Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #501: USMNT v Brazil recap

Episode Date: June 13, 2024

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Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. We picked up the phone. The U.S. men's national team got a wake-up call against Colombia on Saturday, lost 5-1, as you may remember, and then they responded on Wednesday with a, I'm going to be deliberately measured here with a very respectable 1-1 draw against Brazil and the final tune-up before the Copa America. High variance in the quality of this team's performances over the past week, What's going on?

Well, we remain without a signature win. I think, you know, by definition, this is not a win because it's a draw. But a draw is still a result. Certainly in the context of COPA America against the teams that we will likely be playing if we advance out of the group. Something that was pointed out to us is that there is no extra time. Anything that finishes even after 90 minutes goes straight. to penalties until the final, which is a huge deal for an underdog, if you're going to be honest. So this is a result that would have gotten us a shootout in the Coba America quarterfinal or

semi-final. Yeah. And I mean, we might as well address it right away. How hard was Brazil playing do you think? I have some opinions myself, but. I would assume that Brazil would have another gear. to go to if this is a quarterfinal or semi-final of a Copa-American knockout. Yeah. So I guess I'd say that. I mean, it's a tune-up. It's a friendly.

And yeah, I mean, it's hard for me to say that Brazil would just be as content as they were. It's not like they weren't trying to score, but they weren't like, we must score. Yeah, there wasn't desperation in their eyes. Right, right. But I do think they were playing pretty serious game. It wasn't like that 2008 friendly, I'm sorry, 2018 friendly, where they were just kind of trotting around and then occasionally turned it on. Yeah, it wasn't a paycheck friendly.

I mean, they were preparing for Copa, which is different than, yeah, than showing up and just, again, like, collecting the paycheck. 2018 one was immediately after the World Cup was over like that famous time where like no one is actually interested in international soccer, the players at least. It's very, very much just a fundraising adventure.

And this was not that. Yeah, so this was them, you know, this was like France, 2018 when we got that draw. Like France were trying. France wanted to score. They wanted to be like, we have a World Cup coming up. Like let's do some things. Brazil, we're trying to score on us.

Yep. Two outside, you know, opinions on this. Mateus, who is on the Discord server, but also shows up on the shirtless plantain show sometimes. He said he's Brazilian, Brazilian American. He watches Brazil all the time. He said they were trying pretty hard. And then tactical manager, Felipe,

well, I think he gave him, you know, he's not one to give the U.S. has too much credit under Burrhalter, I don't think. And he said it, he called it an 8.5 out of 10 effort from Brazil. So just, you know, take those, take those, add them to the information machine. Yeah, this wasn't, this was not a sleepwalking team by any stretch. And with the quality they have at the, you know, at the execution level they were trying to operate at, it took our full energy. And I think that's, that's the very obvious difference is.

our posture, which you can literally see it in the team's posture as they're playing defense, the way they're standing and like the athletic stances they do not stop standing in. I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but that's not what we look like against Colombia. I mean, just the intent and the commitment and the concentration levels, the difference between us from Columbia to Brazil, it was so very obvious to see. Yeah. I thought, I said in the calling show last night, I thought I've never seen. Gio Raina try as hard as he tried in that game last night.

Like, it's the hardest I've ever seen in play. And you could tell he was pretty gassed early in the second half. Anyway, let's get to the lineups. Turner and Gold, Joe Scali, Chris Richards, Tim Ream, and Anthony Robinson across the back line. So exactly the same back five that we played against Columbia. Eunice, Wes, and Gio starting in the midfield. So Eunice gets the nod ahead of Johnny as the, I guess as the six.

Did you see a single pivot, double pivot? What did you see? It was, I mean, it wasn't really a pivot, I wouldn't say. So like, Gio was dropping deep in possession. McKenny was staying higher for the most part in possession. But all three of these players were very active. And again, in possession to build out of the back, I thought all three of our center midfielers were more active than any of the three were against Columbia.

So that was a big reason why. the Columbia game looks so stagnant in possession, was there just wasn't a lot of energy. And in this game, it was clear. And I think Munis, Eunice, brother Yusuf. Brother Yusuf. It's just massive for this. It has been since he came into the U.S. picture.

He wants to get on the ball. He does all the dirty work to try to get on the ball. He can be a mixed bag when the ball comes to him. But we definitely saw plenty of the good things that he gives us. when we're trying to build. His ability to receive it, his ability to shake pressure from somebody within a few feet of him and be able to get his head up to find the next pass.

Also, not directly related to what you're saying, but he also showed his ability to hit an almost banger. He's got a lot of those. And in the front line, Tim Wea, Ricardo Pepe gets the nod over Ballo and then Pulisic, of course, on the left wing. So the only changes here are brother Yusuf for Johnny and Pepe for Bolligan. And, you know, we talked about what is Greg going to do to, like, demand accountability here for, I mean, for his staff for himself, but also for the players who definitely didn't bring much energy to proceedings against Columbia. And, you know, we talked about you could go full on Bloody Sunday and, like, drop players to the bench.

you know, just throw in your hustle merchants who didn't sort of embarrass themselves against Columbia. Or you could be like, nope, the humiliation against Columbia is enough. Like there's no other lesson needed here. And we're going to come out and see if they can sort of write that ship themselves. And they did. I mean, what did you make of all the mentality talk that we heard for the past week about prior generations? I'm sure you would have watched the or seen snippets from the Winalda

kicking it Yeah I don't I don't I don't really buy it by it I mean there's probably something there Somewhere but people were bringing up the 2009 Confederation's Cup team as like the you know The mentality monsters And you know they got

As you've pointed out I think several times on this podcast They got rinsed by Italy and Brazil and the group stage. The only way they got through that group was on goals four. It wasn't goal differential. Their goal differential with Italy, who they lost 302,

was even because Italy lost 30 to Brazil in their last group stage game, and we beat Egypt 30. We just had one more goal scored than Italy. So we went two losses, and then we beat Egypt, 30, and that's how we got out of the group. I mean, what were people saying after those two games, the ones against Brazil and Italy?

Exactly. Were they mentality monsters in those games? I mean... Right. Our talent is not sufficient and hasn't been sufficient at any point in this program's history, that we are immune from bad losses. The Columbia loss was alarming. I mean, don't get me wrong, that was bad. And if we showed more of those kinds of signs in this game and then throughout the Copa America, I think that would be it.

And it still could be. Like if we go into the, you know, Uruguay game or the knockout game, should we get to one in this Copa America and absolutely embarrass ourselves and don't look anything like this team that's as focused as we were yesterday, that could totally be curtains for Greg Burhalter and they could be like, we need to find someone who can get more consistency out of the group. We do need more consistency, I think. And I thought, you know, on rewatch this morning,

there was still a little bit of a troubling sleepiness in transition or in like restarts and stuff that reared its head for us. Like the backline is just they're, I don't know, like expecting, expecting things to happen a little more slowly than they did. Because, you know, even on a restart, it's like Brazil is like looking to kill you immediately. That ruthlessness. Gotta be ready. You don't have two seconds to collect yourself. You have to be immediately on the balls of your feet and communicating with each other and accounting for everybody.

We didn't do that on the first goal, I mean on the goal that Brazil scored very well, and we didn't do it on that time when Chris Richards almost got a red card and then actually didn't have the foul, you know, pulled back. It wasn't a foul after all. But I think that's still, Still a little bit of a concern and Yeah, but yeah, go ahead.

And again, I want to make it super clear. This is not like any kind of a perfect performance And this performance didn't in any way Like guarantee a result here. Like there's still plenty of ball go in About the way this game shook out. And Brazil had plenty of chances Chances that were as good or better than the ones

A couple of the ones that Columbia capitalized on. But because they didn't. put the ball in the back of the net, put shots very close to Matt Turner, then we don't, we don't think of it like that. You know, we just, it's really easy to sort of have that one, one, uh, tally be the thing that gets all the attention. Yeah. I mean, and this is my way of saying, like, this is how it goes.

Like, when you're the underdog, you've got to, like, try to play the best game of your life. It won't be perfect. And then you'll still need a little bit of things to, to break your way. And you can point out that, like, yeah, we had some shots that didn't go in for us, too. And that's totally right. this is what we've got to do. We've got to put in a performance that it gets us close enough to these better teams

that if luck shakes out, we advance. Right. Yeah, what you just said made me think of the Rodriguez shot in the first half. I think it was before he scored his goal. The first shot of the game, six minutes in, if that's the one you're talking about. That one from near the penalty marker that he just hit right at Turner. I mean, I don't know how many times we want to give him a shot like that. Yeah, that's exactly the one that comes to mind is that easily,

I mean, that easily could have gone in. It wasn't some super speculative shot. It was about the same shooting window that Columbia had on their first goal. And if that goes in, then it's like, oh, no, we're terrible. We, we, nothing, nothing has changed from Columbia. And we're still a calamity in the back.

And Matt Turner doesn't know how to play soccer. He's forgotten his goalkeeping. And here we are. But because the shot is, only two feet away from Matt Turner, we get a chance to prove that we know we're actually still okay at soccer. Yeah.

And, you know, it's exciting to, it's exciting to see us not just do like a really cool set piece. I mean, that was just a cold finish from Pulisic. I loved it. But also generate, I mean, I can think of, besides the Musa Bar Ringer, there were three other really good,

three really good chances for us late in the second half. which is a little bit different than what I was expecting. Like, definitely Brazil was the protagonist late in the second half, but, you know, for us to generate three really decent chances in the last 30 minutes is pretty encouraging to me. And we easily could have, you know, Pulisic easily could have put that one away, make it 2.1. Then what would we say?

I know. I know. And that's, again, this is the key for me is that this game was back and forth, which is, for me, that's huge to see the U.S. playing a back and forth game against Brazil instead of a just barely hanging on game. We did barely hang on on several occasions. And Matt Turner did come up with some really cool, unorthodox, exciting saves. But, like, it wasn't just that. And then we get the one-one draw. It was, yeah, we, we, like, got a little lucky there. But then we were back on the other end. And it was like, oh, my God, like, that was, that was a legitimate. we had an open goal and we, you know, amazing saved by Brazil's goalkeeper, who apparently is also good at soccer.

So the back and forth element is a huge deal for me rather than just like just hanging on. Yeah. And it's not, we didn't get our chances really on the counterattack. It wasn't that. We built our chances with our own bare hands. Yeah, which again, kind of counters like you're already seeing, I think Tabram also has already dropped a quote or post saying, finally we're back to the grit and heart of the last generations.

We got rid of all the confusing instructions. Again, and it's just kind of funny, watching us, you know, hit 10 passes in our own defensive box to break through some pretty intense Brazil pressure being like, yep, just grit and heart right there. Yeah, no, that's nonsense. We were doing a lot of the stuff that Burrhalter wants them to do, you know, the stuff that we've been talking about on this show for a long time. Brazil's lineup, Allison and Goal, Danilo, Marquino, Marquino, Barado, and Wendell across the back line, Gimerich, Lucas Paquetta, and Joao Gomez, Gomes in the, Joao Gomesh in the midfield,

and then a front line of Rafina on the right, Vinny Jr. on the left and Rodrigo in the middle, although they were all, you know, Rodrigo and Vinny were running all over the place. Pretty good players there, I'd say. Again, this is a blast for me. Like, just having the Columbia and Brazil games on the schedule, again, in a way that they're going to, you know, they're going to show up and at least give it a decent go because of the context of Copa being right their next match. This is awesome, and we don't have it very much. And it is part of why the Columbia game was so disappointing because we don't get these games. We get Mexico over and over and over again.

and that's like our toughest game we can muster because of all the scheduling around the globe now. So to have these matches on the calendar in this meaningful way is you just got to savor it and you just got to hope that we are going to be a team that will show up. Yeah. Well, I mean, hopefully that that cut was deep enough against Columbia that nobody forgets that we have to show up, you know?

We can't just lolligag and, expect to even be in a game. And hopefully that lesson is applied against the weaker teams too because we're better than Bolivia, we're better than Panama. But you don't beat teams comfortably by playing comfortably. If you're going to beat Bolivia comfortably, it's going to have to be from doing every single thing as well as we possibly can because we're not so good that we can just be like, all right, flip it on now and score.

Like Brazil might be able to do that against Bolivia and Panama and against the U.S. at times, but we are not that team. We have to do everything right all the time, or we'll be in a Jamaica situation, zero one in the 95th minute. It's going to be fascinating to see how we look against Bolivia and Panama, because that'll be a big test of this, and it's an important thing. We got to, we got to put this, you know, taking a day off mentality behind us. I'll also say, like, the Bolivia game especially, and it's what we've seen.

in the lead-up to this window against teams that don't really aren't really good Uzbekistan, Oman, Trinidad, Tobago. When we play those teams, it's basically not even the same sport as what we were watching, not just because of the level of talent, but the way those teams approach the game. We have to be, we have to play an entirely different game of soccer against Oman than we played in this game against Brazil. Like that posture I'm talking about where you can see the focus of a team of 11 players keeping their shape at all times as Brazil are kind of working the ball around the midfield.

You know, you don't have that against Oman and that friendly. It's just Oman sitting deep and how do we find a way to pass through them. And that's, we didn't get any reps doing that against Brazil where they're sitting deep. You know, like, all right, now how do we break down this low block? So for Bolivia, I think in particular, the lessons that we applied here, other than compete your face off, like don't aren't really going to apply from a soccer standpoint. But I guess the generic intensity applies. And that's what I would say.

How do you apply that intensity to a low block? You just be like really frigging serious about every passing sequence, you know? And, you know, bear down. I think that is it. Like I think it can't just be like casually kick the ball to each other and be like, well, we'll just keep doing this until the ball goes into the net. Like there does have to be that focus and intensity on small group combinations. Yeah.

On those little bursty movements between the lines. Everything has to be aces. So let's go. Timeline? Yep. I thought a little bit of a slow start from both sides. No penetration either way in the first three minutes. But it's obvious from the jump that the U.S. is taking this game extremely seriously.

Big moment. First big moment on the timeline for me is that Musa hit from distance. That's at about the 410 mark. And he just gets all of it. It's reminiscent of the one that got called off for Valencia a couple years ago. This one doesn't actually go in. Instead, it goes off the crossbar and off Allison's back. But not in the goal. The sequence starts with Musa doing the sort of vintage skip past Paquetta in our half. He drives maybe 25 yards And then gets tackled by Gomesh But then Pepe wins it back Plays it back to Musa

And then Musa plays it out wide to Wea Wea and Gio both try to cross it from the right side Before it gets recycled back to Musa And he just takes a touch and rips it And it's a It's a, like I said It's just a great hit Had Allison dead to rights

Pretty exciting stuff But still zero zero Yeah We get one really nice clipped ball in from Geo on this that you're talking about. That gets deflected once and then McKinney comes back to win it from like the top of the six. He's coming back towards the penalty spot and actually takes it away from an open pool stick who's about to get a volley off, you know, on that kind of like a swiveling volley right before McKinney recycles it to Musa. So I just noted that we had we had worked a chance where the ball was moving towards an open pool sick in the box before this monster hit.

The aesthetics of Musa's hit, though, are fantastic, and I'm glad that exists in the universe now. Oh, yeah. The ball just leaps off his foot. You're right. Raina's ball, it was more from the end line than from out wide and was definitely more dangerous than the initial way of ball, right? Yeah.

Almost right after that, Pulisic darts in from the left side and has one from 20 yards. So pretty kind of a solo. effort, but in a pretty tame shot. But we're alive, and we are attacking Brazil. It's very encouraging after the blood bath on Saturday. Yeah, this pool sick chance really reminiscing of his goal against Germany, where he gets it way out on the left, kind of slices, dices to the center of the, or towards sort of the left

edge of the D, the top of the box, and has a shot where, I mean, if he hits the shot of his life, and the same with Musa. And this is where I feel like, you know, we're getting these shots from distance, a couple from whale later on. I'm okay with us hitting these pot shots. When you're the underdog, you get a half a window, hit it, because it's going to take the shot of your life to score against Brazil. The longer you try to build through Brazil when you're not very good at that,

usually the more likely you are to just give the ball away. Yeah. That's my pseudoscience take. I don't know if the nerds would say, no, you have to just keep building to get scorable shots. I'll go with the pseudo science on this one. I've sure seen us lose a bunch of games where the other teams hit the shot of their life. and that was the only shot they took in the game.

Yeah. So anecdotally, which usually trumps science and large data, anecdotally, that's the correct play. Anecotes are more powerful than data. Don't you know that? Let's see. Brazil chants in the seventh minute, they play it through us pretty easily.

I mean, we got everybody behind the ball, but they still managed to kind of like tiki-taka through us. Ream pokes it away in the box, and in the scramble, it gets squared. to the penalty marker for Rodrigo. This is the shot I was referring to earlier. It's a quick shot, but he hits it right at Turner. He's, you know, two yards behind the penalty marker, three yards.

This is one that could he, if he takes this shot ten times, at least five of them go in, right? No, no, almost certainly not. Two of them go in. Anecdotally, five of them go in. It's a good chance. It's a good chance. He's got, I think he has a very clear window to hit a firm, you know,

firm shot low to the just inside the right post or Turner's left post. And he's, and he probably scores this. And again, we saw what Colomia did. They had, he had a tiny window to hit it over Matt Turner's shoulder and he smashes it into that window. And it's about the same thing here. Reams boot is just about there, but not quite. But this was a great sequence for us, I think, to watch back with the team because

it's another one of those sort of Netherlands Domino's situations from the Netherlands first goal in the World Cup, where we have players there to make plays almost for like five straight passes, but Brazil are so good at being like, you almost being here, we're actually going to use against you

to like have you think you're about to lunge in and make a play, but we still have control and we're still technically good enough to just get the next pass off. And they do that all the way to the shot. It's just, again, it's fun to watch, and it's why I'm so glad we have these games because I also get to enjoy watching what Brazil do so well and be like,

I want this to be us. Yeah. No, it's so much more, it's so much more fun, I think, for all U.S. soccer fans to get to play Brazil. You heard it here first. Checking in on the effort, the effort counter. Ninth minute way of pressures Allison forces a bad pass from him for a throw-in. So just got to note that. I hope Matt Turner noted it too, because if even Alesson can hit a ball out of bounds for a throw-in when he's under that kind of pressure,

like, Matt, don't worry about it, buddy. If you need to, you just hit that ball out of bounds. Yeah. Well, worry about it a little bit. But, yeah, yeah, hit it out of bounds. Right at the 10-minute mark, Pulisic kicks Rafenia in the tackle after he gets a little bit, just, you know, slightly embarrassed by him, kind of pirouettes around Pulisic.

Pulisic fouls him, kicks his legs out from under him. I think it was embellished, but a bit of controversy ensued. Danilo grabs Pulcic's jersey and won't let go. But I like the energy from CP. We had this talk in the bold predictions, calling show,

about the U.S. being, like, defending their home turf, you know, through Copa, through the World Cup. And it's like, for us to do that, because we're not going to have the crowd create like a home field for us. Right. We said do we do that by just being like 20% more dickish? Like, because pool sick is being there by cleaning somebody's legs out with no real play on the ball. Right.

It's not going to hurt the guy, but you're going to be like, it's annoying. I mean, it stings, but you're not going to break out ankle or a, so yeah, we got pool sick being a bit of a, being a bit of a dick here. Yeah. I'm happy with it. I think we need a little bit more of that on the team. We're a lot of nice guys on our team. Let's see. Oh, yeah, just to the point of it, not,

we're not going to have a home crowd. I think people were saying the crowd was like 80 or 90% yellow shirts last night. And I guess it was more like 6040 in D.C. Anyway, that's all right. We're used to it. 11th minute Scali holds up against Vinny. So this is Scali versus Vinny watch, holds up against Vinny pretty well with Gio.

help to the inside, and this is a theme. Geo coming to help, his bro Scali, Wea coming to help offering a third body to keep Vinny contained. And we did a good job with that, I think. Yeah, and even Richard shades way over. Like, I assume the goal there's, or the objective is knowing that Vinny can get by Scali or at least get a little bit of an edge on him.

You don't want him to be able to just race full speed. So Richard's presence right behind Scali would force Vinny to beat Scali in a way that also keeps the ball very, very close to him rather than just being able to do a bigger burst. I mean, sort of simple stuff. But it seemed like there was a clear plan reminiscent of the Alfonso Davies treatment from the Nations League in 2023. 2020. 2022.

Yeah, I mean, Vinny, Vinny got, you know, he had an influence in the game for sure. I thought we did a good job with him. 12th minute, nice work playing out of the back by Ream, Jedi, and Musa. Musa plays it into the middle for Pepe, and he makes the key action by receiving it on the turn in the center circle with a guy on his back. He sprays it out wide to Tim. Tim Wea, Wea cuts in and has a shot with his left. This one's kind of tame. But, you know, worth a try.

Yeah, it's worth a try. And again, it's a signal that we aren't abandoning playing out. of the back. This was started with Turner. Ball even goes, oh, actually, this one doesn't go back to Turner. And you could tell throughout the game, too, Ream would do everything he could to take on the burden of passing, of maintaining possession without having to involve Matt Turner. Like there were a lot of times, and this was one of them where like he's maybe going to start, but he's like, nope, I can't put this on Matt Turner.

Like, that's an abdication by me, the much better passer. Like, I've got to do a little hit fake and make a more challenging play than I would like to. because that's better for the team. That's, I mean, I'm obviously putting, doing his mental stream myself, but I'm, that is sure what it looks like. And I think that's absolutely the correct way for Tim Riem to approach this. Yeah, and Riem was awesome last night. I think I criticized him pretty,

I criticized him after the Columbia game, but, man, he felt indispensable last night, didn't he? Oh, yeah. The absolute grown-up for us. And it's incredible for you to look like that growing up again, playing against Brazil. Yeah. 14th minute, again, Scali Shepherds Vinny into the Raina-Wea-comination to his left. A shot is blocked, his shot.

He takes a shot. It's blocked off his foot by Wea and skitter's right to Turner. So it seems, you know, promising, promising. We're committed. Yeah. 14th minute, Joel Gomezh, yellow card foul on Raina, steps on his ankle. Brazil players say it should have been a yellow on Pulis. sick for his kick on Rafinia very much in old testament mentality here eye for an eye i mean

it's just panic time anytime uh anything happens to georena oh my goodness yeah but he he he made it through tonight he there was another time where he got uh abut in his shin and that was the one that really made me panic but turns out he was okay uh what did you make of brazil's press it looked like it looked like they weren't they were kind of doing it but not that vigorously or something yeah it's almost just like uh we'll do this and if the u.s has a total uh disaster then we'll take it from them and capitalize but if they if they are mostly competent in doing the work we're not going to like pursue them you know like all right they're they're trying uh we'll we'll kind of just conserve our energy yeah that that was nice for us

in the early part of the game. I think it helped us settle in. But again, it still required us to execute and we still had, even Matt Turner, hitting like little passes through little windows to players who were fairly closely pressured. Like it wasn't just wide open spaces that we were doing it in.

We were just doing it at a competent enough level that Brazil, I think, was like, we're not going to expend more energy. We're not going to go full murder ball here. So, like, if they're doing it this well, then they get away with it. But if they make a mistake, We'll be there.

Yeah. Okay. And we did make a mistake. We sure do. At the 15 minute mark, Musa tries to split two guys on the left, just doing a little too much here and gives it away. This was a scarier moment than I think probably most people will remember,

as they think back on this game over the years. Vinny gets it in space at the top of the box. He's got Richards and Ream both attending to him. Nobody is paying attention. to Rodrigo, who is over to his left, and Vinny shoots it, goes right to Turner. He definitely should have passed to Rodrigo here. Yeah, if he plays this ball to Rodrigo, it's almost certainly one zero right there, and we're, again, asking why are we trying to play out of the back so much?

Yeah, glad we avoided that. For a couple of minutes. Vinnie Roost Richards on the sideline at the 16-minute mark. just kind of lets a pass down the sideline run through him, and he's got Richard's dead to rights, carries it all the way into the box and goes one v one with Turner, and Turner makes a good kick save.

Yeah, this came off the heels of a Tim Way. I give away. I mean, Wayas giveaway isn't directly responsible for this. I just wanted to note it because it was like, we got Wea the ball, or like, it was like a, we kind of clipped a ball up. Brazil's fullback heads it, and Wea just collects the header for free,

and he's kind of just like gliding towards the next defender, you know, with that sort of as he's trapping the ball down and takes a guy on and just loses it. And I just want to note it because that was kind of a theme of way out taking people on when he clearly is like, he's sort of like made up his mind. I'm going to take a guy on right here. Yeah. In this one, he kind of juggled it as he was running, right? And just juggled it right into the centerback's shins. Yeah. Also wanted to make note on Turner's save. He was kind of doing the genuflect here. And it was a, he gives a really big, like, demonstration from his knee or I mean as big a demonstrations you can make while you're in a genufelike position

uh like this is a big moment for him I mean it's a good save right uh so 17 minute mark brazil scores Turner plays it out of the back by floating it toward McKinney I mean so we're passing it around the back ends up at Turner's feet he floats it toward McKinney uh but it's cut out in the air by by Bruno Kimareesh uh Right to Rafina. And our midfield and backline is just, like I was trying to say earlier, is just slow to reorient itself, I would say. Rafenia quickly finds Rodrigo behind Richards.

As Richards kind of steps to Venetius, the pass goes between Venetius and Gomesh. And right to Rodrigo. It's almost like Richards is leaning to his left as the pass is played. and so it's just, Robert Rico has just tons of space and he takes a touch and then fires it over

just to the left of Turner's hip. So, one zero. What did you see here? So what I see here is, I mean, it's a bad ball from Turner. He has room to hit it. Like if he just hits this, you know, tackle football terms,

you just throw this between your guy and the sideline, at least the other guy won't get it. So he's got tons of space between McKinney and the sideline. And actually, Pool Six. between McKinney and the sideline too. So if he just drops it anywhere in that giant area, we probably get it.

So it's, you know, this is Matt Turner. He doesn't have the super accurate mid-range floated ball in his bag. McKenny doesn't really go for the ball very well or misjudges it. So it's a free header. But even if he does contest it, it could just be headed back. I mean, if Brazil wins that header forward, it's going to go to this wide open man because Moose is still sitting on top of our centerbacks. So there's a big space for Brazil to receive it here at the,

the top of our box. And then it is a little slow from our back three who are still in the picture to react, talking Jedi, Reem, and Richards. And I feel like this is going to be something I think we can improve on going into the Copeland knockouts again, knocking on wood. If we want to be this team who possesses when we can, takes possession when the game gives it to us up to our ability level, even then you're going to turn it over sometimes. We just had Musa lose it two minutes ago, right?

So when we lose this ball, it's got to be just an instant intensity and an instant commitment to snapping back into the best shape you can. And our shape is not ideal here. As this header gets played forward, we are overcommitted to the ball side numerically. So Brazil have a huge advantage on the weak side against Chris Richards because Scali is, there's no way he can be in the picture yet for this kind of a turnover.

So we have to be able to get our shell correct in these key. moments to make it as difficult as possible. And it still took a solid play. Like that pass that Brazil hits to the goal score doesn't like lead him to goal. Like it's hit, because Richards is where he is, it has to be played a little bit behind the guy. And the touch he takes is, again, it's just stupid. Like he has to put his trail foot back and he manages to do that and like clip it ahead of himself to just run onto it and score. It looks really simple because no, it's not. Yeah. When when Brazil do this, do these things, they make it look really simple. And And that's why they're $100 million players.

Yeah. I mean, Scali doesn't, Scali is supposed to be out wide there in the buildup, right? I mean, there's no way he can get back. I know you didn't include him in your three, but I'm just making sure here. So it's not impossible, right? As Turner clips this ball to the other side of the field, we could have Scali be a little bit more cautious and be like, okay, I'm not needed out wide for when Weston McKenney or Christian Poulsick received this ball. if it gets to its intended target. So I could start cheating back a little bit now

to close our shape as we have a ball in flight that we could lose. So you could see Scali, we could see our tendency be to tighten up a little bit while the ball's in air and then only sort of breathe back out as we regain clear possession of it. So we could be a little bit more cautious. Yeah.

But, I mean, I do. I mean, that's the game. Is those tiny little recalibrations of where you are in the field? And I do. hope that's what we work on because again Jedi is going to have giveaways. Musa, Tyler Adams, Johnny, all these guys are going to have giveaways. They are not

invincible players and they're not for their clubs either. We've got to be able to have a real committed plan to be like, okay, we've lost it instantly build that shell as ideally as sort of optimally as possible.

You're not going to do it right every time, but enough times that you really limit the damage. I think the past, the fact that the past went through this little two-yard window between Gomez and Vinny. Freezes Richards. It kind of confuses Reem, too. So, like, they don't have a chance to say, like, hey, for Ream to say, hey, I'm going to Mark Vinny. You watch Rodrigo. I mean, because it all happens very fast.

But it also looks like the pass is going to one of those two guys. And they both just let it go through to Rodrigo, which I think it's not an actual dummy, but it has kind of the effect of a dummy. Yeah. Yep. Anyway, 1-0. And, you know, it felt like a fair thing to happen at that point in the game. Oh, yeah. And again, when that happens, because this is a fun game against the team that's much better than us,

you have no idea if the first 15 minutes is like fools gold and it's like, okay, now Brazil are here and they're going to drop four on us before halftime. Or if it's like, how are we going to actually bounce back as our shape and structure sound? And that's the fun of playing this game and not Jamaica. Yeah. And it wasn't Fool's Gold. We kept playing. So 19 minute mark, Jedi floats one at Pepey, pretty speculative. The header away gets as far as Wea, and he does well this time to seal off Gomesh.

And he takes a touch to his right and rips one with his right foot. Definitely some venom there this time. And this one is, but still saved pretty comfortably by Allison. It bounces off Allison a little bit. And I think it's geo that might be sort of at the doorstep. So if it's a different kind of a rebound, we could get something out of it. I didn't mind the shot from Wea because he didn't really, he had time, but he didn't really have running options that he could have, like, slipped anyone in.

And he does have a cannon, so have at it, Tim Wea. 20th minute, we got to mention this touch from Rodrigo. Brazil goes on the break. This is where Rodrigo kind of, like, he kind of juggles. it around Musa, kind of feathers it down behind him, and then they're on the break. This results in Rafina, ultimately hitting it from maybe 20 yards. It's off target, but it's, you know, bending towards that top corner, a little scary. But that, I just love that touch from Rodrigo.

Yeah. Again, watching Brazil execute is something I'm going to keep enjoying. 22nd minute, Pulisic gets wrecked by Rafina on the left sideline trying to dribble past him. So it wasn't just Wea running into a brick wall on the dribble. Bruno Gimarajesh hits a lovely feathered ball in behind for Rodrigo. Turner comes out. Rodriguez touches it to Turner's left. Touch takes him further left than he wanted to go.

I'm sorry, it was to Turner's right. Rodrigo's left. Further left than he wanted to go. But Turner recovers and kind of, you know, faces him down at the end line and wrestles the ball out for a corner. Yeah, this is another. nice moment from Turner, again, because the universe has kind of been pantsing him lately, and that's coincided

with a dip in his form. I want to remember, like, the goals against Columbia, I wasn't really putting any of those on Turner. He had some other really dicey moments. But this is quality from him to force Rodrigo wide and then be able to stand up and make a play.

The ease of Rodrigo getting behind us is not great. So that's something that Scali and Richards need to sort out in this moment. We turn it over, and then there's not any pressure on the ball because Musa and Rainer are so deep in the buildup, but we've got to be able to account for a guy just running free behind our back line.

What do they have to do? They just have to shape their bodies better to do better in that foot race, basically? Yeah, basically that's it. Like, they haven't bracketed, but obviously the bracketing they're doing it isn't preventing, it's not protecting the space behind them. So either they need to start dropping.

sooner as it becomes clear that there's no pressure on the ball and this run is starting to be made. They need to start dropping. That's sort of the visual cue. No pressure on the ball. That means they can pick their head up and pick any paths they want. So the space behind becomes more accessible for Brazil to hit. And so, yeah, they have to be able to do that. So even if the guy gets to the ball, he's not on the ball with no one between him and the goal.

Like even if they can hit a ball that he can run onto, Richards is there to intercept it. Scali, maybe if possible, is there to, like, disrupt the run, so it's not just a free, full-speed run. And that's how you try to snuff out that pass. Also, just an absolutely gorgeous pass. Yes. Okay. 2315 mark. A really nice sequence from us.

It does feel a little chaotic, I think, mostly because of the way Wes sort of handles the ball. but we're able to play through them from the back with Gio kind of keying it by chopping a guy and then playing Wes into a full head of steam across the center circle. So we're moving forward. Wes gets a little caught up but manages to get it, you know,

kind of poke it over to Jedi on the left side line. And then Jedi plays Pulisic in the middle and he kind of waltzes across the field, comes under some pressure, taps it to Gio. Gio kills it, taps it wide to sketch. Scali, and then Scali makes a nice little pass forward to Pulisic that Pulisic receives sort of by the right corner of the box, and he receives it on the half turn just outside

the box. Gets fouled pretty clearly to me as he does this, but carries it to his left under a fair amount of duress, and then tries to have a shot, but his kicking foot is blocked by Gomesh just outside the box as a judged by the ref. you know, pretty close to the line. We get a free kick. Anything before we describe the free kick? Yeah. The whole sequence is great, right?

It's like a combo transition and then into like a little bit of like against Brazil's block. So it starts with Turner and Turner just rolls it out, you know, as Brazil had an attack. So we do catch them here and we run. We run with it. And we get Gio getting the ball out to West. Like, I mean, just the same way you described it. But we have them. we have Brazil, you're retreating

because they're not in their shape yet. By the time it gets all the way over to Geo again, Brazil are pretty much back in their shape as we go from the left sideline, back over to Geo in the right half space. And what's notable about this whole sequence, you know, we talk about the Brazil dominoes when they have the ball and have us as defenders

sort of just always half a step late. This is like our version of that domino sequence where instead of us being in total control the way Brazil are and like exploiting Brazil, like the way Brazil exploits our last sort of step as defenders, we are very much like a dominoes of just trying to stay alive, just barely keeping our head above water. But we do it, you know, like we don't use Brazil arriving at us as a way to like exploit the space they left behind.

We find the only lifeline we can and barely get the ball to them in no sense of like rhythm or anything. So it's kind of a gap. It is a contrast for sure. But Scali does hit a very nice pass. I mean, Gio does all this to get the ball to Scali with time. Not in a particularly good attacking situation as a team. You know, it's not like, oh, we finally have Brazil dead to rights here.

But it's a really nice pass from Scali into the amoeba to Christian Pulisick. And then, yeah, it's just a really nice individual effort from Pulisick once he has it. To shake off that tackle, he gets clipped again as he's cutting across the box and just, If he wants to go down there, he could probably get a foul there. But stays on his feet to try to extend the play, get a better shot off. And this is a penalty. I have no idea how VAR doesn't. I assumed one didn't become a penalty that there was no VAR in the game.

Yeah, I did too, actually. And then it turns out there was. Yeah, because this is certainly worth recommending for clear and obviously a penalty. I mean, I don't really love getting into the procedural stuff. But does the fact that the foul begins on one side, of the line and ends on the inside the penalty box, does that, that means it's a penalty or does that mean it's not a penalty? I don't know the answer and I feel like maybe we need to just schedule Dr. Joe ahead of the

copas and get him back on here. Okay. That's, that's, you know, just before we get into the actual free kick that we take here, I feel like I've missed Dr. Joe. But, you know, this has been a conspicuously Dr. Joeless. cycle so far. Yeah. Come on HBO or, you know, TNT, whatever you are.

So on the ensuing free kick, we score. It's a set piece routine for Pulisic to hit it low. Ream, Richards, Musa and Wea set up in front of the wall. I mean, the shot is from, you know, directly. It's basically a penalty, but like how many yards further away? Seven yards further away? Something like that. and so they're all set up in front of the Brazilian wall

the Brazilian wall has a guy lying down behind it and so Pulis shapes his body like he's going to try to pop it over the wall up and down and then Musa and Way I just break right across the opening that is to the left of the wall from Pulisix's vantage point

and he just strikes it low and hard slots it expertly in that bottom corner catches Allison leaning just ever so slightly. And it's 1-1. We're back. We're good again. I mean, so I love this set piece.

And it's not just for, I mean, I feel like the attention is on the break of the guy. You know, we set up our wall in front of their wall. And then all of our guys break off. And, you know, because shot goes straight in, we kind of think of it as like, oh, it was a great decoy to unsight Allison or, you know, distract him or whatever. And that has that effect.

But the other thing it has the effect of doing is, making sure that our false wall that stands in front of theirs doesn't just stand there as we take our shot and then everyone just turns their head to look at what happens. Because they all break out, we also have inside position in three other areas if this ball doesn't go directly into the goal. So if it hits the post and comes out, if it's not caught cleanly by Allison, if it deflects off somebody else in the wall and kind of sort of dribbles around. Musa, McKinney, and Pepe are all like breaking hard to the line. And that is an underrated feature of set pieces that I feel like is super underutilized. Is having players break because when you do a still shot, all of Brazil's players in the wall are still just standing in the wall

with that classic like swiveled hit posture, where their feet are still facing upfield. And they're just looking at what has just happened behind them in front of Allison. So if it hadn't gone in and it's a rebound instead, we're still going to score it. So I really like that little preparation that we've done for this. Shout out Lars, the set piece coach. But we needed to be consistent, Lars. Jamal on the call-in show was like, he was like, shout out Lars.

And we were all like, who? Yeah. Lots of good tackling from us, I noticed. at this point in the game, Pepe, Wea, Pula sick, all working really hard. We'll say Wes, not looking particularly sharp in the first half. 29th minute right after the goal, Wea intercepts a pass in the box and tries to feed Pepe. Plays him too wide to generate a real chance. But, you know, we're getting after it.

We're sort of a gnat in their ear. Yeah, it definitely isn't a low block. We haven't really talked about that, or even a really conservative mid-block. we're kind of putting our 433 up high. It's like it kind of reminds me that adaptive 433 we introduced way back in the 2021 Nations League against Mexico where we kind of, we kind of just mirror their buildup.

I do think it was, it tended to take a 433 shape in the first half where we did sort of meet their buildup shape one for one. But yeah, we would advance high when it sort of, when the game read that way. When it was like, okay, we can move up, we'll take the space. We weren't just like, okay, retreat back to midfield and we'll pick up there. But when we did retreat, we were resolute, I thought, you know, pretty well organized. So, you know, lots of little things, some little things happening, more good tackle by Raina.

He gets tackled right back off him shortly after that in the 30th minute. Scali and Coe do pretty well against Vinny again. in the 31st minute Vinny wins a corner this is one of the few times he went to the end line he was going one B one with Scali if he tried to cut in on his right

he was facing two guys so this time he went to the end line on a corner but Scali held up 36 minute another messy moment from Eunice nearly loses it off his foot pops up in the center circle thankfully we recover and get moving up the right side

and then and the 37th minute, a nice sequence from Joe Scalli to intercept a pass and carry it 40 yards, then tap it out to wear. I mean, there's nothing crazy here, nothing like transcendent about it. But it's already, you know, two moments of real ball progression from Joey Clamps, which is more than I expected. And there's some foreshadowing here because he did something real nice in the second half. Yeah, I mean, that was a very pleasing visual from Joe,

It's just one of those, like, he gets ahead of steam going. You don't know what he's really trying to do with it. And I feel like he doesn't necessarily know what he's trying to do with it either. He's like, I didn't expect to be in this position. And he does just try to eventually be like, I would just want to offload it to somebody. Tim, here, you take it. I identified so much with that when he just was like, all right, okay, let's just get it out to Tim here. But, yeah, it is nice.

And again, between that little pass to pool sick that he had earlier, like, he's holding his own. with the ball at his feet. Yeah. 42nd minute, super nice touch from Wes. Got to mention it because I did not think he had a great first half. He kind of short hops a sky ball into a little pocket of space and then taps it out to Pulisic. Pulisic gives it away, thought he was fouled.

But I'm going to ID this as the moment when Wes switched on in the game. All right, we'll take that. I mean, I did think that he was more active from the off than he was against Columbia. But I agree he wasn't really making a particularly impact. He wasn't doing anything particularly impactful yet. Right. Yeah, I'm not saying he was like terrible or anything, but I've seen him play better.

Pulisic takes a knock on a jump in the box for a speculative ball. Limped around a little bit, which was worrisome, but he ended up going 90, so I assume he's all good. And then a long spell of Brazilian possession in Arth defensive third to sort of end the hell. half, but we were set up well and nothing really came of it. And I think that, again, is important you touched on it. We were resolute in our block.

So the big Brazil moments definitely were in that moment of transition when we'd have a giveaway or loose touch and then them being just lightning quick to catch us before we were set up. It's the moments of transition. I mean, that's, that seems like our biggest weakness. I mean, like providing the other team with the moment of transition and then not reacting quickly enough. So that's the half.

A quick reminder that things are really humming over on the patron feed. Last night, Vince ran a call-in show with Waki and me. We took 30 calls from across the country. And, I mean, the truth is the call-in shows are open to the public, but, I mean, little known fact. but patrons get access to the recording when I post it. And of course they get first dibs when they call in. Patrons also get the Monday review every week, emergency pods,

call-in shows, as I said, and, you know, some other stuff. More things than you can count or I could recount. Consider subscribing the links in the show notes. What was the, since I missed the call-in show yesterday, what was the overall vibe? I got to ask. It was very Joe Scali positive, you know. Everybody loves Joe Scali now, including me.

I said members of the Scali family can slap me in the face if they see me. And Waki called him Joey Clamps, which I think is, at least in our little universe, is going to stick. Oh, yeah, that's it. That's it for now. I hope he, I hope he maintains this because I'd love to have a Joey Clamps as a key guy on the roster. It would be awesome, yeah. No changes for the U.S. to start the second half, but Douglas Louise is on for Joie al-Gomesh in the midfield,

for Brazil. Notice a Brazil-USA, Brazil-USA chant going on. It wasn't like they were deliberately collaborating, but it sounded like, you know, sort of, it sounded like they were collaborating, the two groups. They were actually probably more competing. But, you know, only in America.

It seems like we get a chant like that in a stadium at a soccer game. Maybe not only in America, but I kind of liked it. So 49th minute, Brazil half chance after a way of giveaway, and we lose a succession of cage matches across the field. It's a Vinny cutback swept away by the aforementioned Joe Scali. Yeah, and just felt like another one of those little plays where we're all scrapping. Like the scrap is there. Yeah.

But we never quite have, we never quite turn the scrap corner into actually winning the cage match. Yeah. I mean, the cable was scrapping. I mean, I gave it away on the right side. And he was, he was all the way in the box on Turner's left. Yeah, by the time it was all set and done. Yeah, the cage match, the cage match quality on the Brazilian team is like, that needs to be studied. Because, again, it's that level of play where, like, they're not necessarily going to engage.

in the cage match with you. They're just going to use your energy that you're trying to use to even, you know, gain entry to the cage against you. And it is. It's just a delight. Wendell, the left back, gets a chance on the underlap and a Vinnie slip pass thrashes it off the side netting

in the 50th minute. Yeah, so this is a great look at our coordination, our commitment to helping Joe with Vinny is still there. Geo gets all the way to Vinny. so we should be able to defend this. But they just don't quite shape it right. So as Gio's arriving from the inside, Scali is still shading Vinny to the end line and never flips. Like he's got to flip there as Gio arrives, which is still tough because if we flip

and give him a little bit of a through ball, like Vinny can split him to the runner too. So Wendell could get the ball on the split or Wendell gets the feed into the Man City Zone and ends up being in the Man City Zone. I mean, that's the thing is you can do everything right. Yes. All night and still get pantsed. And that's why it's so impressive that it didn't happen. He didn't ever really get pantsed. But they do kind of look like Thompson and Thompson there.

Stating right, Gio's standing right behind Scali. 51st minute, the Richards yellow card that is called off by VAR. Turned out it was a pretty good tackle. but I do think this was a little bit a little bit of napping from us on that quick restart from midfield after a foul it's just like I forget who said maybe it was Wendell just set it down

passed it immediately to Paquetta and he just slides it tries to slide it through the lines to Rodrigo before we've even really we even really know what's going on any thoughts on this whole sequence I guess there's kind of a lot you could talk about well again I want us to learn from what Brazil do too so like yeah

It's the foul. The ball like bounces 10 yards from the foul, and that doesn't stop Wendell from being like, I don't care that I'm 10 yards away. I'm just going to put the ball down right here and play and dare the refraff to stop us. But yeah, it's like it just catches us in this naive moment where you can tell we don't think the ball's going to start resume play from where Wendell catches it. Like, no, now we have time for him to throw the ball back to the area where the infraction occurred. Like they're just gone. And so Musa is kind of Walkin McKinney's kind of frozen in his spot, and we've just left the center of the pitch wide open. Yeah. It's like, I mean, it's such a universal thing in soccer where, like, if you can get your team on board with doing quick restarts, you can do a lot of damage, even at U6. I mean, those throw-ins in the World's Cup were variations of quick restarts.

Yeah. 56-minute, Raina, Arna, suffers a high boot. I think he might, this is when it seemed like maybe he was hurt, but I think he was mostly just mad. No foul called on it, right? Yeah.

Wendell's, I think it was Wendell, his boot got stuck on top of the ball or rolled on the top of the ball and then caught him studs up in the shin. Yeah, and there's definitely a correlation between the amount of time someone will spend on the ground being hurt with whether or not there was a foul called.

Like if there's no foul call, then you're going to spend extra time down there. to really hammer home to the referee how much of a missed call it was. Like, I'm really hurt and you didn't even call a foul, so I'm going to stay here an extra 10 to 15 seconds. Right. Speaking of which, we did a decent job of, you know, time wasting on resets, which is good to, obviously, one, just eliminate clock,

but two, to break up, like maybe the rhythm of a team that's really good at playing in rhythm. I have a feeling that in Copa, we will take that to another level. I think we were doing a little bit of it, but keeping it pretty acceptable for friendly, not drawing too much attention to it. I'm hopeful that come Uruguay, come a knockout game, we are just shameless about our clock wasting on every restart. And they did water breaks last night.

I don't know if they're going to be doing that in Copa. but I guess worth mentioning now the first two games, Bolivia and Panama are both going to be indoors so maybe the Kansas City one is going to be the most is going to be the hottest one in the group stage at least. I mean, not maybe it's going to be, you know, notoriously muggy and hot Missouri. Yep, get that Midwest heat.

All that perspiration coming off the cornfields. A 54 minute mark, a giveaway from Raina. I'm putting this on Raina. He's just not able to get to a good Richards pass from deep right. This is when I start to think Rana's looking tired and like he's given the effort of his life in this game. Rodriguez, this is when Rodrigo tries a modified overhead kick and doesn't miss by much.

So it's kind of a ball lofted in. Nobody deals with it that cleanly and it's bouncing up in the air. Rodriguez with his back to goal misses the top corner by inches. Yeah, this one I actually probably would have put on Turner if something, if

Rodrigo capitalizes on this. Yes, first off, Gio absolutely pretending once that ball skips by him originally because he just runs right past the Brazilian player who collects it with ease. But as far as the actual chance,

Turner like comes in, I mean, Turner's just in total no man's land. So he's not going to come get it, but he's also giving away any looping shot that is on frame. And you don't want to be in that position. So he doesn't need to come out to close an angle. He just needs to be retreating to his goal line here so that he can, you know, move his feet to get to any ball that they put in. I also wanted to point out on the Tim Ream pressure on this play. I don't know how many people are going to remember this from the 2011 Gold Cup.

but there will be a few this is this is like identical to Tim Reams play that I think got him run out of contention to be in the pool from 2011 to 2014 where it's a bouncing ball about that height and he takes a full swing up in the air to try to clear it and just cleans the guy's legs out and gives away a penalty

in an even much less dangerous situation than this but you can see him thinking about it when that ball is between him and Rodrigo, and he chooses not to, which I think is the correct play. Yeah, good. I'm saying Simmriam is growing up a little bit from 13 years ago when we thought he was maybe going to be our starting centerback. Yeah.

What is he now, 35? 35 years old? I'll double check that. They have to carbon. They're carbon dating him at this point. He's 36. There you go. Born in 1987.

still quite a bit younger than us. Strange, strange to think about. Old man Turner. Old man Ream. Yeah, what an old person. Let's see, 58 minute mark a good punch out by Turner on a fizzed ball across. Was it a good punch out? You tell me.

I think it was good in the sense that Turner doesn't trust himself right now. And so that's a, it's not necessarily the ideal soccer play, but it is what you do when you want to make sure that you set like a floor for your mistake. Yeah. Yeah, I think three touches later, it's like a shot that goes way over, right? Yeah. Brazil had quite a few shots from distance that were field goal-esque. 64th minute, Ballo comes on for Pepey, Johnny comes on for Gio, and Endrick comes on for Brazil, among other people.

big cheers for Endrick you know the Wonder Kid gonna be starting at Brazil this fall somebody in the Discord server was like was there a big cheer for Johnny when he came on and I was like no I don't think that was for Johnny um way a giveaways

keep sort of happening and I just want to be clear I don't mind him going at people but I don't know that I've Ever seen him do somebody No He can do somebody Just enough to get a window to cross it

Right But has he ever actually Like eliminated somebody on the dribble In his career I don't It's hard to come up with one He's very much more of a pass and move guy Like

The only time I can think of It wasn't really on the dribble The one that comes immediately to mind is the Ghana match where he flips it over, it's a bouncing ball that he flips over their left fullback and has a little fun with that. But no, like when he's just got it on the dribble and does all of his little stepovers,

no, he never actually beats the guy. You're just going to do that and then pass it a desk. Yeah. That's been true of him since he was a youth player. I can say that with some authority. All right, Endrick, 67th minute, quick run down the right half space and behind Ream, you know, good understanding between him and the player who was out wide,

maybe it was Danilo. And he takes a shot with his left foot from a somewhat difficult angle. A decent save from Turner, right? Yes, absolutely. And this is, this again is how effective Brazil can be with us being. Our lines are tight, but they're still. a lot of space behind our centerbacks to pick up. I should say tight vertically.

We weren't particularly tight horizontally on this play. So Danilo, when he feeds Hendrik, if it's Danilo, it's all the way out, if it's DeNo, it's all the way out on the sideline. And our back line is still stretched pretty wide. So the gaps between Jedi to Ream to Richards to Scali are still pretty significant.

And I think we probably do need to tighten that up a little bit. Yeah. If nothing else to give Ream more help, because it's just asking Tim Ream too much to be 38. What did you say he was? We carbon dated him back to... He's 36.

36. 36. And Richards is just like, yeah, he can handle Hendrick. Right. That'll be fine. Anyone who was born in the Nixon administration should not be left alone to defend Hendrick in 40 yards of space. So, Richards needs to be tighter.

Scali needs to be tighter to help Richards of Richards because you can't leave a huge gap there either. And the other bit here is, again, to just appreciate the subtlety and the sophistication of Brazil because the movement of Endric, he's coming towards De Nilo, and then as soon as Ream takes, like, that one step towards him to commit,

that's all Endric is just waiting for that, and he's just gone. And the past comes immediately on that step by Ream. So, you know, we talk about all the times in the past six months that we've watched Balagan, like race behind the defenders and be available,

but us just not hit the pass. And it's like we just, and then we get breathless when Gio Raina hits those passes, and then Brazil's like, oh, yeah, all of our guys do that. Yeah, even a guy who plays centerback for Juventus. Yeah, the quickness of that, the sensing of the opportunity and then the quickness of the execution is really, it's a really beautiful thing to watch, honestly,

even though it doesn't result in a goal. Okay, 68th minute, we have a good response from the U.S., so a lovely move down the right. Johnny plays it to Musa. Musa finds West between the lines and the half space right at midfield. And then it's out to Scali, who carries it another 20, 25 yards. And then makes, what I'd say is sort of the key, well, the pass from Musa to Wes is pretty important too. But this is the key pass of the sequence where Wes is sort of running to the inside of Scali.

And Scali just shows enough composure on the ball to sort of slip it in there for Wes to sort of with a full head of steam running into the box. Full head of steam maybe not, but with momentum, carrying him into the box. And then he's, Wes is able to poke it over to Pulisic

and he has a really good chance to score with his left foot, kind of all alone with Allison. And Allison makes a great save. It's also a shot that is within reach for the keeper. So there you go. This is us leveling up in real time. This was the domino situation where we were in control the whole time and actually like gaining advantage with each successive pass.

And it was this, I think this was actually like our only good chance since the Pulisic goal, since that foul. Like we hadn't really threatened since then. And so it's true. It was cool to see us pull this off. It was a 12 pass, 45 second sequence, started with McKinney doing a really nice job. tracking back, or at least an effective job. It's one of those where he comes bulldozing into frame and on Brazil's blind side and takes the ball.

Maybe he was supposed to have already been in frame and shouldn't have had to bulldoze in late. But he gets in really effectively. And, yeah, we worked the ball all the way around to Turner, to Johnny to start it. And then, yeah, every single player in here did something technically well, if not impressive, to lead to an incredible chance for the U.S. in a 1-1 game against Brazil.

Yeah. Andres Contour almost lost his mind when Pulisic hit that shot. I mean, it'd be up there on the men's side of, like, best sequences, certainly like one of the best possession sequences we would have ever had that leads to a goal. And the other really encouraging thing about it is we did that with Joe Scali playing a key role. Like that is That's new for the national team I could

I could totally imagine this sequence happening with Serginio out there I was not prepared to see it with Scali And that's why I've offered to let Members of the Scali family slap me in the face Well there we go so yeah So Scali is basically locked up the right back spot Through the Copa

And then do you think we see anything else Do you think we see like in these Bolivia Panama games Is there any reason to be like well, let's see how West does out there. I mean, the thought has crossed my mind that it's all an elaborate ruse. But no, probably not. We'll see. We'll probably see Scali play right back.

I'm excited to see him do it against Bolivia. Assuming Bolivia plays in like a really low block, then I do want to see him do a little twinkle toes too. I mean, he's added this sort of, I don't want to say it's not clumsy, but he's like the straight line running downhill guy. he's hit a couple of good entry passes. But now I want to see him, I want to see him full on combination.

Let's not get greedy. No. Why not? I mean, sky's the limit. Okay. As Jackie pointed out in the calling, like, he's 21, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Sky's the limit with this kid. Okay. Places. Yeah. All right, so 71st minute we get that, well, you go ahead. So yeah, so we just had this nice move, this nice sweeping attacking move. And then we get almost like an equally impressive 10-pass Rondo sequence that everyone's seen now, I think, posted several times.

Yeah. From like in our own box. And again, this is where like people talking about grit and heart and all this, I'm just like, what in the world are you? Like this wasn't just a game of just us defending for our lives. like this was an incredible display of composure and technical ability that starts with Johnny like stooping to take a Brazil cross and like heading it to Boligan, I think, who's come all the way back. So we do have numbers back.

But then that starts, Baligan to Ream to Jedi's involved. McKinney. Like every single player has to step in and like connect a pass under real pressure. where the risk of losing it is calamity. And we work it all the way through. From center to left, back to center to right. Ream has that really nice moment where he takes a touch forward in the box

and then plays it on the backside of it the Brazilian forward to Richards. And that's the move that totally ends the pressure we're under. And yeah, it's just, how do you not have fun watching that? Yeah. It's fun. It's like watching somebody walk, which I've never, really done, but I imagine it's a little bit like watching someone walk a tightrope across

Niagara Falls, you know? It's like any mistake will be deadly, but that's what makes it exciting. Well, when the U.S. does it, it's like watching your buddy do it, because you know your buddy doesn't have any experience doing this. Right. This is the first time he's walking the tightrope. He decided to do it on Niagara Falls. You went to watch the tightro walker, and your buddy's like, I can do that, and he goes up and does it. And that's, that's something. something else. Yeah. It was really cool.

And it was a lot of it is thanks to Tim Ream. You know, he's like, he's where people were looking to sort of give the responsibility to. And he embraced it. And he, he handled it extremely well. Okay. Seventy-fourth minute, good save from Turner after West gives it away in the center

circle and it goes out to Rodrigo on the left. and he kind of beats Richards and tries to flick it back post with the outside of his right foot. Would have been just an incredibly disrespectful goal if he had scored. But Turner swats it away with his left hand. Yeah, this is the fun unorthodox swing that Turner employs, which works well because if he doesn't bat it back where it came from, like another rebound probably is more dangerous. So this is fun.

And then this is immediately followed by unforced errors from Scali in possession in our defensive third and Jedi. So we never really even cleared all the way out after this chance. And I am really worried that the slapstick is going to be back in full effect for 20 more minutes. But it wasn't. Brazil ended up just sort of like a cross after Jedi's giveaway that went to nobody. And we were able to breathe and like ward off those particular slapstick demons. Yeah.

You know, even though we had the three chances, we'll get to the other two here in a minute, it did feel like we were a little bit under the kosh in the last 30 minutes and that maybe that's an unavoidable thing against Brazil probably it is when Brazil's not winning late in the game against us but I would like us to move past the

still those hints of chaos in the last 30 minutes where it's just like we're white knuckling it we're hanging on for dear life that seems like a hallmark mark of our team. Maybe it's, maybe it's, maybe it has nothing to do with Burrhalter. Maybe it has everything to do with Burrhalter. I don't know.

Well, I can definitely tell you that in any win that we would consider a signature win, we were white knucklin by the end of the end of it. Right. Right. Okay. Subs, Adams comes on for Musa. So Adams gets some carefully restricted minutes. And then Aronson comes on for Wea.

We're defending resolutely. trying to hit on the counter, you know, at this point not really getting anything on the counter. In the 82nd minute, Turner catches a Vinny Cross and then throws it long for Ballo, and he goes, he's just out there in space with Douglas Louise. He goes 1v1 at him and has his left foot, left-footed shot blocked pretty comfortably. But it's, I like it from Turner to, like, see that, go for it. That was, at the moment it felt like this is going to be one of our better chances to score the rest of the game. Yeah, and again, you just said we weren't getting much on the counter.

This was a good example of us being like, oh, there's space. We got to take it right now. So good recognition of Turner, good execution. And I definitely don't mind, Balo going forward to solo there. Yeah. And on the ensuing throw-in, huge chance for the U.S. We miss some of it because this is when Martinelli is coming on for Rodrigo, so they're like cameras kind of going back and forth between everybody's standing waiting for a throw-in

and Martinelli coming on the field. But the throwing goes to Pooley on the end line, and his first touch is just gorgeous. He kind of brings it, you know, kind of catches it with the top of his foot, brings it down, and then skids it across the six through some legs. And Aronson meets it right in the six.

Point blank. Allison just gets big and denies him. Still one-one. This kind of reminded me of Pool Sick against Mexico and the Nations League. where he got to the N-line and then hit that ball back for Raina to smash in? Am I thinking of the right thing? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just his, just the movement of his body, the way he has such control of his body there on the N-line. So, I mean, it wasn't quite that exact sequence, but he can be dangerous there, and I love that he didn't just try to smash it across the face of goal. I like that he was picking somebody out. And yeah, just another really nice play by Allison. I'm not putting too much on like Aaronson blowing a chance

because this is really sharp from Allison. Like his efficiency to almost end up meeting Aronson at the point of the shot is real, real nice. Right. I mean, like, you try to imagine how Aronson could have finished it. It's like what is it? You have to be like a chip with so much backspin on it that it would not even hit the net.

it would bounce off the grass and come back out of the goal. And then we get the last big chance of the game for the U.S. 86th minute. It's a good sequence from us to free. So at this point, we don't look like we're white-knuckling it. We're possessing the ball in Brazil's half. We free Jedi wide left. He hits a speculative cross as he does. It kind of hits Aronson in the box and sort of knocks him over.

But it stays in play. It goes up in the air. Ballo collects it on the end line, recycles it. It goes over to Shaq Moore. He hits a curling cross that is also headed away. But Wes flies in and collects it. Kind of pinballs around a little bit and hands it off to Pulisic. And then Pulisic shows, again, just like some real quality here.

Just a quick touch, boom, and then a quick snapshot with his left foot that just misses just wide of the post. but another like a really good chance so yeah and the angle that we're watching it from makes it even more exciting because you're watching it go past the keeper you get to just see it roll past the keeper oh yeah you don't know for sure like you're like this might it might it didn't it wasn't far off and it did seem like he had alison beat if he had you know if it was like a foot closer in i don't know maybe maybe alison gets to it in that case um 87th minute So at this point

Shaq Moore is on for Scali and in the 87th minute Vinny kind of bodies him in the box and draws a save from Turner with a firm left-footed shot and the last thing I have is the last sequence of the game

where it's a free kick from wide left Shaq concedes a foul seems like a little bit harsh for him to get whistled for just sort of standing in Vinny's way but Andreas Perreira hits the free kick, Turner punches it away

and on the ensuing corner kick, it gets headed to the back post for Vinny, who is offside. It seemed like he was offside. But we didn't know that in real time. And he misses the close range volley anyway. It just kind of gets it wrong. He's like sort of,

he and Turner are about to meet at the ball. And I think Vinny kicks it out for a corner kick or, I mean, for a goal kick or a throwin. Yeah. For sure, would it come back for offside. Yeah, yeah. Vinny's just like planted on the line and we don't have anybody else on that.

on that line. But still, it was just a free kick itself as a nervous position to be in when we've done so much. And it would have just been like a bit Shaq Moorish. Yeah, I'm glad that didn't result in a goal for Shaq's sake. Yeah, so I guess one question for you, did you think Matt Turner got his mojo back? Probably. I know you don't believe in mojo He needed something

I think I mean to be honest No probably not like I don't think That now Matt Turner will not be shaky when we pass it back to his feet I think again we talked about it in Columbia Some of it is just some of this stuff For goalkeepers and shot stopping Is just going to be the whim of the universe

When when Brazil hits 10 shots that are in pretty good like proximity to you, then you make 10 saves. I mean, Tim Howard had that, the Belgium game was a lot of shots hit in proximity to him. When you get that game, you just get to revel in it. And when you get the Columbia game and you're about to make a great save and your own defender deflects it into your goal,

then you don't get that. So I don't think much will have materially changed for Matt Turner going into the Copa. I think he's always been capable of this kind of. end of a game and he's probably capable of even having better matches than this. And we just kind of got to hope that on the day that that's what we get. Yeah, I did notice, I mentioned this last night on the call-in, but I did notice that he, there was a time, you know, after you did that quick outlet to Ballo, he tried to, he was about to do another one a little bit later in the game.

And he, a Brazilian player, I can't remember which, grabbed his arm and held him, held him up so he couldn't, he couldn't run forward and throw it. and I don't think if foul was even called, and Turner was just kind of like, you know, like wolf grinning and smiling and laughing about it and, like, kind of bouncing the ball. And he looked like, he looked like kind of like the old Matt, you know? Like, he's enjoying himself out here.

He's sort of feeling like he has a little, has a little swagger. But, you know. He might know, he might play a little bit better. I mean, again, when you're just getting pranked by the universe, you're not out there having. a good time. It sucks. So this one was going to be a better one

for him. And again, I'm comfortable running him through the Copa as our goalkeeper. Seems that's what's going to happen. So I feel I was already excited about the Copa America, but I feel more excited

now for sure. How about you? Yeah. I mean, again, if we had just gotten run off the field in this game performance-wise, that would have been bad for my mood going into Copa. Because again, we kind of have these two games we're expected to do fine in. And then it's just such a jump. Like there's no middle ground here in this tournament.

It's the two sort of, I don't want to say punching bags because they're not. They're going to be decent. But then the jump from these teams to essentially like four World Cup, semi-finalist type teams is immense. And I imagine that's a really difficult challenge to bring the same intensity and apply it in different ways against these different opponents. But, you know, that's why Greg Burhalter gets the big bucks. Well, again, it's the challenge is going to be like,

I don't even know if I want to say the challenge. Like, we could play the same performance level and still lose to Uruguay, to Brazil, to Brazil, to Columbia. We could play a worse performance and win. Yes, yeah. I mean, all of that goes into a 90-minute game of soccer. I remain really curious how we will handle the aftermath of a sort of typical,

expected outcome for this whole tournament. I don't really have, I don't really care that much about what we end up doing when it's all said and done. but I am just kind of curious what the direction will be. You mean, if we look kind of the same as usual against Panama and Bolivia, but get the wins, and then look the same as usual against Uruguay and lose, look the same as usual against Brazil again and then lose. Then what do we do?

Right. That's what I'm curious about. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the hell out of just watching the U.S. play in the Copa America. Yeah. The enjoyment levels can be high. We already have 100 people on paper signed up for the Atlanta tailgate and 100 people signed up for the Kansas City tailgate as well. Details still forthcoming on both of those things. Everybody's scrambling on the details.

The outlaws, it's like all kind of 11th hour stuff. But we'll get that out to you. And if you're going to be in Atlanta or Kansas City, whether you are a patron or a regular listener or not, come join us. Look for the information on Twitter. And we'll have plenty more to say over the next few weeks. Greg, anything else?

Signature draws. That count just keeps going up, doesn't it? First ever draw against Brazil, I believe. That's something. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.