Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #661: Wes ascendant, Reyna hurt again, World Cup boycott floated

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Wes's coach says he'd be a great central striker, Reyna out with a muscle strain, Tillman on the bench for a spell here, Weah assist, Big Pat scores but Vince is unpersuaded, Tanner and Johnny getting starts in the midfield, and the St. Pauli president floats boycotting the World Cup, which brings to mind Trump, which brings to mind the senseless bloodshed in Minneapolis.Our Germany trip: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfI4Cp1VpS2eCphsNjf6QHdaRDq86Tf-FeUhJ2tQ0RzkbxQhw/viewform Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuff podcast When we talk about U.S. soccer Hey everybody, it's the Monday review. Me and Vince back, back in the cockpit. How you doing, Vince? I'm doing good, man. Fresh off my Martin Luther King Day, sabbatical.

You know what I'm saying? Thank you so much, benevolent bells for giving me the opportunity to observe. On that day, it was much appreciated. Good. Much appreciated. Survived the winter storm. I got power.

Got some. snow in Louisville. That's some snow, bro. I mean, I don't know what the official count is. Somewhere between like six and eight inches. Dang. Yeah. Neighborhood's pandemonium.

First of all, that's a lot of snow. I went outside with my kids yesterday, and we went around the neighborhood to their friend's house or whatever. And that's a lot of snow to walk in. It's hard to walk in that much snow, first of all. And I had to pull a sled. with my kids attached to it. I mean, that was a workout.

I needed it. Gems are closed. You know, yesterday was supposed to be one of my workout days. I couldn't make it. I couldn't make it. So pulling the kids around the neighborhood was a ample. Well, not ample is the wrong word. But it was, I don't even know what I'm saying.

Adequate. It was adequate. It was adequate. It was adequate, brother. It was an adequate workout. So got that done. But also, while we're trekking around the neighborhood in the frozen tundra, also noticing a lot of my neighbors in the neighborhood, you know what I'm saying? They're trying to go places.

For whatever reason, cars are just spinning out, spinning out in the snow. My youngest one had told me her toes were cold, so we were turning around to go back home without the sled this time. I couldn't pull the sled anymore. But so I had picked her up. I was like, all right, we're going home, started the dredge home. and this one dude looked at me with the puppy dog eyes, he was like, hey, man. Give me a push.

Give you a push. My car is stuck. And so I put my kid down. I did that. The car didn't go anywhere. Another neighbor came out so that she could drive the car and that we could both push at the same time. Nothing happened there either.

So I don't know if his car is still there or not. We'll see at some point today. But yeah, winter storm, man. Winter storm. precipitation, et cetera, you know, you think maybe you might get out of the winter with like a, oh, this might be a nice, nice light winter, you know. Nowadays in December, you know, we're getting, we're getting days of like 60 degrees. Yeah.

They come around, whatever. But, man, January, February, consistently, consistently comes around with a vengeance. And, you know, as it should. As it should, I guess. Driveway shoveled. And let me tell you. Eight inches of snow. That's no light shoveling, man.

Yeah, that sounds like an ample workout, more than adequate. Yeah. That shit is heavy. It took me a long time. I mean, I got, my driveway's probably like 40 feet. Something like that. It was about a regular driveway, I think. And, yeah, man.

It was a, not for the lighthearted. I'll tell you that much. I'll tell you that much, brother. Yeah. Well, speaking of lighthearted, that would, That'd be a good, lightweight maybe would be a good description of the entire population of the southeast during United States because we canceled everything based on the forecast. Basketball games canceled on Saturday. My son had a 4-H presentation in Rome, Georgia, which got canceled.

And then it just rained a little bit. And it's cold today. So, I mean, the roads are perfect. But they love canceling stuff here. That's one of their favorite things to do. What's your son doing for 4-H? So I have a question. I have some advice to ask you on this.

He's doing a, his presentation, which got selected to go to the regional competition, is on the climate of Scandinavia. His mother is half Norwegian, so he's really into the Vikings and his Norwegian heritage. It's a solid presentation. Like how does it stay warm? How is it cold and all the different ways that works? We went and did like a trial run with this lady in Lafayette. She had some tips for him.

She said maybe make your map color and cover the entire poster board because he uses the map a lot. He points at the map a lot. Right. And so she said, you need black foam board and try to get a color map. So unfortunately, I've been, It was a little helicoptery about this. I went and got the black phone board from him at Hobby Lobby.

Yeah. The only place you can get it. Mm-hmm. And then I went and found a CIA World Book map of Europe that works. I saturated the color a little bit on Gimp. I, this took a while. I made sure it was a high enough resolution map that it would print off well at FedEx. Yeah.

I went to FedEx. I picked it up. It's a beautiful map. It's perfect. And I, the presentation was, like I said, supposed to be Saturday. I went, I brought it home. I showed Gideon. Gideon was happy about the map.

And all week long last week, I was like, you got to, you got to glue that map to the phone board, you know? Mm-hmm. It's his project. That's right. I went into my office on Friday morning after he had glued the map to the phone board. that thing is crooked as it looks like a drunk toddler put it on there I texted my wife I was like this is ridiculous you know can he not just put it on there straight

he's 10 years old this isn't rocket science see see but okay when you were just when you were describing this whole thing to me this whole project to me I was sitting here thinking that these types of things were like the things I hated the most in school. Like, give me a test. Give me a hundred tests. Don't make me have to come to school with a trifold board.

And, you know, like, all that. Like, my, I remember my science fair project. Like, if you leave it up to me, I'm going to make it the most blandest thing possible. Like, my science fair project one time, I just printed out, like, black words on white paper and put it up on the, on the trifold board. Like, hey, boom. I did my experiment here. Well, like all this color, all this whatever, blah, blah, blah. No.

And having known Gideon, haven't met Gideon and spent some time with him, I think we are probably, me and him are probably similar. Like, Gideon kind of reminds me of me as a kid, a little bit. And I, he's probably the type of kid that don't get, he don't got, he don't got no time for the, for the aesthetics. You know what I'm saying? He's pure knowledge. He's pure knowledge. Yeah, he's pure knowledge. pure knowledge, pure facts,

you know what I'm saying? You spend some time with Gideon. He's always going to enrich you with something. You'll learn something that you didn't know prior to spending some time with Gideon. And so that's all he's worried about. You know what I'm saying? So I understand where he's coming from

because I probably would have did the same thing. Okay, yeah. I mean, in the cool light of day, I understand what you're saying. So here's the question. Should I push him to somehow rectify this or should I just let him go present it the way it is and let the chips fall where they may. You probably need to tell him to switch it up. You know, I mean, if y'all

went through all this, all this trouble of going to the, I don't know, the 4-H lady or whatever to the 4-H guru, the one who told y'all to make all these improvements in the first place. Number one, you don't want to let her down. You don't want to let her down. And at the End of the day, he is 10. You know what I'm saying? He needs a little guidance from his, from his parental units. Okay. I'll help him fix it.

All right. Well, we're 10 minutes in. Let's get to the business. Weston, McKenney, and Yuvae, beat Napoli, the defending Syria champion 3 to 0. Wes is, you know, he's just playing well every time out now. He's probably the, I'd say he's probably the top of the pool right now in terms of form. But one interesting thing that came out of it is Spiletti, the manager thinks Wes is, quote, a perfect central striker. And I'm going to quote, at length here, quote, he's one of the strongest around at playing that role.

He fights. He's great in the air. He's great in the air. He doesn't play to be told poor guy. He plays to get results because he makes decisions. He would be a perfect striker. And he doesn't play to be told poor guy. Because, I mean, you know, there might be some people in this pool that might want to

be told poor guy, you know, such and such is failing you, such and such and no. We are here to get results. That's Rice-Poletti. That's Rice-Poletti. And this comes out to the Napoli match, like you said. And Wes, once again, is playing his, like, I don't even know what to call it. Kind of a second striker? I mean, defensively, in most of this match, he is a right-back.

Okay. You know, like, when, if Napoli has the ball and Yu-A is in their defensive shape, Wesson McKinney is playing right back. But, you know, the magic is happening whenever Uveh has the ball. And Weston is like anywhere on the pitch. Second striker, 10, right center midfielder, like, you know, all these different things. Right wing back. He's everywhere.

He even pops up on the left side too quite often. Now, at the end of this match, he actually was playing striker a little bit. And I would say that's probably, it's funny that Spilletti said this because I didn't think he was very good. Playing striker at the end of the match. Like, you know, they're like lumping balls up to him, you know, like traditional striker stuff, you know, holding a defender on his back or whatever. He was losing out.

I would say probably like four out of five times he lost out. So, I mean, look, Spiletti has unlocked West to a dimension that I don't even know. I'm not even sure that existed for him to be doing all this shit. like because literally like he can be on the left side of the pitch if uve loses the ball you know they try they try to counterpress to ensure that because obviously they're in a compromised defensive shape right if your left back is on the i mean if your right back is on the left side of the in the left half space you know um they try to counterpress maybe get the ball back to slow or at least slow napoli down have them pass back to the goalkeeper or whatever but if that doesn't if that

doesn't succeed you see west busting it he's busting it back to the right back to the right back position, and the ability to utilize his ground coverage, which has always been elite. What's the ground coverage has always been elite. But then to also incorporate the fact that, number one, he is a welcome, he is a welcome dance partner in the attack, which is something that I don't think he gets enough credit for. Right. Welcome dance partner in the tech. And, you know, because a lot of people would just say he's a chaos merchant, right?

He just gets up there and like, you know, he kind of bull and China shops his way to things happening. There's more intelligent design to it than that. And so to be able to get him in attacking areas around Jonathan David, around Kephrin Taram, Yildiz, all these boys, you know, so that he can interplay with them. and then also to be able to use his ground coverage ability to where if things do break down, you got somebody that you trust that you know is going to give it their all. You know what I'm saying? Yuvae loses the ball. He's not looking around like poor guy.

No. Right. He's trying to get back in the defensive line to ensure the Uvei gets results. And, you know, it's a huge result against Napoli. I mean, bro, did you see the goal in Champions League? Oh, yeah. Midweek against Benfica. Come on, man. Come on, man.

If this was somebody else in the pool. Right. I mean, Bells, you know, matter of fact, matter of fact, I'm going to go ahead because, you know, I don't forget, you know I don't forget last year, last year in the Champions League, Giorina had a nice backhill assist to Remy Benson-Bai-ini. I guess Shacktar Dunesk. And, Bels, what you do to it?

I found some of my favorite piano violin and jello transcriptions of Bach, and I slowed it down way down and put it out on the channels. I'm proud of that. It was beautiful, in my opinion. With the same amount of care that you took for that map. Right. You know what I'm saying? Exactly.

And so this happens, a goal that I think is. of a similar level of quality, similar level of beauty, you know, the beautiful game, all the different type of stuff. Weston receiving a little layoff from Jonathan David that's a little bit behind him.

He does well to keep it under his control. Does a little pirouet to get back facing towards gold, slides it over to Jonathan David. Jonathan Davis slides it back to him. Weston McKinney, then once it slid back to him, he's 1V1 with the keeper, gives the keeper the eyes. Yeah, the eyes is what really gets me on this one.

Yeah. to the far post, near post, finish with the right foot. Against Jose Marino's Benfica. You know what I'm saying? I mean, Benfica, who's a known Champions League, you know, I mean, you can't just, you can't just write them off as Portia. Yeah, they are formidable for sure. Firmitable opponent.

So all I'm saying is this game happened when? Wednesday, Tuesday? Where's the video? Where's my video with the classical music? Look, man, I ain't seen no classical music. I ain't seen no concertos. No nothing, bro. And all I'm saying is, I mean, truly, this is one of the, this is Christian Polistic.

You know what? Matter of fact, we're going to put Christian Policcic in a separate category because he actually comes from a soccer family, you know, a dad who truly knew what he was doing. Yeah. When it comes to developing Christian, like Christian was over in England at nine years old. And what, and by like intelligent design, you know, West was just over there because his dad was enlisted in Germany. Right. Right. You know, and so Polly over here.

West is probably the finest soccer player this country has produced if you exclude Christian Police. Yeah, if you exclude former pros, children of former pros or dual Nats, and I don't even have anybody in mind as a dual Nats. But Wes is special too because he spent some of his childhood in Germany. You know, as people will say, he's not exactly produced. by America because some of his formative years were in Europe.

I hear that. And I mean like formative years, you know, like what, eight to 13 or something like that? I mean, that's where the magic happened. I don't know exactly what the years were. I thought he was a little bit younger than that. But maybe I'm tripping.

West was in Germany from age six to age nine. I don't want to say Landon Donovan, but all I'm saying is the man's up there the man's up there and when you talk about midfielder specifically you know I heard like Landon Donovan Tim Howard kind of poo-pooed that idea that Weston McKinney is one of the best men

I mean the proof's in the pudding bro yeah the proofs in the put him the idea that this man you can put this man in and when he scored the goal against Benfica you know the commenter's like in this competition he's been YuVe's superstar like oh come on man the ability to be able to do this, to give these performances in different positions, doing different things.

I mean, you never hear poor guy from the man. He's out there to get results. You know, the, I was in the Discord earlier today. I'm seeing, I'm hearing people. They're playing up the out of the project thing once again, you know, but. It doesn't matter whose project is, it's, it's, the question is, are you in Weston's project or not? You know? That's right.

That's right. And, yeah, man. We are. I am in Weston's project. I took him number one in my draft. Built my team around him. Kind of want to put him at Stryker now and throw Damien Downs over at right wing.

I don't know if I didn't know if I could love a manager more than I loved Allegri. You don't know what I'm saying? You don't know that any more than Allegory, though, do you? I don't, bro, if this continues for another few months and then maybe give me Weston McKinney resigning in another year, two years, you know what I'm saying, of this, of this, because he's truly unlocked the man, bro. You're seeing, you're seeing his full potential. You know, another thing about Wes, one of, you know, I'm a big Greg Burrhalter guy.

His biggest sin is probably going as long as he did. Without including Weston in the attack, bro. You know, the whole system that he was. was running designed to keep Weston out of the attack making things happen. You know, when people when people look at your team, for instance, Bells, and they say, oh, MMAK score goals, I would put a decent chunk of that on the fact that Greg Burrhalter kept one of his most potent attackers out of the out of the attack on purpose, on purpose. And we attacked with a strict five when we were under Greg Burrhalter. You know what I'm saying? There was no. I mean, West did blaze

that won over or just off the, was it off the cross bar or did it go over the bar against England? Over, over. Yeah. But, um, so, so when it comes to the, the upcoming games and the upcoming World Cup, Pottch has liked to play Wes as a sort of a tucked-in right winger, right? Wes hasn't been in very many camps, for one thing, but. Right half space. Yeah. Yeah. So that's probably where he's going to play. from now on, which fits well with his with his recent experience at UVA. Yeah.

I mean, I guess all I'm saying is Pottches seems to be rectifying this problem you're spotlighting about the way Burrhalter deployed McKinney. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. We all got to worry about that with a local. I got a segue with poor guys, because we have a few of them in the pool right now. But you got anything else on Yvesa and Wes? Ah, okay, I had to find a tweet real quick. So,

this is Keffron Thuram. To Gazeta, sport after the match. He says, McKinney. West always plays well on the pitch. He's also a great locker room guy, always available to chat. He organizes a lot of dinners at his house. We go and play cards or watch a game. Lots of us from the team go, including Joe David.

Huh. Yeah, that's good. That's good. I'd love to play cards with West McKinney. That sounds awesome. Everything's coming up west right now. You know, the vibes are good. He's playing as well as I've seen him play in a while. Perfect timing. Perfect timing. So he's not a guy who says poor guy. A couple of poor guys in the pool this weekend are further north than Torino in Gladbach. Number one, Giorina back out of the squad. Fatma was saying he'll be back in mid-February, some kind of muscle strain. Same old story, so there's a poor guy right there. Another poor guy is Joe Scali, who in their 3-0 loss to Stuttgart,

chested the first one down for a gift in the box. Tough situation to be in, but you don't want to chest it right down to the nearest red shirt. He does that. The guy dances around him and tucks it away. And then the second goal is an own goal off of Scali's back. He doesn't even see it, but he ricochets it right in at the far post. So the poor guy's award for the weekend goes to Giorina and Joe Scali. The good news is Gladbach is pretty far from relegation territory.

Stuttgart is actually pretty good. They're pushing for a Champions League spot. But, um... I mean... Bad news is bad news. I said it beginning of season, right? The fact that Gio's transfer saga turned out the way it turned out that you know, this is a, this is a prove it type deal that he's on.

You know, if it don't go well here, it might be a wrap as far as, as far as Europe goes, as far as Europe goes, or at least top five Europe, I would say. So as a right now, we're looking at, let's see, 400 and, And 57 minutes, I want to say that has been played in this season, zero goal, zero assists for Gio Arena. And now he's coming to the Ruck Runda. He's coming to the Ruck Runda. Three matches, well, four matches played by a glad back. 26 minutes played for Gio.

And now he's picked up a knock as well. and you know how Knox can go with young Giovani man Yeah he could be out for several months Who knows Yeah maybe the sad thing about it is he was He was starting to look I think you even agreed to this at some points

Starting to look like he had a little more burst A little I mean as much as you can expect from Gio yeah Yeah a little bit of like Energy to carry the ball past people And stuff like that Now he's Now he's sidelines So

Yeah And once again It's just a shame Because like Back in 2018 2019 When scuffed was a young man You know

Y'all came under much criticism for hype And this new generation of players From where we sit right now I think we're sitting there Maybe like you know 60th 70th percentile outcome For the pool

You know like Like, everything has pretty much happened in the way that we have hoped that it would happen for the most part. I can't think of maybe Josh Sargent. Josh Sargent is probably a little bit of disappointment in there. Yeah. But, you know, we've picked up some donuts along the way. And some of these dudes have been better than we thought they would be, et cetera, et cetera. Pulisic's career has gone better than I thought it would, honestly.

So I would say Wes's as well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'd say probably Tyler's two. Basically, everybody except Gio and Josh. Yeah. Yeah. And Gio was the one.

Gio was the one, man. That day in Nashville, the Canada match. The day that we met, Bills. Yeah. When we got Word, like, Word came through that tailgate, right? The Gio had been sent home with the hamstring injury. You know, and it also came through that tailgate. The West had been sent home with the horny injury.

You know, you wouldn't have thought from that moment, from that moment, that that would essentially be like the beginning of the end for Giorina, but I think we're kind of here now, unfortunately. And it's just such a shame, man. It's such a shame because everything else has turned out as we kind of hoped and expected that it would turn out. And then a healthy, fit, firing G.O. Rana who was, who was, who deserved, who, in my opinion, deserved every bit of the high.

hype that he got. Yeah. You know? And if he reaches that potential, man, he could really be sitting here expecting something this summer. I still expect a little something, something this summer. And, you know, GEO's not fully RIP'd. You know, he can still, for whatever reason,

every time he plays for the national team, he shows up. Yeah. But he'll give us something this summer. But it'd be nice if he could give us more. It'd be nice if he can give us more. But yeah, with this club situation like this, I have to say, I will be on notice every match. You know, if he gives a stinker,

I'm going to call for his ass to be out of here, bro. Like, I mean, I guess that's probably just the nature of, yeah, not playing ever. It's like, you got to, I mean, you got to be lights out of your time. You play with the national team. And probably with Potch, too. You know, Pottch is probably viewing it in the same way, I would think. Yeah, he's going to be, yeah, probably going to be coming on. the bench.

I mean, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. There's plenty. There's still a few months. Hopefully this injury isn't as the sort of the worst case scenario that we've gotten used to with Gio, where he gets a, has a muscle strain and then he never really plays for the next year. But that's certainly in the realm of possibility.

I'm skipping around a little bit here, but let's go, since we, since we're missing that lock picker. I mean, we have Wes, so that's good. That's right. Don't leave my conversation. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. Everybody likes to leave him out the conversation. You know,

AC Diego Luna, we don't produce players like this. Okay, well, Wesse McKinty just did that in championship. Right. That's all I'm saying. Don't leave my conversation. And going forward,

if you are listening to the Scuff podcast and you do leave him out of the conversation going forward, I got some questions for you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Yeah, he's, Gio's hurt,

Malik Tillman, after two straight losses for Levercouz. dropped from the starting lineup for their game against Verde Bremann which Levercousin won 1-0 Tillman did come on for the last half hour or so but game was already 1-0 Another Rukrunda casualty bro

What's going on with that? You're having too much fun in them breaks? I don't know what's going on, man yeah I just like Malik's had some really good performances this game this season obviously Yes, yes. But, and I imagine we'll see him back in the starting lineup before too long,

but he's got to, you know, got to perform. Tier one player on my big board. You know what I'm saying? For, you know, I want to change my team name. I call him Mentality. I see. Let's call him Intermentality, thank you. But, tier one player in my big board,

lead in my midfield on the pitch. And it's, yeah. it's not good. He got dropped against Olympiacos too, which it was just like, okay, maybe it's just a little midweek. You know, I'm saying y'all playing Alepiacos. Let's go ahead and fit in a Malik Tillman break here.

But as you alluded to, they lost that match as well. So, and, you know, even though I put, I'm slowly coming around on Malik, and I've always believed in the talent, whatever. But his application as a professional for me left something to be,

be desired. And even as I move him up into tier one, and even as I have really admired and have been impressed by his performances, a few of his performances this season. This doesn't surprise me. Like, I don't know, Malik's not past his point yet. And, you know, he's still a young professional, still figuring it out. So, yeah. 23 years old, I mean, he's about to lose that young professional the label. I mean, he I guess so what we'll be looking at Rangers two years at PSV

and then this? He'll be 24. Two years, three years. He'll be 24 when the World Cup kicks off. Right, right. But I'm talking about actual like, you know, games played. Yeah. So what was it? It was Rangers two years

two years at PSV? I think so, but I mean, don't quote me on that. Okay. I mean, but like I said, even in the those three years of professional soccer before this year, you know, I mean, still had questions about, you know, if he can bring it every night, every day, if he can be the focal point for a top four Bundes League aside or whatever, or a challenging contender, Bundes League aside, etc., etc.

I think it's a journey that he's on right now. Yeah. And it's not over yet. also in the midfield Tanner and Leon beat Mets 5 to 2 that's three straight starts for Tanner Testman three straight wins for Leon

They won 5-2 in a track meet At Mets this little city Just south of Luxembourg Tanner got a hockey assist call back on a narrow Offside call he was dancing around on the ball Inside Mets's box On multiple occasions Leone definitely has a new

Jua de Vive with Endrick in the line up on loan from Real Madrid. He had a hat trick, and they're pretty fun to watch. I mean, they were already kind of fun to watch. Now they're even more fun to watch. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you give them a game-breaking attacker. Right.

Which is really, like, all they needed ever since they lost Turkey. You know, they needed just another dude to just break the game open. You know, they still got Fofana. But they sell Mika-Tate. Yeah. I think so. Okay, yeah, I was saying, I ain't seen Mikataze this season? So, I mean, but yeah, I mean, him and Fafonner on the wings.

I mean, that's two speed demons. I mean, did you see, I don't know, when I do this? I think that clip notes. The pass from Hendrick to Testman? From Testman to Indrik. Oh, yeah, yeah. I saw that on Twitter where, like, he, Testman had to, like, battle his way out of the defensive third and then played Hendrick into the.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Down the sideline, yeah. Quite nice. Sanders coming back from, he had a little injury. I think he picked up while he was playing center back, if I'm not mistaken. So he's kind of just now getting a spot back in the lineup.

Got these three straight starts. I think he still looks a little rusty. Looks a little rusty. He's not, the one game he played, the Indrik match, the one he passed. the ball. I forgot who the hell they were playing. But anyway, that match, he looked kind of good. This one was maybe a little bit of a step back.

But, okay. Yeah, but he's on the, at least he's healthy. He's back to starting. He's kind of on the right track. Another player who's been knocking some rust off of Johnny Cardoso. I thought, so he gets his second straight start for Athlete. You know, I got to say this, because a lot of people get it wrong. What they say, what's, What's that? No H.

Yeah, no H. You're not supposed to have the H. Athletico Madrid. And it's Athletic Bilbao. Anyway, they beat Majorca 3-0. This is a relegation territory team. So a little bit of a good situation to knock some rust off. He had several nice moments. I clocked at least one stone cold tackle in the open field. A clever through ball into the box. Some good work settling chaotic moments in the middle.

he also did have a few moments that weren't that good. Yes. Struggle with the press. Yes. You know, he misses a, so he misses a teammates run out wide. The whole, this is interesting. I forget it was like maybe in the middle of the second half. He gets on the ball.

His left winger is running into just an open, a vast open space. And the whole crowd sees it. And they're, you know, they're basically just willing Cardoso to line it up and play it into that open space ahead of the attacker. He kind of dilly-dallys on the ball and then passes it behind him to make him to be. It basically eliminates the threat that was created by the run. Yeah. And you can hear the whole crowd just kind of sigh. Like, ah.

So, anyway, some mixed, some mixed stuff, but some good stuff from Cardoso. Yeah. I mean I watch the match I watch the match I don't know I don't know it seems like you come

you've come away a little bit more optimistic than me and I'm not pessimistic necessarily I just don't think he played that well okay he has some decent moments you know he did it

he did a Johnny thing but he's very much still knocking some rust off it seems to me but yeah two straight starts in the league they sold

Connor Gallagher. So he's out of there. Go ahead. Let me say this. I think this was better. I talked about this with Charlie last week in the Tuesday review. I thought he was pretty bad in the previous start.

And I think this was better than that. That's all. Okay. He remains an enigma, I think. To me, to me, and I think to a lot of fans of the U.S. men's national team.

Oh, yeah. it out without it out but that's what keeps us on our toes baby better an enigma than a poor guy you know better anything than a poor guy bro and it bro you know that's really the whole thing that got me off the the whole the whole geo thing you know it was everybody that was on geo side was basically taking the poor guy angle and yeah i don't know man you're professional athlete i can't i can't poor guy you brother i can't poor guy you And you know this You know what else is funny

So the clip I don't know people who aren't on On X Probably won't know this But Bells clipped Me talking about Rico On the draft episode And the fact that he was falling down

And he, you know He slid down my draft board Or whatever posted on Post it on Twitter They came from me I really put you in the firing line there They put me in the firing line man Somebody said I look like I don't know how to walk backwards

Walk backwards three steps without falling down Some person told me I had a I don't know Me and my wife are laughing that it was funny I don't even know why I brought that up Didn't somebody say you're getting cooked on the internet But you're right or something like that Oh of course of course there are people that agree with me There are people that agree with me but but

He did cut his arm in half falling over in a non-contact fall over. If that same thing happened to my brother, I would tell them exactly what I said on the pot. You know what I'm saying? It wouldn't be no poor guy like, oh, you know, get him next time, blah, blah, blah. It's bad luck, you broke your arm.

Like, hey, hey. You'd be like, bro, be an athlete. What the hell are you doing, bro? Just falling down. You know what I'm saying? I would have put it in, I would have took a video over, put it in the group chat, you know, all the cousins.

You know, we would have had a good time. That's all. That's all. So, yeah, no poor guy over here. You know what I'm saying? No poor guy for G. Rana. Dortman's fell in him. Greg Burrhalter failed him by bringing it up in the conference.

His parents have failed him by coddling him and blah, blah, hey, at a certain point, you're 23 years old. And if you're a professional, you're a professional. And those other professionals that you are competing against don't care about any of those stuff we talk about. That's what I say to Gideon later today. Buddy. You want a crooked map on your black phone board.

The phone board is on you. You got to figure it out. Bro, because it's all about, I mean, especially Gideon, he pointing to Iceland. You know what I'm saying? The crookedness at the map, I mean, it's where he's pointing at the, I don't know. Pointing at Greenland. Atlantic Ocean wet, whatever. But, yeah, man, ain't no poor guy.

Just fix it. Just fix it and get it right. Yep. Let's, I do want to come back to Greenland, Greenland at the end of the show, because I think there's some World Cup news on that front. But let's take a break, and we got Tim Wea, Chris Richards, and, you know, a bunch of just sort of like odds and ends. And then let's get into what the St. Pauli president said about perhaps boycotting the World Cup.

If you want to skip the ads, join the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. Also, you get almost every week. week, the clip notes that Vince puts together. If you want to go to Germany with us, there's a link to that, that Google form in the show notes as well. We're going to the Ryan River Valley and then Einhoven to see a PSV game. All right, we're back. Let's go to Tim Wea.

He got an assist in a 3-1 win for Marseille over Lans. This was Lons' first loss since October. They won every single game since the end of October. in all competitions. I'm not talking about, we're not throwing a bunch of draws in there, like Yuvay-Lite loves to do. This is all wins.

And this ends in Marseille. And Wea was rambling up and down that right wing. His assist was on the third goal, which iced the match. It was just a lovely, precise little first-time ball slid into the path of Gouiri, the nine to tuck it home. Not, and this was a tricky one

because he had to put, He had to put it between two defenders. There was a pretty narrow window. Yep. Lovely stuff from Tim. I don't know. Anything else? Anything else from you on Marseille?

Not much. Yeah. Really? I mean, yeah. Nice to see Tim get the assist. I wish Tim had some of Weston's freedom, you know, from that right back spot. That would be nice because it kind of blunts them a little bit. He is getting in the attack a lot, though.

I mean, just always on the right side. All right, another right back for the U.S. Sergenio Dest got hooked at the half in a 2-2 draw at home for PSV against NACBreda. Nac-Bretta scored two goals in the last, well, one in the 45th minute and one in the 46th minute of the first half. Dest not particularly at fault for either one,

but Peter Bosch didn't like something he was seeing out there. And Desk comes off for Sildelia, I think is his name, who has started some games at right back. So something to watch there. With Dest, Killian Sildelia, a young defender comes on for him. Maybe Tim Weigh, maybe we'll need Tim Weatt playing a relatively restricted right-back role. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I mean, you know why he got hooked or was? I don't know why I got hooked. Do you? No, I can't say that I've been watching PSV. I ain't going to lie to y'all. I'm not going to lie to y'all. It's time for Serge to go ahead and get out of there, though. You know what I'm saying?

ACL, Ray, he's back from the ACL, get a season of play or whatever. And let's go and get a move on, bro. I could see Serge having a good World Cup and then coming and playing an MLS for the rest of his career. Maybe. Maybe. I mean, ain't no telling. Ain't no telling what that man's.

But I was thinking about it earlier. And it's like, I mean, you know, those good Leipzig teams that Tyler Adams was on back in those days. Angelino, who, I mean, who became an MLS player a little bit. But, uh, that's going to come play for Inter Miami. That's what's going to happen. That would be it. That would be it. I mean, look, all I'm saying is there should be a top five home somewhere for search or at least to prove it.

You know what I'm saying? Obviously, the Milan thing didn't go the way we wanted it to go. The Barcelona thing went sour as time went on. But whether it's a prove it deal or whatever, it should be one more opportunity for the man in one of these glamour leagues. So I would like to see it. It's the thing is, the thing is, these are glamour leagues in. relatively unglamorous places, you know, outside of probably Italy and Spain, which are, I think, at least in my mind, pretty glamorous all over.

So I don't know, maybe he ends up in Spain or Italy. I could see him saying, screw all this, you know, screw the Gulf Stream. I don't need all this, like, I don't need all this rain. Let me go, let me go to, let me go to the West Coast of America, like many before him. Real quick, another Crystal Palace loss, but Chris Richards scores again and wasn't directly at fault for any of the goals. He just nodded it in opportunistically after kind of a Rube Goldberg machine of a sequence, put it on his head two feet out. Dude, one of his teammates took a shot. It got deflected back off his head.

So shot, deflection, off the shooter's head, and, you know, pops over to Chris and he just kind of helps it along into the net. he's now made 100 appearances for Palace. Things are not going well at that club, but Chris seems to be doing fine. Yeah, what, Glasner's leaving? Yeah, sold Gayhee. Which for me is good news. Because like, okay, because you put the two together. Glasner leaving and Gayhee being sold.

Which, to me, at least... eliminates like okay so let's say a back four manager comes in after glasner right with gahey gone very small possibility that chris richard is out of the lineup at least to start you know and as it goes forward and as they feel gay he spot you know but but who's gonna get the first shot chris richard i would say to be in that be in that back four if i if i were to happen i'm not sure it is going to happen i don't think their teams

because, you know, you don't want to take, what, my boy, Munoz. No. They're out to attack, you know what I'm saying? You want him to keep bombing, getting up and down, whatever. So they probably will just get a back three manager to take over after Glasner. I would think, if I was running Crystal Palace, if I was running Crystal Palace, you know what I'm saying? But I'm not a friend of a men in Blazers co-host. Yeah.

I mean, that difference between playing in a back three and a back four is I've learned in the last couple years a pretty more significant difference in role than maybe I would have said three, four years ago. Other centerbacks, Austin Trussie got a red card and a two-two draw at hearts. Celtic remains six points back. This was a soft dog so, in my opinion, but not a good look. look for Austin, my starting center back in the draft that we did a couple weeks ago. So that's very disappointing, very disappointing for Seltz. They needed those three points. And McKenzie got an assist, which is a little bit misleading.

He just threw it in backwards to one of his midfielders who took a couple touches and then ripped it from like 25 yards. He was going to do the big, I think he was all lined up to do the big three. into the box, you know, that everybody loves doing these days. But instead, he just threw it backwards to the, to Diop, I think his name is. Okay. I got a, before we go on to our last part of the show, got a little striker roundup. Okay.

That's real quick. Big Pat's scoring goals. Yeah. In the championship, scored another one this weekend against West Brom. against George Campbell and West Brown there was some yeah plenty plenty yank on yank action and these are and these

unfortunate well not unfortunately but it's going to be unfortunate how I say this but but y'all know what I mean these are real yanks you know lots of lots of saturated fat and high fructose corn syrup when these two collide

together you know what I'm saying it's real it's real it's real it's real meaty men smacking each other you know I'm saying? Like, this is... These aren't organic Europeans. No, no, no. This is not heirloom wheat or whatever they call it.

You know what I'm saying? This is wheat with a whole bunch of gluten in it, et cetera. You know, a real American boy smacking each other. So it's a heavyweight bouts. Heavyweight bouts between George Campbell and Big Pat, you know, they took turns, getting each other. Big Pat tried to square up George on a 1v1 on the left wing at one point. George took the ball away.

There was another, I think, you know, just ball coming up in the air with Big Pat held George off maybe once, you know. But Big Pat did have the West Brom backline scrambling just by being Big Pat. Now, he's been scoring these goals in the championship. You may be asking yourself the question, has Big Pat leveled up? Is he the prince that was promised? Can he in a World Cup match come off the bench, the bench? Right, because as long as Florin Jerry Balagan is playing. I don't know if y'all know his name was Jerry.

But Flourner and Jerry Balagun is playing. He will be on that pitch starting for my U.S. National team. Can he come off the bench and save the team, score a late goal, something? Maybe. My answer to that is maybe. But go ahead. I think he can.

And it's not because he's leveled up. It's because he's got a special skill set that nobody else has. Like you saw the goal he scored last weekend. He just leaned over this guy. Oh, yeah, I did see that. I did see that. Leaned over this guy and finesse that ball to an unstoppable place. Bounced it off the turf up into the top left corner.

Yeah. If you can do that. Championship tech. Yeah. I mean, that's the question. What's the tax rate right now? Well, we will be playing. It's a high tax rate.

We will be playing up of the year, Caleb Burgess in the group stage. So if we find ourselves tied with Australia, I do like our chances for Big Pat to get that boy to what for. But if you're lumping it into the box, there's nobody else on the team you want in there more than Big Pat. In the pool, I would say. And that's what these games come down to a lot, you know? I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a beautiful game until there's five minutes left and you're down a goal, you know? Um, I'm not going to straight up say you're wrong, but, you know, I, I see where you're coming from. I see where you're coming from.

But what I've been alluding to for these, for this past minute and a half, yeah, the general play is ass, brother. Yeah. I mean, it's ass. Yeah. I know. Yeah, I know. I know. I'm like, I mean, yeah, none of that has gotten any better. Okay, I just want to let y'all know.

And, yeah, this is not to take away from Big Pat's utility for being that, you know, sledgehammer at the end of game. Okay. I got you. What other strikers? Yeah. Damien Downs. What's that three straight start? now for Hamburg.

I love to see it. Has he done anything good yet? You know, I've spotlighted his holdup play a little bit last week. It's much better than Pat's. Okay, yeah. It's, I mean, this leaps and bounds better than Pat's, for sure. He's able to make the ball stick.

And you know what? He makes a ball stick quite a bit. And he's also, for Hamburie, he'll pop up. in like a half space or something, you can receive the ball turn a little bit, make some things happen. Hempberg isn't creating a ton of chances, so it's not like he's just,

uh, no. He don't got a lot to eat off of, but I think he had a decent chance in this match that I think he, I think he hits straight at the keeper, maybe off of a defender or something like that. But, you know, he's been, uh, he's been passable for Hamburg in the Bundeslieg,

I would say. Which is something. which is something But And then we got Flower and Jerry Yeah How's some of God

Um He hasn't scored in league Since like November 28th Or something like that Which we got some Champions League I think we got some Champions League I think we got some Champions League Scor in there in between

But in the league It's been a minute Monaco is not playing well Whatsoever Flo did some R8 things in the midweek against Rio Madrid. I mean... Somewhat overshadowed by the score line.

Right. They lost 6-0, 5-0. Or 5-1, I want to say. They did score a goal at the end. Real Madrid was really trying to like... Somebody from Monaco should have punched somebody, bro. They goal that gave up. They were just very audaciously playing a Rondo in their own box.

And they gave the ball away. And the thing is, It was obviously a blowout, but it didn't, you know, Monaco was threatening throughout the game. They just didn't get any ball go in and Real Madrid did. Yep. And there hasn't been a lot of ball going here lately from Monaco, unfortunately. But Flo, you know, he's still doing his thing. He did all right.

He did all right. I mean, when the ball comes into him, centerbacks in hell. It didn't matter who it was. who the dude from Bormiff, the white, Danny Olson, whatever. Anyway,

but any Real Madrid defender was on his back, they were getting taken care of, work coming around, getting the foot in, you're on following Jerry's back, you're going to stay on follower of Jerry's back. And so,

I think he's still clear. So playing well? He's still clear, for sure. I don't even think we need to say that. But, you know, lack of return on the goals and assists or whatever. It's coming.

It's coming to work. I guess the only other sergeant, I mean, the only other striker thing I can think of is sergeant, you know, trying to get sporting asylum in Canada right now. Trying to go to Toronto and Norwich is not real pleased about that. Had him training with the U-21s. I guess did he play this past weekend? I don't think so. I mean. And you might say, well, why are we talking about Josh Sergeant?

Well, you know, if somebody gets hurt, you know, if somebody gets hurt, then he's next in line. He did not play this past weekend, by the way. He wasn't even in the squad. Yeah. Yeah, things are not good. So he wants to go to Toronto. Mousa did not play in a 4-0 win over Parma, which is a little odd because he's not. He's played their last seven before that league matches.

But it was 4-0 pretty, like it was a game that was not in doubt. So they didn't need him. That's how I'm reading that. They didn't need Eunice. One of the seven. Yeah. Occasion. And then Pulisic made a cameo, but didn't find a chance in a one-one draw with Roma for Milan,

who falls further behind, enter. I do want to talk about Ben Haq Kramasky Because he really Just real quick Because he really is doing a study abroad semester man You know what I'm saying Like he could have He could have been an MLS champion

And I think he still is I think he still gets to be an MLS champion He probably still gets a ring And all that different type of stuff But he missed out on the celebration Yeah You know what I'm saying Missed out on potentially

You know participating in the playoffs He probably would have played it He probably would have played in the final You know But instead You know I mean Who would turn down a free

Study abroad Not even free You know what I'm saying You're getting paid to do that Yeah get a stipend Yeah get a stipend Study abroad semester In Italy

As a young tan man You know what I'm saying He's probably having a good time But as far as football on the pitch You know what I'm saying It's not having a degree to do not play in this 4-0 loss

against Atalanta and then I guess the last thing I wanted to bring up is the president of St. Pauli a fellow named Okay Gottlich says maybe it's time to consider

boycotting the World Cup Here's the lead from the Associated Press A German Soccer Federation Executive Committee member says it's time to consider a World Cup boycott because of the actions of U.S. President Donald Trump Gottlitch, the president of Bundesliga club St. Pauley and one of the German Federation's 10 vice presidents told

the Hamburg-Morgan Post newspaper in an interview on Friday that quote, the time has come, end quote, to, quote, seriously consider and discuss this, end quote. And it's, you know, it's not so much for Gottlitch about the people getting senselessly gunned down in

Minneapolis, as it is about the whole Greenland thing. And here's a good quote from him. As organizations in society, we're forgetting how to set taboos and boundaries and how to defend values. Taboos are an essential part of our stance. Is it taboo crossed when someone threatens? Is a taboo crossed when someone attacks, when people die? I would like to know from Donald Trump when he has reached his taboo.

And I would like to know from Bern Noyendorff and Gianni Infantino. Noindorf is the president of the German Federation. Gianni Infantino, of course, Johnny Infantino is the president. into FIFA. And I know, you know, some of you were, some of you're going to say, Bells, I don't want to hear about this from you. But, you know. What'd you say back to him, bells?

Poor guy. You know, yeah. Well, I don't like, I have long been reluctant to get into stuff like this. Because, you know, I think people are chaotic and dramatic on the internet. I mean, that's basically my view of things. But, come on. Why do these people have to die in many? Protect and serve. That's what police are supposed to do. They're supposed to take a little bit of, take on a little bit of danger to protect and serve the people around them. That's not what is happening in Minneapolis. And I know that's not what Gottlitz is about. But nobody's being protected or served in Minneapolis. And the whole Greenland thing is just absolutely ridiculous. Obviously, it's, I don't know about obviously, but it just, it sure seems like it's not something that's going to happen.

us going to war with Denmark over Greenland. But come on, man. There's consequences to this stuff. They're acting like there's not. Yeah. And then they just lie, you know, Christy Noem just straight up lying as soon as the news comes out. Right.

Come on. And that's my thing. They're gunning, look, they're gunning down Adam Bells is in the street. Okay. Okay. And then after this is, they know it's on video. they know anybody with access Look, I'll tell you all this

I've stopped watching videos of people being killed by law enforcement I stopped doing that in like 2012 It's just not good I don't think it's good for your psyche To see these types of things I understand what happened I've read everyone's accounts of what's going on in the video

And I'll just leave it I'll leave it there I don't need to see it But I've seen the pictures of the man And like I said you know what I'm saying It's good. I mean, Adam Bells, you're a former resident of Minneapolis. Yeah, this all happened within blocks of where I used to live.

Yeah. How many years? Where do you live there? Eight years. Eight years. They're gunning down Adam Bells's and then coming on the TV to tell you that the Adam Bells that was gunned down is some type of... Domestic terrorist. Domestic terrorist who was hell bent on mass murdering ICE agents.

And when you watch the video, of if that's your, if that's your thing. If you watch the video of what happened and then you watch a video of Chris, you know him talking about this thing. To me, there's only one conclusion you can draw from this, man. You can draw from this and, you know, I struggle to see how what people's worst fears, like I struggled to see how the worst fears that people had, don't get me wrong.

I did not vote for Trump I have never voted for Trump Never will vote for Trump But I struggled to see how we would descend Into full fascism But When you take those two things I just mentioned The video of what happened

And then Christy know I'm talking We're here brother We're here brother And so You may not want to hear it But this is what's going on In the world As we live right now

And it's up to us To decide you know, with the small amounts of power that we have, which is really just our ability to gather in numbers and protest, you know, it's up to us to decide which country, what we're going to accept, number one, and what country, what kind of country we want to live in. Yeah.

And if you see those two things and you still, I don't know, believe, I don't know, if you're inclined to believe anything other than what's right there in front of you, Um, poor guy. Yeah, poor guy, man. I mean, it's crazy. But, but, you know, us over here, we're going to be trying to get results. And how does that manifest into my life? I don't know.

I don't really know. To be completely honest with you, I think that's, most people are kind of struggling to figure out how we can get results. You know, I know a lot of people in Minneapolis. And these are, you know, not the, the, the, I know, I know, I know, some people in the activist class. But I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about religious, like, regular, reasonable people. Not even regular.

Just reasonable people who are not just like knee-jerk, anti-Trump or whatever. They feel oppressed. It feels oppressive to have thousands of knuckleheads in bala-clavas running around shooting people. It's ridiculous. We've got to wake up a little bit on that. And, okay, Gottlach, you know, he's already awake. He's already awake. Yeah.

And, you know, that's what's so crazy about this thing is like, I don't know if, it seems to be a misstep by the administration. Because, because, you know what, we don't have, it doesn't seem like we have an opposition party here in this country. Right before Alex Prady got shot, we had a. bill that passed through the House, seven Democrats voted for, that funded ICE. You know, that's funding ICE throughout this administration, a huge amount of money going towards

ICE and their ability to occupy cities and cause terror amongst the residents. So knowing that we don't have an opposition party, what I'm saying is, him making this a global, making the Greenland thing a global issue, to where now trade markets get involved. Now, not just trade markets, everything that comes from the economic fallout of a potential trade market collapsing, you know, stock markets, all the stuff, the stuff that Donald Trump

very much cares about, very much cares about the stock market, very much cares about economic populism, kind of. Yeah, he wants to oust the president of the Federal Reserve for not lowering interest rates fast enough. I mean, right, right. And so now he he kind of has created an opposition coalition, which is potentially the EU and Canada. And so we'll see, we'll see what ends up happening off the back of all this stuff. But yeah, man, as someone who likes to always assume

the best and someone who always my main mode of operation is just like nothing happens. Nothing's going to happen. Nothing will happen. You know what I'm saying? We kind of just find our, um, our equilibrium. Right. That seems going on. I'm a little like that, too.

Everybody calmed down. Nothing's really happening. Well, this is not, it's not that time. It's like something's happening. Yeah. This is not that time. It's not that time, brother. And, um, so yeah.

Here we are. I do, I would like for the World Cup to proceed. I would do it. And I assume it will, to your point, just a moment ago. But come on, man. Stop doing bad stuff and lying about it. And if you support all that, you know, come on, be reasonable, please. Thanks, everybody for listening.

We'll see you.