Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #628: USA v Japan recap

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

Greg and Belz celebrate a solid victory, a sensible defensive shape that sparked the attack, and a bit of a coming out party for Folarin Balogun.Clip Notes, a video of the events from the timeline, for $5 subscribers on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/138690417 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. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Hey, everybody, we are back. Potch got his signature win. Fuller and Balligan said, climb on my surprisingly strong shoulders. I will clear the way for the rest of the attack to flourish. The sun is shining again on the men's national team.

Am I overreacting? Here to tell me whether I am is Greg Velasquez. Greg, how are you? I'm good, no, bells. there have been zero over reactions for this entire window. From the time the roster was announced until the time the whistle blew on the victory over Japan, I think every reaction was exactly what it needed to be. We are in an era of perfectly proportional reactions.

I want to read a couple quotes before we get into the timeline and the lineups and everything. Read a couple quotes from people, more than a couple. So, you know, Potch had this combative is too strong of a word, but sort of impassioned press conference the day before the game, where he was really hard on the March performance and basically said to the reporters there, you know, I called up who you guys wanted me to call up for that window, and look how that went.

And, you know, in sort of defending why some players aren't there and why some players are here. And he said after the game, yesterday my wife said, oh, why were you like this in the press conference? These guys are so nice. When you were in France or in England, they were very, I guess, different. But these are the nice guys. And he said, yeah, but it wasn't for them.

It was, I said it was for some people. And he said, maybe yesterday I said one word that I don't want to repeat, but it was the truth. And I, maybe somebody smarter than me knows what that one word was, but I, do you? I don't, but he's talking about, is he talking about us? I mean, he's talking about the podcast crews, right? It's probably the podcasters in general. Yeah, I mean. Like he doesn't know that you're supposed to call it USMNT Twitter, but that's what he's talking about, right?

Yeah, probably. I am really curious who he is talking about, though. Like, what specifically set him off? Are Donovan and Howard part of the podcast crews or are they part of the professionals? That's a good question. I would say they're probably suspect number one. I would say they are. He also said we've needed time because the players need to know us.

The staff need to know us. We need to adapt to them. We need to adapt to the player. We need to know the player. That is a big picture that we talk about. But sometimes people want the result tomorrow and why you don't call this player or call another. What's most important is the process.

The most important today, is it about winning or losing? No, it's about the process. It's about the player really believing in what we are doing, that they respect us, how we respect them. We are capable to build that relationship, give time to the process, and the process is going to work for sure. So, you know, big Philadelphia, 2019 vibes.

Where are you at, Bells? Did you respect the process and do you still? Or that process was maybe a little unnecessary. And where are you, I guess, first off, do you respect the process? Second off, do you feel like regardless, we're probably going to be fine? Okay, first off, when I watched the South Korea game back and realized that I had to talk about it intelligently without you there. I really dug in.

And I found myself not feeling nearly as bad about it. I mean, if anybody listened to Vince and me recap that game, I said, I realized that our defensive problems in the first half were very fixable. Like, this was not complicated stuff that we were doing wrong. And I'm sorry that we did it that way. And I am disappointed in both Potch and the players for that. But it seemed like it's something that couldn't, that could be fixed really. easily. So that was encouraging. And I realized that we need Balligan to play striker instead of

Josh Sargent. Like I was already, I was already leaning that way if he'd put a gun to my head and said, which one do you want to start? And a must-win game, I would have said Ballo. But I still had hope for Sargent. And I have, I still think he probably deserves to be around and continue to get chances here and there. But I have released the feeling that Sergeant is going to be like some solution to us as a team. And I am very happy that Balagan is that solution. And he showed it so clearly. And not just with the goal.

I think we'll probably get into it. But what was the second question again? Do you feel like we're going to be fine? Yes. I mean, we've got a World Cup that we're hosting. And there's a ton of everything that people are talking about in that, in that sort of sicko bubble that we live in is like, the World Cup is only nine months the way and this is what this is what the pool is and this you know and there's all of this despair and

I'm just wondering where your despair level is it's very it's very low very low despair level I'm not I have no despair really I think we'll I think we'll be fine and I said that stuff too I mean it's frustrating to me when we come out and look so bad especially in real time watching that South Korea game like what is going on why are we so bad and why isn't Pachitino taking this more seriously. But, you know, for all the reasons I've just given, I think sitting with it, watching it a little more carefully, and then seeing us play much better against Japan, I think we're going to be fine.

And I'm really excited about the friendlies in October. How about you? So excited for October. I think, I think I was with you, I'm with everything you basically been saying. Watching the rewatch of South Korea, like the first 30 minutes, I think I shared my takeaway. It was basically like, I think our issue here is the 4-3-2-1. And whether that's numerically what the formation was, you know, it was blurry. And I think it being so blurry was a big problem.

Like it wasn't just us having a hard time with it. The players obviously were having a hard time with it. There were two really obvious struggle points. And it was Tim Wea and Diego Luna trying to figure out who should be stepping up on the left side as South Korea built up in their first line. And, I mean, the confusion was like, you could see it. You could see them looking at each other. Both of them would freeze. Both one would go.

Then with South Korea, cut them both out with an easy pass. They'd both do like the frustration skip. You're just like, oh, no, this is probably not what was set up on paper. Yeah. And that had knock on effects. And then the other one was the right side, the space between Pulisic and Dest. Where, you know, I think you got, you know, you called out Pool Sick for kind of not helping very much. but I think the design was probably for pool sick not to help.

And I think that's why on one of those clips you even mentioned, you see him like remonstrating at Tyler to like get over there. Because I think that was that was Tyler's job. Tyler and Seb, one of them, one of the two, the whole center mid line of three is supposed to shift out there kind of like you got to get out there fast.

You got to make them go backwards into the middle. And then you got to get back across fast. And we weren't doing either of those very well. We weren't getting out there fast very well. Once it moved, we weren't getting back to the middle fast. very well. And that led to several of South Korea's best chances. And, well, it also, one of the knock-on effects is it put a lot of pressure on Tim Reem and

Tristan Blackman. Yes. And so it made Blackman, I'm not, I don't know that Blackman is going to be a long-term solution at Centerback for us, but I don't think he's been terrible. And it made him look so out to see to have to deal with that and to deal with Tim Ream not being terribly mobile, which we all know. You know. Yeah. So it made everybody look bad. It was really discouraging. Yeah, totally. And I think Pach ended up talking about that after this game,

about the formation being one of the experiments and it being on him that it didn't go very well. And I, a thousand percent agree with that. I mean, I think the players could have done more. But I absolutely think that the combination of whatever prep they had, plus South Korea's shape in possession, was just a horrendous match for us for that first. 30 to 50 minutes. And it was essentially completely fixed in the Japan match straight away. I mean, it was fixed in the second half of South Korea.

It really was. It really was. It really was. And it was fixed against Japan. The shapes again matched up really well. So for everyone who's saying this is our new formation going forward, maybe. But maybe the lesson is just like, do the simple matchup that works against the other team. So, you know, when we went, I'm calling it a 5-2-2-1 because I'm ridiculous and obnoxious.

but I would call it a 5221 against Japan. Okay. Well, should we do the – how do you want to do this? Am I getting too far ahead on the – No, no. I think we should just go with what you're feeling right now, which is the 5221. Well, I'll hold up on that and just say, I think the 5221 was an immediate fix where everyone was set up where there were no decisions to make, essentially. Whereas against South Korea, you had these obvious decisions that we didn't prepare well for,

and the guys completely, you know, flubbed. And against Japan, there was no decision necessary. everyone would have started out in the right spot and just is in the right spot the whole time, which is great for us. So I think that was a big fix. And the question will be, do we keep running that just against other three-back systems? Or do we just say, no, we'll just run this. We like it.

We like where it puts our guys. And even if we're up against a suboptimal textbook matchup formation-wise, we'll just roll with it. Which, you know, we've been doing for the past four years anyway just with a four-back system. You know, we don't change our forebacks to make. get more optimal against our opponent matches. We just say, no, this is what we, this is what we're comfortable in. This is what we're going to run. So it's feasible that we just stick with three, five, whatever you want to call it.

Do you think that in the attack, there are like good knock on effects for Christian Pulisic with this setup? Because he looks, he looked, he looked, he was pretty dull against Korea and very lively against Japan. And maybe that's, you know, there might be other reasons for that besides the shape. There probably are, but. I mean, I can absolutely see it. And it could come from just how quickly players are already around him in the attack. Also, we created a lot more transition moments against Japan turning them over up high

because our defense was obviously so much better matched up. In South Korea, we weren't getting as many of those turnovers. So a lot of those dangerous moments of Pulisick and space came from turning them over high, which was a knock on effect from. having a much more coherent, appropriate team shape against what Japan were doing. And Japan being kind of messy. So Pulsick benefits from that. Again, it's funny where you have all these contingencies.

And it's like, Baligan for all his minutes was in on the good shapes, the good team shape. And all of sergeant's minutes came in the bad team shape. Yeah. You're like, oh, tough break, buddy. But that's international soccer, right? Like, the samples are so small. if all of your minutes come with Michael Bradley and

we don't have to go into Josh Sargent's history with the U.S. Men's National Team. But yeah, it's just, it's a tough break, but also like he had some moments where it's like you could have made your case and he didn't quite make it. Yeah. Bolligan's making a case.

Can I stay on Bolligan for just a second? Yeah, please, please, please. I know we're already run long. The Bolligan thing also, Bolligan, I feel like for me, is the total Rosetta Stone for the roster selection too because I know the roster selection was a big sticking point we'll call it for some people um but bolligan being left off for me like was the tell that potchitino absolutely does value keeping guys with their clubs at least at this point in the club season so to leave bolligan

there and not wait to see if he was healthy enough to come over it's like no we don't need to we don't need to force this if a guy's just getting into his club if a guy's just moving if a guy's just coming back from injury, let's leave him there. I know there's a ton of speculation, and we still don't know for sure, that, you know, it was him being done. So done with certain players, sending a message to certain players, whatever it might be. And again, this all happens in our bubble in the context of like the proxy war. So it's like, oh, no, Palchitino has, has, you know, cast his lot with the MLS side.

And he's totally, he's done, he's writing off all of our European players. but bolligan being left off tells you that that's not the case and again there was even a ton of uproar when he finally gets named it's like oh my god you know pachitino rated brian white over fuller and bolligan balligan's only going because white is injured

and it was just like hey everyone Maurice pachitino just like every other manager on earth does not think that brian white is a better striker than fuller and bolligan yeah this tells you that he was willing to sacrifice a little bit of soccer ability for other tradeoffs.

And it's at least possible that those other tradeoffs apply to the seven other core players that are not in this camp. Yeah. I think it looks more, yeah, it's a good, it's a good indication, the balligan thing. I guess, I guess my remaining gripe with all of the, with, with that whole calculation from Potch is that, you. do you do want to win games, you know. And I understand there's a process, you know, I get that, and that probably will see

those other seven, or at least some of those other seven guys in October. But I think the fans were getting a little bit exhausted, you know? And, you know, nobody cares and the people who do care are like really mad because we keep losing games with players who are less good than the ones that we could be calling in. So I think, I mean, it's going to be fine, but I think you push people a little, you push people a little far with, you know, the way the Switzerland game was handled, and then the way this South Korea game went. And so, but yeah.

I totally agree we're getting pushed. And it's not just, you know, losing games because we're calling in players where we have better players available. It's that that's coming on the heels of losing games when our best players were there. Like the two Panama losses, Copa America and Nations League semifinal, I think basically account for like 95% of the completely negative vibes around this team. Where if we beat Panama in Copa and get destroyed by Brazil in the round of in the quarterfinal, we're not loving that, but we're not, it's not what it is now.

If we don't then follow that Panama loss up with another Panama loss at home, with our A team there, then all of this is completely different. You know, we can stomach the, we can stomach the, uh, subpar roster call-ups.

We can stomach the results with those call-ups. Um, so it's just, it is, it is, it's tough. It's a long game and there's a lot of downtime. As a national team fan to just stew.

Um, so it is, it's very important, I think, for our, uh, for us as, as fans to not have to stew for the next,

three weeks waiting for the next roster call-up. And if the cultural reset has really happened and Pottch is happy with sort of the locker room culture now as a result of this, because he's talked about that. He believes that this needed to happen. Then fine. A couple quotes from the players, Balligan and Pool 6th. So Balligan says, we're building something big here. He's obviously a top coach and it takes time and he tried to emphasize that to us to be

patient. Confidence, I think it's really important. The results are at the end of the day, the sort of industry we're in. I like that. And then Pulisic says on his relationship with Potch, which I think is probably a good little dose of reality for some of the stuff you're talking about. We have good conversations, honestly, probably what you guys experience and what the media sees is a bit not exactly what we experience. Things are good. We spoke. We had a normal camp, and everything is good between us, good between the team. There's probably not as much drama. as you guys think there is, end quote. And I believe that 100%, you know.

Absolutely. Again, we kind of joked about all the Donovan stuff with Pulisick and Pachitino. And it's just like, man, there's a good chance that none of this is actually mattering at all to them. And there's just, you know, Poulzick's just out golfing. Pachitino's out barbecue. And they are not nearly as worried about this stuff as we are on a minute-to-minute basis. Yeah, I don't think they are. So our lineup was

Freezing goal and then Freeman, Blackman, Richards, Ream, and Arfston across the back line. So no desk in the starting lineup, which I'm sure would have been a source of major consternation if we hadn't won the game. And then Adams enrolled on and then Zendayaas and Pulisic and then Ballot

in that 5-2-1 that you discussed. Thank you. Thanks for going 5-2-2-1. And then, let's see. Japan was, it must be said, they did not start some of their headliners. It was... Fully rotated is the phrase I heard of a fully rotated Japan. Okay. Which to get out ahead of it, it is fully rotated Japan.

But I would call us partially rotated. And again, basically pre-rotated because we left a bunch of our guys just home for the... Right. Right. Well, just a few of the names that you will know. who weren't in the starting lineup Takafusa Kubo, Takumi Minamino, Kauru Mitoma

all on the bench. Kubo didn't even come off the bench. And then, you know, Bundesliga, Premier League and League on players like Shuto, Machino, Ayumu, Seiko, Daichi Kamada, and Yukinari, Sugawara were also on the bench.

So the starting lineup was Kesuke Osaka, and then Hiroki Sekine, Hayato, Araki, Yuta, Yuta, Nagatomo in the back three. And then Henry Mochizuki, nice player out wide right, Kai Shosano and Joel Fujita in the midfield. So Fujita is a, you probably recognize him. He's a very, like, solid looking fellow who's

really smooth on the ball and kind of calm with his decisions. And then dies in Maeda at left wing back. And then Junior Ito, you Ui-Ito Suzuki in the attacking mid-positions and Koki Ogawa, that striker. And again, the key here is us matching them basically man-for-man shape-wise. Yeah. And it was, you know, I would say it was better. I don't even know if the first half of this game was better than the second half of the game against South Korea, performance-wise from us.

But it was right around the same territory, I suppose. The first minute we get a little action early. Adams claims a ball that skips up off of Balagan's head as he tries to gather a throw in and he touches it to the sideline and clips a ball up the line for Freeman. He strides onto it and tries to slide a ball across the six and it's cut out just ahead of Ballo's run into the goal mouth. But I feel like you see two things here.

One, Freeman contest that left wing back and is going to be a problem. Not a huge problem, but a problem and somebody that they have to account for throughout the game. And then Ballo is just, he just pounces on space. You know, he makes smart runs and he gets there fast. He's hungry. And there's an edge to all that that I just feel like we just don't see for Sergeant at the national team level.

Sergeant, again, for me, for anyone else either. So I know we can kind of put Sergeant in this place because he's the other guy in this window. But, like, Sergeant has always been in the hat. And I don't know that anyone else has been, like, a clear cut above him. But Balo is like a clear cut above everyone. Like it's not just them beating out Sergeant with his sonaut. It's like Balo is beating out everybody with what we are seeing from him and have been seen from him. I go back to that Panama loss.

I know we don't like to relive those. But that Copa loss, Balo is just an absolute monster in that game for the entire time he's on the field. Even when we're down a man. Yeah, down a man didn't matter. He is just, he is doing all the big pack gold cup stuff. and he is also just a real goal score. Yeah. And I think he had a little bit of a rough game,

maybe technically, against Japan. Like, particularly in the first half, he wasn't super clean, but he usually is clean. And I thought that was a little, the field was maybe a little fast or something. And it felt like it kind of surprised everybody

how fast it was. Anyway, seventh minute, Roldons leading the press, and Arfston flies in and pokes a ball away on the left side, straight to ballo at the top of the box. He kind of soul drags it back for Pulisic going horizontal across the top of the box,

and Pulisic has a shot with his right foot. That goes well high and wide. It doesn't threaten either the goalkeeper or the goal mouth. But that's the kind of shot you like to have Pulisic taken. He can rope that into the top corner if he needs to. Yeah, and this was us turning Japan over really high. And it's, again, we can play on. on the front foot because there's no confusion

about where people should be. That's how Roldon can be this. I mean, he's in the pivot of the two, but both Raldon and Adams were really aggressive with how high they would play and contend. And that actually, the knock on would be a hilarious every once in all you'd see Tim Riem

coming from the right side of the screen, like busting forward to track a guy. And it was like he wasn't in the wrong spot. It wasn't like, oh my God, what is Riem doing up here? There's no way he'll get back. It was fine. That Riem was up on the same line. line as like Poulosick at times defending because it was like, yep, that's the next step. Riem can chase this guy and we are still covered.

We are not, there's no dominoes that are going to tip over here. So some of that was cool to see. Yeah. I mean, that's really compelling that like the defensive shape is kind of the, it's like the catalyst for a lot of the good things that we saw a couple nights ago. Ball played in behind Arfston and Mochizuki backheels it for Ito in the night. minute and he whips a ball in with his left foot so he cuts onto his left whips it in from the corner of the box freeze dives to palm it off to the off

wide and maeda the left wing back meets it with and the goal open and just shins it over the goal uh or not even over the goal like it was also wide i think the way he hit it just sliced it but ogawa the striker was offside on the whipped ball in so it's irrelevant But I am curious what you see from freeze here. This seems like a good play. He was lauded on the broadcast. He also did play it directly to the arriving attacker. No, I'm calling this outstanding from Fries.

It would be hard. It's harsh that Japan have a wide open player who, you know, would have tucked it in with a better play. But none of that would fall on Fries. That's like an impossible position to be in where you're dealing with a whiffed in ball. You can't come claim it because the striker is going to get low enough that the striker will, you know, get there first. So you have to wait. You have to hold you ground because any touch from that striker you have to react to. And when the striker misses it, we've said this before,

it is the equivalent of a perfect header down to the lower right corner. Yeah. And so Fries dealt with that spectacularly. It's a really good play. Okay. Okay. I want to note on that one because I'm going to ding him a couple of times for some of these things. Roldon has this tendency to overcomit.

So he's always racing and he's so scrappy. This is the original little brother. You got to remember he fell out of the picture. And Brenda, I mean, Brenda dominates Little Brother rankings now. He's the largest of the little brothers. But Ronald was the original one because he's always trying so hard. I mean, he has that like scrappy dog like body language.

He's always trying really hard. But he often like can't quite do it. So like he overcommits a lot because he's trying so hard. But you know, own at his own danger in some cases. Yeah. He's just late, like, a little bit easily shaken off. Is he the one, was he the one closest to Ito when he hit the cross?

Yeah. Yeah. He was there to contend, but he gets cut to the inside, and that's how Ido gets to hit that left foot of cross that's swinging into the bottom corner. Okay. Okay. I guess we should mention here, it was a sellout crowd in Columbus and a largely pro-U.S. crowd, which was, I think, probably helpful to the players, too, after playing against 75%

South Korea fans in Harrison, New Jersey. I feel like, and I feel, I know you don't like getting into this stuff with me, but I feel like the East Coast needs to just sit down for a little while, you know, and just say, like, we've had our chance. The largest city, like, the cultural capital of the world cannot, cannot put, cannot even get 10,000 people in a stadium. So maybe just take it easy. They're going to give the Josh Sergeant defense and say,

you wanted us to pay up for this roster? This is what you want from us? Yeah, I know. But then Ohio brings in 20,000 fans after that performance against South Korea, you know? Yeah, I know. I know. We'll never escape the All-Ohio scheduling. We don't, I would say it looks a little choppy through 10, 15.

but we do look up for the game. So that's good. 18th minute, we win it in the press in their half. Again, rolled on applying pressure. Errant pass picked off and clipped into the area by Sendejas for Balagan. He collects it off to the side of the gold mouth and then slips Pulisic forward, I mean like three yards forward into the edge of the box, the corner of the box,

the six-yard box, to be clear. And Pulisic turns and slides a little give-and-go pass for Balagan to the inside. He takes a touch, which maybe he shouldn't have done, and has his first shot blocked, comes back to him second shot saved by the goalkeeper. But this is a really good chance. I mean, Ballot with the ball at his feet

and a little window to shoot, you know, seven yards from goal. So I like it. Yeah, and it's another one that came off of a high turnover, again, because we have guys who can play on the front foot being up there, organized well. And, yeah, like, if this pass from Pool Sick just happens to hit Bolo where he doesn't have to set his feet first and he can just, you know, punch it through on his first touch. Then we probably score.

So it's a really, really nice moment. I do love the pass from Bolligan to have that composure to put Poulsick in with, you know, they're operating with zero space, both of them. So yeah, these are players, man. These guys are going to be able to play. We just got to keep giving them these platforms. It seemed like Balgan had good chemistry with Poulisic, which obviously will get into more later and with Freeman. He and Freeman had a good understanding, I thought. Yeah, and I just want to say through what, oh, yeah, we're going to get into this,

but we're getting joy, and it's not just from the high turnovers. We're getting looks from buildup, too, that we aren't necessarily capitalizing on. A lot of those kind of end up with like Freeman leading the charge. Yeah. Well, Mojizuki dunks on Ream on a cross from the left, heads it down, but kind of tamely, and it's safe comfortably by freeze in the 21st minute. And then, you know, like 30 seconds later, we have a good combo from Ballo and Freeman up the right side that gets us into the attacking third. So Ballo lays it off for Sendejas, who shot from just outside the box, is blocked.

Yeah, this is, I think it would have been right after the sequence where it's like, man, we are doing it in a couple of different ways to get up the field and get in a dangerous spot. So from a coaching perspective, you're like, oh, this is, this is going well. Like we are, we are setting Freeman down the line open with space. I know we had another one that we just overhit him where he was on. Bald was carried all the way out of bounds, but like he is in behind and we found him. And then this one where it ends up being Bolligan that we springing in. And it's just like, this is good. These are, these are, the players are tacticking here.

And the tactics are getting them into good spots. You know, one other thing on Ballo, which we've talked about on the podcast a lot in the last, month or so is just his ability to run a ball down in the channel and then like you would say control the space around him and make a soccer decision from that spot where it doesn't feel like he's totally like he doesn't feel like he's totally under duress once he collects the ball it feels like he's in control and that maybe is that is such a concrete difference between him and sergeant like sergeant and i know there are other strikers in the in the hat too peppy and i think it's a difference between him and Pepe too, where he gets there and it's like something good can happen

here. He's going to find a pass. He's not necessarily going to roast the guy, but he gets there in the first place, not true of everybody. And then once he gets there, he's in control. And he's not just getting sort of pushed into the corner flag. Yeah, which again, it's shocking that Pashtino actually thinks Brian White is the better thing. Okay. Freeman does get bit skinned by Maeda in the 28th minute, and his cross is sent out for a corner by Arfston, so it's cut out. But just, you know,

Freeman is good, I think pretty good at defense, but got to clock it when he gets beat. And then in an almost identical play on the other side, we get our first goal. It's right around the 30-minute mark. Max Arfston gets on it, and he does like a little step over, push it down the line with the outside of his left boot,

pass Mochizu-Zuki. and then gets enough of a window to get a cross off, much like Maeda before him, but kind of loops it toward the penalty marker. Sendejas peels off the defender he's on and just kind of comes back to the ball and meets it with a side volley and guides it sweetly with that left foot of his, in at the near post.

It's bouncing, but it plays so perfectly there's no chance of stopping it. A lovely goal. A little bit of a lightning strike. I feel like. But man, what a goal. 1-0 USA. Yeah, it is gorgeous. And so the first thing we need to do is just enjoy the aesthetics of it.

Even the shimmy from Arston has a bit of the way as about it, where you get to really, really just like, oh, that's, that looks nice. But, yeah, so the takeaways maybe a little bit should be a little bit like measured. Because even Arston here doesn't roast the guy and then like get in. You know, he roast the guy enough to hit a cross from pretty close to the side. line, which is not like optimum crossing areas. And the cross he hits into, I think Japan have us outnumbered like six to three in the box. They do have four guys committed to pool sick in Bolligan, sort of on the near side of the box.

But even by the time the ball gets to Zend-Dejas, he's like bracketed. They just, there was enough space that he got to at first. Credit to him, great technique. But if this was like the only look we got, then I'd be, I'd be like, okay, this wasn't really, this isn't really indicative of a of a attack that's clicking. But this was like, you know, this was the sixth time we got in the box.

This wasn't the only thing that happened. So it's like, okay, well, we got our goal off of a lower percentage one, but we had some higher percentage ones too mixed in. This is just kind of how it works sometimes. Yeah.

And, I mean, you got to make, that soccer is a game of moments, and Sendehas got that moment, and he capitalized. Like, that's,

that's kind of how it works. But yeah, this wasn't... Love it for Max. Yeah, what do you think about Arfston? Has he played Scali completely out of the team? Maybe. I mean, I don't think Scali's going to be the next guy up on the left side. So I guess in that sense, that hurts Scali's value because a lot of his value came from like,

you can throw him in on the left if you need to, and then you get a professional left back. And now I feel like, no, this is just now a potcha. is going to do. I don't think he's going to use Scali there. He's now knows he can throw Arston in. He's used desks there. And obviously, you've got Jedi just chilling, ready to come back whenever. Yeah, getting healthy. So, yeah, so it turns it into a direct competition between Scali and Freeman, I think.

And again, if we're going to three in the back, then suddenly Scali's only value is that, like, if you're going to convert him to the right centerback. I don't think Scali at any point is going to be your right wingback high on that list. Not enough cutting edge there. And Arson also has played, what, like three straight games where there haven't been any really big defensive problems from him? I feel like. Yeah, I would agree with that.

I mean, he gets rinsed once here coming up, but I mean, I think that's about right. Like, he has not been on roller skates for the last three games. Like he looked like he was against Switzerland and some of the games in that era. And the Switzerland game again, we'll go back to, and we talked about it then, that was a nightmarish tactical approach from Pachitino as well. So I don't think there's any surprise at, like, when we look terrible, there's at least some of it that is, like, very tactically related. Let's take a break.

If you want to listen to the podcast and skip the ads, join the Patreon. Link is in the show notes. We'll be back in a moment with the rest of the first half and then get on to the joy of the last 30 minutes of the game. Okay, we're back. We're in the 35th minute. Blackman with some solid dark arts that I noticed sends a... So he kind of makes a meal out of a loose touch at midfield trying to settle a loose ball. he sends a sky ball into the air, kind of to nobody.

It does happen to land on Tim Rheim's head in the center circle. But as soon as he sends it up in the air, he pretends that Ogawa's challenge got him with a stud on the leg, which it did not. And he drew a whistle and a yellow card for Ogaawa when he, you know, kind of to rescue himself from a bit of a mess. Yeah, and this is good. We need, I mean, we need to improve our dishonesty. I mean that sincerely. We need more dishonesty from our players in these situations. Yeah.

Sad but true. Sad but true. 35th minute, big chance for Japan. Sports dishonesty, bells. We need sports dishonesty. Yeah, I get you. The big chance for Japan happens on a bad giveaway from Richards. So kind of the darkest moment of the night for Chris, he passes it right to Suzuki

from his own box and Suzuki kind of looks up he sees Ito darting over the penalty marker in the middle of the box and plays it into him he slides and stabs it right at freeze just ahead of Ream this very well

could have maybe even if you're a Japan fan should have been a goal pretty poor from Chris but we survive the air yeah and this wasn't one where like they had a sted right on the press where Richards is just, and then, I mean, he has, he's looking right at Tyler Adams checking back.

And like the read here is Adams' man doesn't come with him. Adams man actually floats in that same pocket that Ream was trying to play into. I'm sorry, Richards was trying to play into. So like it's one of those interceptions that could have been picked off by two different guys. Yeah. And they just kind of decided which one was going to take it. So tough, tough one from Chris Richards here. I don't want to, I don't want to hammer on Ream.

I do just want to point out that, In these moments, it's better to be faster than not as fast. So for the recovery from Ream, he can only move as fast as he can move to try to help with that. He does a lot of other things well. So it's just going to always be about measuring tradeoffs for Tim Ream and just watching the clock tick because sooner or later he's going to have the Becky Sauerbrun versus Mexico game. And we're just praying that that doesn't happen in the World Cup proper. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, his rate of movement in this case was not fast enough to trouble Ito.

It's Richards' fault. I want to make it clear. This is totally on Chris Fitch. 38th minute, Pulisic jumps an out route in Japan's defensive third. picks it off and then skips past a guy, cuts in and shoots. It's deflected over by a sliding challenge. But this is dangerous, and Pulisic is far more lively on the night than he looked against South Korea. Yeah, and all these high turnovers that we're creating are great. And also this is where the fully rotated Japan kind of comes in. It's like they're trying to play through our press too, the way we kind of get frustrated when we try to do against teams that are just taking it from us again and again.

So it's like, okay, it's good that we're punishing, or, you know, punching them by turning them over. But we're going to have to figure out whether better teams will be able to cut through us or whether we can kind of get away with this against. What's the line for which teams we can get away with this against? I guess we'll see against Ecuador, right? If Ecuador is above the line or below it. Yeah, yeah.

And worst case, we've got the old trusty 4-4-2 we can sag into like we did against Mexico in the Gold Cup final and just see how well we can hold a shape. Right. Tyler, that's a barb aimed at you. 44 minute mark we get a beat we get beat on a long ball it's headed by mochizuki into the middle for ito blackman commits and eto blows past him to the right corner cuts it back for sano at the top of the box and his left-footed strike is really good really strong firm hit down to the bottom right corner from his point of view and it looks like it's going into the goal but richard's blocks it i don't know just outside of the six-yard box.

Kind of an unusual way for Japan to attack? We'd like Blackman to be, again, be more dishonest here and drop him. I think he tried to. I think he went into his legs like he just didn't quite commit to it fully. Maybe he went in with friendly dishonesty instead of, you know, World Cup qualifying dishonesty. We need to be real cynical there and just put the guy on the ground and apologize while you get a yellow card. I'm glad you mentioned World Cup qualifiers

because I was going to say this earlier. Some of the some of the malaise, I think, probably is due to the fact that we don't have a World Cup qualifying cycle. So Pashtino comes in and he wants to do a cultural reset. We don't have to win any of these games.

There's no galvanizing sort of trip to El Salvador or, you know, anywhere, the Azteca. And I do think that would have probably helped make things happen faster if we had to do that. I agree. It's a little bit too late for it anyway. Like, again, while we can say, well, Pachke can even say, like, there's no such thing as a friendly. And I think the interpretation that I have of that is, for the players on the field, you need to play like it's a World Cup final. It doesn't mean Pach is going to treat every game like a World Cup final and make every decision with the intent to win it at all costs.

even for the players to just say you need to play this like it's a World Cup final like I just feel like in the universe we all exist in watching sports like that just doesn't happen no matter who like even even for the cultures that have the most like insanely competitive stuff like a third place game just doesn't carry the same edge as even a World Cup qualifier like it just doesn't and you can't sort of can't force you. preseason games to count the same as rivalry intensity games. Right. I mean, it is, I saw just the other day. I mean, I didn't check up on it, but allegedly, Rafina is angry with Carlo Ancelotti for making him play in Bolivia in a game that Rafina doesn't think matters. First of all, how could you be mad at Carlo Ancelotti,

first, like, number one. But also, you know, that's Brazil. and that's a nation we aspire to be like at soccer. 45th minute off a throw on our right side. Another Japan chance. So Sano dances past Adams down in the corner. It's kind of a crowded corner and he lays it off for Suzuki for a hit from a tight angle. He smokes it, but right at freeze and it's pushed out for a corner.

That's the half. There's one moment in the first half that I failed to throw on the timeline, but it's off a, we turn it over. kind of in our buildout, but it was after Arston had kind of overlap Pulisik. And so Pulisik is now defending as the left wing back for a minute. And he's there, and Arston recognizes that that's not ideal. So he

does work hard to get back. But he works hard to get back as Japan hit that overlapping man around Pulisick. Arston is there to cut him off, but he just takes a really naive angle and he gets rounded like he gets leveraged. Oh yeah. I remember that. And Japan ended up getting a header straight

at a really weak header like jumping away from the ball. but still just nodding it to freeze. It was going to go out of bounds. It wasn't even on target. But the point is that was like the Arfston defending moment. And my thought is if that's the worst one in a few games, then again, it's just, it's not great. You want him to improve that.

But it's not, he's not on roller skates. Yeah. And I want to read what Posh says. He says it's a player, he's talking about Max. He's a player that we really believe in from day one because I see in the way that he is, his character, his personality, the characteristics of how he is like a player. I think it's a combo that we really love. We really like.

He's very intelligent, very smart guy. So, I mean, take that for whatever you want to take it for, but Potch loves Max Arfston. I think there's no doubt about it. He's coming to the World Cup, which what a story. You know, no one would have guessed. No, I didn't have Max in my 26 a year ago, a month ago. Okay, so the half comes and goes, and 47th minute, Japan gets a decent chance early. Another sort of uncontested cross from our left, curled in, and Ogawa rises and heads it tamely at freeze.

Actually, it was from our right. It was from Japan's left. Heads it tamely at freeze. 48th minute, good buildup from the U.S. Blackman plays it to Freeman, deep in our half. Freeman helps it along for ballot. And he backheels it back for Freeman. Freeman switches it for Sendejas, who plays it like plays Sendejas in the middle.

He quickly turns and plays it out to Arfston, who gives it to Pulisic on the overlap. And he fizzes it in at the six, draws a good kick save. I don't know. I'm not sure he was trying to shoot or pass, but Ballo was definitely in the vicinity. And that's really nice crisp soccer from us. Yeah, Balo involved quite a bit. And again, you just see that we can get out on the break here. And Arfston being out so early to be up ahead of Pulsick to sort of create that overlapping opportunity,

Pool Sick, and then get around Arstyn. I think that is formation related. Like, I don't know if that plays the same way if Arsston is starting in the back four and then a little bit, you know, always conscious of I've got to make sure I don't get ahead of my skis here because I've got this back four that I've got to defend it. Yeah Yeah Which

Kusick should have Cut it back Do you think he was shooting for sure Oh he was definitely shooting Okay Yeah It's not indefensible But I love a cutback

Yeah I love a cut back too Yeah It's it's gonna be an interesting thing Whether we stick with that Three centerback Set up Because I think it is fair

To argue that our best Players are not Our centerbacks Or at least our deepest position is not our centerbacks but, you know, if it makes everybody better in the attack, maybe you need a cheeky Tristan Blackman back there. And the trade-off is a midfielder, right?

And I feel like that's what the math everyone's doing is that, like, they're saying, oh, we're going to take off a good, a better center midfielder than whoever our third centerback is. And I think that that is definitely true. But I also do think there's something to be said about our midfielers being eventually redundant trait-wise. skill-wise, skill-set-wise. So, you know, the midfielder you're taking off is just like, well, okay, we could have had three midfielers who all sort of do the same thing.

We can live with taking one of them off, even though they're a good soccer player. Yeah. Yeah. Or at least we can experiment with dropping one of the MMAs, you know, like Or a Johnny. What do the World Cup historians say? Do teams win World Cups or make it to quarterfinals or semifinals playing like two different formations a lot? Oh, that's a great question. Generally like you kind of find one horse and ride it.

Yeah. Are you the Costa Rica? Yeah, well, we got to figure out the underdogs too. What do the underdogs do? Yeah. I mean, I feel like it's the six three one. Five four one. Rule Don, I feel, you know, you mentioned

Roldon's little brotheriness. I do think I'm happy for him. I know Poulosick was happy for him. He thought it was so cool that Rulah was back in camp and played well. And I don't think he played terrible or anything, but he was consistently loose in possession in dangerous parts of the field. In this really specific way, right? Like he kept passing it between two players.

He'd hit like a weighted pass. It would die right. But you're like, who was that to? Was that to this guy or this guy? I don't know if it was everyone just being on the wrong. page for how he thought they were going to move because I don't think he technically can't hit a pass the right guy. Well, it was, yeah, it was always, like, generally in the right direction, but then it would,

it would split the, it would split the, but then also he would get the ball knocked off his foot or, like, deflected off his foot, and then it would go to the wrong team. I think there were probably four or five of these, and they were, they were, they could have been punished, so. Yeah. Let's see. 59th minute, we give up another uncontested cross from close. to our box this time off a corner.

It seemed a little maybe switched off there, but nothing comes off. Nothing comes of it. And then Japan brings in a bunch of talent. Minamino, Kamata, and Mitoma come on. This is a 62 minute mark. And then... That uncontested header on that cross off the corner for Japan,

I don't know if it's switching off, or if it's weird, we kind of are weak in the air with our centerbacks, because it's like, you kind of just take for granted that aimless cross, just gets dealt with most of the time by the good centerbacks that you're used to watching on

the television. And Ream and Blackman just kind of don't deal with it. So I don't know if it's, you know, Ream got dunked on a couple of times. I don't know if we just are going to lack dominance with this particular centerback grouping. If we have anybody we can kind of dial up to be better at that trait. I don't know. We'll see.

It is going to be fascinating to see who Pocitino actually calls up in October because he said this was the last camp where there's going to be a lot of experimentation. So presumably we're going to see who he views as the core group. Like maybe Zimmerman gets called back in for this reason? I don't know. Yeah. Well, he snuck nookai under the wire. He was there technically. So he's not excluded by Pott's his press press conference remarks.

Jackson Reagan though is gone It's done Yeah All right So We're about to bring on Luna McGlynn De La Torre and Dest

And then we score And it's It's pretty much all Pulisic I mean it's all Pulisic and then it's all Balot But it's a set It's a dead ball from our half And Ream just plays A simple forward pass to Pulisic

Maybe 10 yards ahead of him right at midfield and then Pulisic just skins Sano pushes it pushes it past him goes past him right down the channel

and then pushes it behind the line for Balo it's kind of bobbling a little bit he steps in front of Sakine from the inside with just a jarring little step arm

leverage yeah it's his signature move and and then he's got he's got plenty of room to do something and he's just

He slots at Far Post with his left foot. Vintage Balagan, excellent individual brilliance from CP, 2.0 USA, and the celebration is on. We're back. Pulcic had several of these moments in this window where his like zero radius lawnmower turns were devastating. He did it against South Korea a couple of times. Once he did that turn with someone on his back as we were building up and sprang

desk to just run free. Another time he did it himself on the sideline to like instead of passing up fields, he did the zero radius like just flipped it around the guy and then turned and went. Now he's running full speed with known between him and basically the goal from 70 yards. And then this one, like just that zero radius turn that he has. And then that acceleration. Yeah. I know I know there have been people who've wondered if he's gotten slower.

But there are times where man, he just, he just goes from zero to seven. and it's he's there already. He looked really explosive in this game. I feel like I have missed some of them in the timeline, but that's okay. It's a good sign if he's got enough that you can skip a couple. But yeah, this was really nicely done. Obviously, really well done from Bala with that leverage. And again, it can feel like a guy's not getting service if you're Josh Sargent.

When you get the service but can't use the leverage to turn it into you being on the ball, then it's like, oh, you're not getting any service. It's like there are some players who are more easily serviced. You can't do anything with that the way I framed that. You're just going to let it stay in the podcast. But the way that Bolligan feels off the defender, so the defender actually has to like stop completely to not foul him. Exactly.

And like hold up, do that little jump to get his foot out of the way of Bolligan's and now can't get back in the play. And then Bolligan hitting a tiny window, which that's the variance of finishing. we get a great angle from behind the keeper where it's like, man, that ball misses the keeper's hand and foot each by like an inch and then still has to go in off of the post. There's a, again, there's a one soccer ball sized hole for Baligan to put that ball and he put it there.

Yeah. And it's like he kind of hit it in a sort of surprising way, right? Didn't he kind of like hit it off the turf? Yeah, yeah, a little push into the turf. Yeah. which I think surprised the goalkeeper. So he hit him with the change up a little bit. We then sub off Pulisic, Adams, Sendejas, and Arfston.

I think three of those had a good performance. Adams, I don't think it didn't have a bad performance, did he? No, and he enrolled on being free to get up in people's faces in defense, like in that high defensive posture. I think he's right at home there. I think he's loving that. Okay. So then Luna Deletore, McGlynn, and Dest, after they watch the goal and the goal celebration, they get to come on.

The game opens up a bit. We get the Richards chance on a good McGlynn set piece after Roldon draws a foul 30 yards from the Japanese goal. And then there's the Balo chance while we're watching a replay of his goal celebration. Vince was in the stadium. He says it was actually really nice. He received the ball and spun in the box. to get that shot off, which we just saw the shot on the broadcast, and they didn't go back to it because some interesting things happen almost immediately after this.

So this is, again, this is Balo, right? Like, he is just generating shots and chances for us in a way that I don't think other strikers in the pool do, and Josh Sargent is going to be the one that's going to get the worst comparisons because he's in the camp with him. So I think Sargent's going to be hit pretty hard by this. Yeah, at least in the public perception, I'll be fascinated to see if he makes it into the next camp. I guess I would be a little surprised if he does, but also not shocked. The next big chances for Japan, 70th minute, a soft rolled-on giveaway in our defensive third.

This is one that gets kind of poked off his foot as he's trying to pass it. It gives Ogawa a chance from distance. This is the starting striker, and he is a couple inches away from an absolute, worldy of a goal. I mean, it bobbles up on him, so he catches every bit of it, just torques the hell out of it. And it goes, I don't know, would it drop like five yards? It's not that much. It dropped a lot.

It went up and down. Yeah. And then slammed the crossbar. I mean, Freeze didn't even move. He was just watching it. Yeah, perfect replay the technique to strike that, to get that drop. again for Roldon, just like with Burrhalter in the last game, I think there's evidence that this is just all moving too fast for them.

We've talked about the guys on the ball clocks and how some players, and we talked right here, some players just sort of can reset it. Roldon can never really reset it. He had good moments sometimes where he could just play fast, but when he has the ball and there's pressure closing down on him, he is never going to reset that clock. Like with a little shimmy, you never have to respect

that he's going to get past you with the ball. So you're free to just go in and, you know, literally just little brother him. The way a big brother would just be like, that ball is mine. There's nothing you can do to stop me from taking it. I'm taking it. So if he doesn't get it off fast enough, he's going to lose it. And the other thing is for both Roldon and Burrhalter in the game before, it's like they underestimate how much, how fast that pressure is actually going to get there.

And so they both kind of end up thinking they're going to get a touch that they end up not getting because it gets taken off their foot. Yeah. all respect to Christian Roldan. He's also a great guy. But, yeah, he's not up. He's not up to the, as they say on USMNT Twitter, not up to the level. You might be up to the level for Pasha to have him in camp.

I mean, I can't say. Sure. I want to clock that Luna wastes a pretty good AVP by Dilly-Dallying on the ball. He gets, I forget exactly how it came about, but it's in the 74th minute. he gets played into like the left channel and he's got space and he does he underestimates how much time or he overestimates how much time he has and it gets taken off him when it didn't need to um raldon covers himself in glory on this next moment yep this is the raldon sequence 78th minute uh just a great

move from us roaldon wins it over to luna in our third luna clips it all the way out to ballo on the right side and then he helps it along for McGlynn, who carries it, and then cuts in and finds Luca Delatore's feet above the arc. He lays it off for Rodon, and here's the pass of the sequence where he just sweeps it out wide left to Dest with a first time pass. Desk dribbles inside, shuttles it over to Luca just inside the box. He kind of persists with it and then pushes it over to McGlynn, who takes a shot that he doesn't get all of, but it deflects, I think, off a defender's back and heads to the far corner and you get a good save from the goalkeeper Osaka.

Love this from Luna too because I love a dummy. And Luna has to know that he's really competing with Zendahas. I feel like in that spot on the devs chart, I think Pachitino had a comment to that effect. He's going to have to rethink. Players are making them rethink things in a good way for the team. I mean, I'll just, I'll kind of jump in now on. that one, because we'll get to another Luna moment here, but the dummy sets up

a really good chance for the best left foot on the planet, apparently, and then he sets up another chance later in the game, that's a really good one. And so for Zendayaas to get the goal, that's great, but Zendayaas didn't really do much outside of that, so I don't really know that I would leap

him way above Luna, and then just like with Roldon and Burholter and who's ahead of there, part of it is also like, the guys we didn't bring to this camp might just be towering over them in a way that their little differences just don't matter. It's like if you're looking down at someone from a five-story building trying to figure out which one of them is a little bit taller, it just, it just kind of, they're the same for our purposes. Yeah. And then, you know, I have to, you know, everybody listening can

take a drink because I'm going to bring up Gio. He, I do wonder, you know, there are all these rumors that Gio, like Gio maybe is, he and Scali did something sort of unforgivable at the March camp. And I do not know if that's true, but a lot of people are saying it. And you got to wonder, like, if Potch is really, like, going to freeze Gio out over something, you know? It seems really, it seems, I'll say it's, to me, it seems really unlikely if, if Gio can get, you know, on the field. Right. Unforgivable is a sliding scale. Scali is going to unforgivable for Scali. The exact same thing.

They could have both been doing the same thing. And for Scali, it's unforgivable. And for Gio, it can be extremely forgivable. It can be one camp later. I don't think I've talked about this on the pot yet, but looking at Gio, like, everyone's like, Gio doesn't even play soccer, whatever. Like, how can we have them in the camp? but if you look at Gio's 2023, 2024 stats with Dortmund,

where he, you know, he had a very limited role of Dortmund. He came in for the U.S. in the summer of 2024 and, like, dominated the nation.

In March in 2024, he was like the best player in the Nation's League semis and final. Coming in half of the Jamaica game, completely flipped it. Excellent against Mexico in the final. Like he is, he was really good coming off

of very limited roles. His stats for Dortmund for 20, his counting stats for 20, 24, 2025, the next season were like identical. And he's, and suddenly for so many people that are like, he's dead to us. He doesn't exist in the pool. He's not, he's not playing. And I just, I continue to not get it.

I feel like for Gio, he's either Nick Tadigui and he just can't really play anymore and he just has had injury build up after buildup and he's no longer able to play. Or he's in our squad and probably, probably starting. Like those are the two outcomes. He does need to play a little bit. But we're not going to, I think we have to

resign ourselves. We're not going to probably get the hit of dopamine every weekend of him having like a masterclass because he's not likely to be that healthy. Maybe ever. I don't know. But yeah, he's still our best attacking midfielder, you know, not named Christian Pulisic. So just for Geo watch, one of the best performances for U.S. fans actually came in the weekend before the window. And it was not an American player. It was actually a South Korean player. It was, is it Jens Kastrop?

You guys were talking about him in the South Korea preview. Yens Kastrop. Yen's Kastrop. Okay. First subon for Mocching Glodback attacking mid in their Bundesli opener. Oh, yeah. Just a calamitous. 20 minutes.

Really? Shocker. An absolute shocker. I know in the U.S. soccer community, we love to hate on the players who are playing ahead of our boys. And a lot of times we like hate the player who's, you know, we hate Luke Diyang in his 60 goal season. He's washed. This was not that. This was, this was catastrophic for young Yens.

Oh, man. Great news. Yeah. So he had, he put that performance in. then he went away for the international window. Meanwhile, Gio Raina's dropping just sleepwalking through hitting like a 60 yard outside of the boot, through ball for a goal in a, you know, meaningless contest. But we're riding high on Gio watch.

The eyes don't lie with Gio, you know. He can ball. So, okay, let's get, that's really fantastic news. And, you know, coming from you, because you don't, you, you're not one of those who participates in the sort of emotional terrorism. against players playing above U.S. players at their club. No. No, it was really, really tough. If I had time, I'd comp it because it'd be great to watch tomorrow ahead of Gladback's match.

But there's an opportunity. You love to see it. Downs comes on for Ballo after that really nice move from us. Freeman does well defending Matoma 1v1. So he got, I did mention he got skinned by Mochizuki, but he did well against Metoma. in the 80th minute. 83rd minute, big chance for McGlynn. A bit of a messy sequence up our right side.

I mean, it's an understatement calling this a big chance for McGlin. This was like the most cinematic thing in the whole game. A bit of a messy sequence up our right side. I mean, we're kind of moving forward three yards in a cloud of dust increments. One, you know, we'd lose it and somebody would win it. But Freeman gets stonewalled by a guy trying, as he tries to go pass him up the line. McGlin recovers it and passes to downs at the top of the box. in one motion, which I do, I said this after this, I think I said this after the South Korea game,

but it's just fun to watch McGlynn play. He's so, like, his decisions are so fast and crisp and his past, like the pass is always to the right foot with the right weight, as Johan Croyffe would say. Not that he doesn't have his limitations, he certainly does, but anyway, he recovers it, passes to Downs at the top of the box, Downs plays it out to Dest, Desk dribbles inside, just like he did a little bit, earlier, shuttles it to Luna, who dummies it, double points for this, dummy. This was fantastic. And McGlynn meets it on the edge of the box in his happy place, just like leaning into it

with his left foot kind of with his shoulder pointing at the, pointed at the goal. And he just eviscerates the ball off the bottom of the crossbar, an inch from being one of the nicest goals, you know, you can imagine. and yeah it was lovely to see it made it feel made the game feel like a romp to see that thing almost shattered the crossbar yeah i mean coming off the heels of his last chance uh which is funny because i thought that was the chance everyone saw i was behind so i saw people talking about them glen like losing their minds was like oh yeah that was pretty nice and then this one came up out of nowhere for me and i was like good gracious yeah yeah i i made uh uh

loud noises in the living room on that one. Is he making the roster? Man, I have no idea. I just don't know. Like, it's going to be tough sledding, but I guess what it comes down to again is, like, would anyone be mad if he is on the bottom half of 26-man roster, bottom three guys? I wouldn't be mad. I wouldn't be mad.

I guess it depends on who gets left home as a result. Yeah. What are his vibes? He's going to increase our average. height. Yeah, Vince. Vince reported that, that he is actually a tall guy. Yeah.

Another lovely... I'm leaning towards bringing him. But we have so many good stories because whether it's him, whether it's Roldon, whether it's Luna, whether it's Aden. I mean, we got guys who are going to be like, oh, it's fun that that guy made it. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see. 86 minute.

Another lovely move from us, and the timeline's almost over. It starts with a throw in our half. It's a little messy from Luca, but Roldons sprays it out to Freeman in space. He clips it over the top for Downs. Luna looks good again in this one, and Downs kind of corrals it, but he's no fuller and balligan. You can see the difference, like, almost immediately, corrals it a little bit inelegantly. But we persist with Luna, McGlynn and Desk trying to dribble through and combine inside their box. Downs ends up with it just outside the box,

but we still have the ball, and he finds Luna just above the penalty marker with a diagonal pass on the ground, and Luna plays a one-two with him. That's just lovely, like plays him right in behind the back line, and Downs meets it with his left foot, hits it right at the goalkeeper. Again, it feels like a celebration

because we're just pelting the goal. And this was a really pretty, combination too. Yeah, between the two McLean shots and then this, we are carving them up. These are carve up goals, which is delightful to watch for a U.S. fan who might be starved. Like, I don't think we were doing this kind of stuff in the Gold Cup against Guatemala. Like, this is fun. Yeah.

And like you said earlier, Luna pretty heavily involved through all of it. Yeah. And you can caveat it for sure with, you know, last 20 and a friendly, you know, last 15 and friendly. Everyone's made five changes. Everyone's about to get back on their flights and be done with inconsequential games, but it's still fun to watch. I'm still going to enjoy it.

You can't take that from me. Yeah. Caviot, shmaviat. Another, yeah, Dest has another chance that draws a good save. He probably should have passed it. I forget to who as he cuts it, carries it up the left side. But that's it.

Two-0 USA. It felt like a party at the end. I have some questions here that we were going to deal with, but we dealt with them all throughout the course of the episode. So anything else? Any closing thoughts, Greg? A lot of club watches are going to be going on this weekend.

But this was a fun camp, and I feel like we got some good information on players who either solidified their spots on the back half of the roster or are like, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and push and try to say that I deserve to be a starter or rotational starter. And then we saw other players who might be a little weaker still like contributing, but you can just sit there salivating about how in October there's a chance you could replace them with much, much better players. And what would that look like?

Yeah. I mean, I know people get tired of it, but if we can get, if GeoWatch goes well for the next couple months, look out, baby. I mean, even if GeoWatch doesn't, right? If you put Malik into that Yeah The Zendahas role From this last game

What does that look like? It's hard to imagine us not cooking Like really cooking with those With the Malik in there And So I'm excited for it bells But I can imagine it really easily Because man have we watched

Our best players Not cook For extended time So I can definitely imagine it Progress is linear though Greg It always goes up I like to imagine Lots of things all at once

So I'm also imagining the real cooking. Yeah. Yeah, I'm, so what I do is I just take the positives from the last game and then add the likely positives from the addition of other players with no, you know, no allowance given for possible negatives. And then that's the new baseline. The hypothetical positive becomes the baseline and anything below that is going to be wildly disappointing. That's right.

That's right. It's a really healthy way to live. Okay, hey, we appreciate you listening. We'll see you.