Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #548: The roster for the games against Jamaica

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

Greg and Belz talk through the roster Pochettino called up for the Nations League matches against Jamaica. Greg calls for a "mean" performance from us down in Kingston on Thursday. Plus Lily Yohannes committed to play for the US Women's National Team!--https://www.desmoinessoccerclub.org/https://www.chattanoogafcfdn.org/forge 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, it's a roster episode. The USA plays Jamaica on Thursday in Kingston and then come back to the U.S. for the second leg. You know, it's Nations League. Greg, how you doing? Bells, I got to say, I'm really happy that we've got a roster release. We've got some other good news on the U.S. soccer front that we'll get to. because for the last week or so,

it's sort of been one of those straight up not having a good time moments for me, maybe some other listeners out there for reasons. So I just wanted to, you know, like, it's nice to be able to sort of retreat into rosters and depth charts and spreadsheets and women's soccer national team media that's been enjoyable.

And, you know, that's what I've been doing for the last half decade is just retreating. So yeah, like, you know, I think, I think maybe eight years ago around this time, the way I consume social media, I won't do that this time around. I will sort of focus on just really get deep into these spreadsheets. But also, like, I want to... Sounds wise. Sounds wise.

For anyone else who's kind of feeling like that, I'm not going to, like, totally put my head in the sand. Like, there's a lot of things that if you're feeling sort of. helpless about big picture things going on in the world. There are ways you know you can help. I've got got some organizations here doing really good work in my backyard. So I'm kind of kind of try to put a spotlight on those organizations and focus my energy there. And the one I'm going to spotlight today on this podcast is the Des Moines Soccer Club, which is a really cool like grassroots soccer organization here in Des Moines, Iowa.

And they partner with the Des Moines Refugee Support Organization. and they just do a ton of good work serving their entire community, but including kids and families who might not have the opportunities to participate in some of the pay-to-play soccer that famously is what youth soccer sort of is. So I just wanted to kind of spotlight that. They don't just sort of identify the best players and then poach them out of the community to try to win some regional trophies. They really partner and serve the entire community.

They got like a fleet of vans. They went out and got a bunch of vans. They take kids from school to the training ground, provide meals at the training ground, provide academic support at the training ground until training starts and then get them all home safely. At the end of the night, just a really amazing group of people doing really good work.

So if you are like me and you're kind of feeling down, find those groups that are doing. doing that work. If you've got the means, you've got the time, because you can, like, help. And whether you help one kid, one person, one family from some of these communities that are going to really need that help right now and that support, they all matter. Every single one of those kids and people and families matter. And that can really go a long way. 100%. Yeah. Helping one person is very meaningful. Since you're spotlighting a group, I'll spotlight a group for J.F.C. in Chattanooga, which is sort of loosely affiliated with the Chattanooga F.C. Foundation is a similar type of program. And I just got annihilated in Sunday League by their coach. Just two days ago, he was the goalkeeper. His name is Jose Ramirez. But they, they, it's free. You talking like a collision? You got a good collision?

No, they just beat us like 8 to 0 or something. I thought it really came after your ankles. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, they do a lot of like picking up kids from home and taking them to practice. They work largely in the Latino community in Chattanooga. And it's a great program because they're, and they don't go prioritize winning regional trophies, but they're good. Yeah. And it's free for the kids. So there's another one. There you go.

We'll link those clubs in the notes. But again, I really encourage people, you know, you've got people close to you that I'm sure doing this work. It's been needed. It's not like it was needed just starting Tuesday. It's been necessary for a while. It will always be needed. Yeah. Hey, Lily Johannes, committed to play for the U.S. women's national team.

Never in doubt. Never end out. It's huge. It's awesome. It's super exciting. she was she captivated us in Minnesota. Great state to do some captivating in. You're not known for exaggerating, really, and you're not exaggerating.

It was captivating. You know, we put all the caveats on it, but she's a child doing this, and it was really cool to see. And it doesn't mean that this November, when we play the Netherlands in the Netherlands, which is just awesome, that she will even be on the roster. I expect she will be. I'm going to guess that too. And it doesn't mean that she will instantly be our new starting center midfielder in some formulation. But it just is going to be really fun to throw her name into the mix.

I mean, we have a bunch of fun players we're already excited about, but this is a big one. Yeah. Do you think she needs to come to NWSL? I don't think she, well, frankly, yes. I think a lot of our plays. players do because you watch the week to week out like competitions that some of these players are playing.

Lindsay Rand on like one of the best teams in Europe and they just don't play serious competition regularly. So I guess I'll say... They do regularly play on serious competition. Yeah. So I'll say I'm sort of just conflicted on it. The styles of soccer

are totally different. If we're going to get into... We won't get too deep into the weeds, but NWSL is super fast pace, super back and and forth. So it's like, it's almost like a completely different game than what a lot of the leagues are playing in,

even when they're playing top competition, you're, uh, between European teams. Uh, so it's a different, you're getting a different, like,

a tactical education out there. I'm not even going to say better or worse. It's just going to be a different style. Uh, so it's nice to see that kind of, uh, uh, differentiation and variation in our player pool.

Um, but NWSL is for sure where you're seeing the most, uh, level competition, week and, week out. Yeah, the most talent across the board. Yeah, the balance of the talent across teams is the biggest thing. There's plenty of talent in France, but it's on three teams. It's on basically one and a half teams.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same Spain, same in England. But, you know, to be fair, Emma Hayes did say it, I mean, if I'm remembering correctly, she said it is better to have the, you said, not better or worse, just different tactical training in Europe. And she thinks it's better. To have, to have, like, different approaches. So, I mean, she's not infallible, but she, but she is a profit. She is, she is now one of our two, I mean, these, her and her and potch, what a, what a duo. Yeah. Yeah.

We got quite the, quite the dual, duo, dual thrones up there at the top now. And I'll say, you know, there's some people who tuned in just to hear about the upcoming Jamaica game, and they're probably like thinking what the heck guys. But I should just say Lily O'Hannis is a nice, nice player. She is, I don't think you have to be an expert on a women's soccer to turn on the TV and watch her play and be like, damn. She is sort of an elegant midfield maestro, similar in a lot of ways to Lindsay Horan, I think, what Lindsay Horan can do. But she's only 17. I think that's the hope.

Yeah, that for me is the big hope is that we've got the next. Lindsay Horan that can jump in and maybe add a little bit more mobility because she's 17 and hasn't hasn't as a knees haven't expired yet. No, I do want her to move because it's just like you said, when you watch her you can tell that, but you can't watch her when she's playing for Iax because they've they crashed out at Champions League before the group stage and none of their games are on TV. Yeah. You have to get you have to have a ESPN Netherlands account and get a VPN or so I've been told. Um, Okay, so that's, I mean, that's really good news.

There was some concern that she would end up playing for the Netherlands, where she has lived for the last few years with her family. But she's an American girl. So yeah, so great dual national news there. And then I think that dovetails nicely to switch over to the Jamaica pregame stuff. And the comments Pocetino made about dual nationals in his press conference. Lovely segue, Greg. Lovely.

Yeah, thank you. Let me just, let me play. It's kind of a lengthy clip, but I think it's, So he was answering a question about how involved he is essentially in dual national recruitment. And I don't think I'm going too far afield in saying that he's probably talking about Luca Colio show. But I mean, I don't know that for sure. But that's the main one. And I guess Henry Chase is the other one who's on everybody's radar.

But here's what he said. I see sometimes we are wrong. We need to be careful. convince. The Federation no need to convince a player because it cannot be the most important, one player more important that the team of the, you know, 300 million people.

I think the player, if he's American player, need to be desperate. I need to show that we need him or he need to show that deserve to come with us. Because if not, it's like we are weak Federation. We are weak,

we show our weakness. That is so big. We need to think in big. Because if not, oh, we are desperate to pry. No, you need to come with us. No, no, no. Come on. We won. Maybe less talent is better, but people with commitment. People desperate to defend that chair and fight for the country. Is that all that we want?

If they show this type of attitude and behavior, of course, for sure, they are going to have the opportunity to show the equality and of course like another player. But if not, it's to convince, come on. Okay. I think with all the respect, I think USA is massive. No, I think when we think in USA, I think no one can be over this share and this country. Yeah, he's basically saying it's not up to us to convince people.

We're massive. You know, I'm massive. The USA is massive. You know, you got to show that. you have the right mentality and we'll give you an opportunity, but we're not going to go around trying to convince people. I mean, that bit about the USA being massive is just an amazing sound bite from a Pachitino. Like, how much does that hit you, Bells?

I mean, it didn't hear me that much. Oh, all right, all right. I mean, it's like... You're so cynical. The USA... I mean, the economy is massive. The U.S. men's national team is, I don't, I mean, I don't think of, you know, being too controversial when I say we're not exactly massive.

Because we are kind of holding our breath about Luca Coliocho, Burnley, Bit Player. Two-go score for Burnley. Which is, that's fair. No, so here's where I'm going to push back, because I know you guys talked about the fruit baskets in the review, in the Monday review. I don't, like, I love the, I love the language in the fire that Pasatino brings. Yeah. And that is, yes. vaguely a Latin American stereotype that I'm leaning on.

But also, like, you can read that comment, and this quote, and kind of believe that qualitatively, his approach isn't really going to be anything different than what it was last cycle, when we really kind of kicked it into gear. Because, you know, when he's talking about convinced, I'm sort of just reading that as, like, we don't need to beg.

We don't need to try to, like, manipulate people. The kinds of things that we kind of accused Mexico of doing, like misrepresenting their intention, or where players might stand to get them to sign as quickly as they could or to file a switch or to get cap tied and then kind of just ignore them and use them as they see fit. We don't have to make promises. We're not going to do that.

What Burrhalter said was we want people who want to come here. We want people who want to be part of the program. We'll show them what the program is. We'll talk to them about where we see how they fit. And then it's going to be up to them. Do they want to be a part of this? and I don't really think there's that much different because a huge part

in the clip you just played kind of started after this, but when he was talking about this question, I've got the quote up from Brian Schrader posted, one that added a little paragraph before that. He says, if we believe that a player can help and improve us, then of course we are going to be 100% involved. So it doesn't mean that he's just going to cold shoulder guys until they come to him.

He's not going to get a Southgate Fuller and Bulligan. Right. That's not what it's going to be. He's involved. He says, I don't want to give names, but we are working with other names to try and see if they want to be committed with us. Yeah, you're right. He is reaching out to players.

He is having conversations. And then it's just going to be about the tenor of it. And maybe if he feels like people are, you know, saying, well, what are you going to do for us? That might be where he's like, well, what do you mean? We're the U.S. This is who we are. Do you want to play for us or not? Yeah.

And if not, I'm not going to be over here begging. That's not us. Yeah. No, that's all very fair. He does want to send – he's sending some kind of message, though, with that. Oh, yeah. I think so. And I think it's to – maybe it's to somebody.

Or maybe not. Maybe it's to several people. So who is it? Like, I mean, like you said, the names in play would be Colio Osho, Chase, Nathaniel Brown, who – I don't know. I don't know where we're going to land on that. It's going to be, again, it's going to be fun to see what Pocitino's name and status can do with whatever sort of attitude he's going to bring to it compared to the run we were on before.

And again, like you guys talked about too, the Discord's definitely been talking about this. It's unreasonable to think we were going to maintain that run we were on before with impact players because now the first team spots are filled with impact players. So the appeal to come in and immediately be number one on the depth chart instantly is not necessarily there. Luca Koliosha isn't going to come in and just be like, oh, thank God we have him. He's now our starting winger tomorrow. No, he's like probably fifth on the depth chart at wing if he comes in. I don't even know if he's that high.

Fourth maybe on a really good day. The days of coming in and just being like, I just have to beat out Sebastian Legette. To be our center midfielder, Eunice Musa, those days are over. Well, he said a lot of other stuff in the press conference, too. We covered a lot of it on the Monday review, but for those of you not subscribing to the scuffed Patreon, he spoke very highly of Tyler Adams. He spoke so highly of Tyler Adams. It made it sound like he was, I mean, making him captain for life. He said he wanted to sign him at Chelsea.

He knows everything he needs to know about him. He's very important for this team. He thinks, so you may notice as we go through the roster that there are only two fullbacks on it, two pure fullbacks. He thinks other players can deputize at fullback just fine. Tim Ream, he mentioned by name, can deputize at fullback. This was shocking to Vince. Ream's doing it at Charlotte, right? He's playing left back for Charlotte right now.

He has been. Austin Trustee played it last window for Pachitino. He came in and was basically sitting out on the left wing. Left, sort of a left fullback. He came in for, like, Lund slid up and trustee was kind of occupying that space. So, yeah, it definitely tells you that, I mean, I think it tells you that Christopher Lund is maybe not impressing Pocitino. Yeah, I think that's my takeaway, too.

The backup options just aren't that good. And, I mean, it's something we were saying even before Copa, right? Like, without desks, why not just play one of Tim or Wes or back there? And then we didn't do that. And it goes back to the whole fullback conversation, which is, you know, if you don't have desks, you don't just be like, oh, well, let's put in, again, Shaq Moore and just have him do all the desk things. You don't, we're, that's not what it's going to be. Changes the whole game.

Yeah. Yeah, we saw what Pachino did with Joe Scali in the last window, which was just sit him at home. Like, we're not going to have him be an attacking fullback because we'll just. use a slightly better attacker there in Eunice Moose, I guess. And Joe Scali will just sit in the back line. So if that's what you're going to have your fullback do, then if something happens to Joe Scali, yeah, you can probably have Chris Richard to sit back there, right?

You can just use somebody else to sit back almost like a third centerback in possession. Yeah. And then you just hope they don't get cooked around the edge defending in the block. Or you could put one of our good players back there. And like Eunice. Yep, yep. The other thing is, he said he and his assistant coaches are going to be very hard on Ricardo Pepi. They're going to, because he thinks he's got a lot of potential, but he's got a lot of things he needs to improve on.

And I thought that was fairly pointed in a constructive and fatherly way. Yeah, I mean, so Pepe, I think for that last window, was behind Josh Sargent. I feel like, you know, it's hard to know how thoroughly Pachatino was able to assess everyone. But just based on what we have, he felt like Sergeant was given him more,

so there's definitely things that he thinks PEPI can do better. And again, I'm just really curious. This is what is exciting about having Pocitino as our national team coach. It's not just like, okay, window one, this is what it looked like. It's very much like, what does he do with him now that he's seen that baseline?

How does he tweak? How does he Calibrate? How does he mold and shape? And I know he can't turn players into different players overnight. That's not what national team coaches do. But how do you emphasize strengths? How do you hide weaknesses? Because our players, our player pool in this roster has plenty of weaknesses.

I think that was my big takeaway. I was watching some people who still seem shocked that even though we have Pachitino were still calling up some of these middling international players and it's like yeah man that's that's who we who also are we going to call up yeah if potch believes that sergeant is ahead of peppy which is what the last camp indicates i agree with him a lot of people disagree with me when i say that but if you look at the whole like the week and week out body of work from sergeant and peppy don't think it's particularly close in what he gives you across the field but it's a long point because sergeant is hurt yeah sergeant's

I long for when we will have better week-to-week performances from Ricardo Pepe. By better, I mean, more minutes per week. I mean, he has started two games recently. I know, scoring goals. Pretty big deal. But even in those games where he scores, and those were, that was a nice goal and a nice assist over the weekend. But even in those games, if you track all the times, the ball comes into his feet and what he does with it, it's... It's pretty uneven.

It's pretty uneven. Yes, uneven. And I'm sure, you know, like Vince would say, you're going to have the Dutch tax here, too. And it was the same with, you know, I always think back to Brenda in Austria. And it's like, yeah, like, that's awesome. But it's hard to move the needle strictly on those domestic games,

especially when you're not playing. And the Netherlands, at least you've got a few games that are like, okay, this is another very good team or pretty good team. But when it's outside of that competition, where you're not playing Iax, you're not playing fine, or AZED, then it really does get hard to know what performances are indicative and which performances are just, you know, and one stuff. Yeah.

We need a codified tax regime. We don't. We don't. Because, no, because definitely there's a Netherlands tax in order. I think there's probably a little bit of a championship tax, too. Yeah, yeah. But how much? What's the rate?

Well, and it'd be, again, there's no, there's no one really, there's barely anyone above the championship tax, tax bracket, because, you know, there's no one to compare him up to, because Balagan's hurt in France and France has its own bracket before you get to. It's a very, it's a very low tax country. Big Pfok in Germany who's not, his income isn't very high. And he's on poverty wages in the Bundes League. He doesn't even get taxed. So all this is to say, what I really want to do is just enjoy the and one stuff while you can. Because eventually, Peppy will either move or he'll become the locked on starter and actually will get the games against the Champions League teams.

And the games, the starts against the other top four teams in Holland. And then we'll get to sort of have a better gauge. Yeah. All right, well, let's talk about these upcoming games. We're facing probably a front line of Leon Bailey, Michaela Antonio, and Damari Gray, Leon Bailey back in the project in Jamaica. It's going to be a tough game on Thursday, 8 p.m. Eastern time. Yeah, we've got to think it's going to be a tough game.

We didn't exactly blow Panama away at home, and we certainly didn't do much against Mexico on the road. I know we've added some players, and those players are, they do make us much better on paper. But, yeah, a lot of those same players played in Jamaica in the World Cup qualifying, and we didn't look amazing for that match. We looked amazingly bad in that game. We were good for, like, we talked about this on Monday Review, too, but we were good for 10 minutes, 15 minutes.

Tim scored a nice goal, really nice goal. And Kayla Antonio scored a really, really nice goal. and then we we gave up, basically. I mean, we're just so... You can just see how rattled we were immediately, and we just never... We could never figure it out.

That is, I think, a very accurate description of that contest. All right, let's take a little break. We'll come back and do the roster. Can you just kind of give us the plus or minus on who is in this camp, who wasn't in the October camp? Oh, sure. Should we do the roster first?

We'll kind of do, I think we just do both. So we'll just do both. And for each position group, we'll run through who's added, who was dropped from October. Okay. Goalkeepers in camp. We've got Matt Turner, Patrick Schulte, Zach Steffen, who were all there last time. Stefan had to leave early with a knock. And then we've added Diego Cochin, Cochin.

Not sure. Not sure. Koshan. The Barcelona youthkeeper. I think he's playing, I think he's Barcelona B's like. starting keeper for the moment as Barcelona are having some injuries throughout their goalkeeper depth chart.

And then, so he was added, and then Horvath dropped. Not in the call list. Is there anything of significance here? I mean, coaching, I guess, is kind of a big deal. It's fun to have him. He was in the September roster for the interim period, and that was cool

to see. He didn't play the matches, but it was cool to. you know, have him in there. He's a dual nat. He's not committed. I think eligible for Spain and maybe Peru. And maybe a fourth country. I expect Matt Turner to start. He was fine in the two matches that Potch had in October.

So I don't know that he's going to veer away from that. I would guess not. You do have to, as far as I know from the rules for this, a bit of a change. You do have to have three keepers listed for the match day. 23. So in the past since COVID, it had been you only actually need two keepers on the list so you could have 20 outfield players or 21 outfield players. But now you need three. So just to sort of keep that in mind. Okay. As you're eagerly awaiting the actual match day roster. Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. Eight o'clock here is a perfect time for me to watch the game. Um, anyway, fullbacks. Fullbacks. Fullbacks. We've just, we've just, Just got, like we said, just have Jedi and Joe with, I guess, deputies scattered throughout the rest of the roster. So Fossi, Marlon Fossi was there in October, and Christopher Lund, who's been a staple since, I mean, for the longest time, we're going to miss that smile. But I don't know that we'll miss him too much otherwise.

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, he's playing at, as you all know, playing at Palermo and Siri B, centerbacks. playing less so, just as a... Is that true? Is that true? Is that true? He's dropped from a starting lineup. He'd been subbing in that left back spot, but last match I don't even think he's

subbed in, so his minutes are diminishing. That's not a good trend line. Centerbacks, we didn't drop any, and we've added Chris Richards. So we've got Tim Ream, Chris Richards, Mark McKenzie, Miles Robinson, Austin trustee. Ream and McKenzie started against Panama. McKenzie went home after that match. He was, I think, listed to start. He didn't go home.

I think he was listed to start against Mexico and then was a late scratch. Miles stepped in, so however you want to read into that. I'm going to read a lot into it. So one reason that I feel like you should not read a ton in, I mean, maybe you can't. Trusty and Ream would both be left back, so if Reams in, you're not going to run Ream and trustee together. So it might just mean that for those guys, there is more of a right-left centerback split. Okay. I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, that's fair. Richards hasn't played for getting close to two months now. He is back in the squad for Crystal Palace, but hasn't essentially lost his spot thanks to injury. Do you think he can, do you play him? Surely you don't start him against Jamaica, right? I don't think. I'm going McKenzie Ream against, I mean, at Jamaica.

Okay, okay. I'm going to clock that and disagree. strongly when we went to our liners. No, I kind of expect that because that's who he, that's who Potch went with against Panama and was ready to go with him again against Mexico. I think that's who he's got. Yeah. He also, another thing you did in the press conference was, you know, he praised Tim Riem a lot as a reference for the younger players and, you know, just really valuable. So that's the defense moving to the midfield, which I don't know, how seriously we're taking these midfield

versus winger classifications, but this is the big like big mystery, I feel like. So we've got West McKinney, who was called up in October but didn't actually play because of a little knock he brought into camp. You got Eunice Musa,

Malik Tillman, Johnny Cardoso, who was on the initial October list, but never even made it to camp, injured late in his club match right before the window. Brendan Aaron Gianluca Busio, Tanner Testman, who was an injury replacement in October. So he wasn't originally called up, but then joined because of the Cardoso injury.

And you've got Aidan Morris. Yeah. So the ads are McKenny, just to reiterate, the ads are McKinney and Cardoso. Yeah, just kind of back from injury. And no one drops. So Testman gets to stay again. He was an injury replacement last time. Not dropped even though the guy he replaced is now back.

So again, this is where it's like Pachitino watched him once And now gets to actually work with them a little bit And sort of respond to how they played And then we get to see what they look like For round two I am quietly buying Tanner Testament stock I think Just very quietly

No one knows I'm not telling anybody He's been playing We cover this in the Monday show But he's playing I think pretty well for Leon. He doesn't start every game, but he pretty much plays in every game

and plays a significant role. And I like what I see. I'm also kind of frustrated with Aidan Morris for the way he played against Mexico. I don't know. So I give those guys a ton of grace, I guess we'll call it, because of the situation that Pachitino put him in, which was play.

a bunch of minutes against Panama, and then the way that window worked out was tight turnaround. The games were more closely scheduled than these Nation's League games, probably for TV purposes, to be honest. So a tight turnaround to go up into the altitude and play at Mexico. And I think that's a huge effect on your ability to perform. And I think Pachino knows that, so I don't think he's over there saying these guys are dogging it. I mean, he's probably just saying, yeah, they played where they were, what they were capable of. they'll be able to give more in better conditions.

So I think some of that will be sort of factored into Pachitino's assessment of them. I mean, I think Aidan Morris is going to be hurt because we just have better players available this window, for sure, with Weston and Cardoso now here. Yeah. Yep. But I think in this Jamaica game, we could easily see four of these guys in the starting lineup because the winger situation is a little iffy, given Tim Wei. suspension, Haji Wright injury.

Yeah, I've got five of them in my starting line-out. Okay, there you go. I'm not going to tell you yet. Are you benching Joe Scali straight away? Don't tell me. We'll get there. You figured it out pretty quickly. And then let's do the forwards.

I guess first wingers and then strikers. Yeah, so we've got Pulisic. We got Tim Wea added. He was on the roster last time, but was not ready. It was still injured. and then we have Zendejas and Cowell. Zendejas was added as an injury replacement for, I think, Balagan last round. And then we have Cade Cowell in this camp who was not in the camp at all last round.

Is that right? Or did he get added late, too? No, he got added late, yeah. Okay. Yeah. And then Haji is injured, so he's a drop from October. Right. We assume you would have been there.

Right. Interesting that he brings Cade Cowell back. I mean, I guess I don't know what, like, who has a shout to be there ahead of him at this point. Right. Yeah, I don't know who that would be, but. You're looking at, you're looking at Paxton Aronson, but they don't really, they certainly don't fit the same mold. Paxton played as a six this weekend for Ura. And I guess another option would be Diego Luna, but.

that that ship has not yet left the harbor. Yeah, in midfields, we didn't talk about like a Maloney. If you're looking for a hard man to go into Jamaica and do hard man stuff, Leonard could have been that guy. All right, who are the strikers? Who are the strikers? It's Pepe and Vasquez. Vasquez, again, injury replacement for October, came in late,

joined him in, and Balo and Sergeant who were on the office. October list, injured. Follow injured before the October window, still injured, Sergeant, injured in... No, Sergeant played, Sergeant played and then got hurt when he went back to Norwich, right? Yeah, he played in the... Yeah, he played in both games, actually. Yeah.

Yeah, that's the roster. I guess the other... I don't know if you mentioned this, but Tyler Adams is back to health for Bournemouth, but it's a little early to bring him back in. I think that was the context for Potch's praise of him in the press conference. Yeah, and that makes sense. People get kind of really, they kind of bristle when the guy starts. Because, again, there's sometimes the sense of like a binary fit, not fit.

And so I was like, well, he started, so he's fit. But, you know, there's a ramp up. And the plan probably is not start on Sunday, play 60 minutes, and then immediately play again on Thursday, and then play tight turnaround on Tuesday, and then come back and play again on Saturday. Like, that's, it's totally fine to leave guys, to call guys not fit, even if they've just started for their club. And especially considering Tyler Adams' injury history, I think he should be treated with kid gloves here with the World Cup of mere 19 months away, something like that.

Mere 19 months, yeah. It'll happen fast. It will happen fast. Cameron Carter Vickers, another guy who's fit. He's been playing for a while for Celtic. but I don't know if it's kid gloves or I just or if he's just next on the list to evaluate maybe down the line for Potch. Yeah.

And then of course, Dest is out. Continues to be out. But maybe you'd be back in January. In time to play in the Nations League final in March. What are you hoping for? What are you hoping for from this window? I'm hoping that we get a real mean performance. Like a smart, mean performance down in Jamaica.

Yeah. Mean is a good word. Yeah. Where we really like, I want to see us do some bullion. And I don't know if we've got a great bullion lineup, but we got a couple of bullies out there that I think can do it. And bully smartly. That's like, that's what I want to see.

Not just in the gamesmanship stuff, but bully organized, you know, soccer-wise, where there's a plan for what we're going to do when we do the good bullying. Because I don't expect us to go out there and just play fluid soccer. It's not going to happen. I think we've learned that. So I want to see the good bullion. I want to see the good bullion that the right people are doing it. And then after they do the bullion, they slide a ball out to Christian Pulisic to do something cool.

Yeah. Malik Tillman does something cool. You know, like that's what I want to see. Pepe. Pepe's there to finish at the doorstep. That's right. You're looking for some diabolical. bullying

sounds like Yeah and it really is going to come down It's got to be like it's going to be McKinney It's got to be Musa It's got to be Jedi Like I feel like those are the guys who can do it Maybe Malik can be a bit of a bully here He

You know I'll lean back on that We gotta reach But like the minutes against Trinidad At Trinidad where we weren't doing great And then he came in and he like He gave a little bit of energy A little spark Yeah

I mean he has it He has the ability to be a key player for us but it's like will he and that's that's the top of my list for what I want to see from this window is for Potch to get more out of Malik

yeah I mean that was the top of my list last window too it's going to stay the top until it happens because he is like the one guy that you feel like can can and should give us the boost from the 2022 core

like the 22 guitar team Malik is the guy Everyone else is kind of like There's no one really Doing too much ball again obviously But it's like Malik has got to be that guy He's a proper footballer And he

He just hasn't really done it I guess with the You know With the exception of that Away Trinidad performance Which there wasn't too much in that performance To be honest It was just a glimpse of like

Show up You know make people know you're there Right Right, that's the night that Sergenio went catatonic, right? Catatonic is not the right word. He went crazy. And we need, I think we need, we need, not just Malik, but we need, we need more out of, probably need more out of Johnny in the shirt. I don't know that he, does he fit that same bill for you where he's like, he's like, he provides a possible boost to the 20th?

22 group. I hope he does, but I don't really get that sense. So he's not a guy that I'm, I'm like crossing my fingers that are really like holding my breath, and he's going to give us a big boost. I think he's a good filler player, but he's not going to offer like a ton of stuff that's going to raise our ceiling.

Like, I think it's always, you always want to add talent to your 23, and I think I'd much rather have what I think Johnny is than what, like, Kellynne, Costa might have been in guitar. But I don't think Johnny's going to come in and like win us a game either way. It doesn't feel like the easy money that Malik seems to offer in terms of raising our game. He's not going to break a game open, break a moment open.

I don't get that sense. Yeah. Lineups. Yeah, who are you starting in Jamaica? Well, I'm putting Turner in goal. Same. My right back is going to be Eunice Musa. Awesome.

I like they're just going right for it. Yeah. McKenny, I'm sorry, McKenzie and Ream are my centerbacks, like I said earlier. Jedi at left back, of course. Why don't you give your backline before we get into the midfield quagmire? I got Turner, and I'm going Scali and Jedi. So I'm just going to put Scali back there, be safe. Joe, don't do anything nuts, but just, you know, sit there, defend.

I'm going to go McKenzie and Miles. And I feel like I'm just worried about Ream. I'd go trusty in McKenzie or trusty in Miles, any two of those three. And I know that's not what Pachino's going to do. I think you really trust Ream. But I just don't want Ream to get old manned down in Jamaica. And I worry that that could happen. I mean, it totally could, yeah.

I think that's what Vince is particularly worried about. Yeah. Not that the other three guys are like mistake proof centerbacks out there. But I want to have guys who can take the knocks. Yeah. That's fair. I guess you got to weigh that against like the sort of veteran calm he brings. I mean, he is a calm player. And that's not nothing. I know. I just, I saw enough against Mexico that he's not just, he's not just like, everything isn't just calm and tidy when he's back there. You know, like, and it's not always the other guys making him look bad.

Like sometimes he just kind of is out of the play too. So enough times that I'm willing to bench him for this game, start him in the home game. Okay. All right. So midfield, I'm going Cardoso, McKinney, and Tessman. All right. So there's your very quiet stock purchase, huh? Yeah, because we get good size across the board there.

I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think Cardoso probably the deepest and then just let Testament and McKenny work as the eights. I'm not going to be upset if it's some other midfield configuration, but... Isn't it wild that it could be anything? Like, we've got those eight midfielders there, and it could be, like, I really have no idea what Lachino sees. Potch could start Brenda in midfield.

I mean, he did that against Mexico. I've got Johnny, Musa, and McKinney. And I feel like what I'm going to do, I'll kind of just dip into the wingers, too. I've got Johnny and Musa kind of as a pivot in possession. And then I've got McKinney kind of floating with Pool Sick. Because McKinney does this with Wea, too, where he's happy to go occupy that right sideline.

So I'm going to put Pool Sick on the right and let those two just kind of veer around. You do that with Malik too out there because that's my spoilers. Malik's my other guy out there. I want Malik on the field. So you're playing him as a nominal left wing? Yeah, just totally free. He doesn't have to do the dirty work.

You're going to have to do some dirty work against Jamaica in the midfield. He doesn't have to do any of that. He can just be up trying to disrupt things. I think he's going to be just, I think he's capable of disrupting. He's not like Brendo, constantly nipping at people, but he is like sneaky fast and he can get up there and make life difficult for Jamaica. And he's, I think he's just going to be better on the ball than Brendo or even, you know, Zendayaas and certainly Cal. Right.

Zendaya's actually quite, should be proud of the way he showed up in that Mexico game. But yeah, I agree. I like the way Tillman does dirty work, you know. I mean, it's just a matter of getting him to lock in, I think. But he would be able to handle the midfield responsibilities if he wants to, I guess, essentially. Yeah, I almost just don't want to waste his energy there. When we've got other guys who will, like, I think Moose will do it.

I think Johnny will do it with no problems as far as like the commitment to it. And then I just want Malik to be more free to go where he wants. It's the same way that I like Geo doing that when Geo is available. may he find peace wherever he is so yeah so that's kind of where I'm going with Pulisick and Malik

just being able to be free and McKenny kind of drifting around him doing fun stuff okay that makes a lot of sense so your winger's are Tillman on the left Pulisick on the right and then

Peppy up top I assume yep yep and so you got Jedi kind of being an attacking left side of player whereas Scali is going to be much, much more just kind of sitting back. Okay. Okay. But that lets Musa get a little free too if he wants to. If he wants to drive forward, he can because Johnny will be behind him.

And you still have Johnny plus three, you know, sitting deep. So you're safe-ish numbers-wise for a Jamaica transition. And all those guys can do a job in transition. They're not, none of them are just like, oh, no, we're cooked because Jamaica's running at this guy. Right. I just am, I guess I'm pretty committed to the idea that we need our full backs to offer something, you know? Yeah. Like to progress the ball, carry the ball, pass it.

And I guess we saw some signs that Scali could, was going to start doing some of that. But it didn't really come through in the last window. So that's why I want Musa back there. So I'll throw this note out there too, because we talked about what you want to see, and Malik is still the big one. And that's about breaking the game open, you know, going towards the attack. The other thing I really want to see is full commitment from whoever those center mids are, working back towards our goal in those sort of key moments. And they need to be doing it before it's super obvious that we're in danger. So with McKenny, whoever that is, McKenny, Musa, Johnny, Boozio, whatever guys we run out there,

like I need to see that some real commitment working backwards when Jamaica are starting to threaten. You use the phrase wedding cake to describe that. Where did you learn that? Because that, I mean, of all the things you've said on the podcast, that may be the thing that sticks with me the most, because it's such an apt analogy. I learned that super late surprisingly Like our soccer education in the U.S., in Iowa at least In the 90s was not the best.

So we had an Italian coach when we started playing in college And just the simplest things, you know, Like that Italian defensive cultured mind will communicate to you And we're just like, oh yeah, of course. Like these guys sort of occupy these spaces. you just protect on top of them with the next layer to, it's again so obvious, like to defend the dangerous areas of the goal. And this was before all the charts of like,

you can allow shots from out on the wing. You don't need to. But like the Italians just all had that intuitively. They didn't need the analytics revolution to be like, no, let them shoot from there. You've got a goalkeeper and no one scores that. Just protect these spaces. And so you shell up and you stack players on top of the back.

And, you know. So who came up with the phrase wedding cake? Was that you or was that the Italian guy? So wedding cake was me, I think. I think he would always say shell up. I think I added wedding cake when I was coaching into the high school kids. I knew it. You learned it from yourself.

All right. Anything else? We'll recap on Friday, hopefully. Yeah, that's the plan. We'll hopefully recap a great, gritty victory. Yeah. Well, it'll be fun. It should be fun. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see ya.