Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #609: USMNT v Mexico, Gold Cup Final Recap

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

The USMNT played in a 4-4-2 block and mostly denied Mexico the big chances despite getting totally dominated, but a key mistake got us on the first one, and then we just couldn't keep it level after that. We also did very little with the ball, and one player in particular comes under the microscope for that. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, it's two days since the U.S. lost 2-1 to Mexico and Houston. The dust has settled a little bit. Got Greg here with me to cut through the nonsense and get down to the details. Greg, how you doing? I'm doing all right. This was a fun game for some details, I feel like. I feel like there were some things to kind of look at for this group,

the way we played this game, in particular, sort of comparing it to the fightless. game that we played against Switzerland to lead into this tournament. Hmm. Interesting. Interesting foreshadowing there. Yeah, I'm curious. I feel like, you know, we lost control of the Guatemala match from minute 15 on, pretty much, with some, we did create some chances in the second half.

But we did lose control. And so, to me, it's like, it's no wonder we're going to lose control of this game against Mexico a much better opponent than Guatemala. Do you have the same culprit, the midfield? We can get right into it. So first off, going to be super nerdy about what we're talking about with control. Because I think that's such the huge thing, right? And for the U.S., we play so many games.

We've played a lot of games in this tournament against teams that were better then. And yeah, the Guatemala game was a little rough in that sense. but there is that idea that we should control it and it should look a certain way that we, you know, the way we control a game is, is by having the ball and creating a bunch of chances.

And Mexico, for me, they're not as good as Switzerland. Switzerland kind of pants to them, I think, and they're friendly also in that window before the Gold Cup. But they're, Mexico were better than our players, right?

So, um, you can control, you can control a game as an underdog in other ways, um, namely by just limiting where the other team can be dangerous. And we did not do that at all against Switzerland, right? We tried to play them defending up the, over the entire field, and we just watched our inferior players just get

embarrassed over and over again in these wide open spaces. And so in this game, this was different in that we gave up control, whether it was like the plan or not, we, we recognize at some point that Mexico are going to control the ball. And we will defend in the way that old school underdogs U.S. underdogs certainly of the past may have looked defending and we're just going to limit where you're going to hurt us

where you can have the ball, what you can do with it in those spaces. And so, I feel like that for me is the big story of the team. When you ask about the culprit of not being able to control the match when we are on the ball, I'm going to kind of

hit Malik pretty hard on this one. I hate it, but I'm But I'm ready, but I'm ready. We talked about it in the last game, too. It's on one of the goals we gave up, I think, against Costa Rica, where I kind of, you know, I grade Malik on a harder curve, right? So if you're listening to this and you're like, how are you going to talk about Malik when, you know, this player did this and Burhalter did this and Pat, big Pat, and Big Pat,

and it's like, okay, that's fine. But at no point before this tournament or at any point during this tournament was I like, I think, I think Seb Berhlder could be starting for our full strength team. So if you want me to, you know, say, none of those guys, I don't believe a single one of the other players in that group should be starting for the full strength U.S. national team. I'm happy to say that. Like, Big Pat should not be our starting striker when everyone is available. Malik is a guy who I'm grading against the possibility of being a full team, full strength first team starter.

So that's why I'm going to be like, I don't, I wish he would have done more. And we'll kind of get into it in the timeline. but the big thing for me was in the first half from about the 10th minute on, which kind of coincides with when we started to lose total control of being protagonists or attempting to be protagonists in the game with the ball. Malik kind of actively disengaged himself. He sort of just disappeared when we would have the ball. So there's, you know, I'm qualifying when he was really weak.

Because in other instances, and you'll probably remember, he had a lot of very memorable battles, scraps. Like he was in there scrapping physical, getting beat up, beating other people up. So in that sense, you're like, how could you say, well, you know, he disappeared himself. He was, I remember tons of times where he was right in the mix in the cage. You're talking about with the ball. But, yeah, when we had the ball and you're watching our guys sort of struggle to find solutions through, I think a big part of it was Malik had removed himself from equations.

So, you know, when he's our best player at that kind of thing and he just takes himself out, it was so difficult for the rest of the guys to find their way through. They're just, I mean, they're never going to, and they didn't. Yeah. Was he just, do you think he was just annoyed and checked out? That's the big question. And I feel like there are like literally like kind of plenty of pretty defensible reasons, right? Like he could have just been exhausted.

That's kind of low on the defensible reasons list because it's not like everyone else out there is, you know, super fresh. Everyone, Hodge has been running the same lineup, three straight. Yeah, Mexico made two changes since Wednesday, so it's not like, so everyone's not that big difference. Yeah, like this probably is Tillman's first time playing three games in super hot weather in a short, short order. Competitive games, too, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico all turned into really competitive games. He plays a lot of holiday games. Non-competitive, yeah.

He'll have the midweek Champions League that you got to really get in for, but a lot of the league games, It's like you get it's it's going to be a stroll and you're going to enjoy it. And the way on down to the south of Netherlands, knock it around, get a brace, you know. Well, I don't know if that's a fatig. I don't know if he's carrying like watching it. I was like he's got to have picked up a knock. One of those first few collisions that he was in in Mexico were not shying away from her. Like Mexico were delivering pain to everybody.

Especially Pat and Malik. Yeah. I mean, and I guess like good on him for, if that's the way they want to do it, that could easily be a blueprint. Other teams might watch and follow is to just punish him and see if you can get him to, you know, recede. So it could have been that. Again, he's taken a lot of abuse. The referee in this particular case wasn't giving a lot of whistles for that abuse. You let a lot of abuse just kind of ride.

Well, it's funny, he did, he did blow the whistle like six times in the first three minutes. And then he swallowed the whistle. Yes. And I was actually, I wanted to mention this, I was frustrated with the way Pat was treated. Now, I'm not trying to defend, just like you, I'm not trying to defend his game or anything. But it seemed like he was not protected by the ref. And like I usually come to the referee's defense in some of these games where it's like the ref is lost control of the game. And there's just games where teams have decided to be ungovernable.

Like you can't control teams that have decided that this is not going to be one of those games. It's going to be, you know, polite and law abiding. Like it was just, it just wasn't. And so King George found that out, you know, 250 years ago. So, so anyway, like he was getting abuse and he might have just been like, no, nuts to this. Like, I've got my big move coming. I'll kind of sit on the edge. when we have the ball.

And I'm not going to go back into that mix. You know, it kind of reminded me of there's an old Cold War movie where Val Kilmer's a hot shot fighter pilot. Never heard of it. In the climactic battle at the end, there's this dogfight, right? All these planes and all this chaos. And one of the other pilots just like

get spooked and he just heads to the outside. He's just like, no, it's no good. It's no good. Like, he just can't bring himself to go back in there. Probably had some, like, trauma. It brought to his mind. So I don't remember how it ended up, but like I was over there, like with watching, even on the rewatch, like, well, Lee, get back in there. Like, get back in there, buddy. Like, you got to, they need you in there.

And he kind of got into it a little bit more in the second half. So maybe he had someone over his shoulder, some voice he heard telling him. Yeah. I don't know the movie well enough to know what you're talking about there, but I get the rest of the references. I just want everyone to know I get the references. Most of them. Yeah, and so I guess before we get into the lineups and the timeline, can we talk about who else besides Malik

your grading on the same curve, the curve of like maybe he should be a starter for the national team? I mean, Tim Ream is basically the only other one, and Matt Fries. Well, Richards too, but I guess it's all positive things to say about him. Well, no, that he was never really up to be graded, I guess. I mean, he was starting. He's the starter. So, I mean, if he'd had a horrendous tournament, that could have changed things he would

dropped. But it was never like, well, let's see if Richards can be the guy. Because for Richards, I know we, a year ago, we would have been talking about some of his wild oopsies leading up to Copa America that were just like inexplicable. Like, what did he do there? But through Copa, those oopsies sort of carried over with how we were kind of talking about him, but he'd never really had any. And he's been pretty much solid from Copa on. So, you know, we want him to be dominant.

We want him to contribute on set pieces. We want all that stuff. But I don't think his position as a starting centerback was ever really in doubt. Yeah. It is encouraging that he was contributing on set pieces. he was pretty dominant in the air, at least, in the last three games. We cleaned up messes really well, red situations to get in for blocks, blocking a ton of shots. So, yeah, so Richards, I guess, was sort of standing apart.

But Malik was the only guys. Yeah, Ream and Malik. And then the other guys would have been like Cardoso, McKenzie, Miles. McKenzie and Miles just got put on the shelf, huh? Right, yeah, yeah. Same with Walker Zimmerman. Yep, yep. So it really did just come down to like, what do Malik and Ream kind of look like?

Does Fries hold his own enough to not make you, like, nervous? Because that's the bar. So, like, Fries kind of cleared that bar for the tournament. Yeah. That Switzerland game, man, everybody who started in that Switzerland game just basically never played again. Which, I mean, fair enough. but I don't know that it was every 11 players fault. All 11 players fault would happen that day.

The fight pendulum is hilarious to me. Like the pendulum in the discourse of our fight, we don't have any fight. Now we have a ton of fight. And then it was like, why are we fighting more? I just love it so much. Do you? I was shocked to see that we had the least amount of fight against the very best team.

Like they made us play like we didn't have any fight. And then against much, much worse teams. we just, we had great fight in those wins. Although, to be fair to the fight, you know, the fight theorists, we, they do say we had good fight against Mexico, even though we lost two to one, you know. And that's where the tactics come in, right? Against Switzerland, when we're trying to defend in all these wide open spaces, uh, we just get carved up and look silly, like, oh, why isn't anyone chasing?

And then against Mexico, we didn't even, we didn't bother with that after, after 10 or 11 minutes. They carved us up like once or twice in the first 10 or 12. and then it was like, what if we just put eight bodies in at the top of the box, then what? And suddenly, and we talked about it after that switch one game. Like, we would probably look a lot more respectable if we did that. We would probably still lose. We would just lose slower and more respectably. And that's, that's pretty much kind of what played out here.

Yeah. Diego Luna is one. I didn't talk about when we were talking about, you know, who we were evaluating. And I just want to say I wasn't really ever like Diego Luna is going to. start a walkoff game yeah knock off Christian Pulisiker Tim Wea like that has just never even

entered my mind as a possibility it would have maybe if he had just been lights out against every team and Mexico in the final but I mean it was very much lights on the lights were on

I just I feel like he's another one just like with the fight narrative of the even like the soccer real like soccer journals are kind of I feel like shifting towards this Good Morning America style like approach to the team in advance of the world cup like we got to really get our Olympic style coverage down now to tap into the all the masses we're going to start watching it

casually come 2020 swicks which is fine I'm not I'm not saying I shouldn't do that but uh it's just strange to see like Diego Luna is the star of this team and and people like jumping him ahead of players who I think are well ahead I mean do you think POTCH is like that close to I mean that high on Luna that that's that's in question given wasn't he wasn't he asked by Henry Bushnell how he's going to how he's going to reintegrate the you know other players I forget Bushnell's exact terminology and Potch goes what players which players the players that deserve to be here we're here let's talk about this group of players in this tournament and their fight I think he might have said so I don't know he's probably being coy I mean I imagine he is being coy if he's

not. He's a madman. And I think Michael DeCorsi, I think that's his name, DeCorsi, the guy who wrote for the sporting news for a long time, still does, as it turns out, had a piece out. And he said, basically, what we learned is that Potch and the A team need to understand each other a little better and come to terms with each other ahead of 2026 because these players just aren't good enough. They're not good enough to beat Mexico and they're not good they're not good enough to make noise at the World Cup I want to say I had more hope for Luna than you did I didn't think oh he's going to replace Timuea or Christian Pulisic but I had hope that he could be more than he was in this tournament and um you know I I'm pretty disappointed especially upon rewatch with his

performance last night it's like he just doesn't have composure in in tight spaces and just so wasteful with the ball. Well, my minimal defense of that is going to be like he didn't have his buddy to play with because Malik didn't come play with him. Yeah. Like that absolutely did hinder any of these other second, third tier guys' ability to look good in tight spaces because your tight space outlet is sort of MIA. I was kind of hoping you're going to come down hard on Sebastian Burrhalter and Luca

DeLotauri too, but... I mean, Luca's what? He's in the mix for a roster spot, right? So, I mean, kind of. I don't know. It's, we're talking about this in Discord, and we were bringing back some real old names. You'll be happy to hear, like,

there's a Christian Rodon thread going, going strong. But where I kind of jump into, like, of course that sounds silly. But at the same time, when you have Sebastian Burhalter and Luca de La Torre and Jack McGlynn and Quincel, you have these guys in this,

group, which are just below, you know, they're in the fringe where if there's a couple of injuries, it's like we're pulling from one of them, then who isn't in the group? You know what I mean? Like, you know, we were talking about Richie Ledesma, maybe getting called up to this camp. Like, it's so hard to just be like, nope, that guy is definitely out. There's no, that would be an outrageous call up because we're just, we're still in that same mix that we were in at the end of last cycle going into the World Cup in Qatar, that, yeah, sure, like the last six or seven guys on the roster could be interchanged with.

with like 50 players because we're hitting that level of sort of, you know, mediocre international level replacement roster filler where anyone's fine. Like, just don't, just don't be a mess. Don't be messy in the locker room and come along. You get to ride with the group. Certainly, Roldon would be just as good as Berlter, I would think, you know. Yeah. He did have the Club World Cup to play in, so.

What do you think Pach is doing? What is he thinking? Is there any, like, do you have, is there any historical sort of corollary you can draw on? Or, like, is he, what's he doing? Is he, does he really, is everybody really going to have to, like, work their way back into the squad now who wasn't here? I mean, so what was the comment? Everyone's under scrutiny. And I take that, I don't know, you know, I know English is in his first language.

So I don't take that to mean, like, you know, these Descartes just skeptical. of everything. I think it's just like, yeah, we're going to watch all these guys and we're going to call up the players we think. I mean, it's sort of just standard coach speak of like we're going to watch everybody. Everyone's available. Burhalter would kind of say the same things when when John Brooks would come up. Like, well, we evaluate everyone. You know, we're watching everyone. We're watching these guys and we're going to make our decision. So I think it's just kind of saying that. And to his credit, like, what are you going to do? Like, you don't want to check on the guys who just played five weeks for you. And be like, yeah, thank God I get to get rid of. And to his credit. And to his credit. And to do it. And to us on the guys who just played five weeks for you. And be like, yeah, thank God, I get to get to get to get rid of. half of these guys and bring in my real players. It just lost the top final with all that fight. That's true. You could say, you know, there are some good players that we need to integrate over the next 12 months, but we'll get right to work on that in September. Yeah, I mean, some coaches who lack that, like, willingness to stick up for their squad

might be like, well, half of our group isn't even here. But, you know, Potch isn't going to do that. Yeah. Poor Jesse Marsh. What a Yeah I say poor Jesse Marsh But I think he does

He does sort of dig his own graves Okay Let's do the lineups So Matt Freeze In goal Same lineup we've had For the last three games Alex Freeman

Chris Richards Tim Ream and Max Arfston Arfston The one player from that Switzerland game Who emerged with a lot of playing time In his near future

from the first half of that Switzerland game, I mean. Adams, Burrhalter in the midfield, Tillman, Luca Delatore, and Luna, and then Pat Ajima. You got some shape, clarifications. Well, I was just to throw out Arstyn, the guy, like, held his own. He did okay.

He did actually do okay. Yeah, he Bornstein. I have a lot of negative stuff to say about people from this game, but it's really not, And I don't think any about Arfston. We did them a favor by like sitting back. It wasn't always perfect. And that's the other thing.

Like sitting back in that 4-4-2, we'll get into it. But they didn't have, I doubt they spent a ton of time drilling that. And that's sort of the old standby description of that old 4-4-2, the passive 4-4-2 is it's well-drilled. You got to be in the drilling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well-organized. We sat in it and it wasn't the best drilled, we'll say. Right. I can't wait to get into that first goal and how well-drilled that was.

That's where we'll talk about it. Yeah. Luis Malagon in goal for Mexico and then Jorge Sanchez, Cesar Montez, Johann Vasquez, and Jesus Gallardo across the back line, midfield of Edson, Marcel Ruiz, and Guilberto Mora, the 16-year-old. Nice player. Nice player, huh? That's something for Mexico fans to be excited about. And then Roberto Alvarado, Raul Jimenez, and Alexis Vega across the front line. Vasquez and Montez just went out there to foul Big Pat, like just repeatedly.

Edson came through the back of him one time. I was actually kind of mad about it, even though I don't, you know, I don't want Pat to start a World Cup game for us. I don't want him, I don't want it to be, him to be, like, the victim of injustice out there. And it felt like that's what that's what was going on to me. Yeah, Big Pat will really benefit, the team would really benefit if we're using Big Pat by a tightly called game. Yeah. Because it's hard to defend Big Pat if you can't get real, yeah, get real, real aggressive with his ankles and legs. Hey, I'm really glad. I'm really glad Raul's back.

He went through some really tough injuries, I think, at the Gold Cup a couple editions ago included. And it's, I just feel like he's an absolute treasure for the region. I really like the guy. So I'm really happy to see him thriving. I wish he wouldn't thrive so much against us, but I just like that guy. He's a very good player. And what a contrast between his movement and Big Pat, you know.

Not to mention all the close control stuff and the, you know, the intelligence with the ball. All right away in the timeline. Third minute, Big Pat gets crunched from behind by Edson after a Tillman interception that happened off camera. Lots of action happening off camera in this broadcast. Crazy. We get a set piece off the foul on Pat, and in the fourth minute, Burhalter takes it.

And Richards is, you know, he's on the edge of the box. He sneaks behind a little screen set by Tim Ream. Tim Ream kind of with his hands folded in front of him, like he's not doing anything. But he's making it so that Richards gets loose, and the ball curls in. It's really good, but it is slightly behind him. He crouches a little bit, leans back, and then just, just snaps it past Malagon. A fantastic header, really.

Bounces off the underside of the crossbar by the far post. Pretty much straight down and then skips back out. There's some confusion, and then it's ruled as a goal, 1-0 USA. I got to be honest, I didn't, we didn't see a replay that definitively showed it was a goal, but who cares? Close enough. Close enough for Concaf, 1-0 USA. Yeah, we're in 2010 rules, 2010 technology.

It's a goal. They call it a goal to goal. Yeah. It has to be like conclusive evidence to overturn it on the replay. So I feel like they said on the broadcasts that no, it doesn't have to be clear and obvious. That's not the standard. They literally just re-refery it based on the evidence on the video they have. So, I mean, I could be wrong about what I heard.

There are other things on the broadcast that had been said during this tournament. It turned out not to be the case legally. So I'm not sure exactly, but it wouldn't surprise me again if they were just like, From what we can see, that's a good goal. Stu and, was it John Strong? Is that the guy who's doing it? They also called every player on Mexico, Jorge Sanchez, at one point or another in the game. I was like, that's not Sanchez.

That's also not Sanchez. But I love this, Richard's getting it done. He is kind of the leader of this team, and, man, he's come through big in a lot of ways. I think we should keep calling the score on your first set piece play. Like always score your first set piece, score your first shot of the game. I think that's just a remarkable strategy that we should employ all the time.

It's a great strategy, yeah. Lots more to come. Let's take a break, and we'll be back in a minute. All right, we're back. Just kind of like, after the goal, kind of like a 10-minute settling in period where it's not really clear what the game will be like. choppy stuff mostly in the middle third

sloppy stuff from the U.S. Luna missed connection with Pat Malik misconnection with Burhalter but the pattern where we can't string passes together hasn't really fully emerged at this point and Big Pat just keeps getting wrecked by Vasquez, Montez and Edson and you have something around the 10 minute mark?

Yeah, so through this first 10 minutes the other notable thing is we are in Mexico's face Like when they have the ball where like deep you know their goalkeepers got out of their building there we are up there We're we're buzzing we got all this energy where you know Luna's flying up from the left side Malik and Pat are kind of chasing and harassing That is clearly what's happening and then there's a pretty abrupt shift I've got a I've got an event at the 10 minute mark Where Malik is in this we you know we're building out of our back under pressure

Mexico are doing the same. They're putting six guys up high, like chasing us. Like, you're not good enough to play against this. Yes. We are rondowing a little bit in our own box around the corner flag. Adams, Ream, Arstyn. And it ends up with Ream sort of at the touchline almost with some time. You know, we rondo pretty well.

And Malik has found a pocket right in the edge of the center circle. And Ream hits it. Looping ball. Malik has a, you know, his normal ridiculous touch where you're like, has to lift his leg up to his waist. Okay. Yeah, brings it down. With someone on his back, he's able to do this and still turn the guy and get running to

the opposite sideline, to our right side. And Burrhalter's over there as a, you know, right side of the defender. And so Malik gets it over there. Nothing really comes over. He just kind of shifts it out to Burrhalter and we, he keeps going. We switch the play out to the left side and eventually lose it. But what happened, what I noticed is during that shift, when we move it to the left side, Burrhalter starts to sort of trot out back out to the left side.

a wide space and kind of rotated with Malik on the run in exchange, he starts going back out to his right sideline, you know, assignment. And he's like pointing for Malik. They won't brush right past each other. He's like, okay, Malik, back in you go. And Malik just like turns away from Burrhalter and just starts walking out to the sideline where Burrhalter was trying to get to. And it was just like, in the moment, you're like, okay, well, maybe Malik is just identified like, okay, I can I can do this guy out here if I stay out wide. Give him. me the ball and I'll keep beating this Mexico defender on this side or this is where the space is. So maybe you're thinking that.

But then as the half plays out, it just looks like Malik has just that himself outside the dogfight. Like he just moves outside. He doesn't do anything for like the rest of the half to actively be an option for us when we have the ball. So I just wanted to clock this as sort of that moment where we lose him as a as a pathing option for the most. the middle of the field. Yeah, anywhere near the ball. Yeah, he's almost never near. There are times where we do just sort of bring the ball over to exactly where he is,

wherever he's sort of stationed himself. And he gets it. And again, once he gets it or once he's in the cage when Mexico bring it to him, he is strong. He is in the, he's scrapping. But otherwise, he has disappeared himself in my estimation. A lack of off ball enterprise from him.

Yeah. And again, he's the guy we need it most from. Like we have to have him coming in and helping us be like be the grownup, solve the, solve the issue, calm things down when we need to calm it down. Be the relief. Interesting. I wonder what was going on. I mean, we also need to do more than that, quite honestly. Like, we need him to do that.

We also need him to spring the runner. We need him to slip the unexpected pass into the open space that Mexico didn't see coming. But we definitely weren't getting that. No, he wasn't sharp. I didn't think he was particularly sharp in the. attacking third. I mean, the what, three times he got in there. So 13th minute, first shot for Mexico. Adams follows Edson into Mexico's back line and

a little guy, that little guy, Mora, filters into the space that's vacated. Nobody tracks him. He turns and slides it down the line for Alvarado. So I just notice, I mean, nobody wants to hear this, but I really enjoyed Mora, like, not just on the ball, but like he was, he's like kind of, you know, quietly going around finding little pockets and getting on the ball. A kid has a bright future. And he slides it down the line for Roberto Alvarado. And he runs at Arfston and then just kind of toe blasts it.

Maybe the 3rdos right at freeze. I think maybe he's trying to curl it to the runner in front of the goal. Anyway, that's the first shot on goal. Thought I'd clock that. Much less interesting than the... No, you should be. than the Berhalter Tillman moment, but No, this is, I think this is a perfect thing to clock

because this was the Switzerland moment for me. This was like, okay, we are, we're chasing, we got all this energy. And Mexico finally we're like, okay, if you guys are going to do that, we're going to dice you up. You know, if Tyler Adams is going to find himself racing upfield and now you're just, you've got Luca de la Torre covering all that space

and Max Darston on his help on his left side. Like, okay, good luck with that. And we will, we will get into the body. and get these shots off. So I feel like from then on, when Mexico had it, we were giving them a lot more respect. And when we had it, we weren't able to build. So I feel like that was exactly the shift where it was like, now Mexico have it, but they aren't getting much from it because we're sitting deeper.

We don't do anything once we get the ball. But we're sitting deeper. And Mexico now don't get a lot of joy up until they get quite a bit of joy. Yeah. It's never just unbridled joy, though, you know? for them. I mean, they're totally dominant, but it's not like Matt Freeze was standing on his head or anything. No, exactly. And this is, you know, the stews felt like he was getting flustered with how much Mexico had the ball. Like I heard some other people talking about, like they always had options. And it's like, yeah, we consciously or unconsciously settled into that standard soccer shape of like, you can have the ball. You will have options.

We will not really try to take the ball from you. But you're not going to get it in the box. and if we had been more committed, more disciplined with that last sentence, I feel like things could have, things could have gone better. I feel like this group could have had that in their bag. But we'll get into. We don't have.

We could have just bunkered for the next 87 minutes. I mean, everybody would be happy about the fight if we had done that, you know. All right, skipping ahead to the 19th minute, Tillman misses his connection with Burrhalter. It's sloppy. on the ensuing throw-in from Gallardo, Vasquez gets it and backboards with Raoul. It's a nice little flick into space.

To be fair to Pat, he did some of this throughout this tournament, but Raoul was pretty classy. You've got to admire that. Vasquez, the CB, the centerback, he runs onto it into the box. Freeman gets there first just inside the box and kicks it out of bounds for a corner. Vasquez tries to make a penalty out of it, but it wasn't. Yeah, and this is where these are like the mini fires, right, that we kind of just are going to have to expect because we're not well drilled. And Freeman's played like 15 professional games. Yeah.

And Mexico's actually pretty decent at this, you know, especially with Raoul at like probing around the box and finding little openings. 22 minute mark Adams wins a second ball off a blind clearance from Freeman who's deep and we tap it around at midfield for a bit. Tillman's scoop pass to Luca, I'm sorry, Tillman's scoop pass to Luca who is running the touchline is blocked. I think by the hand of Vasquez, no whistle. Luca's aghast at this. But Berhalter wins it to Luca Deloere and he plays Berhalter down the line. and here I'm going to come down on Pat a little bit because Berhalter curls a good ball across the penalty area it's behind the centerbacks and there is a gap between the centerbacks

that Pat can totally run into if he sees this possibility I mean maybe he's thinking Burralter's going to try to backboard with me here or Berlter's going to play it to my feet and then I'll flick it on for somebody but he doesn't get on his horse to get to this ball and it's there like if he just runs a little hard for those 25 yards, he's in front of the goal with only the goalkeeper in front of him with the ball. So I'm a little bummed out about that. Yeah, no, I think you got it right. And he didn't do

any of the other things that you were thinking he might have done. He didn't commit to any of them. He kind of just trotted and it was just like, well, let's see what Berhalter does out there. That's what he does, though. That's what he does off the ball. Is he trots and let's see what he does? Yeah, yeah. He didn't at any point get, like, he wasn't like, oh, there's a trajectory where Burrhalter could float this up over and I'll get to it. I mean, that's basically the only thing he was doing was like, well, if the ball gets floated directly to my head and my head alone, I will get there. But he didn't do anything to improve his pitch control or to get into the dangerous,

the most dangerous areas. And you contrast that with Raul, and particularly there's a moment in the second half, which we'll get to, where he, he's just standing there next to Richards. He's not moving. And a lot of stuff is happening. just inside our half on the right side of the field. And then Alvarado gets on the ball. Raul sees that he has a little bit of time,

and he just darts to the end line. Run makes a diagonal run across Richard's face, and it's just so decisive, and he gets on the ball. He floats a ball to the back post, and we defend it well. But that's a big difference between the two players. Raul would start for us in this Gold Cup. I think so. I think Pots would start him.

I hope so. I hope Podge would start him. A 23-minute mark. Good combo from Vega and Raul at the top of our box to spring Gallardo for a cutback. This is when it's starting to feel like it's just wave after wave. Freeman does well to close it down for a corner kick. The ensuing corner kick goes to Mora at the top of the box, and he has a decent hit with his right foot.

Yeah, this is really good combination. It's really pleasing to watch for Mexico. And it also shows, like, what a good block can do against it, because this is a good way to attack our block. They're passing into the crowd. They're not afraid to pass into a sea of bodies. And even within that sea, they connect a couple more passes, right? They do just really nice, tidy stuff.

And they still don't actually get any joy to get a look through the amoeba. Like they still end up having to go back outside into the cutback zone. And we have a player there to meet it. Freeman is there to meet the guy who they've found in the cutback zone. So it's still like this is what it should look like from sort of, teams in this moment. And we did a lot of that, right, throughout the game. Yeah, absolutely.

Solid stuff. 26th minute Vasquez finds Vega in a little pocket. He goes to the end line and whips it across. So this is, you know, just like a little Mexican attackers just moving around, finding little pockets here and there. And we're playing, like, basically, like you just said, we're playing good defense right up until the goal. and I think there's maybe a little bit of blame to go around here,

but curious what you think. 27th minute, Mexico scores. They're doing this probing around our box, lots of people moving around, which I think is different from our attack. I thought I didn't so much have... You're talking about our attack when we're like our A team losing to Panama in the Nation's League semi-final?

Are you talking about our team? I'm talking about like any time. Well, I was mostly talking about this game where we didn't really... Tim Rian would be on the ball and everybody would just be standing there you know. Yeah.

Yeah. But the key moment here is Adams pops out toward the sideline to try to deny Vega and Gallardo. It seems like we still haven't really sorted out our wide organization on Freeman's side. Anyway, Gallardo bypasses Adams with a pass to Ruiz

who pops up behind him. And Ruiz is just in a giant pocket of space. He has time turned, and plays a slick little kind of reverse through ball for Raoul. Now, Freeman kind of has a chance to cut it out, and did he get a touch to it? It kind of looked like he did. If he didn't, he just misses getting a touch to it.

Maybe he didn't want to, like, stick his foot out and spray it in the direction of the goal. I mean, that's a possibility because he's coming from out to end. Anyway, the ball gets through to Raul. He slows his rundown beautifully, lines it up for a first time hit, and then just roofs it. at the near post.

I mean, just the net just explodes behind the impact of the ball. Riem arrives on his, to his right, as he's shooting, and kind of, I think, soft pedals his intervention a little bit. And I'm trying to figure out why he did. He had the time to stick his foot out and block the shot. But maybe he was worried about getting five-hold to the far post. That's why he didn't do it. I'm not sure.

Anyway, it's a really nice moment from Mexico. Curious what you think about Reem and Freeman 1-1. And there we go. All right. So we're going to do our whole 4-4-2 bid here now. We've already kind of talked about it a little bit, but, like, again, the whole point of a well-drilled 4-4-2 is it limits where the fires are and how intense a fire is.

And you should always have guys there to, like, clean things up. But it's all about that, like, pitch control. So, you know, as a team is building around your 4-4-2, we all know what that looks like, right? The ball slides to one side, and the guy nearest out of that 4-42 block, the two banks of four usually will pop out towards the ball, you know, under control. And everyone behind that player will sort of squeeze behind to compensate for that gap. And then Mexico will move the ball, you know, to the next wide open player around the amoeba. And that guy who was just pressuring retreats back, and the next guy pops out.

and everyone squeezes into the space. And it's very predictable. It's very predictable for us. It's very predictable for them. But it's just like, it doesn't matter. We know that you know what we're going to do. And have at it. Like have the ball out there.

You can't do anything. We are protecting the important spaces. And you just rinse and repeat forever. It was super effective in the 2000s when nobody was like the, you know, Barcelona style maximally possessive. option like doing maximal optimization of their possession people would get impatient and be like oh we got to just lump it in send it in And then they'd send it into the areas where the 442 had you know numerical superiority And they'd clean it up and that'd be that'd be we'd switch over do it the other way

The issue here is like Tyler Adams a little bit for us like we're playing this 442 and Tyler Adams covers a lot of ground But Tyler Adams is I feel like a player who loves how much ground he comes covers. And it's like, you talk about limiting fires and putting out fires. And it's like Tyler Adams doesn't always recognize what the fire is it needs to put out. He'll see like a birthday candle over there and I'll go flying out of the fire station in full gear.

And it's like, you don't have to do that. Do you like? Yeah, yeah. That's not a thing that requires your attention. So on this play, when Mexico slide it over to the left sideline, we have guys there. We can say Freeman and, um, Erhalter have been a little confused over this tournament, out what to do. But in this case, the ball goes out to one Mexico player out there. And Burrhalter is there to meet him. And Freeman is also there. So we have a two-on-one in our favor.

And it's totally under control. Mexico slide a guy out of the half space. He drops in. So it ends up being a really nice pistoning movement from Mexico. But that guy drops. But it doesn't matter. That guy doesn't create a numerical advantage from Mexico. And still, him going over there makes it two-on-two. and he's dropping deeper. So it's like he is not important at all for us to assign another body. But Tyler Adams leaves the most important area of the field for us right now, the top of the box central, and flies out to this player off of the ball who is not a threat whatsoever.

And that just wrecks your 4-4-2, right? What's supposed to be very predictable, suddenly your key denying player vanishes. And what is everyone supposed to do there? like Luca de la Torre isn't ready to come take that space. Richards has to step up when Mexico identify it very well and play into that wide open space. Yeah, Ruiz, Ruiz pounces on that space. Like he's right there.

He gets there fast. So, so Freeman maybe needed to be a little bit sharper to get back. But again, he's, he's kind of inexperized. Like, he needs to realize like, oh, crap, this is, you know, this is the fire that we put out now. Like, I need to. Tyler just threw me under the bus. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, what happened? Where is it? but either way, here's the situation. I need to work as hard as I can to essentially get between the ball and the goal. And if he does that, he might be that millimeter that he needs to be closer to the ball to clear it with the outside of his right boot over to the other sideline. So that's a little thing. But again, the big thing is Tyler's choice here.

And even Ream, I mean, Richard steps up to deny the, to pressure the ball, which I think is fine. and then Raul was a brilliant run into that space that Richards has now opened up, and Ream covers it. And, you know, we talk about this, what, Ream didn't not get there because he was too slow. He got there. He just, he just missed his blocking angle by, by what, like, again, a quarter of an inch. I mean, the ball hit his shin, I think. The ball hit his shin and still goes up just under the crossbar, just inside the post. So it went into the only ball-sized hole in the goal that it could have gone into.

I don't even have that much blame here for Tim Riem. Like, he got there, and he just barely got his math wrong on where he needed to block it. Yeah, fair enough. I mean, it did seem like he was trying to keep his legs closed as he made the challenge. Which I appreciate that as a goalkeeper. That's what I'd rather. I'd rather take the chance that that Raul smashes it into that tiny place if Riem gets his blocking angle wrong. Because he could have kept his feet together.

And again, just bend one inch closer to the sideline. and then it deflects out for a corner. But as soon as you lift your leg, that opens up a whole new window for Raoul to shoot at. My preference as a keeper is keep your legs together, deny that space and just, I mean, Riem is taking away so much of the goal,

and it's just a ruthlessly efficient finish from Rubul. Yeah, okay. But it's Tyler. I mean, Tyler Rex is 442 here, and this is a pattern with Tyler. This was Panama and the Nations League, I'm sorry, in the Copa, where we're down a man,

and Tyler, like, races out from a good defensive position in a transition moment to, to pressure something that just does not need to be pressure. Yeah. And this isn't me saying, like, he's a bad player. It's just, this is something that comes with him. Like, I don't know if, like, the other guys around just need to be more aware. Like, Lucas got to know at any point. Tyler can just go go rogue. You got to come in and, like, help protect that.

But he needs to knock it off is what I think. He needs to friggin' knock it off. All right, Mexico is now just dominating the ball and we're letting them have it and the crowd is allaying. Try to get through the rest of the first half pretty fast here. 35th minute, Malik wins it as Mexico knocks it around our box to Luca.

He immediately gives it back to Mexico, which is frustrating. Bit of a scramble at our box and Alvarado gets a decent shooting opportunity with his right foot, but the shot is tame and claimed on the dive-by-freeze. 36-minute mark, man, Diego Luna keeps giving the ball away. this time unnecessarily on the left side line, we're just way too willing to give the ball right back to Mexico

when we have a chance to... I don't even mean like tiki-tac out on the field and score a goal. I just mean take some of the air out of the game, but we can't because every time we win it, we just pass it immediately to a black shirt. And Diego is... I mean, Luca's doing it. Diego's doing it. Malik's doing it.

Sebastian's definitely doing it. So I don't know. 37th minute, Malik bursts into Mexico's half for a loose ball. This is where you see his strength that you referenced earlier. Yeah, like Big Brothers. Like Cage Manch stuff is excellent. And it's so good, yeah. Yeah, and Malik is so efficient in defense.

And he, I think part of his energy level might even dictated that we couldn't keep pressing. Like, when he stops sort of chasing hard, we have to sit back. We can't, we can't have like the high energy chasing if he's going to just sort of trot around. Trotting around is totally fine, but that just dictates, and, okay, we're going to be the low block passive 442, not the high energy in your face, a high line of confrontation, 442. But he's trotting around, and then it's, I mean,

he's so opportunistic that as soon as Mexico do make the mistake, he's on it. And that's sort of the whole point to the 4-4-2. Just let them make their mistake, bounce on it. Yeah. Now, he dribbles all the way into the box, you know, puts Gallardo on the ground, carries it another 30.

40 yards, but he can't get a shooting window and recycles it. And we keep it for a while, which is good, I think, at this point in the game. But we don't, nothing, nothing dangerous comes of it. And I blame Pat a little, again, here because he's just running, he's just kind of jogging parallel to Malik the whole time Malik is carrying the ball towards the box. And I get this is a little bit of a tricky thing to do, to decide what to do when you're the striker here. But there's a couple options.

He can run across Malik's face. just sort of drag some attention off to the right, maybe even get a ball played in for like a first time shot from, you know, from a little bit of a difficult angle. Or, you know, peel off, go out wide, but just clear out the space. Don't just run parallel to him like six yards away the whole time. And I, again, just to be totally fair, maybe he expects a little backboarding here.

I don't know. But not a fan of Pat's off ball movement. Yeah, it's tricky. of the angle Malik's coming from. But so if that makes a dragging run across his face, it's one of those who are like, that's not going to do much because you don't have to respect it as a defender. You can just be like, well, go. You're going to get to the corner flag before you get the ball.

And that's a big win for us if, if Malik passes to you out there. I think you're right that he needed to flare out wider to the far post and pull that because it's two on two. So if he pulls the guy who's sort of goal side of him farther out to the far post, then you're basically just saying, have that at it, Malik, do what you can do one v one. and I like that. But the way he stays with him, Pat almost like obstructs Malik

from being able to cut that the Mexico defender to the inside because he's going to collide with Pat. Well, another thing about flaring out is there is the possibility of Malik just clipping a ball to the back post for him. Yep. Yep. Anyway, none of that happens.

39th minute, not Tillman's game. He tries some tricks and nonchalance on the right sideline. We lose it again. the ensuing throw has worked nicely by Raul out to the right so he sort of wins a challenge. I think with Burrhalter, maybe Luca. Mora gets on the ball and after it gets out wide and they work it down the line and cuts in and hits a left-footed rope at the near top corner.

Freeze, palms it out. But the kid's dangerous. Kids dangerous. And I'll still back the 4-4-2ing on this play where it's just like you give away those shots. You let him have the shot from distance, and if he does hit that worldly to the top corner where Fries can't reach it, then he tip your cap. Yeah. Freeman give away at the 43-minute mark, but Malik and Adams win it back, and Adams clips it up the line for Big Pat. He gets to it first, touches it, and then it's hacked by Montez. It's a yellow card and a set piece from a very

dangerous area, and it all kind of goes down here, right, in the final moments of the first half. So it's still one-one. Berhalter takes it again, and it's some crazy stuff happening here. His set piece is underhit, and it's headed away by Ruiz, but we cycle it around and back over to Burrhalter, and he plays kind of a weird, long, looping ball in over the top, and, you know, this grass over the artificial turf, the ball kind of just dies when it hits the grass, and so it bounces up, I think, a lot less, not as high as it would if it were regular field and and so Freeman gets to it he gets there just ahead of Malagon and he he heads it off of Malagon's face and then there's a scramble on the end line and I think like maybe

maybe if if Freeman can get under that a little bit more he can pop it over the keeper but that's a lot to ask if somebody running full speed at a keeper who's who's running full speed out at you because if you get under if he gets under it then his face is more exposed you know and i think there's just like almost a natural physical instinct not to do that so he ends up petting it kind of down at his face instead of getting under it and popping it over him but anyway very close to being a goal and then there's a scramble on the end line um it ends up getting whipped back across by burrhalter i mean freeman actually does well to keep this play alive uh uh burhalter whips it across it's kind of cleared up desperately by a Mexican defender and then skyballs down onto Pat.

He nods it down for Diego just behind the penalty marker. And this is a great opportunity. This is a great shooting opportunity. He takes a touch. And as Edson sliding out to intervene, he just skies it over Edson and the goal and the first, I don't know, 50 seats in the stadium too. So two really good chances to score here. One for Freeman, one for Luna, right in like the span of 30 seconds.

and, you know, Luna's got to do a little better on this one, I think. I'm back. I'm defending Luna here. First off, come on. His touch is great. His touch is just like that settling touch on that rebound goal. He scored against Guatemala because it's tricky to take that on the short hot from Pat in the box under pressure.

But he's got two guys blocking coming into on the block, and they're both blocking low. So he either has to go over their shins and like sort of caress it, you know, like finesse it. So I guess what he does wrong is you can't go over their shins and blast it or you're going to get exactly what happened. So I guess I'm not fully defending him. He could also try to go on through the legs that the blockers have left open because they're both lunging with that outstretched leg. So this isn't like he had the whole goal to shoot at. He's got he's got an obstructed view of the goal that he's got to navigate through. And he just went for full power on a slightly bouncing ball.

Yeah. I mean, it's hard. It's a difficult technique, for sure, under a lot of pressure. But I guess I'd like to see him put it on frame. Or at least to have it blocked. So that's the half. And we're going to take another break. You know the drill.

We'll be back in a minute. All right, we're back with the second half. Right away, we do a really nice build-up the left side, but it ends with kind of a failed Luna through ball to pass. I just a tad impatient from Diego there maybe maybe danger adjacent a little bit like I this is a ball that I should play let me play it and then now nothing that nothing comes of it yeah we talk about that that surrender last ball whether it's a surrender shot or a surrender cross or like I'm just gonna I'm gonna hit a through ball that technically qualifies as an

attempt but it's just because I'm out of other options that I'm confident in yeah that's kind of what it felt like to me. 47-minute mark, Adams wins it at midfield, immediately gives it back. Mexico probes a ball in behind for Gallardo, and Richards blocks the cut back. It's recovered by Mexico, another cross, and a good defensive header from Ream just in front of Raoul. So I imagine you're going to say that 4-4-2 is 4-4-2 in here. Yeah, and Richards is doing the business to help out the younger kids, I feel like,

That's my read on this match. Richard is there to be the problem solver, which, again, that's part of the job, but he's doing it. Yeah. 48th minute, we get that Raul run that I mentioned earlier in contrast with Pat, so I won't describe it again,

but it ends with Freeman doing really well defensively to intervene ahead of Alexis Vega. So it's a ball loop, kind of curled across the box from the end line after Raul runs onto a Alvarado ball. Really, Raul's run invited the Alvarado ball. And it wasn't the other way around. Freeman gets beat on the left by Gallardo

with like a shoulder juggle, which is kind of cool. He avoids conceding a pen by kind of pulling out of the challenge, but then Richards has to block the cup back with his trail leg. So another example of Richard's solving problems. We get Malik's night in a nutshell. at the 50 minute mark, a lovely Croif turn at midfield past Ruiz. Arfston joins him after playing the entry pass, and then Malik takes a really heavy touch and gives it away, and then they're running back at us. Arfston is gone from his bottom left corner in the 4-42, and luckily Alvarado

just, you know, he cuts in and tries to curl it, curl it to the far corner, and just misses. The good news for me watching this on the rewatch, especially with my Malikam going, was that to get the ball to do the Croix, it didn't just come to him. Like the play didn't just arrive at his sort of spot on the field. He actively was moving over to be an option and then did the nasty turn. And then the second touch was disappointing. But I'm like, okay, he's refocused. He got whatever he needed at halftime.

He's going to help us now. He didn't necessarily help us a lot. But he had some moments And I think he was more tuned in, more engaged. And then at some point, he kind of flipped a different switch and was like, now I'm just going to try to dull out some pain.

Yeah. And I love, you know, despite all the other things about Malik, which I'm not disagreeing with, I love the fact that he has gotten into a rhythm where he's just, he's a defensive playmaker, you know?

Like, not only was he doing out pain, he's like winning challenges. He loves to go over and like disrupt stuff. Easily our most disruptive against the ball player in the front six in this tournament. It's a skill. Yeah, it's a skill. Like he, uh, it's something Musa brought to the table when he first joined the squad, that ability to disrupt but keep the ball for us. So he disrupts.

Moose would usually disrupt it to somebody else. Malik is good enough at this. He like disrupts and then just ends up with it himself. Yeah. So I don't know if he'll be. we'll do that against everybody, but he's doing it against Mexico, which is the toughest opponent we have in this tournament. So, yeah, his disruption is very good if you get that ball near his body.

Yeah, I mean, and he looks cool playing defense, which is a pretty tough thing to do, you know. Adams, another giveaway right after that, he's put in a tough spot by Luca, and he's just, this is something, if I've said it once, I've said it a million times, he's just not fully 360 degree aware. So you play him a ball in a tight spot on top of our box. You're really inviting some problems.

And, I mean, nothing came of this, but we did lose it right in zone 14. 53rd minute, nice work from us up the right side. I mean, everybody over there is involved. We lose it. Freeman wins it back, and we work it nicely over to ARF. He cuts in on two guys and tries to curl it to the top corner. it's at a couple feet over.

But this is really encouraging. This is like Tillman, Luna, maybe Luca Deletoria involved to work it across the field quickly for Arfston. And I think it's a good take from Arfston. On the replay, it looks a little further away from being a goal than it did in real time, but still a good hit, I think.

Yeah, we take this. I mean, anything that took like six, seven, maybe like 10, 12 passes to deal with Mexico's pressure on the right side line. granted there was some there was some sloppiness but there was it was us sort of recovering the sloppiness with some good techniques yeah I mean you know I'm reaching because that's that's the kind of thing you do when you're watching the JV play like oh that was I'm glad they had that moment but it was it was out of the game that was a nice one

right after that tillman gets mad at Ruiz for holding his jersey and you know kind of swings his arm in front of him good thing Ruiz didn't put his face in there and I think that's when he got mad. Yeah, I think I feel like, I mean, they'd been nudging that switch for the whole game. Max Gorman tried to, like, push that button. And I think at this point, Tillman's just like, I'm going to, I'm going to hit some people. But he did it the right way. I mean, he was hitting people in the run of play in ways that, like, it's just going to be a foul and maybe a yellow.

Yeah. He got away with some, too. I think. 55th minute, we got Richards versus Raoul, 1 v.1 in space after a clipball down the line. line, I'm just clocking this to say that he did pretty well to kind of crowd him to the line. He does get meged, but I don't know if it really counts as a meg because Adams recovers it immediately and plays it back to freeze. It wouldn't go on Zito's Meg roll back in the day when Zito was running that running thread

of Megs. Like you got it, you have to end up with the ball on the other side or it's nothing. Yeah. I like that. some confusion on the left side again, this time in our 4-4-2, because Luna gets a little reckless defending Vega down in our left corner, and this is when Vega kind of does him and hits a cross that deflects off Arston, and then the post as freeze, pause at it, just sort of in an abundance of caution. And then, like a few seconds later, 57th minute, Luna lets Vega run in behind him and doesn't even track him.

Arfston also doesn't track him, so Vega's running free into the cutback zone. He rips it across the six, frees dives to intervene and pause it right off of Richard's knee, and it comes back hot to him, but right into his arms, which is, I think, a fair amount of good fortune. And there's some discussion on the field about whether Luna should be tracking Vega there or Arfston. I don't really know what the answer is to all that, but we're having a little trouble. with our 4-42 here. Yeah, so on that last exchange, where Fries has to put it into Richard's body

and then back to Fries, it was right after that corner. And Arfston had, you know, we cleared that corner out to sort of our right side. And Arfston had been this sort of the nearest guy out there. So he's actually trotting upfield to stay as like a pressure defender on the ball going towards midfield on the right side of the field.

And then you can see on the replay, like he's kind of trotting back. There just is no left back. And Loon. doesn't play like Arston isn't there. This isn't like, oh, well, it was Arston's fault for being late. Like, this is Ream, Rees, Luna, not organizing. This is a poorly drilled 4-4-2 moment.

Nobody ever says that. Look at that poorly drilled 4-4-2. I mean, you do sometimes. Arston does take, like, weird angles to get back to his spot. Like, if you're tracing his spot out, it's not, he doesn't take an efficient path to get back into his drilled spot. He's kind of is curling around the field. All right, where do I go next?

But maybe Luna didn't even recognize that he was gone. Yeah, yeah, that's issue. And again, Tim Riems right there, he sees it. This has got to be the big shout from Tim Rame. I don't know. I don't know who's, uh, who our organizer is in these moments. But, uh, I'd expect Riem and Fries to be, to be barking at the kids. Yeah.

Le Rieme doesn't strike me as too much of a barker. Does he? He doesn't. I wish he would bark more. I mean, Luna does some good defending right after this. And Malik gets. kicked in the back of the leg by Edson. I'm a little worried about him being hurt because he's, like,

rubbing his leg and sitting down for a little while. But then this is when he sprints over and blocks a Montes long ball, just with a flying challenge. So that's good. Then we get the upset. Go ahead. Well, I do think more guys needed to do with the Malik in a sense of, like, lay down more, sit down more.

Like, you just broke up a play. It's out of play. This is another carryover from, that Copa Panama loss when we were down a man like lay down Mexico as soon as Mexico scored their second goal every time the ball out of play somebody from Mexico is laying down I know you got to you got to give your team you got to break up the rhythm when you're the other team's whole thing is we need rhythm to score goals through this block break it up over and over every single time like be is be blatantly obvious there is no recourse for the

referee they if you're hurt they have to they have to treat you so do it yeah Yeah, that's a good point. I hadn't even thought of that. We did get the upside-down Spider-Man shot there from the broadcast. That was, I appreciated that. 60th minute, Pat wins another foul. Montes drags him down. This one seems yellow-worthy to me.

You know, I'm not going to complain about the refs too much, but I got a few bones to pick. A few quick notes. So Tillman Barges, this is when Tillman Barges, Drew Mora and Alvarado, and, you know, he's like doling out the pain, like you said. I noticed in this sequence or in this sort of passage of play, Burrhalter really struggles with the ball in tight spots. Adams fouls Edson hard and gets a yellow for it. So I'm kind of glad to see that, but I don't know why Adams is all the way up by their box.

So Adam's fouling Edson here versus Pat getting dragged down by Montes King because Montes is on a yellow at the time, right? Yeah. it's still it's this is still the concafhing uh arts that we i don't think we're we're well up on because not you know i just talked about laying down more you also need to get fouled harder uh and you get fouled harder there's that visual language language of getting fouled really hard and pat needs to be fouled harder when montes does that like you got it you got to be uh you got to give the shout you got to give the big shout uh you got to immediately clutch at some part of your body it doesn't matter what whether it was hit or not but like you got to do a shout in a clutch

when the guy, especially because the guy legitimately fouled you. Like, don't let them get away. It was a tactical foul. Yeah, yeah. Don't let them get away with it and be all businesslike about it. If they're going to go in a tactical foul you, like, sell it and get the referee who might already be leaning towards like, I was, there was nothing there. Like, grab that ankle and they're like, oh, my God, like, it was the dirtiest tackle that's ever been dealt out and get that second yellow. You don't have to roll 10 times.

for it, but like, sell something. You gotta sell. Pat was, um, Pat was experiencing a lot of pain it looked like to me, but always kind of with a look of disbelief in his eyes, sort of. 62 minute, Luca wins it back to Ream and Ream plays a floated ball to Luna's head.

And this is, this is where his lack of composure kind of stuck out to me because he just, he's in space and he just kind of gets up and heads it right to Mexico. Come on, Diego. This is when Burrhalter gets weird with Raul and Edson. That whole thing where, like, on a corner kick, he's, like, holding both of them and putting his head down between them.

Like, he, I mean, he really does look like their little brother in this moment. And they're kind of like, what's this guy doing? But I think they were maybe trying to set a screen on him, and he was trying, he was having none of it. But I liked it. It was a fun little moment. I wish walking would make a video about it. Yeah, it was a total like stampy move where he's just kind of like just digging his shoulder into, it's an elephant reference.

I don't know if you. I don't know that one. I'm sorry. I have to have to have a sign that says I don't understand the reference. Just standing next to somebody and smacking your head into like their midsection. Doesn't make any sense. Some people just do that. All right.

66 minute. Freeze goal kick. It's kind of slapped around in the air at midfield. Luna settles it for Adams in the center circle. He plays it over to Burrhalter. Inside to Tillman, Tillman has a great moment here where he just struggles through several challenges and kind of shakes loose, springs Arstyn on the left side. He goes at Alvarado and Ruiz and rolls it past Alvarado and then loses it to Ruiz's

trail leg and Ruiz reaches down and palms the ball inside the box. I mean, it does appear pretty incidental that he does it, but he palms it. And then he kind of slightly rolls it to a more favorable position for himself. So I wonder what you think. I didn't mind the no-call in the moment. But as I sort of watch it back and I see other people discussing it, I think maybe this should a bit of penalty. I mean, I'm just not going to pretend to know what constitutes handball anymore and what doesn't.

It's so hard. It's such like, it used to be such vibes-based. And then once they added video, that just complicated it so much because now you've got to be able to have a black and white definition because you're going to watch it over and over and see if it meets the criteria when the criteria has always been just like, does it feel like it should be a handball. and I feel like this is one that does feel like it should have been a handball. So without all the black and white rules and regulations, the ref would be like, ah, you got to get a handball for that.

But because you have all that language, now they're going to like find the loophole to be like, well, because it hits this language, we're going to interpret it this way. They're off the hook. I think of it is if it had happened to Freeman in our box and they didn't give a penalty,

would I think that it was some, a grave injustice, would I be like, that totally should have been a penalty? Or would I just be like, oh, this is, or if they had given the penalty, and be like, that, that's just super unlucky. How do you, how do you give a penalty for that? There was no, no intentional movement. He's just gravity falling. He's going to falling in a straight line.

The ball falls right under his hand. It's such a one in a million thing. So I'm, I'm kind of just indifferent to the whole thing. Yeah. I mean, I think technically it should have been a penalty. However, Mexico deserved to win this game in the USA. They did not. But that's how you win games as an underdog in the 4-4-2.

You get your little bit of luck and you make things really hard for them and you steal it. Yeah. Luck wasn't on our side, I guess. That's kind of how it is. It would have been great to steal it. Here's what Chris Richard said after the game, which I think is kind of funny. He goes, homie palmed the ball like Shaq in the box. The thing about Conccaf is that I feel like we're always one step behind with the refereeing.

And then on the other end, we had a block. It was offside. In any other league, I would have been called offside. But again, that's Cockagat for you. They hate us. Now, he's talking about, well, he's talking about the second goal, which we'll get into. But maybe a little overcooked from Chris, but I like that he's kind of stepping out, saying what he wants to say. I appreciate it.

I love it as long as we just kind of embrace it. Like, if you want to create the us against the world thing, then embrace that and have it be like, we aren't going to care that the referees don't give us anything. Because truthfully, like, I think the referees in Concordcaf are very suspect, but I really don't get the sense that they are- That they hate us. Yeah, that they are against us. And we've been on the winning end of some calls that if they really were out to get us,

it would be very easy to have given Tyler Adams a straight red card in the first 30 seconds of our last group stage match. Yeah. Or not given Chris Richards his goal that is, you know, at the very least, very close. Yeah, I mean, I didn't, it wasn't definitive on the replay, I don't think. So I never get the sense that we're hated by the rest. I think we don't, I don't think we don't manage them very well with our players during the games.

I mean, you can't just punt the ball out of the stadium because you're mad at something and then be like, the refs hate us. They just sent me off. Yeah. I don't think they hate us either. You know, but, but, you know, people, sports teams love that kind of thing. thing. And, you know, usually it seems to be a common thread among successful ones. Well, the way Chris Richards plays very much seems like, whatever, don't give us any help.

I'll do it myself. So I'm happy with, if that's his response, I'm thrilled with the way he, with his mentality. 69th minute. Damien Downs comes on. This is a player who has not made much of an impression on me, I have to say. But he comes on for Luca Delo Torre. And, after some discussion, Tillman drops into. the middle, I think, or no, he goes out wide.

A wide left, yeah. Yeah. And Luna goes wide right and Burrhalter comes to the inside. A bunch of corners for Mexico, nothing really comes of him. Finally, in the 74th minute, Downs gets a little bit involved. He is like a really hot pass hit to him in the middle of the field by Burhalter, takes it down with his chest, and then kind of works his way out of traffic and plays it over to Arfston, who then completely,

binds with Luca and Luca plays Arfston down the line and, I'm sorry, Arfston plays Downs down the line and he runs onto it at the end line, tries to cross it, but hits a stinky one, straight out for a corner. So I sort of did some engagement farming on Twitter before the tournament and found a clip of Downs' goal against, or his assist against Byr-Levroo Kuzin and the DFB Pokal. And I was like, I should be paying more attention. to Damian Downs, you know, just exactly the kind of thing that Twitter likes. We should all be more excited about Damian Downs, I think I said. And I got to say, I got to say I retracted.

I'm not that excited about Damian Downs. I mean, maybe he'll surprise me, but. Yeah, it's okay to find out, to be excited to find out again. Like, I'm so ready to just, I'm always just super ready to be disappointed by the guys I'm most excited about getting a chance. Like, I'm so excited this guy's going to get a chance. He's going to prove he's not good enough, but it's so cool that he's going to get. And we need to give a lot of them the chances to find one or two that at least don't, like, totally trip all over themselves.

And I'm not writing off Damien Downs either. Like, this is his first, first camp, right, that he's been healthy for. And it's, you know, what, like, he's just going to come in and immediately be, look like Tim Waye. Like, I'm not expecting that. There's no middle ground, I know you're like, there's probably a middle ground. Gilberto Mora was playing his third national team game and he was one of the

he was like one of the cleanest players out there whatever 76 minute a bunch of Mexico chances after Berthor crunches Raoul to win the ball which just keeps blocking crosses and then Luna does kind of a naive foul in our right corner

he does pull in the guy's arm I think it's Vega and 77th minute the ensuing set piece is flicked on by Vasquez actually expertly flicked on like the inside of his right

side of his head into like the only place where it's useful for an attacker and then it flicks onto into that space behind the back line and Edson dives and blasts at home

it's the first time they beat us on a set piece I mean even got anything on a set piece set piece and it was because it was a short one that got flicked on. It was initially flagged for offside, but he wasn't, Edson wasn't offside. Freeman kept him on side. Good ball, good flick, great flick, good finish. Now, what about this whole thing about Montez? This is what Richard was mentioning, I think, right?

Montez was offside and blocked somebody who was guarding. I think it's all just, I don't know. I think it's all just coping from Richards. I mean, I don't think there's a single thing here that that would get anything chocked off, offside or not. Like even if the guy was offside, which I don't think he was, maybe at any point during the play, first ball or flicked ball. So, no, there's just, there's just nothing. It's just frustrating. It's like heartbreaking and to be in that block and be so resolute, especially when you're the specific guy, Chris Richards, being the most resolute.

to then have it sort of like snatched away at the last second on that kind of such a bang bang like it could feel really cheap like come on like that didn't just happen the flag and the flag goes up and you got to go through the whole review drama

you'll feel like you were robbed a little bit but that's the nature of sitting in a low block for for 80, 78 minutes it is the nature of set pieces too you don't want to concede try not to concede them as a little as

possible, I think, in a game that's this tight. I don't have too much blame for Luna or and I don't really care the ref called it. He's way over by the sideline. Like, he's being aggressive. He's not being, I don't think he's being so, sometimes guys go in there like,

you're like, oh, that guy wants to get a foul called on him. Luna was just kind of grappling. And the ref just was like, nope, this one I'm going to call for whatever reason. Kind of spins the wheel and sometimes they call it. Yeah. Okay. You know, we had some half moments over the rest of the game. 81st minute we were possessing patiently.

So immediately Mexico kind of falls into a low block after they score their second. They're not going to give us anything easy in transition. So we have to possess around their box. And Arfston plays it into Malik, a nice little entry pass, and then a nice little slip pass from Malik. I think maybe through the defender's legs to Pat going into the box. and he's got, I think it's Damien Downs to his right who's open for half of a second or something,

but essentially he just runs into a crowd and can't figure out what to do with his feet and we lose it. The Malik class, though, is this is what's so evident and this is where, despite the fact that I'm, you know, hammering, if you want to call it, his first half choice to sort of sit out when we have the ball,

that's like a decision we can fix you can have him be more engaged. The class that he adds in that moment is why he is absolutely still in the discussion for starting on a full strength side. Yeah. And depending on, this fall is going to be really interesting to see what happens if he moves, if Geo moves,

who is playing, who's being effective. But for Malik, it's one of those things where he'll be in the old Gio role where if he's playing at all, like whether he's effective or not, he's going to be in the discussion for us because we just do not have that quality in abundance to be able to do that what he just did in that moment. I mean, we have one other player that can do it.

Maybe two. Tim Wea. Thank you. I was going to go to bat for Wea, but I'm glad you did. Tim Wea and Gio Raina. And McKinney does some cool stuff sometimes in tight space, but not the way Malik does. McGlynn subs on for Adams, which I guess, what's the thought here? McGlynn's going to just bang one in from distance and equalize?

I think he's going to create. Go ahead. I think they probably have like an Adams hard stop, just like they did in the last game. I think they probably felt like, no, we can't. We have to take him out doctor's orders or whatever. I mean, you could argue it's just offense or defense because we're chasing compared to the last game when we're like, why would we take Adams out protecting a lead? But my thought is Adams just has to come out of the game because of his hamstring tightness.

and we're not going to see Johnny Cardo, so that's for sure. No. Ajamong's able to get into the box after tracking it down and some nice little combo work with Arfston in the 84th minute. But I feel like you almost never see this. He has it tackled off his foot by Edson while he's winding up to shoot. So it's like he's like a solid one second away from shooting

on the slow motion replay as the ball is tackled. away from him. That is not a compliment. That is not a compliment. Mexico made a couple of really key interventions there in the last 10 minutes. You mean this one and the goalkeeper coming out on that one? And then the Freeman one at the end, where they got Freeman at the corner of the box. Oh, yeah.

I mean, Freeman took like a 20-yard touch on that one. So 10-yard touch. Santee comes on for Raul, a couple other Mexico subs, Arnson and Tolkien come on for Luna and Arsden. And I think, yeah, the Freeman, that Freeman one, I did have it in the timeline, but I deleted it. But we did some decent stuff up the right side, and then Freeman's like dribbling into space,

and he just gets tackled right at the corner of the box, right? It's like our last action of the game. Yeah. But the one before that is the, in the 96th minute, when Ream plays a lofted ball in behind, I think for Damien Downs, but Downs and Pat are in the vicinity. And Downs is just kind of twisting in the wind,

trying to figure out which way to turn to get at that ball. And he never really figures it out. So he ends up leaving it for Pat, who gets on it, cuts Montez with his first touch, and then just kind of scuffs his shot into the sliding Malagone. And, yeah, that's, pretty much it, you know. Some giveaways from Tillman and Burrhalter, a Burrhalter file in the corner. But that Pat chance is the only thing we really got out of stoppage time. And it's actually a

ridiculous chance to get in this because we're not getting anything by building. And really, this becomes like the Pat case in a nutshell to be, to make a World Cup roster is if you're losing and you can't build through a team, is there a guy you can lump the ball up to who can while running gain the leverage necessary to be in on goal or to be dangerous. And it's like Pat can do that. Pat can't get his feet right to do the thing that you need to do to score a goal, but he gains the position. Right.

I just thought that one where he gets tackled before he's even actually, while he's still winding up, was a perfect encapsulation of it. It's like he's moving a little bit slower than everybody else in some ways, even though he's like pretty fast. Well, our B team, our B minus team, whatever you want to call it, isn't as good as Mexico's A team, that's for sure. What else before we get out of here? I mean, pins, like everyone's just going to be just edge of their seat stuff for a couple of things.

One, again, all the moves to shake out for the fall. Yeah. Watching Johnny had let it go. watching the leak if he moves to Leverkusen, watching Gio's agents, Twitter, and then eventually, hopefully watching Gio play soccer on a soccer field. And then, you know,

Ricardo Pepey, coming back from injury, is he the starter at PSV? Bolligan, does he get minutes at Monaco? Like there are going to be so many club soccer stories that I feel like we're going to be just, they're going to feel so heavy for us and what we want to do for a Home World Cup. But what I will say is now,

because of this sort of generally underwhelming performance from the supporting cast in this tournament, less sort of like excitement of, you know, is Diego Luna going to move? Is Diego Luna going to light it up at RISL? It feels like the guys who are here to try out to be more than roster filler are sort of going to be relegated to, at best, roster filler. Yeah.

Yeah. It's too bad because I was hoping for more from Luna. But you never really had that much hope for him. I mean, that's kind of a harsh way to put it, but you did sort of say that yourself a few minutes ago. Outside of Luna, I don't know, Cardoso's the big miss from this roster, right? Yeah, for sure. Because we didn't get anything out of him other than more sort of like headcase stuff.

But Tillman. Tillman and Richards, I think both largely acquitted themselves well in this tournament. Richard's more than Tillman. And then Frees is going to compete? Yeah. Go ahead. Tillman gave us a look at his class that he hasn't really busted out for the national team against any opponent. We played weak opponents and he hasn't really shown some of that command of proceedings that he showed in this tournament against the worst teams that we played. but then also at times against Mexico

and his defensive commitment, which some people kind of would question, seemed to be there. I wouldn't question it. Well, and so the other thing I'll say is, Potch mostly set it up where Tillman had less to do defensively. Like, he was in the two, in the 4-4-2. Like, he might not get that benefit with the full squad

because you're going to give Pulisick less to do, or you're going to give, you know, I mean, probably pool-sick. probably it would probably be Pulisic. Yeah, if you defer to Pulisic the way other coaches have and it appears Pach is not doing. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Because Pulisic wanted to come playing the friendlies and Posh was like, not sorry, but if you're not going to come to the Gold Cup, you're not playing in the friendlies.

But yeah, so we'll have to see, we'll have to see, but I think generally, Malik getting stuck in in this game, being willing to scrap, boads well. The questions I still have for him is like in those key moments where he's part of the central midfield where we got our, you know, shell up in front of our goal. Is he going to be there on time, uh, off the ball? But in the cage, he's, he's excellent. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Um, well, just a few programming notes. So it looks like Chris that's Waki and Vince and I are going to do sort of what we learned in the Gold Cup show on Thursday. And I'll put a link in the show notes for, um, questions, if you have any for us or comments. And then I'm really excited about this. I just got confirmation from Tom Beyer, the soccer starts at home guy, that we're

going to record something next week. And I won't release it immediately because I'm going to do a four-part series, a first in the scuffed universe, a four-part series on youth soccer and coaching rec soccer that's sort of geared towards the beginning of the fall because that's when a lot of people's kids are going to, you know, you're trying to sign up the kids. three other people that I think will work out and we'll sort of work through the progression

all the way to like 7V7 where you're asking them to Rondo. So from birth to Rondoing. That should be the name of the theory. So I'm working on that too and, you know, of course, we'll kick back up with the Monday review here

before too long. Greg, thank you. Anything else? Now we're good, man. Gold Cup from the books. Do you think the A team comes to the next Gold Cup? I don't know. Probably not.

Probably not. Hey, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.