Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #579: USA v Panama recap

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

Brutal. Vince and Belz talk through what we got wrong, what else might be wrong, and the cruelty of a sport that doesn't let you take 5 seconds off. Vince IDs some problems with the scheme. Everybody IDs problems with the selection. Maybe this lights a fire under Poch.Clip Notes for $5 patrons and up, coming soon.Send us a voicemail for us to use in a mailbag show on Thursday (say your name and approximate location!): https://www.speakpipe.com/ScuffedPodcast 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. Okay, okay, okay. The U.S. men's national team got its first real competitive test under Mauricio Pachitino last night and failed, losing one zero to Panama. We will face Canada in the third place game on Sunday. Vince, how you doing? Adam Bells, if you told me we could either win the Nations League or play Canada. I would have had to come back to you. You know what I'm saying?

I couldn't have gave you an answer in that moment. So we did have a massive failure. I would have loved to play Canada in the final. But if you're telling me I had to pick either or, long time listeners of the scuff podcast went on my beef with Jesse Marsh. You know what? It would be a debate.

It would be a debate. But overall, I'm doing bad, though. I'm doing bad. Yeah, I'm doing badly as well. And the problem is, you know, it would be great to play Canada, right? But it will be great to play Canada. But in a third place game, everybody thinking about their transatlantic flights later

that night, got to go back to the club. And by club, I mean football club in Europe. And, you know, finish out a season. A lot of objectives for everybody to pursue on the continent. I don't know. I'll believe it when I see it when it comes to intense. and commitment on Sunday night. You bring up a good...

Sunday afternoon. You bring up a good point, Adam Bell, because, you know, there's nothing in theory to play for anymore. We could see some early planes back. Maybe. I don't think so. It would be a horrendous look. John Brooks would do it.

I'll tell you that. Yeah. Timmy Chandler had already been. back in Hamburg or whatever. My solius. You know? Yeah. Frankfurt.

A lot went wrong, I would say. Should we get into that a little bit? I think we might as well. Might as well. What do you think were the problems? From watching the game back and now understanding how we were trying to play, I think the number one problem is Eunice Musa. Unis Musa being out wide as an attacking option is one of the problems.

Like we had too many nominal midfielders on the pitch. We're trying to play in behind. We weren't trying to play through the midfield whatsoever. That was just not an objective that the team was trying to accomplish. It would have been impossible to accomplish anyway. Right. It would have been impossible and we clearly were not trying to do it. We're not at all, not even a little bit.

We were swinging the ball around. Some people liked to call the horseshoe of death or whatever, but we were looking for runs in behind. You know, we had our attacking bandify. Josh Sargent Stryker, Weston McKinney, Christian Polisick as the inside guys attends, Eunice Musa, Tim Weya out wide. All these dudes were running off the back line

looking for ways and behind. Our best line stretcher that we have at the moment, Timothy Wea, he didn't see enough of those opportunities. Well, yeah, this is what Potsch got, I mean, this is the main thing Posh got wrong, I think. It's not just agendizing to say that Moussa isn't great in the final third. I think everybody kind of agrees on that.

So we got Musa providing the width, right, like he just said. Waya providing the width left. Waya's inverting because he doesn't want to go to the end line with his left foot. So he's not stretching the line the way he could if he was on the right. Musa is getting a lot of action with his feet on the chalk over there. But he's not doing anything with it. I mean, not doing much with it. Yeah.

And the thing is, the two outside guys, their primary role a lot of times was to check back to the ball. They were receiving the ball from the centerbacks slash Joe Scali. are back line of three quite a bit. And then once they would get the ball, you would also see Christian Polisick, Western McKinney, Josh Sargent making runs when they get the ball out wide. So part of it is the scheme too.

Tim Weyer did not have as many opportunities to run in behind as Weston McKinney, Josh Sargent, and Christian Policicic did because of how things were drawn up for us. And I think another thing I got to bring up is the fact that Joe Scali is the left, the left center back on Timway aside. And I don't think Joe has that ball in his bag on his left foot in particular.

And not until late was he really getting up into the attack. Right. And I have forgotten this Bells, but if you remember, Maricio Pagitino's first match was against Panama in Austin, Texas. And what did we do a ton of in that match? We played the ball over the top to Anthony Robinson, and he tore them up repeatedly. Yeah, that's true. it was available and the thing.

And for me, I would have even considered maybe sitting Joe and putting a Mark McKenzie in there. You know, you need your three, you need your three best ballplayers in that back line. And Joe Scali ain't one of them. I mean, and how many times did Joe ever have to defend

in this match? Maybe once. Maybe a strong once. And like, you know, Mark McKenzie plays out wide in the three back for his, his club would have been no issue, but Mark McKenzie would have had that left foot available to him because it wasn't just Tim Weyer that was missed running it behind from time to time, especially in the first half. Christian Polisick was missed. Josh Sargent kind of missed, but that's the main thing for me.

Tim Wea should have been the replacement for Anthony Robinson, tearing things up down that left side. But I think the personnel that was in our backline, because when you think about that match, that panama match in Austin. Joe Scali on the right, Tim Ream in the middle, or Tim Ream was in the left, Mark McKenzie in the middle. And so you got Tim Ream,

who was our Supreme Ball Server in this match, I would say. Tim Ream can just dink that thing to Anthony Robinson all day. And he was just, like I said, a terror. And so that partnership of having Joe Scali there, that's now responsible for hitting the ball to our best line stretcher. It's just like a non-starter, along with Tim checking back to the ball a lot.

I think it was... And I think Tim being pretty right-foot dominant. Like, I think that's another factor with him going up the left side because one of the times he did get up to the end line, he tried to play it. He did well, actually, to play a little, like try to fizz a little ball across the six with the outside of his right foot on a corner kick. but he's just not going to serve that same role that Jedi does with his good left foot. And then we add, you know, I think just bad games from Pulisic and Wes. I don't think Tesman gave us much.

And maybe that was scheme related, but he didn't. And Sergeant, you know, Sergeant just kind of was strangled out of the game. He did get a couple. He got the good chance. We'll get into it. One good chance that kind of tinged off the post. One good chance he put it in the back of the net. That was shocked off because Wayo was offside earlier in the possession.

Didn't need to be. Didn't need to be offside. The space was there. Just missed time the run. Let's do the lineup. So Turner in goal, he's going to come in for some criticism too, I think. Obviously, the attacking shape, which we've already covered was a 325. But Musa was the nominal fullback.

Our defensive shape was a 4-4-2. So Musa, Richards, Ream, and Scali across that back line in a 4-4-2. The middle band, the middle band of four was actually Wes Adams, Tessman, and Wea, I believe, right? And then it was Pulisic and Sargent as the two. So I guess you call Adams and Tessman a double pivot if you want, I don't know.

It's kind of hard to categorize. And then West Pulisicic and Wea as, the three in addition to Sergeant and Moussa and the five in the attack. That's a lot of numbers, but the five in the attack would have been from right to left, Musa, Wes, Sergeant, Pulisic, and Wea. Yep. You've been screaming about Moussa not being a winger for months.

Potsch not listening to you, that's for sure. Because he was a nominal fullback, but he was really playing. man winger in the attack. That's right. And especially because, like you said, Timway, a very right, very right foot dominant in a line stretching position, specifically. Like, he needs to be on that right so that he can collect the ball,

keep things going with his right foot, and he has his outside, he has his right foot to the outside to where he's able to put service into the box. I mean, he's so good at that. Yeah. He's so good at that. He's so good. He can get a cross off with that right foot from wide right and a good cross too in almost any situation. Right.

So, I mean, this is why it feels like such a big miss from Potch to sort of neutralize him by putting him on the left. He did have some good moments in the second half on that left side, I would say. And then to have Musa over there. But the good moments on the left in the second half, you put him in that same situation on the right, we have a different outcome. Like, there were good moments that they amount to anything super duper dangerous. No. Nope. They amounted to corners for the most part because his stuff was getting blocked.

It wouldn't have got blocked if he was right. Right. But I guess it begs the question, Bells, who are the alternatives to play right right in a 325 attack in shape for the U.S. MES national team in this type of situation? Well, it's Wea. I mean, the alternatives to Wea? Well, I guess. Who would be in the five?

You know, so we move, we moved him over to the right. I guess we move Pully, wide left. Who takes that next spot? So I would say Gio. So I would have started a midfield of Tyler, Wes, and Gio. And clearly, Pachitino doesn't quite see it with Gio yet. Although he did say in the press conference that he was going to bring Gio on an extra time. he would have been playing in that West role for me.

Now, you're not going to get runs in behind from him, I don't think. But I'm going to get a little more creativity. Right. But that's where the rub is, right? Because it's like it's pretty clear that our game plan was to use, when we're swinging it from side to side. Like I said, the outside dudes were checking back. So let's say Eunice Musa comes back and receives the ball from Chris.

his markers coming out to him and then Wes usually would like either Wes West would like check back to the ball and then you got like a 1V1 with like Josh Sargent basically for him to make the run or it would alternate right? Yeah I guess you could just have Gio be the check guy but he would also have to be a

he would also have to be a running behind guy at some points and I guess that's what Podge wasn't too convinced in Right. If I had to guess. Having him do that half-heartedly four or five times, if it means we're getting a little more quality in the middle of the pitch, just in the general run of things. Because, you know, you got your scheme,

and then you have what actually happens out there. And, you know, there are transition moments and turnovers and stuff. Not a ton of them from Panama, for honest. Right. That's another problem. So let's say, what's that? Since we're talking about the problems real quick, that could be another problem. Panama wasn't rattled by our press, really at all.

If they wanted to, I think they could have put us under the college a little bit. It just seemed like, they didn't seem too interested in it. But any time they had an opportunity to build out, we weren't disrupting it too much. Our press was very toothless. It was all over the place, too. A lot of distance between lines at times. It seemed like... Time to get serious, Mauricio?

We've got to do better than this. Kind of across the board. Line-up selection, the coordination of the press, you get better performances from the big players. Turner had one chance. Turner had one test on the game. He failed it. He failed it, man.

F. Yep. Zero. Yeah. You get a zero on that test. So Panama's lineup was Orlando Mosquera in goal, very familiar face. Cesar Blackman, Carlos Harvey, Egardo Farina, Jose Cordova, who is sergeant's teammate at Norwich. Jorge Gutierrez, so that's the back line.

And then Christian Martinez, Coco Caraskia, Annabal Godoy, and Jose Rodriguez across the four. And then Jesus Fajardo as the lone striker. They weren't a 5-4-1. It turned into a pretty low block when we possessed for a while. But especially earlier in the game, they were playing a kind of high line, you know? Yeah. There was room to exploit that. I think I noticed that they kind of sunk it back like 10 to 12 minutes into the second half.

Okay. Probably getting tired. Yeah. Yeah. Because, like, I mean, we were making them run and hitting them. we were trying to take advantage of it. And so at that point, they've played a lot of defense. Yeah, they're probably getting tired at that point.

But anyway, yeah. Let me play Pula six. Before we get into the time on, let me just play Poole of Six. Pool Cic from the mix zone. Answering the question why we didn't create more danger. It's difficult to say. I need to watch it back. Just a bit of, I'm not sure.

I mean, the final pass was missing a bit, but also just an aggressiveness to get in the box. Take that risk of the final pass. You know, I didn't feel my sharpness tonight. And we just, yeah, we lack that of it. I mean, a lot of words flying around, but the lack of risk-taking, I think, was sort of a theme in the post-game comments

from just about everybody. And I feel that. I think that's true. I think we were, I said this in the post-game call-in show, which I've posted to both the Patreon and the public feed, excellent job by Vince holding court on that. But it felt like we just thought we were going to be inexorable.

We were inevitable. We were going to win eventually no matter what. And there wasn't a sense of urgency to penetrate that admittedly well-organized defense of Panama. And sometimes you got to just hit a pass. Like, let's go for it. You know, Tyler was mopping everything up. We didn't have any, like, huge risks of them score. Right.

And yeah, even in the, we hit balls in behind, right? But for every one that we hit, there was a solid three turned down. Now, some of them, we continued to work the ball around on that same possession and ended up finding something better. But, yeah. Like, literally, every time we had the ball, somebody was making a run-in behind, and it was turned down. I would say the biggest offenders of this.

the turning down, Eunice, quite a bit, Joe, and Tanner had a few, but mostly, I really, our midfield was just there for the vibes, man.

Yeah, every time Tanner tried to hit a switch, he under hit it. Like, hit like five of those. Yeah. He had won. All right, let's get to the time. He completed one. Did he?

Okay. Watch out. One for six. So let's get to the timeline, but let me just say Vince has been working hard on the clip notes for this game. What time did you go to bed last night? About 4 o'clock, Adam Bills. Okay. All right.

Appreciate that. So the clip notes are key moments from this game. He's doing this for Boots on the Ground podcast, which you should also check out for interest in the U.S. women's national team and he's doing it for the Monday reviews and people are loving them so if you want to if you want to get that video join the Patreon at the $5 level because that's what that's for that's right it takes too much time ladies and gentlemen

to give it out to the $2 level I'm sorry but all timeline items will be included in these clip notes from this match so all right so look so you know check that out if you want let's get to the timeline third minute we moved the ball from side to side amongst our backline. Tim Ream has Josh Sargent and Weston McKinney

making runs it behind the Panama backline, both like, into outruns. Into outruns. Tim hits the ball over the top to Weston, who loses out to Gutierrez. Panama is able to get out, though, as Eunice wins it back on the right touchline from Gutierrez by poking it to Wes.

West kind of shrugs off Gutierrez and carries it a couple. yards and squares it to Josh Sargent in the box on the right side of the box. Josh takes a touch and it's cleared out for a corner by Farina. And a suing corner finds a testament's head, but it just hits his head and pops up. Nothing comes up. So you're just noticing that Wes is making this run that you mentioned earlier. Yeah.

Already. Right. You can just tell three minutes into the match. that this is what we're trying to do. Okay. Fifth minute, Panama tries to build out. We end up forcing them back. A long ball is played by Farina

that goes straight to Matt Turner. He collects it and rolls it quickly to Tyler Adams, who is in the middle of the pitch in space. He collects, turns, and plays a streaking Eunice down the right wing. Eunice carries it down the sideline and plays a cross on the grass to sergeant,

but it's cut out bar. by Cordoba. Weston collects it at the top of the box and tries to do too much dribbling into a dead end, don't even really know where he was going here, and loses the ball. Yeah, he's just fiving out there, like just kind of carrying the ball here or there.

This is a nice urgency from Turner and Adams, I think. So, you know, there was, it wasn't like there was no sense of urgency ever. This was an opportunity that was seized. Nicely, I mean, you expect him to do this, but nicely done by Adams. to play on the half turn in a lot of space. And then nice ball in rhythm for Eunice out on the wing. And Eunice has Sergeant coming clear in the area

between the penalty marker and the six. He has a step on Farina. I watched it back. If this is Tim Wea, it's a dime. And Eunice just doesn't beat the first defender. I mean, the space is there for Eunice. He just doesn't hit a good cross, which is, you know, to our point,

why you got Eunice over there doing that when you could have Tim Wea doing it. Right. It's a bad decision. It's a bad decision, man. And, okay, also, he did have an opportunity maybe to square it to Wes before he got into the box, but, yeah, like you said,

Josh ended up having the step anyway, better ball gets it done. Fifth minute, just clocking the Tanner Testman, switched to Eunice out wide. He tries to beat Gutierrez and to no effect. To no effect. Eunice does not win that challenge there. Yeah.

Seventh minute. It's becoming clear at this point. For seven minutes into the match, every time we have the ball, everyone's making runs in behind constantly. ball gets to Chris Richards, Wes and Eunice check to the ball, and Chris hits a ball in behind to no one. I'm pretty sure Josh Sergeant is supposed to make that run.

Yeah, it looked like that to me too. He does figure it out a little late that he's supposed to make the run, but by the time he... And that's a good ball from Chris if he's making the run. Yep. You know? He figures it out late. He runs after it. He's still almost, you know, he's still like within a couple yards

when Mosquetta collects it because it kind of sits up nice. Too bad. Yeah, because I mean... You know, but it's just the seventh minute. You know, when you miss an opportunity in the seventh minute, you got 83 minutes more to score. Yeah, that's right. Because Eunice has Gutierrez marking him. West has Cordoba marking him.

So it's 1V1, Farina, Josh Sargent. He needs to recognize this and go. And overall, I don't think Josh showed as much alacrity as he could have with his willingness to make these runs in behind. that's what I would say yeah I mean the saga continues for him the saga of just building a reputation of national team

in effectiveness you know which is it's still seems a little unfair but it's getting harder and harder to argue about it as it continues to go man it's just like man um all right

eighth minute this is the first moment of uh panama on danger. They're building out. You're getting an attempted one, two between Rodriguez and Martinez along our right touchline. They're left. They gets handled by Eunice, who pokes the ball away infield.

Chris Richards comes and collects it with his back to the play. He's facing the touchline. And he loses it to Martinez, who kind of barges him. At first, I thought it was in the back. Looking at the replay, it's pretty. It's pretty shoulder to shoulder. Chris had his guard down. Was not expecting some,

was not expecting to be hit. So he gets knocked off his rocker, unbalanced, and Martinez takes the ball, and he's off to the races. Down their left side. He carries it into the box. Tyler Adams has arrived to mark Martinez. Yeah.

So now Martinez tries to take Tyler on with 1V1. Tyler blocks the cross, shot or cross, whichever it was from Martinez, out for a corner. Excellent from Tyler. A demerit for Chris. I think really the only thing that Chris did wrong in the game, but definitely,

he got to be better. Yeah. Yeah, without a doubt. I thought he was pretty decent. A lot of people were down on him last night in the call-in show. But yeah, this was the one big boo-boo. Like I said, he just didn't know.

somebody was going to come, but you got to be ready. You got to stay ready so you don't got to get ready. So this is what it is from Chris. Yeah. And it is also, you know, the main positive for me from the first half was just how awesome it is

to watch Tyler snuff out danger. Like he just did it over and over again. It's what he is superior at. And it's nice to see. It's a much more dangerous situation without Tyler. For sure. The ensuing corner is headed away by Chris Richards up into the air. Christian gets under the clearance, is unable to bring it down with his first touch,

and ends up filing Cocoa Kerritski for a free kick about 10 yards outside the box. The dangerous situation, in theory, for Panama. Left foot it. In-swinger is played and headed away by Josh Sarton. Then Kataskiya got a chance lit in the second half and just hit one of the worst free kicks I've ever seen. Truly. It's still floating. It's like that Brandon Vasquez penalty kick from the Gold Cup.

Yeah. 12th minute. We get a running behind from Christian Pulisic. We're building out. We get a running behind from Christian Pulisic. Joe Scali could have played him in behind with a, the faded ball, up the line with his left foot. Christian's going from into out once again, down that left side.

But Joe doesn't have it. He just don't have it in his bag. I don't think he was confident playing that one. He should try, though, even if he doesn't 100% have it in his bag. He should try, yes. In the 13th minute, the 13th, basically, to the 16th minute, I just noted there's two consecutive successful buildouts for Panama where they move the ball on us. They don't create any danger, but you can just tell that we, we're not providing them much trouble, really, in the build-out.

They are untroubled. Untroubled. Particularly Coco. Coco was just, he was bawling out there. I think he makes somebody at one point. Yeah, I noticed a lot of nice. interchange and tight quarters from them, you know, in the middle of the park. Again, it never, like you said, it never really came to anything, but they didn't, they did not struggle, uh, connecting passes.

And it's breaking our press. And it's like all levels too. Like, our midfield was sometimes late getting pressure to the ball. A lot of times Panama was able to skip, was able to break our midfield line and play attackers that were checking back to the ball. And, you know, the pass would be played. It would get to the Panamanian attacker, and it would be like, one of our defenders, they're coming to put pressure on their back, but we're not there for whatever reason. Like, you know, we should be there as the pass is arriving to either cut that out, intercept it, whatever. But a lot of times, that just wasn't the case.

All right, let's get to the chance. 18th minute, pulley is now on the right-hand side. and makes the into outrun up the right touch line. Eunice Musa has the ball with time to fade it, but he doesn't. Chooses to recycle the ball. We maintain possession until the ball finds Eunice again out wide right.

Now is Josh Sargent's turn to make the into outrun and Eunice plays him with the pass with the outside of his right boot. Josh collects it and has it poked out for a corner again by Farina. The ensuing corner, headed away by Panama. Joe Scali collects. He passes the Tyler,

who plays the ball to Tim on the right side near the touchline. He plays the Eunice, who lays it back to Tim, and Tanner Testman checks for the ball in a pocket of space. Tim is able to play it to him. Tanner collects, turns, and plays a simple pass with his left foot, out to Christian Polisick, who is out wide on the right touchline. Pulley takes a touch and plays a streaking west into the Man City Zone. The cut back finds Josh Sargent,

and his shot goes off a Panama defender and the flex onto the post. It's a nice chance. It's a really nice chance, actually. Really good from, you know, the move basically from from Tasman to Pulisic to West to Sergeant is real nice and clean.

And good movement from Sergeant, you know, springing into that open space to lose his man. I think he gets good contact with his first, you know, first time finish. just finds Farina's legs. And the Panama centerback knew nothing about it as it spun up and tinged off the post.

So, you know, just a little unlucky. Yeah, it's a shame. But, yeah, this is the type of chance creation you get from West when you play them in that tent position. You know, it's stuff like this. Like an intelligent run to the Man City Zone where somebody plays them in, and he just provides that cutback.

or something like that. You know, he's not doing, he's not doing playing Giorana versus Jamaica balls or anything like that. He can. Well, we'll get to a moment later. But we're talking about, like, a situation where he cuts out an entire set defensive attacking line in a situation. That's not necessarily.

Not necessarily. Yeah. It is notable because it's a chance created in the run of play with, like, multiple passes, but I think it is a little bit, there's a little bit of an asterisk on it because because of the scramble of the corner set piece confusion, you know? For sure. No doubt about it. Next item in the 20th minute is a pass from Blackman that is picked off by Josh Sargent.

He collects just outside the center circle and goes forward for a second and slows down to play it back to Tyler. Tyler plays a pass out wide left to Tim. Tim takes a touch inside with his right foot and plays across to Wes, who is wide right now on Gutierrez. And Wes catches it with his head, on frame, but right at the keeper. Yeah, kind of dunks on Gutierrez, but there's not enough. It's a nicely curled in ball, but there's not enough pace on it.

for him to really, you know, pound it. That said, you want Wes in this situation. This is a good chance. Yeah. And if he puts it, if he hits it far post, it's a goal, even a little bit of velocity. Wes had to snap his, snap his head to kind of get to it. You know, it was slightly behind where he was. Yeah.

So he wasn't able to direct it. He wasn't able to hit it into the ground or anything like that. He kind of did what he could with that one. But, yeah, Wes on Gutierrez header, something you would take your chances. Yeah. And then we get the called back goal in the 24th minute. Wea makes his run. We talked about it a little bit already.

Ream plays a looping ball to him. He gathers it somewhat clumsily to the end line. And then cuts back onto his right foot, whips one into the penalty area. It kind of sneaks through and gets clear. off a panamanian foot, but spills right to sergeant who swivels and pounds it in at the near post. A really nice finish, kind of improvised moment. But yeah, Wayo was way offside. I mean, like three or four yards offside when they did finally show the replay. Yep. Probably just anxious. Like we mentioned at this point, at this point, we've mentioned

every time that somebody's been played in behind this first time I mentioned it's in weigh his name. He was probably just anxious to get going right there. Yeah. But yeah, he was... Miles. Miles offside. Miles offside. Yeah. But the thing is, you know, you take those three moments in conjunction. Yeah. The hit off the post, the Wes header, and then this call back goal. And you're like, at this point, you feel like we have a goal in us, you know? So only 25 minutes in, you'd be wrong. You'd be wrong.

things things i mean we didn't really have a big a major chance the rest of the half and then it wasn't until ajemang came on that we that we started generating chances again yep we went kind of horseshoe of death at points in the next five 10 minutes which is the nature of things it's not it's not easy to break down a low block this isn't college football if you got the jimmies and joes then you win you know You can't, that's what's, that's one of the frustrating things about soccer. You can have the jimmies and joes. The other team can have a better scheme. They can be conservative and they can, they can beat you.

So it was unfair when, I think it was unfair for people to, somewhat unfair, sometimes unfair for people to criticize Burrhalter for the horseshoe of death. Probably will be unfair in some cases to criticize Pocitino for it. It's just part of the game. but that's what it looked like to me. Yeah. In the 27th minute, we get another running behind from Eunice.

Out wide, the ball comes to Chris Richards. Eunice fakes like he's checking to the ball and runs it behind. Chris Richards tries to play a worm burner through to Eunice, which basically just comes to Mosquera and claimed Eunice wanted it,

Eunice wanted it floated from Chris, but... Yeah. We got Coco playing out wide to Gutierrez at, you know, 30 seconds later. He tries to, he goes at, um, who's he going at there, Moussa? And tries to catch Turner at the near post with a, by smashing it from almost at the sideline. Just misses, I think Turner had it covered. Nice second ball win from Adams in the 32nd minute. Just love to see, I noted it in the notes because,

just love to see him that short range quickness from him, that burst to get to the ball. It's not, not everybody has that. Not everybody has that. It's nice to see. Yeah, very nice to see, man. And right after he wins it back, he ends up, I think he plays the ball to Joe Scali,

and then Joe Scully gives it back to Tyler. And he plays a ball over the top for Josh Sargent, who makes his one run. with alacrity, I would say. The one where he really looked like he wanted the ball, he got it. He gets clipped while the ball is mid-air and wins a free kick. Which we wasted. We wasted every free kick.

There was nothing. Every corner. Yeah. Yeah, every corner. Our set piece delivery was atrocious. Atrocious is too strong. Much below par. And even when McGlynn came on, at least let McGlynn take the set pieces.

Like, that's one thing he can do well. And he didn't even get to take the set pieces when he came on. It was a hierarchy thing. We've been talking about this for four years, man. I mean, I remember qualifying. I think it was that Jamaica match when John Luca was starting to. And we got a whole bunch of bad Christian ballistic set pieces. And everybody's like, well, why can't John Luca take it?

It's like, man. It's not happening. It's not happening. Yeah, if Christian wants to take the set pieces, he's going to take the set pieces. Yeah, so it just says what it is. There's a kind of a soft foul called on Richards results in another dangerous free kick for Coco, which is that one we were talking about that still floating. Let's just go straight to the half. We've got a couple chances in scrambling moments after a set piece or after a bad Panama giveaway.

That one that Blackman passed to Sergeant was that wasn't because our press was good. It was just a terrible pass. Yeah. and then you know but by and large we're not very dangerous not and i think what pulisic was saying is is somewhat true like we talked about tim on the left no jedi bombing up that left flanks we have no real width on the left and then musa on the right not really being that dangerous um and then you know it's not really us not really connecting on those channel runs that's a problem and the field was a bit narrow

You know, people have been talking about this a lot. It's not that much. It's not that narrow. I looked it up. FIFA recommends 74 yards. This was just under 70 yards in width. So, you know, two yards and change. I mean, I know that makes a big difference in a high-level soccer game, but two yards

on either side. It did constrict things a little bit. Yeah. And Panama was not rattled and really, or were. about us. Right. One thing I'd like to mention is just, you know, Josh, right? Talking about his runs in behind and whether they were, whether they were as intense as they should be or whatever.

I guess another thing I just want to bring up to really hammer home the fact that we weren't trying to play through the middle at all is just the fact that like Josh never popped. up to play ball with like anybody. Oh yeah, the sort of him dropping in, laying it off for somebody who's making a second run. Yeah. Never saw it. Like he never, and I can only assume that that's instruction. You know, he never, there was, there was, there's not one time in the, in the build, or when we're attacking Panama's mid block slash low block or whatever, that, you know, we get a pass and the Josh Sarre

sergeant to do anything to like lay it off to turn somebody or you know sometimes you know when the ball's out wide ball goes to timwaya ball goes to unis you know there's just two people there there is no triangle you know there's not that third person josh sergeant coming over there to try to make something happen no josh is he is posted to the middle him and farine you all day and Yeah. I mean, I noticed, like, I think I remember, like, one time when Eunice had Sergeant showing a little bit at the top of the box, but just elected not to go to him. But, yeah, I think, I think you're right. He was just in the pocket of Farina or Harvey or Cordoba.

And I'm not saying this as a slight to Josh is just to further illustrate what we were trying to do in this match. Yeah. Yeah, good. there's some stuff happening in the Spanish language portions of the press conferences that might be a little different from what's happening in English, I think. Pach was asked if he studied Panama, if he studied the rival by a reporter, which is a nice... That's Belgian. Yeah. I don't know if you notice Panama.

I don't know if you've been watching Panama. So I can't identify the reporter, but here's the answer, he says. the question is, this is Potch speaking, the question is if I studied the rival, if we studied the rival, of course we did. In the era that we live in, the information is clear. What the rival has done is reduced spaces, defending low, trying to disconnect our best players so that they don't have the fluidity that we can have the occasions to score goals. It's clear Panama played a soccer in which perhaps in 10 games they can beat you in one or two games in this manner. Always have to have some luck and today they had that. Moreover, we help them in that luck for Panama to score. Giving credit to Panama, Not taking away from the worth and recognition, of course. And Giorina didn't play. First of all, he is a player, as I've mentioned in a press conference, that we wanted to have him, see him because it can happen that in June he may not be with us due to the Club World Cup. He will be involved with Dortmund.

It was a great opportunity to see him, and yeah, he could have entered. It was thought that he could have entered an extra time since the game was almost ending. We thought him, or Diego Luna could have subbed in before, but for us, as we have said, the most important is to help starting from now, seeing his past situation. situation to have the opportunity to know him and from there to start generating a connection. So there must have been something about Gio and the question before that. We didn't see Gio. I mean, what do you make of the whole thing about like in 10 games they can beat you in one or two games? Well, Adam Bell's Panama had point one expected goals in this match.

So they scored. Yeah, point one expected goals, one shot on target, and they scored it. Like you said, Matt Turner had one question on the test. Yes, no. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't even a four-choice, multiple-choice question. True-fals, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, a pass or fail, true-fals test.

So that's probably true. But, you know, if you take everything that happened in this match between the way he played, the setup, the substitutions, this answer, and the press conference, et cetera. And you say that's Greg Burrhalter doing that? Ooh. Now, I'm not saying this to say that people are giving excuses for Potch. They are not.

Yeah. People are mad. People are on Potsch's behind. But if it was Greg Borrow to it, it would be even crazier. It is true, though. people are pretty upset, which, you know, of course they are. They should be. We're going to take a little break.

We'll come back and do the second half, cover the Panama goal, and a couple nice chances for Aja Mung. We'll be back in a moment. All right, we're back. No changes at the half. In the moment, I'm fine with this. In retrospect, Tessman needed the hook, I think. Like if we're going to, you're probably going to disagree with me,

but if we're going to go with Jack McGlynn to sort of, to give you rhythm and some ball playing. And I think the time that he was out there, it worked fine because he has, because despite all his deficiencies, he has Tyler Adams backing him up as a backstop behind him. If you're going to do it, should have done it now in retrospect. That's probably fair. I would say the insertion of Jack McGlynn gave us marginal gains. I'd probably say

But I mean he's better at picking that thing side to side the ten of testament testament testament is at this point of time Tenet testament can hit a easy, clean long ball

but as far as you know he's not the supreme server of balls or anything like that you know he doesn't have it you see it you see it with Leon

he can be pretty inconsistent with it from long ball to long ball This is less a criticism of Testman, which I do think I am critical of him in this game. But it's more that, like, this game is just perfect for McGlynn, especially that second half. You know, there's plenty of time on the ball. He can just, he can just sort of step on it and look around.

And when you can do that, he can make stuff happen. It's true. He didn't exactly make anything. Didn't make the difference, obviously, in this game. But I do think he brought, I think he brought a nice, a nice rhythm and I wish he had gotten another 25 touches because one of those times maybe he hits a he hits a banger or he uh you know hits one of those line breaking passes that he's so good at yeah and like we talked about last night on the post game show bells I feel like there was no need to have

because testman he's good in the first phase second phase type of thing like you know if you're playing under pressure. If you're getting pressed, he's good there. He's good in the build-out, basically. That's where it's nice to have him. We didn't, there was no jeopardy

of us losing the ball before we confronted Panama's mid or in the second half low block. And so his best traits are unused. And I, And I mean, his even, in this match, his brightest moments are kind of like just in combination.

You know, he's a nice guy to have a half in the second half where it's boom, boom, boom, boom. First time passes from, I think, Tanner, West, Tim. That sends Tim down the left touch line. There's, you know, him receiving the ball in that pocket and hitting the ball out to Christian. There's another combination with Tim in the second half where Tim's coming off the. off the left side and Tanner just lays it back to him. I mean, in a situation where we're in the final third all the time, that's what he can give you.

But he's not a deep line playmaker. And there's nothing from his tape at Leone that would give you. They would tell you that. He can hit a nice ball on his day, but he's not good at, like, crossing. He's not good at... He's not going to hit that delicate, not often going to hit the delicate sort of eye-popping pass. through the middle that McLean can hit.

Also the cultured sort of feathered ball over the top, I think McClain's better at that too. He'll give you like a little scoop every once in a while. He'll give you like a random pirouet. If the ball comes to him, like squirts to him like outside the box or something, he'll do something like that. He'll do something like that. I think he might maybe probably could have been more aggressive a couple times

just calling his own number, lining up a long shot. I mean, we weren't doing anything else. But yeah. And what it comes down to is we got. Tyler and Tanner, we're playing a game where we're trying to hit the ball over the top, which requires a level of delicacy,

and it's Tyler and Tanner doing it. They're both professional soccer players. They can both hit a good, solid ball. But I think at this point in the game, what we're trying to do is what we're going to continue to try to do, and we're going to bring in McGlynn anyway over somebody like Gio, bring them in now. Yep.

And this is another thing somebody brought up on the, post-game calling show last night. It's just the fact that, you know, I mean, we got Wesson McKinney on the pitch. Wesson can do that. We've had Wesson in that position multiple times against low blocks. I mean, my two examples that

that come to the top of my head are the Eidon match, right, in the World Cup and the Costa Rica match in Columbus, where he was the one tasked with spraying the ball, side to side. I mean, what was that? Oman, where he hit like 10 switches in that match? Just, just, just,

casually. Yeah. It was in that window. Yeah, he's a level up from, I think, Tanner and Tyler in that regard. But yeah, he's up in the front five running the channel. Yeah. Sometimes, sometimes running the channel. I got a bone to pick with him on the first Ajumong chance, though.

We got to get into that. Okay. We get a nice ball. We get like three corner kicks in the first five minutes of the second half. So it does feel like, okay, we've recommitted ourselves to the task of winning this game. And yet, like you said, nothing really dangerous ever comes out of it. The best, I mean, the coolest moment probably in that first five minutes is in the 47th.

Tim Rheem plays a nice ball to Tim Wea. He takes it down well. Nice work to try to poke it back across with his right foot. It wins a corner. This is something I noticed when we got to this point. So now Christian Polisic starts out this half on the right side. and I'm starting to think that some of the reasons why we didn't have access to Tim Wea in the first halfs because Christian Ballissick was over there as well

and of course it wouldn't it wouldn't be the first time that an opponent keyed on Christian Policic but so he's over on that right side um he gets the ball out wide right I think we've done some interchange unis is out wide first he passes the ball back comes infield Pulitzer drifts out wide. He gets the ball out wide there and like two Panama players immediately just rush to him. And so then Christian plays the ball back. We circulate the ball over to the left side.

And now that Panama backline is shortened on our left side because everyone's been sucked over to the right worrying about Christian. And now we get the ball over the top to Tim. And you see Tim is kind of unlocked in this. in this half and I do wonder you know if we had Christian and Tim on opposite sides

from the beginning I think it just would have been but you know you know what though I feel like Panama kind of figured out that Christian was not feeling himself and by the end of the game he would get the ball out on the chalk and they were giving

him the old Caitlin Clark versus South Carolina Like, go ahead. We'll send one defender out there. You got nothing tonight, bro. It did feel like that to me. Because he didn't. He didn't have it. But that is interesting because, like, as soon as he moved out right,

then we start getting a bunch of joy on the left. Right. And then it must have been at some point in the second half. They're like, wait a second. Like, look at us. We don't need to worry about him over there. I don't know, man. I kind of just want to get to the Aegemong goals.

chances. I wish they were goals. We'll get there. We'll get there quickly. 50th minute. Nice bit of combination. I think the one I was talking about, Tim Ream and accepts a pass for Coco directs it to Tim, who lays it off one touch to Tanner. Tanner first times it to Wes, who plays the first time to a sprinting Tim. You know, it's just a classic Tim way of play the ball and then get to running. Yeah. Tim is now sprinting down our left side and far. Hardo comes to meet him.

And he basically, I mean, he's little brothers to him very casually. Dude, he said, sit down. That's what he said. You look at the replay. Bro's facial expression didn't even change. He just brought his arm up like, like he was getting his kid off of him. You know, he was playing with his kid. Nobody complained that it was a foul.

The ball just went out for a goal kick. Yeah. A bunch of couple of great tackles in the early 50s from Adams. in transition. I mean, I do appreciate this. I know some people don't think I do, but I do appreciate this a lot. And we had some good sequences.

You know, we seemed like we were pushing. Scali overlaps with Waya one time, kind of cuts in, eliminates this guy, and tries to squeeze it into the box on the ground. This is like a 55-minute mark. It, you know, it gets blocked, pings around, lands at way his feet at the top of the box. He plays it over to Pulisic.

Pulisic tries to shoot from the top of the box and it's deflected out for a corner. He just can't get that yard today. 58th minute, we got a transition moment. Panama attack breaks down. Tyler plays the ball out to Christian Bullisick, who is out wide right. We have an on-rushing Eunice Musa

who's giving Christian Polisic an overlap. I think Christian should have relish this opportunity to maybe go 1V1 versus Gutierrez here if he could have but he dribbles the ball infield tries to play at this point you know it's one of Christians signatures is the is the back post dink and it's a little bit overcooked yeah he tries to play at the Tannettestman and yeah it's a little bit overcooked they probably went It was about five yards further than it should. You know, that reminds me,

Waya did get a chance. I think it was in the second half, where he cuts in from the left side and shoots. Yep. And this is, you know, for Truciccos, we'll remember his goal for the U-17s at the World Cup in India. And I can't remember what year was,

where he cuts in from about the same spot and just absolutely smokes it, top corner. And this was like the same spot. you know, six years later, seven years later, whatever it is. And he just kind of hits it tamely right at the keeper. Yeah. And you're like, man, this is not our night. It's not our night when Tim's doing that.

Way of Cook's Blackman crosses it out for a corner with his left foot. I mean, crosses it off of somebody else for a corner. There's a little bit of tricky moment at the 60th minute for Tim and Chris at the back, but they just managed to corral a bouncing ball situation. Again, I thought the centerbacks were fine. Without a doubt. Outside of, I mean, we'll get into Tim's role on the goal, but, you know, mostly they played well.

Didn't. Them combined with Tyler Adams, it just didn't feel like Panama was going to score. Point one XG. Really at all. Yeah. 61st minute, we got a Eunice 1V1, out wide with Gutierrez.

once again, he beats Gutierrez. He does, yeah. But it's cleaned up by Cordova. Cordova makes his way over there and cleans it up. Thing goes out for a corner. And there's no timeline item for these corners because they were all bad. You know what happened. 70th minute we get some subs.

Ajamong comes on for Sargent. Happy to see Pat, sad for Sargent, that another game goes by without him scoring. And then McGlynn comes on for Testman, which is just kind of like shocking, to me at least, in the moment. We're not bringing Gio on. We're bringing on Jack McGlynn. He wasn't even in camp.

He's a replacement player for Johnny Cardoso. And Pach is just like, yeah, let's throw him on in a must-win game. Again, I didn't think he was bad. I thought, I liked how he played. Wasn't that bad at all? And I like the idea that we need something special to beat Panama's low block. But it was a surprise. Richards gets kind of a soft yellow card

for what seemed like a pretty run-of-the-mill tackle slash maybe a foul. And that's in the 72nd minute. Waterman smashes Richards in the face with his elbow. So Richards comes off for McKenzie. That's in the 77th minute. And then in the 82nd minute we get that big chance

for Ajumang, the first of two. So it's a mistake from Coco in the middle of the field. West claims it plays a quick through ball to Pat So good on West just turns and immediately plays it through ball to Pat Big strong run in behind holds off Carlos Harvey We talked about this in the calling show But he's not there Josh Sergeant isn't even getting to this ball You know not this one

This is a real plus Display of something plus from Pat He Just real quick bills because you know, we're going to have people that, like, disagree with us. But Josh had these opportunities in those, like, into outruns that he was making to shrug somebody off and fashion a chance for itself. But a lot of the times it was Farina, and Farinea was handling his business for the most part.

You know, like, Josh was able to make the run, B1V1 with Farinea, but as far as, like, getting a step or unbalancing him in any way, you know, it just wasn't, he wasn't bothered by the situation. So, whereas Pat here. Introduce some bother to the situation. Yeah. He, so he's holding, I mean, he gets, he almost knocks Carlos Harvey down. And then Harvey, you know, Harvey gathers himself and stays up.

And he's kind of draped on his left shoulder as, as Aegemong shoots. He tries, he tries to open up and go far post. does draw a good save from Mosquera maybe he could pull it near post deceive the goalkeeper I don't know I'm just happy he got a shot off at all here and um

but the real beef I have is with the lack of anybody coming with him that's right because Pulisic is basically even with Ajumang when Wes plays the ball and he's you know he's coming up the left side

it's not so much on him Wes and I think it's Tim Waya Yeah Are you know just watching the play Maybe not even moving Because the camera You can see Wes when he plays the ball He's like alright my job's done

And he and Wea Wes and Wea don't enter the frame So as you may remember Mosqueda palms it off to the side And it trickles in the It trickles across the penalty area For I don't know And agonizing two or three seconds

Yeah as Pulisic runs it down and gets there before Mosqueda. But Pulisic, by the time he gets there, it's like there's too many people in the frame. He's basically forced to look to recycle it back up the flank on the right side, our right side. And that is finally when Wes comes into the frame. Yeah.

That's right. I mean, beat after beat after beat. And like if he's just, if he just hustles and he follows the play, follows Ajamong into the box, probably he gets a tap in here, you know? Then we might have a goal. We might have a goal. And this brings up

something that a lot of people are bringing up in the postgame show yesterday. Lack of effort, heart, grit, hustle. All those intangible things. People were calling them out last night. And, you know, we haven't brought it up until now because, I mean,

I don't think there's been too many examples of that in this match so far. Yeah, it's such a hard thing to talk about. Yeah, but go ahead. Right. I do want to talk about it. But this one, I mean, it's an example clear as day for me. Like, West should be following that play.

And maybe Pat could have did something different on the shot, but the shot was placed well enough to where mascara couldn't get too much to it. You know. Yeah, it was a good effort. Yeah, it was heading towards that far right corner. like he he he pat put it where he wanted to put it i think and with harvey draped on right you know and we got a and we got a save and yeah there's nobody's in the frame i mean christian ballics has to come all the way

across the field all the way across the field basically to get to that ball when there's um two people that are closer to it when west plays when west plays the past the distance that Christian Policicic has to go to collect that ball where he collects it is much longer than Wes's or Tim's distance.

Yeah. And if, and, Wes plays that ball. He's like, where am I going to get a slice of pizza later? You know?

If he bust it, if he bust it, if he busts it, he's there, man. But he wasn't there. Yeah. Um, let's,

let's hear what Pulisic says about that because he was asked about the, you know, the poach quote about not winning duels or something. You just said that it really came down to Panama Beach, you know, hungry. They won more goals. Do you think it was that simple in the end? Yeah, it's difficult to say. Like, if the game goes at extra time, we still have a good chance to win, you know,

one bad ball that I just played back. And then it feels like they're one against five. they get a shot off and it just went in. I mean, it's like, that was kind of how they came when. It's tough to take, but that's, that's... It's kind of hard to hear, but he's asked, Maricio said, you know, he talked about the lack of fight. What do you think that's true?

And he's like, ah, you know, he doesn't really agree. That's... But I think Wes, I think Wes probably, if anybody comes in for criticism on this, it's probably Wes. If you read his, if you trust Foot Mob, which I do not, just to be clear. But particularly on their dual numbers, their dual numbers are often very wonky.

The ones on Y Scout are way better. Like Bills, if Y Scout count of duels the way Opta does, we wouldn't have anything to watch on on Y Scout. You know what I'm saying? But for what they do have,

yeah. Opta said, Wes, one one out of 10 ground duels, one out of three areas. duals. And this is a recurring theme, baby. What's going on, Weston?

This is a recurring theme. Maybe he just needs the World Cup to get him going. Or like you said last night, he feeds off a crowd. He feeds off a moment. And if there's no moment, which there was no moment here, this was a largely empty SoFi stadium. Kids still getting let out of school at the time that the game starts. I mean, kids just finishing detention at the time of the game story.

There was no energy, no energy in there. I noticed, you know, it's not just this one from West. I noticed, I noticed a moment earlier in the game where he plays Wea into the corner. It might have been even one of the timeline items that we did. It's a little bit of a one-to with Wea. And he plays Wea, and he just, like, doesn't follow the play. I mean, Wea needs, way is going to dribble down. down in the corner, he needs somebody to pass you when he gets there, you know?

Yeah. You can't just play in the past and then just like stop. Yeah. Really, I think ever since in that press conference where he said he runs out play, talking about Tyler Adams, I feel like his, I feel like he really meant it, bro. After he said that, maybe he looked around and was like, I got away with it. Nobody said anything? I felt like it.

I feel like his defensive presence, his just presence in general, because not every duel is defensive, but just, I feel like it's all dropped off tremendously to me. I mean, even in the first half, we talked about a long ball, Tim Riem plays to West, and it's won by Gutierrez. Gutierrez is, we talk about how good West is in the air. I don't think that's, it's not, it's not Shaulco West we're looking at out there. there physically. Yeah.

He's not, and, you know, he may be physically not what he once was, but also he's not good enough to be like he runs, I play. I mean, he's good, and I've defended him. I've defended him a lot, you know, for years now against those who said, you know, he can't pass or whatever. He can pass, but he can't pass that well, or you can say that. Yeah. Yeah.

The best Weston is the one that just accumulates actions, positive actions. And yeah, if he's not winning headers the way he used to, he's not doing it. And this isn't just a U.S. thing. Like, he's mailing it in for the U.S. He doesn't win a lot of duels at Uve either. Like, this is not just him mailing it in or anything like that. This is like a market change, I would say. But, and it's not like when I say physically, like, he could still do all the ground.

coverage and all that stuff when he's when he's locked in um but in the air specifically you're just thinking about that shoulder yeah i can only give him the shoulder excuse for so long man and he yeah yeah let's go to the um the next big ajemang chance 87 minute nice ball from mark mackenzie he had come on for richards like we mentioned pulisic takes it down well with his chest i mean this is a nice play again and he cuts it back for ajamong it's bouncing It's bouncing in pretty much the same way that the West ball from the cutback zone was bouncing for sergeant. About the same amount of bounce. And Ajamong meets it, makes a good near-post run, just scuffs it.

I think it just comes off as plant leg. Yeah. And kind of hurdles over the bar. You'd like him to smash it on frame. I mean, I guess it is what it is. Yeah. it's a good chance man it's a

really it's almost a carbon copy of the Josh for the striker at least you know another into outrun going to that near post cut back

boom but yeah sergeant puts this one on frame I would think and then the death blow comes in stoppage time West gets a shot off with his left foot cutting in

in the 93rd It's a very tame effort right at the goalkeeper. And we're still watching replays of that when the Panama goal starts to happen. So it's a long ball from deep in the sort of scramble. Pulisic tries to head it back to McGlynn. It's just too hot, off target for him. Goes straight to Cecilia Waterman, who manages to beat Musa to it and then kind of slide and poke it in the general direction of Yompo Morales,

who gets there ahead of Scali. Morales brings it under control and plays it back to Coco. Meanwhile, Waterman has kind of slid out wide. He's almost touched tight with Ream on the edge of the box. Coco kind of pauses on the ball. And Reem, as he pauses on the ball, maybe feints like he's going to shoot or something. Ream steps, shades inside. And at the same time, Waterman shades further wide.

and I mean you guys have all seen it Coco passes it over to Waterman he just turns and shoot it's a simple I mean it's very simple soccer action he doesn't hit it that hard certainly more than a trickle but closer to a trickle

than a fizz past Turner and that's one zero game over basically I mean we get a few more sniffs including that Adams Volley. I think there's blame to go around. It's a bit fluky, but there's blame to go around.

Pool sick for the errant backwards header, Reem for not accounting for Waterman, and Turner for getting beat from that distance and that angle with that velocity of a shot. It's a perfect storm, I guess. I would like to mention McGlynn. No, I mean... No, hold on.

Hold on. Just let me say, okay. Just because I think he might have, could have came out and put pressure on Coco there when he's waiting for that beat. Okay. But Coco's nice. And so I don't think that affects to play too much. You know what I'm saying? Like, even if he sees Jack McGlin coming out, first off, Jack, it... What's he actually going to do?

He's not going to deflect the pass or whatever, but it... If he does make his way out... to Coco. I think Coco still gets to pass off regardless, but Coco has too much time here to pick his head up. He does have some time. Decide what he's going to do, et cetera. We had five defenders. You take Ream and Waterman out. It's five defenders versus Coco, basically. Yeah. And that's why I think Ream should probably notice that in an account for, the guy closest to the goal. Yeah, we needed someone to organize for us right there.

Yeah. It's all, it all happens very quickly, so there's that too. Scali's not really at fault, because he had chased Morales up into the, you know, up into the, up into Zone 14. Right. Really, it's mostly on, it's mostly on Pulisic for the bad backpass and Turner for the, for not saving it. It's a hilarious way to get beat, though. I can't even lie.

I was watching that. I was clipping that for the clip notes right before we hopped on this call, man. And just, it's going to be the clip notes, the full Panama celebration. Because, hey, it's the beauty of soccer, bro. I really,

I understand we lost, but that was a beautiful moment to me. And, and. It was pretty cool. After hearing, like, in the postgame, Tieri's reaction, and just seeing him on the broadcast where he turns around to Kate Abdo, it was just like, wow. And the fact that it, like, really touched him, that's cool, man.

It did really touch him. That's true. And it's cool. You know, that, you know, Cecilia Waterman growing up as a boy in Panama City, he idolizes Tieri and then he gets to score a 93-minute game winner right with Tieri right there

I mean, what a moment for him That's pretty cool, man Still sucks though Yeah It does It does suck No doubt about it So, I don't know

Where do we go from here? I'm not putting too much I'm not going to put too many eggs in the basket of seeing like some barn burner of a performance on Sunday night. But, you know, we'll be watching. Greg will be back on Monday to recap that. He's on spring break right now. We're going to try something new.

We're going to do a mailbag episode on Thursday. And what we're asking for from people is essentially voice memos that we can respond to. And we like it when people give their name and their approximate location, such as bells in greater Chattanooga. And I'm going to put a link in the show notes for something called SpeakPipe, where you can just record, listen back to yourself, and then send it. And hopefully we'll get a bunch of those and we can respond on the show on Thursday. I imagine there are some strong feelings heading into the weekend about the men's national team and probably will still be on Monday. So consider doing that. We'd really appreciate it.

Thanks. Potch out. Some people are saying that. I mean, it's not happening. I mean, there's nothing. Yeah, it's not happening. And that's one thing about me where I feel like people maybe, I don't know. You know, they get on us scuffed or whatever for not getting outraged enough or whatever.

But it's like, man, I can't control what's happening here. That's part of the reason why I get, why I didn't, I took the path with Greg Burrhalter that did. I was like, bro, I can't fight her, man. I can't fire them, man. Get behind them. So, I mean... Yeah, I'm definitely... Potts ain't going nowhere.

So it is what it is. But I do... I don't even think he should... I mean, definitely don't even think he should be fired. Absolutely not. That'd be crazy. Like, and some people made the point last night, maybe it's good for him to get a loss like this, you know?

To sort of... To taste, have that sour taste in his mouth. And, you know, have to ask questions like, did you study the rival? I have to answer questions like, did you study the rival? look man if two people have asked it um it's there there's something there there's something there if two seven people have asked it um so

and i was hoping that we would come into this window and really really the gut punch was that anthony robinson wasn't going to be here right and it's like okay we we have the injuries that we have um But when we realized we didn't have an, it's like, oh, man, I couldn't even, I can't even remember the last time we didn't have an. And maybe it's an obvious answer, but I can't remember it. But like you brought up on the postgame show yesterday, Bells, our fullbacks are probably still our superpower. You know, I mean, I mean, imagine Serge on that right side in the unit's position. Oh, yeah.

It would have got to, it would have got to cooking, man. And one other thing, you know who would have cooked in this match? I'll give you one guess. An attacker. Fulleran? Well, him too, but I'm talking to an available attacker, Haji. But both of them. This would have been their type of, it's that type of game playing.

Yeah. Yeah, Haji would be, Haji would give you that width. And, you know, he's not like a, he's not a sprinter. He's not going to, but he's going to give you that width and you can get to the in line with his left foot. Yeah. I mean, he just came back from injury, so there's a little bit of an excuse for Potch there, but I don't know, man.

It does feel a little bit like maybe get a little more acquainted with the player pool and think about it a little bit harder. Maybe start listening to the scuff podcast. I don't know. Are we getting $6 million worth of work? That's the question. Well, of course not. There is no such thing

It's $6 million worth of work. You know what I mean? There we go, Comrade Bells. You're right. You're right. I'm not a comrade, but come on. And Panama played well, you know, not just the respect to Waterman for his moment

with his childhood idol, but soccer's a tricky game, like I was trying to say earlier. It's tricky. You can't just, you can't just roll in to shit. Champaign Urbana and win 49 to zero, you know? Right.

It's not like that. I mean, it couldn't be further away from, uh, from Tanner's god dad's, uh, professor. Right. I mean, speaking, I've been meaning to mention this, bro. Have you, you been to a Clemson game?

No. Best environment I've been to in college football. Hands down. Really? Yeah, I've, only SEC place I've been to is Tuscaloosa. And that was in the middle of COVID. Yeah. And before you all come from me, I haven't been to a lot of the big ones. I haven't been to a lot of big ones.

I was following ACC football. Okay. So Clemson was the biggest one in that conference. But as far as the ones... Oh, because Louisville was in the ACC. That's right. Is it? Okay.

Yeah, crazy, bro. Crazy. I mean, crowd into it. like really into it you know like it's it's it's it's it's analogous to a soccer crowd because you know a lot of those stages be full but you know people sitting on their butts right clems in that's not the case bro that's cool all right game on sunday gold cup this summer and then it's the world cup the world cup is coming here to america and we can't beat panama chew on that we we are limping into this world cup in all facets

I'll let you decide what fast as those are. We are living into this thing, baby. Thank you, everybody, for listening. Talk to you on Monday. Clip notes. Clip notes. On the Patreon app. To your email, if you are a patron,

just so you know where to find them. Yep, yep. All right. We'll see you.