Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #669: A spring roster check-up with Dr. Velasquez

Episode Date: February 26, 2026

It's been a while since the boys played. Who's in? Who's out? As the World Cup approaches, the answers to these questions are not always clear, but Greg breaks down what we DO know, and CAN say. 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 now about three weeks from a roster being released. Greg Velasquez has joined me to organize our minds and our spirits ahead of this momentous last window before the World Cup. Well, before the World Cup tuneups. Greg, how you doing? I'm doing good, man. We are at that window, right? Yeah.

I feel like it's happening all very quietly without a lot of fanfare. now, but this is like going to basically be the team? Yeah. It seems like it. And it has been, it is happening quietly because we're in this like six-month, you know, downturn and of things happening and interest. But it's going to, it should ramp up really soon. And so we're getting out ahead of it, as always, here it's scuffed.

That's not true. Anyway, Uve and Monaco out of Champions League now. West scored. Yeah, West Mbolo heroics aside. Yeah, I know. It was close. Youve, man, Yuve, too bad they were so clownish in Istanbul because they came home.

They went up 3-0, so on aggregate game even, and then they give up two goals an extra time. And obviously, Weston McKinney on the scoreboard again. Yeah, he scored the third. to bring it level. What a moment, but the joy was short-lived. At least Eunice is still in the competition. Yeah, big comeback to them.

Flying the flag for the USA in Champions League. Yeah, he can spend a lot of time sitting there holding that flag. And then Johnny and Malik are still in there. Although Malik was hurt for Leverkus in zero-zero draw with Olympiacos, he should be back soon got the studs up tackle so with all that aside go ahead well we still count these as champions league knockouts or do we or is it kind of like the fake champions knockout games because it's like not really the round of 16 yet you know so do we in it comparing to historical US and all of our knockout goals that we'd score in the past yeah do these so this is this would be

the round of 32 yeah so it's kind of just like a do-or-die group last group stage game. I think we can count them as knockout goals. Yeah, no reason to get stingy here. No. Especially with Wes striding into the list of UVA Champions League goal scores. He's like, what, 13th or something now?

He's not going to catch Del Piero, but. I wonder part of this is why the U.S. side of all this feels a little quieter going into again like a key I mean a massive window only a few months out from the World Cup on US soil is because the last roster that we brought was missing so many of the players that we feel like are the marquee guys and certainly you know some of the ones who are doing the most cool things uh in their clubs with the best badges yeah yeah I mean that's the crazy thing about that Uruguay um Paraguay window is that it was such a weekend lineup.

Let's start with the strikers. Okay. I'm letting you do this. I'm letting you go from front to back. We'll do it. Yeah. We don't usually. We don't usually, but special dispensation today.

So, yeah, who was in the last camp, Greg? All right. So we brought Balo, Haji, and PEPI. Balo started both. Pepe only appeared in one game last window. So there are questions here. And then Pepe obviously then suffered a significant injury with his club upon his return just has gotten back.

And of course, he's going to keep scoring goals. And as you guys have been talking about, did not, notably did not move to Fulham. Is he going to make it, do you think, to the World Cup? Or will hearts be broken across the country again? I'd genuinely no idea. But if he does make it, it's because he did not go to Fulham. Yeah, you think so? Yeah.

It's because he's going to rack up goals every 10 minutes playing for PSV, whether he finally gets into that starting role that it seems like they've been keeping warm for him for three years, or if he's coming off the bench, the goals are going to keep coming. Yeah, even at 20 minutes a game, he's good for probably a goal of game. And the goal he scored over the weekend was one of the nicest goals he scored all season. I mean, it was a legit, I'm going to say banger. I always have Waki kind of in the back of my head whenever I want to say the word banger because he thought it needed to be still rising when it hits the net to be a banger.

But I think that's a little picky. Anyway, it was a great goal. So, yeah, I don't know if he's going to be there. Like, it's really hard to know because of the way Potch didn't use him last window. And again, because of the way Big Patrick is showing that he can play really big soccer. Yeah. It's such an unorthodox for what we think of as high-quality soccer way. Right.

It's not. It's not that for sure. But he has a special skill set. Yeah. He's like the perfect guy to throw on. when you're chasing a goal late and you're lumping the ball into the box. Is that enough? Is that enough for Potch?

Yeah. He likes Big Pat. He discovered Big Pat. Right. Yeah, leaned on him. Yeah, he basically is a guy that you can throw on when nothing else is working, when whatever you're trying isn't working. It's like, well, we can always just do this and this will get something.

Might not get us the goal we want, but it's going to get us, it's going to get us a little goal action. Yeah. I mean, he's been jumping over championship defenders and nodding the ball in, you know, at a clip of about every other week for the whole year so far. So this is why I think this March roster is actually really interesting, because if Big Pat isn't here, then that's pretty much that done and dusted. We basically, I feel like we'll know our three other than maybe medium-sized Joshua. Yeah, I got a question about him, sort of a, just sort of,

of a stab in the dark, but if Big Pat's special skill is sort of throw him on when nothing else is working and see it, and you know that this will at least sort of work, what is Hajie's special skill? Does he have one? I don't think he does. I think he's basically just like a pretty good striker. And when Balo isn't available, then a pretty good striker is about all we can get, uh, depending on where you land on Ricardo Pepi's, like, uh, mystical finishing or just general like ceiling or, or at least, uh, sealing as of summer 2026. I'm pretty agnostic. I don't, I don't have that sense like, oh, this guy is just an out and out finisher. So he should be our clear number two striker in the depth chart.

You know, it's been a while since you've been on the show and people aren't hearing you week in, week out. Maybe you should reiterate, like, I'll ask you this. You don't believe that Ricardo Pepe is a somehow better finisher than, you know, any other given striker or, like, than Ballo or? I mean, to be honest, he might be better than Bolo because it's very possible Bolo is a weak finisher. Like, Bollos finishing numbers are pretty poor.

his career. But he just gets so many looks. He's just capable of generating tons and tons of looks compared to the other players in our pool. So, and even that can be a stretch because Pepe, in the minutes he's playing for PSV, is also generating a stupid number of shots. Right. And so then you just kind of have that caveat that's gone with Pepey for three years now

as a backup striker at PSV. he is coming into games that are 4-0-50 just absolute mop-up time and he's feasting in those minutes but then you just have to ask is that how do you value that how do you weigh that right but no I still don't

I'm still not convinced certainly that he has some kind of a mystical finishing ability above and beyond what Haji or even Big Pat Large Patrick also has actually finished above his ghost stats for his career.

I mean, significantly, again, still too strong of a word. But it is there. It's in the numbers that he's doing better. It's probably just noise. But it's a thing that he is doing. I guess I think if Haji has like a distinguishing skill set, it's that he strikes the ball cleanly. I'm not saying he's a good finisher.

Just saying he does, when he gets a chance to shoot, it's usually on frame and hard. And he does call, he does have a tendency to call his own number in a way. Well, I guess all of them do that. So it's not distinguishing at all. But I was just looking at the goal yesterday. You know, it's kind of a nothing, not a nothing situation, but a medium situation. Him out on the left side of the box facing up a defender. and he just takes like a few touches inside and then

tries his luck and it kind of skips through some legs and it's a goal. So I don't know. That's not a special skill set, I guess. Yeah, I don't think he really offers it. And I don't, again, I don't particularly think Pepe does either where it's like, oh, we can bring him in and he can really help us with our linkup play or he can really, you know, out muscle centerbacks, beat them to a spot.

It's really just sort of bog standard generic striker play. and I think that's totally fine to have as your backup striker given what the pool is. I think that puts them very much into shoulder shrug territory for being included in a roster. And if one of them is left off, it would sort of, I'd be really sad for Peppy because of how it went last World Cup too, you know, what he's been battling with injuries. But soccer-wise, it'd be like, okay, well, we've got Balo and Haji. and then obviously if we're bringing large Patrick, it is for that unique skill set that he does have. I may be a little bit too much in youth sports brain,

but I'm like, we got to, it's, it's Pepe's turn. If it's a wash between him and Haji, like, we got to bring RICO, you know. Yeah. That would be too painful for him to miss again. And Haji did get to go to the last World Cup. He did score an absolute Golazzo. That could be, honestly, his unique skill set could be, I don't think World Cup.

World Cup experience necessarily counts for that much in this scenario. But his unique skill set could be that he scored a couple of goals against Australia for Pachitino. You know, and we will be playing Australia in a World Cup. So it could be that, you know, that could be what tips the scale for Potch. It would be cool if he brings all four of them to the camp, you know, for competition. There is a fifth striker in the who exists. His name is Josh Sargent and he is headed to Toronto.

They face Vancouver on Sunday. I don't know that Toronto has even announced his signing yet, but it seems to be a done deal. What percentage chance? I asked Vince this on Monday, but what percentage chance do you think he has of making the World Cup roster? Oh, man. If I actually was working the numbers, I came out with 14, 14% chance.

It's slim. Do you think that's even too high? That sounds exactly right to me. I said 10. Okay. But I didn't run the models the way you have. Yeah, you got to run them a bunch of times. Yeah.

So probably not. I just don't think so. I think there's not enough time to even get him back into camp. you know, with Peppy being back already from his injury, I think that's going to make it a steeper, steeper hill. Because again, there's just not enough time. You'd have to be absolutely killing it in Toronto for the next three months to get out of the blue call for the World Cup tune-up to sort of get tested out there.

I need a hat trick at BC Place this weekend. Okay, so that's the striker. I mean, we talk about it a lot, but Ballo is striker number one for you as well, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because he has a bunch of unique skill sets. Yeah, I basically want him in there for 90 minutes, and if we're chasing a goal,

you add a striker, and you have Balo plus another guy. I feel like in the Copa taking him out of that Panama match was like a kind of hindsighty, to call it a huge mistake, but not. Like at the time, it was like, he's the guy who's doing things. like there's got to be another person you got to leave him out there he scored a goal when we were down a man scored a goal had an absolute rip off of a post like he was just he was just making things happen again nothing else was working and ballo's making things happen yeah but leave him in never take him out in a contested match add strikers if you need to all the more reason to bring ricardo peppy

instead of had you right because since it doesn't really matter that much all right Wingers, do we have any wingers? So our last camp, our main winger was Serginio Dest. So I don't know what the answer to that is. I'm really curious how it's going to look. I guess you'd call Dest and Luna maybe our wingers last go-round. So many attacking players available for this window, I think, that we didn't have last timeout. Could definitely push Sergino Dest back into a full-back role.

but we just we still don't know what patentino thinks is going to happen or what he wants to do there yeah i feel like i don't know how much he trusts dest as a fullback well nobody knows how much he trusts desk except him but yeah that's the huge question is if he just doesn't trust dest as a fullback or if he's like no dust is our best attacking player in camp and so i want i need him closer to go it'd be great if i could use him in his spot but who else is going to be who else has the fancy stuff in the final third. So this is where I got to stick him. You know, Doug McIntyre, friend of the pod, he thinks Zendejas is going to make the roster.

He's kind of a winger, right? Yeah, I think Zendayaas is in at the fringe or like in the fringe. Again, I don't really have a strong feeling for a lot of these fringe guys. I feel like they're all welcome and also equally non-essential. The one guy who I do think could easily take one of these wide roles is Tim Wea, who wasn't in last camp. So I think he'll be back in. And again, then it's just going to be a question of how do Wea and Dest fit into the formation? How do they fit into a starting 11 if they do?

And that's, again, what I think is going to be really interesting for this March camp. I'm really excited for it. If I'm not mistaken, Wea was mostly played wingback against Australia and Ecuador. So he played He basically played the winger He played some fullback And then he played There was some part of the Ecuador game

Where he was playing a wingback in the second half To like Matt as like a matchup version of what they were doing But no he's mostly been playing He's still mostly been playing in that 4, 2, 3 1 is a wide attacking player Okay But he has been wide Like it's definitely the case that he's been

wide. He hasn't been like pinching in and becoming like one of the tens. Okay. Well, someone who has is Wes, right? Yeah. When he's been around, when he's been in camp. So how do you, I guess you just, you could just have

Waya as the, as in the nominal for 2, 3, 1, you'd be the right side of the 3. And then Wes would be the middle of the 3. Is that how? This, this, yeah, this is exactly where things get so interesting with how Pachino's going to do this because

there isn't really room for all of them. If Wes is sort of the number 10 and Poulisic is the other number 10, which is kind of what Pottes has been trying to do, then you still have a Malik Tillman who doesn't fit in to the 11 or he's got to drop into the, you know, one of the pivot rolls.

Yeah. So again, really crossing the fingers that Malik is going to be back for a couple of games before there's. roster comes out because I desperately want to see where Malik, Wes, and Pulisic find themselves, whether they're locked into the 11, which means, you know, Wea or Dest or both dropout, which again, it's going to be fine if we're dropping a really good player because we have so many really good players. I'm not going to be mad about this. Yeah, it seems like, well, if you, let's try to build the band of five.

Start with the band of five. So you have Ballot in the middle. Pulisic tucked in on the left. Yep. And West tucked in on the right, maybe. And then Wea or Desk out wide right, which means that where do you get the left side width? Because then you have to drop Jedi into the three in the buildout, right?

Or maybe you just drop Tyler into the three And then Jedi It provides the width on the left I feel like I feel like it'll end up being Jedi kind of staying home But I don't know I mean who even knows if Jedi is going to play

With injury stuff he's dealing with Yeah So then you end up with like Does Josh just really love Max Arstyn? Yes It does So again so many things that like we would have taken for granted

eight months ago are now completely like undecided and the World Cup's five months away. Do you think Pach will remember that Gio was the best player on the field the last time we played Baraguay? Yeah, he made a comment as such

so we didn't say he was the best player on the field. He just said even though he wasn't playing very much. Like he came into camp and he was you know very good. So I think I think Pach is going to, if he had any kind of like dogmatic views of playing time or even effectiveness in your playing time at club, because Rana hasn't been effective at all. He really hasn't. He really hasn't.

He's been effective for Mancho aback. I think he will have. He's been effective at wearing the uniform. I think Pachitino will happily compromise on those at this point. So if Rana can be healthy. back in training again seems to be

leaping about but I just I asked the question a little tongue in cheek because somebody on the Discord was like geo fans are you know living by faith

and things they have not seen I was like wait a second we just last time we played it was really good it's a hilarious take that much faith right it's a hilarious

never anything because the geophers fans basically their whole thing is like our pool isn't good enough that you can just not have a geo reina there if he's healthy even if he's not playing very well for the team he'll still be one of our most effective players and then he came in and did it finally like he didn't he hadn't really played for potch before he finally comes in and does it uh and we're like yeah that's what we said would happen and then they go back to he goes back to the club and does not play at all and it starts all over again yeah it is frustrating for you know those of us tracking this stuff

week in, week out to see so little progress from a player over the course of, you know, basically half a decade now. But he's still very good, and he showed that against Paraguay. I think he's in. I think he's in, too, right? I mean, he's coming to the World Cup. I think he's healthy enough to play he's in. If he's not healthy enough to play, I would not use a roster spot on him.

Okay. That's where I land. Same probably goes for Jedi. Pool sick. What do you make of Malik Tillman's year so far? Because he kind of like, in the Rook Runda, he did have a couple goals a few weeks ago. But he's kind of lost his locked-in starting spot at Leverkusen, and then he got hurt. Yeah, Malik is basically, I kind of have him in the same box as Gio, where he hasn't been super effective for, for, for, for, uh,

Leverkusen, as far as generating chances. When I'm watching, I'm like, I wish he would generate more and better chances for himself or his teammates than what he's doing because he's not playing in a pivot. Like he's playing as an advanced midfielder. And the production basically just isn't there at the club. But it's one of those where just like with Gio, it won't matter for the U.S. He might, he might like lose out on minutes to a pool sick and a McKeough. Kenny where they just are going to play more and he'll play less. But he's not losing his spot on the roster.

There's no one else outside of him and Raina that are going to somehow take those minutes away from. I don't think Brendan Aronson or Diego Luna or Zendayaas is going to suddenly jump over Malik Tillman. No. In the in the like who's who's potch actually going to use in a real moment. Yeah. Okay.

No, I agree. I agree. It's just, uh, A little, you know, a little discouraging. We feed on narrative here. We feed on forward progress. Very enlightenment of us. And when it's not there, it's kind of frustrating.

All right. Actual, you know, midfielders down in the... I feel like we do got to still talk about Brenda because he's kind of an in-betweener. And that narrative, I feel like, for Brenda, has had some swings. and his production has also had some swings. So I feel like the narrative was picking up in line with when he was really producing.

But I feel like what isn't going to happen is I feel like it's going to, because he's going to keep playing every week for Leeds United in the Premier League, I think he's built enough narrative momentum that it's just going to keep going. Like he's really playing well. But his numbers have actually fallen off pretty dramatically. I think this is also where we're going to run into data issues because of the the catastrophe over at FBREF, where they no longer have the ghost stats publicly available.

So I think we still have like some apples to apples comparisons here. But Brenda's underlying production has fallen off sharply over the last month or two. So he's basically back to his levels that he had been producing for leads in their relegation campaign of a couple years ago. where he had bounced way above that. So he was killing it for him in the champo with production. And then he was actually matching his champo numbers this year in the Premier League. And it was going to be by far as, you know, its best productive year of his big five career, comparing to Leeds in the Premier League and Union Berlin in the Bundesliga.

He was doing much better. Like, it was there. There were numbers for it. And it's not maintaining. Hmm. You know, Y Scout uses Opta data now. Okay. So they've got to, they've, they've upgraded. That doesn't help the general public, but.

But so the other thing with Brendan. A great friend of the pod. Yeah. Do you talk about it like you're, like, like you're grieving, like you're in the morning? Yeah, it's not quite that bad, I don't think. But, um, Brenda was, I thought Brenda was unspective. for the U.S. in that last window against Paraguay and Uruguay. I thought he was not anything.

I didn't think he really made a strong case. And again, when you were talking about a bunch of guys who are not present, who you could easily picture coming back in with Pulcic, Wes, Malik, Wea, I still think Brenda probably is in the squad, in the roster, but I don't know what kind of a role he's going to have. I don't, I'm curious. Well, if Pach doesn't really trust, well I don't know

if Potch wants to play at right back which I guess I don't know that we have a strong indication of that but if that happens then it feels like it opens the door a little more for Brenda than it was already open because there just aren't that many

well you know there aren't that many wingers there aren't that many sort of attacking mids in the pool is that even true it kind of are but I just don't see where Brenda's minutes are going to come from basically yeah yeah

he'd be fine to have on the squad and I wouldn't I wouldn't be like oh no he's going into the game I kind of would be like that I'd be like don't take out Tim Wea if Tim Way is in the game don't take him out and Tim way I might not even be a starting player for the US national theme so right

it'd be like I would rather have Sir Gino Dest go in as an attacker is kind of where I'm at yeah okay I agree with you, Greg. Midfielders, who was in the last camp? Okay, so we had Testman, Roddon, Sebastian Berthalter, and Aidan Morris,

and then Timmy Tillman called in as an injury replacement for Tyler Adams and Sean Swadsky. And Timmy Tillman then provided the highlight of the year with the sliding challenge before Alex Freeman's weave and goal. And I feel like what we're looking at here is a total case of what we talked about of these guys are basically non-essential any of them could make the world cup roster i feel like potch really values these guys um and their attitude and their uh work

great and and probably thinks they're like fine as players but if any of them are left off besides maybe testament i feel like testament you can say there's some there's something a little more uh tangible to i think so i think there is yeah i'm with you on that it. But the other four, it's like, it kind of feels like vibes guys. And if you lose one or all of them, you're still going to be fine. Yeah. It does feel like particularly rolled on and Berhalter really are liked by Potch. And I'd be surprised if at least one of them isn't on the roster, probably be surprised at both of them are. So, well, the guys waiting the wings who weren't there.

Adams, of course, who was injured. Johnny, who was injured, and I don't know, we still just don't know what he's going to do for the U.S. Crazy to be saying that still after his $30 million move and lots of minutes played for Aletago Madrid. And then our favorite Eunice Musa, who had a month there where I was like ready to start moving him into lock status from mid-December to mid-January, like seven straight league games for Adalanta where he played. played more than 20 minutes, average like 40 minutes over that spell. They won five of those games, drew one. And I was like, Musa is back.

Musa, you know, he's broken back into the group. Managers using him. They're getting results. Musa's playing. He's coming. Like, you're not going to leave him out at this point. And then after that spell of seven games, playing almost every game, he's played 12 minutes in the last one.

Yeah. So no idea what's happened or, but that's a, that's a, That's a tough look. It is. And Atalanta's doing pretty well. I mean, they just knocked Barusha Dortmund out of the Champions League. I should mention that Johnny scored a goal for Adletti yesterday and their Champions League win.

And so, I mean, yeah, he's, what a, what a enigma he is. I mean, both situations are enigmatic. Like, why is Musa not playing it out? When you watched him for Atalanta, you know, he wasn't amazing or anything. He had some mistakes. But he was like, he's fine. I don't, I don't know why he's, I don't know why he's been dog housed. And, yeah, do you think, do you think Cardos is going to be in this camp?

He probably will, right? I do, right? I mean, you got to bring him. You have to. And it's easy to bring him because, again, so many of these, like, it's easy to drop Aidan Morris from this roster. There's just no, there's no, I wouldn't give it a second thought. Yeah. So you can easily, easily get Adams and.

Johnny in here. And Musa, I just don't know if it's going to happen for him, which is, I just feel so sad because that smile should be at the World Cup. And he is, I mean, he's, he, on merit, which he displayed at the last World Cup, he deserves to, he deserves to be there as a player. I think I would trust him out there more than, I don't know, at some ways, I trust him more than Adams with the ball, you know? Right.

I trust Eunice Musa to start a World Cup game next weekend. Yeah. And also he probably isn't going to make the roster. It sounds like you're a little less excited about Tesman than me. Is that fair? No, I think I really like Tesman. Again, it's just because we have seen so many mix-and-match midfielders, midfields, I don't know where he stands and poach his eyes.

I get the sense that he's probably, again, at the top of that group that was there. there in the last window for minutes, for playing minutes. I actually, in my mind, think Roldehan's, Oches, like, number one midfielder, but similar to what Burhalter was doing, like he will barely play in the field, but I feel like he is going no matter what. So if Wes is up there as a tucked-in winger,

then who starts next to Adams, you know, at the World Cup? Man. Who would you start? Eunice Musa? Probably. I mean, I probably would. I probably would too. We're running into real bad progression issues there.

And Tessman is a ball progressor. And the other guy who I can't say I would start now because we haven't seen it yet. But the one that I really hope is back for March so he can play would be Malik Tillman. Like I desperately want to see what he can do sitting deeper. But I also have real reservations about it because he has routinely gotten kind of hosted positionally as teams get in behind our back line and find cutbacks. He's not unique in that. Tyler Adams has either opened those lanes for teams to get behind us or missed his rotations

as well in big moments. But it's a trend I see with Malik where his alertness to anticipate where that finishing touch is going to come from and filling that space to prevent it has hurt us a few times. Yeah. And it's, I was going to say, well, then he's got Tyler, you know, shouting at him where to go. But maybe that's not as comforting as it should be. Well, Tyler, I feel like Tyler doesn't do that. He's not an organizer in my mind. Like, that's what Christian Raldon does. But you're not going to get that from Christian Raldon from the bench.

No. Okay. So how many spots are there do you think for this position? roughly. I mean, at least five. I think there will be at least five like center mids, not including McKinney with the 26-man roster. Okay. And again, I think a couple of those guys won't really matter at all. That they'd be totally interchangeable with nine, nine people.

Tim Tillman could be there. And I'd be like, cool, love it. Yeah. I don't know if I'd say cool, love it if we were there. But Testman rolled on. Adams Well, I don't know if I count Testament

Yeah, no, you're right Testman rolled on Adams. I was going to say Malik. I don't know if I count Malik in this group either. Like that'd still be a fudging a little bit to bring him out of the attacking group. Okay. And down him as the center mid.

So then it's like Johnny, Sebastian, Aden, and the rest of these guys, including Eunice, are fighting for two spots. That's probably right. And it might be one.

Because again, if you think, well, in a pinch, I'd use Malik there anyway. Or I'd use what I want Weston higher. But if it came to it, I'm playing Weston there instead of bringing in Aiden Morris. Yeah. And it's like Aiden Morris becomes a pointless roster inclusion. That's where you get. That's how you sneak big pat on because you just don't bring somebody who you would certainly not play. You would play three other guys out of position in that spot before Aiden Morris plays in a World Cup team.

And I think that's about right too. All right. Let's do fullbacks. Can you explain what is meant by fullback with the U.S. men's national team right now? Well, it sort of depends on the person, but for the most part, we're still defending in a back four. So your fullback is doing standard fullback stuff that we've watched for since, basically,

forever, I mean, since Trondola. And then in attack, it can vary quite a bit where Max Arston will actually, you know, as soon as we gain possession, he'll start to move up high to the left and be the most advanced left-sided player. And Joe Scali or an Alex Freeman on the right will stay home in the buildup as a back three and then have some freedom as we build possession and advance the ball to then get forward. And that's, I feel like that's pretty much been the, the MO for Pachitino. You know, there's, there have been a couple of curb balls mixed in, like everyone remembers the Jedi inverted role against Jamaica and the first competitive home match for Pachitino in Nations League. And that worked to pretty good effect. But I don't, I don't really, again, have any sense of that's going to be sticking around anymore. No. Yeah. So if Alex is out there at right back in the back four, likely he's going to be part of the three in the buildout, Alex Freeman. And then that allows Maximilian to work his magic of the left wing.

Yeah. But again, there have been enough variations that we can't say for sure that it's even personnel dependent because there have been games where Freeman was the right back and he still like was getting forward earlier. than he usually does. So it's even with one guy, it'll play differently. Miles Robinson has played right fullback for us and played it and didn't just play it as a stay-home guy. I was playing it, you know, getting up the wing like any fullback would be expected to. So the one thing that's been pretty consistent is Arfston, when he's playing left-back, is high. Like he is not really doing a stay-home job at any point first, like even early in a build-up. Like he's pretty much getting up the field.

And it just varies how far up the field he's getting. So it was Desk, Freeman Scali, Arfston, and Tolkien in the last camp. Basically, the only guy to add is Jedi. I mean, Lund's not coming back. No, he's not. How do you feel about Jedi's health? Are we looking at, you know, the summer of Maximilian Arfston because of this? I don't know, these lingering problems, whatever they are.

Yeah, I think there's a pretty good chance of that, quite honestly. How are you feeling now? I mean, I'm hopeful that Jedi comes back. I mean, he comes back, plays a little bit, played in the FAA Cup a couple weeks ago, but he's not starting in the Premier League right now. So I don't know. I don't know. I hope he comes back.

If it is Max Arston, I think it, you know, it's kind of funny and it might hurt us in some ways. But it also, he's, he makes stuff happen out there. He's done it repeatedly. Yeah. For me, it's like Jedi, I think of Jedi the same way I'm thinking of Geo Rainer right now. Like, he is, I don't expect him to be fit at any given time, but there is a chance for, three weeks in the summer of 26 that he is fit right when we need him to be

and I would love that. Yeah. Yeah, nothing lasts forever, man. I do still, just on Jedi, I do still want to see him play for us in like a Freeman style role rather than the Arvston role where he isn't starting out as our highest left attacker. But as we build forward, he can just explode up the field.

So earlier in the buildup, he's also very composed on the ball. He's a good adult to have on the ball in the back. So I like that from him if he kind of starts out more reserved in the buildup phase. And then again, I think his absolute superpower is how quickly he can go from not a part of the attack to here's an extra body flying into it that isn't accounted for. I think when he starts up high and it's just planted up there, he's accounted for. And then I think he's much less effective. Yeah. That's exactly right.

He has this runway where he's got 40 meters to just build up this outrageous momentum. Mm-hmm. And if he's the stay-at-home guy, then starting as the stay-at-home fullback, you know, then that allows a way or a desk to really hopefully cook up there. Yeah, it basically lets you put a more, I mean, basically a pure attacker. a nominal attacker in that wide left space that Arston has usually been occupying. Yeah. Which would be probably Pulisic coming from out why?

I don't think so. I mean, I wouldn't hate that at all. I don't think Potch is really entertaining Pulisick in that kind of a wide starting position. I think it would be like a way. I think Tim Way would play, you know, going back to his eye dominance. Nonsense. But I feel like it would probably. probably be like a way out.

Okay. You have flexibility. You can kind of post anybody out there. You could put them a leak out there and again, just get an extra attacker in. Yeah. And then you could still have Poulsick as sort of the right side of number 10. And McKinney as playing in the middle of a 4, 2, 3, 1 being your left side of number 10. And then you've got a Sergenio Dest as your right fullback who's occupying the wide right space.

I like that. You know, we could do something with that. that. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about the, we're now to the boring positions. Centerbacks first. Center backs, we had Tim Rie, Miles Robinson, Mark McKenzie, and Austin trustee, who,

you know, helped us obliterate Uruguay. Which is pretty awesome for him. Not in camp were Chris Richards, who were probably expecting to be in. And then, and then the, like, I feel like the most interesting possible. addition because of how unknown he is would be Nokey Banks. Yes. I'd be really surprised if he's not in the next camp.

Same. Same. Is he You've probably watched a little bit of both of both him and McKenzie over the years. Who would you take between the two of them to the World Cup? Oh man. I'm bringing Nokey.

Yeah, me too. At least with Nokey, there's the chance of a, you know, sort of a feels like there's a chance of a miracle. Not a miracle, but like a surprisingly assured performance by a young man at a, you know, the greatest sporting event on earth. He'll have his

John Brooks moment, right? Right. That's the hope. But you know with McKenzie, it's going to be uneven. So, Richards for sure is going to be there. Tim, well, what about Tim Rame? is he

Tim Riem's going to be there because I think at this point Tim Riem and Pachitino are basically brothers is what I've decided like they are they are brothers and Tim Riem is there

he's going to he's going to be on the roster and it's just going to be a question of have the legs given up completely where he can't play but he's going to be there because again there's no one there's no one essential

that you'd be leaving off to have Tim Rame as part of the 26 right Okay, so he's going to be there, but after he, you know, say he gets roasted by Miggie Almorone in game one, first 10 minutes. Yes, yeah, that's true. It might take getting burned at the World Cup proper to see his minutes disappear. So then, if that were to happen, which I think is not like some distant possibility, you've got Richard starting and then Noki? Or you going with Zimmerman?

I would love Zimmerman gets in But Zimmerman's got Josh Sergeant numbers of percentage I think it's probably Miles Robinson If I were if I were gonna bet With Nokey being the sort of dark horse long shot Okay Do either trustee or Tristan Blackman Make the World Cup roster?

Why not, Bells? I want McKenzie to make it Because, again, he got left off last time. He's really done a lot. Like, he's, you know, from that U20 team where he was, they brought him as the captain when he couldn't play. And then they actually tried to play him at fullback. Yeah. And a must-win game and he almost lost it for us.

But he obviously, you know, I don't know. He's just got something that people really respect. He does. He does. Yeah. He's a well-respected man. Okay. So you're thinking Ream, Richards, Banks, McKenzie and Robinson, all five of them?

Yeah, you certainly don't need all five. So I feel like if you bring five, it's because you want a little bit of a safety blanket for both Nokey and Ream. Like you're like, I don't really know what we're going to get from these guys. So just bringing four and having two of them be these guys on opposite ends of the age spectrum here. Mortality spectrum. Yeah. Like you need a little bit more of a safe. safety net.

Which is hilarious because they're not on opposite ends of it and go much further in either direction. Yeah, so Zimmerman does tug at you, but he's not coming. Oh, yeah. I would love Zimmerman. I think, again, the role he played against Iran in the last World Cup is a perfect job for him at worst. And I wouldn't be upset if he was actually like a starter or the guy who takes over when

Ream can't do it anymore. but he definitely would have like an easy identifiable mission at the end of a tight game to be like you go in there when they bring on their version of Large Patrick and you deal with Large Patrick. Yeah. Okay, do you even care who the goalkeeper is? I'm sure you do. But do you have a slight preference for one of Turner or freeze over the other? No, but I desperately want Sean Johnson to get.

into this camp and he's not going to. So after that, no, I don't care. Okay. Okay. I think I went Turner. His numbers, his numbers were, we're ticking back up in MLS. He's, he's saving more of the shots that he's not supposed to, to say it that way. But he also has, he's still, even an MLS, like, pads his numbers a little bit because he still gives up some,

some things with his feet that, like, directly lead to chances that he can then try to save. Yeah. Padden his numbers that way. The old, the classic move from a goalkeeper. Yeah. The guy at the last camp were Frees Schulte and Roman. So Turner wasn't even in the last camp. So I feel like, you know, it is, I feel like we're kind of assuming it's between Fries and Turner.

But I don't know. I don't know if Clems is even in. Yeah. I know this is kind of mystical stuff, but I do think Freeze, I don't know, sends a better vibe out of command. Even if it's a lie, it's like he's just more commanding than Turner. Yeah, it's the money ball version of just saying like he's got a good face. Yeah. You just feel good with him back there.

Right. You want your quarterback to have a good face. Right. All right. Let's not belabor the point. I think that's anything else, Greg? I mean, just enjoy this March experiment because it should tell us, we say this every time, this one should tell us a lot.

Yeah. I mean, it really should. Come join us in Atlanta? Not us, not me and Greg. Vince and I will be there in Atlanta, March 28th for the USA Belgium game. We're going to play some pickup tailgate at the blue lot just north of the stadium. Stay tuned for more information on that. Thanks everybody for listening.

We'll see you.