Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #510: What the USMNT needs from a new coach

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

Greg and Belz wrestle with the rumor mill ramping up on Steve Cherundolo, what Herve Renard might bring, what needs to be fixed, etc. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody. Greg Burrhalter got the sack on July 10. As you know, now the search for a replacement is underway. Or is it, is there really a search happening? Greg Velazquez, how are you? All right, so we've heard a lot of, there's a lot of smoke. We've seen a lot of the smoke now surrounding Steve Chirondolo,

which is, in my mind, just, just, uh, a decoy to let ervae, as we've been told, it's pronounced, coach the France women's national team in peace. We don't want to be taking away the spotlight from that big tournament. And then I'm sure we will be announcing him as our new coach in middle.

I am less sure than you are. It's the old bait and switch. We just saw him do it. I mean, we've seen him do it twice now. Crocker's been here for two hires, and we've actually had two baits and switches. Ooh, okay. We had the Marsh bait and switch.

Marsh was sure that he was going to be named the coach. That's how certain he was. Yeah. A bunch of journos who followed the team really closely have a lot of access. We're sure that it was going to be Marsh. Didn't happen. And then on the women's side, after Vlato was done, they leaked three names.

And they were all three like, you know, viable, if not boring kind of candidates. and then suddenly just swooped in out of nowhere with one of the best and most exciting coaches in the world. So is it possible that Dolo is just the latest bait and switch? I doubt it. I hope that's the case. I mean, so there's been a lot of news this morning, I think, kind of a busy day. So I want to play the clip of Dolo being asked about his coaching future from last night. But first, we should acknowledge on the women's side some really bad news.

Kat Makario with apparently some minor knee irritation is going to miss the Olympics. This is sad because she missed. How long was she out? Like more than a year. Two years, yeah, almost two years. Finally got back on the field in June for the U.S. Got back on the field for Chelsea in the spring a little bit, but that's too bad for her. Yeah, it's, again, it's devastating.

Like, it's one of those things where it's, you know, the joy, the participation algebra is net neutral because obviously now Lynn Williams steps into an Olympic role that she's, she's named as a replacement onto the active roster. And it's very exciting for Lynn Williams, outstanding player. But yes, there's definitely something just extra devastating about McCart. Mario missing this opportunity after missing the World Cup after barely featuring in the 2021 Olympics, the Tokyo Olympics, in what we, you know, could have easily been her coming out party on the international stage, but, you know, coaches' decisions, you know, delayed that. So, yeah, there's no way around it.

This is, this is a sad morning on that, on that front. It sucks. We've got the sad morning and then we've got the super boring smoke on the men's side. Yeah, so that's mostly what this episode is going to be about. Like, you know, what do we need from a new coach? And first we'll deal with the news. Then we'll talk about what we kind of want from a new coach. But here's the clip of Dolo from last night.

And you've got to imagine, you can't see it because this is a podcast, but the body language here is everything. when he's asked the question, he tries and fails to suppress a smile. And then he, you know, you just hear the answer to the question yourself. Is your intention to be LASC's coach through the end of the season?

That's where your head's at? I am LAMC's head coach right now. And that is my job, what I do every single day and tomorrow morning and training is at 1115, an hour later, and I will be there for that. Yeah. I mean, if it's a bait and switch, he's also being baited and switched, it seems.

Which, again, par for the course. Yeah, right. We are just now waiting on Steve Trondell's agent to tweet out, Steve Tarunnoll will not be the next U.S. men's national team coach. Right. In a bit of a hissy fit online. Well, one can only hope. I mean, so I guess the thing about Chorundalo is, you know, he was an incredibly,

reliable right back for the U.S. men's national team. Legend is maybe a little strong, but a strong figure in the history of the national team as a player. So Dolo was on the 2002 roster, but did not play. He was, and then he featured in the 2006 and 2010 World Cup. Okay. And he was just, again, he was just super reliable. Just, you put him in there and didn't have to worry about it.

I mean, he was outstanding in that England match in 2010 for my money. got the nickname the mayor of Hanover because of his long tenure at Hanover 96 and ended up in the youth coaching ranks for them. I don't think that went extremely well, but he was there for a little while. Then he kind of got the LAFC job out of the blue a little bit. At LAFC, he did win MLS Cup, but like, you know, what's the feeling there for you? Is he – did he do anything special? Did he, I mean, he put in Gareth Bale to score a last minute game winner in that game. He kind of inherited a bit of a system from Bob Bradley, right?

I mean, a system, yeah, he inherited an all-star team. Yeah. And then I think added Gareth Bail to that. Yeah, we got Bail and Carlos Vela. And MLS, that's, you got a stew going right there. even though Bail wasn't even a regular player for them. I mean, he was like a strategically deployed asset. He was a golf pro who could change a game in an instant.

Yeah. I think the LASC stint has gone well for him. Is there anything about him that is inspiring to you as a coach? I mean, I'll be very frank. I'm going to have to dive into LIFC's tape. because I haven't watched a ton of Steve Toronto's tactics closely. Like I just haven't done that.

He's not any, I mean, the whole thing comes down to do me for like, he's not a sexy pick. So we're going to, I think you and I both are going to come across here is extremely down on this rumor. I want to just make clear.

It has nothing to do with how far I think we will go in the 2026 world. Cup. Like, I don't think Toronto looms us to a terrible performance or an early exit in the 2026 World Cup. And I don't know that many of the other realistic names that we talk about would give us a better chance of getting farther in the 2026 World Cup.

So I kind of want to just say that right off the bad. Yeah. I think I agree with that. I think it is, I mean, nobody wants to hear this. I don't even really enjoy saying it, but it's just kind of like. like Waki said the other day, a coin flip. The results at the World Cup are going to be a coin flip, whether it's Herve Renard or Juergen Klopp or Chirondolo.

You know, as Tata Martino said in an article, somebody posted recently about his feelings about Greg Burhalter, he said, we're just two managers, the players on the field, are the players on the field, one team will go home happy, one team will go home sad. It's kind of like a Pablo, Uruda. It's very profound.

It's very dorm room 3 a.m. stuff. I'll push back on the coin tosses. Please. I am a big advocate for understandings of probability. You know, and that's come up a lot in the various discussions we've been having in the U.S. discourse over the past five years. But it's not a coin flip, right? You don't just say, oh, it's a coin flip.

You're a winner. You don't. It's like a 20-sided die. And it's like, this coach might get you where you have nine good outcomes. This coach gets you seven, where seven roles are good outcomes. And you obviously want the guy who has nine. No one that we hire is going to give us 18 good outcomes on a 20-sided die against Uruguay. But somebody could give us slightly better chances than somebody else.

My thing is there's almost no way. to know ahead of time in these hiring processes, which guy is the one who's going to give you the slightly better odds. And we've seen it every, we've seen it with any team at every level. Columbia hired a guy with very little experience right after they crashed out of World Cup qualifying for the 2022 cycle. And they have not lost since then.

You know, like they, they, I don't know if anyone at the time would have been like, oh yeah, that guy is a home run hire. You know, you couldn't have asked her, if it was him or clop, you take this guy for sure. Like, that's crazy. But yet, here they are in the Copa America final on a run of outrageously positive results. Yeah, just as it... Go ahead.

Well, and so I was going to contrast that on the women's side for the U.S. because we just had this hire, right? And we have hired a home run on paper. We still have no idea how the team is going to actually do with Emma Hayes' coach. But going back to the last cycle, and again, Vlaq-Cole. and basically disgrace, right? But going back to when Vlachos hired, he seemed every bit like a excellent hire.

It seemed like there was a lot of optimism that he was going to come in and reshape the U.S. women into a team that played a more sophisticated soccer. And that just did not happen. And didn't even come close to happening. There was almost no sophistication to Vlocco's U.S. women's team.

So it's just incredibly difficult to project how a hire is going to shape a team unless that hire has one exact distinct style that they run and only run, then you might have some idea. But you still wouldn't know how successfully that style would be implemented. Yeah, it just doesn't feel like any style is going to be that successfully implemented over the next, you know, two years. How do you feel about the timeframe that we're working with here?

You feeling like, you know, what can you expect somebody to do? or how do you feel about it? Because that gets brought up a lot. Like it's crunch time, you know. I do, I do think there's not, there's not much opportunity for preparation. Like, I'm talking about, you know, meaningful, difficult games

against non-concaf opponents. There basically is no opportunity for that over the next two years. So it's just got, it has to be somebody who can just do something relatively straightforward on the field, tactically. Like, tactics are so spring of 20.

I don't care about tactics anymore. Like, forget it. It needs to be somebody who can inspire the players to, well, you know, a figure with Gravitas, who demands a sense of responsibility against the ball in transition on restarts. And, I mean, that's really like my main priority right now. Because the chances will come or they won't. I mean, yeah, we can set the team up better to create more chances. I know that that's true in the abstract.

We didn't create, you know, boatloads of chances under Burrhalter. Will the next coach flip a switch and all of a sudden we'll be, we'll be singing out there in full song? I don't know. That's, that is the hope, right? Like, again, for the coaches that we discuss is sort of realistic, including Ervay Renard, if you talk about him, if you talk about Steve Chorondolo, I don't think either of them can come in and transform us into,

a bargain store Spain. Obviously, no one's going to come in and transform us into Spain right now, what Spain are doing in Euros. But, like, I don't think anyone's going to come in and transform us into a bargain store, Spain. And I don't know that someone can come in and transform us into a completely different-styled team that, you know, everyone's talking about all the throwback styles of, like, what we just need to absorb and then be lethal on the counter. I don't know that we can just transform into that team either.

But I am hopeful, first off, I would love if they do either of those things. Because it would be interesting, right? Yeah. But yeah, I'm not optimistic that it's going to happen. You know, you're talking about the alertness in those transition moments, you know, the key moments of defense, defensive danger where we have been, I think, lacking, especially from our midfield of all places. You know, we consider our midfield like a pretty strong area,

or at least we did going into this summer window. But I absolutely think that has been a shortcoming of the team for years now. So that is an area. I do think like a new coach could improve that area. I do think a new coach, it's certainly possible, could improve our attacking threat in possession. We said this a lot. Just because Burrhalter isn't able to do it,

doesn't mean that it can't. be done. He might have just been not very effective at getting the team the emphasis on the exact right details of attacking in possession. Even if he had some of the broad strokes in place. So I'm

hopeful that he can. It's also possible that the new guy will be worse at the thing we've been very good at, which is sort of our defensive structure in shape. So this is what I'm hoping to see is I want us to maintain the

defensive structure, solidity that we've had. And then I want us to improve the little details around that, which is awareness of danger and, and again, just committing with desperation when necessary, bodies into the box to defend. And then I'm hopeful that we see some kind of general improvement on our ability to threaten in possession. Yeah. Okay.

I mean, that's all kind of vague. And it's just like, yeah, maybe a new coach can do that. I don't have any reason to believe. Renard is a genius at that or Trondolo will be the next hottest manager around but that's the hope right

Yeah Renard continues to be intriguing I mean his record is far from spotless He's just been everywhere He's had every Everything's happened But I do think

You know watching that video of his halftime speech Through a translator To the Saudi Arabia team after they went down one zero to Argentina, you do get the sense that he, I mean, basically what he's saying is, when they're near the box, you need to, you need to get serious, you know?

I mean, that's basically the whole message. Get serious with your body language. Get serious with how, like, your sense of responsibility, you have to give everything. And that is tailor made. That is tailor made for where this podcast is right now. Men's national team. Kind of, yeah.

It does happen to be quite a bit of overlap. Was it that speech? Was it his aura that helped them, that put them over the edge to beat Argentina? I don't know. I don't know at all about that. But yeah, like the Renard stuff, so we're focusing on Renard and Dolo because we're, but those are just, you know, types. It could be a dozen coaches in the vicinity of that cluster, right?

And the reason that I've been so high on Renard, again, is not because I think he gives us some even slight. I don't have any reason to believe he gives us even a slightly better chance of advancing in the World Cup, right? His Morocco team in 2018 finished dead last in their group. Saudi Arabia, of course, underpowered, but dead last in the group. And then that Morocco team in 2019, yeah, crashed out of Afcon in the round of 16 to Benin. Benin. Benin, apologies.

It's okay. But Renard's had success, had enough success. I'm going to be watching the France women very closely. And I'm going to be watching Ere very closely because he is extremely easy to watch. He's an incredibly charismatic, good-looking man. And I'm just like, I just want that. If we're throwing darts at coaches, I want the really sexy charismatic dart to lead our program for two very high-profile years heading into a very high-profile tournament. It comes down to that for me.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it is a big contrast with Dolo on that front, you know? And Burhalter. And Burrhalter. Yeah, we've had five years of like very dorky, plain drab. Which again, these are, this is absolutely aesthetics. But I would just prefer a wildly different aesthetic for the next two years. Yeah, I mean, totally agree with that.

So let's see. So Mike Waitala. from Soccer America, a guy I respect a lot, has put out a, like, a to-do list for the next USMNT coach, you know, like a day after it was fired. And I won't read all five of them, you know, subscribe to Soccer America, support the OGs. But he, the first one is that the new coach needs to ignite

intra-squad competition. What do you make of this? I mean, this is something that's going around. Is that really a need? I feel like that's, that's, continues to just be sort of an ad hoc retroactive complaint, right? Like an issue that we almost have to sort of manufacture, because if something has to be wrong,

because we crashed out of the copa in the group stage. But you look at like who's been having some rough games, and I don't know that there isn't competition for those players, or that a new coach can just kind of create that competition. Or that there really is a better option anywhere. for that spot. So set number two is, you know, fix the central defense.

Well, easy to say that, but... Right. Cameron Carter Vickers gets his shot and, you know, has two somewhat shocking performances in a row. Like, he didn't have those shock. Certainly Carter Vickers didn't have those performances because he feels comfortable in his place. He's not a comfortable minutes man for the U.S.

and never was. So, you know, does Richards, is Chris Richards afraid that someone's coming? Does he need to be? How can you make him afraid when the guys who come in are

worse? I don't, yeah, Richards doesn't strike me as someone who's been in the job so long that he feels like comfortable in it. You know, he's relative newcomer when it comes to that. So I don't know,

I don't know how you fix the central defense. I mean, it does need to be, It does need to be fixed, but where's the manual? Right. I mean, maybe it is just that, uh, maybe you just need a shouty or coach. Maybe you need someone shouting like, like, uh, like knock it off out there, Chris. Cut it out. Cut it out, boys.

Uh, I really don't have an answer. But, you know, on the, on the comfort level thing, again, Burrhalter has jettisoned players. Uh, there's a long list of players who have been jettisoned by him. There isn't, I don't think there is any, there is or should be any. sense that like, I am safe here. And so I don't necessarily sort of agree with that. I don't know how a new coach is going to come in and sort of like upset this. You're not going to go deeper, I don't, too much deeper into the pool than what we have

been doing since the World Cup. You can't. There just isn't anybody. I mean, not at this moment, there doesn't appear to be anybody there who's like a silver bullet. And, you know, I'm always ready to, like, point out the next guy who is ready, who is going to help us, you know, who I think is going to help us. I've done that to my own detriment over the years, you know, jumped the gun and said, like, this guy, you know, Richie Ledesma is going to help us in the midfield someday. And then he didn't. So it's like I'm alert.

I feel like I'm alert to the possibilities out there. just nobody compels. Yeah, so it gets down to like, should Tyler Adams feel like he should be in every game starter? And is Tyler Adams, and not only just that, like I don't think he should feel like he is,

but then the real question is, does Tyler Adams think that he is in every game starter to the point that it has a detrimental effect on his play for the U.S. national team? And that's where I feel like it's just a really speculative kind of a reach to be like the reason he's making these mistakes, is because he feels so safe in his spot. The reason Tim Way lached out is because he's just so comfortable with Greg Berhalter.

And again, we just watched Columbia have a guy take a terrible red card in a Copa America semifinal. Like, is it because he felt so comfortable with his manager? It just feels like trying to slap a explanation on something that sometimes can't be explained. Yeah, fair enough. And it should be bears mentioning Columbia. we've talked about this on various other calls, but Columbia down a man for 45 minutes against Uruguay still won the game.

How is that even possible? This also goes back to like the concepts of probability, right? So Columbia did win the game as an outstanding achievement for them. They didn't like shut Uruguay down with 10 men, of course. And they shouldn't be expected to. It's not a knock on them. but like when Luis Suarez has a shot off the post Like if that goes in is that suddenly mean Colombia are

A disaster and a failure or you know I mean like is it How do you how do you assess the what what Columbia have accomplished And just sort of ignore those kinds of dice rolls? Yeah I mean there was a spirit to the way they were playing that I just you That is not perceptible when the US goes down a man the last two times and they also like nearly scored twice in the last 10 minutes and again to make their lead to zero so it was it yes you would have got chances but it felt it was a different feeling to it than absolutely just the total the just the total shambolic desperation of the u.s.

when we go down under berhalter go down a man so so yeah it was a percent a difference you could perceive the other thing that objectively you could see happening that again goes back to just our how naive our player pool is. And again, this is partly coaching too. This is absolutely a point that could have specifically been made. Columbia go down a man in like the 44th minute, whatever, right before halftime. They come out in the second half and not 30 seconds into the second half. They've got a man down on the ground rolling around.

Like Columbia do. I don't remember a single time that the U.S. against Panama had players down rolling around needing treatment for 60 seconds from like nothing. Like, right? I want a guy 40 yards away from the play. Ball goes out of bounds. Drop to the ground. Like, get somebody over there to stretch your hamstring out, whatever.

Well, we conceded like two minutes after we scored, so it was, we didn't have a lot of time to do that kind of stuff. But through the entire game, if you're going to sit in your 5-3-1, right, and absorb. I'm not relitigating Panama. I'm just saying this is another thing that this other level of, whether it's, preparation or again just execution. You need to execute wasting time. Like that's what you're doing out there. You're you turned it into a clock killing exercise.

You can kill clock doing that because they never add as much time as is injured often. They almost never do. And the other thing is just it breaks up the amount of defending stretches you have to defend for. So instead of like having to do all this work for eight minutes at a time and then with a couple of counter attacks going the other way for you in there mixed in there that are going to stab your legs. Like just break it up, right?

Like, just have a list. Like, literally write it down on the chalkboard. A new coach and be like, all right, first guy down is going to be pool sick. Then we'll have, we'll have Wes go down after that. Like, you got to, you script out who's going down. Like, whatever. But Columbia, I mean, all of these teams that we've been watching in Copa have been so transparently ready to do that. whether it's just numbers even and they're just killing clock because they have a lead and they've got the result they want or whether they're playing down a man, just hit the deck and break the game into two-minute bouts of soccer.

Yeah. So anyway, another frustration. We're just babes in the woods, man. We are. We don't have that. We don't have any of that going on. Like playing it so honorably. Like, all right, if you want to do that, fine.

But then you've got to eat the result with honor and take your, egg your firing honorably. Yeah. Let's take a break real quick. We'll be back in a minute. Okay, we're back. My main thing I want from a new coach is a shouty, somebody who shouts a lot and gets people to take winning a little more seriously. In those key moments, right?

I'll take that. Yeah. I don't think Dolo is that guy. not shoddy enough. I looked, I look to really, you know, like the spreadsheets of depth charts. I'm just like, man, I just, there's not anyone on here who I think any new coach. I think everyone's sense with Dolos will just be sort of more of the same, right? Just same, same old.

And I have no idea if it will be or not. But that's the sense that I think most people have. I'm looking at like, if you bring in a total outsider who is looking at the pool with completely fresh eyes, like, who are they going to throw in there that hasn't been thrown in before? Like maybe like a, I mean, Austin trustee or a Mark McKenzie. McKenzie's had plenty of reps, but not recently. But is John Brooks coming back? No.

One thing a coach with a completely fresh perspective could do is shake up the midfield. You know? Yeah. Say like, look, this, look, he's look, look, I've heard the legend of MMA, but. Maybe. We're playing a diamond. Yeah. I guess if we take the Renard and Dolo examples,

you've got to think if Tarundolo gets hired, Tyler Adams is starting at the six. You know, it's going to continue. Maybe if you get somebody like Renard in, he looks at it and he goes, look, Johnny Cardoso does more of what I want. He's going to be the starting six. Or at least there's going to be a competition.

And then, you know, we'll sort of build from there. I mean, that's one thing. So should Johnny start over Tyler? I'm not, I don't know. I mean, maybe he should have started over Tyler in this last tournament because Tyler was just barely fit. But I don't know, at least that's one thing. That's one place where somebody could come in and see things a little differently.

To sort of undercut my own point, like Burrhalter might have seen it in a much more gray way than I, than we think he did, you know, and just wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger on the Cardoso era. I don't know. here's here's where i'm here's where i'm really gonna actually uh wonder where fresh eyes could and even tolos fresh eyes could could matter and that is my guy who should have been on the roster for cobo america uh not dwayne holmes uh jordan pfock like he's a guy who again if you're gonna change

the style and pfot could be a guy where it's like why aren't we using this guy why aren't we having a guy that we can kind of hoof it up to when we need to uh hoof it towards in the box Like PFAC could jump to like Striker 2 in a new era Yeah And I That has long been sort of a boring point of yours In my opinion But I'm I'm more

Some much more I'm taken I'm much more receptive to it now Because I mean I've never did I never disagreed with it like he offers a different look right You can he can be like the big guy that you you lump it up to if you're if you're under the kosh and he can like he can provide an outlet he can score with his head we don't really have that in the strikers that we had in this last camp

i mean i guess sergeant but you know he barely played he would he would be the guy for if the next coach was going to come in and and just forfeit any any idea of like well we got to figure out what we're going to do in possession if he's just like no we don't need possession we're we're hooffing it up to the big lad and then and then we'll see what happens from there we'll around it. And again, that could be, that could be air of it because it's not like Saudi Arabia. We're playing a tiki-taka. Right. Would you be, if the new coach comes in and says, hey, we're playing, we're going with a 352, which is really a 5-3-2 or whatever, and we're just going to sit back no matter what from kickoff, try to hit on the counter. Would you like

that? I am not an idealist, so I am fine with that if it is done in a really organized and coherent way. Okay. This is a good difference point between the two of us, but I feel like you're kind of now ready to throw in the towel on your ideals. Oh yeah, my ideals are, my ideals are in the mud. I think it'd be fascinating. I can just totally see the discourse shifting, you know, after the first group game. Maybe we get like an ugly one-zero win. over somebody really, like, really not impressive. And then everybody's like, you know, Air Veer Renard, soccer terrorist.

Three points in the World Cup is three points in the World Cup. So let's gain that out, too, because we were talking about, like, again, the floor, the outcome floor now is so low after Cop America. We are almost knock on whatever word is around you, but we are basically assured of besting it. because the World Cup group is likely to look very similar to the Copa group where there's going to be a pretty bad team of like a Bolivia caliber. There will be a team maybe a little bit better than Panama as the second worst team will play.

And then there will probably be a team a little bit worse than Uruguay as the best team we're going to play in the group. And there are going to be some third place teams that advance. Like we are going to be in prime position to advance. And then it's just going to be like, we'll get our knockout game. Well, at least, we'll at least get our chance. Yeah. So even a soccer terrorist is going to get us into the knockouts.

Boring Tarondola is going to get us to the knockouts. Okay. Should we check Twitter, see if any news has been released? So there's no news, you know, in real time that we can break real-time news breaking on a podcast. It's my favorite concept. But there has been some rumors from the rumor creators. that Dolo could be the guy, but he might not be the guy until after the MLS season wraps up in December. So we could be looking at Dolo being the guy starting in January.

Your thoughts? Dislike. Dislike. I don't want him to be the coach anyway. But to give him the job, but allow him to spend, you know, 25% of the time we have between now and the start of the World Cup coaching LAAFC. So no, no, I don't like that at all. I would, it'd be pissed. You wouldn't, you wouldn't immediately, like, get LFC games on your, on your calendar and watch every single tactical wrinkle. Absolutely.

Absolutely not. Yeah, it'd be pretty brutal. I mean, the only way it could be awesome is if they do that. And then, like, they bring Mikey Vars in to be the interim. Look at you. That just changed Bell's old demeanor. Step coach comes in and actually just has us playing lights out. We ripped through Jesse Marshes, Canada in September.

Yeah. We play the best. Because again, you know, going back, a lot of the Burrhalter out faction from Nations League, when BJ was running the show, just loved, loved it. But that was a total mirage. Like, we were totally playing the same game. If virus comes in and we actually play, like, lights out. Maybe, maybe suddenly they're like, you know what?

We just, we already got our guy. Dolo, you just keep enjoying your life in L.A. we're just going to run this out with Mikey. I would prefer. That would be the Argentina-Colombia route, right? Where you take the youth coach. Yeah. Whether you kind of have just stumbled into it by convenience and cheapness.

I don't know if that's what their driving factors were, but I can totally see that happening for the U.S. I mean, I would rather Varus than Tarandolo. Well, then that's your best out. That's your best case. Toronto takes it in December. Boris comes in and is the real, the real actual step coach stepping up in this way of like the style and performance actually being a huge leap forward. And us just being like, we're just going to keep Mikey.

Mikey pushes all my idealism buttons, you know. He'd be the guy to bring you back. Yeah. But, you know, I think that that would be if he were hired as a coach, which seems extremely, extremely, extremely unlikely. that would not be well received in the broader landscape, you know. It's a no name who, you know, was on Burrhalter's staff. It's not going to, people aren't going to like that. I would be fine with it.

Yeah, I give you your saying. I think it wouldn't. But it'd be, again, in this scenario, he's going to win people over in the arena. Yeah, that's right. I mean, BJ probably the most popular USMNT coach of all time. Yeah, he passed grandpa. Dave. And yeah, like, we'll see how we'll all be following along with B.

yeah, you'll be following MLS spells. Don't pretend you're not going to check in on BJ. I am not going to check in on BJ. I am not pretending. No, I mean, it's, you know, I'll, I'll, the one thing about MLS that's kind of interesting to me is Kevin Sullivan, 14 year old, who is the, you know, perhaps the next big talent coming up. Two goals and two games in MLS next pro.

All right. Sure thing. Sure thing, Kevin Sullivan. That's his nickname. I mean, you know, gotta have something to be excited about. I know, I know. I'm still excited about Timwaya. I'm excited for the Timwaya redemption art. It's going to be Beckham-esque. Okay. Yeah. Beckham famously never actually getting any further in the World Cup. Then the time you got the red guard. Well, um...

I don't know how helpful we've been with this episode. Boring Trondolo will get us a knockout game. That's the takeaway. I wish he was at least a little better liar. He's just absolutely chees-in in that video. You're such a, you're such a jib purist. Yeah. Dolo and Twyla are your two, like, least favorite coaches of all time.

Pretty bad jibs. They're sloops. I mean, no disrespect to this loop. I'm sure it's a very fine ship. But anything else, Greg? No, let's, again, let's refresh our phones nonstop as we wait for the women to kick off tomorrow. Oh, one other thing. Yeah.

Yeah, we're going to, that, oh, man, and then that reminds me that Macario's out. So. But, I mean, again, I'm not going to, I'm not saying, but, like, it sucks Macari's out. But you ask Mexico. Like that's a, we're excited about this. Yeah. Revenge on the line. Should be up for it.

And one other thing on the coach, you know, somebody was asking in a, I'm in like more and more text threads with people who are sort of like kind of interested in soccer. And it seems like all they talk about is soccer. So one of them, some old college friends, they were asking, well, what about Tieri-on-Ree? Why can't he be the coach? I know, it's a name that gets bandied about. And the problem is he has not been very good as a manager, right? I mean, it's that simple. He is amazing on TV.

Maybe the best, like, TV analyst there is. Obviously, I mean, just a transcendent player. But he hasn't been a very good coach. So that's probably why not Tyrion Rie. Yeah, I would actually feel like Tyrion Rie would make us less likely to advance farther into the, again, probabilities. Fewer outcomes on that 20-sided dice. But also, I'll take Tyrionne in a heartbeat because it is Tyrionneri.

And for me, again, I'm a simple man. And if you get a chance to put one of the invincibles on your sideline, you do it. Tyrionry, so he's above the Dolo line for you? I mean, yeah, like I said, it's a cluster. He's above the dolo line for me, but not for you? It's a cluster. So it's not a line. You have all these dots

You don't actually know which dot is which coach Until you actually It's like a it's a quantum physics experiment Once you measure it Then you can see the name of the coach But you can't you can't tell its name and position at the same time Wow Greg Vera I want Vera

I just want a full staff of invincible So Vieira's above the Quantum cluster The Doe-onri quantum cluster Devo, Henri quantum cluster? Vieira, the head coach, Henri, his tactical mastermind. Okay. So you want, Vieira more than Renard?

That's tough, man. I wish you wouldn't ask me that question. What would I do? Yeah, I would take, I would take, well, I would take, I'll do it this way. Vieira with Henri is a package deal. Not co-coaches, but both of them on the staff. over over air bay because that you can't get sexier than than Arsenal uh undefeated season yeah bring bird camp in for some uh for some motivational speeches

instead of the guy who rips the phone book that uh clinsman brought in you bring in denis bird camp that's how you do it that is exactly how you do it i feel like we're missing something here the i think the thing that you're you feel like we're missing is a discussion of the invincibles for the U.S. men's national team in 2024 and not including Giovanni von Broncors as a as a guy to have on the staff because we have to we do need to maintain some connection to G.O. Raina's family past. So this is what will sort of keeps at least the possibility of really incredible drama alive. Okay. Well, one thing I did forget, which I realize I now should talk about is the goalkeeper position.

That is another spot where, you know, maybe a fresh set of eyes could come in and demand something better from somebody. I mean, I would love to get better goalkeepers by demanding it. I don't know that it's possible to do that. Yeah. Well, no, I, I, yeah, you're right. But Turner, we could use a little competition in the between the posts, between the pipes. Turner's sort of taking himself down to like basically replacement level.

And, you know, maybe he still is the best goalkeeper we have. But he'll look a lot less clownish in a system that just lumps the ball up to Jordan Pfeck. That's true. You're really, you're going down, we're going down this road, aren't we? I think we're. Vieira wants to knock it up to the big lad. Yeah. All right.

Well, hopefully Gio Raina gets his club situation sorted out. Hopefully everybody else finds a place where they can play a lot. And hopefully we don't hire Steve Trondolo later today. And with that, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.