Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #675: The March roster

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Vince and Belz talk briefly through the roster, hear a bunch of clips from Poch's press conference, and give their XIs for next Saturday's match against Belgium. 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 where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, we have a roster for the friendlies against Belgium and Portugal coming up soon in Atlanta. Pach also met with the press yesterday, so there are some quotes to chop up and digest. Fitz, how are you doing? I'm doing great, man. I'm getting excited to go back to Atlanta. Yeah. Number one. Come on down.

Yeah. Always nice to get back to the, you know. That's where it started, Adamville. You know what I'm saying? I know. That's where the embryo turned it to a zygote. The whole gestation period for me was in the Atlanta area. And then also, I mean, I assume the, what I call that?

Coitus. The consummation. Well, is that the, no, hold on. What's that the act of the making the baby? Anyway, anyway. Yeah. I was made, gestated, and delivered. the Atlanta area.

It's always nice to come back. Can you feel it? Can you feel it when you approach the... I can't feel it, bro. I can't feel it. You know, spent all the summers and winters of my life. Well, not in my life, but I've my early life going to visit my dad in Atlanta. And, yeah, it's always nice to be back.

And then, you know, yeah, the soccer culture and stuff. there too. I was extremely struck by it. But yeah, I'm just excited for everything, man. I started to have a little, a tailgate, all the different type of stuff, you know. Yeah. We're here now. It's a week away. Yeah, trying to do pickup

a week from Saturday morning and then we tailgate at the blue lot just north of the stadium. Probably around new. We should get started there. But let's talk about this roster. First, I think I'll read it. Just

to cover our bases. Goalkeepers, Chris Brady from the Chicago Fire, Roman Celentano from FC Cincinnati, Matt Freeze, the presumptive starter from New York City FC, and Matt Turner playing back with the revs now. You know, maybe he gets a start in one of these games. Who knows?

Defenders are Max Arfston, Alex Freeman, Mark McKenzie, Tim Ream, Chris Richards, Anthony Robinson, Miles Robinson, Joe Scali, and Austin Trustee. And then the midfielders, we got Sebastian Burhalter, Johnny Cardoso, Weston McKinney, Aidan Morris, Giorina, Christian Rodon, Tanner Testman, Malik Tillman. And then the forwards, you know, nominally, Brendan Aronson, Pat Ajamong, Buller and Balligan, Ricardo Pepe, Christian Pulisic, and Tim Wea. So just people missing for injury would be Tyler Adams,

who's out another two, three weeks at Bournemouth with a quadricep, dealing with a quadricep issue, desks out another month or two with his hammy. I mean, I guess it's not 100% clear how long he'll be out, but longer than a couple weeks. And then Haji's out briefly. And then Diego Luna, who will get into, two more later, just back from injury, but just back.

And the lengthy comments that Potch made that he kept insisting were not about Diego in response to a question about Diego. Right. Do you make you wonder if there's something else going on there? Well, he was pretty clear to make sure that we did not infer that there was something that was going on there. So I'm going to take him at his word, but I thought what he said in general. was interesting about just, you know, the player pool as a whole.

Also, with Sergenio Dust, Bells, PSV released a timeline. And it came from like Rick Elfrink, a friend of the podcast. Absolutely. Serge may be back when we're in Anhoven at the PSV match. Okay, which will be what, the 25th or something, 24th, 25th, 26th. What are your big takeaways from the, from the roster, from Potch? Anything? There's not any huge surprises.

No, no huge surprises. And really, I mean, I think these are the people that you thought would be here for the most part. Maybe, maybe Austin trustee over like a, over a J-Mai or something. you know like i mean but that we're picking picking nits at that point you know once Tyler Adams out you know you know you're you know you're getting Sebastian burrhalter in and Christian Rodon in you know type of thing

they can they can both make it you don't got to pick one um and once haji writes out you know big pat's in yeah so i mean once surge is out then scali is in kind of Right, right. You know, so it's, I think those injuries kind of took away some of the intrigue. But I guess also, you know, you just never know with Gio how he was going to view his whole situation type of thing.

Gio is in. Gio is coming to the World Cup, like even if he doesn't play again all spring. Yeah, yeah, seem so. So, yeah, I mean, that's it. I think the roster is pretty much standard fair. much for me to say about it. You know, I was trying to think of a take to put on a X-Everthing app, but I couldn't.

Yeah. Yeah, it's good. It's good to show restraint, you know, like that. So I think Cardoso and Tesman, you know, will get another chance probably in this window to really, Cardoso in particular, to prove himself, but Testman also to sort of stamp his ground in the immortal words of Matt Miasga.

Yeah. And then, you know, Scali, I think Scali pretty famously has not, didn't get off on the best foot with Potch. And here he is, you know, three months before the World Cup, getting another chance. That's kind of interesting to, you know, to see how he, if he plays. I wouldn't probably start him in either game, but maybe Potch will. And it is interesting that Jedi's in camp I mean it's not that it's not crazy or anything It's good and it's good and predictable that he's in camp

But curious to see how he plays If he plays for the U.S. in this window Because he's not playing a ton for Fulham So Well it doesn't matter according to according to You know the coach not the janitor Yeah. You know, he made sure to let that be known.

So, you know what I'm saying? And once again, I'm going to keep banging this drum. You know, in the times where Jedi has been healthy for the national team, Pach has made sure to platform him in ways where, I mean, he's kind of been like the focal point of our team. Like, you know, we had the, had the, the incense where he was inverted for that one, that one match, right? Yeah. But then also, I think it was the, I think it was Pott's first game, the Panama match in Austin, Texas, where, you know, I mean, we were using Jedi as our primary line stretcher. We were just hitting balls over the top of the Jedi in the way that we do them now to, like, Big Pad of Flow or whatever, and let them run the channels.

Like, Jedi was the guy running the channels, and he was a menace the entire match. So, like, I think you see how much Pots race the man if it's like, you know, he pulled the rabbit out the hat with the inverted Jedi situation. And then also in another match can do something completely different and have him be our primary line stretcher and the one going to, you know, dig the balls out in channels or whatever. So I think those two situations right there. When you look at them, it's like clearly this man races do it a lot. And so I think Potch finally having him back, we will see him on the field. And if he's on the pitch, you know, if Jedi's on the pitch for the U.S. Men's National team, he's going to make an impact.

And Potch seems to want to put him in positions where he can make maximum impact. on the team. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So I'm excited about that. I'm excited about seeing it. Yeah. He also, I mean, so I guess what I'm thinking about when you're saying all that is totally

totally agree. But he also said in response to a question about Tim Ream yesterday, you know, whether Tim Ream is still the first choice centerback, he said he really punted on the question. And, you know, yeah. He said football is very, quote, football is very dynamic and things change every moment, which is true, you know. And I wonder a little bit about that with Jedi. He is, he was a, he was a focal point. He has been a focal point in the way Potch wants to approach games.

But football is very dynamic. I mean, but what are we talking about, though? Is he like, is he, is he the same Jedi that he was two years ago, you know? I see no reason to think anything different. Okay. You know, I'm biased by watching the games. To quote a famous discorder. You know, I'm biased by watching the games, baby.

You know what I'm saying? All this other narrative and stuff that you're trying to spend, reporter Adam Bells, you know what I'm saying? That's what the media does. That's what the media does. You took off your media boots, but you still, you still have that ilk. You know what I'm saying? You try to spend a narrative when a narrative ain't there, baby.

You know what I'm saying? Okay. At this point, okay, three 90s over the last three full of matches. Well, not the last three full of matches. Since he came back from injury, they've played four games. He started and went 90 and two of them. So, you know what I'm saying? Okay.

I mean, if you're saying, yes, he's not the same Jedi as in, you know, he's not the bionic man that can go. 90 minutes every, every two days with no issues. You know what I'm saying? I mean, yeah, he might not be that. He might not be that, understood. But that's not relevant to the World Cup. No.

Yeah. Because the games are six days apart. Yeah. Actually, explain what I'm saying. When I see, when I watch Jedi play in these matches that I've checked out, it looks like Jedda. He's bombing up and down the pitch. And that's all we're worried about, right? Like, where you're seeing when we, you know,

know what he's went through with his injuries and all that stuff and all the time that he's missed, would he be the same physically? And yeah, I'm not seeing any, I'm not seeing any issues there. Okay. All right. A lot of questions about Gio at the beginning of the press conference. So I'm going to play part of Pach's answer to, you know,

why, what's you're thinking about calling him up? It's good to see players that maybe are not playing too much, like in that case of Auxio, but that is a very talented player and we know how he can add to the national team, is to see if he is affected about that and he is capable to perform with us. Again, I think we really know that it's a very special talented and very special player. And I think to give the possibility, even if it's not playing too much in his class, it can be very useful for us. Then he was asked by Doug McIntyre,

like, how do you weigh recent national team performance versus fitness informed for club in the moment when you make the final decision on the World Cup roster? And here's what he said to that. It's an art because every single player is different and can add different things to the team. We can not follow. some rule

because I think it's not fair to judge all in the same way. Not fair to judge all in the same way. I mean, it does seem like he's... Words don't matter as we have established on this podcast. But it does seem like he's shifted the way he talks about it.

Because it used to be like all about you gotta perform for your club, you know? You know how it goes though. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You got to set the hard line at the beginning. Yeah. at the beginning, whether you're a teacher walking into a classroom, you know, and in this

case a coach taking over a new team or whatever, you got to set that hard line. And then, of course, it's different, like, a national team coach is no different from any other coach. You know, if you get the opportunity, you come in and perform. The coach is not going to forget that, regardless of what may be happening at the club. And he kind of expands on this idea further, but we'll get to it with Charlie Bowms' question about Diego Luna. But he kind of expands on the information that the staff has behind the scenes that leads them to make these decisions. They're watching.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe let's just read the, let's just listen to the Luna quote. It's a little bit lengthier, but. Charlie Bowman asked about Luna, great friend of the pod, Charlie Bowman. And here's what he said. What the player need to know that we are in complete contact with the coaching staff and the performance area and medical staff, all the club. And I think he struggled a little bit.

The information that we have is struggled a little bit in preseason and all the to get the form and then came insured. and my thing is it's important to be careful player need to understand that we control everything we have all the information and they cannot cheat us

I don't say that Diego is cheating us but it's important to be focused in the World Cup it's important to train always giving your best always on the top it's not to say okay I am in my club

50% because after in the national team, I'm going to play 100% no. I want the player play in his best in the team. Of course, you can say to me, maybe, she or Reina, Alex Freeman, they are not playing too much now.

But it's different. If you give your best and after you don't get game time, like happening in these things, okay. But what I don't want is not to give your best and you don't get in time because you

become insured and then, you know, But that is not talking about Diego, it's talking about in general. But, yes, happy that Diego is start playing again. But I think it's the roster that is very expensive now to be in the roster because we have plenty of players that deserve to be in the roster, and that is going to be painful. It's painful for me. It kind of seems like he is talking about Diego, though.

No, I don't. I mean. Well, what, what, did it? Go ahead. I mean, if he was, I don't think he would have went through. He would have went through the point of saying that this is not about Diego multiple times. I think he's just expanding on, you know, injury comes, injury comebacks in general. And just how the team makes decisions.

And I just, I thought this was notable just because, just because, you know, the narrative around G. arena, all different type of stuff. You know, obviously he is not playing. Like, he has splinters in his, in his glutes. But, but, but, what Pacha's saying here, and it took me, like, I had to listen to this, like, this answer, like, five times and really understand what he was saying. But, like, what the point he's making, what he's saying is, they're embedded within these players' clubs.

They have relationships with these clubs. They're in contact with these clubs. I don't know, day to day, week to week, whatever. So they know what's going on within the club. And what he's saying is, you know, they're in contact with the club. And the clubs are, I guess, happy with the effort that, like, you know, Alex Freeman and G. Arena are given in camp. And that's what he's saying.

Like, you can't cheat us. You can't be out here going half-ass at your club and then expect us to call you in the national team. regardless if you have performed or not. And so that's what I wanted to say, because I think that is notable because of the narrative around Giorina that, you know, he's like a malcontent or whatever at every club that he goes to or whatever. And I think with this information that Pott's given us, even though he wasn't directly talking about anybody, I don't think.

Not Diego Luna, not G.O. Luna, not G.O.R.R.R.R. and Alex Freeman are in camp lets us know that the staff and everybody are getting good reports from the club that you know,

Gio's doing everything you can. That's the thing. That's the thing. Those are the questions. Is Gio taking care of his body? Is Gio giving it as all in training? Etc, et cetera,

because he seems to fall out of favor with all these different managers, etc. I can only speak for this moment right now and with Gladbach, but if you take what Podger's saying at face value, it seems that um,

Glabok is, um, no complaints from them. No complaints. I mean, of course, they spent some money on him. They would want for him to play more,

more than like, like the front office would or something like that. Right. But, you know, technical staff to technical staff, hey, GEO's giving it, giving it his all right now.

He's just been set back by some entries or something like that. Got a spot. taken, hasn't got in the back yet, unfortunately, but he's doing what he can right now. So I thought that was notable. He's starting next Saturday against Belgium. I think so. I mean, you know, I mean, Potsch was, yeah, he was full of praise. He was full of praise, man.

You know what I'm saying? And, yeah, so I think that's the case. Yeah. I do, I guess I can't shake the feeling a little bit that there is, the opposite is sort of true of Luna with his late injury and. So, but that's the thing about trying to infer that some of this stuff is about Diego Luna. Because he does say something directly about Diego Luna in the beginning of that question where he says he struggled a little bit trying to find his position and form. I think Pots was saying with the formation changed, with the formation change amongst the national team.

Okay. Because I guess the question is, you know, I mean, I guess his natural position would just be either the 10 or whichever winger is tucked in. Right. You know what I'm saying? But, I mean, which isn't a big difference from anything else that we've done. I guess, you know, you still got two half-space players.

There's two spots where he could go, but there are a lot of good players. A lot of good players in those positions. And he said he struggled. He struggled to find his form with the national team here recently. So he did say that about Diego Luna specifically, like in his first like two or three sentences of answering that question before he got to this other whole diatribe. So I mean, so with him like, you know, when he comes back from the roster, he's going to have to, he's going to have to light MLS on fire to have a chance, I think, provided that. everyone else stays healthy, so we'll see. Well, with Xavier Gozo feeding him from wingback, you know, maybe he will.

Yeah. Maybe he will. Possibility. Another big, big talking point from the roster is the absence of Nochi Banks, Noaki Banks, for those of you who don't appreciate the nickname. And there was a lot kind of said about this, but here's a clip from it. that shows that it sounds like Pach and Jesus are very tuned in to the situation. Jesus was seeing him in Asburg, in Osburg, and he was talking with him.

I was talking with him. We were talking by FaceTime soon. Yeah, we have a great contact, and I really appreciate him. He's a very nice kid. But it's in a difficult situation. and hope, you know, for USA, that the decision will be for our side, because I think it's not only present, if not his future too, no? I mean, there was a lot more said.

He said he felt like a father figure towards him in some ways. I mean, it all sounds like the stuff you should be saying in a situation like this where a 19-year-old is trying to decide what national team would play for. It's, you know, it's in nookai's hands. Yeah. It's in his hands. Once again,

embedded with the clubs. I can't even... I can't even say Augsburg, I can't even say Augsburg, the way Posh did. I would sound racist. But it would... It would...

Everything that you could want for your national team staff to do when it comes to recruiting a dual national player, it seems that we're doing it. Maybe if you want to pick Nits or whatever, you could say that... Mrisio Pachino should visit Augsburgo himself. But, um... I don't think so.

Yeah, it's like... Yeah, it's like... I mean, you get on... FaceTime's as good as a... As good as an in-person visit. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, it's incredible what technology has become.

How often do you FaceTime people? I do it quite a bit. Do you? Yeah. I mean, if I'm calling, like, my brother or my sister in Boston or whatever. I want to see my niece and nephew. You know what I'm saying?

I'm FaceTiming. I'm FaceTime. I'm FaceTime. Yeah. It's a thing for us younger people. Do you FaceTime? I just don't. Yeah, I don't do it.

I do it with like the grandparents when the kids. Bro, because like I'm thinking now like, because it's crazy. Because like I said, Atlanta. My dad was in Atlanta. We moved, me and my mom moved back to Louisville when I was two. dad was in Atlanta until I was like 11 or something. Then he moved to Louisville.

And if young me had the ability to FaceTime my dad, you know, I would go six months without seeing this man's face, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, yeah, and, you know, the phone calls can, phone calls cool. You know, I mean, you had a, that's all you had at the time, you know, phone calls. But younger kids don't really go for phone calls that much. I think of FaceTime. FaceTime goes a long way, man.

Yeah. FaceTime goes long way. I should do it more. I should do it more. And, you know. I guess what I was trying to say is it's kind of a big deal to FaceTime somebody, you know? It's not. Yeah, you got to be locked in.

You got to be good friends. Yeah. With somebody FaceTime. For sure. You're not just going to FaceTime somebody that you, that your acquaintances with. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Intimant. You know, intimate. And so, and that's why I think that suffices, you know, we don't necessarily need an in-person visit. Boom, just hop on the face time, talk to the man. I mean, look, we got conversations with Nokey and Potch, with Noki and Jesus, I guess. So, look, we're doing what we need to do. And Potch seems to understand, you know, he talked about the fact that, you know, that they're working. And he said, you know, not to convince.

not to convince, but to show that as a federation, you know, we value him and all a different type of stuff. And then, you know, basically, you know, put the ball on his court and let him decide from there. But, you know, I think we're in a, I think we're in a decent position, man. You know, I mean, there's not much to, it is what it is. You know, Germany, if they made some, they made some advances, you know what I'm saying? It's Germany. Yeah.

He's German. Yeah. He is. He's definitely German. And it's like, you know, for me, yeah, I think he'd probably help us even this summer if he joined the U.S. national team. But, you know, it's not at the end of the world if he doesn't choose us. It's like we need to start producing our own good centerbacks. Like this is, this is a national crisis. It's a national crime.

But that's the thing, though, because it will hurt if he does pick a jury. It will hurt. Like, I'm not going to sit here and be like, we'll find another one. I mean, bro. We're not going to find another one. You know what I'm saying? Like, this is another, like, you know, above serviceable young Bundesliga centerback is not. There's nobody there's nobody waiting in the wings.

There's no guarantees that we're producing on Mark McKinsey anytime soon. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But, you know, he's not, I think it'd be silly for him to play, you know, from a pragmatic point of view, silly for him to play for Germany. Like, he's, how many caps is he going to get for Germany over the course of his career? I mean, maybe he, maybe he blows up and he, like, becomes a $40 million centerback.

But that's the thing. It wouldn't be, it's not crazy for him to bet on his self. to do that at this point. You know, if you're 19, logging these minutes in the Bundes League the way that you are, you know what I'm saying? It's not like, you know,

this isn't some crazy delusion of grandeur. Okay, you're talking me into it. It is going to be really bad if he chooses Germany. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to be sad. Yeah.

All right. Yeah. Yeah, let's move on. Okay. A couple other clips I want to play. he talks about, he was asked about Tanner Testman and playing deeper. And I don't know that he really got into it,

but this is a very short clip what he says he likes about Tanner Testament. Yes, Tanner Testman is a very good player because he has one thing that is very important. Brain. Brain, yeah, that's a big compliment from a soccer coach. That tells me Tanner starts on Saturday. and I won't hear otherwise, yeah. Truvador stand up, man.

You know what I'm saying? I've been here. I've been here, man. I was trying to tell y'all in that first Venetia year, who's the better prospect between John Lucas, Y'all Tantanatatat? It's a sight unseen. He wasn't playing a lot.

But we kept the faith, brother. We kept the faith. Follow me. I will not lead you astray. That's all I'm saying. If Davoswini and Maricio Poititino are in the same room, who's got, who's the bigger personality? It probably depends on the context, right? It does depend on the context.

It does depend on the context. In the continental United States, it's going to be Davo. Yeah. Yeah. But basically outside the continental. United States. Yeah, that was nobody. I mean,

but who's this dude in the gingham shirt? 10 miles off the coast to South Carolina. It's over. The last

clip I got is him talking about Wesson McKinney and it's just kind of fun to hear him say what we've all been seeing what we all know is true in his own way.

Juventus is Wester McKinney plus 10. players. Now, no? And we're so happy for that, because that means that is an important player for Juventus. Another thing

that I celebrate that he can play in every single place. Like his coach say, he can be the best striker, the best number 10, the number 7, the number 2, 4, can play fullback, can play

I think is playing and is playing in different position. And of course, it's good for him, it's good for us. Yeah, I mean, he goes on and on about it, but basically the versatility of Wes is a big asset. And I think we should just pick our 11s for the Belgium game that we're both going to be at and then get out of here. Let's do it.

I think we can agree it's going to be balligan up top or should be at least. That's right. What's your... Who are your inverted wingers? I mean, who are the wingers? The tucked-in one and maybe the wide one. Wild one got to be Tim Weyer.

Because it's just, I mean... He's not going to play him at fullback, is he? Well, he got asked about that. He didn't answer the question. Yeah. Actually, that's when he got asked about Tanna Tessman and Tim Weyer. He just decided to wax poetic about the TAM man. The 10 man's brain, yeah.

Yeah, which. It's a problem with the double questions, you know. Sometimes they get lost. Interesting. You know, you could have shouted out Tim Wayo's brain. But anyway. I really thought you were going to bring that up. I was surprised when you didn't earlier.

Tim Way or wide, let's get, you know, so this is where we get, it's where we can get funky with it. Let's do that. You know, because, I mean, Weston McKinney has started technically Ed Wing for Miracio-Pashtino and been tucked in. So, give me that. So West McKinney tucked in on the right side? Yes. Way, way out left-wide? Yeah.

That's just, I mean, I know that Pach might do that. It's just a no-go for me, but... That's where it gets tough. That's where it does get tough. Yeah, he did that in the... Australia match. Okay. That's what we're really...

So anyway, that's exactly what we've seen as Australia match was a Western nominal right wing. Yeah. I think. And then Pulisic would be the 10. Damn. I forgot about Christian Bullisuk. Well, I mean, I'll tell you what I've got.

I've got Pulisic left wing. I don't care if he's tucked in or if he's wide. Wes has the wide, the wide right, as the right wing tucked in. and then Gio as the like the attacking center mid right right right for sure I'm dropping way out of fullback and this is just my

I'm not trying to predict what POTCH is doing I'm just saying what I want to see you know what I mean it makes more sense to do it like that it gets more good more of the good players on the field yeah especially if we decide to switch it

and make the left back, the stay at home in the line of three. That's probably what I would do, just to keep Tim way on that right side. So Tim at fullback, he can be the width, West and tucked. Christian wide left, geo-tucked, band of the tan man.

And I think it'll probably end up being Christian to start. I think Johnny's starting one of these games. Yeah. Can you start Cardoso and Testament together with Gio in front of him? Is that just too soft? I don't know. I mean, we started, we started Testament and rolled up and testament at Aidan Morris against Ecuador.

Yeah, but Aidan Morris is a hard man, you know. Johnny Cardoso ain't a hard man? Do you see these tackles? Yeah. What are we talking about? I mean, okay. I don't think he's soft, but. No, come on, come on, man, come on.

Okay. My midfield is Cardoso Tanner. Johnny Tanner. With Gio in front of them. Yep. Give me, I would prefer that. I would prefer that. I think maybe we're seeing Christian, though.

It just seems like we want to see, we wouldn't get more information about Johnny, I would think. And we kind of know. we kind of know who Christian is. Maybe Christian facilitates things for those around him in a way that Potch values

so much that he starts anyway. We need Big Johnny game, man. Yeah. Yep. We need Big Johnny. By the way, speaking of Johnny, did you watch the match yesterday,

the athletic played? Okay. So, no. Johnny provided just a, one of those, one of those moments of class, right? That the, like one of those ones that has fooled us before, you know, we went on

this whole campaign against. I guess, El Capitan, Tyler Adams. I'm sorry, goat. But so he kicks off a whole goal sequence for Athletical Madrid, basically. Totem attack breaks down. Gio receives the ball, like at the top of the box that he's defending. You know, Tadom's trying to counterpress, get the ball back. so he has a player coming at him

and Johnny hits a little croquetta right when you go like right left right you know type of thing and quick succession kind of elastic yeah yeah yeah one of those gets around the man

eliminates him and all of a sudden the games opened up boom he passes it forward it's a full transition move for Athleti and then I think Julian Alvarez scores the goal. And, you know, that's the good stuff, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the stuff that he does every once in a while, which, you know, fooled me before because it's like, you know, you see those things and you want to extrapolate them out and be like, well, you can do this all the time. You know, you can be this press resistant midfielder, etc. Hasn't been, hasn't borne out yet, which, I mean, I think we're, we're, we're, we're still kind of early in Johnny's development because like we we're not that far from removed from him just being kind of kind of ass and just being like a shuttler yeah just a shuttler in the

midfield you know they I mean it really didn't it really didn't turn into something different until like that last season before he left um to go to Spain in in Brazil so but but yeah that's the stuff that's the good stuff man that just like if we could see that for the national team if it if it could just, yeah. If that could happen, man, it's, it's, we would have to start the conversation back up once again, because it's just something that Tyler Adams cannot do. But anyway, um,

he, he just has to avoid, uh, some kind of disaster, you know? Yeah. But maybe it's more than that. He's got to, he's got to play with freedom and, and joy, uh, in order to be who he can be out there. So it's more, they can't just go out there trying not to mistakes, but yeah, yeah. Step one, no Cardoso's. Right, right. I mean, make it, make a different mistake. You know, make a Tyler Adams's mistake. You know, be, be too happy on a, you know,

do a little squirrel thing, like a dog that sees a squirrel, and go chase the ball, leave a guy, you know, something ambiguous to where, you know, we can't directly blame it on. Yeah, you know, do something like that. It's a hit an errant diagonal or two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No Those, though. Exactly. Exactly, bro. Give the ball away as much as you want trying to pump for that thing in between the lines. Yeah.

No Cardos, though. Not when you're facing your own goal. That's right. So who you got to, is you okay with Jedi as the stay-at-home left back then? Yes, because. And I think if we see something like this, you know, but Pach has not been afraid to commit numbers for us. probably the main difference between now and Burrhalterball where, you know, it was forbidden. Rest defense was everything, yeah.

It was forbidden to break that structure, you know. So even if we do play this in moments where control in the play or transition situations or whatever is going on, I think we will see, especially if Cardoso is in the match, because John, Johnny's quite good at, like, reading those types of situations. Like, Jedi gets forward, you know, you'll see Johnny drop back or something take his spot in the rest defense or whatever. So I think... Yeah, why didn't Potch praise his brain, too? Well, he didn't get asked about Johnny.

Oh. He didn't ask about Johnny once in the press conference. So, I think even if you see him in the, you know, in the back three in our attacking shape, we will see some forays into the attack. You can't keep Jedi down, man. No. I kind of like that, too.

I like it when it's reserved for special moments, kind of like an uppercut and boxing. I don't know anything about boxing. I have to be honest. But I just imagine that's a punch that you throw rarely. Centerbacks. I'll go. I'll go first. Richards and McKenzie.

Hmm. Okay. I'll take it. You know, I haven't... I need to lock. Potch really punted on the Tim Ream question. He did. Which is kind of an unfair question.

You know, I mean, it's not a question a coach is going to answer. Yeah, it's not. The question was, is your... Is Tim Ream still first choice captain? And it's just, yeah, that's just not a question, Potch specifically. He just doesn't care about that kind of. stuff.

But, yeah, he did go out of his way to say football is dynamic and things change all the time. So. Yeah. Tim Reams going through the change. Menopause, yeah.

What was the opposite end of the purple end? He's not on the purple end of the dynamic. You know? He's on the, he's on the bad end of the dynamic. The, so,

oh, Tim Ramee. I haven't been watching Tim Ream in the way that I should. I really need to get on it because, you know, I remember last World Cup cycle when Tim Ream wasn't in the picture, and I was watching these full-am matches, and I was like, bro, I'm telling you, he can play a high line, he can cover ground behind him. I'm watching him do it in these games. I watched him do it against Bikai Osaka, et cetera, et cetera.

and I think and that's why when we had that whole disastrous window Saudi Arabia, Japan, when Aaron Long was absolutely stinking it up

that I was confident I was confident that we had a fix for that situation and so I need to get back into the lab being the Tim Rie whisperer that I am

and really see what's going on does he still have it or does he not? I think it'll be fairly evident you know if you just watch the games I just haven't.

I'm just not biased by watching the games yet with Tim Ream. So I'm going to get in that lab. Chris Richards and Mark McKenzie. Mark McKenzie, you know, we don't got a lot of choices. I don't think this is a bad choice. I just, you know, I still got, I still got questions about Mark McKenzie. You know, I've. Of course.

I mean, you know, you watch him play. He's a serviceable centerback. He just doesn't like. he just doesn't like command space around him you know it's like it's kind of like you can do anything you want to Mark McKenzie you know if you want to play off of them like make the

make runs into the channels or whatever like he'll just you can drag like Mark McKenzie just like along for the ride hanging on by the by the hair of his chinny chin type situation because he doesn't have you know just these like physical gifts to rely on um

but he does well enough to, I think, he can hit a nice pass. He's physically strong, pretty good in the air. The air stuff, I'll give him.

It's just, yeah, kind of everything else that gives me pause. But it does seem like a good chance to see what happens, you know, with him with like the first choice 11. No especially optimistic prediction. for me. But he could maintain the level of

service that he does as a serviceable centerback. So does Potch start Maximilian Arfston over Jedi? Probably. Probably. Okay. Okay. I can see it happening, definitely. I wouldn't be surprised if it did happen. Because, you know, we talked about the fact that

not too much has changed regarding jet on his physical condition and his performance since coming back, but things have changed within the national team and its left back spot. And Max has put in performances under Potch. I think it's very possible we see Arstyn as the

as the width on the left and then Scali or probably more likely Alex Freeman has the stay-at-home right back. Yep.

But in this lineup that we're cooking up right now, who's the right-back? It's probably still... It's way out for me. Oh, right, right, right. Yeah, yeah.

Way-up for me. And then just have freezing goal. But if it's Turner, that's fine. The people are saying Turner has been playing well for the revolution.

That thing, I mean, I think the Arfston question is it does sort of go back arson and freeman other people have made this point too they are potch's sort of contribution to the player pool you know bringing those guys in and giving them a big chance and um did you mention big pat i blanked out no but i guess he he also is yeah yeah yeah but those are those are the things that potch can can look back on his there i found these guys or I brought them along.

So it just seems like if it's not clear whether they're going to start or not, probably they're going to start or probably they're going to play. And I do wonder, like, what was Burrhalter thinking with Aaron Long

back in the day? Like, do he think Aaron Long? Was Aaron Long? Like, his... It wasn't his idea, because Long was around before Burrhalter, but... Burrhalter was thinking,

like, I can make this work. Long as a coachable player. He was a pace and power man, you know. Yeah. Pre-injury especially. I think he got done a raw deal by having to play left-centerback in like a possession-based system. It just... Yeah, it's not his game.

It was untenable, brother. So I think he got a raw deal with that part of it. Yeah. Okay. Hey, let's get out of here. It's Thursday. Hope you all have a good weekend. We'll see you.