Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #537: WoSo — U20s fall in semis, Champions League underway, NWSL check-in

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Tara and Belz talk through the USA's performance at the U20 Women's World Cup, and discuss briefly who's playing well in NWSL ahead of the three friendlies at the end of next month. 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 have a WOSO episode. Got three friendlies coming up at the end of next month. And more immediately, the U-20s just bowed out in the semifinals of the World Cup earlier this evening in Cali, Colombia. I've got Tara here with me, Tara. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm proud of our girls.

How are you doing? I'm good. I miss Vince. If you don't listen to the Monday review, you may not know he's taking a few weeks break, which is well earned. So we're going to soldier through together on WOSO. It won't be the same, but maybe new things will be uncovered. A sabbatical is romantic. I wish him well.

It is. I think it's going to be good. He's going to come roaring back in November, early November. I'm jealous, honestly. Yeah, me too. I'm jealous too. But the U-20 World Cup was a blast, and they still have a third place match to play.

So I think we learned a lot. I'm excited to talk about it. Yeah. We're not going to do like a blow-by-blow account of the game, but just a few facts. This was our first time getting out of the group since 2016. Which is huge. up. Yeah, and we made it all the way to the semis.

That 2016 team, just to put it into perspective a little bit, that 2016 team, that 2016 team, which is a little difficult to say, included Mal Pugh. It included Casey Murphy, Ashley Sanchez. So, like, there are a lot of pros have come. in between and failed in this tournament. Players like Naomi Germa, Sophia Smith, just to name a few. So a long time, it's been a long time since we've gone this far in the tournament. And I think it's a testament to how talented these players are.

And even though I have a lot of qualms with the coaching staff, I do think we can consider this run very successful. Oh, yeah. I think so, too. And I think they did it a lot in spite of the coach. You know, we joked about that a lot prior to the tournament. But I think it's true mostly. And we faced a North Korea team that was really good in this game.

Very good. I guess, you know, close watchers of the U20 Women's World Cup over the years will know that North Korea is outstanding in this tournament. They've won it twice. So they've won two out of the 11 times that it's been played the U20 Women's World Cup. And they've been quarter-finalists every time they've played. That's a great, I mean, that's just a wildly successful U-20. career. Yeah.

And they were really good. And we were really gassed because, largely, because of that epic comeback against Germany a few nights earlier, which we haven't had a chance to discuss on this podcast. But we were down to zero and then got goals from Jordan Dudley and Allie Centner, both in stoppage time to equalize it. In two minutes, the 97th minute and the 98th minute. back-to-back goals, came back, and yeah, we wanted penalty kicks, but it was incredible. I mean, I haven't seen a game like it, and maybe ever. I think it was huge for this team. I think it was huge for our program.

And I think it just, it showed a lot to who these players are. And yeah, I mean, it just, it was incredible to watch. Jordan Dudley had an extra time goal, the prior game as well. She was used as a sub both times. So I think that's what earned her the start in this game. Tordon was our golden boot leader. She had the most goals for us. She's been incredible. She plays at Princeton.

She's a dual nat. She's very new to our program. just debuted this year. And she actually played with the Brazil U-20s this year as well. So it's great that she played in this tournament with us. But yeah, Tordon was so great in this tournament. Dudley was so great in this tournament.

It just showed the depths that we have and the depth that we're going to continue to have, I think. Yeah, I think I slightly prefer the way Tordham plays to the way Dudley's plays. But, I mean, just quickly, the goal she scored against Germany was like a breakaway. And she did very well. It wasn't even really a breakaway. It was like, I forget who passed it, but somebody just like looped it over the back line. She runs onto it, takes a touch real cleanly with somebody on her left shoulder and then just slots it far post.

Really, really nice goal. Good composure from her. And then Sentiners was kind of just a miracle, like a cross that was deflected in her general direction. And she just splayed out and got a foot to it, rolled it over the line. And all the German players just like, you know, stared at the sky in disbelief. Yeah. I mean, it just felt, it just felt human destiny type stuff. Yeah.

But yeah, I think it's been, I just think it's been a really great experience for a lot of our players. and a lot of our players that I do think have a future with the senior team. And I think some sooner than others, Ali Sittner to be, Ali Sittner to be one of them who I hope to see sooner rather than later. And it's because of the lack of depth that we have at the way. at the 10. And at the 10.

And you might think, Tara, what are you talking about? We have 400 wingers and 400 tens. They all get hurt quite frequently. Yeah. I think Ali Sittner is proven to be quite dominating, very fierce. She's had a very successful season. She had a great U-20 World Cup.

I would be really interested in seeing her in some of these friendlies. For depth. For depth. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, I mean, to your point, Rodman obviously starts on one wing, Swanson on the other one, when everybody's healthy. But then next up is Lynn Williams, basically, right? Yeah.

And Sof is now a striker, as we've all been clamoring for, as well clamored for, during the Blakow era. So, yeah, I think it's a good point. And I don't know that there's anybody else on this team who you would call up as a winger ahead of Sintner. I wouldn't, I don't think there is. No, no. I think Adomas had what I would consider a successful U-20 World Cup,

but I don't think she's ready for any sort of call-up. She had four assists. I think that were all. That's cool. But she's not ready. Yeah, she's a little bit messy. Yeah. Obviously as now.

Yeah, yeah. Two other players, I think we could see sooner rather than later, who we talked about in the last pod. But I just want to reemphasize because I think that there's even more evidence after this tournament. are our fullbacks. Davy King and Giselle Thompson for depth because we're running out of fullbacks. How much longer are we going to have Crystal done? Emily Fox has had quite a few concussions who comes after Emily Fox. Right.

And then Casey Kruger, who deputized there in the Olympics, is already 33. Maybe she's even turned 34 since the last time I looked. So definitely. And King was rock solid defensively in this tournament. I wouldn't say Thompson was rock solid defensively, but she's pretty good. And she got roasted on that first Germany goal. Absolutely. Savvy King is your defender.

She is very, very good at defense. Giselle is there for the dynamic attack. They're two very different. pullbacks. She's... Yeah, but Giselle's going to have to figure out the other part. I completely agree. I completely agree.

I think they both bring a lot to the table, but I could see... Savvy's already made a preliminary roster, so maybe that grew... She's in the radar a little bit more. But Giselle was also a training player for the Olympics. So they're both somewhat in the radar. Yeah. No, that's a really good point about the fullbacks too, because that's an area of need, even though Dunn and Fox were outstanding at the Olympics. Outstanding.

We're only talking about depth here, though. Everybody, you know, be easy. I'm not being crazy. And then we haven't, we weren't able to see her a lot because of concussion protocol, but Claire Hutton still fills a real area of need. And I think that she had a tournament where she answered a lot of questions. And I think that hopefully some of the coaching staff was able to see her because I think she had a very good tournament. And I think her club play has proven that as well. It seems to me like her club play is a better argument for her to get called up than her tournament was.

Yeah, well, I mean, it's Tracy Kevin's team. Our team didn't play beautifully at all. Yeah, yeah, the legs had a lot to do with it, I think, tonight. But, man, we just were not connected as a team in possession. You know, not showing for each other. A couple times Jackson would get the ball, turn in space, and, like, everybody would be running away from her. It just really brought back flashbacks of the Vlako era.

Like nobody's showing to the ball, so you can't combine. So you can't break down a good team like North Korea. We just kick the ball along. Sometimes Dudley would make a good touch and sort of get something started. I mean, she did create that one really good chance for Adamas early by running onto a long ball, dribbling to the top of the box, stepping on the ball, and then playing Adomas in for a shot that just went off the side netting. But mostly it didn't, nothing, we didn't do much in the attack at all in this game.

And we still had a chance to win, you know, like we were still pushing late for, you know, just to kind of scratch out an equalizer. I believe we had the players to win that game if we put the pieces together. Yeah. Well, it's her last rodeo, Tracy's, right? It is. Tracy's moving to a desk job. It seems like she is going to, I don't know, it's kind of depending on who you ask, I guess.

She's either getting bumped up or just moving. She's going to be moving to youth development for U.S. soccer. Could be better, could be worse. Who knows? But she's off the new 20s. Yeah. It's a mystery. I don't know.

I don't know why she would be the one to be overseeing youth development. but there's probably stuff I don't understand, you know. Hey, it gets her away from a Mel B team, a Kennedy Fuller team, and plenty of others. So I think that there's something to look forward to there. Okay, cool. And then... Yeah, I think... Go ahead, go ahead.

There's one other thing I wanted to note that I found interesting. One of our senior team coaches was in Columbia. throughout the group stage. Bart, he was the goalie slash set piece coach pre Gianni. He posted from Columbia that he was at

the U-20 World Cup. And I just I was wondering what Emma was doing sending the cavalry down. That was before news that Tracy was headed out. She had staff down

there. You know, she's cooking. She's cooking something up. So maybe Bart's taking over the team or something? Is that what you're thinking? I have no idea what he's doing down there, but there were eyes on these girls, which I think is a good sign.

Yeah, you would hope so. You would hope so. I guess I have one other player thought on, you know, Riley Jackson's a player that I've been excited about for a while. I don't know that the way she played in this tournament made me more excited about her. It didn't make me less excited either. But I thought it was interesting that she doesn't play much for the courage. She plays some, but not a ton.

And yet in a midfield with her and Claire Hutton, she was the one who, I thought, at least at times, outshone Hutton, the way she played. She didn't have a good game tonight. She looked like she was very, very tired. But that's an interesting thing because, you know, Hutton, Hutton is a regular for a good team in WSL. Jackson is not for a good team.

Riley, Riley's a great player. She just is on a team that has a stacked midfield. That's all it means. Fair enough. To me, to me. I mean, I think you can say that about everybody, but maybe Sittner. They had ups and downs in this tournament. But Riley's very talented.

It's just you can't look at her courage minutes and really see that. I trust Sean Nehas. I think he's somebody in this country that you would want a young player to be with. Yeah. And he's spoken about her. He said that she is, he is, he's excited about her talent too, just, just taking their time with her. What do you think of Tegan Y, the goalkeeper? I thought she, I mean, nobody had a perfect tournament.

I don't think she did. She almost got beat from 45 yards. That was risky. Earlier today. I mean, this North Korean players, man, they will, like, they will uncork a shot from anywhere. Uh-huh. I mean, she saved that penalty against Germany. She had some good saves throughout the tournament.

Her distribution is like pretty, at least she can be ambitious with her distribution. She had a couple eyebrow raisers today. Yeah, so did everybody. I like the way she strikes the ball with that left foot of hers. She looks like. I like her size. Well, anything else on the U-20s? When is the third place game?

Is it Saturday? September 22nd. Is that Sunday? That's Sunday. Yeah. And that's going to be against either Japan or the Netherlands. Yeah, it looks like it's halftime and zero zero. All right, let's get to the, so Women's Champions League, the second sort of play in round started today.

It's not all going our way, is it? No, they didn't go great for us. Arsenal lost today. They lost 1-0 to Hocken. Is that how you say it? I think so. Yeah, that's in Denmark, right? Yeah.

So they lost 1-0. Emily Fox went 70 minutes. But the good news here is that Hocken didn't score until the 77th minute. So I believe the lesson here is Arsenal do not take Emily Fox out in the next leg, the home leg, and maybe you don't get kicked out of Champions League. We'll see. Yeah. Yeah.

That seems like an important lesson. Yeah. And then PSG versus Juventus, they lost three to one. Corbyn subbed in in the 69th minute, and Eva subbed in the 78th minute. Eva had a pretty solid starting spot last season, so something on. I'm watching for is if she earns that back. Corbyn really didn't have a starting spot. So we're going to see if she just keeps getting consistent minutes. Yeah. Okay. And then Chelsea have already qualified for the next phase of Champions League. They're already in the group stage, right? Yes. It's a little confusing what's going on. So IAX has lost. They lost to Fiorentina. a couple weeks ago,

that game was the end of the road for them. Arsenal and PSG are in the middle, so they're halfway through a two-legged tie each. Obviously, Arsenal against Hawken and PSG versus Juventus, so they both still have a chance to go through. They just have to take care of business in the second leg. Chelsea's already through IACs not going to play in Champions League, which is not ideal for Lily.

No. Our Lily. Yeah. What about any news from our girls at Chelsea? Yeah, their regular season starts this weekend. Katerina is back in training, full training, and me official, she's expected back in January. So things are looking back up for old Chelsea.

Okay, cool. Let's take a little break and come back and talk about NWSL. the greatest league on earth. You know, that's enough about Europe. Let's check in with the best league in the world. USA, baby. Okay. Courage versus Bay is our first game.

I'll run through this quick. They tied one to one. We got a goal from Ashley Sanchez. And with that goal, she became the first player to score against every team in the NWSL, which is a crazy stat. And with Croix Bathune out, I'm wondering, could she be back in the picture for the national team? I hope so.

I'm Ashley ambivalent for the most part, but she does have four goals in her last seven matches. She's on a hot streak a little bit. Yeah. And I'm speaking to the royal Ashley ambivalent people, not just you. Remember that you last saw her as Washington Spirit? Ashley Sanchez, not North Carolina, Ashley Sanchez. She's got that Sean Nehas spark now. So have a little fate.

She's different. Okay. Next game is Orlando Pride versus Kansas City. They tied zero zero. And this was a huge game for the top of the table. They are the top two teams. We've got Emily Sams in Orlando. to keep an eye on.

Normally, I wouldn't bring it up because she was never in the national team picture, but she was an alternate in Paris. So now we get to track Orlando. So I'm excited about that, but Claire Hutton wasn't there. She's with the U-20s, so I wasn't really caring about Kansas City all that much. Yeah, yeah. All right. In a loss to Chicago won nothing.

and Portland remains a big old mess. Poor Olivia Moultry, she made a terrible pass, and Ali Schlegel pounced on it and scored. But Chicago got a big three points, but it wasn't all good news for Chicago, Mal Swanson. She remains absolutely horrible at penalty kicks. She missed her penalty kick.

She's historically bad at them, if you haven't seen her make a penalty kick in a while, she's not good. She also came out. She's just not good at them. Hopefully Emma seen that as well because she's not good at them. And then even worse than her penalty kicking, she came out of the game with a shoulder injury. And we had boots on the ground that said she wasn't in a sling or anything when she walked to the bus. So that's good.

she posted pictures from the Cubs game the day after, which was in Colorado, where both of her shoulders were visible. So that seemed okay. And then today, in Chicago, the Cubs celebrated Mal and Alyssa Neer for winning their gold medals. So this may be a bit much, but Mal lifted her left arm above her head. So I think we're back, baby I think she's doing fine That's what we want to hear That she lifted her left arm

Yeah So I think Good, yeah I mean A okay Yeah and even if it is A little bit of an injury So we still got a month and a half

Almost before the Before we need her to play NWSL has what Five match days left Yeah Until the playoffs We're rounding out It's almost

over. And then racing versus the Angel City. This was a very big win for racing. They got their first goals from their two new players, Bethany Balthor and Janine Becky. It's going to be huge for their push for the playoffs. It'll be their first time in the playoffs if they make it. But I also briefly wanted to mention how good Alyssa Thompson's been doing.

We haven't been able to mention that. Our previous episodes have either been Olympic focused or U-20 focused. So she has had, she has four goals

and five assists so far. It's all been clicking into place. I mentioned this when talking about Ali Sittner, but we're severely lacking

winger depth. She can play on the left, she can play on the right. She also was a training player pre-Olympics and now that we aren't limited by Olympic roster size, I hope to be bringing her in for these upcoming friendlies.

I think she's proven to be ready and I think Trinity and Mal need more depth. Yeah. Does it seem like she's turned a corner this season? I mean, she has four goals in her last four games.

Yeah, and five assists are more than Mao has. Yeah. Okay. I think she's doing great. All right. Let's bring in Alyssa. Yeah. And honestly, we need to be building up our winger depth.

We don't need to be bringing Lynn in. No, I don't think we need that anymore. Wait, are you saying we do? I'm saying we don't. We need to be building it up. We don't need to be having like emergency wingers. Right. Okay, I'm almost done. Utah versus San Diego, Utah lost one to two. It was Landon Jonathan's first win. Congratulations.

Hey. Yeah. And it was also Jaden Shaw's first time playing soccer since before the Olympics. So she subbed in around the 63rd minute. It went fine. All that matters is she's playing and we are getting her healthy again. Naomi Germa was as sturdy as ever All is looking up for San Diego Okay That's cool that Is everybody happy that Landon is the coach? Absolutely not But hey, if they start winning

I think people will get over it Yeah Oh, help to get Jaden back Hey, this is his first game with Jaden. So yeah, he needs her. He needs her. Yeah. And then the last game I have here

is Spirit versus Death. So I mentioned it already, but Croix is out for the remainder of the season, which is a huge blow for Washington Spirit. She tore her meniscus.

She tore it throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game. Horrible. horrible. She didn't even tear at playing soccer. Isn't that terrible? Because I saw the video of that. It didn't look like she was hurt.

Yeah. That's where she tore it. Oh, no. Yeah. Horrible. And it was a terrible throw too. Yeah. But last season, Sam Coffey was one assist away from claiming the assist record,

away from Tobin Heath. And now with Croix's injury, she's one assist away from the assist record too. So Tobin Heath, she keeps that record one more year. And it's such a shame because Croix was having a historic rookie year. This injury just couldn't be worse. I'm so sad for her.

Yeah. And the spirit are playing well too, right? I mean, even without her, like, so they could have, they could have done some damage. Yeah, very well. She could have helped them do some damage. Maybe they'll do damage even without her, but. Yeah. I'm sad for the national team, too, with these friendlies.

I was hoping to get some Croix-focused minutes. But, yeah, the game was as dominant as ever. It was kind of an old-school spirit game where Ashley Hatch and Trinity Rodman were getting all of the goals. The Trinity goal, though, was from another world. It was up right-hand corner. She beat everybody on the field, it seemed like, in that run. Yeah. Houston didn't stand a chance, including Jane Campbell, who is, you know, the best goalkeeper in the league right now.

And you just cannot stop Trinity Rodman right now. She's on fire. Since returning from winning a gold medal in Paris, she's only played in four matches, and she has three goals and two assists. And yeah, like you said, that goal was outrageous. She starts on the left sideline, does beat three players, kind of struggle dribbles through another one, beats another one, and then hits a shot from 20 yards that's like absolutely unstoppable, top bins.

right corner. She's pretty good. She's crazy right now. But let's get her a backup, Emma. No more pain caves for friendlies. Yeah. But beside the point. We got Ballandor nominations.

The fact that Naomi Germa didn't get nominated. I'm boycotting. I'm boycotting the whole thing. But you can talk about it if you want. The French, the French art. Dummies. Dummies. Come on.

That should be Naomi Germa's award. Come on. So, Lindsay Horan, Alyssa Neyer, Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith, and Mallory Swanson were all nominated on the 30-player shortlist. Huge congratulations to them all. But yeah, Naomi Germa should be on there. Yeah. Alissa, the only goalie. Congratulations, Alyssa.

Yeah. Yeah. When they told her... I mean, a good Olympics. When they told her, she said, what, the 60 player shortlist? She did not care. I mean, she's kind of right about that. Yeah.

Yeah. It was the 30 player shortlist, Alyssa, but... They should at least call it a medium list, you know? Yeah. Like a medium long list. Yeah. But I'm extremely proud of it. all of our players, the women's award has been around for what since like 2018.

It's very, very new. So for them to recognize a lot of our players, it means a lot, even if it's a silly award. No, it's not a silly award. I'm just mad that Germa didn't get nominated. That is dumb. And, yeah, I mean, we should have a bunch of players nominated. We just won the Olympics. Yeah. And then I'm wrapping up here. We're almost done. The new FIFA rankings came out. We're back to number one from number five, which was our lowest rankings ever, which is where we were at pre-Olympics. England, they are second. They kind of got bumped up basically for not being in the Olympics. Spain are third after their semi-final exit in the Olympics.

And this is all the more reason to have an exciting November roster to take on England. Yeah. Make it a big deal. We're back in Europe. Playing the number two team. Let's go hard. That'll be special for Emma Hayes, too, I imagine. And we've got the three friendlies at the end of October are, so we play Iceland twice, once in.

in Austin once in Nashville. And then three days after that, friendly in Nashville. Nashville just keeps getting women's national team games. That's kind of cool. Cool for me, at least. And then we play Argentina in Louisville. So, you know, coming right through the heart of scuffed country once again. Vince is doing a tailgate, right?

Yeah. Well, I don't actually don't. Is he? He said he said he's still doing this. the tailgate, I believe. Okay. We have, like, some sort of a distant chance of interviewing Emma Hayes. Like, it's not, it's not even, like, let's just say it's probably not going to happen.

But if it does happen, I'll go up to the game, too, and I'll tailgate, too. My niece is going. Are you going to go? I mean, it's not that far away for you. Work is going to be crazy. Oh yeah, it's a bad time of year for that. For you? I know.

Oh, maybe a good time of year. Who knows? Maybe. But my little needs is going, so I'm excited for her. Yeah, cool. Well, tell her to come to the tailgate. All right. Yeah.

I think that's it from us. Hey, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.