Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #486: How to replace Sergiño Dest at the Copa

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

Greg and Belz dig in on several scenarios for replacing Dest at the Copa America, the biggest tournament we'll have between 2022 and 2026. Lots of possibilities, lots to discuss.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. We still haven't got it spelled out from Einhoven what exactly the injury is, but it looks like Sergenio Dest is going to miss the Copa this summer. Huge implications for Greg Burhalter and the U.S. men's national team, and for us, frankly. We want to mourn the injury, probably an ACL injury or something like that. But as Vince said on the Monday review, move the drill. everybody moved to a different part of the field and keep practicing. Even if a bone is sticking out.

That's for sure what the team needs to do, right? That's what the staff need to do. But yes, as fans, I definitely think we should be allowed to lament because Sergenio has just been so entertaining. Aside from whatever the competitive difference will be and the drop-off, and I think we can say that there will be some kind of a drop-off. I think there is. The entertainment drop-off is going to be substantial.

Yeah. I mean, that's something to lament for sure. We've got to figure out how to feel the best possible 11 in his absence. And so that's what this episode is mostly going to be about. Why don't you kick us off, Dr. Velasquez? Well, it feels like, you know, and people have been talking about this since as soon as we found out that he was, very cryptically found out that he was going to be injured for a long spell.

it seems like there's basically two approaches, right? You can go like for like, where you can sort of just plug in our next best right back, where best could mean like best overall available right back or best surge analog. Or you can sort of fudge it and you can just get our next best player into the 11. And I think that we can, again, confidently say

that our next best player is not Joe Scali or any of the other right backs in the pool. So that would obviously mean playing somebody nominally out of position at right back. And that's been what a ton of people floated in large part because Joe Scali has never been that sexy of an option. And his last few performances with the national team have sort of a he sort of doubled down on that non-sexiness. He's gone to the mat to prove his lack of soccer sex appeal. But you're, I think, but you know, before we get into that a little bit, You want to defend him a little bit, though, right?

Like, he, I saw you say something earlier today about how, had we not given up that goal against Jamaica in the first 30 seconds, nobody would have had a problem with Scali. I would argue that goal wasn't even really Scali's fault. No, it's not his fault. And, you know, I think what people rightfully were also getting frustrated with wasn't just like the fact that he got dunked on for the goal, which, you know, we kind of dissected. and sometimes players get dunked on through no fault of their own. In fact, if you're outnumbered at the point of attack. But it was also his involvement in our attempts to chase a goal down. And I think the same sort of caveat applies.

If we're not down a goal 30 seconds in, no one is nearly as frustrated with the ineptitude, ineffectiveness of Joe Scali, Joe Scali being high up the field as we keep struggling to chase this goal. If it's zero-zero, like in most universes, that game's going to be 30 seconds in, most of the time in that kind of a game

against that depleted Jamaica side, we get our goal in the course of play, even based on some of the attacks we got in that game when we weren't playing particularly well. And Joe Scali is just a nothing player. And I think that's, again, effectively what he is. He's sort of a nothing player that you can plug in if you need to.

and hope that he just doesn't do anything to cost you. And that's just sort of the opposite of search, who is definitely not a nothing player and who will actually make you laugh several times in any given match. Even if that doesn't always lead to a goal on the board, you sure do feel like it could. Yeah. And sometimes it does lead to goals.

It often leads to us sort of tilting the field in possession. We're able to work the ball up that right side. often in very aesthetically pleasing ways. And I think there's a substantive. I think you probably agree, but there's a substantive loss there too. I mean, I don't know if he's our most important player in possession, but he's up there, top three or four, probably. And the way the game is played right now,

the wide fullbacks get a lot of touches, and you want somebody back there who can, who can sort of move things forward. I mean, I've got like images of FBREF charts of ball progression, like just like careening around in my head. But I think I can safely say that Dest is, you know, it's really important what he does for our team in that way. It is.

And the other thing to keep in mind to is, and we'll kind of touch on, I think, as we close, but it'll also be very like situationally important, right? Dest will be more important against certain teams than he would be against other. or he'll be important in different ways. And again, it's one of those things where Joe can't really replace Dest in any of the ways that Dest is important, whether it's building out of the back under pressure or whether it's trying to get really creative with cute stuff

at the edge of the opponent's box as we try to cut open a resolute low block. Right. So the first approach, the sort of like for like, I mean, like for like maybe isn't how I would describe it It's just like use our next best right back Yeah Scali is probably choice number one He would go in possession

He would be You know either part of that back three Or part of a band of three in a two three five Three two five two three five Kind of morphing back and forth between the two Um Jedi would go high up left in possession To join that band of five

And then we go with Poulosik in the left half space way a wide right, West probably in the right half space, maybe Gio. I mean, this is another thing is Gio was all over the place in the Mexico game, dropping really deep to get on the ball. So I'm not sure exactly how this all fits together,

but this is basically what we did against Mexico. Desk was back a lot in that game. He was part of the buildout a lot. At least that's how we started the game. So that's, Scali is, I guess, option number one in that scenario. Yeah, it's the easiest plug, right? And we did this against Jamaica.

Scali just starts for the suspended desk. And, and again, you saw, you saw that it's not, he's, he's not totally a catastrophe in there. You know, he's not, he's just, he's not as good as Sergenio. So when Wayas is dropping back for extended spells and Scali has replaced him in, in the attacking front, you are just, I mean, you know you're not going to get that much out of him. And we didn't. And so the hope is if we do go this route with Scali in the group stage, that we maybe stress like, hey, when you can stay back and let Timmy stay up there. And maybe more importantly, like tell Timmy, like, hey, don't just drop back because you do that when surges on there. Like, we need you up there rather than Joe as often as possible.

Well, do any of the other sort of, you know, plug and play right backs intrigue you? DeWan Jones Brian Reynolds Like maybe DeWan I've been intrigued by DeWan Jones But I don't think he's gonna be I don't think he's gonna be some Attacking Dynamo You know again the way surge is

So to be honest no Like The one who The one who I like I wonder if Burrhalter will resort back to Would be DeAndre Yedlin Who hasn't been in camp since Burralter's taken back over But who Burrhalter I think appreciates for his

His experience and who also has a close relationship with Tim Way out there. They're the Mountain Boys. Oh, yeah. There's definitely a chemistry shout there. Frankly, though, I think Gedlin is, like, much worse at being, like, a possession hub. Even if that's all he is, I think he's worse at that than Scali. I agree.

I agree. I think we'd be losing even more. He might be able to get out and run around the edge more. But, I mean, it would basically just be a vibes pick. if that's the way to go. Yeah. Brian Reynolds was last played in the shirt for the U-23s against France. March 25th.

That was a two-two draw. He had a couple nice crosses from wide. I tried to catch up on him a little bit at Westerlo. He seems like he's doing all right. I mean, I don't see like a great number of oopsies or lost assignments. which I think has always been the knock on him. It definitely has a lot of tools that are useful. He can whip a ball in.

He can beat people 1v1 on the dribble. Like in the attack, he brings some stuff. But I don't know. I don't know where Berhalter stands on him, and maybe he's been sort of slotted for the Olympics, and that's it. That's what I'd say it comes down to. If it's not Scali,

and it's not Yedlin who Burrhalter has also got a great, deal of history with with the national team. I just, I don't see us ahead of this huge tournament, just testing out Brian Reynolds with the senior team. Like I think, I think that would actually be like nuts. So,

Duan Jones, who Burrald has had in a few camps, but has never really seemed to, to get across the line. Like, same thing. I just don't think there's any way that Greg Burhalter would pick up one of those guys to jump Joe Scali,

just because Scali kind of struggled a little bit or doesn't offer a ton. I think, I think all that's really like a huge reach, more so than the cute stuff we're going to get into next. Yeah. Well, I'm going to be a proponent of the cute stuff, I think. And there's a lot of it to discuss. Yeah. Again, for me, I don't really see it.

I feel like you send Reynolds to the Olympics, let him mature a little bit over there, let them get more time in system, if you want to consider it like that. Because again, Joe Scali is not, he's not an amateur. here. He's played a little bit. He's played at a high level for a while. For a long time, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How high of a level he has performed in that high level,

certainly debatable. But he's not going to be, he's not going to be stunned by any of the stuff that's going on. I don't think. I know we kind of have some jokes about his persona and his tendency to call things very complicated. Yeah.

But I think, again, I think you can put him into a game and mostly trust him. This is where I point out that I also had to call him out for the Trinidad. I don't know if you want to call it a blunder, but that's where I kind of started to be like, Joe, buddy, you're supposed to not be a guy who does this. And that's on there, the corner kick that we had against Trinidad down in Trinidad

after the dust fiasco, where Joe Scali just gets absolutely pantsed in Trinidad's racing back at us. It was that one-v-one chance that the attack. kind of scuffed. Yeah, the guy hits, the field actually comes to our rescue for all the talk we do about how we don't like playing on those fields. The field slowed down the 1v1 attacker where he had to wait for the ball to stop bobbling. But it was just a, it's a super basic play.

I think Jedi goes up for a header. Jedi sort of the first line of confrontation to deny a counter and Joe Scali is a deep safety. And Jedi loses the first, sort of just loses the header or just contest it poorly, weekly. Jedi gets little brothered a little bit. Yeah, which he can kind of afford it. I mean, we could take a foul. We can do a lot of things. But in any event, the guy who wins the header is now sort of just on the other side of Jedi,

racing upfield. And he has an attacker with him that's right at the midfield line with Scali. And Scali, for whatever reason, just like cheats to the side. He's already on the sideline side of the free runner. And he cheats even more to the sideline. Like he's just running away from the middle of the field. And Trinidad just plays ball anywhere over the top. And Scali has totally eliminated.

Yeah, he's eliminated himself, giving himself a horrible angle to pursue. And it's just like amateurs. That was like an amateur moment from him. That's where I was like, Joe, like, figure this out. We want you to be a guy we can trust. This is not how you gain trust. Well, things feel complicated when you're coming off 14 straight hours of Fortnite, you know?

Stuff seems harder. So here we go. That's basically the whole Joe Scally picture in my mind. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, should we talk about, just real quick about the way Raina dropped in against Mexico and what it means for this whole, you know, shape and the right back?

I know we discussed it in the recap of that Mexico game, but if that's going to be repeated where, you know, Raina is dropping in, mostly he was dropping in on the left side, it felt like, and picking up the ball. directly from Tim Reem. What are the implications of that for replacing Dest, you know? Yeah, so if he's doing that, then that right, I mean, when it was, I would say that one of the reasons that we did that a ton against Mexico on the left side is because Serginio Dest is on the right side. If it's not Serginio Dest, I don't think we would see that heavily shaded of a asymmetry in that midfielder dropping back.

We've always brought that midfielder back since the first game after the pandemic when we played MMA for the first time. We've been doing that. We've been dropping that midfielder back to the side of the two centerbacks. In that first game back, it was Weston McKinney dropping on the left side. Not Tyler Adams, which I think everyone kind of assumed would be the guy who would, do that. It was it was McKinney to be more of that deep line distributor. So I could totally see us doing that. In this game, I think we in our Copa with whoever ends up being in the midfield, even if it is Scali as a right back. And I think that would just push Scali higher up the field in the build-out. Okay. Which I don't know that we really want, right? It's not my favorite. No. I don't think it'll be geo as much, to be honest, in the Copa. I think it'll be less geo and more.

probably Wes or moose. Well, I want to do a quick plug for the John O'Brien interview because that dropped last week and he said he would have loved to play the inverted fullback role. He likes that, but we can't pull him out

every time and he's getting a little too old. But anyway, check that out on the feed if you haven't already. Let's get into the second category of options. What are you calling it? What's the name of that? the category. We're fudging it.

We're fudging a little. Yeah. Just got to fudge that right back spot. Just a category that's brimming with intrigue, I would say. I was all for fudging it

in the Nation's League, right? Even before the game when we obviously knew deaths was suspended. We were, I think we were a heavily fudgified podcast. But that was, I mean, I'm just going to hedge.

That was for a one-off game where we knew deaths was coming back in the next game. And it was against the depleted Jamaica who we knew was not going to offer a ton running back at us. And we know from playing him in the past, they're not some possession-heavy side that's going to force us into a low block for extended times.

So it's just like we can get through a game with what I wanted to see was Tim Wayette right back. Yeah. And I think that's still sort of option number one in the fudging it category. Waya at right back, up in the front five in possession, maybe Haji Wright as the touchline hugging, left winger. Pulisic has maybe the nominal right wing, but in the right half space, and then

geo in the other half space, Jedi stays back in possession in this scenario. So again, you get back to, instead of introducing Joe Scali on the field, you're putting Hajie Wright on the field, and do you think that's a net gain? What are the tradeoffs? And I should also say, if you don't want it to be Hajie Wright as your next man up, it could easily be the current man of this real-time recording, which would be Malik Tillman, who has an assist in two goals in the first 15 minutes of PSVs game. So you have these sexier options, I think it's clear to say, and you just got out, you just, are you willing to fudge? So then you would, I guess Tillman could be, you could say he's the right winger, but he plays in the right half space, then Pulisic on the

left wing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's so many nice ways to do it, honestly. It feels, this is, you know, I would have probably balked at doing an episode like this in the past when it felt like all the options were sad. But there's so many fun options here, you know. Bells, I bet some longtime listeners are going to call out our, as soon as Burrhalter was hired, we were trying to figure out four, two, three ones. And we ran through all of the number 10 options we had. I think we were talking about Kalana Costa as a number 10. there were some sad There were some sad

catalog Yeah Yeah I like that either I mean right Didn't I don't think played very well as the striker For the U.S. in in Dallas Against Mexico

But he In a little bit less of a focal Role I think he He would do better He would do better That's his role for Coventry And he's having a great season obviously

Yeah he's coming off Of really exciting performance against Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final off that left wing. So again, that is for sure going to get the masses more excited I think for like, oh yeah,

let's add another exciting player. And then Tim Wea as a wide, I don't know if he was technically a wingback or a fullback in that Copa Italia semifinal, but he comes off the bench and gets a beautiful assist for the game winner for Juventus.

So he's like, I know he's not having the best I know you looked into it a little bit, right? How's his defending? What I wanted to go back to was like the first time he got just tossed into this role without a ton of reps. So I'm back to Lille right before the World Cup. It was November of 2022 where it's like, oh, Tim Wanam, I'm playing right back today. And he was a right back and a back four for Lille on several occasions.

And he also basically looks fine. He looks better when it's possession heavy, when your team's going. got the ball a lot and he can move farther up the fields like comfortably without without a lot of risk. And I think that's what we would be hoping. Those are the situations we probably hope to do it. And that's, that's again going to be the key is what situations does it make sense, what opponents doesn't make sense, if any. Well, I can't wait to hear you break that down for us at the end of the episode. Okay, option number two under the fudging it category is put Wes at right back. And I think there's something too

that really recommends this option because if we're looking for a player who is a like for like replacement for Dest, like a true similar type of player, Wes is probably the one. He's the player most likely to cook from back there to combine, to beat a couple guys on the dribble. He's not exactly the same player as Desk,

but he's closer to it than I think Wea is, what Wea is. And then we would have So he would play there for Scali. Then we'd have Eunice and either Johnny or Tyler, probably depending on Tyler Adams' health in that midfield in sort of the two above the three. And then we'd have, you know, Gio in that band of five

as a nominal midfielder. I could really see Wes sort of protagonizing from that right back spot in the way that Desk does. And I think I like it. Well, you know who... Go ahead. You know who else likes it is Greg Burholter, who did that at half time of the Jamaica game, where... Right.

Scali stayed on the bench to come out to start the second half. And it was Weston McKinney as our right back. And again, it's a really, you can kind of blend the distinction here between Wea there and West there. If Wea's playing right back in possession, he's not going to do what Serge did. He's going to do what Wea did. Like he'll just do the same thing he does now for us in possession. Whereas if you say Wes is the right back, in the block he plays the right back, he would basically do more of what the surge stuff was,

where sometimes he will go beat the attacker on way aside and way he'll drop back, and sometimes he will just sit in midfield the way surge could and the way Wes is obviously very comfortable doing. Right. So I think you're totally right that as an actual surge analog, Wes would be that guy. And again, that's the route where Halter went when we were chasing a goal and he wasn't happy with what we were getting from Scali there. It wasn't exactly a smashing success in the second half of that you're making.

I mean, we didn't get, we didn't score until the 95th minute or whatever it was on a own goal. Yeah, in the last, the last like 18 minutes of that regulation, we basically stopped playing any kind of soccer that we're used to. And we're just lumping it up at Haji. Surreal experience. Yeah. Just lumping it up at our two stress, Haji and Pepe up in the box. And then eventually also one of our. our centerbacks, Chris Richards,

heading up there to be our third striker. Right, right. And none of it really worked until we got the own goal. And then in the extra time, we turned the screw. So it all turned out well. But was it, did Adams come on at halftime in that game, too? He came on in the 60th. So Adams came on in the 63rd and departed in the 100th.

So he had a 40-minute block running, I think. It might have been 45. I don't know. I don't know how the, trainers count extra time. They're like, no, no, no, extra time doesn't actually add on to this. Well, surely they count it. I mean, otherwise it'd be silly.

Okay, so that's options one and two, Wea and Wes. I feel like I'd be happy with either one, you know, at least going into it. I mean, retrospectively afterwards, I would be full of criticism if it didn't work. But at least going into it, I think I could see the rationale for either one. Another option is put Tyler Adams at right back. If he's healthy. Obviously, this depends on him being healthy. He's missed five straight games, I think, with back issues.

Terrifying, by the way. Like, any kind of back issue for me is terrifying. Because I feel like, I don't know how much science has advanced on back injuries, but I feel like, to me, they always carry this air of mystery where, like, no one really knows. I don't know. You just got to heat it. I don't know if they're still doing that.

Make it really cold. Make it really hot. Let's electrocute you for a little bit. I'm so scared of the back injury. Yeah. There's a lot that science hasn't quite figured out yet. Come on, science. Adams, so if you put Adams back there, you know, you get somebody who's comfortable as a midfielder,

so he can help with the build out. I don't think you get as much progression from him as you get from Dest. This is a topic of great controversy right now in the scuffed podcast Discord. I think you're switching it. I think there's some controversy about Adams' ability to progress. I don't think anyone is saying Adams is going to progress just as well as Sergenio Des. I think it's saying it with Dest out of the picture, and these are all your options. Is Adams considerably worse at progressing the ball than Joe Scali?

Is he the same? Is he worse at it than West? I feel like that's kind of the relevant. So what do you think is he is Adams the same as Scali? Is he better than Scali? I'd say it's probably a little better than Scali at progressing the ball. I don't know. I'm not, for me right now, I'm not impressed enough with Adams' ability to progress from that particular spot to consider it like useful to have him step into Joe Scali spot.

Because then like if you think about it, Adams is if we get him back, he's coming back from injury. I don't know how much we'll get to use him. but you would be using his minutes in a spot that isn't his best spot, and in a spot that we could get those minutes from Joe Scali. So if Adams isn't some attacking Dynamo the way Wes or Wea is, if you think of him that way, like what's the gain? You know, you're taking Adams out of the midfield, or at least you're reducing the number of minutes you can use him in midfield to do what.

So to be honest, Adams is like my least favorite solution to this. Okay. I mean, just from a big picture standpoint. You've talked me out of it. And I'm ashamed that I even brought it up. No, I mean, that makes perfect sense. Why use his most likely very precious minutes on that when you have all these other options? What about Eunice?

What about Eunice, Musa? He's going to play right back for, isn't there a word that he's going to play some right back this weekend? Yes. He's going to play some right back for A.C. Milan. I mean, he can progress the ball. He can progress the ball. a lot of different ways. I don't know.

I don't hate it. Some of it very much feels like fiefifying things. And some of it feels less like that, even though maybe it's really all just the same. And it kind of just gets back to like, anybody can play fullback. It just depends how you ask them to play it. Like, it's not that challenging.

You're going to have to play within your limits and with your tendencies. Well, meaning the basic requirements of the job is not that challenging, I guess, to agree with you. either than that. But like, but there's so much opportunity in that spot on the field and you're going to get different levels of output toward that optimal from different players, if that makes sense. Yeah. No, I mean, with Eunice, you could, you could either put Wes at right back and then put Musa on the field in Wes's spot where he just vacated. Or you could, I guess, go the other

route and it'd just be who you most comfortable with defending. And again, this is, I feel like, going to lead us into who are we going to be defending because that matters. All right. What about Brendan Aronsonet right back? Thoughts? Are people tossing that one out? We joked about it on the Monday review a little bit. But, yeah, let's do talk about. One more note. One more note, sorry. Just because I almost slipped on it too.

Have you noticed that it is like, you have to stop and think about it now when you say Eunice? because of the issue that came up with the other gentleman. Yeah. Brother Yusuf, like, I got to stop and think about it now. Sounds just close enough and you're like, wait, you, you, you, Yusuf, no. Yeah. That's the marsh bit. No, I, I haven't tripped up on it yet, but I think it's going to eventually happen.

So my kids have done this to me with, because he's like four, he's just learning how to say words when he's singing. But I now have to stop and think about whether it's welcome to New York or welcome to U-Nork. They both sound like, you-Norke now sounds just close enough. I'm like, wait, no, that's not it can be. It's not you-N-Rk, New York. So it can happen. They can put it in your brain and then it's just stuck there. Yeah.

Shame on you, Jesse Marsh. Ah. And my four-year-old child. Well. Okay. He gets a little bit of grace, I think. All right. So we're playing Bolivia first in Dallas, then Panama.

in Atlanta, Uruguay in Kansas City. Those games are, I believe, the 23rd, the 27th, and July 1st. If not, it's like give or take a day on each one. By the way, we're going to have big parties, big scuffed parties in Atlanta and in Kansas City. So put them on your calendar. Come to the game. Come tailgate with us. We'll have a great time.

But anyway, to the substance here, how do you want to approach Bolivia? What do we know about Bolivia? How does that dictate our 11? So none of these are amateur teams, right? We're not playing Grenada in any of these games. We're better than Bolivia. I think, you know, we've got a pretty good talent edge on Bolivia. And Bolivia are going to, I think, sit in a low block.

So for me, like if you're dealing with a low block team that might try to hit you on the counter, your fullback's defensive abilities are not that, not as emphasized. Because when Bolivia do attack, it's going to be like, okay, it'll be the two centerbacks who are staying home plus the defensive mid. We're going to blow most of this up. And the fullback's going to be trailing the play anyway. And by the time they get there, hopefully it's fizzled out. We just use them to, you know, reset the possession and start going back the other way. So I feel like for Bolivia, we could get away with certainly a cute fullback option.

Okay. Do I have to weigh in? Do we, if we're going to do that, if that's who we're playing? Do you have a real preference where you're going to pick one? I'm open to change. You know, I don't have to be right about this, but I feel most comfortable with Wes for that scenario at right back. And then have Eunice in the midfield.

I'll take it. And the reason that like I'd be happy to have a cute option and have that option be West would be a way starting position would be a little bit higher. So when we do win it, Waya is not like race. racing all the way back and then have to get back up field, it'd be like, he's already up there. We can just try to go and blitz behind him before they can get their shape. If we can catch him a couple of times. Yeah.

So. But I'll say, I won't be like, if Joe Scali is a starter in this game, it won't be like, no, what are we doing? Because I feel like that's where a lot of people get to with some of these really marginal calls, is that they'll talk about it. So it's some obviously boneheaded decision. And I just, we'll probably be fine with Joe Scali against Bluania. Yeah. Yeah, fair enough.

So Panama, we have a talent edge on them too, right? Yeah, talent edge on Panama. But they're not going to sit in a low block, or at least they haven't in basically any important game they've played of late. Like they didn't sit in a low block against us in qualifying, much to their detriment. They aren't sitting in low blocks in Nations League against, Mexico

Highly entertaining game Much more even than the scoreline Indicated They had a lot of chances in that game Yeah they're kind of They're going to come out in like They're going to set a high line And they're going to like come after you

Which For me like That's where Serge would be even more valuable Or at least You know we talked about it He's valuable in so many different ways So against a Bolivian low block He'd be very valuable

up at the corner of Bolivia's box, being able to cut in and play cute little combinations with Wea or Gio or whoever. Against a Panama, he would be instrumental in exploiting their over-pursuit, right? If they're going to come up high, Scali might not be able to combine the same way. You can put Scali in a cul-de-sac sooner than you can put Gio-Rena in a cul-de-sac. Sergenio?

Yes, sorry. Yeah. So it sounds like in, why would we, which of these scenarios does not require acute option, I guess? I mean, basically Uruguay, right? Uruguay in the knockout, for sure, in my mind. Uruguay, for as much as, like, Bielsa took over and you thought maybe it'd be all murderball, like Uruguay play a ton of patient possession soccer against a lot of teams.

So, you know, you watch them against Ivory Coast, or you watch them against Bolivia, where Bolivia sits in a low block. those are two of their last few games. All of their shots will come off of minute, minute and a half, two minute possession spells where they just patiently work the ball around and then eventually find a way into the box. So they're not throwing everybody forward

and pressing the hell out of everybody. Like, you don't think. They'll do that too. So when they're playing, I mean, they will swarm up. Like if we have, when we're trying to build, they will definitely come and press us. I guess I'm just saying like you're going to have to defend a mix of options against Uruguay. They will be able to do anything that you set up for.

So if you set up to sit in a medium block and absorb, they'll hold a ball. Like they won't just concede possession. Be like, no, come at us so we can counter you. They'll build out. They'll try to build through you. So I can see a sitting in a mid block for long stretches of a game. And I feel like in that moment, I'm calling. call me a coward, but I'm like, just take the right back.

Just play the right back back there. Let West be a midfielder. Yeah, I mean, that to me, so my thought on this is not really tactical, but it's just like when you play the best competition, then you need the best players out there, you know? So the Uruguay game is the one that I've been thinking about, like that we definitely shouldn't start Scaliant, you know? I love the word.

It's like right. I come in the opposite ways. Yeah. But, so that's where I would say, like, it's got to be either Wes or Wea at right back, because A, to sort of play out when they do try to press us. And I don't know how much you lose. I mean, if Scali were this, I think I'm just stealing something you've said, but if Scali were just a totally locked down defender,

I'd be more, I'd be more, I feel more complicated about it. But I don't know that you lose that much in terms of responsibility, you know, covering the back post, staying alert by going from from Scali to Wea or Scali to McKinney, you know? So the one game where I'm like, definitely no Scali. So the other thing that I'm hopeful of is that we've taken care of business in games

one and two. We still will have more business to take care of because presumably winning the group allows you to dodge Brazil and then first knockout. game and get like Columbia, which neither of those are cakewalks, but you probably want to dodge Brazil. I mean, I feel like you can say that. I feel like that's a time honored truth. So the Uruguay game will have some stakes for both teams. So it'll be a good test, but it's not like all or nothing.

So it's like whatever you choose between these three games over the course of all of these minutes, you're going to learn from those. So when we do go into that knockout game, fingers crossed, we advance. then you make, then you kind of make your new choice based on all that info that you've acquired. Okay. Fair enough. No, I mean, that makes sense. Like there's a little bit of wiggle room here in all these games because of the talent edge.

Let's hope. I mean, game state would also drive some of this, just like we saw against Jamaica. If we're losing against Bolivia or Panama, you can, I would put significant money on losing after the 60th minute. Joe Scally's not on the field for us. Right. Yeah. Burhalter's bringing on some offensive firepower. Yeah, I think the other, you know, one other thing that we really lose with Surge,

which is difficult to quantify, is the way he demoralizes the opponent. You know, it's, I know this, you're not big on the sort of mystical side of things, but it does, you know, it takes a toll on a team when you get embarrassed a couple times. and especially when you get embarrassed and maybe no goal is scored, but you clear it desperately. It just goes right back to Tim Ream and then Ream passes it over to Serginio again.

It's like you start to squeeze the life out of the opponent a little bit. So I think Wes, if we're looking for an ex-demoralization, like-for-like replacement, it's probably Wes again on that front. But that's just a side point, yeah. No, I'll piggyback on it. There's demoralization and there's also a, provocation.

Like, you can, you can provoke people with gamesmanship and you can provoke people by nutmegging them over and over. And people don't like it. People don't like it and rinsed

in highlight fashion. And if we have the discipline, you know, when they come after us, it's not retaliate. That can get some people sent off. Yeah. Yeah, those Uruguay players

not going to like it if they were to get magged by desk. Um, I think that covers it, doesn't it? Yes. I mean, this is, again, this is a,

it's a hilariously, like, uh, magnified problem that everyone is just like, well, this is kind of the only thing to really dig in on. I mean, we could, we could easily have been like,

should Johnny start? Uh, and maybe we will. Well, we will. We will. Yeah. That's the other big one.

Johnny versus Tyler. Hollow versus Sergeant. I mean, we got some, we got all these, maybe that's what it'll be. Maybe we'll have a series of, uh,

Let's do it. Let's do it. Why not? Somebody suggested we bring Bob Morocco on and do the Tyler versus Johnny debate, and I'd be up for that. All right. Bob versus two feet. Yeah, bring two feet on too.

She left me on Reed. She left me on Reed. I think that's it. Check out the Patreon. Link is in the show notes. That's how we do this. Is listener support. Thanks for listening. We'll see you.