Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #477: Yunus Musah joins the pod

Episode Date: March 23, 2024

Sanjay Sujanthakumar and Belz sat down with the 21-year-old midfielder the day after the wild 3-1 win over Jamaica to talk about what goes through one's mind when one eliminates other people on the dribble, the feeling in the locker room at the half last night, his adjustment to Italian soccer, what language he dreams in, what to do in Milan, and much more.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. Our guest today is Eunice Musa, A.C. Milan and U.S. men's national team midfielder. Eunice, how are you? I'm good, thanks. I'm good, I'm good. Thank you for doing this. And with me also is... Sanjay, what's up, everyone?

So first question is, we know you're fluent in four or five languages. English, Italian, Spanish, Hausa, and Arabic? English, Italian, Spanish, Hausa. I can like read and write Arabic yeah. Wow. So which one do you dream in? Dreaming. Depends.

When I'm like around English guys, Americans, I tend to think in English. When I'm like in Italy and I'm always around Italians, I tend to think in Italian a lot. So it varies, you know? It varies. It depends. So even when you think, thinking to yourself,

you can switch back and forth? Yeah, yeah, literally, literally. It depends on what environment, I mean, because like, depending on the environment, If I'm in Spain, for example, and we're constantly speaking Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, in my system myself, I'll be thinking in Spanish as well, you know. It's just how it works for me, I guess.

So switching gears a bit, what was the feeling in the locker room at halftime last night? Yeah, the feeling was a bit strange. Like, for me personally, I felt like, you know, we had all of the ball, we had all the control. But, you know, couldn't really do much with it because Jamaica was really solid, you know, and really tried to defend that lead, you know.

So the feeling was like, yeah, we got to change something, but not too much, you know, because there's a lot of good things that we were doing. But, yeah, we just had to find a way to be able to penetrate them, you know. And I feel like we showed that in the second half because we really persisted, you know, we kept on going and going and going and tried to force, you know, that goal. Obviously, you guys have been in a situation like that before

and you try to stay calm, but is there a point where the nerves really start to kick in and you're looking up at the scoreboard thinking like, okay, when's it going to come? What's going on? Yeah, totally, man. Me personally, I feel like it's really hard for a team,

any team, to be able to defend a 1-0 lead for the whole game. So I was really confident that we would be able to come back, you know. But obviously, as the game goes on and you see 80 minutes and you see 90 minutes, you're like, oh, maybe it's not going to happen, you know? So credit to Jamaica, like, they, They really defended us really well, and it could have easily been a loss, you know. So what was the mood after the game?

Was it, was there, so somebody wanted me to ask this, was there any sheepishness? Like, oh, we won on our own goal like, or we stayed in the game on a own goal like that. Or was it like totally celebratory? What was the mood after the game? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a lot of, you know, it was normal for us to feel like, you know, it was a, like we scraped it you know and

yeah exactly we drew from an own goal and everything like that but at the end of the day we you know we decided to be like no you know we're in the final now

you know whatever happened yeah let's enjoy it because it would have been really sad to you know go out but we're in the final so let's enjoy it

let's be happy about it and we worked hard for it you know how was the pitch last night How did you find that as you guys try to play against that, you know, 5-4-1 bunker defense? Do you think the pitch was an issue? Yeah, the pitch was definitely poor.

You could see, I don't know if you could see from the stands or the TV, like the ball was bubbling a lot. It was really hard to control. So, like, to be able to interplay and do one-toes and combine and things, it just slows you down, you know. So, yeah, the pitch was definitely not great. And how do you adjust that? because it's obviously not the first time in Conga Caff you've experienced that. So what do you guys do differently at all to try and adapt? Yeah, what you have to do, the pitch makes you just have to be more focused

when you're taking your touches, when you're passing a board, how hard you're passing it to your teammate, you know, being really careful when you're playing in your box, for example, just being more careful. You can't just be like on a normal good pitch where you're able to look up while the bull's coming and you know that the bull's going to be there so you can control you know you have to be really focused on the ball when it's coming at you and stuff like that so just extra attention I didn't prepare this question but I wonder what goes through your mind when you so I noticed like there was a path you made a pass that got cut out in the first half and then 20 seconds later you dribbled around three guys and then you played it to Malik I think do you remember the play I'm talking about so when you're you know in the fan base you're famous for this this ability to just like eliminate people on the dribble.

When you're starting to do that, like what's going through your mind? You're like, oh, this guy's toast, this guy's going to be toast. Is that how you're thinking? Yeah, it feels really nice because after I win the first duel with the first guy and I go past him, I just go into this,

I feel so powerful, so good. You feel like you're in the rhythm, you're running, and yeah, you feel like you can keep going, you know? And the crowd, like, you can hear the crowd get excited as well. When I'm running, I can hear the crowd get excited as well. I do hear it. So that pumps me up even more to feel more confident to keep going as well.

And then at the end, I'm really careful as well because there's a lot of times where you might dribble so much and crash into the defense and they get the ball, you know. So I make sure that after that action, I make a good pass or something and it's a good action, you know, and that's a good action. So even though you feel powerful, you have to kind of like slow down a little bit. Yeah. You have to compose yourself as well and make sure you make the right decision at the end. Okay.

It's Ramadan. So can you walk us through how that works for you on a game day like yesterday? Like were you able to eat before the game or not? No. So the sunset was actually towards the end of the game. So I got taken off actually yesterday. So I was able to eat like 80th minute, I think, something like that. I was able to start eating then.

And yeah. What did you eat? No, I just had some light food because I would need to have like a, when I break my fast, I don't want to eat a lot straight away. Otherwise I get full up quickly or my belly starts hurting, you know, easily open the stomach. So I had like a gatorade, some dates, some fruit to ease it into it. And then when we got back here, I had dinner.

Okay. Yeah. So your family lives in London, right? Right. Right. Have they been able to come to many games in the States? No, no, they haven't been able to come to many games in the States. But it was really nice that they got to come to the World Cup, which was a big thing.

So I'm really happy that they got to come to one of the biggest moments, which was the World Cup. I don't know how much you want to share, but to the extent that you can, tell us about your family. You have, you're a professional soccer player, obviously, but you've got three older brothers and a younger sister. What do they do? What do your parents do still? Because I know your mom used to own a store, right? Yeah, yeah, right. Does she still?

No, no, she doesn't own a store anymore. Right now she's just playing with things, trying her own businesses and whatnot, having fun with playing around the things, basically. She has that entrepreneur things in her, you know, so she likes doing that stuff. Yeah, and then, yeah, my parents, both my mom and dad are looking after my younger siblings.

Most of us are older now. I'm obviously 21, outside of the house. I've got a 27. year old brother and a 24 year old brother. Okay. And yeah, the younger ones are like 15 and 12, you know. So, yeah, they're looking after them and they're in London, enjoying themselves. My little sister is into athletics right now.

Is she a footballer? No, athletics, athletics, athletics. So athletics. Track and field, track and field. Oh, okay, okay, all right, my bad, my bad, my bad, my bad, my bad, my bad. Trek and field, yeah, yeah. So she's into track and field She's doing

400 meters Yeah 400 meters She's enjoying that And then my little brother He's into football as well So he's playing for a local team in London And yeah That's what's up

What position does he play? He plays as a centreback He's quite tall He's so tall He's like I think he's 6 3 It's crazy He's 15 and like 6

No okay 6 3 maybe too much About 6 2 maybe Oh, good. Wow. And he wishes he was eligible for the US too? I haven't asked him, I was asked him. But whenever I'm in camp, he sees I'll call it is and he loves it, he loves it. So where do you go in the summer when you have time off?

You're obviously like a global citizen. I'm assuming you go back and spend time with your family in England. But what do you like to do when you have time off? Yeah, when I have time off, I like to go to places where I can just chill. And there's places where there's activities to do as well. So last summer, for example, I was in Marrakesh with a few with my friends. And, yeah, we got to go to, like, the desert and ride on camels and go to a resort in the desert and chill.

There was quad biking. What else was there? We had got a carter in over there. There was some, what I call, jet skiing. You know, I like doing activities like that and just chill. And then, like, a week before preseason or something, I start getting myself into shape again for preseason, yeah. Speaking of being a global citizen,

you've experienced a lot of different football traditions, styles, tactics, culture. So everyone says the Italian game is tactical. You hear that all the time. Do you agree with that? And what does it mean? Yeah, so what tactical means is, like, the Italian game is,

pays a lot of attention to the tactics, I guess, of the game, the tactical side of the game. So a lot of teams in Italy are very organized defensively, for example. Every player knows its role defensively to make a really compact shape and not let the other team break you down easily, for example. And offensively as well, it's really specific with your roles and everything. whereas I think in other countries it's a bit more fluid in terms of positioning it's more instinctive

whereas in Italy it's less instinctive and more like worked on you know by the coaches and by the players and the training ground yeah specifically like you have to be in this spot exactly exactly yeah and you know it works you know

there's different ways of playing you know that tactical side it helps a lot because of course the coach and has a really anales that okay if you're really if you're in this spot when we have the ball you're going to have space and you're going to have time for example so it works as well and then obviously there's the styles of play where players are really instinctive and they know where to be and with the feeling you know so both things are right for me I think how do the um coaching styles of peoli and

Greg differ in terms of their attitudes the way they deal with the group and then their expectations for you guys individually and collectively yeah um There's a lot of similarities with Greg and Pioli. They both have a lot of attention to detail, very detailed and very hardworking off the field to try and, you know, yeah, see the details and help us out as much as we can on the field. So Greg and Pioli are both very good in the tactics side, you know, trying to see how we can exploit our team and where we need to be and position ourselves to get the best advantage against them. And then as people as well, both coaches really care about, you can see that both coaches really care about the team, you know, interact with the team and speak and try and get the best of every player, whoever they're playing or not. They're really just genuine, genuine coaches, you know. When you first came into international football with the U.S., were you surprised by that level of detail from Greg?

Obviously, people say it's international football that coaches have less time with the players. It's not as complicated. what were your initial impressions of Greg and the US? Yeah, it was really good because, for example, the first game against Wales straight away, I felt like I could be long in this team because of the way that it was playing. I felt like I was combining with the players already

from the first day, and that's not easy, you know, but yeah, I felt like we're combining and playing the same way straight away. So from the first instance, I saw that, you know, we were playing. a nice way of playing football, basically. There are already two U.S. players at Milan. Give me seven more U.S. players

that you would like to see. Oh, I'd like to see. Seven. As many as you want, who can give us, you know, it's a joke, but yeah. Right, right, right, right. No, I'd love to see everyone there. I'd love to just take the whole team there, man.

Cool, cool, cool, cool. How do you think, if you took this U.S. team and put them all as a club team together in like a top European league how do you think they they do you don't have to give me that's a tough question yeah you don't have to give me like a place in the table exactly but I'm curious it's the because you know fans listening someone do that in FIFA right they're all yeah yeah yeah yeah so no I feel we would do really well I feel like we'll do really really well but at the same time you have to see like um you know with club level you don't get to

you don't get to get like the best players and put them all together, you know, with club. That's, yeah, exactly. So, for example, imagine the Brazilian team when I was a club team, for example, you know, it would be fair, for example. That's what, like, I think is happening right now with, like, clubs like Ram Madrid and not so much PSG.

PSU tried it a bit, but I feel like Red Madrid is like a club team that looks like a national team, for example, you know, that, like, is so overpowered and such. So, yeah. But, yeah, if I could. club team, if our national team was a club team, I feel like we'll do really well. Like you guys could take down Man City? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.

I'm messing with you. For sure, for sure, for sure. What's one area of your game that you would like to improve over the next year? Yeah, I just want to get goals, you know? Yeah, that's it. Mainly I'm focused on that, getting more goals. Do you still think about that one hit you had again for Valencia? That one hit where it was called back for a foul?

like amazing hit. Do you dream about that in five languages? It was a great goal. And then I celebrated and everything. And then all of a sudden, the referee called it back for a foul that was like a minute ago, you know. And yeah, I had to quickly, like, gather myself because there was still so much of the game left to play. But I was so devastated. And I still had to play and be focused in the game, even though they disallowed such a great goal, man.

It was crazy. Sanjay, you go ahead. So you missed a few matches due to injury in December, and then since then you haven't started as many games. Not the first time this has happened in your career, and this happens, right, to young players at the clubs that you've been at. How do you deal with that day-to-day mentally in terms of mentality? Like, what have you learned to do to kind of get through the season and stay on top of things? Yeah, so firstly, like you said, it's not the first time that happens. So you learn to know that it can happen, and it can happen.

you can also change quickly that you start playing again. So, but it's not going to happen unless you keep the right attitude, the right mindset, you're training well. When you come on, you do the job properly. So, yeah, we've got to make sure that whenever I'm asked to do the job, I do it properly, I come on, and I impress, I train well, I keep the right attitude and stay focused for my time to be ready. And then things happen, and it's time for you to play, you know.

So, yeah, I've learned from other experiences that that's what helps me get back into it and stay in the team and keep coming on and eventually start again, you know. And in those situations, anyone you've really leaned on for advice or helped you get through that, whether it's a teammate, car and former coach family member? Yeah, yeah, just in general, people just, you know, help me understand that, like, it happens in football and that the way you start, sometimes you play a lot, sometimes you don't play a lot, and that that changes very quickly sometimes. So I just always have to be ready for whatever situation. We saw a photo of you in an airport with Lily Ohanis. Do you know who, do you know who that is? Wait, wait, wait, really, yeah. Yeah, she's a, so she plays, she's an I-X player. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and she plays with yes as all, right? Well, she doesn't, yeah, she's only 16, but she's, uh, she's an American, born in America. Yeah, maybe I should be pulling. I remember, I remember she, what, what happened? Was it Amsterdam airport? I'm not sure, probably. Maybe I was not, but yeah, it was an airport, yeah. I mean, you got, you're taking pictures with people all the time, I guess, so, but, um, for us it was cool because she's, like, uh, she's a really exciting young talent on the women's side.

And, um, and I guess the question is, did you? chat, did she ask for advice? I mean, she's trying to, she might pick between the Netherlands and the US right now. So anything you can tell us about that meeting would be cool because, you know, yeah. Unfortunately, I think, you know, when you meet, you meet each other and stuff, you know, it's a shy moment. I'm sure it was hard to ask for her picture. Okay, okay. Yeah, she just asked her picture and then left. And that was it. Okay. All right. Yeah, fair enough. Are you familiar with March Madness? And have you heard about that at all being back here and if you filled out a bracket or have you filled out a bracket like some people

will try to guess which teams win no no I haven't filled out anything about it but yeah I've heard a lot about March Madness um I know um future has a song called March Madness as well I remember and yeah but no I'm not I'm not really into it I really love uh watching um their training sessions though I love how I don't know I love how they practice the routes and everything you know just so so cool and they look so powerful and I don't know I love it I love it yeah yeah any what other sports did you play growing up anything else you picked up in in England or Italy yeah I played a lot of sports growing up a lot of track and field um I played futsal I played a bit of basketball

um played rugby uh you cricket yeah a bit of cricket in school yeah London is big so cricket yeah Bull or batsman? Both, both. But, like, it was just in, you know, physical education. So, yeah, we got to do both, you know. So it was fun, very fun. Cricket was very fun.

A bit of cricket, a bit of badminton. What else? Yeah, there's probably more, but I literally tried so many things. Yeah, okay. You were a UV fan growing up. Is that right? No, no, no, he's denying it. Yeah, we have proof, man, we have to do.

So what was that game, like playing against Yvese and even playing against Inter, both those derbies was that like? Yeah, the Yves game was nicer for me because I was playing against the Western and Timmy. So it was really special, nice playing against my friends, both in the national team, both wanting to be each other, you know. So, no, nice friendly rivalry. And, yeah, enjoy that game. Playing against them.

Big team in Italy as well. No, it was really nice seeing them. And I can't wait to play them again this time in Turin. And, yeah, the intergame, I was on the bench. It was a tough game to watch, obviously. And we're just looking to bounce back in the next derby. We're going to be the home team in this derby. So I think San Ciro is going to be rocking.

and that's definitely going to help us get to the victory. All right. So last question. Our podcast is hosting a trip to Italy and we're going to, for the U.A. Milan game in Torino. So we'll be there. Maybe we'll see you. I don't know. But what should we do in Milan?

Any suggestions? Because we're going to be, we're going to go to Milan too. Like what's the best thing to do? I'm a terrible person to ask this because I'm never in the city. I'm never out there. Okay. But I did enjoy going to Duomo with my wife. We went there.

You know what the Duomo is, yeah? No. It's like in this, I think it's a, it's a church. A very historical one. Okay. Which looks beautiful. It's nice to go and see. And then around there's so much shopping.

There's things going on. Sometimes it's like some stands and like selling. things, a lot of shopping, a lot of people in general, you know, to connect with and stuff. So that's a nice thing. And then restaurant-wise... Yeah, I wasn't going to ask. Restaurant-wise, I like Nobu. There's a restaurant called Noble. How do you spell that? N-O-B-U.

Okay. Yeah, N-O-B-U. Have I heard of Nobu? Am I supposed to be? It's a good restaurant. So I enjoy that restaurant a lot. So, yeah, that's me. If you ask someone else, they'll probably tell you a bit more.

Okay. All right. Awesome, man. Thank you so much for doing this. We appreciate it. No problem. All right. We'll see you.