Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #392: U20 World Cup — USA v New Zealand

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

Another victory in Argentina. Marcus Chairez joins Belz to talk through it. Next up is the quarterfinals.Check out Marcus's website, where he tracks elite youth soccer talent, including a lot of players for MLS teams: https://www.ussoccercollective.com/And here he is on Twitter: https://twitter.com/chai_asc----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 USA just beat New Zealand, 4 to nothing, in the round of 16 at the U20 World Cup, more of the same from this Mikey virus coach team dominance, lots of chances. Took a little while to get that second goal, but we got it and then the next two came very quickly after that. Here to break it down with me once again is Marcus Cherez, the man behind the U.S. Soccer Collective. Thank you, Marcus, for your time. How you doing? I'm good.

to be back here, happy to celebrate another clean sheet, and excited to get into it. Yeah. It's not really that different from the other three games so far, right? No, more of the same. Might have even had more of a Fiji feel than the other two games, honestly. But, yeah, another dominating performance. So just so, just to give people a sense of what's going on, Gambia and, you Uruguay are playing what Thursday and then we play the winner of that game I believe on the

fourth of June. I think Sunday. So we got to wait a few days to see to see who we're playing. Yeah, two days until we know that. And then we get much more rest than whoever wins that game gets. So it seems like we're set up well to make a run at the semifinals would be the first time in 34 years. Yeah.

Mostly good news. Let's just get into the lineups. We went back to the 352. which basically played last in the last game as well. But it was Slanina in goal, Justin Shea, Brandon Craig, and Josh Weinder across the backline, a familiar centerback pair, not a pairing trio. And then Gomez, Jonathan Gomez at right wingback, as he did against Ecuador, and then Caleb Wiley at left wingback, and then Edelman, McGlynn, and Wolf in the midfield,

and then Luna and Cal as the two strikers. Anything stick out to you from that? Yeah, I thought a couple big decisions were to kind of stick with Wolf as sort of this hybrid midfield attacker. He was showing up a lot more in kind of the, when breaking the press, showing up in pockets centrally. So yeah, I'm glad you called it a 352 because that's kind of what it's felt like to me throughout the tournament a little bit more with Wolf dropping in a little bit. So I thought that was a decision instead of playing three true attackers and not starting Yappy or Sullivan. I thought Edelman over Vargas was a decision as well. Vargas has been playing really well.

And I do think it turned out, like a lot of the decisions Mikey has been making, they all paid out pretty well. I thought Edelman had a really nice game. And then, you know, we saw Joe go back at. right wing back, which probably was, had a little bit more mixed results. But, you know, I think it's an attempt to get your best 11 on the field. So that made sense to me more or less. Yeah. I wasn't against it. It didn't, it didn't really cause us. And it didn't cause any huge problems. I didn't think, but it didn't really work in the attack. Because Jogo wasn't, wasn't going to beat anybody, as we've discussed before.

And he couldn't really get a cross-passed the first defender. Yeah, the ball felt like it got stuck a little bit when it got over to him on the wing. On the other hand, over on the left side, Wiley had all kinds of joy and ended up causing some real problems for New Zealand, especially in the second half. And then, okay, New Zealand was, they came out with K. Sims and goal. his name will come up later. He had a major howler for the first goal, I thought, for the U.S. And then, you know, I guess nominally a 4-2-3-1 from New Zealand. It was Linder at right-back, Hughes and Sermann as the centerbacks.

And then Kelly Heald as the left-back. And then Conchi and O'Connell McKay as the two deepest midfielders. And then Wallace, Jay Hurdman, John Hurdman's son, and Garbet as the band of three and then Kalati, Kolodi, something like that, as the nine. I don't think anybody for New Zealand really stuck out. Herdman had a nice moment early in the game, but we just dominated them pretty much. Yeah, nothing to add there. There are two Vancouver Whitecaps reserve players, Hurdman and Linder, so a little bit of MLS flavor in their lineup.

But yeah, nobody really stood out to me. the first timeline item I have is a decent attack from New Zealand. They weren't completely toothless, and they played it up the right side, and it was played into the box, and then cut back, and kind of scuffed right in front of goal. Gomez got a foot in to put the shot off, and it was popped up and handled pretty easily by Slinina. So I thought we came out a little slow.

First 10 minutes from us were kind of probably our worst 10 minutes of the game, accepting perhaps the last 10 minutes. But that was a chance for New Zealand. They had one or two other dangerous moments. Yeah, if there's anything to take away defensively, I think the couple of times New Zealand saw a little bit of daylight seemed to be sort of the same situation where, and probably something a better team that we're likely going to play in the next round

might notice. and I think it's happened multiple times in the tournament, but Winder's the guy in the back three that has the leeway to go up, get involved in the buildup, but also try to break up any counter attacks and play, press up really high. And I think any time that doesn't, the transition doesn't stop there,

Wiley's often pretty far up, as a left winger, there is a lot of space in that area. And then, you know, when we're having, we're possessing the ball so far up, you know, it's a lot of, a lot of ground for Edelman and McGlynn to make up. And I think that that kind of cut back to Zone 14-ish area seems to be where we can be exposed if we're hit on the counter fairly quick. So I think just something we need to be aware of going forward. Yeah, definitely. Space, that space behind Wiley, and sometimes behind Winder when he gets forward. And that was where, I guess, the two other big moments of danger came from that I can remember.

There was a penalty check that took a little time. The very handsome ref smiling broadly throughout, and we got no replays on the FS2 broadcast for quite some time. It was thought that maybe Gomez handled the ball on that. on that attack I just mentioned, but they decided no. He didn't. And the game continued. Eight minute mark, I clocked a nice diagonal ball from Winder to Gomez,

so from the left center back all the way over to the right wing back. Just got a note, just got to clock that because Craig's been the one playing all the nice balls, and it's good to see something from Winder on that front. Yeah, I got a few other Winder notes. for some people out there. But this was definitely his best game. I thought, you know, it was fair that he had a poor game in the first one. But I also, you know, it was one game.

He's a very young centerback. And I had a feeling he would recover in this tournament. I'm still a pretty big believer in his talent. And I thought he was a lot more progressive and more aggressive with the ball in this game. And I think he's adjusted a little bit better. to the role that he's been playing, which is a new role for him. So overall, I was happy with Winder's performance. But yeah, this was a really nice diagonal.

There were a few passes that were a little off the mark, but there were more positive ones, I think, in this game than we'd seen in the past. Yeah, your faith. I would say your faith has been vindicated, as has Vince's faith. Two big Winder fans in the scuffed ecosystem here. Let's see. We, yeah, like I mentioned, we were not getting a lot done in the first 10 minutes. New Zealand set a line of confrontation just around the edge of the center circle in our half,

and they kind of let us tap it around. It took us a little while to figure out how to get going, but we did, you know, pretty shortly after the 10-minute mark. Yeah, I thought early on we were just sort of forcing balls, ground crosses kind of into, into nowhere. But yeah, it's starting to get a little bit more expansive as the game. Game moved on. But yes, the crosses into New Zealand, defenders' feet kind of continued throughout the game,

which was slightly annoying. It's our problem in the one of our problems in the attacking third. We just kind of run out of ideas. Winder, I got to notice, Winder tried for the scissor kick on, I think it was a McGlynn cross. maybe it was a Gomez cross. And it was kind of cool.

It just didn't fully connect with it. Went right at the keeper. 10.45 mark. I want to say Canada, but it's not Canada. It's New Zealand. Nearly scores on the counter. It's Jay Hurdman running at, I think it was Winder, and then cuts in on his left foot.

Winder is not real strong in the 1v1 there. and Herdman's shot, he doesn't fully connect with this one either, but it does force slinging it down to his right to make a good save. If the shot was better placed, it's probably a goal. And yeah, how did it develop? I think you saw that better than me. Yeah, if I remember right, I think it was again where we had a lot of numbers upfield. they were able to kind of, I think, make a pass or two to break the counterpress,

one of the few times they were able to break through the counterpress. And, yeah, Hurdman got some space behind Winder, and I think Winder was sort of running to recover, and Hurdman fainted like he was going to shoot his right, cut it on his left, and Winder took the bait. And, yeah, I mean, what it comes down to in the beginning of this game is you need your gold keeper to come up and make a play. I wouldn't say it was an out of this world save,

but it was a good save one he had to make. And he did, got enough on it so that the ball went wide of the post. And so that's all, you know, we know, we know Slinina may not have a ton to do in these games, but when just like last game, when he did, he showed up. So it was important. It could have changed the complexity of the game for sure, or the complexion of the game.

game if, you know, there was a mistake there. Yeah. Yep. Good point. And it's going to be borne out with the U.S. goal. It was in the 14th minute. Kind of, you know, a weird goal a little bit. It was a tap, tap, tap into Zone 14 from McGlynn to Luna to Wolf.

Nothing too complicated. Just sort of tapping it across the top of the box. And Wolf just strikes it low and slow through the defender's legs through the nearest defender's legs and it's headed far post just rolling along the ground almost in slow motion and uh sims the goalkeeper for new zealand he dives for it and right at the last second pulls his hand out of the way i mean that that was that's what i saw in the replay is that what you saw yeah but i think like the third the third shot that you know you're kind of wondering was it just one of those that was perfectly placed that did the the keeper kind of get you

you know, stuck in the ground and just, you know, couldn't explode out of his stance or did it take a funny bounce? It was, it was an odd one because it was from deep and not hit super cleanly. But yeah, I think he just, he didn't know, didn't know where his post was and lifted up his hand. And that's that. Bad mistake. Yeah, very silly. He, yeah, it seems like he thought it was rolling out of bounds. And instead it went into the goal, 1-0 USA. We'll take Celebration. Yeah, we'll take it for sure. And then the goalkeeper quickly went and got himself a baseball cap.

Sure did. I don't know what it had to do with the goal, but maybe he's just seeing a lot of sun and I got to get that cap on. It was important to the future narrative of why it happened. I guess, yeah. But your point about goalkeepers being important is pretty well highlighted by these two moments. Yeah, absolutely.

And then, so I'll jump into the next one. I thought we started to really expose New Zealand's press after the first goal. Maybe we loosened up a little bit, but it was a pretty soft kind of three-quarter press that we were finding a lot of space in the middle of the field at 15, 10 or so. Just a really nice sequence. So Luna was dropping in whenever McGlynn and Edelman were getting covered up. So Luna drops in, gives Winder an outlet. And he plays a really kind of decisive, nice ball, almost exactly to the center of the field to Wolf,

who took a really lovely, just kind of opens the inside of his boot, takes a nice little touch to Cal. Also, one touches it to Edelman, who immediately kind of slides Wiley into space. So he's starting to run full speed down the left channel, carries it just a couple yards short of the end line, cuts it back, but nobody home. Unfortunately, I think Wolf, or Wolf, Cowell, and Jogo kind of all crashed the gold mouth. And then Wiley is looking for that cutback and just kind of slides to nobody. So just clocking it again because this cutback seems to be a pattern. We continue to sort of fumble up a little bit. But we just needed one of those guys to hang back.

And I think it's a wide open goal. But the buildup leading to that was really lovely. Yeah. Just a little too thirsty. Or the three guys crashing the goal. Somebody's got to play a cool and hang back. Yeah, why don't you take the next one too? and I think around the 18 minute mark?

Yeah, I think, you know, the opposite happening when New Zealand's trying to break our press. So to me, it just became very clear, very early that they didn't really have the quality on the ball to consistently break down our press. And it looked like it was going to be a problem for them for a good bit of the game. And I think that definitely manifested

it itself. They got a little bit cleaner in the second half. They made some adjustments, but overall, I just don't think they had the quality to be able to do it consistently when our presses was pretty sound and resolute. So, yeah, it was at this point where I was like, okay, this is going to give them some problems all game. Yeah. Yeah, it's, our press was really good in this game, at least, against this opponent.

And it probably does have a lot to do with their ability. to their skill and, you know, just savvy about breaking it. But we created a lot of chances from the press. 20th minute, there's a wily cutback cross, another one of those that deflects off a defender and hits the crossbar, kind of bounces off the bottom of the crossbar, keeper rooted in the spot.

It would have been a hilarious way to go up to zero. It had two really, you know, kind of weird goals. But didn't go in. and it got cleared away. 22nd minute, a great ball over the top from McGlynn to Cowell, and McCall gets wrecked with a perfect tackle in the box. Kind of a quiet first half from Kate Cowell, I thought. I'm not sure why that was,

but as the game opened up in the second half, he certainly got to have his fun. Yeah, I'd agree with that. I'd also clock that it's about this point where I'm really tired of the announcer calling Justin Shea, Shaye Justin. This is where it was like noticeably irritating me

as I was watching the game. Yeah. Yeah, that was crazy. What else did he do? He was calling Josh Weinder, Winder. Winda? You know, whatever. It's a U-20 World Cup.

They're not putting the best and brightest on these games. Let's see. Lots of lovely play through the middle. You described some of it with that moment in the 16th minute, but McClinta Luna or Maglinda Wolf, we can just

very easily cut through cut through New Zealand and get rolling into the final third. It's just once we get into the final third, what are we going to do? And we didn't quite have it. Sorted out. Yep. Yeah. A lot of this, a lot of pockets

of space, a lot of good one-touch combination. Even when we're losing the ball, we're winning it back relentlessly, which I think has been and a theme of the tournament or just been really good at getting the ball back quickly, which is a sign of a strong squad. So this kind of just continued.

Yeah, Edelman, a big part of that. Wolf, too. I think McGlynn even got in on some action. There was a nice press break from New Zealand in the 32nd minute. But they can't get it into a dangerous spot, so it cycles back. and then all of a sudden we're pressing them again. Edelman wins it in the press to Luna to Wolf.

Wolf shoots this time from 25 yards and hits it pretty well, but it's wide. I didn't see a replay to see how wide it was, but it looked close. And then, yeah, you go ahead in the 34th minute. Yeah, I just want to give Vince a shout out because he, well, not really a shout out because I clock winder with a really nice finesse left-footed pass again. I keep hearing that he doesn't have a left foot, so I'm just going to clock a couple more where Winder uses his left successfully.

Yep, yep. 34th minute, nice cage match work from Wolf. A player I've been a little bit critical of to get past two players. He drives into Zone 14, plays it over to Cowell. Cowell's shot is blocked, but falls to Wolf, and he plays it back to McGlynn. And then you want McGlynn shooting from the,

spot. I feel like I do, but his shot from 20 goes over. He hasn't been able to keep him on frame from that distance much this tournament, which is going to change one of these times. Yeah, that's kind of, that's what I'm thinking. Like, it's a matter of time at this point. He's just saving it for, for a big one. So I think he keeps getting these chances. I think one's about to find the back of the net. So I'm fine with him continuing to have these. 37th minute is when I start to really feel like Gomez is not being able to do much with the ball wide when he's on that right side

this was a I think he cut in on his left sometimes he tried to cut in on his left he get dispossessed this time he cut in on his left he played a pass tried to play a cross and it just went over everybody I I wonder if

you know Boris is tempted to start holiday over him right that's that's that's that's where my head was at as well it's i i i appreciate the creativity to try to get your best players on the field but um i don't know that in that in that situation or in that role if he is more effective than halliday i think halliday's going to provide you a lot of you know good defense and um especially if we see a little bit more of Paretas on the right in the future. You know, Halliday providing that width so that Paredes can cut it on his left foot might be a better combination. There might be too many left-footed

players on the field if Paredes does get a start at some point. So yeah, I would be thinking about it if I'm Mikey. But, you know, it's not a big enough problem where you're like it has to change, but it might be a little bit more effective to have a natural right-footed player over there. Right. And Halliday's been, you know, there hasn't been that much drop-off when he's come on the field. I think it's been pretty good. Yeah, no, I wouldn't say so. 40th minute, Cowell accidentally destroys a guy running down a ball in the channel.

I don't think he even meant to do anything to him. The guy just fell down and got hurt. I don't know how badly hurt he was. But he picks it up. He kind of waits. He's like, wait, is there going to be a, whistle here, but then he picks it up, dribbles along the end line, and tries to tap it across the six.

Gomez gets a toe to it, but it trickles across the face of goal. So another near, I mean, it just felt like we were about to score there. There were a lot of chances here at the end of the first half. We're not going to go through all of them, but right at the death, right at like the six minute of stoppage time, there was a, I believe it was a corner kick that ended up out, got cleared out to Edelman, and he had a nice volley, a strike low. to the keeper's right that was saved. And then the ball ends up over with McGlynn.

And he just, this is a lovely pass from him. He just kind of teases a curling ball behind the back line. Both Josh Weinder and Justin Shea are charging at it. I think Winder is the one who reaches it. And it pops it over on the stretch. So another near, another near goal for us. And then the half arrives. Half arrives.

Yeah, I think the story is New Zealand's press isn't bothering us too much, was sort of surprised that they stuck with it. And they actually got more aggressive, I think, in the second half, which I thought was an interesting tactical approach. And then, yeah, just a lot of chances, nothing dropping. Well, one dropping. I thought in general, the wingbacks were struggling at this point a little bit just to get in good service, both Wiley and Jogo. I thought Wolf had an excellent half. I think that he was probably the one that people were

questioning the most in terms of the starting lineup. But the interchange and kind of fluidity that was happening in the midfield, with really three or four natural midfielders playing, Wolf was just doing a lot of good turning in traffic, ball security and then obviously have the goal. But overall, I thought he was playing really well at this point. Yeah, and I talked already a little bit about the one kind of exposure area when Winder gets pulled up. And we got a bunch of players in New Zealand's final third that can be a little bit of a danger area.

But it didn't really continue to happen in the second half. We cleaned that up a little bit. Yeah, we started to really flex on them. So, yeah, those are good notes. 46th minute, McGlynn wins it in the press, and Luna releases Cal into the man's city zone. And his left-footed cross is right at Sims, the keeper. What were you seeing around this time in the game? Yeah, just, I'm loving kind of what I'm seeing from both Edelman and Winder.

So Winder was doing a bit of enforcing. I thought he had a nice crunching tackle to initiate a transition. and then Herdman tried to play a one-two around him. He passed the ball, and Winder just kind of bodied him, and he fell right to the ground. So I'd just like to see that kind of enforcing behavior from Winder. And then Edelman just seems to be winning everything. Every second ball is timing when he's kind of going into a duel.

In the press is always just really spot on, and he wins a lot of those duels. So I think all said and done, I think Vargas has been great in the tournament, but Edelman did seem to be the right guy for what they needed in this game, and I thought he was doing a really good job all game. Yeah. What is the trade-off there? Because it seems to me that Vargas is better on the half-turn, you know, a little more comfortable with that sort of 360-degree awareness than Edelman is.

But is Edelman more just more industrious in the press? Yeah, I think that's fair. I think he's just got really good instincts in the press and breaks up a lot of the transition moments even when we turn the ball over. But yeah, Vargas is going to give you a little bit more in terms of progressing the ball. I do at times get frustrated that Edelman isn't looking to turn and be positive. He's sometimes just bouncing it back to the centerback too often. But I do think he's a little underrated.

and he's pretty clean on the ball. His passes are not always, you know, incredibly dynamic, but they're typically accurate. They're typically to the right spot. So he has some ability on the ball. He's not a total, you know, liability there. So I do think, I think those are probably the tradeoffs. Yeah.

Okay. 50th minute, we get a huge chance. It's a McGlynn, a McGlynn ball on the ground. Sort of, I guess you can't call it a dime if it's a ball played on the ground. but it was a really nice pass on the ground to Wiley who's making a very well-timed run into the box. Wiley plays the ball across for Jogo. This is the cutback. This is the run and the cutback.

Everything's perfect. Jogo tries to hit it with his right foot and he just, I don't know if he even scuffed it. I don't know if you can even say that. It kind of went off the outside of his boot or maybe his toe and out of bounds from five yards out. Now, he was under some pressure from a defender on his right shoulder, but the goal was open. And you'd like to see him put that one away. Yeah, you know, the earlier one I called out, I think I was mistaken for this one. So this was the moment where, yeah, it just rolled off of his right foot in a weird way.

Yeah. Okay. I think the other one was off his right. Well, I can't remember. There's an Edelman shot that goes over after a Wiley Cross gets punched over to him. And I don't know what precipitated this comment on the Discord, but I wanted to highlight it because I think it's sort of, it's sort of, captures Cade Cowell in a nutshell. And it was Nancy who said,

the day when Cowell becomes a proactive rather than reactive striker will be glorious. And I feel like that's what it comes down to. When he starts to see the opportunities before they develop and uses all that speed and, frankly, power to get to those spots, it's going to be a real hand. And I think he will probably grow that way.

He's still a young player. Yeah. I mean, that really is it. I think whenever that comes, if that comes, he's going to be a real problem. So I've been on the train of, I think it's probably time for him to leave San Jose. Not necessarily because, you know, it's good that he's playing. He's playing a bunch this year. but he hasn't really taken big steps forward the last few years.

And these are the years where he, you know, tactically, or he should be becoming more of a proactive striker. So I just wonder if a change in scenery, a change in, you know, development approach might just be what he needs. So he's definitely not hurting his stock in the tournament. I don't know if he's massively improving it. I think he's kind of what we all think he is and probably what, you know,

the people who get paid to do this think he is. But I do wonder if it's just a change of scenery is what he needs, and that's kind of what I'd like to see this summer. Hmm. Yeah, I'd be for it. I mean, he's been an absolute handful for the opponents in this tournament, and we'll see that here shortly

because basically the rest of the episode is going to be goals. But let's see, 56th minute New Zealand breaks our press pretty cleanly right behind Wiley as we sort of discussed earlier

it's Craig you know Craig kind of retreated from the winger as as Wiley was eliminated and left a lot of space from I wasn't sure that was the right thing to do

but in any case it was the cross was smothered by Slinina it wasn't really it was a bad cross for honest but I do wonder, did you, did you clock that moment? Did you notice that? I didn't. I think what I was, what I was noticing here, not to say that that wasn't the case, I just noticed like the energy really had dropped. Like it looked like, I don't know if our legs were heavy. I mean, it turned

out that they weren't because we picked it back up. But in the mid-50 minutes, I was just like, ah, we just kind of look a little lethargic. And it was, you know, being only up one-zero, it was starting to make me worry. But I was wrong. Yeah, well, let's go right to the goal. The 61st minute. It's another press-created chance. Shea wins it, wins an errant pass over to Wolf. Wolf plays it to Luna.

Luna plays it to Cowell, who stands his guy up just inside the box and just punches it through his legs with his left foot. A perfect strike hits the side netting. No chance for the keeper. 2.0 USA. That's three goals in the tournament for Cowell, two assists on the game for Luna. and we're up to zero and it felt like that was the end of the game pretty much. Yeah, it did.

And it was a really interesting strike by Cal. I think the defender and the goalie didn't seem like they were expecting it, him to play it, the kind of strike it quick with his left foot and he hit it super clean. Yeah. The amount of power he generated with his off foot into the side netting was pretty impressive. Yeah, because I assume they're expecting him to try to, nudge the ball onto his right foot and curl it far post or take it to the end line and

cut it back but he didn't either excellent technique and choice and you know it was kind of a celebration from then on luna gets a chance in the 64th minute on a with the press i forget who won it but the press put the ball at his feet just inside the box he dragged it back and touched it out to his right real elegant and um and then sent it two feet wide of the far post I should mention here Luna's having a lot of fun out there and you could tell on the broadcast every time the ball was at his feet

the crowd got a little more into it he seems like a crowd favorite down there yeah he's definitely got that flare that I think South American fans like to see and he's growing into the false nine roll a little bit I think it's becoming more and more

effective and if he can just kind of get a better feel for when to keep it, when to release it. It could be really dangerous, but I was definitely earlier in the tournament more in favor of a traditional yappy striker, but Luna Falls 9 is starting to grow on me, definitely. Yeah, me too. So Halliday comes on for Wiley.

Jogo goes over to the left wingback spot, and then Obit Vargas comes on for Jack McGlynn. They both get some much-needed rest, I would say. and then in the 75th minute we get our third goal of the game. It's Luna on the counter. It's a set piece or something that gets headed out to Luna. And he just goes up, he's off to the races. He shows off a little bit of his speed.

The guy who's chasing him is trying to drag him down, trying to take a tactical yellow, and Luna just will not allow it. And continues, shrugs the guy off, plays Cowell wide. I think Cowell, I'm actually, At first I thought, well, Cal should have played it across to Justin Shea or whoever it was on the other side. Immediately when he got on the ball, I don't know if it was on. I think it was unclear to me whether there was a defender in the way or not.

Anyway, he eliminates the goalkeeper, Cal does, by going to the end line. His touch takes him a little too wide, and he tries to play it across but doesn't quite connect with the ball. So it trickles across for Luna. Luna tries to stab at home from basically point blank with the outside of his boot. But there are two guys in his way and he doesn't finish. Fortunately, the rebound falls to Justin Shea and he just takes it on the half folly and thumps at home, 3-0. Yeah. Goal, Shea Justin.

Shea Justin on the score sheet. And then Shakiris comes on for Luna. Pookstis comes on for Wolf. Give me some more Winder news. Yeah, just another one for you, Vince. Another nice little left pass by Winder. Just telling you he's got it. Yeah.

Okay. And then a couple things to note, a nice ball in transition from Kowl to Shakira. Cowell has that ability to play a good pass when he has the game in front of him. And this was a lovely ball. And behind, Shakiris is in on goal, but kind of just gets it stuck underneath him.

He looked a little, can look a little overly upright, you know, and he gets the ball stuck underneath him, has to recycle it backwards, so it sort of cancels out the chance that is created by Cal. I don't know. Shakira does still look a little rusty to me. What do you think? Yeah, I guess a little bit, but I still think he's got, you know, maybe the best composure in the final third of any of us to play.

So I'm willing to take a loose touch here there if he's able to make something happen or, you know, find that extra pass that some of the other guys are not finding in the final third. So there's the reward out risks or outweighs the risk for me on him. Okay. Yeah. I agree. He's a prober of the defense along with Luna and does seem to make pretty good decisions. another left-footed player too, by the way. If we had McGlynn, Shakiris, Wiley, Gomez, and Perettis out there all at the same time. Is there anybody else who's left-footed? All five of those are left-off. I think that's it.

But yeah, that's a lot of south pause. Yeah. And then in the 82nd minute, we get the fourth goal. It's a Brandon Craig set piece. We've talked about how good his set-pieces have been. And this one is just smoked over the goal. at the back post, the goalkeeper waves at it helplessly, and Rokas Pookstis, who had just come on, thumps it home from an inch out, 4-0, and we celebrate.

Yeah, beautifully executed, perfect ball, clearly set up to get Pooksus free in the backpost. This is something Rokos is going to bring to this team, so this is our first set-piece goal, I think. And Pooksus has, you probably, others have heard me say this before, but he's got it. He's got some Weston McKinney to him. He scores a lot of goals in the air, and he's just got a good vertical jump, good timing. This was an easier one for him, but he's capable of being a problem in the air. So that's something he's going to add to the team. And no surprise that the play was set up to get him free on the backpost.

So keep an eye out for that. I think Craig and McGlynn delivering to one more aerial threat, poxas could be the difference in those numbers. So nice little welcome back for him gets right into the game and scores a goal. Yeah, yeah, love to see it. And then Paredes comes on for Cowell and immediately trips on the ball. Yeah, he did get a little. Well, go ahead, go ahead. No, yeah, I think it looked like he caught like a divot on the,

pitch, which the field was not great. I don't know if you noticed that, but the ball was not rolling super cleanly into central parts of the field. But yeah, it looked like he caught a ghost there. And then I think like one minute later, he, like, I think Shea plays him a ball and he just kind of whiffed on the half turn and turned it over again. So we're just going to chalk that up to jet lag. We know, we know Kevin's better than that. Yeah. Yeah, definitely jet lag. I think on the first one, the one where he, you know, really just gave the ball away. in space was um he did have a he did kind of get tripped by the defender behind him a little bit like you know like two two paces before two steps before he fell um but i do think you know we'll see

how paredes plays in the next in the next one and we'll see if he starts you know i don't know if that's a that's a given but the i i think there's a little bit of an idea in the fan base that like Kevin Perretus is just head and shoulders above everybody else on this team. I've never really thought that. And it may turn out to be true. I've been wrong on a lot of fronts. But I don't know. I don't see Perretta as like this huge savior who's going to come in and like carry us the way I think some people do.

Yeah. I think that's totally fair. And I think part of what you're saying is maybe not an. indictment on Predus, but also putting a little respect on the rest of the roster. I mean, it's a pretty, one thing that I've noticed is there just aren't a lot of like noticeable weak links. And I think, you know, we haven't played the toughest opponents yet. So we're going to probably, you know, potentially see like an Uruguay squad that's probably pretty good. But I think overall, all, it's been a very, you know, consistent balance performance up and down the roster.

So, yeah, I don't think Paredes is head and shoulders a lot better than the other players that are on the team. I think he is going to, he can be valuable. He does have some skill. But I think to call him, you know, head and shoulders, the best part in the team is probably a little unfair. Yeah, and I don't want to mischaracterize people. I don't know that anybody's saying he's the best player on the team, but he, um,

Maybe some people are, but I just don't think he's going to be a total game changer for us, though he will be useful, of course. The only other thing I have is the big tackle from Shea Justin at the end of the game. There's a ball in behind, a bit of a missed challenge from Craig, and Shea is the one who's there to, he's basically facing two attackers, one with the ball, one arriving in the middle of the box. and he manages to take the ball from the ball carrier and send it out of bounds and celebrates like he just scored a goal, which I love to see. And I'll take the opportunity to say that Mr. Justin has been quite good in this tournament, quietly at first,

but it seems like his performances have been louder in their goodness as the tournament has gone on. Yeah, I think that's really fair to say. And he's one of the players, I think, who needed to have a good tournament. You know, there's been a lot of discourse around, like, well, how important is the U20 World Cup to, like, raise your stock? Like, you know, especially for the players that didn't get released in MLS, like, is it more important that they're at the U20 World Cup versus playing for their MLS club? And I think it's probably fair that, like, the data that scouts and front office people are getting from playing an MLS is probably more important than the data here. But for players like Shea, who've kind of had a meandering path, I think this is a really important tournament for him.

And what he's showing, I think, that has been sort of the question mark is just his defensive awareness and solidity. And he's been, I think, for the most part, really solid defensively. And yeah, I love seeing the team celebrate. these defensive plays just as much as they're celebrating goals. And Shay specifically has kind of been doing that all tournament. I've noticed he's just, you know, kind of known as being more of a calm, quieter guy, but getting pumped up for these, you know, big defensive challenges.

So it's cool to see. And I think a lot of the guys who I think needed to have a big tournament are playing really well. And I think it's going to be, it is going to be useful for, you know, where they land in the future. All right. on to Gambia or Uduuguay. The Gambia. The Gambia, yeah. Very small country, both in population and in land size.

Yeah, that'll be interesting to see who wins that one. Yeah, I mean, I think the Gambia was sort of a surprise in their group, played pretty well. And, you know, Uruguay, I think the only loss was to England, and that was like a, I think, like, a three, two, four, three game. So, yeah, I think it'll be a challenge either way. I'm definitely going to tune in and see what we're going to be going up again. So excited for that. And let's get past this quarter final hurdle, shall we? Then beat Brazil, probably, right?

And then beat Argentina on their home soil in the final. Well, Brazil would be a kind of full circle cycle for this group. Because if those that remember, this age group started a couple years ago, in the Confederation's Cup and they got absolutely blasted by Brazil like four or five to zero. Not a lot of the same players playing, to be fair. It was the first time Mikey was with the group

and I think they were together two days before they had to play Brazil. But it would be kind of an interesting moment to get to play them again and see how far the guys have come. So I'm definitely hoping for that. That was the Revelations Cup, right? Oh, Revelations Cup.

I said Confederation's Cup. Yeah, yeah. It was an Asian Cup. an Asian cup. Yeah. I mean, a revelation is bigger than a Confederation, if you really think about it.

Stop. Think about it. All right. Well, thanks again, Marcus. I'll put the link to the U.S. Soccer Collective and Marcus's Twitter account in the show notes. And thanks everybody for listening.

We'll see you.