Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #630: The U20 World Cup roster with Marcus Chairez

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Cole Campbell, Diego Kochen and Peyton Miller are present and accounted for. Marcus joins to discuss who's exciting, who could make up a good starting XI, what factors lead to translating U20 success to the senior team, and much more.Marcus on Twitter: https://x.com/ussoccercoll His website where he writes a lot about USMNT prospects: https://www.ussoccercollective.com/ 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 when we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, it's U20 World Cup Roster Day. Marco Mitrovich announced his 21-man squad for the World Cup in Chile, starting on September 27th. We face New Caledonia, developmental death star, France, and then South Africa over the course of about a week. Joining me to interpret this list of names is Marcus Cherez, who has moved heaven and earth to accommodate ours and U.S. soccer schedule.

Marcus, thank you greatly. Welcome back. Yeah, thank you. We'll always move heaven and earth to join a U.S. Y, N.T. scuffed podcast, no problem. Let's do it. So I just got off the president with Marco. It was sort of predictably low calorie in terms of insight.

But, you know, you don't give away all your secrets right before a tournament, do you? So I guess we can get into that, but why don't we just start with the roster? I'll read it. How about that? Goalkeepers are Adam Bodry from the Colorado Rapids, Duran Ferry from San Diego FC, and Diego Cochin, the FC Barcelona, you know, very, very highly rated prospect. And then defenders are Reed Baker Whiting from the Seattle Sounders, Luca Bombino, San Diego, Noah Cobb from Colorado Rapids, Ethan Kohler from a club in Germany,

Nolan Norris, Nolan Norris from FC Dallas, Francis Westfield from the Philadelphia Union, and Joshua Winder, who is at least located in Portugal at the moment, affiliated with the Benfica Club, of course. Midfielders are Matthew Corcoran, Nashville SC, Ben Ha Kramoski,

who plays at Parma. now and Taha Abrun from Columbus crew Brooklyn Raines Houston Dynamo Pedro Soma from San Diego and Nico Shakir is making his second U-20 World Cup appearance from the San Jose

earthquakes. Forewards are Luke Brennan from Atlanta United, Cole Campbell from Dortmund. He got released for this tournament. Xavier Gozo had a delightful bicycle kick goal last night for Rayall Salt Lake

the first team, Peyton Miller from the New England Reves and Marco Sumbrana also for May I Salt Lake. So, Marcus, who surprises you like on this roster? You know, I don't really think there are any big surprises. I think the biggest surprise is that Marco really got pretty much all the releases he probably wanted outside of No Kai Banks, which I don't think is a surprise that he wasn't released. There were some late rumblings that he might get in, but I think it's probably best that he continues to fight for minutes at Augsburg. He is probably the most likely from this age group to have a chance at the 2026 World Cup,

the senior team who's in the last camp. So I think it's probably better that he's not here. If you're taking a step back and looking at the big picture, But yeah, no, I struggled to really see any surprises. I think it was, it's a fairly unsurprising age group and just that it's not a deep pool. So the kind of guys you expect to be here are here. And there are a lot of guys who have roles, you know, fairly significant roles, some of these guys for their first team, you know, specifically in MLS.

So the fact that he was able to get good. Gozo released, Peyton Miller released, her starters. Taha, Bahraun has been a starter recently for Columbus. Brooklyn Raines has been a starter for Houston Dynamo. Luca Bombino's been a starter for San Diego. So you've got a lot of guys who play pretty prominent roles that all got released. So I think cheers to Marco for working that pretty well, probably the last, you know, six to nine months. Yeah, probably some statesmanship involved there.

Cole Campbell, he's a bit of a surprise that he was released, right? I mean, a lot of people didn't expect that to happen. Yeah, I think the tell probably was that he was in the last camp. And I think if Marco didn't think there was a chance of him getting released, he probably wouldn't have been. Okay. So I think it's the right thing. I think he's like, he's basically the last attacker off the bench at Dortmund.

He probably should have left. But Dortmund had a really weird offseason. and I think it's probably best that he comes, and he's like the guy for this attacking group. And for him, I think he probably wants to have a move in January and a really good tournament maybe increases his stock a little bit. So we're likely to see a left-footed right-winger in Campbell and a left-footed left-winger in Peyton Miller on this team, right?

Because Miller's listed as a forward on the wrong. roster. Yeah, yeah. I think predicting the starting lineup for this team is actually kind of tricky. There's just a lot of like, there's not a lot of variance, I'd say, and like the top players to the bottom players. So it's pretty like steady group. So like you could potentially, he might want to start early, more senior player in

Luke Brennan. He's done some decently nice things for Atlanta this year. And he's a right-footed player that predominantly has been playing. on the left wing. Campbell's definitely going to start on the right wing as a left-footed player, inverted. Miller's the more talented player. But yeah,

and he's kind of always been an attacker for Marco, even though he played left-back for New England. And left-back's probably where he ends up as like a long-term. But he may, yeah, he may end up being the starter. So he might have two left-footed wingers, which would be interesting. Yeah, because Miller is, he's nice, he's a nice player. technically for a fullback, but he's not like magic in the final third or anything. Yeah, I mean, I think he left wing makes sense because his probably best qualities in attack are running vertically,

like overlapping and moving off the ball and then delivering a cutbacker, a cross-in. But he's not like a, he's not like a one v-one merchant. he's not going to you know that's not really his game where Campbell can do that so you're probably looking for Campbell to break down the defense and you're looking for Miller to run off the ball and maybe play some crosses in

but yeah that's that's not his game like trying to break you down with the dribble okay well like I said just got off the presser with Marco and I mean he was asked about no Kai and he said you know he's with the he was with the senior team most recently basically couldn't get him

least. I don't think any big surprises there. He didn't reveal who the captain will be for the first game. And I'm not even sure this matters that much, but he did say that he has already chosen the captain, and we'll get to see who that is when the U.S. plays New Caledonia, which, by the way, is an island in the South Pacific. If anybody was curious, it sounds like it might be an island in the North Sea, but it's not.

It's in the South Pacific. And then the other thing is that only really other thing that I thought was kind of interesting is I estimate if he sees Xavier Gozo as a nine. And if he had seen that bicycle kick goal last night. I mean, if you haven't seen it, you got to check out the highlights. It's like it's just a delicious goal. The ball pops up and he kind of, I don't know, 45 degree angle, bicycle kick, overhead kick. It's really, really. I mean, he gets all of it and just punches it home.

for the first team in Rayalsall Lake. So I asked him if he'd seen that and if he thought of what he thought of it. And he said, yeah, he smiled. He said, yeah, I've seen it. We texted about it. What I told Xavier is, I want you to score five goals, five simple goals, because all goals count the same. And he said, I'm not going to, you know, he's a versatile player.

He can play all across the front three. But to me, when you tell, when you're telling a guy, hey, you got to score five simple goals. That's the way you talk to your number nine, you know? And maybe none of that is even surprising you. You probably had him penciled in as the nine anyway, right? No, actually. I mean, it makes sense that Zambrano's the really only number nine on the roster,

Marco Sanbrano. Gozo's played everywhere for Real. I mean, he's kind of been given a very, like, free role. Both he and Luna kind of have the license to roam around for Real, Like he usually plays off on the right side and the right channel. But he makes a lot of runs like a striker. I think long term, he's kind of more of a winger to me than a striker. But because this group lacks, I think, a very clear number nine.

I mean, he's the most talented option. And so if you can get your most talented front three, is probably Miller Campbell goes, though. So if you just kind of try to make that work, and then, yeah, he ends up being the nominal number nine. Okay. Who are we missing? Besides Banks, anybody we're missing who could actually help this age group?

Yeah, I think the only other, the few others I'd call out, Matti Akamboni, D.C. United Academy player, who was transferred to Bournemouth. He was in the last camp. I think if you're picking your ideal 21 or your ideal 11, he's probably starting next to Banks as a centerback. He's the only real viable, left-footed centerback in this age group. He's coming back from a surgery, not a major surgery, but he's coming back from a surgery. I think they used the last camp to see how fit he was and determined they didn't think he was quite fit enough.

And so that's why they left him at home. But I think had he had been 100% fit, I think he definitely would. like to see him as one of the starting centerbacks. The centerback group is not the most physically demanding. They're all, you know, not as tall as you'd like and maybe not as mobile as you'd like. So, um, not to say Akimoni's game is like playing in space, but he gives you like a pretty big physical presence. And so I think, I think you lose something there. Um, Christian Fletcher is probably worth calling out, like was never going to be here because he tore his ACL earlier in the year, but he's been like, when this group has played together and played

well, he was like the number one left winger and actually has played really well for this group. He's not quite figured out his professional and club career, but I think he would have been a really good player for this team, and it's just unfortunate that he injured his knee. And then I think we'll talk about him a little bit more, but Marco just has never seemed to really rate Carol Figueroa, the Liverpool Academy player. I think he is the best striker option for this age group. But it just doesn't seem like he fit how Marco wanted to play. I think Zambrano offers him someone who can just like just play a little bit in the holdup

and connect play and just be someone that can be relied upon to, like, not lose the ball a ton. And then, yeah, if Gozo's going to be the nine, I guess he's maybe more similar to Figueroa, and he probably just rates Gozo higher. But, I mean, I would have brought Figueroa, but, but yeah, those are really the only names that I think you could call out. I think this is a pretty expected group. Who are you most excited about just before we get into some listeners? questions.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, I guess just I'll plug my side a little bit. Please do. Yeah. I do prospect rankings, right? And I do it a top 50 twice a year. I did one recently in August, US Soccer Collective.com. And so the guys that I have ranked highest and are there for the most interesting, you know, most interesting guys I'm looking forward to seeing her.

Diego Cochin, who I think is a future number one for the senior team eventually, if everything plays out well. I think he's the kind of keeper that in this tournament might keep us in some games. We maybe have no business being in. You know, and France might be, that second game against France might be one where you can kind of see the value he brings as the keeper that can just make some crazy. he saves that keep you in a game. He's also, you know, just really, really top with his feet.

So any team that's going to press us, and, you know, we've been struggling to watch our senior keepers play with their feet for so long now that I think anyone tuning in who follows the senior team, you know, I think it'll be a joy to watch him play with his feet because he's just, he's pretty magical back there. So I'm super excited to watch him play. I think it's awesome that he's here. He missed the U-17 World War II. Cup because of an injury.

So it's actually our first chance to provisionally cap tie him, which I don't think is like, it's not like a super important thing. He has been consistently super committed to the program, even though Spain has come calling many times. So, yeah, that's nice. That's a nice little bonus. But I think, you know, having a really good keeper in a tournament like this could be a big difference maker, especially for a team that may not score a ton of goals like this one.

We mentioned Cole Campbell. We just don't have a lot of dynamic, left-footed, inverted wingers. And I think he could be a 30-plus cap guy for the senior team, if not more. We don't have a ton of winger depth. When Stuttgart and I think it was also Eintech-Frank Frankfurt, you know, want to pay five, seven million for a guy that has almost no minutes in the Bundes League. I think there's a reason to be excited about that. So those two, for sure.

I think those two are not like super far off from knocking on the door with the senior team if they can get their club career started. And then the two 2007s. So the two 2007s are the guys that would be eligible for the next World Cup. So we've got, you know, for context, Josh Weinder and Nico Securis, they were 2005. that were on the last World Cup and are back for this one. Probably not ideal that they're back, but they are. But, but Peter Miller and Xavier Gozo are the two 2007s,

and they both had pretty, I think, pretty impressive seasons in MLS as full-time starters. Gozo probably more surprising than Miller. But these are two guys to be excited about. I mean, Peyton Miller's been getting, you know, tagged with big clubs like Tottenham and, And I think he's probably going to move from New England for a pretty good fee in January. He can't even move to Europe yet because he's a very young 2007, I think November, December birthday.

So he's not even 18. So he couldn't move to Europe until January. And then Xavier Goes was probably been the biggest surprise of any, like, MLS homegrown this year. He was kind of a train wreck in the U-20 Conccaf tournament. I remember. I remember that, yeah. Yeah, we did this episode. And I think I called Gozo Out as like a player I was excited about.

And then after the tournament, I had to like kind of walk around my tail between my legs because he was a disaster. Like he couldn't take a touch. You couldn't even face people on the streets, man, you know, because of Gozo. Yeah. Yeah. For the five people they cared about that take. But yeah. So, you know, it's cool.

I think the talent's always been there. and he just kind of has put it all together this year. He's cleaned up his game technically. He's always had confidence. He's always had, I think, a great mentality. He plays without fear. And I think it's just kind of starting to click. And so, yeah, those two guys.

So coach in Campbell, Miller, and Gozo, I think those are the four guys to be most excited about. Yeah, you know, I mean, I respect Marcos, what Marco said in the press conference about how it's more important to score five simple goals than to score the cool goal. But sometimes the cool goal tells you something. Yeah, like, total coach speak. Like, I get it.

But, like, he had the audacity to try it. Like, it wasn't, like, the most obvious thing. It was the right, it was the right decision. Yeah, it was the right decision. He had the physical ability to pull it off, the technical ability to pull it off. So, yeah, I mean, it was probably one of the night, maybe the goal of the year in MLS. It was incredible. Outrageous, yeah.

We're going to Garrett from Birmingham, Alabama. Looking back at the last U-S. U-20 roster, who is the biggest success and biggest disappointment so far? I'll start just to give you a little break here. I'd say outside of Obid Vargas choosing Mexico, which I think hurts a little bit. Probably Jonathan Gomez is the biggest disappointment. But I feel like we've gotten more out of this group

that played in the last U-20 World Cup than most of us would have guessed, especially with the Pocitino Revolution. You know, we've gotten a lot of caps from Luna and McGlynn in the last nine months. Paredes still has a future, though he's been beset by injury. Quinn Sullivan got a good look from Pach in the summer.

I'm not sure how well it went, but... I'd say more success than disappointment. I think the 2004 class has probably been, a real surprising success. I mean, the biggest success and probably the most talented player that would have been eligible for that team is Alex Freeman, who was not really involved in that cycle at all. And he's probably the player that's progressed the most in his career in that group, outside of Ricardo Pepe, who was never really an option for this team.

So that's kind of, I mean, that's interesting and maybe just something for us to remember, right? Freeman wasn't on the radar at all for the U-20 World Cup, and now he's probably, you know, one of the more promising players from this age group. And I think he's in 2004, and I think the 2004 class, like kind of coming up, everybody thought the 2003 class was kind of it around this kind of era.

And the 2004s have really developed quite nicely. Even like two guys that were on that team, Owen Wolf and Darren Yappi, are having really nice season. in major league soccer. So I think it's gone okay. Some other guys that I guess it's maybe not surprised, but disappointed in is I have always been a Justin Chay fan

and his career is definitely not gone anywhere for lots of reasons. I mean, Kate Cowell's falling off the face of the earth since he went to League of Mekies. And then a guy who's back on this team, I thought Nico Shakiris' career would be further down the line. than it is. And I think San Jose's not done him any favors. He's kind of had some injuries at the wrong time.

So maybe this is a chance for him to just kind of get his name back into relevance. He needs to leave San Jose. But I still believe in him. I still think there's a path for him to have a nice career. But hasn't really gotten to plan in the last couple years. It seemed like he played with. with such confidence and sort of fluidity back in, like, the run-up to that U-20 World Cup. And when you watch him since, which I haven't watched every, you know, I haven't checked in on all his minutes or anything,

but when I have checked in on him, he just looks like he's always, like, coming back from an injury. Like, he's always rusty, you know? Yeah. I think the last two seasons, he started off the season injured. And that's just a, when you're a young player trying to, like, establish a role, starting off the season injured, it's just brutal. It's hard to, I think, you know. And then he's just more of an attacking midfielder. And I think attacking midfielder is just hard to break through an MLS as a homegrown, even at a smaller, you know, cheaper club like San Jose.

Like, it's where these teams spend their money. And they're spending all their money on these three guys. They're going to play that they're usually spending it on an attacking midfield. and they're going to play that guy that they spent $5 million on. And so I think he just probably needed to leave San Jose a long time ago. And hopefully he does soon. Okay. Yeah, I really agree about Shakiris, man.

I thought his career would be more of a rocket ship. Jeff Huffman in Boston, why do you think it is the case that smaller, less established soccer nations can be pretty good in these youth national team world cups, but that often this doesn't translate to success at the full men's national team level. Man, that's a good question. Really good question.

I think there's a lot of factors. I think Jeff, in the longer version of his question, you know, identified that a lot of bigger countries, young stars are already playing up. And I think that's part of it. So maybe like France, Brazil, England, you know, etc., etc., they're not always sending their best possible 21 players to this tournament. I think in general, the U20 World Cup isn't seen as an important of a youth tournament as like the U17 World Cup or even the like U21 Euros and things like that. So I think the U-20 World Cup just doesn't have the same importance.

I know that's not totally answering the question, but just something to think about when we're watching this. I also think like these are kids, right? So like kids, no matter how talented they are, going to make bigger mistakes, more often make mistakes in tournaments. And I think because of that, he might see lesser teams more frequently beat bigger nations

because a French 19-year-old is still, you know, prone to mistakes. So I think that's part of it. I think that when you talk about senior teams, senior teams are pulling from like, I don't know, 10 to 12 age groups, if you consider like every birth year in age group. So when France has the opportunity to pull 21 players from all of these age groups, they have this incredibly deep pool of players.

But if you're a, you know, not a big, nation and you just happen to have a nice age group, you might be able to make a run in this tournament, but just having a nice age group doesn't mean your senior team's going to be hugely impacted by that too. So I think that's part of it. That's a really good point. So like if you have three, France might have three more elite players than South Korea in this age group in a certain, in a given cycle. But if you multiply that out over, you know, five more, you know, you 20 cycles, then it's like it's 15 or 20, you know. I mean, I'm just throwing numbers out there.

No, that's exactly the math, right? It's like, and it might be that France, France's average year versus South Korea's average year, or like South Korea having a really great class might mean that, you know, France only has one or two more elite players, but then other years they might have five or six. So the math of that is like, well, then the senior team is just, it's just hard. hard for it's it's hard to to beat that they could have 20 guys go down with ACL injuries in the world cup year and still put out a better team right did you have one more thought on that difficult question from jeff i think i mean it's a great question i think the other thing and

this is just more of it i think it the one of the biggest questions i get asked or i see being asked is, you know, why we see other nations players have these big jumps in level. And I think part of it is when you are an English academy player or a German academy player and the professional team or the professional league that you get an opportunity to play in is the Premier League or the Bundesliga. These, most times, like, these clubs are not afraid to give their top, top young players chances in these what are considered the best leagues in the world. And other nations just don't have that luxury, even if you're, you know, if you're

Captain Sullivan, you're getting it, you know, he's, we don't seem to have the mentality of, like, when you have a special player, you, press the issue and you you get them into this competitive environment and he's even struggling to get minutes in MLS and I think uh I think the I think the thing that a good comparison or I guess a good example of this is Mettees Albert he came up at the L.A. Galaxy Academy system where would he be in their pathway if he stayed at L.A. Galaxy who's historically don't play a lot of their academy kids he might be just by getting 1,500 minutes in MLS Nix Pro. He hasn't debuted for Dortmund's first team,

but he's like he was brought to the Club World Cup. Like, it wouldn't be surprising me he's playing for them in the next year. And I think he might debut faster at Dortmund than he would have at L.A. Galaxy. And I think that says something about how, these bigger nations view development versus how we're still viewing development in the U.S. We don't take as big of chances on our best players, and I think that's a huge problem.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, L.A. Galaxy is like the worst place to be a high-level prospect, basically. Okay, Zach in Minnesota, do you know anything about Josh Winders' club situation? He isn't playing for the first or second team. Let's dispense with this one quickly if we can. Yeah, I don't know.

It's a good question. I think they probably knew they were going to send him to this tournament. So, I mean, he's not ready. He's not an option for their first team, and they've probably just prioritized, you know, the five other probably really good centerback prospects they have for Benfica beat. So Josh needs to have a good tournament. Probably leave Benfica in January.

Yeah. Let me skip ahead to Jesse from Maryland's question because it's relevant to this and something I want to say about the Marco Presser, what are the top three contributing factors for those players that are able to translate their success of the E20 World Cup level into the full national team? And I did ask Marco a version of this question, and he said, it's playing time. You find the level that is the highest you can get to where you can actually play, and then you play a lot.

and he said that is like to him that's the most important factor and it's something that's not going well for Winder not particularly going well for Campbell who else is it not going well for probably a few others on this team so that was my I mean even like even like Cochin who's probably the most talented player on this team you know he's been like in this no man's land of like playing for bars to be and sitting on the bench for uh for big barsa you know ideally he'd be

probably starting in like the air divisi or the belgian league or something like that's probably his level where right now where he's good enough to to play and he'd be you know getting a lot of great experience i think there's just there's just only so many spots for all these young players across the world at a good level. And I think if you don't have some luck and some good representation and some good decision making, like, yeah, it can be, can really set you back. I think it's a really good answer by Marco. I think it's a big part of it.

And the representation part is key because you have to sort of aggressively look for the right spots, right? I mean, yeah, I think you, number one, have to be honest about what the right spots are. not have this over-exaggerated view of yourself and an agent that's not going to, like, gas you up and tell you you're a bar supplier at, you know, 19 when you're not. I think, like, being honest, being, being, having some humility about where you should be, and then, like, having the right representation to get you that opportunity. I think it's, it really gets lost.

I think if you look at the players who make it, it's usually a series of really good career decisions and maybe some luck that kind of take you from being like a top prospect to an actually viable first team player. Okay. Well, before I asked Marco that, I guess I was going to say the two things that, two other things that matter are athleticism, you know,

It's not the only thing that matters And I hate to admit that it's a big factor Because I'm such a some such a purist But It is You know if you have a if you if you have a separating athletic feature Like speed or strength Usually it's those two

It makes it easier for you to get those minutes In a professional environment And so I think that's one factor And another one is that the whole intamination tangible, like, are you a serious pro who is committed to improving and learning? You know, people talk about it as being mentality. That matters a lot, too, because it is a fierce competition, and coaches will value the players who come in and, you know, get down to business and listen and do the hard work. So, I'm just, I'm just grandpa bells checking in, you know.

grandfathers are wise so there's some wisdom in there and I think I mean I have this I have this conversation all the time about like physical thresholds and people really don't like to admit that they exist

but they absolutely exist and then yeah the intangible stuff or even just you think about young players they have these like at times these really small windows right someone gets injured

in front of them they've got this little window to impress and what are you going to do with that? Because if you go in without fear and you take it and you play with confidence and you're not afraid to make mistakes and you show that you can be an impactful player, then all of a sudden the club's looking like, I don't need to play this 30-year-old anymore. Now I got this guy who's showing he's not afraid to do it.

And now he's a starter. And now he's worth however many millions of euros. and if you come in and you just start trying not to make mistakes, it's like, all right, well, you've filled a gap until my veteran comes back. Even if you're trying to not make mistakes, that person's going to make less mistakes. So I think these, like, sometimes these young players just have this little, this little glimpse of hope to show what they can do.

And if they don't take it, it might set them back a year or two. They may not get that chance again. So I think that's the mentality part. You have to be ready to go when that chance comes and have the confidence to take it and not play like you're just playing to not make mistakes. Yeah. I mean, there's another way to handle your opportunity, which is probably what I would have done when I was 19, which is drink too much the night before training and then sleep through training and then miss my opportunity. That's probably what would have happened to me. It's worked out pretty well from a league.

Yeah, yeah. I know, but he's like kind of a, I don't know, special talent. Yeah, I mean, being facetious, but yeah, I agree. Yeah, I mean, let's all remember what we were at 1819. Like, I wasn't ready to do anything seriously. Yeah. So let's go Wolfman in Arkansas. So many national teams right now seem to have one exciting player under 20.

Is there any player on the squad or not on the squad who has any chance of being that for the U.S. in 2026 or 2030? I think he's asking, like, who's our, you know, you mean LaBal. Yeah, who are our star boys. Yeah, I, there's nobody on this roster that's that level of player, right? Well, not for this year. Definitely not. like I said I think Diego Cochin

can very well be a number one for the senior team for 10 years or more he just needs to do what we were just talking about and find his level and start to play first team minutes show what he can do

so there's but but Marcus even if he's like a top 10 goalkeeper in the world is not bring in like you know the boy to the yard. Like he's, he's,

goalkeepers are boring, you know. All right, fine. I, I think he's exciting, but that's fair. I think, I mean,

on this team, no. I think, I think my, like, referring back to my top five lists of prospects, they're Capon and,

and Matisse, they're both probably 20, 30 guys. They'll be like, what, 2021, which is still very young in 2030. And if everything goes to plan, I think they will bring the boys to the yard, hopefully. I think they're two super, super exciting talents. Coaching is in my top five lists, goalkeepers, so bells are not interested. No Key Banks is a super exciting talent who is eligible and not here. is the only one in that top five that had a chance to make a 2026 roster.

I don't think this is hyperbolic to say that he's probably the most talented centerback that's been available to the United States, maybe ever. So, yeah, I mean, centerback has been, outside of Chris Richards, been a real challenge for the senior team for a long time. So if he can come good with all of his ability, like I'm excited about that and then yeah and then another from the yeah for sure and and another player on the roster that I think can be a really really good player is Peyton Miller that's a left back he may not play left back for this team but he's super young he's

he's he's by far the youngest player on this team by like 10 months he's like 10 months younger than gozo um so so yeah I think uh I think we don't don't have like a globally a globally renowned prospect on this roster and cabin and and matisse are probably the two closest things we have to like globally elite prospects and they're there at 2030 they're 2030 guys not 2026 guys yeah okay yeah and they're what they're they're they're both like 20 2009s so we have an 11 year gap from pulisic to them uh And then a seven-year gap from Raina to them. We got to do a little better, I think.

I mean, we're not even sure. Yeah. Why don't you give, I know you said it was going to be difficult to do, but can you give us, before we get out of here, give us an 11 that you would, hard to predict, but let's just say give us the 11 that you would like to see. I'm particularly interested in who you think the centerbacks are. Yeah.

it is a tough one to predict. I would say, so Cochin's the obvious goalkeeper, and, you know, I think if ideally he starts every game, the back line is really kind of like a toss-up. I think Josh Winder will start. He's probably one of the candidates to be the captain,

I would guess. The full-back search will toss-up. I mean, I probably, I probably start, I think I'd start Frankie Westfield over Reed Baker Whiting. I think he just had a better year in MLS. It's probably coming in with a little bit more confidence, though. Reed's played fairly well for Seattle lately. I'll just, for speed sake, I'll go with Frankie Westfield at right back to Philadelphia Union.

At left back, I think it's another toss-up. I would pretty clearly go with Luca Bombina, who is a player that's made it a really nice. jump at San Diego, pretty much starting every game for Mike U.Rs at San Diego, playing pretty well. But he might not start. I mean, Nolan Norris was the captain at the Concoe Calf Tournament. It's probably another captain option. I think Bombino is very clearly the better player, but, you know, Nolan Norris is the year.

He's the senior. He's captain material, I guess. So maybe he starts. So I don't know. I'll go with Westfield and Bombino, but it could very easily be the other guys. Let me just interject and say Bombino's nice. He's very...

He's nice, yeah. Very tidy. Yeah. He's nice. And I think he defends pretty well. He's just like, San Diego is like, they play out of the back

by any means necessary, and he looks totally comfortable being part of that. So that's nice to see. Yeah. Mikey Varas. Cheers to you. Mikey Varus.

I think Marco's the next one, man. Marco's probably the best, the best youth coach in the U.S. Y&T system right now, and I think he has a good tournament. He's got a lot, I think he's got a lot to coach for. And I think because of the success Mike he's had in San Diego, I think there's definitely going to be a club that needs to maybe wants to lean on youth,

the success San Diego is having. I think Marco will be an MLS first team coach next year. I think he will kind of no matter what happens here unless they're a total disaster. but I don't think this team will be disaster. I think they have a pretty high floor. Low ceiling, high floor. Centerbacks, I think it'll be Winder, and then I'll go with Noah Cobb.

He's just got more experience. But again, Nolan Norris can't play centerback. He's left footed, so he might start next to Winder. I think it's Winder and one of these guys. I don't really know who would be whoever. The midfield is the strongest position group. tons of experience, like just a bunch of good players, like just quality players with different skill sets.

They'll probably play with two six, like kind of a two six system and probably have Nico play up, you know, in the kind of a bank of five and the attack. So let's call Shakira an attacking mid, and he'll be one of the more important attacking players. The two six is, again, it could be any one of these five guys, honestly. and I think they're just going to rotate a bunch and see who gets hot. But let's just say they go with experience.

So they go with Raines and Kramashi. Raines has pretty much been a starter for Houston. He's just solid, reliable. And, you know, Kramoski's the cover-all blades of grass engine. Who's just going to probably the captain would be my guess. And, yeah, I think it'll be Kramoski and Rains. wish Securus, but could very easily be Pedro Soma,

could very easily be Tahabroon. So we'll see. I think it's not a great sign that Kramaski's here. That's something we haven't talked about. He just moved to Parma. He's on a loan. So

they don't see him in the meet. They're just letting him go outside a FIFA window. Yeah. I mean, they don't, they must not see him in the immediate plan. And so I don't know, doesn't speak well to maybe them making a little impermanent. But it's good for this team that he's here. I think he'll be valuable.

He's just a guy that kind of, he doesn't like wow you maybe, like obviously technically or anything. But he just like helps teams win. His effort is incredible. I think he's usually lively in the final third. He'll like, he'll just get like an effort goal here or there. So like, totally useful player. so yeah

soma what about soma he's also at san diego pedro soma is he uh i mean surely he'll get some minutes but are you a little down on his growth i'm yeah yes and no i mean i i've like tuned into his minutes at san diego and every time he's played he's looked nice like he's yeah like he he's got like that kind of like barsa flavor comes through like He is still really, really smooth and clever on the ball, super press resistant, great passing range. Like, I think he hasn't maybe, like, gotten as many minutes at San Diego as some of the other younger guys because, like, they're, I don't remember the guy's name, but their starting six has, like, been one of their best players all year. So it's just tough. I think it's a tough team for him to break through right now.

But he, I think he's shown in the minutes that he has that he has that he's. he is more than comfortable with the MLS level. And I think, like, he put him on a different team, and he's probably a starting six for a lot of teams in the MLS. So I still think, like, this is a high floor player, not a high ceiling player. I think he's got his limitations, but... Are his limitations physical?

Yeah, he's not the biggest guy. He's not going to cover the most round. He's got, like, some things physical that are, like, a little bit plus. Like, he's strong. he's got balanced and he's one of those guys that he's like not fast but he's got a he's got a really good vertical jump like he he he he's really good in the air both like you know as like someone who needs to to um you know win like long balls but also like he's useful on set plays so he's yeah he's not like a tyler adams by any means in terms of covering ground but we don't have a lot

of like deep line playmaking savants and i still think he is that and i think i think there might i still think he has a senior team future um potentially so i'm not super down on him i just think he kind of is what he is i think he does have like the like intangible factors that we were talking about earlier i think he like i think he he's about his business i think he's like loves the game. I think he's like a leader. So I don't know. He's just a guy probably bet on. Okay. All right. And then the attackers, we talked about

the three most talented guys are Campbell, Gozo and Miller. So if we're going to play Gozo at 9, let's do it. Let's play Miller on the left. Let's play Campbell. And they might struggle to find goals, honestly, but I think it'll be fun. I think the goals are going to probably come through Campbell and Shakiris, I think those are going to have to be the guys that, like, create danger.

And then you hope, you know, Gozo can work some magic and maybe you get some, you know, you get some value on set plays or you get some value from Kramoski being a pest or something like that. But I think it's a team that's, like, going to put really competent performances together, even against the likes of France. because we have a good coach.

We've just got a solid team, but they're going to have to, like, squeak out some, like, one-zero wins and coaching's going to have to play really well. And they're going to have to, like, just not make stupid mistakes to, you know, make a run and beat some, like, really good teams. Yeah, okay. Well, hopefully Cole can create a lot of danger from that right side. I think that's – I told you I tried to keep it to 45 minutes,

and we're pretty close. Marco, thank you so much. I'll put the link to your website in there, your Twitter account. Anything else? Anywhere else people can find you? No, basically website and Twitter. Home address? That's where I'm on.

I don't really have one right now. I'm a, what do they call it? I'm a digital nomad right now. Nice. Don't have one. That's cool. Kind of jealous of that. Yeah, mostly.

All right. Hey, thanks again. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.