Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #532: Morgan retires, XIs for the Canada match, U6 pool noodles

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Greg and Belz quickly discuss Alex Morgan's retirement announcement, talk about the Gio injury, the increasing imminence of Poch and Mikey Varas's comments, and then dive in on U6 soccer coaching, which is Belz's obsession for the fall. 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, we're doing a quick show the day before USA, Canada in Kansas City. The game is at 4 p.m. Eastern Time tomorrow, Saturday. Greg, how you doing? Doing all right, bells. We got some non-men's news dropping yesterday, right? Just dropped yesterday. The biggest news.

I mean, not unexpected, but Alex Morgan announced her retirement from the game of soccer. Thoughts. Alex Morgan, icon, a multi-time world champion. Just incredible memories from so many runs of tournaments. First and foremost, what always comes to mind is that Anna to a knockout game in the 2012 Olympics in the UK. The match winning goal in Nexter Time,

a key part of the, I mean, the thrilling, what was it? four three final. The recency, you know, what do I think of recently, of course, is like how she kind of ended her career with the U.S.

was national team, and that's the World Cup in New Zealand, where we feel like she was robbed of, I feel like she was robbed of the chance to have like her late stage hero off the bench veteran era. Like we were robbed of that. And instead she was sort of stayed in the starting, line up longer than she probably should have.

Yeah. It's unfortunate that that's how it ended. But yeah, I think icon is the right word. She is, isn't it fair to say, she's probably the most recognizable American soccer player in history? Like, she's so famous, such a household name. Yeah, that's a great question. I'm going Rapino one, Rapino one.

And then maybe, maybe Morgan, maybe, because they've blown up. It's between those two. It's between those two. I would say Morgan won Rapino too. And I hate doing the comparisons anyway, but I think it's like interesting. I'm not going to try to have an official ranking. But I think it's...

You've got to give me three through ten. Just even like discussing the concept of it makes me think about like, you know, the team totally blew up in 99. Yeah. With the World Cup in the U.S. And then, like, it has just kind of had other milestone moments where it got big again. And, you know, going like the 2011 Abby Wombat goal, I believe, re-energized the public's sort of support for the team. And I feel like since then, it's kind of been a pretty steady, a pretty steady, like, growth of excitement and support and fame, like, essentially.

I think they've just increased their fame and a number of players on the team that are like famous. And we've got we've got some tremendous personalities on the team right now that have inherited the torch from Alex Morgan. Right. Yeah, well, just by the numbers real quick, 224 appearances, 123 goals. That makes her fifth all time. and goals scored for the program. Like you alluded to, two World Cup trophies, one Olympic gold medal.

And, you know, another big thing, which I think is at least as important to her as any of that stuff, is the role she played in the battle for equal pay. You know, she was a leader on the team, a key figure in that lawsuit in the sort of public campaign and then the ultimate victory.

And so, you know, It's a pretty big deal that she's hanging up the boots. Yeah, Morgan did a ton of off the field stuff as well that is obviously going to, you know, be more important than some of the trophies that she helped the United States women win. The equal pay stuff you already alluded to. She also used her status as a star player, the leverage that kind of comes with that to help stand up for players in the WSL against the coach abuse. that was rampant through the last decade. You know, she sort of was,

I don't know if, I don't even know he would say key player. She worked. She stood up for teammates to, uh, to try to, uh, have some of those abusive coaches,

uh, dealt with Paul Riley in particular. Um, at times, like, they were just met by roadblocks. Um, but you, you've, you know,

Alex Morgan, was one of the ones doing the right thing. Yeah. I think that's the right way to put it. Yeah. The future is exciting. The future of the front line for the women's national team is exciting. But, you know, we've got to acknowledge a legend.

All right. Let's go to the men's national team because there's game tomorrow. Let's see what... They're playing against Jesse Marsh, is who I think of. It's the opponent. Jesse Marsh. Yeah. Who finds himself feeling increasingly Canadian.

Good on him. Yeah, I mean, fine, whatever. I want to do starting 11s and talk a little about the news from the camp. But first let's hear from Mikey Varus, who is the interim coach once he was a guest on this podcast. And he's a guy who's jib I, the cut of whose jib I enjoy. This is a long statement. This is his opening statement in the press conference earlier today. And nothing revolutionary in it, but it just gives you a sense of how he's approaching things and how he talks about it.

So here goes. Three views going into this camp are quite simple. Long-term view was we want to move the program forward. We can't stand still. We cannot stand still. So the way that we're going to do that was having a really competitive training environment and getting back to being a front-footed team in terms of, of building a little bit of a higher pressure.

Nothing that we haven't done before. The team has always had this identity, and it's about showing who we are in those ways. The midterm view was simple. We want to set up all the players as individuals for success. So they got a little extra individual attention throughout the camp. And we want to set out for success not only in this window, but also for the transition that's coming,

because it is coming. And then the short term is we need to win for the men's national team. We understand that. So we need to put on winning performances. We all know that Copa America wasn't good enough. We understand that. We take responsibility for that. There's not a single character in that room who isn't willing to look in the mirror

and take that responsibility. And that's our short-term view. And questions? So it's worth note. He's smiling when he said that transition is coming. It is coming. He's confirmed. That's confirmation.

That's that's Pach's coming. Yeah, Potch's, Pach in. Pach in. And there's some, there's some rumblings, you know, in various places that USSF is in Barcelona today. And, I mean, should we shout out Jorge or I don't know. Yeah, let's give Jorge a shout out. Yeah, Jorge, who is like the, he's like the newsbreaker in the Discord, or one of them. They're the key one, really.

He says they're in Barcelona and it's happening as we speak. Pretty awesome. I'm sure they're excited to really bust him out during this window when we're going to have a reason to have eyes on the team. Yeah. We beat Canada and Jesse Marsh 6-0. and then we announce Potch, we're back, baby. And again, we're going to get into these lineups. It should be like a fun group of players to watch,

go up against what should be like an incredibly energetic, frenetic Canadian side, which I think adds to it. Because if it's just a sleepy game, like then it is not that fun. But I feel like there's no sleepy games in Jesse Marsh coached teams. No, not in Jesse Marsh's universe. Uh-uh. So the one fun player that is not going to be there Or one that is not going to be there

Gio Raina as most of you know already Went home, went back to Dortmund with a groin strain He suffered two days ago Which is come on man It's hard not to take some discouragement from that But here's what Vara said about Gio It's a shorter clip Yeah, geo unfortunately

you know, sustained an injury in the match day minus three training and it's really unfortunate because he was flying in the training man. You talk about showing who we are 100% just like the other guys bought in to doing that

pressing, getting on the ball, being who he is. He's a top player. We decided that the best thing is for him to get back to Dortmund and just focus on his recovery because we're really excited about you know, what he's going to do this season for them. So can we consider that confirmation that Gio Raina is going to be starting at Dorman for the rest of the year?

I don't believe so, no. All right. I mean, yeah, his, Gio's got, Gio's injury is just one of his struggles at the moment. But, you know, I still think the talent will, you know, show itself will carry him. But, you know, it's not. We've got, we've got, we've got them replace. laced in camp by one Kade Cowell, a similar player to Gio Raina,

similar strengths, uh, weaknesses, I feel like they're, I mean, they're basically just carbon copies. Like for like. Yeah.

El Vacero is, uh, and that's kind of, that's kind of fun. I imagine if we see him, it'll be off the bench. But, uh,

but he's a, you know, big strapping lad and, uh, very fast. And, scoring goals. So good on him.

You want to give 11s? Yeah, let's do it. Again, I feel like there's a fun group of players that you can put together for this kind of a game. Just no stakes other than, I mean, a little bit of stakes with the Canadians. I think there's stakes, man. Even before Marsh's arrival, like, I feel like there's something about the Canadians that we enjoy, like, we don't want them to have it. We don't want them to have anything nice.

No, we definitely don't. All right, I've got Turner and goal. I just don't think there's a viable alternative at the moment. Well, you don't need viable. This game doesn't matter. I think Turner's probably still our number one goalkeeper, but I'm starting the Barcelona kid. We got agents in Barcelona right now doing deals.

We got a Barcelona kid over here. Like, you just start him. Okay. I mean, that sounds fun. It's not going to happen, though, Greg. It's not going to happen. Will he be in uniform? Will he be on the bench?

Will you just have four goalkeepers? That's a good question. I'm not sure. Okay, fine. Probably not. Turner. Turner or coaching, you know, if you're a real swashbuckler like Greg. Scali's the right back for sure, right?

I mean, there's no question about that. I don't think there's any question. So who you got at centerback? Chris Richards. And I'm still going to do Tim Riem. I want to see us play through Canada's hyperactive press, and I think you're going to need a Tim Rame do that. Yeah.

I mean, it is true. There are no stakes to this game, but it really would not be good for us to lose, and I really want to win. We need to stem the negative tide of results and losing it at home against Canada, even if meaningless friendly. nobody wants that i think it's

imagine if it went to columbia route where we just get waxed be horrible yeah simply cannot happen so we have to my view is we gotta take we gotta we gotta we gotta win this one hey play anybody you want against new zealand on tuesday you know yeah even you can even play matt turner against new zealand on tuesday if you wanted to play coaching against new zealand no get coached in this one okay he's supposed to be the he's supposed to be the ball

playing oh yeah goalkeeper. So if we're going to, if we're going to take it seriously and pass through this Jesse Marsh Press, use the kid from Barcelona. You are just, you're just going crazy over there. Let's see. Yeah, I got Richards and Remus centerbacks too. Leftback, I'm curious who you want to start.

I'm starting. I'm going with a coin toss here. I mean, I just can't feel strongly about Lund v. Wiley, so I can't either. I'm not going to make myself pretend that's happening. I sat here, tried to put pen to paper, tried to choose one, and I couldn't. My hand wouldn't let me do it. Just, it's a coin toss. Sorry, everybody.

It just is. Midfielders. All right, so I'm going, I'm going Johnny Musa, Malik. I feel like I kind of try to thread a needle between Malik and Malik. I don't know if I did that right. I think it's, I think it's Malik. All right. So I got Malik, Musa, and Johnny.

Same. And that seems like it's, what, what's the only other option I feel like is Johnny, Musa, and Luca. And Luca hasn't played any soccer. I don't know. I mean. You could throw Aidan Morris out there maybe, but I don't think that's happening. Or Brenda in the midfield. Yeah.

Let Aiden take on the Kiwis. That's what I'm hoping for. Yeah. So we're the same on the midfield. Okay. Basically our only difference so far as goalkeeper. All right, front line. I bet we'll have, I bet we might not do this exactly the same way.

I think we will only because I think, I like Haji against the Canadians. I like trying to let them run against the, you know, the, once we can beat the press. So I've got Haji, Balo, and Pulisick. Pullsick on the right. I have Haji Sergeant and Pulitzer. Okay, there you go. Obviously, I'm not going to be sad if it's Ballo, but I think. give sergeant a chance man he's he's he's just really hasn't gotten a serious run with the national team it feels like in a long time ever i mean he

he really hasn't ever he started two games in the world cup uh out of our three group stage games i don't i feel like you can't call that like a serious run i mean those were his those were like his first minutes yeah he was good he was good at the world my sergeant my sergeant my sergeant Hedge is if you could do Sergeant on the right as like the right sort of winger and Pulisick on the left and then follow. Yeah. Wouldn't hate that either. But I think we get, I just would love to see Sergeant cooking like he did back in the

U-17 World Cup, you know. Greg nods his head knowingly. I'm like thinking of all the listeners who are like taking themselves back to the U-17 World Cup in 2019, 2017. That 2017? It might have been 2017, yeah. I can't remember. Speaking of Youth World Cups.

A full first grader's life ago. Okay, so basically we have the same lineup except you've got Ballot at Stryker and Turner and coaching at goal. I have Sergeant at Stryker and Turner at goal. We'll see what happens. I think, you know what? Let's not. Oh, no, we got to talk about one more thing. One more thing, Greg.

Yeah. There we go. Musa rolling through this press. Tomorrow. That's what's going to happen. I'm just throwing that in for how we're going to beat this press. And it's going to be Musa Rolling dudes and then just running up field with Haji, Pulisic, and Balo racing ahead of him. And then you got Malik kind of joining in doing fancy stuff as needed. Yeah, 4.0 USA. Not 6.4.

4.40 USA, you heard you here. First, take a break and come back and talk about U6 soccer. We'll be back in a second. All right, we're back. Before we get out of here, let's talk a little bit about U6 soccer. Because I did an episode with Will Parchman a few weeks ago. And people, people, I got a lot of messages saying, do more, do more, do more. And we talk about it, some in the Discord.

But I know you're more reluctant to come off as a know-it-all than I am. I like to, you know, straddle that line. But I think people need to hear your thoughts on pool noodles. Let's talk about that. Pool noodles, man. Kids love pool noodles. So you're talking about so many different universes of soccer players at that age and in this country. So it's like you're talking about, you know, you talk a lot about the culture and how we don't have the same culture.

And we have it in pockets, but we certainly don't have like nationwide soccer crazy. You think about what Argentina looked like, the nation looked like after winning the World Cup. The U.S. didn't look like that after the women won the gold medal. We weren't filling entire freeways with people having religious experiences. We enjoyed it and we love to watch our gal celebrate. But that just isn't our culture, right, in those numbers and those percentages. So I feel like a lot of times, you know, the experience you have in your region with coaching, when you're talking to that, that's going to be so different than in a region like Dallas

where it's just a soccer hotbed and you can find six-year-olds who are already immersed in the game culturally. You know, they watch on weekends. They, you know, watch their older brothers and sisters and moms and dads and dads playing soccer. They want to emulate that when they go to soccer practice. And then you have these universes of kids who, like,

when they go to your practice at U.S. 6, it is literally their first experience with the game of soccer. They have no concept of it. I don't know what the game looks like. And sometimes for those kids, like, you know, we talk about the pool noodle games, like you're almost like accidentally going to get them to touch a soccer ball. You're going to create like games around monsters and wiggling and bubbles and songs.

And part of the game is now you have to move this piece of treasure over to this part of the, over to this island, you know, from a pirate ship. And like you're just tricking the kid into kicking the ball with their feet. until that sort of light goes off where they're like, oh, I can manipulate this ball and now I can beat someone who's trying to take this away from me with their feet. But there is very much just like trickery involved in those early, early days. Yeah. And to really like want to keep coming to soccer, like look forward to it.

And now they want to come there. And then the lights will go off for some of them. Lights will go on for some of them, I should say. Yeah. and suddenly you might have like a little little soccer player instead of just a little pirate who wants to use their ball as a cannonball. Yeah, it's totally, that's totally my situation. So yeah, so you can have the high level like soccer nerd deep sicko conversations about like Rondos or not Rondos, passing or dribbling. Well, that's definitely not a conversation here you should be having about.

six-year-olds, I think, basically at any, in any soccer community. I mean, maybe there's somewhere you could do that, but certainly not mine. And I feel like, yeah, the conversation is so different at different age groups, too. Like U6 and U8 are pretty similar, but, you know, there's some differences. Oh, yeah. U-6 and U-10, like totally different, I mean, universes in some ways. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

By one thing, again, I'm not going to weigh in or even pretend like I have a grasp on like the cutting edge, you know, best practices for how the information should be delivered to eight-year-olds or what the topics should be, you know, with the most emphasis. But I will, like, harp on as someone who's spent a lot of time coaching older kids who didn't have this skill. I'm going to call it a skill, is the communication piece. Because there is no world, whether you think like it should be 90% dribbling, 10% bad, whatever your kind of approach is. You can always have communication and like introduced. So you don't have to like circle back and be like, oh, we'll teach them how to communicate later as they get older. Like first we just teach them how to do the past. Then we'll teach them to ask for the ball.

or because one of the things, you know, people talking to the Discord about, players understanding space and understanding these things and how do they, how do you know, teach that? And I genuinely think communication isn't just something to sort of help in the immediate moment of like, you know, so that the player hears that this is that you're open over here. I really think the communication piece introduced at an early age because any,

any kid can open their mouth and talk. They love to. It's hard to keep them quiet. They do. They love it. If you can channel that towards like communicating the game, I genuinely think the language piece that you try to sort of force them to incorporate absolutely helps them think the game and understand the game.

Because, you know, you get into like, well, how does this player know you're here if they're looking down? Well, they've got to hear you. Okay, well, you know, right away they'll all start, you know, just shouting their teammates' name and pass. You know, that's the first communication everyone will do. But you can layer from there to, all right, now you're not the one who's open. your teammates open over here. Like, how do you, now you've got to communicate that somebody else is open. So you start adding that and you're sort of forcing six and seven and eight year olds to like, be like, oh, here's what the map of the field looks like.

Here's what my teammate needs to hear so they can solve this. And you're sort of teaching them to coordinate the game themselves and to manipulate the pieces around. And, you know, from there, now you've got to tell this player to move into this space because they haven't seen it yet and you can help them see it. Oh, my biggest thing is always like, don't wait to teach communication to some after the fact piece. How do you teach U-Six's? Do you do it with U-6 players? Like, like, how do you teach them about communication? Because they're, yeah, go ahead.

Well, for U-Sixes, you can literally just be like, hey, tell your teammate, like, during training, you're introducing an activity. And you can just be like, tell your teammate, like, where they need to go with the ball. Like you tell you tell them where they need to go with the ball Like if they're going to the wrong place like help like you help them and it's always about talking about helping or offering solution So if you see that the pool noodle is about to get them can you tell your TV? I'm talking about the pool noodle monster where one player's in the middle of pool noodle they're the octopus monster octopus I'm sure everyone listening has played that game with friends or with At parties

So it's like you might be safe but your friend over there is about to get eaten by the pool new the pool the pool the the monster octopus, how do you, how do you keep them from getting? So you're trying to get them to recognize like, oh, this is happening elsewhere. I can, I can give my friend a warning that the monster octopus is about to get them. Because they like to do that. You know, I mean, like, for them, that's, that's a normal thing that you would do. Like, watch out, it's going to get you. But that's, that's communicating.

That's offering a solution to a teammate. And so you just try to find any, any reason you can to have players coordinate themselves. and organize themselves. Again, even if it's how the next thing is going to restart, like you want your players doing that because this isn't tackle football where, all right, there's a break every 30 seconds and the coach dials in the play.

Like, you have to figure out how the throw-in's going to work, how the kick-in is going to work, where should the players be? And it takes forever for those ages when they don't watch the game. But I just genuinely think, like, communication is one of those real, I don't want to call it a shortcut,

Because again, it takes a long time for them to get it. But to get them thinking the game, that piece is so, so important. And it gets, it's never really brought up the way that people talk about passing versus dribbling or, you know, Rondos versus whatever. I'm just like, you got to like that kids, kids all know how to do it. It doesn't take four years to like learn how to say the word, I'm here if you need for a path, if you're a passing option. Right.

Like they can't do that. I never learned how to do that. I never like that kind of stuff like overnight. But they can't if they haven't built it from an early age. And then you try to introduce it when they're U-15. And it's like, no, they don't, they already, it's like the habit isn't there. And it just, it's so hard for some kids to, like, add that later on. So anyway, that's my, that's my communication.

That's a great point. So here's a, like, very simple, practical question about the pool noodle, the pool noodle monster. So I can, I have, we do some exercises where I could see that really coming in handy. but the like you're saying the kids that I'm coaching they're really little right now they're four and there's one three year old on the team

this is the U6 age group where I live and I can just imagine so I have enough problems even with like zoo animals where the zoo animal for instance my son he's he decides that he's a king cobra Burmese python obviously that's an animal that doesn't exist but it's very ferocious

and he will if he gets a excited enough, he'll just come over and attack me without the ball, you know? Yeah. And there's another girl who kind of does that. And there is like a line that you can cross of excitement slash chaos where it becomes actually like counterproductive. Yeah. You know, and I do wonder.

Yeah. Right. And I do wonder, I mean, to be fair, most coaches are well short of that line. I think at the U6H group, you know, like most people are not getting close to the line. But I could see if I was doing the monster octopus with like two pool noodles that like people would start going just absolutely ape, you know? And and like the ball's out the window. Like I'm getting like attacked with teeth and you know, like who knows what would happen. So you can start out just as you being the monster octopus because you got the, you know, you have a little bit more restraint than some of those six year olds.

Yeah. So that can be one way. And then the other way, yeah, I mean, you just got to manage once it's getting out of hand to like, okay, time to rotate who the monster octopus is and, you know, switch to a little more calm, you know, knowing your players who's going to be a little bit more calm about it. And then again, as long as it's not actually dangerous, no one's actually getting hurt, like sometimes you just got to give it and be like, well, the kids are very silly. And they're laughing. Yeah, no, that's fair. And after another 30 seconds, we'll move to something else where they're hopefully touching a soccer ball a lot. Well, I have one little success to report this week.

All right. Which is, you know, my standbys for you eight, like zoo animals and pirates, which is basically like the kids dribbling into safe spots. And, you know, there's a shark in the middle trying to get them. Or it could be a monster octopus. It could be anything, right? Those haven't worked as well with this younger age group. just a little bit maybe too much complexity. They want to play zoo animals,

but they don't always do that well at it. Anyway, found a new game, we call it pine cones. And we just put cones, like 19 cones, little traffic cones, across midfield.

And then you have one team in one goal, one team and the other goal. They have to dribble with their ball to the middle, pick up a cone with their hand, and then dribble back, and stack the cones up in front of their goal. And, you know, the side with the most cones

at the end of the game wins. And there's a girl on my team who's playing soccer for the first time. She has, up until yesterday, had not actually participated in a single exercise all season. But her parents are committed to it. And everybody's being really nice to her and kind to her. She sits down a lot. She disagrees with a lot of stuff. But she, that drill, that exercise has been working really well for the rest of the team.

He, for the first time all season yesterday, dribbled to the middle, picked up a cone, dribbled back. And she's actually a pretty decent little dribbler. There you go. There you go. She's just, you know, she's expressing her individuality, I guess. You know. I love it. I love it.

I mean, again, that's awesome. And it's, that's like what it is. It's not, you can't be like, today I'm going to create a geo renal. No. Yeah. Today, a kid hit a soccer ball eight more times than they would have with their foot. And they enjoyed themselves. Yeah.

Touches on the ball. Are they having fun? Are they going to sign up next year? Those are my APIs. What else? Oh, yeah. So on the Rondo question, I know you don't really want to talk about this. I can tell.

But we're going to do it. So we've been arguing about this in the Discord. like what's the right age to Institute of Rondo. There's a great correspondent of mine in New York. Guy named Mike Idland coaches college women's soccer and has some kids that he coaches as well, who has been talking with me about this stuff for a long time. Do you, I assume your view on this is that it's case by case.

It's like just depends on your group. And then, of course, you've got to use a pool noodle. Yeah, people in the middle have. Cool noodles and my Rondos. No, I have, I honestly don't know. I don't know the answer. I don't, I don't, I wasn't really following the, uh, the debate that closely when I was coaching.

I was never a director of coaching. So it was always just like if, if the, if they were saying we're doing Rondos, like we're doing Rondos. We did a ton of them with the high school team that I was more like involved with the, with like a curriculum because I, I loved them. I loved the, how you can create like really fast play. And, uh, again, so many avenues for. communication, which are huge on my list.

And so I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't have a good answer. The teams that I've coached, I've been, uh, I've found them very useful. And I think with very obvious, uh, translations to matches and improved match performance, improved decision making. So, uh, I don't know. I guess I'm coming in on. Let me lay out the little bit of the debate and then, and then we'll get out of here. But like, basically, I think Mike's point of view is even a,

up to U-10 U-12, unless you're one of the, like, the cream of the crop, you know, kids who are headed off to like pro soccer eventually or, you know, high-level college soccer, most kids are not in that category? And for most of those kids, the main thing is, are they enjoying themselves? And are they, and he says the main thing for are they enjoying themselves is, do they have the ball and are they doing something with the ball? And he thinks O Rondo doesn't, we're talking U-12 and under, doesn't, for most kids, in his opinion doesn't.

And he says he doesn't have to be right about this either. He's just offering one perspective. For most kids, that's not the thing that is the most fun. And then other people will say, you know, particularly the Dallas contingent would say, no, I got seven-year-olds who enjoy rondowing. They like it. Why are you making me feel bad for... I'm not driving kids away from the game.

No, yeah, I'm not the tyrant here. We're learning. Rondos are a really critical part of soccer and my kids enjoy it. So I guess when I hear all that, I'm just like, yeah, it definitely depends on the team. And I'm not going to be doing Rondos with my U-8s in northwest Georgia for the near term. But that doesn't mean nobody should, I guess. Yeah. And I guess I'm going to just push back a little bit on the – even just the psychology of it, like, of kids not enjoying themselves because they're on the ball. Like, you can watch five kids or eight kids, a classroom of kids playing like hot potato.

You have the potato for a vanishingly small amount of time, but you're squealing and laughing the whole time because it's like, what's going to happen? And what is it going to end? You know what I mean? You can kind of get the same concept of a Rondo. Like, that's kind of what it is. You're not wanting them to like, oh, you have to, you know, get it out of your feet before it explodes. But it very much is like before you get disrupted before the. defender closes you down to the point where they can take the ball away from you.

Like, you have to move it. Calling it hot potato is probably a good idea in my case. Just keep tricking them. So, I mean, again, I don't know. I certainly don't see it as like Rondo is going to be turning kids off in the game. Okay. By like, by some inherent trait of the, you know, some inherent quality of rondowing. I guess that resonates with me a little bit because I tried it with some U8s a couple seasons ago.

And man, did they hate it. They told me they hated it. They're like, this is not fun, coach Adam. You know. And so anyway. If you want to make it more like a hot potato for anyone out there, Rondo, we did this out in Minnesota during the freezing cold pregame. You just make, you make it like 5V1 and you make it so the people on the outside are like almost holding hands. so close together because, I mean, that's not how they're going to tell you to do it.

They're going to want you to have a lot more space for young kids. But, like, that adds to this crazy, like, franticness of it, where the defender is always, like, one outstretched leg away from kicking it. And it's okay if they change defenders every one and a half seconds. Yeah. Fascinating stuff. Someday we should really get deep on this stuff, Greg. I know you don't want to.

I know you don't want to. I'm just going to drag you drag you into it probably. All right. You don't have the what? I don't have the breadth of coaching experience. I mean, like every place I've been at has been.

I, you know, A Rondo has been a key feature of training. So I don't have the counter, the counter view to be like, no, we did so much more once we got rid of them. Yeah.

Okay. I'll have to get Mike on the podcast too. He's been very helpful to me. All right. Hey, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.