Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #472: USWNT loses to Mexico, full recap

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

WoSo Wednesday this week is a belated but fully-loaded assessment of the reverse dos a cero in Carson. Lots to discuss. Greg, Belz, Vince and Tara go in on it.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. Oh, it stings. Dos acero on a cool night in Southern California. Only this time it's the USA that falls to Mexico. According to U.S. soccer was the U.S. W.N.T's first loss ever in the state of California. Our first loss to Mexico in 14 years. And only the second loss to Mexico in the history of our women's national team. we are now 41 and 2 against them.

But the thing is, I mean, here's the thing before I introduce everybody here. To me, it didn't feel fluky or even plucky. It was just a thrashing. We got thrashed by a team that we've only lost to twice in the history of our program. How are you? How are you? Vince, Tara, Greg. Listen, I feel the ghost of Wadko and Anofsky near us.

It's spooky. It's scary. I'm looking for comfort in talking to you all today. Yeah, I've definitely felt better. Yeah. Yeah, the chills are there. The chills are there, you know, when you're being haunted by something. Something you can't quite put your finger on.

something that, you know, when you do turn your head and try to look and see if there is something there, it's somehow gone. And, you know, it's one of those things where once again, it's like, if you let it, it'll drive you into a mania. So, like Tara said, I'm happy that we're here to have this therapy session today because, uh, right. So I experienced severe head loss in a way that I haven't in quite a long time. Probably since, I don't know, sometime in World Cup qualifying, probably at Panama match, away Panama. Yeah, yeah. I was giving everyone a cussing. So what you do, what you do when you feel like you saw something and you can't quite, and then it's gone and you're not sure what it really, like you convince yourself. that it was something else.

And so that's what we're going to do, right? So that Panama World Cup qualifying game for the men is kind of a nice echo because you can tell yourself, well, this wasn't really the team. And you try to figure out what went wrong and why it won't go wrong in the very next game we're going to play. And there are some ready-made answers for why it won't, basically one name and Germa. So, you know, Bells, you said it felt like a thrashing. and it did in real time it absolutely did.

On a rewatch for me, it didn't feel like a thrashing. It felt more like kind of a frustrating, somewhat even game. And that's still frustrating because the U.S. isn't supposed to play even games at home against Conca Calf teams on the women's side. Like we are supposed to be thrashing other teams. And it just like is the expectation. We've built that expectation over 30 years. And so to see us play an even game and then come out on the.

losing end of it, it does feel like it does feel it's it's not it's not good. It's not a good feeling. Before we get to all the punitive banishments and the in the debates about those, why don't we do the lineups? Unless anybody else has any opening thoughts because I think I did want to bring up. I read a incredible quote from Crystal Dunn this morning. She said that this is. is it was a good thing. It was a good lesson to learn that they just can't show up and expect to win. And I can't believe that we're just learning that lesson now.

It's shocking. You would maybe hope that- Yeah, and you would maybe hope that maybe, you know, your captain would be able to provide a little bit of leadership in that direction. But let's neither here nor there in it. And maybe even your former captain, too. you know what I'm saying but we'll get to them both all three of the captains were out there yeah and they steer that shit right so I know Horan and Sauerbrun are the captains who's the other

one Morgan oh yeah okay came on at the half um all right let's do the starting lineup uh Alyssa Neer and goal um Emily Fox Abby Dahl Kemper Becky Sauerbrun and Crystal Dunn across the back line Sam Coffey, Lindsay Horan and Rose LaVelle got the start in the midfield, and then Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith, and Lynn Williams across the front line. And I'm going to say, I was surprised that GERMA didn't start. Of course, I think GERMA is our best centerback. But I wasn't really too upset about it initially. I thought it would be fine.

Yeah. It was not fine. It was not fine. This entire tournament, I've been telling myself, like, it truly, have been exciting to see changes and actually try out players and go into some of these games with the expectation that we're rebuilding our bench because at least in my opinion, that's what we were doing. We're trying to find almost an entirely new bench from the World Cup. And in that aspect, I was all for it.

The rotation was exciting to me. I wasn't nervous at all that. We were not relying on Naomi Germa. I just thought it was any old day. We're going to try out some more partnerships. Yeah, that's sort of the arrogance of being a U.S. Women's National Team fan and apparently also coach, because you just feel like we don't have to trot out our best 11 in a game

where the outcome does matter because we'll just win anyway. And I totally felt that. So the nice thing about seeing this lineup when we saw the 11 release was like, as soon as you see Germa's not in it, you know that there's a ton of interpretation wiggle room. You know that like this is not who anyone, no coaches out there like this is our best 11. So you know best 11 was not priority in this game.

There's a group stage rotation going on because we feel like we will win anyway. We will put out a suboptimal lineup and we'll just win. And then when we get to the knockouts, So that's when we're going to go best 11. And I'm the same as Tara. I was okay with it. I'm like, yeah, we'll just win. It's okay that German's not here.

We'll win this game and then we'll really see who our best 11 in is. And Mexico are just like, no, you will not just do that against us. We will exploit the little weaknesses you've put out there. And you're not good enough anymore. Little weaknesses. Come on. Yeah. Sauerbrun was a horror show.

I mean, straight up. All respect to her. but that was horrific. She was quite bad. And also, you know what I'm saying? I have to mention the fact that this midfield that did not work under one black called Andonovsky for an entire cycle, once again, once again back out there. You know what I'm saying? Rose, Lindsay, plus a six.

And especially in this match where, you know, there was no, there was no. there was no double pivot type situation. You know what I'm saying? Rose and Lindsay were both, you know, half-space merchants essentially, which is the exact same configuration that led, I think, this entire pod down the path that, you know what,

we currently do not have it as it is currently presented. And guess what, they still don't have it, even against Mexico. And, you know, all those friendlies that we were, you know, living on an edge, hoping for Mallory Pue to bail us out for Trinity Robin, somebody to just run past somebody and gets at inline and throw a little cutback in that somebody scores home, a little jamie goal. We almost got one in this match that would paper over the entire performance. It didn't come in this game and, yeah, just further evidence that we need to move on from this. Twila, I don't even know why you went back, man.

What was going on? Twilight gave, I would say, limited insight in the postgame conference, press conference. Kind of just, you know, kind of like a chat GPT system, just churning out words in response to queries. I want to touch on Vince talking about, you know, those friendlies and papering over some goals, papering over things. Because, again, I kind of feel like that was the Argentina match. And it wasn't that we were terrible. It's just that, you know, we scored some kind of odd flukey type goals. And we scored a lot of them on very few clear-cut chances.

So it's strange to say, but like we didn't thrash Argentina, even as we beat them 4-0. We gave them almost nothing. They almost hit a worldly. And then you kind of look at what the Mexico game was. And Mexico, we gave them a lot, but our best players didn't give them a lot. So it's like we can fix that. And then they hit a worldly and they actually hit it into the goal instead of off the post. So like for me, both these games are kind of a mirage.

The Argentina game was a mirage of like us dominating or at least creating a lot of chances because we scored four goals. And the Mexico game was a bit of a mirage of getting thrashed because Mexico weren't like in my mind carving up our good players. It's all going to come back to Becky. so I feel bad because again, this is an absolute like icon and there's just no way around it. Like this is a this is going to be a bad way for her to spend her last competitive game. Because I've got to imagine her next minutes will be either in a blowout or after the Olympics and a testimonial. She'll get a retirement game in September. We keep doing this to our legends.

I mean, it really felt like that was Becky's World Cup penalty the other night. she just she looked the fool. It was terrible. And also, yeah, it was really. Greg, just real quick,

I could feel, I could feel you fighting the urge to wet blanket that Argentina performance throughout their entire podcast. I just want to, I just want to let you know, I could feel it. I could see it right around the corner. You never,

you know, you never took the bait. It's hard. It's hard to not be excited when Jaden Shaw scores two goals, but you're like, all right, but we didn't really, you know,

and we broke down the video in the, in the discord of Argentina. and it mostly came through like Corbin Albert clips. And it wasn't that she did anything particularly bad that we'd been getting really good stuff from our center mids before Argentina and then Corbyn K. It was really just like, this is as a team the stuff we don't see. We don't see windows, progressive windows open

right when they open and hit them quickly and play. And again, it didn't, in real time, it doesn't feel like anything against Argentina because they were so passive, right? They're in their really passive, 5, 4,1. So when you miss a window, you still have the ball and you're not, you're not flustered and we still keep it and move, but it's still a miss. Like when you're grading it out, it's a miss. It's a mistake. And against Mexico, when we missed the window, because Mexico, we're coming in with a super hot press, when you miss a window, you get tackled. Like you get tackled and it turns into D1 college soccer, right? Like it turns into kind of like what we saw in that Netherlands World Cup group stage game where it gets really messy because they pressed us and we're not.

we're not good at we're not press resistant as a team and so it turns into sort of scrap hustle ball yeah we're definitely not so let me do the we got a lot to talk about with regard to the midfield vince's points he just made um a timeline that is like 500 items long so let's uh let's let's do the mexico bareras and goal christina farral uh rebecca bernal and greta espinozaza across the back line. I mean, I guess it was a nominal kind of three, four, three. Karen Luna, Alexia Delgado, Carla Nietto, and Nicolette Hernandez are the band of four. Luna pretty active on that right wing.

And then Lisbeth Ovay, really the star of the night. She was awesome, I thought. Really, really fun player to watch on that right wing, number 11. And then Keanu Palacios and Maria Sanchez. rounding out the front line. And then it was, I mean, I guess we'll get into the subs, but it was Myra Palayo, who was the sub, who scored that banger at the end of the game to make it Dosacero,

Palio, a native of California. First thing I've got is in the, like a 30 seconds in, a Becky giveaway to Ovay in kind of a nothing moment in Mexico's defensive third. So we're trying to break them down. And this is a foreshadowing of things to come. It comes right back the other way. It's just a pat, I mean, she's trying to hit Haran down

the left wing misses her and it comes down the other way it doesn't really come to anything but sourbrougham was about 50-50 every time she touched the ball like one time every other time was a uh uh disaster i mean it was it really was too again this would be this would be a huge concern if we're like well we backy's our second best centerback so we're going to have to hope for the best we just won't she just won't play again and we'll have to be stuck with Naomi Germa and one of Dahl Kemper, Tirna. We're going to be fine on the defensive side. Yeah, I think that's right.

So maybe we shouldn't hammer home every time she made a mistake in this game. One minute mark, a pretty good connection from coffee to Horan to Smith in a pocket of space on the left side in Mexico's final third. Smith takes on the Mexico defense as she was want to do, dribbled toward the goal and got a shot off under some pressure. That wasn't great, but, you know, at least it was a shot and it was, you know, could have beat the keeper. Moving along, sixth minute, smart counterattack killing scissor tackle from Dunn after Horan gives it away. That's the good news. The bad news is Horan gave it away, trying to pluck from the air a pass from Sophia Smith. That was either hit to Lynn Williams way beyond Horan or was it just badly under hit and forced Horan to.

It had to have been to Lynn, right? I mean, it looked like it was going right to her. Yeah. I could see where the Sophia Smith discussion is going today, Tara. We have lots to talk about. I'm very intrigued, but we'll keep going. No, I think I thought so too. But I mean, Greg, Greg, you noticed that clip.

I just noticed as a way of like, we aren't, we still remain not like a good rhythm passing team. So when you're hitting passes that are like confused about whether it's for this player this player, you're like, you know, you're hitting, you're working through the patterns of a possession team to break through a press, but instead of like hitting the pass with the right weight to the correct foot, you might be just like smashing in a bouncing ball to a player's thigh. And that's kind of a theme for us. But again, same with the same thing I said about Argentina. These are the growing pains of a team that's trying to get those reps in, of a team that's trying to be like, no, we need to be willing to hit this pass into somebody's feet,

even if they're under slight pressure. We need to trust that they'll, you know, protect it and make the next correct decision. So in that regard, you know, we've had a good buildup for that first minute chance. We've had a couple, we're going to hit another counter attacking chance. If we can sort of find ways to attack through both these ways, both of these means, it's going to be good. And I do think that when we get our all-time coach in, she's going to help us do both of these things more efficient. Seventh minute, a big carry from Smith

from an hour half all the way into the box tries to tuck a ball into Sam Coffey darting in behind as she moved on to, as Smith moved onto her right foot at the top of the box. It was, it didn't quite work out, but I like the idea from Smith to try to hit somebody there. I like the ground we can steal with Sophia Smith in those moments, right? Like, it's a good tackle from coffee, like almost at the top of our box.

And she just one times it up. into the area of Smith. And Sophia just, again, has that leverage where she can drive an entire defense backwards for 50 yards, an entire defense, meaning Mexico scrambling three defenders. But no one's going to be confident enough to try to take that ball from Sophia at midfield. They've got to just give up ground against her. And then it's just going to be about the decision and the execution in the last 20 yards, on ball and off ball movements.

And that honestly was a big part of where I think we were lacking. and have been lacking last night and through the whole last cycle. Right. So it's good from Sof, but I would just like a little bit more. So they retreat, right?

They retreat once they, you know, once Mexico basically, once Sof reaches Mexico's line of confrontation, you know, which essentially like the top of the box, you know, centerback comes out and confronts her. And, you know, I don't know.

Like, you know, I mean, she ends up having to turn and go horizontally across the box and play the tame pass. When, for me, I don't know. I feel like we did have a lot of zone 14 or thereabout touches at the top of the box in this match. And not quite enough came from me, for me. Like, um, we need to, I mean, just to, nothing came from a man. Nothing came from them. I mean, self-tran, there, nobody's, nobody is blameless here. Yeah, right.

Nobody's blameless. But like, you're going to blame Rose. That's my big thing, man. It's like, we just, we need to eliminate somebody through the past, through the dribble, something. We, we did not do a lot of eliminating Mexican play. in this match in the attacking in the attacking areas for the most part and despite the things uh despite what I said about the midfield despite what we said about the defense um the attacking players got to come under some some some criticism here too because I expect more from them I expect

more from them yeah I do too I'm glad you said that because I think I mean Lavelle I think Lavelle's got to be benched basically. But Sophia and Trin got a, they need to put the, have the fear God put in them, like that they might be benched. Are you guys like categorizing Lynn as less responsible than Trinity and Sophia? No, not really. Lynn had opportunity to eliminate people too. I remember one time on the left wing, she got it tackled off of her when she, you know, receiving the ball, It's even the ball with a run and start, man. Like, get busy. You know what I'm saying?

I remember a few times where Crystal and Lynn were trying to connect, and one or the other would just dribble it out of bounds a few times on that left side. The other thing we're going to lean on here, we're going to lean on, you know, when we talk about was that a ghost or was it nothing, is we're going to fall back on our, like, preseason. A lot of these players are in preseason excuse and be like, what will it look like three months from now, you know? And I don't know.

And it might still look this disjointed. But I'm just sure hoping that there's a little better, a little better first touch, a little better control the ball as you're trying your move to eliminate someone. Because, I mean, that is a real thing. But yes, like, the big warning flag for the attack here is, Mexico, we're not sitting in a low block. We know that's a problem for us.

We beat their press quite a few times for as much as everyone's complimenting Mexico's press. We beat it a lot, got running downhill, and just squandered, uh, break after break. So that is a problem because these are the players who are supposed to be like thriving on these breaks, Trinity, Rose. Uh, so like this is where they're supposed to shine. And it was, it was pretty dull. Shine, they did not. No. Um, uh, eighth minute, uh, done just a bad whack across the box when she could have been more patient after a buildup through Lavelle and Horan down the left side. This is another 9th minute.

What's that? Just real quick. That's another zone 14 touch from Rose that she just, you know, opted to turn to her left and just pass it kind of backwards to Crystal for the cross. Yeah. She didn't see, she wasn't seeing out of the right half of her right eyeball very well in this game.

Ninth minute comical giveaway from Sauerbrun. on doll Kemper a little slow to it. So she squares it for Doll Kemper across the center circle. Somebody's probably put music to this, but squares it across the center. We posted the video. Everyone wants to curb your

enthusiasm theme on a lot of these clips. But I mean, it's a bad pass, but like Dalkempers' reluctance to meet the ball is also kind of mystifying to me. Anyway, Palacios, doll Kemper kind of dances around it

as Palacios arrives, Pelasios takes a touch, and then Dalcampere takes a crack at Palacios's leg, and their Mexico is off. But again, this the back is, it's not just the defense. It's not just the bad, bad mistakes, but the back without Germa back there just doesn't have the same, it doesn't set the same firm foundation for the rest of the team in terms of like building forward, being calm.

So yeah, hopefully that never happens. again where Germa doesn't start and we don't see anything like this. That's right. So long as Germa is available for every minute of every game going forward, like we aren't going to give up goals. Right. Real quick, 10th minute to the maybe the 1330 mark, we have a sort of a tit for tat situation. Emily gets hit in the face.

She's absolutely outraged at it, looking at the ref. And then a few minutes later, Lindsay gets justice. herself by hitting Ovillet in the face. And I really liked that. Neither is deemed intentional, but fouls were given. So not even a yellow on either one. But I do like how Lindsay got retribution for Emily. She is an eye for an eye type of player. Regardless of what you think about Lindsay, her hand, she's old testimony in that kind of way. Greg, why don't you take this one? because you, I grabbed a screenshot of one of the, you know, I don't know, 75 videos you put on Discord yesterday. So 14th minute, we just get kind of a demonstration of our non-rondo mentality.

In Mexico, I started to press more. Again, they didn't start out full aggressive on the press. They kind of built into that too, and they did the same in the second half. But as they started to press us more, like, we have to have the mind. We were a little bit naive. Like, you have to have the mindset of like, as I'm receiving this ball, I'm going to get closed. I won't have the same kinds of easy options that I'm used to against Argentina and Dominican Republic. So my priority has to be know what my first touch passes are.

And off the ball, the priority has to be shortening distances so that a player receiving under pressure can make a reliable first touch pass if we're going to be press resistant. And we just don't have that mentality very well. So in the 14th minute, simple ball from Sauerbrun to Crystal Dunn, she's getting closed down. she's got her ran giving her one angle. Coffee's over for another angle. But instead of using one of those players early, she lets the ball roll across her body and tries to flip her hips upfield

right into the oncoming challenge and does like a little step over faint and just gets tackled immediately. And you're just like, okay, well, this is the kind of thing we have to fix. At halftime, or Twyla said, I think at half time, she was giving them solutions. And for me, it's like, that's great, Twyla.

The solutions are already there. Like, the options are there a lot of the times. The window exists. You got to be brave and you have to identify it quickly and hit it. And then the next domino can fall. But this was just, again, it might be a nothing play, but this kind of shows where we are at as a program. And sometimes, I just got to say sometimes coffee,

coffee's arriving to provide an outlet here, like an option. But she doesn't always do that. She doesn't always do that with a lot of alacrity to use a scuffed. recently the recently nominated favorite scuffed word uh so that's that's weird to me because i think of coffee as a great like sort of possession uh player but she's not always even she's not always arriving to provide the option got a lot to work through here 16th minute patient simple buildup from sourbrun coffee and done to draw mexico forward this is another clip you put out there gregg then Sauerbrun plays it to Williams coming back to the half line on the sideline.

And she plays it across the center of the field and we're off with having broken the press. It ends with Robin not being able to make a touch in the box count for anything, which was a theme of the night. And then Smith standing offside by a solid two steps when coffee tries to float it into the box. It's just like, what are what, what's going on, ladies? What are we doing up here? Yeah, also, just another thing. we didn't have Rose mentioned here

but the you know Trend I think shoots the ball gets deflected falls to Rose who kind of like is in the box without many people around her oh yeah yeah yeah takes a touch away from the goal like she's on the right side of the box

could have easily took a touch and went you know forward diagonally to the goal took a touch away from goal Mexican player comes and then she tries to do a little if y'all ever watched the classic much esteemed movie double teamed a Disney Channel classic movie

the story of Heather and Heidi Burge if you know at the anyway Rose gets on the ball and basically does basically does like some high knees I don't even know what's going on the mess can finish just sitting there and they're staring at her like are you going to move or do anything Rose then passes it backwards

and it's like I mean come on come on i mean i was going to say this at the beginning of the show Greg when you mentioned the fact that Naomi is a is a clear um indicator that this is not our first choice lineup i'm i'm throwing jaden shaw in there too i'm throwing jaden shaw in there too jaden shaw makes something happen right here i'm sorry uh and yeah just if rose is going to be out here um because she's not giving you that much like defensively like uh in that

give away from sour brunt in the ninth minute. Maria Sanchez grabs the ball and carries it and basically dribbles between Emily Fox and Rose Lovell. As Rose was taking the angle for Maria to get to the touchline, excuse me, and Rose is basically lineman jogging and not closing down the space so that Maria has the opportunity to dribble between the two. And it's like, okay, you're not giving any defense.

you're not winning a lot of second balls and what you're supposed to be doing what i think you should be doing what everybody thinks you should be doing if you're if you're on the pitch for sure um it's just not there's just no uh there seems to be no will to even make the make the defense fill you you know what i'm saying i just don't i don't understand what's going on here yeah i mean no disagreement for me i think i think rose rose is going to have to if if i were in charge which obviously Obviously, I'm not. Rose is back to square one. You got to earn your spot. And you're definitely not starting for a while. Rose is somebody who barely played last year. Like, I'm not throwing, like, I don't really, I don't put too much weight on it being off season for everybody but Corbyn and Lindsay. But, I mean, Rose hasn't played meaningful soccer in a long, long time. Everybody hangs so much weight on that in WSL final.

But other than that, she just hasn't played in a long, long time. She was hurt last year. I don't know what a consistent Rose Lovell looks like anymore. So I'm going to throw it on you guys too. If you want to bench Rose, is it experiment in time with like a multery in one of those 10 rolls? Or is it like Shaw and Horan dual tens with Shaw pinching and off the wing? Like give me your quick rows fix if you're benching. for the Columbia. I'm assuming we're going to play Columbia. I did this exercise with Bells and Vince, where I did not put Rose in my starting lineup. And Vince acted a fool. I sure did. I sure did. I sure did. So apology accepted. That's right. But I'm, first of all, I think Lindsay's much better deeper. Um, her operating in the half space is, is not where she does her best work. Um,

Her best attacking contributions are in the box finishing. So she can make those late runs from deep. She can also find the people in the pocket, the person in the pocket that she will be finding. In this theoretical lineup with Roosevelt on the bench is Jaden Shaw. But who's the other pocket? That's where I keep coming back to because I agree with you. And the ironic thing about Ryan playing the 10 is she still makes late arriving box runs,

but then we don't have anyone making the early arriving box run that we need. So we're always kind of like, you know, one of the reasons that you said we weren't finding that right side as we were on those breaks was because like Horan is really late join on the right side is that right side of 10. And then Trinity was kind of off and on because she had some different responsibilities with Emily Fox being like the nominal right wing but more of like a center mid in possession. So my question just becomes if you want her hand to sit deep, which I like, then you've got Shaw as one of your pocket players. who's the other pocket player? Because it doesn't really seem like Trinity Rodman or Lynn Williams fit well as pocket players. So who is it?

Is that where you just test out like an Olivia Moultrie or you putting Corbyn there? Like who's the other player in the pocket with Shaw? I'm trying Maltrey. Crystal John. So you'd have Shaw on the right wing and then Moultrie as the sort of nominal 10. And then Iran as the in the double pivot with whoever the six is.

Is that what you're thinking? For now? Yeah. Yeah. That's what I would do. I like that. I mean, it is a problem if you're going to put Shaw in the midfield in with this particular roster. How are you going to fill that out of their pocket? Yeah, we're all dreaming of Cat Macario. Yeah, that's the thing.

I'm trying to think of who it could be. But somebody that can play nominally right wing while Mitch Purses is out there right back. You know what I'm saying? I don't know who the candidates would be. Because as you said, you know, Lynn, Tran, even Sof, not giving me what we need. That's where you draw it out. And Jaden Shaw is the perfect player for that. But then it just becomes who's the third center mid with Horan and your six.

And that's where it's like, all right, if you're going to bench World Cup match winning goal score, Rose Lavelle. I know it's five years ago. But you got to experiment at this point with a multery. you know, like that's the only profile left here, unless you're going to put Crystal Dunn back in an attacking mid-roll. Yeah, that's not. I just wanted to kind of run through it because I get the frustration with Lavelle, especially after that game.

And it's like, do you experiment or do you just roll the dice with Lavelle again because she's got a proven past and be like, snap out of it, Rose, like, do your thing. Because like we saw in that NWS final, she's capable. I'm trying Moultry there instead of done because to me done is just

you know a little less guilty than Rose this past game I thought I thought she was not good at all I actually thought Crystal's all right watching a bag I thought yeah I'm rewatch I was I was okay with it

I'm not as low on Crystal as a lot of people were either but I you know questions need to be asked over there too So everyone. So yeah, just throw Moultry and Shaw on the pitch, please. So it goes, you know what I'm saying? But yeah, we'll take that and sit.

Why don't we go to the next timeline, because it is probably the most impressive thing, Crystal Dunn did on the day. Crystal Dun Dun Dunn on the day, if you will. Dunn, done at all. R.P. Shardy low. Okay, 17th minute. Nice work from Crystal Dunn to turn and keep the ball in play along the left. touchline. She kind of has to go out of bounds, but makes a nice little slide and play to keep the ball in as she runs around her marker, then plays a nice little pass to Lindsay, who takes

a knife little quiff touch to evade the pressure that's on her back and find Rose in a pocket of space ahead of her. And, you know, we're off. You know, another one of those long carries. Rose carries it into our attacking third. And... as Bells alluded to, she opts for Sof on the left side of the box instead of a streaking Emily Fox and Trinity Robben on the other side who had a 2V1. There's a 2V1 standing right there. Emily made a nice lung busting run. Soff receives the ball in the box, tries to take on Fadal, and opts not to, well, understands that she is not getting the better Fadol in that moment. Turns out of it and smashes the cross off the fender off of Fadol. Ricochet falls to crystal,

whose cross comes off the chest of Trinity and is clear. Yeah. This was a pretty interesting moment. Greg, you clipped it. Do you have anything to add to Vince's expert description? Well, because I just given Lavelle some excuses for not finding the right side, and those excuses don't apply here. It's a bad miss on the break to play to the short side of the field

and put, and keep it. I mean, it's four on three as Horan, Horan creates the 4 on 3 really well with sort of her superpower of playing in a telephone booth and it's a miss. Like we had 2B1 on the center of the goal and instead we played it. We took our 4B3 and turned it into it, kept it to 2v2 from a narrow angle.

So that's just, it's just really poor execution in this moment. And again, you're never going to execute every break perfectly, but we have a long line of breaks poorly executed and this was, this might have been the worst one. Yeah, well, we have, we're not even through 20 minutes of the game, so we really need to hurry up. That's what the people want. 19th minute, Ovae and Rodman meet at a loose ball. I really want to mention this one, and it's Ovae, there's a bad pass to Ovié from her teammate.

I forget which one it was, and Rodman is going to get there first. Rodman sticks her foot out, and Oviahe just puts her shoulder through Rodman. It absolutely lays her out. Doesn't change the expression on her face one bit as she does it. and then trots across the field adjusting her ponytail as Mexico prepares for a throwing. And Robin looks, gets up looking like she is ready to go to prison for the rest of her life and murder this woman. And it just struck me that, man, Ovaya got that dog in her.

And she came to make a statement, I think, throughout the game. Obviously, she scored a lovely goal. but she's also like in the trenches just being difficult to play against, you know? Yeah. We weren't ready for that energy, I don't think. We're not. 20th minute Fox plays Lavelle at the top of our box in some space. Some Mexico players starting to close in and Lavelle just boots it right out of bounds.

Hilarious. 21st minute, Vince, you got this one. Oh, yeah. This is an Abby Dahl Kempter long ball to Lindsay. making a into outrun into the right channel. And Lindsay fails to trap it. But I just note this moment, just to ask, even if she did trap it, like,

what is going to come with Lindsay Horan, ISO it on the right wing? And I would, I would say nothing. So what's the point of even doing this? Once again, what's the point of having her in this position where she makes this run? But do you all disagree? I like, I like the,

I like the territory, like gain you get here. And I kind of posted some of these where Dahl Kemper was finding our attacking players into these spaces where you get to use the sideline as sort of a teammate or as protection where you just run towards the sideline. We haven't done a lot of that as a national team lately. And I think it's an easy way for us, given our personnel, to steal 40 yards at a time. So that's all we're getting here. We get the ball up to Horan, who should control this comfortably and should now just be able to do her dallying you know, 40 yards from goal instead of 65 yards from goal.

So that's that's sort of the, for me, that's the gain we can get here. And no, we're not going to put her in. She's going to do somebody one B one and go to goal. But while she holds it, what we'd like to see is our other three attacking pieces, doing something imaginative around her, and just seeing what kind of stress that puts on Mexico's shape in recovery. Yeah, that's what I would see it too. Next one goes to Tara, 23rd minute.

Yeah, 27 minute. We have a really bad Rose giveaway, which I only noted because this is really where the frustration started to get to me a little bit. Crystal passes the ball to Rose. Rose dribbles past one player. Emily Fox is wide open and making a run centrally. but Rose opts for a pass to Trinity way out on the right and it just doesn't even come close. What happened? Yeah, she's a mishit pass.

It was a bad one though, and it made me sad. That's all. No, I mean, I had Rose, Rose Breakdown as like a shortcut key for all the clips I was clipping. Just be like, yep, Rose Breakdown. Yeah, it was kind of similar. least she was at least she saw that trinity was kind of open she didn't see that in the 17th minute the one that Vince talked about the the one good thing here there was uh rose at least created her own break like it wasn't like oh well she didn't do anything she just benefited from her and like this was

at least we saw a glimmer of like rose did eliminate the gal the defender at midfield that is what let her pick her eyes up on the run and see the options and then she just executed really that's my That's what I'm clinging to. Yeah, no, that's important to note. And Vince, you got a Horan giveaway you want to talk about? It was just a Hurran giveaway. I just wanted to note it. Wanted to note it because Lindsay Haran told me.

In the defensive third, right? In the defensive third. And yeah, Lindsay Horan told me this is a smart thing to do to tell her when she plays bad. So I am here to tell you all when she makes bad plays. Thank you. This is just my only addition to this is it was. back to goal, just tried to pass it up the line and pass to kind of nobody but a green shirt. But this is one where I noticed coffee not arriving to provide an option with any sort of urgency.

I mean, she's just kind of like wandering around in the middle of the park, watching Lindsay do Lindsay things. And that's not good enough. Let's see. Go ahead. Oh, and then, so our next proper timeline item is in the 12th. 29th minute. But these are just things I noticed that happen for the 25th of the 29th minute. Rose doesn't trap a ball. That kills a fine buildout. And basically, Mexico comes in possession. Just a bad touch from Rose. Trinity also gives it away easily a few seconds later. I think down in our defensive third. And then also, Lindsay Horan, once again, fails to close a player down after a poor touch on a second ball.

that could have been challenged. The Mexico break basically ends up in a free kick outside the box after a Sam coffee foul. And this is something that I've noticed. So like, as Greg said, Mexico didn't press us off the pitch. But they did pounce on almost every, all of our moments of, you know, sloppiness. You know, and there were some from Mexico that we did not quite take advantage of. you know, and the fact that like, we haven't got to the goal yet, but, you know, that Becky Sauerbrun goal, the reason why that turned into a goal is, is because Ovalier, you know, clear that thing, chase that thing down.

And really close her down all the way. Whereas in multiple instances in this match, Lindsay Huron doesn't do it. Um, Roosevelt doesn't do it. Um, and Mexico was able to get away with their sloppy moments because we are not there ready to pounce and ready to, uh, take advantage of opportunity. But in. Why don't we go straight to the goal? Because, uh, because there's a, there's the risk of this being a three hour episode. So, um, the 38th minute, uh, it's a goal kick for Mexico. I would say mishit, not hit very well into the center of the park.

And Lavelle gets to it first, takes a touch in front of, who was it? Who was it? 16. Who was on the Mexico? It was Carla Nieto. Okay, so she takes a touch. It's just a bouncing ball. It's kind of a poor touch.

She can't really get to it. Nieto gets to it first. and then Nyeto just on the swivel, 80 yards from her own goal, just hits kind of a blind volley way down field. And maybe it wasn't a blind volley. Maybe she meant it completely. But Becky Sarban is in a position to deal with this very comfortably. Maybe play it back to Neier,

although Neier's a little iffy with her feet too. So it's like this like throwback era back line kind of, It's the worst possible scenario for them. And then Sauerbrun just, as you mentioned, Ovae chases her down. Sauerbrienne tries to play it through her, plays it off of Oviah's chest. O'Vie has it just inside the box as Nayer is arriving. Nair is trying to close down the angle. O'Viye takes two touches into her left.

Kind of Giovanni dos Santos gold cup vibes here. And then clips it over everybody into the far post and celebrates with alacrity. And it was a, man, a nice goal. What else? It's embarrassing. Oh, go ahead, Tara. Sorry. No, no.

I'm just saying it was embarrassing. It was embarrassing by Becky. I am not even going to pretend to see what a listener should have been doing, but I'm tired of a listener. And I'm curious if there's any blame on Rose here. because that touch just seemed not good. Yeah, I would like to throw a little blame on Rose since we're already here. You know what I'm saying? I think, I mean, I'm happy to blame Rose, as you guys know for things.

But in this case, it's like, maybe in a different game, she's better at that duel. Like she's doing better in the duels. But I don't know how you can expect her to overcomit to try to stop. stop of, you know, a clearance, 85 yards from her goal. It's like, yeah, but it's Rose, Rose is at fault for miscontrolling this. I've gone, but I've done a few of these with, on the men's side, it's like Bobby and Johnson against Costa Rica in 2017. Rose is at fault for not controlling this ball, but it's, yeah, we are, we are 80 yards

from a listener. And Rose is an attacking mid, an attacking mid, losing the ball, 80 yards from her own goal. You don't really hang a goal on her score the other way. What she did was gave Mexico a chance to get rid of or to solve the poor goal kick that they took. They took a poor goal kick that didn't even get halfway to the center circle. And so then they get a mulligan to smash it up field to sky ball it. And we should just be fine. There should be no danger.

So Rose isn't at fault or any of the danger that's created for this. That all falls squarely on the shoulders of Becky Sauerbrun. just I mean just too slow just doesn't deal with it safely also want to note this is Mexico's first shot of the game so we're 38 minutes in

I know we've talked about them when we talk about this being like a thrashing they have not had a shot yet on target or otherwise and so their first shot of the game is just a gift wrapped

package courtesy of Becky Sauer But at this point in the game, what did we have two shots? Yeah, not a lot either. Yeah. The Fox shot and then Sophia shot from like the first minute that just kind of bent away, just didn't miss by much. Yeah. Better touch, Rose.

Get it together. Yeah, 46 minutes of the first minute of stoppage time, another big Mexico chance. Again, it's a sour brown. stake. Does anybody else want to take this timeline? Because I'm not, I'm not super prepared for it. And I also have been talking a lot. Yeah, man, it's just a, it's basically like a clearance that comes from, that comes from Mexico from our counterpress, falls right to Becky. Becky pops that thing up. And once again, Mexican players closing us down, anticipate. hating a bad touch. Becky might have

could have got away with that if Palacios didn't choose to like be on her toes and be ready to pounce on that thing. Maybe she saw the fear in Becky's eyes and maybe she saw that she was still shook from the from the goal. But no matter why

she was ready to pounce on that touch, she pounced on it in it. And yeah, just a, and then balls past to Nieto, who takes takes a shot from distance and it's a crossbar

which is I mean it's one of the best displays of long shooting I've seen in a minute really Mexico was just out there going to work so

this is the one and this is the one that went that had ne'er beat dead to rights right it hit the crossbar beyond it. Yeah yeah and I just have the last touch

of the half it comes from Sophia Smith in our own box clearing the ball, which I thought kind of just painted the picture of where we're at. Great job, Sophie. You know, it just occurred to me. You know who else could work in that midfield for us? How about Lily Johannes?

Yep. Can't come because she plays in a Farmers League, right? Right. Which, you know, we'll get to Corbin Albert in the second half. But anyway, it's halftime, ladies and gentlemen. It's half time. So surely you think we're going to get Becky out of here. We're going to maybe get somebody to settle things down in the midfield.

None of that comes. Yep. Yeah, alarm bells. The alarm bells weren't ringing for Twyla. You trying to tell me Emily Sonnet isn't a settling presence in the midfield? Is that trying to tell me, Tara? I think even the biggest fans wouldn't say that that's a calm player. Yeah. Sonnet comes on. Her face flushed as if after three gin and tonics.

Right. And does not bring calm to the lineup. And then Morgan comes on for Sophia. Well, yeah, Sophia. Alice Margaret for Sophia, Emily and for Lynn Williams. And we kept the centerbacks. Kept centerbacks, baby. Radada. We said, Gerbite, you don't need to come in. We got this.

And then I guess Lavelle moved out to the wing, right? Is that what happened? Yeah. Okay. So we got to blaze through this timeline. We're being really irresponsible here. Do we? I think it's what the people want, Bill's.

Anyway, just real quick, 46 minute. Immediately, you know, we get an Alex Morgan trademark flick out to the left side to Crystal Dunn who uh gives away right after um 47th minute um Lindsay Horan is harassed playing the ball out of touch um and and you know you just don't want that from your captain this also happens later this is a precursor precursor pre-cursor for something that happens later in the match um yeah she just receives the ball um get impressed somebody on her back and you know trying to do her Lindsay Iran thing she dribs it out of else. Maybe we should address the Horan elephant in the room right now because we've sort of been

dancing around it. But I feel like, Tara, you and Vince would like Haran also to be, sort of put Horan in the same category as Lavelle, except with a little more Venom because she called us all dumb. Hey, I call us dumb all you want. I am not foolish. I know that Lindsay Horan can be an incredible player. I do not think that she was out there. I just, I don't see why we are in a scenario where everything needs to be kind of built around Lindsay. If this was going to be a game where we had time on the ball and space, you're not going to find anybody better. It's very Vlato-Andanofsky to think our creativity starts and stops with Lindsay Iran.

Again, I feel like I get a little heckled for not appreciating the beauty of the beautiful football, but there was nothing beautiful out there. There was nothing beautiful out there. and, you know, that's all I have to say. Your brain has not evolved to be able to appreciate the nuances and the beauty of one Lindsay Horan's football game. But anyway, but I would say, if we're going to play Lindsay, put it in the double pivot let it cook. Okay, that's my position. 55th minute, nice ball, nice ball from Becky Sauerbrandt into the feet of Sam coffee.

a nice little line breaker takes two touches and plays a little pass to Haran and a pocket of space somewhere within 20, 25 yards of the goal, almost zone 14. She dribbles across the box

with number 14. Who's 14, y'all? Is it Nianto? Espinosa. Espinosa. With Espenosa doggina. Wins a foul,

which, that was the best thing you were going to get out of Lindsay there. She was not going to eliminate Espinoza. She wasn't going to pull away from Espinosa. And some people said that might not have even been a foul. But anyway, the result is that free kick that she blast to, you know, Santa Barbara. Yeah. So I like the sequence here.

I like that we, you know, hit two vertical passes. This was reminiscent of some of our good sequences against Argentina. But I also totally agree. You got to know your players here. The way Heron receives this ball with a player on her hip means she doesn't get to just pick out her next vertical pass. If she did, then the movement we saw from Morgan and Lavelle would make sense. They both tried to slash beyond the back line. Like she just needed one more person to make a pass to, and we still need to work out those rhythms and patterns for our personnel.

Like if Morgan just turns and faces Horan, then you get a nice little disguised, clever outside of the foot pass from Horan, seven yards upfield to Morgan and we keep building from there if you run away from Lindsay and say nope you got this dribble around this Mexico player that definitely is not going to happen yeah we had a good sequence I thought in the 56th minute

where wasn't it done well Morgan has a shot blocked off her foot how did we get to that point do you guys remember it's a long ball oh yeah it was a long ball to Horan she flicks it on to Morgan, right? Or flicks it on to Tren and then Tren plays it to Morgan?

Yeah, I don't think her head touched it at all, but yeah, it felt to Tren. Okay. And then after Morgan, Morgan kind of collects it, tries to take a shot. It's blocked. She collects it again and plays it in behind for Rodman. This is one where she plays that really nicely weighted through ball, right? And Rodman gets dispossessed as she did almost every time she got in a situation. like this. Yep. And I'm just saying it was a it was a kind of a tight angle, but

Trent put your left foot through that and try and roof it and see what we can do man. Like totally yeah. Or if we do have these qualities and these players that we believe that they have, you know what I'm saying? You got to let a show. You got to let a show. And and taking those touches there was just not the decision. Yeah. 65th minute good build up from Dunn and Horan, also coffee, and to sort of pull the Mexico press forward and then get in behind it. A ball into the interior from Dunn to Morgan. Morgan tries to flick it on to Haran, but it's poked away. Oh, but it goes straight to Rose Lavel. And she plays Rodman rushing between the right back and the right center back, right wing back, right center back.

And Robin takes a touch and then gets tackle before she can shoot. But this was actually a really good chance to a really good attacking chance created by us. Which it's probably our best chance, which won't go down even as a shot, but like it's your, or, uh, Trinidad Rodman here is like a fraction of a second away from toe poking this into the goal, uh, as she's getting like two hands shoved into her back into the other Mexico player who's going to sandwich her, which is all, you know, that's, that's fine. That's the dark arts. Uh, I'm not complaining too much about that. But that's, I mean, that's, that was the margin right there between leveling and and having the worst result in U.S.

soccer history. Yeah. But just once again, just to mention, you know, Mexico bringing that steel to make it difficult on Trinity, you know. I think it's Estinoza here. It gives her a nice little forearm shiver right to the solar plexus. Once again, Trinity must have been very sore after this. To the brunt of most of the punishment. but yeah Mexico went here to play around man yeah 67 minute mark we have another just a shambles from

sourbrun that we have to mention ovae receives in a tough spot with done on her back and then finds pelasios's feet real nice from ovae she takes pelasios takes on sourbrun as sonnet sort of rushes over to to help and she beats them both I think sourbrun and sonnet kind of collide with each other as one of them falls. I mean, it's very Keystone Cops. Your enthusiasm theme, yeah. And then Palacios hits a good shot on frame. Beats Neyer, I think,

probably headed into the goal and Dahl Kemper keeps it out with a goal line clearance with her shoulder, I guess. Yep. I guess this is where it starts to feel like a thrashing. You know, they hit the crossbar. They score. Our centerback is just gifting them chances. you know, every 15 minutes.

And then, you know, we get another, we get a goal line clearance. It's 67 minute mark. We're not very threatening at this point in the game, and we're down. So I'm starting to feel thrashed. And this is another- Starting to feel thrashed.

Go ahead, Vince. Oh, just real quick, this is another situation where Lindsey Horan is there and available to disrupt this attack or either win this ball by challenging for the second ball or once Mexico wins it,

you know, just give me a little cynical foul there. Now, it wasn't like a moment where it was immediately looking like danger, like that Mexico was going to cause us danger. But the pitch control was lacking there, I would say. I agree. Go ahead, Greg. I was just going to point out that again, like, the three shots that you listed, Bells, are the only three shots Mexico have taken in this game, at least according to the Y Scout shots chart. So two gifts from Becky Sauerbrun and then Becky Sauerbrun getting rinsed in the box. And a little bit of bad luck because Sonnet did arrive to double team.

And actually what ends up happening is Mexico's shooter sort of makes a little dribble to the inside. And then doesn't actually take the touch the beats Sauerbrun. Sonet actually manages to nudge that ball outside of Sauerbrun. So Sauerbrun wouldn't have been expecting that. So it's a little tough for it. but there's no way she's going to get her feet set again to recover and flip her hips around to deny the shot. But anyway, three shots from Mexico, all three sort of hanging on Becky Sauer run. Yep.

Yeah. And then after this, we get, we get it. Okay, Greg, fine. This doesn't solve any of our attacking issues. We still have to turn into an attacking dynamo somehow, and we are definitely not doing that on the other side of the field. Somehow. Yeah. Mexico makes a sub

Maria Sanchez comes off of Cassadis Thank you I just wanted to say that Okay yeah Got the done Let's see And then Albert and Perce come on for Corbin Albert and Mitch Purse come on

for Sam Coffey and Emily Fox 72nd minute A purse giveaway leads to a Mexican corner Let's go Vince 73rd minute what do we have Seventy third minute really for these 10 minutes the game just gets very stretched very stretched so the Mitch Purriss is found by a trend in space who carries it and finds a pass to Lindsay

who plays a ball to an on-running crystal done who releases Rose down the left side of the box first touch lets her down and she ends up trying to play a pass to Lindsay and arriving in the box is the defender the clearance by the defender leads to a duel between Corbinab and and and Cassadus. That Corbyn wins briefly, but promptly passes the ball to Mexico trying to find a centerback, trying to square it to Abby Doll Kemper,

I think. And the Mexican player that recovers the ball, carries it, tries to shake Abby for... I think it was Ovaya. Okay. Oviah. Carries it, tries to shake, doll Kemper for a shot, but it's blocked out for a Mexican court.

This, the game quickly gets in the quicksand territory for Corbyn Albert. We're going to keep it going. 75th minute, once again, game stretch. A Becky clearance from a bad Trinity pass follows the rows and anchors to space. She does what she does best. Carries in the zone 14, plays Alex wide right. Left foot his shot is blocked.

The ball comes to Lindsay, who plays it to midge, and she pumps in across that hits Trinity hit, Trinity's head, but with their back to goal. I don't know if you remember this. So Trinity got to a lot of balls in the air in this match, but none of them were even close to being threatening. But we appreciate that. 77th minute.

Nice little dink from Rose, little outside of the boot. Little something sends Lindsay to the Man's City Zone. Lindsay chooses to hit a cross, a looping cross. and is deflected by the hand of the Mexican keeper, but not enough on it to change the course of the ball's path, ends up at Trent's feet with the keeper bearing down on her and two Mexican defenders basically in a line behind the keeper protecting the goal. And this is basically just,

Tren just shoots a little squib that ends up getting cleared. I don't even think it was goalbound, but it kind of looks like it was goalbound because it was cleared by the person protecting the net in the absence of the Mexican keep. She just looked like a player, especially in this moment, who's just not feeling it right now. Maybe it's all the preseason stuff, but the amount of time it took her to set her feet for that. And sometimes those can be tricky, but just seem like she's not in the zone at all.

No. And this was an example of that. Sometimes it's that, and sometimes it just all goes in, all doesn't go in. Yeah. This would have been a tough chance to score. It's all just math, isn't it? I mean, again, you look at Mexico's shots that they're taken from 35 yards out, and every single one of them is like they just hit the screamer of their lives.

And, you know, Trinity has it here just doesn't quite make the solid contact to smash it through the three bodies and inner way. Just real quick, since I just thought about this. I was happy for the crowd, you know. Nice little, you know. I was to. We saw those first two matches. I was kind of wondering what this one would look like,

but it showed up. It showed up. And with this result, you know what I'm saying? We got a real, you know, USA, Mexico rivalry brewing on the women's side. And, yeah, it was just good to see that the stadium was pretty full, pretty full and everything for this match. But anyway. I'm glad you brought that up because I think it's also, you know, if you zoom out, wonderful for Mexico. to be better at women's soccer.

Yeah, it is. And they're on a good trajectory, it seems. And especially a team that, I think somebody mentioned this in the Discord, but they're a team that presses. So if they continue to be a team that presses and can punch us in the mouth, that's a great experience for our players that we wouldn't get otherwise in our region. So a lot of silver linings to this humiliating defeat. We get Colombia now instead of, like, Puerto Rico or Costa Rica in the,

the knockout. So that's World Cup knockout opponent, Columbia. That's right. Yeah. That game is Sunday now? Sunday, 815. And that's not official. It still depends on the expected result of Aragui today. Okay. But most likely. Most likely. Let's go, well, Jaden comes on for Rose. Let's say Palayo, the California native on for Ovae, Rodonias for Palacios, Rodriguez for Delgado. And what's next, Vince? Yeah, 82nd minute, Corbyn gives the ball away once again. It was a rough one out there.

Yeah, it was her third or fourth maybe. She must be a big Becky Sowerbrun fan. 85th minute, another Corbyn. another Corby mistake. I think the ball is squared to her. I want to say about Crystal. As she tries to receive it and turn to play forward and basically leaves the ball behind as she tries to turn.

Nieto pounces on it and passes to Palayo who then promptly cooks Corbyn in open space when she receives the ball and rips a knuckling bending shot from about 30 or 30. 35 yards that Alyssa Neyer saves off the crossbar. Decent save that. And then we have the onrushing Cassidas, who pounces on the rebound.

But Alyssa gets to her feet with their cat-like quickness and also thwarts that attempt. It goes out for a throw-in. It goes off for a throw-in where Palayo catches another shot from the top of the box, where this time it is sent over the goal to San Diego. This is like where we got to watch ourselves on the backup QB syndrome because we were like, get Corbid and get Corbyn. And Corbyn comes in and has a disaster class. It doesn't mean that Corbyn's, this is her level and this is what we'll always get from her.

But we got to know all of our next up players could be capable of doing this kind of a thing in a knockout soccer match. Right. I've been expressing my doubts about Corbyn for a few weeks now, I think. And I do think Sam Coffey had a pretty good game. She wasn't great. I mean, pretty good is maybe a little strong. But I thought she was able to solve some problems.

She's decent in possession. I know I've dinged her for not showing up quickly enough as an option. but I don't think Sam Coffey loses any standing from this performance. I agree. I thought she was, again, it's not necessarily like elegant to say, but I thought she was calmer than almost anybody out there, which when Mexico's pressing us relentlessly, I felt like that was a good sign. Yeah, but she's calm on the defensive end too in it.

And that's my issue. But they didn't, they didn't really, I mean, we didn't give anything up through the middle, you know? So most of these Mexican counterattacks, you know what I'm saying? There was opportunities to make some plays there. But anyway, we'll see. Columbia's coming in it. Well, we'll see who starts. But, okay, 86 minute.

I mean, not to drag this one even further, but Vince, are you saying flat out you would not. play same coffee versus Columbia that is not what I'm saying I'm saying okay let's see let's see what she does against Columbia that that is my that is my position okay um 86 minute crystal done gets dispossessed by despoised by cascettus who uh carries it to the end line cutback is kind of cut out but finds um ordonias who gets a deflected shot off the ball falls to sonnet who fails to clear and uh then so so palo lays it off top of the box to Nieto who shoots it off Jaden for another corner. And this is, yeah, this is where the head loss is truly setting in.

It is killing this. Yeah, for sure. This is, I was going to say this is, this is where the camera pans to Greg and he says, five shots, two on target. No, no, the, even a couple of minutes before this, uh, like the US had completely lost its way. Not that we were like clicking before, but it was the, it was the pressure being down a goal and knowing that we had to get it back.

And, you know, the clock sticking. It's the 80th minute now. And we just started forcing everything. Like everything was going. Like we would never be willing to be like, okay, the pass that we need to hit to open things up right now is back, even to like all the way back to Nair or back to one of the centerbacks.

But we have to hit that because, you know, Mexico has us caged in here and we don't have any options. But instead it was like, well, we can't go backwards. We're losing. And so we have to go forward.

And it ended up turning into just horrendous 15 minutes of soccer of like scramble ball of constantly playing a teammate into a position where they're going to get tackled immediately, not having options because we're playing in the Mexico crowd. And so this was another example of that we played done into the short side. She had five Mexican defenders within 10 yards of her. She doesn't even have the ability to clear it out with a long ball. And so this is what it looked like.

And it looked like this for a solid 15 minutes. And that's what stuck in, I think, a lot of people's heads, was the tempo and hopelessness of that last 15 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. And while both of those things, while this is in my mind real quick, I just want to ask you, what did y'all think of that shot of Twyla giving instructions to Jaden?

Puts me off. That red scrunchy she wears just puts me off. You got to let people wear their scrunchies. We can't be. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He doesn't deserve it right. It just, I don't know, because, like, Twilight comes after the match and says, you know, nothing that happened here surprises, which I do think is probably the case.

You can't say it, though. Yeah, yeah, I guess you can't say it. But, yeah, just the calm way that she was giving these instructions to Jaden, I don't know. I just feel like, you know, she was the dog and this is fine mean. You know, I'm just trying to. But anyway, 89th minute. 89th minute.

We almost get it. We almost get it. We almost get it. Vlako Andanovski, 2000-23 cycle, something out of nothing goal. We got a Neier long ball to the head of Lindsey Huran

who grazes it to Alex Morgan, who flicks it to Trinity. Trinity's on rushing to the left side of the box, takes a shot with her left foot probably about 10 yards away that beats Bereras and is and you know trickles across the face of goal

but we almost had it she hit it pretty good too right I mean it just was it wasn't bad it's a bit wide wasn't bad bit wide um and 92 second minute here it comes

dos aceto um Lindsay dribbles out So she did it at the beginning of the second half And she does it at the end of the game dribbles out with a person on her back again The throw in is taken by Luna Who throws it into somebody And gets it back and fires just an absolute dime

Across the pitch To Palio Oh yeah, on the half volley Just like a bomb Yeah, of a switch Yeah, just smashed it A total, yeah, very nice switch. Beautiful

and the ball falls to Palayo in a ton of space against Midge 1V1. I don't want to ding Midge. No, I'm a ding Midge. Because, you know, if you're going to set up, right? I mean, I never play soccer. I'm a basketball player, though. If you're going to set up, like, hey, you're not going to be able to get inside. You better not let them get inside.

You know what I'm saying? And so, and Palio basically dices Midge up, a little, ah, uh, cuts in on the road. right, that then, you know, beats Midge. Midge has to drop her left foot and turn and try and chase Pallio. And Pallio just rips a nasty bender into the right side of the goal, top bends, nothing the Lissa can do about it. Match over. I mean, really, it was like one more touch after this.

Like, the game was done. And we are in the mud. Yes, we are. What a goal. I mean, just four touches of absolute technical excellence from Palayo. It's funny. Twilight talked about, after I feel one of the comments I saw was like, she's like, she was talking about the goals I gave up. She said, we've already addressed the second goal and know how to fix that. And I'm kind of laughing. What? No, but what I'm wondering is, I'm wondering if she's talking about Trinity, Rodman, falling asleep just for half a second on the throw in. because the way that Mexico is one, we're down a goal in the 91st minute. So it's like Mexico's throwing, we should be doing our best to box them in, right?

And so to box the team in, Trinity is supposed to be on the fronting that player who receives to throw in and sets it back for the thrower to smash. And she is. She's set up in front of her. But for a second, all our players are complaining about how long Mexico is taking. And that player breaks in front of Trinity. So now you have Trinity and Crystal done both on her back, which is a waste of a player. so Trinity was supposed to be fronting it to deny that exact sequence

but once it gets hit out there yeah it's like if a player can just create a yard of space from 30 yards out and then hit that shot midge maybe you can deny it but yeah you just tip your hat and go we are we are mudded yeah yeah we are the chosen ones um let's see oh man I think that's it I hate that theme right Yeah. Last thing, and then I, but for all the concern about Alyssa Nair, maybe like hitting her cliff, over the last like year, we've given up almost no goals. And the ones we have given up have just been absolutely unreal.

And it's just like, I feel like we should be moving on from Nair, but also she hasn't really been at fault for the mud. Like, and she had a pretty amazing double save after the. Corbyn Fiasco. Yeah. I know, guys. I know. I do worry about her with the ball at her feet. I think that that contributes a little bit to the sense of despair that we had in the back.

I feel like knowing U.S. soccer's relationship with the women's national team, we're going to get one more Alyssa start to get her, her 100th cap, and then we're going to be able to move on. We need to honor her time as we all know that's what we've been doing the past couple years. So Greg, who do you want to start against Columbia? Oh, I got a lineup. Let's see. For Columbia, as much as I just said that about Nair, I'm still starting Murphy. And I know you could flip a coin, I guess, and give Campbell a knockout game, but I don't think it's happening.

So give me Murphy and Goal. Give me Germa and Dahl Kemper is my centerback, so I like Dahl Kemper's distribution. I'm going Emily Fox at left back and midge at right back. Give Midge a whole game to try to cook on that flank. My double pivot is Horan and coffee. And then I'm going, I'm not going full experimental here. I'm not ready to do that in a knockout game. So it's Crystal Dunn as my attacking mid with Trinity on the left, giving us the width,

Jaden Shaw, on the. the right, playing more as a 10 in possession, and then Sophia Smith up top. I'll take that. Who's your right wing? Midge has given us the width on the right side. Oh, yeah, okay. From fullback. You can put her on skates maybe once during the game from 30 yards out.

I'll take that because she's going to put you on skates over 90 minutes. She's going to be a net gain in the skate department. Yep. And then you got Smith up top, you said? Yeah. I like that. we to argue with a Greg lineup. I mean, I don't know.

Like, like we said, there's not a... As soon as cat comes back, all these experimental questions sort of like evaporate. And it's like, oh yeah, cat's a 10. Done.

Cat and Shaw. Dual 10s. I will say, regardless of how we line up, I do not expect us to like, you know, have a wonderful performance. I just don't think that's in the cards.

It's going to be... It's going to be a long grind until Emma Hayes comes. And then even then, I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. Nope. Overnight improved, guys. That's what we're banking on.

Yeah, this is, like at first, when Emma was announced, I'm like, oh, you know, it's no big deal. We'll wait until May. No problem. But now I'm just, I'm rooting for Chelsea to get knocked out of every competition they're playing in so we can go ahead and speed it up. You know what I'm saying? Not know me official over there at Chelsea anymore.

Well, I guess we do got cat coming back. But yeah, just go ahead and speed this process up. You know what I'm saying? Todd Bowley. J.T. Batten, Summit, you know what I'm saying? An Aspen somewhere. Come on. I think it's funny how we at first people were like, well, of course.

Of course Emma is choosing the lineups, you know? And then and now it's like, well, no, Emma didn't choose this lineup. Not this one. There's just no way. He's like, which one is it? You know? I mean, so the same Emma that was, you know, writing the manifesto during the World Cup, the idea that she would play, you know, Lindsay Hurran, Roosevelt, dual tens.

I don't know. She does seem to, she did mention in the manifesto that she was a fan of Rose. So maybe Rose, but Lindsay, too, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. Rose scored a goal in the World Cup final. just like Mario Goetza on the men's side. Huge goal. Both of them were huge goals.

Anything else, guys? Let me make a couple announcements. The link to the Patreon is... Go ahead. Before the announcements, just real quick, I meant to talk about this. Just slightly when Corbyn, we were talking about Corbyn. just, I mean, as we mentioned it,

the fact that Lily Johannes has been better than Corbynabu playing in the same group in the Champions League. I'm just saying, you know, let's get on the phone, make some calls, gift baskets, fruit baskets.

You know what I'm saying? Whatever they're doing in the Netherlands. The non-Rondom. Oh, she's 16. I'm sorry. Go ahead. The non-random mentality that you talked about Greg is, we won't, that's not a problem for Lily, I don't think. I think she likes to Rondo.

I'm not sure Corbyn does. I'm not sure Corbyn is much of a Rondoer. She hasn't shown it yet in college or, you know, pros. All right, link to the Patreon is in the show notes. We would appreciate it if you would check that out. And, yeah, that's it. You too. Thanks for listening.

merch. YouTube Instagram Several useful links in the show notes Thank you Tara Thank you Vince Thank you Greg Thank you everybody for listening

We'll see you You