Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #568: Sargent's the striker now, Pulissists, Scally solid again

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

Nice second half from Sargent vs Derby County, Milan wins and both our Americans are showing well, Scally is solid as hell for Gladbach, Nathaniel Brown unfollows the German national team, and much more.Clip notes from Vince for $5 patrons and up: https://www.patreon.com/posts/121943808Register your interest in the Rome trip, which is really coming together:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfp2O1bIr5KNSymt3ayP3ctERCooDo3ADM5Kf_kSHpmr6ITMg/viewform Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. Soccer. Hey, everybody, it's the Monday review. Two quick announcements, important ones. So first, if you want a video of a lot of the clips we're going to talk about here in this show and every Monday, join the Patreon. Vince has been working hard on these, and people are loving them. Seriously. It's so cool to see a bunch of clips of the stuff that we talk about, kind of some of the key moments. moments, good and bad from the weekend.

It's one of the big new changes at scuff this year that we're doing this, that Vince is doing it, and it's going swimmingly. So check that out. Join the Patreon. You can get those videos. Number two, an update on the Rome trip. Dates are May 10 through 18, and we're getting down to crunch time if you would like to come. There are still slots available. The big news is George Caraci, the trip organizer, is in concrete talks with Lazio and Roma about ticket.

for the Lazio Uve game and the Roman Milan game, and they're ready to get them to us in advance, which is a really big deal. Some would say it's the key to the whole trip. I would say that. So sign up if you're interested in getting updates and kind of exploring all this with us. There's a lot of questions asked and answered

in the last email from George to people who have expressed some interest. I'll put the link to the form where you can express your interest in the show notes. It's going to be a blast. Now to the news of the day. the Super Bowl. What do you guys think? I only watch soccer.

I don't even know. Not interested. I'm a purist. And that's... Yeah, I'm not going to apologize for you. You have no interest in the commercials? You could turn off the game when it comes on. Oh.

Okay. He's a purist in a lot of ways. Understood. Soccer famously very anti-commercial. Understood. Understood. Of course, you know, I had a... I had to tune in for the Super Bowl.

Not big of a football fan as I once was. Really, I don't know if I was ever that big a football fan. I'll think about it. But the Super Bowl, for me, one of our shared cultural experiences that still remain and is intact in 2025 in America. Of course, you know what I'm saying? It was Drake's funeral, so I was dressed to the nons, tuxedo.

A man got buried. That's right. It was a black tie affair. where I was. So couldn't be happier. The Eagles won. For whatever reason, what's the game started? I found myself viscerally rooting for the Eagles.

Same here. That first pass interference penalty that they called on the Eagles. The Brown caught one like 30 yards down the sideline. Second play from scrimmage. I'm like, what the hell? What are they calling that for? Go birds. Go birds from then on.

Yeah. But are you going to be able to go back? to Iowa after you you say that publicly? Okay. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

I mean, it's the only, it's the only, I only watch the first half. It's the only football game I've watched all season. I think I'll, I think I'll get out of this one.

Not as discipline as what I see. No, yeah, not quite as much of a purist. I loved Samuel L. Jackson in the Uncle Sam outfit. Trimus. Like breaking that fourth wall.

Yeah. I was, what he's, bummed that Philadelphia. won because I was at a gas station before the game and a guy started talking to me about who I wanted to win and then he said well I went the chiefs and if they don't win you'll never see me in Chattanooga again

I guess he'd had a lot of money and I feel kind of bummed about that for him had you seen him before last night so it may not be too hard on you to never see him again no I'm thinking about him on myself. I don't want him to have to move. Yeah.

But here we are. Poor guy. Well, yeah, it is a shared cultural experience. And you can tell by the way he said it that he did mean it. He was not exaggerating. There was a lot on this game for him. Let's get to the action. Sergeant, he is back with, you know, he's been back for a little while,

but he was back with an encouraging performance and a lovely goal. This is important news. because now we know Ricardo Pepe is out for the rest of the season. That's official. Jordan Pfeffack subbed on midweek for his club at the half and then subbed out with what appears to be a hamstring injury. So he's also unavailable. Baligan won't be back till mid-April.

Sargent's going to be the guy. We all got to lock in and pay attention to how he's doing at Norwich. And he's doing pretty well. I do have to admit that the first half of this game, so it ended in a 1-1 draw with Darby. Darby County, right? He, the first half was rough.

He barely touched the ball when he did. You know, he was immediately closed down. Norris just needs Borah signs he of the six-game spitting suspension to return because he is the, he is an important part of how they can actually get the ball into the final third and then do stuff there. And he's coming back for the next game, so that's good. You know what?

I don't know if I really internalized. Six games, bro. Yeah, he's been out since the first game. It must have been a lugia of the century. It must have had some velocity to it and everything, bro. I mean, damn. Yeah. He's an emotional fellow.

You can tell just by looking at him. Well, but Josh started getting to work in the second half, dropping in, linking up, almost got on the end of a ball knotted across on a set piece, just missed it, made a little back post run for a ball across a little bit later, only a good defensive intervention prevented a chance there. He did a lovely bit of work in the middle of the park. I'm sure this will be in the video, right? Receiving a pass as he opened up and, you know,

it kind of pulls it back with his in-step, eliminates two defenders, strides around him, hits a blast from 20 yards. he always gets all of it when he shoots. Like it's just his connection is solid. But it goes right at the keeper, hit with enough venom that the rebound loops straight back to him at the edge of the box, brings it down with his chest,

and then fizzes it to the feet of a teammate in front of goal. And the teammate just whiffs on it. You know, if he gets a touch, it's a goal. He might have been offside too. So that's all good stuff. And then comes the goal. Before the goal real quick, Bill's. Just, yeah, yeah.

When you really watch that clip and like I got I got the whole thing in there in the, in the video, the clip notes, if you will. But my man, Josh is in the pocket. And you can just see, you know, his head moving. He's checking. Checking his shoulder. It checks both shoulders like twice. And he sees the dude that's coming with like the first, the first midfielder that he eliminates. he sees exactly where he is.

He knows where he is. And as soon as he receives that ball, he knows, like, at what angle he needs to drag the ball with, you know what I'm saying? Just because he knows how the midfield is going to close him down and all that. Just beautiful work right there. It's pretty sexy if you get a chance to watch the clip.

And, you know, the obvious thing for him to do there would be to just take a quick touch forward with his instep. That's what both the defenders expect him to do. They're kind of bracketing him, closing in on him. And when he drags it, back, they're just, they're both gone, you know, completely eliminated. The goal comes off a good pass between the lines from Mohovo, that 19-year-old left back, one of the few players in yellow out there who actually looks like he's earning his paycheck

these days. Sergeant gets it just above the box, receives it just above the box with a deft little one-touch layoff to Marcondez. Like I love to say about Sergeant these days, the current of the game, carries. he's the defenders away from him. And he gets a good one-touch return pass for Marcondez ropes it into the top corner,

1-0 Norwich. And Sergeant's cooking ahead of the Nations League. I think that's fair to say. There's a risk here. We're going to become so attentive to the currents of the game that we're going to start seeing them where they've been there the whole time and they're not new.

I think it's worth it, though. We're getting such a rich, richer understanding of strikers in general and just sergeant in particular. Didn't you write, Chris, didn't you write something really, speaking of currents of the game, write something really in detail about when there was a, maybe, and was it like a river represented on the, on the uniform? I did. Yeah.

It was, there was the vapor jersey. Yeah. One year it came out, and you mentioned online that it looked like it was part of a So I spent about three hours trying to, I found the part of the river it looked like. It's a place on the Mississippi between Grand Gulf and then and Vicksburg, which was a key place where Grant did his little maneuver to take Vicksburg. Oh, yeah. Important, important victory. That's considered the Mississippi Delta, right?

Basically everything south of Memphis? Yes. Okay. Yes. For people that are struggling to remember which kid we're talking about, I think that was the COVID one. Wasn't that the COVID kit? That played a big part in trying to find the place on the river.

The Navy with the Blue River. It was a good look. We paired Navy, I think, black socks with it. And it worked. It worked, man. That was a good look. Got that kid in my closet. Well, we'll keep thinking about rivers and currents and talking about them, so stick with us.

What else? Let's see. They gave up a stupid penalty late and let Darby County equalize. Maybe it was Jack Stacey, somebody like that. And by the way, also in the championship, Leeds just totally tanked themselves in F.A. Cup. Sat everybody, including Brenda and lost Millwall on the weekend. They're all in on winning promotion in the championship. We got another Opt-Jack tweet about Sergeant.

As our resident reader, Chris, can you read it, please? 18. Josh Sargent's 18 league goals at home since the start of last season are the most of any player in the EFL championship over that time. Nest. Nest. Nest. Yeah.

That's because the Norwich is... Go ahead. Yeah, I was going to ask. I assume it's a reference to the Canary. And also maybe he's nesting in. Sergeant. Is there another meeting I'm missing? I think that's it.

I think the problem OptiJack is running into is they started off so strong. They couldn't really top that because a year ago, they had this tweet. 10. Joss Sargent has scored 10 league goals for North City since January 1st, more than any other player in the top four tiers of English football. in 2024. Slaughter. They weren't going to be able to top that.

Yeah, it's definitely stronger. It made me think of like what what do you think of a canary being in? You know, usually think of a coal mine. Yeah. Because you put the canary in there to see if there's

gas in there and if it dies, then, yeah. And I think Ness would have worked fine. if the association to Canary was stronger. Right. Or if their other one was stronger. But they have like kind of two weak, weekish connection here.

Well, you know, not their day, but they're, but, you know, they'll keep at it. They'll keep going. Man, being a cold mine, I've got to be crazy. Ooh. Any kind of minor, yeah. Enjoy your, enjoy your iPhones, everybody. A.C. Milan beats Empoli on the road. Important win for them.

And Eunice is flying. Let's start with Eunice because we haven't convened since the Coppa Italia quarterfinal in the middle of last week. Milan won 3-1. Eunice was in the midfield. What did you think? How did you feel about this performance? Oh, bro, he was cooking. He was cooking.

And this is like a culmination, right? If you've been watching the Consta-Salle era, really it started with the Super Cup, once again with kiss on the neck. It's been tweeted on the scuffed account. You can see it. Warm, warm, warm embrace. The warmest of embraces. Kiss on the neck. Some little sweet nothing's in Eunice's ear. Eunice is just, his smile is up to his ears. He, you know, he's loving it. And the bro-man started there. And then as you've seen, these performances have just progressed and progressed. And, you know, there has been sometimes, right, I keep complaining about

him being out on the wing, but it doesn't matter, because it just shows that Consta Sal views him as very important. Even though he'd be on the wing doing a lot of undesirable stuff, to me, to me, he's still on the pitch. And when he gets his, and when he's been getting his

chances at midfield, man, he's been making him count. This game against Roma, the Parma match, Bells, I remember you watched the video after we talked on the pod. You hadn't seen Eunice yet. You just commented on Patreon, like, bro, this man was cooking. Was he not?

He was going crazy, bro. He was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's really, he's playing with a level of confidence, you know, that I think is pretty new for him in his club career. And that's the thing I want to drive home to people is like, we've seen good Eunice performances, right, for the U.S. National team, you know, that Mexico match in Cincinnati comes to mind.

A lot of other ones, you know, when Eunice really gets a his bag. He dribbles like, he starts off. He dribbles like maybe one or two people, maybe three people. Then they realize they can't stop him. And then Eunice starts getting in this faint bag.

And they're scared to even close him down as the ball's coming to him because he's just fainting. And they're just on their heels, bro. Everyone's going crazy. Now, it hasn't been to that level in his club play yet. A little while.

Just in his club play. Just in general. But yes, for the national team too. Right. But, you know, he doesn't, he hasn't been dribbling people as confidently as he would in Cocka Calf or whatever. Now it's starting to come to fruition. Now he's starting to do it.

He looks confident because the thing was, he was getting tackled quite a bit. Like at Valencia and Ed Milan when he was trying to do it. Now, I mean, he looks as imperious as he does against El Salvador and stuff. And, yeah, or Mexico. And now it's really unlocked his dad. game, bro. And now it's just, he's feeling real good. And he's carried this momentum and built on it through his, his bad red card moment.

Yeah. It was the mentality of, I think, a true Conce Salman. And that's why it makes me even wonder if, like, Conce Sal even loved him more after the red card. You know what I'm saying? Because, I mean, that's a fiery dude right there. And he saw how Eunice just lost his mind. He was like, you know what? That's my type.

I can get on with this guy. this is my that's my type of guy and so yeah I mean right after that he's right back in the starting lineup hasn't missed a has a missed a game since there was no like punishment or anything like that he will not be playing in the midweek obviously hopefully he's worked on his brood game um and got yeah no smile that up as enough but you know when pull he talked about the game never ends or whatever it seems like that's what unis needed he needed the game to never end and so uh but yeah let's let's get to what it's looking like well if if you if you haven't seen the comp you should check out two feet elites comp of the of the unis game in the midweek against uh against roman capitalia it's when two feet elite really gets inspired you know they really they really put it together you know they like syncing the music and everything and cinematic the um the yeah it's it's really nice and uh they the one the moment the two moments the moments that really moments they really really stick out to me or one that like that no look 10 yard left footed kroyf pass at the beginning of the

towards the beginning of the cliff it's just like man this dude is he is feeling himself right now he's just that is a nasty little pass and um you know between the lines helps link up and then they're off to the races but then the one where the music where the music where the beat drops and he just like he well what were you going to say about that i just wanted to say that that in and that sequence You know, he played that thing over to Teo. Then Teo carries it a little bit and plays it to Tammy, I think, and then goal scored. But go ahead. Well, that's the one I was about to bring up, the one where he hops over somebody.

Like he skips through two defenders, pops it over him. The beat drops and the music in the comp. He plays the left-footed pass out to Teo, and that's the one that ends in the Tammy goal. Those are the two moments that really stick out of, like, a player who's really on his game right now. And, yeah, it couldn't be, couldn't be prouder. Couldn't be prouder. And then this. I was just going to compliment the beat drop.

There's no one using beat drops better in the comp game. Mm-mm. Now or ever, really. Yeah. You got to really, you got to really love soccer and music both a lot to get those right, you know? That's right. That's right. And then, and then Pulisic.

two assists off the bench over the weekend for Milan. So Eunice was on the wing. I think he played quite well. But Pulisic comes in off the bench and is a difference maker again. Feints and goes to the N-line. Stans one up on the back post for Laosier, Laosges and nods at home. That makes it 1-0. Musa notably runs right over to Pulisic to celebrate while everybody else runs over to Laosan.

And we're talking about two totally different sides of the goal. You know, like Pulli... plays his cross from the right side. Leowe dunks it on the back post on the left side of the goal. He runs off to the left corner flag. Pulley is, I assume, like, still on the ground or whatever. But, yeah, Eunice is running straight over there. Straight over there, Christian Policicic.

That's the stuff you love to see, man. And, well, real quick before we get to the second assist, Eunice did start on the wing, half time. comes. Fofana is out of the match and somebody else. I assume just saving them for midweek. Then Eunice drops back into the midfield. You could tell we was about to get some prime Eunice cooking him and Tajani next to each other.

And then we get a Milan red card. Then Eunice has to play right back at that point. And then we get an imple of red card. And then Eunice is back in the midfield, and then he starts to cook it once again. I see. Yeah. It's, yeah, Milan's appointment viewing. He gets, so Pulis gets his second assist in the 76th minute.

He tracks down a bouncing ball off a goal kick, runs past it, kind of overruns it, and then as he's about to be tackled, he dinks it ahead into Sanjay Jimenez's path. The Mexican striker cuts in and curls it off the keeper's fingertips. Pulisic is now a provider for the first goal ever scored by a Mexican in Syria for A.C. Milan, which is, you know, some real man in the mirror stuff. Who am I? I'm the one that provided your Starboy with his first Syria goal. Do you guys worry at all that all these new players coming in could push Pulisic and Laosac apart? Because they had had a really good thing going with their relationship and started to celebrate better together.

We just saw it going to opposite sides of the field Maybe it's not a concern, but just wanted to flag it Yeah, I will say that in the footage after the game There's a pretty warm embrace between the two of them Layout pulls Pulisick in and kind of gives him a nougie You know, while Tammy Abraham is like clapping him on the back They're all like laughing about something I don't know exactly what

I was moved enough by it that I cut the five second clip and then put the Pulisic song we listened to last week under it where she says Il Dome Poulissik over and over at the end of the song and then I put that on Twitter. I do think the fact that they both didn't start this match, Polly and Ralfiliyao. and then they come on together and make the magic,

you know, I think that link is still there. I think that link is still there just because, you know, Roth was like, okay, you know, me and Puli coming on. We're the ones that been here, the ones have been doing this, and then guess what, they did this. Yeah. I'm sure glad I asked that. I bet it's putting me at ease.

Okay. Anything else on Pulisic or Moussa? I think the news is good. from the north of Italy there. Let's take a break, come back and talk about Joe Scali, No Key Banks, Tanner Testman, John Tolkien, a lot of other stuff. We'll be back. We're back.

Scali was steady in a 1-1-draw with Eintracht Frankfurt, not at fault for the goal, not involved in his own team's goal. I have to confess, I have avoided watching Joe Scali for quite a long time. And this was my first time where I really, for a while where I really watched one of his games closely. It's boring. It's boring to watch. I mean, it's a great environment.

Gladdebach's a great environment. A beautiful field, beautiful stadium. It's boring, but Scali is extremely reliable. You can see why Tim Rieme thinks he's the most underrated player. You know, he's just like, he plays like a 35-year-old man out. there. No, no, uh, no unnecessary risks taken. His intensity tracking back and covering his man is deeply admirable. Um, he had the one, he had the one tackle in the second half that did probably save a goal. Um, you know, he, he, he does a good job covering on set pieces. He's like

the free safety back there. That's one of his main jobs for the team. Uh, he passes the ball back a lot. He passes the ball forward some. You know, he's doing some, he's doing some stuff. Right. But. And I think this is a case for sometimes going a long stretch without watching a player like Joe Scali

because that's what makes it easier to notice things like improvement in reliability. Yeah. Or. This was all to plan. Yeah, if you're interested in being late to the party, you know, but I'm, but I think

party. It's, I wouldn't call it a party. I think the one thing about, it's not really a party. A reliable man like Joe Scali. First of all, shout out all my Scali lads out there. We're finally back up. It's been a while. That Brazil match was, of course, like a zenith. But back then, I mean, ever since then, it just got back to regular Scali levels.

But, you know, we're slowly climbing up, slowly climbing up. But, yeah, the thing about being reliable is that you can come late to the party and the party's still going. You can, you, you have that faith. You know, it's like a bus, miss one, next 15. No one coming. Shout out Gucci, man. But, um,

I will say that he, he's just, he is better in general. Like, you know what I'm saying? Whereas he would never pass the ball forward, you know, he's getting, he's, he's throwing a little bit more in his diet, man. There's a little bit more. like that little outside of the boot pass

that he played in the first half to break a line and give a gladback basically a AVP, you know, a situation with a midfielder of running that goal. He promptly wasted it with a terrible left foot of shot or whatever. But, um,

not his teammate, right? Um, but, um, you know, he's doing, he's doing more stuff. He's doing more stuff. I got, I got plenty of clips in the video. Um, not plenty, but, you know, a few. But also, we got some more information.

This came out last week. It didn't make it into the pod. But according to an Instagram post from a German gym, the lab underscore duce, so I guess it's in Dusseldorf, Joe has reached a new top speed at 35.1 kilometers per hour. Now, I looked up on the Bundes League of Leaderboards. It's like, I want to say it somewhere like 70th, 60. of 60th, 70th in the in the Bundesliga or something like that.

But look, man, slow and steady progress. He's slowly adding things to his game. And you set us boring bells, but I'm enjoying watching Joe. I'm enjoying watching Joe. Because, you know, if you were foraging the fires of 2022, Joe, 2023, Joe.

Early scally laddery. Exactly. You would be. beyond thrilled to what you're seeing right now. So may along continue from Joe. And the one thing, the one thing,

being so intense and making sure he covers his back post and all the different type of stuff, that's a real change. That's a real change. He used to be a kind of a space cadet. He could be a space cadet at times. You see him now.

He's intense. He's locked in. He's playing ball. He's serious. Serious man. He's showing off his left foot more and more. and his ability to pass forward with it. Once again, he's not surge.

He's not surge, but I'm loving what I'm saying, to be honest with you. Yeah. I think it's a matter of perspective, whether something's a party or not. That's right. There's no wrong answer on that. Party is what you make it. That's right. I mean, the first time I heard of a PowerPoint party, I mean, I almost wanted to gouge my eyes out.

I was like, what's going on? But I could see how that could be. This is a lot like that. This is a lot like the power point. Like there's a possibility. That's exactly what it is. There's a possibility of somebody comes up there with a banger. But most of the time, these slides are probably going to be uninteresting.

But also in this match, Antrach Frankfurt has a young dual nat, Nathaniel Brown, 21-year-old left wing back. and there's been some smoke around them, ladies and gentlemen. There's been some smoke around them. It seems like big soccer is on the case once again. There was a post. He has unfollowed the German national team, and I think maybe took them out of his bio or something like that, and followed Paxson-Earson.

Future on-tracked Frankfurt teammate Paxon-Arensen. Now, is there smoke here? That's smoke. That's smoke, as you can see, in these cases. It does seem to be the case. Other than showing up at the dog park, you know, this is...

Yeah. Like, Dog Park is like 1A with a star, but this is number one. I don't know. He could have, in theory, been doing a vacation to Florida. I don't know what the theory of the cases that has him unfollowing the German national team.

Right. That seems pretty... And he probably... What do you think? He Googled the U.S. men's national team and figured out that he had a teammate with some connection to it. And then he's like, oh, that guy's, ah, I'll follow him too. Because, like, why wasn't he already following? People are preferring to give Paxton credit as being an active agent in this.

I suppose. I did notice he plays left wing back, right? Joe Scali right back. There was a ton of, uh, Yank on yank crime in this match. I did see they had a little exchange one time where Joe kind of like tackled the ball off of him and won a foul.

They were kind of talking back and forth. Joe had a little rise smile on his face, so maybe he's like, hey, hey, if you don't want to be locked down by Joey Clamps again, come over to the U.S. national team. You can play with. And, you know, these Americans over there in Germany and neighboring countries, they only know but so many people. They're probably reaching out to all these guys and trying to become friends with them.

It could have happened. Maybe. Yeah. I do think people are reading too much into that Scali posted a picture of himself that Brown happened to have been in the background of. I don't think that was a message from Scali. Players just always repost pictures of himself. So is Brown a serious contender for national team minutes? I mean, yeah.

Well, he's a contender to be on the national team squad. I mean, you know, I mean, Jedi going to be patrolling that thing until his wheels fall off. But in the World Cup situation where his wheels kind of did fall off in that Netherlands match, you know, we could see some, did they call him NeNe? Nini Brown Minutes. He's a decent player, man. He's a decent player. Like I said, left wingback.

Frankfurt plays a 3-25 in possession. And Nathaniel was wide left. So he's like a winger. Like a real, in attack, he's actually a winger. Yeah, he's up there. Was not... That's why his green bars, his green attacking bars on FB ref looks so good. against fullback.

I mean, he's up there, man. He's not really a fullback. He does come back a little bit when needed. You know how it goes. But pretty tidy. I didn't see too much from him in the attack in this match to make me like get very excited. But a very capable and willing defender was 1v1 a few times

and came out looking good on most of them. And really that's all I got. This is the first time I've watched them. But, uh... Well, now that there's smoke, let's dig in. Let's dig in again next week. Come on down. The troops.

Yep, that's right. Speaking of which, no key banks, off the bench in the 78th minute. There's not too much to say here, but he comes on as a wingback in this game for Augsburg, for Marius Wolfe. I'm not sure this is good news for my strident call him up agenda, but he plays it pretty conservative out there. It does look like he's more comfortable as a centerback, even if it's in a three-man back line than he is as a wingback. Had a couple good defensive interventions. Also fell, I would say, completely asleep on set piece marking,

late in the game and got bailed out by his teammate Matsimo. So, yeah, that's it. By the way, he was found on big soccer, like we talked about last week, and by none other than Chuck Me. great friend of the podcast. The shots out to everybody doing the legwork.

And by legwork, I mean, it's probably your point of finger, thumb, working a mouse. But shout out to them. And also, real quick, I mean, you talked about his comfortability playing wayback or whatever. He did play a little bit last week, too. On the left side,

Nokey did. And I thought he looked, I thought he looked pretty good in that position. But I think Augsberg was trying to they were in a position to be conservative in this match. Where they go? Yeah, they were happy with a draw, it seems. Yeah.

All right, let's talk about Tanner, Tan Man. Because, you know, he failed to seize his opportunity a month ago. Now he's got a new manager, Fonseca, and he gets his first start under this new manager in a double pivot next to Matich against O'Ham. It's of all the names in France that are hard to say, that is the, I would say, hardest. Anyway, subbed off in the 81st with his team up 3-0. So here's the question.

Are the troubadours back up? My hope is the troubadours would have learned some caution. Not to say they shouldn't be getting themselves ready. Yeah. But I don't think they're rushing into the field. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I would say we could take some good signs from the fact that new managers come in.

So Fonseco wasn't really managing that Europa League match. He was in the stands, brooding, but he wasn't on the touchline. So Tanner got that start against Ludo Goretz or whatever. And then didn't start in the next match, but did come on. and then he gets a start here. So, I mean, the signs are looking good. It seems like Fonseca likes what Tanner can offer, I guess, especially in a match like this where they got the other team camped out.

You know, they're camping out in their final third. You know, you need a guy to spray it, spray it from side to side. And, you know, Tanner's up for that, baby. Leone has some players, man. They have some nice goals in this game, you know, some dummies and, you know. slick stuff well what's in them churkey he's been getting

he's been talked a lot about a lot for you know teams looking to poach him or whatever but yeah he he shows up every week man that's a good that's a good player yeah

Toliso's I like Toliso too so Tanner took a shot from distance and got NFL kicker added to his resume by the announcer on Super Bowl Sunday, no less. I wonder if they in Europe think of football and NFL as interchangeable. Probably. I think college football, the institution that it is,

the massive, you know, multi-billion dollar industry that it is, is difficult for them to conceive of. I mean, he never actually did that either. That's true. He did it. Fair point. We've never seen him kick a football. So I saw somebody say something that I thought was quite funny

And it's probably true It's like you know they think of all Any football You know They probably thought of that as like the lower divisions of the NFL You know anything Right right right right right Like the DFB

Like it's like the DFB except it's American football And you saw my man You know he don't get the frame of reference You know he couldn't I mean He couldn't say high school Like he just didn't know what to

say. And so he said, you know, used to play kicker in the, you hear the pause, pause, and NFL. It was like, well, you know, we get it. It's funny for us over here. Yeah. Yeah. So he helped win it back ahead of the opening goal.

I mean, I'm really reaching here, but he did, he did poke it away. The defender got it back. And then another teammate, you know, cleaned up the business. and then Shirky did some real nice stuff to set up the cross and then Tagli Fico scored. That's 1-0. He drew a couple nice, one average save on that NFL kicker moment shot from distance and then drew a good save on a left-footed shot from distance a little bit later.

He looks to me, I guess my caution to the troubadours, to your point, Chris, is that he still looks kind of half-hearted on defense. in duels against the ball until you get that fire in his eye until he gets that serious man energy that you know that just emanates from Joe Scali right now I think

on the other hand though you never want a cautious troubadour yeah it kind of defeats the purpose of troubadoring that's right that's right but yes this is the case

he did have I will say one transition moment he snuffed it out by running and getting back and tackling the ball carrier and I literally say yes Tanner you know I almost put out the dabble hey Tam man

so proud of you I always had to pull that up but you know a couple sprayed balls chip balls over to the sidelines you know what he does but but yeah Yeah, we know he's got that.

There would be some... Yeah, go ahead. I was thinking about Trubido still. Yeah, let's talk about Trubodor's a little bit. There would be some risk of saying the wrong thing in front of the king. Yeah. But if you're letting that constrain, you're not going to be doing a good enough job to stay in the favor.

Right. You have... Thin line. You have to be careful about what you say in front of the king without giving the impression that you're being careful. You know? You have to be... You have to give the impression of boldness.

That's what you're there for. Yeah. So, you know, do with that information what you want, Trubadors. There's nothing more to be said. If you want to see more of his defensive work, hop on the Patreon for $5 or $10. You can see the stuff on the video. I got plenty of clips.

This video is about 10 minutes and 30 seconds this week. kids, ladies and gentlemen. Let's go. So, yeah. Vince, people really do appreciate those. I hope so. We're going to. I'm going to my whole family for a weekend.

I know. I know. John Tolkien had his first Bundesliga assist for Bocham. A couple things to say here. So he hit a cross. Early he hit a cross that was handled for a penalty resulting in the opening goal for Kiel.

he got beaten on a lofted ball to the back post and got knotted across by his guy for an assist for the go-ahead goal for Boecom. I think it's fair to ding him for that. I perceive that you agree with me, Vince. Yeah, go ahead. Well, I just want to go back and say,

going back to last week against Byron Munich, the more I watched that clip of him, of that first Byron Munich goal, I don't know if I don't know that I ding him at all for that. That was just an outstanding, like incredibly crisp combination. I don't know that any left back doing any set of activities is going to stop that. You know who didn't have an assessed against their Bundesliga team from Leroy Sane? Gladbach, because Joe was up in that ass.

But anyway, um, I think. So, I mean, yeah, okay. Got it's a pushback here from Bob Morocco one, you know, anytime Bob Morocco said, I got to stop and considerate where he's saying he doesn't give Tolkien any blame for this goal. You're talking about the one against Bokom, right? And number one, first of all, this is the first time he got beat by a lofted ball. I mean, this second time in this match. Like, the goal was the second time he got beaten, he got beaten on a lofted ball to the back of,

post. Okay. That goal we're just talking about, lofted ball to Leroy-Sahe. I mean, are we just saying that we're okay with people just hitting the ball over John Tolkien's head to a person that he is marking? You know what I'm saying?

No, but, yeah, yeah. So I would say they're totally different situations, the first Byron goal and then this goal from Bochum. You're Um Are you not, you're not talking about the first buyer goal right now? No,

I'm, well, well, I am because I'm, you're saying, it's been a revenue source for teams. Yeah, well,

that was, hit this thing over John Tolkien's head. Yeah, but if somebody wants to play the ball over the back line, they can do it, you know? What you have to do is hope that the timing of the run isn't that good, and then get there and intervene.

Um, because, like, you can't stop somebody from hitting the ball over the, back line if you're one of the defenders. It's just a, it's, as opposed to this Bocom goal where he's marking the guy and he just lets it go, he lets the ball go over his head, he's not touched tight to him. He isn't challenging for the header.

To me, that's a, that's a problem. The other one is just like this, it was this incredibly intricate, bang, bang, bang, one touch, juggled combination in the middle of the field by Byron. And then the fourth, like the fourth touch on it is a really nice ball over the top. no way no way Tolkien can do anything about that Joe's really would have had hands on Lee Roy Sime and then he gets

He would have disrupted the That's all I'm saying I mean well whatever We can agree to disagree Or whatever Because I do think Yeah He hasn't been like

One V1 too many times But like the rest of his defending is like Okay you're like you know You know he has a prerequisite amount of dog than them just by virtue of being a New York Red Bull, you know, it came up through the, you know, the two team, all this stuff. So it's like in cage matches for the most part, he does hold his own. But it's like, I mean, you just can't keep having the ball get hit over your head,

especially when it's like, y'all in a back five. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's you, bro. That this back line is stretched out as much as it can be. you got to make those headers contested. You can't just turn around and then look at the dude, head the ball across, and then throw your hands in the air. Yeah, I agree that he should have done better on this Boca one, for sure.

And this is too bad for Holstein-Kiel because they're, you know, Bokom's the last in the Bundesliga. These were points at home, Holstein-Kiel probably needed to get in their campaign to avoid relegation. also also worth mentioning token assisted on the equalizer it was a set piece that was delivered well for a header he does all the set pieces like he said last week and um he looks good i think he looks good in possession but yeah some work to be done oh also i forgot to mention on nathaniel brown takes set pieces yeah it's it's him and mario goats a

lined up ready to uh you know he got the right for the strike and your left for the strike but um Also, John Tolkien won the penalty for Keel's first goal. It was a corner, short corner to him. He goes to hit a cross and it hits a man's arm. Dude was running out to him, et cetera. Also, I mean, a very nice one to... The thing is, Keel tricked us, Adam Bells and Waki. They tricked us.

That ball that they were playing against Byron last week, it was kind of nowhere to be found for whatever reason. Like nowhere to be found Kiel was just like They would get the ball They would treat it like a bomb bro They're just booting it away But when Tolkien was able to get

His feet on the ball And do some things Like he had a nasty one two in the first half That was That got quite the pop From the crowd He kind of turned it over Right after he

Completed the one two or whatever But you can see You could see the quality which is something I do want to mention like I think this you so you you know when you watch a player a lot and then you talk to somebody else that has an opinion on that player and you know that like you can tell that this is an uninformed opinion like you don't be watching this dude you know it happened a lot to me with Weston you know etc I think this is a win for the for the Red Bulls fans out there that were they were saying that Tolkien's nice Because it's like every time I watched him, it was like he was playing Red Bull ball. I couldn't necessarily tell if he was, like how nice he actually was. But we're seeing good things.

Early returns here in Kiel. Yeah, he's a soccer player. And he's fun to watch. It's not boring to watch Tolkien, in my opinion. Oh, no, hold on. Let's do, okay. He completed like 52% of his passes. I mean, Joe Scali did that.

Anyway, let's keep moving. Let's keep moving. I only want it. You're a Scali lad through and through. I mean, Juventus, they, I don't know that we need to talk about this one too much, but they are hell-bent on extending Weston's contract. And Liz has a great quote in here from Locatelli. Well, Juventus won the game at Como.

It was a pretty bad performance, but they got a penalty late to win the three points. I think giving off some kind of rigged vibes there a little bit. But I'm not a conspiracy theorist, though. So we won't get into that. You don't need to be that much of a conspiracy theorist. It was Syria. Yeah, I guess. It was, I mean, he did.

The goalkeeper did hit him in the face, hit Gotti in the face. But I don't know, just to have the whole game decided by that, seems crazy. Anyway, Locatelli said, McKinney and Ware are very different. Weston doesn't just tell us about America. He shows us what it's like to be American. I'm not sure what that means, but I find it engaging. You know what it means.

What? Mentality. What does it mean? Yeah. Okay. I thought maybe it had to do with like pizza and ranch sauce and stuff, like ranch dressing. I think some of that stuff may be flying into it as well. He does. He's going to seem very American to everyone he meets over there.

Whereas, yeah. Whereas Tim, Tim's sort of an international celebrity. Yeah. Rapid fire. Tyler Adams and Bournemouth beat Everton at Goodison Park in round four of the FA Cup. A quietly good performance from Tyler. Mark McKenzie came off injured at halftime. We don't have an update yet if it's serious. No update.

Okay. Or assuming he's fine. Yeah, he, he, um, seemed like he tweaked his hip, a groin or something. Um, I want to say in like the 30th minute, something like that. He, he finished out the half, though, and he did, like, he had, like, some big, like, interventions, you know, in, like, the 40th, 45th minute going to the extra time and stuff like that. So I, I think, I think he's all right. I think he's all right. But, um, they did have him doing a lot of running.

he was kind of they're kind of uh you know unbalanced their three back and pushed mark mackenzie up into basically playing like a kind of a wing back type of thing but uh he should be all right i hope he's been playing well man he's been handling he's been handling stuff yeah like and and and this will be it'll be in the video but a couple like you know big boy moments where like a strikers trying to, you know, he had a he was on the back of a striker at one point and just handled the situation, I mean,

just truly handled it. Like, it was almost like a tumbo block and finger wag. Like, don't bring that in here, bro. That man was receiving the ball at the top of the box. And through this man's back, Mark was able to basically win the ball, then like, kick it out for a throw in. Impressive. Impressive.

McKenzie and Richards both at, you know, Good point in their cake baking process. Maybe it's about time to slide a toothpick in see if any batter comes out. Rainer remains a bit player at Dortmund. I mean, that's just the fact. Came on in the 85th minute to try to equalize down to 1 at home to Stuttgart. He was playing with an urgency, but did not accomplish anything significant. Look, man, how many managers we go on playing, baby?

How many managers are... Yeah, I don't know. So many as it takes. That's right. Johnny Cardoso keeps holding it down in the midfield for Batis. Batis, they lost 3-2 to Theltevigo, and he extended with them through 2030. James Sands and San Pauly lost to R.B. Leipzig 2, and Ethan Horvoth got a start for Cardiff City in the F.A. Cup

made a big save and the penalty shootout for them to advance. And I'm going to say that's it. Nope. For us today. James Sands, just real quick. Just real quick, man. I'm becoming more and more impressed by how James Sands just be holding it down in that midfield.

Him and Jackson Irvine just have really made a nice pairing. in that midfield. And I know some of it is kind of like structural for St. Pauli how hard they are to play through, but a lot of it is Jackson and James Sands just holding it down. Like, bro, this man,

he, like, they had Opta or whatever had him winning 11 duels in this match and like 11 legitimate duels, bro. Anytime you try to come through that St. Pauli midfield, you got a, you got a, James Sands is going to be standing there. There's no way around.

It's like the Snorlax and Pokemon. you know, you got to get the flute to wake that man up to be able to pass through. And if you don't got the flute, bro, like, bro, it is admirable how tough he is to play through. You know, you watch, I mean, just totally opposite ends of the spectrum, James Sands and Tanner Tessman. Right. I was just going to say that. James Sands has been a serious man in this way for a long time. He's just holding it down. He's locked in.

And I do just want to shout out, because we don't talk about him a lot. John Luca. John Luca Bouscio. He's been starting. We all know this. Holding it down for Venetia. Played another 90 against Roma, and I thought actually looked pretty good. I keep going back and forth on the man because nothing he does really, really whows me.

And it's like the degree of difficulty for him to become. like a true week in, week out, top flight pro is, is, he really got to thread the needle. You know, it's just one of those things where like all his touch has got to be perfect. All this, blah, blah, blah, just because he don't, he doesn't have any type of X factor. He got a lot of decent traits and I think he's putting him together to maybe be a decent like Syria pro. But we'll see. It still remains to be seen. Like I said, I can watch the game next week and be like, man, let's do his trade.

He has basically started every game this season for them. I mean, give or take. A couple big things coming up this week. On Wednesday, we're getting David Goss, formerly of MLS Extra Time, and now it kind of helps run the Soccer Wise podcast. We're going to have him on to preview the MLS season and the Americans who are most exciting to watch in this upcoming season. And then on Thursday, very special guest, we're going to get Rick L.frink from Eindhoven Dogblad.

He is the most plugged-in PSV Eindhoven reporter on planet Earth. I think that's fair to say. And he agreed to come on the podcast. And we're going to record on Thursday. Not sure when that one's going to drop. But I have, for patrons, I've put a link on the Patreon. If you have a question for either of those guys, get on there and throw it in there. I might be able to ask it.

And the gospel one comes out on Thursday. That's right. Yep. Okay. Hey, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.