Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #730: USA v Chile recap

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

Gio shines, Julian demonstrates his useful skillset, Adri struggles, Mathis becomes the youngest USMNT scorer ever, Cavan blesses the masses with a moment. Vince and Belz talk through the 4-2 win over Chile in St. Louis earlier this week.Scuffed is going to the French Riviera! Express your interest here:https://earthlydelights.club/scuffed 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. We faced Chile on Tuesday. Lots of young players out there again for the USA. We go down 2-1 and then come back to win 4-2. Thanks in large part to two goals scored by teenagers. I think this was a pleasure, ultimately in St. Louis. Vince, how are you?

You were at the game? Yeah, man. Was at the game. Had a great time. Took my family down. to St. Louis for a couple days, a little impromptu excursion by the Irvin family. It was a good time, man. Had a good time in St. Louis.

Let's do the lineups and then get into the timeline because I think most of what we're going to try to say is in there. Chris Brady and goal. Frankie Westfield gets to start it right back. Neil Pierre, Miles Robinson are the centerbacks. Jedi is the left back. Bringing some sort of seniority to the table here. Brooklyn Raines and Audrey Mametti make a really young two in the midfield. And then Sebastian Burhalter, Gio Raina, and Sergenio Dest are the band of three.

And then Julian Hall, Kresheski, gets the start at Stryker. And had an active game, obviously. For Chile, it was Lawrence Vigaroos in goal. There's three Felipe's on this team. Felipe Fondae Fonda's played right back. Jonathan Viagra and Ivan Roman were the centerbacks. Diego Uyoa at left back. Felipe Ujua and Felipe Mendes in the midfield.

And then Dario Osorio, Nils Reichmuth, and Maximiliano Gutierrez. Gutierrez and Osorio both dangerous and flashes across that band of three. And then Ben Brereton, who I guess has dropped the Diaz from his name, who plays for Sheffield United at Stryker. And yeah, what were we looking like against the ball with the ball? Kind of the same things we've been doing for a while now. 4-2-3-1 press. Our main defensive shape.

3-2 in the build-out, which was pretty fluid with multiple players popping in and out of the two. you know it was nothing to see Giovanni Raina there Sebastian Berthalter there etc Adjima Medi dropping back in the three like somebody dropping back in the right back spot

Frankie Westfield pushed up somebody dropping back in the left field spot Jedi Robinson pushed up etc which was I do want to make this point just like you know this is a stark difference from Greg Brough

I mean, obviously we are far past the Greg Burrhalter era. But it just always kind of strikes me where, like, with Greg, we played position play 1.0. And like nothing. Like, we did not have this interchanging of roles. Like, you know, MMA remained MMA in the defensive five. Never did we really have interchanging to where it's like, oh, okay, I'm a pop up. in, I don't know, Timway a spot wide right or whatever, and Timway a pop-up.

Now you understand you need to be in the defensive five or whatever and protect to get this transition or whatever. When Greg found a system that worked, he was very rigid within that system, and the roles were the roles, and there was no interchanging within those roles. And now under Potch, even with, you know, a young group, and I guess we kind of talked about

the youth's ability to take the tactical teachings that Pottes was, and Pach talked about it. Yeah, he's very impressed. And translate it on the field or whatever. I don't know how difficult this actually is to understand that somebody needs to be here, somebody needs to be there, and if I'm there, you're here,

and if I'm here, you're there kind of thing. But it is definitely a change from what Greg was doing. And I think it changed for the better. Just because, you know, you can see the, I don't know if it confuses the defense as much, but it, you know, it just gets players in different positions and allows them to do different things.

You know, we see it on it. We kind of see it on our, was it our first goal? Second goal. Well, our first goal, yeah, the Sebastian Burrholt to go. And, you know, I think it does confuse the defense more. And I think, I mean, I'm not an expert on this, but my sense is, whether it's confusing or not, it is another thing you have to think about as an attacker to interchange. Or an attack.

Well, both. But as an attacker, say for the U.S., the players have to think about it. And they have to, like, it's like another thing they have to be alert to. As if, you know, so-and-so goes here, then I got to go here. But it also adds to the mental load, like, to your point of the defense. And I think anything you can do to sort of add stress and complexity to their lives is good and has a cumulative effect over the course of a game. Yeah.

We won the XG battle, right? Yeah, XG, USA 2.55, Chile, 1.23. you know it's a thorough smashing if you value that metric I do I do they they weren't they weren't a great team

Chile they were not real quick before we fully hop into the time I do want to shout out of the Chilean fans I was on the I was on their side opposite of the AO or whatever and you know they had a they had a

small but strong contingent. I mean, the Chilean anthem was electric, brother. Was it? Electric. These fellas and women singing their hearts out. Absolute hearts out for the anthem. It was pretty cool.

And they brought it the entire match. They had some people in there, brought some drums, et cetera. They were chanting the whole match. And it seemed to be, and I couldn't notice this as much in the game, but watching the game back, you know, you would also, you know, USA scored.

And we showed the Chile section, you know, there would be some cheers in there as well, you know what I'm saying? So it's just all, the vibes all around. Awesome. We got a saxophone rendition of the national anthem too, which I wonder. Oh, brother, come on. Goose bumps.

He went so crazy. Hey, he was going crazy on that sax, man. When he got to the And the land of the free, you know, when he hit that on the sax, I looked at my wife, I was like, bro, like, are you hearing this right now? Are you here? Like, yeah, he went crazy. I was wondering, I even, yeah, I was standing there.

I was like, like, like, I wonder if the team that's standing there right now understands the greatness that he is putting out on this pitch right now. Incredible rendition of the national anthem. I hadn't heard the saxophone in a long time. They are kind of, you don't hear them every day, do you? All right, to the timeline. So Chile gets the first real shot. It comes from Gutierrez off a clipped ball down the line up the left,

and he just leaves Westfield on the ground and cuts in to shoot. Harmless shot, but main thing here is Frankie gets little brothered kind of right off the jump. And he had a few kind of moments like that, I would say, in the first half. Although he probably settled in the game. 150 mark, a decent little pass from Neil Pierre to place Sebastian into a pocket of space to Jedi over on the left side. And he squares it from Mehdi, showing in the middle. and he's under a little bit of pressure and just passes it out of bounds. Yep.

Moving forward to the fourth minute, we get our first chance off a Chile area pass from the back line that was forced by Sebastian Barrehalter. It goes, Jedi, Mehdi, Gio, who tries to slip Julian haul in, but the pass is a little too heavy. A little too heavy is claimed by the keeper. But, you know, sign of the thing to come. Gio playing a nice little ball, Julian

making a nice run to get in on it. Just a little bit off from Mr. Randler. Yeah, kind of a theme of the first half is GEO, you know, GEOC in those big windows in the Chilean defense and going for them. Yep.

Seventh minute. We get a heavy touch by Audrey. This comes on a layoff from Seb. Seb, I think, kind of coming back to the ball, squares it for Audrey. Audrey kind of has a defender on his, I don't know, right hip. Right hip. It's there for him to kind of take it on his left foot

and kind of progress the ball, maybe the Jedi over there or something like that. But he gets kind of a little brother here. And, you know, at this point I'm clocking it. Audrey's had two opportunities to show his quality and buildup. You know, obviously the earlier moment was the one we just talked about when Jedi and it has not happened yet. And really, I think he's kind of sped up and out of it for the entire match, unfortunately. Yeah.

It's not like it was, you know, to quote the Total Soccer Show. It wasn't exactly a quicksand performance. Like it wasn't a disaster from him or anything. Yeah. But he never quite got a foothold. I think mentally in the game. Yeah, yeah. And I think that, well, I just think, like, we'll talk about miscue he has later in the game that leads to a really good chance, or a decent chance at least.

And I feel like there's some psychological analysis that can go into that because I think, I think at a certain point you realize as a midfielder, I'm not doing Jack here. I'm doing nothing. and then you're like, well, I got to do something. I got to show that I'm, you know, that I can push the game from this position on the field. I think he got to that point, and it caused him to make some not ideal decisions. Yeah, and that makes sense for him specifically, just a person who is very much not a meek personality or midfield or just in general. You know, some people might just be like, hey, you know what, let's get out of here. Let's get out of here unscathed, brother.

Yeah. You know, things are moving kind of fast for me right now. All right, bet, I'm going to keep it simple. Keep my body shape to the person that's passing me the ball. You know, it passed it to me. I'm just going to lay it back. Pass to me, lay it back. I might pop up in the back three a little bit, which is what he did for certain parts of this match.

to just have some low risk, low pressure touches, passing, you know, kind of try and get into the game that way, you know. But yeah, Audrey's, you can definitely see Audrey, the type of midfielder he is and the type of, you know, what we learned about his upbringing, all his different types of things, just really wanting to press to get back into the game kind of thing. And, you know, this is a young man, obviously. and we've had some standout performances from young men so far in this window

and, you know, it's just just was not one of them. No, it was not. It is a tough position. I mean, it's a complicated job, the one that he is tasked with. Well, sure. Anyway. Early in the eighth minute, we get a bad Neil Pierre pass trying to find Gio between the lines. Chile picks it off.

Heads the other way, a Chilean diagonal, finds Osorio on the right side of the box, and he lays it off first time with his side foot intended for Reichmuth, who is crashing near post of Brooklyn Raines, is right in his pocket, and not only is he in his pocket, has a nice burst to speed, eats up some ground, to really get between Reichmoof and the ball and knock it out for a corner. It's a nice defensive recovery. Mr. Rehn? This was outstanding, yeah. Super alert and committed, you know, full-on, just dead sprint when he realizes that this Reichmuth is going to be, you know, on goal if he doesn't

act. Love it. Love it from Brooklyn. He's a, he's a, what's the word? He's a competent henchman, you know, in the midfield. Yeah, that's the thing. Serious, responsible fellow. Hitchman is the exact word, man. You know, there's somebody that you can, hey, send him out there and say, hey, go get him. Go get him, man.

And he's going to come back with the bag of cash or golden coins or whatever. And, you know, I feel like one thing that everyone ends up discounting with regards to player choices when it comes to management is just trust, right? Once you, if you can establish trust with a manager,

and that's the kind of thing that, like, we'll get like a tantatestment, for instance. You know, you can easily see a scenario where he's not the kind of player that despires a lot of trust necessarily from a manager. You know what I'm saying? Brooklyn Raines, being as serious and committed as he is defensively,

and he, like, shows it over and over. In this match specifically, you know, I mean, that's the type of thing that's going to stick with somebody, you know? I wouldn't be surprised if maybe he gets some close it out minutes against Mexico or something like that because, yeah, he's just. Building credibility, man. Yeah, yeah. He's there. He can be accounted for. I clocked a nice bit of sort of skilled ball winning from Dest at the nine-minute mark where it's just like the ball's all bouncing around.

brings it down in a crowd and then wriggles away from the scrum to send Burlter wide. Burrhalter then wins a foul, which is about what he's going to do when he's lined up 1v1 with a defender that far from goal. And then he takes the set piece and it's just a harmless one. But nice for him, Desk here. It's pretty crazy how many set pieces did not cross the waistline of many players. when served that when we had when we had Neil Pierre in this match.

You know, I was trying to see it one time. Trying to see it one time, man, and for whatever reason, like really up until, I guess, like the Chris Rich's goal,

it was like, bro, we could not get no lift on these things. Well, Raina's, Raina had the assist to Hall that was, that had plenty of lift on it.

It just wasn't aimed at. That's not a set piece. Oh, you're right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I guess,

we have one to miles at some point in this first half too. But yeah, that got nodded back across. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We didn't get to see Neil Pierre do his thing. Obviously, and on this last play, I guess we didn't talk about the, Neil, Neil on this play, the past getting picked off. You know, your thought spells. Oh, I, I mean, it was, what he got like,

he was looking to play through the lines and just didn't see this. defender closing the window. This is the time for him to try these kind of passes and fail at them. You know, 3.75 years away from a World Cup and, you know, playing against Chile. I don't mind. I don't mind an ambitious pass that goes awry from a centerback at this point at all. Fair enough. I thought, well, yeah, let's just go to the 12th minute.

All right, 12th minute, which is something I was kind of. of calling for in the stadium. When you saw the Chilean press, they were pressing pretty intently, had us pretty, I mean, once again, we were looking kind of constipated to start this match off,

Adam Bells, and I was starting, I was starting to look for, for runs over the top. You know, I was, I kind of focused my, uh,

I kind of focused on Julian, obviously, because like that, that has been, that position, striker position has been the one that has been given us relief with friends and behind you know big pat flow i mean even damien downs etc from the i mean from the gold cup on it was i mean that was like one of our main uh yeah the in-out run from the striker kind of

towards the corner right in the channel one of our main uh i don't know tenets i guess pillars of play And so I was looking for Julian to make those runs. And from my vantage point in the stadium, I could see this very well. And Julian was not making the runs, even in like obvious situation. Like, you know, when you get the winger on any side check into a ball, like that's clear opportunity to go, obviously. Yeah. Like wingers pulling a defender with them. You got a ton of space to do it. even when that wasn't the case,

when the front three was just staying there in the front three, I still felt like Julian should go ahead and go. Which, you know, this is something, this is something that'll come, I guess, a pot to work with him on. Because even then on a couple of plays that we'll get to later, like he was slow to recognize the opportunity to make these runs, specifically in the first and second phase,

I'm talking. In the final third, obviously, he's a killer. he knows he is very good with the runs in those situations but I was I was kind of focused on it there but anyway you know it guess who stepped up and decided I'll take this load upon myself and I'll show these youngest how to play some ball it was Mr. Gio Vani Raina he makes the run in behind it's a long ball over the top from from Jedi to him Gio gets to it first he's opening them legs up brother gets to it first and it's chopped down by uh Mr. Viagra, yellow card issued, and free kick from there.

But this was nice to see Gio. Yeah, it is a nice ball from Jedi, and Gio's like aiming to win a foul from, in my opinion, from the jump here, which is okay. But he's not interested in taking this ball down on the stretch and ripping a shot with his left foot or whatever. Or, I mean, even a Travella, I'd take that. But he feels a little bit of contact me.

He goes down. He's like, he's pulling the rip cord. I mean, you know, maybe does not have the capacity to do so as far as, you know, taking the ball, getting into the box, taking a shot, et cetera. But, hey, I'll take it. Because, you know what? I have to say I was pretty impressed by Gio in this match

And best player on the field I mean For sure For sure And You know You could tell he was taking a clear A clear leadership role out there on that pitch

He was the star around which All the other planets on the pitch For the United States Miss National team Like revolved around And And, yeah, he did well in that role, man. He was great. He was obviously the facilitator, but he was also, you know, taking, like I mentioned earlier,

taking risks to play the ball forward, which is what I would like to see from him, you know. 10 to 15 ambitious passes per game would be nice as a baseline for him. The ensuing set piece is taken by Gio. He curls it in for Miles who does it, does it, textbook, heads it down and back across. Goalkeeper makes a nice play to paw it away from the on-rushing Mimetti. I don't know if Mimedi was really rushing either. He's just kind of there. But I don't want to beat up on him too much.

Mamedi watch is not a super happy timeline here. But again, it's a tough job. He's a young player. Yeah, it's really not. You know, look, we will be eating at some point soon. It just went a day. It just went today. 16th minute, we get a pass from Miles Robinson to Anthony Robinson that's picked off.

Chile picks it off and is on their way. They have a shot taken by Osorio to Chris Brady's left, a shot from outside the box, a pretty easy save for Chris Brady. But, yeah. Miles's giveaways are different from Neals because, well, Neil's at least trying to, like, hit somebody between the lines. Miles is just,

Miles just, like, dribbles himself into, like, kind of a mini cul-de-sac, and then he tries to force a pass to somebody who's, like, six yards away. And this happened. You're trying to disguise it, too? Three or four times, yeah. There's only one place you can go with this ball, brother.

You have dribbled yourself to the touchline and then trying to do a little reverse to Anthony Roberts in the pocket like that. It's a wrap, unfortunately. Yeah, I mean, to be fair to him, he's playing left centerback, so that's probably, you know, he's definitely more uncomfortable there than he is on the right side. Anyway, Mamedi gives it away in the center circle in around the 17th minute. And this is where I want to do a little psychological analysis. because there's a miscommunication with Burrhalter

who darts away as Mamedi passes it to him. And then Mamedi gets traffic-coned, and then Burrhalter can't offer much resistance, and there's a shot, and there's a comfortable save. But it looked to me like Mamedi was sort of out of sorts here. He hadn't quite gotten his foot on the ball in this game. He gets it in space from Rana just before this. And Rains is kind of side-carring him a little bit,

so he doesn't pass the ball. out wide to the right. Like he probably, you know, this is like a, this could be a flowing move into Raina in a pocket of space over to Mametti in the center circle. And then everything just kind of grinds to a halt at Mehmeti's feet.

And he ends up tapping it sideways to Raina, three yards. I mean, terrains, three yards. And the Raines just taps it back to him three yards. And everybody, you know, everybody watching and everybody in the stadium and everybody playing is like, what are y'all doing here? Let's play soccer. And I feel like,

I feel like Mamedi, I could be imagining it, but I feel like Mimedi was immediately embarrassed by that. Like the ball's flowing through our team. It comes to my feet, and all of a sudden, me and the other, me and the other young guy are just going to tap it back and forth in the center circle while everybody stands and watches. And then he gets like, oh, I got to do something now.

I got to, like, show that I can push this game. He tries to make a quick pass to Burrhalter. Burrhalter darts away at just the wrong time. Unfortunate timing. And then they're coming back at us. And it's a giveaway for Audrey. And he then, and his defensive limitations kind of really sing out at you as a viewer in this play. So.

Yep. So that's the thing. It's like, you know, maybe this was a quicks saying 20 minutes. you know, in all things considered, because I don't know. He was Meg about a minute earlier as well. Audrey was, but Seb was able to recover the ball before the Megger got back around to it. And yeah, just not seeing any of his ability to reset the clock, get that extra beat, and slow down the game for itself so far.

And even, like, when he received that pass, if you watch it back, Brooklyn Raines is pointing the surge, like, pass the ball to surge real quick and um just no fluidity to like his receiving deciding and executing right right right exactly exactly um 18th minute this is when um from from here out i think it's when geo just starts a cooking um geo pops up on the left gets a pass from miles robinson uh and receives it extremely slickly, a little touch that settles the ball out to his left so he can turn on it, so he can turn on it with space to decide what he wants to do.

And he plays Julian Hall in behind with a nice right-footed outside of the boot pass. Hall gets to it first and shows good strength to win the ball. Attack fizzles out soon. I think Julian passes it back to Seb once he kind of wins it in the channel. Seb plays it to Serge who tries to nutmeg a defender and play Brooklyn Raines in. But it's cut out. It's cut out. And I think it ends up getting called for a surge handball off the deflection.

But nice play from both Julian Hall and Giorana here. Julian Hall, like I said, I had already been on him running and behind to start this match. And then at this point, he was a couple beats late to this run specifically. Like, he should have been on his toes as soon as G.O. Raina had checked back at that point because this was a situation, I think, where Seb was in the two. G. Arana is on the left. He's essentially the winger there. He had dropped back.

So all the space in the world for Julian to run. And, you know, it kind of takes Gio receiving the ball, looking up. he almost holds his hands out prime geo arena style um but julian gets on his horse and really makes up a eats up like a kind of a deficit between him and the chilean defender like if you really stop it you get a nice little frame right when geo's about to play this ball and when julian realizes he has to make the run and he's a solid like two or three steps behind the chilean defender but it eats that grass up gets to it first so yeah good stuff lovely passed too.

And I just thought maybe taking all the timing stuff into consideration that you just said, maybe the pass a tad short because it kind of forced him to come out to the left. But man, gorgeous stuff. And Dest, you know, on the

attack that fizzles out, Dest almost megs a guy to play Rains in on goal too. So, 19th minute Jedi to Seb, to haul, in behind. This is 1V1 with the keeper. and goes wide, flashes it over the bar. You've probably seen the highlight.

He'd like him to do better here. So would he, another good run, though, from Julian Hall? It was just one of those things where it's like, you know, he had kind of widened himself so far to a point. When it was time to take the shot, I had no hope. You know, it was just, it was one of those things. Like, he had created a pretty tight angle for itself. Keeper was eliminated, yes.

but angle and then he fell down on his bottom yep yep it is what it is but uh yeah this was i mean chile cut open pretty easily after i mean it was a chile turnover but man it was just like jettie to seb in tons of acres space seb just turn turn slip easy as you like into into julian and uh off to the races 20 21st minute No, Pierre finds Serge checking back to the ball. Sirginio loses it. Chile comes back the other way. Attack.

Reins clears the cutback weekly into danger. Then Chile takes a shot that's deflected and it crosses the face of goal, meekly out for a corner. Dangerous moment here. I thought Serge kind of, it was kind of heroic the way he lost the ball. I mean, he turned a guy similar to the way Gio. did earlier in the game. And then he ran into trouble and tried to dribble like three guys.

Still almost came away with it. The ensuing corner was almost in Olimpico. Brady had to kind of scramble and run in and punch it away. And then he started punching everything up in the air. A lot of up in the air punches. He did. Which I thought some could be catches. Yeah, or maybe could have been punched out of bounds.

Yeah, of course. Besides straight up in the friggin' air. 25th minute, nice clip ball from Brady out to Jedi in the press, which breaks the press completely. This was nice to see from a goalkeeper playing a little bit of a cultured pass to over a defender to attacker. Yeah, very nice. 27 minute

I clocked this Virginia desk Absolutely stonewalled 1V1 and gets a ball out there in the right touchline and

the Chilean defenders having none of it Yeah He came away holding his ribs Which I couldn't tell if it was a face saving measure Or if it really hurt

Maybe it really hurt Right around the 28th minute mark Frankie Westfield and Gior Raina Executed 1 two and Frankie is off. He dribbles in the traffic and loses the ball, unfortunately.

Yeah, just a heavy touch. I've seen a few of those this fall. I'm talking about watching a lot of youth soccer for what I mean about that. But the quality here from Raina, man, the perfect weight on that little layoff for the striding Frankie, as you may know, this is one of the things

I love most, just the detail here. I mean, anytime you combine with Geo Raina, it's almost like always perfect the weight of the pass that leads you into the space that you want to go into. I mean, yeah, he set that thing down like on a, you know, I mean, the ball has stopped moving. Yeah. For Frankie Westfield to round. You know. And yeah, this was, this was just Gio this whole match.

You know, like, Gio was, if you were a young kid looking to stamp your ground, so to say, for the U.S. Miss National Team today, and you were starting in this Chile, match, you know, you had your opportunity to do your thing because G. O'Rena was on the pitch. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And you just had to kind of take your opportunities to combine with them or

to score the goal when you are a recipient of one of his good passes. You know what I'm saying? It was it was impressive to see him to see him lead the team out there, you know? So. He's limited, but he's still a

prince. You know? that's how I see it. A limited prince. 30th minute mark. Neil Pierre plays a decent ball between the lines to Seb. It's a little weak and a little off to Seb's wrong foot. So really, the only thing Seb is able to do is kind of corral it and draw one of those pat in the fouls you was talking about on bells. But another decent pass from Mr. Pierre?

I don't know, tough crowd. Tough crowd on the saying this is to the wrong foot. I feel like, you know, when you're shoving a pass through the lines like that, you've got to find the window you got. Yeah, he's clearly – Pierre is clearly the more comfortable of our two centerbacks in possession in this game. Yep. You know, on first watch, I was – we don't detail him here in the timeline. But, you know, Miles had some decent stuff he was doing. But, yeah, the more and more went on.

multiple just kind of ridiculous giveaways, etc. And Neil's really playing it between the lines more than I gave him credit for initially. So, yeah. I think I agree with you there.

Mr. Bells. Let's see. 31st minute Raina plays that slip pass into Hall, firm shot from a tough angle, but another nice passage of play from us. Yeah, and another nice passion of play that's all facilitated by Giovanni Rana.

You know, he's conducting this whole thing, our attack, our build-out, everything. He has a one-two with surge to kind of start this whole thing and then gets it back, plays a slip to Julian. Julian, killing the box with his runs here, ready to be available. for Gio. Yeah, good play for me. Yeah. Maybe he should have squared this across the face of goal.

There were a couple runners. I don't know. I mean, you can't criticize a striker from shooting here, especially when he shot from earlier from around the same spot and sent it over. And immediately after this shot

and the ball pings around and then there's just a long skimming ball in behind between Westfield and, Pierre in transition from Chile and Brady somewhat mysteriously decides to stay to his line instead of coming out to claim it

and has to... I mean, he ends up getting applause because he makes a strong left arm reaction save on the ensuing shot. But basically, he could have nipped this in the butt and instead ends up with an extremely dangerous 1V1. And you can see Frankie Westfield is like, what are you doing here?

he slowed down thinking Brady was going to claim it. Then he's gesturing at Brady as the attacker is lining up the shot. Yeah. I mean, brother, he could have claimed this so easily. Like, I was in this end zone, basically. You could have claimed it. Sure, I mean, based on Chris's position, Chris's position when the ball, I mean, because you know where a keeper is in that kind of situation.

you know, he's up towards, you know, the top of the box. Like, before the ball is played, he's up towards the top of the box, you know. And then this ball comes in and there's like a moment of hesitation. And then he just totally retreats to the goal. And it's like, he may, because the camera doesn't really catch this. Like, he retreats to the goal and the ball is still just rolling. Like, you know, it's still just a rolling. Like, even after the indecision, Chris, you can,

could have came out and claimed that and just kicked it away or whatever um but but i guess it is what it is um he he backs himself yeah uh to to make the save he makes a save um it's a good save but yeah yeah 34th well real quick just just just audrey was was caught a little bit in no man's land a little bit here uh he went chasing to try and get player to a pressure he really didn't have a chance too, which kind of left space for the player who played the through ball to execute the pass.

Yeah. It's just like with the, we already talked about how he sped up like offensively or whatever. There were kind of like no defensive plays to make up for that either.

I'm sure Sanjay somewhere is just outraged. at this whole this tenure of this conversation. I saw him, I think, on Twitter or something,

he was like, he wasn't playing his, he wasn't playing his regular position and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I don't know. He had plenty of opportunity,

like these moments that we've been talking about. And I don't think it's because he was in situations that he's totally unfamiliar with. Right. I do think there's nerves

for, anyway. I'm Mimetti will get many more chances and probably will play much better than this in the future for the national team. 34th minute, bit of a lack of business handling from Seb

and Miles leaves Brereton Diaz with a shot that rings the crossbar. This is a bouncing ball at the edge of the box which is, you know, can be, I mean, it's a tricky situation in general, but it seems like a situation that we yield chances from, you know, like every other game. Yeah.

We do. Which I guess is, well, you know what, we'll wait for the next, we'll wait for the very next play to talk about Sebastian Burrhalter, I guess. But, yeah, you would just love to see maybe Miles come in and just clear some people out, move some furniture maybe, I guess, to kind of clean the situation up. Because other than that, there's no real clear way to do it. Yeah, it's not an easy thing. Yeah.

Miles comes this close maybe from blocking the shot. does not but ultimately what we concede a pretty low XG chance that maybe possibly only makes his timeline because it hits the crossbar

kind of thing I mean he hammered that ball off the crossbar for sure 35th minute Miles has a dumb giveaway at midfield trying to force another

sort of short pass to Burrhalter Chile comes right at us and Osorio rings the post with a left-footed curler. So it feels a little... I mean, these things in quick succession like this feels a little bit...

Things are starting to feel a little out of control. Yeah. But still zero-zero. All right, we'll get to the goal. 36-minute mark. It's a goal for Sebastian Berhalter. Dest is going at a guy just outside the box. Well, he's going at a guy from midfield.

He won two with Raina and then slides it over to Hall. who dummies it for Sebastian arriving on the right side, and he's unmarked, and most assuredly side-footed back against the grain into the far corner, 1-0 USA. It's a really strong finish. Strong finish from Mr. Sebastian Burrell-Halter. I guess we're getting the patented Sebastian celebration now,

which is the salute. Seems like that's what he is. That's what he is taken to as its gold celebration. So salute to him, I guess. Salute to him. Sebastian Shabazz Berhalter with the salute. That's right, brother. There's a lot of mixed messages, Ms. Signals.

I don't know what to do with that. Yeah, but Ms. Chabazz, man. This sequence starts from a Chilean set piece, which is why we find Gio on the right and Surge on the left to start. And then after this, Maricio Paschino keeps Surge on the left for the rest of the match. I actually went back to see out, like, did they,

because obviously he stayed there. And I was like, well, did they start this earlier than this? Like, no, no. Maricio liked what he saw in his goal sequence. He was like, you know what, Sir, just stay over here. Stay over here. So Gio receives the ball along our right touchline to start this move.

and I think he kind of taps it back and forth between him and reins for a second. Then he gets the ball again on our right touchline. It starts to carry it infield with a little bit of pressure from a Chilean defender. He gets it knocked away slightly, but strong, sturdy Gio is able to kind of keep his marker at bay so that Audrey can recover it. Adjee kind of taps it back to Gio, who's kind of continuing his run. then it's geo over to Jedi who takes a shove and is able to keep possession

and lays it off to Miles. Miles plays it to Surge and then Surge to the Streaking Geo who has continued his run over to his left side and then from there the one-two happens surge dancing on the Chilean left back and able to slide that pass over.

But this is kind of the best example of what Gio's been doing all half. Kind of like I said, just being the sun that everything is rotating around. And he's just, he's spreading it amongst the team. You know what I'm saying? From right to left, he has traveled. And then in this, in this passage of play, you know,

Audrey gets an opportunity to touch the ball, Jedi, Mao, Serge, and in the Julian Dummy and the Sebastian goal. I didn't get to appreciate the Julian Dummy in the stadium for my vantage point. Like I said, I was on the other side, like on the, like on the, concourse level, so I was a little bit up. But yeah, I just couldn't see the dummy within all the traffic, I guess. But I was wondering why Sebastian was so open for that goal. So, yeah, that makes sense.

It's nice, because like you said earlier on that one Julian Hall play, when he got slipped in by G.R. Rain after the surge, one, two. It's like, you know, you can't blame him for shooting in that position. I wouldn't have blamed them in this position for, from messing this entire move up if he tried to try to thwap it with his excuse me with his left foot

or something like that but I guess he got the leave from Sebastian Berthalter he followed instructions and goal USA yeah it's a really sexy leave I love it so much

and and also the again the weight on Gio's 1-2 with Serge just like I don't want to gloss over that. It just puts him into the space he wants to go to perfectly. I don't know that Serge, like Dunny said on the broadcast, I'm not sure Serge knew where Halter was over there. I think he was just like, I think he was just kind of bailing out of his 1v1,

and he was like, all right, let me get it over to Julian. I mean, all as well, that ends well. It's the right play. Like, you watch this play because the Chilean right centerback gets taken out he pops up on the Chilean right center back

is kind of taken out of the play and this is Serge going up against the Chilean right back and then through his probing and kind of playing on

like walking down to do it on the ball he draws the attention of the other Chilean centerback that is left here and then also because of him drawing the attention to the

of the other Chilean centerback, then the Chilean left back kind of has to collapse as well. You know, so. I don't know if it was a surrender necessarily, but it's definitely the right play at that point. Yeah. When you have all those eyes on you to release the ball to the side where people are collapsing from.

Right, right. So, yeah, and I think this is just an underrated goal sequence just in general. Like, if we executed this exact same thing, it's a better team. I think people will be going crazy for it. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's subtle.

Yeah, I just, I really, this is excellent play, excellent play, mostly by Giorina. I mean, yeah, and it's, and it's punctuated with that just outstanding finish too. I think that, not the most difficult finish in the world, but, you know, to hit the ball so

straight right where you want to into the side netting. Like everything is clean mostly in this sequence. Even the kind of struggle dribble from Gio. It's still kind of clean in the sense of where he could

he just, I mean, just really holds off the Chilean. Like you can't get around him. You might get a little toe to it. Knock it away slightly, but you're not collecting the ball. You're going to suplex Gio to do that. but yeah

Seb scores Seb you know it uh it strikes me how this is very similar to like the Diego Luna renter form

from the Gold Cup you know like as you were kind of saying bells while I was waxing poetic about him last episode it's like I mean you know we got it we do have to put some asterisk on like his accomplishments here and I do

I do appreciate the man and what he's bringing. You know, it's a little bit different from Diego Luna to where, like, you know, his traits are maybe a little bit more rare in the player pool as far as like the ball striking, the, uh, mostly just the ball striking and set piece taking, etc. Um, to where he really is adding a little bit something different.

But also it, it kind of is, he kind of is beating up on the poor a little bit. and we need to see it against a good team. Because even in this match, it's like he was not great. I don't think. Against the ball? No, I mean, even on the ball. He was losing the ball quite a bit. Against the ball is just like, I mean,

we don't really need to harp on that. Like that one time when Audrey made a bad pass and we kind of lamented his defense. Like Seb was right there as well. and he's also two sheets to the win. Yeah. You know? He's just kind of,

he is pushing on the back of the ball carrier like a little brother. Nothing brought to the party whatsoever. Yeah, but I mean the same could be said for, the same could be said for Gio. He's beaten up on the poor too. And he wouldn't be, it wouldn't be quite as effortless for him if there were a bunch of real dual winners out there for Chile,

you know, elite level dual. dual winners. Right. But even in this situation, but even with that being said, you see the left, like, Sebastian is just like losing the ball kind of left and right.

Yeah. In this match. And Geo is not. And Geo is not. But, anyway. Good point. Yeah.

39th minute, Raina skips by a pressing opponent in our half and then clips haul in on goal again. This is a, like a chipped ball just over the, last defender and it's like perfect it's a perfect pass and uh i mean hall uh hall tries to lift it over

the keeper and it's blocked and then i do wish which is fine but i do wish he'd maybe shown a little more fight at this point because the ball falls to him and he tries a pass gets cut out cut out tries another pass it gets cut out and it all looks kind of like totally ineffective after the shot is blocked. I mean, you're still touching the ball. You're still standing on the ball in the penalty area and the goalkeeper's scrambling. Let's try to figure something

out here. Fair. Fair. I guess I'll just say Julian was more on time here with his run. Yeah. It's a situation where you're kind of

not expecting a turn as nice as GOs was, like the outside of the boot went into the channel. But, But yeah, it's just like you got to be on your toes. Gio Raine is coming back to get the ball. And he's feeling it today.

You know, put the two and two together. Yeah, be on your toes, expect to. And in this case, he was. Yeah. So then, unfortunately, Gile scores right before halftime. And it's a corner conceded by Miles heading a ball out of bounds. I'm not really coming down on him for it. It just seemed like an abundance of caution for him to head it over the end line

rather than trying to take it off to the corner. And then the ensuing corner is punched out for another corner by Brady, kind of up in the air. And then the second corner kick, Brady punches it straight up, right above the penalty box, the goal box, I mean. And it comes back down. I think he punches it again and it comes back down again. It goes back down again.

And there's a goal-mouthed scramble. And, you know, it's balls all over the place. Body's flying everywhere. And Uyoa volleys it in. And it's 1-1. And Brady's like, Brady's appealing to the referee for what I don't really know. Man, come on. Yeah.

It's tough. From my vantage point, those were, he had two catch opportunities. Once again, he's just punched the ball on today. And even on the, like, on the last. one. It's like, that's the perfect situation where you see the goalkeepers really get some furniture moving. Move the dude out of the, it's kind of dude playing it under the ball or whatever. Move him out the way. You jump. Obviously, your hands can get higher than his head can get. And you just make a tough claim and you grab the ball. But, and this is what I was thinking.

And this is what I've been going back and forth on this man's name all day. The, the scum. Tough listen that sat in front of me. Jeff. Okay. Appreciate my boy's name is Jeff. He's Jeff or Greg. Forgive me. Forgive me, brother.

Forgive my head, not my heart. I love you. But, you know, we kind of... We kind of talked after the halftime whistleblows, and I was just like, bro, I mean... Like, come on, man. You know, you got to catch the ball. And Jeff was a former goalkeeper herself.

I mean, dude's six, seven. Oh, yeah. Former goalkeeper, he said he was texting, he was texting his brother about the situation. He was like, yeah, I really want to see any more Chris Brady. And I was like, you know what? I don't either.

But then, you know, I started talking about it on the Discord a little bit. Somebody tells me that Brad Guzan said Chris Brady was great in the first half. I thought that was blasphemy. And then also in the Discord, I see Greg Velasquez. and he's like, oh, I really didn't have a, I really didn't have too much of a, too much of an issue with Chris Brady on this play, et cetera. And the goalkeeper union bills. It's strong.

It's stronger than the Teamsters, brother. AFL, CIO, et cetera. It's, it's up there. It's up there. Because I'm feeling, I feel like this is a howler, bro. I feel like this is a howler. Howler? I don't know about that.

I'm howler howler okay I understand on the scuff podcast we try to stay away from saying from making any bold statements

that's just how I felt that's how I felt that's how I felt in the moment I'm like come on bro and in the the play the through ball as well they let get through

you know what I'm saying I was just once again thinking of myself about Matt Freeze it's like Matt Freeze made a mistake it doesn't look like his play doesn't look like this

you know what I'm saying for me it was like this was a very unassured goalkeeper performance in the first half in my opinion yeah I'll say I mean I'm no Greg Velazquez obviously but the through ball is a bigger

strike against him for me than the you know trying to deal with a corner kick But I do, obviously, I have been harping on it a little bit. So I do think the punching it in the air, straight up in the air, when maybe you could catch it or maybe you could punch it away. It's not ideal. I don't like it.

I'm not ready to say howler, but. Fair, fair. But this is how you feel, though, when you had a game, though, right? And you, like, you see, when you, like, the through ball, like, and then it compounds on the punching up in the air. Then it compounds on the, you know, the goal being scored. I'm just like, hey, man. somebody handle some business back here somebody handles some business is looking kind of assy to me and like I said like you know the Maffree situation is just like he made a mistake at one point in time you know if he hadn't made that mistake we'd be talking about the excellent save he made at the beginning of the Belgian match but nobody else nobody talks about that and to be clear well I don't know why I'm taking up from Maffree as much as I am I it's just that the overall performance

in the same situation where I'm talking about, like maybe Sebastian wasn't great despite scoring a goal and getting an assist. You know, obviously that goal looms large, the Belgium goal, but the performance wasn't necessarily just a train wreck. Yeah, it was definitely a train wreck. You know, sometimes a train wreck happens in five seconds. Yeah.

And then the train is wrecked. Right. So that's the half. We'll be back in a minute to talk about that. If you want to skip the ads, join the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. You also get the clip notes, which Vince has been laboring on late into the night last night. So clip notes will be coming out shortly.

Is it already out? No, they're not already out. But they are clips. They are on my computer. I just got to do like 10 minutes of editing. and then I will have those things uploaded today, Friday morning. Also, Bells, I got an announcement from Mr. George Qureshi himself. The scuffed Europa, our European trip coming spring of 2027, we have a location that we have honed in on.

Scuffs going to France, brother. Ooh. Scuffs going to France. with the emphasis on the French Riviera. All right. We are looking at starting in Marseille. With a day trip to the, I don't know how I happen, to the Cal and Q's, Google it,

day trip to Avignon. Potential league two match, we'll see in the midweek. The midweek stuff always comes later in the trip process. We need to see if there's Champions League stuff going on, etc., etc., etc. And then also moving to Nice in the midweek. I mean, come on. Who could say no to me to Nice.

And then finishing in Monaco. Okay. So, you know, high rollers only apply. You know. But yeah, yeah. Plan on having a good time. I think the Monaco match I want to say is Strasbourg. I want to say.

So even if flow leaves, we will be seeing, for sure, Timothy Wea and Giovanni Raina, that's who we are. That's who the trip is built around. You know what I'm saying? Some scuffed, oh, geez. Yeah. All right. And obviously, we've done a great commercial in this first half for seeing Giovanni Raina play in person. Yeah.

I mean, I had a great time. If you want to have a great time as well, seeing them play in person while also being in the principalities. of Monaco with an excursion and niece as well I mean come on if you know anything about those two places yeah you know that sounds like a place you want to be Marseille as well

Avignon as well yeah yep link will be in the show notes shout out to George and the link where you can express your interest right if you want to yes correct correct the link where you can express your interest will be in the show notes shout out to George

and earthly delights for setting this up for us it's been a it's been a great time every time i've been on we've done we've done three trips in total i've been on two uh bells has been on all three he has nothing but good things to say i have nothing but good things to say if you would like to hang out with uh with at least me i don't golly bell's you planning on uh probably not this time you want to hang out with me for a week then uh the league is in the show no if you don't yeah i appreciate you listening all all the same. Yeah, you should,

you should, I mean, they've been, they've been a blast each time. I just, I'm, I just don't want my wife

to leave me. That's, that's where I'm, that's where I'm out right now. Understood. We'll be back in a second. All right, we're back.

Brian Shwaki comes on for Brady at the half. Get him out of here, bro. We gotta, is it. Get the roo jack.

No. I gotta say the, The prominence of his chin, the light in his eyes did inspire some confidence for me in Mr. Schwakey. That's a trustworthy name. You would put that on a law firm. I guess, yeah. So what do you see? What do we see in the second half timeline is going to be a little shorter than the first.

But what do you see in? Always kind of resent that. We get the second half short shrift. But usually, for whatever reason, like less stuff does be happening in a second half. Or let's say it's talking about it. Anyway, from the start of the second half to like two minutes in, right off the bat, I clock a couple nights defensive interventions from Neil Pierre. After a start, that's a little soccer, Tennessee, to kind of start his thing off.

He had a decent pass in there as well. So, you know, Neil doing his thing, he also, yeah. Two good defensive interventions. This didn't make the timeline, but also just, I think it's becoming kind of patented as well. Neil picking off like a, picking off like a throughballing behind.

Like he reads those pretty well. Somebody maybe wants to bend something around the corner or something like that. Neil is always there to pick those things off as well. So yeah, defensive instincts. A1, I would say. And yeah, yeah, I was not, because from my vantage point in the stadium,

I'm just seeing a lot of Miles Robinson and Neil Pierre kind of standing on the ball, not having solutions, which has a little, not a little bit, but a lot to do kind of with how, with how Chili was pressing us and our lack of outlets over the top.

But that kind of, I kind of sour me on Neil's game. But like I said, man, on rewatch, second watch, third watch, I'm picking up what he's putting down, man. Yeah. I mean, with all due respect to live sports,

at least I cannot really trust what I see from my seat in the stadium until I watch. I mean, there's stuff you can see in the stadium that you can't see on TV. Like you were talking about the way Julian Hall wasn't making the in-out run that we needed him to make early in the game. Definitely. I'm talking about when you're like overall assessing a player's performance. You got to kind of watch the tape, you know? I mean, yeah. There's, like you said, there's certain things that always hit you.

But even when you're watching on the game, like Greg said, you know, West McKinney always looks better second time through kind of thing. Yeah. You know, narratives get spun in your head, emotions get mixed in with your logical thought process, et cetera. alcohol I mean I was I was dead sober at this match I had my two kids and my beautiful wife with me of course but uh

you know yeah no it's it's an interesting thing kind of at every level 48th minute another loose pass from Mehmeti maybe also part of the reason our centerbacks didn't look that great

because it's like there wasn't really a viable well anyway Yeah, as we've said, didn't have a great game. 49th minute Chile scores, takes a 2-1 lead. It's Gutierrez. So it's like a sky ball that Westfield tries to go win inside Chile's half.

He jumps at it and heads it backwards and takes himself out of the play in the same motion. And Gutierrez takes advantage of that, strides. down the left, Berthelter's kind of tracking him but not really challenging him. And then he cuts in, you know, he gets all the way to the 18-yard line, basically, cuts into zone 14 and whips one in at the far post. It's a real nice hit, thumped, bottom-right corner from about 22 yards out. But I kind of felt a little, like maybe there's some blame to go around. I mean, certainly Westfield, what you think of, Seb?

Seb, just, I mean, I mean, turn way too easy here, you know, not as, not as committed. And, but, but was very ineffective defensively. Yeah, I mean, just, just completely seated. The, gave Gutier's a two-way go kind of. You know where you, you, it's like, you shape your body to prevent him from going inside. But he did like none of the kind of like stepping forward to control. front him. Right.

He stepped inside. Like, you know, your body's supposed to be like a wall that he would have to go through to get inside. He was just like, you know, he just had his body shape that way. And then once he went that way, he was like, oh, well, you got me. You called my bluff. I think maybe he thought, because the touch before the shot from Gutierrez is away from goal a little bit.

And maybe he thought that. okay to let him have that shot. Or may, I don't know, whatever. He's trying to shepherd him to his left, as he said, and then he doesn't shepherd him that way. Yeah. 2-1. Yeah, 2-1.

Greg in the Discord said he doesn't blame Shwaki for this too much. I forgot. I forgot exactly what he said. Something about defenders' position, taking away. You know, Greg says Greg will be here for the Mexico and Canada reviews everybody. Okay. All right.

Get all your goalkeeper question to answer. Yeah. 51st minute, the USA responds immediately. It's a goal. It's desk messing around on the left side. I mean, it actually starts with a throwing on our right side, and then we kind of possess it around the box over to desk. He passes it inside to Raines,

who kind of just passes it back to Dest, and then plays it out over to Raina just outside the box, and he just steps and curls a ball in for Julian Hall, who steps in front of the centerback, rises first and nods it delicately into the far post, you know, at the far post. I love this quick release cross from Gio, because it's like any time he gets the ball

with a yard or two of space, it's like he is taking a set piece, the way he curls it. And, yeah, it's a nice goal. Yeah. nice goal Julian I mean Julian has been a been a G&A machine

so far in this window yeah just always alert to balls in the box always alert to to making a run in the final 30 if he needs to to etc it just really quality strike of play from the young man so I love to see and

this is a great finish this is a hard hard finish you know the way he jumps early to go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if this was, if the shoe was on the other foot here and this was a USM&T centerback looking at somebody just jump up and nod the ball and goal, I'd be going crazy. But hey, it is what it is, man.

It came from his back shoulder a little bit, you know? Yeah. And was probably in the air before the centerback could even. And the centerback does this sort of cinematic, like, pretend to head the ball. even though it was headed into the goal from a yard away from where like, you know, a couple feet from above him. All right. So it's back to 2-2 and the USA is in the ascendancy.

54th minute, we get a bad pass from Neil Pierre and then he kind of collects the ricochet after his pass is blocked. He tries to dribble through three people. Loses the ball. I appreciate the ambition from Neil. That's the thing. You know, Ryan Richter kind of talked about it in his interview. His brother is not, you could easily see a younger player get discouraged, right,

from making these types of mistakes or whatever. He is not. No. No, he looks. He looked, I don't even mind this, I don't mind this much at all. I mean, it helps that it didn't lead to anything, but. Yeah, and I'm the type of guy. I always like to see somebody, the example I always use for this is Matt Turner.

When he makes that dribble out of the box in the World Cup, was I guess England, I want to say towards the end of that match, or maybe you're not one of the two. But, you know, where it's like, Matt kind of takes a touch, a little prep touch, just, to set him up to go on his way, and he kind of looks around. He's like, you know what, I got this. And then execute the situation he does. It's like, I'm always going to, if you feel like you back yourself, I'm a, I'm a stick beside you.

Yeah. You know. So, Neil in this situation. Yeah, I was like, I was like, go ahead, Neil. You know, because we've seen him do some kind of something similar to that, you know, that little dribble along the touchline. They did for Philly, like probably two, three weeks ago, me and you talked about those.

So it's like, you know, you've seen him kind of do some things like that. But, yeah, it didn't come off here. Yeah. Well, 57th minute, Hall and Mehdi win it in the press, and it just sort of flies into the air and lands on Raina's chest 15 yards away. He settles it, drives, and slips it out for Hall, who tries to curl it in with his right foot and sends it into the concourse. But again, delicate, controlled work from Raina.

As we have said, he was excellent. And I really like this play from Julian in that, like, you know, they kind of win it in the press. And as soon as the ball gets to Gio, he kind of loops all the way, because he's in, like, a traditional striker spot to start. Yeah. Like, kind of wins the ball. He loops all the way around to the left channel to kind of get that ball from Gio for the shot. And he's, like, on his horse, like, as soon as he recognizes the danger, like, you know what I'm saying? And he's like, well, let me get in a position to get the ball from G. Arena.

And he did. He's got the chance. But that's what you want to see from your striker, man. Absolutely. You love to see it. 59 minute. Brooklyn Raines wins it from Chile number nine, starts a U.S. counter. The ball is knocked to Julian Hall, who plays it to Surge, who plays a nice backheel return to Julian Hall.

Then Julian slips it to Brooklyn Raines, who was kind of in zone 14. at the right side of the D, top of the box. And he plays a delicate first time kind of through ball to Gio Raina, who maybe misjudges the trajectory slightly and is unable to bring it under his control before Uyowa intervenes. If Gio has the usual Gio touch there,

he's 1V1 with the keeper. And they can score. A disappointing touch from Gio, I would say. I'd like him to also be the provided for in addition to the provider. Yeah, that's the thing. They had taken the mantle. He had led them. He gave them confidence up until this point.

They put together a nice move for the man. So, yeah, we would have liked to see that move be finished off, but it's a nice move. It's a nice move. We don't see much from Julian. And as far as things that he can do on the ball in this match or the match before necessarily. I mean, he mostly keeps it very simple. And even here you kept it simple as well. But, you know, you can see there's some little bit of competency there.

Oh, yeah. Not a total butcher or anything like that. I mean, the dummy says a lot, too. It's sort of an odd way to be on the ball. but let's see, let's see, subs come in on the 62nd minute, Freeman for Westfield, Adams for Mehdi, so that game is over for Audrey. And then Richards for Pierre, trustee for Robinson, and Tillman comes on for Dest. Freeman definitely took note when Neil Pierre tried to dribble three people and lost it

because he came on and did that twice in the last half of a bar. That's something I noticed in stadium. I was like, yeah, Alex Freeman is not having a game that I'd expect from Alex Freeman. No. You know, he was quite sloppy. Even like a misplaced, like headed pass and all different types. It was a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, he was better.

He was decent in the attacking third, though. Then 66 minute he goes at the left back, whips a ball in for Burrhalter, who tries to volley it at the goal. It's slightly off frame and block. by a defender anyway, but clever movement from Seb here, and I like the whole sequence leading up to this Raina looking dynamic on the left. We're just kind of, we're just tapping them all around in their half. Richards throwing his weight around. Our counterpress has been given a lot of muscle by the subs,

and we're just kind of imposing ourselves at this point in the game. 67th minute Jedi chess along Chilean clearance down to Raina in the center circle. He rolls it forward for Sebastian, who then slips it out, wide for Freeman who's arriving with alacrity on the right side. He drives that goal and blasts one at the keeper, takes a deflection from the outstretched leg of the defender. And then 68th minute Brereton wins it outside the box in front of Tyler Adams. So this is less of a positive moment who holds out his arms as rains collides with the

ref. So it's a little bit of a unfortunate moment. but what happens because Adams doesn't cover Brereton and Rains gets in a car crash with the ref is that Brereton is free just outside of our box he slips it in behind for Loyola who is in on goal

but for the arrival of Tyler Adams who goes from outstretched arms to on his horse and gets there and blocks the shot so you know kudos for sense in the danger there. Yeah. It's a plus play

from Tyler. It's one of those where if he didn't get to that shot, nobody would have blamed him. But he did get there. Well, I might have. I might have blamed him. I might have. But, you know, I'm a, you know. I mean, it's Todd doing what he does best, you know, reacting. Kind of. It's a gift and a curse. But, you know, we got the good reacting here from Tyler.

Yeah, it was in the three, whatever period of time between when he realized that Brereton was going to slip it in and he blocked the shot. In that moment, outstanding work from Tyler. 71st minute, Downs comes on for Gio and Matisse Albert comes on for Julian Hall. And Tillman immediately turns and plays a measured ball in for Jedi. His right-footed shot is sent wide by the unreshing keeper. and then we score. Nice one two from them. Yeah.

Go ahead. Sevent second minute we score. It's a Burrhalter corner kick that just gets pummeled into the net by Richards with his head. He isn't even rising to hit this. When you see a set piece like that get hit by an earthbound centerback, you know, right in front of the goal. This is not the World Cup, man. It's not.

This is not the World Cup. I was looking at the, I don't know why. I think maybe people were standing up or something like that. I don't know. I was just, because this is happening on the end zone that I'm sitting in. And I'm just looking at our attackers in the situation. I'm not looking at sub playing the ball. And, you know, then I just see a ball appear in my line of vision.

Just absolutely shot out of a cannon. Right to Chris Rich's head. I mean, just. Boom. Yeah. Easy as you like, man. Sebastian Shabazz, once again, once again, using this platform to uplift. To uplift the African American.

You know what I'm saying? Put it right on a platter for Chris Richards. I mean, he's seeking missile right to Chris Riddell. Would the ball have had that same kind of alacrity on it if it was going to, who's in the game right now? I don't know. Brian Swachie? Maybe not. You had to go to the gold keeper.

I was like, I don't think. I think it's just Sebastian. Geo. Yeah. Yeah. I think Sebastian might have been the guy from, what is that, what's that show called? Anyway.

From last chance you. Yeah. All right. Yep. So that makes it 3-2. There's not really that much to say about it. It's a good set piece. I mean, we're saying stuff about it.

Obviously, there's stuff to say. But 79th minute, Matisse gets a shot after skipping past a defender with a couple tidy touches. The shot is blocked off his foot. Yep. It's just, I mean, when the man receives the ball, though, it's like, it's just pure, pure class. You can just, you can see it, obviously. who knows what that turns into or how he ends up leveraging that

to become a productive attacker or if he is a productive attacker right now whatever but it's just like you just want to see him receive the ball for 90 minutes if you could I'd pay the price of admission for that it's just like even in situations where like he's coming back towards the ball

he's able to just like redirect the momentum of the ball in his body very quickly in order to to get going in a positive direction. Yeah. You know how Pulisic used to always fall on his bottom when he shoot the ball? Yeah. Like, I mean, he's still kind of, I don't know if he does it so much anymore, but you get a little bit of that like unsteady on his feet feeling when you watch Matisse. I feel like not, not that like that he's just like not the strongest. and I feel like he's a kid and he's going to keep getting stronger.

And that ability to redirect the ball and his momentum quickly into the way he wants to go is going to become more of a weapon when he can just ride through a challenge or it doesn't have to completely lose his feet when he shoots. Cabin comes on for Sebastian in the 83rd. And I guess, you know, I don't think it's just because I'm excited about Kevin Sullivan that his run up the line was probably the highlight of the game for me. Brother. I think it's just, it's just exciting, you know. Let me tell you something.

It was the highlight of the game for the crowd, definitely. I mean, the people were off their feet. Well, first of all, when walking into the match, I noticed a conversation about Kevin. While, like, like, around my family, like, you know, people that we were standing at a, like, traffic. light to get the to get the go ahead to walk across the street to the stadium you know kind of thing they were uh yeah it was just a couple fans like some maybe like a family or something like a like a older dad or something than like a couple of uh middle-aged dudes or whatever and the dude's clearly talking about cabin he's like yeah he's like he's legit man he tries

stuff and blah blah he was just going he was waxing poetic and you know there was uh i mean My wife was talking about him. She's heard of Kevin Sullivan at this point. And, you know, there was a probable excitement when he comes on to the pitch. Yeah. I mean, he, and then he starts off his kind of performance by skipping past a challenge. On the left side, I want to say, in the, what, at the 87-minute mark. So then that gets going.

And then, yeah, they're running on the sideline. I mean, the people, like, it was a for real ovation in ways that, like, people are standing out there or clapping. Like, it wasn't just, like, cheering. They were applauding cabin for blessing them with the moment, you know. It was cool to see. I can see that because it was, it was a blessing of a moment, you know? Like, what the people want, what the people want is somebody to go out there and be an entertainer. And this was entertainment, you know.

Yeah. The moment you're talking about where he right away has a little bit of impact is kind of an interesting one because if you don't mind if I just go ahead and jump into it. Matisse picks up the ball and finds an outrun from Cabin streaking from right to left. But it all starts with Adams kind of beefing with somebody in the middle. like there's some issue about like maybe Adams like swipes the guy's leg with his hand from the ground and the guy doesn't the guy is not happy the Chilean player is not happy with Tyler Adams

they're like you know talking at each other's faces and then the ref gets distracted by it so does everybody else when Matisse gets on the ball and then but Cavans isn't make the run anyway and Matisse plays in the ball and then the ref is like oh yeah well let's let me just go follow this action, and he just leaves Tyler and the Chilean guy there to sort it out themselves.

So it was like a little bit of a broken play, and I love that Sullivan, he picks out the correct ball. After he dribbles around a guy, gets the end line, he picks out the correct ball to Tillman. It just doesn't hit it quite sharply enough. You can see on the replay, the curl is even perfect for it to come right to Malik.

It's just not. Quite sharp enough. Brooklyn Raines makes a great recovery run on a corner kick in the 89th minute. He was booking it. Dude. Yeah. And Jedi was another responsible party on this one. And they snuff it out even though I think it was Tyler tried to shoot from outside the box

and it just gets blocked into our attacking third by the defender. Yeah. And you know, I mean. Well, so how do you feel about Brooklyn, I guess? Like, because there aren't really too many highlights on the ball from him in this match. That's nice. Yeah, based on people watching, that that's not him. But yeah, the defense, it's something to be said about defensive responsibility

and the ability to make plays. Some people are responsible don't have the ability to make plays necessarily, but you combine these two and with this reading of the, the game, you got an asset here. Because I'm thinking about him in comparison of like Aidan Morris, who is responsible but doesn't necessarily have the ability specifically athletically that Brooklyn Raines does. You know, so I don't know.

I think he's somebody who's going to keep some people out of camps in the future. Maybe. we obviously have the actual payday is Mexico and Canada and we'll see how things go there but

yeah I was very happy with Brooklyn's performance and I think he yeah I guess I just agree with what you said like that ability to make plays

when you are because Sebastian and Burrhalter's alert too to what's going on but he just can't do anything about it but Brooklyn can do something about it so yeah I'd like to see more of him 89th minute Freeman gets stuffed

in his own defensive third for the second time since coming on nothing comes of it for Chile but you just want to note that Alex had a couple of giveaways and then yeah they I think he tried to make somebody yeah on this one

I want to say that was the Meg attempt yeah One of them was where Richards tries to dribble out. He passed, and he's able to, and then he passes it to Freeman. He's like, and Freeman is like, well, I'm going to continue this action. And then he tries a mega guy and gets, he doesn't, isn't able to pull it off. Downs nearly scores on that Cabin-Sullivan Ramble, where he gets, like we were just discussing, where he gets the crowd going by pushing the ball, pass one guy, and then lifting the ball over another sliding defender as he races down the line, cuts in, plays a slip pass for,

I don't know who it was for actually but it doesn't come off because the guy who he beat initially was on his horse and came back and intercepted the slip pass but it goes straight to downs who shoots first time and it is blocked by a

very desperately by a defender's outstretched leg in front of the goal could have easily been a goal and then we do get a goal 94th minute Raines wins a set piece trying to corral the clearance off of the ensuing Corner kick, Jedi takes the set piece,

trusty nods it across from the back post, and Matisse Albert stabs it hard off the crossbar and down, just inside the line. So 4-2, USA wins. 4-2, brother, fights. A little Donny Brooke ensues after, two separate ones, two separate ones, kind of before the final whistle.

and after the final whistle. I reviewed the tape. Nothing really comes of it. It was funny. Like, Sebastian at one point, like, removes a staffer from the situation. That was funny to me. But, yeah, I got to see Matisse Albert's first USMNT goal in person. The youngest.

The youngest USM&T goal score in history. Wow. Mr. Albert is. and yeah that that ball was very clearly obviously firmly in the goal yeah took the took the broadcast a bit of time to show us the right replay yeah anyway um yeah a lot to like a lot to like i think probably for me the most aside from geo being outstanding the most encouraging thing was probably Hall.

You know, you've been talking about the whole show, but his, the intelligence and determination of his movement as a striker

is a, you know, is a really important thing. That's a player, man. That's a player. Yeah. I mean, he probably needs to get in the lab

a little bit and get to strike in the ball a little bit, Yeah, but all that can come. Yeah. All that can come. Yeah.

Striking the ball a little bit cleaner. Add some type of go-to kind of move or action or something with his hold-up play. You know, but other, like, that's really all he needs. You know what I'm saying? It's like you don't have to be, you know, you don't need a Justin Ellis package or something like that. when you're Julian Hall. It's like, bro,

I mean, it's the, once again, it's the flow balligan thing all over again. It's like flow, it's almost the same exact pathway, bro.

It's like he was kind of unremarkable on the ball until he wasn't. All of a sudden, like added strength and understood how to use leverage and all of a sudden he's like turning, turning centerbacks on the ball and all different type of stuff, able to link up play a lot better, all that.

ball striking is something that I'm becoming more and more convinced over time that you can you can develop. Like we've seen Christian Policic develop it over his career

from really from something I thought that was kind of a negative to like pretty good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I mean, nobody wants to hear it, but I became a better striker of the ball

in my 30s. I mean, we're talking about incremental improvement on obviously a totally different level. But it is, it can happen. You know, you can get better at striking the ball, for sure. Yeah. So, Julian, he got all the fixings. He's only 18, man. He's only 18, too.

He's only 18 years old. He's only been 18 for six months. He's 18 and a half. Yeah, if you remember, I think I saw this come up. I think Tom Bogart might have. But he was hampered by New York State. child labor laws for a while

where he couldn't I think he couldn't play in certain games for Red Bulls because it was past a certain amount of, it was past like

8 p.m. or something. So it's like you can't play. But yeah, man, I'm, I guess every time I watch him play, I'm just like,

yeah, that's a guy, man, that's a player. That's a player. Because once again, he's not, he's not going to while you,

he's not going to do a lyrical miracle. He's going to keep it very simple. he's going to give you a straight 16 bars maybe one metaphor some ad libs that's it man that's it and it gets the job done every time so yeah i'm excited for him i think neil at this point does cross the um the kind of barrier for entry for a us m&T centerback um yeah i think i think he can play. I'm still a little, I'm still a little bit worried. We'll see what happens against Mexico. Yeah, yeah.

10 p.m. Saturday night. I'm still a little bit worried about something like that. But yeah, he's earned an opportunity to get that opportunity. I would agree. Yeah. I would agree. And then also, well, one more thing before we get out of here. First of all, the St. Louis complex is sick. Adam Bell's. In downtown St. Louis, I guess in a part of downtown that had kind of been abandoned, it's by their old Union Station. It's like their old train station that they used to have back in the day, which very much looks like a German Hoffmannhof.

But it's just hollowed out. They don't run, I think they run maybe like one Amtrak train in St. Louis. Isn't it still a tourist attraction, though, the Union Station? Yes, yes. There's an aquarium there. it's a lot going on. There's a lot going on. There's a Ferris wheel, all type of stuff. Yeah, it's tourist traction.

But, so the complex is right there. Energizer Park is right there. And I guess this whole thing used to also be a exit for the interstate or something. I don't know. But basically, there's a street, there's a tunnel that goes underneath the street that Energizer Park is on. And basically, you can take a gator from Energizer Park. over to like the training pitches and stuff.

And you can, you can see all this, specifically from the hotel I was staying at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott, which is right next to the stadium. And first of all, if you get the, if you get the room with the city view, you can see the training pitches from your room and the arch and all, the Ferris wheel, all the different type of stuff.

But also from like the parking garage as well, you can see those same training pitches. And so right after the match, as Country Roads, like right after Country Roads is playing, you know, we leave the stadium, we get to our car, and I get over there. I see Kevin Sullivan straight in his game jersey,

playing some passes back and forth with Justin Ellis, Eunice Moose over there, George Campbell as well. Basically, they're doing their post-match activation, you know, for if you've ever been a soccer game and seeing, like, the players that didn't play in, like, the late subs, get their sprints in after games. That's essentially what they were doing over there, but they ended up not sprinting.

Like, all the subs and the DMPers came. you know, Cole Campbell, Unis Musa, Chris Richards, like I said, all the subs, etc. And they basically played like a small-sided game for 15, 20 minutes. Really? What size goals are we talking about? I don't know. This is smaller than regular? I think.

I can't remember. I think they might have been actual regulation goals. They had goalkeepers? Yeah, yeah. They had goalkeepers. Coaching was out there, et cetera. And yeah, I just sat there and watched for a little bit because I did want to see what was going on with Cole. Obviously, he has not been on the bench for these first two games.

He was working with a trainer for a little bit and then did join in once the small side of games started. And yeah, I just sat there, took it all in. That's cool. It was pretty cool. I had my, I picked up my youngest indie and had a yell high from the, the, from the top of the parking garage. It's like a simple two-level parking garage. So I just held her up and had her, I'm like, Indie L.

high. She did it three times. Finally caught the attention. Eunice Musa waved at her. Nice, wholesome experience. But yeah, St. Louis's whole complex and everything, it's, it's very nice. It's very nice. To be in an urban area like that, it's not only have the stadium downtown, but to have like four training pitches just all in a row.

And for the access from Energizer Park like that, you know, there was just gators going back and forth bringing bringing players in tow, you know. It was pretty sick. That's pretty sick, man. So shout out of St. Louis. Yeah, I think St. Louis is a great city. I have great cities maybe a little strong, but it's a city that means something to me. All right.

Hey, thanks everybody for listening. Mexico versus USA 10 p.m. Saturday night. We'll get the recap out probably on Monday, I imagine. Or is it going to be Tuesday? It's going to be Tuesday. No, actually, I think Greg just hit me up like yesterday. And I think we will be actually getting it out on Monday.

So, Greg, we'll be in tow Monday for the Mexico Review and for the Canada Review as well. Get hype. All right. Hey, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.