Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #718: Yunus lives! Noahkai struggles, Cavan keeps going

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Vince, Sanjay and Belz cover the news of the week. High tempo. Let's go. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus 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: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedCheck out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/storeAlso, 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, it is August 17th, 20206. European season is getting underway. Some leagues have started. Some leagues haven't. People are playing in friendlies that we will talk about. How are you all doing? Vince, how are you?

Adam Bells, I'm doing great, man. Getting back into the swing of things. It's been enough time from the World Cup. to where I'm feeling re-energized, ready to jump back into this club season. For whatever reason, the World Cup took a lot out of me. I don't know why.

Maybe it's just because I don't get that emotionally amped up about many things. And, you know, using, like, emotional energy for me is very finite. It's like, it's not a renewable resource. It's something that I kind of got to charge. It's like fossil fuels, you know what I'm saying? Like, once we tapped out, we tapped out.

You know, it's going to take a billion years. for all these human waste or whatever, the biomass to turn back into something usable for humans. And it's the same thing for me.

Maybe, yeah, just going through the whole thing, the ups and downs, the goods, bads, the travel. I mean, you know, I went to San Francisco. I went from Louisville

to San Francisco and back in like 27 hours. You know, in the middle of that, if you listen to the call-in show in real time, you know what happened also took place before and during the match against Bosnia. So, you know, and all that just took a lot to recover from. Took a lot to recover from. But I'm feeling good.

I'm feeling good. I got a new basketball rim at my house. Okay. Portable. My wife is against a end ground for whatever reason. So it's something about property values. I don't think that makes a lot of sense. But got a portable.

I live on a cul-de-sac. So it's right on the cul-de-sac. my shots up. Okay. Now we hooped a little bit in Amsterdam, and at that point in time in Amsterdam, I was like, bro, I'm extremely washed. So getting back into it, jumper starting to feel a little bit better every day. I tell you what, wasn't washed, though, that drop step of yours. It's just vicious.

Yeah. Just a vicious drop step. So, I mean, yes, yes. That's something that I'm just always going to have just because of, like, uh. Yeah. It's just easy. You know, you could take a few dribbles, kind of set them up, timing, et cetera, and then also, you know, the power on the turn.

I got broadshoulders, et cetera, know how to use them, et cetera, et cetera. But, you know, back in my day, my game was based on a lot more than that. And what I learned in Amsterdam was all the skill was got. All I had was that drop step, basically, Adam Bell. Everything else was cooked. And I wasn't going super hard because I wasn't trying to, like, sweat in my, like, I had a long sleeve, they had a rugby polo on and some sweatpants.

You know what I'm saying? It was just a lot of fabric on my body. For a large man, you know, get out there and get the moving. It don't take long for you to really drum something up. But anyway, I learned in Amsterdam that all the skill had been, I was washed in a way that I hadn't been washed in a long time on a basketball court. So I'm slowly starting to build it back up. And along with that, you know, I mean, shooting a basketball for me,

therapy, the bouncing of the ball, you know, you just kind of in tune with your body. What are you doing wrong? Why did I miss that shot, et cetera? And it's just brought me back to equilibrium, I guess. Maybe that restores your emotional reserves a little bit, too. I think so. Yeah. I think so.

So, yeah, I'm back, man. Let's get going. Sanjay, how are you? About to start law school? Yeah, this podcast is going to be therapy for me for a long time now. Now, I'm thinking about basketball. Basketball was actually my original love, starting with the New Jersey Nets back in the day. I played point card growing up.

It was my number one sport. You got a nice team to, like in your early years, right? That's one of the Nets. Yeah. Yeah. My dad would get tickets, too, through work. So, yeah, I love basketball until, like, late into high school, that was my number one sport. But, yeah, I've picked up a bowl in a while.

I'm sure I'd feel pretty wash, too. but yeah i'm missing the world cup um i think this kind of hit me in in delayed fashion um the high of covering something like that and people told me before the world cup like i was i was warned about this um you know after you go home and and real life just kind of sets back in that that you're going to long for it and uh yeah it's it's a weird feeling um but i'm ready for the next one uh it should feel different covering a World Cup, you know, abroad. I think that's maybe more like what the World Cup is supposed to be. And we've got an exciting one in four years time, an exciting pool to get us there. So, yeah, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, but I'm thinking

about the World Cup a lot. See you in Casablanca. All right. Eunice Musa. Seems like he's he's going to stay at Milan and he's going to play. He survives once again, man. That's what I'm talking about. That's a real mentality monster. All right, Mr. Eunice Musa. You know, there's been multiple managers,

multiple managers that have gotten wooed by the man. You know, the smile. Million-watt smile, you know, he shows those pearly whites off. The ability on the ball. You know, imagine. being a manager, you know, you take over a team and you see Eunice Musa glad by like two people in practice. And then it like just kind of continues to be a thing over and over. Like who would not fall in love? You know, hopefully, because, you know, we've had stops and starts. Like the

Consta Sal, I mean, remember the love affair that Consta Sal had with Eunice Musa for a solid three to four months, kissing them after they, what, advanced to the Copa type. Oh, no, they won the Super Cup over in Saudi or something like that. That's kissing him on the cheek, warm embraces, all that. It coincided with probably Eunice Moussa's best club play that we've seen in his young career. And, yeah, look, I don't know much about Amoram. It seems like a lot of people are down on the man. But look, if you and Eunice Moussa's corner, I'm in your corner, so let's wrap.

Well, Amiram came, I don't know if he came immediately from, but he was at Manchester United. So, like, if you're at Manchester United, then nobody likes you anymore. That's just kind of like how it works. There's a curse that falls upon you. It was funny. After this friendly that they played against Manchester United, there was a clip of Emmerim talking to a lot of players, and it seemed like they liked him.

Granted, it wasn't the whole team, but that was interesting to see. But, yeah, Eunice went 76 minutes in this final friendly of the preseason for Milan, and we have a tweet from Nikola Skira, who seems to be a fairly reputable source, that Milan have turned down three different approaches by Sariaa, Super League and Premier League clubs for Eunice Musa, who was ready to stay at Milan, and Coach Amarim wants to keep him.

So it looks like hopefully he'll be starting this Sunday at Torino in their Seria opener. Christian is still out. But yeah, definitely the most notable item of the week for me, because this could be a big deal in terms of constructing our midfield going through this cycle with someone who already has, like we talked about last week, the concave experience, and now hopefully is going to get the trust of his manager at the position he belongs at. We'll see if pot trust in there too. I hope he does. I hope he's watching.

I have a proposal for Eunice's technical development plan. You know the thinking that Dortmund has, like the big robot where they play the ball to your feet and then the light goes on on a like a mini goal yeah football not what is it called i think it's called the football not something not not not i'll look it up right now yeah seven hours a day in that thing at the football not i'm sorry the football not yeah there it is there it is seven hours a day because because because the because what woos the managers is his is his like his ability on the his ability to keep the ball. But what ends up causing the break is that he hits a pass that goes the wrong way

or doesn't have the right weight to the right foot. And then it's a counterattack at a key moment. And all eyes fall on Eunice. So if he could just get his passing a little cleaner, I mean, I still think he should have been with us at the World Cup. I still think he's probably a top 15 player in the U.S. men's national team pool. But if we want to leave no doubt, just get a little stronger in that area of your game.

I don't even care if he scores goals. I don't even care if he gets assists or if he finishes. Don't care. Just take that ball security to the next level so that when you release the ball, it's going somewhere good. To the next level, man. Hopefully he can do that. Somehow, some way, I mean, like, one of the players that are on the outs that has led in Eunice Musa staying is of Fofana.

You know, the Milan 6th who's been there for three seasons now, I want to say. I don't know if it's all on merit or whatever. I would probably guess it it's not on merit. It might be like a contract thing or whatever. But yeah, like losing Wesley Fafana to this Milan team, like, that's a big deal. They got, like, there's holes to fill. there and I think units will have opportunity because of those holes being created by the departures or the departures that the manager wants to happen, I guess.

So may long continue, man. I mean, you know, there's been stops and starts, obviously. And then in a lot of the starts, a lot of those minutes have been units who are playing wingback. So hopefully they got my boy in the middle. and emmer him like I said man I'm behind you 100% of the way this is a potential

key contributor in 2030 and he's worth paying attention worth celebrating that he is you know probably going to play a lot for one of the biggest clubs in Italy

reminder he's he's just 23 years old younger than Seb by a couple years yeah two years yeah we need more football not America, by the way. Where's our tech excellence manifesting itself in the global game? Come on now.

Our tech excellence is manifesting itself in other ways. Speaking of Dortmund, how is, how, what do you feel about Matisse, Albert, Sanjay? Yeah, so he played the last 30 minutes of friendly against Roma on Saturday. I don't think he's ready for this first half of the campaign. Like I've said before, I think this is probably a winter, you know, Marbella breakthrough or next year's preseason. Dortmund are also bringing another attacker. From Greece, the winger attacking midfielder looks like Janis Constantelius.

I think I'm saying that right. So he's an attacker. And, yeah. Why do you feel like he's not ready? He's, it's not that, like, he's clearly talented and he's composed, but I don't see the separation, the burst, the impactfulness coming from him in a way that, you know, reminds me of, like, I don't think, like, I'm just comparing it to Christian and Gio, to be honest, not necessarily. what their squad has to offer. And to me, like,

he's not at that point. With Christian, to be fair, even early on with Christian, it wasn't like every time he played. He was having an impact. There were games where,

yeah, he looked like, he looked like more a kid. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean. The potential impact was obvious, though. Yes. Yeah.

And with Matisse, it still looks like a player from the U-23s, you know, finding his weight. He has, he's gotten stronger. But, you know,

in terms of quickness, speed, I think we still got to wait a little bit for him to level up. Well, I think that's the thing, though, it's like, because I watched his minutes in this match. And I thought he, I thought he looked all right, you know, as far as like, but I think it's a profile thing, basically, where it's like, you know, you got a young kid and it's like, like Christian, for instance, it's like, you put this young kid on, this young kid is just like, he doesn't know what he's doing necessarily, but he's just dynamite.

You know, you throw him out on, you just throw that man out there on that pitch and you know he has a potential to make something happen. Matisse's game is a little bit different in that, you know, he operates in the inside a lot more and it requires just a lot more,

a lot more culture than I guess, like, where Christian Polisic might have been just a blunt force object at the point in time, especially when he, when he had the juice to just get going on that wing. Where Matisse is just like, his game is like receiving the ball in tight spaces,

kind of turning, making things happen in and around Zoh-14 kind of thing. And like he was able to kind of apply his tools kind of well in this match against Roma. But I guess I can see where Sanjay is coming from just because, like I said, like if you're not Giovanni Raina trying to do these, he's trying to do Giovanni-Rana things, he's not Gio-L-Rana yet. kind of you know he he has a little bit more juice off the dribble i would say he is more of a more of a winger as opposed to like an attack and midfielder um or an or an eight or something like that but he's operating in those same spaces kind of and i've yet to see some like real

ingenuity or like like graduate level thinking from him yeah i mean obviously this man is what 16 17 so it's coming but like yeah the honor ramp for him to get minutes at a club like Dortmund playing the way that he plays. It's just, I think, maybe a higher degree of difficulty. I would say definitely a higher degree of difficulty because he's relying on his technical tools a lot more than somebody who's just supremely physically gifted would be. So, yeah, just, I think it's going to require just a little bit more time. I think he looks, I think he looks all right, though.

I think he looks hard. Two things. One, there's always going to be competition at Dortmund. They're always bringing in young players. There's always going to be that battle. And two, if there's a place where he's going to get to play, even if he's not completely ready, it is Dortmund. Yeah.

To Vince's point, he is like more of a winger, but even when he's in more space, he's not close to what we see him doing at the youth level, right? where you do see some of that dynamite, I still think even though he's stronger and he's quick enough and it's not that he's not fast, but there's still a bit of a lag here

where we're waiting to see him do stuff against adults. And that's fine. That is totally fun. Okay, Pepey scored. Dest assisted him. It's a nice ball across that kind of arcs from wide down to Pepe's feet takes it first time with his left foot.

just thumps it home. I don't know, though. I don't know. Look, man, I mean, yeah. I guess that's all we can take from this. I mean, who they play? Excelsior. Excelsior.

Yeah. Stan Lee and them boys. So, you know, they're back at it again. Another Air Divisie campaign. Really, the only thing I can take, if Rico stays healthy, I just need to get reps. Stay healthy, get reps. He can, because Bells, you're looking at me.

You look, and I know the feeling might be this whole Air Divisi season might be a waste for both Surge and Rico. And maybe it is. But I don't say that. I'm not saying that it's a waste or anything. I just like, what does it prove? Well, I'm going to tell you. Okay. Because, you know, we sat here week after week, lamenting.

Rico's ability, like his hold-up play, all different types of things that we saw in the Air Divisie season last season. If he stays healthy this year, shows me some improvement in that, you know, because these are things that popped up in the Air Divisie. It wasn't like he was just untouchable in the league and then also scoring in Champions League,

all that different type of stuff. So he hasn't mastered the level yet, I guess I'd say. So if he can stay healthy this season, eat up 3,000 minutes, A striker, score, 35 goals, you know, playing for PSV. I mean, that's something that you can do, especially if you're playing 3,000 minutes at the 9 for PSV. And show improvement in this holdup play. I mean, that would be, that would be great, you know.

So, yes, it's whole hum on the goal thing. Rico, he going to score goals. We know this. We saw it in person, in Oinhoven, ourselves, Adam Bells. But, yeah, there's still something to prove for him there. Serenio, maybe not. Especially because, like, maybe if he was just playing a straight winger and we know Potsch used him at winger,

like maybe we could see some improvement for him there. Like, it's just... But that's not the case. We don't get the Sergenio that we're used to getting. It's okay. I like the Sergenio that we're used to getting. I don't have any... I'm fine with him.

Yeah, I think we were all just waiting for, hoping for a move, right? There was the Byron rumor at the start of the summer with Surge, and then Peppy, obviously, we know what happened with the Premier League interest. Yeah, and to that point, Sanjay, I'd rather him be here than the Premier League. Yeah, right now, yeah, yeah. And also, you know, Champions League is a nice carrot for us to keep what. We'll watch them live in those games, the rest of it might be another Y Scout year. Okay

Gio Raina Excelsior Gio Rana is at Strasbourg now as you may already know went 45 in a friendly versus Newcastle on Sunday got an assist

Let me describe the assist Because it was It was kind of funny There was a cut back from the left side It was behind Gio He did the Gio hands He did remonstrate with his arms to indicate his displeasure with the placement of the past.

And then he was just standing there, which I'm not a big fan of. And his teammate rushes in and presses a guy on the ball from behind. Geo also, once he sees that the guy's in trouble, Gio jumps in, pokes the ball away, and then plays a really nicely way to pass into the path of the guy who pressed him back across towards the other side of the field. but like just a three or four yard pass. Nice weight on it. The guy rifles it in the top right corner.

Ends up as a one-one draw in the game. So a nice pass, but I see some mentality issues already rearing their head at Straussport here. Like, come on, brother. You can't be acting like that. If the man who scored the goal did not press to get that ball back. Gio wouldn't have done anything. It wouldn't. Nothing would have happened.

That wouldn't have been a play. It wouldn't have been to assist for Gio Rang. Nothing. You make your own luck. Yeah, the guy who scored made the luck. Gio didn't make the luck. I'll give Gio some credit. He did hop in, well, once again, to the analogy I made back in the World Cup, you know what I'm saying?

He's not going to get the party started. That is a good way to put it, yeah. Party's going, brodom pressed him. Here comes Gio with the 30 rack. He's like, I'm going to clean up. I'm a clean up. Somebody called me, FaceTime me from the party. assess the situation. I saw I was lit.

It looks good. I'll be there. Here I am. G.R. Raina, I'm pulling up. I'm pulling up, bro. So, I mean, yeah. Yeah, we need people who, you know, to just, just in a very messy way, paraphrase Michael Irvin, we need people who are going to get the party started, you know? We need everybody out there getting the

party started. And you can't feel the temperature in the room, bro. He must be the he felt the temperature. He saw, he was like, oh. Yeah. Don't say you need to get on FaceTime to see what the party looks like. He was more active than I thought he'd be, but he looked active as, like, someone who hasn't been playing regularly for a long time. You know what I mean?

There were some moments where he got lost in the shuffle a bit, but he was in there banging around. Okay. Yeah, I mean, he did, okay, you know, like past this play, which, you know, is an assist. I guess I'm not going to come down on him too hard or something like that. you know, just to keep people off my back. But, you know, he's kind of playing a 10 attacking midfielder

for a Strasbourg in these minutes that I saw. And there were just multiple times where he's receiving, he's receiving the ball in a half space between midfield and defensive lines. And he's just not getting it cracking in the way that I want them to. You know, it's like that patting the Gio thing where he like receives the ball there. And then he'll kind of just not,

Neil won't pass the ball back, but he'll, like, dribble back. So, like, basically, you know, we broke a line. You know, we passed the midfield line to get the ball to you, Gio. But then you kind of take it out and let the midfield line, like, and now the midfield line is in between you and the goal again. Because you just, you know what I'm saying? It's just, I don't want to see that, man. You know?

And like I said, I agree with you. all. When we talk about Gio and his ability on the ball and all these different types of things, I see it too. I would just like for him to use it consistently. You got to press the advantages, man. You know what I'm saying? Send that man some Kevin Sullivan tape.

I was just going to make that comparison. It's like he's leaving so much on the table, Gio is, despite his like unquestioned quality but one person who's not leaving anything on the table Kevin's older than man we'll get there we'll get there right now what one thing on geo get all these other guys let's let geo let's let geo get some more fitness under him

league opener on Friday versus Timway and Marseille I'll be watching him closely a lot of people have written his obituary but this is a new chapter that no one's not coming Okay, well It's a new chapter, brother. Yeah, I'll be reading the chapter two.

But Philly's won four straight, Philly Union, in the MLS. In MLS. And Kavan is the most, he's the most influential player on the field for them. Two assists in a three-goal, second half as they came back from two zero down at NYCFC. So this is like difference-making performance. Again, not perfect. It's not perfect. There's a lot of messiness out there.

but man, he is pressing the issue. Every chance he gets. We talked about this last week. He's relentless. He's coming at you. He receives in the half turn. He is not going to dribble backwards and try to do nothing. He's going to try to do something every time he gets on the ball.

He's a mentality monster at 16. Yeah. Yeah, great comeback. Great comeback went for Philly. I can't wait to stop watching games. You say it's ridiculous. Brother. That is a crazy feel.

Like, it's like, I mean, you know, I have my experience watching soccer and baseball stadiums. That's where my first soccer game in person was watched at a baseball stadium, Louisville City. But, yeah, I mean, like, how narrow the field is. And, like, it's just, it's just not suitable. It's not suitable for the beautiful game, man. And Kevin doesn't care. He says, I'm going to come on this terrible field and I'm going to dominate it. there's a yeah their new stadium is going to go crazy i can't wait for the national team to have

games there but um yeah philly's on a role in mLS with uh a young american head coach playing the kids ryan rector we love that this is what ron rector said at halftime or what he said about half time um when they were down two nil last night he said about cavan he's one of the guys at half time that i really challenged and for a young man the fact that he can accept this in the moment take it and then put together what he did in the second half and then have the unselfish play on Bruno's first goal. That's what makes him different is this mentality and maturity. So he's taking a step.

He's clearly taking a step, not just with what we see with the ball of his feet, but in every possible way defensively too. We'll keep talking about him. He is in the must call up category, in my opinion, along with, we'll get to him, Eddie. But, yeah, I mean, when you look at the way the Belgium game went and who we brought off the bench. There's no reason to keep this guy out of the senior team camp any longer.

Sign me up. Must call him up. Must call him up. I'm tired of no more messing around. This is where the MLS hype machine, the MLS people, and the Euro snobs, you know, this is where the proxy wars end. Cabin puts the guns down like Michael Jackson in that in that little clip, you don't talk about. Yeah, of course. Which that's, I mean, and also the blood and the with the flag and the bandanas up. But this particular situation

can only happen with somebody under 20. You know, like once you, 21 and above, if you're coming from MLS, opinion is going to be split. Brother. Opinion is going to be split regardless, but we all know where Kavin's career is headed, who is assigned to already,

all the different type of stuff. So it satisfies everybody on that front. But yeah, I think I'm along with y'all, man. Like, no. to a Neil Pierre. I'm sorry. Like, but right now, hey, come on.

Even though, look, look, the potential is, the potential is amazing with Neil. Like, that's somebody, like, as soon as he touches down, I think, is going to give us something on the business handle in front

that, I think we just don't have. But, you know, people keep telling me he's like this, that he is a good passer and that he's shown it in, like, his youth days or whatever, but right now it is atrocious.

But anyway, I'm down with Kevin. I'm down with Audrey. Without a doubt, you know, watching these dudes, especially Audrey. Like, every week it's just like, come on, bro. This dude would get there on merit if he was one of those 20 and up MLSers. Should we talk about Audrey? Before we talk, I just want to ask a theoretical question. which of our 20-something national team players

could beat up Kevin Sullivan in a, like in a fist fight? He would whoop Christian Pulisick's ass, no doubt about it. Ah, man, come on. And Brendan Aronson. And Brandon is, he beat him up both at the same time. I mean, he is still, he's about to be 17, he's 16. To your point, though, like, he's been playing, he played with his older brothers his whole life.

Like not just unorganized soccer. Like his older twin brothers, Ronan and Declan. Like he's been around older guys' whole life being scrappy. So he's got a different edge to him that, again, he's not the pretty boy like marketing, face of a campaign. Like he has an intensity to him that I think is national team ready.

I'm going to keep going with this even though and perhaps because you guys are uncomfortable about it. Go ahead. So forget the defenders, like, because I don't, he's not going to, he's, Gavin can't handle any of the defenders except for maybe Sirginio. He would, he would whoop. No, we've seen Serginio give a two-piece to a Mexican national team player. You know what I'm saying?

I mean, come on, man. He's got an edge, yeah, he puns the ball in the stands every now and then. Put a little bit respect to Seginio. Okay, I mean, that'd be a good one. That'd be a good battle. but Wes Wes would take care of Kevin easy

Tyler yes oh come on come on Tyler Adams yes come on man I would like to see a

Kevin Tanna Testament I'd like to see Kevin versus Tanna Testament I would take that I would take that that would be interesting um Baligan would annihilate

Kavin for sure yeah I don't know Alejandro's or Dehats Okay, that's easy. I mean, come on. I mean, Zendahas is in the crucible of Liga-A-Mack-East. Look, I know where you're going with this, but I think it's more like Kevin would just, like, fit in and be scrappy

and, like, hold his own. I don't know if he's whooping anyone yet. Members of the press corps. That's the first Ryan told me. What we take him, yeah? Ryan's a really nice guy, but my money's on. Dude, Kevin's still 16 years old. What?

Not, not for real. No, he's like really, but he's very, very physical. And, you know, it's like... He's about that action boss. Yeah, no doubt about it. And for people that don't know, they want some more background on Kevin and maybe have been holding off on the hype train or whatever,

just watch the MLS doc on Apple TV. I think it's like episode three, I want to say. You see the episode two or three where they really profile. Calvin and his dad, mom, whole family. Like it starts off with, I think Kevin needing help with this very easy homework that Quinn Sullivan, I think, ends up helping him with. But it goes through everything.

And, you know, I can only hope that this comes to fruition. The next Airborne 69 is Papa Sullivan, Brendan Sullivan, bro. If he decides to document, you know, different things on social media, I don't know if he will, but like you can watch the dock. The man is electric. Really? Electric, bro. I'm telling you.

I was going to watch the dock, bro. You just got to watch it. I don't know if he has time for social media. He's all business. You know, he's a teacher. He's coaching too. But yeah, great people. Super educated people was what I remembered, what stood out to me.

You understand the cabin mentality once you watch that episode, basically. Well, you're not going to catch Kevin dance into a Taylor Swift song on TikTok. No, come on. So you can beat up Aidan Morris? I don't know. Aidan's pretty tough. Yeah, I don't know. But we do have to move on to Sebastian Burhalter.

So what's up with him? Went 90 against the newly promoted Lincoln City. Lincoln City. Mm-hmm. For Middlesbrough. You know, he played well. I mean, he kept things ticking. I think he's mostly,

Aidan Morris is out right now, has an injury. I don't know when he's expected to be back, but he's mostly, he was doing the Aidan Morris things, kind of facilitating possession. I mean, you know, this is a newly promoted side from League One.

They had them boys packed in to their own defensive third for, you know, 90% of the match. So, Seb was just kind of having to jolly up. Well, we'll check in later when he gets some, you get some real comp, you know, when he sees Ryan Reynolds and them boys.

We'll check back in. But this was a good start. Good start for Seb. Rexum. That's Rexum for all of you who don't know what he's talking about. Ryan Reynolds and them boys. That's Rexum. Arf,

I've subbed into this one too. Let's not forget about him. Half an hour, roughly. Okay. Brenda and Leeds, they whooped on Nokia and Augsburg 4-0 on Saturday. they both started. Yeah.

Brindo got an assist. Kind of a simple transition moment for leads. Brenda receives a ball, left side of the box, just kind of turns and passes a square to his leads teammate who thumps it home. So good from Britain. I mean, look, Brenda's had a good preseason. Yeah. Goals and assists everywhere.

Great goal versus Man United earlier this week. Yeah, so if he can keep it going, that'd be great. And like, you know, maybe just maybe. Brenda was just like, because, you know, we're so obsessed in the soccer world with youth and potential and whatever. Like, you know, maybe Brenda's just taking a very traditional path to being a professional soccer player. You know, it's like, you know, he hits his prime years.

And maybe in his prime years we're seeing something, you know, maybe he gets us a little nine goals, six assists, you know. He's definitely going to be a useful player in this cycle. All this experience has to mean something. I think I agree with that. I agree with that. One thing on Nokey, look, I know we're desperate for centerbacks, and he obviously technically has, there's a nice foundation there,

and he has physical tools, but we got to be realistic. Like, he's not going to come in and, like, be the savior. especially defensively. I mean, like, that's putting it lightly, brother. This man is Mark McKenzie Light right now, bro. I mean, respectfully. Damn. I mean, he's at the scene.

He's at the scene of the crime of almost every goal lead scores in this match. We got to pump the brakes. He still loves to, like, just fly out of position. Yeah. He's very eager to hunt the ball. Like, again, he has all the tools and on the ball looks nice. But, you know, like we talked about. You know, like Bell's like you talked about, with Bob Bradley having business handlers, guys like, you know, Jay DeMert, Gooch, who maybe aren't the sexiest ball playing centerbacks, but do the job defensively.

No keys is not close to that. And for that reason, I think he'll end up with us sooner rather than later because I don't think he's going to snip the German team. Like, bro, come on. You look at a job. Anytime soon at least. And then you look at Noah Kai Banks. Like, come on, man. bro, you're not getting a

diamond shaft call up, bro. They're doing what you're doing now, which is very nasty. Well, and look, and this is the thing about it. Listener, let me put you on to something I like to call responsible Y-scouting, okay? When you're watching a defender, you watch the actions, but then you also got to watch the other team shots or goals.

Okay, in this match, Leeds have four goals. goals. So I was like, let me just go ahead and watch the goals. And that's where it shows up. Because on a per-action basis, I was looking at that. I was like, you know, Nokia actually handled his business all right for this match. Aside from

the first goal, like the Brenda assists, where he was kind of, didn't know whether they get pressure to to Brenda or to, he was just kind of stuck in two minds, get pressure to Brenda or get to the person who Brenda passed the ball to, which no, no, he didn't either.

Didn't either. But, so I didn't see the other three goals on the all actions playlist or whatever. Then I look at the goals, I'm like, oh, man, come on. This is. Because the coding of actions doesn't, it doesn't account for when you just don't follow an assignment or, like, blow an assignment or jump out of position. If you're standing next to somebody and they get played in on goal, that's just not going to show us. So you got to make sure you got to make sure you hop in on them on them goals and or shots But yeah man I think the second goal he was following

I think his name was Justin James James Justin he was he like kind of passed the ball Came inside and got a return pass on the on the one two he's in on goal scoffrey goal that was no key's man The other one it was him standing next to his middle center back And there's an attacker right in between the two of them I don't know who's man it really should have been, but he gets played in on goal. Scores, like, very just straight through the middle, no resistance from the Augsburg back line, another league's goal.

So it's, we're dealing with the same things from last season, unfortunately. Yeah, and hopefully, you know, he gets a full season starting and can iron out some of these things, but you need more maturity at centerback. And speaking of which centerbacks and goals, let's not forget to mention the Celtic tandem of Trustee and CCV. Trustee got a goal in a cup win, and good to see CCV back out there too.

So, yeah, I think, you know, in terms of the games this fall, and Belsa, she's going to say. I'm talking mainly about trustee here. I think that's someone, you give a run a game sooner rather than expecting Nokia to come in and save the day. I think trusty and Chris, you know, that's a partnership. I'd like to see. That's fair.

We can talk about Trustee. But CCV is like, you know, if the man with the plan knows anybody, he knows camera card to Vickis. And the fact that he hasn't been around lets me know that we probably don't need to talk about. I mean, it was an injury for a long time, but that injury doesn't help his case. Turn to that wear and tear. I was shaking my head, but not because of Trustee or CCV. I was just thinking about the centerback picture in general.

It's nasty. Yeah. I'm hoping Neil Pierre. starts passing the ball crisply. Look, I mean, the defensive stuff is good, man. It's good. So, I mean, you know. And Nokey, I'm not personally.

I know you guys aren't either, but I just want to be clear. I'm not giving up on Noke. No. He's 20. And centerback is a position that typically takes a little more time to bake. So. So do Stryker. And like, I think a while ago, I drew the analogy

between Nokey and and Ballo in terms of positional scarcity and what they could do for the team. And I'm just, I think Vince and I're on the same page here, like, don't expect him to come in and have like a Ballot-level impact anytime soon on this team. And really, not that I sit here and think about it,

I mean, when did Chris start getting first team minutes in the Bundesliga? Yeah, even Chris. I mean, he got him. He got him early, yeah, like with Hoffenheim, right, when he was like on that loan. Like, he got him, but it's even between that, And when he was like an established, trusted player for the national team, there was a bit of a lag.

Chris was definitely good enough early on. So, yeah, it's the same thing with Noki. Like, it's going to take some time. I think Chris was playing at a higher level in the Bundesliga sooner than Noki was. Right, right. Yeah. That's the point I wanted to make. I think at the same age, I think I would take Chris at this point.

Definitely. Okay. Johnny Cardoso versus Tim Wea and another friendly. This one was on Friday. Obviously, Adletti versus Marseille. Way I started and went 87 minutes. Johnny went 56 for Adletti. Yeah, good sign.

Just a pronunciation note. It's Atletico, Madrid. No age. Athletic Bilbao. That's right. Okay. Go ahead, Sanjay. Our league of Bill is here.

Not not much to add on this. Good to see Johnny fit. Had a La League opener on Wednesday against Malaga. Tim White was playing some right back in this game. Not some right back. He was right back. And he is a right back, I guess. Yeah.

So, yeah, Johnny, again, like Eunice, was really ashamed with Johnny because we thought he'd be there this summer, especially after the performance he had in that first friendly in March, we were excited about him. So hopefully you can pick up where he left off and really establish himself. I've been thinking, the more I watch him play, I'm getting excited about the possibility of him playing with Audrey, if it's a double pivot.

I like to think they can compliment each other pretty well, but we shall see. Yeah. Where was the captain in this game? That's right. Captain the side, Captain Marseille, which, you know, when you see things like this, it might give you, you might feel immense pride. You might feel like George Waye, proud and excited to watch your son, Captain Marseille. But so he wore the armband.

Their usual captain, Hoyberg, he has like two first names or something. Pierre, that was it? Hoyberg, you know what I'm talking about. Former Tottenham, yeah. what Southampton man etc captaincy was taken away from him and

it was because he has turned down he's turned down a transfer to Newcastle for 15 million and so Marse's owner is kind of retaliating at him by stripping him of the captaincy and then Bruno Janicio

Marsei manager had this to say about Timway being captain way a captain, it's a decision that comes from management. If I'm being honest, it's not a decision I agree with, but I'm just an employee. So I ain't never seen a reluctant

ass arm band giving to somebody. But there it is. There it is, man. It's funny that I'm just an employee. Like, yeah, I guess, you know, you say what you got to say.

Oh, well, real quick, real quick, I just want to shout out Timo. He had a very nice, he received the ball at like the right back position there, you know, in build out where a right back would usually be. Receives it, comes inside, drives through the entirety of the athletic defense and plays a one-two with, it's a blast from the past right here, fellas. Mr. Amin Harit. Oh, yeah, from Shaqa.

Oh, yeah. From Shaqa. Yeah, yeah. He was gone. been a Marseille player, but he was on loan in Turkey last season. I think he's back this season. So one, two, with Mr. Hedit. Tim gets the ball back. He is now on the left side of the left side of the box driving towards goal, takes a left-footed shot. It goes wide of the goal. But it was nice, though. It was a nice play. There was a lot of other Tim Way of receiving

the ball on the right and pumping crosses in. It didn't amount too much, but that play was hoping he can get his mojo back with Potch because that turkey game hurt my heart. Yeah. But, yeah, while we're, it's being a league un, we got Tessman and Leon. So he was back at Center Mid in the win over Sparta Prague last week to advance. Big win. Big win for Leon. Yes. So now they got Fenra Bacha coming up.

First, like it's tomorrow in Istanbul, 3 o'clock Eastern. So it looks like the Centirac thing might not stick. maybe he'll deputize here and there for them, but he's a center midfielder. That's right. And they were up a man for most of, most of that match against Slavia Prague, which they, you know.

So, I mean, Tanner did all right. I'm looking at Fenerbachi just to see, because I know Turkey's been spending some money lately. Ooh, they got a... I mean, those big ones, the big clubs in Istanbul, They're no strangers to spend it on. Hold on, bro. They got...

So, see, I remember Art Turkugu from Turkey when we played him in New York. Yeah. I think he scored. Marco Ascensio, Mason Greenwood, Mateo Guinduzzi, Angolo Conte. They got Screniart, a centerback. They got Nathan Akei at centerback. Hey, man, I got a nice little team.

Yeah. Nelson Cimedo. I mean, like, all these dudes, like, some of these dudes are getting up there. Yeah. Like, the last three or four I mentioned are all over 30. But, hey. That's a team that could win the European Championship on penalties every single knockout game, you know? Hey, man.

Just like Portugal. Leon, it's not going to be a walking apart, I guess I say. And especially, I mean, you already know what's going on when you got to go to Turkey. for a big match like this. So I'm locked in. I'm locked in. Hopefully we get Davoswini going live from the bizarre. That'd be awesome.

All right. Alex Freeman's not playing. We're not panicking. No, he's in the same situation that we left him in last season. You know, I think the man's name is Marino. I want to say the right back in front of him. He didn't go anywhere. He was playing in front of him last season.

season and he started off the season playing in front of him once again. Now, I mean, I didn't watch the minutes that Alex Freeman did not play, but they gave up two goals to racing Santander in the first half of this match. I'm wondering if Mr. Marino got some, you got some egg on his shirt? I don't know. We're not worried. Yeah, hopefully. Speaking of egg on the shirt, you know, real quick, before we're. going any further. That's one of the phenomenon in the sport

that nobody really wants to talk about but we all accept it as being you know, we know it's there. You know, when you're sitting behind somebody, hey. You're praying on their downfall. Hey, look, you don't want nobody get injured. But if they happen to get injured,

I'm not mad about anything. Yeah. Also, you're not trying to play like ass. You know what I'm saying? It's a it's a weird situation to be. You don't hear anybody talk about it that much, really. And I feel like, especially with how cutthroat soccer is, I feel like we need to get more players on the record, speaking about what they maybe did or did not do to get their spot back.

Yeah, it'd be fun to find the one or two people who would tell the truth about that. I mean, you know, we talked about our MLS owner blackmail plan. I mean, if you in that situation, bro, I would exhaust all. all avenues, bro. Well, there's the, I don't know, how much people, like, do to make stuff happen, but it's like that emotional part, like, yeah, they tell the media, oh, like, you know, it's a competition. We're all going to do our best, but it's like you are quietly, emotionally, like,

you know, rooting for their downfall. Look, if you and your team aren't putting in every effort to get on that pitch, look, maybe you pick up some ladies at a night and make sure they're... Drop them off at the... craft mansion. You know what I'm saying? I mean, look, man. I don't know.

Yep. All right. You were going to say something about somebody else with egg on their shirt? Sort of, yeah. I mean, we can get into the transfer stuff and transition into that. Malik, Malik, he played, he did play 70 minutes in a friendly versus Newcastle on Saturday. But according to our friend, our friend, Florian Plettenberg, Leverkusen are open to selling him for an exceptional offer.

Plenberg said, Malik is now on to watch until deadline day. He notes his release clause last summer was 35 million euros, which Leverkusen activated. So, yeah, we covered, you know, this little drama with his comments about maybe a perceived lack of support from the club. So let's see what happens. I feel like he'll stay.

I kind of hope he stays, but this is a funny situation, honestly. I mean, it's possible if somebody comes up with an exceptional offer. Maybe, you know. I mean, we see this all the time. Somebody balls out of the World Cup. Yeah. And they go somewhere based entirely off their performance at the World Cup, you know what I'm saying?

So, because you would not be buying him for performances at Leverkusen so far, unfortunately. That's true. Except for, yeah, a couple of good games in championship. There's some good games here, there's. I'm not worried about Malik. He's going to be fine wherever he is, I think. And he played well in this friendly. Okay.

Ballot, he's still at Monaco, but there's, what, Tottenham still in the hunt? Yeah, nothing super new on this front last few days, but the noise out of France still suggests, you know, Tottenham would be the likely suitor. but again, nothing is close to concrete. We've got prem interest for Joe Scali too, allegedly. Supposedly it's Fulham and Bournemouth in England, and maybe Marseille too.

There's interest from there, according to Sky Sports, Germany, and other outlets there. So it sounds like he might not be. He's going to get Tim way out of here. Yeah, I mean, it might be contingent on that. But so Tim, like he was linked to Sundelan before. Like that interest goes back to before the World Cup, I think. But, you know, that's resurfaced recently.

And who knows if there's anything to Sunderland specifically, but it doesn't sound like Tim's ready to leave. Would you want to leave the French Riviera to go to Sunderland? Yeah, I was about to say, like especially Tim Weyer, I think he'd rather do a lot of things than be in the north of England. Yeah, with Scali, the rumors are that, he might not be in the plans, but also, like, if he stays there,

is he, like, not going to play? I have a hard time seeing that happens. So, yeah, just I'm going to keep an eye on. We are still waiting for Gozo to be announced as well. I'm assuming that's work permit related or something, but see what happens. Okay. Let's talk about Audrey and Justin Ellis,

and then, you know, get out of here. Yeah. What do you guys see him from Audrey? You've been impressed with him really a lot, too, Vince? I mean, of course. I mean, I'm impressed every time I watch the man play. You know, it's just the consistency in his performance. It's just like, at this point, you would think he'd be tailing off or something, bro.

You know, I don't know how many minutes he's played at this point, but it has to be, and maybe the break in the middle helped. It probably did help quite a bit for Audrey, you know, being as you. young as he is, first professional season, first team professional season, getting all these minutes in his legs, et cetera. But yeah, it's like, every time you see him, he's providing that, he's providing that same quality on the ball. There's just, there's just no drop off. And then in this match, you know what I'm saying? You see him, you see him get a, was it, is it an assist? He can assist? Yeah, to Forrestberg. Yeah. I didn't know if it was like the ball through those played across

some, but. Hall played it to him. It was a nice pass. And then, yeah, he slipped it in to Fores Yeah, and it's just, it's the adju and Medi that we've come to know and love. It's like nothing more than it's necessary. Ball comes to him, receives it on his right foot, and then boom through with his left foot. Like nothing extra whatsoever. Like the set that he made with his right foot is perfect for his left foot to just come, swipe right through. He does this all bang, bang, and quick succession. You know, it's, when you see, it's, it's.

It's like when you see somebody doing something like this, right? It's like the hard things made extremely simple. And Audrey, at this age, is able to make things that a lot of players in our player pool struggle with just seem increasingly. They're just simple as hell. Like, Audrey's just out strolling with his dad in the backyard or something. Playing one v1. That's how it looks like on an MLS pitch, man. It's just.

And it's worth, it's worth, like, emphasizing. it's not just him coming deep and like collecting the ball from the centerbacks right under like no pressure like he's getting the ball higher up and doing stuff and and that makes you think about talk before about the double pivot if you know you need to play him with a it's called a bodyguard um and that ends up pushing audrey higher at times because right now they play a single pivot right just play through him he's deeper and initiates everything but um you know if you find himself higher up, he's playing some, he played some passes in this game. I watched,

I try to watch game in Spanish, and the Spanish play by play guy was losing it. Every time he tried to pass the ball, he was losing it. Like, he played like an ordinary pass, relatively ordinary pass that wouldn't come off. And the commentator was just like excited. And, you know, that's the kind of, that's the kind of

player Roger Medi is. Yeah, man. Because there was, to your point, there was a second pass, I mean, it was more than this, there's another pass he played. To Forzburg? Yes. Yes. We threaded it.

Yeah. First touch to let him down. But yeah, that was the one. That was, yeah. Bro, it's like, this is nasty, man. This is not just ball progression. Like you said, not just ball progression from neat. We've seen this multiple times now to where we can know that this is a part of this

man's toolkit. Like, in the final third, he got juice too. It don't just show up in his defensive half of the field or whatever. Like, and he's not. just popping up in between the centerbacks making easy passes. Sideways backwards, yeah. Nah, bro. This dude, he's a real deal, bro.

He played a few that it wasn't just on the deck. He clipped some, like, little diagonal balls into over their back line. There was, like, a very narrow margin to do it, and he put it pretty much on the right spot, and the rebels couldn't get on the end of it. But they dominated the first half, and a lot of it was what he was doing. Yeah. still weighing whether he wants to play for Albania or the United States and come on man reportedly I think we got him

I'm confident about Hall too though there's a quote from Hall recently about you know how he's could go either way kind of thing it's it's a it's a dead heat between Poland and the United States of America for well one thing about Hall getting the call up like the rebels played Mia here Jimenez got the start again at Center Forward and I don't know if that'll continue, but, you know, Hall has started nominally wide left last couple games,

and I asked Michael Bradley about this, and he basically said, like, regardless of where he's starting, he still gives him a lot, and he'll find his way into good scoring situations, which is true, and I get that if you're coaching the Red Bulls, you want to try things that make sense for the whole team, but if Hall, like, we need to see Hall continue to start as a center forward, in my opinion. I agree with Marcus. Marcus has, you know, said he could project to be like a balligan-type center-forward in terms of his movements, you know, dynamic former winger moving out to him. I like that. I also just think, like, he's probably not good enough to be a winger at a high level in Europe or for the national team. Like, I don't know if he can be that. I'm kind of skeptical. So I'd like to see him be that center-forward. Hopefully he gets back to, getting minutes there from the start soon.

But speaking of center forwards, I think, you know, Justin Ellis might have the inside track on a cam call up right now if you have to compare him to Hall. Hmm. Well, I was going to say about Hall. See you in Krakow.

I mean, come on, man. Come on, man, what are we talking about? Ellis. And then, well, real quick, real quick, before we got out this Albania, U.S. thing, The only thing Albania got is Duolipa, and Audrey Mehmeti said he don't listen to music. All right. No music.

Zero music. He said he's not a music guy. You know, now maybe he's a beautiful woman. So Duolipa reached out. Maybe that'll sue the deal. Albania apparently is on the come-up as a tourist destination. Everyone knows about Croatia and other parts of the Balkans. But I hear good things about Albania.

but yeah it's I'm sure Albania is beautiful I'd love to visit Justin Ellis he scored over the weekend a snap header from 10 yards out we'll have to see it you really do love to see because I

didn't know the exact number before we recorded last week but when I was telling you about his whole deal bells I was thinking to myself I was like how many shots is this man attempted in the last like four games and I looked at it, it was like two, you know, something like that. It was like he's not, getting to it in other places and playmaking has been his main thing. But over these last

two matches, he's played over this past week, you know, starting to see some more shots, obviously that goal. And in this last match he played against Cincinnati, really, really live there as well. More shots than usual. We got a solid four in this match for Mrs. Justin Ellis because if he's going to take a sitter forward, we got to get these shots off, brother. You know? Something that

Julian Hall doesn't have much difficulty with. But anyway, he got an assist. Just a nice little Justin Ellis layoff. Receives the ball, hits it one time. And Tyree Spicer kind of runs onto it. He's one-on-one with a

with the Cincinnati defender. he beats him to the ball, kind of rounds the keeper, scores a goal. This is like 50 yards, maybe like 40 yards from where the past was received by Mr. Spicer. But the layoff from Justin Ellis made the whole thing happen. Bells, have you watched him yet? No. Sorry. You got to get on it, bro.

I'm telling you, you're going to love him. You're going to love. The same things that will make one fall in love with the Giovanni Raina. as Justin Ellis, bro. Yeah, I mean, I'm getting excited thinking about him. I think Marcus tweeted this, and I've been thinking about a lot, like getting guys like him, Mehdi, even Cavans on the pitch too, and then you got some runners with him, like Ballo, Gozo, even Christian, if you can still run.

Weston, you know, Payne Miller, maybe on the left side. Paid Miller, by the way, almost had a disgusting goal, but was subbed off with the head injury. We hope he's okay. We also hope that he's playing as a left back again soon, or gets to Europe and does that soon because this, you know, this winger thing needs to stop. But, but yeah, I mean, Justin Ellis, talk about guys who can play with the ball on the deck like him and Eddie,

facilitating for other dynamic attackers. There could be something cool cooking in this September camp. All right. I'll catch up on Justin Ellis. There's a lot more soccer about to have. happen. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.