Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #493: Copa prep, Venezia's promotion push, Weah for right back

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

As usual, the last Monday Review of the month goes on the public feed. Vince, Watke and Belz discuss Copa America preparations across the nation, Venezia's promotion run, the right back situation including Tim Weah's performance at RWB over the weekend, and much more.———Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private feed for the Monday Review, which is, among other things, a run-down of club action for national team players every week with Watke and Vince. We have recently added patron-only content that’s available every Friday. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed 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.

From the USSF approved territories of Georgia and Kentucky, and also from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, this is the Monday Review. Happy Memorial Day, everybody. Vince, how you doing? I'm doing good. You know, always nice to have a long weekend. You know what I'm saying?

So good times here, but also I do have to bring up some bad news. I've told the Discord I've told my fellow co-host Ladies and gentlemen I will not be making it to USMNT Columbia on June 8th It's sad

Turns out my daughter has a dance recital That Me and my wife got our wires crossed With the communication there Mostly my fault I'm throwing her in here Well Well, you know, in your defense, it was a case of there being multiple

dance recitals. Yes. Easy to get those mixed up. And I thought the dance recital she was asking me about, she was like, don't you have a, isn't there some type of event or dance recital you got to miss? And I was like, oh, no, that was the Italy trip. I'm not going on the Italy trip. I'll be there.

Turns out that there was another one, ladies and gentlemen, on June 8th. That I can't miss. This is the grand finale. Yeah, I'm saying. So it is what it is. Gotta be there. Nations capital. I will not be inside you.

Waki will be there. You're going to be wearing a balloon that has like your name on it, right? As you walk around. Yeah. I'll be there announcing myself everywhere I go. That's right.

I'm Waki. Do you like my videos? Yo, did you see, though? 40,000 ticket salt. 40,000 tickets sold so far for this Columbia match. That's good. That's pretty good, right? The Brazil game is doing less well, as I understand it, right?

Yeah, I mean, I'm seeing in the discourse, somebody posted a email that they got, like, I mean, we got USSF ticket reps reaching out to people, trying to get them to buy tickets. I didn't know USSF had ticket reps. It's a tent position. Contracted with somebody. Yeah, exactly. I don't know, maybe don't charge $40,000 a ticket and more people will come to the games. I don't know. Here we go.

Yeah. Anyway, Waki, how are you doing? Aside from, you know, your plans for announcing yourself in D.C. Doing well. Heavy-hearted events will not be there. That notwithstanding, I'm doing well. The players will be arriving in camp in two days. We'll probably have some pretty good D.C. tour.

days planned by Greg. Excited to see what museums they hit. Yeah, me too. What monuments they see. It'll be cool. It's probably the first time a lot of them have been there. You think so? Exciting opportunity.

Well, maybe not. I guess these guys do travel quite a bit. They're pretty worldly. Some of them. Has Johnny been there? I would guess that half of them haven't been there. Like in their adult life for a...

I mean, I haven't been to D.C. in a minute, you know? It's not the place you would choose to go if you were on vacation. Right? A wealthy footballer coming to the U.S. for some time off, you wouldn't... You're not going to D.C. No, it's more... It's the place young people and old people visit. Children and... Children and grandparents.

Middle-aged plus. Yeah. What are we thinking about the Copa? How are we going to do? Well, the chatter about expectations has started last week. I believe I said that we would probably play Brazil, and we probably wouldn't beat them. That was wrong.

I think we will beat them. I get some bad information to listeners. I'm feeling good. You ready to be ready to lay down a guarantee? Yeah, I'll guarantee we beat. I don't think we're going to even going to play Brazil. I think we're going to win the group. But if we do have to play, I guarantee we'll be in them.

So it all hinges on Kansas City. That's the key. That's the key. Because I felt like, you know, I mean, yeah, that's the thing for me. That's the thing that I've been looking at as far as like, yo, I mean, we could play Brazil. But, I mean, we're the one seed, you know what I'm saying, in the group. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying?

You know, I'm saying, tough game against Uruguay, you know, Kansas City, whatever. But at home, all the different type of stuff, we should be doing our damnedest to win the group. And then we'll see how I go. I think we would still play, wouldn't we play Brazil in the semifinals or something? Now the pods go. So it's something about how the bracket goes. So where like, because they want Argentina and Brazil on different sides of the bracket. Okay.

So we play. Anyway, anyway, I could be lying. I could be telling the truth. You never know. You're right. No matter what happens, as long as Brazil doesn't lose in their knockout round game, and as long as they get out of their group, we're going to face Brazil before the final. Yeah. If we make it that far, obviously. Just won the group, man. Which we're going to. Just win the group. I mean, you know how delicious it would be if Greg Berthalter beats Marcelo Bielsa?

Boy, I'm going to be firing it. I'm going to be firing everything of the memes. you know what I'm saying I got receipts on deck everything just shooting them all it would be fun it would be fun to just see the discourse

sort of reorganize itself in real in real time you know beating be Elsa July 1st and then I mean coming in hot and heavy that July 4th

you know what I'm saying that's going to be an independence day to remember yeah all right so some some playing surface news Apparently, Jerry World's going to not do just lay the, they're not going to just lay the sod on the concrete,

but they're going to have a full irrigation system. Growlites, drainage, sandy loam. That's good. I don't know what Atlanta's plans are, but hopefully they'll have some extra measures in place. I was very impressed by the joke you made about this. On the Discord. For anyone who missed it, I want to kind of read it to people.

I guess there was a game being played, and Bell's says properly treating it as a dry run. Yeah. Right? And then you said, with all the irrigation being put in place, I'd prefer if we call it a wet run. Yeah, that's a really good joke, isn't it? It got eight drums, emojis. Yeah, good for me. You don't normally want to get one, some laugh cry,

but you got no tomatoes. Eight drums is almost as bad as eight tomatoes. It's the same. It's the same thing, isn't it? Yeah, it's pretty close. Anyone else would have gotten tomatoes there. I think you were just getting some benefit being honest. It just depends on who chose the initial emoji.

You know what I'm saying? Because usually when somebody chooses the initial, then somebody else would just click on the one that was used. So you were spared by not being given the tomato by whoever the first reactor was. You know what I'm saying? But, Waki, they're talking about the Copa America in general being a dry run for the World Cup. Yeah. Dallas getting there.

Yeah, that makes sense. Getting a great situation. Yeah. Oh, that's good. I mean, it makes all the sense in the world. And, you know, it's crazy how I can just pull this out. Like, how? You know what I'm saying?

I'm not an expert on athletic playing surfaces, you know what I'm saying? But I did play on like a turf field in college, which I have to say, turf being like a very controversial thing is something that I never considered in my life. I loved playing on turf myself. It felt great. Felt great. Everything. Joints, you know what I'm saying?

Didn't have to get dirty. Yeah, I'm saying. A huge part of playing football is like mud, grass stains, et cetera, et cetera. No, I didn't have to worry about that, man. Didn't have to worry. Did you get those, did you get that road rash though sometimes? No. I mean, I'm an athlete belt, so I stayed on my feet.

You know what I'm saying? Fair enough. But yeah, I love turf myself. And I didn't know it was the thing until really, I got into soccer. But you see enough. Well, even... Do they?

Yeah. I was going to say, even in soccer, like, you know, given the wide variance in playing surfaces, like natural playing surfaces you can play on in any given city, if you want to actually pass the ball around and play soccer, turf is good for that, too. You know? I was like, it's just you can't slide tackle.

You slide tackle, you lose all the skin on your knee, and then that's not good. I understood. Should we get to the action this weekend? Because there was some. Before we do, I have a point of protest related to Copa. They put out the referee list. Concaf is getting, they're sending five main referees,

four var refs, and seven assistants. And none of those are Oshade Nation. This doesn't make sense to me. It's crazy. It's crazy. I mean, when I think of Congress, Concaf and the refs, I'm definitely throwing O'Shaen up there. O'Shaen's my guy.

He's the face of Conccaf. He's the face of Concordcaf refs, for sure. For sure. Now, it does seem like old dude from America. What's his name, Elfath or something like that? Ismail. Dude, I think he was like the fourth breath in the World Cup finals. I'm like.

Yes, I know who you're talking about. Yeah. So he seems like he does have, you know what I'm saying? He might have took in the crown from O'Shaen. I don't know. He seems to have all the clout, all the good standing with FIFA, et cetera, et cetera. So he may be that guy, and there might have just been a pass on the torch so we necessarily didn't know about. Because I don't even think, O'Shaen did.

I know O'Shaen did a Gold Cup, right? When old dude got hit, when O'Doo got hit by the ball, O'Shaen was rough in that match. In the Gold Cup. That's right. I don't think we've seen him in a nation's league. Not not thinking about it. Yeah, I don't know if we've seen him since then. Maybe I'm checking him.

He was the fourth. They had him as the fourth official on that game, too, because he had to sub in. Maybe they were phasing him out. I don't, we got to look into what's going on here. We need looking at what's going on because he's definitely not as prominent as he once was. And that's a fact. You see Elfath, whatever his name is.

I could be getting his name totally wrong, but y'all know who I'm talking about. The brown skin dude. He's a Moroccan American. Yeah. And he, yeah. And then there's the one white dude, too. You know what I'm talking about?

Can y'all see him? He's kind of pale? Kind of tall. Is he the one who looks like the one who looks like the Simpsons neighbor? Exactly. Ned Flanders. Yeah. Shane is the only ref whose name I know.

It's kind of why I'm coming out so strong. for him here. It's a hell of a name. Yeah, it's a great name. Yeah, it's an incredible name. It's a hell of a name. You can see it like, I mean, great shape. You know what I'm saying? Running down the pitch. Keeping up a play easily, bro. I mean, you know, he blows a final whistle. Full-time. You can easily, you hadn't even broken a sweat. Hasn't broken a sweat. Hasn't broken a sweat, man. You can see he got another 90 in him right now if you wanted to. He doesn't take any guff off. He does not take guff off these players either. Exactly. He got all the intangibles. And that's why, you know, I'm going to have to dig into this a little deeper before I start throwing out the serious accusations. Before I start throwing out the serious, serious accusations on Conca Calf, Commonwealth Ball,

et cetera, et cetera. But I don't like what I'm seeing. I don't like the way this is trended. Speaking of serious accusations, did you see who was playing left wing back for Juventus while Tim Waye played right wing back? against Monza. They threw Elling Jr. over there. Oh.

He'd be doing it. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, you'll be doing that. But we will get to some more... We will get to some more fullback... More fullback angst later in the show. Later on the show. We'll get to it.

Well, let's get right to the fullback situation, because that's the most interesting thing. I want to mourn Sergenio's absence even a little more than I already had. have. Because I feel like, we can talk about how much we're going to miss him in terms of our effectiveness, but I just feel like going up against Brazil in a Copa knockout game, you know, or Colombia, you know, just this whole scene is just what Serge lives for.

So just on that human level, it's a massive bummer that he'll miss this. It's also, I think, a big miss because he's a player that can affect the way American soccer views itself against opponents like this because he will play with confidence he will play with Panash so I'm really I continue to be sad

that he won't be there that said uh Wea watched him in that dead rubber against Monza looks totally totally competent in a you know

it's a slightly different role but it's not that different pristine delivery from wide, right? As we know. Yeah, man. I feel okay. I feel okay about Tim playing right back. If Greg Bertholder decides that's what he's going to do,

which I think is still a pretty big if. Yeah, I was the main takeaway from his press conference. I mean, he pretty much laid it out there. He was like, I don't know. I don't know what we're going to do. We're going to try different things we're going to see in camp. So, you know. Seems like there's a possibility.

He came just... Go ahead. Just short of saying that Scali is a real problem here. We got a scally problem to solve. Yeah. And we're going to throw everything we have at it. That's the thing. If he had been convincing, well, I guess in just, you know, last impressions, et cetera.

Because, you know, I actually went back and watched the Nations League Final against Canada this past week. just because Really? Yeah, yeah. So solely because everyone keeps pedaling that narrative that that Brendan Arison shut down, Alfonso Davies said.

I wanted to rewatch the game just to see if, like, that was true. He was a big help for the first 20 minutes. And then Alfonso switched sides, which I'm not saying that he did not switch sides because of Brennan Aronson. Brendan Aronson was up in his grill. but, you know, once he switched sides, he was equally quiet.

And I don't think anybody's giving any credit to G.R. Raina. Certainly not the people caping for Brenda. Yeah. So. You know, there's not that much overlap there. But Skyley was, he was competent in that match. You know what I'm saying? He was fine there.

From what I can remember, he was fine against Germany. But yeah, just having the horror show against Jamaica, he had a horror show in his first cap against Urtegui. I don't know if anybody remembers that far back, but I do. Because I was big on the Joe train. I was a Scali lad. The captain of Scali Lads at that moment was rearing and ready to go for Joe Scali's first start. And it was terrible. They iced them out.

They stopped passing on the ball. They skipped them in the buildup. Just totally, just completely skipped them. Is that the one at Bush Stadium in St. Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, no, no, no, no. That was a Paxon Poma calling them. Yes.

Back then. This was, I think this was in Kansas City, too. I want to say it. I'm pretty sure it was in Kansas City at a, where to, you know, what they call it, sporting plays for me and them boys. Okay. My main source of information on sporting KC is that account called, Kevin Cho, is it?

Oh yeah, the YouTube man. Yeah. Yeah. He's always just like, he's always just ranting at his television, watching them play. It's pretty funny. But I guess I bring all this up to, just to say, like, like the damage that a terrible performance can do in the minds of your coach and the minds of the fans, you know what I'm saying? Don't know what I want to see Joe Scali out there.

I don't even want to see Joe Scali out there. Because even in his good appearances, he wasn't adding much, he just wasn't messing up. You know what I'm saying? Right. But yeah, hopefully. Which is kind of his career in a nutshell. Yes. That's what it has been.

Except for those first few games. Except for those first few games, man. When he was playing. He stood tall against Byron, right? Like very early in his career. No, but there was a lot of sauce early on, man. There was a lot of sauce early on. He was like, he was doing stuff, interesting stuff.

There's a video on YouTube that bro made the it's called soccer brook It's called soccer guy Wasn't it? Jake Jake? Jake Landau. He made a breakdown of Scali when he first broke onto the scene.

Go back and watch that. He was dribbling people. He was doing his thing. But it was further up the field. He was playing wing back. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't like he was doing all these scenes and build up and then suddenly

turn into a pumpkin and buildup. But anyway, I say all this to say, hopefully it's Tim Way. I'm bracing myself for Greg to not, Greg with three G's to not to do something else. But, I mean, that way I'll just be pleasantly surprised when he does choose way.

Yeah, fair enough. I mean, he left it open. You know, he left it open. And maybe, in these friendlies especially, we probably might get a traditional, well, traditional, you know, might get a Joe Scali out there just to see. And then when the, you know,

when the pressure breaks the pipe, kind of like how you know, Aaron Long in that Japan and Saudi Arabia window Right Greg, Greg kind of got to be bashed over the head with stuff

He does That's what's so frustrating about him But he did make the switch though He did make the switch You mean in the Nations League final From Scali to West? Yeah, yeah

So who knows Yeah Okay I do think Waya did like Did deliver a ball right in front of the six for Millick In that two zero win over Monza Which just reminded me how good he is at getting a cross off I mean I've said this a thousand times on this podcast

But getting a cross off and then putting it in a very dangerous spot He just manages to do it So Good on him not a perfect game from him by any stretch but A lot of people say Tim's not a good crosser. What are they talking about? That's a sentiment that I see, particularly in Discord. I think a lot of people say, like, we only have, like,

maybe they say we don't have any good crosses. We only got one. I forgot who they talk. Maybe like Wes or something like it. But Tim's a fine cross. That's all I want to say. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I feel like he gets to the end line.

He creates danger. Should we talk about Venetia a little bit? They're in the promotion final. Beautiful. Versus, wait, who won today? Was it Kermanese? Yes, yes, it's them. Kerminesi.

They busted Katanzaro. Did they? Yeah. Okay. So, Venetze ended up beating Palermo 2-1 on, you know, this past weekend. And that made it 3-1 on aggregate. The big moment was Tanner Testman's hit from distance in the 4th. fourth minute.

Just got a little time. Nobody closed him. And he just tomahawked it in at the far, far corner, far post. Maybe the keeper

could have done a little better. I don't know. I think so. It was a good hit. Like if it was mads aren't to you know. But if you're tomahawk

tomahawk in there, you know, that's all you can do. I'm excited to see you. I don't know. I'm trying to find a verb for the way it The way it kind of dipped, you know.

You hit it, and there was a lot of up and down to it. I'll take Tomahawk. It's a tomahawk offensive. It might be a little bit, but. It wasn't as offensive as when you said scalp. I haven't said it since. That's right. If anybody's keeping track at home.

Doing a lot of nice, tidy stuff in possession is Tanner Testman. He uses that frame, that length to good effect. had a really nice high difficulty outside of the boot pass to spring a teammate for a good chance late in the game but mostly what he did was just kind of metronome type stuff easing his way out of trouble with the ball he's kind of the classic Burrhalter controlling midfielder isn't he

before Burrhalter gave up before he realized Jackson Yule was not that guy yeah which well it's it's the same dynamic right He's, go ahead, Vince. So I remember when we were talking about Tanner, probably a month and a half ago or something like that. And I was talking about, you know, he's the apple of the eye, the tacticals. We've seen the breakdowns on Twitter, you know, 12 tweet threads breaking down his game, blah, blah, blah.

And it got me thinking as to why. Because I didn't articulate this perfectly when we were talking about it. But because of Man City and all these tacticals, right, they all idolize PEP. They all idolize PEP. So it's what makes PEP system go particularly. The most important is the pivot. You know what I'm saying? Rodry now.

So it used to be Fernandino back in the day. It's the key to the whole thing, right? being able to handle your duties offensively, also being the key to the counter press defensively. And so, Greg wanted the same thing, right? What is Greg, if not one of these Twitter tacticals?

You know what I'm saying? He wanted the same exact thing. Try to make it happen with Jackson Yule, which, like, despite all of the idealism involved with it, I never saw a single pass from Jackson Yule. I was like, damn. I understand why you got him there, Greg.

Not one. I don't remember a single one. And I challenge anybody to show me one. But anyway, yeah. Yes. Tanner, and I think that's why everybody's on them because everybody's looking for the next pivot. Like single pivot.

And it's hard to, you know, they do not grow on trees at all. No. And Tanner's showing you might be one. Yeah. he's promising. I just, I think it's ultimately it's the same dynamic or the same equation as it was

for Jackson Ewell. Is he so good at it that you build the team around him? And I'm going to say the answer right now is no. And I'd be surprised if it ever is. That doesn't mean he won't be an extremely, you know, have an extremely successful career,

but for the national team, got a ways to go. Busio was also in this game seems to be incrementally increasing his baseline level of defensive solidity, possession solidity. I don't really have strong opinions on him, though. I'll be really happy for them both if they get to Syria. I mean, it would be a huge accomplishment for them. You know what I'm saying?

I mean, we talk about all the record-breaking things that are, that are, I don't know, good players. 18 players are doing in Europe, you know what I'm saying? this would be just as cool and probably just as novel. You know what I'm saying? I'm cool. You know what? I've always been, we get excited about a player winning a cup or getting a trophy on a team. Right.

But they're always like the seventh best player on the team. These guys, they're kind of the heart of this playing the way back up. Yeah, they start every game. They're in position for an end of the year award from us, I would say. they can get this across the line. Yeah. Yeah, even more so than Nico Joaquini. Who doesn't play much for Como?

Yeah, man. This is like, I mean, you know, I don't know all my history, but I don't know, has like a single American led a team to promotion. Like, truly led a team to promotion. Greg Burholter did. Did he? Germany.

Oh, okay, okay. That's cool. So he knows all about it. Yeah, I mean, you were saying it's... But then they didn't. They didn't sign him for the next year. He had to leave. Oh, really?

I mean, it's more novel than winning, you know, some of the other stuff. I think it's also just more meaningful to the fans, you know, of the club. For Venetia fans to see their team promoted to Syria again, you know? Yeah. Matters way more to them than for A.C. Milan fans to watch Inter win another. Curtis Cardetto and, you know, do well enough to qualify for Champions League. It's a lot more, it's a lot more meaningful. That's fair.

That's fair. For the fans. I think MCB Sun Discord, man, this could be a Disney movie. I mean, it could, you know what I'm saying? I mean, if you take, Titanic Testman, John Luca Bousio, turn him into, I don't know, fish or something. Pixar, a tournament of some type of animal. the kids would love it. And also, even past the fans, even past them themselves doing it, you know, for Venetzi at the club, just as far as like, you know, pay these transfer fees for these players.

Some people might have said they overpaid for John Luca. But, you know what I'm saying? You pay for them. You get them up in Syria. Y'all get relegated. They go down to Siri B. two seasons, get better.

Both of them get a lot better in these two seasons, I think. I think so. Collect invaluable experience, being the guys, and then get to lead them back up. I mean,

coming back up to Syria has to pay for, pay for Tanner and John Luke. I would think. You would think, yeah. It also opens a possibility that we can all go back to Venice together in the spring.

Yeah, man. So I can't wait for this schedule to come out. I'm about to, I know, I'm about to, I'm a prude of that bad boy. All the European schedules drop. It's coming in like two weeks, right? Two and a half weeks, something like that.

I'm like that, bro. I'm going to have my world. Crystal Pallas guy made a good case. He did. Wouldn't you say? He made a good case. Kind of sway this toward London. Yeah, I'm waffling to that side of the English channel right now.

But, but, you know, the low country still beckons. Let's see. Speaking of the low country, no, Noah Long, no Lang. Did he steal Malik's number? Yeah, he's wearing 10 next year. We don't know. Did he steal it? Did Malik give it up?

Which one would you even prefer to have happened in terms of mentality? Just just giving it up. Of course. You know what I'm saying? As far as mentality goes, you don't want nobody taking. your number. But I would think. I would have to think.

I mean, Malik was a much more significant contributor down the stretch. He wasn't laying injured for a while. He must have given it up. He came in and he wanted to make a statement right off the bat by taking the 10. He doesn't need the 10 to prove himself, though. Lange four goals won't assist this season for PSV. So there's just no way. That was like a typical week for Malik.

Come on, come on, though. I mean, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but, yeah, he had to have given it up. He must not be, he must have just ended up with the 10 accidentally the first time. Or maybe he, like you said, Chris made a statement, wanted to make a splash. Give me the 10. That's been a big statement year for him in a lot of different ways. He's made a lot, yeah. He's made his mark.

He's stamped his ground, wouldn't you say? Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's still got some ground stamping to do with us. Still got some ground stamping. Oh, yeah. To do this. I just mean, yeah.

In Europe, he stamped his ground on the field and off it. Yeah, we'll take it. Are we prepared to predict this will be the summer of Malik ground stamping for the United States' men's national soccer team? I don't predict that. Yeah. I predict Gio's going to come in and, um, be probably

I don't want to say that but be really really effective for us so it will be geo continuing his grounds he's already he's been trotting upon that ground certainly and now it's going to be fully stamped

yeah I mean he he fully stamped his ground ground in March he's probably done some stamping already yeah I have to say bells that was crazy because I felt like you like saw a vision of a hand just coming across your face.

As soon as you was about to say what you was about to say. I did. And you stop short. And that's exactly why I put the rules out there. Because until proven otherwise, man, we got to keep a pulling. Okay. This episode's going out on the public feet, so we'll just explain to everybody.

Vince has volunteered that anybody can slap us in the face if we ever say that anybody other than Christian Pulisic is the best player on the team. Just until, you know, at least for now. At least for now. Just because of the fact that the man has showed up and shown improved in all the biggest moments for this team so far. That is not to say that, you know what I'm saying, Gio can't surpass them, whatever, whatever. But, you know what I'm saying? When you are involved in every single goal that team scores at the World Cup, okay?

Yes, he had a quiet nation's league who scored the goal against Germany, Christian Polisic. Okay. Bangor. You know what I'm saying? So far, he's been the one that's shown up in these big time games and shown that he's the one that can compete, they can hold his own in these matches. That is not to say the G.L. King.

I'm just saying. He got some. And 15, 10. 15 and 10. 15 and 10 in Syria. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Christian Polisick is one of three.

Syria out players, Rafael Liao, Palo DiBala, to record 15 goals and 10 assists across all competitions this season. Dynamic. Rarified air that he is

breathing right now. Got the double, double, man. That's beautiful. Beautiful. But yeah. Yeah. So it's still an open competition, but until it actually happens,

until Gio puts it in on the field, I mean, we need more than two assists against Jamaica. This against Canada. You know what I'm saying? Now you got to rise it. It's a little bit for Coppa America. Goal against Mexico.

Goal against Mexico. Yes. But you know. He's got to, in other words, Gio's got to do it at the World Cup before he can be. No, I'm not even saying he got to do it with the World Cup. I mean, you can do it at, you can do the Copa America. At Copa.

Yeah. All right. Well, this is the summer of Gio stamping his ground then. That's my prediction. Not Malik. I mean, because Malik is going to come on. He's going to. play, but Geo's going to start.

I still have dreams of a dual geo-Malique system. It's just all style. It's almost too rich. What's that? What they call those? A first world problem? Maybe we could.

And if Tim moves back, you know what I'm saying? I know a lot of us would like to see Hajie there. I would too, but Malik might have something to say. Yeah, definitely. But I will say that. Oh, go ahead.

No, no, you got it. Burrhalter was talking about Haji's winger at the press conference. That was another thing. I don't know if he's explicitly, I think he said we see him as a winger. He did. He said it. I could even play the clip if you want. Have it right here.

Yeah, let's play it then. Right now, currently we see Haji more fulfilling the winger role. And, you know, specifically it's related to how he moves and how he is able to get chances. They generally come from wider positions. And with us lacking some depth in those positions, we think it's a great option to move him into that position. Yeah, so Haji's going to play wing, and that seems like the right choice. It does. watched Johnny a little bit over the weekend.

I mean, it's dead rubbers everywhere, right? None of these games matter anymore. But he was at Real Madrid playing at the Bernabal. I talk about a life experience. And he looks fine. He looks good. I don't want to overstate, you know, I've talked about how he's better on the half turn than Tyler Adams.

he's not like amazing on the half turn. And maybe you've already said that, Vince, but... I don't know if I did. He's a little more 360 degree aware than Tyler is, but he's not, you know, leaps and bounds ahead of him. But I do want to say quickly why that's so important or just kind of repeat why I think that's important. It really comes down to your first touch.

And it's something you see that works at every, every level. If you have the first touch to take the ball in the direction you want on the first touch, then that's what makes a good football action,

you know, a good soccer action. And if you can do that with your back to the, to upfield, I feel like people, we talk about it so much and people are like,

why are we talking about this so much? Yeah. It is kind of the essence of, game. Yeah. I mean, we talked about it on what's our Wednesday.

But yeah, it's just the fact that like, like, if you want to have any hope of progressing the ball through the middle, you got to be able to turn with it. I mean, it's that simple. Yeah, be able to turn with it and make a play with the ball.

That's it. And another thing. I was coming through, I was actually doing this on the women's side, but I was coming through FB ref this weekend, trying to get sense of progressive actions and all this stuff. You, you, you, you, you, you, like, truly cannot gauge it through, like, progressive passes, like, that, that number that they use on FB. Ref. You just can't.

No. I mean, the ball has to. I'll do respect. All do respect. I'll do respect. I'll do respect to the sponsor of the podcast, a football reference. But, um, you just can't. Like, the ball has to travel 10 yards and, and all those different types of stuff.

There's a lot of, as a lot of passes, especially in today. soccer that's not traveling 10 yards. But, like, I mean, if you, if you can turn and pump that thing 10 yards through the line and find somebody's feet, I mean, that's not happening more than like two, three, four times a game for the best of them. You know what I'm saying? But, yeah, being able to turn and, you know, make a little dink forward, you know, like, think about Weston and then.

Johnny loves a dink. Johnny loves a dink. He loves a little dink. Yeah. For sure. A little dink, man. If y'all remember Weston, I want to say it was the Uzbekistan match. Because Oman was the one where he's hitting the switches, I want to say.

Okay. Uzbekistan where he was just like, bounding little pockets just to play people into, just real slickly. You know what I'm saying? None of those would have counted as progressive pass necessarily. But just, yeah, just those progressive actions, there's just no way to catch them on in the stats. watch the games, baby. Yeah. You gotta watch the games.

Another problem with that status, like progressive passes, I think, if I remember the definition correctly, means it's, it travels 10 yards forward. Right. But a lot of passes travel 10 yards forward. Like, say you're just, say you're just sort of cycling it out to the wing, you can, you can make up 10 yards of real estate with that pass without actually accomplishing anything, you know? Right.

It doesn't, it doesn't progress anything. I mean, literally progresses the ball 10 yards, but it doesn't progress it through the defense. Anyway, got a little O&O to Soie update. Did you guys see this? Yeah. No. He's having some success as a clothing mogul.

According to an Instagram account called The Numbers Game One, he has his brand, Car Sicko, This car, Sicko, has generated 6 million pounds in revenue over the last couple years. Now, again, that's sales, so he's not making that much money. But apparently he began with a $10,000 startup budget. And since 2021, 2020, has generated 5 to 6 million in revenue. So good on him. That's even higher than our revenue.

It's a little higher than our revenue. Yeah. Yo, I watched some video, something like some vlog, you know what I'm saying, posted to YouTube. I forgot what the point of it. Well, there was no point. That's what lifestyle vlogs are all about. You know what I'm saying? It's just, you know, follow me around as I do anything.

But he wasn't doing shit. I mean, he would, excuse me, he wasn't doing anything. He was in a car, he got out of a car, went to a store, this, something, something. And yeah, that seems to be. the path that he has taken. Also, it seems on that video, somebody asked him, like, yo, so

are you done playing, are you done playing ball? And I think he responded with, like, the eye emoji or something like that. Like, something ominous. He didn't straight out say no. He's signing with Sporting Casey. That must be it. I thought I saw him saying a video

that he hasn't touched a ball in a couple years. Yeah, I remember that. I remember that, too. It's very possible. But what I saw from him was just, the comment that I saw, it was ominous. Maybe he's talking about Sunday League.

I mean, you never know. Healthy Sunday League culture, of course, over there in Britain. Or he can get his issue off there. But, hey, man. I ain't going to lie. One of the last video. So I ain't going to lie.

He had me full. He had me full when he popped up at Bruges. You know, he was getting starts on the, he started like that, league games had me fool, man. He just decided it wasn't for him. I think so.

Yeah. Just stop showing up. Yeah. It's successful. Why is it called car sicko? I don't know, exactly. So he He likes cars? Yeah. Actually, in the video I was watching,

I think, not as I think about it, it was about the fact that he, I want to say it was an Aster Martin that he had something and he got it rapped. And I think... Okay. But I never got to the point.

Because the whole time I watched the video, I'm like, okay, where's the car at? Because I think he said he didn't like it or something like it after he got a rap. Anyway, the whole time I was like, where's the damn car? I never got to the car. And I went ahead and tuned out. But yeah, it seems to be some type of car enthusiast. I think he's in 01, so he's probably like 22, 23. I remember watching him with the youth national teams, man,

back in the day, like as a U-16, he was pretty good. You mentioned earlier that, you know, everybody idolizes PEP. But I saw, you know, I watched a little bit of the FAA Cup final. I mostly watched the beginning, like the festivities before it. A couple things struck me. One, Guardiola was, it looked legitimately starstruck, shaking Prince Harry's hand. I mean, Prince William's hand.

He was, he's like, he's the master of the universe, but then when he comes in contact with actual royalty, he, uh, so I don't know, man, Peps's pretty good at a,

he's pretty good at that. Maybe that's what it is. I think he might be putting on a show here, Adam. I think he might have fooled you. He's a Catalonian. He looked pretty chuffed. I'm not going to lie. I think,

you guys are wrong, but I'll acknowledge that as possible. That you're right. I mean, this is not U.S. related. I'm just bringing it up. The other thing that struck me about the F.A. Cup finals, they sing abide with me at the beginning, which is like a, it's like a hymn. I don't know what it has to do with soccer,

but I guess it comes from Wales. It's a him I sang a lot as a kid. Anyway, that's what I got. That's a phrase you don't hear a lot in common usage anymore. Abide. Abide with me. Yeah. It's a very warm thing to say to someone.

Abide with me, Chris. Well, that is nice. Did you all watch Leeds lose today? No. Well, they lost, ladies and gentlemen, to Southampton. To keep them in the mud, you know what I'm saying? They will stay in the championship. No Premier League for them.

And it seems like they are severely in debt. From what I just saw it before we started the show, they still have an outstanding $139 million from player acquisitions. I don't think it's like, I'll do this summer, anything like that. But, you know, they got so money they need to pay. I got some players they need to sell. And, you know, the fact that they still had Somerville, Router, Nato, Melier, you know,

that was a team that was supposed to come up. And especially if you look at the Southampton team that played, like, you know, all of their Premier League talent, you know what I'm saying? They've been poached. Southampton just looks like a regular championship side, you know what I'm saying? And so they go on to the Premier League. Leeds is going to have to blow up their squad. Daniel Farca couldn't get it done. know what I'm saying

and yeah yeah tough nuts it seems like they're gonna be down there for a while like like you know this is their shot this is their shot they still had you know the same the same nucleus

that they had and now yeah people need to people need to be sold and maybe even Brendan Aronson is going to be one of those people being sold we'll see you know to bring it back they're making some there's some noise about

their plans for Brendan they don't think he's good enough for them. They're saying they're going to loan him out again. I think they may be wrong about this. They might be wrong. Might not though. At this point, I mean, really, if they don't have any more attacking players after they get done selling who they need to sell,

maybe he stays with him. Who knows? Yeah, it might be good for all parties concerned. to bring it full circle to Venetia Venetia's promotion chase and how meaningful it is to them I think I read that there were more people at the Leeds Southampton game

than at the Manchester City, Manchester United game damn so more at the promotion playoff than the FAA Cup final which makes all the sense in the world if you really think about it it means everything to those fans and how much does it mean to Manchester City really

city is city especially nothing you know what I'm saying but oh a quick thing about the Siri B promotion final okay so so Venetia has played criminense twice the last meeting was the one at Venetia I want to say Venetia one two one and then in the first fixture the one that the Criminezay hosted they won one nil okay so they split split the matchups um this is a two-leg final. Thursday Sunday, right? Thursday Sunday. Thursday Sunday.

Yep. Also, Venetia holds the tiebreaker. So, if it goes nil-nil through both matches, Venetia advances through being the third-place team in the table. Criminese was fourth place. If they were tied on points, then they would go, you know, extra time, penalties, etc. But Venetia had three more points to Criminensei. Venetia at 70

Kermanesei at 67 So They hold the tiebreaker Yeah so any tie on aggregate Goes to Venetia So you know Venetia You come in You already up 1-0

You already up 1-0 Well well 0.5 nil 0.5 You know because Kermanese scores a goal then of course Yeah They

Haven't they come on really strong Towards the end of the season Kermenete Like they started off slow Let me see I think they're That sounds like a name of a team that would do that

I don't know what it is about Kremlin and so It really look at it through it, they had a pretty normal season They had a nice stretch but then they followed that nice It was good for us to explore it though Yeah Yeah

I wish I do sometimes wish that when you When you look up the table of a league you could see a chart, like a graph, that shows the line of their spot in the table over the course of the season. Maybe there is a website where you can do that, but I'm often looking for that.

It's very surprising that that isn't. We don't see that all over the place. That'll be really cool. I'm sure someone is going to tell us right away that obviously that exists. You know, it's on some pay site, probably. Just to bring up somebody else real quick

that we haven't highlighted, this season. Talked about him a few times, but who's in the midst of his own relegation battle himself? Jonathan Gomez, on loan from Sociedad, S.C.D.

Mirandes. I'm assuming Mirandaz is a city. No clue. But they were in the relegation zone of La Liga 2 starting today.

And they got a tie against Alba Sete. They tied 2-2 and Jonathan Gomez scored a goal. I scored a goal. It was a nice goal, too. Pretty nice goal.

Collected a rebound. Basically, the keeper parried away a shot from close range. Hit him pretty hard, though, so he wasn't able to grab it or anything like that. Came to Jonathan Gomez in the box. What should we say? Maybe 15 yards away from the goal? About 15 yards away. Give it a nice, had enough time to just because of the entire scramble and everything.

Had enough time to get it on his preferred left foot and just a beautiful strike. Beautiful strike that grazed the crossbar and bounded into the goal. Smacked it. Smack the ball. Smashed it. Which gave them a two one lead at the time. But yeah, they ended up tying two two. But either way, they just needed a point.

Three points would have been much better, much better. And probably would have guaranteed. safety but uh they're still out of the relegation zone and they play the team oh man isn't going to be much watch tv they play the team directly below them uh in the last in the last match of the la league of two season wow um this is s d amor bietta amor bietta okay uh they have 45 points menandez has 46 points and so i mean a true as as true of a six pointers you can it. Okay.

That club is in... Go ahead. Oh, no, no. Go ahead. I'm done. I was just going to say they're in Burgos, which is north central Spain. Okay.

I think east of San Sebastian, east of Galicia. Gotcha. And yeah, at this point, Jogo has put up, I want to say, 2,900 minutes this season. So really got a full runout.

Like, you know, people talk about the championship. I think the championship plays 46 games. A league of two plays 42. So, you know, I mean, it's a marathon all the same. What is that? Why is that? Why are the second divisions play, you know, 30% more games than the... It's not 30% more.

Probably because they want to... You know, you want your... I would imagine that in both leagues, the first two are, like, the true, like, professional. leagues and then gets a little bit murky as you get under that, right? I want to say, I think league one's full professional and lead two semi-professional. But, yeah, you probably want you, you probably want your second division to be, to be robust, you know what I'm saying? I would think.

Just to keep the impostors out of the first division? Well, just to keep the imposters out. Just to be a meek grinder. Just to make sure that everyone can participate in the dream, they might not live the dream. You know what I'm saying? But the dream's attainable. yeah but yeah

that's that and also I watched Vince's reason was far more inclusive than yours Adam yeah

I mean you're trying to show people surprising there I was Joko last week and I was going to talk about him

but I had to stop talking so we could we could we could talk Crystal Palas we get jack on yes we get jack on but

it's about the it's about the same with Joko I mean I know when I checked in with him in January. I was kind of up. I was feeling good about his defense and everything.

But when I checked in this last time, he's still not necessarily a business handler. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I know the one player sticks in my mind for sure is he got beat straight to the end line off a stand-to-stop. You know what I'm saying? Like similar, you know, Tim Wage gets a ball,

dead leg, dead leg, dead leg, dead leg. then push that thing. I mean, Jogo got left. I mean, you know, I mean, they're both in a stand-and-stop.

And then when bro, when bro took that first step and was gone, like, Joe-go does not react appropriately. So, and I'm pretty sure it ended up in a goal, too, in that match I was watching. But,

yeah, yeah, still some, still some issues there. I do think he's made some strides. But, still some physical development left. Everything with the ball still looks very good.

So still as slick with the ball as you remember. But yeah. And I checked in with Associate Dad's left back situation too. Former Arsenal player, Karen Tierney, is holding down the left back spot currently for Associate Dad. He's on loan, though. He's on loan, so he might not be there. But also there's a, sometimes they play a three-back, which Miranda plays a three-back. So Jogo's been playing, you know, wingback.

Sochiad has a wingback. He's like a 21-year-old from Venezuela that they've been playing too. So it's going to be tight. I mean, I mean, we already knew it would be a challenge to break into Socied, you know, I mean, the top half of the table, usually vying for a European spot team within La Liga. But yeah Still got some Still got some fighting to do

I mean if we could If we could make it to a lot of legal loan I don't know if that's necessarily going to be the case But if we can get a La League alone next year That'd be a step But we'll see Well it sounds like this has been a good loan for him 2,900 minutes

But you know all the more reason to be proud of Johnny Cardoso For the way he just Immediately broke into that starting lineup I mean I know there were some injuries involved and everything, but he held it down. Anything else we got to cover, guys? I want to say I've been going through trying to organize, like, just get a sense of how many episodes we've actually done

as a podcast over the years. It's very obvious because we number the ones on the public feed, which this will be on. But the patron ones make it more difficult. But it's, you know, you may not know this if you only listen to the podcast. on the public feed. But there's like, there's been like 200 other episodes

on the patron feed. Every week, baby. It's like a whole, it's like a whole other podcast that you could be listening to. Just join us on the Patreon. You can help our revenue up over six million. Yeah.

That's right. We got to catch up to Owen. What a Zoe. That's what we need. No, but really, you get the, you get the Monday reviews and we got some other stuff in the works.

You got access to the Discord. You get, you know, write a first refusal on these trips we're going to be doing. We already went to Italy. We're going everywhere. We're going global. And I just want to tell now. Bells really means this. Bells really means this.

I mean, he's been bitten by the bug. You know what I'm saying? Bells wants to go everywhere. Oh, yeah. That trip was amazing. We take a trip a week if it was up to Bells. Yeah, if I could pull it off. Hell yeah.

But, you know, thanks for sharing your U.S. M&T fandom with us. Thanks for listening. We'll see you.