Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #607: USMNT v Costa Rica, Gold Cup Quarterfinal Recap

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

Greg and Belz talk through the win in penalties last night in Minneapolis. Lots on the new look with both fullbacks high, Tillman, Arfsten, how Richards' protagonism helped create chances, a little cackling about Jesse Marsch's fate at the GC, and much more.Clip notes coming soon for patrons at $5 and higher level: patreon.com/scuffedSend 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, we are on to the semifinals of the Gold Cup, able to squeak past Costa Rica despite giving them a good chance to beat us. Greg, how are you doing? I mean, Bells, I'm doing wonderfully, reveling in yet another Gold Cup quarterfinal circus. I feel like we've enjoyed quite a few of these over the past five or six years. not least of all because there's at least one American who was not enjoying Gold Cup

quarterfinal circus and that would be Jesse Marsh. Just to keep scuffed on brand, we got to just talk about it right away. Yeah, it's too bad we don't have Vince here to truly revel in this. But, yeah, Canada knocked out by Guatemala. Rubio Rubin with the Equalizer and Aaron Herrera with a, goal line clearance. Canada's out. Jesse Marsh squirming in the press, flopping all over the place. Right, because the guy just loves the press. And I personally, I mean, again, to go off brand a little bit, I personally don't have anything against Jesse Marsh. But I love, I love the drama. I love the

soapiness of the whole thing. You know, we've been enjoying that for years now on the U.S. side. So it's like, this is, it's just perfect for the soap. Jesse is perfect for the soap. Jesse is perfect for the soap because of because of his compulsion almost to like weigh in on some of these U.S. things and sort of twist knives whenever he thinks he gets a chance to twist a knife in a way that he always

has a little bit of plausible deniability but now it's like this it just feels like it's a very enjoyable moment for totally for me yeah it is because of his maudlin streak that all of this is fun you know

he has a he has a faintly melodramatic quality to him. I mean, that's what got him into the spotlight to begin with. I mean, it was a halftime speech, right? It wasn't anything terribly masterful. It wasn't masterful at all. Yeah, it was. He swore a lot, which was kind of fun.

A lot of pounding. But, yeah, I mean, if Jesse Marsh were to eventually take over for a disgrace, Pachitino for the U.S., I wouldn't be like, this is the worst thing that could happen to us. It would actually just add more hilarity to the whole project. Well, I hope that doesn't happen personally. So I just don't want, I don't want Pachitino to be disgraced because then we're, you know, then we're truly going to be in the mud.

But hey, we won this game. Yes. And we came back from one zero down. We overcame some errors, some defensive mistakes, and got it done. We did. We did overcome some adversity. And so a quick question for you would be like, does this make you buy more into like the fight narrative or lesson to it.

Do you buy a lesson to all of the fight narratives and effort and heart? I hate to punt the whole discussion and just say it's all about variance, you know? Right. Because it kind of is just about variance. Like the Alonzo Martinez just rope off the inside of the crossbar, I mean, at the inside of the post, you know, an inch further in and we're, you know, we're having the saddest podcast, you know, that we've had all right. Your heart.

Yeah. Where is our heart? Yeah. Right. But we found a way. Right. So I don't know if I do like the urgency we played with in most of this game. I think we were trying to push, trying to score goals, playing hard. What did I? I like the way. I like the partnerships developing between Tillman and Big Pat, particularly that partnership. it seems to be one that is fruitful and can be repeated.

So I feel good about that, but I don't really, I don't know about the fight and heart thing. I think we got plenty. We got plenty of heart. I'm with you. I'm with you. Tons of heart. And again, the Jesse stuff is just a picture of perfect thing of like,

for all the heart that he's supposedly brought into that program. Like some bad things can happen when you take an early red card. Yeah. Yeah. Shaffelberg. Jacob Shaffelberg, another guy who's not going to be very happy today. But you got to feel good for Guatemala. What a great... Absolutely.

What a great story. Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, so there's that element, too, no matter what, I would have loved a Guatemala appearance in a semifinal. Like, that's just terrific for the region. Because I do still just enjoy the, again, I really enjoy the stories of international soccer. And Big Pat, you know, you mentioned, already is absolutely one of those stories. And even if he has no further part to play after the

Gold Cup for the U.S. national team, like, this is just a really cool story for a kid. So I've definitely enjoyed his partnership with Malik. Like you could see, there were some payoffs. And you would also see, in true big bad fashion, tons of really frustrating moments, both in sort of, like, you know, him sort of losing ball, but also actual like Malik frustration moments where he's trying to, you know, thread Big Pat through, and they would just be off, uh, communication wise off, off, uh, book multiple times, right? Where, you know, Malik plays them to the inside of the defender. Big Pat suddenly had flared out wide or vice versa over and over. And, and you could tell Malik was getting, or at least it appeared that Malik was frustrated with some of those outcomes. So

even as our partnership has provided quite a few looks and, and actually, uh, you know, a couple of goals, there's still that there's still plenty of room for them to get a little cleaner. Yeah. Improve the partnership. Yeah. I think particularly of the one where he, Malik slips him in to the box after a nice combination. It'll be in the timeline.

I forget how the combination started for the moment. But anyway, it's a nice little pass in behind. And Pat gets onto it. But the way he shaped his run, and maybe he lost his footing a little bit, it took him, by the time he got to the ball, he was almost to the end line. And so he shoots it, but it just hits the side of the post from the outside. So, yeah, those little things, I think he's not real great at shaping his runs. We've talked about this.

But, man, I don't think, I think he's going to have a part to play after this term. If I had to bet one way or the other, I'd say he has a part to play. A lot because of the things you were talking about last time, where he creates opportunities where there aren't any. with any of our other strikers. The fact that he played back to goal so effectively, particularly on the Arfston goal, but there were several situations where we played it into his feet. He has a strength to hold somebody off, even when the other guy, when the defender gets to the ball first, he can hold him off.

And then he can lay it off and we can cut people open that way. I'm not, obviously, there's plenty to criticize with Pat, but I think overall, I don't know how we would attack the other team without him, you know? in this tournament. Yes, and with this personnel, I totally agree. I mean, yeah, 100%. I'm on board with Big Pat running with him for the rest of this knockout round.

Yeah. I doubt there's any question. Well, yeah, no, of course not. But I mean, the question is, will he play in September? Will he play in October? I think probably yes, but I guess I could be wrong.

I've been wrong before. Let's see, anybody else, Anything else stick out to you from this game? Costa Rica didn't really play in a low block. No, not at all. 4-4-2, pretty straightforward. Yeah, let's do the lineups, then we can kind of talk about some of the cool wrinkles.

Okay, all right. So it was Matt Freezing goal, the hero of the day, for sure. Alex Freeman, Chris Richards, Tim Rehm, and Max Arfston across the backline. Arfston gets the nod over John Tolkien. He seems to be favored by Pachitino. Potchino loves his mentality. I think, and he displayed both the reasons that I don't think he should have started in this game, and also the reasons that Podge likes him.

He came back and did good things even after he did some terrible things. So Tyler Adams and Sebastian Burhalter as the two in a 4-2-3-1, and then Malik Tillman, Luca Della Torre, and Diego Luna in that band of three, and then Big Pat Ajamong at Stryker. Okay, so I'm going to jump in right now because I feel like these are some fun Pocitino twists that we got. Because a ton of the Pachitino discussion focuses on our fullbacks, the ones who aren't here,

and how are we going to use them? Because one of the fullbacks who's not here, who's played most of the right back minutes for Pachino is Joe Scali, and he's almost exclusively played in like a stay-at-home third centerback as we build out. And there's always like this speculation of what does he do when he gets Sergenio Dest? Is that really how he's going to use him? and we have gotten a couple glimpses now.

We got a glimpse earlier in this camp, a halftime change, where we did stop doing that, where Freeman, who had been playing the stay home right back, you know, becoming a centerback, stopped doing that. We got them upfield, and we flared, I think, Sebastian Burhalter out into that space to create the third player in a 3-25 build-up shape.

So that was a look like, okay, botch is willing to shift out of the stay-home right back. And then in this game, from the start, we got a new twist where it was Tyler Adams now, the center mid, the old school early 2010s. Centerback drops between the centerback. And both fullbacks get high and wide. So a little twist there. And the extra twist with this one was rotation-wise, we ring-framing up wide right. It's Sebastian Burhalter dropping from a defensive wide position.

In defense, Sebastian Berlter was playing defensively wide. on the right space. He drops into the pivot with Luca De La Torre, and Malik Tillman stays as like one of the tens up high. And then Adams, is Adams dropping between the centerbacks? Yep, so Adams creates the third man in the 3-25. It was Luca and Burrhalter as sort of the engine, the duo in central midfield, and then our band of five with the fullbacks giving us the width.

Yeah. That is, that's new for Punch Team. but it's new for Burrhalter too, right? Yeah, I mean, just because we haven't had that rotation where in defense, we were in like a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1, with Pat and Malik being sort of the higher players and Burhalter being like on the wide right space, Luca and Adams is the two center mids,

and then Luna in the defense of a wide left space in midfield. So, yeah, just kind of a cool twist to monitor and something like that shows that we actually have like a ton of flexibility if Pachitino was unhappy with somebody's performance. There are a lot of ways that he could take a guy out and replace him. I start to think of like if Downs was going to start a game. I have no idea if he will. But if you were going to start Damien Downs, a lot of different ways you could get him in there

besides just pulling Pat off and starting Damien Downs. Yeah. I didn't love what I saw from Damien Downs. end downs in this game, but we did go to that two, I guess, two striker formation. Is it even a formation? Or was he, I mean, I don't know. But yeah, it does seem like there are a lot of different ways for Potch to foster competition in the player pool.

Costa Rica's lineup was Kaler Navas, Carlos in goal, of course, you know, legend, maybe the greatest player ever from Concaf. Carlos Mora at right back, Juan Pablo Vargas, Alexis in Alexis Gomboa as the centerbacks, and then Francisco Calvo at left back. So they were not doing their classic five-man backline, exactly. This was more of a straightforward four-man backline. Orlando Gallo and Alejandro Braun as the two deep-lying midfielders.

And then it was Kenneth Vargas, a real lightning rod figure, Brian Aguilera and Josimer Alcoccer across the band of three and Alonzo Martinez the big scorer for NYCFC at Stryker and he did score in this game as well. So that's real quick, that's the other thing I want to talk about with Potch in his shape and it's that he's been pretty rigid about building with three, right? Early in the buildup we almost always go with the three guys in the back and I think we're going to see more and more teams test whether he'll adapt out of that

We've already been seen it a lot, where they just leave one player high. And I think that's what Costa Rica is doing in this game. They're starting to press with one. And I do think that gives us some difficulty in really creating like a good fluid possession that is sort of forward moving quickly out of the back because we are committing that extra body in the very early buildout to go 3V1 instead of being willing to be a little more risky and less conservative, moving a guy farther up the field and going into a two-three

build-out shape. Did you feel like we, I guess my sense was we had, we didn't have much trouble getting into the final third and getting people into good spots. And this is sort of been, I think this was the case in the last game too.

But we just couldn't really, like couldn't consistently enough create danger from those, I hate to use the jargon again, but those AVPs, you know, like, Like Luna in particular has been so wasteful in this tournament. When he does some good things, of course.

I love his energy, but so many passes to the other team's feet, particularly when we have a head of steam and we're going forward. So it seemed to me like you're saying we have three at the back, therefore maybe it's a little bit, we're sacrificing some fluidity in the attack. And I want to square that with my sense that maybe you think I'm wrong. But my sense is we were able to kind of fluidly move into the attack. It's just that once we were in the attack, we weren't the best.

Actually, I thought we did better in this game than maybe any game in this tournament at that. No, I don't think you're necessarily wrong here. I'm looking at like individual player choices and shapes, like situation by situation. So I'd agree. And then it becomes like, well, is Greg just getting lost in like dumb academic stuff where, you know, if we're getting the ball at the field pretty well, why care if we aren't getting the right shape and right numbers in these situations earlier?

So I think that's totally fair. I do think we were able to move it quickly into advanced areas, especially by going out to the width, partly because Costa Rica wasn't in that five-man back line, so we could find Arfston. I mean, it was heavily tilted to the left side, I feel like, yet again.

So we were finding Arfston plenty out in that space with Luna to play with. But it didn't always feel like we were getting decent numbers or sort of a willingness to use the numbers we had out there. And so I still think it's more, it's as much personnel related as shape related. But I just feel like you can see it when we're building out of the back. There were plenty of times where I thought we were getting ourselves into a little bit of trouble, holding it, not quite having the right angles to play out of in those early

phases. And when your engine is De La Torre and Burrhalter, I think that's probably partly why. Like, I don't think they were looking to do a lot, too much, like really risky passing when they'd get in the middle. And I don't think either of them is really intent on getting on the ball as often as we might need them to. Yeah. And that's still going to be, again, in this game, they were mostly fine. But it's sort of like translating up, are those guys? ignoring openings that they had in this game, that if they ignore those against better teams, those are all you're going to get.

If you ignore that, then we're just never going to move, you're never going to move the ball forward for us. Yeah. Yeah, plenty of opening, ignoring, I think, from those two and from Luna. I mean, the one guy who doesn't ever ignore an opening is Malik Tillman, and he had some errand passes, some miscommunications with Pat.

All right. So, Malik, just, Before we move on, Malik not only doesn't ignore those openings, he is also the guy we need to ignore less. And by that, I mean, like, I feel like we sort of shy away from a crowd, right? And it's not a crowd that's a bad thing. It's, it's like a numerical situation and pitch control within those numerical situations that you need to be willing to shy away from. But I think we just shy away from, oh, there's a lot of bodies here. I just want to move it to a place where there's more room.

And so often that is like Tim Riem or Tyler Adams or Christopher. Richards because that just feels safer and malique is the guy we have to we have to just be willing to be like i don't care that it's crowded malique is controlling this area even around two cost rica players where i can get it i can feed him and and this will i want to we need to give him the opportunity to be excellent effectively yeah yeah he he doesn't have i mean he's he's human so sometimes in a crowd he loses the ball but uh he's he doesn't seem to have a ton of trouble receiving the ball in traffic. And oftentimes there's something, he's got something up his sleeve, like a little flick to somebody.

Yeah, exactly. And then that's what cuts him open. So let's go to the timeline. Right away, we do this thing where Adams drops into the back line and Burrhalter picks it up from Tyler and tries to hit a dime for Luna who's running the channel, but it's slightly beyond him. And I think Luna was offside as well. So that was maybe a little early sign of intent. Fifth minute, we get a good sequence keyed by a pass from Ream to Tillman.

And this is one where he's got, I think, two bodies on him. He flicks slash leaves it for Luna, who then sprays it out to Freeman. And then we possess back around their box over to Arfston. And he tries to cut it back for Malik. And it's cut out just in front of him. I kind of think Malik maybe should have. Malik was sort of leaving himself the room. to arrive at the pass by hanging back a little bit,

and then the defender darted in front of him. Maybe if he runs a little harder at it, he gets a shot off, maybe not. Anyway, good patient stuff from us. I think good possession stuff. We look decent. Yeah, and this is another one of those where, like, this just has to be the direction, is feed Malik.

Like, the two guys doing the engine work are basically just decoys. And if that's the setup, like, fair enough. but that's sort of where it already starts to feel like that. Like just if you can skip Burrhalter and Luca and get it right into Malik. And that's what Ream did on this play. And then Arfston's ball looks very similar to what we're going to see 30 minutes later to Luna in that same space. Yep. Yeah, so Arfson wasn't just pumping it across the box at like 70 miles an hour at head high.

He was trying to pick people out. he did have a few hiccups before that right in the 10th minute is when he gives up the penalty and it starts with it starts with a mistake from him at the beginning he misjudges a ball at midfield so just a ball just whacked from the Costa Rican defensive third their left side of their defensive third across the field and Arfston kind of rushes at it and it just sails past him and Kenneth Vargas, the right winger, he tracks it down and he's, you know, they're off to the, Costa Rica is off to the races. Arfston hustles back, blocks a couple of crosses, but the second cross that he blocks, it bounces up on him near the end line and he turns to

go for it. He lunges at it and goes right through the back of Vargas's leg. It's a easy penalty call and it's kind of a double mistake from Maximilian. And Francisco Calvo steps to the spot. Freeze guess is the right way as he did pretty much all night, but he couldn't get a strong enough hand to it. And I think it tings in off the post. Costa Rica's up one zero. Arsson didn't need to lunge for this ball.

There was no urgency to it. It was just dumb. Exactly. It almost like defies analysis, right? Is this the player that he's going to be? Does he do these things? this is almost like the Tim Rheem I think Tim Rame did this exact thing

and it would have been 2011 right in the Gold Cup so if this is the kind of player he is like we can't have him out there yeah and I don't know I still have no idea how Pocitino actually rates him whether like right now

Max Arston is getting a fall window call up to be Jedi's backup or if it's all just sort of like for this tournament he will you know, give us a little boost going forward, so I'm just going to run with it. I just have no idea. Yeah.

It's really unfortunate. Tolkien was as sloppy as he was in the first half, so he couldn't shut the door. But then, you know, we got more from Arson. Arson's all over this timeline. He does all kinds of things in this game. 15th minute, he's out wide on the ball after a nice pass from Burrhalter,

a good holdup and a clever little layoff from a league, before the clipped ball from Sebastian, and Arf does his guy and whips one all the way through for the second time in a couple of minutes, so there was one that was not in the timeline. This time Freeman gathers it on the far side of the box, tries to shoot it on his second touch, and sends it well over.

But we're not giving up. We're coming back at him. Yeah, and like you said, we've had plenty of fluid play into, by Costa Rican standards, is like lots of space to play soccer in. And so it hasn't really been discouraging. It was just inexplicable for a moment in the box,

but otherwise, like, the play has been mostly fine. Right. That was the, I think the only time they got into our box in the first 15 minutes of the game. Pretty sad. But 17 minute mark, a good passage of soccer from us. Just, I mean, basically throughout the 16th and 17th minute. it's maybe a little too patient, but we're working it around. Richards with another good entry pass to Malik.

He tries to shift it along for Luna running and behind, but it's cut out. This is when Richards is kind of dribbling into the attacking third. On the ensuing counter, there's a good defensive play from Freeman, kind of plucking a ball out of the air over the shoulder and following it back to prevent more danger. The Richards move is really like exactly what we're, we got to do more of. We're not really...

I mean, Costa Rica's in their shape. They're just fine. But Richards dribbles into a crowd. And this is all about, like, don't be afraid of a crowd. He dribbles into the crowd and finds Malik, who is just surrounded by players. And Malik is able to control, turn, and he has Luna going, right? Like, it's Malik at the top of the box. And he's got it, because of his touch is fantastic.

He has full control of the ball. Um, no actual pressure on him, despite the crowd because of the way he can shape his body and, and, and do this, the control he has. He's not feeling an ounce of pressure, uh, despite being in the absolute heart of Costa Rica's amoeba. And they're collapsing on him. And he just misses Diego Luna running free. And I'm honestly, it's like actually a little bit disappointing that he doesn't execute the pass because he's got that pass in him. Um, but we just, we just have to do this over and over and over again. Do you think, I don't know that we got a replay on this one. Did you, do you think he was trying to play it to the left of the defender or to the right of the defender? Was he trying to like jam it, jam it into that crease, or was he trying to play it behind him? He was trying to play it opposite side of the defender as a run.

So Luna's running on the outside shoulder and I think the league is playing it. And it is hard to tell. But the defender intercepts as he opens his hips from the sideline back to the, back to the middle of the field. But yeah, he has Luna going and Pat is going to slip off his player too. So even if that ball does get to Luna, we've got either a Luna sliding it past the keeper or Luna hitting that lovely square that we've seen him hit against Canada and the friendly for two on zero for Pat to tap in. So anyway, like just love gaming out what these guys are seeing and what their movement

is trying to accomplish. Malik is so fun to watch. I mean, just everything is so smooth. But the Richards, the Richards involvement there is crucial. Like the willingness to drive forward five, six yards, and then hit that short pass into the crowd is so important. So, I mean, we should, I mean, we have the power to do it. I should just put together a highlight reel of all his entry passes from the last three games.

Because there's been a lot of really good ones. And this game was no exception. So 1750 mark, so almost late in the 18, minute. Good stuff from Tillman settling a volleyed pass from Adams off of Costa Rica throw-in. So it's kind of pinging around. And then he settles it, carries it forward, slides it out for an overlapping Luca Deloere, who hooks one into the box. And Luna, you know, gets up, tries this flying scissor kick to generate power, but, you know, slaps it over the goal, well over the goal. It never looked like it was going in. But it does feel like through 20

minutes, we're actually playing pretty well. I know you already said this. They're not forcing us to play through a low block and we have a few different ways to go out and we can try to go through the middle through the amoeba. We're able to play out, play it out wide. We're able to go in and then out. And sometimes we're even doing the thing where we play it long for Pat and then he tracks it down and we reset in their defensive third. So I guess I like that.

I like that we seem to have different ways of going at him. And I attribute that completely to the genius of Mauricio Pachitino. It's a big change. It's a big change to go with the stay home center mid, I should say. So yeah, give him some love. He's getting the right guys in the right spots in possession. Yeah, in possession. We get a couple consecutive set pieces for Burrhalter to take,

and neither of them, he doesn't give us good service on either one. So, you know, they go on and on about his set pieces on the broadcast, on the Fox broadcast. I think he's fine, but I mean, he surpasses the Christian Pulisic line, I would say. 25th minute, Malik gives it up in Costa Rica's zone 14. There's a counter, a little danger, a bit reckless from Tyler, reaching him with his right foot just above the box, our box, that is. But I just note this because Tillman works back hard as he kind of does throughout this tournament, pressures the cross, forces it to go out of bounds.

We get a goal kick out of it. He's work, another thing about Malik, which we've talked about several times, he seems to be up for the work required, and that is really good news, I think. Yeah, right up until he isn't, which we'll have to come down on him for. But this one very much was.

I mean, he's a physical guy, man. Like, he's not afraid to lean on somebody. that he may not quite be locked into the bang bang moments in the box you know uh 26 minute good sequence from the u.s again a nice little reverse entry pass from luka to pat pat pat lays it off from malik and malik plays it in behind for pat this is the one where i don't think he quite shapes his run correctly maybe does lose his footing as he's as he's trying to explode into that space but he ends up with a bad angle it's set off the side of the post. But really nice combination play. And Luca, I thought maybe he doesn't impress

you much to quote Shania Twain, but he, I thought he had his best game so far, the tournament. Like he was pretty good. I'd like him as one of our more reserved centerbacks as we move the ball up the field. So as we've already got it up the field, when we're, you know, working the horseshoe, if we find Luca in that space, then I like him. I like him to make an incisive pass into to box. I feel like, and I can be wrong here, but I feel like his,

his, um, he's incredibly risk-averse earlier in the build-up, which, you know, some of that is going to be very natural. Like, you can be more risky,

uh, in the other team's box versus at midfield. Um, but, but I, I do think we could, he could, uh,

changes, his math. Yeah, a little bit. And again, personnel-wise, like he, you can play a Baltimore.

that you couldn't play to, you know, a non-Malik player. It's less dangerous. And even that comes with a little bit of peril because it's not like Malik is flawless in the buildup where he hasn't lost the ball in key moments. Right. On this particular buildup with Pat, I think the reason he does, his timing is a little bit off is I think he takes a bump. So it's a great ball from Malik, and he has to kind of reach and stab at it to get it to,

I'm sorry, to great ball from Luca into Pat. and for him to get there, he still has to take a, like, a hard step away from his established position to, like, stab it over to Malik. And I think that's what throws him off on the return pass or on the return run. Okay, okay. Field is slippery. I mean, this is noticeable throughout the first half. Lots of people falling down. They're playing at U.S. Bank Stadium, which is where the Vikings play in downtown Minneapolis, not at the soccer-specific stadium,

across town in St. Paul, which is where you and I saw the World Cup qualifier against Honduras. That was where it was literally zero degrees at kickoff. 31st minute, good sequence from Tillman and Pat again. I think Pat lays it off for Tillman and he goes at the end line and then he flashes it through the six. Freeman collects it and kind of makes the wrong decision. He cuts it back. but cuts it back to nobody, and Costa Rica's going the other way. But, but, but this is very promising.

And it turns out Tillman got studded viciously in the ankle by Juan Pablo Vargas. After he crossed it, Dr. Joe came on, you know, friend of the pod, Joe Machinick comes on. He thinks it's going to be a red card and a penalty. And it's not a red card, but a penalty is given. So Tillman limps up to the spot. takes it, hits the post. Arfston collects it and actually has a really good curled hit at the far post. Novice makes a good save on that, and it remains one to zero.

So opportunity knocked, and we did not answer the door. I don't know. What's some cool stuff here? I mean, there's a couple of cool, just soccer fun details. One, you know, we got to give Big Pat his love here because that's a nice combination with Toman to bring him into the box. Was it a given go? Was Tillman the one who played the past path?

This was the cheeky little Tillman Croif where this is just what he gives you. Like he doesn't, when the ball is going into Tillman, we have no advantage, right? But you just have to trust him. So Luca hits the ball into Tillman who's got a man draped on his back and it is a nothing situation.

But because Tillman can do something unexpected without ever giving Costa Rica a chance to take it, we suddenly create a very dangerous scoring situation. And Big Pat does a great job with his left to cut this ball at a nice angle for Tillman to attack. So that's just, that's a nice combo you're talking about. And then the play continues for so long that, I mean, surely, did you see this in real time?

Do you see Tillman catch a shot to the foot? No, no, no. Yeah, right? No clue. Like, you're following the ball in the old and day. this is never going to be called a penalty. And the play continues for like a minute and a half. So even then, like there's,

I didn't give a single thought to, you know, this coming back for any kind of a foul. Tilling does really well because after the foul, his momentum had carried him all the way into the boards. So he's in the boards laying down forever. He doesn't come back onto the field until a minute and a half later

when Big Pat fouls a guy after a ton of extra soccer had been played. And then he comes onto the field and then immediately drops again. So he'd just been standing at the edge of the field. Big Pat foul someone, he steps onto the field and goes to ground. Eliminating any kind of a restart for Costa Rica, I don't know how quickly the VAR had already whistled, you know, radioed down

because they would have probably been looking at this beforehand during that 90 seconds of soccer. But really smart for Malik Tillman to get on the field and then go straight to ground to not let this play start again. Yeah, I was confused by that in the replay because I thought, are they showing this in real time? Are they showing him fall down earlier? Because where has he been for the last minute and a half? Was he just standing there?

Yes, he was. I guess he was. It was brilliant. And then the other fun angle here is literally the angle that we get on the penalty rebound. Because I haven't really seen anybody do this before. And I wasn't even entirely sure it was legal. But we put runners at the edge of the 18, even with the ball. So, I mean, I'm assuming that means the rule is you have to be behind the ball for a penalty.

But we had two, one guy on each side of the box at the edge of the box, 12 yards out from the end line. And one of them was Arston. That's how Arsden got to it first. Yeah, ball comes straight to him and he's got a great angle to it. I mean, that's one in a million that sequence plays out that way. But kind of just a cool, cool twist we threw on our penalty set piece. I didn't notice that. And I thought it was a very good hit from Arfston and a good save from Navas.

Yeah, perfect save from Navas for a replay. Like that's the kind of agility that you just love to watch in slow motion from goalkeepers. Like that technique is just beautiful to see in high definition. The top hand, plumbing it away. Let's see. So, yeah, Tillman doesn't seize the moment. Oh, there's some afters, too. Do we talk about the afters?

Yeah, there was like a huge scrum, right? Kenneth Vargas, this is the 3630 mark. Kenneth Vargas comes up in Jaws at Tillman, you know, celebrating his miss. Tillman smiles, but Arfston, Richards, and Big Pat come to defend his honor. And there's quite a scrum. I think Richards ends up, I don't know if he did it on purpose, but ended up pushing somebody down,

kind of ended up on top of him. and Vargas is over there like sort of being defended from Tyler Adams by his teammates lots going on I haven't you know I haven't Zaprudered the whole thing but it's fun you know you love to see it

the best part though for me is Malik's reaction because that's the kind of anti-concafing that I think is really important like the ability to not get drawn into that concafaffing like do your own concafaffing on your terms don't let somebody coming up and join at you go Jew into like little headbut or any kind of

unplanned reaction. Like everything you do for cockycalfing, the whole point is you should know what your plan is. Like that guy knew what his plan was. He was going to provoke Malik. And Malik was just having none of it. So that for me is like the best

performance was Malik after the miss, just kind of smiling and being like, who are you? I'm moving for $40 million tomorrow. Right. Right. Yeah, and I think even Richards and, you know, everybody who came to defend him, it was all kind of theatrical. There wasn't, I don't think anybody was completely out of control. We get three corners in a row right after this, which kind of makes it feel like we're pushing for a goal.

But none of them converted. Pat on the last one did have a good chance and flashed it wide. I mean, it's not like a, it's not a sitter or anything, but it's a. pretty good look with him rising over Gomboa. And then we get our goal in the 43rd minute. Tillman sprays it out wide for Arfston. I mean, Tillman's at the center of almost every time where we move into the attack. He sprays it out wide for Arfston. He cuts it back.

So Arfston goes at the end line a bit, cuts it back for Luna, much the same way he tried to do for Tillman earlier in the game, as you pointed out. He takes a touch. It's a half folly with his left foot. It looks like he's going for the top. right corner. That's where novice dives. It hits Gomboa on the way

to the goal and it just takes a nasty deflection. Sales into the middle of the net. Navas doesn't have a chance. It's one one. A little lucky, a little ugly, but I can't say at this point that it's undeserved. No, I totally agree. And I mean,

I think, I think Stu had been saying on the broadcast, like you can feel like, you know, we're, we're, I think he probably even said we, because he's not a, he's not a, he's not a neutral. He's not a homer. Yeah. You know, like we're knocking here. And, uh, it was, it was kind of a cool one because it came from a Malik giveaway at first, where Costa Rica come down and have a decent, I mean, for their, by their standards, like a decent, uh, attack into R box. They sell one wide and freeze takes a quick goal kick. And we didn't necessarily

catch them by surprise and go straight out of there, but they were kind of slow to get back into their shape. And I think that's part of how we get Arst and all alone. out there. And everyone saw it. Like Luna, you can see as he's, he starts out wide, but engages his fullback and then cuts infield. And while he's cutting in, like, he's actually pointing behind him. He's like, hit it, hey, check out Max back there, which I always appreciate because I love, I mean, it's sad kind of how rare it feels like it happens for the U.S. but the idea of like moving to open something up for someone else, having that sort of full field understanding of, of coordination. But you could, yeah, It was all just like, hey, I'm coming in here.

Look what's behind me. And so Malik drives that ball out and we're in business. And also, you know, the whole thing going to this game is you just never know if you can beat Navas for 90 minutes. So it kind of is funny the way we score on him because it's like, yep, that's how you're going to, that's how you're going to get Navas. That's how you're going to do it. Yeah. Or wait, you know, have him come off at halftime with an injury. Arf gets the assist.

So a little bit of redemption for him there. Luna gets his first international goal. I don't think either had a very good game, but they did make it happen here, and of course, Arsson gets the goal later that all the redemption one could want. 46 minute mark, we lose it in a scramble at midfield, and Costa Rica tries a clipped ball over the top.

Freeze does, I think, really well. I put this in clip notes. It does really well to jump out and smother this just inside the box. It looked like maybe our backline was beaten on this ball. I thought maybe Malik was looking a little downtrodden, not just by all the physical contact, but he got his bell rung a few times,

but maybe more just the penalty miss. Seemed a little discouraged going into the half. Man, I'll say this. Again, the guy who's conspicuously been absent in all Gold Cup proceedings is Johnny Cardoso. And, you know, there's talk that Cardoso, Cardo's making a $30 million move to Aletico. And in a Cardoso only vacuum, it'd be like, yeah, I mean, it looks like he's got a case of a $30 million moveitis where he's not playing because he's about to make this move.

And then on the other hand, you have Malik just getting battered all through the group stage through this game. And he's on the verge of a huge money move too, where you wonder if like if there's any whispering from agents being like, hey, could you just could you just be? be a little more safe out there? Could you just move it a little faster before they arrive? Well, he could move it a little faster. You know, it's like he relishes the chance to get somebody on his back and try to make a fool out of them. And I mean, that, obviously, the opponent doesn't like that.

But we talked about, we've talked now a couple of times about our players being able to reset the clock when they have the ball at their feet. And Malik can do that. But there are times where your opponent says, we don't care about the clock. Like, we'll happily reset the clock for you by absolutely wrecking you. And then you can have all the time in the world to take your free kick. But we are just, we are just conceding that we're not going to take it from you, but we will let you feel it.

Yep. And you got a solid handful of those last night. So that's the half. Let's take a break. If you want to skip the ads and get the clip notes, videos, you know, all that other stuff. Join the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. It is the lifeblood of the podcast.

All right, we're back. No changes at the half, of course. We're not going to see changes at the half, I don't think, very often. Right away, an early ball for Ajima. He gets whistled for a soft foul, even if it was a foul, which I'm not sure it was. Notice Tillman gets back on defense and wins it for us in a little bit of a transition situation. So that was good to see because I was thinking, like I said, at the end of the first half that he seemed a little discouraged or maybe thinking about his move to Leverkusen.

And then we get our goal. 47 minute. 47th minute. It's Richards slides it to Tillman between the lines. Really nice pass from Chris. Tillman turns and plays it to Pat, who is strong enough to hold off Juan Pablo Vargas, even though he got the first, Vargas got the first touch on that pass. I mean, Pat just hasn't pinned to his back, so he just steps over.

It's his ball now. And then he lays it off from a leak, and he drags it past. a defender, I think an underrated touch whenever you kind of pull a ball that's a little behind you in front of you. And we've cut them completely open now. He slides it on a platter out for Arfston who is arriving from wide left and he concentrates and he bends it in at the far post. It's a good solid finish. As finishes go, one of the easiest in the game, I would say, for a right footed player to come in and bend that in at the far post. But redemption for Max for now, and it's 2-1 USA.

This goal is all Tillman and Pat. I think that's mostly true. And you couldn't have put it better by talking about the platter that Tillman puts it on, because there are so many times where this pass from Tillman to Arstyn is completed, but totally changes the options that the shooter has. And you couldn't program a better pass than this from Malik Tillman, to lay it where it doesn't it doesn't push arston out wide doesn't force them to take not only does it not force him to take a touch it it is almost stopped dead when arston hit like intercepts it yeah it is

just perfect like that is a that is a golf putt is what it is and uh and that's that's why i think arsstein can make it look so easy yeah because it's so easy to play that pass just a little bit too hot and then force your defender, your teammate to take a touch. And then it's not the same chance at all, you know? The fact that it's first time is what, from the distance that it's from is what makes it so. Easy is not the right word. It's not easy to score goals, but. And it's Kaler Navas, too.

That's the other part, right? Like if everything isn't perfect, you don't beat him. So, yeah, not just forcing him to take a touch, but if he does have to take a touch, he will almost certainly have to then bring it over to his left foot. to shoot because otherwise his touch would be taking him back into the retreating defenders. So for him to set this up to take a right-footed shot first time, like that is a really subtle thing that's super important. It's not impossible.

It's not like an impossible pass. No. But it's easy to take for granted just how important that particular pass was for creating this shot. I'm a big Malik Tillman fan. In case anybody's wondering. So we're up to 1. and it seems like we're on, we're on our way, you know.

50th minute, Pat's just terrorizing the back line. He wins a foul 12 yards above the right corner of Costa Rica's box off a throw-in. Berhalter takes it, and Richards attacks it ahead of his marker, who is Orlando Gallo, flashes it low and hard to novice's right. Good save by him. How good of a save was this? It's a really good save. It's not surprising when Kailor Navus makes it.

It is a really good hit by Chris Richards because he had to make a little adjustment right at the last second to sort of knife in front of that defender. This wasn't like his goal in the group stage where he kind of is all alone because of a botched off sideline. Like he is marked really tight and he has to do this really important step to get his head to that first. Yeah, swims in front of that. Swims in front of that marker. I really appreciated that from him. It seems like he's a legit set piece. threat now.

Good sequence from us in the 55th minute, keyed by a ream passed to Pat, who lays it off for Luca, plays it back to Pat in behind, and then he squares it for Arfston, who takes it to the end line and tries to stand it up at the back post. It goes off the crossbar, I think maybe deflected on its way through, spins up off the crossbar,

and then hits Gallo and goes out for a corner just ahead of Burhalter on the back post. We get a real nice shot of the Burrhalter family. very cute I guess Sebastian has two little sisters I think yeah that's gonna be fun content

for any more Burrhalter matches again not sure what party's gonna play beyond this tournament but it makes for a it's awesome man I mean tons of echoes from the prior admin that's great

yeah Sebastian do you think Arston was trying to cross this in for the like chested runner, who was Burrhalter, right? Trying to run it? Or do you think Arsson was like, I can just clip this in over novice for a goal?

Do you think it deflected before it hit the crossbar? Oh, man, I didn't. I didn't think so on first watch or instant replay, but I wasn't looking. I thought, if you don't think so, probably it didn't. I thought he was trying to score it. Okay. I thought he's getting real cute with it.

Yeah, he's like, like Vince said, he's like, he's strangely cocky, but also unsure of himself at the same time. 65th minute, just joyful soccer from Tillman and Luna after Luna wins it with his head to Tillman at midfield. And they sort of pass it back and forth down the field until they get it to Ajamong on the end of the sequence inside the box. It's in traffic. The pass from Luna is maybe a little behind him. So he has to take a touch and then shoot.

The shot is deflected up over the top of the goal. But this is good soccer. And the ensuing corner goes straight to Tillman. and he rolls it around a guy, you know, kind of soul drags it from right to left to get around a guy, shoots with his left, the shots blocked. But it looked like it was going to be, it was going to really test novice. And then there's a scramble. Nothing comes of it.

Yeah. And it starts to, it started to feel or has been feeling now, like we're kind of toying with Costa Rica, right? Yeah. And Malik kind of gives you that sense all the time. So when the whole, when the whole game is shifted that way and Marlene. Leake is doing stuff like this, it really doesn't feel like Costa Rica have a way back in. It doesn't, yeah. When Tillman is doing this kind of stuff and the scoreboard shows a lead, it feels really good.

We get in the 67th minute great set piece, again, won by Pat from Burrhalter, and Richards has a free header kind of at the back post, and he just sort of squibs it over from point blank. We're not over it. He heads it wide, doesn't he? He's going for the far post. Yep. And then 71st minute, we get the Costa Rica goal.

So Tillman misses Freeman with a pass in their half. And I mentioned it just, I guess I mentioned it just because Stu Holden mentioned it on the broadcast. I was just trying to, you know, he's trying to force the issue up there. Costa Rica collects it. And then they just kind of slowly move forward. It wasn't like a lightning fast counterattack or anything. ends up with Carlos Mora facing up Arfston and LDLT on our left side of our box and he splits them.

He just roast them both. And then he rips one at freeze, who saves it right back to him. And then he recovers it and cuts it back for Alonza Martinez. And he stabs at home flying at the goal, very alert from him. Less alert is Malik Tillman, who was kind of marking Martinez. earlier in the sequence, and then just when that save went back to Mora, he just froze and watched while Martinez darted in front of him. So a ding for Malik for his in-the-box alertness, also a ding for Arfston.

The dude just doesn't ought to play defense. And LDLT should probably do better there, too. I mean, I'm not sure what the dynamics are when you've got two men like that who's more responsible when you get split, the guy on the N-line or the guy back to the inside. both of them look bad. They both look bad. They're in the box, so they can't just do the thing

where they just wipe them out, so they have to be careful about like, well, who's lunging in with their foot? Because we can't just lunge our feet in at him. It's, I mean, I'm going to defer to Arfston being the nominal defender, it being his job to not make it this easy. I don't particularly ding Fries.

It's walloped at him. And because it's so straight at him, it actually is like pretty, like it's pretty difficult to shape a, rebound in like towards the end line. I mean, it's so square to your body. So it's kind of just going to be, you're going to basically be a backboard. But yeah, Malik is, I mean, he is standing straight up and down walking for this entire sequence.

Save for like half a second as that first rebound comes off. He does like break to the goal score. But then as soon as the ball isn't instantly played to him, he stands straight back up and straight up and down again. is walking and that's when he gets left behind by the runner to score. So this is one where it's like, yeah, you can definitely say Max, Max is the, you know, the embarrassing play here, but we don't care about Max as much. Like, Max isn't our guy that's going to determine what we do in the World Cup in 2026.

And it's like, Malik could be. So you're going to, you're going to basically grade the guys that are going to be there next summer and Malik is definitely going to be there next summer. So he's the one that we're going to, I mean, for me, like, his grade here is more important than Max's. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. It's, I mean, it's, it's a, it's a tough one.

It's like either, I don't know how you, how do you train yourself to be more alert in these moments? I mean, it does happen so fast. Did he dart towards, I don't have the footage in front of me, but did he dart towards Martinez, Asmora broke through the two defenders. And then once he shot it, and then once he shot it, then he shut back down and didn't move again, right? Yeah. Yep.

So, again, I was going to say you can forgive him for walking, but you really can't. Like, he needs to be more alert here. Everyone else in a blue jersey has got like that alert, active body position and stance for this whole sequence. It's just Malik that's walking straight up and down. you shouldn't expect Luca and Max to get done that easily. Like that's on them 100%. But you should be in an alert stance no matter what. So it's the little thing like that that was, again,

it was a 10 second sequence that he's just walking like that. I will point out because I don't know if Stu, if this is why Stu was mentioning it, it started with that Malik turnover way up at midfield. It's not the turnover that's bad. But what is kind of relevant is that it was Freeman on the overlap. So he's hitting Freeman on an overlap. It doesn't come off.

But Freeman keeps, he kind of keeps doing that 100 meter dash run where he finishes his runoff, even though the ball's been intercepted. He still makes it back eventually. By the time this all happens, Freeman is back. But because he wasn't there right away, Sebastian Burhalter flares out in his playing right back for this whole sequence.

So you've got, you've got him on the same line as Raymond Richards, playing where Freeman is. And Freeman retreats back into his right-back position. position, so you're kind of playing with double right backs for a little bit. And Malik Tillman, who is nominally the 10 and does not have these center mid defense responsibilities for most of this match is in this moment needs to be playing defense like he's another Tyler Adams.

And he doesn't do that. And so that comes down to like, well, how much do we really need to ding him for this? Like we would prefer that he recognize the immediacy of the danger and the urgency of the situation and respond accordingly instead of acting like I'm a number 10 and I'm defending like a number 10 but in my own box. So that's just going to be kind of a, I don't know what gets said in video review here, but that's sort of how I see the situation.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, okay. Costa Rica starts to feel, starts to look more emboldened a little bit after the goal. they put together I think their best portion of the game from 71 on. Lovely move from the U.S.

in the 76 minute. Richards plays it in the Tillman again over to Luna to the right side. Luna plays a pass to Pat who lays it off from Malik and he, this would have been this would have ended my day, ended my life. He lays it off from Malik

and he just takes it first time from 22 yards away and hammers it just over the crossbar at the far corner. He had novice beat. That's how you beat Kailor Navas is a shot like that. But it wasn't on. It kisses the bar, doesn't it? Does it kiss the bar a little bit? I'm choosing to say that yes, it does.

But it's another good moment for Pat. They didn't show the slow motion from behind the shooter. Anyway, go ahead. Did they? Oh, totally. It loops up off the bar. So it's that close. And it's a good one from Pat, and I think, again, a lot of his best moments were in this game were actually backboarding rather than trying to run in behind. Partly because so many of his runs in behind, they just got off page with Malik.

But the backboarding, the layoffs, were productive for us. Yeah. And that's, I think that bodes well for Pat, right? that he can do that. He can hold the ball up. Maybe his runs in behind need to be a little bit more finely calibrated. Downs comes in for Luca Deloiree, and now we're going with the two strikers.

I feel like we kind of lose some control of the game with that change. I could be imagining that. 80th minute, Sebastian Burrhaler gets the ball caught in his, under him in midfield, under limited pressure, so you get to see like sort of the limits of his game, I think, here and there. It's a tense contest. It's fun to watch a game like this, where everybody's really playing hard and, I don't know, it feels like it's been a while since a game has felt like this.

It's a good draw. I love the draw to get Costa Rica in the quarterfinal because you get this level of intensity. Yeah. Yeah, McGlynn and Tolkien are getting ready to come on. and then they do come on for Luna and Arfston. I've said it already, but I feel like Luna is just, he doesn't take the opportunities always when he could to go forward. And there's a frenetic energy to him that I find slightly displeasing.

But also he does some good stuff. I don't know, what's your take on Luna? He's not made a case for himself to be on the World Cup roster, has he? Not in an affirmative sense, soccer-wise, which is the one I was hoping to see. I think he's just going to be, I still think he's probably a Pachitino vibes guy. And I don't think we're, at the moment, with this personnel, I don't think we're losing something playing him over Damien Downs or over Brendan Aronson. No, I'd take him over

I'd take him over those guys for sure And I'm thinking one of these games He's gonna have like a really good performance By his standards But this wasn't that game And he shook his head as he came off Tolkien comes on for Arston Just a throw-in sequence

Tolkien immediately plays a Like a kind of a nice subtle little pass For Downs leading him across zone 14 Off the throw-in And Downs shoots from outside of the box This is in the 83rd minute and it's well wide left um and then 85th minute freeman gives it away at the top of our box tries to clear a long ball scramble so it's a it's a goal kick from navas and then uh navas and then

uh i don't know it's like a scramble uh Richards heads it up in the air and then Freeman has a chance to clear it and he clears it off of Alcassaire Martinez takes it steps right in front of Freeman and then just has one at the far post a bent and beautiful shot rings the post, caroms back across the face of goal. It was an inch from being three to two.

But it wasn't. It was still two to two. I don't know how you felt in that moment, but it brought me instantly back to Panama Nations League where it was just like, this is going to happen. We're conceding here. As the ball was in the end,

air is what you're yeah just we're gonna we're gonna gift them this chance uh and and it's gonna be bleak for the next couple months but instead the post saves us and now everything is fine for a little bit longer it is funny how that works um yeah it was like everything went kind of silent for the split second that ball was in the air because you could tell you hit it well did he hit it Why did he hit it? So now we're under some pressure. We get a good sequence from McGlynn and Pat. McGlynn plays it into Pat with his right foot,

a real nice little layoff for Downs, who dally's on the ball a bit. This is very similar to the layoff to Tillman earlier in the game that led to the goal, except Downs didn't have anybody arriving on the left wing. And he tries to shoot, and I think he takes a few too many touches, and then just gets crunched just inside the box,

as he tries to shoot. To me, he looked very stiff and off the pace in this play, even compared to his teammates. So I'm a little confused by that. Yeah, just, I think it was a really awkward-looking touch to set up his shot that basically closed the shooting window, right? It looked like we've got a great sequence here from Pat, especially to create this for Downs running downhill.

And he's got a clear shooting window, and then he sort of closes it himself. And in the contrast, here would be like, Malik, you'd know for sure, you can say with certainty, would have pulled back, even if his window had closed, would have recognized that

and then used the desperation lunges of defenders against them and then fed the late arriving runners. But Downs just sort of clatters into the challenge. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like Malik would have fainted the shot with his left foot and then rolled it onto his right and then, you know,

had the world at his finger. tips. Brian White comes on for Big Pat. We get just a couple more things before we get to the penalties. In the 91st minute, another good sequence from McGlynn, Tillman, and Tolkien up the left. McGlynn plays it to Tillman's feet. He dummies it for Tolkien. Tolkien plays it back to McGlynn.

And then McGlynn kind of does this little scoop pass into the cutback zone for Tillman. And he uses all his leverage, holds the guy off. sort of turns with the ball and the guy on his back so that he is able to cut in on his right foot and he cuts in on his right foot and shoots. It's blocked out for a corner, but it's a great chance. Yeah. Yeah. Again, it just emphasizes the patience and control that Tillman has in these situations. Yeah. I watch it and it really does look like genius to me, you know, the way he can handle the ball. because it's like it's not just technical ability it's like all the all these things working in unison um 93rd minute good workout to Tolkien on the left and he crosses it for white and he gets a head

to it and heads it just why this is a last really the last action of the game and we're going to penalties how are you feeling at this point um i didn't feel great you just think we're gonna win uh i mean i didn't i didn't know for sure uh but i honestly didn't feel good about our conversion i honestly felt like our guys would kind of get the mental chokes a little bit. I really didn't think they were going to, you know, be as cool and calm as they were. Despite our success last year in the quarterfinal, two years ago in the quarterfinal. Yeah, just, I don't know. It's novice.

Yeah. Yeah, I didn't. I was worried about our conversion, too. And I think I would, even after this shootout, I would still be worried about these players conversions of penalty kicks, but Alonzo Martinez takes the first one for Costa Rica. He steps up, winks at his teammate, Matt, and then just rolls it down the middle as Freeze guesses to his right. This is the one penalty that Freeze didn't guess correctly.

So then the U.S. takes theirs. Tyler Adams takes the first one for us. Stutter step. Is Tyler Adams ever shot a penalty before in his life? It didn't look like it based on his run-up. He converted. He did. Stutter step, he puts it down to Navas' left, and it's not the best penalty, but Navas can only get a finger to it.

So one to one. Any analysis here so far, Greg? How was Adams? Adams was sort of hit it softly within reach, and yet Navas couldn't save it. I don't know. That might be the last time Navas plays against the United States. he'll have that to look back on fondly. Yeah.

He had a nice long chat with Potch after the game, you know. Sort of, they're part of a sort of a special club, I think. I agree. Costa Rica's Pablo Vargas takes the next one. Freeze saves it down to his left. Yeah, Fries is, I mean, again, Fries is just so long. He's such a long human being that you, like, when, When they show that view, I just love the view from the camera on the ropes up above right behind the shooter.

Because you see how large these goalkeepers are. And you're like, man, I know that penalties get converted 80% of the time, but I don't get how. Right. At some camp, they asked Matt Turner if the average American could convert a penalty. And he said, no. And I think I agree with that. Tillman's up again, buries it, left side beats Navas going the same way as last time, but this time he just smashes it.

Vanda Putin takes the next one for Costa Rica. Freeze guess is right but can't get a strong enough hand to it, so that's, it's in. So it's, and then Berthalter comes next, and he hits it over. So I do want to just get in on the missed save chance here from Freeze. So I'm going to have to dig into the details, bells. Because I think this one was similar to the one in regulation, right, that he gets his hand to on that as well, goes the right way. And there's a sense of like, should he do better with these?

And I just kind of want to talk about some details for goalkeepers because it's kind of fun stuff. But it's a really unnatural thing for keepers because you're looking for the tip of which direction they're going. And then you often will start going on, you know, plus whatever your coach is, I've told you about tendencies and all that. But you start going usually before the shot is hit. And that's so different than normal shot stopping where you're holding your ground

and then as the shot leaves the foot, then you're going and your whole body is essentially an extension of hand-eye coordination. You immediately sort of do all your mental math and you identify the interception point that you're going to try to get to it with your hand. And now everything is moving in unison to get your hand to that spot.

And penalties are so different because you are starting your dive first and then you see the ball leave the foot and now you're already in your motion and now trying to like just adjust your hands but your whole body isn't working in unison you're diving to it's like acting with a green screen you're diving to a different space and then reacting in the middle of your dive to where it is so it's just it is like a difficult thing uh to to guess the right way and still get it that's why they talk about shots that are comfortable height for the keeper because what they're basically saying is you don't have to do anything you're just in the middle of your

and the ball is at your hands and you just, you know, padded away. But anything else, low or high, it not as gets the high one on Tolkien. It's so difficult, even going the right way, to adjust your hands down or up, and have them still be strong enough to keep it out. I see. Okay. So you don't think that, I mean,

there's nothing freeze can do technique-wise to get a stronger hand to this one or the Calvo one. I mean, probably not. That doesn't mean that he can't get his hand to it. It's just going to be like, did he that time? Like, I don't think it's like, oh, he had, you know, he had floppy fingers or whatever. Like, it's just like you are trying to react as quickly as you can. It's just human reaction time now to move your hand to that spot.

And do you get it there in time to have enough of your hand with enough strength to flex it and push it wide in the post rather than have it skip off your hand into the goal? Same as Navas against Tyler. Yeah. Okay. So it's after Burrhalter's miss, he hits it over. We're back to tide. It's two to two after each team has taken three.

And it was really sad. His younger sister started to cry a little bit after he misses. I'm not making fun. I'm thinking about what it would be like to watch your older brother miss a penalty in a shootout. But everything turned out fine. Everything turned out fine little sister. Costa Rica's Jefferson Brennis. I think it was, steps up and freeze guesses correctly, but can't get a strong enough hand to it.

It's a good, powerful hit. Next is Alex Freeman for us, just to keep it even. And his run-up is a little bit stuttering as well, but beautiful penalty to novices left, nestles it in the side netting with his in-step. And then Francisco Calvo comes back up, Minnesota United Legend, and hits it right at Freeze. Freeze decides not to guess anywhere this time and his guess was correct and...

So he said the coach told him to stay, stay put on that one. And I really am surprised more keepers don't stay put. I don't know what the math breakdown is. I'm sure it exists out there of how many are straight down the middle. But crucially, like I just talked about,

going the right way early, doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to make the save anyway. Like a lot of, like we saw here. Navas went the right way a bunch of times and still couldn't get to the ball. But if you do think they might go the middle, that is a much easier save if you're correct. Yeah. So I wonder if the math would favor more often than staying in the middle because if you are correct, you're more likely to save it than if you are correct going left or right where you still might not save it.

Yeah. Is there some incentive against it because if you're just standing there when somebody smashes it to the side of you, you look kind of, you look kind of dumb? I mean, maybe, but you can always just go late on those. So you just stand there, and then when they hit it, then you just dive super late and look a little silly. Tolkien comes up. He has a chance to win it all.

John Tolkien, J. Mai, and Navas saves it. This is a great save with the top hand reaching over with strength. Because I don't think it was that bad of a penalty, actually. It was pretty well hit. Yep. I mean, again, it's not as close to the post as he, you can possibly get. If it were, that would be Freeman's penalty, which was basically unsavable. So this is one that takes a very good save and Navas delivers a very good save.

And then Andy Rojas goes, the youngster who plays for New York Red Bulls 2, the one who was getting Vaseline rubbed vigorously on his torso by a coach before he went out there. He goes out and freeze saves it. I actually forget how he saved it. It was a, was it right at him again? It's Fries to his right, perfect height for a save. Okay. And Fries is really stoked. He's feeling it.

And then Damien Downs comes up and gets the chance to finish it, second chance of ours to finish it, and he buries it down to Navas's right. And Navas guess is left. So, good job, Damien. Potch has a big celebration. Sorry, the correct way to say that when it's your players, Downs sends Navas the wrong way.

Okay. That's how you need to say it when it's your guy. You need to give Navas the credit for the goalkeeper. I'm sorry, you need to give Downs the credit for the goalkeeper going the wrong way. Something he did sent Navas. Navas. Absolutely. The wrong way.

Yeah. Okay. So, survive in advance. We're on to face Guatemala on Wednesday. We can't, we can't, we played, I thought, pretty well, outside of two defensive errors and, well, three defensive errors, really, one, one that went just slightly unpunished. So I'm, I'm feeling good. Like, we're getting a little bit better each time we go out. Who do you think is going to play?

Is Potch going to run it back or change the lineup at all? I have expected him to run it back. because I feel like the only change you make there would be, no, that's not true. Arston for Tolkien would be the sort of obvious one based on the goals we gave up. But Posh could easily just be like, look what Maxi did for us going forward. We can't take him out. And then the other one would be, yeah.

And the other one would be dropping one of the five, four and a half center midfielders for, but for who, right? Like you could just swap one out for Cardoso. Cardoso's fully fit and you trust him. It is Guatemala, which, you know, respectfully is not who you anticipate seeing in a Gold Cup semifinal. It's very much more of a group stage matchup. Yeah. Yeah.

I bet he doesn't change anything, but maybe he starts Tolkien. It's possible. That's the only change I see having. He's not. And maybe McGlynn for Luna. possibly, but I don't think he's going to change I don't think he's going to make any changes

with Burrhalter Adams and Deloire and certainly he's not going to take Tillman and Pat off. Right, it's short turnaround. That's the only other sort of wrinkle here is does he do some kind of a I don't know what his fitness test are telling him. But we're playing again on Wednesday already.

Yeah. That's why we had to get this podcast out because the game is coming up fast. But Fries, this is really good news for Fries because he has now Vives moments, which as sort of mysterious and superstitious as it is, like matters a lot for goalkeeper evaluations, I think. So it's Fries' job, right?

Like, Friest is now the one. Saving a bunch of penalties in a shootout means like next to nothing for goalkeeping and open play. Not entirely nothing. But like, this isn't, this doesn't really, say much or doesn't really shouldn't really lead to many conclusions about his overall quality as a keeper

but it just doesn't matter he's like the guy now he's a hero in this game and I feel like now that's it he's the guy yeah I think he's the guy I feel like Pat probably has earned himself at least a little bit of an opportunity after this tournament and Tillman is

it's just awesome and Richards you know Richards has been great too Maybe he puts Arfston over at right back and then starts Tolkien at left back just to give Freeman a break. Because Freeman's gone 90 every single time, right? I think so. In the Gold Cup, yeah. Because Ariel had the fiasco against Switzerland, and that's been the end of him, right? Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, I don't think we'll see Ariel, but... For the record, I want Cardoso, especially against Guatemala. I want Cardoso to be healthy and I want him to start because I still feel like if the eye is towards 2027, I'm sorry, 2026 World Cup Like you gotta You gotta bank on, or at least lean towards The dude who's moving to Athletical Madrid

Yeah, but it's like you gotta get it done. You gotta do it out there. I know, I know, but that's what I mean is like With the year-long runway, I don't want to pull that runway up just yet. I want to be like, okay man, like, you, understand we've got these doubts. Like, just prove us wrong. It's the bar for proving us wrong that you're not going to be like a total bozo is very low. So just start with that against Guatemala and we'll go from there.

So maybe him over Burhalter and then... Either Burrhalter or Luca, but yeah, probably Burrhalter. It's strange because Burrhalter's defending out why. I don't know. I mean, it creates some interesting defensive stuff, but that you can work out your All right. Greg, thank you. Thanks everybody for listening. We're going to get back after it on Thursday, and we'll see it.