Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #565: Pepi & Pulisic score, Gio makes art, Yunus melts down as UCL league phase ends

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

Watke, Belz and Vince on Pepi's massive goal and assist, that work of art from Gio off the bench, Musah's meltdown and Pulisic's goal in Milan's loss, and a few other odds and ends. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, we got some big Champions League matches to check in on this Thursday morning. All of the Americans advance, though all of their teams are limping their way into the knockout playoffs, rather than going straight to the knockout rounds. But that's okay. Turned into a pretty good afternoon for the boys, all said and done. Pepey scored, or did he? He definitely got an assist in his start versus Liverpool. Gio showed how much of an artist he is. Poulosick scored.

Let's get into it. How are you guys doing? Waki. We have that middle part of that Champions League table really locked down. It's like all teams with Americans on them. Very impressive. Hey man, beautiful.

We'll take it. I mean, the idea that everybody's supposed to get the top eight, I mean, look at the team of the top eight, man. You know, yeah. It's a... Aston Villa, et cetera. I hope they keep this format because then we have a really good way to measure our progress as a nation. Yeah.

Our teams just start gradually making their way into that top part. I have to say, I had no grasp on the permutations and the results needed, et cetera, et cetera, to do whatever for anybody. But I do like this format more than the traditional group format. Yeah, it's more interesting, I think. I think the only team of ours that had a really good chance of advancing into the straight to the knockout rounds was A.C. Milan. Yes. Had they gotten a win, they would have easily done it. I think they would have done it with a draw too.

Alas. Nothing that we could have done about that, though. Yeah, we didn't have any role in that one. So let me just talk about the the possible draws real quick for these knockout playoffs. Two of A.C. Milan, Yuvay, and PSV are going to play each other in the

playoffs. These playoffs are February 18 and 19. So there's going to be some Yank on Yank crime there. And then Dortmund will draw one of Brugge, sporting Lisbon or Atalanta and then Celtic our centerbacks up in Glasgow are going to they're probably going to meet their maker here in the knockout playoffs

they face either Manchester City Real Madrid or Byron Munich Which are pre-builded don't know historically pretty strong clubs Traditionally Difficult traditional powers there.

Hey man, I have to say though. Seltic has, they've handled a decent amount of business in this Champions League. They haven't done lyrical miracles, but, what? Beat Leipzig, I want to say. Beat Atzalanta.

So, hey, let's see what happens. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then Monaco, and maybe, you know, maybe Balagan will be back eventually. Probably not by February 18, I wouldn't think, but Monaco faces Benfica, PSG, or who is B-R-E?

Breast. Breast. Oh, yeah, breast. Obviously. Yeah, man, come on. Breast is the only easy to pronounce French T. That's right. That's right. It's deceptive.

You look at it. There's no way that's just breast, but... You know, we got PSG, which is kind of a cheat code. Michael Richards is favorite Ligant team, breast. Yo, he'd be saying. Oh, man, like the inflection in his voice and the sparkle in his eye every time, every single time he says it. Didn't Kate Abdoe say, like, we're not, you're not allowed to talk about that team

with Micah on the desk anymore, the producer said. It's funny. So that's what's going to happen for these knockouts, and then of course you go to the round of 16 if you win your game in these knockout rounds. So let's talk about what happened yesterday. I think we should start with PSV Liverpool. Pepe gets the start.

There were, you know, there are rumors of, you know, perhaps dubious credibility that Liverpool is looking at Peppy and that they have a chance to get a front row seat to him. So I was thinking it was kind of a seize it by the nuts situation for him. Did he seize it? I think on the score sheet, yes. Let's just get right into it. I think I know what you think, Vince, but what do you think, Wachie? Did he touch the ball that went in the ball?

back of that. He did touch it. We see a clear, not clear, but we seem to see the spin with the ball change a little bit.

And then during the celebration, Vierman seems to ask him if he touched it. He nodded immediately. There's a confidence in that. And he's an honest man as well. So his word

was all I would need. But his word combined with having seen the spin change. Emphatically, yes, he's court that goal. I was more impressed by his assist though, which we'll get

to. It was really nice. I initially thought he did touch it, but I am now of the opinion that he did not. And I know there's going to be a lot of people who don't want to hear that, that, but I have to speak my truth. I have to speak my truth.

I'm about 80% positive. He did not touch that thing. 90% really. But, but, look, A goal is a goal. We take them all any way they come. Like we talked about last or this week, with Tyler Adams and his assists. You know, and he did something very nice on the assist.

Let's get to the assist. Okay. So just to give the context of the game, Liverpool goes up on a really stupid penalty, conceded by Verman early. Just had a horror sequence from him. First, he kicks a shot off his own leg, and then goes down the other side,

takes a big touch, swings his legs through a Liverpool attacker who kind of darts him behind him. Clear penalty. PSV get the equalizer, though, about at the 35th minute, and Pepe plays a key role. Long ball to the edge of the Liverpool box. He's running sort of left to right across the top of the box, back to goal. He shoulders it down, or he kind of shoulders it up. And it sort of spins right down, neatly for Bacayoko, as Pepe's momentum carries him. him and his defender away from the center of the box. So Bacayoko is kind of free right at the top of the box.

Two defenders coming across from right to left in front of him. He sits him down with a real nice left-footed shot faint, settles his feet, slots at far post with his right foot. I think what impresses me is just the clear intentionality of Pepe's layoff. It's just he totally means to do what he does, executes it perfectly. and then, you know, incidentally, Baca Yoko showing he is much more than a cut in and smash with his left foot merchant as a really nice goal from him. I think the Liverpool staff is going to look at the way he hinged that shoulder open and the opposite direction of his hips. Yeah.

I'm going to say, we need that guy. Yeah, it is. It's great mechanics. Then Saibari scores a nice goal and then Liverpool equalize again. And then the Pepe goal. So there's some debate about whether he touched it, certainly. But it counts as a goal, according to UEFA for Pepe, according to Fat Mob. Everybody's saying Pepe scored.

And it was Pepey combining with Saibari in the middle. Saibari slips it out tomorrow, Jr. He fizzes a ball across that gets deflected basically right off his foot, but the trajectory isn't changed too much. It's heading right for Pepe with a guy just, like, glued to his back. And he's making a near post run. He has to adjust a little bit to that deflection. It spins through past his foot.

Maybe he gets a touch. Maybe he doesn't. It definitely hits the leg of the defender sliding behind him. And then at least I slowed it down really, really slow and watched. And that's what I see. nestles in at the far post 3-2 for PSV and so they survive they go on to the knockout rounds this is a cool it's a great moment in Einhoven yeah for sure big big celebration all around you know everyone was extremely happy um also um like i said i'm not sure he touched it but i am a fan of the uh of the of the of the of the run you know just just real decisive you know a real hunger to score goals we saw that from Rico. Yeah.

So he got the goal on the score sheet, right? And whether or not he touched it, the reason why he got the goal on the score sheet is because of the run. And we're a podcast that cares about getting a position to score goals anyway. Damn right. Doesn't even matter if he touched it, which he did touch. He did touch it. As all of the governing bodies have said, I think my argument for why I did was a lot stronger than yours was Adam.

I don't want to go back and forth with the UNO though. For me, it's a goal. I'm a whole bit disappointed both you. Let's leave it at that. Sorry. But the thing about it is, like, these scorekeepers or whatever, they go into this level of detail

a lot of times to really make sure they attribute goals to the person or attributed to, you know, the defender that touched it or whatever. So, I mean, you know, maybe UEFA got a better camera than us. The ball got a chip in it. You know what I'm saying?

it could be that they match the I don't know what type of technology they got deep seek AI I mean they probably got something crazy that they're working with and so you know if they gave it to Rico then

who are we to take it away from Rico yeah and I guess I guess the thing that I'm thinking is can he touch it without like even very very slightly without affecting the spin of the ball.

Is that possible? Maybe. You know, maybe like a slight brush with the toe. I thought... It would be difficult to do. But I thought it... Well, I just said we weren't going to go back and forth. I'm going to let it go.

Okay. I very much agree with the point that he... If he doesn't make that run, that ball doesn't go in the back of the net. He was also involved. He had a... in the buildup to that point, too. Right.

Yes. Right. And throughout the game, I say you had three or four times where he had a neat, nifty little thing. He looked very, you had it together. He was right. He was causing problems out there. So what's the latest rumor that a bid was rejected by PSV? $25 million bid from West Ham?

West Ham. Yeah. You need to stay at PSV, Rico. Yeah, definitely. I mean, because, come on. Like, he makes the move now. there's no telling where he's going to be at this time in 2026 leading up to the World Cup. That's just too much of a gamble.

Stay with PSV. Put Luke Deong in his retirement home and score a whole bunch of goals next year. Yeah. And then ball in the World Cup and then make a move, sir. That's what we need. That's what we need. All this, all this, all these rumors circulating around, they're just distractions, Rico. So they're just distractions maybe from foreign agents that are trying to disrupt us.

You know, they might be catching on to the fact that we're getting a little too powerful. Yeah. Get millions of reps in the box. You know, one thing I trust is his greed for goals. He is, like you said, Waki, hungry out there. And I really do trust that even if he's playing for people, Vesv and has 30 goals next season. He's going to be just dead set on scoring more as the season goes on.

I also think the governing, yeah, the governing bodies called it a goal. And also the brass, it seems that the brass around Europe is paying attention to him too. And Luke DeYoung did look arguably pretty chagrined on the bench when he scored. I think they were, I think the game director was waiting for the moment where he looked most chagrin. He was like, all right, hold, hold, all right, cut to Luke. Yeah. Because they waited a good 25 seconds after the goal. He was like maybe pumping his fist for the first 15 seconds.

It didn't seem like he wasn't going to come in for Pepey until Pepey went down at the end with a, it looked like it was an injury. He seems fine, though. The Pepe might have been about to go the full stretch there. He seems fit enough to do so. Yeah, how much do you all trust game directors? And I ask this because I get anxiety every time, like, let's say a ball goes out over the end line for a goal kick. Right. And then they start showing the replays.

It might show one replay. That might show another replay from something else that happened where there wasn't a stoppage in play. And every time I'm like, man, am I missing game action right now? I will say I trust the UEFA Champions League World Feed game directors quite a bit more than I trust the say the HBO USMNT broadcast game director whoever that may be you know what I think that might be the source of my trauma because I feel like I've missed more game action from them than anyone else like usually I'm sitting there like oh it's something happening am I going to miss a Rico peppy long ball that he brought draw it down smoothly. You know what I'm saying? But every time it cuts back,

it's like, keeper got the ball at his feet. And I'm like, ah, thank you. Yeah. I think those World Feed guys are, they know what they're doing.

They got a lot of, they got a lot of mouths to feed. With the World Feed guys, I give each game director my trust until they lose it. At some point in the game. Once they lose it, it's con.

Ooh. Is it the opposite? The domestic guys have to earn your trust. You start distrusting them? I come in cautious. Yeah. I think these non-traditional streaming services to the extent that they have control

over the game direction are they're a work in progress. I would say that the same thing about Apple Plus, from when I watched it back before my boycott started. The key to the game directing, we're talking about trust. There's any other issue. you just want the game director to kind of disappear.

You just get lost in the whole illusion of it. Yeah. Which is what happens most of the time. I didn't think about it at all yesterday except this Luke Diem cut. Only because when it happened, I was all excited and was ready to talk about it here. And I thought, well, that was a long delay. There was some editorializing going on there. Yeah.

I mean, I can understand that type of editorializing. it does add some drama. Remember when Bosch was mad at the ESPN Netherlands game director? Oh, yeah. For repeatedly cutting to De Jong after every peppy goal when he scored that hat trick against Groningen. Yo, what's crazy is all the brooding and whatever that he did up in that box, it worked.

It worked. And maybe it was never a thing because, like you said, Pete Tabash was adamant in making sure that this wasn't a wasn't a deal and Luke still the guy or whatever, but I don't know. So I do feel like, you know, as we go on, as we continue to make this voyage in Europe, these Americans or whatever, you got to pick up tricks at a trade. You got to pick up tricks of the trade.

Like, for instance, we're about to get to Zagreb, Milan, and when Eunice is in that box, For the playoff game, he has to make sure he broods. He has to make sure he broods appropriately. They'll be up there being congenial, handsome, joyful, Eunice. No, you got to work on your brood game now, Eunice. You know what's coming, let's get prepared. That's a good point.

Don't be up there laughing and enjoying yourself. No, no. I would think he knows that after what he just did, he's going to be brooding. not going to be easy for him, but I think he'll know he needs to get there. Okay. But you know who's sort of the archetype here is Slatan. Yeah.

He's the best in the game. When he's up there, he is just dead serious. I mean, even if they're up 4-0, which I don't know that Milan has been for a while, but never smiles. There's a slight difference between when they're losing and winning toward the... When you first look at it, there's no difference.

It's just brooding. But I'll have to go look closer to be able to describe it exactly, but there's like a three or four percent difference. He's still unhappy. Yeah. But there's a slight change that happens. And he's doing that on purpose. He has complete control over it.

It's not an involuntary thing. No. He's sending a different signal. I think it's just that usual former elite elite, like elite of the elite athlete athlete athlete type thing where he's just he's looking at alvaro marada and and you know bell's uh chris and i you know we've both i mean we've all made sure to give marata his praise he's been much maligned throughout his travels in europe but but through the eyes of his latin looking at marauda play i mean come on not impressed he's not impressed yeah tammy abraham come on man there's

really nothing you can do to impress him no there really can't isn't yeah that's a good can only be unimpressed. I would imagine Tieri would be the same way if you were up there, you know, Tiri-on-Ree. He was kind of like that as a coach. Doesn't really work that well. No. You've got to be a little bit more impressed when you're the coach. Even these guys need some encouragement.

So let's get to Zagreb Milan. Dino-Mo, Zagreb, Aisi Milan in Croatia. Pool six starts as the 10, I believe. Musa as the right wing. Come on, man. Conscious sell. What are we doing? What we doing, man?

After what Yunus just did against Palmer this weekend? Where he was cooking. Yeah. Put this man on the right wing. Why? Maybe Musa was frustrated by it too, because the more I stew on his sending off, the stupider, it seems. You know? Bro, he was...

This was amateur hour from Yun. You know how you can just, you can just tell, man. You know, it's something about soccer specifically where it's just, well, maybe it's just any sport for the most part. But it's like, you know, we watch these dudes as much as we do. And you know what their disposition is generally. And, bro, Eunice was on 10, like, from the beginning of the match. And he was letting the Zygrept antics get to. him.

Just like, yeah. Immediately, because, you know, the first yellow wasn't a foul. It was him just being,

like, very upset that, uh, they're embellishing clear, clear fouls, by the way, but, but they were,

you know, embellishing, rolling on the floor and all this, whatever. And, uh, unit's just from the very beginning of the match, bro.

He, I don't know, maybe. He woke up on the brother Yusuf, the brother Yusuf side of the bed. Man. He woke up. He was already pretty turned up. Then,

Pulisick was getting really turned up. He was doing all sorts of yelling. I think that riled up, you know, is even more. Because Pulisic got a yell at 26 minute, and that's, you know, four or five minutes later. It's crashing and burning. And maybe the stadium had a little bit of do with it, you know. It wasn't like a packed house. And so, you know, there is a drone.

The entire far side of the stands was empty. Yeah. What was going on there? They put all the people on one end and then on the side. that just unbalanced the whole affair. So I definitely agree that it played into it. And then all of this compounded by Gavia's error, which was just horrible,

tripped on the ball, gave it to an attacker for a free run at the goal. Our guys' teammates had a pretty rough day and some pretty terrible moments out there. But this one was one of those ones that was so bad that it makes you appreciate how rarely professionals do stuff like that. Yeah.

Like rolled over it. Because it's a round ball. It also reminded you that the ball's round. Some mistakes like this should be happening constantly. They rarely do. These guys are really good. They are. Yeah.

But Zlaton's not impressed, you know. You can't even fathom some of these things. So yeah, Musa gets his yellow, his first yellow in the 30th minute for just over-eagerly trying to lift somebody off the ground who was, you know, making a meal out of it. He made a mistake to go try to lift him in the first place, but when it got really bad was once that guy went like limp, dead fish, like a child does when you're trying to pick them up, he had to stop pulling there.

And yet he persisted. He doubled down his efforts, redoubled his efforts. Yeah. And then the opposing team does a really good job of sending a guy to run in. He's like, well, how could you do this to him? you know this will not stand and and it seemed like when you're just watching the game before you get the replay it did seem like it wasn't even a foul in the first place um and uh but you know they showed the replay and it's like okay there was there was foot on foot contact there and unis got whistled for like a high boot in the box where he didn't touch anybody like um five minutes before that in the match.

So he had just had it, man. I don't know if it was because of a lack of halal food in Croatia. I'm not totally sure. Could be. Then, yeah, he gets, whether that was the reason or not, gets sent off for pulling a guy down on the edge of the box. And it was, I mean, it was a pretty clear yellow. I mean, is there any doubt?

He did the thing you do when you've decided, all right, I'm going to get a yellow here. It's okay. I'm going to take the yellow. I'm going to wrap this guy up. It's okay. I'll get a yellow. That's okay. I need to make this foul.

I need to get sent off. Brohard had already made a bad touch. I know. The ball was gone. It was just heading for the keeper's hands. I don't get it. And then, right, this is where we fully see that the head is just the head of Eunice Musa is gone. I mean, bro, I mean, this might be the longest I've seen some.

might stay out on the pitch after receiving a red card. He would not leave. He had to have Mike Maynion come to him. Comes over, claps in his face. It says, get out of here. Bro, he had to run out of the goal. You know, it's like, this is outside the box. There's an ensuing free kick.

You got to set up the wall. You got a blah, blah, blah. Bro, Eunice is still out there. Like, no, no. Come on. This is a disgrace. Somebody looking to this. been really the worst part of his performance.

Because it wasn't, I guess we mostly saw the back of his head while he was protesting on the broadcast. But it just seemed like sort of, I don't know, kind of a helpless stubbornness. You know, like he didn't really have anything to say. He just wouldn't leave. I think it's good he got it out of his system. Yeah. Far away from us. this is kind of the thing

this is part of I don't know just his growth I guess it's just these Champions League matches are officiated

kind of like tightly you know like the foul the fouls come a little bit easier than they traditionally would in league play uh

bookings etc you just gotta be on your peas and cues focused on the mission but uh but yeah I mean, I'm not too mad at Eunice.

He gave me some great entertain me yesterday. And, you know, whereas with, I don't know, like a Seugenio Deaths incident, it's like, bro, you don't have like three incidents leading up to you booting the ball away. Like, come on, man. Also entertaining, though. Yeah, I mean, I'll be even more entertaining than that. Well, it looked pretty dark for Milan, but they, and they, because they were struggling throughout the first half, especially after the sending off,

but, and they struggled through the first part of the second half, but then Pulisic equalizes. Just a quick turn and fire to the near post, deflects off a defender, but who cares? This puts Milan in the top eight. It just struck me triumph on triumph for Pulisic in Europe nowadays. And A.C. Milan's going down in the annals with Dortmund and Fulham as clubs with a special relationship.

to the United States of America. I'm going to say that. You ventus might too if they wouldn't try to shelve Weston every summer. No, no, come on. Come on. You vase in there, man. You vase in there. I'm sorry.

It was just a goal scorer's goal from Pulisick, too. So many of those. Truly. Matter of fact, that's just the distance you score from when your established goal score. It's kind of something out of nothing. too quality to it. Yeah, because they were getting busted.

Like, from the time for the time Eunice left, you know, Milan was barely hanging on before the rest of the match. They're lucky it wasn't a more brutal scoreline. No, they didn't. Because

Piazza, I guess is how they were saying it on the broadcast. just scores, I think, a delightful goal for Zagreb. Crossed in from the left. Lovely first touch, inch-perfect, rifled finish. Nobody's really at fault here. You just got to tip your cap. 2-1.

De Ngo Zagreb. But then Poulosik does something again. He gets the ball in the middle of the park, drives at the box, plays Raffa Liao into the box to win a penalty, which gets called, but then gets called back because Laos kind of incidentally, perhaps recklessly, puts his elbow into a defender's face as he races past him. Totally unnecessary to lift that arm like that.

But he did. So that's that. Chiquetzee did strike me. Oka-Four and Chiquo-ezee were kind of not that great in this game. Nope. They're not good. I've been on Oka-Four for since the beginning of the season And when he was starting as striker, he's not a good player.

He had a really good chance in the dying minutes, free on the back post, and he just scuffed it. Remember what we used to be worried that Pulitzer was going to lose out to Okina? And never play. Real stinks. That was the most extreme fear. But we thought he was, that was a competition. P.U. Yeah.

those days of at least for me of doubting Pulisic to that level are gone I repent he might be the only you know we talk about Zlatan you know

when Polly basically when Poulisik walks by him he can look him in the eye everyone else looks down sign of reverence etc etc I think I think Polly at this point walk by Zlatan look him in the eye give him firm handshake

he probably doesn't no um as it stands right now but i mean they went on good good morning america together even what was the what's the cliff notes on that appearance there's not it was a morning show yeah it was there's no there are no cliff notes nothing

of any interest happen okay i'd like to see them go on the view the two of them let's take a break come back in a second and talk about Dortmund Shakhtar and Yuve Banfica and the Celtic game a little bit, just a little bit, and a couple other miscellaneous things. If you want to skip the ads, get a bunch of video that we are increasingly cranking out. Come join us in the Patreon.

Links in the show notes. All right, we're back. Dortmund Shocktar, Dortman wins 3 to 1. Geo comes on in the 65th minute with Dortmund up 2 to 1. So, you know, he's being entrusted to help see out a win. I think, which is a little bit of a shift. He's mostly come on to chase goals for the past, you know, long time. But they have a new coach now, and this coach says,

Hey, Gio, go on, help us see how to win. He starts with a remarkable backheel in the 72nd minute to spring Gittins down the line. It's a lot like the assist he gets later where he just gets crashed into from behind as he receives the ball, manages to keep the ball. under that pressure, control his body, and then back heels,

back heels his teammate into like a free run, you know, into wide open space. And it's very much a foreshadowing of the assist, which I think almost everybody who's listening to this has seen at this point. I took the footage of it, the best angle of the play, which is already a slow motion replay. I slowed that down to 25%, so it's really, really slow.

and then I set it to a piano and violin arrangement of one of my favorite Bach organ preludes. And I will say it is a masterpiece. It's one of my proudest achievements. It got copyright struck on Twitter by the Philistines at UEFA, but I posted it to the Patreon. So you get another reason to join us there.

You know what? This brings up something that I did want to talk to you about, Adam Bills, which is the dichotomy of me and you posting on Twitter, at the same time. I love it. Which I do actually enjoy the chaos that's created by it. Well, I can tell because I'm posting, but I feel like a neutral observer should also be able to tell, like, you know, that Adam is getting the work cooking here and also Vince is getting the work cooking here.

And I don't know. So how do you feel about it? I just wanted to. I love it. I think, well, I think an even stronger dichotomy is the, um, the clip reel you put together for the Monday review as some, some very different music from Bach on it, you know? So that's a really, that's a really clear dichotomy as well. Yeah. Yeah.

I like it. It just hit me. I didn't even see this clip. Um, for whatever reason. But, uh, yeah, I'm just seeing you, like, just. Bach Oregon preludes With the with the G arena back heel

I'm just like man And you know It's beautiful You gotta see it You gotta see it Even since we announced The change or whatever Everyone's like

Is this Vince tweeting this And I feel like It's just For anybody listen to this Podcast Just when you see a tweet Read it And then you can go to

The scuffed website If you want to Is a picture of me and Bells Greg and Waki the soccer ball on there and when you read the context of the tweet just say,

did it come from this man or did it come from this man? And I think that'll lead you to where you need to go. I'd like to think it maybe could be a little bit more confusing for people than that, but maybe not.

If you know us though, I don't think it is. Because like, for instance, like the Gio tweet, where it's like Gio Rain is showing everybody who he is. It's verbose. You know what I'm saying?

saying that's coming from Adam Bells. I would have said, damn, geo nice as hell or something, you know? Yeah. It's not just to look at this white-ass dude type of thing. It's just a difference in our personalities in general, you know. You like to write things out. Use the pros, as we talked about on Monday. Use flowery prose.

You know, it's a little different. That's all. That's all. But I enjoy it. I do like. I enjoy the dynamic. I enjoy it too. I like it.

How about this play, though? What did you guys think? I like that he used the push in the back to create the space for the guy to run into. Yeah. When you really slow it down and watch, it is remarkable the way he can absorb like contact,

pretty aggressive contact and still completely be in control of what he's doing, you know? He He knows as soon as I think it's Bondar who puts his forearm into the back of him As he receives that pass He knows as soon as that forearm comes into his back

What he's doing The ball bounces up Bounces down As soon as it comes back up off the ground His heel is locked And it just comes back and hits it perfectly To spring Bensibaiini And of course Bensibaiini's finish is just

Oh man basically sexual. It's so, so good. He's nice, man. I think he's been a little bit of a disappointment for Dortmund, but, you know, just watching him all that time when he was at Gladback with Joe. Like, he's a good player.

Yeah. The way his spine stiffens as he chips that ball, you know, the way you kind of like, you kind of elongate your whole ball. body up. You see what I'm talking about with the pros? But anyway, uh,

with, no, uh, I know, he said elongate your body up. That was not. That impressive. Really,

you should. I don't know that Vince is saying my pros is impressive. He's just saying it's, uh, he's, I think he's used the word verbose and flowery. So. I'm not coming for bills here.

So, think about this. that I like. Well, it's part of what Waki just said. The force of the opponent's push. And it just brings it back to what we've always known about Gio is this is a stout, physical fella.

You know, this is a large man out here playing soccer. And he's been this way basically since he was 17 years old. You know, the inability to get knocked off the ball, like all these, the ability to use his leverage as Greg has talked about to be in control of moments at all times

is always impressive to see. Which is why people ask for more from him off the ball. It's not because, you know, if we were talking about Paula de Bala, we'd be like, oh, okay, you just, you know, what's what you get from him is what you get. But it's like, nah, Gio, you 6-1,

like 175, 180 or something. I don't know. I don't know exact weights. Don't get me. I don't know soccer weights. But a lot larger than a lot of these people out here. And a lot more able to take contact. Like, I feel like that push, if Gio didn't want to be moved by that push in the back, he didn't have to be.

You know, he just kind of took it, let him go where he wanted to go and then did the thing. But, yeah. Yeah, he chose to take it. Yeah. I guess that's your point. with, by taking it, he brought the defender along with him. He brought two. The other one came across, too.

That's the right in there. It's a gorgeous skull. And he also hit a really nice, long diagonal. I can't defend his output against the ball. It sometimes looks like he is waiting to play offense. More than defense. Exactly. He's moving the places that he would if he were defending.

but it's mostly waiting. That was really good long tag, although. You're never going to see him making a highly determined run into the box on the counterattack either. He's always just kind of... He did have one highly determined defensive moment even. Okay, let's hear about it. The opposing goalkeeper got the ball and was running out to start a counter. She ran into the box and stood in front of him and did it.

a little shimmy to annoy him and stop him from doing it was successful. That's important. Hey, he wasn't just waiting to play offense there. Part of it was that he didn't have to run back on defense, though. Because everyone else is running back. Yeah. It's still the right thing to do, though. There also has been a screenshot of Geo doubled over.

that was put into the discord. I don't know what came from that or why he was doubled over as if he was tired. I'm just throwing that out there. No agenda, I'm not, I'm just telling you what I saw. Did he pass anyone in the minutes count?

Well, that was Bundes League a minute, specifically. Okay, so this is a constant shame. Yeah, he has a lot of. detractors in our small Discord community. But like you said, Bells, he got put on not chasing a goal, okay, which seems to be a departure from what Sahin was doing, okay? And he paid the manager's faith off with a nice assist.

So we shall see what's happening. and if the Bundes League of Minutes race is really going to be something because I don't know about Nokey. No key may or may not start this weekend once the other centerback comes back from yellow car suspension. But James Sands, I think he's going to be racking up to 90s. So Geo hopefully he can get going. Yeah, Dortmund faces visits Haydnheim on Saturday, 9.30 a.m. Eastern Time.

I'll be at least paying attention. So, Uve Benfica, really the best news from this game is that Wes was the captain, which is just remarkable. I'm making him the captain at Juventus right now in a pretty important Champions League game. You talk about mentality. Unfortunately, that's really the only good news. What's that? You talk about mentality, bro.

I mean, you know, it's not just a creed. It's not just an ethos and lifestyle. It's crazy. The arm band, man, when I saw that line up and I saw that C next to McKinney, man, I still haven't came down. I'm levitating. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

What are you going to say, Chris? I was going to say, you got to be the one to talk to the ref. That's another part of being a captain that we underappreciate, but he would have, I think he loved it on a few occasions. This was not a good game. They looked like the away team. Yeah. You VAT fans are mad at Mata right now.

Yeah, they were getting smoked. They're midfield, man. It's just like, midfield ain't good, man. So old dude's nice. Taram. Taram is quite nice. But Douglas Louise, stinky. Coop Miners, he's all right.

Coop Miners ain't you're starting this match. But Locatelli, you know, he's, he didn't start either it was it was Thram, Louise and Mbongula in the midfield

according to Mbgoula was on the way Okay so Yieldees was the 10 maybe yeah yeah um

it's just it's just not it's just not good not good what I was saying but Benfica pressed up Benfica was pressed high and it's just like

really no one on the pitch was winning their like individual matchup you know and who disappointed me most in all this really was Tim was Tim you know Tim got the start at right back West and at left back just you would expect Tim to handle a 1v1 situation in his own half you know getting pressed up as a as a fullback better than he was able to he was losing he was just way more sloppy on the ball than you would expect from Tim Wayne

right you know like every every touch from tim's precise he's in control he knows what he's doing um nah he was getting the ball fumbling with it being forced to pass backwards it wasn't it wasn't good it just wasn't good fans were yelling at moda from behind the bench like pointing at him kind of exciting drama there actually do do american sports fans do that Like if you're at an NBA game And the fans are all mad at the coach Do they like address him directly? Um

Yeah Okay Yeah yeah well yeah for sure Yeah okay West did create a chance That would have tied it One one one That cross for

Did a little move put a cross Put a cross in It was the only good moment From the game I remember Yeah It wasn't a lot. That first goal from Benfica was really nice. Obviously not a good moment for us, but the way Ba plucked that thing out of the air and then squared it for Pavlitus.

Yep. But anyway, nobody wants to hear about that. So some people think that that might have been Tim's fault. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not too sure. I'm not too sure on that one. I mean, he maybe could have done more, but. Sometimes you just got to tip your cap. It wasn't his guy.

I don't, I thought it was a lucky goal. That guy just lumps it in there. I'm not impressed. Okay. Boy, you're not impressed by much this morning, are you, Chris? No. First my pros, now, uh, this beautiful goal from Benfica. I'm impressed by your pros in general.

I just think that wasn't strong. Thanks. It isn't fair. I mean, I just picked off one thing. said but you can't elongating things upwards is kind of silly isn't it you know what I've been thinking about it and I said that I don't see any reason why you couldn't do that I take it back well I'll have to

dig in on that in the dictionary um anything else on you vei nah they're just like all these other teams are going to a playoff um Ashtonville a Celtic Celtic lost four to two CCV was on the bench

I guess being rested Yep I'll be honest with you guys When I heard CCV was on the bench I'd just said I'm not watching Oh man I'm not watching that I will also be honest and say I didn't watch either

But I understand Austin trustee gave up a penalty He gave up Since he got anything on him He gave up a pin He was also probably culpable for the first goal That was scored by Merkney Morgan Rogers in the match.

Yeah, it wasn't great. He was called a no man's land for the Morgan Rogers goal. Morgan Rogers was his mark. And he's marking him at the top of the box as the play starts. And then as play progresses, basically, Aster Villa gets it in the cutback zone. And Austin just basically isn't attached to Morgan Rogers, you know? Like he's kind of sunk down further like towards the goal line.

And Morgan Rogers just like he's two yards away. Cupback gets to him and he's able to just stab it home. I don't really know what Austin was doing there to be honest with you. Isn't it crazy that he, like, if you saw him play for the Philadelphia Union a few years ago and somebody said that centerback is going to be playing in Champions League in three years, whatever. I'm going to get out of here. No way. Here we are.

Not that he's performing well, but, you know, good on him. He's had decent games. He's had bad games. He's just, yeah. Hey. He's never really been that impressive is what I'm saying, you know? Yeah, yeah. It's like you've never been like, wow, trust he's really good.

Which makes it all the more impressive that he's playing in the champions. Indeed. If you're out there impressing and doing it wouldn't be that, you know. It'd be less impressive if you were. if it made sense. In the words of the great philosopher, Tosa McKendey, not always black excellence, sometimes black mid.

That's what true equality is about, ladies and gentlemen. I like that. All right, a few miscellaneous things. Dabo Sweeney, congratulated Tanner Testman on his young player of the year award. Yeah. It's kind of fun to see. It was beautiful.

Speaking of, you know, you know how we've spent quite a bit of time over the last month or so talking about more or less the aura of the January camp players. Did you notice the contrast between the three videos? There were the three videos on the U.S. Soccer's tweet from people congratulating Tesman. One of them was his youth soccer coach. One of them was Marco Mitrovich and one of them was Davos Swinny. And I don't know just everything about, I mean, Swinney looks like, he looks like your classic Southern man. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, because it's not like he's got a ton of drip. Button down, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Not a ton of drip or anything, but there's just a gravitas to the way he did the video that is just so much better than the other two guys. They're both a little grainy and kind of timid and in the. Marco. in front of their closets. Marco's sitting down in a seat, arms folded.

It's like he, it's like, he probably took that thing probably 10 times before he got this take. He's like, you know what, Marco, you just need to fold your arms. You just need to fold your arms because I don't know what you, you know, him speaking to itself. He's like, I don't know what you're doing with your arms and all these other takes, man. They're becoming a distraction in the video. Marco just sit in his chair and fold them and get your script out. Yeah. And Swinney just pulls his phone out, like, in the men's bathroom at the training center and just, like, lights it up, you know, lights up the room. What was the logic on having Marco congratulate Tussman?

He coached him at the Olympics. Oh, okay. Yeah. And probably, I know, probably, I guess through that, knows him pretty well. Okay. I thought it was someone else. I thought I heard Mattco. I thought there was a video of Matt Co. Congratulating Tanner Test.

Milovic? I retract the question. Matt Co. But we can agree that would have been hard to explain. That would have been weird. Yeah. I don't think it's fair to compare other coaches to Davo. He's a professional showman.

Yeah. His life is out there getting out and impressing folks. But that's the point, though. That's the point. We're not the show. Soccer, that is. You know? We will be someday, hopefully, but we're not yet.

Aaron heard a young player from St. Louis City was signed by Bayer Leverkusen. You may have seen this on one of your social media apps. He's an 18-year-old who's been a bench option for St. Louis City, too, this past season. And I've got to be honest, I'm not sure why Leverkusen is signing him. based on the footage I've seen he's I mean I guess we'll see you know

sometimes black mid he was he used to be one of the big prospects I know in his very young days I mean I have to I must be honest I have not been like closely following him

but I watched a couple of his bench appearances in MLS 2 and he has zero goals, zero assists on the season. Doesn't look incredibly dangerous. But he's going to Leverkusen, so that's cool. If anything was going to cause a jump to happen. Right, right.

It's been thrown in there. Exactly, exactly. Get him on the weights. Who knows? I can just get him out there juggling the ball a little bit, maybe, too. Anything else, guys? Real quick, I do just want to talk about Diego Luna because I forgot to bring this up on Monday.

But I do just want to show appreciation for what he gave us in that January camp match. You know, I've been slow to come around on Diego just as a cult figure that everyone loves and roots for and I'm still not going to be

you know like whatever but but but what I will say is Diego Luna what you provided us in that match

against Costa Rica was was a moment was a moment and this is what sports is all about about moments man and he gave us

and he gave us he gave us a moment in the January camp match which is just you got a you know you get a multiplier on that times 10 like you gotta treasure those January camp moments yeah yeah well so whatever

whatever aura you have farmed from that particular post you got to multiply times 10 and just add it up and I'm just appreciative appreciative of what he gave us there man I mean the picture right that was posted on the scuffer

count, just him with both nostrils plugged, out there on the pitch, doing his thing, Potch following up with the big balls comment, et cetera. Just, this is what we watch sports for, man. Moments, and this is what sticks with you. Nobody's going to forget this January camp because Diego Luna came through. He broke his nose and came back on the pitch and immediately gave us an assist. Lovely, lovely, man.

That's going to stick with me. That's going to stick with everybody. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think it's the first true moment, true January camp moment of the scuffed era. I can think of up. He's in the Mount Rushmore of January camp moments. Straight in. No question.

So, yes, for sure. And I did give this some thought. The only thing I was able to come up with was Uli. Yeah. Being able to do his thing at home in front of, I assume, friends and family. maybe the only people that were in the stadium that day. But other than that, man, you know, that's it. It's a Mount Rushmore of one, or maybe one and a half at this point.

I think for, actually, it shouldn't matter that Willie hasn't gone on. Exactly. It shouldn't really affect his candidacy for the January camp Rushmore. Yeah, I don't think so. Because there's no guarantee. He's not first ballot, though. on to the Rushmore It could be 10 years from now

We'll eventually wrote a photo on to it I have to go back and watch that comp Just to refresh my memory We were certain Everyone was excited by it Yeah Yeah

Yep And I wonder how that all age I loved Yont Oolie and Alex In case anybody forgot Um Is Luna a Peebay You know somebody asked this

I think on the Patreon Yeah I saw that I saw that Um Bells I mean you're the Peebe scholar you let me know he's kind of like a pee-bay who started going to an evangelical mega-church you know a little bit so not maybe a pure pee-bay but okay I don't know I guess I'm not real clear on the how tough his upbringing was he is a man of the people you know he went and

played he went and got a job at a coffee shop at a Dutch bros right simply because he wanted to get to know people more. I still think that's so cool. While he was a professional soccer player at RSL, he got a job at a coffee shop. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. But no, I think, I think probably not.

What do you think? It would do that. Yeah, so, so now that I think about it, like, this has been my whole issue with it. It's like he has this admiration from people, but he hasn't properly farmed the right amount aura, in my opinion, to get to this point. And I think maybe this moment he provided us has put it over the top.

Because, Bills, you are right. Getting a job at Dutch bros is crazy, number one. And it is just a crazy thing to do, like something, a story that you will never hear again. I'm a professional soccer player. Definitely a cool thing to do. He's done that. He's played well in MLS. he's uh he's taken he's taking he's taking his career uh very seriously he's come from the

usl okay he's come from the u sl put on for the for the u sl uh as he's made his way through mls he's gotten his uh he's gotten his fitness right his body right everything and now the the culmination of all this was uh you know what he did in the january camp so so you know what you know what i think i am on the train i think i am on the train i think i am the train. He has done everything that's been asked of him and then capped it off with a moment. Okay, I'm officially on the Diego with the train. All right. I guess I will say, I'm just going to push back a little bit here because I don't want my soccer players going out there working on their social skills. No? You got bad social skills? Just brood inside yourself. Exactly.

Exactly. This is going to be, it's going to be a problem when you need to brood in the If you work on your social skills a little too much. I think I may be the only one against. I didn't realize I was against it until we start having this conversation. I'm opposed to. I don't like it. Just to sort of like semi-agree with you, it doesn't seem like a thing a P-Bey would do, go get a job at a coffee shop. A P-Bay would claw his way to the top and then murder all his enemies, you know?

Right. It's more like Scarface than getting a job at Dutch Barclay. Rose. What did you say? The translation is the street urgent? Yeah, something like that. Okay. Yeah, so I don't know. People say Diego Luna grew up in Sunnyvale, California.

I don't know anything about Sunnyvale, California, but I've seen people say that there's no way you can grow up there and be like, you know, come from a hard scrabble background. is what I'm hearing. I don't know anything about Sunnyvale. Somebody. I would, I don't really either, but I would just say every town has, even rich towns have people with tough upbringings. Of course. I've just seen people that know more about the area than me. Yeah.

I've seen that too. Yeah. And for my part, I don't feel like I'm really in a position to judge who and who isn't a Peabay, but just as a separate point, I'm opposed to all soccer players working on their social skills. Okay. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Fair enough. Hey, let's get out of here. Let's get out of here. Thanks for listening. Please rate and review the podcast, share it with a friend. We're trying to get some momentum this spring. We'll see you.