Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #391: U20 World Cup — USA v Slovakia

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

Another group stage match at the U20 World Cup, another win for the U.S. and another impressive performance. Special guest Paul Douglas, a podcaster himself and a Scuffed patron and Discord server member, joins to recap the action from Argentina. Find Paul on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DerekSmalls13----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 US U20s beat Slovakia 2 to nothing to win the group at the U20 World Cup. They now face, well, we don't know who they face next week in their first knockout round game, but it's been a lot of fun so far. Here to break down this game with me is Paul Douglas, one of the hosts of the Inside Maryland Sports podcast, and an extremely valued member of the scuff Discord server, Paul. How are you?

I'm excellent. Adam. Thanks for inviting me along. I feel bad you had to get so far down your contributor list to get to me, but happy to help out where I can. Appreciate it, man. Appreciate it a lot. Any big picture thoughts on this game before we get into the lineups and the timeline

and all that? I mean, I just think it was just a really impressive kind of professional performance. I mean, we've spoken about this quite a bit, and I know you guys have touched on it too, just how good this team is at playing soccer and soccering in terms of their ability to play under pressure and pass out of a tough defense. I was a bit worried the little bit I've seen to Slovakia that this is the type of U-20 team that we typically run into.

It was bigger and more physical and faster, and they'd kind of bully them to death. That's usually what happens in the last couple knockout rounds from what I believe had happened in the past. But this team just, you know, I was trying to, if you want to describe this game to somebody who didn't watch, it's almost like that scene in Creed, where Rocky has Creed running around,

chasing after the chicken, to catch him and pick them up because Savaki just couldn't touch us and they couldn't get the ball back and it was just just really impressive to see and kind of a nice, you know, cherry on top of what's been a, how should we say, a nine point window, what we were always looking for, right? That's right. You know, you're right about that. We played against Ukraine in the, well, Ukraine ended up going to the final of the last U20 World Cup, I think. We played against them and we really struggled back in 2019. And I mean, just because Ukraine, train in Slovakia are from roughly the same part of the world.

Doesn't mean they're the same team. But it's that kind of team that you were just describing. And yeah, we didn't struggle at all today. I mean, barely, they barely touched us. They had a couple nice strikes from distance. We could have had four or five or six goals if we'd been a little better in front of goal. I don't know that there's ever been a U.S. U20 team this dominant in the, you know,

sort of in the run of play in the group stage at the U20 World Cup. but just totally, we just waltzed through these three teams. It was pretty easy. I mean, Ecuador had portions of that game in the first game where they did take it to us a little bit. But I mean, over the most of those 270 minutes, the U.S. was in total control. They didn't panic. They weren't physically beat up. Again, when you talk about this group, too, it's really interesting because when you look at them,

you know, you talk to the experts like you guys and Marcus Cherez and so he's in Hartman and some of these guys who really follow this stuff, there aren't really a ton of super elite prospects necessarily, but it feels like the entire group is just on a totally different levels from what we're used to seeing at the U-20s. Yeah, I think I have been chatting with Hartman a little bit on the side, and his comment on that is we've never looked this good in the group, but this is a remarkably easy group. And maybe that's the case. I guess we'll find out.

We could play anyone from Italy to Uzbekistan in our round of 16 match on Tuesday. So I guess we'll, you know, if we play Italy, we'll find out pretty quick how good we are. Lineups. The U.S. went back to a 343. We played a 343 or a 352, I guess, is probably more accurate. We played that three at the back formation against Ecuador. For Fiji, we went to the more traditional 433, and then we came back to the, this 352 against Slovakia. I thought Winder, you know, it was interesting to see Winder back in the lineup.

I thought he was much better today than he was against Ecuador. Maybe he wasn't tested quite as much as he would have been. He didn't get left on as many islands for sure. Right. And then McGlynn, Sullivan, and Jogo went to the bench. So the lineup was Slinina and goal, Justin Shea, Brandon Craig, and Josh Winder across the back line. Halliday, Michael Halliday, and Caleb Wiley were the wingbacks.

Edelman and Vargas were the midfielder's. although Wolf was in there quite a bit too and then Luna and Cowell were the were the two strikers so I guess if it's a 352 you got Edelman Vargas and Wolf as the midfielers and the Luna and Cal up top. Yeah there definitely seemed to be some amoeba-ishness going on there

with their ability to trade positions and switch spots and that was really nice to see like it just looked like a really well-coached team which you don't always get in these national team setups where they don't have big training camps and don't play together a ton. Very well coached shout out to Mikey Varis once

again. He's been a great U-20 coach. Let's see. Slovakia came out like this. They had Hardina in goal, Copa, Kopasek, Afshanka, Kosha, and Shakula across the back line. And then the midfielder, so they're in sort of a four, two, three, one. The midfielders were Schneider and Solgai, and then Ghazi and then the Sauer brothers, Mario and Leo, across that band of three, and then the strikers, Grieger. They were in their own half a lot of this game. Yeah, I don't know who any of those dudes are really.

And I won't after this game either because nobody really stood out. I was just actually more bothered by the fact the commentator kept pronouncing that one kid's name as Shalka, as if the team in Kelson-Kirkin. So that bothered me a little bit, but otherwise they were just 11 dudes in blue, or I guess 10 dudes in blue and one guy in yellow. And they weren't very good, I don't think. and you sort of took advantage of it. I thought Leo Sauer was a little dangerous.

He drew a good save from Slanina in the first, right at the end of the first half with a good strike with his right foot from about 20 yards. But yeah, other than set pieces and, you know, the occasional strike from 20 yards, not dangerous. Yeah, and I would assume that's the plan. Their striker was a big kid, like really big kids, and it looked like they were looking to take shots

from outside the box to draw us out a little bit and throw in a bunch of crosses. It just didn't work. No, and it is fun. It is just a lot of fun. I tweeted this out. It's a pleasure to watch this team play because they play soccer. They move off the ball.

For the most of them move off the ball. Cade doesn't always move off the ball that well. He moves vertically, doesn't he? He brings a lot of other stuff to the table. But, you know, the way we possess the ball, the way we just take any hope away from the opponent, you know, it felt like by halfway through the first half, Slovakia was already tired because they're just chasing all over the field trying to take the ball from us. To the timeline, to the timeline.

Right in the, right at the six minute mark, K.Kal does something that he did kind of a lot, takes the ball from somebody at midfield and drives at the goal. He tried from 35 yards or so this time drew a relatively simple save. But I know you're a big KedKal believer, a big, a big, a big, uh, a big, uh, Apologists for him? How satisfied were you with his performance? All right. First of all, I would counter that just to say, I feel like I probably sound like more of apologists than I am just because of the negativity that comes with even mentioning his name in certain spaces. I would just say, I think with Kate Cow, there, you know, he's

kind of the answer to the question, what if our best athletes played soccer? And when you have guys who just have that physical natural ability to run and be strong and to strike a ball from distance especially, you just got to have patience with those guys. And today we saw a lot of bad cow and we

saw a lot of good cow. Luckily it was a whole hell of a lot more of good cow than otherwise. But he's unique. Is he not? He is. Yeah, he's a paradox in enigma. I mean, I don't know that there was that much bad cow

was, I mean, there was the one missed chance, which we'll get into, but a lot of good, Cal, really. It was a really good game from him. Everybody's just going to clown him for that one kind of scuff, if you will, in the box after what was otherwise a remarkable bit of skill. But he seems to have gotten the reputation as not a guy who can soccer, you know, when we get so excited about this team and talking about their ability to do that. And I think it really adds something to them, too, because they're not one dimensional. They're not going to tiki-taka you around and if that doesn't work, they're screwed. They have the ability to go vertical. They did it with Cal and they did with Yappy later on in the game too as they were trying to kill it off. Yeah. His ability to take the

ball down at midfield with two guys on him, shrug him off and then, you know, race at the goal. That's pretty special. And we honestly, we missed it when he came off towards the end of the game. Absolutely. It took them about 15 minutes to kind of find themselves again, I think. Right. Not that Yappy was, I thought Yappy was fine, and he got some good stuff too. All right, so I'll note a good sequence from Slovakia, kind of pinging it up our left side. And when I say pinging it, I mean like lots of good passing and combination, ends in a corner kick. I won't say that much good about Slovakia for the rest of the episode, though.

That was it, right? It really felt like they had like a five-minute period there where they were kind of doing some stuff, had a little bit of control of the ball. You know, we weren't running rampant or, you know, doing 20 past sequences around them. And after that, that was kind of it other than the random long shot or set piece of opportunity here and there.

Right. Good possession from the U.S. around the 12-minute mark. A lovely flick from Luna. But this is maybe my least favorite Cal moment. He's not aware that he can make a second run. you know, make a, you know, he just, when, when the ball's played into Luna's feet, he's just standing there and not, like, like, as if it doesn't compute that he, that something good could happen for him if he makes a run.

And I thought it was interesting, like a minute later, you could hear over the field mic, uh, Mikey Cow, sorry, Mikey Varus telling Cal to, you know, think about going behind him because he's, he can, uh, making a run in behind him when it's played to his feet. And I, A, I love that from Varus that he's, that he's telling that. be, I'm not sure why Kyle needs to be told that at this point in his career. Like, he's a, I know he's still young, but he's a, you know, he's a pro. He's a pro soccer player. Second runs are a sort of fundamental part of attacking.

But he redeems himself. It was a weird one. And again, I would say there were a couple times where he did that exact thing later in the game. So I think we'll just give him the one brain fart given the way that, that things turned out. But certainly that, uh, that criticism was noted in. correct. And as Mikey Varus also made sure to let him know about on the field. Yeah. He said it very nicely, not the way I probably would have said it. Well, can we talk about the sideline, Mike guy? Because that's the MVP of this group.

I mean, you can hear everything that's going on on the sideline. I love that. I'd love that. I want more of that. Yeah, there was a point where I think, I guess it was Mikey. It sounded like a deeper voice than Varus's, but told them, told the boys to stop effing around with the ball in our defensive third. I noticed a good challenge from Winder. You know, there was a ball over the top that kind of got flicked off somebody's head. And Winder was in a race to get to it first. And he made a good tackle right inside the box that if he hadn't timed it perfectly, it would have been a penalty or it would have missed the guy.

So good to see Winder bounce back like I, like we mentioned earlier. Yeah, he certainly had some struggles in the last game he played. But again, I think he wasn't left on an island. as much just maybe due to a tactical adjustment or the way that Slovakia plays. But defensively, I thought he was excellent. He was in good spots. He made plays when they were there to be made. He wasn't super ambitious in distribution, but when you got Craig next to you, there's really

no point to doing that. So solid stay at home, nothing wrong with that. There was another moment where Winder, well, somebody was stuck over on the right sideline and looked up and passed it towards Winder, and Winder was alert to the situation because he stepped to the ball, which not everyone always does, to avoid that pass getting picked off.

Maybe it was Vargas who was kind of stuck over there. And Winder takes the ball, you know, posts up on the, you know, dribbles over the sideline, and then finds a solution, you know, finds a pass back to somebody. So I thought, you know, that's another nice moment from him.

Not distribution so much, but some quality on the ball. and some intelligence to sort of sense that danger and avert it. Yeah, I think just those little bits of things shows maturity, the fact that he's coming, you know, playing against a much more athletic team like Ecuador, you know, was a little more of a struggle to him than this one, I think. But he certainly redeemed himself to anybody who was a bit concerned about his place on this team. Yeah, I think so, yeah.

And we'll see, you know, maybe he, maybe the next time he plays against some really fast, tricky wingers, he'll be more better calibrated for it. than he was against Ecuador. And you could argue he might see more of that here on this level than he would in USL. That might be the only difference. Yeah. No, I think that's right.

Craig, Brandon Craig took all the corner kicks. Would you think of that? It's wild, man, isn't it? I mean, it's like, I don't know, it's like watching Mugsy Boggs dunk or something. I mean, it's just so cool seeing a centerback go over there. And they're excellent set pieces. Oh, every single one.

Absolutely. Somebody mentioned in the Discord earlier. I think that McLean and Craig may be the two best setpiece, or at least corner guys in the pool right now. I mean, they're really, really good set pieces. So, sure, man, have had it. And especially when you're in a situation where you've got three centerbacks and you still bring up the other two

and have some of our more vertically challenged wing backs playing safety. Yeah. All right. So let's get into some good stuff. Well, right around the 22 minute mark, a lovely sequence. Cowell brings down a long ball, which he did a lot, cuts in and finds Wolf who gets bundled over,

but Cowell chases down the loose ball and recycles it to Luna, who plays a ball to the back post, which is cleared. And then this felt like maybe the most dangerous moment of the first half hour for us. Halliday curls a ball at the back post, and Luna is there to head a post. in, but it gets knotted over by a Slovakian defender just at the last moment. But we're really knocking on the door. Just 30 seconds of pure joy there, wasn't it?

Just the back and forth. Everybody was where they should have been and just couldn't quite find that last touch to make something happen. But it was a harbinger of things to come for sure. Yeah, we get a free header from Justin Shea on one of those good Craig corner kicks. And we didn't often get ahead on those, even though they're like, you know, they're like, curling down right in front of the goal. Like just perfect corner-case.

Just laced in the right spots too. But Shea did and he did well with it. Like he headed it down on frame and it just happened to go right at the keeper. Had it gone up two feet in either direction to either side, it would have been a goal. Yeah, he had a body on him so I don't think it was a miss so much.

I think he did the best he could with it just kind of unlucky it went right at the keeper. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't call it. miss if you, even if you don't have anybody on you. Well, maybe if you don't have anybody on you, then it's a miss, but yeah. It's your level of freeness, right? Right, right.

25 minute mark, another cow burst forward to Wiley who loses it and it sprays. So, Cal's cutting in from midfield from the left side, plays it to Wiley. Wiley a little bit doesn't know what to do with the ball there. He kind of can't get it out from under his feet. It gets, it gets tackled away from him. It sprays out to Obed Vargas. And he just laces it from 30. What a hit.

And it just happens to go right at the keeper. Yeah, I didn't entirely know Obed had that club in his bag. Neither did I. That was eye-opening for sure. And, you know, you start to see him unleash those things in Sounders games. You're cooking with gas. Yeah. Then we get the boys don't F around field mic moment.

because we're just, we're being a little loose in our defensive third. Then Cal runs, then we get a long ball from Craig. This is the one that a lot of people are going to criticize Cal for. Cal outruns the defense. He gets there first, flicks it over the keeper, and he's, you know, he's got an open goal with his left foot, tries on the volley, and just pretty much misses it, right? I mean, swinging a miss. I wanted to use the scuff term just to, you know,

fit into the theme here but yeah he pretty much just whiffed on it um it's real shame because it was such an incredible piece of skill to get it over the keeper to begin with um it's just you know you're still at with the u20s you're still at the level where are there are a lot of these guys who are very good at playing soccer but you know they just don't want to use their off foot or can't do it and uh cow certainly qualifies as one of those and just never had a chance chance coming on his left foot it's a harder i mean though that's a harder one to hit than i think a lot of people realize especially when you try to side foot it like that. It's basically falling straight down.

And maybe the easiest technique is to just put your laces through it. But that's also a little risky in that situation. So I don't know. Maybe you should have taken a touch and just tucked it away. I definitely feel like it was a whole lot harder than it looked like. But to most people who are just going to watch that or are going to assume that's going to be a goal most of the times. And I think that's where any criticism will come from, rightly or wrongly. But again, it was a hell of a play to even get himself in that position to begin with,

and he certainly made up for it later in the game. Not much later either. No, not much later at all. Luna gets a chance right after that when the ball's tackled away from Cal, and he hits it with his left foot and blazes it over. So lots of excitement, no goals. And then the goal comes. It's Cade intercepts a poor pass from one Slovak.

into another and then he and then he wins a duel with another guy and then just goes 40 yards by himself kind of weaving back and forth and finishes it with his left foot it's deflected but you know past the goalkeeper to wrong foot him but it's a nice he hit it pretty solid too so wonderful goal 1-0 USA totally deserved it's just incredible piece of work here I mean he kind of nutmegs the first guy yeah we're taking on the rest of the team it Again, he's such a physical specimen. It's almost like you imagine taking your kids out to a soccer practice and, you know, one on 11, and you're just doing them all on the way down to the goal.

I mean, it was really something to see if you haven't seen the replay of it yet. And it kind of gives you a key into what Cal could be if he can fix some of these other issues. I mean, he has just an amazing natural skill and ability as an athlete. and you just, again, I know lots of people are critical at times in his soccer IQ and his technical ability, but I think you just have to be patient with guys like that because when you get these moments of magic, man, he just does things that other people can't do. Well, and he did the exact same thing later in the game and just didn't score. And then the thing that I really like about him that people don't talk about a lot.

I know some people talk about it, like Matt Doyle has talked about this, but he's a good passer. in certain situations. He had two really nice passes in the second half that we'll get to. I mean, to create goal scoring chances, one that Luna missed a chance from very close to the goal and then another where he Cal set somebody up inside the box. We get the nice hit from Leo Sauer in the 41st minute from about 22 yards out. It draws a strong save from Salinina.

Mostly mentioning this because of Slanina. He hadn't been tested much. in this tournament yet. It's good to see he wasn't totally asleep back there. You know, he was ready and got that strong left hand up, potted away. It wasn't a perfect upper 90 strike, but it was a good hit from just outside the box.

Yeah, it was a nice hit, and it was rather unexpected, right? It kind of came out of just a little bit of possession. He just kind of popped open 22, 25 yards out and gave it a rock. And it was nice to see Gaga get there. It was really probably their most dangerous moment in the game. I think and kind of speaks to the game state really. I mean, they just didn't have a whole lot of chances.

And this was kind of as good as it was going to get for them. Yeah. Well, the half came and then right away, Cal goes right back to work. There's a little bit of a little bit. We win the ball from Slovakia somehow. I can't remember in our half. And then Vargas hits a lovely ball into Cowell's path down the left wing. He's in behind.

He cuts in onto his right foot. And I'm thinking, well, he's going to try to dribble across the top of the box and try to score here. But he clips a ball to the backpost for Luna, who is only the second guy to enter the box for us. And it's a lovely pass. It just gets over the head of the defender. and I think that might have made it difficult for Luna, like he maybe didn't expect it to get over, but it did, and then Luna skies it on the half-folly from five yards out. He, you know, should have scored.

You'd like Diego to do a little bit better there, just to reward that gorgeous bit of play. And I think it's a good point about Cal too. He can be a really excellent passer when his soccer brain is turned on, right? I think sometimes the issue with him is he gets so kind of into being this guy, I'm going to take this guy on and beat him and then I'm going to go to the goal. But when he's ready to set somebody up, he can really put a ball on ahead. And that probably should have been a bit better. But, you know, again, you're kind of also happy to see these guys get in good spaces. And I will say,

it's interesting, given how much we talk about these guys being able to pass, there's a little bit of verticality going on here, too. I mean, they were looking to open up that defense when it was there because Slovakia did come up and play a pretty high line when they had possession the few times that was. And the U.S. beat them pretty bad at it. I mean, there's really something to say about being able to tiki-taka around most of the game, but when the opportunity is on, you know, chuck it up to the big guy and let him cook. Yeah, that's a good point. They did play a high line and we were okay with that.

Yeah, they figured it out and they dealt with it. And that's just a really, that's just really encouraging thing to see about how their soccer brains are working and being able to adapt to the situations on the field. I think Cal, you said when his soccer brain is turned on. I think he's a little bit of one of those players who likes, who is most comfortable with everything in front of him, you know. And that's, that describes every human who plays soccer ever. Right. Everybody's more comfortable with everything in front of them than, but that, that's sort of like, 360 degree awareness and the awareness to sort of make the run off a teammate who is receiving the

ball. That's the, that's sort of the next level stuff that I don't think he's too great at. But, you know, when he's got the ball at his feet, he's got the whole field to survey, he'll pick out a pass for sure. Absolutely. I think it's just when he gets into that final third or in the box where he's not quite as good off the ball as you'd like him to be. But that does feel like something that is somewhat learnable because he does so well making these runs from deep and making these runs when we have possession in our own half and he's looking for the long ball. So you feel like that talent is there and that ability to recognize situations is there just isn't quite coming off

every time yet. I've learned how to move off the ball better as an adult. You should see my off ball movement on Sundays. I'm sure it's brilliant. I'm sure it's brilliant. I'm sorry. Honestly, but honestly, when I played college soccer I was like not at all aware of all that stuff you know so and I was 1920 and so definitely agree that that stuff can be learned

I interrupted you what I'm just gonna say sadly I did not make the Greg Vlasquez Tournament of Roses in Orlando so I didn't get to watch your skills life oh yeah no that you didn't you missed nothing that whole early morning stuff doesn't work for me these days man 55 minute mark

soul guy has a big volley from distance off a throw-in. This was a little scary too, but it swerved wide. He got all of it, one of those midfielders. Yeah, and it was a nice hit, and again, it was reflective of most of the Slovakian attacks. They really just tried to find some space outside the box and heave it,

and it just wasn't coming off for them today, and I think that's really says something not only about the three centerback's ability to kind of keep their shape and be aware, but also the tactical setup. this this three-four-three really seemed to work well against them you've got you noted something in the 57th minute yeah so this was when wiley and cow ran this two-on-one break where wiley was able to pick off a pass in the

middle of the field and kind of get it out to cal cal gets on his horse and he's coming straight at the opposing penalty box wiley makes this incredibly smart run diagonally across to bring the sole cornerback kind of with him. Cal takes a touch out to his right, hits it low and right to the keeper, which is saved fairly comfortably. Maybe you'd like him to do a little bit better there, but it still was a really nice piece of play from both of them. I think Wiley, again, is another one who has been somewhat productive in this tournament, but maybe not the Starman, given some of his production MLS to start the season. But I thought this is really nice and certainly a really intelligent move from him off the ball, something you just love to see.

Yeah, yeah, and that's the, and some people were saying, well, Cal should have passed it to Wiley. I mean, we want Cal shooting from 13 yards out with his right foot having cut in from the left. That's like, that's the perfect spot. He just didn't hit it right. You know, he scuffed it. Absolutely. I think it was everybody, I think, involved did the right thing there. It just, I want to give a special attention to that Wiley run because that was really smart and just totally took that corner back, that center back out of play.

Yeah, totally created that. created the space for Cal to get that shot off. I just want to note here that Halliday had been quite solid in this game and was quite solid. You know, nothing too flashy, but he's comfortable in possession and very reliable defensively, and he's not going to come up much other than this, but I thought he was, he served his role quite well. I would say the same for Edelman, too, just as a guy who maybe, who's not,

named and get called out more than once or twice during the entire broadcast, but just kind of, you know, did a lunch pail kind of job of circling, keeping possession and keeping things moving in the right direction. You know, you really need that, whereas Obed is the one who kind of kind of get, got, had the, uh, Starman moments. Um, Adaman really was good at kind of just anchoring that, that midfield and keeping things right. Yeah. Nothing to complain about from Edelman either. I do think, yeah, Obed, uh, Obed's ability to turn his 360 degree awareness. really nice to go back to the we were just talking about a little bit a little bit ago you noticed something about how we were defending Slovakia yeah it did feel like at this

point we were starting especially with the front three to set some pressing traps where they would lay off a little bit as the kind of the centerbacks or the Slovakian uh the kind of lower lying midfielders were bringing the ball up and then when they got the chance the two of them would swarm the ball. And that's when that was part of how we got that chance with Cal and Wiley earlier and how I think a number of the chances that they got later in the game came just from kind of, again, I don't know if this was some sort of thing that they had set up in training or talked about, but it was just really smart. It wasn't, they weren't overcommitting. They weren't selling themselves out to the point where, you know, Savaki would have space and behind. They just

kind of were really good at waiting for the right moments. And it seemed like everybody was kind of on the same page with it. So again, just a really impressive thing for the players and to Mikey Varus too. I mean, these guys were locked in and doing some really, really nice stuff. Yeah, we were so good at taking the ball away. Even like when we, in those traps you're talking about, but also whenever we were in their half and we counterpressed, it was just ferocious. It's so fun to watch a team play that way. It was really great. Well, it was just entertaining. I mean, they just really were vicious. It kind of reminds you of those old Argentinian teams. Like a second they lose the ball, like they just swarm on you. And then once we got set up, we smartly would back off, but then

pick those moments to really go and aggressively get the ball back. And it set up a lot of stuff for them. And it's kind of a really nice way to be able to kind of nurse a one-nothing lead, but also be able to put yourself in position to get that second if the opportunity arrives. And it did. It did arrive. Hey, segues. Well, we're not quite there yet. We're not quite there. 63rd minute Cal is really putting on a show. He takes it down at midfield, shrugs off two guys, dribbles into the box, and, you know, tries to shoot a tad late.

Maybe he should have passed it to one of his teammates arriving in the box. The shot is blocked. And then what Shay gets on the ball, I think? I was just very excited because not long after this, the ball recycled and you got Shay like just charting down the right wing as a an overlapping centerback making a run, which you just, again, you just, you just love to see it, man. Just these guys were feeling themselves a little bit at this point, I think. Yeah.

Great ball over the top in the 63rd on a free kick from Craig and Cowell just can't, just can't bring it down. That's okay. That's okay. Again, it just, it speaks to the ability of Craig and, you know, obviously you know what McLean can do, but Che had a couple really, really nice long balls too. I mean, these guys were just, when they had to. time on the ball and they were able to look down the field, they were just

pinging stuff all over the place, man. It was something to see. Yeah, Craig, we're not, you know, we're one of many people talking about this, but Craig's distribution from the back is just so good. I mean, it was good again today. What a weapon that is. And it means you don't need Winder or Che even to be able to take too many chances out there. When you've got a guy like Craig playing that central centerback in a back three, man, he can just pick guys out. And that's really just tough to deal with.

I don't, I'm not enough of a tactical guru to know what, like, what's the standard approach from the opponent to shutting down a centerback who can distribute like that. But I don't know what, I don't know what it is. Be better at winning second balls. I don't know. I mean, called Bob Maraca. Maybe he can talk us through it. That's beyond my pay grade for sure.

It's just, I just cannot imagine having to deal with that on top of the fact that these guys can also drop a 20-pass sequence on you and show up in your box. It's just really, that's just got really, really hard to deal with. It was another long ball in the 66th minute. It's a long ball to cowl. He chases it down in the right corner. And then this is another good pass for him. The other one I was referring to earlier.

He cuts in from the right, so he's on his left foot, plays an outside of the boot pass to Edelman, who is in the box. Edelman, so this is like a dangerous chance, right? Edelman's in the box facing the goal. He tries to square it to his left, I think, for Wiley. I'm not 100% sure. I think you're right. And that pass gets intercepted out to Diego Luna,

who takes a touch and then rings the post from the edge of the 18. I mean, a really nice hit. What's the post count at this point now, four for the tournament? I mean, it feels like more than that. Cal has at least two of his own. I think, you know, Luna's got one. I mean, it's a, I just think it's something to, just something to note in terms of how dangerous this team has been, despite the somewhat disappointing 3-0 over Fiji and just, you know, the 1-0 against Ecuador. I mean, these guys are playing soccer, and it's really pretty and it's really nice to watch.

There's a lot of danger going on here. Yeah, I don't know what the XG has been, but it's, it's been a lot. Yeah, it's hard. I know that. Shakiris comes on for Wolf and McGlynn comes on for Edelman shortly after this. I don't

I haven't been that impressed with Wolf. I mean, he does some good things on occasion, but I would say he's been one of the quieter performers. Maybe I'll put it that way. I think that's fair. I still like him a lot as a player, and I'm not sure he's really playing his best spot right now.

But you could tell me, the difference between what you were getting from the left side and the U.S. attack compared to the right side was just night and day. You know, when you're talking about Wolf and Hartman on that right side, it just wasn't really happening. But honestly, it also didn't really need to. So in this case, it was fine. But when you are looking at the near future of bringing in Kevin Paredes potentially to play that right wing, I think, you know, with Preda's on the right and Cowell on the left, you're talking about a whole different ballgame in terms of the ability to create danger on that side. Is that what you would do

and then keep Luna as a false nine or would you move Cal into the middle and put Luna at the left? Now, I am 100% a play Cal with the nine you cowards kind of guy but I'm not sure I'd mess with what's working right now

and he certainly seems to be Kimmeled on the left side and I can only imagine having Predas on the right side just adds a whole different level of danger. I'm not sure is Kevin. Kevin is left foot Yes, he is. He'd be cutting in on his left.

Yeah. Being able to invert over there is certainly something that, you know, you'd have both of them inverting on the wings. You'd have Diego be able to drop into midfield. That feels like something that could work pretty well. Yeah. You noticed something about how the Savakian defenders were engaging with Cal at this point of the game.

Yeah, there was just one point where somebody hit the ball and it kind of squirted in between where Cal was and another defender was talking about. Total 50-50 near hospital ball. And this poor Slovakian defender saw Cal come and just backed off and gave him the ball. And just did not want to be the guy who ended up on a poster. And I don't know whether he's one of those guys who he might have taken care of in some of his earlier majestic runs. But I just thought that was really interesting that, you know, even none of these guys wanted that smoke at this point in the game. Yeah.

I would have done the same thing. Oh, yeah. subs. We get Yappy for Cowell and Sullivan for Luna. And we did take a while to sort of get dangerous again. I noticed in the 73rd minute a nice shot of the Carrera family cheering in the stands. Is there a more faithful U.S. soccer family than the Carreras, man? They go to these tournaments and they really, their son hasn't played yet.

He probably won't play all tournament. But they're just out. they're just out there in the stands cheering. Love it, man. Love the Nigo Carrera updates from Germany, I believe, right? And then his brother on this team, they're everywhere like the anti-Rena. So I'm more of that, please. That's right.

Gomez comes on for Wiley in the 77th minute, 78th minute, Shakiris gets played into like a huge amount of space down the right side. He sort of tells on himself for being overly left. left footed by just slowing down. But then he kind of comes to a stop and plays a nice scoop, nice little scoop pass to McGlynn at the top of the box for him to volley. And McGlynn just doesn't get it right. Scuffs it.

Scuffs it. Out of balance. There were a few more scuffs going on here. I did want to note that Yappy started that move by winning another tough ball in the middle and just doing a nice little flick to get the ball over to Nico in that all that space. Again, with Securis, another really impressive player. He did tell him himself by not taking that a little harder down the right side. But at the same time, he did recollect himself and find a solution.

So there's good stuff here. And again, these are kids. It's just especially him. He sees, what, 17 still? Yeah, I would like to see him attack the goal and score there or, you know, attack the goal and then cut it back for somebody. But, but yeah, you're right, he did find a solution. He had a bad, I'm a big Shakiris guy, so I got to be honest, you know, that's what I feel like this, this is an important moral moment for me. He had a bad giveaway in the 79th minute as we tried to sort of tiki-talk our way out of the back.

Leads to some nervous moments, but nothing's super dangerous. 83rd, maybe 84th minute, a clever little pass from Winder in the box to set up a Sullivan shot. I was, I was, it was somewhat reminiscent of that outside of the boot, a little pass from Luna to Cowell in the last game that Cal hit the post on, Sullivan's shot gets blocked up over the goal. Yep. And I'm always going to be celebrating a cornerback, centerback getting into the box. Yes. Every time. Give me more of that. Yeah. You do get a little more of it when you have three at the back, you know. Yeah. If the three, four, three is going to get me overlapping, underlapping centerback

runs, man, I'm all about it. Let's do it. Let's do it. I'm going to set my FIFA team up that way now. The announcer said at that point after we counterpressed them, they don't lose it for long, do they? And that was pretty gratifying for me to hear. Gratifying, true. Again, I guess when you look back at this, what we've seen so far, and again, it ends up being two. But you would like them to be a little bit more ruthless, I think, if you have to dig deep for a complaint about the performance today. And throughout the tournament, I guess, you know, you do. wonder when they face a little better competition, you know, whether they're really going to need to put away these chances because they're not going to put, you know, what, 16 shots on goal or whatever ridiculous number it was today. They've got to do a little bit better than that. And we knew that was a thing with this team coming in without having a peppy or someone show up to play the nine. So you'd like to steal a bit more than that, you know, but again, you're digging pretty deep given the performance we've seen over the past two weeks here. It's a legitimate thing to worry about.

about, I think, and I think people will worry about it when the knockout round starts. But, you know, watch, then we'll score two goals in the first 20 minutes, and it'll be a totally different contest. But yeah, we have had so many good chances. Surely we have underperformed XG in this tournament. Yep, and again, let's count those posts up, so that's a fair retort. But, and certainly I'd be happy to be wrong in the knockouts, so we'll take that, too. A little bit of a spell of pressure from Slovakia towards the end of regulation.

Nothing that dangerous, but they do have us backed into our box for a while. We get a nice long ball for a yappy over the top, 88th minute. He just can't corral it. And the keeper comes out and, I don't know, does he chest it out of bounds or knee it out of bounds or something? Yeah, you just kind of threw himself at it to, you know, take it to safety with whatever body part would work. But again, this is another situation where you can see the U.S. being able to, you know, kind of pass it around comfortably when they want to. And at times, just see an opportunity and lace one for the big fast guy.

And, you know, Yappy almost made them pay. Yeah. Well, let's just go to the goal. The last thing of real note on the timeline, it's Sullivan pouncing on a loose touch, sort of in the counterpress, skips by a guy, kind of gets the ball stuck under his feet, settles himself, and then clips it over to Shakiris coming into the box from the left. And Shakiris does well to take the touch with a guy on his back, he holds him off, and then cuts another guy to the inside,

and then just passes it in at the near post with his right foot, cool as you like. Classy little bit of composure from him, and it's 2-0. Very professional composed effort by everybody involved there. even with Sullivan getting it kind of caught under his feet a little bit there. Again, found a solution. Nico really just, like you said, just absolutely cool as you like to find that. Find it, make some space for himself. Pass it right into the goal.

The Mullets are inevitable. Two-nothing. Nine-point window. Games over. Everybody go home. Have a great holiday weekend. That's right. Basically, that's it.

I mean, for anybody who's not watching these games, Nico and Cowell, So Shakiris and Cal are the two guys with Mullets and boy, are they glorious. Oh, man, they are epic in every possible way. The mustache game with Cowls, I think, really takes it next level. You know, it's like he could have been starring in the Beastie Boys sabotage video or something to go, you know, to go with the full mullet action. But, you know, boy, just the mullets flashing. They're flowing. They're flowing.

flowing in the wind as they're racing towards goal. You just love to see it. I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit and ask you who you start in our round of 16 game. It sounds like you're already on board for a cowl Luna. Luna didn't have a great game today. I think it's fair to say. Still, I still like him, I guess. That's my TLDR.

Well, yeah, and the funny thing is it was his end product, I think, that struggled a little bit. thought in the holdup and his ability to be such a pest in the middle there on defense was a real problem for them to deal with. He seemed like he really did all those kind of little connecting things you'd like that false nine to do when he dropped into the midfield. It's just a few times he got in the box where you expect him to kind of work his magic. It didn't really come off. So I don't have a super, you know, issue with throwing him out there again. I think for me, the issue is let's put him out there with Cal and with Peretas and see how that goes. I wouldn't hate if it was yappy, but I'd probably like to see Luna, honestly.

I guess it probably depends tactically who you're playing against and all that smart soccer guy stuff. Right. I think I agree. But I do think Luna was also, in the connecting stuff, he was a little bit less sharp today than he was in the previous two games. But I don't expect that to be a lingering problem. So then what do you have in the, are we going to do this 352 then? against Uzbekistan slash Italy? I mean, it sure looks good, doesn't it? Yeah.

I mean, I'm not sure I'm, I'd want to mess that up, especially when you get the advantage with playing three centerbacks where you can put Craig there in the middle and just let him dictate. I mean, you got like a pinging pierlo balls all over the place from center back. I mean, that's just an advantage you have to really take advantage of. So I would keep the three at the back. I guess I would probably, you know, I don't. know what to do with Pukas. I mean, he's more of an attacking guy, it seems, from his

blood play in Croatia. He's scoring goals and stuff, but he didn't impress me so much when I saw him during the Conca Calf tournament. So I'm not really sure what to do with him, to be honest with you. I'm not either. For a headache split, he's been, he has been playing sort of as a, I don't know if you'd call him a defensive midfielder, but the guy picking up the ball from the centerbacks. Yeah. But I know for like the, you know, for the youth team in the UFA Youth League, he was flying around creating chances and stuff. I don't know. I think Vargas and I'd probably go Vargas and McGlynn.

But, you know, since we have the three centerbacks behind him, we can afford to live with McGlynn's sort of lack of defensive bite. Yeah. But I don't know. I'm not sure. I would probably do the same. Unless you're, I don't know, I guess potentially you're facing a Brazil. Maybe if there's a team that you're facing and you feel like you're not going to have as much of the ball, maybe you go a little more defensive there and just try and play, you know,

when you've got those three speedy fast guys up front or the two speedy fast guys up front with Luna dropping in to connect with them, maybe that's the game playing you go with and you have a little more defensive bite in the middle just for cover. But I don't know. but it probably depends who you're playing how aggressive you want to get. I mean,

certainly Obed can do a job defensively. Is he enough to cover McLean if you're really counting on McLean to unlock a defense against a team that can really attack too? I don't know.

Maybe. I don't know either. I kind of trust Varus to figure it out. And then, you know, there's also the question of like, even if we do play a Brazil, is this team going to say, hey,

we'll let them have more of the ball or concede? that Brazil gets to have more of the ball. I'm not even sure about that. We might say, hey, we're going to have more of the ball. We're going to give us the ball, Brazil. I think you're right. I think they'll go and take it if they don't.

I mean, this is a different level. It's just such a different style of youth player than we're used to seeing here. It really does. And I'm curious, I guess the longer term thing, well, is this a next step developmentally that we're seeing with the entire program? where the floor is just higher, even if it doesn't end up having a ton of super elite prospects that come out of this group,

that just everybody, yeah, just like everybody who can play can play. So the floor ends up being higher, even if you don't have a higher ceiling for certain guys. I don't know. I hope so. That's how I look at it.

Yeah. I like to believe that. I guess I'm not totally convinced yet. You want to see another cycle or two. Certainly the U-17s give you that impression that they can play similar fashion. But, you know, if you compare this team to a 2007 U-20s, you know, with the Josie Adieu Bradley group or the 2019s, which have been, you know, quite celebrated, you know, I think the soccer is better. The soccer is way better.

I don't know if they're a better team, but the soccer overall from players 1 through 11, their ability to play this type of possession game and unlock a defense. And also be really smart and aggressive about winning the ballback. It's just a different game they're playing right now. So I don't know. Maybe they just go out there and say, yeah, we're going to take the ball and we're going to score and you're going to have to deal with us. And that's just a different attitude than I think most U.S. youth teams are used to playing with. Yeah, I guess we'll see after a couple of cycles. And we'll also see next week how we look against a, you know, presumably a stronger team than any of we've faced.

Although I think Ecuador was pretty good and probably is going to be fine in the knockout rounds. They're going to perform in a way that they can be proud of. Yeah, I think Ecuador is good. Ecuador in South America, I think, is really good. So I think if you look at the three wins, I think that's the most impressive of the bunch. But certainly the soccer seemed to have gotten better along the way too. And it's not like, you know, we only won one to zero. It took a moment of brilliance at the end of the game.

But we controlled that game against section. Ecuador. And we created a lot of chances. Okay. I think that's it. Thank you, Paul. Really appreciate it. Happy to help. Coming in, coming in, coming in, saving me in an emergency. Appreciate it. I'm here to help. And thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.