Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #662: Henry Bushnell on WC tickets, the Cone era, roster battles for the USMNT

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

Bushnell, who writes for the Athletic, joined to talk about the high prices of World Cup tickets, Cindy Parlow Cone's expansive and thus far largely trouble-free tenure as USSF president, why Weston McKennie's spot on the field under Poch is such an important matter, Alex Freeman's move to Villareal, and lots more, even Richie Ledezma's switch to Mexico.Join us on 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. Our guest today is Henry Bushnell, one of the athletic soccer reporters. He's been deep on the World Cup ticket prices beat for the past several weeks, maybe even months. He's one of the premier members of the U.S. Soccer Press Corps. Henry, welcome back to scuffed. Bells, thanks for having me. I want to clarify, I did not get hired specifically as a World Cup ticket beat writer, but the beat has kind of created itself over the past several months and we've been running.

For sure. And that's the first thing I want to talk about. So you have asked FIFA or you did ask FIFA to break out the demand for tickets match by match. You know, because they had this big, Infantino had this big statement, like 500 million requests for tickets. do you think you'll ever get that information from FIFA the breakdown of like what what what are which matches are people requesting tickets for no and to be fair to them like that's not something they've released in the past either right like you know when i initially when i've gone when i've been badgering them about this or when i was i'm not anymore like what they have said is like

you know tell me what you want that we have released in the past and they haven't released this stuff in the past. What's different is this time they're using these massive round number. They're constantly putting out these massive round numbers of how many ticket requests they have basically to implicitly say to implicitly clap back against all the critics of their prices.

Right. Like this is a PR tool. And the reason I'm asking them is because like I just don't think one big round number means as much as they say it does, especially in a world where, look, if you can afford the upfront cost of the few hundred dollars for a Portugal Columbia ticket or whatever, frankly, you'd be stupid economically to not put in a request for that game because you know you can resell it for five times that much or whatever.

So that's like, so that's why I'm interested in the breakdown of their, of their ticket. but no, they're not going to, they're not going to put that out. Okay. We'll eventually, you know, we'll see about the breakdown, at least on the low end, come June if the stadiums are full. Like, we kind of just got to wait and see it. Yeah. What do you think about, like, how much of that, how many of those requests are?

I know you can't really give a definitive answer, but just tell me how you think about the question. How many of those requests are from resellers, people who are scalpers, you know, and how much of it is like just bots, you know, somebody created a program to request tickets? So they, FIFA says that their system is bot proof and that they both have things on the front end that they do and then back end, a combination of manually and technologically, that will weed out those people and kind of scrape the data so that the people whose names are actually getting put into this lottery are real people.

Now, I'm sure people are trying to design bots to get around that system. And it was also, it wasn't totally clear to me whether this 500 million number that they put out was pre-scrubbing of the data or post-scrubbing?

of the data? Like if that number was going to be... Yeah, details. So what I'd say is, like, on the resellers part, there are levels here, right? There are, like, coordinated reseller operations where people figure out how to do a bunch of unique... Like the bad guys.

These are the bad guys. The bad guys, yes. The bad guys. Yeah, I think that's a good. And then there are... There's everyday average Joe who, like I mentioned, you know has a few you know can is able to spend a few risk spending a few hundred dollars up front and thinks that they can resell the the ticket and is going to do that and

they're not quite a bad guy like they are no they're certainly increasing the price for for real fans uh but but maybe you know and then there's people who are maybe in between they're like oh, that, you know, I would love to go to that game. But I also want a few hundred dollars a profit. So like, and then there are obviously a lot of people who would have no interest in reselling that ticket and just want to go to the game. And I really, it's really tough to know what the breakdown is. And again, like, there's a big difference between, you know, so like for the top, I think they said the top five games. where Portugal, Colombia, the World Cup final, two of Mexico's games, and around a 32 game

that's probably going to be Argentina or something like that. So, like, let's take Portugal, Colombia, because it's the top game. I don't know if there's 10 million requests for that game, or 30 million, or 80 million. And I think there's a, I don't know, there's just, there's someone somewhere in there. Exactly like who even knows if the 500 million number is real. Like there's no way to prove that it's, you know, I'm not accusing FIFA of being untruthful here, but there's no way to substantiate it. No way to prove it wrong. There's no way to prove it true.

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Huh. Okay. Do you think, so what effect will it have on the game? What effect will it have on the World Cup's effect on the game for tickets to be so expensive?

Like will it, will it hurt the impact of this World Cup? You know, because I think the conventional wisdom is we talk about this on our show a lot. People went to the 94 World Cup on just on a lark, you know, and went and saw like an amazing game for 50 bucks or whatever, something in there. That's not going to happen this World Cup. Is that something to worry about or does it even, like people are still going to watch it on TV and that's where most people watch the World Cup anyway and it'll be fine. What do you think?

Yeah, I think I'd say three things to that. One is what you just said, that like, this is a, 2026 is a different time than 1994. Like, the impact always is what was going to be different. And no matter how, what the prices were, a lot of them were going to end up in the hands of rich people on the secondary market anyway. so like there's nothing we can really do about it. The second part is though like the public messaging angle of this. Like I think there was an opportunity for FIFA as the global governing body of soccer to come here with the World Cup and send a message to U.S. sports fans that like soccer is different.

It's not this overly commercialized spectacle that American football and basketball are. It is a people's game and it can be affordable for the masses. And all of you, you know, and then speaking to the masses, all of you should get on board with it and get swept up in this. And I think via the ticket prices and other things, they've kind of missed that opportunity already. Like I think it sends the opposite message that actually soccer here in the United States, is just like all these other sports. And there's nothing differentiating. There's nothing that makes it unique

that would draw you towards it. So I think that's a missed opportunity. And then the other part of it is how this is going to impact the atmospheres in stadiums. Yeah. And that has knock on effects for how people experience the tournament either in person or on TV.

Right. Right. If it's a, if it's an atmosphere of wildly passionate fans who are able to come because the tickets are cheaper, then, or because FIFA has done the lottery in a way that ensures that the tickets get into the hands of whether it's fans of these specific national teams or fans of a local

MLS or NWSL or USL club or, you know, have some sort of tie to soccer. That's a lot different than just, for lack of a better word, like just a bunch of rich people in the stands. And it's going to look different, look and sound different on TV. And I think that could have an impact

on how people perceive the tournament. You know, because sometimes, not all the time, but like I think one of the things that draws random non-socker-liking Americans to the sport is like turning on a championship. Champions League game and just like seeing how much everybody cares. Yeah.

About it. Yeah. Right. And like you're going to get, you're for sure going to get that at the World Cup to at the World Cup to at least some extent. Yeah. But I wonder if the ticket prices are going to change the extent, basically. I think some, I heard somebody made the make the joke.

It's going to be a stadium full of Jared Kushners, you know. So. That's not idea. Not ideal. Yeah. My words. My words. Not even my words, but definitely not yours.

And I guess Johnny, as President Trump calls him, Johnny Infantino, he sees this big number of requests as, like, that's the thing that matters. There are so many people who want to go to this World Cup. What can FIFA do? The prices have to be high. The demand is so high, you know? Yeah. And it's to some extent, that's like a legit argument. Right.

And like there are a lot of people who want to go to this World Cup. And I think, yeah, the thing is, even at these high prices, there are a lot of people willing to pay them. But some people from abroad, but in a lot of cases, people who live here in the U.S., and in some cases, it's going to be a person who's never gone to a soccer game, but just like enjoys big spectacles. and realizes the World Cup is coming here and wants that once in a lifetime experience and may or may not go to any soccer games again in their life. I have a hard time believe in somebody like that would go through all the rigmarole to have a ticket by now.

You know, like the lottery, you know, you got to have like it all, you have to have like a flowchart with the calendar and there's a lot to do. You do, but also like you could have just heard, oh, this ticket lottery is starting. I'm going to go put it in a request. and I may or may not get a ticket, and I might, if I don't, not a big deal.

But then what you all, the other part of this is like the thousands upon thousands of Colombian Americans and Korean Americans, and maybe those aren't great examples because they're actually playing some of their games in Mexico, but like Moroccan America, like there are the diaspora of people from all the, or the vast majority of the World Cup. Like, heck, like, I think the atmospheres at Haiti's games are going to be really, darn good, even though there's a travel ban on Haiti right now, and people from that country probably aren't going to be able to travel here. There are so many Haitian Americans that are so many Haitian Americans that are passionate

about their country and passionate about the sport, and they're going to show up. And even if they're, you know, whatever country we're talking about, you know, like, to hear the stories of like what some Argentina fans, like, they literally save up. money for years to go to the World Cup. Like, people, even if the tickets are stupidly expensive, and not just the tickets, by the way, but hotels and parking and all this other stuff around the game, it's going to be by far the most expensive World Cup ever, but there's a lot of people with money who are going to be willing to pay.

Yeah, when you say by far the most expensive World Cup ever, I don't know that the average person realizes just how dramatically true that is. Like, I was just looking at the prices for Qatar, which was 2022, which was a significant increase on the prices for Russia in 2018. And I guess you could get into a group stage game for anywhere from 70 to 220 bucks in Qatar. And the U.S. group stage games are all over a grand apiece right now. That's just nuts. It's so much.

I mean, yeah, I don't want to pay that much money to go to a game. I'd rather watch it on TV. you know. Totally. Anyway. It wasn't even really a question in there. So that reminds me, though, are you going to be on, are you going to be in the press box at World Cup games? Yes.

Okay. With the small asteris that, like, my understanding is there are going to be both press boxes and outdoor media tribunes. But yes, I will be covering the games. A credited member of the press. Yes. Yes. Okay. Are you coming to Atlanta for the games in March?

Yes, I'll be in Atlanta. And the, I think the tentative plan we haven't fully confirmed yet, but we'll, yeah, Atlanta in March, and then we'll be with the team starting in, I don't know, I'm not sure they've given the exact date yet, but from the roster reveal in, you know, that week in late May to the Atlanta, camp to the send-off games to L.A. for the World Cup. I and others from the athletic will be following them. Yep. Okay. All right.

Well, hopefully we'll see you in Atlanta in March. I don't know. I'm not going to be in L.A. Sorry about that, everybody. First, but let's talk about Pott's comments yesterday because he weighed in on ticket prices. Tim Wea had criticized the ticket prices a little bit. And Potch basically said, yo Tim, stay in your lane.

What do you make of that whole dust up? Yeah, I didn't love the comments. It was very like shut up and dribble vibes, kind of, you know? Like, why couldn't he have just said, yeah, Tim, Tim can have his opinion. And if he wants to give his own opinion

and say like, yeah, Like, that's up to FIFA. I have no problem with them. That's fine. But I don't think he needed to, like, I think he should be encouraging his players to speak up, show their personality on, you know, in whatever, in whatever lane they want to be in. I don't, yeah, I didn't love this. I'll leave it at that. He's very old fashioned in some ways, isn't he?

Pochitina. Yes. He is. Yeah. I mean, I feel, I guess I don't have a way to characterize it, but it feels like a part, it feels like part of a whole, like, philosophy of like the player's role and like people's, the hierarchy of where people stand in society and so forth that it's like I don't fully understand it, but it feels like it's all kind of consistent, you know, for him.

Yeah, well, in a way, it connects to kind of his... the concept of the team that he's tried to build and how like no player is bigger to it and like he's in charge, the players aren't in charge. It kind of, it all, it's, this is different. These comments,

his comments yesterday are different, but you can kind of connect, they connect, I would say. I would say so too. Yeah. It's like he's, he's sort of been in a battle for control.

since the beginning, and it seems like this is just another example of that. What are you watching with regard to ticket? So you're not hassling FIFA at the moment about anything, but what are you sort of looking, what's sort of the next thing on the horizon when it comes to ticket prices? Just seeing if the stadiums are full, basically? Yeah, so, I mean, I guess the next thing that I'll be interested in is, so everybody who applied for these lotteries, right,

is going to find out in about a week whether they got the tickets they requested, all some or none of the tickets they requested. A, I'll be interested to see, you know, just like if you take a random sampling of U.S. fans, like how many people get the tickets that they wanted and how many people are disappointed. And then what happens with the resale market? Like, I think we're anticipating that, you know, maybe for some of these, Lesser games, everybody who applied will get the ticket they wanted. But for the popular games, a lot of people will not get their tickets.

They'll be disappointed. And the first thing I'll do is go to the resale market. And I'll be interested to see if resale prices start to explode, yeah, for some games. So that's really the next ticket piece. And then the final piece is, does FIFA, need to open one last sales phase in the spring and maybe lower prices for some of these some of these lesser games because they've because they realize they've overpriced it and because they realize that they certainly haven't overpriced the you know the top 20 30 percent

of games or whatever and and I don't think there's any chance that they'll need to lower prices for those in a in a final sales phase but for the Switzerland against Qatar's and the Uzbekistan against the playoff winner or whatever these lesser games are. I'll be interested to see if they need a final push, you know, similar to how they did with the Club World Cup, right?

Which didn't sell well. And the whole story was that they were lower and ticket prices at the last minute to try to get a respectable audience in the stadium. So I think that's the next thing. But then I think the other aspect of this that maybe hasn't been covered as much, but is just as significant for fans is what I mentioned earlier. It's all the other costs, right,

that come along with this World Cup. We've done one story on hotel prices, but, you know, hotel prices are totally out of control in all the host cities, and a lot of people are struggling with that. I can give you an anecdote. I booked an Airbnb in Seattle,

because I'm going to go, I'm going to at least be in the city during that game. And, you know, it was like I think three beds in it. And it was a thousand bucks a month, a thousand bucks a night. Wow. I'm going to cancel it, though, actually. So just a good reminder for me to cancel it. I talked to somebody earlier today who's based in Europe who said that his friend was coming for two games.

in an East Coast city and rather than just fly here, go to the first game, get a hotel in the city and stay through the second game, they're flying in for the first game. It's cheaper to fly back to Europe

and then fly in again for the second game and then fly back because of how ridiculous hotels are. And then there's just, you know, there's so many other... What if you just went and visited, West Virginia for a few days, you know? I mean, that's probably a good idea, but I don't know.

Maybe they don't want to go to Westwood. But yeah, it's that, you know, and, you know, the travel within the United States is going to be a lot for people. And it's just, it's just so interesting that it comes on the back of Qatar, which was exactly the opposite, right? Like you could find reasonably cheap lodging and just access the whole tournament basically from this one place and all, you know, the public transit was free and it was actually pretty easy once you, once you got there. And this is going to be. So I think that and then, yeah, and just like the logistics, I think of transportation and everything is going to be a big story over the coming.

You know, that's separate from ticket prices, I guess. But that's going to be a big thing that we're all find ourselves covering, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, there's also excitement, you know. I mean, definitely excitement. I just found out yesterday that we just found out yesterday that Spain's national team is having its base camp in Chattanooga, which is where I live, roughly. That's kind of cool, you know. Yamal, Lameen, Lameen, sorry.

Laminia Mall balling out at Baylor school. You know, it's pretty cool. And there's going to be a lot of that all over the country. You know, people are going to be like, oh, Argentina's national team is here. Why is a World Cup boycott unlikely? Even if a lot of people – well, I don't even know if a lot of people are calling for it. It's not really true. But there's been a few, like, people floating the idea.

Most notably the same poly president, right? Yeah. And, yeah, and a variety of other people, but most of those other people, it's mostly just being driven by fans and pundits, right? Like, there's nobody... So there are a lot of reasons it's unlikely. One is that, like, even in the past when there were serious problems, and I'm not going to say better or worse reasons to boycott,

but even when there was much more momentum for this, it seems like the consensus is like people in sports and politics have kind of come to the consensus that this type of boycott doesn't really work, doesn't have the intended effect. So that's a baseline reason why

it's unlikely. And there's just so much money at stake and contracts signed that it would take I mean, yeah, legitimately it would take like the U.S. invading Europe to to cause a boycott. Yeah. And I think we can rule that out, can we? I hope so.

I hope so. Yeah. So yeah. And I think what some people don't understand is that like, look, it's not just going to be like the German soccer federation can't just take a principled, or wouldn't just take a principled stand. say we're not going to go to the World Cup because their duty is to their players and the players want to go players want to play like it's the it's the biggest event of their of their life uh really what any when you look back at the history of sports boycotts it has to come from national governments and specifically it has to come from powerful national governments and powerful national governments

and powerful national governments who build a coalition of other semi-powerful national governments. Right. Well, you think about what's one of the most famous, the most famous, at least for me growing up, one of the most famous Olympics storylines of all time is Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics.

I mean, I feel like I learned about that when I was a little kid, and that was the coolest thing that ever happened at the Olympics in Nazi Germany, you know? Right. And it was interesting. So then people use that. as a so in decades later in 1980 when the U.S. did boycott the Olympics a lot of politicians

used 1936 as an example of like look what those Olympics look how those Olympics empowered Hitler like what if we had boycotted those like the world could be different but then 1980 happened and the U.S. arranged this whole big boycott it was super controversial and it didn't really change anything on a on a geopolitical level It was like all for not, kind of. I shouldn't say that, but there are questions about how effective it was, but the prevailing takeaway was like, oh, maybe it's not actually that big of a, big of a tool. So, so, yeah, it's, there are, there are so many reasons that it's unlikely.

Could there be like, what's more likely is like a diplomatic boycott, which just means like, you know, if Trump is in like a trade war with Europe, then maybe some European leaders like wouldn't come and watch their country's games and wouldn't come to the, you know, the opener and things like that as they otherwise might. And frankly, like, who cares? Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I guess I was going to say you report, as you reported after the St. Poly president came out. said that, then, like, the president of the German Federation was just like, no, no chance, basically.

Like, the St. Palli president doesn't have any power. Right, right, right, right. And it's like a famously left wing, I mean, sort of a famously political sort of soccer club. Right. If anybody's going to float a boycott, it's going to be the president of the St. Pali. Right. And then also you reported the French, the president of the French Federation was just like, now where there's just not happening. And almost more importantly, like, this isn't even a discussion in Argentina or Brazil. It's not even a discussion in Spain or Croatia or, you know, most of the other countries that,

uh, that would, that would be able to, you know, deflate the World Cup by not coming in, in some small way. So like, it's not, you know, even if Germany,

France, and England were to decide together to, to boycott the World Cup, It'd still be a great World Cup The World Cup would go on without him and it would be great Yeah Yeah And and they would If they did that and the World Cup went on without them

They would probably get hit with some crazy terrorists by Trump Right And there would be people would be mad at them too The people of those countries would be upset Yeah Right exactly exactly yeah Okay boycott not happening Moving along

The soccer will happen and it'll be fun Yeah Cindy Parlo-Cone's run unopposed as president of the Federation. To what do you attribute her, the lack of opposition? Because, you know, some of the presidential races have been somewhat contentious in the last decade. Yeah, though it's interesting that there were really only two that were contentious, and before that it was just Sunil running unopposed. So, like, this is kind of, I guess it's,

going back and forth in U.S. soccer history. But I think I attributed, like a lot of people think she's doing a good job. And she has done a good job of reaching out to all the different stakeholders. And she hasn't been afraid to ruffle feathers here and there. But in general, like keeping everyone happy and not really, you know, picking fights with anybody. And I think, you know, somebody, it's interesting. She came into this, you know, when she was elected vice president and then ascended to the presidency when Cardero, Carlos Padero resigned. Nobody really, like she had no background in politics or like people thought, you would have thought based on her resume that she was somewhat like unqualified or unprepared for the job.

But I think what she's done a really good job of and deserves a lot of credit for is just like, empowering experts in various fields to run the federation in a different way that, you know, like 10 years ago, in a lot of ways, like Sunil had his hands on everything. Right. Right. And for the vast majority of U.S. Soccer's history, the president was super powerful and hands-on. And it's different now. Like J.T. Batson is much more hands-on than Cindy is. and they just hired a chief operating officer named Dan Helfrick,

who used to be the head of Deloitte. And now I think the main criticism of her is maybe she hasn't made that same, they haven't made that same type of hire on the, on the, on the sporting side. Not that Matt Crocker is, like I think Matt Crocker is doing a pretty darn good job, but the staff isn't as robust.

But basically what I think one of the reasons, that Cindy has had a lot of success is that she knows what she doesn't know how to do and is putting people in charge who do know how to do that. And she's, and like, I think the main thing that the Federation has done is that they're actually listening to people throughout the landscape. They're reaching out to people and sitting down with them. And I'm talking about like the youth state associations.

Yeah. For instance, they had a big presence at the United Soccer Coaches Convention again this year, which is, I think, a new thing in the last two years for them to really kind of put their stamp there. Yes. And, yeah, that's not to say that they're suddenly solving all the issues in youth soccer, but it's been a big – and they say this. And also when you talk directly with people in youth organizations or, you know, adult amateur soccer organizations, they say it as well. Like, there's been a big change over the past few years in U.S. soccer actually connecting with stakeholders and actually listening to them and hearing them. And that doesn't mean that they're going to do everything that a given youth organization wants them to do. But they're going to at least factor it into their thinking of how they shape policy at a, you know, a 10,000 foot level.

So I think that's a big reason. And then she's obviously, you know, you need to be unchallenged as US soccer president. You need support from the pro leagues, which she seemingly has. And you need support from, from the athletes council, like the athlete representatives. And she seemingly has that. So, yeah, it was interesting. There was never even really any talk of anybody challenging her, I don't think, which is probably an acknowledgement that there's.

There's no real, like, clamoring for change. Like, people, not that everything's going perfectly, but nothing's going really poorly, I wouldn't say. So, I remember that being the big criticism of Sunil was that he was just, like, the Federation was basically run by one guy. And so it's good to hear that that has been sort of, we've sort of moved on from that. and now it's like a real organization.

Well, and that's the thing. And that's an exaggeration, obviously. Like there were other people at the Federation. Other people have said it too. I'm not just, not just you. I mean, lots of people said that back at the,

but like, I mean, you know, 10 years ago, I don't know how many people were working at U.S. soccer, but it was, it might have been less than 100.

And now they, you know, they've probably increased the staff like fivefold since then. Is that right? Fivefold? They've expanded a ton. Even over the past, year or two. They've expanded a ton.

Do it into what? Like, what are they expanding on? Well, the big thing was, I mean, it's just being run more like a full on legitimate business, basically. But the other big part was bringing their commercial rights in-house rather than with soccer United Marketing. So that they had to build up a whole team. But they're just, yeah, they're expanding what they do in terms of soccer services for youth organizations. But yeah, a lot of it is on the commercial sodding. the business side, you know, they're... I'm all for it.

I love for them to make more money and spread it around. Yeah. And the thing is, there is a lot of people get hesitant when you talk about that because there was a criticism of the Federation that it was being, for a while, that it was just being run too much based on business. But like, even people, you know, smart people on the soccer side know that, like, you've got grow revenue to accomplish all of these things that you want to accomplish on the soccer side because a lot of it, for better or worse in the U.S., like, it costs money.

Like, to make things more affordable, it's like somebody has to pay for it. And if the U.S. Soccer Federation is making more money, then they can, they can subsidize it in some way. So, yeah, it's, I mean, they're going to, their, their revenue is shooting way up. and it's certainly more than it's ever been before. And yeah, I don't have an exact staff number. They might be able to give it if we ask, but it's definitely, yeah, the number of staff they have

is grown by hundreds in recent years. Okay, yeah. Sounds good. I mean, let's talk about the roster for the World Cup a little bit before you get out of here. What do you think is the most intriguing position battle right now? Most intriguing position, I think, I'd say the most intriguing position battle is for like who's going to play in an advanced midfield role. And like specifically, it's most intriguing to me because of, not Giorina actually, because of Weston McKinney.

Like I think like what, what is Weston's role? Like to me, Weston, I'm team Weston. Like, I think Weston has to be on the field in some capacity. You just, you watch him at YuVA, like, his offball running, like, just his do everythingness. Like, I think is so valuable, especially in a World Cup national team setting where it's not always about tactics and systems. Like, it's often just about, like, random moments and one or two guys propelling a game in a certain direction. Sure, yeah. But, like, that probably means that one of the other guys who you would consider a starter,

whether it's Malik Tillman or obviously Pulisic is going to be on the field. Yeah, Pulisic is going to start as one of the advanced midfielder's, and then the question is who's the other one going to be? Right. And we assume that they're going to kind of be playing the shape that they've played the last, few windows. So, like, that's the, it's like, what is Weston's position and what does that mean for other position battles is kind of the most intriguing thing to me?

And we just, you know, we haven't seen Weston much with the national team over the past. I mean, really, well, I think he was in one one window since March. Yep, that's right. And he played as a tucked in right winger. So that seems to be like where he's likely to play under. watch. I mean, you know, who knows, but. Right. So that's intriguing to me. And then I still think that, I mean, look, I still think there are, even though they have kind of settled on some starters or at least

did in the fall, like, I think there are questions at centerback and goalkeeper. Like, I'm not 100% sold on Maffre's. I don't think anybody is, right? Uh, And so, like, I'm interested to see if Matt Turner can play a few months of lights out soccer and MLS this spring and whether he can work his way back into that conversation. I think he's the only other person who can, frankly, at this point. So that's intriguing to me. And then, yeah, it's also, like, who ends up playing in those wide, you know, we just haven't seen the national team with everyone healthy. So healthy and available. So I think there are a lot of questions about who exactly is going to play in those wide positions if everyone is healthy come May.

And obviously I'm specifically thinking about Jedi Surge and Timi Wea. And like, do all three those guys get on the field? Is there a way to do that? Plus Alex Freeman, who Architino loves a lot of people love for good reason. and seems like he has maybe not quite earned a starting spot yet but certainly earned his way into that conversation. I mean, he earned a move to Virao

to La Liga, so he's going to have every chance to sort of keep moving up to pecking order, right? Right, right. And it doesn't seem like Potch is too wedded to Sergenio Dest as a fullback. Like, that seems, his position seems more tenuous under Potch than it did under Berlter, to me at least.

Yeah, and I could definitely see him playing higher out the field in a more advanced role. I could also see him playing in some sort of role where he's tucked inside more. Like, I just think there are a lot of options and we don't really, you know, for as good as the vibes have been the last couple windows, it hasn't necessarily answered any of these questions we have about who's going to be on the field on

June 12. And that's why it's so interesting to me. Yeah, like it's really hard to, like, if you asked me, if you said everybody's healthy, like who's on the field on June 12th, I think it's really hard to feel confident about even like whether it's what we would do or what we think Putsch is going to. do like i don't think they're answers to either of those yeah because you like to see mackett i'd personally i'd love to see mckenny in a more advanced role for the national team at the world cup like he's he's scoring lovely goals for yuve and i mean he's just a he's just playing outstanding soccer

you put him at one of those tens and then no tilman and uh no georena assuming he's healthy enough to come to the world cup um no sergenio d'est higher up the field unless you You know, so yeah, you're absolutely right about there being all kinds of knock on effects. And that is a big. But then so you played Wes in the midfield next to Tyler. And then that opens up more options. I think that's probably what I would do. Right, but then there's no room for Tanner Testman.

And like, is there enough cover? And does Tyler have enough license to press higher up the field, which is when we all agree. Like, Tyler is much better when, like, he, Yes, he's a defensive midfielder, but he's much better when he has the freedom to, like, charge at a guy at the top of the D in the other half, as opposed to feeling like he needs to sit in front of the defenders. He's a front foot guy, for sure. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, the interesting part of this kind of shape, you know, slash formation switch that is that if they are going to play three centerbacks, like three true. centerbacks, it has worked, but also centerback is the weakest position personnel wise.

And so you are, for structural reasons and for like team cohesion and rotation reasons, you're inserting a player who in a vacuum is worse. And like, is that a tradeoff that is going to work at the World Cup? I don't know. or are you putting so like right I mean specifically we're talking about like that right right sided defender

yeah right and I mean maybe that's how maybe that's where Alex Freeman plays um but you know I'm not sold that Alex like it's more important to get Alex Freeman on the field than any of those other wide players I mentioned

or any of the midfielders we've mentioned uh So, yeah, I don't know. There are tradeoffs in, like, all these decisions, and I have no idea what Pach and Jesus Perez are thinking. Yeah, they got some tough decisions ahead, for sure. Because I think you're right. Like, you can imagine Tim Wea producing a moment of magic

that wins us a soccer game from that wide-right position. I mean, goal against Uruguay, notwithstanding, it's harder to imagine that from Alex Freeman. Yes. I don't know. Yes. And also, we're still only, was six months or whatever removed from, I thought Alex, like, Alex Freeman was at fault on one of Mexico's goals in the Gold Cup final. Like, he's still not the most positionally aware guy as a defender, I'd say.

So you're really going to play him as a, you know, as one of a, as, like, more or less than a back three as, as one of the, is one of the guys you need to be really. solid defensively. I don't know. But he's clearly talented. And every, you know, challenge that he's earned over the past, uh,

over the past year, really, he's met it and he's earned another challenge. So, uh, yeah, we'll, and we'll see, you know, we'll see how his next few months go out. So, yeah. Yeah. Hopefully he plays a lot. Right. Right.

Um, is Geo going to make the roster? Oh. man. Before he got hurt, it would have been easy to say yes, right? But now he's hurt again. Yeah, I think, I really, I think it's... What the hell is going on with him? What is happening?

I don't know. Some, someday, like, yeah, I would... I mean, yeah, his... He's clearly still, you know, I think he's made progress, but he's still figuring out his body and figuring out what... And people around him are trying to figure out and figure out what exactly it, it needs to stay healthy.

And it's, who knows whether it's even something that he, who knows whether there is something he could do to prevent these injuries or whether it's just totally out of his, out of his control. Yeah, I guess we can't really know from advantage points. No. Tillman had a brace earlier this,

week in Champions League so far has had a fairly tepid 2026, I would say. Is he going to start? I know this is deeply connected to what you said earlier about McKinney, but do you think he's going to start any matches at the World Cup? He'll be on the roster, right? Yeah, 100% will be on the roster. If you're asking me, is he going to start at least one match, I'd say yes. In part because, like, you know, we try to think of this as like a starting 11,

but there is no one starting 11. Like, I think it will be different game to game. Also, like, so much of this is hypothetical, because who knows if all these guys are even going to be healthy in June. So I think if he's healthy, like, I think there's a good chance that if not, even if he's not, like, in the main starting 11 that is, that Potch is rolling out every game, that he is in the mix for multiple games.

and I just think, yeah, I think we probably need to think about it less as like a single starting 11 and more of like a group of players that some combination of 11 of them are going to be on the field at the start of a game and another combination are going to be on the field at the end of the game. And then, you know, six days later for the next game, it might not, it might not be the same combination either. So I think, yes, like I think he is, if you think of it as like a rotation, of 16 or 17 guys who are in the mix to start World Cup games and or finish World Cup games, I think he's absolutely one of those 16 guys, right? Okay.

Yeah, I think, so to your point about we have to think of it as a collection of players rather than a single 11. I think that's obviously totally correct. But there is this element of when you get into a tournament, there is a rhythm that sort of develops where like this guy is in this role and this guy's in that role. and maybe the starting 11 is a little different game to game, but it's generally not like it's all sort of makes sense with the previous game. Unless you're just like starting from scratch every game

because the last game was such a disaster, you know? So I think just to defend the like single 11 idea, the way fans think of it, it is kind of how it plays out ultimately in. Totally. No, you're totally right. And like, you know, even there are a lot of coaches. who will talk about it is like,

oh, no, we don't have defined starters. And then they get into the rhythm of it and the team wins and they're not going to mix it up next game. I mean, you look at what Oliver Glastner has done at Crystal Palace, for example. Like, he would just roll out the same guys again and again and again because they were winning and it eventually got to them, right? And now that's different than the tournament situation.

But look at what Greg Burrhalter did with the U.S. in 2022. Yeah. He's the same guys over and over again. Right. And that's what actually came back and bit us in the end. Right. And West plays every, I mean, plays like three games a match in Turin. I mean, three games a week, I should say, not three games a match.

One more thing, I got to pour one out for my boy, Richie Ledesma. You wrote about this last week. He's switching to Mexico. Yep. I don't know. Any thoughts from you? I assume you're not quite as fond of Richie as I am or I was. you know, but.

Yeah, I mean, I think he probably, there was a time when he maybe deserved a bit more of a look with the U.S., but. Not now, not now. No, and look, there's a lot more, I mean, we just talked about the depth that the U.S. suddenly has it at right back or right wing back. That's kind of the position that he has solidified at club level,

and it's probably Mexico's weakest position right now. so like there's actually some opportunity there for him now do i think he's going to make mexico's world cup squad i'd probably say it's unlikely but uh but there's at least a a chance there and like you know what i think he's 25 years old now is that right like 2000 birthday yep at some point if you're gonna you you got to you got to take it if you if you if your dream is to play to world Cup. Like, you got, you got to take a chance and this probably seems like his, his best chance. Yeah, got to make a move. Um, last question. What, what, what story are you working on right now? Um, can you talk about it? I've got something that I, when is this going to be published?

The podcast. This afternoon or tonight. Okay. Then I, I, I won't quite say the thing that we're, I mean, I'll say I did a, we got something publishing on Monday that's just like an overview of how all these NFL stadiums are going to have to like transform themselves for the World Cup. So again, like on the logistics side of the World Cup, it's both the grass, the special, you know, natural grass that they have to bring in to replace their turf, but also all the construction they've had to do and like the de-branding and stuff. So that and then there's one that we'll be publishing probably Monday or Tuesday that I'd rather not say just because it is somewhat newsy and I fear that something it's not it's not it's not

necessarily a scoop it's just like something that we probably picked up on before other people have so okay well anyway um and then we're refresh your henry buschnal author page on monday yeah there you go or tuesday yeah um and then and then honestly a lot of it is prepping for for what stories we're going to tell in May and June. And when, you know, when Americans are famously, you know, late to caring about things. Like, you know, there are a lot of people who are going to be very into the World Cup who have no interest in reading about it until June 7th or whatever. Or maybe even June 11th.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's a lot of long-term work right now because we've got out of the, we've got, you know, Tom Bogart, Paul Tenorio, totally on top of NFL or on top of MLS stuff, transfer news, things like that. I fortunately get spared from having to be on top of that and can think about some of these longer, longer term things. All right. I said that was the last question, but one more thing.

Do you, what do you make of USL's pro rel gambit? I don't think we've ever talked about this before. No, we haven't. They announced some details like earlier this week. Yeah, so the detail, like, that's, it's a significant announcement because like when they announced, what was it, it was probably about a year ago now. Yeah. They first announced their intention to create a Division 1 league, go to ProREL. It was relatively short on details.

And there were all these things that were like, oh, we're going to figure them out. So, like, so details. were the next step, so this is good. And now the final step is going to be like, okay, get it up and running. Is all the necessary investment from the owners going to be

there to create a legitimate Division I league that, like, I think there's going to be interest in the pro rail part, but you still need like good teams at the top for this to be a viable league that can grow, I think.

So well isn't that the isn't that the the bet they're making though that maybe good teams at the top excellent teams at the top isn't quite as important as like sort of the the community connection the community connection to something larger that for sure no no that's that's totally true but but I would say you still need with from a facilities and stadium standpoint for there are a lot of things that need to get better in the in the in the USL um on you know on on on that side of it so i would say i am i'm like a combination of optimistic and skeptical of how it's going to play out i think they will like they're going to do it um i think i think that's that's clear at this point i'm

i'll be fascinated to see what it's like three years in yeah and and how it's how it's working just because we haven't seen it here. Like it's, I don't know, it's exciting. I guess that's the other thing. Like, I'm excited to see how it, how it goes. Because you could see, like, sports center or, you know, just your average sports fan, like, clicking in their head, like, oh, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds are now,

if they win this game or if they lose this game, they go down to the minors, you know, people might, I don't know. Yeah. I don't, we'll see. I mean, look, even if you just think about it from, like, my perspective or somebody like me and thinking about like how to cover like a normal USL season like I don't really cover it that much right but if we've suddenly got pro rel battles like it's just it's something more to write about and and get people's attention like so

yeah from that perspective it's it's certainly intriguing yeah all right hey henry thank you for doing this and uh thanks everybody for listening we'll see you