Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #663: Poch tells Weah to can it, Wes and Malik ball out

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Sanjay Sujanthakumar joins Belz and Vince to talk through Poch on Weah on World Cup ticket prices, plus a big week to recap for Malik and Wes, and much more as the countdown continues.Sanjay on Twitter: https://x.com/tha_Real_Kumar Our trip to Germany and the Netherlands, spots running out: 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 where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, it's the Monday Review. Got Sanjay joining us. A lot to get into on this bright February morning. First of all, who should be evaluating ticket prices and who shouldn't at the World Cup? Vince, take us through this one, would you? I mean, first of all, you know, our illustrious guest, Sanjay, how you doing? It's good to be with y'all.

Been under the weather a bit lately. A tough winter out of here on the East Coast. But, you know, dreaming of the summer. Talking about this gets me looking forward to brighter days. That's right. I missed it for like three weeks. Anyway, for people who everyone listens to this podcast should know, we got some well-educated, well-read people that listen to the scuff podcast.

This is Black History, my ladies and gentlemen. Black History of my 2026. I need everybody in the stream going to put you, if you're listening to this podcast, or if you're, if you're in this call with me, put your fist up. Put your fist up, man. Right fist. Right fist specifically. Everybody put the fist up, baby. The Black History Month.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm just going to leave it there. So anyway, Mauricio, do I got to introduce this topic. All right, man. I can introduce it. I can introduce it. So Tim Way is said he was disappointed in the price of tickets. last week.

And then Maricio Pocitino had a press conference on Thursday. Sanjay, what was the point of the press conference? What was the whole idea there? Because there's not a roster

coming out? Or why was he having a press conference? He was at FIFA headquarters in Florida. And he was just a check-in with Pach. Okay. Because it's obviously a bit of a gap. So he was asked about Tim Wey has comments. and should I read the quote?

Yeah, go ahead. First of all, I think players need to talk on the pitch, playing football not outside of the pitch. It is not his duty to evaluate the price of the ticket. We are not politicians. We are sport people that only we can talk about our job. We need to be focused on the sports side and trust in the organization that is in charge of soccer

or football around the world that they are going to do the right things. So stick to sports, trust FIFA Timway should talk on the pitch not outside of the pitch Now real quick

Before we go any further I just want to say The question was asked by Andrew Jones And shout out Andrew Jones By the way We rode the train Back to Back to Penn Station

From Morristown, New Jersey together We've had across from each other Talked for a little bit You know we've been following each other Basically since I started appearing on scuffed or whatever. And, you know, he always, he always gets called on by Michael Cameron.

Usually last question or whatever. Usually has a pretty good question. Yep. One that gets people going, talking, elicits a response. You know, he's very good at that. Yes. But cool dude. As a matter of fact, he probably needs to be our next podcast, guess.

Let's go and get Andrew Jones on the pod. So shout out to Andrew Jones. Joe. So I became aware of this whole thing. the comment was made or whatever it started popping up in like some group chats I'm in and like yo Andrew Jones asked a question about 10 way I talking about tickets or whatever like and I and this was what Friday Thursday Thursday you said Thursday yeah yeah and I was like actually working on Thursday like you know I actually had stuff to do get done whatever KPI's EBITA things of that nature you know what

I love when you say even of things of that nature you know keep Q4 wrapped up. You know what I'm saying? So we got to do whatever. You got to do what you got to do. And so I'm reading through some of these chats, man. I'm like, people are like, oh, pot struck down Tim way up all blah. And I'm like, ah, whatever.

Keep moving. And then I actually see like the full, I see the full quote. And I'm like, damn, bro. My man told Tim to shut the hell up. You know what I'm saying? And like, so, and this is like two days later. This was like Saturday when it finally like register with me. I was like, damn, bro.

That's crazy to me. And so, yeah, I don't like it. I'm going to get that out here right now. I don't like it. I don't like, I don't like his tone. I don't like the way he just shot my man down in this manner to say. Okay, I mean, first of all, the first sentence, first of all, the players need to talk on the pitch, playing football, not outside the pitch.

That's strike one. it's not his duty to evaluate the price of the ticket we are not politicians what does politics got to do i understand that that policy created and evoked by politicians can curb price gouging etc but i'm not talking about i'm not talking about actual policy i'm talking about a sovereign citizen complaining about the price of the tickets what type of politicking is that really like yeah i don't know i don't know how that's politics And that's the whole thing for me is when I read it, it's like the whole tone of this thing seems off to me. It's like, okay, Potch, you can disagree with Timwaya.

Feel free to disagree with Timwaya. I don't care. But the whole tone of everything that he said just is extremely, extremely off to me. And I don't even want to take it to the, you know what I'm saying? It's a white man telling a black man shut up and dribble all that. I don't even want to do that because the topic to me seems so petty. you know, this is just a general. You know, this is just a general thing.

I had to look at what Tim said after part of said this, because I saw the headline and, you know, it's one of those things I, like, bookmarked but didn't actually read at the time. And then I went back and what way is said, and correct me if I'm wrong, if there's more to this, but he said it is too expensive. Football should still be enjoyed by everyone. It is the most popular sport.

This World Cup will be good, but it will be more of a show. I'm just a bit disappointed by the ticket prices. Lots of real fans will miss matches. There wasn't like direct criticism of FIFA in there. It was just lamenting, you know, the fact that, like, if he was, if the comments were more pointed and, you know, blaming whoever for the ticket prices, that's one thing. And that, to be honest, I don't think that makes sense. I think the real devil here is the, the resale, the nature of the resale market in our country, the dynamics of our country. It's not less to do with FIFA

But yeah, it wasn't that deep What Tim said, so go on, Vince, and then you can address the macro of this FIFA does control the resale market though, right? Am I tripping? Only seconds? They opted to sort of align the resale market with standard practice in America Right, right, right, which was the key decision, I think. Yeah, in Mexico, I believe in Mexico, it's different. I think there's stricter controls in Mexico.

But yeah, here, it's out of control. It's not a secret. This is the biggest sporting event in all of history. And yeah, we live and we die with dynamic pricing. To that, Bell's you get a great episode with Henry the other day. Everyone should go back and listen to that. Henry was talking, and he's covered this great for the athletic. He was talking about, you guys are talking about the different categories of resellers. I think that category of reseller, where it's soccer fans or people who might want to go to the game who buy the tickets and then see how much they can sell the tickets for. I think that's like an underrated category. I myself, like if I wasn't going to games as a journalist, I would like, you'd have to

think about, you know, if you get an absolute bag for tickets. So bottom line, I think the resale market is the real problem here. But anyway, go on, Vince. Okay. But yeah, so, so Sanjay, to your point of what Tim said, you know what I'm saying, you know what I'm saying, he's He's not petitioning his local congresspeople. He's not petitioning the AOC. He's not like Hock Jeffries. You know what I'm saying? You got to get up to Capitol Hill and get something going, man.

Post-haste. You know, World Cup's in six months, baby. Before y'all go on recess or whatever, I need a bill passed to the House and Senate immediately. You know, he's talking, once again, as a person, as a sovereign citizen, as a, as an American, right? And for the coach of the national team to tell him to say explicitly, explicitly, not implicitly, you know what I'm saying? I didn't have to infer that Posh told him to shut the hell up.

He, well, maybe I am because those aren't the. No, but it's pretty clear he's saying shut the hell up. Right. And yeah, that entire tone I just can't get with. And once again, I'm not making this, you know, to use everyone's face. favorite word, political, political thing. You know what I'm saying? I'm not talking about race, whatever. If Christian politics said the same thing, I'd be like, bro, your tone's completely off. And to me, this whole thing implies, it, and what does it imply?

Part of coaching grown men or managing grown people in general, right? It's treating them, is treating them like a grown person. Right? Not a kid. You know what I'm saying? Not the janitor. In Pajas parlance. You know what I'm saying?

You treat them like they, like everyone is their specific, their own, you know, they're the coach of themselves, not the janitor. Right. So it seems,

and to do that, right, you treat everybody with respect. And you treat everybody with respect that, hey, you know, if I give you this task, I only got to say it once, maybe twice. You know, maybe you got to give somebody a constant reminder. But, you know, I give you the task and you get it done or whatever.

Or if somebody has an opinion that you don't share, whatever. But to talk down in this way to a grown-ass man who didn't do anything crazy just gave his opinion on ticket prices. I think it implies a lack of respect for the player, man. I don't see any other way that I can look at that to me. One last thing about the taking of prices before we get into, you know, before we zoom out a bit about politics. Potch has also implored fans to show out, right?

Like he wants stadiums packed with true fans. So that is directly tied to, ticket prices. Right now you can argue, oh, well, maybe fans from other countries who aren't the most well off save up whatever amount of money and spend it on this experience because it means that much. But, you know, there is a connection there. Zooming out a bit, I think in a way it's good that this happened because there's obviously been a lot of discourse about how it's impossible to disentangle politics and sports. And we're talking about a World Cup during the 250th anniversary celebration of our country's birth that is very much being, I don't know, appropriated

to the word, but, you know, the president's going to involve himself one way or another at some point, right? I think we're all kind of bracing for that. And I think what's great about this team is that it can elicit a very positive form of nationalism. And it's one of the few things that can really unite our country. And we obviously, with even fans, of this team, maybe they lean a certain way, but we have a very diverse group of people, diverse set of viewpoints, and that's what I love about our scuff community as well. So this team is supposed to unite people and kind of kick politics to the curb. That said, it's going to be difficult this summer.

And we want to ensure that this team is not a political prop, right, in any way. And it's going to be tricky because of the, the Trump factor. So I think Potch was going out of his way to try and leave no doubt, to preemptively leave no doubt about how the team should be focused on, because what he's concerned about is going as far as he can in the tournament, right? But this is going to come up, and it's kind of good that we're having the conversation now,

and maybe, you know, there's going to be conversations that will happen that ensure everyone's on the same page. because it's going to be hard to predict where this goes as we get close to the tournament and the team gets a ton of attention and the president loves attention as well. Yeah, I could see that sort of poch nipping any sort of chit-chat in the bud being the reason for this because it's not, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, the strength of his reaction to what way I said for the reasons you guys have laid out? Like he didn't say anything crazy.

Everybody is talking about the ticket prices. It's not like he was way out of pocket or anything. There's a New Yorker talking about a World Cup that's partly taking place in his... Yeah. So the strength of... The strength of Potch's words is a little bit confusing to me, like the strength of his reaction to it. Well, I think it just suggests that... You said he was at FIFA headquarters, right?

When he said that? In Florida, yeah. FIFA's U.S. headquarters? Or is that their whole... Yeah, so I think maybe he was extra... he was feeling defensive in that sense or I mean he might just be aware of what's going on like he doesn't live under Iraq like he might not be living in the States but he's aware of what's going on in the States so maybe this is something that you know he's been thinking about and it and it

kind of showed but but again he's got to be careful like there's no avoiding there's not going to be avoiding politics because of the president. Potch has already made a comment or two referencing the president, right? He posted a picture with him on Instagram from the day of the draw. So you can't avoid him because he is the president, but you got to be careful not to position this team to be a prop, right?

Because even if he's a president, you're trying to be neutral, like, that's inherently not neutral to a lot of people. I mean, the team's going to be a prop, more than likely. I mean, I don't even know what that means. Like, is, like, some politicians going to say that the team is they're doing? I mean, I don't know. I think if the team's going on a run and, you know, obviously there's elections later this year

and the team's going on Iran and it's good vibes and everyone's on board with it. Then it shouldn't be good vibes. It should be bad vibes because we have a president we don't like. No, no, no, no, no. It's that the president shouldn't be making it about himself. Now, at the same time, you can't understand Potch wanting to be, whether you like him or not, he's the president. You want to be respectful of him and low-key see if he can help out in some way. Who knows?

But, yeah, it's a very delicate thing for someone who's obviously, he's not American. So, yeah, it's tricky. I got two other thoughts on that. Well, Vince, go ahead. Well, one, I just think we maybe have underestimated. how it could be he was just saying Potch was just saying this because he was at FIFA headquarters and he was feeling the heat.

Maybe. I don't know. I think he's just a really old-fashioned guy. Like maybe more than I realized. I agree. He's very... Deferential? Yeah, talking about, yeah, like an establishment guy.

You know, thinks people should just keep their head down and work. And, you know, I'm not saying that's good. I'm not just defending it. I'm just saying, I think, I didn't maybe realize it at first how much of a sort of like, like, you know, they talk about the, in baseball. What's the, what's the phrase they use for baseball? Like, you're not supposed to throw your bat. The what? Not written rules.

Yeah, they aren't written rules of baseball. Like, that's, that's Potch. Potch would be a great baseball manager, you know. I mean. Yeah. I hear you. I'm just saying, like, he's got to be. he's got to be careful because in this case,

whoever you're being deferential to, like, may not be a genocidal maniac. I didn't say that. No, I mean, that's ultimately the concern, right? So, and then the other thing is, I would never criticize Tim for saying this. I agree with Tim.

I'm glad he said it. It is, just to play devil's advocate for a second, his last significant statement he made on the pitch, was a red card that got the previous coach fired. So Posh may be thinking like, man, this guy has a sleeper cell. He's trying to get me in trouble down here at FIFA headquarters. He got the last coach fired with an absolutely unexplainable red card. I'm joking.

But I do, but I do, I'm not joking about, like, Waya's last significant statement on the pitch being like an absolute catastrophe. I mean, it happened. Whatever. That was a long time ago. Also, also, it got Greg Burrhalter fired. But as I remarked multiple times when West two piece of dude and Serge two pieces of a dude and they kicked the ball out of stadium, et cetera, that shit should have been nipped in the bud immediately.

And BJ, this falls on you too. It's the most unfitball thing you did as manager of the U.S. Mass national team, bro. You can't have that going. You can't have that going. You know what we used to do when we would be late to be late to, like, like morning lifting or like practice or something. You know we would have to do Adam Bells?

What? We'd have to roll the width of a football field. Okay? On the ground. On the ground. Roll. Roll. Roll.

If you've never done this, you don't understand how miserable it can be. I would have had them boys rolling immediately. Yes, we won those Mexico games where we, you know, beat their ass on the pitch and then, you know, metaphorically and literally, you know what I'm saying? but can't have it, can't have it. You know, it's a lot of the things involved with football, I think, are BS. But that one, I'm taking it to the bank.

Brother, you're playing a literal game where you literally get punched in the mouth every play. You got to keep your emotions in check. Got to keep it between the whistles. If we had nipped it in the bud then, we don't see Timway a two-piece the man then. So, you know what I'm saying? It's not, it's not, you know what I'm saying?

It's Burrhalter's fault. fired ultimately is what you're saying. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So anyway, so that's that with that with that. I did consider all these things because, you know, people brought them up to me on the, on the scuffed account. I have left that.

I have just like completely not even checked in on that. Thank you for your service. And then to your first point, Adam Bell's, not only could he just be like a, um, old-fashioned dude. But also I think it's pretty clear that culturally, he's not all the way there yet, understanding America. And I think that's another takeaway from these quotes.

Just a little bit, a little bit to me. Yeah, he hasn't been to the Steve Kerr of Cosmopolitanism and upholding the, uplifting the opinions of players. You know what I'm saying? Well, right. Right. So we got a camp coming up in Atlanta, right? Atlanta, Georgia.

Two matches in Atlanta. So we got a long time in Atlanta. All right. I'm going to propose this right now. I need our executive director of across racial line, racial relations, Sebastian Burrhalter. I thought you were going to sometimes say that that was you. but okay Sebastian Burrhalter

I need Sebastian Burrhalter to take Maricio Pashtino on a tour but you know it's Black History Month will be over by the time they get to without the time they get to Atlanta or whatever but he needs to learn some stuff culturally about this country take that man to the King Museum

you know what I'm saying take that man to what they call a university center yeah I don't know I don't know University Center but I know the King Museum take that man down to walk on the yard Morehouse, Clark Atlanta, et cetera. You know what I'm saying?

Get this man some coach and it's like, he needs to understand what he's walking into to be the head coach at his national team. And I know Sebastian, if I put this task in Sebastian's hands, he'll do an excellent job of it. But yeah, man, he got some learning to do. He got some learning to do. And it seems like, well, I'm not going to say what it seems like, but go ahead, Sanchi. now like i'm not judging poch too too hard for this i know everyone they saw this quote or they they heard what he said um and in the tone and they want to jump on him like you said bells i think

he's a different kind of guy um there's a bit of a um disconnect and um yeah i think like i like i said it's good that it happened now under these circumstances with something that's not actually that political at all because when that time does come i think he'll be he'll be more adept at navigating questions and narratives out there. And one more thing from the follow of this. All the boot lickers, man. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, Carly Lloyd, like, oh, yeah.

It's what I like to see. Pacha said in the culture. You know what I'm saying? And then, you know, you got the, you got everyone else to hops on that type of train. Get the hell out of here. Get the hell out of here. You're telling me. respectfully. Go ahead, Bill's. Well, you're telling me the debate over this comment and it has fallen, you know, perfectly on partisan lines. Is that what you're telling me?

It's so crazy, bro. What is it going on in America? Why is everything like this? Yeah, the fact that everything has to be this is just ridiculous. But yeah, Carly Lloyd, it's like, bro, y'all won a World Cup while your team was actively taken on the entire administration at the time. and actively antagonizing the administration at the time. You know, and hold on,

real quick, real quick, this will be the last thing I say on this topic. And, you know, the whole time Potch has been the U.S. men's national team coach. You know,

people are like, oh, do you have contact with the players or whatever, blah, blah, it's been pretty established. No, he doesn't have contact with the players talk to him during the camp.

So all I'm saying is, you could tell a grown man to shut the hell up. You know what I'm saying? Why, you're not in camp? And Tim Wea, if he does have a problem, what you said, has no, potentially, potentially, I'm not saying this either way, has no recourse to even reach out to you, to even talk to you about what you said, bro. So I'm going to leave it at that. And, you know, Tim might be fire hot looking at these pictures of poaching his fucking sandals in Barcelona or whatever.

But, you know, he can't even reach a man. He got to vent to Jesus Perez or whatever. But anyway. Bells, I was going to say, I don't care what people might. say anyway, I just think it's funny because it's like an accurate. I like to think we give balanced views about this team and in the world in general. You had asked about the prop thing earlier. We do have a literal example of them being a prop, right? When they were in the Oval Office like that, that literally happened. Like West and Tim were there just, you know.

When Yuva was there? Yeah, and they were forced to go along with it. And I think it's funny because when Trump tried to prod them about the transgender thing, and I think Tim said something back to him that wasn't exactly going along with it. But yeah, like we've seen an example of that. That's fair. You know, we'll see what happens this summer when the whole country is supposed to be behind the team

because, yeah, all politicians are going to want a slice of that. Tillman, with three goals in five days. Let's get to the action here. He had a hustle goal and a banger midweek in Champions League. and then a little curling dagger on the ground after a layoff as he arrived in the box as part of a 3-1 win over Frankfurt. He was elegant as usual, notably in switching play to the opposite side of the field. He had a bad mistake in the first half before he scored.

David away and a shot resulted from that Rasmus Christensen, I think it was, or one of the Rasmuses that's plying. It's Rasmus Christensen. Yeah. There's a couple of these Rasmuses around. He scored that really nice goal, and then he put one on a platter for Tapsoba, who couldn't keep it on frame late.

So I don't know. I wouldn't call it a master class or anything versus Frogford, but, you know, he's back. He had a drought, and now he's back. Recrunda Malik has been activated. He, I thought he was pretty good in the Champions League match, though. They played Villarreal, I want to say.

The yellow submarine, which Alex Freeman completed a transfer to Villarreal. Yeah, that's a big deal, man. That's a big deal. So he'll be there. Available selection for selection. I don't know. A week from today is his next chance. Oh, okay.

It's his next chance, but when will he actually be available? He was on the bench. He was on the bench over the weekend. He just didn't play. Okay. Yeah. All right. So he's ready to go.

We'll see. So he was sharp in Champions League. they said he was, I think he was like player of the match day for UEFA, with Gio kind of drifting off into the ether of another hamstring injury. It's a hamstring? It's a hamstring. I guess I shouldn't say that. Muscle, a muscle strain. I don't know if it's hamstring or not. Okay. You know, him just kind of quietly dealing with another muscle strain.

It's good to see Malik doing well, I guess. Yeah. Geo's going gently instead. night for sure. Yeah, I'm not counting on Gio to be ready to start or play serious minutes or who knows if he'll definitely be in the squad. But I will say that's not to be a wet blanket, but they're different players. And the potential of impact of Gio on the ball, like running the game, like what we knew he could have been once upon a time, I think that's definitely going to be different

than anything Malik can give us, even when Malik can't. is playing well. That being said, it's the most important part of the game is production in the final third. So, I mean, if he can do this in the summer, then we're in business. But from a, from a game impact standpoint, I don't want to exaggerate how well he's playing. That's not necessarily his game. Yeah. I don't know. I disagree. I think I disagree. But we keep it moving. We don't need to have a geo. Malik debate. One thing I wanted to, one thing I wanted to add about, Malik, there was a moment in Vince, I think they should definitely get in the clip notes.

They're not, if it's not already in there. There was a moment in the 45th minute where he drew a foul. He was foul by Mario Gitt. So the ball was like crossed and his teammate kind of dragged his leg and the ball popped up. And it was one of those balls. It was in the air and it was coming down for a second. And Malik kind of like pump fake like he was going to get ready to head the ball. But then he just took the ball down the way you would if you're like juggling.

and the ball goes straight up in the air. And he just took it down, and this was, like, in his own box. And just remarkable calmness. And one of the commentators had said, if you could bottle that confidence, imagine what you could do. Extraordinary. The other one said, is one bottle enough then. So I think that just encapsulated his composure,

wherever he is on the pitch. I remember Sebastian Burr-Elder saying the summer that he hasn't been stressed today in his life. Malik, and you saw it there in that moment. That was pretty cool. Yeah, he's a dirty man when he's on his game. I mean that in a positive way. Another fantastic goal from Weston McKinney.

Set up another big chance, hit the crossbar. I just got to give a layman's outline of the degree of difficulty here on this goal of his, because it's a cross that comes in from wide from Kalulu, and Wes is holding off a defender. The pass is behind him. So he has to adjust his body, and he gets shoved while the ball is in flight.

And so he has to control his body well enough to just chop at it horizontally and guide it into the near post. And it's not like the most beautiful volley you'll ever see, but it is a fantastic finish. I mean, it's so, I think it's so hard to get that right. And yeah, he's cooking, no doubt about it. He set up Conce Sao to smash the crossbar early with a little left-footed cutback.

Hit the crossbar himself, like I said, with a header on a set piece. Bremer scored on the ensuing scramble. He did some nice work, really nice work in midfield to turn and play wide to Conce Sao, who shot and his rebound was dumped home by Jonathan David. So it's a pretty good day at the office in a 401 win. Stacking him. stacking him he is and you know everyone's feeling good good vibes all around i think weston he was interviewed after the match this is his quote about luciano spoletti

spletti is one of a kind i've never had a coach like him in my career incredibly strong i'm happy even brimmer is happy everyone is happy because brimmer was standing right next to him when he said Yeah, yeah. I guess he's just a brooding type of dude. It must be an old school centerback in that way. But, you know, we talked about it last week, but it just, it continues to just put a smile on my face, man, to see him to see him unleashing this way. Once again, still covering, still covering, still covering right back. But, like, truly attend on the end.

you know, just weaponizing his ability to cover so much of the pitch. You know, brilliant. Yeah, because like you were saying last week, he can get up into the attack, but he still will bust it back when things are going wrong, when things are going sideways.

Yeah, he's a coach's dream at this point. That's total freedom now, man. Ability, you know, he's running it behind. doing well there making a has license to get in the box whenever obviously you know he scored the goal you know the wing back stuff

you know that's it's one thing so he was operating in that left half space a lot too yeah you know he roams all over it would be uh it'd be crazy to imagine him leaving or to see him leaving we can imagine it's it's been rumored for for how long but it would make no sense

there's been a new rumor that's come out now that says you know uve's willing to come to the table at this point i mean which it seems like they've been at the table the reporting prior to now has been that you know they don't want to meet his demands whatever's what's the demands were but at this point with spoletti who that's a good coach right there spoletti man i i never understood why it it was it was milan to let him go right when he had milan cooking Was that Spoletti? Everybody tributt? What pulley?

I don't remember. Dude, it's so... No, that was... You're thinking of Piole, I think. I am thinking of Pioly, I think. I am thinking of Pioly. Bro, that's one... You know what I'm saying? It's all the carousel, right?

Seria carousel. It's the carousel. It's the carousel. And Piole is Spoletti in particular. They kind of look alike. But you see, I was thinking of Piole. I was thinking of Piole. But, um... Yeah, wherever Spoletti goes, I would love for West to stay with him just the rest of the way, man.

Man, believes in him so much. I mean, Spoletti even had a quote, hold on, let me pull this one up. So that was Weston McKinney waxing poetic. And then Luciano Spoletti said, I guess there was a rumor that they were going to get Mara O'Cardy. We don't want a Cardi. We're fine like this. You'd want a player with certain characteristics. Can't find them?

Then we'll stay as we are. McKinney is a real goal score. Who would have known, bro? You know what I'm saying? Because the goals are kind of dried up over the past three years or whatever, three, four years.

I mean, to the point to where, you know, he had a season with no goals and 11 assists or whatever. You know, you put them back in goal scoring positions and goals and goals follow. Who would have thought, who would have thought, man? It's too late?

Not to really help us so much as it is to hurt Canada. But is it too late for West to talk Jonathan David into switching back to the country of his birth? Oh, man. It would be nice. But since it's too late, you know, Agent McKinney, you've been activated. You know what I'm saying? No, don't ask what your country can do for you.

Ask what you must do for your country. Yep. In training on May 3rd. It would be perfect. You know what I'm saying? You don't got to do nothing crazy. Just send him like 11. Long balls in behind in a row.

Just really test that half string out, bro. You know, you've been doing you. Yeah, that could be a knockout opponent, right? That's what we're hearing, which I'm not even going to say her and act tough. I'll be stressed out. Yeah, me too. Potentially getting put out by Jesse Marsh, bro, and would end me. In me.

Yeah. It'd be really fun to beat them at the World Cup, though. I mean, it would be, the risk reward is really high. Speaking of number nine, Peppy to Fulham is off. You know, it was coming out like it was happening on Friday.

37 million euros. Deal off because PSV can't find a replacement. I guess goose teal doesn't count. I mean, I think they need somebody plus goose teal. Well, did they?

I forgot my remote who's out for the season. All right. So, yeah. So they do just have goose till. and uh so i mean and rico

and i guess there's been reports that Rico's already back training he got the cast on that thing oh good and uh maybe doing some non-contact stuff i assume but this is a move that didn't really make a lot of sense to me

I don't know about you guys but um I didn't want to see it happen yeah this might be it's not be a blessing in disguise uh just do it in the summer you know come back,

get some more minutes, get some more goals, make sure you're on the roster because, I mean, I guess right now, it's pretty straightforward. I got a roster prediction piece coming out soon,

and I think this is the easiest call up top. It's flow, it's Rico, and it's Big Pat. That's an easy call to... I think so. I think unless Sergeant comes back and really is banging in goals

or Hodgies, you know, really in good form. I think Big Pat has a pretty good handle on that third spot. And yeah, RICO has scored enough goals under Potch that if he's playing it all in any kind of form, he'd have to come back and be really struggling to not make the cut, the way I'm looking at it. Okay. Yes.

That's fair. But, you know, but yeah I mean just thinking about this move or whatever like you know you look at Raoul Jimenez and you look at Rico Pepe you know what I'm saying and this is no

shot at Rico man boy you know what I'm saying and just like the general play too like that's a real primary league forward you know what I'm saying

might be obviously well not obviously might be past his prime now or whatever but that's a real primary league forward adult you know what I'm saying that's like a in my dreams America would produce a strike of that talented um with that frame with that delicacy come on man yeah come all man like that's like a created in the lab type of thing for for us I guess I mean maybe not for world football but

but you know right like you said the frame the feet um you know that that that that finish which you know we dissected everything that Tyler did on that play and Chris Richards did on that player or whatever in the Gold Cup final. But I mean, come on. That's top class stuff. You know what I'm saying? And it's not, we've obviously seen Rico do his thing in the Champions League. I mean, against, you know, some of the cream of the crop in the Premier League.

But week in, week out, physicality, et cetera, on that body, I have some reservations. I just, I just have some reservations. Like maybe in a year's time or maybe in six months. most time as Sanjay was just talking. We can revisit, but I don't know. Right now,

I mean, Raoul is, I think he's 34, right? Like, he's old, so I don't want to risk Riga going there

and holding the clipboard for a few months and missing the World Cup. But if he could go there and learn from him for a bit, that would be cool. And you'd hope that they get along that he could be a mentor.

They obviously have that linguistic connection. So, yeah, it'll, will happen when it's supposed to for Rico. Yeah. So in other transfer news, like we already said,

Freeman is officially at, he's at Villarreal. He was on the bench over the weekend, did not play. But that's a pretty quick turnaround. I think it was like two days after the deal was finalized or something like that. So we'll see what happens when VRL plays next Monday, a week from today.

And then just saw Jean-Philippe Mateta's reported move to A.C. Milan. also off that would have been fun would have loved to see him that would have been nice man it had been striking out on center forwards

and having Matta there to play with play a pulley I think I would have it would have fun time yeah I'm kind of relieved for Chris though I don't want the wheels

to totally fall off the bus at Palace the rest of the season challenging times for them the coaching situation and whatnot moving forward so Yeah, it's good for Chris to have Jean-Philippe around.

I mean, the wheels kind of have already falling off that bus to some extent. But anyway, hey, let's take a break. Come back, talk about Tesman, No-Kai Banks, Johnny, Ballo, Big Pat, a few other things. Look, if you want to skip the ads, join the Patreon. Link is in the show notes. And also, we're going to Germany. It's basically, it's happening. That's right.

April 18 to 26. There still might be two, three slots left, two, three, four. So I'll put the link in the show notes for that. If you decided, hey, all of a sudden I want to go to Germany. See, and we also just found out we're going to get some tickets to Leverkus and Kohn, which is a derby, which is very difficult to get tickets to. I'm going to see Malik At Colne

What else else And then we're going to go We're going to go see Amsterdam On April the 20th We're going to be where on April the 20th? Amsterdam, Netherlands And

We're going to see a PSV game Oh And And And we're going to see Glogbach Damn all that's in the show notes that sounds like hell

that's like a hell of a trip but it's gonna be me and Vince me and Vince hosting everybody so in all seriousness at this point at this point it's if you were on the fence you need to make that decision

in like the next week probably because we we will I mean not we will but we can run out of space and like at this point

with the number of people that we have committed to go running out of space is there's a non-zero chance that we can run out of space okay that's yeah I'd say it's a pretty good chance we'll run out of space well

but you can still you can still come so hit that link and connect with us all right we'll be back in a minute all right we're back got some more action to get through Tanner Testman another start in another win

that's five straight wins for Olympic Leone and this one was at home over Leo, which is a six-pointer. It helps them open up a seven-point lead over them in the table. They are in fourth place, well, tied for third place with Marseille. The top three teams in France go to the Champions League. Fourth goes straight to Europa League group stage. I thought Tanner, I don't think he did anything super special,

but he is a solid defensive midfielder, I think, at this point, which I think is such a major development in the pool. Vince, we've talked about this ad nauseum over the years. He was not solid 18 months ago, even 12 months ago. Nope. But he's stuck in now, and we know he's capable of some good stuff on the ball. But now he's stuck in defensively. He was the one who cleared the last ball before the final whistle.

you know, just a dog to the 96th minute. There you have it. Yeah. He's not playing his best. I'll say that. He's not playing his best. Missing some passes that, you know, I feel like he shouldn't or whatever. Like, you know, when he was really hitting his stride, like, early in the season,

it was just like, oh, man, this, his man can do no wrong. type of thing. He's doing he's doing something wrong now on the ball specifically. But like, like as you were saying, Bell's and as we've, you know, be talking about for like past year watching Tanner or whatever, the defensive stuff is just like now, now when you watch Tanner, I think if this was your first time watching him now, I don't know if you would say he's like athletically deficient. You know, that was like the first thing that would pop up in a lot of people's minds when you would watch them earlier. And once again, it's all about, knowing where danger, not even where danger might come, but knowing that danger is a possibility.

And, you know, for him being a 6-3 man in a world of diminutive people on a soccer pitch, you got to have your, you got to have your hips low and ready to go. And he does now. And so, and that's the thing that I saw is just like, when you really looked at him, it's like, he doesn't actually, he doesn't actually move bad when he's moving. It's just he's slow to get ready to move. And now that he has all that wrapped up, yeah, he's holding it down out there. He's holding it down. And, you know, he had to do this as the,

as like the main, main pivot in this match. Tyler Morton is, is he hurt? Tyler Morton, Tyler Morgan, Tyler, got to injury. It's suspended. He wasn't there. So it was good to see Tanner, like, at the base of midfield, like kind of anchoring. Right.

Right, which he kind of hasn't been since he can. back from his injury. Like Tyler Morton has kind of taken that over. And they've been pushing, they've been pushing Tanner forward a little bit more. But yeah, it was also, it was also nice to see Paulofonseca back on the touchline. Was this his first match back?

I don't know if it was his first match back. It's the first time I've seen him on it. Yeah. You know, since he had that six month. Dude, he got banned for a long time, but whatever he said. So it's nice to see him back on the touchline And yeah

It's good man Everything everything's good Yeah I think just minutes of that position Like hopefully he can work his way back to that form that we saw earlier But Regardless like he was okay But some minutes are good I think

You also led the team in distance covered I saw that stat He did I saw that yeah So it's just Positive Yeah it is And it's great to have him

As an option In the midfield Going out of the summer So to my point Sanjay With the distance covered You know You wouldn't You wouldn't have thought of ten of testament test

As rangy You know what I'm saying But you know Uh Tall man bias People people People have When you're looking at

At a soccer pitch Maybe, and maybe, because his name was Tanner Testament, too. You know, I understand. I understand. No, you're right. Once he gets moving, even with the ball, I mean, we've seen him go on some of those marauding runs. True. Once he really gets going.

There was a run with, I think it was against like Inter, right? When he was with Venetia? You guys remember that game? Like, it was against the top Italian team and everyone was like, wait a second. You know, he can do that. Yeah, he really does not get hawked down when he gets on his horse, starts carrying it like that. that is very true so yeah man and and you know people have been talking a lot about what our starting lineup could look like what our what our what our

double pivot will look like right in the in these in these matches coming up and under the world and under potch at the World Cup and you know there's a decent amount of people that got sent an testament testament to that in that starting lineup yeah um whether I would do it, I'd have to think long and hard about it. I don't think I would, considering all the people that I think we need to put on the pitch, but I would not be mad if it happened.

Like everyone says... Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah, everyone says injuries, like we won't actually have to decide this. Indries will decide it for us. But here's the bottom line. If Tanner and Tyler and Malik and Weston and Christian are all available,

that's a real dilemma. I think the default right now is probably Tyler and Tanner and then Christian and Weston in the attacking shape in those like, you know, free roles. But I think we got to ask ourselves, is that really the best way to try and break down the first two opponents? Like we've seen what they're going to do. We've had an idea of what they're going to do from the friendlies. And I don't know if Christian and Weston, you obviously both have to start, if them and the half space, those nominal half space roles is what makes the most sense. Is dropping Tyler too much? Maybe, but we've seen, you know, Tanner kind of be that holding guy with Weston in the past.

So who knows? Good problem to have. It is a good problem to have. I got a shout out Wayne Warner, regular correspondent, listener, who said he was surprised by my discussion with Henry Bushnell because he thought we were a little too confused about what the starting 11 would be. And he said exactly what you said exactly what you said. said Vince, he said, Adams and Testman, or Sanjay, Adams and Testimon in a double pivot, and Pulisick and Weston at attacking tens with Tillman, Brendo and Raina as subs.

We'll get more into this as the game gets closer, but against Australia, and this might have been because of Haji being up top and not getting enough out of him until he started scoring. and it might be different with Ballotop. But I thought there wasn't enough going on, and Weston was coming deeper for the ball. And at that point, I'm wondering, should he just start deeper? I hear you.

I hear you. Yeah, I think it's a good point. We got a shout out, before I forget, got a shout out. John Luca Bousio, Tanner's old teammate, scored a left-foot laser beam in a 2-1 win for Venetia

in the lagoon and he was you know Venezia is now at top of the table or no they're in a promotion spot All right It's not really relevant to our

core mission here Not to the cycle Core mission I mean I'll say this which I don't even know if I really need to say But you know Venetia paid him I mean they paid for John Luca Boussi

at what? Fifteen mil? Was it fifteen? Eleven Mill? Something like that. Double digit mills. Right? If the man gets him up to Siri A I mean, Siri A twice, I mean, he probably already paid for it when he helped him get up to Syria. Oh, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Get up to Syria

twice, you know. I mean, that's sick. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, he I was, you know, I went through the whole thing last year when every time I'd watch John Luca, I was like, uh, sometimes he'd be alright, sometimes he'd be bad. Like, is he really going to get poached by some team if he,

uh, if Venetia went back down or whatever. And it didn't come to fruition. But, you know, this isn't a bad, uh, this isn't a bad life that he's leading, just in general. It's an incredible life that he's leading. And then also, I mean, I haven't, I haven't watched a match. I haven't watched a match.

Um, because I've lost fascination with John Luca, Cabusio, to the extent that I haven't really had it. You know, Tanner was always apple on my eye. But who's to say? You know, maybe next year he comes to light Syria on fire. I don't know. I'll dive in. I'll do some deep dives.

I'll come back next week. I'll come back next week with a report for y'all and see what he's doing against Palermo. Yeah. And them boys. Him coming to Syria on lighting it on fire seems a tad unlikely to me, but that's just me. No Key Banks keeps starting Looked solid enough Versus Sempawili

I wouldn't say He looks imperious But he's putting in a shift Blocks two gold-bound shots Decent and duels Kind of Boyish in the air I would say

Knotted the ball down To the penalty marker The penalty marker that he's trying to defend Twice Which is not where you want to be Not on the ball down too when you're a defensive player. He's also on a walkabout on a couple big Sampali chances.

Now, maybe he was following instructions and stepping up field to engage in a way that I don't fully understand. But Simpali was hard done by with 2.6xG on the day and only one goal. But another big win for Augsburg. Yeah, I didn't even pay attention to them last week because he was suspended. And I didn't realize they beat Byron. Yeah, they got the dove.

Yeah, I turned this game on, like, and the commentator reminded us more than once. So good for them. Yeah, they've got a bit of breathing room. He was on the left side of that back three to start this game, and then he switched in the second half. He was going pretty wide in buildup at times, so that's a good data point. I think he's, you know, he's an athletic guy. He's technically clean enough. he's athletic.

Like I think he's comfortable in wide areas with him without the ball, and that's going to be important, you know, when deciding if he can actually play this summer. I think he should be in the squad, but if you're bringing him, you should still probably have five centerbacks, in my opinion. You don't want to rely on him as a, you know, one of your traditional four guys you can play in a back four or five.

But look, he just, like the talent, you can see, even like you know he drew a free kick at one point I think it was in like the 18th minute with some good control that not other that other centerbacks in her pool probably can't pull off yeah and then soon after that he had like a right-footed shot where he just cut in and cranked one at the near post that was saved but yeah you know he's a soccer player he's a good player he's got a bright future and I think you're definitely in the squad he's also a master of the tactical foul he missed the

Byron game because of, you know, yellow card suspension. He's never seen a tactical foul that he doesn't like. He'd be taking them for sure. Yeah, he'll try me, buddy, buddy with the ref, but, you know, they're on to him over there. So another reason to bring an extra center back. Yeah. You know, they probably automatically on them over there. You know.

No, I'm done. I'm done. They're going to arrest me when I give him my passport of customers. No, but in all seriousness. At this point, you know what I'm saying? He's been holding down a starting spot. He's been getting the minutes. And like you said, Bill, is not imperious.

Really, like, at all. Yeah. It's tough because, like, he's not necessarily challenged a ton as far as, like, a 1v1 dual other than in the air. And, like, that's where he needs to. Yeah. clearly. They're so behind the ball, right? Like, it's hard to really tell with him

versus the way he defend in the World Cup. Yeah. So, but look, at this point, he didn't earn, he'd earn a call him. You know what I'm saying? So let's get him in camp. Let's get him, let's get him some minutes, man. Let's see what he can do.

I would love to see him get some minutes. What do we have to lose? Yeah, he doesn't need to be, he doesn't need to be imperious to beat out Miles Robinson and Mark McKenzie. for minutes. Right, right, right. You know, he has now met the bar.

He has now met the bar to compete with them boys for some minutes. Also, did y'all, you know, we play Senegal, right? In Charlotte, did you know watch the Afcon Final? No. But Charlie was like, Charlie Bowen was super excited about it. And so I feel like I almost feel like I watched it. I didn't.

Yeah, y'all talked about it? I didn't listen. I saw the shenanigans with the keeper. I didn't see the game. I mean, first of all, y'all, y'all probably already know, you know, two high-level squads, Morocco and Senegal. I mean, the ball on display, incredible. But, yes. So they take away a Senegal goal because Hakevi...

like fell over it's a set piece a set piece goal that was scored by Senegal and you know Senegal's running their little player whatever somebody like loops to the outside and just like touches

Hakimi and he like flings itself to the ground they call it they call the goal off because of that and then they give a penalty in like the 96 minute like right before stoppage time or something and so

Senegal sends their whole team into the yeah yeah I saw that. True scenes, bro. They sit there, the entire team to the locker room. Only Sadio Moni stayed out on the pitch so that they, like, didn't, like, totally forfeit the match.

But I've been talking about, like, a solid 25-minute interruption. And the game was in Morocco, right? The game's in Morocco. And then, and then, Brahim Diaz comes up to the penalty spot. It finally takes a pin. Like, Senegal finally agrees to come back on the pitch. Brian Diaz takes the pin. tries to Panika.

And the keeper doesn't move. It catches it. Absolute scenes of the Senegal wins and extra time. All in all, they out did Concordoff with that one. I'm excited for that friendly, man. We got four legit friendlies. It's why Potts said, you know,

four World Cup games coming up for the World Cup. Really do. Yeah, he said that before, though. I mean, this is actually it. This is not a drill. These are. But were they not World Cup games? Literally is a drill.

It's a drill. It's a Australia, Australia, Paraguay. It was a literal World Cup games that we will be playing. You know what I'm saying? Bells, let me tell you, Portugal, playing friendly in the U.S., that's not going to be a drill.

That's going to be the real thing. It's going to be a real thing, but sold out. So, the game is sold out. And Mercedes-Benz Stadium, there will be however many they led in that stadium. You know what I'm saying? You know, those record set in Atlanta,

United crowds or whatever they used to have. It seems like it's going to be one of those. Used to have, by the way. Is Portugal selling out games just because, isn't it the Portugal-Colombia game that's the most sought after at the World Cup in the group stage or whatever? Yeah. And even though Renato's a Saudi, he's still Renato, bro.

I guess so. That's what I was going to say. So it's just a bunch of people just want to see Cristiano Ronaldo in the flesh. It's not going to be a drill bells. You haven't been to the Ironbound in Newark to watch. a game before when Portugal is playing. Let me tell you, it's going to be, it's going to be worth the price of admission

for any U.S. fans that day. Okay. But, I mean, it's still a drill. It's a World Cup tune-up. All right, semantics, man. That shit. All right. Obit Vargas,

who we lost to, you know, native of Anchorage, Alaska, played for the Seattle Sounders, plays for the Seattle Sounders. He is... He is... reportedly close to a deal with Athletico Madrid, which is pretty cool for him and the Sounders.

He was a U.S. youth national team player. He decamped southward. And, you know, they say we did everything we could. So he just wanted to play for Mexico, which is fair enough. It still hurts. That's interesting. Yeah, it still hurts. I remember watching him when he was 16 and like the Concapped Champions League,

falling out and obviously he had a bit of an injury and he wondered where his career would go but his career is right on track that was a really nice video from an athletic account they posted a video of Obed and his dad embracing after the game and his dad talking to him in Spanish and yeah it would have been really cool if we could have had that wishing the best oh yeah because there was a whole thing about him being a fan yeah he was a yeah he's a fan of the team I saw Tom

Boker tweeted yeah a few things about that I didn't know that actually until this transfer. And yeah, he waited. He didn't take the bag from a few Mexican clubs, it seems like. He waited for his moment and now this is it. So I think, I feel like they're going to loan him out, but regardless, this is awesome for a guy from Alaska. Yeah. And like, you know, for me, it doesn't really hurt when it's like, you know, I wanted to play Felotry. Like, well, at that point, it just, it is what it is, man. Like, like, I, like, I, grew up one to play for Eltrory, if I had an opportunity to play for Eltrary, I'm play for Eltrory. Well, I mean, it just is what it is.

But, but, you know, he is one of the, uh, he is a billboard for domestic, uh, soccer development, right? And so, uh, got to root for him. Yep. I'll root for him. I was going to say in the same way I root for Julian Arahu, but I don't rule for Julien Araho, but I don't rule for Julio and Araho, but, because I really don't even know much about the, about the fellow.

But, no, oh, you. you know what? I know what it was. When we went on, and he gave the quote, he gave the quote about being in Guadalajara for that U-23 Olympic qualifier that we failed in. And during,

and he gave a quote that like during the tournament, he was walking around here like, oh, man, this could be, this could be me while playing for the U.S. You know, wearing a U.S. track suit walking around like, ah, you know, it could be, yeah, let me roll. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He. But shut up. You know, this is a win. if we can if we can produce players that get bought directly from MLS to Villa Rial, Adletti

That is a really important piece of the puzzle for sure Shout out Shout out Seattle, great club And we're excited to be there in the summer Yeah And it is very different from like

Say Richie Ledesma Who just, you know I also just switched to Mexico Primarily I think because he doesn't have a chance a plan for the U.S. You know? Right.

So apparently, apparently he's balling out. Okay. I asked my, like there was, I mean, I haven't been watching Chivas, but.

The Chivas account posted calling him, oh, Nhorra Latharal like the best fullback in Mexico and I sent it to my L3 friend. I was like, yeah, is this, this is real?

And he was like, like, like, low-key, he's, he's doing it. Like, he's a shot to make a team to something. I mean,

I've seen a level of these, and he's fullbacks. You know what I'm saying? Fair enough. Fair enough. We got to consult Herc about this, yeah. But good for all them. So one American player who Obit's move may not be good news for, we'll see, I guess, is Johnny Cardoso plays roughly the same position at Adletti.

And he, you know, he keeps starting. He keeps playing. Is he any good? Is he good? Is he playing well? This is the Cardoso conundrum, isn't it? Linger's on. Well, I've seen him play better than this in La Liga. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Yeah. No, last year, he was good, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, that's just what we're getting right now. I mean, you know, maybe give him some time. Yeah, he's still working his way back from an injury. I'll tell you this, though.

If he gets, if he gets, if, you know, you said he might have to be worried about it. If he gets his, if he gets any playing time taken by Obet, Fargus, then, uh, that's a wrap. No, that, yeah, that's not going to happen. You can run that, then you go back to the ghetto in the words of my car. You know what I'm saying? You want to stay out the favelas, Johnny. It's how to turn it the hell up. Damn it.

That, that's not going to happen before, before the World Cup. If he keeps getting minutes, any minutes, I just feel like it's, it's going to be hard for to leave him out. in terms of the respect, Pach has that league, the connection to Smyone, like, I'd be surprised. Like, Pottch hasn't sounded down on Johnny in the past, even when, you know, the form hasn't been replicated for the U.S., so he's going to get every chance. I'm sorry really down. But, anyway. But, no, I mean, we'll see.

I mean, Tyler and Tanner are locks, his defensive midfielders. We'll see how much Sebastian Burhalter's. set piece prowess counts for for poch and um yeah how much he values roll don's presence and rolled on rle don's been good obviously for the u.s recently so it's going to be it's going to be interesting if there's no injuries but you know we we got to have sebastian for march i've made that clear um you know magic city king king museum the varsity you know you got take him into varsity. JR crickets,

etc. You know, show them around. Yeah, well, we'll see. I mean, March, in all serious,

that's going to tell us a lot. Yeah, well, I think, I guess my take on Cardoso, checking in on him these last few weeks, he really gives off,

like, just kind of just a guy, energy more than a guy. He's out there. He's not terrible. He's there, and I guess when you're there at that level,

that counts or something, but, um, Is he seizing a starting spot for the U.S.? I doubt it. But we'll see. I mean, March, Tyler,

Tyler could very well be out in March. Yeah, he's going to be cutting it close. So if he's out, then maybe Johnny gets one last. I'm fine with Johnny coming back in. I'm fine with Potch, having, you know,

feeling good about Johnny. I'm just saying, like, if we're thinking about what, he how does he look right now and what will that offer us as a national team and what he looks like right now offers us not much that's what i'm saying yeah he looks like james sand he looks like he looks like he looks like he's always a step slow come on now come on now but hold on satchi how you say sand i used say sand how is uh how you say sands ohvilla la palabra sand um escapes me right now.

Okay. Okay. Okay. He looks slow to the ball, and then when he gets on the ball, and then when he gets on the ball, there's nothing really that special happening. So, I'm doing, I'm doing all kinds of segues here. But we're talking about Berhalter there. Vancouver, who are the MLS runners up. Yeah.

It looks like they can't even stay in Vancouver anymore. The league office, the front office is like, man, we can't, we can't, we got too many games, we can't get B.C. place enough. It's not possible. They're looking at like an Anthony precourt or something. And it's not fair. It's not fair to Vancouver or its supporters is what the MLS. League office, Dan Cortmachet said. That what?

That they can't rent out there? They just don't have a reliable venue. And BC Plays just doesn't care. Just don't care. The owners of BC Plays are just like, well, figure it out. And they can't figure out. This is going to sound soulless, but I would, like they have a Canadian Premier League. I think all these MLS teams should be in the U.S.

Toronto does it right. Maybe let them keep Toronto, but yeah. So let another great American city get a team. Yeah. Or just let USL take over with pro rel.

It's like they don't, it's like, it's like sporting success means nothing in MLS. It means nothing. Yeah. It's like all, it's all, it's like Don Garber looks at Vancouver. He's like,

be some real estate. That's all he cares about. He's got his real estate sorted out. You know what? Really, if you ask me about Vancouver, just like as a club, you know, I probably would have mentioned the fact that, like, the main thing I think about when I thought about Vancouver

is Don Garber being like, you know, their stadium situation is not tenable. They need the blah, blah, blah, blah, before the sporting stuff. So, I mean, it's tough. They could have beat. be Interimony in that game too.

You know, I mean, it was a, wait, wasn't it, I mean, dude, it was close.

What was the, it was, it was close. What's the name of the, the former USM&T guy who hit the post? Like, Sabby?

Yeah, Sabby hit the post, hit both posts with one shot. Yeah. That would have made a two one. But you know what? You don't have enough real estate. Get you out of here.

All right. A few more things. Fuller and Balligan came off as a precaution in a 4-0 win for Monaco over the weekend. He got an assist, turned and slipped it in for Ansufati for the opener. So that was the, you know, it's always, you know,

you go back and watch these highlights, these clips. First goal is the most important one, you know? So Ballo played a role in that. Even when, like, I know he hasn't maybe lit it up this year the way we had people would have hoped for but his his you know the goal contributions are still there like the floor for for for him is still solid and he's going to be the starter uh no matter what if he's fit yeah yeah he was a uvah monaco match uh the midweek was a interesting watch because like um well it was a kind of ugly game but like flow was just like working

so extremely hard to try and get something going from Monaco and, you know, he was able to create some, some advantage of situations for Monaco or whatever, but like, man, it's just a, it's it's a lonely job up there trying to lead the line, man.

And he was doing it to decent effect, like I said, but he did get Big Brother by West one time. Yeah, yeah, he did the little 1 v1. Yeah, yeah. It was West lockdown out there, though. Yeah.

Um, Big Pat scored again, a header. Like, it was like the fifth goal of the game. So not quite as important as Bell's assist. And I don't know, what else is there to say, guys, anything? No, but it does go to your point last week that you were talking about Bells. I mean, as far as like, I don't think we got any dunkers like that. How's you too pretty to do it? And so, I mean, really out of the big lads, I think it only falls to.

Big Pat or maybe Jordan Pfeck playing soccer. I don't know. John Brooks is on the bench for Hurth of Berlin. The two-buttal-sika, whatever. Yeah, I think Pat's only real dunker. I mean, we got Wes, of course, but. We could bring a cheeky Walker Zimmerman to the World Cup, too. You know, just throw them on there at the end.

Yeah, but. Yeah, it's just Pat. Yeah, that's how we got. You know, also in honor of Black History Month, And also in honor of just reality, we got a shout out Crystal Dunn, too, for her retirement from international soccer. What a career. What a player. So versatile.

For more on that and our juggernaut of a women's national team. Check out boots on the ground. Boots on the ground with Vince and Tara. How many things can this man be plugged into at one time? We'll see. That's the thing I've given up most of You know

If there's not an American Playing on your team And that includes Arsenal I'm not I'm not that type to Unfortunately It gets to be that way Okay

Thanks everybody for listening Have a great week We'll see you