Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #650: The situation is looking pretty good!

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

Vince brings back "El Loco" for Poch, but in a good way. Four players who weren't even involved in the last window had a great past week in Europe. Pepi's back in the XI for Eindhoven. The World Cup draw is coming up in four days and we talk through the options. Things are looking good, folks. Although there is some sad news from Thanksgiving dinner.Clip Notes: https://www.patreon.com/posts/144856270Malik v Man City comp: https://www.patreon.com/posts/tillman-v-man-144810442 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, Vince here with me, just the two of us, Monday review. Mm. Let's go. That's right, brother. Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, I was going to say it has the feeling.

It has the feeling a little bit right now of everything coming together. Everything is coming together, man. You know, Thanksgiving, holiday gives you a little bit of time to be reflective. Mm-hmm. Think about what you're thankful for. You know, let me just go ahead and get this out the way. Yeah, please. I'm thankful for El Loco. You know, I had retired the nickname because, you know, it didn't feel good coming off the hand.

To be quite honest with your bells, it felt racist. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's not me. You know what I'm saying? I am appropriating Latin culture. You know, it's like I'm basically I was wading into something. I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah, fair enough.

I don't know what I'm doing. And that's where a lot of people get in trouble. You know, when you wait into something where you don't got the full context, it's like, okay. Because if somebody were to come at me, like, hey, Vince, you're being, whatever, ableist, you know, in anything. Racist against Argentinians, you know, you know, as an American who doesn't understand. You can see how these types of things can blow up. So I was like, you know what, let me retire it. But if I, because it was derogatory.

But if I'm saying it to prop him up, like, you know, this is the mad genius. Right. Similar to his mentor, Bielsa, who, you know, everybody kind of like accepts as like this, you know, mad genius will do anything to win a game and also expects his players to do anything on a pitch to win a game, which Uruguay famously was not doing. No, definitely not. But I also want to maybe the only human in history to ever say, I am toxic. Yeah. I love that. I love that.

I'm toxic When it was When I was coming When I was coming for him It was just like I sat there I thought about it I was like

Ah You know what Let me let me take that back You know I'm not going I'm not just going to be Sitting up here calling this man

Aloko But But yeah As a mad genius Yeah Aloko man We're behind him Yeah

You know what I'm saying So I'm thankful From Mauricio Pachino And you know what Number one I'm thankful for the fact That you know

World Cup cycle ends I think We all agreed even a Greg proponent like me that we needed a change. Now, when this change happened, what I wanted, though, was somebody who would essentially continue Greg's legacy.

You know what I'm saying? Playing with the ball, mentality, a character, you know, and it seems that we've gotten all three of these things, you know, and we got somebody that believes in this player pool

that believes we can play with the ball. Yes. has developed us effectively into being a, you know, a team that can play with the ball. How effective, we still don't know. And we probably won't know into the World Cup because we're just not playing real matches. You just can't know until you're there, really. Yeah. Yeah.

But he believes in this player pool and he's put his money where his mouth is. He's made bets. You know, he's written checks. And, you know, they are well on their way to cash. they're well on their way to cashing and he's brought mentality back in his own way and I appreciate it

he's also he's also asserted himself in the culture you know in a way that I wasn't sure he would and you know we used to joke about is he even paying attention is he even trying right that's maybe one of the things I love

about his his sort of again somewhat theatrical antagonism towards the press towards the press corps is that he's saying he's saying I'm here you know yeah I'm here

like don't don't try to don't try to tell me who the regulars are don't try to tell me who should be there and who should I'm I'm the decider

and I do like that he cares enough to assert himself that way you know right right because I mean like I talked about last week I had my issues

with how he handled it whatever understood but at the same time like your point really rings true you know what I'm saying like it is just to be able to see the passion come out from the man and you know we did ridicule him a little bit crying in the locker room after the gold cup loss you know I still think it's funny it's hilarious yeah but yeah it's all coming together and then and then you add to that the fact that the first four players we're going to talk about in this in this

weekend review, none of them was even there for the wins over Uruguay and Paraguay. But before we get into that, I just want to say thank you to all our patrons. It's the first of the month, so your credit card is getting charged. And, you know, maybe that, maybe you see that and you're like, oh, man, I don't know. But I want you to know that we appreciate you and you make this whole thing work. So thank you. And, you know, if you're not a patron, think about joining. us the link is in the show notes also before we get into the um to the action real quick i do just want to

we kind of glossed over it a little bit but i am i am the coach while pat in the badge not the janitor that's a quote that's going to live on for me for a long time yeah that's a good one also uh um i mean he said this way back but i'm not a mannequin you know i mean he's he's he's dropped some dimes. And like, you know, when you're getting mad in the press conferences after winning 5-1 over O'Duguay, I don't know. It's something about it I like. And I do think, I don't think this is, I've tried to make this clear in other places.

I don't know if I've made it clear on the podcast. I think actually at least on the Discord put it really well. If the point of a press conference is the sort of traditional call and response from reporter to subject to coach. then that press conference where he got all mad at Tenorio and McIntyre was not a good press conference. But if the point of a press conference is to get something compelling out of the coach, to get the coach to say something interesting or to do something interesting or to reveal something about himself, then that press conference, with all its awkwardness, was a huge success.

you know so you know i think that's the that's the way you that's the way i think about it and that's why i i like that and i and i like the way i like the role the reporters played in it too you know it's not a it's not a it's not a dig at the reporters yeah you know he said y'all trying to what he's essentially saying is yeah y'all are trying to control the narrative you all you don't control the narrative i control right right not the janitor not a janitor or a mannequin with the finger wag like all Yeah. Once again, I'm going to defend my dog's honor, you know, everyone that's treated me so nicely.

Their honor is intact, as my point, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, exactly, exactly. So I won't, I won't be too dramatic about it. Too dramatic about it. Let's go to probably the goal of this season for a USMNT player so far. I mean, I may be forgetting something you might correct me here, but Tyler Adams, of all people. He got his first goal for Bournemouth a couple, I don't know, maybe a month ago. And he gets his second one in absolutely dramatic fashion.

Picks up a loose pass off a corner kick in his defensive third against Sunderland, drives 25 yards into the center circle, looks up and chips the goalkeeper from 50 yards. The commentator says, who does he think he is? Kenny McLean, which is not a reference I know or was willing to look at. up. But anyway, he, he knew who, Tyler knew who he was and he put that thing in the back of the net and ran to the sideline with his tongue out. Bormouth did lose to suddenly top four contending Sunderland.

Remember this, remember there was a documentary about how much of a disaster this club was just like two years ago or something. One of the more depressing pieces of media. Yeah, it was not. That you'll come across. Yeah. It's not fun to watch. Nothing fun about it, man.

I don't know if you. That's a, that's a genre of like documentary that, a sports documentary in particular, I don't know if I've seen, you know. Yeah. Maybe like, I don't know. It's in the same family as like MTV's true life or something. Life is too stressful enough for me to watch a slow motion disaster unfold, you know, in like 12 episodes. They follow one. Fans around.

They fall on the front of all. us around nobody has answers kitchen staff everything i was like oh yeah i typed out like three episodes same same i'm not not enough for this i can i couldn't take it and and it's crazy because sunderland's a huge club you know i mean stadium light what 50 60 000 seat stadium they've been in the top flight a lot of the last 30 40 years anyway they won three two um but i don't blame any of the goals on Tyler and you know we just got to tip our cap what a what a goal I didn't I didn't I didn't have him on my bingo card to do that yeah um you love to see it also it's just nice to see a swaggering confidence you know walking to the sideline with the tongue out I'm like yeah

as a you know went back and forth on Tyler but but it you know it's yeah that's not That's not Fed activity to stick your tongue out and run to the sideline. Yeah, and that's the thing that, I don't know, maybe I haven't communicated this as well. But like I said, with my former captain on the football team, like, I love the guy. I love the guy. It was just, during those four years, you had to be nervous about what you was doing around them. You couldn't invite them to all the parties, man. You just couldn't.

Right. We know from Leander Shilocken's book, I do that Tyler says in his own words he just doesn't party so it kind of fits you know he's too he's too ambitious

he's too serious he's got too much sense of urgency to even have a cocktail you know he's a mature fella yeah a mature fellow and I'm not here to deride him for that

no but but I also like but but I also and that's I think what makes this moment stick out to me, you know. He let the veil drop a little bit, you know, a responsible businessman, a company man like Tyler Adams usually. Slides that ball out to the left wing. I mean, come on, man.

What do the percentages say, you know? Exactly. Exactly. Iber the things of that nature. But instead, he said, bro, you know, it's my time. Let me go ahead. Can Tyler have something for myself for once? Yeah. And executed he did and celebrate. He did.

Yeah. Beautiful. Let me fall to this temptation right here. Yeah. Yeah. And then it went in. Beautiful. All right. Second player who wasn't there last month, who is also thriving. Wes continues to shine all over that right side of the pitch for you. Uveh. And when I say right side of the pitch, I don't mean the sideline necessarily.

I'm talking about like, you know, basically center line between the goals to the right. He's playing all over. He's playing well. He's doing all the stuff we usually praise him for. In the middle third, I mean,

clever little passes, breaking pressure, winning duels. And then at Boto Glimped in the tundra of northern Norway. Yeah. They were down, They were down 1-0 early, YuVe was, and they get one back,

and then he scores the go-head goal with a flying, just thumper of a header off the turf. Is it artificial turf they were playing on? Might have been real grass, I don't know. Anyway, he just absolutely dunked on the guy to make it 2-1. Boto Glimp gets a goal back, and then he keys the move for the game winner in stoppage time with a pass releasing a teammate into space in the middle,

I mean, there's still a lot to do, of course. But those passes that go from we're under duress, under pressure in our defensive third to we are streaming forward are very important passes. And I think they deserve to be included in the goal contribution equation. Then he keys the move for one of the goals against Kaliari over the weekend. And he also had to like a lovely little. pirouette dance on the sideline to release a guy down the down the line

so yeah he's uh like we've been saying i mean he looks trim he looks fresh he looks uh energetic i mean he plays he plays 180 minutes a week every week every week and he's he doesn't look any of the worst worse for the wear from it so um

fantastic stuff from west and they did beat caliaree over the weekend Yeah. Just continuing what he's doing. I have started to wonder if the legs, the springs, you know, the jumping ability was diminished a little bit. Yeah. Because, you know, we haven't seen a thumping, thumping West McKinney had her in a while.

That's true. It's true. And, you know, I mean, this is a man that dunked on Nuno Mendett. You know, I mean, he's talking about an athlete. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. One of the great USM&T abroad pictures of all time. But, yeah, got up, dunked on that Nordic man.

Yeah. I mean, he didn't even get up off the ground. Yeah, right, right. But, uh. But Wes was up there. I tried to, I was like sitting there trying to screenshot it. I couldn't get the right, I couldn't get the right picture. But yeah, he was way up.

And old dude, the new manager, Spoletti. Spilletti. Yeah. Amped. Yeah. Amped. He was, he loves him some Weston McKinney. You know, I didn't, I didn't necessarily want to argue with Leander last week when he was saying that, you know, Spoletti, since Pierlo, Spoletti might be the first dude who's, you know, come in and played Weston immediately.

It was the same thing with Tudor. People forget, you know, this little blip at the beginning of the season or whatever, which I still maintain. And it seems obvious to me was contract related. didn't last long and two doors back playing that man again Spilletti playing that man Yeah we can't be going arguing

With everybody who comes on the podcast About every little thing You know Yeah yeah it's a minor it's a minor quibble In the grand scheme of things I mean the point The point is is kind of taken You know he's established himself now

As As one of the dudes On the team That's absolutely right And yeah Even when he When there is a blip That's related to a manager not

Rating him as we all know That usually lasts no longer than a month And then he'll longer than a month Yeah And I mean just Once again The variety of things that he'll do Like you know you say

Key the move for one of the goals against Caliari You just say it without pronouncing the G at all Yeah We got in trouble We got in trouble for that. We got in trouble for Osir and Manger.

Yeah. But, you know, silky back heel into somebody's path to get that move going. Yeah, you know. Yeah. Passes in behind from the touchline to like an on-russian attacker. He had a matter of fact, he could have, should have maybe, had an assist against Boto Glimps. I think it was Adzich, who, um. Um, basically caught a, you know, Weston played a ball from the right side on the ground.

Basically. Cross field switch kind of? No, no, no, no, just like, just on the, he's probably two feet outside of the box on the right wing. Gets the ball, plays it with his right foot on the ground, um, like square. Okay. For like six yards for as this to meet in the box. Um, basically like probably two yards above the penalty spot and he hits it just right at the key. I'm a keeper, unfortunately.

But excellent chances he's setting up. Yeah. Brilliant, man. Yeah, no, he's, he's, I can't wait to see him together with all these other guys now that we're clicking. Right. And it's just another thing about the POTCH thing, I guess I forgot to say, but it's just, you know, I never wavered on, on what I thought these players could do, man, you know. and not to sit here and give me a whole bunch of kudos points or whatever, whatever. But it's just, I'm just very happy that Podge also believes in these boys.

That's how. I got to say I wavered a little bit. I wavered a little bit after March, after the Copa after March. I wavered. But I'm stiffening back up. Yeah. as they say nobody says that actually um tim tim keed the move tim wea keyed the move for the first goal and then got the assist on the second goal in marseilles two one win over newcastle so i mean

it's just a really good midweek champions league slate of matches for us um we're about to get to the best one but um but tim looked good in that game uh you know it's a sort of a classic Tim Waya push it with the outside of the boot to the end line and then whip it across, much like he did on that fateful night in Cincinnati for that Christian Pulitzer goal, the man in the mirror. Yeah. Man, you know, you're just triggering my memories right now. But in that down period that we had, you know, March and then I saw a lot of takes, okay,

but the one that was the craziest to me was, Matter of fact, I think this was one Pully decided he wasn't going to go to, you know, Gold Cup and do all that. There was a dude on some podcast that was talking about, first of all, it was like talking about aura and all these different types of things. And it was like, Pulitzer don't got no memorable moments. He has given us no memorable moments akin to Atlanta Donovan, a Clint Dempsey for the national team. And this is post-World War Cup. This is post-Man in the mirror. You know what I'm saying?

It's just like, what are we talking about? Yeah, what about what about the What about the penalty versus Mexico? Come on, man. Yeah. That picture's going to live on for eternity. That picture in the corner. Everybody's celebrating. Maybe the my favorite photograph on earth, you know? Yeah. You know, I mean, yeah. So now that we're back up, I can sit back and laugh at these things. But, you know, I was hot. I was hot at that point. Yeah. Like, come on, man.

He just, and I am just extremely happy that we're just out of this, kind of out of that mess, that malaise, whatever that was going on because, yeah, we just don't got to deal with this stuff no more. Yeah. And it's tough trying to be a stoic and a non-literous society. A post-literate society, bro. Everybody's going off vibes and feelings and shit. I mean, come on, man.

Yeah, talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. You're talking about people that are older than me, by the way. It's like, come on, man. Yeah. How you got this much energy for it? Anyway, anyway. I will say, Tim did less against Toulouse over the weekend.

He got a hockey assist on a long switch. And that was the long switch. Then there was a cross and a headed goal. But he had a pretty embarrassing giveaway in the middle of the park. Was that off a corner? I think so. Yeah, because he's usually positioned there. Yeah, he was just trying to, you know, trying to shift the ball away from a guy who was a little too close to him.

And then he got mugged and then he tried to recover and he stumbled and he fell on his stomach while the guy was dribbling into the, into their half. And I mean, it should have resulted in a goal. There was a easy square for an attacker in the box and the past was just a little hot and led him too far wide. So, you know, anyway, Tim, at a minimum, Tim is a weapon. And I think, I think there's a, that's the bare minimum of what you could say about him. He's a weapon that does some really, some really good things. And it's okay if he doesn't have an incredible game every time out. I was, you know, that the assist that he got for Abba's goal.

Yeah. against Newcastle. First of all, that brought back some memories for me, once again, triggering memories. Just of ABA, you know,

I'm an Arsenal fan, scoring gold. Like, that's his bread and butter. Yeah. You give him a one touch, like any type of one touch goal, bro. He can do it.

Especially if he gets to stick the bottom of his boot at the ball. Yeah, yeah. It's a specialty, bro, like, left foot, right foot,

sliding, yeah. Off the half volley, full volley, whatever, like, It just makes me happy that he's still doing his thing. How many goals has he scored?

He got to be like the Hank Aaron of European football. I mean, been begging for a long time. And with some of, like, just one of the players that, like, when I started getting in the soccer. Like, you know, he's probably one of the main reason why I'm my Arsenal fan, you know. Scoring. Got some nice haircut. You know what I'm saying? Just an aura, as the kids say.

you know what I'm saying? Backflips and everything. The celebrations, the million-watt smile, all those things, is just like, yeah. And seeing Tim set him up, you know, getting that yard on Liverminto, you know, doing his Tim way of thing. And just placing that ball, kind of led Alba with it. You know, this wasn't a ball just to somebody's head. Like, you know, he put it in a space for Alba to go and chase it, get on it. Boom, he tucked it.

Yeah. He's a perfect, Abba's the perfect guy to play that kind of ball to, you know, to a spot where if the striker is alert, he can get there first. That's, that's another dimension of Alba's bread and his butter. Yeah, I just think about Obama Young in Dortmund a lot because, like, he was there. He was there as well and scored a lot of goals there. The Usman Dembele and Christian Pulisic days. Jesus. What a team that was.

I was pre-me. Okay. I wasn't around. I mean, DeMéle was, you know, he has actually come good, obviously, but there was a long period where people thought he was, you know, he wasn't much. But man, when you watch him back then when he was 18, 19 years old, he was totally unstoppable in the Bundesliga. Like, unstoppable. All right. Guy who's impressed me the most in the past week, Malik Tillman.

In a two-zero win at Man City, he was just outstanding. Involved in both goals, working on the half-turn and then playing the pass before the pass, before the assist on both, which sounds like, you know, sort of a long way of saying not that important of a pass. But no, in each case, a very important contribution to the goal-scoring move. He was finding a little pockets of space, receiving and dealing throughout the game, looking like maybe the best player on the field. and he was also working against the ball. I made a comp, put it up on Patreon for $5 subscribers. There's one moment I want to talk about after the second Leverkusen goal

where he's just drifting in the space between Erling Holland and Ryan Shirky and Savino and Phil Foden. So like right in between those four, right in the center circle, he's tapping it back to the centerbacks over and over again. Something we've kind of given him some grief for over the last couple months.

But he's just, they passed to him, he passes it back and he kind of moves drifts over to another place does it again just killing the game softly i mean it's it's two zero at this point and the levicuzins is in no hurry which is kind of like perfect game state for for malik and and then once he's kind of moved everybody around he gets on it right in front of photon i mean this is probably the fourth time he's received it in 10 seconds and instead of tapping it back he takes one touch to his left and then a little disguised pass springs his teammate into acres of space. If you watch Shirky in the video, you can see he's fed up after like two of these passes.

And then when he, when that pass gets played and the, the teammates streaming forward and Leverkusen is on the run again, you can see Shirky's shoulders just slump and he kind of starts trotting back. It is a master class in just patience and culture and it kind of for me puts Malik's tendency to tap it back the way it came into him in a new light. Maybe he's just teaching his teammates how to play soccer and they're finally learning. That's my new, that's my new hypothesis. I'm not saying it's true.

Just saying it's on my radar. Fair enough. Fair enough. It's just that like when you say that I started thinking back to Malik Tim and back passes up, So I got a catalog for that, my brain. There's a lot of them. Yeah. And some of them are just like, you know, he's outside of the,

but he's outside of the defensive. He's pulled out of the defensive shape, gets the ball, and still passes it back. You know what I'm saying? It's different when he was kind of inside the Miba, as he was for the sequence, you know, where you really can kind of dictate something. But, look, I'm not here to, I'm not here to,

to I'm not here to poo-poo this man, what he did. It's interesting to me that we were talking about this before the pod bells, but it's, you almost got to force Malik to use his powers, you know? And in this match, you know, it's like he's getting on a ball, receiving it, maybe turning, carrying it or whatever, and like people are just like bouncing off of him. Like, this is a big dude, right? Yeah, yeah. Huge, huge dude for a soccer player, kind of, especially.

like position he plays and everything. Yeah. And, you know, it's just, once again, it's like you see it and it's like, man, Malik, you could do this all the time, you know. You really could just kind of test your metal and maybe push it to the limit and see what you can do and take it. Overdo it a little bit. You know, that's all I want.

Overdo it a little bit so you know what you can do, what you can't. And then, like, use that as a governor to, um, to facilitate your play. Right. And how you handle situations and whatnot. Because that's the knock on him, right? He's too, he's not consistent enough. And, you know, you might get this incredible performance.

And then, you know, next time it goes out, it won't be that good. And I don't think, I don't think that that is, I think there's some validity to that. But I guess I'm feeling like World Cup comes along. We're going to get the best out of them. Malik. And I guess, you know, some people were saying, well, he didn't, what do he do against Dortmund over the weekend? I thought he was pretty good against Dortmund too.

Not quite, you know, not quite the feast that he gave us against Man City, but it was still pretty elegant, pretty tasty. Even if they lost, I mean, Bayer-levercruzen was unlucky. If you're looking at the, like, shots and XG and everything, unlucky to lose 2-1, Dortman's goals were both pretty You know like one was off a set piece One was a bang bang header from distance

That I don't think usually goes in And um Tillman was once again quite good in the middle of the park Not at fault for either of the goals Uh The interesting thing that one interesting thing about him is How much he's picking the ball up from the centerbacks For Leverkusen right now

I don't know if you call what he's doing a six I don't think so because he is He gets into you know sort of eight type positions a lot lot as well. But man, he's, he is, especially against Man City, but also against Dortmund. He's a lot of times the, you know, the pivot in possession. And I don't know what the implications of that are for the, for the national team, but there might be some.

There might be some. We just got a lot of good soccer players, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Got a lot of good soccer players, man. because even I don't even know if we got him in the in the rundown

Tanner we got him at the end Eunice Musa Unis Musa because he played like 21 minutes in the Champions League and really like

most of his minutes have come in the Champions League and he's looking good every time he plays yeah he doesn't play often but he's looking like Eunice Musa out there

and yeah it's just I mean to the point we got a lot of We got a lot of players. I mean, to the point now where it's Monday, December 1st, Unis, I mean, I'd probably bet against him being at the World Cup. I mean, with how this first half of the season has gone, if you're telling me he stays

at Atlanta for the rest of the season, and only plays spot minutes in the Champions League here and there, I mean, I don't know what would change in Pajas mind to bring them, you know, type of thing if the situation remains the same. But can't find a spot for that man in the, I mean. me, you know. Yeah. I could, but Potch cannot find a spot for that, man. In the roster right now, and it's just like, it's not that controversial as it stands

right now. You just got a lot of good players. Yeah. That are good at soccer. And don't have to run like chickens with their heads cut off and suffer against the ball. You know, back to the whole U.S. soccer culture point, you know, that's not really a culture, man. That's just something we had to do at it in this.

necessity. You know what I'm saying? It's just like everybody asking for us to go back to it. It was like well if your whole family was poor for generations and then you come into money you're going you're going to willingly give that money up no. Yeah. Yeah that's like calling poverty a culture or something. Yeah. We were ass and you know in order to honor those past ass players we need to continue to strive to be ass like yeah come on. Yeah. I mean we do you know we do we do we do need to

fight you know all that stuff. But I think it goes without saying. You can fight with the ball. You know what I'm saying? I mean, you know, when you lose it, get a back, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, to your earlier point about Greg, Greg Berhalter, I mean, he is, now you could say, well, it's just because the player pool took this dramatic leap forward when he was the coach. But he was the first coach who gave us a team that played with the ball. nobody believed it could be done.

I mean, maybe some people did, you know, scuffed. When they saw the type of players we were, they were coming up, of course. Right. You know. But. Yeah. Go back and watch the 2010 World Cup. That is not the kind of team we were.

You know, even and that's a World Cup that brought a lot of people into the game because it was so exciting to see us beat Algeria. We didn't play like that back then. And then now we do. So it's a lot to do with the players, but Greg was the coach to instill that, I think, as a system. Yeah. Okay, let's take a break. There's a lot more to talk about.

No Key Banks. The No Key Banks experience continues in Augsburg. Pepe gets his first start since mid-September, scores a goal. Ballo scored again in the middle of the week, and then his team beat PSG. and Tanner has now played more than 200 straight minutes at centerback, which I think we need to talk about in greater length than we did last week. We'll be back in a minute. If you want to skip the ads, join the Patreon.

The link is in the show notes. You also get the clip notes and any other video we put up. We'll be back. All right, we're back. Let's start with the strikers because big news, I think, is Pepe getting his first start since mid-September against Volandam. scores on a bicycle kick off a scramble in the box kind of fits it.

It's not the, you know, if you're thinking this is like the Arascaheta bicycle kick that they scored against us, that Uruguay scored against us, no, it's not like that. It wasn't a bomb blast off his foot. It was a, he kind of fits it in past the defender and the goalkeeper. But man, a goal is a goal, and Pepe scores when he goes out there. There's no doubt about that. He got on a lot of chances in the game.

He got to assist. Made a sound attacking decision with the goalkeeper coming out close to him. Lays it off for Verman. Verman takes a touch to his right and then slots at home. So, I mean, two goal contributions and your first start since mid-September in the league. Big success. And yet. Yeah, go ahead.

His hold-up play in general, I think it's almost a, generous way to say it's say it it leaves something to be desired bro especially i was watching that shit like what is going yeah right he looked like charles barclay um in space jam when he goes to you ain't no charles barclay you just like what i be i was like bro does somebody take his man's i mean not that he's always been like the super cleanest but it's just like a continuation of like that chance that he had in Paraguay. Yeah, yeah. Where it's like, bro, he just cannot control a soccer ball cleanly right now.

He's also not very strong. Like, and we're talking about, um... We took the same takeaways away from, yes. Well, you take those two things in combination, and it's hard to hold the ball up. Um, especially, and especially given the quality of opposition in a game like this. This is a near bottom of the table area to Vizzi side. and Peppy cannot impose himself on the centerbacks in a serious way.

Ball's coming into them. They're giving them a little forearm, four-arm shiver. He's damn near falling down on his face, like multiple times. And, you know, obviously, I feel like you don't get that base. If they're able to knock you off your spot that easily, you know, it's going to be hard, being consistent, you know,

when the ball's coming into you with a centerback on your back. So, yeah, I'm hoping that maybe it's just he was hurt, couldn't get in the gym, but hey, you know, especially the type of striker Rico is, like, you're going to have to, you're going to have to put some strength on, man. Yeah, because he's not, like, going to burn you around the, you know, around the edge very often. Or even, I mean, people talk about him as a line stretching striker making runs behind the lines, which he can do, but he's not, like, that fast.

So, yeah, he's got to be a little, he's got to be a little bit more of a creator in the middle. But now, but, but with all that being said, instant impact against Liverpool in the Champions League again you know I mean that man sees Liverpool on the schedule

he starts salivating so you know it's just it's just a give and take give and take with the man when Liverpool he pounced on a mistake carried it into the box maybe

kind of beat a dude gets into a it gets into a lifestyle position really you understand how he got the shot off gets a shot off hits the post for oh yeah and then drouche drouche scores the rebound yeah yeah yeah yeah that was that was actually probably the nicest sequence of the week from him the that was that was that was really good so i mean you know i i

don't know i i want to see a little i just want to i i love his impact you know like his impact is undeniable like basically in every i mean and you could call it let ball go in or whatever you want, but the man scores goals. Right. But I want to see more from him in the run of play, you know? There just has to be. It can't look like this. It can't look like how it did.

It can't look like this against Bull and Dom. That's for sure. Yeah, bro. I mean, I was just chasing his touch around. I was like, whoa. Because, I mean, I watched it off the, I watched Ballo first, and I went to Pepe. And, you know, watching how Ballo was handling PSG. Yeah, we'll talk about a contrast between, like, one's playing PSG, one's playing Volandum.

It's like he's getting the ball. Marquino's is on his back. And, you know, Mark, I mean. But not saying Marquios is like the most physically imposing dude necessarily, especially as opposed to his partner. These are the Champions League winners. These are the Champions League champions. Yeah.

But, yes. But it didn't matter if it was Marquinos or the Ecuadorian. I don't forget bro's name. But, you know, Ballo tore him up when he played him. But it didn't matter who was on his back. It's like he is holding them off. He's receiving the ball. He's making a smart layoff.

You know, whereas these Wall & damn dudes, like I said, are just, they got Peppy stumbling. Yeah, I mean, let's just go right in. Let's keep talking about Ballo because that's the, I think this was his maybe the best game of holdup play I've seen from him in a couple months. Like he really, he really came to. play against PSG didn't score, did have some chances and missed them. One was a pretty nice save, I think, probably his best chance of the game. A shot from a little bit to the right of the goal mouth saved well by, is it Donoruma? And then I don't know who the goalkeeper was on it's actually not. I think his name was Chevalier. Okay. What a great name. Chevalier.

And then he also got a ball played over the top Took it down with one touch and was just a little slow to get it off his foot and had it taken off him So you know Reasonable people can disagree about all this stuff but Ballo was I thought outstanding like you're saying in the holdup against PSG And his team won huge three points for them He also did score in the middle of the week against Paphos not a you know it's a nice goal i i guess just kind of pounced on a mistake yeah i mean it was a good

hit with his left foot it was a weird hit though because he hits it directly into the grass yeah and then it bounces up those are like almost impossible to deal with but also like difficult to say that someone did it on purpose sometimes you know well his touch you know receiving the mistake was was, you know, way up in here. Yeah. But it did kind of set him up for a nice, like,

a nice half folly. Yeah. So he had to, he had to adjust. But yeah, man. He's, he's the nine. Yeah, I think so.

He's the nine. And, look, having Pepey off the bench, that's going to be huge. Yeah. For us. But, yeah, I need my boy getting that jam, man.

Get that jam. Get that trunk strength built. up because, you know, I don't, I think he has the ability to be able to at least do a, you know, he can do the Bailo thing. Bailow ain't doing nothing too crazy. No, no, no. I mean, well, yeah, you say it's not too crazy, but what he's doing is actually pretty difficult, you know?

I hear you. Okay. But, no, like, I hear what you're saying. But even in these, like, what, two and a half years or whatever that Ballow's been, that I've really been tracking Bellow. You know, we've seen the steps that he's taken to make this part of his game better, particularly, you know, the strength is what sets it all up. You know, and he's got much, much, I mean, this offseason in particular,

from last season, this season, it's just like, man, nobody is moving him. Yeah, it's really rare you see a striker back into a centerback as a goal kick arrives, you know, and push the centerback back. But he's doing that. doing that right now. Okay, so what else? We got to talk about

banks. He and Augsburg got beaten by Hoffenheim. How'd the young man look. To be completely honest with your bills, I don't understand how they continue to play this man. To be... Ed, what, I'm a huge fan.

That first goal. That first goal was ridiculous. Come on, bro. He's getting... He is responsible for goals like every week. It's, I mean, I know they had the shutout. What they had, was it last week? They had a shut out.

Yeah, but it wasn't, like, as we talked about on this podcast, it wasn't like, it wasn't a banner day for no key either. Yeah, it's just, and it's like the same thing we've seen. Like this, that first goal that Hoffenheim scored, he's, you know, playing right centerback. He has a winger next to him. balls played over the top and he's out the play

just off that pass. Completely out of the play. Like, no chance. Well, he might have had a chance. He just didn't. He either didn't have a chance or he didn't hustle back. I don't know which one is worse.

Yeah, because, I mean, we got some camera work. They focus, yeah. They close up for a while. Yeah, close up on somebody for a while so we can't really see. But at the end of the day, it was his man.

That left winger for Hoffenheimer or whatever, scoring the goal. Yeah, because the, because the, there were two attackers both running behind and two defenders following them. And the first attacker sort of boxes the first defender away from the ball. Yeah, the middle centerback for Augsburg. And that's what the camera closes up, gets close up on, you get a close angle of that. And then you think, well, that other attacker's probably coming. No key must be right with him. Nope. Nokey's 10 yards behind when he shoots I don't understand it

And we'd have to see the tactical cam to really know what was going on Was he just dogging it? Did he not recognize the danger? Is he just not fast enough? He looks a little stiff in the legs, I got to say, a little stiff in the legs When he's trying to run. He is not like a speed demon right now

Or anything of the sort Not quite as stiff as Tanner looks When he's trying to do a full-out's foot Hey, hold on. Well, we'll get to it. But he's probably slower than Tanner, though. You think so? I would like to see them race.

I would like to see them race. Well, neither of them looks, neither of them is, you know, fun to watch Sprint. Let's put it that way. Yeah, yeah, we'll definitely put it. Yeah, yeah, that works for me. That works for me. And, you know. Noki should have some ancestral powers in there somewhere to tap into it.

I'm just kidding. I'm saying. He's embarrassing us. But he's a young kid. You can get faster. He's about to turn 19 years old. You can get faster. I mean, I remember saying the same thing about Joe Scali when he was 18,

debut in the Bundesliga. And now he's like top 40 in the Bundesliga as far as like top speed. still not fast enough to catch up to Mickey Amarone on the streaking down the side for whatever reason but you know that's neither here nor there

but Joe doesn't look Joe looks fine when he's trying when he's trying to win or like when he's in a foot race he's not he's not getting pulled away from you know so yeah and and that wasn't always the case and so

yeah you can from a from a boy to a man you know you put on muscle you know speed is all about propulsion right um put on some muscle etc etc so i'm not worried about that long term it'll be great if he was fast now but um yeah he's just the more the more and more that goes on i'm just like uh yeah

2026 bit too early i'm thinking now yeah i think that's that's uh definitely the safe bet right now um now tanner he's not like i said right before Before the break, he's now played more than 200 minutes at centerback in a row, including a 6-0 win over Macabee-Tel-A-Vee and a 3-0 win over Nantes. I'm curious with your thoughts. My thoughts are it's all kind of fine. I wouldn't say it's been an inspiring display at centerback, but it's not been bad. Yeah.

I mean, you know, you beat a team 6-0 and then Nott got a red card in the first half at some point. And it's just like, you know, it wasn't too much going on. So I really haven't tapped in all the way. Because I didn't, I'm not going to watch a Tel Aviv match. I'm sorry. I mean, clip notes are already at 20 minutes. Yeah. Yeah.

Right about right now. So I'm not tapping until Tel Aviv match. And then I tapped out of the non-match after the red card because it's just like, well, you know, how much more are you getting from that? Right, right. And it's not. So, but, yeah, Leon is injury crisis at the centerback position. They don't have any centerbacks like on the bench.

They're starting Numa, who's just a regular centerback for them, Tanner and Nico Tagliafiko, if you all remember from the IACs days. When he was the one that was in front of? Yeah, he's like more of a wingback than a center back. Right, right. And that's what they're going. of a wing back than a fullback really yeah and that's what they got playing centerback for him right now you know and uh so that's that is what it is it also you know i am vehemently against this um this will surprise nobody probably but i do just appreciate the fact that he's um

that they trust him to do it you know why are you vehemently against it i mean is if he if he were to thrive in the position, it would answer a big problem for the U.S., you know? I don't want them playing centerback. You get somebody else out there to play centerback. I think we'd be losing a lot having Tannen to play centerback. And, you know, he's able to sit back there and switch the field. Yeah, but look, did you see the way Kwanza, you know, that got Kwanza for Leverkusen, the way he keeps firing those passes into the amoeba, like, um,

they're beautiful passes you know that comp of Malik Tillman is almost as much a comp of Kwanza because he's the one always feeding it to him and I can see Tanner you know if he starts to get in some rhythm back there

it's like start to understand what where the space is and how to play that ball in he could really start he could really start cooking from back there he's got the skills you know I can see it I mean I'm not I'm not saying he can't do it.

I just don't want to see him do it. Okay, fair enough, fair enough. Yeah. What it comes down to. But, yeah, like I said, I mean, especially when you're, like, his type of defensive midfielder, like, I mean, Montage has probably put in some centerback shifts over his long career. You know, it's just like, that is something that's just going to happen. It's probably good for his game, too. Yeah, yeah.

And it's something that would not have happened, you know, if he was still the defender that he was two years ago. Mm-hmm. You know, and like, you know, there was one play early in the Not match where they get the ball back, Nott gets the ball back. And they try and play a ball over the top to like their left winger or whatever. And, you know, Tanner's in that space. Tracks the ball over his shoulder. Just brings it down.

Brings it down with his left foot over his shoulder, no problem. Attackers, like, right on his back. Attacker puts a forearm into him pretty hard too, right? Yeah, yeah. That was the best clip of the game for me. Right there. I mean, for sure. Attacker, yeah, four-arm into his back doesn't really bother him too much

and he's able to, you know, corral the ball, pass it back, et cetera. But it's like, yeah. Gets a nice round of applause from the Leon faithful for that too. There's just not. Some ball knowers in that stadium for sure. Oh, for sure. No doubt about it. I just think about, you know, the things we've seen from Tanner, not only on the half turn, but the full turn.

you know, when he's really cooking, a full mastery of the space that is available to him on the pitch. And, you know, we kind of lose at a centerback. But, um... Yeah. But the thing is, we have so many good midfielders and we have so few good centerbacks. I mean, we've been, that's why we're tracking nokey is because we need him. And he's not, and he's not giving it to us, you know?

He's not. Yeah. So there's a, there's a hole there. Look, what it comes down to is If World Cup comes and we decided to throw Tanner out there, I'm cool with that. Okay. It would be a mistake to throw Tanner out there.

Yeah. Against a really fast attacker, I mean, he will get left behind. Yeah, he would have to be in like the center. The center. Yeah, we could do center and move Chris out or the Tim Ream spot, you know, where you have covered by the left back, you know, but putting them in the, in the scally spot,

that's not, that's not tenable. Just real quick, before we leave the knot, uh, Leon match, once again, another memory. You know, this is just a stroll down memory lane.

I think it's because of the holidays, you know, you get time to slow down and I don't have a million things going on on at once, but reminded me, a centerback playing against not, reminded me of my, some of my first,

um, USMNT abroad experiences, watching um let me guess who's the Polish man Miazama Miazga grabbing somebody's nuts yeah

watching watching Miazga over there or not man when he yeah he started off the season pretty hot you know he was doing all right I was like oh you know I was just getting accustomed to everything that was going on

I'm like oh we got we got dudes over here in these leagues playing I'm like oh cool I was hey I was locked in I had as people still hesitating to get B in now you know what I'm saying

You're not a real sicko. I'm just going to take your car right now. Because I mean, when I hopped into this thing, I hopped into it with both feet immediately. Well, I was hopping in the soccer with both feet immediately. So I had bought all the leagues just because of that. But, you know. Yeah. I was watching them not matches.

I'm a Fubo guy. So I've always had to be in. That's Tanner. Let's talk about real quick, Cardoso. I don't even have anything to say about it. I don't know if you do. But Cardoso was back in the 11. 11 for Athletico in

Athletico in their win over Inter in Champions League. He did not play on the weekend versus Oviedo. I did not watch his performance. So I don't know. But it is notable that he was in the 11. I did, brother. Okay.

He was all right. He was all right. He did a regular Johnny thing. Okay. It wasn't like a Johnny, you know, it wasn't a typical big game Johnny game, you know, where he's really just doing his thing. He's playing Real Madrid or whatever. Yeah, yeah.

Barcelona, well, Athlete. I think a big reason, part of the reason why they bought him is because he would always ball against him. Yeah. But, yeah, he looked like himself. He stayed away from any Cardosos. You know, he got, speaking of. He keeps his Cardosos for the most part on this side of the Atlantic. Tanner had a bad pass to start off to match against 9, by the way.

Yeah. But not quite to the level of Cardoso, I wouldn't say. No, it's a little different when you're a centerback and you can, yeah. Yeah, it was just a six out of ten Johnny Cardoso performing. I think big picture, a lot of people say, well, there's no, he's not coming back. And I don't know about that, you know? There's just such an incredible back channel. Right.

Exactly. For Potch with Johnny, yeah. Exactly. He's very, Potch is very clued in to that whole scene. And if Johnny starts playing really well for Athletico, Madrid, I mean, I'd be surprised if he's not in the next camp. So. Yeah. He's like, made me think about like Handmaid's Tale.

You ever seen Handmaid's Till? No, no. Okay. Well, you know, it's like a dystopian. Yeah, all the world's problems come from religion type of thing. oh well but they always said like as a

I think Never mind the 20th century Go ahead Go ahead I think it's like a greeting and like a Like a farewell They say under his eye And that's what Johnny is right now

You know he's he's under Pach's eye Whether he's in the U.S. Minnesota team camp or he's not You know what I'm saying I mean it seems like Cholo Is only one call away For Potch So it's just

if he starts cooking, starts performing, it's not even going to be a question, I don't think. Yeah. I mean, that doesn't make it any, the decisions in the midfield

any easier, but it would make it tougher for Eunice, I think. Which, I know, I think it may already be pretty tough for him.

Glad. Good players, man. What's that? Got some good players. Yeah. I mean, it does make me think, like,

I was watching this match, I was like, damn, man. Like, Johnny, It was like we can't even get like a that six out of ten Johnny performance for the national team. It's just like damn, man. Right.

Yeah. Well, the thing about having good players, this has been said before many places, including on this podcast. But one of our big problems in 2022 was a lack of depth. And I think we do have depth now. So we can rotate without, I mean, we saw this. as much as Pach doesn't want to admit it, but we saw this against Uruguay, you know? And even though maybe Uruguay wasn't taking that game that seriously,

it's still Uruguay. That's still a lot of good players out there, and that's still the kind of team that we don't usually beat, and we rotated completely and beat them 5 to 1, and a lot of those guys on that field are not going to make the World Cup roster. So I think, you know, transitive property, we have a lot, we have a lot more depth than we did in 2022. Say you bring Tim way off the bench to run at somebody, you know, to put in a cross for a goal. That's a, that's a weapon, like I said earlier.

Yep. I mean, bro, who knows how that Netherlands match would have went if we had some. Because, I mean, if everybody wasn't totally gassed, basically. If everybody wasn't totally gassed, I mean, really all three of those goals. maybe the surge one and be like that's just something that's going to happen yeah that might just happen

maybe maybe but I would all three of them you know are just so where very much symptoms of some very extremely tired legs you know yeah if you take the charitable

interpretation we're winning the World Cup we're going to win the World Cup Gladbach got a zero zero draw with Leipzig, which sounds, I mean, kind of a boring game, just like it sounds. But that's a big, that's a pretty good result for them, especially given the disastrous start of their season.

Leipzig is number two in the table, or at least was at the beginning of the match day. Scali played well. Raina did nothing. I mean, he really didn't do anything in this game. And you know I'm watching. I'm looking for stuff. There was nothing. Too bad.

Let's see. What else? Jedi's still hurt, but maybe there's some word that he's coming back. And then A.C. Milan beat Lazio and Maxi Allegri, my favorite coach, with all due respect to Pachitino. Got a red card. What a great character. What great scenes. Then he had words with the Lazio manager on his way down in the tunnel, and a little scuffle ensued from that. Syria, who hates fun, is, you know, thinking about giving him an extended suspension.

So, bro, speaking of extended suspension, um, so, Palo Fonseca is still in the press fight. I know, I saw that. Jeez, what did he do again? Bro, I think he, like, put his hand in a rest face or something. It wasn't that crazy. This man has been out for eight months, bro. Dude, he hasn't been, it has been months. What is going on?

Why do they love authority so much in Europe? I don't know. I don't know. But once again, Allegory, true to form, he gets a red card while ahead. Yeah. And then he says after the game, I didn't insult him. I just told him, I just told him, damn, every time you're out here, something crazy happens. Which it doesn't look like that's what he said.

if you like read body language and the expressions on his face you know as if he just like came up and like show like elbowed him in the side and like bro man it's crazy every time you're out here that's not what it looks that's not what it looked like at all but the the um the ref cam is our friend on this because you get to see his you know his expression like looked right into the camera right after the red card and he's just like i don't even know how to characterize the expression It's kind of It's like bemused But also

Hostile at the same time Anyway That's my dude bro If I could meet that man I'd be so happy Yeah He's up a regret for me Yeah I really like him too

He really likes Weston McKinney as well One of the other coaches who likes Weston McKinney And You know he didn't have much of a playing career I think he had like Three or four seasons in Syria Mostly he was in Sierra B He's from Livorno

on the coast, just a, you know, just a dead town. I mean, any listeners from Livorno, I'm just saying, I remember looking it up when Josh Perez was playing there.

Do you remember Josh Perez? He was one of pool six teammates. Hugo Perez's nephew, left-footed, could absolutely, like absolutely had what looked like the tools to be an elite winger. obviously never became that but um he played at levorno for a while and i was i was i was really

digging for information back in the newsletter days you know all right um one of one last thing we got to talk about is the draw is this friday yeah i didn't realize that until i saw a tweet like right before i logged on here okay friday yeah so we'll find out um uh man let's do some let's do some pot talk Yeah, who's in our pot? Let's get that sorted out. I looked at pot too, bro. Some scary teams in there.

So obviously we're in pot one. We cannot have a pot one team in our group. But here's who's in pot two. Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, Korea, Ecuador, Austria, in Australia. Give me Australia, buddy.

You know what I'm saying? Jordan Boss, part two. Look. Yeah. I'm taking that. Everyone else is, I don't want to see them. I wouldn't mind facing South Korea.

I think they're going to come in real confident after what they did to us in September. And they're not going to know, they're going to have a false idea of what they're up for, what they're up again. I was thinking about saying that. Yeah. I mean, out of these teams, you know, yeah, South Korea, I would take, I wouldn't be happy with it, but I would take it.

I would take it. I would also take it on. I mean, I think that goes without saying, kind of. But, you know, Senegal, nope. Switzerland's a no for me as well. Uruguay, prefer not. Columbia no way No thanks

Boy Same with Morocco Really I mean The thing is They're all teams we could beat But I would take Morocco But you know

We got obviously The history and everything that's going on You know With the youth national team results And all that But I think I think I mean

Morocco would be Up there Probably behind You know Three or four teams But they might be to fifth. You know what I'm saying?

I understand we beat Japan, but... That won't be it. That won't be a fun one if we... Yeah. I think I'm good. So you're saying... So you're saying your... Number one choice would be Australia.

Number two... Number one choice might be... Might be Eidan. But actually, you know what? I don't want that. There's going to be a lot of political discourse. You know, they're boycotting the draw because... Something about visa issues. Trump and yeah I don't I don't want to see that I don't want to see Tyler Adams at the podium

again getting grilled by uh you know yeah by state media although you know that's another thing leander shillocken's book reminded me of is just how just how well he handled that situation like he handled that really well and that's the bit you once again to the fed thing there's give there's give his take yeah if you if you got a fed in your camp when you you happen to be, you know, in some hot, in some hot trouble, you know, maybe the police pulls up and the Fed happens to be at the party. Yeah. Who you send it out there to talk to him.

Mm-hmm. Okay. So Iran, so kind of maybe a tie between Iran and Australia for? Yeah. Yeah. For first choice and then maybe South Korea, South Korea, Morocco. Yeah. After that.

Yeah. And then. And then. I'm not too clear on Austria, but they're probably good. Probably put Austria and Ecuador in that next tier. But absolutely want to stay away from Croatia, Senegal, Colombia, in Switzerland. Yeah, and Uruguay, really. I mean, but is there something to be said for having a tough team in your group so that you...

No. So that... Okay. Got it. And then... We got to build momentum. We got to build my mental. Okay.

And then, okay, pot three is Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Cotevua, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. Scotland has been pretty good lately, I feel like. Scotland has been good. Okay. I mean, getting out of that European qualification process. Which Italy just cannot seem to do. Yeah, that's crazy, man. That's crazy.

But, yeah, Scotland's in. And, I mean, there's still, what, four European playoff teams to be added to pot four. So. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know who's in the... Also, what you say, Turkey. who's the who's ru

uh so like in in kosovo Ukraine Sweden yeah so we don't I mean you know obviously we don't want a European playoff teams

no but anybody you really really want to avoid in pot three I bet I haven't I haven't been tracking them but Cote d'I always seems like they could be dangerous um pot of why is going to be a tough game

I bet Algeria be a tough game I mean, probably Norway broke. I mean, because Norway... They got like four really good strikers and the guy from Arsenal, right? Yeah. And it's, you know, I mean, they're going to have the best play on the pitch. You know, and play Norway.

So I don't want to see that. Yeah, fair enough. I'll be gladly take Panama. I don't care about all this stuff has happened before. I don't care. even after every time we've lost to them or whatever i'm like bro put them on the field against us again today will they be kept out of our group because we're in the same confederation oh maybe i don't know i mean i don't know i don't know all the permutations and rules and

one but um yeah so pot four yeah no norway no norway no no way um i mean egypt i guess will have the best play on the on the pitch but I'm not too worried about Egypt. Salah's not really. I mean, his zenith has passed. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Algeria, I mean, you know, I got a French diaspora. Dude, I always have a little respect for those northern,

North African teams on the Mediterranean. Yeah, so, I mean, The team probably won't stay away from I don't know I do want to say shout out to Scotland You remember those Scottish dudes we met In Italy Outside of

Outside the stadium Oh yeah Yeah yeah They were cool So shout out to them They had come to watch Mcominee Wait was it

No I think they had went down to watch Mcominee And then they were in Rome Because they went and watched Metamene in Naples Oh yeah that's right and then they were just in Rome

to do some extra soccer watching. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, yep, yep. That's what it was. But yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll leave it at that. I'll take all these people other than the ones we've named. I think I'd even take Ivory Coast,

to be honest. So. I just keep thinking of, like, Didier Dragba whenever I see that name, and obviously he's not a factor anymore. Pot Four, Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana.

Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, the four European playoff teams, and then two FIFA Intercontinental playoff teams. I mean, you know what? Give us Jordan. Give me the European playoff team if it is Bosnia. Just to stick it to Barc Tarevich? No, well, no, but... You just love Bosnia? I just love Bosnia, bro. I would love to see it. Um, I might be in a Bosnia kit, no But They uh Did you see the goal that he scored though for Bosnia?

No Um, Esmir? No. Uh, it was, I think it was a goal that basically put them in the, in this playoff.

I think it, I think it broke a nil, no tie. Maybe one one tie. I don't know. It was a banger though. Bangor. Uh,

from outside of the box, if I remember correctly. He's a good player. He never plays for PSV these days. He started, um, he started against Fallingdale. Oh, did he? Okay.

He was making people. He was kind of going crazy. Okay. I take it back. And yeah, it's a shame. It's a shame that we, I mean, because I think he would be coming to the World Cup with us. Had he been chosen for the Olympic team? Well, had he just decided to represent the U.S.

I don't know what all went on back there. But, you know, like I've said before, no shame. representing mother Bosnia. You know what I'm saying? As a matter of fact, I would almost prefer it. But an American, an American winger named Barrettirovich on the pitch for us,

I mean, that would have done numbers, not Diego Luna, Ricardo Pepe numbers, you know, obviously. A lot more Mexican Americans than there are Bosnia Americans,

but that would have meant something. That would have meant something to a lot of people. Yeah. Would have meant something to me. I love the different names on the backs of the jerseys. But yeah, Pah for, I mean, just kidding. Not Ghana.

I don't want to play Ghana in our group. I'll take it. I mean, sure, but. I'll take Ghana. It's also a shame that we're going to have a happy Ghana made it, but it's also we're having a World Cup with no Nigeria and America. That's a shame. Truly a shame.

But yeah, just give me no, yeah. No, New Year. Pan-Playoff team. That would be nice. Thank you. You could probably take care of anybody else. Okay. Hey, at some point we got to do that.

We got to do that 71 player draft. Sanjay says he wants to be in on it. We pick for it. You, me, Greg, and Sanjay draft from the 71 players that Pottches called up to make little, I guess it'd be what? Let me do the math here. 17, 18 player rosters.

Okay. Sounds good to me. Oh, and we also got to mention MLS Cup final is set into Miami versus Vancouver. Vancouver beat San Diego 3 to 1. Brian White scored two goals in that game. Do you ever get called up again? Probably not. Brian White?

Yeah, probably not. I mean, yeah, I think it's a wrap. And then Inter-Miamy beat NYCFC 5 to 1. That final is on Saturday afternoon. noon in Fort Lauderdale. Get to see Sebastian Burlhalter face off against the greatest soccer player ever. Yeah. And try to burnish his resume for the World Cup.

You know, you know, I wonder if, I wonder if Potch will be in attendance. Probably not. Probably be sipping coffee in Barcelona. Yeah, yeah, I think so. He will be watching, though. We know that. Yeah, yeah. Leo Messi's on that pitch.

The TV is on, brother. Yeah. So if, you know, if you can find a way to watch, MLSA, find a way to watch it. Oh, it's going to be on Big Fox. So it's, so I take it back. I take it back. All right.

Hey, everybody, thanks for listening. Oh, real quick. Before we go, you know, I ain't getting a full Thanksgiving talk. You know, everything with the national team's going great, very celebratory. we got a long time in between games and we and we've ended it on a good note so i think that helps but you know i had something to happen on thanksgiving that i have to i have to i have yet to come to turns with and i just feel like i need to talk talk about it on here with you because we talked about thanksgiving things before adam bell's went to my grandma's house she's washed bro

hmm she's washed i'm sorry man how old How old is she exactly? Oh, you know what? You don't even know. It's tough when you don't know. But she's, I think she's 84, 85. Mid-80s, man. That's pretty old.

Mid-80s on dialysis. Which, you know, reality situation is, to be honest, probably got a been on dialysis for a year now, maybe a year and a half. What was the dead giveaway? Was it the sweet potatoes? Brother, it was the Mac. Once again, here I am running into Mac issues. I feel like she might have taken it out too early, maybe. So the noodles weren't?

Well, there was just a lot of evaporated milk at the bottom of the pan, bro. And I don't know if the evaporated milk is supposed to evaporate. I don't know. Is it there to prevent the noodles from? burning up, the crispin or something? I don't know. I don't know what goes on. I haven't chefed up mac and cheese myself in my 33 years on this earth. But yeah, man, it just wasn't everything else for the most part was pretty good. You know, she had some, we didn't, she didn't have turkey, you know, had like this baked chicken, delicious, delicious chicken, yams. Yams was hitting.

What else? I made some like broccoli casserole. that was good greens green beans you know what I'm saying everything else for the most part was all right but once again coming back to the main thing that we talked about before hey the Mac

the Mac and cheese is like your midfield you know it connects your defense and your attack without a function in midfield your team ceases to exist you know what I'm saying because if something

about mac and cheese it's like a bridge between sweet. There's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, because like cheese, right? Mm-hmm. Cheese is kind of sweet, but it's like, it's like sweet and savory. So it bridges, it bridges the turkey to the yams. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. With, without, without the mac of cheese in the middle, you're missing something, you know, because, I never really thought of it that way, thought of it that way, but, but I put a lot of thought into this this weekend, actually. Um, because once again, holiday, holiday weekend, you got time.

That's the thing about holidays. Love holidays, by the way. Why can't every day be a holiday? But anyway, um, yeah. See, I like regular days. I like regular days with routine and like

we do this. Mm-mm. But we don't have to argue about it. I just, that's just me. That's too bad about grandma, man. Um, my sister-in-law made some really good mac and cheese at Thanksgiving.

She's not why. washed. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Stuffing. You didn't mention stuffing. Do you guys not do stuffing?

She made stuffing. I'm not a stuffing fella. Oh, man. I'm like, the older I get, the more I love it. I don't like stuffing at all. Oh, I didn't used to like it, but I've been converted. Yeah. So, you know, we can't.

we we we so my grandma this is my dad's mom she lives in lexington um so we drove to lexington ate some food there drove back went to christmas parents and you know as we discussed before their whole mac and cheese incident you know there was there was no mac and cheese served there yeah there was no mac and cheese in my childhood at thanksgiving but the turkey was sitting low. So all in all, bittersweet day. Bittersweet day, man.

Did you talk to her about it? Not about that, obviously, but how's she doing otherwise? I mean, she's doing great. You know, as good as you can be doing. Yeah. And we had a great time over there, but

I've never thrown away. Well, you know, I'll take that back. I was going to say I've never thrown away. some mac and cheese before but for the people don't know what I'm talking about go to the scuff soccer podcast on YouTube is a video called

Can White People Cook? Yeah. It brings a smile to my face every time I watch it where I give the backstory on you know, Thanksgiving's past and my wife's mom's cooking. My wife's wife's mom's cooking. My wife is white.

Yeah. Yeah. Some white people can. some white people can't you know similar to you know and and and it's probably distributed evenly across all races like all things um you know i don't know if i go that far but all right hey let's get out of here

thanks everybody for listening happy thanksgiving belated we'll see you