah. Then he should go back, but. Yeah, and I guess it's not. of the realm of possibility that Turner can just maybe straight up beat Ramsdale in a preseason competition.

That seems unlikely, but it's not impossible. Right. He has improved a lot since he went to Arsenal, too. It feels like to me, like, I don't, not his shot stopping, but like with his feet and so forth, it seems like he's gotten better. Okay. Send Turner back. Let him win the job. Let Turner win the job.

Okay. Turn is going to go win that job. Yeah, play Drake Collander for the Gold Cup. Okay. Maybe Chris Brady. I don't know. But yeah, you're right. We don't really need to see Johnson or Stefan.

You know, if it turns out that it's Johnson, I'm going to be fine with that. Thank you for your service, Sean Johnson. Yeah, knowing that when the games matter, Matt Turner is going to be between the pipes. Yep. A lot of soccer coming up, man. How are we going to manage it all? Oh, man. It's going to be fun.

It's going to be a blast. The Discord is going to be buzzing. Yep. Well, if you want to join the Discord and you want to support this ad-free podcast such as it is, join us on the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. Anything else, Greg? No, we're good to go. Okay. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.