Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #604: USMNT v Trinidad and Tobago recap

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Charles Boehm helps us once again, joining Belz and Vince to recap the 5-0 win over the Soca Warriors. We do a full timeline and several takeaways, bearing in mind the opponent "wasn't at the races," as Dwight Yorke put it post-match. Malik getting blooded as a goal-scorer and foul-sufferer in Concacaf was big. Poch still has a lot to prove. Freese does himself favors. Etc. etc.Send us a voicemail 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. Hey, everybody, the Gold Cup is underway. Got a 5-0 win. Malik gets on the score sheet for the first time in a U.S. shirt. Pretty fun. I got Vince here and Charlie Boehm helping us out yet again. How are you doing, Mr. Boehm? So I'm so honored to be back.

You know, I got to stay on track here, keep doing things right, you know, get rewarded for scuffed performances. And, you know, let's see what happens, one game at a time. That's right. Yeah. I feel like I'm just like all the people in Einhoven are already in love with you. I'm falling in love with you too. That's a preview, folks.

That's a trailer. So, you know, T&T was terrible, really bad, really, really bad. This is not, even by T&T on American soil. standards. This was a bad performance from them. So what are we taking away? Vince, why don't you, why don't you kick us off? What are you taking away from this game? Before we get to the lineups, before we get to the timeline. Look, man, throw somebody else first. There was somebody else first. All right. I'm still trying to decide. I was going to listen to y'all first, and then

the sound of my takeaway is going to be. Fair enough. Fair enough. Your silence is so powerful, though. I mean, your silence is instructive because it is You know. It's tricky. I'm sure I'll come up with something. I think there's some stuff to take away. What about you? Yeah, you will.

What about you, Charles? I forget the exact phrase I use in writing about this game for MLS soccer, but this was mandatory, essential, nonetheless vital, something of that effect, because it's a box you have to check and you want to try and do it in the most effective and encouraging way possible. and I think that was done. It is going to get Pocetino said, and I think the calendar makes clear

that it's going to get a lot harder, even still just in the group stage where, should I run the number? Run the number, guys? Yeah. The United States men's national team is now 41, 1 and 5. That's 41 wins, one loss, and five draws all time in Gold Cubs group play.

And they've won their group on 16 out of 7. occasions. So this is going to get harder against the Saudis and the Haitians, but nonetheless, we're on course here, I guess you could say if you're trying to feel good again as a supporter. Yeah. Saudi Arabia, 9.15 p.m. on Thursday night, by the way. That's going to be a little bit of a more tricky game for sure. I'll say, Paschitino, still.

a lot to prove for me. You know? Lots. Lots to prove. Because, yeah, some things went well in this game against a really bad opponent, and we did check the box. But even amid the success of yesterday afternoon's game, I'm looking and I'm saying, why is John Tolkien not getting any minutes here?

Like, why is Josh Sergeant not in this camp? And it does, some of this stuff just doesn't. doesn't make any sense. Well, you know what? Because he's not a mannequin Adam Bill's. You forget that. You forget that about the BBQ King, Maricio Pachino. So, um, he's in, in real life person.

That's what he is. A real boy. Shout out the, Pinocchio. Shout out Pinocchio. And he was, he was exercising some demons, man. I think it was the second goal when the camera catches him on the side. sidelines, two hands in the air, head down. Like he just won a gold medal or something.

And I felt like he was saying, take that Christian Policicic. Take that. Would you pick off a back pass from, who was that? Fortune? Alvin Jones. Sorry. Could you pick off a back pass from Alvin Jones? I don't know.

And until you show me that you can do it, you better be worried about your spot. on this World Cup roster, buddy. Think you run stuff around here? Mm-mm. Mm-mm. No. He even admitted, I'm going to play the full audio at some point, but he even admitted he didn't really understand Malik at first.

Took him a while to come around to him. I mean, the whole touch him and feel him thing is it's apparently very real. I don't think he watches any film. He probably doesn't watch. any film at all. It doesn't seem like he does. And he never talks about like, this is the way the guy

I've been playing, you know, in the Netherlands or something. It's like, what did the club tell him about the player? And what has he learned in person from that player? Yeah,

so that was, this actually was something I kind of wanted to talk to you about. You were in that press conference, um, in Nashville, Bells, when Posh talked about getting a tip

about Alex Freeman from Oscar Pereja or something like that. Is that what? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was all just... No, no, I just wanted some more color on that.

Well, yeah, it was all just like we heard that he was a good player and this was really valuable information and it's been confirmed in camp. I'm like, bro, you can watch this player play soccer. It's possible. Yeah. Bells, he lives in London. That's far. Time difference. Yeah.

It's the middle of the night. London. That's true. Lendo City Place. I mean, yeah, it's too bad DVR wasn't invented until... Now, 2000. Now, obviously, what's that, Occam's Razor, would probably lead you to believe that, you know, of course,

the BBQ King, Maricio Paschino, watch his film. He's grinding in at all different times of the night, just like any other obsessive sport coach. but I do think we have a little bit of evidence on our side and it's just like the quotes too before we recorded we were talking in Charlie Charles Chuck noted

that Maricio can be pretty loose with what he says and then you know not in a bad way but not as guarded as a traditional sport coach would be and the fact that while being loose he has not mentioned any of this film that he's watching.

You know, it does kind of lead you to believe that maybe he's not. But why are we talking about this off the back of a? Yeah, we can't say for sure. We can't. I think he's got a guy for that. Yeah, he's got a guy for that. I think you're right. I'll bet there's maybe there's some kind of compilation thing happening.

If not, I mean, you can't, yeah. Don't anyone think we're slandering an extremely accomplished? manager. Well, I- have been Europe's biggest stages. I'm potentially slandering him,

you know, but I just want to be clear about that. And it's not, strictly speaking, slander, you know, if we're,

you know, if we're going to go by the dictionary definition. We don't know for sure if he's watching film, but it's not something he emphasizes.

Like, there are data points in, in your favor. Yeah. For sure. Let me, let me play the, the Malik quote,

because I think it sort of speaks to this a little bit. And, for me that's the Malik's the guy that's a big takeaway from this game if we're going to win the goal cup it's going to be to a large extent on his back and here's what

here's a question from Ryan Tolmich and answer from Potch where is you Ryan Tolmich from goal Malik Tillman goes out and scores those two goals and those are his first two goals for the US runs national team and it's been a little bit of a weight for him and you've obviously seen him develop on the club level with PSV. What have you seen different from him this summer and what are the

things that you saw from him today that really allowed him to take control of the game? I think Malik is a talented player. It's obvious that everyone can see. What changed I think is, of course, I understand better him now. First few times, October, November when we met for first time. I think it was difficult to create this relationship that the player needs and the coach need to trust and to trust each other. That is about time. I see now in after a few weeks together I really start to understand him and he started to understand us and he's very special. Very special talent. It's very special. It's a fantastic kid.

I see we are like in Pseu, we're all in love with him. Now we start becoming in love. Myself and the coaching staff with him, creating this relationship. I'm so happy because I see when people say, yes, you need time, yes, we need time. Because we need time to create that link that can provide the players to perform, fight for you and die for you and the same for the coach.

Trust. knowing that the player is going to fight for you and die for you. And that is why I think we are so happy because it's a talented player, one of the most talented players I think that we have in USA. So some of the stuff he said is a little hard to hear, but he says, you know, at the beginning he says he's obviously, anybody can see he's talented. And then he also says that PSV, everybody loves him.

Now we are starting to all love him too. just as they do in Idaho and I'd hoven um yeah so he just couldn't see I think it's just fascinating he could not feel him is right yeah they had not created the link where they were willing to die for each other but now they have it am I reading too much by by by immediately pondering whether he has simply not felt Christian Pulisick and that's that's what's the undercurrent of that back and forth. Oh, whoa. Sort of slow-mo back and forth we're getting here because there's, there's something.

And I will say this is not limited to Potch. Like even Bearhalter and lots of other coaches I've watched over the years, as much as they're watching club level tape, it's like what they see in front of their own eyes in their camps, always, always, always counts for more. And I think that's a big source of like play of a fan discontent. Pulisic doesn't strike me as the most tactile person, you know, on earth by a long stretch. So, I mean, there's probably not a lot to feel, you know. Maybe there is.

But. And then I wonder, you know, I think about Josh Sargent, too. Like, did Josh come in and just not, I don't know, didn't strike the right tone with Potch? or maybe the same thing's going on with Tolkien. Like I've been joking, he can't figure out the cut of Tolkien's jib. That's why he's not playing. But he loves the cut of Max Arstyn's jib. We had the founder of Oakland Roots, Oakland City Roots,

in our mentions on Twitter saying he's worked with Max. He knows people who have worked with him. His mentality is sky high. He's going to Toulouse, you know, because I was kind of making fun of the fact that Pottch thinks he's like, He's like the best American player. I mean, he's played almost every minute of this camp so far. I really thought he might see Tolkien yesterday.

I mean, he spoke to the media alongside Ream on Friday, which is sometimes a little bit of a clue as to where they are in the hierarchy. And yeah, it's very interesting. But it's also a tight group stage. So he could make significant changes. I get the sense that Potch wants to figure out a group and ride it, though. Yeah. You know, the front four that have now started against Turkey and against T&T

with that kind of interesting trio in the band of three, who are these distinct players that are being used in somewhat distinct way by Potch with Luna, Tillman, McGlynn behind Ogimong. And I think that's, I think you're starting to see. see and maybe that's that's him trying to maximize the value of the Switzerland embarrassment is like these are some guys and we're going to go with these guys yeah i mean that does seem like the first choice front for it's right there for sure i would never have predicted that i mean that that's collection of individuals is just like fascinating to me what is the mcglin part the part that's

would have been difficult to predict him playing right way yeah he does do it for houston but yeah Yeah, that he's never, and even in Philly when he would kind of get shoehorned into a diamond midfield, it would be trying to think if he played on the right much. I think he's usually on the left. So there's just something particular that Potch is seeing or feeling or both there. I mean, those are all three true footballers, in my opinion, you know, they like to play the game of soccer and they're good at it. That can't be a coincidence, right? Yeah, you know what? I think that's my takeaway is that I really just enjoy watching Luna and Malik in particular

just find space to attack. They do it. Their movement is just so intelligent. It's subtle, of course, in a, you know, Luna jumps off the screen a little bit more because of everything I've talked about before, tattoos, personality. blonde hair, et cetera. But Malik just gets it done in his, in his languid manner. But, and you think, and you think he's just, he's just chilling.

But when you really look at it, you know, when you really, when you really dive deep into what Malik's doing out there, you can see he's just controlling the game. Yeah, he does, he does have an understated way of doing a lot of, which is why I was similar to the potch in that, you know, it took, it took me a while to come around on Malik. I had to, you gotta really, you gotta really get in the lab and watch them. Luna's, Luna added the wax tips to his mustache for Sunday's game, which I think is noteworthy and, yeah, noteworthy. A lot of hustle, bustle from him. Let's do the lineups and then the timeline.

We're gonna try to be disciplined. I say this every time, but we'll see how it goes. Matt freezing goal. Alex Freeman, so he gets the nod over Turner, that I think that probably bears further discussion. Alex Freeman, Chris Richards, Tim Rehm, and Max Arfston across the back line. Luca Deletoree and Sebastian Burhalter will be the double pivot, I guess, nominally. And then McGlynn, Tillman Luna, as we have just recently discussed, the band of three, and then Pat Ajamong up front. Trinidad and Tobago was Marvin Philip and goal, Isaiah Garcia, you know, went out there and made Mr.

Arston looked pretty good, I think. Alvin Jones, Sheldon Battoe, J.J. Garcia, and Tyrese Spicer, cross that back five. Johnny Fortune, Noah Powder, Daniel Phillips in the band of three, and then Kevin Molino, my favorite Minnesota United player of all time, and Isaiah Lee up front. I should mention Alvin Jones, you know, he's the guy who hit the Thunderbolt that disqualified us from the World Cup. He had a horrible game, which I'm always. a little bit happy to see because of that

thunderbolt. But man, his career, this is totally a tangent, but his career since that goal, which, you know, was so profoundly important for U.S. Men's National Team fans, has not really

gone that far. You know, he played for Forward Madison for a little while. Right now he plays for a club called Real Sociedad. Not the one. Not the one in Spain. This is the one in Honduras. And then before that, he played for a club called Police FC, which is in Trinidad and is literally has police officers on the team, which is crazy. So just a little aside on USMNT killer, Alvin Jones.

All right, to the timeline. We're knocking it around early and TNT's half looking good. I mean, right from the jump, we're going to, we know we're going to don't. dominate this game and we get our first big chance. Tillman, so Deloori's got the ball in the middle and he plays it kind of like somewhat laterally a little bit forward to Tillman who has his back to goal and Tillman spots over his left shoulder that Ajumang has a little room to make a run and he does this just slick little Croif pass eliminates the defender that's closing on him and the defender that is on

Ajamong, Ajumong runs onto it, takes a touch, and then scuffs it with his left foot, uh, just wide. He probably was offside too, but this is nasty from Malik and,

uh, and a good, uh, sort of warning shot. Yeah, so this is, um, so first of all,

the way TNT set up, they are in a mid block in their, in their, in their 532 confrontation line, right about, you know, the midway line, maybe a little bit above it in our half or their half.

But I would say this is a mistake, just off the rip, just because it just gives us too much space to work with. The lines aren't as compact as they would be if they were in a true low block. And so because of that, we're able to do a lot of things to their shape that lead to us pulling them apart. Like that midfield line, a midfield band of three, we were able to pull them side to side quite often, and it just opens up space on the backside where there's two of the midfielders get sucked over. Now there's just one, and we usually have an overload

with like either 1 v2 in the middle, in the central area, 1v3. Anyway, so this chance is actually Malik and Pat playing off the backline, playing off TNT's backline, but we had sucked TNT over to the right side before we got it going. on. And I do want to shout out the fact that Pat isn't caught wrong-footed by the Malik Kroif Pass here. I do want to give him some credit for that. I think he understands as the ball's coming to Malik that maybe he sees that Malik's going to play him in here. He's not caught wrong-footed, receives the ball, keeps the dude on his right shoulder, and gets the shot off. But, yeah.

So I do, we're probably going to come down on Pat kind of hard in this match, but I do want to shout out the recognition that the play was on. And also, you know, I mean, the big boy stuff is just baked in. That's a good point. Yeah. Not every, not every striker or I wouldn't have even necessarily expected Pat to read this the way Malik did it. And, you know, the second midfielder is over to the right side. I feel like that's one thing that Jack McGlynn is really helpful with.

Because I imagine we'll come down on him a little bit in this episode. He's not going to beat anybody with his foot speed, obviously. He has a hard time running fast at all. But his ability to see passes and receive cleanly and get rid of it quickly does allow us. I mean, there was a lot of times where we could work things through his feet. even though he can't, you know, take the ball and go at people. A good example comes at the six minute mark. Good work up the right from him and Tillman.

He shifts onto his left foot. I mean, he could have played a right foot across. That's a foreshadowing. Shifts onto his left. He plays a pretty hopeful cross. It gets knocked to the top of the box. And Sebastian Berthalter meets it firmly. Fires on frame.

It's blocked. But this is a good take from him on a difficult. The ball is at a difficult height. He meets it in the air. And so this is the first look at our defensive shape. We're in the regular 4-4-2. It's like the first time Trinidad has the ball for any amount of time. Alex Freeman wins it back along the right touchline from Trinidad,

and that basically starts the move. You know, this whole move goes up. It continues up the right touchline, you know. Jack into Malik. Malik landed back off to Jack. But I guess I'll just note here. It's just like even, not even 10 minutes into the match, right? Malik is just unbothered by anything that T&T is going to throw his way in this match.

You can tell it early. You know, he's failing it. And that begets goals eventually, you know. Yeah. Yeah, let's skip ahead a little bit. So we get a nice big chance at the 11 minute mark. Arfston squares up Mr. Garcia and just does him. He kind of steps over to his right, pushes it to his left,

and then plays a cross, kind of a slightly looping cross, onto Pat Ajamong's head. And he meets it well, just flashes it a foot wide of the far post. So that's good from Arfston. and I mean, I'm going to say pretty good from Ajamong too. Just, you know, doesn't go in. Ball don't go in. And yeah, at this point you're feeling like, man, this is a different sport than we were,

than we witnessed on Tuesday. This is not. Arf showing a little juice. Yeah, yeah. A little juice, yeah. Got to admit it. Got to admit it. What's your, what's your take on our, Arf?

Charles, I'm, I'm curious. What's your measured opinion? It's so he's tough to evaluate, and I think he himself is an inherently tough position right now with the national team because that guy's a wingback. And that was a converted, if I'm remembering a converted striker. He is an attack-minded wingback with Columbus. And he comes here and he's like, you're playing left back,

but you're on the corner. And that did not go well. I thought against Switzerland, that was really bad. in some moments like ooh like what is this going to do to his future kind of kind of looks there and then you know as you said the the difference in level is evident he just had more freedom but but maybe and again i thought i thought we'd see Tolkien for this one just because i i assume perhaps incorrectly that there's some competition there because tol Tolkien was pretty pretty good for a bundesliga team you know over the past year um and i think there's a lot of

lot for Potch to like there if he if his gaze focuses on that for a while but um our arston uh arston uh arston has got his confidence uh arston has got has got his confidence and i think he's going to let him run so uh i i like him as a as a player but i still think um i still categorize him as a lay bloomer because just because of you know yeah he's 24 he's gotten here you talking about it about it just then made me think well maybe maybe patchino's being completely rational and sensible about this he's saying against trinidad and tobago we don't need arfston to play we don't need our left back to play a bunch of really good defense so let's let's put them out there and create some chances and then maybe we'll see token against saudi arabia which will be presumably uh somewhat more difficult contest yeah i mean

who knows john does not have the the the arf juice yeah he can't do he can't do the flicks and tricks that Max Arfston can when he's when he's filling it when he's putting Garcia on toast in this match you know what I'm saying I like so it's whether it scales or whatnot that's the question of course but as far as a base what attributes do you possess type package you know John don't got that

the ability to dribble that Max has well well you know he things though you know I mean he he puts I think his service is some of the best especially for a left footer. But maybe Pott's like, yo, I got my lefty, you know,

bomb dropper here with, with McGlynn. I'm going to let McGlynn cook on the set pieces and corners and the kind of stuff that Tolkien can do in addition to being a very capable left back. But I also want to say

that those of us who stayed past the 65th minute of the game on Tuesday saw him both. Receive a long diagonal. Receive a long diagonal and with one touch, touch should like hop it over the defender so he so he just like he just this was nasty I thought in a game that was really really uh frustrating and sad to watch he he not only took this long ball this long diagonal and his first touch took it over the defender and he was past him and then

like literally right over the defender and then the um the other thing he did was he tried to rainbow a guy with a little scoop touch you know what I'm talking about Charles I mean I know you I know you probably watched this part of the game I was watching, but I'm blanking on that moment. I got to go back. He gets tackled. He thought he got fouled. He was down in the end.

So he's on the end line. He tries to scoop it over the guy. I mean, this is the definition of juice. And to me, it looked like he got fouled. The ref didn't call it. He rolled around on it for a while. And then, you know. So there's a little bit.

So there's a little. I'm just saying, I'm just saying John's got a little bit of juice. Yeah. For those who aren't on Twitter. I co-sign that. And don't know. And haven't been a part of me and Bell's private text messages that don't know what we're talking about.

I left the Switzerland match right around the 55th, 58th minute, something like that. So I'd, and for the Patreon listeners looking for the Switzerland clip notes. Yeah, I haven't got them done. I haven't got them done. So I have not seen those minutes at all. I have no clue what you're talking about. I missed the entire talking show, unfortunately. Well, you, the key thing.

is you put a picture of you and two of your friends at the stadium and you said if i get 250 likes we're leaving at half time and you got what like 5 000 likes in like two hours the 250 was locked up by half time for sure we did not leave a half um i felt kind of bad but it was like man we we're getting busted i got a i got a nice little drive home let me just go ahead and get this get this going uh so yeah I did do it. There's a socio-emotional. I did do it. I did do it.

I haven't left the national team match early, ever. I probably won't do it again. But, yeah. You've got to think of the company, too. Right. You know? They were checked out. My boys were checked out.

Yeah. They didn't even look like they were excited about the picture that you were taking. All right, here we go. They're about to get, about to move. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So first goal comes at in the 16th minute.

It's, um, a real hot back pass to Alvin Jones. And his, his first touch is atrocious. It bounces up on him, like, well over his head. And, uh, big pat pounces, wins it, knocks Jones down kind of. Um, and then plays it to Jack McGlynn. going into the box, room to shoot with his right foot. He just does not trust his right foot like that. And so he shifts on to his left.

You're like, oh, no, this situation is, you know, this chance is drying up before our eyes. But no, he plays like a pretty nice clipped ball to Malik at the back post. A delightful first touch from Malik to kill this in the air, again at kind of a difficult height. And then he rifles at home near post, 1-0 USA. Malik Tillman's on the score sheet. Like I said at the beginning for the first time in a U.S. shirt, which I think is really important. That's what I got there. 1-0.

Great job from Pat. I just want to say great job for Pat. I was actually just reading the, I was reading the Discord a little bit a few minutes ago. And somebody was saying we should give Pat credit for A, closing Alvin Jones down, winning the ball. And B, the pass to McGlynn, which I feel like it's a pretty straightforward pass. that you should complete. But he completed it, baby. So, yeah.

That's right. I mean, so it's just, after this, it's just kind of chance after chance. 18th minute, a great sequence from Luca and Malik. And actually it starts with, starts on the right side. McGlynn passes it over to Luca. He taps it to Malik and like vertically ahead of him.

Malik then one-two's with him. And then Luca taps it out to, to Max on the left side. he cuts in and has a good shot with his right foot, good save by the keeper. Just another example, as Bell said, suck in their midfield over to the right side. Two of the midfielder's are over there with us. Yeah, Jack McGlynn, Diego Luna, having a good time over there. Then once we tap it over to Luca, it's on.

And they did just a masterful job taking advantage of that 2V1. Luca first time to Malik, Malik turns back to Luca. It was nice stuff. And just enjoy watching Luca, when Luca's in the flow state, he's one of our more aesthetically pleasing players in the pool, I would say, for sure. I hope we talk more about him, maybe not now, but later, because I think he's starting to become, dare I say, essential because of, of how he reflects the qualities of others around him.

Well, let's talk about that right now. Let's talk about it right now. I think that's always been his superpower. And it's something that when you hear that like even Pulisick the other day, I think it was in the call it what you want interview. And they're asking him, is there anybody that you are enjoying watching or what who's caught your eye with the, you know, at the national team right now. And he immediately talked to start talking about that, that, that,

the G.G. If we want to call it that, right, the crop of dudes that came up more or less together, him and Tyler Adams. And he mentioned Luca. And I think, I think he's like, he just stays around. And he's, now that he's playing regularly, he is locked in, like, foundational piece for San Diego FC. Maybe, maybe this is a better moment for him to just be a little, that much more fluid as a naturally fluid player by nature. but he just does everything well, really high floor, basic actions and technique, and creates a platform for the players around him and to the sides of him to go be their best selves with the way he passes the ball, the way he reads the game, the way he handles stuff. Behind him, Potch talked about how he had freedom to go, whereas they asked Burrhalter

to sit in more and be more of the six. And I thought that really suited LDLT and, And I just have a feeling that he's like just like sort of in the run up to 22, he just kind of pressed his way in and showed that he had characteristics that are not common in the pool. Yeah, I think of how dominant, not dominant. Dominance is not the right word, but how effective he was in that win over Panama in World Cup qualifying. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. If I remember correctly, the 5-1 win.

You know, he was doing all the stuff you're saying about making. to people around him better, setting a high floor. He's still ball secure for the most part. Lots of little start stops. I noticed that he's been doing that a lot lately sort of like turning one way and then turning the other way, you know, with his back to the defender. He loves doing that. You know, it's attacking drills out there.

McGlynn 25th minute picks out Luna from the sideline. is just vintage McGlynn an absolute dime 40 yards on to Luna's left foot from the sideline to the other side of the box and Luna's

first touch is a little bit heavy Yeah It means heavy. It's heavy first touch And it gives the keeper time to come out And he can't lift it over him Yeah But should have been I think she'd have been

Did he said this was a good touch But Yeah for this situation No, not necessarily. Like he needed to kill it in the way Malik did for the goal, right? And he kind of put it out in front of him, gave the keeper an opportunity to get to the ball. But just absolute sick ball from Jack McGlynn, right? I mean, the ball is crazy.

It's a rope from the right touchline all the way to the, you know, left vertical line of the box. And also just just want to, you know, I'll talk about. about Luna and Malik finding space. And this is just like Diego Luna playing off the shoulder of the left. I don't know. Is it the left right center? Is it the left center? It might be the left center back or they're like left wing back.

But either way, whichever one it is, it's just, he just finds ways to make plays. Right. With this movement, he's always popping up in positions to make things happen. Whether they happen or not, that's another question. as it stands currently. I think I would like to see this a little bit more from him. Yeah, for sure.

A little bit more clinical would be nice, yeah. And not just this play. He's just making stuff happen. Like he's everywhere. As we illustrated in the Turkey match, Turkey A match, and just here as well. Runs him behind.

He's over on the right side helping pull the the Trini midfield apart. But he's any and everywhere. He just thirst to combine. I love watching him just sort of drift around. He just like wants to build these relationships. There's like this tiki-taka strain in him where he's just like, let's go. Pass a move, pass a move, whoever is in his vicinity.

And it's something that when I think about it, I'm not sure. I think Tim Weyer did a pretty good job of it in the last cycle when as one of the half space merchants. under Greg, but I don't think we got enough fluidity out of our front five, right? Under Greg, and that's one of the big changes we've seen with Potch, is just the fact that these guys can pop up anywhere. And it's like, it shouldn't be, the whole reason we set up this way is to give the front five the freedom to do this, right? It's like you got your defenders ready to counterpress, to take care of transitions

and all that. the front five should have this freedom to move and find space and make plays. And I'm happy to see us doing it. You feeling like there wasn't that freedom? Like I said, we saw Timway do it. I'm thinking back to that Columbus, Costa Rica match where that transition before the surge goal, where Tim Wea is actually on the left and plays the switch over to Eunice before he taps at the

before he taps at the search. The Jamaica, that's right. Goal. The Timway has scored where he's on the left, combines with Pepe, gets a back guy, you know,

all that stuff where, so we did see a little bit of freedom amongst our front five, but I think maybe it's, maybe it's just an IQ thing. I don't know. I don't want to cast aspersions on the people. But I do think we didn't see that. type of fluidity as much from

yeah from our front file before whether it's down the personnel coaching you know somebody smarting can let me know that let's see there's the Richard's header

on a Burrhalter corner in the 29th minute Big Pat does well to hold up a good pass from Tillman in the 30th minute kind of a clipped ball down the right channel He runs it down, comes back up with it, plays it back, taps it back to McGlynn, who has a shot just wide of the near post.

Pretty good, I think a pretty good attempt. Like we, generally speaking, I think it's good when McGlynn has the ball on the right side of the box and he's cutting it on that left foot. Good stuff from Freeman and McGlynn in the 33rd. Freeman cuts it back for Burrhalter and he meets it first time, really good contact, just blocked. This one is kind of where we get into Trinidad

being pretty bad here. The bear left wing back. Just cannot be bothered here to track Alex Freeman's run. It's like a pass from Chris Richards out to Jack McGlynn on the right touchline. And Alex Freeman follows it. It almost looks like he passes it to Jack, like he collects it and passes it. But he doesn't touch it at all. He lets it run.

It runs through to Jack. And he just continues his run down the sideline. And one of their front two of the 532, they, come out to apply pressure to Jack, which frees up, which in theory frees up the Trini left wing back to follow Alex Freeman and he's just like, nah, I'm not doing that today. It's hot out here in San Jose. But good job from Alex Freeman to pick somebody out, to actually pick out someone and deliver the ball to them instead of just put it into the mixer. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point because there was a couple times where arfston just like you know just kind of rifle it at the

top of the six and uh you know this in this type of game i'm like man we could we could get a little better here and freeman provided it here it's crazy these guys weren't working hard with you know national legend dwight york as the coach you know i'm not saying that they weren't working hard what's going on the majority of this match they're you okay i'm saying they weren't i mean i saw some stuff in the second half with like some subs who came on like on that on that um brendo goal what's his name number 17 uh rio solomon rio solomon car car something man he was like he was just a sub pantomime we had taken their heart by that point you know i suppose so yeah bells you just made me realize cardina rio cardineas real solomon cardinez is 18

any place for Crystal Palace. I completely missed this detail. I would freely admit. Wow. They're U-21s though, right? He didn't play any. Yeah, I don't think he's got first team minutes. But that's side note here, but like, you know, on paper, Jamaica, Trinidad,

many of the Caribbean nations that have huge diaspora, especially in England, you would think, hey, why can't you be more competitive? but that's a super hard job. It's like integrating your domestic-based squad and the guys who are from the diaspora. Don't sleep on the complicated nature of that, as we've seen with Jamaica as well in particular. Well, okay, so 34th minute, Justin Garcia comes through the back of Freeman.

This is after, like, Luna heads it down for Freeman off of like one of those little clipped balls from a glen from the sideline to the channel. And, dude, he scissors through the back of both of his, legs. Absolutely ridiculous challenge. He's yellow. And apparently the VAR took a look at it and they said, yep, that's a yellow card. Couldn't be me. I mean, that's a red card for me all day. I'm glad. I'm kind of glad it wasn't. You know, he said to just make their game even more silly. For sure. But. Yeah, I was actively hoping for this not to be a red card. Was I saw Alex, you know, are you hurt?

Alex Freeman? Okay, you're not. Let's go ahead and throw this. yellow out, man. We don't need. But yeah, this is, when I saw this play, I started thinking about, you know, just the point I make a lot just as far as, like, the difference between, like, confederations and the difference between, like, soccer in general, based on, like, the rules you're playing by, who's ref in the match, what are your customs, what's the surface like, et cetera, et cetera, you know, so basically making excuses for us in Cocker-Caf. That's what I'm doing. But anyway, you. Yeah, I saw this play.

It's just like, man, you know, and you A-Fed, like, this isn't even a question. You do, you pull this in the, in the Euros or something. Like, bro, you are out of here. You're done. You might be banned for another two games on top of it, too. It got arguably overall, I thought it was even nastier after halftime when York clearly told them, get stuck in and leave a mark on these dudes if it's going to, you know, you know what I mean, if you're not going to win.

Because it was like little afters, like, stomping on the, on the toes after the ball had been really. least. Like, Arfson was crumpled, like, right in front of the fourth official along the touchline early in the second half. Just like, I mean, just dudes dropping everywhere. So maybe that's, maybe that's what the U.S. needed. These new dudes are like, this is how it's going to be in these situations. Well, you know, that was one of my, that's what maybe my biggest Malik takeaway from the

game is that, you know, he got, he nutmeg somebody late, much later in the game, late in the middle of the second half. And then gets just blown up by Dante Seeley, the FC Dallas product. I mean, like, it's like, it's like an open field. Yeah, it's like an open field free safety hitting the exposed wide receiver. And he was down for a while. I was like, dang, he might be hurt. This is going to be.

Yeah, I was thinking like collarbone. Yeah, or like a broken rib or something. What do you do to him? Yeah. And the really, well, it's encouraging that it was turned out he was okay. But the really encouraging thing is that he came back and dealt out a little punishment himself later in the game. You know, he like not punishment, but he got in two really strong shoulder to shoulders that I clocked after that happened. Which to me is like, okay, Malik has, he's blooded now as in competitive concord.

Calf matches, which is important, I think. So we haven't got the second goal yet. Let's get going here. slightly messy from Richards in the 37th. I thought Richards and Ream trying to deal with a bit of a counterattack. It turns out okay, but there's a little bit of Keystone cops going on when Ream knocks it away from the defender and then Richards tries to clear it,

but it goes right off the defender and loops up into our box. I kind of would like Freeze to come out. Freeze had a good game, I think, but kind of would like him to come out and claim this initially. He does not. Ream has to come back and kind of, weekly headed away and then it comes back like loops back in um yeah there's next thing i'm going to say is our goal 41st minute uh it's a gift it's a gift from t and t really i mean

no polisic probably doesn't jump this back pass route the way luna did but but like nobody at the world cup next summer is going to make a pass like this this is alvin jones again. He, I don't know, he just, he didn't look up for a couple

seconds or something. Didn't see that Luna was there, but he basically passed it right in the back of Luna's legs. Luna saw this

before he did. Luna was reading his mind. Yeah. And I thought he looked up and saw him at one point too. I was like, because, like you said,

like he got, he got going on this early, Diego did. And I thought Alvin, I thought Alvin kind of looked up and saw him at first. And then he made the pass and I was like,

Oh, well, I guess not. It hits the back of his legs. He gathers it and dribbles into the box from the left side, rolls it across for Tillman. I mean, if Tillman doesn't get to it, probably McGlynn does next. But Tillman thumps it in, leaps over the goalkeeper, and it's 2-0. There were some people asking, would Gio Raina make this run, the same exact run that Malik made?

He was busing it. He was busting it to get there. The answer is no, Gio-Rana would not make this run. make that run. Geo would show to the penalty marker in this situation. That's my, that's my prediction. I think it was only three touches by Luna,

if I'm remembering right, not including the one that was smashed into his legs, if we're remembering right, but he, I love when you see that clarity. Yeah. Like done this in training. Bing, bong.

Yeah. Yeah. Good point. So, and then we get the, The third goal, long diagonal from Tillman to Luna, a beautiful pass, not quite as gorgeous as the McGlynn one, but this is nice. And Luna cuts in and shoots, I would say, somewhat weakly.

Goalkeepers dive into his left, and it deflects off of Ajamong and through the defender's legs in at the near post, completely wrong foots the keeper. So Luna's lucky to get the assist. Ajumang's lucky to get the goal, 3-0. Yep. Um, big pet might be the Zardaz that was promised, man. I was looking back at this goal. I was thinking to myself, I'm like, hold on.

I've seen this before. I've seen this before. Hey, we might, mate. Jicey Zardaz region. Yeah. We need to see some face goals first. Yeah, yeah. Clarence gets pounded off his face.

Dyson. The goal. Then you'll know. Then you'll know. One of the funnier soccer players that I've seen in my time. A legend. Just insane goals that he would score and the ones that he would not score. And then I'll never forget the best finish of his life, that own goal at Panama during qualifying.

It was like, then he decided to pull it out. Like, yeah, I can't finish. Incredible. Where's Jawsie playing now? Is he? Ooh, I don't know if he is. He might be retired. I know it was Austin FC?

It wasn't a lot of fanfare if he retired. Is he still at Austin? No, because they didn't take up his option. Oh, no, they bought him out. They bought him out in December. I don't know. I haven't seen any sign of him. But he's only 33.

He can go again if he wants. Come on down to Louisville City, Jocke. Yeah. There you go. You need your baby. Police FC in Trinidad. Hey, look, Greg Burhalter does not become US M&T coach, if not for Gioces, I feel confident in that.

You mean he got his form at the crew? His striker, whisperer reputation was sealed by Giazi's artist's resurrection. Hmm. Bro. Thinking about the domino meme, you know? Think about all those dominoes. That's a funny thing to think about. Greg Burrhal's a strike or whisper.

You know, you look back on it. Yeah, it didn't quite work out that way with the U.S. But no. Shout out to Greg, man. Yeah, I agree. Shout out to Greg. I feel like there's a lot of people not really adjusting their priors on Greg through all this.

Silling it through all this heartache we're going through right now. No, I'm even seeing people taking screenshots of the foot mob from this match where everybody's green accepts the best. Oh, no. Yeah, well. And they're like, that name continues to haunt us, except, you know, whatever. It's an easy way to get 2K likes or whatever the hell. Yeah. It's nasty work, man.

We're behind y'all at the Scum podcast. That's the half. If you want to join the Patreon and skip the ads, the link is in the show notes. And I would encourage you to do so. And get the clip notes. I got the clip notes this time. Okay. And I'm going to still do the Switzerland ones too, just because I feel like they are nice time capsules to have of matches.

Yeah. To where you don't even got to rewatch the whole thing. You can just pull up the clip notes, watch 20 minutes or whatever. But so the clip notes for this match should be out. when this podcast is out for sure. I just got to do a little bit of editing. All clips have been taken and are in I-movie, ready to go. Nice.

$5 patrons get the clip notes. And Vince does them for the Monday reviews too, when the European club season is in full swing. We are, to some extent, guilty of being Euros snobs. Sorry, everybody. And we'll be back in a second. All right, we're back. 46 minute.

You got something in here, Vince. Oh, yeah. So this is Big Pat. He checks to the ball and runs it behind Trinity. Trinidad makes an into outrun down the left channel. His marker that was following him falls. Tim Rine plays him a nice left-footed ball. That sends him down the left channel.

Pat picks it up and plays a left-footed. ball across the box intended for Malik, who's on rushing once again, but it's overcooked. It goes all the way through the box to Jack McGlynn, who plays a square ball across the box for Max Arfston, who takes a first time right-footed shot right at the keeper. Oh, I think it's a little unfair. A little unfair to Max Arston. It wasn't right at the keeper. Oh, yeah, yeah, sure.

You had to make a dive-and-stop. I'm sorry. The keeper had to make a dive-stop. It was on the ground. You know what? I shouldn't have said right at the keeper. You're right. I'm like famous Max Arfston defender, Adam Bells.

I didn't think about how it would come off if I was saying right, but yes, it was saved to the keepers left, dive and stop. Pretty good chance. Yeah, decent attempt for Max. Yeah. There's the, like shortly after this, there's that McGlynn's side volley attempt on another sort of similar scramble in the box, a ball that goes all the way through. I forget who played it.

But, man, you see the, you see the angle from behind. in the postman, this was so close to being just a sick, sick goal. Jack McGlynn, you know, he's fun to watch. You got to admit, even if you do have to talk about how immobile he is. I think this chance came from some ARF sauce, I want to say. I think maybe even the ball came from Jack. I mean, from max, a million, max million. Okay, yeah, yeah.

And it bounces and then. McGlynn chest takes it on his chest and then swivel, folly. Pretty nice. All right. 51st minute. Another end to outrun from Big Pat is found. This time by Luca Deloori, who curls a left-footed ball into the channel. Pat collects and carries into the box under some pressure from number four, Batot.

He has it on his left foot as he's carrying it in. He chops it back onto his right foot kind of heavily. It takes them all the way. chop takes them all the way to the top of the box, which draws the attention of a on rushing Garcia who is making his way back into the box to get numbers in the box to help defend. Okay, so Pat holds off Garcia

with his right shoulder. He puts it back on his left foot now. Takes a strong left foot a shot that is saved out for a corner. Yeah, this is. really this is what one of the things pat gives you you know him just like him just shouldering people to the ground left and right as he like gathers the ball in the box and then is able to get off a really good shot i mean even on this even on the save it almost went in at

the back post you know yeah the keeper was down for like three minutes his hands hurt and something uh i don't know what's going on but yeah even while he's of course kind of chasing around let's touch a little bit. Like the chop took him way further than it intended. He's able to get some stuff done. He's able to get some stuff done. And I want to, the context for me here is that at this point,

the Soco Warriors are flying around. They're like, we're going to, we're going to leave some bruises on you dudes, you know. And they are trying to do this to him and bouncing off. So the bowl of the China shop vibes are, He's got better feet than a typical bull that we will continue to debate, I'm sure, collectively, whether his feet are good enough to be a starting number 9th World Cup bowl in a China shop. But you see the vision. Okay, next thing is the U.S. giving up a big chance.

Some blame to go around, I think, and also some credit to be given. Freeman gets eliminated on a long diagonal. So this is a pretty kind of cinematic defensive. error. I mean, it happens Chris Richards later in the game too, so. And Richards runs over

to put out the fire, but he can't get there first. And it's flashed across the goal mouth. Dante Sili is arriving on the goal line for the ball. It's a certain goal. And Matt Fries

just gets a little bit of a paw to it and pushes it behind Sili as he slides into the goal, which is a goal-saving action. from him. So, Freeze didn't have a lot to do in this game, but when he did have to do something, he did it.

And you needed two or three replays to catch what he did. It was the reflexes were very impressive, I thought. So do you think, Charlie, he's the guy now for Potch? At least for the time being. He spoke, he was asked about, I think, actually Sanjay, I think asked him about the goalkeeping situation in span. I won't claim to be able to translate it. I didn't transcribe it word for word,

but basically he said, you know, we trust Matt Turner. We know what he can do. We know he can take the pressure of a World Cup, but he had a hard year and he didn't play. And he is a little blunter in Spanish sometimes. And that he sees freeze as someone with potential, and they don't know if they're going to get a chance to give him a run like this in a tournament.

He's sort of, it sounded like a, a significant hint that he's going to platoon or may platoon his keepers. And why would you not? Right? Right. So, you know, anytime you take, you take, yeah, because Turner was in goal against Switzerland, right? Yeah. And so takes four does not look good doing it. It's a couple bull directly for one of them. It's the time and place to do it. I thought it was considering, you know, so this is freezes is new, but he's not, right? So this is a guy who is in the youth national team system extensively growing up and then took a long time to find a spot at the professional level. So I think he's maybe a little less green than his numbers would indicate.

And I was impressed today or yesterday. Yeah, same. You know, Greg thought that Turner's error against Switzerland is the kind of error that loses your spot for a while. Greg, I'm talking about Greg and Velasquez, which kind of stuck out to me because Greg doesn't just like throw stuff around willy-nilly. And then, um, uh, I got to say something about Sanji asking questions in Spanish because I was making fun of him.

I was making fun of him for it at the press conference. I was like, bro, you know, you don't need to show off your duolingo. You don't need to flex your duolingo muscles in front of all of us. You have an English language audience, you know? And he's, and guess who rushed to his defense? Michael Cameron, he said, man, I appreciate it because it, it, it, it, it, it, It gives Potch a break. Let's Potch relax a little bit.

And he does speak more expansively. I was chastised. I was chastised for my crass. Crassness. Xenophobia. Yeah. Just kidding. I know.

I know. I can't wait till next time I see Cammerman, man. We're going to have a good time talking about some Adam Bells, man. He didn't even know who I was this time. He was like, oh, I didn't recognize you. You're tan. I was like, okay. He might, you know, listen to you talk about me a little bit.

I don't know that he's going to have that much to say. That's my gut. T&T's getting some chances here and there. U.S. not looking great through 20 in the second half. A big jail break from the U.S. in the 65th minute. Ajamang stepping into their half with the ball. I kind of forget how we want it here, just some sort of garden variety,

winning the ball in the midfield. But, you know, Aja Man's not the guy you won't field marshalling a counterattack necessarily. He eventually finds Arfston over on the side. He taps it up to Tillman, slick little outside of the boot pass to Ajamon, who is now back to goal between the six and the penalty marker. And, you know, I say here he can't get a clean shot off.

He kind of almost did going to his left. maybe could have like fed it over to McLean to his um to the other side but um yeah yeah the shot he ended up getting off was he turned and shot it straight but he was outside of the gold mouth now uh the initial jail break when he has the ball I mean he has like three options to play like he could have played I think like Luna in if he wanted to with like a ball that wouldn't have took that much Cuth to play it in. But it was just like he just hadn't seen this before. You know, we talk about like last time I was doing the review, right,

when he talked about Jack McGlynn and the fact that he saw, we were breaking down his decision tree, right? And it's like, well, he's seeing the same picture that he just scored the goal. So he just figured, hey, I'm going to try to score that goal again. You could tell when Pat turned around and saw what was. going on here he was just like a decision overload man it was it was too much stuff going on his brain just kind of frazzled and he did kind of try to go for go for go for the same shot that he had just punished philip with a few minutes earlier the one that made him uh kept him down for a couple

minutes my hope would be that that whether it's with the national team or more likely maybe with uh, Dean Smith or whoever that someone who has is in a position to coach big Pat sit put put cues that up and says you want to be scoring tap-ins. You're not trying to play the defense splitting ball in that moment. Get it off your feet because the sooner you get it off your feet, the sooner you're going to get in the box and get a tap in. Go get a tap in dude.

You're talking about right at the beginning of the sequence. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Play the simplest pass. Yeah. I think you had a very simple option close to him that he could.

that would advance the move and get on your horse. I'd like to see him just spend the next 12 months just doing really, really tight rondos. That's it, you know. Just put Pat in a rondo, make him solve problems with his feet in tight space over and over and over. He's not going to turn in Yesta, you know, in the next 12 months. But you can get better at this stuff, right? he has in a lot of areas has he hey you know i mean i spoke with zornado uh charlotte's gm about uh big pat for a piece i wrote recently about him and uh he's he's he's sort they turned down

five mill for him over the winter they say they don't want to sell he's saying all the all the gym stuff like there's championship clubs that want him and somebody go you know somebody go sprinkle some pounds over there in North Carolina because they'll they'll take they'll take the the big money they'll take the money that that meets their evaluation and you might he might well find himself in an environment like that as early as this fall maybe okay I mean maybe maybe pot's just playing 4d chess here you know big pat going to be scoring 25 goals in the championship next year I do have to say Luna, so a lot of people were really high on Luna's performance.

I thought he mixed in a fair amount of kind of silly stuff in this game. You know, a couple passes to T&T feet. That failed back heel over in the corner. He does, he has that instinct to combine for sure. I just like maybe would like to be a little cleaner, you know, especially in a game like this. Not in your defensive third. Yeah, right. This is when Tillman gets blasted after nutmegging somebody in the 68th minute.

And I was, you know, so it's great to see that he recovered both physically and mentally from this. Yeah. I was laughing at this just because they reminded me of, like, in college when, like, we'd be watching film or whatever day after a game. And one of my boys would get smacked. And it's just funny. It's something that sticks with you for the rest of your life. Like even to this like Bells, Dakota, one of my friends that I brought to the match of national.

To this day in the group chat, we'll be like, hey, Dakota, remember when an old dude let you up? And we couldn't turn on the lights in the room for an entire week because you were concussed. Ooh. Wow. Bro, I know it's it's a kind of macab and dark a little bit, but that's what that's what football forces you to do, man. You got to, you got to find humor from these moments when, you know, your boy is so concussed. He comes over to the bench and starts throwing his helmet and whatnot.

It's all is fair and love and war, baby. And, you know, yeah, it's war out there on a football field. But, yeah, well, he got jacked up. And it just brought back those memories for me. I got a shout out my friend Reed Foregrave, a reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune, who wrote a book called Love Zach about, I mean, this is, speaking of a macabre,

about a kid in Iowa who committed suicide after high school, having played only through 10th grade. And he was just like one of those linebackers who just loved to hit people. And, you know, pretty clearly had CTE by the time he was in his mid-20s. And it's a great story. It was originally a story in GQ, and then it became a book.

Yep. And that's what made me think of, no lights for a week. Jeez, man. Bro, couldn't I turn the lights on in the room? We couldn't turn them all, man. It's the dark. That is incredible. We're in the dark for a week.

Anyway. I used to love football, man. I really did, yeah. All right. Do you know, I played in high school? I played in high school, middle school. I played from 10 to 18, growing up in Texas. Yeah.

What position? Well, I survived because I went to a small Catholic school. So we were playing both offense and defense, but I was a tight end or H-back on offense, and then I was usually an outside linebacker in defense. So I got lit up just enough to develop a proper appreciation. for the inherent violence of our of our country's favorite sport. Yeah.

Yeah. People don't appreciate it enough. But anyway, we'll keep moving. 77 minute, Chris Richards cooked a little bit by number nine substitute, Nathaniel James, with a little spin chop right at the left corner of the box. Mark comes over to help and deflects the shot, deflects the left-footed shot that James takes out for a corner. Chris was, he was beating pretty soundly here.

Yeah, a little slow-footed on the, a little battleshipy. He stuck his foot in, right? When bro was chopping and, yeah, he didn't get it left for dead. Yep, it's worth noting. And then Aronson gets his goal. This is where, I think he cuts in on Bato. I believe it's Bato, but this is where Rio Solomon Cardenas, the Crystal Palace U-21

just kind of I mean he doesn't even pretend to try to help out with the Aronson here and then the shot is I mean he hits it I think pretty firmly right between the guy's arm the goalkeeper's arm and his his rib cage

but if you know one of our goalkeepers letting it go like this we'd all be furious oh for sure It's a ridiculous shot to let in. This is where Malik is out here, shouldering people off the ball. He does it once in our own half

and then once in the middle of the field. So I was happy to see that, like I explained earlier. Richards gets cooked again on a long ball to number nine, Nathaniel James. Just doesn't judge the flight of the ball well. That first touch from James is excellent. This time he gets a rip off and just kind of bounces off of,

freeze. But it's a good hit. It's a good solid scoring chance. So it's just maybe got to tighten it up a little bit. And then 83rd minute, Haji scores. He had come on. He also cuts in on Bato and Bato just like, just watch.

I don't even care. And passes it into the side netting far post. 5-0 USA. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the timeline. You got a Dwight York quote, Mr. Bone. Can we get a little bit? Yeah, you want that one? Yeah, I do.

Well, we knew coming into the game, although a lot of hype around the American team in terms of the results, hasn't been particularly going their way. We were not under any delusion that the fact that this game was going to arguably be the toughest game in the group stage. We prepared thoroughly trying to maintain and frustrate the Americans as long as possible. And obviously, we concede it 16 minutes. I felt that once we conceded, the game had settled down a bit. He would have been able to hold off America until halftime because he needed to make some changes. But he later conceded, today we wasn't at the races.

It gives us an indication in the gap at the international level to where some of my players are playing at the moment. We wasn't at the races. I like that. Hey, man, he looked good. He watched. He did look good. The brand is strong.

The brand is still strong. But if you watched any of the Saudi Haiti game after the, after the U.S. I think you can see the U.S. should be aiming to take full points here, but these are going to be much, much tougher outs.

Haiti is everything that T&T should be, or could be, maybe. Look, I thought, had the better of the play, very aggressive, they'll ask some questions

of this U.S. group as it stands down, and then the Saudis, I think are going to be tough to break down. I didn't watch the match, but I saw, I was following along a little bit. And at one point, Haiti was losing 1-0, but they had only given up one shot, and that was like a penalty to Saudi Arabia.

It was, yeah, ludicrous challenge in the box, dumb, dumb challenge. But they had Saudis in hell for long stretches. I mean, just some of the size and strength of the guys that they have in that attack, still waddley at the back. but yeah, there's some, there's some athletes and I think it's going to be, I'm not even sure the U.S., you know, who almost always have the athletic advantage in almost any game. I'm not sure they're going to have that in that game. That's the third game.

I'm excited to see it. Yeah, me too. Again, Saudi Arabia games 915 Eastern Time Thursday night. We should mention there's a picture. Going around, maybe he's on the Discord, maybe it's on Twitter, hard to keep track of Johnny Cardoso and Tyler Adams and Damien Downs. Yep. Sitting at a table behind Matt Crocker. Matt Crocker wearing a white t-shirt, all tatted up.

And so that just makes me think, anything you want to see in the lineup, you guys, for Thursday? Should we go, we're going back to Johnny? Is Tyler going to be healthy? I don't think we see Tyler until knockout. At this point, there's no reason for him to play until the knockout rounds. I mean, y'all heard the record that Charlie laid out for y'all. I mean, the probability of us losing or drawing, even if Tyler Adams does not play, is, like, I mean, extremely low. 41, 1 and 5.

Yeah, so it's like we got Let's say about 80 something High 80s, 86, 87% chance of winning Don't quote me on the math I'm pretty close I'm pretty close But yeah, I don't think we need to see Tyler I don't think we need to see Tyler man

Johnny, yes, we need to see Johnny If only just so he can exercise his demons You know, you gotta do it at some point If you can't do it in the goal in the Gold Cup group stage then yeah we got some questions i think uh and i think on the delatory topic i think i want to see like how can he do for johnny what he did for for for bear halter and that and that band of three can he do this for everybody on the team just like be that good waiter that you don't notice it's just doing excellent at their job so um i i think you'd want to see some rotation to

give opportunities and rest some legs, but maybe the rotation thing bit bit bit bit a little too hard against Switzerland. So maybe we'll see, you know, it's Ream and Richards from here on out, right, until the, till the wheels fall off. But, and I do think Tolkien would be a nice, nice player to get a look at, but actually don't know. I don't know if he's going to do that. I don't either. Yeah, I'd like to see Tolkien. We did shut Switzerland out in that second half. somebody said that i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding you told us to win the second half okay you guys did draw the second half zero zero i guess we can say yeah yeah i'd like to see johnny and luka as that double pivot and then um same front four if one unless we can you know

emergency fly josh sergeant i mean we were we actually didn't go hard on big pat i mean he had he could he tried to spread it out wide once he kicked it all he kicked it all he kicked all the way up in the press box. He fell down once, like, Luca played him in. His cleats were not on, his cleats were not well selected. Like, he was slipping all over the place. That's the thing, man. His dribbling is not,

that's not necessarily a revenue stream that you can really expect to hit. Like, he makes the runs, right? but as far as him turning these channel opportunities into shooting opportunities all the time, I'm a little dubious on that. I do feel like maybe we can get a little bit more from Haji in that position. I would kind of like to see it

if we can get him out on the channels running and see if he can fare better than Pat has so far in this camp. But other than that, I think we just keep cooking with what we got. Let's see what happens. It would be right or white, I think, right?

Could be white as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it might be. I hope not, but I don't know. I mean, white had that delightful touch on that 50-yard ball from Turner, 70-yard ball from Turner. So, I mean, these are all good soccer players. Anyway, I'm just rambling at this point.

Go ahead, Vince. Well, I don't know when we're going to talk about this, so I do want to bring this up. Matt Turner rumored to Leon and Bells, Charlie, I don't know if you watch a lot of Leon, but they play out of the back very audaciously, extremely audaciously. Like, probably more so than like any other European team I watched last year. So he's got about three weeks as starter. And then he's out, man.

He's out. I was excited at first, and then once I really sat there for a second, I'm like, hold on. I'm like Leon. It's terrifying. It's terrifying when he gets the ball at his feet. You see the way they play in the... I mean, you know, they bring Mantis and antenna testmen down in the box a lot in their own defensive third playing the ball out and doing all this stuff.

Like, I mean, I'm going to be a nervous wreck. Vionn must have done their scouting, right? We have to assume that you're going to spend several figures or thereabouts on a player that they're familiar with. So, yeah, this... this is, I think this is make or break maybe for him because if we look at the Zach Steffen timeline, that's, this could literally break him. So I hope it makes him. Yeah. But I'll tell you what, Potch has made clear that dude needs to be playing games. So, yeah. I'm a little worried. Consider me a little bit worried just because of the destination. And now, obviously,

You got to learn French crash course, French lessons. Maybe that's probably what Matt's doing right now in this camp. Get on that duolingo. Yeah, I don't know that he's like that much worse than Matt. Freeze with the ball at his feet, but it just feels worse. It feels like you're walking a tightrope every time the ball goes back to him. And Freeze's team plays out of the back. And it's a small field, right?

Yeah. Yeah. All right. We got to get out of here. Thank you so much, Charlie. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you're welcome. Anytime.

Thanks, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.