Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #562: USA v Venezuela and a weekend rundown

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

Vince, Watke and Belz talk about the Miljevic penalty incident, whether Jack McGlynn could be a first-team USMNT factor some day, who from Saturday's game might get a chance in March, Tyler Adams getting after it for Bournemouth, Weah's big goal, transfer rumors, and lots more. 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, this is the Monday Review. It's also going to serve as our coverage of the January camp game on Saturday. The USA prevailed 3-1 over a handsome batch of maroon-clad Venezuelans. Vince, how you doing? I'm doing great, man. Nothing quite like a January camp match to get the juices flowing for the year to come. You know what was nice about this one, though?

That crowd. Very respectable. Yeah. Mostly Venezuela fans. Yeah? Yeah, but the color of their shirt is kind of blends in with us. Yeah. So it was a great effect.

Yeah, and we got, we got some nice goals. McGlynn with a banger from 30, 28 yards. I counted it pretty carefully. Patrick Ajumang, a pretty nice goal on the break. and then Mako Milhevik, everybody's favorite player after this game. He scored in the second half. All right, so let me read the starting lineups. I'm just going to read the U.S. starting lineup.

We got Patrick Schulte and goal, Shackmore, George Campbell, Miles Robinson, Max Arston across the back line, Benha Kramasky, Jack McGlynn, and Mako Milhevik in the midfield, and then Caden Clark, Patrick Ajamong, and Brian Gutierrez across the front. front line. Let's go straight to the penalty incident because I think that that was the, that happened, first of all, having right away in the game.

And at least to me, it was very annoying that Miljavik comes in and grabs the penalty. Can you describe the facts as we know them, please, Chris? Penalty, the ball's loose, Miljavik, B-lines for it, kind of sprits in front of everyone, grabs it. McGlynn straight away is saying, hey, no. And then it cuts away from them for a while. Yeah. I think it's about 30 seconds, maybe longer or later. We see

McGlynn is still going for it. No chance that that ball is going to be given up. And then he basically rolls it to the goalkeeper. It was like the worst penalty I've ever seen. The decisiveness that he came in

and took the ball with was pretty impressive. Like, you've sprinted and, you know, pop the ball up with the top of his foot. Nice spin on the ball as it comes into his hands and just darts right past McGlynn. Was it, and how did it strike you that he was in the starting lineup? Vince. How did it strike me? Yeah.

I mean, I mean, he was already called up, bro, and, you know, he was here. And, um, so, you know, the call-up was. controversy in the first place, right? So the fact that he was playing, I had already, I don't know, I had already came to grips with it in my mind

that, you know, this is a, this is a favorite son of Pach. You know, he got two Argentines together. And,

you know, it just, it just was what it was. I don't know. I don't have any strong feelings. I know some people felt people were very upset online about Diego,

Luna not start. Yeah. And very melodramatic, as they tend to get about Diego Luna specifically. I don't know if it's the tats, the short stature, well, what's going on, but he's some type of cult figure within the USMNT fan base.

People always get very peeved when he's available to play, when he's available on a U.S. National Team roster, and he doesn't play. I don't care particularly that much. Have you ever thought maybe that, He just got beat out by Matt Coe Myevich. I'm just saying. I'm just saying I know I saw shout out Marcus.

Shout out Marcus. Friend of the pod, Marcus Chares. But I think his tweet was somewhere along the lines of, I've lost significant respect for Potch for playing Matt Coe over Diego Luna. I don't know. I would say it provided the inclusion of Matt Coe provided an extra bit of hilarity. to the match and really that's all I'm here for. It's January camp.

Shout out to all these hardworking professionals applying their craft, et cetera, et cetera. But the fact that Mako was out there gave me a lot of laughs. Yeah. He has a real chaotic energy, which I guess we've talked about on this podcast, but you could see it even in the game. I mean, really, this game could have been just totally lifeless without him. Yeah.

I mean, he could make an argument he was the best player, if you frame it broadly enough, the best player on the field. He added a lot of entertainment, and he's given us some stuff to talk about. I feel like McGlynn notably gave no visible reaction, even though he, you know, I, I think he bears that penalty with style. Notably, the penalty won by Ajamong, what did Posh say after the game about the penalty dispute that you described earlier? Oh, that he intentionally did not name a taker as an experiment to see who would rise to the occasion. And I think it sounds like Matt Coe did rise to the occasion.

So he could be in the picture for a long time. I wonder how coaches, what does that even mean rising to the occasion? and you just are the most brazen about grabbing the ball quickly. Well, he didn't say he rose the occasion. I read between the lines a fair amount there. What did I mean? I guess I mean you wanted to see. That was a mentality moment.

And you were upset about it because it sounds like you were probably still upset about Diego, not being there. And then you're seeing this just kind of went even more inward. I mean, I wasn't really that honestly really wasn't that upset about Diego. I was mystified. I thought Luna looked great when he came on. Easily cleaner and more dangerous than Milovic.

But whatever, you know. Hey. Look, man, you're not Argentinian enough. I don't know to tell you, Diego. Yeah. Really, it's on McClain. He should have, if he, if he was serious, get in there physically. That's right.

Yo, and you know what? This goes back to what I was talking about last week, as opposed to talking about just, you know, our overall culture as a country when it comes to, when it comes to soccer that was exhibited by the lack of sauce that I saw on this camp arrival photos. When you got a man like Jack McGlynn that's just going to show up the camp like that, he's not going to, I mean, we're talking, what, five minutes until the match, three minutes into the match? Two. Two minutes into the match.

He's not, you know, he just don't got that in him. He hasn't felt itself enough. He don't have that type of, he don't got the mentality of the, what's it, the P-Bay. He don't got the mentality of the P-Bay that Macco has. You know what I'm saying? He has the mentality of. I mean, in McGlynn's offense. He's an American soccer player.

Macko was coming in with so much mentality and velocity and venom into that, there's nothing he could have done. Yeah, I just try to think, so two things. This is a complete non-issue we're talking about just, this is for fun because nothing else happened. We should all be aware of that as for a conversation. I don't agree. I think there's other stuff to talk about, but I think this is fun to talk about, so we

should keep doing it. But I've been thinking all week about how hard you guys went in on those guys' pictures last week. Mm-hmm. I can't stop thinking about it. You know, I felt so badly after because I caught a little little. glimpse of what I look like as I was saying these things. And it would have been, I wouldn't have been worse than all of them.

None of us looks particularly good when we make the Monday review. I'm going to be honest about that. You're not professional athletes. Number one. And number two, you two that I'm looking at on either side of me are both products are the same system I'm talking about. I know. Yeah.

So, Bells, is that why are you thinking about it? because you're like, damn. No, I watched Indiana Vassalev come out for his, you know, three-minute cameo. Come on, man. And that was the one that really stuck with me because, Waki, you said he's, I have never seen someone with so little sense of himself based on his picture on Twitter. It doesn't even mean anything. Damn, he's just a regular looking white guy, you know? Bro, you know what I'm saying?

Because, like, it's like a thing, right? Especially in basketball circles, I can get. get into why it's a thing specifically, specifically in basketball circles as opposed to any other sport within the United States, but I will not do that at this moment. But a lot of, you know, they go around like, hey, we, you know, we night these kids early. Hey, you culture. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, we make these kids feel like they're a big deal at an eighth grade or 13, 14 years old and all this different type of stuff for messing them up. And I'm just saying soccer could use some of that messing up, man.

If you, if you, if, if, if you could walk around, you know, your middle school slash high school, you know, unaccoasted for the wand of a left foot that you have, Jack McGlynn, you know what saying? I mean, Jack McGlynn just walks at, just, just walks his both feet just down the hallways. No problem. Nobody's looking at him. Nobody's like, damn. Look at that.

He don't, he don't walk by a locker and they're like, oh, that's Jack. Like, no, he just goes to school, goes home, goes to soccer practice. Yeah, but nobody noticed Albert Einstein either. You know, I mean, this is like, this is like two different. I realize, I get what you're saying. They did once you started doing his math stuff, I'll tell you that much. Albert Einstein, famously swaggering, Albert Einstein. He was like a clerk in a like a regulatory agency for like most of his life, working at night by himself quietly, you know.

Bells, your interjections here are We didn't mean to believe that all the thinking that you did about this Confused you even more Okay, I mean, tell me how I'm confused I think that Einstein analogy I don't think that was a strong one I just think like like McGlynn is does not have a lot of I mean I've never really seen him off the street

I mean on the street but I imagine doesn't have a lot of swagger based on that picture, based on just his general look. But he's a technician, you know. He's out there trying to perfect his craft. And, you know, I think there's two sides to this coin. But we're talking about this penalty incident where he got bossed off the ball by Maco. And I'm telling you that until he fixes that... He's going to keep getting bossed off the ball.

I mean, good luck in Europe, buddy. Good luck in Europe, buddy, if you're going to let a man without a job take the body. That's a fair point. That's a fair point. Maybe he's got to bleach his hair. I mean, that would help a little. Let's show that he has some kind of idea. So we got a DM about this earlier today regarding.

Maco. And it's, you know, Balkan history is something I do not know much about. And even in one afternoon of poking around on the internet, it strikes me that these waters run very deep. So I'm going to proceed carefully. But there are a few publicly available facts about Mako's family background that raised the eyebrows a bit. Well, for, like, it doesn't sound like you're proceeding carefully at all.

I knew you were going to say that. But I'm just going to say the publicly available facts. That's all. As Brian Shredder reported a while back, Milovic's grandfather is from Banya Luka, which is a town in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. I'm sorry, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The city was part of the independent state of Croatia, which was a very brief Nazi puppet state created during World War II

and led by a group called the Ustache. bad bad people Banya Luka was the scene of a famous massacre by the Eustache against the area's Orthodox Christian Serbian population 2,300 men, women and children killed

that was 1942 Grandpa Miljavik moved to Argentina in 1945 at or toward the end of the war Some declassified CIA reporting from 1951 says, and I quote, most of the Eustache political emigrays,

as is known, have transferred to Argentina where they have been granted exile and protection by the Peron regime. I'm going to just grind in my axe here and say, Evita, of course, perhaps unwittingly, complicit in this harboring of war criminals. Now, of course, it's not been proved. and I haven't proved here

that Grandfather Milovic was Ustashi or guilty of anything, but it is an interesting chain of events. You know what, Bill's, Jack McGlynn's here for a reason too. You know, there has to be some reason Papa McGlynn fled Ireland.

You know what I'm saying? Maybe he was in Belfast doing something. Yeah. But he who is without fault throw the first stone. We're thinking, we're thinking. and maybe he was probably IRA or whatever the other side was. Let's get into all of this, all of the different ones we can.

Let's do it. If it was all gravy in Ireland, he would have stayed in Ireland, I assume. I don't know. I mean, the Irish have been coming to the U.S. for opportunity for generation upon generation. We should probably run the ancestry on all of our players. I'm thinking about it, get the full picture. That's right.

And fight all their worst ancestors. Where's the Arfdin clan from? Banya Luka, now the... It looks like a beautiful place, right? It's now the second biggest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. What a complex history that part of the world has. It's a lot going on there. So, McGlynn, I want to talk more about McGlynn.

Trinity Rodman said in a recent interview that she wants her legacy to be that she made soccer fun to watch, which I love that she said. that. That is a U.S. Women's National Team winger. Making soccer fun to watch is what Jack McGlynn does. And I've been real skeptical because of the physical stuff, you know, like you can't run, you can't defend. I've been saying that for years.

But man, watching him on Saturday kind of something shifted inside me. Did it shift on the physical end or just seeing more of the... You know, he makes passes look effortless that we don't have many players that make look effortless. Right. Chris, it was Adam Bell's in his head, had went, had stude so much over our past comments from the past week

that he now found itself rooting very vigorously for Jack. No, no, no. You trivialize my analysis with that. We're not even thinking. I'm not even thinking about that anymore. I don't care. I mean, whatever. You guys can have that as much as you want.

But McGlynn's technique, the way you feel he always has something up his sleeve, every time he gets the ball, you feel like, oh, he's got something. He's got something cooking in there. The casually dismissive way he does the sort of mundane stuff out there, like he makes it look cooler just by doing it in a casual way. There's nobody in the pool who can strike the ball way he can. He's just obviously special. The question, of course, is can he be carried in a midfield physically in a high-stakes match?

And I think Martino asked another interesting question on the broadcast, which is will he play with that same confidence and swagger in a high-stakes game, which I think is also a good question. I don't want to monologue here. I kind of have been, but do you guys have any reaction to that? I just I just find this to be a specifically interesting time to make this declaration when you

when you go through Venezuela's team and decide that they put out there I'm just I mean yeah do that time on the ball that kind of thing yeah you know I mean if you if you if you came this conclusion from an MLS match it was like oh okay yeah yeah I mean I was like

because I'm kind of with you I've even I've never thought Jack was that bad of an athlete. I think he's all right. He don't he don't look like he's a when when he's out there moving, it doesn't look like it hurts or anything like that to me. You know what I'm saying? I think I think he's all right and I think there's probably a little bit of projection there. He could probably get to it. But yeah, I'm just in a holding pattern. Just to wait and see how it, how everything evolves, where he goes after Philly, all these different types of stuff. So that's that's where I've been at with it.

I just feel like for this to be the match. But hey, hey, whatever. Chris, what you think? I think it's reasonable to come out of, for not everyone to come out of a holding pattern, but to have people here and there come a little bit out of it, poke the head up and say, hey, I'm seeing all Jackie doing some stuff that's moving me a little bit.

I think that's important. And I think it's good that Adam has flagged that for us. I was a little bit moved and I get that it's you know this is a low there is no lower stakes international soccer game than this and

you know Venezuela's C team or whatever it was but I didn't I didn't give McGlynn a chance before this you know I was like ah you know he's nice but he's never going to like be a meaningful

player for the national team now I'm like there's a chance oh okay understood if he can and not only is there a chance if he can become at least passable

against the ball then we got something special so our roving correspondent Sanjay who also interviewed Tim Rame this weekend asked Potch in Spanish after the game

this question which is it's like for me it was the question after the game Jack McGlynn's talent with the ball is obvious but there's questions about his ability to run and defend at the international level

and maybe later in his career in Europe taking this into account, how do you think he has played in this camp and how he played today? How did he play today? Pach says, I don't worry about this. He actually said this in Spanish, so this is a translation from Sanjay. I don't worry about this because if a player has a quality like he has, I believe it's the voluntary part. And then he used the English word will, as in willpower, that you would want after. Commit yourself with the team in defensive help.

So that part where he says that you would want after is like, as in after. the quality, the quality and then the voluntary part. And I believe he has that. He only has to develop it, and we are here as a coaching staff to be able to help him develop it to find which are the facets that he has to improve, to be able to be an international level player. Technically, he is a special player, like we saw. The way he hits the ball, the control, the quality he has, the vision. He is a player who interprets situations very well.

I love that phrase of his teammates also. So he's a player who we have to help him on where to improve to keep improving. etc etc kind of goes on like that that's it that's all I got I'm McGlynn you know what

I'm with you like when you told me you told me earlier that you had this you had this huge revelation on Jack McGlen I was like wow

those most really got but if you're saying that you had already written them off before then then we're just in the same place we're just in the same place I had never I had never written old Jackie

now that I'm realizing the problem was that you had written him off. Yeah, exactly. I kind of disagree with you, Vince. It does look like it hurts him when he runs a little bit. Not hurts, but it's a labored movement, you know? Maybe. Bousquet's came to mind, actually.

He used to look like he was in trouble when he was running around the field. Yeah. And yet, one of the greatest midfielder's of all time. You guys want to pick one player from this game other than Miles or Zimmerman. who will get minutes in March? Well, since you mentioned Zimmerman, I do just want to point out the fact that he played a nice pass in between the lines

to, I want to, it might have been Diego, but as the camera was panning, you know, down the field to see where, you know, the ball that went and the, like, successive carry and all that. You see Potch on the sidelines, two hands in the air giving claps to Walker Zimmerman. I just wanted to point that out Because, I mean, as far as, like, on the field things, that might have been ex significant as anything to happen out there.

Hmm. Because it means Zimmerman might be back in the... Possibly. I mean, maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. But, you know, potch on both feet, giving a fuse of praise. Hey, World Cup experience. Yeah.

Who knows? Anybody else going to get minutes in March besides maybe Zimmerman? Well, if there's some sort of betting game, I don't want this to happen, but Schulte is probably the backup, so maybe Schulte? Shulte. Yeah, it's a good bet. Shulte's not bad. I mean, maybe, so Potch does want a change of pay striker. I think he's basically made that clear, including Brandon Vasquez in camps.

Is it multiple times now? I think it's twice, yeah. He hasn't necessarily seized the role. So, I mean, hey, Big Pat, why not? I mean, if I'm going to, you know, if you're going to pick somebody out of here, I mean, well, well, well, well,

well, you said, oh, from this game. Okay, I thought you admit, can't, from this game, because I was going to say, obviously Tim Rang, but, uh, yeah, that would be, yeah, yeah, uh, that's good. Big Pat, maybe, maybe. He can throw himself

in the big striker role. I don't see why not. It would be the most exciting story, too. D3 guy. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. It doesn't happen that often. It's pretty crazy.

I'm going to tell you, I don't want to go too hard on this dude, but I'm going to tell you it's not going to be, it's not going to be Kermaski. I'll tell you that. That fella. That fella. I mean, did you see how many times he tried to go to ground in this match and, like, win a ball and came up with air?

And, like, this is your thing. You're supposed to be the physical dude, you know, running around, pitching in all over the pitch and stuff. And it's just like, I did not see. Yeah. I did not see it. I did not see it. Yeah, you can see his, the spirit is willing for sure. The spirit is willing for sure.

We've got to get into this a little bit later. You said he went to ground, he came up with air. You know who went to ground and came up with flesh a bunch of times this past weekend? James Sands. Did he? Yes, he did. So did Tyler Adams. So did Tyler Adams, man.

Adams was a butcher out there. against Newcastle. Yeah, I think Ajumong is probably a decent shout. Man, he's a little rough, technically. I mean, you could see that in this game. But that, there's some value in that. And with Stryker, we're just looking for a third guy who does something different. That's true.

Although he doesn't seem to really play like a huge guy as much as you would think immediately. That would be the question. We keep having guys like that. But he does do something different. and of a striker, he only has to do one thing in a game at some point down the line to change the course of American soccer history. So you buy some stock in those folks. Yeah. He is big, too.

Did you guys see that picture of him on the broadcast? Or did you see him on the broadcast talking to, he looked like he was to Marcus Beasley's dad, you know? Yeah, yeah. I've had the pleasure of standing next to DMB. I mean, you know. He's pretty small, yeah. He's a small fella. But still, you know, he looked like he was maybe, he looked like he was maybe 6'5 or something.

I hope it's McGlynn. I hope, I hope McGlynn gets called up. And, you know, I'm not saying that's going to happen. But I think Shulte and Ajamong are much better picks. Well, before we get off this, you know, the match and anybody else stand out, I'll, I'm going to give a shout out to Max, Arfston? I'm going to give a shout out to him. Hey, he was

he was slick. He was slick with the ball. I did know. He looks like he his mind leaves his body when he has to defend. One player I've been impressed by he hasn't been mentioned in any postgame coverage anywhere to the point that you forget he was in the game I don't remember seeing him in the game really, but Shaq Moore.

Yeah. I didn't even hear anyone say anything negative about him or positive. Nothing. Did you see him get bundled over pretty hard early in the first half? You believe it happened. I was in the period when my giggles were coming fast. They were coming hot and heavy, man. It just Shaq having it.

Man, that was a hilarious soccer man. Yeah, and then I noticed he tweeted about this, but Miles Robinson as an inverted centerback? It was George Campbell. Oh, was it? Okay, yeah. Like, what's going on, man? We don't pull Jack Moore down into like the spot that the centerback would be. George Campbell is just standing in the DM spot. Schulte got the ball and Miles Robinson to his left.

left and this was like, like that, like this was not like a, you know, you break up a counter or something and then trying to get the ball out and somebody just like, you know, like George might have been there and he just assumes that position real quick. No. I'm pretty sure this was like from a goal kick. Yeah. I was just like, bro, what is going on? We didn't do it again.

Miles Robinson also got him a little, a little foray in the midfield. I want to say Jack took. took the left back spot and build up for whatever reason. It wasn't from a goal gig this time. This was like just from play. Jack came down, took that spot. Maybe Max went to the centerback spot.

Something like that. Either Max or Kramasky, something. But then Miles just is a DM, receives a pass, passes to somebody, makes a run. Look like Gatia. there. Sure. Yeah, right.

Exactly. Exactly. The only other centerback I've ever seen consistently do things like that. I thought Gutierrez was a promise I'm not just saying this because I picked him in the five-aside draft. I thought he was interesting. You know, he made some nice passes. He did not do much one-v-one. And he did sort of fade into the performance.

Like he didn't really stick out. that much, but he did some nice things. He, you know, he and, um, he in Arfston fashion that early chance for Ajamong where Gutierrez does just like sit little things smart where he, he, he, his first touch on the ball, I think it gets whacked over to him by McGlynn, which was a nice play. McGlynn had so many nice things like that. And then he takes it down like over his shoulder at midfield with a touch with the top of his boot.

first touch takes him, you know, with momentum into the place that he wants to go. And then he drives at the goal to draw, you know, the defender's attention so that Arfston has free, like, free space to run into. Plays it out to him. Very simple pass, you know, basic, like, soccer 101 stuff. And then Arfston whips it across the six and Ajumang was like, you know, two inches from poking it in, stabbing it in at the, in the goal mouth. But anyway, I thought Gutierrez did a lot of little. things like that that were nice.

I've got some devil's advocate. This is from Matt Doyle's substack. He points out that issues arise when he doesn't have space. It comes less influential. That is sort of how soccer works. Everyone is less influential when less space. It's a shot fired across the bow. Matt Doyle there.

Agree. Agree to agree. He also liked George Campbell quite a bit. put him pretty high up in his list of players he said he sometimes seemed to be playing in the old John Stone's role that's a centerback who comes off the line and into central midfield both in and out of possession I was I thought Campbell was I was pleasantly surprised he points out that's a lot to ask of a relatively young defender

he's up to it throughout he's a good player I like um he called my like You know, when y'all were doing the draft, you know, Doyle said, you know, he has, he's had good periods, he's had bad periods. I think I caught him in one of the good periods. Where, for whatever reason, I don't know. So I think somebody from the Discord told me to check George Campbell out. It might have been that. And then I started doing it a little bit.

And I was like, hey, this dude's kind of all right. And, you know, ever since then I've been holding, I've been holding a little bit of penny stocks because it seems like, know, like Doyle said, he's had these bad periods, been periods where he's, like, out of a lineup or whatever, like Atlanta, you know, they got rid of him, et cetera, et cetera. But he got a little something. I'm not here to say he's, like, really good or anything,

but yeah, a little something, a little something, little something. All right, well, USA versus Costa Rica on Wednesday. And it looks like Greg and I are going to Recap that on Thursday. And let's see. Let's take a break and come back and do transfer rumors, talk about YuVay and Milan, Tyler Adams, butchery at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, more minutes for Nokey. Geo's goal a few days ago, much more.

If you want to listen to this episode and all our episodes, add-free, go to the show notes and sign up for the Patreon. I beseech you. We'll be back shortly. back. All right, let's do transfer rumors. Enough faffing about. Let's go. You ready, Chris?

I'm ready. I just want to say in advance, I have not sped up the speed of the music. It's going to be same old, same old. Okay, great. A.C. Milan's leadership flew to Germany to discuss a transfer with GEO, but no talks between the clubs yet. I've talked about this

in the past, but they are not flown to Germany. to me yet. Yeah. That's an exciting development. Estimated price tag, 15 million euros. Do you want this? Do you guys want them to go to Milan?

I've kind of got a sunk cost fallacy going. I just wanted it to make it work adornment. I kind of feel the same way. Yeah. I don't want Gio to do anything. I don't want, I'm just sitting here observing Gio's career. Maybe it works out. Yeah.

I think that's totally valid. ESPN reported Dortmund are pushing to sign Marcus Rastford. I bring it up because previously he had been tied to A.C. Milan, who are still in talks with him, but Dortmund are ramping up their efforts. Leipzig made an attempt to sign Tim Wea, but neither him nor Juventis are considering a transfer. Luca De La Torre is very close to joining Sandoah FC. I thought it was over. Yeah, so did I. Transfer fact becomes a transfer rumor.

on loan purchase option that's it okay and Tolkien did transfer to Keel Holstein keel north of Germany far north yeah did you see keel had to oh yeah what did they have to do apparently the Germans found out about Tolkien's beliefs oh really and Holston keel had to put out a statement oh man That's crazy. What kind of, what did the statement say? Let me see. This came from Derek Ray. Let me, let me find this real quick.

Because I mean, I see those tweets or whatever that he likes. I'm like, does he really believe any of this stuff? Come on, no way. Really? I mean, January 17th at 633 a.m., Derek Ray let this off. Hosting kill have had to go into damage control mode after their new. American signing on social media liked several dubious conspiracy theories and statements related to COVID, the shape of the

earth and gender identity. Man covered the entire spectrum. Picture of the Keel statement below. This is what Keel says. All right, so this is from the club. There's a part from the club and there's apart from John. The club says, that's a part of the signing of John

Tolkien. We have spoken to the player about these issues. due to the circumstances of his criticized social media activities. John has credibly explained to us that he did not want to hurt or offend anyone with these likes. Furthermore, John publicly apologized shortly after the criticism of his behavior arose, including in a U.S. television interview. None of the points of criticism he was accused of were compatible with his personal values. John stands behind the club's philosophy, and this explicitly includes a commitment.

to diversity, tolerance, and against all forms of discrimination and racism. And questioning scientific orthodoxy as necessary. I mean, most of it has nothing to do with discrimination. It's all like scientific stuff. Anyway. All right. Interesting. That's crazy. He's really into science. Yeah.

He loves animals. He loves the ocean. He just has a little bit of a different idea about the shape of the earth. Or at least he liked a tweet that did. Kio's really far up there. I mean, you know, you would never catch me like a such tweet. I mean, as much as you want to, you know, as much as you want to stand up for your fellow American soccer brethren, I see what's going on here now. John McGlynn, John Tolkien. Bills is a...

Yeah, I mean, I, yeah, sure. Malik Tillman is hurt now. That's too bad. I guess he can be out for a while with an anchor. injury. Dest is slowly doing more with the group at PSV, but Bosch says weeks, not days for his return. We learned this past week the USMNT was supposed to play England in a friendly this summer at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

That's where the Eagles play. But England's World Cup qualifying schedule got in the way, so that's not happening. Is this even a story? Because, like, I mean, I understand. It sounds like J.T. wants some credit. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like, like, you know, I looked at England's teams calendar,

and it clearly said that they were busy and were booked up on this day. But I called them anyway. I called them anyway. Right, right, right, right. It's not like the World Cup qualifying schedule got changed in the last month. Right. Yeah, that's fair. I do want to talk about Tyler Adams.

He's truly rounding into form. He went 90 in both a draw at Chelsea and a 401 win at Newcastle. That's two consecutive 90s against teams near the top of the Premier League. Only the second time he's done two consecutive 90s since his time at Leeds, so in basically two years. And those are two big results for Bournemouth. They're in seventh place right now, only one point back of Man City. and the Newcastle win was a genuine six-pointer

because they're both, they're battling, they will be, you know, presumably battling for a Champions League spot. And, you know, as the season gets, comes to a close. After the Newcastle match, Opta Play tweeted that Bournemus Tyler Adams has both made the most tackles per 90 minutes and the most interceptions per 90 minutes of any Premier League player this season, energetic.

And like I was trying to say earlier, the thing that really struck me about this Newcastle game in particular is just like he was doing some nasty stuff out there. Like from the opening whistle, he was up in Gimerich and who's the other guy? Joel Inton. Like every time one of them got the ball, he's like, I mean, he could have gotten three yellow cards in the first half. and amazing that he didn't actually. Because that's been something he started doing pretty much every game is getting on someone early. And I think he's gotten a couple,

or at least one yellow card for that. I mean, he took out, he went straight through Gimerich on like a through ball, you know, running him down on the left side of, from the Bournemouth perspective, went right through him. I mean, clear yellow card. I can't believe the ref didn't give it.

And then he did the same thing to Gordon right before halftime and did get a yellow card that started kind of a little bit of a dust up. But, man, it's good to see him back. He's back. Love to see it, man. And Bournemouth are a good team. Yeah. Clivert, man, a hat trick at Newcastle.

It's been a pleasure to watch them, man. They take it to whoever they're playing. You know, pressing. They're getting after it. Really entertaining team. Yeah. And we should also mention Adam's got an assist. He intercepted a pass straight to Clivert in a wasted motion.

Clivepress assist. What's that? The counterpress assist. That's right. Let's do kind of a Uvei. Milan run down. We love an Italian goal call. So here's one from the weekend.

Bangula, then, he'll go to Aram, L'Nbukkate for Wea. Controttomori, Waih, Wea, Timotie, Wea!

Wea! Great capacity to recover the ballone by the Juventus. That's from Juventus's YouTube channel, and it's Timway has a 64th minute goal to make it 2-0 over Milan in Turin.

This is a clever goal. He's played in by Taram, 1V-1 with a very good defender, Tamori. Composed. Class. Yeah. This is what I've been saying all along about Tim. You don't got to take people on if you can just be active, intelligent with your runs, get people in compromising positions, and boom, like once you get the ball there where Tim got it,

it. You only need a little bit of a window. Get that shot off, baby. Boom. He was able to fashion it. And I will say that that is somewhat of an improvement. Like how many times have we seen Tim in a situation like this get that thing blocked off his foot? Right. He was able to really stop, start, little hezzi, get that thing on his left foot. Boom. Yeah, he got, he bamboozled Manyan, the goalkeeper. He was just rooted to the thing. the spot. I don't know if he thought he was going to try to blast it top corner near post, but I think Timo, usually in that case, he's going to cut onto his right foot and try to curl it far post. You know, that's like his, that's his bread and butter. So it's good to see him

add this, I don't know that he's never done it before, but it's good to see him exercise this muscle of going to his left and finishing. Here's one more little bit of audio from the stadium. West played right back this time instead of left back. Pulisic's hurt. Do we know how long he's out for? I think it's a matter of days. They told us he wasn't hurt, but then he wasn't playing this weekend. Yeah.

So I'm going to say he'll be back soon. Yeah, it doesn't seem like a very long time. I saw something earlier today that said they're going to try and, they're going to try and see if he can play their next game, basically. Um, yeah. But if we, we saw him get hurt and then he doesn't play the next game. Tell us he's a little bit hurt. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. For sure. For sure. Yeah. And I think it's another, it's another case of, uh, you know, European translation or, or their specific nomenclature that they use to describe injuries that we don't use over here. You know, you hear something like muscle fatigue.

Like, I mean. Ladies and gentlemen, if your muscles fatigued, you're probably injured, you know. I'm sorry for accusing them of lying then. We need to make that translation list of injury terms. Keep saying we're going to do it and keep kicking it down the road. There's a bunch of Champions League this week, obviously, and Milan play Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday. So I guess we'll see if Pulisic is back by then.

Musa started this game that Uve won 2-0. So Weston, going back to the middle of the week, Weston got an assist in that 1-1 draw with Adalanta and played one of his best games of the season. A lot of nice memes out there from Yves fans. The dude, so, okay, this Adelaida match, I just want to say, once again, if no G. O'Rena, Weston McKinney, U.S. Minnesota Team 10, most of his best performances, like his hot start for Uveita started the season, came at the 10. I want to say, I think Coop Miners might have been injured or something. But every time he's played there, he's bald, and he does it in big-time matches, like his big-time opponents. I mean, Atalanta, probably, uh, I think he'll be injured. best player on the pitch of that match set up a winner for yielders that

the yield is my boy will love to have back yeah they could have took that thing at the death um well the assist for kalulu was really nice too I mean it was uh driving at the goal really like little outside of the boots slipped past with the left foot perfectly weighted um still needed a really good finish from kalulu but you know I mean I mean the the run and the run for midfield

and him receiving the ball, killing that thing out the air, like putting the studs on it, getting it getting out of front of him so he can get going. It's looking real good. It's looking real good, baby. You know what I'm saying? We are up.

Wesen McKinney stands. Tim We are so up right now. unbelievably up. Also, Tim Wea has eight goal contributions. that is his top in a season. He has never had eight goal contributions in a season, by the way. On 750 minutes. Mm. Mm.

That's right. That's right. Also, Eunice, when he started, Conchasell need to watch himself. He played him at right wing. Let's not do that. Come on, man. Put him back in that midfield, baby.

No key banks. Got 15 minutes off the bench in Augsburg's midweek match and a half hour in a win over the weekend at Verde Bremen. So two good results for Augsburg. I feel like we gave him the full treatment last Monday, but he continues to look quite credible out there, I think. No apparent jitters physically imposing. So I'm not away, a very good set piece from Verde Bremen. There's a ball, just a dangerous ball. And there he put off a header on another one. This time he played as a right centerback in a back three. Call him up, baby. Let's bring him in in March. Had another, had another carry that sprung a Augsburg attack.

And you know, I was sitting there for a second like, hey, Augsberg, I was ready to forgive you for everything you did to Rico. And then we get two back-to-back, no key on the bench games. but it seems like the dude that uh like the guy that got hurt i don't think is back but they had bought a centerback augsburg had um and so he's the one that's starting at left centerback now uh but i mean it has to say quite a bit really that like you're finding minutes for a centerback you know what I'm saying right they're giving them you know 25 15 30 minutes you know you know I mean, well, we'll take it.

They're getting him, it feels like they're getting him ready for a 2,500 minute season in 24, I mean, 25, 26, you know? Yes. Which is all we need for him to be ready for the World Cup. That's right. That's right. And I think one of their centerbacks is going to be serving a yellow card suspension last next match. So we might be looking at another start. We might be eating good.

Well, a start. He hasn't started a game yet. Adam, you're putting him on a World Cup track. Oh, yeah. I hadn't thought it through. Okay. Good. Good.

We need it. We need help at that position. I mean, you know, I'm not going to, I'm not say he has to be there right now. You know, it's a little early for that, but. No, you're proposing the track, and I think that's, that's, that. That's the right way to do it. Thank you. Raina scored.

It was a nice goal. Bottom corner from the edge of the box. Through a crowd. Goalkeeper unsighted. The, uh, in a losing effort. BVB Dortmund. Floundering. I mean, I think the way you said it earlier, Vince is really right.

Like, you don't want, you don't necessarily want anything for geo. You're just observing his career. This is increasingly how I feel about it, too. Even though I love, I just love the way he plays. But here's a, here's a, Here's a stat. He became with that goal the third American all-time to score 15 Bundesliga goals in their career.

The other two are Thomas Dooley, scored 20. I think he played on that famed 1998 World Cup team. And then Fabian Johnson, who scored 18. Liz says in the notes here that he's starting to round into form. I don't know that I would go that far. I think he... he didn't even play but that's just your disposition

that's just your disposition yeah you could easily choose to say he's rounding into form sure I mean maybe he's really rounding into form on the training ground you know

he could be he began he began shouted out from uh Nuri Nuri Saheen yeah he's about to lose his job he's done to lose his job he's rounding into form

in that we're not despairing okay I'm not he's rounded up out of just out of despair I don't think so I mean like if he if well he's like I was trying to set a little bar

so he's still in he's still in I mean I mean have you seen the scuff discreet no I haven't I saw yo there was plenty of despair that that third those three minutes that he got against

Frankfurt that match oh man everybody was in there wishing Dortmund, pain, pain, you hear me. And they sounded like, you know, scoring access to me. But I don't know, man. I'm just going to sit here. I'm just waiting for this man to figure it out. He's rounded out of the deepest possible despair.

Fair enough. Fair enough. Now we're just in normal despair. Or maybe heavy despair, it sounds like. But we're trending upwards to normal despair, and then we can get out of that into form. rounding toward form. Rounding toward form.

I like that. I think that's the right phrase. I mean, what Liz is thinking of is he scored two goals in his last four games. And, you know, that is good. He got like 300 minutes a season.

Right. His goal contributions per minutes is out of this world. Yeah. Mark McKenzie, just real quick. I'm just going to blow through these. Mark McKenzie came off the bench for 27 minutes in a 2-1 win for Toulouse, and then Toulouse and then played full 90 in a zero-zero-zero draw with Leon over the weekend. Tessman has not played for Leon since he failed to seize that opportunity by the nuts a couple of weeks ago.

Or not even a couple weeks ago. It was seven days ago, actually. Life comes at you fast. Yeah. Matage has not come out of, you know, he's played two-90s. his self. Go ahead. And then, you know, good news out of South London.

Crystal Palace has posted three clean sheets in their last three games across all competitions. And Richards continues to play well. Chalaba has been recalled to Chelsea, which is going to give Richard's a lot more playing time. Did you know he was soccer teammates with the Detroit Lions kicker? Yeah. Yeah, I saw a little video of them talking together. Really? Didn't know that.

Yeah, they went to the same high school. And yeah, I forgot who it was. Leachy Report. Somebody. I don't know. But yeah, the dude, the Detroit Lions Kicker, I think his name is Jake Bates, I want to say. Something like that. Yeah, called Chris on a video call, and they just, they bro it out for a solid five minutes or so.

nice um you know they had to get like you fest Jake was like Chris I'm you know when I'm doing over a small time I'm trying to get like you and then Chris is

Chris is like nah Jake I'm trying to get like you and that's basically had a conversation with Lions just got knocked out of the playoffs I guess they did um hey I'm gonna do this because uh

because I've been accused on here of not of A, not following the holiday schedule, the bank holiday schedule, the national holiday schedule, and then specifically not following, not giving people MLK Day off. Well, guess what, today? Nobody has to record a podcast on MLK Day because it's still Sunday. And let me read a quote from Martin Luther King. This is from a speech he gave two weeks before his assassination in 1968.

We built gigantic buildings to kiss the skies. We built gargantuan bridges to span the seas. Through our spaceships, we were able to carve highways through the stratosphere. Through our airplanes, we were able to dwarf distance and place time and chains. Through our submarines, we were able to penetrate oceanic depths. It seems that I can hear the God of the universe saying, Even though you have done all of that, I was hungry, and you fed me not. I was naked and you clothed me not.

the children of my sons and daughters were in need of economic security and you didn't provide it for them and so you cannot enter the kingdom of greatness thanks for listening we'll see ya that's one that doesn't get read that often there's a lot of stuff he says

doesn't get rid often baby oh hold on bells hold on hold on hold on we can't shout out James Sands real quick I'm not trying to transition. I mean... We can shout out James Sands, yeah. You know, St. Pauli got brown on the jerseys.

You know, they put in all for the diaspora. But yeah, James Sands, Bundesliga start against Heidenheim. He wasn't playing... He wasn't following as vigorously as Tyler Adams, but he was stepping on a lot of feet, ankles, calves, etc. He wasn't just coming through people. But yeah, he was out there doing a lot of filing. Put in a decent shift.

He's playing in defensive midfield. Okay, in a double pivot next to Jackson Irvine, Australian International. And he's doing all right. It's a, it's a Lenny impersonation, Leonard Belloni. Yeah, I got to be honest, I just don't care about James Sands. I mean, I'm happy for him that he went to... I'm no offense to you, Vince. I'm happy for him that he went to St. Polly,

and, you know, maybe he'll surprise me, but come on, bro. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so real quick, before we get out of here, I forgot to mention this when we were talking about Eunice Musa. But in the midweek, he had a very nice... He had a very nice pass to set up Milan's second goal. Um, so he, he receives the, but he's, he has wrote, he didn't start the match.

He came on a half time. He rotates in the defensive midfield, receives a ball, turns, faces a marker up, chops it onto his right foot, and then basically gets to a point where his shoulders are perpendicular to forward, plays a nice little, plays a nice little, uh, kind of reverse ball through the lines to Tammy Abraham, the Tammy Abraham plays a through ball to Ralph O'Leal. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's quite nice. That was nice.

Quite nice. What he get for his troubles, play right-wing next match. But anyway, that's just the stuff we would like to see from Eunice a lot more. And that's, like, the type of player, I think ultimately I see him becoming, which is why I'm just not as pressed as everybody else on final third issues. I'm not either. And I feel like I don't even need to monitor Eunice, because we know how he's going to be for the U.S. He's going to be pretty, I think he's going to be pretty good.

And I think he sort of sets an extremely high floor for our midfield. I still can't believe we followed up talking about MLK with James Sands. It's unbelievable. I'm sorry. But you said, we'll see you. And I was like, no, no. I can't do it. I can't get out of here without giving James Sands his due.

That's fair. That's fair. Maybe you could just loop in if people want to hear the quote again and end on that powerful note. Just loop it right here. Play the quote and then people can end that way. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll come in. We'll make some decisions in the editing room on that one.

But that's not a bad idea. Anything else, guys? No. Hey, thanks everybody for listening. Thank you.