Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #732: USA v Canada recap

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

Greg and Vince recap the cherry on top of the window. We downed Marsch at the end of a 12-point break, played a lot of kids, will reap the benefits when it comes to Pot 1 math, Gio started 4-4, Freeman's influence expanding. The soccer wasn't fantastic but to a certain extent who cares. 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 where we talk about U.S. soccer. The U.S. as Chris Richards posted on Instagram went foe, foe, in this window. Shout out Wendy's. Project Pot One is thoroughly underway. I had Greg Velazquez with me. Greg, we beat Jesse Marsh, man. How are you feeling?

We beat Jesse Marsh. We beat Rapa Marquez, and we had a very good pot one window. I know some people are discouraged because the rankings, you know, get released or whatever by FIFA. And we didn't move at all. We went from 16th to 16th after four wins. But I'm telling people, don't be discouraged. The FIFA rankings are not what they used to be. They're also not like done by a committee. This isn't like a bunch of people picking the college football playoff. Like it's an algorithm. It's an accumulation of points. And so it's not necessarily, I mean, eventually it's about what numbers beside you. But right now it's a long game.

And it's about how many points we have and how many points the teams around us have. And we gained on almost everybody in this pot, which is a great outcome, given that it's, for us, is all friendlies and no competitive fixtures, which are weighted more help. All right. So, so number one, real quick, just when you mentioned Rapha Marquez, you want to talk about two different playing careers between Rapha Marquez and Jesse Marsh, number one. And number two, so Greg, you're saying that we gained on the people. behind us and in front of us, correct? Yeah, pretty much. We stayed kind of close to, I think Japan stayed close to us.

We still gained on them. But the other two teams, let me pull it up because my little math here. We even gained four points on Japan, which isn't a lot. But the teams ahead of us are only like, to get into the top 10, like Mexico are, we're only like 60 points ahead of us. So we gained 30 points on Mexico. them dropping points and us gaining points, we netted, the U.S. netted 30 points on top, on number 10, Mexico.

We cut like the margin in half of that gap. So that's an outstanding window for catching up. And then we gained on Colombia, who's 11th. We gained on Germany, who's 13th, gained on Croatia, significant gains on those teams. So we are moving up, even though our number didn't change. Beautiful to see, beautiful to see. As I've said it before, on one of the,

these pods I've done. Pot one, this window, that is my qualifying, brother. That is my qualifying. That is my main objective. But to, you know, you came in, Greg. I guess we're doing a role reversal here. Let me wet blanket this real quick. Let me ask you a question.

And Greg, the question is this. I went through, and actually, this kind of got started, listened to U.N. Bells' recap, talking about the Mexico match. and the limited amount of shots that we did have in that match. And so I went back and looked, I compiled a number of shots from Belgium, Mexico, Canada. All right, and here's what we have.

Belgium first half, three shots. Second half, four shots. Obviously, as I've said, many times on this podcast, none before the Matt Freeze blunder that put Belgium up 3-1. Mexico first half, two shots. Mexico second half, six shots with one before the red card,

the Kevin Sullivan goal, which is pretty paltry. Canada first half, we had three shots, and then real quick, let me pull up Canada second half, because that was not part of the tweet that I made, we had two shots. What say you, Greg?

There's some wet blanketing. I think there's some wet blanketing justified here. You know, people know what they're going to get when they listen here. It's not going to always be roses, even if there's a win on the board. So I would say that this is an excellent pot one window. It's excellent for humiliating our biggest rival and denying joy to Jesse Marsh, which I think are two crucial pieces of being a USM&T fan at the moment. and the actual quality of the soccer played was not the greatest.

But we played a bunch of kids. So it's like it's the silver lining since these caveats. And I think it's important to note that I think you're right to sort of cherry pick those three games and skip over Chile and Peru. Yeah, yeah. I was looking at a World Cup competition only. And even if you weren't just from quality of opponent, Chile and Peru are down. Chile, I know, maybe used to be up there as a good conable team, whether they were never really a powerhouse.

I mean, they were good. They were good, yes. They are not that Chile right now. So I was thinking it kind of as like those were two Gold Cup quarterfinal caliber opponents. And then we have Mexico and Canada sort of gold cup semi-final opponents. I'm not even given either one of those gold cup final status at the moment. They're semi-final team.

Yeah. We got to get to Panama for a gold cup final opponent. So I guess so. I guess as U.S. fans, we have to put that amount of respect on Panama. But, yeah, Mexico as currently constructed in this window specifically, yeah, I don't think they're making a, I don't think they're making a gold cup final. But, all right, on to the lineups. Let's see, we have Schwaki and goal from left to right, Austin trustee, Chris Richards, George Kemp. George Campbell and Alex Freeman in the back line,

midfield of Brooklyn Raines and Giorana, Mantez Albert, Malik Tillman, and Eunice Moussa, the front three, across the line of three, and Justin Ellis Stryker. Just a classic potch to run Musa, fight right, and put, it's not classic potch right now to put Giorana in the double pivot, but it's classic potch to do that instead of putting Eunice Mousa there.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, and you know, the words of Sanjay have been ringing in my head ever since we did the pregame hit where Marisa Pachino, I think in this postgame press conference, and one of the press conferences between Peru and Mexico. He talked about Yunus Moussa, his role maybe at Milan being a little bit different than what his role would be in the midfield for the U.S. Minnesota team. And Sanjay called it. He said he's probably. he's probably laying the groundwork for a change there.

And I'll be damned, I'll be damned, brother. We got one Eunice Musa match in the midfield and no more, which I will continue to campaign against. To be clear, not because Eunice Musa is the destroyer of midfields or anything like that, but because our options continue to be kind of mid. As far as non-Rena, non-you, everyone knows what I'm talking about. Anyway, on to Canada. In goal, they had Dane St. Clair.

From left to right, Richie La Rea, Ralph Pryso, Luke DeFigerol, and Nico Seguer in the backline, Jacob Schaffelberg, Stephen Eustachio, the bone collector, Nathan Sleba and Liam Malar. In their second line of four, and Tani Olosei and Jonathan David, front two. classic 442 from Jesse Marsh. You know they're going to come out in press.

And so I guess what I didn't know is that Jesse Marsh, you know, given one of his passionate speeches, I'm surprised it wasn't recorded so he could get his, if the match was won. He had it in the can. It was ready to go. It was ready to go. But based on his comments earlier in the week, I guess he sent Canada out there on a vigilante mission to avenge justice for the footballing world.

in favor of the balligan red card situation. It seemed to me, they came out hot and fast firing, kicking, I mean, kicking G. Arena in situations where no kicking was necessary. They muddied up the match quite a bit. Greg, what did you think about Canada's approach? So I'll give the lightest sort of defense of Jesse Marshier in that I didn't think any of it was dirty. I thought it was, to be honest, I was happy. to see it. They were coming in with a clear

mandate to hit. Like, they're going to hit you. They're going to hit you a little late. They'll hit you early. If you do hold the ball at your feet, they're going to hit you hard while you're holding it. But nothing was like leg breaking. Nothing was like little like stamps

on tops of feet where they can get away with it. It was all above board physical play in my mind. And they were just inviting the referee to call fouls, which the referee was mostly given the fouls where they were, where they were, uh, warranted. But, uh, I got time for that.

And I actually have time for that in these friendlies because how else do you add stakes, something like this? Like, yeah, we want to, we want to beat Marsh. But this makes you really have to do it. Like, you got to respond here because, uh, there's no way around. If you, if you, uh, sort of tiptoe around in this game, you are going to be, you are going to be, uh, getting some punishment. Yeah.

And, and I think I actually, um, I like the U.S.'s response to it. You know, they, they woke up. They took offense to it. Obviously, I mean, from the sideline to the playing field, everyone stood up. Nobody kind of went gently into that good night, just took their paycheck and went home kind of thing, clocked out or anything like that.

Canada came in, kicked us, and we said, all right, this type of game is going to be. We can do that too. Yeah, didn't shrink and didn't whine. There was no, like, whining. There was no, like, gesturing to the referee. And we didn't get all the calls. We didn't get, you know,

The ref wasn't super generous with cards to try to maybe put a stop to it. But we didn't, we didn't beg for it. We didn't beg for him to stop it. We took care of it. And we'll get to it in the timeline. But the best part, like what encapsulated all of it was Paschitino's own reaction to that hilarious cheap move from Canada to like smash a ball at him on the sideline. Like that was pitch perfect, pitch perfect moment of the window. That was great.

to the seventh minute, early in the seventh minute. Because like I said, I mean, there's not much. The first five minutes was just, you know, fisticuffs out there. We got our first moment of soccer in the match. Matisse Albert receives the ball on our left touchline coming back to it. Nice little pop of the ball up to kind of get out of a sandwich situation there along the touchline to bring the ball infield. It gets hacked down by Seguer.

That was nice. It was nice. from the restart, he is once again 1 V1 with Seguer this time and he loses out as he tries to push the ball past him. And from this moment on, I don't think he best Nico Seguer one more time in this way.

This was total fool's goal because that first moment you're like, all right, there he is. The kids, you know, the kids are cooking. And then that was the only dish he had. There wasn't a single other recipe that came off for him or pretty much I mean, pretty much anyone.

It was slim in the way of highlight real moves. Correct. To the ninth minute, noticing some interesting things on our right side with Alex Freeman kind of freed up

with trustee in the lineup from being in our back three all the time and build up. He did slide back there multiple times in this match but he didn't have to be back there all the time. And the more I see Alex Freeman

play, the more you kind of understand how malleable he is, the different positions that we can and kind of put them in and get positive results, et cetera. So I love to see this. But Eunice Musa occupying the touchline in this situation, he comes back, gets the ball from George Campbell and plays a little square pass infield for Alex Freeman,

who once again with the mallability, is able to receive this ball slickly to make sure he wins the foul, shields the ball with his body and makes sure that when Canada comes in with the swipe at the feet, that there's no ball involved. the only thing they can get is the heels. But yeah, I would love to just see more of this going forward. We need to use Alex Freeman in every and any way possible from this right back position. There's been shouts for centerback, obviously, on this pod and abroad. Greg, what do you think about that?

I'm open to it. I don't see an urgency to it, but it's going to be natural and inevitable to hear those shouts when Freeman's sitting at right back, and that means probably Serginio Dest on the bench while we're playing a George Campbell or an Austin trustee or like Mark McKenzie, we're going to think, can we sneak a more talented soccer player on the field for the non-Christ Richard centerback? But there's no furry to do that either. We can let these placeholder centerbacks be placeholders while Alex Freeman grows and starts doing

stuff that a gentleman of his size just has no business doing on the soccer field, which is just awesome to see. He's not in there to just try not to make a mistake. he's in there to make things happen. To play. Yeah, to play. And, you know, I've been thinking a lot about Alex Freeman, man, because, you know, from first watch,

when I initially became aware of the man, I looked at him, looked at his MLS tape. It wasn't jumping out to me in the way that Adjimaetti and Justin Ellis and Julian Hall jumped out to me at first kind of thing. But it's just the thing that you can't see watching games and through Yiscott or whatever is, first of all, you really don't from games only

and it may be like one or two years in you really don't have a grasp of what some players technical ceiling is because you just don't see them apply their talents although like when you're a young person coming in you're just going to keep it simple

you know and as Joe Lowry when we talked on the pregame head he talks about you know some of the ways he tells how good a player is that soccer is to tell how many different parts of the foot you can use to control the ball, play passes, et cetera. And, you know, it's kind of just, you don't, I didn't understand that Alex Freeman was not just going to be, you know, bigger Joe Scali until he kind of showed it, you know,

and then you see it. It's like, oh, okay, this dude can, he can receive in traffic. He has, he has close control. He can come inside and find passes. He can run in behind, you know, all these different types things. So, yeah, it's just, I mean, play after play, game after game, even as defensive backs are becoming a position that I'm less interested in to watch, Alex Freeman is just a joy of a soccer player.

Joy of a soccer player. The biggest take, I feel like maybe, even with, you know, sort of everyone being excited about Kevin in his window, like Freeman, for me, is still the biggest takeaway of the window outside. of pot one in the Marsh Rafa narrative. Like Freeman's, Freeman's adulthood, adultness for this team,

is pretty awesome. It really is. It really is. He has graduated, brother. There's no doubt about it. He has appeared to, I mean, yeah,

he's a peer to everybody on the field when we have our first team in or whatever. So, yeah, great to see. from here I have some questions about how dynamic we can be in this lineup as we currently have a set up

Canada's pressing high we're not doing much to break it really nothing to break it we have not had a one forward thrust move that look promising and there's no real outlet up top to counter it also to take advantage of spacing behind

Justin Ellis, Eunice Musa Albert that's just that's just not going to get it done for me. I'm with, I'm with you, those guys aren't going to get it done. But what I do want to say is, and again, I'm fine with kind of testing out trying out Geo Raina in the, in the, but the guys he just named, all right, we're going to take a look at them. They're not quite like the kind of game-changing dynamos that we would love for them to be right now. Maybe they will be that, maybe sooner than later.

But the guy who was honestly, like, most disappointing me was Malik. like the guy you didn't name out of the front group is the guy who we know has it like we know he has it we're not waiting to see if he has it and tested it out in this game he has it and in this game and for most of the Mexico game he wasn't really giving it to us and and that's a huge part of how we're only if he's not doing it it's no wonder we're only going to put up a paltry number of shots yeah yeah that's the thing and that was you know I was I was screaming in my phone while while you all were kind of waxing me poetic a little bit about Malik in the Mexico recap. But it's like I agree with you totally that his ability to have a moment and Gio's ability to have a moment separates us

from that team that Mexico put out there for sure. But also it's like when the run of play is not going our way for you know 60, 75 minutes in like each of these games well maybe not so much in the Canada match, probably like 45-50. But run a play is not going our way

and we're not creating a fascinating chances and we just have kind of just have no control over the proceedings in the way that I would like to yeah I just always

that's always gonna if it's gonna be that I need like three moments per match you know that's where I'll settle on that but and I think we could have helped things

I think with with a flip Like if you flip Malik and Gio, I wonder if that sort of forces Malik to be in the game more. Gio can still do Gio stuff because he's going to kind of float wherever he wants to to get the ball. But Malik won't always do that. He won't be like, oh, I haven't had the ball in a while. I need it. Whereas Gio's like, I need to touch a soccer ball. Malik's just like, eh, didn't happen for the last 10 minutes.

No worries. Right. And whereas Gio in that 10 position was kind of the facilitator, the like, the insulator for our attack. It's like you just get Frankie Westfield. You had a tough game. Well, you can get close to Gio and play a one, two, with him, and then, you know, you're off to the races until you kind of continue your tough game. Not getting to tackle it off of you.

But, yeah, you know, he wasn't, Gio wasn't even able to kind of roam and kind of, you know, combined with Matisse, combined with, which, once again, I guess, kind of plays to the fact that Malik, you should have been doing that, brother. So, all right, 16th minute. First shot of the game is from Canada. Gio misplaces a pass.

He has to too softly, trying to return a Malik throw in. to Malik. This is along our left touch line. Canada swarms, and the ball kind of rolls around a little bit before Eustachio finds Olo Echayi in a pocket of space. He tries to receive it on the half turn, does it very clumsily, and then takes a couple of touches that expose the ball. And Brooklyn Raines comes in with some thunder.

He brings something to the party. Knocks the ball loose, but that starts kind of another scrum where the ball, I think, hits Chris Richards, hits another Canada player, etc. comes to Brooklyn Rains and it ends up with Tanny, Olo would say tackling the ball away from him kind of coming through his back

hardly but I would say cleanly. Tackled away from Rains to Shafelberg who ends up taking a shot from 30 straight at Shwaki. Yeah, just kind of a mess like more physical play and there isn't that much to it. The biggest thing for me is

in the immediate aftermath. Somebody has a car. And the camera man misses who it is. Do you know what I'm talking about? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know it's when the ball is with Chris, the next thing we know Canada has the ball. Like, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I don't, we need somebody on the ground who knows whether that was Richards, whether that was Brooklyn, whether it was Cam, like, but there was a Cardoso that happened right there. Because, I mean, I really would have been, like, one of the worst of our, of our like capitulations to the press in this match or be worse for sure. But yeah, left out of the timeline because we'll never know because of TNT

and they're the way they like to produce soccer games. Put me in the truck, man. Anyway, early in the 19th minute, Eunice receives a ball on the touchline in our defensive half again. He comes inside, gets cleaned out by a Canada player

that he is attracted while making his run, but he gets a little pass off to Brooklyn Raines who plays to Albert first time in the pocket, right in the center circle. He has trustee to his right as Albert's face in the ball.

Trustee's making a run down the left flank. He doesn't see him. Instead, lays it back off to Chris Richards. We end up hitting a channel ball to Eunice that he tries to take off his chest. Can't keep in. He doesn't even really seem that interested in keeping it in. But this was

This was probably our first moment of it, some kind of forward thrust. You know, you get Eunice attracting people to the ball and releasing it. I would have liked to see a little bit more from Albert there. Unfortunate. That's kind of the game, right? There's just almost there's just no rhythm. There's no rhythm to this. Yeah.

No one's, no one looks like there's no fun side anywhere on the field. There's no fun spot. For sure. For sure. But again, with all the wet blanket here and whatever, you want to describe this analysis as we can do all this and we still got four wins in the window which I just

I'm going to keep coming back to because this is we won. It's a very positive window to not give up anything. We won and Jesse has something to cry about like as we won. You know we want in a kind of maybe kind of controversial fashion and I'll take that. I'll take that. I'll take some.

Jesse Marsh cheers. Late in the 19th minute, the ensuing defensive possession, after Eunice Musa gives that up, we are pressing Canada high. Eustachio gets a pass that invites him to turn, and Justin Ellis tries to get on his horse to try and get the ball as Eustokio lets it roll. Justin gets there between Eustachio and the ball and essentially gets kicked in the back of the leg hard by Eustakio, I guess, trying to pass the ball. This might have been, you know, I slowed this down to the 0.5 speed to really see what happened.

here. You know, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a stall you to Tokyo out a little bit, a little bit on this one. But some tippers flare. Justin Ellis is down. The foul is called, by the way. We get free kick U.S. But Justin is really hurt. He's down for, he's down for a while, then comes out on the sideline, is limping pretty, pretty bad. And then limped significantly onto the field when he has let back onto the pitch. And Keith's limited. Yeah, Eustacios got priors. This one doesn't, this is that new point of Emsus kind of foul where the striker sneaks in from behind.

And like the, Eustokio's already started his windup for big clearance. And Ellis puts his foot in between the windup and the ball, which is really savvy. But you're going to get punished sometimes because that guy's taking a full kick now at your heel instead of the ball. It's super valuable to do this in the box. that kick results in a penalty rather than taking that punishment just to prevent a clearance.

Yep. 24th minute, a couple bad touches from Richardson Albert and our half, our defensive half, turns into Jonathan David ball across the ground towards Oloosheye making a run towards goal, but it's cut out by George Campbell.

The rest of the 24th minute after the clearance by George Campbell, it features Alex Freeman and Stephen Eustachio getting jacked up, if y'all remember that segment, by Saliba and Tillman, respectively. Next five minutes, we got more challenges just coming in all over the place. Fowles are flying. Early in the 29th minute, we get our goal. Canada, not pressing as intensely. George Campbell plays a ball out to Alex Freeman, who now is along the touchline,

and who is just inside of our offensive half when he received. receives it. He has a ton of time to just pick up, pick up his head and figure out what to do with it. He finds a square bottom Malik Tillman. Malik plays the return inch perfectly. And at that point, Alex Freeman essentially has a 1v1 with the keeper. On the right side of our box, he's heading towards goal. He finds Justin Ellis limping towards goal with the cross and Ellis meets it with his right foot. One-0 U.S., brother. I mean, very generous to say he finds Justin Ellis, but we'll call it that. So do you think it was a shot?

I think it looks like he's shooting. Okay. If he weren't shooting, I'd want that cross to come in a lot less with a lot less heat. But this is a Larea shocker here. And it's just, or it's a combination of a Larea shocker and Freeman being Freeman because, and also Malik, Malik needs to get some love here. when when Freeman plays that square ball in there's a ton of space on that right side of the field that he's in and Lurrea somehow gambles and lunges for the square ball right for the paths like he's going to intercept the past yeah like after getting there late yeah yeah yeah there's no I mean no hope of getting it and and as American basketball players know if you if you step into that passing lane like to lunge for the pass you're just you learn that in like third grade you're smoked on the give and go and and so he's never going to catch up to Freeman. Maybe would have caught up to Westfield, but he's not catching up to Freeman. And that's it.

Malik hits an inch perfect ball. I mean, this is, this is pure Malik optics, just the most casual giving go. And he's got a lot of space to hit into, but it still looks so pretty when Malik does it. It does. And so, so this is, this is Malik's, we'll give him the moment here. It's not a super difficult execution, but this is really well done from the two of them to read the mistake and punish it. And then, yeah, And then as Ellis having a nose for where to be and getting himself there and there's no VAR, so we don't need to belabor whether he's offside or not. That's right. And look, he's on side enough. He's on side enough, okay?

If he is offside, this would be very similar to the Tim Wea goal against Iran where Weston McKinney plays a through ball, probably a half beat too late. And Tim Wea is off by literally a kneecap. Right. If Justin Ellis is off, he's off by a kneecap. We don't get a shot down the line, but it would have been his kneecap that was off. Yeah. So. It's not Argentina versus Mexico in the world.

No. Like this isn't like, oh my God, this is why we need VAR to avoid these blatant horrible calls. Like if you're crying about this, you were ready to cry about something. Jesse. That's right. And even the Canada, the Canada Twitter was sad. They announced the goal on Twitter. Canada said, you know, goal 1-0 USA might have been offside, but there's no var.

Like, I've never seen, I've never seen that before, I don't think. But Justin Ellis met it for people of my similar vintage and above that are familiar with the Greg Jennings. YouTube video where Greg Jennings scores a touchdown, put the team on his back with a broke leg. That's what Justin Ellis did here. Good moment for the kid. we move on 35th minute Eunice Musa along the right

touchline again with a pass right to Jonathan David who plays for Canada in Canada's Backpass Yeah, that's right to Jonathan David in Canada's zone 14

so right on top of the box David turns and lays off for Eustakio who fires from 25 easy save for Shwaki down to his right bad from Unis I will say maybe Brooklyn Raines overran the space to receive the pass from Eunice. I notice this on rewatch. If you watch where Brooklyn Raines is going, because he's trying to pass it to Brooklyn

Raines. If you watch where Brooklyn Raines is going, which is kind of like nowhere. Yeah. He actually runs, you know, he's in that messy pocket. They talk about the messy geometry where any time they pause, they get this for like bouquettes to all those Spanish guys. If you pause it, they're always like equidistant from the four nearest the defenders. They're always right in them.

that pocket and Reins was in that spot and then moved into like moved closer to a defender that might have thrown Moose off like why would he have moved closer to the defender he was right in the place I should have played him and that's where the pass went but that's I mean moose was going to take the heat on this one in the 36 minute I noticed one recurring theme from this window as you kind of talked about earlier but it's just just just how damn big Alex Freeman is he just absolutely dismisses Schaffelberg in the corner um to win a ball a kind of a kind of speculative ball that I guess in theory would be a 50-50 and in actuality one that our centerbacks have lost quite a business window at least three, four or five times. And he just completely

dismisses Jacob Schaferberg out of the way. We removes him from the camera shot and claims the ball. And we were going the other way. We promptly turned the ball back over and then Schafferberg had a 1vary to go at Alex Freeman. And he did he did slightly get the better of Alex there. Alex fouled him. Canada free kick. Another game of the ensuing free kick. But like a montage of Alex Freeman,

like riding challenges to let a ball go out of bounds would hit for me. Oh man. Yeah. I don't want to jinx. But yeah, like nobody's getting around. They can't get around. They can't even like impact him in that sort of cheap way attackers like to do in those situations.

They're like, well, I may as well just hit him and foul him because it doesn't matter. It's a goal kicker or foul. Who cares? And he just, you can't even make a, like you can't affect him. him even in that moment. Like he's just unflappable. Yep.

And you see it on the ball too. Not so much in this window, but, you know, some of the Spanish dudes in La Liga, they just, you know, they're just flying off of him. Let me see. He's going places. Late. For sure.

Late in the 39th minute, we get an Albear 1V1 with Seguer right at the left side of the D. This is kind of set up by Justin Ellis. even though he can't move, you kind of can see his quality just a little bit, like the way he's able to pluck balls from the air just with no problem. Ball is not moving. It's sticking to his feet.

Anyway, so it's a bouncing ball situation. Comes to Justin, he brings it down and just slides it over to Matisse. And he is thoroughly shut down by Nico Seguer here to the point to where he tries to go at him. I mean, and this is a situation where you have to go at the man. A lot of room. Yeah. A lot of space to attack into for a shifty attacker, man. Yeah, the ball ends up going backwards after he tries to go left and right and Seguer is getting none of it.

Like you can't even get like a cheeky, you know, corner, like like smash the ball up from four corner. Like, nah, none of that's going on, brother. And that was the most disappointing thing is when he squares him up at the top of the box right outside the D, you're thinking like he is getting a shot off for sure. There's no way a defender will stop a player from getting at least a shot off here. and then he doesn't even end up getting like a connecting pass. Once all of his shots are closed down, he doesn't actually even extend the play,

which is sort of the most disappointing thing. Like, you got at least to extend this attack. Yeah. And once you've turned your back on the defender and you are, you know, normally full control of the ball, like you have to find somebody

who can keep the play going and see what else we can do. We didn't even get that. So that might be just sort of a marker of youth and lack of lack of, lack of a kind of match experience to maybe be a little too jittery to at least keep this play alive. But it just, again, kind of shows you that we can't get too carried away with the youth movement despite having these four wins. Four wins with the kids is awesome. But the actual individual performances of the kids, not just not like an unqualified success.

Yeah. I think at the end we come away thinking that the kids that I was kind of thinking, we're ready are the ones that are ready, you know, to impact games of this caliber at least. You know, they can, you know, they can get the Guatemala, a nice little goal and do the aura dance in the corner

and get, and be on Good Morning America and stuff like that. They can do that. They can do that. So they at least pass that level, which is not nothing, I guess, but when it comes to gold cups in my final level games, a little bit of a difference, a little bit of a difference.

Let's see. late in the 40th minute, we get a Gio yellow for clearing out Eustachio just completely runs through him. And had a little poll here, right? He's like pulling him. He's like wrong shouldering him, isn't he? Does it look like a little bit of like a wrestling leverage? Like he kind of knows what he's doing. And this is this is three years in the making.

So I had no problem with this. No problem at all. No problem at all. It was ice cold too. Like he didn't, he didn't, is, Geo's expression didn't change. he's a killer in this moment. Yeah, so I'm talking, we had our package of dudes out there that we could expect to rise up in this type of game

in this situation. So, yeah, gee, I mean, we could have been having this renaissance three years ago if even Yusakio doesn't break the man's leg. But, all right, so, and he briggles around on the ground for a while. It looks like he's coming out. It does not come out until halftime. but uh 40 that's on jesse that one's on jesse because you know jesse's not going to pull a guy as a precaution and a friendly he's he's going to make you play through it that's right uh 43rd minute uh ritchie la rea

he gets called for a handball and blast the ball at maricio potchino after getting called for it uh first of all i mean this is a great sequence of uh events here the camera catches it all perfectly. This is TNT. This is TNT in their in their bag. You know, they love to catch the stuff off the field. First of all, Mauricio gives the man a knowing side eye, knowing side eye, reaches

out his hand. Richard La Rea thinks he's just going to be, he's given all this good type of handshake. And if you've ever had an uncle in your life, if you ever ever had an uncle, one of your dad's friends or whatever, and especially as a man,

says a man. You know, Potch takes his hand and fully engulfs Richie Larea's hand and does not let him go. Does it get over here? Pulls him pulls him to Marisa Pachino. And now, and now you are in his world, Mr. Lillera. You shouldn't even came over there. You shouldn't have came over there if you did it.

But now your hand is now Marisa Pachino's hand. You are in his grasp. And then he grabs Richie. Says a couple things in his ear. The nature of which I don't know. but great moment. I mean, for the start, before he even does the side eye handshake, uh,

his immediate reaction is like full control of the circumstances. He knows his assistants are up, you know, Jedi's up. Like they're, they're ready to, they're ready to have his back. He immediately is like holding them back like, no, no,

like, uh, we don't have to, we don't have to go there. We can do this another way. And it's like, it's fun to, to,

to, it's going to break this down, but it also is meaningful because this is exactly. the kind of reaction to dark arts. Like you have to be able to do the dark arts, but you have to also know how to react to dark arts done upon you. And this is exactly that.

Like this is him showing it. And I like to imagine the other side of this sideline, if Freeman does this to Jesse Marsh, Jesse Marsh does not calmly hold Jesse Marsh is going to have a concription. Like this would be, which would also be incredible television for us.

But it would have been a totally different reaction 40 yards down the sideline. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of, there's a saying in football Twitter when anybody is kind of shooting their shot at a girl and they kind of jump out at it hastily and kind of snatch at the ball and people just metaphorically snatch at the ball. People respond by, take a touch, brother. And that's what Marisa Pachino did. He took a touch.

He got his head up and he settled, he settled the situation, man. Held everybody back. Because another thing, speaking of, you know, of course we like to laugh at Jesse Marsh. This is also a situation where maybe even Greg Burhalter would not have handled it perfectly. You know, I've had my criticism of kind of like our mental fortitude and discipline. Discipline specifically in tough moments as far as like, you know, just keeping your head in certain situations. So this is all a good showcase of kind of how the barbecue king, the man with the plan, Maricio Pashtino, kind of has a handle on things. I mean, he said, and it's also perfectly sending the signal that, like, you don't deserve, you don't deserve to, like, get me mad. Like, you're not, you're not big enough of a thing for me to get, like, actually upset at you. It's like what you do when a small child lashes out at you. You know, like, okay, this is, this, it's cute. It's cute that you did this. But you know what you did. Like, I know what you did. But I'm not, I'm not going to, like, lose my mind. You're a child. You know, you don't deserve this. We're not on a same level.

but also don't do it again don't do it again if you want to kick because next time your hand might come all the way off you know um 48th minute our last our last action of the half

I think our second shot of the game is Alex Freeman catching a Malik Tillman corner kick off the volley it goes nowhere close to goal and that is the half we're going for half we'll take a break here make sure to check out our Patreon to skip the ads

and for videos of all the timeline items we cover in all matches, including this one, as well as my weekend round-up videos of the boys playing club ball, mostly over in Europe. The MLS mix in there, too, as well. Also, we're going to France, Marseille, Nice, Monaco, April 10th of the 17th.

If you want more information, the link is in the show notes. Also, one more thing. The scuffed jersey is live in the scuff shop. The mentality jersey that I had on in Seattle. If y'all want that, go to the scuff shop. and by that the link is also on the show notes Vince I really hope that you guys are able to get a ton of use

out of that Miss Universe clip of the gal from Franz I've been yeah you know what you just brought back a good memory of my brain because I hadn't seen that in a while but uh

we're back we get Gio Raina Eunice Musa and Justin Ellis All Force's Eugenio Dust Sebastian Burrhalter and Julian Hall Can I just say

That you know We've talked about some of the big takeaways From the 4-game window You got Pot 1, we got Rafa and Jesse You've nailed all those Freeman being the adult Gio Raina starting four matches Pretty pretty cool

I mean Extremely significant Extremely significant I mean Through You know I mean in our pre-RINCII game hit that we did with Sanjay and Joe Lowry.

We were talking about the fact that, you know, there's no way Gio could start the Mexico match. Three matches in a row. Are you, what are you trying to do to the man? But yeah, once again, Potch, as the adult leading this team, yeah, he's I don't know, he's gearing

Gio up. He's like, hey, man, you're a soccer player now. Let's get you back to playing soccer. So love to see it, and he handled it well. Gio did. first time line item from the second half we only have about nine of these ladies and gentlemen at loose pass in the 48th minute loose pass from set burrhalter in the midfield followed by lost duels from malik and brooklyn rains gives chornier who's come on for eustaccio an opportunity to release shuffleberg down the wing um and this is i mean everyone's cut out george campbell is kind of

making his way over but alex freeman's caught up at this point in time. Chalfleberg crosses it out, crosses it, but it's deflected out by Campbell. George had an okay window. You think? I mean, yeah. He's one of our centerbacks, yeah.

I totally think he's in the hat. I just think the hat is so welcoming right now. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're just in a very mediocre stage where we just can get, we can get showings at our centerbacks, we're just going to ask them to do so, so little.

Don't embarrass yourself. Like, that's the, that is the centerback ask at the moment. Like, don't be on roller skates, please. Right. And for the most part, we have not. If I remember correctly, I mean, it's four matches at this point. They're all kind of running together. I think we've been okay.

I think so. I do. I think those centerbacks have been okay. Yeah. Okay. Also, real quick, this was mentioned in the broadcast. I think of the first match, but Austin Trussie's best friend is George Campbell's Big Brother. I think that's pretty cool.

I think it's a pretty cool thing. That is pretty cool. 50th minute, another clean win versus Shaffelberg for Alex Freeman. This is a 1V-1 opportunity. Alex Freeman shuts it down. Going forward, we do not look great. but I do think Brooklyn Raines is putting in another solid game. There's multiple moments in here.

Don't find the timeline. Well, I guess that one to Matisse did. But he is kind of finding positive passes quickly when he has the opportunity to. Not taking too much time on the ball. If he can hit it first time, he will. If he needs just a little subtle touch, he'll take that and get it out. But yeah, ball's not really sticking to his feet. There's good and bads to it because once again, it's like we kind of do need some press resistance in

there to sustainably get up the pitch against his Jesse Marsh Press, which we have not been doing. But I think he fulfilled the role that Potch wants him to fulfill pretty admirably in this window. Yeah, like a roster filler spot, right? Like we can have him. He can step on the field if we need him to. He can beat that. Yeah. Which is great for Brooklyn Raines or for any big fans of Brooklyn Raines.

Because I don't think prior to this window, anyone had him, had him anywhere close to this kind of a spot for the U.S. No, no. But yeah, he's earned another camp for sure. I think we will see him. Which, you know, this next window, it's not going to be a walking apart. Haiti, I think passes the, you know, they're going to be better athletes than Chile, Peru,

which automatically makes them a tougher out. and they can play a little bit of ball. If you saw them in the World Cup, I mean, they really put Scotland to it for a little bit. Yeah. They've graduated from Gold Cup group stage to Gold Cup quarterfinal level. Quarter final, yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. No doubt about it. So, yeah, I think we will see Brooklyn Raines in one of those two matches, maybe. But who knows what, Maricio? 58th minute yellow card to Jonathan David as he levels a blind Austin trustee

who's trying to head the ball away. and here comes Jonathan David just with gusto jumping, jumping in, trying to maybe get to the ball. You know, this one may be a little bit questionable for me, Greg. Yeah, a little bit questionable. A little opportunistic from David to maybe try to do a little more damage. And I think it might have done some damage because Trustee was rough. Yes. Yes, he came out the match and there's a trainer checking Austin Trustee kind of poking his eye socket around to see if, I guess,

if he has any pain or if anything's broken or something like that. But yeah, that's a pretty dangerous play for me, for sure. Well, trusty's like next four involvements were atrocious. I mean, you basically, you could see trusty doing this even without the injury because it's Austin trusty, but with the collision, then you're like, ah, it might have been the collision. He might not be reading things well right now. 61st minute, we get Brooklyn Raines and Matisse Alberra out for Cole Campbell.

and Tyler Adams 63rd minute Tyler's first action of the match is a foul in the assuming in twin free kick comes in this is foul from probably 24 yards

from goal something like that so a dangerous free kick opportunity for Canada from the left side top of the box left side of the goal kind of thing the free kick comes from Sileba to Fisierreau, who is running kind of outside of the right stick.

The ball comes to him, and he meets it with his instep, and the ball goes right off the crossbar. Chris Richards clears. Anything to say about this one? It seems like there was some guys trying to handle business a little bit in this game, which is nice, again, a nice sort of like centerbacks were okay. The centerbacks had an okay time. We are not threatening the goal whatsoever. Zero.

Let me see. Early in the 71st minute, right at the 70 minute mark, basically. There's a Cole Campbell. No, no, actually, not Cole Campbell. This is George Campbell. I just wrote Campbell. It's George Campbell ball over the top to,

oh, man, I'm going crazy. I wrote Ellis. This is... Finding Hall, right? Julian Hall. Hall's big chance. He's at a lot of them in his window. That's right.

Julian Hall making an end. into Outrun down the right channel, which, let me give some claps for Julian Hall. He was a lot more active in this match trying to find channels are run into. He just could not best Luke DeFizzo roll a couple times, which he's a solid player, solid player, the fissureole is. He takes Julian Hall, takes one touch into the box and strikes it nicely, but the ball goes into the side netting. One of those classic, is that a goal?

Is it not? is it not when you're watching the match on TV? Was not a goal. Unfortunately, Julian Hall did not get four goals and four caps to start his U.S. Smith's national team career. But once again, he's being a nuisance. He is, it's another one where Ellis had it in the last game where he didn't find Albert. You wonder if Hall can square this to Malik for a tap in.

And suddenly Malik's had a much better game if we can get him to tap this. ball in but uh but again like uh the kids the kids really seem to be going for their for their goals in this in this camp can't blame them can't blame i know i know it is hard to blame them seventy fourth we get uh neil pierre in for george campbell jetti in for austin trussie and adjutie in for malik tullman 78 minute mark jeveson down the right wing beats jesson I 1V1, whips the cross in for Promise David, who's between Chris Richards and Neil Pierre,

and essentially, under no pressure, I mean, he's between the two, under no pressure, he heads it into the side netting. I think it probably would have been tough to be swaki. From that angle, meeting a low cross with your head like that,

because there's not too many ways to direct it if he does get it on target, but something I'd rather not give up. Yeah, big gap here between Richards and Pierre. Should it be smart? I mean, Richards maybe is in no man's land to let this beyond him. He's not really helping Jedi, because obviously Jedi got rinsed, and Richards in order to put that fire out.

So I don't know. I mean, it's Jedi shouldn't get rinsed that bad, right? Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I mean, because it's from a dead stop kind of thing. It's kind of an awkward situation. I guess I were kind of fighting for the ball at first and then it comes out for him. But between the set piece, Canada put it off the post, with a little touch from Schwatky and this, like, this certainly wasn't a foregone conclusion.

Like, we are being threatened a little bit, even though no one's like having any horrific play. It's just sort of the nature of a team that's not really. really that great in us playing against a team that's also really not. I mean, we're kind of evenly matched, is what I'm saying. That's right. That's right. That's right. Um, other than that, last thing got clocked, 93 minute mark. Cole Campbell first draws a foul on a kind of a nice, uh, I don't know, him and Alex Freeman play like a little give and go. And the pass, the return pass from Alex is like kind of, but it's too a stationary, Cole Campbell, to be clear. It's kind of behind him a little bit.

And Cole kind of does a little creative bit of receiving to keep the ball away from Canadian players coming towards them to get a standing foot taken out of, taken out for a foul. And then on the restart, he gets an opportunity to go 1v1 on the right wing versus Precio. And he absolutely rents his Pryso completely eliminates him. He's out of the play. Cole has the opportunity to pick his head up, find a cross. and he blasts across to Aurora, Minnesota, unfortunately,

out to touch on the other side. And that's the game. That bit from Cole is kind of, I feel like is a microcosm of the window for the youth. Like they do some cool things. Like right before that, Cole done some cool pirouette stuff and drawn a foul. Like, you see some flashes of stuff,

but the end product has an, hasn't been there. And that kind of applies, even to cabin, uh, who had the end product on the goal. That was just an awesome moment. But overall in that match against Mexico, the end product wasn't there. Even after the really cool moments of skill, uh, or vision, we just, we just are waiting to the point where I don't know that anyone, any of the kids really like solidified or like stamped a place where they, we can, we can be like, okay, fine, we can get rid of this, this veteran. the incumbent is deep.

You know, like there are guys who definitely weren't more looks and we're going to keep monitoring. But it's hard to say that somebody, one of the youngsters, is taking over for anyone that we've already got. Yeah. And this is fair, but also, I will say, first of all, they came in with much less fear than kids of the past half. Like, for me, the post-child for this was, like, young Jedi. who was just very visibly nervous. And I think I also talked about cutting caffeine out of his diet to kind of get the jitters out. Because, I mean, Jedi was, he did not feel you of confidence when you saw him out there at a soccer pitch because he was just so unsettled.

Phrenetic, yeah. Phrenetic and just seemed unsettled in like everything he was doing. Even if he was just standing in a, in place, there was just like a, my God, you, you're okay, man? You know, and you know, sometimes when those situations kind of pop up and young kids kind of come into the national team and their eyes are wide and everything and it's like you don't get to see, you don't even get to see the flashes. Yeah. You know, and then here I am on the Monday review like, oh, guys, I swear. You know, if you see him, you see him for his club, you know, he can do this, this, this and this. We did get to see, you know, this, this. Maybe we didn't get to see this, this, this and this. But, you know, every kid did show. you know, why they hear. That's, no, you're absolutely right. Like, the baseline was really good. Like, where they established sort of the floor,

maybe with the exception of Westfield. But, like, everyone else was like, they didn't look out of place. No one just came in was an immediate, like, game changer, which is, that's a tough, that's a tough bar to clear, of course. And it should be. It's good that it's a tough bar to clear. We wouldn't want someone just be like,

oh, that guy's our new starter, after, you know, a couple of decent moments. So in that sense, we're in, we still aren't in a bad place whatsoever. We've got good players as the core of the World Cup group. We have some, we have some guys who are really exciting on the prospect front. And we, we have the luxury of letting them cook for a while, even before Copa. We got a whole season to play before we jump into Copa and have to show up. So let them cook, let them enjoy Nations League, a couple of them, maybe get a decent runout.

but also get the full squad back together and add a few pot one points. That's right. That's right. And, you know, I'm just going to say this real quick just before we leave, before we sign out. You know, if you give Cole Campbell the same opportunities, Matisse got this match, I think there might be a different outcome. Maybe, maybe. I mean, you saw the way he risked preso here.

This is not to agenda or pit anybody against anybody. I just, I mean, you saw it right there, you know. I think Cole has that legitimate 1V1 ability to kind of make things happen in a way that, you know, Matisse is not a 1V1 demon in any of the minutes that I've seen them play so far for club and country. So who do you want, who do you want to see, like, Vince, who do you want to see get like legit minutes against Haiti? I put Kevin out there. Yeah. I would like to see Kevin get a run out. I'm still going to stick with Cole.

I do think if he keeps playing well in the Bundesliga, I would like to see Cole. Haiti. You know, it is the fact that, you know, we kind of run into something. At some positions, right? It's like, well, Neil, we could play Neil against Haiti. I wouldn't be too mad about it just because of the state of centerback position.

And then also in that kind of same regard, I think Kavana won. And then we could also see Matisse and Cole there. I mean, to be honest, just because of, I don't know how many wingers we have that potch rates over these guys right now. especially like you know what I talked about earlier with Tim Wea a couple episodes ago like you know

I believe Tim Wea could be good on the right wing but first of all that decision is not going to be forced upon Podge because he's not playing winger for club and yeah I mean

it's just that so I mean he's not going to be inclined to to put him there there's no reason for him to once he's already he's kind of already made his decision it seems like and there's no way for Timway to force itself back in,

which leaves the wing position pretty thin. Yeah. So at this point, I mean, I mean, I've kind of went too far with, I mentioned Julian. I think Julian, as he's put in the backup striker hat, I think he's officially in the backup striker hat. And so, yeah, I guess to answer your question clearly, I think I'm going to keep Neil out.

give me Kevin Well, because it's centerback Kevin Matisse Cole Even Campbell and trustee Are kind of like new new looks

So those guys They might keep Neil from getting More run out Because they kind of are more seasoned A little more trustworthy So But they're still kind of new integrations The squad to replace

Essentially replace Tim Reamspot Right Yeah so Julian and Kevin Matisse And Cole Cole Yeah And then

And then get Brooklyn on the roster. Oh, yeah, Brooklyn to run around a little bit. I'd be solid with that. That'd be a solid sort of first competitive window addition to the World's Cup Group. And before people come in me, to be clear, this is who I think will play. I still rate Audrey M.etti. But, you know, it wasn't his greatest window. and thus, I don't think he'll

I'm not, I don't think he'll be out there and I don't think he earned the right to be out there based on his play in this window. Yeah, because if it comes to it, you're not going to play him. In a competitive moment, when we get to the Nation's League playoffs, you wouldn't use him, right? Potch wouldn't use him. He'd just be like, all right, Gio's going to play there.

Leaks going to play in the pivot. We're all of a sudden. He'd play ahead of Musa, of course, but other than that, Yes, yes, without it out. Oh, that's another thing. If we're going to go to the negative, I think Eunice Moose is out of here, brother. I think in total, like the amount of men is played

is not a lot from Eunice in this match. You got a half here, then he started the Peru match. And that was it? No, no, he came on against Mexico. Came on against Mexico. Yeah, and I thought it was all right against Mexico. I thought he was decent against Mexico. He was.

He was okay. So in my mind, in my mind, I don't see how Eunice Musa isn't, at least in like that Brooklyn Raines mode where it's like, yeah, he can do a job. He's a, he's a, he's enough of a hooper that we can keep him. And when we need something done, Eunice Musa goes out there to do it. Yep. You know, I will say maybe. I like having a lot of those guys.

I like having those guys around. That's Tim Weyer, too. Like Tim Wea can go do plenty of jobs for you. Yeah, I like it too, but, you know, I think specific in the midfield, though, I think Pott Maybe, I guess, I don't know, it's weird because it's like, Mauritio Paschina, wouldn't you like to beat a press? It once in a while. But I guess he's just looking for somebody, you know, one touch, get it off his foot, like Brooklyn Raines. And then also the steel on the defense, I do think Eunice needs to up that.

Okay. It seems like that may be a sticking point for Maricio. because, I mean, you just, you really don't see Eunice kind of controlling space defensively in that way, as much as you would like to. I do get that, but then also you see Sebastian Burrhalter playing in the pivot. Of course. Right, right. And, you know, we did not, I did not want to kind of belabor the point or go crazy or anything, but he had a rough 45 minutes in this match. Yeah.

And not the best against Mexico either. So again, when you're looking at that step up in level of competition, because it is, like for the U.S., you're going to have plenty of games against the Caribbean. And so are you going to be just that kind of pirate? Or are you somebody who can really take over,

take over again? Or not, not even take over, but are you a guy that can be a guy as you kind of level up in competition? So I think that still remains to be seen. Because I think you can talk about all of the goals Burrhalter, has for the U.S. in his limited appearances because he's putting up counting stats.

But there have been, there have been quite a few of them that are coming against sort of that lower level competition he's kind of feasted on. That's right. And man, I have to say, the pirate of the Caribbean is one of the great, one of the great Slander days, man. Organic came from, came from the people. You know, I mean, who gives me chills just thinking about it. But, yeah, yeah.

So that's what we have to see. see with Sebastian. Are you going to rise above being a pirate, being a, being a crusader also down there in South America? Or are you going to rise above that, brother? So remains to be seen. But I'll tell you this, he will be on the pitch against Haiti. And the scuff podcast will be here covering those games against Haiti that happened in November, one in Cincinnati, one in a place to be named later. And yeah, Greg, you got anything else? Women versus Spain tomorrow and Tuesday.

That's right. It doesn't stop, you know. That's right. We went Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, three weeks in a row. It don't stop. Huge games for the women against Spain. So check out boots on the ground for that coverage as well. I will be there covering those as well.

It doesn't stop. Soccer does not stop. Club ball going on right now as we record. And the playbills are out on social. So anyway, from Greg, I'm Vince. We'll see you.