Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #389: U20 World Cup — USA v Fiji

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

Two wins in two tries. A weak opponent, but a bit of a challenge to get that first goal. Marcus Chairez, the man behind the US Soccer Collective, joins Belz to recap the action from a 3-0 victory in Argentina.Find Marcus on Twitter: https://twitter.com/chai_ascAnd here's the website where he publishes a lot of articles about elite younger soccer players: https://www.ussoccercollective.com/----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. The U.S. U20s beat Fiji 3 to 0 on Tuesday, their second win of the group stage at the U20 World Cup. They're all but assured of some kind of advancement at the U20 World Cup. It was an odd game. Fiji was dramatically overmatched and bunkered completely. They barely got out of their half all game, but the U.S. couldn't get the breakthrough until the 66th minute. Here to break it down with me is Marcus Cherez, the man behind the U.S. Soccer Collective, which specializes in tracking elite youth soccer prospects.

Marcus, thank you for being here, and how are you doing? Thanks, Bells. I'm great. Happy to be here and doing all right. No complaints. Good. How are things in California? I'm in Santa Barbara right now, and for those that haven't been here, it's kind of a

paradise of a place. Definitely a place I'd live if I could. Right. Yeah, I mean, I live in Sonoma, so I'm not complaining either. It's not too bad there either, is it? Yeah. Yeah, California's great. All right, well, let's, maybe any high-level thoughts before we get into the lineups?

What are we taken away from this game? I mean, not a lot, right? And I don't think we expected to have a lot of insight into this game, though. I do think there are some things, maybe some players that we, that are sort of materializing as, like, probably the guys we're going to have to lean on to create chances as we go through the tournament. Yeah. So we can talk a little bit about that. I think the game sort of went as expected.

The run of play was obviously very much dominated by the United States. As you said, it took a while to break through, probably longer than everyone was comfortable with. But it happened. And yeah, so I think, like, what you take away is that the team did what they were supposed to do. That's kind of been, I think, an underlying theme under Mikey Vares as the team generally performs the way you are expecting them to perform. They show up. And I think that was just another instance of,

this game was another instance of that story. Yep. I agree. The lineup was, for the U.S. was Gagas Lenina in goal. Michael Halliday, Marcus Fercranis, Brandon Craig, and Jonathan Gomez across the back line. So we played a 433. We played a 343 against Ecuador,

which was a little bit of a surprise, I thought. But for Fiji, we went back to our more traditional 433. Edelman at the 6, McGlynn, Jack McGlynn, and Owen Wolf as the other midfielders. And then front line of Quinn Sullivan, from right to left, Quinn Sullivan, Darren Yappie, and Cade Cowell. What did you make of the lineup?

Yeah, so we rotated, I think, five guys. So Edelman for Kranes, Holiday, Yappy, and Cowell get their first starts. Cowell's back from suspension. I think everybody's playing in what are typically their natural positions, so you don't really have any guys that are, you know, like Jogo playing on the right or, you know, Luna playing false nine in the first game. So everybody's kind of playing in their natural positions, which I think in a game that should be like take care of business,

I think everything made sense. Yeah. Yeah, it was, I mean, you and I didn't really get to talk after the Ecuador game, but it was, man, what a surprise to see Jogo playing right wingback in that game. I mean, obviously it paid off ultimately, but did not expect that. Yeah, in general, I thought a lot of what Mikey did was surprising and more or less worked out. And, you know, he's been pretty consistent with shape

and with tactics and personnel deployment. And so it was interesting to see a pretty big wrinkle in that first game. I was certainly caught off guard, but continue to be pretty impressed by him. But, yeah, back to a little bit more of the normal in this one. Yeah. By the way, it looks like Ecuador is a half. of Slovakia in the 69th minute.

We'll update you on that by the time we finish recording. So, you know, to win the group, we would have to beat Slovakia if Ecuador wins. Or, I mean, you know, some or some very complicated thing, I suppose. Let's see. So Fiji came out in, I think it was a 433. It didn't really matter. it was essentially like a six, four

because they were in their box the whole time. But, um, uh, Mustahib and goal, who played pretty well, I thought. A backline of Rahim, Ravai, Vasconcellos, and Kubu, and a midfield

three of Bin Ayas, I think, at the six, and then, uh, beg and done as the other midfield is in a front three of Securi, Ali, and Khan. It's all pretty academic because, as I said, they bunkered as much as you possibly can. And understandably so, they're not a good team, not a strong team. Even playing out of the back against our pressure was pretty difficult for them.

So, yeah, that was Fiji's setup. Yeah, it was basically just looked like a giant rectangle in their own third for the most of it. Did you feel like we got a little impatient? I mean, sometimes the diagonal ball from McGlynn was dangerous. Actually, often it was dangerous. But did it feel to you like we kind of got away from the sort of patient probing that I think we're capable of at some points in this game? I don't know.

It sort of looked intentional to me at the beginning. It seemed like maybe they saw something in the Slovakia game where if there was a weak spot there where they could play that diagonal kind of the side edge of the box and then kind of shift the defense over and then play a quick. I think what they were trying to do is then play a quick like cut back or ball back across to off balance Fiji. So I guess to me it looked, it looked fairly intentional and maybe not a product of impatience at the beginning.

I agree with that. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. But they definitely started more with the like pistoning and probing, getting more into like central dangerous spots, kind of like, maybe like 60 minutes plus in the second half. So it is strange that they didn't start with that because, you know, that's generally where you're going to create the bigger chances.

But yeah, it looked intentional and I think it looked like it was working for, you know, a good amount of the time. Yeah, I mean, Yappy had a couple good chances in the box. Quinn Sullivan had a good chance. I mean, none of them should be ashamed of the way they hit the ball in those chances, but we certainly got our chances from the ball over the top. Yep. Let's go to the timeline.

It's immediately we hit a long ball. Slanina comes up almost to midfield and hits a long ball to yappy. He flicks it to Cowl, and Cowell wins a corner. So we went right at him. Yep. and saw early on that it was going to be Fiji in a low block. The solution was either, like we were just talking about, either McGlynn or Greg hitting a diagonal, sorry, Craig,

hitting diagonals to the other side, whichever side they weren't on. 645 mark, I clocked a nice slip pass from McGlynn to Cowell, and Cowell hits a left-footed ball across that finds nobody, partly because Yapp, you know, Yappy was running near, post and then that was really nobody making that second run behind him. Yeah, I thought there, I thought Wolf could have been more decisive in

showing, you know, being a little bit more of a apparent option for Cal as the cutback. Yeah. I don't think Cal cut it back quite as much as he wanted to because it found a, you know,

Fiji defender, but I think Wolf could have helped him there a little bit by making maybe a little bit of a harder run, you know, where Yappy had just left. So I thought that was a small detail, but like something I noted that, you know, Wolf could have been a little bit more precise there. Yeah, I didn't notice that specifically about Wolf, so I'm glad you mentioned it. But it's, it was a bit of an issue throughout the first half. our box, who else was there to arrive in the box besides Yappy, you know? Especially if Cal was the one providing service, there was nobody, really.

Yeah, generally I find this to be a consistent issue up and down, kind of like, from the youth up to the senior team. It just feels like, or it seems to me that we haven't really mastered that, like, that pattern of, like, one, getting the cut back right in terms of, like, where it needs to be and then that second run that's that's kind of like replacing the the striker going near post i think i don't know it just seems like a sequence we get wrong a lot yeah doesn't materialize because you want yappy making that near post run to create the space for the second run but you need this you need the second run to make it work um mcglin was dropping dimes on the back post or you know on the into the box throughout the game over the back line many different ways. At the 945 mark, he hits a nice ball to Yappy, who thrashes it across the face of the goal

on a volley just wide, but he was offside anyway. Yeah. I mean, something that's sort of materializing with Yappy and it's even, it was happening early when he was getting a lot of minutes on MLS is he's got a ton of tools. Like you watch him and, you know, he's got good feet and he connects pretty well and he's got ability to find teammates and he even has a little bit of dribbling ability. I think he's got a lot of interesting tools as a striker, but he's kind of never really been a ruthless finisher, even at like the youth levels or like in the academy levels. And so it's a little bit of a narrative I'm starting to notice that, you know, he just, he gets in good spots.

He's very useful, but he just seems. to be struggling to put the ball in the back of the net right now, and that's kind of been carrying over from MLS to now. I mean, he's getting in great spots. I think he played well. He just, you know, sometimes... Got to finish. You've got to finish.

You're number nine. Yeah. You know, hopefully that's variance. I mean, maybe it's not. Who knows? But hopefully it's variance because the getting in good spots is the toughest part, really. Yeah. I don't know, because of the weakness of the opponent and because we got so many chances in this game,

I don't know that we're going to talk about all of them. I mean, there's Craig tried one. We were trying all kinds of things. Craig tried one from about 30 yards, skyed it. We won one in the counterpress in the 14th minute Edelman did, sends it over to Sullivan on the right side. He takes a good rip from 20 that goes over the bar, hit it with a lot of venom. There's a nice one in the 15th minute where Wolf wins it in the press directly to Yappy. And I'm curious what you thought of this play because Yappy and Cal are 2V1 with loan center back going into the box.

Yappy plays just a simple little pass over to Cowell who lets it run across his body and then tries a left footage shot from a difficult angle that looks, look like it went over and wide to me. And some people were saying, well, yeah, you should have taken that shot himself. I don't agree. I thought it was a good decision to pass it. What did you think? Yeah, I agree. And I think I know we're talking a lot about, you know, on various, on the Monday review and stuff,

you're talking about like, you know, it's the final third stuff where we're just a little bit off. And I think this is an example of just like why it's so difficult, I think. It's like everything's, you know, in large part has to be inch. perfect and I think in this case Yappy made the right decision I thought like he had a he had a defender kind of right in his path

I think he just I thought the past was just a little bit off like it it sort of forced Cal to let it slide onto his left foot whereas like Cal being a right footed player I would have preferred the ball to like

find like the outside of his right foot where he could just take a little touch and then you know play to the, you know, strike it to the far post. Yeah, which he loves to do. Yeah. Yeah, which like, that's his bread and butter. We see that later in the game.

But it just, I think puts Cal in a higher percentage chance to get a goal there rather than, you know, weak foot with a weak, you know, worse angle. So I think just a little detail there that, you know, maybe a different pass puts Cal in a better position. Yeah, I have to. watch it at point 25x or something just to really be sure what I think about it. But I thought Cal could have stepped into it and taken it with his right outside of his right foot. But then he would have been, you know, he would have been, he would have had the keeper, I mean, not the keeper, the centerback to his right. So he wouldn't have been able to cut in on him. He would have just had to,

you know, I don't know, hit it, hit it with his laces right at the, like right at the goal. Anyway, didn't result in a goal. Reasonable people can disagree about. about the how that all played out there's a he has a rip Cal has a rip that's pretty decent from the right side of the box um it's pretty decent and saved yeah i mean Cal was racking up chances um kind of did throughout the game uh he uh glad he got a goal because he had a you know then he we'll talk about later i think he hit the post a bunch of times and so yeah he was he was dangerous all game. I think generally still for whatever reason kind of always looks a little clumsy when we're playing. I mean, definitely an issue that he has generally. He's not always

the most crisp attacker one-on-one, but sometimes I feel like he looks better when he's playing higher competition defensively. And he gets into these games and it happened in the Concaf qualifiers where he just kind of, I don't know if he's like, overthinking how he's going to beat his defender, but he just looks a little clumsy. And that did happen throughout the game. And it happened in Concaf qualifiers, too. But he did get, again, he got in great spots. He had a lot of good, he strikes the ball super well.

But, yeah, this is. He sure does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the number of clumsy moments in the first half from him is there were several. And you're right, it's a lot of like when we're trying to build with him or he's trying to connect with other with teammates he really isn't sharp or wasn't sharp in those situations but then of course like around the goal he is a little bit seems like he's a little bit sharper which is kind of a

paradox um Sullivan so Quinn Sullivan who I don't think has had a great tournament so far at least not a standout one he did have a nice have a nice moment right at the 18 minute mark he dribbled four guys and got fouled 25 yards from goal McGlynn hit a decent free kick that I think was comfortably saved. And let's see. What have you made of Sullivan so far? What did you make of him before the tournament? Has your opinion of him changed?

Not really. I think Hartman hit it pretty well where he's just like a tough player to know where to play. I mean, I think he's probably best suited for like a two-striker system that Philly does play typically, but isn't like super common, you know, across, you know, clubs globally. So he's not really a winger

because he's not a guy that's going to cook people one-on-one, but he can put in a good cross. He does have some good striker instincts, and he also strikes the ball well. He's sort of like a weird physical profile, too. He's, like, not super tall, but he's not, you know, smart. Yeah, he's not, like, explosive but he's not like

unuseful athletically so he's just he's a tough one to project and I think it's kind of that's kind of showing up in this tournament it's just like I think it he's having a hard time figuring out where he can like

be most impactful and I I'm guessing he's probably not going to start against Slovakian it'll be interesting to see how the front three operates without him because it did, I think, start to look a bit better in the second half when he wasn't on. Yeah.

I mean, you'd think if Paredes is going to come in and play right wing, that's a immediate solution for what's going on there. Right after that, McGlynn free kick was saved, Friannis ends up on the ball and swings it far post, and Wolf lays it off. I also think Wolf hasn't really stood out yet this tournament, but he laid it off real nicely for Sullivan to take it first time and he he just thrashes it wide of the post a really nice sequence kind of I probably the way Mikey would like have drawn it up yeah it was pretty yeah wolf I mean I still think he's probably not the game the sort of like game situations or

roles he's been in like this was a more uh this was a more attacking midfielder role yeah I mean, I think this role was probably better for him, but the game just being in the final third the whole time is probably not where he's most effective. So I think if you get him in more of a midfield role where we're playing someone who's going to be pressing us or applying more pressure, I think that's where we'll probably see the best from Wolf

is where he can use his kind of feel and technical ability on the ball, his passing to like, you know, be press-resistant. I think is probably his strength. So I just don't think we've seen the situation where he's best suited to show his strengths. But I agree, he hasn't been super impactful so far. So maybe a stronger opponent is really what he needs,

just like, like Cade, sort of. Yeah, or just like if he was playing the role that Obed was playing against Ecuador, I think we probably would have saw a similar game, you know, from Wolf. But he was playing as a half-space member. merchant, which really isn't where he's strongest. Yeah, it makes sense.

Makes sense. Okay, 31st minute, a nice ball from Halliday, sort of clipped over into the channel. So down the channel for Yappy, he runs onto it, cuts it in a little reverse pass for Sullivan. And Sullivan does have Cal at the far post. I was thinking maybe he takes it first time. He can get it across there, but he tries to dribble to the end line and gets and then cross it and his cross is blocked out for a corner. Yeah, I mean, another great sequence.

Holiday was pretty quiet. He didn't have much to do. Right. One of his nicer moments. And then, yeah, this is another one where you just see a little bit of that skill from Yappy, too, that gets me excited about him as a striker. But, yeah, just another one where the threat was there just didn't happen. And we've, there's been a lot of other chances we haven't talked about.

Chances piled up towards the end of the first half. Yappy had a shot on a poor touch from a Fiji defender. Quinn got the ball in the box and kind of like just sort of tamely lifted it at the keeper. Yeah, I mean, at this point, I think our best chances are coming from creating turnovers. Yes. and capitalizing off of Fiji's mistakes, which is mainly how Slovakia got their goals against Fiji. I think Fiji made more severe mistakes against them.

They cleaned it up a little bit against the United States. And then, yeah, the diagonal balls to kind of the far side of the box. Those were kind of the two ways we were creating chances at this point. The turnovers were probably creating a little bit better chances because there was more space. Yeah. That one we discussed where Yappy passed it to Cal and Cal let it run across his body. That was a really bad giveaway by Fiji. And we should have punished that, I think I can safely say.

Yes. They got their first shot, what, in the 38th minute, Fiji did? Yeah, I think it was a shot. It, like, kind of defy, I mean, which I guess leads to the quality of the chance. It sort of deflected off its own, their own teammate as we put kind of, I don't remember what player it was, but. Was it a bike? Was it a bicycle kick? No, that came like, I think pretty soon after.

This was more like someone just, you know, set a prayer and took a chance like 30 yards out. And I think it deflected off of his own teammate. There was a last thing from the first half is in the 40th minute. There was a great sequence from a sequence from Edelman. wolf to work the ball into the area and then Edelman plays it to Cowell who kind of cuts across the top of the back box and plays just a simple little pass on the ground to Yappy and I thought this was another example of Yappy doing something pretty good like to just to he's got he's like standing up two defenders he's able to get the ball out of his feet you know take take a touch to his

right and and hit a good shot that is just wide of the far post yeah yeah another yeah just this is the kind of stuff from Yappi where you're like, you know, a lot of tools in the tool belt, he can put it together. He's got really good feet. He just like, we saw that. And I think the last game with the, you know, the stepover that he blew by a defender and just took a little bit too heavy of a touch. But he's got good feet.

He knows how to get the ball, you know, onto his shooting foot. And I think hopefully the finishing just comes. Yeah. Patrick Incoming versus Slovakia. I mean, do you think he'll start in the next game? I'd like to see it. I just think it's, I think that Luna's false-nining worked better, but it was like, you know, in the late stages of a game

where the opponent was just worn and beat down and probably mentally exhausted from defending in their own penalty box all game. So I'm I still think that the offense operates a bit better with a more traditional nine And so I'd like to see Yappy Start and I'd like to see Luna start on the wing Which we haven't seen yet because I think he's the one guy who's been effective in somewhat effective in like Like unbalancing the defense with the ball at his feet so

it's something we haven't seen yet. So I would be interested to see a front three of Cal, Yapie, and Luna in the next game. Yeah, I think that's what I would like to see too. Because it seems like we have enough midfielders to keep Luna out of there, you know? Yeah. All right, at the half, Varus replaces Wolf and Sullivan

with Shakiris and Luna. Now, Shakiris, of course, coming off an injury for the last few months in San Jose. He got his first MLS minutes last week, I believe. And then Luna comes on for Sullivan. And they made a pretty big impact. I think Shakiris is getting, you can see that he's still rusty,

but maybe starting to shake off the rust. And really a protagonist in that final third in a way that I don't think Wolf was, you know? Yeah. This is a game you want. Shakir's in and I agree he was a little hit or miss a little rusty but you could see he's just he's one of the few guys I think on this team that just knows how to find and create space in the final third and he's just got really good tempo he you know he's he moves well after he passes he's really good at the kind of give and go or one two situation so I think when you you saw the sort of like

the all rondo team in with him luna and mcglin and you can see how that like started to open things up because they're just so comfortable in those situations yeah yeah unfortunately fiji nearly scores in the i mean nearly scores may be a little dramatic of me to say but they're they have their only real spell of pressure in the whole game right after the kickoff in the second half uh there's a there's you know they kick it long and it was sort of it's sort of pinging around in our defensive third, and then they have a long throw that gets headed out for a corner. And on the corner, Brandon Craig's header, you know, he's under duress. He's getting jostled while he heads it, and he's trying to flick it backwards off his head.

It doesn't get out of the box, and it gets volleyed on frame. The player for Fiji Hu volleyed it, I don't know which one it was. But Slinina pushes it away. It's definitely on frame. Slinina dives down to his left. left pushes it away. And then it comes back into the box and gets headed wide by a Fiji attacker for a goal kick, I think by the same guy who volleyed it earlier.

That was it. That was it for Fiji pressure, really, in the game. Yeah, that was their big chance. Yeah, you know, there's not really much data on Gaga so far. He hasn't had much to do in the first two games, but I'd say he hasn't been. the most convincing in the, you know, some of the times he's been pressured on the ball or even this one, like, wasn't hit with a ton of venom. There was some spin on it, but it seemed like a ball that he could catch. A keeper with real strong, confident hands would just kind of snatch up.

But, you know, he's playing it safe, which I get. So I'm not, I'm not ringing the alarm bells by any means I'm just, it's a note that, which happens, I think, when you don't have a lot to do, and then something, all of a sudden something happens and it's the life of a goalkeeper. But, you know, just something I'm keeping an eye on is, you know, in a game where we need him to come up big, is he going to like to see him be a little bit more confident in what he's doing? Yeah, I feel like he's almost like so inactive back there, particularly in the, this game although he didn't have a lot to do in the ecuador game either if we're honest that he's just like doing weird stuff for fun you know i don't know yeah i agree like his body

language has been a little odd even when he's like you know collecting a long ball or something yeah um all right we're getting close to the goals so have no fear mcglin plays a nice through ball to yappie which gets poked away he's again just off off side. Luna gets a strike, a left-footed strike that deflects out of bounds after being fed by Shakiris. Those two, like we were talking about, bringing

that sort of probing all-rondo aspect to our attack. And I like it, even if Shakuris does seem a little bit off still. Cowell cuts, Yappy flicks a long ball over to Cowell in the 52nd

minute, and he, you know what he's doing from the moment the ball comes to his feet. He cuts in and has one from, I don't know, 22 yards, draws a good save down to his left, a kind of a harbinger of things to come. And then what? Anything on your mind at this point in the game? Just say that I did think that when the opportunity presented itself, like the vertical

runs were somewhat useful. There weren't a lot of situations where, we could do it but when Cal had some space to get behind I did I do think that's something that can be in our bag for other games like that's that's what we want him doing so I thought there are a few instances where that looked like it could be useful okay you you clock something in the I mean there's another McGlynn ball over the top to Cal and Cal gets his left boot to it and just loops it over. That's in the 57th minute.

And then you clock something in the 63rd minute, which I did not notice. I just noticed that I think Fiji, you know, it's zero-zero, so maybe they're thinking we might be able to just steal one here. And so they started to apply these situational pressure when, you know, if we had like a throw-in deep in our own half or something like that, and I think you could hear the Fiji manager.

call for it a few times. Like it created, you know, zero uncomfortability for the guys, but just something I noticed that, like, maybe for a second they thought maybe we can force a mistake and steal one, but it obviously did not materialize. Yeah. You know, that reminds me of something, you know, for Kranes got the nod over Winder and Shea, I guess, I don't know if Shea would play as a set of. her back in a back for but um i thought this was this the perfect situation for for kranes

because he he showed his pace going back to shut things down whenever fiji did get forward and he wasn't put under any pressure you know when he was on the ball so outside of this this little bit of moment you know yeah i think it's one of the most intriguing decisions or one of the things I'm intrigued to see Farris do in the next game is the centerback pairing. If he sticks with four in the back, you know, I think Craig's a lock.

We'll play anytime he can, but who he'll play alongside him now. I mean, this wasn't, you know, not a lot of data to pull on for Kranis. It was the for this game. It was the right game to play him, but, um, and then you've talked already about

you know, Winder's performance in the first game. So they haven't played Shea as a centerback and a back four before. And I don't know that's really his strong suit. So yeah, I'm not sure what we'll see against Slovakia. It'll be one of the decisions I think Varus has to make. What's your gut tell you is going to happen? I'm actually going to just check the score now that you say that.

It looks like Ecuador's still up to 1 in the 90th. So that means it's going to be, you know, they're both going to be on four points. Ecuador is going to probably beat Fiji. Or no, Ecuador will be on six points. So we're just going to need to tie Slovakia. I don't know. My gut tells me he's going to go back to Winder and maybe go back to and play Craig and Winder and a back four.

I think that's probably what it'll do. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, well, Ecuador will be, I guess they'll beat Viji, so they'll get six, they'll have six, and then Slovakia, if they beat us, they'll have six, it'll be confusing, I guess, I don't know. Yeah, just don't lose, I guess. Right, just beat Slovakia. Nine point window, baby. That'll be great. Let's see, the goal.

The goal comes. It's a 66th minute. It's good patient combination from Luna and Shakuris or a good patient buildup from them. And really from everybody, I counted it was a 12-pass sequence. Or no, it was an 18-pass sequence if you discount the two times it gets,

you know, knocked out of there by Fiji. So it's just like one touch from them and then we're back to, you know, probing at them. Luna plays a pass. coming in from the left plays a pass either toward Cowell or Shakiris. I'm not sure what he was trying to do there,

but it gets deflected at Cowell who gets a foot to it and then goes down over an outstretched Fiji player's foot. I think, you know, obviously hoping for a penalty to look like a penalty to me, honestly. He, the ball, but the ball falls to Luna

who is alert to it as everyone else kind of halts expecting a whistle. And Luna comes in and puts it away far corner. It's a nice finish. Kind of a weirdly broken play that we needed to get the breakthrough, but it's 1-0 USA.

And, you know, from then on, it felt like the three points were ours. Yeah, it was a weird play. And I wasn't able to watch the match live. And so I kind of kept looking at my phone while I was in a meeting. And, you know, I'm in the 60th, we're in the 60th minute. It's zero zero and I'm just, you know, in my head, I'm like, what the hell is going on? So obviously, you know, we watched the game and it's just variance luck. But yeah, I definitely looked like a penalty.

I mean, he stepped on Cal's foot. Cal went down. Everybody acted like it was a penalty. I think you saw like three Fiji players in sequence, like throw their hands up like, no, no, no, don't call it. Right. Just freeze and Luna stays alert and drills it in the side netting. so weird one but I think when you're when you're probing enough in the final third stuff's just

going to inevitably happen yeah that's right if you spend the whole game in the other team's box then weird you know eventually something's going to happen like that right right after that almost immediately Shakuris wins the ball in the press and then one-toos with cowl I think was it cowl he won two with or maybe it was yappy and slides the ball across the box finds Luna with nobody near him, and he skies it with his left foot, which is too bad. It would have been nice for him to get that brace.

I'm sure he wants it back. Yeah, this is the cutback we're looking for here. That was a really nice ball by Shakiris, and another great chance. I mean, at this point, we ought to be sitting on like 4 or 5xG. I think so. Yeah.

But, yeah. I think Shakir's is kind of cooking a little bit you know he's this is where I think he's just vibing and getting good spots moving the ball quickly playing with great tempo

I think he had another minute moment in the 68 where he played a nice little angled ball the lunas making a run across the box and slides it to Jogo then played a nice cross to Yappy who was again cutting

I think well-timed run on the near post just challenged well by the defender but I think it was at this point where I was like okay, Shakir's is kind of doing his thing and I think can be a powerful like you know, 65, 70th minute sub

throughout this tournament when we need a goal. I think he's someone who's going to be able to create some chances. Yeah. Very happy to see that because a lot of people were frustrated that he was brought into the camp ahead of say Noel Buck

and I do get that. Noobuck has been great for the revolution. But Shakiris is also a good player. It's just nice to be reminded of that. 75th minute, lovely sequence. This is the part of the game that got me up out of my seat. A lovely sequence of one-touch passing from Luna, Edelman, and Shakuris. So, you know, part of your all-rondo crew to get pressure after they win the ball off of Fiji

Fiji in their half. And then McGlynn, I mean, it was like seven or eight passes to just get out of there. And then McGlynn dimes Gomez at the back post. He takes it on his chest and drives at the post, tries to shoot, gets cleated as he shoots, you know, like studs on his ankle or something,

off the side netting. But no penalty given. I think that should have been a penalty. But whatever. Yep, I agree. Yeah. We hadn't talked about Edelman at all. I thought, you know, he was good.

Like, he had really nice moments and, like, timing his, like, counterpressing moments and turned them over a lot. I thought he was clean on the ball. So, yeah, just like a very workman-like performance from Edelman, which is what you expect. But overall, I think he was solid and did get involved a little bit here and there and in sort of the one touch, kind of high tempo passing. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, he wasn't tested a ton on defense. No. But, yeah, very, very solid. Wiley comes on for Yappy in the 75th minute, and Luna kind of goes to the nine, the false nine, as you mentioned earlier. So then we've got Wiley at left, well,

yeah, Wiley at left wing. Cowl on it right wing. They're pretty fluid, though, the front three. And then in the 79th minute, Obid Vargas comes on for Edelman. And I really have, let's see, four more things to discuss, and they're all pretty exciting.

You got any, anything you want to say before we get into those? No, yeah, let's finish it out with these four. 88th minute goal, it's a cow banger, an eight-pass sequence, culminating in another McGlynn ball over the top to Luna. Luna brings it down with his back to goal, lays it off to Cal at the edge of the box. He just kind of stands his guy up, shimmies to the inside and cracks one.

Far post, thwacks into the net with a very satisfying sound, 2-0 USA. And that's what you get from Cal, right? Yeah, that's what you want from Cal. Like, kind of keep it simple and get that ball on his right foot and let it rip. So he's bound to get one in and he needed that. I think he's been losing the XG battle in MLS too. So he's definitely due for a goal. Oh, has he been underperforming?

Yeah, he's been putting, you know, getting in some good spots. He just hadn't scored a goal yet in the season. So I feel like it's just been mounting. So I'm sure it was a nice little weight off his shoulders. Then he went and hit the woodwork twice more in stoppage time. First one was a good ball slid a crew. by Wiley for him. And he tries to take it with his in-step, right-footed.

And that first shot deflects off of a defender and just kind of spins up, a defender who had hurled himself into the way. And then it skips up for him, and he just absolutely smashes it off the crossbar. I don't know if I've ever seen a ball hit that clean in my life. Yeah. Yeah. Love cow's right foot. Nothing to complain about there.

The bar doesn't. But, yeah, two posts in a minute is pretty incredible. Yeah, I just want to note that Shakiris is the one who found Wiley out of that scramble. Also good to know, good to see a good ball across from Wiley. And then we get another one where Wiley just does his guy on the left side. You've probably seen the clip. He does a step over to his right and then lifts the ball over the defender's foot, so a little bit of sauce from Caleb.

And then he slides one across for Luna, who receives it at the top of the box. And then a very clever little outside of the boot, slip pass in the direction he's facing to Cal who is running at the goal between Luna and the goal. And Cal takes the first time and hits the far post. A lovely bit of soccer there. Just unlucky it doesn't find the back of the net. Yeah, I mean, one of the most fun things when watching, you know, The United States soccer game is when you get up and then you get up a couple goals,

you know you're going to win, and then the boys just start saucing a little bit. They play with confidence, they play without fear. And that's kind of what we're in. They're in this mode right now, and it was just fun to watch. Yeah, it brings to mind the Kylo Ren more, more, more, Jiff. Yeah. And then we get our goal. We get our goal.

The third goal is Jonathan Gomez, who again put in, I think, a solid shift. I'm interested in your assessment of him. But he gets filed 25 yards from goal. Brandon Craig takes the free kick and the keeper palms it off of the post. It ricochets back across the face of goal. And Wiley arrives and tucks it home. 3-0 USA in the 99th minute. Yeah, that's a wrap.

Gomez was good too Yeah I think the fullbacks in general Just didn't have a lot to do And so It was quiet Sorry about that sound That's okay It was quiet

For him for the most part But I think when he had the ball out wide I thought he made good decisions And his crosses were You know Pretty precise when he had the opportunity So yeah I think Gomez probably sits the next game

because he's played a full 90, I think now, both games. Yeah, he did. Wiley probably gets the start in his more natural position at left back next game, I would imagine. I would imagine so too. The one thing I noticed about Gomez is, I mean, obviously he scored that totally invaluable goal against Ecuador, but he doesn't,

he's not really going at anybody in this tournament. so far, you know? And I don't, and I don't really think that's his style. He's more of a guy who's going to play really well off of like a half space player, a winger. He's good at connecting and kind of the one touch passing. So it doesn't surprise me. I don't really think that's like his main strength is like doing people one-on-one.

I think he sort of wins with like tempo. Combining. Yeah, combining. Just being smart and precise. Okay. All right. Yeah, that game is finished at Ecuador 1, 2 to 1. So let's see.

We're atop of the group with six points. Slovakia and Ecuador both with three. We'll see. We'll see how we do again. against Slovakia, that game is Friday, right? Friday at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Sure is. Yeah, I think it'd be great to do a clean sweep in the group. I think the boys deserve it and that'd be fun.

So I don't know how, I haven't done the research to see how the like, you know, knockout seating could play out. So I've no idea what that could come of that. But yeah, let's win the group. nine points would be awesome and I think it's more than more than possible let me ask you since I don't know if we'll talk again

is anybody I mean we'll talk again someday but I don't know if we'll talk again about this tournament Are you both in some news to me? No no no No Is anybody in this two game sample

who has like who has lifted their stock the most for you I wouldn't say so. Like nobody, nobody has. Nobody's like been performing at a level that's like kind of I wasn't expecting, I would say. I think I'm happy to see that like Yappy's traits and skill sets are, I think, like usefully being applied. I like to see him get a goal here pretty soon.

maybe McGlynn. I think the thing I think the thing I'm maybe seeing from McGlynn a little bit more than I thought is like I don't think he's just completely unuseful defensively.

Again, I think Hartman touched on it well like it's not an effort issue and it's not an intelligence issue. I think he, in the Ecuador game, I just thought he was more useful in like winning the ball back than maybe I gave him credit for. So and then he's doing all the things that we come to love from him. So I've always been a little bit maybe conservative on my projection of him just because

I thought he needs a lot around him to be successful. But yeah, again, I want to see him do it in maybe, you know, in one of these knockout games against a higher level opponent, but he's maybe the one that has standing in, out as like there might just be a little bit more to his game than we're giving him credit for and he might be able to function in more systems than maybe we're giving him credit for. So maybe that's something to keep an eye on. Otherwise, I just, I think, and I mean this in the most positive way, I think the guys are sort of performing the way I'd expect them to.

So, yeah, I think that's my thought so far. Okay. I love it. You know, 50% of our listenership is in Philadelphia is by my reckoning. So they'll love to hear that too. No, that's not true. It's just a joke. But they're a vocal fan base, so they love to hear good stuff about their kids.

Thank you, Marcus. Thank you for doing this. And I should say, you know, check out our Patreon. If you're into that sort of thing, it's in the link is in the show notes. You get the money review every week. you get to come on the Discord and say whatever you want in there. Well, not whatever you want, but a lot of stuff. Thanks everybody for listening.

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