Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #643: Cavan strikes at the U17 World Cup, with Marcus Chairez

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

Marcus joins Belz to talk about the messy 1-0 win over Burkina Faso at the U17 World Cup, what's promising about the team (Albert, Sullivan) and where it will probably continue to struggle. We also briefly hit on the big Champions League goals from Balo and Pepi.Check out Marcus's work, and follow the link to his website, here: https://x.com/USSoccerColl 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. We talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, we're just going to pop in and talk about the U-17s 100 win over Burkina Faso at the World Cup. Get briefly into some of the senior team action from the middle of the week as well. Joining me once again is Marcus Cherez. Marcus, how are you? I'm doing all right, bills. Yeah, I'll just, I'll leave it at that.

I'm always excited to talk youth soccer, so I'll mark that down as a positive for me. my day. We finally got the tech. We got the tech figured out. It's always, you know, it's like the Tolstoy quote about every, you know, every happy family is the same. Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Every tech problem with the podcast is unhappy in its own way, you know? Anyway, first, let's get the bad news out of the way. You weren't overly impressed with this performance, were you? Not really. Were you? I mean, should I have been? No, I mean, it was pretty messy and Brickino Faso had the better of the chances.

I think that's fair to say overall. And probably should have gone up one zero. I'm thinking particularly of what happened and what was it, the 71st, 72nd minute when they had a chance on the doorstep and just sent it over. Yeah, but I think why I'm, I was maybe left a little like, maybe not disappointed, but kind of not seeing away, I don't see how their issues get resolved as the tournament goes on. I guess what I, what I'm seeing is like, whenever we play a semi-functional attack and a team, team that kind of has a good idea of how to break someone down, I'm just like worried. I just don't know that we're going to be able to stop someone with a functional attack. I don't see a lot of signs that we were like set up in the way and have the people,

the team to be able to do that. But I hope I'm wrong. But that was kind of like my takeaway is like all of our strength in terms of like the team is in the attack. for the most part, outside of a couple guys. And I think for a tournament, that's like a dangerous way to live. Usually you want to be really solid in the back and the midfields and have a really good keeper. And you can kind of maneuver your way through a tournament. At the end of the day, the results of this tournament, do they really matter?

No. What matters is like Kevin Matisse and a couple others become really important players for the senior team. That's what matters. Right. So does it really matter? No. I guess as someone who just follows this more than anyone, I'm just kind of like, I don't know how this team's going to do. I'm not feeling super confident about it. So that's probably what you're getting from me. Yeah. And I think like you said on X, they were just able to cut through us. The gap between the midfield and the backline was cavernous. And it occurs to me, this team could use for anybody who was watching the U20s, and there was.

World Cup tournament. This team could really use a reins type player, you know, to sort of control the pitch a little bit. Maximo Carrizo is not going to cut it at least, I mean, when it comes to, like, playing against the ball. And it feels like Cooper Sanchez did the best he could under the circumstances. But, and it didn't help that Aiden Stokes was a little bit of a hot mess. I mean, he made a great save early on. but was pretty messy himself. But yeah, I guess the reason I'm excited is we did get the win.

We got a Kevin Sullivan goal off the bench. Matisse Albert, as the commentator kept saying, was quite good. I think NIMFA was pretty good on the right wing. Julian Hall, I didn't feel like he brought. a lot to the game, but I guess he was played out of position, right? Yeah, I think he's still kind of finding his position. He plays, you know, sometimes maybe in like more of a two-striker system for Red Bulls, which maybe suits him better.

I'd like to see him play on the wing. I just think Chase Adams is going to bring kind of a nice, he could bring a nice presence that maybe Hall was struggling to kind of find, like, where he needed to, like, what space he needed to find, what role he needed to play. It just felt a little bit, yeah, a little bit uncoordinated. And so maybe a more traditional nine like Chase Adams helps with that. And then, and then Hall can really do what he's great at, which is like, be direct, attack people 101. And I think, I think it just simplifies that maybe for him if he gets pushed out wide. So maybe that.

I think that's a logical adjustment that Gonzalez, Cigaris, the coach might see and adjust in future games. Okay. Yeah, I have a little bit more of a focal point up to, I mean, this Burkina Faso team, maybe not a bunch of, like, future world class players on it, but they were, they were physical, they were rangy. They covered, like, every blade of grass, and they were fast. and man one thing that I took away from it is by like the hour mark our team looked gassed

like straight up gassed almost everybody and I thought like what are they doing in MLS Next Pro? Why like 60 minutes into their first World Cup game and they're all like

tugging on their shirts and like I don't I that kind of um raise my eyebrows a little bit like I'm actually

you bring that up and I'm kind of like thinking to myself like who played a ton of minutes this year from this team and like Albert shes Albert's probably in pretty good form but even we saw him kind of like run out of gas on that one touch pass cabin played him in um but you know actually like like hall split time between first team and second team and he probably only played like a total of eight or nine hundred minutes. Info was hurt most of the year. You know, Jude Terry played maybe a thousand minutes, the next pro.

So, like, a lot of these guys didn't accumulate 2,000 plus minutes. And maybe we did see a bit of that. I do think, I think it was like not, it's not the easiest conditions, like, to play in. I think the air quality is not great. It's probably pretty hot. And I did think Burkina Faso actually. it just happened about like 15 minutes later they ran out of gas. That was the one thing Kevin kind of came in and the midfield seemed way more gaping when he came in.

And he was finding pretty big pockets. And I thought that was because their midfield ran out of gas a little bit. But I do think they were more fit. They were more physical. And that gave our back line and our midfield a lot of problems. Yeah. Okay. Let me do the lineup.

And then we're not going to do like a full timeline, but there are some kind of key moments we should talk through. So it was Aidan Stokes and Goal, Gio Villa at right back, sort of a small sort of traditional right back. I thought he was pretty good. Christopher Cups and Ramiz Hamuda were the centerbacks. Pedro Gimeraich at left back. Cooper Sanchez was the nominal six,

and then Jude Terry and Maximo Carrizo rounded out the midfield. And then that front line was like we've already talked about, Nympha Berkimos, Julian Hall, Krakowski. Krakowski's the name on the back of his jersey. And then Matisse Albert at left wing. So, you know, Berkimos, lively from the start, able to get to the end line right away and zip it across in the opening minute. It was claimed by the keeper just ahead of Julian Hall.

And then, so, like, I mean, nothing huge came of it, but he was obviously a factor out there, somebody that they had to account for. and he was up for the physical challenge of the defender that he was up against. Certainly. Yeah, I thought he was one of the better performers on the day. And, yeah, I thought it was lively from pretty early on. The first big chance comes for Burkina Faso just inside two minutes. It's a corner kick after Hamuda heads a clipped ball over the end line.

and it's an into out swinger. The corner kind of sides through a attempted volley and kind of bounces on the grass. And then Fidel Barrow, defender for Burkina Faso, steps in front of Jude Terry, who's marking him. And just a bullet header. I mean, this is a nice header on goal from this Burkina Faso defender. Down low to Aidan Stokes' left, he makes a really nice say. to push you on the post. Yeah.

Who's the best play of the game, I think? But it was, yeah, like, imagine going down in the second minute. So that was a huge play for him. So kudos. And I was a little worried that this was going to set the kind of like, this would be a weakness that we were seeing early with like set play defense. I thought it was a little shaky throughout the game. This was definitely the biggest chance they got off of it.

But, yeah. Yeah. It was the best chance for either side until the second half, really. Yeah. So I only have two other things from the first half I want to talk about, which are a lovely combination from Albert and Carrizo in the 11th minute. So Albert's cutting in from that left side just repeatedly, almost always going in on his right foot, at least if he was going to create danger, he was going to come in on his right foot.

And so it's a good long switch from Sanchez, over to Albert. Albert cuts in and plays a pass to Carrizo, and this is this real tidy and tight quarters. Carrizo returns the pass to him in very tight space, and he receives it in stride, and then shoots and flashes his shot just wider than near post. But this is a pretty good chance that they fashioned against a set defense, you know, not something that they had to do in transition or anything. Yeah, this is like what beating a tight low block has to look like.

like really narrow space, really great touch. And I thought super kind of fast release, super fast trigger by Matisse. Really nice. I thought showed what both are quite good at. I think it was, I thought it was Carrizo's probably best action in the game. I was going to say that, yeah. I thought he really struggled. And I just think the sort of the dichotomy and makeup of the team,

is going to be a challenge for Maxi and just like what he's going to be asked to do. When you add Cavan to a starting lineup and you've established Carrizo as the captain, I can't imagine he's going to go to the bench. I think we'll talk about this more, but I think the challenges that the team have just get magnified even more. So yeah, I thought he struggled. I think part of it is just what he's being asked to do. and the role he's asked being played doesn't really suit him.

But this was definitely like what you want. You want him getting the ball in the final third and like unlocking the defense making plays. He just didn't get a ton of chances to do that because he was kind of jogging up and down the field in transition most of the time. Losing a lot of duels in the middle. Losing a lot of duels, yeah, getting traffic coned quite often.

Yeah, that's going to be a challenge if they want to keep both of them on the field and you'd love. like to see nympha continue to get a lot of minutes albert's got to get a lot of minutes going forward yeah does krakowski hit the bench and even if you you know i don't know if even if you even if you just play one of the two between hall hall slash krakowski and nympha then you're then you're going to have sullivan and korezo in the midfield with a i guess this is probably what you're getting at when you're saying this is this is the challenge the challenges get magnified

And I think it's why Gonzalez's playing right now in the 325 shape, like buildout shape. He moves Gimerich, the left back, into the midfield. So similar to the folks that follow the senior team, we talked about that one game Potch, put Jedi in the double pivot. Sigaris is basically doing the same thing with Gimerich. He's putting him in the midfield. And that allows two of the midfielder's. defensively to stay up in the

bank of five attack because I think he wants both Carrizo and Cabin to eventually be in the bank of five. To start it was Carrizo and Jude Terry. So then you've got like the two centerbacks and Gio Villa and the back three. I think that was causing a ton of problems in defensive transition.

One, they were picking out they were picking out via in terms of like a total size, physicality, mismatch. I think he did okay. But clearly, I think Burkina Fossil strategy was hit it long to his side and have that winger who was pretty physical, you know, go at him. And it was also give, Gimerich was, you know, had to kind of cover a lot of ground to

transition back to his left back spot. But then you were asking Cooper Sanchez to basically be kind of putting out. fires by himself above the back line, which I just don't think is his strength. And then you're asking Terry and Carrizo, you know, to get back when they're both pushed up. So when you, now when you, when you replace basically, it's going to be replacing Sanchez or Terry with Kavana. Now you're asking Carrizo and Kavana, or at least one of them to be defensively responsible. Kavana's probably more willing. But I don't, you know, you really want him spending most of his time in attacking third.

So I just, I think it's going to make that it's going to put tons of pressure on the back line. It's going to put tons of pressure on either Terry or Sanchez or someone else. And I just, I think like that's going to be, to me, that's going to be the kryptonite of the team. And the good teams are going to be able to exploit that. And I think right now, Cigars is just saying that's the risk he's willing to take to have all this attacking. talent on the field. Yeah, and it probably will work out fine against Tajikistan on Saturday. Yeah, we won't find out.

We won't get found out in that game, but maybe against Jetsia. I don't know. They beat them pretty handily. All right, one more moment from the first half, which is another good Matisse Albert moment. He, 38th minute, he cuts in from the left like he does, and finds Julian Hall, you know, cuts out like three defenders with a really, tidy, I don't know, 15, 20 yard pass on the ground. This was Hall's probably action of the game. A great first touch from him to open up onto his left foot and shoot from a kind of a

tight angle, but he hits a good, firm strike and draws a pretty good save, I think, from the keeper. Had he hit it with that velocity, you know, to the far post, we're probably looking at just a fantastic goal. So really nice from, obviously, Albert's is the main. guy here with the past but really nice from hall too yeah really good like striker just motion by hall so showing like he can do that job like he he has that in him to to do those kind of quick turns and and firm shot with his off foot i think throughout the first half there were like some flashes of like nice little combinations one two you know carisa was at maybe the center

of it matisse was at the center of a lot of it jrude jude june Tuderi a little bit. Jutari was getting a lot, like playing a lot with Nympha, kind of moved like one-two's into the wing. Nothing really came out of it too much, a lot of corners, I think. Overall, like flashes of good kind of like build up play, but a lot, a lot of like space defensively. I also just thought like people weren't like handling their business in the back line.

Like almost everybody had reps where they just kind of got, they got mannostic. handled a little bit. I think all four defenders had situations where that happened. So that can happen if you're leaving those guys on an island. But yeah, I mean, I thought it was like, I thought on like measure Burkina Faso looks maybe a little bit more, maybe equal, but I just felt like there were going to be more chances for them, just from how the game was going. I thought like they're going to get more chances. That's how I was feeling after the first half. Yeah.

Yeah. And then that feeling was borne out in the following 25 minutes or so. Let's take a quick break. If you want to skip the ads, join the Patreon. Link is in the show notes. We'll be back in a second. All right. We're back and right away in the second half, Stokes makes a mess.

It's a heavy touch under pressure. And basically gets it taken off his foot. It has to make a desperate challenge to send it out for a corner. And I noticed Hamuda was like, dude, just open up to your right side, pass it out to VIA. That's because Hamuda is the one who passed it back to him. But he didn't even, you know, he didn't check his shoulder. He didn't open up. He came right back the way the pass came and eliminated all his possibilities, all his options.

So that wasn't great, but luckily nothing came from it. Did you, I thought that this was a tactical switch by Burkina Faso. They pressed up higher in the second half. It felt like they decided that that, did you notice that? I mean, they definitely were pressing high. Were they not doing it in the first half as much? I didn't think so. I don't know if that was just the game state.

And we just had more possession, like we were winning more possession up higher. But I felt there in more of like, you know, three-quarters block rather than a full press. I think this is my worry with Stokes. I mean, it's a worry with any young keeper, I guess, but he is prone to a howler or to both in saves and in with the ball at his feet. So he makes me nervous sometimes.

Yeah, it's be a weird 16-year-old goalkeeper who didn't make us a little bit nervous, right? I noticed Burkina Faso loves hitting shots from 25 yards. I mean, I think the shot statistics were like 15 to 5 or something on the game, but a lot of those were just totally speculative strikes from a long ways away. And if they had been a little more patient, you know, they could have crafted some more chances, which they did. In the 51st minute, they cut through us from back to front

and sent it out wide to Baga Yogo, that fast physical winger out there. He cuts in on VIA almost hasn't beat. I mean, just almost has him beat and takes a shot. And Via just gets a toe to it to send it up and over the goal, a vital intervention from him, you know, on the guy that he was marking for the last 20 yards. So this is when it starts to get a little, you know, getting a little scary at this point in the game.

Yeah, this was a really good defensive rep by VIA. I think it was his probably highlight of the game. because he was on an island at the like top corner edge of the box and that's a really difficult spot for any fullback to be in so i i on first like on first watch live i it i just thought the shot went wide but yeah that highlight uh the replay showed he just got a foot to it to send it wide um so yeah it was a big play yeah it looked like the it looked like baguiogo was going near post with it was his was his plan they get another chance 58th minute uh nympha gets out what i thought was maybe a little bit of a harsh whistle trying to get around a guy on the counter

attack after we were kind of we were kind of pinned down for a while in this period of the game uh and then they swing it in from our right side and it's headed just wide of the post um this was a big chance to i mean could have been could have easily been one zero at this point yeah is this the one where uh yeah swung in from the right or maybe we haven't gotten to the one no yeah that i see it it's the huge chance at the 72nd minute okay i don't have anything to add to this one yeah i mean so we we do need to get to that to that one as quick as possible cabin comes on

in the 67 second minute for jude terry who did look really gassed reference my point earlier about everybody looking really tired yeah um um um um Matisse gets a half chance out of this, draws a set piece from just outside of the box cutting in on a guy and getting tripped. This is 66 minute. He tries for the near post with the free kick, and it seems like it's well covered by the keeper and a defender wax it away. But I do like, there's some good up-down action on the hit.

You know, the technique there is really nice. So, you know, we're not exactly threatening, but we're not taking it sitting down. and then 72nd minute is that huge chance you were just talking about. It was, I think, Sharif Barrow, their number 10, who does Pedro Gimerich into the box on our left side, and then, you know, zips a ball, I mean, crushes it across the edge of the box. It's coming in hot. Beats cups, cups his man, ghosts in behind him.

That's tapsoba, I believe. He arrives on it. He is looking at an open goal. He can use any part of his body to just direct this into the goal. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's a really, really big chance. And he sends it over from the doorstep. So that would have probably been it for us. I mean, if they score there, I don't know.

I don't know how likely we are to get one back. Yeah, at this point, I'm like, there is no way we're winning this. and I don't think we're tying either. Cups almost like it was zipped so fast. Cups didn't even get a foot out. Yeah. Which I thought was, you know, it was either he was sleeping a little

or it was just so bang, bang, he just, like, had no reaction. Because his body language was almost like he didn't even think there was a striker in his blind spot, but of course that's where someone would be. So yeah, it was a real vulnerable moment. Yeah, it was, that was the chance of the game for Burkina Faso.

Yeah. But they didn't convert, and we kind of claw our way back into the game. We get a bunch of chances after a corner kick in the 74th minute. Nympha, this is where Nympha has a shot that's goalbound and blocked by a defender. And then we get our goal. young Cavan Sullivan his hair bleached

not blonde but white we work it from back to front Sanchez hits Cavan between the lines which is kind of the key pass to key the move and he sends it over to Nympha Nympha cuts in on the right side Nipha cuts in onto his left tries to clip it into the box kind of in the direction

of Hall and Luca Mosa who had also come on at this point and Sullivan kind of intercepts it with his chest, brings it down just inside the box, taps it back to Sanchez. He squares it over to Gimerich, who's up in that sort of double pivot

shape that you talked about earlier. And then he plays it out to Albert on the left. Albert cuts in on his right and then delivers a curling ball into the box. It is almost met by Julian Hall and the defender who's marking him, but just skims over him. I think it may have hit the defender a little. bit on the back. Yeah, I think it hits somebody's head. It was either halls or the defenders. I think it was the defender, yeah. But Sullivan is right there on the spot. He right behind him.

He manages to take a really nice first touch to kill it right in front of him. And then it's just him and the keeper tucks it between his legs from point blank range, really. Then there's just a wild, incomprehensible to me, a 43-year-old man. celebration. Just all kinds of stuff going on. But that's it. 1-0. Kevin Sullivan sort of

continuing to sort of justify the hype. And what did you think? Yeah, I think from the moment he came in, he was kind of exactly what the U.S. needed. They needed someone to just

be a little bit more bold, especially in central parts. I think NIMFA and Matisse were doing what they could out wide, but I think they needed another playmate centrally to kind of take some more chances. And Kevin came in and did that. He was trying stuff even before this. And it was just, yeah, great ball by Matisse. I think going back to what you said earlier,

I think his technique throughout the game on set plays, even on corners, looked good. like balls were coming in with great pace dipping and this was a really nice ball whether it found Hall's head or or then Kevin kind of instinctually moving into the box which is I think is probably one of his most underrated traits is he's just he's just got really good IQ and knows when to kind of get himself involved in the box and so yeah I think just great instincts there Great first touch, makes the finish. So just really cool to see our two most hype prospects make the play to get the win.

And a reminder that these are the two guys, the two youngest guys on the team, right? So everybody else on the team are from the 2008 class. These are the two 2009s. They're the two that made the big play. They're the two carrying a lot of the weight of the success of this team. they're the two that are maybe had some drama whether it's you know real or not um so so it's just nice i think it's a nice way to for the tournament to start with those two making the key play um nice slow-mo image of them hugging it out yeah hugging it out everybody was probably looking

for that that's kind of aware of whatever the hell's being talked about um so so yeah i think we can all just maybe stop talking about that and the 10 of us that are and just enjoy them playing soccer. So yeah, that was a good moment. It was definitely put a smile on my face. Yeah, yeah, mine too. I mean, after that, I don't think there was any big threat from Burkina Faso. Like you said, they hit the wall a few minutes after we did. And there's two other moments in the game, you know, before we can sort of look ahead to Jigna,

Stan and then Chechia. But there's a really nice pass from Sullivan to Albert, like from the center circle, a one-touch diagonal pass that Albert, if Albert gets this pass played into this space in the 30th minute, my money is on him scoring, or at least drawing a really good save. But at this point in the game, he was just too tired, 84th minute. He was gasped. He was, and he was working hard against the ball, too. I think he made a play like a few minutes earlier.

where he tracked back and poke the ball out from the ball carrier. And so it's like, it's just nice to, you know, and Kevin made a nice, I think, sliding play to kick the ball off of Burkina Faso. So one thing we've talked about before is that these two guys are kind of the stars of the team, but they also, they work incredibly hard. It's just nice when you're, it's a good thing when your,

your most talented players are also, do the work against the ball or off. the ball and both of these guys do so i think albert is probably a big gas after you know doing some of that work uh against the ball and yeah this is one of the this is one of the brightest moments of quality in the game that this one touch pass uh perfectly weighted uh perfectly shaped um great vision to even see it uh just you see all kinds of different things of why you get excited about Kavan in this play. So it was, yeah, maybe the highest quality,

just individual play that happened in the game. And he wasn't perfect, you know. I mean, he came on as a sub and was a little messy at first. I mean, he had that nice little combination with Nympha that we haven't discussed yet, but then he wasn't quite fast enough to get the ball across, you know, to get to play a ball across after the combination. So, but yeah, you can see he's, he's,

go ahead, go ahead. Yeah, I think it's the thing I've maybe learned a lot over the years and just watching like our guys and then watching like some academy games in Europe or like, you know, the bigger countries in Europe is, Kevin isn't always tidy. Like he is going to have sloppy moments. But what he is going to do is keep attacking, keep attacking, keep attacking, keep attacking, keep trying things.

Matisse is the same way he's going to keep attacking. He may get the ball taken. off him five times in a row, but it's not going to stop him. And I think that's what you see taught other places where you actually, the games are a bit messier. If you go watch like a U19 game in Germany or U21 game in England, the games are messier. But that's because everybody is just trying to attack, attack, attack, be brave all the time. And so with that, as a 17, 16 year old, you are going to screw up a lot of times. But I think when you have that mentality,

you build that mentality in now, and then as your game kind of gets refined, as a 23, 24-year-old, I think it's going to allow you to make the harder plays happen in bigger moments. And so I think that's what, you know, I'm okay with Kevin being a little sloppy or Matisse getting the ball taken from him three or four times in a game. As long as they keep attacking, attacking,

I think that's what we want to see. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, when you're playing fullback, you're playing against a winger who's coming at you over and over and over again. You don't want that. You would much rather they take the ball and pass it back to their full back or whatever, you know. Yeah. So it puts a lot more pressure on the other team. Last moment, 88th minute was Julian Hall gets in behind on a long ball. It actually does well to win a long ball in behind the defense. And he's striding into the box. he's got two runners coming into the goal mouth and he tries to shoot it from a pretty tough angle. Now, of course, if it goes in, we love him, but it didn't go in. I'm like, Julian, just pass it across. Just roll it across to one of your runners in the box.

They had a two-on-one-one on the defender there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, one hand, you know, striker wants to shoot. I get it. But yeah, the probably smart football play was square it through and either your first guy gets to it or he and the defender miss it and then Matisse running in the second post pokes it in. But yeah, it doesn't happen. I think this was one of the few moments where, like, our press or counterpress bothered for Quino Faso.

I think mainly that was just because they were content to just boot it long and let their, you know, their athletes kind of win. in 50-50s. So I'll be interested to see when we play a team that wants to try to play through us, how organized our presses. But it didn't really play much of a factor in this game. Okay, so that's the U-17s. And like we said, Tajikistan on Sunday.

I'm sorry, Tajikistan on Saturday. Saturday morning, I think. Yeah. And then after that, Chechia. Just real quick on the on the senior side. I wanted to mention our two strikers had great goals earlier this week or at least important goals. Ballo hit a belter in, I think a pretty important win for Monaco at Boto Glimp. He kind of gets one-toed into the, in the 43rd minute, into the box, takes kind of a long touch, wide of the near post,

and then just absolutely smashes it into the roof of the net with his left foot. a terrible angle and a terrific strike. Totally unstoppable. So you'll love to see that. And then he celebrated with a kind of a vigor and ferocity that you don't usually see from him. And that was it. That was the game winner.

A big, big goal for him. And one of his competitors for playing time with the national team, I don't know how close the competition is, but only Pocitino knows that, but is Ricardo Pepe. and he was clutch, as always, rescued a point on the road for PSV at Olympiacos. This was a highway robbery of a point here because Olympiacos was by far the better team. But they kept it 1-0 until late, and then Pepey scored on a scramble, kind of a half-folly that he hit into the dirt.

But it just bounced awkwardly, and maybe the goalkeeper should have kept it out, but he didn't. and you can't argue with destiny. Yeah, I think that, you know, that that's the kind of goal that'll get him in the starting lineup next, this weekend, I hope. And that was Ball's first Champions League goal. So congratulations to him. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see.

You know, I guess we'll get a roster here in a couple days, maybe even tomorrow. Yeah. Let's see what it looks like. Thank you, Marcus. Much appreciated. Yeah. Thank you, Bills. Thanks, everybody, for listening.

We'll see you.