Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #557: Italian Supercup, wingers as coaches, Adams returns, Richards v Chelsea

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

Milan v Juve, Pulisic's new coach, McKennie excelling at left back, Richards v Chelsea, Adams back from injury, transfer rumors, injury reports, and much more. Watke, Vince and Belz get back at it for the first Monday Review of 2025. Explanation of pivot to USMNT: https://www.patreon.com/posts/119034509Survey to help us plan Italy trip: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeBAz7e4hyZ6HjZhmCalnrfQfJIKeZSi1faC-6hJMwftz20CA/viewform 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've got a lot to catch up on. It's January 6, 2025, the first Monday review of the year, the roster for Pottes' first January camp, likely coming out today. Also, we got an A.C. Milan versus Inter Milan Super Cup final later today. Vince is here. Waki is back. Happy New Year, guys. How you doing, Chris? I'm doing well. Happy New Year.

have you guys been? I'm doing great, man. You know, new year, new beginnings, et cetera, et cetera. You know, we're getting a roster drop here on January 6th, momentous day in our country's history. You know, and we're just continuing that tradition by making sure. Because, you know, it can be argued that. we did not send our best and brightest to the Capitol on that day. And this roster announcement, no shade to anybody who's included in it.

But I think we can also safely say without much fear of retribution from anybody that this is not our best and our brightest. Well, it's our best and our brightest January camp roster. That's right. Yeah. No Andrew Carlton, unfortunately. He slipped through the cracks, as they say. But it will be fascinating to see who Potch, you know, is interested in seeing. Fascinating may be a little strong, but it'll be interesting.

I think we can say, we can say fascinating. Fascinating. We can get ourselves into that spot. Yeah. So, I mean, it seems to me that anybody and everyone with an Argentinian cousin twice removed or anything like that is just come on down. You know, as far as I can see from... From what's been announced, you know, we got, we got cream cheese is coming for sure, Kermaski.

He's on his way. We got, we got a Senora brother who may or may not even be a professional soccer player at this very moment. Yeah, we'll always take a Sonora, we'll take it, Sonora brother. And this would be the moment. We've been waiting for Potch to reveal some secret players. It would be, it would be now. this would be the time if he has any up his sleeve we got that to look forward to a lot of action to talk about from the weekend and various other things first a couple announcements number one this is a this is going to be a public episode most episodes are going to be public at the beginning of the year here the big news at scuffed right now is that we're going to go back to covering the u.s men's national team full time again i gave a lengthy explanation of this on our patreon page which anyone can read whether you're a patron or not.

I'll put that link in the show notes. Okay, and then announcement number two, we're working on another trip to Italy. This one will definitely include Yuvay and A.C. Milan games and the city of Rome. Beyond that, the question is whether we go to Venice and Trieste or we stay down in the Rome area the whole time.

We would love for you to, if you have any interest in this trip, later this spring, go to the show notes for this two, fill out of form that A expresses your interest and B expresses your preference on which trip makes the most sense for you. There's sort of two options.

This is planned by George Qureshi, the former editor of Howler and a really good friend of the pod. He just knows how to do stuff like this. The last trip was great. This trip is going to be great. So check that out and join us if you can. To the action. Juventus versus A.C. Milan in the Italian Super Cup

semi-finals, A.C. Milan wins 2-1. The first thing to note about this game is it was played in Al-Hawal Park, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which we have an expert on on this podcast. This is the home of Al-Nasar, the club where Cristiano Ronaldo plays. But yeah, only one of us has ever been there to Riyadh. It's a beautiful city. Yeah, what is it like? What is it really like?

It's not? It's like It's a little bit like Las Vegas Okay It's like the extreme opposite of Las Vegas But it looks like Las Vegas But no fun

No fun No fun No fun So what's all the beauty for You can shop to you drop Is that you're just telling me There's just no Really nice malls

Okay And skyscrapers of an architecture That just doesn't quite look Good Hmm But there's a lot of it Yeah. The pictures are pretty impressive.

Just what's the feel? How does it feel different from like Las Vegas. I mean, Las Vegas is such a singular place. There's one building that looks like the eye of Zoron. It feels like you are being looked over by the eye of Zoron. That's the main difference. Oof. After Google Mapsing it, I was, you know, it looks so dry.

Like the whole, everywhere, it looks dry. I mean, it is the middle of Saudi Arabia that I had to figure out like where do they get their water from? And it's mostly from an aquifer like way, way, way underground but they have to desalinate all the water. And it's like a, it's the, you know,

it's a thing they're going to be sort of dealing with for a long time. This ain't Minnesota, you know, the land of 10,000 lakes. So what about the people walking? on Twitter recently there's been I've seen a few topics of debate where like a lot of people are just talking about the friendliness of America

versus Europe and whatnot just the fact that like you know the idea that I don't know you can meet a random stranger in America and just have like you know you're running the mill small talk

is like a very strange thing to a lot of people in the rest of the world I would assume Saudi Arabia is also like that But, you know what happens when you assume. So I'm coming to the subject matter, expert, Waki. What are people like? Well, I didn't bump into and make small talk with a lot of people. No, so that's definitely true.

You can make small talk with, you know, cashiers and stuff, as long as they're not from Saudi Arabia. That's the thing about. Most of the people you're interacting with aren't from Saudi Arabia. They're very friendly. They're mostly from, like, South Asia. Is that? A lot of folks from South Asia.

Well, prayer's up for those folks. It's real quick. I do want to shout out of South Asia real quick. Because one thing, since I've gotten to the corporate world, I interact with a lot of Indians. Coolest people on the planet. Up there were Bosnians for me. Bosnians and Indians, one-on-one next to each other. I just want to get that out there.

Yeah, man, Indians are out here. making America great again, you know? Like, uh, no, for real. Like, the, the guy who owns the gas station just south of me, Raj, he just opened a liquor store. And they, they, they, they've legalized, this used to be a dry county up until, like, last year. Mm. So no hard liquor sold. And as, dude, as soon as the law changed, this dude went to work, you know.

They started, they broke ground. I mean, my four-year-old, we watched the whole. process every day. We'd stop by and watch their progress on the building. And I didn't know who was building it. And I was like, oh, that's cool. They're building a liquor store. And then they put the sign up just like a month ago, Raj's liquor store. I'm like, for sure.

Of course it's that guy. Should we talk about the action in the game? Pulisic is back from injury and started in this game. Wes is still deputizing at left back. I'm doing it. I think doing it quite well for Yuva. Musa came off the bench to provide the decisive, if not totally intentional, a moment.

A lot of Wes versus Pulisic moments in this game, which is kind of fun to see. Yank V. Yank crime, man. And it was set up, right? You know, West left back, pulley right wing. It was in the cards. So, yeah, it was beautiful to see. But Pulisic scored the goal to, I think, win the day.

but it seemed like Wes was not he might have been getting a little bit the better of it I would say so yeah there was that one in particular where he he gave post like an impression his intention was to go inward but instead shot up that edge eliminated him also rainbowed him that one time a little bit dinked it over him did a little spin yeah I feel like West... Get the long ball out wide. Beautiful. To cap it off.

Go ahead, Bill. Well, I just feel like he did so much textbook stuff to demonstrate how a fullback can provide so much value in the attack. You know, even from, even without bombing forward, which he did a little bit. But just in possession, his ability to like break a line here or there from that left back spot. created a lot of Juventus's danger and I it's sort of was a tale of two halves

like Juventus was a stronger team in the first half seemed to me Milan was the more more of the aggressor in the second half but in that first half Wes played a key role and the lead up to the goal he dribbled a guy

and then played a neat little outside of the boot pass to Ambongula who then played that pass to Yaldes to smash it near post for the opener that's a really nice goal good work from everybody

but Wes keyed it. He sprung it. And he won the foul to get the ball back, by the way. That's the thing. In the first half, he was looking very more physically robust than he has here recently, winning some very tightly contested cage matches and using his arms and upper body to do so and gain leverage and whatnot in a way that he has not been doing here recently.

So all that was very nice to see, the whole combination of it. Yeah. Did you notice how, speaking of the left backs, the other one in this game, how badly Teo got cooked on that goal? Oh, yeah. That first one. Dude, he had a horrible game. Hey, man. You've got to play Yield is, man.

The boy's nice. He's so good, yeah. Even from, like, last year when he was getting like spot minutes or whatever, any time he comes on the pit, he just makes something happen. Technically, just very nice. I mean, you saw the way he struck the ball for the goal. I mean, the man's just a, the man's a gold provider. Whether he's scoring him or assessing him, man. He's, what a player.

It's true. It's true. Everybody thought he was going far post, and then he just boom, smashes it in your post. Thought Pulisic had a quiet first half. Nothing bad, nothing really good. Set up a good ranger's shot from the edge of the box at the 6th. 66 minute mark and then like you said Waki he made the difference. How did he avoid having the penalty stolen from him? It's because he fell on top of the ball when he was fouled.

Yeah. So he just held it all the way. He fell directly into him. I do think someone came over to try to take it, but he had that too much initiative at that point. Yeah. He had a big advantage. The penalty was so, so silly. from look atelli yeah you know i mean he's dribbling away from the goal at the very extreme corner of the box oh you when you got it a little pulse like darting up in your blind spot yeah it's gonna happen

i don't think he planned it that way yeah but he was on him in a sudden it's like a little Ferrari in the passing lane got to check that shoulder i just want to say it's crazy that anyone would try to take a penalty away from this man at this point like if christian polisic on the field he's taking a penalty man, okay? He hasn't missed one in his career. It's true. But I do think that he fell on top of it. I think we can't read too much into that the team has accepted that he's the penalty

taker yet. I don't think they're ever going to. I think it's going to be a fight all the way, all the way to the end on this. I agree. It doesn't matter how many it makes. Yeah, it's just like that, I don't know, the cliche about European soccer just taking to the extreme now, you know what I'm saying? like every day in training you got to win your spot

you got these other talented guys I mean it's like even in the games man like even when it comes to penalties you can win I mean you can score 15 out of 15 for whatever reason that that's 16th that's still up for debate you still got Teo Hernandez one to get up in there

no bro come on you're the reason why we're in this position of the first place you still gotta be up there competing for jump balls boxing out You got a bang in the paint If you want to take penalties At this level It's still a debate

You still got a politic You still got to Even when you're 15 for 15 You still got to Make sure you're getting I don't know Fruit baskets You know

You can be the fruit baskets Metaphor back For all your teammates Just to make sure Hey hey hey I'm buying your protection here So if you're on the pitch When the penalties won

I need you to I need you to help me We are brothers in arms Tammy Abraham Uh I don't got Jeru no more. That, like, you know, you know, Drew might have been the type of dude to, to, uh,

to take up, to take up for Christian. You, we all know that relationship, that bromance, you know, Polly has to, I hope he really,

I hope he really takes this serious and gets to work on, uh, I don't know if he has to go to Zlatan, you know, go over everybody's head, but no. It feels like Marada is on his, his laton needs him,

wants him to step up and figure it out for himself. Yes. I think that's a talk he would get from Slaton. Yeah. Who couldn't even relate to the problem. No clue. No clue what he's talking about. Brock has didn't give us a lot of footage of any potential, you know, scuffle over it.

I didn't, correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't think it did. There was no scuffle there. Just in the, as it was live, someone did seem to walk over and try to reach down and indicate that they would take it. If Bullsick wanted that. but he didn't want that. If Teo had actually pushed for it, that's a situation where you've got to say whatever happened to shame,

you know? Because not only did he get cooked on the goal, he missed the frame from six yards out with his right foot. But in any case, if Pully really wants to get... Yes, we do. Well, real quick, if Pooley really wants to get diabolical, he can tell Tayao,

the only reason he's in that position is because Antony Robinson had a caffeine problem. And Nick's the move to Milan in the first place, buddy, you're on a broad timetail. Okay, so you should be thinking your lucky stars that this, that American heart don't like caffeine to. That's right. Some caffeine problem to U.S. player of the year. It's truly incredible because it like, not only did it like,

I feel like it helped his play too. That was a very jittery young man before he cut all that out. But anyway, we can move on to the new coach. Or Eunice Musa, which one we're going to talk about? Well, let's talk about the goal because, and then we'll talk about the coach. Milan was the more aggressive team at this point of the game, and Musa gets flicked down the line. He had subbed on in the 54th minute, gets flicked down the line past Cambiasso.

McKenney had been further up applying pressure. and I'm going to play the call from Maro Suma because it's pretty good. He's played in the stadium of Al-Nazra, and he's trained at the center sportive in which he's a bonaventura. Musa, Musa, Mousa, Mousa, deviation, goal! Go!

Go! Mousa, deviation, goal! Mousa, deviance, goal! Mosa, deviation, goal! Muzah, deviance, goal! Yon! Two a one! Oh, no. So it was obviously an own goal by Gotti.

Totally fortunate. But still, a game winner. Beautiful. I'm giving it to Eunice. I'm giving it to him, though. I cannot do that. I cannot do that within good conscience. But I will say, when he got played down the line, man, that boy was moving. Yeah. That might have been the fastest I've seen Eunice run. I mean, he was gone, man. So that was cool to see.

Also cool to see that, like, you know, new manager, he comes on, 54th minute, and he's playing in the midfield, all good signs. And he has a contribution to the winner. And everyone was, I mean, I feel like his teammates almost might have been celebrating for him too much. It was like, I make a wish kid type of thing. I'm like, all right, y'all. You know what I'm saying? Pooley scored the winner.

It's like, okay, Pooley does this. You know, we don't get all the Instagram post. and all that. But also, maybe it's just, uh, maybe it's just, uh, maybe it's just that type of lad,

you know? Always smiling. Always in a, always in a good mood. Um, also was in, uh, you know, when we had the World Cup and Qatar,

right? He was saying it was so nice to be in a place where, uh, halal food was easily accessible. He's in Riyadh. You know what I'm saying? He might've been, he might have been,

he might have felt that energy coming off of Eunice and all that. So, uh, You know, I'm taking back what I initially said. It wasn't to make a wish kid. I think his teammates

just really like him a lot. And I really like him. It's almost certain to be true. Although he does get every time he does something good like that, he does get that reaction for his teammates. He can start to feel a little bit of patronizing.

At a point, man. At a point. Matter of fact, it reminds me of when my brother, when he was making his first time that he made, the 53 man roster in the NFL.

Preseason game. He's playing the Steelers. The last preseason game. This is like the make or break it. If you ever watch Hard Knocks, you know, all the starters sit or whatever, and these are for the like roster fringe guys. They call a pass play.

My brother base class has to run like a, I think it's called an arrow route. I'm forgetting my football terminology. What is it? An angle route. An angle route. So a running back coming from the back field, but he's running at the,

at the linebacker, like he's going out, like he's going to run an out route outside, then cutting it hard, right? Okay. Anyway, he does this. He breaks the linebacker completely off. Catches the ball for like a, you know, 20, 25-yard gain or something like that or whatever. And I remember he told me, he told me after this happens, after that drive or whatever, Christian McCaffrey is like, he was like, Rich.

Like, can you believe he just did that? You know, he played for Florida and all this and blah, blah. And Rich is like, bro, I played like big time college football. Like what are we talking about? Like I played D1 football just like you, man. Eunice doesn't have that. He doesn't have that reaction at all.

He loves it every time. He seems as happy that they're happy as everyone. Yeah. It's true. That is funny that Christian McCaffrey would say that. Can you believe it? You played for Florida. Like, he was a first round pick.

I mean, my brother. there was that drafted or whatever, but it was like, I mean, he was like, I mean, I've played against a lot of very talented football players. Thank you. Thank you very much, Christian. It does seem like Eunice is the most popular, the best liked player on every team he's on. Just a likable guy. People were happy he scored the goal, his first goal, right for Potch. Let's talk about this manager. So it's Sergio Conceau, coincidentally, the father of the winger for Juventus, that tricky little guy. Normally, all the pool six managers in the past have Most of them have been defenders.

There have been some midfielders. This is the first winger coach he's had. And I wonder how that's going to go. Am I kind of being a little anti-winger coach here? Well, I just maybe would feel more comfortable. I shouldn't say this, but was a center. Coach who was a centerback. It does seem kind of rare for coaches to have been

wingers, doesn't it? Like, just in general. They probably get discriminated against. Wingers get along within teams, it seems like, to me. I just don't know about putting one of them in charge. How's the wingers going to react? We'll see. We don't, we won't know. Is there a risk of the,

of a winger being a little myopic, you know? Yeah. Thinking only of himself because it's, because his job is so singular and straightforward. Whereas a centerback or a midfielder, you know, they have to be very aware of the collective

winners are these like fringe luxury players do they even care of them understand what's happening do they know what's happening on the field well see this is why I'm kind of excited about just from watching his son you know and the way that the way that he plays

which ultimately I have to attribute it to the to the father if he gets I mean pull he's doing his thing don't don't get me wrong. He's been doing this thing. But, you know, his son is like a take you on first, ask questions later kind of guy.

And if he gets Pooley doing that, it's going to be great for all parties involved, I think. Although there is the risk, we don't want it to go back where Pouls is feeling like he has to do that for the national team every time. But if he gets really good at it. That's true. that's true so I take it back we want him to get really good at it I don't think Pulis is going to get any better at doing the take

him on ask questions later at this point I mean he's already pretty good at it right when he needs to be but he's not gonna add new like 1V1 and one tricks to his bag

I don't think this stage of his career and it's not his mentality too no As we learned in the video he did with the child or for the children. He was talking about how the kids these days, it's all flicky flax and step-over. He said, I'm not about that. I'm from central Pennsylvania.

Yeah. I have two jet skis. I just like hanging out with my family and friends on the water. Do you remember when you asked Jenny Chu what her favorite take-on move was? You asked her if it was a flick-flack? Did I? She loved that. She loved that so much.

It was a step over. Okay. Step over with the left, explode with the right. So that's A.C. Milan, Juventus. The Super Cup final is later today. And it's another Milan Derby. And apparently the Italian Super Cup is going to be in Saudi Arabia until 2029. So, you know, lots of opportunity to look into Riyadh.

It's water supply. The personality of it. its people, you know, over the next four years. Jedi, Captain Fulham to a two-one win over Chelsea on Boxing Day. I'm choosing to focus on that because they did drop points to Ipswich Town over the weekend. But he got two assists in that Chelsea win. I'm choosing to say that the reason they drew Ipswich at home was because Jedi wasn't wearing the captain's arm band.

Anyway, Fulham are unarmed. unbeaten in their last eight Premier League games. We've talked about this in recent weeks, but Jedi is reportedly being monitored by pretty much everybody, and he is under contract with Fulham until June 2028. He also, as we mentioned earlier, won U.S. Soccer's male player of the year, announced yesterday.

That's great. Pretty cool. Deserved. Deserved. Deserved. And a great honor for Jeddah. He's been putting out a lot of work. Approved for me.

I think it's okay. He didn't hold on to the captaincy, apparently. I was hoping it was a permanent thing. That's a shame. I was, too. He did get beat on the back post for one of Ipswich's goals. I do want to say that. The header went off the post.

Not the post, the crossbar. And then a Ipswich player followed. I guess my thought on the player of the year is it's very similar to the voting for the scuffed player of the year. I mean, Pulisic got it. That's what listeners voted Pulisic as player of the year for scuffed. But I dissented. I thought it should be Jedi. And mostly just to mix it up a little bit, you know?

I mean, it'd be hard to argue Pulisic doesn't deserve it objectively, but he can't just get the award every year. That'd be dumb. Well, maybe if we want the history books to accurately reflect in 150 years from now, when they're looking back at a player of the year, it's basically going to have six. And some other player comes along when they're backing their eras guy, who's going to get seven or eight. That's a good point.

But I'm just looking for a kind of a common point to make there, but that would be it. There is an argument for rigor there. that I think that resonates with me. Which it sounds like the scuffed listeners approached it with rigor. They did. Yeah, so that's Jedi. I don't, you know how he plays,

how those games tend to go. Tyler Adams back on the field as a sub after missing the Fulham game on the 29th, subbed on in the 70th minute in what was then a zero-zero-drae draw against Everton, busy, physical, tough in the tackle, drew a yellow card on Ducure after picking his pocket and dribbling past him, also committed a yellow card foul, I think a wise tactical foul laid on. Definitely an asset out there.

It was a wise tactical foul for a man. It was a, it, it was a big challenge. Like he went flying into it. The duty, the duty foul were flying. It was, hey. But we love, we love it. We love to see it. Yeah.

Again, we can't just can't have a midfield being pillow soft anymore, man. Tyler Adams, in, I tell you, in. He looks like he's really filled out, I think, in the upper body, too. Seems to me, looks like, looks a little thicker than he used to. he seems to be flying around a little bit harder than he used to he is flying around he was flying around in this appearance for sure yeah just watching him which is wonderful to see i think that i think it was when he got the yellow car from de courier but i just kept like i just kept watching tyler i'm like okay tyler is starting he's starting like 10 yards away from the play a lot of times and you know just watching him drive drive up make a play like a safety or something. But just the way he gets to the chaos, sorts it out, comes away with the ball, all in like a second or half of a second is just impressive man.

It is really nice to watch an American midfielder who gets there first, you know, or gets there quick. There was one kind of loose ball that sprayed out. towards the right side and he he was just on it he ran over and slid and played it out wide to one of it and just got there just before the the everton player played it out wide for one of his teammates um just love to see that bornmouth got the win um on a lovely volley from welshman david brooks uh late in the game may that left back from central europe who whipped it in over there that Hungarian, Milos Kirkish, he's a player.

Every time I watch Bormmouth, he's like the best player on the field. Oh yeah, and one other thing about Bormand, unless you guys, if you guys have more to say about Tyler, let's get into it. But another thing about Bormouth is Mattai Akimboni has been signed by them from D.C. United. This is a centerback, only 18 years old, who made eight appearances for D.C. this past season. It's kind of intriguing. I don't know that he was, I mean, eight appearances for a pretty unremarkable DC United team.

It is intriguing. Long term. But we do not support signing directly in England. Yeah, it's not a very good idea. That's right. That we won't. We will speak out when it happens. And that's what we're doing right now.

Yep. Even if it's not, you know, the traditional Chelsea or I think Man City's pretty much been faced. No, it hasn't. Kevin. Forgot about Kevin. I was going to say it's been phased out. Make an exception for Kevin. I'm making an exception for Kevin.

That's okay. Not too excited. We'll see. We'll see. I've watched quite a bit of Akimboni over his like two years of playing in the MLS. Give us a quick scouting report. Yeah. Left centerback, left footed.

I want to say he's probably about 6'2. decent on the ball I thought really he played I thought he played better as like his first exposure in MLS I think it was under Wayne Rooney I want to say

before he left he was better then than what I saw this season he just has a I mean it's just a lot of physical development that needs to happen there with him but yeah really that's

that's all I got He's very much, very much a prospect, uh, developmental. Like, there's a, two years away from being two years away, you know,

if I can quote Frank Frasilla. I mean, Bournemouth sees something, apparently, but, uh, yeah. Once again,

left-footed, left-center back. They don't, they don't grow those on trees. Decent athletic base, you know, uh, once again,

like, you know, I'll be able to tell you better once he, uh, gets in the gym. I don't know what it is, but over here in America, we are afraid of the gym as a soccer community. We need to lift some weights, damn it. Such a physical position, too.

You cannot get a little brothered. All right, let's take a break. Our two highest level centerbacks, we're both in action this weekend. We have some transfer rumors. We'll get into all that and other stuff in a minute. All right, we're back. Let's start with a quick injury, did not play, report. I'm going to do this super fast, and then we're going to do some transfer rumors, and then we'll get into the Richards and McKenzie.

So, Balligan expected back in February after shoulder surgery, so still didn't play. Josh Sargent's still injured, expect to be back in training next week. Haji Wright, still injured. Return to training on Thursday after missing 10 games with an ankle injury. Lampard is hoping he'll be back in the next two weeks. Rumor Mill is that Ipswich and Leicester City are, quote, monitoring, Haji. Aidan Morris, still injured at Middlesbrough, not expected back for a few more weeks. Matt Turner and Ethan Horvath did not play, which is, you know, fairly evergreen.

Luca Koliosho, not playing much for Burnley. Got six minutes off the bench over the weekend. I would say, you know, he's not played two of the last four games. I'd say the hype is cooling down a little bit. And Gagas Lonina, I recall to Chelsea from Barnsley with a hand injury. So I'm going to mark it. Do you want to do the transfer rumors, Chris? Let's do it.

Okay. Let me mark it. It's just so easy. All right, let's do some transfer rumors. Chris. A.C. Milan are considering bringing in Giorina. Huh.

Really? Just a rumor, but hey. That's what the segment's all about. That's right. How does that rumor make you feel? No, I feel like he should just get it sorted out at Dortmund. Earn some playing time. Stay healthy. Earn some playing time.

Is he more likely to get minutes at A.C. Milan than he is at Dortmund? Man, it's just not healthy. He'll be in the same type of situation. I mean, it won't be as crowded for him, I don't think. But I don't know now. Shift into like a, shifting to like an actual 433. A.C. Milan is now. That kind of tries to play against the ball a little bit more.

I don't know. I don't know. But, look, Gio, just get it done in the Ruck Ruda. That was called? Yeah. Just get it done in the Rukhruta, man. And we'll talk in the summer. Yeah.

It's apparently from La Gazette de la Sport, which I think is a pretty reputable source in Italy. And Dortmund would consider an offer of around 10 to 15 million euros. So sounds totally plausible. What's the next rumor? Einhoven's Dagzblag reports that a Premier League team offered 20 million pounds for Ricardo Pepe. It's also being monitored by some teams in France. and other teams in England.

Dag Splod, it means daily newspaper. Hmm. Why did you cut the music out? You know? I don't know. I didn't want to, I didn't want to, um, should we just keep the music going three times? Yeah, just, just, let's just play the music and burn through these rumors.

Okay, let's keep going. Moose is being linked with A.C. Malone, uh, with Aston Villa. He's already placed for A.C. Milan, for their part, are looking for, again, 20 million euros. That's all the music I got. that much of the song. That's funny then. What else? What else?

Let's do another one. Okay. I'll have to read fast. According to Tom Bogart, Orlando City had a bid rejected by Club America for Zendajas, Alex. Talk stalled as club says a quote. Talk stalled as Club America focusing on future manager Andre Hardeen. Orlando now focusing on other targets.

All right. All right. It's Tom Bogart. Brandon Vasquez is nearing a deal with Austin FC. Austin will pay a club record fee of about 10 million. If deal goes through, it should, it's almost done. He'll be a DP for Austin. The designated player. Yeah, I mean, we're putting that in really glowing terms, but basically he's leaving Legamecky's with his tail between his legs, folks. I mean, the ghost stats were all there for Brandon Vasquez throughout his time in Monterey.

So, you know, he's coming back to MLS. Maybe he can blast Aaron Long back to vapors again. Like he did that one time to send the Red Bulls out of the playoffs. I'll never forget it. Really, the streets will never forget that whole Brandon Vasquez run. His, what, 2022? I won't forget. Yeah.

He's definitely a good professional. And and and Potch likes him. Go ahead, Wachke. Yep. Well, I was just going to do another rumor. Yeah, please do. Club America submitted a bid for Richie La Desma. PSV rejected it.

They said, no, sirs. Daniel Smith from Scuff Discord. So the bid wasn't even one million euros. Yeah, he got that from Rick Elfrink. You know, the dean. The dean of all Heinhoven. Journalists. That's not a very high bid.

But let's spin it as PSV sees Ledesma as an important part of the team. Yeah. That might have actually been reported by Elfrink. I think they did. They did. And they're going to, they've offered him a new contract. According to Elfrink. So.

Career utility player for PSV. Yeah. Be can. Liverpool are reportedly monitoring. Johnny. Although it doesn't seem likely to happen. Real Batis is about to sign midfield or Batchitich.

Well done. There's rumors of him going to Tottenham this window, Johnny. And as we know, there was some very complicated deal that I think at one point we understood with Tottenham. I think it's just like that first ride of refusal

or something like that. And the amount's already set and all that different type of stuff. So if they want them, they can have them. MLS teams are foaming at the mouth for Taylor Booth. Heavy interest. Heavy Booth interest in the league. This is interesting to me because as somebody on the Discord pointed out, MLS does not

play, does not play during Aquarius season, the time of year where Taylor Booth really gets busy, where Booth fever reaches its heights. I think it's, what, is it late January? early February I want to say It's a big deal because that is where about 80% of Taylor It's like literally like 80% of all professional goals and assists I'm coming to Oprah Like literally every time it's like oh Taylor Booth

He's had two goals last game two goals this game and assist the game before that Oh my God And it's always late January early February So MLS beware, beware. But maybe going back to his homeland, you know, Real Salt Lake, maybe just being back in the promised land

will mitigate those concerns. We'll see. So any team signing him will be betting on the schedule shifting to the European calendar, pretty much. You better have a salty-ass lake in your state. There's some interest in shifting the schedule? Yes. I may, I may, uh, lift my boycott if they shift the schedule.

Bro, well, I'll give you another reason you may be lifting your boycott. Go ahead, go ahead. Paul Tenorio points out an intriguing option for Luca DeLatorre would be to sign the expansion franchise in San Diego, his hometown. That's right. Okay. They invigorate the fan base. He would. Yeah.

A man of the people. Yeah. Luca Deletori. The total opposite of a Eunice Musa, you know what I'm saying? But... An energy vampire. Right. He was not in the squad for, for Delta's cup match, by the way.

So maybe it's happening. That's it for the rumors, I guess, huh? Well, Maloney did not extend his contract with Heidenheim, so he'll be on the hunt. apparently his engine is from Premier League and the Bundesliga. I don't... Good to know. I don't know what...

Well, I'm sure he'll... It'll go well. His move from Hydenheim to the Premier League. I just saw him as a career Hydenheim guy, and I like that. I'm looking for players who are going to do their career with a team,

and I think Hydenheim was a good fit for him. Would be nice, yeah. I would support the move. I imagine he will... get paid more, though, so I understand. Boy, need to go play centerback, man. Go somewhere and play centerback, Leonard. We need you.

It would be better for your career, I think. Anyway, also, speaking of centerbacks in the Bundesliga real quick, Hamas Sands. Yeah, I was just going to bring that up. James Sands, the St. Pauley, for the recruiter. Yeah. It's a rumor fact. Yeah, that's a fact.

Yeah, that's a transfer fact. We never even got a rumor of James Sands going to St. Pally. It just happened. I do want to throw it out there. Well, okay, St. Pauley plays a back three. It seems like he's going to be playing defense. It's going to be a defender for them, a centerback. And I still got a little bit of my socks that I had from when he was playing centerback at Rangers.

Now, it started off pretty nice. It was very bumpy. There was quite a few bumps along the way, but I still think that if he's going to play, you know, in Europe or something, it would, it's probably going to be as a centerback. And I think maybe a back three will be just a thing that'll, like, suit him. You know, he's playing in a back four at, at Rangers was one of the two centerbacks. Like, you know, he's, I don't, he's not that guy.

But I think he's not big enough or fast enough. Yeah. But as part of a back three, I think he might be a make-a-work, man. And I think the intensity of the Bundesliga that goes at a constant clip, I think that's going to suit him well. It's almost exhausting to watch sometimes, you know, those games between the mid-level teams and the Bundesliga. Because there's just no quarter given. There's no inch given anywhere. I feel like it has calmed down slightly, like, from like the heights of.

of it in like 2019, 2020, 2021. Like, I feel like it has changed a little bit. It's not as up and down, but still, I mean, still very intense. James Sand is going to have some rich human experiences when this is all over, you know, a semester in Glasgow, a semester or maybe more in Sampouten, in Hamburg. Had a semester in Louisville, Kentucky. That's right. I mean. New York City.

St. Pauley has an option on him. Okay, I believe. So he's trying out. Best of luck to you, James. He was on that same team with Josh Sargent and Andrew Carlton at the 2017 U-17 World Cup. I'll never forget it. Okay, let's talk about our two centerbacks playing at the highest level. McKenzie, holding it down for Toulouse, started and kept a clean sheep against Lans,

who went down a man with 30 minutes to go. Toulouse have now won six of their last eight games in Ligant. Ligand. And McDonald's League on, Bills. McDonald's, League, formerly known as the Uber Eats League on. But, yeah. Yeah, Mark did his thing. Once again, held up was isolated.

with the launch striker in Zola a few times, which if you watch, he's a large fella. He's a very large fella. And one of the things about Mark McKenzie is he's not that big a fella. And he held up against him quite well. I think it. You're not going to push Mark McKenzie off the ball, I don't think. Not very often.

Another shift from Mark McKinsey, man. I mean, nothing really to report, which is good news. Yeah, he's stacking those up. Yeah, he's stacking them up. One on top of the other. Antalus as a team. Stacking them up. Where are they sitting in the table right now?

Let me look this up. They are eighth in the table. Okay. Right behind Lanz, actually. They tied them on points by winning this game. Okay. So they both have 24. They are three points behind Nice.

Four points behind Leo and Leon. Six behind Monaco. in a Champions League spot. Yep. Right in the mix. Everything to play for. A bit of a mixed bag from Chris Richards in a draw for Palace

with Chelsea. So he started as the right centerback in a 3, 4, 2, 1. The clearly encouraging thing here is he started two straight and three out of the last four for Crystal Palace. Is Chalaba out with a suspension

or something for this one? I don't know. But he's playing, which is good. did some, I thought, outstanding defending at about the nine minute mark as Cole Palmer and Nico Jackson sithed through the palace half. A perfectly timed challenge to stop Jackson from shooting from kind of a tight angle. Unfortunately, the color commentator incorrectly credited La Cros for the challenge, which outraged

me, frankly, and it wasn't corrected by the play-by-play guy. So he's like moved along blithely as if anything was perfect. He did, he did change it. Oh, did he? Yeah. Like, it was probably like five to ten seconds later. He said, he said, Richard's rather. I remember, I was.

Okay, I guess I was so hot. I missed it. It would have been nice to get a little more than a Richard's rather. Yeah. He said it in a hush tone, too. He did say it in a hush tone. But yeah, he was like, crazy. That was the play of the game up to that point.

Well, we know who did it. Yeah. Right. Then things start to get a little dicey. So gave the ball up kind of cheaply at the 12-minute mark. Maybe got a little rattled, and then he just got absolutely cooked by Sancho on Chelsea's goal in the 30, I'm sorry, in the 14th minute. So the ball is played to Sancho on the left side at midfield, and he dummies it and just leaves Chris. out to see as he races in behind.

Chris is kind of lumbering back, but he catches up. But he doesn't really stop him because Sancho beats him kind of again, and then shifts it inside to Cole Palmer with a tidy little pass, and there's a good finish from inside the box from the, you know, the guy with the pudding bowl haircut Palmer. Just nasty work from Sancho, though. It's kind of unfortunate to be a centerback, an American center back, because especially when we care about

because we're just going to watch it we're just going to detail every one of your mistakes it's true it's not fair but hey we got a podcast to do here I should say I just want to say Chris and his family are probably my favorite

people you know in the whole ecosystem they're just wonderful folks and Chris was on the podcast like a long time I mean he was on a he he I interviewed

him like when he was living in a dorm at Byron Munich, you know? Pops alone in the pot? Yeah. That's right. Oh. But, you know, we got called balls and strikes. Didn't you go to their house? Yeah, I've been to their house.

You're in their house. Now you're just in here cooking them. ate breakfast at the Richard residence. Yeah, ate donuts. They gave me donuts. Chris should have been touched tight on Sancho to begin with. and the dummy would have never even got started because, I mean, the main thing about Jaden Sancho as a soccer player, right, is just he's very smart.

He is. So Chris realizes he needs to get touched tight, but like too late once the ball is like already on the way to Jaden. So once Jaden sees that, it's like, bro, you're just food. But the thing about, the other thing about Jaden, I've had arguments about this in the Discord, is he may or may not be that fast. if you let this happen with any other winger or attacker or something like a dude might be gone on at that point just going into the box

Chris Richards just chugging not not able to get back into the play but it's Jaden Sancho so Chris was able to chug a lug and get back into the play and then didn't control that situation either you know kind of got uh

I mean he got work the second time yeah I mean Sancho had him dancing man and gave up And, you know, Chris jumps out and then Jayden's able to chop it and just continue towards the end line and then get that thing over to Cole Palmer. But yeah, that was, it just wasn't good from Chris in it. I mean, social media is suggesting he defended poorly high on the pitch, but did well deep. And I think that mostly checks out. He is not great out in the open field.

I mean, he's a centerback, you know? And when he's called on to do that wide open field stuff, maybe it's a little bit more difficult for him than the sort of desperate stuff in the box. And some of it is just like, I've seen it over and over again because he defends out wide a lot, right, this season. Yeah. And under Glastner, period. You kind of think he might move better than he does, but like, yeah, he looks like a centerback when he's out there moving his space. He's a little bit, yeah, he's a little bit lumbering. Yeah.

It's a shame. Because, you know, you got the nice corn rolls, you know what I'm saying? Hair did up nice. Everything looks apart. And then you see him actually move. It's like, ah, okay. These are a best-looking player. Moving like Ben-Meet.

I'm not talking about handsomeness, just this whole look. That's right. It's handsome. Probably top five handsome. We don't, we need to do a better job keeping that list up. Yeah. It's so tricky. It's very subjective.

I think the package looks plus the charm, the personality, a personable young man, looks you in your eye, capable of holding like a good conversation. I think when you put it all together, all of it. He's well clear on personality.

He is our best personality. Yeah. I think that's right. It's not a really tough field to win. You got unison. He's done her running away. And Eunice. And Wes.

Wes. Wes is up there, but Chris is like... Chris has more cooth. Yeah. Chris can do whatever you want him to do. You can put him in any room. Wes, you put him in a certain room. You might have to be like a...

Keep you out of this. You're worried about a lot of rooms. Yeah. He's going to find him... He's going to do great sometimes. And put the whole thing in his mouth all at once, you know. One other good thing Richards did. which I think he actually had outside of this, the goal was actually pretty solid.

He had a header on frame off a wide set piece that was, I want to note, was some really good work from him. Generated a lot of power without much to work with and drew an acrobatic save from the keeper to tip it over the bar. I know Jean-Philipp Mateta was absolutely stoked about it too. watching a YouTube video I think it was with some skateboarders and that they would have said he was stoked on that he said stoked about

which I would have said too but apparently we can say on stoked on okay yeah he was juiced on that anyway CCV and trustee started went the full 90 for sale to get home against Samarren

trusty scored a header from five yards out off a corner but you know stand still leaning away from goal header unmarked non-arial I don't even know why we got this on the rundown to be honest with you

well mostly mostly just to mention that he scored a goal and then and then you know they have a song in the stands at Celtic Celtic sent her back so you should see them play Cameron Carter Vickers

and all And trustee, I really want to win the league with you. You'll be our American boys. Ah, okay. Play off the... We need to get you back to making songs. Yeah, I've been thinking about that. See, but the thing is...

I got to get off the Discord if I'm going to do songs. I just can't. I can't take the feedback anymore. The feedback loop is driving me baddy. You've got to go to the tank and spend about two. years making an album, just shut it all that. See, Bells makes original tracks, though. You know what I'm saying? And that's the thing. Like the

Celtic supporters cribbed this from Estelle. Yeah. Cribb this hook. This line from Estelle, right? And just changed it to, you know, put their own little lyrics in it. But, but, you know, the ability to make a melody and all those different types of things, that's what impressed me the most about Bell's work. It's like, he's making melodies. He's layering. He's layering. He's

player in vocals. Like, I mean, he's doing, the man's doing real production. He's doing his confidence back out. He's doing real production. All right. So Tanner Testman, played 15 minutes and a 1-0 win over Montpellier.

I just love saying that. I love saying that team name. Can you guys tell? It's the one, it's one of the French teams where it's kind of, the pronunciation is kind of intuitive, you know? Yeah. Like trying to pronounce those.

single-syllable ones, it's like, man, how do I, you know what I'm saying? So when you get to Montpellier, it just rose off the tongue. It's like, you know the beginning, middle, end of this word here that you're trying to decipher. But, yeah, tenet testament testament. 15 minutes once Mattich comes off, just did some tantar testament things he did. He did won the ball a few times. That's what's notable about this. It's just any time tenor testament wins the ball.

ball, I will keep you guys abreast of the situation. Okay. Also keeping that, just keeping the fire hot down there in the shadow of the Alps. Brendan Aronson and Leeds stay top of the table. So he played 90 minutes as a 10 for leads and a 3-3 draw. The interesting thing here is they gave up a two-goal lead in the last 10 minutes to Hull City. some of you may remember their goalkeeper Melier and there's this incredible video on

Twitter right now of him he does this big boneheaded thing which he did a lot he's done a lot of over the years I think where he could have just tipped a looping ball over the bar but instead palmed it down into the danger area and got beat to it for the equalizer in the last few minutes his entire defense was yelling at him I've never I don't know if I've ever seen anything like it Yeah, like yelling, exasperation, like, you know, it's just not a, it's just not a, come on.

It's like, I went and read some of the comments. Some people did some lip reading. I think, I think they said like Joe Rodan said like again, because apparently he's been doing this. I mean, Meliae's not been a good goalkeeper for the entire time that he's played for leads. I mean, he basically got Marsh fired, right? Yeah. he's just not good and apparently he's had like a holler streak over these past three or four games or whatever so you got dudes saying again you got dudes i mean because you know

like in professional sports like for the most part it's like yo you don't you don't like show up your teammate or whatever uh these dudes have had it collectively as a bunch they all had had it with uh with with what's his first name ilion or whatever but uh i forget It could be they've grown frustrated by how confident he stays after making a howler. It's poises unbelievable. Not in his play, but in his way he carries himself. I could have just sworn on them. Yeah.

We want you to feel shame, melee. You know, when somebody really screws up, you want to see a little evidence in their face and in their body language that they feel shame. Well, I mean... I think that's not too much to ask. The keeper, I don't know. I kind of like you to see... I mean, regardless of how you react to it.

If you keep on doing it, it's just like, all right. All right, man. Something, we need to figure out something here. Well, I saw it. It's getting kind of hard to tell when stuff is made up, you know, on social media these days. But I thought I saw a quote where he said, I may have to find a new place to play. I could go to Chelsea, but I don't want to be a backup.

If I were to go to Chelsea as the starter, then I would go to Chelsea. I mean, apparently still full of self-confidence, you know, after all of this. Anyway, enough about Melia. Busio, what's up with him, Vince? So he started once again for Venetia against Empoli. Starts every game. Starts every game. I've been tracking him quite a bit.

So I just want to say, he's gotten better. He looks all right out there. but he's just running around doing a lot of nothing for the most part. Like he's gotten a little bit better athletically, but now he's just, for the most part, I think he's just passable. Like, I don't know, this just popped in my head. Like, he had a, he had an opportunity,

a couple opportunities in his game to get on the carry off the half turn. And he just gets like hogged down. You know, he's not able to like press the situation, turning in something positive for Venetia, not able to run away from anybody with the ball. And, you know, this is not surprising to anyone listen to this for the most part. But it's just, it's like, I don't know. He's just okay.

He's just okay. He's treading water in Syria. Maybe he stays up. Maybe he doesn't. But that's just what he is right now. Again, like James Sands, he's having some incredible human experiences. That's right. If I were going to be an okay soccer player in any city in the world, it would probably be Venice, I think.

He's getting to experience the end of Venice, too, because it'll be underwater by the time. His kind of career is over. Yeah. Historic. And it's like, is it really going to be underwater? He's like... They'll find a way. He does some good things.

He'll play a nice little pass for a year and once in a while. But just the total package is just like, man, what, what's you really doing here? Well, he's not an elite athlete. He's not an elite creative. And we saw, right, like at the beginning of his career, right? It was like, well, he can be a regista or something. Right? And he's not playing that anymore.

But we also saw what happened in Mexico. when we tried to play him deep in the midfield, him and Aidem wore us together. Didn't work out too well. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not giving up the faith. I'm not giving up the faith. He's gotten better to get to this point.

We just need to see it. We need to see some more improvement. Just keep stacking it. Just keep stacking it, John Lippet. There you go. One more announcement. We are, Chris, Matt Doyle and me are planning to do a five-aside draft on Thursday once the roster for January camp comes out. So we're each going to pick a five-aside team.

Maybe we'll add like a couple bench options too. Five-aside January camp team. People are going to be really pumped. Yeah, this is going to be exciting. About that. We need to figure out how you win. Maybe a point system based on how many players appear in future World Cups. Maybe there's some style points.

Or just who just creates the team with the best aesthetic. You'll have to be voted on, I would think. There's a lot of options. Yeah, and they'll definitely be a voting component. But I don't trust the voting public to really know exactly who has the best team. So that'll only be, that'll be weighted like 30% of the total. I can't wait to see this whole scheme of how we're going to decide the winner. But yeah, that's coming Thursday.

And hey, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.