Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #667: Doug McIntyre WC roster projections, Haji hattie, Balo brace

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

Doug McIntyre joins to talk about his latest World Cup roster projections, Haji's hat trick in a top of the table Champo clash, Balogun's brace versus PSG, Wes's legacy-defining upcoming summer, and much more. Doug’s latest roster projection: https://www.foxsports.com/stories/soccer/26-26-predicting-usmnts-roster-lineup-4-months-before-world-cup-opener Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Scuff podcast when we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, we are just a little over a month away from the friendlies in Atlanta. Champions leagues are raging away on the old continent and the new. Doug McIntyre is here with me, for which I'm grateful. Doug, how are you doing? Doing well, Adam, you? I'm doing pretty good. I'm doing pretty good. Rec soccer is kicking off this week, so I'm very busy with that. You've been watching a lot of hockey, I assume. I have been, yes.

Yeah, we're recording on Thursday, Olympic quarterfinals yesterday. So basically four back to back to back to back game seven. So it was a lot of fun. US won an overtime to cap the day off against Sweden. So, yeah, it was a fun day. Let's start with the goalkeepers. Because, I mean, you just put out your monthly World Cup roster projection. Yep.

And I think you got something coming out shortly about the goalkeepers. Can you tell us about that real quick? Yeah, absolutely. So it's interesting that, I mean, I think we all assume Matt Freeze is the starter at the World Cup. But we'll see what happens. And, you know, obviously Matt Turner was the starter four years ago. And both of them are an MLS now. There's Patrick Schulte, who's, you know, been in a lot of the camp since Pachitino took over.

Roman Salatano, Chris Brady. Really the only European base keep, even Ethan Horvett. after so many years in Europe is now back in MLS with the New York Red Bulls. So really the only European-based keeper that's actually been playing weekend and week out this current season is Jonathan Glensman in the Italian Seria B. So there's, you know, my question was how are, how is the U.S. staff going to scout the goalkeepers at the beginning of the MLS season? So spoke to Tony Jimenez, Maricio Pachino's goalkeeper coach. And I'll save some of it for the piece, but basically he's. said that, yeah, we're going to be, you know, touring MLS clubs that our keepers are at.

And we're going to do that ahead of the March games, the final tuneups before the World Cup roster gets announced, the games against Belgium and Portugal. And then another tour before the final roster is selected in May. So pretty interesting interview and we'll round up all the other midweek action, which I know we're going to talk about as well. Yeah. Did he give any indication that, like, did he talk about Matt Freezer like? he was the presumptive starter?

No, no, a little light on specifics, which I understand as much as, you know, we'd all love to hear a little bit more on that. So, you know, some generalities there, I think he doesn't want to, you know, there's still a competition, and I think that that's important. But we all know who they're looking at. The one thing that he did say was interesting was that they look for is, you know, how the keeper is compatible with, they said the team in general, I think, and I forget the exact quote, but like, I took it to mean, you know, how he works with the defenders in front of him primarily.

Right. So that's really, that's really interesting. And I think that that's probably where, you know, Matt Freeze has an advantage, not just the fact that he played the last, you know, 10 games of the year for the U.S. or whatever it was. I think it might have been more than that, actually. but he's getting those reps with, you know, Chris Richards, Tim Ream, Miles Robinson, you know, not Jedi, obviously, but like some of the guys that we think are going to be, you know, starting centerbacks defenders for the U.S. at this World Cup.

Okay, all right. Let's move way up the field. Worldwide West, you had a little, you had a little Twitter dust up. I don't know, what was it, two months ago or something with some of the old heads when you said Wes is the greatest U.S. midfielder of all time. I wonder how vindicated you feel by his performance these past couple months, which I realize it's not, it doesn't address those complaints or whatever. Vindigate is not. It does bring a smile on my face. I look, I think what it came down to, and I don't know that we talked about this, but for me it feels like Weston, maybe because of his personality, was underrated.

Like you don't take him as seriously as a play. Like I feel like, I don't know if I've said this before, if Tyler Adams was at Yventis doing what Weston McKin he's doing and not the goals. Like Tyler's a different kind of player, right? But we might look at him differently than we look at Weston because, you know, he's kind of this jovial, you know, court jester type guy. But he puts ranch on his pizza. All that stuff. His interviews, right? Like he's, you know, we see the videos of him on the event is playing and all that stuff.

but like he's a very serious footballer. He's a very serious soccer player. And I, look, I stand by it. I know Landon Donovan's disagreed with me. Tim Howard actually, you know, kind of almost came to the rescue. He said he's in the conversation. And the best compliment I got on the whole thing was, and I have said this before, was from my dear friend, Jeff Bradley, Michael Bradley's uncle, Bob's brother.

Yeah. Who said, look, Wes, he's not the best midfielder yet, but he's on his way. And I can live with that because that's really. really like it's hard to judge guys mid career and like is christian polistic the best u.s player now already or does he have to score 57 goals like lanan donovan or or clindepsy to wear that hat right like it's hard to judge a guy who's still in his 20s when you know there's a lot of career left for those guys but i the level wes is playing at this season i've never seen another u.s midfielder come close to playing it 100% i just i just haven't right like

it's unprecedented and I'm glad he's made me look good by continuing to play well over the last couple months that that that's all I'll say um and just I mean he has he has yeah speaking of land in real quick I did think it was funny this this week that he said he had a hot take and that it's no Akai banks is going to start at the world cup and someone pointed out that steward holden and i and obviously lannon and stewer are great friends and stew's a great great dude too but he made that prediction way back last year. I did as well. We talked about it on this show. So glad Landon's coming around to some of my ideas. And I love Landoneman also. He's a great dude and it was very, very good to me over the course of his career. I covered almost his entire career.

And, you know, it was a Fox colleague at the last World Cup. So Landon and I are cool. There's no worries there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. I do think, yeah, I do think Wes is right now one of the best players in the world, honestly. I mean, like, he, He is, I mean, he's not like a top 10 player in the world, but he is playing so well for such a big club and being so important for them. Every single match, something, lots of good stuff and then some special stuff. And I guess the debate, you know, over who's the greatest U.S. midfielder of all time is a little bit. It's like two ships passing in the night because Landon's talking about what do you do for the national team. Right.

And Wes is never going to have as many caps as some of those past U.S. midfielder just because of the nature of the way the game has changed. So it's like, but, you know, looking at where he is and what he's doing. This summer is not even close. This summer is going to define Wes's legacy. And that's the same for a lot of these guys, right? If not all these guys. Certainly the guys that are in their prime. So look, he's played one World Cup.

he was very, very good in 2022. People forget how good he was. Even the goal that Christian Polisic scored, right? It was a great, you know, brave finish by Polisic. It was a perfect cross by Sergenio Dest. But who played that cross field, you know, 70-yard pass onto Desfoot streaking up the wing? It's West of McKenny. So he had a great last World Cup.

I think if he can bring the form that he's had at Juventus' season to the national team this summer, that'll end the debate for good. But there's been a lot of great U.S. midfielders over the years. Some of the guys I mentioned, obviously Michael Bradley, Claudio Raina, Tab Ramos, a few other guys that I think are probably in the conversation as well.

Ernie Stewart, Jermaine Jones, you know, those are top, those are all top eight, five, whatever midfielers in U.S. history. So they deserve their flowers too. But, you know, like Jeff Bradley said,

Wes is well on his way if he's not there already. Yeah. You know, Vince said on Monday, how would the world be different if Wes had scored that goal against England at the World Cup? You know, the one where it got played across to him and he hit it just over the bar. It would have probably changed a lot of the, well, whatever. Who cares? Haji, hat trick.

I got a clip to play from his first goal against Middlesbrough. Let's listen to that real quick. Sokamoto, lovely turn. Naradoni, into what's right. Haji Wright, a player with big game temperament, scores in the biggest game of the season so far. So that was the first goal of a hat trick against Middlesbrough. Coventry was second place, now their first place,

a point clear of Middlesbrough at the top of the championship table. Thanks entirely to Haji's massive performance in that game. It's so good to see that Govintry. crowd explode when the ball goes in the net. I think you had Haji just missing the World Cup roster in your projection earlier in the week. I mean, Pat Ajamon keeps scoring as well. What do you thinking today, Thursday, February 19th?

I'm thinking if he had scored that hat trick before I wrote that, he'd probably be on the roster. And then we'll talk about us too. And then, you know, Balligan goes and scores two goals against PSA, G. Right. So, like, this is, and Ajuman keeps scoring. He had a great header last weekend.

Like, this is, this is great. This is a high, high quality problem for Burriso, Pachino. I think we all think that there's only going to be three strikers to go to the World Cup. Is there a world in which he takes four, maybe, right? We know Haji's versatile. You can play out wide if he needs to. I still feel like you can never have enough goal scores. And Pepi might be the best finisher, Ricardo Pepe, that the U.S. has, but he's been injured.

And he's missed a lot of times this season. I did my eyebrows raised when we had Maricio on a conference call. I think it was, you know, about a month ago, maybe a little bit less. I asked about Pepe, and he said something like, well, he's obviously coming back from an injury. He said, you know, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but he's like he's someone who's on our radar. And I was like, it's not exactly a glowing, you know, glowing, way to talk about him, you know. So that made me think a little bit. And Pepe hardly played last year for the national team at all.

I mean, obviously very injured. But even in that last camp where he wasn't injured, I think one game he didn't play in the last game, we just got a few minutes at the end. So really, if it's three, it looks like maybe he's the odd man out right now, but there's a lot of time left, right? Like, that's the thing I would, like, it's easy to have recency bias.

We're all guilty of it. But it's only February. And I think, like, there will be, the guys that are bagging goals in May are the guys that, you know, I think probably have the advantage. But this is great. I mean, Haji had been in a bit of a slump before that breakout.

Balligan had been in a bit of a slump before that breakout. So great to see those guys heating up and making the competition intense. And the choice is really difficult for Pachitino and his staff. That's exactly what you want. Yeah. Let me just describe the goals. The first one was that Haji scored. The first one was a

You know kind of a clever redirect Through the keeper's legs on a ball fizzed across Just a instinctive finish Really nice And then and then a smash and grab off Like a goalkeeper punt That bounced once And then bounced the second time

He took it off the bounce Yeah Beautiful left-footed finish Keeper probably should have come out But whatever And then the third one was a penalty So Yeah, you're right.

He hadn't scored, I think, since like October or something. He did have those two back-to-back game winners, but there was a long barren spell before that. So I should have the numbers in front of me, but yeah. So he had, you know, game-winning goals, back-to-back games, then went a few games not scoring and then had the hat trick. But before that, I think, you know, he hadn't scored much for Coventry since the two goals for the U.S.

against Australia, and that was back in October. So good to see him coming out of it. Strikers are streaky. I mean, we know that. So I'm curious where both Balagan and Haji go from here. Like, will they keep building on those performances? I'm sure they're going to be playing with a lot of confidence. And yeah, they were both big, I mean, obviously huge games, right?

Like the commentator mentioned it there. Like, that's a top of the table clash. the biggest game of the season by far. And then for Balagan, you're playing the defending European champions in a two-legged Champions League knockout round, right? So like to score two goals in that kind of game, I know that Monaco ended up losing, but, you know, that's a big time performance too. And I'm sure that the staff, you know, factors that in as well.

I mean, these are not goals that are getting scored against a team fighting relegation, right like these are big time performances in big moments with a lot of people watching and that's what the world cup's going to be so yeah uh great scoring those goals valis scoring those goals against a bunch of world cup players you know correct yeah um uh yeah and he gives him a fighting chance against psg i mean i don't know i don't know what the betting odds are but it seems unlikely that monaco is going to pull it out yeah that duway duet came on for dembele in that first half and then just absolutely dominated the game from then on. It was wild to see the Ballandor winner getting pulled at the 25th minute mark.

I mean, you know, and I've seen Dembelli get pulled in the World Cup final at halftime, but it's just like, you know, I thought that was very interesting. But right decision, like you said, right? It sure was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Ballot, just real quick, Ballo's goals, which we've already talked about a little bit,

were the easiest header he'll ever score on a ball stood up to the back post. I don't know why he wasn't marked on that one. And then a lovely combination close to midfield gets played in behind and then slots at home coolly with Marquino's plastered to his left shoulder. I love his leverage abilities. But yeah, like you said, not enough for Monaco. They succumbed 3-2 and they face PSG in Paris next week with a tall mountain to climb.

Yep, yep. One thing real quick, Beth, on the strikers, like, what I like about these guys is they're all different, right? They're all,

and that's a great thing, because you need different players for different situations to go against different opponents, different game states, right? Like, if you're losing a game late, balligan's probably not the best guy for you,

because he likes to get in behind. He's very, very good at that, right? But if it's like you're facing a Pacton defense, nice to have Patrick Ajumont to bring in. and, you know, if you can score a towering head or like he did last, like, right? And then Haji brings something different.

And Pepe can score in all sorts of different ways, right? He's more of a, to me, like a fox in the box kind of guy. So, like, again, high quality problem. And I just, I do wonder if there is a world in which all four of those guys go to the World Cup. But this race is going to be fascinating to watch over the next, you know, three months or so until the roster gets named. Yeah. On a personal level, it would be hard to see any of them miss out.

It's like they all kind of. But I think of all the four of them, the one who is the most different, for me at least, is Big Pat. Because like he scored the towering header over the weekend, but he's had like a towering header every weekend for the past three or four. And like you said, you can bring him on and he'll do something different. that is a distinct skill set to be able to dunk on just about anybody. Yeah, yeah. Put it in the back of the net. I think when Pepe comes back from injury, he's scheduled to be back in less than a month.

I think you're going to see a level of desperation out of him that we haven't seen so far because I think he knows he's up against it. And you're right. It would be, I mean, hindsight is 2020, but he should have been on the last World Cup roster, right? He was one of the guys that got them there, you know, was scoring. goals at the time for Gronigan at the time, but when the roster was named. And Hadeses-Ferrard didn't have a great World Cup. I mean, he only played 45 minutes, but not a good 45 minutes.

It was a terrible 45 minutes. To see, to see Pepey get left off of two World Cup rosters would be hard to take. You know, so I'm, I'm rooting for Ricardo Pepey hard. He's, he's a good dude. He's, you know, he's played well. He's, you know, he went over to Europe and, and, and, just worked his ass off, shut his mouth, and kept scoring goals, and I would like to see him rewarded.

Yeah. Rooting for him, rooting for all of them. Okay, that's the strikers. Let's go back to attacking midfield a little bit. Malik Tillman seems to have lost his starting spot at Leverkusen. Yeah. It's weird because, yeah, like, he did start that Champions League game a few weeks ago where he had the two goals, and then he starts the next game in the Bundesliga and scores.

But you're right. He was back on the bench yesterday. I think he came on in the 64th minute after all the goals have been scored for Leverkusen. So wasn't involved in any of the goals. But yeah, you're right. You know, it looked like he had cooled off and then it was heating up. And now maybe he's back on the cooling offside. So one to watch as well, for sure.

Yeah. So Leverkusen's got, they won that game 2-0 in Greece against Olympiakos. That's in Athens, right? I don't know. And then, so they go back to Germany for the second leg, and they're in a good spot. We'll see what happens with Malik on the weekend lineup-wise. Geo-Rena, kind of a depressing subject,

brings me grief just to contemplate him. But I do have one question for you. I mean, everybody knows he's not playing. He's hurt. But I have a question for you. Do you have any indication that his injury problems are a function of a lack of seriousness in its preparation? No, I don't know that.

Okay. Yeah. There's not a lot of information out there what exactly the problem is. So, no, I wouldn't go as far as to say that. I know there was, I read something a few months back about, it was about Cole Campbell at Byron, sorry, at Dortmund. Dortmund, right? and about, you know, something about his training habits. And Raina was kind of mentioned, you know, the same thing.

Something about him blowing off a training program in the summer. I don't know that that's true. I saw that too. Yeah, I don't know that that's true. So I don't know if that's what you're referring to. Look, some guys just their bodies can't do it. By the way, Claudio Raina was like that as well, right? Claudia Raina a lot of times, you know, had those soft tissue injuries.

I mean, he missed a World Cup game, the U.S. won against Portugal in 2002. He was the captain in that tournament. He ended up making the best 11. People forget he didn't even play in the first game because he was injured, right? So he had those sorts of things. We've seen other players have those kind of issues where they just can't stay fit. And sometimes it's not your fault. Sometimes your body just breaks down for whatever reason.

So I'm not going to pin it on Gio. I don't know if it's anything that he's doing or if it's just. just bad luck or his body just won't, but you're right. Whatever it is, it's a sad situation. He's a talented player. He scores, you know, he gets back on the roster November. He scores, you know, it looks like things are looking up. He plays a few games for Gladbach after the break. And then, you know, since the start of the year, you know, I don't think he's played at all. And if he has, it's only been, you know, a few minutes here and there. And there's no timetable for his return, which is concerning.

You know, yeah. Potchino did throw him a little bit of a lifeline, I thought, because he did say that when he, he was asked about him on that call that I mentioned, Rina came in in November, and he hadn't played very much for Gladbach at the time.

And Pontchino said something along, I'm paraphrasing here, but something along the lines of, he wasn't, you know, wasn't playing as much as we wanted at club level at that point, and he still came into the national team and performed, right yeah so i think that helps so like it doesn't necessarily mean that he's completely out of the

running for the world cup roster if he's not in in march but i think common sense tells you that it's going to be a really hard road for him you know but if he comes back ends the season scoring a bunch of goals you know he might have earned the benefit of the doubt by you know what he did in november um but it's not looking against the team that we're going to play correct on june 12. Correct. Yeah. Right. So, you know, that ship hasn't quite sailed yet, but we all want to see Gio out on the field

doing the things that he was doing early in his career. And, you know, every time we start to think that he's coming back, there's another setback. So, you know, wish him all the health and just would love to see him make a push to get on this team. But hard to see it right now. Yeah. Well, let's talk about Brenda a little bit. What has he been doing that is putting him in the, you know, kind of in the driver's seat in that position on the field? I mean, you've seen it, right?

He's scoring goals and he's registering assists and he's, you know, we never questioned his work rate. He's found a fan in his coach, like Daniel Farker, really seems to like him. So, yeah, I mean, it's a great spot for Brett. I mean, that's, and we know that Pocino, you know, lives in England or at least lives half the time in England. loves the Premier League, coached in that league, you know, for a long time with three different clubs. I have to think that if Brendan and Aronset is doing well in the Premier League, that's something that, you know, is Potchina is going to take notice. The question as it relates to the U.S. is like, where does he play for the U.S.?

Does he play as a wing? Does he play in the middle? I think he's been on the wing for Farca on the left side, I think primarily. That's Christian Polisic spot for the U.S. So, but look, great guy to have on the bench, right? Great guy to bring off the bench. He's a great teammate. You don't have to worry about that.

Pachino talks about guys in the room who you don't know whether, you know, their attitude doesn't change, their face doesn't change, whether they're in the lineup or not. Brennan Aronson is one of those guys. You're not going to have to worry about that. And this is a guy who barely played at the Gold Cup last year. And I think then we were like, I don't know if he's going to make the World Cup team.

Now I'd be shocked if he doesn't make the World Cup team. Now it's a question of how many minutes does he play. So I still don't think. Brendan's a starter just yet, mainly because there's no spot for him, but definitely a guy that's going to be handy to have on the bench and in the locker room. You know, when you have Premier League starters on the bench, you know, that says that you have a pretty good team. So, again, hopefully Brennan can keep doing. He's doing all the way to the end of the season.

But it's been, you know, to say it's a career season for him, it's an understatement. And he's been superb, especially over the last six to eight weeks or so. Right. That one goal he scored from outside the box, the low, hard one to the bottom corner. I was like, that's what we need to see from Brendan right there. It's like some real cut and thrust. And the finishing, because we hadn't seen that from him, really. Like the calm, calm yourself down.

Don't rush it. Because he plays like 100 miles an hour all the time. And sometimes when that's the, you're playing stuff. is hard in those moments to slow everything down and just let your instinct. So, like, you're right, he had a very good, I forget what game it was, but that left-footed finish he had where he just, like, just passed it into the corner. I was like, man, that's something we haven't seen from Brennan Aronson yet. And I've, you know, I watched him in Philadelphia and with leads in the Premier League,

Leagues, leads in the championship when he was at Union, Berlin, on loan for his season, right? Never seen that from Brendan. So that's it, you know, when you. players are getting better, that's what you want. And he's gotten better this year by a long way, I think. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. That's sort of the ability to slow things down a little bit, calm down. No key.

Nokey Banks. Is he ready for his national team breakout now? He's coming into the camp in March. I know you think he's going to be a starter at the World Cup. I didn't have him as a star. You and Landon, Donovan, both. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I did not have him as a starter in my,

my last projection. Alex Freeman, who I don't, you know, we haven't brought up yet. I still think, we will. I still think that, you know, there's some, there's some work to do there for banks, but I think he's, I think he should be on the roster based on what he's done this season. The Bundesliga America has set up a call with him with a few U.S. base reporters last week. Very mature kid, which shouldn't be surprising the way he's playing. playing, you know, as a 19-year-old.

You know, this is a guy that he loves playing for the U.S. You know, he called playing in the under-17 World Cup for the U.S. One of the best experiences of his life. He says when he goes in with the national team, like it doesn't feel like you're going into a national team. It feels like you're going to go see your friends and play soccer. And like, so this guy and he said all the right things when it came to, you know, the World Cup question, Jonathan Tannenwald, the Philadelphia Inquirer went and, you know,

spent some time with him. right around Christmas, I think, did an interview with him. So he said all the same things, not thinking about the World Cup, focusing on, you know, the game in front of me. And he said, look, it sounds like cliche or like you're supposed to say. It's like I'm actually, like, that's what I'm doing. I'm not thinking about anything other than every game. And the thing, and I asked him about this,

the thing that caught my attention, Bells, was when Augsberg beats Bayern Munich, right? Banks was suspended for that game, a yellow card accumulation suspension. Usually when a team battling relegation beats Bayern Munich, that coach is going back with that same 11, right? They deserve it. Right. So I was a little worried.

I was like, if they go on a run, they win a few games, banks might be out of the lineup for a few games here. But that's not what happened. He went straight back in. So that says what they, and he's had two different coaches this year at Augsburg,

and he started under both of them. So that tells you how he looks in training, what, you know, so he's a guy that's pushing for a World Cup place. Could he start? He could. But I think he's, I'd be shocked if he's not on the March roster because I think he's earned a spot. Still doesn't have a cap for the U.S.

Maybe we see him in one of those games. And then, you know, then you're in the race at the end. But yeah, I don't know if bank starts, but for me, I think he's on the 26 come May, you know, 25 or whatever it is when they announce it. Okay. Yeah.

I mean, we, you know, we talk about him every, every weekend, and so listeners have heard my take on him,

but I feel like he has, he has ironed out some things in the last couple months, you know, I mean, it could be pretty rough in the fall. There were some pretty rough moments from him,

like awareness-wise and stuff. Yep. But he's, he's, um, that's, that stuff sort of, slowly disappearing from his performances.

And it's not like he doesn't look like necessarily Virgil Van Dyke out there, prime Virgil Van Dyke out there, but he very, like it's hard to find blame over the last couple of weeks, two, three, four weeks, you know. Yep. Yeah, let's talk about Alex Freeman. He's now at Villarreal.

He, you've got him as your starting right center back in the, at least in the way. the picture is. Yep, yep. Correct. But I feel like you could very well be right about that. What do you make of his move and how he's doing?

I thought, so I thought Freeman was going to be a starter for the U.S. dating back to last fall. So before he goes, before he scores the two goals against Uruguay and before he makes the move over to La Liga, and, you know, nothing that's happened since, those things happening since haven't changed that at all. I think Mauricio Pachino feels, like he discovered him in a lot of ways.

He feels like that's my guy, right? I was saying this to someone yesterday. When you think back, Alex Friedman, I don't think he had, I could be wrong about this, but I don't think I am. I don't think he had started an MLS game a year ago. He had not started one game in MLS. I think he had played,

but he'd only come off the bench at the end of the 24 season. I think that's correct. And maybe another appearance in 23, like a cameo, right? So you have a guy who had barely played, he had barely played in MLS a year ago. And now, like, he's Pennsylvania as a starter at the World Cup and he's played in La Liga. Like, it's just, it's a remarkable rise for him. And again, another guy that, like, in addition to, like, his ability as a soccer player, you know, when you talk to him, he's, there's a maturity to him. Obviously, his pedigree is, you know, his, with his father, what a great resource to have.

Like, the way he talks to media. way he like his his mindset is mentality and i talked to antonio freeman right around uh thanksgiving last year so a few days after alex had scored those two goals against uruguay and like it was very interesting like it's not hard to see how why he's like the way he is because you know you can tell he was just raised properly by an elite elite athlete and a lot of that has rubbed off on him in addition to just you know the world-class athleticism he had and, you know, a lot of other stuff about him is world class, too, his ability to learn, his ability to improve.

Is it like, you know, like we said about banks. Like, that your mentality matters, you know, like, it really does. That's what allows you to get better. And, you know, both of those guys have just taken an enormous leap over the last year, just enormous. And Freeman arguably even bigger than banks. So, yeah, I mean, a guy who'd never played an international game last June and, like, there's no question he's going to the World Cup.

It's just a question of whether he starts, and I think he will. Huh. He gave, I think he came off the bench for Villarral over the weekend, got his debut. It does count for a lot if the coach feels like he discovered you too. Yeah. He's got to play, though. That's the thing, right? If he's only coming off the bench the rest of the season with Villarreal, then, you know, that might change.

But yeah, there is something to that. Absolutely. Absolutely. There is something to that. And then, you know, when you get into like, you know, every coach wants to put a stamp on a team. And when this team, when this staff came over, the idea was this team is pretty well established. And I think very much by design. And Pacha said this, right? Like he wanted to blow that up a little bit. And he went out and found guys, right? Like Sebastian Burhalter, right, who I also have on Christian Roldon, who I don't think anyone would have thought was going to go to another World Cup a year ago. And I think we all think he probably is now, right? Yeah. So, yeah, and then there's other guys also, too, like Max Arfson, who could end up playing in the World Cup, right? We'll see what happens with Jedi.

There's some concerns still over. I know he played in the last game, but that was after sitting out a couple. And that was an FAA Cup game, too, by the way. Yeah, so, like, let's see what happens there. So, yeah, there's, you know, Matt Fries. Like, they, I know the staff takes pride in the fact that they've deepened the player pool and created some real competition, which is something we've talked about in the past, too. So, yeah, they've done it in a short time.

They've done a good job with that. Go on. Well, I was just going to say, speaking of Alex's dad, recommendation to the listener, go back and watch some of his touchdowns for the Packers back in the, I guess it would have been the 90s. The 90s. Yeah, early 90s. Yeah.

Back when the Lambo Leap was still kind of a new thing. Yeah, he was good. Yeah. Is Obid Vargas going to kill Johnny Cardoso's World Cup chances? No, I don't think so. No, if anything kills Johnny's chances, it's injuries, right? He's been injured a lot of this season. He hasn't played much.

I think he's played about 500 minutes in all competitions this year. Somewhere around there, I don't have it in front of me. I wrote it last week. He did come off the bench yesterday in the Champions League, played one minute, came in the 90th minute. So I don't, I really, I'm not sure what to think about Johnny. I'm not, I think he has a better chance than Eunice Musa, who's like basically not playing at all at this stage.

And again, Johnny was on the Gold Cup team. He didn't play very much because he had that ankle injury. And I don't know what the staff thinks of him. I don't, but they know. I don't know what I think of it. No, no, no, no. But they know him. So they had him in for a month.

So good or bad, they know who he is as a guy. And he's clearly a talented player, right? Like he is, when he's been healthy, he started games this year for Athletical Madrid. It's one of the best teams in the world. They paid a lot of money for him. You don't play for Athletical Madrid if you suck. Like, he's a good soccer player. He's never played well for the national team, as we know.

So I just, I don't know where that leaves him. And then if it comes down to it, if it's a guy like, you know, Sebastian Burhalter or Christian Raldane, now a lot of people out there would say, well, did Sebastian Berhalter or Christian Rol Dan play for Athletical Madrid? No, well, then that's an easy choice. But it's not as simple as that, is it? Right. And also, Sebastian Burrhalter had a hell of a nice goal against a hell of a good team the last time

we saw him play, right? If Johnny Cardozo had two assists against Australia, the way Christian Rol Dahl Dan, we'd all be, you know, pretty happy about it. Pretty excited about it. So I don't know. We'll have to see what happens. But there is a numbers game there. Aidan Morris, I think, is a guy who probably deserves to go to the World Cup.

Will he go? I don't know. I don't know. He's going to be in the Premier League next year. He's a really good player. He brings some steel. Like, I like him very much. But how many, I mean, how many?

I mean, how many central midfielders are going? I just, there will be good players that don't make this team. Yeah. Which is good. But, you know, just because, you know, I think performances for the national team will count for a lot. And that's something I would encourage everyone to remember. So when you say, how could Christian Rodon or Sebastian Burrhalter make it over a guy who starts for Atlago Madrid sometimes?

Well, how have they done for the national team? There's your answer. You know, another thing about Burrhalter is he played, you and I haven't talked since this happened, I don't think. But I think he played really well against Inter Miami in the MLS Cup final too. Yeah, he did. Which is an MLS team, but kind of with an asterisk because they have Lino Messi on their team. Okay. Let's see.

Anything else you want to say on the lineup? I mean, on the roster projection? Just that it changes. The one thing, we didn't take. talk too much about formations. So, you know, formations are overblown. They are, like, every coach I've ever talked to has told me that. Like, fans, media get caught up and, you know, is it a three, five, two, or a five,

three, like, it doesn't, it doesn't matter as much as we think it, it does. But I do, I do find it interesting that I think push comes to shove, Maricio, Pochina, will play with four in the back at the World Cup. His best teams have had four defenders always. but there is an argument to be made that with the personnel this U.S. team has a three-man backline makes more sense. So I'm curious what happens there. I think there is some potential.

And the thing is the tricky part about that exercise, we haven't seen the national team play since November. And I think we've done two projections since then, but we don't really have any national team data points. We have club stuff. Right. So I think we're going to learn a lot in March about, you know, how things can go. But I also think that and this is new in the modern game also is like teams change formation

all the time, like in games all the time. That's something that didn't used to happen. You know, they talk about changing. There's a different formation in attack. Like we defend with four. We attack. Like so again, people make a lot of it. But I'm very curious to see those March games because I think we're going to know a lot more

about how the team might play. at the World Cup. I mean, that's what we do. That's what the U.S. does under Posh. Defend with four at the back. Right. Attack with three at the back. Right.

A band of five in the front. Exactly. Exactly. I guess one guy I forgot to bring up was Tessman. I think you have him obviously going to the World Cup roster and starting. Correct. I think I, I mean, I really like how he's playing for Leon. I mean, what do you see from him that, that, because he's, you know, he obviously wasn't in the World Cup, at the World Cup, the last World Cup. And it's been like the last two years that he's sort of made his move as a pool.

Yeah, he has. The move to Leon was a big one for him, I think. Another league that Pachino is coached in, so he knows exactly what that league is all about. The whole staff was at PSG with Pachina. So, like, they know that league inside out. he's a he's a big guy he looks like a international caliber like when you see him when you stand next to him yeah and he's i mean leon is absolutely killing it in france i mean they're just they're having a great season he's been a big part of that um he's you know and and the u.s is not that

deep at defensive midfield like you have tyler adams and like and you have morris Johnny's not really a, you know, a destroyer type, right? And Tanner isn't even, Tanner isn't either, actually. That's true. He's not. You know, for a guy that, you know, he's not as hard in the tackle as you would think,

but I just, he is a physical presence, a very smart player. And he's a guy that's improving also. He's had some very good games for the U.S. I think, you know, he didn't play well in March and then was left out of the Gold Cup. And I think he got the message loud and clear because when he came back in the fall, I thought he was very good for the U.S.

So yeah. So yeah, I have him starting again. Things can change. It's only February. But, you know, I think Tyler Adams needs someone next to him. And it's pretty clear that West of McKenney needs to be further up the field. And that's, you know, he's more of a two-way midfielder anyway than a holding type. Yeah.

So it's the question is like, who do you have there? And, you know, if anything happens to Tyler Adams and he can't play, well, then what happens? That's my question. Because for me, Tyler Adams is the most irreplaceable player in the pool for what he does, right? Like Christian is and Weston is like, but as a holding player that can cover ground, can put out fires, you know, the range to get side to side, they don't have another guy like that. So if he can't go, and we know his injury history, if he can't go, I think that's a major problem for the U.S. And they have to figure out what to do. But for me, right now, Tanner is the guy next to Adams.

He's a good partner for Adams because Adams's limitations are on the ball, of course. And Tasman has been silky lately. Like he, I think he was 63 of 66 passing on over the weekend against Nice and a two zero win. And just like first touches on point. He's finding little pockets of space. He's finding people through the lines. So it's a good combination there. Just two other quick pieces of news we should, I'd like to cover.

Number one, Hamas Rodriguez to the Twin Cities. That's, that's, that's kind of exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's great. You know, like not the landing spot you'd expect necessarily, but, you know, I love Minnesota. That's a great club. It's super well run.

Their stadium's phenomenal. So I'm glad that they, you know, that he chose to go there. And I didn't realize the contract's only through June, which is kind of fascinating. Is that right? Yeah. So the thing is, it's like he sees that as the place to get ready for the world. Cup. So he's going to be highly motivated to do well, to score goals.

And who knows what happens after that. But, like, yeah, he has all the incentives in the world to come out and, you know, score a ton of goals at MLS at the start of the season. I actually think, like, the knock on MLS, and I, you know, obviously love the league. I know you do too, right? We watch it. It's, you know, there's a lot of reasons to watch it. there's fair criticism that you know you can levy at the league and one of those things over the years has been

well you know there's not a whole lot to play for at the beginning of the season right a lot of teams make the playoffs it's a long season um the games like in most leagues at the beginning of the year are not nearly as good as the games in midseason when everyone's in midseason form all that sort of stuff that's not the case this year the start of the MLS season this year is fascinating for a bunch of reasons, right? I mentioned like the keeper battle, the battle for the number one keeper job for the U.S. will take place in MLS. You have Lino MES who has said, my health and form at the beginning of the MLS season will determine whether I decide to go play for Argentina in the World Cup, right?

So that's interesting. And now we've had Messi, you know, miss an exhibition game in Puerto Rico and like, we're all on Messi watch watching, is he healthy? Is he playing this week? What is he doing? Hames in Minnesota. Same thing. You have like half the Canadian roster, maybe more, right, is in MLS.

They're all vying for spots. Their keeper is going to come out of MLS too. It's either going to be Dane St. Clair or Max Propro, right? So like, I'm looking forward to the start of this MLS season in a way I haven't years in the past. Like there's a lot of interesting stuff there that's related to the World Cup and a lot of it related to the U.S. team. So, you know, how is Tim Riem going to look at 38 years of? old at the beginning of this season, right?

Miles Robinson hasn't played. Right, there's all sorts of stuff. Like, there's all sorts of stuff like that. So, yeah, excited for the season to start. And, you know, we're going to start. I'm particularly interested in the keepers, which is why I wrote about this week. So shameless plug, guys, go, go read that story. Read what Tony Jimenez had to say about how he's, him and the staff are going to go

about scouting all the keepers in the MLS the beginning of the season. coming out today. Today, today, later today. Okay. And the other thing is, also related to MLS, Kavana Sullivan got himself a little cock-caf Champions League glory

in Trinidad and Tobago. That was, I think, last night, an assist and won a penalty. Is it going to finally be the year of Kavan as he goes into his 17th, what is the 17th year on Earth? One of our friends, who shall remain,

Nameless asked me if there was any world in which Kevin Sullivan can make the World Cup team. And I think I went and I looked, my answer to him was I went and looked up like youngest World Cup players in history. And I could be wrong, but Kevin would be, if not the youngest, one of the youngest ever if he makes the World Cup. So the answer, unfortunately, is no, but he's a great talent. And he'll be competing for World Cup for Uster's probably as soon as 2030. but barring something absolutely shocking and remarkable.

And, you know, if he starts the season scoring, you know, 15 goals in the first 10 games, maybe. But unfortunately, I think it's a little too soon for him, but great talent, great talent to look forward to going forward. And I hope he plays a lot more from Philadelphia this year in MLS. Yeah, me too. Because I want to see him. We fans, we need something to be, even with the World Cup happening, you know,

it's not over. Soccer's not over after that. We need something to look forward to, and Kevin hopefully will serve that purpose for all of us. Did you see the clip of what the commentator said in that game? No. He goes, he goes, he was talking about carnival, and he goes, this is Carnival.

You know, when everybody goes to, this is a Trinidadian announcer. Yeah. I think. He goes, Carnival, when everybody goes to church after, to get their blessings after two days of absolute fornication. I was like, that's the great term of phrase. So, yeah, anyway.

Yeah, great country, Trinidad, fabulous, fabulous country, fabulous people. Have you been there? Have you been there? I was there for a World Cup qualifier in 2015. Oh, man, I'd love to visit. There was a, there was like a street party going on outside the hotel. It wasn't carnival or anything. It was like November, but like they're just, it's a terrific country.

I would love to go back there. I had a really, really great time there. Yeah, I'd love to go there too. All right. Doug, thank you so much. Thanks, everybody for listening. Have a great weekend. We'll see you.