Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #670: Mehmeti says "bring life," Yunus responds, strikers keep scoring

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Adri Mehmeti sets the tone with his comments after the Red Bulls second straight win at the beginning of this young MLS season. From the mouths of babes. Also, big game in Marseille, Yunus plays and scores, Balo and Haji score, Pepi still not starting, and much more. 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. Hello, everybody. It's the Monday Review one day after match day two in Major League Soccer. Let's start right there. Let's start right there, baby. Some good old MLSA, man. Yeah. Love to see it back.

Yeah, yeah. And it is, you know, I'm going to get Marcus Schrez on here later this week to talk about the youngsters plying their trade in major league soccer but we got to we got to start with the Red Bulls because that's where it's all happening

Hall scores again Julian Hall scores again Audrey Mametti with the assist and man of the match and Michael Bradley kind of looking like a long-winded genius over there yeah yeah he is I got to

New Jersey I got to give him all his respect and on the coaching side. You know what I'm saying? I mean, as a player, look, I still have those feelings that I felt as a casual after he was hyped up

in such a way to me from what World War I Cup was at? 2014. 14, yeah, 14. You can still find, you can probably still find the article. I want to say it was ESPN. Yergen Clemsman speaking glowingly

of Michael Bradley and then me, my untrained eye, watching these matches. I like, it's brother's ass. this brother's ass and look it stuck with me since it stuck with me since

so and particularly you know he's been coming up here lately and you talk about you know Weston McKinney potentially being

one of the greatest midfielders in the world I mean in the world not but in U.S. history excuse me excuse me

for that 40 and slip but but look I mean there's nothing but good things I can say about Michael Bradley

and it's not only Adjimamedi and Julian Hall Sharsusky or whatever the Excuse me I don't I don't want to Who knows how to pronounce Polish names I mean we all learn how to

We all learn how to pronounce Shishafsky Right coach of Duke but And the man calling the game said it on the On the broadcast And it wasn't It wasn't what I thought it was Is it Krakowski? Yeah I think it's Krakowski

I think it's Krakowski Yeah because I was thinking about a Shevski yeah I was thinking about a Sheffsky type of thing I thought it was going to be something like that but it is what you said. Eski. But it's not only those two brothers. Matthew Dos Santos.

Yes. Who I mean, is looking pretty damn good, bro. He's a good little player. He's a good little player. Left back. Yeah. Left back.

Technical. Can receive, give, get it. You know what I'm saying? Played a, had a very nice turn. in the first half of this match kind of come and inverted a little bit receiving the ball from a Justin they called him Chi on the broadcast

so I'm gonna go with the No they called him Chi so I mean Who am I to Go against the man who's calling the game A nice ball from Justin Chi in the buildup Matthew Dos Santos received it with his He has his back to the goal

He's going to his own goal You know what I'm saying is receiving But receives it with this right foot turns and basically had New York Red Bulls off to the races for a good opportunity. And then I want to say like two minutes later played a nice ball, a nice little bending ball in behind from his left back spot to whoever New York Red Bulls number 11 is. But he's a good player, bro. He's a decent player. And the thing about Hall and Dos Santos that I really need to watch more, I was trying to, I was trying to communicate this about Hall last week.

but it's just I need more time to figure out their like physical projection. You know, Julian Hall, he's the smallest of these three lads. You know, he was that they took a picture together like Audrey, the tallest one, Matthews Dos Santos in second place, and then probably an inch shorter than Matthew dos Santos is Julian Hall. So with that, you know, if he's going to, and he's shown this ability to poach, right? I think the goal that he scored this weekend was actually quite nice when you see how he moved to get uncovered. Yeah.

And then to head it home. But it's like if he's going to be this poacher and we've seen it right with talked about it kind of with Josh Sargent. It's like, do you have the physical abilities to be able to unsettle centerbacks? Right. and right now I just need time I just need time for those two but solid base of skills for those two as well

but yeah I just wanted to make sure we didn't forget about Matthew Dos Santos because I was I was I was like damn you know he's he's good too yeah he's been playing well and Shay I mean I'm gonna keep calling Shay until I get some confirmation on Chi but Shay

She has been playing fantastic for Red Bulls too, a total reclamation project. In the words of Matt Doyle, a distressed asset. And also in the words of Matt Doyle, the best player on the pitch in this game against the revs. I mean, that's what Matt Doyle said. I'm not agreeing. That's what Matt Doyle said. Look, I'm not saying he was not bad by any stretch of the imagination.

I mean, he got to the in line one time, had a nice cutback. Yeah. For a... Look like Nokey Banks there for a minute. Yeah, he did. I mean, he really was putting out a lot of fires. Like every New York Revolution attack that was coming down, coming down that side.

I mean, he was handling him, like, you know, just... This is an audio medium, but, you know, I kind of undusted my hands, you know, job well done. Easy work, you know. He was just coming over, dispossessing whoever it was with the ball. and we're going the other way. And so he was looking good. Yeah, I got to give credit to Mike.

I have credit to Mike. But you know, the show, the person we're all here to talk. It's like, what would we be talking about Red Bull? It's METI. It's the one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he got his assist on a flick on, a ball kind of curled in from the right side, left footed, and he just gets under it enough to pop it up over to Julian Hall,

who, as you referenced, pounced on it, headed it down off the grass, like a German striker, just textbook stuff. Or a Polish one. Yeah, sure. You know, right. And, you know, he knows how to use that length of his defensively.

I love that. I love that. He's always like sticking a leg in to poke the ball away. And a lot of leverage. And listen to the way he talks about practice. This audio is courtesy of Sanjay Sujah Tumar, a roving correspondent. Every day when I come into training, I, you know, bring life, you know, and then give everything I have so I can have these moments.

And then when I step on the field, I leave the field with no regrets, you know, push every single day, push my teammates. They're giving me the confidence to, you know, go out and do what I can do best, and then I give it back. Bro, I bring life. I bring life on the training pitch. See, this man is talking my language right now. Yeah.

And that's some of that, you know, as a man, I think he's born and raised in New York. But, you know, bringing some of that, bringing some of that to the training pitch, man, you know. Yeah, wake up and get to it, man. You're out here on the training pitch. Let's be out here on the training pitch, man. Yeah, I want to play a Bradley quote, too, that's quite a bit longer as most Michael Bradley quotes are, where he references the same thing. But that idea of bringing life or being alive on the training pitch is definitely, like, that's a talking point in the Red Bulls organization right now.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Dude, Mamedi sounds like Michael Bradley, the way he talks. Here he is on, I think, working on defense. So here's a question. A lot of the hype's been about your offense. What about your defensive game that fans should probably know about?

Yeah, I think, obviously, attacking-wise, I think I can play those threatening passes, you know, into our nine, into our eights, wingers. But, again, defensively, I think I'm getting a lot better with moving my feet and, you know, slowing up attacks and letting our players come back into the game so we can, you know, not let the other team have high opportunities to score. You know, he's, he's, I think mainly I play that clip to say he sees himself as a pretty effective attacking player, like a pretty effective. on the ball, but he sees the thing that he needs to work on as defense, and he was, I think, really proud of the way he went up against Carlos Heel

in this game, because Carlos Heel, I'm sorry. Yeah, Carlos, that's right. Yeah. So, I think that's pretty cool. And, you know, Hall is very temporarily, probably, co-leading the Golden Boot Race.

Uh-huh. and I don't know anything any any any other thoughts from you on my metty he is the he is the main event here um I'll say this um you know well first of all first of all the positives before I get to his his few negatives from this game um it's like you know we talked talked last week about um I guess the skills you show as a young player versus like the application and applying it you know 90 95 percent of the time, the stuff that makes you a real deal professional soccer player that can be counted on. I mean, you know, when you sit here and watch these matches, like, he really is a play. The application is there. You know what I'm saying? Ball comes into him. Touch is spot on.

You know what I'm saying? The pass is completed for the most part. I mean, he probably maybe like five, six incomplete a pass for the game. And most of them were him trying stuff, trying to hit like Julian Hall, K. Cowell over the top, you know, trying to do things like ambitious. things like that. But you know, like, as a six, right, from the buildout, a lot of times, if you're not man-marked, you're closely marked, right? And you can see the confidence that his teammates have to, like, give him the ball, even when he has somebody that's following him, as he's going, like, you know, I'm saying, let's say he's going left to right on the pitch,

you know, and there's somebody right in his hip pocket. But they have the confidence to give him the ball that, you know, the touch when he does get it is going to be clean and he's able to get it out and find somebody else. And so, yeah, this is an application that him receiving the ball in tight spaces like all these different types of, like it's, it's just, it's there. And he shows it time after time after time. So that stuff right there is just like brilliant. You know, 16 years old. He turned 17 in April. I think I want to say like April 9th or something like that. And at this point, you know what I'm saying? Does Kevin Sullivan have these performances in MLS? I'm not here to come for Kevin Sullivan, but I'm just saying.

Well, Kevin Sullivan hasn't played that as much in MLS. Okay. And this is, once again, this is not to come for Kevin Sullivan. I'm just glazing Mehdi further here. You know what I'm saying? Just to let you know what is going on here, what he's doing at this age, at this age of 16. And, but, okay, the negatives. Yeah, please.

So defensive side. The one thing he can do, what? Well, actually, the positive thing, the real positive thing I saw he did defensively. There was a New York Red Bulls attack going down their right side. Cross comes in from a Jekyll Marshall Rudy, collected by Matt Turner. Matt Turner runs it out, and now the revolution are going up their right side. Okay. Mamedi's basically like at the top of the box when the cross is played.

You see, you see Matt Turner roll it out. They give the obligatory camera pan to Marshall Rudy running back down the field. But then, and so by the time the camera comes back, you see that the revolution are basically close to their right touchline by midfield. And Mehdi has covered that ground from the very top of the, he's probably at the top of the D when Matt Turner claims the ball. And they're at midfield on the right touchline. Mamedi is there.

I mean, has corralled the whole situation. Emil Forrestberg then backs him up. and they end up like bro's momentum is completely stopped the angle that Mehdi has taken to stop this thing is like perfect he corrals the whole situation forceburg comes in to knock the ball off the player that's been that's been handled by mymetti and they get the ball back you know what I'm saying that's a potentially dangerous situation New York Red Bulls had numbers committed forward and Mametty stomped that whole thing out it was beautiful to see good and you know and that's the thing with him um

You know, I said I need more time with Dos Santos and Hall. I don't think I need more time with Mehdi. Like, he, he moves fine. You can see it. You can see his hips move offensively and defensively. They're not stiff. You know, he's fluid. He's a big dude, yes.

But he's 16. I think the physical projection is there. Like, he's a good enough athlete. He's, he's coordinated enough. He moves well enough. All this different types of things. Like, it's not, it's not, um, Danny Lava. Right.

It's not even close to them. that and with you know getting in the gym doing whatever like he's i don't have huge eventually yeah i don't i don't have those not huge but he's going to be very strong right i don't have those issues with him so the next on the negative side where he failed uh twice that led to new england's biggest chance of the match and then a potential penalty shout for new england it wasn't called but he is slow to recognize when he needs to track up runners that are coming through his midfield So a situation where New England Revolution are building out, I don't know what the player is. Number 12, he passes the ball essentially, I think he's a, might be a defensive midfell or something.

But anyway, passes the ball to that right back. And then once he passes the ball, he runs straight through midfield. Mamedi kind of sees him, lets him go at first. And the ball's return to number 12 as he runs past Mamedi. sees him, lets him go, and then realizes, oh, I probably should have been tracking that dude. Because as soon as he gets it back, it's like, it's a jailbreak. You know, everybody's running. It's essentially like a four-on-two because Mehdi has been kind of taken out the play.

And there's a cutback. I think Jackson Yule and Griffin Yow kind of collide. They both try to, like, go for the ball. And it ends up kind of squirting towards goal. and Jekyll Marshall Rudy had to like head it out to deny a goal. But it was like a golden chance. A golden, if any one of those dudes catches the ball cleanly, instead of them both going forward, it's a goal for sure.

And that's all because of Lamedi being very slow to realize who he needs to pick up in that situation. The same thing happens later in the match. It's number 12 once again. And then he carries the ball into the box. And I think it's Justin Chey dispossesses him. It goes down. It kind of looks like a. could be a penalty shop.

There's nothing there. But probably Revolution's two biggest, because I watched this entire match today, probably Revolution's two biggest, like, offensive opportunities were off the back of Adrygmanetti, not realizing who he needs to pick up in the midfield. But other than that, he's defensively alert.

You know what I'm saying? Like, once again, that's more like, if he was doing that a 16-year-old, it'd be like, I mean, like, I don't know, game over or whatever, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A little lack of recognition. Yeah, I mean, I mean, it's a tailors all the time, right?

We had to go through this with Western McKinney. We had to go through this with Tyler Adams, like, almost like step by step. We may still be going through it with Tanner Testament, you know? Yeah, at least a little bit. Yeah. Well, number 12 is I lay Feingold, just thought I'd looked at it while you were talking. All due respect to Mr. Fankle. Playing right back for the revs.

And, you know, Bradley coached Red Bull 2 last season to a, you know, championship, if that's what you want to call it. So he knows these guys. And, you know, he keeps getting asked, you know, questions about why he trusts them or how he got to the point where he trust them. And I'm just going to play a long answer to one of those questions here. Look, in Audrey's case, in Maddie's case, I spent a lot of time with them last year. You know, I had six months with them. And so I saw firsthand every single day their quality, their attitude. I saw that when you challenged them and pushed them, they got even better.

I saw that when you tried to help them with little things, when coach them on certain details, that you didn't have to say things, You didn't have to repeat yourself many times that they picked things up pretty quickly. Julian, I had with me once last year with the second team pretty early on, and I watched him closely every chance I could last year in first team training. And, you know, I watched him in the under 17 World Cup. When was that, remember? and I

still, there's a lot of football there. There's a lot of potential. And so, you know, I still, that was the starting point. And then when we started preseason, then you set out to create an environment every day where there's good training, where you're creating as many game situations over and over and over again for these guys

to have to, interpret and and make the right decisions and think faster and still as everything's flying around execute with with quality with sharpness and you know we we've challenged the group to say look we're going to we want an environment every single day that is that is fast and dynamic and competitive and we want guys who show up here every day alive and ready to take the idea and go with them a thousand percent. There it is. Alive.

Bring life, be alive. Bring life, be alive, man. That's what you got to do. Look, you can learn this, listener. You can learn something from this. Bring life to your job. I mean, you know, it makes work so much easier, you know, if you're not, if you're not a drain but a fountain. Yeah.

You know. Um, if you're, I mean, the mind's a powerful thing. If you got a, if you're, if you're walking in the work, thinking of yourself, thinking of yourself about how much is it going to suck, it's going to suck. It's going to suck. Guess what? You know what? You know, but on the flip side, you know, you can come in with a rosy attitude and get it done. You know, I actually had to, um, I had to talk to my brother about this one time. Uh, when he was, when he was playing for the Panthers, um, his, like, I want to say, like, I want to say,

Like his, probably his main season where he was getting playing time. The other time when he was getting playing time in the COVID season, he got hurt. But so he was going through this season, backing up Christian McCaffrey, whatever, had some success, you know, scored a touchdown, won him a game, etc. And so that was probably one week, let's say week five or something. We go to Carolina to visit him probably like six weeks later. and, you know, his tone had totally changed. Like, he's struggling. Like, he's like, man, the coaches are on me.

I'm not doing as well as I could. And even in that, in that game that we were there for, he had a potential catch that was probably, probably would have been a touchdown. He's matched up on a linebacker. You know, runs like a little seam route. He's open. Tries to catch it over his shoulder, drops it.

You know, it's like he's filling down. You know what I'm saying? Everything is just like, everything's that snowballing on them. I told him, I looked at all. I was like, man, you just got to, you just got to, I said turn it up. But bring life, essentially like, bro, you guys got to come into practice. You know what I'm saying?

Leave all that behind. And you just got to bring the energy, man. Bring the energy. Everything else will come forward later. And I understand sometimes when you get on your head, it's tough to bring the energy. It is. You know, all this other stuff. But, yeah.

So I had to, I had to, you know, you know, give him that speech, but it's all, that's how you, it's easier said than done. It is. It's easier said than done. And like for a 16 year old specifically, like, I mean, we're going to, we probably, we're going to check back in with, um, Adry. We got it officially from Michael Bradley right there. Uh, we'll check in with Michael, I mean, with Audrey in midseason or whatever.

And maybe he's just completely dragging. So make sure you, we remember these moments. Remember the bright stuff. before we get to the eventual you know cloudy weather or whatever but yeah man it's a good it's a good model to have it's a good way to live your life

it's a good way to go about like anything that's worth pursuing in life you want to make sure you bring life to it because what are we Adam Bells right here and what condition are we in currently that allows us to talk on this podcast alive that's right yeah

yeah yeah yeah I mean, I really admire the people who can, like, can dust, who can get up after a mistake and then go after it, you know, that really truly put it behind them. Because I'm not one of those people. Do we go again in it? Yeah, we go again. Great, great things happening in Harrison, New Jersey at Sports Illustrated Arena. Oh, also, before we get at, before we get, I got one more thing to say, Julian Hall came with it in the pregame. You know what I'm saying?

They got the camera on them. He's walking through. he's walking through one of the tunnels of Sports Illustrated Stadium. The fit. The fit's on point. He's not no Indiana vass level. I can tell you that much. I can tell you that much.

Has shades on, had a little chrome hearts hat on, jacket, a little bomber jacket, et cetera. He was dressed to impress. Audrey, on the other hand, he had a sweatsuit on. It was a nice sweatsuit, cream-colored, bright eyes. He was bringing life to the sweatsuit. That's the thing.

That's the thing, Adam Bell. You know what I'm happy we got here because you can wear the same fit the Indiana Vassilav had on. And bring life to it. And bring life to it, brother. And bring life to it. And once again, it's probably easier to bring life when you're 16 years old and you haven't been beaten down by the realities of life. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

So what who is more alive than a 16 year old? Exactly. In New York City. Come on, man. Yeah. Come on, man. But so it's all encouraging signs from these young kids at Red Bulls, man. So, you know what I'm saying?

I talked about my questions about Julian Hall's physical projection or whatever, but when I see that fit, that makes me believe that he's going to want to keep dressing like this in the future. You know what I'm saying? And to do that, you got to keep playing well. and you so that's somebody's gonna be in the gym because he want to keep he he want to put them shades on he want to put that chrome heart he wants to be somebody imagine being being somebody in the city of new york right i mean playing for red bulls probably is not going to get you there unfortunately but you might you can dream you can dream you might get a little

you might get a little prestige from it once again that's the thing about bringing life you can it's easier to dream when you're 16 17 years old like yeah that's me julia hall playing for new york Red Bulls in Times Square. You just see my face. Right. Maybe. Yeah. I mean, it is a long season, as you noted earlier. So, you know, we'll see how things go. But looking good up there.

Let's go, let's go to the business end of the French Riviera, Marseille. And I actually had to look this up because I thought, is Marseille considered the Riviera? And it technically is, even though it's not like a resort town like all the other places for either east. But anyway, huge game, huge game, big game atmosphere.

Marseille hosting Leon. We had Tesman in there and Tim Weir. Marseille ends up winning three, two on two goals in the last 10 minutes from Pierre Emmerich, Obama Yang. Testman,

curious your thoughts, but I thought Tesman kind of muddled through. Pretty messy on the ball. That's what he's been doing here lately. Yeah Yeah, he doesn't inspire Like, you're not like

Oh yeah, he should start At the World Cup Yeah And watch these games Some good moments Especially defensively I thought, you know, He was up against Greenwood

And Paishau And more or less He held his own But you know Almost everything he tried to do That was incisive Didn't connect With the ball

And I don't know What's going on there Maybe I need to talk The Tenth Testament Telling to bring life To training something bro because i mean it hasn't been coming off for like

the entirety of the ruck runda you know what i'm saying i mean let's just call it the rookerunna across like across the globe right right and uh it's i don't know it's a little worry i need him i need him get back to to where he was

it's a good game but yeah uh timmy helped set up a chance big chance for Greenwood by slipping the ball to the end line. You know, I don't know that there's that much to say about his performance.

You know who brings life is Hendrick. Oh, man. He's just having fun out there. Like, he's so nice. Even when it doesn't come off, you're like, ooh, I'm so glad I was here to witness that. You know? Yep, yep. Yeah, this is one of those things where it's like,

you know Madrid bought him right and it's like well argue that guy or not type of thing turns out he is he's some kind of guy

turns out he is yeah also Greenwood I hate to say it but he certainly brings life on the football pitch as well I mean

he's he's just he's a live wire all the time it was a legitimate debate between him and Bukaiosaka, you know, when they were both coming up at their respective clubs on who's the better, who's the better prospect.

Right. And, yeah, he's good at soccer. There's no doubt about it. Big, big news out of, you know, the former site of the Olympics, Bergamo. I mean, it wasn't technically in Bergamo, but, you know, that part of Italy had the Olympics.

There's in Atlanta. I was like, what happened in Atlanta? No, no. No big news out of Atlanta as far as I know. This was Atalanta. They lost to Sasuolo to one. But guess who played a full half an hour? A half an hour of soccer and scored a goal.

He had one. No, no, when you say he scored a goal, that eliminates some players that would probably include Eunice Musa. So you can't be talking about Eunice Musa. I'm talking about Eunice Musa. Oh. He did what now? He scored a goal. Broadlife.

roofed it. Yeah, he brought life. He roofed it from on a cutback. It's actually a really nice finish. It was nice. More important than the goal, I think, actually, is that he played for half an hour. And, you know, he had one half turn mishap, kind of, where he almost lost it. Well, he kind of did lose it, but then it was immediately recovered. But, you know, he tracked people down in the corner twice, took the ball from them, just textbook, like getting your shoulder between the the ball carrier and the ball and then coming away with it. He is so good in the cage. And I know everybody's giving up on him. Yeah.

But not me. Not me. Shame on you if you decided to give up on, on Eunice, Musa. A lot of the shame is everywhere. Everyone's giving up. I also did, I did see a rumor this weekend that, what was it? I think it was Fullerman West Ham. I looking to buy Eunice Moose or something like that.

I mean, you know, this could be completely unfalty. Yeah. Yeah. It could have came from Tom Yogurt and not Tom Bogart or whatever. You know what I'm saying? You know, my eyes deceive me from time to time. But I do think it was actually a somewhat reputable something. Okay.

I mean, like, like, as in this wasn't just Twitter user, ABCD, 1, 2, 3. Well, he deserves the play He deserves the play Bro, this man needs to go to Club Bruges or something, man Just reset the whole The whole thing real quick Get the minutes that you want in the midfield Because he's had this arrested development, man

Where he's playing all these other places that don't That don't suit him Like play in the midfield for 2,000 minutes or something At Club Bruges Which Club Bruges acquitted themselves quite well the Champions League this year. That's true. I'll have you know, Adam Bells.

But... Yeah, but... How about he... And then bounce back from there. How about he just takes Tanner Testament's spot in the World Cup roster and then puts himself in the shop window in places like Los Angeles and Seattle, you know? I mean... Sounds good.

Sounds good. Who do you really want on the field in a World Cup game? Tanner Testman or Eunice Muses? I mean, I'm going to say Eunice. I'm going to say, yeah, Eunice. We got Tyler Adams just clonking around out there for Bournemouth. What even was that performance? That's what is Tyler Adams doing Tyler Adams?

Dude, he isn't even playing soccer. He's like, like, I don't, did he have one positive touch? Did he do, did he have one clean challenge on the ball? I mean, he's just running into people. Bro, and I keep going back to this, but it's facts. Like, and Tanner's in that class of midfielders that, you know, when you watch Eunice Musa last year, when Consta Sal got the job and Eunice started flourishing, et cetera, that stretch of games. It was like Inter Milan where, I think in the Copa Italia, where he played extremely well,

including facilitating like a three-minute passage of play where he was just receiving the ball all over the pitch for them trying to, they were killing the game out with the ball, you know what I'm saying? And Eunice was just the orchestrator of that whole passage of possession. The Parma match, I want to say, where he was just absolutely everywhere, killing those dudes from the buildout to that tack

and he got the game winning assist in that game. But he was going crazy in that match. Like, that stretch of game, I haven't seen Tana Testament have it Against teams of those Against teams of that caliber You know what I haven't seen Tana Testament have it

I haven't seen what I don't know James Sands have it I didn't watch the club world cup People tell me Christian Rodon did his thing in the In the club world cup He did have a couple nice turns against Real Salt Lake that I saw Okay

Real Salt Lake is a crazy club name But anyway It's just really starting to hit me How ridiculous that kind of is But yeah I haven't seen Christopher Rodan have it Because I haven't watched the games I'm feigning ignorance

So don't come from me Seattle Sanders fans But and also I haven't seen I don't know Whoever else we want to throw in there Giorina He hasn't had a He hasn't had a full 90-minute game for

Yeah Yeah I mean It's like Soccer's a game Where you have to be able to dribble To get out of trouble and you have to be able to trouble just to buy yourself a second

to do something. And actually, Tanner's not too bad at that. It's not. But he does, he does kind of find himself in trouble because of that more than you would like to.

Tanner, Tanner, I'm talking about. Tanner had some kind of embarrassing, as a viewer, kind of embarrassing moments over the weekend. One time where he just like passed it right to a white shirt in the middle of the center circle.

Where when he played that, he tried to curl that ball in behind for, I forget who it was. And then it went way behind him. And the guy turned around and looked at him and gave him the Gio arms. But anyway, Eunice, he's alive. He's alive. He's alive. Now, does this situation beget more minutes going forward?

We'll see. Atalanta was up a man. and yes, Eunice scored the goal, they also ended up losing. Yeah. And gave up both goals while they were up a man for whatever reason. I don't think either goal was Eunice's fault. But yeah, there's no way to say with certainty that he will get more minutes as a result of it. And that's another thing.

We talked about last season. This season, for the most part, and you and Greg hit on this, like he's been mostly good. Like, you know what I'm saying? You watch him play for Aza-Lansa. and you kind of wonder why he's sucking down on the bench to the level that he has so far. You know what I'm saying? Things can change. It's just a question of does Potch bring him in for me?

Because I think even if he's not playing that much, he probably should come to the World Cup. I know that's not a common opinion, but that's what makes me so brave as I say things like that. um balligan bundles one in versus angier angier look he's like headed it comes back off him off his shin and then rolls in he celebrated like he like he hammered it in from 25 yards now now okay he's bringing life that's right that's right you're right you're right you know what you what you want him to do that's the thing that's a thing bro if you I'm not criticized if I'm not

If I had a camera following me in my everyday life, like, sometimes I'll complete a basic task. I'll send the email I need to send, and I'll just, I'll just do the hands like I'm trying to pump the crowd up. Like, come on, that's right. That's right. I had sent on that. I proofread it. I have sent, you know, emails can be anxiety-inducing things in a professional setting, for sure. But, yeah, I'll send that thing off, paragraph looking right.

I use some nice words, et cetera. Throw some hands to the imaginary crowd. Come on, baby. Hype me up. You have rid of that. Like, listen. No, no, I do not, I do not cup the ear. I do not cup the ear.

It's always just the hands. But, um, okay. And then second of all, did you see how he got up to even get the, the header and the, the header that starts this whole thing? I mean, he's a good athlete. bro was he like 5'9 yeah man was up there bro he was I was like damn and it was goalbound too it was actually saved by like defender's shin so it's not like yeah it's not like he

whiffed on it or anything it's just yeah that's the thing I saw people's um summary of the goal then I actually watched the goal I was like oh I mean this is uh that's good stuff that's good stuff so I'll give them that and once again you know he's uh he got off the snide and that's how you know he's a different type of dude you know you get off the snide against PSG you know that's a that's a that's a thing that's a that's a thing following a barrel gun full of full of floren jerry balligan it's capable of so he got off that snide against PSG um and now he has four goals and uh four matches yeah which brings him up to 12 and and three assists on the season you know what I'm saying he's

and if we get a strong finish to this season. Yeah, I mean, anything over 15 in your, and it's a success of a season for a striker, right? Let's just do the other two strikers in the... Okay, go ahead. Real quick, I mean, he did also set up a nice shot at the top of the box for Ansufati. Oh, yeah, and he missed the frame, right? Yeah, yeah, missed the frame.

But that's all, that's all. We can continue. Pepe came on at the half up 3-0 against Heracles, I believe, and didn't score. Did get some decent chances. Hadji Wright scored again. Peeled off a defender at the back post, nodded it in from point blank. Something kind of satisfying about that kind of goal. I mean, the ball was just absolutely perfect.

Tyler in the 11 again for Bournemouth, as we talked about earlier. it was pretty nasty go ahead before we get on to how nasty was um I do want to I was actually going to take this episode to do some re contextualization stuff that you and Greg got into I'm happy y'all did because you know there are some things that people are going to take us wrong with there's some things that needed to be said as far as like you know the narrative that we have going about the season checking back in on certain players, etc.

This is one thing that I do want to bring up. Haji and Big Pat. Okay. Big Pat's Purple Patch, I think it blinded my eyes a little bit. As far as I thought him and Haji, well, I think Big Pat's, Big Pat's Purple Patch coincided

with Haji's very cold streak. Yeah. But now that Haji is back scoring again, you know, I kind of like, over into the numbers a little bit. You look at it. As far as these two strikers that are both playing in the championship, Haji Wright's having a better season than Pai Azumong, not only by the goal tally, right? He has 15 to Pat's 10. But Pat is producing like two-thirds of the XG plus

XA. Non-Penity, XG plus XA. You got to do it. You got to do it manually now. You know, you got to do it manually. I was writing stuff on the back of the, on the back of the napkin. But you could trust me. you can trust me STEM You're a scientist Technology graduate You know what I'm saying You know

I want to my own horn But anyway Big Pat has about He's been about two thirds As productive as Haji Wright From a non-penity Expected Goals Plus expected assist

Perspective Not saying that Big Pat is not Doing what he's doing I actually watched Big Pat this weekend And he looked Big Patish He was actually playing out on the wing a lot

Until like I want to say like 50 fifth minute and like second half Then he moved to the center forward You know there's still looks like Big Pat There's a lot of errant stuff etc But he was involved on the first and third goals That Derby County score Okay One at the at the right angle of the box

You know at the top on the left side He played a simple pass into somebody who basically put him in the end line that he cut it back, goal scored. And also he did the big pat rumbling, bumble and stumbling thing and like kind of received the ball in the middle of the field and looked like he was about to lose it two or three times. But it stayed under Darby County's control. And that break coming from that led to their third goal, I want to say.

So, you know, he's still doing, he's still doing big pat things. I'm not here to disparage him totally. But what I am here to say is that, has he right still a better soccer player than big pet as far as i can tell i think there's no doubt hodge he's a better soccer player i guess the question for me is does does big pat's sort of late game fit you know the way he fits into a late game situation does that get him over the line ahead of haji or riko you know i mean gregg is always like pretty agnostic about almost every about everything.

But not everything, but agnostic about a lot of stuff. I do feel kind of agnostic about the strikers. I just emotionally want Pepey to go to the World Cup. Yeah, you gotta go. It would suck if he didn't go. Which, let's go and get some starts, baby. If you back,

let's getting a starting lineup, man. Yeah, he's not in the starting lineup yet. So, but yeah, I mean, I still, yeah, the Duncan on people point of view perspective. I understand that. Let's get to Tyler. I mean, we don't have to, we've already said kind of everything I want to say, but he did get a yellow card at the hour mark for a pretty rough challenge after he dribbled too far in front of himself and then just got like closed down by two guys, one from either side. And they just kind of jumped in with his boots first.

It's amazing. It's amazing what he can get away with out there. And then, he'd be getting away with it, bro. He'd be good. And you know what? When you talked about Tyler, what, speaking of language of authority. Yeah. What was it?

Last week we talked about this. Yeah. It reminded me about my roommate that I had in college. My boy, my boy Matt Page, called him Iceman. We stayed. So if you're like a fifth year at my college, you can then stay off campus. Okay. And it took me, actually took me six years to get my degree because of things.

but anyway So fifth year We're staying off campus And this particular house off campus Was like whoever lived there It is like your obligation To throw parties or whatever So we're at that house

And so we're throwing a party Whatever Police come as they are one to do At these house parties or whatever Who we're sending out there? We send an ice man Because he's gonna do to Despite him being a 21, 22 year old man

or whatever. He's going to hit you with the incredulous, you know, old white men. Hey, what are you doing? Like, you know, the police are at your house. We are doing something that clearly we should not be doing. But at the same time, bro is meeting the police with the level of like, with the level of defiance. He's flabbergasted.

Yeah, it's flabbergasted, bro. He's like, what, man? Of course, of course. You guys are here to ruin all the fun. You know, all that different type of stuff. We would always send Matt out to handle it. And, you know, he, sometimes, you know, the cop would be like, all right, kind of leave and just be like, just keep it down a little bit. Because like, you know, not only where we, you know, it's a, I went to college in a dry county.

Oh, boy. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, there's a lot of things going on there that could get us in, they could kind of get us in trouble or whatever. But you sent, you send my page, Iceman out there, bro, you take care of. Take care of it for you. Yeah, it's like Tyler. After the offense that got him in the yellow card, he's immediately on the offensive with the ref, you know? Exactly.

And maybe there's something to be learned from that for 75% of people listen to this pocket. Maybe, yeah. The other 25th. Maybe tone it down a little bit. Tony down a little bit, but you're not always right. You're not always the victim. Yeah, I, I, whatever. I mean, if he uses these skills to avoid.

yellow cards and red cards at the World Cup, I'm all for it. We'll take it. Augsburg and Nokey Banks win their third straight league match. His name is Noah Kai. His nickname is Noaki. That's right.

He got an assist. Took down a sky ball at midfield and then carried it all the way to the end line. We're finally seeing that that ball carrying ability bloom in the Bundesliga. Fizz went across to the near post. 1-0, Augsburg.

over Cohn. I think he looks pretty comfortable defending and competing for the ball in the air right now. Yeah. Had some good moments in tight situations with the ball. Seems like he's got a full head of steam. And now he's dropping hints he might want to play for Germany. Which, to continue with the theme of this podcast, you know what he's bringing life to, Adam Bells? Our podcast.

Bro. Exactly. The discourse. Our podcast. Everything. And so When I quote tweeted This quote

A screenshot of this quote or whatever And I put some fire emojis on it from the scuffed account I had people replying Fire emojis? Vince, what are you talking about? And I didn't have the words I didn't have the words to explain it But I do now

He just brought life to the entire discourse, brother. We are in a four-month stretch of nothingness Now it's coming to an end In four weeks the most exciting thing of the last four months was tanner testman you know what i'm saying bro like we we've been we've been starving out here we've been starving and and and you know audrey you know we got audrey here late but yeah let's go ahead fire this up baby let's go and fire it up dual national panic we you we you we you etc etc um we're here we're here i'm seeing people call him pacha a bitch

essentially like you know what i'm saying that Do you think the move here is from No Kai and his camp is to try to push for a call-up in March? I kind of think so. And I've seen people asking the question, like, did we get too far ahead of our skis in the first place with Noakai? like did we um yeah did we just assume that he was going to be a yank um i mean he said some stuff to that extent but yeah he's everything from him has been you know america america play for the u.s um youth national teams for seems like a decent long a decade i'm out of time quite a bit of probably like three or four years though um and you know augsburg's been laying on

thick too as far as like you know i don't know if they called him captain america but there's been things of that of that nature trying to break into the american market u s a usa usa american flag emojis i mean i even saw a video of like something of like no key where they like asked him like how it how it feels to be an american or something something along those lines but anyway um he's like when i drive through cincinnati it feels like home yeah over the rind you know what i'm saying Yeah. But, uh, well, exactly. Um, he, uh, yeah.

Yeah. So I don't think we got ahead of ourselves with this. But once again, let's go and fire it up. And here's the, um, here's the quote from Noah Kai himself. It's a difficult decision regarding my nationality. I'm very torn. I'm in contact with both the USA and Germany and both national coaches. I hopefully have a long career ahead of me So I want to think carefully

And speak with my family I don't want to make it dependent on a World Cup I'm just happy to be in this position And to be able to make this decision We'll see what happens I don't want to make it dependent on a World Cup But I might have to I have to

And that's why I'm thinking it's probably It's probably an agent-driven type of thing If I had a guess If I had a guess well I say it right now when you could I mean

maybe this is the only opportunity he did he had to say it to like a national media type of thing like after getting the assist on the it's the match winner I mean it's the match winner

did they win one now it was they won two zero but still counts as the match winner right right so maybe that's the only opportunity he had to get this off you know or whatever but you know you got a camp coming up right just talked about it

roster probably drops in about three weeks weeks, today's March 2nd. Yeah. Rastor probably Josh in about three weeks. And what's to put a little pressure on the on the gas? I can see that. I can see that. Will Potch respond to that by calling him up or by saying we don't play this way?

I'm not the janitor. Yeah. I'm not your, I'm not a passport stamper. You know, you either want to play for the U.S. or you don't. Yeah. I'm not trying to persuade you. Which it seems like... It seems like some indications are that Potch will take that point of view.

If you take some of the things he said before... Yes. Right. But he might make an exception for a centerback with potential, especially given what he's been seen in the early stages of his MLS season from his right-hand man. Oh, boy. His right-hand left-footed man, Tim Riem. Yeah, let's get on that real quick.

Tim Ream got taken advantage of this weekend for Charlotte FC. I don't know who they were playing. LA Galaxy, they went down 3-0 for the first 15 minutes. Was it like Galaxy? Transition. Transition opportunity. Was it Peck? I think it was Gabriel Peck carrying it into the attacking third.

So he's coming down. LA Galaxy's right-hand side. which obviously Tim Rima is over there. As left centerback, he squares up to Mr. Peck. I'm pretty sure it's Gabriel Peck. Squares up to him and essentially does not control the situation at any point. You know, it's a, it's a,

Tim Rima's there, right? So Bro's momentum is stopped enough for this to be a 1V1 opportunity, essentially, at the right there at the right angle of the box. And, yeah, Tim doesn't. doesn't control anything. Cross comes in. Tim doesn't get, you know, there's no foot, hand,

head, nothing to this cross. Cross comes in a very clean goal. Which I will say, people get beat around the corner in all kinds of ways, all different days by different types of players. What is different,

what feels different about this is Tim just looks like he has no chance. It looks like, he is no chance. Like he's doing the position game. Like, like, if I, if I just position myself here kind of thing, like, because even he's, he gives them like a lot of allowance, like, even when they're squaring up for the 1v1 to even start. He's almost, Tim has almost played for bro to go where he goes for Tim to be in position to block the cross type of thing.

Yeah, he's, he's guiding him that way. Right, he's guiding him that way and still can't make a play on the, on. So, yeah, that's. That's that. And so, yeah, when you see all these things are going on, you see Noki, hey, who is performing better than he has. Yeah. And once again, for a team that was threatened with relegation to the point to where

they fired their manager and brought in a new manager, the new manager has leaned on this man a lot. I mean, maybe we can go through the game line. I think maybe the only match he missed is the one he got, what he had a young guy. car suspension. Yeah. It's the only one he's missed in a long time. Yeah.

So to be leaned on like that, when your club is threatened in that way and to get better, right? Unfortunately, now he's the toast of Bavaria and he's getting ideas about, or maybe he's not. Who knows? Yeah, we'll see. But I think our offer is still going to be better than whatever. Germany has to give them and, you know, Germany is Germany, right? They got,

they got, they got, they got, they got, they got, they got a lot of them all over the country. And in Bavaria, you'll hit a,

no key. Also, I mean, before we go forward, I do, I just want to, I wonder, I'm just wondering if there's any geopolitical thing going on with that.

It is, yeah, it's, it's embarrassing. to have to explain America's government to people who are not Americans. And I do think, you know, the European media, the European media audience is just primed for it. They just want to believe that America is a country full of, like, like bullets flying through the air and, you know.

Oh. Yeah, probably. Crazy stuff. Probably. Yeah. And it seems like it's really like made waves now. You know what I'm saying? You're seeing what you saw Mark Carney,

wherever they were in Davos or whatever, come out and speak up against the whatever that, the hegemony that exists now, you know, no longer may no longer be viable, et cetera. But because I remember like I was talking to some people when, we were about to go to Europe last year. And the dude was like,

oh man, I'd be embarrassed to go over there now. You know, if I was going to Europe now, I put on a Canadian pen. I'll tell him I was Canadian, et cetera, et cetera. And I was like, shut your ass up. But, but, like, but, and like, you know,

we went over there and there wasn't any, like, animus or whatever to whatever may be going on over here it does seem like sentiment that's kind of flipped in these past three out of 65 days maybe now well you're gonna go ahead my sense is you find more people more animus in Germany than in Italy you know yeah so that that might be we'll find out right we'll find out so yeah and the right we have the DFB whoever that dude was from the dfby coming out talking about can we hold a world cup in this country yeah the

So calling for the boycott. Right, right. All the different types of stuff. So, you know, maybe it's top of mind over there in ways that it's not in other European countries, whatever, whatever. I'm just bringing it up as a possibility. It's definitely a possibility, yeah. And it'll be an interesting thing to explore when we go there in, you know, a month and a half. I mean, I'll concede everything, you know.

But I will say privately here on this podcast, just for your ears, that Europe is. they got problems of their own. They got populism. They got crazy stuff. They got, look at Germany's last election. I know I said this on the podcast before. They're like their far right party, which includes literal Nazis, just had the best showing of all time, like ever in an election.

You know, I mean, put your own house in order before you go like rejecting and entire nation of people. I mean, our tour guy in Italy said I look like Thomas Party and Alfonso Davies. That's right. At the same time. That's right. He's only seen like, I mean, he's only seen like seven or eight Africans in his whole life. Zero African Americans.

You know? Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm just saying, like, we can't go around pretending like Europe is the moral standard for everything. I don't, I don't excuse anything. that is going on.

I hate it, actually. But, like, we have to submit ourselves to the judgment of, like, the people of Germany. Yeah, yeah. It's not happening. Not happening. I don't, yeah. I hear you. Tillman's out with an ankle injury.

Gio's back in the squad, but did not play. I mean, that's news. And I got one more thing before, well, I'm sure you're going to have some things to tack on here. but well just part of this recontextualization thing i am wondering about malik you know because over this i've come around on him i was slow to come around on him but i've i've come around on them i mean i've always saw the talent whatever but like you talk about application his application as a professional spotty definitely spotty yeah spotty as far as somebody who you want to put the onus on to

affect matches and determine the outcome of matches. Somebody you might have paid $40 million for in the transfer market. To do that exact thing. He does not look like a $40 million player. And, you know, we had those, I at least had these questions coming from PSV and going to the Bundesliga, top five league, can he do it?

Can he put it up? Can he, yeah, can he do it for an entire? season. Now this is this is his first season off the transfer so he gets it he gets a mulligan whatever. He's also had some very good performances. Don't get me wrong. For sure. The thing that got me on his side, the thing that made me make him a tier one player in my, in Vince's big board, you know, the reason why he was the centerpiece of intermentality is FC, is the fact that, you know, I saw some of these performances in the way he was affecting the game in all phases. And I was like, that's my guy. That's my talism.

But as we sit here in March, two seasons, I mean two seasons, two months left in the season essentially. And, you know, he's sitting at 0.32 expected goals plus assists per 90. I mean, good, at least is in the point four range. You know what I'm saying? Excellent is, you know, 0.5.6, something like that. And the Buddhist League, excellent would probably be about 0.5, something like it. Yeah. But, um, he's got to impose himself more on the game.

He's got to, he's got to, he's got to, he's got to be alive, a little more alive. The performance, the performances match up with, with the fact that he's not, yeah, he's just not imposing itself enough on the game. And so, like I said, first season of the transfer, um, a step up in league, whatever, whatever. Um, so, yeah. He hasn't made it out, he hasn't made it out of those woods yet. Nope. So I guess that's all I wanted to say about that. Fair enough, yeah.

Speaking of the woods, someone's still deep in them is Kevin Sullivan. I do want to bring up, he got two goals and two assists against Defense Force FC in Conquerqueath Champions League. What? What country are you from? Trinidad and Tobago. Okay. I got the table in front of me. There are teams called Police FC.

I'm familiar with that. Prison service. Those are the funniest ones. That's the longest yard team. But anyway, I mean, these were some nice stuff from him in that game. And then on the weekend, he had to wait until the 83rd minute to come on, down 1-0. But I thought he actually looked pretty good. And, you know, you were like, well, is Kevin Sullivan putting in performances like Audrey Mametti?

You just wait, Vince. You just wait. You just wait, buddy. I'm waiting and excited. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Well, Bradley Carnell, just got to put him on the field a little bit earlier in the game. I'm not proud and excited, but I'm waiting and excited to watch my son, Kevin Sullivan.

So, yeah, yeah. Like I said, I wasn't coming for him at all. I know. I'm just contextualizing what we're seeing from Mr. Audrey. But, yeah, I saw they had, what, once again, Indiana Vasselive. Indian of Vassalov starting in front of cabin. Yeah. Bradley Carnell is a...

Bradley Carnell is a... I had my soccer coach in college used to tell the defenders, I want you to be the John Birch Society back here. Do you know what the John Birch Society is? Nope. Very conservative group. Probably, you know, probably problematic in a lot of ways that the Discord server will alert me to later. But, um...

Anyway, kind of... of not very well-known group of very conservative people. That's what he used to say about the defenders. Bradley Carnel's in there? I think Bradley Carnell's like that. You know, he doesn't want to, he's like, he just, no risks. So Indiana Vassaliv, you know, half alive will start over. I mean, I don't know why we're so hard on Indiana Vasselov.

but um but i did think because he brings he brings on life to no outfits number one and it's debatable whether or not he brings life to the pitch yeah he did score a goal he scored on a pen oh okay okay all right that's what we got for today folks appreciate you listening real quick we can't we can't leave it out Johnny Cardoso all right um he's locked down that starting spot for for Adletty now that sounders fans that's right they got a win against real oviato um not salt lake um this week johnny went 61 minutes 61 minutes played played pretty well um and yeah he continues he continues to chug along so all right it can be interesting who gets called up it probably won't be Eunice, unfortunately, even though that's the wrong decision.

That would be the wrong decision. All right. Hey, thanks everybody for listening. We appreciate it. Thanks for your patronage. We'll see you.