Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #471: Monday Review — Big goals for Cardoso & Richards, full pool rundown

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

Goal contributions from all over Europe and North America over the weekend, Wes dislocates his shoulder so that needs deciphering, lovely goal from Johnny Soccer, huge goal from Chris Richards, Paxten gets on the scoresheet, Vince changes his tune on Pefok, plus much more with Vince, Watke and Belz.Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private feed for the Monday Review, which is, among other things, a run-down of club action for national team players every week with Watke and Vince. We have recently added patron-only content that’s available every Friday. Patrons also 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/scuffed OTHER LINKSScuffed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAoundrEkZUgZ13IE5XIqrg We’ve streamlined and revamped the merch we’re selling. Check it out: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Scuffed on Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU 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. Got a busy, busy Monday review for you. We're going to make this one public, which we do on occasion. Try to become more regular about making them public on occasion. Vince, how you doing? Oh, public feed, how I've missed you. How I've missed you.

I'm happy to be back within the public's feeds, warm bosom, you know what I'm saying? and also for everybody that is on the public feed that might not be you know a patron we had the Copa America pre-sell last week right if you're in the if you were in the discord you would have you would have secured your tickets and that's all I'm going to say about that yep so all the tickets man were available outside of the final I think so you know I went ahead got my Atlanta got my uh Kansas City and uh Well, so we'll see what happens for, you know, quarterfinal, semi-finals, final, tick or take-or-tape parade going forward.

But, you know, I got my group stage sorted out. Yeah. Anyway, I'm great. How are you doing Adam? Bill's. Good. I'm doing great. I'm doing great.

It's just another sunny day in Georgia. Waki, how are you? Doing very well, Adam. Congratulations on winning the U6 basketball championship. Bronze bracket. Bronze bracket. But it doesn't matter what bracket is. You only play what's in front of you as we were talking about earlier.

Thank you. Very pleased. Very pleased with the kids. They had a little bit dog in them there at the end. Okay. And we got to record quick so I can write out my awards for everybody. We're having our pizza party tonight. Do you jump up?

Supprelatives or just all get the same award? No, no. They each get their own award. You know, one of them is going to be, sleeping giant. One of the kids is going to get the sleeping giant award because he's a good little athlete, fluid little athlete.

But is he big? Is he large? Is it his giant in the heart? He's mostly sleeping is the thing. Oh. He's not, he's not locked in out there. So I'm trying to be honest and encouraging at the same time.

You know what I'm saying? I was throwing a little bit of shade with these awards, it sounds like. Trying to be honest is what I'm doing. Yeah. Is it, good. Are these pre-made awards that you're given out or are you writing them? You're creating them yourself.

I'm creating them myself. Yeah, I make a little certificate. Yeah. Well, congratulations. Yeah, thank you. Having a former journalist making your, you know what I'm saying? I like, I feel like you're going to use these words real crazy. Like, I don't know.

I'm excited to see what, like, once you draft this out, you might need to send me that list because I feel like you're going to use alacrity. and I probably will. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It's a lot for the parents. You know what I mean? The whole thing is it's for the kids,

but it's also for the parents. And then my final question, Adam Bill's coach of the year, are you a B.J. Callahan or are you a Greg Burrhalter? I think I'm a little bit more of a Burrhalter, yeah. I don't know what it's like to be a football coach. I don't think I give that vibe. It's much more, I just lean against the, I lean against the side of the gym.

And if somebody does something really good, I just explode out of my stance and praise them. Oh, you got a football coach down then, bro. That's not Burrhal. Burrhal doesn't lean on things. Ever. Actually, I think he did lean on the kind of bench background once. Can't remember what game it was.

Okay. But not much leading from him. It might have been St. Paul. He was very relaxed, taking selfies, you know, et cetera, et cetera. But anyway. I think I have less charisma than B.J. Calham, I think is mostly what I'm thinking about. But anyway, let's get a lot of goal contributions this weekend. Goals from Johnny.

Beautiful goal from Johnny Cardoso. Chris Richards scored a huge goal for Crystal Palace. It turned out to be the game winner and a 3-0 win. Jordan Pfeck, Ricardo Pepi, Paxton Aronson. He's back. He's back in the conversation. Fuller and Balligan had an extremely busy game and a goal, a nice goal. Brandon Vasquez scored again for Monterrey, and then Cade Cowell.

He also scored. And then we got assists from Weston, two of them. Dest, Tillman, which was kind of, he's a little lucky to get an assist here, but Luca Delatoria with a nice assist and John Luca Boussia with an assist. So we've got a lot to cover. You guys ready? I'm ready. I'm a little intimidated by it all, but yes. Yeah, me too.

Wes, two assists and a dislocated shoulder in a 3-2 win over first. Prosanone. First assist comes inside three minutes. It's just a smart run in behind between the center back and the left back. Then an outstanding first touch. Receives it over his shoulder like a wide receiver, juggles it to once, and then trickles it across through the defender's legs. And Vlajavich, Dusan Vlajavich, directs at home, far post, helped on by a deflection. 1-0 UVA. Everything seems great for them. And then, well, I'll let you guys, you guys want to say anything about that assist because that was the that was the peach yeah I mean you know I've said it once I said it a million times you know just Weston McKinney's that dude man playmaker

playmaker in the words of Michael Irvin you know what I'm saying uh yeah a thermometer if you will exactly exactly exactly you could not just feel the temperature in the room you must you must go out there and be a thermometer And that's what West does. And it seems like he likes to play against Frozen Oneid too. I think I'm seeing like, I think he's had like three or four, maybe even five gold contributions against him in like the past two years. So, you know, I mean, we've all played.

Sometimes he's got those teams, right? When you just see those colors, for whatever reason, you're like, ah, it's going to be a good day. I think, I think Wes has that here. he um well uvei celebrating they're off to the races here but then frosanone scores a couple of stunners over the next roughly half hour goes up to one then rabio comes off and then uve equalizes on another vlajavitch goal this time mckenny receives it at the top of the box after a bit of a scramble just plays a simple little pass into vlajavich's feet love the impulse to soccer through it here lahavich takes a touch and then puts it away on the deck far corner um two two and then you've a equalized i mean goes ahead late wins three two yeah should we speculate recklessly about his injury yeah and the implications for the united states meds and national team yes please well well go ahead Vince well just just first uh I'm passing right back to you but just how

he got hurt you know he he Western McKinney a little a little too hard you know weston mccany a little a little too hard. You know what I'm saying? As a wise man once said, watching a West McKinney match is similar to Jim Valvano's famous speech. You know what I'm saying? Where he lays out a perfect day. He's like, you're going to laugh, you're going to cry, and you're going to think. You know what I'm saying? He's going to make you think when you see him take that first touch. How did he do that?

You know what I'm saying? He's going to make you laugh when you see his joyous celebrations with Dusan. You know, they got a nice little relationship where they uh seems like big brother little brother almost even though west might be older than him i don't even know um and then he's also going to make you cry and that's what happens here um frozen on a attack breaks down and basically west just ends up with the ball frozen on his is like backing up into their little mid block but they had been pressing pretty much the entire the entire match and uh weston carries it for a little bit then just tries to slide it out to one of his centerbacks it gets

cut out. Little break is on for those no one. They probably, you know, a little dangerous, but Yufei has about three people back. But Weston has to make a little last dish challenge to, to, you know, quell the attack. Goes to ground, wins a tackle.

And separates his shoulder in the process. So, you know, like I said, he McKinneyed too hard. He did the beautiful first touch for the assist. first of all, and then later, you know, a very familiar Western-type giveaway that leads time going to ground and hurting herself. But go ahead, walk. Okay. So let's talk about this injury then and what it means.

How about a non-medical medical opinion? My trusted source on this is Sly Eli from the Discord. He's not a doctor, but he's had this injury. Okay. He really seems like he knows what he's talking about. He's also very meticulous person. He's a meticulous person. I was about to bring the...

Importantly, he went to yell. I didn't know that. Okay. Well, okay. So, he's basically a doctor. What Sly Eli says is, and I didn't, I could have looked up this stuff separately to confirm things. I didn't, though. All right?

Dislocated shoulder likely means his labrum or cartilage or parentheses cartilage. I don't know if labrin is cartilage, or that's just. the type of cartilage is torn and will need to be surgically repaired at some point. You can play through it and strengthen the surrounding parts to compensate, but you have increased risk of dislocating it again.

Speaking from experience, it is really uncomfortable even to run around with a torn labrum. It would really affect your appetite for going to challenges, but surgical repair is a huge pain in the A. He used the whole A word, which I don't like, and four-month recovery.

So other than the cursing at the end, I thought that was really good insight from Sla Eli. Yeah, I guess it has to do with how torn the labrum is. Because, well, why don't you read Allegory's quote as well? Well, Allegory said every now and then he has this issue, which I think confirms that this is, that fits with Sla Eli's picture. Yeah. And if you do, as I did, a Google search,

Westmane, dislocated shoulder, but then you, uh, you disqualify the past month, you know, or disqualify even the past two days. There are a lot of news articles about him having a dislocated shoulder over the last

five years. He's, uh, at least twice before this, um, probably more than that. He dislocated his shoulder in training in July 2020. And there were a lot of headlines about how you might miss the beginning of

season. Huh. What's that? Oh, yeah. He started. did the first game of the season for YuVay against Suswolo. And then in December 2019, going even further back when he was at Shalka, he dislocated his shoulder then, and he ended up missing three matches. So I think I'm going to side with Allegory here.

It's a chronic issue for West. Probably not fun, probably uncomfortable. Probably does hurt. But I guess he'll be with us in Dallas for Nations League. That's my guess. So two things on these issues, well, one on each issue. So the Shalko one when he dislocated his shoulder. Like I think that was the moment when I realized that like I really feel feelings for

Weston McKinney that are, you know what I'm saying, unusual to me with athletes. You know what I'm saying? Like, okay, he went down. They're telling me this is going to be a three month injury, whatever, whatever. I was sick I was sick for like a whole week I was like damn Weston's not playing no more

because remember you know what I'm saying just started following everything and 18 you know what I'm saying Weston start following Weston right after that World Cup

so he had become my guy by that point but I didn't realize how much how much I truly cared until he went down I want to say there was like a huge fall after like a corner or something it was like an aerial duel

or something he fell like squarely on the national He was Weston McKinney pretty hard on that one too. Yeah. You know, maybe even harder. Yeah. And yeah, I was just sick.

I was sick, man. And then that's what let me know. I was like, man, I really do mess with this. And he came back after three matches. And then that's the first time I was introduced to, okay, Weston McKinney as Wolverine, the superhealer, who cannot be kept down for too long. And then also, the one that happened last,

year before that in preseason and he came back for that season opener. If you remember, my real Westin Watchers know that he was not totally his self for like a good, a good month to Slai last point. He was very timid in challenges. You could see it. He was timid in challenges and the main thing that I noticed was that he was, people could really crowd him when he had the ball because he just was unwilling to like, you know, use his body like, dip his

shoulder like put his shoulder into somebody as Weston does right he's a broad dude so that his shoulders help him you know what I'm saying in the effort to keep the ball and and you can see people could just you know people talk about their bubble the defenders could come in his bubble very easily and you know challenge him for the ball and he was losing the ball quite a bit just because he didn't have that physicality to him okay yeah so that was the start of 22 so we'll see we'll just see but yeah he should be back for nations like I would think I would think this happened at a perfect time go ahead walking so it's fair to say we don't we're not expecting him to time his surgery to happen right now the surgery that we're assuming he needs based on slight Eli he's not going to do it now he's not going to miss Copa America it's out of the question isn't it I feel like it is but I guess he can't miss you know he can't prioritize Copa America over the Siriaa season so if he doesn't in fact need the surgery, he's going to have to get it at some point. We do have one other piece of data.

Elton Tom on Twitter asked of Airborne. Is he okay, Mr. McKinney? Love watching his outstanding season. John McKenney, Airborne 69, responds, he is good and thanks for your concerns, period, prayer hands. What does this mean? How do we interpret this? Airborne, I never told me a lot, bro.

I mean, so if he say if he's good, then hey, he's good. You know what I'm saying? This is a man airborne 69. I would trust for my life. You know what I'm saying? The country trusted it with her life, you know, trusted him with her life, you know what I'm saying? It's a question of what exactly good means. Does that mean he's in good spirits?

He's good. He's going to be back in a week or two. Something in between. Well, time will tell. Yeah. But he's good. Airborne is putting on a show lately on Twitter, though. He's been on maneuvers out there.

He's back. He had to go at Forza Juventus. Forza tweeted, West McKinney appreciation posts, two assists today. Haters keep hating. We keep moving. Airborne, quote, tweeted. I could say so much about some of the lame comments posted,

but I will let Weston continue to live rent-free in your head. Is he talking about action? I think I misunderstood that tweet. I don't know what's going on here. I don't know. He's probably reading the replies to the Forza Juventus tweets or something. I don't know. Is anybody talking crap about West these days?

I feel like he's sort of highly appreciated. I don't know. I know CBS Sports Galazzo when posting the video of the first assist, the caption was essentially is Weston McKinney one of the best, infielders in Syria. And apparently in the comments under there, it got a little nasty. Look, I'm not worried about the commenters. I'm worried about that play on the field, baby.

I'm worried about that play on the field. And you see it. And you see it. You know what I'm saying? Even a blind man can see that Weston's a baller and he's out there doing his thing. And for anybody who would choose to doubt that, specifically in February of 2024, You know

You can come by my mentions We could talk about it Also Airborne Airborne is going through the same He went through that same malaise That we all did You know being in between

Windows for as long as we were And as Waki said You know he's getting it back up in the gear He's coming out of it He's posting some throwback pictures From the World Cup looking ahead of 20206 Exactly He's ready to go

He's ready That's got me feeling ready to go. Let's get this, guys. All right, get after it. All the best to Wes. Hopefully the shoulder injury is not too bad, not too serious. Johnny Cardoso, Joao Lucas, cementing his place in the hearts of Real Batisse fans,

got the pre-assist on a ball that sliced through two lines and put one of his teammates in behind to play it across for the opener. There was some chaos in the rain in this game. An athletic Bilbao player got sent off. Batisse went up to zero. Then Bilbao got one back on a set piece right at the end of the first half, and it was a little tense early in the second. And then came the dagger from Johnny in the 67th minute.

I'm going to play the audio from it. Thakir. William Jose has continued his run. He's giving it back by Thakir. Fekir once more. Cardenas with the shots. And what a goal that is! I love it bet his three athletic club one. Johnny Cardossa picked his corner and beat her a nice simono all ends up.

I love the way a Spanish crowd responds to it. There's a guttural. I think I've talked about this before, but there's like a low-pitched roar when a goal is scored in Spain. It feels like. Anyway, that was that. And that was a beautiful shot just outside the box. nestled it in the far corner, perfectly placed.

Johnny said of his goal, quote, I'm very happy. It still hasn't hit my head yet, but I'm just enjoying the moment with my teammates. That's right. That's right. And Johnny, you don't need it to hit your head. You know what I'm saying?

Just keep pluck it. Let's keep chugging along. One thing that's sticking in my mind was Pellegrini, the Batisse manager, who was interviewed, was talking about Johnny. You know what I'm saying?

Had glowing praise, of course. had glowing praise, but he was like the biggest thing for him is to be consistent. And that's the hardest thing is to be consistent. And yeah, so that's what we're just looking for at this moment. And he hasn't shown any signs of slowing down yet. I mean, he's doing, he's, he's a good player, man. I don't want to say, I don't want to say too much about, you know, Tyler Adams or whatever. but like he is very good he is very good uh is doing it all on defense um you know

he's doing his thing with the ball right that that ball for the uh for the first goal was was tremendous yeah tremendous to play that um and then and then the goal um he was asking for that top of the box like the entire half you know what i'm saying like uh they were up a man they had been up a man the entire half and so the top of the box was just wide open every time every time an attack would would break down he was just you know kind of he is starting to feel itself a little bit because he was he was giving the geo hands to his feet right hey pass me the rock and once he finally got the rock what did he do with it beautiful loving it he had he had opportunities to visualize that and then we just see it fly perfectly where he wanted it's a tantalizing prospect to have a withdrawn

midfielder on the national team who can do that because Tyler can't. Not that that's, there's a lot of other factors here, everybody. I'm not saying anything crazy, but it is, uh, it is nice to see a midfielder who can play the six who can also score a goal like that. Yes. It's just the first goal he scored in about a year, but. Yeah, he's not a regular score.

He still score a goal like that, which would seem to suggest. he can he can score some goals that didn't look like an accident that was that was not a that was not a mistake right and just from like a pure pure uh ball striking perspective you know what I'm saying like our guys just don't just aren't able to hit the ball in that way you know right yeah so he's got everyone talking about his transfer clause now whether he can be bought out he got spain excited and then the other thing people are talking about is whether he's he can switch back to Brazil. Ha ha.

He cannot. He cannot. He can't. Why? Why? Because hashtag the coach, you know what I'm saying? Had the vision. Had the vision when many other people didn't.

You know what I'm saying? Winnihan brought Johnny in. I mean. Yeah. And he's locked in now. So, no. Brazil, you can't have him. And I bet you would.

I bet you would love to have him. You know what I'm saying? But no, you cannot. And, um, He should stay in Batisto. He should not be tempted to go to any big club, bro. Just stay there. And keep it moving, man.

Yeah, it's a good spot. I think they're sixth in the table. Are there? Pellegrini, man. He wants some Premier Leagues with Manchester City, right? Correct. I don't know if Hector Bellarine did, but he was on the bench at the beginning of this game. He didn't win any

Pregrade leagues Unfortunately He did have to come on though Because So Batiste's right back Because anyway I'm not going to get it to it Yeah let's not

Okay Belleran Had a rough midweek I think Didn't he get the handball at the end All right Chris Richards

He scored his first goal For Crystal Palace I think we should listen To the audio of that as well Well defended yet again by Burnley. Richard! Chris Richards

with his first for Crystal Palace. Yeah, so it's a little bit of a higher register on the... England. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. I prefer the Spanish one

now that you pointed out. Thank you. Wow. I have to say, I think I'm an English yeller. Myself, if I'm just assessing my yell style. You know what I'm saying?

I think I'll fit in better with... in South London. I mean, probably. Fair enough. Fair enough. Played it left center back. He's benefiting from the Oliver Glasner back three. Probably not going to keep that starting spot,

just being conservative here. But he's going to get some minutes. Gayhe's coming back. Yeah. Did I pronounce that correctly? You did. Awesome. I mean, I would say the 34-year-old Joe Ward will come out before Chris Richards,

especially that got him a goal now, you know what I'm saying, feeling good, is defending well. And also, you know, one of the things that we saw at Hoffenheim when he was playing in the back three, he loves those extra angles that he's able to occupy, being out wide like that, gives them the premium opportunity to be able to fizz the ball between the lines. And you can tell Chris just really enjoys that. So I think he even mentioned that in the interview, too. I agree. Let's get Ward out of there.

Exactly. Yeah. Let's get him the hell out of there, man. It's time. And Chris Richards, if he does become a starter consistently, he would break the curse about going to England. As we've kind of learned, baby, just don't go to England, guys. But it might be about to work out here.

We'll see. Yeah. which would throw everything into confusion. I mean, you've just got to be a very special talent from Hoover, Alabama. And then you have completed your, you know what I'm saying, your quest to get the Premier League. And I was just looking at his minutes the other day. He's about, I want to say, 100 to 300 minutes away from basically setting his top flight high.

You know what I'm saying? He played a ton when he was at Byron 2. played a ton of minutes. It's got like 2,500, I want to say. But, you know, with Chris, as he's made his move into the top flight with Hoffenheim, with Crystal Palace, you know, had some injuries pop up here and there. And so, yeah, he gets another, it's between 100 and 300. But anyway, he will amass his top flight high very soon.

And if he does that, I mean, consider, you know, all the chains and shackles broken from our arms, you know what I'm saying? We're in the Premier League. Okay. He is, you know, I think I back him, no matter the situation, because he's smart and, you know, I think he just, he has an understanding of what he needs to do. Seems to be only getting better in that respect.

The cautionary tale from the Premier League these days, of course, is Giovanni Raina. It's a small cameo down to, four to two. Did absolutely jack squat in this game. We're just going to have to be patient with him, I guess. It was kind of a dead game when he went in. And there wasn't that much to be done.

They didn't have a ton of the ball. His defending wasn't outstanding. But, you know, he's not a defender. But it is noticeable. The good news is... What was noticeable to you? I don't know. Just kind of the area he's standing, the ball's going to be able to pass through that area.

Like, he's not, he's not, and then once it does, he's not necessarily going to recover with venom. But, you know. Never once seen him recover with venom. Yeah. But his situation is not that bad. Like, he basically moved from Dortmund to here. He's getting to experience the Premier League. And it's great how terribly things are going in Dortmund right now.

Maybe Tursing might be on the way out. Fantastic. Could it, could we, would it be better if you were playing more and doing some cool stuff? Yes. But, you know, we're just in a, we're not a holding pattern here before for the rest of the spring. That's fine.

Yeah. A holding pattern until he starts for us against Jamaica. Yeah. At the end of the next month. so yeah i don't know i think a lot about that old man comment you made vince a couple weeks ago where you said the reason i like geos because he plays like an old man uh he kind of did play like an old man in this game he just like got the ball and passed it backwards i mean your your team's i understand as a dead game but your team's down four two you're brought on as a

sub an attacking sub no less go and try to get something you know and okay And I feel like people going to comfort me because of this is old man comment. But I'm not saying like, yeah. So what I am saying is the old Gio would go out there and try to make something happen by hooker by crap. You know what I'm saying? I feel like he hasn't necessarily played enough ball yet post, you know, the hamstring apocalypse, where we know what kind of player he is yet. And I'm still trying to figure it out.

And what I'm seeing right now is just not, it's just not the same. It's not the same, bro. He used to, he used to be able to, he used to be a little bit more on the carry, taking people on, was more dynamic and eliminating, and eliminating people. And I feel like at the moment, that's a little bit undeniable. Not to say he is not a good player, not to say he is not currently a started for the U.S. you know what I'm saying the ball security the way he's still able to

create chances and create openings within a defense for us is still something unique but as we reassess you know what I'm saying geo was supposed to be the dude right like that dude

that dude an elite prospect and not just the eyes of us but the eyes of the world and I'm just wondering if we do have to come down off those expectations. Now, I'm not saying... I'm not saying... Right, right. I'm not saying...

I'm with everybody else. I'm with everybody else. And I believe that... Well, everyone else doesn't feel that way, right? Now, Vince, they're very upset with you for saying that. They're very upset and they're angry and they're going to tell you about it. No, I'm just saying that that's what. That's what's going in my head.

I'm not making the declaration yet. I'm not making the declaration yet. I'm still in the camp with everybody else. I believe that he is still that guy. I still got that hope that he's still that guy. Yeah. Just need to see. One thing that's clear is he hasn't yet figured out how to beat out

very good players for a starting position. Yeah. That's happy. They're very good, so it's hard to do. He hasn't done it yet, though. I think he's probably not going to beat out Morgan Gibbs White. It's not looking like. He's pretty good.

And he's in a loan situation right now. There's a lot of... There's a lot of... There's a lot going on. Circumstances. So with the whole loan thing, that just makes me answer. I mean, ask, what... Why?

Why even go on the loan? You know what I'm saying? So before, when Nadenham Forrest was rumored, you know, I was talking about the fact that he needs to go somewhere that's going to invest in his development. Now with more information coming out, it seems that BVB was only going to do just a straight loan, no option to buy, anything like that.

Well, in that case, the calculus changes. And at that point, you need to find who needs me. You know what I'm saying? Like, okay, they're not going to be investing in your development. You're there for six months. Who needs me? You know what I'm saying? And not in the forest.

It does not seem like they needed you. They need him as insurance, it seems like, you know, just in case somebody gets injured. I don't know, we'll see. We'll see. I mean, got to imagine there were some parental demands placed on the whole situation, you know? I mean. My kid better play in the Premier League. He is the agent now, right?

So I guess we can't put it past him. Just, I mean, bro. Gio, just turn it up, man. It's all speculative. just turn it up and then we don't have to have these conversations. We can just celebrate you. Yeah, I'm saying. Turn it up so I can dance on some graves in the Discord server too.

Yeah, but imagine if G.Rena had made that first touch and assist that Western made this past weekend. I mean, that'd be crazy. But he would never make that run in behind. But if he ever did, he could do that, you know? Oh, for sure. For sure. I'm just saying. you know you got a geo at home you know what I'm saying

everybody worried about the geo at the store we have put the idea of him making runs in behind in the past I think it seems like everyone's pretty much accepted that's he's never going to do that he would be so good at receiving him and stuff and doing something with him even at this state

you know he could have a guy right on his back bring that thing down but right but you got to make the run first. Let's talk about the strikers. Fuller and Balligan scored in a 3-2 win over Monaco, but there's so much more to tell about this. A barn burner in Lons, very active game.

He absolutely, for his goal, absolutely fathered Kevin Danzo, the Austrian international centerback on a bouncing ball down the left wing, kind of jumped over him and then just accelerated past him, gets in front of him. Danzo trips on Balagan's heel.

And then Baligan smashes it past the keeper from a tight angle with his left foot. And then Danzo just kind of like stares at the ground for a while. It was a thorough beat down. And, um, but then, you know, the game,

the game, the game kept going. Minamino scored a kind of a weird goal for Monaco. So they're up two zero. And then, and then Lawns gets two back. A lot of chances. for longs.

And then Balagan draws a penalty late in the game, running on to a bouncing, another bouncing ball in the box, but oh, he missed it.

Oh, no. Missed another penalty. And then Monaco gets saved late by a mean-amino banger, like a really nice goal cutting him from the right

and hitting it with his left. Kind of like that one Pulisick scored recently. We already have a penalty taker. True. He can miss as many

as he wants. Probably not ideal for his confidence. It's not. And it's crazy because he scored like six out of seven last year. This year it's like one out of four, one out of five. Something like that is, it's quite interesting. This one is pretty bad too. Okay.

Focus on the goal. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. No, he's been going through a little bit. It's a good game. It's a real bummer. He missed that penalty.

It's hard enough to think about it, isn't it? Let's focus on the penalty in that second. Hey, if they hadn't won the game, then it would have been like, you know, you know what I'm saying? But it would have been a more serious issue. But shout out to Minamino. Thank you for saving us. Really save the weekend, you know what I'm saying? Despite all the good stuff that happened.

If Monaco had, if Monaco drops points because Ballo missed a penalty, it would be a pretty big bummer. Yeah, hopefully Ballo compensates Minamino in some way. I don't know exactly what the right way to do that is, but there's fun to be had in Monaco, right? Yeah, and the silver lining, too, is he didn't miss two penalties. Yeah. He only missed one penalty.

He's done that in the game. Indeed. Indeed, that is the silver lining. Monaco in a Champions League spot, 41 points with 11 matches to go. They are, Nise's one point behind them, Leo, three points behind them. So yeah, they're in a little Champions League spot, a little race that despite everything that, you know, the season has been for flow, it's still going to be okay.

It's totally fine. Yeah. Everything's cool. And just to on the goal, it's like the same thing as like the PSG match. Like I think Monaco really realizes how to play with them now. They're just booting the ball to them. They're letting them run. They're letting them chase balls.

And both channels, you know what I'm saying? He just, he just basically picks a side and chooses to go. And then once he gets tired of that side, he'll choose the other side. And Monaco is just booting those balls and letting him chase him. And like, even though that had been, his goal was like 15 minutes into the match. Like, he had already been in like seven duels with Danzo. And Danzo had won, like most of them. you know what I'm saying but it's like he's relentless he's still coming after your ass every single

time like that's what's tough about being a centerback man you can win seven out of eight and then you still you're still the the goat and that's not an acronym right yeah and it doesn't matter how many flow loss he put that man in the dirt you know what I'm saying yeah what about Pfok what about Pfock Vince you you you uh you paid some attention to him this week Yeah, it's time to It's time to really get serious about Jordy And and look, Bells Bells just rolled his eyes at me

He did, that was an aggressive eye roll. Bro, aggressive. It was kind of crazy. Actually, we might have to talk after recordings over, but you're just disdhistoric. No, but Bro, I was on the Jordi Pfeck his ass train last year. Like when he was doing

his thing for Union, I was like, guys, I'm telling you all this is not this is not what it looks like you know what I'm saying if you really watch the matches and um football ref also agrees with me um like he's much

better this year if you look at his if you pull up his uh sponsor of the pod podcast football reference um dot com right if you look at his 20 22 to 23 Bundesliga stats versus 23 to 24 um it's it's night and day difference

Nine day difference. I think he's ninth in the Bundesliga and non-pedalty XG and plus XA like in the whole Bundesliga at 0.66 per 90. He's doing his thing, man. It's pretty good.

Yeah, yeah. Like he's really doing his thing, man. And, and you know, the thing that really turned me off initially with Jordy, even when he was scoring with Union was just defeat. Bro, I mean, it's a night and day difference. It's a night and day difference. How did his feet get that much better in one year at the age of 26 or whatever he is?

I don't know. Come on. I don't know, Bels. I don't know. He's, but he is killing. Here's, I've got a theory. I've got a theory. The issue wasn't a feat.

It was just getting the experience of, he's not having to think about being a striker anymore. He's become a striker. And now it's just natural. Now his natural, incredible technical ability is coming out. Exactly. Bro, I'm telling you, he's making one touch layoffs with just people on. on his back, like, you know, the person on his back is absolutely like in Hades, you know what I'm saying? Because he's just a huge person. Because so, like, even with Union Berlin last year,

he would take like a bad touch and be able to collect the ball because the centerback on his back can't do a damn thing about it. But this year, like, bro, he's receiving the ball one touch layoffs to the wing, like collecting it, passing it, making nice little progressive passes to you know, wingers running beyond them. Nice little slip balls to midfielders, all type of stuff. And the fact that he brings that to the box too. And he's backboarding perfectly. He looks like Olivier Jerude out there the way he's backboarding.

Backboarded for at least three or four shots. Almost had an assist in this match with the goal that he scored. But the dude, I think it was Newhouse, played a one-two with him. And after Jordy laid it off, he grabbed the centerback. shirt and the centerback probably wasn't going to be able to make a play on the shot that scored but because jordy grabbed him they caught it back it was it was a little bit soft it was a little bit soft but bro i'm telling you i'm telling you bells bells is still looking at me very skeptical i'm telling you he is good he has turned it up bro okay i'll have to do i'll have to brush up on my

jordy pfock bro you have to and to and along with the uh the fact that he is backboarding so much it's shot creating actions. You know what I'm saying? They've made a significant increase from the past year. He's up to 2.62 per 90, which isn't a tremendous number. You know, it's still in the 49th percentile for forwards, but it's much better than last year

when he was in the 12th percentile. You know what I'm saying? And the thing about a backboard is, you know, there's a lot of known unknowns when you're attacking, right? You know, we see, you know, 90% of attacks go begging, right? The one thing you can count on, when you got a nice

backboard, that you can just play it to and you know you're going to be able to receive it back, it's huge. And you see... It does make a big difference. Yeah. And I saw in this match that any attacker that was in, there was in Johnny's vicinity, they were looking for him. He was laying that thing back off beautifully

every single time. And they were feasted. So I'm very excited. I'm very happy to see him doing this thing. You know what I'm saying? He talked about being left off the World Cup roster and the convoy he had with his mom where his mom was basically like,

how many games you... She was like, how many games you play for the national team? And he listed the number. And he was like, how many goals did you score? Like one, you know, that one Honduras one. And she was like, well, do you think you really deserve to be on the... Man, mom.

Yes, bro. Speaking truth. And that's what you got to do. That's what you got to do sometimes. And so the fact that, you know, he did have... He did... By the time that Bundesliga season had ended, it had become a disappointment, right?

Which led to him leaving, Unio. And the fact that he gets his fresh start is back with his boy from young boys. And is cooking like this? I mean... call him up. He needs to be in camp for sure. This is a major shift,

major shift in policy from you. It's a major shift, bro, but that's how much he's balling. And I've watched him play multiple times. Which striker are you turning on here? I'd probably say Haji. If I had to leave one home. Yeah.

The thing is, that's four strikers. Hodge's being left home if there's only a striker spot for him anyway, right? I mean, he'll be brought to Deputy. does as a winger. Oh, right. Between Rico,

Balo, Sergeant? I mean, it looked like Sarge can't come anyway. Got a David Wagner quote saying that we need

Sarge to get healthy over the international break. So I was looking like he's not going to to Nations League in the first place.

We can go and transition to Josh. Yeah, Josh is playing, though. So in they, Norwich Drew 1-1.

They're in a promotion push here I mean at least they're pushing to be in the playoffs the promotion playoffs Sergeant missed a decent chance on a run in behind

good run just good saved by the keeper and then he whiffed on a descending sky ball to use a Watkeism and that's all I got on Sarge not the most talkable weekend from him I suggest

I didn't know about that Wagner quote I didn't either Yeah, man. I scrolled down to the Discord. But yeah, he specifically mentioned the international break. Because, you know, as we talked about, Sargis and training,

just coming out every Saturday playing ball. But, yeah, he said it's something we've got to manage right now and hopefully we can get it healthy during the international break. So. I mean, I guess it would solve some of the controversy

if he just stayed home, but I'd like to see him with the national team. Again, I have to brush up on my PFFAC. PSV. just annihilated PEC's wool over the weekend. Dest started, assisted the opener with a good left-footed cross

that Bacayoko just smashed in with his head. Good stuff from Surge there. He was toying with that right back, a lot of the game. And then Pepe and Tillman came on his subs. Pepe came off for the last 15 minutes, up 6'1. Did some okay stuff. Scored on a two-touch finishing drill. type chance late on a Lozano ball that grazed Tillman on the way in so that's why Malik gets the

assist I believe then Rico also hit the post on a dipping in-swinger from a set piece from the left side so yeah you know he's making the most of what he's got test passed up a opportunity to cross to him that he should have taken and I'm just it's a shame because it started with a pass from Tillman. We had the commentator on the TV talked about American Triangle developing as the play is happening.

That shoots it. Well, it is kind of pointless to talk about these. I mean, Luke DeYoung had three goals, right? It was a total beat down.

But what about the midweek game? The midweek match. Or, Waki, if you want to disagree with me, go ahead. I just wanted to point out that Luke, to young was icing his knee when he came out. He was very happy

but he was icing his knee and that's just good to see. Yeah. Getting old. It's true. Time is ticking. That's right. But yeah, midweek.

So really we had this same exact situation with Serge. First of all, the fact that well, first of all, he put a man on the ground. I think it was Ryerson from Dortmund. you know, Serge received the ball on the left side,

basically outside the box. He was on the move. This was basically like a PSV counter attack. He was on the move when he received the pass. And, you know, just gave Ryerson a nice little cooking. A little one, two, uh-uh, out of there,

put that man to the ground too. So that's two, that's two, you know what I'm saying, big five opponents that have been dropped to the floor by Yanks this weekend. And as Serge continued, use his run into the box he shoots nice nice hard shot with his right foot but basically right at

the dormant keeper people are saying many have said he should have cut it back to to malik no it was a riko it was riko it was rick oh it was riko i'm tripping yeah it's riko so it would have been a very tough finish um riko was basically on the left stick almost and just based on how the defenders were position and how the goalkeeper was positioned, he would have had to drag that thing with his left foot far post upon receiving it. Now, he can do it for sure, but it wasn't necessarily a short thing. But even still, I think I still would like Serge to make that pass, I think. So it's on our radar is what we're saying. I think that was, that was kind of a, it would have been a hard pass and a hard shot. Right. Right. Right. You know. So.

What's on our radar is dest, um, mistreating. passing to Pepe. It's not really on our radar. Also, another surge thing that's kind of on the radar from the midweek match. Kind of got beat by Donya Malin for the one Dortmund goal is game in and at a tie. Dortmund 1 PSV1. They go to, they're going to, go on to Dortmund for the return leg. This probably, so it's basically Malik.

No, no, Malik loses the ball. Malik loses the ball on the right touchline if you're going PSV's direction, PSV's direction. And basically the ball matriculates over to Danielle Malin, who's at the top of the box, on the right side of the box. Saibari comes over to help Surge and it's basically 1v2. Saibari and Serge versus Danielle Malin. Saibari reaches in challenges.

as Malin tries to nick the ball off of them, can't do it. And as soon as that do is won, three little touches with his right foot to basically further in the box. And since that thing home far, I mean, near post in the corner, just a nice little rocket. Now, as I said, is a 1v2 here. So Sabari has the left side. Serge basically has the right side to Serge's left. and Serge basically gets caught flat-footed here after Sabari loses the challenge.

I would like to see Serge keep his feet moving because Malin only had a one-way go. The left side was totally shut off. And for Serge to still get beat to his left there and allow Malin to get the shot off, I don't like it. I don't necessarily like it. I mean, it's not the biggest deal, right? But in these big games, the margins are small in it. Yeah, he's had worse defensive lapses than that.

Yeah, yeah. I'm not read about it too too much But like I said Marges is no We'll have many more Yeah You know Yeah

You will You will have more For sure It was a deflected goal It was a deflection Yes And also So Malik started in this match too

It was some give and take He lost the ball quite a bit He also did some nice things quite a bit Has some big chances that he missed too Had a little one-on-one With the keeper that he kind of rushed took at the top of the box where he probably could have took a touch or two

he was sick about that one had a header from a set piece that he headed wide but I think that one was I think that one was offside ended up being offside but you don't necessarily

started to look a little sleepy as the second half wore on too yeah but I would say he showed a steel he showed a little industry for sure in this match and won the penalty, even though the touch that he took was,

it's debatable, you know what I'm saying? People. Very. He was setting up the, he was setting up the penalty with the touch. Exactly. That's true. That's right.

Yeah. Apparently he was laughing after it was called a penalty. Hummels gave some quotes saying, Malik was laughing at that was. He was laughing his A off. That's what he said. And then Malik posted a video of it to his Instagram. That's where he won.

I think he took some confidence from that game. Okay. He was getting around out there and competing. Yeah. That's a couple sloppy things, but I thought he was pretty positive. I took some confidence from him. Champions League quarterfinal. Yep.

Champions League quarterfinal doesn't get much bigger than that. Luca Deletora had a nice assist. ball across the top of the box, expertly dummied by Strand Larson. I'm talking about this past weekend now, and then Yago Aspas meets it with all the assurance of a master craftsman, puts it in at the near post.

Paxton scored a goal in a win for Vitesse. There's a relegation scrap with Excelsior, and they get the win on the road. We're down 1-0, and then Pax did well to track a deflected ball across as it looped over his marker. Kind of came down between two defenders from Excelsior, and he just nudged it with the outside of his boot

to beat the keeper from close range. Excelsior nearly scored like five times after that, but didn't, and then Vettessa got the winner on a set piece in the 86th. Pretty tense atmosphere for two really, really bad soccer teams, I think. So they're bad soccer teams, but they don't play bad soccer, right? We saw this with Heracles

while Luca was getting relegated. You know what I'm saying? The Netherlands just don't believe in bad soccer. So I've actually been very encouraged of what I've seen from Pax in these two matches. Really? Yeah. He seems to be a good player, man,

and definitely, you know, talked about Gio. Go somewhere you're needed. It seems like Vettese needed Pax for sure. He's doing his thing in there. He won the ball off people. four or five times in this match. First of all, he even big brothered someone. So that's, that's three Europeans sent to the ground by Americans. I mean, gave him a nice little forearm shiver as he was collecting a ball. Sent the man flying. No foul. Ref put his arms down like,

hey, you got the ball. And he proceeded to carry it and, um, and pass it to somebody on the wing. But, uh, yeah, ball's secure, winning the ball, getting around, getting around the pitch, like his brother. But is bringing something to the party when he gets there. He's coming, he's coming away with the ball, man. And I'm just liking what I'm seeing. I'm like what I'm seeing. He's looking sharp. He's looking good.

This is looking to be a productive loan from Pax. You know, when they sent him out, Frankfurt was making sure they got out in the, in the media and was like, you know, we believe that we believe in his talent. We just need to give him some minutes. And I'm seeing it. He's looking good.

I'm a- So put this. one in the good loan category yeah yeah i'm very encouraged by what i'm seeing um also if we want to stay on the fringes of the player pool the the far far fringes um you know a place where nobody typically goes i watch some christopher lund this past weekend um do tell just to see what was just to see what was going on i hadn't seen him since last uh last window just wanted to see how he's I was doing checked in on him. Palermo played, I forgot the name of the team,

but they are in the relegation zone of Siri B. And with that being said, you kind of would have thought that Chris would have done better against that type of opposition. Not to say he was bad. Not to say, but he was bad, but he was had a few times, got Meg, you know, a little something, something.

Nothing like too, didn't give up anything, like, too dangerous. But this was all, like, kind of early in the first half. came into the game more as it went on. Second half really kind of started balling. Had a hockey assist on their goal, if you want to call it that. He just passed it back to somebody who crossed the ball in. But, you know, I'm going to make sure that I keep up with Chris. Just because of the sole fact that hashtag the coach, GigiG,

called a shot with Johnny Cardoso. And, you know what I'm saying? We ignored that for a long time in it. I have to admit, I was not. sold on Cardoso the first. Yeah. Several times I watched him play. Yeah. I wasn't either. I mean, even when I was watching the, you know,

Sierra over in Brazil, I was like, eh. But, um, yeah, Chris, I think they're like two points behind Venetia. Like, they're right there. They can get, they can get an auto promotion spot as well. And even if not, they seem to be firmly in the, uh, promotion playoff. So they got everything in front of them. They ended up winning this match. They got everything to play for. And, you know, Chris, he's a solid-sized dude, and he has decent feet, you know, could pass with his left, right. He's okay.

It's a work in progress. He's a young man. He's like 20. So, I mean, remember what Jedd I looked like when he was 20? You know what I'm saying? So I'm going to make sure I stay tapped in with Chris. Now, if Lund became a breakout play. player in a, you know,

Syria or La Liga like Cardosa has done. That would be much more surprising than what Cardosa has done. I say we didn't see it with Cardosa, but it wouldn't be on this level. This would be shocking. Shocking?

Oh, man. Yeah, if he went to a team and became like an MVP player for them, game after game. Oh, even for like seven weeks. Yeah. If he went full Johnny. I'm not saying he can't.

I could see him going to play in Syria. But full Johnny. That would be very surprising. The full Johnny. Understood. Understood for sure. Fulham beat. Well, you want to say anything more about Christopher?

I do appreciate you keeping track of him. Thank you for your service. I'm done, bro. Go ahead. All right. Fulham beat Manchester United. Two to one. How was Jedi?

he did Jedi things you know what I'm saying first of all public fee y'all didn't get to hear this I talked about this a few patron podico but he's much better just technically in the run of play

through buildup than we give him credit for I feel like now he also got up in position a lot of times of this match to deliver crosses and 99% of them were ass unfortunately.

So that hasn't changed. But, you know, he just had a, he just had a regular Jedi match, man, doing his thing, locking down that left side. As Fullum, like, because Fullum really, like, put it on, man, you, like, they were away. They were at Old Trafford. And, you know, especially for the first half, they just put them to the sword. They had the ball most of the half. They were creating all the chances.

They were getting in. behind the midfield, just running at that back line constantly, constantly, constantly. And it almost looked like Fullen was going to trick it away and not come out with the dub that they thoroughly deserved. But yeah, Jedi was just a huge part in it, you know, helping orchestrate the buildups that led them through a man-use block, whatever it is that they were doing. And yeah, bro, he just, he just does his thing, does his thing every week. Lunch Pell guy, Jedi Robbins.

I mean, a famous win for. for Fulham, really, to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford. Okay, well, the last thing we got to talk about is MLS is back. MLS is back for a regular season. Started this last week. And, you know, there's some young players to keep an eye on. Let's start with Quinn Sullivan, who got an assist on a little one-two and a slid ball across to Mikhail Ure, early in the second half for Philadelphia Union,

and a two-two draw with Chicago. Some wicked strikes with that right foot of his. He had one that was from like 22 yards that was an absolute missile that just missed the post by like a foot. And then he also, he had another one. I drew a good kick save from Chris Brady. Also some very poor shot selection when he should have passed it to someone open in the box.

I love that right foot of his, but he is the most shoot first player in the entire player pool. And if you even count him, in the player pool. He is not, I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like that.

He does that. I love it. Like play the ball across to somebody in the box instead of taking a shot from a seven degree angle, bro. What do you think you are? If you had a right foot like his,

he would do that, you would do that too, bro. The thing is, he was doing it with his left foot too and he doesn't have a left foot like he has a right foot. He's confident. Yeah, yeah. He's confident.

I don't watch the game because I'm protesting the ref lockout. Yo, yeah, that is worth mentioning. They're using scab refs right now. They don't have, uh, the ref union is, is on the outs with Don Garber. And they seem to be doing like just inexplicable things. I haven't watched, I haven't watched, but I've seen like, it's been like at least two red cards where I'm just watching the discourse around and everybody is like, bro, what is going on? all. Like, they just, they're just sending people out for funzies, it seems. Um, you know, these scab authorities, I mean, scab refs trying to, you know, stamp their authority, I guess is

what's going on. Right. But, um, it's been making me laugh. So also in this game, Gutierrez, Brian Gutierrez from Chicago, set up a chance with a knockdown header earlier that, early that just went begging and then scored a very good goal to open the scoring, dribbled through two defenders from the left side and smashed it high past the union goalkeeper. I also got the assist for the second goal for Chicago on a composed, unselfish layoff on a scramble in the goal mouth. So I don't know. I know there's a lot of big Sullivan fans out there.

I was probably a little hard on him. He does have a incredible foot. But I'm just going to say Sullivan and Gutierrez, they're kind of like, it's hard to see them making it all the way to the national team, you know, even though they're, even though they're good. Okay So what would What would Quinn Sullivan

I've done with that That ball that Goody laid off He would smash it off of somebody's knees For sure Yeah Yeah It was a nice play from Goody And the shot too of course

But yeah I've always had just a little penny stock on Quinn Sullivan Just because of the right foot I mean when he catches that thing With his right I mean it's a thing of beauty And It is

I agree And just his combination instincts that he showed, you know, in that U-20 Concacav tournament, you know what I'm saying, with him and Pax and Diego and everybody and everybody was just having a great time. And a lot of those moves, you know, came through Quinn. You know what I'm saying? I'm not saying he initiated or anything like that, but a lot of that slick. He participated. Yeah, he participated in that slick play. You know what I'm saying?

So I've always just had just a little bit. It just seemed like something was there. But as an attacker or a center forward or whatever. it didn't seem to necessarily be the case but with him moving back a line to midfield I'm intrigued I'm intrigued I'm a little intrigued yeah played played out why right

his brother Kevin Sullivan who is you know so who in whom I take great interest was not in the lineup was not in the roster the game day roster yeah I was about to say so he's a Sullivan right so you know he's

we don't got to worry about mentality you know what I'm saying they saying Kevin at 13 year old is showing more discipline than I've ever showed my entire life. You know what I'm saying? They had that man waking up at 3 a.m. to adjust for time zones. You know what I'm saying?

Like, I'm going to put my money on the Sullivan family. Okay. I agree with that. And I think the difference between Kevin is cabin from what I have seen, which is, you know, there's not a lot of footage out there.

But he like, he enjoys setting other people up for goals. It's like he takes pleasure in it. When Quinn has to pass it in the final third, it's like, oh, man, I guess so. And he passes it. And when you pass it like, oh, man, I guess so, it's never a good pass, you know? You can't drag your feet into making a pass in the final third. That's never going to work. You keep giving people Southern accents when you gave Claudio one.

I did, didn't I? You're spending too much time in the mountains. Southern mountains. That's why you need a backboard. It takes all that, it takes all that guesswork out of the equation. You don't got an aw man, I guess so, because you're going to get it right back. You're going to fit that thing into the feet. With alacrity.

Risa of M. I just wanted to mention Risa Vam, the Discord has recommended we do a weekly check-in on the Sullivan's, all the Solvents. Just a Sullivan segment? Yeah, he wants to call it Seconds of Sullivan. We'll see how much these, you know. I don't know if we can do it every week, but I'm, I mean, I always have strong opinions about Sullivan Brothers. So, you know, I'm ready.

I think I'm ready. Last two young players from MLS, I want to mention, Esmer Barak Terevich. Very difficult last name to spell. I think I've got it, though. I think I'm in the, I think I've memorized it. No goals or assists, but he did nothing for me to tamp the enthusiasm I had for him after the January camp game. Just a, just a silky quality player. We'll see how his season goes.

The res were down a man against D.C. United. With all, you know, I'll do respect to my D.C. family. You know, never a, it's never a lovely night at Audi. It hasn't been since Wayne Rooney was playing. Right. But they did win three once, so hats off to D.C. United. And it was their young Italian-Albanian striker for New England who got two yellows in the first 25 minutes. So better.

Time to calm down for him. And then the last one is Nymphasha Berkimas. I guess it's Berkimas is how you say it. Got 10 minutes out there at the end for Charlotte FC. If you remember, he was probably our standout at the U-17 World Cup. He did not look very good in those 10 minutes. It was a youthful performance. Okay.

We'll take it, though. We'll take it, though. Yeah, good on Charlotte for getting him out there. When this ref lockout ends, two players I'm going to be monitoring this year. People have heard of these players. Caleb Wiley, Dante Seeley. Okay. Dante Sili's back.

He's back. He's back. Are you protesting against the refs or are you protesting against the league? What's your protest? The rest. What's the nature of your protests? That's right. That's right.

You know, I have. Yeah. We've gone on too long. I have a whole, I mean, it seems like this is the time to talk about it. It's the time to talk about it. It's the time to talk about it. Let's go ahead. All right.

So an interesting discussion. This is my last thing. An interesting discussion happened last week on the U.S. soccer subreddit about whether the chat room moderators should allow posts about the U.S. Open Cup. And I think the discussion kind of gets to the heart of what the disconnect is between the people who are relatively up in arms about MLS crapping on U.S. Open Cup, such as myself. And those who say, who come in and say, oh, you never cared about U.S. Open Cup before.

U.S. Open Cup matches have never been interesting to me. I don't care. And I think why it gets right to that disconnect is because the U.S. soccer subreddit spent a whole bunch of time talking about the presidential elections we've had in the last few years for the Federation. It talks about a lot of the structural U.S. soccer stuff, which seems totally natural. But there are some people in there who would say, I don't care about the U.S. Open Cup. Why should I care about the Pittsburgh Riverhounds? I'm here to talk about the national teams. right and and uh well first of all they should care about sorry to interrupt they should

care about the Pittsburgh Riverhounds should they yeah it's that's the best games they have this watch one of their games there's like a river in the background exactly have you seen the stadium have you seen the stadium it's very i mean i don't know that anybody was actually talking bad about the Pittsburgh and i shouldn't have interrupted you I shouldn't have interrupted you no it's okay that's okay so that's so that sentiment is certainly out there why should I care about this game between these two teams I don't care about who will never have a national team player when what I'm here to talk about is Christian Pulisic, you know? And, well, the answer is the U.S. Open Cup has a lot to do with how it is administered,

what it's like, has a lot to do with the Federation. And because it's the Federation's tournament. And it is not crazy to think of the U.S. Open Cup as a way to gauge that. of the sport in America. I understand if you don't care, if you didn't like it before, and you think everybody's just doing a bunch of virtue signaling by saying that they care about U.S. Open Cup. But it is the Federation's tournament.

It does matter. Maybe it doesn't matter as much in a country where we don't have promotion relegation because maybe the logic of it doesn't make sense at all when you don't have promotion relegation. Because that's the thing about these other countries that have pro-relle. is the U.S. Open Cup is the chance for everybody to play everybody, you know? And so it's like this special thing.

Here, it's not quite like that because we don't have promotion relegation. Well, and I think... It kind of makes it the one main chance to do that. I guess it does, yes, the only chance. But I thought a commenter named I Blumenatus put it pretty well, and I'm just going to read what he said. He said, we had whole threads dedicated to our USSF President Search, among other things as well.

This is all related to the Federation, which is at the root of soccer in the U.S. and how players get developed, get access to play, and eventually get capped and play on the field as the end result for our senior national teams. This is why the Open Cup matters. It's all connected,

and it is very sad that Major League Soccer doesn't see it this way. That's right. And I continue to protest. It's hurt. It's hurt me a little bit. I'm protesting. I still haven't re-upped my Apple subscription.

I wanted to this weekend, but I'm not going to do it. Not yet. Bro, I was thinking, like, I'm pretty sure I missed the, I missed the cutoff date and my stuff got, you know, re-up. Reupped without your consent. I got re-uped. I actually haven't actually checked. So maybe I haven't. But I did not watch any MLS this weekend.

You know what I'm saying? For the people that say you're virtual, that, you know, whoever's virtue signaling, I mean, as a season ticket holder of a lower league team, you know what I'm saying? I vehemently disagree. I vehemently disagree. You can catch these virtue signaling hands.

How about that? Number one. And number two, it is a big deal, man. It is a big deal. From my perspective, And two years ago, yeah, we had Nashville SC come to town. You know what I'm saying? Dax McCarty on the pitch, same pitch as Joshua Winder.

You know what I'm saying? And that's another thing with it. I mean, you would think, you would think that this match where you're playing an MLS team is one of the great evaluation tools that a team would use, you know, when evaluating somebody like a Joshua Wander, who's playing in the U.S. So who, and you're trying to figure out where he can go, trying to figure out his level. Well, hey, he played this MLS team last year.

You know what I'm saying? And we can't say that that didn't play a factor. And, you know what I'm saying? And Louisville City receiving $2 million or whatever from Benfica for the transfer. We're all interconnected and we're all trying to grow this game. And so for the MLS, big, big MLS, you know what I'm saying? To shun the rest of soccer and the game. this country and act as if they are too big, you know what I'm saying, to come to the friendly

confines of Lynn Family Stadium is, you know, a slap in my face, a slap in my face, personal. Personally, you know what I'm saying? MLS, you know, I made it personal. So, and I'm a very petty person. So if we're going to go this way, then we got to, I'm going to take it, I'm going to take it all the way. I'm saying, you open the door, I kick it down. So if that's what you want to do, some of less, then let it be what it be. But it can't be nothing less than FU or my side, because that's just how I get down, baby. Yeah.

We're virtuous people. Yeah. Virtuous people. We naturally put off signals when you make no apologies for that. I do think it's a damn shame. And there is no, as some, I think Mike Pendleton said on Twitter, in this response, you know, Garber's messages, we need to find a solution.

And Mike Pendleton's quote on Twitter was, or what he said on Twitter, there's no need for a solution. You are obligated to play in the Open Cup as the first division of soccer in this country. There's no solution needed. Just play. Send your B team if you want.

It's fine. But don't get, don't blow the whole thing up just because you're mad that everybody watched Lino Messie. win the U.S. Open Cup last summer. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry that that happened to you, Don. Yeah, man. I'm sorry.

And the fact that, like, so with, like, my Louisville City fans that I know, like, everyone, there's a little bit of an adversarial relationship with a lot of people with the MLS. And I was a person who was trying to bridge that gap. Like, yo, you know what I'm saying? Like, they're trying to do, you know, what they're trying to do, blah, blah, blah.

We got players that are coming out of MLL, like, We need the MLS to work if we are going to become what we need to become. And so, you know what I'm saying? We all need to realize that we're in for this together. But what can I say now? What can I say now that they've chosen to look down their nose and spit on the rest of the quote-unquote pyramid that remains in this state? So, yeah, man. Yeah.

We better get moving, I guess. Thank you for listening. Check out. I'll put the link in the show notes to our Patreon, which we highly encourage you to join to get the Monday review every week. And then also, we got some new merch. Yeah, merch, baby.

Check it out. Link in the show notes. And then we also have a YouTube channel which we'd like you to also check out and like some videos and subscribe. Also, just real quick, quick. Bells, you're going to be in Dallas, right? I'll be there, yep.

Bell's going to be in Dallas. So I still might run down there. Just a little, just a little kamikaze trip in, out, as I'm one to do. I don't know if I felt like spending the money, though, for that flight. But I might be there. April, I'm definitely going to the She Belize final. I might be going to the first She Belize match, too. Waki, you got some news for the people.

go into a soccer game. Go to the Columbia game. Our tickets right behind the bench. See Greg Berhalter right up close. I'm very excited. That is very exciting. People will be excited by this. They might get to spend some time with you.

Yeah. Except I'm going in as soon as those gates open. Last time I went to a game, we were drinking at that tailgage. And that's a lot of fun. But I want to see everything that happened. there. Yeah.

So I'm not letting anyone let me not go in very early and sit there. Yeah. I mean... Yeah, that reminds me, I'm going to miss... I'm flying into Dallas, like, I guess it turns out three and a half hours before the game. So that Jamaica game, March 21st. So we won't have a tailgate that day, or at least not one that I organize. But then we're going to have a tailgate on Sunday for the final, assuming we beat Jamaica, you know.

And then we're, you know, we'll be. We got plans in the works for the Copa. I think that's all the announcements. Anything? One more thing, Vince? Well, the only thing was that I'll be joining Waki in D.C. But, yeah, other than that. Thanks, everybody for listening.

We'll see you.