Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #459: Annual Review — USMNT

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

Greg, Vince, Watke and Belz talk through several awards, some of them voted on by Scuffed listeners. This episode dropped yesterday for patrons. Making it public today. Happy Holidays!Timestamps of some of the annual awards:4:00 commentator of the year6:18 comeback coach of the year17:50 most cowardly Friday news dump27:00 happiest newcomer of the year57:00 lower division of the year1:15:20 goal of the year for club1:20:00 goal of the year for country1:25:50 player of the yearSubscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! You get exclusive episodes one or two times a week, plus access to the Discord and live call-in shows, by signing up for as little as $2 a month: 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. Hey, everybody, it's the last Monday review of 2023. So we're doing an annual review, as has become our custom. We ask patrons to help us by voting on a few key awards, and we'll get to those in due time. First, we have several of our own awards chosen in the wisdom of our editorial judgment. Got Waki, Vince, and Greg here. Waki, how are you? Doing very well, Adam.

Greg? Sorry. Sorry, Walker. Please keep talking about it. I just wanted to say, I think we had a good year. And that was a bit of a bummer, though, that you just caught me off like that, though.

So it's... I'm sorry. I apologize. It's okay. That was tough, Bills. That was tough. I'm not allowed to you. Best interruption of the year.

You know what I'm saying? Adam Bills. Greg, how are you? I'm good, man. This was a fun year. We managed to, I mean, year after the World Cup on the men's side can be a little bit down. I mean, we obviously have the Women's World Cup. We have the, you know, the Gold Cup, but it can sometimes, on the men's side,

after the World Cup can feel like a little bit blah. But I think that everyone collectively really dialed in on giving us stuff to be entertained by. And so I'm grateful. Yes. Yeah. So, like, with the World Cup that was looming, right, ever since we missed the World Cup in 2018, you know what I'm saying? It was always about, we were hyper-focused because of the fact that we missed one, you know what I'm saying? It's World Cup, World Cup, World Cup, World Cup.

We didn't get a lot of character development in there, you know what I'm saying? So now that the big event has passed, you know what I'm saying, it's like an anime. You know, you go through a huge saga, a huge little story arc, start back over, you get some character development. Let's check in with these guys. Let's see how they really doing. Let's see, you know what I'm saying, how the events of the past year have shaped and mowed them. And so we've, you know, we've found some new characters that we will be attached to from here on out. And also, you know, our boys, they're getting older.

They're getting larger, stronger, stronger within their powers and stronger within their, you know, personalities. Their sense of self is growing. Prefrontal cortex also growing, developing. Hardening out there, isn't it? Huh? The cortex is hardening up. That's what happens to it, right? Does anyone know?

I shouldn't have developed. It's getting new furrows in it. I don't know what the hell happens. But yeah, it's great to see. And great to know with us, you know, as we do this podcast that, you know, we will have enough content to get us through the downtimes. And, you know, like once 2024 hits, it's going to, it's just going to keep rolling, rolling, rolling, until 2026, it seems, with events and games and Atlanta, all different types of things. So it's only up from here, ladies and gentlemen.

It sounds like you're doing well, Vince, but let me just ask you. How are you? I got to ask. Oh, I'm doing great. Yeah. I'm doing great. I had a birthday party for the baby yesterday. You know what I'm saying?

It was, it was, uh, it was, uh, it was, it was, it was the Monday, 52 weeks ago that, that she was born. You know what I'm saying? It was right after a Monday review. I was, I was feeling very tired and got the call for my wife that we need to go to the hospital.

But, um, yeah, happy to be here. Happy to be here, ladies and gentlemen. Okay, let's go to the first award, which, uh, I'm going to award to the best commentator of 2023. and I don't think it's even close. It's Maro Suma from AC Milan TV. Let me just remind you of some of his work. This is his call of the game winner against Genoa

on October 7th. Pulisik's game winner against Genoa. Come on Pulisik, Servito Calabria, that all right of game on Musa. Musa prepare the cross. Bella Pala. Go! Go!

Has seen a great guy at Pulisik. USA! That bad, Bobby! Come on, brother! Come on, Friday! Yes, we can. Yes, we did. Yes, we all.

Yes. Yes. Yes. USA! USA! For future years in this award, we probably need to, first of all,

call it the Morrow Suma Award. And you shouldn't be eligible anymore because otherwise no one else is ever going to win this thing. Nobody's going to be Morrow Suma. It's just, I mean, come on.

The fact what really killed me is him throwing the yes we can in there. Yes, we can. Yes, we did. Yeah.

Yes. Like I said earlier this year, at some point, he's going to throw it no justice, no peace in the, perhaps he's saving that for when unit scores.

But may this long continue. May this long continue. I mean, in like the sickle community, it's never going to pass Ian Dark in the mainstream. It's called the Donovan's goal against Algeria.

But in the sicko community, I feel like it's making a push. That that audio file is going to have quite a long way. Yeah, when I think about it, the only thing that even comes to mind is Ian Dark's call against Algeria, the Go-Go USA one. Which, like, Ian Dark is such a legend that even when I wasn't, you know, a sicko, I mean, when I was barely paying attention to soccer at all and just tuned in for the World Cups, and Dark was always my gun. I knew that man by name, you know,

back in like 2006. Love that guy. Ready for the next award? Yeah, next award from Yuwaki. It is a comeback coach of the year. The winner is Greg Burhalter. I think it's unquestionable. Just an incredible comeback.

There's no way he was... That's right. I mean, he was dead pretty much, and then suddenly here he is. He's made it back. That's right. And no one really saw it coming. Yeah, totally ruled it out, right?

Like as soon as we hire, we announced we hire this firm. I mean, of course, all the drama, there was the drama, which you all have covered thoroughly and excellently. But then there was the, like, we hired a firm. We hired a firm to like head hunt or, you know, to find it. And I feel like at that point, I was certain that, well, you don't hire a firm, pay all this money to have a consultant say, extend this man's contract. There was any way it was going to happen. Yeah. Wouldn't have predicted it.

For the fact that he did come back, I would agree that he gets the award. But his comeback, in and of itself, hasn't been that impressive. First of all, he didn't coach all summer. The award is for that he did come back. Yeah, exactly. Like, I mean, come on.

This was against all of a lot. in the first place. The fact that he even came back and got the job is, you know what I'm saying? Newton, the sporting director that, you know, allegedly he had the buddy buddy relationship, incestuous relationship, people would say that would even allow him to keep the job. You know, he got the job because people, once again, the incestuous relationship with his, well, I guess we don't have to say incestuous when it's your literal brother. People saying that his brother was the reason why he was.

got the job. He was able to keep the job because one of his good friends was a sporting director. We get a new sporting director. We hire a search firm. We have a, in my opinion, a very effective hit from Danielle and Claudia Arena to Greg Burrhoff's character. You know what I'm saying? And I thought at that point, with everything that was going on, But yeah, it just it just wasn't the juice wasn't worth to squeeze necessarily to bring Greg back and that he shouldn't want to come back. But that, but that's, you know, that's why he's hashtag the coach, I guess, and I'm just over here talking to a microphone. It would have been, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to hire Jesse Marsh. Like that would have been so easy to do.

And like, you're covered in all areas. you are not, like, you're not exposed at all other than like if your team is bad, but you, I mean, that's not your issue. That's Jesse's issue. And then you just fire him. So it would have been super easy for U.S. soccer to, I feel like, played it safe and just hired Jesse Marsh and not opened up any of these, uh, avenues of criticism and second guessing. But, uh, but they didn't. They, uh, it's almost like it turns into this almost bold decision because you're so, you've left yourself so open, um, to, I.

I guess what I'd say is easy Monday morning quarterbacking because everyone was doing the Monday morning quarterbacking instantly. Yeah. Yeah, the fact that we had a new sporting director who was the one who presumably decided to bring him back or played a key role and deciding to bring him back. That's the crazy part. The Welshman comes in and decides he wants to. if you let Mac Crocker tell it apparently you know the interview process was you know exhaustive yeah that fan was deliberately exhaustive it was you know 48 hours straight of deliberate of questioning and i don't know i i assume this is you know when you get interrogated or something

as a as a as a criminal yeah they're putting them in stress positions and and asking them questions and playing playing babies crying. They just hook up the microphone to Vince's nursery for the last year. Yeah. I mean, so shout out Greg, man. Shout out Greg. Hashtag the coach.

I mean, Bells, we can get into the actual results of the return so far. I mean, what's he coached? Four matches. Six matches? Yeah, six. Anyhow, so Greg Burhler does win combat coach of the year.

Yes. Congratulations, Greg. Forrest coming back. And part of that is just there's no other. It wasn't that well thought through a category, I guess, because there's no other really candidates. But we had to recognize them, though. Yeah. Yeah.

We had to recognize them. And the fact, I mean, Waki, that the antics have been pared down a little bit, it seems? They have been. I think part of it is we just haven't had enough competitive games to get a big enough sample. Okay. You know, I thought maybe, I thought maybe like Peter Bossks, Bossch, would sneak in as an American adjacent, who's kind of, I guess, made a comeback.

All coaches, I feel like, are coming back from the last time they were fired. And he's American adjacent enough. And he's having quite a go there at PSV. So I thought maybe we'd sneak him in. But no, I feel like I did have to go to Greg Burrhalter. I mean, I like that, though. I'm open to switching awards. I don't know if a rule about switching them once we've already awarded them.

I guess the episode can just go on too long. Should we get into the bylaws? We'll check the we can run through the bylaws at the break. Yeah. People were still calling, just real quick, people were calling Bosho, you know, when he was already like 7 and 0, 8 and 0, 9 and 0, 10 and no. And I think finally that's stopped now that they continue to be unbeaten in the era of his Ian into the knockout rounds of the championship.

Like how rounds is a big deal because it was you could you could see calling him a bozo when he hadn't played anybody good yet in the in the domestic league and they were sitting at the bottom of the Champions League table. But the last four weeks where they have just run through the other teams in the top of the Airdivisi and won a couple of games in Champions League play to get to the knockouts. Like now there's this the season for them is already an incredible success and boss is going to end up with this boss. How do you say? Does anyone actually? Bosch. Bosch. Yeah.

And Bosch is going to, he's going to have a statue. Ernie's going to have a statue. Bosch. We got statues coming. Several. Okay. Now's the time to award. We have a couple awards to give to Ernie.

Well, hold on. Just this one, just real quick. Before we move on for the coaches, I just wanted to mention the fact, like, you know, talking about perspective coaches. you know, people had thrown Tierra Henri's name out there. And I just want to mention the fact that I think Wilfred Nancy has basically

like on Tieri's entire coaching career. With the fact that, you know, T.T was at. Montreal, he was doing like, okay. He was doing all right. Like, he wasn't getting fired. He left because, you know, he wanted to, like, get back to his family in Europe.

That's what the, that's what he said. That's what the club ran with. all that type of stuff. But then for Wilfred to come in and just completely on everything that Tieri has done, I did think that that probably maybe has played a factor, and it's probably why he continues to sit at that CVS desk instead of, and coach was Belgium on the international breaks as opposed to, you know, either have another club job or be a head man somewhere.

He's also incredibly good at TV, I would say. he should stick to it. We can take Wilf's in arc one step further and say that he also then went on to Columbus and won a trophy with Columbus. But I feel like we did touch on that right after he won.

Wilf, for the U.S. men's national team right after we crash out of Copa. No question. Okay. What's the next award? Well, Bells, do you have like a music that you can play to like the Oscars?

To end discussion on any one award and move on to the next one. You can play that. You'll load it up. No, the only music I have loaded up is something from MF Doom's Christmas album. So we're going to have to play that in the break. I'm going to save it. Let's do the next award. The next award is Most Startling On Field Behavior Award.

And it goes to Sergenio Dest for punching the ball into the stands. and then yelling a lot at the referee and getting a red card in the first half of our game against Trintern and Tobago. I was very surprised by this. I think everyone was, I think it's a clear winner. I don't even know if there are any other candidates and we can probably just move on in the next award

unless you guys have anything to add. No, just that I continue to be startled by it. I'm in a state of continued startlement. But he's come back very well. from it. He has. We have given in the past the most inscrutable player of the year award, and so I think I see no reason to stop this year. It goes again to Sergenio Dess for the second time, is that double yellow at Trinidad, which you just mentioned, is arguably the least

scrutable event in the history of U.S. soccer. What I'm impressed by is Serge didn't like Coast, right? He won inscrutable, player last year. And it's not like he was just like, oh, I'll just kind of coast and kind of keep doing the same old stuff. You know, just be a little bit, just be a little bit off at team meetings and interviews. But no, he, he went just as hard, if not harder this year than than he had last year. And he's actually had this new thing, a brand new thing he started doing in the past couple weeks is he's posted a lot of memes to his Instagram that you wouldn't have think he had. He has one where it says Google Maps, arrival time, 46, me outside at 539.

It's a picture of Vint Diesel from Fast and Furious. So he's just kind of throwing those up on his Instagram. He has another one where it says, me thinking about that one T-shirt I haven't seen in a while, and it's an anime picture of that kind of dejected guy sitting on his bed. Probably an expensive t-shirt. Yeah. And he posted a good video of one of those miniatures of a big Christmas scene.

with like a skiing and set to Andy Williams' Christmas song. So. He's an interesting guy. We get, yeah, we get 10 more years of this man. How lucky of a fan base are we to just,

no matter what club he goes to, no matter how he's doing it, whichever club he goes to, we just get to have him all the time. He's ours. scored a lovely goal yesterday for PSV, too. Left-footed, bottom, I'm going to do the next award if there are no objections to that.

Most cowardly Friday News Dump Award. I could also call it the disservice to the game award. It goes to Major League Soccer and Don Garber for announcing that they are going to not allow first teams to play in USO Cup for whatever its flaws, and I'm not saying it's the tournament it could be. the Open Cup is one of the few truly merit-based egalitarian vestiges of American soccer. Major League Soccer pulling the rug out from under the rest of the pyramid. Again, as flawed as it may be, is a clear signal that they do not give a shit.

They just don't. They want to monopolize the sport, control every part of it that's profitable, neglect the parts that aren't profitable, and no, it's not good for the game in this country. This is just one of the outgrows of this problem. I have a very lengthy historical metaphor to connect it to, but I think I'm going to not do that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think it's probably best. It's not.

It's not, but the thing is it's not, it's not capitalism. It's not, it's not fair, and I'm mad. And I already canceled my Apple TV subscription. Did you really? I did. Yeah. I barely used it anyway, to be honest. Because there was a big kerfuffle about, I can't remember who, I think it was called

a regular USMNT guy or fan on Twitter. He mentioned to Tom Bogart, he was thinking about doing that, and that turned into a big argument, and then I'm hearing that people were actually doing that. Yeah, I don't need that. I don't need to watch San Jose versus Real Salt Lake at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night. I'm out. Diego Luna. I can check it out on White Scout after the fact.

But yes, of course. As I tweeted, you know what I'm saying? I had an MLS and caught on some bids. It's a biff's a move. You know. And one that we saw coming. You know, they started talking about this. sometime in June

let's see Jeff Ruter had a chat with MLSPA director so this is both sides right both sides of the argument the MLSPA and MLS itself seemed to be an agreement on this issue and MLSPA director Bob Fuse said

I will say my personal opinion is that it's not at the level that our players should be playing at at this point the venues aren't there the facilities aren't there the structure of the tournament isn't contributing to making MLS a better league. And I think it's something that ought to be pondered. And to that, Mr. Fuse, since he represent the players, I would guess I would ask you,

if Corey Baird was German, what type of field would he be playing on? You know what I'm saying? He would be out back in the, well, what's some regional leagues that Josh Sargent used to play in? Oberliga. You know what I'm saying? I'm just saying, you know, what kind of league would Corey Baird be playing in? What kind of league would Nick Lima be playing in? What kind of fields would they be seeing on a daily basis?

You know what I'm saying? So have a little bit of humility. You know what I'm saying? Realize who you are. Realize the fact that, you know, even as MLS has continued to gain like somewhat of a foothold in these cities, you know what I'm saying? Philadelphia Union were in a championship and some random ladies on the street had no clue what the hell they were talking about. and reference the Philadelphia Union workers before even realizing the MLS team, the Philadelphia Union. You know what I'm saying?

Blue-collar workers got more clout, which they probably should. Labor. Yeah. Blue-collar labor has more clout than your professional sports teams in some of your more established cities, Mr. Fuse. And, you know, Mr. Garby, I mean, I know you behind it too. I didn't get, we don't have direct quotes from you, but, um, Clark Hunt, Bill McGuire. All you dip, it's ridiculous.

Yeah. They don't care about, they don't care about growing the game or the culture of soccer in America. They just don't, they don't care. And Mr. Hunt, for you to do that, Mr. Hunt, especially. You know, and in the fact that, Lamar, Lamar. his name is, yes. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that's just disgusting from you. It's just disgusting from you. And to me, it's hustling backwards in the sense that what could be a greater advertisement, I guess, for yourself and your league, then coming to lower league stadiums and playing their teams, you know what I'm saying? As a lower league fan, that's a big, that's a big day. You know, when Nashville came to Louisville in, it's 2021 now. Maybe 2022.

When Nashville came to Louisville, it was big. It was an occasion. It was fun. You know what I'm saying? Walker Zimmerman playing at Lynn Family Stadium. Honey Mukhtar. Dax McCarty.

You know, Dax McCarty got work time match. I'm not going to go hold you. Yeah, fist it up a little bit. But, yeah, just disgusting. Just nasty. But it's what we've come to expect from MLS. And like I said, that quote from Bob Fuse that I just read was from June. So, you know what I'm saying?

This has been in the works. They've been pondering it for quite a bit. And I don't know. I just hope the people, the powers that be, realize that we're never going to become what we can become or what we should become unless we're all pulling in the same direction. Yeah. So reading the temperature of the room, I'm going to, I have an award that was called the U.S. Open Cup Betrayal Award. but I don't think that I'm going to give it because I don't think it's something we should be celebrating

well let me say one more thing about it based on how upset you guys are which is the the U.S. had to build soccer from the top down right that's how MLS was built because there was no grassroots foundation to build professional soccer on so professional soccer was sort of artificially engineered from the top down, which was a necessary evil. I think it just had, it had to be that way, probably. And they did a good job of creating a league that is financially sustainable, which is no small thing. But at this point, they have choices to make. And severing connections with the lower levels of soccer at this point is a betrayal.

And it doesn't have to be this way. I mean, like, the system's already closed. You know what I'm saying? Right, what are they scared of? Yeah, yeah. Like, what are you scared of? It's already closed. Nothing's going to happen.

ProRail is not coming. I mean, we all know this. But I did actually notice this during MLS Cup when Garber was interviewed, I think, at halftime or something. And he was like, yeah, you know, it's our responsibility to build. We're building the pyramid and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and whatever. in which, you know, I kind of took a side out to at that moment. But, yeah, you see where this is heading, I guess. You know, next pro, third tier.

They're going to MLS next pro pro pro pro, be the second tier. Next next pro. Yeah, yeah. Which Louisville ain't going. I'll tell you that, Mr. Garber. You're going to have to wrestle. This club from our bare hands. I'll tell you that.

I'm going to get a squirt gun and squirt water at him if I ever see him. Exactly. Take that. Gly Mugli, see that Lugi? Yeah, keep it on the DLUB. You don't watch her, he might hawsing like doo-be. Just a cut of loosey like Mr. Lugi. Who he gum drops?

Who he got to stop from his pops? You got to give the bum some props. Action sister. Her beatbox is more thicker. All right. Next award. Okay. I'm going to just jump in there. Christopher Lund.

I'm really bummed out about the last award. I'm looking ahead, I'm saying the next award is worst injury. So I thought I should squeeze in the happiest newcomer of the year award. is so happy that's all he was the only time his happiness was even slightly impinged upon

was when sergino desk got the double yellow the double yellow sending off that trinned it up and even then it's not like one jumped in with all the other like grownups

you know berating desk he was almost just like astonished by what he was seeing he was in disbelief how could you yeah he's a great addition to the ecosystem

Waki's already given it away but the next one is worst injury and I think there should be award for best injury frankly it's more of a I mean it's really not I guess it's really not an award more of a recognition of a tragedy you know

I think a lot of people would probably say Tyler Adams because he's been out for so long I'm going to zig I'm going to zag when everywhere else Ziggs and say it's Josh Sargent because he was I trust that Tyler Adams will be back

for the Copa and in good form even though he's been out for a while Sergeant was just coming into his own at the beginning of this season three goals and an assist in four games and he was doing a lot of good stuff out there on the field and you know

it would have been wonderful to see him with the national team this fall we didn't get to see that and he's still not back so i'm going to say worst injury goes to josh sergeant yeah i mean i'm i'm with it he has a he has a terrible uh way to time his injuries i guess uh yeah like you know the one and uh that was iran right making sure i say that correctly where he twisted that one ankle and then uh yeah I mean, I mean, even if you, he scored a goal on the play, you know, where he hurt his ankle. And in the middle of the, you know, the form, you know, he's still not back. You still not back.

I think he's getting into training now or whatever. So we shall see Mr. Sargent. And Norwich needs him. So he's going to be in the lineup. He's going to be playing striker, it seems, and all that. So it's not too big a deal as far as like the time he missed. but, you know, the opportunity to establish yourself

within the national team and all these things, yeah, I would go with Sergeant. That's probably you know, everything considered, it's the worst it's the worst of them that we've had. It also really interrupts our, it's

a whole like new variable in the parabola and I don't, mathematically I just don't know how to account for that and how to write the function such that you get the leveled off injury. I don't know if it's supposed to dip back down and now he has to make more make up more of the parabola.

So it's really tough for any of us non-mathematicians out there to square this with the parabola. So I would say that it's probably just, you know, it's pause. You know, the only inputs come in when he's playing. You know what I'm saying? So you can't, you know, you can't exponentially grow zero. right so you know they if you if you're looking at the thing because he was on the he was on the upswing

right had the had the season of norwich that was i mean the prim season at norwich that was you know the the bottom and you know he's been slowly but steadily uh well i guess you don't slowly climb exponentially but anyway anyway but the point is the x-axis is not actual time the x-saccess is not actual time the x-s axis is him playing. Yes. So the parabola can... Yeah.

Nice. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. So there's no inputs. It's a pretty elegant solution. Very. You guys came up with there.

I got the next one. Next, at least the next category. I think we have, we may have some disagreement here on this, but the category is best leak. Best leak. Does anybody have any ideas?

I don't, I don't disagree with that thing. I think the right, the person, The winner is correct. We have the winner correct, but I just wanted to acknowledge that a strong candidate in any other year would have been Jesse Marsh's agent rage tweeting right before a Nation's League matchup against Mexico

that his client Jesse Marsh would not, in fact, be the next U.S. men's national team coach. Because Jesse thought he had it locked up. People close to Jesse thought he had it locked up, various journalists thought he had it locked up, who had information. And it turns out, Jesse was not the guy. And the thing about it is, you know, we talked about the interview process that Crocker was putting the candidates under. And if you do 48 hours of interrogating, you can only hide your jib for so long.

It is the point I'm trying to make here. You can only have the jib for so long. And at some point, if you are, you know, in tune with yourself and with people in general, while you're doing this interrogation, you'll be able to bring it. You'll be able to see the true colors of a person while you are interrogate. I mean, of course, that should be like the goal while you're interviewing slash interrogating them. And, you know, Jesse Marsh's jib was so bad, basically that he fumbled a layup. You know, he had a layup.

It seemed like everything was going in this way. He was going to have the job. He was telling people he had the job. And I guess with him knowing that his jib was already found out and he was on the outs, he went ahead and gave his agent to go ahead to rage tweet the fact that he was not going to get the job. But let's get to the winner here. I have more Jesse after we get through with the winner, but let's go ahead and get to the winner.

The winner is J.T. Batson telling a bartender in San Diego to look out for Balligan News from Orlando, which it happened that the bartender was a patron of the scuffed podcast, and so it was leaked to us. In real time. This was in real time. The bartender was in the Discord, letting us know that he had J.T. Batson,

then giving us the fact that J.T. Batson mumbled something about Bolligan in Orlando. Keep an eye out in Orlando. So you would happen. And then the bartender would come back to the Discord, get crowdsource questions to take back to J.T. Vatson and then add the stones to go actually do those things. Yeah. I mean, this is the winner. This bartender has a name, guys.

It's based Gallagher. Base Gallagher. Discord user based Gallagher. And the thing about to what Greg said, like the Balagan thing was the Icebreaker. That was like the first thing he said to Batten. As far as like acknowledging that he knows who J.T. Batson was, I'm sure he took like a drink order or something from it.

But he came back, he said, so you're the guy that's supposed to be Landon Balligan? And apparently that was the icebreaker. That was the first thing like, you know, nobody knew that this dude was a sicko until he brought up the fact that J.T. was going to land Balagan. And so, you know, flattery will get you, we'll get you everywhere that you need to get to within life. And so I think just because of that, because of the fact that, you know,

J.T. got recognized at this random pub in San Diego. He was more forthcoming with information than I think he would have been in other circumstances. and he broke based off with some, you know, he got to get him some gear. He got to get him some gear. He got to show up to wherever this conference was that the USSF was having and picked him up some, I think some sunglasses, a jacket, a couple shirts, you know what I'm saying? Like the day after, the day after he pulled up and got all this.

So, you know, just Gotein, J.T. Goetzen being goatsing. and just with that that little nugget of information within all of our brains you know as we digested it from the discord you know we get flow getting called up to that that English national team camp

or whatever and then he leaves suspiciously and I think everyone that was privy to the information that base had provided we kind of knew that something was coming we kind of knew that something was coming So. Yeah. Baste got, in the subsequent weeks, Baste came on, came on the scuff podcast.

He got a job as a professor. And Ballygge and showed up at. And Ballygan showed up at the dog friendly bar in Orlando. And what was it called again? Pups. and Pops, Pops, Pops. Chase and tail?

Chase and tail. Well, that was the thing on the... That was the tagline. Yeah. Who knows? Anyway, it was, that was, that was, we're not given an award for this, but that was, I think, probably the most fun thing that happened all year, the whole, like, following balligan around Orlando and then, um, not literally, I didn't literally follow him, but...

Why don't we just award it the most fun award? Okay, the most fun award. goes to Fuller and Balligan's visit to Orlando. It was wonderful. Love it. I mean, because, I mean, we had fun, he had fun,

you know, Yankee Spring Training, Orlando Magic game, you know what I'm saying? And the red carpet laid out for him. And it all had greater significance because of this leak from Batson to Bass Gallagher, which is the best leak of the year.

Oh, and to just make sure we, Credit everybody, you know, like, the typical people that have info, you know, we're trickling in with information too, you know what I'm saying? Like, George Jorge on the Discord, he's been, he had been pretty plugged into the Balligan News, letting everybody know that we had a chance way before, you know, this stuff was leaked to JT. You know, Edgar, tweeting some stuff here and there. Yeah, Edgar was on it. Yeah. It was, this was the best of what this community can, can achieve. You know what I'm saying when it came, when it came down to it.

Because, you know, we had people analyzing grass to see if he was on the same training pitch as the U.S. Yeah, that was great. It was a good time. It was a good time. All right. Let's move to the next one. Well, go ahead. I am moving to the next one.

I told you all was going to bring back Jesse Marsh. And I'm gonna bring him back that he is who he thought he was man of the year is Jesse Marsh. It's Jesse Marsh. I told y'all when that man first popped up on the scene at Leeds that I wasn't fit. Well, actually, it was at Leipzig. It was at Leipzig when I told you I wouldn't feel in the cut of this man's jib. And he delivered. He delivered, ladies and gentlemen.

Throwing that, throw in that hiss he fit. And mind you, and mind you, okay? Mr. Ron Waxman, Jesse Marsh's agent, tweeted this out at 805 p.m. on June 15th, 20203. We were due to play Mexico at 10 p.m. on June 15th, 20203. The messiest and the most petulant way to go out for Mr. Jesse Marsh. Just nasty, nasty, nasty business from him. And I told y'all that he wasn't a type of dude that could be trusted.

he wasn't he wasn't the type of dude that I believed should be leading our national team and he went ahead and proved and and in a in an act of defiance that may have swung the whole balance um of the coaching hire you know he had multiple players coming out and telling and basically telling the media no we don't we don't we don't mess with you jesse march we want Greg Burrhalterback. And I'm sure that they knew, because, you know, we had enough players that have played for Jesse Marsh. I'm sure that they knew that Jesse Marsh was very much in the running to become the U.S.

men's national team head coach. And they rebuked the man. And so, Jesse, I just hope that you take all that within yourself and realize that it's you who are the problem, who is the problem. You know, you really don't like Jesse's chip. I don't that dude at all And not only do I not like you The players don't like you

Matt Crocker don't like you And I know for a fact Greg Burrhalter don't like you So Take your ass home You know what I'm saying Bro you're just hitting a man while he's down This dude was a Premier League coach 12 months ago

Now he's the Cooligan's understudy At the Galato show And you just You just wailing on him I don't Hey Hey you should have you should have conducted yourself and acted with dignity and uh happy holidays i guess i can call you

a colleague now but you're a colleague that i don't like yeah happy holidays sir yeah i'm i'm i honestly you know i've i kind of feel bad for the dude like he's really he's really uh fallen far but um the thing is he's probably going to be right you know i'm saying all this So let's go to the next sword. Okay. I got one executive of the year. This is going to be positive, I think, because who else could it be?

It's Ernie Stewart. He left Big Earn, left the U.S. Soccer Federation in a cloud of uncertainty. He probably just didn't want to deal with all that nonsense. And took the job at PSV. Einhoven. brought in three Americans

and has won every single game they've played in the league and they've gone through the knockout rounds for the first time in eight years. That's a correction. I got to make a correction. I said it was 2007. I missed one. It was like they did make the round of 16 and like 14, 15 or something like that.

So I was very embarrassed by that. So the award for worst correction goes to Bells. The award for executive of the year goes to, Ernie Stewart. Yeah, he's showing Jesse Marshall how it should be done. You know? I'm going to show you, Mr. Marsh, how to bring in three Americans

and fold them and fold them into the fabric of a club and have them playing at the highest of their abilities. I'm going to show you how it's done, Mr. Mark. And so, Ernie's done it. It's beautiful for me, because, you know, I don't know. Like I came in at first, really, Ernie was on my shit list the same way Jesse Marsh ended up on my list, I think.

But as time went on, similar to Greg Burrhalter, I guess, he kind of won me over a little bit. And by the end of it, you know, there was just a lot of people, there was a lot of blasphemy. You know, when Ernie left, people were just like, I don't even know what he even did in the first place. Blah, blah, blah. and now he's at PSV there is no doubt in our minds that he is a competent individual and so

may along continue Ernie I mean, wait wait with this trajectory that he's on you know what I'm saying he could be I mean he could parlay this into big big job if it keeps going the way it's going so keep going Ernie yeah just the way they just have casually dispatched

Azi Alkma yesterday You know, like this is at Azi Alkmaar, pretty good team. Just beat him 4-0. It was 3-0, but 20 minutes was up, so. There's nothing that Georgie Mahalovic could do about it. Right, yeah. I got another one that don't count him out award.

Well, hold on, hold on. I just wanted to throw in for the executive, sorry, that come Wednesday on Wednesday's recording, like there'll be a little bit more discussion, because for the men's side of it, you know, The higher we make is Greg Burholder, it's unimpressive. Wednesday when we talk about the women's side, we pulled quite a coup that's going to get our executives,

U.S. Soccer executives' names in the hat for this award. True. Is it a coup, though? We got four stars. We got four stars. We have as much talent as anybody on the women's side. Of course Emma Hayes wants to coach our national team. It's not the same.

I mean, are you saying that, like, Alabama football should have been not happy when they hired Nick Saban? I'm not saying we shouldn't be happy, but a coup is when you, you know, something unexpected happens. Is it? Yeah, yeah, I guess so. It's when the military unseats the president in surprising fashion. Right. Well, come on. I mean, okay,

it's, I'm going to be a professor of journalism, Adam, I'm excited about Emma Hayes. I'm just saying, does Matt Crocker deserve special, uh, well,

we'll save it. Yeah, we'll save it for Wednesday. For Wednesday. Save it for Wednesday. Uh, so I've got an award called, I'm calling it the Don't Count Him Out award. I'm willing to change the name,

but I'm giving it to West McKinney. He was, he was excluded from the project. I mean, it's easy to forget this stuff. It was reported that he was excluded, from the project in Juventus in the summer. And surprise, surprise, by Christmas,

he started 12 straight, 14, 14 straight matches for that club. And made his way into the midfield? That's right, that's right too. Yeah, because he started out at wingback, migrated into the midfield. He just repeatedly does this. He does this almost every year.

And we'll have to, to eventually name it the Weston McKinney Award, but. You know, and we probably should just go ahead and think out and name it the Weston McKinney Award because, like at this point, he's done so the winner of the Weston McKinney Award for 2023 is Weston McKinney. He even has to do this with the national team fan base. Everyone seems like eager to try to like write him out of the lineup. They said Pedro Soma was going to start over for 2026th.

I mean, not very many. people said that. Yeah, I mean, that's just, you know, but, but you know, somebody says it on Twitter, I'm gonna act like Joe Biden said it. You know what I'm saying? But, um, oh, yeah, Adam Waki, I was talking to y'all about this like last Monday when we recorded the Monday review. Just about how like how much leads fans are still like on his ass.

You know, they, they jeered him off with you fat bats his last. He cheered him off with you fat bad. fan his last match in uh 2023 yeah at the end of the 22 22 23 season um at leads and you know every time i search his man's name he's still being brought up by leads fans i mean they they hate this man and i think they hate him even more now that he's doing this thing at uve like you know i saw a tweet the other day of uh it was like lizzo dancing or something and they were just like weston mckinney like I mean they just it's uh it's something if you search west's name there's all types of fat jokes and everything uh it's funny to me because you know you see him doing this thing now

no reason to worry about it but um I guess I can go ahead and bring up uh one of the awards that kind of parlay into this um best take best take of the year um and I and And I want to give that to the entire scuff community or the, all of us, all of us on this call. Because, because, you know, it. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. It's very nice of you.

Thank you. No problem. I didn't know we could give ourselves awards. I would have been giving myself way more awards to these years. So when I put this in the doc, Bells was like, I know who's getting this. He thought I was giving it to myself. I definitely did think you were going to give it to yourself. You still are giving it to yourself.

Essentially, you know, that time after the World Cup, it was a dark period. It was a dark period. It was it not. And, you know, people were losing faith in our players. People were losing faith in J.T. Batson even. People were losing faith in just everything U.S. soccer. I think some people still haven't even recovered. But, you know, we told y'all on this pod, on the Monday review and on the greater scuff

pods, you know, that to just ride the wave, you know what I'm saying? We're going through a bad semester at the moment, but I don't think, we don't think that the players magically got worse after this World Cup. And everything will be fine. And, you know, Greg had his, what Greg was always looking towards the summer. window and look how the summer window turned out with the help of Ernie Stewart you know what I'm saying with the help of you know some other uh sporting directors across Europe and look at where we at now look at where we're I mean we're basically like exactly where we were uh one year ago I guess

with I don't know if I just had a word for this I remember being pretty glum so I might need to hand mine back in you mean you mean when like in the spring when everybody was playing badly and Leeds was crashing and burning. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, I'm just talking about the fact that, like, you know, people were acting like the sky is falling and scuffed was there to remind everybody that the sky was, is not in fact falling. But we will let y'all know if our players are actual ass at some point.

Well, we'll tell you all, but like I just didn't think that, you know, March 2023 was the moment where all of our players are suddenly bad and going to crash out of Europe and be in MLS or whatever the hell. so Therginio Dess just got to come to a non-fifah window friendly in April that's where he was at

that's true trajectory it's like sure go ahead yeah but you know the general neuroses of the fan base the fact that we got so much

invested in these kids the fact that we want you know that we see so much talent in these guys you know it may make you nervous it may make you nervous but if you heated the words of Adam Bell's Chris Russell, Vincent Irvin. No, no, Greg was, Greg was definitely in this a lot too. And I think, I think Adam, I mean, Chris, you give yourself, you know,

you didn't loudly disagree. That's the key. I accept the award and I'm going to, it's going on my mantle. Yeah, Waki, we need that, we need the straight man so we can play off of it. And then I think our goal for 2024 should be a clean sweep of the SCOFT awards just for the actual host. Like I'm hoping that in 2024 we can win every award. All of them. Yeah.

Yeah. That's what we're, that. I mean, that has to be a goal. You have to aim for that. You might not accomplish it. But what are you doing if you're not at least aiming for that win every trophy? I've definitely got my sights set on this next award, which is, well, wait. Why don't I just go ahead with what I was going to say?

I've got my sights set on this next award, which is Domestic Player of the Year. This one was one that... You're going to try to win that? Yep. I mean, it's a long shot. Sorry. It's a long shot. The Domestic Player of the Year Award goes to Darlington Nagby.

This one was voted on by scuffed patrons. and he, I think he does, Nagby deserves it. It definitely does. He definitely does. You know, like, it's pretty clear that world for Nancy is a great coach, right, that is able to get his teams to play beautiful, possession-based soccer. But the thing I keep thinking about as I, like, listen to everybody, talk about how great he is, is like, man, it's pretty damn easy to do it when you got Darry to Nagby. like it to be like the foundation and centerpiece of it.

It's somebody that you can pass the ball to at any time. And he's going to just get you out of whatever pickle you happen to be in. Even though he might not pass the ball forward or whatever, uh, that still seems to be pretty valuable, pretty damn valuable. And yeah, I mean,

he just, just keeps winning. Just keeps winning, man. Yeah, I honestly don't know anything about Nagby season because I hate MLB. and we'll never watch it again, but it does seem like, you know, I agree with what you're saying, Vince.

If it weren't for Dest, like Nagby would probably be in the inscrutable player of the pool running. Again, I don't think there is actually that much mystery. It just isn't that motivated to play for the national team. It doesn't seem like he ever really was. And I don't mean, like, when he's on the field, when he's on the field,

I had no doubt that he was, like, trying to win. just the actual concept of playing for the national team doesn't just never seem that appealing but it would have been really cool if it had been more appealing to him I would have enjoyed that a lot yeah he was

for what it's worth he was on the field when we lost in Coova so what you're trying to say Bill's not disagreeing or agreeing or anything just he was there, right there alongside Michael Bradley

and Josie Altador. Christian Pulisick. Christian Pulisick. Tim Howard. And you know Western McKinney has twice the amount of serial goals of Michael Bradley does? He has an infinite number more serial goals than Darlington Nagby does.

Yeah, that's true too. Anyway, we can... He gets the domestic player of the year and it was he won in a landslide. I guess Aidan Morris, Jesus Ferre and Diego Luna, we're in the conversation, sort of. We'll be back in a moment for several more awards, including Lower Division of the Year and Player of the Year, Goal of the Year for Club, goal of the Year for Country, several others. Be back in a minute. Greg bridge quick

Skets lyric That's about a nick on something Ike from the drumstick Come with the dump stick Sick slick Hit it in the book The only way they find it If you're spitting in the hook

Listen Don't look now Keep walking Trade of three beans for this cow Keep talking Harkman stalking here We harkin often Coffin to a coffin

Might as well Scoff the pork then He's like war Some say stronger though Off the top Jay Strong Greg what's the next award So on the heels of domestic player of the year, we have the lower division of the year.

And this is a category that for decades has been dominated by MLS. And then occasionally like Scandinavia would have a season or the championship would have a season where, you know, they were the lower division of the year. But not this year. This year the award lands in Italy where two Americans are navigating their side through the canals of Venice to auto promotion. And a third is bringing those incredible vibes to national team windows. So, Seri B is our lower division of the year. We've got Tessman and Busio doing their thing. Again, in another era, this would have been, this would be like the huge story for Americans abroad.

It's not anymore, and that's a good thing. But between those two in Venice and Christopher Lund and his breakthrough smile in Palermo, it's Italy. Yeah, Italy is Italy's Ceri B is. is racking up call-ups. Way to go, Siri B. Lower division of the year. So just to lock in with the table real quick,

Palermo is in a promotion playoff spot. They are seventh of 28 points. It's going to come down to the very end with Venetia. And Palermo and Siri, like Siri B is pretty tight. Siri B is pretty tight here. We're talking between the last playoff spot, eighth place, and first place Parma. That's a difference of seven points. No, no, no, eight points, eight points, excuse me.

And we are one match away from being, no, two matches away from being halfway through the season. So, I mean, and currently, you know, Venetia is two points. they're two points up on third place Como who you know third place is the first promotion playoff spot so it's it's gonna be a

tick of tape finish you know what I'm saying for Fennetia so like I said last last week and for everybody you know this 2024 it's time to it's time to fully lock in

with Venetcia and let's see if if the boys can do it okay what's the next award Waki what is the next award I thought maybe you would have one for the next one.

I have one off the top of my head. Just made it up. Most disappointed ancestors goes to the Mexica, the Aztecs. Wadamak. That was a profoundly advanced civilization, you know, tragically conquered by the Spanish, but they have nothing to celebrate from above or below or from another dimension

in what their descendants are doing in the game of football. I'm just picturing it like, if you're familiar with the Disney classic, Mulan, which just so happens to be my favorite movie. And how, you know, Mulan has like the little The little house of like ancestors that like sit and watch over the family

And all different type of stuff and they you know And they sitting there and gossip about what Mulan might be doing or not doing And all that different type of stuff and you know Mushu comes up And there's the guardian that must help Mulan as she goes and enlists within the army And anyway, just watch a movie if you want to find the storyline But I just picture all the Aztecs in a room together basically talking about Henry Martine

and Ariel Antuna as they continue to fail to deliver results for their beloved L tree. I do enjoy that the dancing on the grays of now Gold Cup trophy holding Mexico

and they're going to be in the Copa. I feel like we're, it's a little premature. Like, it's not going to surprise me all in Mexico, like, somehow makes a run into the copa semis. Well, Greg, you're a sleeper agent for Mexico. So anything that you say, you know, has to be, has to be taken, you know, two grains of salt because, you know, of your history. Also. That you have willingly volunteered within the, you know, on, on the airways, which I don't know if I would have, if I was in your position. Have you, have you guys, have you guys seen their track jackets that their bench staff are wearing, they're incredible.

It's Mexico and Columbia. The two have the kits, and it's not even close. So, I mean, if we were going to have like kit of the year, the U.S. isn't coming close on that one, not even in the region. Well, that's the end of my Mexico defense. I'm just saying Quatamok, Quatamok was tortured by having his feet burned, and he smiled. he smiled at his torturers and his descendants they can't even beat a Honduras at home

without a bunch of shenanigans from the referees and Conccaf it's uh it's this is these are disappointed ancestors I mean am I wrong? You're not wrong bro I'm standing on this

you know I talked about it in a solo pod after we beat Mexico in the Nations League you know I'll go ahead and transition to our next award the dad who stepped up award you know what I'm saying we had we had two step dads in the year 2023

Anthony Hudson left us to go to the to the Middle East somewhere in coach coach club ball but but not before he was able to garner the affection of most of the national team fandom by somehow doing something that was very radical and foreign to us,

which was playing a healthy G.R. Rana. So we had Anthony Hudson, but this award goes to, you know, honorable mention Anthony Hudson, but this award goes to none other than B.J. Callahan. There's no other way to go about this. You know what I'm saying?

My man came in. We didn't know much about, I mean, it was crazy, right? We're sitting here without a coach. we went through one stepdad cycle and that and that you know stepdad left us as you know I'm sure many of our listeners can can relate to that you know what I'm saying maybe maybe you went through a stepdad cycle in your life but um here comes BJ here comes BJ you know what I'm saying and he's that guy that like as a kid even as a kid you know that hey he's the one that's

going to treat my mom right stand up guy you know might might be like a might be like the youth league soccer coach or something, might have a kid or two himself, just a divorced man who may have been, you know, down on his luck, hurt that, you know, that Cindy cheated on them or whatever. But here we come, U.S. Miss National Team with the opportunity

to come within our bosom and be embraced. And you get to, and, sir, you get to coach the Nations League and the Gold Cup. You know what I'm saying? after being third in charge during the World Cup. And just through his jovial personality and his character and just his overall just features as a man, I think he was just an instant cult classic,

lovable figure that I'm happy is still on the, that is still on the staff and will come with us. And we'll be on the sideline as we host the 2026 World Cup. BJ Callahan, ladies and gentlemen. I mean, it's just, there's no, there's no other person that it could be. And he did a great job, in my opinion. Some people would argue that he tricked the gold cup. I don't, I think it's a position of the scuff podcast.

Well, I know for a fact, it's a position of the scuff podcast that we don't care that much about the gold cup. I mean, I mean, I had tickets to the actual final and I don't care that we lost in the gold cup. Go ahead, Bells. I've changed my position on that. I do care now. And if we do that again, I'm going to be mad. Right, right. Yeah.

Okay. So if we do that again, yes. But I cannot care. But it's like once we actually do it, once we actually bring B team players, B, C, whatever team players to the Gold Cup, at that point, I cannot be forced to care. if the Fed has formerly announced to us that they don't care. You know what I'm saying? Fair enough, yeah.

So I don't retroactively care about the 2023 Gold Cup. That Gold Cup, I'm totally okay continuing to not care about. I'm going to care like crazy about the 2025 Gold Cup. AKA Christian Cup, you know, as we have, you know, some teams that should be invited to take part in it. But yeah, man. AJ's the guy. You know, we saw him giving a scholarship to Christopher Lund earlier in the year. Oh, and also just the general fact that he looked like a football coach,

that he looked like the every man that he looks like, you know, as I've said, are great American coaches within this great country. He also, if you look on the sidelines of any USM and T match that he was in charge, you know, had BJ, who is the linebacker's coach. He also had him a running backs coach, a wide receivers coach, and a DB coach on the sidelines, too, if you catch my drift. There were a lot of black-ass coaches on the sideline. I don't know where they went after Greg got hired back, but somehow every time I see the sideline and BJ's there, there's like three black dudes next to him. And I'm just, I don't know where that came from.

I don't know where they went. But that's another reason why I just got a shout out my boy. Thank you. Anything I... What's that, Rocky? I didn't notice that Oh yeah If you go back and watch

Like Nation's League Go back and watch I think the Gold Cup specifically Was when you could really see There were a lot of sideline shots But Yeah He had at least

Two It might have been three With them Okay But We've got Uh Four or five

Scuff listener choice awards To report to you here And if we disagree with them then we can, you know, please voice your disagreement. The first one is Uncapped Player of the Year. And beating out Timothy Tillman and Jack McGlynn quite comfortably, it's Diego Luna. He's a fan favorite, and he had a good run of form at the end of the MLS season,

scoring four goals in a little under a month, including two in the playoffs. We'd love to see him called up and disqualified from this award, but it is well-deserved, I think. Any disagreement? No disagreement. Yeah. I really thought there might have been

going to be a disagreement there, but. Colioio. I'm glad we get to move on to, oh yeah, Colioioch, actually. He doesn't count. I don't think he can count. Okay. Well, Coliocio gets a shout.

Breakthrough USMNT player of the year. Narrowly beating out Austin Trustee and the smiley Christopher Christopher Lund, it is Kevin Perretis. Any disagreement or addendums? Well, so Balagin's

was ruled out of this one on a technicality. Yeah, what was the technicality? I think there was basically just this feeling that getting a hot, like a high level dual net like that to flip makes it less of a breakthrough because you're already aware that the player was really, really good

and it was just a matter of like it's a choice they just made to play with so it's more of a like best choice or best recruit recruited player rather than a breakthrough. But I think I think it's still a little dicey because, you know, Oligan's big breakthrough was last year. Yeah, exactly. That's what I was going to say. So I don't know if you can because if we, let's say we recruited Flo, if he had joined us,

you know, in the summer of 2022. like I think he would probably win this award this year but anyway we're arguing over spilled milk I'm happy to give it to Mr. Mr. Predes. Yeah you know what? No, no, no, no. Flow, man, it's flow, okay?

You know, I mean, Kevin hasn't started a match since he came back from the damn international break. Okay. I was going to say the pickings, if you disqualify Flo and Tillman, who was disqualified because he was capped in 2022, the pickings are slim. There's, you know, Tillman and Balligan are the big 2023 developments in the player pool, I would say.

Yeah, yeah, where we're still kind of waiting on, you know, whoever these players are to, you know, go ahead and assert themselves and thrust themselves into no-doubt or territory as far as, like, you know, getting called in the camps, pushing for starting spots within the U.S. Minnesota team. So I'm surprised. I'm surprised Malik didn't get more support here. I think it's also a technicality ruled him out because he was capped in 2022.

Oh, this is crazy. Yeah. Yeah. See, this is traditional scuffed over analyzing. This sounds like Jordan set these rules. Yeah, exactly. Everybody getting technicalities. I mean, come on.

Hey, if anybody had a problem with the rules, they could have brought it up earlier, you know. But we can set the rules here. I don't care enough to bring it up. We can set the rules here and say that it's balligan. It's either Baligan or Tillman, if we're honest. I should also mention, you know, speaking of Paredes, and Waki's not going to like this because it's us going at our enemies again.

but it's just so negative today I felt like but Emma well there's been plenty of positive and there's going to be more positive MLS developed players on the national team what are we looking at here has anybody has MLS delivered anybody since Tyler Adams

Matt Turner so this is a big part of the reason why like I've kind of fallen out like I mean but before you know they did all these you know inscrutable things this is kind of a reason why I haven't been

as tuned in as I once was to MLS because I just I mean I don't know what's going on but and you know I brought this up before as far as like what's going on with the next generation of guys but yeah

I don't know peppy too I mean it's a probably reached too far. All right, let's move on to the next one. Transfer of the year. Transfer of the year.

Scuffed listener choice. I shouldn't have blamed Jordan at all for what just happened there, you know? I think that's on us. We love you, Jordan. Yeah, Jordan toiling in obscurity somewhat. Nothing wrong.

And I'm coming at it like that. Unconscionable. And I'm the one talking about being too negative. There are actually a lot of transfers to choose from. But the winner among listeners was Pulisic to A.C. Milan in a landslide. Any disagreement?

No, that's correct. Yeah, it would only get contested if you could somehow, if you combined all the PSV transfers into sort of one, which I think, you know, it's fair to kind of do that mentally because it is such a cool thing. And so it adds that weight. And coming off the Leeds fiasco, where we had three go over and at least the output, points-wise, and the table was a fiasco. It was entertaining as all get out. But to see what the three boys are doing at PSV is terrific. Yeah. People were apprehensive.

People were apprehensive for sure. And if we allowed those three to be packaged, one, shouldn't we allow Moose to be packaged with Pulisic? Mm. Hmm. Yeah, so A-Sibelon wins this. What a great transfer window. Yeah. It was great. And if you listen to the Scuff podcast, you would have known just to put all these events that are happening from June to May aside.

And just wait for this transfer window to open, baby. Goal of the year for club. We're getting close to the end here. Goal of the year for club. The listener's choice was, well, Before we give the winner, two strong contenders coming in second and third. Number three was, so third place in the voting was Pulisic versus Frosinone on December 2nd when he took that long ball down from Mnian and then did a ton of work in behind the centerbacks

and a little clip shot over the onrushing keeper. Number two is Pulisic versus Bologna in August. That was the one on his debut, that slalom. dribble from wide into the attacking third, the one, two with the Giroux, and then the banger from outside of the box. One of the best goals I've ever seen, Pulisic score, on his debut. Let me repeat. But the winner is, among the voters, was this one.

Good run by the Tesson. He's done excellently since his introduction from the bench. And that's a good ball in as well. And it's a winning goal. Ricardo Pecky. A double climax. From 2-0 down, PSV have snatched it in stoppage time.

It was 2-2. They just needed a goal to advance to the knockout rounds. Peppy back heels, Verteson, down the line. Sprints into the box, gets a little separation. Verteson whips it in. Pepe heads it home at the near post. Massive goal, of course. Any disagreement from you guys on that being the goal of the year for club?

I would just say that first year I ran a goal, the Augsburg one. Yeah. He scored after, you know, after all the events went down, this was, you know, everything I came out to that, by that point, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. He scores the goal. Does like four celebrations wrapped into one. I think he put the, he did the Memphis Depi, put the fingers in the ears.

He did the talking hand. I think he might have did a Did he do a throw slash, Wucky? It wasn't a slash. Well, and it was an awesome goal too. Like he took it down from outside of the box, a little bit of outside of the boot, far post finish.

Yeah, it was disgusting. Yeah, it was awesome. So that would be the only one that I would kind of throw in, but go ahead. It was also a winner for Dortmund when they were top of the table chasing a title, a title that they should have won.

I'm going to go, I'm going to say, I think Pulisic versus Bologna is the, is the one, is number one. Because I know I'm not, I'm not taking away the award that goes to Pepe v. Sevilla from the listeners. But for me, it's Pupi, it's Pulisic versus Bologna. It's, I think it's maybe the best goal I've ever seen him score, aside from one, we'll get two here in a minute. And just absolute, what an introduction to Milan fans. for him to come and do that. Combining with his best friend out there, Olivier Jou,

and then we get to come on baby in the celebration, which was clearly an inspiration to Maro Suma, if you may remember, our commentator of the year. So a lot happened in that moment. It was nasty as well. That's my little note of dissent. I think what that's, we have a pretty strong, I didn't realize how strong of a field of goals of the year candidate we had.

I don't think it was quite that strong last year, unless I misremembering. Champions League goal, big goal here, and then the rain of the moment of it was cool because of everything that happened. Right. Just to give you guys a sense, Pepe v. Sevilla got 61 votes, 61 nominations, I guess. 39 for Pulisic versus Bologna. So it wasn't really close. And then Pulisic versus Frosanone, 31.

Raina versus Augsburg got five. It's tough. That Raina Augsburg's one is just tough because it was so long ago. I mean, that was almost a full year ago. And you're always going to take a hit. Recency bias does play into these awards for sure. Right. All right.

Goal of the year. Wait a couple goals. They didn't even get a thing. Goal of the year. year for the national team. The voting on this one wasn't even close. Number two was Pulisic's second goal versus Mexico at the Nations League semifinals, the night of the tweets from Jesse Marsh's agent.

We did actually beat Mexico 30, so whatever sabotaging was intended was not effective. But that second goal from Pulisic gets number two in the voting. That was West to Tim down the line, and then Tim serves it up. for Pulisic making a go-for-broke run into the box. Baligan versus Canada in the final was the number three choice. But the clear listeners' choice was Pulisic's run and banger against Germany in October. Let me play the audio. Paul Kruger man in form right now.

Six goals in his last seven international games. Pulisic! It's spectacular from Christian. I'm a little bit sorry that I even played the audio. That announcer is my nomination for the least. Good commentator. Nicholas Fulcruke. But you guys remember the goal.

It was lovely. And even though it was in a losing effort. But what a goal. Can we hear that audio one more time, actually? Yeah, he's talking about how good Fulcruig is. at the beginning of Yeah, and this is just them not saying anything. Oh, like, after the goal score?

Yeah. All right, I think we get them. Yeah, here comes Kyle Martino kind of like figuring out where he is. I mean, it's really, it's not... Yo, so... They're not really doing anything wrong. We're just playing a not very interesting clip

to our listeners. Is this what's happening? Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, I'll talk about If you go back and watch this goal And specifically watch it

Like on the broadcast That like Kyle Martino's on or whatever Whether it's on TNT HBO, Max, whatever The production truck Has had a real rough go of it This year As we've transitioned from

Fox slash ESPN or whatever To Turner Sports The production truck have some kinks that they need to work out. Specifically, like, if you watch the replay to this goal, like, like, watch the goal and then watch how the production truck basically leaves Kyle Martino, like, hanging. Specifically, like, Kyle Martino's like,

look at this touch. And then, like, what the replay that they show was, like, Polistic Celebrating. And, like, Kyle Martinez is just trying to fight for his life, trying to catch up with the production truck and commentate, like, whatever clip that they're showing, seemingly at random. but yeah it was a shampos all around it was a shampos all around unfortunately but the goal of the

yeah the goal of the USM and T year for sure pool six had a couple of goals that have been really negatively affected by production either choices or outcomes the World Cup goal against iran obviously you know we couldn't get a good celebration on account of the injury and now this disaster against germany so real some real adversity here that he's going to have to to overcome. Yeah, that was a, you know, we've talked about it a lot, but that was a huge bummer that he was, you know, immobilized on the ground, clutching his groin after scoring the game winner against Ron, because it would have been a totally different experience if he were, if he were

wheeling away from the goal. But, Waki, any disagreement on this being the goal of the year? No. I agree that this is... the goal. It was, there was not even, uh, I don't think any of the others was even a strong contender.

This was, this was, uh, this was a great goal. Um, finally, so what I would say real quick, is just,

it is absolutely wild that, uh, Tim Way of versus Uzbekistan got one vote. Uh, just, just, just, just,

just, just, um, it should be up here in the, in the honorable mentions category. I feel like, you know what I'm saying? Weston McKinney taking the ball down, doing this thing,

sliding it over to Tim. I mean, I'm disappointed in, you know. I could see. I think it should have been up in that two or three group, certainly, at least. I mean, the balligan versus Canada was a really nice goal, nice feed from Raina. That's my winner right there. Ball over's Canada's my winner. Okay.

McKenny's control that led to Wea's goal should definitely move the whole thing up a little bit more, too. Plus, Timwaya just aesthetically is so pleasing to watch step into a strike. So those two on one play. Yeah, I'm with Vince. A little disappointing the electorate here. And isn't the Pulisic goal versus Germany?

Is that the one where he would have gotten tactically fouled in a normal game? But instead, it wasn't? Oh, maybe. Kind of be here. Maybe. It's a little bit unfair, but it could knock it down a couple points. You would probably see somebody take his legs out from the back there.

Okay, final award is Player of the Year. The scuffed listener choice is clear. I'll tell you, third place goes to Weston McKenney. Second place to Anthony Robinson, who we haven't even mentioned yet today, but he had quite a year. He is a faithful, consistent performer. But number one, pretty clearly, is Christian Pulisic with 167 first place votes. Next highest is Rob Jedi at 48.

He is that dude when it comes to male American soccer players. I think that's pretty clear. You even saw it yesterday against Monza. He is out there with a bunch of certified ballers, Juru, Liao, Reinders, Teo Hernandez. and he just looks like he is one of them. And it really is a testament to his resilience. You know, West gets the don't count him out award. But also Pulisic, he was booed at Stanford Bridge in May.

Bood at Chelsea. He came into Nations League, scored a brace on Mexico. Then he made a big transfer to one of the biggest clubs in Europe and immediately endeared himself in Milan. The banger against Bologna, the winner. against Genoa, the equalizer at Newcastle, the defensive effort, six goals and three assists in all competitions, and then of course he scored the goal of the year for his national team against Germany. So he's player of the year. Any disagreement?

No, he's got him within five points of Uvei in the table, Sariaa, in Weston McKenney. They're really close to McKenney. They are pretty close. You know what I'm saying? Weston just, you know, who keep going on the radar? But, you know, as I have mentioned on this podcast multiple times, Christian is that guy. And, you know, I will never say any words to the contrary from here on out because I don't want y'all to smack me at a tell gate.

So. It's impressive that Weston turned out having as good a year as he did because he it was rough there at the first part of the year for him as well. It's a fat bastard. Yeah.

Yeah. They were saying mean things to him. He fought through it. Yep. And I guess I would say this about Christian just like, we need more players to be as good as Christian. Like basically that's what it boils down to.

Like if we're going to do something special with these group of players, We need people approaching that level. We're not saying that they need to be as good as Christian ballistic, but we need like 6, 7, 8, Christian Policic, high level, European top level players if we really want to expect or try to do something in 2026. So that's like the main most important thing for me

to look forward to going forward. like, I mean, the candidates are, whoever there are, whoever they may be, but everyone, you know, Christian is the, uh, is the archetype. We, we need, we need y'all to be more like him, please. Certified match winner now, you know, I don't know if that's something you could say about Christian before, but like, you know, World Cup performance and all that. It's just, he's a guy. Yes, we can. Yes, we did. I got one more thing I want to say but anybody got any closing thoughts

I'm gonna recognize the tailgator of the year real quick I'm just gonna throw this hand no discussion most overrated player Matt Turner no discussion Wachie is so madly he doesn't he doesn't want to defend it's not even over is serious

with the with the tone of the I don't, it's true, I don't think that should be an award that we have. But I'm fine. We have retired the littlest brother award. We did that three years ago, right? That's true. I probably did that.

That was a little negative. Yeah. Hypocrite. I'm a hypocrite. Tailgator of the year is, well, Greg, do you want to respond to the Matt Turner Slander? No, I'm going to allow that one to stand. He needs to not let the ball go through his hands. Please.

Like, come on, bro. I mean, like, I was expecting, like, a bigger mistake, kind of when I saw that, like, I don't know, people were, like, tweeting about it. I thought he, like, passed it directly to somebody who, like, scored a very easy chance. But, yeah, like, come on, Matt, bro, please. You're in a position battle, bro. Yeah, that's not good. Go ahead, Bell.

Tailgator of the year goes to Paul Douglas. This dude brought all kinds of stuff up from Maryland, including a tent, a table, and the scuff flag to Connecticut. And he led a caravan to claim a parking spot at the parking lot early next to Barra 76. And the outlaws, and it was a great scene.

High quality tailgate. Not enough singing, though. And that's it for Tailgator of the year. I had more fun in Nashville, but that's a me thing. That's a, that's a me thing, you know. So I'm a, I'm gonna make sure to give Jackie an honorable, at least an honorable mention here. Because, you know, I mean, we had four tailgates this year,

and, you know, it was an unofficial, but official scuffed meetup in Los Angeles. Vegas and Jackie was at four out of those five events and that's all I'm going to say you know what I'm saying Jackie pulling up to and she might not even listen to the podcast yeah she she's probably definitely not listening

She doesn't even need to listen to it Always always bringing good vibe Always bringing a good time You know what I'm saying When Jackie pulls up I know I know You know it's time to get a little rowdy So you know I just want to shout out of Jackie here I mean, Paul, you know what I'm saying?

I love you. You only pulled up to one out of five available events, sir. 20%. But I'm not going to take the award away from you. You know what I'm saying? Adam had more of an emphasis on like items brought and tasks completed. Yeah, right, right. Exactly.

Because let me tell you how many. You both have legitimate ways of awarding it. Yeah, no, I'm not going to disagree with your shout out for Jackie. We should also mention Mara. who brought the cinnamon rolls from Iowa for the Nashville tailgate back in February, was it? I want to say it was January. January for the She Believes, right? Yeah, against Japan.

Yes. That game will come up in the Wednesday annual review in a couple of days. But yeah, Mara, a true hero for bringing those cinnamon rolls. And, yeah, we'll see who wins Tailgator of the year. in 2024 because we're gonna there's gonna be opportunity yeah busy schedule a lot of opportunities tailgate a lot of opportunities for maybe some different people

you know what I'm saying as you know the USMNT slash WNT descends upon Atlanta and it's and is one of their strongholds for the coming the coming years probably for eternity as

you know we got the the spot there or whatever which which uh shout out to arthur blank uh we can give him the uh money bags of the year award for for giving us money to build a complex in Fayetteville georgia thank you mr arthur blank um yeah all right also best best fans award best fans award goes to the fans of this scuff podcast thank you all right uh thanks everybody for listening Thank you for your patronage. Please share the podcast with people you think might like it.

Thank you to you, Chris, Vince, and Greg. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. We're shutting down. We're shutting down for a couple weeks here. Thanks for listening. We'll see you.