Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 127: TSS-Scuffed Collaboration part two -- Tyler Adams interpreting the #6 role and the USMNT's top scorer in 2020

Episode Date: March 14, 2020

This is part 1 of the Total Soccer Show-Scuffed collaboration episode. Part one is in the Total Soccer Show feed. https://www.totalsoccershow.com/In this episode, Daryl Grove and Belz talk:Tyler AdamsJozy AltidoreBest shot at a future elite left backWhat US Soccer/the USSDA could be doing betterDoes Kreis implement Berhalter’s style?Is the USMNT back on track?Dark horse high-quality USMNT prospectsJordan MorrisJerome Kiesewetter?? Yeah, Jerome KiesewetterLack of centerback depthPositions of greatest weaknessOverrated in the Scuffed Top 40Reyna v PulisicA brush at the 2022 World Cup roster Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.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 scuffed podcast. I'm Adam Bells in Minneapolis. With me is Greg Velasquez in Des Moines. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. Welcome to the scuffed podcast. This is part two of a collaboration with the Total Soccer Show in which Darrell Grove and I, Adam Bells, talk U.S. men's national team soccer. The first part is available from the Total Soccer Show, so go to their feed to listen to it.

Let's pick up where we left off. Ben Harold, aka Half Spaces, give him a follow on Twitter. Very good account. Burrhalter has mentioned Tyler Adams doing his quote unquote own interpretation of the number six role. What does this mean? It seems to me that Adams can do everything Ewell or Bradley can do plus some. What does it mean to you? I think it means that in the way that like Ewell or Bradley can sort of control the tempo of a game to some extent

by being the guy that keeps receiving passes and playing short passes and almost dictates the rhythm of the game a little bit, that Tyler Adams does not do that, right? maybe he could do that in that you could like check off the various skills he has and say and then you could come to the conclusion that he should be able to do that but that's just not the way Tyler Adams plays the game right he has grown up and even with one transfer has spent his entire life in the red ball system where the red ball is you play as if you drank a load of red ball right it's about like their soccer is very unbranded it's about moving the ball forward quickly and you risk losing possession but then you don't worry about it because then you're going to go

and win it back anyway. So when Burhalter talks about him doing his own interpretation, is he talking about being open to that possibility of just having a six who's drank a load of Red Bull and just wins the ballback? I think it might be that maybe someone else gets to do the majority of the short, sensible passing that draws people out. You know what I mean? Like maybe you're the number six that is more about winning the ball back and giving it to

Weston McKinney and then it's Western McKinney that plays the short. short, simple passes and sets the rhythm. Maybe the six is just different in that way. Like it's number six defensively, but it's not the Andrea Perlow-Reggister type number six. Yeah, I guess a different interpretation, a Tyler Adams interpretation for me would mean, I take it to mean more of a pass and move a little bit,

eliminate opposing midfielder's that way. Yeah. Step forward with the ball at your feet rather than, you know, stepping on the ball and spraying it wide to the wing. and then also creating disorganization in the opponent by winning the ball from them, which I don't know if Burrhalter sees that as a viable sort of path forward for the national team. It looked that way against Canada in November. That's true.

That's true. That's true. That's true. And if you noticed this, I can't remember if you guys talked about this or not, but in the Costa Rica game, the defensive setup was definitely a little different. It was a bit more, I think we said it was a bit more like Liverpool in that the 433, shape and then the defensive guys set like funnel things to the middle and then we win it back in the middle with our three central midfielder's that is i think a better use of tyler adams skills than the four four two mid block yes yeah so i mean if we're going to do that that's an interpretation

that makes a lot of sense to me for adams at the six and we're not you know i know we're going to the thought with yule at least the way we think about it is the thought with yule at the six stepping on the ball and drawing people out is we're going to be up against the low block. And we need somebody in that spot who can, I don't know, hit those diagonal passes. I mean, we can argue about whether Ewell is even really good at hitting those diagonal passes. But I guess he's better at it than Adams. He's at least good at even if not the diagonal passes. He's good at finding space between two players and like breaking a line that way in even like in slightly tighter circumstances.

Yeah, I think that's true. And then the question, another question that comes up is like, do we have players who can receive between the lines from Ewell and then turn and play forward. I think Legette can do it a little bit. I'm not sure McKinney can do that. So we could sort of go on and on on this question. The other idea, the other idea that I've literally seen Greg Bauerh to talk about in a press conference is that maybe Tyler Adams doesn't have to play as a

number six. There was a thing where somebody asked him about Adams in midfield and he said, I didn't say six. So it could be that Tyler Adams ends up in that sort of right-sided number eight slash 10 role. How do you see Adams performing that? I mean, I think he's an asset wherever he is on the field. I don't know that that is his best role, partly because of what I said earlier about it,

I don't know how, like how excellent he is on the ball at creating stuff. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think that's fair. I think if we are going to have Adams there, then you also want someone who's a little bit more creative in that midfield three, right, to make it all work. Yeah. But we have to find a spot for him somewhere. I mean, I like that this is the debate.

Where does Tyler Adams play? Because I like imagining a US national team with Tyler Adams in it. Because it's not a thing we've seen very much. I know. And I don't think it's going to be right back. It's not going to be right back. No, I mean, not at least because we're so deep there, right? Yeah, right.

Yeah. We're so deep that we can take a Premier League right back and say, oh, we don't really need you. Right, right. Matt Williams, you ready for this next question? Matt Williams asks, why has Josie Altador been the only national team caliber center forward, depending on how you view Dempsey,

for damn near a decade. Darrell, do you want to take a crack at this? I don't know. I honestly think like really high level center forwards and maybe the hardest thing to produce. Because it does become the case that you often end up with your best players in a lot of times end up playing center forward.

So I wonder if it's just like an example of we haven't had a lot of we're only producing so many high level players and it just ends up that therefore we don't produce many high level center forwards. That's as good of an answer as I can come up with. I mean, it's why we spend so much time hoping and dreaming about

Josh Sargent because if he can put it together and become a 10 goal of season Bundesliga striker, then we're in business, you know? I wish I had a better answer. I'm not really happy with my answer to be honest because I also can see that like sometimes the best player is your central midfielder because they can do a little bit of everything. But I don't know, there are lots of arguments that, like, you put your best player at front on

youth teams, you know what I mean? Yeah, who, so in Conca Calf, Roe Jimenez is definitely, I guess you know him very well. Yeah. He's a, he's a international caliber striker for sure. So is Chichiturito, or at least he has been. But I don't know, like, aren't there, are there, there probably several national national teams. I know you guys did that episode where you did the Wales U.S. men's national team

starting 11 and there really wasn't a striker for Wales either. Yeah, they were lacking in centre forwards, yeah. So it's hard like certain teams just have that have that shortage, yeah. Poland. Poland has one. Poland definitely has Levanteski. And even behind him they have say Arcadish Milik

or, you know, they could field some center forwards. Maybe this is an MLS problem. Maybe his theory. If you're a major league soccer team, you spend a lot of your money on, especially designated player money, and before that, just your top end roster money on stars to, you know, make your team look very marketable. And so you tend to buy centre forwards and strikers.

Maybe there hasn't been room for young strikers to come through and establish a first team, like, you know, starting spot in major league soccer for the last decade or so, because that spot keeps being occupied by a very expensive player that teams have invested in. Has that for a theory? That's a good theory. That's a good theory. Yeah. I think it affects attacking midfielders too.

That's true. Yeah, that is true. They have to go to the Netherlands. That's right. And slave away in a farmer's league. I think that's the best we can do with that question. I'm sorry, Matt. I guess if we knew the answer to that,

we would be very wealthy men, right? Because we could sell the answer around the world. It is a very good question. Mark Mickelson, let me take us to the next one. Mark Mickelson, who should I be? paying attention to regarding our next best shot at a solid USMNT left back? I've still got a lot of Anthony Robinson stuck, I think. Did you see the recent news about Robinson? Yeah, yeah, heart murmur. Heart murmur, yeah, which he's having a procedure

called, I believe, an ablation, which is where they sort of courtirize some of the nerves so that the irregular heartbeat becomes regular. Right. So it's a very fixable problem. And I haven't read this story properly. My understanding, I've actually had this story secondhand told to me by Taylor. So he's my source. My understanding is that that's why the move to Milan didn't go through. And when Milan said, we've done the medical, but there's like another bit of the medical and we don't have time to complete it. My understanding is that Milan were basically just being very tactful and not revealing that we can't do this because this guy's heart is not working properly.

Right. It makes everybody look better in that whole situation than they did initially. because initially I was like, oh, typical Italian incompetence. And that was wrong. Yep. In more ways than one. But it also, and then we're all wondering, why isn't he playing for Wiggin now? Is it that like the move didn't go through and he just now doesn't want to play for Wiggin?

And now we know, right? Now we know what's going on with Anthony Robinson. Assuming the ablation is successful, which we obviously hope it is. Which usually it is too, right? I mean, this is not like, this isn't like a moonshot of a. No. So again, my understanding, again, this is Taylor told me and Taylor has a mutual friend of ours who has had this procedure. Sometimes, like, they need to do it again to make sure, but it's not like it's, yeah, it's not like dangerous and it's not, it's not low percentage.

So it's very, very fixable. I still think the fact that Anthony Robinson is still so young and playing in the championship regularly, that puts him in a really good position to be a very high level left back for the United States. Yeah. Remember when we talk, the first time we ever spoke with each other we talked about Anthony Robinson yes I remember talking about him looking like a winger the way he dribbles yeah yeah yeah I think he used the word shimmy shimmy he does have a shimmy yeah he's a good shout he's a good shout for sure what about you want to give mine I was gonna I just want to pose the question to you what about Sigenio Dest I think he's a little bit uncomfortable defending on the left

we saw that with against tecotito in that 3-0 drubbing yeah when he got mag and then Tecateo lofted across for Ciccherito. So I, you know, I think Dest's defending is enough, is wobbly enough that we want to put him in a better position to succeed if we can. So I'd rather have him as a right back. But, you know, given how good we are at right back and how bad we are at left back, I still think Desk should be our left back, unless Anthony Robinson, you know, really makes a big leap forward and then is better than can.

And the question is, is Dest at Leftback? Wait, what is the question here? Who's our next best shot at a solid men's national team left back? But it sounds like you're saying Dest is a temporary solution until this next best shot comes through and becomes our U.S. Men's National Team Left Back. Right. I was going to pose a very difficult mathematical equation,

but I can't even quite formulate it. It's something to do with like, does it make sense to play Dest at right back and benched Reggie Cannon in order to play Anthony Robinson at left back, assuming Anthony Robinson gets healthy and everything's back to normal.

I feel like it's sort of a can't lose situation, right? Because you end up with three really good attacking fallbacks. As long as we're not up against a team where we're on the back foot, because I still don't trust Anthony Robinson defensively 100%. It's after that Douglas Costa Brazil game. Right now he's my least trusted defensive left back. But I may be wrong. Maybe if I watched Moore,

I would see more Robinson defending. So, yeah, I guess I don't know unless I watch more Robinson at Wigan. I mean, we want Dest on the field, I think. Yeah. So is it Cannon at Right Back or Robinson at Left Back? I think it's Canada Right Back, even despite Dest deficiencies as a left back. I think that's fair. The one thing I really like about Dest, even though it didn't necessarily go perfectly in that 3-0-lust-to-Mexico,

I think he's very good in tight spaces even at Left Back. So if we are building out of the back, he's someone who can get pressured on the sideline and find his way out of trouble and keep the ball moving. So I feel like we're much more likely to be able to build from the back with Dest at left back. Yeah. Another thing I like about him is his desk, Dest's elite mentality. Yeah. He even after he was destroyed by Tecateo, he didn't give up on the game. After the game, he said, you know, that was a great action by him. Yeah.

Sometimes it happens. I should have done better moving on. You know, he's not, he's not somebody who gets stuck with his mistakes, I don't think. Yeah, that seems right. That seems right. I feel like I sidetracked you. You were about to name some future solid U.S. men's national team leftbacks. Yeah, I like Kobe Hernandez Foster a lot.

Yeah. Who played centerback for the U-17s at the World Cup, that very poor World Cup outing. But that's not his position. He's a left-back. I think he's about five-six, so he does not have the size to play centerback. He's going to be a left-back. And he's got a sweet left-back. foot, great in combination, good and tight space, and a solid defender from what I can tell.

The question is, will that translate to competition against men? We'll find out over the next 18 months, I think. So what's he, is he still at the LA Galaxy or is he looking at move to Europe? What's going on? He's at, he's in Wolfsburg right now. Oh, wow. He's reportedly signed with him. I know for a fact he's there.

Kind of in the same situation, Ullianez was, before he officially signed with Wolfsburg. Oh, I see. He's doing the wait till I'm 18 thing. Yeah, he's in that interim interim status. Okay. He turns 18 this summer. He turns 18 this summer. What about George Bello? I think he's falling off. I think he's fallen off quite a bit. Injuries have played a part in that. I mean, his defending has been suspect in the times I've gotten to see him play. And I don't see that refinement in the attack that I would like to. to see to compensate for defensive inefficiencies.

Yeah. It all looks so bright, didn't it? A couple years ago, he started, I think, Frank DeBoer's first game for Atlanta. He started Bello at left back in the Conquerquef Champions League. Yeah. And I can't remember what the mistake was, but I think Bello had some sort of defensive error. But I was still, like, excited, multiple. I was still excited that DeBoer had said, okay, this is my left back.

And I think an injury followed soon after. And he's never really come back, right? I definitely think there's an alternate timeline where Bello even had that bad game but didn't get injured and kind of had a lot of minutes for Atlanta last season. Yeah. Well, he just made it back from injury again, played for the USL team over the weekend, I believe. Okay. I think they lost. So, I mean, we'll keep an eye on him.

He's, you know, he's still only 17 years old. Let me mention one other kid, Jonathan Gomez, who just signed with Louisville City. a USL team from the FC Dallas Academy. So he didn't want to, apparently they weren't going to give him a homegrown contract. He didn't want to sign a USL League One contract and play for North Texas. So he left. And he's going to hopefully play for Louisville this season if they have a season in USL. And it's kind of similar to Kobe Hernandez-Fauster, maybe a little more athletic, but very, very good left foot, good and tight space, good in combination.

Just a nice, both Kobe and Jonathan are nice players to watch, you know, fun to watch. Those are the names to keep an eye on. I'm really aware that we have a lot more questions to go through. Do we? Yeah, let's we pick up the pace a little bit. Okay, yes, sir. With the next one. Analytic Soccer asks, what do you each think U.S. soccer and the U.S. Soccer Development Academy

could be doing, but aren't doing or have stopped doing, to drive more youth development numbers and higher quality U.S. men's national team player production? So a nice little question as we pick up the film. I think I'll just say quickly, I think the most important thing right now has nothing to do with, well, not nothing, but very little to do with U.S. soccer. I think it has to do with U.S.L. If U.S.L. Clubs can start selling players for transfer fees, either to MLS or to Europe, for a fee that will make it worth their while to develop players, I think that will be a huge development, and I'm very hopeful that it'll happen. I think it's about maybe expanding the number of development academies a little more, just so we cover more ground. So it's not just tied to MLS teams, but, you know, just more development. academies to give players a nearby development academy to go to, I think that would literally increase numbers, right? I know it's not easy to set one up, but I would love to see more and more and more.

And then I think there's still that thing of players need a place to play in the US between the ages of like 17 to 19 that is nice and competitive, right? Because like Pulisic, McKenny, those guys, I think really smartly, like stayed in development academies till 16, then went to Europe where you can play for those Bundesliga you 19 teams, which is a much higher standard than what they would have been playing. Yeah. And I think more things like North Texas playing in USL League 1, I would like to see a massive expansion of that so that you can get a sort of young Iax, young PSV situation,

and those guys playing in competitive games. Yeah, yeah. I think that's the way to go. Okay. I agree. Next question, South by Southwick asks, since we have at least two less games for Burrhalter to experiment with the pool, does this force a more pragmatic approach for Conquer Caffe Nations League and World Cup qualifiers.

I think not a more pragmatic approach because I feel like he's kind of got his style down, right? And I think we've been making progress on that. I think it's more that there are guys like, say, Dwayne Holmes who might have been called up for the March friendlies who now it would be a gamble to call him up for the Conquer Calfanations League game in June because he literally hasn't spent much time working with Berthelter. Yeah.

Like it's about European-based players that didn't get the chance that they were going to get in March. Yeah. And as a result, I think we'll see probably Jordan Morris and Sebastian Legette starting for sure. Tried and tested. Yeah, no chance for like a Dwayne Holmes or a Gio Raina to unseat one of those two. Oh, that's, it was going to be Giorina's debut, wasn't it?

At least he was going to be on the roster. I still think maybe, I might walk that back a bit and think that probably Giorina gets called up for the Conquer Calf Nations League semis. no matter what. If we have them, you know? If we have them. Yeah. I guess it really depends what's going on by June, right?

Yeah. And then, okay, next question, sure. You sure? You sound like you have something to say. No, I was going to say, I mean, Josie Altador probably starts because he's tried and true and there's not been, but I don't even know if that's true because Jazi's artist is probably more tried and true with Burrhalter than Altador. I think it's all about the hamstrings. It's all about the hamstrings.

Yeah. Matt DeSalvo asks, does Christ, do Christ? implement the senior team playing style? If Olympic qualifying does occur, which it won't now, how do the selected players fit that style? So this is very much a hypothetical at this point. My understanding is yes, that Christ was going to play a barehaltish system. Is that correct? I mean, I know that that's sort of the stated policy. I didn't notice it, really. The U23s, I thought looked pretty disjointed in the Canary Islands last fall. I was just really looking forward to this tournament to see if that, you know, if there would be a little bit more

vision visible. I was hoping that the January camp would have laid the groundwork for that, right? And there'd be some key pieces from the January camp, like Yul, Cannon, Ulysses-Janes, Heges-Ferrera, that would then carry over into the U-23s. Because Christ was involved in that January camp as well, right? He was present as a sort of assistant coach to Beahelter. And I think that was where the sort of, the transition to make the U-23s more Beahelter-ish happened in January. I'm pretty confident. Right, right, right. All right, big question, Joseph McGregor. Yeah, Joseph McGregor asks, is the U.S. men's national team back on track?

Define this however you like. I want to say yes. I really feel like we are because I feel like we have a defined playing style. And the Canada win is the thing that made me think, okay, the October lost to Canada, which felt like we were overcommitted to some weird policy of just passing the ball sideways for a long time. The win in November made me think, yes, we're back on track. And then I like the idea that we have a system. I now kind of understand that the Ernie Stewart role does involve all the youth teams being sort of on the same page as the senior team.

And it makes me feel like the whole program is back on track. Yeah. I think I agree with all that. And I think the player pool is improving rapidly. And Burrhalter is a good enough coach not to screw it up. Jeff moves us on to a bigger picture question. Jeff says, I'm 100% confident that the U.S. men's national team is entering a good. golden age. Do you agree or disagree and why? I agree. Mostly because of the strength of the young

player pool, the five Champions League U-23s, tons more promising players who are getting minutes or close to getting minutes, Major League Soccer producing a lot of decent young players. I just think the player pool is taking a real step forward, like a significant step up. Definitely compared to the last 10 years and probably compared to ever. I think I agree as well, but I don't want us to call it a golden age because then you put weird pressure on it. And this is someone who was burned by having an England golden generation. And then we all were so, okay, it's the golden generation. Let's just wait to win that trophy.

Let's just call it a stainless steel age. I think that works. Perfect, perfect. A stainless steel age. Rob B says, players we think will make it sometimes fade, others pop up from seemingly nowhere, what guys that we're not hyping now have that chance to pop and be the rocks of the future US men's national team? This is a tough question. Who are we not hyping? I guess is my question.

We are not hyping. James Sands, I feel like, is someone who doesn't get a lot of hype, but is potentially very important and he's getting a lot of minutes at a very young age. That's a great shout, yeah. I think. I think Sands is probably the least-hyped most interesting player out there. The Venn diagram of not hyped and promising, he's right in there. What about Joe Scali? Isn't Joe Scali soon to move to the Bundesliga, but I haven't heard that much talk about him? Yeah, well, because he's not even getting minutes for NYCFC.

I mean, I guess he got some Concaf Champions League minutes. I don't know. I don't. I don't, I'm not like putting a whole bunch of eggs in the, in the Joe Scali basket yet. Okay. Okay, I'm going to throw another one at you. Eric Palmer Brown. I, my, my sense of him is hyped very early on.

Do you know, because of sporting KC and Juventus were interested? And then it's been a lot of like weird moves. But I think in the end, when you look back, he's actually accrued quite a lot of minutes in the Netherlands and then in Austria. And I think we might have discovered at this U23 tournament, we obviously won't now, that he, actually is quite an experienced young centerback. Yeah, no, I was really excited to see him again. And you're right. He's sort of been forged in the crucible of lower level European soccer.

Yeah. He's, and I mean, I don't know what his next move is going to be, but he's, I think, the way Christ said it, not Christ, Christ. The way Christ said it is he has held his own against men. amongst men. That's interesting. And that is true. So, yeah, I'm interested to see how his career progresses. That's very poetic from Jason Christ.

I know. Amongst men. All right. Next question. Sorry, I realize I keep asking the questions. I'm just trying to move us through quickly. Yeah, please. Preston Padgett, the third, asks,

who do you predict will score the most U.S. men's national team goals in 2020? Current leader is Julius Xijianz with one goal, that penalty against Costa Rica. I'm going to predict Ulyssizianas with one goal is the leading U.S. men's national team goal score in 2020 because there won't be any more games. In the whole of 2020,

so you think no No Conquer Caffe Nation's League, which I can definitely see because it's not that far away, but you're saying no games in the fall either. Yeah, I know that sounds really apocalyptic, doesn't it? Maybe I'll walk that back. Let's say Jordan Morris.

Jordan Morris. If we assume that maybe nothing happens until the hex, Yeah. Okay. So in the six games, September, October, November, and you say Jordan Morris, top scorer? Yeah, because he's going to get, he's going to get chances, he's going to get a lot of minutes. There are going to be some scrappy games in there. He'll get on the end of some stuff.

I mean, he was playing really well for Seattle to start this Major League Soccer season. I don't know if you noticed that, but. I did. Coming off the bench and scoring, right? Yeah. I mean, I think Greg uses the phrase, unplayable, and I think it wasn't too far off. Like in that Chicago game, he was unstoppable. Do you know what?

I'm going to double down on your pick, and I think that's accurate. Because I think Jordan Morris will, assuming, I mean, obviously we don't know what's going to happen in the next few months, but assuming like form now is similar to form in September, Jordan Morris is kind of the hot hand, right? Both for the national team and for his club. So, yeah, Jordan Morris to score from the wing for the U.S. national team. Let me ask the next question. Toffee bro asks, why don't we play a 523 slash 352? It's mother trucking perfect for us. Okay. So first of all, it's just, it's just a shape, right? It's not a style. So I don't think,

for example, Bellhalter really sees things that way. And then the second thing is, I think there's always a big mistake of thinking, this is an attacking left back who could be a left winger. So let's put them somewhere in the middle and make them a left wing back. And I think that's always wrong because it's then asking one player to do too much. So I actually don't think, for example, that Sijinio Dess would be some magnificent wingback because then you're asking him to just take responsibility for an entire flank and not let him dribble inside and you take away too much by making players wingbacks when they're better off being attacking fallbacks who can join the attack.

Yeah. That's a good point. I would only add that I don't think our centerback pool is good enough to put three centerbacks on the field. Yeah, I think that's, yeah, I think you're right there as well. you also need that sort of central centerback who's really, really next level, right? Like peak Raffa-Marquez or like a Franz Beckenbauer type at center-center back.

And we don't, the closest we have is maybe John Brooks. But even then I'm not fully comfortable with him in that role. Yeah. And I don't think there's like some, yeah, I don't think any of the centerbacks is better, is good enough to push like some of our,

you know, cannon or desk or Yedlin off the field. Yeah. You know, if one of them isn't healthy. All right. You ready for the next one? Yes. Zach Smith, do we think, given the relatively shallow pool of quality number nine's, that there's any possibility of Miami's Jerome Kisiveta getting fit and making an impact on the pool?

Not for me. I think it's Altador of Healthy, Zardis, Sergeant, Ferreira, and Sartre, and, order there, and then I think Bobby Wood gets conscripted before Jerome Kiswetter. That makes sense to me. My memory of Kisoveta, I didn't see him playing the championship last year. I know he was playing Fort White El Paso locomotive. He's a very sort of direct running behind type center forward. I'm not sure that suits the bare health of style.

So for that reason alone, I don't think he gets much of a call up for the men's national team. Yeah, didn't even think of that, but yeah. All right, Bryce Town asks, what three U.S. men's national team slash U.S. youth national team players could and should play in the Premier League in the next year. So I'm assuming this doesn't, this excludes people who are already there, like Christian Pulisic. That's not how I took the question. It's not.

Okay. So yeah, let's get your answer then. I just, I just said it's going to be Pulisic, Stefan and Yedlin. And because I can't see anybody else making the jump right now. I agree. I don't think anybody else makes the jump. And I agree with what you said earlier, like someone like Tyler Adams, like we're all excited about him, but just let him playing the Bundesliga for a while.

Let's not get him, let's not push into Arsenal or somewhere too soon. Right. So Stefan's an interesting one though. So that would be someone who hasn't played in the Premier League yet and you think maybe could. What's the latest with Stefan and Mancity? I thought I saw that he was being tapped as the backup for next season. I saw that story too. Was it not true?

Bravo out, Stefan in? Yeah, I don't know. And then we would see Stefan as the backup to Edess and then he would make an appearance at some point in the Premier League season. I'd be, I think, comfortable with that. I don't mind Stefan being a backup at such a high level, provided he still gets the occasional run out, right? Like in the League Cup, in the FAA Cup, in the occasional Premier League game,

so he's still a little bit sharp. At least in the short term, I'd be comfortable with having our starting men's national team keeper be a backup keeper on Manchester City. Yeah, learning how to pass under Pep Guadiola, not too bad. Not too bad at all, not too bad at all. Chris Jackson asks,

Are you concerned about the high-end performance level of U.S. men's international team's centerbacks? Long, Zimmerman, Miasga, Carter Vickers, Miles Robinson, EPB, Richards Glad, all seem some flavor of cromulent, but is, can any of them be exceptional? First of all, what does cromulent mean? Do you know? Oh, cromulant is from the Simpsons. And there's an episode where there's a quote from the guy who founded Springfield, the noblest spirit embiggins the smallest man or something like that. And one of the teachers asked the other teacher is embiggins is imbiggins a real word and the teacher says it's a perfectly crumulent word, which is a great Simpsons joke.

So basically, crumulent is not a real word, but it's the Simpsons word that basically means acceptable. Okay, all right. Yeah, I would say, I would say they are, I am concerned and they are all perfectly cromulent. but no more, no more than that. A lot of people are really excited about Chris Richards. I think he's an outstanding defender. I think on the ball, he is okay, you know, at Byron 2 this season. Do you think people are excited about Chris Richards because he's at Bayern

as opposed to things that they've seen Chris Richards do? Yes. Yeah, I think so too. I mean, he was outstanding at the U20 World Cup as just like a steady distributor who was who didn't let anything get past him. So, you know, he's an outstanding defender. He reads the game really well and everything. And I think, you know, he does have a high ceiling among our centerbacks.

I think Mark McKenzie has that chance to be exceptional, the Philadelphia Union centerback. Yeah. Because he's a little more fluid than Richards, just as one comparison, both as an athlete and on the ball. But he has a lot to prove, too. So, yeah, I'm a little concerned. I think it's telling that John Brooks is the only player

that you can say is definitely playing at a very high level, right? Playing for a pretty big team in a very high profile league. Yeah. Whereas everybody else is, you know, like in MLS or on loan in the championship, in Miasga and Carter Vickers case, or in Austria with Eric Palmer Brown. You know, I mean, there's no one else you can say, oh, yeah, they're starting for Chelsea. Right. Yeah.

And there's not, outside of Richards and McKenzie, there aren't a lot of high-end prospects coming up, too. Is this because of like the age of centerbacks and when they get their chance? Could be, could be. I mean, weren't we all really excited about Matt Miazga? We certainly were, but that seems a lifetime ago now, doesn't it? Yeah. Things kind of slowed down when he got, had his problems at naught. Oh, yes.

I forgot that even happened, yeah. Because he was going to be a league one centerback and a league, league a centerback. Yeah. Let me do the next question. Yeah. Coach Steve for 2022 and 22. 26, which positions do you see as the weakest for the talent pool? I still think that number six spot because it's, well, it's just something that

Bellhot is really, it's definitely very important in the way he plays. And there's still not anybody who combines all the attributes, right? Like someone who is like Tyler Adams' defensive bite and peak Michael Bradley passing. I still think it's like the way that we're set up, we need some sort of. of like magical all-round player there and there's always a player who has one thing but not the other that's a good point so we we have players who can play there but none of them are the perfect sort of the ideal of what you would want to play there whereas he's like you look at like wingers you could argue that like Pulisic and Janez and Raina and Morris are all versions of like an almost

ideal version of what you want on the wing yeah that's true McKinney is a potentially ideal version of what you want from a number eight yeah you know if he you know clean sense things up a little bit. I was going to say centerback and striker, but I'm a little bit swayed by you. I'll stick with centerback and striker. Centerback for the reasons we just discussed and Stryker for the reasons we've been discussing on this entire podcast. I guess you're right.

I think Stryker is the one on most swayed by. I feel like centerback, maybe there's no elite player, but there's essentially guys who you could be confident they could at least do a job at a World Cup and we won't be embarrassed. We could go to a World Cup with an absolute shortage of. strikers right yeah yeah i mean it could be a couple of injuries or out of form and yeah we're suddenly in a bit of trouble and even if even if it's sardis and sergeant and neither of them gets hurt that's kind of you know an okay striker core yeah i mean if that was 2022 it would be a limited hard-working mLS guy and a guy who's still learning the game those would be our two options

basically yep which is that doesn't get you to the workup quarterfinal Yeah. I'd be happy to be wrong. I'd be happy for Sardis and Sgt. To get us to a workup quarterfinal, but I'd be very surprised. Yeah. Sam Stokes. Please ask me that question.

Which player does the Total Soccer Show feel was most overrated and which player was most underrated in the latest scuffed top 40? Now, okay, this was a while ago you published this, right? Yeah. I remember Tyler Adams was number one. And I think you had Christian Pulisick number two. Nick number two? Let me double check that, but I think you're right. It's hard to keep track of my own top 40.

Yeah, Adam's number one, Chris Pulisic number two. And one thing I'm confused about before I answer this is, what's the criteria for the scuff top 40? Is it like these are the 40 best players or these are the 40 most important players or is it some sort of unspecified combination thereof? Yeah, taking age,

position into into account who's most valuable to the national team right now. So I would, weirdly, I'm going to, I'm going to quibble with your number one because Tyler Adams appears so infrequently for the US national team that I would count that against him in terms of how important he is to the US national team. We've almost had to get along without him for such a long time that I almost I almost feel like we should learn to get along without him for a while yeah I mean that's fair I guess I guess the other other sort of criteria is assuming everyone is healthy and taking age and position and position of need into account who are the top 40 you know I mean it's whatever I I feel like our top 40 episodes go on they're interminable as they

are and and going on someone else's podcast to talk about it is kind of Well, I think it's a really interesting. Some black mirror stuff. It's an interesting concept, right? But I feel like it would be better if you had to, like, limit yourself to a top five or a top 10 because then you'd have to leave some people out. You'd have to make some hard choices. I think top 40 lets you include everybody you want to include.

Oh, you don't know how hard those choices are for me at 40, 41, 42. Is that right? Is that where, like, Kobe Hernandez Foster is on the line? Yeah, no. Yeah, it's true. It's a good point. Maybe we should, maybe we should pair it down to 10 or a lot. 11 or 23 even.

23 is, yeah, definitely an important number in soccer, right? Yeah, I was going to say Tim Wea at number 10 was maybe a little high in retrospect. He's been absent so long, it's hard to rate him anywhere right now. Yeah, that's accurate, yeah. I would agree with that. Next question. What do you think? Noah Hook, yeah, next question. Noah Hook, I've been reading about the idea of taking all our eligible U.S. men's national players to the Olympics.

so Pulistic, Adams, Dest, McKinney, and so on, plus taking at least Stefan and Brooks as the overage players, with the idea being to give essentially the first team, time and experience together, before World Cup qualifying starts. Is this the way to go, or would you rather give experience to the younger players who haven't yet broken through? Well, I just don't think it's realistic to bring all of our best eligible players to the Olympics, so we can't, we're not going to be able to do that. I agree that we wouldn't be able to do that. I think a lot of clubs would not be releasing players in July, August, right? So it's not, I agree it's not realistic. But as a thought experiment, if it was possible, would you like to see it done?

I haven't thought about whether it's the right. I don't have a clear answer on whether it's the right decision to make, like the proper one. I'll tell you what my heart tells me, which is I'd rather see the younger players get a chance. Okay. That's interesting because this is the chance to get experience. I was fascinated with this roster we had for the Olympic qualifiers. I mean, Celadesma and Pomacall and Aronson in the midfield together potentially, you know, with Jackson Ewell and then Ullianez on the wing and Sebastian Salcedo.

I really, really was looking forward to seeing that. And I'd like to see it. I'd like to see it yet. I guess the opportunity wouldn't come around again either, right, for these guys to all be on the same team together, unless they happen to just all graduate together and there's an injury crisis and all the other guys are out. Yeah, this really would have been the last time, the only time that you could have seen

this specific group of players together in an 11. And I can see the appeal of that. But I also can see the argument that these guys, we didn't get to go to a World Cup, but it would be great to get these guys in a tournament together so that Adams, McKinney, Pulisic and all these guys have, again, like, been to a tournament and been through that. And then they're all set up and ready to go for World Cup qualifying.

I can definitely see the appeal of that, but I agree with you that it is not realistic. Yeah, it's not realistic. And also, you know, you just can't separate the stuff from the realist, the realist case because those qualifiers are right at the beginning of September, you know, assuming everything goes forward as planned. The Olympics would have ended in, what, early August? And, and I mean, you just can't. You can't make that happen for a lot of these guys. I agree. You would also, you would wreck a lot of their starts to the season, right?

Yeah. because they would be in bad graces with their coaches. They would not be in the good graces of their coaches. They would need a little rest. They would probably miss the first two, three, four games of their domestic season to do this, which may have long-term knock-on effects that we could then suffer for later in the hex. Yeah. I know the Olympics are important, but not that important to me.

Not that important. And maybe the Conquer Calf Nations League, if it goes ahead, fingers crossed, that is the opportunity to put these guys in a tournament-type setting just for two games in. June. All right, big question from Matt Williams. If we did have that first choice U-23 team in the Olympics with Zach Steff and John Brooks and Outer Door as our three overage players, so essentially doing what Noah suggested doing, would we then be the favorites to win the gold medal?

I'm not an expert on the other, you know, what other Olympic teams are going to look like or would look like in this tournament. But my guess is we'd be a lot like our U-20 team was in the last U-20 World Cup. Definitely a threat to win the whole thing, but not the favorites. I 100% agree. So I didn't do any deep research, but I looked at who was qualified so far. And there are names like France, Spain, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, all of whom could feel really, really good under 23 teams.

There is no way that we would be the favorites. Yeah. We could give it, I mean, maybe we wouldn't even be a threat because by this time, you 23, you're talking guys from those five countries that are, you know, starting at big, big clubs. Yeah. So I'm even going to take it back a notch. I think we could hope to make the quarterfinals

and be happy with that. Yeah. I think your U-20 World Cup analogy is really good. I think that's essentially where we would be. And I mean, it's a good little reality check of where we are in the world right now, right? Essentially our first choice 11 would still not be a real threat to win a tournament against the big boys U-23 teams.

Yeah, right. No shame in that, though. No shaming that. Our first choice. Our first choice 11 is basically a U-23 team at this point. That's true. John Brooks. Yeah.

Pierce asks, who has a higher ceiling? Giorana or Christian Pulisic? So I don't know if you know we had this conversation on the Total Soccer show, not so long ago. And the best answer to go with is the Alexei Alis answer, which is I don't know I've never been to either of their houses. But the real answer that I came up with is that I actually, actually think Gio Raina has more all-round attributes than Christian Pulisic because he's more than

just like a winger who can run at you and go either way and get past you and score. I think Gio Raina has the potential to play as like a central striker or a number 10 or maybe even a central midfielder. So Rainer has the higher ceiling, but in a weird way, Pulisic seems to have more chance of reaching his ceiling because he's already halfway there. Yeah. Interesting. I would have said their ceilings seem similar because they're both like good attacking players, but not great passers of the ball. But Raina's athleticism may be what puts him over. I mean, not that Pulisick's an incredible athlete too, but Raina's bigger and taller.

I mean, I know we hate to talk about that stuff in soccer circles, but they do matter. They do matter because you talked about Raina sort of coming out of that 3V3 box type thing. right and winning the ball three yard box is what you said sorry and uh yeah and winning the ball and then we also talked about christian pulisic at a similar age going away in the hex and basically getting uh kicked around and and nullified by teams just like roughing him up basically right now think in a way um that seems less likely to happen to georrena um at least at this stage of his career totally totally which was one of the big revelations of his of his sort of breakthrough at dormant for me at least he looks

like he totally belongs physically. Which is really rare for a 17-year-old. He's 17. Right. Yeah. Right. Do you want to do the optional question we have at the bottom of this Google Docket? Yeah.

I feel like we've put enough thought into it. We should probably do it. Okay. It's from Dimitri Dubay. Well, he asked us to name a projecting starting lineup and a roster for the 22 World Cup. To which I would say, thank you for the question, Dimitri. But that would be an entire show. So with that thought in our head, Joseph McGregor replied to Demetri's question and asked a good follow-up question.

If you were to name a Best 11 today, how many of those players won't actually make it? Because others, perhaps players we don't even know about yet would displace them between now and November 2020, which is when the World Cup starts. Yeah, I'm not going to mention anybody I don't know about yet because that's impossible. Yep. But a known unknowns, right? Right. I'm going to say pretty optimistically that five wouldn't make it because Josh Sargent would be a striker. I mean, this is very optimistic, but Josh Sargent would be that striker we want him to be.

Richie Ledesma would be that number 10 we want him to be. Kobe Hernandez Foster would be that left back we want him to be. Mark McKenzie would be that centerback we want him to be. And David Cho would be that goalkeeper who can actually play with his feet instead of, you know, not really being able to. Well, how far away are we? 2022 is two and a half years? Yep, exactly. So that would be a lot of progress, for example, for Kobe Hernandez-Fuster, right, in two and a half years?

It would. Kobe and Achoa seemed like the furthest from those things, followed by Ledesma. I'm just, I'm telling you, I'm going to end on an optimistic note. Yeah, I'm very swayed by Ledesma. I can see Ledesma being sort of, you know, starting for PSV and being, um, a national team starter. I'm not a gambling man, but I'd be happy putting money on that

for two and a half years time. Yeah. I mean, I knew you wouldn't disagree. I know you're very high on Ledesma. I am high on Ledesma. I've learned to be a little, you know, the more I do this talking about soccer publicly, the more humble I get, you know,

or at least I hope so, because I've been wrong so often. Try to be careful. Well, you can just keep making big pronouncements and then just highlight the ones that come right. Just pretend the bad ones never happen. Exactly. I know a lot of pundits who operate that way,

and they can be very successful. We love to whip ourselves when we get stuff wrong. Yeah, right. But I think you're right to not always be making big pronouncements, but I still think it's worth listening to the opinion of someone like you who has spent a lot of time watching players like Le Desmond and having a really good understanding of their game, right? You're not just someone who's been like,

oh, is at PSV? he must be good. Yeah, no, no. I watched every minute, every minute he's played as a young PSV player. And yeah, he's really, he's really special on the ball. He does need to be a little bit better of a defender though, you know, that three-by-three-yard box. Yeah. He's not, he doesn't always come away with the ball the way Gio Raina does. What's he like physically? Is he, I can't, I picture the, the sort of floppy hair, but I can't remember if he's like tall, short, like if he's like, built in a big way or if he's slight he's small he's short and slight so he's like five i think he's like five six and uh and or maybe five seven and and and pretty light okay but he's very quick

he's very quick he's kind of like kind of like pulisic a little bit you know very quick and uh that that makes up for a lot of a lot of like other things i'll take the thing i like from what when i've seen him is he has a bit of that thing we talked about ulysses jana's having that bit of sort of and doing the occasional thing that just gets the crowd on their feet. But he also seems like he makes really good decisions in the final third as well. So I see him as being maybe dovetailing those two things really nicely. Yeah. Yeah, he moves the ball into the attack so quickly and so aggressively.

And he has no problem releasing the ball. He doesn't dribble too much, or hardly ever. So we'll see. You know, I'm hopeful. I think I would put some money on it on him being a PSV starter in two and a half years. And being a men's national team starter as well. How much money would I put on that? I don't know.

It depends how much money you've got. It's all relative, right? So, yeah, I hope that's the future in two and a half years, and I hope we're not thinking about coronavirus then either. Yeah, me too. I think two and a half years will be okay. So the way we've recorded this, we don't know if this will be on the total soccer show or on scuffed. So which one of us should be closing out the show? Why don't I close out the show?

Because you're going to get the first half, right? Yes, okay. So we definitely do it that way. So first half will have been on Tootosaki show. The second half will have been on Skuffed. Yeah. So thank you, Daryl. Thanks everybody for listening.

We'll see you.