Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 135: Way too early projection of the Summer 2021 rosters

Episode Date: August 14, 2020

Gregg Berhalter will likely need substantially different squads for World Cup qualifiers in June, for the Olympics and for the Gold Cup next summer. There’s also likely to be a U20 World Cup in May and June. Who goes where? When? How? Greg V broke it all down and then we discussed.2:50 run-down of the Summer 2021 schedule6:48 June World Cup qualifiers roster19:55 which is more important, the Gold Cup or the Olympics?22:48 Olympic roster35:45 Gold Cup roster53:04 U20 World Cup roster1:00:10 Spare parts and wrapup  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 Scufft podcast. I'm Adam Bells in Minneapolis. With me is Greg Velasquez in Des Moines. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. Thanks for downloading this episode of Scuffed. This week we're going to look ahead to next summer and talk about rosters, a roster for World Cup qualifiers that start in June for the Olympics, hopefully for the Gold Cup, and for the U20 World Cup, also hopefully.

We are looking at an embarrassment of riches when it comes to men's national team soccer in 2021. Greg, what are your sort of first principles? You did all the work on this. You figured out who you think should go with which team? My first principles are that this is a fun experiment. Okay. That was my first principles. Because, you know, we're talking about a bunch of tournaments a full club season away.

And a lot, I think, is going to change between now and then. So it was kind of fun to just be like, all right, well, I'm going to be. going to anticipate certain things happening and then go from there. The principles, I think, Burrhalter is working from first and foremost, are World Cup qualifying over everything, and he has said as much. Yeah. And that's obviously the right choice. Yeah, that has to be the right.

I have to go with World Cup qualifying first. Yeah, he's going to have to get creative because we don't think one player will end up playing in, for instance, qualifiers and. and the Gold Cup and the Olympics. I think that would be really minimal. If it happens, it might happen with players at the fringes, but I don't think, like, our key players could or should play in multiple events. So Christian Pulisic shouldn't come to the states and play in four World Cup qualifiers,

which is probably going to be like a, you know, four-week process between pre-camp, the games, whatever, and then go play in six games for the Gold Cup or six games for the Olympics. Like that'd be madness to do during your off season. Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, he probably should only play in one of these competitions, really, if we're being honest. Right. So the question I think that's going to come up is whether or not we could have some wiggle room, like within those four World Cup qualifiers, like, all right, do some guys check in for a game

and then go back to their clubs if they're not needed? or is there going to be some rotation there? Because you have to either limit minutes, you know, from a physiological perspective, like, okay, this guy is not going to actually be any good to us, so we're going to bring in another guy. I don't know how tight the turnaround is going to be for those four games. Well, yeah, let's do a little refresh on the schedule because that was always a little unclear to me until I googled it.

The U-20 World Cup is May 20 to June 12 of 2021. So end of May, beginning of June. You were just saying UEFA canceled their U19 qualifying campaign, or at least it's... That's what it looks like. They just had an announcement saying they're suspending youth events, certain youth events for the 2020-2020 calendar, and of those events, the U-19 men's tournament was canceled. So I'm assuming that's the qualifying for the UEFA for the U-20 tournament. Yeah, I think so.

That's what I would guess. So that's something to keep an eye on. We may not have that tournament. But anyway, that's 20th of May to 12th of June. The four World Cup qualifiers are in June. I don't know the exact dates of that window, but it's a double window. So there are four fixtures in it. And we don't know the duration of it either.

I don't know if a double window just means two weeks and you're going to play four games over a 14-day spell, or if it's a three-week or four-week. I don't know what that double window means as far as the calendar math. Well, in any case, it is hugely important. It's four of the 14 games we're going to play in World Cup qualifying. We don't know who the opponents are going to be yet, but we do know that those, you know, if you have a great four-game session, you're well on your way to qualifying for the 2022 World Cup

and vice versa if you don't. And then 10th of July to the 1st of August is the Gold Cup So that's like basically right after the World Cup qualifiers Yeah and we always you always bring the players in usually a week or two early for that To get them in the camp same same could be for the World Cup qualifiers I assume that they might come in a week or two early Potentially we we throw a tune-up game in there beforehand or friendly Before those four games I don't know if that'll be possible

that's just all the sort of variables we're dealing with here yeah and then there's just an incredible amount of overlap between the olympics and the gold cup because the olympics are the 23rd of july to the 8th of august man that's those are fast there the olympics only like two weeks it's it's insane so i think it's three weeks soccer might actually start before the opening ceremonies uh okay we'll have we'll definitely get fact checked on that one but uh it's it's gonna be crazy and so obviously there can't be any overlap between the gold cup and the Olympics you got it you got to do one or the other there's no there's no way to get people into both of those rosters right and then after the eighth of august you know basically people will be showing up late to training camp at their clubs in europe

so a lot to sort out luckily the pool is deeper than it's been in the history of american soccer is that true do you agree with that yes i do certainly at the especially for the youth age groups I think we're much deeper, much more professional than in any cycle of the past. Yeah. Okay, so do you want to just jump in, start doing the Ocho? Should we get through what we think the Ocho will look like? Yeah, we'll start with the World Cup qualifying roster. Now, Greg, put these on Twitter a couple days ago.

I pretty much agree with all of it, but I guess I'll point out where I don't. All right, so, and we're not going to, we're going to spare everyone. we're not going to go literally player by player position by position because you've heard us talk with all these players way too much for that. We're just going to go through sort of a projected starting 11 and then maybe we'll talk about some of the guys that might raise some eyebrows. All right. Let me real quickly read off the whole 23 here or is it 24.

Stefan Turner and Johnson at goalkeeper, Brooks and Ream, Richards and Long at centerback, Anthony and Gloucester at left left back I dissent on Gloucester Destin Cannon at right back And I'll interrupt I'll interrupt here because we're going to get the feedback again Cannon versus Yedlin and I do I honestly do think like Canon it becomes overrated and Yedlin becomes underrated with sort of this emerging consensus that Canon's better I think that's still very much an open question

just I happen to think Canon probably has a little bit of an edge agree to agree Youle is alone as the number six and then it's Adams and McKinney starting in Pomacall and Legat back in them up at the dueling eights Pulisick and Morris at left wing Pulisick the starter obviously Raina and Wea at right wing man I can't wait to see Tim Wea back on the field

I was just watching Sanjeev's video the one where he has that like Motown music in the background running all those guys celebrating. That one where Wayas, the one goal, Way has scored for Leal before he got hurt. And he's just like, he's just running along the,

he's just running along the sideline with his arms outstretched. Oh man. Anyway, strikers are Altador, Sergeant, and Zardis. Yep, that's 23. That gets us, uh, that gets us onto a game day roster that fits. Okay.

It's a puzzle. Uh, sort of what I projected as our starting 11 for the first, game in March. I'm sorry for the first game in June. So after we have potentially an October friendly, November friendlies, January camps, March Nations League, all of the club season that everyone's going to play, and we're going into the June World Cup, this is how I think it will shake out with a lot of caveats. Well, yeah, what are the caveats? This seems pretty straightforward to me, except for the choice of Richards at centerback. I think there's a fair number

people would say, well, that's crazy talk. He still hasn't played, you know, in a top league. Right. And so this is where we get into those caveats. So what I'm kind of baking in here is that Chris Richards won't spend all of next season playing in the, well, he'll be in the two bootless league. No, they couldn't get promoted. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. They can't get promoted.

So I'm baking in that he won't spend the full season playing in three league next year. I think that if he stays with Byron, he will. get some minutes with Byron Munich. And if he's not going to play with Byron, that they will get him out on loan in either to Bundesliga or mid-low table Bundesliga side.

And if he does that and he's playing games, which is kind of what I expect to happen, then it's not necessarily a given, but I think at that point, he's very much in the discussion to be our starting centerback. Yeah. I mean, I guess the key thing is,

is he going to go on loan? I'm hopeful that he will, but there's definitely a possibility that he ends up back at Byron 2 for the entirety of the next season. But even if he starts there, I feel like if they keep him and don't put him on loan, my thought is it might be with the intention of using him even sparingly.

But, you know, how do you say no at that point? If he's being used sparingly by Byron Munich, he's at least got to be, you know, close to our starting 11. Yeah. No, I agree. We don't have a lot of players who have been used sparingly by Byron Munich. Right. And we discussed a lot of this, the rest of this roster in recent weeks.

Rain and Pulisic tucking him from the wings. Altador is sort of the dropping in number nine. McKenny and Adams pushing forward disrupting. and being sort of dual eights, Jackson Ewell as our American Andrea Pierlo. Yeah, Ewell's the other one that we were baking in a lot of assumptions, namely that he's going to get that chance in these next few windows in January and that he will be, I think he will be serviceable in the role,

enough that Burrhalter will stick with it. So while everyone will, a lot of people anyway, will have qualms. There's going to be qualms here. There shall be qualms. I think Ewell will do enough that Burrhalter will stick with it, and people will continue to be having those qualms all the way into the June games. Yeah, poor Jackson, he's going to be, if we have some bad results in June, he's going to be the target of ire.

Yeah, and the other sort of unknown here is Anthony Robinson, clearly. Just the one cap under Burrhalter. It wasn't covered in glory. but he's he's potentially going to be you know taking a step up in the club scene and and so I'm anticipating that he'll give us what we need in that left back role if we're going to have pool sick tucking in I mean he's he's certainly the people's choice at left back right now isn't he I think I think so but that there aren't a lot of other choices for the people to choose from right well it's not Daniel Lovitz it's not Tim Riem at left back

Do you want to drop the The rest of the debt chart for that Ocho? All right. What sticks out at you, Bells? Nothing really. Well, one thing sticks out of me. I like basically all of it. I think Ream is the obvious choice as the backup left centerback.

Aaron Long is as good as anybody else as the second right center back. Although I think there's a decent to better than I. average chance that long will be the starting right center back in June. Sort of on the same timeline that Ewell is, he'll do enough to keep the job. Otherwise, I really like it except for Gloucester as the backup left back. Yeah, and as we get through the other rosters, we can talk about some of the other guys who could take that spot. And this is where I do think the pool is volatile and has been.

And so doing very little can sort of vault you several places in the devs chart. And so for me, if Gloucester finds any time at PSV, that's going to be enough to get him into camps. And once he's in camps, I'm just kind of anticipating that, you know, my projection is that he'll beat out the other choices there. Yeah. He's in a good spot. He's in a good spot. And he plays a position where he has some growth opportunity for sure. I mean, he has an opportunity for chances because left backs are hard to come by, even at clubs.

I do, it is a little concerning. He and Richie Ledesma were both left off of the first team training yesterday, I think. Now, I don't want to read too much into it, but it's not a good sign. No, it's not. But again, even if he's not starting with the PSV first team, he's a left back. I'm just, I'm thinking that over the course of this season, he'll get pulled into some kind of minutes, whether it's CUP, whether it's, I think,

PSV or in Europa qualifying. And again, once he does that, that it doesn't take much at this point to get shot up into the conversation. Fair enough. Yeah. Notably, you're missing a backup for Jackson Ewell in this

World Cup qualifying roster? What's up with that? So, you know, I've said it before. I don't think we can play that system that you and I have been sort of assuming that Burrhalter is moving towards with a higher pressing defense and counter pressing side with Michael Bradley in the lineup. And I think Michael Bradley is at this point sort of the only easy, obvious choice for Ewell in Burrell, in mind for that distributor role.

And so I'm kind of just saying, well, if you can't play the way you want with Michael Bradley, then he doesn't really serve that purpose. So he becomes dead weight at that point. Something else to keep in mind is we're not restricted to 23 people in this group. to join up ahead of the games. It might just be 23 on game day, so you could easily see Bradley on here. But by leaving that Bradley roll open,

then you end up with three spots for your strikers. And I think Burhalter is still going to consider Zardez a valuable enough player that you want him there, but I don't know that he would just want to carry Altador and Zardez, like we did for the Gold Cup. So that's my line of thought. The other thing I keep thinking is, if you will can't go, we have Adams that could step into that role.

Pomacall can step into that role, and it wouldn't be the exact same player, but like they very well could, it could be a net game for the entire side. It might be a big step up on accident. Okay. Last thing I want to touch on, because we get a lot of feedback, we'll call it feedback, on leaving Jordan Morris out of the 11. You know, he's constantly referred to as our best performance. over the past 18 months.

And he could well keep himself on the field. If he plays his way through, I'm sure he'll have opportunities in the camps. It's not like he's just going to get dropped straight away off the roster. But my guiding principle there is everything starts with how you're going to use Christian Pulisick. And I think at this point it's clear Christian Pulcick and what he's been doing at Chelsea is going to be best as the nominal left wing who's free to cut inside and you have a left back getting around him.

You don't play with a stay-at-home left-back in that situation. And that is also Morris's best position for the U.S. But the difference is Morris does not cut inside. When he's had his best games for the U.S. in that left-wing spot, he's been playing with a stay-at-home left-back. So in that Canada game, it was Morris-wide left, but Tim Riem as our left-back staying deep and not trying to overlap, if you're going to play an overlapping left-back,

I don't think it works to have Morris there. So there would be, in my mind, it would be something like if you're going to rotate, Morris can come in as your left winger. And then maybe you slide Dest over to that left back spot and start like cannon at right back. And then Desk becomes an inside. He attacks on the inside when he advances. Oh, I like that. Yeah. Yep.

Yeah, it's a good point. Because even though Morse has been a great performer, he's ultimately in competition with Pulisick for that spot. And he doesn't really work as a tucked in winger on the right side. We're still going to get some feedback. Oh, we'll still get feedback. And again, Morris is going to have every opportunity to prove this wrong here because there's no way he's just going to be left off of the 23. He'll get minutes, whether it's starting right in the next camp

or coming off the bench. He's not going anywhere. Okay. So there's the Ocho. Yeah, great. Hey, two little technical things. One, I have a, there's a wood chipper going in the parking lot next to my house. So I apologize for that, but the show must go on.

Also, hey, Greg, you should put your face back up after a while. Oh, that'll be a good transition, huh? Yeah. Okay. But we can go straight into the next roster if you like. Let's, we should talk about the goalkeepers, probably. Oh, yeah. We can usually talk about them, but there are some names on here that aren't always on here.

Yeah, I don't go back. You're the goalkeeping expert. Go for it. Greg's a former goalkeeper. So now that we've established why more? is on the bench for all the people who are going to hit us. We should also talk about the goalkeepers because there's, I assume you'll get three goalkeepers on game day. And we've put Stefan on here.

I think everyone considers the clear favorite. But Matt Turner, I think, is going to jump into the, into the mix as Stefan's backup by June. Okay. Yeah, that's a big take. You were really impressed with him at MLS's back, semi-cold tournament? I've been impressed with him. I haven't spent a ton of time. the time watching his video, but statistically he's been basically the best shot-stopping goalkeeper in

MLS for going on two years now. So for me, it's like it's kind of a no-brainer. Now, if there are questions about his playing with his feet, I'd say those questions apply to every other goalkeeper we have in our top six at the moment. So, you know, as far as shot-stopping goes, I think he's in the mix and that's going to put him in the top three by June. Okay. And Sean Johnson is just sort of there as an inertia choice. So the question is, which is more important than gold cup or the Olympics? Because obviously the qualifiers are the most important.

Right. So for me, I don't think there's going to be a distinction between the two. Like, I don't think we're chasing one of those trophies more than the other. The gold cup, the famed gold cup trophy, which is just as famous as an Olympic gold medal. I don't think that Burrhalter is, I don't think Burrhalter is going to, like, prioritize them in that way. I think Berthelter will go sort of position by position, player by player, and try to sort of maximize the number of minutes,

sort of key guys, key guys being like guys right on the fringe, key guys that we need to evaluate because they're right on the fringe, and figure out the way to get all of them into spots where they're going to play a lot. So don't have a 22-year-old key guy backing up a 26-year-old in the Gold Cup. If you could start him in the Olympics and start the 26-year-old in the Gold Cup. Got it. Okay. So this is where a lot of the math and the calculations came into play.

Yeah, and that's totally speculative. Burralter hasn't said anything to that effect that I know of, other than just expect a lot of guys to play. Yeah. Okay. Well, I guess from a PR standpoint, I think the Olympics are the more important tournament because more people are going to pay attention to it.

If we happen to make a run with our youngsters at the Olympics, that'll get people's attention and maybe get people excited about the program. Whereas I don't think the – I think the Gold Cup is still kind of – you say the word Gold Cup to people who don't follow this, and their eyes glaze over. Just the words Gold Cup. Even people who do follow it when you know it's an off-year goal. gold cup. It has sort of that exhibition feel to it. So let's do the, let's do the Olympic roster

first. Is that okay with you? Yeah, that works for me. Something else I just kind of want to point out here. Let me get that up. Oh, what I was going to respond to you saying that getting a, you know, making a run in the Olympics would be more important or would have more of a cultural grab to it than than a gold cup victory. I would just say that with the number of our best U23 players playing in the first team for the Ocho, like I don't think there's anybody who's going to, I don't want to sound too cynical here. I don't think anybody who I put on the gold cup roster is going to move us into Olympic gold medal contention.

Yeah, it would be kind of a miracle with what's available after you take all our best U-23s. So with that said. So that's Conrad and Tidegui on the right. Conrad is the starter. Tidegui is the backup Ledesma on the left and then Bobese starting up top and Soto

backing him up. Question for you, Greg. Why not Ulianez on this roster? So when we get to the gold cup, you'll see Uli on the gold cup roster. And it's because sort of one of the principles I followed was

when possible, take the best player and play him against the grownups. So this would be Uli's chance to leave him off the Olympic roster, play him against the grownups. He looked good in the Costa Rica friendly back in February. Let's see how he does playing over the course of hopefully six games. Yeah. I see. So he's just, I mean, it's interesting that he Uli, Uli qualifies for all four of these rosters age-wise. He could even play for the U-20s. Okay, so that's then Williamson and Aronson as the dual eights,

Servania behind them, Mendez starting at the 6th with Durkan behind him. I would probably start, man, I'm going to bring down the ire of Brian Cliven on me, but probably start Durkan over Mendez just to be safe. Is it any safer? I don't know. I don't know. Is Durkin any less with defensive liability just because he plays the position more off. He's a little bit less of a defensive liability, I think.

All right. That's fair. I mean, it's not, it's certainly not an open shut case. Now, at left back, we got Sam Vines with Aaron Herrera behind him. So this is one where, you know, because Vines should potentially follow the Yannis rule of he looked good and it looked okay and that Costa Rica friendly against grownups, do we give him more timeout? but there are other left-back options that I think need to be sort of evaluated who don't qualify for the Olympics, so they got to take the Gold Cup spots and Vines then sort of falls onto the Olympic roster. Yeah. I think that's fair, you know? You mean, again, is to maximize those minutes for him.

So this way you don't have to split, he and Gasper's minutes, if you're happy with Gasper from this. from his MLS performances, and Gaspers spent a couple of Burrhalter camps, rather than splitting those guys, you just give Vines the job for the Olympics. Yeah. And I think Herrera is serviceable at both right back and left back. There's a decent chance he comes into one of these camps and ends up getting a lot of minutes, you know? Yep, yeah. I still put a, so at right back we've got Duncan with Olas Sunday backing him up.

So I still gave Duncan, I still gave a backup spot to the right back because in these tournaments, I feel like you got to worry about yellow card accumulation, especially with defenders. So I built in more backups for the backline. Have you been watching a lot of Olissunday clips? I did last year. And again, they Rotherham got promoted to the championship. So he's going to be potentially a starting championship defender. And I don't hate bringing that guy to the Olympics.

No. Yeah. And he has been capped in the Serican era, too. Kyle Duncan, by the way, is at New York Red Bulls. Solid. Sometimes seems to be occasionally injured right back. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me at all if all of Sunday ends up being our starting right back at the Olympics. Yeah.

I liked him. Okay. And then centerbacks are, the starters are Eric Palmer Brown and Mark McCann. McKenzie and then backing them up our Cameron Carter Vickers and James Sands. Jimmy. So I'll say this. I think this lineup, the starting 11 that I put together is a very optimistic lineup about our ability to control the ball, if that's what we're going for.

Palmer Brown and McKenzie are both ball playing centerbacks. Obviously Mendez at the 6 is going to be a ball playing, deep lying center mid. It's very possible that we have to abandon. this because we're not talking qualifying year we're talking the Olympics and I don't know what those other teams are going to look like but there are going to be there are going to be some talented you 23 teams so we might well revert back to Cameron Carter vickers to be the grown-up centerback who takes care of takes care of business yeah like especially if we're bunkered against some really good South American team or something exactly so so this is sort of the

lofty ideal starting 11 it could get very practical very quickly Yeah. Mackenzie, you know, McKenzie is for my money the best ball-playing young centerback we have. Sands is not much of a ball-playing centerback, but he is a good defensive midfielder. And that's sort of why he makes it on here, I think. I mean, he might make it on his own merits, but his ability to play in that holding mid-roll strengthens that position group when you're talking about Mendez and Durkin. So if we need to get a little tougher, then, you know, You draw Mendez and Dirk, and Sands can be that tougher holding mid. Okay.

So who we got for goalkeeper? The young and upcoming Brad Guzon, who's in there with an asterisk. For me, I think it's sort of just a way to keep him in the mix. And Guzon could well be our number two for the senior team at the Ocho. I'm kind of anticipating that Turner gets that job instead. I don't think the number three goalkeeper at the Ocho. matters that much. So I think this is that chance to give Guzan a leadership role with the kids in the Olympics.

Yeah. And he's the only under overage player that I think you'd need to bring. Okay. Since everyone else is going to be playing somewhere else. Yeah. Okay. So we did, we kind of talked about this. And I know we get off on these side.

There are plenty of ways you could use some of our fringe overage players, who've racked up a lot of minutes under Burhalter. They could well find themselves. It wouldn't be terrible use of their summer. to be those leadership guys, like a Paul Areola, a Christian Raldon, like a Michael Bradley to go back to the Olympics after he was on the last team that qualified in 2008. Yeah.

It'd be interesting. Especially if Major League Soccer is still canceled by then. But it would kind of have that romantic feel to it, so it kind of helped that romantic Olympic storyline to center the narrative around these veterans. Yeah. I do like the idea. idea of having some veterans there to lead the way.

I know you're a big fan of leadership. This would be the case where I can see it. Like leadership around guys who aren't super established pros. Like for me, yeah, let's do that. I don't think we need, I'll repeat what I've said tons of times. I don't necessarily think that we need leadership to show Tyler Adams how to do things. Like the fact that he's doing what he's doing shows that he probably is pretty capable of it. Yeah.

And then I, and then we've got Dos Santos, CJ Dos Santos on here. We are, have a ton of U23 goalies. So between Dos Santos and the guys who are going to make up the U20s, I think if you're going to be, basically anyone could qualify to be Guzant's backup in this. I'd imagine Guzano take the lines share the minutes. Okay. Yeah. Anything anything anything else.

out there that looks off doesn't make sense. I think it all makes sense. I like Ledesma at the left wing. I like Conrad Delafonte is certainly doing everything he can to prove the doubters wrong, getting on the bench for Barcelona. And then Williamson and Erinson do fit that role as number eight. They both had solid MLS is back tournament. And, you know, again, with our best U-23 players playing in the Ocho with Adams and McKinney,

and in my mind, Pomacol, I think this is, I think this is a good chance for Williamson and Aronson to lead because in that position, I think they should be dictating a lot of play. And this would be a pretty good, pretty good atmosphere for him to do it. And, you know, Obamasei had a great MLS-BAC tournament, too. Mendez can we talk about Mendez? Yeah, I was going to say, I'm not sure he makes, I mean, he's going to be surprising to a lot of people at the 6th. It's just how we use it, right?

So if we want somebody to spray balls around, I think Mendez has that capability. I don't think he's a particularly good pressing 8. No, we're going to go with pressing 8. But he could also, you know, this is the only thing because it's a smaller roster, you only get 18 field players. instead of 20. So you need to bake in some versatility,

especially in the attack. So Mendez can play several roles. I just threw him on here because I'd be excited to see him have a shot at this role. Yeah, I think it is the role that suits him the most in this Burrhalter system, the deep-lying distributor. By the way, watched Chris Durkin's performance

for St. Trudeon against KAA Ghent, he looked pretty good he looked pretty solid uh if you get if anyone gets a chance to watch sent truden in the belgian league uh they're an entertaining side like dirken doesn't actually just sit at home and play like uh like the jackson yule role does for the u s uh he'll spray passes around but he just takes off like their their central midfield three just has like full motion offense uh total football style about him which is kind of interesting to see because durkin is not not considered a rangey mobile center mid. No, and he's making runs in the channels and, you know, like getting on the end of

through balls. But he does, but he does do that, the deep lying ball sprang stuff pretty well. I think it's like, it is kind of his main strength. Well, and there you have it because we've got, we've got Chris Durkin as one of our, as sort of in that role on this Olympic side. but my favorite person on this is Nicholas Tadigui. Oh, yeah, yeah. Healthy and named to the Shulka first team.

So at this point, a lot can change between now and literally Saturday for Nick Tadigui. There's been a lot of times when it has, unfortunately, changed between now and Saturday for Nick Tadigui over the last few years. but yeah, seems to be healthy and seems to be part of the first team at Shalka and on a side that is not going to be bringing in a boatload of new players and so maybe there's a chance for him to, you know, get three or 400 Bundesliga minutes and work his way right into the conversation.

I know, and that's what would be interesting is because it's kind of like, okay, well, he could sit here in the Olympics, but if he starts playing at all, then it's like, oh man, do we consider him for the first team? is he seeing the mix for the first team. Yeah. I mean, it'll be fascinating just to see him play because it's been like two years since he, I think there's been any footage of him actually playing a game.

So I'm curious. We've got Sebastian Soto as a backup to Obaisei, which again might race my brows, but I think Soto was just in a bad contract situation at Hanover. What I'm hopeful for is that, even at Telstar, if that's where he winds up on loan, if he starts banging in goals, then you go back to, okay, he's still the same player

that we rated fairly highly. I don't think anyone was head over heels on Soto, even after his good U-20 World Cup. No. But certainly then in the discussion for the Olympics in a year like next year. Yeah. I don't think it will take much for him to work his way back into that game.

Gold Cup, it could almost be an Olympic team. Which is cool. It's cool that we have so many players that we are semi excited about. That's the thing. Even though I don't know how good a lot of these teams will be as a team, each of them will have guys that I'm very interested in watching play at the level that they'd be sort of assigned to. Yeah. Give them that litmus test that like Yanez got in February. So speaking of Yanez, Ulianez is the starting left wing. Jesus Ferreira at Stryker and then Paul Ariola at right wing

I think I'm fine with all of that and then the dual eights are Dwayne Holmes and Alfredo Morales a little international flavor there Right and I think that's why the Gold Cup will be valuable To get some of these European guys Who haven't gotten extended runouts to sort of get that look I think Morales will really benefit from a change like this

In the system because He's very good I mean he's so aggressive and he's so aggressive and he's so good at pressuring high up the field. He's just a wrecking ball. Yeah, and it's not like his passing is terrible relative to other U.S. players in the pool. So he might not be considered an elite passer at the Bundesliga level, but he's more than capable of holding his own against some of his competition that's U.S. eligible.

So I'd be very excited to see what he could do in this sort of free hunting role. Yeah. Well, what about this Johnny Cardoso over Michael Bradley as the starting number six? Have you lost your mind, Greg? So Cardoso is probably on this one. Like Cardoso is really hard to find footage of because he hasn't played that much. So even when he plays, you're talking minimal video of him, mostly he just kind of plays in exactly the role that Jackson Yule is going to be playing

for us. He just kind of sits deep between centerbacks and possession and collects the ball and kind of spreads it around. He, from the video that we have of him so far, he's not a super adventurous passer, though. So he tends to be pretty safe. You'll find clips of him. If you just cut the highlights, you will eventually find clips of him hitting a nice line-splitting pass. But his default is definitely at the moment sort of just the side-to-side safe stuff. Yeah.

But Burrhalter likes him. and Burrhalter has named him specifically as a guy that he's really high on that maybe people haven't heard of. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, it's hard to see footage of Cardoso playing as a six. So it's really hard for me to, like, get excited or not excited.

I just don't know. Yeah. This one's baking in a lot of, like, I'm hoping that he sees increased playing time for his resilience area outside. Yeah. And then the fullbacks are DeAndre Edlin and none other than Timmy Chandler. So I finally, I hadn't seen this before, but there was a report from back in April about the canceled March camp that Chandler had been invited by Burrhalter to that camp

from the Yanks are coming. Just a pretty big deal, too, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, tweeted out there. So that's a really big deal for the will he or won't he? call up Timmy Chandler. I don't know if it confirmed whether Chandler had accepted the call up, but it shows the Burralter's certainly not shutting that door. And this would be the time, this would be the exact time to check him out if we haven't

checked him out before then. If we don't bring him into a November camp. I mean, from a business standpoint, if I'm Timmy Chandler, 28 going on 29, right? Yeah. No, no, no, he's 30. He's 30 right now. Is he 30? Okay.

You got I think he has one more year on his contract at Frankfurt, right? Maybe two? I don't know. He did sign extension. Yeah. But it wasn't like one of those baseball deals where it goes for like the next 10 years. He's not Bobby Bonia.

He's not Bobby Bonia. He, I think it makes sense for him to come play in the Gold Cup, you know, try, you know, spend a few weeks in America. and in the United States of America, I should say, and maybe, you know, catch the eye of an MLS club. You know, if he gets, if he has a good tournament for the U.S., suddenly he has some brand value again. I know he already does have some,

but some fresher brand value. Yeah, and again, he could play his way into, I mean, he's only 30 in that sense. If he's still playing regularly for the Bundesliga, then you're definitely not too old to be concerned. considered for the World Cup. I mean, if you're sort of not playing at all and you're getting up in age, that's going to probably be an issue.

But if you're still doing it, he didn't play in the 2014 World Cup. He didn't get off the bench. So if he wants to appear in a World Cup, for sure he would take this opportunity. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't see why he would say no if he were called up for this. And then the centerbacks, starting centerbacks are Miles Robinson and Walker Zimmerman. We got to see Walker Zimmerman make an acrobatic goal-saving tackle last night for Nashville SC. And then go ahead.

Zimmerman's just sort of that stable Burrhalter guy. And I think that that's not an incorrect assessment of him. He's a pretty stable, reliable. It doesn't make a ton of huge mistakes. He'll have some giveaways in possession. But then who doesn't for the U.S.? Right. Yeah.

And he does, he's sort of a good last gasp defender. Robinson also a good defender. And then who do you have a goalkeeper here? It's kind of hard for me to say. I've got one Ethan Horvath. Okay. So hope the anticipation there is that Horvath has moved either in this window or in the winter window or menelae has decided to hang up the gloves.

And Horvath resumes his number one duties. But I think he's a good goalkeeper. definitely we want to get some kind of extended look. The Gold Coat could be one where we're rotating goalkeepers game to game. But in my mind, Horvath will probably be back in the picture by then. Should we do the backups? So there we go. Gio Aquini as Ferreira's backup.

And again, Ferreira and Giacini both Olympic eligible. So we basically just have a full Olympic complement of attackers to choose from. I love Joe Keene. I love the way he plays. I think he's probably better than Ferreira. Is he better at Ferreira than what Ferreira is good at? Does that make sense? Probably not, no.

But he moves well in the box, and I don't think Ferreira does that so well. That's kind of the question. Ferreira does feel like kind of a specialist. So then the question becomes, is his specialism valuable enough to outweigh the fact that he's not really got that peer striker's sensibility? Yeah. Well, I just, I don't, we don't have to have a fist fight about who gets to start between the two of them. But I'll just say I think I would, regardless of the system constraints, I would start Joe Aquini over Ferreira just because he's, I think he makes more of an impact. Um, and then you got Saif at the right wing.

My hope. The one safe choice I made was I wanted to, I wanted to start Kenny Seth. But I was like, no, let's be safe. Let's be sensible about this. Paul Ariola is the safe choice. But I'm excited. I'm hoping Kenny Seff make some kind of a move. He's technically still at Anderlecht. Nothing's been, nothing's happened there to see a move.

And he's not by any indication in Anderlex plans. So if he doesn't move, then I'm going to have to scratch him from the list. Okay. And then Beaufort Saucedo at left wing backing up Ullianez. I guess this is a good time to say you're talking about 12 months from now, right? Right. Yep. Sebastian Salcedo. I think he prefers Sebastian. Yeah, he doesn't like Beaufort anymore. Sorry. So Salcedo at left wing, who I think would do very well in this pinched-in winger role. So he's a good fit.

I think Julian Green could get a run out here backing up Dwayne Holmes. And I've got Christian Roldon backing up Alfredo Morales as sort of those pressing aids. I don't know if Roldon would be good in that role. where do you where do you i think so i think that suits him pretty well he's versatile right he's a little bit good at everything yeah and he can you know he occasionally gets forward for seattle and makes a good pass it's an interest he's a confounding player he's hit some he's hit some sort of insights of passes for the u.s it's not like that those passes don't exist on his uh u.s men's national team CV. It's just, I think, generally, he plugs things up more than I'd like him to. Yeah. But yeah, I'm totally fine with him having a, having a day at the Gold Cup next summer. Back up, we already talked about Bradley behind Cardoso. That's not going to fly with probably

two million American soccer fans. Bradley is going to be starting on, if he's not on the Ocho, he's starting somewhere, right? Yeah. He's started. Maybe he doesn't, maybe at this point he doesn't need to go to the Gold Cup. Maybe he'll say I'm going to spend some time with my wife and kids. I think he'll be 32 at this point.

So my thought there again is that if Bradley's already noticeably slowing down, and we're talking about another full season on his legs, you know, at some point you've got to just drop him. Yeah. Beasler, you know, like we've dropped a lot of guys who are still playing. at a decently high level because it seems like their legs maybe are going. It's like me and my men's league team, you know. I just got to, somebody's just got to drop me.

Bradley will dominate some over 30 leagues in Toronto. Yeah, I get bad. I think what he should do is he and Darlington Nagby should just meet at a lake in Michigan, you know, and spend some time with the families during the Gold Cup. next year. That's my advice. Gasper, Chase Gasper at left back behind Chandler. I'm going to take some issue with this. I think Gasper should be the backup in the World Cup qualifiers if we were choosing today. Right, right. And there's a good chance that even eight, nine months from now, Gasper still looks way better than Gloucester on paper. Like, Gloucester might not get any PSU minutes.

That's definitely an assumption that doesn't have a lot to back it up. Yeah. No, Gasper's not like – Gasper has limitations. His service is pretty weak. You know, he doesn't – he does play balls from the left side, and he beats people on the dribble. There was a clip of him embarrassing some guy in this most recent tournament. But he – like, when he gets to a spot to hit a ball, it doesn't seem like he generates much danger. the thing I really like about him is he wins he wins duels he plays good defense and he can get forward

so he'd be my backup behind antony um and then you got shack more at right back i'm a big shack more fan i've been i've been keeping tabs on him even when he was playing uh left back in the spanish second league you see have like six assists already in the sagunda division yeah and he's playing is kind of a hybrid. Sometimes he's just playing straight right midfield in like a 4-4-2. So he's been playing. They had a good end of the end of the year last year, sort of just missed the promotional playoff spot.

But yes, I think Jack Moore could be valuable. I think he's clearly in line for a look in this, given the situation we've got where so many guys are going to be getting looks. Yeah. Yep. Ventura Alvarado. Alvarado and Matt Miosgar are the backup centerbacks. Yeah, Alvarado just moved.

Tell me, Bells tell me again where Venture Alvarado just moved to. I think he just started right away for... If I told you it would be for the first time. San Luis. So he moved from Nekaka to San Luis. Okay. So, and I believe he started right away. So again, someone who in this sort of environment,

this atmosphere of four tournaments, going on. Definitely a guy, it's a chance to get a good look at him. Yeah. And we all know what Miyazka brings. It could be starting it right back for the senior team, could be starting in the Gold Cup, could be just off the Gold Cup roster. I know this is kind of a long rambling episode, but it is getting me excited about, more excited about next summer.

There's just going to be so much soccer to watch. Yeah, and it really will feel in my mind like just a big try. out like tons of tryouts going on so it's not like when you're watching the senior team to see if everything's clicking to see if they can actually win it's like oh we're we look kind of garbage but duane holmstrue looks good in this game so that's all that we need we just need a couple of guys to stand out in each roster and that should get us where we need to be I mean where we need to be relatively yeah to the to win the 2022 world cup is that what you mean yes it's wain Holmes looks good in the gold cup.

That trophy will be ours. And then goalkeeper. I should say some people are going to say, well, why would you put Zimmerman over Miyazga, you MLS fanboys? And I don't know. I don't have a single answer for that. Miazka could start over Zimmerman or Miles could start. It doesn't really matter to me at all, which of those guy starts.

So behind... If Richards is still playing three league a ball, it wouldn't matter to me which of those guys starts for the senior team. Yeah. Right. So goalkeeper behind Horvath. Who do you have? I can't quite see it.

So this is going to be Bill Hamid's time to shine. If he's going to make his case for the, for the 2022 cycle, it will be, I think, at this tournament. Okay. And then I have Tyler Millet because I needed to find a third goalkeeper. And it was, we are very low on goalkeepers. Yeah, well, Matt Hartman was saying we have basically only two goalkeepers born between 90 and 99. Starting for their teams.

Yeah. And it's Turner and who's the other one. I forget. It's okay. But, yeah, there's a huge gap between those guys and then you get up to Sean Johnson and Bill Hamid. It's kind of wild. So we have. I think it's step.

Oh, yeah. Okay. And he's not going to be starting for his team. Yeah. So we really have, with the Gold Cup roster, another pretty young roster outside of some of the defenders. And, oh, yeah, and Morales and Holmes. Holmes is young.

I mean, Holmes is young. We're not talking Olympics, but. Yeah, he's like 24, 25. Yeah. Hold on. He's young. Green's young. This is, these guys are going to be around.

Yeah, lots of. And most of them, I would say, you know, outside of, Yanez is potentially sort of a top level winger. I mean, that's the hope at least. Outside of him, it's mostly like guys who provide kind of a floor for the pool. Wouldn't you say?

Yes, I would definitely say that. And that's where Christian Raldon comes in. The other reason I'd want to have him in that camp is to use him as a comparison point. So Julian Green needs to be better than Christian Raldon I'd expect him to be. I think he's a lot cleaner on the ball. But if you're not, then, okay, then you're not going to be in the 2020 cycle.

Yeah. Okay. Do we need to talk about the guys who sort of just missed, just missed being in four different rosters? Sure. Do you want to do the U-20s first? Oh, yeah. I forgot we haven't done the U-20s yet.

We don't need to tarry. as they say but yeah let's do it real quick I while you're pulling it up Brian Kio I saw

Sanjeev USM&T videos has a comp of Brian Kio playing for Wolfsburg 2 in recent days he looked really good against a very poor

opponent but still I think he's I'd like to see KO over um some of these names you have here for the U-20s

yeah such an interesting player he's so dribbly a dribbly number eight who kind of just eliminates people with the ball at his feet and then finds kind of an okay pass you know but he's so active

and who were they playing who was that against? Lupo Martini Okay Lupo Martini Wolpsburg fourth division German side which I think is the division that Wolfsburg 2 plays in as well.

All right. Here's our U-20s. Okay. Are they up there for you? Yep. So Pepey at Stryker, he got his first minutes in six months last night for FC Dallas and a 1-0 loss. Looked okay. Jose Gallagos had another eye-opening performance for San Antonio last night in USL in a zero-zero draw.

Dante C. Lee plays right on right wing. At right wing, he's kind of, I'm not sure what he's up to these days. North Texas, I suppose. So I don't think he has been on the North Texas roster. So let me double check if he was in the game day roster. Because I think they kind of can't have guys moving from teams. Oh, yeah, because of COVID. So he's just training with FC Dallas. Yes, they probably have him with the first team, even though he doesn't get to play as much. and they probably like to supplement his time. I'm going to say all that. And this is going to be like, nope, he's not.

He was not on the roster yesterday. So I'm not sure. Okay. Yeah. He's still very young. He's in 2003, meaning he's 16 at the moment, I think. Yeah. And since the team's going to be missing Conrad and I'm anticipating Ullianas and Giorina.

Probably is going to be missing all three of those. So then we're looking at kind of, you know, digging deeper into the player pool. Again, we're assuming that there's going to be a U-20 World Cup. Tanner Testman and Thomas Roberts, the FC Dallas duo, are your starting number eights here. I thought Testman, our relationship with Tanner Testament has been very strange. But I remember thinking his career, you know, his soccer career was farce when he signed to kick field goals for Clemson, and then he comes back to FC Dallas, and he starts the first two games at the season for them at Central Midfield and looked really good.

So then we named the tournament after him. Greg did. Named the MLS's back tournament, the Tanner Testman games. And then last night, he didn't look so good, I thought. Did you watch me that game? I thought he looked mostly fine. Yeah, I was watching it a little bit. I thought it looked mostly fine.

I think it's ridiculous just looking at him on the screen. He looks like a trick of perspective. He's a massive. He's a massive player. So he might be the farthest guy from the camera, but he's still the biggest person on the screen. Yeah. But I thought he was okay.

Okay. He tried to spray a couple of big balls that kind of missed, but he also hit some good switches. And he's a competitor in the scrap in the middle for sure. Yeah. Taylor Booth? I still like, I still like him for the, 20s.

For sure. Yeah. Taylor Booth at the 6th. I'm excited to see, I'm excited to see more and more of him. And then Kobe Hernandez Foster and Julian Araujo, the L.A. Galaxy duo at fullbacks. Owen O'Dasoui and Leo Sepulveda at centerback.

Soapovita would be the left centerback because he's left-footed. Okay. And Oda-Soui has some pictures on Instagram that will make your, make you perk up. He's a strong, strong person. It'll be interesting to see what happens with him because I doubt he's going to jump into that Wolverhamden first team right away.

Yeah, he hasn't been making the side even with their, I think, 12 players on the bench for the Europa League. Yeah. So he probably needs to go on loan to the championship or something. We'll see. We'll see. But a big prospect, I think most everybody.

he agrees. And then David Ochoa at goalkeeper. Wait, you don't have a Choa there, do you? Yeah, I put a Cho there and took him. He was like the backup Olympic goalie, and I was like, well, why do you do that if Brad Guzon's going to play all the games? So I threw a Cho on. It's a starting U-20 where I'll get more minutes.

Okay, yeah. Apparently he's hurt right now. That's why he's not playing much, or not in rosters. You're going to throw the backups on there, or do you have any pushback to anything I said? No, I don't think so. So you got Vasilev, Indiana Vasselav, the Astonville legend, at backup striker. And he's really versatile. I honestly, we still don't really know if he's going to be a striker or if his best position is going to be more in the central midfield.

Yeah. But that's not necessarily a negative in a tournament like this. No. Mako Milgevich behind Seeley at right wing. You have Cole Bassett and Gianluca Busio as the backup pressing eights. I would definitely put Brian K.O. ahead of both of those guys right now. But that's just me. And then left back, Leon.

This might surprise you. I'm agnostic on a lot of these U-20 calls. Yeah. Yeah. It does not surprise me. And I, yeah, I know you're just, we're just kind of showing what's possible here. Leon Flack at left back and then Ian Hoffman at right back as the backups. And then Nico Carrera and Jacob O'Kaniarigi as the backup centerbacks,

Damian Lass and Chitiru Oduzzi, the duo who played goalkeeper for the U-17s last year as backup goalkeepers. I don't think there's too much else to say here, do you? Yeah, I mean, worth checking out David chasing a cup. has like just an endless series of takes on this, this group of players, the U-20s, the top 50, they have like a top 50 list. And, you know, if you're looking for a different perspective on some of this, check that out.

I'll try to put that in the show notes too. Do you want to skip over to the spare parts? Big picture, what do you, so what do you take away from? Having done this exercise, what do you take away from it? again, my big thing is going to be how volatile the pool is right below the surface, which is going to matter because, as we've seen, we can expect a half a dozen injuries just from the first team alone at any given time. So we're going to be dipping into players who are not obvious choices.

You have guys who are clearly like no questions asked. John Brooks is on the team if he's healthy. But then when he's not healthy, then it gets into. to a lot of gray areas that could become very obvious with minimal sort of developments. In other words, Chris Richards getting Byron Munich minutes, in my mind, is a pretty obvious development that puts him right in the starting 11 or in the 23.

So it's that kind of volatility where small things, Sebastian Soto getting a bunch of goals for Telstar puts them right back in the mix for a U-23 striker pool. We're looking at the spare parts here. Bobby Wood, if he has a reconciliation with Hamburg and start scoring goals again, Bobby Wood has been very, not very good. Bobby Wood has been a serviceable striker for the senior team. If he starts playing again at the level he was playing at even before,

then he's right back in the mix for our striker pool for the senior team. So it's that kind of volatility and only a few minor changes necessary in their club situation that could really change their status within the national team pool. Jonathan Amon. Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking at the whole list here, and it looks like a lot of guys who are just what it sounds like, spare parts. Although I would say, Amen.

Achanola. Oh, go on. Well, I was going to say there's a couple exceptions. Like, you know, Aconola is young enough and had an effective enough summer that you could imagine him becoming a like a full-blown first-choice national team player at some point in some system. Atcanola could be an undeniable like next guy up for the Gold Cup. Like he's got to be on the Gold Cup roster. He's killing it.

Maybe he's not ahead of Zardez and Altador. But surely he's our Gold Cup starter. And that's super possible. Yeah. And then I would say Amin, you know, Winger is becoming a more crowded position, much more crowded than it was when we started this podcast a couple years ago. So it's a tougher pull, but I think he has a shot at being a national team winger for us. And then I would say Abu Bakar, Keta, the centerback, the left-footed centerback,

he had a rough U-20 World Cup, but I think he has a chance to be a legit first-choice centerback. I'm not saying he's going to be, but I don't, I think he has a chance. I would say everybody else on here, other than Jonathan Gomez, who's only 16 and playing for Louisville City at Leftback, everyone else here just kind of, you know, I'm not expecting a ton from this group of players. I'm not either, but again, like a decent string of starts and good performances puts them right into the picture for at least one of the rosters we talked about. We've got Tyler Boyd, who's going to be playing in Champions League qualifiers. Like, if he looks, I mean, he might already be, I might already be underrated. him compared to what the U.S. staff kind of think of him. But if he looks good and is producing goals and assists, that's it.

I mean, the guy's got to be in the picture somewhere. Even I would concede that, even though I'm not always super impressed with Tyler Boyd. Yeah. So just for the audio listeners, we've got Tyler Boyd and Luca Deletore starter back up at right back. Deloire just moved. Yeah, De La Torre just moved to the Aere de Vissier. So if he goes from not playing really at all for Fulham, literally like not playing at all, to playing like, you know, first team minutes and scoring goals like that at least has to change the discussion around him, a little.

Okay. Yeah, I don't mind the discussion changing a little bit. He's Olympic eligible. He's a U-23 guy. He could easily be in the Olympic picture. Yeah. I just he he just was he was not that good in the U20 World Cup in 2017 and and the things having the outlook hasn't gotten brighter since then you know

this would this would brighten it up sure sure it would no I'm not disagreeing and then I left so that's right wing Boyd and Deloiree Jonathan Amon Jonathan Lewis and Cameron Harper at left wing and then Bobby Wood, Iowa Aconola Andrea Novakovich and Charlie Kelman at Stryker

Kellman is U-20 eligible so that's why he's kind of in the discussion And then Frankie Amaya and Hassani Dotson as the pressing eights and then behind them Aidan Morris and Christian Capus behind them in the lineup and then Keaton Parks and Sebastian Burrhal

as the number six registas. Travian Sousa and Jonathan Gomez at left back. Fabian. Yeah, Fabian Johnson. He's going to move somewhere. And if he's playing again, that's, again, that's all it takes for that conversation to change.

If you're, like, getting weekly minutes from Fabian Johnson, he could easily step in and help a number of places. Okay. And then Justin Glad, Fabian and Brian Reynolds at right back and then Justin Glad Abubarakatea and Maricio Pineda Matt Doyle is a big fan

of the Chicago Fire centerback slash defensive midfielder those are the centerbacks and then J.T. Markinkowski Marsenkowski, Marsenkowski marching Kowsky as the goalkeeper. It's basically an Olympic spare parts with the exception of Wood and Fabian.

Yeah. Tyler Boyd and Novakovich. is going to be playing for a spot in Saria. Can I go can I, can I, I know you want to get moving, but can I just give my Novakovich video story? Give your Novakovich take. So I hadn't been, well, I've been meaning to watch Novakovich, but I would always get caught up on other guys to watch their clips.

Finally watch Novakovich, and it is insane the way his team plays. So we, we, for just a little inside information here, we do the Y Scout thing where you can look at every action player had in the game, and it'll start like 10 seconds before their action. So for most guys, you use. you start the clip and you don't know like it could the clip could start anywhere there could be any scenario because a lot can happen in soccer in 10 seconds before that guy touches it with novakovich that is not the case every time you start a novakovych clip it's the goalkeeper his own goalkeeper has the ball or it's some guy on the sideline about to take a throw in because every time

andrea novakovic touches the ball it's from a long lofted ball up to his head that is almost explicitly the way he gets on he gets involved in the play uh is a ball wafted up that he challenges for 50-50. And then he's always trying to flick it on. Somebody's always running behind him. And then potentially he will get on it again from winning that flick-onning, maintaining possession. But then once he's on the ball and it's at his feet, he's actually pretty tidy with it. Like it kind of seems...

Yeah, I was going to say, I wonder why that's the case, because he always has seemed tidy on the ball to me. It's like just the team's philosophy that this is how you advance the ball. You advance it with a 60-yard driven ball or lofted ball up, flick it on to somebody to win the second ball, get your second ball structure right, and then try to play soccer from there. It's crazy to me, but that's what Novakovich is doing right now.

That's his existence, and it's gotten them to the promotional championship, promotional final to move up to the Italian First Division. Okay. He scored the goal that put them ahead on aggregate to make the final. So they're going So they have a When is that game?

That final For us on it? It's probably like next week But I don't know for sure Okay So they have a And I think it's a one-off I believe it'd be a one-off

Whoever wins that game Goes to Sarah out of That's, Don't quote me on it Okay Somebody will know It will be pointed out It's fine

Any closing thoughts I think we should wrap it up We should definitely wrap it up No So many guys that will be able To watch play In the season leading up to this And then it's just going to be

a wild summer of soccer. If we can actually play any soccer, this will be a pretty absurd summer. Thanks, thanks everybody for listening and watching. Thanks, Greg. We'll see you.