Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #549: USMNT v Jamaica recap, Kingston edition

Episode Date: November 16, 2024

We get an away win in Concacaf! Greg and Belz talk through the performance. 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 got a wave win in Conca Calf. Played Jamaica off the pitch for 10 minutes. We tried to shoot ourselves in the foot, but we missed. Then we just sort of managed things until we had to weather a flurry of danger midway through the second half. And then we managed things again until the final whistle. Greg, how you doing? I'm managing things okay over here, bells.

I'm now very optimistic that we will see our way to another. Nations League finals in the spring. But we're not there yet. We got the job left to do on Monday. But yeah, convincing, convincing win for us here. Historic win. You thought convincing? No, no.

It was a, it was a scrap and it was, I mean, it looked like neither team particularly wanted to be out on that field trying to play that sport. And I'm going to emphasize that because we're going to do our standard scuffed way too thorough analysis of each player and sequences. But this is not the same kind of sport that we're going to see played on Monday when we get back stateside. It's just such a different animal of a game when everyone has to sort of tiptoe around those conditions. Yeah, and the conditions were the field, which was the grass was long, the clods of sod were flying around. it was difficult to put together any sort of flowing move

or to build out of the back without mistakes. It's an untrustworthy surface, and that matters a lot. There's better and worse ways to play that, and so good smart players will adjust, and you'll see those adjustments sort of happen. But again, you don't necessarily want to over-index on how players might have looked playing this sport

and then extrapolate it to how they're going to look playing a slightly different sport. come Monday. Yeah, everybody was adjusting. Basically to the speed with which the ball traveled across the field. I think that was a lot of it. But I guess I'm curious what you think, but I was, you know, there were some mistakes, of course. There was some non-adjustment activity out there. But for the most part, I thought we did all right under those conditions.

I don't know. What did you think? I think that's right. I think most of the players were, um, playing, like, correctly safe. You saw how safe we were playing, and you're playing safe with the ball. And I don't know if people are noticing this. And we also don't know for sure if it's too early in the Pocino era to make sweeping generalizations.

But, you know, we weren't playing very aggressively off of the ball either. So when we have the ball, you got to be really safe because, you know, the surface could betray you at any moment. But when we don't have the ball, we weren't, like, flying up field trying to, like, press aggressively or anything like that. And I think that's very much the correct approach in this kind of a match because these conditions, we talk about, I mean, if you follow the U.S. national team, you know we play a lot of games in suboptimal field conditions. And you hear tons of people say that that levels the playing field, right? Like, it's good for the underdog to have those kinds of variables in play. And so that's the case at sort of the macro level of this team versus this team. It's better for the underdog, the worst team, to have.

to have this. It's also, even if you scale it down, like if we start pressing aggressively up the field, even like organized, coordinated, every high aggressive coordinated press leaves space behind it that you're hoping the opponent doesn't identify, doesn't hit if they do identify it,

and it doesn't successfully exploit if they do hit it. And if you're going to do that kind of a system in a game like this, you're going to like open yourself up to sloppiness, sloppy moments, unpredictable moments of field versus ball that could sort of bite you, even if normally you'd have it buttoned up. So you don't want to like press upfield with players leaving Tim Ream one-on-one, because if Jamaica find it, it's not just like they have to find it.

They need to find it. Now if they hit that ball and it's kind of a bouncing sloppy ball, you also have to deal with the pitch acting up on Tim Ream, not just an attacker acting up on Timbue. So you kind of like need to take fewer chances in that direction too. So I think we were very cagey. Both teams really cagey about sending players forward. You saw really cautious positioning of pieces, I think, from both teams.

Okay. Yeah, it sounds like you're not going to agree with me on this, but I did, I liked, well, I don't know if you're going to agree with me or not, but I liked the midfield. I liked the midfield physicality. Maybe this is just a good opportunity to talk about the lineup. Maybe that's what we should just do. Let's do it. Matt Turner and goal.

Joe Scally, Mark McKenzie, Tim Ream, and Jedi Robinson across the back line. Tanner Testman and Johnny Cardoso as the double pivot. And then a band of three, I guess you'd call it, of Musa, McKinney, and Pulisic. Although there are other ways to explain this shape, I think. And then Ricardo Pepe up top as striker. That's the midfield I wanted in this game, which was. when we recorded our last episode. And I think it, you know, Cardoso came off with an injury 20 minutes in for Malik Tillman.

But I think the, those three, four players did a pretty good job, I think, of handling the difficult conditions, the physicality of Jamaica, such as it was in this game. And just they were adults. Like, generally speaking, they were adults when they got the ball, adults on the ball. and I guess that's a lot of what I would ask from our midfield in a game like this, just to be calm and responsible and not be destroyed every time they touch the ball. And I think they passed all those tests. Yeah, I think if it's pass fail, I'll give them all. I'll give them all a pass.

If we want to get a little more nuanced, I think McKinney was definitely like the grown-up for me out of the group. I thought Tanner was a little bit off. for this kind of a game. I just thought he got eaten up a little bit more often and sort of surrendered to the field more often than I wish he would have. Hmm. I didn't see that.

I mean, not that he was amazing or anything, but I think of one moment later, like late in the second half, he gets the ball kind of stuck under him because the field messes him up. And he does this like really nice, some really nice work to get out of the trouble that the field put him in. And, I mean, he ends up making a back pass, but...

Did he get eating up that much? No, he didn't get eaten up all that much, and that's why he gets a pass. I'm giving him a pass for the day. Okay. And again, the most important thing for a game like this, this is very much an ends versus mean situation. We got our three points, and we're more than halfway into the Nation's League knockout.

or semifinals. I guess it's technically already knockouts. So, yeah, he gets a pass. It's just there were a bunch of times where, not a bunch, there were enough times for me where, you know, we played our way through the rough field and, like, put ourselves in decent spots. And Testman could almost like, what I'm watching and I,

you can see him sense that field coming to get him. And so he either releases too quickly or he just, like, took a really, really off-balance, non-committed shot on target. I was like a hot-tanner. Like, we did all this work. Like, I know it's probably going to go south if you try to do more. Not just because it's you. I'm not putting it on you.

I just mean, you know, everyone's more likely to screw up in a game like this than they would be on an immaculate service. But, like, you got to press it a little bit farther and see if we can get a little bit higher percentage than what you ended up doing there. I, yeah, I know the movement you're talking about. Yeah, and there were two back-to-back. Tanner Testman boners right there in the, um, maybe that's why it sticks out to me. Yeah.

Yeah. He played a cut back that was kind of pathetic in that it like didn't even come close to finding an American player. And then, and then immediately right after that, he took that off, off balance shot from 20 yards, which,

uh, it went to, uh, Long Mountain Country Club, which is, uh, just over the hill from the stadium. It was way off,

way off. Other lineup notes we should probably mention are, Brendan Aronson was sick, got some illness, so he went straight to St. Louis, San Luis, as Potch calls it. And then, who else? Tim Wea suspended. So that's why he didn't start. Aidan Morris also got hurt, which I think probably maybe explains Testman's start. I mean, maybe Testman starts anyway.

We don't know for sure. It was basically exactly the lineup I wanted, except for Scali started at. right back. Yeah, he didn't get Musa there. Jamaica's lineup was Andre Blake in Goal, the Philadelphia Union. Is he a legend?

Probably. Dexter Limbaquisa, Mason Holgate, Damian Lowe, Amari Bell, and Greg Lee across the back line, Leon Bailey on the right wing,

Joel Lahtabodier, and Casey Palmer and Damari Gray across the band of four, and sort of a nominal 5-4-1, and then Shamar Nicholson up top.

Michaela Antonio, you know, the, I think pretty clearly the best player for Jamaica, although aging somewhat, he was suspended on yellow cards from earlier in the competition. So that's why he didn't start. I'm sure we'll see him against us in St. Louis. All right, the timeline, we get our goal within five minutes. And it starts with Leon Bailey driving at us on our left flank. And then the field kind of gets the better of him. I mean, Bailey, of all the players in the field who struggled with, the field. I would say Bailey was maybe struggling the most

because he was trying to play as if he was on a normal field. And then the ball would get away from him. That's what happened in this case. He kind of pokes it to nobody. It gets cleared and then recovered by Tessman to McKenny. He taps it out to Scali on the right side. And we just kind of gradually move forward. Poulisic is sort of popping into little pockets in the middle of the pitch. He checks to Musa. Doesn't get the pass. Then he checks to McKenny, doesn't get the pass.

Then he checks to Cardoso. He gets the pass, taps it right back to Cardoso, and then he finds a little pocket between two midfielders. Cardoso finds him again with a simple pass, and then he just sort of turns and accelerates through that gap between the two midfielders, and all of a sudden he's running at the retreating centerbacks. Pepe times his run perfectly darting in from the right.

Cool Six slips him into the box. Did this pass Meg? the defender? I couldn't tell from the replays. We didn't have like a behind the goal angle. Yeah, I feel like they were really low on number of cameras available here, so we didn't get any of the replays

that I wish we would have had for almost any sequence. So I'm not sure. And then it's just, I mean, it's just a perfect touch from Pulisick, perfectly timed. It's a good movement from Pepe, and it's just like,

we just catch Jamaica on a little bit of a switch here with their centerback approaching Pool Sick and leaving. Pepey alone. Pepe then takes two touches and finishes. Scuffs it a bit, but beats the keeper on the bounce, I mean, kind of bounces past the keeper and then ricochets in off the far post. One zero. Really nice goal. I mean, and it's the game winner, it turns out. It is, it is a really nice goal. Like, this is such a lightning quick attack once it happens, right? You're totally right. This is, we gained the ground in, like, a transition moment because we hadn't

had a lot of success gaining ground against Jamaica's block through full buildup from our base shape. It was kind of, you know, again, we were kind of trying it, but we'd run into some field issues after our ninth or tenth pass. This is when we gained the ground. We got up field on like a transition. And then we just stayed up there. Like you said, pool sick just kind of floating looking for that one moment. And then that was really all it took. Like it didn't, when he receives that ball, it doesn't seem like we're in a real dangerous position whatsoever. And just that that burst he has to eliminate the two midfielders closest to him. It's kind of embarrassing for them to be napping that badly.

Just they feel like they've got everything sealed off. And then to put himself and essentially create a 2V1 with him and Pepe, and we just get a goal. Like it felt like it came from such nothing, but early enough in the game, you're like, maybe we just keep doing this. Maybe we just keep making Jamaica look this bad. Yeah.

And we kind of did for a second. We could have been up to zero, I think, after seven minutes easily. No, I mean, it's a great finish, right? It's not, it's not a, it's not like he hit it clean and just like smashed it into the far corner. But that's not always easy to finish on a chance like that. And it was precise. Do you think he intended to scuff it that way? No, I don't think this is the one where he tops it on purpose.

Because, again, we've said many times, I do think that is a real technique that gets employed by strikers of top levels. But no, I think this is just the surface. But I think he weighs. up where he wanted to go with it. He got himself set. Again, did all the hard work. All the hard work was in the timing of the run. Yeah.

And the shaping his body to stay on side. So excellent stuff from Pepey in that moment. And then, yeah, I mean, he was hitting it to the big area of the goal. And it went into that area. So that counts. Yeah. It's a great feeling to go ahead early, although we've done that before in Jamaica. That's 12 U.S. goals for Pepe.

He's now tied for 18,000. all time having surpassed Chris Wondelowski and Jordan Morris. Bobby Wood is the next name up on the list with 13. So, you know, he's writing himself into the history books. Yeah, for now, I mean, it's always possible him and Jordan Morris will just leapfrog each other for a while. Bobby Wood, maybe he'll be doing that too. Okay, I don't think, I don't think Peppy's going to get repassed by any of those three. I think he's going to keep a safe lead on them.

Especially not after the hat trick he scores on Monday. Yeah, he's going to be increasing the margins this week. A question for you, though, is this a goal, is this goal, is it, I know it's kind of a surprise, it was a surprise to sort of everybody that it turned into a goal, but was it bad defending by Jamaica? Yes. I mean, it's bad defending from Jamaica in that their two midfielders were so stunned that pool sick. Like, it just had that explosive moment, which kind of like, the game was lacking those moments. from everybody all like the entire time right that's what we talk about it was all it was very

cagey everyone was everyone was being very cautious with the ball at their feet and tiptoeing around and so this was this did totally stand out as like a moment of pool sick just be like nope i can go and he just he just leaves them into dust um and then it's it's not good uh failover defending from the guys behind those two midfielders who get who get rinsed by pool sick yeah one of the midfielders I think it was Palmer just kind of let Pulisic go. And I think you could see the guilt sort of settle on his shoulders as the ball went into the net, you know? Yeah, which again, there would have been a perfect time for them to wreck Pulsick. Like, that's great Pulsick-recking situation right there.

And it's not like they stayed off of his heels for the whole game. So this was, you know, I don't think anyone was, I didn't think there was any maliciousness from anyone in this game, in this game where there was anyone out for injuries. But there was plenty of grabbing and tussling. Oh, yeah. Real professional stuff. And this was just a moment where they absolutely could have done that and chose not to. And he was just gone.

Yeah. It's great. The thing is, we get two more big chances before 10 minutes is up. So the next one is Jedi. It's a big chance for the U.S. I mean, at least as good as the one that. Pepey scores on. Scally plays the ball into Peppy's feet from deep right, and he kind of stumbles over it,

or it kind of gets through him, but Mason Holgate, kind of, the centerback, overcommits, comes like kind of through Pepe, and the ball squirts out, and Pulisic just comes away with it, and he's in an incredibly beneficial situation. It's like, it turns into a five-on-three, and he plays, he slides it in behind for Jedi, who is descending from the top of the screen into all that green space. And so Jedi is basically in on goal. Not basically. He's in on goal as he gets the pass.

And then he kind of shifts it onto his right foot as he drives at the goal. And Blake is rushing out at him. Shoots with his right foot. Blake blocks it with a sliding challenge. Is he genuflecting here? I'm still, you know, boning up on my Catholicism. I don't know, because we don't know. didn't get any great replays of this either. We got one like almost real speed replay and then they

switched right over to a Jamaica sequence to show replay. So I didn't get to enjoy Blake's technique as much as I wish I could have. I rate this chance as very much being like a casualty of the field. I mean, it was still a great look and we definitely could have scored it anyway. But you can just see the field sneaking up on us from the moment Poulson gets free, right? The pass he hits into Jedi gets caught up, slows down, where Jedi has to adjust his steps to wait for it and then really look it into his foot. So everything again is everyone has to be so careful.

I don't think there's any real way that Jedi is going to be able to try to identify the square options that might have been present. Poulsick and Pepe both arriving as options to square as Blake closes down the angle. So I'm not putting that on Jedi. I think you have to be fully dialed into just the ball and not screwing up,

not tripping on it. And so then he has to get it, you know, really concentrated on getting his feet and just make solid contact with the ball. So if it bobbles at the last second, you don't sky it over frame. So I think this is one where you're just praying the field doesn't totally do you in, and it didn't. But it slows us down enough that it's a worst chance than it would be in St. Louis. Yeah. I mean, with all that in mind, Jedi did a pretty good job here. Yes.

Oh, I think so, too. I think so, too. And Poole's like too. And if you go back a little bit further on this sequence, it's Weston McKinney in our box under pressure with the ball at his feet, showing that real grown-up composure that I think still sets him apart from some of our other midfielder's. Just really calm, like totally unbothered by a Jamaica player right on his back, kind of just looks in one way and then pivots the other way with the ball to be able to play it out to Cardoso.

And that's how we kind of get into this transition moment where we get to beat Jamaica before they can set their rid block up. And again, it's not even clean the way we do it. This is that sort of sloppiness can sometimes work in the attacker's favor here where that ball into Pepey and Pulisick almost collide. But we come out of that scramble and we're just running downhill. Yeah. The screenshot of Pulisic striding forward with the ball running at three centerbacks is pretty exciting. You don't often get a five on three in a soccer. game.

Yeah, it looks really well choreographed. It does. The design of the blue shirts looks real nice. Yeah. So then we get, well, then we get another good chance. It's, uh,

we work it through Cardoso and Testament over to McKinney, who's kind of floating out wide left, and he carries it forward. Just, you know, with a defender just kind of tracking him, taps it out to Jedi. Jedi plays a return pass. pass to McKinney into the cutback zone, and he runs onto it and does this sexy little outside of the boot first-time pass to cut it back in the air for Pulisic.

It kind of bounces once, and then Pulisic hits it on the volley and slams it over. I mean, I think he made, I don't know if he even made good contact, but he had a chance to really put the ball in the back of the net here. Not a guilt-edged chance, but a good chance. So at this point, go ahead. This is just fantastic Weston McKenney work. Yeah, it is. This is the kind of thing that we would lose our minds if it was G.O. Raina doing because of how casual he is about it.

To, again, get it in the box with the conditions we've been going on and on about, not working in people's favor. And him not letting that sort of bother him. Right. I'm just saying, I'm still capable of picking out the pass I want and then hitting it in a way that the field can't gobble it up. by putting a little air under the ball. I mean, even for the little seven-yard pass to Pool Sick. So just really loving Weston McKinney at this point in the game. Yeah, that was really smart.

I mean, at certain points of game, I'm like, we should just try to progress the ball by juggling it, you know? We did clip a lot of balls into the, into like the Peppy space, like when we were playing those little, when we were doing our buildup. I feel like that might have been by design to just clip it in the air over to Pepey or to Poolstick in that pocket. Yeah, there was one in particular from, McKinney that was like a knuckleball, you know, that he hit to Pepe in the center circle.

I'm at this point ready to say that this is the best 10 minutes of away soccer and concoff we've ever played. Certainly since I started watching closely in 2018. It's the Pachitino era, Bells. It's upon us. I mean, we're never going back. Say no more. But we did kind of go back like a couple of minutes later.

Well, that's the thing is, yeah, so that's, yeah, nothing's free in this world. And we, you know, we sort of demonstrate. that here. Jamaica wins a penalty in the 12th minute. So right after I'm thinking this is the best we've ever played in Conccaf away, somewhere I knew in myself that this was going to happen. But Cardoso collects a pretty crappy pass from Jamaica on the left side, just intercepts it and taps it to Scali, who's right next to him. And Scali has Tessman in the middle of the pitch that he can pass to, but it's maybe a little risky to play. a square past that in that direction.

He tries to pass it to forward to Musa, but he tries to pass it through Casey Palmer, who is right there. Casey Palmer intercepts it very easily and then sends it immediately forward to Shamar Nicholson. Nicholson is kind of running at Ream and puts him on absolute skates at the edge of the box, cuts to...

What does he do? He cuts to his right, and then he cuts back to his left and eliminates him. And McKenzie is there to... intervene, but he kind of comes into it a little bit softly, like he's trying to dribble away with the ball. Yes, yes, exactly. Like, he's trying to collect the ball and have it at the end of this.

Yeah. For sure, that is what it looks like. Yeah. And he, instead of, you know, instead of just, like, smashing it out for a corner kick or a throw in, either would have been preferable, of course. But Turner flies out. So, but McKenzie, McKenzie loses this challenge that he sort of goes into. too softly.

The ball squirts towards Turner, and then Turner comes out for it, flies out for it, but he's a beat late. Nicholson touches it around him, and Turner brings him down. Clear penalty. It feels like deja vu all over again, a little bit to me. Yeah. I'm still going to really be fussy with McKenzie here. I'm going to be really fussy with Joe Scali here.

But, again, mostly McKenzie. And it's just because you know the field can. decisions are crap. You do not at any point need to have control of this soccer ball or attempt to. So you don't need to create a pinball that you think you're going to win, a pinball situation. Like, just put your toe through it and live to fight another day. And then turn around and yell at Joe Scali for passing the ball directly to their team. But, uh, and give Tim a pat on the back for, you know, doing his level best to keep this, to keep this thing going, like to extend the play and not be totally rinsed, which, you know, I guess you could say he'd

did that at least. Yeah, I think that's fair. And I'm reluctant to come down too hard on McKenzie because I thought he had such a good game otherwise, except for this one moment. It was a pretty big moment though. And Scali, I don't know, what is he trying to do? Is he trying

to get... He just has blinders. And again, I do think that peripheral vision takes a huge hit on fields like this just because you have to be so focused on the ball. So even that little two-yard pass that he receives from Cardoso, you don't get to get as clear of a map of the field as you normally would

because you've got to really be making sure that the ball doesn't leave your foot, that it doesn't bobble on you. So I'm still going to give Scali a little bit of, everyone gets a little bit of extra grace and you just hope that your goalkeeper comes up with the big save when you need them to. A lot of grace on this podcast, definitely. At this point, you are reminded, I think, as a television viewer, just that this was actually a pretty good atmosphere. There was a roar in the stadium. I mean, we've been to games in Kingston where there's not hardly anybody in there. But for this game, 25,000, the announced attendance, and big brass band in the supporters

section. It was actually pretty fun. A lot of dancing. A lot of dancing, yeah. It looks like a great time. Yeah. And, of course, they're excited because Jamaica's got a penalty. Damari Gray steps up to take it.

and it's not a bad one, well hit to Turner's right. Why don't you take over here, Greg? How good of a save was this? It's a really good save. Like, this thing's coming hot, and it's not like perfectly, it's not at the best altitude because you'd rather have it, you know,

two feet lower or three feet higher. But it's coming in hot enough that you usually think you're going to score that. And it's just a really strong save. from Turner to not only get his hands to it, but to not have it just smashed through his hands and still go into the goal. Yeah. The boys made some plays on the defensive end, didn't they? I mean, this was the biggest one, but there's more to come. So great save from Turner, kind of dodged a bullet.

Let's take a break, come back in a minute, and cover the rest of the game. All right, we're back. So 20th minute, like we said earlier, 21st minute, Cardoso leaves the game feeling discomfort in the back of his left. knee, I guess, but apparently he said after the game it was not that serious. Leak Tillman comes on to play midfield for him. And again, I thought he was, I thought Tillman was pretty good. Gets a pass. Yeah, Tilling passes.

28th minute, McKenzie holds up pretty well against the through ball. Outside of the tiptoeing into that challenge before the penalty, seems like he handled everything that was thrown at him in this game pretty well. Here's where you, right here at the 30th minute where you get those cinematic mediocrities from Tessman in the final third that we discussed earlier. Nicholson gets a headed chance off a good cross from the right in the 37th minute.

Yeah, go ahead. Jamaica had a couple of looks. They had one shot from the top of the box right before that and then you also had the Pulisick moment where he kind of had some afters on the advertising boards where he kind of got lucky to dodge a yellow card. But that's where it started to feel like, oh, no, is this, are we kind of starting to lose the plot here?

Yes. But, I mean, we didn't. Like that, I think we, you know, you can say we already had our luck to, you know, have a penalty let off. So that plays a lot into how you read the game, right? Like, is the first half a much worse performance if they convert that penalty? And then you can't say that we weathered the storm because we wouldn't have.

But it was starting to get worrying towards the end of the first half there. The pile up of mistakes that led to the penalty, though, just felt, it didn't feel like we were getting, it felt like an aberration, at least at that point in the game, you know? Yeah, no, I'll give you that. That header that they had, like, there was nothing there. They just happened to hit, like, a perfect trajectory to even get a chance to touch the ball with their head and still not really make it dangerous. Right.

It would have been, it would have had to been an incredible. credible, you know, falling away, fall away header into the far corner for it to go in. I guess, Mike, what I wonder about is had the penalty gone in, would we have completely fallen apart? We'll never know. Not if Pashtino in charge. Like, that's just not, I mean, I'm, like, kind of joking, but I'm really hopeful that we wouldn't.

And I don't know that, like, you know, the last window that Mexico performance were so listless. Yeah. Those guys, those guys just weren't the right. guys to be playing in Mexico. These guys on the field in Jamaica are the right guys to be playing. Well, I mean, it's going to tell myself. It's a better team, I think, you know, when you have McKinney out there for sure. 39th minute, I just noticed while we're picking Nits, which is what we do, I guess.

Pepey scored the goal, so he deserves all the plotts. But there's a moment in the 39th minute where he, where Pulisic plays him into the center circle. And I would just like Pepe to receive the ball and turn. and ask some questions of the defense. There's no risk in it, you know? He's got this entire team behind him. He's got Tillman out to his right.

Poulisic's going to be making... We know Poulos is going to be making a determined run. So it's probably going to be a three-on-three. And Pepi's got to do something. But instead, he does not even turn his head to look. Instead, he just goes directly backward with it. And I'm asking for a little more from him there. Yeah, I think it's fair to want that for sure.

I think he just did what so many of the guys were doing, which was be extremely safe and really just focus on maintaining control of the soccer ball. Like, I really think that was what everyone's default was when I do wish we would have at times been a little more willing to embrace the risk of miscontrol to try to put some pressure on Jamaica. Yeah, that one for sure. There was another one where Malik and Pepe kind of got their signal. crossed where we could have had a good break going right at the end of the half. Oh, the one where Malik tries to play a through ball, but it kind of just goes straight to a Jamaican defender.

Yeah, Pepe kind of runs himself. He tries to almost play it where Pepe's feet are, and Pepe had just run himself out of the play. So yeah, it was just a, it was not a particularly clean. This was not clean soccer, and it was never really going to be. Well, I will say one thing before the half that I noticed is that we had several good, I mean, good is a little strong, but several competent passages of play in the last five to ten minutes of the first half, where we didn't look too dangerous, but we looked like we were in control and comfortable.

And that is not how we looked the last time we were in Jamaica at the end of the first half. So let's chalk it up to the potch effect. Yes, potch effect. Getting some control around the edge of the Jamaica box after taking a little punch from Jamaica. Yeah. Second half timeline. So that was the first half. Second half timeline is going to be shorter. But I think what we should do is just go straight to kind of the 60th minute because that's when things start to get interesting. I mean, there's no really big chances for either team in the first 15 minutes of the second half. It's sloppy. But then in the 60th minute, there's the Damien Lowe yellow on Pulisic. And this is interesting. because Pulisic fights back. It's not actually, you know, we've all, everybody's been calling for,

like we need everybody to, we need other players to jump in and protect Pulisic when he gets attacked. But no, no, no, this is not what happened here. Pulisic protected himself. He went down. So he got an elbow in the back. What exactly happened there?

It was a shot at him as the ball, as he releases the ball. He was mild. I mean, this was a mild, it was mild contact. Pool sick is tends to be like looking for things to be upset about in these games

So this was I thought this was a fairly mild one Unless he took a shot to the back of the skull That would have been very much An afters that would have been pretty upsetting But if it was just like Taking a little bit of the contact of the legs Just you know

Low just kind of letting Pulcic know that he's there There's not much there to be super upset about Given you know what we watch The US deal with on other occasions. Yeah, he didn't grab him by the throat or scratch his eyeballs out. But it was extracurricular. Maybe he also stepped on Pulisik's hand, which looks if he did, it was probably an accident.

But anyway, Pulisik's mad. He's down. We knocked the ball out of bounds. And then Pulisic runs over and confronts slow in sort of his small man way of confronting people. And then we get six blue shirts out there. Things are slowing down. and there's, you know, jawing happening. And then we get into a period of real danger for the USA,

which I will plan to describe in detail. So 63rd minute, I do notice Malik battling back into that right corner of ours, sliding, fighting, big sod clods flying. And then McKenzie has to be really stout on two dangerous moments in a row. Jamaica's working it around our box after the Tillman. after that Tillman example of his good defense, Bailey gets it between the lines and just skips around Tim Ream. I mean, it's real easy for him.

And he tries to slip in Nicholson, but McKenzie reads it very well, kind of flicks it out of the box, the same way McKenzie flicked that pass to Pulisic from the cutback zone. Flicks out of the box, it goes straight to Limba Kesa, who kind of stands up, Jedi, megs him,

and then takes a touch to his inside, I think for himself, but then he realizes, yeah, he realizes Nicholson is closer, and it sets up Nicholson for a nice hit from 10 yards out, but McKenzie steps in front and blocks it. Scary. Yeah, it's scary. And then, you know, someone in the Discord pointed this out, for most of Jamaica's scary moments,

we did have a lot of bodies back there. So McKenzie was there to be the, guy blocking here. Not that not that there wasn't, you know, a lane that Jamaica could have scored in this moment, but McKenzie's there to block. And, uh, Malik and Tessman are around. Like, I know, I know the bar is low, but like, those center midfielers are kind of there to, to affect the play from the, from the back. So it's not just like, well, it's either the center back or nothing here. Um, so I want to, I want to make sure that those guys get some credit to for being part of the number of bodies we have around these, these sequences. Was there anything like,

fundamentally wrong with the way we're playing defense or anything in this? I mean, these chances are just, I guess it's the one-v-one battle between Ream and Bailey that gets so badly lost that sort of starts it all. Yeah, I think what I would say is we just don't have the centerback problem eliminators that we want to have. And we don't have them anywhere. We don't have them sitting around waiting to be healthy to replace McKenzie and Ream. No matter who we play at centerback, we're going to have dicey moments over 90 minutes.

And with the field conditions we're dealing with here, I think that's going to make it even worse for those centerbacks. So you are. You're just hoping that you're hoping that you do enough on the attacking end, which we haven't even stressed this. Like going through our lineup, we are missing a lot of our attack. And Potch hasn't had it since he's been here. Between Raina, Dest, and Wea. we do not have a lot of guys who are going to just magically create stuff. So I'm glad we got our magical moments when we did.

But it is. It's just going to be nervy. It's going to be tense for us because we're not going to – I don't think there was any scenario we were going to run Jamaica off the pitch here. Well, it felt like it in the first 10 minutes. Yeah, and I wouldn't have expected it. So if that first 10 minutes had played out over 90, it would have been like, who are we? Like, this, this Pachitino fellow really is worth 15 mil.

Yeah. What a guy. So 66 minute, another massive moment. It's a set piece played on the ground into Rinaldo Sefas, who had just come on. Or actually, he came on at the half. He splits Pepey and Jedi to get to the end line, and he fizzes one across for Holgate, the centerback whom eventually got sent off. but Musa goes down

Eunice Musa covering on the backpost goes down behind him almost like one of those guys laying down behind a wall you know it's like a hockey guy laying down laying down in front of a shot yeah one of those hockey guys

and he uh he makes a huge play on the goal line I mean this is massive he springs to his feet absolutely stoked at what he has done that's the potch effect right there. Yeah, this is, I mean, that was Josh Sergeant Nations League header quality right there. Yeah.

Like, I mean, it's a goal, right? He prevents a goal there because that ball's trickling into the, to the wide open side of the goal that Matt Turner's not covering. So, uh, amazing moment. And again, like, it's not just, if Jamaica just misses this and you're like, okay, it's a letoff. But this is our guy making a play. Like, Moose is making a play here, which is just, just love the guy. Yeah. He was so happy even when he came off, you know.

He's just, he's just smiling. On the ensuing corner kick, more, more drama. Bailey goes for an Olympico, and it's like a, it's a really, really good attempt. I mean, it's going in at the near post, and Turner flies over, palms it out, into the box. unfortunately goes right to Damien Lowe as Turner is falling into the net Like he's getting tangled up in the net As Lowe volleys it back on goal

And it's on frame Turner's still on the ground Inside the goal as the ball is traveling towards the net And Tim Rame God bless him Chicken wing Chicken wings it Yeah chicken wings a big time

And I don't know That's going to be a handball on at least some of the days. Well, this is where we are very happy that Jamaica only brought two and a half cameras to the event because, I mean, as much as I think it probably did hit him lower, like towards where the arm band is rather than whether. I really don't have a clear look where I'm like, oh, that is definitely, that's the clear, yep, there it is. We see it in super slow motion, high definition hitting the arm. Like, I still haven't actually seen that angle.

No. I mean, yeah, you can kind of sort of say whatever you want about it because there isn't that, right, there isn't that good of an angle. You also, we also never got, the downside of that is we also never got a really good look at Turner's save on the penalty because they didn't have a camera behind the goal. So Jamaica had gone for this a couple of times in the first half too, and they put someone right on Turner to occupy him. And really, he is dealing with a lot in that moment. Like he's left alone with that man. We don't, we don't mark that player. So it's just Turner and a guy, you know, harassing him. And it's so easy for a keeper to get caught up in that battle. And that's almost what happens where he's really like, you know, tussling there. And so he's a little late to break to the near post shot.

And it's a really good adjustment by him to get there and push it out away from frame. Yeah, it was, I don't think they had goal line technology at this game either, but it was. It's close, isn't it? It must have touched the line, yeah. He's right under the crossbar. And then as far as the camera angles go, I don't think there's anything definitive, so it's not like VAR's just botching it.

But also, like, if the ref wants to call a handball here, if a ref really wants to job the U.S., the ref could have jobbed the U.S. So I still want to be done hearing about us getting, like, jobbed on the road when we're playing Concaf games. Yeah, I mean, if anybody got jobbed here, wasn't us. That's two trips to Jamaica in a row that we've gotten some set piece help,

either by calls or no calls. Yeah. For sure. So that's that. And then the only other major incidents were, okay, Pulisic gets kicked again. I don't even even got kicked, actually. Did he? No, on the sideline, again, it seemed pretty mild.

Yeah. But he felt aggrieved. And then there's a scuffle between Jedi and Bailey. People are saying, well, Jedi did this to protect Pulisic. Again, I don't really see it that way because he and Bailey were going at each other even before this. You know, they were like pushing each other in the moments leading up to the Pulisic going down. And in this case, Jedi's just pushing Bailey away so they doesn't get to the ball too quickly. And then Bailey kind of runs over.

The camera cuts away so you don't see it. but Bailey's running over to give him a push. And then it's really, I mean, there's some real drama here. Everybody roostering around. Jedi and Bailey, nose to nose, just in an intimate glare. I thought for sure they kissed. There was, again, if there was a better camera angle, I think they kissed. Yeah.

Nicholson comes over and kind of in a, like a fire and brimstone pastor, he's exhorting Jedi. repeatedly. Which, the thing is, this is all fine. Like, when we're up one zero, this is fantastic. Yeah. As long as our guys are able to keep their cool and, like, not raise the hands up as the kiss is happening and, like, get the hands to somebody's face. Yeah.

Then go ahead, like, make out with everybody. But because the clock's ticking and, like, the refs, it's fun to watch the referees because it's not their job to break up a fight, right? Like, they literally just stand there and watch everyone. And they're like, okay, when you guys are done, we'll hand out the cards that we saw that need to be handed out, and then we'll play soccer again. But when you're up one zero, this is a tremendous use of time. If a Jedi had just gone ahead straight away and kissed Bailey on the mouth, would that be a red card offense? Oh, I think yes.

I think it is, yeah. Okay. But I think he, yeah. So don't do that. No, don't do that. Don't actually do that. No, you just get really close and like mouth talk, like mouth whisper right next to the guy. It also interrupted whatever momentum Jamaica had because from then on they had, I think, one shot on one shot, not on target.

It was Bailey cutting in in the 73rd minute and having the shot. And they were the next team to wrap somebody up. Yeah, they were the next team to wrap somebody up where the referees, you know, going to make sure things don't get out of hand. and so the yellow card comes out, and whoop, second yellow, now you're down to 10 players, Jamaica, and you're probably ready to just call it a day. Yeah, Holgate didn't have a great game. And I noticed the crowd starting to voice its displeasure

whenever Jamaica passed it backward after this whole thing, which was kind of fun to hear. Pepe comes off for Vasquez, and McKinney comes off for Busio. Even though I thought McKinney did some nice things, not his sharpest outing. I mean, like, he's an adult, but I guess we'll go back to Grace for the field conditions on that, probably. Yeah, and we just, he had his first 10 minutes.

He was like, I did my, I created what I was supposed to create. Yeah. No, I don't know. Yeah. I'm excited to see all these guys playing a different sport on Monday. Yeah. Monday should be fun because Jamaica's got to come out and, you know, if they care about this, they got to come out and try to score some goals.

There were two chances worth discussing, I think. Pulisic feeds Vasquez into the box. The pass is a little ahead of him. Testament had just played Pulisic into a run at the back line. Vasquez lets it roll past him and then kind of squares up and tries to play a cross in the box and can't really get anything clean in there. I feel like Kyle Martino thought this on the broadcast.

I thought this watching it. Just take it first time. last it from a tight angle. Definitely. Again, I'm usually always looking to extend the play, look for that square, but when the conditions are working against you, that hurts your percentages on all those extra attempts. Smash it towards the goal.

Yeah. Whenever you can, smash it towards the goal. And then he gets a chance off the press, and he does try to smash it at the goal. Oosio is kind of pursuing Holgate, just before he gets sent off, plays a terrible pass. to Musa. Musa takes it down with his chest and squares it for Vasquez,

just outside the penalty marker. Nobody close to him. He takes it first time, which I think is the right idea, just kind of soft-shoes it on the ground right at Blake. Yeah, and I'm still willing to give some of this to the field, just because, again, everyone, you saw Jamaica doing it too for a couple of their chances where they could have hit Worldies,

where they're being extra careful because they don't want that last second bobble to throw them off and send it into the bleachers. So they don't fully commit to putting their foot through it. And I feel like that's what Vasquez was doing here. That's probably what it was, yeah. Maybe he was just going safe thinking I can just hit, like, place it in. But I thought he was literally like, I will just make sure that I put it on frame,

even if I'd take a lot of sting off of it. It was pretty soft. It was. We know we can smash it. I mean, he came in and in Mexico. in Mexico and had a couple of real hits. I mean, he took the cover off the ball on that one, that one shot at the near post.

And then we see it out. That's the game. We got little cameos from trusty in Sendejas, but not much to be said there. I don't think, as Potch said after the game, we need to improve in all areas. But this was a better performance than the last time we were in Jamaica. I don't think there's,

and there's no doubt in my mind about that. I think I'd agree with that. And it wasn't, it still wasn't amazing. and obviously with Jamaica missing a penalty you know they had their looks you know any one penalty is enough to be like oh man we got lucky they didn't score against us

but but I would agree that overall we had a better performance over 90 minutes than we did in that first go round in qualifying three years ago yeah you know another thing Pach said afterward his press conference was like two and a half minutes that's all it was and it was just

so it was very short but another thing he said is it's a lot easier to learn when you win he said which i think is an interesting thing you know to say yeah and and again no apologies whatsoever for uh ugly game where we leave with the three points and and now any any draw and we're into the into the quarterfinals or the semifinals yeah well it won't be a draw we're not going to draw jamaica scores three goals because peppy's scoring a hat trick I'm looking for three assists from Tim Wea on that hatchering. Yeah. It's going to be so nice to have him back.

I feel like... It's been a while. I think. I mean, I don't know. Maybe Potch is set on Eunice Musa as his right wing. But I really feel like we're going to get to see Tim Wea and Pachitino, I think, is going to enjoy having him available. I would love that. I would love for Musa to replace Scaliate right back.

I know I'm not... Not everybody agrees with me on that, but just the amount of time. Scali gets on the ball in a game like this. There's so much opportunity to do something good that I think Musa could make use of, and I think he's probably at least as good of a defender as Scali. So that would be nice. And then just basically run it back, you know?

Tillman instead of Cardoso, if Cardoso's a little iffy, I think I like Tillman better than Cardoso anyway, even if you weren't iffy. And you would be Cardoso for you? you or Tesman, like in this hypothetical where Cardoso is not iffy? I would say, I would go Tesman. You really like Tesman.

I've been quietly buying his stock. I know. No, I know. You've been cornering the market. No, I'm, I mean, Vince has a lot of securities, a lot of Testament securities, I would say. I like Testament. And again, I think the St. Louis game should be a lot better platform for him. So I hope he does start because I want to see.

These boys do some cool stuff. Maybe I'm just, I just want to see big boys, you know? Give me a big boy in there. Well, there should be a lot more diagonal, also hitting, available to him. So that's always a real sexy look for Tessman to be smashing that ball, 65 yards from corner to corner. So let's see some of those. He's got sneaky sauce, too, you know? He's got a little bit of sauce.

We saw it on that one play where he got it stuck under him and then tried to get out of it. Anyway, I'm not going to go on and on about Tanner Testament. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. Tassman long diagonals out to the right to Timwaya, cutting it in for Ricardo Pepe Hattrick. Three times. We're going to hit that pattern three times. I mean, totally, totally plausible.

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