Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #559: A promising centerback debut, a missed opportunity in Ligue 1, Poch on mentality

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Belz, Vince and Watke go deep on 18-year-old Noahkai Banks' debut for Augsburg, and Tessmann's big chance for Lyon with Matic on the transfer block. Then Pochettino's latest comments, the rest of the action from the weekend, transfer rumors, etc.Patrons can watch a 4-minute video of several of the clips we discuss, put together by Vince: https://www.patreon.com/posts/key-clips-from-119953459?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_linkWes smashing a piece of pizza at Moise Kean's record release party: https://x.com/calcionocontext/status/1868747195014692877?s=46Italy trip form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeBAz7e4hyZ6HjZhmCalnrfQfJIKeZSi1faC-6hJMwftz20CA/viewform5-a-side draft episode with Matt Doyle that Vince asked Watke to defend: https://www.patreon.com/posts/557-italian-as-v-119438345?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, it's the Monday Review. I'm Adam Bells, got Vince and Waukee with me. Vince, how you doing? I'm doing great today, Adam Bells on this here, January 13th. I'm doing fine, but I do want to throw it to Waki real quick just because of the fact that, Waki, there's a lot of people coming for your draft performance, man. I want you to have the first and final word on.

the situation and defend yourself in your picks, man. The people are being merciless towards you and your drift. There's no excuse. There's no excuse, I can I defend it? I drop the ball. I'll defend him. I'm moving on. I'll defend him.

I think there's a, I think there's a, if we're accepting that you can have a target man in small side soccer, then I think his, then I think his, his, his line would just fine. like in reality. Nobody better at Walker Zimmerman, man. Yeah. I mean, if I played Ream and Zimmerman, two at the back, fine. You got, he's just for, he could score, he could pull something out. Yeah, so I think people are being a little.

I strongly disagree. Exactly. People are being a little bit unfair. With everyone. They, they acting like, you know, you show up, you're just going to get ran off the, off the court, off the pitch. I mean, you know, whatever. whatever type of venue. We're playing this little small side of game.

You know what? I think they're just putting far too much faith in our unproven attackers that my opponents have on their team. That's right. That's probably fair too. I feel like I have to defend myself because I said at the end there that you don't want a Bousquet-style midfielder

distributing from deep. And that was exactly the wrong person. the wrong name to choose to make the point I was trying to make, which is simply that you don't have a, you don't have a Burhalter style number six in a six v-six game. But I shot myself in the foot by saying Bousquet's, because he's the perfect player for small side soccer. It's just, I'm just saying like you don't need a deep distributor.

I've gotten a little, I've gotten some static for that. Anyway, check out our draft of the January camp roster. If you haven't listened to it already Waki, Doyle and me I thought it was a lot of fun actually highly recommended that you listen to it. Part of it for me was I got a little rattled

when I said the wrong team that Miljavitch was from. Which is such a forgivable mistake. And I don't know the main objection people had with my draft and may have been the earlier picks. But from there on out, I was just not. I wasn't locked in.

And so I wasn't on the call. but I imagine that having Matt Doyle on it can't help, you know, because he's the one with the knowledge of these dudes, you know, the January camp guy specifically, you know what I'm saying? This was kind of, it's kind of made for him. And so I imagine, like, while you're making picks, he might be making faces, even with the comments he made on the pod, you know. I was like, you sure you want to do that? You know, I would take. Honestly, I had to pull up a window and block his face so he wouldn't get in my head. Yeah, like I could I could just hear it from his comments, you know, like throughout the pod just, yeah, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was, he was mr. January, like Reggie Jackson is Mr. October. Doyle is, uh, Mr. January.

Just a cupcake He's going to make a good pick And he's going to be so confident Explaining it Yeah, right People listen You don't know anything about these players I mean some of them do

We're keeping a little bit Too much valor on Doyle here I'm crushing him In the polls Every poll on every platform I'm beating him two to one So You won the psychological battle

But against me Okay Max Arfston Please Come on Well, let's move to the part of the player pool that matters a little bit more, which is the players playing in Europe. Am I right? Let's start with outside of goalkeeper, probably the position on the USMNT of greatest uncertainty centerback.

Tim Riem is old, actually has been old for a long time. And as much as we love Chris Richards and Mark McKenzie, neither of them is locked down status as a written in pen starter for us. us through 2026. But we have good news. Do we not? 18 year old no key banks. Is it no key or no Kai? I'm pretty sure it's no key. Vince. I think we got, I was trying to find on the discord, but I think we got pronunciation guidance. We met him in Nashville. He's a doctor. He goes on the and he's been going on some of the trips with the youth Nashville teams. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm pretty sure he put in the discord that his name is no key. Okay, yeah, because he went to, I think he went to the Czech Republic with them.

Exactly. So, Banks got more than an hour in his Bundesliga debut for Augsburg on Sunday, came on for an injured centerback. He's big, he's fast, perhaps most importantly, he combines that with composure on the ball and the ability to eliminate attackers on the dribble. I feel like this is a big deal, big deal that he looked as good as he did. Yeah, there's really two possible performances. I think we've learned that you can put in a debut.

The first is doesn't quite look up to the pace yet. The second doesn't look out of place. Yeah. And he was well doesn't look out of place, maybe a little beyond that. Yeah, it was. I think so. Yeah, it was firmly number two. Firmly.

You know what I'm saying? There weren't that many shaky moments. I mean, I mean, they're like there were shaky moments. Don't get me wrong. But like I said, there's somebody. on Twitter. You talk about a dude that just turned 18

debuted in the Bundesliga and for him to look like this, I mean, it's like an A plus in my book. If you grade on the curve with everything, with all the caveats

I just listed, man. I mean, it was great. Like, he looked like he looks in those youth national team comps. He was able to, he was able to bring that forward

into a Bundesliga match. So it's like, what else could you really want? Do you have anything you want to say, Vince, about the largest employer of African Americans in American society, the U.S. military right now? You already know what time.

You already know, man. We don't did it again. We done did it again. Shout out to all my troops, most specifically, my African-American troops. But it's something, we be making magic happen in Germany, man. We make it magic happen. Now, just imagine if we got that same type of concentration of brothers in Brazil. look what we've done in Germany, man.

The Tillman's, John Brooks. Yeah. No key banks. Julian Green, World Cup goalscorer. Come on, man. Jimmy Chandler. Timmy Chandler.

What's my boy's name? He got Dreds? Oh. Jermaine Jones. Oh, yeah. Jermaine Jones. We've been putting in some work. We've been putting in some work.

And shout out to Juergen for first realizing. the work that the U.S. troops have been putting in over there in Germany, and it's just continued. And you would think that, like, this faucet would just shut off. Like, this is just a random, these are just random occurrences. But for whatever reason, man, like, it's a real deal pipeline. And it's just kind of a shame because we,

I don't think we've been giving the troops enough credit on that because there's a little bit of, oh, we don't want to talk about these German players as being apart or separate from the rest of the guys. Right. But, you know, the troops do get lost in that. We have to remember the role that the troops play. I mean, Wes McKinney, too, although his mother's not. I was just about to break it up.

Yeah. I mean, the king of horny himself, you know what I'm saying? He came from a long, we're going to get into this later. But we wonder why, you know, Weston is the way that he is. But it's like, bro, he's just one in a long lineage of horny troops. Yes. Yes. Now, to no key, let's get into his performance because I agree with you.

Definitely looked like he belonged. And I would go even further than that. I don't know how many shaky moments he did have. I mean, we can sort of zaproo – we can superuter the goal and say, you know, how much he's at fault for not being back with his central defender's centerback partner. But I thought in general there weren't any shaky moments. Yeah, I would say he had a. couple mistakes, but they weren't shaky in character.

They were just the type of mistakes a veteran is less likely to make. Yeah, right, if you don't really care that much about it, you'd rather him look confident. You had one, I mean, this is a subtle one, but you had one thing you noticed that, like, like a little bit of a rotation, hesitation or something. It was about a 42nd minute guy slipped in. He didn't rotate. out quite enough to cover that threatened space. Yeah.

But that was in the phase of the game where I was really, because he had just come in, or not just coming in however long it was. 13 minutes ago. I was really committed to analyzing this player in as much detail as I could. So anything he did in that stretch was going to get noticed. It wasn't that big of a deal. By the second half, I kind of chilled out a little bit. Yeah.

Like you said last week, it's just tough to be a centerback. being assessed on the Monday review because you get brutally scrutinized. But yeah, I think they had the three centerbacks were real narrow, you know, I think as a matter of course. But you got a, the past you're talking about was played into essentially the cutback zone on the right side of the box, left side of the box from Banks' perspective. And he was basically touched tight with his partner to the middle. Something we talk about with Richards is, I've talked about with Richards, is he looks a little bit uncomfortable defending in big open spaces. Like he just doesn't have the burst to shut down things.

And I thought, man, Banks looked really good in wide open spaces in this game. Like he, the ball gets played down in the touchline. He's over there and just, bam, balls out of bounds. Attack snuffed out. Yep. It's just like, you know, his overall physicality, you know, it's there. You know, this is a tall, lanky dude. It's about 6-3, 6-4.

But, like, his ability to move, the fluidity, the ability to jump, all that. Check, check, check. Yep, agreed. He's very fluid for 6-4. I didn't even realize who was that tall. Yeah, somebody on, somebody on Twitter was going on and on about how his legs are too skinny or something. Which, I mean, I got thick enough. if you're

I guess if you're into that sort of thing but um he only got one seat man you gotta you gotta wait to add the extra one but but that's even um like we talk about it like I said just turned 18 of course the legs are skinny you know I mean but he's in Germany we don't got to worry about that

we know if we know one thing we know Germany is going to get these boys uh brolic yeah yeah you know they're gonna hit they're gonna hit the weights So we don't really got worried about that. Do some squats, get that quad volume up, you know.

Don't forget, don't neglect the hamstrings, of course. Don't neglect the hamstrings. But, yeah, I mean, like, gross, not going to be an issue. Before we get to the other things about Banks, I just want to say the attack from both sides in this game. Man, I do not wish, I do not miss watching Augsburg play. And, like, the final third quality in both games requires that I have. pull up a clip from the archive. And let me tell you they are ass.

I don't know. Hot ass. Ass. That was the final third quality in this game. Pretty bad on both sides. So I will say Stuttgart turned it up when they made the subs. You know, then their goal came from one of their subs. To be fair.

Yeah, Stuttgart's goal was nice, actually. He hit a couple line breaking passes. I mean, maybe three or four. The best one was in the 49th minute. Pretty tight window. Found some feet, of course, immediately. It was wasted. What else?

His dribbling. Vince, talk about his dribbling. This is something that stuck out to you back when you were watching his performance against Morocco for the USU-19s. It's something that will jump off the screen at you, right? If you're watching a comp, right? You're watching a comp. You don't necessarily want to watch a,

a comp of John Lucas, uh, serial performances. You know, it's just going to be a lot of, a lot of scrappy play, nothing to really catch your eye, really, really get you up out of your name.

So I still remember it. I still remember it. It was like 12.30 one night. I'm looking at my phone. I see, I see this comp on Nokey Banks against Morocco. I'm like, who's this man?

I check it out. First play. He's just breaking the first line of, of Morocco's defensive shape by carrying the ball over and over again. And these dudes that are trying to, you know, the strikers or the forwards or whatever that are trying to impede his progress. I mean, he's just knocking him off like flies. And it's just repeatedly over and over again.

And I mean, you know, he's adding a flare to it too. It's not just, you know, I mean, we talk a stepovers. We're talking like really dribbling like he's, like he's Eunice Musa or something from the midfield, but he's doing it from the back. But that's another part of what's so impressive about this performance is like, you see things that players can do, particularly at lower levels. And a lot of times you might be waiting, you know, a whole calendar year, a whole maybe two years waiting for it to actually show up. Hey, you know, I know he did it in the U-20 Conca Cav championship. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen the skill. I know he has it. But, you know, just so far when he's playing in the Bundesliga or the Netherlands or whatever, you know,

he's playing a little conservative within itself, just trying to keep his place in the team. He's not showing it up. No. First, With this league a match, no key banks, he's taking people off the dribble, bro, with no problems. With the same amount of confidence and with the same result as he would against Morocco's year 20s. And it's beautiful to see. Yeah. It's such a huge asset to have a centerback so comfortable on the ball that can do that. Because like you said, it breaks that first line of pressure completely unbalanced the other team.

The one time he did it most notably in the 84th minute, I think. dribbled past a guy ate up 20 yards, played defeat, and Augsburger are off. And if you got centerbacks who can do that, it changes the whole complexion of the game, you know? It's true.

And I think that's probably another reason people are kind of underrating my five-a-side team, is they're not respecting Tim Riem's ability to do that. Bro, I was going to say that earlier, but I feel like Tim Riem will get extremely busy in a five-a-side match. That's why I picked him second.

I think he's a big he's a big he also he's going to go into that game wanting it more than anyone else. Right. With something to prove. He's young whippersnappers. We got we

Max Arstyn. Come on. We got to get into it. We'll talk about it when we talk about the Pachitino interview. Yeah. Pachitino says yeah we got

we got a really good mentality here. We got good culture. But there's too many ups and downs. Mm-hmm. In the intensity. You know, what players he's talking about max arfston the less experienced players the younger players your your players and doy's players not my players i was looking for mentality that's right

yeah walker warkers ever getting that penalty of waste don't face you know what i'm saying next play next play baby we talk about i mean i think we should move on from no key i'll just say quickly he should we the goal was a really really nice chip over the back line so his His center back partner was two yards back from Nokey. Noke's guy, I think Undaz or something. Undov, yeah. I don't know, he pronounced it, but it's U and AV. Okay, well, it's definitely not Undaz then.

So he receives it, tries to play it through the goalkeeper's legs as the goalkeeper rushes at him, deflexs back to him, and then he just, you know, puts it away. No key is not really close to the goal score even though it was kind of you know ostensibly the guy he was marking so there's at least a little bit of a ding here so it was nokey's guy first right but then undaub notices that the centerback partner that the middle centerback next to nokey is playing is like he's saying playing two yards deeper and i think he sees that and decides to play off the middle centerback and he's occupying kind of he's occupying him for a good two, three seconds before the balls played in. And so I'm not totally sure if that's on no key.

I'm going to put it on the middle centerback for blowing the offside trap in the first place and giving Lundav a place to like go and hide to if everybody's on the same line, I just don't think that's able to happen. He's able to be in Noki's blind spot because of the centerback being two yards deeper. And you know what?

The centerback partner didn't do anything when the goal was scored to indicate that it was either Noki's fault or not his fault. That's true. So he must have made a mistake. I would think that the central centerback is the one who sets the line.

It's not Noki set in the line. So the fact that no key is two yards ahead of him. I mean, I'm not saying this is like the gospel truth, but I'm going to be more likely to blame the left centerback, the 18-year-old left centerback, who came into the game because of an injury for not being on a line with his central defender partner,

then I am going to be blaming the other guy for being two yards deeper. Like, he's the guy set in the line. There's another center back there. And he was on line with Nokey. That's all that's what I'm saying. Okay, okay. The reality is I don't care. I mean, it's, it doesn't, none of this changes.

It was a ridiculous, like, fun house, carnival style, up, down, chipped ball from this guy. like into a ridiculously small space. Nice action by Undav. It's, you know, sometimes you've got to tip your cap a little bit. Even if he was on a line with, even if Banks was on a line with his partner there,

do they stop this goal from happening? I'd like to see it. Maybe. I'd like to see it. But one thing that I also took away from this performance that also kind of leaves me to give Nokia a little bit of grace on this goal is the fact that he was doing a lot of, of pointing. Waki, did you see this?

He was doing a lot of pointing. He was doing a lot of calling out. He was making sure that, you know, he was involved in negotiating with his centerback partners whose responsibility was who, who's covering where, etc., etc. He was very

animated with his body language. You could see him pointing. You could see him looking, talking, all of that stuff, which kind of just adds to the fact that like, you know, the man's was not shell shock. No. Out there.

I was looking through the transfer market forum pages and translating the German into English and the Augsburg fans, you know, they're obviously extremely frustrated with their coach and how they can't create chances. But they love Banks' performance. They loved it. Also just, you know, I talked about shaking my mom. I'll just list them. Well, not list them, but, you know, talk about one little bit.

There was, okay, one time the attacker he was marking kind of got played in. He kind of got, he got somewhat eliminated by a throughball. He was able to show his athleticism there, make up for it, and got megged on the, on the past that the attacker played across the box, led to a little bit of danger there for Stuttgart. Also, there was a clearance that he made that he made that he, he's a, you know, he directed right back to the same attacker that played the ball. And I think he might have did that twice.

Or, yeah, I think the other one might not have went back to the person that played the ball, but it went to a stew guard attacker. So just those simple things like that, he needs to clean up, you know. That's one thing I've been looking at a lot. Just as I try to, you know, always learn about the game. It's just I watch a lot of elite defenders and I wonder how they're able to clear the ball away every time. No matter what type of weird position, their

strike, they're meeting the ball. Somehow it's always going, you know, clear the other team, clear of... Up and out. Danger, etc. Yeah, up and out. And so, like, you know, in the game threat, some people were like, oh, you know, he couldn't do too much with that.

You know, the good centerbacks, they do a lot with a little when it comes to clearing balls that they're able to get contact to. So, but that's it, though. Like I said, still, A plus. We gave it the scuff treatment on this performance. We criticize everything, but A plus when it comes down to it.

Yeah. And I do want to say on that one where he gets kind of eliminated on the through ball, I think it's a little bit of a wash because he made a calculation that if he tried to beat this guy to the ball, he's going to be in a bad situation where either he ends up behind him and fouls him from behind in the box. or he gets eliminated completely, you know? And so very early in the sequence, he says, he did the geometry and he said, uh-uh, I'm going to slow my run a little bit and then I'm going to come around on the inside. It's too bad he got megged, but at least he slowed things down, you know?

Like he... Yeah, he was there. Right. You know, when the attacker receives the ball and is ready to do his business, no key was in front of him. So that's all that really... All right, let's move to the other big USMNT development over. the weekend, at least player pool development, in that something potentially could shift as a result of it. This was Tanner Testman starting in a 2-1 loss to Brest.

Testman has, we've been talking at least on Twitter about maybe he's in line for more minutes because Nomaniya Madditch is in talks with Ipswich Town. He wasn't in the squad for this one. Modich, that is, Tesman got the start. These are the opportunities he needs to seize With both hands, man. He's with both hands. Vince, did he? Now, now hold on real quick, Adam Bell's, uh, because, because you're using this language here, but on Twitter, well, so what you say? He needs to do, he needs to do what?

He needs to seize it. He needs to seize it by the nuts. Yeah. The absolute nuts. Okay. I just want, you know, come on, man. You can't be, you can't be a lady on, on the podcast and a freak in the Twitter streets. Why not?

Why can't I? I guess you could. To answer your question, did he, I would say firmly, and I'm a big Tant Testament fan. Y'all know this. Firmly. No. No. You could see it in his eyes right before he got subbed off, actually.

Well, he missed a big chance right before he got subbed off. Was he even shooting off a corner kid? He was. I thought from that, Adam, I thought from that big windup you gave. if he had had a great game. What does it matter if he, what does any of that matter if he didn't play well?

Well, because there was a big opportunity here. He's a starting spot. The windup was the, because there was a, there was the possibility, but I don't think. Something at stake,

something that stake for sure. What else was at stake in the pool this weekend? Besides, I mean, besides these two things, thanks and testament. I mean, everything else is just kind of trucking along. I'm just saying what I thought, because I didn't I didn't get to watch.

You built it up or I thought I was about to hear about a great performance. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not saying you're wrong to put it where you put it? I'm just communicating. I mean, it does suck to have to like have the rug pulled out from under you like that. He was pretty responsible for the first goal. I'm going to put a good deal of blame for him on the second goal too. I don't know if you watched that one bells, but he's basically, uh, he just doesn't,

it's just a tannid thing. He's just not recognizing danger quick enough. and on the first goal, he he loses, he gets turned, loses a duel completely eliminated by a breast midfielder

that basically sets them on their way to score the goal. But on the second one, it's basically like play, breast playing and basically the play passes him by, right? And there's a breast attacker going from into out on like the left side of the box. There's a,

Leon center back with him. But he plays a cheeky little back hill with his left foot right into basically like the top of the box, the top middle of the box. That breast striker just runs onto and thrash his home. And in the buildup, he runs directly past Tanner Testament.

Like when old dude is one V1 with the centerback before he hits the back heel, you can see Tanner slowing down. And the striker doesn't give up on the play. He's running right by the man. And as a defensive midfrey, fielder. Like, can't have it, man. Can't have it if you're going to be a six.

That same striker was the one who hit the shot that got saved. That then the rebound was put in on the first goal. And, you know, I thought Tanner. He could strike a ball. Yeah. I think Tanner was a little unlucky on that first one because he kind of, he disrupted that midfielder's run as he's striding into the center of the park. But then it kind of ricochets off, you know, just kind of ricochets straight to that.

striker, the bald guy. He plays it out wide. Then he gets the return cut back. But Tanner doesn't even, doesn't track the bald guy, you know? He shades deep, like he's going to go over and stop the cross. And nobody marks the bald guy. And, uh, so. Yeah, I mean.

But, but it's just like the, the first goal to, to even get the ball, the dude that Tanner's marking hits him with a little, uh, like he's. He's like he's going to make a run towards goal and checks back to the ball, right? It's a classic way to check back for the ball. Tanner is a step behind but still tries to get touched tight with him when it's like, bro, if you're going to get touched tight, you've got to be there when he receives the ball.

He knows you're a step behind, so then boom, he's going to take that thing on the turn and boom, you're dusted, you know? And it's just those situational awareness that he doesn't have. Or it's like, bro, if you don't get touched tight there, You are able, he's able to receive the ball, but then you're still in a good position. Some of how Noki, the same calculation that Noki made.

Yeah. You know, that we just talked about. But instead, you get touched tight on the man's. The man's, but once again, is able to turn and they're off, blah, blah, blah. But, I mean, it's just a defensive stuff. All the stuff on the ball was mostly good once again, you know. It's a nice diagonal. Spraying the ball.

Yeah. He hit the, he hit a very nice one before a halftime that was almost Leon 2-2. Right. Chalked off. Where he just. They did score. First of all, just plucked the ball up. It was chocked offside by like a foot, you know.

Right. Yeah. Right. So first of all, he plucks the ball out of the air, passes it back to his teammate, just as classy as can be. He, teammate passes it back to Tanner. he just gets his head up, boom, lift off. You know what I'm saying? It's just on a dime over to, from basically the left touchline to the right touchline.

Just easiest can be, little to no wind up. Also had that pass into, was it churkey? That backfliped? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a really slick sequence. Lacazette? Lacazette fumbled it as, you know, Arsenal fans have known for him to do, unfortunately. But yeah, it's just, he was good on the ball, bad off the.

the ball. Pretty bad off the ball. Also, so Matage is having these transfer rumors. They have officially transferred Maxis Kakadet to Como. So that was some of the eight minutes. Okay. That Tanner wasn't getting anymore. Maybe he'll get some of those. I'm not totally sure. But hopefully this Madage deal goes through. Leon is in financial troubles. So they need to make some money or else they get relegated to league league two. Hopefully all these things happen and he's able to play games because he needs to play these games so that he can fix these defensive issues he has. It's true.

It's all true. One thing about that diagonal is, you know, it was so the one that led to the goal that was chalked off. It's when somebody, when a midfieler plays such a good diagonal like that, you can just see it in the eyes of the winger as the ball is coming to them. They're like, oh, all right, here we go. here we go you know take it off their chest it just fills them with confidence and joy you know it was one of those kind of ball they get their feet ready like you can see they're like it's on

let's go it was one of those kind of ball he did miss the chance it kind of squibbed to him late in the like right before he got subbed off basically uh squibbed to him after a corner kick and he had a chance to hit it with his left foot it was such a bad shot i'm not even sure if if he was trying to flash it across the face of the goal, but his teammates were not happy with him. They all looked at him like, bro, come on. Sorry, Chris. Sorry for misleading you with that big wind-up. It's okay.

It's okay. It's on the, I just, I'm the one who set the expectations in my head. Well, I think, you know, Tyler Adams is the next guy I want to talk about because he's so different, you know. He's so different from Tanner in this way. It couldn't be more different. He has this aura where you feel like he is completely locked in to what he needs to be doing defensively. And I know Greg has sort of made fun of him for how much he loves being a captain and going over and talking to the refs and stuff. But I don't know.

There's something about that that is really appealing and comforting to watch, especially in Conflict. Contrast to the sort of, I think deer in the headlights is a little harsh for the way Tanner looked. But he just doesn't look like, he looks like he doesn't quite feel confident in himself in his role, specifically defensively. And then he watched Tyler and he's just like bouncing around, like yelling at people, flying into tackles, getting like, you know, nothing goes quickly through his area of the field or easily. It's all hard sledding for the other opponent. Anyway, they beat West Brombe 5-1. He had a nice diagonal in the build-up to the first goal. Not quite the joy-inducing one that Tanner played to his guy out wide right,

but similar type of ball. That's it. Mostly just want to talk about the feeling that Tyler gives you as a defensive midfielder when you watch him. It does just talk so much on that field. I can't imagine how annoying he is to play against. Yeah. Even with. Yeah. Who's the list of players he doesn't yell at on the team, on the U.S.

Men's National team? It's probably just Christian. Probably just. I'll say. Yeah. Maybe he yells at him too, though. He probably does. Yeah. It would be a different type of yelling, though. Podge did an interview with ESPNFC, and he talked a lot about mentality and belief. can you give us any give us any color eyes?

He specifically said he wants to identify 26 or 30 players who share a mentality, strong, winning and it's not only about identifying, it's also about building in a person in a player. I'm for it. I'm for it.

I guess he said the thing is that separates Argentina is not just the quality of the players, but that mentality. He said what's different about Argentina is they have, yes, the individual mentality, but then it becomes a group mentality. Yeah.

To compete to win. And that's where we need to get. Yeah. And then that's when he was complimentary of our mentality, but says we need to work on consistency. That's when he made a wave motion with his hand. Well, I said that.

I mean, that is 100% true, right? Like, we'll have a great game. Under Burrhalter, we'd have a great game, usually at home, and then a really bad game on the road. And it was like, boys, come on. It kind of sounded like it could... It's possible it happens within session sometimes, too. Huh.

I don't know why I think that. I believe it. But I read it that way for some reason. Or from session to session, maybe. I still think the... Maybe the most interesting Monday review we did all in all of 2024 was the one where we talked about the Copa America. It certainly was the one that had the most impact on me as a viewer, the Copa America final, that is. Yep.

What a game. What a game, man. I mean, all this stuff was evident in that matchup. Just a titanic struggle between those two teams, Argentina and Colombia. and it was collective and it was my eyes are still shining from it honestly I might have to go back and watch it bro

I don't know that was like it was painful it was more than a game yeah it was more than a game man it was warfare out there

yeah if we're going to get to this point he got a lot of work you do basically I mean uh yes it's

uh Like I said last episode is going to be, I think this is going to be something that we'll be able to tell regardless of opposition. You know, I know a lot of people aren't too jazzed about a nation's league and a gold cup coming up in 2025. But I think these are things that we'll be able to see. Are we enjoying being serious? Are we not? You know? Yep.

I agree. I think it should be evident. And if it's not, man, potch out. Well I was going to say heads Should roll But I don't know Like we don't have that many heads

To start rolling heads around You know We basically have who we have But there should be some stern talking tos These guys are ready to go They're going to raise the level of intensity Consistently In 2025

Yeah That's manifesting That's what Potch would do Well I was going to say I think Potch it's a good place to start by having Maricio Pachitino as your coach, you know? Like, I don't know, I can't think of a better way to get there. We're in good shape.

Things are looking up. Yeah. Is this all he said in the interview, though? Very short interview. Okay, okay. He praised Anthony Robinson. He also said the most important thing he considers when building a roster is how a player is performing for their club. He's still going to start Gio Raina if he's healthy, I would imagine.

Yep. Let's take a little break. If you want to get all these episodes ad free, join the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. There's another link in the show notes, which is we're going to Italy. It's going to be Rome and the immediate environs. Lazio Yuve and Roma Milan are the games we want to see in mid-May. If you are interested in going at all with us and George Qureshi, the guy who plans these trips

and does a fantastic job of it, please go to the show notes and fill out the survey and we will be in touch and we will make this happen. It'll be beautiful. We'll be back in a minute. All right, we're back. We're a little late to do camp arrivals, but Vince, I feel like you got to

you got something you've got to get off your chest about the first pictures of the players arriving for January camp. For sure. It has been something that's been weighing on me since I saw them. A heavy burden. And was so taking aback by them. I mean, look,

all I'm saying is I talked about it last week we're not sending our best and brightest to January camp et cetera et cetera but all I'm asking is with that being known fellas

don't don't don't don't don't don't don't come to camp looking like you're not one of our best and brightest you know what I'm saying like you gotta you gotta play the part man like I'm saying we shouldn't need to post of those pictures

I think I see the problem I think I see the problem here though. And it could be a fix. So it's clear they saw that players come in wearing hoodies. The mistake was they didn't take it to count.

The players for the main team, they come in most of them with pretty expensive hoodies. Yeah. And those get made funner for how expensive they are. But we can see the drop in quality. These are much cheaper hoodies. You could

much cheaper, but it's everything, though. The hoodie is definitely play a part in it. Don't get me wrong. But it's like the haircuts. Like just the general, I don't like using the word aura. I only like to save it for when I really mean it. But like these dudes just out here looking extremely orilless.

Extremely oralist. I mean, it's like, I don't even know how to explain it, bro. Like how is it that our best and our brightest soccer players are also our most handsome and fashionable as well? You know what I'm saying? You would think there would be a little bit more distribution within the player pool here. But it's like, is January camp, I know a lot of people thinking about it. Like, hey, it's scrub time. Yeah.

He used to put up with white scrubs. And like Jack McGlynn, my boy looking like he's pulling up to seventh grade basketball practice. Like, I'm just, damn, you know what I'm saying? Damn. You know, we're forgetting about Sebastian Legerette. here though, you know, where the quality and the handsomeness don't

necessarily overlap perfectly. You know, I know he's not really part of it. But it was a case where a domestic player who can dress and carry themselves at the level, at least at the camp walk in, of our European guys. Right. Him and Kel and Acosta. Yeah. But also, Sebastian, you know, he was over in West Ham. He was in London.

That's true. As a youth, you know what I'm saying? He probably picked up quite a bit. Kellen Acosta, I think he's part Japanese, right? And, you know, Japanese men are very revered in fashion spaces. You know what I'm saying? I mean, they kind of picked them up. I think they picked some stuff up along the way, is what I'm saying.

And it's just like, I don't know what it is. I haven't been able to quite put my finger on it, but it's just... It's just disturbing me. It's like, is it a nature or a nurtured thing? Are you... I think it's nurture. I think they're not in the glamorous European environments. When Pulisik goes into be with his same C-Malon players,

they're all up to a certain standard. Whether he gets fully up to that standard, I don't know, but it pulls him up. And you can say that with pretty much... We have a lot of players that are a lot of really prestigious clubs. We've all seen our badge 11. This is an area where the badge 11 really matters. Yeah. We see the drop off at this January camp.

That's a really good point because, like, you play for Juventus or A.C. Milan. You're basically royalty in Europe, you know. You're like a, you're like a, you're like at least a Duke in the middle age. These dudes is court gestures. I don't know, man. I don't know. 125K. Playing for Philadelphia Union or whatever it is.

I don't know what Jack McGlynn's salary is, but it's probably more than that. But it's a different ballgame. It's a different ball game. I'm just finding it hard to take not to take all this kind of personally because I'm sitting here in my Russell Athletic hoodie from like, from like, I've had this since I was like 16. I don't even know who I got it from. I got it like handed me down. But this is something I was thinking about, though, is just like, these dudes look like every soccer player that I knew growing up.

You know, like Sands the foreign ones. It is like, bro, I don't know. There's a lot of things that need to happen within the American soccer development system. They need to improve the product that we're putting out, whether it's MLS or the player pool or et cetera, et cetera. There's a lot of things that need to change. I think the number one thing that needs to change is just our fashion sense. And just it's more than the fashion sense.

I think it's just like a sense of self, a sense of a sense of belonging, a sense of knowing who you are. Like, bro, you're Jack McGlynn. You know what I'm saying? They're rumored you to go to, you're Patrick Schulte. You know what I'm saying? You've made full national team camp starts. Yeah. You can't be coming here with a tidaless hat.

You know what I'm saying? We got to step it up. And I think it's because, let me tell you this, let me tell you this, the equivalent of the January camp basketball players of football players, they wouldn't look like this. That's true. They wouldn't look like this. And I think it's because of where we've played soccer as a society.

And I think the type of people that are, inclined to play soccer because of whatever reasons. I may say it's pay for play or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But we got to increase our drip quotient. It can't just be, we send in our dripius over to Europe. Because, you know, I was thinking about Caleb Wally. Caleb Wally would have passed a test if he was in this January camp before he got transferred to Strasbourg. Well, Chelsea, I'm not on the Strasbourg.

But Caleb Wiley would have passed a test. But what happened? he got sent out. He got sent out. He said, hey, hey, Caleb, your swag's too tough. Your swag's too tough. Come over to Europe, man.

And I'm just wondering if that's something that we need to address. I think it is. Might have to get Doyle back on the pod. Yeah. I mean, the bottom right under McGlynn has a little sense of himself. I can't even recognize who that is.

That's the thing. These dudes are just like, they're nondescript. You know what I'm saying? That's Indiana Vassalov, I believe. Yeah, it is. I had no idea what he looked like. And I think I want to leave this, still not knowing what he looks like,

even though he's staring at him for about 30 seconds. Indiana Vasselav pulled up looking like a, you know, some type of manish neighbor in a sitcom. It is. The haircut, I think, may be the biggest problem with him. Everything, man. But anyway, and I know Pach, if you see, I hope that's something that he addressed, and maybe we'll get that behind the crest or something.

But, you know, these dudes in Florida, I mean, take them, take him to High Lee or something, get him a haircut, a little fade or something, man, come on. Come on, man. Okay, yeah. You got to have a mentality, but you also got to be looking good out there. Argentina, they'd be looking good out there. And they, and they, Caucasians. Anyway, let's keep.

Yeah, different. Different type of Caucasian than the Indiana vassalids of the world, I think. All right, let's do some transfer news. You ready to quarterback us through this, Waki? I should say, Liz, compiled these very well. You know, I didn't give credit last time. She's kind of leaning at transfer news desk. PSV, want to keep Peppy through 2030.

Is it, is the pace on the music faster? No. It's the same. It's the same. No, it's not. I heard I'm trying to keep up with it. How would I increase the pace of the music? All right.

This is your way of trying to get me to go faster. No, I think. PSV you want to keep peppy through 20, 30 other European clubs are interested in him, but talks with the club have been going well. It looks like he'll stay. PSV also want to keep Luke de Young for at least another season. Boo. Yeah, don't do that.

PSV. Yeah, that's best. Come on. rumors of Liverpool having interest in Jedi but he plans to stay with Fulham for the rest of the season Ferrer to Seattle this isn't a rumor he signed a three-year deal and will not be a DP did I say that rumor last week

fact last week it doesn't matter Marcus Rashford has met with A.C. Milan to discuss a transfer he's also being linked to Monaco and Dortmund his agent is going crazy and linking him with almost every club possible nicely put, Liz.

John Tolkien, who's on the roster for the January camp, is rumored to be leaving New York this month. Okay. New Jersey. He has interests from two teams in the Bundesliga, as well as Italy and Belgium. That's it. That's good.

Put me down for Belgium. It's going to be Royal Antwerp written all over it. You're saying that's most likely. Yeah, and they're like something. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Wonderful. Some quick injury news.

You didn't mention that Hases is on your roster for your five-aside team, Chris. You should have plug that a little bit, I think. Yeah, it was. Another thing I was just thinking about my five-aside team again. I don't think people appreciate how difficult it is to do a draft at the same time you're doing a podcast. It is kind of tricky. Obviously, you and Doyle were having to do that too. It's really hard.

I have a confession to make about the five-aside draft. I picked Brian Gutierrez because I was so sure Jesus Ferreira would be picked by then. I messed up and picked Gutierrez when I should. I would have picked Ferreira. I mean, I still, you know, I'm still winning in a landslide. So, you know, I'm not too worried about it,

but I just want to say to back up. a landslide there. Yeah, yeah. I blundered. It was a blunder for sure. I was like, oh, crap. I don't want Gutierrez more than I want Ferreira. Injury news.

Dest has returned to group training. This is incredibly important. So important. We need him back. Real bad. We need him back so bad that I'm actually opposed to talking about Joe Scali in the Monday review. I actually am going to, we'll talk about him under protest for me.

I don't want to, I don't want to do it. Well, this is some foreshadow on bells, but there will be a Serginio Defts versus Joe Scali comparison in the Joe Scali. Oh, boy. Okay. Josh Sargent subbed on in the 79th minute of Norwich's 4-0 F-A Cup loss to Brighton. This is, he didn't have much to do, but. This is his first action since October. He's missed 14 games.

So that's also kind of a big deal. We got some other weekend action to get into. And, you know, associated storylines with Weston. He starts away against Torino at left back. Frustration for YuVe. Maybe Matta's on the chopping block. But Wes, man, he looks really good at left back, I think. classy over there, completely in control of his side of the field,

progressing the ball, not getting beat. We don't really need a left back backup, I don't think, for the 26 roster if we got Wes. I mean, I guess we'll have to think about the knock-on effects in the midfield, but John Tolkien can go to Anderlect, and maybe a miracle will happen there. But for now, there's no point in bringing a left back who's like way, way. way, way, way, way, way worse than Jedi. Tim Way has subbed on in the 78th minute. He, uh, there's nothing really to say about him.

Oh, one thing on Weston. John Mueller posted his transfer market, uh, position map. He's now played every position other than goalkeeper. Incredible. He looks healthy too, right? I mean, am I, am I just saying stuff here? Or does he look like he's, his shoulder isn't bothering him as much right now? Yeah, I talked about it last week.

He's using his upper body a lot more than he has been, for sure. He's also now reportedly dating a Russian model named Violetta Burt, who is known because she was Moodrick's ex-girlfriend. Actually, she denies having ever dated Moodrick, and there's really no that much evidence that she's actually dating West.

But she's from Rostov on dawn, which is a Russian city just east of Ukraine. So, and there was definitely some controversy about the reports that she was dating Mudrick. Anyway, goal.com and I guess some other like daily mail or whatever are saying that she's, she and Wes are dating now. Um, this is a good move for her. She's, uh, she's going to break into the American market.

Yeah. Uh, Wes is just like, you can see that like, I don't know. He's fully among Europe's elite as like a,

as like a footballer now. Yeah. You know, he's like a name. Now, like people know his name. You know, different things like that.

But just because of the fact that like, his dating life is making is just making the rounds right you know it's like the fact that royalty book whoever west mckinney yeah the fact that whoever west mckinney is dating is like news

that can be shared on the european continent and people don't respond to um the headline or whatever as who's west of mckinney like like and he's starting to really up his rabble rouse game within europe You know, I mean, he's been doing it on the low, right?

You know, we had the stories of him in, uh, uh, what's bro's name? DeBala, their parties. Oh, yeah. So you could COVID parties or whatever they would be having or whatever. Like, you know, Wes has been getting around. He's been doing his thing. He's, of course, you know, the horny has traveled across the pond. You know what I'm saying?

But, um, the fact that now it's like newsworthy whenever Wes is dating somebody is just it's a good development. And also he's been doing even more rabble-rousom. We haven't had a chance to talk about this. I do want to talk about it now. Wes was involved.

So Moisey Kane, Mosey Kane had a album release party. Yep. I don't know if y'all have seen this. But he had an album release party. Somebody made a TikTok about it. You know, one of those, like, follow us through Moisey Cain's album release party.

And it's just, it's like screenshots to like different players there, whatever. And then the screen flips to Weston. Screen flips to Weston McKinney. And it says Weston McKinney over top, like his name. He's sitting there. Chrome Hearts T-shirt. A hat that looks like a hat looks like that has about five marijuana leaves on it for whatever reason.

And so you see the shirt, you see the hat. It's like a lounge, like club type of thing. So he's sitting down. The lights are pretty deep. him, you see him with something in his hand. And he has both hands on it. And he's using his pointed finger and his thumb. You know, and whenever you see that, Bell's, you know what I'm talking about. The way he was using his fingers, it almost looked like he was rolling the joint.

Or a blunt. I didn't see that part. I didn't see that part. Okay. Now. I do know what you're talking. He looks like what you're talking about. He looks like he looks like he's rolling a joint or a blunt with his fingers. But upon further examination, it's a big-ass slice of pizza. It's a big ass slice of pizza.

He has a whole box in front of him. That's like the second to last piece that's in his hand that he's treating so delicately. There's one more slice left in the box. And it's almost like the person taking this video is in on the joke of like, like Weston being an American and loving his American food and the ranch and all that, blah, because they stay on him so long. They stay on him so long.

He rolls this slice up so delicately. He folds it perfectly. And then he throws that thing into his mouth. And he's like, you can see him. It's another reason why I thought I was a blunt too, because he's looking from side to side like he's dealing with contraband. Yeah, I didn't see this.

I didn't see this picture. So I'm having a hard time imagining. how he's rolling a piece of pizza that it's in a blunt rolling is he folding it not long ways he's folding it long ways bro but you just got to see it

you got to see the delicacy with which he's handling this a slice of pizza I've sent the video to y'all I want to say but bells you hit the nail on the head I was sitting there thinking to myself I'm like bro why is he treating this pizza

pizza like somebody's about to come arrest his ass right? Yeah. It is contraband. It is contraband. The slice of pizza that he... I'm not supposed to be doing that.

He is enjoying so thoroughly. Like, we're going to put the tweet in the show notes. Y'all look for this and click on it. There's nothing in the world. Like, like, oh girl? Well, what's the name, Vialetta? She doesn't exist. none of the women in the world exist,

etc., etc. It's just Wes and this pizza pizza. And you got to see it, because it is really romantic the way Wes is just treating this piece of pizza and eating it. It's the entire Weston McKinney experience. And also,

he was also on the news again for following a college soccer player. Yeah. This is... On Instagram. Do you see the birth year on this girl? 2005. I don't even want to talk about it, you know?

Look, man. I mean, she's followed by a lot of people. A lot of people follow her. She's a soccer player. You know? Yeah. Soccer player, committed to Southern Miss. I always say.

It's a soccer player. I'm well with him. It's actually supportive of me to follow her. It's probably what he's thinking. That's right. Yeah. Followed by Jedda. Followed by Mr. Serena Williams.

There's a lot of people follow. But anyway, yeah, Wes is just up to his, to his usual ways. But I'm encouraged by the fact that he's really letting his wings fly in Europe. And now that he plays for one of Europe's story clubs and he's just a mainstay on it, the Western McKinney brand has just, It just keeps going up and up. Yeah.

No, that's great. When you said the violetta didn't exist when he was eating that pizza, I'm not sure she exists at all, you know? Like, she could be like a, just an AI invention for all I know, you know. This is, that whole world is crazy. But you're right, he has reached true sort of escape velocity. of like normal human life on the European continent, I think. He's just, he's on another level now.

Still loves pizza, though. Pulisic and Musa both started for Milan at the San Zero. They drew calliuri. Not a ton. I don't have a ton to say. Pulisic nearly hit a banger early in the second half off a weekly cleared corner kick. Then a full volley on a curling ball over the top of the back post. draws a save from the keeper.

This is a really nice ball from Teo. The keeper saves it, barely hits the post. Karam's off his legs. Karam's into the goal mouth and Marada pounces, makes it 1-0 Milan. But then Kali Re scored and then Pulis missed a big chance. Played in by Laos. Yep. You know, it happens.

Whatever. It's 1-1. How was Musa? Anything to say about him? he started um he started the main thing i want to say is it says my man conscious al he got a plan for unis he got a plan for unis not since um not since unis had guttuso at valencia has he had a manager that um you know instantly played him and played him in the midfield yeah it's really just been those two it was guttuso which i knew guttuso was going to do that from when i watched a lot of milan

when he was the manager there. And I knew just with the way he likes his midfield to be played, he would love Eunice Musa. That worked out until he got fired, unfortunately. And now, Conchic Sal, hey, my man took a huge liking to Eunice. Like we talked about last week,

gave him a huge hug, kiss on the neck, everything after they won the Super Cup. And the dude just, yeah. he has a spot in the midfield as an eight he's um and he's playing pretty well man he's popping up popping up all over the place you know it's still it's still a work in progress in the final third

um my stance on that is it doesn't really have to be anything in the final third necessarily for me yeah it's going to be working progress the rest of his career I mean he's never going to be that good in the final third but he's playing he's playing he's playing well and uh may along continue man joe scally faced his arch nemesis bairn that's right and belles you didn't want to talk about this not really which is just uh you should be ashamed

to yourself because number one joe scally does his best work against byr munich and so any anytime joe scally's playing byr munich it is a it's almost a holiday and i think he had his best he had his best Byron performance, I want to say. And, you know, I talked earlier about how it was going to be a Sergenio Dez versus Joe Scali comparison. This is why. They were both, we have both seen, we have seen Sergenio and Joe now match up against Leroy Sine.

Okay. And you know what Joe did? He really put the clamps on this dude. He put the clamps on him, bro. He put the absolute clamps. You need to go watch the game bells. You're rolling your eyes. whatever he bro i'm telling you he was following he was following le roy wherever he went

on the pitch bro sometimes he went down into his own half along the touchline to get the ball joe's right there and bro and sane is receiving the ball facing this man up trying to take him inside trying to take him outside bro the feet were happy they were moving he was dancing he said leroy sada he's like leroy sanna was like joe can i have this dance and joe was right there dancing with him bro multiple times like you Even like to the top of Byron's own box, Leroy tried to receive the ball, back to goal and try to turn.

Nope. Joe was right in that pocket. Right in that pocket. Knocked the ball away. And Harry Kane had to take it away and be like, okay, I got it. You know, you can't get away from this dude. Bro, I'm not joking. Okay.

I'm not joking when I say this. He was locking up. And we saw Sergenio Dess against Leroy Sine. And it was almost a no contest type of situation. I disagree with that. That's way out of control. But sure. Watch that game back.

Watch the game back. Watch the game back. Can you tell me how I did control it is, Adam Bells? Because I was there. Okay. I will. No, I won't. In the end zone.

So you were too, but you might have been, you might have been distracted by other things. But Serge, Leroy was just walking him down. We talked about this. Walking him down, walking him down, walking him down, had no line of confrontation. You know, Leroy could have theoretically just dribbled from touchline to touchline and Serge would have ended up in the stands if you wanted to. But it wasn't the case with Joe.

It wasn't the case with Joe. I appreciate it. I mean, it was locking down. I appreciate a high line of confrontation. So Scali was following Sane down to the Byron box? Bro, there's a clip. I can pull it up right now. I think I'm not questioning it.

on my computer. So I know you're not. I know you're not. We know you give Joey Clamps a big game, a big assignment. That's when he's going to lock in. That's probably fair. Multiple times I have come on this pod and said, you know, we've hyped up Joe a lot. Said he's clamping whoever, blah, blah, blah.

Even in past Byron matches, he's like, oh, he put the clamps on Fonzie. Not really. He was kind of hanging on by the skin of his chinny, chenny, not in this one. He was taking it to the Irois Sine. I do have to mention the fact that since Kingsley Comon came on in like the 60th minute or something like that, and he did roast Joe. And the cross that came in after he rose to Joe,

his teammates kind of bungled, and it became a penalty that Harry Kane scored off of, and that was the winner, Bayern Munich 1-0. also I do want to say Joe's doing things with his feet too that we haven't necessarily seen before some nice passes here and there he gave he gave

he recovered a ball a errantly played pass and he gave any he looked at Fonzie and said Fonzie you want to have this dance and he did he gave him a little something something and then a nice little left footed pass to his defensive midfielder and Gladbach was off and running

Well, I mean, we got to say. I'm excited about it. And I do feel like some people need to apologize to Doug McIntyre. Thank you. I'm done. I mean, I do got to. Do you feel like it's versus the level of a breakout season? Look, I'm not watching Joe as much as I used to.

But every time I tune in and watch Joe, he is noticeably better. Well, I would have just loved to see in that case make an argument for a breakout season. in the article. Fair enough. Fair enough. I haven't even read the article. I can't lie to you. But I did see that you said, Waki, that there wasn't much of a case made. And I believe you.

But I'm just saying, I'm just saying, there is a little something to it. There is a little something to it. And I wasn't necessarily talking about you, Waki. But a lot of people jumped on, a lot of people jumped on Doug, you know, on Twitter or whatnot.

Except their reason was they said those people probably assumed Scali is having a better season than night I thought he was having I thought it was

I thought it's been the same well he's doing more he's not he's not it's not back past Joe as much as it has been et cetera et cetera and and for him to hold his own 1v1

because he was a earlier in his career he was a Sergenio Des type defender you know kind of back in up let you make a mistake type of thing, kind of hold on. But, uh, market improvement there, for sure. And a market improvement with his feet. That's all I'm saying. Well, I was going to say it's obvious Joe doesn't listen to the scuffed podcast because when he complains that no one has noticed

his, uh, 100 appearances in the Bundesliga or whatever, because we've talked about him a lot on here, you know? He's gotten, I'd say, easily his, his due. on the Monday review. Maybe not from me personally. But, you know, it's funny that he complained that he's not getting enough credit. So I still remember his quote from Sanjay's article that he wrote for Back Heald about it. It's like, I think it was a joint little thing he did with him and Gio. And at the very end, it's just stuck in my head.

Joe just said, it's not easy. Dot, dot, dot. It's not easy. And he's right, man. You know, people take for granted the fact that he's just walked into a Bundesliga starting lineup and held it for like four seasons. No, totally true. It ain't easy.

Yeah. It ain't easy, man. And, um, more priority. This goes back to, this goes back to Waki's other piece this week. Well, I think that, well, the, I wish we had just been celebrating the four seasons. The consistency. Yeah. And maybe that's all Joe wants. It's just a celebration of the four seasons. And Doug McIntyre took it and said something else. Maybe. But it is, it isn't easy, I imagine.

And there's, there's, there's, there's, it's tough to, it's tough to face Leroy Sane. Even when you do manage to clamp him. A few other things. Tillman Ladezman. and PSV lost to Azad Alkmar I thought Ledesma looked really good Paxton Aronson beat Malik did not look good Paxton Aronson and Utrecht beat

Feinord in a six pointer near the top of the table Erinson scored on a really nice counterattack Geo ran a subbed on in the 78th minute of Dortmund's 3-2 loss at home to buy our leverkusen I do want to say something about this I know I'm sorry guys but I got to say this There was one moment at the 91 minute mark where he recovers a ball nicely and works his way out of trouble, kind of dribbles backwards, and sort of slowly turns with the ball and steps on it the way he does, looks upfield.

You can hear the crowd's impatience. They're like, what the hell, dude? Let's get going. We're down a goal at home. They want urgency. As soon as they voiced their displeasure in the stadium, it's a good vertical pass. But I do wonder, this moment makes me, I'm extrapolating too much, but I do wonder if Gio has a little bit of an issue with like understanding the situation.

There was just a slight lack of urgency here that obviously annoyed the fans in Dormand. So, I mean, I think Waki's talked about it. He's just not. he's just not the type of guy you bring on when you when you need some urgency you know

yeah I guess he needs to be though start him starting there you go he's not going to help you at the end of the game I don't know I don't remember saying that

but I do want them to start him yeah I do too Chris Richards and Matt Turner kept a clean sheet for Crystal Palace in round three of the FAA Cup against the League one side Stockport County Johnny Cardoso went 90 and a 1-0 loss to Valladolid

Mark McKenzie went 90 and a 2-1 loss for Toulouse CCV and trustee start as they always do for Celtic in a 4-1 win over Ross County James Sands made his Bundesliga debut for St. Polly. It did not look like no keys. He had his welcome to the Bundesliga moment

like his first touch he received the ball he received the ball up the gut from the from the goalkeeper and the striker and a midfielder converged on him basically just jumped him man ball squirted it out to the other same poly midfielder and he went ahead and carried

it forward but uh yeah that was a welcome to the but a secret moment uh also Johnny Cardoso also had a giveaway to like like straight to Valadolid on his like first touch of the game that should have been a goal for valid elite. Okay.

Buccia went 90 for Venetia in 1-0-0-lost into Milan and Costa Rica, who we play in a little over a week, has hired Miguel Herrera as their new head coach. He coached Mexico in 2014 at the World Cup. He's also the guy, whenever I think of him, you know, he's like kind of a big fat guy. Whenever I think of him, I always think of that jiff of him, celebrating a goal and then like a lightning coming out of his head and his size you know what I'm talking about guys it's one of the yeah but those you you are not familiar with the greatest anime of all time no dragon ball Z he was turning a super sand okay he was turning a super sand

in this uh his transfer yeah I'm not familiar but but but but yes it's a legendary gift and we play venezuela on Saturday so I think that's it from us Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.