Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #676: It's Belgium Week! Balo, Pulisic & Pepi saga headline things

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Balogun helps win and scores a penalty. Pepi transfer saga sags, but Fulham interest appears real. Pulisic's ankles look good. Plus much more. Sanjay Sujanthakumar joins Vince and Belz for a traditional Monday Review. 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 and we talk about U.S. soccer. It is Belgium week. USA faces Belgium on Saturday in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. And we've got senior scuffed correspondent Sanjay Sujah Sujanta Kumar. Joining us, Sanjay. How's the weather in New Jersey? It's feeling more like spring, feeling like we're getting closer to a World Cup summer, Not quite there yet, but yeah, man, things are looking up.

I mean, we camp this week for the first time in a while. Always exciting time. And you're going to be in Atlanta starting Wednesday, working on cooking up some stuff. Yeah. Cooking up some stuff. We'll see what happens. We are definitely going to play pickup soccer at 9 a.m. on Saturday in Atlanta,

and by we, I mean me and at least, I think 16 people have already signed up. That's a partnership with soccer in the street. Streets, which is a great organization working to bring soccer to more people in Atlanta. So that's at 9 a.m. I'm bringing my daughter, Maeve there. She's actually pretty good little player, so I'm excited to play with her. And then we're going to tailgate at the blue lot on the southwest corner of Boone Boulevard and Northside Drive, which is two and a half, three blocks north of the stadium. Northside Drive runs along the west end of the stadium. And we're looking at the grassy knoll where the west side belt line, the bike trail, kind of descends across

Boone Boulevard and lands there at the intersection. That's where we kind of want to meet. So stay tuned on Twitter and the Discord for updates. But that's where we're going to be tailgating probably around noon is one will show up, maybe a little before that. It should be a great time. We will have beer. Vince, how are you doing?

Kind of quiet over there. I'm doing great, man. Good morning. You know, this is a day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen. Vince, what you just said is what I tweeted the morning of the U.S. playing Ghana, the 2014 World Cup.

My friends made fun of me for it. Oh, for real? But, like, I think about that tweet because that was, like, it's crazy. That was the last time the U.S. was in a summer World Cup. Right? It's been 12 years. So now we're getting back to that and we're hosting it. And it really is what you just said.

If you're not Christian, I don't really know how to explain to you what that means. I'm not too knowledgeable about our religion, to be honest. But yeah, it's a great time. We're getting close. Yep. That's right. Roster notes. First of all, Patrick should we go right to the most boring.

of the week. Patrick Schulte has replaced Roman Salentano on the roster. Solentano suffered some kind of injury. There's some video of the boys walking down some steps with some new warm-up. I don't even know the term for it. I know so little about apparel that I don't even know what the term is. Is it a quarter zip that they're wearing? Yeah.

That's a QZ. Yeah. For sure. A lot of people already. there in camp. Are you going to visit the new training center, Sanjay? Yes, on Sunday morning, there's a tour that's been organized by U.S. soccer, so I'm looking forward to that.

Should we get to talk to a few U.S. soccer officials there, too, so it should be cool. J.T. J.T. Bats. Yes, J.T. and I think Cindy Parlo-Cone as well. Okay. All right. Should we get to the weekend action? I know you guys, I know you watched a lot of ball this weekend.

Yeah, it's always like, you know, head on a swivel when I'm coming on for Monday review. I raw dog at everyone. I'm not a Y Scout and any of that fancy stuff. So it's, yeah, it's good. I mean, it's organic viewing. You know, you get a real feel for how the team is doing and how the players fit in. So, yeah, let's get into it. That's stuff you can do when you don't have children.

You know what I'm saying? So what was the most striking thing you saw? Let's start with that of the weekend from the weekend. Most striking thing. I don't know if anything in particular was super striking. I think the way we've got this conversation, sketched out makes sense. Tillman had a nice goal, so we can start there.

But Polisic, I think, you know, This World Cup, it's about our best players playing their best, right? The pool is basically what we thought it was going to be. So we need the most out of them. And, you know, a lot of talk about the kind of forum pull the six in. So to see him get a goal contribution, get that assist, but also just look like good, have some pop. I think I'll single that out. Yeah.

I think that that's the thing that was the most striking to me. He got his assist whipping a ball across the six. for Rabio to bundle at home. It's a nice pass, is a really nice pass, played in by Madrich. But he just looks twitchy and explosive. You know, when he's, like, receiving the ball back to goal, he does those little half-circle turns.

And then he's like, you know, when somebody's on a motorcycle and they're leaning, like, and they're leaning one way to go, to go around a curve. That's how he looks. You know, he's like, the way he's doing.

doing that crotch rocket thing is making me feel more bullish. What is it? Ankle mobility, you know, to be able to get in those positions and sustain balance and strength while in those positions, you know, all good things. Also, it's good that he looked like this week because last week he did not look twitchy. And, you know, I've been watching him pretty consistently and I didn't have like that big a deal with how he was performing. but last week was kind of like

it might be something going on here but you know the seed the seed gets planted as far as like hey there might be something going on here but you know this week you see how he looked and boom we're good because he really was not exploding last week at all

it was yeah I was starting to wonder about what the diagnosis was with him whether there's fitness issues still I remember there was talk of I think it was Bricitis right whatever that means like a while ago so yeah i mean he's in territory now like he used to be playing so well like honestly when you're figuring out who to watch over the weekend it's like

whatever he'll be fine and i'll watch the highlights and see what he did and now it's like all right let's tune in and see if he still really got it you know i mean he's never going to have i don't know if he'll have that quite that same you know bursts that he had um really early in his career, but it's good to see, like, signs of that still. Now, I'm really a 352, right? Him playing off full crew, but he's, like, drifting into those wide areas, drifting out to the left and cutting in and combining with people and looking good, looking sharp this weekend.

Yeah. Speaking of the seed, you know, seeds of doubt, they always find, they always find fertile ground with this soccer watching community when you're watching every week. Always looking for, you know. You always doing some risk management, you know? Also, Pulisic, also Milan did, a bunch of Milan players did a goal celebration where they, like, combined layows and Pulisic's celebrations, which I guess was meant as an encouragement to Rafa,

and also maybe as a way of saying, you know, we're all together. We're all, a statement of unity, which you love to see. Which, Rafa did not play this weekend. He also will not be in at least. Atlanta, Georgia, Mercedes Ben Stadium. He's withdrawn from the Portugal squad. Oh, really? That's too bad. No, no Ronaldo either, right? We're not expecting him.

That's a bummer. No Ronaldo, no Liao, no Leandro Trassard as well. He pulled out a Belgium's team, I think, sometime within the past day. It's hilarious that there's not going to be any of Ronaldo. You know, after those Portugal tickets, like, sold out within like 15 minutes. They went. I guess check the secondary market for some, you know, for a fire sale.

Balligan scored a penalty in a win over Leone. Also did his classic strong with his back to goal with the ball at his feet in the box kind of thing to help set up Akaliyush's penalty. Penalty win. Right. I mean, that was the penalty that he actually converted, but... Mm-hmm. Go ahead. It just, it doesn't happen without him.

Right. And, you know, it's kind of like, with every, like, gold contribution this man has had, it seems like going back for a while. You know, we talked about this. Like, some of them you can consider lucky. But every time, it's like, Balo is making it play to create the luck, to create the chance in the first place.

You know, that whole thing will actually be. Ackleu doesn't get the ball back in the box. If Balo doesn't have his man completely sealed off for him to do the little back heel that he did for Ackleus to receive it and then get fouled in the box. Then he slots a penalty home. He's back on penalty duty for Monaco. That's good.

That's good news. All this stuff. So you see like a penalty here. He's like, oh, okay, Bailor just scored a penalty. Then you get the backstory. It's like, man. He created that. He created it, man.

So that's big time stuff from Balo. He continues to play. and play well. You know, there was a good give and take between him and the Leon centerbacks in this match. You know, it wasn't, it wasn't perfect. I mean, they were really, they were really, really physical with him. You know, he won, he won some, he won some reps, he lost some, but in the end, he was able to help put a goal on the board and Monaco won the match. There was that, I mean, Monaco had a lot of chances in the second half when Leon was pushing for the equalizer, I thought.

And there was one of those classic Ballo getting played into the channel moments where he was not able to seal off the centerback. But he still did enough to kind of, I mean, created enough of a disturbance that Akliu, I think it was Akliuos, or no, it was Fati, I think, ended up recovering the ball and then a really good chance emerge from it.

So, I mean, if he looked like Pavel I hate to be a race baiter, but if he looked like Pavel Schultz, they'd be like, if he look like a Milwaukee Brewer's middle reliever from the 1980s, he would be, they'd be calling him a lunch pail guy, you know, a blue collar, lunch pail guy doing the work, doing the hard work, doing the hard work nobody else wants to do. That's what he does, man. That's a good point that you bring up those, because they really don't look at him in that way, do they? Nobody does.

I mean, it's all, yeah, yeah. He probably doesn't even want to be looked at in that way. He probably preferred to... Yeah, something a little sexier. Understood. But, I mean, what sexy is scoring goals. And that's what he's doing, brother. 15 in all comps.

Seven goals in his past seven matches as well. But there are two teams in this... Go ahead, Sanjay. You got some... Just the way not to distract from... To talk about him specifically right now, but like just bigger picture when people talk about,

you know, maybe losing Nokey and it not being that big of a deal in terms of, you know, impact at an area of positional scarcity. Like, look at the impact this man

has had on the pool and the team. Like, we didn't have, like, Polisic wasn't starting against Ecuador. Tyler Adams wasn't even there. And you didn't even notice it the way the team generated things

going forward. And that's purely because of like the way he stretches them and battles with centerbacks, no matter how big they are. The guy can pack a punch. So, yeah, just like, you know, when people talk about Noki,

maybe not being a big deal, just think about what this team would be like without this man committing. That's right. Exactly right, bro. I just don't even understand how you could even form your, your mouth to even give, you know,

maybe that's something you think in your mind, but to say it out loud or to tweet it or to skeet it, you know, on Blue Sky. It's, it's, I just, Noki's a damn big deal.

You know what I'm saying? We're not talking about somebody playing in the, uh, region, a league of Nord or whatever that was. Josh Sargent was scoring on those goals in. Back in the day.

Um, no, he's in a real Bundesliga. Do a real Bundesliga thing. I think I pulled a half this week, though. Um, which they said he's been dealing with some type of injury or something.

But like, come on. The talent is evident and is immense. Regardless, of how he's played week to week this season. Like, come on, bro. And Potch, Potch, I don't think Potsch will waste his time on... Posh knows.

He's not FaceTime and Rokas Pustas, okay? Yeah. Yeah, I was just going to say that, man. Potch said a lot of nice things about him after saying a lot of things earlier in his tenure about how, you know, it's not his job to convince. But then all of a sudden, now that it's no Kai, he wants to, um, it's clear that he's where he's working on it you know yeah he's like look i would be derelict in my duty if i did not pick up that i pick up that phone i pay five dollars to hear poch say that

i would be derelict in my duty not for real yeah potch is an enigma but um oh there's two teams in this match right monaco leone we theoretically had americans on both sides of the same i'm Tandetestan did not start. Tyler Morton was out on yellow card accumulation and still did not start. Tandotestman did not. I think the midfielder's name is like Mangala. Mangala that started, who has like started

sparingly for Leon over like these past two seasons. It's a shame. He came on like the 85th minute. He also, Leon got a red card in the midweek against Seltivico. I don't know if it was the home or though. tie, but it's the last tie of their, you know, two-way. And they got a red card.

Tana Tesmic came on a half-time. He was definitely directly responsible for giving up one goal to Seltivigo, maybe directly responsible for the last goal as well. The first goal was interesting because it's like he's playing centerback in like the middle of like their center-center. They set up until like a center-center. Yeah. Yeah, center-center back.

And they set up until like a, they really parked a bus, like a five. 3-1, I guess that would be, right? And, you know, it's just like a striker in the box, giving him the runs type situation, you know, he's checking, you know, he checked one way and went the other way type of thing. Tanner was kind of tussling with him for a little bit. And then at the end, when the cross was played across the box

from like the left side, the striker had won that little that little tussle and was there to put the goal home which is the exact to me it's the exact type of situation that you would expect like a center mid moonlight against centerback to like get done on for sure not taking any blame away from

he got done but I wonder if that played into what happened this weekend too bad you know what else is too bad is uh Josh Sargent got hooked at the half for Toronto after uh Toronto yeah Toronto after after after you know taking like five weeks off to move to Toronto and then um and then and then and then and then and then Toronto FC scored twice in

the second half after he was off to win the game so it's also a shame yeah I hate to be even but I just feel I'm tired of it I'm tired I spent a lot of energy rooting for Josh Sargent's career in my life. That's probably a minute count thing, though, to be clear. I didn't watch the game. I actually have no idea. I just wanted to get some jabs in. What's that?

I would assume it's that, but I sense your frustration. Not for real. You know who I think of? I think of there's a dude in the Discord. He's not there no more. Sean Scott, Josh Sargent's biggest fan. At Josh Sargent as his like, like profile picture, you know,

was just patiently waiting, hoping that one day Josh Sargent would ascend to take his, you know, rifle inheritance atop the striker Iron Throne. You know what I'm saying? It would become the guy for the U.S. Men's National team.

And it's just like, man, imagine. Yeah, like he, I mean, being that in the tank for somebody. I was with him. I was right with there with Sean. Yeah, yeah. I'm not saying it was a fool's errand or anything like that. that, you know, it's just, it's just tough that it's turned out to this. I believe in Josh, too.

I believe in the complete package that he offers that said. I mean, at this point, like we're talking about with Ballot, like there's just such a big drop off from him to the other guys, no disrespect to, I mean, we'll see where Rico goes if he can blossom into a great Premier League player one day, who knows what's happening with that move, right? We have more news on that this week. But, yeah, it's Ballo and then the rest. Balin the hat, as Greg says.

That's right. The physical, and it's, it is a lot of, there is a lot of mental stuff that Ballot does really well, but his physical ability to get leverage and, um, is like, it doesn't matter how smart Josh Sargent gets. He's not, he's not going to be able to do that. I don't think. Do you guys think, uh, Rico ends up in the prime next year? How's it going to shake out?

Is this just a transfer dance or? She's for his. sake, I hope not. What has happened? Adam Bills. Or Sanjay, go ahead. Yeah, I mean, now it's off as of right now, right? Ernie Stewart, we got some quotes from him about it.

We can pull that up, but it doesn't seem like the door is totally shut. We got a lot of time until the transfer window, so who knows? Dude, those Dutch are just thinking, if these fools in England are willing to pay some huge amount of money for a guy who is a borderline starter for us, they're going to sell him, you know? But yeah. Okay. I mean, well, real quick, let me just explain what's going on. So Ernie said, okay, so the PS, the transfer for.

Rico to Fulham that had been tentatively agreed to as reported by Fabrizio Romano, who seemed to really have an end, had an end with this transfer in particular. We all know Rico's agent as a go-getter. You know, he probably created that direct line to Fabrizio, but so it's off. And the reason why the transfer is off, Ernie Stewart said, is the clubs could not agree on when the deal will be made official, with Fulham said to want to retain the ability to pull out of the move before the window opened if Rico suffered an injury. So, I mean, in the exact quote from Ernie,

in the end, no agreement was reached on the moment when responsibility for the player would be transferred. Which, I mean, it always seemed kind of weird to me, being that this isn't an actual transfer window that we're operating right now. Right. you know, that all this stuff was coming out or whatever. So, yeah, maybe they, it's off right now, but yeah, it seems, Fulham wants RICO, they've made this much clear.

You know, they, they are pursuing. And, yeah, so if RICO makes it through right now and I guess the World Cup without injury, then I assume we'll see them at Craven Cottage. Yeah, well. Sanjay, do you think it's. good idea for for rico uh now i probably prefer you know boonis lego type step back there before making the the next big jump because i mean full them too those are big shoes to fill right with Jimenez um and and they're not i don't know that there would be a lot on his shoulders making them move it's

not just about like being the prem and whether or not he can adjust the level it's more than that so It's ambitious for sure. But yeah, I just wanted to read the other Ernie quote that suggests this could still happen. You know, the ESPN article said he did not rule out the possibility of the club's eventually reaching an agreement. And he said, quote, that's something you should never do. If a player can make a good move and it's also good for the club, then we'll go for it. And Ernie does acknowledge that RICO really wanted this move. And it's mainly a frustrating situation for Ricardo.

Doesn't think it'll affect him, but that's where we're at. Okay. I mean, he's hungry to score goals. He's going to keep scoring goals one way or another, but we've talked about it like 40 times in the last three months, but I just worry about the total package stuff. Yeah. And there were some people that kind of had some issues with how hard we went at Rico last week. But I just want to say, I wouldn't have went that hard if it was the first time I'd seen it.

it's been a recurring issue with like his minutes this season. Now, I did watch him play against Telstar this weekend. He was a lot cleaner, but he also did not have, you know, a centerback breathing out his neck when he was touching the ball in the way that he did against his opponent last week. Even then, though, he still, even then he still had a, a crazy Cardoso with him trying to receive the ball. Like the ball came into him, took it off his chest,

tried to play a pass off the half volley, like with his instep, which I feel like it's just the wrong technique. But he tried to play it to like a centerback. He's probably in like the left half space, left attack and half space, trying to play it towards the right centerback. Got it all wrong. Ended up basically playing an outlet for like Telstar's left winger, essentially. Yeah, but the technique was wrong there.

You know, you see the strikers, like they, or a lot of different positions on a soccer pitch, they'll get that half volley and like step on the ball, you know, and maybe push it off with that step to somebody close to him or whatever. Yeah, I just, yeah. He's got to go to the World Cup. He still has a sports. Bottom line, regardless of, you know, whether or not he's the. No disagreement here. He's the player we had up for right now. Almost scored a goal, too.

Almost scored a goal, too, off the back of some trademarked shambolic, Erdivizzi defending. But, yeah. You know, it's just, it's the give and take with Rico. But if you're going to the Pram Brother, let's go ahead and get in that gym. All right? Let's go ahead and get in that gym. The frame, I mean, he got a large frame.

You know, there's no reason why he can't potentially. Maybe. Looked like Raul at some point. You just got to put that work in. Can't quit falling. PSV spiraling a bit, you know, way at the top of the table, to be fair. But they lost to Telstar. Yeah, they got a red card, and then everything can't crashing down.

Okay. Speaking of red cards real quick, I'm going to skip ahead to Johnny. at Johnny against Real Madrid because he bro he played all right he played all right

in this Marid Darby but bro he committed what some are calling maybe the most obvious second yellow of all time against against Brahim

Brahim Diaz but for whatever reason the ref decided to show him some mercy bro. Brougham was looking at the, he got up, looked at the ref, two, S two, pulled a card. You know, he was holding his hand up, everything. And for whatever reason, like, the ref looked at him and it was like,

ah, I'm not going to do it. Looked at Johnny, it was like no more fouls. Johnny got hooked shortly. Johnny got hooked at like 57 minutes, something like that. Because, you know, he got a yellow in the first half and was dead set on continuing a foul. You know, he was, it's just, it's the fact that

Real Madrid is Real Madrid, right? And, you know, like, some of these challenges were not poorly timed, but just, like, the skill and ability to these guys are, like... Yeah, it's tough. It's tough, right? You're playing at the Bernabello.

There's always something different about games there, right? The place is bouncing. Like, you're playing against the ball a lot. And, you know, there's this clumsiness to his game on and off the ball, occasionally. You know, we label the Cardosa with the ball,

but even off the ball, he emulate the challenges. And, you know, Yeah, especially against a team like this good. So, yeah, I mean, it's, again, another guy I think he should go, period, no matter what, if he's fit. It's more of a question of if he's going to play, if he's going to start. I think if Tyler was fit for this camp, it would have been really interesting to see where, how potter race Johnny compared to Tessman.

Could they play together now? We'll see. I don't know if that's the best fit. But, yeah, we're going to see minutes from him this window, and it's going to be a big, big opportunity for him. They started together one of those Jamaica matches. When Johnny got, when Johnny got hits. Yeah, but I said Johnny had to come off right.

He got her. Yeah, he got her. Yeah, I actually, I just wrote something for Backield about how, when you look at how few reps, even just the holding mitts have together, the different permutations of them, and then you you add in that layer of like the pocket winger's like these guys really have not played together much at all and and with Tyler out now like Tyler's supposed to be an automatic

starter with him out it's like you know and I asked Potch and that presser I asked him are you are you worried about black chemistry especially with the midfielers and he was not worried he's not worried um he just wants guys to show up fit and form and in May but again they only have two weeks between the time they get together in Atlanta until the first game, about two weeks. So, um, I mean, that's mostly played out, though, with these recent, like, string of performances or whatever, like, you know, he's, he's been able to just. That's what he said. He's like, look it out we look, you know, without Tyler in, in the fall, and, you know, the way we played against Uruguay. So he's not concerned. Um, but I am, honestly.

Understood. Just real quick, just let me... So the second Y'allel car play, Madrid, well, no, excuse me. Athlete attack breaks down. Madrid's on the counterattack. I actually, Johnny, Brahim is in a pocket of space. Let's say Johnny has its shoulders

facing forward towards the ball. Brian Diaz is maybe like over his left shoulder. I think in defensive transition like that, I would expect Johnny to be quicker to recognize that Brian's checking into that pocket and getting a better position to where he's able to play legal defense on Brahim when he receives the ball. But instead, it's like he's in a wide open pocket of space.

He gets the ball. He's ready to go on the half turn. And Johnny has to kind of run back and very cynically foul the man. and stop a AVP situation, which, I mean, bro, if I was, if, like, Madrid lost this match or whatever, or drop points or whatever, and, you know, I was a fan, I would have made a huge deal about Johnny not getting a second yell on this, in a situation, but, hey, I'm not complaining, I guess. Yeah. Otherwise, he was fine, though. Good, good. I mean, it's good to, it's good to see him

playing and performing and playing at the highest level, even if there are some hiccups. Let's take a little break and come back. There's a lot of other stuff to talk about. We'll be back in a minute. All right, we're back. Let's start with some fault on goals. Wea and Scali both at fault.

Yeah. Scali, this is a crazy game, that Derby, and Glabachian. and Kyn. You guys get used to saying that. So Joe, you know, he sees the attacker. I think he kind of stopped. He paused for a second to maybe try and trap him off sides.

And then so then he's late to track his run. And it's a long ball. The attacker does a really good job taking out of the air. but Joe's still got to be tighter. Like, as clinical as it was, he can't let him take it and sort of turn, half turn and get a shot off there. So, again, he wasn't late to react.

I think he was trying to go for the trap and the recovery wasn't good enough. And then Tim Wea, same, not exactly the same situation, but again, to react to an attacker making a run between him and the centerback and going

across the keeper. And the keeper has to make a save. And then shortly after that, Tim is in a situation with Jeru where I don't want to say he gets dunked on because it's like there's an attacker with that Tim and the centerback are monitoring and that attacker goes

with the centerback. And then Jeru kind of emerges a bit later between Tim and the centerback, and he's inside of Tim. So if the cross is in the right place, which it is, Tim doesn't have much of a chance, especially against someone like Drew, who's, you know, he's a bucket in this situation. But yeah, I mean, Drew wins the header against him

and gets a goal. Vince, would you say that's a fair assessment? Like, I don't think they're like, it's terrible defending in both situations, but they are at fall, right? For sure. The way I went in particular, it's a tough situation to sort out because that attacker that they're monitoring, that him and the centerback next to him are monitoring, is in the space between him and the centerback at first.

Then he crosses that center. Like, it was a great little automation kind of centerback then leaves that space, crosses that centerback's face. So he's left that area that he was in previously. and then all of a sudden, Jeru just pops in. And, I mean, it would have been tough for them to sort it out in real time perfectly to where Tim would have had the proper

defendant position on Jeru. But, yeah, like I said, or like you said, they're at fault for sure. It was a tough situation to handle for Tim. Yeah, and worth noting with Joe, too. I mean, that game was a shit show, especially to start. Like, he was 2-2 in the blink of an eye. Gladbach conceded another goal soon after,

a second goal that where he wasn't at fall, it was just soft, you know, cross and finish. So that doesn't mitigate his mistake, but it kind of does when, you know, everything's kind of chaotic and not good enough defensively from his teammates. Yeah, that's right. And then Gio and training this week, you know, created 0.66. XG plus XA, non-penalty, in the final training session of the week before they went out to...

What's your source on that? What's your source on that XG? Whoever Pots and a staff get they sources from this. Yeah, okay. Yeah, gee, I'm curious how you're feeling about Gio right now, because obviously big topic of discussion in the press conference last week and not playing as Vince so else. eloquently put it. But Posh doesn't seem to really care that much, or maybe he cares, but he's definitely, he'd be okay with it. What do you think, it's, Sanja?

Yeah, I don't think he cares as much. He knows him and Freeman can play, so he's not too bothered about lack of minutes with Gio. It will be, if he plays in this camp, it will have been over two months since he last played. And obviously, the injury was part of that. but it's been about a month where he's been on the bench, right? And that said, you know, there's some chatter about these are, you know, legit opponents, European opponents. This is in the kind of game where we can expect him to cook.

But if he does, I mean, then all bets are off at this point about this guy. Like, I already think you can't bet against him. Yeah. But if he looks good in these games, and I wouldn't be surprised if he does, he's for sure going to the World Cup. And playing, I mean, Bells, I know you want him to start and maybe, you know, I remember you're projected the lineup that you hoped for where Polisic would be in a wider area.

I'd be surprised if Policicc gets moved wide to accommodate Geo, assuming West is the other pocket winger, but I definitely think he'll come off the bench in at least one of these games. Yeah, hopefully he's staying strong. He's kind of a throwback to like the, like, late 80s when we were paying the salaries of U.S. men's national team players, and that's all they did was pay for the national team. Maybe they'll have to carve out a new sort of contract for him after his globach time runs out.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I'm with Sanjay. If he cooks in any of these two matches, then, you know, it's time to bow to our new overall. Yeah, like Portugal's being talked about is the team that can win the World Cup. Right. So if he looks to get against them, then this debate is laid to rest. Well, the chances of him cooking are always better than at least as good as any other team on our, any other player on our team. That's my.

Including Malik, what do we think about Malik? We talked about his goal early on, but. We very briefly talked about his goal. So it was a driven ball to the backpost, a enterprising run from Tillman. And he just thrashed it in. How else did he look? I've said this before, Vince, you might disagree, but in terms of pitch control and what he can bring

outside of like the flary stuff in the final third, I don't think Malik can give this team what Geo can when Gio is playing his best. I hope I'm proven wrong. Like against Ecuador, Malik did look really good, but just, you know, as a impact the game overall, which is what I value as a side. soccer person more than goal scoring and maybe to a fault.

Yeah, I don't see tremendous impact from Malik in the games that I'm watching with Leperkuzin. And I know a lot of people are excited about how he's playing. But I don't see the same way. I still think he's a good player. It brings a lot of good things. But, Vince, I'll let you. It's kind of a week-to-week thing for me.

Sometimes excited, sometimes not excited. Even the games where he's allegedly done really well. And again, I'm someone who kind of maybe overlooks goal contributions. Like I care about how people are influencing games overall, but scoring goals is a big part of this sport. So this might be how more so how I see things. I appreciate that, though. I mean, I mostly agree with, I mean, with this performance in particular, you know, like after the goal, take away the goal, whatever. he was okay he did play play like a pass to like release somebody um onto like a transition

opportunity um had some industry you know it was just like a i'd say a six out of ten six out of ten elite performance um a lot of the stuff that we've been seeing pretty often here recently yeah that definitely not game breaking though that that's it i think that's what Assange's going for as far as like, you know, impact on the pitch. What are you doing? Are you creating these chances for your teammates? Are you creating chances for yourself? Are you driving your team up the pitch?

You know, all those different types of things that's not really. He's just out there playing. Exactly. For Lefricusa. Okay. Yeah, I mean, to just agree with the very narrow point you made there, Sanjay, Gio at his best cannot be matched by Malik. I don't think.

Well, that's a weird way to say it. I think Gio at his best is better than Malik. Yeah, and that's not a knock on Malik, right? Like, Gio's not like any player I've seen, you know, for as long as I've been closely following this team. Like, I can't remember his dad and some of the guys and the odds, but, you know, not even Gio with the national team. Like, Gio, when he was 18, playing against Byron and the Super Cup.

like body Leon Gretzka, you know what I mean? Like, no one can do that. No one's come close to that. So with all this being said, because I can hear the responses, I can hear your outrage, listener, coming through the phone, esteem coming out of your ears. I do want to say that due to everything going on with this club situation, everything, like, it's, it's, we have two different ends of the spectrum, okay?

If he cooks against Portugal and Belgium, then we already know what time it is with regards to geo status within this team. If he stinks it up, however, with no club minutes for a layman like me to assess his level in his situation, he's off my big board. That's all I'm saying. But because of how his club situation is going, he's one stinker away from me being like, get this man out of here. and I understand everything about the man's talent, all this different type of stuff.

But because he doesn't have the club ball to redeem himself with, we're on a game-to-game basis. Me, me and him. Yeah. It's just that he's never stunk it up. Like he's never played. When has he ever played poorly when he's played?

And that's why we're here, where we are right now. I'm waiting for it. It's not coming. But I'm saying... It's not coming. I'm not saying to do. But if it does, though... Yeah.

I think that definitely makes things more comedy. I'm interested to see... I think he'll be asked about his club situation if you normally get him at some point for media availability or, you know, in a mixed zone. And it was funny because in November he was asked about it. I forget who asked. It might have been Jeff, Carl, from ESPN.

It was a fair question. Like, you know, it was implied in the question that Gladbach wasn't going according to plan so far. And Geo, like, refuted that with his response. Like, he was, like, he acknowledged the injury, I think. I remember exactly what he said. But the point was that, like, he wasn't seen eye to eye with that. But now it's getting indisputable, right? That this isn't going well.

But we'll see. Yeah. I mean, his play is going to do it talking. I mean, I'm to the point. I'm to the point as a geo watcher where I'm like, I'm like, kind of. happy when he's on the bench even if he's even if he does even if he doesn't play because there's been so many times where you look you know you pull it up on fat mob not even on the bench you know get the red cross next to his name so anyway that's just to say you want him in uh in bubble wrap

is what you're saying no i i'm saying it's like better to be on the bench than to not be available yeah that's what i'm saying he's in the squad that seems like that actually to me is like a minor positive that he's in the squad Now, the fact that he doesn't play, yeah, that sucks. Anyway, I'm saying a bunch of obvious stuff here. From the Department of Sailed Ships, I think, Eunice Mousa, played over the weekend. And he's, you know, he's played sparingly, but he's played here and there for a while now. Isn't it kind of dumb that he's not in this camp?

I would, yes, to answer your question. but even before he was like frozen out um podge wasn't really giving him minutes to center med really he didn't really trust him there so um i just think you know between that that's that's the thing man it wasn't going to happen with posh but it's a damn shame because is he should he be here instead of sebastian burralter like you see a better player can you give you a better chance of winning you know once you get to that that big game late in the world cup yes without a doubt yes oh the answers is is yes.

That's the thing. That's what I've been thinking about a lot, Sanjay, is the fact that we never got to see this man played minutes in the midfield under Podge. Didn't get to see it. Didn't happen. And the, you know,

the narrative about him not developing since Cutter as a center midfieler, like, you know, getting into the final third doing stuff. Like, that's duly noted, but still his floor as like a ball progressor. pressure resistant player. And I really wish he'd be given a chance to develop as a six.

But again, this is for the next cycle, I guess. This is next cycle talk. Because it's not going to happen. It's a shame. What a luxury for us to leave a player like that on the shelf. You remember that quote when Landon was cut? And to be clear, I'm not comparing these guys to Landon. but when I think it was Bruce Arena who said that if we have 23 players better than Landon

and we should have a chance when the world covers. Like I'm paraphrasing what he said, but you remember the quote. Think about that as applied to Eunice. And I would say that about Zendayaas too. Like we don't have 25 guys better than both of them. Yeah, I'm not going to stand on the island of Dejas. Hill. Yeah, hell.

But, yeah, I would like to separate the two players and the points that I'm trying to make as well. Okay, fine, fine. But I see the appeal. But go on. I'm going to start about that. You might have me with that one. After you, after I got chastised by Vince last week for perpetuating a pernicious narrative about Jedi not being fully fit. He did go 60 minutes over the weekend.

How'd he look? I thought he was all right. I mean, a lot of Jedi-ass crosses were played in to nowhere. You know what I'm saying? I mean, completely almost leaving the box. You know what I'm saying? He's playing it from the left touchline, hitting the ground at the right touchline type of thing.

I'm exaggerating slightly, but... Ballo had one of those, too, actually. He did. He did. early in the game. But I thought he looked good, though. It's look good. Okay.

So, Jay, what do you think? Yeah, he was, I was watching him, you know, with a head on a swivel, to be honest. So I didn't get a great 100% feel for how he did. But when I saw, he looked like him. You know, it's just good to see him back getting met his thing fit. It hasn't been the year. He'd have wanted, but, you know, as long as he's fit at the right time, I think, We're all content, right?

Yeah. That's right, brother. No news is pretty much bad news out of Turen, Wes, and you, they drop points at home. I don't even want to talk about it unless you guys have something just burning a hole in your pocket. No, he didn't do great. And, you know, he's such a big player for them.

It's kind of like at this point as he goes, as he might go in a way, you know, if he's not making it happen, then, you know, they drop. They drop points that they need, right, in this game to get Champions League. They cannot, you can afford to be points like that. So, yeah, he was all right, nothing special and not a good result for them. It's kind of like you and your smoke detector. If you don't make it happen, it's not going to happen.

You just had to point that out for listener. What about Brenda versus Brimford? Brendano game. Brenda kind of game. They're a tough to watch, man. It's not a knock on him. It's like they're just, you know, they're not fun. It was an ugly game.

And, you know, you get the Brenda levels of activity, of involvement. But, you know, the goal contributions have run dry. But, again, I still think he's in the squad no matter what, just for what his floor is. Diego Luna would have to really, really, really ball out to jump him, in my opinion. Yeah, it seems like the case. But I do want to say, as we're getting to the season coming to a close, where we're about seven matches out from the Premier League season ended. I want to say, I don't think Brennan Anderson has done anything to actually materially change

how I view him as a soccer player. You know, they had a little, had a little, you know, something, something going on there for about a month and a half. Maybe a month. But you played your cars, Big Brenda. Stock price is unmoved. Stock prices, it sits exactly where it sat at the beginning of the season. They're coming for you. Well, I mean, look, their investors are going to be coming for them.

You know what I'm saying? the board. You need to make sure that, you know, everybody else. You got a lot more people. Mark Anderson is going to be knocking on your door. Yep. I agree with that. Security's an exchange commission.

Vince, I agree with that. What I would just say about him is that I never expected all that much in the final third from him. And he's kind of said, he said this a while ago, like, that he thinks he's, I don't know if he's still saying this, but he said, you know, he's more of a, he sees himself as a number eight. So I think You know I said that too Yeah I mean that that is what he is A good guy to have on your bench at the World Cup

You know he's a nice player to have for The grind of World Cup qualifying That will be back on You know in the next cycle But is he going to be the dynamite in the final third No I mean can he occasionally give you something Like when you know we saw it at the Gold Cup

Right when he was coming off the bench and come in and do some things and even in the fall. But is a guy you can rely on? No. He had that really nice goal a month and a half ago from outside the box. All right. Jesse Marsh is out talking about how he still wishes he was the U.S. MNT coach. He says, quote,

I got a call from U.S. soccer when I was literally being fingerprinted for a visa at Lester. He told give me sport. I was ready to take that job. So it changed the trajectory of my life. I think things happen for a reason I'm happy with where I am right now. Let's read the rest of it, too. He said, all I'd say is that it was made very clear to me by U.S. soccer that I was going to be the U.S. M&T coach.

And then it was made very clear to me that I was not. At the time, I was devastated and angry, but now I'm thankful and really happy to be where I'm at. So maybe my character is this. It was not exactly fair. uh, Vince, you know, you got your, uh, man, your angle here. Let's hear it.

And then I can, I can respond. I mean, I ain't gonna lie. I ain't even gave that much thought to this whole thing. Like, I saw it. I saw Jesse talk about this. Or I saw the article pop up in the video or whatever. People are responding to it. Like, oh, my God.

U.S. soccer is a shambles and blah. You don't treat people like this. and blah blah, whatever. I guess I have a few points. He's like, I got nothing to say. One, first of all, he loves attention. He loves to be a sympathetic figure. He loves to paint himself at some type of sympathetic figure.

He also loves to, I don't know, it astounds me how he can, he can be so willing to be so forthcoming with this information. I mean, when you really break this stuff down as far as what went on, you mean to tell me you were, you had a job offer, you accepted it. You were at Leicester's, whatever, front office,

facility, whatever, doing everything you need to do to become this head coach. You get a call. This call does not have, from this from the information that we have this call does not have an actionable offer or else you would have just said yes

and then the tweet would have went out the next day boom you're the men's national team coach you know what I'm saying so you have a sure thing you left you left that short thing for some type of a tenuous thing okay and then you you got mad and then you're getting mad when the tenuous thing fell through and then also over the multiple years where it's been asked of you hey do you feel some type of way towards u.s.

soccer whatever he's like oh i've moved on i've moved on i don't have any i don't have any issues towards u.s saga they're really bad people but i'm not i'm good i've forgotten about right and so and then here we are three years later what three years what we're talking about i i remember when all this happened. That was 2022. Is it four years? No, hold on. This is post-war World Cup. It's post-war cup. Yeah, yeah. So, 23. We're here three years later. Almost three years on the dot because Nation's League happens during NCAA tournament time. Nations League finals do every time it's happened. And so, and this is when you decide to release this information. I don't know, man.

It was in June of that year. In Vegas, yeah. Okay, okay. Okay. Give Me Sport has really, really persuasive reporters, you know, famously. I just, what's the point of doing any of this stuff? And that's the question I ask. But then the answer I would pose to you is, it's Jesse Marsh.

You know what I'm saying? And once again, I called out this behavior way before we even got down. this path. I want to say that was my first ever appearance on the SCuff podcast. When he went, when he was the head coach of Leipzig and it was reported that he went to the front office of Leipzig

and basically threw a tantrum and said, fire me, I can't coach this team. And we're supposed to look at that shit like it's some type of upstanding. Authenticity. There's it. Come on, man. Come on, man. I'm not hearing it. And by the way, by the way, by the way,

Pellegrino, moderato don't take your chain anyway. Okay? You know what I'm saying? You was over here doing the bare minimum in Europe. And look what Pellegrino's over there doing with all them X's and Zs in Bass Country.

He kept leads up, to be clear. What's cooking? One season. One season. Okay? And then what happened the next season? All right? Out of there.

Out of there. All right? Did he even last a full calendar year in the job? No. All right? That's the life. But I got to. That's the life.

That's, yeah. To your point, Vince, though. Didn't help him. there's a there's a certain like this idea of I am happy where I am right now but I was devastated you know talking about it two point seven five years later two point eight years later whatever it is right there's like uh there's it's a very like sort of

midwestern sort of passive aggression kind of thing um then then the dude's from Wisconsin I got I got to push back here I got yeah he's from Wisconsin okay push back yeah he's from Wisconsin but we claim him in New Jersey, a Princeton grad who did great things at Red Bull, New York. Pete Hex says also a Princeton, you feel me? Yeah, claim one, claim them all. Anyway. I mean, we could go down the list.

Oh, Christ. Yeah, I mean, full disclosure, I'm a, I'm a Rebel Homer and, you know, got into it when Jesse was the coach and they had a great run. I think, first of all, in terms of what went down, like, this is a while ago, but if I remember this right, like, he was supposed to get the job, and then what I had heard was there were certain players who did not want that to be the case and wanted Greg back, and that's what ended up happening, and that didn't go well. Greg did a good job. in his first cycle.

Good dude, God bless him, like he did what he was supposed to do. I think everyone can agree that it didn't make sense, especially after what happened in Qatar and the aftermath, it was kind of awkward bringing him back. It didn't really make sense. And I think that in general about national team coaches going for more than one cycle, unless they have some incredible success

that none of ours have really had, right? So whether or not Jesse was the right guy for the job, that's a conversation for another day. But for it to have happened the way it did, that that wasn't right. Like, whatever you think about, Jesse, like, that shouldn't have happened. This is old news, though. We knew this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We talked about it. Everyone who cared enough to ask a couple questions to anybody else about the situation knew that this happened. Yeah, I mean, no, I just think. the way it went down, I can definitely see that it was, I'd feel the same way. Yeah, it was unfair to him. And in general, whether or not you agree with that, in general, the way the coaching stuff was handled was an ideal. But we ended up with Marisa Pachino. So all as well, that ends well, I guess.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and I don't want to be, like, piling on any time, you know, Jesse can talk about it as much as he wants as far as I'm concerned, you know. Like, people can talk about whatever they want to talk about. That's my opinion. MLS stuff. Let's do a little bit of MLS stuff before we get out of here. Kavin, finally getting some minutes from Bradley Carnell.

I thought he, you know, it was a little uneven against Club America in the, was it the middle of the week. But he did some good stuff. He created some chances. So he's like starting to make an impact against good professional teams. I think that's cool. How did he look this weekend? Yeah, more flashes. I think people were, first off, people were frustrated when he came off,

including they were frustrated when he came off against Club America because they were looking good, especially because of him. Well, he cut to the – he drove. to the end line, cut it back for like a golden opportunity, and then got hooked right after. Yeah, and they had momentum, and then they lost it. Matt, Matt Doyle wrote about it, and he was spot on, that that was a mistake. But I guess it was a minutes count thing because he starts this game first time start. And again, more flashes.

Like, he had a really nice deceptive pass, Talibadoia in the box. It looks like he's going to whip it into the box, but then he kind of plays it into that man Cizzo, I guess people call it. Nice this guy's passed there. People do call it that. The 25th minute. And then he absolutely trucked a dude with the shoulder in the 33rd minute, which is funny to see. I don't know if you guys saw that clip. That was going around online.

And then he had a nice little stop and go running with the ball in the 40th minute. So it's good to see him do that kind of stuff and pull it off against them. grown men. So, yeah, he's still going into it physically, but that these things are happening is really good. It's a good sign. And otherwise, the gloomy start to the year for Philly, they're kind of a dumpifier after winning supporter shield less here.

MLS, you never know what you're going to get. Yes, we should also talk about with Philly, Malik Yakopovich. I think that's how you say his name, getting his MLS debut. I don't know if you guys had a chance to watch his minutes at all. Malikovic. That's his name, right? That's the first name. Is it the pronunciation that's...

I'm just, like, I'm just repeating it to, yeah, to have it register in my brain as something that's happening here. That's just how I mean... I read every name that's spelled like that. No, no, no, of course, of course. I mean, you did not do anything wrong. But I wonder. He might be a Malik.

He might be a white Malik. He's a... We'll see. Balkan Malik. Yeah, tall, tall kid. Like a guy, like, he can run. He can cover ground. He can hunt the ball.

Did some nice things on the ball. Looks pretty smooth with it. Yeah, interesting. There's been a lot of clips. of him going around. He's, he, he, when he shoots, he shoots to kill. I mean, like, it goes, he bless it. Yeah.

Like, I feel like the clips I've seen from him in MLS Next Pro, he's just, like, just destroying the ball. He's 16 years old. I can see why people are excited about him. Let's, uh, I'm curious to see more. For sure, I'm intrigued. So before we move on, Malikyakopovich has, uh, got me on to something that I meant to bring up last week.

It's in the notes this week. And I just want to talk about that just a little bit. Montreal Colbrith. Okay. This is a winger. Is it higher on the continuum than Davian Kimbrough? Well. It's up there.

I have one that's higher than Davy on Kimbrough, but I'm going to get to that. Okay. Montreal Colbrith. Okay. Montreal Colbrith. This is a German-American, I assume son of a serviceman, been playing. I mean, he's at this point kind of locked down on starting spot for Levikuzin, playing every week. Right-winger.

Right-winger. I think he's 19 years old, I want to say, but has probably started like the last four or five league games. I don't know what they're doing in Europe. I don't know what they've done in Europe as far as playing him. But every time I watch my league, he's out there playing for the most part. and I haven't watched him play soccer at all. Not specifically.

You know, I've seen him kind of combined with Malik in a few days, so I don't really know how good he is. All I know is he's good enough to start for Levikuzin at 19 years old in an attacking position. But once again, Montreal, Colerith, got to have him. Got to have him. The fact that he's starting for Levikuzin so young tells me that maybe he could.

go on to play for Germany. But once again, Germany is not going to love you the way I could love you, Montraalcola. You know what I'm saying? Davy on Cambro needs to know that as well. And let me bring up the blackest name that I've seen out of all dual nationals.

There's a Japanese kid. As a Japanese kid. Son of the serviceman, once again, his name is Jelani McGee. That tastes a cake. Really? More than Montraulte Cobra than Davian Kimbrough? McGee specifically, you know any white McGee's?

I don't know if it's just, it might just be a Louisville thing. Yeah. McGee, that's a. I always think of Willie, you know, growing up, I was a Cardinals fan. Did you all, did you hear the interview that Cold Breath did recently? Has it been talked about on the spot yet? I watched it for like 10 seconds or something. Yeah, I mean, his accent is pretty, he sounds fairly.

fairly American, right, for someone raised over there? American enough. I didn't... I expected more when I saw people comment on it, like, oh, he really sounds American, man.

I clicked on it. It's like, eh. You know, but you know, some of that's just going to come through naturally when your name's Montreau-Colbrook. But, yeah, so that's my... That's my three horsemen right now, man. Davey-on-Kimbrough,

Jelani McGee, over in Japan. Because Jolani McGee, Yeah. He seems to be a decent, a decent player. I don't know where he's at, where he's at in the world, but I know where he needs to be. Who he plays for, whatever. But he plays for, he's in the Red Bull system.

He plays for R.B. Omaya, Ardija. Don't know what that means. That, that's a team in the, let me see, in like the second tier of Japan. they're not the jayle they're in the japan two three i don't know what that means um oh so they're they're in the tier between okay i don't know what japan system got going on they won promotion from japan's third tier but now they're in something called japan two three according to according to football mom don't get me the line but davy on kimbrough jelani mcgee

uh montreal colbrith Yeah. I will do nothing. Nothing will stop me, you know, from getting these three into the U.S. National Team. Yeah, it's important. It's important to... We need that.

I mean, imagine if we had a Montreal score a goal at the World Cup. Come on, man. A Montreal, bro. A Jalani. Yeah. A Davian. Yeah. It would be a different kind of impact, I think.

And once again, it's just not going to be the same. Particularly Japan, Jelani McGee, come on, bro. Respectfully, respectfully. Respectfully. Devion Kim, bro. Respectfully. Come on, man. Yeah.

You know, I told this, I gave this cliff notes of this whole line of thinking to the Sacramento Republic coach. He thought it was funny. Because he knows Davian pretty well. You know, he's been working with him for. Right. a couple years now. All right.

We got a really nice Nico Shakira's pass and Bruce Arino bested you know the Vancouver Whitecaps 1-0. Yeah, they're cooking. Yeah. Bro's really the goat.

It's the Sanjay bounce. Well, they didn't lose right after I talked to him, but. All right. Forget it. Now, but Nico is it's exciting to see him

put it together. Their injuries have obviously been an issue. Missed time last year with the U-20 World Cup too, but he could be a player, man. He's still young, ish. Reaches back with that left foot of his, got a guy draped all over him just inside his own half, and then makes like he's going to try to spray it down the line

for the guy instead cuts it in between the right back and the center back. A beautifully weighted ball. Yeah, Joe Lowry tweeted out. we'll retweet. Well, that's up to you, yes. You want to retweet it. It's worth it.

It's worth it. It's a nice pass, yeah. Hey, man, shout out Joe, by the way. Tough. Oh, hold on. Sorry, God. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead.

Yeah, I guess you're going to ripo. Yeah, I was going to talk about. Yeah, you go, okay. That, you know, another unforgiving learning experience for the team. Not as bad as the scoreline looks. I mean, first half, Like, glorious chance early on.

Kay Cowell could have scored close to the near post, and Julian Hall could have also scored on the same play. Can't finish it off. They concede on a, like Maddie de Santos gives up a free kick. There's a ball played. Long ball played over the top. He's having trouble judging it. He puts his foot up, fouls a guy, free kick goal.

And then, yeah, I mean, they, He gets yanked at halftime, and then replace him, makes the mess of a cross on the first play of the second half. And then they get a red card, and that's it pretty much. And they didn't stop going for it, so that's why that scoreline looks as bad as it does, even after they were down 3-0 because that red card resulted in a goal of 2. So, yeah, kids got to go through games like that is what it is, but it's good to see them continuing to play. Yeah, he gets a consolation one, yep. Four and five.

He continues to get these, he can easily have zero goals, you know what I'm saying? But, yeah, and he's creating a bit of his own look. Like I said, I think one of those that one he scored against the Revolution. I want to say he was a product of some nice movement, but it's like pure poacher, one touch, ball seems to be bouncing his way type situations. I watch this game to start off my Tim Riem-Washed watch. And there wasn't much to see as far as this match,

necessarily just because... He wasn't tested. I do you got to say with Mamedi, even in games, like he had a lot of deal with in this game and it wasn't his best game, but even then, like, he does things. For example, in about the 39th minute, he just effortlessly receives a ball and is able to turn and try and play really incisive three ball with his left foot. That gets cut out. But soon after that, like, he plays a ball out to kick out on the right.

I think it was Cowell, and he doesn't end up doing anything with it. But it's just like effortless playing the ball forward and to the feet of guys in good spots. And there's no one, my biased opinion, there's no one. who does this as easily as he does. Like, it's not even close. Even with the guys who are in the squad right now with this kind of ability. So let's hope he continues to develop in other ways. All right.

You want a shout out Paxton? Yeah. Brace. Arrinson. Arrived in the box well for both. One with his right, one with his left. Good to see him. Get things going.

Colorado. Hopefully he can keep that. up. And then Luna gets a full 45? Yeah, I could have had a couple of assists. Within the first 10 minutes he was on, Gozo, Scott, on with his left. And then there was another another one where he should have had an assist, I think. So, you know, you get the usual bit of sloppiness with Luna.

It's kind of to be expected now. Anyway, coming off the injury and getting these minutes. But he looked decent. And Gozo is just electric unit things that always come off. Like very enterprising. Guy can run for days. Very impressive physical output. So, yeah, good stuff there.

He absolutely toasted Luca Bombino late in the second half on and had a really nice chance. I feel like it was it, it has become clear that Luna is always going to be a little sloppy. but I feel like it didn't always have like I didn't expect it to turn out that way. And it's not even like stoppiness from him. It's not even trying stuff stoppiness, right? It's just like, it doesn't make sense because he's like, yeah, he's a technically Poor execution. He's a technically good player.

I don't know why it happens, but it does. Yeah. Okay, you got anything on Luna events before we wrap up? No, I didn't watch. Okay. Okay. All right. Hey, thanks everybody for listening.

If you want to skip the ads, you know what to do. Join the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. You get the clip notes videos that Vince lovingly crafts almost every weekend. And we'll see you.