Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #505: Panama tomorrow, striker controversy, what's wrong with Wes

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

Watke, Vince and Belz talk about how good Gio is, the striker controversy such as it is, what's wrong with Wes, Will Leitch's piece arguing Trump's election hurt national team fandom, and much more. Matchday minus 1. Big day tomorrow!———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. Hey, everybody, it's match day minus one, and the USA faces Panama tomorrow in Atlanta, or a basically must-win game in the Copa. The last time we faced Panama and must-win game, it went pretty well, I think, if I remember correctly.

5-1 in Orlando, 2020. How are you guys doing? I got the Monday review crew here with me. Vince and Waki. Vince, how are you doing? I'm doing great, man. I'm doing great. I'm about to embark to Casa de la Belle's today at some point.

And then, you know, we'll make our way to Atlanta tomorrow. But, yeah, it's an interesting parallel with Panama, must-win match. You know, Orlando, historic scuffed tailgate. You know, it's like we're about to embark on two historic scuffed tailgates on Thursday and Monday. I'm so excited. Yeah. Can't wait. Yeah, but it's going to be a fun few days.

Chris, how you doing? I'm doing very, very well, Adam. I'm getting very excited about tailgate. I won't be at it, but the numbers I'm seeing are looking pretty promising. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to have a good crowd. Of course, you still need to show up and perform on the day, but looking good. Yeah, it's about not taking the opponent for granted, you know?

Yep. Got to come in with a fully locked in mentality. Sunday's win over oblivion is the most watched non-world cup soccer telecast in Fox's history. That's a little surprising, isn't it? Yes. It's very surprising. It's the most watched. Yeah, 4.6 million if you include

Boxing, Univision, this is just over-the-air numbers. So it doesn't count streaming, I don't think. I don't know, what do you think of that, Will Leach? Saying the U.S., nobody cares about the USM&T in New York Magazine. I mean, it's... How you reconcile that fact. It's pretty cool. It seems like maybe we might be having a resurgence.

And once again, I made this point on the call-in show. I'm going to make it again here on this show. The leading up to kickoff on the Bolivia match, I feel like the vibes were low. The vibes were very low. For whatever reason, you know, could it be osmosis, nerves filtering through the, permeating the fan base, whatever, whatever. But basically everything that came after has been tremendous, man.

we had, even though Bolivia was a bad team, we had one of our better, bad team performances, in my opinion. You know, we've had plenty of slogs against teams that, you know,

we should handle. Crowd in Dallas was quite filled in. I mean, we didn't fill the third deck, but I mean, I would say at that point, you're asking a lot. You're asking a lot.

And also, you know, we get this, we get this television number the next day. was just like, I mean, everything's coming up coming up pretty well. You know, I don't want to speak on health. I'm going to leave that alone.

I had a thought pass through, but, you know, we are missing surge. But everyone else seems to be all right. We are good. Onwards towards Atlanta, I also saw an updated ticket master picture as far as tickets sold. Those have been floating around. You see all the blue spaces

where available tickets are. It's down significantly in Atlanta. Atlanta seems like Atlanta's going to show up the same way that they did for the women's national teams. Probably not the exact same way that they do for Atlanta United, but Atlanta is going to show up. And so, yeah, everything's good, man. Everything's good.

You're watching this tournament. you're watching our potential opponents that they don't look infallible more positive like people that see like you know you had Namar Namar came out and was like you know the U.S. can make some noise

you know there's a whole bunch of unbiased commenters that seem to be way more impressed with what we got going on here than you know all of us are but but you know of course we got too much information and, you know, if you just turn on the TV, expect them to see a whole bunch of hustle merchants out there

and you see us play some ball. Of course, you'd be impressed. But I say a lot to say, the vibes are hot. Yeah, no, that's a good point about us having too much information because I was with some friends last night who are, it's not fair to call them soccer casuals. I've mentioned them on the podcast before. They like soccer.

They play soccer. They're not like USM&T sickos, though. You know, they pay attention to the national team, and they were really happy with the performance on Sunday night, you know. So I think that's what it is. You turn on the TV, you see us scoring or nearly scoring a bunch of goals. You're like, that's great. Sign me up for that.

It's pretty simple. So I agree. The vibes are high. Oh, oh. By the way. Go ahead, Chris. Go ahead, walk. Mine was kind of a change of direction.

Oh, well, real quick, before we change that direction, I just did want to read off. Stephen Goff got the top markets that watched the match, right? Number one, San Diego, number two, Washington, D.C., three, Austin, four, Kansas City. So, you know, I mean, Austin and Kansas City, I guess we'll get to it at some point. You know, recently got awarded some friendlies, but see, so maybe, you know, maybe it's self-fulfilling prophecy whatever you put games there

you're going to have more interest there whatever whatever but it's well for Monday to see Kansas City on that list the stars are aligning for a signature win at Arrowhead Stadium that's right well

there's a combination of a possible signature win on the horizon and vibes being so high after that big win the possible is what they call a trap game Mm-hmm. Always. It's always a trap. Everything's a trap for us.

It's tough to get trapped at a tournament, you know, when it's like... It should be, shouldn't it? You're like, yo, if you take care of business here, you are clearly on the way to, you know, either Las Vegas or Phoenix. Yeah, so maybe it won't be. at least can't be a full trap game. I just do want them to come to that game, staying on the gas. Yeah. I mean, yeah, at risk of beating a dead horse and ruining the vibes,

I got to say, Chris Richards and Tim Rame better be sharp tomorrow. You know, we don't need any shenanigans back there. We can have some shenanigans, just not too many. Yeah. You each get one shenanigan. Richard gets two. Ream gets... You know what?

Ream doesn't get any. Yeah. How many does Turner get? Zero. I mean, as long as he's blasting it out of bounds, as long as he's blasting it out of bounds. We can't even allow him any. He's going to do what he's going to do. No shenanigans, though, please.

Turner. No shenanigans, Matt, bro. Of all... Because at least the other people, it's like, okay, you are supposed to be doing this. You may have failed to doing this. You know, passing the ball, whatever, whatever. You might have failed, but I have faith in you to complete the next action if it were to come to it. You know, Matt Turner, you should be under strict orders.

You know, do not pass go, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, if you're feeling bad about it even a little bit, let that thing go. I don't care where it goes, bro. It can hit Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the head. Just let it go. There's going to be the possibility of that is real because there will be a presidential debate tomorrow. night in Atlanta as well. No audience, though.

It's real, but it's low. Agreed. I might even say it's not real. But I understand your point. Let me just say if you want to join us in tailgating tomorrow, we'll be out at the AO lot from basically 1 p.m. on. And the address for that, if you want to. arrive on foot. It's 550 Mitchell Street Southwest, Atlanta. It's like three blocks from the

stadium. And I'm going to be there. Vince's going to be there. Probably another 150 to 250 members of the scuffed family will be there. So come join us. Come party. There's going to be a lot of free beer. Look for the surprisingly small scuffed flag. Yeah, the small blue scuffed flag. We'll be flying from the top of the forerunner. So, yeah, join us. And then, let's see. Geo is good, isn't he? Geo Lonnie Raina.

He's very good, Adam. I watched the game again, just watching Geo. Everyone should always try to do. He's basically played a perfect game except one kind of side back heel he tried. Yeah, that was. that that one stuck out a little bit. But if you ignore that, he's just passing it.

Some of them pretty difficult passes. Right place every time. He really sticks out. hovering around, moving about, doing tackles. Shielding the ball. Shielding the ball. Yeah.

It was a good performance. I mean, you know, as soon as the full-time whistle is blown, Alexi, Lullis is telling you, that G. Arena was invisible, et cetera. But, you know, with him playing back a line, he's going to be, you have to recalibrate what you're looking at and what you're looking for, right? Obviously, you know, it's not going to be,

it's not necessarily going to be Gio chopping people up all the time. It's not necessarily going to be him playing a final pass either. But, yeah, as far as him playing between the lines, progressing the ball, hitting people in the, pockets, et cetera, et cetera. It was all there. It was all there, baby. And I do think, like, you know, this has obviously been the topic of much discussion since we've moved Geo back a line as far as him not being able to contribute to the attack. But I do think the last step is if he moves slightly with a bit more alacrity, he can occupy those pockets once we do,

like, get through first phase, second phase, and be able to wreck havoc there. I don't think it's like before, like the World Cup, basically, where it was very strict. You know, our midfield three were a part of our defending five and really did not set foot in the attack in shape at all, for the most part, unless it was like transition or something like that. Greg has seemed to loosen up on that quite a bit. And so I do think Gio has a license to get forward.

Now, of course, it might be. better if he was just forward all the time. But, so I don't know, man, I like what's going on. I like what's going on. I like how Gio's playing. And the only other thing I would throw in there is that sometimes, if you noticed, Waki, on your rewatch, sometimes we do have what seemed like slight transition opportunities that Gio just loves to slow down, you know, in established possession, a little bit, controlled

tempo or whatever. I'm not sure necessarily that we needed to do that against Bolivia. And sometimes I do, I wish we would just let our, you know, transitions go forward with verve. But go ahead. He is a guy who likes the possession to be coming from the right side all set up. He's pointing around. So it could be, I was pointing people for people who can't see.

Yeah. It was demonstrating the points. It was really... It was really visually compelling, too, just for those of you who didn't see. So this is a small complaint, and we probably will need Gio

to calm people down when we're playing like Uruguay, right? Like, you know, like, hey, don't hit that speculative ball up there. Let's just catch our breath for a little bit. We've been chasing the ball around for eight minutes or whatever. So it's a small complaint.

playing, but yes, Gio's playing well. I'm with it. I agree I would like to see, because especially when we're crossing the ball, so as often as we are, it seems like we're doing a lot of whipping it in. I'd like to see both Gio and Wes, you know, arrive in the box with a little more alacrity, maybe a little more, I don't know, arriving in a place where the ball actually gets to him, you know, as it comes across. Yeah.

Berlter should make alacrity one of his key words in the pregame talk. It's such a great word. Togetherness and alacrity. That's right. Wasn't there an NBA commentator who used to use it a lot back in the day? I can't remember. Yes. Was there?

Yes. What's wrong with Wes, by the way? Can we talk about that a little bit? What's going on with him? This is the beauty of Wes. There's no telling. Yeah There's just no telling

Maybe he needs to grow into it But and you know I don't really want to get into the The weight thing But I will say If the issue Was Wes's weight You know what I'm saying

I'm not saying it is And I think he looks about the same That he always looks right now But I'm saying If the issue is Wes's his weight. his weight. He has made the perfect force field for it by giving that quote in the athletic. Well, it wasn't the athlete. I can't remember that one interview where he was like, well, I tried to do it one time and I had just zero energy. I couldn't move. I couldn't get up and down the pitch.

Oh, you mean not eating enough or like going on a diet or something? No, I think at one point he said, I forgot where this was. He said he came to UVA in like the quote unquote best shape of his life, you know, at whatever the body fat percentage is that a soccer player usually should be at. And he said he just did not have the energy that he usually has. He couldn't move. He couldn't get up and down. He couldn't cover ground the way he usually does.

And so what I'm saying is by him giving that quote, I can't even create. Like, even if it was an issue, I can't even be like, hey, you need to get in some shape. Because then it'd be like, well. He can't. And when he's in shape, he's too. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, really what it just comes down to is he needs to play better.

I say the same thing to people about myself. Yeah. I mean, it's a really clever thing to say. Yeah, man. I can't stop smoking cigarettes because I don't have any energy if I don't. I don't have a sharpness. I need to smoke. I need these heaters down.

Exactly. Exactly. He's also maybe peaking, maybe planning to peak at the right time, which would be Monday, you know? Actually, tomorrow would be a good time to peak. Which has always been his plan. I've been very consistent about, don't worry about his lack of sharpness up until when the planned date of arrival of the sharpness is, which is Monday. Fair enough. As a West lover, as an official West watcher, leader of the fan club, et cetera,

the main thing that I will point out isn't the weight, isn't, I don't know, any of that stuff. It's just, I mean, he's just not swaggering out there, you know? Personality-wise. Yeah. It looks a little sullen, a little downtrodden, you know what I'm saying? It needs to get a swaggering. back. That's what I need for Westman. Just swagging back, man. I mean, you had the, but the Bolivia dude just crash into him,

take the ball off of him. I mean, might have called him a B-word when he had him, too. I don't know. I was like, like, I would have. But, I mean, just totally wrecked the man and took the ball. I mean, if I would have happened to Brennan Harrison, you know, we wouldn't stop talking about it. You know, what that happened to like the fifth minute or whatever, early in the match? But, yeah, man. Get your swagging back, Wes. ATL, you know, so it's really not that I think about it.

This is, this actually is peak sharpness time, Atlanta. Like, I think Wes would want to show up for Atlanta more than he would want to show up for Kansas City. So now that I've talked through this, which I'll expect big things tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah, it's a perfect time. Perfect time for him to put it together. How proud are we of Joe Scali? I mean, I know we've talked about this a lot, but.

just want to check in on that? Well, I'm so proud of what he did against in his clamps games. And I've made the point that he didn't need to have the clamps out of this game. There's no one to put the clamps on. Right, right. So I'm proud of him. Not that I need the clamps, not that I need him to be Joey Clamps to be proud of. Yeah.

But I do want to see a little bit more of him from him. That's right. Come up here. Let's put our stamp on the Panama game. Let's make this another Joe Scali game. He had a performance against Bolivia that, to me, it's like, if he had it against Uruguay, that'd be like, you'd be like, yeah. That was cool, Joe.

But against Bolivia, I would want a little bit more. I was kind of focusing on him when I watched a match. I mean, and I felt this initially, but it's like every time he got the ball, bro. I mean, most of the time he's passing back. and he had he had opportunities do things he could have faded tim up the line he could have he could have like but because the thing about it was and this is the thing with joe like the passing options weren't weren't uh necessarily there initially you know but he had a little cushion and you know he had the ability to change angles man maybe you take a take a take a little

carry, Tyler pops up, boom. You know, Tyler's in a, you've changed the entire angle, we've changed the entire picture of what you're looking at, and our ability to progress the ball changes from that position. So I'm not saying he was bad. Clearly not bad, but I think that might have been a game for, you know, for our alternative right-back options. But once again, I'm not tripping about it.

He's a big game player. That's right. Certainly. Certainly. Not for the not necessarily normal reasons that someone's a big game player. Just like in the big games, we don't want to do anything. That's other than a very focused thing. It also just could be because there are no clips of Bolivian players on TikTok,

Instagram, Twitter, etc. You know, he talked to Roger Bennett about the fact that his group chat of G. Rana, Brendan Arson, Josh Sargent, and him spamming him incessantly, with Venetius clips. Including goal celebrations, right? Including goal celebrations. That has to do something for the psyche. Just locks he in even more.

And so... I'm really, really proud of the guys for sending him goal celebrations, too. They couldn't find any clips of Cissar Minacho on the end, yeah, to send him. Unfortunately. Hey, let's take a little break and come back. we still have to talk about Ballo, the striker controversy, the connection between Ballo and Lund.

And, you know, this question that's sort of, we're all thinking about is, did Donald Trump ruin USMNT fandom by being elected president? We'll get into that after the break. Okay, some vigorous discussion this morning and, you know, basically every morning about who the best striker is for the national team. Pepe has his group of folks who think it's him. I know where you stand, Vince. Waki, can you take a really hard stance on this, please? Long term, I'm a sergeant guy.

But for tomorrow, Ballo. Yeah. It'll take as hard of a stance on that as you like. It was a little bit sloppy there. He was, definitely. Some people are saying, Pepe has better touch than Balo. Does a lot of things better than Balo.

I don't agree with that. But is there something you guys think Pepe does better than Balo? He scored with his head. He's better with his head. Score with his head. Maybe strike the ball cleanly. Oh, no. And I don't agree with that.

You don't think so? On a per-shot basis. You know what I'm saying? If you were to. Maybe. Scuffs to clean strikes? Maybe. I'm just throwing things out there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always sort of put that as a win in Ballow's favor that he can strike the ball, you know, pretty cleanly. I mean, obviously he didn't on his goal on Sunday, but... Did he mean to not strike it? Good question. Did he miss hit it? I didn't even consider it this possibility.

I'm not concerned with it either way. I think he scuffed it on accident, but it worked out really well. But maybe he did it on purpose. Is that possible? I guess it's possible. It's about as possible as Trump and Biden getting hidden there. So it seemed like he was still living in that same indecision that he had in that moment earlier in the match, right? Where he picks a ball up in that almost same exact area, and he hits that little chipped nothing ball.

They just went straight to the keeper. Yeah, just trying to hit Poulosick. Yeah, you know, he just sat there, sat there, sat there, sat there, it's like, bro, do something, anything, you know. And it almost seemed like he got the ball there. It was about to do the same thing. It was like, oh, you know what? I should score a goal.

And then he scored a goal. So I think maybe that that indecision kind of led to the scuffed. Maybe he was still indecisive about it as he was even shooting the ball. But that's still my number nine. And we did, and maybe it's just because it was like a inferior team that was actually trying to like press up on us a little bit. We did a good job getting them involved as we have before. No, Mann's was involved, man. Yeah, he was.

He just was sloppy. What was Bolivia doing, man? They weren't in a low block. All kinds of, give us all kinds of space to do stuff. Weird. The Lund Ballot connection. Chris, I know you've studied this in some depth. But why do you think they have a connection?

I think Lund has just recognized that... Hey, Ballo needs me. I don't want to make a special effort to be there for him whenever he needs me. Wasn't that sweet the way Valo ran up and tapped his chest? It was, like, there was definitely some brotherly affection in it. And Bizzle, our correspondent Bizzle, was at the game reported that Lund is the passing partner of Ballow. at half time at least right up until the kickoff. So he's right there getting the last,

give him his last little high five. Fascinating. Is he ever going to play in a game? We don't need him to. You don't need him to. That's not his role. Maybe he will. If he does, I'm sure he'll do great.

Maybe it's better he does never play in a game. I like the energy that this non-player Maybe. Because as soon as you come on and our ass for a few minutes, all that lovable stuff goes out the window, right? You can't even be, you know, you get somebody a chess belt.

People are thinking about how bad you were against, I don't know, Panama or whatever. But real quick, just want to talk about somebody else who seems to be stapled to the bench at this current moment. Malik Tillman. Interesting. Kind of forgot about him there for a second.

See? And I do think it's pretty telling that he didn't get to come on against Bolivia, you know? If he ain't coming on against Bolivia, like, I mean, maybe there's a chance we do Panama 5-1. I'm not totally sure. Like, Panama kind of gave us some gifts there in Orlando, in Orlando. But I don't know. I don't know. Maybe desperation time when, you know.

when we need a goal late yeah yeah you know like like somewhere to the to the way geo ran it came on i guess netherlands maybe he's shoot maybe he's uh what was the what was the phrase that used for gio kirkland geo oh not for geo malik's kirkland geo yeah uh for geo on the world cup what do they call them i forgot i forgot a lot of stuff that was going on with that but you know maybe he's uh unfit quote unquote i don't know i'm just I'm not trying to make any controversy. I'm just saying he ain't playing a damn game, okay? And that is notable.

Yeah, it is. It definitely is. It could be that he just showed himself to be unsurious in the Columbia friendly. Yeah. And Burrhalter is just like, okay, well, you know, we'll throw him on if we need a goal late, but this man cannot be trusted. And that's the thing. Greg has proven he's going to go with guys he trusts. like Brendan Arrinson, for instance.

Brendan Arsand has gained Greg's stress. You know, Greg knows he can tap Brindo on the shoulder, throw him out there, tell him do this job. He can't go out there and do it to the best of his ability. Greg has been explicit about that, like many times in press conferences. With Brendan, you get exactly what you know exactly what you're going to get. 100% effort, you know, blah, blah, blah. Yeah.

Just backing up what you're saying. Lots of complaints about the state, about the fields. Columbia is not happy with the field in Houston. Argentina's not happy with the field in Atlanta. That's the one we're going to see tomorrow. Apparently, Jerry Jones is the only one who took the, you know, stuff seriously and put a good field together in Arlington, Texas.

I mean, what was Arthur Blake doing, man? Arthur Blake must the home people himself. I don't just go down to Home Depot and get some sod Come on man Maybe that's what they did I don't know Now you gotta put You gotta put other stuff underneath it

And you know Try to create a Some cushion But Did you all see that Columbia game in Houston though Crazy I did not see it They sold it out

First of all I mean just to see a yellow Yeah I mean It was incredible I wasn't expecting expecting that from Columbia but uh yeah they did it I was uh something to see and uh I'm gonna leave it there I know exactly what you're leaving there um it's just

referred to there being many attractive Colombian women look crowd yeah um yeah go ahead I mean no wait I would just we can we can move on I just wanted to clarify for yeah yeah I mean I didn't even necessarily watch the game I'm just I was scrolling down my I was scrolling down my 4U my Twitter timeline right yeah we can

we really don't need to go into it anymore no no we don't we don't we don't I'm not I'm not asking that we go into it I just I was just going to say Columbia a nation of 50 million you know Houston and Miami kind of the main entry points from Latin America into

the U.S. And so it doesn't It doesn't shock me that they have a huge crowd in Houston. And I'll say it again. I love that country, Colombia. So I also love this country, but am I allowed to love this country? Since Donald Trump was elected president. No, I'm joking around.

But Will Leach has a piece in New York Magazine the past couple days saying the headline is, the USMNT is excellent, but nobody cares. And essentially, it's pretty well-written. readable, well written in the sense that it's readable, interesting to read, piece. And it's, the argument at the end is basically, well, let me just read an excerpt from it. Trump's first months in office happened to coincide with the USMNT failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, a devastating failure that instantly suffocated any momentum the national team movement had.

That one-two punch, the team's shocking on-field failure and the nation's even more shocking off-field one was devastating. It turned something that fans were defiantly uncynical about. He's referring to back in 2015, everybody was just an unbridled fan of the team into something they suddenly found themselves conflicted

and ambivalent about. Soccer has been thriving in this country, but the national teams have yet to recover. So I guess I'm, I bring all that up to say, do you think there's any truth to that? Let's make us talk about politics here.

Not trying to be. Not getting me. There's a trap. Well, I do think there's a little truth to it. I'm not saying it's right or right or wrong to, you know, I think there's a little bit of truth to it, I guess, is what I'd say. Like that being all rah-rah about the country took on a different cast after 2016. and that that was real, you know, at least in certain sectors of society. Yeah.

Should I cut all of this? No, no, no, but I do want to hear Waki's thoughts, man, because, I mean, I wasn't, you know, I wasn't around pre-Trump. Was there a different vibe? It seems like it is probably true. I think it's probably true to a certain extent. I never thought it was because of Trump, but, yeah, that could have happened. So I do see how like now that post Trump, I do see a lot of comments about how, you know, like, like, like Beyonce was getting, was getting flag proposing, you know, having what, an American flag in the, in the Cowboy Carter. Okay, yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Like, like she was getting flag for that. You know, not only she had the flag, you know, and other, like. photos associated with the album or whatever, you know, she has like a American flag stirrups on. I don't even know what you call those things. I think they're stirrups. But either way, you know, people were like, oh, she shouldn't do this. You know, they, hashtag they have claimed all American iconography as theirs.

And therefore, it's, you know, it's Trump. It does seem like a mistake to cede American econography to one to the opponent. I agree. Yes. And I haven't done it. I refuse to do it. Yeah.

Yeah. I very much refuse to do it. Because number one, number one, to me, it's like, bro, I'm doing what I'm doing because I want to do it. Like, like, what other people are doing over there has nothing to do with what I'm doing. You know, like, if you want to know. who I am and what I stand for. You can talk to me.

I'll talk to you about it. I'm not going to get on my soapbox on here. And I really don't do it much on Twitter anymore because, I mean, it doesn't matter. But like, I'm going to do what I do, number one, okay? Number two, for me, and this is, I've talked about this before, but I don't even, to me, supporting the U.S. and the Olympics, supporting U.S.S. National team, women's national team, et cetera,

doesn't even, for me, it doesn't even cross my mind as like a patriotic venture. It's like, man, I just like the teams. Okay, I like the teams. I'm an American. Who the hell else am I about to root for? Okay, number one.

Like, all I know is America because of, you know, the June team just passed. Okay, you know what I'm saying? If you took that day and reflected on, on what that whole thing is about, you know what I'm talking about? Maybe.

So, yeah, I'm American. I am not necessarily, am I proud to be an American? I don't know. I have conflicted feelings about this. And that's another thing. The idea that Trump just brought up the, that Trump. Up until Trump, America was just unassailable. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know what I'm saying? It's like, man. Come on. Like, if you needed that, then, you know, you might have. You haven't been paying attention. haven't been paying attention. I was going to say you may or may not have been under a rock. I don't want to... Look, I'm trying to avoid all potential smoke that may come my way.

But what it comes down to do for me is just, look, I'm just going to do me. I support the men's national team, support the women's national team, because I like the teams. And also, I think it's just an interesting project. It's an interesting project, it's an interesting project, it's interesting venture. Like, here is something that America has not put its best foot forward towards being the best. And what are the pathways to get in there? But even though, what are the pathways to get in there without the full backing of the American machine? Like, we're never going to get it, right? America is never going to put its full weight behind soccer.

I don't think, I don't think. Not its full, full, full weight. you know and so how do we beat Argentina in the in the final a few weeks here right so how do we take these little pockets of soccer enthusiasts all over the country

put them together and hopefully create something that's maybe bigger than us and better than what we could accomplish individually all that is very interesting to me yeah I agree it is an interesting project and um you know if you if you fell out of love with the national teams because of the election of 2016.

I want to invite you back. Come back. Come back. And I'm not saying that it's an unreasonable position to take. That anybody here is being unreasonable. I'm just telling you what I'm doing and how I think about these things. I don't know how much, I mean, it's not, I don't want to claim patriotism as part of the reason I like the national team. But it is, you know, I am an American.

It is, makes me, there's something a little more to it than just, like, I root for the, St. Louis Cardinals or something. Sorry. I know that that triggers people to you. I just grew up a Cardinals fan, so it comes to mind. I am worried about the timing of this. We're going to get a bunch of people to flood back to the team once I hear this. And there's just going to be another election.

Yeah. I don't even, well, I don't want to give them to that. Aiden Morris to Middlesbrough Big news Big news Yep We you know We'll take

Yeah you know I can't even pretend like I'm super excited I can't even pretend like I'm super excited But I'm Look we'll see what happens when Aiden gets over there He should I mean he profiles pretty well to be able to Muck it up in the championship

He's a business handler in the midfield there. So, yeah, we'll take it, man. We'll take it. It's going to be a nice occasional addition to the weekend to have him run around, making some firm tackles. That's exactly right. So it's going to bring something to the experience for everyone who's falling these guys every weekend. I wouldn't watch him every game. Would be my recommendation.

Are you saying that, are you saying that you, that you, that you, But you wouldn't have followed him before? I am a Euro snob. Okay. Hardline Euro snob. So I in fact did not follow him before. Shouldn't even be, I have no grounds to even talk. I shouldn't even be talking about him.

I haven't earned that right, but now I will watch him. I'm glad to, I mean, I'm just kidding. He's kidding about being a hardline Euro snob, aren't you? Well, I don't identify. I guess I don't identify as one, but I, am what I don't want too much MLS. But that's mostly because we talk about Americans Abroad every Monday.

Yeah. So there's only but so many games a person can watch. Yep. And Americans abroad is that's the gig. Well, you guys got anything else we should talk about? No. Well, do you all want to talk about Weston McKinney transfer rumors? Wesner McKinney to the MLS.

I'm hearing. I don't. Yeah. Look, look, man, until we get a Tom Boggart, until we get a Tom Boggart tweet, I'm not hearing any of it. That's what it comes down to. Yeah.

I hope he doesn't end up in Cincinnati. I think he has, you know, he has a lot to, a lot he can still accomplish on the other side of the ocean. And, you know, I'm something of a Euro. not myself. So that's right. There's that too. Let's wrap it up here. Big day tomorrow. We've got to get our rest. Stay hydrated. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.