Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #478: USMNT v Jamaica recap

Episode Date: March 23, 2024

Greg and Belz talk through the crazy victory over Jamaica in Dallas. Lots to discuss, plenty to critique, and a boatload of opportunities for breathless descriptions of Gio Reyna.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. 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. A miracle, a miracle at Jerry World. Where were you when it happened? Greg, how you doing? I'm good. I was surrounded by children. A lot of kids, family in town, kind of starting like a spring break. So I had to do my normal thing, which was not watch the miracle happen in real time.

I'd love to say like I felt a sense when it actually happened, like, you know, some kind of a phenomenon just passing through your body. But no, just had to see it all unfold after the fact. Like, how was it in the stadium, Fells? How was this miracle received? It was an odd experience because most of the, you know, stadium was empty.

That big, gaudy Dallas Cowboys Stadium, mostly empty. Until the Mexico fans started filing in for the second match. on the schedule. But I would say, I've talked to a few people who felt the same way. It felt like we were going to equalize all game after that early goal from Jamaica until the 87th minute.

When Tyler floated that ball into Andre Blake's hands, I think, in the 87th minute, I was like, oh, no, we're not going to do it. That's hilarious because he floated another one. going into Andre Blake's hands in the 94th and a half minute. That's for the 95th minute, I guess I should say. And I know there are some reports. Maybe that was the one. There are some reports folks in the Discord turning off their TV at that point

and calling it a night. It felt like that was the night right there, at least in the stadium, whichever, whatever minute it was at. But then, of course, you know, we got the Corey Burke miracle. Somebody will have to grab, grab his jersey from the night and we call it the shroud of Dallas or something. Anyway, yeah, it was, and then it was fun. You know, from then on it was a really fun experience because it did feel like we were going to score again.

And, of course, we did twice. Take us real quick through the scene. I know the stadium you just kind of described. What was the scene in Dallas like ahead of the game? What's the scene been like since the game since everyone's just staying foot? It's so, it's hard to get a feel for the scene in Dallas because, you know, such a vast Metroplex. Sanjay and I are posted up in Ulyss, which is just right next to the airport.

And we were at the hotel earlier interviewing Eunice Musa, saw a few other people in the lobby, saw Hadji Wright, Mark McKenzie, Tim Rehm and Mikey Varas were having what seemed like a very mature conversation in some back room at the hotel. So, I mean, I imagine most of Dallas is heading to the corner store picking up a six-pack. It's Friday at 545, right? Yeah, and I didn't even check to see if any, like, I haven't looked at the March Madness locations to see if there's going to be any kind of like basketball party going on simultaneously in Dallas. For all I know there are. I don't know.

There probably is. I haven't been checking either. But it's really, you know, it was, it was. I think Nations League is, I mean, Concaf and Nations League, I guess I gained a new appreciation for the last night for just sort of the, I don't know, the multiculturalism of our society, for lack of a more elegant way to say it. It's just a... Like at the stadium? You're talking to at the stadium? Yeah, at the stadium.

Yeah. So you're basically saying different vibe than a World Cup qualifier in Nashville. A little bit, a little bit different. Or Columbus or Cincinnati. Minneapolis Yeah Yep Yeah it was

It was pretty fun Pretty fun And I And I We'll get into it But I guess I didn't Initially

Or even on rewatch Think that we Played as terribly As maybe Some other people did But I'm curious To hear what you think About that

Well it's no shock That I don't I also don't think We played as terribly Because As we talk about for both the men's and women's teams. The psychology of watching a game when you're losing one zero is just so, so different

than the psychology of watching a game that's even for you're winning when you're assessing plays. The exact same play will be assessed very differently based on your mood there in real time. And I feel like that's just almost inescapable. Yeah. I don't think she'll mind if I say this, but Claire from the Discord said, sent a message to the meetup thread. So if you're not familiar with the Discord, there's different channels for discussing different things.

One of the channels is for people who are in Dallas this weekend to sort of coordinate with each other. And she wrote, where are we morning at 9, like in the 93rd minute or something? So where are we going to meet up? And so I didn't respond, but then, well, you know, when we scored, I said, well, there will be no morning. There will be no morning. And then we met under the AT&T and T. and

stadium sign right by where Clint Dempsey and Kate Abdo were and Jesse Marsh and Charlie Davies. Clint Dempsey very much a man of the people, you know, signing autographs for a long time. That's awesome. That is awesome. I just love the man. No, and that's, again, my rewatch, I told you, I didn't get to watch it in real time. I also don't like black out the news, so I knew what the score was when I started watching it. And again, so that my psychology watching is going to be different.

we ended up winning that game. And so I'm watching it, I mean, like, basically just isolating the play. It's like, okay, what's happening on this possession? And it can just feel so different when you're just like, again, isolating a possession, being like, where did this sequence break down? Is this a pattern? Is this a one-off? Is this an execution?

Is this a tactical thing? And it is. It's a totally different experience in watching a game with stakes as it unfolds. Yeah. Well, let's get into the lineup. Matt Turner. Joe Scally gets the nod at right back. Greg Burrhalter did not take your advice and put Tim Wayette at right back.

Maybe you should have. Not at first. Not at first. Miles Robinson, Chris Richards, and Jedi across, you know, round out the back line. And then our midfield was Eunice, Malik, and Wes. So no geo in the starting lineup. And then Wea, Ballo, and Pulisic across the front line. It was a little surprised Gio didn't start, but I guess not that surprised.

Yeah, it's hard to be surprised on any of sort of the question marks there because we knew Gio was having some fitness issues, so we knew that could factor in. I don't know if it did or not. I don't know if it was just Burrhaler saying, no, Malik is playing, playing well. That's who I'm going to go with. It's kind of the same thing for Eunice Musa as the six. I don't know if that's how Burrhalter planned on having this window play out or if Johnny's last second injury, he was held up leaving Spain by his team

to have to pass a medical or be examined. Missed his first light out finally got to camp, I think, the day before the game. So on Thursday, is that right? On Wednesday. And I don't know if he, I don't even know if he trained with him. And so you just have all these other variables that might play into the decisions that we kind of thought were coin tosses to begin with. The Scali one, again, didn't really think that it was going to get

that we were going to see Wea started to pullback with a better attacker on. But just from the way the game even plays, the way we were interchanging the rotations, it was pretty fluid. And so often that meant that Joe Scali was operating high up in the front line and Tim Wea was dropped back into where, like, Joe Scally's holding position would be. And, you know, I think we kind of saw some of the limitations of playing that way.

When Joe Scali is being counted on as one of your, you know, fluid, dynamic, interchanging players in possession, that might not be the ideal situation for your team. Yeah. Yeah, and I thought, I guess, you know, as you mentioned, Eunice, one thing we should, one thing we should talk about is the pitch. It was not great. I think it's fair to say. Especially watching the warm-ups.

It wasn't so much like if you did a direct back pass that there would be a bunch of bobbling from the ball on the grass. But if you did a directly lateral pass, you're sort of going perpendicular to the grains of the sod that's being laid down. And those were a mess. So if you played any kind of lateral, pass, it would bounce all over the place. That's interesting.

I did not, I did not read that from the game itself. Yeah, from the footage. And I was watching on Spanish broadcast on, you know, delay. So I didn't know, I didn't know that, I don't know if they talked about that. That's really interesting. Because I, from what I saw, I was like, we are moving the ball around fairly comfortably. No, it's, you know, again, I'm coming off of the women's goals cuff where we had the semi-bideline. The one in the seat.

When we hear, yeah. Yeah. When we hear tough pitch conditions, I'm like, okay, but really are they that? Yeah, I mean, it doesn't hold a candle to that, of course. But, I mean, if you're trying, you know, if you're trying to ping the ball around, which I thought we had some success doing, you do have to deal with, you did have to deal with some bobbling from the ball. Jamaica's, Jamaica came out, Andre Blake in goal, a three back, three centerback,

set up with Deshawn Bernard, who was everywhere in this game, had a really good defensive game, I would say. Michael Hector and Joel Laudadabodier. I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that exactly right. And then Dexter Limbaquisa, Casey Palmer, Damian Lowe, and Greg Lee across the band of four. And then Bobby Reed, Bobby DeCordova Reed, Jamal Lowe, and Rinaldo Sefas across the front line. We're going to get in. I guess the first item in the chronology, of course, is the you make a goal because it happened 40 seconds in. Too bad. Kind of a shame. It's a throw-in from our left side, Lembikisa, the thrower. Jedi kind of reaches out of foot to it but can't quite intercept it on the bounce so it trickles through to Reed who kind of swivels and lifts it across the box,

swivels to the inside, lifts it across the box just over the outstretched foot of Richards who's closing on him. It loops to the back post. for Greg Lee, who is unmarked, and he thumps it home, you know, just off of Turner's hands. Scali looks bad here because he's the closest defender. I don't know that it's really his fault, exactly, because there's some pistoning movement. Seifos is the one that is closest to Scali as the play develops. He kind of flashes to the penalty marker, and Seifaz was actually close. closer to Tim Wea, and he kind of sneaks in around the back post.

So anyway, and curious to hear what you think about this. So it's one of those sort of fluky bang-bang plays. Yeah. Where, first off, you know, for all to talk about tactics and set pieces, like we probably need to start looking at like a defensive throw-in coach, because I feel like we give up a disproportionate number of our goals these other teams throw in the attacking third that don't seem like they should be that dangerous.

I don't know if it's like we got to commit one more body than we're committing to front the initial player that they throw to or what it is. But I don't know if it's not switched on. Like Jedi probably needs to make a slightly better play on this ball. It's a ball that's bouncing toward him. But what his misplaying of the ball doesn't really concede much.

Like it's not an expensive mistake. They get a they get like a blind cross under pressure from the end line. You know, like, that's not that big a deal. The issue is definitely on the back post. Scali is set in the zone. I mean, it's a really basic shape where we've got our back four set up, and then again, the midfield sort of stacked up on top of them.

So Scali's zone here is the deep weak side, and Tim Wea is right ahead of him as the weak side, but farther upfield. And Jamaica have two guys in that space, so we're fine. But Wayas not being particularly attentive here. So as the ball, as Jedi kind of misplays the ball, suddenly Jamaica can make a play on this ball at the end line. And the entire layer, you know, that second line of players, Wea, Malik, Musa should all be like dropping back towards goal now with some urgency.

Because it's like, oh, they can put a ball in this dangerous area. And the zone should now be covering as much of this dangerous area as we can. Wea doesn't really do that. He's in the vicinity. but like if that ball loops to the guy in Wea zone, he would score. And that guy happens to be the guy, the guy who ends up there is the guy who starts out on Joe Scali's shoulder. So that guy leaves Scali's zone, goes into Weas, and Wea's not really covering. So you see Scali take one step towards that spot in the zone and then can't recover to his area of the zone where the ball ends up and he gets scored.

Yeah. He gets caught in two minds because he's got a mark two. two guys and Wayas not marking anybody. Yeah, he's marked one and a half guys for sure. So, yeah, Wayas should be able to, they'll be able to make a play if the ball had gone into that area. But yes, it's a bang, bang play. And what we end up with is a pretty uncontested header from like four and a half feet.

No. But I think we can't be too hard. I don't think we should be too hard on Scali about it, I guess. and yeah i would basically agree with that i don't know if a bigger pitch control monster like a west of mckenny who ended up playing some right back in this game like if he would have fared better uh but i'm gonna say that he would have because that helps my agenda of if desks can't go replacing him with a more attacking player and filling in it right back with the hybrid right back yeah i got a shout out bill all because after the game at the stadium he said we got it we got to we got to do it if he's we got to

exactly what you just said. Because if we play, you know, if either Dest or Jedi can't is unavailable, we just got to put Wes or Wea back there from now on. We just need people deputizing it at fullback to get our best players on the field. Because then you can bring Hadja on.

You can bring Hodgian to replace Wea. Or you can bring Malik on, you know. Exactly. Because that's obviously the trade-off. We aren't really missing Dest's defense. We're not like, oh, no, we needed Desk's defensive specialty back there. We lose Desk's attack.

So if he's off the field, I want to replace his attack and then do some makeshift defending with whoever we want to put back there. I know I need to fess up to Andre from the Discord, I believe, had the initial call for Wea at right back. And then as soon as I saw that, I was like, oh yeah, you should totally do that. That's absolutely what you should.

And I wonder if, like, Berhalter might think that against certain opponents based on his halftime switch. Yeah, it shouldn't be an issue on Sunday because Surge and Jedi both 100% available. But on Thursday night, last night, we were in for 88 minutes of suffering after this goal, punctuated by dashed hopes, you know? I'm telling you, everyone should just watch games on delay because then you don't have suffering. You just get to skip right ahead to knowing what we did, and then you just get to be very clinical. Yeah, figure out how we did it.

Fourth minute, lovely move up the right. Wea finds Malik's feet in a pocket of space. He turns and lays it off for Wes, who is making a run right up the gut. So it's from way out wide right into Malik in the channel. He plays, kind of squares it for Wes running right up the gut. He slides it over to Balo, who, this is a really good scoring chance and really good soccer. And Ballo touches it onto his left foot, takes a touch onto his left foot and shoots, but it's blocked. and gathered pretty comfortably by Blake.

Yeah, super slick sequence. And this is where, again, knowing kind of what we know, I'm just like, this is great. Like, we're three minutes in and we get this little up back through. The ball that Wes finds Tobolo not only sets up Bolo to create his own shot, and Bolo also has Pulisic standing to his left that he could have shifted the ball over to or Jedi arriving late. So you're looking at the structure of the.

team on this and it's a very good attack structure on this sequence. And the execution is, again, as sort of the trend is, the execution is all there except for the final touch. Yeah, and I don't know that. So do you think Ballow should have passed it to Pulisic? It got to where once he shifted it over to his left, if he does touch it over to Pulisic, that probably also gets closed down just as easily by the scrambling Jamaican defenders, who did very well in their scramble defense here. And the same for Jedi. So all their momentum is already going that way.

So for me, it probably just sets up a similar shot, but from a slightly worse angle. So it just took him a little bit too long to shift it over to his left where he was trying to create a shot in the first place. And once that happened, I don't think he had an option

to create a better shot by passing. Well, Polisic never takes too long to set up a shot, right? I mean, look, Haji's, Ozzy's second goal, like he turns it into like his shot closes and then he has to reopen the window again. So you see it happen plenty of times. Oh, yeah. It's not anything I was too down on Balo about here.

Six-minute mark, nice pass from Eunice to Wea out of a scramble in the middle above our box. We look a little rattled, so the ball's just kind of popping around and Eunice settles it. Fines Wea's feet way out wide. and the way I gets fouled, which bails out what I thought was a pretty messy first touch from him. People were worried that Gio wouldn't be sharp after playing so little for the past couple months, and I wonder if, you know, Tim's dealing with a minor version of the same malady. He might be, and he, there were, that wasn't the only touch he had that bubbled up on him like that. So I was hoping to ascribe that to the field too, but I don't know for sure if I can.

He did have plenty of his usual slick like back heels, one touch back heels. It's true. Set people up. But yeah, that wasn't the cleanest touch on that occasion. Ironically, like I saw that pass for Musa too, because I'd seen a lot of concern about Musa's distribution before I'd watch the game. I was like, all right, but that's something. And then Musa came and basically took the set piece, or we took a short set piece directly to Musa, and he tried to spray another ball like a diagonal,

and he sprayed it directly to a Jamaica defender. I was like, all right, all right, it's going to be some good and some bad. No, and there was for sure. We'll get into that because I got some timeline items about it, but Pooley is hesitant in the eighth minute in a 1v 1 situation I noticed with Bernard, Deshawn Bernard on the touchline.

He did not go at Bernard at all in this game. I mean, he did his, is like kind of cut in on his right foot and sort of travel parallel to the goal. But he never, we got no 1v1 elimination from either winger in this game. Yeah, and this is one of the like Pulisic dip games, I guess you'd call it for the national team. We see these. And it factors into the discussions we have about players like Pulcic versus players like Geo, where when Pulisick has an off game, like it's very noticeable.

He's very ineffective, I guess he'd say. And it's like when Gio has an off game, he still does a bunch of things. You're like, yeah, that was useful. It was, you know, kept things moving. There's a rhythm to it. And that's not, that doesn't describe pool of six off games. Like the rhythm kind of breaks things. And so if he's not finding that joy, it really sticks out.

Yeah, not a good game for him. Waya did have, like you said, he had some back heels and some nice combination. but the one time he tried to go around somebody, you know, he got kind of bundled off the ball. Ninth minute, bad giveaway from Eunice, passing it back to Scali. I'm going to attribute this a little bit to the field. Scali takes out Rinaldo Sefas on the break.

Somehow avoids a yellow on this one. I mean, he, like, put his forearm into his neck. A lovely move from Jedi, Wes and Pulisic to Spring Jedi, full speed down the left in the 10th minute. and Jedi tries to switch it over to Waya just overhits the pass, sends him kind of scrambling to the corner, and concedes any advantage that we had created.

Yeah, danger elimination there. And it was, Jedi had his share of danger elimination in this game. And again, the buildup here is love. And the sequence out of the back is really fantastic stuff. And then it just comes down to like, okay, we created this, and what do we do with it? What do our players do with what we've created now? And, yeah, it just seems a waste for Jedi to smash that ball all the way into the corner.

Yeah. More good stuff up the left side. Malik goes at Deshaun Bernard and can't beat him after some good combination. Yeah, I was going to say, that came on the heels of like seven, eight passes in like close quarters. And, again, fantastic to see, like, follow involved. Like, so many players getting involved in it. And you're hoping that we can just kind of keep putting this kind of thing together. And then the final third stuff will be delivered.

This is just another one of those cases where, like, what else do you want? You know, we put Malik in the box with the ball of his feet, squared up to the field. This is what we're trying to do. And then it's up to the good players to make something happen. Yeah, I agree. We got Malik in a good spot. And he, I mean, he did, he almost got him. Just didn't quite.

He had an immediate window to Bala that he maybe. he could have tried to slip, and that would have continued the really slick passing we had going on. But who's going to be mad at Malik Thelman, after what we've been watching him do? Who's going to be mad at him, like, choosing to take a guy on in the box? Right. It was good. It was good. So then we get the Scali yellow in the 12th minute.

Seifos pushes it past him, and Scali, oh, this is the time where he forearms him in the neck to take him out. And, yeah, so he gets a yellow. I mean, any thoughts on that? This is it kind of is what it is. Yeah, there were just some pitch control issues. I thought Scali was at kind of just the last domino in that one. Miles and Leak had a little pitch control issue to sort of free Jamaica up to run at Scali. I don't even mind him bulldozing a guy off his run at that point.

Yeah. I mean, it's a big empty stadium, very little atmosphere at this point. We're down 1-0. I mean, the stands kind of came alive anytime there was a chance, but that's, I guess that's just the nature of soccer. So far, we put together four or five nice little passing combinations. So it's not all bad, but we're losing to Jamaica. And it was not a good vibe, I guess.

No, it wasn't. But when you're breaking down, again, like each U.S. possession, and our possessions were lasting a long time, right? Jamaica, you know, we should also note, because I saw, again, I saw a lot of talk about Jamaica's low block, and they do eventually settle into a low block in this game. They didn't start out in a low block like fall. They had a really high line of confrontation,

not even just relatively high, like just what you would call a high line of conversation. They were picking up the pressure right at the edge of our box or just below it. So we did have to find ways to pass through them because we weren't really just trying to go over the top of it. So we had long extended possessions where we were able to either break their block or essentially push their block back with our buildup. So there were plenty of good sequences that I was cutting. And then Jamaica would do very little. Again, game state involved there.

They're missing a lot of their best attackers. They already got their goal. They are probably the last thing they're thinking of in the world is like committing numbers forward. But when we did have the ball, we were doing some good things that I thought were a big product of our shape and about the roles players were being asked to play. And I'm bringing this up because, again, I saw all the discussions going on. it was like, oh, Gregie ball again, more Burrhalter ball. It's so, like, it's all just terrible. And I didn't, I don't know what the tactics were that we were getting wrong or that people

thought we were getting wrong or what people thought the better tactics would have been. But again, it looked like a team that was mostly organized, kind of knew what it was doing, built itself up into good spots, and then just couldn't take that movement in good spots and turn it into anything. Right. Yeah. Well, let's, let's go through a few. few more of those.

Maybe not all the ones that I have listed here, but 16th minute, a nice disguise pass from Richards to Eunice in our zone 14, so right on the top of our box. And then he gives it away trying to spray it wide. This may be the pass you were thinking of. Is it? No. No. I mean, anyway, it's one where Eunice had a couple giveaways, and this one, this one was

kind of bad, sort of launched a little bit of a swing towards us from Jamaica. But then he, moments later, it's kind of the full Eunice experience because moments later, he picks up the ball in much the same way from Richards and then beats three guys on the dribble. It just eliminates all three of them. Finds Malik's feet. Malik slides it out to Scali. Scalp. Scali plays a pretty good cross onto Ballo's head. And he heads it in what I think was a goalward shot.

But it's really well defended by Bernard, who just threw. rose himself in the way and does just enough to send the header over the bar. Yeah. That's good stuff from Eunice, and it's what you get from him. Absolutely. And so when we're talking about the lineup decisions that we're making here with a few key players either injured or restricted, like, I don't know that Eunice would be anybody's first choice as a six, but you can see the rationale if you're missing Adams, missing Johnny,

or they're not available to go to start, being like, okay, Eunice will be very messy at times with this passing, but he will give you something. We know he will give you a certain thing that he does very well, and this is that thing. And that can drive a few different attacking possession. And to contrast that with like a Joe Scali, Joe Scali is like the definition of a placeholder. There is nothing that he's going to do that you're going to be like,

he will give us this plus attribute that we can, you know, really benefit from. But here, I mean, he did just have this cross, so maybe I'm wrong, maybe he's an excellent crosser. but Musa very clearly in a way that jumps off the screen when it when it goes well can give you something as a standard. I mean, Scali didn't have a good game. I don't think there's any doubt about that.

But he did have some nice, a couple of nice moments. And we'll get into one of them. This crosses one, I guess. And then there's another one that I like even more. Also just want to say, I know I always go off the rails here. Also just want to appreciate Malik Tillman's aesthetic on the sequence. The guy is so. smooth, just his look as he receives his ball, makes a very easy pass, but just the way that

he makes the past is a joy to see. I thought he had great. And it's easier to enjoy it when you know we're going to win later and we're not going to. Right, right. I thought he had a great game. I thought he was quite good. And it was good in the press, too. So good work from him.

Well, I got to mention 20th minute, Miles gets kind of done by Ronaldo Seifaz after a long ball under the corner. Sayfah, I'm not sure, again, I'm not sure I'm pronouncing this correctly, but Seifos gallivance across the top of the box, as it has a shot from just inside it. That was a pretty dangerous shot. It goes straight at Turner, but didn't have to go straight at him. He had a lot of the goal to shoot at. So, just got to mention that, because Miles is out there for his 1v1, you know, defending.

He's not out there for his distribution. No, and this was, I marked this one, too, and it was actually a, That's another Miles Malik Joe pitch control because we didn't they didn't just do Miles 1 v1. They did Miles and Malik 1 v2. Yeah. And Malik sort of half-hearted. Yeah, kind of oleat his way out of the way and then disengaged with the play completely at that point. And Scali got rounded as well as the guy was running across the top of the box.

So they're, I mean, I'm not counting on Malik for his for his dominance defensively in the low block. so a little less worried. We need something from him in these moments. But Miles and Scali so far not making super positive cases. Right. On the plus side from Malik against the ball, good work from him in the press. I thought he was pretty active and opportunistic in the press. And he pokes it to Ballo, leading to our best chance of the game so far.

Ballo leads – it's a 3V1 break. got Malik streaming down on his right side, got two defenders right behind him, and then Pulisic out to his left, and then one defender in front of him, if you can visualize all that. So Balo takes it all the way into the box, slides it out to Pulisic, which is, I think, what everybody in the stadium expected him to do. And Pulisic just lingers on it, just a little bit. I mean, maybe he could have taken it first time.

Maybe the weight of the pass wasn't right for him to take it first time. I don't know. But he takes a touch and then gets closed down before he can really even, and get a shot off, and it's a very discouraging moment, I would say. Yeah, and again, this is another, like, this is pretty purely individual execution stuff, right? So we're very happy with what Malik does to create this.

That's great individual execution. We've got a three-on-one. So for all the Burr-Halter talk, there's nothing about this that is Burr-Halter-related. We have Malik, Falao, and Christian Pulisic, running three against one defender. the team tactics are out the window here can these guys execute and and we just don't quite make it happen i feel like you know to nitpick it follows pass blows pool stick down a little bit which means that

uh he can't just continue running full speed to lash at home first time he would have to like open up he has to slow his rundown try to open his hips to hit it first time with his right foot um so he might think that that's handcuffing a little bit too much and that he's confident that he can take this ball and create a better shot um And we just don't create a better shot. No. I don't even know if it gets scored as a shot by the time it's all sudden done. I'm not sure it does, but, you know, we had some decent stuff.

I'm not going to go through all of it, but in the 29th minute, Pulisic tries to clip in a ball from the left and it gets cut out. It feels like we're spinning our wheels a little bit. And then I hear a child's voice behind me says kind of mournfully, The defense of Jamaica is da Buena. Like, sad about it, you know. It's a kid with a Mexico shirt on. There were millions of kids with Mexico shirts on at this stadium. I turn and look at it.

I smile when I hear that because I'm like, oh, maybe he's a U.S. fan. It sounds like he's a little bit of a U.S. fan, you know. And I smile. I turn and look at the kid's dad, who's sitting right behind me, And he's just laughing, you know. The whole family wearing green shirts. But it turns out they're all kind of rooting for the USA, too. And I think that that's a, I guess that's one thing that surprised me going to these two games is that a lot of the people in green shirts were also kind of USA fans.

I bet, I bet, I bet last night they were. And then the question is, how hard will it be, how undecided are they Sunday night? No, not undecided at all. I would guess not that undecided. How persuadable? How persuadable are they? Yeah, I don't know. It'll, we'll see, I guess.

But it's an interesting dynamic. It's an interesting dynamic. 35th minute, we get Bobby Dik Cordova Reed trying from distance and missing the frame. Then we get some bad passes from Scali and Jedi on the ground to the other team. The stepover game from Wea is just drawing zero reaction from Greg Leia. He's just standing there watching him do it and not reacting at all. I think, again, we talked about it. There's a, there's like a reciprocal boost for Wea and Dest where those stepovers would be like 30% more effective if Dest is just near him.

Like reverse kryptonite. It's an adjacency bonus. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. The kid behind me goes, ref, you suck when they don't. make a call the USA's way, when the ref doesn't make a call the USA's way, which is when I was really like, okay, he's a USA fan. 43rd minute, decent stuff from Pooley, Wea and Scali on the right side. Scali hits a left

footed ball into the box, cut out just in front of Wes. Let's go to the 45th minute. Lovely stuff, leading to a glorious chance from the USA. Scali plays it to Wes's feet showing at the top of the box. So this is like maybe the nicest moment of the game from Scali because it seems like he meant this pass to go to Wes. And it cuts through two lines, goes past Tim Wea too. And then West just backboards, plays Wea in behind,

Wea takes a touch, and then plays an elegant cutback right to the penalty marker, sort of vintage Tim Wea through the legs of the defender. and Malik Tillman meets it with his left in step, just kind of scuffs it, doesn't quite connect, and it's cleared off the line by Deshaun Bernard, a hero for Jamaica last night. Yeah, and so the question is, this isn't really a question that matters, but would this have gone in if not for, like, would this have gone in, would Blake have gotten if a defender's not going to knock it off the line? So, because if not, then it's just a very composed finish from Malik Tillman to guide it where Blake can't get, but instead it turns into a scuff.

I see, yeah. It's not that different from Pepe's goal over the weekend for PSV. That's immediately what came to mind. And again, I don't really care. I'm not worried about Malik Filman being like a non-clutch finisher. So I'm just excited about the full build-up display. And we've seen this from Tim Wea at time and again for the U.S. that almost like a disguised,

bowl swing cross where it sure seems like the defender thinks he's going to cross it in front of their body. They actually like hits it behind them for a great cutback angle for anyone who's crashing. And yeah, I mean, ball goes in, ball doesn't go in. If this ball goes in, our tactics are much better, but since it didn't, our tactics are much worse.

We're ineffective and it's a disaster. And it can feel like that. And again, it's about volume. how many of these kinds of looks are we creating? And then if you're trying to apportion blame, it's like, are we putting, again, are we putting the players in the right spots often enough and for them to be able to do the good things

that they're capable of doing? Or do we need different ideas to help them get into those positions more often? Well, let's see. Pooley gets another chance in the box going one v.1 with somebody in the 40, like around the 47 minute mark. This is after a nice comment. from him and Jedi.

Jedi slides him in through two defenders, but he just can't quite get a shot off. It wasn't his night. The half arrives, and I noticed, I don't have the boots on the ground that Waki would have if he were there.

Waki says he wants to go to a game and just sit right behind the U.S. bench and watch Burrhalter the whole time. I didn't do that, but I did notice at the half, Burrhalter taking Eunice by the shoulder as they walked off the field, jawing a few things into his ear.

Then he applauded the American outlaws who had done their best in the first half, and the half arrives. And then Rana comes on for Scali. Wes moves to right back, right? Yep, so this is where we get the, basically the lineup that we wanted to see. The only difference being we want,

I think when I say we, I'm just talking about this one I wanted to see. Yeah. I had wanted Johnny in the midfield instead of Musa because I thought Johnny would be a more natural six and I didn't, at the time, he didn't have a fitness issue that delayed his arrival camp.

So all things being equal, if you call Musa an injury replacement, this is the lineup. Also, West is the right back and set away. Right, right. Malik, as a midfielder instead of as a right winger. Otherwise, exactly what I wanted to say. I don't know. It makes sense, given what we saw in the first half, because in the first half, West was flaring out wide in the buildup anyway.

So we'd build with like our two centerbacks. And then like I said, Scali was not hanging out in the back like he normally does to stay home Joe. Like he was up in the front rotating freely with everyone else. And a lot of times, Wayo would actually drop back or Eunice Musa would flare out to the right. Wea or McKinney would flare out as like the left width in the buildup, like the deep player who would be an option for Chris Richards to play out too. it would be like Wes almost on the touchline and you'd see Moose out there on or Tim Way out there on the right side.

So it kind of makes sense for what their roles were in the buildup to just be like, well, we'll just have Wes start out in that position but flipped over to the right and then we push way up a little higher. And then you would see them flip even during the buildup in that second half where you look up and Way up high. Yeah, Wes is up high and Wayas dropped into the deeper space. Total football, baby. I mean, it's definitely not what you're going to.

going to get when you put Haji right on the field when Haji eventually comes on. I know he plays on the left, not the right, but you wouldn't, you didn't get it from Pulsick either. Poulsick flips over to the right when we make that triple change. You don't see him sagging back to play in that deep space that way it kind of does at times. I see. Yeah. Interesting. Um, we're probing. My point is, yeah, I was going to say my point is I think it's an interesting look that we have as a workaround for Serginio Desby and out of game. Right. Well, We did, I think, immediately look better. Not that we were terrible in the first half, in my opinion,

but we got to be more dangerous, I think, as the second half went on, probing at them. 49-minute mark, just absolute sex of a pass from Gio Raina. No look cuts through three defenders to Malik. Do you know the pass I'm talking about? Yeah, I mean, I just started laughing. Like, all you can do is laugh. I'm watching this, and, you know, you guys have been talking. we everyone talks about Gio Raina all the time.

Yeah. Like he, for the amount of reps he has, for the amount of videotape he has this season for club, like it's a stupid number of minutes talked about on podcasts. Oh, it's 90 minutes per one. And it's,

and this is why it happens. It's because of this play. This is why like you will, you on the Monday review will talk breathlessly about these ridiculous, like, non things that he does. and Vince will rightfully laugh at you about it. And then suddenly you're like,

but this is kind of what he does as a player. He's so good. I don't know why he's not playing in Nottingham for us, but he's so good. This is Jamaica. At this point, about 35 minutes in, they did start to settle into like a low block

and start the second half. They were definitely sitting in this low block. And yeah, he's their set. They're in their block. We just worked about all out to Geo Arena. And there, it's nothing on.

Doesn't look like there's anything going. going on. He's just very casually sitting there. And without betraying a single thing with his body language, with his eyes, he very casually just flicks his ankle. And Malik Tillman is like in on goal. And it's just stupid. He did this in the in the Trinidad snoozer at home. He did this to put Brendan Aronson in a shooting spot inside the box when we had been having so much trouble breaking through that. Like he can just bust a low block out of nothing at any moment. Yeah. So the breathless talk is back. Yeah, we're back.

We're back with the breathless talk. The old man soccer. Yeah, the thing is on this pass, it doesn't connect with Malik. People will say, well, the past doesn't actually connect. Well, that's because Malik lets it ride, lets it run past him. Had he taken a touch, I mean, he had the opportunity to take a touch, but he wanted to let it ride, which I can understand that. Because maybe if he takes a touch, then it takes him too wide of the near post. There's a lot of calculations to do there.

But the past gives Malik a chance to do something out of nothing, like you said. And Malik's good enough too. And Malik has the technical tools to run onto this. And he could just flick this with the outside of his right foot to essentially glance it goal-wide, goal-word. Which is what I was kind of like expecting to see is that little, again, he has the vision. He has the field awareness because we're not so far off when we're talking about him being Kirkland-Gio. Like, he has some of these tools as well. Oh, yeah.

I mean, watching the two of them play together is really fun. If you could picture Geo doing it, then you could at least picture Malik trying it. So I was hoping that that's what we were going to get was that little just flip your right foot out and glance it on to surprise Andre Blake. But, but yes, the pass again, I just started laughing. Yeah, it was so good. Let's see, we have Pulisic navigating to his left in the box, flashing the ball across the goal mouth. maybe a shot. I don't know.

This isn't the 57th minute. But Wea and Wes are not charging hard at the backpost. So nobody does get to it except Wes gets to it to keep it in bounds, recycles it. Raina has a shot from the top of the box after another nice bit of buildup from Wes and Malik. It's a left-footed shot. It goes right at the keeper. But we're pushing.

We're pushing for a goal. Yeah, I noticed the Wea late on that one. And again, I don't know if there's some. bit where because he has a little bit of the right back duties or he switches off where that might change his mentality of when it's his job to pour forward, because we definitely need somebody pouring forward there on that weak side. Yeah. Wea gets good contact on a shot in the 59th minute.

It's Rayna lifting the ball across, kind of skips over to him off of a Jamaican head. He gets good contact from a tight angle. Shot is blocked by a lunging defender. but it's kind of like that shot he scored against Uzbekistan. It was kind of from the same spot. Yeah, and he had one in the first half that he really got to step into. And again, there's just a joy in watching him take that prep step. It was probably the wrong decision in the first half to even attempt the shot.

But it doesn't matter when it looks that good. Just wanted to note also the heads-up play by McKinney here to set a really nice back screen. I think he actually even joined his hands together and put him down low, like in setting a pick to keep that defender. from really clearing it with their header. We saw Alex Morgan do the same thing in the Gold Cup final. So I don't know. There's something we've been working on the back picks to beat the two-three zone.

McKinney rambles up that. McKinney again rambles up that left channel. Actually, the right channel, I guess. 60th minute. A fortuitous touch to Ballo, I think, sets up the backboard. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. McKinney has that messiness to him

that he can intentionally do something that looks messy. Okay. Well, let's say this is on purpose. I'm happy to concede that at this point. And then Ballot lays it off real nicely. McKinney tries, takes it first time with his left foot, hits it way over, but a nice little combination from them. And Balligan, I thought, you know, provided a decent presence

as the number nine in this game, was untidy at times. but I don't know incomplete grade for him it didn't it wasn't terrible it wasn't great either yeah I think that's fair and again I saw some things I'm responding to a lot of

some of the chatter I see but I saw some things saying like he's just the wrong guy for the low block given our other options but again like Jamaica weren't really in a low block for the first 35 minutes so if he's gonna like light it up

then that'd be where he'd do it. And he had some looks. You know, he had the third-minute look, and he was there for that pool-sick shot at the very end of the half. The pool-sick just didn't slide it over to him. Poo-Sik sort of went for it himself. So you can see where he's on. But I would agree.

I don't think he did anything to, like, cement a spot for the Mexico game. I would still be starting, to be honest. I would do, because the thing is RICO came on, he wasn't really any better, maybe even worse. Yeah, I'd say Rico's kind of a mess And I don't think I don't think I don't know if Burrhalter thinks of

Haji is in the running for a striker spot or if he's got Haji as sort of winger depth Okay Um let's see here Can you say

What did you say just now? I don't know if Burrhalter sees Haji as a striker if he's just winger depth I like Hodgey as a winger All right got to mention this scuffed favorite or at least Bell's favorite

Chris Richards asleep at the switch in the 62nd minute. It's almost inconceivable, because even to watch it in, watch the replay or in real time, Jamaica dumps it into our half from deep in theirs, and Richards is running back for it. He's got position on Seifos, and he just lollygags.

Like, I don't think he's as slow as he looked in this play. Seifaz just runs past him, gets a 1v1 with the keeper. And Richards does enough to bother him as he shoots, but, you know, so that Turner can save it comfortably, you get a little help from Sefos there. But I don't know, I didn't understand this at all. I thought he was, you know, he kind of just fell asleep. I have no idea what happened here.

Like he, he sees him, and then he just acts like he's not there. Like he acts, I swear he clocks Sefas when he checks his shoulders. He's recovering. And then, yeah. he plays as though he, I don't know if he, like, saw something where he thought Safe Us just stopped his run. Because usually, you know, I mean, you could see Safe Us not chasing it and just be like, oh, that's overhit. Richards will get there and help clean it up so I don't need to chase this. That happens funny at times. I don't know if Richard is like saw something that in his head, he translated as Safe Us has just held up his run.

So I can just go collect this at my leisure. But I mean, he played it that way. And then that just is definitely not what happened. No. And it's a huge letoff. Because it didn't take that good of a save from Turner. I mean, nice from Turner to stay on his feet and be able to make a reaction play. But it's a very weak shot from Safe Us well within saving range. So basically just, yeah, a giant finishing letoff on our side after a really inexplicable moment for Chris Richards. It's a bad mistake because, you know, that can easily be two zero at that point.

And then, you know, there is no, there is no Cory Burke miracle. that can bring us back. Gio receives on the half turn from Adams in the 65th, drops it in behind for Haji, you get a decent left-footed strike, so Gio's starting to cook. Maybe Haji could have slid it across for Pulisic or RICO at this point. I guess I forgot to mention Adams, RICO, and Haji

on for Musa, Balo, and Wea in the 60-some minute, 63rd, I guess. Yeah, and so, like on this, sequence from Gio, Adams and Haji involved, so Adams makes a nice vertical pass up to Gio, and then again, Geo hits a pass like, it's just ridiculous.

I mean, I'm laughing again, his first touch popped up on him. Yeah, his first touch pops up on him, and instead of it being an issue, he's just like, well, then I will just use the fact that the ball's two feet in the air, change the kind of pass that I can play forward, and I'll just hit this ball through a gap and bounce it to

to Haji. And again, you're just, you just have to, like, laugh at what we have available to us when Gio Raina's on the field. Yeah. So fun to watch. I also mention because so many, so often in the first half and through the second half and through extra time, anyone who wasn't Gio Raina who was trying to hit through balls was just hitting them directly into like the retreating Jamaica defender. Like I got a compilation of throughball attempts from everyone else.

and they weren't working. They're just all being easily collected by Jamaica. And then all of a sudden, Gio comes on and he plays like six of them and in one half. Yeah. Breathless. It's going to be,

I'm sorry, but we're going to be, we're going to stay breathless until, uh, I mean, it's going to, I'm just going to assume that we're going to have some breathless moments. Yeah.

As we review Sunday's game. Yep. 66 minute Raina finds Haji in the box again. Uh, so this, This isn't like some amazing pass or anything, but he does find his feet in the box through traffic. And Haji tries to dribble a guy, goes down,

asking for a pen. Would have been a soft pen if it were given, I think. But it's a really fluid move again. Like this is another move that is like very much like a sweeping team move with a bunch of pieces moving in harmony. And again, maybe it's because I'm coming from that women's game against Brazil in the final where there was nothing harmonious whatsoever. So to get this kind of stuff between, you know,

Hajie coming on and these guys haven't all played a ton together. But to see him kind of doing the stuff, I felt like it was encouraging. I thought so, too. Could have been a penalty. Could have been a, should have been a penalty, you think? I don't know. It's going to make a referee ask some questions.

Yeah. Yeah. 66 minute mark, Jamaica gets a big chance. It's a Tillman giveaway in our zone 14. I don't know. He's trying to get out of there, and he's doing his best, but just takes like a long sort of croif touch

and then tries to slide and win it on the tackle and doesn't. And then Jamaica's kind of, you know, they're basically in our box with three guys. It's a pass to read behind the line. and luckily he's offside. He squares it for a sitter, which Casey Palmer inexplicably hits over the goal.

And I know you don't like the word sitter, or you don't like the idea of finishing that, you know, you got to finish that, but you got to finish that, that one. It goes back to if you want to be an underdog that wins a game, you got to finish it, and since they didn't finish it, they didn't win the game. I mean, the same goes for their 1V1 breakway, right?

Like, you have to finish that if you're the underdog you're going to win fewer games. The Malik giveaway didn't bother me too much. He got a ball coming in like hot from Tyler Adams. So like skips up on him. Yeah. That happens. What ended up kind of bugging me,

and this is again, an issue with Malik right now, is he just will disengage way more often than he should. So he loses the ball. And then as he's losing it in Jamaica are trying to, you know, keep things scrambling through the line. He is right next to,

who's the shooter? He's in, like, directly next to Casey Palmer as, as Jamaica break through our centerbacks. And then by the time Casey Palmer actually takes his shot, like Malik's barely, he's not within five yards. So there's just this moment of like, hey, we are beat. This guy is running, is moving towards the goal and you just let him go. Like you have to know what an, like, what a panic moment is. Or again, what we saw Jamaica doing really well was their scramble defense. And I just, I mean, Malik might not have.

the best scrambled defense mentality at the moment. No, it doesn't seem like he does. And he's not going to get a lot of scrambled defense reps for PSV because they're rarely scrambling to prevent shot attempts in the Aereviciate. And then, of course, the goal was, or the miss was called off anyway because Reed was offside. And it's funny to watch the replay of Casey Palmer, you know, devastated with himself. he looks up, sees at the sideline ref has the flag up, and he's like, oh, okay.

And then he just cheerfully gets back up and runs back. It's like, you know, it's totally saved him. It saved him, but Casey Palmer should appreciate it that cost him a bunch of expected goals. So. Oh, that's true. The nerds must not be a. The nerds are going to ding Casey hard for that. That's true. Didn't think, like we said, didn't think Pepe was sharp, didn't think Ballo was super sharp.

We get a weak header from Brenda. in the 77th minute. He had come on. Adams throws his hands up at Berhalter in the 78th minute. I'm not sure why, but I just noticed it. Brenda remonstrates for a whistle when he should have played to its echo in the 80th minute. And then in the 87th, I thought it was the 87th,

but maybe I'm wrong is when I clocked Adams floating that ball into Blake's hands and me thinking it's over, we're going to lose. But, well, go ahead. We could have definitely been pumping that ball up to, I mean, it could have ended up in Blake's hands. Anyway, in the 87th minute, that's when we sent Chris Richards up to be a forward. Oh, yeah. Alic. hilarious.

And Richards was, like, reluctant at first. And, like, you see him start to, like, we kind of, he starts heading up there. We kind of lose the ball. He's like, oh, I need to go back and be a defender now. And then you see him look over to the, like, someone gets his attention to the sideline. And then he, like, stops, then reverse his course and heads back up to the, towards Andre Blake. and it's very much like, no, you are, you are not kind of a forward. You are now up there.

You're actually a forward, Chris. Yeah. And we were just, so we had, uh, Haji was not playing a winger, you know, at that point, it hadn't been for a while. It was Haji, Hepi, and Richards all up high. And it was very much just like, we are hitting balls up to you guys, make something happen. Well, some things happened. So in the 90th, I mean, before we get to the goal, I want to say in the 90th, we, we had

been pumping it into the box for a while. to that band of three, but we get a good quick buildup through Gio again to Pooley out wide and he laces one into the box, a really good cross for Pepe who meets it at the, he meets it at the penalty marker.

I mean, he's got a really good chance to equalize here and kind of scuffs it, I would say. It's a volley. It's a difficult hit. But he scuffs it right at Blake.

Very good chance, though. Yeah, it's like a little broken bat, little bloop. He kind of bloops it, right? Yeah. And again, it's difficult. It's coming in a chopper. In baseball, they call it a chopper. Okay, there you go. And so this goes back to the whole finishing thing. Like, we all want the next guy to be some super finisher who's super clinical and always clutch. But they only are, if you only focus on the clutch goals that they scored a couple of clutch goals.

And that's all you think about, then he's clutch. If we win this game, since we win this game anyway, we don't. don't have to ask any questions about whether or not like the clutch score should have scored this chance. Like, yeah. And it's, it's just a little easier on your brain if you're just like, yeah, sometimes guys miss. Yeah. Well, is it easier on your brain or is it easier to create, you know, narratives? You know, well, that's a whole other question, I guess. I agree with you though. It's, you're, you're right about this, Greg. Maybe. Maybe. No, I think you are. I'm not, I'm trying to say that it's like, I don't know what's easier for the brain, you know, or the,

because not a lot of people are doing it that way where they say it's, you know, sometimes you miss. They want to believe that we all want to believe that there's like this magical ingredient or something. Anyway, the goal, how unlucky for Jamaica. We win a corner from geo passing it to Haji and Haji trying to skitter a ball across to Poulosick at the backpost. This is actually also a nice play from us. It's just cut out, but it's a good idea. And then on the corner, which Pulisic takes, Miles gets a little bit of noggin to it, flicks it on. Excuse me.

And Cory Burke is like a yard behind him, just totally unlucky that the ball just comes off his head and goes right in the goal in the back of his own net. Tough on him. Great for me. Great for Concaf. Game back on. So at 9430, we do lump that ball into the box towards all our targets we've put up there. And it does go into Andre Blake's arms and he collapses on it. And the camera cuts to Jamaica fans on the crowd and they are dancing and they are like high-fiving because the game should be over.

There's 30 seconds left in six minutes of extra time and their keeper has the ball laying down on the ground. He gets up like hits the long ball forward of course. and we, I think Miles, like, kind of gets a header back up field, and it's, you know, it's about to get to a Jamaica player in the center circle who's going to head it right back up Miles. And I am certain that if that Jamaica player just heads that ball back up towards our goal, the referee blows the whistle and the game is over. But he doesn't head the ball at field because Chris Richards comes from behind him

and, like, knives in and just sneaks in with his head and gets a tiny little touch to it. And he helps, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I, Don't remember, I'll have to double check who he heads it on too. Maybe Todd Adams, but we then one-touch it out to Geo, and Geo hits that ridiculous, like one-touch diagonal volley. If any of these things had gone wrong and we had to, like, even reset backwards, I swear the rest blow on the whistle. And instead, we get every single thing as right as we can to get to the corner kick.

Yeah. Oh, so this is the one, is this the one where, oh, he ran up volleys it to Right, right? Yeah. Haji? Is that what I said? If I missed that, yeah. He hits that diagonal out to Haji, who's in space, and it's, uh, Haji sweeps it across

for, I think, Pulisic and it gets cleared out almost like, almost for an own goal. But, but, yeah, if we had had anything go inefficiently here in that buildup, I swear the referee was waiting to blow the whistle. But because everything moved in a straight, direct fashion towards the goal, he's going to see it out. And we got our, we got our corner. Yeah, we are so lucky to have, have. had that go that way for us.

But it did. So 1-1. And by this time the stadium is much more full, and Aurora goes up at the goal. And then let's just talk an extra time. Extra time was awesome. Hey, hold on. I got to give up props because I've talked about him being a little bit messy.

We both have. That Richard's header, he didn't even flick it backwards. He kind of gave it a little glance in it just around that Jamaica player, and it went to one Ricardo Pepe in the air who had a very, like, actually directed precise header to lay it down towards Giorina who could step into that diagonal pass. So I want to make sure we get Pepe his love here because that was important. Very. So let's go straight to the goals.

Let's just talk about the two goals and maybe a couple other little things. But 96 minute, we get our first one, and it's Pulisic tries to take a guy. on up the middle and gets tackled as you know he did it pretty much any time he tried to eliminate a guy in this game um geo pounces on it and just glides past a guy you know as he does uh then a little outside of the boot flicked pass to put haji in behind and it's just a glorious pass um it's so nice but haji still has some stuff to do he does a little hesitation with the right foot as if to shoot, but pulls it on to, you know, kind of rolls it onto his left, takes another touch with his left to get a little more separation, and then slots at home,

left footed between Andre Blake's left leg and left arm, and it's 2-1 USA, and we're really back. Oh, we're so back. And again, this is yet another one that you just laugh when you see Geo do this, and then you see the replay, like, from behind Andre Blake's goal, and, like, I'm trying to, you're trying to piece together how like while he is trying to get his feet because he's having to do a bunch of dancing around two jamaica players who like smash into each other uh so the ball like he has to dance around them and then dance over the ball uh but he still is doing this while calculating all these angles and all these uh movements that he's expecting haji to make and what should happen uh and then to just hit that little flick is just a little punch uh with the top of his right boot, and you're just like, this is so dumb. So dumb that he just did this. Yeah, the replay is really satisfying to watch because he doesn't, again, he doesn't really look at where he's going to pass it at all.

It's a total surprise. So he never, he never, like, gives it away and then to hit it with that weight in a way that Haji can get there before the tracking center back. And then again, we got to give Haji his props here because he still has a lot. do. The centerback plays well. If the centerback overcommits to take Haji's shot away, I think Haji's a smart enough player that he'd have Ricardo Pappy right there to square it. So the centerback takes

away the square to peppy and makes it difficult for for Haji to kind of set this up. But Haji does really well and just lashes at home. He's a finisher. Okay. So that's two-one. Big time celebrations.

Raina Blast went over after a run from the left into the center of the park in the 101st minute. We got no time for that. Johnny runs, Johnny's a little slow on the recognition in the 106 minute. I forget which attacker for Jamaica got him behind, but just clocked it. And then the second goal comes in the second period of extra time. The 109th minute. Again, Raina cleans up an unsuccessful dribble.

This one from Brenda. And this is a less aesthetically pleasing. pass, but still quite nice, slides it real tidy in for Haji in the box. And Haji gets it kind of stuck under his feet, but adjusts, swivels, and hits a clean shot far post, beats Blake pretty comfortably. Again, I forgot to mention this. Again, it doesn't really celebrate. No celebration from Haji.

Just kind of like, hey, I do this. And it's 3-1 USA. And you'd appreciate it. Well, yeah. I mean, I'm not making a comment one way or another about it. I was noting it. No. Again, it's breathless because we just like pool sick just attempted the through ball on this goal that gets cut out and that went into my stock of all the non-Gio through balls.

And then geo, showing like some real steel to step into like this challenge and just take the ball from Jamaica. And then again, just the angles. The angles, the technique, the weight. to hit that slide rule past to put to put haji in um i don't know man like i guess when we have geo the tactics are good and when we don't have geo the tactics aren't as good i'm like i'm i'm i'm have kidding but like we it's not like there was a massive overhaul in in the way we were playing or any of our principles from pre geo to geo so it's just like yeah when when he's in the things we're trying to do come off a little bit better yeah we still had some things we had some

things going in the first half. But he's going to be a difference maker for us. Yeah, there's no doubt about that. That's it. That's my prediction. That's the game. I think, you know, maybe we'll come back and make some sort of sweeping claims about it all at some point, but I think that's enough for today.

Got the Eunice interview dropping later tonight. I mean, very quickly after this one drops, so you'll probably see them both come to your phone at the same time. What else? Greg, anything? You feel like you got to give an 11 for Mexico now. Okay, let's see. I'm, I'll, I'll go, I'll go Ream.

I'll go back to Ream. Go back to the Ream well. Let's go Dest, of a court, turner angle, Dest, Richards, Ream, Jedi. And then, I mean, I'm feeling really warmly towards Eunice Musa because I just had a sit-down interview with him.

I'll say I can't I can't do it Let's go If West is healthy And we haven't talked about this But it felt like he was a little off In this game

Did you feel like that to you? Weston McKinney Yeah I don't know he's playing He's starting in this Mexico final I don't think there's I have zero questions about that What do I want to see from the midfield

I'll take Eunice West Gio, and then Hodgiat, left wing, pull a sick at right wing, ballow up top. I'm temporarily going away from the fun side. I mean, it's sacrilege, but I'll allow it. I'm going to baby out of my own question.

I'm just like, there are enough midfield variables between minutes and fitness. For Gio, too, I don't know what Gio's clear for. he went what 60 75 obviously 45 plus a 30 extra time so yeah uh he just went 75 but then the question is can he turn around on three days and do it again and maybe the answer is very obviously yes no yes he has no restrictions he's fully fit um but i don't know if that's the case so if he's fully fit i want i i want geo in there i saw something uh poking at me on the on the on lines about being a geo doubter like because he had the assist and people were like people still

doubting him. And someone tagged me as though I was somehow doubting Geo. And I don't know where that idea would have come from. Healthy Geo has been nailed onto my starting 11 for the U.S. since like the pandemic. I was ready to bench any either of Waya or Adams for Geo in the World Cup. And we'll continue to put Geo in the lineup for at least three cycles. Somebody just doesn't know how to read or listen very well. But again, I don't know what the, if he's fully fit, I think he should be starting, and then West should start, and then a lot of wrinkles for that last midfield spot. Yeah, I guess there are a lot of different ways we could play that I would be happy to see against Mexico,

a lot of different lineups or different configurations. But Geo is, if he's healthy, he is the one who just absolutely has to, is one of the people who just absolutely has to be on the field. I guess that's what I think. Pulisic will show up. He didn't show up for this game, but he'll show up for Mexico, I would think. And it's going to be great. It's going to be a lot of fun.

You want to come on down. We got a – Sanjay and I got a little – I got a couch for you. Where are you guys going to post up before the game Sunday? I actually don't know for sure somewhere in the parking lot. You know, it's just a giant. complex out there. There's all kinds of entertainment possibilities. Okay. I don't know. But give us, give us one food stuff, one food stuff that you have already

had that you've enjoyed or that you are for sure going to have before you fly out of it. I don't know. I haven't really thought about that yet, Greg. What? You and I travel differently. Well, I, uh, yeah, had a lot to do today. I did make egg sandwiches for me and Sanjay. All right, that's pretty adorable. Feta with Feta and onion. I can't believe you guys each ate 30 eggs today. That's an outrageous number of eggs.

It's not true. It's not true at all. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. Check out our Patreon. If you are so inclined, the link is in the show notes. And we'll talk to you after the, check out the Eunice interview. We'll talk to you after the game on Sunday.

See ya.