Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #634: Camp's underway, weekend action and the meaning of Landon's hairpiece

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

Vince and Belz sit back and relax a bit -- youth sports, the meaning of Landon's hairpiece, and some other minor digressions. the weekend action starts at the 43:00 mark if you want to go straight to that.Clip Notes coming soon on the Patreon. 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, the U.S. plays Ecuador on Friday night. Everybody's getting into camp in Austin, Texas. It's Monday, and I got Vince here with me. Vince, how are you doing? I'm doing, hiring down bells. Same as usual. You know what, actually, I've been thinking.

I think I'm watching too much soccer. Tell me about that. What are the negative effects? the negative effects are that um you know we're not able to pull out the scuff culture desk in the in the same way because i'm not able to prepare different things you know the the stuff that really made the monday review the monday review i felt like we haven't been getting into it in the same way um yeah yeah of of late i guess i would say um yeah but mostly because there hasn't been a lot of stuff going on, to be completely honest.

And why will we be in a jovial mood about the U.S. Men's National team? You know, it's like winning begets. Culture. Good mood, which begets, you know, tangents and whatnot. But, yeah, I think we got to get back to it. How you doing? Yeah, I'm doing all right.

I'm spending a lot of time thinking about how to make seven, eight, nine-year-old girls better at soccer, like almost to an unhealthy degree, I think about this, and how to help them get better at soccer, how to help them love the game more. And I do, I did make a little bit of a mistake on Saturday night.

We played pickup because I think about Naomi Germa's story all the time. You know, she, this has been reported a few places, but when she was growing up, she played a lot of soccer with, like, the diaspora in the Bay Area.

the Ethiopian Air Tran community. And there were adults involved and people playing on Sundays. I think she didn't really get into serious club soccer until maybe 11 or 12. Correct me if I'm wrong on that. But anyway, I thought, well, you know, it's tough to teach, like, pass and move.

I've tried lots of different ways. We do rondos. You know, we're doing all kinds of stuff to try to get people just think in the game. And the game is so rich. You know, there's so much to soccer. The more you get into it, the more the more the details pop for you. And so I thought let's do a pickup game with some of the adults playing.

And around here, that means the dads are going to play because the moms, that's too undignified for the moms to get out there and play. I'm not saying it is too undignified. It's just that's the vibe that. We got you. We got you. Okay. Thank you.

Well, I got it. I can't speak for wheat because, you know, they lie able to twist anything. Right. They lie able to twist anything. So yeah. Right. I got you, Bills. Right. Thank you.

So it's like there's some dads out there. And I've invited some U8 coaches out there to come with their little kids. And the mistake was we had a couple of really, really good 12-year-old boys out there. And they were unbridled. You know, they were going crazy out there. And it wasn't so much. that they were hurting anybody that just wasn't there wasn't enough space for the girls on my team to like figure out how to do anything on the field because you get this 12 year old boy just taking the ball from you before you can even bat an eyelash but the other thing is I made a rule no goals for the adults because I don't want some adult robocopping his way down the field and like smashing it in you know um that doesn't do anybody any good that's not the point but what I failed to do was a put in place a touch rule, a two-touch rule for the adults, because there was one coach in particular

who kept getting the ball. He was playing defense. He'd just like, he'd mug some, he'd mug some seven-year-old girl inside the box, take the ball from her, cool as you like, and then dribble the whole field, like Prime Gatti, just dribble the whole field all the way down the field. And then try to try to set up, try to set up one of, that 12-year-old boy on his team on a platter, just over and over and over again. Finally, I was like, bro, you do not have to dribble. Just let somebody else dribble out of the back. So anyway, soccer's a complicated game.

Organizing and orchestrating pickup games is complicated. You've got to have all kinds of rules. And I'm learning. I'm learning. That's what I'm thinking about. It's funny that you, this is the second time you brought up Gatti as a reference for a marauding player. Right?

Who else is like that? I mean, I guess no key, no key, I could see no key being the comparison there. Boy, he got a way, he got a ways to go before he gets to Gatty though. But once he does reach Gatti, you know, I mean, we're going to be really cooking with something. Because he got a little bit something more to him than what Gatsy does. You know, the former, what they bring up every Uve match, former bricklayer, whatever the hell. Olive oil cold presser that used to playing. Italy's third division or whatever the hell

But So we got a little bit more predigree on this side But yeah I still think about the really funny The really funny fan at the YuVe Milan game We went to a couple years ago In Turin who kept Calling him Gatti Ronaldo

You know because he kept trying He kept trying to get into the In the box But yeah So live and learn Live and learn We got to You know as as Todd being

says you want kids playing, you want kids training and playing on the edge of their ability. Don't make it too hard. Don't make it too easy. You want to, you want to find that perfect sweet spot where they're challenged, but they also can build confidence. And I think we failed some of the girls on Saturday night a little bit. Yeah, bro, it's tough with those like perpetual emotion games, you know, to teach, I don't know, to get, to just get their brains thinking, like, I mean, much like basketball, right? Yeah, yeah, it's tough in basketball.

It's tough in soccer. Like, my daughter just got done playing flag football. And that's easy. You know, it's like you got a down, every play, right? The play resets, you're line up. For her, mostly, she was running routes. She was dominant receiver. Dominate receiver.

The tallest person on our team. It's a team of eight-year-olds. basically. What kind of routes they have her running? What kind of routes? I mean, mostly just like over routes, a nice little... What's an over route? Is that like...

Over is like, let's say you're like the slot on like the right side. You just basically come out and just go across the field. Okay. Like a crossing pattern. And come over to, yeah. But like deeper though, you know, across whereas like, you know, you're like a slant depth and over is like you know you're heading for the other sideline you're heading for the other sideline you're getting deeper than you would like a slant or whatever

but mostly those and just like a little uh i forgot what they used to call them but like a little button hook you know a little where like a running back will come out of the backfield and just stop like basically where the linebacker would line up before a play you know type of deal those making plays making plays though and dynamic when she gets the ball in her hands but anyway yeah

yeah she put a couple dudes on skates nice hit the and anyway I don't want to go if anybody remembers that Trent Richardson Juke

that they got all that play when he was going into the draft he's in the open field I think he's playing Ole Miss I want to say and what he does Bells is that the guy Guy has the angle on him.

He's going to catch him. Or he has the angle on him and he's going to tackle him. You know, he's basically in front of Trit Richardson. Trit Richardson, he's running down the right side line. He plants his right foot, comes back onto his left foot, as if he's going to change direction. But he doesn't. He just plants that left foot and keeps going straight. And then dudes just knees just buckle.

Yeah, she hit one of those. All natural instincts. Anyway, I didn't mean to get off on this tangent. But much easier to teach, you know, football, tee ball. You know, all those are like, boom, you put your kid in those, you know, they're going to have a decent time because they don't have to just keep their head on the swivel at all times. You know, there's times to relax. There's times to hit the ball, catch the ball, et cetera. Right.

Anyway. Well, you know, that reminds me another thing about our little scrimmage on Saturday night. If anybody ever tells you seven, eight, nine-year-old girls don't care about winning. Oh, please. That is not true. That is not true, buddy. because because we were because my daughter and one of the one of her friends who's a who's a pretty good player on the team they were getting mad because the one of the adults was playing goalkeeper for the other team and they couldn't get a shot past him you know this was another problem and i i was playing goalkeeper for our team the one with with mave and kinsie on it and they had a they had a daughter yeah mave is my daughter yeah and they had like a jail break you know i had nobody playing defense so i was just i was just trying to stand on my head against this 12 year old boy who was getting a little cocky out there and he took a shot he took a shot he took a shot

I saved like a few of them no defense he took a shot it bounced off the back of one of his teammates and then went upper 90 past me and maven kenzie come over to me and they're like you are you what are you doing letting all these shots in they were so mad they were they were just totally throwing me under the bus I was like, you guys got to, like, shoot a little harder when you shoot on the goal. They're like, we can't get anything past him, and you're letting it all these shots. I don't know, man. Girl, don't let anybody tell you they don't care about winning, even when it's like the silliest scrimmage. Yeah.

They are locked in to the scoreboard, for sure. It's tough, man. Like, I'd be trying to get my kids to play video games with me solely because, so that I can watch them while I play. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Because if they don't play, then they're going to go back upstairs and like bug my, my wife. And it's like in moments where she's like, hey, watch the kids. So I'm like, I'm trying to, I'm trying to get them to play a little bit.

Or at least put a controller in my youngest hand and be like, oh, look at you. You're playing. But she's, you know, she's not. But anyway, yeah, the concept of losing, if they lose, you know, it's over. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, I would love to teach my kid a lesson or whatever and be like, oh, you're not going to win all the time. But it's, you got to balance it. If they lose, then they quit.

Right. If they lose, then they quit, bro. Yeah. Mostly talking about fighting games. We'll be playing. Techin specifically. Oh, man. Yeah.

Let's get to it. Let's get to it. Yeah. Just one generation. Anyway. We got this roster. Doug McIntyre graced us with his presence last Friday. We talked about it, but I'm curious.

What are you, you seeing anything here that you feel like you've got to speak about, something you're excited. about something that frustrates you, something you'd like to see with this group of players? It's mostly a solid roster. Yeah. I'll put that out there. I couldn't feign, disdain, or whatever. You know, there was really nothing to say.

As far as, like, socials and whatnot, that's bad for our social strategy to say nothing. But, you know, I looked at the roster. I looked at the roster, I was just like, ah, you know, cool. I'm with it. The one thing I would say, one thing I would say, so, well, two things, I guess. No Sergenio dust, even though you play for PSV, you know, look, you got to imagine that there's a plan there. So it's just like it is what it is. But the main thing that has me a little plus is no no key, man.

No no key. It's like, you call him up for the last camp, and you call him off the last camp when he wasn't playing. he still was not playing at the time that this roster was chosen and selected. So I guess I kind of get it, but then it's like this weekend, he starts and goes, what, 80 or whatever? Scores a goal, too, right? Scores a goal. Plays generally quite well. You know, I watched all those clips.

I also watched all of, who did they play? Ferdter? No, no, no, hold on. It was Wolfsburg. It was Wolfsburg, yeah. Watch all the Wolfsberg shots as well just to make sure I got. every, you know, the full experience. The full experience, yeah.

Yeah, he, uh, he played well, you know what I'm saying? I mean, really, I'm not going to say, didn't put a foot wrong. You know, he lost a, maybe lost like one header, two headers or whatever. And then one of the ones he did get to, like kind of like skyed up in the air, you know, he has to get better contact on the ball, um, with his head. I think there's still room to grow as an athlete, all that different type of stuff. But it's like, yeah. The goal was nice.

The goal was nice too. Like a, I mean, he was right at the doorstep, but. Yeah. But he had to. I mean, he had to fight off a grown man to get to a spot. They get to where he wanted to be. The dude that was marking him was not able to move him off of his spot. You know, Nochi kind of handled him in that way.

And yeah, he had work to do to get to the doorstep, I guess I would say. Yeah. And for a young kid, it was encouraging to see and be able to do that. not as much flash on the ball as we have come to expect, like, no marauding carries. I mean, he did have just one pass that's like, I mean, probably what, I would say maybe 25, 30 yards just on the ground, right to an attacker at the top of the box. Like, he hit this pass maybe from just inside the halfway line type thing, just worm burner, just boom, on the ground, straight to the man. Yeah, it's a type of thing that gets you excited. But yeah, if we're going with three in the back,

would have loved to see him here. But I guess at this point it's just, no, you know what? I can't say it's a minor quibble. It's a major quibble, damn it. We don't got a camp until March after this, right? Well, we got January, which actually at this point is an important camp for Potch. I'm not calling them a local no more. I don't want this.

Yeah. I was wondering. I was wondering if you're going to keep doing that. No. I just, once again, to the they part of things, I just feel like it could be mistroon. But. Yeah. Yeah.

I guess my thought on Nokia is it would be nice if you were here. He did just start, like, after the roster was announced. So there's that. And I bet if he continues to start and play. and distinguish himself in the Bundesliga. I think this camp tells us he probably will get his shot again in March. You know, I mean, if he... No doubt about it.

Yeah. No doubt about it, man. So, and it's like... Because we didn't think Testament. We thought maybe Testament would never be back. We thought maybe Aidan Morris would never be back. Haji Wright. We didn't know if he was ever going to be back.

Brendan Arrinson was all but... eulogized, you know. Mark McKenzie, I had no idea if he would ever come back. And the same goes for Cameron Carter Vickers. Cameron Carter Vickers specifically, man. Yeah. So it's, it's, Potch is unpredictable, is going to be a little bit unpredictable, I think. Yeah.

I'm just, I'm just tired of being like, hey, these things don't matter. You know what I'm saying? Like, I can't, I can't, I just can't sit here and do this no more. I've had enough. It's like we are in October. We are, what we tell them? Eight months away? Yeah, not barely.

Yeah, just eight months. Eight months away from a World Cup, two camps away from a World Cup, essentially. It's just March and then season ends and then you get that pre-World Cup camp, whatever. So three camps away or whatever. Yeah, I don't want. I understand that the World Cup is just its own thing and its own time period. Like the press man was saying, I understand that. And I understand it gave a lot of people some solace in very dark times.

But damn it, I just can't get jigger with the fact that like anything that this team does doesn't matter. You know. Sort of defeats the purpose of what we're doing here a little bit. I mean, my testosterone ain't that low. You know what I'm saying? Speak for yourself. Damn it. I want to see my team out there getting some dubs, man.

You know what I'm saying? It matters to me. It matters to me. It matters to the soccer watching nation, too, whether we win or not. You know, it all matters for sure. Well, what did you think? You know, Doug was saying he thinks the MMA midfield is what is going to end up being, like, the best midfield for the U.S.

And what we'll probably see at the World Cup, I thought of you immediately. when that came out of his mouth. What did you think of that? Eunice got a hold up his end of the bargain. Yeah. Basically. At this point, that's what it comes down to. Yeah.

He had a bit of an issue in the middle of the week where he just about gave the other team a goal after coming on as a halftime sub. I think he redeemed himself, got the assist. But man, that's, can you imagine how, dog housed he would have been if that had actually resulted in a go-ahead goal. Yeah, it's crazy. But, yeah, so that's what I would, that's what I would say.

You know, I do expect him to make his way back onto the roster, but as far as, we talk of starting, first game of the World Cup, MMA back in action. He needs to have a good season, basically. Needs to have a good season. And I'll just say in general, that just seems tough to me right now, just to think about seeing it. think potts going to do it essentially no okay all right so um we should probably talk about the

news of the week which is uh landon donovan's social media posts about his hair this is the big usm and t news of the week this is the big us m&t news of the week i want to shout out consistent twitter interactor um i think it's my sports burner m i sports burner Okay. Okay. On, um, on, um, on Twitter,

who hit me up in both, in both of these Land and Donovan videos. And the first one was like, hey, I just wanted to make sure you saw this. I saw it. I didn't really have them to say. I was just like,

bro, look at this dude. And then the second one, um, which if you've been keeping up on the news, Landon Donovan, uh, now has a,

what do you call that? It's a, it's a, it's a hair implant. that put a hair is it like a permanent toupee or something basically hair piece hair that was the term i was looking for hair piece he put a so there's one lena donovan okay in front of a camera i think this was his attempt to do a hashtag content adam bell's i think this was all ended up being promotion for unfiltered soccer or whatever um you know lena donovic he's also he's also no right he's he's also

known for being vulnerable publicly, you know? Like he came out about his mental health struggles a long time ago, and here he is talking about his hair struggles. Talking about his hair struggles in probably the driest way possible. You know what I'm saying? It's like, Landon Donovan. He was serious. He was serious about it.

He was serious, but I would assume he wanted this to be funny in some way. way, but it's just him joining in front of the signature. Landon drone in front of a camera. Hey, guys, I don't, I don't know what to do here. I need your help. I've been dealing with this. He points to his, you know, male pattern baldness. You know what I'm saying?

Everybody knows land is balding. We also remember the, whatever that catastrophe was that was on his head. What was that during the Euros? No, I'm right back. You don't remember? with? I don't have a clear memory of it. No. It was some tournament and he was broadcasting for Fox and there was just like patches of hair around his head that looked to be like maybe a hair implant that didn't work that well or something. Looked similar to like a toddler throwing mashed potatoes against the wall. They were just thrown about on his head haphazardly. Anyway. So he does he does his first video. He's drawn on like, hey, guys, please give me some help. Should I do a hair piece? I've been trying to correct this

issue. Please give me some help. I'm like, I'm like, all right, whatever. This dude. The first video was so boring, I was just like, all right, second video comes. He's decided what to do. Apparently, everybody gave him feedback, the dads of the U.S. soccer dads of the U.S. men's national team, uh, fandom that everyone likes to rail on. Uh, gave him, gave him the feedback. Hey, Landon, get you a hairpiece. All right, boom. he's in the chair. He gets his hairpiece, the balding part of his head shaved, the hairpiece laid on top of his head. He gets it done, and then he puts a picture.

I tweeted the picture out on the scuffed account. I mean, Bells, you're more familiar with these types of hairstyles than I am. But that last pick, that took me back, Watterson Elementary, 1999, 1998, you know what I'm saying? When I was in, like, second, third grade or whatever, you was the man if you had that, that the little spiked up. Yeah, yeah, look kind of wet. Have it look kind of wet. Yeah, everybody was going for that look intentionally, right?

You know, the influence, what was that? What was that? What was doing that? The offspring. Everybody, man. Everybody was doing it. Yeah. I watched the video and shout out to my sports partner because he was just like,

yo, I need your thoughts on this. And I've been thinking about this all weekend. And I feel like Landon is the personification. of the crisis of confidence that I've been talking about that is infected the U.S.

soccer ecosystem from all corners. You know what I'm saying? You just take soccer out of that sentence and just call it the U.S. ecosystem. But yeah, go ahead. I can't say that. I can't say that. Specifically when it comes to sports, man.

There's a specific, I'm going to bring a, I'm going to bring, one of my college football terms in the play here. I'm going to introduce a new one. They used to always talk about, you know, you got to have something about you. You know, when you get off that bus, when you get ready to play, when you get ready to practice, come on the field with something about you.

You know what I'm saying? Don't hang your head. Don't mope. You got to feel like you him. You got to feel like you that guy. And what I see when I look out into the U.S. Soccer sphere all the time, I don't see a lot of, I don't see a lot of, I don't see a lot of, don't see a lot of people that got something about them.

You know, I talked about the camp arrivals, right? Remember January camp camp arrivals? I'm like, these dudes, these dudes look like Joe Schmoe, bro. Like, I could go to the mall down the street. 100 Jack McGlent's. You know what I'm saying? A hundred Quinn Sullivan's. Who was the guy with the mustache that came in?

Oh, that was Indiana Vassel. Yeah, Vasselov. Yeah, Vasselv. Indiana Vasselv. I mean, you know, you can find him in a microbrewery. and any mid-sized city in the right go to a microbrewery near you and you will find and bells this is why I have to disagree when you say

and you said it could just be the U.S. ecosystem no because when we when I said like I said we talk about sports okay I misunderstood what you were saying but yeah I got you I got you basketball players they got some they got something about them a football player you know you see the basketball specifically like they're like tunnel fits you know what I'm saying they come in and then also I saw on the discord today Jorge just posted

um Francis camp arrivals it's not a competition it's not a competition Adam Bells and it just it really put it all in the because I'm like okay this is this is some people's goat right here Landon Donovan is it's some people's goat and it let me know that this all started that this is much bigger than right now. This is much bigger than the kids that we have that are coming into camp, this camp, prior camps, whatever. We have a crisis of confidence that really we don't know who we are. And we know this, right?

I feel like as a U.S. soccer nation, I feel like we don't know who we are. This is why we kind of chop it and change the systems. People are trying to say, oh, we should go back to when we were gritty and fighting and blah, blah, blah. And I feel like... And making $72,000 a year to play soccer. The reason why we were able to change it so easily,

like if it was real culture, you know what I'm saying? If it was something that people truly believed in, we wouldn't have been... If it's something that Greg, a person who played on the U.S. Minnesota team, truly believed it that the U.S. should be this gritty team or whatever, we wouldn't have been able to depart from it so easily. You know what I'm saying?

And also, speaking of Greg, this Landonovan video got me thinking of everything. Okay. Speaking of Greg, okay. Like, we should have known who was cooked when Greg was like the height of fashion of men's wear within the U.S. Soccerphere.

Oh, he wears Jordans on the sidelines. Oh, he wears a tight t-shirt and jeans, blah, blah, blah. I talked about this on the Giorina, the first episode. When I was describing, like, yeah, I was like, you know, why should we be surprised at this man? was a little messy. You know, he's a dude from New Jersey who dresses like Mike the situation

from Jersey Shore. Okay? And I stand by this. It's like he wasn't really getting any like Supreme Fitz off. It was just mind blowing to people that somebody involved with U.S. soccer could have a little bit of swag to him.

Yeah. A little bit of a smidgen. A smidgen of swagger, Adam Bells. Also, another example. We talked about there when Tanner Testament one young U.S. soccer player of the year.

And he had those three different, three different videos. One from the, I keep forgetting my boy's name. Who's the coach of the U-20s right now? Marco Mitrovich. Marco Mitrovich. Him, it was one of Tana Tessman's youth soccer coaches and one of Dabo Sweeney. And Bells, I remember, you were marked. He blew everybody out.

Yeah. One of these three is not like the other. Yeah. One of these three are not like the other. The gravitas, the way he looks into. the camera. You know, he's just, um... Because they were videos. They were, yeah, like you said, they were videos. So you, you got to see how they, how they engaged that third eye, you know? Exactly. Exactly.

And so Dabo's looking through that third eye and he's like, I'm Dabo. You know what I'm saying? I have one name fame here within the United States. You can, I mean, Bells, I mean, come on. You can walk out your door and anybody you encounter, you can say, hey, did you know Dabo? Godson plays for the U.S. men's national team and everybody would know who Daibo is immediately. You know, that one name fame is a different type of fame. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

And he addresses the camera as such, like, hey, I'm an accomplished coach in the nation's second most popular sport. You know what I'm saying? I am Daibo Sweeney. When I address this third eye, you will be at attention because I'm Daibo Sweeney talking into his phone.

And Marco Mitrovich didn't have the same gravitas. Of course, the U.S. The youth soccer man, I mean, how many times does he have to engage that third eye? But, go ahead, go ahead. Well, I just think, like, Dabo and, you know, where I live, you go out, you say, the one name fame would be Kirby first and then Dabo, you know. But Dabo and Kirby and, you know, any college football coach in the SEC in particular, but the Big Ten as well.

They speak with the confidence of someone who has 80,000, 90,000, 100,000 people come into the stadium and live and die for what they are working on. And I just don't know, you can't just like have that be the case for a soccer coach in America. You know, I mean, it's partly who Dabo is, but it's more just like what the culture is, you know? Right. And it's not like he, and just one point I wanted to make it. Like, it's not like he's, it's not like he's, you know, got all kinds of swag. Like, exactly. He doesn't, he wears, he wears, like, you know, he wears, he wears the uniform.

Yeah, he wears the uniform of a, you know, a second rate banker in the southeast. Like somebody who, somebody who does real estate loans. A regular southern gentleman that you would. encounter in a frat house you know once they graduate from the frat house you become the banker yeah of course they're everywhere they're everywhere you know you can find them everywhere and and i look at like bill bellichick like that there's possibly no human on earth with less swag than bill belichick but somehow he's you know he's one of the greatest i even think of basketball like basketball's a little different the coaches have more i think more charisma more pizzazz but um but look at phil jackson

Would you say that that man, what is, what's, what's special thing? Yeah, go ahead. So you talk about swag, but what I'm talking about is a crisis and confident. Okay, okay. You can be yourself. I'm not talking about aura here. I'm not sitting here saying, Landonovan, no got no damn aura. Well, well, I guess I am kind of saying, but I'm not saying, I'm not saying in the homoerotic way.

what I'm saying is yeah he said everyone in U.S. soccer seems to suffer from a crisis confidence. The swag part is something completely different. Okay. But no matter who you are or how you present yourself, do you have something about you?

And that's what I'm that's what I hope that we're able to find within our player pool, within our fandom as well, because I do understand the fact that us being second class citizens or whatever

as soccer fans in this nation, I understand how that can be damaging to the psyche. But you have to parade through and understand that who you are and the sport that you love,

etc. That they are valuable. And I understand, you know, what would they be calling them? Ferrys or whatever? etc i understand that can beat you down that can beat you down but i i guess i just want better for everybody involved with you at soccer man um just i i i think we need to we need to carry ourselves with some with some gravitas man you know what i'm saying it's i think i do it's it's going to be a long grind man i think it's i think it's uh it's going to take a long long time for there to be any soccer coach in America

who can be himself with the confidence that Davos when he can in the current day. You know, I mean, it's going to be years. And the World Cup next summer could help. It could help, but it's not going to change it overnight. And me coaching U6 soccer could help, but not going to change it overnight. You know what, not that I really think about it,

I think the coaches are like the least of our worries. to be honest, like, you know, um, it's got to be weird. It's got to be weird for Wes and Christian to be, um, household names in Northern Italy and then come back. I mean, if I went out and said the way, the name Wesa McKinney in my community, nobody would know who that is. There's, there's like, you know, maybe, maybe 5% of people would know who Christian Pulisic is. But it's got to be weird for them to come back here.

and be so much lower in status than they are in the countries where they play, you know? It's where you've got to have the confidence to let the people know. You know what I'm saying? You don't know who I am, but I know who I am,

and I'm about to show you who I am. Like, have you seen, like, any video of, like, there's one that comes to mind of, like, Lady Gaga before the fame, where she was performing at a venue and all of her Lady Gaga-ness, still, before. the fame had hit. You know what I'm saying? You got to have that type of belief in within yourself. You know what I'm saying? Like nobody's going to. Prince Rogers, similar. Nobody's going to gravitate

toward you if you don't yourself, comport yourself as a person who people should gravitate towards. You know what I'm saying? And, and that's, I guess that's just my whole. That's what the Hairpiece makes you think about. That's where the hairpiece leads you. Bro, because it's not even just the hairpiece. It's the fact that this is his attempt at content. And he has the charisma of like a wooden plank and he's just drawn or not. But it's like, but to me, it's like, bro, you're Landon Donovan.

If you can't get out here and look at these, I was in, MF is in the face and say, hey, you know what I'm saying? Y'all know, y'all saw me on TV a year ago. I've been struggling with this hair thing because somebody helped me out. out, blah, blah, blah. He's saying, it's like, I don't know. Like I said, when I watched that first video, I just closed it. Because it's like, there's nothing captivating in here. There's not a man on the other side of this camera that I would be willing to fight for

it and be like, oh, you know what, Landa, let's get you right. You know what I'm saying? I closed that video and I was like, bro, I don't care what he does with his hair. You know what I'm saying? Because of the way he presented it. And like I said, if that's the goat, And now I understand why so many people, well, I guess I always understood why so many people think, like have Clint Dipsy as their goat. Which is my goat.

And the thing is. Statistics be damned. Exactly. And the fact that y'all can do that whole statistics be damned thing is because, I mean, we talk about another dude with just a smidge and a smidge and a smidge and he's lionized for it. Because it's like, oh, Clint Dipsy from Nacho-Doches, whatever, had to drive two hours to train. in every day, et cetera. Got it out the mud. He made a silly face

at a couple dudes in the World Cup, whatever, beat up his ass his coach to a fight, et cetera, et cetera. And like, I'm not here to diminish any of those things. But what I'm saying is we need Clint Dempsey with the attitude turned up, you know,

times 10. You know what I'm saying? We need people that will galvanize other people, leaders of men, people that can, hey, move people. You know, get you out of the seat. I talk to people, and we can move all right after this. But I talk to some people about like, not that I'm like a czar of podcasting or anything like that. But people that just try to do content, you know, I'm just getting mostly through my sister.

You know, getting certain circles where we're just talking to people because everyone is, well, my sister's a creative. You know, there's a lot of creatives around her. Anyway, the ability to move people, that's it, right? You know, you talk about influencers, why they get paid, whatever. Some followers, like some people can have certain follower account, followers, whatever, follower numbers, whatever. And, but can they move people as the same rate that somebody else can move people that maybe has like two times less followers?

Like, that's the thing. And we need people that can move people. You know, there might be podcasts bigger than the scuff podcast in the U.S. Soccer space. can they get 200, 250 people to the tailgate like we did in Kansas City, Adam Bells? I don't know. I would love to see it happen, but they haven't done it. You know what I'm saying?

They haven't done it. So until I see that proof of concept, no, you can't. But like, we need people that can move people. You know what I'm saying? And I don't know. That's just my... Yeah, I think Clint is more popular because of how he... carried himself and just like the

just the stone cold killer that he sometimes was at Fulham you know in particular also just a man of the people you know like he played on the he played he did end up playing club driving two hours of practice

but up until then he was just playing with the kids in his neighborhood you know yeah all right well you know I'm done Landon's I didn't care about Landon's hairpiece before I saw the video or after I saw the video, but I do hear what you're saying. He's not a, he's not a fantastic spokesman for the game, you know, even though he did

score some amazing goals, including at the World Cup, and was a fun player to watch and always showed up against Mexico. So there's a lot, he's a lot he did right. But yeah, he's not the guy who's going to move the culture towards soccer, not even with this hairpiece. Yeah, and not even with the hair piece. And maybe I would be coming down less hard on Landon if there was somebody else that I felt, you know, like maybe like, hey, that wasn't Landis' role.

You know, there's somebody else over here that did move people, DeMarcus Beasley or something. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, DeMarcus isn't the guy either. I mean, I think of like, I think of like people like Charles Barkley, you know. Bro. Like, the ultimate people mover.

Yeah, yeah. Like, people. He's just always, he's always fun to watch. Like every time you turn on TV, you see Charles Barkley, you're happy to see him. Just because of him, the cult of personality. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, I even have to,

this might be the only time I do this. I feel like I have to give Alexi, lawless a little bit of credit because I feel like you know if you really thought about it and like who is our people mover within U.S. soccer I think it's him love hate but yeah it's too bad he's gotten it's too bad he's gotten so political and you know obviously on the wrong side of the fence for you know some some majority of our listeners and um yeah it's just too bad he's gotten so political because I think like you know what I remember somebody said this back in the day not Raj but the other guy from men and blazers okay Daveo or whatever he's he was a TV producer

and he said you know what you need on TV is you need when somebody when the camera comes to them they have to deliver you something and you know people don't not everybody loves Alexi this was back before all the politics kind of took over Alexie law this public profile But even before that, people didn't like him for various reasons. He said, when you put the camera on Alexi, he gives you something. He delivers something. And I've thought about that every time I watch him. I'm like, you know, what he's doing is hard.

I couldn't do it as well as he does it. Just take the politics out of it, you know, completely. So I agree with you. I think he is a little bit more of a people mover than anybody else. You know, we do that. that's worth. I do got to make sure I give men and Blazers some credit to as people movies before anybody comes from me. But, yeah, I've set my piece.

Let's move on to the soccer, man. There's not, you know, I don't think there's anything we need to go into great detail on, but like, let's go, Uveh versus Milan. Let's start with that one. Big game in Turin. The big news from it is the West went 90. Second massive game. He goes 90 for Uvay. in four days.

He also played... Or did he go 90? He definitely started and went almost 90 against Villarreal. I think he went 90. Pretty quiet in the first half for him, but I thought especially in the second half looked pretty sharp.

Potch has to be pleased. I said last week that Wes isn't solving problems for his team. You may remember me saying that. Vince, seven days later, I've been proven wrong. I think he is actually solving problems for his team.

He's... He's been an important player for the past week for the biggest club in Italy, or one of the biggest clubs in Italy. Any thoughts on how Wes is playing? I mean, I think it's just great. He's back in camp. He's obviously fit. He's trim. He's got a clean, he's clean-shaven.

I don't know if he's the people mover that we're talking about, but he's a good time. Yeah. Well, we'll leave him that. He's a good time. remains to be seen on the people moving aspect. But I guess I would just say he's not at the height of his powers yet. Not at the height of his powers. But if we get a run of games, let's say, give me about two more.

And I think we'll see Weston McKinney firing fully. But I mean, you know, he topped the, he did his Brendo impression you know what I'm saying he topped the distance covered stab for YuVe

in this match I want to say somewhere around I don't know it was a 12 12 kilometers something like that 13

but yeah so he did that he wasn't he wasn't terribly involved yeah I noticed he's pretty he's pretty alert in defensive transition

which I appreciate you know he's kind of like there's one One play where one of his teammates gave it up on his right side, Elon's left side, and they're coming down the left side, and he's just very aware of the guy running in the channel. He tracks him and then cuts out the pass to him into the box. So, yeah, that's good.

Pulisic missed the penalty and got subbed off. And the 74th for Kunku. I thought he was fine on the game. After the game, Allegri said this was in Gazette. Dello Sport. They say he's the LeBron James. No, I'm just kidding. They didn't say that.

He didn't say that. He said, Pulisic has always been the penalty kick taker. You don't change it for a mistake. End quote. That's a real quote from Maximiliano Allegri in an Italian newspaper. So, you know, and he also said, I think he also said he had an extraordinary performance, which it's a little bit much, but, you know. Yeah.

I mean, I wouldn't say it was extraordinary. but I mean he did it pretty well yeah he did he was all right you know what I'm saying like he I mean even right after that pen he gets a shot

yeah one of those kind of mad dribbles where he's mad and he dribbles past like three guys and then shoots from like 20 yards yeah that took a decent save from the from the UVA keeper to keep out you know I mean well one that's

is a decent if it's one that you would expect them to make a save that you would expect to keep Anyway, Keeper had to do his job. He had the keeper do his job right there. That's right. That's right. There was, I want to say one cross to the far post, him crossing it from the left side to

the right far post of the goal that caused some trouble for you, Vey. Yeah, a good, like kind of a diagonal pass to Santi Jimenez. Is this the one you're thinking of where he takes it down? Yeah, yeah, that's what it was. He takes down, then back heels it behind for Salamockers, who then just smashed it into the stands. We're trying to cross it. But it was a good opportunity.

Let's go to Toulouse. Steels a win at Leone. This is crazy because Leon was the better team throughout the game, basically. We're up one zero for most of the game. And then Toulouse gets two goals very late. Thoughts on Tessman? Continues to play well, brother. Yeah.

Continues to play well. the main thing and I kind of alluded to this when talking about Malik maybe last week or the week before or whatever but him and Aidemores when you watch him play midfield it's like man these are real midfields right here you watch when you watch them is just always checking their shoulder and they know exactly where the defenders are they know where the space is and Tanner uses that information he takes it in he processes that information and he always uses it to like to inform his first touch you know what I'm saying like how is he going to turn he knows exactly like you rarely see him get it wrong well really ever I don't know if he I don't know if I've seen it once this season where it's like he does he has his hand down at his feet he's like hey give me the ball he'll check and look for this on the clip notes you'll see listener checks left shoulder checks right shoulder boom he has his picture and he'll receive it boom turn right into the space. Even if it's, even if it's not a half turn, I'm talking like he has a confidence

to do full turns with it. You know, if he has his back completely to the space that is open, he's turning into that thing. Like, there was a nice, real nice pass that he made in this match where it's that exact situation I'm talking about. Basically, has a guy to his left shoulder, a guy to his right shoulder. The area behind his back is free and open. takes the ball from the center back. Like I said, full turn. Boom, right into that space. Worm burner up to an attacker.

Boom, Leon's off and going. And like I said, Ada Morris does the exact same thing. And it's good to see. It's lovely to see from, I mean, got to be our two best shoulder checkers in the pool. I feel like John Luca Bousseo is up there as well. But when it comes to shoulder checking, and then also doing something with that information.

Adam Morris-Tanateman, great at it. And so, yeah, may along continue. Yeah, Tanner, Tanner does seem like he's really a student of the game, you know? Like, he really, he, like, really loves the craft of what he's doing in there. Yeah. Which I appreciate it. I think so.

So we'll see when it comes. comes to camp and whatnot, because, you know, he doesn't make mistakes. I don't know. And it seems to me like when he makes those mistakes on like a national team match or something, they get magnified by people. But, you know, he gets a little ambitious to what he tries to do sometimes. Not everything comes off. Yeah.

Well, no Adams in this camp. I don't know that we discussed that a bunch on Friday. But no, Adams is not there because he's, uh, his, wife is having a baby and um so maybe testament starts i could see it we'll love to see it it's like it's him sans and morris kind of for that that deepest lying position i think testament is my guy out of those three but whatever you know um you got christian of course yes well-d-d-s i still think Testman's my guy. Yeah, fair enough.

I didn't want they to come for us once again. But, yeah, that's Tanner. Oh, you know what? I buried the lead. He had a hockey assist. Oh, yeah, it was a really, just a gorgeous sequence from Leon up the right side. He's kind of playing like an almost like a hold-up striker role in this play. Yeah, he basically makes the third man run.

Like they basically, Leon basically does like two up-back throos. you know, in quick succession. And when the second one is occurring, then Tanner takes off and makes that third man run. Ball comes into him. He's, yeah, I mean,

like you said, hold up striker. At this point, when he's making that third man run, he's occupying Mark McKenzie, like he's going to run it behind. Ball comes to him. Then he stops,

gets to it back to goal, and then just dinks it into the space for the, for the, for the winger that's running on to it. and then he's he's an open space, you know, carrying it into the attacking third, cross across the face of goal, Fofana tucks it. But yeah, gorgeous. Beautiful stuff from the tan man.

He also, uh, later in the match, I think he got to, he like got to a loose ball before anybody else dinked that around a defender to his, like to his left. And Tanner goes around the right, gets to his. But, you know, he's having a jolly up out there, man. Once again... I feel like it must be said against tougher competition than the competition that Aiden Morris is up against. So I got nothing against Aiden. But I just think it's like if they look like they're both the ones who are checking their shoulders in the pool

and being proactive out there, being real midfielders, Tessman is doing it against tougher competition than Aden. Not that Aiden can't do it against the same competition, but Tessman is doing it. So, yeah. And you know what? I expect, I'm expecting a move for Aiden probably after this season. I'm thinking. I would like to see it.

I would hope so. I mean. I haven't checked in on him for a few weeks. So he just continues to play well? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a couple, like, and he's basically in Chico mode in the championship right now. Huh.

You know, like, these dudes really can't touch him. And he's, like, not... Breaking a sweat. He's really not breaking a sweat. Like, when I do these clip notes, right? Like, it's like, I try to get... I record every clip that moves me, right? Whether it's positive or negative.

And I'm trying to tell a story. Really let you know what the performance was in this match. And it's like, I get through most of these clips. And I'm like, bro, I need something negative in here. You know what I'm saying? It's like, people are going to think you're stacking the deck. Yeah, right, right, right.

And more importantly, what I was thinking of, people are going to think he's better in Tantestment. That's what I was thinking in my head. I'm like, hey, hey, hey, let me. No, but yeah, he's cooking, bro. And I would love to see him apply his trade in a top five league. I think it's, I think it's going to go well. I think it's going to go well, man.

I'm very pleased with these two gentlemen. Nice. Speaking of somebody who did, he didn't make a move, but he moved up from the championship to the Premier League. Brendan. Brendan's back in camp. Back in camp with Potch.

Big Brenda back in the driver's seat. We got to check in on him. And I watched all his involvements over the weekend. Not that great. not that great from Brendan Arrinson uh what would you

were you disagree with me well it's not that great if you're looking at him as an attacker which he is playing as an attacker for leads and he'll probably play for an an attacker for us I'm just sitting here like it's a

it would be a great performance if he was playing like right mid and a 4-4-2 or something you know what I'm saying it's like if he wanted if Potch wanted to put Brendan in that role that Eunice was playing to start his tenure as

U.S. Miss National Team head coach or whatever. I could see Brendan kind of doing that kind of well. It's like, you know, I mean, he's turning radius. Sometimes when he gets the ball and he'll just,

bro, zero turn long more around a dude. He's done that a few times. Bell's shaking his head. He's done this a few times these last two weeks. I'm just like, and I've always said, I've always thought he would be a better midfielder than an attacker, and that's what that performance looked like to me. But, yeah, like you said, I mean, like I said,

if you're looking at it as Brenda needs to be better at attack, and then, I mean, you know, we know where Brenda is. Well, I think of, like, the problem with the zero-turn analogy is if the touch is just, he's skating on such thin ice because of his slight physique. Like if he if his touch is just a little bit too far out ahead of him Contrast this with Aiden Morris If Aiden Morris takes a loose touch

He still gets there first and gets his body between the guy and the ball And keeps it If Brenda takes a slightly too heavy of a touch Game over The other guy puts his shoulder in and Brenda's down asking for a foul This happened multiple times against Tottenham Over the weekend And I mean I'm not trying to be too hard on him

But I'm just saying like he has carved out a role for himself on a Premier League team. He's starting games in the Premier League against Tottenham. I mean, there's not nothing to that. But even his kind of brightest moment of the game, which was he hit the shot that was saved and then on the rebound scored for the go-ahead goal. And it's, man, it's nice to see a goal scored at Ellen Road by Leeds.

When Leeds scores at Ellen Road, there's really nothing else like it in the Premier League. It's the response of the fans is a beautiful thing. But Brenda, I mean, he scuffed it. Like he didn't even hit it clean. And the only reason it was a difficult save for the keeper is because it bounced out. It deflected off the leg of the defender. It was an awkward save for the keeper. And then he palmed it into Oka Forre's path.

And so I'm, I don't want to see Brendan Aronson on the field in this case. No thanks. I mean, I'm probably there too, to be honest with you. But, look, I guess I would say he's not a negative out there on the field, a total negative out there on the pitch for leads. That's all I'm saying. Like when I tune in, I watch a little bit diplomatic today about this. I'm not. That's how I feel, man.

People saw the, if people want to argue with me, you know, we got the evidence in the clip notes. everyone everyone's free to make their own judgment but you know when I when I tune in watch a little Brendo and I see him doing some things I'm like okay I'm like I ain't I'm mad at it man okay I'm not mad at it either I just I just don't really want to see too much of it because we got we got Malik we got Malik playing better than he has

I believe against Union Berlin quite a bit sharper than he's looked in his other recent games. I thought he was, man, Sleeping Malik was in full effect in the middle of the week against PSV Einhoven, his old club. But in this game, a two-zero win for Leverkusen set up a really good chance with one of those like vintage touches around a guy at midfield and run with the ball and then a slipped pass into the, into the penalty area. I thought still would like him to turn into that open space the way you were talking about Tessman doing more than he is doing but he's doing it some and uh i think he he comes in with a little bit of a head of steam

into this camp for sure for sure because that's i mean because that's what we're looking at the man like he's he's doing his job as far as like winning duels he's doing that the defensive work and all this different type of stuff we have gotten past that uh i don't know Plot. Critique. Yeah. Critique, whatever. We've gotten past that part.

Like, he's, he's handling his business out there. He's really, he's a good presser, too. Like, he causes, he causes problems up there. Yes. So, we're not worried about that. But if he's going to be a ceiling raiser, if he's going to replace GO, you know what I'm saying? Did you get the funeral invite in the mail, by the way?

But if he's going to, if he's going to replace what we thought we could possibly get from Gio, I need to see him create, he create those moments, you know what I'm saying? And he did it in this match. I'm cool. Like,

that play you just described, you would have seen that, you would have seen that before Bells described it if the man who Malik slipped in didn't hit the post. Right. Yeah, the post. Oh yeah, he did hit the post, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, that would have been a highlight real assist. I mean, uh, to basically receive the ball, dribble past, basically three dudes in a tight little area. Then to get out in the open space,

nobody's able to catch him. This huge dude that you see carrying off. It's a sight to see when Malik's really cooking, man. And I just want to see more of it. I also had a good chance that he came on to in the second half that he hit it right at the keeper, basically. Smacked it. I want to say it was a cutback, I think.

A hint, Malik arriving into the box and stung it right at the, right at the keeper, though, he tipped it over the bar. Malik said some cuss words and frustration. But love to see him. He looked much more lively in all aspects than he did in the middle of the week. Like he was jumping up and now with his teammates when they scored and everything. Big Pat scored with a towering header, just dunking on a guy in a one-one draw for Darby County. So he's back to health. He's scoring goals.

I thought he was pretty solid in the hold-up. He has a goal and two assists now in the league for Darby County. And obviously not an elegant player with the ball at his feet. But I think he was doing okay in the same league that Sergeant plays in. And I just don't think it's crazy to bring him over Sergeant now. Sergeant's a better soccer player than Big Pat. I mean, I don't think there's any doubt about that, but there's a lot more to it. A lot more to it.

I'd almost rather see Big Pat than Haji, like, unless Haji's playing on the wing. I mean, for actual minutes. Yeah, I think, I mean, I don't think you got to worry about that. So. Because, well, I, maybe I don't have to worry about it, but watching Haji play. Yeah. You know, he got a goal over the weekend. It's like he bundled a ball across.

He was offside. They didn't get called offside for some reason. Like a head ball headed across to him. But, man, he just did not look convincing in this game, like in general. Had like two in the midweek? Yeah, I mean, he keeps scoring. He's got eight goals in the league, nine in all comps. Bells, I'm absolutely with you.

And it hurt me that we forgot. I got to mention Haji in the last week's pod because I had actually watched him and I just forgot to bring it up. But I'm with you. I'm with you. He's so stiff. The way he plays is so stiff.

When I saw the beginning of the year, when it was like, okay, oh, they're hitting these long balls to Haji from gold kicks. He was actually doing a decent job holding it up in that one match I watched. But then it's every match I've watched since. It's like, yeah. and I saw some comments from Frank Lampard where he's talking about Haji

and he's like, yeah, we're basically asking him to do something he hasn't done before, but he's had a good attitude about it, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've been pleased with him. And I told him, I talked to Haji, I was like, this is what we need you to do, et cetera. So yeah, he's applying himself in this striker role, but it's just not him.

It's like, I went through his, like, looked at his aerial dual numbers. it's like, I mean, he's winning like 20% of them. You know what I'm saying? A lot of a lot of those. He's not a small man either. He's not a small man either. He's not a small man.

And it's like he's not, he's not carving out of space, you know, to win these balls. When these balls come in the air, you know what I'm saying? It's like centerback's just all on his shoulders. You know what I'm saying? It's like, I don't know. But this is the role he's going to get. continue to play for Frank Lampard. He's scoring goals, whatever.

But yeah, for the most part, the performances really have not been anything crazy. And it's a shame because when I first checked into him, I was like, yeah, this is, this is good stuff right here. But, hey, as long as he scoring goals, it just is what it is. He can hit the cover off the ball. I mean, like, he can absolutely strike the ball clean, both feet. if he gets a if he gets a decent chance to shoot it will be a good shot it's just the getting to that point against anybody but milwall you know is like that's the question and i guess it's a

little bit like it is with sergeant yeah yeah i i guess and millwall's not even a good example because they're a good championship team i'm you know you know i'm saying he hasn't shown that ability to be a centerback eliminator or a centerback problem giver, you know, the way Ballo and Pat have kind of showed themselves to be, you know? It's like he's kind of, he's kind of feeding off of scraps while he's playing the center forward role. And the reason why that's the case is because anytime he's in a duel with a centerback, it's, it's not going well for him so far. Right. And Big Pat is, it's not like that with Big Pat, man. He's a problem. Yeah, it's not that way. It's not that way. And, but in transition,

though he still does this thing where he like leaks out to the left or whatever so he has some he has some joy doing that as he does but yeah that's okay oh real quick i do want to talk about balo just the fact oh yeah we should definitely talk about bala so he didn't start this game that they played this weekend adi hooter adolf hooter has been chopping and changing the lineup quite a bit Monaco I was wondering this to myself if he was going to get canned Fabrizio Romano tweeted out that he's on the chopping block

potentially we could take that for what it's worth you know you talk about a fall from grace fab did he say Adi is in his bunker yeah so we'll see what happens with Monaco

but yeah dude bro's been chopping and changing starting different attackers I think this time they started Beareth and Sufati, et cetera. Ballo came on at the half, though, this match against Nice. Mois Bombito, by the way. He fouled Balo. Ballot won a pen.

Yeah. Fowled Ballot won a pen. A little bit of a soft pen on my, for me, but I love to see a Canadian fail. Now, this part, we have to make a hard stop. and acknowledge that we don't like to see a Canadian fail in this way. He did get hurt, which I'm not happy about it. I just glad he got called for the foul. What was it?

How did he get hurt? Well, I'm not totally sure. But the niece account tweeted, we're with you, Moy's like, like, Lord Take him now, Dwight Howard. If anybody knows that tweet about Gordon Hayward. but yeah so it might be if it's something serious and you know I actually had this I didn't realize this but I think a Mexican right back or something somebody that plays for club bruges I want to say I forgot his man's name but he tore his ACL and I guess I hadn't realized this until I saw the tweet and it was like he'll miss the World Cup well we are now in the period of time where a serious injury and you're missing the World Cup. I don't know.

I guess I just really hadn't internalized that in my head. But so, yeah, Bell's just knocked on some wood. Hopefully we're all right. But I'm not going to say anything else, but, well, you know what? I am going to say one more thing. The scene is setting. The scene is setting for a disappointing Jesse Marsh World Cup. That's all I'm saying.

I hope Moyes is all right. but if you ain't yeah yeah he's an important player for Canada for sure yeah no doubt about it and then one more thing

Christopher Landa's been getting starts I did check him out I don't think he's good at this point in time yeah there's a lot of loose touches a lot of errant passes that are kind of going all over the place

you know great smile on that boy though great smile a large dude that can move up and down the touchline so you know there's still some promise and still some hope for him but yeah it's not happening

this year so well this year is in 2025 maybe maybe there's still some hope for him this cycle if he learns how to apply his technique a little bit better

but for anybody wondering like you know why he's starting for a cone and not getting called up or whatever. I think it's pretty defensible. Okay. All right. And then also, Crystal Pallas lost at Everton. Late goal, I think, did them in.

Feels like it's the first time they've lost since, like, April. But I'm sure they've lost some games in there. Well, they're into their European track now. You know, I was actually just looking, they played, you know, they played Donna Moquiv. midweek and I was just listening to the five-year plan pod. They did a pod from the hotel in Poland. I mean, not the hotel, the airport in Poland.

Oh, because the Dynamo Kiev is playing in. Krakow or? I'm not sure, but yeah, they got a plan. They got a plan in Poland. But, yeah, so they were, they did a pod from there. And so, yeah, these type of results are probably going to come, you know, just where we're the gas a little bit. They got a decent squad depth, but, you know, it's definitely going to be a strain on them.

Playing on two fronts in this way where they haven't necessarily before. Yeah. Didn't John Philip Mateta get called up for the French national team too? Yes, he did. Which is pretty cool. All right. Hey, thank you everybody for listening. If you want to skip the ads, join the Patreon.

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