Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #638: Post-camp wrap-up, the centerback situation, Noahkai check-in

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Belz and Vince talk through a few more things about the international window, including the Roldanaissance, Balo's supremacy at striker, Tessmann coming good and the problems at centerback, plus Banks's second start in a row for Augsburg, Gio gets minutes for a relegation-bound Gladbach, and Chris takes his struggles with him back to Palace. 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 a post window Monday review. I'm Adam Bells. Vince is here with me. You put in a shift last week, brother. You're a regular Christian Rodon out there. Yeah, yeah, Christian Rodon and that I'm affable and everyone loves me. That's right.

You know what I'm saying? Gets me indoors. I probably shouldn't be in. But, you know, when you're a good lad, when you're a good lad, it takes you a long way. That's why I'd be telling any young person ask me for advice, man. Just be somebody that people want to be around. Man, that is good advice. That is good advice.

It'll take you where you want to go. How are you, though? Yeah, it was a second part of it. I'm going to leave out. But I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I'm feeling good, man. The air is crisp outside.

It's always a welcome change from, you know, summer. It gets to you at some point. also just uh i really do appreciate living in the area where we get four seasons i feel like i thought about this on the podcast for but four seasons it just makes you feel alive you know the things when things change it's like oh okay yeah um autumn always feels like the season of work to me you know because when the air gets colder then you just you just want to get up and get get busy it does make you feel alive i appreciate that a lot yeah man so uh bell's family vacation Yeah. Just got back from Germany yesterday. We went and visited some friends in Germany and some friends in Switzerland, some long-time friends of the podcast who live in Switzerland, friends of mine and Gregs.

But yeah, it was a great trip. We were in an interesting part of Germany. Touringen. Hitler thought of it as like the heart of Germany, the heartbeat of Germany, because it was, it's the home of Goethe and Schiller, two pretty important literary figures. and it's also part of East Germany and Buchenwald the concentration camp is right there right there by Vimar where so that when the East German government the communist government took over

they built a big tower on the hill where Buchenwald was so that people from Vymer which is like this cultural literary literary center of Germany could see the tower all the time and they cut down some trees in Weimar too, so that they could see that tower all the time and always be reminded of it.

And the friends that we stayed with in Germany, they live in a old, like what seems like an old safe house in the countryside. And it turns out the guy who lived in it before them, who had dementia, whose family sold them the house, was a member of the Stasi. So like the secret police in Germany. And because he was old and kind of losing it, he left all these like documents in the garage. Anyway, just a fascinating place. It kind of has been through everything in the last 100 years and has put other people through everything in the last 100 years, this part of Germany.

And also, I think you might find this interesting. I went to a traditional new German sauna. You ever heard of this? Okay. I mean, I have not heard of this, no. So it sounds maybe a little more exciting than it is. Right. But it's like you have to be naked.

You go in the door, you go in the locker room, take your clothes off, you put on a bathrobe. You are not allowed to wear clothes inside this sauna. And I just find the whole thing fascinating. They've sort of, you know, nudity is just so hypersexualized in America. Right. Not that way. Not that way in Germany. So it's a co-ed.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Co-ed. Fully co-ed. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah.

I mean, that's one thing I learned in Italy because I had to sign up a few times while I was in Italy. Oh, and when you went to the gym? Yeah. Yeah. And the etiquette. Ediquette is very, very different. America as opposed to Europe. Like, we weren't encouraged to be nude, but I did have to, like, shower.

post workout, put on a different set of clothes, et cetera, to enter into the sauna. Whereas here in the U.S., it's like, bro, I mean... You just jump in the sauna. You already sweating. You're going to be sweating anyway in the sauna. Just hop in the sauna, man. Yeah.

The type of deal. But, yeah, it's different, man. People... No socks, no shoes in the sauna. You know, it's just like... You got to put a towel down where you sit, which I think, you know, that makes sense. But other than that,

quite a difference. That's it. Yeah. Did you, so my best friend just went to Germany. And he went to Germany and he went to Italy in the same trip, excursion over to Europe. Great time was extremely charmed by Italy. You know, I had told him everything about my experience in Italy or whatever. He's an experienced traveler

Just hadn't been to Italy yet And he was like man You're exactly right Everyone was so nice Him and his wife Had their kid with him The baby Not even a year old yet

He's like everybody was great with the kid You know so welcome and blah blah In Germany not the case Yeah German German people not as nice Italian people That's for sure Yeah

That's for sure Were a lot colder He told me He lives in Santa Barbara and there was a German with a Santa Barbara UCSB sweatshirt on and my boy goes over and talk to him and he's like, yeah, Santa Barbara, we're from Santa Barbara, blah, blah, blah.

And he said, bro, just said, yeah, I went to school there a long time ago and just turned around. That was it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. I don't think yet. I mean, I do have a new appreciation for a schnitzel, like with the right side salad and the right potatoes. You know, it could be really good.

But by and large, I'm going to take Italy over Germany in a landslide just across the board. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to go to Germany on our next scuffed junket. But people in Italy are fantastic in my experience. and yeah yeah I went to UC Santa Barbara a long time ago comment you know that I think that sums it up

pretty well but yeah you said they had did you do some October fest activities or is that just one week one weekend or whatever I don't really know we weren't in Bavaria so it wasn't like the you know the heart of October fest

but um no we didn't we did we did uh I should say we When we went to Switzerland, some very interesting stuff, soccer-wise. This friend of mine and Greg's, his son, plays for the Stad Nio Neone, which is a second division Swiss club, plays for their U-9s. Good little player, Royce.

It's interesting what Eric told me about how they train those kids. We're talking 2017 birth year. They don't play 7 v7. they sure as hell don't play 9 v9 or 11 v 11. They just, on weekends, they just play 4 v4. 4 v4. Kids getting on the ball, ball and play as much as possible. And you can see he's improving fast.

So is his older sister. She's a good player too. We played a ton of soccer in the backyard. Me and Maeve, my daughter, and those three. All right, let's get to the soccer. But I do want to get into a little bit of what happens. happened in the window and you know because producer

Liz put in the notes that I should weigh in and I also want to I also want to I think the main my my main well first of all love the recaps

I expected the one with you and Greg to be really good and it was but that one with Charlie man it took me off guard how good that was if you And we were cooking You were cooking I feel like Mika Beareth

Looking over my shoulder at Fuller and Baligan It's got this multifaceted ball knowing A real hooper But we might have real hooper Yeah yeah what we need to do bro Some one v1 drills out there for the crown Some proven

A proven talent Just getting better every time he comes on the mic Well what do we is Charlie better than you? I mean, you were the person told me Charlie was good at soccer. I don't know. We're pretty close.

We're pretty close. Okay, okay. I mean, the field, you know, I heard what you said about how, like, I would only give a compliment if I really meant it because I'm a crotchy old man. And there's definitely some truth to that. But the reality is the field is pretty weak.

Charlie sticks out. I mean, yes, but you do not grade on a curve, though. You know what I'm saying? That's the thing. You don't grade on a, it wouldn't be like, oh, everybody else's ass, but Charlie can do a little bit of something. So he's all right. If you say somebody is good, then I'm like, all right. Charlie knows the game, and he's like, he kind of rambles around with that left foot of his, making good decisions.

He's pretty technical. I stand by it. He's a ball player. And, yeah, I'm enjoying being part of the audience. when you and him are on the mic together. So there's that, but also I think something that, you know, going back through the clip notes that you put together, $5 a month, everybody, $5 a month gets you the clip notes videos,

which are every item on the timeline, go to patreon.com, backslash scuffed. Plus weekend action. We can't leave that out. Oh, yeah, plus weekend action. Yeah. Now the club soccer is back in full swing. That's right.

But going back through it, it just really sticks out to me. These are two different types of opponents. You know, you got Ecuador and Australia, and Ecuador is a clear step up from Australia. So everything that happened against Australia has to be, I think, understood in that context versus everything that happened against Ecuador. Hadji Wright was right at home against that championship centerback that he put on the ground for that second goal.

not taking anything away from the goal but man that guy went down like a you know like a large tree when he did a relatively simple cut in from the right to the left it wasn't like he sold it big time you know he just kind of took a touch

to the inside and that guy went down as I noted in the recap he was getting passed around Burgess Burgess that's it yeah yeah the star out there for Australia Yeah, at least the guy who, you know, the guy who really got into it with James Sands, Dagestino, plays for a club called Viking, which is in Norway, I think.

And, yeah, so the badge FC stuff is real, and Ecuador is just a little bit better than Australia across the board. Ballot was awesome. Testima was very good. What did we think of way at wingback? I mean, he's a wingback in it. Yeah. is kind of what he is now i mean that that's what he is at at the club level for the most part until you until you can show that you can be a reliable attacker you know especially in the wing like you know in france give me if you can give a 10 goal be counted on for a 10 goal five

assist season or whatever like something like that but there hasn't really come to fruition so far and Tim Way's career. I mean, his last season at Juventus was a season high or career high in goal contributions. I want to say, and we got what? We got 10. We got 10 total. Six goals, four assists. Now, obviously, he's playing all over the place for YuVA.

But, yeah, he is that. And so playing there for us, particularly with, you know, this back three now, it's like he's going to have to play wing back. if we stay with the back three and for him to be in my preferred position, which is, you know, wide right. I mean, that's a wing back, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. I agreed with you guys on the podcast, too, that, like, you know, you'd like to see Richards do a little better on that goal, but that's just a nice play from Valencia. I mean. It's tough, man. Yeah. I really enjoy that goal, man. Yeah, from start to finish, the first touch, the support. prize of that to like yeah right because because tim i mean not tim but chris like you know he had

two out of the three of the options covered right you know but enter being perfectly parked on the blind spot takes that first time to the right because he sees how chris's shoulders are set up yep you know he's he's set up for anything to the left takes that touch to the right and boom that's the Only the little bit of half you already needed, man. That was slick stuff. Slick stuff. I do want to say Wes, you know, Wes's giveaway at the other end to kick that whole sequence off.

I was a little disappointed in Mr. McKinney there, Mr. McKinney, the younger, because that was a lovely little bit of combination from Malik and then Fulleran. And then Wes could have played it to the defender's left to play Fuller and in. And he tried to squeeze it in between two defenders. I don't know. It was pretty easy.

You should just put some air on there. Put some air under it. The thing is, if you go back and watch that play in the clip knows $5 a month. I forgot what centerbacker was, Paco or Donias. But by that point, they were hip to Flows, lay it off and spin it behind game. Yeah. And he doesn't engage flow when he receives the ball for the layoff. Like usually, you know, defenders.

is that's how you play at one two right you had a defender closing down on you he used his momentum against him he didn't give any momentum this time he stayed back in anticipation of the flow lay off and behind um and that's how they were able to pick that ball off but yeah west i mean if you put some air under the if you just lift the ball then we don't have to deal with any of that um yeah okay but but i do i'm happy you brought this play back up because because Aida Morris, you know, he gets cut out on that pass, whatever, up to, I don't forget who, I forgot who it was. But the man who made the pass of Valencia, he, uh, I see people, there's some people that are like forgiving him, you know, like, oh, he was already, that's

the only chance he had to make the play was trying to cut that pass out, which it probably was based on his possession. We didn't get a very good angle of it from the broadcast once again. Damn. Put me in a booth. Put me in a table. Put me in a. truck man but um i mean we need you in this booth we need you in this booth you got five cameras max and like you know i'm saying i can get that thing i can get the plate spinning but anyway um so he is the only play he can make is the one he tried to make that is true but also you got to read the game better if you're him you can't be creeping up as if you're already down the field when there's still one pass to be made that has that has a decent amount of jeopardy

to it you know what i'm saying i think about it like talk about this with fullbacks all the time fullback's got to be the ones to read the game like hey am i good to get up here and join this attack or is my midfielder in a position where they're about to give the ball away and i got a and i got to sit back on my heels a little bit you know what i'm saying it's the risk for war type of thing aiden's just aimlessly wandering up balls giving away boom you're out of position yeah it can and it can happen bang bang but not a great window for aiden not a great window for aden not a great window for aiden was it championship in the mud championship in the mud how's you right said not so fast my friend yeah especially that first goal i mean they're both nice goals but um the first goal was that first goal was

a surprise so my thoughts on australia rolled on was cooking shout out mcb in arlem i mean we got to do it You got a shot of mine. A resolute. A resolute. Not even a defender of Roldon. An acolyte of Christian Roldon. Yeah. For years.

He's written the seminal text on Christian Roldon. Might even be a martyr. For Christian Rol. Yeah. Yeah. And Roldon, that must have felt good. That must have felt good. Tuesday night was it, MCB.

Two assists, but that doesn't even tell you about all the cooth he had in the final third, which I think was notable. You know, I like it. So, yeah, that almost curled that one in, which was, which you showed in loving detail on, in the clip notes. I mean, he nearly scored a really nice goal there. He also, I like the way he cut in from the right and then kind of lifted a ball into the, into the box. You know, just not, not too hurried, a little bit of calm, a little bit of finesse. And of course, I mean, the pass on the first goal was just a delight, you know, in really tight space, slips it in.

I mean, Haji still has a lot to do that outside of the boot finish, upper 90 with the right foot. That's a, that's a special finish. But still, what a pass. And then the, and then I know everybody knows all this stuff already, but the Johnny on the spot, quick thinking, free kick. What this is from Alex Freeman, setting the ball down for him. But, yeah, he plays that quick free kick in behind for Haji. And then he sends Burgess timbering into the underbrush. And scores with that nice left foot of his.

So, yeah, Christian Roldon. He's in the project. And he's probably, if we had to choose a, if Potch had to choose a World Cup roster today, you know he's taking Christian Rold on. He's there, brother. So all you haters, out there, not me, not me.

All you haters can eat that, okay? The Sands Dagostino thing really, really, you guys got it, you guys disgusted at length on the pod. But yeah, Sands got Degistino first, then Degostino gets him back. Pretty nasty stuff. I mean, the second one. But Sands goes out and dishes it out, man.

He's got to learn to take it in if he's going to dish it out like that. He does dish it out, bro, but he got, I mean. He got wrecked. They were killing my dude at the end of that. They said, uh-uh. Doesn't he have a St. Polly teammate on that Australia team, too? Yes.

It was one of the people on the field. I forgot which one it was. I think right, wide, right player or something. Yeah, it was one of the attacks. Richards kind of had a rough one against Australia. Wouldn't you say? had a rough one against Bormiff too. I mean,

hey. I don't know. Everybody was asked defensive-wise, I guess Australia. Now, you know, they didn't, whatever. The XG was what it was.

We didn't give up a ton of crazy chances, man. But yeah. It's, if we insist on throwing three centerbacks out here. We've got to find a good one. We've got to find another good one.

Not that Richards is our best centerback, and he's going to, you know, it's, what happens when he has a bad game is we just have to say, well, that sucks that he had a bad game. Right. He's still our best centerback. I mean, that's just how it is. That's what it comes down to.

And really, it's just like, the goal is like, come on, man. Come on. Like, I can understand getting Meg by boss. Oh, that was sad. That was a sad moment. It was a sad moment. But I can, I can, if it's like, If that's your one, like, okay.

Like, you know, and then he got muscled by Dagestino right on that one bouncing ball, which was a little crazy. But it's like, the goal is the one. It's like if you get the, because he didn't, he just didn't get exposed as many times as like Miles did. For instance. Yeah. And he gave up that free kick. He gave up a free kick.

Yeah, so I'm talking about the one, the one he got muscled. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's got to be better, man, got to be better. And it's like, yeah, he took that trip back over the pond and did not get better this weekend. Now he was up against Simeonio, who is one of the bright young stars in the Premier League. But, you know, I mean, brother, I got left in the dust multiple times.

It's tough. It's tough. Okay. What about Freeman? How do you feel about him outside of his alertness on that free kick? Oh, well, yeah. He didn't have a great window, I don't think. And, um, yeah, I'm not, I'm still not there yet with Alex Freeman.

I understand the talent. But, but I stand on what I said when we initially like introduced the man. Or when he got called up and we started talking about him or whatever. He's just like, he's just very much a prospect. You know, hasn't played a lot of, um, first division soccer. or whatever. I believe. You got a ways to go.

I believe specifically what you said is when you pulled up his clips for Orlando, you expected, you know, sort of defensive player of the year kind of excellence or something like that. And then what you saw was like a prospect, right? Yeah. They were telling me it was the best right back in MLS. And, you know, according to G-plus. Man, G-plus, losing me with that shit. analysis he is the best

Get that out of here He is the best right back in FLS So you know I don't know I just thought You tell me somebody's the best in a league I expect to see them have the league On Cheek-co mode

And it was not that Does some good things Is adept at handling itself with the ball You know what I'm saying? We've all seen it over this past summer and whatever. So it's not like a, I'm not saying it's a, we shouldn't call this man in anymore. It's a total loss or whatever.

I mean, we got, we still got eight months or whatever to the World Cup. So, like it happened in that time. But yeah, just right now, right now I'm just like, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Interesting that Big Pat didn't get any minutes in the window. That is interesting. That is interesting.

I'm a bit surprised by that. I mean, we would joke around about how Big Pat was Pott's favorite player, but I wasn't completely a joke, you know? We know, we thought, I thought, Potch liked him a lot. So this is where I think we're getting to the point, because, you know, late in the Greg era, when we had seen so many perceived missteps or whatever, and, you know, the next roster would come out and be like, oh, Greg has alleviated whatever mistake he made, you know, he's it. He's learning. He has the ability to learn and reassess his priors or whatever the hell. And so, which led to me feeling fairly comfortable at the end of that Japan, Saudi Arabia window, which was kind of a disaster. I'm like, you know what?

I think we're good. I think we're good. And so I think we're starting to get to this point with Potch, maybe. He is. And, you know, doing a little press run. he's sending uh i forgot what my boy's name is his assistant to do a whole bunch of do some interviews or whatever um really getting the word out there that they do in fact work hard they do in fact watch watch games of soccer involving americans um so and and and we're seeing we're seeing some

things we're seeing some good we're seeing some good things all and all um well like i said the idea that we can get in australia performance with Rodan being the main chef in the kitchen you know what I'm saying that's something that we're breaking new ground you know we all like I said we always have that built in excuse that well well you know

MMA ain't there you know well what could you expect the performance to look like we only got five and a half good players so now we're getting performances without you know the full compliment of our good players or whatever

So, yeah. Yeah. I think, I think, you know, to a certain extent, Greg Velasquez has vindicated because he, because he was always kind of like things are going to get back to normal, so to speak, in October. And, you know, it's getting there to your point. Now, Big Pat gets on a run of the champo, then it was,

between now and November. You know, we'll see what happened. Yeah, we got some, man, I have so many segways spinning through my mind right now, but we got to hold off on the action until after the break. I have one more thing to say about the Australia game. That testament pass at the end to set up Aden's chance. That is a nasty pass. That is a nasty ball in behind through three defenders outside of the boot curling in the air.

Um, let's go Tanner. Good stuff, man. Tam, man. Good stuff. He's played, he's played his way back in the, got his, got his opportunity, back in the camp, played his way into more, into more opportunity. So that's all you can ask for. Yeah. Also, Adam Bell's, you know, when I was, when I was, uh, putting you against the stake for your claims against, for your sins against Tanner Testman.

I forgot one big one. I forgot one big one, which is... It's rare when you forget one of my sins, but go ahead. It really is. You remember when we was watching, we was recapping them Olympics games, and you were trying to tell me that Amir Richardson was better in Tant Testament based off what we have seen in these matches. And I was like, I'm not totally sure.

I don't remember that. I don't deny it, but I don't admit it either. Go ahead. All I want to say is Amir Richardson made the move to Furentina, the one that was alleged supposed to be the Tanner Testament move, but that is an agent turned down or whatever. So Amir, and then once they moved on from Tanner, they moved on to Amir, it seemed, and got that deal done pretty quickly. And now, and then Tanning Testament ended up at Leon. I know. Let me tell you who hasn't played a single minute for Fierr and Tina this season. It has been a D&P.

I love to hear it. I'm glad. D&P coach's decision this entire year. He's very healthy, but he's very much been sitting in the technical area at Mayor Richardson. Not a single minute. Not a single minute. And this comes after he played like 1,200 minutes, it seems. No, let's give him about 14, 1,500 minutes last year for Fyrentina.

Totally falling out of favor. And, you know, it was looking dicey early. Tanner actually caught up and played more minutes for Leon last season than Amir played for Furentina. So I'll say all this to say. Repent. I don't remember saying that Amir was better than Tanner. I do remember people saying that, or I remember that idea being out there. that was a big miss for us not to have Amir.

We were talking about the, I think, might even be recapping the Morocco match. Okay. But you were like, you know, you see Tanner out there, you see a mirror out there. You're like, which one? Okay. Which one do you rather have? Yeah, that rings a bell. That rings a bell.

I'm not just trying to be coy. I think I'm glad. I'm really glad about that. And I'm glad if I was wrong about that. And also, I think Tanner has improved a lot in the last, 12 months even. No doubt about it. No doubt about it.

The one thing I noticed that he's not doing a lot anymore, he used to mishit as good as he could hit a diagonal or whatever. He would miss hit passes all the time. Kind of come off his foot wrong. It'd be like, ah, man. That one was nasty. Yeah, he was a punt. He was just punting it to the other team.

Yeah. Yeah, and even like simple passes, it would just like, yeah, that's not what that pass supposed to look like. It's not happening anymore. Not happening anymore. I'm much more consistent with this technique. And like I said on the pod, man, if it's like, if we can get some type of quality like that,

like that Aidan Morris pass, like, oh. Yeah. I mean. That's like something G.O. Raina would do, you know? Exactly. You might have to put them in the good players column sooner rather than later. You know what I'm saying? I have to join that.

a rarefied air. But anyway. All right. Let's take a break and come back and talk about the meager weekend action. But yeah, join the Patreon. Links in the show notes. It is the lifeblood of the podcast. The podcast would not exist without its patrons.

And when I ask you to join the Patreon, I really want you to join the $5 or $10. Tears. You know, $2 is for college students. I know some of you out there. there are like billionaires and you're on the $2 tier. I had somebody DM and me yesterday who said that they were friends with the owners of Patreon from college.

This is somebody on the $2 tier. They're going to know who they are if they listen to the podcast regularly. The owners of Patreon, the founder of Patreon went to Stanford. Of course. You're telling me you're in your late 30s, early. 40s. You went to Stanford. You went to Stanford and you're buddies with the spouse of the founder of Patreon and you're on the $2 tier. If they stayed in that area, you know, Palo Alto, very expensive place to live.

We're talking like 20% of a latte. You know, not even, don't even, don't even, don't even, like, we can't even say it's a latte. It's like half of a latte. Come on, man, a bag of Doritos. Do you see a bag of bag of Doritos cost 2025 bro it's about $5 yeah don't get it from the convenience store it's going to be about seven

anyway we do appreciate patrons and ask you to join the patron and check out boots on the ground too Vince is grinding Vince is grinding over here he's grinding over there and there's a lot to be excited about

you see Lily O'Hannis's chip goal in Champions League my goodness My goodness. What a player she is. I didn't see enough celebration of that in the scuff discord. Yeah. The anti-lily bias is really strong.

Yeah, yeah. At first, it was take a name at the Dutch League, that Champions League. But yeah. For people that aren't women's national team people, I would just say the women's national team is going through the same thing that the men's national team went through in, you know, 2018, 2019 type of deal. But, you know, I mean, there's levels, obviously. But, yeah, there's a influx of fresh new faces, exciting talents,

pop it up just all over the place. You know, NWSL is, in my opinion, the best league in the world. And the soccer matches it. You know, you watch NWSL ball. It's high quality ball, real. High quality ball being played. Adamo Balazzi Got his

Got his lips pursed But We'll just leave it at that For a second I was like Who's Adamo Bilazzi Is that like the coach Of the KC.

Current or something? That's the Euro snob Adam Bells All right We'll be back in a minute All right We're back You were talking about

Big Pat Going on a run In the championship And you know Who's not going on And you know who's not going on And the championship Right now

Who? Josh Sargent. Yeah. Man has hit a drought. Man has hit a drought since his poor showing in September for the U.S. men's national team. Tough.

I don't believe he's scored since then. We definitely didn't score over the weekend and Norwich keeps losing. Just thought I should mention that. It's not like, you know, I don't know if anybody's invested as much in Josh Sargent as I have. You know, well, there are.

There are some. There's a few. Shout out Sean Scott. Yeah, Sean Scott. On the Discord. I got a shout of him. Yeah, Nick. But, man, I've been enchanted with him ever since that goal against Ecuador at the U-20 World Cup.

Swivel with the left foot in at the near post. And I'm sad to say he's not playing his way back into the roster right now because he's not even scoring for Norwich. In a bad league. A bad league. So he needs to pick it up. And, you know, I told, I said that I would come back to this when the transfer window was over. Because maybe there would be something in the works for one job sergeant to get out of Norwich after he turned down the opportunity to leave and go to Wulspurge. He could have had it all in his hands.

He could, I mean, so the national team performance is not withstanding. You know, he could have been out of the championship, playing in the league higher than. all of his other striker compatriots that apply their trade in the championship. He could have been in the Bundesliga. And if he would got it cracking in the Bundesliga, I think even a bad performance or two, he would have been buffered from that. You know, he would have been able to,

he would have been able to get more chances, I think. You know, it's like, If you're in the championship, when the same league as everybody else, and especially if you hit a little cold spell, which that could be all this is. You know, he could turn up. That's probably all it is, but.

Right. Statistical anomaly, regression to the mean, etc. You know, you know, I'd be talking about it. The problem is the warm spell doesn't guarantee us anything when he comes in the camp. Exactly. Exactly. And regardless of, let's say you do find yourself

on the outside looking in because of performances in the September window or whatever. boom you go by the Wolseberg two goals two goals in between window at Wolfsburg boom you're back in

I would think and performance is to match with it but now it's like bro you you might be cooked might be cooked there might not be

anything that you can do in a chain of chip to get you back um yeah especially once if Rico goes back in the full swing of sometime here soon.

Haji scored his two goals. It's just, I don't know, man. I'm not sold on Haji. I'm not sold on Haji either. I got to be clear. I don't, I mean, I love that he called game in that Australia game, and he did it, you know, he did it with no fuss. I mean, he's just, like, barely even celebrated his goals. Yeah.

I love all that, but I don't know, man. You know what, Bill? Balligan is so far clear. so far clear of the field right now. Of everyone. Yeah, of everyone. You know, you brought this back into my mind when you talked about Haji and I celebrating goals. Just a very...

This goes back to what I was talking about, Land of Donovan, right? A very lackluster window from our boys, just even on the post-pitched interviews, you know, when they walk over to the TNT sports desk with Kyle Martino. the Marcus Beasley and them it's just like I mean they even got Weston over there bro Weston sound like he was

lobotomized like it was like I was like bro what is going on dog he was barely smiling there was no just there was no trademark Westing giggle it's all business I guess

is that what is that your read on it or I mean I guess it could be a little all business but but what I'm saying is, you know, here we have the opportunity to show some personality in this in this little post-game informal interview, you know, at Kyle Martino with the with the taper pants, with the, with the

sneakers on, you know what I'm saying? This is an informal, it's an informal setting. This is where you should feel at home, be able to let loose something. Brian Dunsteth, I mean, met him in person. What a nice, what a nice fellow. Brian Dunsteth is a, he's a real one for sure. Yeah, cool as hell. And it's just like, and here we have maybe our most charismatic player, the one that we would want to put in front of America if it really came down to it and we had to pick somebody, I think.

And he's just, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not giving me what I, what I would hope for, what I needed in that moment. Yeah, maybe he's all business. And maybe he is. Growing up a little bit, they also talked about his weight loss. You know, we did get a classic Western line where he said this was the first summer. He wasn't afraid to take his shirt off at the pool. So, I mean, that wasn't a good line.

But he delivered it like, he was dead ass serious. You know what I'm saying? Like you say a line like that. You know, you'd be like, uh-huh. You know, something like that. Like, he just, this is the first time I didn't, you know, I wasn't afraid to take my shirt off at the pool. Igor Tudor told me I needed to get in shape and I did that. And I'm like, man, damn.

And then, Haji in the Australia match was even worse than West. I mean, he's at the table. He's never been, you know, a big showman. Yeah. It's just a shame. I'm just like, damn, man. We got to get it together. We got to figure out.

Tanner's out here promoting Forrest Frank on the Skype podcast. I was wondering what you were going to think, what you thought of that. I was like, I mean, Forrest Frank had his moment in our household this summer with my kids. But like, even with my kids, it was like, I don't know, like three days, you know? I mean, that stuff is so derivative and I'm happy you brought that up bro because I was sitting there like man

Whatever I love Tanner I'm so happy that he gave a good interview to I love Tanner too Did a great job with Sanjay all that stuff It was a great interview yeah And I'm not coming at coming for Christians Okay no no no you better not be

You're right Adam Bell's staunch Christian Me Ray Southern Baptist I got my I would never talk bad about it. As a matter of fact, I think being raised in the church did great for me in my life. So I want to be clear. Yeah, you're not coming for Christians, but Forrest Frank.

It's like you're a 23-year-old man. He's living a simple life. You know, he's had, you think about who he probably had to look up to in his life. Similar to me. Like my grandfather is who is like my main role model in life. He lives a simple life. He got an acre and a half here on the very edges of Louisville. He kind of, he farms his land, et cetera.

You know, that's all I've wanted to be. And Tanner's the same way. But we need some more wild cards. That's all I'm saying. This is not to say Tanner Testman and the way he lives his life is undesirable. It's the opposite. No, I think it's fantastic the way he lives his life. I mean, we need more people to live their life.

life that way. We just, we just need, we need some wildcards. We need some people that are going to galvanize the country. We need people that will move people, you know, coming back to my original point about the whole land of Donovan thing. I just want to put a plug in and say, if you want some good Christian man music, you know, uh-huh. J.S. Bach, baby. Johan Sebastian Bach. Tanner, get it, get up in that. Or maybe just listen some Bob Dylan, you know, some of the Bob Dylan Christian era stuff, you know. there's a lot of good there's a lot of good music out there's a lot of

indie Nashville musicians that make it's that make good Christian stuff that you anyway yeah we can move on okay no key banks no key banks uh we're in that we're in the we're in the market for a good centerback

yep started played played 85 minutes for Augsburg uh they tied FC Colm 1-1 I thought he would, he would, I don't have any big criticism of how he played, but I just don't think there's that, there, he wasn't, he wasn't trying a lot of, uh, interesting passes. He was marauding in a defensive, uh, from a defensive point of view, but not really with the ball. So he'd get, he get forward and try to cut things out and sometimes got into some, um, scraps around that, but mostly, I think it's just noticeable that is mostly, that is mostly, just notable that he got a start and played 85 minutes. Yeah. Second consecutive.

May along continue, but I will say I was not that impressed with what he had going on this week. There is a chance that Cohn gets from a Augsburg turnover where they, they, Augsburg turns a ball over. Kohn gets the ball and basically Noah Kai is Noaki Noaki

He's slow to recognize the danger That um Cone is going to propose on the counter And not even just the danger Just like where the ball is going to go So he's supposed to get There is one person in front of him that's in the center circle That's clearly about to receive this pass forward

Boom and start this counter attack off Nokey is the one that's supposed to put pressure on him He doesn't realize it until it's too late The ball gets to him And he turns immediately He feels no pressure on his back Anything like turns immediately And because Nokey realized it too late

He's trying to get to him But he's taken probably two steps towards the man About the time he's received it and turned Noki tries to change direction He falls and hits the ground And The dude that received the ball carries it to about the edge of the penalty spot

and it hits the post. He was basically like 1V1 with the keeper, you know, one of those situations where it was a decent chance just because it's like if you put that on frame, you don't have any bodies to continue with in the box, etc. It's just like kind of you and the keeper.

But it hit the outside of the post and like went out for a goal kick or whatever. But stuff like that, there was a bouncing ball and a transition moment that he doesn't, handle and a colon attacker gets to it first and kind of starts a transition where he's he's trailing behind um i think another play too but it's just like when coming off of this australia match where i'm like none of these dudes really handled business in the way that they would like to um if

you were hoping that uh noki is there right now he's not um now it's a tough position it's a tough position to be good at. It really is like you've got to read so much stuff and I don't mean like books. I mean you got to read a lot of stuff on the field and respond immediately. What were you going to say? Well yeah just like

did he do an I didn't expect him to be there right now, you know, type of deal. Did he do enough to start the next game? That's the question. Hopefully they weren't like super egregious errors but they were bad enough.

Yeah, they were errors. They were errors for sure to where like, you know, if Augsburg scuffed was great in the game. You know, they're calling those out for sure. So we'll see if he keeps the spot. I hope he does. And once he, and if he does, and if he gets to the point where he gets like, you know, 12, 1,500 minutes of seasoning,

then you know that trope that they use in the NCAA tournament. Like, he's a freshman. He's been playing all year. He's like a sophomore. You know, type of thing. So if he can be a sophomore, by the time the World Cup rolls around, then we might be cooking with something. Okay.

All right. That's a good update on Noki. Baligan came off the bench to score Monaco's goal in their 1-1 tie with Angier. A workman-like finish on a good ball in behind. Kind of snuck it under the goalkeeper. It skipped up into the upper 90. off the goalkeeper's hand. Yeah, and then Ajaire got a goal to equalize later from Siddiqui Sharif

who looks a real dangerous player. But, you know, that's why I say Mika Beareth is over there looking over his shoulder like I'm looking at Charlie Bowen. Because Baligan just comes on and produces immediately. Everyone in that Monaco attack been looking over that shoulder. There's a lot of competition for spots right now. It's a doggy dog world. Adi Hooter has been sacked.

So, and this was the first match without him. And Flo didn't get the start, right? Now, of course, he comes off of Beareth and scores the goal. So hopefully, you know, this means he's in there, at least for the foreseeable future, which means one match, you know, foreseeable future. So he has to keep producing They got they got dudes man They got dudes right now

But Yeah Yeah they do Like Monaco has to Monaco has to see it man He does the same things For Monaco That he does for the U.S.

Mids national team I mean we We called it out You know when he started playing for Monaco And then we saw it for the national team But yeah So I think I think he's good.

I think he's good and it's good that he scored this goal because there's real pressure on him to perform as far as intra-squad competition. Yep. He has only two goals to assist on the season so far. But that's in only six appearances. And then, of course, there's Champions League two and he's got nothing in those games so far.

Okay. Joe and Gio. Let's do Joe and Gio. and then Chris Richard's struggles versus Bournemouth. The Joe and Gio section, I don't really, you know, as you might imagine, I'm paying attention mostly to Gio. So I'll leave the Scali stuff to you. But Gio was, he came on in the 60th minute,

so he got a half-hour cameo. Good to see him back on the field. He was his usual self. Those games, those Bundesliga games, are just surging, taught contest. you know, with people just running their brains out and, and Gio's not doing that. He's not doing that. Particularly Union, you know.

Yeah, but they forced that on their opponents, which is what Gladbach found themselves up against. He did kind of contribute to a strong 20-minute spell for Gladbach after he came on, but that ended, you know, so they were doing, he wasn't like doing anything decisive, but he was, I think, looked. decent out there. And then they gave up a set piece goal that kind of was like a free kick from the left side for Gladbach. Real dangerous area. It gets headed up in the box to just between the penalty marker and the edge of the area. And it gets follied in from there. And I'm not going to blame the goal on Gio, but he was the guy, one of the guys. who could have, you know, thrown themselves at it and made it more difficult for the shooter,

maybe even blocked the shot. And, you know, he did that whole, like, put your hands behind your back. Didn't move toward the shooter, didn't close the angle down at all. And then when the shot was taken, he did the whole put the hands behind the back and kind of play dodgeball, you know, just jump out of the way.

And it goes in at the near post. So, I don't know, man. Yeah. I don't know. I don't either. Look, look, step one, step one. I stay healthy for five games in a row. Can you do that, Giovanni?

You know, it does seem like he's going to be in this limited role, if you will, for the next few matches. So we'll see. I mean, he's been out. Man, we don't even know if he's capable of more than a limited role. We don't. Like, the smart money would say he is not physically capable. Anyway, we've covered that, I think, in enough detail over these. How do you think Scali played?

Does he have a chance? Has Alex Freeman given him a crack in the door? I mean, that's all of... You know, the counterfactual to what I just talked about with Josh Sargent would be Joe. Scali. You know, like,

maybe it wouldn't matter if Josh Sargent was in the Bundes League of putting up two goals between every window or whatever. Yeah, Joe, I mean, he's doing this Joe. His Joe. Doing his Joe. I love that. I mean. Just doing his regular Joe.

Glad by because I was going to say ass. Ass. I mean, to the point, I mean, like, really as, you know what I'm saying? Like, they are going to get relegated if this, if this stretch continues. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's just. Which is crazy because they were like the better, like I said, they were the much better team for the 20 minutes after Geo came on. They just couldn't punch it in, you know?

they're not actually ass they just keep they keep not scoring and conceding goals that's what I'm saying bro I mean they but it's not like they're getting run over by everybody it's just like I don't know I don't know why soccer's a funny game but I mean they they they might get relegated I think that I mean that says it all right there so they got they got to figure it out or they are going to get relegated Yeah, that's all I mean they keep giving up You know, crooked numbers

You know, in matches And that's You're gonna get relegated If you give up Two, three, four goals Every other match Yeah All right, hey

They said a dead last in the table They have three points Behind Heidenheim and Mites Josh Sargent would have been In the slums too Willsberg Has five points They are the first team

Outside of the You know, the relegation spots. I don't know. He's a seven. The Augsburg is seven. He's already, I mean, he would be in the slums if he were in, if he were in the Bundesliga, but he's definitely in some council housing in England. I mean, North City is 20th in the championship.

They haven't won in a while. Yeah. And all of their, like, those, like, good players that would, like, flank Josh, they're all gone, you know. I know, yeah. That hot-blooded Spaniard. Yeah. Signs. Signs.

Yeah. Begging for Emilo Rasheetsa right now. Dude, that would be so helpful. All right. To another part. Real quick before we get out of the table talk. Top of the championship, Coventry and Middlesboro. Okay.

Yeah. Bottom of the table. Norwich, Darby County. And then all the Sheffields. Yeah. And we got, I mean, West Brom's in a playoff spot as a stands right now. Now, obviously, I mean, they got 36 games remaining in their championship. Yeah, a few miles to go for everybody here.

And that's a quarter way through, bro. Yeah, that's crazy. So you're saying Richards had a bad one against Bournemouth. They lost, Chris Piles lost 3-2. Tyler went 90. That's right. Yeah. I mean, it was just, it was Simeonio, just turning him up, man.

Along that, uh, his right touchline, you know, he's playing right center back in that three. And, and, yeah. Simeonio, uh, Simeonio got past him. And, like, along that right touchline, he kind of, like, left him for dead. And, uh, well, I'm not, nothing left him for dead, but, you know, a slick turn. Chris is late getting pressured to Semenio, and then he's off to the races. Chris, unable to make up the ground. He plays a cross-in that should have been dealt with by Gehe,

but he kind of popped it up, ends up in a goal for Bournemouth. Also, just want to shout out. Tyler starts the, he starts the move with, you know, just a clearance that finds someone's chest. Bournemouth get going the other way. But, yeah, so that's what Tyler was doing a lot of the times, was Tyler things, cleaning up, cleaning up plays and kind of... Start and counterattacks.

Yeah, starting counterattacks. So, Malik's hurt. I said he's out for two weeks for Levincusin. Pulley, hurt. Probably not going to be back until I have, he's missing this next international break. Malik, I mean, at this point, probably this in the November international break. That's Giovanni's music right there.

Jedi's hurt. He got hurt in camp. allegedly. I don't know. I'm worried about Jedi. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough, man. I mean,

but even if this is like a fully lost season for Jedi, I'm throwing him right back in there, brother. Yeah. Like, let's say he gets fully healthy, ready to go in like May, June. Not even worried about it. But we'll just have to take whatever comes with it. bro, I'm throwing that man in.

Okay. But, I mean... Well, it's notable also that we barely have discussed Max Arfston. He's just kind of doing his job over there. Yeah. So what are you saying? He's growing into your... I just think he's like...

He's not a disaster. I'm not saying much more than that. Yeah. Yeah, A.C. Malone fans very... upset at Pachitino at least initially over the Pulisic injury. I'm more upset at Geria, the

Australian guy who hit him hard two times. Plays in Japan. Yeah. Which people are like you know, a foul didn't cause a hamstring injury, which to which you know, that kind of makes sense. But, you know,

he's accelerating and you get somebody that hacks you down. All of a sudden you're not accelerating. so much anymore you're being fouled by this person and you're falling a little awkwardly you can see how a hamstring strain could come from that you know what I'm saying of a forced deceleration that was not of your own doing you know yeah yeah yeah I mean I'm 43 years old I can I can see a hamstring injury coming from anywhere basically I was I was in the airport waiting for luggage yesterday with my kids and I was racing them around one of the big

pillars in the baggage claim area at the Atlanta airport. It's fresh off the plane. Yeah, I was running backwards. Little ones were running forwards. And man, I could barely walk this morning. I got some, pulling something in my glutes.

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