Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #696: USA v Senegal recap

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

Vince and Belz go for 90+ minutes on the cathartic victory in Charlotte. Brilliance in the attack from us, some of our centerback candidates were less than brilliant, Dest is a winger, Pepi integral in both first half goals, Tillman provides a moment of transcendence, it's on to Germany. 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.scuffedpodcast.com/store  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuff podcast when we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, we beat Senegal three to two. It looked good doing it. We faced Germany on Saturday in Chicago, but first, Vince and I are here to recap yesterday afternoon in Charlotte, North Carolina. Vince, how you doing? I'm doing good, Adam Bells. And, you know, it's just amazing to see what this team doing well on the pitch can do

for my general spirits. You know, yesterday it felt like something. You know, it felt like an arrival, a christening of it. something like the World Cup is officially here. You could feel it on the field. You could feel it in the stands. You know, the fans in Charlotte, Bank of America Stadium, it was mostly packed. Just an empty side up there in the top top of the stadium.

But more than it being like mostly packed, you know, the energy that the fans brought. Yeah. Felt much different than anything we've seen prior in the past year or two. for sure, I would say. And, you know, it even got it even got rave reviews from Christian Policic. Christian Policicic was gushing about it.

Yeah. Not a gusher. Not a gusher, brother. Not a gusher at all. So you know it had to be special. And yeah, it just felt, it felt like something, man. And, you know, to the point,

I was considering driving, taking my oldest and driving up to Chicago for this match against Germany. And, you know, this performance that we got yesterday might just be the battery that I needed in my back to go ahead and do it.

Okay. It's five hours both ways, but, you know, these boys don't come out here and play like that. Let's do it, man. Some just beautiful attacking soccer as well. And the defensive lapses, I would say, mostly from either players who aren't going to play that much or be somebody who's not going to do that again. And I'm talking about Jedi's giveaway in the buildup to the second goal. Was the second goal?

First goal. First goal. Yeah. I don't think we're going to, I don't think Jedi's going to, you know, nutmeg somebody directly to the opponent and then pretend to fall and then not get back on defense. I don't think he's going to do that again in the next month. You know, it is June 1st, yeah. Well, we'll get to the stuff, of course. But, you know, there are some defense is mostly good, but on the plays where we did, you know, give some stuff up.

There's a couple of issues that may persist throughout the World Cup, number one of which being a Christian ballistics effort on defense. So we'll see. We'll see. But, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, like you said, 54, I mean, a lot in 54,000 in attendance, something like that. and it was a lot of several players not just pulisic went out of their way to praise the energy

let's let's do the lineups and get right into the timeline because there is so much to discuss the lineups were matt turner and goal alex freeman mark mackenzie tim ream and jedi robinson across the back tyler adams sebastian burhalter and geo rena were the you know nominal midfielders and then we got dest on the right wing pulisic on the left wing and Ricardo Pepe gets the nod to start at Stryker. So before we go any further, just real quick, continuing with Sergenio Dest when he's available for Maricio Paschino,

playing on the wing. We actually saw this in a training video that got released this week. I've then playing like a basic scrimaging in training. Sergenio Desk is clearly playing on the wing, Joe Scali was behind him. And so this is just a continuance of that. I think out of that, I mean, that's the main notable thing for me. I mean, Sebastian Burr-Alta, starting amongst Alon Tyler.

I mean, we don't know what our goals are for this. I don't think we can take anything. I don't think we can take anything from it, you know? Yeah, yeah, as far as who got the nod, but positionally, Sergenio Dest is a indicator. And I'm, and I got to say, I'm sold. Like, play him on the win. For sure.

Yeah, I am too. Let's do it. Let's have him and Tim Wea platoon that right wing position. I think they both offer different things, but I mean, hard to argue with death performance in this game. As you all, go ahead. The best of each, you know. We got to see what each one brings in their own specific ways. You know, Tim Wea did a Tim Wea thing on the second goal.

Obviously, Sergenio Dest did some Serginio Desk things in that first half, making a couple people just look very silly. Yeah. Yeah, he's, man, he's fun to watch. I got some stuff to say about Tim. I mean, I know he got the assist. I would say not a very strong performance from him overall. And I wish he'd be a little bit less of a coward 1v1. But yeah, we'll get into that later.

Okay, Senegal's lineup, I'm going to give the clubs too. You know, there were some, you know, players at Villarreal and Tottenham coming off the bench, Rayao Viacano, Lyon. But the starting lineup, Mori Diau, in goal from La Javre in Ligang. And then Creepin Diada, who is Ballos teammate at Monaco, Mamadu Tsar at Chelsea, though he played the first half of the season at Strasbourg. Abdullahia Seck, who plays at Maccope Haifa in Israel. And then Ismail Jacobs, who plays for Galatasarai in Istanbul, of course. The midfield is Lamin Kamara, also Ballas teammate at Monaco, Barra Sapoko, Ndaia,

who plays at Byron and is 18 years old and was repeatedly referred to as a Wonder Kid by the broadcast team on HBO, which I don't know if that makes it true or not, because Kyle Martino had a rough one trying to figure out what was going on on the field. Habib Diara plays at Sunderland. He was also in the midfield. And then Ilyman Ndai, who plays at Everton, Nicholas Jackson at Byron Munich, and Sadio Manet, who everybody knows across the front line. Mane plays at Al Nasser now.

But of course, he was a big part of that successful Liverpool team for a while. So, yeah, that's the lineup. Yep, and five starters from their lineup that took the pitch in the AFCOM final. They're missing Edward Mindy, the first choice keeper, Antoine Mindy, Mussini Akite, from Leon Malik Jouf, who came on Adrisa Gagne, Gay, and Papa Gay. Papa Gay also came on as, I think most of these dudes came on. Yeah. If I'm not mistaken.

But, yeah, so, I mean, It's a good, a good, I mean, in Senegal is talent. A lot of it, yeah. I mean, you know, between them and Morocco, they are by far and away, in my opinion, the two flag bearers of African soccer. Maybe you throw in an Ivory Coast third, but their performances in, on the continent art, close to what Morocco and Senegal have accomplished, especially in these past four years or so. Yeah, it's a 14th ranked team. in the world by football rankings and they're good. So for us to beat them is, it means something.

It means something to me and it should mean something to you. Let's see. Let's do the timeline. So we come out, I mean, great energy from us right away. We're flying at them. We're pressing. I know you got a lot to say about the way we pressed. But it was, we were, it was encouraging.

from the rip. And about the 130 mark, there's a nice interception from Freeman. And he strides forward and slides it to Pepey, who there's two foreshadowings here. One, it's Freeman, you know, sort of immediately tilting the field with an interception and some, like, some forward striding. And then Pepe, who gets the ball under pressure, he doesn't, you know, he can't, he can't dominate a big centerback at this level. but he did show in this situation very early on

that he wasn't going to go down easy he wasn't going to give up the ball easy he manages to draw a foul as he's sort of getting shepherded towards the sideline and I think both these players had a great game but anyway that's way more than needs to be said about that moment on the timeline yeah but it is a moment of foreshadow and it is a moment that um you know

needs to be mentioned just because I see that at the beginning of the match a good RICO Holdup rep to start it off and yeah I'm just starting to feel good about how we're looking like if RICO's going to give us that yes in addition to you know the natural goal scoring all different type of stuff then I mean we really might have a debate

on who you know yeah yeah because Peppy had I mean we have anybody who listens this podcast regularly knows that we have criticized Peppy's hold up play in the area to Vizzi so much. You know, I mean, it's like we talk about it all the time. And he had a fantastic game on the ball, like receiving with his back to goal and building up.

We'll get to it, but he was excellent. So two minute mark, a chance for the USA. Just some lovely Pulisic and Jedi interplay up the left. I mean, really quite intricate. I mean, they exchanged three or four passes. and then Jedi slips Pulisic around the last defender, and he's just racing across the end line, stabs it invitingly between the top of the six

and the penalty marker. And nobody arrives on it. It kind of freezes Gio. I think it comes through the legs of the defender on its way there, and he doesn't make a play on it. It was pretty fast. Maybe he didn't see it coming, but I'd like to see him, you know, make a play on this ball,

slide for it. Like, do you want to score or not, my brother? You know? Yeah. Get down and get down and dirty. Let's go. And that's a, I mean, that's a huge chance to just have the ball slide on the ground right through that spot on the field. It's not like it was a surprise that Pulisic was going to try to play it across there. The Gio hands were prepared, brother. You know what I'm saying? He knew that he was an option. He knew he was uncovered in the box. He had his hands out ready to go.

But it didn't come directly to feet. But it's like the ball's in front of them. Yeah. So if anything, if you're expecting the ball to maybe come to you and it's in front of you, you should be able to attack it. Right. Yeah. And we don't get an attack from Gio on this pass here.

But it is what it is. I'm more impressed. Like that interplay, I mean, that is probably the best we've seen. Pully and Jedi combined. It was gorgeous. And the five or six years they've been playing together. They do, they do, you know,

three or four of those and the rest of the World Cup, people will be, there will be people converted to the cause by that kind of play. For sure. And I really like, I mean, the,

the special sauce that breaks the whole thing, you know, that, that, like, last trap and stab with Jedi with his left foot, like, all on one foot kind of thing. There's a little, bring his right foot. foot down. There's a little element of surprise there because the defender is expecting him to

kind of like take another touch or even like wind up his foot a little bit. Right. Right. And he doesn't. Wrong foot's the defender and Pulisik's in. Pulisik's just a live wire early on too. I mean, he's he's he came to play in this game. Well, okay. And then we score. So we didn't get we We didn't get a goal off of that, but it was excellent stuff. And then we score a six-minute mark. Lovely work from Pepey, as we discussed earlier, running into the channel for a pass from Jedi wide left. So we had a few moments that came from Ream playing,

just a straightforward pass out wide to Jedi, and then Jedi playing it forward from there. This one he plays to Pepe. He's running towards the sideline, attracts two defenders. he's in a tight spot. He's about, they're collapsing on him. And he, Pulisic darts into the vacated channel,

vacated by Pepe and the two defenders who are chasing him. And Pepey plays an extremely effective little reverse pass that springs Pulisic to freedom. Pulisic races ahead, fizzes it across with his left foot. And Dest, who'd arrived in the box with the decisiveness of a classic number nine, thumbs at home with his in-step. really nice from peppy uh he made this goal love pulisic's twitchiness throughout um the pass was an easy one for him once he gets in that uh you know gets deep like he did and desk gets credit and desk gets credit for attacking the goal mount goal mouth like that it's one zero we look good Senegal hasn't

threatened we've been kind of all over him yeah and you alluded to it bells this is the first time I'm gonna bring up our press because I think I mean this is the best our defense. We had some moments, but I think this is the best our defense overall has looked in the Paschino era. Because, I mean, we were pretty consistently denying Senegal the opportunity to even get in their attacking half of the field or at least get into their attack and half of the field comfortably. And definitely denying their ability to get into the attacking third, that like their attacking third. And like defensively, it was kind of tough to see what we were doing at first, but it's because

we were pressing and we didn't actually settle until our 4-4-2 until Senegal really got into the attacking third and then you would see two lines of four with the two stacked on top, two being peppy and pulley. Sometimes Raina though too, sometimes. So Alex Freeman

fouls Manet around the halfway line. There's a lot of Alex Freeman and Sadio Mani Omane interactions, mostly because that was the person that he was picking up man to man on the press. And he was following him. He would end up following, you know,

kind of far away at different points in times. But anyway, he followed Sadie Omani. From that restart, which is right around the halfway line, we deny their buildup and force them back to their keeper, Jiao, who tries a chip out to Diata, I think. But sky's the past way out to touch.

Yeah, so our press, it was easier for me to discern in the second half, kind of, because I could clearly see what the triggers were, but it seemed like in the first half, we're just kind of flying. And that's like our base defensive shape. In the second half, you can see we start in the 4-42 and wait for our pass backwards, and then we start to attack. In the first half, I don't know. I think we just came out doing this.

And so whichever side the ball was on, we were basically playing like a, it was almost like a match-up zone. Adam Bells, you're a college basketball guy. Not really anymore, but I'm like Western McKinney. I don't really watch basketball. You're familiar though. It's like basically, so. I'm really not. So yeah, explain what a matchup zone is.

Essentially, we are doing it. We are playing a man-to-man press, but also within that man-to-man press, we aren't just blindly following our man all around the pitch and allowing ourselves to get drug around. We are communicating amongst each other. Like, for instance, if a midfielder makes a run from the defensive third in their buildup to, like, makes an attacking run, Tyler would follow that run until he looks at a centerback.

They pass the runner off, and then Tyler is moving up to find work. Another football term, find work. You know, let's say something happens on an offensive line. the person you're supposed to block is running a stunt they go somewhere else what you need to do do you just stand there with your thumb up your butt no you find work brother you know you find something to do and so that's what

we were doing and I and it was just it looked very good very seamless like it's easy I mean it would just be easy for us to come out looking discombobulated in it messing up our tradeoffs all the different type of stuff but we just did it seamlessly again and again and again in the second half we bring in

two new players I mean 10 Yeah, I was going to say, not too. 10 new players. And we are seamlessly executing it still. Still. And like I said, it was tough work for Senegal to even get into their attacking third for most of this match. And it's all because of the press, man. And even when we weren't winning it directly, we were forcing balls like this one, back to the Senegalese keeper.

And either he was playing it out of bounds or he was just playing like a surrender, a surrender. a surrender boot up the pitch that we were able to pick off a lot of times with our defensive line because those are the guys that are kind of free in this instance they can they are facing the play they see everything that's going on and so when we get those surrender long balls they are they're not as as tethered to a man necessarily and they're able to read and react to those balls and pick them off and we were doing that again and again and again and so this is the first true example here and it's just

good stuff all around and then the goal itself once we get the ball back 19 past sequence Adam Bells 19 past sequence where we worked the ball around both sides of the pitch before a Jedi finds Rico

this is true disorganization with the ball brother with a burrhalter on the pitch by the time Rico receives it yeah but he didn't do any of the disorganizing yeah he did not I don't even know if he touched the ball

I don't think he did actually he did he did let me give us the first thing By the time Rico receives it we've drugged both Senegal's right back and right center back out of position I think the right back went up to follow Jedi

and then when Rico makes his run out too he attracts the attention of Senegal's right center back with him and so by the time the reverse pass happens you know it's a jail break yeah it's a jail break a jailbreak and they make sure that none of them get back into the play and because of this there's a ton of space to work with for surge as he does jacobs in the box to get free and yeah

that's just good stuff all around that's just complete total football if you will yeah you know from defense to offense man it's a it's a beautiful goal 1130 mark got to note this you know it was a little bit of a surprise that Turner got to start. I mean, a surprise if you're thinking like these games are going to indicate who starts in the World Cup, which obviously they're not. We had a complete line change, and I don't think Potch wants anybody to know what his plans are. But anyway, Turner started, and he makes a nice play after Nicholas Jackson makes a really nice player. I mean, he receives it between the lines. Does he dust Burrhalter or is it Adams? he receives it with his back to goal

and then turns and plays a very quick left-footed pass in behind for Mane and Turner comes out and basically nabs it off of Mane's foot there was perhaps a penalty shot but not a penalty and he slaps it away and picks the ball up and throws it downfield

for a quick counterattack. That yields nothing but you like You like the impetus there. Yeah, yeah, for sure. This is a pretty big letoff from us. So it's a throw-in from our, our left-touch line into our defensive half about midway between the in-line and the halfway line.

So the throw-in goes from Jedi to Rico, who's tussling with Seneca, Senegal centerback. Rico kind of pops it up infield with his right foot toward the center circle. both Saar and Christian Polisic have their eyes on it. Christian's running hard to get to it. Saar gets there first. And Christian kind of comically just runs right by him.

This is what you mean by a defensive effort. Yeah. Whether it's effort or just like attention to detail, whatever. So Christian like literally breezes right by him. Like, Sarr clearly is going to be the winner probably about three steps before Christian gets there.

And he does, apply any like defensive pressure to sar he just runs by him which allows sara to kind of collect the ball set it get his head up and find nico jackson in the pocket tim ream is kind of the is a step late which allows nico jackson to receive the ball and kind of turn on it but there is pressure on nico jackson from tim ream okay it's ream like he's not yeah got it he's not like super late to the play i don't think um manet is between mark mackin and Alex Freeman and starts his run as soon as Nico gets the ball. Mark starts running with him, but Alex doesn't move.

Alex does not move until Nico Jackson plays the pass. And that pass is played in between the space that is between Alex Freeman and Sadie Omani. You know. It's to, it's to Manet's outside, left shoulder. Yeah. Mark is, Mark is beaten at this point. because Mane is faster than him. And also, Mark doesn't make it,

doesn't make the run difficult on Sadiomani at all? He has his hips face the other way. I don't, Bels, you tell me, because it seems positionally, Mark is a little bit off here. You would at least want Mark to, like, kind of tussle with Sadi Omani to make sure that he's just not having a free run

and that whatever pass is played is just going to beat him immediately. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm pro tussling. I think that's like got to engage physically with the runner a little bit. Although these are these are tricky. This is tricky stuff, you know? I mean, how do you, how do you shape your body when you're tracking somebody?

Yeah. And it still has to be like a perfect past to get through there. And it still is, you know, pawed away by Turner. So, I thought Jackson was very good. I mean, he did miss the chance, but Jackson looked really good for Senegal. And this was a really nice play by him. This is the Nico Jackson experience. He's a good player, man, and then he's going to miss the chance.

Or at least that's a narrative that, you know, the English media have. And, you know, social media, too. Because there's always a comical Nico Jackson mess coming along my timeline. But, yeah. But so I would say that I would like Mark to do something other than kind of just have his hips and his head facing the complete other way. And Sadio Mani just and allowing Sadie Omane is just moving his blind spot. I would say that. But I think the real issue is Alex Freeman not being alert to the danger, even as Nico Jackson receives the ball turns.

And like I said, he doesn't move because I'm back in Alex Freeman. to first of all probably intercept that pass if he's in position and then if the pass is just that perfect to beat Sadio Mani to the ball or at least be there to shield Sadio Mani off the ball to where it's a less chaotic claim for Matt Turner which he does a few times later in the game you know yeah yeah yeah um

and and from Matt here I think this is great I mean just just no indecision you see some of that Matt Turner explosion coming off his line just I mean no indecision whatsoever boom he's gone and he's he shot out of a cannon when he decides to do it

and you know Mane does get there first but he's close enough to Mane that essentially any touch he makes on the ball is going to go right into Matt Turner's hands so yeah it's good stuff I know Mark Mark's going to come in for some more criticism in this game so i do want to mention something at the 1220 mark which is just a beautiful

hooked diagonal pass from him with his left foot to get out of trouble um he might have been in trouble because of his own doing i do agree he's like he's not he just doesn't seem like he's locked into what's happening out there as much as he should be but he plays this lovely pass out to rena to get something going um he turns like he's being collapsed on by two defenders in the center circle and he just turns that into Raina in a ton of space with a beautiful left-footed pass

something that he is capable of. What were your thoughts on Geo? Because he didn't get on the score line obviously. He didn't really do anything that was, you were like, dang, you know, like that Tillman pass to Ballo in the second half.

I mean just like just gorgeous stuff nothing like that from geo but you know I thought I'll say what I thought and then I'll ask what you thought I thought on first watch I was like oh man he's he's not really making a claim here on second watch he comes across more as a

like an important facilitator of things the ball security and the calm on the ball really nice even though he didn't have any major moments. I would say, I probably agree with you. How much

you waited, I guess just depends on how much you value these types of things. But it is the case where like, G. O'Rena involved in our possession play means we are not losing the ball.

Yeah. You know? Sometimes that means it's just going to pass it backwards five times in a row. Right, right. Did he, yeah, did he do any lyrical miracles with it?

No. No. he gave you a solid 16 bars, I guess. And, but you know what? He was, he in the position that he was in had a lot of, a lot of mental work to kind of doing the press. He was passing off people, like, you know, there's a lot of traffic in that, in the middle part of the pitch, right? Obviously, when somebody's trying to build out. And so, you know, you got people checking, you got people, people leaving, people, you know.

So he was a key passer offer in the press and mostly did his job quite well. You know, so I'll give him that for sure. To that point, I noticed one time where he, you know, it won't come as a shock that I watched Geo a little more closely than I watch most players on the field. And I noticed he, one time he was chasing somebody all the way over to the left touchline and then he kind of circulated back into the middle of the field behind the press to get back into position. and maybe that's that maybe that's something related to the the sort of matchup zone

stuff you're talking about I just seemed like there was kind of a there was a nice choreography to it where like you chase somebody and then you filter back into the middle and then kind of join the press again yeah yeah chase somebody until you can get them passed off

and uh but yeah it was it was good stuff like the coordination from us and yeah the communication all that different types it was it was fun to watch I got some pretty good clips of it in our clip notes. All right. That'll be out as you listed this podcast. It's already done, brother.

Oh, wow. Okay. At the 14-minute mark, another good attacking sequence from us. This time off a lofted Jedi pass to Pooley in the channel. He kind of persists down there in the corner, cuts across, leaves one for Burhalter, who's arriving at the top of the box. His shot is blocked. It ends up with Pepe on the other side, and he's a little loose, dribbles out of bounds,

which is not good. But I feel like everybody was talking about this after the game, you know? Not everybody. Talking about what? Peppy dribbling and out of bounds. I haven't seen any talk. Okay. I feel like I have.

And I just do think there's like stuff that happens in the first 10 minutes, 10, 15 minutes of the game has such an outsized impact on your analysis of a player. And I think that was this only negative moment in the whole game, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, to talk about that. off of the back of some of the plays that we saw in the first half from rico that would be kind of crazy well let's not do it anymore 15 minute mark big chance for senegal reams pass up the up the gut misses the connection with pool sick because pulick doesn't come to the ball he kind of backs away maybe nobody said man on got to talk to each other boys it's a quick counter a bit of a broken play because ream intercepts a pass right to monae but ultimately results in a cut back to Nico Jackson, nine yards in front of goal.

He can't handle it off the hop, leans back, sends it over. Really the first chance for Senegal, but we do look a little bit susceptible, which is something that will rear its head later in the game. We inverted a build-out shape here. It starts with a throw-win from our right touchline. I think Alex Freeman takes it,

and then he just stays high and points. I guess Jedi gets the hint. he drops back into the three um and then the you know turnover comes from here i do i think i got a ding seab burhalter here um he's next to diara when he receives the ball and as d'ar gets on his horse and starts to carry into the attacking third it's like seb is just unable to make up just any ground on on dara and stop his moment i'm going towards goal and then he also has has the opportunity to stop Manet from getting the ball back to back over to DR. You know, Amani receives the ball.

He's kind of cutting across the grain, the top of the box kind of thing. Show off, like a face off with Set Burrhalter right there. And then, you know, Sadio just kind of passes it around him. Jedi also could have been in a position to pick that pass from Moni that I just talked about off. if he gets back into position quickly after he collides with Diora and stops him and, you know, ricochets the ball out to Mane. So, you know, it's just a comedy of errors, I guess.

Yeah, it's a little unlucky. It's a little unlucky, but I would like to see Jedi snap back in the position, bro. Like, you know, you had enough time. It's like you deflect that ball out. Once you see it go to Sadio Manet, let's get back into the back line, brother. But from there, I would also probably like to see Mark McKenzie as D.R.

passes the ball to Indy. Yeah, I think it was Indyat. That made the final cutback. It seems to me like, because Nico Jackson is standing in between Alex Freeman and Mark McKenzie. And it seems like Mark McKenzie is kind of trusting Alex Freeman to Mark. Nico Jackson here. I would just prefer for my centerback to take charge and mark the center forward. I would think there because it ends up where Mark McKenzie really isn't doing anything

in this play. And yeah, as the cutbacks made and Nico Jackson takes a shot, I mean, he's just standing there. And it's not like Mark had a man on or anything to worry about. I would like my centerback to communicate there, be like, hey, I'm going to take him. And just once again, tussle with an attacker in the box. I mean, you know, nobody's touching Nicholas Jackson. Nobody's touching him. Nobody's making his life difficult.

He can just ghost into the spot and get that shot off. That's going to be punished at the World Cup. Like more often than not, that's going to be a goal. Yep. And then my final nitpick, which this one is, yeah, we'll see. But as the ball gets deeper, as Diara makes that past and die, um sub needs to start forming that wedding cake here

he could potentially also have picked off that that cross across to Nicola uh to Nico Jackson yeah he had opportunity to get there too if he snapped into position he kind of didn't but yeah so that's that let's talk about Burrhalter a little bit because

the game did seem like it was moving a little fast for him in on uh you know handful of occasions. And on the other hand, Potch talks about him. I think Potch said after the game, he's a monster. He gives 200% in training.

My guess is he won't play that much. No, I don't even want to guess that because I feel like he might play quite a bit. Possibility. Yeah, I don't know. But I think the ideal thing would be for him to be, you know, he's there to make everybody else

practice hard. And, and get after it on training day. And then, you know, maybe the games are going to be a little bit too much for him. Because I do agree. I mean, a lot of people were criticizing him and rolled on. Yeah. During the game on social media.

And I think some of the criticism is fair. Like, for sure. There's like, there's definitely an element of like two of these things are not like the others. And it's not just because they play an MLS. Yeah, don't anything do with where they play it. It's not the league, yeah. I will say, you know, Seb kind of grew into it, I guess, as the match went on. It started keeping, it started keeping, like, his game, like, real simple.

You know, there's a moment in the second half where, like, we kind of are in trouble, like, deep in our own half after stopping a Senegal counterattack. And it's like, Max passes at the Seb. Seb just passes it right back to Max Arfston and then... And then Arfston solved the problem. Yeah, yeah. And that's a lot of what Seb's doing. No QMAR from Seb, no quality moments above replacement, for the most part, from Seb Burrhalter.

But if he can just keep it simple, because... He had a nice sequence on Ballo's chance that he hit over the crossbar. Yeah. Actually really nice from Seb, but that's the only one I can think of. That's QMAR. Yeah. We saw once again in this match the fact that our midfield really isn't counted on to do a lot. You know, you notice that in this. Barely, barely saw Tyler Adams face in that first half.

Right. Right. And so I do come down a little bit hard also just because of the fact that's like, okay, you're being asked to do like this baby roll. And even within that, we're still seeing, we're still seeing some warts. you know but if we can get I really think you probably should not be on the pitch

but second half Seb I can probably live with okay so I'll that's why I'm standing so far okay

someone who definitely won't be on the pitch is Patrick Ajamong because he's hurt Big Pat was in the house though they they cut to him a couple times after the goals great to see him Hope he's back in 2030.

And then we get our second goal. 20-minute mark. Ball starts in Turner's hands as Freeman seals off Mane on a headed ball. So it's a goal kick, flicked on. Turner claims it. Freeman is like holding Mane off. Turner throws it out to Dest who had dropped wide, and Freeman kind of roams into the channel inside of Desd,

and Desk slips him into space at midfield. He takes one touch and then plays a very clever and perfectly weighted outside of the boot through ball for Pepey, who's making another end to outrun. And Pepey takes a touch and then teases it out into the Bermuda triangle between Pulisic, the keeper, and the last defender. Pulisic gets there first, touches it past the keeper and slots it from a tight angle, just tidy as hell from CP. I love Freeman's burst and idea here. it's the pass from death to him and then that like fast decision from freeman that kind of creates the whole moment puts senegal on their heels keys the whole thing i have read the quibble that peppy's pass was a little too heavy and maybe i'll grant that but it's plenty good enough and it's a really

um you know if he if it's a if it's slightly less heavy i think it doesn't make that much difference for pulisic one way or another i don't know if he can just if he can just if he can just fire at far post like go to the left corner with it if it's a if it's if the pass is a little better anyway it's a good enough pass and peppy's been at the heart of both goals to zero USA the the pass is where it needs to be yeah i would say so but in the buildup in this um so Alex took up that position in front of in front of surge for a second and before he received the ball kind of noticed that you know his position has been vacated and they needs to get back into it but then he looks and he sees that tyler adams has um taken up his spot so so then he kind of stops

moving he's like okay well then i i will chill here and receive this ball from surge and then that kind of starts the whole move so it was nice to kind of see um i guess the recognition from tyler just to go ahead and slip back into into Alex's position that he had veiled and vacated when he's taking that space up you know that that type of positional awareness that you need if you play in like a you know a positional type system it's good to see it's good to see man and then also i mean you know the quality from Alex to receive the ball deliver that pass all that different type stuff yeah and the fact that Freeman kind of kind of stepped back towards his right back spot and then burst forward uh is part of why that

moment kind of collapsed the entire Senegal defense. And it's funny, it's fun to watch that replay from behind the goal because you can just see as soon as that pass gets slid onto Freeman's foot, it just, the shape of Senegal is just in disarray.

It's like, they can't recover as long as we you know, execute from then on. 20, man, we're moving slow here. 21, 20 mark. Reem gets a little cute. dribbling across midfield loses possession.

I thought this was excellent defending from Freeman on the ensuing through ball for Monnet. Mark probably was beat by it. I don't know. It's hard to say for sure. I thought at first he was dead to rights, but on rewatch maybe he pulled up to avoid Freeman mostly. The point is Freeman was definitely there, sealing off Monnet again.

And, you know, you were talking about Burhalter, not making up any ground. This is never going to be a problem for Alex Freeman. in this World Cup. I mean, he makes up the ground. And he's a big boy. Like, he, like, I mean, like, he's a real man. That's what I'm trying to say.

He is not going to get little brothered by anybody, least of all Sadie Omani. Anyway. Until he's Jordan boss. Right. I'm excited about it. I said a couple weeks ago, I think Freeman's going to play a lot in this world.

Cup and I and I think he's going to I think even more so now that that is what's going to happen and I like it yeah for sure to be a wet blanket a little bit here I think this was a kind of obvious play to be alert to like the entire play is taking place on our left side of the pitch so Alex Freeman has his eyes on everything that's happening Sadie Omani is in front of him he sees Sadio Mani start to run and he would kind of be a fool not to run with him you know all the elite athletic traits are on display of course here so I'm not I'm not taking anything away from his ability to make the play

yeah but but you're saying it's a play he's got to make no matter what it's a play he's got to make and you know I still have look I don't disagree with anything you just said Adam but you know I do need to see him be better on some situations like something we talked about earlier. Yeah, the one where Turner makes the play. One more turner makes the play. And then also, if Sadi, if Nico Jackson was his man and Mark McKenzie passed him off, then he didn't, you know, he kind of lost him on the shot.

So anyway. Yeah. Okay. We get a water break at the 24 minute mark and we get to see Potch explaining how to react against the ball. I think, I mean, you know, these images are flying across the internet because they're kind of cool to just, you could, on both the Spanish and the English language broadcasts, you know, they're talking, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, while Potch is talking. And then they realize that we can hear what Potch is saying. And they both broadcasts, they shut up.

And it's just, we're just listening to Potch talk to the team and the water break, which is kind of cool. I don't know if I've ever seen that. And then one of the assistant coaches kind of boxes the camera. out and so that that was a short-lived treat but in the interim it sounded like he was talking to geo about reading the defensive assignments i think he said we need to read before chio and uh so something about defensive assignments right when the assistant coach's gluteus maximus sort of takes up the entire frame of the camera yeah understood i mean they're probably going through some of the press stuff.

Yeah. And like I said, Gio has a lot to read in those situations. So, yeah, it makes sense to me. Okay. What about, we already talk about Seb enough, or you want to? Well, just let me do it, a 27 minute. That's where I clocked. Seb kind of struggling defensively.

He's, at this point, I think he had one good interaction. He kind of like poked the ball off somebody in the counterpress, I want to say. everything else has been a foul. Yeah, because he's a beat late. He's a beat late, right? Yeah, yeah. At this point, I think this is his third foul of the match. And then also he had the Diora thing where he couldn't make up any ground, etc.

But this time it's Diora once again on the right side, about five yards outside of the penalty box on the right side of the pitch for a dangerous free kick opportunity. He files him there. Seneca played the ensuing. free kick on the ground across the box and Seb is alert to that and blows it up. So he corrects the issue but yeah.

At like at this point in the match I'm like I'm wondering if this thing is just going to snowball until like a catastrophe or something. Really? Like I mean because at this point it's just like

there's just nothing positive coming from this man. Once again in this very limited role that he's being asked to do. Yeah. I do wonder if that Senegalese attacker that he blew up was a little bit more unscrupulous and it went down with a scream

if we hadn't had gotten a penalty there because it was kind of like, it seemed like there were some studs involved. I mean, we didn't get a replay of it, but. Seb gets dribbled by Barra for that shot that he has, the right-footed one. Now let's go to,

30 minute mark. Big chance for the USA. Pulisic played in by Jedi after some Jedi counterpressing. He stands up a ball to the backpost with his left foot. It kind of, it sails through, and then Sebastian gets on it, takes it to the end line, clips one back across. Peppy very smartly. I mean, this is QMAR right here. Yeah, for sure.

Pepey smartly nods it down for Jedi, and his half-folly gets neat off framed by a defender. But this is a huge chance. Great stuff. The crowd appreciates it. I appreciate it. Maybe we'll win the World Cup. Maybe, bro.

I mean, you know, at this point, momentum is on our side, brother. But this play comes off the ensuing goal kick from the Barra shot. So we just take a long goal kick. First ball, I think, goes to Rico, who gets, I think, decent contact. on it and then the second ball is kind of like kind of part three quarters of the way won by jeta and then jiorana comes in and cleans that thing up and then gives us gives us possession of the ball so i like to see that um yeah another example of the game oh no no let's see 30 third minute mark tries a line breaking pass to cut out for a quick counter uh i just want to i mean there were

Every centerback tried to play passes into the middle that were ultimately cut out at one point or another in the game. Yep. I do want to note that Sebastian Burrhalter poked the ball away from Monnet here, which thwarted the Senegalese counter. Okay. Way to go, Seb? I'm just trying to call the balls of strikes, man. Yeah. Well, he did get struck out on the next moment, which was 36 minute.

He gives it away in zone 14. just because he's not, I don't know, he's just playing at a slower pace than the game around him in this moment. It results in a shot from Dayae, but it's well covered by Turner. Might not have even been on frame. You know, when watching this back,

I do kind of wonder if he was doing one of those Seb Burrhalter keep it simple passes to Tyler Adams. Because, like, as the ball is coming into Seb, Tyler is like level with him. and you know, to see the way the touch is taken.

He might have just been laying that ball off to Tyler but by the time the ball comes into Seb Tyler has like dropped back a couple steps

for whatever reason and now he's not there to receive the past. So I mean, I guess all in all at the end of the day Seb should have known

that Tyler wasn't where he was previously so I guess I guess it just does end up following on on Seb Burhalter at the end of the end of the day. Yeah.

Turner makes a save on a deflected Monnet cross at 37th minute Stabs his foot across to cover the near post Couldn't tell if the deflection was goalbound or not But at least he was there to cover it Yeah, it's a nice deflection from Tyler Adams I'm gonna give a slight ding to Alex Freeman He's 1V1 with Sadio Monnet And never really in control of the situation

Just backing up conceding ground, conceding ground until Monnet decides to get a clean cross-off that is probably pretty dangerous if not deflected, if not deflected by Tyler Adams. Yeah, okay. Wow, you got so much criticism for Freeman in here.

I'm like, why are you propping up the white man, Joe Scali? Unbelievable, man. This is a zero-sum game, don't you know it? Look, man. it's not number one and then uh

yeah hey man I'm just look like I said I agree with what you said I think Alex Freeman clearly the starter

at that position that's how I would have it right now um but it you know he still kind of has the same the same warts that he's always had

he's getting better he's getting like every time we see him he looks he looks a little bit better, you know. But, you know, in the Gold Cup, you know, we saw some, and in the friendlies leading up to the Gold Cup. I'm thinking of one, like, you know, little check and go against Turkey, for instance.

Like, you know, there are some, like, awareness and situational things that just, you know, come from being a young player that he's not all the way tuned into and dialed into yet. Yeah, fair enough. That's all. I was, you know, just messing around. 43-minute mark

Senegal scores Jedi gives it away just across midfield I described it earlier in the show he um he megs a guy but it goes right to another opponent

and then he kind of dives and doesn't recover very fast um is it Diara who plays it in for Manet or is it I don't know somebody plays it in for Manet

he is Tyler Adams is tracking him and behind Mark McKenzie who doesn't seem to be aware um no and it's a

and it's also a really nice play from Mane you know like um Tyler's right there he has a money has a very small window to shoot in and he buries it far corner um with his one touch and it's two to one right at the end of the half yeah

And once again, this is the second time I'm going to come down on Christian Polisic. I don't think he's... So the ball's given away by Jeddah, right? And whoever it is that collects the ball, I think it's a cynically centerback or something. You know, Pooley just does the thing where like, you snap down into position. And he's kind of just standing right in front of the dude with the ball. Where it's like, bro, just get pressure to him. Like, tussle him. Do something.

you know make them make them a little uncomfortable because you know he just kind of stands there and he's trying to shield you know the pass to um diara that was ultimately ultimately made but you know he just sees the and diara sees the angle that christian has taken and just kind of repositions itself so that then he can just receive the pass and get on his way we'd definitely like to see jettai snap up too but you know when i was kind of I was kind of deciding, like, looking at this play and seeing what we could do better here. Like, you know, Jedi has, I think, I think in Jai is like outside of Jedi. So even if he was standing up and ready to go, I think he would see that Diyah is the most important person to take here in the situation.

But he does have, like, kind of tomming on him. He hesitates, though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I, in this situation, would like Christian Policicic to do a little better so that the person who has essentially won the ball or recovered the ball or whatever doesn't have the opportunity to set the ball, pick up their head. And the receiver of the past doesn't also have the opportunity to make whatever adjustments he needs to make just because we haven't. we're not getting pressure to the ball.

Then secondly, once all this happens, once D.R. gets going, I would like to see Tim R. Rame make a play. He's just kind of like backpedaling and backpedaling and backpedaling. You know, he has Jedi on his backside, chasing.

Like, if he stands up and makes Diora changed path at all, you know, Jedi's probably able to get back and knock the ball off his foot. Yeah, yeah. You know, I would like to see that. And then also, Mark McKenzie just hilariously in no man's land, once again, you know, I mean, Tyler Adams is tracking Mane. He's doing what he can. He's kind of in the back line as the ball's turned over, Tyler Adams is.

So, but. You don't want to see your centerback, you know, backpedaling in his birth. they suit like that very often but yeah it's hard it's a hard situation but he does kind of like he kind of backs away and opens up the corridor for diara to play it for

mahne you know with his with his backing up he's not just backing up vertically he's backing up towards to his right you know yeah and once again we talk about business handlers man this is what we're talking about like you know these these um dangerous situations that happen in soccer are kind of like a,

it's like a cascade. It's a chain reaction, right? And at any point, somebody could have hopped in and handled this situation. The two that were most capable, in my opinion, once again, Tim Riem and. Christian Bullis? I don't know. But, I mean, I'm talking about once the thing starts getting going. I see.

It's just Mark McKenzie has the entire kind of game in front of him. I don't know. I would like for him to see, I would like to see him assess the situation, assess who's dangerous, who's not, and potentially make a play on something, whether it's the pass from Diyara to Manet. But he just ends up kind of like...

He does the Homer Simpson retreat into the bushes. But then he steps up. Like he's kind of playing an offset trap at a certain point. Like right before the past is played, and it's classic Mark McKenzie as somebody who's kind of chronicled his career from Gink to Toulouse.

A business handler, he is not. So that's that. 47 minute right before half after a Diatta cross we break fast Giorana to Pepe to Sergenio Dest

who is onside right inside of our attack in half and seemingly basically free on goal. He's 1v1 with Senegal number 14. Rosam. Kind of stops, chops it on his right foot, and then stops there.

Kind of stumbles a little bit. Takes it from his right foot to his left and plays a square pass to Ricardo Pepe, who's in the box, probably like two yards above the penalty spot. Rico catches it with his right foot. His shot was blocked. But that's the end of that. That's the half.

Yep. And you can skip the ads if you join the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. I want to mention also we're making multiple patron-only episodes right now. Sanjay is with the team and he's a relentless person. He wants to record all the time. So we're doing like game day hits and other stuff. We had one show with Jonathan Tannenwald from Atlanta and Sanjay, one show.

with Ryan Tolmich, the goal.com reporter and Sanjay on Saturday morning. So join the Patreon. Do it. Links in the show notes. Links in the show notes. We'll be back in a second. All right. To the second half, it's an entire lineup change.

Everybody goes off except Sebastian Berhalter, which does feel like some 4D chess from Potch. He's going to make everybody think. think he's the key to the whole kingdom. And anyway, goalie was Brady, Chris Brady, getting his first cap as a national team player. Joe Scali comes on at right back. Miles Robinson and Austin trustee is the centerbacks. Max Arston comes on at left back.

Christian Rodon comes on for Tyler Adams. And then we get Tim Wea for Dest, Weston McKinney for Gio Raina, and Malik Tillman for Christian Pulisic. And then Fuller and Balligan comes on at Stryker. Yeah, right off the bat, 46 minute. I'm noticing Joe Scali, my boy, starting off nicely. No, but for real, this is not to say that he was better than Alex Freeman or anything like that. I am just noting this because actually a Joe Scali forward pass is notable. Certainly.

So to be clear, this is no, yeah, he had a nice forward pass up to West. I think Wes laid off to Tim and Tim kind of spoiled. And some good defense on Sadio Manet to start the half. But I just, to be serious, you know, Joe Scali is not somebody who passes forward a lot. Yeah, when he passes forward, it is something to write home about. It is something to write home about. And so that was, it was notable for me. You know, to start off the match and to see him like,

kind of in the buildup, receive the ball, and kind of be aggressive, face forward, and find a forward pass. That's good to know, you know, if he is going to be Alex Freeman's backup, you know, that we can get something like that out of Joe's Calle. Yeah. I will say, I thought, Waya and Wes, they did not look ready to play when they came on. Obviously, I mean, West definitely grew into the game. Wea, I would say less so. but it was disappointing when, you know, Wes has the armband. You get the armband coming on in the second half.

They didn't look, they didn't look ready, man. They were, I'm going to just say it. They were ass for the first 10 minutes. Both of them. Yeah. You know, the touch might not have been calibrated. But, you know, the press, you know, when you say ready to play, you know, to me, that implies that maybe they weren't given it.

been giving it they're all. They weren't locked into their assignments, et cetera, et cetera. For me, it was just like some misplaced passes, some routine Western McKinney messiness, et cetera. Okay. You know. But as far as like the stuff they could control,

I think they, well, obviously they can control how they execute on a soccer place. But as far as like the intangible stuff or whatever, you know, they, they, I think all that was there. It was just execution. that was off for those first 10, 15 minutes. Okay. You got a couple timeline items in the high 40s here.

All right. 47 minute, we get the ball up field after defending a Senegalese corner. This is the Seb thing I was talking about due to some work from Seb, Arf, and Wes. You know, Seb, just nice little layoff back to Arf, our faces. Just a sweet little layoff. Maximilian Arfston faces his man up. I mean, we are, Seb and Arfston are basically on our defensive inline,

you know, trying to manage the situation. Yeah. I appreciate this from Arf a lot. Yeah. And he has the, he has the Cajonis to face a man up, 1 v1, with his back to his own in line, and create some space for us and the team

to kind of get us out of this situation. Good stuff. and then he plays a ball up to West who is along the left touchline. He receives it. He's in plenty of space and he dinks a ball up to flow who also finds his way along the left touchline

and about close to the halfway line. Yeah. He stops, turns around, looks up, and hits an absolute rope over to Tim Wea who is streaking down the right side of the pitch. And this is where some of that 1V1 bravery comes into play here, Adam Bells.

Yeah. Tim gets the ball. It's a, I forgot who it was, but it's a midfielder, definitely for Senegal that I think came on and half that he is, that he has the opportunity to face up. And he doesn't take it. You know, he just kind of passes the ball back and then we start our possession from there. But this is, he said, no, I'm going to let Sebastian Burhalter be the protagonist here. Yeah. Yep.

Yep. Which, you know, sometimes you got to know your strengths and you. weaknesses. Fair enough. And I guess, you know, he didn't, he does a, there's a lazy little dead leg, you know, wiggles that thing a little bit, puts it down. It's like, ah, you know what. The definition of perfunctory. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, ah, you know that, you don't see that gift. When Carmel and Anthony is sitting in court side of the next game and they, this is like, after he retired, they pass on the ball. It's like during a timeout and he acts like he's going to shoot it. He like he's going to shoot it and passes it off that that was uh that's timway okay and then uh and then what

and then right on the 47 minute mark um on that ensuing possession that you know tim waya sets us up for um we get a bad turnover from christian christian rhodan um trying to receive a miles robinson pass on the turn he he thinks he can turn turns and kind of sees green gets spooked tries to take a pat try to take a touch back and the touch is extremely heavy and it sends nico jackson on his way towards our goal with sadi omane alongside him nico passes amane who is one v one with joe scally but christian does well to get back and as sadi omane is trying to play a pass it runs right into christian rhodan and that pass goes out for a corner i know this feeling i know i've been in games where It feels like I'm in quicksand because everything's moving slower for me than it is for everybody else.

I know the feeling. I sympathize. Almost, I went back and watched and see if, like, the Robinson Pass wrong foot. Christian Rodon, like, if maybe it was played to his left foot, that he would have been able to turn in the space or something like that. But I can't really tell by his, I can't really tell by his body shape that he, like, you know, for sure wanted that thing to his left. He didn't get wrong footed about a pass, I guess. That's clear in the rewatch. Okay.

49th minute, we have our first goal that is chalked off, call back for offside. This is a correct call. Tillman wins it in the press over on the left side. He's so good at this for been this way for PSV and the U.S., maybe less so for Levitzen, but at just chasing somebody down. mugging him in the press in the open field and he does that and then he passes it between the defender's legs what a sequence of humiliation for that guy and um i guess it was what sarr or uh crepeen diada i don't know who it was but plays it to balligan balligan uh is a step off side he turns and fires it

it deflects into the top corner everybody celebrates it's a goal but yeah he was offside so Anyway, I'm just bringing it up because it's a great, it's great stuff from Malik. Yeah, great stuff from Malik. And the fact that, you know, we were already pressing well, right? And then you take off Christian Polisik and then you throw in Malik Tillman, who is, I think we, I mean, we've seen this time and time again. Like you said, I mean, just a pretty plus, pretty plus defender in the press specifically. I mean, he got his foot slash body to multiple balls. Yeah.

in the second half of this match. And, yeah, it's good stuff. You know, I was looking at this, trying to understand why flow was offside. I think it's because he was on side for like most of that sequence. You know, he was level with, because it was whoever Malik got the ball from

that was the person that was going to keep flow on onside, right? Yeah. And they were level. And then Malik, backed up with the ball just slightly before making that pass to flow. And I think at that point in time, Flo had like turned to kind of check his shoulder to see if anyone was coming at all. Because, you know, Malik's had the ball for about three seconds now.

Nobody has shown up even at that point. And so as Flo kind of checks, then Malik has lifted and then at that point he's offside. So you still would like for him to, to figure that out to manage that whole situation a little bit better. Yeah. Then we get a goal for Senegal, which is kind of dispiriting in the moment. 52nd minute. Austin trustee's trying to like trying to clean something up, plays a pass backward to Miles Robinson.

He's the right centerback. He's over in the left channel. And he makes a catastrophic error here. Tries to play it back to Brady, blind. his actions had been read like a book by the Senegalese attacker. And so the pass is intercepted off. His foot flies up into the air, bounces in the box. Brady, you know, really called into action for the first time as a national team goalkeeper,

arrives a beat late, gets beaten to it. And Miles tries to run back and clear it off the goal line. Is this, was this Nico Jackson who did all this? Yes Okay Yeah Nico Jackson Tries to stab it

With his boot With the top With the bottom of his boot Into the goal And it's going into the far corner Miles Robinson To his credit on his horse Back to try to

Try to clean up the mess that he made And He and Monnet just meet On the goal line Mane bundles it over Miles ends up with his legs Entangled in the net On his back

And it's 2-2 Tough look It's all on Miles, really. I mean, Brady maybe, maybe could have reacted a little better. But there's a definite hesitation from Chris Brady. That if he doesn't take, he probably is able to get there and get something on the ball. Just punch it out for a throw in, you know, do something. Yeah, he's probably able to do that.

If he doesn't take that, that hesitation. But, of course, this is all Miles. Like you said, read like a book. doesn't realize that Nico Jackson's on his left shoulder until it's until it's too late. And this is a real shame, bro, because this play, we win the ballback from Senegal after another brilliant bit of pressing. You know, we won the ballback in the timeline that I'm before,

Malie Tillman pressing, and we're pressing well again. Once again, to reiterate nine new field players in this lineup for the second half, and we're executing at the same level and probably better because once again we got Malik instead of pulle in that spot. Yeah, I mean, what do you say? I hope Miles doesn't play that much

in the World Cup and if he does, I hope he puts this behind him. I don't know what's worse, a player who looks like they're out of their depth or a player who is pretending to be nonchalant even though they are out of their depth. I mean, that's the Zach Steffen experience, right?

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely, Definitely the latter brother. I mean, you can't be... I feel like Miles is like that a little bit too. Like he's put, he's, he's got this sort of nonchalant affect that does not correspond to his control of what's happening around him. Yeah. Anyway, I want to beat up on him too much,

but this can't, obviously cannot happen in a World Cup game. Yep. Senegal's full of confidence. Thanks to this. and what I what I think was a distinct lack of precision early on in the half

from Wes and and Tim yeah the that where are you thinking of the one where Wes like he gets it from Tim

and he is like his return pass is just like a absolute doinker yeah I mean I'm thinking of that but like yeah there's two instances like after the goal

where like yeah The pressure that Senegal is putting upon us is not really predicated upon what Senegal is doing to us necessarily. It's just... We're like creating our own problems. Mostly Wes just giving the ball away. You know, it's tough. It's tough. Well, West picks it up basically right at this moment and has, I think, an excellent last half hour of the game.

Big sliding challenge from him in the 59th minute. maybe the spark we need. And then in this, go ahead. I think it was right after that comically bad pass. Yeah. Where he, he's like, man, okay, okay, all right, I'm ready to start now. Yeah. And then 60 minute mark, we get another goal chalked off.

And it's, I don't know, it's, I can't understand why you would call this a foul in a soccer game. But it starts with a decisive header from Wes. After a little bit of head tennis in the middle, he springs Tim and Ballo in a 1v1. That head of his always been a weapon, always will be. He knows how to use it. Tim cuts it back for Ballo in the box, and he shifts it onto his left foot, kind of loses it, or, you know, loses track of it. Has to kind of lunge to corral it and hold off a defender with his arm and his left leg. He steps in front of the defender with his left leg.

He's got his arm up, which is a totally normal thing in soccer. he goes to ground so does the defender who's trying to get there Tillman runs in and just slots it easily seems like a goal but they call a foul on ballo for him jockeing for position on that ball potch smiles goes over and gives Papa Chow a back rub in the technical area so yeah he knew it wasn't a foul either

yeah I mean it's just something that not a foul anywhere else on the pitch. Right. You know, if you use your body to shield somebody from the ball, it doesn't matter how far they go flying, you know. Yeah. And then Kyle Martino talking about, oh, yeah, that's definitely a foul. I'm like, what are you seeing out there, brother?

Yeah. Yep, but in the buildup, I do want to stay, you know, talk about the head tennis. You know, there's a pretty physical duel in the air between Tim Wea and, Jouf Joof the West Ham what

Leftback Who you know Underrated Head game Tim Weya You know It's always been a It's always been a

Asset Especially in our matchups Against Mexico Yeah Like the fact that we could Kind of get that ball up there To Tim And he would

You know Whoever they were putting out Against Tim Wea As not as physical him he has his match here against uh duf but wins it convincedly enough that you know it falls towards weston mccanny and also juf ends up on the ground okay you know and then that gives the space for west to head that ball into for tim to run on and and do what tim way it does so yeah okay i got i got to put something in the in the good ledger for tim there that i hadn't accounted for sixty third minute we

score. Our third goal. Some pretty straightforward stuff from Tim and Wes combining up the right. But, you know, it's good. And then a vintage cutback from Tim kind of drifting away from the goal as it slides across the grass. Wrongfoot's the defender who gets a toe to it, but all that does is leave it laid up on the grass for Ballo who just swivels and slides it into the far corner. no way to call this one back 3-2 USA And once again Adam Bells

It's the press Senegal can't get up the pitch bro They cannot get up the pitch And this is different You know It's one thing to cause Like some turnovers here and there

With the press But to actually control An entire team's ability To progress the ball Up the pitch And even get into their Attacking half Or attacking third

That's different Like we are we are completely kind of controlling this match with our ability to press them on the pitch. And so like I noted before, we're a little bit more reserved in the second half, clearly like sitting in our 4-4-2 until a back pass is made and then we start to hunt. And once again, this isn't even like a turnover. This is, we send them back to their keeper, jaw hits the surrender long ball,

and then Joe Scali picks it off. He settles first time to Seb. Seb does the Seb back to Joe. A little layoff. And then Joe gets it up to Tim Wea and we're off. You know, Tim plays the thing from Wes and Wes. I want to give him some plotters here because he does, he plays the perfect pass here for Tim Wea to do what Tim Wea does.

You know, Which is just the first time fissor. Right. First touch he takes is the cross that he puts into the box. You know, you get Tim Way of streaking down that right side. He don't have to worry about getting on the ball. He don't have to worry about doing his little step over. Nothing.

Tim, streaking down the right, we've seen it time and time again with Greg Burrhalter, obviously, and now we're seeing it, Marisa Poshino. If you just give him nothing to do but kind of leverage his mark. and, you know, kind of give him the opportunity to kind of time up, you know, the steps that his, like, defenders taking, like, you know, to ensure that's not blocked. Right. You know, takes it at the right beat. And, yeah, goal. I mean, he can cross the ball.

That's for sure. Yeah. Okay. Let's see. big chance for the USA in the 64th minute nice stuff from Burrhalter pausing on the ball so this was

a QMAR moment he gets it I think from miles between the lines and then he steps on it pulls it back he's not between a line well he's got a defender sort of

behind him and then he and then he lets him get in front of him and then he plays He fits a nice little pass This one's between the lines to Wes. And then Wes takes touch with his right foot and then passes with his left foot, slides it in behind for Ballo.

This is where Ballo wants the ball. And he gets on it and skies it. But this is an excellent shooting chance for the man. Good stuff from us. Yep. I mean, it's exactly what we want. For sure. And once again, the press.

And, you know, I mentioned Seb not being, you know, in between a line because we once again forced them into another surrender, long ball. This one picked off by Austin Trustee. And, you know, when you're in your possession shape, you're not in your defensive shape. And so we're able to get the ball picked off and we're able to counter quickly. You know, Seb, up to west, up to Balo. because Senegal is trying to, you know, when you're in possession, you're expansive, when you're on defense, you want to be compact.

And, you know, in that transition from expansive to compact, there's going to be gaps. There's going to be gaps there, especially if you're not snapping back with the utmost alacrity, which Senegal at this moment in the match was not. And so, yeah, good stuff. And, you know, Seb realized that he had the opportunity to take the ball, turn all the way around, pick his head up and find Wes. So we get a rolled on chance 67 minute mark. Ball falls to him at the back post.

He does actually quite well to settle it and put it on his left foot. And then he sends it, he shoots it and sends it over towards the research triangle. Pops it up. It gets batted away by a portly cameraman. It is like coming down toward him. it's uh you know that clip's going around social media a little bit yeah it's unfortunate like all the all the dudes um well mLS dudes let's just say gave food to the fire you know with this one being the most comical look he takes a shot oh man christian takes a shot and uh

and then he has to go right into a water break and face everybody right after right As soon as it comes off his foot In my house I screamed hell no I don't know if you've seen It's another NBA meme But Kevin Garnett Behind the NBA bench And somebody on the opposite team

Takes a shot And KG's just like Hell no Hell no Was that a brick or what did it go in? It was a brick It was a brick brother It was a brick

There's also some more stuff set by Kevin Garnett After back in it Anyway Anyway, yeah, it was funny. I really thought he was going to cook with this. It looked good. I was having Australia flashbacks. I'm like, oh, yeah.

As soon as that ball fell to him, I was just thinking about, I was like MCB, MCB, he's going to put this in the far corner. He's going to put this in the far corner, and MCB is going to be, like, impossible to deal with from now on. I would have loved to see it. I would love to see it, man. Yeah.

but this whole chance comes from a corner and we had a nice new corner routine from us which was Malik just passed the ball to Maximilian Arfston and let him cook somebody so he kind of gets the ball a little bit upfield kind of like the yeah a little bit upfield from the corner spot and yeah he just goes 1 v1

it absolutely does a dude for real and yeah plays that ball to the back post Christian Rodon's there Okay. There's a water break. Yeah. After the water break, I noticed, I think there's a little, I think Joe Scali receives the ball infield a little bit, tight little close control from Joe Scali and a release to Tim Wea,

who's streaking down the right touchline with his left foot before he gets fouled or something. But we're on our way. And once again, any Joe Scali moments of progression, I'm noting. because, you know, he might be the capable Alex Freeman backup. You know, at this point, I would say no to Miles Robinson, being Alex Freeman's backup. And if we can get moments of progression like this from Josh Galley, then it's definitely like a hell no to Miles Robinson, replacing Alex Freeman, whenever, if we need to do that in this World Cup. Yeah.

I mean, now I'm worried about, like, so trusty to me is the winner of the centerback hunger games on the day because Mark and Miles, Mark didn't cover himself in glory. Miles covered himself in shame. And now we have two healthy left centerbacks and no good healthy right centerbacks. Let's just move, maybe move Alex Freeman to pure right centerback and start Scali. If Richards isn't healthy, which I think there's a question mark over his head for now. I'm expected Chris Richards to play At least Let's say from the Australia match on at the worst

I would think Yeah you're probably right But we need him We need him We definitely need him Because like any I mean That thing that you just mentioned Does not fill me with

You know warm of No it's a crazy idea It's not happening either I mean we'll probably Potch will start McKenzie at right centerback before he starts Freeman there. Yeah.

So we need somebody to do something. But yeah, Austin, mostly assured in his actions. Didn't have a ton to do on the ball, but, you know, his pass is out to like the left wing. We're on time and in the right place.

Yeah. He was good. He was fine. I want to go to the moment at 75 minute mark because it is the Allstate Continental Classico Moment of the Game for me

Incredible sequence from the U.S. It's Malik Tillman striding into the Zone 14. He has a delicate little combination with McKinney just a little one touch pass back to him from McKinney. With those two passes they

cut out, I don't know, three defenders and Tillman plays a just blind pass to his left he doesn't even look through the gap perfectly in stride for Ballo

arriving at the left and the left side of the box I mean he is all alone on other podcasts they might say he needs to finish this I mean all he has to do is pick out a side and it's a goal he hits it right at the keeper but the pass

is just disgusting I mean I love this stuff this is what I live for this kind of path I just can't get enough. I mean, and it was not just the combination. It's the pass. And then it's saved because Ballow, I think, doesn't do a great job of finishing here.

And then it goes straight to Arf, who takes a touch across, like across the box around the penalty area, a little past McKinney. He takes a first time shot with his left foot and his shot hits the post, comes back out to Balagan, who's shot. is deflected off the post. Just gorgeous stuff from us. It would have been the goal of the game if Ballot had just, you know, picked out a side and passed into it. Yeah.

There's really not much more to say. Senegal's kind of all out of sorts, but I mean... That pass puts everybody out of sorts. I mean, there's nobody who is in their sorts after a pass like that. Right, but I'm talking about before, you know, before we get to the past point.

But who would you rather start? Malik or Gio? I mean, it's a good question, Adam Belles. Off the base of this match, hey, give me Malik. Yeah, give me Malik, man. I mean, look, we're going game by game here. You know?

Yeah. Based on what I saw on this match, give me, give me Malik to him. Would be mad. I would not be mad about it. All right. And it's not just, I mean, you throw the pass on top of the returns he was giving us in the press. and the fact that he might be our best presser.

I don't know. And he scored a goal, I'm sorry, he scored a goal that was unjustly called off. Yeah. Yeah. Burhalter comes off for Ali Zendejas. Clever little bit of combo from Ali. I just want to mention this in the 78th minute because of the potts reaction, but there's some clever combo work from.

Allie to play West down the line. West tries to back, he'll it back to him. It's taken off his foot. But Wes rushes back and slides to tackle it out of bounds and shut things back down. Potch is pumping his fist and Wes's direction on the sideline for this. And you can tell he really, he's like, he's really calling on these fellas to stay locked in and finish the game off and get the double you. Yeah. And, you know, he seems, he's locked in too in ways we haven't seen before.

You know, us getting that inside look into the huddle, the way he was coaching these boys up. You know, had the clips ready to go. He's like, next one. Next one. You know, he has his two or three sentences he needs to say about each clip. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah. You know, my boy's locked in.

So it's good to see. Right at the, about the 79th minute mark. there's a Senegal sequence of possession that leads to a big block from Tim Wea This was awesome, yeah I'm glad you brought this up Off of a

Senegalese foot In the box So, you know, it's infectious It's infectious, brother And Timmy laid out for that, man He laid out Yep Yep

It's what you want to see, man What you want to see from this team leading up into a World Cup. You know, let's finish this match off. Let's win this game. Yeah, and let's put our bodies on the line and do it. Yeah. Nothing too crazy, as Mauricio said.

You know, we want everybody healthy coming out of this match, which as far as I know has been the case. But, yeah, it would have been tough. After everything we've talked about in this match and all the good stuff we've seen to leave Bank of America Stadium and the people of Charlotte would it draw. Yeah, would have sucked for sure. Really nice recovery from Tillman running back toward his own end line.

I mean, it's actually, I think, Miles Robinson wins a long ball with his head over towards the sideline, and Tillman comes back. This is something I love to see from him. He's got two defenders on him. He just manages his way through the situation and knocks it off one of their shins for a throw-in. these little details matter a lot. Two more thing, go ahead.

And the ability to do it is not something that everyone possesses. No. 82nd minute, Sendejas gets a gift of a breakaway. The Senegalese defender does a little bit of a Miles Robinson here, except he kind of like offered it to Alley. Yeah. He did. And he just was like, okay, thanks.

And he dribbles, he's in on goal, 40 yards from goal, but gets shepherded onto his right foot and can't beat the defender who gave him the ball in the first place. He looked a little overwhelmed, to be honest. Like, he wasn't, I don't know. It was almost like he was surprised that somebody could, like, catch him, you know, on the pitch. Like, maybe in League of Mekkes, if he gets his chance. He's able to just completely cut across the face of the field onto your left foot. Yeah.

Welcome to West Africa, buddy. You see him start going. It's like, bro, like, where are you going? You know, to be able to kind of play the advantage that you have from getting this ball. Like, you need to be going up the pitch kind of like with your right foot and probably getting ready to shoot the ball with your right foot. But instead, he's doing all he can to try and get that thing on his left. Yeah, part of me thinks he should just step so much in front of the defender to his left that the defender can't get around him without fouling him.

He does opt to go to his right and the shot is blocked rather casually by the defender off his foot. Tillman played to the end line by Sendejas. I mean, Zendahas had some nice things. He plays Tillman to the end line. Tillman skips over a sliding challenge and then fizzes it at Ballow at the penalty marker and he just lets it slip under his left foot trying to receive it with his instep Skips through the waya and he just blasts it over with his left foot So I mean Ballas scored a goal, but he could easily have had a hat trick in this game and But we don't talk about finishing we don't I say that without

You know without any sarcasm it's a battle experience I mean this is that's a battle game of Monaco if I've ever seen one everything that happened in this match kind of two and a half XG

and one goal yeah for sure I mean you do gotta say the QMR advantage for this match in particular goes to Rico yeah

goes to Rico I've seen some I've seen some talk Adam Bells that potentially Christian Polisic plays better with a with a

Ricardo Pepey type of striker as opposed to a Flavar and Balagan type of striker? Do you agree? I don't know. Maybe. I mean, I don't, I wouldn't, I don't, no, I don't think I agree. I think everybody plays better with Balagan.

But, man, yesterday was a, was a counterpoint to that. It was. And also, you know, we're not doing the, and maybe this is an opponent-specific thing, but the outlet into the channel thing. that we did so much during the Gold Cup with Big Pat and that we did a lot with Flow once he was healthy enough to join

up and play with Potch or whatever. Not doing that as much now, which I think does kind of take away some of Flows utility. You know, because he's just an absolute menace in the channels. You know, he can run them and drag centerbacks around, do all this type of stuff. Well, games where we don't have as much control,

there will be more opportunity for that Because there's more space back there. For sure. For sure. So I still think, yeah, I think I flatly reject the, first of all, I need to see Rico do this. Like, maybe 1.5 more times before I, like. Because once again, like I said,

I mean, if he's going to do that, every match that I mean, it's like an open to shut case. Do I trust Rico to be that clean? Yeah, the ideas are always there from Rico. I think that he always has good ideas. It is a simple matter of execution for him, first touch,

physicality. But, I mean, it's good. It's a good thing to have to even contemplate the possibility of there being a striker battle. you know because I would I would not have I would not have guessed that

Pepe would play like that before it actually happened without a doubt he would have told me they're like what it's the best he's played all year like for club or country by far

even though he's had some you know multiple gold games yeah there's there's no doubt about it in my house for sure we got to get out of here we're almost the two hour mark hey thanks everybody for listening

we'll get back you know we face Germany on Saturday in Chicago and you know we'll figure out how we're going to recap that but that's coming your way soon and then the World Cup starts what 11 days from now

yep for us yeah all right thanks everyone everybody for listening we'll see you