Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #671: Marcus Chairez on this exciting youth cohort in MLS

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Marcus discusses the 6 most exciting young players in this young MLS season, and what they're doing on the field. And then a bunch of other young players in MLS too. Marcus on X: https://x.com/USSoccerColl Marcus's website, where he posts substantive articles about what he's seeing: https://www.ussoccercollective.com/ 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 got a great show for you today. Marcus Cherez is here to talk about the youth cohort, the youth cohort in MLS. It's come up on them under review a little bit, but Marcus is much more knowledgeable than Vince and certainly me. So I relish the opportunity to hear from him. Marcus, how you doing? Couldn't possibly complain. I'm excited about MLS.

And that's a fun thing because I haven't always been super excited about MLS. So yeah, I'm happy to talk about this and excited to get started. So definitely it's more exciting this year than last year when it comes to young players getting opportunities, right? Yeah, I think it's more exciting than it probably has been in a few years. And I think that's following the sort of wave of just like the youth kind of pipeline and where things are at. I think of things in sort of four-year chunks alongside the World Cup. And I sort of kind of package classes together in four-year chunks. Classes being like birth year.

And I think the last wave for me was like 2003, four, five, six. And broadly, those classes have been, they're one, they were impacted heavily by COVID. I think the infrastructure just in, in kind of MLS NX also was just kind of still building. And so those classes largely have been, you know, somewhat disappointing. And I think what we're starting to, and because of that, their impact in MLS has been, you know, less exciting. You're seeing, we've seen less players kind of come through, have a big impact at a young age and get moved to Europe. That pipeline is slowed down. I think everybody's been a little bit concerned about that. I think what you're starting to see this year is the next wave, kind of 2007,

8, 9, 10, is just has more talented players, a higher volume of lottery tickets. So both quantity and quality, I think, are better. So now we're starting to see the impacts of that in MLS, and I think that's exciting. So the most high profile 2003 through 2006 is peppy, right? Yeah, for like domestically peppy. I mean, I could, we could dig into that a little bit. I think 2003 had a lot of, I think, early promise, but they haven't, you know, there's just been a lot of, like, guys that were hyped early, that kind of faded out. I think Pepe's been the consistent and kind of always was. Like early days, like everybody was really excited about Gaga Slanina in the 2004 class.

And then we've kind of seen what's going on with him. The keepers, you kind of just wait. I think of all those classes, the 2004 class has been kind of the pleasant surprise. I think guys like Alex Freeman kind of came out of nowhere. Obviously, he's been kind of the one really exciting. story from last year that got moved obviously to Spain. Owen Wolf, I think, has been maybe even better than some people expected. And there's other guys that I think, like, you could see, you know, a future with the senior team. 2005 was kind of depleted by some guys choosing other countries

like Esmer Barcaryvich and Obed Vargas. And so of all of those 2005 is probably the least amount least promising. And then 2006 has always been kind of carried by European-based players, I felt. So obviously, you know, Noki is a super exciting talent, probably as exciting of anyone in that kind of in that four-year window. But again, you know, fully developed in Germany. And even like some of the other guys that I'm more excited about in the 2006 class are are more European base, like even like Diego Cochin, the keeper at Barcelona.

So, so yeah, they're just, there's not a bunch of high profile guys in that window. And domestically, Pepe's probably the one that's always been rated the highest and has also kind of more or less delivered on what he hoped he would be. Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, it's too bad. Yeah, I mean, how much do you think COVID is the reason for that? I think the more like macro level is just like sort of infrastructure and the end of the development academy and the beginning of MLS next.

Yeah, it's kind of this transfer period at very key ages for them, you know, kind of U-14, U-15. but also I think there were just less quality players around them because the infrastructure was still being built. And that's, you know, I was going to get into this at some point, but, you know, I'm kind of always a little bit ahead of where most people are focusing their attention. And what I can say with a good bit of confidence is like,

I don't think the pipeline is now going to slow down. Like you're, of course, going to have classes that are maybe not quite as exciting in some classes that are maybe more exciting. But the baseline, just looking at some of these younger age groups, it's pretty remarkable how much higher volume of quality players there are. I mean, to kind of illustrate it a bit, like I have a database of like players that I just deem like worth keeping an eye on. And I the other day just as an exercise,

I kind of looked at like, how many players do I have? have in like the 2007 class versus now how many do I have in like the younger age groups like let's just say 2011 there's now the u15 class and the volume of players that I just even tag is like interesting it's like 2x 3x of the volume and I think I think that's just going to be the norm from what I can tell and so I just I think this is kind of the start of something really exciting you know what you say about the baseline being higher, you can see that in the youth national team games when, you know, even though maybe like are you 20s

or you 17s aren't doing any better overall at these tournaments than maybe they did before, I think back to like 2017 or something and you had like just barely enough people out there who could play soccer, you know, play one touch, like sort of elegant soccer to kind of manage it for a while in a game

and then you see like even like sort of the Paxton Aronson Diego Luna U20 team and those guys not saying any of those guys is like gonna be an elite talent or maybe even play at the World Cup but

they were like across like pretty much across the board that team could play you know yeah and And that's, I have noticed that transition. I guess what we're looking for is the special player. Yeah.

And the, and some, a lot of times that does have to do with a combination of soccer ability and sort of elite athleticism. Because it seems like that, that Paxton Diego team had a lot of, like, good soccer players, but not outside of, you know, arguably Luna, not that much. specialness, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I still think that's the big question and probably the biggest question of us as a footballing

country to go from like a good team to a great team is we just need to figure out how to produce and cultivate more like really special talents. And I still think while I say there's a higher volume of really good, intriguing, players coming through. It's still a premium on like the special ones. But I do, you know, I think I've been doing some thinking about this 2009 class because, you know, all the talk around Audrey, which we're going to talk about and you guys have been doing a great job of talking about on the Monday review.

But if you think about, you take a step back and you think about this class, which has kind of been the crown jewel and the youth national. team pool for a bit. I mean, if things go well, it could really be a historic class. If you think about just what some of these guys are doing already, if you think about. Kavin is obviously, you know, well documented and hyped. What, you know, Matisse Albert's already, you know, sniffing the bench at Bruce Dortman at the age of 16.

Audrey looks like a very good defensive midfielder in MLS. at 16. And there's like more, right? Like there's, Billy's got a striker who's scoring like every 50 minutes an MLS Next Pro. There's a kid at Bayern Munich, a German-American kid who's like the, like one of the best goalkeeping prospects to come through Germany in a while and he's a German-American, like who knows if we ever plays for us. But more to my point of like, and then there's like four or five guys that could be really good players. It's just a in terms of special talents, the 2009 class has them a lot more than some of the others.

And I think we could look back on that class in like five or six years and be like, wow, like, that's pretty special. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's get into Mehmeti some more. Because he's kind of the talk of the town. Yeah. They're talking about him on the morning shows. Just kidding.

But he is. we wish. Yeah, he is really impressive as a 16-year-old anchoring that midfield for a 2-0 Red Bull team. What do you see in him that you like and makes him, I don't know if he's special, but maybe you think he's special? Yeah, I think he's certainly special.

He's been very obviously good since he played up as a U-14. with Red Bulls U-15s, and they've kind of always known they've had something special in him. I think you guys have covered him really well and kind of articulated his game really well. Vince for sure has. I think my only question on him has always been, and maybe the one thing I've slightly disagreed with and kind of your guys' evaluation of him is I have thought he's always been a little, like, stiff

and a little bit challenged in space. And I wondered how that was my biggest question about how he would transition. But he's actually, you know, maybe proving me wrong there. I think he's, you know, in this game we play of like scouting, projecting prospects, it's like a very high risk game.

He is like as low risk of a prospect as you're ever going to come across. Because of his size, because of his mentality, because of his game understanding, he's just like, he'd be someone you'd just be very shocked if he didn't end up having a really long,

successful high-level career. And I think you're just seeing that. He's just a very mature player. So I think, yeah, I think he's arrived and performed better than even I expected so fast. and I think, you know, I think there's going to be a lot of really interesting things happening on the national team post this World Cup. I think for the first time we're going to have some, you know, Potch did what he had to do

to manufacture competition for the next coach. I don't think that's going to be necessary. I think there's going to be a lot of young guys that we're going to talk about today that are going to be really pushing the guys that have just been there for a while. and, you know, Audrey is probably going to be doing that in the near term future. So, yeah, I see a player that just has a understanding of the game far beyond his years, makes playing simple look effortless, very positive with the ball. I even thought he was more impressive in the last game, just kind of buying time with his dribble.

It's not a guy that's going to necessarily, like, carry the ball 20 yards past two, three guys. but he can shield the ball, protect the ball, do some deceptive things with his feet to buy himself time. So he's doing a lot of fantastic things and looks, you know, he's looking really good. It's almost hard to imagine a player pool where there's that level of competition because it's been so long that it's been kind of crystallized. Well, and what will be interesting,

it's going to be like 18, 19, 20-year-olds pushing now, you know, 28, 29, you know, 27-year-olds. So there's kind of this gap that we've talked about in this last, this last chunk of players. But yeah,

I think, I think it's going to be real for sure. That's awesome. So one player who will drill past four people for 20 yards. He's the next guy we're going to talk about. Xavier Gozo. Excuse me.

What are you? So, Mehmedi's a 2009. He's probably the cream of the crop right now. of MLS youngsters. I mean, he's the most impressive. Yeah, I think so. In terms of, like, what he's doing at his age, for sure. Now, let's talk about Gozo.

What are you seeing with him? What do you like? What I've been so impressed about with him is where he was with, in the Conca Calf World Cup qualifying, like, two years ago, versus where he is today. Like he has just gotten so much better in the last two years. And I think he's gotten even better from this offseason to this one. So he just strikes me as someone who's like really putting in the work all the time to get better. And one thing you'll see, I think the through line with all the guys we talk about and something I've probably not maybe taken into account enough in kind of the time I've been doing this.

All these guys have tier one mentality. No matter what level they play at, they play the same way. They approach the game in the same way. And Gozo's always been that way. He's always been, I don't care who's in front of me. I'm going at you. And so I love his mentality, but now,

and he's always had the speed, good size for a winger. So like the physical traits have always been there. But now, like, the skill and the application of the, skill kind of like Vince was talking about, I think is really starting to like come through. And he went from last year being a guy who could impact as more of a, as maybe a secondary element to especially last week against Seattle. Like he was the guy. Like he was the danger man.

Diego's out for Arsell. Like he was, he was causing Seattle fits. And so, he's kind of taken that next step of like he is now the guy that real is looking forward to create problems and he's doing it pretty consistently i thought he was fantastic against seattle i thought he was pretty good against a really good vancouver team um so yeah he's just he's cleaner on the ball he has an idea of you know how he wants to beat players i think the big thing he's he said he worked on this off season was not being so right foot dependent so being able to cut in on

his left foot and strike the ball well and I've already seen improvements there. So, yeah. Well, I was going to say only denied a left-footed goal by a sliding Newhoo challenge. He can join the ranks of MLS players in that category. But yeah, he tried with his left foot, you know. And he had a really good strike against Vancouver with his left foot too for me to further out. That kind of missed by a yard or two.

Oh, yeah. I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah, so he, I think, and we're just so starved for like actual wingers who are direct that want to take players on that actually can beat people that it's a breath of fresh air. Like this is my favorite kind of player, you know, like a dangerous winger. It's like that's, to me, it's a really fun element of kind of the modern game of soccer. And so we've just been a little bit. What makes you want to get up in the morning, a dangerous winger, you know?

That's right. And we've been starved for it, I think, for a while. So again, I think he's another player that, like, we'll get through this World Cup and then he's going to be knocking on the door, I think, pretty soon. I mean, just to add a little bit to what you've said, he was instrumental in both goals against Seattle. Like, he first unbalanced the defense with, like, with a mazy run past Neuhoo and, like, three other guys. He ended up, his past didn't connect, but he had done so much to bring the defense. to the middle of the pitch and get everybody disorganized,

that when the ball got circulated out wide, it was just an easy cross to the backposts to a wide open. What's his name? Hezarkani. Hezarkani, yeah. And it was also pretty young. He half-follied it into the top of the net. And then he got the second goal came on a gorgeous pass

from one of their centerbacks to Gozo. He outran Jackson Reagan to it and then just smartly slipped it across. for a tap-in. So, yeah, doing good. He played a lot of wingback, too, right? Yeah, they're playing a wingback system. And I imagine it's there to stay. So, yeah, he's having to do a bit of defending, which...

Putting in a shift. Yeah, that's the other thing. He's always been willing to do the less, glorious, you know, less heralded parts of the game in terms of running off the ball. working against the ball. And, yeah, he's learning that, but willing participant for sure. Yeah.

All right. Xavier Gozo, going to be knocking on the door in 2027. Let's say 2027. I think so. Let's talk about Kevin. Go ahead. One last thing on him just in terms of like next step, because, I think there's been tons of rumors around him

and I think he's probably not going to stay at RSA much longer like maybe even as soon as the summer. I've even heard from a few people that like it might already be somewhat done. Like I've heard there might be a handshake agreement going to Aston Villa in the Premier League, which I'm not in love with the Premier League being the next step for players in MLS,

but the I guess the positive is just that there's quite a bit of interest. And I don't know that he might stay the entire season, but I wouldn't be surprised if he leaves in the summer. Okay. Yeah, I know Weeby came on the broadcast and said that he talked to the general manager and he said there are calls all the time about him. Yeah.

I'm like, what does that even mean? But, yeah, I'm with you. I hope he doesn't go to the Premier League. but it is a nice compliment. Kevin Sullivan at the Philly Union. What do you think? I don't think we got to talk about as game much. I think most are fairly familiar with Kavana.

But I do, I'm growing in frustration with Philly's plan with him. I think they are, He got a start in Concca Calf against a not very good, I think Dominican Republic team. I think they won like 7 to 0. Trinidad from Trinidad, yeah. Yeah, from Team T. Defense Force FC. That's right.

That's right. And, you know, he did have two goals and two assists, and there were other professional soccer players in the attack for Philly that didn't have two goals and two assists. So, you know, all you can do is play against who you're playing against. And he looked good. And I think he's always looked pretty good in his short cameos when he's gotten on the ball. And it's just incredibly frustrating for me to watch Philly roll out a bunch of mid-attacking midfielders that deliver very little danger and then bring in in cabin and kind of a scramble with 10 minutes left. So I just, I wish Bradley Carnell would just give him a start or two so we could really see what he does and kind of like, with a chance to really settle into a game.

I don't think he'd disappoint. I think you'd see similar levels of production, if not higher than what you're seeing with some of the Red Bull kids. To me, he's ready. He physically looks ready. I just, I'm like, what are you guys waiting for? Like, they've, they've scored one goal in two games. they look pretty anemic offensively. Like, what are we doing here, guys?

Yeah, come on, Carnell. Carnell. He looks physical. He looks really physically up for it to me, you know, which I think is often a question with a kid that young. Yeah. I mean, he was, like, running over people. I mean, maybe a little too physical towards the end of that game because, like,

do you really want to stop the, you know, stop with four minutes left when you're down a goal or whatever it was? But I mean, his physicality is on point, and he has the confidence to try things. If he doesn't start getting some starts, let's say by the end of the month, get your pitchforks out and your torches and let's meet at Bradley Carnell's house. Yeah, I'll be there. I'll be leading the fact. I mean, Philly is just, they're probably the most important academy in the United States right now.

And they have been for a while. I think they've dethroned FC Dallas a while ago. And I just, I think it's a bad look. I mean, they, you know, he's ready. What are we doing? I think they also shipped out Neil Pierre this offseason. And I think, where do you go? So they have a, they have one of these kind of relationships with Lingby in Denmark.

Okay. So he's there. And they're like, they're leading a promotion charge, I think. and they just got their, well, let's just call it the Rookerunda version of theirs, started up. But, you know, they brought in some new centerbacks. I may be biased because I'm always in favor of playing the kids, but I've watched plenty of Neil Pierre,

and I think he could offer something a little more than the guy they brought in. So I'm just a little bit disappointed in Philly in general, because I think they built a good reputation, and they've got some of these really, really impressive young players, and I just think they need to take the training wheels off and give them a chance. You got a journeyman manager favoring journeyman players. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm still very excited about Kavana, just watching his limited minutes so far. And like you said, those two goals and two assists, not everybody got two goals and two assists in that game against the Trinidadian club. and they were all four, like, very credible soccer moments, you know?

I mean, it's not like these were easy goals or something. Yeah. Let's go back to Red Bull for the next one. He's a guy who dresses in a way that impresses you and Vince. He's got the aura. I think there's a question like, I was on here some time ago. And they asked outside of cabin, who in the pool has that aura. And I think we said Julian Hall.

And so he's come through on that, on that prediction. Yeah, he's a photogenic fella, for sure. Yeah, yeah. Again, I think you guys have done an awesome job covering what's going on with Red Bulls. I think the skepticism on Julian, like, projection-wise, physically is a valid one. I think he's obviously produced, so three goals, two games. I think he's, but he's not, you know, he's not maybe passing the eye test quite as convincingly as Audrey is. So, so I'm, you know, I'm happy that he's kind of, I think he's bought himself a lot of runway with this early production.

But I think there's questions about, like fair questions about his projection. I think positionally there's always been a little bit of a question mark. he's kind of been stuck between a winger and a nine. He's playing as a nine, but the first two games, when they've brought in Chupamoting, they pushed him out to the wing for the last 10, 15 minutes. I still think he's more comfortable as a winger,

like facing and driving, but I worry long term if he's got like enough technical quality to be a super effective winger. Just to do the one-v-one work, like to be. Constantly enough. Yeah, yeah. So I think like the most optimistic projection of him could be someone like Ballo,

where Ballo also came up as more of a winger. He's obviously not the biggest guy. Julian kind of stopped growing at like U15, U16. He's kind of been the size for a while. So he's not going to, I don't think he's going to grow anymore. But he's got pace, and I think he's got the frame to add. a lot of functional muscle. And so when you look at Ballo,

who can cause problems for, you know, elite level centerbacks, it's because he's got, I think, an elite engine, he's got pace, he's got great leverage and strength. I think you could reasonably say, like if everything kind of develops that way for Julian,

he could be a player somewhat like that. I think he even shows flashes of being able to do some of the hold-up stuff, the layoff stuff that Ballot does. So I think optimistically, that's where I'd kind of like, it's kind of a good comparison for me. But I agree that he still got a little ways to go, I think, in terms of being like someone you'd say is threatening, you know, the national team, for example.

But strikers jobs are to score goals, and he's scoring goals. That's true. I like the Ballot Comp because I've seen that in him sort of a ruggedness on the ball when he's got somebody on his back in these first two games. And that is sort of a hallmark of Ballow's game, too, something that Josh Sargent perhaps is missing against stronger competition. Sure. All right, we got a couple defenders to talk about.

Well, one of them is sort of a quasi-defender, but there's a centerback in Kansas City that you have been watching. Yeah, this is probably like the least well-known name of the six youngsters we're talking about. But what I like about this list is they all play different positions. So we've talked about a six, we talked about a winger, He talked about Cavan's kind of a 10-winger. You can play pretty much everywhere. Julian's a striker.

So now we've got a centerback. So we got players coming through at different positions, which is good to see. Ian James, sporting Kansas City, started the first two games for them. They're not very good. So he's a little bit like, you know, underfire there, which would be good experience. He was snubbed off the U-17 World Cup team. definitely should have been starting alongside Christopher Cups. Just a curious decision.

But yeah, he looks the part. He's 6-2, 6-3 strong, deceptively moves well. You look at him. He's like, you might worry like, oh, is that a centerback that can play in space? I think he does that reasonably well for his size. And I think as he matures, he's only going to kind of grow into his body a bit more. and kind of become a little bit more muscular. He's pretty good on the ball.

I think he just kind of ticks all the young centerback boxes in terms of size mobility, ball playing ability. And he, unlike a lot of centerbacks I see come through, he actually, like, enjoys the physical side of the game. Like, he's got a little bit of nastiness to him. he's you know he's physical in duels so so i think you know in terms of what you hope for in a young centerback you know playing at 17 in in mLS as a centerback is not an easy task not very many players have done that um so i think and he even he even got pushed out to kind of right back

in the last game which which was kind of a head scratcher but i think you know he he's had his moments he conceded a penalty in that game. He's definitely had his mistakes, but I'm hoping sporting stick with him because I think the payoff will be quite large. And I think, yeah, I think he's one of the most exciting centerbacks we've got coming through, and I think he's done reasonably well. You're right, man. He does not, I mean, he does not look like a 17-year-old.

He looks like he's a full-grown man, and I didn't realize he was 6-263 because he's a Because he does move well. He had a really nice moment at the beginning of the 2-2 draw with Columbus, where he, like, dribbled into the corner. Yeah. I mean, it actually started off kind of being like, what are you doing? And then he kind of worked his way out of it on the dribble and then found somebody's feet up forward. So that was pretty cool. But yeah, like he said, conceded the penalty and then also had a good, had like a pass intercepted at midfield.

Like in the lead up to a goal against Vancouver a weekend ago. There's going to be mistakes, always. Even world-class 25-year-old centerbacks make mistakes sometimes. All right, let's get to this last one. Peyton Miller, not playing right now for the revs, because why? I think a calf injury. I think it's a, I'm always, I'm always worried when young players are always having these muscle injuries.

But I think it's the second year in a row. He's missed the beginning of the season for muscle injury. But I don't think it's serious. I think he'll be back soon. Peyton, someone who's kind of been on the scene for a while. He was a full-time starter last year and started playing the year before at a very young age. He's a left-back. He plays wings sometimes, but I think he's really a left-back.

He was probably the most, I think him in Gozo last year were the younger prospects that were probably getting the most interest from Europe. I think he turned down a pretty significant move to an EPL club this summer. I think he wanted to stay and continue to grow and develop under new coach Marco Mitrovich, which I think is a smart move. Yeah, we're kind of, I've been thinking about this. we've been promised a lot of young talented left backs it feels like for a while and none of them seem to be panning out so I'm kind of hoping

we've got now too an MLS that I think are quite good and Luca Bambino and Peyton Miller so hopefully one of those two do but yeah there's kind of a graveyard of dreams over there isn't there George Bello Bello Caleb Wiley and Austria

Yeah, I mean, Caleb Wiley can't stay healthy in England. Yeah, even like, I've always thought Kevin Paredes is more of a wingback than a winger. Like, he hasn't been able to stay healthy. Right. You know, Tolkien's solid, but it's just like there's been a lot of interesting talent at left back, but none of just seemed to put it together. So maybe Peyton's the guy that does it. I think he could.

Yeah, okay. Before we go, you want to just quickly list off a few older guys that you're kind of interested in? Older as in like 20 or 19. Yeah, yeah. Not playing at 16 in MLS. Yeah, it's kind of in that sort of that weaker window I was talking about. But there's still some guys doing some really nice things that have senior team potential. Taha Bruin has stepped into a starting role with.

Darlington Nagby's retirement, which was expected. And I think he's looked good. He just brings a skill set that I don't think we have a lot of in the senior team, which is like true box-to-box can progress the ball in a number of different ways, barely press-resistant. And then he also adds this other element of he's always seemed to find ways to produce in the final third. Like he moves really well off the ball. He's done it for these national teams.

he had an assist last weekend. He just looked good. He's sort of bringing him along slowly. He's only playing like 55, 60 minutes a game. But I thought he's looked really good. And I think he's going to continue to grow and have kind of a quasi breakout season. So I like Taha. I think he's got a senior team future.

He just brings things that we don't have a lot of like in the younger age groups. Anything you want to say on Taha? Yeah, I like the elegance. of his game, and the fact that he does, he finds a way to produce in the final third, like you said. Yeah, I think maybe it's the thing that I've always had reservations about, maybe something you're feeling is like, as like a ball winner, like is it box to box, is he going to be a guy that, like, commands the space?

That's probably still the thing that he has to answer. Yeah, and in not having that, is he brilliant enough with the ball to, to for it not to matter, you know? Right. And I would say the answer is no. But. Yeah. But I wouldn't, yeah, and that's the question is, can he, if he's, if he's truly weak

against the ball, he has to be really good with the ball. But I think what might end up happening is like he's pretty good with the ball and not such a liability against the ball that he kind of nets out as someone that's useful. Yeah. But we'll see. The next guy I touched on earlier, another left back is Luca Bombino. This is a player I just got totally wrong in terms of like what I thought he would be. I never thought he would even be at the level he's playing right now. I think he just sometimes you just get fooled into thinking a player's kind of average physically,

but they're just not done developing. You know, think about it. Like, you're not really done developing physically until you're what, like, even like 23, 24, 24, 25, you know, as your muscular frame starts to come in. So I think he's projected better physically than I thought he would. And he's just, he just sort of thrives in Mikey's system. He's just really good in tight space. and just like a problem solver. And so I think he's another really high floor player.

Not like Audrey, but I think this guy's just going to be a really good player for a long time. If he stays healthy, and so if all else fails with these other leftbacks, I kind of have some decent amount of faith in Luca being a really useful left back for the national team at some point. So, yeah, he's, he's, They've played him at right back this year because they have some injuries at right back.

And, you know, even as I think it's pretty difficult to play as a right back as a left-footed player. And he's even made that look pretty good. So I think he just continues to do a lot of nice things. Shout out the Mickeys. Mikey Varus in San Diego. Mikey Bradley and Harrison, New Jersey, playing the kids. Both playing really lovely soccer too. And I think, uh, and winning.

And that's what's important. I think that's like thematically, these teams are playing good soccer. They're winning and they're doing it with young players. And I think that's going to put pressure on other teams like Philly, like others. Philly 0 and 2, right, aren't they? Or did they win their first game? No, yeah, 0 and 2. Take that, Carnell.

Why aren't you guys doing that? Because it's obviously, it's not just fun to watch, but if it's also, performant, then, then, you know, why not? And then I got three more. I'll get through quickly. Another little interesting development in San Diego is that they've started Duran Furi in goal, the first two league games. He hasn't started in the Concaf Cup games, but he's starting in league play.

And he's always been, I think, a pretty interesting keeper prospect. And his strength has definitely always been his ability to distribute and being like kind of the focal point of building out of the back. And boy, does he look good doing that. Like he's, he is like almost overly confident and silky. He almost had an assist on a long ball over the top. He is holding on the ball at the very last minute, looking unbothered by any pressure,

just kind of dealing with both feet. And for the style of play that San Diego wants, he's kind of the perfect fit. So as long as he does the box control, you know, and is it a reasonably good shot stopper, he's probably going to stick there. And yeah,

I think second to maybe only Diego coaching, he's like by far the best goalkeeper on the ball that we have in the pool. He's looked really good. So that's definitely, you know, Keeper's another position where we've just been middling and kind of average guys for a long time. And I think that's going to change probably in the next five, six years for sure. He's one that is having a nice start to the season.

And he's in 06, so he's got another 20 years of soccer ahead of him, you know, at goalkeeper. That's right. So he's starting young. And again, just love Mikey having the confidence to start him. And they're off to a roaring start too, two. and I don't know if they've conceded a goal yet. Last two guys are 2005s. I think probably the two most, for me, likely guys to impact the senior team at some point.

Brooklyn Raines. I'm a big fan of his. I think he's just like another high floor player. He popped off the screen in that first Red Bull game, even though they lost. I mean, he's just everywhere and just eats up ground. Yep. Yeah, he's kind of like, for me, he's like a Tyler Adams light a little bit in terms of like ground coverage and firefighting. He probably a little smoother with the ball than Tyler. He definitely has more upside on the ball. He's not like dynamic on the ball, but he can dribble out of pressure in a smooth way.

I think he's, I think he's quite press resistant. He can progress the ball. I don't think, like, Tyler is elite at closing down space and doing all the things he does. Brooklyn's maybe not quite that. But he's got that sort of range and kind of feistiness to him. And yeah, he's on a not very good New England team right now, and he definitely popped against Red Bulls and had some really, really important interventions. So I think he's also not too far away. we kind of lack real true sixes behind Tyler right now. And Tyler's not playing very well.

I know I said this in the Monday review, but Tyler's not playing very well. Testman's not playing very well. Yeah. Moose is not playing very much. And Johnny's never done it for the national team. So there's lots of questions at that position. I think it's another example of like, you know, in a year, Brooklyn might be pushing some of these guys.

And yeah, I think he's got a high floor. I think he's another guy that has fairly significant interest abroad. He's always been well thought of. So, yeah. Push him, Brooklyn. Push him. Yeah. And the last was a guy that I think a lot of people, he caught a lot of people's eye at the U-20 World Cup, which was Frankie,

Westfield for Philly. So Philly are playing some kids, and Frankie's playing. He had a really nice first game last week. He's kind of come back from a little bit of an injury. He just does a ton of things well. He's another high mentality guy, super feisty, physical, plays a really nice ball in with both feet. He can play on the left side too because he's got a really nice left foot. Just really competent soccer player on the ball. And it kind of does it both ways. It's also he had a fantastic goal-saving second post kind of slid in to block a you know tap-in shot this last weekend and it was just showed how old he was and kind of saved a goal so he he can do it both ways and another guy that I think has a good feature okay I mean with a

name like Frankie you got to be feisty you know doesn't frances Westfield feels like the most northeast proper name ever yeah all right marcus i know you got things you got to get to uh thanks everybody for listening thank you marcus uh i'll put the link to his twitter and his uh his website in the show notes go check those out give him a follow if you haven't already which most of you probably have but uh thanks for listening we'll see you