Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #674: World Cup kits! Plus a roundup of the weekend action, mostly at striker and midfield

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Rico starts and struggles vs NEC Nijmegen, Balo scores another scrappy goal, Haji hurts his groin, Tessmann plays CB, Cardoso shines in Champions League, and 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. Hey, everybody. Hope you enjoyed Sanjay's interview with Bruce Arena. One of my all-time favorite scuffed episodes just for the absolute realness of it all. Bruce is not here to give ChachyPT answers to questions. I appreciate that about him a lot. I appreciate Sanjay for, you know, standing in the firing line and handling his business. It's a nice quick little interview

and it's kind of edge of the seat stuff, you know, because you're afraid Bruce is going to flip out on him. And it does it. I mean, I guess, I don't know. I kind of went in thinking that, that that would be the case just based on the reaction of the, it must be said,

the pampered people that inhabit our discord. You know what I'm saying? That I guess, you know, I have not had a contentious discussion in 10, 15 years, whatever. I mean, life's good, understand, and you should be happy that your life is good. But you know what I'm saying? Everybody was like, oh my God, Bruce, Sanjay, you did such a good job standing up to Bruce, man. You weren't intimidated by, you know what I'm saying?

It's just like, I mean, do you have an older, cantankerous uncle somewhere within your family coffers, you know, that comes out of the woodwork? every, every holiday, you know, whether, whether y'all get into it about politics or whatever the hell's going on, you know what I'm saying? You got one of those. And I didn't even think Bruce was all that contiguous, man. Like, he disagreed with Sanjay and some of his, and some of his opinions. And Bruce was just like, nah, I'm not going. I'm not having that. But then he also made sure to say to Sanjay, you know, that's your repeat. opinion. You know what I'm saying? Make sure they respect. He didn't. He didn't just say that straight up, you know,

hogwash or whatever the hell. But it's funny if he did. Bald or dash. Yeah, like he didn't go full crotchy old man. No. You know what I'm saying? He just had his opinions. And speaks plainly. Doesn't speak plainly. And he stood to him.

You know, we want more Bruce arenas in this world. That's what I'm getting towards, man. And yet, I mean, I wasn't on the Zoom call, so, you know, you can't see people's facial expressions and whatnot. But it seems to me, like, just based off his voice, that he never got, like, he went upset with Sanjay with anything he said or anything like that. No, he was not. He was not. I overstated it a little bit. But, yeah, there was a sense that, like, as the conversation went on, that it could be a little more contentious than your typical interview on a soccer podcast.

And I, for one, I like that. Man. Right. Right. I do like that. And we got to make sure that we are not afraid as a soccer culture to get in there and mix it up a little bit. It goes back to the whole thing with Potch, you know, and all the stuff about the regulars. You know, that was good. That was a good, that was a good outcome that he got upset with the press corps and started talking in a passionate way about it.

Bro, because like, okay, when I'm reading on the Discord and I'm like, I got the impression that Bruce Arena was just on there being a crotchy old man or whatever, whatever. And I'm just like, I was thinking to myself like, damn, see, this is why soccer culture is the way it is. This old guy, Bruce Arena, you know, who's done all these things, but ball, boy, he doesn't want to, you got a young, aspiring, hot shot journalist in their interviewing you and you're going to do a. them like that, all this different types of stuff. It's all the stuff that was going through my head. But then as I listened to the interview, I was like, man, completely opposite, completely flipped. We need more Bruce Arena.

Yeah. We need more Bruce Arenas, bro. We need more regional dialects and accents. We need more, like, need more personality in general, which is why, of course, I came around on Diego Luna, being the flag bearer, literally and figuratively,

if we want to get into the kits. Yeah. Yeah, we do. I do want to say, I just want to make sure I'm clear. I thought Sanjay asked good questions. Yes. And I think Bruce respected that. That's my sense of things.

But yeah, to the kits, to the kits. I feel like Sanjay could dab Bruce up after this. Yeah. I could say if they met in person. Yeah. Yeah, it was great. It was really, really well done by Mr. Sujanta Kumar. So what do you think of the kits?

We got the wavy stars and stripes, And then we got the black or maybe very dark navy. It's dark navy. Yeah. So I initially, upon seeing it for the first time, and I tweeted this out from the scuffed account, I said they were mid. And you know what Adam Bells?

I stand by the fact that they were mid. But new information has come out today now that we've got like the official release of the kids, everyone from Henry Bushnell at the, at the athletic to Stephen Gough at Yahoo. I think I've seen some other outlets. Well, goal, my boy. Ryan Tolmich.

Ryan Tolmich. Okay, I was about saying, I don't want to forget Ryan's name because that's my guy. Anytime I'm in press availability or whatever. He shows love. So shout out to Ryan. But everyone's come out with a story of like, yo, the players have been involved in the process of designing the kits, very much, very much more involved than they were in 2022. Right.

And I don't think they did a great job. But look. But at least it was Democratic. At least it was Democratic. And I ride with my boys. If they like them, if they like them, I love them. You know what I'm saying? So that's where I met with it.

It does kind of seem like reading Henry Bush. Henry is the only one I've read. Another friend in the pie, by the way. Another dude who shows love anytime I'm Henry Bushnell. it does kind of read to me like Tyler Adams hijacked the process. Like, you know, there was a lot of different things, a lot of different ideas bandied about, and then Tyler's kind of like, yeah, we want to make sure we have stars and stripes. And all they not only are these just kits for right now in this World Cup,

the players are also kind of involved in trying to make an identity for the men's national team. and they want stars and stripes involved in like every set of jersey. It's not a stars and stripes jersey as we see in this World Cup, but at least one kit going forward will have one of those elements from what I can tell. I'm joking about the highlight I'm saying for you. I get on me, yeah. But yeah, I think it's cool that everybody got involved. It seems like it was a little bit short of a mutiny when the 22 kits were unveiled to the players in Austin, Texas.

they had to do a little photo shoot or whatever. It didn't help. And Henry's piece he put out, you know, they had the replicas. You know, I mean, you hold a replica next to one of these dry fit. They're all preforated and all that different types. Like the detail makes the kits, you know, especially those ones we had in 2022. I mean, you hold up the replica to the real, you know what I'm saying? I mean, I understand the reaction.

But anyway, so from there, they went about making some change. change. And, you know, I think we have a explanation as to why the results have been so lackluster over this past cycle, bro. They've been designing, man. They've been designing. We come to, we come to the camp. And I think that's why Potch had to get the reins on things. Maybe in March, that Nation's League in L.A., you know, I mean, he had to pull dudes off the, off the Adobe suite. Like, hey, bro, we, we're watching film right now. Yeah, shut down Photoshop. They got the, they got the little window surface or whatever that BJ used to use on the touchline. Dragon and dropping elements. Yeah, but yeah. So all in all, I still think that I still think they're kind of mid. The stripes, you know, there's a big, there's a big white patch on the stripe one on the back for like the name and number type of thing.

Right. And even if you don't get a name of number, it's still there. You know, you would love to have you would love to have some stripes all around What color shorts are we going to wear with the stripes? I don't know. I don't know. I've seen the full kit of the Navy one, which is just, it's just Navy shorts. I would hope we get some, I would think red.

I don't know. Navy would be fine too. Navy would be good, I think. Yeah, maybe it would be fine. But, oh, one more thing. The boys said they wanted something to wear it to the club, Adam. Yeah, I saw that. They wanted something to wear it to the club, and that's what the Navy kid is supposed to be.

It's not... I hope Tyler wasn't the one who said that because that guy has never been to a club. Hey, man. That just reminds me that I think about it. One of my boys was he's not anymore. He was in the Secret Service. and so just a very serious dude and like I remember him being about

he was at my wedding bro and like the way he would be walking out he don't dance or nothing like so everybody was dancing and like the way he was walking around the perimeter it was like we had to walk up to him like bro you're not at work bro like you know what I'm like yeah the perimeter is secure I imagine that's what that's what Tyler Adams be on at the club

I don't know garden everybody's drink which is you know a somebody got to do it somebody got to do it but I just I kind of struggle to see how this Navy kid can double the street wear but you know give me

a photo shoot man let me see let me see the people with it on they said they wanted some specifically they said they wanted something they could wear with blue jeans and and it seems that they were very much more involved in the Navy one than they were like the like the striped one it was kind of like

they got it done and it was done. But they sent the people back to that drawing board. The players sent the people back to the drawing board a few times for the, for the Navy one with the stars. So I don't know. Maybe I got to see it in person. Yeah. Maybe I need to go ahead and buy one right now to wear it to the club in Amsterdam.

Yeah, I'm always surprised at the shopping savvy and decisiveness of people. in the Discord server, when something like this comes out. Like, people are like, by the time I've even found out about the kids, there are some people who have, they've found it on like six different websites. They've priced it all out.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, look, this is why, this is why I told you, when it came to World Cup tickets, I wasn't going to put any effort into it because I can just pop into a channel, a World Cup ticket channel on Discord,

be like, hey, what are we looking like right now? It is true. It's. and they'll let me know. But anyway, yeah, so, I mean, how do you feel about the kids? I like them. I mean, I think back to those all white jobs we got in 2020. I'm like, come on, man.

That was the week. That was weak. They were particularly as, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I think those wavy stripes, you know, the Waldo's with some swerve. I'm coming around on them With some blue shorts You know some dark blue shorts

And that could look really nice I mean it'll kind of look like You know It would kind of look like something in the ballpark Of Atletico Madrid Or you know something like that But yeah But that could be great

And I think I think the I think the All Navy It's gonna be slick I think they always look better on the field Than they do Of course In the pictures or whatever I mean you know

170 pound dudes You know what I'm saying Yeah 180 170 pounds So can wet 26 handsome men Waring those shirts

It's gonna be It'll look good It'll look good Let's get to a little bit The action from the weekend Actually Let's start in the middle of the week Because Johnny

Cardoso Important We haven't forgotten about him You haven't forgotten about him He's I'd let it go Madrid rotated over the weekend, beat Hattafe 1-0. Johnny didn't start.

Actually, Obit Vargas did. But Johnny did start in the middle of the week against Tottenham and Champions League when Adletti spank them, 5-2. And I thought he was pretty, pretty good. What did you think? I thought it was good. This is the best probably Johnny's looked.

Well, Adelaide since it's coming back. And, you know, and it's not just looking good and looking comfortable. this is like he's showing signs of like the best parts of Johnny you know the Johnny that really they really got me excited the Johnny that you know he would show up for uh bettys against like an athlete against uh real Madrid when he when he kind of got that big name Johnny moniker oh is it a moniker nobody really calls him that but anyway he was we can still call it a moniker he was performing well in big games and like and you know some of the skills

that he would show are what initially tricked me in the first place into thinking that he was just about to be this you know, I don't know Rose Royce of a Rose Royce of a defensive midfielder or something like that he's not quite a Rose Royce. Not quite a

Volvo. He's a Volvo. Volvo. Volvo. You know, something yeah, so it's a little, it's a little cheaper in price, but it's elevated, it's elevated, but not elevated but not, but not luxurious

necessarily. I do, the Volvo comparison breaks down a little bit when you commit a Cardoso, which is basically like, you know, rolling your car and dying, which would never happen

in a Volvo, you know? But I mean, we don't know what the, you know how cars we have a reputation. Maybe the Volvo's, you know, they break down easily. More expensive to fix. It made some more specific to fix. But, yeah, it's gave me some hope.

It's gave me some hope. But the thing is, with Johnny specifically, and, you know, I resist doing this. Just like, you know, I'm always a type of dude just to be like, you know, the quality of soccer player will show up eventually with the national team. You're not sure about that with Johnny. What's going on? Bro, after that last one against Turkey. And when he disappeared off the pitch for, like, those five,

final 15 minutes. And, like, he was visibly, like, I mean, almost about to cry. Like, bro, he got to, he got to, we, he got to build himself back up. Mm-hmm. You know, and I think, I think the mistakes are, like, looming over his head. Like, we, I mean, what we got? Four matches? Yeah.

Until the, he probably needs to play it all four. to work through those demons, man. I don't know. I'm not going to believe in it until I see it for like two matches. Yeah, time is short for him to build himself back up, as you say. However, there's an opportunity here, you know? I mean, things are not settled in the middle of the pitch for this national team. I don't think in any fan's minds are probably not in Paschitino's mind.

I mean, Sebastian Burrhalter is absolutely bawling out for Vancouver right now. There's a clip going around of him up 4-1, tracking down the sideline, just crunching a guy like when the game is not on the line anymore. He's just a, he's got that, he's got that gene that Podge likes. Burrhalter's around, but is he like, is he good enough to play in the midfield at a World Cup? I would say no And I've been watching I've been watching

Well we're not Well we're not playing in a midfield world club But like Kellen Acosta played the midfield world I'm talking about like start Yeah carry the team Yeah yeah I would say no

I would say no And I'm tuned in I'm tuned in I've been watching I would say no about Cardoso too At the moment But That's right You know the badge FC in me

Is saying like dude he plays For Athletic OMA could he could he be that guy I mean he definitely could you know what I'm saying no doubt about it if he could we just need him

look I'm going to reduce my requirement down from two games like give me 90 bro and it got to be well I mean they're all good opponents that we're playing we got Belgium Portugal, Senegal Germany yeah give me give me 190 and a 45

Okay. And that 90 needs to be decisive, you know, like an encouraging 90 where he's getting on the ball and doing a lot of good stuff. Because I really do think he's feeling it, man. He's feeling the way to these mistakes. I'm sure. And if word of the scuff podcast, it got back to him, which I hope it has not. I might even, I might hurt his confidence even more. It is a funny thing.

No, be Cardoso's until, you know, morale improves, man. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. You got to fight your way out of the Cardoso land, man. Maybe we'll give it to somebody else. It is kind of a funny dynamic, though, where I want everybody to listen to the podcast. But then when I think of, has Cardoso heard us call a giveaway at the back of Cardoso, I'm like kind of glad that not everybody listens to podcast?

Yeah. I was thinking about the fact that you You still got that interview for Gio When we're in Gladbach I think it's kind of It's TBD Okay We're working on it

We're working on it Okay An in-person interview That'd be amazing It'd be so fun But we'll see Would it I think it'd be fun

Okay It doesn't have the, it does have the, um, there's the risk of it being like really awkward and bad. I'm not saying, it's just, it has nothing to do with Gio, has nothing to do with you. But, you know, if things don't turn around, we got about a month for that to happen. Yeah. Yeah, he may not be in a mood to sit down with a niche podcast three months ahead of the World Cup. We'll see.

We'll see. We'll see. So another reason there's opportunity for Cardoso is because Tanner Testament basically lost his spot in the midfield at Leon. Is that unfair? Is that too harsh? That's too harsh, brother. But he did start at centerback over the weekend after. Yeah, they're, you know, first of all, they had that centerback crisis from a while back when he got some starts of centerback earlier this season. And then in this game, Manta, their other centerback was suspended.

Okay. Through either a yellow card accumulation or a red card. I'm not totally sure, but he was suspended. So, and to be clear, I'm not fighting it all the way because, like, I guess we can say he's not written in Penn in the Leon midfield. Like, he didn't start in the midweek in their Europa League match. Right. But him being at centerback this week is not because of us. How many of the last previous, before he played this game in the centerback,

how many games has he started in the midfield out of like the last five? Three. Okay. Yeah. All right. So I was, it was too harsh. Yeah. I mean, and going back to, and if you want to go back, two more games.

We're talking about five out of seven. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, I would not say he's completely lost it, but. He's lost some ground in the pecking order. He's lost some ground. He's losing the public approval as well. Lekeep,

Lekeep got on his ass. Lekeep, they don't, they got no time for Tanner. They got no time for Tanner. They had all the time for Eunice Musa, Western McKinney, and Tyler Adams.

I'll never forget that. At the World Cup, they wrote a, I think it was Lekepe, wrote a nice little thing about them. But yeah, they're on Tanner's ass,

which I would say... Is deserved. No, I wouldn't go that far. I would say it's a little bit of fair. He went way too hard. I would say. I would say. say um

bro was like bro basically was like you slow you're not good on the ball uh something else something else I don't know look I would say this and I want to apologize scuff listeners because I feel like I've let this get off the rails

myself and you know to where even if I assume Mr. Lekeep guy was listening and he was like well Vince says so let me go ahead publish his article um and I'm pulling the reins back a little bit. He ain't been playing that bad.

Okay. And he has not been playing that bad. And you go back and watch that Marseille match. I think the Marseille match is probably one of his better matches against, like, a top French side. Yeah, he did some good stuff against PSG last year. But other than that, I mean, yeah, probably is his best match against a top French side. I think he looked pretty damn good, all things considered. And, you know, he's been playing.

They've kind of abandoned the double. They abandoned the double pivot quite a bit, pushing Tanner forward a little bit. And not his best spot. But, you know, I don't know. Like, as I've started to watch his competition more and more. And, you know, I've kind of been pushing the narrative a little bit that maybe Christiana's, like, worked his way in. starting off of starting next

Tyler Adams and all that I think there's a clear delineation between you know Sebastian Burrhalter Christian Rodon

and and probably Aida Morris that they're all in a tier and 10 attachments above you know these perform these little

this little run of form that he's been in where you know the Cardoso's have upped a little bit or whatever you know he's

we're seeing some floor performance We're seeing some floor performances, but also he'll give you the Marseille. And I think his floor is just hired on those dudes. And he's just a better soccer player, better player than those guys. I'm standing up. I'm standing up for the tan, man. Okay.

Oh, man, Trooper doors. You know, we're not going. We're not going gently into that good night. And also, another thing is that I went back and watched clip notes of the past few matches. and like bro if you count the amount of like plus moments and plays that Tanner has given us in like these past

four matches I would say like it's yeah okay Trubador stand up yeah I I think I agree with you that they're with your tearing

there question is where does Cardoso fit in that tiering and who's going to show up when he plays for the national team next. Right. I mean, because like, you know, Posh can do a lot of things with the midfield. You know, we want Wes.

I mean, I want Wes up in like that tense, by the way. But we could drop West back. Like, Christian Rodon did everything he did in the Australia match while being a part of that double pivot. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So there's a lot of things. there are a lot of things we can do

that might push Tanner down a death chart. And I'm not saying Tanner is it must start anything like that. But what I am saying is he's up next to start before we get to Christiane and Sebi, et cetera, et cetera.

I think, in my opinion. Potch loves that Seby magic, though. I mean, he went over, he tracked the guy down, tackled the ball out of bounds. The guy went flying on the ground. Burrhalter stood up, walked over to him and leaned over him and started jawing at him, you know? I mean, he lost the ball to start off that whole sequence. I mean, look, man, I, much respect to Seb.

Hell of a dude. I was very impressed by him. I looked him in his eyes, you know, standing as close to this, to this mic that I'm talking into right now. Wow, that's pretty close. It is pretty close. It was pretty close. It was a small table. It was a small table.

When we interviewed him or whatever. and you know the love I got for the Burr-Halter family. By the way, an article came out. The article came out, I don't know, some type of profile of Greg or whatever, and they talked about his post-game rituals. I don't know if it's every post-game or it's after a win, but they said that him and Roz, Rosalind, his wife. My mom's name is Rosalind.

You know, everybody calls him, him and Roz get together, a little tequila. and a little rap or house music. Wow. And they sit in, I don't know where room they sit in or if they sit out on a patio or whatever. They just enjoy each other and unwind. And I have to say, that man's living life. That sounds nice. Yeah.

It does sound nice. It sounds real nice. But anyway, like I said, love for the Burr-Halter family. But yeah. Okay. Well, you want to say anything? about Aiden before we move on. Well, real quick, though, just because just because, you know, talked about him in the midfield,

but he did start a centerback in this match and has deputized as emergency centerback for Leon maybe five times now. I mean, he even came on, he even came on in the midweek and played, and played some centerback. This is a, this is a point in his favor when it comes to World Cup. Yeah. So I think a lot of people are intrigued by this. And, well, how do you think he looks at centerback, though? I think he looks soft and a little slow in duels.

I mean, he's obviously taking the job seriously. He's good at finding a teammate's feet between the lines or even hitting a long diagonal. You know, stuff that he does as a midfielder. those skills come into play when he plays centerback. Yeah. I do think he's, you know, he's just not that fast. He's not that strong. He's not that good in the air.

So sort of some classic things you want to see from a centerback, he's not going to give you. But I don't know that none of those is really a deal breaker. You know, if you have to throw him on in a World Cup game, I think he'd do all right. I think he'd be all right. Yeah. What do you think of him as a centerback?

Mostly that, not as soft as you think, I guess. It does look. It's my anti-tall bias coming through, isn't it? He has a weird defensive header technique where I don't know if he's using Jedi mind control to prevent people from jumping, but like somehow like every aerial duel that's supposed to be aerial, somehow nobody ends up jumping. It's an earthbound duel. Yeah, it's an earthbound duel.

So I don't know if he's like, hey, stay here. I'm going to be tall than you. I'm going to head his ball away because he won something in that manner. But it was strange. But I mean, we don't have a lot of great centerbacks anyway. We don't. And that's why people are intrigued by this possibility. I think he could do a job.

But, you know, I'm a, I'm a troubadour through and through, start in the group. Name the group. That's right. Founding member. Yeah, quarterly meetings. But, yeah, I'm giving shrugs right now. Yeah, I think he's all right. Yeah, I mean, so what about Aiden?

He looked good, I thought. I forget who they played, but in the championship. Bristol City, I want to say. But it's like, what does it even? mean. Has Josh Sergeant even scored a goal

for Toronto yet? No, he just debuted this weekend. How much, like, why has he taking him so long

to play? He's paid like a bazillion dollars for this guy he can't even play yet. He's too busy being a father and a family man,

you know what I'm saying? That's why everybody tells me it's so important. You know what I'm saying? And come on. At some point, you're a professional

soccer player. You know what I'm saying? You got to get out there He hadn't played in like two months and he comes and signs up for Toronto and he's like well hold on I need another three weeks to get ready. Yeah it's a little it's interesting but

anyway it's a solid it's a fair question what doesn't mean because and you know I think we're still we're just going through this with Aiden until either he has a commanded performance for the national team

or he moves up a league I guess because like I mean bro, the volume. This man had like 120 passes last match, not this match. Yeah. But like, the volume of, nobody, nobody's doing this in the pool.

And this is why we must continue to check on them. This is why I assume that Potch continues to call him up. And he's, I mean, he's gotten a significant run under Potch, you know, started his, what, his first two matches, I want to say. And then, you know, was out of the scene for a little bit.

He's having a revival now. You know, started the Uruguay match. Yeah. And, you know, mostly has handled business for the most part, but the physical shortcomings are just obvious

any time he has to like turn on the boosters. You know, they'd be sputtering. You know, you gotta turn to Keating and mission a couple times to get him to get him going. You know, he has. He has good ideas on the ball. But. He's tough in the tackle Tough in the tackle

When he's there He does He's in a cage with him That team everybody just Like as soon as they get the ball They just look for Aiden Give him the ball Yeah

Like he is He's going around And demanding the ball But he doesn't quite Have that mandate Or that mentality When he plays for the national team It looks quite a bit different

I'm not holding my breath About Aidan Morris You know When I was in Kansas City And we played Canada that one time when Mike Yvarez was coaching I don't know

Johnny came off did Johnny had another Cardoso in that match gave Canada a goal but I don't know look what I'm saying is when Aiden came on the pitch the whole the whole match changed and you know after that I interviewed him in the mix zone he had all that muscle milk that's right

in a bag and I was like you know what I haven't necessarily rated this guy before but you know what He's very serious about what he's doing. And, you know, I'm a back him because of that. Ever since then, we haven't seen a performance as good as that. But I think it's under the right situations. Because, I mean, in that match, you know, he kind of dropped between the centerbacks and was like breaking lines and helping us get up the field in that way,

which is like, that's like his bread and butter with Middlesbrough, that's why it touches the ball so much. Yeah. So maybe he was just in the situation where he felt comfortable and ready to, ready to contribute in that way. But I still got time for him. I'll leave it at that. I still got time for him.

Let's take a break, come back and talk about the strikers. Scali had a, you know, he's one player at Bruchianmonjean Gladbach that's doing some good stuff. And there's some injuries to talk about some other stuff. We'll be back in a minute. All right, we're back. Let's go straight to Rico. Got the start against NEC neck, I guess. Nymegan, is that them?

Yeah, yeah, it was him. I mean, he did have a lovely, like, redirected header on frame. This is a high level of difficulty. Let's go and get the good stuff out of the way. Yeah, way to get the shot on frame. very I mean I don't I want to I don't want to gloss this over this is like a really nice attempt on goal outside of that man's getting ragdalled like every all over the place by a bottom half of the table dutch side I was thinking about this while I was while I was clipping clip in riko's performance

people are going to watch these clip notes and think I I intentionally gave riko bad at it. No. I have to, before you go on, I have to correct myself. NEC9Megan is third in the table, so they're not a bottom half of the table. This is a good, this is a good

Erdiviz side. They're head of Iax. Okay, well, that makes me feel better because I was like, bro, what is going on right now? And it's not, I mean, to be fair, though, that the reason while I was feeling like that is because this is not

these performances have not been few and far between for Rico. Like, he's been chasing around his touch quite a bit this season and this match was no different. And even if he is, even if that is a third in the Air Division team, this is a man who is linked with

Fulham football club in the Premier League. Can you imagine? Like, he's never going to touch the ball in the Premier League. I cannot, bro. I cannot imagine like he needs to stay bro he got some development he got some developing to do

and you know the injuries have gotten in the way of playing time and all that different type of stuff but I mean you have performances this rough I guess Nimjin I can't imagine

you know who would have asked Premier League teams West Ham Tottenham Um Nondam Forrest The teams are down there in the relegation fight or whatever.

Bro, they would eat this man's lunch, bro. I mean, come on. Like I said, if you watch the clip notes, you would think I gave this man a bad at it. Like I had something against Rico or something when I set this up. He was just that bad, bro. And that was, it was something. And then he got taken off at some point in the second half.

and the dude that subbed on farm scored. Dreyush, I want to say, I think that's his name. And they still lost. I mean, they still lost the game. So, I mean, it doesn't matter. They're so far ahead in that league. But, yeah, I mean, we've talked about it. If we've talked about it once, we've talked about it 100 times.

He's just not as reliable linking possession as Ballo, not even close. I do think Setting the emotional part aside Which is that I really really badly Don't want Pepe to miss this World Cup I do think there is And I know Greg will disagree with me You probably will disagree with me too

I think there is value In like sort of the mystical Goal Scorer thing And I'll And I'll say it this way He's just so hungry to score Yeah When he's out there

I wouldn't mind him being an option, you know, in June. Well, oh. I'm sorry, finish your point. Just saying, like, he, you know you throw him on there. He's going to, like, he's going to want with all his heart to score, and he's going to, he's going to get a chance. And he's, man, probably going to score. It's just, I mean, maybe it's mysticism, but it's how I believe.

Well, maybe I'm going to give you the counterpoint for this mysticism, because I know you remember this play. once I bring it up, it'll pop right into your mind. You know, the chance he whipped on in the match, left side of the goal, balls bouncing to him, he is butt-naked in the box. Yeah. About four yards out, and he goes to try to catch the ball off the half-volley,

and he just, like, kind of squirred-jured. I gave him a little discount on that because I thought maybe it grazed the defender's head. But it was tough. It was tough. It was tough performance all around for Rico. Well, at least he didn't break his arm. Bro, but that's like, that's the thing.

And that's, I'm happy you brought up the broken arm because you see it. You just see it all over the place, bro. You see the lack of gracefulness. It is weird, bro. It's like, you know, how someone about autism, bro, but they, like, they're autistic. No, hold on that. I hope I'm going to say this. Personal autism could be a mathematics genius.

That's right. Correct. Like, you know, that's right. But it's like where Rico gets a chance, all that other stuff goes away, and suddenly he looks like God's gift to, God's gift to football, just like aesthetically and everything.

Like, all the clumsiness and all the different stuff, like goes out the window. It's true. That's the mysticism of it, you know? Yeah. It is interesting, but it does, You know what? It has been popping up more than...

It does continue to pop up. When I was watching those clip notes, I mean, that one chance in the Paraguay match towards the end where he... He tries to shift the ball, like, from his left to his right foot. Yeah, yeah. And he... Then the ball gets away, and then he's, like, reaching for it.

Yeah. But, I mean, he did, like I said, that header, that glancing header, that's a super, super difficult... And he made it look extremely easy. Extremely easy. So, yeah, it's just, it's a give it to take. The dichotomy of Rico. I don't know.

I don't know. But it, Greg said this in the Discord, I think this past week. He has an hypothesis that maybe Pete DeBosch keeps playing with Pepe's minutes because he just doesn't fit Peter Bosh's requirements for technical requirements for what he wants out of his striker. and I don't know maybe I mean to further drive he came back for the ball one time in the buildup and basically passed it to

to Nimjid Stryker and you know he had to hustle back he did a Cardoso he did a Cardoso he did hustle back shoulder that guy off the ball take it and find the teammates feet so that's he did that's how you handle a Cardoso right there if you're going to do a Cardoso

So that's how you, that's how you rectify it. It's one performance. I'm going to leave it alone, but. Yeah, he's an interesting player. It's kind of an enigma in some ways. Ballo scored another scrappy goal. His 14th in the league. I forget what he's at for all comps,

but closing in on that magic 20. The 14 is all comp. Oh, is it? Yeah, yeah, the 14th is all cop. Oh. Trust me. brother. I trust you. I've been keeping an eye out for these. Okay, so I overstated it.

But I don't know that it was an outstanding. Go ahead. You were gone on your mysterious vacation and probably didn't listen to me and Chuck's episode all the way. But, um, Ballo is now two goals. So he has 14 goals. One goal was a penalty. he is two goals away from matching his non-penity goal tally from the 22-goal season Annabels I noticed you studiously avoiding saying the name of the team that he played for that season oh Rons

That's what I'm talking about I was just making sure I got that I got that out correct But yeah I can I can say that anytime baby But yeah so That's where we're at bro And in significantly less minutes, too. Hold on, I mean. So in that season for, Ron, he played.

He started every game. He played like almost a minute. It was an obscene amount of minutes. Hold on. I got it here. Yeah, and I was so worried. Sorry, my bad. 3,000 minutes he played in that season for Ron.

And that was just in the league. Altogether. 3,100. And now in about 2,200, 2300, you know, he's two goals off his, is not penalty tally. And so, you know, essentially he's been everything that we thought he would be. And, you know, when we got so hype about the dog park and the Orlando, Florida and all that different type of stuff, J.T. Batson at the bar and everything. You know, all that different type of stuff that came with it, the silliness. of course all of that was extremely fun

but it would be less fun if he turned out how Giovanni turned out or something not to slander him but Ballo has been everything that we've hoped that he would be and even before this even before this season you know I was telling people to keep the faith or whatever

but it's nice to be it's nice to finally see him rewarded for his hard work and efforts that he'd be putting in man because, you know, he goes hard out there. He does. He doesn't fall over very much. He holds centerbacks off. The goal, let me just describe the goal he scored real quick, because it's like a, it's kind of a loose ball.

I think one of his teammates pounces and, like, knocks it away from defender, and then it just, it kind of bounces over towards Ballot, and he's just, he's just alert to it. He steps onto it. I think with the sole of his right boot to go past the defender and then just side-footed from mid-air into the top right corner. With his left foot?

With his left foot, yeah. Yeah, and on the broadcast, they actually did like a, it did like a little breakdown of like the moment where, because like the ball, this is essentially a Monaco attack breaking down. Defenders trying to clear it. but Monaco player is able to get there to where, you know, it lands basically equidistant from the centerback that's Mark and Ballo himself.

And they like, and they stop it right at that moment. And there's something I've talked about with Tanner, right? Ballo, as soon as that ball bounces, he's in his stance, ready to go. And they put the little blue shadow on the defender, from breast, who they were playing, and he's standing straight up.

Who's winning that race? The man, the man who has his hips low and ready to go. So Ballo gets there, stabs it with his right, tucks it with his left. That's all good stuff.

And that's the thing about these Ballo goals and assists that we all talk about. It's like, sometimes he gets lucky, lucky in quotes, because like somebody finished the, finish the shot or whatever,

the chance that he created or something, which is, which of course, there is luck involved, but he is creating these moments through, you know, him using his body or his leverage or whatever, or him just being quick to pounce, him having that hunger to score a goal. Similarly, we talked about Rico, but. Yeah, they're both hungry. And now they're going in. And now they're going in for Balo.

And, yeah, so this is great stuff. Yeah. He He did a lot of channel running, too, in this game As he does. Let's talk about some injuries. So, James Sands, unfortunately, out for the season, right? Yep.

James Sands has hurt himself out for the season. Once again, this is the second, you know, second stint for St. Pauli, I think last time he broke his ankle. this time he's having ankle surgery well get well soon man I mean yeah

it's a shame we'll see I think he's still on loan I don't think Polly like bottom or anything so we will see if they do but yeah it's fortunately he's out for the World Cup too like it's it's it's um

it's a rap he wasn't going to make the roster anyway if we're honest look look who am I? Who am I? You know what I'm saying? I'm the janitor to poach the manager. You know what I'm saying? Other injury news, and this one really hurts me. Once again, Bells, you didn't listen to the episode last week. But he got a start for Parma, right? Ben HaKramoski. Got a start for Parma last week. And on this very pod, I said to Chuck, he's done well enough. to earn another start, I expect him to start next week. You know what Parmer said? Palmer said, the Muley's right.

The Muley's right, man. And that's right. I was correct. They were listened to the pod as well. They put him back in the starting lineup. And he comes off, I think, before like 20 minutes in tears. He's on the ground. And they've released now.

He has a meniscus tear. And I think he is getting surgery on it. And so his season is, Ben, his season is over, man. And it's a shame because... It had just started. It had just started, but Bells,

me and Chuck B. talked about this, Bells. Here is Ben Ha Cromoski, midfielder by trade, playing right wingback for Parma. Right. And essentially, I, you know, I applauded Italy. for making improvements on race relations.

You know what I'm saying? But and now, but now we have a, not just a white man, but an Argentine American, no less. Pyrrhus. Sent to. Pyrriss white. The Pyrrish whites that we have remaining in the, maybe, maybe Athakazi Jews, you know what I'm saying?

But other than that, it's just Argentinian Americans and them. But so now we have a martyr situation, is what I'm getting that, is what I'm getting that. Now we have, now we have a martyr situation. situation. This was a man that was crusading on the path of equal opportunities for both black and white people in Italian football. And he's been taken out. He's been taken out from us. And so, you know, I think we need to put him also in the picture next to Martin Luther King as a freedom fighter, Ben Haq Kermoski. And so we can.

Him and Greg Burhalter and Martin Luther King, Jr. We can move on. We can move on from that. But I just want to say that, you know, in the, in those, what, 100 minutes that you gave us, you made a huge impact, Benja. Awesome. I'm so proud of him. Haji hurt his groin this weekend. And I don't know how he's hopefully not out for too long, but probably he misses the upcoming window. You would think so.

You would think so. Unfortunately. Yeah, that is unfortunate. Big Pat, come on down. You know what I'm saying. Right. He's cooled off. But coming down nonetheless.

Yeah, I mean, we know Josh Sarge is too busy moving into his house in Windsor, Ontario. He can't bother to play soccer, man. Joe Scali, he played pretty good on Friday. Gladbach beat St. Pauli? Be St. Pauli. There, I don't want to say. I was going to say flying. but I don't know if they're flying or not, to be honest with you.

But, you know, Joe Scali got an assist this weekend. And I think it might be the finest soccer play that I've seen from Joe Scali in his professional career maybe. Yeah. Beats a guy to the end line. Yeah. But he starts it. Yeah. Right.

That's the business in. That's a business in. But he starts it. He receives the ball. on the right touch line, kind of at about the halfway mark, something like that, back to goal, you know, receives it, lays it off, finds a teammate, and then gets going, gets on his horse, sprint from there to when he gets played in to the inline. And when his teammate plays on the ball, that sends him to the in line, you know,

there's some jeopardy as to whether or not Joe's guy's going to be able to keep it in, in bounds or not. But Adam Bells, let me remind you. We're talking about like the 86 fastest player in the Bundesliga. You know, he's kind of, he's dropped down the charts a little bit. Some people have gotten faster. Chris Lund still up there, like top 15 still. Christopher Lund Hanson, which we might need to look.

He might be Christopher Lund Hamilton if he keeps it up. Anyway, Joe gets to the, he gets to the inline, keeps the ball in miraculously. chop kind of you know just chops it to stop the ball's momentum and his momentum and cuts it back to that dude that plays right wingback for him i don't forgot his name i know his name too but he slots at home scores it's a beautiful soccer play joe involved in the buildup makes the run to help facilitate the build that gets the team to the end line and then cutting it back for the assist that was that was all good stuff yeah and he's He did other good stuff in the game, too.

I mean, he does have to receive the ball under a fair amount of pressure a lot and then find a solution. So, good on him. I don't know what Potch thinks of Joe, of young Joseph, but. Yeah. I mean, wouldn't be shocked if he's in. Wouldn't be shocked if he's in. We'll see Alex Freeman, his minutes that kind of dried up there for a little bit,

Villa Real. He got in this weekend for a little 10-15-minute runout reviews for Mix from what I saw on the Discord. I did not check those minutes out. But, I mean, I don't think he's in danger of being jumped by Joe Scali at this very moment in time. I don't think. We'll see what the coach that the janitor thinks of the whole situation.

But anyway. Yeah, eight minutes off the bench. He's closing in on a half an hour total since he arrived. Yep. That is not a lot of minutes. Hey man. I try to tell you, okay. Well, I'm not going, I don't need to do all that.

But, you know, he's, Alex, he wasn't just going to jump in the Villaryreal start line on, man. You know, it was just. I'll trust the process there, I think. Yeah, yeah. There's nothing to be alarmed about nothing. And I think last player we got to talk about, Malik Tillman. Now, I'll start with the bad, opposite of what I did with Peppie. He missed a left-footed shot 1V-1 with the keeper that would have made it 2-0.

The game ended up. Whose Leverkus a plan? Against Byron. Okay. Yeah. Byrne Munich. and just dragged it a little wide of the post. He will want that one back.

But dude was extremely dangerous throughout this game. And I wonder, you know, it's just that there's some joy in playing a team that wants to play soccer against you. You know, I wonder how much of that is what made this performance possible. But, you know, he played like four or five through balls to put people in on goal. he had that chance that he missed. He had a couple other decent chances where he put at least a respectable effort on goal. The chance he missed was hilarious because

the levercues the mascot is like behind the goal. Yeah, he covered his eyes. It's like a dog. Covered his eyes and then the camera zoomed in on him after the fact. It was a shame. He probably should have slotted that home. Yeah, I'm going to say should have.

I'm going to say should have. I'm a break, scuff invention. Should have slotted that one home. But he did look good. And I do wonder, I guess, to you wondering as well, it kind of forces you into action where it's like, you know, you're playing this team that plays that's going to play this high line that's going to get push numbers forward, get everybody involved in.

When the ball turns over, you have no choice but to, like, you're going to look like a complete idiot, you know what I'm saying? If you don't play the man in, Yeah. You know, that's making the very clear run. You have a very clear gap to pass this ball in between, you know, all these different types of things. So, you know, maybe. The number of like 3v2, you know, even 3 v3 situations in space, he finds himself in.

It's not like most of the games that he's playing. Right. You pass the ball back with that situation. You're going to get jeered off to field, brother. Right. The mascot will come kick your ass. Yeah, he won't be covering his eyes anymore. Tillman, but this is really good news because Tillman's had a pretty uneven rookrunda, I would say.

Yeah, and to look like this against Byron, that's, I mean, that's what he's here. Right, exactly, exactly. The things that we're saying that allow us to keep the faith, you know, if you ever had a, I'm not going there. Well, it's snowing outside. It's not sticking here in North Georgia, but they're letting the kids out early, so I got to go pick up my kids. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Thank you, Vince. Thanks to Charlie for carrying the flag with you in my absence.

We'll see you.