Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #720: A good weekend for several center mids, Haji's out for a semester

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

Yunus goes 90 and we ought to bring him in, Haji's badly hurt, Gozo getting the royal treatment at Palace. Vince, Tara and Sanjay run through the news of the weekend, and play Mudded or Nah. 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. European season is underway. We got some good news, some bad news, and some news that we really can't classify this early. I'm Vince. Bells is out this week. And with me, I got Sanjay. And then a special guest, a very special guest, my boots on the ground call host. Tara has made our return to the Monday Review. Tara, how are you doing?

I am feeling great. Thank you for having me back. It has been a while, but honestly, I've been kind of going through the stages of grief a bit since the World Cup. And this weekend, it was really, really nice to watch it. You know, tune back into a lot of the boys. So I'm feeling good. I'm feeling like a new page has been turned. Yeah, we've washed all that stench off of us now.

A new season is underway. A new cycle is underway officially now with the season going, you know, the, what is it, the September window? I'm keeping you confused. Is it September? September, early October, so we're going to hit both. Okay. Is going to be here before we know it, of course,

and we got the extendo now and going forward, maybe in perpetuity. But anyway, so that's Tara. Sanjay, how are you doing? I'm doing good. Great to be with you all. Tara, great to be with you. I went to a full,

it's called Sports Illustrated Stadium now, but we all know it is Red Bull Arena. full house for Robert Levondowski. And, you know, when that stadium is full, it's an incredible energy. You know, nice late summer night on the river. So, yeah, I'm buzzing after that. You know, we don't get that very often. And when you do, it reminds you about the game's special culture in this area.

So that was cool. I hear you. Robert Lewandowski, I mean, obviously we know he's going to be a big deal in Chicago. but, you know, I guess I hadn't thought about the fact there's a lot of Polish people all over the place. Yeah, especially, I mean, there's a lot of people from any and everywhere in this area, right? Especially spread out to the metro area. I'll shout at my guy, Dan Rebane, who's one of the Red Bull reporters. And he told me, he's of Polish heritage.

He told me that the metro area, there's actually more people, if you include Jersey and New York, than by Chicago. So, yeah, it was funny. The night before I was going, I went from Newark up to Hoboken to meet some buddies so I used to play with. And when I was getting off the train, there were two little skinny blonde kids, like it must have been about 10 years old walking past me, bouncing a soccer ball, but they'd clearly just come from playing. And I always do this. I'll ask kids, like who their favorite player is just to, you know, see what was changing, what the trends are, like we talked about recently on the spot. and one of the kids did not even hesitate

looked me dead in the eye and said it like he was from there he said Levantowski and just kept walking and I was like, I just smiled like wow he probably is Polish has some connection there that's cool and then the next day

saw a lot of Polish people and they brought that place to life so yeah it was a good weekend of soccer here that's what's up and so how did the game turn out did I know Red Bull was I mean Chicago was up for most of it Did they end?

The rebels pull out a draw at the end. They, usually the Red Bulls like don't, they find ways to like make mistakes, concede on set pieces, but they usually control games pretty well. And they didn't do that. Shout out to, oh, I saw the coach after the game too. It was nice to see him, Greg Burrhalter. And they did some good things in that first half.

They made it tough for the Red Bulls. Michael Bradley made a lot of subs early in the second half. The rebels had used pretty much all their subs. So it was a good game, and the crowd, Lewandowski had to, he had to sub in because they're like rotating because the league's got this crazy. It's crazy. Stadium ball of people.

And I guess that same kind of thing happened with Messi, too, when he made his debut here because everyone was saying, yeah, this is like when Messi came and he couldn't start the game. and then he came in and did his thing. And, uh, yeah. Oh, man, I, I, I, bro, I still remember that to this day solely based off the video of Sway Lee and I think Fresh Montana up in a booth when, uh, Messi finally scored, Swayley just going crazy.

Like, I told you he was going to score. I told you. That was, that was peak Messy mania. That was like, you know, when he had, this first season here when he was making this tour and everybody had to show up when he was coming through to your city. So, but we will get, we will get back to the baby. Bulls up there in Harrison, New Jersey. But first of all, we have to.

It's been too long in this podcast already. We got to go to Italy for what is, in my opinion, the biggest, the best news of the weekend. Eunice Musa started in Milan's first match of this season against Torino and went 90, brought home a 2-1 win. Look dynamic as ever. Tara, Sanjay, our boy is back. And I saw him say something after the game. You know, I'm paraphrasing, but something about like earning, earning or like proving to the coach that he's still the same guy.

He's still the same player. And by the way, he looked good. He looked strong. He looked, you know, a little bit more grown up. I wasn't ready to believe so quickly, but it's got me believing. I'm always ready to believe for a young Eunice Musa because I just believe in the talent so much. And, you know, it was a, first of all, first of all, I guess I'll start here. The match starts.

And before we even get a minute into it, Eunice hits us with a vintage Eunice action. And Torino basically they manmarked like this whole this whole game basically like all over the pitch. And so Eunice's influence was it was kind of stop and start for him. Yeah, he wasn't in the ball all that much, right? Yeah, yeah. He was just marked extremely tightly. You know what I'm saying? This was not a traditional zonal soccer defense.

You know, anytime, anywhere Eunice was going, he had somebody in his hip pocket. So but they were. So Torino was pressing high. Eunice gets the ball. And like I said, in the first minute, steps right past a dude, does a vintage Eunice, Eunice Musa dribble, glides pass somebody. Nice little outside the boot pass to his right to kind of spring A.C. Milan forward. And this is just in the first minute of the match, baby.

So when I see that, I'm like, oh, yeah, we're going. Nice tight turn and he's gone. That led to a great chance, too, by the way. Yeah. And I was hoping, obviously, that that chance would be scored. so that then, you know, we're cooking right away. You know, a Eunice action led to a Milan goal. All the haters can, you know what they can do,

and we're off and running. It didn't happen in that way, but the payoff we got was even better. So like I said, we got that first minute action. And then from then on, he was quieter in the first half, you know, popping up here and there, like I said, and just when you're getting manmarked in that way, for me as a real Eunice watcher

the thing that has plagued him throughout his time in A.C. Milan, specifically in his midfield minutes, is him having these, you know, just oopsies, right? And being marked that tightly, I was happy that he, that he played it safe, man. Because, you know, Terry, you just talked about it. I mean, as far as him maturing as a player or whatever, and maturing as a man.

Like, hey, sometimes you just got to take. that ball and pass it right back. And, you know, if you, if you're a long time listener of me, especially on the scuff podcast, I hate back passes, but sometimes you got to do it. That's proper midfielding. It's proper midfielding. He was ball secure. He tried a few flicks too, which didn't come off, but they weren't inappropriate efforts. And yeah, I thought, you know, it was a Eunice kind of game. Like he showed what we know he can do. I clocked a nice diagonal. He sprayed at one point to the right side. Yeah, it was late in the first half. Yeah, there was a moment before then where he looked like a little unsure when he got it on the half turn, like in the half space

and kind of played it safe there. But for me, like the biggest takeaway is that after they make those subs, like Madrich and Rabio coming on, like Rabio went into like a more like attacking tennis role, like a little bit wider and advanced. And Eunice like seems to really have the trust of Amorriman in this three, four, two, one. which is it's going to make it hard for Pach to find a way to not try him as a center midfield if he's getting a good run of games in this role. So, yeah, there's a reason we spotlighted him last week, and it's great to see the season start like this because he's a foundational piece,

even just at his floor for this team. Well, I wanted to ask you guys this. Where are we at for this next camp? Do you think Eunice has a 20% chance of being called in? Like what's the group we're expecting? I mean, at this point, you know, Eunice, we don't got to worry about World Cup legs. We don't got to worry about all the extra mileage being put on him through just being an international footballer period.

I mean, he hasn't been one over the past year and a half since March. He hasn't been called in since March since the Nation's League. That sounds right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, he's ready to go. And he wasn't playing either for Atalanta when he was on loan last season. So it's like, bro, if anybody can make that trek across the Atlantic Ocean and come over here and play in, you know, maybe a game and a half, maybe, you know, I mean, shoot, we got four matches.

You know, I'm going to need a solid 180 minutes from Eunice Musa, all right, in September. I think he's getting called up for sure if he's starting for Milan. If he keeps his spot And Sanjay, you talked about the subs And here's why those are important I mean obviously You know, when you see who starts for Milan And you see who's on the bench

You're like, okay Eunice is just getting a start for I don't know Just like a reason Because Madritch is old Because Rabio playing the World Cup All the them types of things But Madrish comes on

Rabio comes on Eunice Musa stays on and Eunice Musa six turn in the midfield. Once again, after you, so obviously it's a very intimate relationship. You get to get into know somebody who man marks you for 90 minutes or whatever.

You got to kind of size them up. And then Eunice finally broke through, found him a little moment. He receives the ball in his own half, another sweet Eunice Musa turn. And he's off to the races, of course. Because like I said, Torino's manmarking. So once he beats his man, there's nobody to stop him.

Galavans into the final third. You know, simple pass over to Rabio. Rabio then crosses. Milan goal, their first goal of the match. So, you know, Amoram makes the substitutions. Amoram puts the faith in Eunice Musa by keeping him out there, and then he repays him. So it's like, this start couldn't have win any better for Eunice.

Yeah, he's starting that game. if he is not a starter but if he's consistently playing and subbed in like first second guy off the bench are you calling him in for end of September am I yes I mean yeah yeah yeah I still am yeah okay because I'm assuming like some rotation too I don't know how many of the main guys are going to get rotated out either before camp or can't see Potch doing it during camp he's old school I don't know if he want to do that like guys leave but uh Now, Eunice, like I said earlier, his floor is good enough to definitely come off the bench for a first choice team, if not start. And he's got the Concaf stamp already, so no reason to keep him out of the group any longer.

I remember asking Potch about it when Eunice was kind of fading or just playing wide. And Potch's answer was, we got to see where he plays for his club. Well, now he's playing there for his club. So there's no excuse anymore. if he keeps going. He's got to keep going. He's got to keep going, but it's a good first step. And once again, the key to keep to continuing to go for Eunice Musa is just limit the mistakes, man. Limit the mistakes. Even if you watch the clip notes, he saw him against Man United. You know, he gets caught on the ball early, you know, things like that. We don't need that.

And he got caught on the ball in a situation where he should have backpast, you know, just maintain the possession, brother. keep the faith you know he's come he's come through another trial and tribulation out doing the Eunice Musa smile once again

so a pivotal one we should note he's playing before the subs he's playing a little more advanced right like it's a double pivot with Joshari and he was a little bit more ahead of him so it'd be interesting to see him

obviously you know Tyler's played that holding role, but I've really, after watching Mehdi play, like, I really want to see him paired with someone like Eunice or maybe Johnny. We'll see what happens with Johnny. We'll get to him. But yeah, interesting role for Eunice right now. And we'll see if he can add something to his game going forward, but just, you know, as a box-to-box, pressure-resistant guy, good to see him doing his thing. That's right. Let's keep it in Italy. Another midfielder of African-American descent to say doing this thing. John Luca Bouscio. A captain.

The captain of Venetia went 90. Unfortunately, Venetia lost 2-0 to Leche. He, it's an unfortunate loss. Venetia was flying for maybe like the first

20, 25, 30 minutes. They had the home crowd behind him. And they scored a goal that they thought would, you know, their opener. It got taken away due to a foul that I'm not totally sure. It was kind of soft. But John would look good. Yeah, I'm considering him my like number one September watch. I won him back in the fold.

Yeah. I mean, might as well like I mean when we last time Potch looked at him. Was it the like that first window when they played in Mexico? I mean, he was definitely in that first one. He started both of those games, right? the hoodoo played Panama and then Mexico He started against Panama I remember starting against He definitely started against Panama Yeah yeah And he started against Mexico too I think Yes yes him and Ada Morris against Mexico

He probably got another camper too after that I would say But yeah it wasn't a long extended look Whatever Potts saw He didn't that he didn't like You know I guess it is what it is But I mean even for me as somebody who's been kind of down on John Luke Cabuccio, I have to say,

it looked damn good in this match. It looked damn good in this match. I mean, not only captaining and leading Vennetzi on the pitch, but, I mean, actually doing more than just being like a yell, yell guy, whatever. Like, he is the fulcrum of that team, you know, what, probably touched the ball, 120, 130 times.

I think he got near 100 passes, which, you know, part of that he drops between, He drops between or actually plays centerback in possession quite a bit. So he gets a lot of passes that way. But he also splashed in other places, like in the, I think around the 30th, 31st, 32nd minute, received a ball on the full turn, turned and just dribbled all the way through Leche's defense. Got to the top of the D, took like a left-footed shot that went just wide.

But, I mean, extremely nice. Extremely nice to see that amount of juice just like off the carry from John Lucas like that. I'm not sure. I mean, I've seen John Lucas do a lot of things. I don't know if I've seen something like that from him. And then also in the second half, when Venetia was trying to fight and claw to get a result out of this match,

you saw some of the, you got some steel defensively. I mean, he's straight up mugged to do one time. So, Vince, where does he fit in in Potsch's system? Where would you like to see him get a shot? Oh, he got to be one of the, in the double pivot, man. But which one? Which one?

I think he, He can play both. I think a lot of dudes can play both. I mean, we've seen it with Tenniseman. Obviously, we've seen it with Christian Rodon, Sebastian Burrhalter, et cetera. I think he has the skill to be the more offensive and he can be the holding as well.

Similar to, I mean, Audrey Mametti can do that. Maybe, I think the only ones, maybe that you don't want to see there, maybe like, that can't do both. I mean, Weston McKinney is probably out of that conversation, I think. A lot of guys can, in theory, do both. But, like, they're better suited to... I don't want Johnny there, I don't think. Yeah.

As one of the more of offense. Exactly. But even, like, Burralter, like, he can in theory do both, but he should not be the deepest one. Like, in an ideal situation, he's not... And I would say that, like, the same thing with Audrey, like, you want to... to be the deeper one, influencing the play, more directing the play, getting on the ball early.

But yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting. John Lucas, like, I've always just been confused about, not just for Pocci system, overall. Like, I never understood where he'd fit in for the national team. And no matter how you set up the midfield, I didn't understand his best position. Well, the only thing, the only thing I think helps him stand out is, like, this desire to be the dude at your club,

there's hardly anybody taking on as much responsibility. And I like that. I just think if we're going into this next camp, like ready to try some new things out, he's got to be there. It's fair. And like I said, I'm not a big John Luca guy, but I had, as a matter of fact,

I was putting my daughter to sleep. I was thinking about why I was in a one-screen situation. I was in a one-screen situation, putting my daughter to a nap today. So I brought my MacBook in there. I could choose between Weston McKinney and John Luca Bousio. I said, you know what? Let me see what.

Let me see what John Luca got going on. And I was happy that I did, man. You know, so we'll see. I mean, there always remains the questions of, like, him against athleticism and whatnot and how that looks. But, you know, like I said, I mean, just off that carry, the juice that I saw there and just, some of the Biden defensive midfield?

I got some time. Listen, if Vince is open to new things, Podge can be. I think that's a pretty clear place to be. So let's jump ahead to another center midfielder of interest who we've been talking about. Actually, real quick, you mentioned West. West went 90 and Yvesa won their opener against Frozenone.

Chris Richards also went 90 for Palace. They lost 2-0 to Everton. no gozo debut he was with the u21s he started and scored in a one-one draw versus arsenal you know just square pass and tap in but uh let's see how long it takes to get him in that is that is surely just getting his feet wet right yeah yeah uh i hope so i mean he's getting there in mid-season form so i don't i don't understand the delay but i mean he hasn't trained he doesn't have that much time with you know their their group so we'll give him a great period.

Yeah. But, you know, I mentioned this a couple weeks ago or something like that, but like, you know, he's getting the treatment, you know, from Crystal Palace socials. And, you know, like everything they're posting is kind of like, it seems like they got Gozo on the mind at all times. They're showing clips of him in training. You know, they do that thing where the admin's like, y'all want to see some pitches from training.

People like, Gozo, gozo. It's very much like, look at our new shiny. American social media. Right, right. And like I said before, they spent the money on them. They spent like a decent chunk of change on them. So, um, I think. It's not that much.

It is for, for them, to be clear. Like, in the context, it is something, but it's not, not crazy money for a prem team. Now, let's jump over to, let's jump across the, the channel. Tanner Tessman, um, started in, in the midweek for, uh, in the first Lego, the qualifying playoff against Fennar Bache, did some nice things as a fairly attacking number eight, got a hockey assist.

And yeah, I thought, you know, he looked like, he looked like the nifty, crafty, you know, like Pod Shed, he has a brain. He plays with brain. And you saw it on display in this game against, you talked about Fenderbache last time. Like, that's not a team of nobody's quite the opposite. So, yeah, then he subbed in for the last 10 minutes of a two-no win against Toulouse this weekend.

And he got a hockey assist in that match as well, brother. Comes off a throw-in. They throw it in to, I don't know who it was on Leon, but he was being followed into midfield by Mark McKenzie. the duel over the ball that was thrown in is kind of won by Leon it's tapped at Tannettestment Tanner it's bouncing to him

he hits it off the volley with like his in-step first time up to Tileso I want to say in Touliso lays it off and the duel scores and it's just like you know there's just something about Tana Tessment where he does

I mean everyone knows I love Tantanetessment but like every time he just does something kind of glassy man just gets me going even that the hockey assistant is finibachi you know it looks like a pretty simple situation and i guess it is you know he receives it on kind of the right wing like right outside the box and taliso's making an overlap and run but tannessman just does a little a little croquetta to pass the ball to to liso and it's just like man that's a six three um grandson i mean God's son of a college football power from Hoover, Alabama, making that play, man.

It just midfielder. It just all makes me so happy to see him doing anything, really. Even the kind of simple things, even the simple things he can make look elegant, sometimes the simple things he can make him look hard as well. But Tanner's going. Leone's doing all right. So, I mean, Leone needs to qualify for Champions League, as far as I can tell with. their whole financial situation.

Yeah, you never know if he could get sold too, right? I saw someone put that out there. It could play his way out of there at the end of the window. But, yeah, so they have the next leg against Center Bacche coming up in France on Wednesday, and that's a really big one. Yep, they're coming in. We're assuming we'll see him start that game after coming off the bench again. Yeah, they set everybody for this weekend.

and they said Tyler Morton, they sat Tanah Testament. Basically, a lot of the dudes that started in Turkey, yay, Turkey, where on the bench against Toulouse and Mark McKenzie. But yeah, Vince, like you said, he's another guy that can fit into either of those midfield roles, and it'll, you know, his responsibility will depend on who he's playing with. So worth keeping an eye on his development. You know, obviously to make the squad the last World Cup, we were disappointed about that.

I think there is more to his fitness situation than is out there is what I'm reading between the lines. Why he missed that? I thought this was a report, Sanjay. Why he missed that on the World Cup? No, I mean, I don't know anything for sure. But, like, I know Potch likes him as a player. So I think it was more a fitness thing than we know.

It's a shame, man. I didn't get to use that Daibo video the whole World Cup. I just took a screenshot of it of him looking kind of perplexed when the roster when he wasn't on the roster. But yeah, so we'll see. Let's move on to,

I guess we're going back to England where we have two midfielders and a wing back playing for Middlesbrough. They all started this game against Blackburn. Aidan Morris is back in the lineup, but they lost to Blackburn and the power of Young Thug

and Todd Cantwell to 1. Let me tell you something. This has been coming up a lot on the timeline real quick because before we get to you, Tara, I know you watch this match very intently. But I don't know if y'all seen it going around on X Twitter here recently. Everybody's running back the fact that Todd Cantwell used to score goals and do a surf celebration

that was inspired by Young Thug SongSurf. I just want to have, I just want to let y'all know if my daughter, Indy, when she was in the womb, in the gestation period, before we knew that she was a girl, if that child would have been a boy, I would have named my son, surf, all off the basis of that young thug song. So even with three Americans from Middlesboro, I think I got a, I got a Raviton Tadwell, the power of Young Thug, my goat. So, anyway, just to let y'all know how much that means. Sarah, how they look. Well, let me backtrack, and I do apologize for getting us, you know, off the rails a little bit. But the pre-show for this game, I got up early. I watched the game.

They kept referring to our three borough boys as the three musketeers. And I know they're living together over there, and that's nice and all. But it had a little condescending stench. and I wasn't into it, although it does suit them a bit after watching them play. Sebastian Berhalter looked good. Max, he looked pretty good. I mean, it's all very manic. I described it later in the day.

I don't necessarily think it was a good game, but it was an entertaining game. If you go back to those early leads days with Tyler and Brenda and everybody just running their butts off. It had that vibe. But I had an epiphany, and I'm excited to share it with you guys. I'm completely sold on it, so I want to get your guys' thoughts. I think Sebastian Burhalter needs to be an overage player for the L.A. Olympics in 208. That's a great idea. I think he's got that Walker Zimmerman leadership, you know, that last crew had.

I think the easy, safe choice is always to go with centerbacks, but I think Burrhalter would, you know, almost combust at the thought of leading, you know, leading that young team to hopefully victory. And I'm sold on it. I need it to happen, especially now that, you know, knock on wood, but I hope our midfield depth gets challenged a bit here for the national team. and if Burrhalter, you know, needs to find a path, it's overage player for LA, 2028. Okay. Oh, you know what? I like that. I got chills.

Goose bumps going down my body when I heard you talk about Sebastian Burthalter leading the boys out. It just suits him. It just suits him. In St. Louis, Missouri for the L.A. Olympics in 2020. It's going to be amazing and I'm going to be there. Trust and believe. Yeah, I was looking at tickets. My ticket window came and went this past week.

I just looked at the tickets and I was like, I'm going to get them at some point. It's just something about, you know, it looks like the two options. We're going to either open in St. Louis or Nashville as far as I can tell. And I have to say it doesn't excite me that much. But I will be there. But I think I'm just going to take the resale route at this point. Maybe. I don't know.

We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. You aren't that excited yet. Someone else may not be that excited yet. But Sebastian Burhalter leading. I don't know. Will it be Kevin Sullivan?

Leading some fiery hotheads out there? It's going to be a show. You read my mind in terms of a segue. You know someone who won't be there. Kevin Sullivan will not be there. Nope. He will not be there. He will be early in his...

No matter what. I will not be there, no matter what. Kevin won't be there. Audrey won't be there. Julian Hall will probably be gone by then. Honestly, maybe... I don't know if Neil Pierre and Frankie Westfield would be there. I mean, look, let's start with Kevin.

he had the goal. Philly, by the way, still undefeated in MLS since Ryan Richter took over and has unleashed the kids. So shout out Ryan Richter, Philly native. But yeah, Kevin,

he only scored, you know, easy finish with his head, but he's good again, right? Like he's doing things all over the pitch, working his butt off defensively. Talked about him a lot. We'll keep talking about him because he deserves it.

Yeah, he's here, man. I see this goal be declared as an easy header. Can there be an easy header if you're a real short 16-year-old? That's right. That's a good point. Relatively easy finish. But, I mean, yeah. Did you see the way he attacked the ball?

You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, a lot of people don't. We'll get to somebody else who may or may not have that type of hunger for goal. But, you know, Kevin is just hungry. Hungry all the time. And you know what? And Tara, as a Philly Union fan, how are you feeling about this whole day? Electric.

And the power of a rescinded red card has finally worked out. He came out, he came out ready to go. He came out ready to go. I love the Sullivan Boys. Quinn didn't start this game, but he came in the second half. He almost started another fight. Get on board with Philly. Get over it.

Get on board. It was a crazy almost little like suplex moment in the actual fight. You know, Quinn, Quinn almost called my buddy there, man. I was impressed by the proceedings there and how everything went down, for sure. You know, he got messy a fine. MLS had to find a golden boy. You know what I'm saying? Would that have happened when Sway Lee was in the, was in stadiums way back when?

Who knows? No. Who knows? No. By the way, I would call up, I would call up Neil Pierre next month. I've said it. Vince, I know you don't totally see eye to eye. I'm not saying he has to play or even,

he doesn't have to start or even play a lot of minutes, but I bring him in. We know. I like that. I like that. And solely because I just, I want to, you know, let some of the senior boys take a rest. Some of the big names don't come over.

I want new blood, so I'm all about it. The thing about Pierre, like, if the only thing, if what you're really worried about is him with the ball at his feet under pressure, you have an easy out ball with Ballo and at least one or two other runners who could be in this camp. Like, I'm not, I think in most of this upcoming window, we'll have the ball. and, you know, there's not going to be, he's not going to find himself in crazy situations if you bring him in and play him in doses. You know, I just want to get his feet wet, is what I'm trying to say.

I'm not saying he should start against Mexico. Oh, some famous last words right there. If it does happen. But look, look, I'm not, you know, I'll say this about Neil Pierre. I think he had his best game passing the ball as a first-team professional. that I've seen so far in this match.

So I will give him that some really, some nice worm burners on the ground that broke a couple lines a few times. But when you talk about Easy Balls and Neil Pierre right now, I don't... He's going to get there, man. He just needs time and reps it at this level. He's going to get there.

I'm not saying that he's not going to get there. But all I'm saying is right now, he does not always execute the easy. On the ball. Now off the ball, he was doing a lot of, business handling. As I've said time and time again, I think his upside there is like through the roof, through the roof as somebody who can just take care of business, take attacks, and just absolutely turn them the other way. So we'll take that. But also with Kevin, I will say,

I think this was probably his least. He scored the goal, but out of the past five games, like this is probably his worst performance, I would say. Not to say he played bad at all or anything like that to be clear i think he did a lot of good things but there are times where maybe he looked kind of tired and that's how i felt watching the whole rebels game uh transitioning over to they're playing each other next weekend by the way which is uh you know that that that scuff might as well be the sponsor that game man uh feeling against red bulls in this era um i'm really excited for that one uh here in harrison but um yeah i i think this was the the first time where the Red Bulls haven't really control the game

you know Audrey didn't influence the game the way he like we're accustomed to seeing him do not that he had a bad game but yeah him Julian Hall who started wide again which is kind of annoying the rebels found a way to get a result which is good to see from those guys but um but yeah they keep talking along and that'll be a good good point for them and that'll be a big game next week for both teams because they're both trying to Again, we talk about kids just playing, getting minutes, which we love to see.

Shout out to the coaches. But now you're getting to the business end of the season, right? We talk about season not meeting all too much with the playoff format, lack of relegation, blah, blah, la. These teams need points now. So that's going to be a good game next weekend. Yeah. I mean, we have just on the standings right now, Philadelphia is at 24 points. I mean, excuse me, 21 points are in 13th place.

Three back of Orlando, who holds the. last playoff spot. They're on 24 points and Red Bulls are on 26. And yeah, so yeah, these teams need points. And, you know, my first time looking at the MLS table was this weekend when I saw Orlando close their match out and I saw the way their manager celebrated. And I was like, hmm, it seemed a little bit outside, you know, he was really pumping his fist. He was like, yeah, he pumping the crowd.

You know, they were at home. It was a big win for them. And so I looked at the table. I was like, oh, they really need these points. So let's get to Justin Ellis. Did not start the match. And Orlando went a whole first half without a single shot. Orlando then brings on Justin Ellis and Darrell D.K.

To start the second half. And they absolutely overwhelmed. Salt Lake. We all saw Lake, yeah. Absolutely overwhelmed we all Salt Lake. Got a 2-1 win. Justin Ellis. influential. He played the cross-in that Darrell D.K. kind of took down and kind of got a shot off that

was blocked by the goalkeeper rebound falls to Antoine Griseman. Griseman scores that's the first goal and I'm forgetting what the second one was, but I don't think Justin Ellis had anything to do with it. But just in case you were worried about Justin Ellis's playing time with Darrell D.K. coming to, coming back to Orlando and with Antoine Griseman also, you know, somebody who, you you think is going to be on the pitch at all times. You know, if you've seen him play, you've seen the skill set, you know that this man can just, um,

he can compliment anybody. You know, he's a very good complimentary, offensive soccer player. And that's what he did. Like, you know, I mean, you,

you know how Darrell D.K. is in that box. He's posted up. And Justin Ellis can receive the ball. He can look forward and he can play passes for, passes ahead to Darryl D.K. in the box with the center back just absolutely in hell. You know, they had a couple, one, two combinations, almost come off with Darrell D.K.

trying to lay the ball back off to him or whatever. But as that chemistry goes, it grows, I think that's going to be a, that's going to pay dividends. That's going to be a nice partnership just to watch because it seems that, you know, they already got that connection. I mean, I guess it's just that simple. Derrude D.K. Big as hell.

Pass me the ball right here. Feed the big man. Yeah, feed him in the post. That's right, bro. Al Uf, the compliment that Pach paid the Testman, like about just playing with, you know, brain, that's what I think when I watch Justin Ellis play as a forward. The way he understands the way his teammates are moving

and he's understanding a space, like, I think, like I said, I think he's edging ahead of Julian Hall as a striker right now. in terms of getting a call-up, I think if the camp was tomorrow and you have to pick between one of them, it would be him. Now, I'd bring them all in,

but yeah, he's in a good spot for a senior national team call-up, in my opinion. So, and this is where I kind of alluded to it earlier, but I do want to talk about one thing, because I just have not seen it yet with Justin Ellis as far as desire and hunger to score goal. You know how strikers are. Finishing. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, not even just finishing, but it's just like the want to get into certain positions to score goals. Sometimes, like, there were passages of play where Justin Ellis kind of ended up as the number nine based on whatever was going on around him. And he was the person who could finish the play. And, like, his runs just weren't like, there wasn't enough oomph to him to get to the ball. Like, sometimes the deliveries would be okay. You know what I'm saying? and he's just kind of he's not there yet

I don't think as far as being like a tip of the spear kind of guy I don't know he doesn't ask me I haven't seen it yet as far as like any like striker runs or any type of uh yeah just that willingness to make those runs over and over and over again not get rewarded etc even um you know he's physical

in his hold up and all that stuff but as far as but yeah even once again on the runs and whatnot. I haven't seen him just run through somebody's face, Marshaun-Lent style. You know what I'm saying? I haven't seen him do that yet. I need to see that evolution of his game

if he is to remain a striker. For me. Yeah, I mean, he's, I don't know if he's going to be like the guy in a men's national team, but what we have are a lot of players who are, at the very least, you know, with a great technical

foundation who have ideas and I'm really curious to see once you put him together is the whole greater than the sum of the parts and and do you get production out of Justin Ellis if he's playing with guys like Audrey and Tavin Balligan Christian whoever it is like are they in dangerous areas and you know creating enough chances where the goals do come here and there for him but like is he going to walk into the team and be a transformational player sometimes soon sometimes soon like that's not what I'm that's not the way I'm thinking about him you know what I mean yeah but I'm just

trying to figure out like you know where he can play for us where he's best utilized for us because right now I'm thinking he's probably a pocket winger yeah I mean it's kind of like the way we just threw in Rico against Australia right yeah like that like that's what like was he explicitly

you know with that that that Trident up front of those three guys like there's fluidity and I think you put him on there whether it's later in the game when you need a goal or from the start and you tell someone else to play maybe a little bit deeper, be a little bit more disciplined. I think you can fit them in there if you think it's worth it. Fair enough.

Tara, do you feel any way about any young kids in MLS? I know you a lot of Philly Boys. Anybody else? Love the Philly Boys. You know, I got to tell you, Jack McGlynn had a great assist. He had a great assist. It was called back for God knows why off sides, I think. But yeah, in terms of Justin Ellis, I'm team bring them in for literally everybody.

I want to see new blood. Tara, I forgot about our young prince. I didn't even check on him. It's time to remember because it was a thing of beauty. Anybody rolling their eyes? Go check it. It looked great. And guess what?

I think he's got a chance at coming back. I mean, yeah, he probably does have a pretty good chance to come back at some point. I mean, for sure. I mean, Pots, we know. We talked about a lot of dudes that Potch likes who did not make that cut for whatever reason, did not get to see Gunner perform at Pier 16, 17 in New York. So we got one last thing before we go to break. A little transfer rumor slash news.

I mean, and there's only... Big rumor. As of right now, there's only one big transfer will fall. following and that is flow Balagan well what's the latest on him there is a rumor from Le Kippe

so not not a totally random source here that Barsa could be in the running and there's interest from Astonville as well they could be in the picture so again we don't know what what's real what's not right now

but yeah he's not playing from Monaco and we are anticipating a this is exciting right you know like growing up like like transfer deadline day wasn't a big thing for our players really at any time I mean there's that that summer when West went to UVA which is cool and Torgia went to Barsa right that was all around the same time but um like for like an actual deadline day move like this is uh this is spicy uh if you go to one of the biggest clubs in the world Tara, what do you think?

I want clarity here. This is why he didn't play, correct? He's packing his bags. He's forcing a move. We think so. I think they've said he has some type of knock or something, but also, I mean, he has not played in any preseason match. Okay. So it would be a little weird to play him.

I looked because I was like, Barcelona, but they really don't have a striker. I mean. No. They play Rafini here. there this weekend. Rafenia went crazy. I mean, he's good. We all know Rafinia is good.

Breaking news. Right. But even past that, you know, yeah, there's no backup. There is no backup. Maybe Danny Omo, he could probably give you something there. But, you know, we all know that's not his best position.

I'm trying to get too excited about it, but this would be wonderful. Like the volume of chances he'd get, you know, getting better at. You know, having to break down teams that are parking the bus, you know, not having to, he can't exploit space the way he can do so well and having to adapt his game in that way. But also, like, you know, he'll just bury chances getting that kind of service,

big Champions League nights. Him playing with Lemieux Mal. I mean, yeah, Clutch, you know, do what you got to do here to make this happen. This is, I guarantee you clutch is, is hanging, especially if you saw how Aston Villa performed this weekend, Rich Paul and them boys. They are hanging up the phone. You know.

Emory calling talking about good evening. No, no, sir. Click. It's a rap, bro. They, I mean, they would be fools to not hold out for Barcelona. You know what I'm saying? This is what you signed a clutch for. And this is what Clutch would take a chance on the American soccer market for.

You know, something like this. Ballo and Rodry and Laminu. I mean, come on, man. What are you talking about? No, like, I'm pre-ordering the kit right now. Not for real. And then you go get Roderio Mehmeti, too. Get him in the mix.

Right. Yeah. I mean, one can dream. But this seems, I mean, like you said, Le Kippeep reporting this. Le Kippeep, for anybody who doesn't know, the French soccer newspaper of record. I don't know if they're just a regular newspaper if they're. But anyway, you hear something coming from Le Kiepe. It's not a drill, not a drill.

That isn't an opinion piece because, you know, them boys, I got, it's on site with a few of them over some of their ratings of Tanner Testament. But anyway, you know, talking about pure reporting, boots on the ground reporting, their boots are on the ground in France. And so it has to be, it has to be a little something there. Yeah, we'll see what happens. We should know, exciting a few weeks coming up. And off the back of that, we're going to take a quick break. We're going to come back and talk about some people who maybe their seasons aren't going so well to start here. And if you're listening to this podcast, please subscribe to the Patreon.

The $5 a month tier will get you access to my clip notes that I produce every week that has video of most of the people that we talk about in these Monday reviews. Also follow us on X, follow us on Instagram, follow us on Blue Sky, Scuff Pod, I think, across. all three platforms. Also, merch. Check out a merch store. I think it is scuffed podcast.com. I think it's a store now. Let me.

It'll be, it'll be in the, we'll drop the link, yeah. In the show notes, if you saw the kit, the scuffed kit, the jersey that I had on, that I wore in Seattle,

I wore it in, I wore it to the Bay Area as well, to the Bosnia match. That is available. I am going to make it available as soon as we get done with this recording on the on the store. It's mesh. It's beautiful. Blue.

It's the exact scuffed logo that you're looking at right now. Blue with the with the red and white line going down the side, the scuff podcast. Mentality 69 on the back. You know what I'm saying? If you want to get you one of those, hop in the store and get you one. Like I said, the link is in the show notes. And we'll be back after this. we're back and like I said we're going to get into the the least less less rosy news of this weekend and I you know I created a little game I was inspired by my boots on the ground co-host if you don't know boots on the ground is where we talk about the women's national team listener by the way me and Tara we record how do you say this biweekly every other week every other week all right yeah yeah you know what I'm saying it's the same word it's the same word I'm

Okay, okay. I ain't know if that been two times a week. A game here. This is called mudd-mudded, mudded, M-U-D-D-E-D, to be clear, mudded or nah. Okay, we're going to go through some people that have, maybe they haven't got all the playing time that they want to start the season. Maybe they got some injuries, whatever. But I will leave it up to my panel here, Tara and Sanjay,

to tell me if they are mudded or not. Wait, what does that mean? Mudded in the mud, brother, down bad. in the mud, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Double-checking. Hey, hey, the listener needs to know. It's an important question that you asked, Sanjay.

So let's start off with some bad injury news. Kevin Paredes. Absolutely mudded. Sorry to jump out so quickly. Absolutely mudded. Do we have any news? Is there any confirmation? I didn't check since the...

Yeah, I mean, this is really... Regardless, like this is, yeah, mudded. Maybe a serious injury, lower leg injury, right? This is from Daniel Smith, real quick, friend of the show, of course. Daniel Smith, he left Utrecht. He's at Utrecht now for anybody who does not know. Yeah, we forgot to mention him last week. It was a great story, right?

His comeback for a week, and then here we are. Yep. He left the match this weekend, on crutches and with a brace. and Utrecht fears a serious injury. We have no update, but that was what boots on the ground at Utrecht has given to us so far. So Kevin Paredes, another injury. Sanjay, is he mudded?

Yeah, he's mudded. I think I saw, I didn't see the play, but I heard there was a collision kind of thing, too. Like, not like some, like soft tissue, like, you know, like, like this is really unlucky really feel for the guy now we were hoping he could be a a solution as a

with provider on the left side I don't think that was necessarily what was going to happen this season but still it was great to see him out there last week and yeah he subbed on for the last 30 minutes of this game and this is a real bummer so he's

yeah he's mudded uh... Hodji Wright also I would say mudded serious quad injury out up to 12 weeks we knew someone was up but for it to be that bad

we didn't mention it last week either because like I didn't know it was as serious but again you're talking about a player who hardly played at the World Cup isn't getting younger like it's not like this is a big blow for the senior team but it sucks for him

yeah what he's about to be he's a 2000 something like no no 98 I'm sorry yeah he's a little older than Chris I think, yeah. Right. Okay, so, I mean, this is a man.

You know, he's made it. He made it to the mountain top. Yeah, never count him out, but this does not bode well. It doesn't. But, one, does Coventry have any money to get a replacement? I guess we'd ask that. And then two, of course, like, you know, he has his same manager, at least for now. You know how relegation teams kind of get, and they get antsy,

and they drop a lot of games. You know, I would think that they would like to keep on Frank Lampart, but, I mean, I don't, I mean, hasn't he? I was just hoping he could ball out and stay in the prem, even if they went back down, like, earn a move kind of thing. And now this, not a good start does not bodewell. Now, look, 12 weeks, I mean, it does sound like a lot of time. It is a lot of time.

But, I mean, if everything goes according to plan, what he'll be back. Yeah, his season's not over a knock on wood. Like, it's not like that, but... Yeah, be back in November, man. Before boxing day. You said never count him out.

I'm counting him out. He's out. He's out for me. Butted. This was before injury. I'm ready. I'm ready for someone new. Thank you for your service,

Haji. I hope you rest up and heal. Yeah, I mean, I never, like, to be clear, I never, like, counted him in as a guy who should, like, play or start. For a first choice team, he was a squad guy, and there was a chance he could have kept on being a squad guy. But, you know, with age and attrition, it's not looking good.

Let's go ahead over to Spain now. We got a nice, juicy setup for the opening weekend of La Liga. We had Athlete against Villa Real, and none of our boys started. No one's mudded. No one's mudded here. It's not a big deal. No, hold on, hold on. I got to tell the listener who we're talking about with Sanjay first.

Johnny Cardoso and Alex Freeman, Alex Freeman, the World Cup star. Go ahead, Sanjay. No, not a big deal. Freeman's going to be in the squad unless he's hurt for the foreseeable future. He's a core, he's a building block for Potch. Someone Potch discovered and trusted. And, yeah, even if he's not playing every week in La Liga just yet, he's not mudded neither is johnny i mean johnny you know we saw saw i'm getting back into it

towards the end of preseason um we didn't think the starts we're gonna come right away every week i least i didn't but uh fair he's coming off injury he's coming off injury yeah he's coming off injury but i mean you know he's out of big club so like could he be mudded months from now like if he's you know being discarded like like that's not out of the realm of possibility but i'm not yeah not in a rush to to judge johnny right now big year for for Johnny for sure, but there's, let's be patient. Sarah? I sat down to watch this game and much to my surprise, no one played.

So I was frustrated, but I agree, not mudded. I'm really excited to see what's going to happen with Freeman this year. But just putting the pieces together, both of you think Johnny didn't play just because an injury or he's not healthy or no it's one of those like both kind of things like fitness slash you know a little bit of both okay yeah i mean he that's the reality of playing in a club like that um yeah but like you know simione trusted him a lot last year and uh i'm not worried about him um Matisse Albert, I'm not calling him, mudded either.

I think I've... Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Real quick. Sanjay, this is my game, brother. Okay. We move on when I say. All right. We move on when I say. All right. Now, now, one second. But, okay, but before we get off the Johnny Freeman thing, real quick. So, Sanjay, you're saying... Okay, we got two different things we're talking about here.

USM and T, of course he's not going to do for that. But, but Villarreal, I'm playing time. Two matches in the La Liga season so far, and two minutes for, for L'Ali. Yeah, I mean, he kind of got his shot last season because Marino got injured too, right? So, like, it's not, like, or injured or suspended. I forget what exactly happened, but,

look, there's going to be rotation at some point. If he goes a whole season where he's not playing league games, then we can have a conversation. But I'm not stressing about it. I'm just double-checking there. Yeah, I mean, look, he's going to have to earn it because it's not like they don't have the fixture congestion that I was thinking of. But now, I mean, he should. He should. No, no, he showed his quality last season.

He's a young player. He'll be fun. Fair. I'm probably in the same place. All right. Like you said, you already spoiled the next person, Sanjay, so rudely. Matisse Albert did not get in for Dortmund in their two-one loss to Byron, Munich in the Super Cup. I got to disagree with my, you know, partner in crime here.

I think you might be mudded. I think you might have a little bit of that Dortmund stench on him. Oh. We're all familiar with it. We're all familiar with it. Don't pretend like we're not. It might be happening. So I'm going mudded.

Prove me wrong, little Albert. So, I mean, before we had a Dortmund stench, though, we had a Dortmund, you know, a dormant, I don't know. What's the word for a good smell? You know what I'm saying? Everything smelled good around, around Dortmund. The dormant perfume? Sure. Dormant fragrance?

Yeah, man, you know how to smell in the Lutututon. used to come in the window. And that is dead and gone. It's a stench now. Okay, okay. I mean, I don't know if I can say that. Look, I don't know. You don't want to say it.

You don't want to say it. That's, hey, muddied or not is a real game. When we went there, a tour guy was so nice. Such a nice man. You know, they do everything for you on a tour. They turn on the music, like you're really coming out the tunnel. And they let you come out of the tunnel and walk all to the field. You know what I'm saying?

I'm saying. I just don't know if I can do it, man. The beat, the beat, the black and yellow. It means something to me. I don't know. I don't know. But so Sanjay, so you said he is. No, no, I mean, I made my, like, stance on him, like, clear.

Fair, fair, fair. Like. We can keep moving. Yeah, he's not going to break through until at the earliest winter break through, not until next summer, if at all. They have other young guys who are getting on the field ahead of him. Like, that's the reality of Dorman. So it is what it is.

Fair enough. It is what it is truly with Dorman. This is a weird duo to put here. But I'm talking specifically as far as the national team, Austin Trustee and Cameron Carter Vickers. They won the first leg of their Champions League Qualifier 3-0 against Lask, who featured George Bello and Sam Adiniran.

They, you know, shout out to them. Thank you for coming out. But unfortunately, they got, they got kind of Molled a bit. So I guess I will say as far as we talked about this a little bit last week, but the USMNT futures going forward for Cameron Carter Vickers and Austin Trustee. Are they mudded or not?

I'll tell you what, CCV is. Austin Trustee, not mudded. CCV mudded. final answer, locking it in. Is this Philadelphia bias? No. It's just eyesight. I'm not.

I'm not mudding the, I mean, C.CV coming off that, you know, that kind of injury, it does not all go well for any centerback. You know, we've seen it with a few before in this pool. But I'm not mudding anyone who's going to be, you know, when they're starting together in the Champions League, which is what we're expecting for these guys. Especially looking at where the centerback picture is, I'm not going to mud. I think CCV gets a little disrespected by this fan base. If you played CCV with a full-strength team instead of, you know, like some like ad hoc, like makeshift line. Like if CCV was playing with the guys for a while, I think he'd do just fine.

And, yeah, trustee, obviously, has shown people enough to have hope for him still. Fair. And, I mean, Cameron Carter Vickers might be the only shot at Bayou representation for, I mean, a long time with his national team. You know what I'm saying? That's true. That's true. The son of, is he a legend? I don't know much about Joe Carter.

But he was good at basketball at a point in time. That's all I know. But, you know, let us not forget CCV starting the Ion match, of course, and giving us a good performance. So if that is, I was going to say all that he's done in the USM&T uniform. But that's kind of like downplaying. I mean, he started in a must-win USM&T World Cup match, and we won that match. You know what I'm saying? So he stamped forever.

He stand forever. Shout out to Louisiana, the state. shout out to LSU the school as well. All right, Mark McKenzie. He started for Toulouse in that match against Leon that they lost to Nell. We learned last week that he will be returning to the Philadelphia Union in January. And just based off that alone, him going back to MLS as Mark McKenzie mudded. Nah, I can't disrespect him like that.

He went over there, did his thing. um he i actually i remember interviewing him when he was in belgium and it's funny like all of us his fans want these players to you know get over there as soon as possible and and work their way up but like you get over there and it's not like all interviewing you know not just him but a bunch of players like you you realize like it's not like they go there and it's just glory waiting for them you know like that's not how it is um whether it's even salary-wise compared to like he's going to come back and get paid, so good for him. Not knocking him for that.

He test himself in Europe. He had a pretty good career in a big five league, and now he's coming back. I don't think this really changes anything with him in the national team. We know he can pass the ball. We know about the concerns defensively that are still there. But I think he's still going to be, just by virtue of what he can do with the ball, the ball at his feet. I think he'll still be in the picture for this cycle. I think he should be because when you're playing against as many inferior teams as the

U.S. will, you want someone like him who never really got a fair chance with Chris anyway. So, yeah, I think him and trustee, trustee's giving people more reason to buy stock. But no, I don't think this changes the outlook for Mark. Tara, what do you think? You got to be careful here as a Philly native. Listen, listen, if you can't, if you can't say Mark McKinsey's mudded, I agree with everything. You had a good career. I don't fault. I don't fault you for getting paid.

I don't fault anybody for getting paid. I don't want him on the Philadelphia Union. And I'll go ahead and say, Philly mudded for this move. And it might be the World Cup perception, you know, dragging over. But I just don't think that's the right. Right, aura for the team, the lack of a better phrase. Yeah, men's national team come along. I don't want him on the union.

I understand what you're saying, Terah. You're trying to say straight backs in 2026, get them out of here. Out of here, baby. No corn rolls, no cornwall is 22. I understood. Listen, listen. Take it back. Take it back.

Round of applause for Mark McKenzie. Look, yeah. Hopefully here's the ground running. MLS and is one of the best center backs in MLS. I'm a little dubious. I'm a little dubious. What we shall see. We shall see.

Let's get to one that's going to hurt a lot of people. So it's Tyler Adams. Came on to the last. How are we still doing this game? Let's run through this. Let's run. I'm tired of this game. Look, look, we're just talking about, we're talking about Bournemouth.

We're talking about Bournemouth, all right? Last 15 versus Manchester City. and Bournemouth blew a 1-0 lead they conceded twice to lose 2 to 1 is Tyler Adams mudded Keep it Keep it short

So we can get through it Absolutely Absolutely and there's proof He got a scolding on National TV for it You could see it You can see it He did bad

Tyler Oh Oh So he's absolutely mother Okay Sanjay? No, I'm not going to define him based on this. You know, I don't think you're mudded if you're being linked to Manchester United and Liverpool.

So let's see if that goes anywhere, if he's still a Wormouth player at the end of this window. But, I mean, look. Who do these links? Look, this is a big cycle for him to maintain his stature in the team, his level of play, his stature in the team. maybe be the captain. We'll see what happens with that, whether it's him or Chris Richards. But, no, he's not muddied.

He's not mudded. Brendan Aronson, new three-year deal with Leeds. He's staying in the Prem, 1,82 minutes in the opener. They got the dub, which is nice for them. Relieve some pressure from the Leeds fans early on. Yeah, so I don't know why I put him in the section, but is he muddy, yo?

No, he's staying over. there, he's doing his thing. Let's see if he can level up. You know, don't, who knows? Did not do a lot in this, in this match against fours, to be clear. And, you know, one line. Starting in the Prem still.

Can't mud him. For sure, for sure. My, my vote is based off of the extension. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. Okay. You cannot be in the mud and get an extended by your club.

Shout out to Brendan, big deal. Congratulations. We got one last person on muttered or nah. That is Joseph Scali. He was not in the squad for Gladbach in the polkaal match against TSV Schwarzmites. They, for people that don't understand German soccer and kind of the etiquette around it, you do bring your full first team, you do start your best team in the poll call against these like fourth division teams. Just to just to give you all a little bit of context.

Sanjay, go ahead. No, he's not mudded. They're trying to sell him, right? And we talked about the links already on here. So this isn't, you know, we won't say this is like performance based or something like he's hopefully going to be out of there soon. first chapter of his career in Gladbach he's nearly done so we think

but yeah elsewhere in Germany as we graduate from this this game of yours no hold on once again Sanjay once again this is my game and you so rudely admitted Tara from giving her opinion on Joseph Scali

is Joe muttered or not no if anything he you know, is freshly clean because if he's moving out of Gladback, I'm interested again.

So that's all good news. Thank you for including me in the final part of Mudded or not. Of course. Of course. But yeah, he's wiping all that. I mean, if you want to talk about Gladbach stench, I guess we'd be referring to the city, which isn't some booming metropolis.

You know, I spent a lot of time as we were stranded out there trying to find a train to Amsterdam. Like just people watching as people walked into their Hothbrandhof, their train station, etc. It's a rough and tumble place,

Glaback is, but shout out to Glabock. The time there was great. The donor was amazing, the food, and the match experience, everything. Shout out to Glabok. I got my hat.

I'm going to keep it forever because of how they treated my boy, Joseph, throughout these, what we're talking, Five years, six years? 2020? Been there a while. Long time.

Long time. It's going to be sad. It's kind of sad when, you know, the players leave their Bundesliga origins. I mean, but, you know, it's like the last, the last bit of service you can do is to help their broke ass get a little money, you know? You know what I'm saying? So it's like, it's the least you can do. It's the least you can do kind of thing. All right.

Elsewhere in Germany, Malik started in a 4-0. dub for Leverkusen over Van Wiesbaden Noki started in a 2-0 win for Augsburg versus Energy Kortbos shout out, I think Greg used to play for them once upon a time That's where I know from

Yeah, energy kotpuss Cole Campbell went 90 John Tolgan went 82 minutes In a dub at TSV Munich and Yeah What else we got? Vince you said Brian Reynolds made a debut

Brian Reynolds debut for Is that Ren? He's at Wren, right? Yes. Against PSG, no less. He got two minutes plus stop his time. Counts. So, hey, his debut has been made.

I guess I could have put him in muddered or not, but I wanted to be nice to the man because he got his top five league. Well, oh, he probably got a little run for Roma. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he got a few minutes there. Yeah, yeah. Throw back. for those who aren't familiar with Brian Reynolds after all this time,

you probably do need a little bit of a refresher. Brian Reynolds, right back. He is a right back and nothing else but a right back came from FC Dallas, transferred to Roma. That didn't go well. And since then, has kind of been doing his thing, toiling over in Belgium for a while. He was at Westerloo, then...

what was this place he just left? But anyway, I lost connection. Yeah, he was in Corcorrhide, then West Lue. Corn Reich and then Restle. Yeah, yeah, okay, there we go. He's the right back, but if he were a player for the U.S., I think he would maybe be the wide guy. What do you think?

Right side, wide player, former? I don't think he got the juice for it. I don't think he got the juice for it. Former wide player now. I'm not going to say it like I've watched a ton of them, but I have not seen any, like, really, he got the regular right-back attacking package. He can kind of just pump across him.

He's not a prospect anymore, right? He just turned 25, but interesting profile for sure. Yeah, we're old, man. Tara, someone else who used to play in Germany, not that Reynolds did, but we were just talking about Germany. Someone else who just left the Bundesliga scored? Yeah, I...

Scored? You left Norwich, but tell us about Sarge. A little appropriate. as we're winding down here, I thought, Josh Sargent, he came out, scored, played well, got people talking. Where does this land for you guys? Any interest still in old Josh Sargent?

Where he landed was not even in the rundown from Mudder-D-Nah because we know where that man is right now. Yeah. He's in the Canadian mud. We're looking at like a negative 10% chance at bringing back. Yeah, it's not. Sarge? No, okay.

Well, good goal, good goal nonetheless. And I was mildly happy for him. I would not be shocked if he gets, like, caps in this cycle at all. If Maricio Pachino is the manager, barring, you know, some crazy injury crisis, which maybe we're kind of at right now with Hachio. Yeah. Obviously, we want to see the kids get their auditions.

We want to see Ellis. We want to see Hull. But, yeah, Josh. Just because he's, look, we've seen him do it. Do what? You know what I haven't seen him do, Sanjay, for a very long time? For the U.S. Men's National team, you haven't seen it for a long time. But we've seen it, like I said, Norwich in the Bundesliga, we've seen him do it at a good level.

He's a good, he's a complete player. We did not see him do much of anything in the Bundesliga, to be clear. In a good situation, he's a good. good player and I think the U.S. is going to have a very good situation soon in terms of the technical creative midfielders and attacking players coming up and all right fair enough there's going to be the service is going to be there for him if he can play his way back to the team I don't know he's saying he's saying there's a chance I'm not saying I don't think up and up everyone's going to mud him but I'm not putting

yeah like we're not I don't I don't think of him is I should have put this man I matter than ah, so I could make you stand on something. And instead of giving all these platitudes about what he could potentially do, I don't rate him. I don't rate him. In a certain way, and the moon and the sun, you know, if you look at his birth chart, et cetera, et cetera. I don't think, I don't think, Hadrian is any better than him.

Like, that's how I look at it. Honestly, I think he's a good soccer player. I don't think Hodgrey rights any better than him. Yeah. Well, Audrey Wright scored in a game for the U.S. Middictional team. in this decade. So from...

That's it. This is the show. This is the Monday review. Sanjay, Tara, thank you very much for joining me. And we'll see you.