Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #572: MLS returns, USL floating pro/rel, Tessmann tested, Pulisic misses penalty

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

We round up some of the MLS action from opening weekend, try to figure out why first division sanctioning matters, big segment on John Textor, Tanner Tessmann and the big match in Lyon vs PSG, Pulisic misses a penalty, Gio starts but doesn't really impress anybody, Sargent gets a brace and an ambivalent OptaJack tweet, plus much more.NO EPISODE THIS COMING THURSDAY.Clip Notes for this episode, via Vince: https://www.patreon.com/posts/clip-notes-feb-123039762?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_linkCome with us to Rome: 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. MLS kicked off this weekend. Let's start with that. But first, hey, how are you doing? Vince, how are you? I'm doing great, man. I guess I got a question for you, Adam Bells.

Are you kicking your boycott of MLS? What's going on there? You know, I'm waffling a little bit, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'm paying attention. I'm paying attention. I just do it. I mean, that boycott, if I can be totally honest,

you had, I've always seemed a little bit too emotional. Yeah, maybe I got carried away. Maybe I got carried away. The open cup. It was open cup. Yeah, that's right. Hey, I ain't allowed. I boycott it too.

I'm not going to say publicly how many minutes of MLSS I watched last season, but it wasn't the last season. But, yeah, I agree with that. I did actually cancel my Apple subscription. I wasn't lying about that. Last year I did. We'll see how it goes. Well, I'm all in on MOS this year.

I watched zero minutes last year. I'm going to shoot to watch half of them. Half of the all the minutes? Yeah. No half measures with you, Chris, huh? No, that, yeah, I actually do struggle with that. It's a superpower in some ways, I think. Thank you.

Just like everything else, you know? Yeah. A double-edged sword. So, first of all, no Kevin Sullivan in Philly's 4-2 win over Orlando. So the Cavan Express is still in the station, everybody. Is it too strong to feel misled by Goss? I guess all he said was he's going to play a lot. Yeah.

I shouldn't get too torn up with it, you know, one way he can. But I kind of took that to me and he would be getting sub minutes in this game. Right. Me too. But it's still early. Fixed your congestion kicks in in late April starts to, you know, where they start doing the English weeks, midweek games. But, you know, David Goss is on notice. All I'm saying is maybe he told you what you wanted to hear in that moment, what the scuffed audience wanted to hear.

I'm just throwing out the possibility. He didn't strike me as that kind of man. I mean, it is the first game of the season. I should have held him to do a specific number of minutes. I'm going to reserve judgment. Quinn Sullivan got an assist. Lovely curling ball to the back post from the left side. The Elder Sullivan sure can't strike a ball.

I will say that. How do you think the Elder Sullivan handles all this younger brother talk? It would be a little. hard, I would think. He seems to handle it well. I would say probably right now, you know, with their respective positions and their respective ages, that Quinn, like, whatever challenge or whatever that they do at the crib or at training or whatever, I feel like Quinn still has the upper hand in that, you know?

Like, so he probably still feels pretty good about the situation. Like, you know, I could be my- Like, what, 15 goal contributions last season? Yeah, man. So it's like, you know, he got him. Cross-bar challenge or whatever, you know, like, Quinn, Quinn got that. I feel like, you know, I could beat my little brother at one-on-one until he's about 18, 19. And then I was like, ah, it's a rap.

But when you got him in the 15, 16-7. 17 stage, no matter how promising of an athlete they may be. You still got the upper hand on them, especially if you're an athlete. You know what I'm saying? And it's always the little brother of a pretty good athlete, or even very good in some cases, that ends up being like the elite elite one. That's how it usually works. That's how it usually works. So until, you know, Kevin, I guess, makes his way over to Belgium or whatever.

Or it goes to Gerona or whatever and put a season up and then comes back, maybe Quinn will be like, ah, okay, it's a wrap. But I've been a fan of Quinn in his own rate, though. I still got some stocks. Dude, can hit the ball. If Kevin isn't walking into Man City, I'm going to feel misled by the hype machine. It's going to be Goss's fault. We'll pull the time on Goss, too. Yeah.

Clint Sullivan just, it really could not sound more like a law firm. He'll probably be a lawyer when he's done, you know. Okay, let's get to Burrhalter. He lost to Columbus, his old team, 4 to 2, his first game in charge at Chicago. Brian Gutierrez scored a couple nice goals. We'll get into that, but first, Greg had some kind of interaction as he walked onto the field, I think. Yeah, it's the kind of opening shot of the telecast. It's not a big deal.

He just had another look into the camera problem. Yeah, he looked. Was it? Oh, it was that he saw the camera and then he kind of like. Yeah, well, he has kind of a magnet. His eyes are going to look dead into any camera. That's the part of him. And then he looks away.

And then for some reason, he's done this probably three or four times. So he's going to come back again to the camera. As though it's like he thinks when he looks away, he's disappeared. And now when his eyes come back, he thinks he's like just checking out what that camera was up to before. I don't think there's anything we can do about it. His team was very good, though, at the beginning of the game. Yeah. They're terrible, though.

They were a disaster after the beginning of the game. I know that's kind of the point of what you're saying, but they were good at the beginning. a couple really nice goals from Guti kind of on the counterattack or at least in transition first one assisted by Bomba on a cut back takes a touch

just uh fizzes it in near post from 20 yards out second one gets slipped in by Bomba puts it through the five hole it's good to have Bomba back on our lives it is

Remember him at Leal? Yeah. It's the same Bamba, right? The same Bamba. Oh, yeah. He's followed. Exactly the same Bamba. He's followed us around, man.

Leo, Sosa de Vigo. That's right. He's never left our lives. He's never left, bro. And now the Chicago Fire. And also, we did get a good soundbite from a young Calabrese, Alex, posted in the Discord. He did an interview with Jonathan Bamba. And...

he asked him, I forgot what exactly what the question was, but like, what, did you know Greg Burrhalter before coming in here? You know he coached the national team, whatever. And he's like, yeah, I did know he coached the national team. And I talked to my friends, Timothy Wea and Luca Delatore,

about Greg Berthalter, and they gave good reviews. He said he had a winning mentality. I know that was a quote. There was some other, like, you know, adjectives that were used. But yeah, seemed like they, uh, mostly had good things to say about Greg.

I'd be interested in the dynamics of his and Lucas friendship. Maybe you like squid, man. Chicago did start glowing a lot of goals, really in the middle of their goals as well. Dumb goals. Just the dumbest. There's kind of a divide in the commentary class of MLS. There's not really a debate, but in the different article, some sites, it was just a playing out of the back problem

other site a chess move adjustment by Nancy Nancy They weren't ready for that press Apparently Nancy When Bamba was overrunning them This is going to become pretty much a Chicago fire podcast now

By the way Nansi Bamba's overrunning them Nancy drops a guy back into the midfield and start sending other folks up that that other flank outclass per halter some people are saying

what do you think Chris? Did he? I think it was a plan out of the back problem they just gave away three goals I was Greg's performance on the sidelines they're not cutting him to him enough okay he's not the star man anymore

yeah unfortunately well that that just means you have to get to work and raise his profile again you know so you told him we got more Nazi

than Burrhalter in the match it could have been just we had a director of that game who wasn't doing enough cuts to coaches because I don't think we got much Nazi either okay okay

we got a ton of Verus on the last game of the weekend. Yeah, Varus, they beat Los Angeles Galaxy, first ever game for that franchise. So congratulations to the San Diego FC, to Luca, to Mikey Varus. That's right. It's all I was not attuned to

than should have been. They've got a 33-year-old GM, Tyler Heaps. He's got a five-year plan to make I'm the youngest team in the league. Mm-hmm. I think we should interview him. He's a scuff type of guy if I've ever heard one.

Okay. Let's get him in. The husband of Lindsay Heaps, formerly Heron, by the way. Okay. All right. It's all coming together. Yeah.

It's a real football and family. True ballers. True ballers. That's right. That's right. in that match also Elijah Winder got in. I noticed I saw that. Got about 30 minutes.

And I did not watch the match, but I saw Jay Hernandez tweet, Galaxy finally remembered that they can play. So I don't know if that coincided with Elijah Winder coming into the match. Maybe they grew more into the game once Elijah hit the pitch. But I'm going to have to review the film. I'm going to have to review the film. See what's going on. Check out Luca as well.

Oh, also Going back to director talk I remembered where my source of angst is with game directors and why I can't trust them And Bell's you are spot on It's the T&T HBO people

Yeah They're terrible Yeah I mean they showed a replay in this Women's match when like the ball was in play I saw You see them Like fouls called put the ball down

kick it and they go to a replay. I'm like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Well, so I have a thought on that. Like, a really deft director can slip a replay in while the ball is in play, I think. You know, like, well, it's just, like, moving around the back or something. If they're really, if they're really smart, they can do it and get away with it. But too often the TNT, HBO crew, they miss action that actually matters.

matters. I don't know if that's, I'm going to dispute that, Adam. Are you? I think it's impossible, and I'm going to be extreme in my language here, I think it's impossible to have the ball in play, cut away, and then cut back to it without it being jarring. I mean, set aside when it's at the game. I think it's always going to be jarring visually.

I think that you've seen examples of when they show the replay before it's come back in from the goal kick or whatever, and then you pick it up, and your mind had no problem with that, which I agree with that. Okay. What do you think, listeners? Is it possible? Let us know. I think we got some real sickle listening, so I think everybody's going to say no. Yeah, maybe. Well, we are doing a call-in or a question show coming up.

Yeah, like a mailbag type thing. Not sure exactly on the date of that, but it's coming up in the next minimum next three weeks. Tim Riem played left back for Charlotte as they got to draw at Seattle. I think he's been playing a lot of left-back there. I mean, my boycott would prevent me from any knowledge of this. But since I've partially lifted it, I do know that he's been. playing left back. That's nasty.

Jordan Morris got a brace, so his golden boot campaign is off to a good start. Ajumong played, didn't, you know, no goal contributions. And then Nympha Burkimos, who we talked a lot about on the youth national team episodes we did in the last month or so, not in the squad. I can't remember where I read this. I'm thinking about the Tim Ring playing left back. I'm hearing there's been a change in the game where teams are starting to just put

a row of centerbacks out there. The wingbacks are, would you do that? I think the reason was there aren't many defense first players being produced anymore. And so you have these fullbacks who can't quite defend. And so they adjust by,

we'll cover it with a center back type. Yeah. And I think in the case of Ream, it makes a lot of sense to have him out there, or at least part of, in some way it makes sense, because you have him out at fullback where they get a lot of time and space to pick out passes.

It's kind of an interesting angle to attack the rest of the field from. Well, that's it for MLS. Some news out of USL. The rumors of Pro-Rel, promotion relegation. We're fanned anew this past week with news that they want to launch a first division league in 2027. So by first division league, we mean a division that earns first division sanction from U.S. soccer. So then there would be two first divisions, I guess, technically.

And then the, you know, USL has had this ambition to introduce pro rel. I don't know how real it is. I mean, I guess I'll believe it when I see it. But I do think even though the USL can't compete with MLS in terms of like the product and the amount of dollars flowing in, you know, the stadiums and the crowds and everything, even with that being very much true, I think it would be really cool if like the Birmingham Legion could go up a level or something. I hope it happens. My question about this First Division sanctioning is what is that? I don't mean technically what does it mean. What does it matter?

That's the question. That is a good question. That's the question, ma'am. And I mean, it's just we, every article about it reports it, but doesn't deal with that question. I wish I had an answer. I don't know what it means. Who cares? Yeah.

Because if you want to do pro rel, you just do it. And then if the audience appreciates it, they do. If they don't, they don't, right? Right. I mean, even separate from pro rel, let's say they make them Division I. What does that matter? Isn't it just a recognition of the state of the league? It doesn't...

Basically. ...cause anything to happen. What percentage of the market share are we fighting for? What percentage of the market share is up for? grabs of domestic American soccer watchers. And I guess are we saying that the U.S.O. can convert a good amount of the non-domestic American soccer watchers because of promotion and relegation? And I just don't know.

I guess, you know, you take some big swings. I've listened to some things where... I guess the director of the U.S.L. or something was talking about it, and he's just like, you know, I'm talking. I don't mean to discourage them from trying to become bigger and have better teams. That's fantastic. Yeah.

No, and I think, I guess I just think whether the, whether First Division sanctioning has any real meaning or not, if you have pro-REL that does bring, like Paul Tenorio said, in the athletic, it brings some romance and drama to the proceedings that MLS lacks right now. And that's real. I mean, people can scoff that all they want. Well, what does that have to do with First Division? It doesn't have anything to do with First Division sanctioning.

Yeah. I'm just saying that this is why it's compelling to me, not that I have some blind faith in the value of First Division sanctioning. Quick announcement. Last spring we went to northern Italy for a trip to see Juventus Milan in Turin and a game in Como and one in Venice. We're trying to do something similar in Rome this May. May 10 to 18, roughly. The games would be Lazio Juve and Roma Milan, and we're in contact with the clubs, and they're asking for a firm headcount for tickets to those games.

We also will try to get tickets to the Coppa Italia final, which will be the middle of that week, and Juventus and Milan are both still alive. competition. There's a chance they could face each other in the final or one of Atalanta or Inter. There's a chance neither of them will be in the final. So that's also possible. There's also a chance we can't get the tickets also possible. But we're going to try and that would be a really cool sort of third experience there. Last year's trip was a huge success, really the trip of a lifetime for me. And I know for a fact that the people who joined us had a blast because more than half of them are trying to come on this second journey.

This year, Vince is going to be there, very likely. George Qureshi, who planned the last trip and is planning this one, that's the editor of Howler back in the day, who will also be there. He has a lot of the restaurant reservations sorted out, and some of the historical stuff will play pickup soccer around the city. We'll stay in very cool, modest but cool Airbnbs, cappuccino's in the morning, the gronies in the afternoon, the Coliseum, the most important city in the history of Western civilization, potentially three premium European football experiences involving Americans playing at the highest level. If you want to join us, you still can. I'll put the link to that form in the show notes. We're back. While we're on the off-field stuff, let's kind of transition to Europe. Did you guys see the John Texter cowboy hat incident? No.

So this is the owner, part owner of Bodefogo, Crystal Palace, Olympic Leone. I think he's like a 77% owner of Leone and then another club, I think in Belgium, Malambique. But he came out pregame before the Leone PSG game wearing a cowboy hat. Textor is from Missouri. He's not even, he's not really a cowboy. But the reason he did this is because the PSG owner, the Qatari Nasir al-Kalefi, I think he's like a representative of basically the government of Qatar, who owns PSG. Called him a cowboy last summer because they had a dispute over the TV streaming deal.

Basically, as I understand it, Texter and one other owner out of the 18 in Ligon, which is struggling. financially very much. He and Texer and one other owner want them to launch their own streaming service. Calafi, Al Khalifi, and, you know, what, 16, 15 other owners, they all want to do another deal with B in sports, which also happens to be owned by Khalifi. And so Textor's like the sort of odd man out and Khalifi said, Al Khalifi said, John, you don't know what you're talking about. I don't know where you're from.

You're some kind of cowboy or something. So when their two clubs played each other on Sunday, Texter comes out of the tunnel before the game, wearing a cowboy hat, you know, holds it out to everybody in the stadium. Not that much applause, really, because there wasn't that many people in the stadium. I wonder if he thought cowboy was an insult in a similar way to farmer. Maybe.

Because it's not an insult here at all. Isn't it a little bit of an insult? like you're reckless? I don't think I've ever heard someone call someone a cowboy as an insult. I mean, they might say Maverick, that's not an insult either. Because we value that kind of

boldness or whatever as a culture. That's right. Do you know the word Maverick comes from a guy named Maverick? Oh, really? He was like in... In the Alamo or something? Well, no, he was... I think at Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Oh. he was away on some island doing maypole dances and stuff that's not quite as it's not quite the same thing as flying a fighter jet is it i don't know if it was him it might have been the same maverick guy he he was the first one to use ass in the way similar to how we use it now he said it in a snide way he called a justice of the peace a just ass i think he got banished for a couple of months. They didn't go for that kind of talk, did they? My type of fella. So, that PSG match with Lyon,

Tanner Testments started and went 90. That's right. I believe I complained about the viewing experience of the last Leon watch, Leone match I watched, the one they played Montpellier. This was different. This was a big time affair.

deafening atmosphere at the park, Olympic Leone, and I don't know how he's going to progress as a player, but this is as good of an environment for growth as I can imagine for Tanner, sitting in a double pivot with Matich. I know we talked about this last week too, but facing a fleet of high-level attackers, the crowd in full voice. I'd love for Dabo to go to a game like this and tell us what he thinks of it.

I wonder if he's been to one of Tanner's games, one of Tanner Man's games. You got to get there, man. But just the ones like this. Just the ones like this. Because, let me tell you, buddy. I think he went to a national team game. Oh, did he? Oh, yeah, he did go to, I think it was Tanner's debut.

Which I'm glad I remembered. I was about to accuse him of being an absentee. His godfather. He did make it the one. This is a different. This is different, though, man. this was intense. That's right.

PSG, the much better team, I think it's fair to say. But how did Tanner play? How did you think he played, Vince? Thought he was all right. Thought he's all right, man. Some give, some take, some good, some bad. But first of all, he started the match, okay? And he gets the managerial change.

He had kind of fallen out of favor with the last manager. managerial change happens, what do you know? He started three in a row now. So number one plus one for the mentality of a young Tanner testman. Very proud of you. And, you know, the match went how you would think a PSG versus this current state of Leon match would go, particularly in the first half. I think he had 12 touches of the ball in the first half.

I mean, it's not necessarily... It's not on him. Yeah, I didn't think he was doing wrong. But, you know, they were just pinned in. And then also, when the ball was turning over, a lot of times his teammates were doing something done with it. Tanner was also doing something done with it a couple times. He had some maybe ill-advised big switches trying to find an attacker

streaking down the field when, you know, Leon just could have used a break holding the ball a little bit, to pass that thing back to your keeper or whatever. Although, I will say, if we're thinking of the same one, the one that, the right-footed one, he hit far to the right corner, that was, that just had a beautiful shape and flight to it. The one that went out of, yeah, that went out of bounds. Yeah, that went out of bounds. Beautiful shape and flight, straight out of bounds. The guy should have made a run on that one, I thought.

He had the dude, and he had, he had, he had him if he put it on him, and then he also, he did try to hit one to Ryan Turkey, which if it was a, if Leon's regular right winger was there maybe that could have been something but Ryan Turkey wasn't going to make that run unfortunately um so it just once again is collected and then Leon's back under pressure but boy that uh that second half man dude an incredible 45 minutes did he not turn it on bro he started cooking I would say that left foot of diagonal and like just that there was like a pop in his step in the middle of the field, you know, the way he was touching. I think it all stemmed from when he hit that, he had that shot on goal that was actually pretty nice.

The one that Donorama saved. I mean, in real time, it looked like an incredible save. When you see the replay from behind the goal, it was actually a pretty routine save, but it was still a good hit from Testman. And I think crucially, it brought the crowd to life, you know? He got a little layoff from, who was it from? I think Lacazette, 66 minute. Lacazette lays it off from he hits it.

Crowd came to life after that shot. And I think Tanner did too. Not that he was bad in the first part of the second half, but he definitely stepped it up after he got that from the crowd. He closed the game off real strong, I would say, as did his whole team, you know? Yeah, almost came back. Almost came back.

Not that he's American or anything, but Mikotadze, that guy can play. Yeah. I don't know who the other nine are for Georgia, but Karskbelli and Mikotadze, two absolute players they got. I mean, they got a, what, they got a keeper? Do they used to play at Valencia with Eunice. I think he's Georgia. You know, his last name is with a Vili or something. You know how I go.

But yeah, man, overall, I would say this is just encouraging from Tanner. Everything discussed here being the clip notes, of course. But I think he did it right. And it's not like PSG, even though they were controlling the match, right? It's not like they just opened the match up and just started really carving them up. I think Tanner held up decently well in their block for the most part. I'm talking about just in the block as far as covering potential. receivers of the ball who he's supposed to cover

etc etc he functioned well in a block which was nice to see which is like the least you can do right as a as a soccer player but you know he got dribble past once he uh you know there's some things defensively of course but he did he did stick his leg out a couple times

forcing back passes is a little bit more rambunctious in the counterpress once again forces some backpasses look look I say all this to say. I'm liking everything I'm seeing, man. So anybody that wants to get off their stocks, I'm buying up. I'm already rich because I invested when he was in MLS pretty heavily. I invested when he was in US out.

Not to compare bank accounts here, but. Diamond hands. We should really have a stock market. I was thinking about this last night as I was trying to fall asleep. How would we structure it? I don't know exactly. There's a dude that made an app. For one of the podcasts I listen to that's based in London,

this dude made an app called Underrated, where it's like you literally buy stocks of players, and then you hold them. Like with real money? Yeah, I think after your first, like, 10 stocks or whatever, then you have to, like, buy. Okay. I think we could run into a liquidity problem in the American market.

I wish I had a firm enough grasp before. financial matters to know exactly what a liquidity problem is. And I kept it vague to make it seem like I know more than I do, but basically there's not going to be enough people buying stocks. When are we going to get some gambling sponsors? I don't know. I think we should just go shamelessly trying to get our listeners in some heavy action. Do you? Yeah.

Lose the house. Well, I mean, I guess I'm not really opposed to it. We have no restrictions on our advertisements on... You should be. It's destroying young men. That's what I'm hearing. I mean, but... We haven't felt the worst of it yet. But they're just...

They're broken. And that's what we're going to do to our listeners. I'm more worried about other things that are destroying young men. I was actually going to talk to you about this. We don't know. We don't need to get to... into it. What's that? I was going to talk to you about this one episode, but I think we just moved

off forward. Did y'all dabble in the gambling? No, I don't. Don't. Yeah. I don't either. It has no interest for me somehow. I don't know why. I think it's because I'm not good enough at math. Maybe. I think you seem fine at math to me.

Thanks. I did like daily fantasy for a little bit. and I just didn't like the person I was becoming. And by a little bit, I'm talking like maybe a month. But it was just like, man, the game started to feel like life and death. And I ain't want that. I don't want that. Now, even if it's a U.S. match, you know, we win, we lose.

I can go do something else and I'll be all right. Yeah. Not when you got money on the line. It feels different, bro. So, yeah, even as it's been legalized and all that and all that stuff, like, nah, I'm good. I'm very good. You're like a professional poker player, right, Chris?

It was. Yeah. There was a brief golden age of online poker where, you know, you didn't need to be very good. You just needed to have a rough idea what was going on. I did that for a few years. Yeah, see, that means you're pretty good at math, I think. It's basically just addition and division. I don't even think there's any algebra.

There might be some algebra involved. There's no calculus would tell you that. I guess just like the probabilities, quickly sort of getting the shape of the probabilities of a situation and remembering all the permutations. So anyway, enough about me. So Tanner, I will say I agree with you. I'm mostly encouraged by this.

and I believe that he will continue to be sanctified in the fires of defensive responsibility but he still has he's got a long journey ahead of him still and I want to point to the third goal for PSG the one right after Leon got there first so drew within one Tanner's not at fault for the goal that's not what I'm saying I don't think

I mean maybe in some loose sense of like being easy to play through in the middle. Maybe. But I'm not even saying that. The problem is the ball goes over to Hakimi, and there's a good beat in a half, maybe two beats, where you can tell Tanner's brain leaves his body. He's just, the ball goes past him across the box over in Hakimi's direction,

and there's a lot of stuff happening around Tanner Testman. Two guys running to the back post. There's, things are moving. Tanner's not doing. anything. He's just watching the ball and sort of moving very gently towards the ball as two guys stream past him at the back post. And that kind of like just shut down, the mental shutdown that happened there. And that is exactly what it is, is what happened. That will get punished. And he's got to, I hope he's watching the tape. I hope he and Dabble are going through the tape

and really getting down on it. and working on this because he needs to improve for both, I mean for him to continue to progress in his career because he's good with the ball. He's maybe even like well above average with the ball. But he's not so good with the ball that he can't, that he doesn't need to play defense. Like he needs to play defense.

He needs to be locked in. He needs to be switched on all the time. He needs to become a dog of the mind. You know? Yeah. And I think that's something we need to get Dabba more involved with, to your point. Yeah. Yeah.

Let's get him on the tape. It doesn't take that long to figure out soccer. No, Dabba. I think Dabba would enjoy it. Seems like. Yeah. Which, you are correct, Adam Bells, with all that's going on. You're correct.

but we used to have these same issues of Weston McKinney. It's true. That's very true. We used to have these same issues of Western McKinney, kind of working through these same issues with Eunice Musa,

etc. I mean, like Tyler Adams, that's a different, you know. Yeah, he's been steeped in defensive responsibilities since birth. It's a little bit different. But it can be fixed. It can be fixed.

fixed. Once again for like the 10th time I've said it. I'd rather it be this way than the other way. It's true. It's true. Once again, anybody wants sell their stocks, man. I'm taking them all. And it just, this was the game because, like you said last week, the first two matches

that he had started were against bottom level league on teams. See if he gets to start here. He did get the start. And this was with, you know, they kind of played like a 4-3-3 with Toliseo in. well and Tanner stayed in Tanner stayed in so I have no reason to think that he would be losing his starting spot because of this match or whatever they played breast next and may along continue Tanner this is this is beautiful to see shout out to Palo Fonseca getting back into my good graces after he moved after he was the one that initially

moved Tim way into fullback oh yeah that's right yeah It's confusing, man, because these coaches have, at this point, these coaches have coached like... They'd be moving, bro. Several different of our players of different clubs. They're moving around, man. And I, you know, I don't know how the Leon fan base feels about this game, but I would imagine they're not, they don't feel too bad about it. Because Leon really did make a push at the end. They gave up this Heikimi goal, the one I was just describing.

But, you know, I mean that they, in stuff. Stoppage time, they nearly scored with Mikataoza on a really nice bicycle kick, and then somebody hit the rebound. Maybe it was like I said, I don't remember. Incredible double save from Dunaruma. And then they do score on a header from Tuliso, but there just wasn't enough time. But really good energy from them and from Tanner at the end of the game. It turned around, though, because they were, they were whistling the hell out of them in the first time.

They were. They were, I mean, it was pathetic. It was pretty bad for the first half. About the 30th minute or so, I was like, whoa. That was, yeah, whistles were coming through the TV, but anyway. I also got to say, I got a soft spot for Usman Dumbelae, because I remember him playing with Pulisic, you know, they were the two Wonder kids together. And man, he was totally unplayable.

Do you remember that, Chris? Oh, yeah. How good he was. He kept getting injured and didn't do so well at Barcelona, and I thought, well, that can't be right. But now he's back. Let's take a break. Come back.

We got Sargent's banger and his brace to talk about Pulisic and his missed penalty. A bunch of other stuff. We'll be back. Okay, we're back. Sergeant had a banger. Was it a banger? Anyway, he had two goals. What did you think of the goal?

The first one, Chris? The second one, I mean, the left footer from 20 yards out. I've decided to loosen my standards. I don't like I was becoming some of my events with fantasy sports it's a banger

okay I keep wishing you would say something different than what you're saying when I ask you if it's a banger but I guess I should just

I should just stop putting that on you you know I didn't I thought it was a nice goal but kind of savable that's just me though

it was a good hit for sure well I allowed I was loosening my standards yeah I didn't know you were going to of course it's not a banger but I just can't keep

I can't keep having this conversation about bangers basically Fair enough, fair enough It was a selfish goal So I thought you would appreciate that Vince You know he kind of he's in transition Kind of dribbles around Just kind of wax one from distance

When he has you know more more pedestrian options To his right and his left That's right Love to see it bro I just love the way Everything was just beautiful the way he just stroke that thing bro just like calm cool collect i mean because i mean he could be calm cool collected in that moment nobody's closing him down but like yeah just the the path of his

left foot as he you know backlift to contact with the soccer ball to follow through just beautiful he does have a really good left foot for a right foot player i'm more impressed with the first goal because there's a little bit of improvisation involved. His teammate kind of loses it on the dribble. Josh has his back to goal. He kind of gathers it in and then just quick swivel, smooth, precise, far post-finish through traffic, kind of a something from nothing type of goal. But, you know, the main thing about Sergeant is he's full of confidence and he's got

Borah signs back from his spitting suspension. So everything's cooking. Norwich, he's coming into camp with a full head of steam. Could have had a hat trick, bro. Yeah, yeah. The hat trick had a very good chance on a, I don't know, one of those on the floor crosses, those Marisio Osari crosses. Yeah. And Josh just running in the middle.

You know, that thing met him. He slides to meet it. Unfortunately, just hits it right at the keeper. But man, that could have been, could have been a hat trick for him. man, but I guess beggars can't be choosers and, I mean, bro,

championship's on Cheeco mode for job sergeant right now. So, there's really nothing more to say. Yeah. Well, there is... Big, big move coming. Hopefully. There is an Opt-a-Jack tweet.

Chris, could you read it for us? Is there a number at the beginning of it? Yep. I'll read it, but this is the last sergeant opt-jack tweet that I'm going to read. Okay. Opta.

Talking more to them to do you, Adam. 20. USM&T's Joss Sergeant has scored 20 goals in its last 23 home games for Dorott City in the EFL championship. Punctual. I mean. Uninspired. They're just doing all these different variations on how many goals he scored. Give us some better stats.

You're just falling off. He just keeps scoring goals, though. What choice do they have? You got to earn an Opta Jack tweet, and he's earned him every week. It's lazy. I don't think it's the original. I think they've had a new person writing these. The old OptiJack wouldn't do this.

Yeah, old OptiJack. Spinning in his grave. Punctual. That has, that barely even has a single meaning. I can't think of the single meaning. Let it alone a double one. Shame on you, OptiJack replacement person. Jedi versus Rich.

Richard's. Crystal Palace beat Fulham. We're not going to talk about Gio, right now? Oh, we do need to talk about Gio. I'm sorry, I skipped that. Yeah, they beat, he started, went 69 minutes. They beat Union Berlin 6 to 0.

He came off when they were up to zero. He didn't have a direct goal contribution, as producer Liz cruelly has pointed out. I'd say he did probably his best work on the sprint test, since the winter break. I'm not saying he's passing the sprint test. I mean, you're the ultimate judge of that, Vince. But he was getting after it a little bit in this game.

He was getting after it. I think he ran the most out of any player at the time that he had came off. So that was nice. The sprint test, I think we just got to recalibrate what a sprint is for Gio. I was going through the Bundes League of Sprint Speed Tables. And let me tell you something, buddy. he's behind Harry Kane and Thomas Mueller. I don't know if y'all knew that.

I mean, it doesn't surprise me. There's a lot of other names in there, too, that would be interesting to see. But, yeah, just those two, as I was scrolling through, and he's a good deal behind Harry Kane, by the way. And Bundesliga doesn't really have a great way to filter through the data. But, yeah. So with that knowledge I think we just got to

kind of re-contextualize what a sprint is and yeah I think he was doing some GO sprints in this match so I think I think we can say that a sprint watch is done but this isn't like

you know when you complete something and you thought you would feel a sense of relief you thought you would feel a sense of relief when it was finished but instead you're like oh I guess that's done. That's the geo right of sprint watch. And this is the reason why, you know, there's been a lot of geo discussion all the time, right? A lot of geo discussion in the Discord, blah, blah, blah.

People say we are retreading the same territory over and over. We talk about geo. But the interesting thing about it is that everyone's trying to figure out what we're dealing with here. You know, are we dealing with cooked product? Are we dealing with a person that's just down on his luck, just down on his, just down on his self in general, and we'll bounce back to being the OG arena. Are we dealing with the minute? That's the key point. Yeah.

I would like to learn that he's, he became upset with Tortman and has been withholding. Quiet quitting. Yeah, I think he's quiet quit, and he's going to turn up wherever and just be tearing around that field. That would be insane. But that is the key point. It's an unsettled question, you know? Right. We don't know.

He's not on the field enough to. I don't know. I think if he could run faster, he would. That's probably where I'm standing. Like, I'm not going to say we're dealing with cooked product, but, you know, the bread a little stale. The bread of little stale, I would say. He's not fully cooked, but I think hamstring apocalypse did something to the mind, to

the soul. I mean, you combine hamstring apocalypse with losing a godfather and an entire god brothers and sisters, right? Hold on. Does Greg have a daughter? I believe so. Mother, brother, sister. Okay. But, yeah, all that, I don't know, has rendered us with the geo that we have now.

And, yeah, that's the thing. Like I said, everybody's still trying to figure out what we're dealing with. What is this geo that we're looking at? I do think it's not just binary can he run or can he not run there's also like can he get to the point where he can run again you know

there's another that's another question even if he's definitely running as fast as he can in some sense but I do think he was he was not nothing in this game he was part of a dominant

sort of midfield performance from Dortmund they won six to Okay, okay, fair enough. The only other thing I would say is there were two opportunities where Gio could have got on the half turn and really got cooking. And old Gio would have, I think, and he did not. And so this is just, once again, me trying to understand what we're dealing with here.

He just received the ball and didn't, you know, he had an opportunity to carry it, rent at somebody if he wanted to just to pass out to IDME and I don't know I don't know if deferring GEO is the is the Gio I want to see you know but he's getting back

into the getting back into the swing of things trying to get trying to get the goodwill of Nico Kovach which is one of the one of the Mary go around the German managers that I know him by his face because he was

when he had Wolfsberg with him first He's coached every Bundesliga club In the last 17 years. The one good thing we could say is that it had been clear that he had established himself as Julian Brandt's backup.

Now, when he got subbed out, they did throw on Carney I don't know how to pronounce bro's last name from Chelsea. The loamy they just brought in. And he played the 10. And if you listen to some Bundesliga of tweeters. He was looking better

than Gio. So, I mean, we'll see. He'll probably come in and play well for the national team to which I'll say, that's the least he can do. That's the least he can do, man. Everybody else out here playing weekend and week out, hey. Help your boys out. Help him take a little bit of a load off. Giovanni.

You probably will. We need to not play too well to raise his price that no one will pay for the summer. Yeah. So it's Yeah.

It might be actually a time to tank. If Brandon's back, I don't think we've got to worry about that. And also, if he keeps playing like he did this weekend, I don't think we got to worry about that either. To be completely honest with you.

As far as raising a price. Oh, yeah, yeah. Who do you guys start? Who are you guys starting against Panama? I mean, this is what, this is what this all comes down to. Let me put it this way Does either of you have a starting lineup that doesn't include Gio

I don't have a starting lineup You don't know if you want to start Gio Raina or not? I don't make starting lineups of teams I'm not coaching You know? I don't like to do even Do you know if you want Gio Raina to start or not, Chris? I don't care Hmm

I don't care I want to see what Potch does I agree with that It's like having an opinion about the weather You know? I have an opinion about the weather. Well, there you go. I like it when it's sunny.

I like it when Gio Raina starts. I would probably start Gio. Me too. So then what do you... So do you play Mousa as your right midfielder then? I'd rather not. I know you'd rather not. I would...

extremely rather not um i i tim way over there pulley joss sergeant mhm go moose off the bench then yeah because then he's like geos wess adams in the midfield yeah give me west and tyler but and then you know uh let's see it's it's gonna be joe so joe um Chris Mark and Jeddah Yeah Yeah That's it baby

So that means Musa on the bench Right Yeah at this point Yeah it's fine It's fine Adam I'm sorry At lashing out of you For trying to make me

In the starting lineup It's okay I was that all line You know You know who I'm not putting on a bench Is Weston James Earl McKinney baby Right Can't happen.

Can't happen. I mean, if I had my druthers, I'd probably start way at right back and then play Moosa as the right midfielder. With the understanding that Moosa's not getting in the, you know, he's more like getting back. They're like interchanging a lot. That way you get all of them on the field. I'll call the best players. With all respect to the Scali family in Lake Grove, New York. I mean, that's probably what I would do.

It's just not going to happen. No, it's probably. Unfortunately. Definitely not going to happen. Let's get through the rest of this stuff quick. We've gone quite a while here. Pulisic missed a penalty. First time in his career.

Damn. He was 12 of 12 before Sunday. This was really, I mean, this play, I'm going to say, and really the game in general, was a story of Malinkovich Savich. goalkeeper. Yeah. He's really good. Yeah.

He saved four out of five penalties this season. He also saved... Do you think he maybe got in Paulsick's head then? Maybe. But I didn't... He was a... Cumbling mentally. I thought it was a pretty good penalty.

It was a fine penalty, I thought. And like... Like, for it... Like, Polly hit it. He hit it. It was in a decent location. maybe not the best location. It could have been a little bit over to the left from Christian's perspective.

But, I mean, the way bro got down, first of all, just everything. The way he got down, the way he exploded off his left foot and covered. Like, it could have been perfectly placed and destined for the far corner of the goal. And I think bro still might have got there. He still would have saved it. Yeah, for sure. I think so. And like no rebound, strong hand to the ball.

That was a hell of a save, bro. He's got, he's not giving up to him. And for the streak to end, this was, this was, it's about as good of a way for the streak to end as it could have been. It is a streak we wanted to end, too. We didn't want him going to a World Cup. No, we don't want it to end on July 2nd, 2026. That would suck.

Shout out of Mega Rapino. Crazy. But, um, man. Yeah. He also saved Jimenez on like essentially a 1v1 and pretty decent hits from Fofana and Felix from distance. Then he did a fantastic kick save. Well, he's diving the wrong way to save on a Rangers strike. That was, he was played in by Pulisic.

Nice pass kind of on the break by Pulisic. Reinders did cut the guy who was defending him and then I mean it's just a very good performance from the Serb between the posts and then what else Musa started Central got moved out wide for the second half yep Pulisic was pretty good I thought in the game not as good as Liz thinks he was for me but

he was uh yeah he was all right he was all right he did do some some very good working nation. You had to set up that Jimenez chance early. Yeah, the Jimenez chance. He and Felix put that together. He received the ball and set up

didn't set up Jail Felix, but you know, received the ball in a nice little half-space pocket. I think the ball came from Rangers. And, you know, he just squatted it over to Jow who took a shot from top of the box. I think he got deflected. But he did all right. Put some nice teasing balls in.

They also, Milan also had a training ground set piece. that involved Eunice Musa taking the corner and he just basically hit a laser to pulley at the top of the box and a pulley was supposed to shoot

I think the pass was about slightly off I think Christian also had some trouble controlling it or something but yeah it didn't end up how it was supposed to also Eunice hit a very nice switch from the right touchline deep

deep in the right touchline basically almost to the it would have been the left touch line the Leyal kind of intercepted it but I guess most important thing is this Eunice Musa started in the midfield over Yusuf Fafana

who may or may not be dealing with fitness issues and I don't think it's the strongest match out of all out of his recent like month month and a half of play that we've been raving over I think it might have

in his worst game. But he didn't do anything crazy. He was all right, though. And yeah, and also I think Consta Sal is starting to understand that Amanda Sanger, when he got moved, when he got moved out wide, he gave it 10 minutes. And was like, get out of here. Tammy, Abraham, you're coming in. And so I just want to appreciate him for that.

Good. Yeah. Mons had some trouble, though, overall. there are eight points back of Juventus in the final Jamie's League spot in Syria and then an additional five points between Juventus and Atalanta for the third spot

so it may be that we're it's going to be the two clubs with major American connections fighting for that fourth spot and you know who's winning yeah it's going to be Uveh I just don't think it doesn't seem like Milan has it in him to make a run at this point maybe Europa League they could get to.

Yeah, yeah. That's a nice realistic target for them, Europa. Unfortunately. Yeah. So hopefully, you know, in late May we get a YuVe beating Lazio and then Milan beating Roma in successive weekends, and we're there for it. Links in the show notes.

And then we get, you know, some good season and results. Let's call it a day. Is there anything you really need to, we really need to talk about? No. I mean, Greg Burhalter home debut coming up next weekend. Oh, yeah. On that. The calendar.

Can you send me a calendar invite, Chris? I will send you a calendar invite to that, yes. Thanks. Yeah, I think that's it. Yes, about it. Appreciate you. listening? Maybe we should note that Nookai, he's not playing no more. Oh yeah.

That is noteworthy. Painful for me to admit. It's a shame. Yeah. A false dawn. Probably doesn't deserve a call-up. Yeah, at this point, no. Oh, also, also, just real quick, John Luca,

it seems like Venetzi was feeling the same way as me about John Luca. And he's basically lost his starting spot. They reinforced a little bit. I mean, reinforcing quotes, you know, as much as they could or whatever, to try and stay up in Syria. And so John Lucas is out of there as it stands right now.

He hasn't started the last two matches, I want to say, which his last start, the Roma match, I thought was okay. But like I've said on here a few times, it was just like sometimes I'll check in, And I'd be like, eh, his dude, disrespectfully mid. And other times, I'm like, hmm, respectfully mid, you know? And I think Venetio's feeling the same way. So we'll see if he can get back in the lineup.

He did get on the field. Yes. Played the last 15. They did get a draw against Lazio, which is a good result for them. Every draw they get is a victory. All right. Hey, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.